The Unfettered God
In the Heavens, peace is maintained by an elaborate series of pacts, bonds and promises. The gods and spirits are beholden to each other within millenia old agreements carved into the flesh of ancient monsters by primal claws and hung on the walls of the great Celestial Halls. It is said that one God, the Blazing Sun - the brightest offspring of the Morning Lord - fell in love with the Hidden Moon, the daugher of the Lord of the Night. However, their families were locked into an ancient pact that they must never meet. When one appears, the other disappears and so, for all of time, The Blazing Sun chased the Hidden Moon across the skies. Both were desperately sad and their tears fell upon the world, burning the deserts and flooding the seas.
It was then that a long lost immortal arrived at the gates of the Celestial Halls. No-one knew his name but he asked for hospitality, which was given and he observed the sadness of the couple. Without the knowledge of their parents, he spoke to them both and offered them a bargain. He could release them from their ancient pact, allowing them to meet and love, but they would have to enter into an unbreakable pact of their own. They considered the offer and accepted.
The next day, the Blazing Sun and the Hidden Moon met in the skies and the world was wreathed in darkness as their consumated their passions, and then they moved away and light was returned. The following night, the Hidden Moon bore their first child, the Star of the North and he soared into the sky. However, the pact that they undertook was final. The Blazing Sun would never see his children. The Sun and the Moon would meet thousands of times over the passing aeons and each time a child would be created but the Blazing Sun would never know them. That was his price for consumating his love with the Hidden Moon.
The other Gods saw the horror of the Blazing Sun, removed from his progeny, and the anguish of the Hidden Moon, constantly hearing the crying of her lonely children, and they tried to remove the lost immortal from the Celestial Halls, but he merely reminded them of their promise of hospitality and said that he could remove it, if they wanted, but they would have to pay a price. None of the Gods dared ask the price to be paid and so he remains.
The Unfettered God represents a second chance, a way out of a bad deal but there is always a heavy price to be paid. Converts to his religion will always be relieved on one pact or bargain they have made, but they will be tied in another fashion to the cult - a fashion that is rarely better than that which they have cast aside. Followers of the Unfettered God wear unchained shackles on their wrists as a sign that they have been released from a pact and sigils on their shackles show the world the fate they have escaped - a fate which only a fool who would challenge the Gods themself would attempt to reinstate.
[I'm seeing this as a little life the old druids reverence thing. So, for example, if Morn was captured by slavers, they would release him lest they invoke the wrath of the Unfettered God. In certain circumstances, it allows a follower carte blanche to do or go as they please, but they always have a horrid downside attached. So, for example, a Priest of Healing released from their pledge of lifelong celibacy would be allowed to continue as a priest and be married ... but they would have to eat human flesh on a full moon.] In the same manner, followers of the Unfettered God are sticklers for promises, pacts and boons. You get one chance only to escape your fate - after that you are bound by the Unfettered God to hold your word. For that reason, they can sometimes seem evasive or flighty, as many times they would rather no commit than promise something that they know they would regret later.
Understand that they are not absolutists. If they say they want milk for supper and the milk has curdled, they will not drink the curds rather than change their mind. However, if they promise to deliver something or pay their life, one or the other WILL occur.
Showing posts with label History. Show all posts
Showing posts with label History. Show all posts
Thursday, 26 June 2008
Saturday, 14 June 2008
The Dragonborn
The Dragonborn
The Dragonborn are now a scattered remnant of what they were in the past. The mighty Empire of the past is no more and the five great clans are scattered throughout the land. Each clan or legion is organised on strict military lines with each Dragonborn assigned to a specific unit. The Assaulter section is the largest and made up predominantly of fighters and paladins, the Scouter section holds the rangers and rogues, whilst the Scatterer section is made up of wizards and warlocks. The Steadier section holds the clerics and warlords, who are also the spiritual leaders of the clans.
The council of four, drawn from each unit, runs each legion and one of these four are always voted as Clan chief. Due to the logistics of supporting such a legion, the individual members of a legion are often scattered over a large area and are only summoned together when they have a contract that needs the clan. A fully formed clan is almost a nation in itself, a rare sight indeed. Dragonborn gods represent the elemental nature of the world with portfolios including fire, thunderstorms, rivers etc.
The Dragonborn are now a scattered remnant of what they were in the past. The mighty Empire of the past is no more and the five great clans are scattered throughout the land. Each clan or legion is organised on strict military lines with each Dragonborn assigned to a specific unit. The Assaulter section is the largest and made up predominantly of fighters and paladins, the Scouter section holds the rangers and rogues, whilst the Scatterer section is made up of wizards and warlocks. The Steadier section holds the clerics and warlords, who are also the spiritual leaders of the clans.
The council of four, drawn from each unit, runs each legion and one of these four are always voted as Clan chief. Due to the logistics of supporting such a legion, the individual members of a legion are often scattered over a large area and are only summoned together when they have a contract that needs the clan. A fully formed clan is almost a nation in itself, a rare sight indeed. Dragonborn gods represent the elemental nature of the world with portfolios including fire, thunderstorms, rivers etc.
Sunday, 8 June 2008
Blood Tattoos
Blood Tattoos
The Tiefling masters of days past held many slaves in their subterranean palaces. Faced with a choice between sacrifice to their Dark God masters or life as servitors, many humans succumbed to the lash and pledged their lives and afterlives to their new masters. As a mark of their triumph over the pure blooded humans, the Tieflings marked their slaves with tattooes powered by now long lost blood magics. These marks, burned into the flesh, marked not only the mortal body but also the immortal soul. The marks passed from generation to generation, visible only to those empowered by the fiendish. They marked a bloodline of servants, concubines and worse. Nowadays, those that are blood-marked walk freely amongst us and only the Tieflings know their darkest secrets and the oaths that were sworn on their souls.
The Tiefling masters of days past held many slaves in their subterranean palaces. Faced with a choice between sacrifice to their Dark God masters or life as servitors, many humans succumbed to the lash and pledged their lives and afterlives to their new masters. As a mark of their triumph over the pure blooded humans, the Tieflings marked their slaves with tattooes powered by now long lost blood magics. These marks, burned into the flesh, marked not only the mortal body but also the immortal soul. The marks passed from generation to generation, visible only to those empowered by the fiendish. They marked a bloodline of servants, concubines and worse. Nowadays, those that are blood-marked walk freely amongst us and only the Tieflings know their darkest secrets and the oaths that were sworn on their souls.
Sunday, 1 June 2008
The Sundering
The SunderingThe Empire of the Warlord Reptos once spanned the length and bredth of six whole continents. Millions of people of many different races and nations paid homage and tribute to the Emperor. In the years after his disappearance that Empire began to break apart as once subject people asserted their independance.
One of those people were the Lokarnos. The Lokarnos are a seafaring people who dwell in vast floating city ships. They transported the great slave armies of the Emperor to new lands and patrolled the coasts of his tributaries. In the days after the Warlords fall they invoked the Sundering, a powerful magical ritual which denied sea travel to all except their floating cities. Any ship leaving sight of land was beset by terrible weather, sea monsters and worse until it sank.
Two years ago the bells in the abandoned temples of Mael, the long forgotten Elder God of the seas began to ring calling men back to the sea. The Sundering was broken and nations, both old and new, have begun to explore the world beyond their own borders. Who broke the ancient spell, why and how are questions yet to be answered.
The Spire
The Cult of the Eternal
In the centre of the City there stands a spire of pure white glass, the Temple of the Cult of the Eternal surrounded by a garden of pale gold roses. For those who had become tired of life or who had suffered too much pain the garden brought final peaceful rest in sweet unending dreams. The Cult held the secret of Eternal Life and used their arts to extend the life of the Centurion King and so secure his dynasty and the entrapment of the demon.
The Sorcerors came to take the secret and so attain eternal life. They shattered the Cult, seized the Spire and twisted the garden into a place of nightmares. Now the Sorcerors draw their Guardian Demons out of the minds of tormented dreamers. The surviving remnants of the Cult fled into the desert and took refuge with the Kireshi desert nomads waiting for the day when prophecy will be fulfilled and the next Centurion King will return.
On that day they will enter the City with the Kireshi Desert Witches and sweep the sorcerors and their filth away. What none know are the bargains the Cult had to make with the Witches to secure their survival and aid...
In the centre of the City there stands a spire of pure white glass, the Temple of the Cult of the Eternal surrounded by a garden of pale gold roses. For those who had become tired of life or who had suffered too much pain the garden brought final peaceful rest in sweet unending dreams. The Cult held the secret of Eternal Life and used their arts to extend the life of the Centurion King and so secure his dynasty and the entrapment of the demon.
The Sorcerors came to take the secret and so attain eternal life. They shattered the Cult, seized the Spire and twisted the garden into a place of nightmares. Now the Sorcerors draw their Guardian Demons out of the minds of tormented dreamers. The surviving remnants of the Cult fled into the desert and took refuge with the Kireshi desert nomads waiting for the day when prophecy will be fulfilled and the next Centurion King will return.
On that day they will enter the City with the Kireshi Desert Witches and sweep the sorcerors and their filth away. What none know are the bargains the Cult had to make with the Witches to secure their survival and aid...
The Palace
The Shattered Throne
High in the glorious palace there sits a throne which no man can sit on, the palace itself a treasure trove which no thief dares enter despite valuable paintings on the walls and golden goblets neatly stacked on shelves. Since the Centurion King was overthrown by the Cabal, and they assumed power, all those who swore to protect the Kingdom have had no eternal rest. Instead their souls have returned to this beautiful palace to stand guard until the day a rightful Centurion King again brings justice to the land. Of all these tormented souls, who serve beyond death, none is more pained than Yusmida, the Betrayer, former Seneshal and poisoner of his own Lord.
The now Spectre Lord is tied by bounds of the oath that he ignored in life to keep the glorious palace safe, and ready, with his want of mortal material power gradulally turning to a dread of the reality of everlasting undeath. Thus sits in a bustling city of trade and culture, a beautiful palace (don't ask who maintains it), untouched and unspoiled. a place of glorious treasures, and darkest nightmares. Only the most daring thieves or warriors would even think about approaching the palace and none who have attempted to enter have ever returned. The palace of the City of Kings lies empty, but well tended with the throne dusted by spectral hands.
High in the glorious palace there sits a throne which no man can sit on, the palace itself a treasure trove which no thief dares enter despite valuable paintings on the walls and golden goblets neatly stacked on shelves. Since the Centurion King was overthrown by the Cabal, and they assumed power, all those who swore to protect the Kingdom have had no eternal rest. Instead their souls have returned to this beautiful palace to stand guard until the day a rightful Centurion King again brings justice to the land. Of all these tormented souls, who serve beyond death, none is more pained than Yusmida, the Betrayer, former Seneshal and poisoner of his own Lord.
The now Spectre Lord is tied by bounds of the oath that he ignored in life to keep the glorious palace safe, and ready, with his want of mortal material power gradulally turning to a dread of the reality of everlasting undeath. Thus sits in a bustling city of trade and culture, a beautiful palace (don't ask who maintains it), untouched and unspoiled. a place of glorious treasures, and darkest nightmares. Only the most daring thieves or warriors would even think about approaching the palace and none who have attempted to enter have ever returned. The palace of the City of Kings lies empty, but well tended with the throne dusted by spectral hands.
The Labyrinth
The Labyrinth of Reptos
Deep beneath the ancient City of Kings lies the sealed Labyrinth of Reptos, some believe it to be a remnant of a long lost civilisation, others it is the work of the mythical mad king Reptos. What lurks within the walls of this maze? Is it still sealed? None truly know as none who have gone looking for it have ever returned. Of course, this could be simply because the Cabal forbids all attempts to locate the Labyrinth lest they discover:
The Sealed Demon
Trapped for all time in the Labyrinth of Reptos by the ancient mystic Utu Kamla the Demon Lord Sopias, Lord of Nightmare, who drove the King Reptos mad with night after night of the darkest visions, sits waiting. Within Sopias's nightmare prison, dreams and reality mix, and now, gradually, things which where thought to be sealed for all time, are starting to seep upwards to the city above....
Deep beneath the ancient City of Kings lies the sealed Labyrinth of Reptos, some believe it to be a remnant of a long lost civilisation, others it is the work of the mythical mad king Reptos. What lurks within the walls of this maze? Is it still sealed? None truly know as none who have gone looking for it have ever returned. Of course, this could be simply because the Cabal forbids all attempts to locate the Labyrinth lest they discover:
The Sealed Demon
Trapped for all time in the Labyrinth of Reptos by the ancient mystic Utu Kamla the Demon Lord Sopias, Lord of Nightmare, who drove the King Reptos mad with night after night of the darkest visions, sits waiting. Within Sopias's nightmare prison, dreams and reality mix, and now, gradually, things which where thought to be sealed for all time, are starting to seep upwards to the city above....
Recent History
Three hundred years ago an event occurred unprecedented since the fall of the Empire of Reptos. A ship crossed the Unpassable Ocean, broached the Sundering and made harbour in the ancient City of Kings. It bore the Cabal and that night was dark and terrible. Demons stalked the City streets and fire and lightning danced across the roofs.
The Centurion King was slain and the Cult of the Eternal cast out of their Temple. Some say they managed to flee into the desert, others claim that none survived or that if they escaped the City then demons devoured them. No-one knows the truth but what is known is that since that time the City has lain under the iron hard hand of the Cabal.
The Cabal took control of the Spire and built their towers at the cardinal points of the City. In order to draw upon greater demonic power the Cabal fuels the Night of Madness not understanding that in their plotting they have gradually been further and further corrupted. Some are barely human now, magic and demonic energies creating humanoid monsters whose moral values have been twisted beyond recognition. Evil creatures have been drawn to the city like a moth to flame.
The Centurion King was slain and the Cult of the Eternal cast out of their Temple. Some say they managed to flee into the desert, others claim that none survived or that if they escaped the City then demons devoured them. No-one knows the truth but what is known is that since that time the City has lain under the iron hard hand of the Cabal.
The Cabal took control of the Spire and built their towers at the cardinal points of the City. In order to draw upon greater demonic power the Cabal fuels the Night of Madness not understanding that in their plotting they have gradually been further and further corrupted. Some are barely human now, magic and demonic energies creating humanoid monsters whose moral values have been twisted beyond recognition. Evil creatures have been drawn to the city like a moth to flame.
The Beginning
A Creation Myth
Aeons before, before the dawn of civilisation, before the three great destructions of mankind, before even the starborn Athro bonded with the firmament and created the Cardinal Race, this site was sacred. It was the meeting point of the three planes, imbued with the powers of the heavens, the firmament and the underworld.
Where long forgotten Nunda and Dermesh fought in ritual combat for the right to name and Vintu called down the primordial ice-age. It was here that Twice-damned Damku Sinesh harnessed the power of the three planes and constructed for himself the Menbim Stone and all too briefly raised himself to godhood. The first being since the Great Divergence to straddle all worlds at once, he became an abomination to Those Who Were and to Those Who Came Before. His destruction was swift but catastrophic, without Damku Sinesh to control the Menbim Stone creation began to unravel and the three planes began to merge.
Before things could be undone the Arch-Elder Utu-Kamla threaded them together holding them in place at the convergence point here at the sacred site but forever separating the three planes. Aeons later, the strange dreams of the warlord Reptos led him to this place. He set his massive army of slaves to building a mighty city the centre of which held a strange labrynth. Unbeknown to all, including Reptos, the labrynth traced exactly the tracks of Utu-Kamla's thread. Reptos built the labrynth to stop the dreams but instead they became worse, much worse, nameless nightmares of unknowable dread that drove Reptas to acts of unspeakable cruelty. Eventually, in a moment of clarity, Reptos saw that he had been manipulated by the Dire Lord of Nightmare, Sopias.
He saw the plan of Sopias to undo the thread and allow the denizens of the underworld to flood the firmament before it or the heavens could react. Reptos travelled to the centre of the labrynth and ritually sacrificed himself to bind Sopias to the infernal construct. Epoch after epoch, each King ended his reign in the same way, renewing the sacrifice of Reptos and rebinding Sopias to the labrynth. Then came the sorcerers coup and the knowledge of the binding of Sopias was lost. As each decade passes his chains grow looser and his influence greater. To renew the bind the true descendent of Reptos must be found, he must find his way to the centre of the labrynth and renew the sacrifice. Somewhere, a young man has strange dreams of blood and dark corridors.
Aeons before, before the dawn of civilisation, before the three great destructions of mankind, before even the starborn Athro bonded with the firmament and created the Cardinal Race, this site was sacred. It was the meeting point of the three planes, imbued with the powers of the heavens, the firmament and the underworld.
Where long forgotten Nunda and Dermesh fought in ritual combat for the right to name and Vintu called down the primordial ice-age. It was here that Twice-damned Damku Sinesh harnessed the power of the three planes and constructed for himself the Menbim Stone and all too briefly raised himself to godhood. The first being since the Great Divergence to straddle all worlds at once, he became an abomination to Those Who Were and to Those Who Came Before. His destruction was swift but catastrophic, without Damku Sinesh to control the Menbim Stone creation began to unravel and the three planes began to merge.
Before things could be undone the Arch-Elder Utu-Kamla threaded them together holding them in place at the convergence point here at the sacred site but forever separating the three planes. Aeons later, the strange dreams of the warlord Reptos led him to this place. He set his massive army of slaves to building a mighty city the centre of which held a strange labrynth. Unbeknown to all, including Reptos, the labrynth traced exactly the tracks of Utu-Kamla's thread. Reptos built the labrynth to stop the dreams but instead they became worse, much worse, nameless nightmares of unknowable dread that drove Reptas to acts of unspeakable cruelty. Eventually, in a moment of clarity, Reptos saw that he had been manipulated by the Dire Lord of Nightmare, Sopias.
He saw the plan of Sopias to undo the thread and allow the denizens of the underworld to flood the firmament before it or the heavens could react. Reptos travelled to the centre of the labrynth and ritually sacrificed himself to bind Sopias to the infernal construct. Epoch after epoch, each King ended his reign in the same way, renewing the sacrifice of Reptos and rebinding Sopias to the labrynth. Then came the sorcerers coup and the knowledge of the binding of Sopias was lost. As each decade passes his chains grow looser and his influence greater. To renew the bind the true descendent of Reptos must be found, he must find his way to the centre of the labrynth and renew the sacrifice. Somewhere, a young man has strange dreams of blood and dark corridors.
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