Beneath the lands of Andash are hidden many stories. Some are buried beneath the waves of sandy dunes while others stay unseen amidst the weight of great traditions. To delve for treasures and knowledge is seen as a great opportunity by a culture rich in history, but many know that danger threatens those that choose to seek.
Time will work to stack grains of sand on top of the efforts of people, but perhaps there are some things that should indeed remain buried.
Bodies once drowned in rivers of blood, testament to a warring people. Ruins to a once great empire, now broken; keepers of death and terrible secrets. Towers of perceivable darkness, surrounded by nothing but faded memories. Echoes of forgotten myths, best left silent but now quietly repeated in the solace of dark rooms.
Andash faces a history that its foundations are built upon, but the horrors of the past and present will not so easily be forgotten.
I Am At Last, My Own Man
In the not-so-remote rocky landscapes of Civisello, a hunger has been stirring, resonating through the empty gullets of hundreds. A cult, known in the whispers of The Concord as ‘The Starved,’ has formed an ever-developing compound in the badlands, filling it with more and more people and less and less food.
But their empty stomachs do not ache in vain; The Starved believe that through knowing the suffering of hunger, they will, in time, know enlightenment and spiritual power.
Though a young cult, having existed in the quiet outskirts for no more than two years, their numbers, and hunger, have been growing. In recent months, it seems that the rumbling in the gut of each and every member has felt more like the great reverberations of thunder in the south of the Tribelands.
And when they struck The Andashi School of Gifts, what had been seen as the rolling of thunder felt instead like the cracking of lightning.
The cult members flooded the hallways, dying in droves as they rushed into the bowels of the school to complete their ritual. When the gasping cries of the sacrificed cultists finally ceased, so too did the echoing reverberations of their stomachs.
Instead, there was a new vibration felt deep within the ground as roots and vines, thorns and plants, stems and spines, burst from the ground in rouling masses. The growths engulfed the school in green and red in equal measure, ripping through the mages in the halls with a fervour ordinarily reserved for starved beasts. In no more than fifteen minutes one-third of the school was entirely silent, the cries of Concordians muffled below metres of greenery.
Where there were once muffled cries, there became a strengthening whisper within The Concord.
A Cult of Starvation. A Cult of Grain and Grail. A Cult of Daal.
The most-wanted man in The Concord, resurfaced, reinvented, and reborn, into a new cult. A new way in which to bring The Concord to its knees through destroying its cities. And it is not just destruction that it has left behind; in the hands of The Headmaster of The Andashi School of Gifts rests a manifesto that Daal had left behind.
But The Concord is not idle in the face of his resurgence. No - Concordian magics and Concordian scouts, guided by the Investigatores, have found the home of the Starved.
And The Concord will see justice dealt.
Game Information
There will be information relating to The Starved and the attack on the Andashi School of Gifts for the Champion of the Tribes, The Investigatores, The Senator of The Tribelands and the Headmaster of the Andashi School of Gifts.
There will be a chance to head to The Andashi School of Gifts in a Conflux to undo the damage caused by The Starved. The Headmaster of the Andashi School of Gifts is the responsible party for this Conflux and will receive the relevant information at the Summit.
There will be a chance to confront The Starved at their home after having been located by Concordian Magic and Concordian Scouts. The Investigatores will be the responsible party for this Conflux, receiving the relevant information at the Summit.
The Andashi School of Gifts is currently heavily damaged and mourning many lost staff members and promising students. Andashi mages who are close to the School are encouraged to add black to their costume as a sign of mourning, while those who have lost someone close to them may choose to carry an important item that once belonged to the fallen.
The Andashi School of Gifts ability to function in the future will be dependant on the result of these Confluxes and decisions made by notable Andashi characters.
What Has Been Trapped Within My Mind
Kodiri Temple is victim to the constantly shifting sand perhaps more than any other part of Andash. The weight of tonnes of stone being moved, day after day, had taken a toll on the excavated ruin near as much as the people who worked within it. Hours spent beneath the earth surrounded by ancient and crumbling stone, pressed in on all sides by the dense sands of deep Andash, kept sane only by each other and the light of torches.
It is in these depths that the lost will forever remain.
The Temple of Kodiri has claimed the lives of those that would take and take, simply for the fact that they were not properly prepared. There was no lack of effort, no sabotage and no enemy of the deep to suddenly spring upon the workers of the Kodiri excavation. There was simply not enough of the correct support. Where the knowledge of the arcane was needed, or the guidance of a priest was required, they could be found with ease. Yet where strong workers were needed to hoist ropes, carry beams or dig sand, barely half could be found. This half were not missing; they simply never appeared to carry their duties.
Hands that would normally till soil were instead clawing through sand until the stone beneath could be seen. It did not matter the state of the tools, for their fingers could dig as well as any shovel, unearthing the chamber beneath. In a fevered craze and risking the wrath of the sand above, these farmers dug and dug until nothing but blood and stone remained, only to find nothing but a caved-in chamber with no hope of excavation.
Eyes that would watch for beasts to hunt in the wilds found themselves staring into the darkness, watching the backs of loved ones, with a sense that they may never again see the friend they once loved in the light of their torch. A deep knowing that any sudden movement could end their life just as the sudden leap of a beast. A feeling of relief as they felt the gritty rain of sand begin to fall over their head, knowing that they need not fear death for much longer.
Bodies that were used to carrying stone, holding picks and hauling ore through the caves of mines, deeply aware that there is no foundation here. There were no structures to hold the walls from falling, the roof from caving in, the sand from pouring from the entrance. An understanding of the dark underground simply crushing spirits rather than raising them, for no amount of experience could make up for the lack of pure numbers needed to maintain this dig.
All carried on - no matter the danger, no matter the dark. But there is resentment among the survivors, and questions that may be left forever unanswered due to the actions of heroes, promised but not delivered. Where they would simply have needed to carry the weight of stone and sand, they now instead must carry the weight of the dead upon their shoulders.
But still the excavation continues. It must, for otherwise the sacrifice of the fallen would surely mean naught. There were even small successes found amidst the stench of bodies crushed beneath unmovable stone, but marred these will forever be. Some chambers were lost forever and unable to be opened, but still the goal was reached, no matter how broken it had become, or how broken the people must be to see it done.
Game Information
The excavation of Kodiri Temple suffered under the lack of resources and manpower provided by Concordians in the previous Season. With half the required number of Mines, Farms or Wildernesses in attendance, many lives were lost beneath the sands. Despite the difficulty of the dig and at great cost of life, the goal was still reached but significantly more damaged than expected. It is likely that the options to move forward will be limited and that there will be costs imposed on the people of The Tribelands for delving too greedily and unprepared.
There will be information and decisions regarding the Kodiri Temple dig for the Senator of The Tribelands this Summit.
The voting for Kodiri dig will remain the same for this upcoming Summit, with those who attended have two votes, the Senator of The Tribelands having three votes and Andashi Delvers having one vote. Votes will be able to be cast within The Hub with more information being found in your character packs.
The following Character’s Investments have been damaged during their time at the Kodiri Dig:
- Hallam Al Hirafiyy
- Marius Picollini
- Zayde
- Leuthar Maus
You Cannot Reason With Silent Fools
Deep in the True Wilds stands a secret once found, yet fading again into distant memory. A tower, built by hands long forgotten and for a purpose now unknown. The fog surrounding it is less a marker of its existence and more a veil under which it can once more disappear from the reach of those who seek it. Left alone for such a time, the very entrance to its hidden valley begins to rot within the minds of those who once believed they knew.
Obscurity finds itself a willing partner in the Tower of the True Wilds.
The dedication of a few remaining arcanists and researchers keep alive the memory of such a place, but travel within the fog grows more difficult with each passing day. Whether through an unknown will or the passing of time, the effect of the mysterious mist that fills the small valley has evolved. Before it would take but a portion of a memory, keeping safe its precious secrets and making travel difficult. Now there is fear that to step into the fog is to give away even the most personal of memories.
Stories of a few brave Andashi researchers, encouraged by their peers to brave the dangers and once more find the tower, now instead ensure the heartbreak of their families. Once aspiring and talented researchers now forget their very names and way of life, barely a semblance of sanity held together by the faintest of feelings. People of Andash, forcefully severed from the links that are their Clans and Tribes, forever more believing the closest of families to be the most overbearing of strangers.
Cries of help abound from the aggrieved families of the broken, but no help miraculously appeared when needed. The tools and herbs of surgeons could do little to bring back the thoughts of the once excited researchers. The soft words of priests brought little but vacant stares from glossy eyes. The efforts of mages not enough to see even a hint of self, now lost. The fog had taken their everything, and left nothing but a physical husk that parodies their humanity.
The swirling depths of the valley beckon to those that would seek the Tower. Whatever secrets it hides within a great unknown that may either hinder or help The Concord. But none question that its contents are of great import, for why else would it be so well protected? What other reason would there be to take such things from the minds of merely curious people?
Game Information
There will be information and opportunities presented to the Headmaster of the Andashi School of Gifts at this coming Summit.
The hidden Tower within the True Wilds has gone unattended and become even more dangerous to find. Signs tell that there is a chance that if left alone, perhaps it will disappear forever and be impossible to discover, its mysterious contents lost alongside it. Through the unintended sacrifice of a few talented Andashi researchers, the fog within the valley of the True Wilds is known to cause severe amnesia that cannot be cured.
Those characters that wish to care about the Tower in the Wilds may find themselves significantly disadvantaged by a generalised inability to remember it as it becomes less prominent. To represent this, Andashi characters whose names begin with A to L are unable to recall information or conversations regarding the Tower in the Wilds after more than an hour of being informed about it. Characters from other Realms are not currently affected. Please note that these letters have no relevance to the Tower, it's just a method for the game to represent its unique arcane nature.