There is a right way and a wrong way in all things. To allow the weak and common masses to control the direction of society is to make the society weak. Power should be reserved for those who are strong, able and willing to rule with a firm hand and known laws.
The nature of this church lends it to being dominated by militaristic people with strong personalities.
While the weak will label you as evil, cruel and unfair, you must answer them with the truths that nobody can deny: A strong leader with firm laws, who tolerates no disorder, provides all with safe and secure society for all citizens is a good leader of people. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ST_DM_Myle - 2008-04-06, 22:26:50 Post subject: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Clerical Ranks:
~ Ta'Rinz ~
Servant
1st Acolyte 2nd Deacon 3rd High Deacon 4th Elder 5th Minister 6th Master 7th Lord 8th Priest(ess) 9th High Priest(ess) 10th Councillor
Speaker
Anyone who faithfully serves may name themselves a Servant within the church of Ta'Rinz. Anyone may advance up to the point of being an High Deacon with the blessings of a cleric ordained as a Elder or higher rank.
A cleric can become a. Elder in the service of Ta'Rinz simply by serving well and spreading the ideals of domination over ones lessers and service to ones betters. While these clergy may be called priest out of respect for their divine blessing, that does not mean they are honored as if they possess that rank.
Players who wish to RP as an ordained cleric may take the liberty of selecting up to the 3rd rank. For a character to rise to 4th through the 7th rank, they must undergo ceremonies as detailed below. No character will be elevated over the 7th rank unless they started the character as a Servant and have excelled in RP and OOC leadership to justify such a prestigious role.
Elder: Must have an Intimidate or Pursuade of at least 21 Minister: Must have a Pursuade of at least 25 Master: Must have an Intimidate of at least 25. Must be recognised by at least one PC priest (NPC - DM controlled). Lord: Both Intimidate and Persuade must be at least 30. Must be recognised by a trio of PC priests (or NPC's controlled by DM) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ST_DM_Myle - 2008-04-06, 22:42:54 Post subject: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- How to greet Ta'Rinz clergy
The greetings depend on the formality. If the setting is casual or otherwise not meant to lead to anything more than a passing greeting, then a nod and a polite 'hello' is acceptable. If an extended greeting or conversation is to take place, the greeter is expected to extend both hands with the palms up to show that they carry no weapons and then bow down to the level that they are holding their hands. This leads to som comical scenes as prideful individuals try to display thier palms high enough to minimize the depth of thier bow.
Within the church, or those seeking favor, it is customary to bow down to the horizontal line across the robes of the clergy present who rank as a Minister or higher. The line starts at about the shoulders and drops about 6 inches as the station of the individual increases. Oddly, this habit is still followed for those races known as 'short people', but they have an added customary burden that the church expects them to keep bearers nearby to carry a platform for them to stand on when greeting others.
This custom of requirings 'short people' to supply their own bearers often means that the few people of short stature who rise to higher ranks are often the most severe and have the highest expectations of others. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ST_DM_Myle - 2008-04-06, 23:24:54 Post subject: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ~ Ta'Rinz ~
Lesser God
AKA: The Shackler Symbol: A set of shackles inside a rolled whip Race: Believed to be a male of whatever race has dominance in the region. Alignment: Lawful Evil Portfolio: Power, Oppression, Order and Corruption* Worshipers: Humans, Half-Orcs and Bug Bears. Becoming popular amoung Duegar and other underdark races. Clerical Alignments: LE and NE Favored Weapon: Mancatcher
Description: The dominant race of his followers in each region claim him to be of thier own race. What is agreed on is that he is covered with tribal or cultural tatoos, jewery, symbols and such from each region that he has worshipers. It is by these markings and symbols that his followers can know eachother.
Also universal throughout his worshipers is the agreement that he always carries sets of shackles, a whip or flail and a spear like device known as a mancatcher.
Dogma: Those with the power or guile to dominate the weak deserve the wealth and proserity that they can force others to yeild. While some regions imbrace slavery and others favor a more fuedal system of beliefs, all members of this church share the idea that sucess belongs to those who can take it and keep it.
The strong make the laws. Members of this faith are expected to obey the laws of the strong until they are powerful enough to take power and fashion their own laws. The laws of the dominate followers are, oddly enough, not much different than the laws of many other communities and tend to favor merchants and mercanaries heavily.
Common people are often assigned tasks and are often roughed up, but anyone who damages a worker is generally required to pay for the healing. Whether 'considered free' or a slave, the lives of common people are hard, but thier minimal needs are generaly met because the reigning powers do not like flucuations in production that are caused by frequent worker deaths.
Lore: Each region seems to have it's own story and rationalization for how and why Ta'Rinz came to power. Most of them suggest that he was a mortal who discovered ways to dominate demons and devils. In time, it is said that he learned how to siphon the powers from these fiends and used that power to rise up and become a god.
The most devote of followers are known to hunt the hells and the abyss for sacrifices that they can send to him. It is hoped that with enough such sacrifices, Ta'Rinz will continue to ascend in power and one day challenge Fan'taween.
* Corruption note: It is considered a high mark of ones guile and cleverness to infiltrate the 'lesser' societies of the self-righteous and bring them down using their own laws and ideals against them.
[ Edited Wed May 05 2010, 03:38AM ] It is not our abilities that show what we truly are; It is our choices. -Albus Dumbledore
// Thanks to Micteu for developing the lore behind the Aspects of Ta'Rinz.//
Sekoath usually portrays himself as an elder of whatever race he is speaking to, his eyes deep with knowledge. As the long-term (decades and centuries) strategist of the three, Ta'Rinz gives him orders, and he plans how to carry the order out. When he's not doing paperwork in his office, he's usually out pulling strings in private with people, maneuvering them towards his plan. Since he has been Ta’Rinz’s avatar for the longest, he is the most powerful of the three and often gives orders to Admar and Zeil. He is very intelligent and very old. Mortals do not know this, but he used to be a devil. Secoath is Lawful Evil.
Admar usually portrays himself as a muscular, proud warrior of whatever race he is speaking to, often appearing as a high-ranking military officer. He cares little for the lives of his allies and even less for those of his enemies; the prime motivation for keeping his troops alive is mostly his sense of duty and his lust for glory. In addition to great battle prowess, Admar is also an excellent tactician. A strange trait he carries, which is tolerated by the other two and Ta’Rinz, is his belief in freedom. You are free to leave the army instead of join a battle, although that will make you a coward. You are free to end your life in a futile revolt if you are a slave. Mortals do not know this, but he used to be a bugbear. Admar is Lawful Evil, although he tends towards True Neutral.
Zeil usually portrays himself as a slightly scrawny, middle-aged human, although his variation in this form changes drastically due to his nature. He almost always wears a different expression on his face than the one hiding in his soul, and when he speaks, listeners usually hear his voice and remember little else from the encounter. Like the other two, little is known about his past, although he seems to harbor a deep hatred for knights of Thavius, which is why that god’s knighthood is his primary target for infiltration and corruption. Mortals do not know this, but he used to be a human. Zeil is probably Neutral Evil, but his true nature is hidden behind the mask of his face.
// Thanks to Micteu for developing the story behind the Aspects of Ta'Rinz.//
This all happened long ago, in lands whose names were lost with time.
There were few structures in the war camp. Three tents huddled together around the single fire in the center of the snow-laden field, as if for warmth from the cold of nature and steel. A crude wooden fence separated the camp from the no-man’s land, and beyond that, the human army. Bugbears sat clustered together in their bands, draped in skins, holding their weapons close. Their seemingly-glowing eyes flickered occasionally towards Admar, staring through the overcast night no human eyes could penetrate, perhaps wondering how their leader would bring victory this time, as he had in so many impossible situations before. They were not defeated yet.
Despite the bleak outlook, he still took pride in the army. A human army in a situation like this would have been defeated already. The weak little men feel hunger like babes, and their will is flimsy as the grass under the deep snow. It was only their numbers and the surprise attack that turned the battle into a siege upon Admar’s camp.
However, escape was impossible, if the bugbears were to stay united. Whenever a band probed outward into the surrounding field, human cavalry would quickly be upon them, no doubt directed by a network of scouts hidden in the trees and snow.
Admar turned and re-entered his lean-to. Hidden between a snow drift and a conifer and located off-center of the field, this was the true command station of the army—not the decoy in the middle around the fire. He looked down at the map, needing only the filtered moonlight to see the large number of red tokens.
What started as a campaign by the Bearclaw tribe against the Mountain Ice tribe of bugbears ended up uniting the two groups into a single army. The new army turned towards minotaur-held land, and three more bugbear tribes’ armies joined on the way.
The minotaurs seemed to be in disarray; evidently their leader, who had iron-fist control for ten years, had just died with no heir, and the land was fractured. The bugbears had few casualties conquering the little remaining opposition, so they continued onward, into goblin territory.
The goblins fared little better than the minotaurs. They had never fought against an organized army before, and they often scattered when combat started. It was only when takeover was nearly completed that the army found its first intense battle:
The humans apparently heard of the campaign and began to spread rumors that the bugbears were going to aim at human settlements next. Soon hundreds were rallying to the banners of a few knights of Thavius, and the army set out on its righteous path towards its bugbear counterpart in the formerly goblin-held lands.
The humans must have killed any scouts before they could report back to Admar, because their army descended upon the marching bugbears without warning. Without any other option, the bugbears retreated to a lightly-wooded field and dug in, setting up the fence as the humans surrounded them. What started as an army of nearly a thousand bugbear warriors was dropped to under six hundred, with no supply or communication lines; compared to the enemy’s numbers of nearly five hundred mounted knights, a thousand foot infantry, and an unknown number of scouts, the bugbears were far outnumbered.
Admar was brought back to the current situation by a presence in his lean-to, and with it the smell of a male bugbear, currently unemotional. He turned and looked up to see an old bugbear standing in front of the entrance flap, but the cloth had not moved. The elder wore a thin, gold-weave necklace with a single silver fang hanging from it. His eyes were clear but old, hinting at cunning and experience beyond the years indicated by his graying fur.
“I have come to offer you victory, Chieftan Admar,” the old one said in a soft voice, then paused while Admar sized him up. Of course the elder wasn’t from one of the tribes following him; he would have come forth sooner if he had a suggestion--probably with all the shamans who were sure the only thing needed was faith. He had none of the markings of a shaman, or markings of any tribe for that matter: only the silver fang, seeming to almost glow around his neck in the half-hidden moonlight. It would have taken strong magic to get past all the guards around the camp. Perhaps he had hope.
“I am Sekoath, a representative of Ta’Rinz,” the elder began speaking. Admar’s heart would have dropped a little at the mention of a god, except that he rarely raised hope anymore. “As you already know, he values strength. You are very strong, and your enemies are weak. There is a specific weakness in the humans that could divide their efforts, but if it is to be exploited, you must give your word to serve Ta’Rinz.”
Good. This elder knew any offers of directly aiding the army would have been flat-out refused, both because of Admar’s pride and to keep up morale, but he must also know Admar has a strong dislike of placing faith in gods. “Tell me more before I agree to anything.”
Sekoath began relating the plan, holding nothing back from Admar’s occasional questions. The human army would be divided by something other than the bugbears; their advantage of numbers taken away. At the end Admar agreed:
“I will serve Ta’Rinz, but only if we achieve victory.”
“If you lost, Ta’Rinz would not want you.”
“Then so it shall be. You have my word.” Sekoath gave a knowing smile, seeming to know Admar always kept his word.
*
Sommar Hanton prepared for the war cabinet, dressing in his best silk suit and making sure his rank pins were clearly visible. He wore a mask of grim determination, but underneath he was enjoying working over the plan of what he would say at the meeting.
A messenger had come three hours ago, his horse nearly dead, and already the bureaucracy of the camp had managed to delay everything. So much for the messenger’s urgency.
He bore news of a large force of human brigands—united by a charismatic leader much like the bugbears Hanton’s war camp was now facing—heading towards the capital. The king sent orders with the messenger to bring the army back from the provinces to guard the “more valuable” land from the brigands.
Hanton had received his own message at the same time; he was to set the plan in action.
He dismissed his servants and left his tent, strutting through the latest layer of cold, fine snow towards the main pavilion, led by rows of guide torches flickering in the midnight wind. Nearly four feet of snow had fallen from the time they set up the camp—with two more feet of snow below that—leaving many of the tents “half-submerged,” including the pavilion before him. He absentmindedly returned the salute of the guards standing on either side of the door and entered the warmth. There was only one other man in the large tent. Kent Shieldsworn, the leader of the expedition, was pacing back and forth behind his desk while he waited for the other councilors to arrive. Shieldsworn was an aged paladin with a steely look in his eyes that could soften easily when matters turned away from the war and towards his faith.
Hanton and Shieldsworn said nothing to each other; it was tradition to not exchange opinions at a war cabinet until a full council was present. Soon the other five were there, and everyone took their seats. Shieldsworn immediately stood up and began speaking.
“We have been ordered to retreat. This may seem cowardly, but pride should not stand in the way when lives are at stake. Are there any here who say we should not retreat? If so, give your advice now.”
No one said a thing, but a few glanced at Hanton; he usually had some disagreement, after all. This time it looked like things were going the direction he wanted with only a minimal amount of prodding. He had worked up a good enough reputation back home to be included in this council, but since the army became isolated from the main government he had been turning it around. Now the others disliked him enough that they would be inclined to disagree without thinking much. He stood up, smirking inwardly, frowning outwardly.
“Are we just going to leave the bugbears here undefeated?” Before he finished his sentence others were already frowning, and impatience was showing on their faces.
“Undefeated? Have you actually looked at their camp? No troops have been sent against us in three days, and they are down to one cooking fire for the whole army!” Yeng Sano was the youngest councilor, and was thus the least experienced, while at the same time the most enthusiastic. Because of this, Hanton chose him as the main target of his manipulations during the past few months. Sano didn’t even know Hanton arranged for him to dislike Hanton so much.
“There are human settlements within twenty miles of the border with the goblin lands. That could easily be the next step the bugbear army would t-“
“If the little remnant force out there,” Yeng waved towards the door, “actually decided to unwisely invade the provinces, a small local militia could be dispatched to deal with it.”
“We are being recalled for politics! A small local militia is all that would be needed to put down the brigands!”
“We were sent out here for politics in the first place! This is not human land! How is fighting one group of monsters in some other monster’s land defending innocent humans?”
Sommar Hanton said nothing and noted that none of the others aided his position this time. Kent Shieldsworn spoke up:
“We will retreat tomorrow. Hanton, since you seem so enthusiastic to fight the bugbears further, you will command the rear guard.”
“Yes, sir.”
“If any of the bugbears do decide to attack while we are in the process of retreating, you will have your chance.”
“Yes, sir.”
The plan was for the army to pull back from the bugbears on all sides, leaving Hanton’s group of two hundred watching the lines. The army would then conglomerate on one side of the field. Half the soldiers in the rear guard would follow the retreating force as it released its hold on the bugbear force, and after less than half the force was surrounded, the remaining circle of rear guard would retreat, also.
They went to work. Tents were taken down and the fires extinguished. Everything that could be extracted from the heavy snow was. Hanton almost lost control and laughed out loud as things fell into place, but he kept his expression dour.
*
The tunnel network was finished. Human scouts could perhaps see bugbears walking over the snow in the late morning light, but it was doubtful any could be seen crawling below. Instead of being excavated, all the displaced snow had been packed into the tunnel walls and ceiling, reinforcing them enough to not cave in, even if a half-dozen bugbear jumped up and down above. Things were dark, but enough body heat was given off by a bugbear to be reflected against the walls and seen with its inhuman vision.
On the surface, the command was given as the humans were retreating in mid-morning. A group of fifty bugbears ran to the northeast point of the crescent shape the human army was making and hurled javelins from the edge of the no-man’s land.
*
“Sir, a few dozen bugbears just attacked the north arm,” The message was relayed to Hanton by his signal watcher on the horse next to him. Hanton was “inconveniently” located in the southern arm while the army moved east, and signals had to be relayed three times to make it around the quarter-circumference of the camp the army still surrounded.
“Move the entire north arm in and attack them. I’ll join them now.” All one hundred men on the northeast side.
“Yes, sir.” The signal sender, carrying a set of flags next to the signal watcher, began waving them as the three trotted north-east.
The humans in the north wing were forced to stand and try to avoid javelins, rocks, and chunks of ice hurled at them while they waited an anguishing minute for the command to attack. It came, and with it the rest of the nearby rear guard. They moved in on the group half their size of bugbears, which seemed to be running out of things to throw. As the gap was closed, the bugbears began retreating at an equal speed, and another group of fifty stood up out of the snow ahead of them, shaking snow off their fur. The first group dropped to all fours and ran back towards their fellows, who began throwing javelins at the humans, felling more as they approached.
The humans upped their pace and met the bugbear force, the signal sender waving flags wildly.
Hanton was one the east side of the battlefield when the message came. He signaled for half the south arm to head north with him to aid the battle, leaving fifty behind. Just afterwards, a message came from the main force asking if he was in need of assistance. He replied negatively.
*
Superior when one on one, the bugbears were making short work of the humans in front of them in the north wing. They were down to under ninety and the humans fifty when another fifty (including Hanton) joined the human side. Another signal was sent out from the middle of the bugbear camp, and on the southeast corner of the camp a group of fifty bugbears attacked the remaining fifty guards on the south arm, throwing objects from across a section of the no-man’s land. The humans there began signaling.
Hanton received the signal and sent one back to the main army, asking for reinforcements. Fifty crossbowmen were sent to each arm, and fifty horse to the southern arm.
The north arm of humans was cut down to sixty when Hanton ordered a retreat from the seventy bugbears, who followed, cutting them down to fifty by the time the crossbowmen showed and began firing. The bugbears retreated, losing ten between the crossbows and the infantry.
When the reinforcements found the fifty men on the south arm, there were no bugbears; the harassers had run back towards the center of the camp. Signals were sent back north, but there was no reply, so the humans, numbering one hundred and fifty, cautiously crept forward into the camp.
The hundred and ten on the north side were chasing after the retreating bugbears, who seemed to follow each other through narrow paths in the snow back toward the center of the camp. The humans did not stay on the paths, and many fell onto snow-covered spikes set into the ground from the bugbears’ tunnels.
Another signal-horn was sounded in the bugbear camp, and bugbears suddenly pushed up through the snow under both forces, emerging in the middle of the groups, slaughtering in the confusion. Hanton was spared, and he trotted off from the group, watching his signalers wave flags desperately before being cut down. For once he let his true mood of grim approval show.
The bugbears hastily pushed the bodies into the tunnels before running north and southward, out of the camp. Human reinforcements came but were confused by the lack of troops before they were closed in pinchers and killed. From here the bugbears moved outward, slowly taking down the retreating chain of troops with hit-and-run tactics. The only trouble for the bugbears came from the human scout forces, using similar guerilla tactics as their own, but they were easy to hunt down now when they had no cavalry to assist them.
*
Minutes later, Hanton trotted around the battlefield, wearing a cloak with a red diagonal stripe so the bugbears knew not to attack him. By now the humans were nearly finished, so the bugbears stopped using hit-and-run and instead finished off the remainder army-to-army. He saw the youngling, Yeng Sano, at about the same time Sano saw him.
“Betrayer! Have at you!” he yelled, charging his mount towards Hanton.
Hanton’s horse was a well-trained battle mount, and as he jumped off, he urged it onward into Sano’s own horse. The two rammed and the young paladin was dazed by the unexpected maneuver. Apparently the he did not have time to don more than the padded under-armor for his plate, so Hanton shoved his sword through the commander’s ribs.
He yanked the blade out and Yeng Sano fell to the snow, and Hanton decapitated him before moving on for his true target. At last he found his quarry, Kent Shieldsworn.
Shieldsworn was lying in the snow, fatally wounded with a spear through his abdomen and prepared for death. Hanton sat next to him and the old man managed to turn his head to look at him. His eyes were clear with understanding, seeing a pair of bugbears start towards them but stop at the sight of the red stripe; he must have already taken a pain duller if his mind still worked this well. This is why Hanton always picked the younger paladins as targets for idle manipulation; the ones who lived to old age had a dangerous understanding of the world, while most of the younger paladins saw little they did not want to see through their tinted windows of zeal.
“Why?” Now pain shimmered in Shieldsworn’s eyes.
“Do you remember thirty years ago when you were campaigning against the orcs? You must have been no older than twenty-five then. There was one village in the hills where even the orc women and children fought back to save themselves from slaughter, which happened anyways. After all, they were orcs; by blood they are a vicious species, killing without mercy.
“There was a human ‘prisoner’ who went by the name Zeil in a hut with a half-orc woman, clearly pregnant,” Hanton’s voice filled with venom. “What an abomination it must have seemed to you, who found them! No true man would willingly bed an orc; she must have forced herself on him. How horrid! So you killed her and the unborn within. The man was too numb with shock to do anything, so he was taken with, ‘rescued,’ to be questioned later. When his shock finally changed to anger and he attacked his ‘rescuers,’ he was knocked out and put in jail.
“He escaped before a hearing took place, do you remember? And he changed his name and appearance, working up the social ladder of the aristocrats until he had a seat in the local government. From there Sommar Hanton, as he called himself now, managed to work his way into being included in your war party. Imagine. He did all that work just to let you, Kent Shieldsworn, know that despite your paladin’s honor to guard life, you killed an unborn child who was mostly human.
Hanton watched Kent’s eyes change as the old man saw where this was heading. The steely resolve often found within was breaking as Shieldsworn slowly bled his life away.
“Knights of Thavius are famous for separating black from white in a world of gray. I believe there were even a few half-orc paladins traveling with you? They can follow the path of light, giving up your ‘black’ for ‘white.’ Does that not mean that one who was even more human would be ‘white’ with innocence before it is even born?”
The last will drained out of the dying paladin’s eyes, and his life faded away.
“One last thing,” Hanton said to the dead man, picking up Shieldsworn’s family sword. “You left me alive, which you should never do to an enemy.” Hanton swung hard, cutting off Shieldsworn’s head, which he kicked away from the body. “That is how you should have left me.”
He felt satisfied as he stood and watched the remaining humans die under the pine canopy. The satisfaction was hollow though, ephemeral. He knew his job would not be done until every knight was dead. With the offer he had been given, he would have enough power to make it so.
*
The room was well-lit with torches on the rough stone walls. A wooden desk sat in the middle with two stacks of paper arranged neatly on the outer corners. Admar looked at the other two occupants. The devil behind the desk was shaped almost like a human, but he still had horns and wings. The little hair he still had was gray around the baldness in the middle, and he still wore the silver fang on the gold-weave necklace chain. Although the fire in his eyes had dimmed with age and wisdom, it seemed to be replaced with a more subtle strength. Admar had a lot of respect for Sekoath, and after a quick glance at Zeil, it seemed the human did, too.
Other than that, Admar did not like this human; if it was up to him, a betrayer, no matter which side, would be put to death immediately. From the story Sekoath told him in the lean-to, it sounded as though this Zeil had a silver tongue and few morals. Luckily, Admar rarely had to deal with such creatures in his line of work.
Sekoath was watching him, and the bugbear chieftain had few doubts that the devil knew exactly what he was thinking. Sekoath gave him an enigmatic, sharp-toothed smile before speaking.
“You are here to serve Ta’Rinz now. You will be equals to me in power and responsibility, but most of our Lord’s orders will be given to you through me. Neither of you likes the other, but there will be times when you will be forced to work together. Remember that if you do not get along at those times, you will be replaced.”
There was no argument possible. Both Admar and Zeil knew their souls would not be sent anywhere nice if they disagreed with this avatar, and so they became avatars, themselves.
Legend of Talan'ith, Adventures in the Kingdom of Kil'Dar was created and owned by L'Or'Shanlow Co that is owned by Jazelle Leyster & ST_DM_Myle Copyright 2000 - 2009.All rights reserved. See Neverwinter Nights Bioware Trademark Information at All logos, trademarks in this site are property of their respective owners. This site is powered by e107, which is released under the terms of the GNU GPL License.
