Journeywoman's Journeys, A Fantasy Age of Exploration Worldbuilding Quest (Updated Daily)

"Sadly, we're only here overnight," says Anne to the young monk, "If we were here longer, I'd see how many rungs I could climb up your ladder before our departure"

Narakhan, the monk, takes in a deep breath, his tail swishing in annoyance, "Miss. The Open Path isn't some trick that you can pick up over a few days like sport or some other game. The Open Path demands a lifetime commitment. Trakstar isn't a mere skill, it's a complete life philosophy."

Anne exchanges a glance with Bryn, "Well, I spent my childhood learning how to hone my body in combat arts, as well as honing my mind learning the fundamentals of archaic concepts from across the world." she shrugs, "I don't see why this particular archaic concept would be any different. Once I've been taught the basics, I'm sure that I'm smart enough to get the rest on my own."

Narakhan's ears begin to tent backwards, and he crosses his arms, "Miss, I remind you that you are a guest here."

Anne rolls her eyes at this over reaction.

"I understand, and I thank you, this has been very educational."

"Miss. The Open path is a holistic way of engaging with the world.

Bryn leans close to Anne, covering her lips with a hand, "I bet he's just repeating something his masters told him." she says, barely audible.

Bryn squares her shoulders and turns to face the monk with a mischievous newborn grin on her face, "Well, I believe that in the past, such beliefs were absolutely necessary."

"Thank you" the young man says, nodding graciously.

Anne almost feels bad for the monk.

"But in an era of enlightened inquiry, as we've begun to experiment to find out what the underlying truths are, we no longer need to submit to totalizing philosophical systems as a way of learning skills."

The monk now crosses his arms too.

Anne can't help but grin. Bryn is relentlessly cheerful, she never holds a grudge, and she hates causing conflict… But she loves a good debate. It's her favourite way of determining the truth. The poor Trakstar monk has walked into a battelief he wasn't prepared for.

"That may be the quick and skilless way to do things. To parcel up truth into small pieces understandable to closed minds. But I believe that truth is a single holistic path. And in my case I follow the Open Path as first marked by Saint Irad."

"That may work for an overarching philosophy of the world." Bryn gestures at Anne, "My friend here is a follower of the Lady of Rivers. They have a religious philosophy on how to live a full life."

Anne raises a hand in casual greeting.

Bryn continues, "But in my education, in my field, we've broken with traditional bindings in order to uncover the underlying mechanics of our field." she says proudly.

"So we should simply discard traditions that have worked for centuries? Built the very building we are standing in?"

"Well-" begins Bryn, setting up a verbal counter as the conversation continues, "People used to have all kinds of strange beliefs about corpses. But once the Circle of Fingers stripped away your so-called 'holistic aspects,' we Osteomancers were able to divorce ourselves from Necromancy, and discover that Osteomancy works on a purely mechanical level. There is nothing spiritual about the discipline at all. It's just bones, accumulated life force, and a osteomancer's tools"

Anne sits back and watches the debate. Quite literally as she drops onto one of the (surprisingly comfortable!) mats that cover the Shrine's floors and leans back, arms outstretched behind her, to watch Bryn and Narakhan's worldviews clash.

Every now and then Anne looks away and notices that the shadows have crept a little farther across the floor.

As the two other young adults argue Anne launches a word in edgewise from the floor. Usually in defence of Bryn's points, but almost as often agreeing with the monk's desire to maintain traditional knowledge. (Never let it be said that Anne didn't have her own views to defend.)

Narakhan suddenly goes still mid-sentence as another monk, much older, enters the main hall from a side room.

"I trust that all is well Brother Narakhan?" Says a powerfully built Harakai man with tightly grouped flowing golden birthmarks as he takes in the tableau before him -Bryn and Narakhan standing opposite each other with arms crossed and Anne watching looking on relaxed from the floor- and gives a half bow to Anne and Bryn, "Honoured Guests."

"Oh, everything's great!" Bryn says cheerfully, any stridency from the debate instantly dropped, "Brother Narakhan's been an excellent guide. We've learned so much!" she gushes, apparently entirely genuine, "It's been a delightful visit!"

Anne tunks her legs under her and hops up with a quick bounce, "Hey! Brother Narakhan's been great. He's been very patient with us." Anne exchanges a look with Bryn, and the Aramvolk girl nods, "But we should probably be heading out."

Narakhan gives a half bow to Anne and Bryn and the two return it bemusedly.

The two exit the shrine, and Anne breaks into a wide grin, "Well I had fun."

"Ahhh!" sighs Bryn with a wide smile, "If I get to do this at every place we stop, this'll be a good trip. We'll learn so much!"

Anne returns the smile, "Don't tell Tarn," Anne drops her voice conspiratorially, "but he could get away with paying me much less due to days like this."

"Don't tell me what, kids?" Comes a familiar voice from nearby.

"Oh!" Anne jumps and reorients herself, Tarn has apparently set up his stall in the square so that she exited the Shrine with her back to the centuaroid man, "Nothing, just that they offered to pay us waaaay more than you do if we stay to teach them our ways."

"Monks like this don't have any money kids." Tarn says, waving the two over, "You know what they say, 'Beware monks in stone houses.' and all that."

"I've never heard that"

"You're young yet kid."

Anne rolls her eyes and hops up onto one of the boxes sitting next to Tarn, "How's business old man?"

"Not bad, we're still on track to leave tomorrow."

Anne's eyes sparkle, "That's exciting, I've always wanted to see the-"

[ ] "-Dominate"

Tarn's route is through a northern pass into the Azenian Dominate. While the tolls are considerable, these Azenian Provinces are well patrolled by Azen's disciplined soldiers and the roads between orderly cities are suspiciously well maintained by the Dominate's household nobles.

Once clear of the mountains, Tarn plans to take an overland route through the Dominate's mountainous easternmost provinces to a trade city at the edge of the steppes.

[ ] "-Wildwinds"

"Tarn's route is through an eastern pass into the Territory of the Wildwinds. There are no taxes, but the caravan will need to comply with the Children of Ibyllia, whose requests on behalf of the spirits can often be arbitrary. But the Territories are safe if one doesn't disobey.

Tarn plans to take a path through the northern territories to a trade city on the edge of the steppes.

[ ] "-Open Lands"

A strip of unclaimed mountains and hills between the Dominate, Federation, and Territories that act as an unclaimed buffer between the three rival governments. No government enforces tolls or demands, but roads are more dangerous and lands wilder outside the scattered villages.

Tarn believes the caravan will shave weeks off their trip by taking a direct northeast route towards a trade city on the edge of the steppes.

This vote is for the next leg of the journey.

A write-in will be 70 words and will replace the "Open Lands" vote as what occupies the unclaimed territory between the three local powers.

I would be looking for what minor nation occupies the space between the three rivals, and why they have maintained their independence.

27th Nisan 777 After Exile
Light rain, light cloud cover

At midday we crossed the border into the Azenian Dominate.

The border was clearly marked, on our side was a small detachment of Merian mercenaries, and on the other was a company of Azenian troops stationed in a small fort that straddled the road atop a small hill.

The four arc high wooden palisades were built around a series of low stone buildings. And outside the walls the surrounding forests had been cut back to a distance of some three to four hundredarcs so that open ground surrounded the border outpost on all sides.

Doubtlessly, with the outpost's troops being near entirely armed with firearms, this would make the outpost a difficult position to storm.

Paying the toll for entry into Azenia was a simple matter, but it took most of the early afternoon.

Tarn had to submit the caravan to an inspection under the eye of a humourless looking man in a long cloak covered in elaborate designs that I believe act as a badge of office.

I have come to this conclusion as I observed shorter capes and cowls with less elaborate versions of the same design on the outpost's soldiers and staff.

During this process an outpost officer and several of his men approached myself, Jalynn, and Jalynn's troop.

This group demanded to inspect our weapons, and then returned them to us after tying a white thread around the weapons. They then insisted that we place our ammunition inside a provided crate that they then sealed with a similar thread.

Jalynn was initially reluctant to obey but acquiesced once Tarn explained that this was standard procedure for travelling Azenian provinces. These enchanted threads would alert nearby Azenian magisters if they were broken en masse, and would be inspected again upon leaving Azenia. If the thread was untouched we would be allowed to continue, if the thread had been destroyed or removed, our party would incur a fine for violating the laws of the land.

Jalynn and I argued that we should not be punished for keeping our weapons in a ready state to defend ourselves from bandits or other threats.

The Azenian officer, now offended, stated in no uncertain terms that Azenia had no bandit problem and that we were being allowed to keep our weapons as a courtesy to guests.

We were also told that in the event of an animal attack we were to dip the thread in the animal's blood and then keep the thread. It would be inspected upon leaving Azenia and "the blood would tell." before warning us in no uncertain terms not to poach less we incur a further fine.

Afterwards, the Azenian magistrate directed us to see through the night at a nearby village that supported this outpost and that if Tarn handed over his foriegn merchant's papers he would be allowed to purchase rooms at one of the village's several inns.

I must say, Azenia is much more boring than I'd hoped a land of ruthless conquerors would be.

For this vote, we're going to be setting the general demographics of the Azenian Dominate. All votes will then be counted up and set as the general population of this rival state.

While you can vote for the following list of established peoples, as well as the two new Example votes I'm adding, I'm actually eagerly waiting to see you write in, (Write ins are 120 words)

Examples:

[ ] Tseskiya

Like the Harakai, Tseskiya are Half Homo Sapiens, and half spirit.

Ancient Tseskiya were children of the skies and forests. Commonly small and lithe, these people are aften dark skinned and dark-haired (in some cases dark feathered) with a pair of light wings sprouting from their back that can be folded and draped over the upper body like a cloak.

These avian people are known for being intelligent, mischievous, stubborn, and have a curiosity about all things new and shiny that have led to their culture's rapid adoption of modern practices and technologies and turn away from their spirit ancestors. A fact that many traditionalists blame for the species losing the ability to fly (They can glide short distances)

[ ] Chioyone

Sharp teeth, tails, and a hunter's build: the Chioyone are the Silef's Lupine counterparts.

Of northern origin, the Chioyone have a reputation for being fiercely loyal and possessed of both practicality and great endurance. They tend to have thick hair (often white or grey), but are smaller than Silef, their most ancient ancestors relying on numbers and teamwork to bring down animals many times their size instead of brute force..

As a people the Chioyone's adoption of modern technologies and philosophies under the Azenian Dominate was driven not by curiosity or neophilia, but by pure bloody-minded practicality, determined to change -but only as little as possible to maintain the influence of an ancient nobility in a rapidly centralising Dominate.

Previously Established species:

Harakai (Half-human/half-djinn)
Silef (Steppe catfolk)
Oristatl (Matriarchal Farming Orcs)
Kal Ymi (Centaur ancestor worshippers)
Aramvolk (Human merchant culture)

You can vote for as many options as you want. (approval voting allowed)

28th Nisan 777 After Exile
Light cloud cover

We spent our night at the nearby Azenian town.

Though it may be more accurate to call it another fortress.

The Azenian town of Eulich ("eww lichhhh" with a deep gutteral ending) consists of two sections. One section is a walled section that contains the homes and buildings of Azenian citizens, and the other section is for foreigners and Azenian subjects.

Both sections are arranged in a triangle where one edge of each equilateral triangle runs parallel across the highway which passes between them.

The Citizen's section is surrounded by walls of similar height and composition to the border post, but each point of the triang is anchored by a large stone building. These stone buildings house the offices for the Sword Nobles of the local Azenian garrison, the Azen Provincial Household Nobility, and the Province's Local Azenian recognized Nobility.

Surrounding those buildings on regular unpaved roads are the homes for those who work in those buildings. In the middle of the section are the barracks and drill fields for the garrison.

The other section is unwalled and does not seem to have an imposed pattern like its counterpart, except that all the buildings have been confined to a triangle the same size as the citizen's district. Apparently Azenian towns consist of mixed patterns of equal numbers of citizen and subject districts.

Our caravan was directed to a guarded field next to the citizen's district. Specifically towards a fenced in field that was also triangular. (The Azenians appear to hold either the number three or triangles in high regard though I have not yet determined why that may be)

True to the instructions of the Azenian magistrate, Tarn's papers gave him leave to purchase rooms at an inn inside the citizen's district, apparently allowed by previous good conduct by caravan's under his leadership.

Despite this, Tarn allowed us to choose between rooms at a trusted inn in the subject's section or with him in the citizen's district. As apparently the subject inns are as a rule cheaper but of lower quality. And while Tarn's tired old bones preferred the luxury of the citizen lodges, we were free to stay in the subject inns and save some money. About half of our hands took him up on the offer, apparently preferring the extra drinking money and the cheaper drinks in the subject district.

As I wanted to observe and speak with Azenian citizens, I chose to stay with Tarn at "Look's Den", a citizen lodge run by a heavily scarred Chioyone man who was apparently a veteran of the Azenian expansion wars before being granted land on his discharge from the Imperial Columns.

One thing that I noticed fairly early was that Azenian religion was a somewhat complicated affair. While the Daughters of Azen clearly have a preferred mode of worship for their provinces, the locals tend to have different ideas…

This vote is on the religions of the Dominate, though there is an official State Religion(ish) (The Imperial Rites) the Dominate has other popular religions. The main dividing line between them (or even through them) is their obedience to the Dominate. This vote will also be a demographic vote where your ratio of votes will roughly align to that of the popularity of Azen's religions. A write in should be around 150 words.

Feel more than free to come up with more religions for the Dominate (Especially their subject peoples)

[ ] Imperial Rites

Azenia's imperial cult, the Rites promote fealty to ruling triumvirate and the three pillars of Azenia: The Sword Nobles of the Imperial Armies, the Household Nobles of the Imperial Bureaucracy, and local Noble collaborators.

A modification of traditional Jijan valley ancestor worship, the rites consist of prayers to Azen herself, as well as a pantheon of semi-divine guardians. Posthumous inclusion in these rolls are an honour that often sees noble houses literally draw blood during the decennial jockeying that surrounds the ascension of deceased notables to the official cult rolls by Azenia's Daughters, the hereditary triumvirate that rules Azenia.

Particularly strict Household Nobles assigned to the provinces will force locals to obey the Imperial rites during worship, and many other Azenian subjects and citizens will willingly integrate aspects of the Imperial Rites into their worship. Sometimes this is out of genuine conviction, but often is from cynical calculation.

Examples:

[ ] The Mother

Known in many tongues as some variation on "Seles" or "Celas", and often considered one of the most important divine beings in any pantheon, she known in Azenia most often as "The Silent Gatherer", and is a Goddess of death.

Azenian Selesians are harsher than their Qwassilth counterparts. Though their doctrines are similar, Azenian Selesians tend to emphasise The Mother's role as the reaper of men, and will often claim that the peace brought by Azen's conquests are blessed by the Dark Mother.

Seles' realm is said to be the afterlife, a place of stillness, where the dead are purged of "heaviness" before being reincarnated. White robe clad priests and priestesses oversee funerals and are often found tending to the sick, impoverished, and distressed, and are known for being virtually immune to sickness, poison, and disease until they too are sent to their rest by the Dark Mother.

[ ] Spiritualists

To the followers of this worldview, every object, being, and impulse in the world has a spirit associated with it. In daily life, one must give thanks to the world as one acts on it, and Spiritualists are well known for thanking animals they eat and fields they harvest.

Though Spiritualist shamans are most often found conducting rituals to supplicate with more powerful natural forces like rivers or seasons, these "Channelers" are best known for bargaining with the "Coloured" spirits that govern the range of mortal emotions.

In Azenia, channelling of colours is strictly regulated by the Household nobles due to traditional Jijen taboos around the practice.

Loyal Azenian spiritualists will often call upon the spirits of the Empire itself, its institutions, or its weapons. And many an Azenian Imperial column will have spiritualists who ease the burdens of fortification and entrenchment, as well as their fabled "Rifle Shamans"