free me from staffing hell
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Post by redox on Dec 15, 2014 22:15:55 GMT
[attr="class","basich"]THE PREMISE [attr="class","basicp"] [attr="class","basich2"]THE STATE OF THE WORLD For a long time, the truth of the world was this: the Goddess created the earth. Monsters were her first children, but she grew weary of their base, violent nature and created humans as her new companions. The monsters, in a jealous rage, shattered her original design of the world, and she banished them to the far wastes through her chosen warrior, Bau, entrusting what remained of the world to humanity. Eventually the monsters skulked back into our lives, but there were those who arose to defend us from them. They were Champions, blessed by the Goddess and anointed by blood. There was a Champion for each monster, and only the monster's fated Champion could slay them. Upon fulfilling their divine duty, the Champion ascended to the right hand of the Goddess and found peace. For ages untold, that was the truth of the world as we knew it. The empire was built on that truth, and we humans were built of the empire. For the sake of this holy crusade, this calling ordained by the Goddess, the empire could demand anything of us, and we gave willingly. Now we are not so sure. In the past few years, strange events have happened. Slowly, and then at once as if in a great spring torrent, memories were returning to people. Memories of past lives. Deeds recorded only in dusty tomes sprang into men's minds as vividly as the day they happened. Humans put the pieces together: dead Champions did not ascend. Instead, they were reincarnated, as was the monster they had slain, to play out their fated role again and again. Now the world shakes on its foundations. The empire shudders and has no answer for the legions of the devout who call to their ruler for assurance. On the Eastern Shelf, a city-state of discontents has risen, demanding new answers and a new path. The line between monster and man blurs, and if the Goddess has a plan, no living mind can discern what end her hands weave for this tapestry. |
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free me from staffing hell
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Post by redox on Dec 15, 2014 22:19:18 GMT
[attr="class","basich"]THE DOCUMENTS [attr="class","basicp"] [attr="class","basich2"]THE IMPERIAL CREATION MYTH In the beginning, there was the Goddess and she was the Light. Eons passed, and her gaze fell upon the earth and she grew melancholy to view such a beautiful world bereft of life. In her solitude she created the race of monsters, and they were her first children, and for a time there was peace. But the monsters were flawed in nature, prone to fits of temper, and they created nothing that was good or of lasting worth, but instead quarreled often and turned upon each other with no regard for loyalty or kin. It made the Goddess sick at heart to see such creatures wreak havoc upon the world and she created her second race of children: humanity. When the humans came forth upon the earth and saw all that was good, and the Light of the Goddess was in their eyes, the monsters beheld them and were jealous and refused to share the world with their new brothers. They raged, and the shape of the land was changed forever, and much of the original beauty of the Goddess's design was lost. In her fury, the Goddess banished the monsters to the Northern Wastes beyond the ice-tipped mountains that were the spine of the world, and humanity unfurled and spread across the land, becoming an empire of culture and might that the Goddess smiled upon. But she was not a spiteful mother, and as the monsters languished in the Wastes, begging for her forgiveness, her gaze fell upon them once more. She permitted them to return to the land of men, but with the condition that those same men could destroy them. The champions who arose from each generation to protect her beloved human children were the greatest and brightest of their age, and they slew any monsters who could not abide by the rules of the Goddess, hunting them through the lowest valleys and across the highest mountains. And for their reward, in death they journeyed to sit at the right hand of the Goddess in her shining hall, victors at an eternal feast and immortal guardians of the human world. [attr="class","basich2"]THE PREAMBLE OF THE IRKALLA CONSTITUTION "For ages we have trusted those who called themselves our betters, we acceded to their judgment as they withheld the ancient texts of our race in locked dungeons and distant, secluded towers for their own perusal; we have trusted them with both our mortal lives and our immortal souls, trusting in the wisdom and authority they claimed the Goddess bestowed upon them. We were betrayed. They deceived us. For a millennium, the Empire has been lead by charlatans and frauds, by bloated bureaucrats who condemned us to perpetual suffering so they could reap the rewards. The Emperor is a hollow puppet, content to let his people suffer while the fawning courtiers preen and flutter for the position of favorite. The religion they offered us is a lie. The peace they offered us is a lie. The children snatched from our homes, the brothers and sisters, daughters and sons taken from our arms and seen only again from a distance, their helmets gleaming as they marched off to die: the lie they told us was that those we loved would return to the side of the Goddess and find peace, and that one day the world would be free of all monstrous creatures. Instead, we discover the truth. The Goddess has returned our memories to us so that we may see. What the empire tried to conceal has been dragged into the light of day. Our cycle is perpetual. Our fate is reincarnation. To live and die and live again, and fight forever with those same monsters that killed us before. In death there is no peace. The empire has chained our souls to the yoke and in exchange, they have lived like gods. No more. We will take our fate into our own hands." |
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free me from staffing hell
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Post by redox on Dec 19, 2014 23:05:46 GMT
[attr="class","basich"]THE LOST HISTORY [attr="class","basicp"]
What stories the monsters tell of their origin, what histories they have, are unknown to the human world; indeed, they're unknown to many monsters themselves. Due to the contract of reincarnation and the empire's reverence for Champions, there are few monsters who have lived since the dawn of the world and kept the full span of their knowledge. Those who have are rarely seen in the human world; they keep to the Northern Wastes and wage their age old battles against one another, save for when boredom or a grievous defeat urges them southward.
Humans are all cast from a single mold in appearance, albeit with some standard deviations. It is not so for monsters. Ranging from leviathans and elder dragons to monstrous wolves and spiders, from fox spirits to flesh-eating birds with the faces of women, there is no common denominator for monsters save this: they are terrifyingly strong and they all possess the power to take human form and walk among us. Some say this is a gift of the Goddess, stemming from a time when she believed her two races of children might still live in peace as one. Others believe it is a trick the monsters came up with in order to further their ability to hunt humankind. While certain aspects might not change: a fox spirit may still possess a tail and ears, a dragon in human skin has teeth like steel and the ability to breathe fire, for the most part they are able to camouflage themselves adeptly, losing none of their strength.
Champions are revered heroes. This is the truth. But it is not the only truth. As long as monsters and humans have been in conflict, there have been those humans who were entranced by the monsters, who believed their grace and power were proof of divinity. From this belief arose the monster cults which persist to this day. Some operate in the shadows, sending assassins after those Champions which threaten their object of worship. Others openly proclaim themselves and try to sway people from the Goddess and incite violence against the empire. However they present themselves, almost all monster cults are fanatical and violent, with a single-minded purpose: the veneration of their chosen monster above all else.
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