Dark Jack

The Prophecy

Oh, there's no real hurry to establish an OP-title; it's just that adventurers tend to garner a reputation as they go about their business, and the titles I put in the OP describe the reputation that they will initially build for themselves, and how the people of Reniam will start to recognize the person... at least until other feats are performed to earn new titles, as happened with Jillian and Gerald. The personality can wait and can be expressed IC, obviously, although my main worry was really trying to figure out what kind of occupation the Iridiel would have. My initial guess would have been a ranger of some format, though the way her companion here is described as a hunter despite carrying a spear with him does somewhat convince me that her occupation may be the same.
I have no objections to the NPC, it doesn't seem overpowered or lore-breaking.
I also hope ASTA returns soon so that we can continue integrating these new species into the Planes and their characters can join the story.

Heh, it was only just before writing this that I actually went through the effort of going back and seeing what was edited in your post, Rhaevnn, and woah, you weren't lying; it was changed a lot more than I suspected it would have been. I quite like the way it turned out, I must say (though I do feel the need to point out that the thirty-inch long beak of that pick is hardly a "spike the size of a man"). And how flamboyantly old Morgan moves against our new villain... I'll have to react to that. Merc? If you read this, is there anything I should be aware of Ixion doing/saying when writing a post, or might you actually have time to drop an IC post in a near future?
I'm really sorry Ixion and Morgan decided to fight this guy, though... this is going to be almost as far from a fair fight as it can be. But you'll see for yourselves when I post as him next.

The Prophecy

"It's all I have left, I guess," Jillian said, a small sentence that managed to elicit a small response from Gerald in the form of a slight start and a tightening of his lips. There was no denying that the words had an impact on him, though the feelings they provoked were somewhat mixed. On one hand he could probably relate to her some of the way; he, too, had been exiled from Zerul after all, having been discovered as a practitioner of a forbidden art and nearly killed by his own stepfather, losing the career and life he had built there. Not that there was much of a life left, as even before this he had lost his wife and unborn child... indeed, there was a time when magic was all he had left as well. He recalled the feeling of futility from then, of soul-crushing depression and desperation; magic had been his refuge, the one thing that remained precious to him, and thus he committed himself to it with all of his heart. It was only later his desperation rooted itself more deeply in him and turned to resolve, leading to him contacting the Black Tribunal and learning the art of necromancy that would eventually lead to his second loss of everything except magic.
But that was the thing; while he could relate to the feeling of having lost everything but magic, he also knew that he had moved past that, and that Jillian could as well. Magic on its own was nothing, it required a purpose to function optimally and finding a goal for which to use magic was an effective means of fueling its mastery much more effectively than sheer dedication to the arts. He pitied her, but he also felt disdain over her weakness for resigning to her fate and accepting her situation. Yes, he had been broken once as well, but he had rediscovered his purpose; she could too. She had to... or magic itself would inevitably consume her.
The rest of what she told Crone was mostly uninteresting formalities, though the warlock could not help but to feel amused at the witch's apparent regret over having not introduced herself to Crone or Renold... or Salas, for that matter, he realized. He did not recall introducing himself to the latter, either, but that could wait. What was ironic about this particular situation was the fact that Jillian seemed to think that she owed the ancient human an introduction despite the fact that Crone had not introduced herself either; Renold had done that for her, and then only by an alias. Of course Jillian was the one of the two in a disfavorable position, being the one to request something of the other, but there was little doubt that Crone was only offering the lessons she was because she wanted something from Jillian, too, namely the extra manpower to make success in capturing Hazzergash more likely. It was almost like being back at the noble court in Zerul, having to navigate that accursed maze of intricacies, formalities and intrigues, trying to find the exact right nuance to paint one's words as to not insult the other but not put the one in a favorable position over oneself either. Gerald had hated that; there was a similar dynamic among the instructors at the academy, but nowhere near as bad as at the noble court he had become involved in because of his stepfather.

He noticed the reaction of his fellow exile when he said that he expected Crone and Renold to help him, but he did not pay too much attention to it simply because Jillian did not know the whole story. His helping in the defense of the Anaxim Forest in the first place was mainly due to them promising to share this information afterward, and he had fulfilled his part of their deal even if the outcome of the battle had not been entirely in their favor. He expected to be given this information because it was what he had been promised, and to express anything less than absolute confidence in his right to it would place him beneath the two guardians, in a position where the terms for his receiving this information could be renegotiated. Had he reacted differently, and had Crone been insidious enough, they could have used a simple turn of phrase like that to hold the information hostage and force him to go after Hazzergash with them.
Kreshtaat take the Zerulic noble court and all the trickery that was necessary to survive in it... but at least he had learned a few things that could potentially be useful. It did not matter if he came off as rude as long as it achieved results.

Finally when the time came for Jillian to give her opinion on the subject the necromancer could not help but to crack a small sarcastic smile at her first words. Do the selfless thing and go after Hazzergash? The demonic Lord of Fire could not obtain his full strength without the Demon Prison that was in their possession, on top of which he was likely weakened even further now upon straining his host's tolerance for immortal energy too far. How dangerous was he really at the moment? He had the Crusader's Guild, certainly, but their forces had probably been nearly halved after the battle in Anaxim, and the ducal armies far outnumbered the cultist soldiers of the Guild. How many lives could they take without making themselves a target to the dukes? A hundred a week? Two hundred? The Withering claimed that many every several hours and would continue to do so until it was stopped. He could see how stopping a demon lord might seem the more urgent of the quests to complete, especially since they only had a small window of opportunity before Hazzergash returned to Cave Bear's Keep and gained the protection of another two thousand men, but in the greater scheme of things ending the Withering was a matter of legendary importance. The selfish thing? Yes, he would save himself, but he would also save untold millions of others.
The rest of what the witch had to say did, surprisingly, make a lot more sense than he would have expected from her. Naturally he never intended to simply let Hazzergash be, even if he went in search of the cure, but her suggestion did seem to be about the best compromise they could hope to achieve. He had not counted on the guardians actively helping him in his search beyond simply telling him where to go, but chances were that putting things like this would actually force them to help and ultimately make the search all the faster.
"So," he said, offering Jillian a pleased smile and a nod, "how about it, Guardians of Anaxim? If you can help me..." He stopped, looked back at Jillian with a look of surprise as he actually comprehended one little detail of what she had said, then looked back to Crone. "...us find a way to end the Withering, I am willing to help resealing Hazzergash before actually doing so."
Renold and Crone looked at each other, concerned expressions on their faces. "The expert I speak of is an acquaintance of mine that lives deep within Jevog Denûm," the Green revealed after a moment. "I can't teleport..."
"And I have never been there," Crone continued regretfully. "So I cannot teleport to such a destination either. At most you could ride on Elder Renold's back, which would shorten the journey to about a day or so, but faster than that it cannot be done. Presuming that Hazzergash does not obtain other means of traveling for himself and his surviving underlings than by foot, it should take them approximately two days to reach the Etlonian border and an additional two before they can seek shelter in the depths of Cave Bear's Keep. We are willing to help, but you need to be back before then, lest another legion of soldiers stand between us and our quarry. The longer it takes, the greater difficulty our task will entail, and the more likely it will be that Hazzergash has found a way to protect himself."
"I'm fine with that," Gerald shrugged, realizing that getting all the way to the inner Jevog Denûm would probably have taken weeks on foot. "As soon as we have a cure, we will return to stop Hazzergash."
He turned to Jillian and Salas. "Presuming that everyone is willing, of course."

The Prophecy

Unbelievable, Gerald thought to himself as he heard the two other outsider volunteers for the defense of the Anaxim Forest state their current goals, trying to decide whether he wanted to laugh or cry. Jillian really does only want magic for magic's sake, and the other one, Salas... he doesn't even have that much. Does he have no mind of his own? Hopefully he can at least follow orders, or he might prove completely useless.
Externally he showed little of his disdain for his companions' cluelessness beyond donning a small frown and rolling his eyes at each of their replies. Crone did not seem all that appalled at their lack of purpose though, merely listening to each of them in silence, although she did raise a wrinkly eyebrow at the end of Jillian's statement.
"I do not even know your name, yet you see fit to beseech my mastery of forbidden magic?" she remarked, sounding half amused and half surprised. She shook her head with a smile. "You must truly yearn magic if you are willing to go so far. I am willing to share with you some of my knowledge as you ask, but I will only teach you about black magic itself; you will obtain no new spells from me, for knowledge of those is better left unspoken until it dies with me. I will show you the path of mastery to walk yourself, but no more."

Having dealt with that bit of business Crone turned to Gerald, her ancient eyes betraying an infuriating pity for him.
"And you, Gerald the Thrice Named?" she asked, addressing him by a weird title that he did not even know how to interpret himself, one which he was pretty sure he had never been known by. Thrice Named? Does she mean how I originally had no last name, then was Remdal and now am Glass? "I know that you require an imminent end to the Withering, and if you insist that this is still your primary purpose we will keep our promise and share with you the location of one who has delved further into the darkness within souls than anyone, and who may very well have possess the clues as to cure the soul disease of which you have revealed so much to us..."
"I expect no less," the necromancer snapped, growing increasingly impatient with Crone and this entire business. "Then tell me and I'll be on my way. The Withering has to be stopped." He pulled the chain over his head and off his neck, holding it for the age-old woman to take. "At any cost."
"I beg you to reconsider," she said, actually sounding genuinely desperate. She did not take the Demon Prison from him, but let it dangle from his hand, emitting its ominous glow. "I understand your haste, but upon purging the plague from yourself the power of soul-stealing will almost certainly be lost. Hazzergash is vulnerable now more than ever, but even if he restored himself to the peak of his strength, sealing him back in his prison is much more likely to succeed with the aid of your unique ability."
Gerald sneered, but did not immediately respond to Crone's request. Crone, being as old and knowledgeable as she was, must have realized how much she was asking of him... he had explained his discoveries concerning the Withering to her, after all, and told her of just what dying to it entailed for its victims. Never mind the fact that he was quite likely to die a horrible and violent death at the hands of Hazzergash or his minions if he went along and helped trying to reseal the demon lord, but it would take valuable time to do so... time he was unsure just how much of which he had. He had used the Withering to move energy between entities far too many times today, and although the external symptoms actually seemed to have receded a little, he could feel it pull on the remainder of his soul even more ravenously than before. He had to end the Withering before it ended him, or everything would have been for naught... none of his goals would ever come to fruition. He had to focus on the bigger picture, and the Withering was ultimately a greater threat than even a rampant demon lord... was it not?

Then, for reasons he did not even completely understand himself, Gerald turned to Jillian. "What do you think?" he asked, surprising himself by sounding very tired just then, and somehow much older than he actually was. "Should I go?"

The Prophecy

Hmm... Iridiel, huh? Yes... There doesn't seem to be anything in the CS that strikes me as unacceptable; in fact her inventory and skillset (though the latter is not explained in depth) seems wonderfully fit for improvement. My only real complaint about it would be the lack of any kind of summarization, however brief, of her skill or mindset beyond what weapons she can use and the mention of her appetite for exploration (the less information I get, the less probable it is that I come up with a fitting descriptive title for her entry in the OP). I'm also slightly unnerved by the mention of her traveling companion, but that is mostly just because I know nothing about him yet; my unease will probably end once I know more about this man.
I also admit that I was rather hesitant about her having a tame wolf with her as a companion, but I gave it a quick google (my knowledge of wolves pertains mainly to the feral kind) and decided that the information that I could find after just a few minutes was reason enough to allow it. Not only did the results report that having a wolf like this would be relatively feasible, but the amount of information also told me that if I could find it this quickly, then I could also expect you to know about wolves and to have it behave as realistically as possible.
Regardless, this character is accepted, though I will still need to know about this companion of hers.

The Prophecy

Guh... how come shit always hit the fan on days I have to be absent from the RP? Skipping back pages to find the first post that came up since I checked last and passingly spot the words "emotional blackmail" in a post on my way there? I shat bricks. Luckily it wasn't entirely as bad as I expected it to be (the situation IC is bad, certainly, but at least it did not come to OOC fighting as I feared upon seeing those words), but woah... I was seriously scared there for a minute.
There's not even much that I can say or do about it, really... I know how bad Thaler is doing, and these few days during which I've had to spend my writing-time addressing matters with the new players and their races I've been doing a lot of thinking as to what was going to happen in my next post for the collab; I know almost exactly what will happen on the fighting-side of things, but I've been trying desperately to figure out how Olan would react to Thaler being the way she was, and how he could believeably do just a small bit of something to lift her spirits a little (that's proven even harder than expected, though; even though I've had him show definite signs of being the same as he was before, in most ways (though understandably a bit confused and scared right now) and even had him tell her he remembered his promise to her, she seems utterly convinced that the "old Olan" is gone for good).
Beyond that... uh. I can't and won't forbid you from doing what would be natural for your character, under any circumstance, even if that meant the destruction of the group (a young squire with newly acquired abandonment issues and an elderly amnesiac: the new lone heroes of the tale), nor can I really blame you for not enjoying writing as her. I was thoroughly tired and pissed at Jaelnec when he was depressed, too, and really didn't want to write as him anymore; even with Thaler, now, I get frustrated reading about her state of mind, and she's not even my character. I can't object to Aemoten's impending reaction to a hypothetical future where Thaler left, either, for the very same reasons. I am the GM, but I am not (contrary to past accusations by players no longer among us) a dictatorial one; you and your characters have the freedom of choice, whatever that choice may be. Heck, I even made it clear that the characters could take the path of evil as well, back in the day. I trust you - all of you - to be true to your characters and the story, but I recommend that you don't make final decisions ahead of time. As this RP has proven time and time again, things very rarely go as planned, and Zerul is still far off enough for things to change before the characters get there. Not an enormous change, but it could happen. I'm not saying that it will happen, but it can. Don't decide one way or another before it is time for your character to make it's decision; only then will the character itself know what to do.
And by the way, Thaler sort of already pretty much gave away the bounty on her when she gave that one guardsman her Black Sun-emblazoned blindfold, so counting on her having the opportunity to turn herself in and have the bounty go to the rest of the companions may be a bit premature. Just saying. She turned herself in already.

@Legion: Sounds fine to me.

The Prophecy

Shienvien said To be fair I do not know much of xuhrl-njok culture(s) besides them being sociopaths, and purely self-oriented (in which the aforementioned sociopathy plays a part)... That xuhrl-njok are highly intelligent, that I didn't doubt - just look at their magical capabilities, and I don't mean sheer prowess here -, but I guess I mostly imagined their sociopathic selves to be either fairly solitary or make temporary small groupings for when it currently happens to be useful for them (or a strong one threatening to blow some weaker ones up if they don't do as requested ... and the weaker ones doing what was demanded because they objectively figure they can't win and getting blown up is not at all beneficial for an individual). ...But they actually managed to convince a substantial number of their species that an unified empire composed of xuhrl-njok is something they would all individually gain from? Oh dear.

They are sociopaths, but they are still capable of rational thought; if there is a Xuhrl-njok (just occurred to me that I've been spelling it wrong all this time) spryne that is notably older, more powerful or skilled than its peers, then the ones around it can easily reach the decision to either band together in order to overcome this powerful specimen or, in case of ones with more agreeable personalities (they may not feel any sympathy for others, but they feel no particular desire to hurt them, either), decide to ally themselves with it. In either case even though Xuhrl-njok sprynes are indeed solitary creatures, it's in their best interest to have others of their kind to work together with in order to ensure their survival. Calling their society an "empire" was not correct of me... they don't really have a nation at all, per se, but their people do occupy a region that they rule supremely, mostly organized into these aforementioned groups either lead by that one powerful central figure around which the group formed, or ruled by general consensus in groups formed of weaker Xuhrl-njok sprynes. The main reason they don't go around wiping civilizations off the map is the fact that they aren't united as one people, so surrounding lands usually just have to contend with the individual bands making raids to capture slaves for labor and sustenance.
What I'm trying to get at is that if someone were to repeatedly target the Xuhrl-njok, attacking them rather than just fight them off when they attack, this would build up consensus even across the various bands of them... and given a common objective, the Xuhrl-njok can act with unity. Raiding them too frequently or for too long would eventually make them recognize the raiders as an enemy to their species as a whole, and they would obliterate them.

Shienvien said (I vaguely recall the spryne-part meaning "nation" ... and them sometimes using it interchangeably with individual because each one is out for oneself only anyway.)

Spryne does mean "nation" in their language, but since they don't have a nation to begin with they don't use it when referring to their species collectively, but only when referring to individuals or groups within their people. When referring to their people as a whole it is omitted.

Shienvien said ...Speaking of which, I can't exactly imagine niin making a nation, either. I figure they wouldn't simply be able to care about being a people long enough, let alone bother with making a nation with borders and rulers and such rather than just settling down wherever seemed convenient, only to wander off again when something more interesting is on the horizon.

You're right, of course, which is why they never formed one.

Shienvien said And hmm... Yeah. You haven't said there are beasts as great as those of the Malith Jungle in the west ... but you hadn't said there weren't, either, and there are couple of creatures that are big and fearsome enough in the north, too, including in Rodoria. Some species of powerful bovine-kin (such as used to be here until - surprise - humans hunted them to extinction ... actually, all over the world there used to be massive beasts that humans eradicated) or similar alone would explain why creatures like del-korm showed up... I think currently the main issue with del-korm being from the south (no conflicts with locals provided) would be climate. (Arctic del-korm variant in southern Balazth? Erm...) Could a large island off of northwestern Kirirak work? Del-korm have been placed on an island before.

Hmm... you're probably right; my main concern was the creatures specifically mentioned in explaining about them, namely bisons and mammoths, neither of which I felt too fond of imagining on the same latitude as northern Kirirak, Rodoria in particular, but obviously there exist creatures even more dangerous than those even in those regions. The part of them being arctic is news to me, though... did I miss that somewhere? Was it mentioned? But obviously they can't come from the tropical south if that's the case. Eh... yeah, I guess they could come from the far west, but if so a substitute for prehistoric bisons and mammoths would have to be found as to what they contend with... shouldn't be too hard; Reniam has loads of dangerous beasts of its own, along with a wide selection of animals from Earth. Or they could have an island, if that is preferrable, although this would still have to be a good ways to the west, or entirely new issues would arise (most notably having to deal with Melenian ships and pirates, but also other things particular to that part of the ocean).

Shienvien said (ASTA's character was/is somewhat of an outcast, as I've understood, which in part explains how he ended up so far... And for the matter, del-korm *can* live quite long if they don't get killed ... not sure how long exactly - he can specify -, but well over a century, if not a couple of centuries.)

So it just randomly wandered across the continent and found Rodoria? I suppose it's a passable explanation, particularly if they really live that long. It is a very long way to wander, though, especially if it had to find a way past the Yawning Gorge to get to the eastern part of the continent.

Legion X51 said Regarding the points about the Xhurl-njok and the Eireannach potentially coming into border conflicts, I can re-instate the Kingdom of Thessaleia (human kingdom, not much work to do and most of it I've done for another RP already, so no worries there?) as a buffer state between the Xhurl-njok and the Eireannach so as to prevent both sides from coming to blows. I had the Eireannach and Thessaleians almost at constant state of war - similar in a way to the late Roman Empire and its struggles with barbarians.

Don't worry about working out a detailed explanation for Thessaleia, a brief sentence or two about what kind of kingdom it is would suffice quite fine for the time being; with lands that far west the influence it has on the eastern lands is almost nonexistent, and the probability of the characters ever going there would not be very high (it could happen, though... in case of which you may have to explain in more detail later on, when it becomes relevant). If the alternative is that the Éireannach would raid the Xuhrl-njok repeatedly, eventually leading to their destruction, then inserting Thessaleia between the two would probably be a good solution (then it would the Thessaleia being raided by Xuhrl-njok, too, instead of the Éireannach).

Legion X51 said As for interbreeding, though the Eireannach are similar in appearance to humans, I think humanity would be the only race with whom they could successfully breed, with maaaaybe Nightwalkers being a very rare and 'barren' partnership. Most other races are a no-go.

That's fine; humans and Nightwalkers are only compatible with one another, too, and no other races, so it would make sense for the Éireannach to have a similar relationship with them. How do these crossbreeds turn out, though? As Shien just pointed out there is a backlash when crossing Nightwalker and human blood that cause them to lose their eyesight, but how does Éireannach blood mix with human? Nightwalker?

Shienvien said Also, as I pointed out - long lifespan doesn't necessarily mean long period till maturity. There are Earthern beings which can hit hundred and twenty, but are full adults at three or so. And yeah ... wars, illness, predators, underabundancy of food, low conception rate, the factors which bar exponential population growth rate are many. Here I will also note that fertility period may not last for the entire adulthood - human women past forty-five or so very rarely conceive naturally despite the life expectancy being at about eighty (and lifespan cap at over hundred), for instance.

I know that, which is why I changed my approach as I wrote my thoughts on that bit (I should have deleted and rewritten that entire paragraph rather than leaving in my confusing train of thought as I went from one thought to another). My concern wasn't that it was unrealistic for them to maintain their population while being constantly at war - well it was at first, until I realized I was presuming too much just based on their lifespan - but that the growth of their population would be even more unsurstainable than that of humans. I know that there are numerous factors that limit population growth, but the fact that the Éireannach could sustain their population with continuous replacements for numbers lost in constant war would suggest that there aren't many of such natural limitations for them, and with individuals living as long as they do... well, if they did not take losses from war, I imagine they would very quickly find themselves fighting among themselves, stricken with pandemic illnesses and/or suffering from widespread famine. I'm not saying that it's unrealistic or that I object to it, I merely noted the fact that as I saw it, the Éireannach would not be able to sustain themselves as a people if there were no one for them to fight.

The Prophecy

Oh, the west - the one past the Yawning Gorge - is not generally barbaric compared to the eastern lands in Kirirak... in fact Junica, while with a markedly differently structured heirarchy and foreign norms, is probably just as civilized as Rodoria, and even the Xhurl-njok (when referring to the Xhurl-njok as a people one can omit the "spryne"-part, as it refers to individuals within the race rather than the race as a whole), though sociopathic, are relatively civilized. Being warlike does not rule out being civilized (I could draw inappropriate parallels to countries from Earth, but in the name of peace it's probably better that I don't), and even if the western lands are almost perpetually at war with each other, they do generally have the common sense not to pick a fight with someone they can't defend themselves against, and unless there are significantly more nomadic Éireannach than I envision there being and that these were somehow capable of rallying as a combined force at very short notice, the Xhurl-njok would probably be too much of a mouthful for them. The Xhurl-njok are frighteningly powerful, if you recall, especially when there's even just several of them working together; the main reason they haven't been destroyed by the other western countries is that no single other western nation commands enough power to challenge them like that, and due to them being constantly at war with each other they haven't managed to band together to fight them. After all, the Xhurl-njok may attack them once in a while, but so does every other country around them.
...Of course the Éireannach could just avoid conflict with the Xhurl-njok altogether and that would solve most of the problem; then instead of having a pissed-off Xhurl-njok empire at their neck, determined to eradicate them, they would just have to endure occasional skirmishes when they felt bold enough to move against them.

And I did indeed envision the del-korm as being further south than even the Sekalyn, though probably not by much; their culture is less of an issue than the way it and their general properties is described, namely as coming from contending with creatures not present in northern lands. The race itself could probably exist in the west, but the circumstances they live under would fit better with either the south or off the shores of Kirirak somewhere.

The Prophecy

@Legion: All right, then... so they're basically humans with longer lifespans, one ethnicity of which has a skin color that is rather unusual to humans, but otherwise they are very much like humans? How does their population maintain itself between their long lifespans - which would usually implicate a long reproductive cycle - and their aforementioned warlike culture? Though I suppose with lifespans that long and a reproductive cycle short enough to replenish their numbers lost due to war, continuous war would almost be necessary for them to avoid their population increasing uncontrollably to the point of their growth being entirely unsurstainable. (A small divergent thought of mine is that if they do require constant war like this and has been participating in such warfare, then they must either still have at least one other nation between themselves and the Xhurl-njok or only recently have expanded as far; if someone persistently showed aggression against the Xhurl-njok the way the Éireannach are described to, chances are that they would not last long before the Xhurl-njok decided to remove the annoyance they would represent.)
I also wonder just how genetically compatible these Éireannach would be with other races. They are described as being very humanlike, but with lifespans that are almost as long as those of penin... Interbreeding between races would be difficult to accomplish.

@ASTA: One thing I have to address immediately is the fact that I flinch when a species is described as having any kind of "unnatural" property about them. It's probably just an exaggerated adjective in this case, but I object to the use of that in this context very strongly; no being that is not innately supernatural, such as immortals, have any kind of "unnatural" anything. Your del-korm are strong, I get that, but not unnaturally so. They have muscles, and they have strength proportional to those muscles unless empowered by magic, which I seriously doubt that the entire race has.
That little detail aside I quickly realize that the del-korm definitely would not fit in as a race from the west. I think they should be a southern race instead, from the Malith Jungle or further; this is really the only place remote and unpopulated enough that creatures like these would be tolerated by the civilized races, and the only place with wildlife exotic enough to contain creatures of the caliber that the del-korm supposedly deal with.
Aside from that they sound like a very powerful race, and yet another one that would very quickly provoke hostile relations with most other nations. Their culture aside, however, I would like to know more about their racial properties; a bit more description in terms of what they look like and how they function on a more individual level, as well as their actual lifespan rather than just their life expectancy (the life expectancy of Niin is generally even lower than that of del-korm, but their natural lifespan is over two hundred years).

And with both races I find myself wondering: why would they travel all the way to Rodoria, a journey that would be very long and extremely perilous for either of these races? I would like a credible explanation to that, at least, before considering implementation into the universe.

The Prophecy

Of course that's fine; generally the less new aspects I have to fit into the universe, the less work for me in making it all work on a larger scale, so that'd be excellent.

Oh, and I only just now realize I didn't actually confirm this to you specifically yet, but there is room for more players, yes, so feel free to submit a character for review anytime.

The Prophecy

Two prospective new players? Oh my... I think I nearly fainted there for a moment. And they both want me to add new races into the universe, though I imagine that at least these "Éireannach" would be relatively easy to fit in due to their nature and location; for them to have a place in the west with their culture - apparently waging wars rather liberally against neighbouring civilized nations - they would have to be really far west, past even the lands of the Xhurl-njok, which would act as a natural barrier for them to have much interaction with nations to the east anyway, due to the inhospitable nature of the Xhurl-njok.
Reading through your description, Legion, I do find myself wondering: how does this race differ from humans? You only really described how they were similar to humans, and to me it sounds mostly as though they are humans, just with a different culture... which would not make them a new race, but rather a new nation. If I'm wrong, then how do the Éireannach differ from humans? That's really a big factor in deciding whether they are even acceptable or not.

Their culture do sound familiar, though... to me it sounds like a cross between the Qetemak nomad tribes and the Kátimit barbarian territory, with the main differences being that the Qetemak don't build settlements at all and the Kátimit are generally more settled than what you describe.