Thread: The Sky God's Offering (Warchief & Rapedoll)

Castille A beautiful and fertile kingdom nestled along the coastal shores of the Eighth Sea. Once a settlement of the mighty Kingdom of Avalon, Castille has been her own governing force for several decades now due, in part, to the barbarous tribes of the new world which they have come to call Eisen. With the help of the Eisen natives, Castille was able to cut her reliance on the mother kingdom entirely, learning to harvest the native crops and hunt the wild beasts of their new world from Eisens barbarian tribes. In the years following her liberation from the mother kingdom across the vast waters, Castille began to grow and expand her own influence further into the new world of Eisen. This expansion caused a great strain to fall upon on the virgin kingdoms relations that had been built with the natives of this new world. As Castille grew, she claimed more and more of the lands which had belonged to the native tribes. Tensions mounted and hatreds brewed as these once friendly visitors quickly became invaders. Both the native barbarian tribes and Castille, herself, became leery of one another and both began to view the other as treacherous beasts. As a result, skirmishes became common between Castille and Eisens natives. It was on the night of the summer solstice nearly twenty years ago that the contentions between Castille and the surrounding Eisen barbarians erupted into a savage blood feud. Castille had, by this time, pressed deep into the heart of the forests that her founding fathers had built her upon. A small group of her most trusted noble knights stumbled upon a large barbarian settlement with several large, stone pillars in the center of the crude buildings. This was the local barbarians shrine where they honored their goddess, Seluna, Mother of the Wilds. The knights, unaware that this was a place of worship and fearing what may come from allowing such a large settlement to go ignored, attacked the settlement, killed all of Selunas shaman, and destroyed the stone pillars that made up the forest mothers shrine. The barbarian tribes viewed this not only as an act of aggression upon themselves but as a declaration of open warfare. Castille was now completely alone in the new world. Her people had turned on their former allies and Avalon refused to send aid to her rebellious daughter from across the sea. Despite this, Castille continued to expand. Her people had learned how to survive in this land from the natives which she was now at war with and the barbarians were rarely up to the challenge of facing the kingdoms highly trained and heavily armed knights. Within ten years following the declaration of open war, Castille had all but eliminated the forest tribes and her borders pressed against the mountain ranges outlining the coastal valley upon which she had been founded. In present day, Castille still holds all of the lands which she had claimed from the forest tribes. The Valley of Castille, as the land is now called, holds only the ruins of the barbarians who once lived there. The forest tribes are gone now and what is left of their people have long retreated into the mountains to join the much more intimidating mountain barbarian tribes. It is these tribes that now threaten the kingdoms expansion as her people try to venture into and beyond the mountain ranges that lie along her border. It is in these mountains that our story begins A lone covered caravan trudged along the beaten path that lead into the dangerous mountain region on the outskirts of the small settlement of Pannam. To travel this path alone would have been foolish for your average citizen but this caravan didnt belong to any common peasant. This lone caravan, led by two beautiful white stallions, was the traveling home of Sir Isenhart, one of Castilles Royal Knights. Sir Isenhart, along with his loyal squire, Logan, had been charged with the task of traveling to a new settlement that had been established in the foothills outside of the Castille Valley. Joining the Royal Knight and his squire are Elise Chattel and her parents, Alexander and Catherin Chattel. Though the Chattels are little more than peasants, they were permitted passage on this trip due to the arranged marriage set into place by Alexander. His daughter, the currently fourteen year old Elise was set to wed the currently sixteen year old Logan when she came of age in two years. The two had never met before this trip, which wasnt uncommon. Most brides in Castille did not meet their husbands until their wedding day but since Isenhart and Logan were likely to be gone much longer than two years, Elise would have two years to get to know her future husband. He wasnt unattractive, at least. He was a bit taller than Elise with shoulder length dark brown hair and chocolate eyes. His features were strong and striking, his body tight and toned, and if Alexanders words meant anything then he was a skilled up-and-coming knight. Furthermore than that, he had seemed like the perfect gentleman since he and Isenhart had come to pick the girl and her family up from their humble home on the outskirts of the farming fields surrounding the capitol At first, the trip was rather carefree and Elise was allowed to do as she wished, for the most part. She had ridden most of the way through the forests on the back of one of the stallions while Logan rode the other to accompany her. Ever since the caravan had neared the mountain range, however, both Elise and her parents had been confined to the inside of the wagon. Sir Isenhart had told them that it was too dangerous for them to be outside anymore but he hadnt told them why. Alexander and Catherin knew why, of course, but because of her age there was a small chance that Elise wouldnt know much about the savage barbarians that surrounded her kingdom. Being so young and growing up near the capitol, she would have never seen one in the flesh. Much to her protest, Elise had been trapped in that stupid wagon all day now. She hadnt been allowed to get out for anything except to use the restroom and even then it seemed that she had to hold it in and do so on the knights schedules. The gentle rocking and rolling of the caravan had been her only companion as her parents barely spoke a word during their trip. As if that werent bad enough, the poor girl couldnt even see the surrounding landscape due to the canvas draped over the wagon. The trip had started so nicely and the knights seemed so kind when they first started but now they were strict and rigid. What had changed? Were they expecting some kind of trouble? Did the wagon just Yes. Why did the wagon just stop?