Blood Red Wednesdays: First Hero

First Hero

There are four Key Figures (five really) in story of the Flight from the Glass City: The First Mother, The Kudavbin King, the Dreamwalker (actually two figures: the Dreamer and the Walker- but not really), and First Hero.

First Hero, the counterpart, companion and lover to First Mother is the most dangerous of the four. The Dreamwalker is an incarnation of the storyteller, and devoted to the story and the telling- and thus reliable. First Mother is the provider and nurturer of the tribe and devoted the tribe, and thus reliable. The Kudavbin King, the runaway prince who has abandoned the Hungry Empire is devoted to history sister (First Mother) and to the otherthrow of his father (The Locust King) and thus mostly reliable. But First Hero, First Hero is devoted to great deeds and daring do and the challenge of it all. And thus, the First Hero is not terribly reliable- or even very predictable in a useful sense.

Look at incarnations of First Hero: the Monkey King and Cu Chulainn and Heracles and Achilles and Atalanta and Mwindo and... yeah, not a group of people generally known for knowing when to quit or how to play well with others. A true and proper hero will barrel through impossible odds, and typically not listen if the odds he's barrelling through are in support of his allies. He's not malicious, but he is easily bored, and easily distracted and easily confused.

easily the most powerful weapon of the Free Peoples, it falls to First Mother and other level headed Archetypes in the story to keep the vast but easily diverted power of First Hero aimed towards the HUngry Empire and the Locust King.

Good luck with that, by the way.

Blood Red Wednesdays: The Ward of Gildguld

Mirrored City: The Ward of Gildguld

(God of Tax Collectors- The Merchant District)

Called the Lifestealer, Gildguld was a mountain spirit, a giant of the deep inner earth. Mined from the earth by the Hungry Empire and forged into coins; Gildguld was thus sacrificed and elevated to the status of Dead God of Tax Collectors. In his new role as enslaved deity of coin and taxation, Gildguld diverts the populace to look at his false wealth and false prosperity and then demands a share of their labors back to fuel the Hungry Empire.

The Ward of Gildguld is divided into three Districts: the Cudgel District, the Abacus District, and the Flag District. The Cudgel District is the location of the Home Office for the Tax Enforcement Division of Imperial Tax Collectors, and also the site of the statue of Gildguld The Patrician. The Abacus District is the location of the Home Office of the Tax Assessment Division of the Imperial Tax Collectors and the site of the statue of Gildguld The Provider. And the Flag District is the location of the Propaganda Assessment Office, which operates under the jurisdiction of the Imperial Tax Collectors, and the Flag District is also the site of the statue of Gildguld The Patriot. 

The Ward is orderly, though dusty and cluttered with paper litter. Ghost folk who inhabit the Ward tend to wear middle class clothing worn until threads are smooth and and holes are worn in knees and toes. The dominant colors of the Cudgel District are the black and white of cracked and peeling paint and the dusty brown of dry rot timber and aging leather. In the Abacus District the dominant colors are the dusty beige and faded yellow of paper records, piled high and then sorted and then forgotten until useful as blackmail. The Flag District stands in stark contrast to the other two Districts of the Ward, sporting gold and crimson against black and white. The Flags and patriotic posters that seem to spread across the Mirrored City begin here in the Flag district and extends outwards like a blast radius. There is a garishness to the color though. The gold is flaking paint and certainly not real gold. The red is uneven, as the cheap pigments used require frequent touch ups that are not always done as frequently as would be necessary to avoid fading.

The Men of Black and White patrol here, of course, but the Imperial Tax Collectors (staffed by the nobility) are the real power here- big fish in their little pond. Being noticed here is rarely a good thing, There is always time for a tax reassessment.

A closer look at the Wendigo

All monsters begin as something mundane. The fractal begins with simple rules, and then spirals out into something more, and sometimes, something much worse. The origins of the Giants are unknown to the Psychonauts, but the origins of the Wendigo are not. The Wendigo were once human.  

The Wendigo are what happens when the hunger of the Grey Locust is left wild and uncontained by the Locust King and the constraints that the Grey places upon the Hungry Empire in an attempt to maintain its cold order.   

The hunger drives them, and in the early stages they still seem human.  

The Stillborn  

From a distance, one might mistake the Stillborn for people. Up close, the mistake is unlikely. The Stillborn's skill has gone white and chalky, and clouds of dry skin cells explode around them with sudden movements. Their eyes have gone milky blue-white and the skin has tightened all across the face to give the eyes a sunken look. The Stillborn's hair has bleached to translucent silver and seems to defy gravity, floating about the skull like an unholy halo.   

The Stillborn still speak, but their language is unintelligible to any non-wendigo. They have their own culture and mythology, those none who understand it are able to transmit it back to those who still understand human speech. The path to hunger is nearly always a one way journey.   

The Hungry Ghost  

As the body is consumed by the hunger, the Stillborn go from emaciated to truly skeletal, with skin stretched so tightly of bone and sinew that they could be mistaken for desiccated corpses if they choose to remain still. The teeth sharpen and elongate and the eyes decompose completely in the head, replaced by cold blue lights. At this point, the Wendigo is known as a Hungry Ghost. The Hungry Ghost, like the Stillborn army, still physically eat. However, they no longer attempt to cook their food, and seem unable to digest it- as the food sits inside their huge distended bellies.   

The Ravener  

The final state of deterioration. The Wendigo's head is now a skull with glowing eyes, resembling nothing so much as the terrible love child of an elk and a bear. Carnivores teeth poke out of a herbivore's jaw. A predator's eyes sit uneasy in the skull of a prey animal. What skin remains is ragged and wispy and flutters in the slightest breeze. The Ravener is an animate skeleton that glows with a cold blue light. The body of the skeleton too is twisted, elongated and ape-like, but with the hooves of an ungulate, the ribcage and fore paws of a polar bear, and bizarre protrusions extending from the individual vertebra of the spinal column.      

An Abridged list of Locations in the Mirrored City

The City

• The Ward of Gildguld
• The Ward of Mitchuas
• The Ward of Gaibrus
• The Ward of Zeudin Vashas
• The Ward of Lamris
• The Ward of Friedites
• The Ward of Valstaris
• The Ward of Xerfer

The Lef River

• The Northern Waters of Gongin
• The Southern Waters of Lamlex
  

The Frontier Lands

• The Mountain Stronghold
• The Frozen Plains
• The Windswept Plains
• Strongiron Village
• The Living Forest
• The Second Forest

A First Look at the Dead Gods of the Mirrored CIty

When a god accumulates enough power from offerings and worship they may build themselves a seat of power, a sacred throne which both amplifies their power and serves as a vessel for that power. When the Locust King began to build the capital of his Hungry Empire, he sent his forces to hunt down appropriate gods and steal their thrones for the Hungry Empire. The City of Glass is built around these thrones, now bonded to the wards of the city. The gods from whom the thrones were stolen are now shadows of their former glory. Publically lauded as official Gods of the state, they are little more than propaganda puppets; trapped in the stones and steel of the cityscape, whispering prophecy and begging for offerings in exchange for favors.

• Gildguld, God of Tax Collectors
• Mitchuas, The Son of Ash
• Gaibrus, The Birdgod of the Dawn
• Zeudin Vashas, The Six Faced Lord of Thunder
• Lamris, The God of Obedience and the Underworld
• Friedites, The Goddess of Sin and Purity
• Valstaris, The Goddess of Love and War
• Xerfer, The Goddess of Jealousy and Greed