#tu'la worldbuilding

[kurithedweeb]

Ru’aun is the region with the most dialects, but it doesn’t have its own sign language. In Ru’aun, you have the Common language, the Yggdrasil forest language, the Eastern dialect, the Western dialect, and three different werewolf dialects, plus the old tongue is still fairly common among scholars and religious peoples and is used in schools in O’khasis and Scaleswind.

In Tu’la, you have the overarching common language, the desert dialect, the jungle dialect, and a fairly widespread sign language. It’s very common for meif’wa to communicate using sub-vocalizations but humans and some meif’wa hybrids can’t do this. It’s highly debated on whether or not the local werewolf population can understand sub-vocalizations. As a compromise for when meif’wa go non-verbal or when they can’t risk being overheard, the sign language is used. Tu’la sign doesn’t use many big motions, the hands are usually kept close to the chest and the angle of the hand and positioning of the fingers is very important. Many signs look similar, so it’s easy to get mixed up if you’re a beginner and it’s hard to distinguish which is which in the dark if you don’t have good night vision.

Gal’ruk sign is the complete opposite. Very expressive motions, lots of waving in patterns, and very few specific hand shapes. The snow and ice and all the layers you’re wearing eats up a lot of sound so communicating at a distance can be difficult. The hand shapes are limited to what you can manage with mittens, so it’s basically open hand with or without thumb sticking out, closed hand with or without thumb sticking out, and pointing. With such a small population, basically everyone knows at least the basics. Galenk is the local spoken language among the Enki Warrior Tribe, but some also speak Ru’auni Common, usually taught by whoever gets shipwrecked there.

[wyverndreamers]

i love my tu'la worldbuilding shit bc it's fun to me, for example i decided that meif'wa, as a society, are fairly matriarchal. for no other reason other than i felt like it. which includes their monarchy, the crown usually passed between the oldest ladies in the family. which makes the current 'evil king' very interesting in this context because it could very well just be political propaganda because male heirs aren't the precedent 💀

[mcd-brainrot-hours]

worldbuilding (kinda) hc:

menphia didnt have any kids so before she passed, she declared that each time a fury died, a fight to the death would be held between candidates would be held in the gladiator ring. whoever emerged victorious (think of the hunger games) became the holder of menphia's relic.

as time progressed, this became one of tu'la's biggest events and turned into a spectacle of sorts. the tu'lan royals throw parties and flaunt their wealth during parades in which the king would show off the possible furies, menphia's gladiators.

as fate would have it, aphmau and gang end up in tu’la just in time to watch it unfold, maybe even participate in.

[that-one-i-think]

The Sun in Tu'la lore

I am still on my scifi kick but while I am on the celestial bodies track, might as well get some my classic MCD AU worldbuilding out of the way.

So the sun is most commonly associated with the Divine Warrior Menphia, as she is the blazing fury. It was rumored that she was made by the sun herself, her golden-orange mane blazed with fire and her eyes were said to melt the will of her enemies. A true lioness.

It wasn't always like that though, as in Tu'la the worship of the sun was much older than even the birth of Menphia. The sun was the bringing of light, energy, fire, and was what rose people and the crops during the day. In most areas in Tu'la, the sun is worshipped along with Menphia, as she is now considered an aspect of the sun. After all, it is what meif'wa accredited to creating them and their homeland of Tu'la.

The origin story of Tu'la is that it was once just vast ocean with no life. The sun was lonely, for the moon had already had its own people with its wolves. The sun cried and cried, it's loneliness consuming it until one tear managed to land on on earth. That tear of pure sun hit the water, causing it to turn from water to magma and finally to land. The sun saw the land and wiped their tears, their voice filling the land with laughter. Hearing such a beautiful voice, the wind and sea decided to gift the sun's new land with life, plants scattered the land and the moon gave the land a welcoming present with animals galor.

The suns land had animals and plants but they had no subject. Not wanting to feel left out, they took some sea water and sand, molding it into the shape of a cat, them a human. Unfortunately, the sun was so excited that the melting the glass of life together to form the first meif'wa. The sun loved them so much that they were kissed on the forehead and given life! From them the sun spent years crafting new meif'wa of all shapes and sizes, from tigers to lions to bengals, their efforts turning half of the region of Tu'la into dessert, for the glass creations needed more and more sand.

Eventually, they stopped but it is said that the reason Tu'la is so hot is because the sun loves their people so much. Also, a superstition is that meif'wa with forehead markings are blessed by the sun themselves. A permanent reminder of the kiss of life

[gumbootillustrations]

ok so bc ive been trying to hash out an essay on suburbia and public transport ive been thinking a lot abt architecture lately

which means that ive been thinking a lot abt architecture within the context of mcd and mys

so like. human dwellings and architecture r largely influenced by the environment theyre built in and the materials available to them. meteli has a lot of stilt houses bc its built right next to an estuary that cops a fair few storm surges throughout the cyclone season, for example, and houses in colder areas like o'khasis and pikoro are built to withstand the harsh winters.

however, the purpose of this post was to yarn abt the dwellings of meif'wa and lu'pira (werewolves). specifically, i think that werewolves, because they lived communally for a long time, would prioritise the ability to have lots of people over without too much hassle. in mcd, lu'pira villages are generally built with several smaller dwellings around one large central structure in the middle for things like pack meetings, celebrations, and other events. it'd probably be where most of the pack sleeps, too, especially those who don't have children yet. by the time that mystreet rolls around, this has largely been adapted into houses that are largely open-plan for the most part, with smaller rooms for spaces such as bathrooms, offices, or storage off to the side or on a separate story.

meif'wa houses, on the other hand, tend to be a lot more vertical than lu'pira houses, and don't tend to be constructed around communality to the same extent. meif'wa from southern tu'la (north africa) tend to have houses built with more communality in mind (given that their genetics are much more influenced by the social cats of africa) than those built by meif'wa from tsu'nara (which are influenced by the solitary cats of asia). however, one thing that all these houses have in common are that they're quite vertical and have lots of small rooms. loft spaces are common.

idk. housing worldbuilding shenaniganery go brrrrrrr

[garrothromeave]

Welcome to my full map of the MCD world. Ru'uan is Irene's region, Galrun is Enki's, Tu'la is Shad's, Altok is Esmund's, Straket is Menphia's, and Merka is Kul'zak's. I tried to base it on as much canon as I could, but sometimes you just gotta go with what feels right

you are. a madlad. only respect. nothing but respect. this is literally insane dude, holy SHIT. i LOVE the additional regions, it’s so freakin cool and creative! honestly man, i can genuinely see this as being the actual world map for the mcd universe! and dog, if you ever need players hit me UP because i would gladly join good god, the worldbuilding already looks phenomenal. good luck!! (also, if you want me to take this post down at any point let me know, i’d understand why.)

[kurithedweeb]

It’s the same anon again because the MCD beetles are slowly consuming my brain, but what are you thought on clothing culture in universe?

Like of course climate plays a big role in how traditional dress looks, but apart from that there’s also things like religion that play a big role. We don’t really know what the climate is like in Ru’aun but Irene is a big thing, how does that effect clothing choices, what dyes are most common and how does that reflect in clothes?

I’m a sucker for world building

Hello again, anon! Lucky for you I, too, am a sucker for worldbuilding. I have been considering my answer for literal days. I’ve vaguely commented on modesty rules in Ru’aun before but we’ve yet to get into fashion trends and hierarchical or religious dress, not to mention personal ornamentation and the different meanings associated with that in different areas, so let’s talk about Ru’aun first.

Because of the impassable Sacred Forest, most towns are along the coast to facilitate travel, and it’s a very lush and green region. The majority of the land is either plains or various forests, with a variety of cliffs, shoals and a few mountains scattered around, plus stretches of swampland and beach. Dyes are usually made from whatever resources are nearby, so you’ll see a much wider range of colors in settlements near flower fields or birch forests. Popular port towns like Meteli, O’khasis and Bright Port also have more variety, but will most often stick to colors that have special meanings to the town. Whites, greys, and blues are popular in O’khasis and Scaleswind as the religious capitals of the region, but red is also pretty prominent in Scalesind.

The same general rule also applies to fabrics and jewelry—mohair comes from goats so it’s easier to acquire in Phoenix Drop where there are tons, there’s more precious metals in Scaleswind, and in Nahakra people take any broken glass they find and lay the pieces in fine mesh containers on the tideline to make sea glass for decorations. Fabric and dye are common trading goods, especially in more backwater towns where the physical currency used in bigger villages and city-states have about as much practical value as an especially shiny rock. The most popular kinds of fabrics in Ru’aun are mohair and wool for their durability and temperature regulation respectively, with leather, ore and ivory as the most common materials in ornamentation.

The primary religion is what I’ve been calling the Divine Faith, which worships the Divine Warriors as a whole under the figurehead of Irene and has various subsets that focus more on each individual Divine Warrior, with the grand majority of its followers falling under the Church of the Matron or cults dedicated to the Destroyer, with the Trail of the Wanderer as a close second. Which of the Divine Warriors you follow most closely definitely has an effect on your attire. 

Disciples of Irene wear small cloaks modeled after hers and members of the church hide their faces as a way to present themselves as closer to the goddess since you don’t look upon those of divine nature or close to divinity without consequences, most often using dark blue or white veils stitched with gold, since those are the colors she’s documented wearing most often and are therefore most often associated with her, though purple is too. Devout followers cover their eyes, members of the church like priests and nuns cover the lower half of their faces, and the High Priest covers his entire face, usually veiled or with a simple mask in public and with a more ceremonial mask during sermons and ceremonies. 

Followers of the Destroyer are much more subtle because they’re technically outlawed, they have a lot more to do with ornamentation than clothing. If you have long hair, it’s always pinned up and back, never in a ponytail and never left loose, usually in braids and buns and other hairstyles that wouldn’t be out of place on a guard, nothing an enemy can easily yank on. Hanging jewelry is also out. Hair is adorned with warmly colored beads and hair sticks that can be used as weapons and on occasion chains are woven into braids, most other accessories are close-fitting: there are nearly always cuffs around the wrists and ankles, subtly decorated wraps around the waist are more common in cities, chokers with detailing done in texture are uncommon but widely used, and earrings and ear cuffs are rare and usually kept for formal ceremonies. 

Those on the Trail of the Wanderer are nearly always found to be wearing travel-appropriate clothes no matter the occasion or setting, and there’s touches of pirate and backpacking aesthetic throughout. They tend to carry just about everything they own, dedicating their life to traveling and seeing the world the way Kul’zak did, and dress accordingly. Knee high boots, at least two layers, oil-treated cloaks, many wear jerkins and sashes with stitched depictions of scenes from places they’ve been, and leather harnesses and holsters are common. Hair is usually left down or half put up and decorated with feathers and ribbons found on the Trail. Meditation beads carved of wood or stone are nearly universal, worn around the neck or wrapped around the wrist. Trinkets and charms found on the Trail are important to the travelers, and you’ll find bowls of them left behind by others at shrines and trail markers that you can add to or take from, and in doing so you bring other travelers with you on your adventures and are carried by other travelers on their own, it’s a very dear tradition on the Wanderer’s Trail. Imagine geocaching but with religious connotations. Many of these items are worn as bracelets, anklets, necklaces, or on waist chains, usually put together while camping out. Flower crowns are also a bit of a thing and when they start wilting they’re left behind in places bearing Kul’zak’s symbol.

I’m thinking of making flower crowns also a thing with Enki’s followers since I’ve recently been turned onto the Kulki ship by @warlocks-and-phoenixes, but instead of wildflowers it’s mostly herbs and grasses. The matching flora crowns are a symbol of their union. Enki’s followers are mostly stuck on an iceberg, so they show their faith by carrying carvings of his symbols and making tapestries and records of their history, studying the world and spreading a love of knowledge wherever they go. Children usually start with embroidering their favorite/their family’s stories into their own clothing.

Embroidery! I love embroidery. In Ru’aun, it’s a very popular pastime, especially among stay at home parents and the sickly, so you see it pretty much everywhere. Colored threads are easy to acquire, but some colors are restricted. Purple is only for the clergy. Gold is for the highest ranking members of the churches and Lords’ family lines, as well as important personal staff of the Lord’s household like a close advisor and the primary caretaker of the children. Silver thread is for other people in powerful positions like members of a council or the highest ranking members of the guard (commander of the guard, second-in-command, reserve commander, Jury of Nine), which helps to distinguish officers from soldiers in larger villages and city-states that have a standard uniform and armor template. If you qualify for both, the gold usually takes precedence. For example, Laurance would have gold embroidery despite being head guard of Meteli because he’s also the son of Joh. Many small settlements don’t bother much with distinguishing personal importance based on thread color, though. They much prefer to use embroidery to keep a record of family history. Abstract depictions of personal achievements are stitched into the edging of most clothing, and the rank and position of the wearer and their parents + lovers go across the back on formal clothes and if you’re a guard around the neck and cuffs of your gambeson and also your sash if you wear one as a way to identify bodies after battle like modern day dog tags. It’s very simple and blocky on guardwear and incredibly elaborate and stylized to the point of illegibility on formalwear. Other common designs are flowers, symbols of faith, waves, landscapes, and elements of regional stories.

Modesty standards in Ru’aun. Here’s the basics: the average person should show nothing in the range of torso between the knees and breasts in public, midriff can be seen only by people very close to you, mothers should be covered from somewhere around the collarbones to their ankles, visible shoulder straps and undershirts are generally a no-no but off the shoulder and sleeveless attire are okay, and open shirts should not go further than the base of the sternum and should not show undergarments or nipples. Anyone fifteen or older is expected to follow these, but it’s not as important that children do. Some of them are negotiable based on climate and regional culture; Meteli and let’s say Pikoro are more lax and pretty much do whatever they feel like while O’khasis and Scaleswind follow the rules very closely and places like Brightport and Boboros are somewhere in the middle.

In Tu’la, how you dress is so important because it shows your loyalties. It’s a place filled with hundreds of clans all on the brink of beating each other up on any given day. In their culture, you’re not defined by who you are but who your family and their allegiances are. Symbology is important, families have their own color blends, patterns and even specific plants associated with them since gems aren’t very commonly found in Tu’la and sparkly things go to the monarchy and the king’s pets (the humanoid ones). Throwing away your clan’s symbols when you’re not on a covert mission of some kind is seen as a betrayal.

Cloth is very often uncut and styled by wrapping, pinning, and tying them into various shapes like you would a sari or toga or a variety of old African clothing styles I can’t remember the names of. Short sashes and waist wraps are very common. Many of the common people will also wrap their hands and feet in place of gloves and shoes. Cutting cloth is often reserved for important articles or the royal family and its vassal clans. It’s considered a wasteful expense since the excess cloth can’t be remade and isn’t recycled into other things like blankets. Scraps are distributed among the clan’s servants for them to wear to match their masters’ clothing as a sort of claim over them. Gladiators often wear their sponsor’s colors in the same way. When clothing is sewn, you’ll often see designs similar to the Japanese kimono and yukata and the Chinese hanfu and cheongsam/qipao. Designs with layers are more expensive and a luxury that very few, essentially only the king and his consorts, can afford. In most places, the only articles of clothing you’d find cut and stitched into new shapes are some forms of undergarments and a more form-fitting underlayer that covers the entire torso and cloth is arranged over top of.

Tu’lan clothing is essentially custom tailored by the wearer for the wearer, unless you’re super rich or a conscripted servant. Ideally it should allow you to be flexible, it should allow you to keep cool in Tu’la’s very warm climate, maybe with a window just above your butt if you have a tail, but easy to hide things in. Really the only rules about it is that you don’t wear enemy symbols and you keep your private parts private around everyone not your lover. It’s a war country, so most of the time the styles are very utilitarian and comfortable, but you’d only know how utilitarian it is if you were raised wearing them. To Ru’aun and Gal’ruk, even the simplest outfits seem fancy. Part of what makes them think that is the decoration and accessories.

Hair sticks. God do I love hairsticks. More formal ones are made of glass with a small hanging charm and common ones are simply carved from wood or made with the scrap metal shavings of weaponsmiths—those ones are usually sharpened into needles or knives in case you need it. Jewelry is usually close-fitting to make it harder to grab, so meditation beads would be wrapped several times around the wrist or ankle and no pretty hanging piercings. Humans are actually the only one of the three dominant species who get piercings because pretty much all meif’wa clans are warriors or their ears are too sensitive, and if a werewolf has to transform with a piercing in it’ll either warp super bad or hurt them when the change tries to push foreign bodies out of the werewolf. Cloth is usually made with patterns everywhere or very prominently displayed and accented. 

Sun and snow motifs are also fairly widespread since the patron Divine Warrior of Tu’la was Menphia, it very rarely snows in Tu’la but she had ice powers so. Unfortunately, I don’t have anything more on Menphia’s followers right now, I’m basically scraping and redoing her whole temple and worship at the moment.

Gal’ruk loves yarn and fur, since practically every living thing out there is covered in fur and spinning yarn is a good time consuming indoor activity. A lot of people spend considerable time weaving and tanning and sewing over the blizzard season when they get trapped inside by storms. Fur goes inside everything from gloves to hoods to pants. People make competitions out of who can knit the best hat or scarf from scratch before the next moon. 

For an idea of the style of clothing usually worn I recommend looking up ‘viking winter wear’ for some ideas. Plenty of layers, loose pants cinched at the knee, lots of fur cloaks and shawls, leather belts with pouches and space for your knife/sword/axe’s sheath over top. Leather goods like armor and belts are usually marked with subtle designs pressed into the materials and are padded. Nothing metal ever comes close to touching the skin directly. Clothes can either be simply pulled on or are closed with loops and clasps carved of wood or bone/teeth from a hunt. 

Nothing hunted ever goes to waste. Gal’ruk is a plentiful land but it can be a harsh one too. Pelts, furs, teeth, claws, bones and tails are all made into clothing, among other things. Pelts can be scraped and tanned and made into leather, furs are stuffed into everything as an insulator. Teeth, claws and bones are carved into accessories or combs or buttons, it’s very common for someone to make the spoils of their hunt into necklaces or arm bands or earrings as a mark of their achievement or to exchange as a betrothal gift to prove their worth as a provider. Married couples wear carved tokens of their family’s symbol made by each other instead of rings, presented to the other for the first time at the wedding and very rarely taken off unless one dies or they get divorced. Widows and widowers usually keep their tokens old, but they’re burned to make the divorce official and if a divorced couple gets back together new ones have to be made.

Unfortunately color is fairly sparse on the island. There’s not many plants to harvest  dyes from and clay takes ages to dig up and warm enough to use, so it’s mostly natural colors of the materials and some darker shades from smoking pelts over a fire to waterproof them. There are shades of green every so often from dye made with the kelp that washes ashore and sometimes if you can manage to grow beets there’s some reds and purples but not everyone is able to dye their clothing.

Gal’ruk has zero modesty standards. You wrap up to keep warm outside, but while you’re inside you can wear just about as little as you want. The public dining hall can get pretty warm with everyone packed in there, it’s not unusual for people to go titties out. They’re all warriors, they’re pretty chill about partial nudity and naked bodies are very rarely sexualized in such a close-knit warrior community, they’re all pretty much grown up seeing each other half undressed while tending wounds, so modesty isn’t a real issue. This is why I said in my post about Travis playing around with his shapeshifting that he needs to have Ru’aun modesty rules explained to him the first time he changes into a female form in public, because in his homeland having breasts show through an open shirt isn’t at all notable but in Ru’aun it’s absolutely scandalous.

And we’ve circled back to embroidery! Again, time consuming pastime, again, people who spend the majority of the year huddled inside waiting out the worst of the cold, again, followers of Enki. Personal history is recorded on parchment, but communal history is recorded on tapestries and clothing. They have very little in the way of colored threads, so designs are made with only lineart and shadows in mind to make it clear what they’re meant to be. Stories about Enki and the Divine Warriors are very common, and so are fables for the children. Animals bounding through the snow and their different tracks trailing behind them are used to teach the babies how to tell your prey apart by print. Kids are taught to embroider their own clothes to teach them patience and attention to detail.

These are all pretty general regional ideas, specific parts of the region and settlements also have their own deals sometimes. I’ll have to come back to this at some point to cover the rest of the Divine Faith properly. This was a fun question!

[kurithedweeb]

An addition: Jacob and Liochant know each other from the gladiator rings.

They have nearly killed each other a few times, sometimes in public matches sometimes in private matches at some parties held by their sponsors, but outside what they had to do as gladiators they were actually pretty good friends as some of the only kids in their ring. Unfortunately, their first instinct upon being reunited is to beat each other into the ground. Someone has to pry them apart, maybe Laurance and Travis, and they fight to keep going because, hey, they weren't done saying hello.

They keep yelling at each other in this very grating, guttural language with very thick accents that seem to take bits and pieces from every other Tu'lan accent, and they sound super pissed with each other. Don't worry though, that's just what the Pit language sounds like. What they're actually saying is more along the lines of "I didn't know you got out! You look good! How have you been, have you been safe, are these your friends?"

An idea I had last night: Jacob survives.

So, instead of the amulet just making everyone drop dead, we're going with the curse being a plague. (Thank you @irenes-journal for turning the plague amulet idea into what it is today.)

In canon, the amulet kills everyone save the person holding it, so the plague amulet would theoretically grant one person immunity, or at least resistance. How it grants some kind of immunity/resistance is by releasing antibodies for the plague, slowly at first to acclimatize the body a bit before it floods the system, and Jacob got some of the antibodies before he gave it to Aaron.

He was the first to fall ill, and he took twice as long to succumb to the illness than anyone else infected did. The town doctor died before Jacob did, so when he fell into a coma that looked a whole lot like death, he was mistaken for dead.

Lily was barely holding on herself at this point, and Aaron came back from burying the day's dead to find his wife and son dead in Jacob's room. Lily worshipped Menphia and some minor gods, being from Tu'la, and raised Jacob to do the same since Aaron's side of the family doesn't worship any recognized religion (Ultima stuff is for later), and there was a small tomb previously made for when Lily and her children died according to Tu'lan burial practices. Which gives Jacob some more time than he'd have in a grave to get out before he runs out of air.

Aaron goes on burying bodies and surveying the sick while he mourns his own family's loss. Jacob wakes up maybe a day or two later in the dark with what remains of Lily. Obviously, he freaks out, crying out for help, and no one comes. Fueled by adrenalin and fear, he manages to open the tomb door just enough for him to squeeze through, and he finds the streets covered in graves. He has no idea what's going on, no clue how long it's been, but he runs home and his dad's not there and all the streets he's run down are empty and stinking of rot. He needs his dad to not be dead, so he comes up with this idea that obviously Aaron thought he was dead like everyone else and left.

And so Jacob packs a bag and sets out to leave Falconclaw, and he leaves barely an hour before Aaron gets home. They just miss each other.

Jacob isn't well. He collapses on the road and wakes up in a merchant caravan bound for some village way North. He asks if any of them have seen his father, says he's the son of the Lord of Falconclaw, and one of the mercenaries hired to guard the caravan sees an opportunity. By the time the caravan reaches its destination, Aaron is already in O'khasis being groomed by Zane to become a Juror.

Jacob is snatched off the street by the same mercenaries who were guarding the caravan and sold to someone visiting from Tu'la, and he winds up a servant boy for one of the king's vassal clans. Maybe Nana's, maybe the one his mother escaped from. The plague left him incredibly scarred, so for a long time he's a faceless, bandaged figure in the shadows of the house, all this anger and frustration building up inside him at not being able to figure out a way home, until one day the master of the house thinks it'd be funny to match a servant boy against one of his soldier-apprentices.

And Jacob wins. No training, having thrown away his weapon and beaten the other boy with his bare hands until they were dripping in blood. He's sent to the gladiator pits, maybe the same ones Liochant grew up in, and as long as he has his anger he dominates. His contract is bought by some wealthy noble with a penchant for collecting pretty, broken things, and on the road he kills them and flees into the night.

By the time he gets back to O'khasis, Aaron's time on the Jury is over and he's disappeared completely, having forsaken his own name and become The Stranger. This is when Jacob finally hears about, finally confirms, the fall of Falconclaw. He goes to Zianna, waiting for her to be out in town before he approaches her. She and his mother considered themselves sisters, once, and Zianna had been an excellent spy in Tu'la, if anyone would help him it'd be her. All Zianna has to give him is rumors, but anything is better than nothing.

He takes it, he thanks her, he goes on the road trying to find his father, and gets waylaid a bunch on the way by saving people and taking out the mercenary company that sold him to that Tu'lan visitor and into years of servitude and gladiator rings. He had a number of names in Tu'la, but he goes back to the name from a lifetime ago, introducing himself everywhere he goes as Jacob Lycan, son of Aaron Lycan, last Lord of Falconclaw, in an effort to see if his father will be drawn to the man using his son's name. By the time he makes it all the way around to Phoenix Drop, it's the middle of the Irene Dimension time skip, and since no one knew who The Stranger was or ever really saw his face, they don't realize that that's exactly who Jacob is looking for.

He goes back to Falconclaw, thinking maybe he can find some clues where this all started. It's practically the same as he left it since everyone thinks the land is extremely cursed, and in looking through their home he finds books on the teaching of his father's faith. He fits his father's old clothes, his old faith. He takes whatever he cares to keep from the Lycan estate and visits Lily's tomb before he leaves, and not a day later he comes across Abby, who's taken to the road hoping to find a lead on the woman she believes killed her father, Lady Katelyn the Firefist, who disappeared without a trace years ago about the same time High Priest Zane Ro'Meave and a few other Jurors did. She and Jacob agree to help each other and become good friends, and eventually they round back to Phoenix Drop.

A week after Aaron died.

Jacob introduces Abby first, notes that the Lord, or maybe she's the Lord's mother, seems to know who Abby is, and then he introduces himself. As Jacob Lycan, son of Aaron Lycan, last Lord of Falconclaw. And the look on this Lord's face is indescribable. She asks to speak with Jacob alone.

She tells him about his father in the last part of his life. She tells him how he saved her several times, taught her to fight, saved her guards, those two over there. That one he sacrificed himself for just last week, when he saved the man from another realm and finally got vengeance for his family and village. How he once said that when his journey was done, when he had taken the life of the man who cursed them all, he would finally be at peace with his wife and son.

Then there's a child's cry, and suddenly Jacob is being introduced to two little girls who his father helped raise. To his sisters.

He can't even process it properly before he hears Abby scream, and suddenly he is running to pull her off a blue-haired woman and holding her, thrashing and spitting vitriol, yelling how she thought of Katelyn like her mother, as Katelyn explains what really happened that day, and everything Abby has been keeping inside her for years spills out in wave after wave of tears. She clings to Jacob, and he finds himself crying too. If only they had known the truth earlier.

If they'd only learned the truth earlier, Abby wouldn't have spent so long hating an innocent woman she once adored, and Jacob could have seen his father again. Maybe if he'd known Aaron was The Stranger, if he'd known to wait in Phoenix Drop, Aaron would be alive. He would have had his son to live for.

They can't make themselves stay there once they know the truth. They're not ready. Abby tells Katelyn she'll be back to catch up later, and Jacob tells the Lord he'd like to meet his sisters another time, and with Jacob's quest over they go to hunt the Jury of Nine for Jeffory Goldenheart.

[kurithedweeb]

A scattering of DoS universe ideas:

Having quartz and glowstone available as building materials for things like statues and lamps and the Irene fountain has such sinister implications when you know they come from the Nether.

Phoenix Drop is regarded as a refuge for runaways and criminals which is how the people who live there end up as such a diverse and insanely loyal group. There's something about the understanding and acceptance you can find there despite your flaws and past that draws people in.

(inspired by @xyxofspades) Nana's real name is Shichi, she and her eleven siblings were named with numbers corresponding to the order of their birth and when she fled Tu'la and assumed the identity of Nana she picked a name related to the number seven as a reminder of home since she was the seventh child.

Zianna Ro'Meave is related to Ivy and Lily. I need some distance between Zane and Aaron for Juror Aaron reasons, so Lily is Ivy's cousin on one side of the family and Zianna is Ivy's cousin on the other side. They were very close when they were young and see each other as sisters, even calling each other sisters. In Tu'la, it's not uncommon for families to have full-blooded siblings who range in age from as little as 9 or 10 months apart to 25 years between the eldest and youngest, so some people do sometimes believe they're blood sisters. This is inspired by a post I saw a while back about Garroth knowing the Tu'lan language because Zianna was from Tu'la and taught the boys the language when they were young, which I adore but have no clue who wrote it. Jacob thinks of Zane as a cousin or uncle, which is why he trusted him enough to take the amulet.

There's a Nether portal under the central cathedral in O'khasis. Part of the High Priest's duties is maintaining both the portal and the wards around it that only allow entry to someone who's had the proper blessings performed on them. Zane negotiated with Shad to be brought back as a Shadow Knight in the event of his death before he set his great plan in motion as a failsafe. I'm thinking Shad probably tried to kill him and Zane unveiled himself with some flirty charismatic line about being the mortal face of Irene and only in the embrace of a lover (his own lovers, but really playing up the being Irene's vassal/vessel part) can he unveil himself and be seen as his true self.

[anonmothgod]

ohhhhh I love this! Alot of worldbuilding went into this and I really hope I can read the fic soon. It feels really organic, considering how little we're given with the place of Tu'la or the history/culture of it in the series. The viciousness of the law fits right into MCD

My Tu'la and Liochant Messy Summary post!

@anonmothgod chatted with me a bit and gave me the idea to do a little summary post! This will be long and messy

KEY ELEMENTS BEFORE WE GET STARTED

Temple of Menphia - Menphia is the major divine of Tu'la so she is the center of worship. Unlike the Irene churches, they do not have priest, nuns, or really a clergy, instead they train lawyers, judges, and more importantly warriors. The goal of the church is to be the embodiment of righteous fury while protecting people from mistreatment.

Another part of it is also killing shadow knights, with members of the church being given magical tattoos that prevent them from turning into shadow knights/making it incredibly difficult to do so. They are given tattoos of the sun on the palm of their hands and one covering their back, for the sun cannot get to the nether. Essentially, they aren't nuns but religious warriors.

The two kingdoms of Tu'la - I refer to them as North and South for ease

North Tu'la: The Toraichi Dynasty - Belonging to the northern jungle and plains area of Tu'la, with the royal family all being tiger meif'wa (allegedly). The Toraichi family was originally known to be kind before the head family all died due to a plague that ravaged the kingdom 30 years ago. The leader of the branch family who was deemed the "Last Royal Tiger" took the throne because he was the only viable candidate due to being a tiger, allegedly. He quickly became power hungry and sought to not only take over all of Tu'la but Ru'aun as well. (It's giving england.) The capital of this place is Havas and the region is based on China and Japan.

South Tu'la: The Desert of Sa'Haresha - This area is almost completely desert and savannah, the dryer half to the norths hot and humid climate. Due to the location, this area had a high sense of community and while they did have a royal family, one composed of lion meif'was , they were more symbolic since a lot of desert villages kept to themselves. This area has the highest amount of Menphia temples The considered capital was Solspear, and region is based on India. The Tu'la continent meaning to represent Asia to Ru'auns Europe.

POPULATION/Big Cat Meif'was - Big cat meif'was are to meif'wa what werewolves are to the weredogs of mystreet. Just bigger breeds than the domesticated ones who can turn into a big animal. ~55% of the population of Tu'la is meif'wa, 32% humans, 12% werewolves, 1% others/werewolf-meif'wa hybrids. The majority of the human population in Tu'la are part meif'wa in some capacity and 15% of the population are big cat meif'was. (cheetahs, leopards, lynx, and lions being the most common). Non-ears and tail half meif'wa and called Sphinxes after the hairless cat, and werewolf and meif'wa mixes are essentially were-hyenas cause hyenas look like dogs but are closer in the cat family than canine.

NOW ONTO MORE LORE! This will kind of be a mess so bare with me. (Broken up into parts for ease)

LIOCHANT EARLY LIFE

Liochant was born to a young couple composing of a human mom and a cheetah meif'wa father. He didn't inherit his fathers meif'wa features but his eyes can slit and he is a lot more agile than most humans. For the first 3 years of his life his parents did try to raise him but since they only had him at 17, they have found that they weren't suited to be parents at the time and gave him up to his mothers temple in Bronze Peak. From there he was raised by the temple and show to have great promise as a warrior.

(Around this time, Aph and the gang are now in the irene dimension)

At the age of 7, Liochant earned his first tattoos, being the sun on his palms and back, by successfully winning a spar with a teacher. (Not a prodigy, teacher was meant to pose a challenge but able to be defeated). From there Liochant managed to continue his training and pass it with flying colors, having gained a large affinity for the khopesh and spear. He was not all tough warrior child though, because he had a large affinity of trying to pet snakes, getting bit, and then having to be healed. He was a kid with spear skills who liked to pet things he shouldn't and he had a normal childhood until he was 10.

THE MASSACRE OF SOUTH TU'LA

During Liochant's time at the temple, a year and a half after aphmau and her gang were trapped in the Irene Dimension, Garte descided to contact the Northern King of Tu'la and they struck a deal. Garte would provide some troops to help the Tiger King invade the south and the king would provide Garte troops to invade Ru'aun. They planned for 2 and a half years, with one of the most instrumental parts being the nephew of the Tiger King, Kai (Yes like Mystreet!) who had been placed with the South Tu'la royal family as an advisor and a peace offering since he was 15. Kai fed information in the belief that it was going to be a peaceful takeover, believing that the poison he was giving the royal family would make them sick enough to give up, he was not expecting to be responsible for a massacre at the age of 20. (Kai lore here if you want to check that out! Do it after reading this)

The invasion and massacre started with the death of the royal family, using the shock to have both northern tu'la soldiers and O'khasis knights invade and slaughter people. Their main focus being the Temples of Menphia given how they contained the strongest warriors. Whoever they didn't slaughter they captured for the purpose of recruiting more soldiers, leaving any children left in the temples to either live on the streets or burn along with their temples.

THE NEXT TWO YEARS

Liochant's temple was one of the first to be attacked since Bronze Peak was one of the closest villages to the capital, so at the ripe age of 10, not only was Liochant now a fully blown orphan but homeless. He had to live on the streets and stole to survive, his training in agility being the only thing keeping him alive as he evaded soldiers. He did managed to keep up with his training, as unconventional as it was, because it was the only thing he had left of home.

While Liochant was on the streets, the Tiger King was dealing with the problem of the fact that none of the captured warriors were turning to his side, so he found another use. Solspear was home to many training pits so he turned what was once a form of worship into his personal entertainment. He made gladiator pits and forced the remaining warriors to fight for his, and all of the nobles of North Tu'la, entertainment. Creating betting rings and turning it to a hunger games esc thing.

Since all of the warriors were no longer on his side and now dying in the pits the King had to come up with a new solution for power. So he descided to take it from Ru'aun. He gathered up all of the remaining O'khasis guards in Tu'la and slaughtered them all. WIth the fact that O'khasis was practically defenseless, he slowly started the process of taking them over. Succeeding after two years, and taking Garte to his new palace in Solspear to rub in his face his success.

LIOCHANTS START OF BEING A GLADIATOR

After taking over O'khasis, the Tiger King was running out of entertainment for the gladiator pits so he descided to turn to a new source of fighters. Criminals. Anyone in South Tu'la who was caught of a crime was now sentenced to being in the gladiator pit, regardless of age or severity of the crime. Crimes as simple as stealing, or "agression" if you are a werewolf were sent to the pit. That is how Liochant, who was caught stealing some fruit at the age of 12, was sentenced to the pit.

His first "benefactor" or owner was a former high ranking soldier of the North Tu'la army. An old man who was essentially given Liochant as a form of payment, a train it so it can become an investment, situation. A do with it what you will. The man was not upper class and was only being treated as such because of his military position, so he made sure to train Liochant so he could rise above. The benefactor wasn't kind nor was he incredibly unkind to Liochant he punished Liochant when he lost but made sure Liochant could always practice his religion. A basic right that someone of Liochant's position wasn't able to have.

Liochant fought and won many fights, mostly against feral animals or others his age or slightly older. He lost a few but never lost his life which was something he was grateful for. The fight that put Liochant on the map though happened when he was 14, where he had to face off a one armed man who had never lost a fight before. It was supposed to be a massacre but the man refused to kill a child and instead requested Liochant to mercy kill him, a request Liochant couldn't deny because of his religion. This win garnered another benefactor to buy him.

HIS MIDDLE CAREER

Liochant was then bought by a former O'khasis noble who had helped in the invasion of O'khasis for money. He married an "exotic" white cat lady from North Tu'la, a gift to him from the king. This man was particularly cruel to Liochant, whenever Liochant lost he made sure that his punishments would hurt but never injure him enough to make it so he couldn't fight. It is also where Liochant recieved the most food insecurity has his meals were often withheld. The only benefit that came from that man was Liochant learning some of the Ru'aun language.

The mans wife, Lady Kanika, was as nice as she could be to Liochant. She was a former priestess of Menphia, though from her northern temples and was a taleneted seamstress and tattooer. She allowed Liochant to practice his religion and gave him the tattoos of protection given to most Menphia warriors after their first kill. The biggest thing she helped Liochant with was his marketing, for she knew that he wasn't just a warrior but had to be entertainment. Made sure that the crowds ate up the "Young teen underdog who fights for his Divine" angle and dressed him up

When Liochant was 17 he had the biggest fight, for the first time the gladiator pit managed to get a fully turned shadow knight. Red eyes and all. The shadow knight has blazed through other warriors until Liochant was sent it. It was another thing of Liochant supposed to be massacred but the entertainment value was higher for it was a Menphia warrior against their sworn enemy, a Shadow Knight. The thing it, Liochant won because he was specifically trained to defeat them. After a long battle, one lasting much longer than the crowd expected, he had lost his weapon but like a snake, he lunged and wrapped himself around his opponent and choked them out before slitting the throat.

After that fight Liochant was bought by a new benefactor who forced him to get two new tattoos, snakes running up his arms before their heads meat on his chest, his symbol of Menphia and protecting tattoo between them. He gained the name Pit Viper and his new benefactor ran wild but it wasn't all fun and games, for while Liochant was being shown off the man was cruel. A noble whose trade was in medicinal herbs and poisons who wasn't at the pits to make money but for the pure enjoyment of bloodshed had his hand on Liochant.

THE END OF HIS GLADIATOR CAREER

(At this point, the gang is now out of the Irene dimension)

When Liochant was 20 he was finally put in a fight he refused to participate it. A small child, no older than 14 who had just been turned into a shadow knight was against him. While Liochant knew that he didn't have to kill them in order to win, the child was shaking so much that the idea of knocking them out was vile. Thus he let himself lose, and that is when his owner descided to give him the worst possible punishment.

After Liochant's back was torn to shreds, the large sun now covered in crisscrossed wounds, he had scorpion venom poured onto his back, the venom causing him not only extreme pain but not allowing his back to even close for six months, and during this time he was still forced to fight. When his benefactor got bored with him, he was then pawned off to his last benefactor, the Scorpion of Tu'la, Kai the Traitor.

After Tu'las invasion of O'khasis, guilt started eating Kai alive so he made it his mission to help free gladiators. So he started gaining the reputation of his gladiators and servants "disappearing", so when people were sick of their gladiators, they would send them to him so they would die. Liochant was no different so after a year and a half of Kai playing the role of cruel owner and Liochant earning him more money in the pit, he managed to send Liochant off to Ru'aun with a khopesh, some money, and a shit ton of clothes because Kai had no idea how a poor person survives. FASHION! (For expanded, check out Kai lore)

(During this time, Lilith is found and Garroth is freed)

LIOCHANT IN RU'AUN

So after coming to Ru'aun at 22 and a half Liochant had to find work but his only skills were "fight good" and he had no formal education nor did he understand the language so he turned to the guard academy. Since it was rather normal for 20-24 year olds to be entered into the guard academy if they already had fighting experience, nobody batted an eye at him unless he talked. Something he never did much since becoming a gladiator.

From their, Liochant managed to learn the language and make his way through the academy rather quickly. Having 10 years of battle experience proved him incredibly beneficial but not too beneficial as Liochant had found a love of losing. Since his life wasn't on the line he found losing not be a big deal. He also started cooking because while he cooked often with one of the Temple Maidens when he was young, his history of food scarcity made him obsess over it.

Soon Liochant became part of the dragon ward and was assigned to watch over Alina and Lilith, as he was the most patient. By this time Liochant gained a better grasp on the language and kept his history hidden enough. The biggest benefit of now guarding children is learning to reading with them, for he still can't read much of the language. Seriously, the now 26 year old man has a sad history but the patience of the saint, which is why in my fic he and Garroth are getting shipped because I need Garroth to have his ass handed to him. And boy does he.

SIDE BAR: Liochant's full name is Lais Ravanah Havilah, meaning Lion's Chant of the Sands. He was asked to provide his name when entering the guard academy and he thought he needed to translate it. The guard who was listening to him barely understood him due to his accent and quiet voice so he thought his name was Liochant Sands. Lions Chant of the Sands, he has been too anxious to correct people and thus his name has been Liochant for the past four years.