The Tund

 

Tund are the race that I have developed the most for my primary setting of Gal Hadre.  As mentioned before my intent was to have races that filled the same niches as standard fantasy races, but with my own interpretations of them.  Thus we first come to the elf equivalent, which needed to be ancient, knowledgeable, skilled in the arcane arts and past their prime.  Little did I initially realize how much defining that race would impact the development of the setting as a whole, for how could the development of the oldest somewhat mortal race not impact the setting.

I started looking into various mythologies' interpretations of elves and stumbled across some vague references of elves as fallen angels.  The first piece of what was to become the Tund had begun.  Now came a new problem, how did an entire race of fallen angels come about; such a thing should not be a footnote to a species, but a defining aspect of themselves and likely the entire setting.  The Tund’s involvement in the War of the Neverborn has already been covered in the introduction to the setting, but the events thereafter are nearly as important to the current state of the race.  Banished to Ithhon, a plane somewhere between heaven and the material plane, the Tund thrived for a time, exploring both that realm and the material plane.  But as the first few centuries past Tundelso, once archangel and now king, realized that his people had a serious problem.  Every generation the Tund went from those who pre-dated the withdrawal of the mantle lived a shorter period of time, if something was not done then his people would quickly become as short lived as those races found in the material realms.  For the good of his people, he had to prune the racial tree.  It was a bloodbath that saw well over the majority of the race destroyed with only small groups of those targeted managing to escape, only to be hunted over the centuries that followed.

Many childless years followed, and the Tund tradition of Verpar, dueling to first blood was developed.  Even once children began to be born, it would take centuries for the depopulated cities to fill again and in their boredom political factions developed.  Great debates and more than one Verpar took place as the answers to who would inherit Tundelso’s throne of white granite dominated their High Society.  

The Tund armies of that era were beyond any foe they faced and the boredom of those centuries sowed the seeds that eventually drove them to where they are today.  A line of Royal bastards, the founder of which was decades older than his legitimate half-brother repeatedly caused problems, claiming the granite throne and giving dissidents someone to rally behind.   Their last throw of the dice was desperate and likely tainted by dragon cults, and involved an insanely powerful and dangerous spell.  That spell, when disrupted, became uncontrolled and started tearing apart the fabric of Ithhon.  Only a dozen of the largest cities were able to be saved by powerful wardings cast by the eldest and most skilled Tund mages.  No living mortal knows what would happen now if the wardings protecting the dozen shard cities were to fail; thus entire orders of mages exist to ensure they never do.

Tund society has drastically changed as a result of the unravelling, shifting from a near absolute monarchy into an oligarchy lead by an elected king.  Culturally it shifted as well, with the tradition of the Long Walk developing.  Realizing that their society was too withdrawn from the wider realms, especially now that a large percentage of their people were now basically refugees in the material plane, the leadership of their people decided that all youths would be required to leave their own settlements or cities and travel until they found something worth knowing.  Some returned nearly immediately, having learned something minor and not really useful not truly understanding the point of the exercise, others never returned, always believing that true knowledge was just around the corner, most travelled for a few years or decades and returned with something that actually was worth knowing.

The shard cities are the greatest resource available to the Tund, connected to specific places in the material plane, often many hundreds or thousands of kilometers apart.  The locations that shard cities could be accessed from were closely guarded secrets, for the safety of the cities relied primarily on the secrecy of access.  But the cities lacked food and raw resources and had to trade for them.  Forbidden to any non-Tund, the cities held the knowledge and resources of what remained of Ithhon; lore from before the dragonstorms, techniques to make magical weapons and artifacts of great power and the homes of perhaps a quarter of the Tund race.

Occasionally, the Tund must fight, either to protect their kind in the material plane or more subtly to eliminate those who have discovered how to access the shard cities.  Either arrayed for battle or as small strike steams, the Tund armies are among the most deadly, with highly experienced troops and officers and significant dragonic magic support.  Rare is the foe who willingly risks war with the Tund.

Even now, with millennia having passed since their angelic mantle was lost the Tund retain many advantages over humans, but some weaknesses as well.  They have better sight and hearing, are immune to most disease, and have some protection against dragon magics, but they are a race of albinos.  Thus they often live nocturnal existences, avoiding the sun as much as possible, when forced to operate during the day, they cover themselves in layers of clothing even in the height of summer.  Heat management being easier to handle than severe sunburn.  They appear unnaturally tall and thin to humans, averaging 7ft in height, but of a similar weight.

 

 

My intent is to alternate posts about Gal Hadre with those about other campaign ideas.  Hopefully these half of the posts remain of interest to people.