Dark Mountains Overview

Copied from the tree, since I wrote it originally

Please forgive me (Marcus) if this was brought up previously and I (Marcus) didn’t see it among the old notes of the tree.

Previous topics in the tree have sort of danced around this topic so I (Marcus) figured I’d (Marcus) just address it directly.

Tell me about your home world.

For example. I (Marcus) had an interesting time trying to describe to Faeries the concept of hooves at first. I (Marcus) was unaware the no creature within the Enchanted Glade was large enough to have hooves, and things like deer were completely unknown.

I (Marcus) hear things about the Djinn, and oceans, and a wall that divides half the world, but none of that actually means anything to me because it assumes a context I (Marcus) don’t already possess. So I (Marcus) figure why not just actually tell us about the place you come from.

I’ll (Marcus) start, seems only fair. This history is the commonly accepted one among the people. Those who are considered Seekers would have a drastically different interpretation of events.

Before recorded memory the land was beautiful, bright, and fertile. Knowledge was available to all, and all partook. This was allowed by the foolish kings of old. All learned to read and do magic. All grew powerful to astonishing degrees. With all the people this powerful competition arose. The peasantry grew complacent , corrupt, and fell upon one another. They turned to darkness as power source and in foolishness released it upon the land, shattering the sky, and banishing the sun from the world. The darkness twisted and corrupted the world unleashing the horrors of the night upon land. The dark lords, the most powerful and wise of the old kings rose up and led us to the safety of the valleys. There they were able to use their magics to make the crops and plants grow without sun. These magics are the only thing that make life possible in the world. In return, so that they may never again need to take such action, they demanded that the peasantry give up writing and magic, lest we eventually destroy the world. Small price to pay for survival really. Over the years the Dark Lords have passed and their children have taken their places, taught the deepest secrets of magic from their parent. Each takes the name of their original ancestor in honor of the work and sacrifice they performed in stabilizing the Dark Mountains after the banishment of the sun.

In the valleys, things settled down relatively quickly. The Dark Lords keep most of the truly horrific monstrosities outside the walls of the mountains (though some still populate the wilderness between civilized areas) and life continues to be possible. Once a year, for a few hours we are reminded the sun exists when a portion of the sky on the horizon goes from pitch black to midnight blue for a few hours.

There is always much to do. Life is hard in the mountains. There’s no point whining about it. Those who live a good and productive life are granted respite when they die and entombed within the mountains to know eternal peace in death. Those who fail to do so are brought back to life to serve in death as they would/could not in life. Whether you agree with their existence or not zombies are an integral part of life in the Dark Mountains. Without them, there would not be enough people to tend the crops, guard the roads, or keep civilization possible.

We work hard to pay our taxes, taxes are the other thing that makes civilization possible. The Dark Lords request from us that which they need to strengthen and fuel themselves, to make survival possible, maintain the magics of the valley, and keep the greater horrors of the night at bay. The Praetors are their enforcers, they make sure that the Dark Lord’s will is carried out.

The Preators and the Dark Lords are not NICE. They do what is necessary to maintain order and stability throughout the land. Infractions of the law are taken very seriously and dealt with harshly. It only took a few people to allow the darkness run rampant into the world. We don’t need anyone rocking the boat further. As I (Marcus) said in a previous post, morality is a luxury, for most there is only necessity.

Those called the Seekers of Dawn are an anomaly, and a recent one at that. Associating with a seeker is basically treason and in the eyes of many asking for a return to ways that would destroy the world. No seeker has ever gone “uncaught”. If there is a suspected seeker, those he associates/associated with either turns him in or suffers his fate. If they cannot find one, many towns will turn someone over as a ‘Seeker’ to placate the preators, show their loyalty to the Darks Lords and be spared their wrath. Those from the Dark Mountains have learned to fear the light as much as the dark. Truly bright lights are simply places where the displeasure of the preators/Dark Lords or the corruption of the people has grown so great they simply eradicated the town from existence.

The top 10 things about nexus that confuse us most when we first arrive (in no particular order):
The Sun (obviously)
Peaceful, friendly, non-humans
I can read? Dammit, now I can never go home.
The lack of enforced law/government
The prevalence of reading/writing/magic
Honor and other moral concepts not intrinsic to survival
The ease of survival in this land
All the rejoicing and happiness
Why doesn’t everyone have a light source, (and if you’re from the 6th valley: a weapon?)
You do what with your dead? Why?

Bonus:
What’s an Ocean?