Factions of Tanebrae

## Faction and Character Overview

Here you'll find an overview of the Factions be they player controlled or NPCs.

The Near-Divines differ from other factions in that they are powerful beings, more so than factions in their own right.

## The Mortal Realms

### Kingdom of Rhayic (Steffen)

Unparalleled: Magitech.

*Ruled by a council of the most meritable and heroic of individuals, the Kingdom of Rhayic lies under a cover of perpetual night. From there the council rules the surrounding land lit by an ever shining moon. With the lack of the great sun, the people are forced to rely on magic for agriculture and navigation within their own land. To make life possible for those without magic affinity they developed an unparalleled affinity for magi-tech. The people is isolationistic, and so keep to themselves, celebrating the long night with lavish feast and colorful carnivals few outsiders have ever born witness to.*

### The Lessard Family (?\*)

Unparalleled: Blood manipulation

*Little to nothing is known of the Lessard Family, yet rumours speak of someone who has walked the world of Tanebrae for centuries, a 'family' that chooses their own members, and bestows upon them all that the mortal heart can desire. But do not speak loudly of them, for strangeness follows in their wake, and many a whisper has been strangled in the night.*

\*(Attempts to contact the Lessard family happens through the GM. Then they decide whether of not they deign a response.)

### Knochenmark (Anders)

Unparalleled: Necrotech

*Faction Page:* Knochenmark

*Ruled by the surviving prince of a recent coup against the throne, Knochenmark is a dystopian place for the small-minded and dumb. Ingenuity and progress is valued above all, in this kingdom where medicine and anatomy is everyday conversation among the people. However, a deep darkness lies deep within the Principality and a constant stream of bodies, dead and living, run into the principality never to be seen again.*

### Petra Barathrum (Lars)

Unparalleled: Blood manipulation: Earth

*Faction Page:* Petra Barathrum

*In the mist of the Swallowing Seas, the Hungry Peaks and the Desolate Planes lies the isolated kingdom of Petra Barathrum. Ruled by an appointed queen chosen by the Purity Council, she oversees the different guilds and their contributions to the kingdom. While resources is scarce, the survival of Petra Barathrum is connected to their enhanced ability to control sand and rock to a certain extend as this requires blood to do so. The ability is not congenital but given, the kingdom of Petra Barathrum will give their life before sharing this with the world.*

### Ilhuicaātl (Perser / Mathias)

Unparalleled: Magitech: Sunforging

*Deep in the ocean, past the dark depths, the Ilhuicaātl Dominion dwell. Powered by an underwater sun at the center of their realm, the Dominion lives in wealth and fertility. The people’s physiology is intrinsically linked to the concept of law, meaning that physical and mental mutations occur to an Ilhuicaātli at odds with the law, slowly turning them into monsters. Because of this, the Dominion’s government is highly bureaucratic, and society is heavily regulated and conformed to a strict caste system based on the individual’s level of mutation. The ruling body of the Dominion is a meritocratic council, chosen by the wisest and most dedicated of the society, paragons of law and order who take great honour in shaping society.*

### Hundred Cave Society (NPC)

Unparalleled: Natural wealth: Gems and minerals

*Deep beneath the ground lives a species of rock-hard beings large as elephants, covered in soot and thick plates of bone-like granite. Where once they were solid unliving stone and rock, there came a time when the mortal races dug deep for the values of the dark-below. The stone slumbered on, a tang of pride born from the mortal desire to possess its beauty. Not long after, when blood was spilled in jealousy of what had been found underground, the first kintrolls awakened. The jealousy had shaken them to their core, and every born kintroll felt a responsibility for what had happened - that their beauty had caused bloodshed. To protect the Overworld from jealousy, the kintrolls set about securing the valuables of the underground. Their tragedy was that the kintrolls could never keep up with the mortal realms' desire for valuables, and many kintrolls died in vain defending insignificant amounts of minerals. When finally their civilization could take no more war with the Overworld, it collapsed into the Hundred Cave Society. It was decided that all kintrolls would return to their Stonehome, their place of birth, and carry as much value as they could. There, the valuables would be stockpiled and kept out of mortal hands. Five thousand years passed, and the trolls forgot their original purpose. Now they sit on the world's largest mineral deposits, with nothing but time on their hands and halls crowding with generations of the long-lived kintrolls.*

### Heirs to Merania (NPC)

Unparalleled:

*A people gathered around their prophesied Empress. The Heirs have existed as a nation of their own for no more than twenty years, and still struggle to find a place to call home. Currently, they exist as two nomadic tribes, the Meraikos (Reclaimers) and the Merobos (Resettlers). The former seeks to reconquer old Merania by way of war, while the latter seek to persuade the descendant nations of Ancient Merania to grant them a piece of land to call home, in return for the culture of their ancestors. In spite of their difference of approach, the factions are tight knit, bonding over their shared Meranian ancestry - with the slight hiccup that one faction is a descendant of the Lost Legion of Merania from 3584 years ago, and the other is from Meranian refugees almost a thousand years later. Enough of a difference to make them like day and night, with the only common ground being the thinned out genetic ability to manipulate blood.*

### The Stranger Folk (NPC)

Unparalleled: Imitation

*Many years ago a civilization of stoic knights from a regal species called a piece of the frozen North their home. They welcomed the Stranger Folk into their lands, and as fate would have it the Stranger Folk replaced them. To outsiders it may have seemed like a deceitful takeover, but the hosts saw it differently. From the very beginning they saw past the long skulls atop long and slender bodies with branch arms ending in talon-like fingers, and saw the budding race that was the Stranger Folk, a race that had no language of its own, and no creativity with which to create. The hosts took it upon themselves to teach the Stranger Folk, and in their striving to govern their adopted child-race, they forgot to govern themselves. A fell wind brushed over their lands, and starvation left only a handful of the host race. The Stranger Folk were left perplexed and grieving. Reluctantly but with pride they took up the culture and civilization their parent had left, and venerated the few that remained. When they too passed on, too few to keep their people alive, the Stranger Folk were forced to assume full control of the nation, which they did in their own awkward way.*

### Empire of Grass (Christian Kierans)

Unparalleled: Naturebending

*Stretching from the sunbaked sand of the Still sea, to the rolling hills of the Sapphire Lake lies the Empire of Grass. Underneath the eyes of the night sky, this land of prairies, valleys and forests are only disturbed by the rumble of thousands of hooves. Here resides the tribes of the Beastmen, magnificent and frightening creatures, appearing as a vivid mix between humans and animals. In this land where nature reigns alongside its tamers, the tribes roam from place to place, following their ancient naturepaths, guided only by stories and starlight, shaping the world around them as they go. As the Beastmen travel where the wind beckons, they also follow the calling of The World Mother, the goddess that every Beastman pledges his or her life to. Each year, she gathers the wisest of the 11 tribes, at a great gathering called The Conclave. Here the Beastmen trade stories and legends, plan the territories of each tripe and prepare adventures of glory.While the true origins of the Beastmen are a mystery to even their wisest, they have taken it upon themselves to be the guardians of nature. They are born with a lust for adventure and travel, and one can often find parties of Satyrs and Centauers roaming far away from the empires borders. While many of the Empires inhabitants are inherently peaceful, they are vary to strangers trespassing their sacred soil. And Mothers mercy be with anyone who clashes with the Blackblood Tribe…*

#### The Realm of Monsters (Inner Enemy)

*There is a place where nature grows a little stronger than most other places. A places with many dark nooks and crannies sizable enough to contain a surplus of enormous and dangerous beasts. What their relation is to the Empire of Grass, no one knows, but for centuries the Empire has held the border of this mysterious area at bay, while it slowly spread in the other direction. Some legends whisper that it might be the end of man evergrowing...*

### Xantara (Lasse)

Unparalleled: Navy

*Glorious Xantara, the jewel of the sea, seat of destiny, the most high, city of gold and miracles, started out as a mere town on a small island off the main continent, many centuries ago. Today it is the center of the world, at least according to most of its citizens. Within the city walls, the Philosopher-Mathematicians of the Xantarian academies delve deep into the wonders of architecture, astrology, commerce, and oldest and perhaps most revered, shipbuilding. The marines of the nation are renowned for their skills in archery and raiding, in addition to being very well equipped. The greater ships are further supported by navigator-seers, mages able to predict the comings and goings of the ocean weather. Having such a standing army is incredibly expensive and difficult to train however, and the admirals have adapted to a skirmishing battle standard, except for the occasional siege. Rule of Xantara is hereditary, and the current Testrin, Catos Stormmantle the Second, carries a great responsibility on his shoulders.*

### Pyrkagia (PnP Nation / NPC)

Unparalleled: None.

*Pyrkagia is the home to a small nation of the Aven or Pyrkagians, a humanoid species defined by the additions of feathery wings on their backs. On a lonely mountain lies their cloister-fortress Chiari, reachable only by flight or a long and dangerous pathway. While they see themselves as the saviors of the world, the defenders of order, and the eradicators of chaos, the truth is less brilliant. For in the center of their high towers and walkways lie the temple-nest of the great mother-bird, the Mitera Teryga, an evermelting phoenix of metal and valuable jewels. To keep the Mother Mitera alive, the Aven are forced to seek out treasures and deliver them to her, that her body may sustain itself. To them it is justified theft, like an orphan might steal to survive, but they will do everything from pickpocketing to pillaging to satisfy her needs. And most consequences can be negated by retreating to the safety of the cloister Chiari and wait for the slow land-dwellers to fall to their deaths.*

### Veshtisa (NPC)

Unparalleled: Chaos

*Faction Page*: Veshtisa

*It is not possible to harness true chaos, not possible to live in it, not even possible to describe it. That did not stop a kingdom of mortals millennia ago. When the Meranian Empire was at their doorstep, they sought to survive, more than willing to sacrifice it all. However, their pleas fell on deaf ears, their wishes went un-granted, their armies and cities crushed to bone-meal beneath the ironclad sandals of the Meranian blood-mages. In the end, in a glimpse of fragile insanity, one of their number saw an unyielding truth. That without a name and without a Divine Concept, one cannot exist, and that which does not exist cannot be destroyed. Foolhardily they bargained with the deafness of the eternal nothing, and unswore their names, their homes, their bodies. Through self-induced insanity they unraveled their own mortality, their very beings warping yet turning to nothing. And thus the end came about for the Veshtisa, their people shadows, their history gone, their lands empty.*

*Until a scholar smudged a word, read it wrong, and accidentally uttered a phrase from the dark thoughts of his favoured Divine's conscience. With it came back the shadows of the Veshtisa, the people and land undone, returning as vague concepts, manifested as chaos-infected beings. Without a true concept, they lack coherent physical form and thought, but encounters with presumptions, perceived understanding and emotions give them form.*

### Askea and Trovu (NPC)

Unparalleled: City size

*Askea is a nation and a city. A city that was once a handful of kingdoms, a handful of species, and a handful of cultures. As the kingdoms lived in peace and prosperity, the borders became muddied as people traveled and settled wherever they liked. In the end, the borders vanished and the kingdoms became a single city, stretching through the entirety of all the land each kingdom had owned, making it the largest city the world had ever seen. With it initially came room for everyone, regardless of background and species, but that was hundreds of years ago, and now the city is infected by the vicious disease of bureaucracy. Bureaucracy that cannot change fast enough to facilitate the changes of the city, and lacks behind to the point where the authorities of the city have yet to realize that a district declared and claimed their independence twenty years ago. That district is the Theocracy of Trovu, lead by the High-Magnanimous Consul-Priest-Liberator Kalsius. Commonly referred to outside the faith as the 'Grand Fraud'.*

### Grunemarschen (Edin)

Unparalleled: Agriculture

*An enigma and a riddle. How does a meek land consisting of perhaps the meekest creatures on Tanebrae retain even the semblance of independence? Perhaps unsurprisingly to many, the Hobbits of Grunemarschen have been conquered many times in the past. Equally surprising, they’ve always managed to bounce back and regain their independence. It is said that the Hobbits are masters of a passive-aggressive sort of resistance. Those who would rule them would do well in seeking their consent first - and even when it is given, they have a habit of somehow slipping from control after a couple of generations have passed.*

*Grunemarschen is an independent peasant’s republic consisting of various Hobbit villages led by elected Burgermeisters. Each family of merit in a village (known variously as “burgers” or “gentlehobbits”) is afforded a number of seats ranging from one (for the truly pitiful families) to twelve (for the truly illustrious). Most villages hold a total between fifty and a hundred seats on their local council, and each elected Burgermeister additionally is allowed to sit on the much smaller council that elects the Oberburgermeister - the “ruler” of sorts of Grunemarschen (though the Hobbits would never use that particular word).*

*The current Oberburgermeister of Grunemarschen is Pegrin von Gruneburg. A relatively young and relatively vibrant gentlehobbit nearing his fortieth year in office. While von Gruneburg is hardly any more ambitious than most of his kin, he does have a surprisingly keen political mind, and a great love for his home. Diplomatic, pleasant, and good-natured, von Gruneburg is happy to adopt a live-and-let-live policy.*

## The Near-Divines

### Host of the Efflorescence (Wolfgang)

Unparalleled: Biological engineering

Temp: *A being of great intelligence and power has a home, that is named The Efflorescence. The being that lives there, is the Host of the Efflorescence, the stewart, the caretaker, the ruler. Her powers are hard to define, hard to comprehend, and out of reach for most. Unless they dare visit the Island on which the Efflorescence grows.*

### The Old Peddler, The Piper, Master Mirror, The Wicked One (Tral / Christian)

Unparalleled: Wish-granting

*Imagine a Divine being; who tricked a God of death to self-destruction, who stole the souls of an unborn race, who dealt a winning hand to an ancient empire, just to turn their fortune and eradicate them. That Divine was cast from the Pool, hurled into the nothingness that befits a being without a name, and he was undone. That Divine was not the Wicked One, not in any logical sense. The Wicked One was what emerged when an accidental intrusion into the nothingness brought something back with it. Something that was not wholly Divine, but in no way mortal. Something that was unreasonably denied access to the Pool of Divinity, for crimes he had not committed. For all the evil Divines, those of madness, of pain, and of far worse, only one Divine was ever cast out, and only one was forever barred entry. Now the latter walks the world, seeking purpose, and granting the wishes of the greedy and needy ... but at what cost?*

### The Hollow Lord (NPC)

Unparalleled: Immortality and mortality

 *His appearance is that of a skeleton, ever-bleeding dark and polluted blood from below the iron adornments on his dark bones, his desires delirious as those of a madman. A cursed individual, a liche, a powerful sorcerer and manipulator of blood itself. If any being knows immortality, he is it. He can grant it and he can take it, but at what cost?*

## The Fallen Realms

Be it aeons, centuries or even days past, these Factions are no longer present in the world of Tanebrae. Though they are remembered in the annals of history.

### The Meranian Empire

*An Empire that lasted for almost three thousand years. It's denizens were human to begin with, but as they expanded, they assimilated countless other races. Where some areas became melting pots of cultures, others grew isolated and segregated from their countrymen. For a thousand years the Empire dominated the battlefields of the world, were they the fields of warfare, discussions of philosophy, or bargains for clinging coin. When dusk came for the Empire, it lasted for a thousand more years, clad in disaster and misfortune. Yet night did not truly settle for another thousand years, just enough for the ancient line of Emperors and Empresses to die out all but forgotten. Countless lesser nations sprung up in their absence, some flourishing under own rule, some suffering without their guiding hand.*

### Nüüdelchid Ogre Hordes

*Tales are told that there once was a mighty nation with thick walls and a strong Emperor. Where and who is not known, but legend of the Ogre Hordes that destroyed his realm is spread far and wide. Originally coming from the south, the ogre hordes were once - actually, twice - united and lead by a Khagan, a Khan of Khans. They trampled all in their path, the strong hordes a match for any Empire. That time has long since passed, and now the hordes wander the world fighting and feasting in their much smaller tribes. While an ogre occurrence can be a bother, menace, or even plague upon the land, they lack the strength of their glory days - and no nation truly fears them. Without a Khagan, they cannot unite, and will squabble with each other as much as with anyone else. Furthermore, the Royal Mortgelt Company of Knochenmark pays in clinging coin for ogre corpses, leading many foolhardy bounty hunters to throw their lives away, while some more powerful organizations make small fortunes on ogre hunting.*

### Celion Freeholds

*Once a part of the North was dotted in beautiful castles, and between them would travel a beautiful humanoid people wearing many shades of white, black, and blue. Each Freehold was protected by a series of Noble orders dedicated to the defense of the common people, where most adult members of the Freeholds would serve for a number of years before returning to life as civilians. Those who did not return could remain as the Noble warrior class, and serve as officers and frontline fighters. Those with the skills would get to ride the cold drakes, lizards of an icy appearance, patrolling the land and fighting the enemies hiding in the cold. But the Freeholds changed the day they stopped killing the monsters in the cold, and accepted that perhaps there were other sentient races out there. That dream ended when rot spread through the sparse animal and plant life, killing off their foodstuff and with it most of their people. The few who remained hoped to repopulate, but it was not to be and now less than a handful of the Celion heritage walk Tanebrae.*

## Lesser Factions

These are the small factions that appear in the PnP campaign, that are generally too small to participate in World of Tanebrae.

### The Larmenters of Cygos

*When Merania started to decline, one of their many enemies declined with them. A nation of life-like statues with artistic inclination, the old realm of Cygos struggled to keep sovereignty under the threat of greater empires. Incursions from warrior nations and the passage of countless legions forced them to hide, and seeing as they did not need the growth and sun of the above, they dug in and settled in great underground structures. Little did they know that these structures would eventually becomes their tombs, and as ground shaking battles brought tons of earth down and split their tunnel network, they were all but forgotten. Long after their literal fall, they still laboured underground, but their artistic nature had taken a darker turn. With the grief of centuries of loneliness, they devoted time to construct countless actual tombs, each one a darker and more grotesque homage to the sorrows of the past. Some say they still slave away below the earth south of Petra Barathrum, but if any are left their hands and joints may long ago have been ground to dust under their tireless working.*

### The Cult of Brothers

*The shadows whisper only thus, of the Lord, the Father and the Brother: "Three there was for immortal throne. One of skin, and one of bone. White as death, red as blood, the third a cripple soon forgot. Hatred, spite and malice so, to serve the one who rests below."*