THE LORE
Racial Sentiments — The Sundering's Social Legacy
How the seven peoples feel toward one another, shaped by the Sundering and its centuries of aftermath. The Sundering did not create racial tension — it crystallized existing relations into the specific shape they now hold, and layered them with grief, guilt, and knowledge distributed unevenly.
The Sundering is the event from which the current social world is downstream. Before it, the Vallen Imperium had imposed a rough unity of hierarchy on the Vale — not peace, but structure. After it, the structure dissolved and each people was left to process what had happened with the resources their own cosmology gave them. Those resources were not equal. The Vyr had the most knowledge and chose silence. The Asheni had the most grief and expressed it. The other peoples read the available evidence through their own elemental nature and arrived at their own accounts — accounts that differ in framing but converge, with unsettling consistency, on the conclusion the Vyr are trying to prevent from becoming common knowledge.
KIND
custom
Connected
Type Fields
kindcustom
sundering_knowledge_distribution{"vyr_elites":"Full account — and silence","asheni_bonesung":"Gravesong fragments, accurate in spirit: 'the pale ones sang the Forge-Singer into silence'","asheni_houses":"Suspected, not confirmed; diplomatically suppressed","korl":"Own myth: 'the Fire-Walker went into the stone; the Sky-People held him there'","hessk":"Own myth: 'the Tide-Singer went into the deep and has not surfaced'","reshi":"Road-song skepticism: 'the ones who sang last are singing loudest, which is how you know they are afraid'","stoneborn":"Structural read only: load-bearing element removed, structure settling; theology uninteresting","humans":"The Vyr's Cult of the Living Vallen — the cover story as lived religion"}
sentiment_matrix{"vyr":{"toward_asheni":{"temperature":"cold guilt / condescension","texture":"Asheni accusations are correct. The official Vyr position calls Asheni grief 'irrational.' The real position is unspeakable."},"toward_stoneborn":{"temperature":"mild contempt, utility-softened","texture":"They build things the Vyr need and resist Vyr power. Annoying, useful, left to themselves."},"toward_korl":{"temperature":"dismissiveness","texture":"Low-Air, terrestrial. Their myths are accurate and so the Vyr do not engage with them.","epithet":"the ground-bound","line":"Terrestrial, and content to stay so. We do not waste breath where it carries no echo."},"toward_hessk":{"temperature":"academic interest / faint distaste","texture":"They hold the drowned shrines the Vyr want. Trading partners shaped like obstacles."},"toward_reshi":{"temperature":"patronizing tolerance","texture":"They accept the theology, move goods, don't ask hard questions."},"toward_humans":{"temperature":"contempt, barely concealed","texture":"Humans are tools Vallen made from the world's lowest materials. The Vyr do not feel guilt about this — a hammer does not accuse you when you break it. Some Vyr perform paternalism toward humans as a means of maintaining the Cult's credibility among its primary adherents. Beneath the performance: humans are the dregs that decompose the world, worms turning the Vale's corpse. The most honest Vyr framing is not cruelty but simply category — humans are not people the way the old races are people.","epithet":"the mud-kin","line":"Tools the maker shaped from the world's lowest clay — useful in their place, and best kept there."}},"asheni":{"toward_vyr":{"temperature":"ancestral fury / cold suspicion","texture":"The Bonesung name it plainly. The houses maintain cold diplomacy because they must. The hatred is structural, patient, and correct."},"toward_stoneborn":{"temperature":"respectful rivalry","texture":"Same mountains, same memory, same patience. The grudges are specific and kept; the respect is also specific and kept."},"toward_korl":{"temperature":"grudging respect","texture":"The Korl fought openly when the Asheni houses negotiated. The Bonesung specifically respect this."},"toward_hessk":{"temperature":"neutral distance","texture":"Different worlds, different waters."},"toward_reshi":{"temperature":"useful, watched","texture":"Old trading partners, mild suspicion about who else they trade for."},"toward_humans":{"temperature":"old contempt","texture":"'The mud-kin came with the roads.' Humans benefited from the Imperium and remained after it fell without carrying any of the cost.","epithet":"the latecomers","line":"The mud-kin came with the roads and stayed when the cost came due. We remember who paid."}},"stoneborn":{"toward_vyr":{"temperature":"skeptical / unimpressed","texture":"'They cut nothing, build nothing, they ring.' Magic-resistance makes them structurally unimpressed by Vyr authority."},"toward_asheni":{"temperature":"competitive respect","texture":"Closest to a peer relationship. Same mountains, same long memory. They fight over seams; they also share them."},"toward_korl":{"temperature":"uneasy accord","texture":"The Korl hold the passes above the Stoneborn galleries. Ongoing negotiation, pre-Imperium."},"toward_hessk":{"temperature":"neutral indifference","texture":"The deep of water and the deep of stone rarely meet."},"toward_reshi":{"temperature":"mild distrust","texture":"People who don't stay anywhere are structurally unsettling to a people for whom an unpaid debt collapses the wall."},"toward_humans":{"temperature":"pragmatic condescension","texture":"Useful labor, short memory, quick to claim credit for what they built on Stoneborn foundations.","epithet":"the short-memory folk","line":"Quick hands, quick to forget whose foundation they built on. Useful all the same."}},"korl":{"toward_vyr":{"temperature":"cold disdain","texture":"'People who refuse to touch the ground.' The myth names them as having buried the Fire-Walker. Not subtle about it.","epithet":"the cloud-sitters","line":"Folk who'll not set foot to honest ground. They buried the Fire-Walker — ask any Korl child."},"toward_asheni":{"temperature":"respect with history","texture":"Asheni swore the charter when the Korl were fighting. The Korl respect the grief; they do not respect the diplomacy."},"toward_stoneborn":{"temperature":"respectful, different floor","texture":"Both mountain peoples. Different registers of the same place."},"toward_hessk":{"temperature":"indifferent","texture":"Too far, too different."},"toward_reshi":{"temperature":"tolerant warmth","texture":"Both peoples of passage and impermanence. The Reshi are small and quick; the Korl large and slow. Something recognized."},"toward_humans":{"temperature":"contempt, justified","texture":"The mud-folk came with the Imperium that built the Rampart. The Rampart is still there.","epithet":"the mud-folk","line":"They came up the roads behind the empire that walled us in. I've no love for them, and good reason."}},"hessk":{"toward_vyr":{"temperature":"wary, territorial","texture":"The Vyr want the drowned shrines. The Hessk hold them. Every transaction is cold and the Hessk always know more than they show."},"toward_asheni":{"temperature":"neutral respect","texture":"Both ancient peoples. Different elements, occasional trade."},"toward_stoneborn":{"temperature":"mild respect","texture":"Two peoples who work deep places. They rarely meet and recognize something in each other."},"toward_korl":{"temperature":"indifferent","texture":"Too different, too far."},"toward_reshi":{"temperature":"comfortable pragmatism","texture":"The Reshi bring things to Sresh-Dar. The Hessk buy them. It works."},"toward_humans":{"temperature":"cautious assessment","texture":"Humans bring trade. They also once brought imperial administration. The Hessk watched Sresh-Dar go from a Hessk word to an imperial port.","epithet":"the dry-landers","line":"They bring trade. They once brought the empire too. We watch the water, and we trade."}},"reshi":{"toward_vyr":{"temperature":"cautious warmth","texture":"Good customers, predictable, cold. The road-songs about 'the ones who sang last' are not sung in Vyr earshot."},"toward_asheni":{"temperature":"comfortable old business","texture":"The roads run through Asheni territory. The Reshi have been running them longer than any current House has been keeping records."},"toward_stoneborn":{"temperature":"reliable if slow","texture":"Always pay; always take a long time to decide. The Reshi are patient about this specifically."},"toward_korl":{"temperature":"handle with care","texture":"Good business when it's good. When it's bad, very bad very fast. Road-sense applies: read the temperature first."},"toward_hessk":{"temperature":"good partners","texture":"Sresh-Dar is neutral ground. Both peoples thrive there."},"toward_humans":{"temperature":"comfortable, competitive","texture":"Both road-peoples. The Reshi were first. Human merchants running the same circuits are noted. Competition is managed through the Wheelmoot, which humans are not invited to join.","epithet":"the road-cousins","line":"Good company on a long road, fair rivals on a short one. We ran these circuits first, mind."}},"human":{"toward_vyr":{"temperature":"reverence with unease","texture":"The Listening College teaches the Cult. Most humans are adherents. The Vyr look at humans in a way that is too knowing. The unease is felt, not named.","epithet":"the sky-folk","line":"We keep their Cult and mind our tongues. They look at us like they know something — best not to ask what."},"toward_asheni":{"temperature":"complicated","texture":"Familiar and resented in equal measure. The relationship varies dramatically by region and family history."},"toward_stoneborn":{"temperature":"pragmatic respect","texture":"Build on Stoneborn foundations without knowing it. Respect the craft without understanding the depth."},"toward_korl":{"temperature":"wariness","texture":"Large, do not like humans, have good reasons not to. The humans near the passes have learned to be careful."},"toward_hessk":{"temperature":"cultural distance / distrust","texture":"The patience reads as inscrutability; the amphibious nature reads as unsettling. Trade happens. Understanding doesn't."},"toward_reshi":{"temperature":"comfortable, occasionally suspicious","texture":"Reshi warmth is readable and friendly. The reputation for light fingers means a hand on the purse even while enjoying the company."}}}
All Relationships (3)
caused
- →The Sundering — The current inter-racial sentiment matrix is the social legacy of the Sundering — each people processing the same event through their own cosmology, with asymmetric knowledge.
references
- →The Cult of the Living Vallen — The Vyr's propagation of the Cult is the single most significant factor shaping inter-racial sentiment — it is why humans revere the Vyr, why the Asheni are isolated in their fury, and why the Korl's accurate account is marginalized.
expressed_through
- ←Political Geography — Racial Tensions by Region, City, and Faction — The regional and factional analysis is the racial sentiment matrix made concrete — each sentiment expressed as a specific institution, power dynamic, or daily texture.
This world ships in Valenfeld. Play the game →