What is Dead may never Die

Tags

carrodos, Harcrow, namyr, Paedrun, penos

The following are various excerpts from Paedrun the Conqueror’s journal — specifically his musings on the creatures that plague the land. The text was minimally corrected for spelling or clarification of meaning:

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“At times, I feel my life has seen fit to equip itself with its own purpose. And I am merely a bystander to its progress. I have taken the role given, with good grace, I hope.

But, at times, I fear that I am not equal to my life’s task. When my purpose is to kill a foe I have killed once and again, and even lead more men to do the same, I cannot help but fear.

Where is justice when you cannot kill a murderer because he would rise a oineghast; twice as fearsome as the man first killed. Where is happiness when parents fear to let children wander lest they rile a peny-hive and die a death of a hundred hundred poison stings. And then rise themselves as foul carrodae.

It chills my soul and robs my purpose of its fire.”

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“I hope no man see a carrodos. A loved one’s face made ruined from foulness leaking from any form of sores and cuts. And the stench, I shall not describe it.

And, if by ill fate, he were to see a carrodos, I say this to him: flee. For carrodae spew foul bile, that destroys all it touches: bronze or body, stone or plant. It takes not a single man to destroy a carrodos, for I have seen an army put to rout by a meeting of three carrodae. Spreading death like a sickness, creating more carrodae to repeat the process.

Will we never be free of these namyr? ”

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[This is the last post made by Paedrun, written the day before he led the expedition into the Nel-lands. He left his journal with his niece Aldra.]

“All the lands to the south have been pacified. My Harcrows stalk the namyr as they once stalked us; Crows to continue to hunt down the dead. After nearly a ten-year of war against nature itself, I have found no reason to these namyr. Blood and ashes sit in their bodies and an unreasoning hate of all things, they seem an affront against nature. Yet they seem to be a natural process as much as a growing weed or the flowing of a river.

Maybe naymr is a bastard that has grown to hate its legitimate brothers. Maybe nature wishes to begin again? To set itself against itself and watch everything to burn? Then I defy nature.

I have not found the source of these namyr in these lands but I will find it, even if I must travel into the Nel alone. No scout has returned from the Nel-lands but does not most chaos arise from an overgrowth of nothing? I will find the source and I will end it. I must end it.

My life’s purpose can tell its goal is near. I will not fail now.”

On Paedeyaux and Her City-States

Tags

Aiansheight, Calna, Daernspire, Fynnsfeld, Gidinshol, Neldeyaux, the Cities

Excerpt from Of International Relations: An Essay on Paedeyaux and Her City-States, a decades-old work by a notable Daernish writer and a Denner.

” The land claimed by the conqueror Paedrun from the monsters that plague this, our world has since been carved into near autonomous states overseen by the six cities that have grown to power.

Although some provincially-minded laymen still hold that the six Cities and their States are the architectural interpretations of the attitudes of Paedrun’s inner council, it has been determined by enlightened minds that the spheres of each city were defined by the resources available based on each city’s location. And any animosity between cities is based not on largely fictionalized accounts of the council’s mannerisms, but on the often poor decisions of each City’s governing body.

[…]

Neldeyaux — “owned by nothing”, or “nothing’s place” depending on whose translation one abides by — the name is appropriate with either translation: it has had little to no economic or political value and likely will never gain any.

It was originally settled by Paedrun as a border fortress before he led his expedition into the Nel-lands. Neldeyaux’s original name been lost, along with any reason for Neldeyaux to have existed past the departure of Paedrun’s exploratory force.

[…]

Fynnsfeld is the agricultural center of all Paedeyaux and chief supplier of Daernspire’s merchantmen. Currently led by Protens Silys, Fynnsfeld is solidifying its claim as a scholastic center.

The growing acceptance of the refutation of the Calain religion’s quaint ideas by the Fynnsfeld College of Deniers (colloquially called ‘Denners’ by those close-minded persons who refuse to face either discourse or reason) has put the Fynnsian scholars at odds with the Calashir’s council that rules over Calna. They have, otherwise, maintained a reasonable level of neutrality with all other states.

[…]

Calna, center of the Calain cult and the Harcrows’ main barracks, sits the closest to the Cauldron. A man supposes it is likely because of the city’s proximity to those mountains and the monsters that seep out from it, that Calna has maintained its extremely combatative stance toward any other councils that exhibit even the slightest hint of rebelliousness.

The Calashir’s council’s wont to send spies into the other Cities under the guise of camaraderie and pilgrimage has left Calna’s neighbours wary of its long reach. But centuries of indoctrination has left the other Cities nearly numb to any designs Calna might have upon them.

[…]

Aiansheight, hugging the northern coast, has gotten the idea into its head that it ought to be the primary economic power in Paedeyaux. Like all things in their adolescence, the young city of Aiansheight has more zest than sense. Although it has secured certain, select trade routes with its ally Gidinshol to the north, the city’s trading experience still falls short of the seasoned merchants of Daernspire.

It is likely this youthful exuberance, and the disrespect that attitude brings, that has led to the stead erosion of amicable relations with the senior trading port of Daernspire in the south. This animosity has rarely become more than sharp words though certain zealous parties [on both sides] have bloodied the noses of other city’s tradesmen. In recent years, the relation between the two cities has been estimated to be improving as Aiansheight has matured and, likely, came to recognize Daernspire’s seniority.

[…]
Gidinshol is set in between Calna and Neldeyaux, in the foothills that lead into the northern mountains. Gidinshol started as a collection of homes and taverns for miners who wanted to see the sun again and has not expanded far beyond that. They are, nonetheless, the largest exporter of iron, coal, and tarkirite and have maintained a level of importance in international politics because of it.

They have also kept importance because they have, in all of recorded history, been the only location in which blastapple trees have been consistently unearthed. Those rare and volatile minerals, near essential to Paedrun’s siege successes, have only been tolerated to remain under Gidinshol’s sole governance because of the City’s consistent placidity in any matters that do not relate to mining.

[…]
Daernspire, dark jewel of the south, is debatably the oldest city in Paedeyaux. Originally built around and atop a massive, natural spire of black stone, Daernspire has grown into a booming trade city that accepts and sends out all the resources available. Despite the swamps that make up a large portion of Daernspire’s land, farmers still manage to grow enough crops to export some of the various fruits and herbs exclusive to Daernish soil.

The charisma of Daernspire governing body, an upper and lower council of merchantmen, that has aided them individually in securing profitable trade agreements has also allowed the city to avoid any serious confrontatios with other Cities. That is excluding any instances where greed of Daernish wealth and envy of Daernspire’s success has led maddened parties to attack Daernspire’s holdings.   “

Welcome to Paedeyaux

Tags

the beginning

Welcome to, and thank you for taking a journey in to, the Almanac of Paedeyaux. Consider this the Foreword of a natural book.

Paedeyaux is a strange land, populated by peoples that have carved islands of civilization in a world where the dead often seek to make more dead. This blog will touch on everything to do with Paedeyaux, Pedejan peoples and societies. And monsters, because variety is the spice of life.

The almanac will update at least every Monday and Thursday, though those won’t necessarily be the only days that posts are made.

Until then, good day and good reading,

Auctor