PLOT LINES

And character info

PLOT LINES Missing Icharan Prince (1000 platinum reward for his return, 100 platinum for useful information - he actually ran away to be with his lover and works as a travelling merchant + a recurring npc) Brewing war/tension between Othela and Ichar (Ichar conspiring to slowly take over Othelan land and bend the treaty - Othelan nation extremists starting stir trouble getting progressively more violent - Fire Genasi tribe has a growing cultist planning to set off the north volcano and destroy Ichar - Other Genasi tribes are suffering and are facing extinction)
Shaix travellers coming from afar from a prophecy told by the stars (Shaix = Russia/China - curious about cultist as well as a magical treasure ((the cultist plans to use this magical item to activate the volcano)) the Shaix travellers want the item for themselves - Icharan officials find out what they’re looking for it and they want it to)
The New Order (Alendro Benqo - manipulative leader, merged with the royal capital and influences politics/slave trade/war etc. now)
Slave trade (tribe children, Islanders, farm kids etc. trafficked by pirates, bandits, merchants to rich and powerful people in Ichar and Ladina* + the other two neighbour nations - government corruption involved - part of ploy to weaken Othela, the King isn’t aware)
What happened to the Earth Genasi?
After the calamity happened, the Earth Genasi tribe moved their people into the crater (reclaiming their land and honoring their gods). They lived there for almost 2000 years, keeping most to themselves, barely even making contact with their sister tribes, and never accepting outsiders. They were a holy and devout people, independent and strong. Until, almost 150 years ago, the Water Genasi tribe came running to their sister tribe’s aid in the night when they heard screams from miles away. It took less than a day’s travel to arrive, but by that time it was too late - there were no Earth Genasi left. There were dead bodies, mostly unscathed, but most of the tribe was unaccounted for. No one knows for sure what happened, or who did this to the Earth Genasi, but the tribes and all of Othela didn’t need proof to cast blame on Ichar. Ichar and Othela went to war for nearly 90 years after that night, finally halting the bloodshed in recent years. Othela didn’t have much choice but to accept a treaty after slowly being beaten down. It’s fair to say tensions haven’t died. And the Earth Genasi tribe has never returned nor been found. (They’re trapped in the limbo of the Deep Ethereal, bound to that dimension and unable to leave on their own. To them it’s only been 15 years and most are still alive *little under 800*, even a few members have grown up there. Two 15 year olds who spent their whole lives there and 3 younger kids who have strange ethereal traits/abnormalities.
Kjell: Enas Leniad Jofessen
I'd been a fairly controversial scholar in our society. I took bold stances on topics I knew and was skeptical of some of the traditional, accepted 'truths' that were spread as gospel. I thought I knew everything there was to the world. One day, a young woman was accepted into our ranks. She quickly became my harshest critic and a rival intellect. That did not stop my brazen attempts to make a breakthrough. If anything, her criticism drove me to research into and cast doubt on some rather important texts, questioning their validity. This seemed to enrage her, so I would make a point of doing it publicly, particularly in front of her. This drove her to attempt to disprove my own theories, which I had been writing in a series of books. I'd thought that this was simply an entertaining game of cat and mouse, with the additional goal of discovering who was which, but I was gravely mistaken. It all came to a head when I stayed in the archives over a holiday to do some extra research into more of these core texts. I had believed I was alone, since everyone typically left to enjoy some time with their families, but she had evidently stayed behind as well. She dropped the façade, revealing herself to be our founder, still alive and well, despite being thought to be dead nearly a thousand years ago. She insisted that I stop criticizing the core texts, claiming some hogwash that they, with all of their flaws, were absolutely necessary for the survival of the society. I, brazen as I was, laughed in her face. Surely, nothing good comes from lies, I'd reasoned. I decided to leave the old woman to her delirium, but as I left, she spat a cryptic warning at me, claiming that I'd soon regret casting doubt on our core texts. With a defiant fury in my heart, I decided to teach her that whatever old ways she insisted we return to were pure folly and that a new method could be established with much greater successes achievable with ease. The only book I wrote that did not belong to my typical series was the one I wrote over the course of the next year. It was a culminating, crowning stake through the heart of the old texts. I never wrote a more thorough refutation in my life. When I had copies of my book analyzed by the elders, it threw the society into chaos. Evidently, there had been more brewing beneath the surface than I knew. The New Order, a group of extremists that had been lacking the numbers to inflict any damage to the society, suddenly had the influence and power to act. In response, a new group that called themselves the Loyalists rose up to defend the society. Before long, the New Order, who had been prepared for much longer than the Loyalists, had completely taken over the society. The Loyalists were forced to flee and regroup elsewhere, saving only a few core texts. I found myself homeless and hiding in the shadows, unable to process what I had done. The founder discovered me with a disdainful rage in her eyes. She told me that if I had really been reading her books, that I'd understand that the important message behind it all was unity. She said that if I wanted to improve on them, that I should have done so with the same message of unification, not division. Amidst my shocked grief, she drew a strange blade and pierced my heart, saying that the grief I felt now was not enough to atone for my crime. Strangely, rather than the terrible feeling of having one's heart punctured, I felt myself lift away before everything went black. When I awoke, I was in a completely unfamiliar place. I felt strange, as though something was different. My mouth felt strange. It seemed as though I had some sort of tusks. When I was finally able to locate a body of water, I was shocked and dismayed to find that I had been transformed. I was turned into a monstrous orc. I stayed there for that day, processing everything that had happened. Amidst my reflection, a tribe of orcs discovered me. I could not understand them at the time, but when they brought me to their encampment, they brought me to one who knew some broken common. He introduced himself as Droen and informed me that he'd be the one to raise me. This brought plenty of confusion on my end, of which, none turned out to be translation errors. I was evidently a younger orc, despite my previous age, and he clearly meant that he intended to raise me in the traditional fashion of his people. He called me Kjell which, he would later tell me, meant 'lost' in orcish. At first I resisted. I tried to run away multiple times, thinking I could surely rejoin civilized society once people realized that I was civilized as well, but Droen caught me every time. Despite my intellectual advantage, he seemed to have some sort of keen intuition that read me like an open book. Soon, I came to realize why he knew he couldn't let me go. I had lost much of my typical grip on my composure. I'd become overly aggressive. Quick to anger. Brutal. Only after years of being raised by him did I fully realize that I had changed. I was not the same, witty, sarcastic scholar I had been. Eventually, he put me through a sort of adulthood ceremony, which involved me defeating other near-grown orcs in combat. When I did succeed on my second attempt, Droen spoke to me and told me that I could now leave. He had sensed my distraction for years and knew that I had something else I needed to do. I did not want to go anymore, but I knew what he was implying. He was saying that I would not be happy for long here, since I was different. He had not been an easy-going father, but I considered him more of a father than mine had been. I thanked him for his kindness and compassion. Of course, he did not physically return the gesture, but his eyes told me all I needed to hear. I left and went to go find people that I could grow with, so that one day, I could correct my mistake.
Organizations
The, (now fallen), High Society of Rhodaoxys. Despite its fall, its previous members and associates are still held in high regard. Such people are typically allowed fairly extensive access to scholarly articles.
Allies
Ulas Rendricten, his previous mentor, was seen fleeing the fall of the city, alive, last he knew. A drunk and an abrasive fellow, but keen and sharp as a razor. He's rather conservative in values, but despises pleasantries and bureaucratic nonsense.
Heleana Rhodina is the founder, who has found some way to skirt the consequences of age and death. She has a strong, preservation-based philosophy which tolerates no deviancy. She's had honest men killed for straying too far, and allowed corrupt individuals to persist, so long as they stay in line. She was apparently unaware of the extent of the New Order, thinking that she could simply suppress Enas' ideas. When that failed, she took her anger out on him, apparently cursing him, somehow. (She kept his soul in limbo while the war ‘corrected’ his mistake, planning to one day return him to the world as a wretched uncivil creature from a life of anarchy, disunity and disorder. But she didn’t want to risk him messing with her plans while they remained so fragile. In truth, she nearly forgot her vengeance, until she came face to face with Tisaela, and realized his bloodline still lived to meddle in her affairs. She released him to his torment, partially out of petty wrath, partly in hopes that his return would somehow shake his family and she could unravel the thread enough to ensnare them all in torment.)
She needed to return the chaos to order, to find unity in anarchy. What better way to unify a nation than a war? A common enemy, a nation’s pride, an army’s order. The Earth tribe were sitting ducks in a pothole, and they refused for nearly a century to negotiate with Ichar on land expansion, treaties, any sort of compromise - they were the leading cause of tensions between Ichar and Othela, one of the greatest blockades to assimilation. And, their power was a threat in the face of a war. They were a rock lodged in the dirt that refused to move for the sake of clearing the path. They had to go. (Spell picked them off 100 at a time, sending them through the planes. If their minds couldn’t take it, they died of psychic damage. Otherwise they were locked in the Deep Ethereal Plane //they’ve only been there 15 years their time// Heleana’s apprentice and a loyal friend both died helping her cast this, and she destroyed 12 soul stones also, the souls she collected from Rhoadoxys as it fell)
Farbar
From the fey realm, sucked through the waterplane, shown pity by Niroshen and sent to the material plane (wrong one). Farbar was trying to find a place to hide in a bar, stumbled onto a fresh murder, guards run around trying to catch Farbar. He runs down the street, sees a guard coming and ducks into an alley. The guard turns into the same alley, Farbar hides, the guard knocks on a side door in the alley, then three hooded figures answer it, pointing crossbows at the guard. He puts his hands up, begging them not to shoot. ‘Please, please let me see her! I need to know she’s alright!’ One of the hooded figures responds ‘She’ll be just fine if you do everything we ask.’ The guard starts to cry and says ‘Oh, Elysia…’ One of them hands the guard a scroll. ‘Now, here’s how it’s gonna go down. You wait till the good King gets up on that stage and finishes greeting his people. Once he’s through you make sure no one sees ya and ya take out this scroll and read it all the way through. Make sure ya focus on the good King - don’t want no innocent passerbys goin up in flames now.’ The guard starts in surprise. ‘You want me to-’ The lead figure cuts him off. ‘I want you to do exactly as we told ya, pal, if you want your daughter to see the sunrise.’ The guard starts to break down. ‘No, no please! Don’t- I can’t- How do you expect- I’ll be hanged if I’m not shot dead-’ The leader grabs the guard. ‘If you can manage to do as your told and then get your sorry ass the fuck out of dodge as soon as you’re done, we’ll give you and your daughters cloaks and passports and send you on your merry way together. You understand me, soldier? Do as you’re told, you both live happily ever after. Hesitate, and you share a grave. *speaks in elvish* The New Order thanks you.’ The guard nods, regaining composure, only to immediately lose it when the cloaked figures look up and shut the door without warning. Some other guards call out to the single guard ‘Ay! Malcolm! Did you fight the rat fucker?’ The guard calls back ‘Nah, not yet! Motherfucker is fast and slippery as hell! I thought the little shit went in here, though!’ The other guards offer their help, they search the alley until the find and catch Farbar. As the others take Farbar away, ‘Malcolm’ goes a bit pale and hangs back, not joining them to take Farbar to jail. The leader stepped into the light when he grabbed Malcolm, you would also recognize his face if you saw him. He has darker skin & eyes and a black goatee. The others are non-descript, were wearing cloaks and didn't speak much. Best you can describe, they seemed young and not too heavy-set.
The sorcerer who framed you, female, wearing a dark red and gold cloak, didn't get too good of a look at her. Georgia Bretman, she came to Rienna to find a man named Luther Fergus, a half elf ex-pirate who betrayed the Red Dragon crew and not only sold them out to guards, but freed a whole ship full of slaves. (12 Othelans /2 air genasi/, 2 Ladinas, 4 Bostvarians, and 3 Icharans.) He had been a pirate in his youth but left that life when he met his wife Thalia and had his two sons, Isaac (13) and Dalton (10). He went undercover to join their crew so he could destroy them and save slaves. He returned the children to their homes but he never made it home himself. He sent a letter the day before he died (telling them he succeeded, he was in Rienna, and he would be home soon after the letter, he just had to rest and take care of one more thing) that arrived in Shadeside three days later. It wasn’t until five days after that that Thalia came looking for him, leaving her sister Celeste with her boys. Three days later she arrived and eventually found the grave, marked with his sketch. She’ll stay in Rienna for at least two days before sending a letter to Celeste. She’ll take the boys three days to Rienna.
Ælfwine
Bard out for revenge against a wizard who cursed him to speak only in rhymes. This wizard was Heleana’s apprentice Bela'luur, because she visited Shaix for a political meeting about trade and he annoyed her. She has made many a petty curse on unfortunate peasants who bothered her. Insulted Duke Raymond Mayweather of Rienna.
Geraldino Lauffeyson
Son of Loki's dragon son, taken into service to the Clerics of Bahumat. Geraldino was too mischievous and set fire to too many ceremonious artifacts/tapestries so he was kicked out and shunned, as he was thrown out he hit his head hard and now has retrograde amnesia, he thinks he was cast from the temple of Loki to be his servant. Has been arrested many times for petty crimes and arson (accidental), may have accidentally worked for criminals, was a petty criminal for many years, never intentionally.
The Merchant is interrupted in the middle of a sale with the party by his Miss You ring lighting up four times (signaling emergency), he lifts his cloak and vanishes instantly. If the party does nothing to go after him, they get a message less than an hour later from Olivia begging them for help saving her husband. The New Order has taken him after discovering his true identity and are planning on using him as bait for the king. (essentially ‘we have your son and you have one chance to come to this location alone and trade your life for his. If you fail to comply, the situation gets a lot more drastic.’ which would lead to ‘launch an attack on Othela and he lives. Fail and he dies.’)