The Mirror War

A RuneQuest game set in the East Isles, run by Sam I Am

• Interest OOC IC

One year ago at Sacred Time, Dessheetan, The Pearl Mother, succumbed to a dream in which she, her islands and her beloved people, are bound in a fisherman's net. After a year of silence, she has finally been able to speak, and has begged the crew of the Wave Skipper to bring her Chelen's Blade, a knife stolen from an Antigod in a previous age, that she might cut herself free. But which wind must they follow to find this relic, and will they ever return to free their beloved goddess?

Dessheetan, The Pearl Mother

When Festanur, the Great Shaman, sought to hunt Lord Vith down, gathered all the spirits of anger, fear and hatred he could find, and made them into a thing called Hakka, that was to become Dogsalu the Terror Dragon, King of the Antigods. The only way to bind these spirits together was with Love, so he quested for, and imprisoned, a Tilntae, a Life Nymph from the Cosmic Court.

After terrorizing the world, when Dogsalu eventually was made to listen to Vith, he freed the Tilntae out of compassion, something new for him. The Tilntae called herself Dessheetan and begged of the goddesses Prosandara and Venperesha a place to live, and creatures to love, to heal herself. She was given a million jewels, and these became her islands and her people.

Because of her time as a part of the terrible thing that was Hakka, and because of the Love that she has for everything and everyone, Dessheetan took in many many creatures, people, spirits, demons and even antigods, gave them a place to live in her islands, and united them with love.

Every Sacred Time, all of her children, her Million Jewels, are united in a great dream, that teaches them how to know and love all of the other million jewels. People from outside will visit the archipelago to participate in the dream. And sometimes, the islanders are even united with people from far off places, ten years ago the creatures of Beast Valley in Dragon Pass and more recently, a city of love in the west besieged by a kingdom of war.

A Million Jewels - the Islands and People of Dessheetan

• The Bones - An island surrounded by shallow reefs; Haldror the Necromancer lives(?) on the island, served by giant crabs. He made a deal with Venperesha (Goddess of Sea Animals) that she would ask the sea to take all her dead to Harldror. So he spends the ages dissecting corpses, cleaning bones and animating bodies.
• Dessheetan - Not so much an island as a reef. This is the Pearl Mother; her body in the mortal world, home to an array of brilliant sea creatures. Atop the reef, on floating wooden structures, live her priesthood, the Seahorse People - astrange, softly spoken .
• Fear - This is a small, incredibly beautiful island peopled by small, incredibly beautiful people. Anyone who arrives is greeted warmly and by name, and a feast is thrown in their honour. The next day they are escorted unceremoniously to their boats. Without breakfast. Various legends exist pertaining to the origins of the island's name, but they are all plainly popycock.
• Hoomba and Boomba - A pair of islands of similar size but very different aspect. One has a towering volcano where the other is flat as a pancake. One has lush vegetation while the other is near-desert. Curiously, all births on one island are matched by the other. Always a boy and a girl. When they meet, these children become fast friends. Their parents will often dream of weddings and grandchildren yet somehow events always seem to conspire against this. One day such a couple will wed, it is said, and their children will be the most beautiful and happiest people in the world.
• The Spire - This island rises sheer out of the sea and into the clouds. No-one knows what is up there, but occasional discarded bones, huge ones as if from a giants' feast, are cast down.

Character concepts

• Blank sheet
• Traders with their own ship
• Chosen to deal with outsiders
• Captain recently died and bequeathed them their ship

Island concepts

• A reef that is the Tilntae
• An area hard to navigate
• Several insular cultures united by the Tilnae

Cults/magic/spirits

• Gods and Antigods
  • Vithelan Mythology
  • How Vith Pacified the Anti-Gods
• The Pearl Mother, Dessheetan, She Who Dwells Beneath, Tilntae
  • How the Pearl Mother came to the East Isles
  • What are Tilntae: what, who and when