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Land of Akerlings

Lore:

Lord Aker was the Son of the King of the Pelorian tribe near the Yunnan Peninsula. There were five major southern city states in the region. The cities were Polusia: Famous for it’s fleets, Ischyrós: Famous for its Ischyrósi Warriors, Gialogos: Famous for its large yet fast horses, Karas: famous for its purple wine and garments, Machantis: A northern city surrounded by mountains.

The realm was peaceful and the tribe was doing prosperous selling cultivated harvests. Lord Aker’s father, the one whose name has been forgotten through history, was a great ruler. He cared for his people and lawfully announced justice. He was a man who was looked upon by everyone. He is now named as “The King whose Name has been Burnt.” He was a pioneer of peace, embracing the laws of nature by not harming a soul. He had passed on his teaching to his son Aker as well.

History took its turn as war loomed on the peninsula. The wife (Reheria) of the King of Ischyrós (Achilias) was abducted in a feast in Ischyrós. The doer's deed was so worked upon that the wisest of men had yet no idea of her bearings. The king waited for months without response or word about his beloved wife’s whereabouts. When no one expected it, the Goddess of Nature, one who was trusted upon even by the most skeptical of men, Heran came upon the King’s dream. He asked her the reason for her visit. Heran couldn’t reveal even the slightest of secrets, the gods forbade her to. But she had to act on justice. He asked her for directions to his wife, She said nothing but uttered a riddle, “I hide below the mountains, above the sea, I am under the sun yet over the moon, where the winds can't reach, which lies beyond and never comes close” before she vanished. The King thought about the answer for days, spending restless nights. After a month, his scouts returned with empty hands. They said they searched in all four directions. They said in the East they found the Great Mountains whose length was unclimbable, in the west they found the Lands of Hispanya, in the south they found the great desert and its scorpions, in the north they found nothing but an empty ocean.

The King was enraged, he now ought to see upon the voyage of his darling himself. He came upon the ports. He looked to the north, towards the sea. He saw nothing but an empty ocean. He thought of the riddle again before looking towards the east where the Mountains laid. He had found his answer. The answer was horizon. And beyond the horizon where a city laid below the mountains, touching the sea, Machantis. He was enraged, feeling betrayed. He sent a final voyage there, finding out that the King of Machantis had abducted his better half from his arms.

He sent a word to the King Persius of Machantis demanding the return of his wife with honour. He only received a chest, and a message that his messengers were killed. He opened the chest only to find the heads of his loyal men. He didn’t mourn, He called upon the old gods, every single one of them. He called upon the giants of Ahelia, the Cyclopses of Turnistia and the Centaurs of the great desert. He called upon his allies, the other three great cities to bring justice upon the wicked.

Alas, the King of the Pelorian tribe was summoned in front of King Achilias. When asked of his allegiance, the King replied, “Shall the wrong doers burn in hell, though I cannot lend my people’s innocent lives into the depths of sorrow for a war they were never close to. Take me as your soldier, I will gladly fight for you. Though none of my men will, all of my organs will fight a hundred times more than my men” To the King’s surprise, Achilias smiled and replied, “I will gladly have you as my soldier though I need only two” he said before ordering his men to impale the King’s eyes with burning hot spears. They said his cries echoed through the plains of Yunan. He screamed his heart out before meeting Haees, the god of death.

Word reached out to Aker. They said he was so angered by the words, he had the messengers flayed and crucified later. He was a tall man, an honourable one. He had to take vengeance for his father, there was no other way he thought. The old men reminded him of his fathers principles, that war and vengeance were only meant to calm the mind once, after the vengeance, the mind itself has to bear the sin of wrong for the whole life and claim death with guilt. Aker heard none of it. He quickly assembled an army of a thousand Akerian men on horseback, the largest cavalry in all of Younan. He went through all the Pelorian villages raising armies. He reached till the lands of Voulgar where the mortal men stopped appearing, the land which was covered with mountains higher than mortal men’s desires. in the region was the mountain of Kolasi, the tallest mountain in the known world. The only mountain that rivalled it was the mountain of Helen in Ischyrós . Philosophers called it the end of the world. It was said it was the place for all wicked to lay and do their deeds. Myths said it was the path to Hell, ruled by Haees himself. The tortured men tried to escape from the cracked mountains but were pulled back by the vitious demons. The demons spoke the Lakisi tongue, the tongue of the darkblooded.

Though the Pelorian elders had advised him of not engaging. He was stubborn, he trained the farmers, made the blacksmiths use their own swords and gathered every man who could hold up a sword in the tribe. The elders’ prophecy was the decisive victory of the enemy and the wipe out of the Pelorian forces being outnumbered three two one in a possible field battle. They called the lord “The Mad King”. Aker prepared all of his men and placed them on the riverside of the Karasi plains, the only path of Ischyrós to Machantis, behind the dense forest, waiting.

In the other side of the peninsula, Achilias gathered an army of great Ischyrósi warriors, some estimate up to three thousand hoplites. They were brave men, men who had fought for decades without any failure. They marched on their king’s commands to rescue their queen and show the Machantisi men who they were. They marched on the Yunani plains, the echo of their boots being reverbed through the seven continents. Whispers of the doom of Machantis had surrounded the peninsula. The Machantisi King, afraid, gathered up an army of two thousand infantry and defended the passage to his city. If the Ischyrósi had penetrated their flanks, it was their end.

The battle horns sounded just as the sun had risen. Machantisi soldiers held up their shield wall on the narrow pass between the Black sea and the Northern mountains. Most of them were too young to lift a spear, yet they had to stain their clothes with blood of war today. The outnumbered men gazed at the approaching Ischyrósi warriors. They were also humans, none of them responsible for their king’s deeds though had to risk their lives for it. Before anything, the armies clashed together. The Ischyrósi brought down every Machantisi man they saw. The Manchantisi held tight, most of them hoping for survival rather than a victory. The Ischyrósi had almost broken through the shield wall.

A horn roared across the field in the forest. A group of horse riders emerged from the depths of the jungle, galloping at the speed of wind towards the Ischyrósi. The Ischyrósi tried turning back but it was too late, the Palorians had clashed into them. It was a massacre, all the men of Ischyrós were slain. Achilias crucified the ones who fled. Even the gods mourned. The forces of the good were defeated to the dark, not leaving a single good soul alive. The three free cities mourned along with the people of distant nations. Word was even that the army of Three thousand Pelorians and Machantisi were marching on Ischyrós.

The father of Achilias was Polusius himself, the god of gods. Aker knew that Polunius would come to save his son even if they would taste defeat after besieging Ischyrós. Aker had now decided to do the bravest of deeds in the world. He decided to take on the journey to the dark cracks of Mount Kolasi. He went out on his journey while his allies, the Machantisi king, gathered men for the next attack on Ischyrós. They say he barged into the cracks of the mountain with nothing but a spear. There was nothing but a sea of flames when he looked down at the surface. Without second thoughts, he jumped inside. They say even the flames in the volcano were afraid to burn his handsome face, for he was stronger than any creation of god. He consumed every bit of heat there was present there. He landed on a rock which was surrounded by a sea of lava. There he saw the wicked Visanti, the tortured men who were sent to hell by the gods. They were pale and short. They looked like they had not had a meal in decades. The little bit of hair they had, dropped till their shoulders. They had a short tail and sharp teeth. They had burnt hands which made it hard for them to grip on objects, likely from the torture. They screamed at lord Aker in the Lakisi tongue, “El Kundur Mechar!” (The Man is mine!) before every single one of the Visanti charged at him. They tried to nibble on his body, seeing a person with flesh after a long time in their lives. There were hundreds of them there. Aker killed most without breaking a sweat. After their defeat, Aker went deeper into the mountains and saw the guards of Haees near the Rikal Kunduri. They were tall creatures who were responsible of the torture of souls in hell (called Rundir Yala in Lakisi) They tried to stop him, only to be split into the lava they were made of. As he reached the gates, he saw Kururi Val (Hound, Black) a Monster guarding the depths of hell, one of the thirteen Monsters of Haees. Lord Aker split the monster’s jaws in two with his bare hands. From there he went inside Hell. He described it as a land of horror and sorrow. He faced all the monsters one by one, getting stronger as he went on the way. Beyond the gate, Aker found himself in a cavern of screaming winds. There coiled Varathi Nalkus (Hydra, Manyborn), a serpent of twelve necks whose every head whispered a different lie. He cut seven heads at once and watched fourteen replace them. He seized them in fistfuls and drove them into the stone until the creature's own frantic regrowth crushed it under the weight of itself. The tunnel narrowed into a hall reeking of iron. There stood Thurak Veloshar (Bull, Wrathfire), a man below the chest and a great horned bull above, his hooves leaving molten prints with every step. He charged without warning. They say Aker stepped aside again and again, letting the creature's fury carry him into wall after wall, until his own horns were buried deep in stone and he could no longer pull free. Aker seized them and broke them from the skull. Thurak Veloshar fell, and for the first time in ten thousand years there was silence in that hall. The next chamber had no stone. It had silk and warmth and a scent that made men forget where they were walking. Shari Lumindal (Goddess, Desire) sat at its center, her form shifting to become whatever the eyes of the observer most wished to see. She spoke Aker's name in a voice he had not heard in years. He closed his eyes, walked forward, and seized her by the throat. They say a monster cannot defeat a man who does not look at it. Beyond that chamber the walls were buried under gold and the weapons of dead kings and the teeth of gods. Murak Vethali (Hoarder, Deepgold) had long since forgotten he had a body. He had become the collection itself. He tried to swallow Aker whole as he had swallowed everything else. Aker began throwing his treasures one by one into the lava behind him. The more Murak Vethali chased what he lost the weaker he became, until there was nothing left of him but a small shivering thing weeping over an empty room. The next chamber was vast and low and Gorvath Dunulis (Beast, Neverfull) occupied most of it. He was the shape of an elephant, wrong in every proportion, his mouth never fully closed. He charged not out of malice but out of bottomless appetite. Aker ran him in circles until the creature had eaten so much of the floor that he fell into the pit he had dug with his own hunger. Visharak Nalumar (Tongue, Doublespeaker) was the height of a child and said nothing when Aker approached. But the words Aker heard in his own head were not his own. Three steps into that chamber and he had nearly turned back to kill the Machantisi king for a betrayal that had not happened. He stopped. He spoke every thought aloud and heard how foreign they sounded in the open air. Visharak Nalumar lost all power the moment its fictions met daylight. Aker stepped on it. Drakath Solumnis (Walker, Unchained) had been pacing the same corridor since before the gods had learned to count. He was not malicious. He was only unable to stop, a thing that had forgotten what rest was for. He swept Aker aside simply by continuing to walk. Aker planted himself in the center of the corridor and refused to move. Drakath Solumnis collapsed against the obstruction of a man who had simply decided to be still. Kalithis Verundar (Flame, Hollow) burned without fuel and consumed without heat, drifting like cold fire through the chamber. Aker charged it at full speed and passed through it like a stone through water. Inside he found it entirely hollow. He reached into its center, pulled out the small hard kernel it had been built around, and placed it on the ground. The fire went out. Thulathari Vasundir (She Who Unmakes, Bitter) had no fixed form and wanted none. She did not attack. She showed Aker every future in which he chose to stop, every version of the world where Achilias died and Ischyrós fell and the siege meant nothing. She let the visions run long. Aker watched each one in full. Then he said: I have seen the worst of what I am. You have shown me nothing I had not already feared before I jumped into this mountain. He walked through her like smoke. The last before the deepest gate was Kurundath, the Kept One, locked behind a door chained with a god's own promise. It had no name in any tongue Aker spoke. It was the feeling that nothing ever done was enough, that every victory owed a debt to a future defeat. It wrapped around his chest the moment the door opened. Aker let it stay long enough to understand it. Then he spoke its name aloud, the name every man carries for it, and it lost the power of the unnamed thing. Some monsters cannot be destroyed. They can only be known. Then at the far end of the pit, standing in the road as though he owned it, was Korrath Sulmadis (General, Highborn). He wore black iron and stood before ranks of dead soldiers who had pledged their souls for the illusion of glory. He told Aker that no man entered Rundir Yala without surrendering his name and his deeds. He offered him a place in his ranks. Aker looked at the soldiers. They stood straight but stared at nothing, emptied of everything except the need to be admired by a man who could not be impressed. He told the general that pride without witness is just a man talking to himself in the dark. Korrath Sulmadis raised his sword. Aker broke the sword and knocked him to the ground with the flat of his hand, and every soldier in the ranks fell at once. A parade without a general is just a crowd going nowhere. And so Aker emerged from the dark cracks of Mount Kolasi. They say he had faced all thirteen monsters of Rundir Yala and come back the same man who entered.

Achilias lost all hope, not only had he lured his own men into a death trap, he had lost all hope in recovering his wife. He went to the balcony of his palace in the middle of the night where all of Ischyrós could be seen. With the largest voice, he called upon his father, Polusius, god of gods. Polisius appeared with a large thunder and asked Achilias the reason of his summon. Achilias indignified his own father, calling him a “Pewny God”, letting evil win against the men fighting for Justice. Polusius laughed at him, mocking his manhood. He said, “No great man receives anything without travail, for without travail even the purest of achievements are negligible. Son, your enemies are marching towards your city. Beneath every failure lies the blueprint of its cause. Think boy! Think, the deeds you committed that led me to punish you.” Achilias clenched his fist, he knew exactly what his father was talking about. His father smirked, “I have sent goddesses towards other cities to help you, they will give you an army. If thou shall lose regardless of my favour, I shall come fourth to see the man who has managed to defeat the one who has the gods in favour of him. To find where I reside first understand who I am, I am the canvas that never runs out of room, wearing a sapphire coat by day and a diamond-studded cloak by night. I have no ceiling, yet I hold up the sun. I have no floor, yet the birds dance upon me. I can be as clear as glass or as grey as a secret, but no matter how far you travel, you will always be standing beneath me.” he said before vanishing.

The next day, armies of the other three city states arrived at his doorstep, about five thousand men. It included the fleets of Polusia, cavalry of Gigalosos and Karasi Hoptlies. In a few hours, they got their armies stationed and in formation, waiting for their enemy for the final battle. Achilias stood at the front of them, ready to die for his beloved. As the dusk approached. The Army of Aker and the Machantisi arrived in formation. Leading his army was Aker. Aker was a tall man, with a spear in his back. They say where his spear was from was a distant land to the east. It was forged in the depths of volcanos with a mythical steel called Black Steel, the steel of gods. Behind him were his two sons, the eldest Rohaan Aker Sah and the younger Arohaan Aker Sah. Beside him stood his second youngest, his bastard. It was an Pelorian tradition to name your bastard after your own name. His name was picked out to be Rileus Akerian.

At the front of the Machantisi army was the Machantisi king, behind him was Reheria. The Ischyrósi king looked at his wife with a gaze of sorrow. She was bruised and looked as if she was tortured through depths of hell. The Machantisi king called him out, “Look at your pretty wife, the woman known as the most beautiful woman in the world, before this he had never been with any other man except her husband had she? Well Alas Achilias son of Polusius,

I tortured your wife, and drank her youth.

She screamed your name though you never came,

I killed her hopes and the truth.

Through the dark halls, she was only mine to claim!” he exclaimed as he laughed. “You are considered the strongest man in the world, I dont think so. This man here is the true one!” he looked at Aker.

He had had enough, he took a final gaze at the face of his sobbing wife before turning away to his army. He commanded his army to march towards the Machantisi. The two armies fought dreadfully. It was the middle of the night when the Merchantisi men were getting reduced to hundreds. Upon seeing the fall of his men, the Machantisi king took Reheria on his horse and fled with his men. Achilias followed him. They went through forests and rivers until they saw sunrise. Finally the Mechantisi King stopped in the midst of the jungle. He turned towards Achilias. They both pulled out their swords and clashed. As blade met blade, the sonorous sound of metal echoed through the forest. The parry went on for a long while when the Machantisi king managed to hit Achilias’ face. Achilias was upon the ground. He remembered the riddle his father had told him. He remembered it. The answer to the riddle was sky. He looked at the sky and screamed, “Lord Father, here below from the land of mortals, I summon you. Give me your strength so I can bring demise upon this man!” he screamed. In that moment the Machantisi king took his sword in an attempt to jab Achilias. Achilias saw this and jerked his sword towards the Machantisi king. The blade bit him in his arm as he screamed. Achilias pushed the blade inside the screaming mouth of the Machantisi king. After he was finished, he looked at his wife who was tied to the horse. As he untied her, she broke into tears in front of him, she spoke nothing. They both embraced each other until dusk. Achilias was surprised not to see his Lord father not be summoned.

Back at the battle grounds, the Machantise army fled. The Akerian army was the only one left, though still maintaining most of it’s numbers. It was finally hard on the Akerians as now they were getting flanked from all sides. The men fell one by one, from both sides. Sooner or later, somehow the Pelorian army managed to defeat the alliance, as they descended on the city. It is said that lord Aker managed to push through the ranks of the army of the good into the city. He had taken his revenge. He looked at the mountain of Helen which was situated at the center of the city. He climbed the so-called mountain of Heavens in Ischyrós to claim his crown, the only mortal in the entire world to be able to do so. He stood there silent. From the beneath, the sounds of his victory erupted. The city was his to take. He had finally avenged his father. Though somewhere, he wanted more. He was brave enough to call the God of Gods upon. Though he had no response.

Suddenly, he came with a thunder. He was astonished by his son’s defeat. He looked at the mortal beneath him, thinking he was the murderer of his son, Polusius charged at him with his thunderbolt. They said there was no mortal capable of sight of Polusius, though there was one fighting with him. Aker fought with him for hours. Polusius was angered by the mortal’s capabilities. Lord Aker was successful in putting the god till his knees. When Polunius didn’t see his victory, he played a game with Aker. He promised of giving the throne of heavens and his wife Achilla if Aker was able to answer three riddles. The first riddle was, “I am the spark that is never struck, yet sets the soul ablaze. I am the well that is never filled, though a thousand rivers pour within. I am the phantom that flees as you approach, a shadow that grows longer as the sun wanes. To possess me is to lose me; to feed me is to make me ravenous. What am I?” Aker thought for a few moments and gave the correct answer, “Desire.” Polusius hissed and began the second one. “I am the eye that never blinks, yet blinds all who dare to look upon me. I pull the golden chariot across the vault of heaven, yet I have no horses and no wheels.” Aker got it right again, “The Sun.” Polusius clenched his fists and told Aker to look down to the Mortal world for the next riddle. Aker refused. Polusius still asked the riddle, “No matter how afar you are, you will one day fall to me. The arrogance of things you have, one day you will have to bury it in me. Who am I?” Aker couldn’t get the answer. He feared of loosing the challenge. He remembered the God’s words. He believed the mortal world had something to do with it. As soon as Aker looked to the Mortal world from the clouds, Polusius kicked him out of heaven. Aker fell to the mortal world.

He landed in the battlefield, and saw his children for the last time. He whispered the Song of Blood and Betrayal in their ears. Alas, Aker was a mortal, Polusius landed a final thunderbolt into his chest, causing his defeat. Polusius killed Aker’s men, though his children were able to escape. The whole Akerian tribe had to flee the Peninsula and move to another home.

Dusk came upon and Achilias came into his kingdom with his wife. He saw his dead men and his victory. The trumpets roared in songs of victory of the King. Upon seeing his son alive, Polusius realised what he had done. He was deeply in sorrow at the death of Aker, blaming himself for it. The kingdom went on as the years passed. Acilias and Reheria had two sons and a daughter. The world was not infected with any sinners for centuries. No old man had to see his son’s death. The realm lived happily ever after.

Though a side of the world was living in prosperity, the other had to live through defeat. The whole Pelorian tribe decided to move eastwards where no one knew where they would end up. The only hope they had was survival. The Pelorian tribe divided into hundreds of groups, the largest one led by Rohaan Sah and his brothers. They went on to create the Great Akerian Empire in the east. After dying, Aker left his belongings to his children. They are sang upon as songs in every Akerian household.

The Song of Blood and Betrayal:

He gave his Wisdom to the Lion,

Gave the White his build,

He gave the Black his spear of war,

Shall they live on Afar.

“Hail Lord, raise the banners,

Set blaze upon your foes,

You are, the lings of Aker,

It’s time to draw your bows.

Hail lord, stand in manner,

Such infrightens all your foes,

You are, the lings of Aker,

The ones that shadows chose”

The Lord was tall and fearsome such,

No monster had him sweat so much,

He held the spear-shaft with one hand,

The Horse named Herr, at his command,

The gods feared his arrival time,

For he belonged to no-man’s kind,

He pulled Polunius till his knees,

The god survived at much his lease,

In his eyes was Fire,

Heaven was his desire,

He took Polusius’ final wish

The God tricked him to the Abyss,

Before he died he whispered the song,

Of his betrayal and blood lost,

He gave his Wisdom to the Lion,

Gave the White his build,

He gave the Black his spear of war,

Shall they live on Afar.

“Hail Lord, raise the banners,

Set blaze upon your foes,

You are, the lings of Aker,

It’s time to draw your bows.

Hail lord, stand in manner,

Such infrightens all your foes,

You are, the lings of Aker,

The ones that shadows chose”