[b]Faction:[/b] Kingdom of Poertia

[b]Race:[/b] Human, with Gul/Vampire ruling dynasty.

[b]Location:[/b]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/6AEU9As.png[/img]

[b]Backstory-History[/b]

The land that is now called Poertia was, in antiquity, the home of tribal peoples who made their homes in the arable river valleys amongst the mountains. In these days, there was no single name for these mountain cultures. Despite any shared characteristics they might have shared, they considered each other as quite separate. The word "Poertia" is a Shapuran bastardization of "Purita", one of the tribes in the sandstone hills that sit next to the desert, while the Vishput preferred "Hurut", the name of a different tribe further in the mountains. Some current day tribesmen have began to use the term "Hurut" to distinguish them from the Shapuran conquerors, but this has not brought any true sense of unity to their race.

Historically, their relationship with the Vishput was one of loose, nominal fealty. The Vishput hired some tribal peoples to guard their border with the northern deserts, who's nomadic peoples enjoyed raiding Vishput outposts. Though there was cooperation between the two peoples, there was little trust. The mountain tribesmen called the Vishput "Jinn", a term both them and the peoples of the northern deserts used to describe demons and trickster spirits. Children and women were taught to avoid going out at night, or else the Jinn might drag them away. Warriors bragged about slaying Jinn abductors they met along the roadside. Some superstitious sorts even avoided looking out windows or doorways at night, afraid that a Jinn might be just outside watching them.

The arrival of Shapur changed the political atmosphere of the area. Shapur was a king from a land far across the deserts in the distant north or east. His armies were so large that legends have been born from their alleged enormity. Some say that the deserts once bloomed until Shapur turned his armies to fight the Vishput, and they ate up every living thing. Others tales have it that it took so long for his forces to cross the land that the vanguard will have died and been replaced by their children before the men in the back of the column arrived. Whatever the case, Shapur's forces had a difficult fight ahead of them. The wars between Shapur and the Vishput lasted decades, and at their end all Shapur had managed to wrestle from them was the mountains where he would establish the Satrap of Poertia. 

What happened after Shapur's death is less known. It is said that he was succeeded by a frail ten year old daughter named Sulena, but the details of her reign are muddled. Some say she left the territory for good to govern her fathers homeland far away, while others say she was murdered. These stories have been dwarfed by the official tale that is told by the current rulers of Poertia: That she lived, and she sired a dynasty of Vampires, or as the locals call them, Guls.

In this official story, Sulena's frailty and the ambition of her father's officers puts her in danger until a mysterious wanderer offers her powers. He tells her of the things that he can give her, strength and long life, the ability to inspire fear and fight like her father had. By the time he reveals himself to be a Gul, she is intrigued and orders her guards to spare the monster. She takes up its offer and is turned.

The Gul is a creature of regional myth that lives off the flesh of men and goes mad. Folklore presents the condition as a punishment given to those who try to circumvent the Gods and increase the spans of their lives. Their lives grow longer, but they become wretched and pathetic as the years go by, until all dignity is gone and they are animals. For Shapur's people, similar creatures called vampires were known, though in their world they were servants of the God of Death, and much more dignified and respected. The term "Gul" is most commonly used by the native peoples, while the Gul's themselves refer to their kind by the "Vampire" term of their Shapuran ancestors.

Sulena's story varies wildly from teller to teller. Some say she turned her infant child when he was just born, destroying his ability to come of age and turning him into the freakish killer-infant named "Kizzeh." Many scholars point out, however, that the Kizzeh is referenced in some folk stories and art that predate the Shapur dynasty. The official story does not elaborate on this. Eventually, she has children who she allows to grow older before they are turned, and their dynasty becomes the "Gul Shapur's" and all that remains of their old empire is Poertia.

As monsters, local mistrust and fear threatened the Gul Shapur early on. It was with a few clever strokes that they would secure their thrown. First, they helped to hunt all other Gul's to extinction within the realm of Poertia, and they swore a solemn pact to kill themselves before their condition drove them into madness in old age. This kept the beastly later form of the Gul's from ever taking place. Next, they promised to only feed on tributes taken as captives in battle, or on raids against other peoples. Twice a year, taking place on each solstice, a delivery of captives takes place in the form of a religious ritual. In this way, the Gul Shapur have ascended to a sort of demi-god status, and their thirst for flesh is quenched by the vanquishing of the realm's enemies rather than murder and mayhem.

Another result has came from the taking of prisoners. With glory and honor now placed in raiding and plundering, the mountain tribes have become much more warlike. Some neighbors have chosen to pay tribute rather than face bloody attacks for sacrifices. As time goes on, the kingdom has began to slowly grow, and new populations means more warriors seeking to prove themselves. If they were to leave their mountain homes, Poertia and its Gul masters could become a threat to most peace loving peoples. And the Gul Shapur's remember when their ancestor ruled half of the world.

---

[b]Name:[/b]Gul (Shapuran: Vampire)

[b]Basic Description:[/b]
[i][u]Physical:[/u][/i]
A curse (or blessing, depending on who you ask) given in adulthood, there are no immediate physical changes. The most obvious change is the two which they are most known for: Immortality, and the need to eat human flesh. Though they can consume blood as well, they can live on anything edible taken from the human body, and tend to prefer choice cuts the same way normal people prefer certain parts of a cow or a pig.

Children can be given the curse, but the changes in them are much more extreme and result in feral monstrosity. The mountain peoples tell legends of Kizzeh, infants who were given the Gul curse, that hunt along the roadsides and trick their prey by crying so that travelers think they are abandoned babies. When somebody takes pity on them and approaches, the Kizzeh springs out and feeds on them. Stories about Kizzeh vary wildly, with some traditions giving them wings, while others suggest they have god-like agility. As far as anyone can tell, however, these are just stories, and there have been no believable reports of them in recent memory.

For the adult Guls, the changes they undergo take time. Their skin loses color at first, so that darker-skinned people slowly go a brown-grey and light-skinned people go a ghostly white. This happens within the first year. Next, their hair begins to lose color, turning red in the first few decades of the curse, before eventually cycling through red to faded pink to platinum white. Their hair is usually white within fifty years of being changed. As they get especially older, their hair will grow thin an translucent, and they will begin to lose it roughly one hundred and thirty years after being changed.

Their eyes also lose color, becoming either red, pink, or grey as time goes on. It is said their eyes have a faint glow to them as time goes on. Their skin ages, but in a very different way, so that they remain youthful looking until around the time their hair goes white, and even then their skin doesn't grow loose. Rather, it seems to grow tighter, like their skin is being stretched. Once they reach the last few decades of their sentience, their skin grows thinner.

Guls are harder to kill, impervious to disease, infection shock, or sepsis, though they can still bleed out and will suffer the same effects as humans do when it comes to damage to their organs. They are technically immortal, but mid to late 100's they will begin to lose their mental facilities until they become rabid beast-like creatures. The Gul-Shapur of Poertia have countered this with a promise to commit suicide once they reach this advanced stage, and the entire dynasty swears to police itself. Outside of that kingdom, however, different rules may easily apply.

Reproduction is peculiar for them. Male Gul's are sterile, but females can give birth to human children so long as she has a human mate. For the child to become like their mother, they have to receive the curse in adulthood, thus they are human in childhood with human weaknesses and needs

The other physical changes are these. They do not sleep. Though they can eat and drink typical food, they do not get sustenance from them. They are more energetic than normal people and have a tendency toward mania, causing them to take more risks, seek more pleasures, and be more aggressive on the battlefield.

Despite wives tales of the sort, Guls/Vampires do not have pointy teeth. They do not sleep during the day, and the only danger the sun causes them comes from the lack of protective pigment in their skin, causing them to be more susceptible to sunburns.

[i][u]Historical[/u][/i]:
In the lands of the old Vishaput Empire, Vampiric legends tells of the Guls. These were men punished for their hubris and their attempts to live like the Gods. They become predatory, paying for their extended lives by the need to feed on human flesh so that they are forced out of society. Eventually madness grips them, and the lesson the Gods have taught is complete, that no man born mortal can handle the effects of Godhood. Before the Gul-Shapur came to power, Guls were mostly hermit-sorcerers or monsters living in the dark places of the world, and they were hated and feared. Heroes hunted them down, finding their lairs and slaying them with displays of heroic heroism.

The people of Shapur from the forgotten lands across the desert had similar legends about the creatures they called Vampires. The Vampires of the Shapurans were people so great that death himself chose them to serve him. Death, Shapuran legend has it, was the first man ever made by the Gods. The Gods made it so that the first man would not age because they did not understand what aging meant, and when the man died they fixed his wounds and brought life back to his flesh. His life was a struggle, fighting to survive and suffering any time he failed, only to be brought back to suffer all over again. After thousands of years, the First Man grew tired, and he begged the Gods for his life to have an end. The Gods could not understand death, because it was not of their nature, but they felt that the first man could, so brought him up to true Godhood and allowed him to become the force of death because they knew he would be wise in that matter. When he ran across men who he felt could handle immortality, he would allow them to continue living so long at they chose to serve him. In these stories, the Vampires are noble heroes who prey on the weak and stupid so that the strong and clever shall live on and prosper. Vampire stories often involve two men, a hero who is a great fighter and a villain who is weak and cowardly, or a hero who is clever and wise and a villain who is immoral or foolish, who are put to the test by the Vampire. The villain dies, the hero survives, and the Vampire grants the hero the property, offices, and wife of the villain.


[b]CHARACTERS[/b]

[u]The Gul-Shapur[/u]
-[u]Alecta.[/u] A female Gul in her late forties. Attractive, looking to spawn children before she gets too old. [url=http://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/79071-do-the-eagles-circle-the-mountains/ic#post-2574402]Description/Introduction[/url]

[u]Nobles of Poertia[/u]
[i]Chultecii[/i]
-[u]Javid.[/u] Young Cataphracti and current patriarch of the Chultecii line. [url=http://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/79071-do-the-eagles-circle-the-mountains/ic#post-2564897]Description/Introduction[/url]
-[u]Sadaf.[/u] Squire and nephew of Javid. Fifteen, young, cockey, and cannot grow a proper mustache. [url=http://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/79071-do-the-eagles-circle-the-mountains/ic#post-2564897]Description/Introduction[/url]

[u]People of Poertia[/u]
-[u]Omid.[/u] Poor warrior from the countryside. Thinks a lot of himself. [url=http://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/79071-do-the-eagles-circle-the-mountains/ic#post-2542813]Description/Introduction[/url]
-[u]Kuleb (DECD).[/u] Younger brother of Omid. Scared of the Kizzeh. [url=http://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/79071-do-the-eagles-circle-the-mountains/ic#post-2542813]Description/Introduction[/url]

[u]Foreigners[/u]
-[u]Irjunu.[/u] A traveling Peacock Kshatra with a bushy mustache. [url=http://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/79071-do-the-eagles-circle-the-mountains/ic#post-2574402]Description/Introduction[/url]

[u]Non-appearing characters[/u]
-[u]Jali-Ali.[/u] Rajput of Vinrash. A beautiful young warrior who leads his people against the apes. [url=http://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/79071-do-the-eagles-circle-the-mountains/ic#post-2574402]Description/Introduction[/url]
-[u]Aha-Ah-Mah-Ah-Ah-Uh (DECD).[/u] A Raja of the Apefolk in the jungles of the south who died years ago. [url=http://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/79071-do-the-eagles-circle-the-mountains/ic#post-2574402]Description/Introduction[/url]

[b]POSTS[/b]
1:[url=http://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/79071-do-the-eagles-circle-the-mountains/ic#post-2542813]Introduction. Omid and Kuleb assaulted by monster on the way to the Gul-Shapur capital of Sarnath.[/url]
2:[url=http://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/79071-do-the-eagles-circle-the-mountains/ic#post-2553232]A captive is sacrificed to the Gul-Shappur. First look at the castle of Sarnath and the Guls.[/url]
3:[url=http://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/79071-do-the-eagles-circle-the-mountains/ic#post-2564897]Javid and Sadaf introduced. Javid strolls the camps and goes to the Sacrificial Ball[/url]
4:[url=http://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/79071-do-the-eagles-circle-the-mountains/ic#post-2574402]Javid meets Irjunu the Peacock Kshatra, who relates the beginning of his tale of Jali-Ali vs the Apes[/url]