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A brief foreword of this explanation:
where appropriate the abilities of the members are listed the agenda and beliefs of the organization are detailed as is the number of the group where known

the border princes

organization and agenda
a loose affiliation of lords in the borderland who pledge to keep the northern borders safe from the lands beyond. The council is an unofficial meeting of the border lords held in the bastion once every 4 years

numbers
there are 5 lords in the council however the armies number upwards of forty thousand men all told

weaknesses
1 the lords are all politically opposed as well as being allied most notably A’lavec and Sudeten both try to ‘unify the borderlands and are put down by the others.
2 The infrequent meetings of the council means that decisions are made slowly

The empire of kind

Contains three main factions the Unnies, Heites and the Sufi that are battling for the control of the empire this is a political battle rather than a military one. However assassination has been known.

The Unnies

Beliefs
This sect believes that the man who passes through the sacred flame should be the emperor of k’Ind

Organisation
The Unni are divided into the initiated and the lay

Agenda
The Unni aim to control the ascension of the emperor

Number
Initiated: 250
Lay: about a sixth of the population of k’Ind


The Heites

Beliefs
This sect believes that the emperor of k’Ind should be one of the holy bloodline of the propet who sealed k’Ind against the outsiders and infidels.

Organisation
The Heites are divided into the initiated and the lay

Agenda
The Heites aim to control the ascension of the emperor and to kill any man or woman who has the talents

Number
Initiated: 300 including the current emperor
Lay: about a third of the population of k’Ind


The Sufi

Beliefs
This sect believes that every human being should be brought up to his or her full potential. This includes especially the people with the talent

Organisation
There is no official organization to the Sufi however there is a leader who is generally the strongest seer in the group the group is secret because of the prejudice in k’Ind against those with the talent membership of the Sufi is technically punishable with death. they communicate with enchanted mirrors.

Agenda
To break the wall of k’Ind not just the physical wall witch they could do with the magi between them

Number
500 all told
200 with the talent
50 in the emperors palace
20 in the ‘second seat’
50 in the town guard
40 in otherwise influentially placed
140 latent









The sisterhood

Beliefs
The sisterhood follow the goddess represented in many ways below are a few of the worshiped facets
The maiden: the beauty of the earth personified
The mother: the creator and the renewer
The death crone: the taker of the dead
The Morigan: the goddess of vengeance

The sisterhood also believe that the talent is a sign of the devil(pos change name)

Organisation
The sisters are divided into separate orders within each order there are in ascending seniority, novice, accepted, initiated, sister, mother, mother superior.
The orders are as follows

The (sword): this is the military arm of the sisterhood. Dedicated to the Morigan they concentrate on destroying the evil that the sisterhood is opposed to
The (weavers): dedicated to the mother these sisters are humanitarian aid they are skilled at healing and do not charge for their services

The (veiled ): `dedicated to the maiden these sisters are whores and seductresses who charge for their services. Secretly these sisters aim to further the sisterhood’s political aims

The (dead): these sisters wear black hooded cloaks and wield great hammers in battle these sisters do not speak because they are consider themselves already dead unusually these sisters are risen from one of the other orders and the sisters hardly ever live long enough to be raised

Mallious: Also there is the Mallious, which consists of the only sisters with the talent these sisters are locked in dark windowless cells and when released they are taken tethered by the neck to another sister who is one of the other half of the order she controls the sisters with the talent. The sisters with the talent are given drugs to make them malleable and will do only what the tether holder commands. This order has several duties to aid the military of the sisterhood and to destroy the demonic enemies of the sisterhood

The (word): dedicated to the maiden these sisters preach the credos of the goddess they also handle recruitment.







Then there is the chamber militant, which consists of male supplicants admitted to the chamber militant this chamber militant is under the command of the matriarch of arms.

The upper echelons of the sisterhood are not considered part of any one order though they can be raised from any order except mallious the upper echelon consists of;


The council of matriarchs whitch includes

Matriarch in arms: the commander of the military of the sisterhood includeing the sword and the dead

Matriarch in finances: this woman manages the sisterhood’s whores and the associated revenue

Matriarch in shadow: in command of the veiled who are bound to lord’s the sisterhoods political specialist

Matriarch in speech: this woman is in control of the induction of novices only she can officiate the ceremony to raise an initiated to a full sister

The grand matriarch: has absolute power over the affairs of the sisterhood

Agenda
To spread the word of the goddess
To oppose the tainted ones
To oppose evil

Number
About 30,000 all told
And the chamber militant numbers about 50,000
There are about 100 of the Mallious















The magi of the tower

Beliefs
The magi of the tower have no set creed apart from that knowledge especially as concerns magic should be passed on.

Organisation
There is no specific organization to the tower children with the talent come to the tower and are given to a teacher in the tower until it is made clear which of the Venti they are sensitive to. Then a master is found who is sensitive to the same Ventus.

Agenda
The tower doesn’t teach morals or demand loyalty.

Powers/ abilities
This depends on which Ventus (or rarely Venti) below is a description of the most common things a mage with sensitivity to each Ventus can do

Ignis: mages sensitive to Ignis can hurl fireballs, cause things to spontaneously combust, create walls of fire etc.

aquis: can cause rain, summon water, create ice and cold,

Spirit : the mage can heal, become ethereal, enter dreams, read minds, astral project and put people to sleep

Air: can control the wind, cause storms, cause air to solidify direct lightning become ethereal and in some cases can travel

sanguineus: the tower will not teach death magic however it is known that in the past the dead could be summoned and either controlled or given back their consciousness but be under the thrall of the necromancer.

Earth: can cause earthquakes, can control sandstorms and sands itself e.g. fists of sand or mud can control the properties of metal, can cause metal to rust and crumble can create golems

The pure: have the powers of all the others and in addition can combine them to produce other effects they can summon any object and can enchant it in the summonation or they can channel flows of pure magic against there enemies. To touch one of the pure is death.

Number
About 1500 magi though their numbers are increasing
There are only 10 of the pure the percentage of the pure is also increasing





Secret humanity

None of the other factions are aware of Secret humanity


Beliefs
Secret humanity believes that human potential is untapped and that their comparatively short lifespan compared to the other sentient species could be an advantage Secrethumanity is running a selective human breading. SH also wants control over the human political scene.

Organisation
Unknown

Agenda
At the time of the story Secret humanity sees k’Ind’s isolationism as a threat to their breading program, an agent of Secret humanity formed the Sufi movement and the current emperor is not yet married so Secret humanity hopes to have an agent in that position preferably one of the manyborn.
In addition to this they aim to unify the borderlands against the waste.

Powers/ abilities

The manyborn have the knowledge of all their past ands future lives they have the ability to observe minute things that allow them to control other humans and occasionally the forest peoples with their voice they have total control over their bodies can detect and neutralise poisons within themselves and be a carrier of a disease and pass it on willingly though they are immune to disease themselves. The manyborn are awakened by a special drug, which kills most people who take it. Any person with the talent who takes the drug dies immediately.

The onceborn also have some minor abilities that they share with the manyborn these are trained abilities members of Secret humanity develop their physical abilities as well as their mental abilities. A trained one has full control over each muscle in her body; this is called mieluxen training. It allows her to bend the last joint in her little toe while remaining otherwise motionless or put a remarkable amount of force behind a physical blow). They can bend and contort their bodies in ways that most would consider impossible. The mental part of meiluxen, is the precise control of the totality of nerves in the human body. Eg. The ability to feal no pain
Number
Unknown

List of other powers under the influence of Secret humanity
The Sufi
The Sisterhood
Some countries of the borderlands notably l’Oxen





The forest people


Beliefs
The forest people have a shamanistic religion are close to nature.

A(they are in actuality two peoples humans and forest spirits they live in harmony in deference to the forest spirits the human people who live in the forest are completely carnivorous. In times of war the forest will create weapons for them and in peacetimes create homes, halls and provides deadwood for fires)

B(They are a symbiotic people who consist of joined forest spirits and human beings. The joining of human and spirit gives both parties great advantages to the spirits it gives a physical body and with it an ability to protect the forest to the humans it means that no food or sleep is required and they can sense the forest. Joined personalities are an amalgamation of the host and the spirit thus the hosts gain immortality through the atman, forest spirit, secret humanity is particularly interested in the joining because it uses the same drug and a similar process to the awakening and some joined forest people have a much diminished sensitivity to the Venti, compared with other humans)

Organisation
(The forest people are feudal)

(the forest people have no real government but are led buy the mind of the forest itself which has power within the great forest and any transferred sapling have the same connections. When entire groves are planted outside the forest the forest people have the talent can travel from the forest to the grove and vice versa)

Agenda
To protect the forest and to allow it to spread until all the lands are forest.


Powers/ abilities
(none)

(the ability to shape trees, extreme longevity )

Number

(200,000 humans
unknown number of forest spirits)
(approximately 300,000)



the pure
not realy a faction

beleifs
seem to differ though self control and innerharmony are part of the teachings usualy

Agenda
(not knowen in the word of the story)
posibly if i go for the long thing
they are sent back in time from the far future of the series to change events however they are robbed of memory while they are in the past
otherwize they are sent by the gods to shake things up
or they are the same person reincarnated
Powers/ abilities

more or less anything the pure weild godlike powers and

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List of important people
Immortals
The shining ones

Tiu – the firs pharaoh and the first known shining one

Apparent age: 17
True age: 10,000
Appearance: angelic dark hair but very pale quite andrgenus
Personality: a very gentle person but is willing to protect him and his with the powers at his command.
Power: there may only be two beings that are able to contend with him in contemporary times, Sett and the last old one. Can do anyting that any discipline of magic can do and more. He refuses to use, but is capable of, necromancy.
Location: Tiu is living incognito and refuses to use his powers. Immortality is weighing heavy on him
Reason for not stopping Sett: too wrapped up in his human self and he has forgotten his powers
Power number: 100

Sett – the last pharaoh (the pharaoh of the dead)

Apparent age – NA
True age: 7,000
Appearance: a white statue with a smooth
Personality: a regal imperious being with the belief that he should rule the world
Power: long use of necromancy has stopped his powers in the other areas his power animates the whole of his kingdom his armies are constantly growing as every skirmish increases its number. (to kill his ordinary soldures the head is to be removed or the heart pierced or strick with an enchanted blade, fire is effective)
Location: the wasteland
Power number: 90

The young sage

Apparent age: 6
True age: 500
Appearance: a very young girl with long blond hair but a curious depth in her eyes
Personality: for want of another word very sweet she has the tendency to have human companions
Power: one of the more powerful of the new ones she has powers over the human mind as well as telekinetic abilities and the magic of the venti
Location: wandering through the world notably not k’Ind
Power number: 20



The very old man
Apparent age: 70
True age: 450
Appearance: a dignified looking man who is like a crow
Personality: a wandering sage who is the solver of problems he is won’t to help the impoverished, the ill and others in trouble
Power: he mainly heals the ill and has limited powers to protect people from harm he uses his wisdom to help people
Location: wandering the borderlands
Power number: 6

Moiren – the forest king

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The warrior mages of the tower are the principal power holding back the forces of Sett. The conclaves of the tower have mages at all times battling the influence of Sett. The power of the tower and its hundreds of mages mealy manage to prevent the pharaoh from animating the dead outside the wasteland. However there is a another branch of the mages who fight those of the dead that are already animated and threatening the borderlands. Usually they incinerate the corpse-warriors with gouts of flames and balls of fire. Some warrior’s mages separate head from body with levitated blades. Some mages prefer to protect the armies of the living against the power of the dead. They summon a wind against the arrows of the dead.
The conclave of the tower is a building where a hundred and five chairs are sat facing the throne which is in fact a magical artefact of immense power the power of the one hundred and five mages into the control of the one mage who is bonded to the throne for his natural life. This mage is referred to as the first mage when the old first dies and is replaced the borderlands are in grave danger and usually it is at this time that the wasteland expands.
The mages are a powerful force within the borderlands the high mage is accepted as equal to a king or even higher.

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A battle wizard

The wizard had been with us for many weeks on our march to confront the dead before they destroyed the great city. He had been haughty and it had become almost a punishment to be assigned to his guard. I ended up in his guard for the attack. You must understand that by this time we had convinced ourselves that this wizard would amount to nothing. We had never seen a mage in arms before. When we reached the place for the battle he directed us to a hill. Before the battle started he sat crossed legged silent on a stone he sat the sky darkened and a great wind blew at our backs. The dead came into view there were hordes of them they outnumbered us maybe ten to one there forces spread across the desert. There were simple corpses animated and driven by the will of the dead pharaoh then there were the twisted experiments of the crone brides of Sett. These were shambling beasts made of flesh into some of these creatures contained hundreds of corpses men women children and the creatures of the desert. These horrific beasts stood several times as high as a man and had phenomenal strength. I was watching this shambling horde so I didn’t see the mage he had rode a couple of inches from the floor his hair was whipping in the ethereal wind. His eyes had turned as black as pitch and sparks flashed against his skin. Lightning struck the approaching army. Burning hundreds of the enemy to cinders. Our troops still faired badly the crushing numbers of the enemy. The mage Yelled for the army to retreat but he instructed us to hold fast. He raised his arms and the wind began to blow strong so that he enemy could not advance the army fled un worried about being chased of shot in the back

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You ask me to recount my life. But you don’t understand my age; I am ancient beyond your understanding. I have seen your cities, civilisations rise and fall. I have loved you, watched you live and die, countless times, your fragile humanity. You must remember everything is more intense for me than for you. In my early years, and I speak now of my first millennia, I could stare at a plant for months on end. Unmoving, I would examine it to the finest detail, its supple green stem so perfectly straight. It’s exquisite pastel petals in hues of bloody red, sky blue or pure white. You ask for my history, but you don’t want to know the minute of my existence. I have a story that may interest you. I was there at the beginning when the first human civilization rose from the sand.
I watched a young man, Tiu. He was a born aristocrat, out of his time. I looked into his heart and saw this. It hurt me to see him drowning in the monotony of labour, bound by the shackles of poverty. I watched him as he worked to keep his parents, his decrepit parents. How he resented them he dreamed of leaving them, his tribe, and his life. He longed to wander finding

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Details of the breeding program

The aim of the breeding program is to produce a human who can survive becoming one of the manyborn and also has the talent the Ougado. This individual is predicted by the manyborn to take thousands of years to produce. It is theorised that the talent is genetically based this conclusion has been reached by the complex genealogies kept by the order.


Technology

The advent of new technology is quite rare on the continent of E’Un’ent due to two main factors.

1. e’Un’ent is the only continent with a significant amount of the talented magic is more efficient and cheaper than current technology thus technological innovation is much less important on this continent


Manifestations of the talent

The talent has many faces the Venti of the magi are often the most pyrotechnical and warlike.
the k’Ind of the Sufi have the power to create magical tools that can be used by those that are not magical things in the order of a ring that will if placed near a lock will unlock said lock.
The tethered of the sisterhood tend to do no more than suppress the uses of the talent around them though in rare cases these sister could create waves of terror
The once born with the talent are usually trained in the tower and so they have the posers associated with that but often the ability to read and influence the minds of others is associated.
The guild of blacksmiths is said to have master smiths who can make metal extremely malleable and strong (in alloys) this could possibly be the talent.
The pure always have instinct witch teaches them to use the talent in the way of the pure the pure can do anything the other oders can do and more


Umm I might get rid of the breeding program idea as it doesn’t fit

the pure

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Important events

Arc a the war against the dead

• The assassination of the king of Brett
• civil war in Brett
• A’lavec absorbs Brett
• a’lavec becomes a military expansionist nation
• a’lavec invades Sudeten
• the Sudeten and a’lavec clash
• chaos in the borderlands the kings loose control of the borderlands civilians are now little better than slaves and the warlords are tyrants
• the appearance of the prophet and his 7 heralds
• the seven serpents are raised above the bastion
• the complete unification of the borderlands
• war against the pharaoh
• alliance with the Atlanti
• losing against the pharaoh
• magi join the war
• the destruction of the pharaoh

Arc b the ascension of the Sufi

• the emperor of k’Ind marries a Sufi
• the unnis assonates the leader of the heites
• The Sufi are blamed for the assassination
• persecution of the Sufi begins
• the Sufi council decide to use the carefully placed Sufi to cause chaos
• the emperors son is born
• the Unnis and Heites declare open war on each other
• the emperors Xyston do not join the war
• the war in K’Ind escalates after the discovery of the true military power of the Sufi
• a heites-unnis alliance declares war on the Sufi
• the emperor dies to poison
• the emperors’ son passes through the sacred fire (thus being the legitimate emperor by both unnis and heites rules)
• the Xyston end the last battle of the second seat
• the Sufi council destroy the main gate of K’Ind
• trade begins
• the ascension of the Sufi

Arc C the narrators story

• I was there when the land of the pharos was formed and I was old then
• I became the advisor to the first pharaoh, Tiu, and I came to love him like a son
• I wanted his line to endure forever so I opened the Venti to him and his issue
• In time I became the high priest I used my powers to help my pharaoh’s people and I taught those of the great blood some small knowledge of the powers they I had given to them.
• Time passed until the gift I had given my pharaoh and his people had began to defuse most of the great blood could do no more than induce a cloud to rain.
• the pharaoh Sett was born as one of the shining ones (the pure)
• he came to me to learn of his powers and he made me feel young he was the most interesting mortal I had ever met
• I taught him much lore because I deeply desired he should be my equal in lore as well as the power.
• Sett opened for himself the forbidden Ventus sanguineus
• when I knew what he had done I explained to Sett why it was forbidden he did not listen
• the last of the other old ones who ate manna came to me knowing what I had allowed to happen they stripped me of my powers
• I warned Sett what they planned to do him
• Sett fought the old ones he showed no mercy to them he slaughtered them and resurrected their corpses to be his undead generals
• I left the lands of the pharaoh never to return
• I joined a nomadic tribe and became its leader
• Sett built his empire of the dead his power threatened my tribe (he believed me dead) I built the great city Atlanti in the desert
• I founded the collages and taught them many secretes of craft
• my nomads became stagnant behind their walls they bored me so I left them
• I wished to see the sea again to remind me of my island home on a mountain in what is now k’Ind I built a pyre and symbolically burned the souls of my dead kin. A powerful sense of loneliness came over me as I realized that I would watch everything I loved wither and die.
• I began my search for beings as permanent as myself at first hoping to find others of my kind separated away from the cataclysm as my kin was
• eventually I came to the hall of Moiren the king in the forest and his lady they were immortal like I am but they had used to be human in the times of Tiu before they struck an accord with the spirits of the forest the spirits had hungered for corporeal bodies and Moiren’s people had wandered into the forest at first the spirits had taken the bodies from Moiren’s people and those bodies died eventually a mutual thing was agreed upon Moiren and his lady became immortally bound to the forest and there people bound but not immortal
• I stayed a long time with Moiren I tried to commune with the sprites

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