The Nexerus — Roleplayer Guild

New Life

The sun baked the ground in the Systyn Desert, its heat choking to death all but the hardiest of natural life. Small leafless shrubs clung to shade wherever they could find it, rocky outcrops of jagged, tanned stone creating small patches of shade, just barely providing the minimum conditions necessary for the most basic plants to live and reproduce. The great sand dunes of the Systyn had ceased to shift with the winds, the hot breathe of their solemn creator settling, now carrying only small wisps of sand with each godly exhale. The topography settled and the balance of life was found; small, weak lizards and mammals struggled for dominance here, competing over the scarce vegetation of the inland sands. Only along the coasts did life do anything more than merely survive. It was there that strips of green could be seen, patches of cacti and even the occasional still living tree marking the end of the Systyn an the beginning of the ocean. Yet, it was not Solumna's plan that the fertile coasts would be host to intelligent life. Instead, the silent goddess would spawn her next creation among the dunes.

Birthed out of the scalding sands of the Systyn came the Ashta: a race of hairless bipedal mammalians, standing three feet tall with greyish toned flesh. They protect their own skin from the heat of the Systyn sun by wrapping it in the skins of other beasts, cleaned of hair or scales. All the other creatures of the desert shall be their prey, hunted by them for their sustenance. Foremost among the Ashta's prey animals though shall be a new creature, born from Solumna just as the Ashta were; the Reinoklaii. Colossal worm beasts, the Reinoklaii prowl underneath the sands of the Systyn desert, their massive size shifting the dunes of the desert as they near the surface. Their flesh and skin can be any of a number of bright colours, though the most common are purple and red. Entire tribes of Ashta could be fed for months off the successful hunt of a single Reinoklaii. Those tribes that came to specialize in hunting them would soon dominate among the Ashta, out-surviving those tribes that subsisted off hunting small game. The hunts usually consisted of baiting the creature to emerge with their favourite meal: a dying camel. The beast would then be numerically overwhelmed when it came up above the sands, pelted with rocks and stabbed with spears of stone and bone. The teeth of the Reinoklaii themselves became the favoured weapon for slaying the beasts, encouraging those tribes that made a successful hunt to attempt more in the future.

The Reinoklaii hunting Ashta would soon come to develop a sense of themselves as a distinct order within the Ashta: Worm Hunters. Unlike the other Ashta, who came to fear the Reinoklaii, those Worm Hunter tribes began to revere the existence of the creature as an offering unto them by the one they worshiped as the Night Goddess. Believing her to be responsible for the coming of the coolness of night as well as the flesh of the Reinoklaii, the Worm Hunters signaled their devotion to the Night Goddess through the constant wearing of head coverings, keeping the top of their heads hidden behind garments of skin from the moment of their swaddling. These Worm Hunters also came to develop a superstition against the ocean, never treading too near to the coastlands, as the Reinoklaii avoided these areas, lest they unwittingly burrow into the sea and drown.

1. (Create Race, 6 Power) Create the Ashta in the Systyn Desert. 3ft tall bipedal mammalian group hunters, their skin is ashen grey and they are created to be neutral in disposition.
2. (Create Creature, 8 Power) Create the Reinoklaii. Also born out of the Systyn Desert, they are colossal worm monsters that burrow underneath the Systyn, and are the prize prey of the Ashta.
3. (Create Order, 4 Power) The Worm Hunters are created, consisting of those Ashta tribes that specialize in hunting the Reinoklaii. They worship Solumna as the 'Night Goddess', and are fearful of the ocean, as it avoided by the worm monsters that they hunt to survive.
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