Hun Corsair

The corsairs of the Hun Archipelago are renown and feared pirates that have been raiding the surrounding region for over 150 years. They are a constant menace to merchant vessels in the Dun, Cardinal, and Redshang seas.

The majority of Hun corsairs are tribal-run operations, with captains often being the head matriarch or patriarch. These families spend the majority of year as fishermen and local traders, and resort to piracy only during the winter seasons or when their primary trade has gone poorly.

A small minority of Hun pirates are not Hun themselves. In all cultures there are individuals unwilling to abide by the rules anf piracy can have an appeal to such misfits. Some are on the run from the law, others seek to escape the bounds of their restrictive societies. Huns corsairs have many democratic traditions, and regardless race, nationality, or gender, anyone showing the necessary temperament and skill will be treated fairly.

Some of the most famous captains of the Hun were outsiders that had earned the respect and loyalty of their Hun crew: the Barbar sisters, Captain Black, and Captain Ro Endan to name a few.

During times of depression, or political upheaval (such as when a new king is chosen) clan leaders will summon the tribes to form massive armadas of ships to wage war on nearby nations. These fleets will number in the hundreds and sometimes even thousands.

In such numbers, the Hun corsairs will scourge the coastlines plundering towns and villages, and enslaving all those not killed in battle. Slaves not held for ransom will be auctioned in Baatar or sold to Achean antimages.

Huns armament and ships vary greatly.

Small tribes will have nothing more than small fishing vessels and large rowing boats. Boarders little more than fisherman armed with whatever weapons they have on hand. They rely on surprise and numbers to overcome defenders.

Larger tribes may have galleys or xebecs with well equipped crews capable of harassing the larger merchant fleets.

Regardless the chance of victory, Hun corsairs will hesitate to commit their forces against well defended opponents. Their shipmates are often close friends or family, and it is only when they are truly desperate that they will engage in battles likely to have heavy casualties.

 

 

Antimage

Antimages are humans that have devoted their lives to the progress of science, the destruction of magic, and the eradication of all non-human races. They are divided into three ranks: apprentices, adepts, and masters.

Apprentices are taken from the general population, either from the slaves they buy or occasionally individuals their spies recruit from other lands. Antimages seek out psychopathic individuals with strong inclinations towards science and then indoctrinate them with their xenophobic ideology. They are generally used for low level missions and kept in check with promises of greater rewards. They will usually be entrusted with a minor technological device to assist them in their goals.

From the ranks of apprentices, Master choose the more promising and further their training until they are considered Adepts. Antimage adepts are the field commanders for their forces generally the highest ranking members that can be found outside Achean territory. They can be dangerous individuals to face. Adepts sports technological upgrades to their body, enabling them to perform superhuman acts, and will be equipped with various high tech weaponry. They almost always have a personal guard, human or otherwise.

At the top are the Antimage masters. They are the immortal leaders of their movement, each an original colonist from the dead world of Istoval. They are empowered by the most powerful of scientific advances which have not only kept them alive for thousands of years, but given them immense destructive capabilities. Each master is unique and enhanced in a different method.

Antimage masters reside deep in protected fortresses in the jungles of Achea, where they spend their time plotting the downfall of the magic kingdoms of the West while simultaneously frustrating similar plans of their peers. Each is protected by lesser antimages and their armies of beastmen mutants.

History

During the Fourth Age, the Antimages of the East had dominated Aedra until being beaten back by Ascendant forces. But who were they, where did they come from, and why did they possess such powerful and destructive technology?

When the elves came to Istoval and rescued humanity from the gods, its inhabitants were embroiled in an endless worldwide war, enslaved by a group of fascist leaders. Once upon the Ark and freed from bondage, most of humanity quickly discarded these brutal ideologies, but a small group of human did not.

They called themselves Traditionalists. They were engineers, chemist, physicist, and biologist and had all held high political positions back home. Life in the Ark, among the peaceful Archons and other strange races was intolerable. So intolerable, they chose to sleep the entirety of the Ark’s voyage to Aedra in cryogenic chambers. They conjectured the Archons would sooner or later find a new world for humanity to settle, and at that time, they would emerge and rebuild the new world in the image of the old. However, things did not go as planned.

To their dismay,  the Archons did not find separate world for each race, but instead chose Aedrea to become the new home for all of mankind.  The Traditionalists knew they could not compete with all the different races with their strange  magics, so they hid their intentions and waited for a chance to strike.

The Fourth Age, with its upheaval and diminishing of magic, was that chance. The Traditionalist established their own small empires and began a brutal campaign of racial cleansing. The other races of mankind: dwarves, halfling, gnomes, and many others, went into hiding or fled to the West. However, the primary targets of their initial campaigns were wizards. For this unrelenting pursuit of all those that could wield magic, Traditionalists were dubbed Antimages.

Quickly the Antimage old animosities returned. Ideologies of ethnic superiority rekindled and various factions organized with the Antimage leadership. Humanity divided into four ethnocentric nations: dark skinned humans on the island nation of Numia, asiatic humans in Canton, caucasians in the regions of Vindr, and arabic/indic humans in the region now known as Baatar.  Aedra was plunged into a world war.  The new world had begun to mimic the old.

But this war was short lived as psionically endowed humans from the west, calling themselves the Ascendants, ended the Antimage rule and pushed them into the Dead Magics of the Achea to the West, where they remain still today.

For hundreds of years they have kept quiet in their dark jungles and the rest of the world has been content to leave it at that. There are rumors of strange creatures being spotted along the Achean borders, and it is a known fact Baatari and Hun slavers often transports their goods into Achean territory. Beyond that nothing else is known and most would prefer to keep it that way.