Settlers of Harmony
Last updated
Last updated
As more info comes out on the Settlers of Catan style game this will be updates. For now how some Awesome Lore! To start let's cover our Races a bit in Depth.
The original sorcerer lords of the ancient world, hailing from their home land of Vempirion where the history books over time have dubbed them; Vampires. The broad term given to the peoples of the Vempirion Empire is a crude attempt to group all of them as a single race; however this detracts from fact. While the elite or 'pure blooded' Vempirion's are the progenitors of the Empire itself and exploited this fact for justifying their caste system, the ignorant term of ‘Vampire’ being used for all of the peoples does not acknowledge that their empire in fact extended much farther than originally thought, consolidating and amalgamating other races in the process.
The Vempirion Empire practiced heavily in technological and biological advancement at any cost, utilizing blood magic and their Death Song (a weapon or thing lost to time that harnessed the power of the sun) to hold dominion over the continent.
History has a tendency to omit particulars and this is the case for the Fall of the Vempirion Empire. Shortly after extending their reach to the Northernmost reach of the continent with many scholars pointing to this being evidence as them using their Death Song, manipulating it in a way to create the Deathmarch but it can not be known for certain. What is certain is that shortly after this point, the Vempirion Empire fell. Abruptly. And all evidence implied that the people died out; however more than a thousand years later, ‘Vampires’ began to emerge once again.
A shadow of their former selves, the Vampires are afflicted with The Bloodphage. A biological curse, preventing them from being able to procreate and binding them to moonlight among other debilitating issues.
The Vampires have spent hundreds of years trying to relearn what was lost to time and reclaiming what they feel is their birthright.
The Yetirai Kecho Cha Danai or Yeti in the common tongue, originated from the Southern Algaaran Snow Plains and have traditionally been thought of as solitary creatures, rarely observed straying into neighbouring territories, however these reclusive creatures have been sighted more frequently in recent times. Even more bizarre is that some have claimed to have observed them working together in larger groups in a society like fashion. This is most unusual behaviour and at this time it is not known why the Yetirai Kecho Cha Danai have begun to do this but it is worth noting as there may be ulterior motives behind this contrary change in behaviour.
Contrary to common belief, Yeti’s are quite gentle and pacifistic in nature however the aggression they display when defending their young or when provoked is legendary in and of itself. Matriarch’s for example have been recorded on rare occasions to kill and maim whole platoons of armored knights and soldiers single handedly. The Yetirai Kecho Cha Danai also share an affinity with nature and the world around them. As such, they possess the intrinsic ability to bend the will of nature to satiate their need and desire. It is speculated that this intrinsic ability to remain symbiotically connected to Old World magic is in fact an evolutionary trait that they have possessed for millennia. This is best demonstrated by the construction of their homes. Trees for example will intuitively grow to shape and form the famous hut structures that Yeti’s are known for.
Wizards or ‘The Ageless’ as they are often referred to are without question, the most unusual and eccentric beings on the continent and are motivated purely by the need to acquire more knowledge and understanding of all matters and things.
These knowledge-hungry and extremely private Wizards are collectively known as the Schensea Hegemony and are politically neutral in all matters, however they are typically seen working across the continent for anyone or any faction that requires their service. Their payment is almost exclusively in the form of knowledge, trinkets or artifacts from the Old World or gold.
An interesting theory that has gained traction primarily with mankind and orckind as of late is the theory that even though they share some similarities with mankind, Wizards are in fact another race entirely with some going as far as suggesting that they are in fact alien to the continent entirely and not from this plane of existence.
While this theory can not be proven, it is without question that the secrets they hold are plentiful including the odd magic that they wield freely in front of those with whom their services are requested.
This unfortunately leads most to not trust Wizards and only utilise their services as a last resort.
More disturbing is archaeological evidence uncovered by the last of the Vampires to imply that Wizards first arrived on the continent in the North at the time of the fall of the Vempirion Empire as there is also no historical evidence that supports the Schensea Hegemony being around before this time period.
The deeply spiritual Minotaur's reside within the old Kolari Mines, in the valley between the Weeping Twins and are among the oldest of the races in Bossantium.
While the Minotaur's are not the original inhabitants of the Kolar Valley or the mines, they have adapted to their new home and embraced what was left of the culture of those who were there before them and hybridized the old Minotaur culture and lifestyle with this lost and unknown civilization in honor of them.
The stone work constructed by the old civilization is still as pristine as it would have been upon its creation and while the Minotaur's have attempted to replicate the old stone masonry techniques which are still extremely impressive in their own right, their quality and sturdiness still pales in comparison to the older stone work.
The Minotaur people are extremely hardy as conditions in the depths of the Kolar Valley and the Kolari Mines are known to be quite ruthless. A Minotaurs Rite of Passage to see them to adulthood for example, will task them with trekking the Labyrinthian Roads which span across what many think to be the entire continent and beyond.
To successfully complete the Rite of Passage, the young Minotaur must successfully locate the Presage Gate, enter it and bring back the head of a creature of the Underworld which resides beyond.
Once a successful hunt is completed, the young Minotaur becomes recognised as an adult and swears the Minos Oath to protect Kolar, The Kolari Mines, the Presage Gate and their people.
This relatively new Zombie phenomenon was discovered by humankind in the last moments of the Battle of Cameran and is the direct result of the Mad King; Urok of Akkadan, with the aid of seven of his Ageless and attempting to commune with something prior to pulling down a sky stone.
The cataclysmic event was recorded by hundreds of survivors, including several dozen who were in King Urok’s court, stating that they had witnessed the beginning of the ritual first hand and fleeing before seeing it through.
All accounts tell of a sky stone being pulled down from above by King Urok himself and his Seven to wipe out his kingdom, his people and those who had defeated his army.
The Mad King achieved his goal in part however he and the remaining members of his court and other loyalist's were forever changed, becoming the first of the undying and forever bound to Akkadan which is now referred to simply as the Plaguelands as all life slowly left, leaving only a scourge in its wake with some scholars linking this to the fall of the Vempirion Empire thousands of years prior and postulating that the two events may be partially or completely linked to one another.
The Seven Ageless who assisted King Urok that day were confirmed to have not been consumed by the sky stones fire but most frustrating for scholars and the other affected regions is The Schensea Hegemony’s refusal to discuss this matter further.
Fables of old are none too kind to many creatures and beasts and justifiably so, but in the case of the Werewolves one can argue that those stories are just that; fables. Fables that are woven by threads of truth and and by threads of deliberate non-truths and while the classic tropes of Werewolves told across many cultures and races share similarities and lend their ominous claims to some truths, one must also concede that these fables are misguided attempts to try to vilify a people who are simply misunderstood for the most part.
Werewolves originated from the Foltken Forests, traditionally living in large communities and dividing land harmoniously with each established Kin for equal trade, food and governance.
Not seekers of war or glory, the Werewolves are highly attuned with the land they occupy, similar to the Yeti’s affinity to the land albeit without Old World magic and will generally not venture outside of their established territories unless for trade.
Sadly with their customs being misunderstood and their appearance being that of beastly uncivilized folk, many Werewolves have been imprisoned, slain or worse on the trade routes for leaving their homeland and factions such as the Knights of the Karadon Imperium continue to provoke and fuel the fire with misinformation while they run their crusade against magic and beast-folk alike.
The most dishonest claim that has been made against Werewolves is that on a full moon they turn rabid and can’t control themselves while they are in a fit of rage with an even rarer blood moon physically changing them into larger and severely more aggressive facsimiles of their original selves.
Werewolves are naturally quite guarded people though and they do not share information about their culture very openly but what they have shared with a privileged few is that there are threads of truth in the claim. Werewolves all share the same trait of gaining strength and hyper focus during a full moon phase but this extends to other traits such as a sharper sense of hearing, sight and even a heightened ability to absorb information at a faster and more effective rate.
It is speculated that Reapers don’t natively inhabit the material plane, only appearing moments before large scale death events such as war, genocide, plague or famine to obtain specific or sought after souls of the dead. Why they don’t pilfer all of the dead of their souls is not known but they appear to have certain criteria that needs to be met for a dead body to be eligible for having its soul consumed
This marks them in most cultures as being a bad omen and all attempts to communicate with them on record across the ages have been unsuccessful.
What is recorded and known about the Reapers though is that they are extremely picky as mentioned earlier and also extremely quirky.
Wild stories of Reapers range from the macabre to the outright bizarre with some verifiable stories coming out of the Battle of Cameran for instance claiming that some Reapers were observed collecting various limbs from the dead with no regard to them or pattern while other Reapers were seen playing with the dead in a very childlike fashion.
It is very clear that Reapers exhibit individual personalities but unfortunately those personalities do not extend to communing with the living.
In times of old, Knights were often lauded as the heroes and the saviors of the story. The ones who brought peace to nations and who rescued those who were claimed and captured by evil. How ironic it is then to see Knights of today stray so far from the old ways or should we say specifically the Karadon Imperium from whence Knights originally stemmed from.
Their true history is a long and bloodied one.
The Karadon Imperium’s order was founded in the land of Iber's Point on two key beliefs shortly after the fall of the Vempirion Empire; that all magic and by extension its wielders is inherently evil and thus must be burned away from the land and that mankind alone holds the mantle of responsibility to see this objective seen through to the end.
One can contend that the Karadon Imperium was conceived by jealousy alone as humans are among some of the only creatures in Bossantium that don’t have a natural ability to wield magic aside from a very few number of outliers. One could also contend that the Imperium’s inception was due to mankind once being a ‘slave race’ by magic wielders such as the Vempirion Empire.
In any case, what remains true is that their cause is an unrelenting and unwavering one. This alone makes for them being at times incredibly cruel and violent toward non-human folk and has incited many crusades across Bossantium.
