Speakers of Athanaric
Speakers of Athanaric | |
---|---|
Creator | Xero |
Information | |
Main Leader(s) | High Speaker Amalina |
Races | Any Enrali (Predominant) |
Base of Operations | Kur-Gal Ziggura |
Planet | Serena |
Status | Active |
Notable Members | |
Athanaric |
The Speakers of Athanaric is a secreted and isolated group of Enrali that live within a cavernous city beneath Serena. Often referred to as Shinites or Priests of Shikaze, the Speakers of Athanaric worship death through a noble and peaceful means.
Background
The story begins centuries ago in 2127. As is tradition in the village of Heirdorm, a group of Enrali missionaries are chosen to travel out of their isolated society and into the wider world to spread the word of Perisha. With an harbinger named Athanaric at the helm, this group of missionaries would choose Serena as their staging ground and travel there ready to spread their faith. Weeks would pass during which the group would travel down the highlands of Serena visiting each settlement on their way to speak about their religion until they reached a lone village settled on the border of Hanayama and Eoduun-Sup. During their scheduled rally led by Athanaric, an attack on the village led by a group of cultists from Eoduun-Sup would leave a wake of destruction and death. Athanaric would take offence to this great disrespect towards the cycle and personally lead his missionaries to taking up arms against the invaders. Guiding the tormented souls of the recently deceased through his scythes, Athanaric would grant them their revenge by cutting down the cultists' frontline while his allies supported him from behind. The village, though suffering many losses, would survive but Athanaric would not rest.
After recuperating and speaking to the village elders, Athanaric would learn that this cult is called the Ra'ast and they have tormented them for years, leading raids on nearby settlements every couple of months to slay innocents and collect their souls for their rituals. Athanaric would share this information with the rest of his missionaries and set out on a new course to hunt down the cult and put an end to them. For weeks, Athanaric and his group would stalk the dense jungle in search of signs of their prey but no luck, for it would seem like they had never existed in the first place. That is, until, Athanaric's fortune would yield a lone Ra'astian scout that he would capture. Young and impressionable, this scout would fall victim to fear in the presence of Athanaric's dual scythes, sputtering nonsense and praying to a dark god but there was falsehood in his words, a hint of non-belief and rationality that made Athanaric decide against a fatal end to the boy. He would calm his approach to him and get him to reveal the location of his kin in return for the promise of freeing him from the shackles of the Ra'ast.
Athanaric would find the place the boy had revealed to him, an ancient gate hidden away in a cave that would open up to an expansive underground vault named Kur-Gal Ziggura. Like a city, this cavernous settlement is built above a gaping chasm and features remnants of an ancient civilisation who's knowledge had been buried intact within the walls of the libraries found here. Now, the Ra'ast had taken the city for themselves and wished to use a dark, ancient machination found within to unleash a devastating end to all life. Athanaric, of course, would not let this come to pass and saw to the end of their leadership, delivering the reaping blow to a Stervera named Kharalkh.
With Kur-Gal Ziggura liberated from the presence of evil and the cult of Ra'ast ended, Athanaric would search for the item of concern within the city and be astonished by what he would find. Seeing a new purpose, he would have his missionaries make this place their new home and place or worship so that they may protect the secrets that lay within. The boy that Athanaric had saved would become a disciple of his group and, with his inevitable passing, also become the new leader of a group that would name themselves the Speakers of Athanaric.
Overtime the vault-city would become a place of study and worship for the Speakers. A new faith would spawn in the presence of the Goddess of Shadows herself.
Further study of Kur-Gal would yield scriptures of death and an ancient, silent burial ground used by a race now extinct.
While the faction has existed for many centuries now, it is kept small and isolated for the purposes of safeguarding the contents of what is found within Kur-Gal.
Religion and Culture
Like the Enrali of Heirdorm, the Speakers of Athanaric worship death. They would develop their own faith from living within the shadowed halls of Kur-Gal where the word of Shikaze would become ultimate, although the worship of all gods of Death including Perisha would remain at high importance. They are as much priests as they are scholars as those who would call themselves Speakers would study the meaning of death and the endless repeating cycle to find closure in it and be calm when it eventually arrives to take them as well. Their society is symbolised by the Scythes of Red Death, Athanaric's weapons of choice which would also inspire the Reaper Combat Class.
The Speakers of Athanaric see themselves in the apex of life and death itself, believing that like everything, these two opposing forces must remain balanced so that the world may remain stable. They are openly opposed to any who would take life without rhyme or reason and are especially opposed to demons and demon worship as disorder goes against the "Ordered Cycle". They believe themselves to be the living weapons of Shikaze, the ones called to action when an unjust life needs to end.
In day to day life, the Speakers study the ancient scriptures and write their own. They practice the art of shadow magics in order to become aligned with the force of death itself, ready to deliver Shikaze's cold blade onto any who is deemed a threat to the balance. Mimicking the traditions of Heirdorm, the Speakers of Athanaric annually send out a couple of their Reaper initiates to scour the galaxy and eliminate enemies of order.
Society and its Structure
The Speakers of Athanaric are led by a High Speaker, who is currently the Enrali Amalina. They are based in Kur-Gal Ziggura, a secret underground city that is inaccessible by outsiders of the order.
They are few in numbers by purpose, as the city they inhabit is not habitable for a great population and too many among them would put their duty at risk. They do, however, recruit whenever a person showing interest is found. Most members of the organisation are either Enrali or Naga, Jadami, Stervera or Oxine - races found in Serena. The Speakers will also copulate if needed.