Category Archives: Countries

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The Starsisters

The seven starsisters, under their mother Hai’lyn, are the ruling powers behind the nation of Nightfall and the center of the Cult of the Starsisters to which all are forced to pay homage.  They are incredibly powerful mystical beings that, according to the peasants’ legends, descended to our world of Khumkato from the outer darkness more than seven generations ago. They are said to be the living representations of the stars in the constellation of the serpent, where Hai’lyn allegedly resides.  While no one has ever seen their mother and some doubt her existence, the sisters are clearly very real and their strength grows steadily with the corruption they spread.  They are subduing this entire continent.

While I know that there are seven sisters, I have only been able to identify and locate five of them in the portions of Nightfall that are contained in the former Empire of the Sun.   (I would suggest that your majesty consider further expeditions to locate the remaining two.)  They are   Anhilisha, Anhilynya, Anhilerya, Anhilysha, and Anhilarya.   Apparently Hai’lyn likes to do things in groups and isn’t very creative with her naming.  Each of the starsisters will be treated to a separate entry in this compendium as I compile information on them.

From what I have been able to ascertain, the starsisters are not physical/corporeal in any real sense of the word.  They are very powerful spirits of some kind, and they possess the bodies of mortals to interact with and rule their physical realms here on Khumkato.  Their energies burn through the individual’s body, leaving behind a mindless husk that obeys their commands and seems to be able to manipulate the darkness of the twilight.  Thus the twilight is spread and maintained, even in places where the starsisters are not present.  I have seen one of Anhilisha’s ceremonies of transition.  It was…disturbing.

Each of the starsisters maintains control of a different section of Nightfall, living in a tower that burns with a brilliant white light at it’s peak.  Usually, the tower sits at the center of their ever-expanding district, and they sometimes have constructed newer abodes as the center of their twilight shifts and moves with time.  They are nearly always to be found in the darkest parts where the destruction of the corruption is at its worst.  Their cities all have grandiose, almost ceremonial, names such as the “City of Glorious Twilight,” the seat of Anhilisha’s district.  While marvels of engineering and planning at their center, the cities’ outer regions are dirty and chaotic.  They are universally dangerous places to be no matter where you happen to be inside them, and the mara haunt the grounds surrounding the towers.

The starsisters are very different from one another in terms of personality and style of rule, though they all share a love for cruelty, sadism, and murder.

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The Empire of the Sun

My lord, as you know, the Empire of the Sun originally ruled this continent, that is before Hai’Lyn and her spawn took it by force.  That began more than seven generations ago, and still the war goes on.  It is a pitiful farce of a war to be sure, but at least the Empire can pretend it isn’t over.

The actual beginning of the war is lost in the fog of peasant memory, the starsisters having long ago slaughtered any historian who dared remember anything they didn’t approve of.  (I saw enough in the eyes of some of the village elders to make me think more is known, but generations of hard experience have taught them to keep quiet, no matter how drunk they get.)  I did learn that the Empire held on to at least part of the continent for the better part of two generations.  The emperor who lost it all was named Li.  He and his supporters lost their last foothold here and were driven onto the Iron Isles, far to the west.  Li was an arrogant man and he swore an oath on his ancestors that he would reclaim his empire.  Of course, we all know that the sworn word of an emperor is infallible (or so the Empire said).

That left the pittance that was the Empire of the sun in a bit of a twist when Li died on the Iron Isles as they tried to scrape together livable cities.  Not to be disproved, the Empire just renamed his son “Li” too, and then his son after him and so on.  I suppose eventually one of them might take something back over someday, and that would give the Empire the chance to say that the emperor still hadn’t missed a step–if you don’t count all the generations between one Li and the other.

From a strategic standpoint, the Empire cannot be expected to make inroads against Nightfall anytime soon.  The Iron Isles are a fortress–probably one of the most defensible places in all of the world of Khumkato, but they are also barren, rocky, and cold.  The “Empire” has difficulty maintaining its own tiny population, let alone mustering an army that could even make the starsisters nervous.  If you seek armies to ally with you against the twilight, you must look elsewhere.

Of course, the Empire has adapted.  What they lack in force, they make up for in guile.  Their intelligence network inside Nightfall is better even than that of my people, and their assassins are first rate.  They can be useful–if you can stomach their prideful reminders of the “greatness” of the Empire Sun.