UPDATE ZERO
Sacrifice of a Goddess
She had been born of Chaos, as everything else and everybody else had before Her.
She had known a world of everchanging landscapes, a universe of people who were never certain of what tomorrow would be like.
She had lived in times when time itself wouldn't follow any rule, when it would flow backwards or flow faster depending on the places she visited.
She had gotten tired, no, despaired even, of seeing all the marvels spawned by Chaos bloom only to rot and become corrupted within moments.
Therefore, She had used Her powers to turn a part of Chaos into a stable place. She had turned a land of moving sands into firm rock. She had erected mountains, carved valleys for rivers to flow, and forced the water of the rivers to always flow downwards toward her seas, and submit to Her laws.
She had used Her mighty power to create the World we live in.
But She did even more. From the denizens of Chaos, She chose some, and brought them to Her place. There, She created new races, and had these beings settle Her lands. And these beings, the lucky creatures we are descended from, would thank Her and worship Her.
Alas, despite all Her might, She knew no peace. She struggled and had to keep struggling, for Chaos would send tendrils of change into Her lands, Chaos would try to rain change upon Her creation, and not a moment passed without Her spending some of Her power to keep the World safe and stable.
Until She had enough.
Until She decided that Her creation was more important than She was, that we merited Her sacrifice.
She gave Her life to work a spell like no other. She bound Chaos out of the World She had created. Thanks to Her ultimate gift, we no longer need fear that either time or water will flow backwards, that stones will fall upwards, that babies will age and wrinkle and die of senility before the sun sets on the day that saw their birth.
Thanks to Her, we live in a stable place, a world of Order and laws.
But we are orphans.
She was there, to give us birth and safety and courage. She has protected us from Chaos, but not from the beings who dwell there or that Chaos spawns.
Who will help us? Who can we put our Faith in in order to help us survive in this world on the border of Chaos?
Diary of Cuthbert, Monk of the Order of the Demiurge.
Map:
The Orderly World is a large place. For centuries, the Pantocrator has protected it, and nations have grown and prospered under her benevolent gaze.
In the center of the World is the kingdom of
Heldenthal. It is a beautiful place ruled by King Alrich, heir of a long tradition of chivalrous sovereigns. It's a place of generous rivers, rich fields and lush forests. With the fall of the Pantocrator, some of her former priests had grown out of control, abusing their power and influence, until Walaruna arrived. She was a woman so beautiful she couldn't be human. She had to be some kind of dream instead, but she was a dream come true. Some of those who haven't seen her say she bewtiched the king. Those who did see her say she can only be a new goddess sent by fate to save Heldenthal.
In the city of Oberklingenbach, there is a poet who has obviously not seen her. He has sung a satire against the king and his dismissal of his lady in favor of this unknown woman. The poet is skilled, and his song is starting to sow dissent around the city.
North of Heldenthal is a huge cliff. On the vast semi-desertic plateau above this cliff is the land of
Erynini. This realm extends from the arid wastes of the north to the fertile plains of the south. In this place, a colossal Pyre burns for ever since the Pantocrator lit it, and the denizens of Erynini have recently turned to it in their quest for guidance. It is, much like Heldenthal, a place of lofty knights, but it's also quite different. It is a much warmer place, but this year, after the Sacrifice, it's become even hotter. Some people wonder whether this is due to the natural variation in temperatures. Most people, however, see this as a sign of change, a sign that new times are coming, and will be placed under the warm embrace of the Eternal Pyre.
The land east of Erynini is its almost total opposite. Beyond a stretch of desert, the Orderly world ends and leaves place to a place of Chaos. As much as Erynini is flat, the land of
Ulm is rugged. As much as the former is hot, the latter is cold. And as much as Erynini is orderly, Ulm is chaotic. These plains, foothills and mountains are the cold home of proud barbarians. They don't have an organised kingdom, but live in tribes. their greatest heroes are not mounted warriors, but stealthy footmen and strong smiths. In this land of Chaos, a strange Anvil spreads its power, seeking a human vessel that would be deemed worthy to become Its prophet in the times to come.
The mountains northeast of Ulm:
Beyond a large river to the southeast, the World of the Pantocrator sprawls again.
Firland is a vast realm of firy beings. In its north, the capital city of Firuun lies in the crater of an extinct volcano. This city is inhabited by elves of dark complexion and firy hair, who form the majority of the population in the whole country. In the middle of the realm, near the rivers and around their city of Heren's Ford, live humans. To the south, dwarves live in the hills. Other races share the country, mostly giants and some sentient creatures of magma and fire. Upon the death of the Pantocrator, they turned toward their ruler, a strange creature known as the Phoenix, who currently looks like a human, but has had many different shapes in his previous incarnations.
The rivers that flow from Ulm, Firland and Heldenthal all merge into a single huge lake, called the Tear by the people who live near its shores. Most are human fishermen, not organised in any kingdom, and at a loss with the disappearance of their Goddess. On the south bank, however, is a vast kingdom of lizardmen. This country is named
C'tis, and is a realm ruled by Ssussaapi, the priest-king. Ssussaapi, when he understood the sacrifice of his deity, decided that his kingdom and the whole world needed a new protector. He walked to an ancient pyramid that stood on the banks of the Tillit river. Ssussaapi ordered his honor guard to wait for him, and he entered accompanied only by his favorite concubine, the beautiful Nefersife. The king moved onwards, entering the corridors of the royal tomb. Nefersife shivered, her cold blood resenting the temperature in the pyramid, but she moved on, pressed by her lover. Eventually, the pair reached the central chamber, where Skenaton, founder of the kingdom of C'tis, was buried.
"Push the lid", ordered Ssussaapi. Startled, Nefersife obeyed, pushing with all her meager strength the stone lid. It moved, slowly, so slowly. While the royal concubine pushed the coffin open, Ssussaapi silently drew his blade. He moved swiftly, and struck a blow. Nefersife cried, and fell. She grasped her left shoulder with her right arm. The left arm was severed. Blood spilled the stone floor. Her eyes were quickly turning opaque. Her blood gushed quickly at first, and then the beats of her heart grew weaker, until finally she lay still, the blood flow a mere trickle. Ssussaapi watched her suffer all this time, saying nothing. His lizard eyes couldn't shed tears, but this was of little comfort to him as he saw his love die a painful death, not understanding why he wa killing her. He didn't answer her silent question, because it would have been somewhat less painful to tell her why, to tell her it was necessary...
As life finally left Nefersife, the lid of the stone coffin moved again, and soon Ssussaapi looked at the mummified corpse of Skenaton, standing out of his grave. He bowed and fell to his knees.
"Rise, king. I understand why you woke me. I can feel She is gone, beyond any hope of ever coming back. The people will need me. You did well. Lead me, now. It's been a long time since I last saw the sun, and there is much to do."
As the mummified founder of C'tis emerged from his pyramid, following his king, a curious stench followed him. A smell the lizardmen barely noticed, but a smell that warm-blooded beings would soon realise was unhealthy to them.
Southwest of C'tis is an old realm of Chaotic lands. This used to be a great kingdom, but the inhabitants barely remember its name. Its most important city is a small one, called
Myrde. This place has recently turned into a land of madness. Some people still tend to crops, some still hunt game. The cattle still eats the grass and the fox keep hunting chickens. But many men and women in the realm are afflicted by a terrible affliction. Some eat the floor without cooking it. Some boil water to make a soup and drink the boiling water, burning themselves. Yet others then eat them who burnt their throats. The people in this land have gone mad. Even the skies are turning crazy, as ponds and rivers have been moving around in the southeast part of the land. A traveller from Boeuf who escaped Myrde would say that surely the death of the Pantocrator had also affected the lands of Chaos, making them ever more insane. He reports that he saw men eating each other, and ponds turning into three-legged watery giants who would walk over a ridge and settle in a nearby valley, turning in a normal-looking pond once again. When his lord Taurus had him drink enough to loosen his tongue, the traveller would even admit helping a trout who was trying to catch the walking pond. The fish had called him by his name and asked him to throw it into the pond for it couldn't follow without legs...
What will king Taurus, lord of the realm of
Boeuf on the northwestern border of Myrde, do with these news is anyone's guess. Taurus is a minotaur blessed in his days by the Pantocrator. Taurus had united under his yoke minotaurs and humans, carving himself a vast realm to the south of the great forest. As the traveller brought back news from the south, he learnt that Taurus, already worshipped like a saint by his subjects, would don the mantle of true godhood in order to protect his people. Thus the king of Boeuf would become his god and guard the realm from the dangers once held at bay by the Goddess.
West of Boeuf is another great country. The empire of
Ermor was once the center of the faith in the Orderly world. Eldergate, its capital, is the largest and most magnificent city known to man. Its cathedrals are famous, and its head priest, the Pontifex, was renowned for his wisdom. Today however, there are those who question that wisdom. For Pontifex Caelicius the Third accomplished a ritual that no sane mane should have tried. He opened the gates of Death, hoping to bring back that which cannot be brought back. Instead, out of the gates, came an angel, a messenger of Death. Samael accepted the worship of Caelicius and those desperate enough to believe he could still save them. But having faith in Death personified is dangerous. Right now, the glorious country of Ermor suffers strange woes. Many babies die stillborn. The slightest disease proves deadly. The slightest cut gets infected. And yet, people try to behave as if everything was normal. But how normal is it when the dead walk to their resting place instead of being carried there? And how long will they pretend to be truly dead?
West of Ermor live many tribes loosely united together. They have no king, but have time and again formed alliance between themselves to push back the legions of their eastern neighbour. The tribes of the
Marverni, Carnutes, Ambibates, Eponi and Sequani live in the plains and forests, in villages and towns ruled, in theory, by kings. In reality, power lies in the hands of the druids, a caste of priests and seers who has the right to speak before the king in any meeting. The druids from all the tribes, from every city, every town, every village, every hamlet, have travelled to the sacred forest of Carnutes to hold a grand meeting and decide what to do following the terrible catastrophe that befell the World. To this day, they haven't reached a decision. Lords and peasants of Marverni alike wonder and pray, knowing not where to turn their gaze in search of salvation.
In the woods north of the Marverni tribes starts the realm of
Falaxan, which stretches up to the foot of a vast mountain range in the north. United under the guidance of king Hector Alacron II, the subjects of the kingdom hope that their king will protect them from Chaos and its denizens, whom they have had ample reasons to fear and hate in the past. They believe that their king is protected by a divine patron wwho will protect him, and that he in turn will protect the kingdom. Some of them have even begun silently praying to their king, or to his protector. Most inhabitants however don't go that far. They believe they must keep their traditions firm, honor their lord as they always have, and that this secular behavior will be enough to safeguard them from chaos and danger.
North of the mountains that border Falaxan, a pocket of Order stands amid chaotic lands. This country is known as
Taernsvwyn, a country of men led by the Lady, a goddess born in chaos who brought with her her people, the Vanir, a dying breed of godlike men, who live their last days amidst the lower kin of normal humans. The Taern value great deeds, and as they remember the Thundered, the last god they worshipped in their lost northern lands, they will surely remember the Pantocrator, who made the land they tread stable and gave her life for the World to remain unmarred by chaos. Now they turn once again toward the Lady and her prophet, wondering what lies for them in the future. There is some concern in the western city of Vanholm, near the mouth of the river, that some of the taxes have disappeared. There may be corruption issues in the city, but so far it's not clear who drained the money and why.
An affluent of the Lillies Flow:
The mountain range stretches to the soutwest, and chaos rules there once more as one crosses the borders of
Patalnila, a country centered around Vanas, the city of Emeseran. This place is indeed chaotic. While its inhabitants looke like men, there are many who turn into animals at will. Some change into bears, lions or wolves. Some change into rats or giant badgers. Some change into even weirder shapes, like giant cockroaches. The realm of Patalnila is small, but its population is varied, and resilient. They rarely receive visitors because, although sometimes a merchant will row upward the river to reach Vanas, he seldom comes back. Most of the time, Vanas ends up being the final resting place of the adventurous merchant. Not that Patalnilans are hostile or dislike traders. No, the truth is that visitors to the land tend to fall ill and never manage to muster enough strength to go back home. Indeed the land seems afflicted with a curse of some kind, for plagues grow there like mushrooms in a hot moisty wood. A plague is currently infecting the population. Many people have died already, and they are praying Emeseran for a cure of some kind.
Southeast of Patalnila is the land of
Mallitain. This country has been chosen by the angel Cassiopeia for heer return to the World. A longtime servant of the Pantocrator, Cassiopeia returns to the World in times of need, helping her champion Jack Churchill come back to his tribe and assert dominance over the city of Massad. From Massad, Jack started spreading the teachings of Cassiopeia, namely that men should try to strive and survive on their own, independently. For many in Mallitain, Cassiopeia talks about independance, and how the sacrifice of the Pantocrator was a gift much larger than what most think. She didn't only give mankind perpetual protection from chaos. She also gave mankind freedom, the liberty to worship whoever they wanted, and even nobody if they saw it fit. However, most people feel more secure if a god shelters them, and it remains to be seen how the message of the angel will be interpreted in Mallitain and the surrounding lands.
Arcoscephale is a vast country southeast of Mallitain, south of Marverni and west of Ermor. It is not a unified nation, but a group of independant city states. They, much like Marverni, only banded together to fend off Ermor imperialism in the past. Contrary to Marverni, they don't have a common caste of priests, and each city is trying to handle the situation on its own. Messengers row the river and run along the roads between the cities, exchanging messages of warning and alliances. In every city, hoplites dust their cuirasses and shields and prepare their spears for they fear that the recent changes can only bring war to their land. If that is to happen, Arcoscephale will be ready.
West of Arcoscephale is the small kingdom of
Alifat. A feudal kingdom ruled from Naoot by king Surangular, Alifat has seen the building of a temple to a new god, a god of love as he is called. The cult is slowly growing, and it is not yet clear whether it will be strong enough to replace the faith in the Pantocrator. However, some of the faithful have started proselytising up to the city of Argos in Arcoscephale, where a tiny congregation of worshippers of the god of lov eis forming.
Further West is the kingdom of
Machaka, sitting halfway in the World and half in Chaos. Machaka is a country of savage people organised in many tribes ruled by a single wizard king, Ungulungo. Ungulungo was never a worshipper of the Pantocrator. His throne is said to have two feet in Chaos and two feet in the World, which allows him to use his chaos magic while being protected from the bad side effects himself. Ungulungo has ordered his subjects to continue living their lives as if nothing had happened, but the people of Machaka are superstitious, and many, particularly in the Orderly part of the realm, are afraid of the future.
North of Machaka, south of the mountain range of Patalnila, also on the border between Order and Chaos, is the land of the
Bhumi. It is a mixed realm of man and naga, where the naga rule from their capital in the jungles, while men tend their fields in the more orderly world. With the death of the Pantocrator, the jungle of chaotic lands has crossed the river that separates World from Chaos but the people don't fear it. They view this as a blessing of the Pavitra Bacce, the sacred child, who will take care of them now their goddess is gone.
In addition to these great countries, there are many independent cities in the World. Most of them are small feudal kingdoms which don't control much land beyond their walls. In these places, people still go to the temple, but are lost, and seek guidance, but noone so far has succoured them in their plea.
