Primal Blood
Order of the Shattered Thrones
Conclave of the Spheres
Legion of the Fallen
Primal Blood
Champions of Avakra
No cities, no borders, no boundaries of any kind, for the Primal Blood know that freedom must be absolute, and that the path of the All-Mother is where the strength to protect that freedom lies. Fractured into many kiths, the warriors and shamans are united by the common wish to topple all the walls of Selejia, revel in the rubble of civilizations, and awaken Ymiris, so that she may sow the seeds of a new world in the ashes of the old.
About the Faction
History
People of the Faction
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Lore Articles
Throughout the jungles of Paxos, warriors of the kiths gather around the campfire. Berserkers sharpen their blades, flay their quarry, and devour the flesh of the hunt, while shamans chant stories of Avakra, the Dreaming Warrior, daughter of Ymiris, and first of the Primal Blood.
Avakra wished for naught but to foster and preserve life. She saw beauty beyond measure in all of Ymiris's creations, and she took it upon herself to be the protector of said beauty. It was with a heavy heart, a pain beyond measure, that she endorsed her brethren's plan of subduing Ymiris, so all could be saved from the threat of filicide. Avakra knew that the weapon would cost her life, and so, she closed her eyes and thought of the world she was saving, and all the beauty that would remain. Too late, she realized that she had been fooled. Some of her brethren had twisted the binding magic of the weapon, prompting it to empower them with the freshly-spilled echo of Ymiris, and making all others complicit in this crime. With godlike powers and seeing the First Children fall to the grasp of death, Avakra could not bear the guilt. In the years that followed, she would spark the flames of dissension, a crime whose punishment would see her killed, her heart transformed into a Vestige, and her followers forcefully integrated into the Astarian Paradux’s society.
The Heart of Avakra maintained a close connection to her people, the First Children who’d be called the oerikan, and only they could draw power from it. As such, under the guise of a merciful integration, the oerikan were subjugated and forced to tend the Heart, so that its powers could be syphoned and used by the Astarian Paradux. Their oppression would end when Octna, a servant of the Heart of Avakra, was warned by the Vestige of a great cataclysm—and was offered a path to salvation. When Osterath was besieged, Octna rallied his kindred and started a rebellion, freeing his people and toppling an empire. The Oerikan were saved from the Fall, going on to liberate the Heart of Avakra. They toppled the walls, felled the great towers, and slayed whoever bore the Astarian Paradux’s insignia.
Now freed from the tyranny of the Astarians, Octna reclaimed the giant, soulless corpse of Avakra and planted within it the Heart, so that her body and soul could be reunited once more. In time, the Heart blossomed and grew, erupting from Avakra’s chest to mature into an immense tree. The roots of the tree drank deeply from her corpse, cleansing the taint of Osterath, so that the flesh and blood of the Daughter of Ymiris could nourish the people of the Primal Blood and lend them great power. The site was renamed Avakra’s Dusk, in honor of the Dreaming Warrior, and Octna then left to find the path to the Oerikans’ ancestral homeland. Ever since, the Primal Blood have lived unconquered, as one with Ymiris, swearing to one day free the All-Mother from her suffering. To them, mortalkind, through their betrayal, has proven unworthy of the blessing of life, and all should be cleansed so that, one day, Ymiris may achieve her goal of creating perfect life.
The Children of the All-Mother
The Twin Takras
Before departing to find the ancestral homeland of the oerikan, Octna left behind the core principles that would guide the newly-formed Primal Blood in the years to come. The Twin Takras, of Stone and Spirit, aim to guide one in search of the perfect balance between bodily strength and spiritual awareness, so that perfection can be achieved in the form of the Warrior-Prophet, the title given to a master of both Takras. However, infighting consumed the Primal Blood, as without Octna, the Kiths could not agree on the correct interpretation of the Takras. Now, Octna remains the only Warrior-Prophet that the Primal Blood has ever had, but all Kiths still follow the wisdom bestowed by him.
The Takra of Stone
Legends abound about the feats of strength performed by Octna millennia ago, when he rallied his kindred and led them beyond the Wall of Galdrun. As preached by the berserkers, Octna brought down legions of vulkir with his bare hands, moved faster than the flight of a bloodfeast raptor, and at each stomp, the earth shattered and split, swallowing whoever dared stand against him. Even though the truth of these stories is up for debate, it doesn't halt the Stone Berserker's attempts at achieving comparable feats.
Inside any Primal Blood kith, it is the Takra of Stone and its followers' duty to enforce the Trial of Stone. Through the Trial, unproven warriors, be it outsiders or kithborn, are given a chance to stand tall and prove their place inside the Primal Blood. By defeating an enemy greater than themselves, usually in the form of ravenous beasts, a warrior speaks to all through the Primal Blood's most important common language: of might.
Each kith possesses a Kor-Takra, their greatest warrior and the living embodiment of strength, being considered the final word when it comes to everything related to the Takra of Stone. While the fight for leadership amidst the shamans is a complex one, to become a Kor-Takra, one must only defeat the previous bearer of the title in a public, fair fight. As such, Kor-Takras must constantly defend their titles, leading to great, albeit short-lived lives.
It is the duty of the Kor-Takra to oversee the settling of disputes inside each kith. Whenever a problem ensues, be it because of individual or kith-wide matters, a Trial of Stone is called for, so both parties may prove their point through blood and blade. Instead of beasts, each party sends in their champion to fight in front of the entire kith, where a victory settles the case and crowns who is truly right. Although death is not unheard of during the trial, victors prefer to leave their foes broken and defeated, so they can mire in their shame.
The Takra of Spirit
Meat, bread, and wine may fuel the body, but it is the words of the wise shamans that nurture the soul of the Primal Blood. Millennia ago, when Octna liberated the Primal Blood from their captors, he rallied the oppressed with words and magic as much as he did with strength. While the body faltered, it was the cries of freedom that kept the soul ablaze. Now, each Kith gathers silently around the bonfire, waiting for the Ur-Takra, their spiritual leader, to usher in the first word.
As the Fall destroyed much of the world that was, destroying or tainting many sources of knowledge, it was the Primal Blood, and their reliance on oral tradition, that maintained one of the greatest sources of stories dating from before the Fall. These stories live on through the shamans, who remind their brethren of the folly of the Everlasting, of the Murder of Avakra, and of the pain of Ymiris.
In a continent deafened by the voices of greed and lust, it is the shamans’ whispers who cast the greatest dissonance. For the Primal Blood, gold is but a fragile metal, wasted in the senseless baubles of fools. Real value is found in connection, be it to their ancestral stories or to the All-Mother. As such, an elder shaman is a source of great respect within any kith, as through their words and actions, the Shamans of Spirit carry on the rituals, stories, and traditions of the Primal Blood.
It is the shamans’ duty to make sure that access to the Heart of Avakra, and the power contained within, is allowed only for the true followers of the All-Mother. It is their callous hands that harvest the body of Avakra of its blood, gore, and skin, so that, in her generosity, she never ceases to provide for her followers. Although greatly fallen from grace, some shamans have seized the opportunity of Thundersteps’s arrival to further their own goals. By proclaiming to have translated his language, some shamans now revel as they pull unseen strings, controlling the titan and all of its followers.
The Power of Blood
All of Agnar's magic hails from the All-Mother. This power, however, has long strayed from Ymiris, being transformed into new, individual forms of being, as it was with its wielders, as the All-Mother gave them independence. Nowadays, each of the factions performs their own set of rules and rituals, through which they weave magic into existence. All of them, but one. The Primal Blood has never strayed from Ymiris and her primordial magic, even when doing so brings them ever closer to madness.
After the Second Wounding, Ymiris’s Echo became tainted by pain and wrath, threatening to subdue its wielder’s mind with rage and madness whenever it was wielded. The Primal Blood, however, weaponise this curse, embracing the pain that seeps from All-Mother's echo, brewing it inside the Heart of Avakra as a means to fulfill Ymiris's will. While the other factions go to great lengths to avoid this cursed Echo, the Primal Blood washes themselves in rightful rage—eager to share it with all of Selejia.
The Ragebrand
Ever since the Fall, Avakra's collapsed, gigantic body remains in place, pierced and rooted by the enormous tree that sprouted from the Heart of Avakra in her chest. There, Avakra drinks deeply from the Echo of Ymiris, letting it be absorbed into her body and flow through her heart, nurturing the tree and, in turn, her followers. The end result of this process needs to be harvested directly through Avakra, where shamans harvest her of her flesh, blood, and gore. This material contains a chaotic, cruder form of magic, when compared with the ones employed by other factions, and is used to craft everything from blades and armor to battle concoctions, capable of granting immeasurable power to those who drink it.
For the Primal Blood, to adorn yourself with bloodcrafted gear goes way farther than merely protecting your body or arming yourself: it is a connection established with Avakra, one that carries Ymiris’s Echo in its very core. This wild magic, brewed and prepared into concoctions by the shamans, grants the berserkers a potent, albeit dangerous, battle enhancer. By drinking from brews containing a mixture of Ymiris’s Echo and a beast's blood, they are able to adopt the creature’s strength as their own, becoming akin to wild animals. For the shamans, however, magic is a means to guide and employ Ymiris’s wrath, giving them incredible dominion over nature and the elements.
Although most Primal Blood are aware of the dangers of Ymiris’s magic, and stories abound about berserkers who were lost forever in battle trance, few are aware of the insidious effects it has had on their behavior. The Primal Blood is but a shadow of what they once were, at the times of Octna, for slowly but surely, Ymiris’s wrath has affected their minds, transforming their once-honored fight into disoriented bloodlust.
Story
The Primal Blood
No cities, no borders, no boundaries of any kind. The kiths of the Primal Blood roam the lands of Paxos but do not call it home. They do not, in fact, call any land their home. Although the other nations of Selejia tend to assign Paxos as the dominion of the “blood clans”, they do […]
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eastSeekers
The Malediction holds secrets untold, and only a Seeker may uncover them. Join the ranks of the brave few who dare face death.
In’Gor, The Spiritbound
The In'Grok dynasty is but a shadow of its former glory, and its heir, In'Gor, the Spiritbound, won't rest until he sees the Primal Blood united under the same banner. With his body possessed and warped by foul spirits, many thought the oerikan to be done for, but In'Gor refuses to give in, for his agony is a small price to pay to achieve his grand visions
Liena, Who Dreams
Flesh and primordial clay, despair and pain. Of all these things was Kar-Mamok made, but it was dreams that gave it life. Liena’s body slumbers, trapped within the monstrous form of the bloodcrafted golem, but her dreams are free to reshape the world—and so are her nightmares.
Auric Evenhand
The hammer strikes, and the red-hot metal bends again. It will become a shield to defend his brothers in arms, or the blades that will slay the savages of Paxos. All beings are like soft metal, waiting to be given a purpose. All except for Auric, for he knows he must be the Hammer that will forge a new path for his people and crush all who stand in the way.
