Update 1:
Walking With Balance
Part 1:
Once upon a time the moon had a little sister named Lorra she loved very very much. Every night, they’de dance across the sky and tell stories about the people who walked across the surface of Eran. Through their many travels, they’d come across many friends, from Sr Connill, who would scamper along with them for a bit before falling tired, to the somber Red Man, who would stop reaching eternally for his lost love to talk with them a bit, to Shaggypelt, howling his greeting to them from the top of a hill, to the Fog Father, who every night would offer the both of them a simple gift, a flower wrought of clouds, or a kitten made of mist. They enjoyed their life, their travels, and could not conceive of it ever changing.
One day, however, Lorra glanced down and saw, playing his flute on the top of the hill, a young shephard. And he looked up, and their eyes met, and both instantly fell in love. Every night, Lorra would linger a little longer, let her light flow over him just a bit more. Moon was both sad that her sister would spend less time with her, but was glad to see that her sister was happier than she had ever been. And so, Moon told all of their friends. Sr Connill was extatic at the news, and the Red Man simply offered his hope that Lorra’s love wouldn’t hurt her like his had. Shaggypelt promised to keep an eye on the Man and to keep him safe. However, the Fog Father only pretended to be happy for Lorra when he spoke to Moon. In his heart he grew bitter and jealous, for he had long coveted Lorra for his own.
As the days went by, he grew ever more jealous and more angry, and resolved that he’d have Lorra no matter what the cost. He extended his cloak across the entirety of Eran, clouding it all from view, and, as Moon and Lorra travelled across the night sky, all they could see was a great expanse of grey.
In sadness they called down to the Fog Father “Why do you do this? Why do you hurt us so?”
“Because, Lorra, I love you, and you will be mine. The people of Eran will never see your light again until you agree to marry me.”
Lorra was sad, but saw that she had no choice, and so she agreed to marry the Fog Father. But, every night, she’d sneak out to watch the Man she loved, as he stood forlornly on the hill where they had first met. Every night, she’d sneak a little closer, longing to touch him, to bath in his presence again.
And, one day, the Fog Father caught her at it. “How could you do this to me? I gave you everything!” he cried. He raised his hand to strike her, but Lorra took off running, to find her lover.
Shaggypelt saw her running, and lopped over to her “What’s wrong, Lorra? Who is after you?”
“The Fog Father caught me with the man I love, and wants to kill me.”
“Climb onto my back” the wolf answered “And I’ll carry you to him.”
The pair ran across the night sky as the fog father grew ever closer. The Red Man tore his gaze from the distance, and tripped the Fog Father, but he quickly got up again and began to draw ever nearer.
“I cannot see!” Shaggypelt suddenly stumbled. “The Fog Father has made my eyes wet with mist.”
“Thank you for all you’ve done.” Lorra answered as she fell off the wolf’s back. “I’ll always remember it.” She ran towards the hill where she could see her lover standing in the distance, but the fog father caught up with her and struck her hard across the back of the head with a blade made of water.
Lorra stumbled and fell, knocking her head against the hard stone of the ground. As her blood lay pooling around her, the Fog Father jerked, as if torn from a dream. “What have I done! What have I done!” He cried.
Moon saw this and came down to comfort her friend.
“What’s wrong, Fog Father? Why are you so upset?”
“I did this to her! I killed her!” Moon saw the her sister’s body, and flew into a great rage. She cursed the Fog Father with all the curses known to Man and Spirit, and he stumbled away in fear and sorrow.
Meanwhile, the Man had seen his love fall and had run towards her. He cradled her in his arms, and as tears poured down his face, he swore that he and his descendants would protect Lorra until she grew well again and they could be reunited.
Sir Connil
Vauvra:
The great city of Vauvra stood secure in it’s power and might as the period of time eventually known to historians as the Century of Vauvra began. Colony after colony was established, and the old cities of Aqwinthar and Swerona grew into regional powers with their wealth flowing into Vauvra itself. It was said that even the poorest Vauvran gong farmer possessed a treasure from another land: A Narned ornate pot, a Jashari bone carving, a Corunan gold ornament.
The Vauvran council encouraged this rampant expansionism, lining their own pockets as surely as the city was filling its coffers. Campaigns against the tribes of the west and the fishing villages of the east resulted in the establishment of a standing military and navy. Few sights were as impressive, or feared, in the last years of the Century of Vauvra than the shining helms of a Vauvran Phalanx on the horizon, and few sounds as demoralizing as the rythmic thump of spear point on dry ground.
Unfortunately, in the waning years of the Century of Vauvra, the tribes began to learn and adapt, striking from angles the rigid formations of the Vauvra were unable to respond , and the frontiers were lost to rebellion. Many frontier forts were burned while Vauvra sat idle on it’s wealth, scarcely able to comprehend rebellion. The importation of Tarns to be ridden as a quick and agile response force from the Corunan allowed Vauvra to stem the tide of losses. The Vauvran council was unable to truly respond to the threat as the army was kept to use enforcing order in the colonies. The situation tenable, barely, but it was clear that something had to be done.
The solution was proposed by recently elected councilor Shan, a necromancer who saw that the current state of affairs would lead to the doom of Vauvra. Coercing and cajoling his fellow councilors, Shan forced through a series of sweeping reforms meant to stabilize Vauvran rule. Each city would be allowed to elect a magistrate, an individual who would liaise with Vauvra and act a regional governor, allowing each area a certain amount of independance. At the same time, seeking to bind the colonies even more closely to Vauvra, The Council of Shan created a mint and began to print money in the style of the Narned elves. Within a few years, Vauvran Bacic was accepted currency by most merchants of the known world, and many states began printing their own.
The Council of Shan also marked another cultural change for the Vauvra, as necromancers began using it as the marker for year zero of a new age of Vauvran ascendancy. Quickly adopted by all walks of life and spread by merchants to other states, the ease of the Vauvran Calender meant that it was adopted, if even only peripherally, by many others.
However, this proved to merely be a stopgap, a poultice applied temporarily lessening the issues that were plaguing Vauvra, issues that grew more and more dramatic, especially in the lands ruled by the of Aqwinthar, which, over the course of the next century grew less and less ethnically Vauvran. Migrants from neighboring people, Corunan escaping the civil war, Dheissarib trying to make a better life, a large Laozi Lorelet Enclave, and even a Narned colony, all with the belief that the Vauvran appointed magistrate was not the best representative of their society. These tensions came to a head when a religious group of growing prominence, known as the Word of Etia, with faithful within many of the ethnic groups in the city, sought to ban entrance to the Marble ruins around which Aqwinthar had been settled declaring them both a holy place and a site of great ancient evil. Many of the Vauvran elite as well as many administrative buildings were in the Ancient city, and so dismissed the cult’s beliefs. For the Word of Etia, this was exactly the pretext they had required to leverage the tensions between the Vauvrans and the somewhat disenfranchised ethnic minorities. In a single night of bloodshed the Word of Etia launched a successful rebellion, employing the use of a number of minor Huacas known as Utukkus to ensure their success.
Utukku
Despite expectations, however, the Word of Etia did not declare themselves master of the city, but simply enforced local elections in the manner of Vauvra itself, demanding only that the Ancient City was left untouched.
The city of Swerona, still reeling from the outbreak of Reeking Red, has also demanded independence, though most cynically believe that this is simply a ploy for greater say over the politics of Vauvra.
Jashari
Long had the Sailors of the Vauvra and Narned sailed past the great sunken city-swamp of Ashar and traded with the simple orcish tribes who inhabited the semi submerged ruins. Employing small catamarans, the Jashari row out to passing ships with many local trinkets. Similar in many ways to the dwarven clans in the mountains upriver from them, the core of Jashari society has been for as long as any can remember the clan.
Ashar
Like the Dunva and indirectly the Dunak, with who the Jashari have some sparse river trade, the clan is everything, and to be without a clan is the lowest possible existence. Many clanless turn to banditry to survive. Though they have no central authority, and any one clan is different in habits and moors from it’s neighbors, the Jashari are united by a commonality of belief, and have been for as long as any can remember.
All Jashari believe that the sunken city of Ashar was once a thriving metropolis inhabited by the ancestors of the Jashari, the gleaming heart of an empire that stretched far into the northern sea and south into the hostile jungles. Ashar, and it’s empire, were ruled by a bickering triumvirate of Gods, Kadu, who ruled the waters, Denshi, who ruled the earth, and Nevu, who ruled the air. Each commanded large armies of spirits and mortals, and often each other. At whim, they’d destroy the world only to recreate it anew. Eventually, Kadu and Denshi forged an alliance against Nevu, who they believed was gaining too much power. The resulting war shattered the world and broke the city of Ashar, the elements mixing, the earth of it’s foundations combining with the water of it’s canals, until nothing remained but swamp with the skeletal remains of crumbling towers jutting from the murk. Nevu was bound by wards and bans and spells in the Great River, and his powered weakened such that he could never lay his chitinous grasp on the world of the living again. Worship of Nevu is considered strictly Taboo by Jashari. Despite this, most clan shamans keep a small shrine to Nevu in the back of their huts, and if asked, most jashari will say “Just in case. Better to have it and not need it then to wake up with dead hands clawing at your door.”
Jashari practice sky burial, wherein the dead are laid to rest on high rickety towers, so that their spirits may flow unencumbered and pure to the Sea of Dreams. It is believed that any who do not undergo this ritual are trapped in the world of the living, inhabiting the depths of the swamps and walking along the sunken streets of Ashar corrupted by the touch of Nevu and hungering for the purity of the living.
It is perhaps for this reason that Jashari settlements are usually built as far above the surface of the water as possible, either perched on high stilts or precariously attached to the sides of the ancient towers. Those rare settlements that are on the water are far from the sunken ruins themselves.
These fears and superstitions were crystallized quite solidly in the psyche of the Jashari in an event known as the “Night of the Dead” in year 22 of the Vauvran Calendar. On the night of the Equinox, the dead climbed down from their sky burials and mindlessly attacked and consumed the living, until, at sunrise, most of the dead returned to their place and lay down quietly.
The Jashari subsist predominantly on plants and animals hunted in the swamps, though limited agriculture for berries and manioc is not unknown. Birds and small reptiles abound, and even the youngest orc is usually able to bring something home for the clan. However, in the past few centuries, the populations of Jashari has risen more quickly than the available food, and border tensions between clans has grown.
The establishment of a Vauvran trading post in the ruins of the White Tower has shaken the precariously balanced Jashari system, providing an inordinate amount of strength and wealth for the orcs at the mouth of the delta. These clans have acquired weapons and concepts unknown to clans of the inner delta, and many young orcs have already banded together to raid less fortunate groups.
The Corunan
The Corunan, at the start of the Century of Vauvra, seemed to be heading down an entirely predictable path, as power centralized into states surrounding the major settlements of Coru Cora and Coru Maan. While, ultimately, a number of distinct states would emerge, the manner in which this happened would have shocked any who had prophesied it. Two factors directly played into reshaping the history of the Corunan.
Tarn with saddle
The first of the two was the ability to ride Tarns. For centuries, outside of the focus of the “civilized” centers, the Corunan who inhabited the plains had exploited and domesticated Tarns, the large family of flightless and semi-flightless birds that occupied many of the ecological Niches of the Corus plains. These birds offered the plains Corunan a steady supply of protein as well as being of limited use to pull sleds over the grass. However, this use of tarns provided very little advantage in communication, until, as legend states, an Orc, Tolin, son of the elected leader of the Rour tribe of plains Corunan, bested a Tarn Spirit in a trial of strength, and was taught the knowledge to ride Tarns. This triggered a revolutionary change in Plains Orcs society. No longer were orcs of different tribes forced to meet at prearranged location for marriages and alliances. Instead, almost overnight, intricate networks of trade and relationships were built up along long distances.
The second factor was a direct result of the first. The large scale trade networks developed by the Plains Corunan brought into contact tribes having access to copper or tin. For the first time in Plains Orc History, they had access to a metal that could almost rival the Corungold produced by the river orcs. Though river orcs had long ago developed bronze, they had determined that the metal was of inferior quality, and more importantly, much less holy than Corungold. Historically, the river orcs had solved disputes between settlements by ritual combat between champions adorned in Corungold armor and wielding ornate corungold weapons, and according to most taboos and cultural laws, only those wearing Corungold could serve as champions. While most settlements could afford to field one champion, only Coru Cora and Coru Maan could afford large, standing armies of champions. This rigid adherence to established ritual combat proved to be their undoing.
In -13 on the Vauvran calendar, the guards of Coru Maan were surprised to see a large caravan led by armored war tarns. They were, the orcs clad in bronze leading it said, gifts for the most powerful Patriarch of the city, Hoynari the elder, from Tolin the Second. In exchange, they said, Tolin simply wished for the hand in marriage of one of Hoynari’s daughters, word of whose beauty had spread wide and far. The Maanites laughed at the plains orcs presumption, and the caravan guards were slaughtered. King Tolin flew into a great rage, and declared war on the city of Coru Maan. He raised a great host of bronze armored soldiers, leveraging both the Plains Orcs’ resentment against the River Orcs as well as the complex network of ties and alliances uniting them.
The city of Coru Maan futilely tried to resist, sending what few Corungold armed champions they had to fight for a peace. Instead, they were slaughtered and Tolin’s Army swarmed the walls. In a panic, the shamans of the city invoked all of their alliances, calling forth hundreds of spirits to combat their assailants, but the army’s shamans responded in kind, and, as neither side could call in the favor of any kind of Marid, the superior armament and numbers of King Tolin’s army prevailed. The city was sacked as Plains Orcs looted, pillaged, and raped their resentment and anger. Tolin took for his wives all of the daughters of Hoynari, declaring that “If he would not give me one, than I shall take them all.”
A small number of orcs escaped the slaughter, key among them Hoynari the Elder, who was forced to leave much of his wealth behind. Smuggling himself and his wife, but not his children, upriver to Coru Cora, Hoynari brought word of the supposed barbarisms perpetrated by the Plains Orcs.
Responding quickly, Coru Cora sent word to it’s client states, declaring that the river orcs had to band together to fight the barbaric onslaught, that all must stand together or die apart. This ad-hoc alliance was spearheaded by a man named Ulathar. A former champion of the city, victor in many combats against lesser villages, Ulathar was given the title of prince by the council of elders of Coru Cora.
It was here that King Tolin made the mistake that cost him the rule of all Corunan. Instead of pressing forward and conquering Coru Cora while the city was reeling and weak, he instead turned inwards, rebuilding Coru Maan and making it his capital. Great works of art were commissioned and a large stone and gold palace was built. However, this allowed Prince Ulathar to call his subject smiths and artisans to produce as much armor and weaponry, any armor and weaponry, as they could. Corungold forges lay still, the spirits within dormant, as leather, bronze, and even copper weapons were forged by the thousands. The wait also caused much of King Tolin’s army to dissipate, satisfied with the loot they had gathered from the sack of Coru Maan. Though he still commanded large numbers, the Maanite king no longer had the overwhelming army he had started with.
Therefore, when he made his move, King Tolin was met by a force that, though not his numerical equal, matched his in readiness and armament. No longer were the River orcs impressed by bronze wearing War-Tarn riding soldiers, nor were they shocked when their opponents refused the traditional Combat of Champions to determine a winner.
The final official battle of the war was a simple affair. The two hosts met at Turian Hill as the sun set. By luck, Prince Ulathar’s army had either outpaced or outwitted the Maanite scouts, and so suprised King Tolin’s army, which was just setting up camp. Though the initial offensive managed to shock and push back Tolin’s Army, Tolin’s war-tarn cavalry managed to rally, slowing the enemy offensive long enough for the tribal Shamans to summon forth a number of afrits to bolster their numbers. These afrits provided fire support, which the Coranites were unable to counter with their own mystical forces. The battle raged through the course of the night, the next day, and the subsquant night. By morning, it was obvious that neither force had the superior edge. Ulathar and Tolin met in Tolin’s tent, and agreed to terms. Both sides would pay significant tribute to the other and peace would exist between Coru Cora and Coru Maan forevermore.
Somewhat placated, King Tolin returned to Coru Maan to rebuild the city, and Prince Ulathar returned to Coru Cora and gave up his title, calling for elections to establish a ruling council over the allied villages.
By year 35 of the Vauvran calendar, the skill to ride Tarns had spread beyond the Maanites and into Coru Cora, removing the last advantage the Tolin’s Dynasty had over it’s neighbors. Tarns also spread deep into the Corus plain, inhabited by orcs genetically, though only distantly culturally related to the Corunan. These orcs adopted, along with the War-Tarn, much of the culture of the Corunan merchants they were in contact with, creating an amalgam with their local culture, most especially the holy site of Mara a crystalline crater in the plain, which was said to be the footstep of a God. Corunan merchants and priests largely claimed that Bast was the god who had left the footstep, as she was the only god to be associated with crystal, and many of the Corus Plains orcs internalized that belief. A religious settlement Coru Mara sprung up around the crater, which became the nexus for a large network of Tarn riding nomadic orcs.
The Dheissarib
The first news that the core regions had of the Host of Al-Dheissar were a small flotilla of ships emerging from the fog and setting upon a small colony of Laozi in the eastern part of the Long Lang (Or the Shattered Sea, as the Rahirim would come to call it,) taking and enslaving them.
This flotilla, led by an elf named Jaidrahir Nundarruc established a settlement, the refuge of Noldahad on the exact site of the Laozi colony, declaring that the Laozi, for their relationships with spirits were lesser people and therefore automatically subject to the Dheirssarib. For twenty years, the Refuge of Noldahad grew until it’s shining spires were known throughout the Shattered Sea.
And yet, despite their forced and violent entry into the known world, as others waited with bated breath, for twenty years the Dheissarib were content to sit behind their walls. The reason for this wait was made clear in the fourteenth year of the Vauvran Calendar, when a great host of bronze armored elves emerged from the mountains and made their way southwards, enslaving and enthralling many tribes, and settling numerous small settlements, the greatest of which was the cliffside refuge of Nangrahad.
Refuge of Nangrahad
The Dheissarib remain largely insular, but escaped slaves, traders, and lower class elves who have migrated to other cities (mostly the Vauvran colony of Aqwinthar) have allowed other people to understand who the Dheissarib are.
Dheissarib believe that they were once the retainers to the gods in Heaven, serving them in their palace of stars. The gods grew indolent and lazy as the elves grew stronger and ever more powerful, until one day, Al-Dheissar led a revolt, rising against their masters. Unfortunately, the gods still had some power, and Al-Dheissar and those who followed him were banished from the Heavens. The Dheissarib swore revenge, declaring that they would one day take the Heavenly palace from the Gods and enslave them as they were once enslaved.
Forced into a nomadic lifestyle, searching for paradise on earth, the Rahirim tried to maintain the complex of families and hierarchies that had bound them together throughout their ordeal in heaven. As most of the heads of the families were once in charge of an individual god’s retinue, many of them had managed to make off with divine artifacts, most notably the Circlet of Dheissar, said to have three gems made from the heart of a dying star set into the brow. Though each patriarch, known as Jaidrahir, maintained near absolute power over their family, all have sworn fealty to the line of Dheissar, the scions of who always take the name of “Al-Dheissar” upon the death of the previous Udrahir.
The Rahirim Elves are fundamentally atheistic, declaring that it is mortal destiny to ascend beyond the gods and the spirits, and that worshipping them is a sign of weakness. Despite this, the Rahirim maintain some relations with different groups of spirits. The only reverence towards others that the Rahirim have is a great respect for their ancestors. As such, during the exodus, dead Rahirim were burned and their ashes scattered to the wind, so that their bodies may find Paradise on Eran even if the living haven’t. As they now believe themselves to have found it, the bodies of the dead are interred in labyrinthine ornate catacombs beneath the city.
Individual settlements, known as Refuges, are traditionally autocratically led by a Jaidrahir, and most are fairly self sufficient, with trade with other settlements occurring only for luxuries or for culinary variety. usually built of baked mud-bricks, these settlements are surrounded by crop fields and horses, which are the primary animal used by the Rahirim. Rahirim art tends towards ornate and stylized patterns of repeating shapes and motifs, usually painted or mosaiced onto building walls.
The Dunak
Life for the Dunak tribes had existed largely unchanging for centuries, and would likely have continued thusly but for the expanding world around their borders. More and more often traders, mainly from the Kojai-Ishi and the Jashari, but also from other, more distant groups like the Ziemelmen and the Cities of the Noa Pasason, would penetrate the borders and meet Dunak Tribes. Unfortunately for the majority of these traders, the Dunak tended to shun “the silent” those that they were unable to read. At best, outsiders were turned away, at worst, their skulls shaped into ornate pieces of art mounted on the gates of Dunak settlements as warning and their goods taken and used.
However, as time progressed, some tribes grew slightly more open, especially as the advantages provided by the looted goods were undeniable. Most notable of these was Clan Cron, based near the northern border of the Dunak lands. Negotiating with a Kojesh emissary, Cron Nonat learned the secrets of Kojai-Ishi bronze working. Using the weapons forged, Cron Nonat sought to lead Clan Cron in a campaign to unify the Dunak into a single people, led by Clan Cron. However, Nonat remained patient, knowing that to strike too early would simply unify the other clans against him. And so, he embarked on a slow process of improving Cron weaponry and building up a network of alliances and marriage ties with neighboring clans, an arduous task because of the natural distrust of the Dunak. Cron Nonat died long before his machinations bore fruit, as it was his grandson, Cron Hanun, known as the Unifier, who launched the war.
The armies of Clan Cron, backed by a number of related and allied tribes, set upon their neighbors, successfully conquering or eradicating all those who resisted, even as word of the actions of Clan Cron flew ahead of the war bands.
Within a year, nearly half of all Dunak land was in the hands of Clan Cron, the inhabiting tribes dispersed and broken and subject to Cron overlords. This advance was only stopped as Clan Cron moved into the steeper and craggier southern mountains. These clans used the geography of the land against their enemy, successfully repelling Clan Cron. Notable among these was Urda Brado, who successfully bound within himself the spirit of a mountain, and using the magic it provided him, brought down a cliffside into a large Cron Warband, killing the majority of the attackers. With the Cron on the back foot, the southern tribes met in a great conclave, attempting to determine a strategy to effectively repel the onslaught.
Three clans managed to gather enough support to effectively mount a defense, and, though a unified strategy was not established, Cron Hanun was repelled, and a border was established between the “Free” clans and the clans subject to Cron.
The decades of warfare fundamentally changed most Dunak, as only the very isolated and insular high mountain clans remained untouched by the war. For the other clans, a complex system of hierarchy and genealogy slowly developed, as blood vied with personal prestige for influence over the Dunak. Hundreds, if not thousands, of Dunak were evicted from their traditional homes, and for these refugees, settling in the lowlands on the rivers to the east, Clan became a nebulous concept, shifting into a concept of trust and brotherhood rather than actual kinship. Because of this, or perhaps despite, River Dunak, and to a lesser extent Cron Dunak have noticed that their ability to read people has become less sharp vis-a-vis their family, but honed towards those who are their immediate subordinate or superior.
The River Dunak are based around the city of Dunva, meaning clanless, with a number of small stone villages around. The city, founded by a charismatic woman named Dunva Theria, is ruled by a council of elected officials, drawn either from official clans or from the number of “unofficial” clans bound together by friendship and fealty, and is reputed to be a treacherous hive of betrayal and intrigue.