Elhanen the Silent
Additional information about Hex 29.14
When the allied armies of the gnolls of the
Burning Lands and the orcs of Grumlada destroyed the eagle-winged cataphracts of the Golden Realm in the Battle of the Last River (51.29), the King in Yellow bowed and scraped to save his nation and the great iron statue of a lion that had lain sleeping before his palace for longer than anyone can remember was dragged off north by the gnolls’ many new slaves.
Some could not stomach this humiliation, including the King in Yellow’s young niece who made such a nuisance of herself that her uncle told her to be quiet until she learned sense. She kept silent but did not learn any sense and instead stole Last Light, the sun-carved scimitar of the Golden Realm’s champions, and set off north.
Ever since Elhanen the Silent, as she is now known, has gathered allies across the northern reaches of the Shrouded Lands. She has argued her case before the dwarven burghers of the Titan’s Skull (34.00), crossed swords with the snickersees (07.18), fended off several dozen suitors during her visit to
Thring and even, it is said, come before the Blooded King himself (29.07) all the while never speaking a word. She, and her retinue of exiled cataphracts and blind Lion Priests (25.04.01), is now in
Shuttered seeking the aid of the Doge who is reluctant to risk the wrath of the Great Mother of the gnolls.
While their dark skin, brightly enameled steel and span-high hair are gawked at elsewhere, Elhanen’s cataphracts bring little notice in the bustle of the
Shuttered City, where the dark men of the south rub shoulders every day with the pale-faced men of the north and the ruddy men of the west.
Connections:
-Elhanen hasn’t been very successful in her efforts but she has managed to get ahold of a few recruits including some gnollish exiles who hate the Great Mother almost as much as she does and some starry-eyed halfling youths from the Bolger Freehold (11.08) who she hopes to train into scouts.
-Elharen has struck up a friendship with Josard Talbote, who passed along to her a surprising amount of information about the gnolls that he gets from his brother’s (Messeren Talbote, see 50.29) frustrated and rambling letters home.
Hooks:
-What else can you tell me about the Golden Realm? It is one of the Twelve Nations that lie to the south of the Shrouded Lands and maintains an embassy at
Shuttered. Why do their cataphracts have eagle wings? Why is their ruler called the King in Yellow? Why is the giant lion statue important?
-What are the properties of Last Light? It is really made out of a piece of the sun? Is the King in Yellow trying to get it back?
-How is Elharen able to communicate without talking? What are the gnolls planning to do about her stirring up trouble? Does she have a chance of being able to launch a real attack on the gnolls of the
Burning Lands?
For ethnicities here’s the images each of our peoples give us:
-Shuttered/Lands of the Night Cattle/Lost Colony/Witch Clans: West coast of Ireland (i.e. the “black Irish” look being relatively common but a lot of other hair colors as well). Shuttered has people from all over so more of a mix but the people in the rural bits of Shuttered Land would look a lot like Night Cattle people.
-Gore/Thring: Germany, especially big big moustaches.
-Jahuris: Berbers?
-Freeholds/West Marches: mostly a mix of Thring and Shuttered people, so a big mix, maybe look a bit English?
-Golden Realm: make me think Fulani or maybe Ethiopian (their image in my head is mostly medieval Ethiopia with random bits of Byzantium/the Sahel/Persia/Arabia/Poland/Bob Marley/Prester John/China (the bit about the tall hair is stolen from it being popular in one Chinese dynasty (Sung?) for rich people to wax in their hair and then shape it to look like various things, sort of hair sculpture) thrown in. Too often fantasy Africa-land is one big Congo so I wanted medieval Ethiopia to get some love since there’s lots of cool stuff there. I’m thinking that it’s the home turf of the Lion Priests.
To indulge in a bit of anthropological wankery here’s how I imagine the northern and western humans culturally:
North (Shuttered, Night Cattle, etc.): descended from cattle herders, were originally pretty clannish which lingers on in the rural areas, with the Witch Clans taking this to extremes. For example in a rural village you often wouldn’t have everyone owning their own bit of land (unless a lord owns all of it) but rather a village council/big man/elder divvying up the land year by year depending on who needs and/or lots of common land. So cows would then be bigger deal for wealth than land. Pretty practical bunch for the most part, when they fight it’s usually about getting what they want (usually cows in the old days) rather than honor or ideology.
The way that this has developed in Shuttered is that a lot of noble clans are pretty intact but the poor don’t really have clans anymore (unless they get adopted into one of the noble ones) but are big on things like guilds, secret societies, brotherhoods, etc. etc. that function a lot like clans. Tend to be close mouthed in front of outsiders but loyal to people in their circle.
West (Gore/Thring): descended from fishermen come up along the coast. A lot more individualistic than the men of the North and tend to get into duels about personal honor a lot more and a lot less of the Hatfield/McCoy-style feuds you get in the backwoods bits of Shuttered territory. Politics in general tends to be more personal for them and less just business like it is in Shuttered.
They’re also mostly matrilineal (inheritance through the female line) and tend to be better on the women’s rights front than people in Shuttered.
Their idea of “family” is also a lot more like modern Western people. First is their nuclear family, then stuff like aunts, uncles, first cousins, grandparents, then in-laws, then stuff like second cousins. Thringish stories are full of stuff like a guy killing his brother in-law and then his wife having to decide what to do when her family wants revenge and all sorts of delicious conflicting loyalties. For Northerners things are clearer cut: if they’ve got the same last name as you they’re family and everyone else can piss off.
The individualism in the west can be good (nobody would try to make the sort of crazy religious laws that Shuttered has, hell, they don’t even have a real law code just a disorganized heap of precedent) but it also means that nobles tend to care even less about the needs of the peasants and the peasants tend to exploited worse than in the North. But then every Thringish peasant can dream of marrying the Duke’s daughter and becoming the next Duke (it’s happened often enough) while nobody not born in the right family is ever going to be elected Doge.
In personal manner the people in the West then to be loud, friendly emotional and outgoing than the people in the North (who tend to avoid displays of emotion in front of outsiders, except for during festivals when things can get really really crazy in Shuttered and other bits of the North) and big on oral culture of all kinds, especially long stories about warriors and sad songs. In the north, on the other hand, there’s probably a good bit higher literacy rate and more book learning (pretty much every Shuttered noble knows how to read but a lot of Thringish knights don’t).
OK, now less boring anthropology and more weird
. I’ll write up bits about demons falling from the sky ASAP
