Characedo, Myrandol, Vedari and Doeneik
Between the continents of Lothgar and Mologan lies the treacherous Great Reef. The largest single living organism on Geis, the Great Reef is a coral structure encompassing several hectares. Just east of the Great Reef lies the deepest trench on Geis: Owaha Chasm. Along the north western edge of the Chasm is the largest settlement of Merfolk while within it is believed to be the home of the Owaha. On the western side of the Reef is the remains of the fortress of the former master assassin, the man known only as Shark Tooth. He rose to prominence during the Age of War and was among the most powerful psychics the world has ever known. During his lifetime, he became the Consort of Death and established the Academy of Death. To get admittance, one had to kill a close friend or relative and have psychic abilities. While he stood as the headmaster, the Academy allowed all stripes of psychic ability. The graduates were known as the Characedo. Before he died, Shark Tooth killed every single graduate and destroyed the Academy as well as his fortress before killing himself as a final sacrifice to his Mistress. Some time during the beginning of the Age of Dreams, the most secretive of all organizations returned; the Characedo returned. Every single Characedo is a master of death by using their psychic abilities. They are not warriors. They are actors and masters of poison and hiding in plain sight. They kill with a thought and leave no trace. It is believed that they are a wholly owned subsidiary of one of the Noble Houses for every monarch seems to be able to call upon them. They are death incarnate. There are no rumors of the Characedo for they ruthlessly eliminate those who do not need to be aware of them. Their training is arcane, obscure and inescapable. Once hired, the target of the Characedo always die. Always.
High on Jorton Mountain, after the devastation of the fifth Psy-Mage War, the Orian Barve started receiving petitions from those with magical and psychic ability to join the order. Most of these were those who did not want to exercise their gifts. The Orian Barve order strictly forbids teaching of their arts to those who have access to those abilities, so all were denied. A single master of the Orian Barve named Myrandi spoke out against tradition, stating that they could indeed teach those with magical and psychic ability for in so doing they might avoid the devastation of war. The other masters disagreed with him and he was threatened with removal from the order. After delivering a passionate speech, one of the other masters agreed with him and the gathering agreed that Myrandi would be given permission to teach basic fighting arts to select candidates chose by the assembled masters. Three candidates were chosen and Myrandi taught them. Bowing to the wisdom of the other masters, he modified the stringent training and martial art forms to accommodate the magical and psychic abilities of the students he taught. He made adjustments to the training after seeing where his students struggled. Their progress was checked by the assembly of masters regularly. Having to divide their time between their martial and magic or psychic studies, they needed weapons and tools. Myrandi sought to make them unique in the world and so, working with his most gifted students, they crafted the tools of their order. Their code different from the Orian Barve, but their philosophy was very similar. The Orian Barve masters conceded that Myrandi was correct in his choice. They aided the fledgling order in creating a new training temple deep in the Gray Mountains. Unlike Jorton Mountain, the new location was secret, buried within the depths of the living stone. The temple doors are undetectable except by those who are worthy. After his death, those three initial students took over the training and leadership of the corps that they named after their beloved master. Thereafter they were known as the Myrandol.
Shortly after the first High King consolidated the Southern Kingdoms in peaceful union, rumors of the Kol Draahl surviving again spread. To abate the terror caused by these rumors, the High King commissioned the creation of an order of warrior mages. The aim was to create a force strong enough to stand against the most terrifying members of the Kol Draahl; the Myde Laethe. After many failed attempts, the representatives of the High King decided upon using rune mages. Runes were capable of creating powerful magical items and each member of the fighting force would be expected to create their own arsenal of weapons. It was, after all, the equipment and armor of the Myde Laethe that struck such fear into the hearts of the populace. A new rune language, unique to the order, was created. Masters of various fighting styles drawn from Nazd, Merebal and Gloanoq in order to create unique fighting style. The training regimen was established, the first volunteers were chosen and the Vedari order was born. They quickly became the mainstay of the Southern Kingdom forces, though it would be many many years before they faced their intended foes. They were called upon to investigate all sightings of the Kol Draahl. They became the primary investigators, special forces and law enforcement of the High King. Their authority and ability was soon recognized throughout the Southern Kingdoms, then the free world.
None know how the Doeneik faded. Their role in the shadows focused them more on information and secrecy, which kept them out of the limelight and histories of the world. It is known that they did fade from prominence sometime during the Age of Wars. It is believed by the Doeneik that they were persecuted and destroyed by the Moragai but proof is sparse, if it exists at all. Like the Moragai, two individuals found Doeneik texts that began the resurgence of the order some centuries after they had faded from memory. It wasn't until each had gathered followers that they met and it took them some time and effort before they realized that they were part of the same order. It has been postulated that Doeneik never really faded and the masters of the resurgence were instead led to the Doeneik by those texts. None really know. Those masters' identities have been a closely guarded secret, as has the current membership. Unlike the Characedo, the Doeneik do not destroy those who find them out. Their numbers are still too few for such efforts. Their stock in trade is information, not death, specifically secrets. They have techniques for accessing the Astral Plane, or Spirit World, that are unique to them. Like the Characedo, they are not warriors. They are not powerhouses who can level buildings. They focus on the more subtle forms of the psychic arts. They are masters of subterfuge and as such, they know best how to guard their secrets. Very little is known about them for that is how they wish it to be.
Friday, February 1, 2013
Geis Basics: Timeline - Age of Dreams: Organizations part 1
I went out of order somewhat with the Manitou and Undead entry. I will finish the timeline before adding other topics in the future. I hope. Each of these organizations will be discussed in greater detail later; this is establishing a timeline for their appearance.
Noble Houses, Moragai, Beast Masters and Soul Riders
During the Age of Dreams, many organizations new and old appeared on the face of Geis. Prior to the Rune Expansion, as the next age is called, a sort of global outlook started taking shape among the population of Geis. While the vast majority of people still had a strong sense of patriotism for their homelands, there are those who looked beyond the borders of their own lands. In some sense these people always existed but there was a definite surge during the age of dreams.
The biggest of the global organizations by far prior to the Rune Expansion were the Noble Houses. These are old families, often with ties to royalty in at least one nation or another but some of the current Noble Houses are mercantile rather political. It started in the Southern Kingdoms on Mologan; certain families, through marriages, had ties to multiple monarchs and royal families. Over time, this gave them a sense of ownership over the land and peoples. As those families expanded beyond the continent of Mologan, their influence and power grew as well. It wasn't long before certain families had cousins in the royalty of all free lands. Power corrupts and the more power, the more corruption. Vast wealth and considerable power has that affect on people of all races. After centuries and generations of being the movers and shakers of political policy in all the free world, these Noble Houses created certain privileges for themselves among the laws of the nations and kingdoms that make up the world. In many places, a member of a Noble House cannot be arrested or charged with a crime for the Noble Houses have their own laws that transcend national boundaries. They have their own armies and agents with authority that is recognized wherever their influence has spread. They are a force unto themselves and they like it that way. The only free land that does not recognize the Noble Houses is Jiorta, for their political structure is not family based. The Mixtali also do not recognize Noble Houses but the nomads do not have a land under their control, choosing instead to roam freely about.
The first of the ancient orders to see a resurgence during the Age of Dreams was the Moragai. After their destruction by the Wyvern Riders, the Moragai became the stuff of legends and myths. Some three hundred years after their destruction, two Malacore named Jalan and Ailyn brought them back from obscurity. They started separately, researching the stories of the order and seeking to know the truth. Eventually, each discovered that the roots of the order lay within Bel'Aq. Jalan set off on his own while Ailyn formed a small group to travel with her, including a lost woman named Laurel. They met at the ruins. After a tense initial meeting, the two Malacore agreed to join forces. The two of them, using their combined might, were able to open the long-sealed cebarium that espoused the order's library of knowledge. There they studied for months, helping each other to understand the obscure language used. As they did, Ailyn's team further explored the ruins. Laurel, an initiate into psychic abilities, somehow unlocked a hidden container and found the fabulous artifact she called Jynx. The power of the Moragai of old had progressed so far as to be able to forge artifacts of such ability that they seemed to have more akin to magic than psychic abilities and one of the most powerful of these is Jynx. It is a statue that unleashed a Manitou of thought embodied in the form of a sapphire jaguar. Jalan and Ailyn unlocked the mystery of the greatest weapon of the Moragai, the item that immediately identified them: the mindsword. That final hurdle breached, they Moragai order was reborn. Over the next several decades, Lord Jalan and Lady Ailyn reformed and grew the fledgling order with Laurel as their first apprentice. Quinn-Jai, prince of Bel'Aq, was one of their first. He made a foray into the Madlands with the warrior Topaz and the mage Serival at the request of Lord Jalan. There, he apparently perished. As a result, King Nai-Jong banished all Moragai from the kingdom of Bel'Aq upon pain of death. When Quinn-Jai returned, he found his father to be under the influence of the Kol Draahl, who had not been wiped out. Laurel, with her husband the neutered Jiorti bard Madigan and the forces of Bloodstone Manor was able to free Nai-Jong from their influence but in doing so discovered the prince's secret. While in the Madlands, Quinn-Jai had been captured by the Kol Draahl where they attempted to pry from him the secrets of the mindsword. He was able to escape physically, but the torture continued. They tracked his movements and continued to invade his mind. He was going mad. Lady Ailyn and Lord Jalan, along with Laurel, worked in a gestalt to free him from the psychic blocks put in place by the Mein Grahl of the Kol Draahl. They thought they had succeeded and Quinn-Jai, his understanding of the mindsword now more complete than anyone's, developed the aura; a defensive item as powerful as the mindsword. All Moragai now carry both a mindsword and an aura. Unfortunately, Quinn-Jai had not been freed from the influence of the Kol Draahl. They had made it seem so, hoping that without the prince actively working against them they could probe his mind to unlock the secret. Lord Jalan, unknown to Lady Ailyn or Laurel, had placed a psychic trap in Quinn-Jai's mind around the mindsword. When the Kol Draahl finally located it, the trap was sprung and the minds of the Mein Grahl who had been inside Quinn-Jai were destroyed, reduced to babbling infants. So was Quinn-Jai. For this affront, the Moragai are forbidden from entering their ancient home upon pain of death. Lord Jalan resigned from the order, never to be seen or heard from again. It had been his intention to protect the prince and he failed.
Topaz's foray into the Madlands also returned another order from antiquity: the Beast Masters. They had been destroyed by the Dragon Kings in those last hours prior to Arcdawn. In his effort to evade the Kol Draahl that had captured Quinn-Jai and killed Serival, Topaz had fallen into a hole in the ground. There he found the stone pedestal of the Beast Masters. It called to him, bringing him to it. Not understanding what it was he was doing, he saw an odd raised portion that resembled a stylized beast's paw. Following the influence guiding him, he placed his right eye against it and raw power flowed into him, changing him. Topaz became the first Beast Master since Arcdawn. With his newfound power, he escaped the Madlands and made it back to civilization. There he joined the crew of the Soaring Narwhal, under the command of Captain "Midnight" John. The Narwhal's shore team were composed entirely of Stormchildes, as survivors of the Maestrom are called, and adventurers of note including Nia Voll. Not understanding what it meant to be a Beast Master, Topaz used his abilities purely in his mercenary efforts. The Soaring Narwhal was a Traveling ship, able to cross dimensions into other realms. It had been built for Midnight John by Sairao Goldriver and the Toffmarr Academy. During the course of their travels, they located and returned the Soul Rider Crystal to the Geis realm, which cost them Nia Voll who had to re-establish the order of Soul Riders. That was when Topaz left them to re-establish the Beast Master order. Nia Voll had a more complete knowledge of the Soul Riders and Beast Masters from her transformation and she passed along this knowledge to Topaz. The two of them traveled to the ancient site of the Great Library of Elbareth and were shocked to find the Library was open, with a new Librarian: a Malacore woman named Naliah. There, they were each given a tome so they could better understand their respective orders. Topaz left with his, where he traveled to the Moralay Archipelago and sought a secluded island. There, he studied the tome and was able to bring the stone pedestal. With the aid of the Beasts under his command, he constructed a home, which he then expanded into a training ground. The presence of the Beast Master Pedestal prevented the island from being submerged when the Chaos Current changed directions and shielded it from magical and psychic scrying. There, he slowly started to rebuild the order, guided by the Pedestal. Topaz was a warrior, not a scholar or leader and soon he found one better suited to commanding the Beast Masters; a Grenis man named Hyarg. The training ground grew into a compound under Hyarg's leadership. When Topaz passed away, they named the dormant volcano that dominated the island in his honor. The Beast Masters are still a growing order, learning more about their abilities with each passing year. The Beast Master Tome provided by Elbareth reveals things in its own time, according to the ability of the order to understand.
Nia Voll was initially a psychic bounty hunter and thief working with the shore team of the Soaring Narwhal. Another member was a fledgling sorceress called Bera who bore a powerful artifact known as the Light of Truth. That artifact was said to have been forged by the gods during the founding of the world but no one truly knew or understood its might. During one fateful trip, the Narwhal's navigating crystal was damaged and they arrived in a realm they hadn't intended to. They needed another powerful crystal to repair the damages and the Midewin Bird Man who was Midnight John's first mate sent them out to get it. There were other parties that knew of the crystal they sought and both parties had established camps in order to take it. One was a group of scholars and the other was a military force. During an exploratory foray into the military encampment, Nia was attacked and injured. She was saved by Garn Melthias, a Stormchilde from Geis who had ended up in the realm they were in. They were attacked by an Alahn from the Kol Draahl, who had also come to the realm and Nia was nearly killed. Bera attempted to heal her using the Light of Truth and while doing so, awoken the Soul Rider Crystal. The two powerful artifacts interacted, resulting in the Order of Precedence deciding in favor of the Soul Rider Crystal. Nia was transformed, a nearby beast being summoned and transformed as well. When the Order of Precedence was done, Bera and Lubast, another member of the Shore Team, were transformed as well and the Light of Truth was gone. The Soaring Narwhal returned to Geis with Nia and she left the ship to re-establish the order. Traveling with Topaz, they went to the ancient home of their respective orders, Elbareth and arrived to find the Library had returned. The new Librarian, Naliah, gave her the Soul Rider Tome and while Topaz left to study his own tome, she remained at Elbareth to study hers. Naliah's husband, Korys, was able to assist Nia with some of the tome as his knowledge of military matters far exceeded hers. The Master of the Undead sent an expedition against Elbareth, but were repelled by Korys leading the Vipak that lived in the surrounding area along with Nia, Naliah, her Moragai companion princess Xanna of Dogol and Naliah's apprentice, the Vipak sage Syristh. During that battle, Nia realized that the Soul Riders were meant to be a military force and after she ceded the mantle of Soul Rider Commander to Korys. Elbareth then became the seat of the Soul Rider forces, their number expanding under the leadership of Korys with Nia as his second. A powerful group, the Soul Riders are still learning the full extent of their power and are finding ancient artifacts made specifically for them.
Noble Houses, Moragai, Beast Masters and Soul Riders
During the Age of Dreams, many organizations new and old appeared on the face of Geis. Prior to the Rune Expansion, as the next age is called, a sort of global outlook started taking shape among the population of Geis. While the vast majority of people still had a strong sense of patriotism for their homelands, there are those who looked beyond the borders of their own lands. In some sense these people always existed but there was a definite surge during the age of dreams.
The biggest of the global organizations by far prior to the Rune Expansion were the Noble Houses. These are old families, often with ties to royalty in at least one nation or another but some of the current Noble Houses are mercantile rather political. It started in the Southern Kingdoms on Mologan; certain families, through marriages, had ties to multiple monarchs and royal families. Over time, this gave them a sense of ownership over the land and peoples. As those families expanded beyond the continent of Mologan, their influence and power grew as well. It wasn't long before certain families had cousins in the royalty of all free lands. Power corrupts and the more power, the more corruption. Vast wealth and considerable power has that affect on people of all races. After centuries and generations of being the movers and shakers of political policy in all the free world, these Noble Houses created certain privileges for themselves among the laws of the nations and kingdoms that make up the world. In many places, a member of a Noble House cannot be arrested or charged with a crime for the Noble Houses have their own laws that transcend national boundaries. They have their own armies and agents with authority that is recognized wherever their influence has spread. They are a force unto themselves and they like it that way. The only free land that does not recognize the Noble Houses is Jiorta, for their political structure is not family based. The Mixtali also do not recognize Noble Houses but the nomads do not have a land under their control, choosing instead to roam freely about.
The first of the ancient orders to see a resurgence during the Age of Dreams was the Moragai. After their destruction by the Wyvern Riders, the Moragai became the stuff of legends and myths. Some three hundred years after their destruction, two Malacore named Jalan and Ailyn brought them back from obscurity. They started separately, researching the stories of the order and seeking to know the truth. Eventually, each discovered that the roots of the order lay within Bel'Aq. Jalan set off on his own while Ailyn formed a small group to travel with her, including a lost woman named Laurel. They met at the ruins. After a tense initial meeting, the two Malacore agreed to join forces. The two of them, using their combined might, were able to open the long-sealed cebarium that espoused the order's library of knowledge. There they studied for months, helping each other to understand the obscure language used. As they did, Ailyn's team further explored the ruins. Laurel, an initiate into psychic abilities, somehow unlocked a hidden container and found the fabulous artifact she called Jynx. The power of the Moragai of old had progressed so far as to be able to forge artifacts of such ability that they seemed to have more akin to magic than psychic abilities and one of the most powerful of these is Jynx. It is a statue that unleashed a Manitou of thought embodied in the form of a sapphire jaguar. Jalan and Ailyn unlocked the mystery of the greatest weapon of the Moragai, the item that immediately identified them: the mindsword. That final hurdle breached, they Moragai order was reborn. Over the next several decades, Lord Jalan and Lady Ailyn reformed and grew the fledgling order with Laurel as their first apprentice. Quinn-Jai, prince of Bel'Aq, was one of their first. He made a foray into the Madlands with the warrior Topaz and the mage Serival at the request of Lord Jalan. There, he apparently perished. As a result, King Nai-Jong banished all Moragai from the kingdom of Bel'Aq upon pain of death. When Quinn-Jai returned, he found his father to be under the influence of the Kol Draahl, who had not been wiped out. Laurel, with her husband the neutered Jiorti bard Madigan and the forces of Bloodstone Manor was able to free Nai-Jong from their influence but in doing so discovered the prince's secret. While in the Madlands, Quinn-Jai had been captured by the Kol Draahl where they attempted to pry from him the secrets of the mindsword. He was able to escape physically, but the torture continued. They tracked his movements and continued to invade his mind. He was going mad. Lady Ailyn and Lord Jalan, along with Laurel, worked in a gestalt to free him from the psychic blocks put in place by the Mein Grahl of the Kol Draahl. They thought they had succeeded and Quinn-Jai, his understanding of the mindsword now more complete than anyone's, developed the aura; a defensive item as powerful as the mindsword. All Moragai now carry both a mindsword and an aura. Unfortunately, Quinn-Jai had not been freed from the influence of the Kol Draahl. They had made it seem so, hoping that without the prince actively working against them they could probe his mind to unlock the secret. Lord Jalan, unknown to Lady Ailyn or Laurel, had placed a psychic trap in Quinn-Jai's mind around the mindsword. When the Kol Draahl finally located it, the trap was sprung and the minds of the Mein Grahl who had been inside Quinn-Jai were destroyed, reduced to babbling infants. So was Quinn-Jai. For this affront, the Moragai are forbidden from entering their ancient home upon pain of death. Lord Jalan resigned from the order, never to be seen or heard from again. It had been his intention to protect the prince and he failed.
Topaz's foray into the Madlands also returned another order from antiquity: the Beast Masters. They had been destroyed by the Dragon Kings in those last hours prior to Arcdawn. In his effort to evade the Kol Draahl that had captured Quinn-Jai and killed Serival, Topaz had fallen into a hole in the ground. There he found the stone pedestal of the Beast Masters. It called to him, bringing him to it. Not understanding what it was he was doing, he saw an odd raised portion that resembled a stylized beast's paw. Following the influence guiding him, he placed his right eye against it and raw power flowed into him, changing him. Topaz became the first Beast Master since Arcdawn. With his newfound power, he escaped the Madlands and made it back to civilization. There he joined the crew of the Soaring Narwhal, under the command of Captain "Midnight" John. The Narwhal's shore team were composed entirely of Stormchildes, as survivors of the Maestrom are called, and adventurers of note including Nia Voll. Not understanding what it meant to be a Beast Master, Topaz used his abilities purely in his mercenary efforts. The Soaring Narwhal was a Traveling ship, able to cross dimensions into other realms. It had been built for Midnight John by Sairao Goldriver and the Toffmarr Academy. During the course of their travels, they located and returned the Soul Rider Crystal to the Geis realm, which cost them Nia Voll who had to re-establish the order of Soul Riders. That was when Topaz left them to re-establish the Beast Master order. Nia Voll had a more complete knowledge of the Soul Riders and Beast Masters from her transformation and she passed along this knowledge to Topaz. The two of them traveled to the ancient site of the Great Library of Elbareth and were shocked to find the Library was open, with a new Librarian: a Malacore woman named Naliah. There, they were each given a tome so they could better understand their respective orders. Topaz left with his, where he traveled to the Moralay Archipelago and sought a secluded island. There, he studied the tome and was able to bring the stone pedestal. With the aid of the Beasts under his command, he constructed a home, which he then expanded into a training ground. The presence of the Beast Master Pedestal prevented the island from being submerged when the Chaos Current changed directions and shielded it from magical and psychic scrying. There, he slowly started to rebuild the order, guided by the Pedestal. Topaz was a warrior, not a scholar or leader and soon he found one better suited to commanding the Beast Masters; a Grenis man named Hyarg. The training ground grew into a compound under Hyarg's leadership. When Topaz passed away, they named the dormant volcano that dominated the island in his honor. The Beast Masters are still a growing order, learning more about their abilities with each passing year. The Beast Master Tome provided by Elbareth reveals things in its own time, according to the ability of the order to understand.
Nia Voll was initially a psychic bounty hunter and thief working with the shore team of the Soaring Narwhal. Another member was a fledgling sorceress called Bera who bore a powerful artifact known as the Light of Truth. That artifact was said to have been forged by the gods during the founding of the world but no one truly knew or understood its might. During one fateful trip, the Narwhal's navigating crystal was damaged and they arrived in a realm they hadn't intended to. They needed another powerful crystal to repair the damages and the Midewin Bird Man who was Midnight John's first mate sent them out to get it. There were other parties that knew of the crystal they sought and both parties had established camps in order to take it. One was a group of scholars and the other was a military force. During an exploratory foray into the military encampment, Nia was attacked and injured. She was saved by Garn Melthias, a Stormchilde from Geis who had ended up in the realm they were in. They were attacked by an Alahn from the Kol Draahl, who had also come to the realm and Nia was nearly killed. Bera attempted to heal her using the Light of Truth and while doing so, awoken the Soul Rider Crystal. The two powerful artifacts interacted, resulting in the Order of Precedence deciding in favor of the Soul Rider Crystal. Nia was transformed, a nearby beast being summoned and transformed as well. When the Order of Precedence was done, Bera and Lubast, another member of the Shore Team, were transformed as well and the Light of Truth was gone. The Soaring Narwhal returned to Geis with Nia and she left the ship to re-establish the order. Traveling with Topaz, they went to the ancient home of their respective orders, Elbareth and arrived to find the Library had returned. The new Librarian, Naliah, gave her the Soul Rider Tome and while Topaz left to study his own tome, she remained at Elbareth to study hers. Naliah's husband, Korys, was able to assist Nia with some of the tome as his knowledge of military matters far exceeded hers. The Master of the Undead sent an expedition against Elbareth, but were repelled by Korys leading the Vipak that lived in the surrounding area along with Nia, Naliah, her Moragai companion princess Xanna of Dogol and Naliah's apprentice, the Vipak sage Syristh. During that battle, Nia realized that the Soul Riders were meant to be a military force and after she ceded the mantle of Soul Rider Commander to Korys. Elbareth then became the seat of the Soul Rider forces, their number expanding under the leadership of Korys with Nia as his second. A powerful group, the Soul Riders are still learning the full extent of their power and are finding ancient artifacts made specifically for them.
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