Before the Dusk Crusade, humanity thrived in Almira. Humans led advancements in architecture and urban planning, magical theory and academics. They created sprawling cities filled with grand temples and resplendent libraries, irrigation systems and magical factories that were the rival of all the other races.
These places now lie in ruin. When the Dusk Crusade swept across the land, fiendish and vampiric forces captured huge swaths of humanity. When they finished, barely a quarter of the population remained in the Material Plane. The rest of humanity had been captured and transported to the Palace of Sin to be used as slaves or meat animals.
In this current age, the human tribes have been rebuilt, though never to their former glory. A full millennium of growth and renewal has led to new advances in magic, defense and technology, but no time can replace their loss.
All humans belong to one of eight hereditary tribes. Each tribe specializes in a certain form of magic and together the tribes keep the balance of magic in Almira.
These places now lie in ruin. When the Dusk Crusade swept across the land, fiendish and vampiric forces captured huge swaths of humanity. When they finished, barely a quarter of the population remained in the Material Plane. The rest of humanity had been captured and transported to the Palace of Sin to be used as slaves or meat animals.
In this current age, the human tribes have been rebuilt, though never to their former glory. A full millennium of growth and renewal has led to new advances in magic, defense and technology, but no time can replace their loss.
All humans belong to one of eight hereditary tribes. Each tribe specializes in a certain form of magic and together the tribes keep the balance of magic in Almira.
The Tiger Legion - Tribe of Enchantment
The Tiger Legion is composed of three smaller legions, the Palm Wine Legion, the Treestag Legion, and the Fang Swarm Legion. The leaders of this tribe use moral boosting enchantments of cooperation and community to bind the three legions together.
The Tiger Legion is composed of three smaller legions, the Palm Wine Legion, the Treestag Legion, and the Fang Swarm Legion. The leaders of this tribe use moral boosting enchantments of cooperation and community to bind the three legions together.
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A young man dances through the trees, twin gandasas clutched in his hands, their blades shaped to look like the fangs of a great tiger. He steps through a cluster vines and plunges his twin weapons into the heart of a panther.
Deep in the Drunken Forest, a sage sits in the steamy haze and drinks palm wine. The visions come to her, slow and surreal, brought by the palm wine’s blessing. High in the bough of a verdant tree, a man crouches with a bow. Stag horn tattoos rise around his temples, and his feet hug the tree’s limb as though embracing an old friend. |
Members of the Fang Swarm Legion are the most combat ready members of the Tiger Legion. When warriors of the Fang Swarm reach the age of 13, they are left alone in the jungle for 7 days. Should they be maimed or return before their time has passed, trial-goers are disgraced, with maimed survivors often being forced to leave their homes or relegated to the most demeaning of jobs. Those who survive their trial in strength and dignity are gifted with the legion’s signature weapon, twin gandasas. These gandasas are fashioned to look like fangs, and their hilts are often made of precious woods and inlaid with ivory.
Members of the Fang Swarm Legion are hunters, bringing down large meat animals such as dire boar and even river sharks with their namesake gandasas. Chefs are highly revered by the Fang Swarm Legion, as much of the meat that their warriors bring back must be smoked and preserved. The Fang Swarm Legion created Gunung Hei, the Black Oak monastic tradition.
The steaming rainforest holds many secrets but nothing is hidden from the Palm Wine Legion. These master distillers use the sap of the palm tree and create a potent spirit which opens the mind to the secrets of the natural world. Palm wine is rarely sold to outsiders, and the secrets of its creation are closely guarded. Master distillers are highly regarded by their tribe, and the best often mentor as many as 30 students at a time.
The Palm Wine Legion is the least mobile of the three legions, often establishing small enclaves in the jungle. The Palm Wine Legion’s gardens and beautiful spectacles that integrate the untamed beauty of the jungle. The goddess Matsura often blesses these gardens as though they were her own, making them sanctuaries in the savage jungle.
The Treestag Legion searches the high treetops of the jungle for fruit and vegetables and traps animals that wander nearby. The most successful and well regarded members of the Tree Stag Legion are masters of mapping, climbing, trapping, and foraging high above the ground. At home in the steam-filled jungle canopies of the Drunken Forest, some members of this legion live their whole lives in the treetops, never once touching the ground. The Treestag Legion is named for the Treestag, intelligent magical beasts who come to members of this legion as Familiar.
Members of the Fang Swarm Legion are hunters, bringing down large meat animals such as dire boar and even river sharks with their namesake gandasas. Chefs are highly revered by the Fang Swarm Legion, as much of the meat that their warriors bring back must be smoked and preserved. The Fang Swarm Legion created Gunung Hei, the Black Oak monastic tradition.
The steaming rainforest holds many secrets but nothing is hidden from the Palm Wine Legion. These master distillers use the sap of the palm tree and create a potent spirit which opens the mind to the secrets of the natural world. Palm wine is rarely sold to outsiders, and the secrets of its creation are closely guarded. Master distillers are highly regarded by their tribe, and the best often mentor as many as 30 students at a time.
The Palm Wine Legion is the least mobile of the three legions, often establishing small enclaves in the jungle. The Palm Wine Legion’s gardens and beautiful spectacles that integrate the untamed beauty of the jungle. The goddess Matsura often blesses these gardens as though they were her own, making them sanctuaries in the savage jungle.
The Treestag Legion searches the high treetops of the jungle for fruit and vegetables and traps animals that wander nearby. The most successful and well regarded members of the Tree Stag Legion are masters of mapping, climbing, trapping, and foraging high above the ground. At home in the steam-filled jungle canopies of the Drunken Forest, some members of this legion live their whole lives in the treetops, never once touching the ground. The Treestag Legion is named for the Treestag, intelligent magical beasts who come to members of this legion as Familiar.
The Snow Leopard Caste - Tribe of Evocation
Members of the Snow Leopard Caste practice religious evocation, channeling the gods and their grace to do great deeds.
Members of the Snow Leopard Caste practice religious evocation, channeling the gods and their grace to do great deeds.
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The essence of divinity is all around us. The rivers crash with the power of Sondiq, the choir’s song fills the air with Taiocht’s majesty, the beauty of Matsura emanates from cherry blossoms and the children playing in the square. Reach for it. Roll is between your fingers. Grasp it firmly and pull it through the sieve of your faith. This is the truest form of magic.
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The Snow Leopard Caste lives in the pure white snow banks of Tai Leng, The Frigid Peaks. They build houses of ice invoke the protection of the gods to keep themselves warm. The greatest priests of the Snow Leopard cast are immortalized as saints. These wise powers call upon the gods to connect them to the Material Plane from the afterlife, so that they may continue to provide assistance to their community. In times of crisis, the priests of the Snow Leopard Caste invoke the saints, evoking their power and sometimes even calling them from beyond the mortal ken to provide assistance in combat. Members of the Caste often take up the mantle of clerics or warpriests or open themselves to the gods as oracles.
The Wendigo Axiom - Tribe of Necromancy
Members of the Wendigo Axiom practice necromancy as a means of preventing waste, discontent with the idea that the death of an animal or human should mean an end to that creature’s usefulness.
Members of the Wendigo Axiom practice necromancy as a means of preventing waste, discontent with the idea that the death of an animal or human should mean an end to that creature’s usefulness.
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Morality is a dead man’s tool. Animate his body and strip the weakness from it, do not waste a soldier in his hour of glory. The dead tell no lies and feel no pain. What better allies are there in our fight against Sin?
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The Wendigo Axiom is a nomadic tribe. They carry their possessions on sledges and move their camps in cycles along the Amiraz Floe, following the herds of reindeer and elk that make their home on the tundra. The Wendigo Axiom abhors waste. Each kill is cleaned and used fully. Horns are sharpened and cut into arrowheads, furs are used for warmth and innards used for divination and offerings to the gods.
This hatred of waste extends to the Axiom’s views on necromancy. To the Wendigo, a corpse of a companion left buried in ice is a waste of a good fighter. The Wendigo Axiom considers it an immense honor to be reanimated after death to continue their crusade against the Palace of Sin. Members of the Wendigo Axiom often take up the art of the wizard, arcanist, shaman or sage, using their magic to animate the bones of the dead. The Wendigo Axiom also boasts a number of powerful rangers, slayers and hunters who feed and protect their camps.
This hatred of waste extends to the Axiom’s views on necromancy. To the Wendigo, a corpse of a companion left buried in ice is a waste of a good fighter. The Wendigo Axiom considers it an immense honor to be reanimated after death to continue their crusade against the Palace of Sin. Members of the Wendigo Axiom often take up the art of the wizard, arcanist, shaman or sage, using their magic to animate the bones of the dead. The Wendigo Axiom also boasts a number of powerful rangers, slayers and hunters who feed and protect their camps.
The Icefish School - Tribe of Divination
Members of the Icefish School practice esoteric divination, using their magic to see the weave of fate around them
Members of the Icefish School practice esoteric divination, using their magic to see the weave of fate around them
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The weave of fate touches all things. In the flashing scales of the icefish, in the heron’s trilling cry, we see that all things are connected. Once you can see the weave, all things are known to you
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To the members of the Icefish School, the weave of fate is a tangible presence that shows itself throughout the world. Divining answers to life’s greatest questions simple requires that one read the patterns of cracks in the ice, the movement of birds across the tundra, or the swirls of steam rising through the air. Members of the Icefish School often create knotted cords in various designs, which they place on their doorposts to hold luck in their homes.
The Tortoise Nation - Tribe of Abjuration
Members of the Tortoise Nation practice physical abjuration, creating shields, walls and barriers to protect their people from harm.
Members of the Tortoise Nation practice physical abjuration, creating shields, walls and barriers to protect their people from harm.
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The stones of these walls have stood the test of many years. When Therou and his crusade ravaged the land, the did not fall. When Huo Hong and his Oni ravaged us with fire and flood, they did not fall. Do not fear this night, my child, for no unseen monster will penetrate these walls. Within the city, we are safe and free.
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The Tortoise Nation protects their people behind the walls of Kappa, a great city on the edge of the desert Tai Ke. This city’s massive marble walls are reinforced with centuries of powerful protective spells. The Tortoise Nation is ruled by an empress and her nobility, with titles being passed down matrilineally. The Kappan court is a vicious place, where insults are a form of art and a thousand political intrigues are orchestrated each day.
Unlike the other human tribes which consist of many groups in many places, the Tortoise Nation holds Kappa as their one and only city and homeland. The great palaces, marble walls, and well maintained homes hold about 95% of the tribe’s people.
Unlike the other human tribes which consist of many groups in many places, the Tortoise Nation holds Kappa as their one and only city and homeland. The great palaces, marble walls, and well maintained homes hold about 95% of the tribe’s people.
The Serpent Pact - Tribe of Illusion
Members of the Serpent Pact practice the art of concealing themselves with illusions, wrapping themselves in invisibility, creating illusory clones, and fabricating disguises so convincing they can steal and plunder within the Palace of Sin itself.
Members of the Serpent Pact practice the art of concealing themselves with illusions, wrapping themselves in invisibility, creating illusory clones, and fabricating disguises so convincing they can steal and plunder within the Palace of Sin itself.
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If you have stolen our lands, it is not theft for us to take the grain you have reaped from them. If you have stolen our children, it is not theft to free them from the yoke of your slavery. If you have taken everything from us, it is not theft for us to take it back
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The Serpent Pact is one of Almira's most secretive human tribes. Often trained in assassination, stealth, and theft, citizens of the Serpent Pact lives in hidden cities within Tai Ke. Members of the Serpent Pact often worship Alquatl or Jericho, for these gods preach the use of trickery and illusions to help the greater good. Members of the Serpent Pact who take animal companions often train spitting cobras to work with them, as the cobra is the sacred animal of Alquatl.
The Serpent Pact has no specific agricultural or trade practices. However, these masters of of stealth and theft are well known for their forays into the Palace of Sin to steal food and supplies. Those who have been to their hidden cities note that they are well stocked with items like water, food, weapons, and medicines. These hauls are often shared with those who are less fortunate; sick soldiers and the families of those killed by the Palace of Sin will often find mysterious gifts on their doorsteps, expensive medicines, food, or bags of coin with the symbol of the Serpent Pact prominently displayed.
The Serpent Pact has no specific agricultural or trade practices. However, these masters of of stealth and theft are well known for their forays into the Palace of Sin to steal food and supplies. Those who have been to their hidden cities note that they are well stocked with items like water, food, weapons, and medicines. These hauls are often shared with those who are less fortunate; sick soldiers and the families of those killed by the Palace of Sin will often find mysterious gifts on their doorsteps, expensive medicines, food, or bags of coin with the symbol of the Serpent Pact prominently displayed.
The Silverback Clan - Tribe of Conjuration
The Silverback Clan practices conjuration as a form of self empowerment, calling or summoning outsiders of all alignments to make deals and gain power in the silvernocht, a test of strength with determines the clan chief.
The Silverback Clan practices conjuration as a form of self empowerment, calling or summoning outsiders of all alignments to make deals and gain power in the silvernocht, a test of strength with determines the clan chief.
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Power begets power. It is only by the will of the of the mighty that we ourselves grow strong
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Most members of the Silverback Clan are menial laborers, picking coconuts, guava, pineapple, and cassava amidst the steam of the Drunken Forest. The fruit produced by this labor is given to the chief of each clan as an offering, then redistributed according to the clan chief’s whim. A clan chief’s word is absolute, those who ignore the word of the clan chief are eliminated with no mercy, but a bounty of pain.
On the night of the first full moon of each year, members of each clan congregate at ancestral battlegrounds for the silvernocht, a night-long combat. The last living combatant becomes clan chief for the year. During these brawls, the most affluent members of each clan summon or call outsiders to provide them with power or fight by their side. Members of the Palace of Sin often provide power to favored clan members, providing profane blessings in return from the promise of a steady stream of willing slaves
On the night of the first full moon of each year, members of each clan congregate at ancestral battlegrounds for the silvernocht, a night-long combat. The last living combatant becomes clan chief for the year. During these brawls, the most affluent members of each clan summon or call outsiders to provide them with power or fight by their side. Members of the Palace of Sin often provide power to favored clan members, providing profane blessings in return from the promise of a steady stream of willing slaves
The Black Eagle Concordat - Tribe of Transmutation
Members of the Black Eagle Concordat practice restorative transmutation magic, taking many disparate things and turning them into a single unbroken whole, much like the founding of the Concordat itself.
Members of the Black Eagle Concordat practice restorative transmutation magic, taking many disparate things and turning them into a single unbroken whole, much like the founding of the Concordat itself.
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Where once there were ashes, there is now a new whole. Where once there was hopelessness, there is now a new hope. Where once The House of Herons stood, a new clan stands, formed from pieces of a brave and perpetual resistance
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In a time before the Dusk Crusade, two scheming devils sought to turn the tribes of the humanity against one another. They struck a deal with the House of Herons, offering power and protection in exchange for their severance from the rest of the human tribes. The devils thought this imbalance would bring about the downfall of humanity but it was not so. The deal was struck but the terms were changed by the great law-mages of the House. So it was that House of Herons completed its schism from the rest of humanity, gaining great power and protection in the process.
In its place rose the Black Eagle Concordat. Members of the other human tribes came together, convening a great magical rite binding a new tribe in place of the old. Thus the balance of magic was restored and the world continued to thrive.
In its place rose the Black Eagle Concordat. Members of the other human tribes came together, convening a great magical rite binding a new tribe in place of the old. Thus the balance of magic was restored and the world continued to thrive.