Sage

A sage is defined in practical dictionary as a profoundly wise person, and one venerated for experience, judgment, and wisdom. In the world of Nyxheim, sages live quietly and separately in a solitary settlement within the Promethean Plains.

Situated within a a relatively small grove of trees in comparison to the wide expanse of the plains, the settlement is protected by the Muse Nemore, a small deity with much potential.

History

Origin and Founding

Prominent for a time in the early 100's, the Iver family of Zenihail was known to be a little queer. They enforced strange practices within their home, grew plants in a greenhouse and warned incessantly of an incoming feud with the earth if humans did not change their ways. The old man of the estate, nicknamed "Grandfather Sage" believed in odd rituals, and rumor spread that he was privy to magical objects. Before an inquisition could be made, the old man croaked, leaving his legacy to his grandchildren, his own children having passed on early in a freak accident in 184.

Zenihail was falling, and there was little anyone could do of it. Two siblings of the Iver family, Ríoghán (ree-awn, 177) and Siobhán (she-vawn, 174) knew the city would not last long, and planned an escape. In the dark of one cool night in autumn, 190, the two abandoned the world they had grown up in to start anew in the wilderness. Caislín (cash-leen) Plume (179), Ríoghán's long time lover, and Mason Carraway (170), Siobhán's legal husband, accompanied the siblings into the wild. They pulled a wagon by mules, and traveled for days.

At last, they found a safe place to call their own, and the four made a makeshift settlement within the limits of a wodded grove on the Promethean Plains. Having lived in the city all their lives, it was strange to finally rest among the nature they had worked to protect. They constructed temporary lodgings and later fortified homes, and in the spring, Siobhán gave birth to her first child, Sláine (slan-ya, 191).

First Trio

The four worked long and hard to make their living in the wilderness. The men made a farm of the flat, vibrant lands beyond the grove while the women tended the garden, animals, and baby Sláine. When crisp spring turned to salty summer, Ríoghán and Caislín made their vows, and by winter were expecting their own precious babe.

Cold and frigid, their second winter was harsh and malevolent, hardly similar to the mild weather and brief flurries of their first. All went hungry and both mules were slaughtered for food. By springtime, both Caislín and Sláine were very sick. It was then that the family drew themselves together and saught counsel, invoking the Muse of the grove and begging for help in the season of rebirth.

Their pleas were answered. The gardens and fields burst into life, fruit trees blossoming months early and dropping plump, plentiful fruit from their branches. Nemore (ne-mor-ee), the muse of the wood, had saved them. She appreciated their way of life, their tenderness toward the earth and all that lived. In gratitude, the beautiful baby girl borne was named Nemora (ne-mor-a,192).

Four more children were borne into the family before the dawning of 200, three girls and a boy to Siobhán and Mason (193, 194 (boy), 196, 199), and a boy and a girl to Ríoghán and Caislín (193 (boy), 198 (girl)). With eight children, the settlement burst into liveliness, certainly earning the good will of Nemore. The tended grounds put forth bountiful food, and the plains beyond offered easy prey to the newly accustomed hunters. The settlement expanded into multiple buildings including storehouses, cabins, a barn and a smokehouse. Every once in a while, a caravan left for nearby Howldon to barter for supplies. The settlement grew, and so did the quality of life.

Only one of the eight did not live to adulthood, struck by a strange ailment that none could cure. They took her to Howldon in the hopes of a remedy, but the doctor misdiagnosed the poor girl, administrered the wrong medicine, and she died in her sleep of apoxia.

As the children began to grow and approach adulthood, it became apparent that their parents would have to introduce their children to the outside world, lest they never find a lover, and their legacy wither and die. In 210, Ríoghán escorted the eldest five (Sláine (19), Nemora (18), Ríona (ree-uh-na, 17), Cathán (ka-hawn,17) and Neasán (nyas-awn, 16) to the closest city, Howldon, and set them up nicely in a small apartment. He left shortly after, and the five young adults fended for themselves with the intent to each find a consummate (mate, lover, partner).

Cathán and Ríona were quick to find matches. Cathán earned the admiration of a street girl when he gifted her with coin, and later earned her love over conversation and moonlit strolls. Not even six months had passed before he went home with the next trading caravan, fifteen-year-old Emma Harrow on his arm. Ríona went home just two months later, bolstering an intimate relationship with a rebellious young jeweler by the name of Kyle Quicks. He helped himself to half of his father's fortune and many of his tools, and the two stole away together after just under a year.

Generations

0. (Pre 190) Origin

1. (191-210) Determination and Confidence

2. (211-230) Cooperation and Balance

3. (231-250) Expression and Sensitivity

4. (251-270) Stability and Progress

5. (271-290) Freedom and Discipline

6. (291-310) Vision and Acceptance

7. (311-330) Trust and Openness

8. (331-350) Abundance and Powe

9, (351-present) Integrity and Wisdom

Geography

Great in width and expanse, the promothean hides many small bursts of greenery and vegetation

Architecture

The floor plan of the typical adult complex.

The Adult Complex

The majority of married couples in the settlement reside within an Adult Complex, a two part rectangular structure. Roughly 95-100 feet long, the building consists of sixteen individual rooms, separated into crosses of eight around a central fire, two fires per building. Of the eight rooms in each cross, the two rooms that make up each beam of the cross make up the lodgings of one couple. Usually, the adults will reside within one of the rooms, and very young children (ages 0 to 3) reside in the other. Each room is roughly 100 square feet, and each has a door that leads out into the central square. Each pair of ajacent rooms also has an arch in the walls between, allowing easy access to the room. Most put up curtains of some kind for separation, but not always.

Unmarried singles of age 19 and older are houses in separate adult complexes, males in one and females in another, until they leave to pursue a consummate.

The actual building is half dug into the ground, roughly five feet dug in, and then five feet above the surface. A rough wall protects the two crosses, made up with small logs three inches or less in diameter and branches woven between them. A roof arches overhead, consisting of long, spry beams and long grass thatching. Two holes are kept just above each of the fire pits, and four three inch beams support the roof around the fire at the center.

All interior walls are made up of three parts, two sets of about half inch planks and about two inches of earthen filling inbetween. The seams of the planks are sealed with a coarse tartar to prevent leakage, and are often painted or whitewashed depending on the occupants. The rooms also have their own rooves, thatched just like the outer roof.

Child Complexes

Any child age four and over is houses in one of the three children complexes and are separated by age, 4-8 years, 9-13 years, and 14-18 years.

Seedling Complex (4-8 years)

The seedling complex houses children ages 4-8 in a roughly 150 by 50 feet rectangular building. Each has a medium sized basket (1.5 feet tall, 2 feet diameter) to keep belongings and shares a bed with one other of the same gender. Males and females all live within the same building.

Important Structures

The Library

Apothecary

Slaughterhouse (find a better name..)

Self-Sufficiency

Textiles

Agriculture

Butchery

Sagecraft

Practice

Visualization Grounding

Shielding

Elements

Air

The symbols of each element

Associations: East (direction), yellow (color), wand (tool), morning (time), spring (season), Maiden (goddess), incense (representation)

Fire

Associations: South, red, athame, afternoon, summer, Mother, candles

Water

Associations: North, blue, chalice, twilight, autumn, Crone, water

Earth

Associations: South, green, pentacle, midnight, winter, Dark, soil or salt

Spirit, Deity, Energy, Aether, Akasha

Associations: Center, violet a/o black a/o white, cauldron a/o circle, all times, seasons, deities, represented by practitioner

Culture

Holidays, Wheel of the Year

Feather Hunts

Dancing

Snow Dance

Sagas

When a child turns 9 (the age at which a seedling becomes a sprout) they are entrusted with their very first blank journal. Each child will develop their own code and keep this journal as a chronicle of their lives, findings, and secrets. Journals are stored in locked metal cases in the library, giant slabs of metal that together manager to form over one thousand tiny slots. Sagas are not supposed to leave the library, and each individual is responsible for keeping track of their own key. As a journal is filled, it is replaced with another, the previous stored within the slot, providing there is still space. When an individual dies, the sagas she or he recorded become public, and are stored on the open shelves of the library. Sometimes multiple journals are rebound to one volume. Sagas, no matter circumstance, cannot be used against an indivudal. It is considered an abhorrent crime to read the Saga of one still living, and thusly, incomplete.

Sagire 02:22, January 25, 2012 (UTC)