History: Egun Senxi
(BR = Before Roleplay)
~1050 BR - The Moon goes dark in the sky for weeks throwing the Northern tribes and their leadership, the Lunar Synod, into chaos as they scramble to understand the disappearance of their deity. Without warning a solar eclipse reveals the vanished moon and the Lunar Synod declare the Sun a usurper, forever forsaking the day. The southernmost tribes voice their protests, outright refusing the order to avoid the day and in doing so sparking conflict with their more numerous northern brothers. For years the southern tribes lose territory yet grow more convinced of their interpretation of events, with some even saying the Sun had convinced the Moon to return and should be honoured, not cast out.
~1000 BR - Having been totally forced out of their ancestral homeland the southern tribes of the Senxi travel to the southern Ethean Empire and are welcomed in with promises of a brighter future, however almost all find themselves exploited by the Etheans as cheap labour and willing slaves.
~960 BR - Seeing the abuses of the Ethean people the northern tribes men rise up across the nation regardless of their individual differences. Attempts to quash the rebellion are many, but the sheer scale of the uprising defies Ethan attempts at pacification.
~900 BR - The larger members of the rebellious tribes come to see the Ethean religion as the reason for their former masters abhorrent behaviour. The Volcano so praised in the capital of Ethea and long seen by the tribesmen as the Smoldering Death is labelled master of the Etheans, who willingly serve evil. Looking to the guidance of their own Heavenly Patron, the Moon, the largest tribes declare their rebellion a holy war.
~700 BR - As nearly a quarter of Ethea’s territory is lost the various rebelling tribes are joined into one by what many call the Hero of Heaven and seeing this centralization the reigning Empress Euphemia attempts to make peace only to be regarded as the mouthpiece of the Smoldering Death. Seen as a deceiver and temptress by the united tribes the Hero of Heaven sets out to kill her and in doing so end the war.
~690 BR - Successful in his quest the Hero of Heaven is hailed as the greatest of all men upon his return from such a perilous task. In Ethea the death of Euphemia cements opposition to the idea of peace and the war continues into a new period of brutality regardless of the united tribes hopes.
~640 BR - The Hero of Heaven dies after years of war and doubt shakes the various tribes, many beginning to question if winning the war is even possible. In the face of an increasingly uncertain homefront the Hero’s son holds the line even as the many disparate tribes begin to question their decision to unite.
~600 BR - Sensing weakness in the united tribes, the Ethean Empire launches a massive campaign. Cities and towns that had fallen to the tribes are burned by Ethean troops who put both women and children to the sword. The plains of Ethea become a lake of blood as the army advances, only to find its momentum unsustainable. Eventually the Ethean armies are halted the campaign having caused the empire to lose many of its soldiers but achieving perhaps one of its goals. Faced with awful losses the eastern tribes break their compact and leave their western brothers to carry on a mission they no longer see the need to die for. Those who remain in the alliance form the vast trie of Long Night. Bearing the title of The Moon’s Chosen and leader of this new tribe the Hero’s grandson begins his preparations for revenge.
~550 BR - Now recovered from the disaster fifty years prior the tribe of Long Night storms whatever territory the Empire held from its last assault in a breakneck campaign. Now without uncertain soldiers or conflicted commanders no Ethean survivors are taken. By the time the onslaught ends Ethea has lost yet more precious territory and suffered disproportionate casualties from a force they’d imagined was crippled. The campaign marks a new era in the war, one where both sides were bent not on conquering, but on eradicating the other.
~420 BR - Salvaging as much old Ethean knowledge as possible two of the easternmost tribes set themselves to the task of building a civilization of their own as the war in the west fades into a distant memory.
~380 BR - Out of their former nomadic roots Ren and Mul emerge as properly civilizations and set to the task of constructing a wall to separate themselves from the barbarians that were once their brothers.
~320 BR - Attempting to besiege the new fortifications to their south the tribe of New Dawn is gored and decimated, allowing its other neighbours impunity in their own attacks against it. Unable to fight back the tribe of New Dawn concedes much of its once vast territory.
~300 BR - Following another brutal campaign launched by the tribe of Long Night the empire is completely cut off from the rest of the world.
~120 BR - With Ethea so contained but victory still a distant dream the tribe of Long Night fractures, its most western territory breaking off to form its own tribe, Long Day. Tried for war this new tribe establishes permanent villages and agriculture while maintaining their traditions, inviting any who wish for peace to join them.
~100 BR - Ethea is reduced to only the capital and a few outlying forts and cities, though tribe of Long Night attacks slow as the remaining defenses prove to be centuries in the making. A standoff of sorts emerges as both sides search for an advantage.
~28 BR - Having been reduced to a minor player for nearly three centuries the tribe of New Dawn declares the newborn son of their aging chief as the reincarnation of the Hero of Heaven. Seen as a dying peoples pitiable attempt at glory the announcement is ridiculed and ignored by the other neighbouring tribes.
Religion: Path of the Moon
Deities: The Moon's path holds that there are but three deities in creation, The Heavenly Patron, The Celestial Adjudicator, and the Smoldering Death. Paramount of the three is the Patron, whose watchful eye can be seen every night in the sky as the moon. It is the Patron who is responsible for the creation of life and who watches their works with one eye upon the world and the other upon paradise.
The secondary deity of the Moon's Path and the Patrons brother is the worldly Adjudicator whose whole form is visible as the sun, a blinding light in the sky. It was the Adjudicator who created the Earth and the Mortal Universe by the Patrons edict, and even now the Adjudicator is the architect of the worlds many trials. Most often the Adjudicator is impotent in Paradise, but long ago it is said that he restored the Patrons sight after her mortal eye was blinded by the hated Smoldering Death.
Lastly there is the Smoldering Death, divine by its cruelty. After the Adjudicator had designed the world and the Patron had cast her eye on it a blemish came into existence, a god not born of paradise but one of the mortal universe. From the moment it emerged it was clear the Smoldering Death was filled with malice and hate. Seeing the world as its domain the Smoldering Death rebelled and sought to purge the world of the Patrons children and replace them with its own, the enchanters and the Bannik, the wretched demons of creation. In a battle with the Adjudicator the Smoldering Death was forced into the bowls of the Earth, but not defeated. Even from this worldly prison the Smoldering Death interferes with the world, though it cannot destroy it.
Beliefs:The Senxi believe that two worlds exist, Paradise, and the Mortal Universe. Reigning in Paradise the Heavenly Patron created all life as her everlasting children, but soon learned that in Paradise these children were never challenged, and they never grew. Seeing an answer the Patron turned to her lesser brother and told him to create a world, one which he could oversee and one which she would use to teach her children. Obedient and eager the lesser brother, who would come to be known as the Adjudicator, crafted a vast universe and watched over it as the sun. The Mortal Universe of her brothers design was beyond the Patrons expectations and when he invited her to cast an eye upon it, that eye was so enthralled it became the moon.
The Patron seeded life upon her brothers creation and proclaimed him Adjudicator, the one to judge the worthiness of her children for Paradise. In the beginning the Adjudicator could not imagine how his sisters creations would not be worthy, but soon enough he saw how young they were, and how foolish. He knew that they would not yearn for paradise if they lived forever and so he made the children mortal of body, allowing them to pass into paradise if worthy or rejoin their brothers new and old in subsequent life if not.
Content with his work in adapting the Patrons children to the world the Adjudicator took time to gaze upon all of his Mortal Universe, and in this gaze he saw what should not be. A new deity had been created, but not one he could call a brother. Somehow in giving the Patrons children mortal lives a new entity had been raised from the children's lost immortality, a beautiful god not of Paradise, but the Mortal Universe. It spoke in honeyed words and whispered to the Adjudicator of rebellion, of striking down the Patrons children and creating new ones, ones truly from and suited to the world they inhabited.
Appalled the Adjudicator lashed out at the malicious entity and in a great battle cast it into the bowls of the world, imprisoned but not defeated. Unable to do more the Adjudicator watched in horror as the being of evil, the Smoldering Death, created wretched beings and corrupted the Patrons children. In the Adjudicators haste he had not considered that the Smoldering Deaths prison could become its fortress and after searching in vain for a solution he went to the Patron, pleading for aid.
Unable to imagine such evil the Patron cast her eye upon the Smoldering death, and seeing the beauty of the creature under the stone of the earth she offered it a place in Paradise, a chance to craft its own world. Finding the Patrons proposal little more then humorous the Smoldering Death took the chance and lashed out at the Patron, Blindsiding her eye in the Mortal Universe and banishing the Moon.
In the chaos the Smoldering Death whispered to the Lunar Synod who had been given the gift of hearing the Patrons words and the duty of leading her children. The Smoldering Death and convinced them the Adjudicator had rebelled, even as the sun grasped the moon and restored the Patrons sight.
By the time her sight had restored and the Adjudicator returned to his duty the Patrons children had turned on each other, and in that time she wept stars across the sky. Unable to tolerate his sisters sadness the Adjudicator taught both the Senxi who'd been deceived and those who'd fled the means of identifying the Smoldering Deaths demons and the means of banishing them.
From then on the Adjudicator watched and preformed his duty, certain that in time the Patrons children would be the ones to overthrow the Smoldering Death as their mother proudly watched them.
