Pelithos

Template:Breadcrumbs Pelithos

Etymology

Pelithos (from Pelethine "pelagos" (the sea's surface) and "lithos" (stone/earth), the "realm of sea and stone", or "realm of stones amid the sea") is the shard realm home to the fey. Lore about Pelithos comes from its own mortal scholars as well as its demigods, the imitheoi.

Lore

Discusses how lore of the realm came to be known by the inhabitants of the Integrum.

History

Discusses the history of the realm through the major ages of the universe.

Cosmology

Discusses the nature of realm in relation to the cosmology of the universe.

Geography

Discusses the physical layout of the realm, included regions, terrain, and other features.

Dytikos

Western Dytikos is consumed with war. The Helm's Thundering Horde conquers all in its path, ruling the central plains of the Aplos.

The remains of the Acrolonian Hegemony still holds the western heartland of Old Aletheia in its desperate and merciless grip, battling the Helm and the rebels to the south.

The New Aletheian nations along the southwestern coast struggle to survive against both Horde and Hegemony. The many isles of the Dytikan Archipelago, still in Hegemony hands, are simmering with revolution and piracy.

The Archon ruler of Katerga in the Aplos buys independence for his city with tribute to the Horde. The old caravan city rife with debauchery and intrigue, as spies and agents from all nearby powers come to deal with one another.

The aurora-crowned Avigian Barrens lie in the heart of the Aplos, a vaultland beneath the titanic gaze of broken stars. Cyclops tribes dwell among the ruins of Arcadian cities, hunted for sport by the Helm, and savage to would-be treasure-hunters. The northern Fidion Coast seems an idyllic land of prosperous city-states, following the hasty withdrawal of the Hegemony. But rogue pirate-lords from the Boreal Archipelago and Hegemony raiders alike pick at them, and behind the façade, the vampiric Lamia pull the strings.

In the towering peaks of the Fidion Ori, south of the coast, the ruins of the great Pythian Empire moulder. Vast mineral wealth awaits in the Labyrinth, the vault-caves beneath the mountains, where the Sisters of Stone and other forces of fury gather their power.

The old lands of Epolosia along the southeastern coast are gradually being overrun by the asphodel flowers unleashed by the Curse of the Oboloi. Where they spread, the blood-drinking shades of the dead are free to roam. The Great Crypt of Taphos lies at the heart of the infestation, the home of the now deceased Oboloi who released the Curse to halt the Acrolonian Invasion in her lands. The city of Epolosus, famed for its learning, home of the fallen Caduceus, lies wracked with disease, riddled with asphodel, and half-abandoned by its inhabitants.

In the heart of a great oasis in the Golden Waste, Pyrgos stands proud, home of Aegis and Owl. The city houses the famous Lyceum Stratigikis, the Owl's school of military art and science. They oppose the Helm and his Horde, but haven't mobilized against him yet, instead facing the immediate concern of asphodel encroachment to the south. Aberrations and fiery titan beasts roam the dunes.

Chemaros jealously guards his riverlands between the Aplos and desert. Since the end of the Invasion, the Archon has little patience for the imitheoi and their Theagonas. All who would cross must pay tribute, and only his naiad children may sail the river. He particularly loathes the Helm, who butchered many naiads, and the Trident, who seeks to control Port Limani, at the northern mountain-lined bay where his river mouth empties.

• Dytikos
  • The Esperines
  • Aletheia
  • The Aplos
    • The Avigian Barrens
  • Phidion Ori & The Phidion Coast
  • Epolosia
  • The Vale of Chemaros
  • The Golden Waste
  • Kyterion Ori

• Thalassa Velos
  • The Boreal Archipelago
  • Maelstrom
  • Southern Isles

• Antolikos
  • Potamia & The Cypress Coast
  • The Aphxanamos
  • The Opagos
  • The Erimian Wild
  • Synnephion Ori
  • Polla Vasileia
  • The Dragon's Tail
  • Calcaria

Inhabitants

Discusses the inhabitants of the realm.

• Alseids (Elves, ur-shard-race)
  • Pligian Alseids (Queensplague)
  • Dro-on (Night mutation)

• Alseid Ferals (Anyot's Curse)
  • Satyr
  • Pythians
  • Harpies
  • ??? Kynokephaloi
  • Psarikampoi

• Dryads (long-ago fury mutation??? god-made by early influence of a Mantle?)
  • Nightshade Dryads (Night mutation)
  • Pligian Dryads (Queensplague)
  • Dendric Dryads (drank the Elixir of Sleep)

• Oreads (long-ago fury mutation??? god-made by early influence of a Mantle?
  • Pligian Oreads (Queensplague)
  • Moonstone Oreads (Night mutation)
  • Lithic Oreads (drank the Elixir of Sleep)

God-made

• Naiads (interbred with / shepherded by Chemaros)
• Lamia (interbred with Codex servitors)

Fury Mutants / Monsters

• Glacial Satyr
• Gorgons (pythian derived)
• Mandragora (dryad derived, murderous jungle monster-dryad)
• Cyclops (orc mutants)
• Leukrotta (orc mutants)
• Azer / Dactyloi (dwarf mutants)
• Saltbound (psarikampoi derived)

• Outlanders
  • humans (mostly from acrolonian invasion), orcs, dwarves
  • minotaurs (nor feral)
  • Demonbloods (interbred with demons; human derived mostly, some derived from alseids or others)

??? Centaur Nyxian Centaurs (intentional Night mutation by the Helm)

Neriads

Tritons (migration into the Strange Sea) Vathys (Obyrith-warped) Proteans (Fall and Night mutation)

Grimm (stone Nor) Myrmidons (Fall mutation)

Pelithos stuff goes here...

• original pelithine shard race = alseids (or just "fey" at this time)

• ferals (all from alseids): satyrs, harpies, kampoi?, pythians, centaurs, minotaurs (immigrants?)
• fury mutants (gorgons, kampoi? cyclops?)
  • cyclops could be a race of giants slipped out into the Avigian Vaultland
• strange mutants (crazy people (maenads?) or obyrith flesh-twisted mutants)

lamia could be a secrety society / cult of the Viper, pattern heralds, using their powers to be dark muses

• used anyot's curse and local telar to become serpentine intentionally? or they could all just be wereserpents? could be a cult from Pythian days

• demons
• obyrith
• Lost

• heralds
• fury sorcerers
• hidden form mages (from acrolon)
• limited strange (lost, obyrith, early students)
• limited shadow magic among the tanari darkstargazers
• solipsis / monadic

• eventually strange scholars realize there are 7 uncolonized Loci in the strange, they believe they can take then and ride out the Fall. it doesn't go quite as expected
• elemental form mutations happen in the Fall: neriads / naiads, dryads, oreads, (air nymphs?)

• pelithine: greek
• arcadian: irish

The Theoi & Mantles

Pelithine gods come out of the Shattering broken into Mantles. The Dancer, Sentinel, etc were the shard gods within the Timestorm, but sacrificed themselves to keep Pelithos whole (keep the titans from breaking free; as the Timestorm ends, damage to the Apparatus results in the leaks (proto-Vaultlands), which lead to titan cults and the First Titanomachia in the early Shattered Age). The cults manage to call Starfall down, empowering the Vaultlands to their current severity) before the imitheoi triumph.

• Builder (form, man)
  • The Key (modulates the flow of fury energies; throw lightning bolts)
  • The Hammer
  • ???clay (argilos)

• Mariner (life, man)
  • The Trident (controls water, seas, rivers, rain; created the spring of Pyrgos)
  • The Cornucopia (birth, fertility, growth)
  • The Caduceus (healing, medicine)

• Weaver (destiny, woman)
  • The Loom (fate, beginnings?, order time and space)
  • The Owl (guidance, strategy, farsight, wisdom, travel)
  • The Pyxis (doom, disruption, breadkdown of space and time) ???the bearer is turning the box into a die to become chance (carved runes on the faces of the box, it can grow and shrink)

• Keeper (death, man)
  • The Oboloi (ruler of the underworld, crucible, lead coins, gravity)
  • The Sickle (dying, entropy, killing)
  • The Amphora (psychopomp, gathering of waters, holds the memories/experiences of the dead; in vino veritas; poet speaks the stories of the dead? drink to forget / river lethe? maenads (lose the drinking contest and become a maenad, dionysus and thanatos)

• Sentinel (day, woman)
  • The Aegis (protection, courage, hope)
  • The Wreath (charismatic leadership, harmony)
  • The Beacon (clear sight, revelation, truth, light)

• Reaver (night, man)
  • The Helm (tyrany, domination, fear)
  • The Viper (treachery, discord, hate)
  • The Spear (mercilessness)

• Huntress (summer, woman)
  • The Bow (speed, movement)
  • The Horn (sound, call to passion)
  • The Hound (swift, hungry, and howls)

• Dancer (pattern, enby)
  • "the edict" "the scroll" "the tablet" "the message" (language, law, commerce)
  • The Lyre (music, art, stories)
  • The White Tree (now a vestige)

• Witch (winter, woman) - white witch vibe
  • The Jewel (greed)
  • The Wand (ice, cold; can't fully inherit until you have a daughter of your own)
  • The Veil / Shroud (stillness, heat death, grief, sorrow, regret)

• There are 9 Thrones. 1 Enthroned bearer from each domain is most stable. Not having that leads to upsets in natural order.
• There are lots and lots of servitors on Pelithos. They are manifested by the Apparatus to deal with disruptions to the natural order, but end up staying so long they form identities. They stick around, but also develop their own ideas about their domains (river-gods, city-gods, etc). The Imitheoi don't always have full authority over them, esepecially the powerful ones.

Cults

• the power a Primarch has to invest in heralds and exarchs is more fungible for Imitheoi. They create cults with different manifestations and distributions of power, A new bearer may take over an existing cult, or seek to reapportion power according to their own knowledge / understanding / desires / instincts. This can leave residual cults from older bearers, who may even be antagonistic to the new bearer, who might want to reclaim the mantle's power from the current holders to reassign.

Imitheoi Cults

• The Hekaton
  • the involuntary cult of the Spear. The bearer doesn't seem to be able to change the rules or reassign power. Small herald-level foci distribute themselves to warriors (often presenting as a prize in a martial contest or a prize to be won through battle, adventure, or valor). Slaying a focus-bearer lets one claim it, so people Highlander their way toward gathering lots of focus-power. They eventually work their way toward defeating the Spear-bearer and becoming an Imitheos. If the Spear-bearer slays them, the focus power scatters back out into the world, finding new hosts.

• Maenads
  • losers of the drinking contest to claim the Amphora become maenads, joining the Amphora's throng. quasi-undead?

• The Votaniko
• The Achridanoi
• Keywardens
• School of the Sun (da vinci)
• The Sacred Suns
• The Dikastes
• Cult of the Three-Horned Goat
• The Lyceum Stratigikis / The Strategon
• Cult of the Rose
• The Harvest
• The Sisterhood of the Crossroads
• The Vipers
• Lords of Plenty
• The Toxotes
• Lyceum of Epolosus
• The Masked Rebellion / The Cast Die

Acrolonian

• The Stoics (monks)
• The Mastigos
• Corsairs of Nighthold
• Manus Amantis

Fury Cults

• Sisters of Stone
• Windfury Shrikes
• Horns of Winter
• The Brood
• Fathomless
• Trees of Woe
• Blood Tide
• Deadwater Adepts

Strange Cults

• The Unyielding Seven
• Cult of the Dreamer
• Threefold Coven
• House of Rush-Lights
• The Seven Fingers (fingersmith thieves' guild)