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Chapter 10: KHITUS IN flUX
Chapter 10:
T
KHITUS IN flUX
he world of Khitus sets many adventure plots in
motion for gaming and story-telling opportunities. Several key themes infuse the world and provide a universal background for all the unfolding stories.
• Once-rich lands dry out and blow away with the
winds, forcing long-established cultures to find
new homes and new means to survive;
• Marauders live by the sword in the wastelands, taking what they need by force of arms to survive;
• New or long-hidden races peek out of their homelands to take their place in an exotic, ever-changing
world; and
• The benevolent Dragon Kings have left the world
entirely, leaving control and power to be taken by
whoever has the strength or wisdom to seize it.
But these are only the beginnings. Races strive against
each other and among themselves, quarreling or warring over resources mundane, magical, and more. The
world itself seems to drive every aspect of life to its
breaking point. No mortals truly know whether Khitus
is a furnace disposing of ruined goods or a crucible in
which to forge a stronger world and better people.
Faction versus Tribe
Khitan humans traditionally identified themselves
by tribe first, all other affiliations following after that. A
prince in Teleris took the title Dotrong and dressed in
the manner of his Attite tribal forebears. A warrior of
Patnu steeped himself in the Kod, his Makadan tribe’s
martial code. Strangers on the open road measured
each other by tribal affiliation—as identified by appearance, dress, and manner—to judge them as friends or
foes. This was the way it had always been across Khitus.
As with so many other things, this may be changing.
Powerful factions have grown up quietly among these
tribal priorities until they now rival them in perceived
strength and loyalty. One’s place in the world and within
one’s society is no longer so clear-cut. Loyalties are divided and priorities have shifted. As civil authority in
many of the human cities has dwindled or collapsed,
that governing influence has vanished as surely as the
guiding hands of the truant Dragon Kings. Anyone in a
position of power, meaning any but the lowliest peasants
or children, must navigate this new social landscape
and, at times, take sides in conflicts that are seldom
well-defined, let alone clearly black and white.
By way of example, the emergent Gare Attessa now
challenge the authority of the existing hierarchies they
dutifully served for so long. They do so in every human
society from surviving city-states to bands of wandering
mercenaries and even bandit kingdoms on ruination’s
frontiers. The Chroniclers have slowly gathered the tiny
bits of authority abandoned or overlooked by traditional
leadership, starting with small things like the counting
of the citizenry or the observances of rites and festivals.
From these insignificant seeds, the Gare Attessa spread
their authority almost imperceptibly, like the covertly
spreading roots of a desert oak, until they became the
faces and names with whom more people interacted. The
masses now turn to them as readily as to the faces of their
established rulers. This is all according to the long-term
plan meted out covertly from Wani Chereet.
Likewise, long centuries of peaceful life created a tribal
atheism now at risk due to worldly circumstances. The
Dragon Kings and those who led from their examples
encouraged no worship, and traditional religion all but
vanished. The Daragkarik displaced the ancient gods
in people’s minds, so no priests carried on their traditions, rites, and so on. Now resurgent, the Trakeen and
Shadazim—adherents of the absent Dragon Kings and
of the re-emergent ancient gods, respectively—eagerly
exert their newfound power and flaunt it in the face of
established tribal leadership. Uninvited, they have taken a chair at the head table.
Subtle shifts in power between faction and tribal loyalties slowly unravel the fabric of society. The Bev al-Khim,
backed by the endless wealth of the Black Fortress, challenge caravan masters and merchant houses across the
wastelands. Kuad Ahir, masters of terrific mind power awakened in them by the Prophet, wander the world freely to
challenge the long-established roles of wizards and priests.
Commissioners of the Water Guild parlay their iron-grip
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