NuTRANESIV: Fallen Fantasy

Heh. I don't actually mind the delay at all, as long as it is going to come eventually; as it happens I'm fairly busy myself right now.
 
Thank you for the update, I do mind.. but that only because I am so excited for the update ;)
 
Typing it up as we speak
 
Huzzah! Now I can't wait. :p
 
Hope things are ok :/ Very excited about this NES.
 
Update 1
450 A.F. - 453 A.F.
The New Age
Part I


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...A God once wondered what would come of the worlds if the ties were ripped...




An Overview of the Past
Spoiler :
Where I had last left off the world had come to its false end. From the ashes of mighty empires came the bizarre remnants of society too tenacious to fall. Strangely enough the glowing embers of civilization were kept hot by the Orc-things of the Kathraki Jungles, a savage peoples given a savage intelligence and awareness of their own imperfect state. Many sought to rectify their situation through perpetuating the millennia-old violence that had long kept their species barbarian. Others questioned the point of this violence, though their ponderings were cut short by the savage intervention of the behemoth Berengei Ape-beasts. Brutal subjugation of the Orc-things began and before long much of 'civilized' Kathraki bowed to Berengei overlords, who proved surprisingly benevolent and so civilization marched on.

A few Orc-things, four-armed like their Berengei masters, but far more intelligent than them--and, in fact, any of their kind--sought freedom. A number of exoduses out of the Kathraki Jungles saw the proliferation of far-flung Orrachni states, among them United Kanarka and the strange tribes of Orrakenal.

Lead by a strong chieftain called Zagrok, many Orrachni fled to the east where they settled by human ruins after earning the grudging respect of the ruins' original inhabitants, the Suth-Swiech. Swiech are known to all corners of Hos, but only the Suth-Swiech can claim to be true warriors for they are sturdier than their feeble cousins and are practically war-machines in of themselves. Yet, they lack chiefly in intelligence and this caused them to eek out a violent existence till the Zagrok-lead Orrachni introduced the idea of peace, and more importantly, a common enemy. Zagrok played upon the hatred between the Suth-Swiech of his new home and the Suth-Swiech of more distant ruins in the eastern hills of the Atil Mountains.

A small band of Orrachni followed a philosopher and self-proclaimed prophetess by the name of Urzrah. Urzrah did not lead her people to a promise-land like she had dreamed, but into the maw of the bizarre flesh-golems called Kharlkallenal--relics of the magical decadence of the world before the Fall. When the Kharlkallenal ate Urzrah and her followers they too gave a new home for the Orrachni minds, which proved problematic for the older Kharlkallenal whose minds also housed the voice of their creator, the mad gnome-thing wizard Gallazza. Torn between their master's insanity and the pleading of the Orrachni, these older Kharlkallenal were driven even more mad then they were before, but among the younger, the 'emptier' flesh golems the Orrachni found yielding hosts who came to identify with Orrachni culture, society, and thought, creating the first Orrakenal. These bizarre, newly sentient constructs quickly abandoned their mad parents for life by the River Senn, though time can only tell what fate in store for them.

Far from the savage southern jungles were the once civilized man, dwarf, and elf-things who were turned strange by the Fall. Much more effected than the orc-things, who in truth had little to lose and much more to gain from their mutations, the civilized-things of the north reverted to largely tribal existences. Among the dwarf-things of the extreme north, called Akkalik in their own tongue, a small kingdom arose on the Isle of Akk mostly for protection from the enigmatic Tabbuk, which were once elf-things. War was frequent, though victory for the Akkalik was equally as frequent till the onset of the Melt--a strange disease which warped the minds of older Akkalik and the bodies of their younger sons and daughters. Increasingly large chunks of each dwarf-thing generations were lost to the Melt until the Great Death saw a whole generation turned into frozen monstrosities. Not things given to despair and defeat, the wise King Addak II abdicated from his throne to lead a coalition of the surviving nobility.

On the western sister island of Akk, Suinias, the Dohtel once possessed the greatest kingdom of magicians. Truly bLEsSed with an understanding of aRt they were torn from their powers by the Pop, which also tore their island apart and flung it across various other realms. Beset by all manners of strange extraplanar horrors, the Dohtel found themselves not without means to survive--even thrive. The magic they once commanded began to command them, infusing in each and every elf-thing a singular purpose in life that he would excel at. A highly regimented, highly guarded tribe emerged under the leadership of an unbroken line of 'marked' chieftains and the broken Dohtel were able to eek out existences in the shadow of their greatest city, Suin. However, MaGIC seems to have abandoned them as more and more Dohtel were born 'unmarked' and no heir was born to the chieftains.

The man-things who once held tempestuousness border-realms on the northern edge of the greatest elf-thing empire saw all their petty squabbles suddenly ended when the Pop eradicated nearly 2/3rds of the man-thing population. The straggling remnants broke into two groups: Bodomen and Karinthians. The former a slave-owning collection of post-apocalyptic princedoms and the latter a disorganized collection of nomads whose bodies were turned inside out at the same time as their world. Initially weak and harrowed by the strange Akonai wolves, the Karinthians led short, fearful lives till they were saved by a four-armed-thing who called himself Laorth and brought with him religion and metallurgy. Strengthened by their arms and the recently domesticated blood-steeds, unsettling beasts whose fate was much the same as the Karinthians', the Karinthians beat back to Akonai and established thriving, independent tribes that would later be united by the greatest prophet since Laorth, a man-thing called Syztos.

Their southern Bodomen cousins suffered quite an opposite fate. Long profiting from their brutal enslavement of the foreign gnome-things called the Sheol, the Bodomen managed to continue their pre-Pop society due to the exploitation of the Sheol. However, overtime the Bodomen came to take on animalistic qualities, both physically and mentally, till they could hardly be called man-things at all. The collapse of their own society, however, came with the sudden appearance of the Puca, extraplanar river spirits forcibly brought to the Hossian plane by things yet known. Rivers all over the Bodolands swelled up and destroyed the Bodomen and Sheol alike, even carrying a few of the gnome-things off to the region west of the Bodolands where the displaced Sheol would create a fledgling kingdom of their own. Yet, the Sheol took the manifestation of the Puca as divine providence and all throughout the Bodolands they rose up in revolt.

Elf-things of the greatest elf-thing empire suffered fates no better than the squabbling man-things. Where the man-things knew disunity from the inception of their kind, the elf-things would know it through the racial rifts caused by the Fall. High elf-things, near-gods in many aspects including arrogance, fell far when their forest empire was destroyed by the rise of the Sno Mountains and expansion of the Sentet Desert. Most fled their former home, but the High elf-thing nobility clung desperately to their ruined cities despite disaster after disaster. Perhaps the most devastating, and ironically what saved the haughty elf-things, were the Kraw, a race of hyper-intelligent creatures spawned from pre-Pop eagles. The Kraw forcibly incorporated the straggling high elf-things into their growing domain as slaves and even went so far as to breed with their captives. What resulted from this union was no monstrosity, but the angelic Malachim who were called 'low' by their pure-blooded parents despite the presence of no flaws save for their fragility.

Cast out, the 'low' Malachim were lead into the nearby desert by one of their kind, a man called Ophanim, who established a self-serving religion that placed him--and all Malachim-things--as the pinnacles of mortal perfections. With these delusions of grandeur the Malachim created a small realm for themselves along the River Senn. The realm knew little struggle till the greed of a spurned noble resulted in exile of the rightful heir Princess Nessa and the usurpation of her throne. Nessa did not find death in the deserts as her cousin Khadis had hoped; she instead found a Hitash lizardess who was just emerging from her bestial slumber.

An inquisitive race of hyper-intelligent beings, the Hitash had existed long before the Fall and were only altered by it in the form of their ever-lengthening 'sleep'. When resting, the normally wise and calculating lizards revert into monsters capable of terrible destruction, and the lengthening of this period posed a great problem for all Hitash of the younger generations. Nessa provided her lizard savior with an avenue, however: Ophanism, as interpreted by Nessa. Preaching that all beings could rid themselves of the changes brought on by the Collapse, Nessa converted the Hitash Lizardess Dmurth, who in turn converted a small clutch of like-minded lizards. Dmurth and her compatriots undertook a willing exile and traveled back to the Malachim kingdom with Nessa in order to help the princess reconquer her kingdom. The mighty lizards fought back the Malachim army with disturbing ease, subduing roughly half of the once united realm within the space of mere weeks, and now Nessa and Dmurth stand ready to subjugate the southern half.

The 'Low' Elf-things of the greatest elf-thing empire scattered to all corners of Hos, but the only ones to have formed a new society are the Bladvenn. Immediately the Bladvenn came under influence of their environment, taking on amphibian qualities so as to survive in the 'Strip', a marshy region east of the Centet Sea. The Bladvenn initially kept small, familial clans, but were brought together by contact with the Etet-Swiech, a member of the prolific race of rat-men-things. Bladvenn are curious creatures, not fully vampires, but bearing the cornerstone trait of these undead lords: an inclination for blood. Blood to a Bladvenn creates a narcotic-like high that quickly proved important to the Bladvenn's spiritual practices, but was utterly blown out of proportion when the Bladvenn first drained the Etet-Swiech. The euphoria experienced would cause the entire Bladvenn race to hunt the Etet-Swiech down to near-extinction, in the process creating hunting 'leagues' that quickly went to war with one another when the Etet-Swiech became less numerous.

With their society imploded, the Bladvenn wandered the Strip in small, scattered clans till one of their kind, a treacherous being called Agorta, happened upon an expedition of Muroid-Swiech--cousins to the Bladvenn's decimated prey. Unlike the Etet-Sweich, the Muroid-Swiech bore an intelligence that had seen them rapidly rediscover a great number of innovations lost during the Fall. This was partially forced upon them when the Muroid-Swiech were attacked by the numerous beasts living in their homeland, causing them to band together far more quickly than they would have normally. In search of a new homeland, the Muroid-Swiech noblewoman Mefi instead found Agorta, who coaxed his way into her inner council till she let her guard down and he struck. The resulting battle saw the death of numerous Bladvenn, but ultimately they proved the victors and the surviving Muroid-Swiech were taken as slaves while Mefi escaped into the nearby forests.

Playing upon his people's racial addiction, Agorta established the Great League of Agorta by dangling his Swiech slaves in front of every clan he met. This coupled with his uncanny mind for politics and infectious charisma created the first sizable realm the Bladvenn had ever known.


And now we turn to present happenings...

The Great North
Nak Akkal, Nak Tabbuk, Enlightened Tribes of Drual, The Great Tribe, Akonai Pack, & The Djata Prides

Tides of War
You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake.​
The War of First Frost & The Battle At Terenakka
High Councilman Adak, once King Adak II of Nak Akkal, wasted little time in uniting his peoples against what he deemed their true threat: the Tabbuk elf-things. Adak himself denied the honor of leading the Wardens south against their hated foe, opting to head the realm's defensive force stationed in the peaks where they too would see battle. During the first snows late in 450 A.F. the Wardens marched south under the leadership of Lady Bydd of House Urtek, more widely known as 'Wrath's Mistress'.
[+Nak Akkal ACC "Bydd Urtek"]

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Lady Bydd c.450 A.F.;
Notice her emaciated (for a dwarf-thing) appearance

Lady Bydd long was her people's major proponent for total war against the Tabbuk, owing in part to the loss of her brothers, husband, and father to a vicious Tabbuk raid. When the Great Death took her sons too some say she lost her mind. Not at all a warrior prior to the death of her sons, Lady Bydd took to the training fields with an uncanny drive, often not eating or sleeping for days till she collapsed from exhaustion. When King Adak II abdicated and established the Frozen Council her membership was hotly debated. Though the House Urtek was a major house with ties to numerous churches and priests, Bydd was the last of her noble lineage (a fate shared by many others due to the Great Death) and far from stable minded. Her extreme nature almost saw her spurned from the council, but in the end her extreme nature is what saved her when she burst into the former-king's chambers and demanded he honor her and her line least he forget the great debt the royal family owed to the Urteks[1].

When the time came for war Lady Bydd leapt at the chance to combat her personal enemy and was granted generalship of the Wardens. Lady Bydd embarked on a campaign of terror, sweeping through the northern Nak Tabbuk villages and putting to slaughter every man, woman, and child she came across. Strangely, the Tabbuk did not put forth any significant forces of their own till well into the summer of 451 A.F.. Lady Bydd had avoided the Terenakka ruins on purpose so as to prolong her vicious attacks on the Nak Tabbuk civilians. Much to the chagrin of Adak and those back home, Lady Bydd showed no signs of heeding any of the many calls for her to return home and aid in the struggle against the Melted's attacks. Lady Bydd most likely would have gone on scouring the Tabbuk countrysides were it not for the growing unrest of her own troops who had come to hate their violent mistress. A group of the more mutinous officers set upon Lady Bydd and forced her to lead the army to Terenakka, their original goal.
[-Nak Tabbuk Prosperity]

The Tabbuk and Akkalik armies met just within sight of Terenakka and immediately set upon one another. The dwarf-things, more heavily armored and disciplined than their elf-thing foes, beat back the hordes of Tabbuk that swarmed around them. Lady Bydd herself was said to have killed dozens of Tabbuk--which would be evidenced by the great number of masked Tabbuk skulls she would send back with the Akkalik warriors ordered back to the north. Terenakka was won for the Akkalik dwarf-things and at seemingly little cost to Nak Akkal. Lady Bydd sent half of the Akkalik host north to relieve the defenders commanded by Adak while establishing a Nak Akkal stronghold in the reclaimed ruins.
[-4 Nak Akkal Units; -Nak Tabbuk Strength]

Onslaught of the Melted
While Lady Bydd led the vast majority of the Nak Akkal troops south, the grim once-king Adak prepared his peoples as best as he could for any attacks the Melted would launch from their mountainous homes. Adak and his people were given little time to erect their defenses--the Melted launched their attacks just days after the start of a new year.

Adak and the few warriors left with him managed to rescue the Nak Akkal villages tucked into the hills nearest to the Melted's apparent home. The fighting was fierce and to a man Adak lost those entrusted to him, himself narrowly escaping death by the timely arrival of Lady Bydd's soldiers.
[-1 Nak Akkal Unit]

Akonai Attacks on the Outer Karinthian Clans
The abnormally hot summer of 451 A.F. not only saw the death of many Karinthian crops, but also the resurgence of hostile Akonai activity towards the northern clans bordering traditional Akonai hunting grounds. The Akonai, lead by the violent Obai, managed to press back the Karinthian's effective territory and even carried off numerous Karinthian children to do keep as livestock. In response the northern clans banded behind a reputable warrior whose martial prowess saw his clan be the only to not succumb to the wolves, Nepheon of the Chira. Without the blessings of Syztos, Nepheon waged bloody war against the Akonai, though in reality all that was fought were a few (admittedly bloody) skirmishes.

In the spring of 452 A.F. Nepheon took his efforts to the next level and began to organize 'hunts' and trained his followers as 'hunters'. He began to attract more and more northern clans to his operation till, in 453 A.F., a significant portion of the north called themselves Nepheonic Hunters.
[+Drual Faction "Nepheonic Hunters"][+Drual ACC "Nephon of the Chira]

The Beasts' War, Clashes between the Djata & Akonai
In 450 A.F. the normally scattered Djata lion-beast-things prides, for unknown reasons, began a mass western movement. Djata are beast-things as opposed to mere beasts due to the uncannily intelligent minds that inhabit their otherwise wholly savage exterior. They are, above all else, collectors of knowledge and long safe-guarded the ruins of a defunct man-thing kingdom, which they refer to as Lamakkad. The dispute between the Djata and Akonai stems from the first century after the Fall when the Akonai ancestors, forced from their southern homeland, raided the Lamakkad ruins and ate the strange stones that would result in their current weird condition.

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A Common Djata Lion;
The wings of a Djata commonly either are more bat-like or bird-like in appearance, a trait which seems to be passed down through blood

For some time after that the Akonai dominated the Plains of Nurth, successfully killing enough Djata prides to instill a racial hatred of the wolves in the otherwise peaceable lion-beast-things. In 370 A.F. the Djata were so few in number that they formed one massive pride--which is much like the current Akonai position--under the strongest and wisest lion-beast-thing, who they hailed the Djata Rex. This Great Pride began the first Beasts' War (though in their eyes the Akonai began it long ago) and under the Djata Rex they carved out their current territory in just three decades.
[+Djata ACC "Djata Rex Melkan"]

The beginning of the fifth century saw the Great Pride swell to almost bursting and within half a decade since the turn of the century the lion-beast-things splintered. New prides carpeted the vast Djata holdings, though the Djata Rex always remained near Lamakkad. His power weened till he only was Rex only in name; however, his proximity to the relic-rich Lamakkad rendered him and his pride the most learned of their kind. Those pride who stalked the most far-flung stretches of Djata territory increasingly gave into their bestial sides, though remained intellectuals in the privacy of their prides. It was these prides who renewed the old conflict half a century after unofficial peace between the two beast-things.

Lead by a young Djata pride-leader called Josgar, the small western Djata prides periodically banded together to strike deep into Akonai territory in order to kill the wolves and bring back the 'stones' the wolves ingested long ago. Josgar and his like minded followers were of the belief that these stones held the ultimate knowledge about what occurred during the Fall.
[+Djata ACC "Josgar"]

***

'Peaceful' Happenings
War should be the only study of a prince.
He should consider peace only as a breathing-time,
which gives him leisure to contrive,
and furnishes as ability to execute, military plans.​

The Ice Houses of Akkmur
Of all the noble members of the Frozen Council only Master Kal-Kilik represented the 'lesser' members of Nak Akkal society. Not to say that Kal-Kilik was without noble blood, before forgoing his clan name to become a high-priest he was none other than Kal-Kilik of House Wervir, he simply associated himself with the 'higher' callings of 'Ai Kirin'. Change, however, was not all good and Master Kal-Kilik was the first to acknowledge that after he began what would become a decades-long study on the Melted and the effects of the Melt.
[+Nak Akkal ACC "Kal-Kilik"]

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An Akkalik Icehouse;
The first ice-house was built long before Kal-Kilik's time and in fact held an important place in rural pagan beliefs

Master Kal-Kilik's foray into studying the Melt began not long after his own daughter was turned right in front of his eyes, but instead of killing her outright he rendered her unconcious and placed her in a large 'ice house' that was used for worship of the Akkalik Elder Deities[2]. Kal-Kilik was of the thought that if the Melt was brought on by the heat of the sun, total subversion in cool darkness would yield the reverse results. His daughter's twisted form did not revert entirely, but her mind somehow stabilized and the normal guttural grunts produced by the Melted became intelligible words. One word, actually: Gloraz.

Kal-Kilik disregarded what his daughter said and concentrated on the fact that she could speak in the first place. When he brought this to the attention of Adak and the other council members they too were intrigued by the possibility of reversing the Melt. So the 'kill' orders Adak had given to his defenders became 'capture', which is what arguably caused their complete annihilation against the Melted attacks between 451 A.F. - 452 A.F.. They did succeed, however, in imprisoning numerous Melted in the great ice prisons built in Akkmur. The result was the same as seen by Kal-Kilik in his daughter: Gloraz.

Heatwave of 451 A.F.
All of the Great North suffered from unusually high summer temperatures during in 451 A.F., and among the Karinthians this saw the death of the few crops they grew, but also the death of wide swaths of blade-grass. Death is not an appropriate term, the deadly grass dried up and were just as sharp as ever, but many in-land Karinthians found that they could easily clear the tenacious plants aside. Of course the blade-grass returned the next year, but perhaps there is hope for non-coastal development afterall?

Karinthian Mining Efforts
Much of Syztos' attentions between 450 A.F. - 453 A.F. was on the salvaging, shaping, and sale of metal. Since the teachings of Laorth were first brought to the Karinthians metal has dominated their lives. The armor a Karinthian rider wears was worn by his father and his father's father and his father's father's father due in part to the scarcity of metals and the high place they occupy in the Karinthian society. Syztos sought to change that. Increasing populations meant that more and more Karinthians were left 'naked'[3] to the elements and, more importantly, the Akonai.

Prior to Syztos' leadership metal was traded and gathered sporadically; it was not that it was not there, but that the nomadic Karinthians did not have the luxury of time to gather them. With peace established between the clans and unity brought by a common enemy, Syztos sought to better his people's lot in life and began creating the first permanent Karinthian mines a few miles south of Karinthia. Creating the mines proved easy--Syztos was rich from the tributes he received from the subjugated clans and his followers were numerous. Populating them, however, was an entirely different ordeal due to the free nature of his peoples, and one which Syztos was unable to quite figure out for some time.
[Drual Mine Project Begun]

The Order of Reason
In part due to his own inability to motivate his people to work the mines he created, and also in part to answer the growing demands from his clergy for representation, Syztos created the Order of Reason late in 452 A.F.. They quickly coined themselves as 'Philosophers & Problem Solvers,' though after their first meeting the only problem they solved was recognizing their own lack of power. Not long after the order petitioned Syztos for a more defined charter, even going so far as to suggest one themselves that would see them invested with a more active role in Drual society.
[+Drual Faction "Order of Reason"]

The Search for a Heir
Above all the things that weighed heavy on King Soter XI's mind was his old age. In 451 A.F. the Dohtel high chieftain was nearing 46 and was openly considered a relic among his people[4]. Many worried what would become of the Great Tribe after his death due to Soter's lack of an appropriate heir. His sole child--another oddity considering the huge families Dohtel tend to sport--died almost two decades ago, leaving behind his young wife and daughter Alia. Like most of her generation Alia was 'unmarked' and had yet to find her place in society. Among the older Dohtel this meant that Alia could not possibly become the next High Chieftain, so when Soter proposed exactly this during the summer-council in the middle of 452 A.F. it came as a great surprise.

Immediately Soter's detractors made themselves known and most prominent of them was an old rival of Soter's, Barad.[5] Under Barad's leadership the first 'Pure' movement began and threatened to undo the society they claimed to protect out of a mistrust for the unmarked. Alia, however, found an ally in the leader of the Massot Clan, Abeka. The Massot were a clan of unmarked who had been rendered outcasts by their families in some way--or sometimes by their own criminal actions--formed around the charismatic Abeka, one of the first unmarked to be born and by far one of the more successful hunters in the Dohtel Tribes. In Alia Abeka saw a way to bring herself and her clan to the forefront of Dohtel politics and she did just this with by supporting Soter's decision during the winter-council of 452 A.F.. Barging in unannounced and unwelcome, Alia interrupted Barad during one of his fiery speeches and promised bloody revolution on her clan's part if Alia's succession was barred solely for her lack of marks.

Though the Massot clan was small, their support swayed many of the un-aligned unmarked and a few marked elf-things. In the spring of 453 A.F. Soter saw the young Alia named his heir--much to the chagrin of the Pure--and Abeka granted a place on the high council to represent the newly recognized Massot clan.
[+Dohtel Factions "The Pure" & "Massot Clan"] [+Dohtel ACC "Barad" & "Abeka"]


 
Update 1
450 A.F. - 453 A.F.
Part II


Dohtel Darkwood Forests
Part of Abeka's rise to fame revolved around her successful attempts to transplant darkwood trees from the strange region east of the Dohtel homeland, the 'Land of Purple Fire'. Abeka and some of her more daring followers got it into their head that if they could cultivate the darkwood trees away from the terrible presence of the Nonnqueth outerlings. They were right, and the seedlings Abeka stole away with quickly took root in the Dohtel homeland and grew rapidly. However, the trees grew differently than normal trees--instead of growing up they grew 'splintered' and out to the sides. In the center of each 'blossomed' tree was a straight, hard darkwood 'core' that glowed a faint purple and proved just as useful for weapons as tools as the darkwood branches once harvested.
[+Dohtel Manufacture EP] [Note that the Massot Faction controls many of the darkwood orchards]

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A Darkwood Tree Grown in the Dohtel Homeland;
Though outside of the native habitat, the darkwood trees in the Dohtel forests grow rapidly, if strangely. It takes only a few years for the trees to reach a massive height, though when their 'cores' are removed they die twice as fast.

The Speaking Stone
Djata Rex Melkan further alienated himself from his peoples when he began fiercely warding off nearby prides from the Lamakkad ruins. Suddenly incensed by a 'voice' the normally peaceful Djata Rex proclaimed himself the 'One King' and began forcibly incorporating nearby prides into his own by killing the males and taking the females into his harem. Dozens of male Djata were uprooted from their homes and forced to live life as nomads.

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Djata Rex Melkan;
Once a peaceful, old beast-thing, the Rex turned incredibly violent after disappearing into the Lamakkad Ruins for over a month and emerging with the 'Speaking Stone' in his forehead

Melkan claimed he was tOLd that the world was on its last leg, that he had been CohSEn and rendered the mouthpiece of God itself. He frequently spoke to things not there and his followers would have abandoned him were it not for the seemingly magical stone embedded in an arcane symbol on his forehead. The jewel, a red thing the size of an eye, often spoke itself and Melkan often could be heard having conversations with the speaking stone. Perhaps he is a prophet?
[-Djata Cohesion 3/4-->2/4]

Central Hos
Heol, League of Agorta, The Malcontent, Sjelmar, Various Bodo States, Puca Outsiders

Tides of War

A Fatal Misunderstanding
In early 352 A.F. the Malcontent and Sjelmar came to blows when Sjelmar diplomats to the newly established Heol colony at the mouth of the Hjelm River were ambushed and murdered by Malcontent war-parties. Sheol and Bodoman alike were slain by the Malcontent warriors, though Sheol-on-Sheol deaths were particularly grizzly. The bodies of the Bodomen and Sjelmar Sheol were maimed beyond all recognition and sent back north to the Sjelmar as a warning.

The Sjelmar responded by mounting hostilities. Emboldened by a Puca display of favor (See Tidings of Peace), the Sjelmar warriors launched a campaign that saw their territory extend south along the Hjelm River till it bordered the Malcontent outposts. Lord Hodr Sjelmar was brazen enough to move his court to the frontier to be within sight of the Malcontent outposts, daily taunting their scouts by taking long treks along their borders.

Expedition of Revvy Nipptut
Szandor LaVey did not rest on his laurels for long before looking to the north to expand his realm. The bandit king knew that more tribes of Heol-Sheol existed to the north and knew that he did not know at all what else the north held. At the same time his power was being challenged by his first 'subject,' a female gnome-thing called Revvy Nipptut. Revvy earned her power much like Szandor did, as a bandit-lord over a small collection of clans. Unlike Szandor, she was also a priestess and after the peace established by Szandor Revvy was increasingly becoming a popular priestess.

Rather than begin a civil war, Szandor sought to remove his potential political rival subtly. In the spring of 451 A.F. Revvy set off to the north with few supplies and even fewer men. She did not expect to return to Heol and neither did Szandor, but to both of their surprises she did--and with the whole host of the north at her back.

In the course of her journeys Revvy managed to contact dozens of Heol-Sheol tribes who were enchanted by her charisma and her preaching. Surprisingly, the gnome-thing priestess spoke highly of the bandit-king who had more or less banished her, but the scattered tribes had heard of Szandor's brutal conquest and were wary of submitting themselves. In fact, the could not submit because they were already subjects of the Osheim Mountain Lords.

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An Osheim Mountain Dwarf-Thing Demonstrating His Trademark Ability;
Osheim mountain dwarf-things are the descendants of a small pre-Pop dwarf-thing kingdom that dwelt underground.
Like their ancestors, the Osheim live underground ('mountain' dwarf-thing is a misnomer), though unlike their ancestors they can grow and shrink at will.

From what Revvy gathered, not long after the Heol-Sheol ended up in their new home the northern tribes were attacked by gray-skinned, mutated dwarf-things seemingly capable of magic. The Osheim, as the dwarf-things called themselves, could manipulate their size till they were as large as tall as giants. Constant growing and shrinking, however, seemed to have some sort of effect on the Osheim minds--the larger dwarf-things were far less intelligent than their smaller cousins, even after reverting to their 'normal' size. The Osheim terrorized the northern Heol-Sheol and forced them to pay tribute, and those clans who did not were quickly hunted down and killed.

To address the wariness the clans greeted her and the southern Kingdom of Heol, Revvy promised the battered families safety under Szandor's rule. Furthermore, as an outsider, she was able to mediate between the clans and quell their old feuds. Her final act to solidify the northern clans was a daring assault on a small Osheim war party, which resulted in Revvy's taking of a mountain lord's head.[6] The northern Heol-Sheol tribes were emboldened by the killing of their dreaded oppressors and banded behind Revvy. She led them on a successful campaign against the Osheim[7] For the first time in their history the northern Heol-Sheols were free to choose their fates--and they chose Revvy to be their high chieftain.
[+Heol ACC "Revvy Nipptut"] [+Heol Faction "Northern Heol-Sheol Clans]

The Great Unification - By Sword
Agorta did not spend much time ruling over his newly formed realm--roughly half a year after creating the league he had set out into the thick forests of the central Strip. With went numerous young, hopeful warriors who sought Swiech slaves of their own. Driven by their, quite literal, blood lust, all the Bladvenn hoped to come across some hidden tribe of Swiech, but found nothing of the sort. They did, however, find numerous near-feral clans of Bladvenn who did not hesitate in attacking Agorta and his small army.

5ufms2.jpg

A Feral Bladvenn;
When a Bladvenn near-elf-thing succumbs to his blood lust and consumes one of his own kind he undergoes a terrible transformation.
He becomes a hulking beast barely distinguishable as a member of the Bladvenn race, but his mind sharpens.
Hunger creates a whole new form of intelligence in the feral Bladvenn, who are arguably more intelligent than their better-formed kin.
However, hunger becomes their sole drive and beyond their hunger they rarely care for anything else.

In the wake of the Swiech's apparent extinction many Bladvenn sought to sate their hunger through various other victims--including each other. Agorta came across such a tribe. Despite their superior numbers, the savage Bladvenn fell to the fierce determination of Agorta's warriors. The savage clan scattered and Agorta's army gave chase, resulting in the capture of dozens of the 'fallen' Bladvenn. This exact situation would repeat itself some few times over over the course of Agorta's campaign--which had become a search for these savage clans rather than the Swiech. By the onset of the fall of 450 A.F. Agorta returned to his league with a large host of captured Bladvenn straggling behind his army.
[-3 League of Agorta Units]

The Two Kings of Bodo
Late in 451 A.F. the Bodo civil war intensified as two leaders emerged from the broken collection of eastern princes. Queen Gyra of Kal-Bodo and King Oron of Bodomar, as they would come to be known, united the warring eastern princes of the north and south respectively. Through diplomacy, intrigue, and war[8] the two new kingdoms were born and immediately prosperous. It was likely that Kal-Bodo and Bodomor would have turned their west to the former homeland of the Bodo empire were it not for the tensions between the king and queen.

Gyra and Oron were cousins, tied together by their ancestors who were grand princes of the eastern half of the empire. When Bodo fell the power of the Huune dynasty fell with it and, for a long time, Gyra and Oron's family was synonymous with the fallen empire. Their fates turned upon the arrival of a malevolent Puca entity who had strayed far from the great western herd and stumbled onto the poor province jointly ruled by Gyra and Oron. At that time the two were lovers about to be wed, partly out of love and partly out of their desire to preserve their dynasty's purity. The Puca, called Viga, drove the two apart by impersonating Gyra on the night of the wedding and turning into another women right at the moment Gyra reentered the room. Gyra, crushed, and according to some, turned mad, fled from her home and husband; Oron chased after his bride, but did not find her, and the woman he thought was her disappeared.

Viga followed Gyra, in secret at first, but soon convinced the scorned Bodowoman-thing that she was a friend. Viga, in fact, allowed Gyra to ride her--after Viga had killed and eaten Gyra's horse while Gyra slept. Viga guided the young Bodowoman-thing into one dangerous situation to another till Gyra had earned herself a reputation as a warrior-princess and had attracted a large cohort of her own.[9] In 447 A.F. Viga brought Gyra back to her former home, though this time Gyra came as a conqueror.

Gyra recaptured her home and put to death all the men, women, and children she had once called friends and subjects. Oron, however, escaped by the skin of his teeth. Gyra's hunt for Oron turned into a campaign against the neighboring princes, who she suspected in aiding her ex-husband's continued escape. In fact, it was none other than Viga who whisked Oron from his burning castle on the night of Gyra's attack. Oron honestly thought he was being carried away by one of the animal-spirits that the Sheol slaves worshiped, and Viga did nothing to lead him to believe otherwise. She kept her animal form, though frequently talked to her Bodoman-thing captive. She furthered his belief that she was a God and led him to think of himself as her chosen one. In the time that she was not around him he preached to those men and gnome-things he encountered. While he found little support among the Bodomen-things, the eastern Sheol took surprisingly well to a Bodoman-thing leader and priest. They flocked to his banner, and when they numbered well over 5,000 Viga reappeared and gave them their mission: conquer the Bodolands. Oron's mission began in 449 A.F. and by 451 he was well on his way to putting his world under his heel.

Happenings of Peace

Unification- By Slaves
Rather than introduce his savage captives as full fledged citizens, Agorta made the feral Bladvenn slaves to the already established families. In doing this he killed two birds with one stone. Many Bladvenn were jealous of those Bladvenn clans who had been granted their own Swiech slaves, and were overjoyed to be given slaves of their own--though at the same time disgusted to know that these slaves were in fact their biological brothers. At the same time Agorta rid himself of an otherwise unruly group of subjects, and subtly reminded the league that without him and his victory over the Muroid-Swiech their hunger threatened to undo their civility.
[+1 "Agorta" Population]

Heol Outposts
While Revvy Nipptut was striking north of Heol, another small group of the strange, little gnome-things sailed back east and made landfall at the mouth of the Hjelm River. The Heol-Sheol founded New Lof Yfel early in 451 A.F., though it was far from a proper city or even town. Initially New Lof Yfel served as a trade outpost between the Malcontent, the rest of the Bodolands, and the fledgling Kingdom of Heol. The outpost, however, grew rapidly as those Bodo-Sheol less committed to the Malcontent's violent aims associated the Heol with the first real chance to lead free lives. Before long New Lof Yfel was more Bodo-Sheol than Heol-Sheol.
[+Heol Settlement "New Lof Yfel"]

The Murder of Giol & Trying Times for the Malcontent
452 A.F. was a poor year for the Malcontent. Roughly at the same time the Sjelmar offence began a key leader of the Malcontent was found butchered by the riverside. Giol's body was so mangled that he would not have been identified were it not for his famous sword[10]. Immediately the Malcontent lashed out against Giol's rival and the last person he was seen with, Nabol.

Nabol and Giol had been among the first Sheol to throw off the Bodoman-thing yoke and were certainly the first to organize a proper resistance. They were the father's of the slave revolution, but as the revolution stagnated and became a government they became bitter enemies over the issue on accepting late-comers as full-fledged citizens. Giol was of the position that all Sheol should have been accepted into the angry bosom of the Malcontent solely because they were gnome-things. Nabol, however, held that any true Malcontent needed to be initiated via a trial by fire and bring with him the head of a Bodoman-thing upon joining the inner fold. Of the two Giol was the more popular, though Nabol held sway among the elite who ruled the Malcontent.

Nabol's guilt seemed confirmed when a large number of Giol's gold possessions were found in Nabol's home just days after the murder. His trial was swift and his guilt was unanimously confirmed. Nabol continued to maintain his innocence, and even as the executioner's ax was hefted above his head Nabol blamed the water spirits, the Puca.

Immediately after Nabol's death the Malcontent were visited by misfortune. Infighting became common as various Bodo-Sheol attempted to fill the power vacuum left by the two dead leaders. Skirmishes became common and the Malcontent fractured into numerous 'gangs' supporting equally numerous warlords. Disaster struck after a tall, thin man appeared in Berbotten one night. Those Sheol who saw him claimed they saw the face of a monster; others claimed that his face was a riot of features that ebbed and flowed out of existence; a few said that the man was not man, but a horse.

UX5uE.jpg

The Tall Man;
After his appearance and the plague that followed the 'Tall Man' became a common figure in Bodo-Sheol cautionary tales

Regardless, a devastating plague followed the tall man's appearance. Nearly one-third of Berbotten and the surrounding countryside was dead or dying by the fall of 452 A.F.. Not long after the Sjelmar attack began.

As the Malcontent were visited by these disturbing events the Sjelmar witnessed a miracle that resulted in the whole-scale conversion of the ruling Bodomen-thing elite to the Sheol animism. The Puca of the northern Hjelm amassed into a great herd and charged south across the river's waters. For three full nights the ethereal blue glow of the massive Puca herd lit the night sky. At the end of the three days the mangled bodies of the Sjelmar diplomats sent to New Lof Yfel were returned, and Lord Hodr took the coincidence of both events as a divine sign. He converted to the Sheol faith and became the first Bodoman-thing priest, launching a crusade against the Malcontent which attracted a great number of gnome-things to make war on their southern brothers.
 
Update 1
450 A.F. - 453 A.F.
Part III


The Savage South
United Kanarka, Free Orrakenal, Malaca-Hitash, Malaca-Suth, Hitashi, Berengei Troops, Berengei-Controlled Orrachni, Kharlkalenal

Tides of War

The Malaca Civil War, Or The Lizard Queen's War
The Malaca civil war was over in the first few days after it had begun. The feeble soldiers of the usurper-king Khadis had never encountered beasts so strong as the Hitash lizard-things, and were quite easily swept aside. To his credit, Khadis himself managed to fell one of the great lizard-things before being eaten by another. Malaca-Suth was crushed and by 451 A.F. the two kingdoms were firmly under the thumb of Queen Nessa and her lizards.

Silverspore's Raids
The mountain-Berengei looked on their low-land, jungle-dwelling cousins with a great deal of disgust and envy. Lead by Babuk 'the Silverspore'[11] numerous successful raids were conducted and countless Orrachni were killed or forcibly relocated to the caves where the Berengei first came from. Over the course of three years Babuk pushed his 'civilized' cousins further and further back till the mountain-Berengei had taken over the jungles as far as the southernmost tip of Lake Atil. Babuk and his followers, however, were unwilling to resettle themselves in the jungles and did not do so till their hands were forced by the invading Kraw.

12.28.07_08.kong.jpg

A Berengei & Kraw Fighting;
Arguably the Berengei were far stronger than the Kraw invaders, but they lacked the unity and intellect of the Kraw eagle-things

The same eagle-things who subjugated the Malachim ancestors had begun to explore beyond their mountain range by late 450 A.F.. Driven by a need to fly south, the Kraw set up their first outposts in the Atil mountains, directly on top of the mountain-Berengei homes. Conflict immediately broke out. Despite their incredible strength, the solitary mountain-Berengei lost every battle with the Kraw due to their lack of unity. Even when brought together by Babuk, the mountain-Berengei troops floundered against the superior organization of the Kraw attackers.

Their defeat, however, was not without a silver-lining. Though many Berengei-thing lives were lost to the invading Kraw, the remaining Berengei-things flocked to the charismatic Babuk, who, reluctantly, lead them south into the northern Kathraki jungles.
[+Babuk the Silverspore Promince][+Berengei Troop Cohesion 2/4-->3/4]

The Madmen Howl
The Kharlkallenal that still remained in Gallazzana continued their slow slide into depravity and insanity. Now buffeted not by one, not two, but three voices pulling them in three different directions the Kharlkallenal spent much of the years between 450 A.F. and 452 A.F. raving inside their ruined little castle. At the end of 453 A.F., however, the eldest monstrosity seemed to gain mastery over his voices and proclaimed himself Bleeder, king of all the lands south of the Sno Mountains. He made numerous 'royal' decrees and even tried to form something of an army by literally binding all the insane Kharlkallenal up with chains and leading them to terrorize the few, pathetic villages in the eastern hills of the Atil Mountains. To those things attacked by King Bleeder he became known as 'The Dragon King' for the strange crown he wore, a crown shaped like two dragons battling.
[+King Bleeder Trait: "Possibly Sane"][+Kharlkallenal Cohesion 0/4-->1/4]

Happenings of Peace

Kanarka Explored
The joint Swiech-Orrachni expedition lead by Okata and a representative of Zagrok stumbled onto immediate and disturbing success. A literal graveyard of ancient artifacts lay underneath the ruined city. Though most of the unearthed graves proved to contain only strange devices unusable by the Swiech and Orrachni explorers. In fact, the success of the expedition only came from the discovery of a small temple filled with broken statues of naked, winged women. The statues, seemingly made from ivory, were placed before a small alcove that contained an altar--which was perfectly intact and seemed to have been still in use. Above the alcove was a single, glowing symbol.

FLR7s.jpg

The Temple Under Kanarka;
So beautiful were the winged women that the Orrachni immediately began to think they depicted Gods.
Their Suth-Swiech allies, however, had a different take and shunned the women, claiming that they somehow seemed off.

Switch-Ball
Under the direction of Okata switch-ball was created in 451 A.F. as a way to keep the Kanarka Suth-Swiech clans from killing each other and provide a safer outlet for their violent urges. Switch-Ball began as Swiech-Ball due to the initial racial exclusivity of the game. Not being the smartest of individuals, the Swiech made their game based around the simple goal of getting a hard, stone ball to the other side of a field by any means possible. The game was wildly popular and in the first few months of its creation the feuds between the Suth-Swiech clans dropped off rapidly.
[+Suth-Swiech Cohesion 1/4-->3/4]

1zps5k8.jpg

A Swiech Switch-Ball Player;
For some time only the Swiech played Switch-Ball, as the Orrachni found the game a base distraction from life's higher pursuits

The Hitash Stir
Several massive Hitash lizard-things left their hidden home and pierced deep into the desert, disrupting the lives of the nomads who wandered eastern Sutut. The lizard-things asserted themselves violent over any and all things they came across and soon enough the once nomad Sumol man-thing tribes[12] either fled their homes or worshiped the Hitash as Gods.

One of the tribes that fled, called the Olm, made their way to the recently united Malaca Kingdom and begged Queen Nessa for her protection from the beasts. To their great surprise, however, they found that the Malachim were (in most cases begrudgingly) allied with a collection of Hitash and so they fled again, cursing the queen and her lizard companions.
[-Hitash Cohesion 4/4-->3/4]
 

Map
Spoiler :
nesmapupdate1fixedfixed.jpg

O (Circles) Cities
* (Asterisks/Explosions) Ruins


Overview
Forthcoming

Endnotes
[1]
Long before the House of Akk came to rule the Nak Akkal they were a fairly minor clan who owed their rise to power due to the support of numerous larger clans seeking an end to the dwarven 'Dark Age', the Urteks among them.
--
[2]
The Elder Deities are what the Akkalik commonly call their pagan pantheon of greater and lesser nature demons who were thought to rule during the dwarven 'Dark Age'. The end of their rule also coincided with the rise of belief in the Change.
--
[3]
No Karinthian is ever actually naked, as they constantly swath themselves in protective clothing. Naked here refers to the fact that the Karinthians are unable to arm themselves as well as rapidly due to the population boom created by Syztos' peace.
--
[4]
The Dohtel seem to have lost the long lives most elves enjoy, but in return have almost twice the physical and mental capacity of most mortal beings. The brightest fire burns quickest.
--
[5]
Barad and King Soter XI's quarrel stems back to childhood--a relatively short time in the Dohtel society--when Soter's brash, unscrupulous nature saw the untimely death of Barad's sister at the hands of strange horrors neither elf can really describe. Ever since that day Soter has adopted a soberer outlook on life, but Barad never forgave the king.
--
[6]
This event is detailed in the Deeds of Revvy the Nightingale, and reveals that she, in fact, sneaked into the tent of a sleeping mountain lord and cut off his head with a single blow.
--
[7]
Also detailed in the Deeds of Revvy the Nightingale
--
[8]
The rapid ascension of both the King and Queen of Bodomar and Kal-Bodo respectively all can be tied back to the strange influence of Vida, whose allure very much extended to those Bodomen who did not even know she existed.
--
[9]
Gyra's cohort, called the Bloody Band, became the first knights in her court and continued to uphold their violent traditions as the Red Maiden's Order. More brutes than knights, the Red Maidens' brutality was often utilized by the queen in the effective governance of her kingdom.
--
[10]
The sword of Giol, called Black Deed, is one of the few surviving artifacts of the pre-Pop age. It is made from star-metal, which lends the sword an innate magic that of course went awry after the fall. The sword, according to Giol's diaries, gained a strange 'awareness' of its bearer and would influence him/her in strange ways.
--
[11]
Babuk's epithet stems not from his physical appearance, but from the prosperity that seems to dog him. Above all the other Berengei apes, Babuk alone can claim to be the richest, most respected ape, and he is very much happy to make this known to his lessers.
--
[12]
The Sumol are nomads, once men, but now near-men who suffer a similar fate to their northern cousins, the Karinthians. Like the Karinthians, the bodies of the Sumol are weak and turned inside out, further exposing them to the harsh elements. Unlike the Karinthians, the Sumol seem to have an innate psychic connection with other beings, rather than the simple empathetic feeling the Karinthians boast. This psychic connection is what allows them to lead their lives in the shadows of the massive Sull plants--great cactus-like creatures who roam the deserts in a huge circuit. Each Sumol tribe follows one or two Sull, and the Sumol are able to exert an influence over the dumb plant-beasts via telepathic 'suggestions'. These suggestions, however, do not work with more intelligent creatures, and the Sumol cannot read minds despite whatever popular rumors claim.
 
WaHOOO! :w00t:
My Colony is on the wrong river...it was meant to be at the M of the Malcontent.
 
Nutra, is that all that happened with my orders? what happened to the expedition down the river?
 
Nutra, is that all that happened with my orders? what happened to the expedition down the river?

The rest of your orders seemed like long-term things, so they will be detailed in the next update when they return/are finished.

Wow. Well worth the wait. Great update.

Not at all worth the wait. I've had the update done for a few days now, I just didn't get around to posting it due to Skyrim + work + needy girlfriend :~C
 
Ah, well. OK, then.

Regardless, amazing update. (which should have been in the my first post... sorry.)
 
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