Jakandor - The Charonti

[Eanwulf]

Introduction: Welcome to Jakandor
On a sun-bleached plain lie the sprawling ruins of a once great city. For miles, huge crumbling walls rise up like broken cliffs. Deep within the ashes of this elder empire, the descendants of a lost and golden age have begun the process of reclaiming their birthright. These wise and gentle people with a passion for learning, wisdom, and justice are beginning to forge a new civilization – a civilization that will bring peace and prosperity to the darkened world around them and raise knowledge and magic to levels unimagined by their ancestors.

In the austere Court of the queen, philosophers gather to conceive their vision of the just society. In the queen's council, high wizards pore over ancient documents and plan expeditions to recover lost magic that exists now only in legend. At the borders of the ruins, keen-witted officers command legions of undead laborers as they clear the rubble and begin to restore the former beauty of the abandoned quarters of the cities. These people keep their deceased ancestors close beside them. They allow their fallen family members to return and serve the community even beyond their life, performing manual labor so as to free the living to use their intellect and wisdom for the benefit of all.

Welcome to Jakandor, island home of the ancient people who call themselves the Charonti (sha RON ty). For the Charonti the terms “duty” and “justice” define what it means to be human. A people descended from survivors of an apocalyptic plague, the Charonti are struggling to reclaim their island home and past glory!

Players will find the Charonti to be a rational and wise people, a thoughtful race of scholars and explorers. Theirs is a highly magical culture that places duty to the community and social justice above all things, including their personal goals. The Charonti are survivors who are in danger of losing their magnificent heritage of learning and magic to their enemy the barbaric Knorr (NOR).

The Knorr are a beast-like race of superstitious savages who have invaded the island. They are themselves survivors of a mindless war that they started and which ultimately drove them from their homeland. The Knorr appear to fear magic and revel in bloodshed. They have begun to systematically plunder the ancient ruins of the Charonti, destroying all vestiges of the once high culture in order to create trophies for their lodges. The Knorr seem bent on annihilating any remnants of the Charonti ancestry and destroying their undead ancestors of this ancient people and their servants of society with a mindless and insatiable rage. If the Charonti cannot stop the howling Knorr, they will lose everything their people were, and everything they might become.

This thread presents the history, culture, and creations of this kind people. Here too are the rules for creating new character kits for this nation of spellcasters. The information is presented in these sections:

Chapter One describes the history of the Charonti people. It follows them from the dawn of Time through the age of the Wasting Plague and beyond to the reconstruction of the last 150 years. It is a story of glory and beauty lost, death, a difficult survival, and finally rebirth. The retelling of this history reminds each Charonti of the importance of duty and the nature of the cycles that rule all things.

Chapter Two gives an overview of Charonti society. Many of the ideas introduced in this chapter are explained in detailed rules elsewhere in this book. This chapter describes all the important threads that form the fabric of Charonti life and provides a context for the chapters that follow.

Chapter Three describes all the distinctive and varied Charonti Character Options. Specialized wizards are most common. Most wizards are members of the Addakainen, a group of colleges that strive to recover the lost lore and knowledge of the past. Priest kits are included that reflect the decline in religious faith and the rise in a belief that the redemption of the Charonti will come through devotion to their just society. A few priests who continue to devote themselves to the dwindling faith of the god of their ancestors as well as the gods of primitive peoples whose worship is described in the ruins of their lost civilization are also presented. Charonti society includes a handful of rogue kits, ranging from dedicated administrators of the Crown to lawless bandits. Finally, the single type of Charonti warrior kit, who commands the legions of undead, as well as a kit that allows players to try the role of one of the unloving Charonath (SHA ro nath), are detailed.

Chapter Four is packed with ideas and rules that define Charonti culture. Their complex caste system is explained, as well as how they structure their expeditions into the ruins.

Chapter Five covers arms and equipment. Magical items that are so common that they can be purchased in marketplaces are described. The enchanted unliving machines of the Charonti as well as the mysterious technology of the elder civilizations are explained also.

Chapter Six presents new spells and magical items that are the pride of Charonti research and learning.

Though players may read all the information in this thread, they should understand that the DM still has the right and the responsibility to add, delete, or change any of this material to create the type of campaign he is most comfortable with. However the DM chooses to change what is presented here, the resulting world will be one with a lot of challenge and excitement.

The culture of the Charonti grows from the traditions of magic and a reasoning society, both real and imagined. Isle of Destiny describes a world that may seem familiar in many ways, but is also different from any other roleplaying game setting. Players can experience and enjoy the sense of discovery that the Charonti feel as they explore their ancient island home.

Knowledge if power!

[Eanwulf]

Chapter One: History
A gift to my brother Nadaal, for study and commitment to memory upon, his departure to the Addakainen. Little brother, though you have heard these stories many times, I have written them for you so that you may commit them to your memory. Perfect your recall and strengthen your mind so that you may study magic at the Addakainen in the tradition of your lineage. Duty to your ancestors will bring learning to your children. Through the learning of our people we shall cast darkness from the world.

How the World Was Made
We are the Charonti, the First People. We were made, as were all peoples, in the image of a god. We were made by the first god, the god of death and rebirth, the sleeping god, whose name we must not speak lest we wake him. For where the gods are drawn, there can be no peace.

We were the First People, and like all people that follow, we were born out of the vanity of a god. Not satisfied with the limits of his dominion, our god made the heavens and the earth and the cycles which rule them. He created the cycles of time and space, and of life and death. All these things he set into motion so that he might set within it all the Charonti, perfect creatures who would adore their maker and in their adoration exalt him and elevate him above all the lesser gods. He expected the lesser gods to stand in awe and wonder at the perfection of his creation.

Instead the lesser gods were consumed with jealousy. In their own limitless vanity they followed suit and crowded the world with squalid races of all shapes and dispositions. But the breath of the wind and the heart of the earth had already been expended to create the Charonti. There were only poor scraps left, and when the lesser gods made their people, they made sad fragments of men who were but shadows of the Charonti. They could not give the shadow races the wisdom to know justice, and as such those races could never know peace. They could never know happiness, and they warred among themselves.

The simplest of the gods were left with nothing to make but the beasts that fed upon one another and lived their short lives in savagery and fear. All the world was peopled to howl its cacophonous praise to the petty gods who never tire of hearing it ring through the firmament. In their ambition the gods did not remember that the first thing set in motion was the cycle that would rule all things – even the gods themselves.

Golden Age of Man
As you know, little brother, we were made in the image of a god. We were a pious people who served the god dutifully and loved wisdom. The god set us alone and apart from the world on our island home of Jakandor the Forge, so named because it is the forge on which man was created, and the forge on which man in turn created civilization.

Like the god who made us, we were prey to vanity and pettiness, but our love of wisdom was greater than our worst faults. We found the wisdom of living in peace, and we invented language. Soon we discovered that the source of strength in man lay in the very bones of his body – for it is from the substance of bone that magic draws its life. Our love of learning allowed us to master the forces of magic, which in turn allowed us to defeat the finality of death.

We erected vaulting and beautiful cities that spread across the plains of Jakandor. We studied the stars in the heavens and the minerals of the earth. We learned how to harness energy both magical and mundane to build great machines and free man to pursue still greater learning. We knew the duty of preserving the knowledge of our ancestors, so that our children might extend it to beyond our own imagining. We learned that through learning there is no death, for the knowledge of our ancestors may be passed on to the living.

In all of our discovery and invention we were filled with wonder at the wisdom of our god. We believed that our god had been devoted to his people, and that all things of our own making were in fact the gifts and workings of the god. The heavens must have echoed with the songs we lifted to praise our maker.

Shadow People
The time came when our airships and enchanted portals carried us beyond the shores of our island home. Our priests, who were in that age men of great learning, had calculated the dimensions of the world, and our people looked forward to venturing out across it with great excitement.

The first expedition was launched under the rule of Ihnkaheser XXIII in the year 4335 of the Hramnethes dynasty. The first expedition was led by Ihnkaheser himself, and what he gound beyond the shores of Jakandor moved him to tears. There he found the simple races of men, the shadow people that the lesser gods made in the image of the Charonti. They were men like beasts, living in darkness and fear. Made in the image of their gods, they behaved like those gods and warred among themselves for pleasure and power. They hunted one another like the animals in the forest. They did not have the wisdom in them to know peace.

The Poem of the Traveler describes Ihnkaheser's sorrow and loneliness as he sailed across the world in his great airship and looked upon the chaos and bloodshed that raged below him. He brooded in his palace in Alchatay for ten years after his return and would speak to no one. Then one day he ordered one hundred airships to be outfitted like his own and prepared for sailing. When the work was done, he announced that we would turn our eyes and hearts outward. We would take fire and magic to the simple races. We would teach them language. We would teach them the wisdom of our god, the cycle of life, death, and rebirth – for the simple races killed because they feared death; they did not know that all things are ruled by the cycles, which will bring them back to life again if only as memories in the living. The Charonti would bring light and peace to the savage world of the simple men. As you know, little brother, we were made in the image of a god.

The work begun by Ihnkaheser continued for a thousand years. We brought peace where we walked. We taught where we were able, ruled where we were required to, and destroyed only where we had no choice. If there is still magic and beauty beyond our shores, it is a lasting gift from our people.

In the thousand years we built great libraries where we catalogued all the plants and beasts of the world. We built menageries where wonderful animals were studied and trained. We documented the histories and legends of the shadow people. We recorded their songs and collected their art. We observed their religions and learned the nature of the lesser gods. We even invited the wisest of the simple races to dwell among us in small communities and allowed them to live and worship in their own way. For, you see, in these people, made as a dim image of the first people, we found a reflection from which we learned about ourselves and in turn the wonder of our god.

The Wasting Plague
In the year 5350 the world ended. Borne on the magic of a spell or enchantment, the Wasting Plague rocketed around the world like chain lightning. Temples linked by magic spread the plague to every corner of the Jakandor. Magical communications sent to warn travelers served only to propel the plague farther and wider. Healing spells and protective magic only fueled the disease. The plaza and streets were piled with bodies. Machines collapsed to the ground and fell from the sky. The people fled to the temples to appeal to our god, but were struck down like wheat in the fields. Through the vast canyons of our cities prayers echoed into the heavens, but passed unheard.

To this day we do not know what brought the Wasting Plague, but we do know within hours our people were no more and the world was once again without guidance, left to spin into chaos and disorder. It is said that while the world came apart, our distant god slept. The superstitious among the outcasts believe that the plague was sent by our god in his time of anger, but they cannot say why, for even the outcasts know that our ancestors were a good and pious people.

Philosophers teach that we were abandoned by our god. They teach that our people were wiped from the earth, not for impiety, but for placing foolish trust in a distant god. Like a child who must one day be taken from its mother's breast if it is to grow strong, so too did our people have to learn to stand free of their creator.

We know now that the gods are petty and tyrannical things, given to infinite vanity and an insatiable appetite for adoration. They cannot suffer any limit to their domain or rule, and they harvest the dead from the material world to subordinate them for eternity as devotees in the outer planes. The gods in their vanity attempt to disrupt the natural cycle of death and rebirth by collecting the dead to their sides and enslaving them in an unending afterlife of servility.

Some believer the plague came from a distant land of shadow people. Some believe the plague was the result of our people gaining magical power that exceeded their wisdom to husband it. Still others believe it was the work of the lesser gods, who looked upon the glory of the Charonti with bitterness and jealousy. It does not matter where the plague came from, for it let us know we were alone – that our god slept while his people perished.

Living Like Shadow People
The world was cast into darkness. Not a single priest of the sleeping god survived the plague. All learning failed as the art of magic and the knowledge of crafting our machines were lost. Jakandor was destroyed. Fear and confusion reigned, and for the first time our people were as the shadow races. Our people forgot duty. The dead wandered the land without priests to guide them. Like the beast-men, the few survivors hid in the shadows. Like the children of the lesser gods, we warred among ourselves.

The Magelords
For the next five thousand years no building was raised, and no ruler returned to lead us again to wisdom. In the countryside people destroyed all magical artifacts and slew spell-casters on sight in an effort to keep the plague at bay, while ambitious power-seekers scoured the ruins of our cities and temples for the magic that would give them the power to rule their brothers.

In time, wizards who stumbled upon ancient libraries fortified small warrens within the ruins and built strongholds to secure their power. The frightened and helpless flocked to the fortresses of these magelords who offered them protection in exchange for their servitude. The magelords battled across the ruins for generations, but none could master the others. Like the cycles that rule all things, the now forgotten magelords rose and fell in an unending series of nameless wars. When a magelord grew strong, his ambition for power would always lure him deeper into the ruins to find still greater power. It is deep within the ruins that the plague still waits, sleeping like a god, to be wakened by those who seek the elder power. This is why our people remained so few in number during all those centuries, for the Wasting Plague returned to those who forgot the lessons of the past.

The Royal House Lives On
When the Wasting Plague descended upon our people, among the first struck down were the members of the royal family, who dwelt in a house rich in enchantment. Only the Crown princess Nefti survived, for she was not in the royal house, but at Lake Raadihn with her teacher Anmen. She had laid down her magical amulets and rings so that she could swim in the clear water while Anmen, likewise devoid of any magical garments or accouterments, waited on the shore.

Suddenly Anmen's thoughts were interrupted by a message transmitted magically. History does not record exactly what he heard, but we know that terror and panic were the emotions of the sender. Anmen was momentarily weakened, but regained control of himself and bade the princess to come with him back to the city immediately.

They were aghast at what they found. Much of the capital, including the palace, was ablaze. The streets and buildings were littered with bodies. There were no survivors to be found. Anmen knew that his people would surely perish. In desperation he led the young princess to the Open Plaza and called out to the dead who lay there in profusion.

“Do not abandon us,” he called. “Without your help we are surely lost.” Slowly, the bodies of our stricken people began to rise. One by one they gathered before the palace, in order to preserve the nation. That is when we first learned that any man of wisdom and learning can wake his ancestors; that it is not a gift of the god reserved only for his priests.

With the assistance of the risen Charonath, Anmen cleared a small portion of the city and made it safe for people who remained loyal to the Crow. While all around them chaos reigned, the small enclave grew and began to thrive. Outside the safety of Anmen's quarter, palaces were plundered and gangs of brigands rules the empty canyons that were once the beautiful cities of Jakandor. Apocalyptic cults sprang up, and survivors hid in the shadows. Eventually, the magelords began to appear and war rages across the island.

As Nefti grew in wisdom, she looked with sorrow upon the world and reflected upon her duty.

“It is clear to me now,” she decreed, “that if we are to survive we can no longer wait for our god to wake. Nor can we turn to the promises of the lesser gods and their cultists. The power of the gods exceeds their compassion. We must stand on our own feet and find our own way in the wilderness.”

It was then that Princess Nefti, the only survivor of the royal family and a symbol of hope to many, earned herself the name “Nefti the Apostate.” She threw down the yoke of subordination and took up the mantle of responsibility, compassion, and justice.

The crown princess carved out a safe haven in the ruins of Alchatay and collected around her thinkers and philosophers who loved truth. This enclave survived for all the five thousand years. It survived the ravages of time and the attacks of jealous magelords who heard rumors that the royal line still lived and sought to wipe it out. But through the years the heirs of Nefti never sought to reclaim the land by force. They were taught that when the cycle of killing was ended, the house of Hramnethes would again bring peace to its people.

Rebirth of the Nation
After thousands of years of chaos, Jakandor was a desolate and empty place with pockets of population hiding in fortresses built among the ruined cities. Vast fields and farmlands were abandoned and reclaimed by the wild. Magelords conducted their wars against one another with stealth and cunning, using magical gates and animated Charonath to execute their plans.

Finally, one hundred and fifty years ago, hope returned to our people in an unlikely form. It came in the form of the beast-like race of shadow people called the Knorr who invaded our island and threatened to destroy the little that remained of

Our once great nation. The Knorr were few in number at first, but their appetite for destruction was boundless. They scoured the ruins, destroying ancient records and plundering artifacts to use as trinkets to decorate their spears and as trophies for their lodges. When not competing to destroy every remnant of our lost learning, the Knorr engaged in bloody warfare among themselves. The Knorr are an illiterate race with no love of learning or wisdom. They have no sense of duty to preserve the past, and they destroy the Charonath upon sight, as if to mock the wisdom which the dead preserve.

The magelords took little notice of the beast-men until several of them fell before onslaughts of the howling savages during the years following the invasion. Nefti the Peacemanker, the heir to the line of Hramnethes and leader of a small enclave of philosophers, sent a message out to the remaining magelords. She called them to attend a Congregation in the Open Plaza at Alchatay to discuss the invasion of Jakandor by the Knorr. Most of the magelords who knew Nefti considered here a weak, but harmless pretender. Some of them would not have bothered to attend the Congregation, but they dared not stay away lest an enemy find a way to turn the meeting to his advantage. A few did stay away, suspecting treachery; some came hoping to perpetrate the same. It was thirty days before the group had finally assembled.

Nefti appeared, greeted the magelords by name, and extolled the magical accomplishments of each one, but refused to mention their military victories. She led the party to the palace to see where she had assembled the Hall of Skulls. She explained that she felt the wisdom of our ancestors might help the assemble come to terms, for it was time for peace. If the Charonti could not unify now, they would forever lose their heritage to the savage Knorr, who were plundering the tombs of our ancestors. If the Charonti could not unify, they should look to the Knorr as their heirs and see in those savage people their own future. It was time for the cycle of death and rebirth to turn once again.

In her wisdom Nefti suggested that the magelords confer among themselves, look to the future and then to the past. The wizards argued, each seeking a chance to hold sway over the rest.

Many saw the wisdom of her words, but at the same time they were full of ambition and pride. “It is true what you speak, Nefti. We must indeed unite if we are to regain our heritage. But – who shall rule? “ asked the diviner Nefeseramose.

The mage consulted the glass skull he carried and that still rests in the Council Chamber. “The future tells me Hramnethes will rule. But he is long dead.” He smiled and the room burst into angry objections.

Finally, Nefti stoof before the skulls of the ancestors. She called upon Shanatharon, who was the most powerful of the necromancers in that time. “Ask them, Shanatharon, so that all may hear. Who shall rule our nation?”

A shrill wailing filled the chamber as the necromancer summoned the shades from the skulls of the ancestors, and cold winds tore at the clothes of the magelords. Above the noise they heard a droning chorus of voices that said in unison, “Hramnethes is king.” The room then fell silent.

Nefti stood. “I am of the line of Hramnethes,” she said firmly. “The meaning is clear. I claim the throne.” The magelords were silent.

Then anger filled her and she shouted, “I am your queen! Return to your fortresses and tear them to the ground. Return to this city in a month's time. You will all lead us forward as we reclaim our past and build anew. Tell the skulkers in darkness that they may come in from the shadows, and all will have my protection. Those who oppose me will find no safe harbor, for the time of darkness and chaos is ended, and the light of reason, justice, and compassion dawns anew. Do not resist what you know to be our destiny – you have heard the voices of our ancestors and the promise of the future.”

How Nefti Drove Back the Plague
The warring magelords agreed to restore the ancient line of Hramethes to the throne. They agreed to peace, so that they might jointly turn their attention to the beast-men. Some agreed cynically, thinking that a least a small nation could be built for which the question of rule could be revisited in the future. Many realized that Nefti was correct in proclaiming that the cycle had turned again – it was time for the Charonti to restore the nation and return reason and compassion to the world.

When word spread that the magelords at the Congregation had endorsed unification under Nefti, some who had avoided the meeting came to join in building the new nation. Others, blinded by their ambition, disavowed the alliance and retreated from the capital to plot. To this day, their descendants are hidden in the Outlands, waiting for a day when they believe they will rule again.

Nefti chose some magelords as counselors. The rest she charged to put aside their past rivalries and to work together to recover the lost knowledge of their ancestors before the Knorr destroyed it completely. She established the Colleges of Wizardry so that the mages might have the resources to study the lost arts and to teach them to the young. She selected a corps of officers called “guardians” to command the Charonath as the new nation reclaimed the elder cities. Then she established a Court of philosophers dedicated to creating a society ruled with justice and compassion.

When she had arrayed the new nation before her and was pleased, the magelords who now led the colleges approached her with concern. The Wasting Plague was believed to persist in the deep ruins, and they feared that the mission to recover the lost heritage of the Charonti might be the cause of the nation's final destruction.

Nefti reflected upon the concerns of the wizards and agreed. She had, however, a gift to give the new nation, a gift she said was born of wisdom and available to all who truly loved justice. She explained to the mages that the Wasting Plague was like ignorance. It hid in the darkness and hated the light of knowledge. This is why it hides deep in the ruins, because it can not exist in sunlight.

“Behold,” she said, “for those who truly love justice will radiate that love like the sun itself.” As she spoke the word “justice,” a dazzling light burst from a pendant around her neck, causing the wizards to cover their eyes. “This is the pure light of justice and wisdom. With it you may free the knowledge that still lies buried and hidden from daylight.”

That is how Nefti turned back the plague. Though it still lurks in the ruins, our people can carry the light into the dark to protect themselves.

Since the Congregation
Since the time of Nefti the Peacemaker, the gates between the cities have been reopened for the first time in centuries, and quarters have been made safe for the queen's people. Great buildings have been restored and ancient scrolls have been brought out of hiding to rebuild the great library of the Dodecon. All the beauties and wonders you see in the Civil Centers have been achieved since our people reawakened to their humanity and quit behaving like gods.

Our Duty
Study these stories well, little brother. Commit them to memory, so that you may better server the Crown. Perhaps you will recover lost magic of our ancestors, or seal the plague beneath the ground forever, or discover its cause and cure. Perhaps you will subdue the beast-men or train them to behave like humans. Whatever role you are destined for, you will work to make the world safe again and fill it with the beauty, wisdom, and knowledge that is your heritage. One day again we will reach beyond these shores and carry peace and light to the darkened world, for that is what it means to be Charonti.

[Eanwulf]

Chapter Two: Society
This chapter presents an overview of Charonti culture and introduces fundamental traditions of Charonti life that will be explained in later chapters. The challenges facing the wisdom-loving nation are explored, as well as the resources they may draw upon to overcome these obstacles, including their devotion to justice, the Colleges of Wizardry, and the undead Charonath.

The Charonti World
The Charonti live in the shadow of a once great civilization. They are the heirs of a lost empire that once spanned the world. This empire was built upon high magic and complex technology. But that age of glory has lain in ruins for thousands of years. Five millennia have passed since this once dazzling culture was decimated in a matter of hours by an apocalyptic plague. The spell-casters and priests were all but wiped out, and most of their knowledge was lost with them. Across Jakandor where millions of people once lived, only a handful survived.

For the next fifty centuries the survivors of this once pacifistic people warred among themselves. Brief periods of stability were ruined by fresh conflicts and new outbreaks of the plague. During this time struggling wizards were able to hoard small caches of knowledge that they scavenged from the ruins.

The ancient religion of the Charonti was lost as well, although a few believers passed on fragments of the old faith in remote pockets around ancient temples.

One hundred and fifty years ago the Knorr, a savage race of barbarians invaded the eastern shores of Jakandor. Soon thereafter, they began to plunder the elder cities, overwhelming Charonti wizards they encountered with sheer savagery and numbers. The Charonti found themselves in danger of finally disappearing from the annals of history forever.

It is against this backdrop that the Charonti people are now struggling to reclaim their heritage and rebuild the nation that once brought peace and learning to a dark world. Reunited, for the most part, under a royal line dedicated to reason, justice, and compassion, the Charonti are fighting for their very survival.

The tasks before them are monumental, and their success is threatened at every turn by enemies both within and without. If they cannot tame their internal conflicts, they risk falling prey ultimately to the bloody tooth and claw of the howling Knorr.

The Just Society
The Charonti Crown is fully dedicated – in fact, magically bound – to the creation of a just society. The Charonti know that as they rebuild their nation, they will assume a mantle of great power. They will again resume their position as caretakers of the world. They know that the inheritors of such power must be both good and wise to husband it properly. As the Charonti advance in their learning and magic, they dutifully apply this power to secure for themselves a just nation.

The Charonti ideal of the just society descends from the thinking of Nefti the Apostate, the crown princess at the time of the Wasting Plague. She believed that the rulers of a society must be the most good and wise people a society can muster. They should be dedicated to the truth and to service to the community. In a just society, each person is able to do the one thing for which he is best suited. This yields the greatest happiness for the people and the greatest benefit to the society itself.

These simple principles server as the foundation of Charonti philosophy. Dedication to the just society fills the role in many people's lives that devotion to the sleeping god had in the time before the plague. Traditional Charonti ideals taught by that lost religion have persisted and have become a part of the Charonti notion of justice. These ideals include: dedication to one's place in society; the practice of formal etiquette that reflects ancestral piety and a respect for the wisdom of one's elders; and the animation of the dead as a means of preserving hereditary wisdom and learning, as well as freeing the living from manual labor. All of these traditions contribute to the Charonti idea of what is fitting and proper. The Charonti notion of the just society is a mixture of elder traditions and recent philosophy.

The Caste System
The Charonti believe that a person is best suited to one calling in life and should pursue that calling without distraction. For this reason, they see a society based on castes as entirely natural and good. The Charonti castes are hereditary; however, some movement between them is allowed, so that people may assume the station of life to which they are best suited. Most children born into a guildsman's family are trained to work in the guild, marry someone from another family in the same guild, and die at the end of a life of guild service. But some people who display an unusual aptitude that lies outside the tradition of their lineage may be welcomed into a different guild or even join the ranks of the scholars who server the Crown as teachers or government officials. A lack of purpose in life is seen as irresponsible and disrespectful of the nation's need for dedication at all levels of society.

There are, for practical purposes, three castes in Charonti society: the scholars, the guildsmen, and the outcasts. In this section we will look at each of these, but we will begin by first examining what could be considered the fourth and highest caste – the royal family.

Binding the Queen
The Charonti are ruled by a lineage whose bloodline reaches back to the emperor at the time before the plague. It is, however, misleading to think of the throne as a strictly hereditary seat of power. In fact, children of remarkable wisdom and intelligence are freely adopted into the royal family, to serve as siblings to young royals as well as potential candidates for the throne.

The children of the royal family are raised by philosophers who seek to instill the values of Charonti justice at an early age. They are constantly tested to strengthen their compassion and reason. They are never magically compelled, but their behavior is carefully studied. Each child develops a sense of duty that precludes competition for the throne. All of them know that it is in the best interest of the society for the child who is best suited to rule to ascend to the throne, and that neither they nor the Charonti people will prosper if someone inappropriate assumes rulership. Those children of the royal family who do not take the throne generally remain in the scholar caste, often serving as philosophers and friends in the Court of the queen.

The Charonti enjoy life under the rule of a queen dedicated to justice. While the strength of the queen's character is unquestioned, the ruler makes a powerful covenant with the nation by magically subordinating her will to the welfare of the people. At the coronation of the queen, the new ruler is publicly geased as part of a lengthy ritual in which she is charged with the responsible custodianship of the nation. In this act the queen embodies the very ideal of public duty to which she exhorts the community. Historically, this ritual served to ease the suspicions of the magelords at the end of the wards when Nefti sought to unify them under her common rule. Today is still serves to build a sense of loyalty and trust in the Crown among the citizens.

The coronation of a new ruler occurs one day after the death of his or her predecessor. The Charonti tradition does not prohibit the crowning of a male rule; however, in the years since the Congregation all the heads of state have been females.

Scholars
All members of the scholar caste are servants of the Crown, whether in an administrative, academic, or military capacity. After the royal family itself, the scholar caste has the greatest degree of influence on the reconstruction of the nation. Scholars comprise the Court of the Council of the queen, and the philosophers, jurists, officers, and scribes who hold all positions of authority within the government. The caste also includes the students and instructors of the Addakainen, a sprawling assemble of institutions dedicated to research and learning.

The scholars' daily lives are occupied by tasks related to reconstructing the lost Charonti nation. The philosophers devote themselves to the cultivation of wisdom and justice. The wizards are tasked with recovering lost magic and developing new spells. The government officials and scribes supervise the daily operations of the reconstruction. The guardians, warrior officers who command undead legions, help expand the territory that is safely in the control of the Crown. It is the scholars who lead the missions into the ruins of the elder empire and who must interpret the meaning of the things they recover.

Although the scholars are the most prestigious and influential caste, most of these have no real civil power except to serve the interests of the community. The scholars also hold little economic power; they live in simple dormitory-style barracks and may not amass material wealth. They have little, if any, private life, since the government barracks do not accommodate traditional family living. What little material comfort the scholars do enjoy is provided to them through the tax revenue of the Crown and the income of the colleges of the Addakainen. The queen believes, that those who hold the role of conservators of the nation must not be tempted by luxury, or the trappings of power and comfort.

Guildsmen
The guildsman caste is composed of artisans, merchants, and farmers. This caste takes its name from the plethora of trade guilds. But many people in this caste are not members of guilds at all; rather, they work for family businesses that have been carried on for generations. Guildsmen, whether they work in a family enterprise or a guild, reflect the belief that a society is most just when all its members devote themselves to the work to which they are best suited without conflicting with the rest of the society.

Guildsmen enjoy a rich family life. Their families often include grandparents, aunts, and uncles as well as the immediate family. They lead comfortable lives and may acquire material wealth freely, restrained only by the social custom that it is disrespectful to live better than the other members of one's family. Consequently, all members of the family tend to share the benefits of each other's successes.

Although Charonti fashions tends to reflect the simple and austere lifestyle of the scholar caste, guildsmen can and do possess goods and clothing of fine quality. Because the population of Charonti is small in comparison to the city space available, the guildsmen all live in spacious accommodations.

Magic is an integral part of daily life among the Charonti, and the artisans of the guildsman caste devote themselves to the design and manufacture of goods both magical and mundane. Guilds involved in manufacturing will typically take on young wizards as apprentices to pass on the secrets of their trade. Many of the artisan guilds have been controlled for generations by the members of a few families who helped make them successful.

Merchants manage business throughout the four Civil Centers (the partially reconstructed Charonti cities). As with the artisans, many of the merchant guilds are dynastic in nature; their vast wealth is a major influence in public policy.

Farmers are the least enfranchised caste members. They are the only Charonti who live in any numbers outside the four cities. They do not form guilds but tend to build small family homesteads near the safety of the huge farms that the Crown operates along the three major rivers on the western side of the island. Because of their self-sufficiency, their proximity to the Outlands – the untamed and unrestored remote areas that are not governed by the queen – and their tendency to devote themselves to manual labor, farmers are somewhat disdained by city dwellers.

Most guildsmen never pass beyond the secure walls of the Civil Centers; however, this is not to suggest that their lives are uneventful. The competition between guilds can be fierce and can tax the imagination of the most cunning strategist. Formal vendettas dedicated to ruining competitors are an honored guild tradition.

Some guilds sponsor ventures into the Outlands. A number of them do so to legitimately acquire resources for their work, while others bolster their trade illicitly through commerce with the outcasts who live there. Still others seek new advantages for their enterprises by attempting to recover ancient artifacts or magic from the ruins.

Outcasts
The outcasts are the squalid Charonti who survive beyond the walls of the settled quarters and the influence of the Crown. This territory is known among the civil Charonti as the Outlands.

When Nefti the Peacemaker first began to rebuild the Charonti nation, she sent out a call to all corners of the island offering protection to all that would join in the restoration. Not everyone heard, and of those who did, not everyone responded. The descendants of those people account for most of the population of the outcasts. Most of these live in small, widely scattered autonomous communities and encampments that struggle for existence in the abandoned ruins and wilderness. The outcasts include rogue wizards who are descended from the resisting magelords, brigands, radical individualists, religious zealots dedicated to obscure deities, and other people who are simply antisocial or insane.

The Crown will accept refugees into the Civil Centers if they are willing to swear fealty to the nation and if they can perform some useful service. The queen forbids trade with the outcasts, because that could strengthen the enemies of the nation. However, the general policy of the Crown toward outcast enclaves is neutral – except for those that somehow threaten the security or interests of the nation. In these cases the queen has been compelled to send armed forces against rogue wizards and priests, self-styled feudal lords, and free-willed undead. Some outcast enclaves are said to date back to the plague.

Social Mobility
While the Charonti castes are generally hereditary, people can move freely from one caste to another based upon their aptitudes and abilities. The Addakainen, which any Charonti child may enter, serves as a means of drawing members of the guildsmen into the scholar caste. Scholars may apply for membership in a guild, and if accepted they lose the rights and responsibilities of their former caste. Outcasts may join the civil Charonti (as described above) and move into the position in society to which they are best suited. Jurists, who are agents of the Crown's justice, can use magical divination to help determine what vocation a person should pursue. Jurists also have the authority to assign a person to one function instead of another, and in doing so from one caste to another when appropriate.

The Undead
For thousands of years, respect for ancestors and the animation of the dead have been an integral part of Charonti life. Originally tied to the ancient worship of Thanhotep, these practices continue as honored traditions, even though the worship of the deity has been abandoned. The animation of deceased Charonti provides laborers which allows the undertaking of projects well beyond the capability of the living population, and provides a fighting force to help defend the nation. Communication with the dead is also a means of preserving knowledge that might otherwise be lost from one generation to the next. The undead, or Charonath, greatly outnumber the living in this society.

Charonath perform virtually all manual labor, which frees the living to devote themselves to intellectual tasks. These can serve as soldiers, so that the living need not expose themselves to unnecessary risks, nor take part in the unseemly bloodshed and violence of combat. They are also used to escort expeditions of scholars into the far reaches of the island and offer protection from the dangers of the wild. Spirits of the wisest Charonti are often summoned for consultation by students, researchers, and members of government, including the queen.

Charonti venerate their ancestors, but their view of the undead is based on reason rather than mysticism. They view undeath as a dutiful way for a citizen to continue serving the community after his life has ended. Charonti do not fear or loathe the Charonath.

Civil Centers
The Charonti who are subjects of the queen live in small portions of four ancient cities that have been cleared, restored, and made safe for settlement. These settled quarters, known as the Civil Centers, are separated by sealed buildings and blockaged thoroughfares from the unrestored parts of the ruins, which are abandoned to the outcasts. Anything beyond the safety of the Civil Centers is regarded as Outlands, whether it is the windswept plazas and decrepit buildings of the ruins that surround them, or the wild plains and forests across Jakandor. Each of these four ruined cities was originally built thousands of years ago for a population hundreds of times larger than those who dwell in them now.

The Civil Centers are linked to each other via magical teleportation gates that permit the queen's subjects to live in what amounts to a single virtual city. Any citizen may freely move from one city to another as desired as if using a teleport without error spell. Each magical gate is supervised by a guardian and a squad of Charonath under orders to apprehend anyone who is acting suspiciously (for instance, behaving like a person who is chasing someone or being chased), but surveillance is generally quite loose. Each magical gate or portal allows simultaneous two-way travel and, because theya re 40 feet wide, these gates can accommodate several people at once.

Most citizens spend their entire lives in the clean, wide-open spaces of the Civil Centers. They live in spacious buildings and do their shopping along wide avenues that were built thousands of years ago for a more crowded time. Occasionally, the Crown will annex a few more acres of the unsettled quarters and restore that area to accommodate the gradually growing population. There is no need for roads outside the Civil Centers, although ruined elder roads still cross the island, and outcasts maintain regular trails in some areas of the Outlands. The first task of a Crown expedition, when it travels to a new ruin, is to secure the area and erect a teleportation gate, known as a “home gate” linked to a Civil Center, which makes further exploration of the site easier.

Three of the four Civil Centers also have physical, non-magical gates to provide access to the Outlands. Outland gates are used by Crown expeditions to venture into the wilderness, as well as by guildsmen who want to seek their fortune in places beyond the protection of the queen. Each Outland gate is attended to by a scribe, a jurist, a guardian, and Charonath to monitor the traffic and to prevent invasions and the gate from being opened illegally.

Beyond the Civil Centers, the only other “settled” territory in the minds of the queen's subjects is the Crown farmland. This territory includes long stretches of fertile land that are irrigated and cultivated along the river valleys of western Jakandor. The land is worked predominantly by the Charonath of the Crown, although some citizens make their homes here on small private farms. No well-tended roads connect the farms to the Civil Centers, but again magical gates serve to make overland travel unnecessary. The farmlands are considered dangerous and wild places, a little too close to the Outlands to suit the tastes of most Charonti – even though huge contingents of zombie field workers serve as a veritable army to protect the citizens.

Charonti Homes
Most Charonti residential buildings look like a square, two-sectioned ziggurat. The ground floor commonly has no windows and only a single entrance. The outer walls of the first level are thick stone, smoothed over with clay and then whitewashed to create a featureless surface that slopes almost imperceptibly inward as it rises. The typical home has a ground wall (as it is called) height about 25 feet. Public buildings will often exceed this height significantly, hiding several stories behind the featureless ground wall. The selection of proportions and gentle angles of the first level of a building is a matter of great aesthetic tradition among the Charonti, who find great beauty in such subtlety.

At the top of the ground wall, set back 10 to 20 feet from the edge, rises the second section of the structure. This section can be any number of stories, but in homes is most commonly one or two. This secondary structure normally has an awning that circumscribes the building. The ledge atop the ground wall can be used as a deck from which the residents can view the street below. The entire structure is built around a central courtyard that allows light to enter and air to circulate freely along both the exterior and interior rooms. The upper stories are well ventilated with large open windows.

The ground floor of the house is normally used as a storage or workshop area, with the exception of the center courtyard that is almost always a garden of some sort, often with a pond or pool of water. Family Charonath may be assigned quarters within one wing of the ground floor usually near the kitchen, storerooms, and workshops. This section above the ground wall is where the members of the family, live, sleep, and eat.

In contrasts to the whitewashed austerity of the outer walls, the insides of most homes are decorated with rich tapestries or mosaics. Most of a home's artwork and decoration relates to the history of the family or legends of the elder Charonti.

Furniture in the home is simple and elegant. The Charonti favor simple cane stools and clay-topped tables, occasionally with sparse and tasteful decoration such as inlays of metal or gems. For storage, Charonti use woven baskets, carved wooden chests, and clay urns. Charonti often use woven grass mats as floor coverings in living areas, and dust the floor with sand, which is frequently changed, in work areas. Meals are taken in the courtyard or on the upper floors.

Government of the Crown
The Charonti are a nation at war. They are at war with the chaos outside the walls of the cities, with the Knorr who are bent on destroying their heritage, and with the ravages of time. As befits a nation struggling against such odds to reclaim its legacy, they are ruled by a monarch who has absolute authority over all affairs of state. But the queen is not a dictator; she governs with justice in mind, and delegates responsibility and authority to others as she sees fit.

The Charonti government is dedicated to restoring the former glory of the empire. To this end, the Crown has formed the scholar caste, which is entirely devoted either to directly or indirectly to the mission of rebuilding the nation. Through the scholars, the Crown conducts excavations, campaigns to subdue dangerous outcasts, and missions to rescue the lost wonders of the past, before such are destroyed.

The Crown collects taxes from the guilds to support the research of the scholars and to fund the projects of restoration. Additionally, the Crown draws revenue and resources from the imperial farms that are largely manned by Charonath. There is often a significant excess of grain available that is provided to the guildsmen for modest prices.

The queen appoints five groups to serve as the Crown's administrators and to assist in making the Charonti dream a reality. These advisory bodies are the Court, the Council, the Vizier, the Jurists, and the High Guardian. The queen is under no compulsion to consult any of these bodies, nore to appoint a specific number of members to each. The Charonti rely upon her wisdom to judge how best to avail herself of these resources. The queen almost always selects good-aligned advisors for these positions. In rare cases she will invite a neutral individual.

The Court
The court is comprised of thirty philosophers. These scholars are responsible for raising the children of the royal family, as well as discussing issues of justice and morals with the queen. The Court was founded by philosophers whom the original Nefti gathered within her enclave at the time of the Congregation. The Court advises the queen on specific issues of justice that are brought before her by the Jurists. Its members are drawn from the College of Thought.

The Council
The Council is a body of twelve advisors who assist the queen in settling priorities and making decisions related to restoration. The Council makes suggestions regarding ruins to be explored and magical research to be sponsored. These decisions directly affect the amount of funding that the different colleges of the Addakainen receive each year. The Council members have no official authority; but, the monarch traditionally defers to their consensus.

Council positions are filled from a pool of the most accomplished scholars who hold high positions within the colleges of the Addakainen and who have passed rigorous examinations. Even among councilors of good alignment, different notions persist of what is in the public interest; those differing opinions, as well as the rivalries of wizards from different colleges, result in a constant current of politicking within the palace halls.

The queen, in her wisdom, stands above this maneuvering and dedicates herself solely to what she believes to be just and reasonable. She allows the rivalries among the colleges to continue, believing that examination of all sides of an issue serves the interests of the nation. She lets debates continue as long as the rivals are competing to exceed one another in service to the Crown and not losing sight of the nation's goals.

The Council chambers are arrayed with a rack of skulls that circumscribes the domed ceiling. These skulls are those of great wizards and scholars of the past whose shaded may be consulted by the queen.

The Vizier
The Vizier sits at the head of an enormous bureaucracy that administers the day-to-day operations of the Crown. The Vizier is responsible for a veritable army of scribes who serve as diplomats, bureaucrats, tax collectors, accountants, and petty officials who keep the wheels of the nation running smoothly. These scribes are also involved in coordinating the logistics of most expeditions into the ruins that are sanctioned by the council.

The Vizier is responsible for attending to the mundane tasks of running the empire so that the queen may devote herself to more esoteric matters. Thus, the Vizier is one of the few advisors with real authority. By necessity, the queen delegates all administration to the Vizier, although she may at any time overrule any decision, or for that matter dismiss the Vizier. The Vizier is selected from among the highest-ranking scribes within the government bureaucracy. Scribes, like all scholars, receive an extensive education in the Addakainen before entering public service.

The Jurists
The Jurists are a specialized order of neutral-good philosophers dedicated to the administration of the queen's justice. Invested with the authority of judge and jury, the Jurists have wide-ranging powers to arbitrate disputes, assign property, punish criminals, and even arrange marriages.

The justice process is almost entirely informal and is administered by these individuals. The most severe punishment they may use is to geas a malefactor to server the public interest. This aids the community and avoids the expense and loss of resources that would come from imprisoning citizens.

Jurists are educated in the College of Thought and culled from aspiring philosophers. Like the queen, every Jurist is under the influence of a geas spell that guarantees he or she will always make rulings that are in accordance with a just society. Jurists are ranked in a hierarchy that extends down into the communities of the guildsmen and up to the high offices of the Crown. Four high-ranking Jurists at the top of this organization report directly to the queen who is, herself, the High Jurists. Once a month the queen assumes her role as Jurist and hears disputes in the Open Plaza. For more information on Jurists and how they operate, see Chapter Four.

The High Guardian
The wise and pacifistic Charonti have no warrior tradition, but they train a class of officers – the guardians – who study complex strategy and tactics of commanding the undead for a variety of purposes. This officer corps is responsible for the undead troops who carve out new territory within the cities for settlers, conduct campaigns against dangerous outcasts, monsters, and invaders, escort expeditions of scholars into the ruins, and protect the cities from their enemies. They also command the undead in undertaking civic projects requiring manual labor. The large fields of the Crown farms are tended by undead under the command of guardians. Remote mining operations of the Crown's in several locations are worked entirely by Charonath, whom guardians check on using magical gates. Guardians are members of the scholar caste since they are officials of the Crown, and because their life's work is dedicated to the service of the Charonti nation.

The High Guardian is simply the highest-ranking officer of the corps of guardians. The office has authority over the hierarchy of lower-ranking officers. The High Guardian is appointed by the queen and is ultimately responsible for supervising junior officers. All guardians, including the High Guardian, command squads of Charonath. No guardian holds an entirely administrative role.

Magic and Technology
Magic pervades all aspects of Charonti life. While high magic and technology of the ancient civilization has been lost and only recovered in fragments, the Charonti, all rely upon the items and enchantments of spell-casters as a part of everyday life.

However prevalent it may appear in present-day society, Charonti magic is a mere shadow of the knowledge amassed by their ancestors. Most spells of even medium level exist only in stories of the past. High-level magic does exist, but in hidden libraries. Some of the recovered technology of the elder civilization can be used, but it still is not entirely understood. It is the dream of all Charonti wizards to discover the spell that supposedly allowed a ball of flame to roll froth from the caster's hands, or the one that would grant the caster his dearest wish.

In spite of the gaps in their magical knowledge, wizardry is considered one of the highest callings among the Charonti, second only to pure philosophy. The ability to caste wizard magic is an indication of intelligence and that an individual understands things beyond the veil of appearances. The Charonti believe that magical energy comes from the nethtay, or “life center,” which is within a person's bones, and that the ability to tame this force reflects a high degree of education, personal discipline, and self-awareness.

There are many paths open to a wizard in Charonti society. The most ambitious wizards work in the colleges under the sponsorship of the Crown, conducting research and scouting the ruins in an effort to recover the past. Many more, however, are employed by the guilds making household magical items and pursuing practical applications of spell casting for the public interest. The Charonti economy is facilitated by magic of all sorts. Settled regions of each city are connected via magical portals. Levitating barges are very familiar with the use of magical items. Any educated person can read magic, and many can make use of simple scrolls.

The Addakainen
The single greatest asset of the Charonti nation in their struggle for survival is the Addakainen (“pool of magic and knowledge”), a loose assembly of schools sponsored by the Crown and dedicated to the study of magic, philosophy, and the efforts of reconstruction. At the time of the Congregation, Nefti the Peacemaker called upon the warring magelords to establish these schools. She showed the way by founding the School of the Just Society, dedicated to moral philosophy. The magelords complied, and an institution devoted to each of the schools of magic was founded. The magelords believed that through the schools there was a way to retain some independence and influence that they were risking losing by joining the queen's nation.

The Addakainen offers an education to all Charonti, and in doing so helps to direct people into the vocations for which they are best suited. It is also the primary means of social mobility within Charonti society. Children of guildsmen attend to learn the fundamentals of reading, writing, and numerical operations as well as reading magic. Students of exceptional ability are often retained in the school and directed to a life among the scholar caste. Likewise, a young scholar who shows an aptitude and interest in a particular craft rather than in his more esoteric studies will be gently directed from a school into a guild apprenticeship.

The buildings of the Addakainen are scattered across the four Civil Centers. All who attend the institution are provided with a modest cell and food. The queen grants funds to the various colleges in accordance with national priorities.

Paths of Education
The largest of the schools is the School of the Just Society. It provides the educational foundation for all of the students who later continue into one of the schools of wizardry or even into the advanced study of philosophy. The School of the Just Society consists of three distinct programs, beginning with the Children's School in which many Charonti are taught to read magical and mundane texts. It continues with the Open School, in which students are prepared for advanced study in one of the Colleges of Wizardry. It culminates in the College of Thought, in which advanced philosophy and clerical spell casting are taught.

Children's School
Within the School of the Just Society, children of the scholar caste are quartered and cared for by young philosophers. Most scholars live in the compound of their college or the barracks of the Crown in modest cells that do not accommodate a family. Thus, even while children are growing up, they may see their parents infrequently. In early childhood the young scholars are taught simple moral principles, a proper sense of duty and ancestral piety. Songs and stories are memorized, which helps children be proficient at spell memorization when they become adults.

Guildsmen are welcome to send their children to the school at any age, but most wait until the child is about ten years old. Guildsmen place great value on family life, which must be left behind when a child is sent to school. The disadvantage that guild children face is that they don't receive as much instruction as the sons and daughters of scholars, who have been attending the Children's School since infancy.

At the age of fourteen each student is administered a test by the philosophers. The test involves an examination of each child's aptitudes, inclinations, and character. At the conclusion of the test, children are directed to either continue into Open School, to enter the School of the Guardians, or to apprentice with a guild. At this point many young guildsmen simply return home to practice their family trade.

Open School
The Open School serves to discipline the thinking of intellectually and spiritually adept students and to prepare them for their ultimate path in life. Any students who graduate from the Open School are likely to spend their lives in the scholar caste unless they personally choose otherwise.

In the Open School, students continue to memorize the classic philosophical texts and refine their ability to read magic. They spend most of their time listening to lectures and speeches from the older students from the various Colleges of Wizardry and philosophy. No exams are conducted until the end of four years, when students must take a series of tests that will assess their abilities. The results are available only to the members of the colleges, the Jurists, and particular Crown scribes. Each of these interested parties reviews the results and selects candidates to sponsor into their own institutions. The Jurists serve as arbiters if more than one party wants to recruit the same candidate.

A candidate must be sponsored by a member of one of the colleges or by a Crown scribe who agrees to act as the student's mentor. Accepting a candidate as a student is a profound responsibility among the Charonti. The mentor must guide the apprentice's growth in character as well as ability. Much Charonti moral philosophy extols the manner in which an appropriately dutiful apprentice shows deference to his mentor. Poor performance by an apprentice reflects at least as badly upon the mentor as upon the apprentice; the mentor will be seen as having made a bad choice, which often affects his prospects of taking on another apprentice in the future.

If a candidate is sponsored by a scribe of the Crown, the student's formal education ends and he or she immediately begins work as an apprentice scribe in the service of the Crown.

School of the Guardians
Out of every group of students who graduate from the Children's School, an elite few are directed into the School of the Guardians. This school is devoted to the training of the Charonti military officers. Students continue to study Charonti philosophy, but less emphasis is placed on memorization. Military strategy and physical training are a major part of the curriculum, as well as instruction in commanding the Charonath. Much of the program is devoted to repetitive drilling and frequent tests of endurance and loyalty to the Crown. The most successful students become teachers within the program. Other candidates who successfully complete the program serve as guardians to the Crown. Less successful students may find work handling undead within the barracks of the queen, while those who exhibit nothing beyond minimal aptitude may find work directing Charonath manual laborers among the guilds.

Colleges of Wizardry
Students who advance to study within a college are officially considered in the service of the Crown. Their study of magic advances Charonti learning and helps to recover the lost knowledge of the past.

There is one college for each school of magic, plus a College of Thought for studying the disciplines of wisdom and spiritual inquiry. The Colleges of Wizardry tend to focus on recovering ancient magic and learning about its operation and nature. They also pursue the advancement of natural sciences and technology. The queen may set priorities for the colleges, but rarely interferes. She funds the schools depending upon her perception of their need, which reflects her perception of their recent contributions.

The schools do not teach a formal curriculum. They use an apprenticeship program in which a student serves his sponsoring mentor. Some acolytes eventually are allowed to pursue their own research and expeditionary projects. Those who are less successfully may continue as apprentices within the college. A few eventually leave to serve their family or join a guild. The greatest of the wizards are often invited to join the Council of the queen.

Successful students in the College of Thought may be selected to care for the children of the scholars, or to teach in the Children's school, the Open School, or the college. Others are selected to serve as Jurists. The wisest are invited to join the queen's Court.

Guilds and Education
While most Charonti parents send their offspring to the Children's School, some families prefer not to risk losing their children to the poor financial prospects that life as a scholar will yield, in spite of the caste's prestige. These families often educate their own children until about the age of thirteen, whereupon they are apprenticed to a guild. All guilds have members who were trained in the colleges, but left for one reason or another. These are the people who teach young guildsmen the arcane arts of spell casting and enchantment as they apply to the business of the guild. The training given in a guild is focused on the product or service that guild offers.

The Dodecon and Spell Registry
In the center of Alchatay, the capital of the Charonti nation, lies the jewel in the crown of the restoration: the Greaty Library of the Dodecon, “storehouse of learning”. The Dodecon is an enormous collection of clay tablets, scrolls, and artifacts of historical or magical interest. Learned scholars are preserved as shaddock – the skulls of those scholars that are magically with the knowledge they possesses when they were alive – that may be consulted for information. (See the section on Charonath in Chapter Five for details about shaddoc.) The Dodecon is the repository for all the wonders that have been collected from the ruins or created in the workshops of the Charonti people. The Charonti are determined that their knowledge, once recovered, will never be lost again.

The Crown requires that all new magic be registered at the Dodecon. It is the privilege of the Crown to make use of any magic or technology created by a citizen. However, privately researched magic may remain in the possession of those who created the spells. Consequently, some spells that have been roistered are not available to the public, but may be reviewed by senior scribes and certain members of the colleges. Some spells are available only to members of a particular college of the Addakainen or are kept under the purview of the Crown. The library also contains spells that are available to the general public for study.

Charonti Religion
The Charonti were once a pious people who devoutly practiced a religion centered on a deity they called Thanhotep (“cycle of beginnings and ends”), a god of death and rebirth. Centuries ago this religion was abandoned when the priest caste was wiped out in a plague and many people rejected the worship of Thanhotep. This religion was replaced by a creed that taught that the Charonti could achieve lasting peace and prosperity only through the reason and compassion of the people themselves without appeal to an external force. Since the reconstruction began, the Charonti mission to create a just society has become a spiritual center of the lives of the educated Charonti.

Moral philosophy is the highest priority of the Crown. The government maintains its dedication to its philosophical ideals and cultivates the free exchange and examination of ideas. It discourages superstitious and religious attitudes. No temples are permitted within the Civil Centers, but the Crown actively suppresses religions and cults only when they are subversive or threaten the peace of the kingdom. The queen is actually friends with an aging priest of Thanhotep with whom she debates philosophical matters.

The common belief is that devotion to powers that exist beyond the material world is an act of moral cowardice. The devotees of these other powers need take no responsibility for their own actions, but simply subordinate their wills to that of their deity. It is regarded as emotionally misguided to revere a remote supernatural being above one's own ancestors, teachers, and community. And, such an attitude is viewed as potentially dangerous. The great supernatural powers are known to delight in destructively meddling in the affairs of the material world. If such a power perceives that is has many ardent worshippers, it may be tempted to intervene in the affairs of the Charonti. It is equally likely that a lack of attention will enrage a great power, just as an undisciplined child has a tantrum when its vanity is not adequately fed.

Most Charonti believe that it is best to leave these supernatural powers alone. Even good and decent powers have no business interfering in the lives of mortals, for they cannot understand the depth of compassion that can only come from a recognition of one's mortality. The Charonti nation, once it is fully rebuilt, will provide a safe harbor for all humanity from the arbitrary savagery of the great powers. In its balance of reason and compassion with perfect justice, it will create an example that the stumbling gods may look upon in wonder and learn from.

The moral philosophy that lies at the center of Charonti life is an amalgamation of moral principles that extend from their forgotten religious heritage and newer notions of what is fitting and proper. To the common Charonti it is characterized in their profound notion of duty, or the belief that individuals should discipline their desires for the benefit of the community. Many philosophers have written classic texts that list prescriptions for right action and dutiful behavior. Most Charonti can quote the most common axioms, which usually revolve around obedience and devotion to one's mentor, parents, community, the restoration, and the queen. These prescriptions also extol the virtues of hard work and single-minded devotion to one's work and caste.

While the scholar caste generally disdains traditional religious devotion, many scholars take an anthropological interest in primitive religion. Some study the ancient records from the Charonti era of exploration that document the religions of primitive people. Others study the various popular cults and religions that emerge on occasion among the city-dwelling Charonti and the outcasts.

Thanhotepic Religion
Although the dominant philosophy of the Charonti is that espoused by the Crown, religious practices do persist in daily life. Devotion and respect for one's ancestors is an integral part of Charonti life, and is reflected in their modes of etiquette and their practice of preserving and animating the dead. While these practices may have found their beginning in ancient religion, they are now simply considered the wise conduct of dutiful Charonti.

Some farmers and guildsmen continue a simple, almost superstitious form of Thanhotepic worship, though it is more a form of ancestor worship of the “sleeping god.” Charonti use this term to refer to Thanhotep nowadays, for it is generally believed that the god abandoned his people in their time of need. Some people not interpret this literally, and consider it bad luck to say his name for fear of waking him and bringing his wrath down upon the Charonti.

In the Outlands, ardent Thanhotepic cults persist among people who never abandoned the old religion. Ruined temples in the Outlands are regarded by the Crown as dangerous because they attract outcast cultists, and are believed to retain magic that may summon the attention of a god.

This faith has been rebuilt largely through the efforts of cultists excavating ancient temples. These cults vary in their beliefs and practices and are often opposed to other groups, regarding these as heretics. The Crown seals ruined temples when they are found; but, records of their locations are incomplete.

Occasionally a small cell of adherents to the old religion will develop in one of the cities. These people are ignored by the government as long as they do not threaten the domestic tranquility. It is rumored that the Addakainen actually allows a few aging priests of Thanhotep to study and practice their faith because of their unsurpassed control of the undead.

Other Religions
In spite of society's predisposition against devotional beliefs, small cults rise and fall in popularity among the Charonti with surprising regularity. Their great intellectual curiosity leads man Charonti to dabble in the ancient faiths of primitive peoples described in ancient manuscripts, and also makes some of them inclined to invent new religions.

Small enclaves of various faiths meet at private homes, and religious visionaries are common guests at the dinner parties of the wealthy. Although temples dedicated to any religion are not permitted by the Crown, people build shrines or chapels in their homes. Cults in Charonti society rarely amass large followings, and as such do not usually have a hierarchy of more than a few priests. Many cults are composed up of the followers of a single cleric.

The Knorr
What finally galvanized the warring magelords to reunite under the Crown of the line of Hramnethes and the just society was an invasion by a bloody race of primitive savages. The Knorr landed on the eastern shore of Jakandor 150 years ago, and shortly after their arrival began to pillage the ruins of the elder Charonti. They do not understand the power that lies in the ruins, but simply carry away ancient treasures as trophies. They pay homage to a dark and primitive religion that embraces hundreds, if not thousands, of petty gods, such that each family is slave to a different power. At the same time, demonstrating the illogic that is typical of savages, the entire race is beholden to a demi-urgic goddess of war, which they use as their justification for destruction and the glorification of animal appetites. These beast-men cultivate the art of killing above all.

This bit of knowledge has been obtained through careful surveillance of some of their crude settlements. Oddly enough, the spoken language of the Knorr bears some general similarity to the ancient Charonti tongue, enough so that basic ideas can be grasped. Little more is known about the Knorr, for one has never been captured alive. They have met every effort to communicate with an insane ferocity. They seem to delight in destroying all remnants of learning and the past. They destroy the Charonath on sight. There are reports of tribes of Knorr who entered ruins simply to slaughter the Charonath and destroy any knowledge they might find. For a reason that cannot be discerned, if indeed any reason exists, they create enormous animal-headed statues that their bestial priests can animate and use in their wars among themselves.

The intelligence of the Knorr is even less than that of animals, for in combat they often stand out in the open and bellow at their enemies, displaying no higher thinking than might allow stealth or cunning in their attacks. However, what they lack in intelligence they more than make up for in ferocity, for they seem to value their own lives as little as those of their victims. The one blessing of their foolishness and ferocity is that they spend most of their time warring among themselves, which has given the Charonti time to plan a campaign against them.

The Knorr present several distinct threats to the Charonti. First and foremost, with each passing day the Knorr destroy or disperse more of the buried wisdom of the elders that remains in the ruins. Second, they seem to be immune to the plague, but able to carry it. Thus, if a party of Knorr were able to reach one of the Civil Centers, they might annihilate the last survivors of the Charonti race. Finally, although the Knorr are barely more than animals, some Charonti fear that they may one day learn the true nature of the powerful elder artifacts that they now destroy or use to decorate their lodges. If the Knorr were to stumble upon a powerful ancient temple or library, they could unleash a disaster hitherto unimagined.

There is considerable controversy among members of the government about how best to deal with the beast-men. The strategy of the Crown in recent times has been to avoid direct confrontation with the Knorr and to locate and secure as many of the elder ruins as possible. Once the ruins are secured and safe, the beast-men can be left to run about the forest and hills to destroy themselves. Some Council members advocate a concerted campaign to wipe out the Knorr now, insisting that their animalistic rate of reproduction will only make the situation worse if it is left unchecked. Still others advocate domesticating the Knorr and raising them up to some semblance of civility, perhaps using them as servants in the manner of the Charonath. This was the original strategy of the Crown, but was discarded after repeated attempts to peacefully interact with the Knorr were met with savage violence.

Charonti Names
All Charonti individuals have a single name. It normally begins with a syllable that is shared by everyone in the character's lineage, but this is not always the case. In the Charonti custom of naming, each syllable has a specific meaning. A person's name generally becomes longer, and occasionally a syllable is dropped, as that person grows older and adds to his list of accomplishments. As a venerable Charonti's name begins to become unwieldy, he will drop the use of many syllables except in formal occasions, when the entire name is used. Abbreviating one's name is a sign of humility. Also, I is customary never to use a longer form of your name than the person with whom you are talking, if that person is a social superior.

For example, the members of a scholarly lineage may all use the first syllable Nem (“wizard') because of the status of their ancestors. An infant may be called Nemat (at = wind) because of its loud and frequent crying. As a toddler, Nemat may begin to be called Nematabragath (a = he, bra = brother, gath = large) when another child is born into the family. When, as a youth, the child readies for the exam to join the Open School, he may have the name Nematabragathileser (il = aspiring, eser = scholar). When the young Charonti is accepted into the College of Though and he is introduced to his mentor Ihnna (“without pride”), the apprentice humbly refers to himself as Nem, dropping the rest of his name for the occasion. As the time of his first advancement in the level of his spell casting power, however, the mentor may address the apprentice as Nematabragathiseser (iseser = young scholar), or even Nempalatabragathiseser (the honor of pal added because of the student's power of reason). Small connecting syllables a (“he”) or i (“she”) may repeat several times in a name of fluidity.

The female children of the royal family have always taken names beginning with Nefti. Their true names are probably much longer, but the queens have always been known simply as Nefti (‘wise and gentle one”). Nefti the Peacemaker's full name was Neftianesiha-hramnethes (“wise and gentle peace maker who is the daughter of Hramnethes”). Nefti the Apostate was called Neftinathanhotep (“wise and gentle without Thanhotep”).