Talk:Kingdom of Raeyithia

Expanded lore on Raeyithia for native charactres and estate holders; religion, world view, honor and reputation, intelligent animals, magic, and the living countryside.

Usage warning

This page represents expanded lore for the players of Raeyithia. It is geared towards those who are interested in playing natives or estate owners. One of the real values of Sanctuary is that it is home to travelers who bring all manner of unique perseptive to our role-play. No aspect of this page or any other on this wiki should be used to brow-beat, shame or belittle another player. If for some reason, you meet someone playing a native who is off page, please instead bring the issue to one of the admins or the kingdom leader that we might handle it respectfully.

History in Reflection

I think, more then any other kingdom, Raeyithia has done a complete 180 from its position under the leadership of the Thorn King, and is a complete throw back, as much as possible, to ancient days. When the first beginning of the revolt against the Thorn King began, it was the non-humans of Raeyithia who came out of every burrow, mound, hill, tree, stream, lake, and briar patch to take up the war. Fromn within the households of the Andals, the non-human servent class took to the streets armed with brooms, carving knives, soup pot helmets and rolling pins. It would take less then a few years for every Thorn King loving one of them to be summarily evicted from the whole of Tara. Even those who sought to lie would soon find that the non unglamoured Muiri were quite capable of telling lie from truth and not one of them every swallowed a single line of the religious drivel.

Consequently, what we now have is a complex and many flavored soup pot of ancient traditions and political machinations of the non-human races which call Raeyithia Home.

World View

The Raeyithian world view is a reflection of their non-human and alien mindset, long lives, and an ever-present in the now focus. Unlike those of Emlyn, another heavily gaelic cultre, Raeyithians did not develop the concept of fitness of things or the threefold oath. In fact, most Raeyithians are lothe to add any dire consequence into an oath and to keep the details short and sweet. Is this because they are mostly "fae born" and intend to be trickly and get out of the oath? Perhaps, they certainly will wiggle out of an oath or agreement if they feel they are justified, but perhaps it is more a reflection of their nature.

These are a people who are so long lived and so in the now, that making oaths and agreements feels binding and constricting to their carefree nature. A long time ago can be as great a distance as a hundred years or just the passing of a few moments. Consequently, it is important to nail down the exact length of an agreement into time frames they understand; the next dawn, a fortnight, until the next cross quarter day, or a year and a day.

Conversely, the can not stand to be accused of failing to meet the conditions of an agreement and are particularly responsive to any type of slander or slight to their name and honor.

On the flip side, Raeyithians make charming companions and easy friends. They like people who admire them and are truly genereous hosts, willing to join in even the most outrageous of activities without any failure of courage or devotion.

Honor and Reputation

Nothing is more important to Raeyithians than personal honor. Guilt and innocence were unimportant compared to reputation. Raeyithian's hate to be mocked or made fun of. Often the mere threat of being satirized is more than enough to get most people moving.

The three great virtues of Raeyithian honor are hospitality, generosity, and bravery. No Raeyithian wants anyone to think that they lacked any of these virtues. Most will claim that they would prefer to be killed then to acquire a reputation for cowardice or stinginess -- even if they are infact cowardly and stingy.

To one of those who are decendant from one of the great and noble lines of the Tuatha de Dannan even the merest threat to their personal honor would be enough to gaulvanize them into action. And vengeance was one way for then to earn their honor back.

If it was too late to prevent an insult or an injury, it was never too late to avenge one. Forgiving enemies is alien to Raeyithian culture. It was possible to accept atonement for an insult, but not fully honorable. Vengeance could take a long time, particularly in the case of the Tuatha de Dannan, who were prepared to wait generations for the perfect moment for vengeance to arrive.

Religion

It is perhaps only in the nature of religion have the various inhabitants have made a collective agreement for which god and goddess will be placed on the arcanum crystal: Raeyithia Religion

The most common name for the ancient religion is Creideamh Sí, and its priests are called Gwyrch, with men being known as Tad'Gwyr and women as Mam'Gwyr.

The Role of Religion

The religious life of Raeyithians is so integrated with other aspects of their life as to be almost invisible to casual observers. What humans have commonly dismissed as pointless superstition is actually an important part of their spiritual beliefs. In day-to-day life they were not so much concerned about the gods as they were about keeping the world moving on a natural course. They worshipped the gods because most of the ancient gods in Raeyithia were great heroes with names like Maeve and Lugh. In fact Druantia is believed to been the last and greatest of the Gwyrch (fae druids) and to have ruled as queen in hiding for so long that she if now worshiped as the last and greatest of the goddess.

The Otherworld and those who dwell there are very much a part of the real world. While the common folk (human and non-human) are generally reverent toward them, heroes often have opportunities to interact with ancient heroes who were once worshipped as gods themselves. In fact it was commonly believed that the ancient heroes of the Nemed, Fomorians, Tuatha de Dannan and the Children of the forest might appear in person and demand hospitality as a regular occurrence.

While magic in the world of Sanctuary varies significantly from culture to culture there are no sharp lines between magic and religion to those of Raeyithia. People in stories could be men or gods, with nobody knowing or caring. The old gods and the veneration of the natural world were all irretrievably entangled in the Raeyithian religion. Only a Gwyrch could truly unravel them, but few would understand why one would even try.

Ancient Stories about the gods were confused and contradictory, but this is important. In one story a god had one face or name, but in another story he could have a different face or other aspects. Often this was the result of similar gods from different regions (such as the river deities of two locales) being swapped to make a story more relevant to local listeners, and over time some local gods became subsumed into larger, general gods (such as the local river god becoming just an aspect of the more powerful god of all rivers). None of this bothers the listeners.

Since anyone could become a god, in fact many natives believe the travelers are on the path to becoming gods, it is logical to assume that the gods weren’t that different from anyone else. Yet gods were often unpredictable. Some concerned themselves with mortals, others didn’t. Some gods moved so far away from humankind that they became merely expressions of their strongest traits and appetites.

Birth and Death

To Raeyithians, life bigins with birth, but doesn't end with death. Dying was merely an end of one stage of life, a moving on to the Otherworld. There people lived and died again and passed on through more and further Otherworlds, each stranger and more magical, until at last they would be reborn in this world. For the dead, the Otherworld was a bright and joyful place where all were welcome, not a prize for good behavior but a certain destination for everyone.

The dead were cremated or buried with everything they’d need to make the journey to the Otherworld. As a great honor a tree was sometimes planted to mark the grave of a particular hero, the appropriate type of tree being chosen by Gwyrch. If the hero continued to be important in his new life in the Otherworld, his tree sometimes began to be worshipped. The burial places of great heroes were considered important, and many poems and sagas ended by mentioning where the hero was buried.

Holy Places

Many places in Raeyithia world inspired a feeling of awe or terror, often without apparent reason. A hillside, or a stream in a valley where a torrent struck a boulder, might seem outwardly no different from any such other place, but still might make the hairs stand up on the back of the neck. These places could represent sites where doors to the Otherworld had been opened, places where momentous events once happened, or even spots marked by wonders. These spots were venerated but also shunned and considered unlucky places to linger.

Other places had a specific association with one god because of something done there, and could become places of pilgrimage for Gwyrch. Some places may have a particular ritual significance.

Racial Politics

While certainly individual players, especially travelers, bring their own agendas, there is a list of how some of the native races might go about their relationships with other people and kingdoms.

• The Tuatha De Danann, should any still exist, and the Gentry are the most likely to want to aquire and keep power, either because they are use to having it, even under the rule of the Thorn King, or because they are arrogent anti-humanist that beleive in their racial supremacy. This would be true of both those of light and dark natures, the only thing changing is the way in which they go abaout it.
• The Children of the Forest and many of the Muiri are likely to engage in a closed rank policy that is geared to keep their lands safe and free from human influance.
• The two most populous Hoggur races, the Orc and the Goblin are decidedly warlike at all levels from outright malevelent to adorably intrusive.
• The Raeyithian Druids, call Gwyrch, quite definately look down their noses at the Emlyn Druids.

It is important for travelers to understand that the high ideals of "true neutral", "balance keepers" and "peace keepers", are not echo'd amoung the natives. The native people, as detailed above, are long lived creatures who have only recently regained their freedom from enslavement and repression. Their goal is going to be ME and MINE, my land, my food, my rights, my safety, and the rest of you stay the fuck over there (at best) or you OWE me and I want your shit you assholes (at worst).

Animal Intelligence and Speech

It is important to understand that there is no question in the minds of the native Raeyithian that animals are intelligent and capable of speech. Not only are Otherkin known to exist there is no concept of a dumb animal. All animals born in wild areas have the ability to understand human speech and to speak, although they do not often do so. Even domestic cattle, for example, would be intelligent enough to resent poor treatment, and capable of doing something about it.

Yet, these animals are also assumed to have the same values as the rest of Raeyithia, and understand the need for sacrifice and survival of the herd, both their own and their keepers. It was a relationship in which domesticated animals exchange some of their people for being well cared for during times of winter and hardship. It would not be considered implausible for a herd of sheep, displeased with their care, to leave the farms of one owner to a neighboring farm.

The Living Countryside

In the Raeyithian world, where nothing was clearly defined and things could exist in more than one state, was perpetually open to possibilities. Borders of all kinds, including those between this world and the Otherworld, between life and death, between one time and another, were hazy, and easily passed, like veils which could be drawn aside either by accident or by someone who knew the way. That way was always enigmatic, mysterious, and better not investigated. Those who did inquire were drawn to the Gwyrch (Raeyithian Druids), who said that the way was mystical riddling, impossible to explain in a straightforward manner.

Everything in the world was potentially alive. Hills could be the homes of powerful Sidhe lords. Standing stones could be entrances to the Otherworld. Many trees were inherently magical, both in themselves and as magical symbols. Animals had an animal wisdom, different in kind from bipeds but neither superior nor inferior; people had things to learn from them.

It was a world where the strange could never become familiar but where the familiar could easily become strange. With Raeyithians the straightforward explanation was never simple, the truth was valued but so was a clever verbal trick that skirted the line between truth and lie, and the shortest distance between two points was inevitably a spiral.

So Much Magic

Everything in this world, no matter how mundane, was potentially brimming with magic. Most humans still living in Raeyithia have little control over this magic, but are not be overly surprised if something they’d previously considered inanimate began talking to them. Indeed, there is so much ambient magic that any object which had some spell cast upon it could, in time, develop a mind of its own. However, as would soon be learned during the post Thorn King era, it wasn't just that there was so much ambient magic meadering about, but rather so many magical creatures out and about.

The Raeyithian non-humans do not view magic as a science. Magic is peculiar, and if one of the Muiri or fae-like Aelfeyn do understand it, its not in their nature to explain it. All Raeyithians have a little magical learning – enough to know which trees are magical, simple curses and charms, herb magic, and such. And while one might be aware that rowan would protect them from magical harm, and while they wouldn’t know how, or to what extent -- they will happily make up tall tales to cover their lack of knowledge and misdirect the asker.

With the recent re-emergence of Druidry as a published magical practice, some of the mystery has been stripped away from what the Gwyrch considered theirs. In truth, only basic combat blessings and healings were made available to the public. All the truly complex matters of how the magical world functions, its inner meanings and deeper connections, remain in the hands of the most highly trained experts. So while the Raeyithian Druids (Gwyrch) shake their hawthorne staves at the "school book" druids, it is nothing more then saber rattling to keep others from seeking more of their hidden knowledge.

Read More

There are more articles in the Celtic Gurps that could be read for inspiration, but keep in mind that it is written from the point of view of humans in the celtic world, and needs to be adapted to the non-human fae perspective.

• Life in the Kings Hall, page 13
• Learning and Literature, page 14
• Celtic Women, page 15
• Living on Hospitality, page 16
• Single Combat, page 16
• The Conventions of War, page 17
• Cattle Raiding, page 18
• Celtic Law, page 18-21
• Wells and Fountains, page 29
• Offerings, page 29-30