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Many of the communities of Grit worship the Gods above, and some do not, but in this game world, Gods do indeed exist, and that it is a certainity, that only some people are aware of. The basic history of the gods is this: An ancient time before Grit was realised once existed, in which the gods ruled over their own world. Over the ages, the power of the deities became immensely powerful. And the gods instilled within their worshippers the power of themselves. As each moment passed, the world was shaken by potent change, as one god would relentlesly destroy a thousand men, while simultaneously there would be created a thousand others. The entire system of Order diminished into but a fickle energy. Soon it became dangerously unstabel, and at one moment, all life was eternally destroyed..... The gods were broken and began to diminish slowly without the life force of mortals to aid them. Soon there were but a handful left. Action had to be taken. The gods agreed to amalgamate their power, goals and individuality into one. So was born the omnipresent existence of the Judge, unamed lord of life an death. This entity was existence personified. It did not have immense power, not at all, instead it had the neutrality of one who is All at once. The judge was instantly in a moment of difficulty as soon as it was created. It was all and yet nothing. Nothing existed for it to exist by, and so it had to, without choice, create some semblance of neutral existance. It could not create one being, for neutrality is the division of extremes, so instead it created many beings of equal power. It logically derived that the gods of old could not be recreated, for eventual chaos would fall, so it made a new set of gods. Instead of allowing each to have raw power through which it might overcome all other gods, as in the ancient times, the judge had each god assume for itself what is known as "the Gift". The first five gods were created, and each chose its gift (to us, the gift is the ethos of the god in question). Immediately, these gifts poured forth in abundance upon a world of their own, unconsciouss creation. Soon, life began, and ages began to pass. The judge could not have balance or neutrality if these beings were to be seperated, for there is no neutrality without conflict, so it made its last decision for the developement of neutral existance. There would be no more random "ages"... no more lengths of time that would depend solely on what occurred in that time. It decided that each age was to have a predetermined length, of which the gods were aware. At the end of each age, the Judge would grant more power to those whose gift was more abundant in the Material plane. The Gods were immediately in conflict, though over the ages, certain entities bonded to create children entities, each generation of these young gods in turn having children, until, after ten generations, there were many gods, all playing a complex game of power against each other, in order to gain prestige in the Immortal kingdom. (NB..... **there is only two cases of incest in the godly realms and very few cases of adultery. Most gods are far more honourable than any mortal. I.e. its not a case of Greek mythology, where evryone was bonking their mothers etc...**). Now it has come to the time where there are no more children entities to be born. The mythos of the gods, rests where it is. The Judge has created balance in the existance of all things. (I dont even know why im explaining this......) The Magi as a race have been described above, but their existance was terminated many ages past. However, they did bring into existance a power of supernatural nature called by the plebians as witchery or Magic. Magic is the manipulation of the auras of other living things through the use of one’s own aura. By learning to harmonise mind and body, the aura of living creatures can be percieved as a rainbow coloured flowing aura of gas, surrounding the living thing. This fluctuates based on mood, position, energy output etc. In the case of Magical beings, however, they can control access to their own auras and thus their auras appear to magic users differently. The aura of magic users is seen as an almost stagnant mist of a single definite colour such as red or blue. Thus it is easy for other magic users to tell if you can wield magic yourself. However, if you are 3rd level or more, or you can speak birian, you are able to control your aura passively to make it appear to others as though you are not a magic user. Spells are very difficult to learn due to the specific complex wielding of one’s own aura. One must, when he has learnt the spell, harmonise his consciousness and blend parts of his own aura into a complex knot of magical energy, upon completing this tampering of the aura, through concentration and meditation, one is able to then bind this bundle of aura into a complete energy which adheres tightly around the caster’s body. He may then unwind this energy at any time by merely concentrating, and immediately the energy will be let loose, and the spell effect will be witnessed. However, one only has a certain quantity of aura, and thus, it is difficult to get more than a few bindings at any one time. However, as a Mage increases in personal wisdom and experience, he learns to tap more deeply into his own aura, and eventually learns to unleash the energy of certain inanimate objects, thus granting more aura energy for him to bind into spells. However, as the mage becomes more learned and developes new talents, he will find that his own aura will not suffice for the use of the more complex spells, as it would become too difficult to weave. Thus he uses different degrees of his aura level to cast spells. I.e. a first level spell comes from his exterior aura, second level from his interior aura, and third level from the air around him. Fourth starts to use vegetation and bacteria’s aura and it goes on. One could not use his own external aura (1st level) for a spell that requires the energy of the air around him (3rd level) etc. But he could use the air around him to cast something that requires less energy than that medium provides. (Ie... I allow spell slots from higher level to be allocated to lower levels. eg if you get 2 1st and 1 2nd, I would allow you to use 3 1st if you wanted). Think of casting spells as wrapping presents: You only have a small parcel with which to wrap your gift. You buy a tiny object and put it into the box. Then, when you want to give it to someone, they can open the parcel and take the gift, while you take back the parcel for another day (Okay.... so you're a mean old @?*%er!). Now, in a years time, you get yourself a couple more boxes and maybe one larger, top of the range one.. You can now put a larger, more generous gift into this super box... but if you tried putting the new present into one of the older and smaller boxes, it wouldn't fit.. Also, if you wanted to put a small present into the bigger parcel, it would be possible... see?..........................So thats how magic works.... Okay, if you didn't understand my odd metaphor, forget it. I'm not really very together today, so I don't blame you. The main source of evil throughout the world of grit stems from the clerical orders. Due to the abundance of religion and clerical power, not only the honourable gods are favoured, and often, it is much easier to follow a god whose goals, ideals and sense of piety revolve around whether or not you achieve things for yourself. Thus, many of the dark gods have massive secret cult followings. It is one of the most difficult problems to quell, as it eats a nation from wthin, and yet presently, it is the most dangerous. Cults of the dark gods are not persecutions of minorites...okay? (I.e. don't think for a second that these guys are misunderstood!) They are actually people who are warped by their deities to believe that doing evil is right. This means that you, as characters, are going to meet some people out there who do not just want to kill you outright but to make you suffer.... to kill your family, to torture friends, to have all those who believe in you cast you out from your own society etc. Beware, ok? The Darkmen. Some say these demons are from a sort of hell, some say theyre corrupted mortals, some even say they are dragons in disguise. But they arent. They are the ruthless, the raged, the laughing as you fall. The darkmen are the shadows, they are the whispers, the stares, the greed and the hatred. "Over the hills, in mountains deep,
Swallowed shadows, down to dark,
Groan, wail, the bound and broken,
Seas are black and men do sleep;
Creep we will, step in dark
Toward the hearth; we hear them weep.
Rest do thee, you stop to harken
Turn do you, and back to sleep.
Here we step,
There we whisper:
Through our hiss
You hear no footfall.
There is a cry, the shadows curl,
The Night will black, the wind will howl;
Groan, wail; the bound and weak
You look at night, you hear us speek
Pitch is day, you stop to harken:
You see us now.
We are the Darkmen."
Excerpt from H. Foghorn's "Tales of Night" 2051, Barensteir, Carrendour
Typically, in Grit, there are no races that contain an innate evil as such, though many have cultures that would appear evil to others around them. The brabarians of the northland, for example, are a very fierce band of people, concerned only with their own existance, and ready to plunder the toils of others... But think about it, this culture can only survive successfully by taking from others, what it cannot create itself. It is not evil that forces these men to their actions, but necessity. Orcs, also, are hardly evil. They are more bestial, and live among one another like savage apes. The strongest will survive, and this leader is under constant threat, so his actions must prove his power. Such is the way that Orcish bands slaughter innocents, so that the tribes will be feared by their brethern. The only true evil, other than the Darkmen, are those corrupted individuals, with the ambition to hurt others in order to gain their own form of power. Occasionally the Orc kin will give rise to a powerful shaman leader, or some other figure of dominance in their primitive culture, who shall reap terrible destruction on the surrounding lands. But, more often than not, there is rarely any one evil opposition. It is from within that evil strikes, for this is what we fear most. Hence, you will notice, as a citizen of Grit, the existance of foulness in everyday society. Most believe that there is corruption in every man’s heart and very few men have seen anything to disprove this revelation. |
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