Dakirennis

I’m signin’, we tryin’.

Really gonna make me air all these huh?

Dak’ir’s tired smile grew as ancient order began anew. Young ‘Ker coming to him with trophies from great hunts, offerings to their Ancestors. The pelt of a great bear was drying on the racks that evening in fact. Shrines popped up among the sands and defensive positions for the next bandit raid. A long since known pride swelled in his chest as their home was protected by these zealous younglings.

KFC The Ker’s Favourite Cuisine A guide to some basic old home dark elven cookery. From hunters to house-mothers, the ‘Ker have had a knack for the culinary. Always enjoying delicious food no matter the meal. This is a small compendium recipes I compiled during my ventures into the Ancestral Plane. Delilah the Mother and other elders of ages gone offering what they could to comfort their kin from the other side. The Talar’onn, the large, aloof lizards of the deep have ever been faithful companions to the ‘Ker of the deep. And of course, a wonderful source of fine cuts and hearty bones! Traditionally the heavy, thick hided lizards have been cultivated for years but now they’ve hand they years to get a little snaky and bred some ferocity. So they require a few good shots to the back or head to bring down. Hunters take heed, what these beasts lack in eyesight they make up for with their sense of smell and hearing. Keep a quiet foot and make sure your hunting hollow has no steam vents that may make a breeze. Once dispatched and cleaned, the loins and rump are brined in a mixture of salt and cave shoot sugar for a day. Once removed from the liquid, the fatty side is scored before roasting for about four hours and rubbed with a butter and herb mixture towards the end of cooking. The Cave Kuku. The small simply poultry, cousin to it’s above world dwelling is a favorite among the ‘Ker. Fried usually being the preferred method of cooking. Many wayward Ker travelling the depths to hunt would fry these up quickly on an oiled slate cooking stone, eating a small delicious meal on the go so as not to attract something larger than them… To begin, heat your stone and place a second, heavier slate at the edge of the flame to begin heating as well. After you’ve gutted and cleaned the bird (Stepping on the wings and pulling the legs slowly is a quick method to pulling the skin off the bird with it’s feathers in tow!), remove the spine with your hunting knife and flatten the bird. Take your firesalts and rub it onto both sides of the bird before oiling and placing breast side down onto your cooking stone. Place your secondary slate atop your chicken to flatten it and applying more heat to it’s back side. If your stones are heated properly, this should only take a few minutes at most to cook the whole bird, always check to make sure the meat is completely white and the juices are clear! Deep molluscs’ cling to the walls for particularly moist caverns, regardless of the temperature. They can be found in small clusters roughly the size of a small rug, the shells growing as big as your palm. What’s inside isn’t much but full of flavour, so grab plenty! Once you bring your loot home, find a nice pan and give it a thin coating of oil before bringing it to a high heat. Add some minced garlic and as it turns a golden brown, add enough molluscs to fill the pan and give it a good shake. Your molluscs should begin to open almost immediately, add a generous splash of warm, high elven white wine to the pan (mind the flames!) and finally cover them with an old pie tin to allow the steam to build in the pan. Remain on a high heat till they are fully opened and cooked, there should be no clear or slimy bits! Served in a large bowl with the pan juices poured atop it for large gatherings. Three Mushroom Fry The far reaches of the deep offer many types of edible and poisonous fungi and while the list may be endless, this was a common recipe I found in my travels. So here is a delicious home meal featuring three, very safe and common mushrooms of the deep. Dawn Trumpet - These tall stemmed mushrooms grow in the lights of bright crystals and tall glowing, mushroom trees. They are usually found in small patches around the brightest points of light. They are very sweet and hold a lot of moisture. They can even be eaten raw if you can stomach the stringy texture! Table Malachite - Often dismissed as moss patches, table malachite coats the walls of many damp caverns. They are flaky and soft when cooked and their taste is somewhat salty but otherwise neutral. They do however absorb flavour very well and offer a nice texture difference to your meal. Dwarfs Toe - Smelled before seen, these bulbus fungi dot the rocks near underground lakes. They are large and hearty, usually one being more than enough as they can grow to the size of halfling’s head! Always add these to your pan first and cook first as they are rather tough and rubbery to the bite when raw. They taste rather tangy and earthy raw, but brings out a natural spiciness when cooked thoroughly. Now that you know what you’re looking for, oil and heat your pan atop your stove or fire until it begins to smoke very lightly. Add your dwarfs toe first, cooking for about two minutes before adding your table malachite and dawn trumpet. Season with salt, pepper, and a dash of fire spices and cook for about five to eight minutes. You can also add some of your meats before your mushrooms or dried meats at the end for an even heartier meal.

Aztran crept below the horizon and Luara’s gentle darkness began to seep into the sky. The cool evening air welcoming the onyx kin as they moved hither and thither among the encampment. The barren plateau now bloomed with life as fledgling clans worked in the dimming light spreading their homesteads and raising their keep. Aspirant Div’cruan piled the heads of bandits and beasts before their totem to the Moon Mother and their ancestral shrines. They gathered around their fires as the darkness fell, learning of elder times and boasting personal triumphs. Even the shaman of the uzg came to welcome their new neighbors among the sands, preaching the ways of the spirits to these new initiates. All had come into place for the ashen folk. High atop their peak they made their home, stone by stone end each day, the Sable Enclave grew, the onyx kin grew. As one.

Bless you Jae, thanks doob.

Wassup Jaeden. It’s Dakirennis, you know this. Can I get that vael order crossbow schematic and the stag skull?

The Primarch smiled wearily over the fire. Other ‘Ker gathered and introducing themselves to one another, from all walks of life. Friends old and new. Lighting his pipe he blew the soft cloud into the night air. “And so we begin anew. May we bring the Old Ways into the eyes of our people and serve alongside our cousins honourably. Luara be praised, Ancestors be honoured.”

A distant dark skinned shaman nodded in approval at these gitz.

“Why are politics being brought into internal family affairs? Nonsense.”

Take the plunge brother.

Imma eat a few of these.

I truly believe a forced disconnection has a place for those ‘taboo’ users of the magic and can have potential. As long as such a decision isn’t simply left to one person (better a group mt/lm decision). But that is why Hedge added the red line about false accusation too, to avoid the ooc hunts. But you do bring up a very good point that I keep trying to make in conversations about this. The orcs as a whole actively worship about three spirits, Leyd, Enorhk, and Laklul. Scattered totems and shines of spirits are always present but they aren’t the names the orcs shout. The general orcish playerbase doesn’t care much for the spirits or shamanism and that’s shown in the roleplay over they years with the decline of shamanism as a whole, which sort of brings me to my next point. The spirits don’t care. The orcs are fuel as much as any other race that worships them, just that the spirits have a much simpler trust towards orcs than other races. ‘Honor’ is subjective and changes from spirits to spirit, to orc to orc, to elf to elf. Let’s not forget that most sacrifices are road side pvp goon bands that don’t do a hell of a lot of engaging rp. I know, I’ve been part of them in the past. ‘Honor’ should be what pacts one makes to a spirit. Because worship can vary and people don’t understand that. If it isn’t some world of warcraft lookin orc that’s scooping up slaves, it isn’t shamanism. We have indeed actively (and pretty unsecretly) been worshiping various spirits, no different than the orcs have since about early athera after some damn fun and cryptic rp with some shamans. It’s just that the dark elves have a greater placement on their Ancestors than the spirits, and why wouldn’t they? They only owe their creation and salvation to one, who in turn made them worshipers of the spirits. I am indeed active again now and waaay overdue to finish that TA. But yes, I’d prefer any mass teaching be kept out of events. That’s only ever cause a quick boom and a quicker faceplant. I’ve had a lot of personal issues this year and work as well, which isn’t really much excuse but I don’t think this is something that needs that type of acceleration or skip. It’s a simple, let it be and let it grow situation, it can’t be forced. Which is funny because people seem to think that since I’ve gotten this magic it would mean some end to shamanism, as if I’d hand it out willy nilly, which I find laughable but anyhow. To address what you said something Mog said in a previous post about dark elven magic or separate shamanism. Lutaumancy basically is the dark elven shamanism. The orcs don’t really care much for their ancestors with the exception of raguk and yar and it’s shown. I believe Divine is one of the only ones left among the orcs (correct me if I’m wrong) and though I’m sure he and others have tried it's simply not been something that’s very practiced among the orcs. Though I’d happily still teach any who proved themselves worthy of it. I’ve done my work with shamanism and been pretty open about my opinions on it and the dark elves/their form of worship. I voiced them when they mattered most and worked as hard as I have these years to get to where the dark elves are now and for anyone who wants to know about the darkies and their connection to Luara and why shamanism had become a thing, consult the lore. Anyway there was a lot to read here in this shitshow of a thread so I’m sure I missed a lot if anyone would like me to address anything I’d be happy to.

The Primarch would reply in turn... “To begin with, quite frankly you may not call me uncle. After I’d had you exiled for spitting falsities of the Ancestors and Spirits, and no bounty has ever been placed on your head. There’s no purpose in killing you in such a manner, nor is it worth the thought or mina. Yes the Ancestors have a bloodied past, no matter how many times I had explained that to you, Khel was a murderer and once a mori sympathizer. Blessed Ancestors, he used to hunt for dryads in Darkhaven’s forest. But he atoned for his sins when his unresting spirit came to Athera. However in your own naivety, you forget that your own family was part of that inactive leadership. You’d had been given the opportunity then to exact all the wonderful ideas you spewed to me, but you didn’t. And while yes, I have of course been inactive, my training was the only way I could learn. I planned on stepping down centuries ago though my duty is still my duty. And I will do my best to carry it out as I always have. But between gender confused younglings and your incessant complaining, no I do not want that present among what I am trying to achieve or even the Dominion itself. I make this home not for any ‘Ker but those true enough who wish to know the Primordial Truth, our origins and history, our culture, the truth you kept demeaning but I simply did not know an elven year ago. But you couldn’t understand that because you wanted it now, like a child. And I am tired of you stamping your feet like one when you do not get your way.”

Dak’ir settled beneath fresh willow in Velunor’s new housing area. His students left for the evening and the moon’s familiar gaze soon peeked over Valleinor’s high peaks. After weeks of work and the blood, sweat, and tears of a few unwilling captives to appease the Spirits. The harbor had been fixed up following the recent volcanic activity. Expansion came with the repairs, homes for the new followers. Though many still remained hollow. The tired shaman soon rose from his place upon the tree, wandering the path to the nearby totem he’d created in dedication to the Mother Moon, Luara. Blood and the strands of white hair from a mutant still dotted the altar before the great totem, from a recent sacrifice. Tapping his staff twice against the stone he’d bow his head once to the totem before quickly departing again. Despite Dak’ir’s tenancy to slip away from the mortal world from time to time, the moment had finally come to bring his people together once more. His true kin, sons and daughters of the Spirits. That night, the squeaks and chirps of chittering grey jays scattered from Velunor and to the lands beyond...