Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Chahir 10-09-07, 06:41 PM	I am bringin my homebrew up to date by posting it here as I rewrite it, and would appreciate any and all constructive criticism/opinions etc. Lets start with some fluff to get the general feel of the setting. Tamoanchan The Weeping Reed Plain Before all things, There was the river, There was Xem Cold and clear, true she flowed, Across the jagged, frozen fen. Between the sentinels of dawn Under Neyaar’s lofty throne Where Snow Maiden weeps for Gehri, Known to her and her alone. Roaring through forsaken barrens Pregnant with their ash and silt, Across the plains of dust and fire, Where blue men feast on blood and milk. Brimming under weighty waters, Trickling through forbidden worlds, Shaping stone with soft caresses Unseen by all but beasts and birds. Dreamily through vale and forest Through the blood of thrall and thane Beyond the fading dells to Anchan, Where the land gives way to water. And rises brightly, purely shining, To look upon the face of xem. A Myth of Creation: In the time of the Great Dreaming, before the world was as we know it, when the heat of the God-Forge was still hot upon the earth, these things happened... Akasi, fairest among the daughters of Thepesh, the moon god, wandered freely from her celestial home in the sky to tryst with Behanzin wave-serpent. Her father was not pleased with this, for he was well aware of the unsavoury reputation of his daughter’s lover. He thus arranged for Akasi to be wed to Masud, the Mountain-Lord, who was strong, wealthy and wise. Though she cried and pleaded with her father, he would not relent, and finally the two were married. It did not take long for Masud to sense his wife’s continued infatuation with Behanzin. In a fit of jealousy, he confined her within the courtyard of his manor. Despising her new husband and aching for the embrace of her lover, Qaw coaxed her husband into consuming too much wine, causing him to fall into a deep slumber. Once he was asleep, Akasi bound him tightly with rope made from green reeds, ensuring that he could not set himself free despite his massive strength. Satisfied that Masud could no longer hinder her plans, she fled his abode and fled to her lover. But it was not long before Jackal, the trickster, who had seen everything from his hiding place in the forest, came upon Masud sleeping and Gnawed off the drunken lords bonds with his sharp teeth. Pouring water on his face to revive him, jackal told him what he had seen. Furious at his wife’s betrayal, Masud summoned his retainers and set off in pursuit of his wife, his chariot careening through mountain passes, steep valleys and over gorges, journeying so swiftly that he reached the ocean before dawn the next day. Akasi, entwined in the rapturous embrace of Behanzin, heard the thundering hooves of her husband and his men and trembled with fear. She beseeched her lover to take her with him into the deep water where her husband couldn’t reach them. But the ocean spirit, cold and fickle as was his want, laughed at her pleas and slid out of her embrace into the swirling currents, where she could not follow him. Left to face her enraged husband on her own, abandoned by her lover, and devastated by his treachery, Akasi broke down in tears. Seeing her grief, Masud was overcome by pity and anguish, for he now realised he could never make his wife love him by force alone. He regretted having imprisoned her and she, in turn, became remorseful for the pain she had caused by her betrayal. The two lay together to assuage their grief and agreed to part friends. Ever after, Akasi would visit Masud on her way down from her abode in the stars, spending many a glorious day hunting, feasting and riding in his domains. But eventually, as evening fell and the light grew dim in the sky, the winding contours of her body wound down into the delta, forever losing itself in the uncaring embrace of the fathomless, green sea. From this union of earth and river was born our land, the Plain of Weeping Reeds, the land of Tamoanchan.
Chahir 10-14-07, 05:20 PM	The land: Tamoanchan, the plain of weeping reeds, is a term used by its inhabitants to describe the land watered by Xem, the sacred river and earthly manifestation of the body of the goddess Akasi. To them, it is the Just Land: home of civilization and decorous conduct, a bastion against the chaos and disorder that reign beyond its ill-defined borders. Tamoanchan is a land of temperate, semi-tropical plains and river valleys separated by high moors covered in dense forests of teak and giant fern. The lowlands, often waterlogged for part of the year, are carved into a maze of islands and sandbanks by the annual floods. The coastline is deeply indented, bending and twisting around thousands of kilometres of rugged cliffs, sandy beaches and large areas of mangrove forest where the river flows into the swirling waters of the Great Green Sea. There are several small coastal archipelagos of volcanic origin; the haunt of pirates, descendants of exiled convicts, smugglers and communities of reclusive fishermen. Far to the north, the land rises up to the impenetrable cloud forests; beyond men’s knowledge, a place wreathed in superstitious dread.