The Mountains rose up from the sea, and revealed to the Peoples a land of great beauty and sun. The Shinan went east, to the Moonling mountains, the Itaal went south, to the K'raan, the T'kon travelled to the Great Seafall and built their houses across it, and the mightiest of all, the Shaan, established a mighty empire in the central lands. The Maan wandered between them, forming bonds of trade, and the Ikki colonised the northern islands of Aman and Tukon. Finally, the Akt and Ikt, those sister peoples who are often forgotten in the histories of men, travelled to the west and inhabited the Great Peninsula. And the Great Races split into many lesser races, but for a time all was peaceful. All the races developed some control of the great force known by many as 'Magia', and the Shaan here were the masters also. They forged great castles of pure magic, and their land was filled with colossal towers of fire and light.
And then came the Seed...
The Seed grew in the peoples' hearts, and the proudest of them all, the Shaan, were struck hardest. They felt the need for expansion beyond their borders. And so the greatest and wisest of the Shaan, Laiian, ascended to the heavens and spoke with the three great Powers. The Triad were shocked and afraid of his words, and refused to teach him the arts of war. And Laiian grew furious, and raged at the Triad, but they would not speak with him. Laiian grew greatly angry, and with a roar, attacked the Powers with a blow of magic.
The Triad struck back, and Laiian and the Powers fought for eight days and eight nights, setting the duration of the Week. The Triad were mighty, but among the Shaan the gift of magia ran strongly, and Laiian was the greatest of them all. None could best the other, but at the end of the eighth day Laiian took the Triad by surprise, shattering their guard with a strike no mortal has since been able to match. With his great blade he beheaded them all with one swipe and split the gods into a thousand pieces, which would reform into the Young Powers. And the world sobbed, and Laiian absorbed the secret of war. But, realising what he had done, he fell upon his own sword and bled to death on the mountaintop. To this day, a 'Laiian' is an individual who committed a foolish act, and/or a deadly insult to one of the Shaan people.
The time afterward, known as the dark days, was one of war. Man fought man, brother fought brother. Death was in the air. The Shaan fell from their great power, becoming savages and warmakers. Many lay dead, but hope was arising. Beneath the Two-Tongued Snake a child was born, a melding of lines of all eight of the Great Races, and he was unnamed by his parents. But although he worshipped none of the Powers, he was blessed by all, and through such he put an end to the wars. He left the empires broken, and forged the great spell known even now as the Binding. From then on, no act of Magia could break through his boundary... not even that of a Power. Many have tried, but it is there as an invisible wall. For now...
- Generally Accepted Myth of the Binding, told by the scholar Arthus at the Ninth Sun Year of the Four-Hundredth Centile.
The Eight Great Races
In the beginning there were eight peoples, the Shinan, the Itaal, the T'kon, the Shaan, the Maan, the Ikki, the Akt and the Ikt. These bloodlines still to a lesser extent populate the world today, although they are split into many lessers now. Following are a brief description of each of the Peoples.
The Shinan - Introvert and learned, wise and quiet were the words associated with the Shinan in the Age of Might before the slaying of the Powers and the subsequent Dark Times. They took the majestic Moonling Mountains for their own, and cultivated great fields of crops on the fields lining their hilly domain. Into the mountains themselves were carved great halls, in which the Shinan would meditate daily. The masters of earth and stone were the Shinan rumoured to be, although they rarely sold their jewels for anything but other jewels, and rarer still would one be found beyond the Mountains themselves. During the Dark Times, however, the Moonling Mountains were split in the great Battle of Aan, when the Shinan elementalist Uuth attacked his Lord in a seed-bound treachery - and although Uuth was later slain, the Shinan are still a divided kingdom. In these times, few purebred Shinan can be found outside the mountains, but many others bear the mark of their blood with the slightly pointed ears and amber eyes which mark a Shinan for what he is.
The Itaal - The K'raan, which literally translates from Itaali as '(Great, Large) Basin', is the huge river-basin of the Iltooik River. The Itaal are known to be a vocal and heavy-handed folk as a whole, squat and rarely reaching above five and a half feet in build and dark of skin. Before the Slaying, the Itaal mostly kept themselves to themselves, creating a strong communal sense of family bonds. To an Itaal, his family is his community - all the women at least sixteen years older than himself are his mothers, all the men at least fourteen years older than himself are his fathers, and those closer than that to him are his brothers and sisters, and this continues to this day. The Itaal are the masters of the art of the Name, and 'twins' (inseparable friends) are often bound together by a great Naming ceremony. Now, though, they are an almost completely impure lineage. During the Dark Times the Itaal fought the most fiercely and took the enemy's women for their own - but the mixed-blood children were often left without their biological father. Still, almost all halfbreeds still follow Itaal tradition, even if they often wander beyond the K'raan.
The T'kon - The T'kon live primarily in just six cities, although the number was once many more, but into those six thousands upon thousands of purebloods are crushed. They suffered great blows after a weak alliance to the Itaal, who were too busy invading to defend their 'protectorates'. The losses were great, for although the T'kon cities are well-defended, their power lay within the subtle arts of shadow-weaving, and illusion could not save them. Their cities still lie close together, however, connected by the Great Canal, suspended high in midair. The Canal once partially encircled the Amani Sea, but its length is much diminished and many miles lie in disrepair. The sixth and greatest of the cities lies along the edge and within the caves behind the Seafall, and this has never fallen. With the freshwater sea providing it with an unpoisonable water-source, the river around it cutting it off from everywhere else, and the only access being via eight cart-sized bridges or the Great Canal, it is an excellent defensive position. The T'kon are rarely seen, preferring to stay within their own lands, and those that are seen are often paranoid and elusive.
The Shaan - The Shaan were once the proudest and mightiest of the peoples, with easy expertise in all eight paths of Magia. But they were struck by the Seed with the most force, and their greatest mage cast down the Great Powers. The ruins of their buildings can be found all over the Central Plains, but they themselves seem nowhere to be found. Truely, their lineage is the weakest today, and the most ironically fated. There are thought to be less than five-hundred pureblood Shaan in the world today - the signs of their lineage their purple eyes, mahogany skin and tall build - but their traditions and language are forgotten among even them, except for perhaps a few meaningless rituals, curses, and sayings.
Their other blood is scattered throughout the world's peoples, but to be Shaan is considered a curse in many places, and much prejudice is levelled against them almost everywhere. To call another a 'Laiian' is to call them a fool, or one who has done something extremely stupid, but to call a Shaan such is a deadly and terrible insult. Ironically, only non-Shaan tend to care at all about Shaan traditions - Shaan themselves normally wish just to fit in. Shaan blood can still give an unexpected gift for Magia, however, and as such those particularly gifted with it may be called Shaanbloods in jest or jibe.
The Maan - Without their own language, rather a pidgen of all others with their own unique sections of vocabulary, the Maan are a strange race. Thought of as carefree in stories, they are more serious than happy, and beneath their active, brightly-coloured clothing rests the heart and mind of a trader and warrior. Maani culture is a complex, highly developed and ritualised one which has adopted the customs of many other peoples in the time it has been around, and involves ritual dancing and commonly dual worship of the Powers Tien and Aoth, the incarnations of song and dance (Tien) and travel and journey (Aoth). They trade with all the peoples of the world, and have done since time began. They fought only to protect themselves during the wars, and refused to trade with any but their own. Their race is signified by olive skin, delicate features, and complete baldness on the head - they cannot grow facial or scalp hair. They prefer to barter, and are known to sell slaves where this is considered acceptable. They are masters of illusion through shadow, and also in the manipulation of other magia. Their ghost dances are said to be amazing sights, with spirits joining the spinning, intricately interwoven circles of people. Maan caravans are made up of tents, usually borne on the backs of the Krith, colossal elephantine beasts of whom the Maan are the controllers. Said caravans are usually easily removable, though, and if need be the Maan will abandon their Krith in favour of lighter horses. Most Maan within their caravans are still purebloods, but Maani stock makes up a large proportion of the general population, mixed with Shaan and Itaal.
The Ikki - The Ikki were a peaceful folk, the masters of many types of Magia, and populated the many islands of the world until they split up into many thousands of lesser peoples. Ikki are shorter than most others of the Peoples, and dark of skin. They are known to be expert swimmers and boatmen, and have settlements nearly everywhere. During the Dark Times they struck deep into the Shaan heartland with a colossal fleet of boats bearing wave upon wave of warriors. They caused the First Shaan Downfall, the first major loss of the Shaan during the war, and Ikki slew Laiian's children in great battles of magic. Today as a culture they are mostly insular, and retain contact with the outside world via their allies the Maan. They themselves keep in contact through Sensitives, living conduits of a magical web stretching between all the known Ikki settlements. News crosses across the Web much faster than by messenger, and means Ikki do not have to travel too much beyond their borders. The Great Ikki Nation, established a hundred years ago, is ruled by the First Thane in the Aman Islands, and has ambassadors in every major court (although they are there more to watch than do anything else). There are many Ikki-blooded people in the general population, and many hundreds of non-nation or non-Ikki-born Ikki live amongst the other peoples of the world in the Heartlands. The Ikki have several-hundred languages among them, comparable to the differences between the four main romance languages, and although they can hold simple conversations mutually, a lingua franca is more often used by nobles and at councils of war. This language, 'Koon, is the mother tongue of the First Thane, and was chosen by a council (it is the most commonly spoken of all counted six-hundred and forty-two recognised Ikki languages).
The Ikt and Akt - These two are placed together as the sister peoples which they are, and their bloodlines are now so intertwined it is hard to tell the difference. Both are never more than five and a half feet, have deft, quick hands and a quick-speaking language which transfers a light but thick sing-song toned accent to speech in the common tongue. Both Ikt and Akt are often forgotten in the histories of men, and little is known about them apart from that they settled the Great Peninsula in the far west and were heard of little from then on. Recently they have established trade with the other races of the world, and apparently were unaffected by the Seed.
The Mixed Breeds
Among the races of the world there has been much interbreeding, and this has resulted in what has been termed by some scholars as the Ninth great race, variously known as the Blendings, Mixings, Mixbloods, Blackbloods, Halfbreeds, Scumbirths and Bastard Races (among many other names). Although mixed breeds make up the majority of the central lands' population, they are treated with intense disdain by most purebloods, almost as much as Shaani. Mixedbloods tend to combine the visual traits of their parent races into a blending of two to all eight. Common mixbloods include Shaani-Itaal crosses, Itaal-T'kon crosses, Shinan-T'kon crosses, and Maan crosses with any other race of the world.
The Nature of the Powers and their Clergy
Once, there were three powers. They formed the earth, and raised the Mountain of the Heart, and from it spawned eight races. Their most favoured were the Shaan, but the Shaan betrayed them, and Laiian shattered them into a million pieces. The ten strongest of these shards rose to become the recognised deities of today... millions of others became little creatures, ghosts and spirits, or just minor deities of a few villages. Others still became the billions of faeries which inhabit the world, the Tylwyth-Teg, watched over by the ageless Elementals. But the ten strongest are the most important, and their churches are found throughout the land. A brief overview of each follows.
Aoth: The Power of Travel and Journeys, Aoth is depicted as a man, and is known to have taken humanoid form before now and even spread his seed among his favoured people, the Maan. He is said to be a master of tricks and illusion, and his clergy rarely build permanent structures. Temples of Aoth, in fact, tend to move around - a tent with a priest and two or three acolytes. The only permanent place they have is among the Maan, where they frequently are granted a Krith all to themselves. Aoth's priests also maintain roadside inns and stopping-places.
Baanei: Baanei is thought to be the strongest reincarnation of the Keeper of the Secret of War, and is worshiped by soldiers and mercenaries and others whose careers take them into danger of a military kind. His true clergy are few - instead he has many Lay Priests, who work among the soldiers in day-to-day life. All his true clergy similarly have skills in battle, and bring those skills to bear against enemies of the Power and of themselves.
Cantus: Cantus is the Power of Magia, to some extent, and is said to have power over all the magical arts. His clergy tend to be both mages and priests, and maintain the Binding as an important part of their lives. Cantus is said to be a wild and ever-changing force, appearing as a ball of ice, then a ball of fire, then changing into vicious and powerful shapes at seemingly random whim. He has never appeared as a man under the name of Cantus, and perhaps 'he' is a misnomer in this case.
Tien: Tien is the Power of song and dance and all the bardic arts. He has some lesser control over the magely arts, although not as much as Cantus. His dancing and songs are favoured especially by the Maan, his beloved race, and he is allied strongly with Aoth.
Argon: Argon is the lord of the storm and wave, the controller of all things to do with water and the weather. Argon changes his mind on a whim, and his seed is said to influence the Itaal in some places. Argon is the patron of elementalists and a magely Power in some ways, and he is known to take manly form, although his eyes are always black, stormy pits across which all the seas of the world flash. Originally, Argon was a weak and lesser power, but by merging with a Storm Elemental, he added to the original six greater powers (along with three others who achieved power in various ways).
More detail coming soon, and the other powers!