Ryneior

Historic, Forgotten

Established around the early 1200s

Overview & Context

No common vnou alive today would be able to say who or what the name Ryneior refers to. Like many of the atrocities committed by the powerful Shra before the Reconstruction, their name and who they were has been wiped from the collective memory of the vnou. The only ones who would be able to speak to the name are the Zhu'Shpazh and a handful of the older noble bloodlines, as it is writ in the history of Shpazh family as one of their bloody accomplishments. Ryneior is not the only bloodline to have been completely destroyed by Shpazh, but they are one of the ones to suffer most under the Blood family and one of the reasons for the namesake, even if almost no one remembers why. Behind and beneath the veneer of golden propriety, Shpazh is a monster not to be trifled with.

It is important to note what it takes to truly eradicate a bloodline. It isn’t just about a family, it’s about their extended Dya, any and all of their Fa, and generally any subsidiaries that the family controlled. Most of the time, when a bloodline is destroyed, it is just the Shpou and Dya. Shpazh thoroughly eradicated Ryneior so that the few left alive to remember their name did so as a sort of warning to the others. Their name was erased from all paper record so it would not carry on through history, effectively voiding any legacy they might have left behind. To the present day, the Ryneior have not existed at all even though their name and influence over a portion of the world persisted for a dozen or so generations. The family, their holdings, assets, and any Fa associated with them have essentially been forgotten. Except by Shpazh, who have detailed every conquest and victory the family has made over their history.

by Midjourney

Life Before Shpazh

by Midjourney

Ryneior were an extensive family that spanned several cities and lands that became a backbone to factory work. They funded the start up and construction of warehouses, relocating people as needed to ensure their factories were always staffed with those already trained – or those capable of training in the city they were setting up in. Fa extended their control over production and supply chains, cities grew around their work and trade, and the general populace tended to do well in cities primarily owned or operated by Ryneior. They were a hard working family that cultivated such a culture. But like many vnou bloodlines, they guarded their territory and craft with a violent bent. Competitors would be sabotaged and production wars would be staged to ship materials to various conflicts across the planet.

Ryneior’s primary competitor was Dievdhash. It is hard to say which family was better at production or had the more efficient supply lines – various factors would tilt the favor in one family over the other, but not one could really take a significant lead over the other. It fostered a sense of competition between cities dominated by the various families, which only served to fuel the conflicts around the planet that were ever present between the would-be rulers of various territories. This was a period of conflict and industrial revolution. Progress made leaps and bounds while the families competed, which was good for the overall health and advancement of the vnou, though it cost many long hours and back breaking work.

Nearing the End

The Framework

As the world boiled with unrest, it wasn’t uncommon for various bloodlines to pick sides in conflict. For many of the production orientated families, conflict tended to be more profitable than not since they usually provided for both sides – or one over another and everything played out well enough. The same could be said of Ryneior and Dievdhash. Neither family or their extensions had interests when it came to ruling or politics at large. Rather, their families were in the production sector of the vnou culture and competed with one another almost exclusively. Sometimes sabotaging one another’s shipments, railways, and factories to slow production and make their own more appealing or gain a better reputation.

For the most part, those fighting over territory tolerated the Ryneior and Dievdhash. Competition was commonplace in the vnou life and they had their own battles to fight. Frustration would certainly mount when shipments failed to arrive because of sabotage, but it was always bore with a simmering acceptance. It wouldn’t be until the common vnou, those who held no real position of power, began to revolt against those in control, that the slow or failed shipments could no longer be tolerated.

The Catalyst

Shpazh was one of the first families to act on behalf of their suppliers – making a move before others as they generally did. Shpazh began to supply their own people to Dievdhash to ensure things ran smoothly. The more powerful vnou did make things easier, initially. Ryneior had no idea how Dievdhash seemed to walk through customs suddenly or turn aside any of their attempts at sabotage – sending back their would-be saboteurs confused as to how they’d not pulled off a job they surely remembered doing.

Desperation drove Ryneoir to more explosive action. They targeted a train they knew would be moving Dievdhash supplies, blowing a bridge as the train passed over it. The action caused the destruction of the railway, the cargo, and the passenger car attached. This would have been one of those aggravating delays that would generally cause frustration to whomever was set to retrieve the cargo. It was an attack on Dievdhash specifically. What Ryneoir did not know, could not have known, was that there had been Shpou Shpazh attached to the train in the passenger car who were killed in the crash. This one ignorant act would turn the full weight of Shpazh attention to Ryneior. It did not matter to Shpazh that Ryneoir didn’t know about the Shpou. The factory-born family had managed to do something no one else had in centuries of conflict with Shpazh – and that was kill a member of the Shpou.

After Shpazh

The response by Shpazh was quick. They used established Dievdhash roads and railways to assault the various Ryneoir cities. This was not a hostile take over but a slaughtering of many of the inhabitants. Shpazh’s initial attack on Ryneoir involved sending their most powerful Shra who simply cut down those around them. This was a deviation from their previous tactics of sending in lower Shra to do the actual fighting. They struck in small numbers and mentally destroyed entire sections of city – men, women, and children. It did not matter to Shpazh. Anyone associated or found within the factory-cities of Ryneoir was fair game. This all took place over the course of a week before Ryneoir called for a cease in the hostilities, backed by a couple other families.

Shpazh agreed to stop so long as Ryneoir turned themselves over to Shpazh rule. The main family line agreed – they didn’t have much of a choice at this moment – and turned themselves over to Shpazh who put them to work in Dievdhash factories as slave labor. Stripping them of their titles, their wealth, and anything that had set them apart or above. Any high Shra were executed immediately, publicly.

That could have been the end of it. Shpazh won, Ryneior was dismantled and engulfed in Dievdhash, and their cities were graveyards of bodies still in the homes they’d died in. This did nothing to quell the common vnou’s unrest – if anything, news of what Shpazh did only made it worse and was one of the driving forces behind the rebellion.

Shpazh didn’t end their ruin of Ryneior though. All throughout the following years, they used their powerful Shra to begin to erase the memory of who they were from the minds of the vnou. This was during even the battles and conflict of the Reconstruction. Shpazh did not forgive nor forget the death of their Shpou. So, by the time the few remaining powerful families gathered to come up with a peaceful agreement that suited everyone to bring an end to the Reconstruction, Ryneoir wasn’t even a thought.

The roads were eerily quiet now. Not even the wind stirred down the cobble street. Long, dark shadows stretched between the buildings while the sun rose, stark and red, almost bloody in the sky. It could’ve been pretty were it not for the insurmountable death that surrounded Estokaloina. It seemed unfathomable that all these homes that ran along the street had vnou in them. Had. They were coffins now. Shells that housed their inhabitants who would never see another sunrise. Who’d stood no chance against the powerful vnou that had simply walked through their city and killed them in their sleep. At least there was that? Did that make it better?

There was a sharp hiss then a flare of light as a match was struck, then held close so Vesyingalor could light his rolled cigarette. She had always thought he was handsome in his pressed black and red uniform, but now he looked like a monster. Something tall and dark and foreign. How… How…

He took a long drag from the cigarette, surveying the same scene she’d just been looking at, before he glanced at her. Down at her. He was so tall. Towering, it felt. With eyes as red as the sky. How could she be related to him? She had never felt so disconnected and displaced before now. “Don’t panic, Kaloina. We’re done here.”

Panic? Was that the tightness in her chest? The constriction in her throat? How she found it difficult to take a deep breath? “How…?” What was she going to ask him? How could he? How was it possible to kill so many in such a short amount of time?

Vesyingalor took another slow hit, letting the smoke curl away while he looked down the street. “The mind is a very fragile thing, Kaloina. Just be happy you’re a part of this family and not theirs.” The way he said it was probably meant to be comforting, but it wasn’t. Would he have found it so easy to kill her? She looked down the street while he dropped the end of the cigarette, snuffing it with a polished boot. As he turned away from the scene, he casually said, “Yes, I would.” Answering the question that had surfaced in her mind. Confirming, in that moment, that it was her namesake that kept her safe from him.