i'll try... but it will be hard to write good things.
i have to think and to work for them now.
i'll edit this post when i finish parts of it.
religion: while many faiths existed, there was only one big religion in serani history. serani believed in nature laws that ruled everything, and that had to be followed. just under the nature laws there were spirits: anything that exist has a spirit,from rocks to plants; more important than this kind of spirits are the spirits of the animals, and over them the spirits of sentient beings, altough it is not clear what happen to this kind of spirits after death; above them there are the big spirits , that are part of greater ideas like fire, land, air . despite the importance of what they represent, they odn't play a big role, they are passive and they are more categoryes to which otehr spirits belong than anything else. outside this hierarchy are the gods, closer to the material world than the spirits, but also closer to the natural laws. in fact, often the gods are said to be the spirits of the natural laws; each god represent part of the laws, and have power in a sphere. they exist to keep the equilibrium in the world and they are bound to the natural laws, that they can't break, since they are part of them.while all the gods are part of the natural laws, they aren't all good : evil itself is part of the natural laws because without evil no good can be, and equilibrium would be broken.
the gods in the serani pantheon are Endren, Joulan and Joulie, [...].
in most temples on the central apse there is a statue of endren, usually on a throne, that looks at the prayers; he alway has a benevolent smile and watch the people like a father watch his childs, but sometime his face is also sad, sad because he see evil in the world and because he see and saw the death of the sentient being he want to protect. this statue is usually the biggest.
in front of endren there are almost always joulan and jouli, one black and one white, their swords crossed and their eyes resolute and proud. they represent the cycle of life and all the things ; they are in front of endren to remind him that everything that lives must die, and that where there is good there must be evil.
statues of the other gods are in smaller side chapels: [...]
year 78, month 13, day 17
the sun was still raising on the east when a serani entered the temple, alone. he was young and tall, the tallest of the village; strong and firm he walked to the fire , the same fire that has burnt for tens of years, that gave light to his father, grandfather and many other before him. he have alway came to the fire each day since he was born, to pray to the spirits and to the gods, like his father taught him, but now he decided that he wanted more than that: he wanted to know the truth, he wanted to meet the spirits , the gods, or whatever entity rules the world, he wanted to be able to catch the secrets of the world, to have a proof for his believes.
he throw a satchel on the fire
"spirits, come here and show me the truth"
a strange violet smoke goes out of the fire
"spirits, take me with you in your real, where i shall know"
the cloud expand and reach thelone serani
"spirits, let me get your knowledge"
the room becomes blurred, he falls on the knees
"gods, help me in my journey, in my mission"
the room can no more be seen, bright colors start dancing everywhere, faster and faster.
"i am here! i am here!"
the colors were still dancing, when shadows came, spirits of the dead, of haste, shadows that no sun can illuminate, cold that no fire can heat. they came nearer and he couldn't escape, he couldn't breathe nor move, couldn't close his eyes, coudln't turn his head. colors started to fade, shadown started to dance around him,getting nearer and nearer, always colder, always darker; he try to run away, but can't, he can't feel his body, he don't even know if he ever had one.
they touch him, the fly through him, taking bits of his life each time, he was sure to be dead when a light came, a hole in the sky, a hope from nowhere, a old person walked toward him. no more cold, no more darkness, he was a person again, the shadows being only a nightmare of the past. now everything was that person, the same person he saw in some idols, endren, one of the gods who arrived in the village.
"don't worry and watch. i have something to make you see"
and he saw.
finally, a warm darkness came, and then he was back in the temple, near the fire, the sun low on the west. and he fell asleep
the next day he went out of the temple, and started to gather people around him till he was ready to speak
"in the temple i had a dream, i saw things that no serani oculd ever see in this mortal world. i was near death, but the gods decided to save me, and to show me the turth about everything, and allowed me to come back here to be their prophet. no, i am not crazy, i saw the spirits, i saw the gods, i had a brief light come through my mortal mind; the knowledge the belong to the gods is too much for any of us, but many things i learnt. there is more than we can see, there is more than we can touch or hear, many spirits are beyond our bounds, some evil and some holy, and many gods exist, gods that are the ring of the chain between us and the higher truth. we, the gods, the spirits are just pawns in a bigger game, a game whose rules aren't yet to be understood, but that we must follow[...]" he kept speaking till the sun was at noon, then he said his last words " this is what i had to share with you, what the gods told me. and if they are pleased, they will send a sign to us". as soon as he said these words, the day became darker and a shadow appeared on the sun, growing till it covered most of the sun.
"don't be afraid serani, brothers, it is a sign from the gods. we will now sit near the fire, inside or outside the temple, and its light will be the light of the knowledge of the gods, and when the sun will be back to light our land, a new light will be inside us."
and so they did, and a new religion was born.
the name of the serani was forgotted, but for every serani of the future ages he was known as kerilenai, the prophet of the gods.
this
+1 Ep in religion(T2, belief), religion, generation
+1 in blowgun(T1), military, power
+1 in herbalism(T1),food(tell me if i am wrong here. but if people know better what plants are good and what plants are bad, they should also be bale to eat better)
+1 in somniferous darts(T2, blowgun, herbalism) military, power
+1 in writing( T3, language) ,social, action
year 82, month 8, day 5
a sunny spring day, on the country near the village, 2 green hills covered with grass,with a lake between them, few trees giving a fresh shadow to the people.
2 children are playing on the grass
"akani, lets play hide and seek now.i will hide"
"ok, but i will count only to 40. good luck finding a place to hide here"
the first serani, seri-olane, started running; her brother didn't know that yesterday she found a secret place near the lake, a small hole probably dug by a small animal. she didn't have time to explore it, but it was big enough for her.
she ran down the hill and she arrived at the lake; she quickly gathered a small bush, entered the hole and used it to hide the entrance.
"my brother will never find me" she tought.
she crawled back to get more space, but she soon noticed that the hole was longer than she tought. deciding it would be interesting she turned and started crawling toward the darkness, dreaming about all the things she could find at the end of the tunnel.
she kept going for a minute, till the land above her became wet, she was under the lake; she was afraid of it, and she was about to go back when she saw a faint light at the end of the tunnel. she wasn't dead yet, so it must habe been something important, so she tryed to reach it, going faster than before, hwile the light became stronger and she could see a cave at the end; but what she saw was different from what she dreamt and hoped, but in no way less important, probably it was worth more than she could think.
the cavern was only few laths high and wide, the roof wet and drops of water falling on the ground, but what made it important was what there was inside: a crater with a big, green and glowing oval rock, and around it few other rocks like the first one but smaller, their light making the space around them surreal, with an aura of magic and power.
after staring at it for few seconds, she quickly went back to the entrance of the tunnel. she could hear his brother calling her
"olane, where are you? it is not fun, come here"
she went out of the tunnel and spoke to her brother
"i am here! follow me, i found a thing you have to see!"
later, on the same day
a sera-ganali was held to decide about what was found under the lake. somebody wanted to destroy it, somebody wanted to bury it, some other wanted to make the tunnel bigger to allow everyone to visit the glowing stone, but most people just oculdn't understand what they saw, it was different from everythign else: a rock, but not a rock like the ones they saw. it had an aura of power , but it wasn't the same as the gods. it made light, but not like a fire or the sun. at the end all the elders asked to the only person who was stil lyoung in that room, kerilenai.
" the rock was in a crater, like the small stones that fall on the sand, or the big ones that rarely fall from the sky. this one must then come from the sky, but it is not of the normal kind, and its nature could be both natural and supernatural; while i believe in the supernatural nature of this artifact, and i think that it is a gift from the gods, i think that his more material nature still has to be investigated. my opinion is that the biggest rock should be put in the temple, in the fire, for his religious value, while the smaller ovals will be used to get a scientific knowledge about them."
and this was done.
serani try to settle in F10(again) and D8, 1 population unit each.
serani scout the river in D12, E13
serani try to get knowledge and some kind of good things from the artifact.