There are times when the only civilized option is to give up on your dreams, lay down your weapons, and
submit to the yoke of moral responsibility -- now is such a time. - The General
The years after the Divisional War (1100 BA) <http://www.clanlord.com/history/thoom/ichetonwar.html>
were difficult times for the race we now call Thoom. Their joy over the ill-gotten victory orchestrated
by Mystic zealots was rapidly replaced by disgrace and a deep racial shame.
Genocidal magic wrought by the Thoom left a land full of their dead enemy. A rank stench haunted the
air for miles around once proud and thriving coastal cities. Ghostly screams of the long dead echoed
over and over though the empty streets and houses of the Foe. Each silent building stood as a grotesque
monument to the victor's pride and each desiccated corpse screamed an unspoken testament to moral
blindness and sin.
The Earth Goddess shuddered at the destruction of her children. Earthquakes and tempests swept the
lands as signs of her mourning. People throughout the world huddled in uncomprehending terror as the
Earth trembled and wept for this race she helped to nurture into life. In her anger, she turned her back
on the victors. Crops failed, disease ran rampant, even the ocean's bounty was denied them.
Many Thooms searched for answers. Some gave up and joined their enemy in death, while thousands of
others, in a seeming foolhardy attempt to wash away the stain of victory, spent years of furious labor
to obliterate all evidence of the vanquished race.
In time, not one stone remained of their enemy's existence. Even the Foe's name was lost and
forgotten, but it was not enough... the mighty victors suffered a defeat nearly as devastating as their
enemy's. In shame, Thooms everywhere saw they were no better than the other "lesser" races. Thoomish
scholarship, magics and knowledge meant nothing when mirrored against their crime.
The great Thoomish civilization nearly collapsed a single generation.
If not for the emergence of a few, this noble amphibian race might have withered from our world in
sadness and self-disgrace. One was the great spiritual leader Thoom'daron who gave hope and life to the
disheartened multitude.
Three others were the General, the Mage and the Doctor, who fell to their knees and prayed for
forgiveness. They beseeched the Earth Goddess to withhold her wrath and return favor to their people.
They promised to give their own lives to find a way to atone for this crime against her.
The Earth was moved by the depth of the prayer. She paused and put aside her fury while she examined
the hearts and minds and lives of these three. Indeed, she found them worthy. While she hated them,
hated them for what they had done, she was touched by their sincerity and she loved them for what they
were willing to do.
So she cursed them, cursed them to carry her grief, cursed them to atone for the heinous act against
her children, and cursed them to ensure such an abomination could never occur again.
She also gave them three gifts: a vision of peace, a means to work for atonement, and a place to begin
a legacy that would last for over a thousand years.
This is their story.
The General
A week before the war was won, the General was in the middle of a high stakes gamble against the Foe.
He had successfully beaten back a swarm of desperate enemy attacks throughout the prior weeks and had
captured all the key positions needed to control the passes and open up the Foe's sacred city of
Threglia for the taking.
The enemy forces in the area were in disarray. The General knew that if he could press the attack and
smash the fleeing Foe before their capable commander could reestablish control, the city would be left
defenseless, and would have no choice but to surrender to him.
Without doubt, the capture of Threglia would turn the tide of the war. Never before had a city so
strategically important fallen on either side of the conflict. The shock to the Foe would be great, it
could finally force them to seriously come to the table and work out a lasting armistice. The General
hoped so, for he was tired of never-ending war. He wished to go home to his family and live out the rest
of his life in simple peace, away from the hatred and death that now filled his days.
His plan, however, was risky. If his adversary was able to regroup before he could execute the killing
blow, all could be lost. The prize was great and while the General had no thoughts of personal glory,
the opportunity to end this bitter conflict was too attractive to pass up.
As the day progressed, reports of success came into his headquarters with increasing frequency. When
he learned his advance force had captured the enemy commander, he knew the city was his. Breathing a
sigh of relief, the general retired to his cot to rest. The next few days would likely be some of the
most important in his life: to plan the siege of Threglia and accept its inevitable surrender.
The Doctor
The reports of the siege of Threglia delighted the Grand Council of Thooms. They became giddy with the
knowledge that the Foe could be finally be severely punished and humiliated. Plans were discussed on
how best to crush the enemy spirit. Several urged to burn the city to the ground as a sign of their
resolve. The Doctor, however, cautioned her fellow council members for restraint and patience. She was
sure that the end of the bitter conflict was near. The two sides were too evenly matched and the waste
of life and property was devastating to both sides. Soon they would be forced to work together to build
a lasting peace or perish as civilizations.
She challenged the Council to hold their hand and spare the ancient city. She asked them to offer the
city intact to the enemy as a gesture of their willingness to stop the cycle of hatred and destruction.
She pleaded with them for mercy.
Too many though had suffered from the war, and racial mistrust and hatred ran deep. Most had lost
precious friends and family to the conflict and the temptation to use this opportunity as means for
retribution was too great. A resolution to destroy the city was proposed and a vote was taken. The final
tally was divided, so as presiding Elder, the Doctor had the deciding choice.
She smiled, relieved she could ensure this travesty would not occur, but before she was able to cast
her vote, an aide burst into the Council chamber and informed them of a surprise attack on the city.
As one, the entire Council rushed out to assist in the city's defense. As they approached the walls,
however, they saw the battle was never begun. Concern washed over them as they watched the enemy
slowly retreat from the city. Fear clutched at them, for the Foe to drive this deeply into Thoomish
territory and then run before even testing the city's defenses made no sense.
The Council members heard the bells on the way back to the Council chamber. The Doctor hesitated,
chilled with foreboding. Confirming her fear, a pair of enemy soldiers rushed past them. One stopped,
pointed a finger at her and laughed hysterically before disappearing into the shadows to cries of alarm
from stunned Council members.
Moments later, the Doctor was met by a captain of the city's militia. He whispered a few words in her
ear and with a yelp of terror she ran off in the direction he had come. The attack was a distraction,
the captain told the surprised Council members, a distraction for an brutal assassination. The
Doctor's entire family had been murdered in their home.
They walked back to the Council chamber in great shock. No words were spoken. All felt the same grief
and horror. Several hours later, the Doctor returned.
"Burn it," she said softly.
The Mage
It was dangerous, but "The Discovery" was too fascinating to ignore. It was the key to a whole new
range of fearsome weaponry to use against the Foe -- weapons that could bring a decisive victory and a
quick end to the war if the enemy was unable to respond in kind.
The Discovery was made by a small group of talented Mystics under the direction of the Mage. They
searched in great secrecy for a means to build a device that could disrupt the flow of life energy
surrounding the body. Careful study and experiment for many years at last yielded the solution.
At first, the Mystics objected to the methods used by the Mage, but as they grew closer to the answer
they all became caught by the intriguing lure of its secret knowledge. The experiments continued;
prisoners of war were taken and subjected to every kind of physical and mental experience under
carefully controlled conditions while Mystic devices recorded and measured the patterns and flows of
life energies.
In time they were able to construct a device that could simulate the energy patterns of any chosen
creature so completely that such a creature exposed to it would experience the pattern as if the
simulation was actually occurring.
In their eagerness to build a weapon, the Mystics tuned the device for the Foe and set the patterns to
mimic agony and death. The Mage brought the device to Threglia for a test.
Threglia
The General was aghast when he received the order to burn the besieged enemy city. The Doctor, who
brought the decision to the General herself, would not be dissuaded by the his requests to reconsider.
She demanded retribution and saw to it that the General followed the Council's orders.
The Mage explained the workings of his device to the General and the Doctor. It was agreed that the
device should be tested by placing it at the main city gate to watch if it stopped any people trying to
escape.
The city gates were blockaded and Thoomish catapults rained fire upon the defenseless enemy. Hundreds
of thousands perished in agony, no one attempted to escape.
So many died and in such proximity, that the life energy released by the thousands of deaths formed a
single gruesome pattern of their collective experience. This last dying gasp of the Threglians flowed
out of the city and began to dissipate until it came into contact with the untested device. With this
contact, a frightful resonance formed between the simulated device pattern and that of the drifting
life energy.
This resonance expanded rapidly covering the lands as it fed upon the flowing energies. The Foe were
horribly slain whenever touched by this growing resonance. With each new death, it became larger. In
only a few hours the entire enemy race was dead.
Atonement
The Earth's curse drove the three to seek out a certain island in the Far Isles. There they were to
form a clerical order dedicated to the preservation of the Earth's children.
The island was barren and uninhabited, covered with bleak limestone crags and honeycombed with dark
caverns. Lonely and discouraged, the three began to build a home for themselves. They survived by
trading their knowledge and assistance for food and living necessities to Thooms living on neighboring
islands. The Doctor used her knowledge of medicine to heal the sick and treat the injured. The General
explained how to fortify their towns against pirates and how to train effective militias. The Mage used
his abilities and great knowledge to solve problems and teach.
After several years, many neighboring Thooms sent their children to the three gentle Thoom of the
island to be educated. Some stayed and thus the order was formed. They became known as the Holy Thooms.
Many came to visit them, some to ask questions, some to trade stories, and others to request their
assistance, but most came to hear them sing.
It was the Doctor who first discovered the Earth's precious gift to them.
While searching in vain for food at the mouth of a deep cave one day, she thoomed in despair. The
cavern picked up this sound and amplified it, filling her voice with depth and complex harmonies. It
was magnificent! Again she thoomed and again the rich notes poured forth.
With great excitement, she gathered the others and demonstrated the amazing phenomenon. Each tried in
turn and then together they began to sing. It was an experience that shaped the rest of their lives and
those that came after them.
The songs they sung filled them with hope and joy, the notes and words were were inspired by their
respect for the Earth Goddess and their pledge. Hundreds came to hear their songs, No one listening to
their voices could leave the island unaffected. All left with a sense of great happiness and a desire
for peace with all peoples.
Today
As the order grew, their mission was never forgotten. Today Holy Thooms roam the lands anonymously.
Each cleric is extensively trained in the arts of magic, medicine, politics, and war. Invisibly they
pull the strings of the powerful to manipulate events, sow seeds of peace, and protect the children of
the Earth from their brothers and sisters.
Most of all they love to sing. For hundreds of years people from all over the lands have come to the
island to hear their songs. Over time, the rocks and caves of the island have been carefully sculpted
and shaped to resonate and project the sound of their voices so that the beauty and awe inspired by
their songs flows out over the neighboring waters and lands for all to hear.