They say Hinnom's land reflects its people. No greater proof of this is there than looking at beautiful Jingu, and the corruption which sits outside of its idyllic borders. Our land is covered with a wide and varied environment from the wide steppes to the rising plateaus and the clean waterfalls which flow from the north, and the warm waters that boil from the volcanic ridges. Once, all of Hinnom revealed in its beauty in harmony with the plants and animals and materials of earth and sky.
In this early time, the Age of the Gods, men were granted the children of the gods known as genies, who served the faithful and fulfilled their wishes. With the power of djinn they crafted the eight great cities of Oyashimakuni for men to live in. They crafted the four celestial spheres so that the world may have light to warm the body in day and to comfort the mind at night, and drive wind and rain and weather so that crops may grow and be fruitful. With the power of the heavenly lords, all would be well.
However, men were mortal. They lacked the immortal spark of others and thus they would die and lose their knowledge. Eventually the wisdom and faith of ancestors gave way to children who knew not respect nor kindness. They abused their power and were no longer thankful for the help of djinn, enslaving them and rejecting the divine right of gods. One by one geniekind began to retreat from the world. One third returned to the celestial realm of the gods. One third retreated to the elemental planes where bitterness made them dour and haughty and devious. And one third sought revenge, falling into darkness and becoming the
Div. Such is how men lost the favor of the gods and with it their civilization crumbled.
The gods looked at men and took mercy on their plight. After 100 years of suffering they decided to help. This time instead of granting many the power of a god, they would give the wisest and most merciful of men divine power. The trial to determine who was chosen among them began, and within their ranks rose shining Jingu, a young girl who had surpassed all odds and conquered all challenges. She claimed the prize of the gods and became the first god empress, using her power to unite scattered humanity. But times had changed, and the div had worked their evils deep into the world. The brave and honorable joined Jingu, but many others took parts of Hinnom to themselves swearing themselves away from faith and purity (as the dwarves of the now frozen ruined north), away from honor and respect (as the blasphemous cannibal halflings of the swamps), and those who worshiped small gods over all others (such as the elves of the woods). And many still exist outside Hinnom, blind to the gods or unwilling to listen.
In spite of all the dangers and threats around her, Jingu's strength and wisdom radiated down like sunlight through a river, and she and her followers held fast. They instituted order where there was chaos, and peace where there was war. And to insure that the knowledge of proper use of divine power was never lost again the gods granted Jingu the Wheel of Eternity. From this day forth when she died, she would pass on and live once more in another. Through countless death and rebirth she would retain what is mortal but ensure the world would never lose their faith again. All those who believe in the power of the empress would benefit, and they too would be reborn and live forever.
Place your faith and trust in Jingu, the Golden Empress. Through her wisdom, we will overcome.
CONGRATULATIONS! You have been selected to bring honor and glory to beautiful Medved nation!
Good news fellow komrade, you have just won a wonderful opportunity which you simply cannot pass up! Throw down your hammer, put aside the pick. You will become one of Medved's glorious soldiers in the fight against evil from beyond our borders. Glory is yours for those who serve in glorious Medved military, with only best equipment and strongest armor. Will you ride our Stone Juggernauts into battle? Defend the border against Jingu spies? Become part of Special Police for safety and security of all? Your position is already waiting, for you are summoned to appear on Training Day to determine where your skills fit best. As a member of the glorious Medved military you will be looked up to by friends, family, and children alike and serve as shining example of future and of Medved perfection. Our traditions are tested by time, our righteousness proven with success, and our strength shown through overwhelming firepower!
As a new recruit you may have many questions. Fortunately your glorious leaders have provided with you an F.A.Q. to help you transition in from your current lifestyle into one worthy of history.
What does this mean? Will I ever be able to go back to my old life?
We are glad you asked komrade! The saying goes "when you join the military, you join for life!" and it is true, but weep not. For it merely means you have been forged and tempered like the strongest of dwarven adamantine into something forever changed to masterwork quality. Even when you return to your old life, you and many others may find life in the glorious Medved army to be too wonderful to leave behind! Good pay, good drinks, and good fortune are yours here, and you shall achieve immortality as a hero of Medved! You need not even fear of not seeing friends and family, for it is best to become great together! Show them this pamphlet and celebrate, and let them know they can sign up for service in glorious Medved military too! You can be friends in war and peace, and what can bring the bonds of love together stronger than the threat of vile Jingu falling effortlessly to overwhelming Medved military force?
Who are our enemies? Who are the Jingu?
Medved holds a special spot in the world compared to all others. When the dwarves first formed, we traveled farther than others thanks to superior dwarven endurance to a land others thought inhospitable. Thin bodies elves found forests and rested in them, going no farther in search of victory. Men and gnomes took to the plains rich in fauna, but we dwarves carried on. Orcs took to the seas, halflings to the swamps, and further we walked into the pristine white lands of Hinnom, our motherland. Its peaks insurmountable, its rivers pure and clear as glass, we found shelter in her humble bosom of earth. For our dedication the land rewarded us with coal, oil, gold, and magicite in abundance. A perfect land for a hard working people! But perfection breeds envy in others, and many seek to take our land now that they know of its richness and wonders. After much dwarven history was built upon here and the hard work, blood, sweat, and tears of your ancestors many short lived races seek to simply brush that all away and claim it as their own.
NO!
We are the glorious Medved people, and we are as durable and long lasting as the mountains and valleys. Our enemies are those who would waste the efforts of your parents and your parents parents, our enemies are those who would follow ways of recklessness or foolishness, our enemies are those who would wish to trick you out of your fortune and wealth. It takes many forms, but none worse that Jingu and their goblin people. They speak of honor and tradition, but they follow a false god without question, the whims of an unvetted and unpleasant witch queen ill fit for the throne. Did you know glorious Medved government was the result of much trial and error until finding the perfect method of rule? Medved is fair. Medved is reasonable. Medved gives equality to all things. Our women work in the furnaces, our men can teach our youth, and our traditions are based on fact and reason. Fact and reason gives us glorious alchemical and scientific advancements over our enemies. Our fact and reason keeps our mind clear of vile trickery and false gods. It is of no wonder Jingu are envious. They say their envy is so great their underclass (a sad fact due to unfair and unethical Jingu government) has turned completely green, with shrunken hunched bodies and hideous faces to match their twisted hearts. Such is their desire to take what is Medved's, to take what is all of ours.
Aren't we at peace with Jingu? Why am I joining the military?
It is true, for six years Jingu has not attacked glorious Medved. The story happened all due to the disaster in Icelspar. Because of it, the only rational thing for Medved to do is guard itself from evil shades and dangerous forces. But how could we do so with Jingu terrorizers marching for our doors?
It is thus fortunate that the Jingu people are a cowardly and mindless lot, so obedient to their god-empress that if she ordered them to march into the sea they would do so without question. While glorious Medved leadership was not able to convince her of this tactically sound and morally right course of action, we were able to briefly remove her blinders and show her the truth in peaceful action against a greater threat. In convincing one, we convinced all to hold back their weapons. BUT BE NOT FOOLED! This peace cannot hold, for the heart of a Jingu barbarian is one of envy and hate and soon even they will break oath with their queen for a taste of dwarven blood! And so the glorious Medved kingdom must be ready for that inevitable day. We will be ready with a wall of stone and fire, or ballista and bomb. We will face them on our terms and our time, and we will defeat them and reclaim glorious Medved clay from impure hands. Until that day of glory, be patient. Your training will not go in vain, and your strength is still needed for the most glorious of all projects and the purpose we have joined the Greater Himmon Confederacy, our glorious Zhelezo Zanaves, or as others know it as as the Great Continental Wall!
Will the glorious continental wall protect us from the shroud and the shades?
Thanks to glorious dwarven engineering and mastery, the wall will be completely indestructible! We will have nothing to fear when the wall is sealed!
When will the wall be completed?
That depends on you komrade! The more workers we have and the more military we have the faster everything can be done! Though Jingu have sent workers, they are weak and frail shortfolk and are only good for the most base of tasks. We need intellect and strength and the fortitude to bring mighty iron bars and stone bricks into position. So we ask, WHEN WILL YOU FINISH THIS WALL?
Will I get to drive one of your cool state of the art Stone Juggernauts?!
If you work hard and prove loyalty to glorious motherland, komrade, we will let you COMMAND a platoon of one hundred Stone Juggernauts!
Nothing could be cooler, how do I enlist my friends and family?
Why wait? Go to your nearest government office and tell them to give pamphlets to all your loved ones! They will thank you for it!
GLORY TO MOTHER HIMMON, GLORY TO KINGDOM OF MEDVED!
Do you remember the motherland? I did... but it feels like forever ago.
Taphos was majestic back then, especially Deshret where I was stationed. It was a city sandwiched between the rolling coastal waters of Akhet and the sandy red desert and painted sandstone plateaus, and the whole place was painted like a vivid sunset of golds, oranges, and yellows and rare splashes of blue from polished lapis lazuli stonework. I was a knight there, part of the Jackal Squad, and was merely wasting my time away as auxiliary protecting the city from threats we honestly didn't have. Other squads would see action being sent over on missions to Hinnom, or sent to one of Rubicon's mines that dug too deep or too greedily. They brought in a good deal of funds playing police for others who couldn't handle it, and they got to stay in shape in case of danger. Its how the Queen managed to keep us so well stock, even an auxiliary squad like ourselves. I hear the ragtag group that makes up Espere's "army" don't even get magicite-infused weapons, never mind things of masterwork quality. I wish I appreciated it more, if I knew then what I knew now, I would revel in the peace and beauty of it all.
Everyone respected us there. Sometimes we would polish up our armor so that the brass and gold shone like the sun and went walking with our helmets and masks on. The kids seemed to love it, we'd look like the giant statues which littered the place had come to life to protect everyone. Well, I did, with the heavier armor. Sadat was our party scout so his armor was more robes than anything, and Adly was our spellcaster so he was lightly equipped too. There were more of course, but us three were close knit.
I remember morning it happened. It was really early, the sun hadn't even risen yet and I was up in the Amber Oasis getting a drink. I didn't sleep very well for some reason, and decided to call it quits on trying to get any rest from that point. I was just waking up when I heard thunder, unlikely given it wasn't rain season, and the entire bar shook. The whole place went silent and people starting moving towards the windows, as did I. Normally a keen eye could look over the waters and see the distant glow of lights placed around the base of the Throne of Heaven even from this far back, but the dim haze of distant Chrysanthemum was missing. Far above I thought I saw the sun risen in the air a dim baleful red, and distant stormclouds forming a line which separated sea and sky. I honestly didn't know what to make of it, I figured it might be a trick on the eyes like a mirage, or some magical tomfoolery. But then the thunder returned with a vengeance, a catastrophic boom which shattered the windows and knocked several of the less stable patrons off their feet. I was already running towards headquarters to report, hastily getting my gear in shape. The red haze above was no longer a single sphere, but was fragmenting apart and coming closer. It began to rain fire, ash, and crimson sparks from the sky setting fire to flammable objects and starting fires all around the city. Things were so chaotic it was a blur of shouting and trying to get people indoors, trying to take control of rising flames, and to claim the people. By the time we got everything under control I do not know what time it was as the sky was blackened with smoke, or perhaps the shroud that was forming around the mountain. That day there was no sunlight.
They immediately sent off their messenger birds to other places, but the ones headed for Chrysanthemum never returned. I hear they even had some of the master spellcasters in the capital attempting Sending spells, with no avail. We were one of the closest spots, and so our squad was immediately conscripted as forward scouts to move into the area and try to make physical contact with someone, anyone, and report back what we saw. We were expecting a disaster zone, wildfires and the like, but we weren't really expecting a major fight so we went in with our usual gear. In any normal situation the "normal gear" would have been overkill in and of itself, but...
It was 9 hours into the trip I think, and we were making steady progress. We had gotten pass the border with no problems, the border checkpoint was completely abandoned with no sign of the bodies or anyone having manned it. There was signs of conflict, but analysis was inconclusive. I can only imagined by the tracks leading inward they were recalled to help, but we found no horses or carts. What we did find was strange glowing patches on the ground. It was magicite, or ground up magicite dust, glowing a baleful red color. If I remembered what they told me about the substance in school, purple was dangerous, and blue and green were normal. I've even heard of strange yellow magicites, but never red. We couldn't tell if it was safe to approach or where it came from so we moved on. 13 hours in, and my sleep was interrupted by the cart nearly falling on its side.
"Attack! Attack!" I grasped my shotel and rolled out the cart door, tumbling onto one knee as the others turned sharply to avoid another blow. Our attackers looked like oxen, but their bodies were covered in thick metal plate, and jagged red shards stuck from their iron flesh. Foul green yellow smoke poured from their nose and eyes as they attempted to ram into the cart again. I immediately sprung into action, aided by Adly's sorcery as they played evasive and immediately drew both their attentions away for a moment. Breathing in their miasmas must have done something bad to me, because my body felt stiff and ached, but I managed to tear upon a blood vessel in one of their necks before I had to retreat, and the other was mounted by Sadat, that fool, who managed to get himself gored pretty well before the poison he had forced into the creature's eye took effect.
"What are these?" I asked as we bound Sadat's wounds and used our healing supplies to stop the bleeding. Aldy was the one most knowledgeable, but he seemed troubled. "Shades... I... I think. From the Underdark."
"Shades? Shades are cave squids, or walking mushrooms, or even black elves. I've never heard of armored cows, especially ones that breathe death and take that many blows to bring down..."
"Sadat is right, these shades are strange. And their bodies... there's magicite all over them. Its that red stuff. They trashed the cart pretty badly, we may have to leave it here and go with just the horses."
"We'll take a sample and keep moving, I don't think we can afford to wait here. ...there's not a mine in sight. How did shades get this far out here? Whose watching the mines?"
We'd find out soon enough, it was only 2 hours more until we hit the town of Remus. The whole place was abandoned, every last man, woman, and child was gone. There wasn't too much fire damage and there was only minor signs of chaos, likely from the rush of evacuation. As our horses drew close to the town square we had to stop. Before us was an enormous sinkhole which must have swallowed up... god, who knows how many square blocks. The whole thing went into a sharp incline, and the sides of the wall glistened with raw violet magicite. It was like someone had dug a mineshaft straight into the center of town with an impossibly large drill. But the fate of their housing was not what shocked us, but the bodies. The sides of the shaft were littered with corpses broken and shattered on sharp rock edges below. Hundreds, no, maybe thousands of bodies for I could not see the bottom of the shaft as it spread downward into darkness. An entire town population seemingly pushed into a death pit, or maybe they leapt into it in a fit of madness. I could not tell if the sickness I felt was from the sight or the radiation dose we must have been taken, but I could not move affixed on the darkness below. I swore I heard something, it was a voice. I swore I heard it say-
"Snap out of it, we got to go!"
"Oh my god..."
I barely avoided a titanic hand reaching out of the blackness, stretching towards me unnaturally before slamming into the edge of the pit. I don't know what got over me but the others dragged me to my horse and we mounted, beating a hasty retreat. As I glanced behind me I saw a shadowed figure black as night shaped like a gaunt humanoid, nearly all bones. Its body had been threaded out to a grotesque height and its face... no, that wasn't a face. A blank void with a cross shaped gaping wound where a face should be. We were going so fast, but it towered over us, over the town, over anything I've seen as it began its long and purposeful strides towards us. In its hand was a spire made of shadows. It was no use, there was no way to get out of its reach. I saw Adly trying to evade the incoming lance, and then I saw Adly being lifted into the air by the lance. I do not know where his body or horse landed. It's grim of me to say, but it was just the delay me and Sadat needed to outpace the thing. Eventually the titan seemed to give up its chase as we rode our horses to the bone trying to get back. We hand to warn the others. But when we arrived, there wasn't anyone to warn. We could see it from the horizon, titanic shapes, black shadows, burning flames. We had only faced one, but Deshret was dwarfed by a horde of them. They rose from the bay, trampling the city under their long needle legs which were nevertheless as thick as tree trunks. Our horses slowed down to a stop as we wanted the city burn and crumble.
Sadat was barely awake. Between his wounds and our rough retreat his wounds were re-opening and he had lost a lot of blood. I regret to say that I do not deserve the honorable title of knight. In their time of need, I abandoned them. I wasn't even able to warn them in time. I fled in shame with Sadat in tow, with no destination or future. I have long lost track of how long it has been. Under the shroud there is no day, only eternal night. Sadat is still with me, but he no longer speaks. And I have been troubled with the nightmares and that voice from the pit. No matter what I do, I can't seem to leave this place. I can't face those I abandoned, and there is something here in this cursed land. Something that is calling.
Maybe I should go deeper and find out the answer...