From AeonRO

Merrhutz Satyrs

You'll want to play a Merrhutz Satyr/Aesoptian if you want:

To be a char with a background in conflict
To play a char with a built in reason to seek conflict and warfare
To play a char with a tribal or clan background
To play a char with a tribal or shamanistic approach to magic.
To play a char seeking to make their place in the world.
If you want to play a Flame Son

The Merrhutz Homelands

Please refer to the Merrhutz nation entry: Merrhutz for information on the country itself.

The Clans all have holdings in the Merrhutz lands, with farm and agri-culture springing in the fertile volcanic plains on the outer ring of the nation. Children, women, and the elderly often work on these outer agri-settlements to supply the inner rings of the nation with food and basic supplies that can be produced through animal domestication and field work.

This isn't to say that the farms are ill defended or easy targets. Merrhutz satyrs only get old by learning how not to die inside their chaotic Clan-tribal culture, and the 'elderly' on the farms have managed to survive in a culture that breeds conflict like cockroaches by being the one who squashes other bugs.

Raids on Merrhutz settlements are mostly made by other clans looking to secure more land, more animals for their herds, or more food supplies. These raids are met with some of the hardest 'old goats' the Nation has to offer, with Clan patrols often on the lookout for a signal flare or fire if assistance is needed.

The inner ring is where most of the 'between' population of the Merrhutz dwells. With the Volcanic plains and agri-lands being the areas of rest and respite, the Ash-plains are a hostile area filled with hostile wildlife. With volcanic tunnels running through much of the inner plains there are plenty of breeding grounds for monsters. Most of the Merrhutz who dwell in the inner ring of the nation are either Raiders, or Kill-Teams of scouts and rangers keeping the local wildlife in check and away from the farms and central City. (For more information on "The Hub", the Merrhutz Capitol City, please refer to Community Writeup: Geography)

Merrhertz who come of age go two paths. They either join the Ranger and Raider teams of the inner ring or, if they show some sort of leaning as a child, are sent to the central City in the center of the nation for training and apprenticeship in a craft.

Children who show a gift for practical skills join Clan members in the Hub for training and years of apprentice work in thier chosen craft.

Children who show a gift for magic or any of the skills the often superstitious satyrs associate with magic (astrology, alchemy, medicine) are sent to join the "Brass" caste of the Merrhutz. The Brass are the nation's scholars, diplomats, mages, shaman-priests and sometimes assassin. Garbed in brass jewelry and red and brown/black leathers, the Brass are easily identifiable from other Merrhutz in costume alone and play crucial roles in Clans as leaders, healers, augers, and sometimes leaders of ancestor worship.

Those who join the Raid teams become part of the reason why the Merrhutz have such a bad reputation in Aesoptian culture. The Merrhutz raid -everything-. Clans raid each other's holdings and supply caches for materials. They raid surrounding nations for quick wealth and rare supplies. They raid caravans for anything that might be in the wagons. Very little is 'safe' from Merrhutz raiders and most of the supplies find their way to clan holdings in the hostile Ash-Plains or to the Clan leadership in the central capitol for 'redistribution' among the Clan in general.

Ironically those who do business, either near Merrhutz lands or with the clans or central Hub-city itself, find the best way to avoid being raided is to hire other clan raiders to guard the caravans they're transporting. This practice may seem like extortion but caravaners in the area point out no one is going to fight a Clan-satyr harder than another Clan-satyr with a blood-feud again that clan. This also means most merchants have a working relationship with a single, powerful clan to provide a buyer for their goods and protection for caravans going into or out of the central Hub-City.

Many Merrhutz Satyrs leave the country to get away from it. Some leave to form their own caravan or mercenary companies. Brass caste satyrs are often the diplomatic and sage emissaries sent out of the country or who leave for personal research and experience reasons. Many Merrhutz Satyrs leave just because they figure that if they can survive their own homeland, the rest of the world is theirs for the taking.

They're often very wrong.

The Flame Sons

"Sheep go to Heaven. Goats go to Hell." -Cake

The second reason the Merrhutz have such a bad reputation in the Aesoptian race are the Flame Sons.

Flame Son/Dotter is a name given to a wave of satyrs kicked out of the country, en masse, every year. They follow conflict and war like carrion crows do and at every major battle there are small companies of these Devil Goats following, looking for Mercenary work and a cause to pledge their skills to.

The Flame Sons are Merrhutz that the Brass in their culture identify either through augury or oracular insight to have the spark of greatness in them. The rest of the world thinks that the Flame Sons have been touched directly in the head and heart either by Anord: Goddess of Chaos, Bashan: The Omega, or Cogadh: God of War.

In actuality the Flame Sons all seem to share a shared instability in their souls that pushes them to be excessively, inherently, and deeply personally crazy. Some hear drums calling them to war. Some say they can smell the scent of carrion-smoke calling them to battle. Some just -like fighting-. Most Flame Sons are kicked out of the country after they hit their teen years and most don't make it past that age due to their violent natures.

It's suspected that the Flame Sons are simply the Merrhutz who are -too- crazy to live in the country. Most are 'identified' after some personal breakdown, magical meltdown, or discovery of some atrocity pushed forward by that particular satyr. Kicking them out of the country makes them someone else's problem, and with the droves that are sent out every year sages suspect the Merrhutz may have some taint in their bloodlines that continues to pop-up generation after generation despite the obvious attempts to purge it out of the population.

They have no first names. All of them state their 'given' name is Flame Son or Dotter. They retain their clan 'last' name, but to the satyr, they say their given name has been taken from them. Most don't speak about the matter in length. Most don't know the details and those who do are -very- touchy about the subject. Considering the Merrhutz tribal approach to magic it seems likely to many sages that the Merrhutz Brass caste may have altered or stripped part of a Flame Son's True Name.

Flame Sons that do make it to any sort of age are often-sought Mercenaries in any conflict. The only drawback is the older and more experienced a Flame Son gets, the more and more likely it becomes that they'll have a psychotic break while fighting. The Merrhutz term for this roughly translates to "Mad Blood", and when one of the Flame Sons does go terminally berserk on the battlefield all the others are drawn to fight and kill him by instinct and perhaps some near-mystic force. Madbloods fight with the rage of the gods in their hearts, and Flame Sons often see it as a personal responsibility and heavy debt in their hearts to kill one of their own who has gone over the edge of the madness they all look into.

This leads some Flame Sons to form small mercenary troupes, adventuring companies, and oath circles. This is as much a measure to make sure there's someone there to put them down if they snap as it is to keep satyrs around who understand their underlying flaws. Many don't however, sometimes snapping into Madbloods where no one can get to them and living as local legends and villans, literally becoming homicidal, psychotic boogymen in the area until hunted and killed.

A Flame Son who makes it to nearly Old age is often a terrifying thing. Many have severe rage issues with being abandoned by their home countries. Some sink into Ennui, only roused when the call of battle hammers in their skulls. Some actually manage to raise families and pursue professions, becoming Dogs of War, leaving their houses and families whenever the call becomes too much to ignore. This means that there are often 'Merrhutz' satyrs mixed into any local population of satyrs as the Flame Sons and Dotters are likely to 'sow their oats' wherever their tastes lead them.

The most striking thing about the Flame Sons is that none go home. None. The official take on it is that the Brass have warded the entire Merrhutz Nation against their errant, psychotic children. All that is known for fact is that any Flame Son that goes home is set upon by the native population. Hounded. Hunted. Scried. Harried, and killed in cold blood or the heat of battle.

Flame Sons don't go home. Not in one piece.