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The Lore of Mithra
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Elbbsas
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  • That was quick. It's nice to see Strennora had a teeny break (Kudos to how well the reference there was hidden. It just looks like another word now!).

    Now, I'm going to apologize in advance for this.

    I am somewhat disappointed at Princess Anne's fate (or is it still Anna? The spelling change threw me off). I'm not disappointed in the Aspyians, or the Strennorans, or the Admiral... I'm disappointed in the writing. It threw me out of everything completely, not because of it being Wow So Ebil, but because it felt cheap. Because... really? You're using rape as drama? You could have had literally anything done at this point, and you went for rape? There are hundreds of things that work better for this, that would be more horrifying and less "Seriously, writer?"

    Off the top of my head: Removing her arms. Removing an eye. Whipping her. Burning her alive (tricky on a ship, but I'm sure magic could help). Wrapping her in chains and dropping her over the side of the ship, then using projection magic to ensure everyone could watch her drown. Force the Princess to kill the Royal Consort. The other way around. Branding (recommendation: on the face and hands). Removing her teeth and replacing them with molten iron. Crushing her skull like an egg. Impaling her in arrows and letting her crawl around the deck, broken and bleeding ("you split your filthy blood on my ship", now watch as I spill the blood of someone you aren't willing to sacrifice).

    Sure, rape is an "act so barbarous" it cannot be forgiven, but come the heck on. They are on a SHIP. In PLAIN VIEW. Literally any act of torture would be sufficiently barbarous, sufficiently brutal, sufficiently horrific, sufficiently innocence stripping, if the princess was so beloved. Rape, in writing, is a short cut and I am disappointed you felt the need to resort to it.

    Furthermore, I find it exceedingly hard to believe that the fleet hesitated to fight until the Princess actually died. Why not have a pitched battle happen as the Princess is being tortured? Then you could say something like "an itinerary of horrors befell the princess as the Flotte Der Toten desperately fell upon the Aspyian warships," and give the reader occasionally glimpses of little details and let the reader fill in the gaps, but ultimately she is not retrieved in time? It has better implications than "The fleet sat around, watched as the princess was raped, and only attacked when it was too late to do jack."

    So... yeah, I'm disappointed in that scene. Sorry for going off on you like that.

    It's interesting how the Strennorans attempting to chip in with the Eclenian Civil War, and amusing how a bunch of them went to help out even when nationwide assistance was shot down. Hopefully nothing terrible happens in Queen Nora the Second's reign, I am sure that nothing exciting or life changing in the last will occur, because Strennora is a peaceful place where nothing bad happens ever. =P There, I think I have tempted fate sufficiently. I'm looking forward to what comes next!
    2 people like this post: Aethelia, Fortis Scriptor
    Elbbsas
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  • Now this is some kickass feedback, No problem on going off on me, I'm quite happy to get the feedback. As far as the spelling of her name, that was a fuck up on my end, when you chug out the history like that, you mess it up once and then it becomes a spiral. But going more into the meat of your point, first of all, huge kudos on the creativity of fates far worse than I thought of putting her through.

    As I've said before, or at least I hope I have this is why I'm posting this history and lore for the express purpose of improving it, so I can't thank you enough. I will definitely take another look at the scene, if nothing else, even I was bugged about most of the Strennoran fleet just sitting there and watching the Aspyians do this. The part of me that supported it was the whole "None of these guys have seen magic on this scale, and certainly not used like this." etc. you can probably get what I was thinking there.

    Btw, thank you for the TV trope article I had not read that one yet.

    In general your disappointment is understandable I will certainly be taking a swing at making it more interesting and less, "Seriously dude, saw it coming a mile away."


    On your last note, it isn't much of a surprise with the Strennorans, many of those officers who went to fight with the Eclenians were graduates of Eclenia's Orphirian Academy, which you'll be hearing more about in the coming weeks  ^-^ (Definitely nothing to see here heheheheh)

    Definitely nothing exciting or life changing will happen during Nora's reign certainly no Worl- You heard nothing... And I cannot confirm nor deny that the Strennorans will be quite important in the late Eclenian Civil War.  ;)

    Alright, teasing aside, I'm off to go and give that torture and death scene for Princess Anne, Anna, Christ I don't even know anymore, point is she's going to die in some horrific and brutal fashion fitting of the Aspyians.  >:D

    Thanks a million for the feedback Elbbsas, I hope you have an epic rest of your day!
    1 person likes this post: Elbbsas

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  • Happy First Birthday Mithra, may there many more good ones to come.

    It sure as all hell has been quite the roller coaster of awesomeness.

    It all started with one short story for school that sparked an idea which spiraled far out of what I could have even vaguely imagined it to be. If it weren't for Crush I don't think I could have brought it to the level it is now so MASSIVE points to my good friend for that one, may he rest in pieces doing 22 hours of Arabic per week for Uni *holds hat over heart in solemn salute. *

    I also must give a huge shout out to the people of Wintreath being very supportive of me and a generally awesome audience. To Elbbsas and Gatto in particular thank you so much for the feedback, it really means a lot.  :D

    But let's get some things down, memories of what has been done, and plans of things to be done.

    First off, Eclenia has been developed on its own more than some whole worlds with oodles of stories that could and should be written (I'll get to that part in a bit.) However there are parts of it that are blatantly absent that in hindsight should really have been obvious to do some dev for, but hey details...

    Next, thanks in no small part to Crush, the foundations for the world's major religions are in place, but they are in no way done, and a good number of them need to be updated for the more modern iterations of the lore.

    To sum some things up, aside from the lore for the city of Fenrock (The setting of the first act of the story of Princess Koralia) all of the necessary lore that I need to know before I start writing the first act/book are done.

    Other major things that are relatively completed, would be the history of Strennora (Though it needs editing) most of the important characters for the story of Koralia, I have at the very least a basic idea of who they are and what they look like, and of course what role they play in the story. I have a general idea of what the plot looks like, however there are plenty of holes in between major events that need to be filled. And a number of other things (Including the outline for the first 8 chapters or so) that I would have to dig into my brain to find.

    Now things that need to be done, and that I wish to have done hopefully by the end of 2017.

    The Outline for the first act/book.

    An updated history of Eclenia.

    The History for Burjion. (When I mention this sort of thing in particular I am referring to both writing it down and posting it here)

    The first few chapters of an upcoming story taking place in the Mithran universe which I plan on posting here on Wintreath.

    The Mithran Calendar.

    I'm actually going to realistically say those are decent goals for things to finish by the end of 2017

    Things that need to be done, and wish to have done hopefully by Mithra's second birthday.

    Everything mentioned above.

    The History of Soeria, (+ expanded lore development for them)

    A lot of general lore for the recent editions to the continent of Galindia.

    The history and a shit ton of lore for the nations of the southern continent Albukana.

    The History of Al-Lat

    A literal brain exploding amount of lore for Nan Fang, and just Orliend in general.

    Do more work on all of the religions.

    Write a first draft of the first act/book in Koralia's story.

    Write hopefully the whole story that I mentioned before, (Not sure how long it will run)

    Start working on if not finish the outline for the second act/book.

    AND MUCH MUCH MORE BRAINSPLODING LORE THAT I COULD GO ON FOR HOURS LISTING.

    Once again Happy Birthday Mithra, and thank you Wintreathens so much for giving me a place to stay and a wonderful community to be a ghostly part of XD, I will attempt to get out of the Halls of Writing more, but no promises that I'll actually be successful.
    2 people like this post: Elbbsas, Gerrick

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    Elbbsas
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  • Happy Birthday! Congrats on sticking with this project for a year (and keeping track of the date you began). Picture a trumpet playing the usual songs. I'd insert a video, but my tablet would cry.

    As a birthday present, have some generic advice you likely already know:
    • When it comes to characters and keeping them in-character, any plans can and will change upon contact with the prose.
    • If you ever get stuck, start asking "well, what won't happen next?"
    • Don't overstress about perfectly capturing an image to the page. Trust the readers to fill in the blanks.
    • And finally, killing main characters is all well and good, but if you can just mutilate them to achieve the desired impact, you should probably mutilate them instead.
    Granted, that last point isn't so helpful, considering there is war and magic and the like. Here's to achieving your goals, and many more to come!
    1 person likes this post: Fortis Scriptor
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  • Hello Wintreathens! to prepare you for the upcoming History series on Burjion. I give you a map of the Continent of Galindia, keep in mind this isn't a pretty map at all, it is a functional map, one which you guys can't even appreciate fully considering you can't zoom in on it and such. HOWEVER! I feel that while this thing is utter garbage in some ways it will still be good and helpful for you readers to actually be able to see where shit roughly is. Keep in mind this map is circa 1880's by the way.

    So here it is.  :-[  It includes a number of rivers, those being ones in Strennora and Eclenia, there will be more added in the future, also if it wasn't already obvious this is a Work in Progress Functional map.

       

    These are the countries listed as numbers on the map, some of (If not most of) these names are not final

    Northern Kingdoms:
    Dagmar: 1
    Erland 2
    Hólmgar 3
    Odila 4
    Rajko 5
    Hjalmar 6
    Miosk 7
    Kingdom of Gustaw 9
    Andor 10
    Luděk 11
    Pelagia 12
    Slanea 13
    Slavianka 14
    Isadior 15
    2 people like this post: Gerrick, Elbbsas

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  • Hello Ladies and Gents, Special shoutout to the most chatty of you Elbbsas, number one on Wintreath for badass feedback, as well as the winner of the recent writing contest! Today speaking as Fortis I would like to address that I am rather ashamed of my recent failure to get my crap together and edit Starch and Iron to completion, or write a second story to give you guys a choice as to which I could have entered into the contest. Truth is I got whacked with a nasty cold and lost any motivation to do just about anything that I didn’t have to, however next time I will do my best to actually finish a story.Thanks again to our great Forum Overlord Ainz… I mean Wintermoot (Sorry been watching the series again and I just can’t help but make the joke) for allowing me to try and enter the contest, once again next time I’ll do better. So here I am to partly atone for my sins, but mostly because it is about damn time we took a look at Burjion and their history.

    So let’s get started.  8)
    Spoiler

    Burjion is an incredibly old nation, and an even older ethnic and cultural group, so it’s going to be a bit tough for me to pin down when to start their history because they did a LOT of really important things throughout ancient and early medieval history, and I would love to cover all of that, but in all honesty I would have to provide a significant amount of context which would take at least one history series to cover on its own. So for the sake of my limited sanity at the present moment I will be starting at the tail end of Burjion’s days as an Empire.

    So let's start with the basics.  :D

    Even today, The Kingdom of Burjion is the largest nation on Galindia by landmass, and it once held the vast majority of the continent under its thumb, something which no other modern nation on Galindia has accomplished (So far.) Its landscape is dominated by vast fertile grasslands which stretch hundreds of miles in every direction in some places, as well as the largest river on the continent, the Majestic Sicara River which is in some places as large as 5 kilometers wide, and runs from the northern border of Burjion all the way to the southern coast of Soeria.

    Burjion as a single entity produces the largest amount of food in the world and from the earliest days of its time as an Empire in the 600’s CE Gregorian Calendar to this day in the 1880’s CE the number of its citizens working in agriculture has never dropped below 60%. Keep in mind when Burjion raises its military to full strength calling upon volunteers and conscripts those enrolled in service are still considered working whatever job they had before the call to arms, so there have been times when not that much of the population has been actively working the fields.

    What’s more amazing and somewhat sad from an outside perspective is that the Burjionese have not employed modern farming machinery in anything other than State mega farms. This is often blamed on Burjionese superstition but it is more likely that the majority of the people of Burjion don’t know these things exist, and even if they do they probably do not have the funds to pay for them.

    The Burjionese are of shorter height than most in Galindia usually being between 165cm-172cm on average for men(Exception are the those of the northern mountain regions, who are part of an old ethnic minority who have been known to reach 220cm tall) Northern Burjionese have light pale skin and those in the south are slightly darker in complexion. The most common hair colours are black or brown and the most common eye colours are green and brown.

    Most of the people of Burjion are a simple, peaceful, and conservative (As well as deeply religious) folk, who put total faith in their leaders, most Burjionese peasants will never travel any farther than ten kilometers from where they were born. The faith of the people of Burjion also makes them incredibly dangerous, as they will do anything to fight off a perceived threat.

    Most people live a relatively comfortable life as far as they’re concerned (though a bit primitively by Eclenian or Strennoran standards), and they have developed a wide array of delicious cuisine which while beginning at the family tables in the countryside has in recent years led some more ambitious young ones to refine their craft building some of the first restaurants in the world in the few cities of Burjion, most importantly the Auskelist capital, where the need to feed religious pilgrims provided the perfect demand for well cooked meals. Today some very forward thinking people have even taken their successes out of Burjion to the incredibly rich lands of Eclenia and Strennora to name a couple.

    Now I shall finally get to some history, the iteration of Burjion we will be focusing on for most of the series will be its current form which is known as the Kingdom of Burjion. Something to point out however is that the only nation that acknowledges the legitimacy of the Kingdom of Burjion is the Kingdom of Burjion , while we will get more to that later to give you a brief summary. The Kingdom of Burjion as we know it today is really little more than a name that symbolizes the fact that they still keep a national unity. In reality however modern Burjion has two completely separate ruling bodies of government, two militaries, two systems of law, two capital cities and a number of other things in pairs which I could go on for hours about. So you’re probably wondering “why isn’t it two separate countries then?” Well that’s because one of those entities is the Auskelist Seric acting over Seric holdings ‘given’ to them by the Kingdom of Burjion during their Revolutionary War. The other half of the country, the so-called ‘Kingdom’ has no connections to the actual royal family of Burjion which was wiped out in the previously mentioned Revolution.

    The current Royal family are the descendants of the Burjionese Revolutionary, Mikkel Salome, you may remember him from the brief Burjionese sidetrack in the History of Eclenia.

    But we’ll get to that. So how did this new near failed state come to be? 

    While there are many factors which contributed to the downfall of the original Kingdom of Burjion, it is relatively well agreed upon that it began with the Empire of Burjion in the 15th century. But to understand that we must consider where Burjion came from, the Burjionese Empire was actually a rather miraculous nation. The original Kingdom was one of the larger domains in central Galindia during the Warring States Period and when the Jeddites invaded southern Galindia in the 400’s CE the Burjionese were some of the first to really steel themselves to the challenge with the kings at the time negotiating sense into their neighbors, or beating it into them that they needed to unite or be conquered by the invaders from the south.

    This rallying cry worked very well, and when the Jeddites began a push north from Soeria in the 560’s, they were met by a strong united front of the allied Burjionese.

    The Jeddites were soundly beaten and sent packing back to their southern domains and with their retreat, central Galindia had given birth to a new power. In truth the Burjionese hadn’t expected to win against the powerful Jeddite Army already outnumbering them on top of the Jeddite Dragon-Riders and Magic users, but the ragtag alliance had, and not only had they won, but they’d gained total victory. It was about this time that the new united Burjion realized just how powerful they were. Over the course of the next hundred and fifty years they swept across the rest of the warring states in what is modern day Burjion and conquered them all.

    Then after they finished annexing all of their ethnic brethren, they went on a crusade to reconquer Soeria, and although it was messy and cost some compromises, they did it.

    After that they began pushing east, first taking Antilonica and Mercia, however it was then the unbeatable Burjionese Empire ran into a brick wall in the form of the Kingdoms of Eclenia, and Haragladia. The former was one of the best geographically protected nations in the world, and the latter while but a shadow of its days of Imperial splendor was one of the oldest powers on the continent and still had one of the strongest militaries in Galindia.

    Both first attempts proved failures, with the Haragladians smashing Burjionese forces in a humiliating defeat, and the Eclenians while nearly losing managed to eventually shove the Burjionese out.

    These first defeats for the Empire were both infuriating and somewhat of a saving grace. The Burjionese economy (outside of their base of farming which was more profitable for individual nobles than the state) was by the 1100’s almost purely geared for war and conquest. The issue was, most of Burjion’s major production centers were in what was now the southern half of their empire and it was becoming harder to expand further north without running dangerously long supply lines. So to keep the cogs of the empire running smoothly along with their slow expansion northward, they continued to prepare and launch invasions of Eclenia and Haragladia.

    By the turn of the 15th Century, the Burjionese had invaded Haragladia and Eclenia three times each all ending in failures, but they had pushed their influence as far north as what is today central Strennora in the middle of the Aleman cultural region.

    It was then that the Burjionese made one fatal mistake that would break them. Thanks to a mix up in orders, the Burjionese set the stage for the ascension of the young bastard son of Eclenia’s former king.

    You understood me clearly folks, it was by a mistake in orders that Marius Aspada came to the throne of Eclenia.

    Those of you who have followed the histories since Eclenia may remember that the only reason Marius came to the Eclenian throne was because of the assassination of his uncle and cousins.

    Something that is not well known is that the Burjionese troops who killed the Eclenian royal envoy were actually supposed to assassinate their own envoy and then blame it on the Eclenians. The point of which being to give Burjion a righteous casus belli to invade Eclenia once again. As we know this didn’t go to plan.

    This one mistake put one tiny yet fatal crack into the Burjionese Empire that would bring them to their knees.

    During the time Marius was on the throne of Eclenia he crushed Burjion’s empire first swiping Mercia and Antilonica from them, and then aiding the Soerians and Roncaleans gain independence. But even more important than the loss of lands, Marius took the vast majority of Burjion’s pride and prestige from them. In effect this young Emperor managed to kneecap and neuter this once seemingly mighty empire now proven to be built from glass.

    The King and Queen of Burjion at the time couldn’t take the shame of it, and took their own lives, but to the amazement of the Burjionese, Emperor Marius came to their funeral to pay his respects to his fallen former adversaries. This act of respect made a strong impression on the new King of Burjion who even went so far as to send his daughter to study under him as an apprentice forming a new friendship between the two nations.

    This would mark the end of the Empire of Burjion, and mark the beginning of the new Kingdom Period.

    This new era is unfortunately well known as the dark days in Burjion. Much of the nobility which had flocked to the cities of Burjion to own enterprises for war production during the days of the Empire crawled back to their farm holdings which they had allowed to act relatively independently during the Imperial days, and then proceeded to continue living as if they were still making money from those now nonexistent enterprises, but I’ll get back to that in a little bit.

    Aside from the Nobility returning to the countryside in droves, Burjion found itself a fat sheep in the midst of a pack of wolves as every group that didn’t consider themselves Burjionese within the borders of the former empire now began to rip themselves free. Any time these attempts turned violent the Burjionese military acted halfheartedly at best, and downright insubordinate at worst. Some foreign nations even managed to take chunks out of Burjion when Eclenia wasn’t watching, like the Soerians in 1469, or Kanbi in 1533, or Krasimir 3 or 4 times over the course of a few centuries.

    In fact if it wasn’t for the friendship Burjion had with Eclenia, the nation would have likely been ripped to shreds by its neighbors.

    Getting back to the Nobles, by the beginning of the 17th century the vast majority of the Burjionese nobility were thanks to their overly lavish lifestyles in a hole of debt I doubt even a dragon could dig itself out of. Their solution? Use their farms to pay off their debt.

    This, went horribly wrong.

    The nation of Burjion for the first and last time EVER had a FOOD SHORTAGE. How in the name of God and all his Attendants did this happen you might ask? Well the Burjionese Nobles in a move of such blatant greed and disregard for the lives of their people sold off in some places 90% of their crops in trade in exchange for gold, thus not only paying off the Nobles debt, but also making them rich off of the starvation of their own people. And they got away with this for ONE HUNDRED YEARS. It still boggles this historian’s mind how this was able to go on for an entire century without revolt, but it really goes to show just how much trust the people of Burjion had in their leaders and how long it took for that trust to shatter.

    Now one might ask what did the Royals do to stop this madness? Well just about nothing because there really wasn’t anything they could do. By the time this crisis occurred the friendship Burjion once had with Eclenia was dead thanks to the incidents between the Emperor Nikaros and the Felbrist Clergy of Eclenia, and the overwhelming majority of Burjion’s military was at that time controlled by the nobility.

    So after a century of being pushed to starvation, the people of Burjion finally cracked. In 1759 sparked by the spread of information by a number of revolutionaries and military officers The Burjionese Revolutionary War began. These revolutionaries were a pretty mixed bag, many of them were born peasant farmers who moved to the cities for whatever reason and through whatever means became educated thus discovering the truth behind the horribly dark times the people had gone through over the past hundred years.

    The target of the revolution was the greedy nobility who more than deserved to be brought down, as well as the Royal family who were powerless and after a while remained that way for a cut of the gold made from the suffering of their people.

    However while the intentions of the revolution were just, the violence that it caused in its execution I can say with confidence was significantly more brutal than it needed to be.

    Over the course of the next 6 years thanks to a power vacuum caused by the complete annihilation of the ruling bodies of Burjion, the nation was plunged face first into bloody chaos as the many revolutionary factions fought for dominance.

    In response to this anarchy, the Auskelist Seric under the leadership of the Incarnate of Raguel led military forces to restore order, something which many of the deeply religious people of Burjion accepted with open arms.

    At the end of the political infighting the Royalist Party of Burjion under the leadership of the former Burjionese army officer, Mikkel Salome, came out on top of the violence securing all of the territory not taken by the Serics. In the end the Auskelist Seric didn’t trust Mikkel enough to hand over the lands they had taken control of and so after more than a year of heated negotiation, a compromise was made. In effect they would form two separate states with their own laws and systems of governing, but they would remain a single state, thus allowing full freedom of movement for any Burjionese citizen within the borders of the nation, the people could decide where they lived and which government they liked better, not that the average Burjionese villager was going to give much of a damn as long they weren’t giving up almost all of their food anymore.

    Thus began a new era for Burjion, a time of two governments, and a time of retaking Burjion’s pride and honour through the blood of her young men.

    I hope you’ve all enjoyed the first part of the History of Burjion, I know I breezed through so much stuff it’s damn near criminal but I needed to get to the modern iteration of Burjion as quickly as possible, but I swear I will go back at some point and give you a more substantial look at the eras summarized in this post.

    If you liked it please feel free to leave a like on this post, and if you have any thoughts, feedback etc. Please don't be afraid to give me a reply I love feedback as it really helps me improve my universe.

    Thank you for reading I hope you all have an awesome day  8)

    2 people like this post: Gerrick, Elbbsas

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  • Hello everyone! Crushita here (Yes I'm still part of this :P ) Here to bring you....
    An update to the religions of Mithra!
    Since the first post in this thread, and boy was that a long time ago, the religions of Mithra have seen a huge update, featuring such things as Siglaeism being hugely expanded upon and Sarvanism and the Sarvanists in general no longer being cartoonishly evil!
    In this first post we will cover Siglaeism.
    So without further ado:
    Spoiler
    Well first off, it is most obvious to start with the most fleshed out and, story wise, the most important religion of Mithra, Siglaeism!
    Siglaeism:Since its inception, Siglaeism has focused on a few main ideas, firstly that God, the one and only God, has left the world, that they left a certain number of their Attendants in charge of the world, and that these Attendants are the ones Siglaeists pray to. This means Siglaeism is an odd mash-up of both the polytheistic and the monotheistic, a fascinating combination I find. Its also only one of two religions to be monotheistic(The other being the religion of the dwarves of Rhiannon and of most dwarves in general, but that will be covered later)

    With all of this in mind, your first question is probably "Why did god leave the world?" To which the answer is somewhat complex. In the minds of Siglaeists, God is all loving and all powerful, but differs from most real world religions in that they are not all knowing. They have a certain amount of foresight to be certain, enough that Siglaeists believe that God can, through their conduit to the world, Remiel, predict the future and see some foresight given to people, but that it was not enough for God to see the consequence of what they had created. God, being all loving, gave free will to all people, but did not expect what resulted as a consequence, disease, famine and above all, war took their toll on the very all loving will of god. But God could not bring themself to take away the free will they had granted to all people, because it created things just as wonderful as it did horrific, as much pleasure as it did pain. In the end God decided to sequester themself away, and allowed the most powerful of their servants to rule over the world in their stead.

    The Attendants themselves are an interesting case. Depending on whether you’re a Felbrist or an Auskelist(Or a Haykalist, which is a general term for the myriad of sects that scatter the continent of Orliend, some of which can only be called Siglaeism in the most general sense, just assume everything said here doesn’t apply to them.) you believe in either 7 or 8 Attendants of God. This difference stems from different beliefs in which holy texts are legitimate and which are falsifications. To explain this first requires an explanation of Siglaeism’s origins however and will be told later. The important thing to know here is just that Auskelists(That are most Siglaeists in the west of Galindia) and Felbrists(Which are most of the Siglaeists in the east of Galindia, with a minority in Soeria) believe in slightly different things. The Attendants in question are:

    Remiel The Serpent/Dragon Attendant: Remiel is the most important Attendant in both Siglaest sects. Remiel is the Attendant of wisdom, knowledge, fire and the saviour of humanity and is often given the epithet He who Speaks to God as he is the only Attendant who communicates with god, and occasionally gives the wisdom of god to his priests. He is also called Defender of the Dead as it is he who takes the souls of the pious dead and brings them to the realm beyond instead of allowing them to wander the world for all eternity. Remiel is represented as both a serpent and a dragon. When he is depicted as giving knowledge, often both in Serics, which are the Siglaeist places of worship, and on texts, theological and academic, he is a serpent. When he is the saviour of humanity or gathering the souls of the dead on his wings however, he is a dragon. It is said that Remiel gave the prophet Urist the knowledge that the Attendants had replaced god and the reason humanity was enslaved was because they had continued to pray to god and had rejected all signs of the Attendants existence. Since God could not help them and humanity didn’t believe the Attendants existed in the first place they could not help humanity. Once Urist convinced people to worship the Attendants however, he took the form of a dragon to lead them to victory. Remiel himself is rarely prayed to however, except in the most dire of circumstances or during funerary ceremonies in which people ask him to take the soul of the deceased, or during the annual ceremony in memory of the martyrs of the War of Liberation. Remiel has no Seric, but the Caves of Remiel, a series of many deep caves, the largest of which is believed to be where Remiel as a dragon lived and died, are a common pilgrimage place for Siglaeists as well as where his priests live, sequestered from society except during certain special events. His festival is the Feast of the 1000 Martyrs, celebrating all those who died in the War of Liberation.
     
    Uriel The Lion Attendant: Uriel is the head of the Felbrist group of Attendants(The only Attendant that Felbrists do not believe in compared to the Auskelists is the head of the Auskelists group) Now if you’re wondering why Remiel does not head the Attendants, it is because Remiel is seen on a different level then all of the other Attendants and holds a place somewhere between them and God themself. To group them in the same in that way would be to degrade Remiel, despite them all being Attendants. On Uriel himself, he is the Attendant of conflict, loyalty, and industriousness. Story wise he is seen as the patron of the Eclenian royal family and of Eclenia herself. He is depicted as a lion, often with his claws out and holding two conflicting things, such as the colours black and white. He is often depicted with some sort of trade tool aswell by many organizations as the Attendant of industriousness and is a favourite of trade guilds. Though Siglaeism has no Attendant of war, not surprising considering such things as war caused God to leave, Uriel is the Attendant of conflict resolution rather than conflict itself, and is prayed to by soldiers hoping for a quick victory. His priests uphold this and are often judges in the more theologically centered nations such as Burjion. The festival of Uriel is the Feast of the Righteous Fifty, celebrating the first 50 humans to convert to the true faith and who summoned Remiel. His Seric is in the Eclenian Capital of Fenrock

    Jophiel The Fox Attendant: Jophiel is one of the more interesting Attendants simply by how differently she is seen by different cultures. Her priests are just as likely to be praying as they are fucking, and many see the two acts as one in the same.. Jophiel is the Attendant of wealth, cleverness, pleasure and fertility. She’s often depicted as a red fox with, depending on who made it, 7 or 8 breasts bared. She is unsurprisingly a favourite of taverns and seedier establishments, but also of merchants and business people, many of whom keep statues of her for good luck and fly the banner of her on their ships. Her priests are a varied bunch. They are split about half and half between more traditional priests, who do prayers and offerings and give consultations to Jophiel’s followers and a more recent sect called the Chosen of Jophiel who believe that Jophiel will reward her followers that deal with pleasure most of all. Whore houses are a very uncommon sight in Siglaeist nations, the pleasure temples of the Chosen long having put them out of business. Her Seric is in Redris, the capital city of Mercia in Eclenia. The festival of Jophiel is the Feast of Salvation, celebrating the victory of humankind over their Elven oppressors.

    Zadkiel The Ram Attendant: Zadkiel is one of the less prayed to Attendants. He is the attendant of minerals, iron and steel, mountains, willpower, truth, defence, animal husbandry and is often associated with stubborn people. A common insult in Siglaeist nations is to say that someone is a true worshipper of Zadkiel in reference to that fact. Despite that his priests are known for their wisdom and courage, second only to the rare priests of Remiel. A true priest of Zadkiel will undoubtedly tell you what he thinks, and will probably insult you in the process. His followers are most often found in mountainous areas, though due to his association with metal he is popular with metalworkers of all kinds. Most Felbrists also associate him with fatherhood and worship him as the Attendant of it. The Seric of Zadkiel is in southern Strennora, but acts independently of that state, which has never seen fit to bother it. The festival of Zadkiel is the Feast of Undying Faith, celebrating the defeat of the humans who betrayed humanity to side with the elves during the War of Liberation.

    Raguel the Eagle Attendant: Raguel is perhaps the most divisive Siglaeist attendant. To the Auskelist, Raguel leads the Attendants of God and is only subordinate to Remiel, to Felbrists Raguel is a falsification, a non existent attendant and the last curse the Poelletan Elves to divide humanity. The difference between these two sects comes from disagreement in which texts are correct. The Prophet Urist himself is believed to have written most of the most basic texts of Siglaeism, but on the books of the Attendants, it is believed that Urist insisted that humans write them down themselves for some unknown reason. The problem came here. The Prophet Urist wrote all of his texts in Dwarvish, a language that insists on a different character for every word. This made it hard to learn and read but the dwarves themselves, who helped the humans had no problems with translating it. When the prophet Urist insisted on the humans writing the books of the Attendants however, the problems came from the fact that the human tongue had no writing system, forcing the few literate humans to write the texts down in Polletan Elvish before translating them back into the dialect they were speaking. Perhaps it was a simple translation error by one of the scribes but different copies disagree whether the Prophet states there are seven or eight attendants, and the book that drew the most suspicion from Felbrists was the Book of Raguel. While all the other books were written down during the war, the Book of Raguel was said to have been transcribed as the Prophet Urist was dying. It is said to be different in style and form from all the other books and upended the early social order by establishing Raguel over Uriel in terms of precedence. It was not long before early Felbrists called it a fraud and early Auskelists called it the truth.

    Now with all of that out of the way, on Raguel himself! Raguel is as said before, the most important of all the Auskelist Attendants and is the Attendant of foresight, strength, courage and by Auskelists, fatherhood, as opposed to Zadkiel. Raguel is considered the all the seeing eyes of the Attendants by Auskelists and is prayed to along side the Attendant that chose them(If that sentence confuses you, it should, I’ll get to The Choosing Later.) Other then general worship by Auskelists, Raguel is also prayed to by Auskelists soliders as much, if not more then Uriel due to representing strength and courage. Raguels priests are considered to have prophetic powers, not on the level of Remiels priests but far more accesible to the common people. The Seric of Raguel is  in Aurian in Burjion, one of its two capitals.

    Sariel the Falcon Attendant: Sariel the Falcon Attendant is a mixed bag of attributes and representations and due to her many aspects in the regular lives of people is one of the more important Attendants. Sariel is the attendant of birth, motherhood, life, happiness, joy, nature, fire, beauty, death, pestilence, balance and change. She is usally given the epithet Great Mother, Bountiful Destroyer representing her role. She is both the giver of life, said to grant the soul of every person, while she also represents death, the price of her gift. She is both the protector of beauty and its destroyer. The protector nature and fire in equal measure. Sariels conflicts do not take away from her role but highlight it. She represents the many conflicting traits of nature and reconciles them. Fire may destroy nature, but it is important to revitalize it. Disease is the price of the human condition, only her allowing you to die may give you release from her beautiful curse. Whether you have been pious enough to avoid eternal damnation in the form of wandering the earth until it too crumbles to dust is usually not up to her unless you are one of her followers. Those who follow Sariel are usually midwives, doctors and nurses, those who deal in cosmetic professions, teachers and often hermits. Advisors to many great past kings are said to have been devotees of Sariel. Her Seric is in Haragladia, between the Serics of Zadkiel and Uriel, the Valley of Sariel, said to be one of the most beautiful places in Galindia. Her festival is the Feast of Revelation, said to be when the prophet Urist recieved his first revelation.

    Jerahmeel the Octopus Attendant: Jerhameel the Octopus is one of the most controversial Attendants not in terms of theological issues but because of how its Incarnates decide to carry out their duties. Jerhameel is the Attendant of water, waves, tides, the moons, righteous wrath, sacrifice, offerings, and piety. Where Uriel is the Attendant of Justice, Jerahmeel is the executioner. Jerahmeel is an attendant who constantly demands proper pious offerings from Siglaeists and destroys those who don’t. He is wrath, vengance, and anger and the eldest of the Attendants, representing God’s first reaction at the horrors they had created. In keeping with this, Jerahmeel’s Incarnate and priests are infamous pirates, living on the Island of Ceske and raiding those ships that Jerahmeel has told them did not give proper offerings. Because of this many sailors dump heaps of valuables on Jerahmeels altars, and this combined with the ships and goods they steal have made the Incarnate of Jerahmeel the richest incarnate of all, with even more wealth then the Incarnate of Raguel despite that incarnate controlling half of an entire nation. His festival is the Feast of the Impoverished, mourning all those who died before Urist’s revelation. It often includes an elaborate ceremony where Jerahmeel, representing humanity’s righteous cause, overthrows the Polletan Elves.

    Famriel the Salmon Attendant: The last attendant on this list is Famriel, the Salmon Attendant. Famriel is associated with agriculture, crops, good, the seasons, the sun and light. Famriel is perhaps the most benevolent of all Attendants and it is said that her wings hold back Jerahmeels true wrath. She gave agriculture to humanity so that they may thrive but must constantly made compromises with the wrathful Jerahmeel. She gave humanity summer and Jerahmeel winter. She made the sun and Jerahmeel made the night, allowing her only to put in the two moons, which would only shine fully together on the most special of nights and forcing her to relinquish control to him. Together with Jerahmeel they are the most primordial of the Attendants, yet few pray to Famriel though her priests are often sought out. Her Seric is in the rich agricultural heartlands of Burjion. Her festival is the Feast of First Light, celebrating the creation of the world.

    And there you have it, all 8 Attendants! This post has gotten very long though, so in the next post I will cover Siglaeist traditions and festivals, the afterlife, the daily rites and rituals, and the Siglaeist priesthood.

    I will of course give a quick mention to our ever helpful friends @Elbbsas @Gattoartico and our friend who likes liking these posts @Gerrick

    Oh and @Fortis_Scriptor because I didn't tell him I was done with this :P
    3 people like this post: Gerrick, Elbbsas, Fortis Scriptor
    « Last Edit: November 11, 2017, 10:26:24 PM by Crushita »
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  • Oh dearie me dearie me, an update this is indeed, give me a few minutes and I’ll have something for you I just need to fire my laptop up.



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    End of Time

    I remember there in the dawn,
    When the suns rose and rose,
    That never could I know,
    A sight more grand than this.

    Now I sit here in the dusk,
    While the suns die and die,
    That never will I see a sight more sad,
    Or a sight more beautiful.
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  • *Started writing this then left it idle for over two hours.*
    Culture-based worldbuilding!
    Would Uriel ever be depicted holding a hammer and a scythe? (Because "building versus death creation versus endings" symbolism + tools). And it's a little odd to think of depictions holding the concept of black and white. Maybe the conflicting items being black and white, but solely holding black/white orbs or whatever is a little boring.

    I think that Raguel might be my favourite. There's the delicious irony that the attendant symbolizing foresight and prophecy is the one who has controversy. Any Cassandra Truth inspirations used here?
    Quote
    ...the most important religion of Mithra, Siglaeism!
    (...)
    The important thing to know here is just that Auskelists....
    (...)
    Remiel is the most important Attendant in both Siglaest sects.
    (...)
    Raguel is as said before, the most important of all the Auskelist Attendants....
    (...)
    Sariel the Falcon Attendant is a mixed bag of attributes and representations and due to her many aspects in the regular lives of people is one of the more important Attendants.
    (...)
    Fire may destroy nature, but it is important to revitalize it.
    Maybe take a step back from the word "important." It looks repetitive. Powerful, key, highest-ranked, a significant, more influential, vital (going in order for suggestions).

    Huh. I never would have associated falcons with motherhood. I am getting a few Cthulhu vibes from Jerahmeel. And finally, these festivals seem somewhat arbitrary in terms of how they relate both to a historical/biblical event and are attached to the themes of the various attendants. Almost as if the Powers That Be wanted to make a festival for each one and started ticking off boxes. =P
    Overall? Good grief, can I steal your collective brains? How the smeg are you both so creative and good at keeping track of this guff?

    Going briefly back to the Burjionese, I really, really like how a big part of Burjion is how they produce the most food... and they had a food shortage included in their historical briefing. XD That is greatly amusing.
    2 people like this post: Crushita, Fortis Scriptor
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  • Hey Fortis the writer here not me @Elbbsas, I can repeat important however much I like :P And there's a reason behind each of those festivals. And a reason each Attendant has one. Powers that be indeed :P You might not associate falcons with motherhood but in a fantasy world who knows what might become associated with what as long as it has SOME logic. Also don't compliment me on keeping this all in my head, Fortis had to correct the locations for me as I had forgotten where I had put some Serics xD
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  • But vocabulary expansion! These phrases cast off by your primary facial cavity must be tailored in approach and wit! To wit, shrewd and intuitive choices are exquisitely able to elevate even the most repugnant of abhorrent propositions! =P

    I agree. In-Universe-Logic supersedes Real-World-Symbolism! I only wanted to comment on Sariel's because I liked the unconventional choice. ...And it seems that I forgot to put in a line mentioning that as my reason for highlighting it. Whoops.
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  • Hello and welcome to the second part of the History of Burjion series, today we will be going over the rule of Mikkel Salome, and the Burjion-Eclenian War.

    Spoiler

    We pick up with Burjion in 1766 with the official coronation of King Mikkel Salome a rather quiet event considering its importance. Held in the still blood splattered royal palace of Burjion, Salome’s coronation was witnessed only by his fellow generals and the most veteran soldiers of his own regiment, a group no larger than 300 people.

    Before I can effectively continue with his rule I need to tell you a thing or two about this man, one of the most controversial figures in history, viewed by some as a hero, and others as a tyrant.

    The early life of Mikkel Salome is unfortunately rather shrouded in mystery, it’s hard to discern propaganda, and slander from the truth. What we know for sure is that he was born to the impoverished noble family of Salome somewhere between 1729 and 1735 (sources vary on his age), and that he graduated from the Royal Military Academy of Burjion in 1754 where he was most likely introduced to the growing democratic revolutionary movement.

    It’s unclear which group he was a part of before the birth of the Royalist movement in 1762 but by the former alignments of his closest advisors the Burjion People’s Liberation Party is the most likely.

    During the early days of the Royalist movement Salome appears in a number of reports as a Captain of the First Mounted Light Infantry Regiment where he was noted for heroic actions against Noble Republican forces in the defence of a fort.

    By 1764 Salome had reached the rank of General leading an entire army group in eastern Burjion.
    Documentation around this time in particular is dodgy at best but it seems that following the assassination of Prince Kelburn, the last living member of the Royal Family of Burjion and the figurehead of the Royalist movement, Mikkel was at the head of a hunt for traitors within the Royalist movement searching for Kelburn’s murderer, he also married Kelburn’s pregnant widow sometime during this hunt.

    By 1765 Salome was the undisputed leader of the Royalist Party. He was also the adoptive father of Prince Kelburn’s child, however the parentage of this boy has been disputed over the years to no definitive conclusion, however there was enough speculation to make any claim of legitimacy to the throne rather moot.

    Salome’s character is described in vastly different ways depending on what source you look at, for instance some accounts from his lower ranking officers describe events when Salome deployed his forces in disadvantageous positions on purpose to defend civilians, on the other hand there are well documented instances from multiple sources showing him order the mass executions of enemy prisoners of war.

    What I have been able to piece together, Salome had a very charismatic personality but was incredibly calculated in his actions. I have confirmed from multiple credible sources that he had a personal code of honour which he upheld even to his own detriment on a number of occasions, and he had little to no tolerance for his enemies, from what I can tell he didn’t believe in second chances for anyone, those who crossed him were punished if not put to death. That’s about all I can say with surety about him personally, as studying the men and women of power in this world I have found that while some rulers governance  reflects their personality, I found some take completely different forms when making decisions for their domains.

    But with that we return to where we started, March 15th 1766. After gaining the begrudging approval of the Auskelist Seric, Mikkel Salome was crowned the new King of Burjion.

    Salome had a taken up a rather hard mantle, for lack of a better word Burjion was a mess, six years of bloody civil conflict had left most of the cities in ruins. However the Auskelist controlled territories were left relatively unharmed, and on top of that the farmlands there had been producing record breakingly prosperous crops. To rebuild his own lands the young king was going to have to make friends with the holy men he called his most powerful political rivals.

    On top of the physical and economic damages he needed to repair, King Mikkel needed to make good on his promise to the people of Burjion that he could give them back their pride which had so long been dragged through the mud.

    While I’m quite sure he attempted to do other things, in the end Mikkel found the best solution would be to kill two birds with one stone in a flawed but rather ingenious plan. It was no secret the Auskelist Seric was no friend of the Eclenian Empire or their Felbrist State Clergy who had spit in the face of Auskelism when they punished the last Auskelist Emperor Nikaros Andolo forcing him to convert, and they had long wished to see the lands of Mercia and Antilonica, which contained both massive populations of Auskelists as well as a number of important religious sites. On the other hand, at the root of it all it had been the Eclenians who abruptly ended Burjion’s days of glory and thus robbed the people of Burjion of their pride and honour.

    Over the next year while also laying the foundations for rebuilding the rest of his nation, Mikkel went to work on a hardline anti-Eclenian campaign from great speeches to private letters, there was not an ear in Burjion that did not hear the evils of this arrogant empire which claimed to be superior to them.

    Mikkel’s words could move a heartless man to tears, and no where did he turn his charms more than to the Incarnate of Raguel, Riccard Jayon, an aging man with surprisingly progressive views for his line. It took him almost a year of constant correspondence, but Mikkel eventually made Riccard a close friend, as well as convinced him that if Burjion was to become a strong and united nation it would be necessary to take the Eclenians down a peg.

    The two leaders met and made an agreement to rally their armies. At the Auskelist Capital of Aurian they made a speech to a crowd of tens of thousands of their soldiers. Mikkel reiterated much of what he had said for the past year but put a powerful climax to it. “Come together brave sons of Burjion! Your Motherland calls on you again. The evil nobility of our land is gone, but their masters are not. Sons of Burjion, our Motherland calls on you to finish your duty to her and bring down the Eclenians. They who make themselves friends of inhuman creatures, and whores of that most vile race the elves who once enslaved all of humanity. Go forth, serve your Motherland well and return to her warm embrace legendary heroes!”

    As rousing as that was, what truly lit the pyres was when Riccard gave his portion. “My friends, loyal followers of the Attendants. When King Mikkel, the saviour of Burjion came to me with this proposition, I was hesitant. Our land has seen so much suffering in these past six years it seemed hard for me to fathom another war. But he made his argument, and I agree it is the Eclenians who truly brought these horrors upon their fellow men… I was conflicted, so I went to speak with the greatest of all the Attendants, I prayed to my senior Remiel, and he honoured me with his presence. However to my surprise he came to me not with advice from his own experience, but with a message. A message from God! And that message was that if Burjion was to be at peace, if we were to live free, we must fight this war! If we do not then not only will Burjion fall, but all of Siglaeism as we know it. So brave warriors of God and his Attendants, if you cannot find it in yourselves to fight for this land, then fight for God who has shown us the righteous path!” While he continued on for a few more minutes after that, the message was clear. A message from Remiel saying this war was just would have been enough, but a message from God, that was something not even the most anti-war men in Burjion could oppose.

    So the armies of Burjion who had only months ago brutalized each other, bolstered by hundreds of thousands of volunteers coming to answer the call of God, amassed on the western Eclenian border, every one of them truly united for the first time in centuries.

    In the History of Eclenia I brushed over the Burjion-Eclenian Wars without going into much detail or even the impact it had but that’s in part because it was more specifically impactful on Burjion, and the western Provinces of Eclenia rather than the Eclenian Empire as a whole. (Fortis here, it’s also because I hadn’t developed much for it at the time as and I was trying to get through all 400 years of Eclenia’s history as an Empire)

    Rousing speeches were one thing, but what was the actual casus belli of this war? That would be to retake the conquered lands of Mercia and Antilonica, as well as liberate Holy Sites, and the oppressed Auskelists in those lands.

    Those are good causes if you ask me, but something to keep in mind is how much things had changed in Antilonica and Mercia since the day Marius had taken them from Burjion in the 1400’s.

    For one there was Mercian royal blood within Eclenia’s line of Emperors, and if I’ve learned nothing else about Mercia, blood means a lot.

    Then there’s Antilonica which had been indebted and incredibly loyal to the Eclenians since the 1400’s when Marius’s Imperial Consort lost her life fighting a plague which had swept through Antilonica. To this day there is a statue commemorating her sacrifice to help save thousands of lives.

    The beginning of the war in short did not go to plan for either side involved. The Eclenians under a young Emperor Jyris, honestly didn’t believe the declaration of war to be anything. From their perspective Burjion was a sickly nation which had spent the better half of the last decade embroiled in a bloody civil war, following a century of starvation. What nation would be able to even put up a defense, let alone wish to launch an invasion?

    Such a miscalculation on the Emperor and the senate’s part would cost lives.

    The Eclenian Army wasn’t even called into partial mobilization. Why waste people’s time?

    The Burjionese on the other hand were expecting to walk into Mercia and Antilonica as liberating heroes on a mission from God. The people of these provinces as we might expect were not so welcoming when they saw foreign banners at the heads of columns of men in uniforms not of Eclenia march into their towns.

    Among the worst early encounters in the war which was spun into a frenzy throughout Eclenia was the unfortunate fate of the elven community of New Hilomatra. Neither Antilonica or Mercia had ever been large havens for the elves having such large minorities of Auskelists who viewed the elves with less than positive views. But in the enlightening times of the 18th century, efforts were made in Auskelist societies in Eclenia to be more accepting of their former enemies. Among these projects was the small community of elven refugees from Bothnia which came to be known as New Hilomatra. This group was originally going to be settled in northern Haragladia where elves were rather common, but since it had been Antilonican legionaries who had rescued the refugees, they pressed to settle them close to their home town. The local Seric even offered to pay for all of the food and materials to help them settle in, so the National government happily accepted to have the elves taken off their hands.

    New Hilomatra was unfortunately near the border with Burjion, and so it was one of the areas the Burjionese invasion made it to before there was an organized Eclenian military response.

    On a beautifully peaceful day, the small detachment of no more than a dozen legionnaires stationed at New Hilomatra were shocked when they saw Burjionese forces marching towards the town. Discovering the rumors of an invasion were true, Lieutenant Lionel Sanor, the commander of the detachment sent the youngest member of his group to ride for the garrison and call up reinforcements. The rest of them would help to evacuate and protect the Hilomatrans, the legionnaires being Auskelists themselves, knew what would happen if the Burjionese got their hands on them.

    It is after this point that our records of what exactly happened get a little foggy, as the only sources we have come from the Burjionese troops involved, and a number of surviving Hilomatrans, one of which I had the pleasure of speaking to about the incident.

    From what I have been able to piece together it went something like this.

    After Sanor sent out his rider, he had four of his remaining men start gathering up the townsfolk and  started mounting them up on horses, wagons, and any other form of transportation they could find, before leading them out of the town towards the garrison which was about 20 kilometers to the southeast.

    Then Sanor and his mighty force of seven men started engaging with the Burjionese vanguard pickets about a kilometer west of the town. Reports from the Burjionese at the time were interesting, to sum up what they thought they were facing I refer to the account from a Burjionese Lieutenant. “Upon reaching the edge of the wheatfields we were engaged by at least a company sized force of enemy skirmishers,”
    While it was a vast overestimation of their numbers, I would call that a compliment to Sanor and his men.

    After engaging Sanor’s men, the Burjionese vanguard, having lost most of their officers fell back to the main force telling their commanders they had engaged a sizable enemy force, to which the Burjionese in turn dispatched a battalion to pacify enemy resistance.

    By the time the next group of enemy troops arrived about an hour later, about half of the townsfolk were on the road, but many were still well within range of enemy forces should the defense fail.

    Reports to the Burjionese command about the following engagement says that there was a brief exchange of fire before the infantry cleared out the tiny Eclenian force. To pick out one line in particular “It was a trivial affair no longer than five minutes in duration.”

    Accounts from the ground however paint a slightly different picture. Referring to the war diary of the same Burjionese Lieutenant from earlier, “As with the first engagement, at first there appeared to be no enemy troops at all, before thunderous cracks of musketry echoed across the field. Before we knew it a number of our officers were dead, including Colonel Damien who I had strictly warned to be wary. He was laughing at the Eclenians supposed cowardice when he was struck in the head and brought down from his horse.” He continues on to describe the panic and confusion among the ranks of the Burjionese line infantry as their officers and NCO’s fell victim to Sanor and his men. However after about another half hour, the Lieutenant goes on as such. “The Major, secure behind the line directed the battalion to fix bayonets and assault the town. The volume of enemy fire was far less than initially thought and upon reaching the buildings a number of single man melees were engaged. By our count there were nine enemy soldiers left defending the town, two of which we captured.”


    So I suppose technically the report to the Burjionese command was accurate as the actual assault on the town seems to have only lasted five minutes.

    Following the defeat of Sanor’s legionnaires, the Burjionese split their forces, some secured the town and began rounding up the elven civilians, while the other group pursued what they thought was a force of enemy troops.

    By the time the Burjionese forces reunited a couple of hours later upwards of two thirds of the townsfolk had been captured and rounded up in the townsquare at the shrine to the old elven god Louhi.

    The Burjionese troops hadn’t been given explicit instructions on what to do with elven civilians. From their perspective, they thought all elves were either serving in high military positions, or were rich nobles. For most of these young soldiers this was the first time they had seen elves, and from what I can tell many were a bit unsettled by just how similar they were to humans rather than the demons they had been told about.

    The Major in charge of the Burjionese force sent for a Priest of Raguel to advise them on what to do. The regimental chaplain who came back made a brutal decision, without any specific orders he fell back on the guidelines set in medieval times during the Inquisition.

    The two captured soldiers were to be tried for heresy, and every elven man, woman, and child was to be purged thus cleansing the land of their demonic filth.   

    All of them were sentenced to death by hanging, one of the worst possible ways to die as a Siglaeist, as your soul is trapped within the body unable to even reach Remiel for judgement.

    From there we know that the executions were carried out without question before Burjionese forces left the area and moved further into Eclenian territory.

    When Eclenian reinforcements arrived in town the next day, they were met by a horrifying sight. Everywhere bodies could be hung, they were, hundreds of them lined the town. Trees, the rafters of buildings, even from the tip of Louhi’s spear innocent civilians were strung up. Among the dead were all nine of Sanor’s men who had remained in town.


    Word of the incident spread like wildfire through both the Eclenian and Burjionese armies and public. The Eclenian newspapers called it the New Hilomatra Massacre, and warned that the Burjionese were invading to slaughter every citizen in Eclenia no matter who they were.

    The Burjionese on the other hand called it a victory for good, and the first step to saving Antilonica from the grasp of evil.

    Following the New Hilomatra Massacre, Burjionese forces began meeting significantly stiffer resistance, not just from the sporadically positioned Eclenian garrisons, but from locally raised Auxiliary forces riled up by rumors that Burjionese forces were killing any and all people they came across.

    Battles in these early days were spread out skirmishes as Eclenian Legionnaires employed Light Infantry tactics against the Burjionese forces, and the local Auxiliaries conducted raids and ambushes wherever they could.

    What the Burjionese expected to be a campaign of liberation became a brutal guerrilla war in which they were having to burn down villages displacing tens of thousands of the civilians they claimed to be coming to save.

    Most of this action I’ve described took place in Antilonica, though the same was true in some areas of Mercia.

    The Corps command in Mercia had been a bit more cautious following the threat of invasion and had actually mobilized a number of their garrisons, this led to more… civilized battles in the early months of the war compared the fighting in Antilonica.

    Yes the proud Mercians were well known for being glory hungry and their actions in the early days of the war reflect this greatly.

    The Mercian Third Corps Legionnaires of the garrisons mobilized did not simply ready themselves and their areas of operation for coming warfare. No. The brave Mercians no matter how few in number, whether it be a regiment or even a single company, they met the Burjionese in open combat.

    The equally brave and zealous Burjionese were proud to meet their enemies muzzle to muzzle on the honourable fields of battle.

    This as you might imagine did not bode well for the Mercians who stood their ground with strength and honor, only to be wiped off the face of Mithra by forces in most cases from ten to one hundred times their size.

    By the time news reached the capital of the New Hilomatra Massacre, they had already taken in news that Mercian legionary casualties were staggering and that the Burjionese were only 40 kilometers from the Mercian Capital of Redris.

    By the end of the first month of the invasion, the Raguelan Army of Burjion had made great progress, they had eliminated hostile opposition in the southwestern half of Mercia and were now poised to besiege and take the Capital, Redris. The Royalist Army of King Salome on the other hand was having trouble fighting in Antilonica where the term surrender had evaporated from the Antilonican vocabulary.

    No matter the Army, Raguelan or Royalist, the Burjionese soldier was a valiant one, but there were perks to being with the Raguelans for sure. In general the Raguelan army was significantly better equipped than the Royalists in everything but weaponry. What the Royalists lacked in equipment however they made up for with dragon scaled determination and the leadership of their new and true King Salome who was a great tactician.

    Speaking of Salome, while it had been him who had lit the fires to start this war, from what I have been able to gain from accounts of those close to him (The few I could get my hands on) show him to have not been very happy about fighting it. In general I think Salome understood very well just how much of a beating his country had taken already and by the way the Eclenians were fighting back, he realized taking Antilonica and Mercia was not going to be easy if it was even possible.

    While this is just speculation, from Salome’s extensive knowledge in propaganda warfare, I think he saw the New Hilomatra Massacre for what it was, as being one of the worst defeats for his cause in the opening weeks of the war. On top of that I believe his true objectives for this war were number one to bring the Burjionese people together after being divided for so long, and second was to beat one of the most powerful empires on the continent in open battle to prove that his nation was not to be trifled with as it had in previous centuries lest they face the talons of Raguel. Conquering Eclenia’s western provinces was an afterthought.

    The Royalist Army of King Salome continued on under terrible conditions fighting against the Antilonicans at every turn, if for no other reason than to support the successful push by the Raguelans towards the Mercian Capital of Redris.

    By the end of the first year of the war, the Royalists had secured most of Antilonica, and the Raguelans were entrenched in a siege at Redris against the a down and out but better organised force of the Eclenian Army.

    During this great siege of Redris, one of the most famous in Eclenian history for the heroism not of its soldiers but of the brave citizens who took on so much to keep the city’s defenses up. Among them was the great healer, Doctor Korrina Marys, a half-elf mage and medical doctor known as the Angel of Redris. She eventually volunteered in the Eclenian Medical Corps as an army surgeon which gave her the rank of major, but she never once responded to being called by her rank.

    By the third summer of the war, two and half years after it’s beginning, Eclenian forces broke the siege and rolled the Burjionese army all the way back to their borders. The Emperor Jyris then in a surprisingly peaceful move offered the Burjionese a white peace. A peace which I have found record that King Salome wanted to take, as did his Royalist army. The Incarnate of Raguel on the other hand, had other plans. He had become so blinded by the pleasure of bloody conquest that he would not accept any peace with the Eclenians so long as Mercia was still in their hands. If there was anyone the people trusted more than Salome, it was Raguel, and he wanted the war to continue.

    So began the next chapter in Burjion’s suffering as the armies of Raguel and the King threw themselves upon the now well defended border defenses of Eclenia. King Salome refusing to break his code of honour personally led his men into enemy fire time and time again. That was until one fateful battle in 1773, while leading a charge on the exposed Eclenian flank, King Salome was shot from off his horse and fell on the field. His men who thought he was dead continued the assault without him before being driven off by an Eclenian counter attack. It was then that fate smiled on the King when he was found by Doctor Marys who came upon Salome in a moment when he was making peace with himself preparing for death. According to multiple accounts she stood over him and said, “Do you want to live, King of Burjion?” and while this is more debated, he replied “Yes.”

    When they brought him back to the field hospital, just before Marys began surgery Salome told her that he could not break his code of honour by allowing her to save him with magic. Marys replied she would not break hers by letting him die, before promptly punching Salome square in the face knocking him unconscious. When asked about why she punched him she answered, “He can’t break his code of honour if he doesn’t know I used magic to save him.”

    Salome would spend another three months behind enemy lines under treatment of Doctor Marys. Needless to say not a soul in Burjion heard that their King was not only possibly saved by magic, but magic wielded by an elf. While he had survived what otherwise would have killed him, he was still crippled by it, he had to walk with a cane, and he was unable to mount a horse, or walk up or down stairs on his own. He also lived with severe pain for the rest of his life that I can barely imagine. He would never lead troops on the field again. To be honest though that part probably worked more in his favour.

    Following his return to Burjion, Salome put down his sword and even with the war still on began to put his other dreams into action. To start he began a massive movement of education sending teachers all across the nation with the express purpose of tutoring the people in reading and writing. His goal, to eliminate illiteracy in Burjion. To his credit, by Salome’s death, national literacy rates in Burjion raised from thirty four percent, to ninety four percent. Aside from that, Salome launched efforts to increase Burjion’s manufacturing sector, laying foundations for an increase of living conditions in cities and production center building projects. While most of these projects would never come to fruition he did his best. Most important of all to the people, Salome passed laws protecting the rights of food for the farmers of Burjion swearing that the Kingdom would never be allowed to confiscate more than a third of a crop for the state, the rest was by divine right theirs. While this move was well supported there were concerns that it could cause problems in the future. Salome’s response to this led to an event which most who wish to call Mikkel Salome a monster point to as evidence. The King laid the foundation for the State Mega-farms of Burjion. A protective measure to ensure the people of Burjion would never starve again no matter what happened. The populaces of Lepesons in Burjion who had so long been begrudgingly left alone were to be used as a resource in producing ludicrous amounts of food which could be used to protect the people of Burjion, as well as a massive source of revenue by trading to other nations not least of which were countries in the north and the Empire of Al-Uzza. The treatment of these ‘inhuman creatures’ was spoken of as such, “No better than you would treat the cattle in the pastures.”

    Over the course of the century these Mega-Farms have been in operation, they have proven very cheap to maintain and have brought in unbelievable amounts of profit for the people of Burjion. Every penny on the backs of the suffering Lepesons.

    On top of Salome’s original dreams, following his injury in the war with Eclenia, he worked tirelessly to bring the bloodshed to an end. Following the death of the Incarnate of Raguel, Riccard in 1798, Salome met with his successor, a boy no more than twelve. While the details of the meeting are unknown, rumor says that the old and proud Mikkel Salome begged this boy on his knees that he end the madness of his predecessor and finally bring peace to Burjion. And according to a number of accounts, the boy made a promise to the old king, swearing he would do his best to end the war which had by now gone on for decades. While Mikkel would never see it dying in 1803, the boy kept his promise, and in 1811 the Burjion-Eclenian War came to an end at the treaty of Redris. Something that is terribly unfortunate is that most historians to this day have placed all of the credit for ending the conflict on the young Incarnate of Raguel, and place all of the blame for the war upon the Royalists.

    Finally after such a long time of blood and suffering, it seemed that Burjion would finally be at peace. But reality is far less kind than one would hope. The new King Raymmond Delarou Salome, the supposed last of the true royal bloodline of Burjion had spent much of his youth serving at the head of Royalist troops in the war with Eclenia and the loss had brought him much shame. He sought to bring a pride of victory to his people, and regain the territories lost by the old kingdom during the civil war. In 1816 he launched Burjion into yet another bloodbath seeking honour and glory for a nation which needed time to rest and heal. But that is a tale for another day.

    I hope you have enjoyed the second part of the history of Burjion, and I look forward to reading your feedback.


    Just to make sure you all see that this is here. To our friends @Elbbsas @Gattoartico and @Gerrick
    I'd love to hear your thoughts on this most recent history series.  8) Thanks and hope you all have a great day.
    1 person likes this post: Gerrick
    « Last Edit: November 15, 2017, 11:04:15 AM by Fortis_Scriptor »

    Fortis Scriptor
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    Gattoartico
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  • Oh look guys I finally got around to using my laptop.

    Now lets get down to this.

    Overall I love how you give reasons for how each of the Attendants are structured.

     I agree with Elb when it comes to the repetition of the phrase "most Important".

    I really don't have much to say critically when it comes to Mikkel Salome. Your description of his campaigns are delightful and really give one a quality mental image of what's going on. I like how you end it off, setting the stage for the next chunk Fortis.

    Now these are the only two things that I picked out and wanted to mention specifically.


    Quote
    Disease is the price of the human condition, only her allowing you to die may give you release from her beautiful curse. Whether you have been pious enough to avoid eternal damnation in the form of wandering the earth until it too crumbles to dust is usually not up to her unless you are one of her followers.

    I'm sorry Crushita are you telling me there are immortals in this world?

    Quote
    Famriel is perhaps the most benevolent of all Attendants and it is said that her wings hold back Jerahmeels true wrath.

    Winged Salmon. You don't see those everyday. Are the Atttendants all winged entities?(Or did you say that in an earlier post but I'm just too blind to have noticed that)
    End of Time

    I remember there in the dawn,
    When the suns rose and rose,
    That never could I know,
    A sight more grand than this.

    Now I sit here in the dusk,
    While the suns die and die,
    That never will I see a sight more sad,
    Or a sight more beautiful.
    Gattoartico
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  • Quote
    Disease is the price of the human condition, only her allowing you to die may give you release from her beautiful curse. Whether you have been pious enough to avoid eternal damnation in the form of wandering the earth until it too crumbles to dust is usually not up to her unless you are one of her followers.

    I'm sorry Crushita are you telling me there are immortals in this world?

    Quote
    Famriel is perhaps the most benevolent of all Attendants and it is said that her wings hold back Jerahmeels true wrath.

    Winged Salmon. You don't see those everyday. Are the Atttendants all winged entities?(Or did you say that in an earlier post but I'm just too blind to have noticed that)

    Well first off thank you for reading! On your first point I am not, I simply never got into the part about the Siglaeists afterlife. To Siglaeists there is no hell, but if you are not pious enough to be picked up by Remiel then your soul is to wander the earth for all eternity. Always able to see the world but unable to interact with it, for the most part. I won't get into more of this though because thats for the next post!

    On your second point, not necessarily. Depictions can be a bit wonky though, ask the Ophanim.
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  • Hello Wintreathans, Fortis here with a quick announcement. I have been quite the busy writer and worldbuilder of late. I've been actively working on my book, and more importantly for this thread I have continued working on a fair amount of lore. The next post on the History of Burjion should be out before Christmas, and the first post on the History of Soeria should be out before the end of January 2018. But, I've recently gone back and taken a look at the older series, the History of Eclenia in particular, and I think it's time for an update. So this month, aside from the History of Burjion, I will be doing a more in depth dive series on the lore and history of Eclenia which means I will probably be removing the old history series, (unless anyone has an issue with that.)

    To get you guys hyped up here's a map of the territory of the Eclenian Heartlands
    Spoiler

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