Post by Κομμα on Jan 9, 2011 13:54:49 GMT 7
Now lying in ruins, a town that once served as a peaceful safe haven for heavily persecuted users of dark magic; a perfect example of how peace and acceptance, no matter how appealing they sound, can be the downfall of a community.
Name: Kreios
Founded: 3972 AC
Fall: 4272 AC (a little over ten years ago; current year is 4282)
Primary Race: Humans
Location:
In the southwestern corner of the of the heavily forested region that many of the shapeshifters call home. The village itself was very small, but had managed to form a spoken agreement over the years with the shapeshifters of where they may hunt and fish. One of their borders is on the ocean, the other on the southern border of the forest, and the other two against the forest.
Geography:
Trees, trees, and more trees; a predominately coniferous forest with some deciduous trees mixed in, small brush and bushes along the ground, flowers, more nature than you can shake a stick at. The village itself was located in a clearing that was cleared out by the original founders of the village, and was bordered on one side mostly by cliffs that drop off into water, though there are a few small beaches, mostly rocky rather than sandy, and plenty of good fishing spots. The village is now overgrown, though remnants of houses and remains of its old residents are scattered around that part of the forest.
Residents:
Though it is now in ruins and no longer houses any residents, Kreios was predominately a safehaven for users of dark magic who were sick of being persecuted. It was home to a variety of different types of magic users, though somewhere around fifty percent of them used dark magic. Any magic user with good intentions was welcome to live there, and the residents were all very involved in each other’s lives, much like a very overlarge family, the town elders their parents and guardians. Magic was very much a part of their everyday lives.
Government:
Kreios was something of a democracy, as well as a sort of tribe. Main authority was held by a few village elders, who were descendents of the original elders, but their decisions were affected by opinions of the people in the town. Generally smaller decisions were left up to them alone, and any larger decisions were presented at town meetings and voted on by the people of the township. It was also required that new residents of the town speak with the elders before being accepted into the community; if they seemed to have hostile intent, then they were sent away.
History:
A few families of dark magic users were banished from Glendaeth and managed to find their way to the forests of the shapeshifters. Sick of the persecution that they faced everywhere else, they confined themselves here, built new homes in the very corner of the forest, created their own little hunter-gatherer community. They accepted a few others who were banished into their midst and the idea to build a town that was a safe haven from the bias of the rest of the world was formed. It would be kept a secret, but as with all things, rumors were bound to get out, and people would know to come.
Within the years following its founding, the town remained generally small, and any decision made was done as a community at town meetings. There was a border dispute with shape shifters as the town began to expand their borders a bit, but official borders were eventually decided upon, and rules were set in place over exactly what these borders meant. The shapeshifters were helpful enough overall, and agreed without much further dispute to give up the small area to the town to accommodate their needs, and the land had more than enough resources for the town to live off of. They were welcome to cross the border, and were welcome to use resources outside of their borders if those resources could not be found within their borders and as long as they gained the permission of the shapeshifters beforehand.
Unfortunately, about ten years ago, the village was met by tragedy. The elders were tricked by a guild of fallen magic users who wanted to use it as a base and drive out its current residents, and they ended up destroying the village in a fight against the residents to obtain it, killing nearly all the residents. The village is mostly overgrown now, though traces of burned homes and artifacts from them, as well as remains of villagers, may be found where it was once located.
Border relations:
Town residents were welcome to wander out of their borders within the shapeshifers’ territory, but not to hunt without good reason for hunting there. Similarly, the shapeshifters may not hunt within Kreios’ borders. These borders were marked by white and teal paint on the trees that was once checked on regularly and repainted when it started to fade, so the borders were always well defined; now they have long since faded. Relations with peoples to the south of their territory is currently unknown. Relations with their western border were nonexistent, given it was an ocean border and there was no one to relate to there, except for perhaps a few fish, who probably didn’t like them very much due to the Kreiosians’ fishing habits.
The Outside World:
The outside world knows very little about Kreiosians, as they were a very secretive people. As the village was founded as a safehaven for dark magic users, they never ventured far outside of their borders, and therefore had a strong sense of nationalism, or as much nationalism as a single town could have. It didn’t grow much over the years, starting out with just a couple families and growing to have no more than five or six families at a time, never having more than 150 residents total. Families did leave occasionally, but kept the town a secret except to those dark magic users in need of such a place. By the time of its fall, Kreios had passed into legend among many persecuted dark magic users, a fairy tale place of which they could only dream.
