by Jakub Wisz
In the previous part of the Aurorae dev blog I talked about the Khradi and their way of life around the frozen isles lost in the mists on the far orbit of the planetoid Maer. In this blog I’m gonna talk about the denizens of Maer, another major culture shaping the outlook on life in Aurorae – the Triveni, constantly dubbed The Mushroom People by Anna.
Overview
The Triveni are a cosmopolitan people derived from the post-Patrish Hegemony’s merchant class – we’ll talk about the Hegemony later. Their transient culture is focused on discovery and growth, making them the Domain’s premiere traders and magicians, exploring unknown islands and mysteries. They inhabit the broken planetoid of Maer, dwelling in the enormous mycelium spanning throughout its core and on the surface alike. Though they deem themselves lieges of other peoples living in the Domains, their influence is cultural rather than military. The Triveni are pragmatic people who don’t interfere with the beliefs of others as long as they can be cooperated with – the passive voice here is very much on purpose, as the Triveni don’t see other Kinships as partners as much as subjects to act upon. Their discovery of anchor stones allowed all cultures to travel on auroran filaments and reignite contact after two centuries of isolation, and they remain at the lead of exploration in their majestic ships powered by mistwheels, powerful engines churning the mists to propel the ship forward. The Triveni scholarly aptitude is responsible not only for trade but also many technical and magical developments of recent decades, changing the lives of everyone they interact with.
History
The Triveni consider themselves the original inhabitants of Maer, descending from the Lost People – we’ll get to them in time as well. Even though most of the ancient history and magic is lost to them just as much as to other cultures, the Triveni insist that their ancient records are no mere myths. The tales detailing their journey on Maer through vast mythical darkness, propelled on a beam of light are considered by most of them as canonical truth, and they often take offense at those who doubt them.
Triveni history is indeed ancient, reaching as far as the beginning of the Patrish Hegemony. The oldest reliable records speak of the Triveni as the bureaucrats and menial workers toiling away at maintaining the Patrish nobility’s lavish lifestyles. It is known that the Patrish weren’t aware or interested in the Triveni underground society, content with lording over the surface-level Triveni. While the subjugated Triveni adopted Patrish laws and customs to some extent, the Mycelium and its tribes caused resurgences of their original culture. The Hegemony’s rulers strived to root out such traditions, quelling rebellions through resettlement, like that which spawned the Yerveni people in the ancient past. Yes, we will cover them as well – there is a lot to talk about and I don’t want to mire in endless digressions, as I am wont to do.
Eventually, the Triveni as a whole rose up to overthrow their oppressors, as the Hegemony strained under the internal and external pressure of wars and repeating insurrections of subjugated peoples. Records from over a millennium are naturally sparse, it’s clear that a massive war engulfed Maer, with the Triveni striking from the planetoid’s core at the surface-dwelling Patrish in a guerilla war. Modern historians believe the Patrish nobles had no idea of the underground civilization’s existence, let alone its extent. Not many tales remain of the struggles, though they must have been fierce. All that is known is the war ended when half of Maer was destroyed in an unknown cataclysm at the end of the rebellion, breaking the Hegemony’s back once and for all.
Centuries that followed saw the Triveni rebuild their society and expand back onto the surface previously occupied by the Patrish. While some folks would delve into vengeful travesties after oppression so long, the Triveni understood that the Patrish were victims of the Hegemony just as much as themselves. Instead of purging their influence from Maer, the Triveni worked with them, rebuilding wards and fighting the cataclysms that followed Maer’s destruction.
When the Khradi expansion reached Maer, the scale of raids and brutal attacks shook the re-emerging Triveni society, as the pirates saw no distinction between the Hegemony they fought against for so long and the Triveni society. Denizens of Maer were somewhat capable of fighting back, though when the clans that later became the Nväldi settled the fragments of Maer elevated higher into the Mists, the battle became desperate. The Nvädli pirates swooped in at any time and place of their choosing, using the gravity well to overwhelm the defenders – and so the Triveni capitulated yet again, retreating to the vast Mycelium.
The Nväldi republic made similar use of their new subject as the Patrish did, utilizing the Triveni skills at sciences and magic as much as bureaucracy. Unlike the Hegemony, the Nväldi left Triveni alone otherwise, letting them do as they pleased while they were consumed by the war against other Khradi.
Just like the Patrish of old, the Nväldi overseers didn’t understand the Triveni culture, and while they were convinced their subjects are tent-dwelling primitives inhabiting the ruins of Hegemony’s cities, and fungal villages, the actual Triveni society thrived in the expansive Mycelium. Taking a few centuries to regroup and prepare a counter-assault, the Triveni waited for an opportunity – they could easily rid themselves of the invaders at any moment, though the Nväldi would simply return and retaliate with their massive fleets. When as said fleets were decimated in the battle of Pogorya (which we discussed in the Khradi blog), the Triveni hit from underground, routing the Nväldi garrisons to Maer’s orbit and back home to the Ård islands. Most of those garrisons never made it back home due to Khradi raids that befell the crippled fleet like wolves, and so Maer was free once more.
The Triveni emerged from Mycelium in force, armed in powerful magic and Lost People’s technology. Instead of rebuilding and hoping for the best, the Wise Council decided that the only way to secure their prosperity long-term was to expand and prevent outside forces from intervening with their lives again. And so merchant galleys departed Maer’s orbital shipyards, determined to contact and conquer every other culture. Instead of soldiers and death, they carried with them anchor stones allowing for easy sailing between islands and trade. Before long, Maer yet again became the lynchpin of Auroran Domains, a cosmopolitan heart of progress, trade, and cultural exchange. Maintaining a presence throughout the mists ensured the Wise Council could gather intelligence and prevent conquering fleets from forming in the first place.
Lifestyle
Before Maer’s explosion, the planetoid seemed a solid globe of rock and ice, sparsely dotted with crimson and brown stretches of fungal forests, Patrish cities of stone and marble, and an occasional Lost People ruin weathering away under its small sun. That sun was said to be a small wonder, making Maer worthy of being the capital of Hegemony as much as the Lost People city locked in its orbit. The catastrophe inaugurating Hegemony’s end revealed the truth so far hidden to all but the Triveni – Maer was in fact an enormous geode. Its inner crust and core were filled with fluorescent crystals forming labyrinthine natural corridors. What the Patrish and other peoples thought to be sporadic shroom forests marking the surface proved to be but mere sprouts of a massive fungal organism tunneling throughout that labyrinth, a being perhaps as ancient as the planetoid itself. The Triveni inhabit that organism, known as the Mycelium since times immemorial.
Unlike other peoples in the Domains, the Triveni population concentrates inside the Mycelium, with only a small portion of it permanently dwelling on the surface, and outside of the planetoid itself. Even that portion however easily outnumbers most of the populations of islands floating in the mists. The Triveni are believed to be the most populous Kinships of all with millions of citizens on Maer alone. If that is indeed the case, they come up to being almost half of all the humans in the Domains. Their clans are divided into multiple nations sharing Maer without major conflicts, occasional skirmishes and wars between Triveni rarely leading to large-scale bloodshed. Clan leaders share seats in an informal organization known as Listeners, answering to the council of wisest and eldest mages of all nations – the Wise Council. The Listeners are charged with leading their people and enjoy authoritative power, though they are bound to obey the interests of the Council before that of their peoples and themselves.
The Mycelium’s tendrils are mostly hollow, sporadically bubbling into pustules, shaped by the Triveni into homesteads. Magic and herbalist prowess suffices to create spacious and comfortable homes, but the living and quickly growing Mycelium is never at rest. A family living in a pustule grouping underground often finds itself living on the surface one day, as the pustules bloom and surface as shroom forests, then find their house release spores and wither the next month, or withdraw underground and divide into new hyphae. The ever-transient nature of their symbiotic dwellings influenced the Triveni way of life and philosophy in more ways than one. Following Mycelium’s example, Triveni live by simple tenets of growth, change, and expansion. They believe matters like houses, land or the mists to be elements rather than property that can be owned, and as such are always on the move. They value personal items, knowledge, and wares as important to their families, but see no point in trying to hoard anything, choosing instead to put them into good use – just as the mycelium gathers nutrients only to release them back into nature in spore clouds in order to grow. After all, ancient fungal forests dotting the landscape are flawed growths that gathered water and soil, then failed to release spores and rotted away. Healthy fungal body is ever-changing, and so should its denizens.
The Triveni society is cognatic and doesn’t follow a tradition, though women are usually expected to take on the role of a warrior or outgoing trader, while men are expected to trend towards sedentary professions. Their marriages are arranged for the benefit of both families, though there is no expectation of faithfulness, as long as no illegitimate children are born. Their society is built around social dealings as much as it is on the growth of fungal tendrils – when the hyphae meet to mate in the crystalline tunnels, Triveni families inhabiting them take it as a sign from the Mycelium to connect their bloodlines.
Families related in that way organize into houses to bring their wealth together in competition with others in an intricate and complex network of favors and debt completely obtuse to outsiders. Those ties are temporary and last as long as the Mycelium’s growth, intrinsically tied to the giant fungus’ life cycle. When the hyphae intertwine, the house is formed as the families join through marriages and trade deals, bringing their assets together in preparation to expand when pustules erupt onto the surface. During that time, the house puts the gathered wealth and power into use, expanding and planting new seeds of their family line far and wide – usually in competition with other houses doing the same thing. Finally, when the shrooms wither the Triveni abandon the households and live in colorful tents, in many weeks-long celebrations during which they divide whatever is left from the house’s wealth, before retreating underground in search of new homes to begin the cycle anew.
Triveni tend to live much longer lives than other peoples, easily double or even triple the typical human lifespan – the common belief is that this gift is a result of their descendance from the Lost People, but the more skeptical Triveni posit the cause for the longevity is quite different. It’s because of the Mycelium and its unique properties, say the scholars, that the Triveni can enjoy long lives. A simple proof of that is the fact that Triveni living outside of Maer or one of Triveni spore-colonies age as other humans do, and rarely live longer than seventy-eighty years. Those Triveni who live longer age as well, though instead of becoming frail and elderly, their skin becomes like stretched paper, akin to the haraa they cover themselves with. Bodies of the eldest Triveni become almost translucent, with eerie lights occasionally coursing through their veins. Such a change occurs around the second century, long after they settle comfortably in life and abandon the shifting lifestyles – and all for the better, since such ancient Triveni are said to age rapidly when removed from Mycelium.
The Triveni bury their dead and side-effects of civilization together, lowering them to the depths of Mycelium, where their bodies can decompose with the refuse of humanity’s life, and feed the Mycelium that in turn feeds them all. While it may seem cold from an outsider’s perspective to dump one’s dead together with trash, the Triveni see it simply as returning the favor to their ancient, living home.
Triveni society revolves around scholarship and trade – the universal learning system promotes advancement in life’s hierarchy through talent and achievement. The veritable masses of Triveni citizenry mostly make a living as seasonal workers maintaining fungal farms and animal husbandry infrastructure as well as providing services for the elites, never living the depths of Mycelium. Every child is required to go through a decade of schooling starting at the age of five. The most talented students are offered further schooling by the powerful families, always seeking to gain an advantage over their competitors and ascend in Maer’s complex hierarchy. As the young scholar gains knowledge, myriads of opportunities to gain a wealth of further knowledge and power open before them, causing them to eventually need aid and sponsoring talented young Triveni in turn. As a result, Triveni society functions a lot like a dedicated talent-finding machine. Magocrats sitting atop the social structures have a never-ending vested interest in sponsoring new inventions and minds that push the envelope of scholarship further. Any magocrat trying to conserve wealth and secure their position by undermining new talent’s chances of social climbing quickly falls behind those who invest in it and loses their position, torn apart by the competition.
Art
The Triveni music is lithe, full of flutes and chorals singing in complex crescendos. They’re fond of flutes, long trumpets, and resonating instruments, such as bagpipes made of fungal matter.
As they consider themselves to be descendants of the Lost People, Triveni mimic artworks found in ruined complexes – while there isn’t much to be found in the ruins on Maer’s surface, the planetoid’s underground holds many secrets, including Lost People’s sites unseen by human eyes until a hyphae tendril uncovers them. Reliefs and mosaics found in those ruins are usually weathered almost beyond recognition, but that’s enough for Triveni artists to weave regular, geometric patterns into their craft. Another important influence on their artwork is of course the Mycelium itself, with its fleshy substance’s patterning being a common sight in Triveni art.
The Triveni are soaked in magic, so it’s not a surprise to include magical influences in the arts. It’s commonplace to see Triveni musicians performing amidst illusory light shows, splendid gowns and dresses shimmering with misty charms, or sculptors animating their work through magic. Art is commonly considered to be as much a part of magical lore as anything else, and magicians are often artists working for decades to hone their crafts. Transmutation, spiritual binding, elemental displays, or illusions are considered forms of art alongside music, poetry, or sculpting.
Magic
The Triveni are masters of runic magic, as well as various forms of enchanting. They excel at integrating magical forces into structures and shaping natural formations to suit their needs. They commonly use magic for seemingly mundane tasks, such as shaping the Mycelium pustules into suitable housing, illuminating the corridors with fluorescent crystals, or animating household goods to perform their jobs unattended. They often mimic Lost People’s art and artifacts using magic, creating arcane weaponry or ships powered by magical engines churning the mists to propel themselves through the ether.
The Triveni pan-national ruling caste, the Wise Council, are powerful mages, as are most of the bureaucrats, and various national officials – the study of magic and sciences is considered a requirement to holding any important office. According to the Triveni philosophies, one must show that they have the patience, wisdom, and understanding of nature and arts before they can be allowed to pass judgment and decide on the fates of people.
Maer’s most coveted wonders are magical in nature – the artificial sun generated by the planetoid’s ancient Lost People city in orbit, as well as the Great Library, containing all the magical, historical and scientific knowledge Triveni traders gathered since the times of Nväldi republic.
While not as reliant on mechanisms as the Patrish, the Triveni do make use of them, and often compound mechanical tinkering with enchantments to achieve the best of both worlds. Enchanted mechanisms are complex and prone to malfunction as their inner workings collide, so functional pieces are prohibitively expensive. Despite, or perhaps because of that, they’re very popular among Triveni elites, starting with trinkets like looking-glasses enhanced with clairvoyant magic, and ending with majestic leisure ships powered by mistwheels with enchanted stars lighting their decks.
Appearance
The Triveni are typically lean and willowy, though shorter than Khradi or Nväldi – nonetheless equal to them in physical prowess. They tend to shave all body hair, except carefully cultivated locks on their scalp which are often dyed in shades of green or red. Thanks to their artificial sun the surface-dwelling Triveni are often darker of skin tone than peoples living without such wonders, but their skin pales to dull-greyish hues in months spent in the Mycelium. Some prosperous Triveni who get to travel outside the underground metropolis are perpetually brownish of complexion and often use glowing crystals imbued in the skin to further enhance the effect, as being above-ground is considered a sign of being successful. Most of the common folk dwelling in the depths rarely get to enjoy sunlight and can be recognized by pale, almost translucent complexion. The common folk who can’t afford access to body-shaping magic use fluorescent paints and henna to mimic the adornments of magical and trading elites.
Triveni eyes have a peculiar quality, a mirror-like sclera reflecting even the smallest light source like phantom fires, allowing them to see clearly in the murky darkness of the Mycelium. Scholars argue vehemently and with passion whether this is a natural adaptation to their living conditions or an ancient magical intervention in their biology. Regardless of the cause, when outside of the Mycelium all Triveni wear goggles made of chitinous, translucent yaarish shell – yaarish being a small crustacean dwelling in the depths of the Mycelium. Triveni elites abandon goggles for full-face masks made of shining metal, presenting an idealized version of their face to the world, with the mask’s eyes made of yaarish shell to allow them to see. Some most accomplished magicians choose to enchant such masks, animating them with facial expressions, or other magical properties.
The Triveni believe themselves to be descendants of the Lost People and dress accordingly. Their clothes are made to resemble skin-tight suits seen on mosaics and weathered reliefs seen in the Lost ruins, made of cultivated fungal matter. The most common form of this outfit, known as “haraa,” is a long bandage-like fabric tightly woven around the body. The elastic and strong haraa weave is often adorned with regular geometric patterns and covers the entire body from toes to the neck. Inside the Mycelium the haraa is considered sufficient clothing, though whenever traveling outside, the Triveni cover themselves with various overlays, for example, the “adar,” a leather or fungal matter jacket with broad, conical epaulets and tightly belted chest and waist – worn by adventurers and wardancers. Another traditional vestment is the “inavaar,” a heavy robe with triangular flaps and slits on the sides, resting on long shoulder supports typical for officials and accomplished magicians. The long, conical shoulder pads are traditionally a part of almost all surface attire, mimicking the ancient reliefs presenting Lost heroes facing the outside world. The Triveni men usually wear flat caps adorned with crystals or glowing fungi hanging from strings around the cap’s edge, while women traditionally wear conical or dome-shaped hats encrusted with magical charms and jewels. The more intricate and expensive are the headwear adornments and masks, the higher the person’s perceived status is, turning Triveni high-society meetings into a fashion race of quickly changing trends following whichever house is currently in ascendance.
Many young nobles and traders purposefully choose to distance themselves from the splendor by being contrarian and not adorning their vestments, or even using simple goggles instead of masks – which sometimes causes the entire Triveni court to follow suit if those “rebels” prove to be successful in their venture and set a fashion trend. Naturally, there is nothing closer to a political suicide than showing up to a party in a splendid dress during a ball when everyone but you decided to outsport each other in the drabness, or vice-versa, as you can imagine.
Common folk and tradespeople often don’t much care what the isolated house elites are up to and choose to live their lives and dress as they see fit – social classes rarely leaving the Mycelium tend to consider clothing and items coming from the surface, or even outside of Maer as the most fashionable – especially those of Khradi or Yerveni origin.
Combat
The Triveni rely on mercenary troops with a strong, elite core of native soldiers to protect the trade routes, and their powerful ships are a force to be reckoned with. Triveni infantry is divided between masses of light infantry recruited from the lower classes, and well-trained ranged units using enchanted wands and staves. They only know ground-based cavalry, riding agile beasts called “yiichai,” armed similarly to their ranged infantry – with spellshots and tall, narrow shields.
Triveni soldiers wear light, yaarish chitin armor, made of interconnected segments reinforced with iron or bronze scales. It’s complemented with large, half-moon shields made of local metals, wood or hard shells, plumed helmets, and sandals with shinguards. Infantry spears are made of imported wood or fungal matter, with iron or chitin blades. Soldiers and civilians alike additionally carry short swords called atha, being both a ceremonial badge of adulthood and a sidearm. Wand dragoons carry long staves enchanted to discharge damaging spells, often in the form of zigzagging lightning or other elemental effects, and long, narrow shields, also carrying enchantments. The infantry rarely carries enchanted gear, as their role on the battlefield is to overwhelm the enemy in numbers and they lack training or importance for complex outfits.
Triveni young and sometimes adults often head out adventuring, seeking new opportunities away from the crowded Mycelium or colony they grew up on. They set out as mercenary guards with trading ships, or head out questing to seek fulfillment – such questing warriors are called wardancers. They forfeit the typical Triveni armor in exchange for lighter attire like the adar, and abandon shields to rely on dual-wielded swords, spellstaves, or spears. Such equipment is better suited to face irregular dangers where avoidance and quick strikes are better than trying to take the opponent head-on.
The Triveni despise warfare as a concept, as they prefer developing arts and culture over maintaining fleets and armies. Since they’re the only ones who know the secrets of creating the anchor stones, they can afford to not maintain a big army, relying on their vassal lands to provide irregular troops to support the core of their infantry.
Technology
Triveni architecture relies heavily on fungal spores, naturally occurring or grown with magic. As the tendrils and shrooms grow and harden, Triveni tenders enchant them to take on specific shapes, making up not only the tunnels of Mycelium and housing pustules but also raw material and half products for clothing, everyday items, and even ships. The philosophy of using natural resources continues beyond basic fungiculture, and extends to harvesting charged crystals from Maer’s geode core, making anchor stones, wards, illumination sources, and adornments.
Most other needs for construction materials are filled by yaarish pastures, as the crustaceans can grow to sizes and shapes as the magicians command it. The yaarish feed off dying fungal matter, and make for good cleaners and a reliable food source, as they’re entirely unaggressive. In nature they rely on their hard shells for protection, and molt shells often as they grow, making for an excellent all-around domestic animal for the Triveni.
The Triveni are accomplished metalworkers, though Maer’s own deposits of precious metals were mined away before earliest human memory if there ever were any. What metals the Triveni do have come from colonies or trade. Nonetheless, Maer’s smiths are reluctant to move to the islands, as the infrastructure and atmosphere of the planetoid allow for maintaining furnaces easily, and so the import of raw materials thrives.
Maer’s architectural wonders are of course Naryahagan, the City Of The Sun, a half-moon-shaped Lost structure with a small star in the concave part. The ruin itself has been ransacked and thoroughly cleaned of any artifacts since times immemorial, though large portions still remain locked away, sealed with powerful Lost magic and undecipherable symbols. Breaking such seals carries are risk of destabilizing the city, or releasing some unknown Lost creation, so the Wise Council guards them from unauthorized meddling and artifact smugglers. The city’s outer reaches are populated by Triveni and outsiders alike, the metallic Lost superstructure overgrown by fungal caps and sprouts of Naryahagan, Maer’s satellite and main trade port in one.
On the ground, the biggest structure is the Mycelium, a world-spanning fungi colony predating any other settlers on Maer, perhaps even the Lost People. The Triveni dwell within the underground superhive and consider it a great city, reportedly of over three million souls divided into almost a hundred nations. The surface is home to Triveni houses in ascendance, as well as rowing clans of shepherds and farms utilizing old post-Hegemony villages as their semi-permanent homes under the sun. Remnants of stone and marble cities built under Hegemony are mostly abandoned by the Triveni except for traders and inhabited by outsiders and Patrish. Triveni magistrate considers those cities colonies and not a part of the main culture. The exception to that is the Great Library – a monolithic tower said to once have housed the Hegemony’s government, though built eons ago by the Lost. It has long been overgrown by Mycelium’s sprouts when the fungus reached the spire’s underground foundation and climbed over it. The angular stones and steles rest in fungal matter’s tight embrace, housing within it the Triveni’s greatest treasure – all the magical knowledge, science, and history they gathered since the Library’s funding in the last decades of Nväldi Republic, over a century ago. Access to the library is free for all, though visitors are asked to donate any stories, treaties, or spells they possess for safekeeping in a magically suspended state. Donors aren’t left bereft of their possessions, of course, as they receive copies of donated wisdom together with access to the stores.
The Triveni military fleet is minuscule compared to their massive flotillas of trading vessels. What warships they have are mostly docked around Naryahagan city in Maer’s orbit – mostly wooden vessels reinforced with chitinous carapaces and powered by clockwork mist engines. Some most prominent traders can afford to outfit most profitable trade convoys with smaller raider ships, made almost entirely of carapace reinforced with metal and fungal matter, similar to the trade vessels. Such ships are small, but unlike the traders, they don’t have to be concerned with cargo space, and so are armed to the teeth and capable of taking on multiple pirates simultaneously.
Beliefs
The Triveni believe themselves to be descendants of the Lost Peoples, who arrived in the Auroran Domains together with Maer, after untold eons of a journey through great darkness with no mists. According to their legends, the Lost worshipped the Mycelium, which is a sentient being in its own right, no different from humans when it comes to will and soul, except immortal and everlasting. When the planetoid fell into the mists, the Mycelium awoke and took to growing over Maer’s internal structure. Some of the Lost fought it and eventually escaped, while others accepted their god returned to life, and from those came the Triveni.
The Triveni accept their place as part of the Mycelium’s ecosystem and see that it is their right to prosper and grow, as it’s the right of everyone. Because of that belief and the constant change and sharing of space they live in, they don’t consider places and natural formations as property. A Triveni sees nothing weird in a stranger entering their home and making himself comfortable, as long as the uninvited guest is polite and shares with everyone. That philosophy extends to the filaments and the trade routes – Triveni consider the gift of anchor stones and the access to auroran filaments as one they should be thanked and paid for in taxes, but don’t see themselves as owning them. The anchor stones are after all Maer’s natural creation just as much as the filaments are a part of Aurorae. It’s the service of facilitating trade itself that belongs to Triveni, not the means with which they make it possible.
The same philosophy covers tools of the trade, raw materials, and every other aspect of life – it is the act of doing and skill that is a property, not the means with which the deed was done. Triveni grocer selling food doesn’t expect compensation for the food, but for the act of satisfying hunger, work put in procuring ingredients, preparing it, the service, and the sensation of taste.
The Triveni don’t believe in an afterlife, in their minds once a body wears down, it is put back into the everlasting cycle of renewal, feeding the Mycelium and other life proliferating in its tendrils. Their long lives are spent creating the best life for their houses and families rather than themselves, as they understand that every person is but a small part of a larger whole.
That pragmatism prevents the Triveni from having developed complex mythologies and cults of heroes so popular among other cultures but didn’t save them from being prideful. They see themselves as enlightened and in tune with nature and often look down on outsiders as barbarians stumbling around and entirely oblivious. Other Kinships and their actions are typically seen as quaint at best, and insignificant at worst. What the “barbarians” are up to is only relevant as far as it expands Triveni knowledge, and doesn’t threaten Maer with disruption of peace. Wars between Triveni nations underground are seen as normal competition and entirely different from wars between other people – the latter is of course shameful proofs of the outlanders’ barbarism.
Closing
That about sums it up for the Triveni, one of the seven main Kinships shaping the proverbial landscape of Auroran Domains. Stay tuned for the next blog, in which we unveil the next piece of the complex political and cultural landscape in place!
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