Folks, craftspeople, merchants, adventurers and everything in between
Factions of the East
Pathcutters
(seen as anarchists, hated by traders too)
The bogs are a treacherous place to travel for those who do not know where to step, but luckily for travellers the Pathcutters are there to guide your feet. Laying out kilometers of wooden boardwalks from Xedoc to the surrounding mountains or laying gravel to mark safe ground or even some magical enchantments to light a danger in the night the Pathcutters are hard at work every day in the bogs to keep travelers safe.
They are based in the Hunter district of Xedoc, working closely with the hunters who provide updates of the various paths they pass during their hunts. They will take on any who are willing to join and teach valuable carpentry and survival skills. They stand out with their hammer and one hand saw at their side as they walk up and down the paths daily.
The Deathless
In the liberation of the east there was no grand siege or truly massive clash of battalions, as the God of Enigmatic Decay preyed on the mind over the body. Any mortal who dared to face the god would have their soul anchored and their mind would betray them to the fell magic of this clever and terrible god. So to have a fighting chance the Deathless were created. The lizardfolk seeker, working for the god of Enigmatic decay, found a tome of humanoid leather from a forgotten tower in the north near the gnome gate. The seeker was part of the cryptic rebellion that had taken hold in the ranks of the lizardfolk servants of the God and realised the potential that the ritual held for their plans. So she passed it to the greatest magic researcher of their ranks, Zhigo who perfected the technique of untethering one’s spirit into a distillate. Zhigo took 8 volunteers, 4 lizardfolk and 4 halflings as performed the rites, of the 8 only 5 survived the first untethering. They became the Deathless, freed of the spirit that ties everything in the world together, that gives one their emotional anchor, but also frees them from the god’s control. The Deathless order carried out the murder of the god’s two children and God of Enigmatic Decay himself. At their time of most need 12 were made deathless and fought against tyranny in the shadow with dagger in hand. The Deathless rites are now disallowed as their toll is seen as too great in a time of peace. The remaining deathless find it hard to live in the newly formed society, they remember emotions but no longer feel them in their hearts and find strong emotions from others uncomfortable, and find the feelings that guide others choices to be aggravatingly illogical. Many Deathless live in the Citadel built by them in the bog and hunt cultists of the gods as well as protect people from dangerous shimmers to give a sense of purpose for their lives though some do find ways to give back to communities and live as part of settlements.
To become deathless
You hang the initiate from their ankles over a brass pot that is warmed by blue flames with a single perfectly cute Agate inside it. The soul of the initiate will begin to drip slowly from the pores. A 16 part chant must be completed as a timing of the souls sweat, any more than that will kill someone from over depletion and any less will leave a lingering that a soul can rebuild from. The spirit is then distilled from the pot and set in the bog for the nether flies to lay their eggs in. From that point on all the brood of the nether flies gain the spirit lost from the deathless and they will not know an end of life until the brood’s bloodline runs dry. It’s never been known for a deathless to have ever been felled as the nether flies proliferation is fast and wide.
Boarc
The boarc are a heritage of tall standing humanoids with short fur and strong tusk like teeth that live primarily in the wetland forest of the east, south of Xedoc. Boarc settlements of the east are bands that hold loosely defined territory eminenting from a central settlement. The wooded land they oversee is home to many animals but also many predators which the Boarc hunt and respect. The boarcs are much like the lizardfolk in that they strive to keep this land balanced and never tip the scale by killing too many game or predators at a time. To keep this balance the bands are semi nomadic and never hunt, plant or build in one place for too long.
The cultural ideal of Boarc detests centralized power and the dominance of Xedoc in the bogs has driven a wedge between the lizardfolk and the boarc. There used to be a free crossing of hunting paths for both but as the more the two diverged in how they treated the land the less open they were. This only grew as the God took power a century past. Under the God’s decree the forest was logged, something the boarc saw as unacceptable evil and the skirmishes between the boarc and God’s forests began. The boarc lost over half their population to warring with the God. Since the God’s death the boarc have allowed Pathcutters to their bands but refuse to let any other outsiders in their forests as they no longer trust those they don’t know and don’t want anyone to know they don’t have the numbers to deal with another betrayal.
The Swamp Hermits
While not an organized group one would be remiss to overlook the swamp hermits when speaking of the people who call the bogs home. The marshy and wet landscape of the east makes the establishment of settlements difficult but where there’s land, food and water there are people. The hermits scratch out a living in the far corners of the eastern lands, finding symbiosis in their chosen spot.
Many of the hermits from the age of Gods were people who sought to hide from the seekers and the always searching eyes of the God of Enigmatic Decay. Many prolific spell casters and alchemists who wanted their knowledge on their minds fled far and wide. While many were found, a handful were either never found or never successfully returned to Xedoc. Zmil, a prolific alchemist, is known to be in the eastern mangroves but all seekers sent to retrieve Zmil never returned, it’s not known if Zmil is still alive and if Zmil even knows the God had been Usurped.
Some hermits are not from Xedoc, some are unknown entities of mythical powers. The most noted is the Haunted Sister, a mythical hedge witch in the wetlands west of the Ridgemarsh. If she is the same person in every story she would be over five hundred years old, so the haunted sister could be a title. Title or Longevity aside the Haunted Sister has freed many of curses and sicknesses that stumped others, speaking to her singular talent. One must always bring a gift when visiting the haunted sister and know that if they ask for something selfish then her boon will come with a curse of its own.
Cult of the Fear of Night
The Fear of Night, The Ur-Zizzer, the Flying Leach king are all names for the enormous flying creature that calls the mangroves of the east home. The Fear of Night has been described as larger than 10 lizardfolk, with shiny black skin, furry at the neck and large piercing eyes. The Fear of Night has been said to swoop down and grab its prey at night, flying them back to its lair. The lair of the Ur-Zizzer is a mangrove tree that stands taller than all others around it, large enough for this beast to rest on its boughs. This tree has been called the corpsetree. The Ur-Zizzer then deposits the prey at the base of the tree and the roots of the tree grab hold. The roots worm their way into the puncture marks left on the victim from the Ur-Zizzer claws and slowly begins to drain their blood as nourishment.
The name the ‘Flying Leach King’ is actually false in the fact that creature never drains the blood of its victims. It does however eat the fruit of the corpse tree, this being its primary food source.
There is a cult that worships the Fear of Night, or more so the corpse tree. They formed during the time of the God of Enigmatic Decay. The Fear of Night has been boldly hunting near Xedoc during the God’s early reign and so the God confronted the creature personally. On return the God told those who asked to never question then about the Fear of Night again and to not approach it’s lair. A few in opposition to God took this decree as fear of the Ur-Zizzer and began looking to the Ur-Zizzer to grant them power to best the God. The Fear of Night gave the applicants no heed but they observed it eating the fruit and tried themselves. While not great enough to fell a God, the fruit of the tree did bestow a power onto those who eat it. The power differs from person to person but it always has a magic like effect without use of mold jars or staves.(psychedelics)The cult has itself convinced that when fed the right amount of humanoid bodies the tree will grant them the power they seek.
For this reason the members of the cult are considered extremely dangerous as their intent is expressly murderous in nature. The members of the cult usually only hunt at night like the Ur-Zizzer and dress in all black, they often subdue and capture those they hunt and offer it to the Ur-Zizzer to take to the tree, as the Ur-Zizzer has the symbiotic bond with the tree and places the victims properly. One member was captured and brought to Xedoc for questioning. This interview brought forth the theory that the corpse tree controls the minds of those who eat some or a certain amount of fruit as the cult member questioned exhibited signs of being compelled beyond their control to murder for the tree. A ritual was performed to remove curses and that didn’t work so the leading thought is it’s a parasite and alchemists are working on a curing tincture.
Outsider Eastern factions
(Holy Consortium: steel and lead)
The Holy Consortium of Metallurgists
Hailing from the south west mountain range of Thiusland the devout and powerful religious organization seeds influence and presence over every corner of the continent. A core tenant of the religion of the Holy Metal is that metal is eternal and deserves religious reverence, which has led the current followers to assert, or at least try to assert, their influence over all mines or forges.
The Holy Consortium of Metallurgists has multiple companies who each specialize in a type of metal. While each company has its own mines, temples, forges and members the Holy Consortium shares tenets:
- Metal remembers. It will be reshaped and reused many times but the history of what it was should be remembered and respected. All the metal there was made at the start of time and there will never be more, cherish all metal as sacred, treat it as if it was the last piece.
- Impurities can strengthen you as well as weaken you. Work on yourself to understand your impurities and work out the ones that can cause you to break.
- Through Heat and force you can improve yourself and gain strength but to push too hard and to change states too quickly can cause a break. One should always work on themselves but in a way that is fitting for their core
- Inflexible things shatter but a weak core crumbles, always be malleable but stand true to your moral center. Work on the grain, there is a path that you were meant to work on and you must keep in its direction.
These are the core to the Consortium though each denomination has their own particulars that expand on these.
The steel company is the elite of the metallurgists. Elite in terms of skill in the consortium and this extended to the pursuits of being warriors. They are the guards of the vaults, the champions of the cause and the feared masters of all they pursue, they are a small but powerful company. They believe that power and grace come from working on your own perfection every day to remove your impurities and become the ideal vessel worthy of the metal. They often wear no armour and have small studs to adorn their clothes, preferring to show off their metal in ornate weaponry that is highly stylized in handle and hilt. They prefer long swords, halberds, spears, rapiers, warhammers and battle axes. If there is a weapon made in steel there is a master of its use in the company.
The tin company is the often overlooked arm of the metallurgist far reaching organization. They are a lesser company but a necessary one, often spies and advisors who are not marching in the front lines but standing in the exact place to whisper into an important ear. They believe that metal and those who have it can shift the fate of the world, so they work in the shadows to influence and sway those who have it. They often wear rounded plate like crests on their chests and chunky pewter jewelry. They are not known to carry weapons, and if they do they are not the kind that are easily noticed.
The steel company have their greatest asset in the eastern bogs and fear to lose their forge as the government regroups and reforms into a force that could threaten their hold. While they keep guard of the forge with their elites the metallurgists are fighting this battle on two fronts. While the steel stands in arms the tin conspire in Xedoc, swaying the discord in their politics. The tin could find allies in the Honour of the Skink but have so far found most success in just making sure no one agrees on who to support as the future leaders of Xedoc. The tin do this completely under the cover of disguise, not bold enough to fault their true allegiances in the land of the god free.
Slitherskin Rangers
The slitherskin rangers hail from the Engiring slopes between the plains and the bogs of the east. Some standing as tall as a human and others as short as a gnome, the commonality is their snake-like appearance and inability to speak. They travel the roads between the Central plains and the East, collecting bodies of the fallen travellers to present to their kin or assisting travellers in need, from fighting away monsters to healing wounds (in particular poisons which they are unmatched in their ability to cure). If one is saved by the slitherskin they will receive a written token, asking for them to consider giving their body to the Engiring slopes when dead as a repayment for their assistance. The use of dead bodies and the unspeaking nature of the slitherskin makes many feel unnerved by them but there are much worse companions one can find on the roads between, especially if you have bones to trade to them, as they will reward any who offer bones a great deal of sought after curatives.