Veradash
From AeonRO
"Like a virus, the onset is slow, but the results are permenant. If you allow them on your land at all, there won't be anything left of it when they leave. Best to drive them off with as much overkill as possible."
-
Ebbias Thyndrell
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Description
Clan Veradash is a Merrhutz satyr clan that claims lands on the southwestern quarter of the Merrhutz nation's lands. Clan Veradash is one of the older established clans and has the manpower and land holdings to represent thier entrenched powerbase. The Veradash lands are some of the more forgiving in the Merrhutz nation, with a wide swatch of borderlands that is nearly flush against neighboring forests.
This proximity to the forest leads the Veradash to raid and harvest lumber from the neighboring nations which does not endear them to local lords, elves, and druids. It does give them a strange advantage in the Merrhutz economy, as they're one of the few in-nation importers of lumber to the nearly treeless Merrthutz homelands.
The Veradash also have a large number of mines and strip-mine operations in the inner ring of the Merrhutz lands. They viciously drive off neighboring clans who try to encroach on their mineral claims. The Veradash also have a reputation of being claim-jumpers, with neighbor clans stating that you never want to state -too- loudly that you've struck something, else the Veradash show up to try and push you off the claim itself.
This also means that the Veradash lands are polarized between the border of Merrhurtz, where the forests are, and the large dormant volcano mountain that is the hallmark and center of the nation. It also means that the clan itself is framed by it's heavy material wealth and material conquest. The Veradash put out a large amount of smiths, woodsmen (A rarity in the Merrhutz nation), miners, and the clan as a whole is very organized to reflect the logistics required to run such an operation in a nation of satyrs that survive by raiding any supplies they think can be acquired by by force.
Where most clans send their errant sons raiding and pillaging neighboring clans, the Veradash send their excess of male progeny to raid forests for timber and to repel other clans from trying to claim their mineral wealth. Scores of Veradash clan satyrs run supply trains from the borderlands and mines to the Capitol city set in the mountain at the center of the Merrhutz nation, and the Veradash are known for being almost maniacally through about paroling their caravan routes with armed guards.
History
The Veradash clan is one of the older surviving Merrhutz clans and their few scholars claim it as one of the founding clans of Merrhutz, with thier clan symbol being found alongside several extinct satyr clan-marks in the caves that line the mountain at the center of the nation. They claim their progenitor as a male, unlike many satyr clans who trace their first-known founders as females. The Veradash see this as an oddity themselves, and this is perhaps best represented in the fact that while they have forgotten what this first Veradash's name was, they do all remember he was a male, and he did not belong.
The Veradash stories all follow a similar theme regarding their founding. A single male came to the nation and felt it to be familar. He bred into the other tribes of the area. The sons and daughters took his name. They too had sons and daughters. Eventually the founder became an Old Bastard of the clan, and lead them to the finest deposits of minerals in the mountain. Showed them how to work stone and steel. Showed them how to wage war and raid other lands to live in the inhospitable world.
To hear the Veradash tell it, they're responsible for everything civilized and vicious about the Merrhutz. To be fair however, most Merrhutz clans except for the smallest and most recent founded scions tell it as such.
The Veradash do have one historical fact that the Merrhutz all agree on. They were the first to start production and use of firearms in the clans. No one in the Veradash to this day knows how or where the use of guns and black-powder came from in actuality, but they are also quick to point out that the Founder likely brought it with him from wherever he first came from, since the practice of firearm production and use is not a common one in the barbaric lands of Merrhutz.
Lands
The Veradash land holdings are on the southwest corner of the Merrhurtz lands, with almost no claims in the inhospitable inner territorys and a fierce, almost rabid, hold on their sections of the mountain and mineral-strewn plains that surround it.
The Veradash are often forcefully ejected from neighboring countries when their work is noticed in the local forestry, and no sane druid would ever trust a Veradash clan satyr spotted in their groves to bring anything but more satyrs with axes and logging harnesses in tow. With lumber in such high demand in Merrhutz due to it's complete lack of native timber, the meager import of timber that the Veradash can supply from such fleeting raids is a massive economic and resource advantage compared to other satyr clans.
The Veradash make almost no claim to the interior of the country except for thier merchant roads and thier mines that lay on the mountain-side and near the base of the mountain itself. Here they strip-mine for ore, gems, and anything else the earth can provide.
Holdings
The Veradash are a clan of merchants, smiths, woodsmen and, strangeling enough, gun-men.
In addition to the oddity of their timber holdings, the Veradash are one of the few clans that has a reliable tradition of gunsmithing and production in the nation, and Veradash rifles are a sought after commodity since they have access to the skill, the wood, and the steel required to produce the exotic weapons. They are also one of the few clans with access to enough wood to produce bow and crossbow based weapons manufacture in the Iron quarter instead of relying on imports like most clans.
With their steady import of steel and wood the Veradash also have a strong presence in the Iron and Gold quarters of the capitol city. The Veradash that work in the Iron quarter supplying the satyrs in the Gold quarter with weapons, armor, house-goods, firearms, and other goods to ply at the Gold markets.
Most Veradash settle either in the Merrhutz capitol fort city as smiths and merchants, the clan mines as guards and miners, or at the outskirts as woodsmen, lumber cutters, and supply-train tenders.
The Veradash keep most of their young where they're born, but almost all Veradash spend time on the supply trains running food to the mines and borderland holdings and running wood, ore, gems, and other goods back to the Veradash in the Gold and Iron quarters. It's not uncommon for mine-born Veradash to stay on at the borderland holdings, or a forest-born Veradash to stay with his cousins in the Mountain to become a miner.
However: Any Veradash that shows signs of being able to work metal to any competency is sent to the Iron quarter to apprentice there with the clan smiths at the compounds the Veradash have in the Iron quarter. Often these apprenticeships are spent with close family, or even with the satyr's parents, if they are themselves smiths.
Magical Traditions
For one of the more organized and 'civilized' satyr clans, the Veradash are almost obscenely superstitious. The entire clan is marked by white hair and red eyes, a trait that only breeds true from the mother's side, and thus keeps the mutation within the Veradash clan bloodlines.
It might be this natural mark or mutation that leads the Veradash to be so paranoid about magic. They all, to the satyr, believe in two major foundations of magic: True names and Resonance.
The Veradash believe that names have power. A name defines who you are and what you have done. If you can twist the essence of a name, you twist the essence of the being or thing that name is tied to. It's because of this that the Veradash carry three names. Given, Chosen, and family. The Given name is used with the family name inside the clan. The chosen name is the one everyone else hears. Most Veradash only give their 'Chosen' name to strangers and never give more than that to any non-Merrhutz satyr.
Resonance magic is a magic that the Veradash claim is older than they are. To hear them put it: "As old as the gods". Blood has power. The body has power. To have the blood or a part of a person is to be able to control or twist them if you know how. To the Veradash Resonance magic is almost not magic at all, merely a part of the world itself. Potions made from a person's blood can heal them, or influence their emotions or even kill them. Hair, a shaved bit of horn, skin, blood, or any part of the body worked into a doll can be used to control someone. The magic itself is primal, almost crude, but to hear the Veradash tell it, it is dangerous because there is almost no way to protect yourself from it if it is used against you. The resonance from the blood or the body used in a ritual of this sort bypasses any defense since you are already in the caster's possession.
It also means that no one in their right mind trusts a Veradash to cut their hair, trim their hooves, or tend their wounds. No one wants to find their blood or body parts in possession of a caster who could make you dance your way off a cliff if you crossed them.
As such the Brass caste of the Veradash practice name and blood magic, often using parts of themselves in rituals to strengthen or alter their abilities for whatever purpose the caster requires.
The Veradash Brass also do their best to find and use 'true' names in their magic. By invoking names of elements, the Veradash brass can control them to a degree, though the power and use of the element depends on the caster themselves. names and methods of thier use are passed from master to apprentice within the Veradash brass-casters, and are guarded commoditys within the caster community at large. Casters who can use and master the names of fire often become Spark-Shamans, while those who learn the names of steel and iron often work along the Iron Quarter to produce arms for the clan.
The Veradash are very good are blood and name magic. What makes them of note is that their best casters know how to combine the two into something truly dangerous. The high-brass of the Veradash can use someone's blood to discern their True name, and thus bind that person or undo their very being. Rumors of this type of ritual being used on the Flame Son canidates to 'strip' thier names as is tradition is one of the reasons all the Merrhutz are wary of Veradash casters who can make use of Resonance and Name magic with any proficiency.
Most Veradash rituals are tied to word and sound, due to thier tie to name magic. Names and the intent of the ritual are almost sung, worded into a ballad or dirge that wraps around the magic itself and guides it. Large groups casting are almost a chorus, thumping or dancing in time to keep the spell in time and controlled.
