Cosmology and Belief

The truth is, there is no truth.  Liches, with their understanding of the relationship between all things and no things, are able to live forever, as it were, while deity continually and willfully pervert natural and magical law, why Magic itself is a kind of eraser of reality and agreement. 

There are many players in the game of truth, perception, reality, control, and belief.  There is the God King Mok Turosh; the living Kordic God who stands at the gates of Kias and knocks with his hammer.  There is King John, the lord of all men, who has been King since his ships landed almost two thousand years ago, on the shores called Kias.  There is Malfator, the Gray Veil, lord of undead and keeper of the way between worlds, devourer of Leah’Dah, brother of Varmelius and wielder of doom.  There is Varmelius, the last of the Great Gods before the coming of John and the Light, who lives in his Holy city of Tulnimoon, served by his deathless knights and manifested through his priesthood, everywhere, at once, all the time.  There are the Simulacra who are all Ovardiis and none a slave to the will of the watcher between worlds.  There are the faces of the Dark, the beings and the powers of the entire Wold from before and without the Light; these are Great dragons, air spirits, things that protect and live in the woods, the Elves themselves are born of the Dark; they are the forces of the natural world, the planes of energies and powers and elements, the creatures of Fey and Faerie, of fen and cloud, of wood and water.  Then there is the Light as Pholtus foresaw, and Leah’Dah birthed and mankind, both men and women carry; a power to end darkness and the dominion of all wild and evil things.  Then there are the Godlings, the beings who have escaped the poles of creation to become birthless and deathless;  Igyaya, Yihoon, Lumn, the Shiboan Matriarch Thrala, Inis the deceiver and Riit, the cloud goddess and hater of all man’s kind. There are also the Druids of Westfolden, the ancient and abandoned race of men, the westerners.

Mok Turosh was Born, or as some say re-born out of the height of the arrogance of Man.  He united all the horned people of the southlands.  He walks among his people, shares his food with them, holds up his great shield for them and breaks down the walls of the cities that would keep his people out, their hearts in their chests, their life their own.  The God King will suffer no man to keep his manhood and many who fall on the field will be corrected before a death blow might be made or before even they are taken as slaves or for living fodder.  The women are keep like animals and taken far to the south of their land and used to breed a slave class in those lands.  A powerful Kordic cheiftan may have ten such human and elvin women for this purpose.  The tongues of all of the pale races are removed and eaten.  None that have been a slave and escape, leave with their tongues or their manhood.  All worship and obey the Godking in his lands, even the slaves must.  Those who are not sincere in their worship are eaten , and the armies always need food, and so waste no time with indoctrination or coercion, in fact, killing and eating those captured is preferred and easier.  Those who have fought against the Godkings armies speak of mortally wounding great beasts of their kind only to have them whole again before the sword can be raised for another strike.  They have seen clouds of arrows flee their targets.  They have seen the souls of warriors ripped from their fighting bodies by witches and stuffed into gourds or devoured on the spot.  They have seen blades break on the skin of their enemies, poison evaporate and lances warp.  They have watched helplessly as armies have taken entire battlegroups captive and stripped them, raped them, emasculated and removed the tongues and branded and gambled for the right to own or eat them all just 15 feet from the front lines and all of their friends and captains while they are unable to push even a dagger blade past the impenetrable ranks of the Kord Shield lords.  Men have seen witches call for lightening and obscuring clouds and summoned beings from the very nature of the Wold to thwart or uproot walls and barricades.  Hey have seen invoker knights unleash hell only to watch these chalk-witches turn the brimstone to a light rain or a smoke.  The only thing that has saved the rest of Mankind is that Mok Turosh has no use for subterfuge or assassination or infiltration.  He would rather destroy Kias then move on the Vicars burg then Hardwall then bypass the city or raid the lands by simply attacking more than one place at a time.  Only King John has been able to push the Godking back from his walls, and that with great effort.  There are many in the north who are terrified by these stories and many lords who can remember them like they only happened just before breakfast.  You can imagine the threat of the rule of the God King could make any sane person act a fool.  There are Cults in the north let by wild men who seek to bring this apocalypse to full height.  This is made worse by the fact that, while the elves hate men, they do not completely hate Kords, which they view less as adversaries and more as animals, which can be dangerous but can also be controlled or avoided.  And since the Armies of the Godking are intent to destroy all of Human kind, the heat is not felt so strongly by others, or as urgently.  The symbol for Mok Turosh is a red face on a white flag.  His armies are painted in white chalk with only the chieftains and the witches adding red imagery or symbols.  Kords can be so strong and huge as to be literally un-killable.  They can also be so numerous and small as to be indefensible against.  Many of the Kords of the North are Clanned and while they have the same temperament, they are not guided and protected by divinity.  Superstitious farmers in the outlands will leave totems and sacrifice to the local Kords, believing they will be spared or that it will incur goodwill.  Hunters and rangers almost all speak some kordic, and the act of emasculating game after a kill or removing and eating the tongue is a Kordic ritual adopted by humans.  The call “Hok” is a Kordic word meaning The End, or Finish.  It is also a challenge and is shouted to declare your intent to fight to the death to a stranger.  If you hear the call, you should leave the path you are on and turn back, or you can submit, or rush forward and join the enemy.  While there is no mingling with the culture of the Deity, his will is still projected in these northern lands.

King John is the Great king of Men.  Though there are other kings, none are as old or as powerful.  John forbids the worship of Deity in his lands and it can be said he is the God of an atheist state, but that would be intellectually dishonest.  John is no God but his is powerful and seemingly immortal.  It is the power of nationalism, race, heredity and pact that rules the hearts and the wills of the people of Kias.  It is speculated by free thinkers that he draws on the love and support of his people and it makes him powerful, nay, it makes him god-like.  Only the Leahdist were ever allowed to be a part of his kingdom and that is because Leah’Dah saw the Light come in john and helped him build a kingdom and inherit the vision of Pholtus and felt herself as much his subject as his protector.  John’s symbol and the symbol of the lands of the king is a Gold crown above a black tower on a blue field. There are variations of this of course and the kings own seal is just his crown.  Loyalty to the King is paramount though in the North it is waned to a lip service.  In the south, such derision is treasonous and will win you a trip to the front lines to reinvigorate your faith in country and king.  “One Land, One King” is common parting and greeting amongst warriors on the road.  (more to follow...)

Malfator - The God of Suffering, Deceipt and Slavery.  He killed Leah'dah, and ushered in a new age of death, and waning of the Light.  the world goes to sleep.  He is the God of the undead, they carry his voice, he sees from their eyes, hears what they hear.  He bears three aspects who walk the world, bring up evil, and with the will of others, turns out the light wherever it tries to keep shining.  They say you see his face when you die.  they say Leah'dah is not there to catch us anymore and hold us in her hands safe from he that is the Great Heaven, and place us with love back into the Gift.  They say he gives himself to the dead.  They say all things that once were, are now again through his power.

Varmelius - the God of Truth, Change and Journeys.  he is a sitting God.  He is the Light on the Hill.  He is the City and his people, the Vistilry of Ingveroon, he is the heart of his Priests.  His powers surround, keep men safe, call them forth again from the hands of the Great Heaven.  Many serve him, and through their worship, drive the dead from the gift, and destroy the hands of Darkness where they are found.  

Peytah - The God of Fire, Pain and Endings.  His priests are servant of Fire.  They are mad, they have little love of this life, are seen always staring into flames.


Ovardiis and the Simulacra - Elven lich king of old, and his seven Simulacra.  Only in the North do we fear these.  The old one himself ha been awaken, and stirs.  His Simulacra, built before Men knew this place, wake again also, his tolls for walking through time this far, rise and horrify the lands.

The Dark - all natural magical things in the world; dragons, beasts, undead, fairies, wood and water spirits and spirits of the sky.  If it is not man, or a beast that has been found in the light as cattle, sheep, some birds and fish are, then it is a thing of darkness, and an enemy of man.

The Light - the humans, and the birth of the Gods, belief and the dawn of the soul.  The Light shines in the Gift, which is what the Light makes of the world that once was nothing but darkness.  The light is man and his things, it is godliness, the gods, and the control of evil and the use of magic to defy darkness.

Igyaya - The Goddess of Venom, Serpents and Insanity.  She loved Pholtus.  She fell from all things when he left us.  she is mad and lives will her people in the south, in the sea amongst the Shiboans who love her still.  She is poison and insanity and takes her toll where it is levied by the errors of Men.

Yihoon - The God of Wind, the Seas and Longing.  She rides the sky, she hates Men.  She blames us for Pholtus leaving us.  We are too weak for her.  She will not help us.  She loves Aday.  He still sleeps or is imprisoned.  Yihoon has come though to some.  her reasons are not known.  She rides the skies.  She is here, now, up there, despising our weakness, and our fear.  Be strong brothers and sisters.  the dark loves our cowardice, she hates it.  

Lumn - The last of the western Kings cursed never to die, wanders the lands.  He is the last, the only man of the west, some say he was the brother of Aand, but who can know this.  He wanders wastelands.  He is quite mad.  Some are said to have spoken with him.  You heard about Itroll the wanderer and his Dagger of Whispers.  He said that it is Lumn who told him the Daggers name, it is how he can fly and be vapor.  Lumn solved the riddle of the dagger.  Lumn knew the Dagger.  Lost to time and all but Iroll's hand and Lumn's memories.  

Thrala - The Goddess of Destiny, Entropy and the Stars.  They say she fights the Great Heaven, even now, and has since Pholtus left us.  She will help you fight too.  she will fight the coming of the end forever.  Fight with us, fight.

Innis - The Vampire God - rules the plane of nightmares and dreams.  He does not serve Malfator though he is cheifest of the undead, a foul and ancient vampire.  

Riit  - 

The Druids of Westfolden.  they are the voice and the will of the Gray Elves now that the families have fallen and the doors of the great house have closed and the houses have been returned to the earth.  They send the Emissaries, the great  and powerful elven spies.  They send the Leafwinders, the powerful assassins, intot he world of men to watch and to weaken us and to lay the way to take back all of these lands.  They are not the children or Ooya.  The Gray Elves hate men.  The northern Province was once their Eastern Kingdom or Sarand, and Ovardiis their last dynastic King.  They keep peace with John for the time being.  Up here, we fend for ourselves.  

The Westerners - the long Vanished race of men who came first to the world by way of the Great Light.  All are gone, their language known only by few sages.  Their artifacts remain, they brought with them the Light, and had the first souls.  Through them all gods were born.  Most of their ruins lie to the west of the known lands.