Editing Mothfolk (section)

=History=

The mothfolk, or mothkin, are the spawn of the fey queen Cimre. Cimre was the Queen of Dusk, who longed eternally for the dawn. Cimre waited at the horizon for the Sun to rise, and the two collided. From Cimre's wings several feathers fell, landing in the trees below. These were the first mothkin.

===Early Society===

The earliest mothkin gathered together into a large colony, the first of their cities. Houses were built among the branches of the great trees of the eastern forests, and they developed language and, soon after, writing. There were no true leaders in the earliest days, and mothkin society was isolated and naive. They wove tales of the fey that they were still connected to, but knew nothing of other races. Vigils were held nightly to the moon, in reverence for their mother Cimre of the Dusk.

This peaceful reality was shattered, however, upon the arrival of one Baloth Ironchin. Baloth was a dwarven miner, and leader of a band of dwarves who had been cast out from their mountain home for reasons unexplained. He was the first non-fey to set eyes on the mothkin, and he saw not beauty and innocence, but frailty and ignorance. Baloth's dwarves marched into their woods, and the mothkin, having never seen such creatures, stood in wonder and fear. But the dwarves hated the fey, and Baloth's zealotry overwhelmed him. Ten dozen dwarves rampaged through the forest, killing those they could and sacking the towns.

Baloth finally departed after more than two hundred mothkin were slain. From that day, the mothkin knew only hatred for dwarvenkind.

===Beginnings of the Daimyos===

Scarred by the unprecedented and wholly alien act of violence against them, the mothkin resolved firstly to rebuild. Houses were reconstructed, the forest healed, and new generations of mothkin were raised into a different life than their forefathers. 

Around this time of reconstruction did the Church of the Flame develop. To its first practitioners, the fire would cleanse them of their past naivete, and reforge their connection to the fey that had guided them. Among their ranks came one known simply as Tanji. He preached words of revitalization and hope to the mothkin, and was claimed to be an emissary of Cimre herself. The mothkin finally had a leader, and they named him Daimyo.

With their city rebuilt (with walls and palisades, for better defense), Tanji gave a new goal to the mothkin, an order issued at the end of the twilight days that is still followed today: discover.

They were told to spread out, fly beyond their ancestral forest and explore the world beyond, whatever good or bad lied within it. Settlements rose up from the Benayan mountains to the frosted steppes of Kharas, and new generations of mothkin grew up far from their old forest.

Tanji requested that the temple of the Flame, the first Agiari, be built as high as possible. The peaks of a great tree were hollowed out, spiraling steps carved within, and a great altar of flame raised in its canopy, tended eternally by devoted monks. The light of the flame, he said, would always lead the children of Cimre back home in dark times, and thus the first beacon temple was made.

===Tashigo and the Necrosavants===

Candleflies were a gift to the mothkin from the fey queen Cimre, a simple insect species that produced light to reflect the light of the moon. They were quickly discovered to have many applications, from decoration to illumination to chemical powders. However, this boon came with a cost: candleflies fed exclusively on dead flesh.

Tanji asked of Cimre how they would sustain them, and she delivered the Death-Head mark, a white skull found on the back of some mothkin upon their rebirth. Cimre named them the Necrosavants, and they were tasked with collecting the bodies of the dead and harvesting them for the candleflies. 

Three years later, a Necrosavant named Tashigo found a new use for the candleflies: when their larvae infested a dead corpse, necromantic energies would be exuded. Tashigo attempted to channel this power, and the infested corpses rose, undead husks illuminated by the haunting light of the candleflies from within. Tashigo could not control them, and a host of the creatures ran through Tanjian, but they were finally repelled and Tashigo was slain.

Since then, the mark of the Death-Head condemns a mothkin to a life as a Necrosavant, respected for their invaluable service but avoided and feared for the prospect of the dark energies that they encounter. Many live as recluses, tending the candleflies and then delivering them once they reach maturity, to return again to their den of death and growth.

From this point the paths of the mothkin diverge.

==The Mothkin==

===Contact with the Others===

The world in those days was still open and sparsely conquered, but eventually the mothkin came into contact with another race, this time on more peaceful grounds.

The halfling village of Dennborough was understandably surprised at their appearance, but quickly a delegation was assembled to travel to the great mothkin colony of Tanjian. Twelve halflings held audience with the second Daimyo, Kuraga, each party astounded at the other, but a friendship was quickly forged. To the halflings, they gave clothes of the finest silk and fabulous paintings. They taught the art of alchemy, and offered them bottled of their potent nectar-based liquor.

To the mothkin, the halflings had much to share. They showed them metallurgy, logging, and stonework, and shared maps and stories of the many other races in the world. Perhaps most revolutionary, they had brought with them a general, who instructed the Daimyo and his court on the ways of war.

From then after, the halflings and mothkin remained eternal allies and friends, but peace with their world could not last forever.

===The First War of the Silk===

Baloth had long been dead, but the terror he wrought was never forgotten, and the halflings had given then the means of vengeance. Kuraga prayed at his temple and, having convened with the fey, led a contingent of battlemages, alchemists, archers and elite warriors northward, seeking the dwarves. They found the kingdom of Bal-Torum.

After several days of miscommunication, Kuraga tired of this wait and declared the attack. Spells and arrows tore through the dwarven vanguard, but they pushed back with ferocity. The mothkin retreated to the forests, and a week later a dwarven brigade marched after them. In several conflicts, the dwarves were ambushed and turned back by mothkin and halflings archers and mages, retreating with minimal losses. After three months of inconclusive combat, a truce was formed, but tensions remained.

===Decentralization===

Kuraga died at 127, first of the true dynasty of his descendants. He was replaced by his niece, a former priestess named Michika. She ascended at the age of 32, and was highly pious, forgoing the more ornate dressings of the court for a simple silk robe. Under her guidance, the Church of the Flame spread through the colonies, and beacon-temples arose across the domains. However, the armies of the mothkin were inexperienced and thinly spread. Many colonies had to fend for themselves, often with aid from halfling or human neighbors. The Lich Kingdoms of the south spent more concern on their human adversaries, but Michika recalled the bulk of her forces to fend off the hordes of undead and corrupted from Tanjian. Around this time, a colony of mothkin under the leadership of an apostate named Anenzi trekked into the deserts beyond the Benayan, founding what would later become the Farapidaans. That is a story for another time.

Now, as the armies left the disparate colonies, they raised militias of their own, the Zaibuto. They held a power equal to, or even above, the priesthood in decentralized regions, and their magecraft and alchemy kept their respective towns safe.

The uniting around religion and the relative autonomy of the Zaibuto led to the decline in authority of the Daimyo, whose power would wax and wane over the next several centuries in accordance with the power of the Zaibuto. But because the Daimyo was always allied with the priesthood, the power of the Zaibuto was directly related to the authority the Daimyo wielded.

===Tanji II and the Rise of the Merchants===

With no present threats to the mothkin upon the death of Michika, the advent of Tanji II, a wealthy silk baron, was the first not marked by some foreign strife.

Tanji II was unhappy with the way the colonies had separated from the Daimyo's power, and made several efforts to diminish the authority of the Zaibuto by stationing official troops and spreading pro-unification propaganda. This effort had moderate success, and as long as Tanji II ruled, the Zaibuto remained as auxiliary fighters.

With his kingdom back under his influence, the Daimyo patroned art and business, especially in the capitol. As described by halfling advisor Ceagan: "Their emperor was a lover of all arts, finding war and even politics distasteful, but devoting his private funds to the enrichment of his people's culture."

Calligraphy, painting, the furnishing of old wings, and the construction of beautiful ornate clothing grew in his patronage, and these things had one class benefit above all: the merchants. Silk and wings were easy to come by, but the precious metals, especially the gold dust that was used to embellish wings, as well as fine timber and ink from the Benayans, fueled their trade. Tanji II continued the mercantile taxation of his predecessors, rather than increasing it accordingly, and so the merchants quickly grew wealthy.

And with wealth came power, as the merchants used their funds to hire Zaibutos as private soldiers, as well as procuring a permanent seat in the royal court as a station of the Daimyo.

This power would be held until the second War of the Silk, but, even after the influence of Tanji II, their wealth would remain.

===Seeds of Unrest and the End of the Classical Era===

Commerce thrived and art flourished in the zenith of the mothkin kingdom, but fate is fickle and nature is no lover of craft. A famine took hold of the provincial colonies 41 years into Tanji's reign, and their crops were reduced to barely below subsistence. Those in the forests of Tanjian never needed worry of food or water, but in the colonies unrest and starvation rose. The merchants left for the capitol, many taking their Zaibuto with them.

Tanji attempted to recourse with a stronger military presence, but this only angered the colonies further. By his 43rd year, Tanji was beset with animosity from all sides. The peasantry demanded better tools and sustenance, the loyal Zaibuto loathed the increase in national troops, and the priests decried Tanji II's apparent lack of faith, as the Daimyo spent little time in the Agiari aside from the monthly prayer required by his position.

Finally, the tension breached the uneasy peace. Peasants armed themselves and drove the militaries out of their towns with aid from the Zaibuto and support from the priests, who worked to reduce their losses. As his army was pressed out of the provinces, Tanji responded with a full scale occupation. Almost five thousand soldiers marched out to reclaim the provinces.

There were few true battles in the revolt, but skirmishes wore down the military, and a force of several thousand Zaibuto and armed proletariat made their way to Tanjian, led by a former mercenary named Amerasu. With his capitol nearly overrun, Tanji finally abdicated.

Amerasu assumed the throne as Daimyo, exiling Tanji II to the deserts of the west and finally bringing peace to the angry peasantry. Though the famine proper had ended months ago, it was accredited to the enthronement of a pious leader, and as the old empire had fallen, a new age began.

===Amerasu and the Second War of the Silk===

The provinces had been calmed, the priesthood strengthened, and the Zaibuto took work as mercenaries. Amerasu instilled a parliamentary council, the Diet, to give the people and the provinces a voice in politics, and replaced or threw out most of the old court. 

Internal affairs being sorted, Amerasu turned his attention to the dwarves. Three centuries of uneasy peace and contact with most known races of the world had not sated the animosity between them. He found himself lucky when the dwarven kingdom of Taruman was assaulted by a human warlord named Khaban Askai. 

Askai coveted the strength and wealth of the dwarven kingdom, but Amerasu merely wished them pacified. The two agreed to work together, and Amerasu began war preparations, calling in an alliance with the halflings.

The first attack caught the dwarven king Drulthum without warning, as human cavalry and mothkin mages tore a blitzkrieg through the surrounding hills. The speed and accuracy of Khaban's horse archers was matched by the skill and number of mothkin alchemists and swordsmen, and the few regiments that guarded the outer lands were quickly overwhelmed. Eventually, the mountain itself was under siege. Drulthum begged aid from the dwarven armies farther north, but no response came to him. The siege, however, faltered.

Aid came to Amerasu in the form of a halfling advisor named Balleg, who showed to the mothkin the incendiary power of the oil they used for lighting. His alchemists worked quickly to design a sort of handheld firebomb, a thin ceramic frame holding the oil and connected by a thin strip of silk. The firebombers flew over the city's walls and bombarded them ceaselessly. Finally, after two weeks of siege, Drulthum conceded defeat. Khaban took what wealth he wanted, and Amerasu returned to Tanjian a victorious general.

===Federalization and the Modern Era===

All was not peaceful within the kingdom when Amerasu returned. The merchants had declined in power with the rise of the Diet, and the scholar-gentry held power over the priesthood and provinces. Ever an adamant defender of provincial rights, the Daimyo instated government exams to weed out corruption in the scholar-gentry and fortified the colonies with a proper regimen of soldiers, this time as protectors rather than occupiers. The Zaibuto objected, but were dismissed from service and left to their own pursuits.

Each province, well defended and somewhat represented, was free to develop an identity of its own, pulling from the region's past and the traditions they carried. In the Gija province fey worship experienced a resurgence, while in the Benayan regions tensions with the Farapidaans subsided and a cultural exchange began.

The Sunstruck, maddened radicals of the Church of the Flame, spread through the south of the kingdom, and though they were hunted and hated by the locals, they remain today a terror to surrounding regions.

==The Farapidaans==

===The Splitting of Faiths===

With the spread of the Church of the Flame across the lands came the inevitable variations, for with any religion the ideologies always become twisted, diluted, and altered when spread over a great number. One of these sects that came to be was the House of the Chasing Lights, founded by the Prophet Anenzi. 

To Anenzi It was not enough to worship Cimre and the Twilight of her domain, but also to use it as an example. Cimre was a being of night who sought the day, so to the followers of the House of Chasing Lights it only made sense to follow her example. Not to drown in sunlight, for that would cause madness, neither to capture of control light, for that was an already proven folly, but rather to seek an existence of Duality, dwelling in the dark yet feeding from the Light. 

This of course caused a great schism within the Church of the Flame, who thought it both great madness and hubris to presume themselves to be Cimre’s equal and to flirt so wantonly close to the borders of being Sunstruck. Soon there were small conflicts between the two sects until finally the Church of the Flame renounced and excommunicated those of the House of Chasing Lights.

At this time Anenzi received a "Prophecy" concerning his people. He decided that the only way for his people to truly fulfill their spiritual obligations was to make a great exodus to the land where the Sun and Moon were most powerful: the desert beyond the Benayan Mountains. And so he took all his followers, gathered supplies, and left for the harsh wasteland, claiming that divine providence shall allow them to build a great utopia.

===The Trek Through the Sands===

The journey through the desert was not an easy one. After purchasing a great multitude of humped beasts of burden from a crazed human merchant (as well as a few provision, mostly derived from dates), they made their way into the great expanse of the desert with not a single clue of the destination save for the Prophetic directions of Anenzi. While their silk robes proved to be well suited for dealing with the heat and biting winds of the wastes, they were still assaulted on all sides from the elements. During the day, many of them had to cover their wings and faces to prevent against the madness and blinding rays of the sun. And though the rays of the moon allowed them to see clearly across the sands, the night was cold and fraught with cutting winds and dangerous creatures.

Many of their kind died during the initial months. However, those that survived became more acclimated and resistant to the rigors of the desert and more cunning and knowledgeable about the wastes. They learned of mystic magics from the winds and the stars, and used them to slay and tame the beasts and savages of the land. Their bodies changed, becoming more compact, while their wings and antennae become broader. They learned to ride thermals into the sky to find nearby oases along their travels and discovered a way to grow potted dates and collect their moisture to drink from. Their skill at alchemy grew efficient as they learned to distill and make the most out of what scant resources they had. Many stopped at the various oases to build settlements. Anenzi allowed this and ensured that they would return for them once the land of providence was found. These sanctuaries flourished as the settlers erected great walls, towers, and shelter of alchemically and magically treated sand and stone.

===Founding of Faradash===

Eventually, Anenzi felt the weight of years grow heavy on his wings, so he gathered those of his inner circle and spoke to them. “I have lived a good life,” he said, “and I have seen this people flourish and grow in strength in the sight of Cimre. However, the time has come that I return to the dust from which I came, thus I have one final Prophecy.” He then pointed at a small hill in the distance. “Take my body to that hill and remove the dust from it. Erect a pyre and scatter my dust and my ashes together as one into the wind. Do this, and my star shall show unto you the Promised Land that Cimre has given us. It shall be yours so long as you remember my teachings.” And with his final words he passed, and his disciples did as he instructed. Upon that hill, which to this day is known as Thardalah, his rites were performed as instructed. And, when his dust and ashes were mixed and cast into the air, they became a bright shooting star, which illuminated what was on the other side of the hill: a great basin with a wonderful blue lake and a small river leading off into the distance.

It was there that they erected their capitol and named it Faradash, and became known as the Farapidaans, to distinguish themselves from their taller forest cousins. They established trade routes with their oasis brothers and built a great civilization for the glory of their goddess and her great prophet. As they built their civilization, so too did they build their culture and knowledge. Great planetariums and observatories were built within and alongside their mosques to observe, study and glorify the heavens. Great bazaars were established where they peddled their silks, potions, and other goods to the other desert-dwelling races. In their grand cities, the sounds of all manner of music could be heard throughout the streets, and the air was fragrant with the smell of alchemists at work, ceremonial perfumes, and the smoke of the occasional hookah. Soon their civilization became as wondrous as that of their brothers. And while there was still the threat of the occasional desert monster, band of savages, rogue elemental, or rare Sunstruck individual, the Farapidaans knew peace.

===Birth of the Moondrinkers===

Eventually, their civilization drew the ire and jealousy of “Kaskrendo of the Stone Mask”, a once proud Efreet Lord who traded his throne to become a foul aggregate of maggots. He grew enraged that such pitiful creatures, not even born of the desert, thought they could rule HIS desert! He tried to destroy their city, but was overpowered by their magics. He sought to conquer it with an army, but none would dare rise up against their empire. So he devised a plan to tear them from the inside out. He took some Farapidaans, some willing while other kidnapped, and experimented on them. He made them faster, stronger, fiercer, and blinded them with an insatiable thirst for blood. Their bodies would rebuild themselves from damage and they would look like normal Farapidaans at a glance. Thus he released his slaves, later to be known as Moondrinkers, unto the Farapidaan lands. Luckily, their creation was flawed. The Sun, once their lifegiver, proved fatal to the Moondrinkers and would burn and poison their forms. Their eyes would acquire a reddish tint over time as they drank, and their dust would smell of blood and ash. Furthermore, their very being became an anathema of life and could be damaged by the holy powers of the Farapidaan priesthood.

Despite these flaws, they proved a deadly foe, and many innocents were slaughtered by their might before the problem could be quelled. They acted as raiders across the desert and even assaulted the mothfolk of the mountains. This caused a brief, yet perilous period of contention between the cousin races, and it wasn't until the Farapidaan priesthood quelled the threat and aided the harried mothfolk did this subside. Still, in the dark alleyways and forsaken crags of the desert, some Moondrinkers still lurk, planning and conniving on how to slake their thirst. Worst still, there are rumors that Kaskrendo still lurks somewhere in the wastes, working on some way to perfect his monsters.