The Origins of Sovernin (1321 -1365)
Some of the broad concepts behind the Promised Path predate the formal organization of the sect, but most histories of the Path start in the 1300s, with the rise of
Sovernin the Savior. Sovernin was born to a wealthy and powerful
Reverent Path family in the
Empire of Kizen in 1321 ME. She was quickly identified as intellectually promising but rather meek, and was groomed from a young age to enter the either the Reverent Path clergy or the Imperial bureaucracy. Despite her shy personality and aversion to violence, Sovernin was deeply curious and intellectually rebellious. She had a fascination with heresy, fantasy, and what others called delusion. She quietly imagined herself as walking in the footsteps of her historical inspiration, the ancient author and Reverent Path revolutionary
Ralta. She imitated Ralta's anonymous tract-writing, penning letters, editorials, pamphlets, and even treatises that circulated within imperial circles. Sovernin was extremely critical of Kizen's invasion of the
Kingdom of Verzavek in 1350 ME - the war that began the
Third Kivish Scouring, a series of terrible wars that raged from 1350 to 1419 ME. While Sovernin thought that her heretical musings and government critiques were ultimately unimportant, her increasingly heretical rhetoric provoked an investigation. Sovernin was revealed as the author and her family quickly worked to protect her from the worst legal consequences. The fact that a promising heir of a pure lineage was writing such rebellious heresy against the Empress shocked the inner circles of the Empire. Even though her writings were not even that impressive, her boldness and status created enough of a buzz that it eventually reached the ears of the Empress herself. Realizing that her privilege was running out and that she lacked the rogueish skills of her hero
Ralta, she bribed a ship to take her and her servants as far North as possible.
Sovernin ventured to distant
Boram and began her travels beyond 'True
Stildane'. She ventured to
Desmia briefly, learned the Borim ways, and made her money as a storyteller and scribe. She honed her skills as a speaker and even as a rogue of sorts - playing games of intrigue and dancing around conflict. She attached herself to the most prominent
Kobold she could find, a druid named Izilskr Goldhorn. Through Goldhorn, she met the legendary explorer-druid-alchemist
Kamdra and briefly advised the newly formed
Borim Healing Circle on Kivish matters. Her time in Boram and beyond were very eventful, but only lasted about fifteen years. In 1365, Sovernin was running intelligence for the Healing Druids when she was caught in a sudden invasion by the
Empire of Kizen. Sovernin's time abroad was perhaps more formative than her upbringing. Her heresy, once a derivative mix of older ideas, became more worldly and sophisticated; it better resonated with the commercial class, as Sovernin's ideas began to recognize the sheer size and diversity of the world. Her time abroad also gave her a reserved charisma and sense of trickery, a skillset that grew remarkably refined over time.
Sovernin the Heretic (1365 - 1419)
Sovernin's imprisonment and trial as a heretic unexpectedly elevated her in the public eye. And then, after days of dogged theological debate in court, Sovernin vanished dramatically. Whether this was thanks to her newfound rogueish skills, secret allies with access to powerful magic, or
Tragedy Magic is unknown to us mortal historians. Regardless, the heretic was gone without a trace. The Empire moved to block her flight Northward, as she was expected to flee either to her family or to
Boramn. Instead, she escaped Southward to the neutral city of
Yohenstern on the border of
the Kingdom of Hain. Sovernin hid there and made the dramatic choice of embracing her new role as arch-heretic.
It is here that the story of Sovernin becomes difficult to fully extricate from religious legend. According to Promised Path tradition, Sovernin would perform
The Nine Miracles over her life - each representing a different insight and Kivish god-concept. Her escape from prison was her first. Five more ensued during her nearly forty years as heretic leader. These have been challenged and 'debunked' by
Reverent Path scholars over the centuries, who consider her a very creative and intelligent fraud, but Promised Path faithful insist that these were sincere miracles. From 1365 to 1390, Sovernin built secret networks of heretics across Northern Stildane.
Yohenstern was not consistently safe, though she did continuously return there. She even befriended a similarly heretically-minded
Monstercrafter and mage named
Karlana, who was rising in the imperial court but worked on forbidden projects with her heretic followers in Yohenstern. Karlana and Sovernin would eventually go from plucky allies to enemies, as Karlana's group became the
Exalted Path. During this time, though, they supported each other. The two arch-heretics sought followers and insights from
Reverent Path and
Liberated Path communities alike, and soon their networks crossed into the
chaos wastes. Sovernin's network in particular overlapped a great deal with the
Courier Confederation, which she used to move ideas across large distances without government censorship.
In 1390, the North caught on fire: a revolt rose up in
Trostev, war broke out between Hain and Kizen, the great druid
Kamdra assassinated the Kivish Empress Kazalim, and Kamdra was mutated into the dreaded
Tarrasque and proceeded to begin rampaging across Stildane. The disruption was exactly what Sovernin needed to peddle her heresy in the heartlands of Kizen. The Empire now had much larger concerns than heretics - or so they believed. From 1390 to 1419, Sovernin became more and more bold in reclaiming her position as heir to her line and organizing her growing following. And then, in 1419, the last heir to the throne died. The slow descent into dynastic chaos that began in 1390 broke loose with sudden force.
The Reign of Chaos (1419)
The
Fourth Kivish Scouring began with a succession crisis. After the death of the Empress, two main groups moved to claim the throne: The
Reverent Path priesthood and part of the military moved as one to quickly invite a candidate from outside. The
Children of Verkohn were a group that directly descended from the prophet
Verkohn the Honest and had great military experience, so it was entirely legitimate for one of their order to become Empress if she converted to the Reverent Path.
Kloskr Witchslayer emerged as just the right candidate, a politically savvy Child of Verkohn with leadership experience. While the priests fetched Kloskr, High Marshal
Klivinda Yolbek appointed herself regent and war-leader; her house's marriage ties to Kizen's royalty made her likely to claim the throne for herself. Countless other vultures began to circle the throne, preparing their own potential claims. Sovernin initially aligned herself with Kivinda and began mobilizing her faithful.
While Kloskr, Klivinda, and the Hainish all fought each other in the South, a wild card factor emerged: a
Liberated Path army, led by a charismatic warrior-mage. Whether this army had ties to one of the two big arch-heretics is disputed to this day. Regardless, the Liberated force was small but fast and effective. It emerged from the Northern wastes and attacked the holy city of
Rumakel. Sovernin, initially carrying Klivinda's banner, hurried her heretics to defend the city. Her forces prevented the invaders from taking the
Whispering Star and her followers occupied the city. From there, she established control over the local garrison and moved to secure the capital city of
Eveko. An army under
General Munefa Savibek, which had not declared for either candidate and had marched to defend
Rumakel soon arrived. Instead of attacking the weak forces of Sovernin, Munefa ordered her forces to make peace with the heretics. For a moment, everything was in the air. It was unclear if Sovernin or Klivinda was in charge; the
Liberated Path were gathering warbands again to make another pass at the city and the fighting in the South was growing intense.
In 1420, Klivinda lost a key battle, Munefa and Sovernin joined forces, Sovernin defeated the Liberated Path leaders, the other heretic Karlana moved to reinforce Sovernin and capture the Liberated army to her ranks, and the middle territories entered open revolt, all within a week. Chaos. Sovernin no longer had any reason to remain loyal, and now two heretics were circling each other to seize the richest lands in all the Empire. And so the succession crisis became the War of the False Prophets.
The Fourth Scouring (1420 - 1440)
The army of Munefa Savibek is generally considered to be the reason that Sovernin was able to capitalize on her capture of the capital region so effectively. Why Munefa, a seasoned veteran of the
Reverent Path, would convert to this new heresy and submit to a strange heretic prophet instead of staying true to her oaths and slaughtering that heretic, is unclear. At first their alliance against to protect
Rumakel was certainly pragmatic, but the devotion and loyalty Munefa seemed to show later is harder to read as calculated.
Reverent Path scholars paint Munefa as a power-hungry traitor making her own play for the throne, and maybe that is true to some extent, but the brilliant commander stood by her new faith even after the Promised Path lost its advantages. Munefa is recognized as Sovernin's most important companion by the Promised Path, and she is treated like a patron saint of warriors. With key imperial lands under her control and a growing army behind her, Sovernin declared herself (or was declared, depending on accounts) the messiah: the
Irunek.
Once Sovernin had her army and completely controlled the capital region, the true chaos of the Fouth Scouring began. Multiple Reverent Path armies, often led by their own claimants, made repeated attempts to reconquer the capital. The war was immensely complicated and highly destructive, with many phases and temporary alliances. In 1430, the
Exalted Path sect launched a massive invasion of the capital region and succeeded in taking
Rumakel, pillaging the sacred city and even taking pieces of it away with them. The devastation of the Exalted pillaging of the capital and holy city, combined with an alliance between the remaining
Liberated Path and Reverent Path armies to unseat the Promised Path, ultimately doomed Sovernin. The war lasted ten more years, but ultimately the Promised Path had to flee. Sovernin, now old and with adult children, claimed that the lands of
Boram and beyond were the true promised lands of the faithful. She knew that her people needed a place to shelter, recover, and put down roots. Boram might change them, like it changed her so long ago. And so they marched, warriors and peasants sharing everything. In a way, it was when the Promised Path lost everything that it became its most egalitarian; the journey out of Kizen is the source of some very radical passages of the Promised Path
Uvikov. While the Northern Promised Path followed Sovernin to Boram, many Southern groups followed Sovernin's companion
Livvuk Ghostsinger Southward to seek refuge with Sovernin's later ally:
The Kingdom of Hain. By 1440, the Promised Path and the
Exalted Path had both left Kizen behind. The war was over.
Building a New Home (1440 - 1600)
Sovernin's connections to the
Borim Healing Circle, while quite old at this point, were pivotal in helping the Promised Path find a home in the North. The first stop of many was in the land of Ayvek, a kingdom immediately North of
Varinok that had spent about a century under Reverent Path occupation. Sovernin and the Promised Path were embraced by a local noble, who used the incoming warriors to purge the Reverent Path occupiers and install them as the independent monarch of Ayvek. The Promised Path began to splinter into groups organized under "Star Banners": each convoy sought a different home and helped settle the fleeing pilgrims across different parts of Boram. One even returned back South, invited by a lord in Varinok to retake the lands closest to Kizen. Others ventured West, into Ikaram and Bokoboram. Sovernin sent a member of her family with each group, and had them swear oaths of unity and connection. The people needed to spread out, dig in, and focus on resiliency; they could not afford infighting. Sovernin dramatically declared that she would ascend, awakening and vanishing corporeally - and that she would watch over her people to reward the good and punish the wicked. And then she vanished one last time. In her stead, the general Munefa served as leader of the Path for a time; then Sovernin's daughter Arunen took the lead. Each Star Banner had its own regional story. Some overthrew the local governments as an invasion, while others peacefully arrived. Even while decentralized, the Promised Path was united and cohesive from 1450 to about 1600.
Controversially, the Promised Path introduced small amounts of
Ederstone to
Boram. Rather than keep it in any one center, the Path did as Sovernin taught and made many small containment centers. And unlike the Reverent Path, the Promised Path began regularly bringing that
Ederstone out to effectively microdose the local landscape. This
Ederstone also sometimes served as weapons. Needless to say, the Borim kingdoms were both afraid of this power but often also excited to be the ones to wield it. They also welcomed warriors immune to
Ederstone who could help them dislodge the
Exalted Path outposts that the nomadic heretics had left behind in Boram.
While the Promised Path initially secluded themselves from the broader Borim populace as a separate population, they began to do something unlike normal Kivish in the 1500s: they started to evangelize. The big innovator in this field was named
Savrena the Reborn, a Guru who was later given a high priestly rank for her efforts. Savrena lived ascetically, was something of an eccentric, and was passionate in her conviction that the Promised Path had a duty to help as many non-Kobolds reincarnate into Kobolds through faithful worship as possible. Savrena often had episodes in which she claimed to see visions of her past life as a non-Kobold and vigorously fought for the inclusion of non-Kobolds in the clergy and political leadership. Savrena, despite her strange methods (or perhaps because of them), became a veritable sensation who converted many petty kings and druids to the Path. Thanks to her and her followers, the Promised Path didn't just find neighbors and allies in Boram - they truly merged with the Borim. This religious and cultural merging helped the two groups fully merge politically. The Borim warlords sought to intermarry with (or at least consort with) leading Promised Path families, gaining "sacred blood" and positions in the Promised Path hierarchy that could direct resources, technologies, and organizational structures to their kingdoms. This amalgamation allowed the Promised Path to flourish, but also slowly disintegrated the top-down centralized religious-political structure of the early Promised Path.
Pure Kejarls, Pure Wars (1600 - 1750)
From 1600 to 1645, the Promised Path leadership fought to keep its leadership centralized. This began as a matter of intrigue, but broke into open warfare from 1640 to 1645. The centralizers lost their struggle for the most part, but brokered a compromise: in 1645, the Promised Path leaders agreed to the Renewed Compact that would create a more flexible but still unified Promise Path organization. Component groups agreed that a descendent of Sovernin and a leading cleric should rule each region - ideally politically, but at least in leading the clergy. This established the modern organization system, with regional nodes of control led by a Grandmaster and a Kejarl (purified descendent of Sovernin or her extended family). This also codified the sacred law of the Promised Path, known as the
Kejagon.
The other main area of contestation was the state of the faith in the
Kingdom of Varinok. The Promised Path had claimed the area in the 1400s, but the renewed
Empire of Kizen had launched their own invasion in the late 1500s. Part of the compromise of 1645 was an agreement that the various princes and kings would pledge their raiding fleets to join in an invasion of Varinok to retake the realm from the
Reverent Path. From 1649 to 1686, these fleets were able to help restore the Promised Path in Varinok. This was important, as Varinok was a fairly large and rich kingdom and had begun to build their own
Alchemy trade, so they represented a key strategic and economic interest for both the Promised Path and
Borim Healing Circle.
In 1687, the
Fifth Scouring war began in the North.
Truthful Path extremists had taken over the
Empire of Kizen in 1680 and in 1687 they helped launch a coup in Varinok. In 1688, united Promised Path forces helped take the kingdom back. Kizen was growing more radical and violent by the month, and soon the Promised Path was part of a global coalition organized by
the Lunar Pantheon to contain the rogue empire. The Promised Path would use the Compact of 1645 to keep the various Borim kingdoms legally invested in the conflict. Thanks to Lunar support and the genuine fear of a
Truthful Path invasion opf Boram, the alliance held firm and played critical roles in the prolonged Scouring wars. From 1688 to 1750, the Promised Path was driven by a glorious calling to destroy the
Empire of Kizen.
The Desmian Threat (1750 - 1880)
The
Truthful Path was not the only religiously dedicated group of violent extremists that the Promised Path waged sustained wars against. Well before the Promised Path entered
Boram, the Borim warred and raided the continent of
Desmia that was ruled by the infamous genocidal warriors of
Orthodox Desmianism. For centuries, the Borim had the upper hand. While the Borim lacked the population and resources to occupy continental Desmia, they were able to conquer Desmian islands and raid Desmian coastlines. The Borim efforts to fight in the
Fifth Scouring distracted from their Desmian campaigns, allowing Desmia to launch several successful counterattacks. However, the Scouring wars ultimately hurt Desmia as much as it hurt Boram, as the wars led to a new wave of
Mageplague. The Mageplague, an ancient malevolent magical disease born of
Ederstone, was a familiar evil for the Kivish, who helped Boram escape the worst of it. The disease quickly hit Desmia like a truck, though. In the early years of the Fifth Scouring, in the 1670s and 1680s before the conflict even took off, the
Mageplague began its jump to
Desmia. It fed off the cursed blood of the
Desmian Day of Blood, becoming the
Crimson Death. Countless Desmians died - their counterattacks succeeded, but their cities were left depopulated.
While the Promised Path recovered in the late 1700s, Desmians looked for opportunities to weaken their enemies and expand their power. In 1810, a powerful and charismatic
Orthodox Desmian warrior named Saint Emerost the Skald was able to seize control of the Kingdom of Gokoboram, a kingdom that the Promised Path had lost influence in during the Scouring wars. Suddenly Desmians were on the continent - taking holy ground. For fifty years, the Promised Path rallied to drive the Orthodox back into the sea. At first, they had a great deal of success. But in 1860 the contagion of Desmianism mutated. A Promised Path Kejarl who governed much of reclaimed Gokoboram named Dovesha seceded from the Promised Path hierarchy to become a prophet of her own syncretic faith.
Dovesha the Blood Prophet (as she became known) sought to combined Promised Path Kivishta with Orthodox Desmianism to create a true empire of purity. Dovesha was branded a heretic and expelled from the Path, but came to create her own brand of Orthodox Desmianism begrudgingly accepted by the
Perpetual Conclave of Desmia. Once again, Boram was thrown into religious chaos. In 1880, a large army of Desmian crusaders arrived to support Dovesha and her priests in what became known to Desmians as the
Pearl Crusade.
Defending the Promised Land (1880 - 1980)
The Pearl Crusade provoked a number of responses from the Promised Path and other anti-Desmian forces. Among the Promised Path, a new order was built to organize seafaring warriors and re-establish naval supremacy in Boram: the
Daughters of Munefa. The Daughters are a militaristic order, who often act as mercenaries, merchants, and even pirates when they are not waging holy war against the Path's enemies. The Daughters found an eager partner in the
Borim Healing Circle; the Munefan ships extended the druid's commercial reach as far South as
Vruhafen and has even started making voyages through the perilous and irradiated seas to the port of
Selvergen. The Daughters remain a potent military and commercial force to this day.
While the Promised Path formed new military networks, other groups emerged to wage war on the invading Desmians. One group came from the Arctic: the
Kozlunot or Those from the Farthest North. The Kozlunot were guided by
Lily of Red and combined a mix of warlocks and
Pearl Pangolin warrior-druids. The Kozlunot have had a very wary relationship with the Promised Path, but the Healing Circle druids have acted as mediators. Still, the warlock-cults of the Kozlunot seem to defy control by either druids,
Lunar Gods, or local political elites. The Kozlunot are a recent group of arrivals, only reaching the battlegrounds in the late 1900s.
Another group that emerged in 1910 was the Temple of
Ishkibal: an emergent sect of
Ishkibism that is dedicated to fighting the Pearl Crusade. The founder of this sect, Bartrin the Golden, actively sought to connect this new group to the Promised Path in theology, organization in culture. In the battleground kingdom of Boku-Boram, the Ishkibites have increasinly merged with the Promised Path to the point of openly mixing hierarchies. The Promised Path have not been entirely happy with this syncretism, but they have been willing to cooperate against the greater Desmian threat. The local Promised Path may not enjoy this
Lunar God's interference with their faith, but they have worked to turn it to their advantage. Since the 1980s, the Promised Path has been increasingly successful in folding the Ishkibtes back into their faith.
Modern History
The awkward religious alliance and battle for dominance between the Promised Path clerics,
Ishkibites, and Kozlunots is simultaneously a matter of mortal political jockeying and divine power games. The
Lunar Gods have increasingly competed for influence over the Promised Path.
Ishkibal, Spirit of War, has been particularly interested in the Promised Path as Ishkibism-for-
Kobolds: both religiouns have ideas of species-purity that can be extended to other species through ritual forgiveness and faith that do have some similarities. Other
Lunar Gods have worked to challenge
Ishkibal's rising influence, and the Promised Path elites have worked to harness this competition to benefit the faith.
The relentless pressure of the last century has pushed the Promised Path to change - but exactly what needs to change and who should lead that change is in the air. A new
Empire of Kizen has risen to the East, and has started pushing Promised Path groups out of the
Kingdom of Varinok (expelling the Daughters of Munefa from their castle-holdings there in 1941). There have been victories against the Desmians to the West, but retaking Gokoboram has been challenging. Some in the clergy have called for greater use in
Ederstone weapon use and even in reviving
Exalted Path and
Truthful Path experiments in fleshcrafting - in a limited scope, for a good cause. They say the faithful are being punished for rejecting their imperial mission, and must unify and militarize to fulfill the dream of Sovernin. Others condemn the extreme militarism brewing in the depths of the faith. Which
Lunar God takes control might just decide which faction gets to reshape the faith in the coming decades.
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