Tag Archive for 'Narthrall'

Ascension and Narthrallian Politics

Published on December 14, 2009 in Delgar. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , .

Edit: Managed a typo in the title. d’oh! It’s now correct.

The Ascension is the rite by which promising draphen shadecasters are tested by ingesting a poisonous tea brewed from the salivary glands of an uocari. The rite is used to select Narthrall’s leader. the Ascended. Normally, leadership passes by heredity, as the current Ascended is given the right to choose who is to be tested. Most Ascended bear many children in order to assure that at least one of them will be able to survive the test and ascend to leadership.

The Ascended rules until death, or until they voluntarily cede leadership, at which point the Ascendant becomes the Ascended. The Ascendant is the current Ascended-in-waiting. By law, there must always be an Ascendant to prevent the Ascended from dying without having a successor in place. If this does happen, anyone can opt to take the test, and the first survivor is ascended directly.

The Ascension rite came about in order to fight the threat of the Voidborn, creatures that lurk in the shadows and exist in the grim periphery between life and death. They haunt every corner of Narthrall, threatening the draphen constantly. In AY 206, their emperor and all three of his heirs were killed by a Voidborn wraith while hunting.  The people of Narthrall were left without leadership, and created the system of ascension in order to ensure that their leaders would be strong against the Voidborn. Narthrall went without real leadership for two years, during which time the Black Temple ruled. They worked out the details of the Ascension while they awaited a challenger. Many accused the Temple of trying to gain permanent control by making the Ascension impossible to survive.

In AY 208, Demiar Ebonblade became the first to survive the Ascension rite. His twin sister Demira became Ascendant, and ruled for twenty years after his death in AY 349. In AY 360, she relinquished her rule to Ascendant Uona, who ruled until her death in AY 480. As you may note, draphen have long lifespans. They routinely live two or three hundred years when not killed by one of the many hazards of their homeland.

An Ascended or an Ascendant is properly referred to with the title used as a prefix to their family name, e.g. “Ascended Ebonblade,” or simply the title itself. The proper way to refer to a former Ascended who no longer rules is with an ordinal suffix followed by the title, e.g. “Demiar Ebonblade, First Ascended” or “Culari Uona, Third Ascended.”

The Ascended has authoritative command over much of Narthrall, but social and economic issues are handled by delegates whom the Ascendant, not the Ascended, appoints. Powers are divided to a degree, but generally the government is kept small and simple as Narthrall is a small city-state and large governmental structures would not be of much use. Instead, Narthrallians prefer a small, agile government that moves well with the people’s needs, and they are not hesitant to dethrone a tyrant at swordpoint.

The Ascension rite itself is fairly simple. The Ascended and Ascendant-hopeful gather at the Black Temple, where the tea is brewed by the high priest. The tea is made by drying the salivary glands (where the Void Aether poison is produced) of one uocari and steeping them in a special obsidian bowl used only for that purpose. After a certain amount of time, the glands are removed and the entire bowl must be drunk to ascend. Most turn back at the last moment. Many others die instantly. Others suffer for hours before death comes. The few that survive skirt the boundaries of death for weeks. They are free to seek medical aid, as it is well-known that there is nothing that can reverse the effects of the Void toxin, but they all suffer.

All but one, anyway.

In AY 1270, the current Ascendant, Uodar Hecal, drank the brew as though it were ordinary water, and walked unaided to the Palace to the astonishment of all except Ascended Mela Nightshade, who knew Uodar had lived in the deep caves where the uocari breed all his life, and had already developed the tolerance the tea provides.

Today, Ascended Nightshade and Ascendant Hecal hold fast the traditions of Narthrall set down by the Ebonblade twins over a millennium ago, and Narthrall is well-equipped to continue its constant fight against the Voidborn.

Fun facts:

Draphen surnames are sometimes rendered as English words when they are modern Narthrallian, e.g. “Ebonblade”rather than Old Draphic constructions like “Demiar”.

This is deliberately done to parallel Western names, e.g. “Jane Smith” in which “Jane” is not an English word but “Smith” is. For the curious, Demiar and Demira’s surname in Narthrallian is Utenancuor, which more literally translates to “slient black sword”. “Ebonblade” is rendered artistically ’cause, hey, it sounds cool.

In fact, “Narthrall” is itself a combination of these two kinds of names; “thrall” is the English word referring to slavery and “Nar” is an old Draphic prefix for an empire. The Narthrallians (a word which also incorporates English suffixes) took that name because they felt enslaved by the threats of the world around them. Hence, “slave-kingdom.”

So no whining about naming inconsistencies, you hear?

Demystifying Magic

Published on December 14, 2009 in Delgar. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

This post will begin the task of explaining how magic works in Delgar. This is not a discussion of game mechanics or rules, but one of concepts and story.

Magic is most often thought of in a cause-and-effect manner. Magic is thought of as a characterization of instances wherein spells of its nature provoke changes in the natural state. This is exceedingly myopic. To say that the average person in Delgar is ignorant of the way magic works is, to be sure, a grave understatement in the least. Even those who practice it rarely truly understand it.

But let’s not trouble ourselves with what magic is not when we are endeavoring to ascertain what it is.

The first step in understanding the magic of Delgar is to understand that it is not, strictly speaking, a force. It is a living, palpable thing that can be somewhere or not. The magic of Delgar is native to Delgar, and it does not extend far beyond the world itself. Just as water flows to fill its basin, so does magic flow over the land, growing weak at times and strong at others.

This flowing magical energy is called Aether. It is the living, breathing incarnation of chaos, foaming on the banks of the material world, rushing around some places and pooling in others, a wind of energy drawn to places where its influence is most appreciated, and circumnavigating those places where it is rarely drawn. The flows of Aether form a network of magical energy buzzing along invisible currents, carrying the wills of magi in its wake.

Where these flows join, the greatest magi are born. One such place is an otherwise desolate crag on the north coast of Narthrall where the Obsidian Tower claws at the harsh, dark sky. Here, the Void stream joins the Trans-Garadic Shade flow, creating one of the most dangerous persistent Aether storms in the world. It was in this place that Demiar Ebonblade was born, raised, and taught the depths of the dark magics the draphen covet.

Araxian magic theory represents the most complete understanding of the workings of this mysterious energy. It works by building up from simple atomic concepts rather than the traditional approach of dividing spells into schools. In this, it hits much nearer the mark of understanding just what is going on when a magus bends the Aether flows to her whim.

The theory consists of the so-called Aspects, Axioms, and Axes. (The fact that these three words all begin with “A” is incidental – bear in mind that these are the English words for them, and no one on Delgar speaks English.) An Aspect is a form which a spell takes. For instance, the Guardian’s Aspect is defensive, while the Archer’s Aspect is offensive. The two Axioms are Order and Chaos. The Axes are Energy, Luminescence, and Substance. The combination of an Axiom and an Axis produces a foundational element – Earth, Air, Fire, Ice, Light, or Shadow.

The type of spellcaster a person is is related to what components they invoke in spell creation. A person who binds all three – an Aspect, and Axiom, and an Axis – together to form a specific spell is galled a magus, plural magi, or similarly mage, magicker, etc. A caster who manipulates elements directly, whose spells have no Aspect, is called an elementalist, a shaman, or a feral. Ferals are widely feared, because their magic is thought to be uncontrolled and changes shape fluidly during channeling. Specialists are casters whose magics lack an Axiom, being bound to Balance, between the two extremes of Order and Chaos. Healers, druids, and enchanters are all specialists. Many more exist.

The last, and most extraordinary caster type is the almost-mythical savant. A savant, also called a conduit or a channeler, is exceedingly dangerous, as typically they are utterly overwhelmed by their powers and have incredible capacity for destruction. Savants channel an Axiom directly, having neither Aspect nor Axis to their invocations. A channeler is said to be as likely to turn a drought into a flood as they are to turn a village into a crater. Most savants unintentionally self-immolate at some point, typically the instant the floodgates of their power are opened. The last savant in memory who was able to control her powers was known simply as The Nameless Girl. She was responsible for returning Chaos magic to Delgar after the Great Imbalance caused by the Rule of Order, enforced by Eversummer Tower for centuries. She single-handedly leveled the Tower and its armies and exposed the dangers of imbalance caused by the Rule.

Balance is a central concept to Delgar magic. All invocations must ultimately be balanced, and when significant imbalances arise, savants are born. A magus must balance his or her own spells, as their lack of axiomatic and axial affinity means that they will suffer ill opposite effects otherwise. For instance, a magus who casts an unbalanced fireball might suffer hypothermia or frostbite. They trade an increased risk of personal harm and a decreased overall ability to invoke magic for increased flexibility. An elementalist does not balance his or her own magic – instead, an elementalist’s magic is balanced by other elementalists of opposing affinity.

When the overall balance of magic gets pushed too far in one direction or the other, it creates great potential energy in the opposite direction and decreases the potential in its own. When Chaos mages were hunted to extinction in AY 700-1200, the powers of Order magic, as they were used without balance, waned to the point that the powers of magi from centuries prior began to pass into the realm of mythology. New students at the Eversummer Tower could scarcely conjure a light to read by. Dependence on ancient magical artifacts became widespread. Just as a bowstring becomes harder and harder to stretch as it is stretched to its limit, so does magic of one axiom wane as it strays from balance.

As the overall power of one axiom wanes, the other builds proportionally. Those who feared Chaos magic so were, in effect, directly empowering it. Their actions, superficially in opposition to Chaos magic, were fueling the fire that would eventually consume them. When the Nameless Girl managed to survive to rein her powers, she inherited half a millennium of stored Chaos energies. Stopping her was a task all the world was not capable of. She did more than destroy Eversummer Tower, though. She created Towers all over the world to train local casters in the arcane arts. Today, the world of Delgar is again in a state of relative balance, and few savants are born.

In most of the world, Shadow magic is not known. Narthrall is one of few places where Shadow magic is practiced openly, and the draphen are often seen as evil as a result. The draphen rely on Shadow magic to defend themselves against the monsters that inhabit Narthrall. Because its opposite, Light, is practiced freely in most of the world, the draphen gain a considerable advantage in power due to the imbalance. In addition, Narthrall is bathed in the Trans-Garadic Shade flow, which is the strongest Shadow-aligned Aether stream in the world. In the rest of the world, so-called shadecasters are the closest thing to a savant most people will ever meet. Most are thieves or assassins, operating on a bare understanding of the craft due to its obscurity and prohibition.

In Ao Gin, the desert city where the luminants practice their art and light-weaving is as common as basket-weaving, the Ao Delta spreads over the parched landscape. These streams of Light Aether empower Ao Gin’s world-renown healers to perform their amazing feats of restoration. The light and fire shows put on at night by the luminants of the Incandescent Tower draw travelers from all over Garad and beyond.

This post is still pretty raw, but I’ve been cooking it so long that I figure I should get it out there anyway. I’ll leave it where it is now and work on expanding these ideas in subsequent posts.

Delgar Bestiary – Cwara

Published on November 19, 2009 in Delgar. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

Yesterday I mentioned cwara. Today I’ll expand upon that in what is to be the first in a series of bestiary entries.

Cwara are somewhat like turtles and somewhat not. They are amphibious reptiles, though more at home in the water, whose backs and heads are armored in thick plates similar to those of dinosaurs. There are many species of cwara across Delgar, from the small tropical varieties known for their bright colors and long spine-like plates that inhabit the epeiric seas of the equatorial islands of Aun Ceartu to their large, squat cousins who dwell in the caverns of Narthrall, known for their dark hues and remarkable tolerance to Void Aether, for which their toxin, capable of conferring that benefit, is prized.

While some species of cwara are poisonous, such as the Narthrallian cave-dwelling uocari, most are not. The tropical varieties form a staple food source of Aun Ceartu, while the eggs of the migratory shallows-dwelling adiapa are a seasonal delicacy in Araxia, when they come to nest on the beaches in southern summer.

All species of cwara are relatively commonplace, with the extreme exception of the uocari, which have been hunted to the brink of extinction by the draphen, who, in calling Narthrall home, are constantly in danger from their poison as well as dependent on it for protection against the voidborn.

Uocari are also eaten in Narthrall, though the practice is forbidden by the Ascended due to the value of their toxin. Their skin, dried and smoked, while all but inedible, is desired for its hallucinogenic properties. Their salivary glands, where the toxin is produced, are used to brew the tea that forms the core of the Ascension rite.

The last species of note is matarca, the so-called giant cwara. These massive beasts are more common than uocari, though less often encountered as they live in the deep ocean. The sheness are said to domesticate them, but what the sheness do or don’t do has always been the realm of wild speculation. Matarca are famed for bringing down ships at sea, but most folk prefer to view such fish stories with skepticism. Matarca rarely come within viewing distance of a landmass.

I apologize for all the italicized words, but Delgar is, of course, not Earth, and so its names for things are, understandably, not from languages we would recognize. I have consistently used Delgar’s common tongue, Araxei, in rendering this. It is a brief summary of the cwara of Delgar, true, but I think I hit all the important points.

I have introduced a lot of new topics here which I will expand on in the coming days. I hope some of these have piqued your interest.