Pionus

## Common Knowledge

Visitors to the home of the Binturian Party, the town of Adria in Binturia, might be unnerved by the strong, elven-looking inhabitants of its town, or be amazed by the frivolity with which they cast magic. These are the Pionus (or “First-Race”), and are among the last survivors of their great species, to say nothing of their legacy.

## Biology

The Pioni (plural for Pionus, though Pionus also works in plural) appear to share elven and human characteristics, such as the ruggedness of the average human and the structure and pointed ears of an average elf. Pionus were omnivores, and required the normal amount of sleep and air that any mortal would.

The key differences between a Pionus and a modern, average mortal are twofold. First, a Pionus could live for extremely long periods of time. Prior to the birth of the Beast and the shift in magic, a single Pionus could live agelessly with no upper limit. Even today, Pionus live to be 5,000 years old, much longer than their distant elven descendents.

Second, the Pionus are born with an incredibly high affinity for magic. Certain elven species have an affinity for magic, but Pionus could master spells in weeks that would take even a potent caster months or years. Famously, children could cast spells in the highest ranges of mortal achievement. This potency diminished after the birth of the Beast, but is still prevalent today and more potent than that of other magically-aligned races.

## Culture/Religion

Pionus had less of a faith as much as an understanding of the origin of the universe and their place in it. While any culture claiming to know as much about the unknowable would appear pretentious, the Pionus were actually correct. Far back in their history, the fundamental forces of the universe revealed themselves to the Pionus. These entities were called “Elder Gods”, controlled the forces of Life, Time, Knowledge, Madness, Protection, Possibility, and Dreams, and shaped the very realms of existence to their whims.

In addition, they knew that the Elder God of Life, the supreme being in all reality, had created them directly. This relationship with Life was largely one-sided, and later in time would lead to resentment of the Elder Gods among certain circles.

The culture of the Pionus mimicked those nations which came after it in many ways, accepting a mostly feudal system, but with a widespread strain of racial superiority. They believed that they had been put on Temporis for a purpose, and while they were correct it did make discussions with other factions uneasy to say the least. This superiority complex was worsened by the vast and unbridled influence of the Kingdom of Old Binturia, lending to the idea that anything that they were owed they would take by force.

## Known Locations

Pionus can be found in places which have been left untouched by time or global affairs, and even then are scarcely ever seen. Barring incidents such as those, the Pionus species is extinct.

The two known places where Pionus can be found are in Adria, as discussed above, and the demiplane city of Navitos.

## Notable Individuals

There are dozens of important Pionus throughout history, some of whom have affected global politics and magic single-handedly.

### Samuel Slater

The mythical “Tall One” of the gnomes of the north, Samuel Slater is the child of the God of Madness, and a former Fateweaver of Knowledge. Samuel is also on good terms with the Binturian Party and William Wilson, despite them almost trying to kill him a few years ago.

### Saniel Sinbad

A long-lived alchemist of Old Binturia, often known to spend time in the Binturian Guild Hall, who knows the secrets of Everlife and every concoction imaginable.

### King Binturong

The last king of Binturia, who saw its ultimate fall. King Binturong made an agreement with the Elder God of Life to protect the Conduit, and in so doing destroyed Old Binturia entirely and changed magic forever.

### The Mortal Mages

Old Binturia’s most powerful arcanists, and the personal magical council to the nation’s ruler. In addition to being vastly more powerful than any modern mage, the descendents of the Mortal Mages would become the Pillars of the Planes during the Planar War.

### Jonathan Wells

The mayor of the town of Adria, and a Fateweaver of the Goddess of Time who unintentionally brought his people into the modern age.

## Sub-races

To say that Pionus have “subraces” would be a small understatement. As the origin of most sapient life on the Material Plane, the Pionus species adapted into the countless other species of mortals far faster than one might expect. In that sense, there are three subraces of Pionus: the automata of Navitos, bound to immortal warrior bodies by its former tyrants; and the Man-Kin and Elvic lineages which produced almost all other civilizations on Temporis.

### Pionus Automata

The Pionus Automata were once normal Pionus living in the demiplane city of Navitos. In the eons before its people rebelled, the Four Tyrants experimented on the Pionus for their own research and curiosity, installing many of their souls into powerful warrior constructs. These Pionus Automata require neither drink nor sleep nor food, and have weapons hidden in many parts of their bodies.

### Man-Kin

The earlier of the two branches, Man-Kin were broadly-speaking able to more quickly adapt to their environment and survive it, at the cost of a shorter lifespan and weakened magical potential. Man-Kin also (mostly) lost the pointed ears of their Pionus or Elvic cousins. The Man-Kin lineage would branch off into Dwarves, Gnomes, Hobbits, Humans, and all Beast-Folk.

### Elvics

The latter of the two branches, Elvics were broadly-speaking more long-lived and magically potent, at the cost of usually needing certain environments like woodlands or cities to truly thrive. Elvics also retained (mostly) the pointed ears of their Pionus cousins, but lost some of the durability of which their Man-Kin cousins boast. The Elvic lineage would branch off into Dark Elves (Drow), High Elves, Lunar Elves, Plains Elves, Solar Elves, Wood Elves, Merfolk, and Orcs.

## History

### Creation

The Pionus were created by the God of Life just over 500 million years before modern times, for reasons unknown even to them, and over tens of millions of years scraped together the best understandings they could of technology and magic. The Pionus spread out across Orelisle, building towns and faiths and everything else that mortals tend to do, and spread the seeds of other species and the seeds of conflict.

### Old Binturia

The Kingdom of Old Binturia, then called just the “Kingdom of Binturia” was the first nation state created by the Pionus, or anyone else for that matter. While it certainly would not be the last, Binturia withstood the trials of governing time and time again, slowly amassing more knowledge, more land, and more control. For nearly one million years, the Kingdom of Binturia was the nearly-unquestioned master of Orelisle, perhaps even of the Material Plane.

From Old Binturia spilled forth incredible magical secrets, scientific advances, and hybrids of the two which had never been seen and have not been recreated since. All these were gifts of the Elder Gods, and specifically gifts of their access to the Conduit -- the font of all magic miles beneath Binturia’s heart. From Old Binturia, too, came exploitation of the weaker nations which sprouted up from around them. Malovazen, Aldenlied, and Jericho all came to heel under Binturia’s boot for millennia.

### Fall of Old Binturia

Ten thousand years before the modern day, the Kingdom of Binturia was assailed by a unified army of nearly every other major nation on Orelisle. With all their advancements and their spells, for every plan and countermeasure, the sheer volume of the invaders overwhelmed the Binturian Kingdom slowly but surely. As a last resort, King Binturong reached out to their patron, the God of Life, and pleaded for some way to protect his people and the Conduit. Life itself agreed, and merged with King Binturong to become a massive, terrifying monstrosity that would only ever be called The Beast.

Now in its prime, The Beast was fully capable of defending Binturia and the Conduit. Unfortunately, it would never have the chance to. Seeing the form of their great king, the Pionus of Binturia began to cheer his name. Calling the name of a god is dangerous, and the gaze of the Elder God of Life is catastrophic. In calling for Binturong, one of The Beast’s names, they also called for the God of Life. The Pionus were destroyed utterly by the gaze of Life, squashed flat and souls obliterated, buildings razed and fields uprooted. The enemy armies, too, were routed, but at an unfathomable cost. The few survivors of the incident hardly ever spoke of the incident, to say nothing of writing it down, and Old Binturia’s legacy fell to dust as the survivors aged and the Underforest consumed the land the kingdom once stood upon.

### Adria’s Return

During the invasion, Jonathan Wells devised a ritual of protection to keep his town and its people safe. Sadly for him, the town had already been infiltrated by saboteurs and was destroyed by three concurrent explosions thirty minutes after the barrier was erected. This barrier was formed with the blessings of the Goddess of Time, however. With this blessing, the Goddess reset the town to the moment that the barrier was erected. Jonathan, retaining his memories, could not stop concentrating on the barrier ritual without dooming his people to destruction in thirty minutes, so the town was reset again. Then it was reset again. Then it happened again.

For ten thousand years, Jonathan Wells relived the same thirty minutes without end, helpless to save the people or himself without damning them all. Then, something changed, with the appearance of the Binturian Party. Led to the golden barrier dome by the forest itself, the Binturians uprooted the causes of the explosion and allowed Jonathan’s ritual to conclude safely. Now back in the modern day, Jonathan and the other Pionus were among the last survivors of their species.

## Further Information

* Binturia
* Navitos
* Old Binturia