World Serpent is dead
Founke the giant smote off her head as she swam the Strait of Angels, and he had stood there awaiting that appointment for an age while the water grimed his gods-given chain and the rain befouled his league-long blade with rust. Her body did not sink, as Founke supposed it would, but thrashed upon the sea as though atop a shifting charnel mound. With that last brainless action she stirred up two great waves that thundered west toward the lands of Bird, and east toward the Human lands.
An oath was given by the shamed giant lords
Tatteragh the crow wrote that oath into their hides with his angled beak and he remembers the flavour of their blood. They will not tell what promise they have made, but it was in its service that World Serpent was extinguished. The coast of Algeber was restored to them in payment. When the giants arrived at that place, which had been barred for many centuries, it was so deeply stained with World Serpent's blood that the trees were sick with it. The wave had climbed hills and the tall walls of human cities, and had drowned a hundred thousand souls. This was a bitter reward, but payed to the letter and in full.
Yellow Wolf was ordained with unworthy titles
Belchimzu, wolf of the empty forest, strode into the proclamation circle and howled his challenge to the God whose word had exalted Yellow Wolf. His challenge was honourable, but the keepers of the circle and of the Dog Law fell on him and tore out his throat so that he could blaspheme no more. Dogs and wolves alike rebelled against that injustice. Yellow Wolf scoured the forests in search of them, but they were concealed by their allies among human beings and by the spirits of the world.
Boundless Shrike drank deep of forbidden rivers
When the guardians of the river temple discovered him they pecked out his life, but the water in him held many other lives. He sprang back up with a laugh and fled north to the Carrion Country, where even Callous Owl and the Tsar of Vultures cannot claim him. It is Lame crow and the sorcerer Tatteragh who best profit from his ill-gotten wisdom, to the detriment of all.
These are the places thus far named, and they are named after the nature of their custodians:
Human and Bird were one domain before Allmother split the world into two continents. Wolf was called Dog until the ascension of Alpha-with-eyes-gleaming. South of Wolf are the mountains of Cat, beyond which is the Worm Plain. Spider is south of Human, and west of Spider is the tiny nation of Leech. The entire western continent is called Bird. It is a vast and unfamiliar land, filled with magic and forever warring with Human. Carrion Country is hidden in Bird's northern wastes.
The giants, like humans, are scattered throughout the countries, but only the giants are forbidden entry into their homeland of Human.
Session One: CHARACTERS
SPARROW JIRRINGI is a poet from the Bower of Clouds, a forest of hundred meter trees where the apes (humanity's unintelligent cousins) resist the dominance of Bird. She is charged with the composition of a sonnet that will soothe Callous Owl's ever worsening temper, but inspiration is slow in coming. She has heard of a tonic of rhymes, brewed by the alchemists of Serpent, that can unchain the inner creativity of its consumer. Thus she travels east, into the lands of Wolf, where a rogue alchemist of that race is said to be at large. On the way she is seduced by the jaded revolutionary Heron Gango, who convinces her to smuggle him across the Strait of Angels. On the Coast of Algeber she is betrayed and sold to human slavers. Aspect: Never trust a smile. Then she is sold to a human noble-lady and caged among voiceless birds. She escapes with the assistance of a rat spy. Aspect: I will never be caged again. She reaches the boarders of Wolf to find it in a state of chaos. She is recruited by Dog Bartilagnus to help restore order (she will be paid handsomely). Aspect: You could rule kingdoms with that voice.
DOG BARTILAGNUS is a hound-captain in the Rime Ridden Hills, and a loyal servant of Wolf. Aspect: I would tear out my own brother's throat if he were an enemy of Wolf. He discovers traitors among his hounds and must ferret them out, but the investigation takes a terrible toll. Aspect: They ask too much of me. News comes to him that the rebel Belchimzu is in fact alive and raiding caravans in the north. He tracks down the wolf's supposed hideout, and though Belchimzu isn't present Bartilagnus and his hounds slaughter many rebels. For these efforts Yellow Wolf distinguishes him with great honours. Aspect: I have been judged great in the eyes of an Alpha.
HUMAN MATTHIMEU is an apprentice of Viper Pradu, a dishonoured serpent alchemist. He has fled his mentor's enraged peers, as well as the spider and fox assassins employed by the lords of Serpent. Aspect: The name Pradu is cursed in all lands. In the mountains of Cat he is challenged by the arrogant Panther Regas to a test of alchemical skill, which he fails horribly. Offended by Matthimeu's poor effort, Regas orders him slain, but the young man escapes through the use of alchemy. Aspect: more cunning than Cat. Eventually he reaches Wolf, which is in a state of martial law.
[ooc]Those aren't all the aspects, just the ones I remember.[/ooc]