The Hélice Archipelago
Overview
Off from the coast of Quacia is a small archipelago whose name is only known to its residents: Hélice, or Helix in Vahanic. Though the residents speak a dialect of Vahanic, revealing their original Quacian origins, it is distant for they have been separated for a long time. It is widely known to the residents of each island that they left the scourge of a 'great destruction', likely referring to the Quacian cataclysm, and have since forged their own culture with distinctive differences from the residents of the nearby city.
All of the islands are entirely free of the Creep, and therefore retain an ecology similar to Quacia's original one though with the benefit of a highly regulated island climate. The weather is - therefore - almost always summer-like save for in the season of Cylus, with warm air and trade winds rolling through frequently to provide a perfect tropical environment. Despite this, there is little agriculture on each island due to an abundance of fish, and the low populations of the islands in question.
Culture and Religion
Helians worship their own pantheon, though it is small and with very underdeveloped lore. Legends and mythologies are shared between boaters from each island, with commerce between them typically being done by trireme. It is said that the Helian Gods are only five: a God of Light, of Darkness, of the Sea, of Healing and of Death. The God of the Sea and God of Light serve as the primary figures within the Helian Pantheon, respectively a mysterious masked individual and a great warrior descending from the sun. The Wounded God has never even been heard of by Helians, as they arrived before the Theocratum acquired great power.
Culturally, Helians are essentially living in antiquity and are very hedonistic and primitive. Though not 'savages', and capable of building infrastructure and weaving proper clothes and equipment, they pride themselves on a nautical warrior-culture. Strength means a great deal, and for this reason each island has a small pocket of mages. There is very little that is not tolerated on the islands, though largely because the residents have been exposed to very little, and do not know much of outside influences. In terms of magical tolerance, even those mages that do dwell in Helice tend to be unaware of how the spark works or the vast majority of their abilities, so they do not often progress far and few cases of mage-rampages have ever been recorded.
Foreign religions are also an entirely vague concept to Delians, who tend to be curious and receptive people. They have a vague understanding of the Immortals, at best.
There are, in total, six habitable islands with many very small islands that essentially act as rocks in the middle of the ocean. These islands are: Koros, which hosts Marcovera, Theros which hosts Delias, Kephallonia, Morovas, Komnenos and Tyros. Between all six of the islands, there are only around fifty thousand residents, with nearly half of them living on Theros and the rest sparsely spread between the other five islands. As a result of greatly increasing Saltfetcher raids, all of the islands are almost entirely uninhabited, and Theros is the only island that actually has a road and some infrastructural method of trading with the others. It is said that the people of the island are aware of Quacians, but regard them as a corruptive darkness that has been consumed by the evil since the Cataclysm was unleashed. Quacia is referred to by most Helians as 'The Broken Land'.
Delias
Delias is the largest town on the entire chain, though it has barely above six thousand residents. The town is the only one of all of Helice's settlements to have stone walls, as well as a small harbor and a road leading from it to a few smaller villages and hamlets. Delias is, like Marcovera, densely built and largely constructed with stone buildings and cobbled floors. The houses are all closely compact and do not differ very well, save for a somewhat large estate in the town center, the home of the self-declared King of Helice and Lord of Theros. As most residents of the other islands - and even Theros - do not respect his claims, he is essentially just the Mayor of Delias.
Marcovera
Due to a Saltfetcher raid in Ashan, Arc 719, the fishing town of Marcovera - the only true settlement on the island of Koros - has lost around a third of its people and is recuperating. Marcovera was once the second largest settlement in all of the Helice Archipelago, yet over time has lost its population through repeated monster attacks, due to the frequency of Saltfetcher incursions into Koros in particular. With the Creep's expansion and further migration west by Quacia's native Saltfetcher diaspora, Marcovera faces extinction.
The town itself is a quaint, cobble-covered stony area with an attractive plaza area where local seafood is served. Considering only a small circle of wealthy elite in Quacia are aware of Marcovera, and do not inform any Nobility of its location, there is little tourism and so most of the town's economy is self-contained.
Lore Articles
- The Island of Koros
- The Island of Theros
- The Island of Tyros
- The Island of Kephallonia
- The Island of Komnenos
- The Island of Morovas
Additional Information
Overview
This post will over-view the additional, pertinent information of Hélice such as its military and religious pantheon.
Military
Pictured above, Helian soldiers are typically adorned in bronze-like steel and iron armor with a unique aesthetic focused on the sea. Mostly, as Helice is largely ruled by a separate conglomerate of divided city-states, the 'military' is more a group of guards that maintain regional order and defend the town they hail from. These guards tend to be more lightly armored and will generally wield swords and shields, with more powerful militaries - such as those run by the Therian Kings and Koros, ruled now by a Lord - generally trained to maintain a sarissa-wielding phalanx.
Each island, however, has its own variances on combat. Kephallonians are known to be the best fighters of Helice, and tend to wear very little armor for the sake of mobility. Many of them do not even wield spears - the staple of a professional Helian military - but instead axes, clubs, hammers and blades. Tyros, with its long history of hippodrome sport and chariot races, specializes in mounted combat and cavalry. Koros is known for its nautical landings and ship-combat, with the archipelago's best sailors. And Theros, most prominent of all the islands, has the most disciplined and tightly-compact phalanx of them all with a truly impressive force of spearmen.
Komnenos and Morovas, not known for any semblance of organized government, largely maintain a light-armored guard type militia and are - as a result - almost entirely helpless to foreign incursion.
Timekeeping
Perhaps a small side-note, but Helians keep time differently to most Idalosians. Though they have kept the names for the seasons due to their Quacian heritage, Helians have weeks of five days and even months composed of six weeks.
Their weeks are named after the gods. The first day is Arsindas, second Hargadas, third Pyrindas, fourth Phordysus, and fifth Adrinadas. Their months, called 'Lyres' due to the conception that they are composed by Hargalis and his instrument, are sixteen in number and are simply called 'The First Lyre', 'the Second Lyre', so on and so forth.
Pantheon
The Pantheon of Hélice is ruled by five Gods, though it has begun to expand (initially in Tyros) with more mythological deities spreading outwards into the other isles, namely through the apparent production of demi-gods in the islander's heroic tales.
Main Gods
Arsinos - God of Light and Life
Arsinos is known to be the chief deity of the Helian pantheon, ruling from his palace within the Arsinalis, or so the myths claim. However, as the Arsinalis is a real feat of Helian architecture and yet the Light-God yet remains to be seen, one of the great claims of the Helarican Faith (the Helian religion) is that Arsinos has gone missing from the world due to the evil deeds of the people of the 'Broken Land', or Quacia. It is said that Arsinos' heart was struck in the cataclysm, and he retreated to the sun in order to sear his wounds shut. In this way, Arsinos carries a strange parallel to the Wounded God, and Quacians who refer to the deity of the Scarlet Belief are often mistaken by Helians, who believe they are speaking of Arsinos.
But unlike the Wounded God and the Scarlet Belief, Arsinos and the Helarican Faith focus on life rather than the afterlife, and Arsinos is portrayed as a heroic and benevolent God. He is said to be the twin brother of Hargalis and older brother of Pyrrha, the three forming the triangle of benevolent Gods. Tirano mythology claims that the three siblings have borne many children into the world together, forming the foundations for the extended pantheon.
Arsinos' symbol is an olive branch, representing masculinity and power.
Hargalis - God of Wind and Sea
Hargalis is - alongside Arsinos - among the most important of the five deities due to the significance of his domains in Helian life. Hargalis is said to rule 'the below' as Arsinos rules 'the above', with Arsinos' dominion Helice and its skies and Hargalis' dominion everything beneath the sands. For this reason, they are seen as a perfect duality, born twins as the first Gods of the world. It is said that they were created by something much greater, but an entity that has long since departed Idalos. Of course, this is all mythology, but the significance of Hargalis is deeply rooted into Helian society.
He is said to be a masked and mysterious God, and is associated with the primitive archetype of hunger due to the typically ferocious appearance of most large sea-creatures. Though Helians do not generally sacrifice live humans, many dead are thrown into the ocean to nourish Hargalis, who in turn allegedly creates fish from their corpses to feed the living.
Hargalis' symbol is a vase, representing endlessness and mystery.
Pyrrha - God of Healing and Nature
Pyrrha is the younger sister of Hargalis and Arsinos, according to accepted mythos. She is depicted with many sub-domains, and serves as a sort of archetype for femininity within the Helarican Faith. WIP.
Pyrrha's symbol is the fig, a common fruit enjoyed by Helians; her shrines typically have large bowls where many townspeople lay figs as offerings. The fig represents nourishment and health due to its commonality in the Helian diet.
Phorus - God of Darkness and Frost
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Adrius - God of Death and Illness
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Extended Pantheon
Pyrrinhos - Demi-God of Fertility
The child of Arsinos and Pyrrha, Pyrrinhos is a hermaphroditic entity that bears both the archetype of masculinity and femininity within them. Pyrrinhos is often associated with androgyny and other such neutral sexual depictions, and is prayed to by both men and women seeking fertility, virility and satisfaction within their intimate lives. Typically Pyrrinhos' symbol is that of an olive, with their father's symbol an olive branch. The olive is considered by most Helians to be a symbol of sexuality, and many herbs and salves crafted to 'supplement performance' consist of crushed olives and other reagents. Pyrrinhos is referred to by either a neutral, masculine or feminine pronoun, typically determined by the gender of the one who refers to them.
Kilikos - Demi-God of Valor
The son of Hargalis and Arsinos, Kilikos is
Serinas - Demi-God of Moonlight
The daughter of Arsinos and Phorus,
Heran - Demi-God of Truth
The son of Arsinos and Adrius, Heran represents the duality between life and death and the truth of all reality; that all things die, that all men lie, but also a responsibility to live well and to speak as truthfully as one can throughout life. He is typically associated, as well, with the principle of justice and is often prayed to before a trial - whether by combat or court. Many people will pray to Heran to speak the truth of the people of their lives, whether to reveal ongoing affairs or to satisfy a worry they have held. Among all demi-gods, Heran is among the most famous. He is depicted as a duality, with one half of his body representing the sun and one half the stars and the night sky. His symbol is scales; the scales of justice and truth.
