Faielle

The Faielle are a nomadic people. At the heart of their beliefs, the Faielle consider themselves to be the torch of Sol, their goal is to light the world in Sol’s holy light through selfless servitude and charity work.

#### The Six Families

The Faielle tribe is divided into six branches, each with their own their own traditional emphasis on following the ways of an aspect of Sol.

* Gu family, who represent the mind of Sol. The Gu teaches the importance of having steadfast diligence and faith.
* Ku family, who represent the vision of Sol. The Ku teaches the importance of dreams and visions. (Visions that are sometimes caused by Ahppy.)
* Ux family, who represent the might of Sol. The Ux teaches the importance of having great physical strength and ability.
* Caw family, who represent the mercy of Sol. The caw teaches the importance of Life and Death
* Zan family, who represent the shield of Sol. The Zan teaches the importance of courage and loyalty
* Ghee family, who represent the joy of Sol. The Ghee teaches the importance of Ahppy and kinship.

Each Branch is subject to the same core values and practices as all other branches. What separates them is the last name given to them by the head of the Faielle tribe, when the Faielle faith unified into a concrete religion. Each family travels together, via various means of transportation, to new lands in hopes of converting more people into their faith. The idea is that those who do not follow Sol are unlit torches wandering in darkness, and only through service can they see Sol for who he is.

Within the six families within the Faielle tribe, the position of head of the family is inherited and passes down the line of direct male descendants of previous heads of the family.

##### The Ghee

In the Ghee family, Galen Ghee, (Taiedei’s Papa) was the head of the family, until he passed away. Then Hadiya Ghee, (Taiedei’s father) became the new head of the family. Their branch is the smallest among the other branches, consisting of Hadiya and his wife, Hadiya’s two siblings and their spouses/children, a few converts who travel with them, and Taiedei. The other Branches are much bigger by comparison but follow the same structure, with the eldest male of direct descent being the head of the family. This means that if Taiedei ever married, her spouse and children would have never been able to become the head of the family. She cannot carry on the Ghee legacy. The next in line to the Ghee family head would be either her uncle or one of her male cousins. The Ghee family is descended from the Ku bloodline, and the families split into two separate families in the past.

##### The Ku

Some among the Ku family are cursed with blindness.

#### Faielle Religious Practices

##### Convection

Convection is a coming-of-age ceremony/initiation into the tribe. The Faielle are known to host big bonfire parties, typically with lots of ahppy, music, dancing, and colored flames. When a youth born in the tribe turns 16, they are celebrated at one of these parties and walk across the coals of the bonfire as their “baptism” into the religion. This event can also be used to recognize converts in the faith, as the act of walking across the coals symbolizes the transfer of heat, from the flames into the soul, “lighting the torch” For Faielle youth, this event also marks the first day on which they are allowed to drink Ahppy juice—a drugged alcohol produced by the Faielle.

##### The Last Breath

The Last Breath is the practice of honoring the dead. The Faielle believe that when someone dies, their soul has only the time from the moment they take their last breath until the sun sets to journey from the grave to the afterlife. This journey is considered sacred and fragile, and the Faielle particularly worry that the soul can be distracted by the voices of their loved ones. They fear that if the journey of the soul is disrupted, and the soul does not make it to the afterlife, they will be trapped in eternal torment on earth, forever wandering, agonizing, and searching for their loved ones blindly. (Please note, The Faielle are physically able to speak. They choose not to because of these beliefs.)

As part of this practice, many Faielle believe that it is disgraceful and selfish to remember the dead. They worry that if the memory of the soul is tainted, the soul will also live in a permanent state of agony. This is not a belief that is taught but rather warned about.

It is customary in the Faielle to leave enchanted books of protection at the grave of someone who is lost. Anything they can do to ensure the soul finishes their journey to the afterlife is welcome.

#### Faielle History

Before the Faielle were called the Faielle, they were the Roche tribe, named after their founder, Ruben Roche, who was born, raised, and wed in the Enlightened Church of Sol.

Ruben’s great-great-grandson and then head of the tribe, Nuri Roche, discovered Ahppy. Nuri had 6 children, and given his obsession with the faith of the Enlightened Church of Sol, he named each of them after one of the ascended spirits called Flares. (However, since he had six children instead of eight, none were named after the tiger spirit Urza, and the lizard spirit Herol.) As the Faielle religion evolved, so did the structure of the tribe. Each son of Nuri became the head of their family branches, separating the tribe into 6 groups. Their sons, and their son’s sons, taking on their names and preaching teachings aligned with the flare from which their family's name derived.

Over time, through hallucinations and the loss of the Derg family due to a tragic accident, the faith changed. The Faielle grew further and further from their roots in the Enlightened Church of Sol. During a time of great grief for the many branches, the Ku family came forward, sharing a vision of death.

In it, the lost brothers and sisters of the Derg family wandered as spirits, blinded by Kualiik, the Withered Eagle of blindness. The spirits called out for help, wandering aimlessly in search of their lost lives, traveling further and further away from a glowing path, the path the Ku claimed to be Sol’s mercy. They preached to the rest of the Faielle that their grief was harming the souls of the Derg family, and promised that they would be saved if the tribe ceased their tears. Ghee Ku, the man who’d received the vision of the last breath, was honored and became the head of the Ghee family branch, entrusted with the task of saving others from their grief by teaching the importance of ahppy.

##### The Fable of the Rock

“Behold, a child of the rock! Born with light and given to the sun. Kind, selfless, brave. In the eternal land, his legacy holds the flame.

Blessed by her needle, cursed by his pain, death did not stop him, nor vanquish his faith.”

The fable of the rock is the oldest known fable passed down through the Faielle.

As such, much of the information has been lost. This particular version of the fable was known to the tribe whilst the Derg was still living.

Current tribe members only know this version:

"Behold, a child of the rock! Born with light and given to the sun. Kind, selfless, brave. In the eternal land, his legacy holds the flame."

Current members of the tribe believe that this fable tells the tail of the Faielle purpose, and believe that the subject of the fable, "the rock" is Sol. When it mentions, "his legacy holds the flame" they believe that means they are Sol's legacy because they identify as the torches of Sol.

This however is not the true meaning of the fable. The subject of the fable is Ruben Roche, the founder of the tribe. It mentions where he was born, As the meaning of the word Padlini is "given to the sun" and the word Anadi is "eternal."

The older version of this poem talks about the death of the seamstress, Ruben's mother, and how he did not let his grief stop him in life.

It is to be assumed that older versions of this fable would discuss more about his life after her death.

##### The Fable of the Little Flame

“My little flame,

So bold and brave,

He ventured deep into an ash-laced cave.

When in that cave he found a stone,

That glittered brightly as if from Sol,

He crushed it up into a fine dust,

And shared it with the ones he loved.

A treat for Gu,

A taste for Ku,

A lick for Ux,

And Caw and Zan too.

Among all his sparks, he loved the last best,

For his little flare, he gave them the rest.”

This fable was written from the perspective of Nuri Roche's mother, as the meaning of Nuri is: My Flame.

This is the original fable, but it was adapted when the Derg tribe went missing and has since changed due to imperfections in passing the story down by word-of-mouth.

The original poem talks about Nuri discovering glowstone in a basalt biome in the nether, and how he learned to make ahppy and shared it with his 6 children.  It alludes to the splitting of the tribe into 6 families. Some versions at the time may specify the final child being the derg, as this version was known before they went missing.

However, the current version is this:

*“My Flame,*

*Lost in an ashen cave,*

*Saved by Sol's light,*

*Sprinkling its dust in his love,*

*With Gu,*

*And Ku,*

*Ux, Caw, Zan, and Ghee,*

*He blessed them with knowledge,*

*His best recipe.”*

The current version has a different interpretation. The Faielle view this poem as the story of how Sol gave them the Ahppy recipe. Current tribe members do not know of the history of the Derg, nor do they know of Nuri. They believe there were always 6 tribes. Hence the Ghee family is explicitly mentioned in this poem.

##### The Fable of the Loyal Wolf

*“In our grief, we see the pain that we have caused you. Your pain, your loneliness, and your blindness shackle us with guilt. We pray to Sol, that you may walk his path again, and regain your place among the stars. Our silence we give to you, in hopes that you may never be misled again. With our last breath, we bid farewell to you, our loyal wolf.”*

This fable was written after the vision of ‘the last breath.’ when the Derg family went missing. This was a time of grief for the faielle, where they believed that the derg family had died, and were suffering in the afterlife, blinded by the withered eagle Kualiik.

Current Faielle do not understand the history behind this fable, as they do not know of the Derg family. They interpret this fable as a record of what happens to souls after a person has died, and why it is important to protect their memory through the practice of silence.

#### Faielle Words

Faielle: torch

Hadiya: Leader/Guide to righteousness

Galen: Calm. / Healing through philosophy.

Ruben Roche: Ruben means “behold a child” and Roche means “of the rock” Ruben Roche is the foundation, a child of the rock.

Padlini: Given to the sun/born with light.

Anadi: Eternal

Nuri: My fire

#### Usage

(If you would like to do something with Faielle lore, talk to Teide/Nano. Don't change the Ku, Ghee, and Derg lore without permission.)