Stories of Lore 20 (may want to start here)
Shentu Wo: 2636 Power, 2,936 Followers
Kikai Senso: 9,318 Power, 135 Followers, Next Form Progress: 27%
Lin Sun: 480 Power, 350 Followers
Con Lai: 6613 Power, 2, 458 Followers
Caine: 3511 Power, 1,561 Followers
General News:
Thykenae rolled a 3.
Twice.
It has been just basically raped. Somehow 12 gods got beaten by 4, not just distracted into stopping their attack on Divus…outright beat. Bastet and her forces rolled over them with a K:D of 8 to 1 and at this point Thykenae’s track record is so bad its kind of a running joke.
Thykenae as a nation has disbanded because this is just embarrassing and at this point its time for them to just bow out before this gets any worse. Temples are gone, cities are razed, just…just throw in the towel already. Akhetaten now shares power with Divus as the major super powers of the west because look at all this fertile farmland they just annexed from their desert. They’re quite happy and uh…expect them to get a big roster update soon because heroes were definitely made in this war. Some Thykenian gods remain with Akhetaten, some are dead, uh..thats a thing.
Divus has retreated from the war with Si Da after three years because they’ve taken significant damage and they still never fully recovered from the last crusade, plus Thykenae attacked them back home its a bit of a mess.
The Jade Empire has started to push Si Da back a bit after they were distracted with fighting Divus to their west for awhile, and then suddenly some new dragon showed up with a whole team of dragon aspected warriors to retake the Imperial throne as an offer of embassy toward Shenlong. They appear to be explorers from the far east who came after all that dark magic got their attention. Speaking of which…
Drakon Imperiya hails from the east. As you may have guessed, the dragon empire is very heavily focused on dragons. In their society dragons rule over all men, keeping humans as pets or servants. As is well known, the dragon aspect is very powerful and it is not unreasonable that a culture developed centered around those who have it. They seem unaware of the Ascension event or how it has really impacted things. They do not seem aware that dragon aspect humans can ascend into dragons. We’re not entirely sure if we should tell them that though.
One particularly notable feature Shento may have noticed about their “ambassadors” is that every single one of them has a dragon aspect. The breeding in their empire has been so selective for so long that they have dragon aspects by the thousands. Those without the aspect seem to be slaves. It stands to reason that this privately funded scouting team is only an omen of what could come visit later on.
Social Hierarchy
The Dragon Striders are the lowest class of dragons though they have their own hierarchy since they are the most populous. They are technically just black mages with dragon aspects, humans without dragon aspects are referred to as humans but that word is synonymous with many degrading connotations.
The Dragon Whelps are the next tier up, these are full dragons the form associated with the word. There are many of them and they tend to gather throughout the land at random. Whelps will sometimes enslave a human here and there to try and move up the social ladder by having their own champion. The general rule to upgrading from a whelp is to come into the possession of at least one hundred people.
The Dragon Masters are fully grown and powerful creatures. The barrier for entry is, as stated, to have command of over at least one hundred subjects. While slaves are acceptable, the prestige of having a dragon strider and whelp population is significantly larger.
The Dragon Lords are the guys who own cities and usually the associated lands that make up the territory. Most territories are similar to our nations, except instead of villages and settlements scattered throughout the land almost all of the population is pulled together into a few supermassive cities to showcase the power of the dragon lord. The surrounding territory is considered to be the city’s for providing resources to its people. While some territories will have farmlands away from the major city, this is not preferrable and will usually barely have any population.
Vechnost is the final authority in the Drakon Imperiya. There is no title like ‘dragon god’ or ‘dragon king’ for him. As far as the Imperiya knows there has always been and only is Vechnost. In terms of power he is on the level of Jehova.
Judging by Eret’s prophecy and Raijin/Fujin’s experience with meeting them, they aren’t here as diplomats. Freyja has suddenly been really friendly toward Bahamut though. On the upside, while we know that we’re royally screwed if they have anywhere near what they claim to have back home we still have a lot more time before they start coming over in large numbers and this scouting force seems to be spending time trying to get in Shenlong’s good graces and recruit him to their empire.
People have started moving to the underworld none the less though, as now it makes some sense why. Dragons can fly, and flying dragons can generally breathe death all over surface cities.
Shento:
Kaja and the Order go zombie slaying. This is extremely one sided because armored calvary beats shambling flesh. Good practice for the squires though.
Anna eventually does root out hidden deathspeakers who stayed loyal to Saldis and helped her enact her revenge. Unfortunately she also rooted out several normal people that she killed for various reasons or another claiming them to be suspects. Essentially some of her inquiring was not particularly well received, and so those who tried to impede her for any reason wound up dead.
The attempt to civilize the Svargan mafia does not go terribly well. For the first few months they seem to put up with it but as they become angstier, and the vampires rule over the jungles of Koko they opt to just be sneakier about the murders in Svarga. Then Anna got there after the Altepetl thing was dealt with.
Anna winds up killing the former yet still kind of criminal gang’s leader twice (the sucessor) before they get with the program. She may have killed several more and there are stories of her brutality floating around.
Over time the crime ring does start to establish more legitimate trade and becomes a bit better behaved though if anything this makes them even more comparable to a mafia because now they all have that layer of civility barely concealing their more sinister mannerisms. Taking cue from the lessons of Anna, their “law enforcement” is basically still a gang. There is still law and civility, its just the method of enforcement can sometimes border on insane as city police show up to drag offenders out of their homes and enact justice without much semblence of trial. With the cult of Holo Eka stopping the bounty hunting shenanigans though it definitely leaves the ruling family to take up the slack of hunting criminals in their own fashion.
WAAAAGH!
They’re becoming adults now, they grow up so fast…well because you made them mature in 10 years. But the sentiment is still the same right?
The current leader of the Orcs chosen by way of “no one remaining objected”. Despite how grim that sounds, he actually got the position because he kept giving orders and people stopped objecting. Kind of mundane really, but as they all grew up together with the exception of Kekoa, he was just sort of the “big brother” of the first generation. As a result he has a particularly caring and gentle manner despite the scars he got from meeting the black mages of Koko Mulum.
The black sheep of the orc family, Kekoa grew up following Ailani around. Very different lifestyle. He always had to prove himself a worthy guardian of the blood god’s child and would intentionally pick fights with the monsters of the jungle that they called men to hone his skills as he realized he was maturing much faster then his companion, and that his job was likely to persist on into adulthood.
Unlike Akamu or the other orcs, Kekoa is mean as shit and will crush your skull in if you look at him wrong. He recently succeeded in the Crimson Fist tournament.
At 10 years old Ailani manifested her powers…just because she felt like it. Though given the track record of demigods born from gods, it does seem to be a trend that they don’t need black magic to activate their aspect powers. Ailani is only ten and has very little control or mastery over her abilities, but she already demonstrated hemomantic capabilities, but more importantly she can upgrade people’s power around her. All black mages near her become more powerful, the effect is currently minor but the child shows potential. She has exploited her ability to attract a following of people that she takes on adventures through the jungle whenever she feels like it, Carmilla banned her from her personal manor though. Something about the kid’s effects on the glamor power being a very unsuitable environment for children. Despite the many tours of the land from pops, Ailani
Con Lai:
As ordered by Song Yi, the gates were opened at Sekai Taki and along the northwestern border of Taiyo in the wild lands where people could flee to. Some have instead fled south for the gate at Svarga depending on distance but in all the bulk of them have decided to leave Taiyo itself.
The dream realm is a bit flooded with refugees…again. This seems to be a common occurrence, thankfully Milenkosi seems to calm people down just by being near the portals they come through, which is strange given its a giant lion. Most people are scared of lions after all.
One of the two major shinobi chapters has taken residence in the dream realm for now. The other chapter moved to Holo Eka.
Sanyar has acquired a few palace treasures from Taiyo and in his recurring theme of art Appraisal has delivered a presentation on it to the sleeping lords, most specifically the ever-curious purple one. It went like this:
“See here, this piece depicts sexual intimacy between two people. This is considered ‘smut’ by the general art community.”
“Wait I thought they liked nature scenes?”
“Apparently sex is not natural.”
“How do they reproduce?”
“Sex.”
“Humans are stupid.”
Malati has joined Jin’s personal team of misfits and the power blessing allows her to take another individual with her for a longer distance then she could do previously.
The food struggle seems to be alleviated within the first few months after everything settled down a bit and Song came back to get the spirits back to work, so at least that has gone well in feeding the people. Though by now Svarga has already gone through so much chaos that providing it with food no longer alleviates its political state.
As a military update, the navy remains the Vua Cai’s strongest point and emphasis given its necessity in the trade networks. The army has grown quickly as its a rather cushy job all things considered, it doesn’t really go to front line against the big scary guys like the Crimson Order. The marines are just basically legal pirates and part of the navy as is. Most of the sailors know boarding practices anyways.
Alright lets face it, if he has a card he’s not a harmless old man. Ishikama Hanzo, the master shinobi. Posing often as a harmless old man, Ishikama has traveled the world with nothing more then an opium pipe and sometimes some other implement. While some members of the Shinobi wear black masks and wield exotic weapons for combat assassination, Ishikama is more of the subtle type. He sometimes takes awhile to complete a mission, and is less effective against targets who can regenerate, but he’s very good at solving political rivalries. Also he’s in charge of the house that now lives in the dream realm and often acts as their trainer and administrator.
Caine:
You stalk friendly gods around, they find this a little weird.
Logan and team go with the crimson order to go zombie hunting, mostly focusing on strays, tracking, and camp security rather then full frontal assault on large hordes which are left to the knights in heavy armor.
Nila Bhatt turns out to be particularly cheap against zombies because she has a ranged weapon and they are zombies. She’s also awfully lucky at shooting off limbs and joints.
Gaetan is just on a level where zombies don’t matter to him so he just kills a bunch as they travel around Altepetl with the crimson order.
The life story of Mulgogi: Covered in the stories of lore because its too long to fit in here
Due to Maona’s aspect being a morph he actually just gets more physically powerful like a strength blessing but it includes his senses as well.
Mulgogi goes fishing.
The opposite end of the spectrum from Ishikawa, Fuma is made to kill black mages, demons, and what have you. Armed to the teeth and specialized in stealth via sneaking around in the dark. While he has less ability to penetrate populated areas and prefers to ambush in forests, he has extremely progressed combat abilities and trap laying skills. While he suffers from a lack of practicing black magic himself, his ambush techniques make him adept at killing targets before they have a chance to showcase whatever powers might give them an advantage over him.
As one of the current major food providers Holo Eka has received some of the incoming refugees from Taiyo, including the crazy exotic weapons Shinobi House, to shelter for the time being if nothing else to make logistics a bit easier.
Lin Sun:
Vris is now high prophet, making her high prophet however turns out to have weird effects on her powers. She still remembers everything, but now she can alter things around her to be as she remembers them. Uh…the city isn’t cracked anymore so thats cool. While the power has some logistical limits especially considering consumable resources, she still has a lot of power to restore things through time powers. This does not include healing or altering people though, it seems to extend mostly to object restoration.
Over time Freyja is eventually less mopey but she still doesn’t seem interested in getting back together with someone who had her ambushed, chained up, and then did the exact thing she said was going to get them killed…and getting killed. Something about trust and silly pride…you are distinctly aware that is hypocritical given her history but your keen instinct tells you saying so will only make this situation worse.
Song’s basic response: “You killed civilians in your way first. As champion of those I supposedly rule, I am literally dictated by my abilities to mirror my society. There is no moral high ground here, I am a reflection of the kingdom whether I agree with you all or not.”
Getting Kaisa reigned in isn’t hard, she shapes up pretty quick once your back but Vris is aware that Kaisa is a true Si Da black mage. She is with the team as she is loyal, but without a leash she acts like a Jakaal almost and just starts hunting down victims to prove herself against. Ever since her first touch with large scale battles she seems to have fallen in love with it, and is basically a walking ball of cocky violence.
About that ‘moving underground thing’. You still have that giant suspended city in the cavern, so…that was easy.
Getting to know people:
Kahl is from Si Da natively and followed along when the Aetas left to Hale’a. Originally his powers were uncontrollable and he would summon things at random but over time he learned to control it. Though the phase where he couldn’t left him often isolated because summoning tigers was kind of bad for social conductivity, as a result he’s been a bit of a quiet person ever since and is used to just minding his own business until otherwise needed.
Lavet shares some similar traits of being reclusive but for the reason that she just doesn’t like people and has become very comfortable in the total silence zones she can create. She babysits for Vris sometimes and takes care of the kids as well as acting as an assistant around the library as needed. She doesn’t talk much, and kind of creeps people out.
John Zhi is the child of an eastern father and a western mother, really the story of his parents is long and fascinating as the two travelers met from opposite sides of the world and traveled the land together. If anything he actually has more to say about the adventures of his parents, who are now an old couple that lives in Aetas and invite you for tea, then his own. He hasn’t had much opportunity to truly acquire his own legacy when compared to the likes of those around him in the Aetas and is basically just a grunt soldier for now. Though, like Mazaki, he used to be one of the time cops and was pretty good at spotting people hiding anything from him.
Recently with the incoming members of Taiyo being sent in bulk to Aetas lands because well…you have the space. Your city is getting a bit crowded again, though this is generally good news at least. Up until now you’ve never been particularly scary on the black mage field so they’re comfier hanging out with you then Shento for now at least. We’ll see how things go after the knowledge at all cost thing gets into high gear.
As part of Raijin and Fujin’s agreement with Song, some members of their nation have entered into the service of other gods here to sort of help with the integration front. Though we’re pretty sure Hayate joined the Aetas because he thinks Kaisa is cute. He’s pretty laid back and finds the Aetas mission statement interesting, that and the libraries are pretty fascinating too and he’s been spending time with Vris and Lavet.
He has no black mage abilities since he’s from Taiyo, but instead has a spiritual sword that gives him the ability to summon and wield fire. If his name wasn’t a giveaway, he’s a former member of the Phoenix Clan.
Kikai:
With the influx of Taiyo natives, Daisuke has actually become an important PR guy…because he speaks their language fluently. The city of Kagayakashi has also grown significantly in the last few years thanks to help from the incoming and along with the vampire assistance. With Eret’s doomsday close at hand, Kaga might become the new capital of Hale’a at the rate it is expanding and becoming an important piece of the underworld society.
Song makes Kagayakashi start looking into sustainability for non-jinko since it might be important in the near future, so now you have weird cave mushroom farms in some places of the city, at least they are easy to maintain and just need water, plus forge fires turn out to be good for cooking them.
The strike team is assembled as well for whenever they need to be sent out to do anything, with the more heavy hitting team lead by Shichiro and the stealthier special ops team led by
With the death of Akio and Kikai’s demand for a special forces team, the project had to be revisited. All of its members are the sort of mix-matched projects from Siwang and Yi projects to create a specialist team with a whole new model line. But the team leader was a pure project shade model and is a stealth and assassination expert. He’s also pretty handy with a bow and is said to be so sneaky that he can infiltrate a city with only a rice hat to disguise himself. He, like the rest of the team, have mounted wrist blades in the forearm. Also like the rest of the team, he has a sword for more…direct confrontations.