Jadeborn Worker/Warrior Concept Attempt

THE PRIMORDIAL WAR AND THE GREAT GEAS As the Games of Divinity enthralled the Primordials, they ceded increasing amounts of power to the gods. For their part, the gods tired of servitude and coveted both Yu-Shan and the Games of Divinity. When the gods began plotting rebellion, they were joined by two Primordials, Gaia and Autochthon. The former was persuaded by her new lover Luna, the latter because the other Primordials used him as a servant, mocked his infirmity and causally destroyed his creations. While the rest of the conspirators plotted and schemed in vain, Autochthon devised a plan to use nascent humanity as their greatest weapon. He designed a means of imbuing mortals with divine power and gave this secret to the gods so they could make an army of champions. While the gods created the Exalted, Autochthon called upon the Jadeborn to supply them with weapons and armor. Thanks to the combined might of their innate strength and the power of their wondrous panoplies, the Exalted triumphed over the Primordials, and the results of this war transformed Creation. By the end of this war, most other Primordial races lay in ruin. The Dragon Kings were greatly reduced in number and no longer dominated the surface, the Lintha were broken and on the run, and the alaun and many others were rendered extinct. Yet the Mountain Folk continued to rule their subterranean empire. Unfortunately, the Solar Exalted feared the might of the Jadeborn, feared having the same weapons they sup- plied the Chosen turned against them, and they prayed to their Celestial patron to protect them. In response, the Unconquered Sun ordered Autochthon to magically bind the creatures he considered to be his children into their underground realm, warning the Great Maker that the gods and the Exalted would destroy the Mountain Folk if he did 10 not. Autochthon reluctantly complied and laid the Great Geas on his people. Soon after, fearing that the Exalted would turn against him, Autochthon gathered his human followers within his vast form and departed from Creation into the deepest folds of Elsewhere. THE FIRST AGE While humanity and its Exalted rulers flourished during the First Age, the first few centuries of this wondrous era marked the most desperate and terrible era in the Jadeborn’s long history. At first, the Great Geas seemed to be of little consequence, as the Jadeborn had always preferred their underground cities to living under the open sky. Because few of the Exalted wished to dwell underground, they left the Mountain Folk strictly along, in return for a yearly tribute of magical materials and artifacts. The true impact of the Great Geas became apparent only after the Mountain Folk began to die of old age. Although they lived for many centuries, their long lives eventually ended and their spirits re-entered nearby nodules of jade, waiting to be cut free and re-awakened by their living brethren. Unfortunately, the Great Geas splintered the souls of the Jadeborn. Instead of re-entering the jade as they always had, their souls split into five lesser pieces. Although each could be cut free and awakened as before, these partial Jadeborn were dull beings, lacking the genius and the vast physical prowess of their ancestors. Instead of a race of two million brilliant and powerful geniuses, they became a race of 10 million lesser beings, each of which was only slightly more capable than an enlightened mortal. There was a brief panic on the surface as some of the Exalted worried at the greatly increased numbers of the Mountain Folk, but their fears were soon allayed as they realized that these beings were incapable of operating much of their people’s advanced machinery. Many on the surface predicted that the Jadeborn would soon become extinct. THE BIRTH OF THE THREE CASTES While many of the Mountain Folk were too dull to care about their greatly reduced state, a handful dreamed of the lost glories of their past. The greatest of these heroes and dreamers was named White Shale. She vowed to search all of the subterranean lands of Creation to find a way to restore her people. She exploring a multitude of caverns so remote that none of her people had ever seen them and, in so doing, also saw legions of forgotten monsters massing beneath the earth. After years of traveling, White Shale found a crystal cave strewn with tools. It was deeper under the earth than her people had ever explored before. Out of a pit of white clay in the center of this cavern, a clay figure arose, proclaiming itself an avatar of Autochthon. This creature then struck White Shale. The hammer blow knocked her unconscious, but it also sculpted her soul. When she woke up, she understood the message she had been given and returned to her people. Because of the lassitude that had overcome her people, most of their newly expanded numbers remained entombed in rock. She found the first of these nodules, and with a few quick blows, cut loose a rough-hewn figure much like the very first of her people. This newly formed Jadeborn looked on her with trust and reverence, and she named him Uklem, which meant Bearer of Burdens. Then, she found another jade nodule and hacked forth a jagged and gnarled creature she named Naxok, Hammer of Sorrow. Finally, she found a third nodule the she knew to be rarer and more precious than the others, because it contained within it one of the rare unfractured Jadeborn souls, which her people had lost the art of freeing from the stone. She carefully freed this figure, who rose up and stared at her with a gaze that reflected both brilliance and passion. White Shale named this being Eryan, Daughter of Hope. This was the beginning of the modern form of the Jadeborn. Uklem and those like him became the Worker Caste. Although limited in mind and body compared to their ancestors, they were tireless and dutiful laborers who worked in the farms, mines and manufactories. Naxok was the first of the Warrior Caste, who trained and prepared to face the vast hordes of monsters White Shale had seen in her travels. Eryan was the first of the Artisan Caste as well as the last and tiny remnant of the old race of the original Enlightened Mountain Folk. Although only one in 1,000 of the Jadeborn were members of the Artisan Caste, each of these amazing beings was sufficiently powerful that he could successfully direct the remainder of his kind to allow their civilization to thrive and grow.