SourceMaterial-Khanjar Kuro History

This is Avlis Source Material ⚠️Use of this material has NOT been authorized on the NWN Avlis Servers.⚠️ To use any of this material IC on NWN Avlis Servers, you must request approval of this material from the Avlis Team. Send a PM to the Dungeon Masters group on the Avlis forums to begin that approval process. To learn more about what Avlis Source Material is, please click here. You may use this material for non-server-related Avlis events, such as D&D/PnP.		History of Khanjar Kuro The Age of Spirits – 2000 P.O.D. – 1085 P.O.D. As soon as The Negerai Prime arrived with his nine human prisoners, he began to change the face of the continents by using enslaved demons for building keeps and prisons to house his minions and their charges, and he created specialized facilities to conduct his vile experiments. The demons he imported to work the prisons began to spread across the continent by gating in other demons who would in turn do the same. This disturbed the original spirit inhabitants of Avlis, who though they had a long history of their own sagas and adventures, generally behaved benignly and were at peace. For the most part the spirits had little defense against the countless hoards of demons now entering their domain. By the time the battle between The Negerai Prime and The Nine ended, nearly all of the nature spirits in the world were dead. The majority of those who fought perished. Only a meager few were able to flee with their lives. In the northern lands of Tyedu, intervention by the god Mikon allowed many spirit survivors in that area to hide and so they would be able to make themselves known sometime later as humans started settling the land. A second larger enclave of spirits in the extreme southern part of the continent of Negaria were also able to survive with Mikon’s aid, and with a great sense of foresight, Mikon’s servants (called mikonators) thought it best to help those survivors flee the continent to some refuge that they would create and maintain in isolation from whatever the future held. Thus, the spirits of the southern lands were quickly gathered and placed on a voyage off of the southern coast. Some of these fleeing spirits were unscathed, yet others bore deep wounds from their encounters with specially ensorcelled demons that would spread evil wherever they fought. Most of the wounded spirits damaged by these minions never healed, and some of those wounds festered and became infected, thereby tainting their unfortunate bearers. As members of the rapidly coalescing spirit community, these wounded were cared for and protected on the journey to the new land. Refuge – 1086 P.O.D. – 175 P.O.D. As the hastily constructed vessels carrying the spirit refugees neared the end of their trip, a beautiful green island shone before them like the color of emeralds. Tall forests blanketed the land which was outlined by beautiful white sand beaches. To the east and west, the shores stretched as far as the eye could see, and it appeared as if their new home could be endless. The island continent to which these spirits fled eventually became known as Khanjar Kuro, meaning Black Dagger. At the time, there were not many other native spirits living there and the refugees quickly spread. Some accompanying mikonator servants sent along with them on the journey taught them how to defend themselves and create fortifications. Once they were safe, their first task was to begin eradicating stray demons left over from the crisis. It was around this time that certain wounded spirits from the previous battles began to turn delirious and strike out against their former kin. The newly arisen “tainted” spirits would stir new conflicts and had to be driven out from fortified areas to roam the countryside. This solution would eventually prove problematic, because the taint acquired from their previous battles with the demons was contagious among the spirits and soon most efforts by the spirit communities focused on containing the malady. Over time this struggle was controlled, but tainted spirits were never eliminated and their presence helped evolve the endless dance of power ever parading around the continent. Landfall – 90 P.O.D. In these early years, there was no order among the spirits. As the land became safe enough, they emerged from their fortified hideouts and started attaching themselves to groves, rivers, and mountains to reinforce their long-neglected connection with nature. As this healing process was progressing, a cargo convoy from M’Chek set off on a fateful voyage. The majority of the mariners were humans, but there were a few dwarves among them from Deglos, as well as some goblin slave laborers from Brekon. The crew was in the business of transporting stone from the gnomish nation of Deglos to M’Chek for the construction of a new capitol called Mikona. The humans in the group were among the founders of Mikona, named for their god, Mikon. The dwarves were a more outlandish lot who mostly followed Fegall, the gnomish hero, although some of them kept to their older god, Gorethar. The voyagers made landfall out of a great storm, which legend has it was started as a by-product of magic being unleashed by the terrible conflict being fought by the fairies. The storm was devastating. Many of the ships in the convoy were decimated along with their crew, but a few hearty human and dwarven souls made it to shore to tell the tale. Khanjar Kuro was a wonder to behold for the new castaways. They saw before them a vast land full of trees and caves and brimming with untapped resources. However, instead of considering the worth of these resources overseas, the castaways were charmed by the landmass. They fell in love with it and decided to stay. Whether this was the action of the local spirits in an attempt to keep their home secret, or whether the travelers were honestly presented with a better opportunity by staying is not known. But every one of them stayed, and eventually they came to know and revere the spirits who lived there. Mikon, Fegall, and the other gods were forgotten. The Age of Awakening– 91 P.O.D. – 515 A.O.D The new relationship between the castaways and the spirits triggered the evolution of changes in the way of life for both parties. As the humans multiplied, they took on the practice of worshiping certain spirits. As these spirits got more worshipers, they found that their powers increased, and that not only could they affect more aspects of nature, they could give birth to offspring almost as powerful as they were. These offspring were strangely independent and had no need of large numbers of worshipers to acquire power. Instead, they simply seemed to inherit it from their more powerful parent. Some of these offspring even had mortal blood as a result of interbreeding, yet they were in some cases equal in might to demigods. During the Age of Awakening, these powerful newly bred spirits went on to spawn whole new races, as well as to take on the care and guardianship of some of the Negarian’s descendants, the dwarves, humans, and goblinoid races that landed on the shores of Khanjar Kuro centuries before. These older races had already begun the process of slowly forgetting their continental deities and began to seek comfort in the local powers. Both the new and old races acquired identities, lands, and cultures shaped by forces completely independent from elsewhere on Avlis. Lack of Negarian influence over time made the spirit and mortal immigrants change in subtle ways. For example, the Dwarven societies of Negaria and their crafting methods from Deglos were largely forgotten by their descendants on the island due to the fact that most of the original settlers were masons with little skill in other areas. However, their Dwarven eye for perfection was still intact, and they settled in areas of great beauty and set about constructing farms and small villages above ground. Through the centuries, this changed their physical appearance slightly. They became less stocky, with light eyes, and they had little use in their new culture for upkeep of beards and hair, and thus their beards became scraggly and their hair wild or cut short. Over time their relations with the humans decayed somewhat, but they never ceased their love for the spirits. The island was their home and they knew no other, and they called themselves the Korobokuru. For humans and the goblinoid races, the changes were mostly cultural though all races were affected to some extent by occasional breeding with spirits. To some extent over the centuries every individual had at least one spirit ancestor and in most cases it did not change appearance or ability. By contrast, the individuals with a noticeable amount of spirit ancestry to the point where it would change their appearance or functional characteristics became collectively known as “spirit folk”. Enough superstition surrounding these crossbreeds pushed them over time to congregate and form their own small societies and descendants, thereby giving rise to the spirit folk as an identifiable race separate from their forebearers. Though humans, dwarfs, goblinoids, and spirit folk formed the majority of the natural inhabitants of Khanjar Kuro, there were significant numbers of “minor” races that led successful bids for survival on the island. The shapeshifting Hengeyokai, the rat-like Nezumi, and the curious monkey-faced Vanara were the beloved creations of the second-generation spirits of the land that were born on the island and strove to make it their own. An older race that dates back to the Age of Spirits called the Onishin also makes its home there. They were the offspring of unholy unions between the leftover demons and newly arrived spirits. Though the hopes, dreams, and ambitions of all these creatures differ on societal and individual scales, they all see themselves as the children or beloved companions of the spirits who also continued to evolve their own separate society and would ultimately come to rule.