recursal/Fanatic-Fandom huggingface dataset:
Monastery of the Silent Stone

The remote Monastery of Silent Stone is isolated, even by the standards of Zenith. These Monks rarely travel beyond the monastery walls, and this lack of exchange with the rest of Zenith is cause for concern within the other orders.

At Silent Stone, the Monks focus on spiritual practices that drill into the foundation of being, with slow rhythmic mantras and unwavering methods of concentration and inner silence. They wear gray robes and are often the subject of jokes when a character of dour disposition is required for comedic effect.
Achilla Verena (III)

Formally known as Captain Achilla Verena, Father of Achilla has retired not only his position, but his name and mask to his son, Captain Achilla Verena (IV). Aged and well traveled, Father of Achilla spends most days feeding the flat-beaked koi in the garden's pond, and most of his evenings resting by the fire. He wears a wooden version of the mask of Achilla with a thick, blue line painted across the middle to signify his former status and current retirement.
Ghost Worm Warband

A formidable Pyroi warband called the Ghost Worms living deep within the boreal forests of Pyre . The Ghost Worm warband reveres the beast and makes  sacrifices to the nightmarish creature. Some Teryxians see it as a gruesome reproduction of their own sacrifices made to Tzahintli, and the Cloud Serpents. At any rate, the warriors will occasionally find spines from the beast, protruding from the edges of the breaching craters that it leaves in its wake. Once recovered, the iron-hard things are fashioned into sacred blades which slay in the Ghost Worm’s unspoken name.
Lyko

One of seven city-states on the lagoons of Veile . Save for a tiny break in the pale blue pines along the coast, Lyko is concealed from the water’s edge. Standing like a stubborn stone in the middle of a leafy river, Lyko is an island in the midst of Veile’s most lustrous greenway.

It is here that woodworking is perfected, and it is here that the hulls of the finest ships are made. Even the Aurumel airships manufactured in the huge workshops of Gylynos have hulls, decks, and masts fashioned by the masters of Lyko. In fact, one might find the forest city to be idyllic. And so it is, to all but those who must forge a relationship with the forest.

The lifestyle of the loggers is an exceedingly dangerous one. Enormous primordial beasts dwell beyond the treeline, and many stories exist about one-sided bargains between ambitious Aurumel foragers and the wicked, ancient things of the wood.
Sydor

One of seven lagoon city-states on Veile . Sydor is a fortress out of necessity. It is not some terrible beast or foreign army that requires its entrenchment, but a shearing scythe of wind that comes ripping down out of the mountains edgewise, strong enough to tear to pieces anything of lesser construction than stone and carefully angled wooden windbreaks. This requires the people of Sydor to mostly make their homes underground or in the sea cliff upon which their city squats. As such, it is home to the largest mining center on Veile and is a labyrinth of tunnels and subterranean wonders.
Embertongues

Embertongue is the name given to Pyroi scholars, diplomats, poets, orators, and any others who hold passionate exposition through flowing language to be an expression of the soul. These master courtiers are far rarer than either hunters or warriors, but they have greater numbers than the priesthood.

While the mighty warrior culture of Pyre still flows red through their veins, their skills in oratory, politics, and art are less useful in the warbands and hunting parties, so most Embertongues have made their home in either the Jebtsuk Temple or the Warm City, Sukhaba Gol. Some join exclusive Embertongue Warbands, such as the Embertongue Poets of Mahalank, while others remain loyal to their Warband and serve as diplomats and emissaries on behalf of their tribe. Warband and hunting party members acknowledge their importance, especially in isolating them from inter-Shard affairs, so the Embertongues are neither less revered, nor considered soft by any means.
Verdant Quarter

The section of Haark between the Ring of Silk and the Ring of Smoke . The Verdant Quarter is home to most of Haark's Banyari and greenery. It is also sometimes referred to as Little Banyan.

Here the brown squares of Haarkeen architecture are covered in climbing vines and flowers, and the cobblestones give way to lush undergrowth flecked with wildflower colors. Every rooftop is a garden, and trees sometimes drive their roots through three full stories of a building, while Banyari gather in the chambers beneath, performing their bizarre rituals and communing with what, to them, must be a healing and nurturing environment to a shard that has been strip-mined to bare rock.

In the Verdant Quarter, the Banyari live as they do on Banyan and are not forced to adapt beyond their willingness. This is perhaps because the gardens and parks of this ring provide a disproportionate amount of Haark’s food. The generosity of the Verdant Quarter causes many Haarkeen to be extremely fond of the Banyari, despite humanity’s comical inability to grasp the customs and attitudes required to truly interface with that most peculiar of Folk. Alas, they do try, those people of Haark. If anything, they persist.

Plenty of shops fill this ring as well. Unlike the densely packed stalls of the markets, the boutiques and artisan shops here are where some of the highest quality merchandise can be found — if you know where to look. Elixariums, jewelers, sculptors, and the like give these charming venues an atmosphere more akin to a provincial village than the largest city in the world. One of these places bears mentioning more than any of the others - Asturbahl’s Crown.

In addition to these public places, this ring has plenty of sprawling residential neighborhoods that are relatively clean and green with trees and bright with smiling Folk. It is not until these areas crest into the outer ring that the downside of urban existence is writ large.
Banyan

Banyan is home to the Banyari. The shard is covered by mostly two large landscapes: the Great Forest and the Malachite Plains.

The Great Forest is a vast temperate forest, the sheer scale of which can evoke wonder in even the most well-traveled Skyborn. Despite it's vast size, a majority of Banyan is covered in broad green meadows and sweeping grasslands known as the Malachite Plains. Rainfall throughout much of Banyan is an all-or- nothing affair. The waterfalls from broken Quill, and the manner in which they fall upon Banyan, have resulted in much of the green shard having two distinct seasons: wet and dry.
Aeworn

The Aeworn live on the outskirts of the Great Forest, among the turned earth and mud left in the wake of the traveling Gastwudu. Quite possibly the most peculiar of all the Banyari tribes, the Aeworn have traded the leafy vines and bark of the Verthod for a curious loamy flesh and thick woody roots. The Aeworn are almost as wide as they are tall, and they move slowly, placing each root-like foot carefully. Even more astonishing is that the body of each Aeworn is riddled with small holes, just big enough for what must be an entire colony of tiny Root Shrews to make their home. It is obvious that the Aeworn have developed an Overlight bond with the Root Shrews, but the nature of their partnership remains a mystery.

Much like their pointy-snouted hitchhikers, the Aeworn live in close-knit colonies, foraging for grubs and other small prey items in the dirt. They do not venture far from the perimeter of the forest, and indeed rely upon the upturned soil created by the Gastwudu. The soft mud provides the Aeworn with not only an easily harvested supply of food, but also temporary burrows in which to protect themselves from the cold weather that can unexpectedly sweep the shard when under the shadow. The Aeworn Hearthwood Tree is thought to be one of the many large, brown shrub-like trees that dot the landscape in the thinner parts of the forest.

The Aeworn are perhaps more intimately tied to their home shard than just about any other Folk. Any of their kind found out among the other shards is almost certainly Skyborn — as a short, stout Banyari with a throng of small hungry mammals to feed isn’t likely to find an easy way of things out in the world.
Ogemos

One of the seven lagoon city-state on Veile . The luxurious Ogemos is known far and wide for its decadence. The perfumes, drugs, medicines, poisons, and strange tinctures that are extracted from its sprawling flower gardens and herbariums decorate everything from the shard’s lively portside markets to its most reclusive night gardens and reflecting pools. Here, eternity is experienced in an expensive, fleeting moment, and future and past collapse into a sigh of ecstasy or a moan of surrender. Although the distractions of Ogemos seem meaningful to the enchanted, it takes a skilled navigator of awareness to yield fruit from this city’s thorn-ringed delights.

Ogemos is also home to the Glassblower’s Guild — one of the oldest and most prestigious Aurumel guilds, having contributed the most directly to the engineering of Veile’s greatest known wonder.

There is no house worth its craft that does not own property in the gardened hills surrounding Ogemos. The titanic, terraced mansions form an unbroken line of white marble villas that sit like sea birds along the high sea cliffs. It is a joy to fly past them, once the time for parties arrives and nothing but laughter and music pours from those villas down into the crashing sea waves below.
The Dome

The most mysterious of the seven city-states on the lagoons of Veile . Although hospitality in some ostentatious form or another seems ubiquitous in Aurumel  lands, this is most certainly not the case when it comes to the thousand-span high iridescent bubble known as the Dome.  The Dome is, in fact, where the finest weapons, finest soldiers, and finest training originate.

The city is a military city in all ways, and security here is virtually impenetrable. As such Dekti (non-Aurumel visitors) are not permitted to enter. In fact, on a windless day, the waters of the Lagoon Orethe are glass-like as no vessel is permitted past its mouth. Rumors suggest that there are bloodsports and gladiatorial events held here as seen nowhere else.
Faradon Lux

Faradon is a Haarkeen man with a willowy build and many lifetimes of journeying behind him. He is young looking for his age, but is older than you’d think. He wears the honors of many Folk — Banyari, Pyroi, and Hamanu among them — but has twice as many enemies as he has admirers. Always friendly, always in trouble, and always with a story to tell, Faradon Lux is Skyborn through and through.

The problem with Faradon is that he has plans — big plans. Plans to set everything aright, with the pace and savvy of a Konchog City street hustler shuffling nutshells under the nose of a clueless mark. He is lovable, but he is trouble indeed. If not for the Skyborn Order’s patronage, he would be a story fading from memory. Luckily for Faradon (and Faradon is always lucky) that is not the case.

These days, Faradon has slowed down a bit and spends time zipping from shard to shard in the interest of spending time with his oldest and most beloved teachers. It is only most recently that Faradon has stirred from the serene presence of his masters to the vague sensation that something is changing. He believes he can sense subtle differences in the resonance of the Overlight, and he is convinced that the Skyborn Order needs to start doing something. But what? Even he cannot say. There are many, even now among the Skyborn Order, who are beginning to view Faradon Lux as a rambling madman at best, perhaps a dangerous troublemaker at worst.

He was last seen flying away from the Hanging Prison of Haark on a Great Mist Ray with a group of Skyborn. His current location is unknown...
Liste der Herrscher Wenglands

Diese Liste enthält die Herrscher Wenglands in der zeitlichen Reihenfolge.

## Herzogtum Wengland

### 866 - 887

Herzog Reginald von Wengland (Usurpator, eigentlich Persegin von Rothenfels)

## 1. Königreich Wengland

### 887 - 910

Philipp von Steinburg als König Philipp von Wengland

### 910 - 924

Martin von Steinburg als König Martin I. von Wengland

### 924 - 960

Otto von Steinburg als König Otto von Wengland
Frostcoal Pines

A coniferous tree that can be found almost anywhere on Pyre , but it’s on the taigas and in the mountain forests where it really thrives. The tree will sometimes even grow in the volcanic loam at the foot of active volcanoes. It is a vital part of the Pyroi way of life. The wood of the Frostcoal Pine is used to build their yurts and form the frames of their large temple complexes. The hafts of their spears and the shafts of their arrows are all made from Frostcoal. Even the Shovel-Tusks rely upon them, and it is in the taiga that you will also find the great herds of these animals.
Pitzoquitl

The origins of these immense beasts, which are also known as Mud-Hogs, are lost to time. Engineered by the Teryxian Brood Masters at the height of their abilities, these powerful creatures, with their upright stance and grasping, digging hands, were used to shape mud and haul stone for the construction of the buildings and spires that were once the jewel of Quill . After the Fall, without the Teryxians’ daily psychic guidance of their behavior and physical evolution, the Pitzoquitl very quickly became feral.

Now they dwell deep in the jungles, living in small family groupings. They’ll eat just about anything, plant and animal alike. While typically rather placid, they are capable of violent bursts of activity as they are driven by their ravenous appetite.
Haarkeen

Humanity comes in a wide array of skin tones, facial structures, and body types. These variations are the remnants of regional differences from the days when humanity maintained separate communities and villages, spread out across the not-yet-urbanized continent. For now, the Haarkeen are a teeming mass of humanity, the full splendor of nature’s diversity represented in the unusual urban wonderland that is Haark. Haarkeen worship the yellow light of Will above all else.

Boisterous and joy-loving, the vast majority of the city’s denizens prefer a cup of Aurumel wine in a squat, domed fest hall to most other pastimes. The Haarkeen also love stories, and can sometimes be plied with precious things in exchange for a suitably enchanting yarn. But poke around another corner, or venture out
from the city center, and you’ll find all manner of subcultures and communities, each with their own distinct customs, style of dress, or even dialect. Yet, for whatever reason, there exists, within the hearts and minds of many of the Folk across the shards, the idea that all Haarkeen are somehow unworthy of their place among the Seven. As if humanity had somehow stolen its place at the table with the rest of the intelligent Folk. Sometimes subtle, sometimes almost violently forthright, the ugly face of this bigotry can be found without looking very far. But the Haarkeen are nothing if not persevering.
Vora

Owner of the Manifold Elixarium, a shop like no other in the City Magnificent. Her shelves are full to bursting with every imaginable drug, poison, paint, make-up, medicine, curative, and tincture. Now nearing middle age, Vora can be almost always be found at her shop at the edge of the Great Market on Haark.

Her history is very different from that of an average shopkeeper. As a child, Vora rescued a wealthy Pyroi Embertongue named Setsag. Vora nursed Setsag to full healthy and kept her hidden after an assassination attempt on Setstag's life. As a show of gratitude, Setsag gave the Haarkeen child a life that she would never have otherwise - education in the cunning ways of the Pyroi Embertongue circles seek to emulate, and travel among all of the Shards except Nova. She grew into a forceful young woman that the denizens of the city center of Haark now know as Vora.

Knowledgeable by way of self- guided discovery and education, she has earned many well-placed friends and allies. One might think the humble life of a shopkeeper to be beneath Vora’s education and life experience, but her shop is beyond that of an average shop...liquid Overlight, anyone?
MI-VA RPGing Wiki

## Welcome to the MI-VA RPGing Wiki

A site to upload our content and keep track of the stories and people we come across as we adventure in the various worlds of tabletop RPGs.

Choose which RPG you want to get more info on. Each campaign we have run or completed will be linked in that page, but ongoing campaigns are linked in the next section:

* Overlight
* D&D 5e

## Ongoing Campaigns

* Vechter Adventures, Overlight
* Outlander Resurgence, Overlight (one-shot)
City Watch of Haark

A veritable legion of ludicrous size, the City Watch is both Haark 's military and law enforcement. It is commonly referred to as the Golden Tower, named after the legion's main fortress in the City Center. The City Watch maintains its strongest presence near the City Center to protect the Grand Council and the Great Market , but it has forts and bunkers throughout the city. Those locations are chosen for neighborhood distribution as well as more strategic hard points to defend the city against threats from within or without. The onion domes and turrets of Haark’s highest elevations sometimes conceal siege defenses, like massive ballistae to skewer any flying targets that attempt to attack the city from above. The streets of Haark are generally quite narrow and, with the cooperation of residents, the City Watch can create chokepoints wherever they see fit, sealing off specific areas of the city when extreme emergencies demand such rash action.

The ranks of the City Watch are filled with all manner of Folk — sometimes volunteers; sometimes offered by foreign powers, as a gesture of goodwill; and sometimes a Haarkeen whose father’s father (and his father before him) wore the Golden Tower’s emblem upon his sleeve. The disposition of each member of the City Watch largely depends on their assignment. While the guards that stroll the light-dappled awnings of the Great Market may be fresh- faced and joyous, the soldiers who patrol Haark’s perilous Edge are a hardened and gritty lot, prepared for anything that its desperate denizens care to hurl from its ominous alleys. The patrols of the City Watch are assigned based on the basic divisions of Haark’s urban space — that is to say, in accordance with the four rings that are recognized by the average Haarkeen.
Smoking Stones

An ancient Pyroi Warband that formerly occupied the foothills of Khar Ulan, but has been driven back further and further over the generations. The Smoking Stones were founded in the earliest known histories of Pyre by a group of Pyroi Flamehearts who no longer wished to maintain their entirely nomadic lifestyle, and settled on the Smoking Fields, where they maintained their Flameheart practices in a more tribal and settled fashion.

Shortly after settling they were driven out of the Smoking Fields by the Eight Tribes of Gab-Dragomir and they settled on the mountains leading to Khar Ulan, that is until the Jebtsuk Temple was built at its base. The Jebtsuk Temple Volcano-Priests declared that the Smoking Stones were heretics and were driven beyond the mountains and onto the Thundering Grounds by the Jebtsuk Temple Guards.

They remain in the Thundering Grounds today, and as such, their culture focuses not only on the hardy survival tactics of the Flamehearts, but has adopted the fighting tactics from other hunting parties. They remained a rugged nomadic tribe hunting the Thundering Grounds for hundreds of generations until the rapid rise of the Leatherwing Cult on the mountains of Khar Ulan, just a few generations ago. As the Leatherwing Cult grew in size, so too did their need for food, and so the Leatherwings began raids on the Smoking Stone encampments and hunting grounds. These attacks diminished Smoking Stone resources until they declared war against the most powerful Warband on Pyre - a grave mistake, as their once great tribe struggles to survive now.
Azure Sea

The largest island of Quill. It is called the *Azure* Sea because it is fully covered by the largest stretch of jungle in the entire known world, whose foliage is tinged with sapphire-blue hues. The jungle on this island is cleanly split in two, courtesy of the astonishing natural feature known as the Barrier Waterfalls. The immense, unending flow of water has carved a steep river valley into the land, where the water rushes with tremendous force before plummeting off the shard’s edge.

On one side of the Barrier Waterfalls is a bright and sunny jungle, with steam rising off the canopy. On the other side (if you can find one of the few safe places to cross beneath the deluge) is a darker and more foreboding environment, forever under the shadow of the Cerulean Basin floating above it. Some of the most wondrous treasures of old Quill probably lie hidden in its depths — along with some of its most horrifying mistakes.
Great Forest

The Great Forest itself is second in size only to the Azure Sea of Quill, and even so, it is a vast temperate forest, the sheer scale of which can evoke wonder in even the most well-traveled Skyborn. While the dense undergrowth and close confines of Quill’s Azure Sea keep the local fauna relatively small, the oversized trees of the Great Forest, with their large straight trunks and foliage that is mostly confined to top growth, allow for wide pathways and natural vaulted amphitheaters. So, too, the inhabitants of the forest can sometimes be built on a colossal scale, and often take rather unexpected forms. In fact, the exact borders of the Great Forest have historically been very hard to delineate, and it’s only been in recent times that we have discovered why: the trees can walk.

These walking trees are not to be confused with the Verthod themselves, who of course can easily be mistaken for some sort of ambulatory tree. No, these trees are the great woody giants that make up the majority of the forest itself, called Gastwudu by the Banyari.

The Great Forest is also home to multiple tribes of Banyari, including the Verthod and Nitansien. High in the canopy of the greatest of tree in the forest, you’ll find a world wholly separate from life on the ground. There are scores of small plants and animals who spend their entire life cycles upon a single massive branch. Tiny horned weevils, odd mollusks resplendent with shells of mottled blue and pink, and the bizarre little mammals that we call Long-Muzzled Golden Honey-Lickers. Here you’ll also find countless pools of water, collected in the crooks of forked tree trunks or settled within small depressions upon the largest of branches. It is in these pools that the Banyari known as the Nitansien are spawned.

Finally, there are two Banyari meeting places within the Great Forest: (1) the Dust Haven and (2) the Deep Grotto.
Hanging Prison of Haark

The first Council of Seven hired a deranged, but clever Aurumel architect to design a prison on Haark. Unwilling to cede livable ground to those who would act against the best interest of the shard’s inhabitants, the council gave the underside of Haark to the architect Pelagius Karamag, which he transformed into one of the cruelest and most inescapable jails anywhere in the world. Consisting of little more than hanging iron cages connected by gangplanks and suspension bridges, the cells are unnervingly tossed by strong winds, driving the inmates mad with fear and uncertainty. The guards, known as Chain Walkers, wear heavy iron boots that anchor them to the platform and give them a distinct shuffle of a walk that can barely be discerned over the ever-present whipping winds.

It's main entrance in the Golden Tower Fortress is guarded by elite City Watch members and cannot be accessed without approval from a member of the Council of Seven, or the Captain of the City Watch, although there are rumors of a secret entrance.

While it is possible to leave the Hanging Prison alive, only one has ever escaped without legal authority...Shatu Hak.
Shatu Hak

Shatu Hak is an anomaly even among the wondrous and variegated Banyari. From a very young age, she experienced an empathy and connection with the flora and fauna of her shard that exceeded all accounts, save those from a fabled time.

Recognized by the elders and the speakers for her tribe’s Hearthwood Tree, she was tested and subjected to a gauntlet of initiations. Upon emerging from her ordeals, Shatu Hak separated the knot of roots surrounding her heart, and the Green Heart shined its emerald light into the world for the first time.

She is absolutely ancient, and this may be due in no small part to her isolated life upon Banyan. Although she was once escorted to and from Zenith by monks wishing to hear her simple but profound teachings on Compassion, she has not left Banyan since. Only recently has her beloved student Faradon Lux convinced her to meet on Haark, in order to appoint her to the Skyborn Office of Mahan of the Green Light. Lux hoped this would rally other Skyborn to a cause they both hold dear.

She has demonstrated far-ranging telepathy and empathy, and there exist rumors that she has the ability to enhance the lifeforce of fauna and renew flora.
Hearthwood Tree

A large tree, with which a Banyari tribe forms an Overlight bond. These trees both provide a home and change a Banyari tribe's physical characteristics. They are typically the oldest and often largest trees in a surrounding area. Despite their size, the exact location of each tribe's Hearthwood tree is unknown.
Boundless Mirror

The Overlight bond shared between a Zenith Order Monk and a Hamanu. This bond was first formed by the Diamond Queen and a Hamanu many ages ago.

Their friendship is the friendship through which the potential of such a bond is entirely realized. And it is by the grace of that bond that they walked the Path together. It forms the beating heart of the Zenith Orders’ most sacred and shared experience — for the Monks of the Zenith Orders form Overlight bonds with the Hamanu, the likes of which are not repeated across the Seven.

These bonds are for life, and the death of one of the bond-mates means that the survivor lives out their days bonded to only the fond memory of a unique loved one — a loved one who has nevertheless yielded to the unstoppable void. Although much ink has been spent within manuals which attempt to detail the practices to avert such grief, the Monk or Hamanu who survives does not often live for long after their friend succumbs to formlessness. It has been said that some Monks and Hamanu are so gripped by a fear of such parting that they make this fear the basis for their entire spiritual practice, seeking to overcome it through a strange tradition of seeking self-annihilating union with that absence from which the Overlight shines.
The Great Market of Haark

A dizzying network of tents, bridges, stalls, stands, kiosks, and rocky overlooks bright with colorful canopies  and buzzing with constant activity. The Great Market is perhaps the best-known landmark of central Haark is the greatest of its commerce sites. There is no slow time at the Great Market, and its surging crowds are sometimes intolerable to those not acclimated to such dense population. But to those with cosmopolitan aspirations, central Haark is a paradise for the senses.

All manner of things can be bought, sold, or witnessed within its corners and under its awnings. The businesses that ring the four branches of the bazaar benefit from proximity to one another, but offer quiet respite from the swarmed bridges and stalls. Among these businesses are popular cafés where a bewildering variety of confections, street food, and intoxicants can be acquired. It is in these curtained alcoves that the most influential and powerful among Haark’s criminal empire meet to scheme or simply pass the day anonymously and undisturbed. The most popular of these venues is an amazing place called The Golden Pool , a tavern and brothel where virtually any appetite can be indulged.
Worulthing

Many generations ago, the Worulthing were one of the most populous of the Banyari tribes, second in number only to the Verthod. But the War of Leaves has left its mark on this dying tribe.

Their great Hearthwood Tree grew in an area called the Aametfeld, on the far side of the Malachite Plains. Tall and broad, it rose like a tower from moss-covered hills, its perforated, dark-brown bark only occasionally brightened by the presence of a sprout or lichen upon its surface. At its crown, long green tendrils vined up toward the sky before blossoming into huge bursts of flat golden-yellow flowers. The blossoms and the strange texture of the wood were all part of a self- contained ecosystem, supported by a thriving hive of unusual wood-boring insects that called the tree home.

As you might expect, the Worulthing were much like their beloved Hearthwood Tree. Looking not unlike a brightly colored Verthod, but with blossoms about their head, each Worulthing also served as a home for their own colony of the woodbugs.

At the climax of a lengthy campaign, the Teryxian Outlanders were able to locate and assault the Hearthwood Tree of the Worulthing. And they did so with fire. The benevolent insects living inside the Worulthing began to catch fire and, in their simple-minded panic, began to devour their Worulthing host from the inside. Despite this horror, some of the Worulthing did survive, even if their Hearthwood Tree did not.

Now the rarest of the Banyari, the few remaining Worulthing are literal husks of their former selves. Their woodbug companions long since having abandoned them or died horrifically, the Worulthing are now blackened stumps, the light gone from their eyes. And although we still know next to nothing about Banyari reproduction or life cycles, we know that it is somehow intimately tied to their Hearthwood Tree. So we must assume that it is only a matter of time before the Worulthing fade from the world.
Embertongue Poets of Mahalank

The well-known poets and writers of Pyre. This "Warband" is exclusively populated by Embertongues, and its members remain in Sukhaba Gol in order to stay protected by the city's neutrality and have access to its food and wares. Some of its members will often travel to Veile for inspiration as well.

They stay relatively aloof of military, political, and religious affairs. As such, they do not have many enemies or allies (because they don't have need for any).
Crystal Wind Monastery

The Crystal Wind Monastery is home to the Scholars of the Unbroken Sky and the Crystal Wind Adepts. The Monks of this order are illuminated by the same spirit that brightens the minds of Teryxians. Their monastery is a palace of knowledge filled with bright paintings and carefully maintained scrolls, encased artifacts, and tablets sacred to the order’s history. The martial faction within the order is no less disciplined or studied. Their practice treats body as mind, conditioning it to the point of unwavering focus.
Council of Seven

The Council of Seven is the governing body of Haark formed by members elected autonomously by the powers-that-be of each of the seven shards. Each of these members is accompanied by a delegation consisting of varied assistants, courtiers, and guards. The membership even includes the alienNovapendra — whose representative, mostly remains silent during heated council discourse, except to infuse the proceedings with cryptic and apocalyptic aphorisms that don’t do anybody any good.

So these council representatives, of which there are actually eight given the dual leadership of the delegation from Zenith , hold their seats for a term which is also established by their appointing populations. The Haarkeen , despite having the most to gain and lose from effective leadership on the council, frequently replace their representative based on the whims of whatever portion of local governance has the current favor of the populace. The Aurumel will go to great expense to have their councilperson presented to the membership only to be assassinated shortly thereafter. The Teryxian and Banyari representatives vacillate based on the current state of their ancient politics, and fight amongst themselves more often than not. The two representatives of Zenith whisper to each other and add little, while the Pyroi stand-in often looks bored or confused. The Pyroi hold the affairs of Haark in no regard and generally send a troublesome chieftain’s child or aspiring Embertongue to Haark’s claustrophobic conditions mainly so that they may learn how different one’s path can be from that of a proper Pyroi.

These are the trends of the council, as relayed on the street by the common people, but most Folk never set foot in the Grand Council Chamber of Haark. The council meets irregularly, with the only mandatory meetings occurring about four times per cycle. This allows the council’s members to tend to the affairs of their varied constituency while working on city projects, rubbing elbows with the powerful, or accepting bribes and other corrupt persuasions.
Mahan

The Skyborn Order has members who can channel Chroma in each of the virtues, and so to ensure a democratic ruling effort, a master of each virtue, or light is elected to serve a lifelong term as a Mahan for the Skyborn Order. The Seven Mahan serve as a constant council and are often found on Haark, but there is a home for the council on each of the shards at various Skyborn meeting places.

Each Mahan is a recognized expert in their Core Virtue, and their teachings are sought after by Skyborn and non-Skyborn alike. From their ranks, the Mahan elect a Grand Mahan to serve as the leader of the Skyborn Order. The current office holders are:

* Grand Mahan - Geeta (a female Haarkeen)
* Mahan of the Violet Light - Sofos (a male Aurumel)
* Mahan of the Blue Light - Kiri (a male Pyroi)
* Mahan of the Green Light - vacant, but Shatu Hak (a female Banyari) has been nominated
* Mahan of the Yellow Light - Ilan (a male Teryxian)
* Mahan of the Orange Light - Kamala (a "female" Zenith Monk) and Sunta (a male Hamanu)
* Mahan of the Red Light - Nariin (a female Haarkeen)
Norboo

When Norboo was born, he was recognized as Skyborn and immediately was whisked away from his family to be brought up in the local Crystal Wind Monastery.  As he grew up, he was told of his unique relationship to the Overlight, but Norboo looked at it as a thing to be wary of rather than to embrace it.  He never felt that this innate connection was an inherently good thing.

His elders, seeking to kindle a greater bond with the Overlight in this hesitant boy, brought in wave after wave of Hamanu, in the hopes that a bond with a Hamanu would strengthen him in the Overlight.  Norboo never felt kinship with any of these Hamanu and soon retreated into study remaining an acolyte.

He delved into any books and scrolls the monks had on the nature of the Overlight and Chroma, dedicating himself to understanding why he was special, and just what that meant.  Many a decade passed as Norboo continued to study whatever he could find.  He made progress, but it wasn't anything he could be sure about, and he felt his brothers wouldn't understand the paths he was taking around this knowledge, so he had no one to discuss it with.

As his 30th cycle came to pass (about 78 years old), he was able to pick up rare text that actually contained working knowledge of Chroma Theory from a Haarkeen Merchant. This enraged Norboo who had grown old and frustrated fumbling through half-baked theories and rambling nonsense that belonged to the monks.  The answers he sought had been available the whole time, just not on Zenith.

As he made plans to travel to Haark, he set off from his monastery, which he hoped only to only ever visit again.  As he stepped across the threshold towards the information he sought, a quick, large mass crashed into him.  A young Hamanu, in town to be bonded with some of the younger monks.  As Norboo tried to pick himself up, grumbling about the young, he saw  the outstretched hand of the Hamanu, Vamesh, who had nocked him down.  In Vamesh's eyes he saw himself, and finally felt that the Overlight that coursed through him may just be a blessing.

He delayed his planned travel, so that he and Vamesh could be bonded in the Rite of the Diamond Mirror.  Reinvigorated, by his new connection with Vamesh and the Overlight, and determined to find the source of knowledge contained within his rare text, he and Vamesh traveled together to Haark. Their airship journey was uneventful, but that did not stop Norboo from complaining of the cold air, and for Vamesh to calm him down, asking why couldn't they have the berries he so enjoyed that grew in his village.  As he stepped off the airship, into the City Magnificent, he hesitated for just a moment, unsure if the pit he felt in his stomach was the Overlight driving him on or the fish sandwich he's sure the crew of the airship had let sit for a day too long.
Brendenol

A shy tribe of Banyari has become much like any other nomadic beast of the Malachite Plains, which is there home. No tree- branch arms or root-feet for the Brendenol — no, they’ve adopted other defenses, speed first and foremost. The powerful legs of the Brendenol have elongated bones of the feet, resulting in a digitigrade posture and an ability to sprint or spring across the rolling grasslands like they were born to it. The Brendenol also have small antlers that sprout from either side of their heads, and a crest of short quills that runs along their backs. Their fur, like that of so many of the animals that they run beside, is often spotted or striped.
Skyborn Order

A loose confederation of Skyborn, who have the ability to see the Overlight in all of its hues. As such, they can consciously manipulate the Overlight in order to channel Chroma powers. Most within the order recognize each other as allies compared to non-Skyborn, but this doesn't stop rivalries from forming within the order. These rivalries are most commonly observed between the various sects of the Skyborn Order.

In order to keep the confederation organized and ensure that most Skyborn are both trained and held to a moral standard, the Order elects a sort of elder council of seven Mahan, or masters of each virtue.

**SECTS OF THE SKYBORN ORDER**

* Vechter
Lang Magnor

A Verthod Rootlord with gray fur, a black stripe down his back and a few scarred branches and vines, Lang Magnor is from a distinguished lineage, and his scars evidence his commitment to that proud lineage. His family has played an important role in many of the significant battles of the War of Leaves and the continued Resistance of the Teryxian Outlanders. He was the first to rise all the way up the officer corps to the rank of Gok, or general.

Lang replaced Shatu Hak as Head Gok of the entire Banyari Army after the elders decided Shatu Hak was too focused on obtaining peace through compassionate means. The elders wanted the Outlanders off of the shard and they determined Lang Magnor was the one for the job.

A few cycles after taking command, in 5 AF 8, Lang sent a group of spies on a covert mission to determine how to thwart the Outlanders' supply lines. Instead, they uncovered a mysterious orb, and the Banyari camp was assaulted the next kindling. Lang Magnor was killed in the surprise attack, and the orb was taken.
Leatherwing Cult

The Leatherwing Cult is one of the most powerful Pyroi Warbands, and known for the namesake, their flying steeds: The War-Bats of Pyre. They believe that the Fire-Bats of Khar-Ulan are their birthright, and that the Jebtsuk Temple (at the base of Khar Ulan) is not following the ideals laid down by its founding Volcano-Priest, "Jezbar the Garnet-Eyed Bat That Is Son of Khar-Ulan."

Originating as a splinter group of that largest Temple of Temples, the Leatherwing Cult has recently grown into a totemic Warband that believes the true Might of the Pyroi people is to be found in the skies. The cult even maintains its own priesthood, separate from the Volcano-Priests, known as the Blood Clerics. The Blood Clerics are female shaman and the Leatherwing Cult is the only warband who believes that Khar Ulan is a female.

Once initiated as a Firethane or Blood Cleric, cult members are branded with the Leatherwing sigil. The Firethanes are then granted the steed they trained to achieve initiation, while Blood Clerics are granted a Garnet necklace to protect them from evil magic.

The fleet of War-Bats and their riders has grown to such strength recently, that the Leatherwing Cult now has quite a bit of political clout, and their leader, Nema Padro, has a seat kept open for her at the Circle of Embers - an honor usually only given to the most esteemed and respected Embertongues. But the Cult is not above petty squabbles and conflicts with their neighbors, especially their neighbors, the Smoking Stones.
Invico Karamag

Upon Haark, Invico Karamag is the sole representative of the illustrious Karamag line. He is, in his own words, an irredeemable individual, and he seeks only to delve more and more deeply into reckless excess and carnal extremes. During most of his waking hours, Invico is generally afloat upon a cloud of intense intoxication and will often exalt in expressions of his personal weaknesses as a testimony to the almighty strength of his desires. It is during these windows of flagrant honesty that he will tell tales of his failed attempts at immortality, affirm rumors concerning the betrayals between he and his equally rotten siblings, or otherwise elucidate any number of other schemes and passions that have directly endangered his interests during his lifetime.

Rumor has it that Invico was doted upon as a child of one of the wealthiest houses on Veile and, due to his disproportionately cruel and entitled nature, he used the privileges of his station to create a firestorm of scandal and disgrace for his house. Rather than concede the foulness of her son’s heart, Illicia Karamag sent him to live in the family’s palace on Haark, where he could waste away in his own filth, far removed from the halls of power on Veile.

Once relocated, Invico considered his extremely merciful exile on Haark to be entirely unjust. Although his initial endeavors were self-perpetuating — as Illicia had largely made his duties and obligations a formality, involving only very occasional contact with the Council of Seven — he has now shaped his own power structure outside the perimeter of his family’s direct control. As such, the affairs of the Karamag estate on Haark have become drenched in drugs, slavery, and blood. Though he bears no official rank within his house, he has claimed the title of Matrux as his own.
The War of Leaves

The Teryxian conflict with the Banyari is well known and documented. When Quill and Banyan collided, the Teryxians immediately blamed Banyan. With their knowledge of shard orbits and their unending research into the natural order of the world, the Teryxians believed that surely the Banyari had brought this doom upon them all. The compassionate Banyari were looked down upon even before this incident, and the generations that followed would elevate the compassionate ideals of Banyan to an almost sin-like status.

However, to this day, there are those among the Timekeepers who still wonder at how their ancestors could not have seen the collision coming. Was it simply oversight? Or was something more sinister at play? Certain familial lines that have been with the lodge from antiquity are said to have plumage colors that are “less than blue.” Rivalries are not uncommon.

Less than one full cycle after the destruction of Quill, the Teryxian Scholar- Priests regained enough control that they declared war on the Banyari. With the two shards still occupying much of the same physical space, it was simplicity itself for flights of Teryxian warriors to launch attacks upon their unsuspecting neighbors. But the Banyari had not just had their civilization literally crumble beneath them, and they were perhaps far better prepared than the Teryxian invaders would have thought possible. Still, the Teryxians were unyielding in their attempts at revenge. The war was waged for almost a generation, during which time the two shards shared the same orbit.

But finally the great land masses went their separate ways, and the two cultures turned their attentions to rebuilding. It was a war without a clear winner, an ending forced upon it by the unpredictable nature of the shards. Yet even now, there still remains a small population of Teryxian Outlanders upon Banyan, raiding the Banyari, pillaging their homesteads, and attempting to destroy their Hearthwood Trees. They act as though the war never ended, as though Quill is still owed some debt. Banyan is more their home now than Quill, although they would never utter those words.  The Outlanders claim they will not rest until all the tribes of Banyan are eradicated, and all the Hearthwood Trees found and destroyed. They have accomplished at least part of their goal by destroying the Worulthing Hearthwood Tree.

The Scholar-Priests do nothing to publicly support or even acknowledge these vigilantes. Despite what the Scholar-Priests will claim, the War of Leaves still rages. The Teryxian Outlanders that stage their attacks from the territory they have claimed within the Great Forest of Banyan have lived their entire lives there, like their mothers and fathers before them, as their mothers and fathers before them. And Teryxians on Quill continue to pay well for branches from Worulthing, the fallen Hearthwood Tree. Ever since the war began, the hearts of the sacrifices upon Mount Quiya have been thrown into Hearthwood coals.
Nitansien

**A Banyari tribe living high in the canopy of the Great Forest. The exact location of Nitansien Hearthwood Tree is unknown to non-Banyari, so it is hard to say exactly how this tribe’s unusual form may be linked to it**

**Nitansien are spawned in the countless pools of water, collected in the crooks of forked tree trunks or settled within small depressions upon the largest of branches. Nitansien young are somehow nurtured within these arboreal pools. In neonate form, not entirely unlike the tadpole of an amphibian, these young creatures spend the first few cycles of their lives as fragile beings, clinging to the underside of branches and subsisting on insects. During this stage of their lifecycle, the Nitansien form a symbiotic relationship with the algae living in the pools of water; the Nitansien provide protection from small predators who might try to eat the algae and in return the algae provide the Nitansien with oxygen and sugar (see algae symbiotic relations with sea sponges for general relation comparison between Overlight and Earth).**

**As the Nitansien age over the next cycle and a half, they grow long-limbs and enlarged finger pads enabling them to climb into the Hearthwood Tree out of their birth pool.  They also grow the most striking part of their appearance - their gigantic eyes and enlarged ears. Their fur is concentrated around the shoulders and head, as well as on the lower halves of their limbs. The rest of their skin has become smooth and hairless, with a slick appearance, and it is believed that the Nitansien are capable of subcutaneous respiration. On their climb out of their birth pool, they keep some of the algae with them, which is used on land to help keep their fur clean and free of parasites.**

**Unlike the Verthod, who live their lives in small family groups or collections of such groups, the Nitansien have almost always been encountered alone. Given that they are often employed as spies and lookouts for the Verthod in their ongoing conflicts with the Teryxian Outlanders, it is hard to say whether this is their preferred living situation or simply a function of their wartime vocation.**