Trader's Journal 23: Places to be


It's been a few days since the last entry. The view from the mountains was beautiful today. The morning fog coming in from the Great Lake barely reached us up here. The view was breathtaking, Solsicus stood beside me in his uniform given to him by a hand of Sironen, taking in the view in awe. It's not often the two of us get to see the world from this high up, and to think the Cerulean Roof goes even higher than this. I helped to deconstruct the tent, the General's Assembly is over now, and I will be travelling with Chieftess-General Seliw.

After all of that work I excused myself and seek out Melija and Jonzo. We said our goodbyes and gave each other hugs; this will be the last time we see each other for a very long time. We made sure our sigils were up to date so we could stay in contact and we went our separate ways.

I joined up with Seliw and we went on our way, heading to the north, deeper into the mountains. Solsicus and I chat a bit, we were both outsiders even if I was a fellow Hyena Tribesman. I asked him a few questions about his homeland, the Puppet Kingdom, and here are some of the responses he gave me

What is your family like?

“Well, it's just my father, a bureaucrat, my mother, a housewife, and I used to have a brother. He died when we were kids from magic toxicity. We were playing in some lowlands and we hadn't noticed that the magic was strong, and by the time our parents got there I was unconscious and my brother was dead. We were never able to recover his body, mom and dad said a scavenger got it.”

What is the political structure of your home?

“It's a Kingdom, so we have a king, with a council of people from the Razivilid Dynastic Lands to oversee operations, we all know which really is in charge and it has created tensions between the two. The Kingdom is further divided up into lordships which serve directly under the king and his council, and those lordships have baronies that collect taxes and send them upwards. Some barons are extortionate, my cousin was one such filthy man”

Cousin? Is that the same one that...?

[He would not look at me. I apologized for overstepping and asked him if he wanted me to stop. He said to just ask a different question]

How much of the old religion is still practised?

“The ruling class says it has been purged but... I'm not sure. Can you really purge entire religions within less than a generation or two? On top of that openly talking about the old gods is forbidden by the government, why ban it if it's been eradicated. To me, being raised in the teachings and light of the Holy Dynasty, blessed is their name, the old gods are foreign. They were called evil forces of wretched doom, that the practitioners preformed sacrifices of other sapients. Though, now that I am here, surrounded by the worshippers of the old gods I am unsure what to believe. I believe in the Dynasty with my being, but what they told us, it can't be a lie, the Razivilid Dynasty is infallible. They can't lie, can they...?”

I stopped asking questions. He seems like he has a lot to think about. I want to know more about the Razivilid Cult but I will ask at a later date