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Fantasy The Story of Your People (Closed, but one may always apply to join)

NovaAres

NovaAres

Lorespeaker
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The year is 1616, it is an evil year. Three centuries ago the god-king Belintar, the Pharaoh, unified the six nations of Kethaela into a single whole through his great magic. This land, the Holy Country, has been protected and prosperous throughout his reign. Now he is dead. This is not unusual, but this time he has failed to return with another body. The tournament of Luck and Death, where candidates for his revival compete was infiltrated by strange interlopers, assassins from the Lunar Empire, they whisper. Now the holy country stands leaderless and threatened on all four sides. In the west the Ditali barbarians led by their Warlord, Greymane, muster to pillage the rich lands of Esrolia. From the south, the living embodiment of Death, Harrek the Berserk and his wolf pirates have been spotted. From the north and the east the Lunar Empire gathers, eager to extend their grasp.

Now, in Autumn, the season of Earth, the children of an urban clan (sometimes called a house) in the city of Notchet, Jewel of the world and heart of Esrolia, prepare for their initiation into adulthood. In this trying time, Heroes will come to the fore, but not everyone can be a hero. For many, navigating the future and ensuring their personal prosperity and that of their kin will be challenge enough. Though for many Esrolians the future looks bleak now, Esrolia is a nation ancient and strong. It has weathered worse and prospered through it.

Hello! Closed though this might be, anyone can ask to join. If you're interested, or just want to know more about the setting/what's going on, feel free to hit up the discord!​
 
This is the time. There is not one of you who is not aware of the troubles facing your land. Growing up in a time of peace can be hard enough, but the future is now filled with overwhelming uncertainty. They speak, of the Hero Wars, of tumult not seen since the gods walked with men and made war upon each other. But they have always spoken about that.

It matters to you less on the bright autumn day they take you out to the vast Necropolis beyond the walls. You have been here before, to commend another of your clan, distant or close, to the place of your ancestors. You have sent their soul into the earth to be judged and then to take their place among the host of the Ancestors. Sometimes they come back, such as on that week in winter, the season of darkness, when the sacred roads host the procession of the dead. They come to your hall then and speak with you.

But now you come to their house to speak with them. You stop at your family's space in the vast stoneyard, down the steps into a special place. This is your family mausoleum and this space is for your meeting. They tell you where to sit and to wait, but not how long. Several stay with you, while others place sheets up on the walls. One by one you fall asleep. When you awake, the sheets are gone and so are the walls. The sky above is a dome of solid stars and led by family you don't recognize, you are taken to a special place:

Now, everyone must make a choice. What was this place?

A. You were taken atop the Spike, the central mountain of the world, to see the court of the golden emperor. He was bad, but you met the many in his court who were good, like Chalana Arroy and Elmal. (This will mean your clan has something of an affinity for the Fire rune)

B. You were taken to the great gardens of this green age, where you met Ernalda in her fullness and were introduced to her mother and sisters, even the ones who wouldn't be born yet. (This will give your clan a closeness with the Earth Rune)

C. You were taken to the seas that surrounded the perfect Earth and there you met many strange powers. You met their king, too, mighty Magasta and you met a beautiful one called Heler, who floated above the rest. (This will give your clan an affinity for the water rune)

D. You were taken to the deep caves and deeper places. Many things there were like demons, until your grandmothers showed that they were just people from this place. One of them talked to you, named Argarn Agar and another granted you shelter and safety, named Xiola Umbar. (Your clan will have a relationship with the darkness rune)

E. You were sworn to utter secrecy, before you were taken to a high mountain and met someone you didn't recognize. He was young and new and though he did some bad things, he always tried to make it better. You learned that he wasn't as bad as some people said and he taught you some things that you carry with you now. His name, too, was Orlanth. (Your clan will have a predisposition towards the Storm Rune)

This predisposition will affect what runes your clan will consider common and how people within it feel about the gods associated with it. Please put your answer in bold.
 
You went to the gardens and there dwelled with Great Ernalda as her servants before she was called up to the golden palace. Inside the Palace was the golden emperor, Yelm, who kept the world in stasis. When freedom appeared, in the form of the violent Umath, he sent his red general, Jagrekriand, to dismember him and his allies. But he missed one, his son, Orlanth, hidden in a mountain who was his mother.

In the palace of Yelm, Ernalda was little better than a slave, but she was patient and cunning. When Umath's son, Orlanth came to find his place, Ernalda saw her chance. She told him how he might win her hand and how he might find his revenge. And so Orlanth found Death, which has separated mortals from gods ever after and struck down Yelm. This made the world free from his tyranny, yet dangerous ever after. So Ernalda made the wedding ring and with it made Orlanth the first of her husband protectors. This is why he must always be acknowledged, even though he is dangerous and wild.

In the time following this, many peoples suffered and many others were destroyed. Your place at the side of Orlanth and Ernalda gained you strength and protection and so you were among the many who refugees came to join with.

Which people Joined yours? (This gives you a secondary runic affinity, or strengthens your main one, each also taught your people something.)

1A. Buf Gart, the Hungry Women (darkness), who taught us peace with darkness folk and how to live without light.

1B. Ched Durkel, the Strings (fire) who taught us the instruments of the solar court, like the imperial harp and the harmony they can bring.

1C. Jars Antaggi, the People of the Shadows (darkness) who taught us how to hide, stalk and hunt in the shadows.

1D. Karantuel, the Cloud Folk (water) who taught us to fly with the water rune and how to tame and keep the mighty Storm Rams.

1E. Korsto Viv, the People of the Rivers (water) who taught us how to sail and fish and tame the waters, in a literal sense.

1F. Nalda Bin (earth), the Stick Farmers, who taught you their ways of agriculture and forestry, that few know now.

1G. Eryain Ins (earth), the Axe People, who taught you that the Axe is also Death and how to rouse the spirits and gods of the earth to terrible, terrible war.

1H. Forsto Jann (fire), the Deadly Archers, who taught you the secrets of that solar weapon and the building of walls and fortifications.


How did you treat these people?

2A. We took them in and treated them as equals.

2B. We gave them free rights and treated them as servants.

2C. We made thralls of them, but their children were free.

(This decides your clan's attitude on the keeping of slaves. A. is firm opposition, B. means that you do not keep them but you might sell them and C. means that you keep and likely sell them, too.)
 
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You walk to meet your ancestors and see them in two groups, then as their ranks go past, one. The cloud folk were your thralls, but their children were yours and it was a mere handful of generations until their lines and yours were the same. To you they brought the worship of Heler, not merely as a husband-protector of the goddess, but the father of rams, the mother of clouds, the black-wool berserker and the lord of the golden tear, path to the heavens. In the modern day, your clan bears responsibility for the great cisterns that provide water for the city, as well as having links to the shepherd clans of the rural countryside. You also have a flock of sacred storm rams, minor godlings in the shape of great rams with bronze-shod hooves. But back then, In that age, you and the other Orlanthi were one. Of their three great tribes, you numbered among the Vingkotlings, led by their high king of the line of Vingkot, son of Orlanth. Earth and Storm united to conquer fire, water and darkness. Orlanth through war and Ernalda through marriage.

All the world was yours, but these good times could not last. Death had been unleashed, but that was only the start. Whenever there came a time when the ways and laws of men and god met a problem they could not overcome or know, the world shuddered. Each inevitable conflict let in a little more of the outside, the predark, Chaos. Monsters, strife, terror and fear were rampant, but the worst was when the cosmic spike, the mountain of the Law at the center of the world exploded outwards, with all the waters of the world rushing in to fill the gap it left.

After this, the world was dying. The seas stood still and turned to slime, the sky fell down and endless winter came. The gods were gone, dead, hidden, sleeping or still fighting, leaving you alone. You were sundered from Orlanth and Ernalda by these actions, but it was the work of mortal men who broke your ties to other Orlanthi peoples. When the line of Vingkot turned upon itself in a war of kinstrife and left a generation of widows, the goddess Imarja, who lived still, came to your widowed ancestors and hundreds besides, gathered them into a single place and revealed unto them the sacred charter of Notchet.

This document established the absolute rights of Grandmothers over their clans, the creation of the grandmother's council and the backing of it's authority. As well, it documents the legal procedures for all aspects of life, from marriage to funerary rites. These laws are strict, but to their signatories special rites are granted, here and only here. These enfranchised houses will have positions on the grandmother's council and legal rights denied to others in exchange for exacting adherence.

Here you stand, watching. You see your ancestors here, too, but are they among those who assented, or did they deny the charter?

A. They signed.
B. They did not sign.

If they signed, your clan has a very conservative culture that it has maintained over the generations in exchange for social and legal power. If not, your clan has been barred from the grandmother's council and has less legal rights, but their culture is far more free and flexible.
 
Your ancestress was a signatory to this divine document. Carved in stone pillars around Goose hill by the God Lhankor Mhy himself, in the very stone script he made, this set out your traditions and laws for all eternity to follow. Joining into this sacred compact had a thousand repercussions, greatest of which was that in may ways you were separated from your deeper ancestors at that time. This was in many ways a mixed consequence, for you had lost their sacred protections but gained new ones. One of the more immediate effects was losing your sacred enemy: once you had a foe that had been special to you, most hurtful and hateful, but one you knew how to fight and defeat consistently. Now, that was lost to you, for better or worse.

You had other things to worry about at that time. The time before the compact was the nadir of the great darkness, but just because you had gone through something terrible did not make the horrors that came afterwards any better. But you were no longer alone. Soon after the signing, Ezkankekko, the Only Old One appeared. He was the grandson of the night and the child of the Troll god Argan Argar and the abundant Goddess, Esrola. To darkfriends he was a Troll, to their enemies a man and his power was such that all present agreed to the protection of his Kingdom of Night. You did this, or you are not here.

With his powers of darkness and yours you lived through the chaos and the death to a revived world. Orlanth and his Lightbringers atoned for their mistakes by heading to the depths of the underworld and forming the Cosmic Compromise, Time, with all the assembled deities. In the world Above, a hundred events happened in succession: in the east, Urox the desert wind smashed the Devil, Wakboth, flat under the last piece of the Law. In the West, Zzabur, the Sorcerer Supreme, unleashed his great spell to remake the world. In the South, Pamalt dropped the fires of the sky upon the last horde of Chaos and right here, right now, your ancestors fought the Unity Battle alongside Ezkankekko. Everyone fought alone, but together they won.

And after there came the silver age, when the dawn was not yet and the world was reviving. In this time, the gods were still dead, but the prayers and sacrifice of their followers restored them to life. Some, however, focused their worship on their ancestors or their still-living deities instead. This is not something your ancestors did. Now that Time moves, it is something you did.

Which gods did you focus your worship on at this time?
A. Ernalda, the Great Goddess.
B. Esrola, the Giving Earth and her many daughters.
C. Ky Tora Tek and Asrelia, the old earth.
D. Maran Gor, the moving earth and the mother of earthquakes.
E. Babeester Gor, the avenging daughter and the blood-drinker.
F. Imarja, the goose goddess and the maker of nations.
G. Orlanth, the great storm and the first husband.
H. Elmal, loyal thane, horsefriend and husband.
I. Heler, the cloud-mother, the ram-father and husband.
J. Magasta, the churner, king of the seas and husband.
k. Vestkarthen, the fire in the earth, the great plough and husband.
L. Urox, The chaos-hating berzerker, the storm bull and husband.
M. Argan Argar, darkness voice, dark trader, kingtroll and husband.
N. Issiaries, fair trader, trade-talker, father of exchange.
O. Lhankor Mhy, the greybeard, the knowing god, father of literacy.
P. Chalana Arroy, the white lady, the pacifist and the healer.
Q. Humakt, death is a sword, maker of oaths, enemy of undeath, mercenary and murderer.
R. Zorak Zoran, troll bezerker, god of hatred, lord demon of the army of death.
S. Xiola Umbar, troll healer, darkness in light, light in darkness, solace of the underworld and protector of the weak.
T. Our Ancestors, those who came before, those we will become.

This vote is different, everyone only gets one vote, but everyone's vote will be a god you helped to return or a living one whose worship you maintained. This is less impactful than the choices of your ancestor in your runes and gods available, but your house will have significant links to their temples or organizations and worship of them will not be uncommon inside your house.
 
Since one of you is missing, and being bereft of a god's blessing is a terrible affliction, I shall choose, in my way:

F. Imarja, mother of nations.

Next vote to follow.
 
In the time before the darkness and the dawn, your people worked with the living god Urox. Uncommon in this land, his berzerks have a rare place in the halls of your house. But your association with them and the cult of Heler are very much the exception: when the time came, you danced with your ancestors to awaken the soul of Esrola and bring back life and her cult, a pillar of the land that bears her name, as well as the ancestor worship common to all Esrolians, have ever been at the center of your homelife. As well, you are supporters and joiners of the Goose-down cloaked Imarjans, who maintain the rites that maintain the charter.

But the gods were not the only ones you met, then and meet now.

In this time there would come the Dawn, when the sun rose upon the wounded world for the very first time. With this, the scattered peoples who had each fought as one without knowing joined, at last, in a great council. This Unity Council, comprised of many races and people, allowed for cooperation never seen before. Your family, personally, became close allies to one of the other members of the council. Which race was this?

A. The Elves, people of the plant rune, who you now know as Aldyrami
B. The Trolls, darkness rune people, who know themselves as Uz.
C. The Dragonewts, the children of the strange and unfathomable dragons.
D. The Mostali, the stone men who were before called Dwarves.
E. The Aeolians, a people related to yours from across the bay. Though they worship an invisible god who they say rules the universe and practice the godless magic of sorcery, they share many of the same deities as you.
F. The Calandralanders, people of the volcanic, jungle-covered lands south of Esrolia, who have Vestkarthen as their greatest god and act as caretakers for the gigantic volcano known as The Vent.

This option will give you an ancestral ally. You know a ritual that allows you to meet with them peacefully, as well, you understand them in ways others do not and they recognize this mutual friendship.
 
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