Homini

Morally neutral and without arcane affiliation, **the Homini** have no incarnate abilities, unlike the other denizens of Asphodel. However, their unique ability to hold a Bond with the arcane races has turned them into a valuable commodity. Without a divine tie, the Homini remain unaffected by the unhappy side effects the arcane races suffer from since the Sundering.

## Founding

The Homini are the result of a near-collision between Elodi and Ahriman. Their essences unintentionally merged and spawned as the Homini. Neither deity claimed them as their own, knowing the influence of the other, so the Homini fled to make their own homes and meanings.

To their great disgust and fear, the Homini often were the victims of whatever side decided to use them for their own gain: the Sheolfolk were wont to slaughter them to empower their Vice, the Elysians prone to coming to save and guard them, allowing for no individual will or effort apart from their own.

Since the discovery of the bonding process (found via accident of a few pairs that got a little too close), the number one priority of the Elysians has become to find as many partners for their numbers as possible in order to ensure their survival and victory. The Sheolfolk have planned similarly with the added plot of finding ways to kill partners off to increase the powers of a Vice should the time come. (Betrayal is considered a sure-fire way to empower one's Vice, especially if the Bond contained partners that cared.)

Sick of being treated as cattle, certain groups of Homini have separated themselves into walled communities overshadowed by barbed wire ceilings, unwilling to be farmed by either side. Other towns live under the rule of the Elysians, often being groomed to bond with an Elysian of their choice; pairing of some kind between the two races is the encouraged norm. The communities that live under the influence of the Sheolfolk experience mistreatment for the sake of Vices, and forced bonding (also to further Vice.)

Since the fall of each side's creator, the desire for the aid only the Homini can give has turned desperate.

## Three Ages of Homini Warfare

### *First Age*

Of the three known intelligent races living on the face of Asphodel, the Homini are, without doubt, the underdogs in respect to natural skill and abilities. They lack much of the great prowess of the Elysians and Sheolfolk, most notably wings and the ability to fly, as well as elemental or other such powers. They have, however, been gifted with inventive minds and hearty bodies detached from god-hood that allow them to adapt to a variety of circumstances and environments. It is this ability above all others that has allowed the survival of their race, and their coming into their own over the past century.

At the dawn of their civilization, the Homini knew very little of combat and warfare beyond simply bashing themselves silly with sticks. However, early contact with the Elysians and Sheolfolk due to the perverse desire of those two races to bond with Homini taught said Homini the arts of more advanced civilizations and social hierarchies. Of course, the Homini already had a form of social structure, though from the Eldar Races (as they were collectively called by the Homini) they began to understand the value of a cohesive unit, especially in regards to warfare and other forms of battle.

Without a doubt, the greatest skill the Homini learned from the Eldar Races was the art of metallurgy, allowing for the forging of iron swords and spears after the fashion of their mentors. It was during this first age of the Homini that one especially gifted leader was chosen from among the Homini masses by the Sheolfolk to unite his people under a single banner with the intent of bringing all Homini under the control of the Sheolfolk. Draymond Mayvros was named the first Dux Hominium, war leader of the Homini, and it was to him that the Sheolfolk gave the secrets of mining and forging iron.

For the better part of three decades, the hoard of Dux Mayvros scoured the earth, and for the first time, the Homini were no longer a scattered collection of nomadic tribes, but rather a single, united nation. However, as time went on, Dux Mayvros grew weary of answering to his Sheolian handler and lusted after greater power. In a terrible battle unlike any that race had witnessed before, Dux Mayvros challenged the authority of the Sheolfolk and attempted to have them overthrown and killed. This conflict saw the introduction of the phalanx into Homini combat, a pivotal invention that allowed the Homini to stand and hold ground against their flying counterparts.

The Battle of the Southern Plains, as it would come to be called, lasted almost three full days and nights. Things had gone well at first, the Homini taking advantage of a surprise encounter, followed by a full commitment of troops, but after the death of Dux Mayvros, their discipline shattered and the battle became a terrible rout, and the Homini were forced to flee the battlefield, little more than a disorganized mob. Those who were unable to escape were captured by the Sheolfolk and ushered into colonies for forced Bonding.

Thus ended the first age of Homini Reckoning.

### *Second Age*

If the warfare of the first age were characterized by the innovations of iron working and the phalanx, the second age would be known for calvary and crossbows which were developed separately and for two completely different reasons.

After the disastrous Battle of the Southern Plains, the Homini people scattered to the four corners of the wind and never again became one united nation. Instead, smaller people groups would be ruled by a regional lord who presided over a fief of land. As is always the case with small warlords, bickering frequently broke out and technological advancement ground to a halt in many areas.

However, by observing the Elysians' *theodoro* in battle, a few groups of Homini close to the plains began to tame the wild horses that lived there, and use them for their own battles. (At this time, there was little organized combat against either of the Eldar Races in that first part of the second age.)

Mounted horsemen proved to be deadly against the tried and true phalanx maneuvers of the first age, and therefore having a well-kept cavalry unit became a must for all warlords to ward off their peers.

The second great advancement of the second Hominium age was the crossbow. As opposed to the cavalry, which was developed to give an edge in the Homini's wars with each other, the crossbow was developed as a response to the advances of the Eldar Races upon the scattered Homini fiefs. As opposed to a standard bow, which took years of training to become even adequately proficient in, the crossbow proved to be a weapon that could be picked up and mastered in a matter of hours. Its range was superior, and it was far easier to master the aiming techniques required to shoot accurately, especially airborne targets, such as the feared Elysian's *theodoro* cavalry.

The unfortunate dark side of such weapons was in its massive scale. Much larger crossbows, or ballistae as they became known, could wreak havoc not just on enemy infantry, but on fortifications, and even cities. Bickering warlords saw this as an opportunity, and once more turned away from the fight with the Eldar Races and towards each other. Now that capturing cities was made viable, every petty lord wished to be a king.

It was to this chaos that Feterota, a maiden from an eastern fief rose (that which would eventually be called Fil Fief.) Beginning as a militia soldier, her ascendance seemed to be ordained by Elodi themself. After rising to become the lord of her fief, she declared herself Dux Feterota and, just as her predecessor, began the work of uniting her people. Unlike Dux Mayvros, Dux Feterota did not attempt to bring all the fiefs together under one banner, but rather to make peace among the various fiefs by establishing a Council of Lords to create a balance of power, an international code of warfare, a mediation service, and a more solidified front against the Eldar Races, especially the Sheolfolk, who the Homini still held to blame for the death of their first Dux.

And so when it came to pass that when the Elysians rode forth to war with their rivals the Sheolfolk, Dux Feterota answered the call and mustered no fewer than seven full legions to march with their heavenly allies to crush the demons once and for all. But so it was that when the time came for the allied Homini forces to prove themselves, they turned upon the Elysians and Sheolfolk together and began to cut a bloody swath through the field. The indignation of the Elysians combined with the wrath of the Sheolfolk quickly turned towards the Homini, and they were driven from the field, just as they had been centuries earlier. Dux Feterota retired quietly to her fief and maintained an unsteady peace through the Council of Lords, but the military glory of the second age was shattered and passed on into memory.

### *Third Age*

While the fall of the second age ended the military prowess of the Homini, it did not throw them into such instability that their systems of government collapsed. Instead, the various fiefs continued to meet in their Council of Lords throughout the course of this new third age, and even to this day. This provided for a chance for diplomacy to be used before violence, at least in Homini-to-Homini affairs, allowing individual fiefs to turn their attentions towards various struggles with the Eldar Races.

Peace was tenuous at best for most of the third age. Fiefs grew more and more distant from each other, always envious of each other's wealth and fearful for their own. As the age dragged on, Sheolfolk forces took over two southern Homini fiefs, but because of the divisions within that people, they were left to their own devices. Even the Elysians assumed control of a northern fief uncontested.

Armies grew, as did apprehension, so it came as little surprise to those paying attention that after nearly 200 years, the clouds finally broke and the Homini Lords for the first time rode out against one another in grande scale. A period of warring states began and continued over the next hundred and fifty years across the central plain between the last four central fiefs. It was a long bloody contest, and it quickly became apparent that none of the contestants truly understood why they were fighting beyond a desire to win.

Things eventually came to a head near a ford of a small stream called the Adwendo. The armies of Spieti Fief and Nebe Fief arrayed against the Balum and Iskeria Fiefs. The battle was uneven from the onset, with the northern Fiefs quickly being pushed into retreat, and then as the day wore on, slaughter. It was only through the heroic efforts of a small Spieti century (a force led by a man called Artos Polemistis) that the battle was turned for a brief while and the northern forces returned the beating they’d received. This, however, was too little too late, and after a full twelve hours of brutal bloodshed, the armies of Spieti and Nebe were forced into surrender and, being stripped of all armor, weapons, and provisions, were forced to walk home in disgrace, thus ending the great, and largely pointless, Homini civil war.

The two decades since The Great Adwendo Bloodbath usually referred to simply as Adwendo, have seen a marked increase in technological advancement. The innovation of the steam engine and consequently the steam train, have revolutionized the transportation of goods and wealth across Homini territory, and steamships are used to connect even the most remote fiefs. Carrier pigeons are now used as a quick method of transporting important messages across the wastes. While the peace since Adwendo has been fragile, the Lords seem to be dedicated to keeping their own fiefs secure against all who might attempt to steal what they’ve worked so hard for. An untenable situation indeed…