#North Frisia

[mothmiso]

Sylt (2) (3) (4) by Holger Schramm

Via Flickr:

(1) Hörnum Lighthouse. (2) Norddeutsche Hausbesetzer. North German squatters. (3) überall Wasser .... water everywhere... (4) Calidris Alba. High-speed sanderling. These little birds are blazing fast.     

[doktorphil]

[rebelandrichgirl]

Going on North Sea holiday tomorrow. I think I'm done packing. What did I forget?

[priestess-of-the-north-west]

Frisia around the 6th century CE. Made by Fryske Akademy after Heidinga.

Landscape maps of the Netherlands in the Northern Iron Age show that Frisia was mainly a coastal landscape with wetlands (peatland, moor, bog, etc.) inland and only got wetter over time. 1) 500 BCE 2) 100 CE 3) 800 CE Made by Rijksdienst voor Cultureel Erfgoed.

Brown means peat-wetland. Yellow spots at the shores indicate dunes or ridges, the most inhabitable land, as the orange spots in the illustration at the top of this post also indicate.

[zettelkaestchen]

Btw Lower Saxony is where I was born and raised but I was kind of difficult to think of these twelve options? 🙈

[merovingian-marvels]

Donarkeule / Donar hanger

A surprising amulet from the Germanic age is the “Donar club” also known as “Hercules club”.

Undeniably from Roman heritage, the Greek hero turned god in Ancient Rome was very popular.

Club shaped pendants spread across Europe during Roman campaigns. They were made of metal and worn by men. The Batavi who originally cooperated with the Romans assimilated Hercules with their god Magusna (=the powerful). Although considered a Germanic tribe by most, the Batavi are more associative to Gallo-Romans.

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Celtic culture disappeared completely from central Europe.

The Germanic groups that moved in assimilated Hercules Magusna with their god who had similar qualities: Donar (Thor).

It is too far fetched to say that Thor is Hercules, as Scandinavia was never occupied by Roman forces, and despite Hercules clubs being found in England, Donar clubs never made it across the North Sea. The phenomenon is strictly limited to the shores of the Elbe river and Frisia.

Germanic clubs are stylized and very rarely made out of metal. Most often they are made out of bone or antler and decorated with circular motives. They were worn exclusively by women as a chatelaine on a metal ring strung on their belt. Some believe they might have doubled as earrings/temple rings (but I have found no proof of this).

It is unknown why this pendant didn’t make it across the North Sea or even beyond the Elbe. Statements that the Thor hammers from Scandinavia served as replacements is shallow, as the pendants are drastically different from each other.

Fries Museum, Leeuwarden, Friesland - The Netherlands

Museum nr 145-60

Found in Greater Frisia

[gacougnol]

Hans Saebens (German, 1895 - 1969)

Germany: North Frisia: House on the Hamburg Hallig - 1939

[a-god-in-ruins-rises]

started a new ck3 campaign last night. pagan saxons. specifically started as the "lord" of dithmarschen (roleplaying as a kind of peasant republic). prevented the saxon wars. my mid-term goal is to liberate (conquer) frisia from the franks (want to kinda roleplay creating a hanseatic league analog), but they are still the dominant empire and dwarf us so it will have to wait. in the meantime i am building up my strength by expand eastward, ethnically cleansing the slavs along the way.

somehow i got tangled up in some scandinavian wars and ended up conquering a good chunk of sweden. so i guess i've decided to add a new goal of conquering all of scandinavia. imagine that. a saxon scandinavia. it seems kind of natural though since they (the norse) are the only other germanic pagans on the map right now. may as well unite as a single germanic pagan empire, right?

and on top of that i figured i may as well invade england too. recreate some kind of north sea empire but including saxony too. purify the island of christianity and reunite with our anglo-saxon kin.

[birdofmay]

must be rough being severely German

my deepest condolences 💐

my dads old neighbors best friends cats previous owners daughters wife sisters named Stacy has a second cousin with Severe German

(All /j /lh )

I'm only affected by mild Germanism, you see, my subtype "Frisia" comes with symptoms of its own.

I experience some common symptoms of Germany such as being on time and sticking to rules, but us people with Frisia are very different from for example people with South Germany.

Frisia is sometimes considered to be some kind of North Germany (even though our symptoms overlap with Dutch and Danish a little), and North Germany and South Germany are two different diagnoses within the German spectrum. So while I might be a person with the North German subtype, Germanism doesn't define my life and my whole identity to such an extent.

If I met a person with severe South Germanism, I wouldn't know how to communicate with this individual, since they communicate differently from people with North Germanism, you know? They especially have this odd habit of offering food and drinks when you actually only wanted to greet them and then go on with your own business 🤔

If somebody affected by South Germany wants to share their story, please comment or add on, I don't want to accidentally talk over this particular group with higher social needs than me!

[jackhkeynes]

Deadly Disasters

notes on the subject of various (alt)historical disasters.

The First Burning of London was a conflagration in 1290 which lasted for a full week and killed approximately four hundred people. This was the earliest of several such burnings, at least two of which are more accurately described as sackings or conquerings. Unlike (say) the Fourth Burning, it is purely conjectural that this particular fire was deliberately set as part of a plot to steal the Redstone Chair (presumably orchestrated by some Merch or Kentish noble).

---

The Failed Crusade was an undertaking which aimed to recreate the March of Jerusalem. The city and its surrounds had been captured during the First Crusade and the first Marksman of Jerusalem, Savino the Just, had acceded in 1119, but it had fallen less than seventy years later.

This crusade was called in 1210 by Pope Just (a direct descendant of Lord Savino), and it was utterly unsuccessful. The campaign went so badly that it is generally regarded as a boon for the Convoy Australier that they had their control of Port Simon and Antioch revoked in 1208.

The various military catastrophes stoked discontent in Rome and elsewhere, along with the outbreak of the First Great Dying (a plague thought to have been brought to Europe by returning crusaders).

---

The Great Flie Flood was a natural disaster in 1171 Willemy [~Netherlands, Lorraine] which submerged or swept through large parts of Frisland [Frisia, Holland]. Inflowing waters of the Rustig Strait [~North Sea south of Borland] created the island of Texel, and the freshwater Lake Almere (which fed into the Strait along the Flie river) became brackish and eventually fully saline as a maritime gulf.

The then-duke Lovis the Tall, who had been staying in the environs of Amstel [Amsterdam] for some months, is the most famous (and most historically influential) casualty of the Flood, but estimates have suggested a death toll approaching ten thousand.

The destruction is thought to have spurred the development of Axbane on Borland as an alternative, safer harbour for traders passing through the Rustigh Strait.

[joanthangroff]

1, 6, 26, 30

1. Favourite place in your country? The north! Specifically East Frisia. Put me down in the Wattenmeer and I’ll be the happiest person.

6. Most hated song in your native language? I think it’s impossible to HATE any song in German bc even the ones you don’t like you’ll end up singing along to when you’re drunk at a Schützenfest. Even though generally I don’t like our genre of “Ballermann Hits” because most of them are super sexist.

26. Does your nationality get portrayed in Hollywood/American media? What do you think about the portrayal? [sweats in German] well, you see– they– Okay, real talk. A lot of times Hollywood movies focusing on Germany would look at WWII. Or WWI, for that matter. Which is fair. Obviously. I think movies set in present time don’t have Germans very often? And if they do there’s a joke about our accents or Lederhosen or beer. Usually they’re inaccurate and not even funny.

30. Already answered!

Ask me about not being from the US!

[mothmiso]

Sylt (2) (3) by Holger Schramm

Via Flickr:

(1) Blick auf das Wattenmeer bei List auf Sylt. View of the Wadden Sea near List on Sylt. (2) Blick vom Deich bei der Vogelkoje in Richtung Norden. View from the dike near Vogelkoje towards the north. (3) An der Südspitze der Insel Sylt, Blick Richtung Hörnum Odde. At the southern tip of the island of Sylt, view towards Hörnum Odde.     

[antigorite]

For the "not from the US" ask game, 1, 11 and 17! 💖

Thanks for the ask! 💚

1. favourite place in your country?

East Frisia (the Northwest corner next to the Netherlands), lived there for a year and would move back in an instant. Just the North Sea coast in general

11. favourite native writer/poet?

Not really into poetry but for favourite author I would say Dörte Hansen who writes very beautifully about rural life in Northern Germany

17. are you interested in your country’s history?

Yup! Lots to be learned from it 😬 it's certainly not fun but super important to learn, driven by roughly equal parts responsibility and interest. But beyond the obvious I'm not any more or less iterested in Germany's history than in world history in general.

send me some country themed asks!

[eadingas]

The Shieldmaiden’s Honour – Map Reveal

The Shieldmaiden’s Honour is done and dusted, ready for release. I’ve moved it a week ahead, so it’ll be available for purchase a week from now. About time, then, to show off the map created for the book. It’s the coasts of the English Channel and the North Sea this time: the marshes of the Ikens, and the swamps of Frisia, beyond the Empire’s borders – Netherlands and Belgium, from the dunes of…

[priestess-of-the-north-west]

Pagan/Occult timeline on this Tumblr

(with some accents on Frisia/Holland/the Netherlands)

Stone Age 

Palaeolithic . Rock art

Mesolithic . Swifterbant Culture (in the NL ca. 5300-3400 BCE)

Neolithic . Vlaardinger Cultuur (in the NL ca. 3500-2500 BCE) . Trechterbekervolk (= Funnel Beaker Culture, in the NL ca. 3350-2750 BCE ) and their Hunebed (dolmen) Ancestor worship may have existed in the Neolithic. Some scholars suggest a direct link between Palaeolithic female ('venus') figurines and female depictions in the Neolithic and even Bronze Age. In the Copper Age, male deities were also worshipped, and there was a development towards forming a complete pantheon with mythological figures. Domestication of plants and animals is in its formative stages here, and 'Industry' comes up, mainly of utensils and ornaments. The invention of writing started here, between copper and bronze age. Invention of the wheel. Invention of the potter's wheel.

Bronze Age

Hallstatt Culture (roughly 1200-450 BCE)

Northern Bronze age (roughly 2000-500 BCE)

2000 BCE

17th century BCE

15th century BCE

13th century BCE

11th century BCE

10th century BCE

8th century BCE . Oldest findings of Frisian pottery

7th century BCE

6th century BCE

Northern Iron age (roughly 500 BCE - 800 CE)

5th century BCE

4th century BCE

3rd century BCE

2nd century BCE

1st century BCE

1st century . Oldest known runic inscription

2nd century

3rd century

4th century . Big migration of North German and Danish tribes into East and Central (=North of the NL) Frisia, and expansion of West Frisia

5th century . Oldest known runic inscription mentioning Oðinn . Big migration of North German and Danish tribes into East and Central Frisia and expansion of West Frisia . Rise of the Merovingian dynasty among the Franks

6th century . Frisia is at its peak and now covers the Dutch entire North + West coastal region, river area, and North coast of Germany . Merovingian dynasty at the Franks - expansion

7th century . Transition younger futhark. . Merovingian dynasty at the Franks - expansion

8th century . Transition younger futhark . Merovingians (Franks) incorporate Frisia. Put a lot of effort into converting forcing the local tribes in Europe to Christianity

Viking age (roughly 800-1100 CE)

9th century . In now Frankish 'Frisia', the name Holtland appears

10th century . Estimated writing of the Vǫluspǫ́.

11th century

12th century . Floris II no longer calls himself Frisian, but Count of Holland . Earliest known Western heraldic

The last bits of the Medieval age

13th century . Estimated start of development of Christian "Kabbalah"

14th century

15th century . Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (humanist, Hebrew studies) . Johann Reuchlin (humanist, Hebrew studies, developer of the angel names) . Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa (occultist, developer of the demon-scales)

Modern History

16th century . Giordano Bruno . Edward Kelley (also known as Edward Talbot) . John Dee (occultist, developer of Enochian magic) . Sir Francis Drake's drum

17th century . Dutch Streekdracht Folklore estimated start

Athanasius Kircher (developer of the Tree of Life as used in Hermetic Kabbalah) . Rosicrucianism . The Lesser Key of Solomon

18th century

Dutch Streekdracht Folklore peaks

19th century

Dutch Streekdracht Folklore peaks . Éliphas Lévi, real name Alphonse Louis Constant (occultist, writer of Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie and initiator of the Kabbalistic Cross) . Helena Blavatsky (occultist, founder of the Theosophical Society and famous for her Atlantis work) . Samuel MacGregor Mathers & William Westcott (founders of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn) . Arthur Edward Waite (occultist, GD member, laid down the foundations for nearly all contemporary tarot decks)

20th/21st century

Dutch Streekdracht Folklore decline . Dion Fortune (occultist) . Israel Regardie (occultist) . Gerald Gardner (founder of Gardnerian Wicca) . Doreen Valiente (co-founder of Gardnerian Wicca) . Gareth Knight (occultist) . Walter Ernest Butler (occultist) . Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki (occultist) . Alex Sanders (founder of Alexandrian Wicca) . Diana L. Paxson (Witch, Wicca, Asatru) . Marian Green (Solitary Witch) . Vivianne Crowley (Wicca) . Frigga Asraaf (NL Asatru) . Linda Wormhoudt (NL Shaman)

[rpgchoices]

Ash of Gods - THE STORY

I played the game twice because the first time I was extremely confused - so I decided to compile a story of the game and the events pre-game to help other players. I first posted the story on steam and discussed it with the game developer who answered some of my questions. So this post here is the result of this discussion and my two playthrough.

Full on spoilers! But hopefully this will help players in the future, as I hope more people will play this game!

This is divided in: 1) What and who are the Umbra and the Enses (the supernatural creatures) 2) The story pre-game 3) The set up for the game (kingdoms and people) 4) The story of the game 5) The ending explained 6) (link) timeline

THE UMBRA AND THE ENSES (1)

Everything starts in another world from the one the game is set. The game is set in the world of Terminum.

The game starts in a world called Calz:

This parallel world (or maybe another planet) has five gods ruling over the people of the world called Enses (Enses are basically just normal people, like the humans living in Terminum). These five gods can act through five emissaries/avatar called High Umbra. For this reason there are five High Umbra: Tibibar, Childao, Adna, Atraakh and Dorpkhal (each one representing a god).

These characters will appear in the game under different names/guises ad High Umbra have a Reaper form (their true form) but also can take the form of a human or even possess a human.

Tibibar and Dorpkhal only appear in the game in their Reapers form. Instead the other High Umbra appears in the game in their alternative human forms too:

In the current time, the High Umbra Childao/Chila/Unda is a travelling healer who often resides in the city of Ursus with her daughter Philia. She can appear as an elderly white haired woman, as her reaper form or as a young beautiful woman. She is also known as an archer.

Instead, the High Umbra Atraakh has the form of a servant of the Temple of Wrath called Nakoma. Atraakh/Nakoma is living his best life in Frisia (city of Woden in the kingdom of Frisia, North of map) and also organizes the sacrifices of prisoners that the Temple of Wrath holds annually.

Adna instead lives as a witch, she is known as Adna the Witch when she is not in reaper form, and people try to stay away from her. When you meet her in the game she calls herself the one who hunts the offsprings of Umbra.

Each High Umbra created four Lower Umbra. These Lower Umbra serve the High Umbra (and through them their god). In total there are 20 Lower Umbra, divided in 5 Higher Umbra.

The Higher Umbra (being the creator of their own four Lower Umbra) can enslave the Lower Umbra and make them do their bidding.

In the game we do not exactly know which one of the Lower Umbra serves what Higher Umbra, a part from one: Amma, who is a Lower Umbra of Adna. These Lower Umbra are a bit like the Higher ones, as they can be turned into their Reaper form, but can also have a human form and possess bodies. Like the Higher Umbra, if they are killed they can just get a new body with time or possess a new one.

A Lower Umbra who betrays their Higher Umbra is called a Curro. The game starts with a tale of 13 Lower Umbra who betrayed their Higher Umbra. These 13 curros sacrificed themselves to stop the Higher Umbra from carring out the Reaping (I will explain later what this is). Unfortunately, one of these 13 was stopped by arrows - as the Higher Umbra Childao hit him before he could complete the sacrifice.

Because of the death of these 12 curros, only 8 Lower Umbra remains in current time. One is Hopper/Blance, who was the 13th who was stopped. At the beginning of the game, Hopper/Blance lives as a healer, scribe and Baron of the kingdom of Raydona. He pretends to travel to write history and events, but he is known to have some magical abilities too. We do not know who Hopper/Blance was a Lower Umbra of... probably Dorpkhal because of this dream Hopper/Blance has:

And this other dream:

Another one is Rask/Chirlan, who is living pretending to be a merchant of antiquities in the city of Albius. We do not know who he was the servant of. Rask/Chirlan is also connected to his human body because of the magic that stopped the second reaping. He never partecipated in the rebellion of the 13 Lower Umbra, but given that he is suffering the consequences (he is basically turned human) he must have been involved somehow.

Another Lower Umbra is Coronzon/Core. He is living as a cardinal for the Temple of Divine Retribution. We do not know who he is a shadow of but probably he is the Lower Umbra of Atraakh (and the only surviving one. the other three sacrificed themselves). He never partecipated in the rebellion of the 13 Lower Umbra. If you kill Thorn and Lo Pheng, you get to play the ending as Hopper/Blance and you find out that Coronzon might be the most dangerous of them all. He never partecipated in the rebellion - you also find out the names of the other non rebels Lower Umbra:

Another Lower Umbra is Amma. She lives as a seeress, and is the Lower Umbra of Adna. She did not partecipated in the rebellion of the 13 Lower Umbra, but went into hiding as she also disagreed with the Higher Umbra. She and Hopper/Blance used to be in love, or are still in love, even if not together. She seems to disagree with the rebellion of the Lower Umbra too, but she tried to help humans in her own way. In the past, she founded the Warriors of Peace in the Isle of Shadows, training the Eikons (people living in that area) who would join the Temple to kill reapers. She is known as the Great Ancestress of the warriors of peace. After, she travelled some more and founded the Raydonan Abode of the Humble, a monastery that trained women into fighters, before leaving that behind too and moving for a period to live with the Qimra. She currently lives alone in her hut.

Another Lower Umbra is Orkan. Not much is known about him, just that he takes care of a travelling menhir and is mainly known by the nomadic people called Qimra (during the second reaping he did not rebel but somehow partecipated in the battle, not sure what side. As a consequence of the terrible event he ended up tied to the Vale of Mercy, and he cannot leave that place). Because the Qimra are connected to Childao (I will explain later), he might be a Lower Umbra of Childao. We also know that he is the one who has one of the stone knives who was maybe "stolen" from him (not clear if he lied about it)... so he might be the father of Philia. Not much is known about Orkan, but he disapproves of Lo Pheng if he spills innocent blood and does not act merciful, so it is clear that he disapproves with the Higher Umbra's massacre:

The last Lower Umbra we see in the game is Qarbaph/Drooket/Drewer. He is probably a Lower Umbra of Childao because of reasons I will explain later. Qarbaph is known for fathering a lot of children (probably by possessing humans temporarily or even using his own body). In the game he has fathered Brett when he was Drooket, and he is still living as Drooket (a soldier). Before being Drooket he was Drewer, another soldier who saved Thorn (the protagonist).

So we have 8 Lower Umbra surviving and in the game we get: Hopper/Blance, Amma, Coronzon, Rask/Chirlan, Orkan and Qarbaph/Drooket/Drewer.

This means that there are 2 other Lower Umbra that we do not know of and who did not appear in the game.

Through game lore we also find out about other Umbra:

Harga, a Lower Umbra (probably of Childao), who was the founder of the Qimra. She possessed human women and through them she freed Enses from the brainwashing, sleeping with them. The children ended up as the nomadic people of the Qimra. Reet comes from her lineage, which is why Reet is a Chosen One. Harga died sacrificing herself as one of the 12 Curros who betrayed the Higher Umbra.

Ananael, Enay, Calz are other three names that Hopper/Blance gives us.

Calz is a Lower Umbra (named like their homeland) who wrote a very important text for the Temple of Divine Retribution. He sacrificed himself like Harga and the other traitor Lower Umbra.

Enay is another Lower Umbra who was involved in establishing the Temple of Divine Retribution alongside Calz. He did not sacrifice himself later, and Amma reveals to Hopper/Blance that maybe he never actually wanted to stop the reapings.

Same for Ananael (who was also known by humans as a prophet as he wrote many of Calz`s sayings).

In total we have:

High Umbra Childao: her Lower Umbra Harga, her Lower Umbra Qarbaph/Drooket/Drewer, her Lower Umbra Orkan and we do not know who the fourth is. Maybe Rask, as her Lower Umbra seems to be the nicest ones.

High Umbra Adna: her Lower Umbra Amma,

High Umbra Atraakh: we know that three of his Lower Umbra sacrificed themselves to stop him, Coronzon might be his last remaining living Lower Umbra

High Umbra Dorpkahl: Blance/Hopper is one of his four Lower Umbra

High Umbra Tibibar.

The remaining "unclaimed" Lower Umbra are Ananael, Enay and Calz.

The only living Lower Umbra are Ananael, Enay, Amma, Blance/Hopper, Drooket, Orkan, Rask, Coronzon: the 8 remaining ones.

THE STORY PRE-GAME (2)

In a a world called Calz, five gods exist. They have five avatar/emissaries called High Umbra and each of these High Umbra have four Lower Umbra who serve them. The people of the world are called Enses and some of them serve different a Umbra/god.

One day a calamity strikes the world of the Enses and the sun starts dying. (When you talk with the Ense Khama, in game, he says that it might be that the gods were fighting each others, but after the destruction of the world all but one sacrificed themselves to save their people).

We also get this flashback of Hopper/Blance in Calz, where his Higher Umbra makes him perform horrible massacres, so it is possible that the gods were fighting each others, or at least some of the gods were more bloodthirsty:

After this calamity, the gods decide to save their world by transferring all of the people (Ense and Umbra) into a new planet/dimension called Terminum. They do this by using an Ark (Salvation Ark) which falls into Terminum like a comet. They also put giant stones called menhirs into Terminum, to protect their new world (these stones can heal people). Something goes wrong - one of the gods (the god of Childao) went mad with power and trapped the Enses in the Ark, only freeing the Umbra. So the Enses end up trapped in the Salvation Ark, while Lower and Higher Umbra leaves the Ark and arrive in Terminum.

The Higher Umbra wants to resurrect their gods and they find out that blood and suffering seem to power up the menhir. They start the First Reaping (probably also called Divine Retribution by the temple that the humans have), where they summon the trapped Enses and use them like pawns.

It is not clear if the Enses were also mind controlled before they arrived in Terminum, but we know that the Umbra gave the Enses their masks, magical rings that control swords, and brainwashed them. The Enses, in the first Reaping, started to kill people using their blood as sacrifices for the menhir. This powers the menhir up and ends up giving the Reapers (Higher Umbra) even more power. It is known that in the Second and Third Reaping, the Higher Umbra can also brainwash humans and lead them to kill each others, so maybe they needed this first reaping power up.

After the first reaping (probably happened to power up the Higher Umbra after their journey), 300 years pass and the humans re-start their society (the ones who survived). The Temple of Divine Retribution is born, and the Temple of Wrath too. The Higher Umbras were probably involved in founding one of both the temples, as the hymn from the temple is a hymn that the Ense Khama sings in the game:

We also get this confirmation about some Lower Umbra starting the Temple of Divine Retribution:

So after 300 years, the Higher Umbra decide to try the Reaping again (Second Reaping) and starts freeing some more Enses from the Ark, teleporting in the human kingdoms around Terminum to sacrifice people to the menhirs. This time, 13 Lower Umbra decide to betray their masters and create 13 stone knives from the menhirs. They use them to sacrifice themselves - a ritual that should have worked into stopping the reaping, probably forever (?).

The Higher Umbra Childao uses her arrow to stop Hopper/Blance from completing his sacrifice, because she wants to use the reaping to resurrect her own god. This means that there is still one stone knife (possessed by Hopper/Blance). This is the starting cinematic scene at the beginning of the game.

The reaping is temporarily stopped, but not forever given that the sacrifice was not complete. The destruction left its mark on the world (and destroyed a menhir) creating the Ashen Wasteland, but humanity was saved. Amma, one of the Lower Umbra who agreed with stopping the Higher Umbra but not with Hopper/Blance sacrificing himself, starts to go around the humans.

She goes to the Isle of Shadows where the humans called Eikon live. She founds the Temple of the Shadow Clans warriors also known as warriors of peace. These warriors are trained into absolute internal peace (which might protect them from being controlled by reapers). Amma (known as the Great Ancestress by them) founded this temple to face the reapers, and because she is a seeress she knows that one day she will need the help of Lo Pheng, one of these Eikon Warriors of peace. She also knew that the menhir are powerful, so as a tradition, the warriors of peace inserts strix (stones from the menhir) inside the bodies of the warriors - these stones protect them from the reaping and are called sacrificial stones. These stones are passed through warriors - basically, when one of the Shadow Clan becomes old her is sacrificed and the stones taken out of his body and inserted into the body of a new warrior.

After founding the warriors of peace, Amma left and wandered some more before founding the Raydonan Abode of the Humble, a monastery that train women into warrior. Then she left again - in the game she comments herself that she feels like she failed at everything she tried.

One day Blance/Hopper is travelling and he touches an old chapel that has been destroyed by a new menhir - a menhir that is not supposed to be there. This is in Opacum. The stones of the chapel are infused by magic, of the god probably, and Hopper/Blance unknowingly infuse it in a book he possesses. He gives it to Amma and unknowngly Adna, the Higher Umbra, is infused in the book and take control of her again making her her slave. That is why Amma ín the game is serving Adna, against her will.

In the meantime, Harga, Childao's Lower Umbra, was also wandering among humans. She is the one who creates the nomadic people called Qimra. If you speak with Reet (a Qimra) she will explain that her people descend from the Enses. She says that there was a powerful witch called Harga, who possessed human women and used their bodies to sleep with awakened Enses. This Harga would free the Enses from the branwashing too. Harga died as a curro, sacrificing herself. Because Harga is probably Childao's Lower Umbra, this means that Reet is of Childao's "blood", so she can be a chosen one of her god.

The Lower Umbra known as Qarbaph/Drooket/Drewer was also going around, having a bunch of children. Qarbaph/Drooket/Drewer also has another stone knife (probably created by him). He also might have fathered Philia with Childao (him or Orkan), and he definitely fathered Brett.

One day Qarbaph/Drooket/Drewer (living as Drewer) saves the soldier Thorn from the end of the world, a strange magical Veil, dying (discorporating) in the event. The trauma left a sign on Thorn's soul.

Childao's goal is to reincarnate/awaken her god and this can be done only through "her flesh". This means that it can be done only through someone born from her/her Lower Umbra. The candidates in the game are: Philia (daughter of Childao and probably Qarbaph), Reet (offspring of Childao, given that all Qimra are) and Gleda (who is connected to Childao through the Lower Umbra Drewer, who gave his life to save Gleda's father, Thorn, just before Gleda was conceived).

The Higher Umbra wants to resurrect their gods - but Childao wants to resurrect her own god by reincarnating her into a Chosen One (I will explain more on why, when I talk about the end).

A little bit more on the Lower Umbra:

If Thorn and Lo Pheng are dead, you play the end as Hopper/Blance and you find out that three of Atraakh's shadows died at Drowsy Deep.

THE SET UP FOR THE GAME (3)

700 years after the Second Reaping, the Third Reaping starts.

The humans are divived in different kingdoms and territories.

Frisia, in the North, known for its Temple of Wrath that often performs sacrifice, and having Woden as capital. Frisia is an allaiance of three Northern Kingdoms: the Frisia, Vandilia, Gelia.

In the South we have the alliance of five kingdoms: Berkana (Opacum as capital), Jerana (Ursus as capital), Odalah (Albius is one of the main cities), Isana (main city is Friga), Gerbona. These are called mainly Berkanian kingdoms (Berkana seems to be the main power) and they are ruled by the king of Jerana (chosen by the alliance to lead the Berkanian army). The current king is the grandfather (quite old) of Prince Treeg, who is the father of Hode (Prince Ho).

There are also other territories and people. There are the Pallians, who seem to be mainly sailors and close to the sea, and were at war with Berkanians. There are the Qmira, who are nomad people at the North of Berkana. There is the Isle of Shadows, where the Eikons live. Etc.

There are three protagonists in the story: Hopper/Blance (the Lower Umbra who failed his sacrifice), Thorn Brenin and Lo Pheng.

THE PLAYER: Thorn Brenin's story pre-game:

Thorn is a famous retired captain. He was fighting for Odalah (one of the Berkanian kingdoms) at the egde of the world, near the Veil and in other wars too. Before the game starts, Thorn meets Liki and they fall in love. They marry. Liki is the daughter of Stakhet Vichti, who is a veteran and Chamberlan of the royal house of Odalah (one of Berkanian five kingdoms). Thorn saves Stakhet's life from the Veil, and his friend Drewer sacrificed himself to let Thorn live (of course Thorn doesn't know that Drewer is a Lower Umbra, or even what Umbra are - and doesn't know this sacrifice left a mark in his soul).

After this campaign, Liki and Thorn have two children: Mact and Gleda.

Stakhet has two children: Liki and his only son Brann. Brann is a jerk, so Stakhet had to take his inheritance away from him and give it to Liki. For this reason, Brann detests Liki and her children.

here is the family:

At the start of the game, this is their status: Stakhet is in Opacum, Brann is being a dick in Ursus. Mact is near Friga (do not confound with Frisia, Friga is just a Berkanian city in the East) as a soldier, Liki, Thorn and Gleda are all living in Ursus. Thorn is helping the new recruits even if he is retired, Gleda is actually joining these new recruits for training and learning how to fight, and Liki is sick but alive.

Basically, these are the families of the Chosen Ones: Gleda, Philia and Reet. Just a note, I am not sure that Philia's father is Drewer.

As you can see, Gleda, Philia and Reet are all connected to Childao, thus Chosen Ones that can be the body for a god.*

NOTE THIS PICTURE HAS A MISTAKE: Childao is not the one who possessed the women to create the Qimira, it was Harga, Childao's Lower Umbra. Reet is connected to Childao through her. Also I am not sure if Philia's father is Drewer or Orkan, another of Childao's Lower Umbra.

I think any human created by a Higher Umbra would be able to be the vessel of a god, so there are probably even more Chosen Ones around the world.

THE PLAYER: Hopper/Blance

The other character the player controls is Hopper/Blance. We already talked about him, he is the Lower Umbra who failed the sacrifice.

THE PLAYER: Lo Pheng

Lo Pheng is the last character controlled by the player. He is an Eikon, so he is originated in the Isle of Shadows. He is an elite guard and was raised through the brutal methods of the Warriors of Peace: renouncing his family, killing his own family, killing a pet he was given, fighting against slaves and other Eikons for the priviledge of having the sacrificial stones implanted in his body. The idea of the warrior of peace is that they only kill and attack when necessary or paid for. At the beginning of the game, Lo Pheng has been lent (paid) to a Frisian called Pelko Soturi. Pelko commands one of the three legions of Frisia and asks for the services of the Temple of the Isle of Shadows as he fears some other general wants to kill him.

As a warrior of the Isle of Shadows (the "religion" founded by Amma centuries before) he has pieces of menhir in his body and this protects him from the reaping. He also has the duty to leave any active contract and return to the Isle of Shadows if a reaping begins.

At the beginning of the game he is in the Frisian capital of Wodan, protecting Pelko while the Temple of Wrath organizes a big sacrifices of prisoners - unusually big. Reet is among these prisoners.

THE STORY OF THE GAME (4)

(Very briefly)

Hopper/Blance meets with Amma in her hut. Amma can see the future so she warns him that the Third Reaping is about to start. It will start in the city of Wodan (north, in Frisia) and in the city of Albius (South, in the Berkanian kingdoms). She gifts Hopper/Blance a book and requests his stone knife in return. She foresaw that that knife is going to kill her, one day, so she wants to keep it.

Hopper/Blance leaves for Albius (which is closer than Wodan).

The Higher Umbra Childao visits Albius and leaves an incantation in the city's bell.

In the meantime, in Albius, the reaper Dorpkhal appears. His power makes the people of the city go mad and they start to kill each others. (This is what reapers do). Thorn finds out he is not affected because he is wearing (by accident) a strix, a stone from the menhir. He collects the strix and gives them to the survivors. Liki (his wife) also dies. Gleda, his daughter, finds that she has a strange painful sign on her neck.

To save her, Thorn decides to leave Albius to go visit the closest menhir, as menhir usually can heal people. He collects the survivors: his friend Krieger, the drunkyard Fisk, the young recruits Brett, Flitt, Hode (Prince Ho in disguise) and Sopp (Prince Ho's bodyguard). He gives strixes to everyone, as they can protect them from the curse/plague.

The city is basically decimated, only a few people escape, one of these is the merchant Risk, who is a Lower Umbra.

Thorn escape and in his journey he ends up recruiting some other characters. He finds the first menhir - but the Enses are using it for sacrifices. Thorn soon finds out that during a reaping the menhir are so filled with blood/sacrifice that they turn deadly - so they can't heal anymore.

They meet Childao (hiding as the witch Chila) who gives Gleda a mysterious bracelet and tells them to go to the city of Ursus where the healer Unda and her daughter Philia reside (Unda is of course one of Childao's aliases). Prince Ho (Hode) also reveals his real identity to the party.

At the same time, Lo Pheng is acting as a bodyguard for Pelko Soturi, in Wodan, capital of the kingdom of Frisia. Pelko is assisting to the Temple of Wrath's sacrifice, where prisoners are killed and tortured. This year's sacrifice is particularly big because one of the temple's warrior is actually a repear, using the humans' religion to fill the menhir with blood. One of the sacrifices is a Qimra woman named Reet, who was captured for recording hymns of the temple without permission.

The reaping start in Wodan too, and the repear Atraakh/Nakoma appears. Lo Pheng defeat him, dismembering him (not knowing Atraakh/Nakoma is not fully dead), and his duty as a warrior of Isle of Shadows demand that he returns home to warn of the start of the Third Reaping.

Lo Pheng leaves his client and leaves Wodan. On the journey he is followed by Reet, who also escaped, and other four prisoners, all women: Swarty (an ex prostitute and archer), Shannet and Kendi (both warriors of the temple), Bolla (an ex slave (?)). Kendi is the leader of this group of women, but she follows Reet's advice. Lo Pheng kinda... adopts them, and they try to flee Frisia. Reet is also marked by a painful mark on her neck, as like Gleda she is a chosen one (Swarty also has the same mark, so she might be a chosen one too).

Reet tells Lo Pheng that she knows a short cut to get closer to the Isle of Shadows, so they travel together. On the journey they end up recruiting other people, like Alus, a healer and monk. The women do not have much strixes with them, and Reet soon starts to feel sick, she is dying and Alus cannot save her.

Lo Pheng (who is seemingly starting to open up to his companions) decides to betray all of the rules of the Isle of Shadow and gives Reet one of his sacrificial stones, taking it from his own body. This saves and protects Reet.

While they keep travelling, Hopper/Blance is also travelling, trying to reach Albius. He arrives that the reaping already started, and many people are dead. The bell of the city keeps ringing (because of Childao's enchantment).

He finds the son of the king there (Treeg) who has been told by a witch (probably Childao) that someone will stop the cursed bell and that someone will be the one who returns Prince Ho. Treeg also wants Thorn to be arrested, for putting Prince Ho at risk.

Coranzon (a Lower Umbra) works for the temple and with Treeg, and he tells Hopper/Blance that he has heard that Thorn and her daughter Gleda faced a reaper and survived/were spared. Hopper/Blance is curious about Gleda and Thorn.

Hopper/Blance goes to look at the cursed bell and by touching it he makes it stop... except that the "curse" transferred on him. Childao enchanted the bell so that Hopper/Blance, by unraveling the spell, would be connected to the Reaping - almost a way to make the Reaping into a human form. This "curse" allows Hopper/Blance to save his own energy, but give energy to the reaping, or to "resist" the reaping, slowing it down, but losing his own energy.

Words on the bell said something along the lines of "Take into yourself what you can take, and if you do not burn out, carry it."... plus a request to follow the clues/riddles. There are seven parts in total of this riddle.

These seven parts are put around the world by Childao and are a way for her to finish her incantation. If Hopper/Blance finds all the seven part he will finish her incantation.

Hopper/Blance starts his journey to find prince Ho (Hode), accompanied by the soldier Ake. He finds other parts of the riddle, and clues of where Thorn (and Hode) could be going, so he follows them to Ursus.

(There are some variation of the story based on gameplay here)

In Ursus, Thorn and Gleda go to look for Philia and her mother. While with her, they are attacked by Enses who have already corrupted the city's menhir. The Enses are killed, but Prince Ho (Hode) is wounded. Philia saves his life, putting him into a suspended sleep. Still, the guards arrests Thorn because they recognize prince Ho and are sure Thorn is the cause of the wound. Philia and Gleda escape.

In prison, Thorn meets with his brother in law, who confirms he wants to see him and his family dead to get his inheritance. Still, there is a problem... Thorn's son Mact is still alive and Gleda too. So Thorn's brother in law (Brann) sends his two bodyguards (Andra and Foshta) on a mission. Andra and Foshta pretend to also be prisoners and free Thorn. They know Thorn will look for Gleda and Mact and have been hired to kill Thorn's children.

In the meantime, Hopper/Blance also arrives in Ursus and he meets Thorn. He finds out Gleda is nowhere to be seen and decides to look for her.

Helped by Andra and Foshta (depending on your player choices) Thorn leaves the prison and the city (with his companion and the two twins bodyguards) before the king can execute him. Prince Ho (Hode) remains wounded in Ursus.

Thorn decides to travel to where he knows Mact is being stationed. He recruits new companions on the way too.

Hopper/Blance, still in Ursus, finds another piece of the riddle, and also decide to visit Prince Ho, healing him. Hopper/Blance leaves Ursus again, on the trails of Thorn (the king still wants Thorn's dead) and hoping to find Gleda.

Thorn and his companions cross the Ashen Wasteland and they are reunited with Gleda. Gleda has been taken out of the city by Philia and then has met the merchant Rask (a Lower Umbra, but they do not know) who has (seemingly with magic) taken her back to Thorn. Rask remains behind, but Thorn, Gleda and the group keep marching towards the city where Mact is.

Rask/Chirlan, instead, waits for Hopper/Blance, who is on the trail of Thorn, and joins his group. They are both Lower Umbra so they know what is going on.

Thorn and companion arrives at the city of Friga where the soldier Drooket (who is the Lower Umbra Qarbaph/Drewer) tells them he had taken Mact under his wing, but Mact is now in danger because captured by cannibals. They go to save Mact, managing to rescue him by killing the dangerous cannibal criminal Mabok.

Andra and Foshta (the twins who pretended to help Thorn) try to kill Mact (they were hired for that), but Drooket throws himself in front of Mact and ends dying instead. Before dying, he gives a locket to Brett and a knife too. The knife is a stone knife who can kills Reapers.

Brett starts suspecting that he is the son of Drooket - and that Drooket was the man who was financing his journeys (to train as an archer) and giving money to his mother.

Thorn, Mact, Gleda and his companions travel north, they want to go to Opacum, where Thorn's father in law (Stakhet) lives and maybe can protect them from the ire of the king. Prince Ho (Hode) rejoins the group as he run away again because he doesn't like his grandpa the king. Also the grandpa the king dies, and Treeg is now king.

On the way, they meet Mabok the cannibal again... excepts that it is not Mabok... they realize that it is actually Drooket who, by dying, possessed the body of Mabok. They basically find out that Drooket is probably one of the reapers/umbra and also Drewer, the man who saved Thorn in the Veil. He is also Brett's father and the knife is a stone knife who can kill Umbras/reapers.

They travel to Opacum.

In the meantime, Hopper/Blance, who is travelling with Rask, is still following the riddles and putting them together. One day, they are ambushed by Nakoma/Atraakh. Nakoma/Atraakh kills Rask, trapping his soul before he can find a new body/creates himself a new body, and walks away.

Hopper/Blance, again alone with Ake, travels to Opacum.

In the meantime, Lo Pheng and the women are travelling towards the shortcut Reet knows. They meet various enemies, and some Enses too. They find an Ense who has been wounded but still alive - Reet knows some incantation from her people, as she is from the Qimra, who used to free Enses from their branwashing.

The Ense Khama, free from the brainwashing, joins Lo Pheng's party and travels with them. He has confused memories of his time trapped in the Ark, or before the Ark, but gives some information to Lo Pheng.

Lo Pheng still wants to go back to the Isle of Shadows, but also save Reet and finds a way to actually kill the reapers.

Reet leads the group to the shortcut - it is a magic menhir that has not been corrupted because it keeps changing places, a travelling menhir. A Lower Umbra is its guardian (Orkan).

The menhir is supposed to lead them... where they need to be, and they end up in the mountains, in front of Amma's hut.

Amma (a Lower Umbra) is the seer who founded the Temple of the Isle of Shadows, knowing that one day he would need one of their warriors (Lo Pheng). She reveals herself as the founder, and Lo Pheng accepts to escort her to where she needs to go. They all go to the city of Opacum.

IN OPACUM... we have Thorn and his family, reunited with Thorn's father in law. We have Treeg, the prince turned king, happy to be reunited with prince Ho (Hode). We have Hopper/Blance, just arrived and looking for the last pieces of riddles. We have Lo Pheng, just arrived with Reet, Amma and his party. Philia also arrives in Opacum.

Remember the knives: Amma has a knife (taken from Hopper/Blance) and Brett has a knife (given by his father, the Lower Umbra Drooket). In some cases (depending on your choices) Philia has this knife (or another knife?).

Brann (Thorn's brother in law) is also hiding in Opacum, and he wants to kill Thorn, his children and even his father, to get the inheritance.

We also have the armies of Frisia arriving, soldiers partially controlled by the Reapers. They all surround the city of Opacum in a siege.

Through Amma and Philia we finally finds out what is going on:

The reaping is happening, the menhir in Opacum has always been inactive - only because it was a focal point of menhirs, a way to free one of the gods. To free and reincarnate one of the gods what is needed is: human sacrifice (the Frisian army brings blood and victims to the menhir), the sacrifice of three Umbra, and a Chosen One.

In Opacum we now have at least three Chosen Ones connected to Childao: Reet, Gleda and Philia.

Amma reveals to Hopper/Blance that she is again a slave of Adna, her Higher Umbra. She gives Hopper/Blance the knife back, before turning into a Reaper, controlled by Adna...

Amma is defeated and Hopper/Blance kills her with the knife. Part of the riddle is on her form turned into stone, and Hopper/Blance collects it before it falls into ashes. The knife has been destroyed with her.

There is one last seventh part of the riddle missing and two Umbra to sacrifice to awaken the god.

At the end you can choose to play as Lo Pheng or Thorn. I will write the rest as Thorn as his story seemed more "canon" and was confirmed as the canon ending by the developers.

... Thorn and Gleda are forgiven by the king, but Brann is in the city and he kills his father. Thorn finally defeat his twin bodyguards and Brann escapes.

The Higher Umbra Nakoma/Atraakh enters in the city, as the soldiers managed to breach the wall. He attacks the main party, wanting to kill Hopper/Blance. He has Rask's soul to sacrifice and killing Hopper/Blance would be the third Umbra sacrifice.

Instead, Nakoma/Atraakh is defeated and Brett, using his father's stone knife (or Philia, depending on your choices), strikes the Umbra with the knife, killing him for good.

Because Nakoma/Atraakh also had Rask's soul in him, this is two Umbra dead.

The three Umbra sacrifices are completed, the menhir is active. The Chosen One (one of the three) can become the avatar of the reincarnated god (we do not know which god).

But - Childao's enchantment changes everything. The last part of the enchantment is found on the Chosen One's arm, and by reading it and following all the steps, Hopper/Blance has selected a specific god. The god who has reincarnated is the god of Childao, but conveniently trapped in a human body, hidden in Gleda's consciousness.

If you choose to play as Lo Pheng, the god ends up trapped in Reet instead.

The remaining Reapers (there are three Higher Umbra left, minus Childao) know they have been tricked by Childao and her god was the one chosen and now trapped into a human.

This dialogue between the Reapers happen even if Hopper/Blance completes the enchantment. This means that Childao specifically chose her god for a reason... but did not trust her god to become an avatar. She wanted her god, but she wanted her god trapped in a human prison and the god's mind hidden.

THE ENDING EXPLAINED (5)

Childao managed to create a woven enchantment (carried by Blance/Hopper) that would use the reaping (the human sacrifices at the menhir, the three Umbra sacrifices) to reincarnate her god/master into a human. But why?

At the very end we find out that her god (maybe all the gods) warned the Umbra to not check the Ark. Childao goes against the will of her god, wanting to find out what happened to the Salvation Ark and the Enses still trapped inside (unless summoned and teleported for the reaping). This cut scene happens at the same time as the battle on Opacum.

Childao arrives at the Ark, against her god's recommendations, and finds that it has been turned into a menhir, a sacrificial one, where Enses are used for reaping.

Her people (Enses) have been basically betrayed and her god has gone mad - is not the kind person she knew.

She might have suspected something, which is why her enchantment made sure to resurrect her god... but trapped inside a mortal/human's mind and not fully awakened.

THE ENDING EXPLAINED... my theory.

The tower of bodies that Childao finds at the end of the game is similar to a tower of bodies that the player can encounter while playing as Lo Pheng. The five gods of the Umbra are not the only gods mentioned in the game, as Amma mentions how Terminum used to have gods too. Because both tower of bodies are indipendent from menhir (but we know that the tower of bodies Lo Pheng sees is something he has never seen before and is connected to "gods"), it is possible that a new god (or well, an original god from Terminum) used the Salvation Ark's Enses for his own return.