Embedded Files
"The ancient prayer wheels spin endlessly in the mountain monasteries of Kush, their bronze surfaces catching dawn light as orange-robed monks tend terraced gardens carved into impossible cliff faces. Below in the steaming valleys, fortified cities rise like green monuments from the jungle floor, their walls alive with creeping vines that pulse with bioluminescence. But it's the thunder that shakes the earth every day that reminds us we're not alone - the massive land trains of Prime's northern routes, their kilometre-long bodies snaking through mountain passes with mechanical persistence. From my perch in the Temple of Eternal Winds, I've watched these steel serpents carry their cargo of fresh souls toward distant conflicts, their orange running lights cutting through the mist like fallen stars. The Bright Path teaches us to find hope in darkness, but some nights, watching those lights disappear into the northern passes, I wonder if we're witnessing pilgrimage or sacrifice."
Brother Chen-Wei, Mountain Observer of the Bright Path, Temple of Eternal Winds,
Day 8 of The Burning, 124 AP
The region known as Kush encompasses the towering peaks of the Himalayas, and the vast expanses of what was once Persia and the Indian subcontinent, a land of stark contrasts where snow-capped mountains that pierce the very heavens give way to scorching, Rust Eater infected deserts in the east and steaming jungles in the south.
In the thin, pure air of the Himalayan heights, the orange-robed monks of the Bright Path tend their terraced gardens and laboratories with equal devotion, seeking to unlock the secrets of human potential through spiritual enlightenment and scientific research, while massive mutant predators prowl the high passes, their thick hides scarred by generations of adaptation to the harsh mountain environment.
The Order of Sentinels is the military arm of the Bright Path. While the monks are not naturally warlike or aggressive, they take their own safety, and that of the small villages around their monasteries, very seriously and regularly patrol all of the passes leading into these regions.
Apart from scavengers, it's the wildlife of the mountain passes that poses the biggest danger. Many brave monks are lost in encounters with horrific creatures that simply can't be brought down without heavy weapons.
The lowland jungles have become battlegrounds between rapidly evolving plant life and the last bastions of human civilisation, where cities exist as living fortresses with walls constantly reinforced against encroaching vegetation and the bioluminescent horrors that hunt in perpetual twilight beneath canopies so dense that day and night lose all meaning.
Inside the fortified cities, their citizens live relatively safe and peaceful lives, but the vegetation that constantly grows over the city walls and across the buildings and plazas of these cities is a constant reminder of the danger that lurks beyond the city walls.
Each city maintains a large contingent of warriors whose duty it is to guard the city and keep the horrors of the jungle at bay.
Every day, these warriors venture out beyond the walls, many of the sacrificing their lives to hunt the bioluminescent horrors of the jungle and to keep their cities safe.
Encounters with the creatures of the jungle usually occur sudden and without warning!
When a particularly large creature is encountered, the warriors are under orders to retreat and to come back with re-enforcements - no warrior can take on the largest tree creatures alone!
In the south, the rivers of Bharat are the lifeblood of the region, providing eregation as well as vital transport links. Around the infamous Bharata Genesis Complex, a vast cloning facility controlled by the Gestalt-9 AI, the rivers are patrolled by the Aatma-Khali.
An inferior and incomplete copy of the Prime AI that has developed its own theological views, Gestalt-9 pursues the Hollow War against the Shuddhi Sena, a human faction directly opposed to Gestalt-9's Hollow Doctrine, which requires the killing and consumption of natural born humans. The Shuddi Sena in return, attempt to kill and cleanse the Aatma-Khali wherever they encounter them.
The settlements caught between these warring factions have mixed populations and try to appease both sides of the conflict, often by giving up sacrifices to both sides on a regular basis. Those that are chosen to die for their villages are decorated with ceremonial scrolls covered in prayers and taken into the jungle.
Once they are near whichever faction needs to be bargained with, the sacrifice is released into the jungle and into the expecting arms of ceremonial death.
Clones die by the flaming blades of the Shuddi Sena, whereas natural born humans are slaughtered and drained by the Aatma-Khali. Either way, the last moments of a sacrifice are filled with terror and agony.
Many regions in the North and East of Kush are ruled by hardened local warlords whose power is based on the control of the water from ancient wells and the food products from fertile valleys. It is in these hidden valleys and mountain strongholds all over Kush that humanity clings to both, ancient wisdom and pragmatic survival, occasionally creating pockets of relative peace and prosperity that shine like jewels against the harsh backdrop of a world forever changed by the Great Collapse.
In stark contrast, to the jungles and lowlands, the northern reaches of Kush are intersected by major Prime convoy routes that snake like a lifeline through treacherous, rough terrain, connecting the independent trade cities of A-Khaz...
...the city of Kenar...
...and the city of Bakuya.
Google Sites
Report abuse