Musings of a Canadian Nierite. . .

The commoners also live a life at least as free as you would find in Coryan or possibly even Altheria, though with about as much power as the former (read: effectively no representative political power) and considerably less than the later.

I don’t agree with the assumption that the commoners of Coryan have no representation or political power. The Coryani Empire has the Senate which is a power in its own right. While the wealthier families are disproportionally represented compared to the common man, there should be some reasonable percentage that are senators and therefore hold sway and influence to improve the general lot in life of their fellows.

With a sweep of his hat,

Paul

A nice summary of Milandir. Very little to quibble with.

I would note that the Cantons of Milandir have been skipped in your summery. I would argue that they have as big a military and cultural impact on Milandir as the Knighthoods…even though they are a lot less sexy from a player perspective.

Milandir has traditionally had unsafe borders its whole existence. It’s had trouble at sea (Ymandragore). It’s had trouble from the North repeatedly (Canceri). Uh, even more trouble from the North (hinterlanders, infernals). Trouble from the South (Menesis…). In short just about every generation some one takes a poke at the Kingdom … because its wealthy or because its on Canceri’s doorstep.

As a result I would argue that the power elite in Milandir is a lot more worried about loosing power to external (rather than internal) power groups. As a result Milandir arms and trains all its young men to fight. This is the exact opposite of the Coryani Empire. Can you imagine what would happen in the Empire if everyone had a Halberd and a Crossbow and knew how to use it? Legions or no, I am betting most cities would run red with Patrician blood.

THIS is where I think Milandesian justice finds its roots. Because while its hard to mobilize the nation, in normal times its not that hard for three small villages/towns to mobilize a collective 50 Cantons to go *deal* with something. Puts some real limits on what shenanigans the nobles can pull. An truly egregious noble who inspires hatred might find himself quietly pin-cushioned in a “hunting accident.”

And you can’t disarm the peasants because that means you and family are zombie chow the next time Canceri helps you star in a medieval episode of The Walking Dead.

Maybe Milandir’s other motto could be, “When everyone is armed it makes for a polite society.”

Ahh, the Mysteries of Arcanis. . . how many of these are you. I was thinking on this subject some weeks ago, but didn’t feel ambitious enough to write anything then. However, a recent conversation with Hat reminded me of this so I thought “Why Not”. . .

The First Emperor of Coryan, that most Mysterious of Historical figures in the History of the Known Lands.

To start, a bit of history:

The First Emperor is known far and wide as the heroic warrior who led the forces of good against the Infernal Hoards in the 32-year campaign known today as the First Crusade of Light. This amazing leader pushed the Infernal Hoard all the way back to the lands north of modern Canceri and the Hinterlands where he was stopped by the massive force. Engaging in single combat with Uhxbractit, the Emperor fought for eight days and nights until he was killed by treachery of a poison dart from one of the Infernals. Before dying, he managed to somehow bring Illiir’s direct intervention, leading to the raising of the God’s Wall Mountains, trapping the Infernals in the North. Following his death, the Empire that became of the Alliance of the First Crusade of Light came to be ruled by Almeric val’Assante’, the First Emperor’s second in command and king of the city-state of Coryan (formerly Midea Tridueae).

Of course, the fact that this is the well-told, official story implies that it is NOT the real one. Almost all the great historical figures in our world who are still considered great tended to have really good PR, especially among the revisionist historians who view their actions either out of context or in the context that only comes after decades or centuries of history sparked by their actions. As such, we’re going to have dig a little bit deeper into his history . . .

The most extensive source of information we have on the First Emperor comes in the (very good) 3.0 campaign known as “Carnival of Swords”. This adventure takes place before the events of the original 3.x storyline, and has points which directly relate to the events of The Year of the Fall. According to the stories, before the coming of the Time of Terror Sarishan Oracles predicted the coming wave of death brought by a dark-robbed man arriving on the shore with a fleet of Black Ships. They predicted that in this time of strife a great warrior would rise from the ranks of the Coryani to lead them to victory in the name of the Gods. The King of Coryan–Isclepiodes val’Assante’–heeded this warning, preparing his small city for war, but all of his neighbours rebuffed his warnings and viewed his own preparations as a threat to their interests.

Then, when a strange man sometimes named Amanth and more often called the Sorcerer-King of Ymandragore came to Onara despite a Myrantian Curse, the Heavens were torn asunder and the demons of Hell spewed out of the resulting gap. For some three years, these demons ravaged the northern half of Onara from Khitan in the West to the Hinterlands in the east. These forces found capitulation in Canceri, resistance among the Milandesian League, and Sarishan Steel in Khitan, but still they moved south in their conquest of the world.

Eventually these forces came across the city of Coryan where they met with King Isclepiodes and his formidable defences. However, in all this time the King was unable to find who this mysterious individual would be, but dreamed that he hides himself after some shame against the Gods. When the battle came, he tasked his two sons Almeric and Mercius to find this man and protect him, but as the battle continued Isclepiodes and Mercius were slain and Almeric fell back–unwillingly–with the remainder of his forces at behest of the final surviving Sarishan Priest into the sanctuary in Mount Triduana in the centre of the city.

After some days, the sounds of battle waned and Almeric and his surviving Coryani left the sanctuary to find that a great warrior appeared to rally those who could not make it to Mount Triduana. Prince Almeric immediately recognized that this must be the prophesied hero and immediately swore fealty to the man–a noble, steely-eyed Val who carried himself like a King. The story tells that a Valinor of Illiir came and showered this man with praise, giving him The Shining Sword of Illiir and the Legion standard of the Legion of Vigilance, the most storied unit of the First Imperium.

But who is this man? What do we REALLY know about him? Well, the two obvious points are that he was 1) Male, and 2) a Val (though this could be some revisionist history). It is also quite notable that while we hear the names of people like Isclepiodes and Almeric val’Assante’, the warrior-poet Evansol val’Sheem, and Yolim val’Tensen of the Legion of the Reluctant Warrior from the same campaign of the First Emperor the historians apparently forgot to mention the First Emperor’s OWN name through all of this. The campaign against the Infernals lasted for 32 years! This is longer than I myself have been alive, which means that the First Emperor must have at least been in his late 40s by the time he died, a point which makes his eight day and night battle with Uhbraxtit even more impressive!

On the bright side, recently we have a witness to the events both alive and (presumably well) who was graciously preserved (while enduring immeasurable torture) by the Infernals by the name of Hilmen val’Mehan, a (presumably Cancerese) Sorcerer-Priest of Sarish who served in the First Emperor’s inner council. When this gentleman was released in the adventure “Ancient Secrets Left Unspoken” (by Tony Nijssen), he confirmed the Coryani tale of the First Emperor being a Male and a Val, and also provided his first name as being Kael, while pointedly refusing to state–or not knowing–which Val-line he was from. While I can somewhat understand the theories that Mr. val’Mehan simply didn’t know the family, as this was the Time of Terror and the various Val families were a lot more isolated than following the Coryani-unification of the Known Lands, I find the fact that we do not have SOMETHING to go on from Hilmen very shocking as the first question at every table I have run or talked to who has run it was “Kael val’What?”

Now, there are two reasons why Mr. Nijssen and, presumably, Mr. Lopez (Holy be His Name) to rather pointedly miss this rather obvious question: An unintended oversight, or a VERY intended oversight. If it was an unintended oversight, I’d hope that the adventure would be modified to reflect this edit, but I honestly do not think that this is the case. Henry does not often actually forget aspects of his universe often despite is massive breadth, and I doubt that he would let Tony write an adventure missing this critical piece of data without cause. But then this means that Hilmen val’Mehan had a very specific reason to not tell us this information, or at least provide a description that we could track back to one of the known families (ie: He had red hair, or epicanthic folds, or a swarthy complexion).

I should also bring up that the name Kael–in our world, at least–belongs to the Celtic/Gaelic language group, which does not exist in any other location within the Known Lands. While this doesn’t seem like much, Henry has stated that his choices of the ‘real world’ versions of his fantasy languages were chosen for a reason, which means that having a name from a language family thus far unknown in the Known Lands is somewhat telling. This may be an oversight on Henry’s part, as one part of his story that does tend to blur the lines of ethnicity come in the way of names (ie: Coryani individuals with names that sound Persian or Carthagean instead of Roman or another Romance language, or Greek). That said, if this Kael val’???? DOES come from a group whose language base is different than that of the Coryani or the Known Lands, that could be quite telling about him right there.

So, let us assume that Kael does come from a known Val family, which one is the most reasonable? Personally, I would say that the top two options would be the val’Assante’ or the val’Holryn. The first I choose because of the frequency of which val’Assante’s find their way into power, the willingness of Almeric val’Assante’ to bend knee to him (despite his essentially honest view and orders of his father), and the selection of Almeric as Emperor after he died. That said, we know that the val’Assante’ line was almost wiped out following the Theocracy of the Cleansing Flame and survived only because they were whisked away to the provinces where Leonydas val’Virdan couldn’t find them, which suggests that the val’Assante’ rulers of Coryan would be some of the very few Assante’s left and would recognize one of their own.

But what about the val’Holryns? There is no direct evidence to suggest that the First Emperor would be of this group, and quite a bit against it. The biggest support for it comes from the fact that the val’Holryns seem to be always in the thick of change in the Known Lands. The best example of this is how Volthar val’Holryn fought the Theocracy of the Cleansing Flame, eventually helping to topple Leonydas’s rule by rallying the provinces against his rule. However, as the val’Holryn’s were one of the major families of the Milandesia League which joined Coryan, you’d think that a val’Holryn would move the capital to Tralia (or at least Milandesia) rather than a backwards city-state like Coryan.

So who else could it be? Well, one must remember that there are several Val families that we have yet to see. We have thirteen known Ul families which Henry has said are (racially) exactly the same as Vals, and at least some of these families existed into the First Imperium of Man (ie: the ul’Tai). It should also be noted that there are obvious families of Vals who have been forgotten about over time, such as the val’Hamen family (created for the Time of Terror and disappeared almost immediately thereafter) or the ever-mysterious val’Cessari family. Hell, the First Emperor could be of the val’Haupt line for all we know, with their exile to Censure being caused by the val’Assante’ line taking control from them and seeking to. . . disappear them as a political force in the Empire.

The final thought that I have had is that the First Emperor wasn’t–in fact–a Val, but a Valinor! There has been a couple instances of Valinor (both fallen and no) interfering in the lives of mortals in the Known Lands. The Sleeping Emperor of Khitan gave them (according to the story) Sarishan Steel one year before the Infernals came, Loshnek continues to meddle with the affairs of those on our plane, and there was some rumours that a Valinor in human form was involved in the events of The Storm following the adventure “Whispers in the Dark” from the d20 days. Hell, we know that the First Emperor (after 32 years of campaigning) was able to stand up Uhxbractit for a week without rest, with the only other being that we know of to perform an act similar to this being Xabal, the Fallen Patience of Illiir. In fact, this is the theory I like the best. It would (partially) explain where he came from in regards to having wronged the Gods somehow (Fallen Valinor) and came from what appears to be nothing. It would (partially) explain how he could be a Val without belonging to an obvious Val family. It would also explain his ability to stand up to some of the most powerful forces in the world and survive, continuing on when a normal mortal would fall out of their physical prime.

Anyway, until more information is provided (or found), I don’t think I can continue on past this point. Enjoy!

Hilman val’Mehan. Who IS this man? He says he’s a relic from the First Crusade of Light.

Is he?

Can you be tortured by Infernals fighting off ennui for a 1,000 years and still come out sane? The module suggests yes … but I have reservations. After all modules in the last arc suggested that Osric had a younger bastard brother named Andre. That turned out to be false. So in this case I think it could also be a fairly clever way to plant a spy or misinformation behind Crusader lines. I like to think Uhxbractit was sneaky and ruthless enough to try something like that. I’ve judged the mod 3 times and am always surprised that among the players everyone seems to accept his story at face value. Maybe its just that I’m just getting jaded and paranoid as a player…

Would love to meet Hilman again and maybe learn more.

As for who was the First Emperor? That’s a great bit of speculation. Somewhere (LoD?) there is a bit where the other nobles of the Crusade are reluctant to accept Almeric as the “Second” Emperor because the val’Assante have a bad reputation. Which has always made me think that the First Emperor was not a val’Assante. Looking around at the “neighboring” val families from the perspective of Grand Coryan, it would seem that the val’Dellenov, val’Ishi, val’Sheem, and val’Tensen are closest. Out of those, at a guess, I would pick the val’Tensen family as the most likely candidate. Defending humanity and generalship are their general bailiwick anyway. But that’s just a guess.

Was the First Emperor more than human? Or more than val?

Pedro has said in a couple of places/times that val age “gracefully.” So even if you pick up grey hair and wrinkles, a val of 60 (or more) could theoretically put his or her armor back on and jump in the saddle if they had to. A val of 40 or 50 hasn’t lost anything physically. Being a val by itself doesn’t give you the ability to face off with Uhxbractit for several days though …

When Hilman said the First Emperor’s name was Kael, my judge pronounced it Ka-el. Which of course sounds just like Superman’s Kryptonian name (…and the legions wear red cloaks in his honor to this day … ). While that would easily explain how he lasted so long over a week of personal combat, I am pretty sure Supes lacks grey/clear eyes. Still my personal response to hearing the First Emperor’s name was to think of John William’s overture.

That does leave us with Cody’s excellent point that Kael is an odd Arcanis name…and maybe he wasn’t what he appeared to be. A valinor? Sure. Could be. But I wouldn’t rule out that an exception “human,” perhaps with a magic item of endurance, might have the ability to go the distance.

Hmmm. For me it’s Primal that I find “weird.” I find Divine Magic fairly uniform in application and principle. The core of Divine Magic is “Rote Learning” plus “Faith in the God(s).” These two components lead me to two interpretations. Maybe complimentary…maybe not. But it makes Holistic sense to me. It all on whether or not you put the rote learning or the Faith in the Gods first.

The first “Rote Learning First” interpretation is that its Magic for people with Associate Degree…or maybe the Arcanis equivalent of “Arcanum for Dummies.” You don’t need to be a freaking genius or have multiple Master/PhD degrees in Esotericism & Metaphysics. Just follow the byzantine check list from a slate of options. Higher Powers have covered everything they think you could possibly ever need. Stay in the dotted lines and we warranty it will work.

Okay, spin the telescope around and put “Faith in the Gods first” and I (OOC) think we come to a slightly darker interpretation. The Gods are possessive or insecure or just deeply uneasy about mortals fooling around with the Arcanum. Why? I can only assume the Elementalists have it essentially right when they describe that what a sorcerer and a god do is only a difference in degree and not a difference in kind. So there is a chance, however slight that hard core Arcanists have the potential to attain divinity, challenge the gods or otherwise upset the Celestial apple cart. There is some in game evidence to support this. Ss’koreth summoned and/or trapped the Elemental Lords and Belisarda. The Sorcerer King seeks Divinity and Loshnek himself seems to be fighting a Cold War against him. And when the “Black Sorcerer” of the Myrantian ghetto escaped last campaign the Sun shone for 3 days straight while people heard the sounds of battle “in the heavens.”

If the gods really see “Wizards” as a potential threat then the Divine Arcanum makes a lot of sense. “Don’t look under the hood or behind the curtain.” “Do exactly what we tell you.” Simultaneously you are channeling your protégées (and perhaps the ambitious) in “safe” directions and hobbling them by keeping them from the education necessary to go “exploring” on their own. And if need be you can send your Divine Casting Agents out against normal wizards and expect them to be able to go toe to toe…cutting don on the number of people who last long enough to become dangerous.

This second half isn’t a slam dunk. Against I’ve written above we know the First Imperium had cadres of Imperial Sorcerers at a time when the Gods were much closer to Humanity. Which makes me think that the Gods were okay with at least some wizards. And it appears that Belisarda apparently has no qualms with Elorii wizards.

So, with all the talk about ArcaniCon up a few boards above this one, it got me thinking about the location which was decided two years ago where this next ArcaniCon will likely deal with: The Auxunites. When the various players cast their votes as to where the Emerald Society wished to dig, the votes were effectively split between the Vault of Larissa’s Lament (the site of last ArcaniCon) and an ancient Auxunite fortress in what is now Almeric. Assuming plans hold up, it is that location which will be where the Heroes of next ArcaniCon will delve.

First, a bit of history. The Auxunite Empire was founded by a man named Auxun, a Yhing Hir raider (said to be of the Vanomir tribe) some 730 years before the founding of the Coyrani Empire. Auxun originally made a name for himself by preying upon the villages of—at the time—the northeastern provinces of the Khitani Empire in what is now the Unsealed Lands. Auxun was a formidable warrior, rider, tactician, and strategist renowned for not taking as tribute from the villages and people of the lands he targeted any more than he truly needed. This angered his lieutenants and fellow warriors, who wished to rape and pillage all they desired to enrich themselves and to cause the villagers to cower in fear at their approach, but Auxun deemed it was more important for the villagers to know that he could have taken everything they had, and didn’t. He would go on to say that if Auxun took everything they had, they would fight against him next season, but if he only took a portion of what they had, they would not fight and simply buy him off to avoid the risk of dying. If one fights this year, two may fight next year, and so on and so forth until they ALL fight, possibly destroying Auxun’s rather modest host.

Unfortunately, Auxun’s success (modest as it appeared) meant that his hoard grew over the years into the largest and most powerful hoard on the northern steppes of what is now the Unsealed Lands. This success meant that his hoard was so large that he had to either demand greater tribute from the people in his raiding territory or split up his hoard into smaller groups, each one would require a larger area to ‘hunt.’ Instead of taking the obvious paths, Auxun took the seemingly foolhardy plan of actually making his raids at a very predictable schedule, allowing the villagers to send his routes to Khitan. The Empire finally sent soldiers to deal with him, leading Auxun to start doing a strategy of basically winning hearts and minds.

What Auxun would do is go into a village, demand his usual (or lesser) tribute, and then pass a message about how he treats them better than the Khitani. He took over Kuchon (the biggest town in the area), and begun using that as his base, fortifying it against attack. As the Khitani attempted to root him out, they would travel throughout his former tribute territory, forcibly taking whatever supplies their army needed to sustain their march in this rather harsh area, leaving nothing for the locals (as armies are wont to do). As such, the locals begun to side more with AUXUN over their own Khitani masters, as Auxun never stripped them to the bone the way the Khitani army did. When the Khitani finally learned he had taken Kuchon, they moved to attack the city only to find it defended by their own people (who they had left to starve to support their own army). Despite outnumbering the combined Auxunite forces and his new villager allies, the Khitani army was defeated, and Kuchon became the new centre of Auxun’s new realm (carved out of the furthest territories of the Khitani Empire).

Auxun’s successors (according to Legacy of Damnation)–or the Undying Auxun himself (according to A1HP10 Desecration)–were just as cunning as Auxun, and continued to expand his empire for 300 years. At its height, the Auxunite Empire covered almost all of what is now the Unsealed Lands (excluding, at least in part, what is now the Haina Empire), the Hinterlands, as well as parts of Canceri and Milandir. It was by far the most powerful nation in the north of the continent during that period. Over time, the position of Auxun’s successors was supplanted by a group of four Priest-Kings who deified Auxun, raising his name to the same level as the Pantheon of Man. During this time the Auxunites continued to raid, proved to be cunning (even treacherous) diplomats, and erected massive fortresses and temples to the Gods, to Auxun, and to themselves.

All of this came to an end some 350 years after Auxun took Kuchon, however. It is not known what caused the calamity, with some reports saying it was the Sleeping Emperor of Khitan waking from his slumber and whispering a single word (“Enough!”), but through some means the city of Kuchon and an area around it the size of the island of Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic) was turned into a burning crater upon the steppes. This crater—now known as the Sea of Tears—forms the central ‘lake’ of the Unsealed Lands, and the area around it became known as the Blasted Plane (now known mostly as the Fiendish Expanse). The remnants of Auxun’s empire spread out, becoming the Yhing Hir and Riders of Himmatah that we know today, still raiding and migrating as Auxun’s people did long ago, but without the central force to lead them to their former glory.

Almost all of the above information is gleaned from Legacy of Damnation, PCI’s very informative (if significantly out of date following the Crusade) sourcebook on the (then) Sealed Lands. While there has been additional information provided in some adventures (notably several set in Milandir), no other source goes into as much detail as this book. As such, there really is a lack of further information about this massively powerful nation which managed to put even the mighty Khitani Empire on its heels. However, like many things in the Arcanis universe, we can glean some ideas about what their culture and society was like—and likely how it evolved—using real-world analogs.

First of all, the Auxunite Empire is as much inspired by the Mongol Empire of Genghis Khan and his immediate successors such as Ogedai, Mongke, and Kublai. In our real world, the Mongols were one of several groups of steppe nomads who inhabited the massive arid plains of grass which make up central Asia. Over the centuries, these groups have made a name for themselves across history by raiding neighbouring regions (such as China, Russia, Persia, and India). Every so often, large hoards of these nomads would leave their steppes and turn conqueror of these ‘weaker’ countries, leading to groups such as Attila’s Huns and the Ottoman Turks to carve out massive empires out of the more sedentary groups in Europe and Asia. As powerful as these groups were, all of them paled before the power—and ruthlessness—of a single Mongol named Temujin (Genghis Khan).

Genghis was a very powerful warlord who eliminated all the other Khans of the Mongols until the entire nation of what is now Mongolia was part of his Hoard. With this new powerbase, Genghis managed to use fearsome—and utterly ruthless—tactics to conquer all of China. While the Chinese were used to dealing with Mongol raids, they absolutely could not stand up to thousands of Mongol horse archers all at once. The Chinese (like most of the Mongol’s conquests) were used to what we would consider ‘normal’ warfare, with massive armies of primarily foot soldiers attacking cities and supply trains. The Mongols were different in that they had no cities, and their supplies were that which could follow their horses into battle. As such, the high mobility of the Mongol horses and their use of mounted archery made short work of any normal army in open terrain. During their invasion of China, the Mongols learned siege craft from the Chinese—the best in the world at that time—which allowed them to take their cities as well. When a city was taken, the population was decimated (as in, lots of people killed, if not 1 in 10 specifically), and the Mongols moved on. If the conquered areas continued to provide appropriate tribute to the Mongols, they would be allowed to remain under Mongol governorship. If not, the city was destroyed and its entire population was put to the sword as an example to the others. These conquests continued throughout Asia, into the Middle East, through Russia, and into Europe as far as what is now Austria. At its height, the empire of Genghis and his successors controlled a full one quarter of the entire human population at the time.

Though the motivations are different, we can see a lot in common between the Auxunites (and the Yhing Hir) and the Mongols and Turks and Huns of the central Asian steppes. Both groups inhabited a similar environment, though the northern steppes of Onara are both much smaller and further north than the ones of our world. Both groups live and die by their horses, which are the source of their power, their mobility, and life itself. Finally, both groups are known to be raiders of neighbouring areas (the Auxunites against Khitan, and the Yhing Hir against Milandir and other Hinterlands groups), moving in and taking what they want before moving on, never settling down in any one place or for any length of time. This last point is a little less pointed on Onara with the Yhing Hir, as we know that the Yhing Hir (and eventually Auxun’s raiders) have set up communities such as Mil Takara and Sicaris, but these appear to be more exceptions to the rules than rules in themselves.

There are, however, a few marked differences between the Mongols (and Turks and Huns) and the Yhing Hir groups and those of Auxun and the Riders. For one, we know that unlike Genghis Auxun was much more. . . well, peaceful in his expansion. He used calculated kindness to win supporters in his initial territories in Khitan, and once he had his power based there he proceeded to expand through conquest. Genghis and his children, however, always made primary use of shock tactics and unbridled terror. They did not concern themselves with ‘earning the love’ of their subjects, caring only about obedience. They would send diplomats into a town and say “If you surrender, we will spare your people,” and then proceed to kill everyone in the town anyway and take what they wanted. If your city tried to fight back, you suffered more. This sort of thing may have happened elsewhere during Auxunite conquests (such as the area of Milandir, Canceri, and the Hinterlands), or even later during the reign of the Priest-Kings, but during the initial formation of his empire this did not seem to be the case.

Additionally, we know that the Auxunites (at least later in their empire) were known to make massive fortifications and temples out of stone, dwarfing anything on the landscape around them. This was something that the Mongol Empire did NOT do. After all, the Mongols made a name for themselves by the power of their horses and their mobility. Once you coop yourself up in a fortification, you eliminate every advantage that style of warfare gives you. However, like in our world the Auxunites may have changed their tactics to suit the views of their conquered populations rather than their own traditional ways of life. In the case of every culture that has left the central Asian steppes in our world, as soon as they conquer a nation that is not on the steppes, the nomads lose much of their famed martial prowess. This happened with the Attila’s Huns (eventually forming the nation of Hungary) and the Turks of the Ottoman Empire (and its predecessors in Turkey) when the Mongols came calling, for they had adapted to their NEW lifestyle and forgot the hard lessons and hard life of the unforgiving steppes. Genghis’ Mongols were able to escape this fate—for a time, anyway—by constantly sending their riders back to Mongolia and the steppes to ‘refresh’ their skills, but eventually after decades of conquest, the Mongol governors and conquerors soon begun to split Genghis’ empire into regional states and become more like the original inhabitants as well.

In fact, the only mentions of Auxunite Fortresses we have—with one exception—are found in the area around what is now Milandir and the Hinterlands. During Milandir’s return from the ashes of the purges of the Sword of the Heavens some one thousand years prior to Auxun’s rise to power, they established a society of interlocking oaths in the style of what we now know as feudalism. In this system, it gives rise to individuals of power (nobles) who command large groups of armed individuals who offer protection to others for some form of tax or tribute (or service). As such, in the years leading up to the foundation of the Milandesian League (which formed shortly after the fall of the Auxunite Empire), it stands to reason that the various nobles would raise castles and fortifications around towns to defend themselves against rivals and invaders from lands such as Canceri similar to how the Europeans of our own world raised their own castles. Perhaps it was after the Auxunites conquered this area that they chose to raise their own castles (albeit, larger and more grandiose ones) similar to Milandesian style, absorbing that element of culture into their own nation through conquest? The only non-Milandesian/Almerian/Hinterlands example I can think of for an Auxunite ‘Fortress’ is the Temple of Beltine and Neroth found in what is now the northern reaches of the Haina Empire, but aside from the descriptions given it was possibly from an entirely different architectural lineage from the ‘eastern’ fortifications.

Speaking of the Auxunite Temple from Desecration (Crusade! HP10), we do not have a lot of information on the actual religion of the Auxunites that I have come across in my various explorations of Arcanis lore. It is a fairly safe assumption that they did worship at least a form of the Pantheon of Man (it is stated as such in Legacy of Damnation, and highly suggested in Desecration, though this may not be entirely correct in reality), but the information that we got in Desecration suggests that it was different than any form of Pantheon worship that we presently know of. For one, we know that they only really venerated four ‘Gods’, though they did allow shrines to a number of lesser gods. For two, we know that one of these Gods was an amalgam of Beltine and Neroth (described as the Lord of Death and the Grey Lady). For three, the Auxunites raised massive temples to these four Gods around their empire, though we have only seen evidence of the one found in that adventure. For four, we know that the Auxunite priests held much magical power, being able to forge magical items such as the Bell which figured so prominently in that adventure.

Using some backtracking of other nations, we can possibly get an indication of what (or whom) the other three Gods of the Auxunite were. Assuming that these Gods (at least to an extent) followed a similar style to the amalgam of Neroth and Beltine, this could explain some of the foibles found in the Pantheon of the Hainese in modern times. Though some of this is explained in Desecration, the main details of the Hainese Pantheon are found in the works of David Bradtmueller, Sean Esterline, and Matt Flinn. In this document and in the afore mentioned adventure it is stated that Hurrian and Nier are worshipped as a single deity of war instead as separate Gods in their own right. Owing to the militaristic nature of the Auxunites, it stands to reason that this amalgam of Hurrian and Nier would be a reasonable choice as one of their four “Gods.” Similarly, we know that the Hainese do NOT worship Anshar, similar to the little bit of information we know about the Khitani Kalundrul (the work of the Sleeping Emperor of Khitan, by the way, rather than the known worship of the First Imperium). As such, it is likely that Anshar is not one of these four gods, though Her worship by the slaves of the Lordship of Iron (the main Infernal nation of the Unsealed Lands) suggests that She could have been one of the ‘minor gods’ worshipped at shrines.

As for the others, we have almost no data to work off. We know that the Hainese (as opposed to the Khitani) really only ‘worship’ the Gods they deem most important for a militaristic society (ie: Illiir, Hurrian, Nier, Neroth, and Althares) while other Gods (such as Saluwe’ and Beltine) are effectively demoted in the eyes of the government of that nation. The other Gods (Cadic, Yarris, Larissa, and Sarish) occupy a kind of ‘grey area’ owing to their useful roles in Hainese society, but not necessarily as prominent as the first five. The reasons given for the ascension of these five (worshipped as four) Gods is that the Haina Empire was founded by the remains of the Khitani army sent to fight the Infernals during the Time of Terror who were then trapped behind the God’s Wall, and as the ruling class came from the army officers the only real worship in the area was of martial gods. However, it is possible that the lingering influence of the Auxunites also affected their choices of major Gods, which means that the other two deities could be some combination of Illiir and Althares, possible with other members of the pantheon (Illiir with Saluwe’?). This is, of course, supposition on my part. It is possible that all of the ‘oddness’ of Hainese religion comes entirely from the Khitani, but it is a possibility that cannot be discounted.

The final bit about the Auxunites that I wish to talk about comes from another Crusade! arc story, specifically Wolves in the Fold (A1HP12). In this adventure, you (once again) come across an Auxunite fortress in the Hinterlands which has been. . . repurposed by a group of Khur Gi. While I will not spoil the adventure itself, at the conclusion of the adventure the (surviving) Heroes have a chance to gain an Exceptional Quality weapon from the armouries of the fortress. While many of these weapons make sense for a society based on horse-bound raiders similar to the Mongols in our own world, many others listed as options make absolutely no sense for a group such as Auxun’s original raiders. For example, if you are fighting from horseback, you would want weapons such as scimitars, horsebows, maces, lances, and spears. However, in the armoury of the fortress, there were weapons such as flamberges and greatswords, bastard swords, bearded axes, tridents, and scythes. While this is good for the Heroes involved, there is a major disconnect between what we have been told about the history of the Auxunites and the tactics such weapons would suggest. Almost without fail, these weapons are used by heavy infantry soldiers with both feet firmly on the ground as they are not conducive to controlling a moving horse while being used. It is entirely possible that this expanded list was provided less for ‘authenticity’ for the Auxunites themselves and more simply to give the Heroes involved a wider range of pretty loot (ie: something for everyone!), but I’m not a fan of this theory. That implies that Henry (or others in PCI) are willing to sacrifice story for superficial game benefits, and that does not seem like their style.

One possible explaination for this is that the weapons themselves were simply loot taken as tribute (or as trophies) from the Milandesians, Cancerese, and other peoples that they would have attacked and conquered during their reign in that region. This makes sense, as each weapon found was of Exceptional Quality, which in the world of Arcanis would be almost unknown outside the possession of High Nobles and great heroes. After all, if you have an army of thousands are you going to give ALL of them a massively valuable blade of legend? The other major explanation for their presence is that they WERE actually made by and for the Auxunites of the fortress, and that their presence on the list indicates a shift in the war-fighting focus of the Empire during its history. After all, horse archers and lancers are good for TAKING territory, but they are not the best at HOLDING territory. Unless you use a reign of terror like the Mongols did to keep your occupied population in line, the duty of everyday patrols falls to the humble foot soldier rather than the cavalry. Additionally, this attitude could be similar to how the nations such as the Mughal Empire in our world (one of the splinter nations of Genghis’ own empire) changed dramatically from the Mongol conquerors who forged it. Over time, the rulers of the empire begun forgetting its ‘hard’ roots as steppe nomads and took on the mannerisms and culture of the Indian, Persian, and Muslim peoples they conquered (or who moved in afterwards). The same could be true, as stated previously, with the Auxunites in their campaigns against the Milandesians and other peoples of the Known Lands.

Anyway, I have rambled long enough. I hope this has been an acceptable ‘primer’ on one of the most influential, yet still most mysterious, of influences on the current face of the world of Arcanis!

I can think of places and ruins I’d rather explore than the Auxunites at next Arcaniscon (The remains of Freeport, Sunken Myrantis & Mattawab I’m looking at you!) but I agree it could be a cool premise for a joint delve like last year. Assuming the campaign staff are willing to put in that much work into it again (what they attempted and pulled off was very impressive…still my initial reaction that “they must be mad” is vindicated by what was essentially an insane level of effort invested).

The Auxunites, like the Tenecians, have never particularly grabbed my attention. They came, they conquered & built. And collapsed. Other than leaving behind the odd half buried fortresses for cool set pieces in adventures, it’s not really clear to me what lasting impacts they’ve left behind. (There were horsemen raiders on the plains in history … there are still horsemen raiders on then plains now). They may have had funky death priests … but its hard to compete in that regard with the Myrantian necromancers.

But there is also a lot of room for development too. I hope any event that focuses on them is generous with more fluff and background.