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Tier I: Initiate
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"Don't you know? Toraйkeriй never die."
Joined: Jul 2007
Gender: Male 
Posts: 122
Location: Atherom
|  | Race: The Nulls
« Thread Started on Oct 13, 2009, 10:52pm » | |
Overview:
The Nulls trace their roots back over 12000 years. This claim, of course, is of course not rock solid or known truth; indeed if their incredible claim were true their civilization would be the greatest cultural survival story of a human group ever. They have changed quite a large amount over time, and it is only in the past 250 years that their classical democracy, religion, culture, and true military tradition have arisen.
Appearance:
Human in appearance. While they have gained quite a bit of diversity over the years due to cultural factors, the majority of people have red, blond, or light brown hair and either green or blue eyes.
Aging:
Life expectancy is 37 years. However, when military or missionary deaths are excluded, this jumps to 56 years.
Inherent Abilities:
Nulls have an almost 50% occurrence of synesthesia, with all the advantages and disadvantages that entails. The culture places a high value on fitness and physical strength, mostly because up to 80% of the population can and will be mobilized for military service at once.
The Nulls have a good grasp of engineering and chemistry, including the propellant/explosive they call "Fire of God". Their metallurgy is surprisingly advanced. However, most of their armies still use more basic weaponry, as more advanced weapons are incredibly expensive.
Inherent Weaknesses:
The Nulls prefer cold climates. Also, their culture makes no use magic, at least not in the traditional sense, and their armies react badly to the use of magic against them.
Territory:
One ancient source, Valtarov documented the following events. His writing is so old that no one can verify it's truth; the Nulls hold his writing as true history. According to him, c. 6000 m.s., shortly before the rise of the Shenndei, the Nulls possessed most of Talambar and Srada, with possibly some holds in Aetherae, Atherom, and Feayra. The Shenndei's rise was a disaster; in less than half a decade, they were forced all the way back into the southern Sradan mountains. Only the sacrifice of their most elite military unit saved them from complete annihilation.
For the 12000 years since then, they have existed only in that south mountain region, except for some evidence indicating several "crusades" against the Shenndei, but this is again unconfirmed and unconfirmable. Their territory used to be a good bit larger; several hundred years ago, for unknown reasons, large tracts of land were lost to the Void.
Government:
The Nulls have a direct democracy, whose offices are very subject to the people's will and often obtain more responsibility than authority. One must sacrifice more than one gains in government service.
Occupations:
The Nulls are largely agrarian; the main body of heavy infantry that form the core of their army come from this base. A large minority work either as miners or smiths. Towns employ grocers, butchers, cobblers, etc. Universities employ scientists, professors, and philosophers (though philosophers will often also have a position affiliated with the church). The church, quite separated from the government, employs a very few pastors, officials and theologians.
Housing:
Buildings built from wood or stone, some thatched roofs in certain parts.
Diet:
Freshwater fish, anything they can grow in the mountains, wild fruit, lots of chicken, some beef, sheep, and wild game (no pork).
Weaponry:
The three branches of their military use different types of weaponry.
The Infantry
The Infantry are drawn mostly from agrarian people. Their armor consists of a Chalcidian-like helmet with holes for the ears. Next come a heavy lamellar breast and back plates, a lamellar skirt, and greaves. Some units, specifically the Soldateй’Ukleйzh, have more substantial plate armor. Note that in all Null plate armor, the joints are left free to move naturally, and have no covering (compare to medieval plate armor). The shield is rather thick, made of plywood covered in a layer of steel or one of their strong, light alloys. It has an elongated ovuloid shape much like that of the Roman Haistati shield.
The standard weaponry for a phalanx consists of one throwing javelin, one heavier spear much like the Spartan dory, and a ktar, their culture's distinctive sword. Some formations, especially the Soldateй’Ukleйzh, use other sets of special weapons.
The Archers
The Archers provide supplemental support to the Infantry. Their numbers are mostly drawn from townspeople. They carry bows, a variation on the recurve bow, that shoot several types of arrows, including a particularly nasty indencary type. Supplementally, they carry ktars. However, their armor is mostly made of leather or other light materials, and they are most deadly at a range of around 500 yards.
The Theйbйaйsteй
The Theйbйaйsteй are the elite/special forces group. Numbering only around five thousand in total, they are the core of the Null army. Among them are the Kereй’toreйzh, the “Men of the Claws”, resurrected at the rebirth and just as scary as their ancient brothers. Their armor is made of a thick, light, strong alloy that covers all non-joint areas. Underneath, they wear a full-body suit filled with what they call “solid water”, protecting them both from penetration and shock. In between, a system of lateral springs made from wood composites multiplies their strength several times over. Their helmets are made of the same alloy, with a gold-tinted visor covering the face. The helmet also contains its own layer of “solid water”, allowing for easy helmet removal. The armors open joints are the only easy location of penetration. Additionally, the Kereй’toreйzh carry the standard infantry shield.
For weapons, they carry the standard infantry complement of a javelin and a heavy spear. Instead of a ktar, however, they carry two clawhands used to devastating effect in close hand-to-hand fighting.
The leader of the Kereй’toreйzh, and the entire army, is called the Genktarov. He is so named for the two particularly brutal weapons he carries. They are clawless toreйzh with a ktar attached to both top and bottom. He carries the standard spear, javelin, and spear in addition to these weapons.
The second main branch of the Theйbйaйsteй is the Temeй, or Shadows. They wear plate armor, a thinner version of the Kere’torezh suit. However, a particular crystal embedded in their armor turns all metal it currently touches, and all metal touching metal touching the crystal, etc. invisible. Their undersuit is coated with a thin layer of metal dust to render them completely invisible. However, they still cast shadows, and thus their name. Their main weapons are rather like http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00routesdata/1700_1799/localrulers/weapons/katar.jpg]katars[/url]; they have a 3-foot blade that morphs into the armpiece instead of simply being attached, however.
Various other smaller groups exist, who fight with a good number of unconventional weapons including chain-whips, likschutze (poison-dart shooter), and Klereй (the crescents, made of two interlocking crescent-shaped blades).
Clothing:
They tend to prefer tunics or short-legged pants with a shirt. They use cloaks to ward of harsher weather. The difference between men’s and women’s clothing is quite small; only a few small size variations to allow for more comfortable fitting on different parts of the body distinguish men and women in dress. The exception to this is found in their apparel for dances and other social event centered around male/female relationships. Men/boys will most often wear short pants and a shirt. Women/girls will then most often wear either a feminine tunic, some form of knee-length dress, or a blouse/shirt and a knee-length skirt.
Society:
The Nulls’ philosophical, social, and religious teachings, pressures, and trends make little to no distinction between racial, ethnic, geographical, and even special divisions but instead focus on the state of a person’s soul. They evaluate the state of a person’s soul through the actions that they take and the intents behind their actions. Their legal system, however, operates by a harm principle. Law is codified into tiers, and each tier has specific punishments associated with it. Among the basic legal contentions of the system is that it is permissible to commit a “crime” of equal or greater gravity as defined by the tiers to prevent a crime in the same or higher tier under conditions of clear and present intent e.g. it is permissible to assault someone to prevent murder.
History:
The Nulls trace their history back over sixteen thousand years to before the Shenndei. However, they know only a very few selected events before the rise of the Shenndei, and a great deal of the documents on the period between the Shenndei’s rise and fall were burned in the religious and political reformation that followed in the wake of the Stroidk pandemic, to which they lost almost two-thirds of their population between c. 0-100 d.s.
The Nulls trace their lineage back to a man from a different world. The following is a shortened version of the story told in their holy book: “Eliav lived in a village where there was no rain and rivers watered the earth on both sides. He came to believe that there was only one God. He debated his family, and all his family believed. He went into the village commons, and said there was only one God. His words were true, and a number of his village believed what he said, and they went and set up an altar with no image and worshipped the God that everything comes from. The priests and kings grew angry with them, for they worshipped many gods. Eliav defended himself before them well, and so he and his followers escaped death.
But one day it began to rain. The priests said the gods grew angry at Eliav and his family and followers because he no longer worshipped them, so the kings and priests and all the other villagers threw Eliav and his family and his followers and all of their weapons and possessions into the pit. They burned the dwellings of Eliav and his family and his followers. They begged their gods for mercy, but it was the Lord that was angry with the people who worshipped other gods, and so he sent the waters from the sky and deep to destroy them. He did not still the waters until they covered the kings and the priests and the people and all their possessions and works and sins. Through the waters the Lord wiped the people from the earth, and for their hate and callousness He destroyed them. But through the pit the Lord saved Eliav and his family and followers and brought them to the new land that is this land.”
Post Scriptum: This is mostly complete, though it will need revision, excepting the history. I’ve written out all the parts that Beo and I thought would be historically dicey. All documents from Valtarov’s “Genktarov”, detailing the devastating war that marked the Nulls’ fall from supremacy and the rise of the Shenndei, to several reports by Shadows (spy/spec-ops branch of their military) active in Shenndei territory immediately preceding and during the Stroidk, are devoid of almost all description of resonance magic and the Shenndei themselves. Information on religion and holidays to come.
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Vtariй'kran, wenovi'sov.
-Many men, one warrior. Null proverb. (lit. Many brothers, one warrior.)
There is no such thing as good war, or even "just" war. There is only necessary war. War is always a matter of doing evil in the hope that good may come of it. |
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