Setting:Tabula Gloria/Aeva/The Raptorlords

To be blunt, there is extremely little on the historical record about these people. Though they are tribal in nature, they have very little in common with their fellow tribal folk. They do not revere the wilderness, as do their Stormlord and Alkhani cousins. Their culture does not have the psychopomps and mercy of the Eltyain. They do not even have the aspirations of eternal life as the Yatoka. And they certainly do not have the patience and guile of the Drakonids. Of course, that doesn't mean much as these people do not even have a written language and their oral tradition is so muddled with mythical and inflated language that it is difficult to figure out what is right and what is wrong about it. Perhaps there's more to them than what the scholars have conjured up, but it doesn't seem like that will happen anytime soon. And that is exactly the way the Raptorlords prefer it to be.

The Seven Cairns

The Raptorlords call their home Aeva, a land which is locked in a constant war among seven clans called Cairns. These Cairns are determined by ancestry, each Cairn able to determine nearly their entire family tree by the growing pile of skulls at the center of each Cairn's territory. Perhaps it is best to see Cairns as extended families of sorts, inbreeding among each other to keep their bloodlines as pure as possible. Exactly how they haven't all died out by this practice by thin blood has yet to be seen. The war itself is driven by the primal need of the Cairns to rise above each other, to leave only one Cairn left as the strongest in the land. And according to the Raptorlord, the war pleases their goddess of the world, in which the land takes its name.

Their bloodshed, their pain, their suffering, but also the strength of Her people which grows stronger and stronger with each passing generation of warriors is to lead to the naming of a victor, one singular Cairn to survive, which would please the goddess the most. Religion by natural selection, if you would.

A Convoluted Code

This is only one of many interesting traditions in which the Raptorlords partake. For instance, hair length is of importance in social standing. First of all, a Cairnsman's hair must never be sheared in his lifetime. The hair must never be too short, lest the Cairnsman be morally bankrupt. It can also never be too long, lest he is slow of mind. As such, almost all mature Cairnsmen maintain a specifically coiled braid of hair to maintain the desired length. Also, Carinsmen are encouraged to remain on the battlefield until all the slain fully pass away, for only then is it safe to harvest the enemy's skulls for their Cairn's collection. Continuing in the matters of war, if a Cairnsman is slain in battle, but is revived by an Alkyr Sprite before his skull is harvested, then he is to be spared and respected, elevated to the status of an Alkyr Secondborn, harboring the Sprite's spirit and wisdom within him.

Regarding the Alkyr Secondborn, they are treated like a different people altogether. These special souls, tinged with a rich golden skin and a special mark emblazoned upon their breast, are regarded to as soothsayers, prophets of a sort. They also serve in a bardic capacity, carrying the Raptorlords' rich oral tradition and their songs into the next generation. They also seem to be exempt not only to the constant war among the Cairns, but also to the basic power structure surrounding the war, often visiting other Cairns to share their stories and songs. Their travels also take them to other lands, the only of their kind not to lash out instinctively at foreigners. They speak of the Raptorlords' traditions, their happenings, and their tales to all who will listen, spreading knowledge of his warring people. An oddity given the single-minded tendency of the Raptorlords to annihilate until only one Cairn remains.

Perhaps their strangest tradition is their respect of winged creatures. Aeva is a land full of crows, ravens, and other intelligent corvids. Killing a bird brings a man a year of bad luck. Consuming a bird however is a grave sin, enough to make a man a pariah and an outcast, no longer accepted by his Cairn or even the more-accepting Secondborn, damned to live in the wilderness forever alone. Each Raptorlord owns several birds in his lifetime, cherishing each one and using them as his eyes in the sky and his constant companion. Each Cairn has their own pedigree of birds to use, training their breed as excellent scouts and treating them almost as spirit guides, trusting them to show the way in dire situations. Surprisingly, in most circumstances, they use them like this, not even in the supposed dire situations. This spiritual union with their corvid allies is what has earned the Raptorlords their namesake.

Many punishments lie in wait for Raptorlords who do not abide by this code. The worst of these are reserved for those who shun the Raptorlords' ways in their entirety. Consuming one of their feathered companions, fighting for someone other than one's own Cairn, and killing one of the exalted Secondborn for the second time are examples of what can get a Raptorlord to be exiled to Rift. A dark, deep valley colder than the already frigid surface of Aeva, Rift is a place in which a Raptorlord is stripped of his kinship to his Cairn and his identity as one of Aeva's children. Usually, one is simply exiled to Rift to live the rest of their days as a wild man, but for those who truly commit the worst of the worst, they are dragged there kicking and screaming. Tied to a post and left wide open, the birds circling overhead swoop in and eviscerate the man alive, After seven dawns pass, the offender's skull is harvested, smashed at his Cairn, and cast off to sea by his executioner, forever ridding the fellow Raptorlords of his memory.

Sirens of the North

Unlike many other cultures, the Raptorlords exist in truce with the winged race of harpies. Though the flying women usually prefer warmer climates such as the Garvenus Steppe as the Wastes of Weylos, there is a particular variant that was once known to haunt the Northern Sea, soaring from the Iotold Homelands to the Northern isle of Aeva. They are the Hagravens, powerful, ash-skinned women who stand above most men, covered in sinuous muscle and jet black feathers. In the old days of the Empire, one could often be seen circling above a boat, singing in its own warbling, whimsical tongue. In truth, it was conjuring up a storm to sink the vessel, so it could pluck its shipwrecked victims out of the freezing water and carry them away to serve as lovers, servants and food.

After the first defeat of the Lord of the Tempest, Emperor Margurim IV ordered that each ship was to carry a skilled archer, to shoot the Hagravens from the sky whenever they were seen. This was surprisingly effective, decimating their population to such a point where rather than seen as threats, they were hunted by the servants of tailors for their beautiful feathers, so they could be crafted into exotic cloaks. As the years passed, sightings of Hagravens became rarer and rarer, to the point where their danger was long forgotten, viewed only as omens of bad luck rather than bringers of storms. Eventually, the ash-skinned harpies disappeared from the Northern Sea entirely and the Department of History had no choice but to declare them extinct. While Hagravens haven't been seen near the Imperial coast in living memory, they are still very much alive.

In truth, the Hagravens fled, to find a more suitable home and they found Aeva, where they were treated to a much-needed truce. They make themselves at home atop the chilly crags, soaring around the archipelago, feasting themselves on Imperial captives and breeding with fine Raptorlord stock. Most shockingly, the Hagravens actually gave something in return for all that the native Aevans offered them. Once infamous for slaying their rare male offspring, they now offer them to their fathers to raise as mighty warriors, tall and raven-skinned like their mothers. Only amongst the Raptorlords is it such a great privilege to be Hagspawn. Their eyes are like a hawk's, their voices are like thunder and they are rarely seen without an unkindness of ravens trailing after them, like a cloak crafted from the night itself. No Raptorlord father could hope for a finer son and there are many tales sung about the beauty of the Hagravens and the valor of their children.

Tempestuous Love

Despite their lust for war and structure, the Raptorlords are a surprisingly prolific people when it comes to the oral tradition. Though much of it is incredibly fanciful and considered as hearsay, many of their tales can amazingly be relevant to the current age. One significant example is a story which suggests a connection between the Raptorlords and the Lord of the Tempest from the Northern Sea in which it borders. Ulpaka, as the Raptorlords call the Lord, existed from a time before even the Old Empires, during the time of the Itol seafarers who ruled the world's oceans. Ulpaka was a known as a great warrior capable of immense brutality as well as practiced finesse in battle. His strength and agility so impressed the goddess Aeva that She fell in love with Him. She then manifested as a mortal woman in order to express Her love to Ulpaka, laying with Him and eventually bearing four daughters and three sons.

The seafaring Itol were considered enemies of the land, seething when they have learned of Aeva's mortal form coupled with the fearsome warrior Ulpaka. But they also saw potential for their own progress in the goddess's assumed mortality. They would concoct a cunning plan to rid the world of its land and cover it with boundless ocean by perverting Aeva's powers. The Itol waited ever so patiently until Ulpaka was caught unawares and captured the goddess's mortal form. With the goddess in their clutches, the Itol began to ceaselessly lash at Her formerly pure form, the loss of Her flesh resulting in entire sections of the world falling into churning seas. So enraged was Ulpaka that he proceeded to chase the Itol on land, and when the land beneath his feet fell into the sea, he swam the seas fueled by an indescribable fury at his loss.

When Ulpaka caught up with the Itol, there would indeed be revenge. Lashing at Aeva once more, the Itol had then cast Her out of their vessel, buying them just enough time to rise forth from the waves and into the skies. The distraction was enough to send Ulpaka's finishing strike at the remnants of the Itol, encasing them in a prison of ice, never to be seen from again. The sight of Her scarred body made Him weep with the deepest sorrows, sorrows which would soon ignite into a boundless rage as he pursued the villainous Itol once more across the ocean, drifting away from Aeva and their children as He grasped at His enemies, barely out of reach. Undeniably scarred by the Itol's evil, Aeva became terrified of the mortality She had assumed, resuming the form of the goddess once more and descending back into the earth. Now without their father Ulpaka to guide them and with Aeva in dire need of love once more, their seven children began to fight with one another, forming the Cairns and perpetuating a war that lasts to this very day.

Terror of the Seas

Such ends the Tale of the Forefather, a tragic story with very real implications. It can very well be assumed that the Itol refer to the Iotold people, a seafaring people who nearly met a supernatural end - likely that of the Lord of the Tempest - weren't for their ability to adapt and take their whales to the sky. It is also known that the Raptorlords also fare the Northern Sea in search for battle against their fellow Cairnsmen, somehow able to traverse it without drawing the ire of the Lord and His ilk. There are even accounts of their ability to summon forth Stormrays from the icy depths to assist them on the waters, easily suggesting an alliance with the Lord. Though it is unknown exactly what the Iotold did to cause such devastation to their homelands, the story is sure to involve the Raptorlords in one way or another.

As the Raptorlords travel the Northern Sea to fight each other, they are not averse to taking the fight to others they encounter along the way. They are known to raid trading vessels as well as going hull-to-hull with even the mighty Imperial Warships. Despite the heavy armoring and vastly superior firepower, the Raptorlords manage to be incredibly swift on the violent surf. And when that fails, they are still able to summon forth terrors of the deep to give them the edge in a naval battle. To no one's surprise, the Raptorlord menace is something which can certainly spell a ship's doom on the Northern Sea, leading most sailors to avoid them at all costs. It has even forced others to cease maritime trading with the Empire altogether.

Victory against the Empire

Emperor Margurim IX became increasingly worried about the economy as a particularly strong rash of Raptorlord attacks were reported, especially as he had already dealt with the third of the Lord of the Tempest's assaults upon the Empire's north. He decided to end this threat once and for all, assembling the most majestic naval fleet he could at the Imperial Port, setting them out to the northwest towards Aeva, to take them out at their nest. It would prove to be a foolhardy decision which made for the worst naval defeat in the Empire's otherwise glorious military history. The Raptorlord fleets united and sailed circles around the Imperial fleet, striking at them with weaker, but more plentiful shots. Some of the ships were destroyed from the strikes alone, others were driven off into rocky shoals, others even capsized while trying to evade more than the ships could handle. The Raptorlords won the battle handily, leaving all the ships wrecked or otherwise missing and only half of the fleet surviving. Even the survivors would find their way back to the Empire over the course of a decade, their defeat that absolute.

Upon the fleet's defeat at Aeva, the Imperial people clamored out for the Emperor's abdication. Some even demanded that he be executed for sending so many out there to certain death. The din grew so much that the Department of Inquiry got involved, bringing the Emperor before his own Royal Judiciary to testify on the charges. The trial had gripped the Empire over the course of a month, but the Judiciary absolved the Emperor of the charges. Though the result was expected - by law, the second-in-line to the throne serves on the Judiciary - it also spurred forth some of the greatest reforms in Imperial naval warfare, such as creating ships which could move much faster than their old Warships and introducing tactics and maneuvers to better evade a Raptorlord assault, among other changes. It also had a cultural effect on the people. For instance, it is best to change course when one sees a raven on the seas. Another example would be an insult someone wouldn't ever want to be the target of: "To Aeva with you!"