Talk:Kingdom of Raeyithia

Thoughts from Lara

When I begin to think about expanded lore for a kingdom I do a few things. One, I re-read the main wiki page with a fresh eye towards variations of how that main page can be expanded on. Two, I want to know what a kingdoms failings are, as that often helps set a solid foundation to determine their strengths. Three, I want to know what they will go to war over. Four, and finally, I review the history of the kindom and present some possible ideas to build on.

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.

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

This will need some more expansion like we have for Emlyn

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.

Celtic Gurps

This is a selection of things I've stolen from the Celtic Gurps and dumped in here unedited for consideration. We use a lot of the entries for Emlyn as well, but anywhere it conflicted with the Emlyn nature it was discarded, these are the juicy bits left for Raeyithia.

Animal Intelligence and Speech

In a mythical Celtic campaign, many animals are seen as intelligent creatures with their own aims, eager to help or hinder humans. If this is the case, all ani- mals born in wild-mana areas (and many others) have IQ 10, and the ability to understand human speech and to speak, although they do not often do so. This would mean that the cattle of the Sidhe, for example, would be intelligent enough to resent poor treatment, and capable of doing something about it – at the very least refusing to submit meekly to being butchered.

Celtic Honor

“A man lives after his life, but not after his honor.” – Finn Mac Cool

Nothing was more important to Celts than personal honor. Guilt and innocence were unimportant compared to reputation. The worst thing that could happen to a Celt was to be laughed at. The mere threat of being satirized (see p. 18) was more than enough to get most people moving. The three great virtues of Celtic honor were hospitality, gen- erosity, and bravery. No Celt wanted anyone to think that he lacked any of these virtues. Most would genuinely have preferred to die than to acquire a reputation for cowardice or meanness. In fact many did die for this reason, glorious reputations intact.

Another important aspect of honor was loyalty to lord, clan, and kingdom. These definitely came after personal honor, but were still important. If some- one swore to defend his lord or kingdom, he would fight to prevent even a simple insult to them. Unscrupulous people sometimes used this against heroes, by threatening to make up an unfair satire if the heroes didn’t do what the blackmailer wanted.

Vengeance was another aspect of honor. If it was too late to prevent an insult or an injury, it was never too late to avenge one. Forgiving enemies was alien to Celtic culture. It was possible to accept atonement for an insult, but not fully honorable. When Lugh’s father was killed Lugh imposed a nigh- impossible task on the murderers (see The Sons of Tureen, p. 119), and even when they performed it he wouldn’t use his healing powers to save their lives. Vengeance could take a long time, particularly in the case of the Sidhe, who were prepared to wait generations for the perfect moment for vengeance to arrive.

The Living Countryside

The Celtic world, where nothing was clearly defined and things could exist in more than one state, was perpetually open to possi- bilities. 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 druids, who said that the way was mystical riddling, impossible to explain in a straightforward manner.

Everything in the Celtic 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 druidic symbols. Animals had an animal wisdom, different in kind from human 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. In fact, a great deal of the Celtic world-view can be discovered by musing on two points. The very word “Celt” comes from a root meaning “hidden” or “concealed,” the same root that gives us the word “kilt.” And in the Celtic art style everything is abstracted, obscured by swirls and curves, beautiful but non-linear. With the Celts 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 people had no control over this magic, but would not be overly surprised if something they’d previously considered inanimate began talking to them. Indeed, there was so much ambi- ent magic that any object which had some spell cast upon it could, in time, develop a mind of its own (see sidebar, pp. 70-72).

The Celts did not treat magic as a science, which, if it worked on Monday, it would work the same on Tuesday. Magic was peculiar, and only a druid could understand it. Many Celts had a little magical learning – enough to know which trees were inherently magical at least. Still, people could be aware that rowan would protect them from magical harm, but they wouldn’t know how, or to what extent. In a wild-mana or high-mana area, those with Magical Aptitude might be able to use this belief to work actual magic with- out training (see Non-Druid Magic, p. 93), but on the whole, only members of the Druidic Order would actually have learned spells and be able to cast them intentionally.

The riddling nature of the druidic world-view led druids away from action and toward mysteries. Druids were mysterious and riddling without intending to be – to them it seemed the clearest way of expressing their meaning. Druids didn’t divide magic from other forms of knowledge; they regarded both seek- ing and gaining information as important.

Celtic Kings

The king was an important and respected figure in Celtic society, but he wasn’t all-powerful, and kingdoms were very small. Actually, a king was a chieftain ruling one fortress and the surrounding farmsteads; the next kingdom could be literally a stone’s throw away. The most powerful kings had several thousand subjects; the least powerful, a few dozen. The king was very much the “first among equals,” and only kept his place at the whim of the warriors who fought for him.

At the death of a king, the warriors of the king- dom met to decide who should succeed him. The new king was chosen from “royal kin” made up of the descendants of a common great-grandfather, so the son of a king didn’t automatically succeed his father.

A king had to be physically perfect; any deformi- ty or disfiguring wound disqualified him. Nuada, king of the Tuatha de Danaan, lost his left hand in battle. Dioncet made him a magical hand of silver, which worked just as well as the original; nevertheless Nuada could no longer be king, because he was no longer perfect. Later, when Dioncet’s son Miach made Nuada a hand of flesh and blood, he regained the kingship.

Usually kings were male, but occasionally a female member of the royal kin was chosen to rule as queen. She then had all the powers a king would have. Such a one was Maeve, queen of Connachta; although she was married to King Ailell, there was no doubt in anyone’s mind who ruled the kingdom.

Good kings were associated with economic prosperity, and vice versa: in bad times new kings could be chosen frequently in an attempt to make things better. This sometimes resulted in very unusual people being tried in the role, although they still had to belong to the royal kin. If a king didn’t have the respect of the warriors, they wouldn’t obey him and would force him to abdi- cate. In such cases, a new king was chosen. Former kings sometimes continued living in the kingdom “back in the ranks” but some moved to a neighboring kingdom in disgrace, only to return years later at the head of an invading army.

The Warrior Elite

Directly below the king in the Celtic hierarchy were the warriors, the nobles of Celtic society. They led a life similar to that of King Arthur’s Knights of the Round Table, but Celtic warriors were much more interested in battle for its own sake. The entire story of the Tain Bo Cuailgne, the great epic of Irish mythology, concerned the efforts of Queen Maeve of Connachta to steal a bull from King Connor of Ulaid (see The Tain, p. 36). The title means “The Cattle Raid of Cooley,” and the valiant deeds of the great hero Cuchulain were an attempt to prevent the theft of that one bull. The small scale of these wars and raids did not mean that they were unimportant. Nothing was unim- portant where honor was concerned. The warrior’s honor and the honor of the kingdom mattered more to him than anything. His real desire was for undying, unsullied fame, which encouraged deeds of ridiculous heroism – anything to be remembered. The warrior was also prepared to go to any lengths to avoid ridicule; better to be forgotten than to be remembered for the wrong reasons.

The warrior had his own farmstead, where his wife and children (if he was married) and usually some servants lived. There were also peasants living in huts nearby who worked the land for him. But a warrior’s true place was in his king’s fortress, helping to guard it, going out on raids against neighboring tribes, and (mostly) having a good time.

Something which Cuchulain said in the Tain summed up the attitude of the Celtic warrior: “It is a wonderful thing, if I am but one day and one night in the world, provided that my fame and my deeds live after me.”

See Also

• 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

Celtic Religion

The religious life of Celts was so integrated with other aspects of their life as to be almost invisible to casual observers. What might appear to us to be pointless superstition was actually an important part of their religious beliefs. In day-to-day life they were not so much concerned about the gods as they were about luck and fate. They worshipped the gods in the proper season; not to do so would be unlucky. It would also be impolite, and no Celt would be rude to the gods. But equally no Celt would avoid telling a good joke, even if a god were the butt of it. This wasn’t blasphemy or irrever- ence, as the gods were seen as real, able to take a joke like anyone else.

The Otherworld and those who dwelt there were very much a part of the real world. While the common folk were always reverent toward them, heroes often had opportunities to interact with the gods on a personal level. When gods appear in person and demand hospitality as a regular occurrence, it is perhaps no wonder if heroes felt a lessening of devotion. There were no sharp lines between magic and religion, and people in stories could be men or gods, with nobody knowing or caring. The old gods, the Tuatha de Danaan, and the veneration of the natural world were all irretrievably entangled in Celtic reli- gion. Only a druid could truly unravel them, or would even try.

Stories about the gods were confused and contradictory, but to Celts that wasn’t 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 bothered Celtic listeners.

Since anyone could become a god (see p. 67), the gods weren’t that differ- ent from anyone else. On the other hand, people became gods by drawing away from their own humanity, and so the gods were 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 Celts, life began with birth, but didn’t end with death. Dying was merely an end of one stage of life, a moving on to the Otherworld. There peo- ple 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. (See Chapter 4 for more details on the Otherworld.)

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 cho- sen by druids. 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 the Celtic world inspired a feeling of awe or religious ter- ror, 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 consid- ered 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 druids. Some places, like Tara and Tlachtga, had a particular ritual significance. Others included the lake Llyn Cerrig Fach in Ynys Môn, Brocelita in Bregheda, and Ffynon Arnemed.

Read More

• Wells and Fountains, page 29
• Offerings, page 29-30