Kemujin: The Dying World

[Soup Nazi]

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Kemujin: The Dying World

In the beginning there was only darkness. The shadow realm was little more than a dimly lit dimension of black and white, all color and life bleached from the environment. The void of the shadow realm was black as pitch, starless, and mostly empty; where land existed at all, it was twisted and warped into mockeries or stark, lifeless reflections of that which was found on the terrestrial world. The dark matter from which this land was composed was morphic in nature, constantly writhing and changing shape as though it were agonizing in perpetual pain. While incorporeal horrors prowled the landscape of the shadow realm, they were nothing but minions, and tainted souls spawned by the true power of the realm, a formless entity of insatiable hunger, unspeakable evil, and nigh-infinite source of negative energy: The Consumption.

The Consumption existed for only one purpose, to utterly destroy, devour, and corrupt all that it was able to wrap its shadowy tendrils around. For countless eons it stretched its reach into the coexistent and coterminous planes, dragging entire species, planets, and even stars into its insatiable maw. It would suck the life, color, and energy from all it consumed, leaving nothing behind other than dark twisted chunks of matter (much of which the shadow realm itself is composed of today), and shadowy soulless mockeries of the sentient life it devoured. The Consumption knew no limits to its hunger, and it dragged world after world into the shadow realm, wrenching them from their planar roots, and pulling them into inescapable oblivion. So it persisted for ages unknown, until the Consumption reached out to the red sun Malach, and its orbiting planets.

Though Malach was but one in a line of thousands of stars to have been dragged into the darkness by the Consumption, the great sun was something entirely different than anything the entity had previously attempted to devour. Malach was the eye through which the fiery and obstinate god Elâ,¬,,¢Amin watched over his creations, the planets and the life forms living upon them, which orbited Malach basking in its radiant energy. The over-power was infuriated that anything would defy him or threaten that which he had created, and the great sun Malach flared in intensity, rage, and power as it was grappled by the tendrils of the Consumption, and dragged into the realm of shadows.

Scorched and burned by the power of Elâ,¬,,¢Aminâ,¬,,¢s rage, even as it siphoned away the warmth, light, and life from the orbiting planets surrounding the great sun The Cosumption feasted. For nearly one hundred years the two cosmic entities sought to destoy one another. The bleak cold of the shadows drained away life, and the radiant solar flares of Malach lashed out, but the planets caught between them paid the greatest price. After a century of struggle, the burning red sun swelled in pride and power, as the Consumption receded. The shadows withdrew to the edge of solar system, hovering on the fringes of Malachâ,¬,,¢s reach, waiting for the power of the great red sun to wane, as the dying star slowly burned itself out.

The world of Kemujin was powerless against its fate during the time of this epic battle between light and darkness. Dragged helplessly into the plane of shadows, and bombarded with forces beyond those even our mightiest wizards could have imagined. Our utopian world-spanning empire crumbled under the devastating effects of the burning eye of Malach, and bone-chilling cold of the Consumption. Plants withered, water evaporated, and dust storms raged across the land. Earthquakes and fires devastated our cities, and Auria, the silver moon, exploded into tiny fragments, which rained down upon the land in fiery showers of brimstone. The land was sucked dry; moisture evaporated, and deserts quickly spread across Kemujin, leaving little more than a scarred barren wasteland in their wake.

For a time we believed our mastery of magic would be our salvation. We prayed to the moon goddess for the power to save ourselves, and many of our people escaped through the mirrored paths to other worlds. We erected ioun drives which harnessed the power of magic to protect us from the elements and the taint of the encroaching darkness, but it was all for naught. When Auria exploded, our magic was lost. Civilization utterly collapsed, and the survivors scattered across the world, huddled together in caves, ruins, and make-shift shelters in terror. Despite our magic, our resources, and our science, we had no recourse but to accept our fates, and pray for Elâ,¬,,¢Aminâ,¬,,¢s mercy. It was during these times that the prophets of Elâ,¬,,¢Amin took shape, and our faith was rekindled in the burning god.

                     -Ibn Alâ,¬,,¢Husef, Prophet of Elâ,¬,,¢Amin-

[ic=Geography and Terrain]The parched desert world of Kemujin languishes under the oppressive, omnipresent, giant red sun Malach. The landscape of this scorched terrain is both beautiful and dangerous, filled with gleaming white salt flats, blowing and drifting sand dunes, enormous canyons and bluffs carved out by long forgotten and dried up rivers, jagged rocky mountains that jut out of the badlands at awkward angles twisting into the crimson hued skies, and majestic ruins from ancient bygone eras which lie scattered across the world. Civilization where it still exists, lies clustered around walled city-states and mining colonies hidden within the mountains. By night meteor showers constantly streak across the sky, and the planetâ,¬,,¢s rings can clearly be seen circling in a silvery belt above. By night the peaceful serenity of the whistling wind sings melancholy tunes of lost glory, pain, and the passage of countless millennia, but by night, so too do the shadowy horrors of desert come out to prey upon those daring enough to venture into the wild.

Kemujin is a harsh setting, where the blazing heat of the sun, the great sand storms, and the land itself poses as much threat to the inhabitants of the world, as the monstrous scorpions, shadows, and nightshades prowling the deserts after nightfall. Though there is adventure to be found in the countless ruins, desert caravans, and alien environment of Kemujin, most of the action takes place in the scattered pockets of civilization, where merchants, thieves, scholars, political factions, and would be kings all pursue their own agendas, each seeking to subvert their enemies, forge alliances, and carve out their own niche in the limited confines of their crowded city-states, colonies, and jealously guarded oasisâ,¬,,¢s. Kemujin is world steeped in political intrigue, desperate measures, and kill or be killed attitudes. [/ic]

[ic=The Lost Empire] Before the coming of the Consumption, the world of Kemujin was unified under the banner of the Empire of Djuraâ,¬,,¢Dim, a single imperial dynasty that encompassed all of the known world. Djuraâ,¬,,¢Dim was a place of great learning, science, magic, and technology. The world of Kemujin was enlightened, educated, and civilized during the reign of the empire; though not without war, as internal factions within the enormous bureaucracy often shared conflicting agendas, and clashing swords. However the conflicts of this age were generally small, petty, and contained quickly by the imperial union. By most accounts Djuraâ,¬,,¢Dim was a peaceful utopian society, that preferred to settle their differences through diplomacy, etiquette, and honorable duels, but there are those today that scoff at the notion, and believe whimsical accounts of the era have been doctored, misinterpreted, and altered to present an idealized image, rather than historically accurate portrait.

The wizardry and magic of this lost era was clearly far more advanced than that of the Last Age. It is said that the empire benefited from inter-planar trade through Mirrored Paths, that they had completely mastered the forces of nature with the Ioun Drives, and that even the average commoner knew minor incantations useful for basic tasks, like reading magical script, limited telekinetic power, and illumination. Cities were reputedly contained in giant domes of force energy, shielding them from the outside world, creating sub-tropical greenhouses, botanical gardens, and perfectly maintained climate not subject to the changing seasons or incliment weather. Animate constructs were used as soldiers and guards, freeing mankind from the burdens of violence, and securing the empire from any potential war or insurrection.

The exploration of the ruins of Djuraâ,¬,,¢Dim, particularly in the city of Zethradir, which many believe to have been the seat of the imperial library, has revealed little in the way of answers, and opened the gates to further questions about the lost empire. While many of the imperial legends remain just legends, the discovery, salvage, and repair of functional Ioun Drives has led many to wonder just how many other fables may in fact be rooted in reality. Recent discovery of terra cotta warriors (stone man-sized statues in full battle armor) has scholars pondering if these could be the fabled constructs that once protected the empire. Archeologists have found circular gateways, forged from unknown alloys and engraved with mystical symbols of unknown dialects, and these (if speculative theory is correct) may in fact be the mirrored paths.

There are many obstacles in this the Last Age, that hamper the discovery of the past. Sand storms often swallow the ruins, shadowy creatures prowl the night, and resources are stretched to their limits. There is intense competition between the archeologists of rival city-states, which rather than fueling the lust and zeal for discovery, often leads to bloody conflicts between enemy affiliations. Only Zethradir, which has been claimed and is under the protection by the Pilgrims of Sar, has been excavated even close to thoroughly, and the tenuous peace holds over the ruins only by the grace of exceptional men of honor, moral fiber, and unshakable character. The Tablet of Sar (the only known means of translating the ancient text of Djuraâ,¬,,¢Dim) is jealously guarded by the pilgrims, and only those they trust unequivicolly are permitted to study it freely; these days, trust is often more precious and rare than either water or gold. [/ic]

[ic=The Ioun Drives]Only a handful of skilled engineers know anything about these ancient devices, and repairing the essential machines is all but impossible with the technology available today. Those that can be kept running, are vigilantly guarded, and fueled with priceless lunar silver which falls from the heavens in meteor showers, known to many as "Auria's Tears." The Ioun Drives provide light, water, tempurature control, and general control of the weather in a localized region.

An ioun drive resembles a massive smooth and seamless obelisk forged from unknown black metallic ore. They are solid, free-standing objects, roughly fifty feet in height, and ten feet wide at the base, slowly tapering to a point at the top which is capped in a glowing red crystalline pyramid. Each has four, one inch wide grooved channels (one on each face of the obelisk) running from the crystalline cap to its base. An ioun drive weighs well over one hundred tons, and they are always cool to the touch regardless of the temperature around them, or the sun blazing down upon them. The obelisks are typically erected in circular basins ten feet deep, thirty feet in diameter, with a stone bridge that reaches from a single face of the obelisk to the lip of the basin. These basins are usually surrounded by steps, or sunk into the ground, so they can be reached from all sides.

When a lunar silver comes into contact with an Ioun Drive it is absorbed by the obelisk, and strange runes of an unknown language and origin begin to glow faintly on the utterly smooth, flawless surface of the obelisk, shedding pale crimson light in a one mile foot radius. This pale red light in not nearly as intense as full daylight, but it is just as harmful to the undead, and sufficient to repel the shadows and nightshades known to prowl the wastes of Kemujin after nightfall. A single ounce of lunar silver is sufficient to power an Ioun Drive for twenty four hours.

A powered ioun drive produces several miraculous effects. First and foremost, an ioun drive regulates the temperature in a one mile radius, maintaining a constant, relatively comfortable eighty degrees regardless of the intensity of the sun, or the cold grip of nightfall. Second, it draws moisture from the air, shrouding the area in a fog-like mist, that nourishes plant life, and condenses on the cool surface of the obelisk, running down the channels on its sides, and collecting in the basin in which it has been erected. These water basins are often connected to massive underground cisterns, and through a complicated system of pumps, and wells used to provide water for both drinking and irrigation. The ioun drive also generates light in a radius of one mile, as mentioned above which illuminates the city states by night, though this light is hadly noticible by day under the blazing red sun.  

A single drive can produce sufficient water for nearly ten thousand people, their crops, and their livestock. Most large city-staes have but one ioun drive, though cities of substantial economic power, poulation, and military might may boast several. Many of the rulers of the city-states are judged by the number of ioun drives their city has recovered from the ruins of Djura'Dim, and erected in their plazas, though keeping them all powered is often far more difficult. [/ic]

More to Come