Correspondence from Vance to the Dweomersecte Entire

From Archmage Vance, Year 3848

To the Magisters of the Eight Kingdoms, near and far, faithful and wayward alike—

It is with grave spirit and a heavy heart that I write to you in this, the Year 3848, so soon after you have favored me with your vote.

By now, word has reached every hall and keep of the tragic passing of my predecessor, Peredik the Highborn, Steward of Vel-Brethil, friend of Art, and—though he would never have claimed it—the last and most ardent ally of those who stand against the excesses of the Grand Temple. His death was not merely a loss to his house or province, but to the fragile balance between Faith and Knowledge.

Make no mistake: with Peredik gone, the veil between pretense and ambition begins to thin. The Grand Temple, ever hungering, ever encroaching, grows bold. The Priests now whisper openly of extinguishing the Searing Flame from the Eight Kingdoms. And it is we they mean.

I speak now plainly, as all masks must fall:

The Dweomersecte was never intended to be a mere convocation of scholars or practitioners. It was—and is—a blade in the dark, turned toward the Grand Temple. Not to destroy faith, but to cut away its cancerous excess, to remind the people that wonder is not born in obedience, but in discovery.

Peredik knew this. He protected us because he remembered a time when gods served men and not the other way round.

I warn you now: be wary of priestly envoys bearing gifts, or Kings who suddenly call for unity in doctrine and law. “Unity” means dissolution of the hidden towers, “doctrine” means burned tomes, and “law” will mean your silence.

Do not go to war—but do not go to sleep. Strengthen your wards. Shelter your apprentices. Bury what must be buried, and awaken what must be awoken. Let none say the Dweomersecte faltered when the stars shifted.

We are older than kings. We are deeper than temples. And we are not yet finished.

By wand and ward,

Vance the Argent

Archmage of the Dweomersecte and Champion of the Searing Flame

History of Man -- Book 1: Westrun Part 8

Sometimes called the Lost Centuries, the years between 3800ey and 4100ey are filled with fantastical tales of the works of Heimos and his offspring. There are records of battles but the casus belli for each amounts to the offense of one god or goddess against another. There are also strange inversions of cause and effect in which certain of the line of Heimos are claimed to be the parents of ancient tribal heroes of the Nandi, now divinized.

Einil and Ninlee became associated with the men of Sudhall. Einik with Watersedge. Inossa with Rath. Kinurea with Watersedge. Noilo and Ninurto with Menea. Ningula with Balsrest. Utuno with Treft.

Some of the more familiar, and undated, tales from the Lost Centuries include the following:

• Einik, son of Heimos and his brother Utuno fishing in the Inner Sea for a Kraken using the head of a Gorgon as bait. Having hooked the Kraken the two brothers squabbled over who would claim the catch, and coming to blows, lost their catch and net to the sea. 
• Kinurea engaging in a contest of poetry to the death with two ancient dragons.
• Noilo overhearing a prophesy that the gods would be slain and agreeing with Utono to fight against Ningula, whom they hold responsible. 
• Morven, the granddaughter of Heimos, leading an army of the dead against the Decadon while Heimos himself is swallowed by the earth and must battle six titans to escape. 
• Bolid the Brave, (he reimagined as a grandson of Heimos) riding a pegasus into battle against the trio of medusae and tricking Utuno into blinding them so that they turn each other to stone.
• Ren of the Plains (here reimagined as the grandson of Heimos through Ningula) and as penance for the death of his death of his father must race six creatures of fantastic speed. From each of these races he takes a prize and uses them to effect his escape from his other mother's prison.
• When Beddas the diseased kidnaps his grandfather, his own sister tricks Anora (a mortal woman) into seducing him and securing the release of Heimos.

Not all of the three centuries is completely lost to fantasy, however.

Dated at 3990ey, then Archmage Nizarys is said to have impressed the five dragon princes with his command of arcane knowledge, and extracted a promise from them which some call the Accords. Whether this happened or not is still a matter of some debate, but it is far more likely than the tales of the twins Noilo and Ninurto wrestling with a hydra.

Dated at 4004ey, the scrolls of the Belasarian Reforms to the Balduren army were recorded in some detail. The men of that city reorganized themselves from foot soldiers to light cavalry, and tipped the balance of power across the plains from the Goblin Hordes back to humankind. 

Also in 4018ey at the 74th Forgathering of the Fraternity, the Rangers reconstituted some of their numbers and detailed them to the Northern Marches of Wanderhalt, where the goblins were seeking new access to Westrun.

Roll 005

3803    Odak

Then came Odak.

The Tandis Lists: List VII

The Tandis Lists are the compiled lists of all of the Old Bears since the First Gathering of Rangers in 3278ey. They are kept by Tandis of Peakshadow -- a well-respected historian of the Fraternity.

In the 38th century there was:

3808 Ruggero Aldwalker

3818 Gotthard of the North

3828 Lord Wencis 
3838 Aldren the Hammer

3848 Zin Nao the Horseman

3858 Branditham of Northrun

3868 Haydon the Second

3878 Harm Foultongue

3888 Shayla the Comely

A History of the Tribes of Man in Westrun

At the dawn of the 7th Age in the 30th Century, Westrun was home to two distinct subgroups of humans, the Nandi and the Tren. By the end of the 40th Century they had been joined by the Meni and the Fahr. Together these four people groups and their struggles create the Eight Kingdoms of Man in Westrun.

NANDI
The Nandi roamed from the Silverlodes Mountains to the Dagger Sea in tribes. Most of their names are lost to history. Those names that are still familiar -- such as the Nadi, Sahna, Numin, Shina, Anis, Duvi -- come to us as place names. Sak and Rath now give their names to whole kingdoms in the modern era. There are many, many more which have been lost to antiquity.

All of the Nandi were hunters and gatherers who made war with one another continuously. Tribes rose and fell, splintered and merged. Life among them was an ongoing struggle for survival against the unyielding land, the elements, and especially the elder races which still tarried from the previous ages. It was not until the common threat of the Goblinkind, that the Nandi were able to unite and eventually coalesce into states under the Eight Kingdom's Pact.

TREN
While the Nandi were roaming in hundreds of nomadic tribes, the Tren, were another race of so-called civilized men. Once held captive by the Dragon Prince of old, they were eventually entrusted with the matters of their captors and in due time inherited the entire Principality of Treft from its exiled ruler. Though they could not maintain the height of Treft's former glory, they were able to hold the walls of its capital city against those slavering Hordes who would rise against it.

After the Dragon Prince was exiled, the Tren lived under the rule of a long succession of their own unpopular monarchs. A rebellion saw to the death of their last king, Etru III, and the Nine Elders who remained banished the monarchy. In its place they created a system of government in which each property owning inhabitant would be permitted to cast votes in a general assembly. Thus the strange democratic government of that city/state was born. The date of that government's founding is commonly given as 3600EY.

MENI
The year 3413EY saw the settlement of the Meni in Westrun under the leadership of Tal the Just. The Meni were refugees from the principalities that lay across the Dagger Sea. A one hundred year long struggle between two of the more powerful city/states had come to its end with the total defeat of Lanaria. Thousands of Lanarians were slaughtered. Many more were evicted and forced to live as wanderers -- their fields were salted, their noble city destroyed. To this day, many Lanarians still wander the Provinces in caravans with a reputation not altogether wholesome. Others made their way East and South by ship.

Several hundreds of Lanarians heeded the call of Tal -- a lesser son of the old ruling house. Together they migrated across the Dagger Sea and settled on Westrun's shores. Once landfall was made they intermingled with the Nandi they encountered. Their descendants were less nomadic, preferring to settle up and down the coast before eventually spreading inland on the plains. The inland group of Meni founded the kingdom which still bears their name: Menea. Those who spread Southward along the coast eventually divinized Tal their founder. They grew from a monarchy into a theocracy.

FAHR
Many long decades after the settlement of the Nandi, in the year 3300EY the first of the Fahr from Northrun came down and founded Wanderhalt and began to settle on the Southern slopes of Mount Oromir. By 3400ey, Sudhall would be raised and this settlement would eventually grow to become Peakshadow. The Fahr of Sudhall and the Meni moving north from Menea intermingled and eventually give seed to Bolden. The people of Sudhall intermarry with the Nandi of the plains and in time came to see themselves as a different from the Fahr of Northrun. Under the Eight Kingdom's Pact, the massive Northrun holdings of the Jarls of Wanderhalt swear fealty to the Lord of Sudhall and become the Kingdom of Colonia.

The Many Gods of Southrun

The pious pagans of Southrun maintain that two brother gods, Amir and Bhamut, once ruled over Southrun. For six centuries the Brothers held sway over all the Land.

The day came when the Brothers became rivals. For they had a sister named Sekhat, who was greatly desired as a consort by each of them. And the two of them came to blows over which of them would be able to wed her. And the fury of their rivalry caused great tribes and nations to go to war. And it came to pass that Sekhat, who tried to preserve the peace of her brothers, was slain in their conflict. So each looked to the creatures of their domain for wives.

For his part Bhamut took many creatures of the animal world and had his offspring by them. These became beasts of great cunning and strange power. While Amir took mortal women and slew many of them with his seed. But some of his wives survived and produced many offspring for him. All of these offspring were immortal and extremely powerful -- gifted with many of the powers of their sires, but also given to all the failings and passions of their mothers.

Eventually, both Amir and Bhamut grew tired of war (some say they were slain by the machinations of the Dark Elves). They have left the temporal world in the hands of their volatile children and can be seldom bothered to pay attention to the affairs of Erenth, let alone interfere in them. 

The sheer number of their offspring means that every tribe and family has its own preferred god or goddess, with most of the rest being benignly neglected. While they will not sacrifice to the other deities, the Southruner is careful not to blaspheme or disparage them -- for he believes (under the Law Which Cannot Change) that any one who does so will suffer curses for seven generations.

The lists below are far from complete. These are the well-known offspring of the brother gods. In addition to a great number of siblings unrecorded, each of these demigods have further bred with other creatures and mortals, and with each other, giving rise to lesser and least categories of beings with divine blood.

The Lineage of Al Amir

• Djazzar -- The butcher is a particularly bloody and violent culler of life.
• Hadeeqah -- The gardener is known for his love of plant life and green areas.
• Bohairah -- The god of lakes and water. He is responsible for the rise of the oasis and all well-watered areas.
• Jabal -- The master of the mountains is considered to be the keeper of the borders between the Khard and the coastal Sultanates.
• A'lana -- This goddess is considered the messenger of the various gods.
• Naqaasha -- This goddess is capricious and given to strife, anger and conflict.
• Hajaam -- He is a warrior god given to attacking first and maintaining a good offense as the best defense.
• Haraqah -- The burning-one is the keeper and originator of fire.
• Raqasa -- Depicted as a young belly dancer, she is a goddess of fertility, allure and desire.
• Halama -- This goddess is the master of dreams, hope and vision. He is called the Dreamer.
• La'eba -- This god is depicted as a small, naked, and often dirty child. He is the god of merriment.
• Wa'ada -- This goddess is a matronly and wizened woman, austere and grim. She is invoked to bear witness to contracts and agreements.
• Abhara -- The patron of sailors and travelers across the sea.
• Kataba -- The patron of scholars and learned men, Kataba is faceless and usually depicted with ink-stained fingers.
• Rahabba -- The goddess of hospitality and the protector of travelers, pilgrims and nomads.

The Lineage of Al Bhamut

• Asad -- The Lion, god of war, power and savagery.
• Samak -- The Fish, god of contemplation, silence, sea voyagers and armorers.
• Qett -- The Cat, mother goddess and patron of defenders and of children, enemy to Af'aa. She is invoked as a surety for hospitality.
• Dob -- The Bear, god of wrathful vengeance and righteous anger.
• Hesaan -- The Horse, god of strength and nobility
• Af'aa -- The Snake is a being of unparalleled cunning, he is the god of liars and assassins.
• Ta'lab -- The Fox is a creature of great mischief, he is the patron of gamblers and actors.
• Gazal -- The Antelope is the patron of generals and the brave. He is the rival of Asad for the affections of Qett.
• Qerd -- The Monkey is often seen as another incarnation of La'eba and is the god of merriment and of debauchery.
• Kalb -- The Dog is the god of servants and soldiers. He is fiercely loyal and a protector of the weak.

The Books of the Archmagi of the Dweomersecte vol. 3

3812 Peredik I the Highborn - a human male, and installed, more or less by his father, Ferg, Chieftain of the Fahrish tribe of the Sud. He had next to no magical facility and there is some question about whether he actually served in any more than name. It is believed by most that he lived only a short time after his installation, though some hold that he became a servant of the Dweomersecte at the Tower of the Archmage.

3848 Vance the Missing - a human male who appears in only one of the Dweomersecte's record of Archmages. Nothing else is known of him.

3852 Arepos II the Cursed - a human male, it is believed by most that this Arepos became the Archmagi in 3812 in all but name. He was afraid of the uneasy truce between the Dweomersecte and the tribes which then dwelt upon the plains. This Arepos also sold most of the holdings of the school to the Menish tribe under Bolod the Mighty. Exchanging land for the safety that the tribe would provide. He died nearly as captive as his predecessor and by all accounts had only barely brushed past his level of ability.

3879 Ghatikas the Lost - a human male, this Archmagi left the tower under some firm insistence of the Bolod and Sud both. A famine was blamed on his school of magic and his students. He journeyed through the Silverlodes and settled with the Haver, building the Dweomersecte's next tower on a island in the Glad River. This would remain the home of the Archmagi for 500 years. Ghatikas is said to have been an avid fisherman who drowned.

3893 Atalias I the Otherworldly - a human male, he took up the Scrolls of Alobal with a great interest in prolonging his own life. This led him to his famous postulate regarding the existence of the negative material plane. He spent almost the entirety of his time as Archmage attempting to find a way to transfer his life essence into a vessel to protect him from death. As far as anyone knows, he was not successful.