Presenting, a Work in Progress...
He of Whisper and Shadow, Douma
Powers
Little is known of Douma. Indeed, there are a paltry few who even know that Douma exists—of those who do not serve him, his fellow Pretenders and a number of master-schemers and professional killers make up the majority. There are, of course, rumors, but there always are, aren’t there? More surprising than their existence, is how accurate the rumors—that He is the ethereal commander of untold horrors that seek to prey upon humankind in this era of chaos—is their accuracy.
Granted, He could not care less about how much humanity does-or-does-not suffer, and He has been active since long before the One vanished, and He has a corporeal form. But the rumors were born of the truth: he can bind his spirit to mist, allowing him to stalk the world at his leisure. And even if this mist is destroyed—which can be accomplished by the same means as any mist, if with greater difficulty—his spirit shall return to his body, none the worse for wear. The second truth is thus: He
is owed allegiance by a multitude of spirits both great and weak, both permanently ethereal and able to manifest physically, many of which would be deemed “horrifying” by the common man. They serve him in a great capacity: they make threats, cut deals, and occasionally engage in old-fashioned spy work to find their master Secrets.
More than his own capacity for personal combat—which is no claim to fame, at least amongst the Pretenders—more than his skill with magic—which, while great, is surpassed by several of his peers—the Secrets he knows give him Power. Be they weaknesses to exploit, pivotal stratagems, or perhaps even something to share. After all, the right secret, in the right ears, could fell a greater army than all of the steal in the world—or at least, that’s the principle He of Whisper and Shadow operates by. To those who know of him, he maintains the appearance of omniscience, but it is an illusion. While His wealth of Secrets is great, His servants only number so many, and their abilities can only go so far.
But they are able to serve Him in other capacities—the mightiest can be terrors on the battlefield, and the weakest could slip by defenses unnoticed to harass troops and damage morale with multitudes of little mischiefs.
Appearance
To speak of Douma’s appearance is tricky. Only that only a small handful of beings the world over have ever directly encountered Douma. This is compounded by the fact that only one—the reigning Grand Prince of Carnelia—is sure to has met with Douma
physically. Most encounters with someone other than the Grand Prince are done when he had bound his spirit to mist, and so they are only sure to have only heard His voice—a lighter affair than one might expect, soft in tone and almost difficult to hear—but He can project an image to go with the voice. When He does, it bears a passing resemblance to his actual form: draped in heavy furs, His face obscured by an antlered skull, and His eyes dark voids save for tiny white dots. No eyes have seen beneath Douma’s attire for many centuries, and many rumors abound the Carnelian nobility that purport to say what lies beneath.
Rituals
(Precise Content pending an explanation of how Rituals work)
The Whispered Deal
(Description Pending)
The Oath of Shadows
(Description Pending)
The Schemer’s Blessing
(Description Pending)
The Bloody Night
(Description Pending)
The Serene Republic of the Carnelian Coast
Carnelia
History
Believe it or not, there was a time when Douma’s hand did not pull Carnelia’s strings.
For many ages, the One was the sole god worshiped by the peoples of the world, there were still many lesser creatures: monarchs of supreme strength, mages of immeasurable might, beasts of indelible power, some of whom now rise as Pretenders to the One’s throne. And while all bowed to the One, they all held great power, and they all held their lands. The Serene Republic of the Carnelian Coast was to be a different sort of place. A place where the common man could control his own fate, where Rulership was won by Labor, by the strength of the flesh and bone, with only the One to answer to. For a time, a short time, it was so, and it was good. But soon Carnelia became a microcosm; the power of the near-gods throughout the world was mirrored by another power: wealth. An elite few found their way to the top, and they became wealthy. Then that wealth was inherited. Then again. Then again. Soon, the Republic’s elections were won by a river of gold flowing into an ever-shifting sea of alliances between families with names soaked in each other’s blood. And then Douma came.
He was a man then, and went by a different name, but it was Him. Those few that know of Him do not know precisely where He came from, that is something only he remembers, though He said once that He suspected the One knew. Whatever His origins, He was the greatest schemer of them all, with a horde of secrets, a mountain of gold, and a palace’s worth of dull steel in a dark night. He did not rule in the sun, but he pulled the strings from the dark corners. He was not the only one to play this game, but he was the one to win. Eventually, he was unopposed in his control of Carnelia, and almost nobody knew.
This done, He gathered more secrets. Dark secrets. He learned, and schemed, and spied, and plotted. It did not happen all at once, probably. Perhaps it was the culmination of a vast number of dark rituals, perhaps it was all the hot blood he spilled—or had spilled—onto the cold ground, or perhaps it was how long he kept to the dark corners where no human eye could see, or perhaps it was all three, but one day he emerged into the sun not as a man, but as Something Else. Carnelia was in the hands of the same sort of creature it had been founded to get away from, and its people were none the wiser. He of Whisper and Shadow had entered the world.
But he had not only been busy changing Himself. The Carnelian Coast had been granted to men because it was a disputed center of trade—none of the conflicting powers who wanted it would give it to a rival, and none dared to risk the One’s displeasure, so they gave it to men, whom they thought they would manipulate. They certainly tried, but we’ve already been over that. Douma proved Himself the greatest intriguer of all, and to Him went the spoils. The wealth of the Carnelian Coast flowed, and its people prospered. Some of the wealth even made its way down to the peasantry.
Carnelia had little in the way of troops, but those could be bought, and those few times where someone would bid higher than Carnelia, Douma would pay the men with Secrets. There were not a great many men on hire, just enough to hold Carnelia in the case of attack. Slowly, those soldiers had sons and daughters, citizens of Carnelia, who Douma decided would do as their forebears did. Then again. And again. And like that, they were tied to the Carnelian Coast by blood, now mercenary only in name.
So it went. So it went. Douma was patient. Douma was waiting. It is infeasible that He knew what would happen to the One, though He would like to have. It is infeasible that He knows exactly what did happen to the One, though He would like to. But when it became clear that the One would not return, Douma knew this was what He had been waiting for. And so He acted. Alliances were forged, deals were cut, secrets were outed, trade was cut off, rumors were spread; though it may have little in the way of steel, the Carnelian coast was at war. It had to be; without the watchful eye of the One, Douma would have to be much more proactive in keeping the Carnelian Coast from being conquered.
He has succeeded, thus far. Yet, in this era of chaos unseen since the One proclaimed Himself the Only God, Douma has not been seen to take any steps toward becoming the new One, like his peers. For now, the motivations of He of Whisper and Shadow are known only to Himself.
Military
(Description Pending)
People
(Description Pending)
Important persons
Grand Prince Alteo Verard of the Serene Republic of the Carnelian Coast
(Description Pending)
Azz-matar, the Grand Shade
(Description Pending)
Serathuul, the Blood-Reaver
(Description Pending)
Ventos, Lord Commander of the Shadow Guard
(Description Pending)
