Kharakternyk's Order Work-In-Progress

Kharakternyks are international and legendary skilled warriors who for centuries hunted down many dangerous monsters and beasts, as well as influencing the course of history by the orders of their Wishchuns. Before the Rupture, they were known as "heralds of Creators", their main force of action on Mriyar, as the knowledge of their magic and training was granted specifically by the Great Huntress, the Shapeshifter and the Storm King, while the specifically trained psyonists, Wishchuns, were created by the Dreamweaver. After the Rupture, they were almost completely ostracized from society, blamed for the events of the war of the Burning Skies, and for a very long time hunted down, just as the monsters kharakternyks were tasked to kill. As the centuries gone by though, and the number of new monsters grew on the lands, people started to once again hiring services of the kharakternyks, though the blatant hostility towards them remained.

Arrival of the kharakternyk is almost always considered a bad omen, be it in a small village or a large town. Many fear them and compare to the same monsters, that kharakternyks hunt. In the eyes of many, they are considered the mutants and freaks of nature, for their uncanny looks and supernatural abilities. Only a handful of people remember of the heroic and noble origins of Order, and not that much information has remained on them in open access, having been quietly hidden inside Kharaktenyk Keeps and old ruins.

Appearance and description

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A person can start training as kharaktenyk only after they have fully grown up, both physically and mentally, due to the extreme difficulty of training and changes. Quite a lot of candidates meet their end during the training period, succumbing to madness caused by Initiation Ritual and eventually either losing their minds or being put down by their own ilk. 

The Initiation Ritual includes injection of abyssal alatria compound by the candidate. The alatria compound itself leads both to enhancement of magical abilities and poses a risk of driving the person mad. The abyssal alatria is twice as potent, as regular, ground alatria, which raises the risks even higher. If the person, who injected an abyssal alatria compound, doesn't lose their mind, the blood absorbs alatria, merging with it. This, however, doesn't remove the danger of eventual madness - the process just drastically slowes down, now taking decades, instead of days to break the persons mind. This became one of the reasons, why back in the founding days, the kharakternyks were paired up with ciphers, who also helped them fight the negative effects of alatria. 

Those who pass the first injection of alatria, enter a long period of physical and mental trainings, preparing themselves for the next stage of becoming a kharakternyk. 

Often, such training inculdes martial combats, meditation, advancememt of survival skills and endurance. 

As finishing part of becoming a full member of the Order, the surviving participants were taking a dose of abyssal mixture, that were gradually changing their bodies and granting them the abilities, that made the hunting of abyssal creature an easier task. 

All of this combined, those who survived the training were irreversibly changed, both in appearance and physically. Alongside the enhanced magical and physical abilities, kharakternyks bear distinct physical features, that made them somewhat resemble creatures they hunt (be it patches of feathers, fur or scales on the body, horns, voice distortions, feline or reptilian ears and eyes, slight glow to veins and many other variations). Possesing a more extended lifespan and stamina, than other mortals, kharakternyks can life up to 400 years, if they don't succumb to madness or die on the hunt beforehand. 

Their armor consists of dark grey (or black), dark maroon and platinum colors, with leather and metal pieces of armor, occasional one-sided fur coat and a metal pauldron with a symbol of their order. For Wolf Clan - it was a wolf eating symbol of the Beyond, for Vixen Clan - a fox eating symbol of the Beyond, for Bear Clan - a bear eating symbol of the Beyond, for Gryffin Clan - a gryffin eating symbol of the Beyond. Wishchuns of the clan could be seen wearing similar gardment, but more simplified and with black, blue, and platinum colours, as well as with the same identifing symbol of the Clan on their shoulder.

History

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Creation of Kharakternyks

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Not long after the corruption and chaining of Semargl, the father of most monsters that roam the lands of continents, a very visible problem reared its head up - the large numbers of Abyss monsters and uncontrollable spread of abyssal energy from them to other creatures on Mriyar was posing a huge danger to mortal races. And, even with united forces, as years went by it was becoming more and more diffult for mortals to fight off the attacks and exist on monster-filled lands. Which led some people to take drastic measures - to create an outside faction of monster slayers, that would hunt down monsters of Mriyar and serve as the guardians of mortal world against any external and internal threats.

It is believes that the best clerics of Perun's, Veles's, Dzevana's and Mokosh's cults got together to develope a more effective way of fighting with this plight. With the guidance of their gods and years of experiments and training they became the first Kharakternyks. The names of these first are lost to the flow of time, though it is clear that the process of training was extremely dangerous and difficult, most likely leaving many of participants dead.

As additional way of improving kharakternyks effectiveness and awareness of world problems, church of the Dreamweaver provided the newlymade Order with ciphers, gifted in reading of the time-flow - and as such established a tradition for future generations of kharakternyks to always having a cipher as their partner in the hunts, listening to their predictions and thanks to that finding the biggest threats to the material world in shortest time. With time such ciphers started to being called as Wishchuns.

The First Era

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Kharakternyks proved to be effective yet terrifing to most population threatment against monster plight. Many started to consider them to be "heralds of the Creators", their main force of action on Mriyar (as, even though Creators quite often appeared to mortals in the Era of Rebirth in their titan forms, they tended to leave most of the problem-solving to mortal races, only interfering in world-threatening cases). Some people held great respect for kharakternyks, others feared them, and some - felt both of those things, though it greatly helped in cases of receiving payment. In the first era the Order had a much easier access to new students, as many willing men and women were joining the ranks of the Order, in hopes of gaining glory, seeking revenge on monsters, or trying to escape the hand of justice - as by the law, any kharakternyk was meant to be judged only by their own bretheren. This allowed many criminals to clear their reputation, slaves to escape their masters and gain protection, even though the training marked them for the rest of their lives and bound them to their new purpose. 

Many kingdoms happily used services of kharakternyks in monster hunting and in later centuries it slowly changed even into hiring kharakternyks for war efforts - though the Order quite quckly shut that down among their members, setting up the laws of political neutrality, unless the prediction of Wishchuns said otherwise.

Vicebarevn War

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War of Burning Skies

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A lot of blame is put on Kharakternyks Order for the beginning of War of the Burning Skies and eventual events of the Rupture. These beliefs stemp from the known fact, that the Wishchuns of that time predicted the invasion of Abyss, specifically that it would be causes by one of the Sarmatian kings. It was predicted, that he would sacrifice "a pure and innosent life" to save the life of his seriously ill pregnant wife. Kharakternyks tracked down the only possible candidate among the kings, besieged his fortress and during the battle most of the guards and the king himself were killed. When the kharakternyks left the fortress, believing that they've prevented the worldwide disaster, the king's wife still gave birth to a son, dying in the process. The king's eldest son, who inherited the throne after king's death, driven by the desire for revenge, sacrificed his newborn brother for the promise of powers from the demons, and thus fulfilling the prophecy - the death of the child int he ritual became the last crack in the barrier that separated the Abyss and Mriyar, and lead to the devils invasion.

And so began the War of the Burning Skies.

In the events of the war, even though kharakternyk skills were highly effective, many nations were incredibly hostile towards them, in some cases even leading to a extermination or lynching of smaller groups of kharakternyks. The situation inside the Order was no better - the members became split on their part in this whole War, some blaming each other, other the Wishchuns for what happened with the king from the prophecy. By the end of the war with Abyss, the number of kharakternyks was drastically reduced and the tension inside the Order reached its peak, leading to a huge fight between different leaders and inevitable split within the Order into different clans. Each of the new groups left the half-destroyed grounds of the main headquaters of the Order - Zaler Vezh, and made their way to create their own keeps.

The Second Era

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War in Magior Empire

WORK_IN_PROGRESS From the beginning of the Era of Searching and up to 6th century, Sribal Fort was a highly fortified base of operation and home to Clan of Griffin. They were one of the most well-known and the most respected Kharakternyk Clans among the common folk, due to their undying loyalty to old traditions and principles back from the times of the Order, which in many ways made them look chivalrous in the eyes of others. They also were the Clan, that, even though they have given up on tradition of having Wishchuns, still involved themselves with political space of Saarma lands. Many kharakternyks of this Clan had connections to royal courts, were active participants in social uprisings and, in the period of rule of Magior Empire, tried to protect common people from oppression.
This, however, put a target on their back and at the events of the war between Magior city-states, the Sribal Fort came under numerous attacks from the Empire, leading to the destruction of the Fort and deaths of most of the members of the Clan. Having none of the elder kharakternyks left to continue the traditions specific to Griffin Clan, the surviving Griffins left their fortress and spread across South of Saarma. It is believed, that modern Getamia, as well as their unique and effective fighting style, exists thanks to these Kharakternyks. Many Getamians pride themselves to be decendants of these fighters.
The Sribal Fort remains in ruins even now, as the grounds were affected by the powerful magic that lingers even to this day, not to mention numerous traps in the halls and corridors that survived the siege.
A number of Wolf and Vixen kharakternyks fell under the attacks as well, slightly reducing their numbers by the end of the 6th century.

White Crusade

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The White Crusade considered kharakternyks to be the same plight, as all other magic practitioners, which made them the targets of crusaders. Many Vixen kharakternyks were hunted down and subsequently tortured or killed right away. Many kharakternyk keeps have been besieged and destroyed, taking with them lives of their many inhabitants. By the end of White Crusade and foundation of Dangean Kingdom, only a handful of female Vixens remained in the Lysar Nor Keep, making the following centuries full of rebuilding and trying to safe what is left of the Vixen Clan. In the times of crisis that took hold of Artan lands, the number of mutants and creatures grew in numbers, which made left Vixens with a ton of work for the centuries to come.

Age of Lumen

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In the Age of Lumen, kharakternyks in Sarmaria are tolerated, yet people do not greet them with open arms. South and West of Sarmaria has a pretty hostile attitude towards kharakternyks, though they are also in the most need of their services, considering the high number of Abyss corruption of the lands.

Rosidor Empire has a tense relationships with kharakternyks, as not once the Vixen Clan interfeared with political space of the Empire, while the Bear Clan quite often is hired by Rosidor nobles to deal with "troublesome opponents". That being said, the amount of mutant and creatures on Rosidor lands makes kharakternyks desirable and demanded force for hire.

Dangean Kingdom is a dangerous territory for kharakternyks, as they are considered the same magic users as any other mage, and as such - hunted down.

Wishchuns

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Since the foundation of Kharakternyks Order they were guided by Wishchuns - gifted ciphers, that specialize in reading the fabric of time, either seeing the past times or the future. Wishchuns were the one who warned kharakternyks of disturbance in the world and send them on investigation of such occurrences. Such occurrences can be linked to individuals, to monsters or whole locations and threaten the balance of the world as it is. After the disbanding of Kharakternyks Order into different Clans and death of Wishchuns of that time, only 2 Clans decided to abide to the tradition of having Wishchuns - the Clan of the Wolf and the Clan of the Vixen. However, with years only Vixen Clan continued to actively pursue orders from their Wishchun, especially those that involve human and non-human targets.

Kharakternyk Clans

In the events of the war and the Rupture, the Kharakternyk Order lost numerous kharakternyks, and that, together with previous inner arguments among members, led to the inevitable split within the Order into different clans - Clan of the Wolf, Clan of the Vixen, Clan of the Bear and Clan of the Gryffin. In the 5 century ES the Gryffin Clan was dragged into the war with Magior Empire, which led to destruction of their Keep, Sribal Fort, and death of the most members, which either joined other Clans, or remained independent.

The remaining Clans are:

Clan of the Wolf - Kharakternyks of this Clan specialize in different fighting styles, they are flexible and dexterous when in comes to battles, and are considered to be the best swordsmen among the other Clans. They are proficient with medium armour, all martial weapons (though most usually they are seen using two-handed swords and simple swords). They are incredibly skilled trackers and hunters, even among other clans, and they have basic skills in alchemy and magic, allowing them to brew simple potions and oils and use primitive runic magic in their hunts. The other unique detail that differs Wolf Clan from others is their sense of community and brotherhood among themselves, creating almost a pack like relationships among the members and making Wolf kharakternyks the only one to from time to time work together on hunts. The Wolf Clan has their own Wishchuns, but unlike Vixen Clan, Wolves do their best not to involve themselves in world politics, take contracts on sentient beings or try to influence the world conflicts with their helping hands. Also, they don't actively seek out Wishchuns to join their Clan or have a necessity to pair their kharakternyks with one - make Wolf kharakternyks spend all their lives without ever pairing up with Wishchun. Wolves keep an eye on the worldwide things, actively hunting monsters, but maintaining political neutrality. Their headquarters are located in Sire Manec Keep, in the Siroverh Mountains.

Clan of the Vixen - Vixen Kharakternyks specialize in stealth, trickery and in long-range combat. They are proficient with light armour, have a much broader spectre of magic skills, which allows them to use low-level spells. Some Vixen kharakternyks have the abilities of telepathy, clairvoyance, the hypnotic influence, and in some rare cases - possess the ability to travel to the afterlife in an astral forms. For some time Vixen Clan had a big number women in their ranks - in the period from 7th to 9th century ES the clan was basically a sisterhood, as most of the male kharakternyks died in time of the White Crusade. Nowadays, the Clan has both male and female kharakternyks. Among other Clans, they are considered somewhat of zealous fanatics, to modern day blindly following orders and words of their own Wishchuns, which often leads to Vixens taking on contacts on human and non-human sentient creatures or involving themselves in world politics and conflicts. They maintained the tradition of seeking out Wishchuns to serve among their ranks, or taking young ciphers from their families and raising them to become Wishchuns. Vixens strongly enforce ideas of communal mind on other members, doing their best through extensive training to strip them of as much individuality as possible and make them not to doubt the words of their Wishchuns. Their headquarters are located in Lysar Nor Keep, in the Raven Mountains.

Clan of the Bear - Bear Kharakternyks are the most resilient and tough among their fellow kharakternyks. They value physical strength and constitution among everything else, preparing their bodies to be resistant to most known poisons and magical influences, as part of their core training. They are proficient with heavy armour, shields and heavy martial and bludgeoning weapons. Bear Kharakternyks are experts in alchemy, creating complex poisons and oils for their hunts, and they can use primitive runic magic in their hunts. They are very good at covering their tracks, scent and presence, thanks to a unique form of meditation. In addition they have certain improvements in their bodies, which allow them to stay up to two months without eating or drinking water, at most. They are one of the most individualistic kharakternyks, rarely engaging with the kharakternyks even from their Clan and actively pursuing a solitary way of life. Considering this, they are rather aggressive when it comes to kharakternyks from other Clans and if they happen to stumble across other like them - it quite often can lead to a fight. Bears are the only remaining Clan, that completely erased the tradition of having their own Wishchuns, though that doesn't stop them taking from time to time contracts on sentient beings (frequently nobles) for the right price, which regularly leads to other kharakternyks comparing Bears to mindless mercenaries. Their headquarters are located in Gavra Keep, in the Raven Mountains.

Trivia

Wishchuns are the subclass of homebrew class of Ciphers. In real mythology, Wishchuns (basically "oracle", "віщун" in Ukrainian, "wieszcz" in Polish) were real people in slavic folklore, who were rumored to wield natural magic and supernatural power. Though, most often they worked as healer and diviners among the people, predicting the times for seasonal works, casting "protective barriers against evil magic" and helping with natural remedies those in need.

Kharakternyks are based off of people with extrodinary abilities from Slavic mythology. In real mythology, kharakternyks ("характерник" or "козак-химородник" in Ukrainian, "charakternik" in Polish) were sorcerers, magically gifted people, and magically gifted cossacks, that were known to possess exceptional physical skills, magical abilities (such as "catching bullets mid-air", "turning into wolves", "cast zagovory/enchantments"), and secret knowledge about the world. In Ukrainian folk tales, people believed kish otaman Ivan Sirko to be a kharakternyk. 

Links

1. https://myukraine.org.ua/kozaky-kharakternyky/ - information on Cossacks-Kharakternyks, in Ukrainian.
2. https://biblioteka.cdu.edu.ua/index.php/8-novyny/539-kozaky-kharakternyky.html - information on Cossacks-Kharakternyks, in Ukrainian.

Type

Military Order