Editing Setting:Unified Setting/Faestir (section)

==Faestir: The Rise and Fall==
The Faestir believe the Dragon God Bahamut created them when he took refuge for a time on their world many thousands of years ago. It is said that he created molds from his scales and formed their bodies within from the sacred earth where he had come to rest.

From his breath he filled their lungs and from his veins he filled their hearts with his purity and strength. He gave to them the knowledge of his tenants, yet set within their minds the spark of curiosity. He filled their beings with a desire to seek and learn of new things so that they might pass on his own teachings and wisdom to the races of their world.

Exhausted but satisfied with his creation, Bahamut spoke. “Unto you I give the name Faestir which means Clever Children in my tongue. May you prosper and flourish with my blessings.” He conjured food and water for them, then for himself. “Now eat what I give, but do not partake of my own food. To take of the food of a god would be too much for your young selves.” So saying he spread his wings settled his great body upon a mountain to rest and sleep.

Now at this time Bahamut’s wicked sister saw the potential of His creation. Feeling threatened she sent her agents disguised among them. These agents saw that their feast had neared its end and that many of the Faestir were still hungry. They approached a small group and said to them, “Quite a feast, such in a state as not seen in a thousand years. But surely we may take some from Bahamut to add to the feast.”

At first the group was wary, but then their leader, Davin, spoke. “Surely the God could spare a bit of his food. There is so much and plenty to go around.”

As he approached the God’s food a young female named Miranda caught Davin’s arm. “The God said that it would be too much. We should abide his council”

Davin saw the truth in her words, but the agents were quick to grasp and corrupt it. “Surely his tenants say to share among all.”

Neither side could argue with this fact and so Davin took from the God’s food and passed it among all their brethren. Miranda and her followers were more hesitant, but they too partook and of Bahamut’s food. At this point, the god awoke, sensing danger, and descended down among them. The agents fled in fear at his approach, but He was too late, the damage had been done.

In an instant, the Faestir began to writhe in pain and agony as their bodies warped and changed. Their scales became fur and their tails became slim as their features shifted to those of rodents.

Despaired and despondent, the changing race pleaded to Bahamut to save them but He could not. Yet, the god took pity on them and did not abandon them. “For stealing my food, young ones, you have been given the form of creatures that do so. But you are still yet young, unaware of the darker natures of the world. While your forms have lost much of the gifts I gave them will there is strength and potential to do my work. I deprive none of my blessings and grant you a final boon that you may yet fly almost as dragons do to land with vengeance upon my enemies.”

And so the Faestir were imbued strength which allow them to leap great distances and descend upon enemies without harm to themselves. Then, Bahamut departed back upon his journies through the expanse of space and time. The Faestir believe that he will one day return and grant unto them the form of Dragonborn again.

After Bahamut’s departure a time known as The Sundering began. Angered at the loss of their divine gifts Miranda and a group of followers left their brethren. Guided by a vision given to Miranda, they set out upon a migration to the far north. The journey would be a long and arduous one spanning through badlands and swirling desert sands. These nomad Faestir came to call themselves Aesur, which means the wanderers, further divorcing themselves from their now distant brethren. After a hundred years of toil, the Aesur would find their promised land in a set of natural caves on a tall cliff overlooking the ocean.

They set to work building a city against the cliffside the likes of which has not been seen since. The jewel of this desert oasis was a grand library where all the knowledge and experiences of the Aesur were preserved. They fortified their home, concealing it in illusion so that only a Faestir or a true follower of Bahamut could beyond the shifting sands.

The Aesur named their new capital Miranda, in honor of their first matron and set her daughter Sera as the first of many High Priestesses who would lead them over the centuries. The people of Miranda practiced a peaceful, artistic and academic society. They built smaller cities outlying Miranda, with smaller oasis outposts spread throughout the desert. These cities and outposts traded with other races, though few outsiders ever found the location of of Miranda itself.

Davin’s followers, though shamed, had their pride and refused to abandon the name Faestir. Guided by a vision of endless rain, they found a land where it flowed without cease over fertile plains. Here Davin built a city of iron and stone against the arms of a cliff and called it Bujware, which means “The Rains”.

Faeran was a marvel of architecture. Built in a series of tiers carved into a mountainside it culminated in a huge palace at its top. Here, Davin founded Martial Academy where those filled with the fires of Bahamut could practice the disciplines of battle. Outlying the city were farms and fields with walls and gates defending approach to the capital. Over the centuries the Faestir developed into a two tiered feudalistic society. Those with blood, wealth and title held lands that were then rented by those without such things.

The wealthy entitled were given education and a degree of military power to protect their vassals build infrastructure and maintain law and order according to Bahamut’s code. By the same token, they could not interracially marry nor leave their fief or the lands of their birth so long as they lived. Known as Knights of the Rain, the legend of their strength and valor would spread and prevail over centuries.

Made up mostly of artisans, farmers, adventurers and treasure hunters, Faestir commoners enjoyed a certain degree of freedom their lords did not. Commoners were allowed to sit in juries judged by their respective lord; they attended primary and secondary school. Commoners were allowed to interracially marry, to travel far beyond their lands and settle in other nations or cities.

Although the races went their separate ways, there came a time when their respective kingdoms grew and overlapped. Known as the Great Peace, overtures of a truce began to form and trade between the two nations was opened. Before long they had joined into separate but equally powerful empires that expanded into most of the known lands.

As with any empire, however, the power of the Faestir began to wane as their borders became too wide. Thousands of years after Bahamut left, a terrible horde of Tiamat’s monsters attacked Bujware. The Knights of the Rain managed to make a desperate stand to allow a retreat of the city’s populace. Alas, their effort was in vain, the city was routed from all sides and only a handful of individuals survived. These fled north to the lands of their Cousins, led by a female Knight of the Rain. She was Kelra, the last remaining member of Davin’s own house.

Thus the sons Davin found themselves at the doorstep of the daughters of Miranda. Steeling themselves to eat crow they entered the city though they found it eerily empty. Fearing for the worst, the survivors of Bujware stole quietly through the streets, to the great halls of the library. There they found the small remainder of what had been Miranda’s chosen.

The people of Miranda had been no less lucky in their plight. Tiamat could not send a direct force against them, and so she had sent a plague that had wiped out most of the populace before the virus could be controlled and neutralized. Now only a few dozen of the proud Aesur, charged to guard what remained of their history. At their head stood Ardis, the last descendent of Miranda and the first male high priest in their entire history.

The reunion was bittersweet. The Faestir race had dwindled to but a few hundred individuals, but now gathered together With the preservation of their civilization so dire, Ardis and Keyra set aside old debts. They gathered their remaining followers and announced an official end to the Sundering. From that point on the sons of Davin and daughters of Miranda would be one unified Race as Faestir. As a show of solidarity, the two leaders joined in union of marriage and set about the long task of rebuilding their civilization. Since then the Faestir have grown in number and power once again and seek to regain the pride and glory of Bahumut as a unified people.

The Faestir remain too few in number and too closely knit for class distinctions to be maintained. Though joined as one race the Faestir now face a generational gap. Most of the survivors who are old enough to remember the fall of their respective country see their calling in practice and preservation of history and culture out of duty to their forefathers. They do not understand the younger generation who sees the fall of their race as a call from Bahamut to venture out and seek the same dangers that caused their decline in the first place.

To the young, returning to Faeran is akin to a turtle retreating into its shell. They see opportunity to reclaim their fallen lands and help other races beset by evil. Young Faestir seek to prove themselves to Bahamut by deeds and actions that will inspire others to emulate them. To the elders, remaining in the city is a necessary evil. While they may venture out into the world to trade, their primary goal is in seeking relics to return to Faeran so they may preserve the sanctity of their bloodlines and protect the remains of their culture treasures.