Inanis and Her People

This article contains the text of a literary source.Please refrain from changing the content of the source and correcting spelling and grammar errors.

**Inanis and Her People** is a verbal account by W4ffle of how the Kostarians came to be.

## Inanis and Her People

Ahh yes, the thriving city-state of Kostaria slowly extending its domain across the waves. It wasn't always like this though. Before they were sea fairing nomads the Kostarians existed as a powerful militant republic laying claim to the skies. It was the way of life for them as they were the descendants of the first sky people birthed from Inanis, the void goddess. The ancestors of the modern-day Kostarians had wings sprouting from their backs but over time they gave them up to take a place among the mortals that filled their world. Occasionally brave Kostarians would venture back to the sacred lands of their ancestors to relearn the powers of flight. It was these individuals who introduced the first gliders and flying machines to their people to reclaim their place in the skies. With this advantage, the Kostarian forces were able to launch assaults from above vanquishing the foes that had previously stood in their way. Claiming vast swaths of land they erected enormous temples in honor of Inanis and with hopes that she would one day return to see what they had done in her absence. When she did return, however, she was not pleased. Inanis had given her children their domain of the skies so that they could watch from above and aid those in need and the Kostarians had steered far from this vision. She locked them out of her dimension for good and stripped them of their knowledge of flight and the skies.

Many of them felt defeated and left Kostaria either going into hiding or begging the other nations they had betrayed to provide them with sanctuary. One group however stayed true to its support of Inanis and sought to make amends with the goddess. They began experimenting with ways which they could reach her once more and through many years of working with ancient relics from the goddess’s realm they erected a giant orb with magical properties atop their tallest temple. The hope was that this orb would send them back to their homeland and they could one day right their treacherous acts. When a large thunderstorm could be heard approaching the last Kostarians gathered on the roof of the temple under the orb and waited to see if it would work. As the storm reached them the winds became almost unbearable they grabbed onto anything they could to avoid being flung into the air. Then suddenly A huge lightning strike hit the orb and sent a deafening clap of thunder over them. As they looked up they saw the orb beginning to collapse in upon itself. This was it. This was what all their planning had led to. Leaves and rain began swirling toward the center of what used to be the orb. The Kostarians let go of the things anchoring them to the ground and they too began floating toward the center. Then suddenly they were gone.

But not forever. Sometime later, that only felt like seconds to them, the Kostarians appeared in a clear blue sky and began plummeting to the ocean beneath them. Many expected they had made it home and that their goddess would catch them before they hit the surface but this wasn’t the case. They crashed into the freezing water and dragged themselves up on land to start making a shelter. Days passed and they still didn’t know what happened but their leader spotted a boat on the horizon. Swimming out to it they found it was a merchant ship. The merchant offered them what little necessities he could spare and when asked what this land was informed them that they were in Rathnir.