The Marked Ones
History
The Marked Ones were a small culture from the world's ancient history, predating the Koth, the Phalreans, and the Tanelim considerably. They lived in perpetual fear of four terrifying deities known as the Stalkers, thought to be the first gods in existence. They were eventually wiped out by these gods, and were mostly lost to history. The Stalkers retreated to the furthest edges of the cosmos, their hunger for killing sated, but have now returned, drawn by the energy of the Forest-Between-Worlds. With them, the ghosts of the Marked One dead appeared to Mortals and Nightmares alike, and most recently, due to the surprising actions of the Stalker known as The King, they have been brought back to life, living in the Mortal Realm among the Koth.
Being a Marked One now is a strange experience. They all knew too-brief lives in the ancient past, then centuries of endlessly reliving the moment of their deaths within the Stalkers domains, and now, some odd new freedom in an unfamiliar world, where a new war wages. Still, with the Stalkers breathing down the necks of the worlds once more, it may be down to them to keep Mortalkind safe from those they once sought to evade.
Beliefs
Traditional Marked One theology reflects their constant battle to live when they are marked for death by the Stalkers, and is detailed below. However, since returning to life and being among the Koth, many of them have begun to worship Koth gods, seeing them as a source of safety from the Stalkers. In particular, they have started to revere Kothur, seeing him as a strong figure of protection, Keaghan, whose focus on keeping people alive is naturally appealing, and Ganshe, the slayer of the Hive. Nathaia, with her emphasis on death, is feared by many Marked Ones and they do not trust her with their worship.
PRECEPTS OF THE MARKED
We are marked for death. At birth, our babies have a line painted across their necks to symbolise this.
The Stalkers have marked us. They run across the world to consume us, and we run across the world to survive.
To escape death is a heroic act, in defiance of the Stalkers. When one has narrowly escaped death, they get a new symbol painted on their face to demonstrate this.
The brightstuff can distract the Stalkers, or draw their attention.
Souls feed the Stalkers, and attract boons from them. This is Betrayal.
THE COMMANDMENTS OF THE MARKED
THE STALKERS
The King
The King is a titanic beast of a man, made from obsidian ore, with a huge crown that towers above the clouds. He is so vast he must crawl across the world on all fours. He has great long arms that reach out and grasp his victims, and he hauls them back towards him and makes them work in his farms, or serve him in his palace atop a mountain. Here, he makes everyone the same. People who are short he stretches, and people who are tall he presses down. He makes everyone work until they die from exhaustion, and if they refuse, he smashes their bodies against the mountainside where he dwells.
The King is drawn by Crowngold, and distracted by Mirrorfrost.
The Snow
The Snow is a monstrous intelligence that inhabits the blizzards and the ice. He courses across the world, freezing and biting. It is said that he hates warmth, light, and happiness, and that hearth and hospitality can keep him at bay, but not forever. He dominates the will of the wolves and the owls, and through starvation he turns predators into murderers. Sometimes, he whispers secrets and promises into the minds of the Marked, and they turn feverish with obsession with him. They walk into his arms and remain still in his embrace until they die of him.
The Snow is drawn by Mirrorfrost, and distracted by Crowngold.
The Knife
The Knife once wished to know the secrets of metal, and she tortured a Marked one for nine days and nights to make them tell her. When they died, she instead took one of his bones and carved it into a knife. Since then, she has walked the face of the world and murdered with it, over and over and over. It is said that she will not rest until her blade has tasted the life's blood of every being in the land, and then she will turn on the rest of the Stalkers. She is the embodiment of killing, and she will kill until there is no more killing left to do.
The Knife is drawn by Heartsteel, and distracted by Glowroot.
The Hive
The Hive was once a woman who was slain by the Knife, and whose body fell apart again and again until it became an infinitude of ants, locusts, and wasps. Then, centuries later, she was killed again, torn apart by the Goddess Ganshe. She was always hungry. She seared the life from the land until there was nothing left to consume. She devoured life because she was dead, and craved the warm reality of true existence. She ate because she envied.
The Hive was drawn by Glowroot, and distracted by Heartsteel.
Culture
Customs
The Marked Ones were preoccupied by a fear of death, and this led to a pragmatic, yet paranoid culture forming. At birth, children were marked by a black line painted across their necks, to show that they, newly alive, were destined for death at the hands of the Stalkers. Lessons in survival started early, with children taught to hunt, gather, make poultices, climb, swim, and run quickly as soon as possible. Writing wasn't much practiced, and taught later in life, regarded as a luxury.
The Marked Ones were, strictly, hunter-gatherers, regarding agriculture as a trap laid by the King, encouraging people to stay in one place and become easy pickings. Nowadays, some Marked Ones remain skeptical even of the Koth practice of keeping roaming herds of livestock, although most Marked Ones consider this different from true Agriculture, and thus not forbidden.
One of the favoured Marked One pass-times is gossip. Specifically, gossiping about your fellows with respect to how long you think they will survive before being taken down by the Stalkers, and wagers on which of two people would last the longest were common. Additionally, it was common to gossip speculatively about who might be drawn to the dark art of Betrayal - selling souls to the Stalkers to improve your survival prowess. As such, being unskilled in the art of survival would draw pity and scorn, whereas being too skilled would draw suspicion. Better not to be noticeable at all.
Art
The Koth and the Marked Ones share one key cultural pass-time in common; storytelling. However, Marked One storytelling traditions are very different from those of the Koth, and this has already caused some tension between these new neighbours. For Marked Ones, all stories are tragedies, because they all end with death at the hands of the Stalkers, even though they typically involve many daring escapes en route. For this reason, an audience to a story will typically seek to distract the storyteller from their tale, asking about unrelated events in the protagonist's life, or requesting further details about a side character. This becomes a game, whereby the audience seeks to stave off the inevitable demise of the main character by keeping the story going for as long as possible, whilst the storyteller is almost a villainous figure, drawing said character onwards towards their doom.
Whilst not strictly artistic, physical contests, especially races, are very common Marked One practices, and these have caught on much more successfully amidst the Koth.
Marriage and Funerals
The Marked Ones, traditionally, have no marriages, and no funerals.
Marriage is an odd concept for the Marked Ones who have come to the new world; the implied permanence is very counter to their cultural mode of thinking. Relationships are begun between Marked Ones with the understanding that they will likely be transitory, and if they end with the partners drifting apart naturally, rather than with one or both dying, that is considered a great success. Relationships are typically informal, however, and it is common for Marked Ones to have multiple simultaneous partners. Child-rearing is undertaken communally, with experts in different fields taking on teaching roles for the children in the tribe.
Marked One attitudes to death do not naturally give rise to funerary customs. If anything, the custom of drawing the line across a baby's neck at birth is already a kind of pre-funeral; a pre-emptive mourning for the life which will one day be lost. When a Marked One dies, it is announced curtly to the tribe, and then everybody is meant to move on without another word said about the departed. Some Marked Ones even believe that talking about the dead, especially, the recently dead, will draw the attention of the Stalker that killed them.
Birthdays, on the other hand, are much more celebrated affairs. On the morn of somebody's birthday, it is customary to begin by offering them a large breakfast, and when they have eaten the last bite, the hunt begins. Each other adult member of the tribe tries to hunt down and ceremonially 'kill' the person whose birthday it is, and the longer said person can survive, the better. Stories of very successful birthdays, sometimes lasting for many days consecutively, are happily told, especially as the 'death' at the end of the story isn't a true one; a loophole in the usual cultural rules about stories.
Nation
Politics
The Marked Ones are acephalous, with no true leaders, although skilled survivalists are often given particular heed in communal decisions. The only laws they follow are the laws of the Marked, noted above, and violating those will be met with ostracisation by the tribe. Death is never used as a penalty, for only the Stalkers are permitted to take lives.
War
The Marked Ones never waged a war in their time, simply fighting to stay alive. They typically favour long weapons and bows, seeing the carrying of a knife as a weapon to be heretical.
Magic
The Marked Ones practice a type of magic commonly known as Distraction. The purpose of it is to shift the attention of the Stalkers either towards, or away from, a location. This is done by placing the the relevant magical resource into the ground, and declaring your intentions for at least a minute. It is a simple use of magical power compared with the rituals of the other cultures, but a powerful one.
Names
Marked Ones have simple names, typically two syllables long, and no family names. No name is allowed to start with K, H, or S. Some have taken on the Koth habit of giving one another bynames, like "The Clever" or "The Quick".
Examples: Nosta, Adrin, Lonta, Baran.
Costume
The Marked Ones were a small culture from the world's ancient history, predating the Koth, the Phalreans, and the Tanelim considerably. They lived in perpetual fear of four terrifying deities known as the Stalkers, thought to be the first gods in existence. They were eventually wiped out by these gods, and were mostly lost to history. The Stalkers retreated to the furthest edges of the cosmos, their hunger for killing sated, but have now returned, drawn by the energy of the Forest-Between-Worlds. With them, the ghosts of the Marked One dead appeared to Mortals and Nightmares alike, and most recently, due to the surprising actions of the Stalker known as The King, they have been brought back to life, living in the Mortal Realm among the Koth.
Being a Marked One now is a strange experience. They all knew too-brief lives in the ancient past, then centuries of endlessly reliving the moment of their deaths within the Stalkers domains, and now, some odd new freedom in an unfamiliar world, where a new war wages. Still, with the Stalkers breathing down the necks of the worlds once more, it may be down to them to keep Mortalkind safe from those they once sought to evade.
Beliefs
Traditional Marked One theology reflects their constant battle to live when they are marked for death by the Stalkers, and is detailed below. However, since returning to life and being among the Koth, many of them have begun to worship Koth gods, seeing them as a source of safety from the Stalkers. In particular, they have started to revere Kothur, seeing him as a strong figure of protection, Keaghan, whose focus on keeping people alive is naturally appealing, and Ganshe, the slayer of the Hive. Nathaia, with her emphasis on death, is feared by many Marked Ones and they do not trust her with their worship.
PRECEPTS OF THE MARKED
We are marked for death. At birth, our babies have a line painted across their necks to symbolise this.
The Stalkers have marked us. They run across the world to consume us, and we run across the world to survive.
To escape death is a heroic act, in defiance of the Stalkers. When one has narrowly escaped death, they get a new symbol painted on their face to demonstrate this.
The brightstuff can distract the Stalkers, or draw their attention.
Souls feed the Stalkers, and attract boons from them. This is Betrayal.
THE COMMANDMENTS OF THE MARKED
- Never murder another of the Marked.
- Never steal or hoard the necessities of life.
- Never commit Agriculture.
- Never deny your hospitality to a stranger.
- Never commit Betrayal.
- Never die.
THE STALKERS
The King
The King is a titanic beast of a man, made from obsidian ore, with a huge crown that towers above the clouds. He is so vast he must crawl across the world on all fours. He has great long arms that reach out and grasp his victims, and he hauls them back towards him and makes them work in his farms, or serve him in his palace atop a mountain. Here, he makes everyone the same. People who are short he stretches, and people who are tall he presses down. He makes everyone work until they die from exhaustion, and if they refuse, he smashes their bodies against the mountainside where he dwells.
The King is drawn by Crowngold, and distracted by Mirrorfrost.
The Snow
The Snow is a monstrous intelligence that inhabits the blizzards and the ice. He courses across the world, freezing and biting. It is said that he hates warmth, light, and happiness, and that hearth and hospitality can keep him at bay, but not forever. He dominates the will of the wolves and the owls, and through starvation he turns predators into murderers. Sometimes, he whispers secrets and promises into the minds of the Marked, and they turn feverish with obsession with him. They walk into his arms and remain still in his embrace until they die of him.
The Snow is drawn by Mirrorfrost, and distracted by Crowngold.
The Knife
The Knife once wished to know the secrets of metal, and she tortured a Marked one for nine days and nights to make them tell her. When they died, she instead took one of his bones and carved it into a knife. Since then, she has walked the face of the world and murdered with it, over and over and over. It is said that she will not rest until her blade has tasted the life's blood of every being in the land, and then she will turn on the rest of the Stalkers. She is the embodiment of killing, and she will kill until there is no more killing left to do.
The Knife is drawn by Heartsteel, and distracted by Glowroot.
The Hive
The Hive was once a woman who was slain by the Knife, and whose body fell apart again and again until it became an infinitude of ants, locusts, and wasps. Then, centuries later, she was killed again, torn apart by the Goddess Ganshe. She was always hungry. She seared the life from the land until there was nothing left to consume. She devoured life because she was dead, and craved the warm reality of true existence. She ate because she envied.
The Hive was drawn by Glowroot, and distracted by Heartsteel.
Culture
Customs
The Marked Ones were preoccupied by a fear of death, and this led to a pragmatic, yet paranoid culture forming. At birth, children were marked by a black line painted across their necks, to show that they, newly alive, were destined for death at the hands of the Stalkers. Lessons in survival started early, with children taught to hunt, gather, make poultices, climb, swim, and run quickly as soon as possible. Writing wasn't much practiced, and taught later in life, regarded as a luxury.
The Marked Ones were, strictly, hunter-gatherers, regarding agriculture as a trap laid by the King, encouraging people to stay in one place and become easy pickings. Nowadays, some Marked Ones remain skeptical even of the Koth practice of keeping roaming herds of livestock, although most Marked Ones consider this different from true Agriculture, and thus not forbidden.
One of the favoured Marked One pass-times is gossip. Specifically, gossiping about your fellows with respect to how long you think they will survive before being taken down by the Stalkers, and wagers on which of two people would last the longest were common. Additionally, it was common to gossip speculatively about who might be drawn to the dark art of Betrayal - selling souls to the Stalkers to improve your survival prowess. As such, being unskilled in the art of survival would draw pity and scorn, whereas being too skilled would draw suspicion. Better not to be noticeable at all.
Art
The Koth and the Marked Ones share one key cultural pass-time in common; storytelling. However, Marked One storytelling traditions are very different from those of the Koth, and this has already caused some tension between these new neighbours. For Marked Ones, all stories are tragedies, because they all end with death at the hands of the Stalkers, even though they typically involve many daring escapes en route. For this reason, an audience to a story will typically seek to distract the storyteller from their tale, asking about unrelated events in the protagonist's life, or requesting further details about a side character. This becomes a game, whereby the audience seeks to stave off the inevitable demise of the main character by keeping the story going for as long as possible, whilst the storyteller is almost a villainous figure, drawing said character onwards towards their doom.
Whilst not strictly artistic, physical contests, especially races, are very common Marked One practices, and these have caught on much more successfully amidst the Koth.
Marriage and Funerals
The Marked Ones, traditionally, have no marriages, and no funerals.
Marriage is an odd concept for the Marked Ones who have come to the new world; the implied permanence is very counter to their cultural mode of thinking. Relationships are begun between Marked Ones with the understanding that they will likely be transitory, and if they end with the partners drifting apart naturally, rather than with one or both dying, that is considered a great success. Relationships are typically informal, however, and it is common for Marked Ones to have multiple simultaneous partners. Child-rearing is undertaken communally, with experts in different fields taking on teaching roles for the children in the tribe.
Marked One attitudes to death do not naturally give rise to funerary customs. If anything, the custom of drawing the line across a baby's neck at birth is already a kind of pre-funeral; a pre-emptive mourning for the life which will one day be lost. When a Marked One dies, it is announced curtly to the tribe, and then everybody is meant to move on without another word said about the departed. Some Marked Ones even believe that talking about the dead, especially, the recently dead, will draw the attention of the Stalker that killed them.
Birthdays, on the other hand, are much more celebrated affairs. On the morn of somebody's birthday, it is customary to begin by offering them a large breakfast, and when they have eaten the last bite, the hunt begins. Each other adult member of the tribe tries to hunt down and ceremonially 'kill' the person whose birthday it is, and the longer said person can survive, the better. Stories of very successful birthdays, sometimes lasting for many days consecutively, are happily told, especially as the 'death' at the end of the story isn't a true one; a loophole in the usual cultural rules about stories.
Nation
Politics
The Marked Ones are acephalous, with no true leaders, although skilled survivalists are often given particular heed in communal decisions. The only laws they follow are the laws of the Marked, noted above, and violating those will be met with ostracisation by the tribe. Death is never used as a penalty, for only the Stalkers are permitted to take lives.
War
The Marked Ones never waged a war in their time, simply fighting to stay alive. They typically favour long weapons and bows, seeing the carrying of a knife as a weapon to be heretical.
Magic
The Marked Ones practice a type of magic commonly known as Distraction. The purpose of it is to shift the attention of the Stalkers either towards, or away from, a location. This is done by placing the the relevant magical resource into the ground, and declaring your intentions for at least a minute. It is a simple use of magical power compared with the rituals of the other cultures, but a powerful one.
Names
Marked Ones have simple names, typically two syllables long, and no family names. No name is allowed to start with K, H, or S. Some have taken on the Koth habit of giving one another bynames, like "The Clever" or "The Quick".
Examples: Nosta, Adrin, Lonta, Baran.
Costume
- Marked Ones wear simple leather, cloth, and hides, with brown being a common colour.
- Marked Ones all have a line drawn across their necks, and may have tattoos showing times they managed to avoid death.