Folks, craftspeople, merchants, adventurers and everything in between
Inter-Community Factions
The Seed Shepherds
There is a dream shared by all giant families to once again see the plains verdant and green, however to make this dream a reality is a hard road paved by the Seed Shepherds. The Shepherds are the giant’s most prolific above ground group who scour the field of ash for any seeds of plants now burned away, cataloguing and helping any animal in need they find, and collecting lost collars and crests if they survived the fires for two years. While on the surface for this time the Shepherds are told to avoid danger and to flee the dead. The Shepherds then return the seeds to a large bank off the Hall of Seasons to be kept safe and if possible proliferate in safety until the fields can be reclaimed, tending to these plots for a year. Then for two more years they travel to the northern and eastern borders of the field of ash and tend the wild growth, and stave off husks, with this period the Shepherds employ magic to fight instead of flee. All this culminates in performing cleansing rituals to regain a small portion of land from the Ash. Once the five years are over the Seed Shepherds not only return to their family greatly respected but they forever are bound to the land above like the giants of old and can fully harness the druidic magic of their ancestors.
The Tunnel Seekers
While the dream of the giants is to return to the surface their reality is tied to the winding tunnels of the deep passages discovered and made safe by the Tunnel Seekers. The seekers travel in groups of 4 such as the season and embody roles invoking them; Autumn is to be provedant, to prepare for the hardships ahead. Winter is to be harsh yet pragmatic, to make the hard choices to survive. Spring is to be verdant, keeping things healthy and bringing connection. Summer is to be passionate and exciting, to not be afraid to go into the unknown. These groups walk and map areas of the tunnels yet to be found. They are well stocked with preserves, insects that assist with many things such as light and time keeping, and their seal to ward off any danger that they may face. The Seekers travel for 5 years and then return to their families, the passage they mapped now named by the group for finding it and plots laid deep in the earth to give them a kindness they did not have before. If seekers do not return from their travels then the Sought are called to retrieve them, a group of 8 made entirely of previous Seekers who did not wish to give up their life in the deep. The Sought embrace the tunnels like no other giants and know how to fight the darkness better than any in central Thiusland.
The Dire Resurrection Family
The families of the giants have done their best to find a new home below the plains, yet some refuse to let the dream of returning to. the plains for and strive for it in the realm of extremes. The Dire Resurrection family seeks to find what magic causes the dead to rise and husks to form in the field of ash and channel this magic to bring new growth to the plains. This dire magic is seen as sacrosanct for many of the giants and causes the Dire Resurrection to be ostracized from the greater community, as well as rumours to grow of their deeds. The family does however seek the return of the beauty and abundance of the land they once knew.
Outsider factions
Touv Godkin
Touv is if nothing else a master at surviving. Once he was second in command of the mercenary force “the Harvest Scythe” who oversaw the protection of the plains fortress of the God of Ravenous Flame. He was one of the first to flee the battle of Reaver Valley and had got so far in his running he got nothing more than singed brows when fire consumed the plains. So how did Touv come to be a warlord of the plains and named ‘Godkin’? He adapted.
The remnants of the mercenary companies were scattered and the destruction wrought by the god was laid bare, however, there was a fear on those who survived of the godly flame that Touv exploited. He claims to hear the god’s wisdom in flames and fire and has grown a cult to his divine providence, as it gives the displaced and afraid something to hold on to. He now leads the Ashen People warband to try and reclaim the plains for what he says is the will of the fire. They as a group are more nomadic and push and scavenge ever deeper into the burnt wastes but flee when the haunted dead are too strong to a fortress they built on the remnants of a giant’s now empty home.
Swabella Hon
Swabella is the elected leader of the Pullulate warband who until now has never had to run against another person. The Pullulate are wholly loyal to Swabella as she was the the person who left her doors open when refugees started pouring in from the flames and she new the old salves to soothe burns. It was under her care and visions that the community grew.
However, as the Ashen became a greater presence the Pullulate were ripe targets for their raiding, as well husks would find their ways to their homesteads and their tools could only do so much. It was in this time of need that Swabella was approached by a merchant from the South, Hovoldir De lentir. De lentir had iron weapons aplenty and offered them for free, now, with an agreement that all the Pullulate planted would be docked 40 percent to the holdings of De lentir.
This arrangement causes an ever turning wheel of need on which the Pullulate needed to farm more to have enough for their own and the bargain but needing more weapons and people to use them to hold the larger area they now farm. To offset this they started scavenging former battlefields in hopes to be free of their debt.
The Charred
A collection of apocalyptic worshippers who see the burnt plains as a holy place that no living creature should tread. They wear bones as a way to invoke the walking dead they worship and kill any creature or person they see entering the field of ashes. They are luckily a small group that flees the other warbands but they are a danger to those travelling on small groups and to the regrowth efforts of the giant families.