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Dave's thoughts jumped, as his powers weakened. He saw places that he should have never been able to see, creatures that he only dreamed of. Perhaps he would realize that he was something special, something that only he and that unfortunate moon shared together. But, even as he entertained that idea, he shifted back to older thoughts and to his first walk along the land - before the lands where he met most of the creatures and life that he would see, more than any of their lifetimes could ever see. Before the mushroom men and their struggles, and before the ice.

He returned to the fertile lands of his waking. There he saw the fields, still growing - still ever fertile, and he paused.

Centuries must have passed in that pause - his feet were grown over by plants, rooted in the ground. He thought to harvest, and opted to fashion a scythe for which to harvest, but so too he opted to not yet harvest the land. He paused again - the walking seemed to take a toll on him in a way it did not before.

When he awoke, his body was enshrined in the vines of grains and grasses - and though he could have moved and harvested the land - he opted to wait, and see just a bit more. He strained his neck and head, for that was still not yet grown over, and looked over just a bit more of this fertile land, and he rested, again.

His eyes did not open, but a giant creature of plants, of straw and hay, took his place. Holding a scythe, it waited and watched.

Create Monstrosity: The Harvest Reaper. 5pts. Map

Create Great Artifact: The Scythe of the Farmer. (Good for harvesting!) 8pts.

13pts - 13 = 0pts.

[Demmes just pulls "Demm" as meaning deer in Breton, supposedly.]

Chalos came and conquered. Then, Chalos went. All the while, the Elafitaurs stayed to themselves, and somehow, survived the strength and wrath of the conqueror - though... the delicate creatures seemed to have lost the gaze of a lover, even as they now grew new confidence.

Even as Dave realized, suddenly, he was no longer along the mushrooms. Dave never grasped his power - and perhaps never would. He was weakening, but he was here, across the world. He saw the creatures of his dream, and gave them a simple order: build a city of farms, of magic. Strive to be less nomadic than those of Chalos. Ultimately, be fruitful.

He did this by planting the seeds - simple as that, the right crops to grow, the right plants in the right space - and there, a city grew: Demmes. The city of fallow deer, for fields would be left to fallow and the city abandoned if threatened by the more aggressive Centauros, only to be repopulated when the raiders leave.

The city would be beautiful, with creatures as handsome as any Centauros - secluded among the foothills, lost in nature.

Map.

Command Species - 1 city; 3 pts.

16-3 = 15 pts.

The Spread of Climate

Forever ago, Dave planted his first seeds from which grew new life and new plants. As if on a whim, the farmer-turned-mycologist had thought of what those seeds were doing now, harassed by the Maelstrom - and they came over on ebbs and winds. Both stonetree and crevassecap alike grew - taking on new shapes in the lands they now lay. The mushrooms grew quickly, taking to whole swathes of land, both on the Mael Coast (as he took to calling it) and in Greystalks - that name he took from the Amanitans, the name for the mountains that drove through the center of this continent. The trees of stone did not take to the lands of actual stone but, slowly and surely growing, outcompeted the windswept pines and providing even stronger shelter to the fox and deer and large wolves that lived among the winds. These trees of wooden stone grew thick and fast, from foothill to shore. They served as great windbreaks, allowing other, more fruitful (though the stone trees still bore their large cones) plants to grow as well.

[Shape Climate Fantastical x2, Green is trees and mushrooms, purple is just mushrooms].

The Spread of Peoples

Dave walked up the slopes of the Greystalks, looking upon the land.

To the southeast were the survivors, now thriving and growing winter-hardy wheats in the soils they sprang from. They built two major cities, but occupied many smaller. The first city, Hombyr, was the city of farmers, and Dave was proud of them for that. Though they were landed farmers, the hinterlands being owned by aristocrats, nobility tied to the land one was born on - not by blood. The soil, it seems, can bear strange fruits.

To the south, the Amanitans founded Maelsend - if there ever were a plutocratic city, this was it: magnates of trade ruled a republic of merchant-citizens. They took in trade from the gales out west, and spread it among the many city-states of the coastal lands the Amanitans came to inhabit.

These peoples [red] came to be known as the Morchells, occupying many city-states across the land, though all paling to the largest: Maelsend and Hombyr. [Command Species x1, 3 tiles, 2 cities and founding a free civ, "Morchells" = 9]

The Spread of Herds

Furth north, in the shadows of the Greystalks, Amanitans took on a more pastoralist culture - herding reindeer, yak, and other creatures adapted to the taiga and tundra.

One city grew up among the tribes and herds, Yerling - small relative to even desolate Berokolm, but nonetheless important: ruled over by a chief and their family, it represents the only truly permanent settlement among the cold plains.

[Same map - yellow tiles - herding though would spread across most the taiga, including the two red tiles ].

The Spread of the Islands

Dave's sight moved south, and so did he, walking. There, where the Amanitans spread previously, they founded a new city, and soon a new civilization rose with it:

Malmsolm and the civilization of Virescene [in blue]. They united as a federation of chiefdoms, each city and island ruled by chiefs, either elected for life or hereditary. The primary chiefs were five in number: the Chief-of-Homsew, in Malmsolm; the Chief-Over-Ice, in Berokolm; the Chief-Against-Wings on the island of Sanrok; the Mael-Chief, in the small islands north of Malmsolm; and the last (and least), the Chief-of-Stone on the island of Hedrok.

Change Climate (Fantastical) x2: 16pts

Command Species: 3 tiles, cities of Hombyr and Maelsend. (9pts)

Command Species: 3 tiles, cities of Yerling and Malmsolm. (9pts)

50-34 = 16 pts remaining.

Full Map, Berokolm already existed.

An age ago Chepra had come to the surface, the young god, without any knowledge of the world above. He had met with other beings of great power, many had aided him in his journey, teaching him the way of creation, of invention, of guidance. He had travelled far on this mortal world, learning from it as he did so, both good and bad, death and life, ice and fire, darkness and light.

Most of all though, he had watched as his Chepradi had grown, and changed over time. Facing adversity again and again, but with a little help, overcoming any challenges. They now spread across the continent, in many cities, with many different cultures and alongside many other species. He was proud of them, and what he had done.

How however, Chepra felt himself drawn back underground. He did not know why, perhaps he had simply learnt all that there was to know here. Perhaps it was time the Chepradi went unwatched, allowed to shape their own destiny.

For now though, Chepra would leave behind a parting gift, or rather three. Three items of power in which he bestowed some of his own essence, to help the Chepradi in the future. Each had great effect on the area around it, an effect that would last months even after the artifact had moved on, such that they may benefit Chepradi across all cities, if shared. Importantly however, the artifacts could only be wielded by Chepradi, he had seen the violence committed by other civilization before, and did not want these simply stolen away as soon as he disappeared. Neither would these artifacts work within one hundred miles of each other, as Chepra wished for these to be shared, and not horded by a single peoples.

To the Odweshana Chepradi, he granted a bracelet bearing a beetle holding fruit between it's mandibles. The Rustica Wristlet, one wearing the bracelet would bring great increase the fertility of the fields in it's presence, increasing the yield of crops and trees around it.

To the Orzyzae Chepradi, he granted a necklace bearing a beetle holding a fish between it's mandibles. The Piscatus Pendant, one wearing the necklace would bring great prosperity to the waters around it, for many miles in any direction, increasing the bounty of fish, and shellfish in the depths.

To the Xestobi Chepradi, he granted a circlet bearing a beetle holding a stag between it's mandibles. The Venandi Circlet, one wearing the necklace would bring great prosperity to the land around it, for many miles in any direction, helping the animals of the land thrive, and increasing their numbers.

With this done, Chepra gave one last look over the cold world, before he descended down the great dark hole in the east, returning from whence he came.

3x Create Great Artifact = 24 points
The Piscatus Pendant, the Venandi Circlet, and the Rustica Wristlet.

Throught the Primordial Age, Kharturri had acted as a single being. With the exception of the breaking off of Arrakh from Kharturri, Kharturri had remained whole for millennia. 

However, the bargain Kharturri had struck with Hell had changed things. Part of Kharturri had grown attached to Eir mortal creations, and no longer wished to escape. As Kharturri's alliance with Hell caused the death of the Children of the Volcano, the destruction of Kharturri's window to the world, and an ice age, the dissident parts of Kharturri erupted in open revolt. While one such part of Kharturri made its way to the surface, others began a great battle within the aesthenoshphere.

The result was the fission of Kharturi into two beings. The part known as Khar would contine to desire escape from its earthly prison to the void beyond. The second, the part known as Turri, was content to remain underground, providing the heat for the hot springs the Rakhloi so adored and the energy for the Pyrourgy still practiced over much of the world.

It was this fission which allowed Khar to escape. It appears the bars of Kharturri's prison were widely enough spaced that half of Kharturri could begin to ascend towards the surface. The point at which Khar ascended was directly opposite the Boiling Ocean, where Turri's power was concentrated. It lay under a vast glacier at the edge of the Antarctic continent. As Khar's heat rose to the surface, the glacier began to melt, its water running down into the cracks in the earth formed by Khar's ascent. The water soon boiled and turned to steam and erupted into a great geyser, carrying Khar up to the void beyond.

Khar's escape from the world left a scar behind. The crust where Khar had exited was cracked in many places, creating hot springs, geysers, and lava pools. Khar's heat, together with the remaining heat of Turri rising up from down below gave the region a permanently mild climate. The melting of the great glacier and release of volcanic gas began warming the climate. Ocean currents carried the heat all over the Southern hemisphere, ending the ice age which had kept the world frozen for centuries and allowing warmth to return to the land.

As Khar escaped, Turri remained behind. Deprived of Khar's raw power, Turri was unable to  create or destroy the way Kharturri had. Turri's power would only be sufficient for the maintainance of what Kharturri had created. Every time you bathe in a hot spring, it is Turri's heat that you feel.

Map to come

I lay my body down to rest

A drum falls silent in my chest

And so the world begins to sing

One last goodbye to everything

To those I've helped and souls I've crushed

To bones I've pulled out from the dust

To islands risen from the sea

To all those who come after me

And as embers rise up from the pyre

The last sparks of an ancient fire

I watch them dance above my head

And my vision fades to what comes next

[Create Great Artifact x5 - 40pts]

All are to be found in the center of the grand mausoleum, never to be disturbed.

The Staff Of Voshekh - A massive iron pillar matching the fallen god in stature, a single strike upon the ground from any who manage to wield it will raise all the dead who lie beneath where it touches.

The Wrappings Of Voshekh - Thin black cloth that seems to devour whatever light touches it. It will always blow, as if invisible wind, towards those who have died without being properly laid to rest.

The Eyes Of Voshekh - Cold, glassy orbs more than a foot across. All who touch them shall forever see, even in blindness, all the souls in this world, living or dead.

The Flesh Of Voshekh - Tought and leathery, those who eat it shall die and become shepherds of death, lingering to aid lost souls trapped in this world.

The Heart Of Voshekh - As small as that of a human and seeming to be made of the richest carnelian, it lies buried within the fallen god's chest. Whosoever holds it shall he never die.

Anhilation. Those children of Naqiq who had so valiantly met Chalos in battle were routed, and the city of Miunazama besieged. Their crime of resistance brought Chalos to order the Blight-Purge, and those Eyeblights found were exterminated. For their beauty was found utterly lacking. Block by block the city was purged at great cost, and soon enough Miunazama lay in ruin.

It was here that Chalos would found a new city atop the ruins of the old. Chalon, the shining jewel on the sea would serve as his capital. Skirmishes with the Rakkeru broke out in the north, but Ano'thal guided Chalos away from war with those killing creatures. For above all the eye wanted being to worship it, and dead Kentauros were no good in that regard. Chalos would rule his mighty Empire wisely for another decade before he passed, and with his passing the end of the mythic age came. The realm was split between his three sons, and they quickly fell to infighting. But the Blood of Chalos would bring great beauty and stewardship to all whose veins it ran through.

But Ano'thal's time was coming to a close. The endless tendrils that reached out from they eye were growing slow and heavy. The heat emanating from the Vain One grew hotter still as the mystic fuel that powered it began to run low. A chance meeting with its ancient brother, Hek'tharr brought a strange sense of comfort to it, and it knew it had to finish its business soon.

...Knowledge seeped from the earth into the minds of the Orcs, and their knowledge of coal mining expanded to that of many ores. The land itself seemed eager to open up to these techniques, and filled itself with copper, tin, iron, and all manner of ores.

...a great Hedron was formed by its hands and placed in the mystic Kentauros city of Cauen. It's surfaces imbued with runes to grant those of the Cloven Rose insights into the world.

Exhausted, Ano'thal crawled once more across the world to soak within the maelstrom. As it entered that great hurricane of energy and magic, its manifested time upon this plane came to a close. Drained of most of its power, the Seeing One's tendrils were torn asunder by the storm, and the Eye flickered in and out, not yet ready to close. Floating there, the energies of the Maelstrom wove themselves into the Eye, and it became a thing only half existing within the chaos. The mind of Ano'thal leaked into the cosmos, but its shadow would remain forever. For any mortal being who could make their way to the center of the storm could gaze upon its outline etched into the fog. Naught but a shadow of what was, and a promise of what could be.

Effects

• Command species- refound the City of Miunazama as Chalon. 3 points.

• Create magic- the Blood of Chalos that courses through the veins of his progeny brings sublime beauty and greater ability to lead. While initially it will be to a supernatural level, by the end of the time skip it will probably be diluted to being particularly gifted. 10 points.

• Advance Civilization- The Icecrown Orcs' skill at mining coal has been expanded into skill with mining in general. 6 points.

• Shape land- The earth, caves, and mountains around the Icecrown Orcs here to be filled with ores. 8 points.

• Create Artifact- Ano'thal has placed a hedron into the mystic city of Cauen, upon a leyline nexus. It's numberless runes will allow those who advance their magical learnings within the Order of the Cloven Rose to see glimpses of things yet to happen(bits of divination). 8 points.

Total: 23 points from Ano'thal, 12 points from Hek'tharr.

TBA

TBA

Singular Boon, 25 points from both Ayla and Aira

Throughout the world, different Rakhloi civilizations would develop very different characters. The most distinctive of these would be the Dzajari Sirrokhloi in the far North, the Green Sea League in the Igneous Isles and the, and the Labyrithine Rakhloi in the Labyrinth of Night.

(I am spending 18 points to 'advance civilization' for three different civs:

Dzarji Sirrokhloi advances in aquaculture

Green Sea League advances in underwater vehicle construction

Labyrinthine Rakhloi advances in underwater mining)

###The Aquaculture of Dzajar

The Dzajari Sirrokhloi civilization had always been based around the Great Warm Lake. The warmth of the hot-spring-fed lake had always allowed fish to flourish that otherwise could not live in the arctic climate. While the Sirrokhloi's arrival had allowed them to fish all natural predatory to extinction, eliminating their competition, the unstable ecosystem created in the lake forced the Sirrokhloi to actively manage the fish populations.

After centuries, the Sirrokhloi would be experts in aquaculture. They would know how to manage fish populations, and how to breed fattier and more disease-resistant fish. They would export the aquaculture methods they had developed in the Great Warm Lake to the arctic marine species that lived under the ice. They would grow great underwater fish pens out of coral, with perforated walls such that plankton and small fish could enter, but predators could not. The same tuna species which had been herded by the Sirrokhloi before their arrival on Dzajar would be bred to better suit them to living in pens. This aquaculture would be what would sustain the Dzajari Sirrokhloi population at much higher density than their arctic ecosystem would otherwise permit.

The Drajui of the Green Sea

The Green Sea League had always been the most technologically advanced of the Rakhloi populations. It had been their technology which had sustained the great North-South trade route that had brought them wealth, and it was was technology that had prevented them from collapsing in the onset of the ice age.

The premier technological development of the Green Sea Rakhloi was the drajun. The first drajui were simple shells from giant clams and giant crabs hollowed out and filled with warm water and heated stones. Over time, the simple shells were replace with more complicated, streamlined, forms grown from farmed coral. The shells would be lined with insulation made from kelp or from sea otter fur. The heated stone would be replaced with colonies of heat-producing bacteria and food for them. As the climate collected, the domesticated giant crabs that has originally pulled the drajui would be replaced with domesticated dolphins obtained from the Sirrokhloi.

The drajui produced in the Green Sea would be traded all over the Rakhloi world. The South Sea Rakhloi would use them for trade with Arborea, and the best drajui wpuld be necessary for travel around the Southern tip of Arborea between the Great South Sea and the Labyrinthine Ocean. Some drajui would even make their way to the fishfolk whose cold-blooded metabolism meant that they could do with extra warmth in arctic waters.

The Labyrinthine Mines

The Rakhloi were not the only species that mined the Labyrinth of Night. However, they were clearly the intelligent species most well-adapted to the task. Their bodies were already adapted to burrowing in dirt, so digging a mine and squeezing through tight shafts was second nature to them. Their chemotrophic metabolism allowed them to survive deep underground without oxygen or food for hours.

However, this did not mean the Labyrinthine Rakhkloi had no need of tools. A Rakblon's tail spade could dig through dirt or very soft rock, but was unable to penetrate solid rock. The tools such as picks and hammers which were used in above-water mining wouldn't work underwater in cramped tunnels when used by soft-bodied tentacled creatures. The Labyrinthine Rakhloi would have to develop spring-loaded hammers and other novel technologies for themselves.

Over the centuries, the Labyrinthine Rakhloi would develop the technology and skills to become expecting miners. Their techniques, while of little use above water, allowed the Labyrinthine Rakhloi to excel at mining some of the least-accessible mineral deposits in the world.

The waters of the Blackwater River were magic, that much was common knowledge. Any who had visited the river knew that the river was always cloaked in a blanket of darkness. The river could only be crossed by use of the sense of touch to navigate one of the few bridges (which themselves had been built using only the sense of touch) over the river. Even where the river emptied into the Inland Sea there it brought its darkness with it, fading into normal daylight as the river's water mixed with the sea's.

Few dared drink the water of the Blackwater River. While in small amounts, it would simply cause a slight darkening of the environment around the drinker, in large amounts it could cause permanent blindness and could prevent a Poderi or Khaderi from photosynthesizing. However, the mystique of the Blackwater has always drawn those interested in magic, and it appears that Covenanturges soon discovered it could aid them in their magic.

It is speculated, that originally, application of Blackwater to the eyes was simply a meditation aid, to help the Sequestrian more easily escape the flow of time. However, soon Paradoxicans began to claim that Blackwater in the eyes allowed them to more easily glimpse the future and Liminalists claimed that a judicious dose or Blackwater could grant eternal youth.

Those using Blackwater for magical means would soon become known as the Blacksighted. As fortune-telling was a profitable occupation, many charlatans began to claim to be Blacksighted without possession of any Covenanturgical skill. The Blackseers' Guild was soon formed to defend the profession against those pretending to possess Blacksight they did not have. The mark of a member of the Blackseers' Guild was a woolen clock from a sheep raised on the banks of the Blackwater River. Such a cloak possessed a blackness beyond that that could be produced by mundane dyes, and would remain black even when splashed with white paint.

Those entering the Blackseers' Guild would not be fully trained Covenanturges. The secrets of Blacksight would only be taught to those who were already guild members. A youth would join the Guild as an apprentice, helping out with menial tasks such as the collection and storage of Blackwater or the tending of sheep while learning the rudiments of Covenanturgy. Those most gifted in Covenanturgy would rise through the ranks, eventually becoming fully fledged Blackseers.

However, most apprentices would not show magical talent. The Guils could not allow them to leave and risk sharing even the most elementary knowledge of Blacksight with the wider world. Thus, the Guild became involved in professions reaching far beyond magic itself: shepherding, spinning, weaving, barrel-making, fishing, herbalism, and more.

The use of Blackwater itself was strictly regulated within the Guild. While an initiation rite involving three drops of Blackwater in each eye (causing momentary blindness) would be given to apprentices, most apprentices would have no further experience with Blackwater for years. The most powerful covenanturges, those who used Blackwater regularly, often ended up blind before they reached middle age. The more powerful the covenanturge, the more extensive would be the use of Blackwater, causing blindness at an even younger age.

Spending 4 points for 'Create Order"

Link to original post: here

New map: blue is Changeling movement, red is human, and colored in area is where they stay.

Point cost: 50

Added a small extension to the original spread

​

In order to help the Changelings spread We took our cleverest most curious mind and gave it a Name Pathyā. We weaved Pathyā into the very fabric of The Wandering Ways. Once and only once did Pathyā now open The Wandering Ways to be easily traveled, allowing the Changelings to easily spread far and wide across the world. Then Pathyā closed it back up, returning it to what it was meant to be, a winding, dangerous place with many hidden rewards. Pathyā is not idle though, they will occasionally give those they favor most hidden hinds as to dangers just around the bend. Pathyā also creates hidden puzzles deep within The Wandering Ways that very clever mortals can solve to gain treasure and favor with the mind.

​

The Great Mahat

Now all that was left to do to ensure Continuation was to give our creations a home, a city, a Great Mahat. So We gathered together all the minds We had separated from ourselves through the eons into the first Council of Minds. This council spoke of many things, but the first on the agenda was that this Great Mahat would be the last creation We ever made before We left. So We seperated one final mind from ourselves, a just mind who has helped as greatly in making the most difficult of decisions, and We gave them one final Name, Vivacana. Vivacana would not be the leader of the minds, but rather an arbitrator and guide to help them as they help the mortals. Then we set off to work on creating The Great Mahat.

We created the bloodied walls of the Bhitti, the arable hills of the Zaila, the stoic barracks of the Sainya, the mystery filled streets of the Griham, the enormous gates to The Wandering Ways of the Dvāram, the marble courthouses of the Prashasanam, and the unnerving headstones of the place with no name.

Create 6 cities and a civilization with the command species.

Cities: Bhitti, Zaila, Sainya, Griham, Dvāram, Prashasanam.

Civilization: The Great Mahat.

Location: here

Bhitti

Bhitti consists of a massive stone wall that surrounds the entirety of the Great Mahat, the wall does not however defend against armies or catapults, but something much worse, The GameWarden. Inside the walls are many monasteries of The GameWarden as well as grand feasting halls of hunter clans. Only the priests that reside in the monasteries know The GameWardens Name, Hiṃsā. They are sworn to secrecy and to only whisper the Name into fires atop the walls so that the smoke, now carrying the Name, will keep the Hiṃsā away from the city. They eat the meat harvested by the hunter clans.

The hunter clans also worship The GameWarden and it's violent tendencies. They revel in their great halls, drinking and eating of the many beasts they have slain. They are the only ones who will ever enter the forests surrounding the Great Mahat, and even then only by the light of a torch enchanted by the priests to keep the GameWarden at bay. They will sometimes even fight each other in the hallways linking their clans over small perceived slights, and the victors will often eat the losers.

Zaila

Zaila is by far the largest of the districts within the Great Mahat, being larger then all the other districts combined. The vast majority of the denizens of these wet rolling hills are farmers who worship Grhapa. The far reaches of Zaila are so distant from the rest of the Great Mahat that roving bandits will often set up fiefdoms where they ruthlessly extort food and supplies from the locals. Often, the only way to properly get rid of them is frontier justice.

Sainya

Sainya exists primarily underneath the Great Mahat, in a network of military outposts and study halls and universities, all linking back to the Citadel. The Citadel is a massive complex of libraries, living quarters, and war rooms. The denizens of Sainya are almost all members of the military, though often just in name, with many working at the universities or even going above ground to serve in normal jobs. This military serve as peace keepers for the Great Mahat and are all required to learn philosophy and otherwise be learned. This education can range from a couple of group lectures for the grunts to full higher education for the upper officers.

Theoretically they follow a strict military rank structure where different jurisdictions report to higher officers, but in practice it works closer to feudalism with officers often running their jurisdictions semi-independently. Often subscribing to different philosophic schools of thought, and enforcing the laws in there areas accordingly. This will often lead to conflicts between jurisdictions.

Griham

Griham is where about a third of the population lives in a dense urban environment. The population of this district are artisans, smiths, bakers and other midlevel workers. The streets are often filthy, but seemingly safe and quaint, with organized crime strangely very low. However, if you say the right names to the right people at the right time, or the wrong ones, a much darker side of the district will be revealed, full of secrets, intrigue and plots where names hold more sway then even money. Here an intricate web of mysterious people compete for control of powerful individuals through blackmail and bribery, and who's spys exist in all parts of the Great Mahat.

Dvāram

Dvāram is the only way in and out of the Great Mahat, having many stone doors that lead to various parts of The Wandering Ways. The majority of the district is covered in sprawling market places, grand guild halls, and the wealthy homes of merchant barons. A large part of the population of this district spends much of their time within The Wandering Ways, being merchants, explorers, adventurers and priests of Pathyā. This is also the only district in which you will see many non-Changelings who have come to trade and see the Great Mahat.

Prashasanam

Prashasanam is located at the very center of the Great Mahat. Atop a hill in Prashasanam is the capitol of the Great Mahat which consists of ornate, labyrinthine, marble hallways and chambers where a byzantine bureaucracy takes place. Full of many councils and bureaus, the capital makes the laws and attempts to assert it's control over the Great Mahat, to varying levels of success. The two most important positions in this bureaucracy are the Sat, the head of state and faith, and the Agraga, the head of government. Both positions are the most democratically elected positions in the whole of the bureaucracy, having full scale elections for each every 10 years, during which bureaucrats swarm out to every corner of the Great Mahat to collect votes, a process that can take upwards of a year and a half.

The population of Prashasanam consists mostly of politicians and bureaucrats who often come from an autocratic family who have massive mansions throughout Prashasanam. The rest of the land area of Prashasanam is taken up my massive gardens and monuments, as well as the smaller homes of the less important bureaucrats.

The place with no name

This place is NOT a mechanical city due to the fact that no people live here. It is a massive graveyard filled with unmarked gravestones, no one is to know the real name of a Changeling other than the god of names, who has no priests. No one goes to or talks about this place unless they have to, and most of the people who bury the bodies do so because they have no other options for jobs. Non-changelings are not allowed inside this place and will be killed if found here. At the center is a stone building with no doors and no markings.

The Meunaic Civilization came and went. The years turned, and new cities rose. A patchwork of bronze-wielding city-states battled for supremacy over the north-frost plains and their rich farmlands. Continued incursions by Tautaros and Adarkar warbands would cause brief coalitions, only for the herds to resume fighting once more.

The presence of the great beasts of the ice age, specifically the mammoth, gave the Kentauros/Phaunos access to mighty beasts of burden. With this power the small towns of settled agrarians steadily evolved into large walled cities, built for the glory of the Seeing-One. Large temples became commonplace in the cities, all featuring the Great Eye of their patron. The magics used to attempt communion and comprehension of the Eye led to the creation of ornate rituals, statues, and even art. Phaunos architects eventually developed a common style seen across the cities.

For the Kentauros, social stratification according to beauty became entrenched. Eventually five major ranks were developed;

• Stained- The Phaunos, along with those Kentauros born with defects and ugly. They are tolerated, and while some may prove useful through merit alone, they usually find little in the way of advancement or power.

• Faultless- Any Kentauros who possesses the minimum threshold of beauty and grace is granted this basic rank.

• Dignitaries- VIPs and higher-level functionaries among Kentauros attain the rank of Immaculate.

• Exquisite- Herd leaders, who lead armies and cities, and important courtiers are of the exquisite rank. They have the privilege of being able to speak directly to Perfects.

• Perfect- The perfect (note: not "prefect") are Kentauros so beautiful and so shrewd that they rule all others. There are only a few families of this rank in the world, and they are usually of great Kings. Perfects can kill those of low rank with impunity.

But if the cities and beauty of the Kentauros could inspire awe, their armies could inspire terror. Countless other beings have shuddered as the earth trembles before a Kentauros cavalry charge. Heavily armed and armored, there is little that can stand against a proper charge. Phaunos skirmishers and eyeblight(other species) mercenaries will screen the herds, serving essentially as fodder. Ironically, those of high rank who are disfigured in battle do not have it held against them, and are given a special title, that of a Peerless Scarred.

Thus was the civilization of those known as Kentauros and Phaunos when a young King rose to power. Such was his beauty that Phaunos fell at his hooves in awe, for Ano'thal himself blessed this being. Such was his cunning that he won many victories against the Adarkar, and in a multi-year campaign drove south into their lands. One by one the nomadic herds were subjugated or driven off, and several new cities and polities founded to govern them. The victorious Kentauros of his army were given fiefs of this new land.

But King Chalos would not see the nomads swept away, and instituted a wide range of legal reforms that both cemented the ranking system and protected those Kentauros and Phaunos brought under it. Thus was the lands of the Kentauros united, and Chalos given the moniker "Law-Bringer". The magic wielders of these kind were limited, and the "Order of the Cloven Rose" was founded as a way to codify and structure their use in both battle and priesthood.

With the Adarkar subjugated, it was now Chalos's duty to bring war upon the eyeblights of the coast. The Miunazama had long mocked the Kentauros with their hollow imitations, for they knew not the glory of the Seeing One. War would descend up those children of Naqiq, and Chalos himself would lead the armies.

Map of Chalos's Kingdom on the eve of the Miunazama Wars

EFFECTS

• Command species x2 to found five new cities, mapped in orange. 21 points.

• Advance Civilization for "Romanesque Culture". 6 points.

• Create Avatar- Chalos the Law-bringer. Basically "not-Charlemagne", he is skilled at war and rulership, though often risks himself unnecessarily in battle. He is the first of the "Perfect" rank. 8 points.

• Command Civilization- Chalos led the armies of his Kingdom in war against the nomadic Adarkar Kentauros. Now he seeks to remove the eyeblights of Naqiq from the nearby shores. Uses 6 points.

• Create Order- "Order of the Cloven Rose". Those who display magical talents are taken by the order for training, going either into the Priesthood or Templar branches for worship or war depending on those talents. 4 points.

• Raise Army from Arlois. 2 points.

Apart of Ayla couldn’t believe it, but the rapture of lava and the melting of ice told her otherwise. He had reawakened.

He came back to the Earth screaming and raging, and that worried Ayla. She did not know how much of her voice or spirit had reached the Slumbering One in his deepest, damaged slumber, but she knew others did. She could feel their energy in Gzhorakhinaygaki’s actions, and she did not like it.

It broke her heart a little to see him like this, raging and distraught. Yes, he helped get rid of that horrendous ice age offloaded onto their shoulder, but she would have been far happier if he did it in any other state but this.

She knew such a reaction was inevitable. How would she feel, if she was in his position? What would she do in his place? Ayla somewhat feared the answer, which made her sympathies for Gzhorakhinaygaki’s state all the greater.

Once he had simmered to a level, reached a state that seemed approachable, Ayla did. She walked through the remade Underseas. Water droplets dripped from stalactites, the walls shimmered with the waves of the water besides her. Great, towering walls of stone, rough of texture and with grooves from erosion, reaching high into the sky. They towered over that which was below them, forming a great dark vault, but twinkling with the lights that Ayla had bestowed there.

She walked along the stony paths, and then waded through the dark waters. What was another world and another ocean to a mortal, was an underground nook and pod to an Elber Being like her. She walked to a small island in the middle of one of the seas, in the centre of this new Undersea ecosystem. What an ecosystem it was. Fauna, flora, it was in abundance.

She sat on the island, admiring it all. Mosses, fungi, reptiles, mammals, arthropods and all other sorts of creeps and critters. Such a curious land, so unlike all others.

She sat on the island, on the edge of it, hugging her legs. She looked into those deep, dark waters Eyes of a similar depth staring back at them, her eyes. She rocked ever so gently, the ambience of the chthonic landscape being her only companion.

But, she wished for one more. She stared deep into those waters, and she felt like she was diving through them. Scrambling, searching, calling.

She wanted to meet the Lord of the Underseas, for she wished to speak to him once more.

The children of Berokolm

The descendants of the Amanitans who crossed the Great Mael Sea all encountered the Fire-Bird Arrakh one way or another. For those who still lived on the isle of Berok, the encounters were never friendly: the bird provided a respite from the cold by swooping through the Maelwinds and leaving devastation in its wake - destroying crops, burning the few wooden homes there were, and, when it came close, melting the stone ones too. Arrakh was a constant menace for the shelter-town's people, from the lowliest peasant to the petty chief that ruled over the people.

So it came that many, with the Chief-Over-Ice's permission, left Berokolm for new lands across the ice and seas. The chief was more than happy to see them go, for they left more food for the others still yet at home, and the peasants that left had no work to do in the cramped spaces of the isle. These Amanitans headed south, skirting lands inhabited by others of their own kind. They traveled over sea and ice, encountering first another hard, barren island, which they named Hedrok, and another, larger island they referred to Sanrok - the origin of such a name tied to some influence they did not quite remember. Finally, they landed on a continent, or at least a land they thought was a continent, for which, looking north and seeing the Maelstrom still spin, they named Homsew: a new land to live on.

These Amanitans carried on Berokolm's legacy: they were hardy folk, willing and able to farm the most desolate of lands. Though not quite a proper society, they soon fought between each other over the same petty inheritance that they longed for under the Chief-Over-Ice; for food, for title, for a claim.

The Temples to Arrakh

The descendants of the Amanitans who crossed the Great Mael Sea all encountered the Fire-Bird Arrakh one way or another.

For those near Sanakhuri, the island of Arrakh, it was in death. The Amanitans who traveled south all those years ago came to find warmth in the gaze of Arrakh. Had they known even the barest extent of rage it held to servitude, perhaps the mushrooms wouldn't have come here at all. But, they quickly learned - else, they burned.

They began to worship the Great Bird: it provided the only respite from the cold and wind on Sanakhuri and her nearby isles. Even the sun pales in comparison to the bright star-on-wings that they held Arrakh to be. Though the Amanitans still dressed in furs, they were not cold nor (to them) their hearts frozen unlike the chilled unbelievers that were skirted and even shunned by Arrakh.

They built two cities: one was slowly made of stone - Sanokbyr, at the mouth of the river Sanak that provided the only respite from the flames when the Amanitans first organized. Sanokbyr served as the temple city - while few truly lived there, many would travel for their last breaths, so that they may have a chance to be consumed by the two great flames.

The second, further from the light, was Eldisling - a city of driftwood and every material that could be found, straddling the island Sanrok and Sanakhuri's Little One (for that was its name, the Little One). Most buildings along the sea are built of stone or driftwood, those furhter away are often built of stones held by ice, far easier to make, though far less stable living acommodations. Eldisling serves as the capital and meeting place for the Arrakhan people, who follow a simple principle: spread warmth; for if you keep your heat, you will surely burn.

So, there were the two, and there in Eldisling did the mycelium grow in the soil and grow deep, and some of Dave's seeds took fruit.

Overall Map

Command Species: Spread 3 tiles (purple hexes, purple arrow shows how they got there)

Build two cities:

Sanokbyr: A temple city that exists almost solely as a religious site at the edge of the island on which Arrakh lives. Effectively it has no governance, save for the watchful eye of Arrakh and its hate for hierarchy and bondage.

Eldisling: A proper city, that while highly communal, serves as a (relatively) cosmopolitan place of trade for the various Amanitan peoples who populate the nearby areas. Though some acquire more wealth and power than others, it is largely democratic with the common threat to the growth of power being the Fire-Bird so close by.

Found Civilization: South of the dotted line in the Overall map, including the two new cities, it will be called Flamespore. More bound by common religion than any kind of overall governance style or structure.

Create Order: The Star-on-Wings religion, which praises the monstrosity Arrakh despite the near-omnipresent danger Arrakh presents. Most Amanitans in Flamespore follow the religion, though the religion itself has a priest caste which serves to direct rituals and not much else.

As a historical footnote for the religion, the last time a priest of the Star-on-Wings tried to establish influence over Flamespore proper, Arrakh attacked Sanokbyr and nearly destroyed the city.

(Command Species with two cities (9) + Create Order (4)) = 13 points

Should be at like, 31 points.

[Shape Land Fantastic - The Grand Mausoleum]

[Command Species - 3 Cities + The Osseid Hierarchy]

[Cost: 20pts]

map - Red is the mausoleum and blue is the cities.

Within the dusty planes of the bonelands a structure begins to rise. Cracked soil gives way as day after day, year after year, smooth black stone makes itself known. Though the mortals may not yet know its purpose the scale is truly incomprehensible, far larger than even the grandest cities. At first it would appear more akin to some freak accident of geology than any intelligent structure. At first, that is, until the tops of the doorways started to appear. It took most of a year for them to be fully uncovered, massive arches at least 20ft tall, and just as long for the ornately carved stairways leading up to them. At last, though, the grand mausoleum was complete.

Although externally a simple stone box, its unnaturally smooth surface broken only by prominent entranceways once every few miles, the inside of the mausoleum is remarkably complex with seemingly little rhyme or reason to its layout. Rows upon rows of small rooms occupied only by carvings were broken up by massive "churches" filled with rows of inhumanly large benches and sprawling mazelike hallways, some delving deep into the earth like catacombs. Despite its massive size, however, it is almost unerringly true that any mortal being following their instincts will go deeper and deeper into the structure until they reach the final chamber at its heart, although intentionally going against ones instincts will just as assuredly lead them out. Measuring nearly 100ft long and 20ft wide, this final chamber is taken up almost entirely by a single enormous rectangular pedestal, meant as the final resting place of the structure's creator. It is within this chamber that a group of skeletons, drawn together by its strange properties, would meet. It was here that they would come to discuss the great problems that afflicted the skeletal race and how they might be solved. It was here that the first osseous empire of the bonelands would be born.

At first the city seemed to be a relatively minor affair, loosely organizing those who found their way into the grand mausoleum to continue gathering resources while still enjoying the safety of its walls. With time, though, the community would grow and the handful of founders would cement their dominance over it. The rules were, in many cases, harsh but the advantages of greater organization outweighed the freedom of the open planes. With time this city would even grow to expand its influence beyond the mausoleum, taming the straits to the east and finally the planes themselves, and become a true imperial core.

The Osseid Hierarchy, for that is what the empire was called, was organized entirely as a consequence of its inhabitants and their strange sort of unlife. When a corpse was first raised it would be made the property of the mage that raised it for half of its ten year lifespan as a way to pay back the debt owed. When the mage was hired by the state, as was very often the case, this generally meant being sold off to the highest bidder, often to any other nation in need of tireless, foodless labor. Once this period ended they would, if they stayed in or made it back to the bonelands, find themselves in a strange and rigid society with a sharp divide between the masses who could afford only a handful of decades before being left to turn to dust in the grand mausoleums and the nobility who could afford to profit from the resurrections of others and, through such methods, attain immortality. The granting of functional immortality for the upper class meant that ranks among the nobility were determined not by their level of power but by how entrenched that power had become. A noble with a relatively small estate over which they wielded absolute dominion and from which they could reliably extract just enough resources to survive for centuries would be viewed far more highly than one who came into unheard of wealth within a generation and could lose it and fall dead within the next. At the top of this hierarchy, though, was a single skeleton revered among the rest. The First Hierarch, the undying founder of the empire. From its throne within the western quarter of the Grand Mausoleum, disturbing the burial chamber with such things was seen as taboo, it rules the Hierarchy with absolute authority and holds the nation's fate in its skeletal hands.

Map

Kharturri was aware of everything everything that happened below the Earth's surface. In particular, Ey was well aware of the great mineral deposits and unique ecosystem of the Labyrinth of Night. While Kharturri had been distracted by other matters, the destruction of Askhurru and the Ash Empire ended those distractions. Kharturri soon realized that the Rakhloi Ey had created, adapted to undersea burrowing, would be perfect miners for the mineral wealth of the Labyrinth.

Thus, Kharturri placed a desire in Eir children's mind, giving them the desire to migrate South and West from the Green Sea where their most advanced civilization was located. Rounding the Dragon's Tooth, the migrating Rakhloi would enter what they would call the 'Great South Sea'. Here, they would find waters warm enough for them to build cities on the seafloor, and various peoples surrounding the ocean on all sides.

A great drajun route would be established across the Great South Sea, from the Dragon's Tooth in the Northwest to the coast of Arborea in the Southeast. The Rakhloi drajuns could carry bulkier cargo than a cart or sled, and were more reliable than surface ships, making the Rakhloi undersea trade routes competitive (for goods that would not be damaged by sea water). The Rakhloi traders would develop a civilization known as the 'South Sea Rakhloi' (circled in orange on map).

The South Sea Rakhloi would establish four great cities. In the Northwest, where waters were warmer, the cities of Olarion and Malluron were built on the seafloor and had no need of heating. However, farther South, where waters were colder, Rakhloi could not survive without heat during the ice age. There, they built the cities of Sankhuon and Grondhon on land, or rather under it. Fires on the surface that were kept perpetually burning would provide the heat needed to keep the Rakhloi below the surface warm.

The Rakhloi would not stop their migration in Grondhon. While they could not survive in open water around the South tip of Arborea, the water was not too cold for travel by heated drajun, and Rakhloi would round the tip during summertime. Soon after rounding the tip of Arborea and reaching the Labyrinthine Ocean, the Rakhloi would discover the Labyrith of Night that would give the Labyrinthine Ocean its name.

The Labyrinth of Night would be an ideal habitat for Rakhloi. The deep canyons in the ocean floor contained warmer waters heated geothermally and undisturbed by the ice age. The walls of the canyons provided an easy substrate in which to built underground cities. Below the canyon floors, the Rakhloi would discover vast deposits of ores and gems. From the canyon floors and burrowed into the canyon walls would spring up five great cities: Dondin, Slankin, Khronin, Bansin, and Drunshin.

As the ores mined by the Rakhloi could not be smelted underwater, trade would soon open up with terrestrial peoples better suited to smelting the ore. In the West, ores would come ashore at the port of Slaasuron, where the terrestrial people of Arborea would trade the products of the land for ores and gems from the sea. In the East, the Rakhloi would make contact with the fishfolk, who in turn had contact with the merfolk and the land-based Chepradi and Ashen Lands. This trade would make the Labyrithine Rakhloi (circled in yellow on map) into the richest of the Rakhloi civilizations.

Unlike the Rakhloi, who arrived as wandering traders the fishfolk in the Labyrinth of Night were politically organized. The Abyssopelagic Empire soon discovered that the Rakhloi, with their spade-shaped obsidian 'tail', soft bodies which could squeeze through tight spaces, and ability to tolerate and even feed off volcanic gases that were toxic to fishfolk, were more effective miners than the fishfolk themselves. Many Rakhloi became subjects to the Abyssopelagic Empire and the three Easternmost Rakhloi cities were directly subservient to the Empire.

Command species x10 will cost 30 points. Luckily Hek'tharr is willing to donate 15 points so I only have to pay 15.

When the sun went out, the Amanitans did not worry. They, after all, are mushrooms. Light is hardly an issue if you can eat most things. When the sea cooled, and ice started encroaching, the Amanitans did not worry. But when the soil began to freeze - then, they did worry. Some stayed, eeking out meager livings on frozen grounds. Those that could not survive on those coasts left in great migrations. We follow one such group of Amanitans, who made their way across the ice, like fools.

An Amanitan is not a particularly warm-blooded creature. They are born like any other mushroom, a fruiting body stemming from the mycelia of a loving parent (or two). This grounded Amanitan, with its many brothers and sisters, stays stuck to that mycelia, until it grows a "will." Then, and only then, when it sees with its eyes the world and wills itself to move, will the small mushroom take its first steps. Amanitans are rarely magical creatures, because the "will" takes that energy from them. It keeps them moving. When they lose it, they die, disconnected from the mycelium that would feed them.

Out on the ice, the pitiful, pitiful ice - that will is all they have. There is no food to sustain them and their minds, and every step saps more and more of them, as their bodies desperately try not to freeze. As they move south, they might feel warmer - but even as the sun goes ever higher, they get no energy from it. They are mushrooms, after all. Not plants.

Suddenly, fortune changes for this small group of fungi. For the worse. The ice breaks, and they are stranded at sea - occasionally, they'll hear the calls of the great firebird, feasting on who knows what as they starve. For what may have been months, as the mushroom men dwindled in population (eating their dead - if they had any compunctions about cannibalism before, they certainly don't now), they were pushed and pulled by the Maelstrom and its currents - the firebird's calls getting louder.

Until one day, they landed. On a pitiful rock, but a rock they could call their own nonetheless. The sun shone more than it did - even with the great roiling clouds and wind of the maelstrom. They could even grow some food.

Here, they founded a city, built of stone and not much else: Berokholm, a shelter from Arrakh, A shelter from the ice, A shelter from the storm.

But food was still scarce - and barely two generations thereafter, other groups left, hoping to find more fertile pastures. One went directly south - to the calls of a great bird, hoping to find food wherever that beast might live. The others went southwest, hoping to find better islands, south of the Mael.

Map

Red arrow points to the island where Berokholm is. Green is the command species path - none live in the ocean, obviously.

Command Species: 3 tiles + 1 city = 6 points.

The adaption to the new era of ice and col had taken some time, but with the advancement of ice sailing, ice fishing, and the trade of lumber and coal, the Chepradi across the continent had begun to grow once more.

Against the foot of Giantspine Mountains, a trading hub of Icecrown Orcs and Oryzae naturally developed against the mountains. Here the merchants of the Orcs and the Oryzae would meet to exchange wares, often spending several nights to gather supplies for the return journey. Before long, a permanent presence began, as fishermen established themselves to sell to the merchants, and merchants themselves started basing themselves from the settlement. This settlement would become known as Levamen. (Purple)

In the east, entrepreneurial Oryzae of Pondero looked for more locations to supply timber from, and soon settlements along the eastern banks of the inner sea began appearing. One in particular would grow, as Kahderi, Xestobi, Kilda, Sunbutiki, and Khartiki, all descendants of the former Ash Empire, joined in the labour and growth of the settlement. The settlement, named for the variety of people dwelling within, was called Cunctus, and soon was a city in it's own right, with a sizeable lumber and wood craft trade, as well as food. (Light Green)

In the south, the ice sailors of the Odweshana began to explore further and further from their own cities. A vast island was found in the west, rich with forest, and hills, surrounded by the ice sheet. A settlement grew here out of those who sought new fishing grounds and wood of their own to trade, and soon an extensive lumber trade began, as sailing over the ice to the Odweshana cities was far easier than the prior overland route. The people of this city soon came into contact with those known as fishfolk, and trade between the two cultures soon became common enough. This city was known as Proculmaris. (Dark Green)

The Odweshana ice sailors too explored the great cliffs of the south, and discovered a great gap in the cliffs where the land levelled out to a beach. The great cliffs either side provided an excellent space for fortifications, much to the delight of the Odweshana, while the beachhead would allow buildings to be constructed and inland exploration. The settlement of Inrupes soon grew into a city, as it acted as the central ice sailing port for the Chepradi settlements that would spread across the western areas. (Pink)

In the north-west, the Xestobi Chepradi, long confined to the icy swamps, began to venture further as they traded more and more with the Orzyzae and Icecrown Orcs. Following the froze river northwards they found a new lake and forests against the mountains. Fish were plentiful here, apparently swimming under the frozen river northwards, and the forests provided fuel and hunting grounds. The settlement of the lake began, and against the forest the settlement of New Lacus grew, a combination of Icecrown Orcs and the the Xestobi, who traded both the with Chepradi down river, but also their mountainous orc brethren. (Blue)

From this settlement grew a second, further west against a natural frozen harbor, similarly situated against a forest. The city of New Mares would prosper, shelter against the bitter westerly winds, and fostering a mixed economy of trade, hunting, and fishing. (Orange)

New Mares and New Lacus would have repeated setbacks by the Giants of the region however, who would often come down and wreak havoc. As such, the Odweshana were sought out, bringing with them their fortification building expertise. Great walls of earth and timber would be built around each city, and food stores buried under the earth. In this manner, the Giant's would be fended off from the two cities, though many smaller settlements would still often suffer attacks.

Map
5 new cities + 1x spread species = 18 points
Advance civilization: the Xestobi learn the ways of fortification building from the Odweshana = 6 points Advance civilization: the Odweshana learn the ways of ice sailing from the Orzyzae = 6 points

Chepra: 30 points

Under the storm-tossed seas, the fishfolk expanded. As the ice age bit down, the currents of the seas became strange, shifting from their usual routes. In this strange and changeable time, the King of Zerian sought augury from the foretellers of Nerida of how best to guide his people.

More cynical minds would say that he strong-armed the priests into telling him what he wanted to hear by threatening to tear their city apart, but whatever the instigation the priests’ augury was the same; in this age of great change, Zerian must take up its rightful place as the leading light of all fish-folk. The King adopted a crown of deep carmine coral and took up the title of Emperor of Abyssopelagia, annexing Nerida as the spiritual heart of his new empire. Those who resisted the new order were hunted down by the Imperial legions, imprisoned, declared “Servants of the Imperial State” (slaves by any other name), and sent into the Labyrinth of Night to be worked to death. To house these poor unfortunates, the Emperor ordered the building of a new city. Lying at a nexus of canyons, he named it “Zantec”, or “Many ways”, and from here the great Imperial Companies dispatched prospectors and indentured workers to mine new veins of precious minerals and stones to fuel the growing state of Abyssopelagia. Using superheated volcanic vents, the Emperor’s armourers experimented with metallurgy for the first time, and though they failed to produce anything of great military value, they were able to craft delicate golden jewellery which went to adorn the bodies of generations of Demersal Majesties and Benthic Dukes. Hundreds of thousands of miners toiled away at the dense volcanic rock, always risking gallery collapses, hungry sleeper sharks, explosive and toxic gas pockets, and a dozen other lethal dangers for the sake of the Empire’s glory and vanity.

A short distance away, changes had been occurring to the city-state of Moline too. The shifts of currents for them had been more beneficial; the mixing of the frigid waters of the Cut and the waters of the volcanic trench of the merfolk created benign currents that eased trade to the east. Soon new settlements sprung up; to the south Basathell emerged as a trading hub with the merfolk, a bustling and cosmopolitan hub oozing with good manners and upward mobility, soon establishing itself as the height of fashion where the finest goods could be found. To the north, New Nerida grew around the submerged remains of Drokhport, at first just a handful of scavengers, but soon attracting dry-land hunters, raiders, loggers, and those who served them, a motley crew of chancers united only by their desire to get rich quick and evade any law.

A standard currency quickly emerged among these cities; merchants used strings of cowrie shells to mark the value of goods in transit or in lien, and soon began exchanging these strings as items of worth in and of themselves, with single shells, or handfuls entering use as spare change.

The ramshackle councils of merchants, craftsfolk, and mercenaries in these trading cities watched Zerian’s expansion with alarm. The Empire’s brutal rule would stifle their freedoms, and more importantly their ability to make as much money as quickly as possible. Seeking safety in numbers, they united into the Federation of Currents. Perhaps “united” is a strong word; as soon as it formed it was riven with arguments as Moline demanded New Nerida deport its criminals, New Nerida demanded trading concessions from Basathell on dry-land goods, and Basathell refused to put a single cowrie towards unified defence of the other two. This feuding belied their commonalities; as much as they disagreed, they knew their fates as trading cities were intertwined, sink or swim.

Command Species - Fishfolk: Spread to Orange Hexes x3 (9pts), Build Cities (Zantec, New Nerida, Basathell) 9pts, Command Species - Fishfolk: Form Civilisation (the Abyssopelagic Empire (Black border), the Federation of Currents (yellow border)

Khaderi were not smart creatures. They were not long-lived. But they were hardy and they reproduced quickly. Thus, it only took a dozen generations for the Khaderi population in Tremmendir to outgrow the carrying capacity of of new continent's Northwest coast.

From the Northwest coast, Khaderi soon began to spread to the far reaches of Tremmendir. The move South along the coast to the mouths of the three great rivers, and then inland along the river valleys. They spread East along the Northern coast of Tremmendir to the shores of the encolsed sea. They even spread overland into the heart of the continent. The only part of Treanor they did not settle was the far South which was covered in glacial ice.

Throughout Tremmendir, the Khaderi would settle in small farming villages, which would be organized into hereditary chiefdoms led by the strongest child of the strongest child of the chiefdom's founder. Succession to the title of chiefs would be determined by unarmed combat, it what was in theory a fight to the death, but would usually be ended by the loser yielding.

###Chiefdoms and Cofederations

As the continent began to fill up, these chiefdoms would come into competition with each other over agricultural land. As wars between chiefdoms escalated, the chiefdoms began to join together into confederations.

The most powerful of these confederations was centered around the great lake at the heart of Tremmendir and was known as the 'Confederation of the Heart'. It's most powerful cheidom had its headquarters in the city of Khuroina, one of the few urban settlements in all of Tremmendir. As the Kharderi were too technologically primitive to sustain a trades-based urban economy, Khuroina's urban population (consisting mostly of soldiers and administrators) was largely sustained through tribute alone.

###The Priesthood of Dalkha

The only thing that kept the wars between the Khaderi chiedoms and confederations from growing beyond local conflicts was religion. Within a few generations of Dalkha’s final solidification into stone, the Khaderi forgot that the figure of Dalkha in the centre of Alkhana was actually Dalkha’s solidified body, and they began to use the obsidian ‘statue’ as a place of worship where they prayed to Dalkha to return in times of need. The Khaderi soon built a temple around the ‘statue’, and the keepers of the temple grew into a priesthood that maintained subsidiary temples throughout Tremmendir.

The Priesthood of Dalkha would enforce three religious laws throughout Tremmendir. The first would be that only members of the Priesthood would be permitted to practice pyrourgy and that pyrourgy should not be used in violent ways. As pyrourgy was a rare gift amongst the Khaderi, and as pyrourgists could expect a very privileged life among the Priesthood, this law was enforced without difficulty.

The second religious law was the right for any party involved in a military conflict to ask the Priesthood to enforce peace. While the pyrourgists of the Priesthood would not use fire against Khaderi themselves, they had no qualms in burning the fields of aggressive parties involved in a war where the other side had asked for their involvement. Once fighting was brought to an end, the Priesthood would arbitrate the original dispute that had started the war.

The third religious law was a requirement for all Khaderi to support the Priesthood by paying an annual tithe to the local temple and by offering members of the Priesthood food and lodging wherever they traveled. These tithes (paid in the form of food) allowed the temples to stockpile food to offset the inevitable famines that were too common during the ice age.

###Trade with the Meerids

As the Khaderi reached the East coast of Tremmendir adjacent to the enclosed sea, they met the amphibious race of Meerids. Compared to the Khaderi, the Meerids were large, intelligent, and physically weak. While the Khaderi came into conflict with those Meerids who came ashore to farm coastal agricultural land, the Khaderi-Meerid relationship was one of trade. Khaderi desired the goods of the sea that they could not get for themselves (as the Khaderi were barely intelligent enough to build a dugout canoe), and were happy to provide Meerids with a cheap and easily replenished source of labor in return.

The Khaderi-Meerid trade would be centered around the port city of Ornukha, located at the end of a great trade route leading from the temple city of Alkhana through the Confederation of the Heart to the Eastern shores of Tremmendir. In Ornukha, Khaderi laborers would build boats and weave fishing nets under Meerid supervision. While Ornukha was officially rules by a Khaderi chief, it was well know that it was actually the chief's Meerid advisors who were really in charge.

###Mechanics

MAP

Ccmmand Species x2 to spread the Khaderi, found two cities, and found a civilization. 6 points

Create order (the Priesthood of Dalkha). 4 points

10 points total

Any intelligent species in a crisis has the capacity to turn generalist, and as obligate omnivores the kilda were well placed to turn the Ice Age into an opportunity. For a start, they began to congregate, and on their home island, a kilda city began to take shape. With their sharp claws and crude tools they hacked out nooks and crannies in sheer cliff faces to serve as long-term nests. Those higher up the stack decorated with stolen silks and jewellery, while those lower down had to make do with their own down feathers and dry leaves. Ad-hoc gangs in began to crystallise into social formations, taking the shape of vertical courts where the newest and weakest members clung to perches a few feet above the lashing sea while the toughest lived in precarious luxury on the clifftops, their raucous laughter and partying edged at all times with the knowledge that any challenger might send them toppling back down the ladder. The most famous raiding gangs took on legendary status; the Regal Seagulls, the Sky-Rats, the Sixty-Nine Thieves, the Asinine Bastards, the Twing-Twangers, the Hellpunchers, the Milkmen, the Windowshitters, the Beach Boys, the Chip Hunters, the Arrow Club, the Bad Eggs, the Beak Street Irregulars, all were known and feared throughout the land, among the first myths of the Mythic Age.

From the city of Killmatch, these terrors new and larger raids went south and west. Entire villages of Mekhota disappeared overnight, carried off by cackling kilda that came screeching in from the coast, hungry for prey and loot. In the south, as the ice age caught the roaming armies and refugee columns unawares, the erstwhile allies of the Oryzae turned pirate, raiding all around the inland sea, picking off trading columns from above. They brought back coal back to Killmatch to fuel their forges, food and captives to feast upon, and gold to preen over. They spread to the mountains around Orukhaz, among the high crags inaccessible to all except other kilda. The Ashen States, and the newly-freed Sunbutikid cities were easy pickings for the kilda; no longer under the protection of the armies of the Molten-Crowned, the kilda gangs flowed into the power vacuum and grew fat on the loot and prey carried off to their lairs. Parents no longer used the kilda as an idle threat to scare misbehaving children; the seagull folk became the matter of town-meetings, of militia musterings, and of fearful whispered conversations. People began to hope for cloudy skies and bad weather that they might be spared another day from the coming of the dread gulls.

3x Command Species - Kilda: Spread to marked hexes (Red circles) and found the city of Killmatch, 9pts.

Chepra watched mournfully as the years passed by, the cold spreading across the land, gripping the topsoil, then sinking it’s teeth deeper and deeper. The Chepradi, deep underground in their new homes, slowly dwindled in numbers as time passed and food dwindled.

They had adapted somewhat well to the sudden change, but to say they were prospering was far from the truth. Gone were the days of hunting, planting, and building, now it was but scavenging, digging through the soil for frozen spoils, living off what few berries did grow in the tundra landscape.

For nature too had adapted to the changes. In the east the temperate jungles were replaced with taiga forests that had quickly sprung up in the extra-fertile soils. While in the inner-sea Chepra too saw changes, the cold had killed off almost all the old fish within a few years, but now, up from the south seas via an old tunnel came new fish. These fish had long lived in the cold even before the ice age, and amidst the nutrient rich inner sea they thrived under the layer of ice that now covered the surface.

Chepra knew this, but the Chepradi did not, and as he watched them wither away he cried out to some. And so they went out, and using stone tools carved into the ice and lay down fishing lines that had remained unsused for decades or more. With great rejoicing he watched as they pulled upon the ice great fish, some almost 40 kilos kilos in size.

Upon seeing such success, Chepra was quick to speak to the Xestobi of the swamps and Odweshana of the coast, and saw too as each group ventured onto their respective ice and too began reaping the wealth of the water.

While they did occupy much of his time, the Chepradi were not all that Chepra viewed in the many years since the cold came. West of the inner sea in the Giantspine Mountains lived orcs, amidst natural caverns, similar in a way, to the way the Chepradi lived undergrounds.

For some of these Icecrown Orcs, the cold was a constant challenge of life and death. Many were fortuante enough to leave amongst caverns with great steam vents underground, these would heat the caverns, but were often reserved for only the shamans of each group. Many instead had to live far closer to the surface, where the moist air served only to chill the bones rather than heat. Without the fire of Zhanageshi these orcs had to resort to burning what fuel they had, often scavenged timber, but mostly the fat of creatures they killed, while maintaing warms was aided in the wearing of great furs of these creatures.

But Chepra, who came from the great depths, could see these caverns for what they were. He guided the orcs to dig in certain areas using their obsidian tools, and in doing so uncovering great deposits of coal amidst the caves. With bountiful fuel, the Icecrown Orcs would no longer struggle to stay warm.

The increase in food meant that Chepradi had once again been able to travel between the cities, rekindling the old relationships that the Oryzae, Xestobi, and Odweshana once had. Travel between these cities was a long and arduous process, and so Chepra spoke to them once more, rekindling the old knowledge of the boats of the Oryzae, and gifting the Chepradi with new knowledge.

With this, some Ozyzae travelled east, and using the new pine of the taiga forests, far longer and straighter than the former jungle timber, they built great sleds. These sleds were too powered by the winds, fielding great sails, and allowing the Oryzae to again travel with ease. Across the inner sea they could fly atop the ice, as well as the former rivers of the western swamps. Travel over the land was much more difficult, but soon the Oryzae’s lighter sleds were too soon travelling over routes to the Odweshana, the routes becoming used frequently enough as to wear them down into makeshift roads of ice and snow.

In the southeast, Chepradi moved to live alongside the forests, felling the timber before sending it to the cities to trade for fish that was slowly dried in the sun and wind of the frozen lands. Near the mouth of the dark river, where the still flowing waters met the ice of the inner sea, a permanent settlement formed. The settlement known as Pondero grew, it's inhabitants becoming expert in their craft, The city was named for the beetles found within the pines, but also for the contemplative nature such journeys aboard the ice sleds often were. The city sat against a great backdrop of blackness, which served as a form of security for the inhabitants of Pendero, who need not worry of enemies emerging from that direction as they once had.

Before long, contact was made with the Icecrown Orcs, who in surplus of coal but always in need of food, were quick to begin exchanging these. The coal, while useful as raw fuel, was also a energy rich source for the users of Zhanageshi, allowing them to perform magic as strong as the stories of the old days.
In addition to the coal, traded obsidian shards would prove useful to the Chepradi in the felling and carving from the timber, while Oryzae would be seen atop their ice sleds, draped in the fur clothing crafted by the orcs.

Soon trade was underway all across the inner sea, with any animosity toward the ancestors of Cindertown long forgotten in the century passed, and the exchange of goods becoming more and more common between all cities of varying species and culture.

Chepra was happy once more, for for the first time in a while felt hope. Hope once more for a world now frozen.

Map: Trading routes in white
Advance Civilization x2: the Oryzae are now adept at ice sled sailing and lumber felling/crafting.
Advance Civilization: the Icecrown Orcs are now adept at mining (coal specifically)
Command Species: One new city, Pondero.

Chepra: 19 points

The Ash Empire was no more. It's inhabitants had been frozen and eaten, its most important port had been sunk, and much of the Empire had been covered in lava.

However, while the empire had quickly collapsed into near-anarchy, much of its inhabitants had remained. The Khartiki, the former ruling class, had little to rule over these days, but were still valuable to their neighbour's for their ice-melting magic. Many of the Khaderi had died or crossed the ocean to the East, but the impressive Khaderi reproductive ability meant that they could always bounce back. Additionally, there were thousands of former slaves: Oryzae, Xestobi, Sunbutiki, Kilda, even Merfolk, who had found themselves suddenly freed as the Empire collapsed.

While many of the Empire's former inhabitants would flee to less-chaotic neighboring lands, there was one thing keeping many of the former slaves from leaving: the magical fertility that still permeated the soil. While the destruction of Askharru had weakened the magic, and much of the ash fields had been re-forested, some of the magical fertility still remained.

It was the fertility of the ash fields, in a time of worldwide famine caused by the ice age, which formed the backbone of the Ash Empire's successor polities. The governments of these polities were as diverse as the people that made them up. But Kahderi farmers, Xestobi Woodstock, Oryzae and Kilda fishers, Sunbutiki desert rangers, and Khartiki pyrourgists would find ways to coexist and trade. While this coexistence would not always be peaceful, any wars would remain local, and no vast empire would be rebuilt.

The Ashen Lands, as these successor polities would be known, would extend from the lava flows covering Hellmouth in the South to the great Sunbutiki desert in the North. They would be divided in three by the narrow strait (which was frozen over due to the ice age) and by the dark lands of the former volcano and the dark river flowing from it to the frozen inland sea. There would be only two things that would tie these lands together as a single civilzation: firstly, they would all speak the old language of the Ash Empire as a lingua franca. Secondly, Khartiki pyrourgists would have a prominent economic role throughout the Ashen Lands.

The two largest cities of the Ashen Lands were both in the North. Cindertown, Molten-Crowned's original capital, would still be fairly important politically as the capital of the Regency of Cindertown. The Khartiki Regents of Cindertown claimed to be governing the Ash Empire on behalf of Molten-Crowned, although by this point no one had know exactly where Molten-Crowned was for centuries. In reality, the Regents of Cindertown were themselves mostly figureheads, as many of their tributaries held more power than they themselves did.

The other large city, Irrisia, was much newer, and more diverse. Irrisia was a port located at the transition between frozen inland waters and the ice-free ocean to the East, and connected to the caravan routes over the desert. While its ruling class were desert Sunbutiki, the Sunbutiki were barely a tenth of the city's population, and there were very few races within the continent that weren't represented among the city's inhabitants. As trade routes to and from the shattered continent in the East would open up, Irrisia would only grow in importance.

I promise this is the last time I am touching this region. This post is mainly to give closure to the Ash Empire and to create a canvas with which future players can shape the region.

I am spending 3 points to 'command species' and found Irrisia, because without a second mechanical city, the Ashen Lands couldn't be a mechanical civilization.

Map

Though the land lay under ice, the salted seas resisted freezing. Life still bloomed under the gelid waters, and fed those who lived on the sea shores. As ice and snow killed off nest-thieves like weasels, lizards, and rats, seabirds grew larger and spread abroad. Being smaller, they lacked the kildas aggression, preferring to fish peacefully by the shore. Their beaks were brightly coloured, and their short, chubby bodies gave them a far more genial appearance than the lean, wild-eyed kilda, though they shared their kin's wing-claws for pulling fishing nets and clambering up sheer cliff-faces.

Although few reached the size of the Kilda, they nonetheless gained intelligence enough to realise they needed to get as far away from these murderous seagulls as possible, and leave this accursed, doomed, sinking continent behind. They set off across the narrow sea to the Shattered Continent, setting up small fishing villages, trading with the Meerids. The continent was largely unchanged since its shattering, large jags and crags of bare rock jutting from a rough grey sea topped with isolated patches of tuf, but for the newly-arrived Pufflings, it was a perfect home. They dug settlements into the soil, little networks of burrows hidden from the raging seas outside.

Create Kilda Subspecies - The Pufflings, 10pts

Located on Blue Dots

Size: 3 Reproduction: 4 Longevity: 4 Intelligence: 4 Magical Affinity: 4 Physical Strength: 4 Dexterity: 4

It is not often I am granted the somewhat exclusive pleasure of viewing myself as mortal. Oh joy of joys, to finally experience a funeral for a being of my status, and as the guest of honor no less. My only shame is that I will not be able to attend it. There are so many wonderous things to be planned.

The grand mausoleum. The sepulchral correspondance. The preparation of my soon to be perished form. All are so delightfully tempting and yet I feel I must begin with an announcement. Something to make it feel truly final. Something befitting of my status which the world will be unable to ignore.

As the first of my final gifts I feel that only true despair would be fitting. A sorrow so great that all will know the magnitude of the coming celebrations. A sorrow so great that it etches itself upon the world with every death that echoes mine and stays with humanity as a reminder of the emotion and power that death holds.

Some might say this is a cruel thing to inflict but truthfully I consider it a blessing. Death is not something to be fretted over, I welcome mine with open arms as the final and most novel of adventures, but it is still a great shame that those lost to it are so difficult to recover. Perhaps impossible if my work in the unraveling of souls has so effected them. I wonder if mine will be truly unraveled when I pass. If no ghost of me will remain in this world. Perhaps I will be found somewhere beyond even my reach doing things I cannot even imagine. Perhaps I will be found nowhere, subsumed by a nothingness no thinking being can truly conceptualize. Perhaps it will be neither and some ghost of me will linger here. I hope it's not the last one. It seems dreadfully boring.

Now, where was I... Ah, yes, the despair. A wonderous thing. From here until the end time whenever a being capable of feeling has a loved one pass from this world they shall experience a sorrow deeper than can be imagined, regardless of if they are made aware in any other way. It will pass but it will leave behind the unmistakable assurance that a most awful tragedy has occurred. Perhaps most importantly the status of loved one has no relation to blood or to legal ties. Rather it is a function of how they are considered by the one being made to feel. I imagine it will cause rather a lot of false fits of sorrow so as to appear closer to the deceased than one truly was. Simply another amusing little way in which mortals obsess themselves with keeping up appearances. I will so miss their rituals if I am to be truly taken from this world. I'm afraid I'd better not waste time on thinking, though. I have a funeral to arrange.

[Singular Boon - 50pts]

The new ice age was a great threat to the Rakhloi. Born in the Boiling Ocean, the Rakhloi were creatures of heat, and freezing cold water had the potential to slow down their metabolism to the point of paralysis. However, different Rakhloi populations would react to the change in climate differently. The Old Rakhloi would simply withdraw deeper into the Boiling Ocean, where waters were still warm. The South Rakhloi would respond with technological innovation, developing new drajun designs containing compartments in which anaerobic bacteria could be used to produce heat to heat the interior of the vehicle.

However, it was the West Rakhloi who fared the worst during the ice age. Their habitat was, after all, the most polar location where Rakhloi lived at the time. Many of the West Rakhloi would flee their homes and attempt to return to the Boiling Ocean, where they would be met with hostility by the Old Rakhloi.

It would be the conflicts between the returning West Rakhloi and the Old Rakhloi which would draw the attention of Kharturri. Wishing to return the West Rakhloi to their homes, Khaturri would change their bodies to better suit the new climate. These new Rakhloi would be warm-blooded, with new organs created inside their bodies where heat-producing bacteria would live. They would also grow an insulating layer of fat under their skin to keep out the worst of the cold. Their obsidian 'spade' would be expanded to cover much of the Rakhloi 'tail', allowing them to better dig through solid ice.

This new race would be called the 'Sirrokhloi' and would soon expand Westward from the Boiling Ocean. While the Sirrokhloi could easily colonize the arctic, they required a higher-calorie diet than the Rakhloi to sustain their metabolism. Kelp farms were simply not nutritious enough to sustain them, and the first Sirrokhloi cultures would become tuna fish herders, employing domesticated dolphins the way that land species would employ dogs.

The remaining West Rakhloi, trapped in isolated qarm pockets around hot springs and hydrothermal vents, would soon become dependant on the Sirrokhloi for trade with the outside world. The city of Urrason counter-intuitively grow in prosperity as it became the source for manufactured goods that the nomadic Sirrokhloi couldn't produce for themselves.

The Sirrokhloi herders would expand West and North from the old West Rakhloi lands. would avoid the Purujagat who lived South and West of Urrason, and would instead populate the North coast of the large island they would dub 'Dzajar'.

It was Dzajar itself which would become to a new population of Sirrokhloi. During the ice age, Dzajar would be coated in a thick blanket of snow 8 months out of the year, and it's mammalian population would spend much of this season hibernating under the snow. The Sirrokhloi would begin coming ashore during the winter to use their exceptional digging abilities to hunt these sleeping mammals under the snow. As the Sirrokhloi developed more and more sophisticated hunting methods, they soon no longer needed to return to the ocean, building underground summer settlements on land.

The Dzajari Sirrokhloi would soon develop a more technologically sophisticated civilization, rivaling that of the Green Sea League and the other end of the Rakhloi world. They would soon discover the Great Warm Lake that Kharturri had created at the center of Dzajar. They would hunt the lake's natural predatory species to extinction, creating a population explosion of smaller fish which became the Sirrokhloi's main food source.

The Great Warm Lake would soon become the center of the Dzajari Sirrokhloi civilization. Their capital city of Ladzaran would be built at the lake's center. The Makhralli River Valley would form the main trade route between the Great Warm Lake and the nomadic Sirrokhloi of the Northern Ocean. The port of Makhraun would soon grow up at the mouth of the Makhralli River, and would soon become the second largest city in Dzajar.

Map

Blue is Old Rakhloi

Violet is West Rakhloi/Sirrokhloi overlap

Pink is Sirrokhloi

Orange is Purujagat

Yellow Outline is Dzajari Sirrokhloi civilization

###Mechanics:

Create Subspecies - Sirrokhloi (same stats as Rakhloi) - 10 points

Command Species x2 to spread the Sirrokhloi, build two cities (Ladzaran and Makhraun) and create a civilization (Dzajari Sirrokhloi) - 6 points

Total: 16 points

Ewehea’e had seen her children slain time and time again. The others had shown their recklessness and their lack of empathy and care to the mortals of the world. It was only with the appearance of Our Lady Reflected that Ewehea’e had been given hope. She had agreed to bless those Mer-Folk trapped beneath the great ice sheets that now covered the oceans that were once their homes.

With the gifts of Our Lady Reflected, the Mer-Folk were able to slightly bend the material realm in order to change their own state for a short time. This allowed them to phase through the ice sheets that covered the ocean's surface and reconnect with their kin that had been trapped beneath the ice.

This gift taught by Our Lady Reflected had saved the Mer-Folk, and as a result she became revered amongst some of the species as one of their gods. Her gifts of Phasing were practised and mastered by some of her most staunch followers and as a result the Order of Reflection was born. These Mer-Folk sought to master the art of Phasing, and dedicated their service to Our Lady Reflected. They would become the guides of the Mer-Folk, first mastering travel between the obstacles that blocked the surface and then going on to use their Phasing in a similar way to the Lost Ways created by The Many eons ago, and being able to travel across large swathes of the Mortal Realm very quickly.

Create Magic; Phasing (10), Create Order; Order of Reflection (4), total of 14 out of 47 points

The calamity of the collapse of the Ash Empire was felt most acutely by the Khaderi. After all, they made up the majority of the Ash Empire's population. The peasants and tradespeople were almost exclusively Khaderi, and ever since Molten-Crowned's rise to power, the Khartiki warriors classes had been made more prestigious than the Khaderi chiefly classes. As usual, it was the lower classes who suffered the most in times of want.

Not only were the Khaderi starving, not only were their livelihoods destroyed by the advancing glacier and the explosion of Askhurru, but they were even themselves sought after as food for the hungry upper classes. Hundreds of thousand of Khaderi died, although hundreds of thousand more escape. Refugees would arrive at the Eastern coasts of the former jungle ready to trade what valuables remained to opportunistic Kilda who flocked to the shores.

It was into this throng of refugees that Dalkha came. No one knew where this strange stone Khaderi came from nor what they wanted, but they spoke of a land free of troubles beyond the sea. Dalkha's promise was an easy one to rally behind.

Dalkha also proved to be a much more talented pyrourgist than was typical for a Khaderi, and some well-tuned blasts of fire propelled an iceberg to the shore of the now-frigid waters. One thousand Khaderi were able to board the iceberg, and Dalkha was able to use pyrourgy to keep the passengers warm through the rough journey over the seas.

The land the Khaderi found on the other side of the ocean was not a paradise. Its higher latitude than the Ash Empire gave it colder winters than the Khaderi were accustomed to, but at least the land was fertile and free of intelligent life wishing to eat the Khaderi. The lands were not as temperate than they had once been, but luckily Khaderi were just as frost-tolerant as the cabbages they resembled.

Dalkha themself would be quite the asset to the new settlement. Their pyrourgy would help the Khaderi heat their homes through the long winters, and Dalkha had an uncanny ability to locate hot springs when in need of heat in the wilderness. Dalkha's followers would barely notice that over the years Dalkha would begin to move slower and slower as their molte core cooled. IT would be one hundred years after the great crossing that Dalkha would finally turn to stone for good.

The largest settlement that Dalkha had founded would be known as Alkhana. Located at the mouth of a river, it would grow to become the largest city of a new population of Khaderi, the first sentient life in Tremmendir. While the Khaderi in Tremmendir would face a constant struggle against the cold, they would thrive enough to breed and increase their population. Soon, the Khaderi in Tremmendir would outnumber those in the remains of the Ash Empire they had left behind.

MAP

Command Avatar: spending 3 avatar points to spread the Khaderi 3 hexes and 3 to found the city. Dalkha is now dormant and turned to stone.