Well hello my lovely darlings
and welcome back to another instalment of the Lore of Hestia and to
start with I guess I need to say I’m sorry. As this one didn’t
take too much brain wracking to think of the subject I thought that
it would be fairly quick to write and here I am nearly a month late,
the proof reading has stalled, the artwork has stalled and my head
space… isn’t great. Even the coffee isn’t keeping me going and
Patreon is playing silly buggers in the backrooms so the support
isn’t coming through, hence why I haven’t been sending out the
exclusive prints. I am looking into alternatives, particularly Ko-fi.
If nothing else I love the feel of the phrase ‘send me a coffee on
Ko-fi’ in my mouth but if you know any others I would be mega
appreciative so please DM on facebook, link will be in the
description below.
It
turned out that trying to work out just what has gone down in the big
histories of Hestia was more difficult than I first thought
especially as I realised that I wanted to contradict something I had
written in the Hestia Locator. I’m not sure I’m allowed to do
this but there again this is my work, I’m allowed to decide what
goes and I can always update the Hestia Locator at a later date if I
want to release it as a World Book Day publication. I think I will go
with that. World Book Day publications? Flip but I aim my sights
high.
With
the Hestia Historical I’m aiming to do a summary of the major
historical events that have shaped the world and still affect the
lives of the major characters even just by an awareness of the
lingering after effects that still move the world. To make it easier
on myself I’m going to do the dates by how many years before the
events of Draconic Shenanigans the history took place, so shall we
begin?
182000
Years Ago – The Creation of the Begetters
The
Ancients in their continuing cycle of war and conquest created the
Begetters as infiltrators, spies and assassins, as well as resource
collectors from the deep sea. They were treated as so disposable they
were even viewed as a food source by their creators, the Ancients,
after a few thousand years had passed and the numbers of the
Begetters had reached a certain critical mass. To have living weapons
so numerous that they could be culled as a food source suggests that
the Ancients became the dominant race on Hestia and faced no major
defiance to their ascendency. It certainly tracks with the
conclusions of wizards and learned folk who study the stone bones
that are occasionally discovered in eroded cliff sites and in
quarries and mines. These scholars state that there is a definite
decrease in the diversity and numbers of individuals in species at
this time in the rock formations while at the same time there are
formations of stone plateaus that bare striking similarities to
cemeteries, especially as some of the bodies appear to have been
buried with personal items. These people, if they are the Ancients
show signs of being of reptile decent with carnivorous diets but a
high calorie in take, as suggested by the bone pits fossil beds that
are sometimes discovered near these cemeteries. These bone pits show
signs of the bodies having been processed for food and so far there
have only been a few specimens of the cemetery species found within
these bone pits. As these singular individuals bare the evidence of
brutal injuries at the time of death it is speculated that these were
executed criminals denied proper burial or even the victims of murder
that had be dumped in the communal rubbish pit to hide the evidence.
It
is unclear how the Begetters reproduced in this time as their
cartilage based skeletons leave very little in the way of impressions
in the rock. It is possible that the Anicents believed they could
control their creations by controlling their method of reproduction,
vat growing new hosts for the larvae.
171000
Years Ago – Changing Epoch
After
eleven thousand years a shift appears in the fossil record. The
cemeteries of the Ancients massively increase in size, suggesting
several rounds of pandemics, especially as the number of juvenile
individuals increase. At the same time the bone pits also depict a
change becoming composed of a greater number of marine skeletons of
both fish and early sea going mammals. Though the Begetters only
remember themselves as both tools of war and marine harvest it is
possible that the marine exploitation purpose was an adaptation of
their use as the civilization began to experience ecological distress
as over exploitation of land based food webs started leading to
environmental collapse. At the same time there appears to be a
resurgence in the number of opposing species. It appears that a rival
race, possible an early mammalian began a campaign of aggression
starting at the south pole and spreading northwards. It would be
highly unusual for a rival clave of animal life to rise to challenge
the dominant species while the dominant species had not gone through
an extinction event, let alone a rival intelligent species evolving
on the same planet naturally after the dominant intelligent species
had come into its full power so it is possible that this was the last
project of one of the species the Begetters were made to destroy
coming to fruition. It is possible that it could be the origin of the
goblins. Goblins, with their rapid breeding rate and quick minds, are
highly adaptable to changing circumstances and are exceptional, when
they are given the chance to prove it, at similar tactics to the
Begetters. They are also difficult for Begetters to control with
their psionic abilities. It would certainly explain the disdain all
races share for goblins, it could be an inherited attitude from the
Begetters as the Begetters would not be kind to the species that
helped destroy their beloved creators as the Begetters held the
Ancients in the highest regard even when the Ancients were using them
as a food source. The Begetters subscribed hard to the mind set of
‘honour your father and mother all the days of your life’ and
‘the clay has no right to say to the potter why did you make me
like this?’
Whether
this theory of the Goblin’s origin is true or not remains to be
seen but the fact remains that who ever the new challenger was they
became a serious threat to the Ancients’ continued dominion of the
planet, coinciding as they did with environmental upheaval.
168000
Years Ago – Death of the Ancients
Either
by accident or design an iron rich asteroid was pulled into unstable
orbit around Hestia and its trajectory rapidly degraded. Impact
became inevitable within months. The meteor came in at a low angle on
the coast of a shallow sea and smashed down into heavily sulphured
rock. Some of the Ancients managed to survive the initial crash down
but the black out was near instant and total. The site of the impact
was close to the equator so the aerosol cloud covered both
hemispheres within a matter of days. Global temperatures crashed out
in less than a week, snow falling on deserts and ice claiming the
tropics. The sun did not rise on the face of Hestia for six months.
Within two thousand years the last of the Ancients had vanished,
their cities hollowed out by earthquake, tsunami, ash fall, chaos and
disease, the isolated pockets of population falling below viable
genetic diversity. Infertility, genetic defect and an inability to
adapt to the changing climate destroyed the species’ ability to
recover.
It
appears that the Begetters had already been allowed to begin to
experiment with using prisoners of war as hosts for the larvae. This
is probably a mark of how much the Ancients were already struggling
with their decline if they were no longer able to vat grow new hosts
for the larvae but at the same time could not afford to discontinue
the use of the Begetters to prop up their society despite the fact
that allowing them a reproductive method outside of their Creator’s
complete control introduced a independence into the Begetters species
that would have been dangerous if they were ever able to over come
the instinctive reverence of their creators.
As
it is, the Begetters were mentally traumatised by the day of impact
and where unable to maintain the psionic link with their dwindling
creators and retreated to the deep sea.
166000 Years Ago – The
Savage Years
Hiding
in the dark depths where the environment remained more stable the
Begetters hunted the ecosystems that clustered around the volcanic
vents of sea mounts and the upwells of volcanic islands, feeding off
of octopus, squid and cuttlefish for their higher brain capacity
whilst using the deep diving, early Cetaceans as hosts for the
larvae. It is possible that the myths of mermaids and mermen are
truly ancient legends of the Cetacean hosted Begetters, distorted and
misremembered due to the sheer depth of time that now separates the
modern world from then. In a way it would makes sense that such
beings are depicted as having human style faces as the Begetters
would have used their psionic powers to lure prey towards them.
Witnesses who survived would not have had the understanding as to why
their companions willingly walked towards their doom and would
explain it with stories of amazing beauty or siren song that beckoned
the victims to their deaths.
Eventually
the position of Grand Director came to be. These Begetters were
mentally strong enough to dominate others of their kind, gradually
wielding together bands of Begetters that did not view each other as
potential food and could co-ordinate to take down the larger prey
items more easily. This societal shift also saw more of the larvae
survive to maturity, granting a larger genetic pool available for
implantation. This in turn enabled Grand Directors to be more
rigorous with their selection processes.
106000
Years Ago – The Hungry Years
Although
the evolution of the Grand Directors stabilised the society of the
Begetters, shifts in the climate of the world continued to push their
ability to survive to the edge of what was physically possible and
their number remained dangerously low, some saying that at times they
were on the edge of what was genetically possible, with a total
global populations equalling no more that five thousand.
While
the Begetters struggled beneath the waves, on the land shifts were
also taking place. As the continents slowly rose and sank due to
repeated ice ages the descendents of the goblins who survived the Day
of Impact were able to cross growing land bridges to rediscover
continents that some of their relatives had died out on in the
centuries following the meteor strike. There they met new beings. It
appears that the ancestors of the gnomes had evolved during the
thousands of years since the Day of Impact. They may also have had an
advantage over regular evolution as there is the distinct possibility
that their existence was started by the same race that began the
goblins. Or indeed, the Ancients may have created the gnomes in an
effort to save their own species, creating a diminutive race
intelligent enough to farm and hunt and work both metal and magic but
need less food to sustain themselves and therefore be a sustainable
food source for their creators when other land animals had perish. If
this speculation is correct then the gnomes out lived their creators.
In
striving against each other the gnomes and goblins pushed their
development even further. Some times not for the better.
42000
Years Ago – Time of the Repulsive Fire
It
is unclear if this was a violent event or whether it was more a case
of long term environmental degradation but the Time of the Repulsive
Fire has left an enduring, terrifying mark on the face of Hestia.
Seeing as the most notable remnants of this time are the Tombs of the
Repulsive Fire then it is likely that it was more a case of pollution
rather than catastrophic war as the Tombs would have taken time,
effort and preparation to complete. These effigies are massive,
artificial mountains of stone, cut with such precision that you
cannot slide a knife blade between then irregularly shaped blocks.
Made of granite and ringed with barbed fences of a metal as strong as
iron but unrusted these monuments stand sentential to a time where
magic and technology were pushed to the very limit of what was safely
possible. Nobody knows for certain what was buried under this massive
structures but the fact that such pains were taken to keep it
contained should be warning enough. Wizards who have studied the
Tombs with scrying magic say that the core of the structure is
constructed of two hundred ton blocks of granite fitted into sockets
carved into the bedrock in an interlocking pattern designed to resist
ground deformation. Those that have dared to open the outer anti
chamber have discovered a room where the ceiling is decorate with
star charts incised with a precision rarely seen outside of elf work.
According to the learned these star charts record the movements of
the heavens that have tracked across the skies for the last forty
thousand years and the ones that will come in the next sixty
thousand. Carved in languages dead, ancient, old and more modern, the
same warning decorates the walls over and over again:-
“This
is not a place of honour,
No
great deed or powerful king is remembered here.
Nothing
of value is here, only that which brings death.
We
laid our hands upon that which powers all life
And
thought we could command it
But
we awakened the repulsive fire
That
smoulders within living flesh unseen.
The
repulsive fire brings no light and warms with no flame
But
it rots flesh from within.
Hair
falls away, teeth rot out, the skin ulcers,
The
infected weep blood and cough foam.
If
you open the inner door the repulsive fire
Will
no longer be contained and
We
will have failed to protect you.”
Wizards
who have dared scry beyond the second door speak of a single tunnel
that winds deep into the solid bedrock, plugged with layers upon
layers of fullers earth. They say that they can sense something
laying deeper but state that they cannot identify it, the spells
overloaded by a coarse susurration. In short the Tombs of the
Repulsive Fire buzz. Any right thinking person stays as far away from
them as possible but there is however, unfortunately, evidence that
at least one of these tombs was opened fully in the past. The mass
graves that have been discovered in the region are difficult for
wizards and scholars to excavate as the bones are incredibly fragile,
apparently hollowed out by some force while the people where still
alive. Some show signs of areas of the bones dying from several days
to several weeks before final mortality of the whole body. The only
reason any of these bones can be recovered at all is because when
they were first buried they were encased with a rock that poured as a
cold liquid. The soft parts of the body rotted away after the rock
had set solid, leaving the bones laying within hollows depicting the
original person. Some of the smaller hollows did not have any
recoverable remains and were instead filled with plaster to reveal
the faces of the children who had perished in these mass casualty
events. The tombs of Repulsive Fire now lay undisturbed, even the
maddest of liches and most evil of wizards avoiding them. There are
some poisons universally reviled, even by the worst.
17700
Years Ago – Rediscovery of the Surface World
After
over a hundred millennia the Begetters turned their strange eyes to
the surface and rose from the depths once more. What triggered this
emergence is unknown but it was probably driven by the arrival of
shipwrecks sinking into the depth as the gnomes and goblins developed
maritime technology. That or traces of the Repulsive Fire shifting
down through the water column may have alerted them to the fact there
was civilisation upon the surface again.
The
gnomes found favour with the rising power of the depths, the first
amphibious Begetters probably hosted within gnome bodies. The
goblins, as stated before, paid and paid harshly for the
transgressions of their ancestors against the Ancients, a punishment
that has dragged on ever since.
Gradually,
as the number of amphibious, gnome hosted Begettors increased they
pushed further in land, following river courses and then developing
methods of hauling enough water across long distances to keep
themselves alive as they probed into environments with limited water
availability. As exploration was increased and resources gathered the
Begetters began to rediscover the technologies of their creators and
to wield it to what the gnomes and the goblins had discovered.
Rapid
transportation networks were built, energy relays that produced light
and heat from air movements and carriages that moved by the power of
vegetable waste being fermented. Of course this was not over night,
Locutus was not a city built in a day or even a year.
Thousands
of years of struggle, strife, accident, disease and disaster, both
natural and artificial, had to pass as the Begetters slowly refined
their approach to surface living and the Hives struggles to adjust to
a world where abundance was a possibility and therefore aggressive
competition was no longer necessary.
17000
Years Ago – The Genesis of the ‘Lesser’ Races
Having
revived their Creator’s technology the Begetters turned their
pursuit of mastery of the world to the flesh craft the Ancients had
been capable of. This decision was possibly encouraged by the fact
that the progress of the Begetters empire was limited by the size of
their servants. The gnomes are a tough people, you have to be in a
world where a goat is a viable mount, a dog is a preditor that can
destroy you at a bite and a house cat can leave you savaged but there
is a limit to their carrying capacity and their resilience to injury.
These
years saw the creation of the lesser races.
First
where the orcs. Most likely created from goblins, probably as another
show of how much the Begetters detested the race that had helped
destroy their beloved creators, the orcs were huge, strong boned,
tough, heavy with muscle and resistant to damage but their brains
were very little and inflexible. In short they had the strength for
the heavy lifting needed to create an empire but not the brains to
resent their serfdom or at least, if they resented it they did not
have the creativity to imagine something different and therefore
begin to strive towards that freedom.
The
second were the dwarfs. Most likely made from gnome stock the dwarfs
doubled the size and hardness of the people. They are strong,
stubborn and fully capable of fine work. They positively thrive on
challenge and adversity. Putting barriers in front of a dwarf is just
giving him obstacles to over come. The harder the trial the more a
dwarf will dig their heels in and fight all the more, whether that is
a physical contest or trying to craft the best item they can. Dwarfs
do not give ground on anything and it takes someone asking to learn
from them for them to reorganise their thinking. For example, instead
of telling a dwarf they are wrong, it is more affective to say to
them, “Would you help me with something? To my understanding this
fact and this fact is true but this third fact is also true and it
contradicts the conclusion drawn solely from the first two. Can you
help me puzzle this out?” Put like that dwarfs are more likely to
sit down and discuss your reassessment of the situation seriously
than if you just tell them they are wrong. Whatever task you put in
front of dwarfs to do they will do, no matter how long it takes.
The
humans in many ways where the Begetters greatest achievement. They
are not the strongest or the toughest or the most magically gifted
but they can throw accurately with their bare hands, they are
curious, self driven, self organizing, innovative and ever
increasing. Humans pile achievement up upon each other, over and over
again, they pass knowledge, skill and experience down one generation
to the next as well as laterally across the generation. They are
psionically active enough to be a food source but not so psionically
active to be a channel to the Begetters control. Though many humans
remain the conformity driven, social reward creatures they were
created to be, a few show greater potential, feeling and thinking
more deeply with a heightened pattern recognition and sensory
attunement. Mentally these individuals are often the driving force of
humanity’s advancements as they are capable of understanding a
higher platform of knowledge.
The
elves were the crown jewel of the Genesis Project. If some humans are
capable of a higher understanding then all elves are already at that
level. They are also extremely resilient to disease and their life
spans are far in excess of a human. They are also tall for the most
part, graceful, agile and have the ability to process the information
their heightened senses feed them without being overwhelmed by it.
Their innate ability for wizard magic also far surpasses anything
humans can do. Indeed, it is possible that elves are the original
masters of wizard magic as they speak of being able to see the
‘pattern’ within everything and they describe magic as being able
to adjust the pattern.
With
the creation of the elves the Begetters gained the perfect hosts for
the Larvae, tall, statuesque, resistant to disease, enhanced sense
that compound with their own upon implantation of the Larvae and with
the increased life span that guaranteed the Begetters out living all
but the most fortunate of the lesser races. It is possible that to
begin with only the Grand Directors were allowed to be implanted
within elvish hosts, though how the Hives guaranteed that particular
larvae was going to be a Grand Director is impossible to tell but
eventually all the Begetters were granted elvish hosts.
15000
Years Ago – The Gold Age of the Begetters Empire
With
their perfected servants growing and thriving the Begetters
themselves flourished as never before. For two thousand years they
cast their net wider and more perfectly than any civilisation after.
They pushed the boundary of what magic and thought could produce
though it appears that they never attempted to repeat the folly that
had led to the time of the Repulsive Fire. In that way they appeared
to be more intelligent than those that had come before. Instead a new
balance between that which was made by the hands of intelligent
beings and the wild tangle of Mother Nature arose. The cities of the
Begetters shone. They glimmered, they sparkled, walls of crystal so
clear you could see for miles through them that also made an energy
unlike any other simply from the fall of sunlight or the patter of
rain. Green corridors stretched across the desert, thoughts were
transmitted by great echo rooms from one side of the world to the
other and great transportation networks moved living beings and
material goods across continents within days. It was a time of
wonder.
13000
Years Ago – The Start of the Ancients Reborn Program
Despite
all of their own achievements the Begetters never lost their aching
need for their own creators. The lost of the Ancients was a gapping
raw hole within their collective psyche, a wound they had not
recovered from and that still gnawed at them. No matter how high they
built their towers, no matter how prosperous their cities, no matter
how advanced their techno wizardry it was never enough. Legends say
that they even reached for the stars, constructing or creating or
growing vessels that either climbed or drove or swam towards the
stars above but it was never enough. They were still desperate
children, orphaned by the storms of history and still desperately
trying to please the memories of their dead parents. They felt the
pain of their loss every day, watching the last true descendants of
their creators fly and peck and sing without words. It was forever a
screaming injustice to them that the only bloodline descendants of
the Ancients descended from the lowest of the low castes, beings
whose minds were never strong and who had been kept only as pets,
pleasing to the eye for their bright colours and relaxing to the ears
for their chirruping song but not holding on to their vast intellects
and brilliance for invention. It ate the Begetters hollow to know
that their Beloved creators where sunk so low.
Perhaps
then it is no surprise that the Begetters, having perfected their
flesh crafting abilities, turned their attention to the recovery of
their creators. It was a slow process, made of false starts, dead
ends and failed projects. It is possible that the drakes,Harpies,
Lindenworms and talking animals people of Sumwesi are products of
this time. Gradually, painstakingly the Begetters, built and tweaked
and refined their creations, inching ever closer to the finished
product.
What
was born in the gleaming laboratories of the Begetters was not their
creators but something that elevated the Ancients into a new form
that would shake the world with its existence.
The
dragons had arrived.
Nobody
knows which subspecies was born first now but the first five rose on
wings of red, blue, yellow, black and white. It is possible that the
Glacier Dragons, being more bestial and time blind were the first and
the process was refined for the subsequent sub-species but no matter
the order of them arising the dragons were as intelligent, as
powerful and as capable as the Begetters. For the Begetters it was
their true golden age. They loved and were loved by the dragons and
with them ruled the world from the heights of the heavens to the
depths of the seas. Theirs was the world and everything in it and it
was beautiful.
10000
Years Ago – The Day of Rebellion/ The God War
The
Begetters were never still in their worship and reverence of their
creators. The dragons were powerful, beautiful, awesome and could
still be improved. After the Begetters discovered the existence of
the esoteric dragons they realised that the design could be perfected
even further. Armed with this knowledge they returned to their flesh
craft and recruited the greatest and most talented of the elves to
help them infuse their creations with magic at every level of their
creation.
The
results were the Astral Dragons and the Void Dragons. As described in
the Draconic Encyclopedia, Astral Dragons and Void Dragon could rival
the power levels of angels, the Astral Dragons able to jump in and
out of reality to be able to travel vast distances across the world
in the blink of an eye while their Void Dragons cousins can cause
earthquakes to shudder through the world and mountains to spew fire
to the heavens. They used magic as easy as breathing and could out
live even other dragons but they were still incomplete. The Astral
Dragons were married to order whilst the Void Dragons danced with
chaos. As such they were always opposed to each other and tension
bubbled just below the surface. Distressed by this imperfection the
Begetters once again turned to their flesh crafting art, seeking to
unite the forces of chaos and order within one flesh.
The
result were the Iridium Dragon Twins… and the Begetters’ own
doom.
The
reasons for the rebellion that erupted against the Begetters is
unknown. After so many thousands of years and the conflicts that have
followed the reasons, if they were ever articulated, have been lost
to time and war. As stated in the Gods of Hestia it is possible that
a lineage of the Tomb Dragons had become corrupted, their blood
mingled with that of a Twisted God, their thoughts turned ever to
death and destruction but it is just as likely that it was the
Iriduim Dragon’s own decision to bring down the race that had given
them birth to free those who still toiled in chains. The Begetters
may have used chains of mental control and dominion but they were
still chains.
In
a single day and night of destruction the continent spanning, world
encompassing empire of the Begetters was cast down, never to rise
again. The legendary Ash Elves are said to have their genesis in this
moment. Remaining loyal to the Begetters they retreated into the
dark, honey comb labyrinth of the Underworld, here they are said to
plot and scheme for the day that their Masters return and they rise
to become their most faithful and rewarded servants.
Unfortunately,
if the lesser races expected a time of peace and prosperity after
they became free then they were sorely disappointed. If anything the
Iridium Dragons were too powerful and when that power was turned to
the unbending, unrelenting, unforgiving mindset of a fanatic then the
world trembled beneath its wroth. One of the Iridium Dragons sort to
embody the qualities of a true ruler, just, fair, mild in his speech
and caring in his ways, understanding of the frailty of mortals and
willing to reach down into the mud to lift up those that had fallen.
If the fallen had fallen not only through bad choices but also bad
character then he was willing to allow the Gealach Dragons to work
their dream magic and lock the dangerous ones away in their Fae
realms where they could do no harm.
The
other was the embodiment of a jealous and angry God, judgemental,
exacting, unrelenting and unforgiving. There was no room for failure,
there was no room for flaw, there was no forgiveness. The town was
not judged on if it contained any good men, the presence of a single
bad one was enough to spell its doom. And bad did not mean someone
who was selfish, greedy and harmful to their community, bad just
meant someone who broke the rules and children were not exempt from
judgement, neither was ignorance an excuse. Perfection was demanded
and any that failed to meet that exacting standard with every heart
beat of every breath in every second of the day were destroyed, their
bodies turned into a pillar of salt along side every member of their
family, including babes in arms.
The
God War was savage and unleashed a destruction not seen upon Hestia
since the death of the Ancients. Every race, every dragon rose in
rebellion against the Iridium Dragon of Judgement, including his own
twin. Despite the massed efforts of every thinking person on Hestia
it was impossible to kill the Iridium Dragon and every effort to do
so only resulted in more Destruction, as the shining cities toppling,
verdant forest burnt until they smouldered, whole regions turned to
deserts as the salt killed every living thing in the soil. By the
time the Iridium Dragon was contained and sealed within his prison
the skies of Hestia were black with soot, the land wept poisons and
the seas frothed with energies that seethed and writhed. It is
possible that the first sorcerers and sorceresses appeared at this
time. It would certainly explain why the elves hold sorcerers in such
disregard. Elves do not like things that are spawned in chaos. It is
certain that many of the dragonkin bloodlines had their beginnings
here, the other dragons attempting a very direct method of creating
more powerful versions of the other races as it seems that the
Iridium Dragon of Judgement was able to spawn his own army to try and
challenge all the living races of the world.
By
the time the dust began to settle the dreadful algebra of survival
had driven a permanent wedge between the races and they would never
again be as united as they had been.
5600
Years Ago – The Genesis of the Orc Children
The
name of the lich who created the Orc Children is now unknown, lost to
time and the depths of the Underworld where he’d been creating
them. Neither does anybody know how he managed to combine the
bloodline of human and orc. One could say that it is most likely that
people do not want to know but the most likely answer is that he had
managed to resurrect at least some of the Begetter’s flesh crafting
skills. No matter how or where or why it happened the orc children
came into being. It was unlikely that it was out of love. Liches,
those dark wizards so evil that they have turned their magic to the
end of preserving their own lives at the expensive of everyone else,
do not love. Obsession? Perhaps. Possession? Maybe. Control? Most
definitely but not love. Love involves a giving up, a letting go, a
surrender of control that Liches are not capable of but what they do
have is time. As long as they are maintaining their soul anchor
Liches cannot die and so they have all of time to complete their
plans. Therefore, it is likely that the orc children were created as
part of a long and intricate plan to invade the surface world, their
muscle and brute strength designed to out match and out weigh the
forces that mankind would be able to bring to bare in the fractured
politics that followed the God War and that have persisted until
today.
Where
in the Undeworld this Lich was laired is unknown but the Underworld
is rarely explored, seeing as it is difficult to keep sense of your
direction at the best of times down there. It is known for sure
though that it must have been the Underworld because that is where
the orc children emerged from when they broke their chains. I suppose
that now is as good time as any to note that although 5600 years ago
is when the orc children are said to have had their beginning nobody
knows for certain when the first orc child came to into existence as
their genesis was hidden in the dark. 5600 years ago is when the orc
children fought their way up though the dwarf kingdoms to the
surface. It seems strange that creatures who were the lowest of low
minions knew that they had to break the soul anchor first before they
attacked the Lich themselves. Legends and oral history from the orc
children themselves speak of a messiah figure who came to them and
shared their suffering before leading them forth from their
captivity. Some scholars wonder if it truly was a messiah or a tomb
dragon who had discovered a civilization that it could bring to
complete and utter smash. If it was a tomb dragon then it was
completely successful in its desire to bring the creator of the orc
children to utter destruction and started a war between the dwarfs
and orc children that has never fully ceased or healed to boot.
4300
years ago – Appearance of the Goturi
Unlike
the orc children who appeared on the world’s stage with a bang, the
Goturi arrived quietly. One day they were not there, the next day
they were. The knowledge of their existence spread slowly, one visit
to civilization at a time. Travellers on the road spoke of strange
scaly folk that looked like dragon kin but were no bigger than
goblins. Villages muttered of ‘the blue scalies’ who could shoot
rats at a hundred paces with bow and arrows. Towns folk gawked and
muttered, watching the groups of short people who moved with
confidence and assurity, offering their services as mercenaries to
the highest bidder. To begin with they were laughed at. They
displayed why you shouldn’t laugh at a goturi. Legend has it one of
the goturi shot the apple out of the pig’s mouth at the Lord
Mayor’s banquet through the prongs of the carving fork, whilst
standing outside the open window of the hall. The laughing stopped
after that and merchants began taking their offer of guard protection
more seriously. The goturi quickly earned themselves a place in the
surface world.
As
for where they came from there is no certainly but it appears that an
apprentice of the Lich who created the orc children wished to repeat
the experiment, only this time with the blood of goblins mixed with
that of dragons or more likely dragonkin. Though it is certain that
they killed their creator before making their way out into the world
it remains unclear if they destroyed their foe’s soul anchor before
attacking their physical form. The goturi will not answer questions
about this, becoming tight lipped and cautious, almost as if they
fear to speak of it may bring some awful fate down upon themselves.
If the lich did manage to reform themselves after their own death
then, so far, they have not moved against their disobedient
creations. One has to wonder to what end the goturi where made or
whether it was for idol amusement.
1654
Years Ago – Armasar Mockblight Begins Teaching at the University of
Cowbridge
The
island nation of Albion sits across the wide channel of sea that
separates it from the North West continent. It has one of the most
volatile coast lines in the world, surrounded as it is by warm waters
flowing up from the south while frigid water pouring down off the
northern icy latitudes stirs this mixture to boiling point. Despite
of this, or maybe because of it, the people of Albion where known as
superb sailors, already building trade routes and establishing
colonies on landmasses far from the home island.
The
University of Cowbridge was one of the oldest of such institutes, its
founding marking the rebirth of a higher education that hadn’t been
seen since the fall of the Begetters Empire, its halls ringing with
the brightest and the best of the island’s minds, the professors
expected to be the most experienced and learned of their respected
fields. Armasar Mockblight arrived to take up the mantle of foreign
history instructor in the University and to curate the attached
museum. Appearing as a slightly older human male with ash white hair,
piercing blue eyes and a nose that had been broken at some point,
Armasar Mockblight’s lectures emphasised the superiority of the
Albion way of life and civilization.
1613
Years Ago – The Albion Empire Begins Its Expansion
After
forty three years of indoctrination of Mockblight’s teaching to the
younger and younger generation The Albion Empire began its expansion,
codifying the colonies as part of the Empire and writing the Divine
Providence of Conquest into their laws. The archives of the museum
grew like never before as items and artifacts flowed from the growing
tendrils of the empire back into the Homeland. In the end the museum
was moved to a purpose built establishment in Londinium, the Capital
City, which also placed Armasar Mockblight close at hand to the
powers structures of the Empire. His advice always seemed to profit
the Albion Empire as it continued to grow.
1183
Years Ago – The Albion Empire Reaches Its Largest Expanse
The
Albion Empire held territory across the world, from the land now
known as the Burning Continent, where they were in constant conflict
with the lands of the Domilii of then to islands in Sumwesi. There
was territory on both coasts of the Southern Continent as well as in
the Interior and holdings on the East Coast of Jamhodan. Riches and
exotics flowed into the Albion heartland, although always to the
highest ranks of society. The greater majority of the population of
the Albion heartland toiled in great workshops or busied away as the
servants in grand houses and smaller establishments. Life was hard
for a maid of all work, who could expect to live her life by the
clock from before sun up to midnight all the working days of her
life, including Holy Days, though one has to wonder if their lives
were better than the ‘companion’ servants.
Often
of exotic birth ‘companion’ servants where hired (one could say
bought) to be the companions of the young daughters of noble and
landed families, though some of the richer merchants also purchased
these beings. The companion servants were usually girls though some
boys were also granted companion servants, who usually had double
duty as whipping boys. Companion servants were taught etiquette,
language though allowed, even encouraged, to keep their accents to
denote their ‘other’ status, literature, handy crafts and art.
They were to be the companions of their assigned mistress or master,
constantly at their beck and call, to keep them distracted in their
free time with witty conversation, gentle games and to show well at
parties where younger children were permitted to attend. It was a
mark of status for a family to be able to afford the education and
upkeep of a companion servant. Sometimes companion servants were
retained, becoming their assigned master or mistress’s confidant
and body servant as they grew up. Some became retainers in their old
age but they were a very few. Most companion servants were seen as
childhood toys that were to be put aside when the child grew up.
Marked by their ‘other’ status they could not freely gain
employment outside the homes of the rich but neither where they
welcome in the servant quarters as they were tainted by association
with ‘them upstairs’. Elderly companion servants often wound up
homeless and destitute, fitting no where in their new country but
unable to gain passage back home to the countries of their birth. A
few managed to clump together in travelling bands of wandering
traders, turning their hands to singing, dancing and performance to
make ends meet but travelling folk have ever had a bad reputation and
they were never able to settle in any one area for long.
And
Armasar Mockblight continued to curate at the Albion Museum.
1104
Years Ago – The Ablion Empire Begins To Lose Control Due To Its
Size
Several
volcanoes in the territory of Sumwesi erupted within the space of ten
years starting in 1104 years before the modern day. Though
individually the eruptions were not severe enough to be called more
than a local disaster, the accumulative effects of so many eruptions
triggered global instability of the weather patterns. Rainy seasons
shifted, decreased or increased at sporadic intervals, resulting in
reduced harvests, tainted harvest or even outright famines. Crawling
after the hunger there came the disease. Within two years three point
five percent of the total population of the known world died out due
to water born diseases. Though this does not sound a huge number it
was not spread evenly, with some towns untouched while other cities
lost entire districts. The numbers of the dead were such in some
places they remained unburied, drawing in vermin that then turned
their attention to what food sources remained, perpetuating the cycle
of famine and disease.
Over
the span of two decades there was a noticeable decrease in the human
population in the Albion Empire.
With
the weakening of the Empire’s health and commerce, enemies without
and within arose. In some areas rival kingdoms saw the chance to
claim territory from the weakened Empire, in others, indigenous
populations, long suppressed and exploited arose in revolt against
their overlords. With trade and commerce weakened and decreased,
dispatches couldn’t move fast enough to keep up with the pace of
events leading to disorganised emergency responses that could even
make the situation worse as the weather driven disasters continued
with wild fires and floods happening at increased rates, further
disrupting daily life. As indigenous populations were often left out
of recovery plans, it served to heighten resentment and discontent.
Independence movements began to grow.
1061
Years Ago – Armasar Mockblight Preposes The Day of Reclamation
With
some of the distant providences breaking away from the Empire and its
control weakening over most of the others, the Kings and ministers of
Albion turned once again to Armasar Mockblight, their teacher, mentor
and guide for so many years that they could not consider making a
decision without at least some of his advice.
Armasar’s
advice this time should have terrified them but in a land were
loyalty was to the Empire only and patriotism was the currency of
survival and authority was unquestioned it seemed to be the absolute
solution to all their problems and none queried if there would be a
cost.
Armasar
outlined a grand ritual that would pull on the loyalty and devotion
of every citizen of the Albion Empire and would result in the Kings
of Albion ruling forever over their lands and holding influence over
their Empire for all of time.
Armasar
Mockblight didn’t lie but neither did he speak the whole truth but
desperate to preserve their failing Empire and guarantee its
immortality, the Kings and Ministers accepted his advise and set the
decrees in motion. First they introduced a ‘citizenship test’ for
all school leavers to prove their loyalty to the Empire. Access to
‘Trusted Professions’ was limited to those who had passed the
test.
Gradually
the list of ‘Trusted Professions’ was increased as was the vigour
of the test. After several high profile cases where harm was done by
those who had forged their grade on the Citizen Test Certificate a
new system was brought in. Citizens and their grade were designated
by a tattoo on the palm of the right hand, displayed vividly during
the salute. The rank of job you could obtain was dictated by your
tattoo and its colour. The official inks were also state controlled
and distributed. It was worth someone’s life to try and black
market the inks.
1011
Years Ago – The Day of Reclamation
As
more and more people strove to obtain the highest level of
Citizenship and the tattoo that went with it, being a tattooed
citizen of the Empire became the perquisite to be able to trade, own
property and even be employed within the borders of the Empire. Those
who failed the Citizen Test were unable to participate within the
borders of the Empire, they were outlaw, outcast and unwanted. Their
only safety was the black market and organised crime, a dangerous
shadow world that more often than not sucked people in and spat them
back out as ruined husks. The safest companions within the shadow
world were the Roaming Bands, descended from the Companion Servants
that had been turned out in the cold. They were still seen as
‘problem’ people and had to learn how to survive completely
hidden within the few wild spaces left within the Homeland as their
performing way of life was no longer safe, particularly for their
children but if a ‘renegade’ could reach a Travelling Band and
earn their trust then they had a better chance of survival,
especially for the women. The shadow world of the Black Market had a
habit of swallowing young women who failed their Citizen Test,
chewing them up and spitting them out broken.
Finally
the day of Reclamation was announced and people began travelling to
their designated hubs ready for the great day, while Albion wizards,
tattooed with the highest grade of citizenship set up the great runic
mirrors to channel and broadcast the energies of the great ritual. At
the appointed time the Ritual of Reclamation ignited… and the world
came crashing in on the people of Albion.
The
Ritual revealed itself to be a massive necromantic spell. Across the
Empire loyal conclaves of tattooed citizens dropped dead only to
shamble back to their feet as undead monstrosities that clawed their
way towards the living. It was even worse in the Albion homeland. The
people with the highest Citizenship tattoo dropped first, trembling
and twitching as the Ritual drained their life force. Seeing as this
included the wizards who set up the runic mirrors that were
controlling the spell it meant that once it was started it couldn’t
be halted. The lower ranks had to watch their higher ranked friends
and comrades fight and flail and perish and know what was coming for
them. By the end of the day the Heartland of the Albion Empire was a
land of the living dead and the Tomb Dragon Armasar Mockblight danced
over the wasted land on outstretched wings, gloating over his prize.
If
any of the unmarked children of the Albion Empire survived the Day of
Reclamation is unclear but the island remains shrouded in an unmoving
gloom, the coast foggy and overcast. The few expeditions that have
dared travel close to its shores report that it is still a land of
the restless dead, ghosts and banshees howling in the night, while
zombies and skeletons shamble through the ruins of once great cities.
Any who live there now must be a hard, suspicious, dower lot who know
only the hard edge of survival.
Granted
Armasar Mockblight did not lie to the Kings and Ministers of Albion.
The Ghoul Court now rules for eternity from their crumbling halls and
their influence over all their holdings still lingers. The countries
that boardered the proveniences of the empire or who gained their
independence from it in the fifty years preceding the Day of
Reclamation still fearing that one day the Albion Empire will come
crawling across the sea again, snarling and clawing as the dead try
and claim the living.
And
the Albion National Museum still belongs to Armasar Mockblight or so
the legend goes.
531
Years Ago – The Residential Program For The Assimilation Of The
Shulmi Elves
The
Far Continent had been ruled over by a theocracy for several thousand
years, governed by a Council of Prelates and its elected head, known
as the Domilii upon his ascension (the Domilii was never a women).
The position of Domilii was elected for life and ruled as an absolute
authority in both this world and the next, or so his people believed.
The
Domilii’s authority was enforced by a standing army lead by an
elite unit of warriors called the Paladins. These mystic warriors
were said to be blessed with divine powers by their god and lived
apart from the rest of their people. One of their duties was to watch
for children who possessed the ‘Spark of the Paladins’. These
children would be surrendered to the Paladins and taken to begin
their training within one of the Chapter Houses. The children were
surrendered willingly, it was a point of civic pride for a family to
be able to boast that one of their bloodline had been accepted into
the ranks of the Paladins. The surrendering was often celebrated by
both family, friends and neighbours to mark how much they had been
able to give to uphold the greater good. Parents were not sad that
their children were taken by the Paladins to serve the state, instead
they welcomed the chance to prove how much they loved their people
for the measure of love is how much you are willing to give up for
it.
Once
housed within the Chapter House of the Paladins to which they had
been assigned the children immediately had their names changed and
their surnames removed. After that the gruelling training began to
reshape them from ordinary citizens into the Paladins Holy enough to
be partnered with an Astral Dragon. Personal attachment and emotions
were seen as flaws to be stamped out as quickly as possible. If a
child seemed to be becoming attached to a teacher, a classmate or an
Astral Dragon they were disciplined. If that did not work then they
were transferred to a different Chapter House to break the bond and
it would be impressed upon them that they had been moved because they
were not good enough but now they might earn being good enough if
they put the effort in to modify their behaviour. The Domiliis did
not allow for deviance from the expected norms of society and the
society had many nasty little tools to force the conformity, not the
least being he penalization of whole families if one member could not
conform.
Those
who outright refused to conform or could not bend their minds into
the shape needed to conform, where treated even worse.
The
only reason the Shulmi Elves had not been crushed was because the
struggle against the Albion Empire had diverted attention and
resources away from the effort it would need to crush them. Already
forced off their ancestral lands into reservations, the Shulmi Elves
lived quietly because to live loudly resulted in their already
restricted numbers being culled even further.
After
the destruction of the Albion Empire the Theocracy of the Domilii
struggled with the pockets of undead that rose spontaneously in the
years that followed. That and people willing to risk the judgement of
the Paladins to harness the power of necromancy that flowed more
strongly in the following centuries. Due to this the Shulmi were left
alone for a while longer.
Unfortunately,
eventually, the world stabilized enough that the Domilii and the
Prelates could decide that they needed to clean house. It was decided
that the Shulmi Elves were the source of the heresies afflicting the
general populace, making them more inclined to question the Holy
Edicts and discontent with the sacrifices they were expected to make
to prove that they loved their families, their communities and their
God. Some were even daring to be sad when their children were given
to the Paladins for training. Worse there was the suspicion that some
of the reservations were acting as a breeding ground for the Void
Dragons. As these chaos bringing beast were exceptionally powerful,
direct confrontation was considered to be inadvisable.
Then
a new Domilii was elected. Having rode a wave of sympathy after his
family was murdered by forces unknown not long after he was ordained
as a lowly priest and proved himself competent and measured, this
Domilii had suggested a new method to bring the Shulmi within the
fold.
Special
schools were built where the Children of the Shulmi could be housed
while they were cured of their heretical mind set and returned to
their people as missionaries to lead them to the freedom and truth of
the belief of the true god and the right way of living. The children
were forced into these schools with the threat of the Domilii’s
army and the Paladins at the boarders of the reservation. After the
smoke had risen from two reservations the others folded to the
pressure.
508
Years Ago – The Shulmi Rise in Rebellion
The
Boarding School program was meant to teach the Shulmi to be ‘proper’
people. Instead, the few children who managed to graduate and return
to the reservations had no knowledge of their Mother Tongues, no idea
of their people’s beliefs and no understanding of their way of
life. They had no common ground by which they could convince their
parents to change their minds. If anything it made the divide between
the Shulmi and the humans even greater. And then the true purpose of
the Boarding School program was revealed. In nearly thirty years of
the Boarding School program not a single child who had been to one of
those places had children of their own. Not only had they been
stripped of language, culture and identity, they had been stripped of
fertility. The Boarding School program wasn’t to facilitate the
assimilation of the Shulmi Elves, it was to disguise their
eradication. For the first time ever the Mother Lodge faced answering
a question without the thought of how it would affect the seventh
generation because there wasn’t going to be
a seventh generation. That knowledge was an unholy terror to the
Shulmi and the Mother Lodges realised that they were faced with a
hideous set of futures:
If they did nothing there
would be no seventh generation.
If they rose in rebellion and
they lost there would be no seventh generation.
If they rose in rebellion and
they won then there might, MIGHT, be a seventh generation.
For
the first time in their history it was the Mother Lodge who demanded
a war. It was the Mother
Lodge who walked into the Chieftain's hut and took down the great
sabre off the back wall. It was the Mother Lodge that bared the blade
and spoke the words of anger and hate into
the world.
The Shulmi rose like never
before and no reservation wall was strong enough to contain them.
506
Years Ago – The Appearance of the Steel Killer
For
two years the Shulmi rebellion balanced on the edge of a knife, for
every victory a defeat, for every child saved another lost, for every
residential school burnt to the ground a camp reduced to ashes. Hit
and run tactics were only so effective when the Paladins could track
a thought and their Astral Dragon mounts could cover distance as fast
as blinking.
And then the Paladins ran up
against the Steel Killer.
They
thought he was new leader of the Shulmi. They were wrong. Hartseer
had found his daughter’s
body after she had taken a rope to her pain when she discovered that
she had been sterilized. His wife starved herself to death, her heart
malforming under the weight of the grief. He had been leading one of
the most successful Shulmi campaigns against the Domilii’s Army and
the Paladins when he vanished for a time. When he returned it was in
a skin of metal and eyes of glass, unblinking, unflinching,
unbreaking before the Paladin’s power. The Paladins learnt fear.
The
Steel Killer had no scent the Astral Dragons could track, no
heartbeat a Paladin could sense and never tired in his relentless
pace. Some said the Steel Killer wielded two blades, some said four,
all knew that he could not be turned aside from his first avowed
intent – the execution of the Paladins upon the field of battle.
The Steel Killer did not eat, did not sleep and never tired. It
seemed he’d co-ordinated multiple attacks over whole Provinces,
leading a battle in the heartland of one Province on the first day
and then commanding a raid on a Paladin encampment on the boarder of
the next the following morning. The
starlight elemental weapon of the Astral Dragons had no effect
against metal and they learnt the hard way that biting at the Steel
Killer was not a brilliant idea after one of the eldest died choking
to death on Hartseer, its mouth and upper throat shredded to pieces
by his ripping blades.
The Steel Killer became the
highest priority target of the campaign, above even Traitor Paladins
who were using the same powers as the Paladins.
Under his leadership the
Shulmi were not just raiding but taking and holding land, the
Provinces falling under their control one by one.
497
Years Ago – The Day of Destruction
In
nine years, the Steal Killer brought the Domilii’s kingdom to the
edge of collapse,
cities isolated, besieged, forced to negotiate with
the Shulmi for supplies. The Provinces under the control of the
Mother Lodges were even stabilizing as the Mother Lodges had no
intention of doing to others what had been done to them, seeking
instead to comb the snakes from the hair of their enemy’s leaders
so that proper discussions and discourse could take place.
Then
suddenly the Shulmi withdrew, the whole population migrating on mass
within the space of days towards the west coast, the Steel Killer
spearheading the advance. Like an avalanche the
Shulmi descended on one of the North West ports and their intension
became clear – mass evacuation. What triggered this change of
tactics was unknown but the Domilii’s army gave chase, hounding the
Shulmi every step of the way. The Kill Team finally brought their
prey to bare as the ships were loaded, the Steel Killer cornered and
desperate. He still fought like a demon as the battle exploded around
them.
Perhaps it was an accident,
the teams not trained as well as they believe or perhaps it was an
act of desperation, a commander deciding that friendly fire was
preferable to the Steel Killer escaping once more. Either way the
fight between Hartseer and the Paladins was bracketed with an
experimental weapon and hell was unleashed. The cliff top gave way
and all of the combatants fell into the cavern below, swallowed by
the ground itself.
If
a rescue attempt for the Paladins was ever mounted is unknown for not
an hour later the Great Destruction shattered the Far Continent.
Starting from Etucan, the
capital city, it appears
the Great Destruction was some sort of vast magical spell gone wrong.
Extremely,
totally wrong.
Rock melted without heat,
organic things warped and twisted into new forms, flesh merged and
mingled, machines started multiplying like living things, buildings
crawled like animals. The air itself changed and the sky was consumed
by fires of unnamed hues, the colour of outer space bleeding into
reality.
Across
the world the ley lines twisted sideways, what was unleashed on the
now Burning Continent echoing round the globe of Hestia over and over
again. It is said that many of the hybrid beasts such as the chimera,
Minotaurs and Ablets have their genesis in this time, the young of
both man and beast corrupted before they were even born. It took
decades for Hestia to even part way heal and the Far Continent is now
known as the Burning Continent and none have dared return there.
And
there you have it, the most influential events in Hestia’s history,
stretching from deepest prehistory to nearly the present day. I hope
you enjoyed it and now I’ll go and start on the next one.
Be safe out there my lovely
darlings and as always, be kind.
