SteppeNomad

"Oh my cihi, my lads, my brothers! Always will I heft my spear and shield of polished bronze, always shall I gleam in the sun before you, and never will I shrink, when it is to further the glory of what is good and pure! Hail Larihei! For what is bravery if ne the completion of the noble duty! Hail Larihei! Bless the Eternal Cihi, and praise Purity!"

A beautiful fisherman gazes out over the sacred isles... before tossing his fishing net into the silvery sea. To bring up the blessings for his people

"Hail Larihei! May her light, and the blessed waters cleanse us of the impure!! Hail Larihei! For it is not we who shall have vengeance..." Devoted Pamphilos, high priest of purity clasped his hands within the waters below the great statue of Larihei of Victory.

"Eh? Valindra is still yet in our glorious cihi? I vote HER most needed of a bath! Hopefully in waters so pure they burn! Glad she has yet to allow her smells to harrange the perfumed breeze when it passes by me! May our separation of timezoness be praised!" A PURE High elf, not a kinslayer grins after reading of the great silver victories! "May the wicked be purged! May the impure be dunked in the purest pools, and emerge, immolated in burning flames! Hail Larihei! For it is not we, who shall have vengeance!" Grins a Hyptos! KEENLY aware of the dragon worshiper's dastardly plans to subvert the pure cihi!

"HAIL LADS, HAIL! The blessed Brothers, and the Sacred Cihi have rejoined! May our HORDE strike first, and strike firm!" A beautiful hoplite, a high elf with sculpted form, tanned by the ocean's sun grins a strong toothed smile, placing upon his head, the polished helm of bronze, and grasping in his hand, the Spear of Victory! "Ready your arms, lads! Polish your shields! For glory eternal shall be taken, ONCE more by the tip of a spike! After all! GREAT HAELUN'OR was the first, and the greatest member of the GREAT HORDE!" "HAIL PURITY! HAIL LADY LARIHEI!"

"Fool! Worshippers of worms! Your plight is foolish for the PURE ones have always risen! Hail the maiden! Ay'Larihei!" Beams a beautiful pure sunkissed hoplite. "Though, of course I can see why someone who has been cursed, surrendering their soul, may be jealous of beautiful, pure peoples!" Smiles the beautiful high elf!

Beautiful Pamphilos smiles! He hangs his head dress and puts aside his eyeliner, rejoining the lads in their spearforms upon the field of training! "Hail the pure path! For we have always held what is true! the who seek to subvert and ruin all of the realm shall ne hide, as the light shines in the sky and the waters run below! All the land will churn as they will find but spears when they seek shelter amongst the descendant men, lads, and it is we who shall sharpen those spears!" The beautiful hoplite clad in polished armour of blessed bronze smiles amongst the lads and lasses, sharing watered wine and sparring!

"Sulian! Our Blessed and peoples most sacred, truly all are to understand the enlightenment of the next age of attainment! Toss back the nets and rusty shackles of the age of ferrum! A much more advanced and progressive time has come! Welcome to the Bronze Age!" smiles Pamphilos! Widely appreciative for one of the lads actions. After all, we are individual heroes, and what our assembly ratifies, may it be done!

"Never will the bluster of lessers be taken serious! For it is these lubbites who sought to despoil the most ancient civilizations. It is these Lubbites who have ne sheared themselves from the sins of their past! May the greed of their master lead them down a foolish path to utmost ruin!" The Wanax spoke! Though he then thought. "Perhaps truly though, it is the gladiator pits which will purge some of the weakness" Smiles

Bright and beautiful is Pamphilos, Twin-sun of the Bronzeband, High-Priest of the pure path. He raises his crook before the assembled, guiding them to the waters of the river. "Soon, the milken waters will flow, and flow they shall, from the golden pool of source purity. Lady Hesthor, in her majesty and kindness, has given to us the tools! It is she who has given to us the might of her river, and with it we will carve through the land of the impures, may they know the cleansed path, purged of the unclean. In guiding her river, we are the ferriers of the purest kind!"

A recently returned Elven Hero gazes upon this missive with an turned up lip, finding it incredulous. After all, how can it be that so many of those of impure mind have come before us? Perhaps to call for lack of progress, but this?" "Oh what folly, for it is Blessed Seth, our great Maheral who stands tall. I would expect the recently returned, or perhaps the new oem'ii to ne recognize the recent history of the past hundred or so years. Seth has proven more often than I can recall that it is he who is fit for Maheral! After all, we canne blame him for the allowance of the impure into el'cihi, for it was done when he was absent. To assuage the fears of others, we must recall it is ne we who shall take our vengeance upon the impure. Hail Larihei! Hail the voice of the prophetess! For her vision must be carried forth."

"Could it be? The Acal'anti have returned? Though their ships are ne of painted sails, and I see ne cihis of gold... We shall see if the dream of lost Acal'anti ring true. Sleeping prophet! Bring us your vision! May these, champions of Ankruz know the mystery well!" The piratical elven hoplite awaits on his caravel with the lads, just in case!

Pamphilos smiles! Though in the distant high elven colonies the loyal silver elf toils in the name of his bright society, he takes time out of his day to offer words of brilliance out towards the isles of the blessed. "Great progress can be made, when the one who takes into their hand, the rod of power, and ring of totality. May FINE Kolvar, elevated in his time, show to the blessed folk, what is real! Oh, to follow the politic of the great race, even so far from the motherland reminds me of home." He sighs. a placid smile upon his face. He spends most days near the aviary, for the time that dove returns to him baring word of his return

Pamphilos received some of his cousins mail by mistake, but he read it anyways as they were delivered to the walls of Krugmenistan "My kin, my sacred and blessed kin... Worthy of only the highest. Once more do they seek to engage in the most well respected tradition of the blessed race... Our ancient practice, dialogue and debate. I would seek but to only add my pure philosophy, as I have written in my tomes, in such worthy discussion as the purity of red hair, and the nature of emotional outbursts... Having been on the receiving end of such beastly outbursts, I am in a bit of a fine position to call upon it. For in such tense situations, it was ne I who had lost composure, but the likes of Valazaer and the similarly and currently named impures from such situation. One can only imagine what rapture must overtake someone to throw fireballs in Larihei's sacred Temple of Law!" He thought back upon the memory, somewhat whispily. It has been dozens of years since that time... He sighs. Though in his thoughtful moment, a dreary cloud came over the normally sunny elf. His stoic practice unable to fully contain his countenance. Or perhaps it was he who expressed his truer feelings. "Oh Haelun'or! My grateful mother. How long has it been since I have gazed upon your resplendent beauty? How long has it been, since my ears were graced by the echoes of debate off your forums columns. How long has it been, since I have been able to embrace my kin, my cousins, my neighbors and my beloved maheral? How long, dear Mother. How long must I be apart from you? Truly. To be away from dear Haelun'or is to be absent the embrace of my very own haelun... Long do I, for those heady days of comradeship, of those beautiful sunblessed folk, whos blessed blood know not the life of toil, or of war, and in the cantour of the lyre and maidensong singing... My beautiful people of the silver isles. Long do I sing your praises. Long do I, to share once more, in the depths of the Blessed Life. To share a beaker of wine and water, and to taste the sweetest honey. Silver Mother... Hold your son in comfort. He weeps... Longing for the love of his blessed mother..." Longingly does Pamphilos gaze into the postcard given to him. A small memento of those heady days, and of the sacred lands. Holding it close, he longs towards the isle, as the sun bathes the mount in its silvery golds.

"It has been long since I have heard my mali'thilln kin dare speak of the bodily health, in relation to Maehr'sae Hiylun'ehya. Most 'Tower-Elves' those who care ne for their health, often interpret the saying Health and Progress in a very liberal sense..." He confirms with a nod, the philosopher strokes his hyptosian beard. "Great kin, blessed and true. By the very nature of our silver souls, we are blessed, we may raise ourselves high and may, as any moment arises, be able to take in, calculate, and react purely in every moment. From moment to moment, the aware Mali'thilln may act properly and purely without suppression of emotions, but acting purely in line with them upon their very being. We are pure beings, peak of creation. Our souls are manyfaceted, and because of that, for as long as an individual blessed elf maintains the Pure Covenant undertaken by our progenitors, then we will forever be blessed, as the Prophetess had spoken. She, the pure, will be the font from which the source pours. We are beings of emotion, and to suppress our pure existence is ne the same as acting, moment to moment, in the purest light"

The Heavy Stone Sat There, Before the Bonfire The high priest gazed upon the shrine and he could not bare weep, and drip his pure tears into the tainted waters of the shrine. With not but his crook, he climbed the great mount, and brought forth the stone carrying this message. His words. "COME FORTH! SONS, DAUGHTERS OF THE SOURCE! COME FORTH! GATHER AND SEEK! BRING FORTH YOUR WORTHY, FOR WE MUST ANSWER!" Those FOES of Scorthuz MOST HIGH, Source Refined, The Purifier, The Great Waters, The Endless Font, in their hubris dare strike upon the most righteous. As the waters of the sea crash the heavy stone, or the wave carves sheer the face of the mountain, we must break upon the enemies of the PURE. Do not FALTER from your ways, Knowers of what is True, What is pure cannot be tainted, as what is tainted is washed pure. Gadhm, High-Goblin philosopher had much warning for such rashness by those who seek The End. For the pure wave would wash away filth like so much mud from a statue of polished white stone." Words of The Shining One, Son of The Sun, High-Priest of Scorthuz, Priest of Hesthor, Seer of Pure Paths THOSE WHO BREAK THE PURE COVENANT ARE TO BE WASHED IN PURIFYING WATERS THOSE WHO DEFILE WHAT IS PURE SHALL BE PUT TO THE PURIFYING FLAME THOSE WHO SEEK PURITY, WILL BE WELCOMED, WASHED, MARKED, AND GIVEN THE PURE PATH, AND CLEANSED AGAIN ______________________________________________ DEFILER, COME FORTH, WILL YOU TAKE THE WATER, OR THE FIRE, OR WILL YOU COWER BEFORE THE PUREST HERD MAY THE DEFILER KNOW PURITY

Hyptos Long gone are those days of the great Exodus, when the chosen families followed the prophetess out of the old woods, and built the first walls of the first city, yet even before that tale, there had always been those loyal to the great maiden Larihei and her beliefs. Amongst the loyal of the silver brotherhood who had set out with her to colonize the great world, was Aryalas, bearer of the silver shield and fine commander in the struggles that came. A beautiful elf of vast energy and a philosophical mind, who would later come to take lands for the Blessed Race from those lessers who us they scorned, by tip of cruel spike. Be that a pen, or edge of polished spear. He would be known as ‘Lord of The Assembly’. Anaxagoras, first of the Hyptos. Since ancient times there have always been the beautiful Sun-kissed sailors of island colonies of the Mali'aheral, Sailing with great ease from land to land with their impressive ships and painted sails. Their lifestyle, one of abundance and plenty leads the Mali'thill of The Hyptos more free time to pursue their personal passions. Glorious illuminating art of all sorts, musics and skills. Everything of the higher-art is seen as something that can be perfected and improved. From body and mind and their relationship to that ocean, and plying of their natural arts of life and philosophy to which the Mali'thill of the Hyptos are well known. Through great Odyssey the Hyptos tell they gain inspiration, and through these inspirations, they are able to trace mythic ancestry to the greatest heroes in the depths of time Physical Traits and Personality Blonde and Beautiful are most Hyptos, with eyes of bronzes, blues and greens, like the colors of seafoam, the sea and sky, and the sun. Most men, and many women of the Hyptos are kissed by the sun, from spending their lives in open air buildings or out below in their moderate climates and delightful beaches. They almost universally are well built and shapely, as it is seen as beautiful to perfect your body. Their diets of seafood and milk and legumes give them strong teeth and healthy complexion. Their hair tends to be from the lighter shades of blonde to white, to bronzed blonde Hyptos are nearly universally joyful carefree people. Completely secure in their beauty and growing perfections, they see much beauty in the world, and seek to make it more beautiful. Be it through arts, poetries and epics, or the power of their self! Well versed in those ancient perceptions of purity as laid by the prophetess, Their dress and toga goes to accentuate their forms, and none feel shame in their form which is in effort of being maintained and sculpted. It is better to be wise and strong than one or the other. They retain these cultures from the ancient times as the Hyptos praise the examples of their ancestors and in following the mythic legends, one becomes like them! Hail Larihei and those days most ancient! Hail the ancestors and the great ones before! May our deeds be known to the great legend! Recent History Hyptos has once again risen to prominence after a number of the sons of colonists arrived from the silvered colonies abroad, and quickly they brought about a wealth of song and poetry and vitality to an otherwise slowly decaying citystate. Though great Haelun'or remained high and mighty even in this short period of decline, it was brought about by pressure from outside, and insurrection brewing from within. A conspiracy noted by a young poet, where a cursed sorority sought to rise and take power unjustly to give to their conspirators abroad. Knowing the climate required careful civility, the Hyptos, like their ancestor in those ages before the exodus, met with the truly pure in their sacred baths in secret, where they may debate action amongst the other truly loyal of the great Tallonnii, Calith, Sullas, An'asul, Miraviras, and from the youthful vital elves of this generation, together they put up a great and firm resistance, even when all the forces of the mainland came to tear down the walls of High-Walled Haelun'or, they rose as great lads! Loyal to one another! Through stalwart activism, and the pursuit of great privilege in lands abroad, the Hyptos were able to secure a great allegence for Haelun'or. Forming the first ever Great Horde, amongst their newfound allies, the Men of Norland, and the Steppe, and the Holy Lands of Krugmenistan. It was in this age of friendship and power projected by the horde, Haelun'or dispatched the lads to go forth and create an embassy, like the ancestors most pure before, Pamphilos of the Hyptos, along with Edgars An'asul, Elarhil Sullas, Valazaer Calith, and Luthriel Xenophon, had founded a colony at that age. During the defense of the high walled cihi, the Hyptos served important roles as citizen soldiers, hoplites of the Sillumiran, ensuring the peace even with the occupiers, as fishermen proteting supplylines, and as patriots, protesting in the streets. Their action and demonstrations of loyalty to all that is silver had been enough to land Hyptos into good standing as Ahtalonnii when the capital of Haelun'or switched to one of her colonies in the southern lands. It was from there, that many more hyptos from abroad had begun to flock. Back to the motherland which had spawned them and the Blessed Race. In the modern age, Hyptos dwells yet still in the great Motherland, individuals seeking to increase their privilege and standing, and therefore add to the kleos of their talonnii

"What can one say, of one slain by the twin horns of dominance and fury? Oh Rune. Your beauty unmatched. May you gaze upon us from larihei's celestial cihi. May you be spared the fate of those men of Xan, consumed to fuel their demiurge. Hail Rune! Hail! Your deeds unforgotten!"

"HAIL The PROPHETESS! Hail The Bringer of Purity! Hail! Larihei, Lady of Silver! Our Maid most PURE!" Calls Devoted Pamphilos, a lad most close to such a plight as described here. "Our Kin will know truly of the blessings, once what mars them is polished free. We are silver, incorruptible. Yet we must routinely be polished, so tarnish may be made gleaming once more." "Return us! The Most Privileged! To that sacred place! Hail Larihei! Hail Haelun'or! Maehr'sae Hiylun'ehya!"

Beautiful Lads March in procession, tanned from the desert sun. Hail, that sun, that great feathery serpent, and the grand lady of the purest. Hail the machines of war, and curse the tarnished, may they drown in her waters, pierced by her arrows, burned by his light. The lad strokes his beard and dons his head dress. Applying his eyeliner. "Hail Heka!"

________________________________________________________________________________________ The best revenge is not to be like your enemy. -Aurolos Hyptos ______________________________________________________________________________________ In these days, I have found myself pondering the ways of our people. Ostracized for a period of over a dozen years, I have yet been engaged in the furthering of wellness and progress through the realms of descendants, all to further the honor and standing of my motherland, my eternal citystate. Grand trials I had given myself, to prove my worth to my kin. From winning through spear and honorably conduct, the ear of the Rex on behalf of our citystate, and in serving to secure the lands and standing of our kin in the multitudious lands of valah, and others I care ne mention; I knew there was mystery yet to be dealt. For why else, would they, my kin, blessed of mind and beautiful of form, maintained my status as ostracized? I sought, though, In the depths of my soul, and the memories of my silver blood, handed to me by my pure ancestors, I have studied on the words of my beloved maheral, and was given the wisdom of those most ancient. Words that seemed so simple, so easy, yet so real, echoed through the mouth of Anaxagoras who stood at the threshold of that city of the pure ones to which we may pass. "Stay Humble" Long have we reigned, for thousands of years, unending has been our gracious and eternal motherland, and our blessed race. Often have we, in those long intervening years, as our elders saw fit, have we taken down to pen and scroll what was deemed necessary in life. Our poetry, our pedantry, our techniques and our sacred traditions. Yet by the whims of the forms and great spirits, throes of battle, and the wishes of those who come after the wise ones of the ancient age, our wisdoms from those antique times often shrink, in what many would deem, necessary areas. Yet, how is it we can reclaim those wisdoms of the ancient age? Some of the ancestors who lived through it, are often tight lipped, if they so chose to be. Though it is in the depths of our minds and our selves we may come to see the truest nature of our philosophy. Within that Temple Sublime, we can nourish our silver souls and bodily forms, and therefore, bring about the philosophy most sacred to us in this mortal material world, for which we are so connected. -Taken from the work 'Ay'Haelun'or! by the famed philosopher Braxus Ni’leya Recommended reading for the astute ___________________________________________________________ "-Only time can heal what reason cannot." -Calisto Hyptos _____________________________________________________________ Truly, we are blessed creatures, for within our very forms, is the highest form of mortal soul. So mighty are its components, which are found individually amongst certain lessers, is brought into totality within our own being. Because of this, our grand work, Maehr'sae Hiylun'ehya, is what is most necessary to see ourselves continue on the pure path and attain the highest heights, to return to the 'source' that eternal, first pure principle. Yet, taken literally, the saying of Maehr'sae Hiylun'ehya conveys already an exoteric literal meaning. 'Continue to gain (in progress) and in health'. yet, lliran, what can we truly say we gain, if we do ne challenge ourselves? The reasonable soul says we seek to do what is within our power to affirm our maehr'sae hiylun'ehya The spirited soul longs for greater, and draws the spirited onwards towards maehr'sae hiylun'ehya even through difficulties The Appetitive soul hungers to take maehr'sae hiylun'ehya, and take it most well. All three of them together? That is the Mali'thilln who seeks the heights of her maehr'sae hiylun'ehya We are born pure, yet as we age, time expresses itself in our form just as it does in any manner of thing, from well formed tree, to a weathered mountain. Even pure silver tarnishes if it is not maintained. Polished. The Iron Temple is representative of Stress. Its a way we can control the manner in which we stress our physical forms, because we can develop a routine. One day you work your arms, your torso, your legs... Then Athletics, and skill, silver tongue, and weights... etc you are putting yourself in the same environment over and over because you are looking to focus upon the certain skills or parts of your form you are wishing to develop. But. What are you developing, regardless of what muscle or part of your form you are training? Your mind. Your body is merely an expression of your mentality across time. If you are consistently putting yourself in an environment that emphasizes strength, of form, and of mind, then the body reflects that. The only way we can strengthen our mind is by doing uncomfortable things. Going to the Iron Temple when you start out, may not be fun because it may be difficult. But if it was not difficult, it is not worth doing. This is the teaching of Larihei most evident. For she had given away her position, high in the kingdom of Malin the father, to pursue higher heights, the founding of a citystate is no easy task. Over time, you develop a tolerance for that stress. Yet, it doesn't get easier. You get stronger. I recommend, every mali'thilln performs bodyweight training. It allows for defining of the individual mali'thilln's form, but mastering the core carries on to every other form of training, physical or mental. Would a magician accept someone who is not disciplined as one of his apprentices? How would a mason, or a fisher, or a smith, or sillumir fare if he is not consistently dedicating themselves to something which would otherwise tarnish in the sun and rain? __________________________________________________________________________________ "Have I been made for this, to lie under the blankets and keep myself warm?" -Anaxagoras Hyptos. Unsatisfied. - there was little challenge after the wars of exodus, before the wars of Acalanti during the resplendent days of the first silver city ______________________________________________________________________________ Just as in anything worthy of Maehr'sae Hiylun'ehya, to sculpt one's self greater at the Iron Temple requires dedication, you must be consistent, not for but one month, perhaps more than a year, but for a decade. What comes along with discipline within the Iron Temple, comes discipline outside. It allows you to stay focused when things become uncomfortable and uncertain. Creating a mindset, a mentality which cannot be broken. You're going to be physically intimidating. Being weak is not something to be ashamed of. Staying weak, now that is an impurity at the highest heights. For it is to cast away the silver, into the rain, and perhaps you may retrieve it when necessary, but only if you can pick it out from the other cobbles on the street with the tarnish it has accumulated. Every mali'thilln is born with the potential to become stronger, in every way, and if you go through your entire life without expressing this potential, then you will eventually regret it. That is sad. By strengthening your mind, you are also sculpting the body of dreams, the perfect A e s t h e t i c that has been sought by even our most ancient, and perhaps most advanced, forebares. So what is there to lose? It takes effort? YES! Everything that is worth it takes effort. That is why we are here. __________________________________________________________________ Conceal a flaw, and the world will imagine the worst. _____________________________________________________________ There are lessons I have learned, in the studyhalls of War, of Theory, of Law, of Love. Those that have shown cracks in perfect marble, yet fret not do I, in the face of the backhanded act, of the shadowy moves of detractors, or the wayward stories told by snakes behind the back. Lessons I have taken, from that Temple of Iron, I have used to sculpt my form, and my mind, into those of great strength. Standing before the court, when death was called upon me, shrink, I did not. Shirk, did I not. I engaged it truly, welcoming my fate, for it was chosen by those chosen by el'maheral. By his very words, which are those of Larihei, I know what is real. We Mali'thilln sing not our triumphs to others, we sing not our worthy accomplishments, and we contain ourselves, within a stoic and placid demeanor, but we do not shy away when it is others who sing our praises, who call the city to revel on our behalf, for our deeds are what mark us in this world. We are the manifestation of purity, of Larihei The Prophet's vision onto this world. For all that we are, and all the perfection we may attain, and eternity we may earn, it is important above all #Stay Humble -Pamphilos Callidora Hyptos

Stoic Pamphilos read through the Gazette when one of the lads dropped it off at the Iron Temple right before their scheduled silver tongued debate! "Offended, was I? Hardly. I felt my self swell with worthy pride, for it was Sulian to see Lady Luthien had her mind drawn to me above all!" He cracked a small smile, recalling those days of his and her youth. "Whilst I, describing the history to one of the Urukhiim diplomats; Entered did she, at the moment when others spoke, yet singled was I. The first thing she had done when enter the citadel, before even addressing the Princess and the Rex, was to call upon me, by name!" He stroked his Hyptos beard and thought "Though, In that moment, it seemed un-Lariheic to ne go through the proper courtesies worthy of Larihei of Law's sacred temple, instead of admonishing before all else." The stoic leaned back down upon the 'bench', and heft did he with those lads. For what is a mind, without a body equally as mighty!

A Brilliant Hoplite clad in brazen bronze, baring a glorious silver shield smiles the sun's smile! "Oh how Sulian! What great BRIGHTNESS fills the land! Though steel rusts to nothing, Silver is incorruptible! HAIL LARIHEI! HAIL!" He goes out to fetch the lads and show them!

MC Name: DeepDarkSamurai Discord: Tyto#0435 Image: Description of Image: A smaller wall hanging depiction of the spirit Ixli! Dimensions: 2 wide 1 high

Heavy is the heart of the one who raises the Stele. A crystal grown from the purest pools.