It is said that Nakapa has died twice. First at the hands of a shaper, then from by actions of the wanderers
The story of Nakapa cannot be explained without mentioning the two most important events of its history. These being the
Arrival of Pujinën and the
Shattering.
Pujinën, and the shaping of Nakapa
Nakapa in it's true and original state was a world made of ash, in which primordial magic flowed freely. Despite this the world wasn't devoid of life, as the it was populated by beings called
Ashfolk, who ever immortal constructs composed of ash that had gathered around cores of primordial magic. The Ashfolk lived simple lives, as neither death nor life was a worry for them, they simply existed and occasionally chose to merge back into the ash that made up the ground they walked on.
This changed when a shaper known as
Pujinën, or later
The Ashen One, arrived in Nakapa. Shapers, named for their tendency to modify (or shape) worlds and beings they come upon, are a mysterious group of seemingly inter-dimensional beings with an apparent innate ability to bend reality to their will.
Pujinën was ambitious, even for shaper standards. They weren't satisfied with just the prospect of lightly changing a world before moving on. They wanted to truly mark their work, and when they arrived to Nakapa, they decided that it was the world that they would shape. However try as they might, no reshaping they tried would last long, as the volatile primordial magic transformed it back into ash. Attempts at directly modifying the magic were met with similar results. After much trial and error, Pujinën decided that the only way to shape Nakapa was to bind all the magic to a single storage vessel, and the only thing resilient enough for the task proved to be Pujinën themself. An as such, Pujinën shaped themself into a giant world-tree which would later become known as the
Ashtree. Although Pujinën's goal was to bind
all magic, they were only partly successful, as while most of the primordial magic was bound, not all of it was. As such the Ashfolk continued to exist, although they weren't unaffected.
With a lot of the primordial magic now bound to the Ashtree, the world of Nakapa began to change into a more earth-like environment. As this diverted the path of Nakapa from what would've been natural for it, this is referred to as the first death of Nakapa, although this term is only mainly used by me when describing it. In universe the details of this event have largely been lost to time, as it happened countless eras before the modern era, or even the time of the Shattering. The only knowledge of Pujinën, and their reshaping of Nakapa, survived via the wanderish mythology, albeit heavily distorted.
The Rise and Fall of the Wanderers
Wanderers are what became of the Ashfolk living the closest to the Ashtree. Despite Pujinën not having directly shaped them, their close proximity to the Ashtree as enough for them to be affected. In the mythology of the wanderers, this event is distorted to Pujinën arriving to Nakapa, planting the seed of the Ashtree before leaving. The wanderers then emerge from the trees roots.
As the indirect creations of Pujinën, their appearance changed from a one of ash, to a form resembling a humanoid tree (mirroring the appearance of Pujinën). With their new form came new challenges, with the most major being life and death. As at their core, wanderers were still made of volatile primordial magic, this meant the their bodies were slowly being eroded over time, until they died.
(this had similar effect comparable to aging in humans)
For a long time, the society of wanderers was centralized, similar to the society of their Ashfolk-ancestors, but this changed when they discovered that the magic stored within the Ashtree could be utilized via a technique called
wishing. This technique sort of resembles prayer, in that one wishes for the Ashtree to do something, but wit the major difference that the use of it can be improved through teaching and practice. As the wanderers researched more about wishing, it eventually lead the the formation of a clergy caste, made of the most powerful of the wanderers, who then consolidated power, thus forming the first centralized state in Nakapa: Moitmait, with it's capital being the village of Moiffe, which was most closest to the Ashtree. This began the
Okánet-era, or the
Wanderish Golden Age.
The founding of Moitmait split the world into its first two faction divisions: The
Central Lands (often just referred to as "Moitmait") and the
Far-Lands. The Far-lands, due to the great distance, were mostly left out of all major events of the Wanderish Gold Age. The Golden Age itself lasted from the founding of Moitmait all to way to the Tree-Sickness.
Tree-Sickness and Prophesy of the Ash-Speaker
Tree-Sickness refers to the period of time, where over-use of magic by the wanderers caused the Ashtree to weaken. As it was something of a load bearing pillar for the entire world, the weakening of the Ashtree caused an increase in all sorts of disasters. To quell the populaces fears, the Okánet began promoting a rumored prophesy that a certain person, called Ash-Speaker, was going to arrive and heal the Ashtree, thus saving the entire world. Naturally, as this prophesy is nothing more than a lie created by the Okánet in hopes of preventing mass panic, nothing happens for a while, until the populace gets so anxious that the Okánet, having painted themselves into a corner with said prophesy, is forced to select
someone as the "chosen one".
Rise of Aminu, the Tyrant King
Moiffe Aminu Atviseilfe (born: Mojost Aminu), originally from the small outskirt village of Lineli, came under the mentorship of the Okánet in their youth as their brother Mojost Osila agreed to an offer by Atvife Atvína that in exhange for the healing of Aminu of their life-long fatal disease, they would be given to be raised among the Okánet.
The Okánet, in desperate need of a savior-figure, proclaimed that Aminu was the Ash-Speaker of prophesy. Aminu was thus raised with the belief that they were the chosen one, and that they alone could save the Ashtree, which naturally caused them to develop a rather twisted view of themself. However, to their dismay, the Okánet didn't give them the level of power they felt they deserved. As such, Aminu used their fame and respect among the population in-order to proclaim that since they as Ash-Speaker were destined to heal the Ashtree, they should also rule, as "through them (Aminu) the will of the Ashtree was made material". Aminu forces the Okánet to recognize them as the true leader of the wanderers, under threat of a civil war. Aminu becomes paranoid that the Okánet may attempt to retake power and attempts to prevent such attempts by banning the use of wishing from everyone but a select few of their inner-circle.
The Wishing-ban results in the the Ashtree starting to heal, and Aminu is celebrated as a savior, but it does nothing to ease Aminu's growing hunger for power, and their rising paranoia. Aminu reaches tipping point a group of wanderers begin to advocate for an alternative religion than what the wanderers have traditionally believed. Instead of worshiping the
Ashen One through worship of the Ashtree, these wanderers claimed that there existed other beings with similar power, and claimed that a being known as the
Ancients was in-fact more powerful if not equal to the Ashen One.
This Ancients was in-fact another shaper, later named Vanahai, Creator of Hiveminds.
The Fall of the Wanderers, and the Shattering
As much of Aminu's power was based on the belief that they were connected to the only true god, they don't take this splintering of faith well, and in their paranoia stricken madness, they put into effect a state of total marshal law. This period is known as the
Years of Blood. During which great witch-hunts and purges against anyone deemed a threat to Aminu, and their followers. However, despite how brutal Aminu was, some believed that they weren't brutal
enough, which leads to the creation of a semi-secret society called
Order of Saviours. However, they don't really become prominent until after the Shattering.
Naturally, Aminu's tyrannical actions aren't met without resistance and a rebellion forms, headed by none other than Aminu's own brother, Osila. The rebellion remains fairly underground as they gather numbers. Eventually tension builds up until a war begins between Aminu's forces and Osila's Freedom Army with the
Burning of Moiffe, this war is known as the
Wanderish Civil War. The civil war lasts for around five years before entering a seemingly unbreakable stand-still. The idea that the entire civil war should be decided by a duel between the leaders of the opposing sides, and with seemingly no other options both Osila and Aminu agree. Naturally neither truly believed that a duel could end the war, but the prospect of killing the highest of rank of their opposing forces was enough. The place for the duel is decided to be the hill upon which the Ashtree stood, as it was the holiest site to the wanderers and thus victory there would be symbolic of victory everywhere.
At the beginning of the duel Aminu and Osila seem to be equally matched, but as the duel goes on it becomes apparent that Osila is the better fighter. Enraged, Aminu does something unprecedented and uses the power of wishing to wish Osila dead. This wish is granted, and lightning strikes Osila vanishing them into thing air. Unfortunately, this act used such a large amount of primordial magic and was performed at such a close proximity to the Ashtree that it's enough to send the already weakened tree over the edge, and it dies and falls over. As it falls over, its roots are pulled out of the ground, which causes massive canyons to form across the world. In addition all the primordial magic inside the Ashtree is unleashed in a large burst, causing the entire world to fracture into countless floating islands, that get separated from each other by the pressure wave of the magic explosion. Between these islands forms a dense fog made of the primordial magic that was released from the Ashtree, although in a slightly diluted state. This event is known as
The shattering of Nakapa or just the
Shattering for short, which also marks the end of Moitmait
Nakapa after the Shattering
The period right after the shattering is known as the
Eras of Chaos, during which various factions attempted to and failed in trying to fill the power vacuum left by the sudden collapse of Moitmait. The failings were mainly due to the fact that the fog renders exerting power over multiple shard-clusters (like planet systems, but with shards, and no central star), or in some cases even multiple shards of the same cluster, hard or near impossible. Not only does one have to worry about the various creatures that have somehow managed to adapt to the fog, the fog itself is often a massive hurdle to over come when it comes to travel in the world of Nakapa.
Before the invention of
fog-anchors, also known as
stabilizers, travel was hindered by the fact that reality within the fog is unstable, also as if it is starting to break down. Objects, and creatures. disappear and reappear in different places (this also affects smaller shards, large shards seems to be unaffected), pathways seem to be unreliable as two routes never seem to end up in the same place (this was slightly alleviated by Lighthouses). Some creatures have seemingly adapt to the unpredictability of the Fog, and large leviathans appear to be immune to most of it's effects in a similar vain to large shards.
The instabilities become stronger when one travels closer to the
Eye of Nakapa, that lies in the center of the known world, and likewise seem to become weaker when one travels away from the
Eye's Reach. However, the frequency of shard-clusters grows fewer the further one gets from the Eye, and the size of the creatures inhabiting the fog seem to grow. Thus this forms something of a natural boundary that forces people to stay in close proximity to the Eye's Reach. Thus the world is split into three parts:
- The Eye's Reach. The area closest to the Eye of Nakapa, in which most of the factions of the known world are found.
- The Far-Fog. The area closest to the Eye of Nakapa, but outside the Eye's Reach. As the borders of the Eye's Reach are rather loosely defined, so are the borders of the Far-Fog.
- The Mist-Void. The area outside even the Far-Fog, where nothing but leviathans, sparse shard clusters and fog are found.
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