The Mark of Blue Blood

When the hands of the clock stopped moving, they stopped moving forever, leaving the titans and so called gods out of time. When the magic of the soul was sealed, it was sucked out of every living being, drained, washing their spells out of their mouths. Weak they perished, silent the world had become.
Yet, even the most uneducated washerwoman will tell you, blood is hard to wash out. Their enchantments, their voices, like everyone else, were made by the very blood of the soul... and some items remained more stained than others.
There was a fear, among the first Kings, that their might of muscle and iron would once fade away during the wars. That words would be whispered so closely on their ears that their will would be bent away by their spells. Their sovereignty stepped on like grass, so much so that eventually, no green was left in to the path of sorcerers.
So the noblemen decided that birthright should be permanent, should be clear, should be immune. The gods were dead, the ghost of their worlds would haunt men no more.

History

The spells on the fortresses

Before the abolition, there was a common saying about the old pantheons, the old myths, and old facts. The saying would go as "no gods were made equal, why would men be any different?"
As what people would one day come to call Adália gathered on high walls, and towers, they soon realized two things. You can stop bulls with fences and you can stop humans with stone, but you can't stop free spirits and other threats from crumbling them like sand castles. A moat is useless, if your opponent can make arrows out of the water.
Thus begun an age of raiding and quests over the cold mountains and distant forests. Loyal and brave men and women sought for the relics, the so called relics. For the magic of souls that remained on items could keep the walls from falling. It took effort, it took mistakes, but finally, only a brutal amount of strength to move the rocks that should remain still.
So many stories come from this. Every noble house will claim one of their myths, every house will said they laid one very crucial brick, or wandered past the mountains and sea to bring something or someone that raised humans to the challenge against the lions and others of wrong blood.

The String Rebellion

The Early Kings, or, the Wooden Crowns, as they were called, had a particular system to keep in power. The King or Queen in power would have a castle, usually they were the only ones that could afford such thing. They would never marry, but bed their best knights, so they would always be protected from harm and avoid treason. They would always be one family that could not be invaded.
The children that were no firstborn would eventually make their own towers or become best knights themselves. To build such fortifications they would have peasants or slaves they allowed to live in their fields in exchange for protection, and marry other families that would have better resources and interest in the land or having eventually a descendant to turn into a knight as well.
The web was messy, but the more threads interconnected the strongest. It didn't prevent rebellions and betrayals to exist, however, whenever war was unavoidable against one unlike their own, they would unite. They were solid as the iron they held. Their walls wouldn't crumble, neither would they.
As combat became more present, and noblemen became more common to exist and survive. Rebellions based on the escalation of magic became concerning. Alliances with other tribes, some had hyenas, some could better control the earth beneath their feet, some would promise the lions the heads of their enemies, and some, some would go as far as bringing the warriors of winter and storm into the battlefield.
The wooden crowns slowly became one and the same, only one family, with their own knights, and their wooden crowns entangled on each other, becoming heavier, imposing the weight of their authority. The house of Alonya was formed on the red earth... yet it failed to establish a Kingdom for long. People would act differently after meeting them, especially the ones from lesser houses. Key words would trigger behavior, topics would change them drastically... After near a generation of mysteries and rumors, rebellions ensued.
The rebellions accused that a mistress that barely aged, but would always be with the one in power, was responsible for controlling the soul of others. Adaly Blazewood, was a Senzen, a rare one in those lands. No tribe knew where she was from, but she was seen as some kind of alliance of good faith between them, she would have the green eyes of any Senzen, but her skin was red as blood, and her blood was blue as a sea of sapphires. She would wear very revealing clothes, and her skin would cut itself into drawings, and the blood would shine light blue. Adaly of the Crown would make people she touched have white blood temporarily during warfare, and most of the houses wanted her dead, frightening whoever saw the leader that opposed their members killed. The rebels feared a different story, and thought the witch had washed out reason from their minds. The war was only over when mercenaries from the south and the east mountains were so due into their payment they simply started settling and making their own villages, with their own government. It is said the Tsumerai from the east had brought alchemists to rule over them, and they introduced the dangerous idea of body holding within the soul any soul blood, making it dense enough to no magical whisper being spelled on their minds.
The concept was similar to whoever held the wooden crown, and everyone wanted to be a King. Perhaps influenced from ideas of the south, there was a deep resistance over giving up autonomy. To gain support from peasants, eventually families would abdicate control and responsibility, or slaughter their own leaders, to allow voting of Elected Kings of their own.

Drawings of Second Hearts

Those conflicts that became known as the String Rebellion, led to a massive shift of power. After the Three Kings grasping for control of an united country. The house Alonya decided to make one last campaign... One with sieges and battles that became rarer as time progressed.
The knights, the mistresses, the young and the old voted on Adaly Blazewood to rule temporarily. They did know everyone else was either enchanted or spooked by her existence. She could no longer be accused of ruling in the shadows if she was on plain sight. They gave her a crown of flowers that would never die, saying the fire on her skin kept them warm on winter. That harvests were always promised and people prospered after the rains of summer.
Adaly was called the Vicereine, and she knew how much of a mess all the other houses, tribes and villages were in the government... but they all could agree the glory of one Kingdom was what made them all feel protected, she knew the divisions made by them always under the premise of uniting it back. So she decided to use this dedication against them, religiously. She would glorify the notion of the point they all had in common, when the houses became one. She would always point out she was no Queen, and she would let their imagination go wild on how much magic she actually had.
The people respected her investment on making harvest and trade easier, the soldiers would paint their spears red in her tribute. And she would allow anyone conquered or surrender to choose their own leader, as long they sworn an oath.
As for the fear of magic and autonomy, the Vicereine would expose her plans that the Early Kings were once chosen, and their decedents chose the crowns to become one. She would claim the Marked King that was yet to come of age, would reset the whole system. All the leaders of the house would have a lord born from him, and inherit the mark she bestowed him. As long as that mark shined, no one could control them by spells. Every new noble house would have a mark, drawn in their left chest, that would be filled with the soul blood. The blue mark would light the dark and never let the host be blinded by magic. Many thought it would be a trick, but she would carry the boy with her, let them try their on spells upon him. None of them ever worked. The boy would say his name, the boy would challenge them, and no one succeeded.
Within three years, all the villages were under a new rule, the knights were slowly organized in hierarchy between them, by their own choosing. And the priestess of fire wood exiled herself into a city, a city for knowledge, attracting many of the former leaders and students that opposed the control of her family, luring them with wisdom and freedom to write books for a living.
No one ever would know what happened later to the Vicereine. She lived another 80 years, but people would see her less and less, some say she went into a quest with the shadows that gather souls, some say she got older and older until she perished, others spread the word of her eternal beauty. A saint that guards the country in its darkest moments, like wood on fire that is never put off.

Execution

From glory to secret

Within a few generations, the Sanglyph (Sanguis + Glyph), as it came to be called, became less about a fear of being controlled by a magic people rarely took notice besides tales children heard to sleep, and more of a way to proving nobility. As families intermarried, whole professions came to be of analyzing the evolution of glyphs fusing and changing slightly, helping to be traced back to a certain lineage.
However, the enchantments did not last forever either. Alliances of marks would come to keep them from fading away, however magic pulsed on them no longer, more often than not babies would be born with what seemed like a scar made by fire or iron, a high relief that could be either smooth or cramped.
The nobles were vulnerable once again, and many chronicles came to be off it... however, they did find out a way. It turned out their marks were still functional... they just lacked the words and oaths Adaly spent years preparing. They were a well made glass cup, pretty and detailed, unique among men. All it needed was the water to fill every inch of hollow magic. It barely needed any enchantment at all, just the soul blood, just the energy, the so called aiwa. They needed to find a way to fill themselves... or someone else to do it for them.
As not every house could afford such methods... they slowly stopped mentioning the marks in public. As obscure as it was, it just didn't fade into living memory due to rumors circulating what prostitutes saw. Each ritual to fill the marks became different, on their own, yet so many outside their own families knew about them.
However their culture bring some facts in common. Most of them are performed during the noble young man or woman comes of age at 14 years old, most passages are literally a passage through secret halls hidden from the world. Some claim to have spirits guide them, familiars present on some sigils. Extra guardians castles acquired to protect walls from crumbling.

Components and tools

Some may require approval, some simply require a relic to be carried with them, amulets, clothes, weapons. Enchanted by forgotten spells.

Primary Related Location

Adália

Related Ethnicities

• Adalian Nobility