Solar Compendium: Thunder

 

The Great Mire

"The Serathin have lived here since ancient times, even before the great Sunkiss of the ancients that warmed the world's dust and dread."

-The Wheel of Oshia

Santus Palus the Great Mire. The mire is the home of the Serathin, people of the antenna. They are very wise and understanding people, though often they take life and nature very seriously, and have an affinity towards magic and magic creatures.

The people of the Mire are divided into many different cliques, each with their own set of traditions, beliefs and rules of life. Most are of the Hexist faith, although some worship the sun, moon and stars. Many are hunters and fishermen, but the mire also offers resources and many forms of sustenance for those who wish to take it.

"In the Mire, when the sky is clear, the sky burns, and the winds blow without mercy. When there is fog, the fog is thick, and the rivers are filled with lily pads and moss. When the sun shines, the rain drips in torrents, the rivers are full to the brim. When the fog lifts, the wind is fierce, the rain is torrential, and the sky is a burning inferno. All nature is controlled by the divinity of the Hex.”

 - A Song of the Mire, the Serathin Folklore

The Serathin have a semi-translucent pearlescent exterior, often described as having skin like soft glass. Two long antennas go out their heads and a smooth bulbous thorax. Their diet consists of mostly nectar with some algae in their diet which maintains their immune system in the bacteria filled swamp. Serathin are a fairly long, slender species, they have sharp glassy claws for grasping and digging into the mire. When The Great Mire was founded, Serathin were the only inhabitants of it. Soon other Oohlets arrived and began to migrate. They began to build within bark and grassy cavern settlements, hunting for lilies, flowers and fish that would feed their people. They lived in the cliffs of the mash, while the Serathin were living within the depths of the aquatic springs surrounding the cliffs.

They were known for their intelligence, wisdom and skills in healing. Their main weapon was the Serathin Tongue, a curved tipped spear that could stretch and be used like a whip, which when used properly has the power to heal physical injuries.

Serathin, due to their semi-transparent bodies, were able to blend with nature, and developed skills to hide in their environment. Due to their translucent bodies, they're able to see in the dark. As they can see in the dark, they have developed a system of lights that glow under their skin and mate with these systems of lights, using them as erotic signals. They are able to sense the presence of other magical creatures with their antennae

With their antennae sensitive to magic, Serathin tend to be drawn to those with strong magical powers. The Serathin were the primary founders of The Great Mire.

For a time the Serathin and the Hex worshiping Oohlets lived in peace. They made many great advancements in the areas of medicine. Every noon the fog would set in, and night would fall as a glamorous horizon of shimmering lines across the landscape, the flurry of lights of the city mixing with the bonny of hues.

Eventually the Serathis were banished by the settlers to the land of Mist, which was much less hospitable for them. The Oohlets built expansive floating cities on the lilypads, but began to devastate the balance of the ecosystem they'd settled into.

Eventually the Hexist leaders realized their mistake and brought the Serathin back to their settlement, hoping to mend their relationship with them. The leaders of the church decided to strike a bargain with the Serathin in order to return their Hex back to them. They agreed that the Serathin would return as servants for the Oohlets and the Oohlets would allow them to return back to their home, being taught much of the Serathin's healing magic in the process. They would be given the purpose to clean the Mire which the Hex followers had polluted and destroyed, which would include cleaning the many springs within the Great Mire. The Serathin were great vivacious readers and great at absorbing information and doctrine, but seen as other by the Hexist Oohlets who were weary of them, regardless of their loyalty.

Many members had secretly wanted the Serathin to take their rightful place as the leaders of the church, and so the leaders of the local church and the Serathin began to plan a coup, led by Serathin Suffragette Tia. She and the other Hex leaders had been plotting to take back their land with the help of the people of the Mire.

She began her first coup d'etat by having the people of the Mire to go out onto the shores and clean the springs, using the mire's water to create a great mud river that flowed into the sea. By doing this they cut off shipments, supplies and rations going towards the settled Hexist districts of the Mire, and left them stranded in Serathin territory. For a time the Oohlets were at the mercy of the Serathin, and Tia made a series of demands for the Mire’s sovereignty before the mud blockade would be lifted. However this proved fatal on their part, as this mud itself poisoned the crystal springs they bathed and fished from, causing a Famine within their own rankings. The rest of the Oohlet's citizens began to notice that the people of the Mire were beginning to appear thinner and paler, they began to call them by the strange new name, Hexi, for short. Their hunger and the poor quality of fish had left them more impoverished than the Hexists simultaneously. Before even the first month, the Heterodox Church arrived and their elite inquisitors soon subdued the Serathin. The blockade was lifted and the Serathin were forcibly depopulated from their land, most ‘Hexi’ sent towards the minetowns as lights, courtesans, entertainment and sensual artifacts that the Hexists found deeply fascinating, engaging with the way their bodies lit up when aroused and in heat. This phenomenon, while historically not a highpoint of the Hex conversion efforts, lead to the study of the Serathin’s silicone-cell illumination and the creation of Inkwell, a special magical dye used in tattoos and body print within the Hex. A special ink that would glow and illuminate when the Hex user summoned modalities of magic and dipped into the Hex, allowing for ease of training, marking members and trusting other Hexmates.

 

Mamora

 

Within the kingdom of Mamora, the land had become an extravagant powerfold of structures in revision by the Hex. So benefited by the good works of the followers, the volcanic clusters of clay and soot now kissed the skies, raised in extravagant towers and tunnels connecting the multiple pathways across every arch. It was the current Void Queen, Ramira who oversaw the vessel system, transferring the magma and heat to power her volcanic city. Records say Ramira circumnavigated the surface of a dangerous and complex terrain, even for those who lived in the tunnels under the clay and smoke, for they lived in a constant, never-ending panic from the tremors and instability of the heated pipes even as they reached high to construct upwards.

Queen Ramira, often titled ‘The dreamland empress’

The great hall was filled with many of Mamora's greatest and most loyal, and they were in celebration and celebration because Queen Ramira had given birth to her first child – the prince, who would soon be crowned a king. It was a boy – a great son for his mother to raise and teach. But the days were far from easy. The days were always filled with fear, and Ramira knew that it was because the planet was so unstable, so constantly changing. At times the earth felt like it would shake itself apart, and the lava in the volcanoes seemed ready to break their city apart. On the day of the birth of the Prince of a Thousand Lies, Tiavrias Queen Ramira was not present. Of course she was present for her son, but she was also not. The Queen needed to commit to her meditative dormancy in order to reinforce her connection with the hex, she entered a trance routinely for a week every year. But as her son was due to be born, the threat of the environment grew severe and necessitated her full concentration to take control of. She was in a trance for 5 months. The Prince was born during that time, and even from birth Ramira required her aides to help extract Tiavrias when the time came. This pattern would continue throughout his youth and childhood, a mother he could scarcely meet for months at a time, followed by an equal part husk of a ruler dedicated to lying her mind dormant with the Hex. With every change in the climate, a change in the city's architecture was required. This was the primary focus of her meditative mind, and was taking more of her than ever.

“The man who does not understand the truth, for he does not see his own Soul. And therefore he is the slave of those who have no souls. But if you have a vision of a man who has understood the truth and is in love with the Hex, he will love the suffering of his blood, he will laugh with pain and rejoice in the death of his body.”

-Notes from the Spellbound, Illustrious Hex Press

The Prince's father fought tirelessly while she was awake, and eventually left from her absences. As expected of any ruler of a land embraced in Hexist philosophy, his teachers raised him with the expectation he would master the Hex. He loathed to go out on his own or learn his rites. He did not want to learn the laws or philosophies of Hex and he hated and despised almost everything that his mother had taught him as a young boy. When Prince Tiavrias turned 18, he was to meditate and gain access to their Latticestra, the Basilika. Within he'd see where she had been the entire time.

 

The Prince was outraged.  His mother, he said, was a liar, and a failure. She had a long history of losing loved ones, of neglecting him and her human connections for her Hexist ones. The next month, on his birthday she had required weeks of dormancy further. He demanded the Queen's councilors leave the room, and they did. Tiavrias did the one rule he was absolutely forbidden to cross, he had woken her up during her extravagant psychic detour. Ramira was outraged, and as punishment she stabbed his favorite horse and burned the hands of his maids, courtesans and servants who'd allowed him to do so. He no longer had no respect for her, or her frivolous possession. As the sun set on his 18th birthday, he was no longer of the line of Royal succession, for Tiavrias ran away and left Mamora that night.

 

Legend has it that in the desert he was able to find the true meaning of the life he thought he knew. He learned from the Hexless that the Hex are a lie and renounced the religion of his parents and his people.

 

The Prince found solace in the Hex's enemies, the Hexless Hamatians of the north who followed the wills of Regent Tynaxia, a political commissar who had joined with the royal line of the Hex Slayer, allies of the Malaxites. Through his age, the Prince dressed in her old gown and tiara and began to consummate a deep love, joining with her kingdom. In the months to follow the war in Mamora raged between himself and his mother. The Prince of a Thousand Lies wanted to claim the crown and take his rightful place, but Ramira refused to accept his claim. In every act of her life, she had claimed to be a follower of Hex and believed the Regent had corrupted her son into their Hexless heresy. The Prince was a threat to everything Ramira had built, and she would fight to the death to make him pay. In the years following the war, the Regent died, and her lover Tiavrias would take the throne over the Samatians. The Queen continued to fight the Prince to death for control of her domain. In the end, the Prince's mercenary armies crumbled, but the neglect from her duties had led to a wild eruption that caused a natural disaster and destroyed much of Mamora. Ramira had accessed the Latticestra the night of the disaster, but the strain left her comatose for the remainder of her life. The Prince was sentenced for heresy and imprisoned for years. When he emerged, he would finally ascend the throne as the new Void Queen.

Skye Sanctium

"We have so much to learn from your kind of thinking, but sadly we have to kill you for the greater good. Our kind is so pure, so pure, we will not need your blood. Our work with our bodies must remain for the sake of the people."

-Malaxis Commander Reginald IV

 

Viceroy Monettebelle Rembrandt was the leader of Skye Sanctium of the 77th era, in which the Hexless kingdoms began to solidify their alliance and kingdoms became territory-anchored states. The landlocked continents of the Westrise were bound to their contours, the sea cut off by the massive sea leviathans controlled by the Hex Users and their ever ingenious principalities. Among the renaissance of discoveries, the acquisition of steam and light material had given rise to primitive steamships among the Hexless. Monettebelle capitalized on this opportunity and began constructing massive armadas in the sky with the intent of circumnavigating this monstrous blockade.

 

They would be largely successful in this, flying over the turbulent seas and beasts, this allowing these kingdoms to begin ample trade routes in a newfound age of exploration. The acquisition of new trade networks, resources and exchange of ideas was known to have jump started an advance in Hexless technology that made initial perilous voyages more stable and trade regular, a feedback loop where early Sky Sanctium culture flourished in the imagination of literature, profiteers and wannabe explorers. The Hex officials in Ruadciem cried out to the Churches of Mamora and their allies in The Mire, they began to use sacred Wardens to attack cargo airships passing through. But this meager effort did little to stop the flow of commerce, and nor did it win over the sympathy of undecided territories who began sliding towards the merchant-heavy Hexless.

  "The swash of the sea, the creaking of the sky, the thunder and lightning, the wind that sings through a leaf, the flame in the heart, the stars in the sky, the breath of a moth, the life of a toad and the will of a man, they are all the same in so much as they are the whispering spirit of the world. This is what I believe."

-Monettebelle Rembrandt

It was on one very distant voyage that Monettebelle's ship was blown off course, and she landed in a primitive distant tribe of the Arachnoquettle, an 8-legged spiderlike people who began to teach her a culture of ropes, hooks, complicated tapestry and tying practices from their personal philosophy. A traditionalist methodology based in the link of all things, not unlike the Hex, but eschewing the ultimate emphasis on connections. She would return after two years to apply these lessons further to the Sky Sanctium, attaching ropes and cables on massive platforms to begin levitating buildings, then entire structures. The age of the airborne celestial cities or the skyage had begun. Her teaching of Eastern Archnoid magic she believed would be well-received by the Hexless as a counterweight by many merchants and profiteers, but the Churches and local Hexads found the irony palatable. The Hexless Pagans of the Norshire and continental alliance took great offense to this new inclusion and branded Monette, the renaissance woman who'd crafted Sky Sanctium as Hexretical. She was stripped of her Viceroy title, all her ships, rank and title. In perhaps desperation, pettiness or madness, she ran to and pleaded to the Hexad of Ruadciem. Reports grew rancorous of her conversion, they say she was baptized into the Hex in the thrust of a thunderstorm and was struck by lightning, a credulous tale that won the imagination of many who recalled her legend. Spurred by her former Hexless allies, Monettebelle began turning her innovations and mind towards the benefit of the Ruadciem Hex. She taught them the way of steam, but found in the Hex an even simpler method- the harnessing of thunder. With the use of their electricity systems, the Ruadciem populace began to build massive platforms and wire-connected cities, however the voltage needed to power them was lacking.

 

Monettebelle Rembrant researched many different methods, and eventually turned to the very beasts, the sea leviathans  and discovered an ingenious feature no others had discovered. These oceanbound creatures were not dragons or serpents- they were eels. Monstrosities that could power entire cities with the complicated Electralia Latticestra to form an ethereal powergrid.

"You can't defeat us, all you've ever done is failed. We live in the air, you can't see us. Look behind you, see the power of the Hex!"

-Latticestra Operator during a port siege on the Mala Airfleet

The paperthin ships and shoddy masonry platforms of the Hexless were soon to be matched by metal and steel Cloud Wallows and Domes that dwarfed the cities of the faithless. The Hex user's capability to rain down thunder soon struck every Hexless down from their new territory, the atmosphere, cutting the faithless from the seas, air and isolating them forevermore. Monettebelle never renounced "The Octagonal of the Orient", and in timeless ages to come her incorporation of the beliefs would soon become a connected branch of the Hex faith, an offshoot followed by a small but admirable minority.

 

As of today, atmospheric sanctuaries are but an outdated relic of their time period. The efficiency of them even for the time was often questioned and better usage of resources, their upkeep and potential vulnerability at the time lead to their slow decline in popularity over the centuries. They appear more as a specific intervention in a historical struggle between the Hex and Hexless arms race than a viable dedication of technological progress, but such platforms and atmospheric dwellings are still used regularly for merchant cities, trade and commercial centers. The integration of them with the Blessed Oak overtime also circumnavigated dependence on wildlife, especially after widespread protest of exploitation for their bioelectricity was shown to have heavy pollutant effects on the seas due to the overcharge in ions and poisonous metals. Monettebelle's reputation has been brought into question by Solar Society scholars for this magicological blemish, and her reputation even as an innovator among researchers of Electralia Latticestra questions the authenticity of her discoveries with heavy scrutiny.

 

Chtfrizah

“The Hex are a people that have always been and always will be, but they have not done enough to survive. I wish it were easier, but it's not.”

-Ward Tezjin Tenebrite

Chtfrizah, in the proceeding 6 centuries of the death of prophet Xistris had fallen to the Hexless. The faithless worshipers of the Hex Slayer had redubbed the cold glacial land Icktzenlier, and later Okaenlier upon the warming of the caps. The crust had been penetrated by the great roots of the Blessed Oak, and these roots brought in nutrients, warm nutrient-rich saltine brine and the pulse particles of magic which had drastically changed the permafrost of the Icern Mounts. The turning of barren fields of snow and rime into spring and dew gave the Hexless of that era new, very much needed territory that replenished their shrinking influence. Mountainous kingdoms full of farms, sheep and apple orchards soon saw the Mounts, and offered a reprieve to the previously isolated southern lands of the Slayer. This pastoral kingdom, while it found itself a common target to the Hex, was able to successfully field a sizable navy that could venture out in the freshwater warm seas where the cold-water Eeels could not go. For a time they were prosperous and their naval capability allowed the acquiescence of the seas, preventing Hexads from spreading their ideals sufficiently and giving the faithless hordes ample precedent to convert the surrounding populace. The rise of Okaenlier would coincide with the slow industrialization after the discovery of steam, and greatly emphasize its value when an intense mining base for oil and rare resources were coupled under the now-melted sheets. Drilling operations began, and for a brief time these operations spurred new wealth. This metric raise of living standards soon met grave consequences, when a blast burst mining operation had freed from the ancient ice a pack of ancient Agronoids, elemental-breathing, sentient winged dragons whom the Oohts once regarded as pests. The Agronoids not only rained down destruction upon the previous tranquility of Okaenlier, but were later revealed by the Hexads to be sufficiently intuitive in the Hex. The Hexless kingdoms of the Mounts began to descend into anarchy and fall within successive years.

“Cry out and howl at the wind. All that I had is dead, but still I cry out in the night.”

-Faithless Queen Nxtris

The Faithless of the Mount began to make desperate calls to the Mainland, appealing to the glory of the Queen in order to launch a great crusade and prevent the Hex from retaking the outer isles that guarded the seas. Pooling all of their resources, the Alliance soon fielded a fleet of warships possessing great and powerful new weapons, tools that utilized hooks and nets based on Monettebelle's designs. They began successfully capturing Agronoids and started a terrible black market for these wise beasts of burden. The most famous Argro Auction block would sell as many as 200 Agronoids a day to raise the coffers of the Mount rebuilding effort. High above them, approximately a decade after the trade had begun a force from the Blessed Oak's sacred rootvega's descended upon the great merchant platforms. She arrived with a ravenous appetite and began an efficacious rampage. The Seeker's riotous march freed approximately 1077 winged fliers, in a feat of carnage so gluttonous it was remarked as a feat of legend within Agronoid lore, which would come to join as a chapter of the Hex in good time. But the Seeker's feast did not slow that night. She would travel the continental Mount feasting on the roots, returning rime and ice to the land while freezing the land of Okaenlier. With the great many dragon's freed and acting as an aerial fleet that no Faithless airships could match, the Hexads began to storm the land in a reclamation effort. The long descendant, Prince Jaspian in exile of Xistris from their dynastic line 320 years since, became the new Void Queen and assumed control of the now frost-bitten kingdoms of Icktzenlier. Within the following decade, the new natives would be naturalized into the Hex and its population subsequently assimilated into into the influence of the Church.

 

The importance of this acquisition cannot be understated. While the Mount and surrounding Isles of the Celestial aggregates in their societal formation were once theoretically under their domain centuries prior, the reification of governance and coordination had not yet reached an entirely advantageous point of integration. The advancing technologies since, and accumulation of Okaenlier as a base for the Hex would allow them to outpace the ideological edifice of the remaining Faithless body. Without the availability of a base of operations to spread by sea or air, the Faithless were sequestered within their own domain and viable means to spread were anemic and thin. With the idealistic means to find new converts proving a vanishing mediator of illusionary notions, the only option remaining for the last great Faithless powers was the application of force. The quixotic, quaint hopes of a Hexless world were fast becoming a faint pipe dream among the rising of the everlasting Hex.

Merula of the Faithless

"He who controls his fate controls his destiny. And he that controls his destiny, holds the world's fate in his hands."

-Malaxis Book of Wisdom: Of Sterility and Good Temperament

In passing talk of the final kingdom of the Spring, Merula we must approach its doctrinal existence. An empire always ruled by Queens, whether of the male or female variety shares a blighted history with the Hex, from its rival Void Queens to its competing philosophies and territorial acquisitions, from its farthest colonies all the way to its capital, Thirabon. The Quinciality of the faithless people traces its formal founding to the Slayer, the original sister of the Prophet the Hex so revered. The dynasties of the Sister rejected the creed of the Hex, considering it both a relic of the old Primordial world and instead following a religion of the Malaxis Church. Malaxian religion stresses the refusal of certainty, the rejection of ties, the futility of love and folly of emotion. Malaxians are seen as lacking empathy and in some cases, they even find solace in the notion of being as emotionless as possible. Unlike the followers of the Elken Lord and the Prophet the Hex, the followers of the Sister were many in numbers. To be Malaxian is to reject love, in favor of emotionless control. Malaxians see themselves as the highest form of living. The Malaxian had a sense of superiority over all forms of civilization, as not only higher than the Hex but as a realized pursuit of perfection.  But the history of their war between the Church of Malaxis and the Hex, its outcomes and their effects would fill volumes and even chapters in and of themselves. They once occupied their continent with unmatched hegemony, seeing the Hex as a mere deviation in the course of history, but slowly began to cede control until they were but a trio of triangulated regions forming a collective alliance, surrounded by countries of the Hex - the Omai'Hay barrens to the north and the Listorial Empire to the east. The fourth pillar, the Mount, served as a temporary oceanic base for Merula before falling back into Hex hands. The first to claim the throne of Merula was the Worldly-Goddess Lament, after the passing of the Slayer that killed their sibling in cold blood. Lament most beloved monarchs in Hex history, a patron of extravagant architecture, arts and letters, and even of the Hex’s own religion. She would be remarked as a desecration of the faithless's odes and their moral and scientific systems would have a strong inverse reaction to her influence. The hedonism, luxurious creations and artistry in the name of the Mala Creed she committed herself too, would come to be rejected entirely. The faithless adhere to the idea that they are of the same origin as the hexads but are part of a greater race, and as Malaxians were superior, while the Hexad's have turned to degenerate worship of the Santri and Oohts their "ancestors overthrew'' according to the lore and become sinful and emblazoned in corruption.

 

They extol the virtue of reticence, reservation and all that is restitute. To the Mala Merulians, the most hated 3 words in any language are the sentence "Out of love."

  “How sad to think of it. This life is but an ill-tempered, fleeting moment. A man has no need to fear death so long as he fears himself. For death is the final end to all self-hood. All self-hood was born of sin and it is pure sin as sin is, to turn our wills from Malaxis.”

-Mala Priest of the eastern Roguelands

In the succeeding generations Merula would find itself, in defiance of this aesthetic. The faithless people of Merula, from their royals to the peasants would embrace a sterile, ascetic existence grained against the notions of pleasure, passage of comfort or identification. This concept and its practices became crucial to the ruling house. It was said monthly, the lower classes would be allowed into the royal castle to redecorate. In many kingdoms, countries were given to the royal family and redistributed to Orphanage centers systematically to prevent blood ties from weighing society down. Keeping constant partners was frowned upon, and even those one was with were to exist as a social function and not emotional tie. Dinners were to be silent or with only impersonal topics, marriages often assigned by the state, and even culinary recipes were an approved regimen with strict dietary restrictions. Feelings were shunned, attachment seen as childish, and the Faithless even preached against all common wisdom or understanding- for this was seen as the way of the devious Hex. The magic the Faithless uncovered, while analytical and precise could in no way be called 'magic' in the same sense as the Hex users and their Wards, for it was merely an applicable of Magiscientific principles on an imprecise level. The Malaxis adherents would attend church once a month in total silence, reflecting on submission to the Slayer and her historical declaration of providence, fate, and destiny being more important to a people than love, emotion or intellectual vigilance. The most pressing political consequences was the refusal of the new royals, now cut off in bloodline from the heretic Lament, to be allowed to raise and educate their own heirs. This sort of familiarity, forcing children to identify with the biological seat of their origin was heresy to the Merula Royale.

"Malaxians are what they seek, they are what they find. They must do all they can to fulfill their destiny, the life we have is the way we make our way. The end is only what we seek, the way we live is what we live it.”

-Premier of a Malaxian town, reduced to rubble by Nightsister Eviciraiders shortly after quoted

The Quinciality formed a practice of giving away their heirs to a neutral power or party , and in some extreme cases even a Hex-aligned nation to be raised abroad. This unstable practice led to many incidents where a heir, raised to be convinced in the way of the Hex, further destabilized the Faithless regime, but this was seen as integral to their beliefs. Over time enough territory was ceded to both the Hex and Faithless that only a single state could be trusted to send their heirs, Aequorlia, with the island kingdom of Sol Les Heights (WenigerHöhen) serving as the port.

 

Sol Les Heights

“For we are not of the Hex. We pledge no love for Mala. The Elk and his sisters are but one story, the triadic of siblings does not concern our hearts. To know detachment from these fables is to be one with great perspective.”

-Sol les plaque inscription

Höhen is a large castle surrounded by a moat and an eerie cliffside. The weather there is usually overcast and it's thought to be quite grimey, compared to the usual colorfulness of the Celestial Society marketplaces, schools and palaces. It's led by Lord Sol (The title of the Mara family who've ruled it for generations, regardless of gender), and the "Lord of Light" is seldom seen outside their castle. The Crow Clan lives there, those in gasmasks, dark hoods, feathers and crow-beak shaped plague masks roam about the streets along with other sulking blacksmiths, rogues and unsavory sorts. Both Malaxis and Hex are practiced in Sol Les Heights, with respective churches alongside 17 others, but are given special privileges or status among the religious observant. Few have ever mistaken Höhen for a very happy or cheerful place. It's in sharp contrast to its largest benefactor, acting as a client state to Aequorlia, the home of the Meryl. A blue-skinned, finned aquatic Oohtlet race in expansive undersea countries, they'd settled the seafloor since the ancient days of the Flicker. In the centuries preceding the takeover and unification of Yrismenin by Xistris, the Meryl underwent a civil war and split into two reef territories around the mainline Celestial continent, one faction loyal to the Hex that had subjugated them, the other in league with the Alliance. Yrismenin itself was eventually annexed to Aequorlia but had been in a political and social quagmire between them and the Hex for decades before. Aequorlia was once one of the first major territories to come under the Hex, with the city's former leaders being the first known to join the cause of its religion. After its takeover, the Hex took measures to unify its new subjects, and to this day Aequorlia and the Hex still share many of the same beliefs and religious practices. However at the time of the Alliance's strife, it was seen as a coinflip gambit, a fair chance to raise their heirs without determining which identification they would undergo. Merula's heirs would firstly go to boarding school at Sol Les Heights, which would itself determine whether they were sent to the Hex reefs or the Hexless. Merula's rulers had no say in this, and that was intentionally so- to prevent them from turning to the faith of a singular traumatic incursion. In some cases, the child was to switch Reefs every year and be raised by both.

 

“They dwell in a vast land, and at the water's edge along the coastline. They are an aquatic race of warriors, lovers, and explorers with a culture, history and a beautiful philosophy all of their own.”

-Encypta on the Oohtlets and their descended people

Needless to say this practice baffled the Hexads to no end. The Faithless, in particular, began a system of education that could only be described as contradictory and against conventional notions of understanding. In teaching students, magicians and heirs, they find it crucial not to embed any opinions, likes or dislikes, nor strong emotional stakes into those upcoming. Mothers are expected to raise children as they would crops, teachers imparting information as a dispensary but at no point letting any notion of whether they approve of a student or if they've 'failed' come to light. The prince and princesses were taught their parents would never dare let them know if any night was spent in love or hate towards them, for such imbecilic talk was the way of the Hex.  Classes were a mixture of classes to foster knowledge in a subject, but also lessons in manners, personal hygiene and even sexual education. They would then be moved to a facility with other students their own age, who would also have a teacher who specialized in that area. After two years, they would be allowed a vacation before a final one and graduation, at which point they'd be sent to the orchards with their tutors to live in communal housing. During this period, they'd be assigned to a pair as a partner to be with for the rest of their lives, or atleast until they were encouraged to exchange for a new partner.

 

The Hex themselves often referred to the faithless philosophy as "Living an island onto oneself." An atomized life, living off a deft set of principles and ideology constantly wanting for more ink on a puerile printing-press. A subject of Merula could be executed for making impassioned noises or 'interruptions' during sexual copulation, and was considered tactless and rude for looking at their partner during the act. The Faithless have little reason to be jealous of Merula's ruling line, and for the most part see little to complain of, their lives lived in perfect harmony with the teachings, with only minor exceptions. The Hexads don't know much of the politics and history of the Faithless lands, but when shown, they find it hard to believe such a system of strict rule was the answer to their faithless existence, which the subjects found to be quite fruitful and conducive to their happiness. A safe, predictable and passionless world. Just as the Mala Creed declares. Submission to fate. Surrender to the flow of all greater things, and accept your role as a small fragile thing. A world, utterly unconnected and unattached from higher purpose.

 

Their relationship with the Hex began during the First Great Civil War after the Prophet's death, seen then as but a trifling insurrection. 17 more great warring periods would follow, called 'Acts' in which great conflicts between the two would unfold.

 

The final act of the Malaxis Faithless began when the Lord of Light, then a woman named Romuli refused the traditional practice of raising or giving sanctuary to a Merula heir. The Faithless had no means to reach the Meryl of Aequorlia without WenigerHöhen's approval.

War of the Faithless

“We have seen it all before, countless times. We knew what to expect from the beginning. We were merely waiting to act, to fulfill our destiny, as the Hex was waiting for our arrival.”

-Commander Romuli

 

The conflict escalated, and was eventually declared a Holy War against the Meryl, and the Listorial Empire was called upon for support. To their surprise, the Omai'Hay had already been at war with the Meryl for decades and the Hex-aligned Aequorli fleet, under the command of Captain Kedron had already left their waters to help shore up their allies. Upon the arrival of the Alliance fleet, Commander Romuli was arrested, the crown of Aequorlia was placed on his daughter's head, the entire Alliance Fleet was confiscated and peace was negotiated in the Barrenland's capital city of Nuele-Ursula-Kaleel, now with the title of the future 'Merula Queen of the Hex and Meryl.' The war was won without a battle, the Merulians being forced to concede to most of their territorial demands. Romuli's daughter, having earned the love of a Meryl prince, was now Queen of the Barrens and was raised and reeducated in Sol Les Heights. The Omai'Hay were soon swept by a sea-borne invasion of the Meryl and their Hex allies, who used the shores to bombard the kingdom with tidal waves until a portion of the continent was sunk into desecrated isles. When the waters receded, their entire territory was made a swampy grave virtually overnight. The Faithless of Merula were now without allies and landlocked, surrounded by the Hex. The Spectrum sisters began to close in on all sides of their remaining territory and invade. The Spectrum's airfleet made quick work of the Faithless's Elite ground defenses and a fearsome battle ensued to defend their territorial-progeny. With the summoning of Merula's remaining mages, they managed to hold off long enough to evacuate the populace north-east in a hurry, ceding their capital of Thirabon. The governing head and their fleeing population only maintained two remaining territories, a small island named "L'Isle Perta" and the nearby Ceylon Deeon of the continent's far corners.

"There are not two worlds. Only one. There are only two hearts, but

when the Mala rise, there shall be none."

-Thirabon bar tender

 

The Hex Meryl and Spectrum continued their invasion to the south, with the faithless of Malaxis trying to fight off the siege but failing to do so. With the aid of some mercenaries from the Listorial Empire and transport dolphins from the Faithless aligned Aequorlia, they managed to hold out against the might of the Hex for months longer. Their last days were spent with a small number of families and some guards trying to evade a fast encroaching hex Meryl fleet which were able to successfully cut off their last escape. The Hex took most of their land in an unending series of battles and sieges. A handful of surviving soldiers were sent to an unknown island where their ranks were increased to the highest possible number before being released and scattered throughout the rest of the hex, a small community living on their own until the end of the conflicts. Romuli died in her prison before the end of the conflict, an event still a sore point for the faithless.

 "Our camp grows worried for our fate. I am so sick of this! How can we possibly hope to stand against such a grand, unified movement?!"

-Hamuglore Mestrian, 3rd brigadier general of the Merulian Mage Corps

The final conflict of the Faithless saw themselves turning to the very weapon they loathed and despised of the ancient Santri's playbook. The remaining coalition sacrificed their souls to resurrect an army of Ooht Titans to rampage and destroy their enemies in a path of destruction. The tactic, while crude and imprecise couldn't be said to be imprecise, breaking their blockade, the titans smashed all the way back to Merula at the end of the day.

 

The Wake was called forth. The Night Spectrum rallied their armies and all forces across the continent. The lives expended and forces thrown at the Ooht Titans, were historically destructive, enough to properly be called a genocide. The Faithless of Malaxis, in the last throes of desperation protected their godly weapons to the last mage, fighting on the frontline face to face with every experienced Ward they came across. Approximately 13 cities were destroyed within the ensuing months as the Titans dragged overland, gradually losing its flanking support in a long and bloody war of attrition. When the Faithless were unable to hold out their protection of the ultimate battering ram, the skyfleets and aerial forces bombarded the Titans for weeks. The final conflict of the Faithless would see a battle of such proportions not seen since the last days of the Santri, but ultimately the Hexists would prevail. Taking the symbol of the old primordial world piece by piece, they would annihilate the Necroized Oohts until they collapsed.

 The faithless were now utterly defeated, their last attempt of a resurrection was a failed one. The Malaxis church collapsed within the coming decades and only cast a meager shadow on the annals of history presently, in the unforgiving competition for bottom feeding orthodoxies. Their lands remained desolate for many centuries to come. The remaining vigilants of their former kingdoms and faith, were scattered to the winds, some joining the sisterhood, many leaving for the New Frontier to live with the natives in a weakened local version of their private faith. With their last rival superpower gone, the Hex Church remained unopposed to meet its endless ambitions for a world dominated under the regime of the Hex. It would not be until the cracks of Vygian until they faced any resistance again.