#rustsun empire

[the-rat-plays-games]

Noble Families of the Rustsun Empire (with theme songs hehe)

Despite the all-ecompassing control of the God-Empress Sloane, there are a number of Noble Families within the Empire: those who have, over the generations of her reign, elevated themselves -- and in some cases, those who are descended from original followers. Of these, there are three Divisions in the families: The Royals, or -- those who are considered to be so closely-aligned with the Empress’ Might that She has made them Divine Royalty. They are not Godlings as Sloane, her wives, and her children are. Instead, they are as close as a mortal being can get to such power. They may do as they please; their wills may only be surpassed by those of the actual Divinities. There are the High Nobles next, and these  are the families who are, well. Of high nobility. They are useful, they are loyal, and they have proven themselves. This is where many political plays take place, as Royals are only made from the ranks of the High Nobles. Of course, very few of them seem to realize that this was a deliberate mechanism to start infighting -- to see the sparks burn out before they can ignite into wildfires. Then there are the lowest of the Noble Families, those who are Lesser Nobles. They may not be as rich or powerful as those above them, and in some cases they are barely more than citizens who have been given a new position in exchange for some favor. Notably, however, Lesser Nobles are those elevated from the lower classes; it is well known, for example, that the Brandei family of nobility extends from a particularly smart-thinking hunter of anomalies. In order, the Families themselves, with theme songs (that I can elaborate on if someone wants but i could ramble about themes forever):  -> The Bessompierres, of course. ( Their theme in my brain is Shiver by San Fermin). The Royals: - Rightknife Family ( headed by Kaine. Their song is Come Join The Murder by White Buffalo. This is the smallest of all the families; it literally only consists of Kaine and her wife Shizuna Sano, as their daughter Requiem has been accepted as Isra’s bride.) - Ireno Family ( headed by Oerinnys & her husband, Archmage Pthonus. Their song is Carrion Comfort by aeseaes.) - Salve Family ( headed by Candy. Their theme is Song For A Siren by The Jane Austen Argument.) - Carpo Family ( headed by ... Carpo. Their theme is Wires by The Neighborhood -- which might tell you a little bit about how the family got to where it is.) The High Nobility: - The Gavendets (headed by Teague, which is all kinds of scandalous because Teague technically may have committed a minor bit of treason when she plotted against the Empress. The family’s theme is Feed The Machine by Poor Man’s Poison). - The Wulfeyes ( headed by Rhysande. Very mysterious family. Nobody knows much about these people. This is likely by design. Their theme is Inside Of You In Spite Of You by thoushaltnot. ) - The Brightwells (headed by Antonia Brightwell. Magical scions. Inventors of many things, including much of the strange biotech that runs in the empire. Their theme song is Todos pasan por mi rancho by El Cuarteto De Nos. Much like the Carpo theme, the Brightwell theme gives a bit of the game away with the family’s oddities.) - The Silgarrio family (Headed by Mishka. Old blood. Mishka’s ancestors were present when the Empire was formed, or so they believe.  Their theme is Fly On The Windscreen by Depeche Mode.) The Low Nobility:  - The Zathaii ( headed by Mirielle, who inherited after the death of her husband. Their theme is One Day The Only Butterflies Left ... by Bring Me The Horizon.) - The Wyghts ( headed by the painted assassin duo of Deathknell and Grimdark. What they actually do is unknown, because it’s generally agreed that their assassin getup is too conspicuous. Their theme is Mr. Crowley by Ozzy Osbourne! ) And finally ... - the Coranthians (headed by Cora, who inherited the name “cora” upon taking over the family when her parents died. They’re oddly diplomatic, and tend to be peaceful, not wanting to engage in the same nonsense as the other families. Their theme is Small Blue Thing by Suzanne Vega.) ... if you made it to the bottom of this post, bless you lmfao. as a result the first person to note me with their favorite song off this list will get a free little scribble, either anthro, gijinka or regular.

[the-rat-plays-games]

SHIZUNA SANO is a strange woman, to say the least, but it isn’t actually her magical abilities that took her to the Empress’ Court. She is not so plainly traumatized as her on-and-off partner Kaine, but Shizuna ventured far too deep into unexplored waters and came back with a haunting knowledge that dug into her brain and refused to leave. How could she describe what she saw there? All she knows now is that she knew things, for a second, and she saw the vastness of the depths, of the primordial truths that are called the Thirteen. And then it was gone. In her search to find something to replace that knowledge that will never be hers again, Shizuna eventually found her way to the Rustsun Empire -- found herself before its Goldcap throne and the three wives who held sway. So she spoke to them, and said: “I am a seer, I am a healer, I come from the tidepools, you must have me,” for Shizuna could feel the pressure building in higher planes even then, a tension that has only become stronger. The Golden Crowns took her into their court.

Now Shizuna mends hurts. She patches up gladiators and reads their futures in their blood and broken bones. She has a daughter in the capitol who has a cloak that shimmers with deep blues. Shizuna despises the cloak. Tries not to despise the girl. ( “Why’d you name her that,” Kaine growls. “Requiem’s no name f’r’a kid.” Shizuna’s fingertips twitch. “Her name will keep spirits away. I know it will.” )

[the-rat-plays-games]

work in progress of Scramm, who lives on the outskirts of the Rustsun Empire, near the dividing line of other territories and the Nature Flight. She’s from neither plague or nature, but shadow, and arguably this is what saved her when she came in contact with one of the many anomalous objects in the Empire’s domain.

she doesn’t know what it was, only that it hurt a great deal when it was absorbed into her skin, and that ever since then, she can manifest strange shadow-growths with bladed edges and great reach. Scramm keeps to herself. She’ll help rebels and loyalists alike. She has no real desire to start trouble when living on the outskirts is hard enough. Of course, the exception to this are the packs of raiders and ravagers that sweep from Nature to Plague -- and even plague folks who think she’s an easy target. In that case, she really doesn’t feel anything at all about slicing them to ribbons.

[the-rat-plays-games]

So I’ve been going over my flight rising lore and fixing it up at work, because i think right now it’s too messy -- and here are some of my results!

The Empire of the Rusted Sun / Rustsun Empire is still ... the same as always. It is led by Sloane Bessompierre, The God-Empress, The Blistered Light , along with her two wives -- Elyse and Elliot. They do not love one another, and their children were created through blood magic. (Sloane has an actual love interest and Elyse/Elliot have their own children that they had together). There are three major cities in the Empire: Nexus Aeter/Nervis Aeternum (the name is for the same place, but those who are of higher rank or magic promise use the term Nexus Aeter, and the Nervis Aeternum is the term that... everyone else uses), Ptolemus the Sessile City (which is... as it suggests, a bound-down city that is rooted into the blighted earth) and then the zone known colloquially as “The Underhell”, which is... a weird little zone that just bores very far down into the earth, and a lot of people live in the broken-up tunnels. I have a diagram in the works. The FR Deities do exist as I have stated before -- but they are each abstract expressions of their element. For example, a drought-season with high temperatures and dry wind may both be blamed on the Windsinger or Lightweaver, or even the Earthshaker. Beyond the Deities, there is a veil which leads to -- probably -- a core aspect of the Shade. There are those Beyond the Shade, a group of warped and twisted things that are Not Dragons or Gods or People, a group that seeks to break through and destroy our world. The Visceru Sancti worship one of them , and the Grave Chorus worship another.

There are anomalies in the wasteland, which are more than likely the results of these Entities trying to break through into “our” world; the blood they shed taints the fabric of existence itself. The Strauss Syndicate, a group technically under orders from the Empress, is trying to round up, catalog, and contain these entities as they are able, but it’s hard to do, and the Empress has had several of her opponents deliberately exposed to the more volatile natural anomalies, so that they would be warped and changed by them. In another post, I’ll go into the groups/ families that run each city, and maybe post my sketch of the Underhell.

[the-rat-plays-games]

honestly i thought this would take longer to finish but the scribbly style lends itself to getting done fast Sauerbrey, leader of the Solaris Coalition, who are a dozen escaped Lightning experiments who now live in Plague territory, hiding out in Rustsun undertunnels.

[the-rat-plays-games]

5 21 37?

> 5. Is the clan spiritual and highly loyal to their deity? Are they indifferent?

Oh man. I have to wheel out my actual diagrams to explain this, because my clan isn't so much a 'clan' as it is an 'empire'.

First, in the lore of my clan, the Deities of Sornieth do exist. They are seen as slightly different, however, than in regular flight rising lore. I deliberately keep things vague as to why this is, or how true their interpretations are, so that I can have my folks interact with other clans with minimal issue. The eleven deities exist as primal Truths. The Flamecaller is seen as an embodiment of flame, yes, but beyond that, the Flamecaller is believed to be passion, to be wildness, to be many things that may inhabit a person. The Plaguebringer, then, is an extension of, yes, plague and disease and death and survival, but is also seen as a prideful reaper-esque figure; her laws are ineffable, and all things die.

Remember this: all things must die.

So the Eleven are seen as very, very real, even if they may not take physical form overmuch, or at all. But, as I have alluded to in past posts, while my clan does believe in the Eleven, the Rustsun Empire does not overtly worship any of them. They are not led by a God that reeks of plague, or a queen of shimmering light.

Instead, they worship (even if it is only lip-service), the God-Empress, who was born beneath the sign of the Lightbringer and came to the Plaguelands as a baby. In the divine ladder, Sloane Bessompierre is a Goddess, in the more physical sense. She stands below the Eleven, yes, as not even she is a primal truth in and of herself; she is not death, or light, or water, but she is Sloane, and in this, she is given a very real weakness. Would it be possible for her to overthrow one of the Eleven? Quite possibly. But, in truth, Sloane overthrowing a member of the Eleven would make her cease to exist as Sloane Bessompierre. She would become a disembodied truth. She would become a facet of the universe. She would lose her self.

Sloane, having achieved Godhood, is what the Rustsun Empire worships (or pretends to worship), on the whole. Of course, there are those who pray to Gladekeeper, or Plaguebringer, or the Arcanist, or Stormcatcher -- as is their way. But Sloane? She is a tangible Goddess, who has existed as far as anyone can remember. (To pull back the curtain and wink at the audience: she has not always been here. ) But all things must die, right? Right-? But she has not. There are no concerned whispers, for those who understand this truth have not the guts to whisper. They know better. There are those who have whispered, and fought against the God-Empress, and for those troubles-- -- they are no longer what they were. So, I suppose, the shortest answer of this question is simply: they'd better at least pretend to be faithful. The only factions that do not are the Crimson Crawl Remnants and the Solaris Hideouts; both of them are thusly subject to extermination, should Sloane choose to turn her gaze upon them. 21. Does your clan have a healer? There are three individuals who are healers! Shizuna Sano, the first, is a sly sort, all grins and teeth and promises. She came from the water-aligned clans years back and found a place quickly at Sloane's side. She is one of the soul-menders of the Reddened Court, and also sees to the mending of gladiators -- or at least the ones who have won. There are whispers that her methodology does more harm than good, but none would dare say this to her face, especially not after they witness her deliver a cure that revives the tissue of the dead. Perhaps this is a fearful respect for the woman who can see the future. Perhaps the denizens fear having their futures foretold. In truth, Ruthe is not much of a healer, but she can mend flesh with a simple touch. Her magic is anomalous; she is not meant to have it. She works for the Strauss Syndicate and puts spears through the skulls of those who threaten her benefactors -- she is a hitwoman, but her hands are blessed to heal and hurt. Ruthe does not use her healing magic much at all. It makes her feel some kind of way. Makes her guts feel unsafe. Makes her feel like the world is playing a trick on her. If she were meant to be more than a bloodslick killer, she would have grown up differently. Wouldn't have had the training she did. It feels like a joke, you know? But still, she has been known to restore health to the Syndicate's wounded, and then she slinks away to drink, and pretend she feels nothing at all. In recent months, Ruthe has found herself playing back-alley doctor. She objects -- a killer cannot be good at this, she says -- but does it anyways. And she does it for free. Once, as her parents fled from the life of cultists, Sawyl Shatterlaugh died. One moment she was alive, helping pull her mother Dire out of the blast zone of a lightning weapon -- and in the next, her side was blasted away, and she knew only darkness. In the dark, there were strands of lightning, copper-smelling and skin-searing. There were chanting words, desperate screams of her parents. She does not remember much. She remembers waking, though, galvanized into action, muscles jerking to life. She remembers being able to do the same to others. Her gift is the only doctor available in the Underhell, and she does her best to make it work right. Sometimes, things go wrong, but there isn't much anger at all for the obviously unpracticed practitioner. 37. What is the origin of your clan's name?

Ok so! I'll go over two of these -- the Crimson Crawl and The Rustsun Empire. The Crimson Crawl cult? That was my original lore. Like. Years back, when I first joined six years ago or so, and was super edgy and stuff. I had a nasty sacrificial cult named the Crimson Crawl and they were named for the fact that they could corrupt the land they walked on, rendering it unlivable to even other plague dragons who did not join them. Now, it's become a sort of... calling card in a different way. Crimson Crawl = crawling blood after sacrificial rituals. Now they've split into two groups, of course, the runaways (including my progens who were the original cult leaders) and the hangers-on, who are led by Ichor and are not nice. The Rustsun Empire itself was named because I think it fits them. If you want to think of it in a different kind of way, it's almost like a parasite in the sun, at least that's how i see it. The light, the sun, corrupted and glutted with blood. An eclipse, but worse. That's Sloane. She has a benevolent face, but she has committed an atrocity by wiping memories of anyone who could remember who she was, once. She's a woman who the empire loves, for the most part, but she should not be loved. She is the squirming, glutted worm in the creature's heart. Thank you so much for asking!

[the-rat-plays-games]

3 17?3 17?

3. What Is your clan's main source of income?

The Rustsun Empire is sustained by a variety of exports, including textiles (produced in Nervis Aternum itself and a few of the tertiary villages as well as the Nexus, which is a yet-undiscussed city within the Empire's borders that is plague-industrial: think steam tech and ironworks and bastardized things that other clans have done. Knockoff Lightning and Fire technology for handling dangerous materials, that sort of thing -- but it's the whole CITY, a region of hissing steam and blood-rock that is. very. unaccommodating to outsider life. the people who live there are adapted to the hostility of it), Blood-rock, statuary, some spices gathered from the clotted earth, and meat. There are other things, but these are the known ones. Meat is a constant export -- they do not practice factory farming. Instead, a few villages in the Tangledown (the area of the territory that borders closest to nature and thus the area where raising cattle-things for outside consumption is most workable) and strange underground establishments in the Underhell are responsible for raising -- well, they're not cattle. They're -- things. Strange, multi-limbed things that nonetheless are safe to eat. They come from the tunnels deep below. It is notable that the empire does not actually export any of its technology, and doing so is considered a crime. It's one of the few things that will make the Empress' Guard leave Nervis Aternum and visit a small village to drag someone away.

17. Who teaches the younglings the basics?

This depends on the birthplace of the youngster and their nobility as well as a few other factors. As a general rule, anyone born to the Empress' family or her Guard is going to have a life where they are taught by several tutors. Of course, because this is plague territory, anyone who wants to actually become a member of the Guard as opposed to just be a member of a family that belongs to it must go into the wasteland and survive for a period of time, all on their own. It's a cushy sort of education. Currently, the person who taught the three heirs (Cassandra, Isra, and Sgaille) is Teague (multigaze warning if that bothers you). In Nervis itself, you have an actual academy, though. People come from both other clans, other flights, and the outer reaches of the empire to learn at the academy here, which is headed by Pthonus. They are the overseer of all education that goes on, and are trying hard to be brought into the fold of the actual Empire movers and shakers. Now, if you go to the Underhell, teaching tends to be done by small communities -- for example, the refugees from the Crimson Crawl tend to be the one who teach their kids things due to a lack of trust regarding the greater community. There is an actual school there, but it is ramshackle at best, and the teacher, Glitzgore, doesn't seem to care too much about teaching things that may get her in trouble. Kids tend to learn the trades of their parents, but also learn thievery and more backhanded survival skills. Ferals, those wild packs who have no real home, educate in tooth and claw. They teach their kids to survive. They teach their kids how to kill, and form more packs of their own. Some, such as Canny's group, are surprisingly loving and worm. Some are not. Education in the Sessile City is pretty mundane, really. Basic schooling up until the kid is in their teens, and then they're expected to take a trade. Most interesting is what happens in the Nexus, though. You're given a series of aptitude tests throughout your life, which determines which of the very dangerous jobs in the industrial maw you're allowed to do. Once a person hits the age of 18, they are taken to complete these tests. BEFORE then, they know that it's dangerous and can run around in vents and play in wreckage and all that, But after 18, you're expected to take your tests, be ruled out of some stuff for reflex issues or what have you, and then to work. BUT, before then, kids are expected to be -- well, kids. There's no pressure or stress. Your parents don't educate you on the arduous nature of the work done in Nexus. You're a kid. You can learn things if you ask, if you want to learn, but for the most part, it's pretty hands off. I should actually do a huge post about education in the empire ghjfhgjf