The Oiriopata and the origin of Witches in Felarya

(The Oiriopata shaping the Shimmering Sea)

This document provides information on the legendary lost civilization, the Oiriopata. They are allegedly responsible for shaping the region of the Shimmering Sea.

- The Legend of the Oiriopata

 -- The Phantasms Attack On The Oiripatan Empire

 -- The Sibling Prodigies

- The Origin of Dimensional Gates (Hex Gates)

- The Origin of Witches in Felarya

 -- Witches in Felarya

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The Legend of the Oiriopata

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In the mysterious waters of the Shimmering Seas lies a batch of vanishing islands that was once home to a civilization of Elven giantesses called the Oiriopata. Legendary for being as lovely as the sun's rays at dawn and as fierce as its fire at midday, these Elves were mighty warriors and excelled in magic, namely dimensional magic. Or was it science? It made no difference to the Oiriopata as they went hand-in-hand, as far as these giant Elves were concerned. From under their wonderfully crafted helms flowed long, luminous hair. Hugging their gigantic curved figures was shimmering silk garments covered by plates of polished golden armor. The luminous hair was likely a result of the dimensional forces they played with, or maybe it was simply a bit of cosmetic enhancement through magic.

Artifacts left behind by the Oiriopata suggests that they originated from a world called Nexus and were attracted to Felarya because of its dimensional peculiarities. It appears that they preferred to keep their power distributed among the Elven women of their society, while the Elven men were slaves with little civil rights. Perhaps it was because of this culture that around the year 5461 B.U., the Oiriopata found it reasonable to make a pledge of loyalty to Empress Eteni and the expanding Elven Empire.

They enjoyed many years of serving as soldiers and sharing their knowledge of dimensional magic with the Empire, but their loyalty waned with the death of the Empress and the succession of her son, Emperor Tibon, to the throne. The following years brought growing displeasure with Emperor Tibon's policies concerning the use of the military and his overall rule. The Oiriopata edged towards dissenting more and more until the death of Emperor Tibon left the future of the Elven Empire in question, and the Oiriopata agreed amongst themselves that it was time to part ways with the Empire.

They headed west to make their home at what is now the archipelago of the Shimmering Sea. At that time, the island chain was a peninsula extending out from the Felaryan mainland. The Oiriopata created a gigantic magic clock that would regulate the peninsula's dimensional shifting, using components called Horae that were based in their cities and in other dimensions. This clock is rumored to be the cause of the thin field of unstable space-time surrounding the region.

The history of the Oiriopata remained relatively uneventful until a mysterious catastrophe befell them, destroying large portions of the peninsula and leaving an archipelago with many ruined cities and treasures to be found in the depths of the sea surrounding it.

Some speculate that these days were the last for the Oiriopata, saying that they had eventually attracted the attention of a Guardian, while others suggest that they might have escaped to their home world, Nexus. The only hope there may be of verifying truth behind the Oiriopatan lore is to ask the tribe of winged centauresses that currently guard Helicon island. There are whispers among members of the Scientific and Historical community that the Helicon Centauresses were charged by the Oiriopata themselves with guarding their most valuable secrets. Unfortunately, the few explorers that have returned from Helicon Island report that the Helicons aren't very fond of nosy people.

In the end, the fate of the Oiriopata may forever remain a mystery but the ruins and artifacts that they left behind will the be most treasured part of their legacy to historians. (See Myths and Legends of Felarya: Locations under "The Miragia Forest; The Ruins of Lorraine" for the likely cause of the Oiriopata's disappearance)

[The Phantasms Attack On The Oiripatan Empire]

The following is the story of the Oiriopata's war with Phantasms, recorded by the Torinian Historian, Heseodorus.

The Oiriopatan empire was expanding at a torrid pace with the development of Hex Gates, which were dimensional pathways between worlds. The Elven giantesses conquered thousands of worlds across the universe; typically giving the females the opportunity to assimilate into their society while enslaving (or simply devouring) their males. However, the rapid expansion came to an abrupt halt after the first encounters with dreadful phenomenon that seemed to suddenly appear and devastate settlements like a passing storm. Moments before the occurrence of one of the phenomenon, the Oiriopatan settlers would sense significant warping of time and space accompanied by an ominous feeling. They had very little time to prepare before the ensuing chaos swept through their city, leaving collapsed buildings and buckled ground in its wake, much like being suffering both a hurricane and an earthquake at once. After the dust settled, the Oiriopata emerged from their shelters to find matter fused into matter, be it organic or not.

With every occurrence, the damage increased but the cause became more recognizable. The giantesses eventually came to the realization that the encounters were not happening by chance; they were being targeted. Targeted by what could only be described as walking "blurs" that came in many shapes and sizes. They were visible, mostly; translucent beings with the ability to vanish and reappear almost anywhere instantly. There didn't seem to be any sentience about them, just minds set on destruction. Ghostly howls carried by the wind sounded the arrival of these strange beings that struck fear into the hearts of the Oiriopata. The questions of when, and how, the creatures came to be were secondary to the questions of what could be done to stop them.

Over the next two decades, the Oiriopata suffered heavy casualties fighting the mysterious creatures. The beings seemed to know exactly where to find the Oiriopatan cities and when to attack them. Many prayed to Khaos, their goddess who was the embodiment of the primordial abyss which birthed the world, portrayed as having three faces and six wings; they prayed for forgiveness for their apparent transgressions in hopes that her wrath would be lifted. The monsters never relented, however. After countless bloody battles, the rumors began to spread; an Oiriopatan had betrayed her sisters and was directing the creatures' attacks. Such a horrible possibility seemed inconceivable, but then again, there was no real reason not to take it seriously. So the question that begged to be answered was, if the rumor was true, who would commit such a crime against her own kind? One Oiriopatan had a hunch, but she truly hoped to be proven wrong.

Thesilea, one of the Oiriopata's most decorated warriors, took it upon herself to investigate the origin of the beings. Her search for the truth led her back to Nexus, the most significant of cities to their people, yet she hadn't heard a single report of an attack from there. In Nexus she met with her sister, Queen Otrera, and Otrera's daughters who were busy devising more applications of dimensional magic. Thesilea had never been very fond of her nieces Aetolia, Hexate, and Morrigan; mainly due to them being the sadists they had proven themselves to be as children. Being in their presence was uncomfortable enough without the feeling that they were now being strangely secretive about their recent activities.

Late into the night, when Thesilea was sure her three nieces were asleep, she left her room and ventured into the underground bastilles. The prisoners, mainly males from various civilizations that had been conquered, were especially fearful of her presence. It was very much like they had been brutally tortured in some way. As she traveled deeper, she noticed more and more prisoners were missing body parts, some had large holes going straight through their bodies but were not acting as if they weren't missing anything at all. One of the prisoners violently threw himself against the bars that confined him. Thesilea was shocked to find that the humanoid male had no head but he was perfectly alive and was somehow able to speak.

“What wrong have we done to deserve this fate? You’ve separated us from our loved ones, enslaved us for the building of your cities, taken our bodies for your filthy pleasure, and now this… one by one we are becoming mindless monsters!”

Thesilea sighed then walked away from the howling prisoner to return to the surface. She had seen enough to know that the rumors were true; one of their own was behind the attacks on Oiriopatan cities. Once in the royal palace, Thesilea was confronted by Queen Otrera who pleaded with her to keep the things she had seen a secret, for the sake of her beloved daughters. Although she found their actions deplorable she couldn’t possibly turn her back on her own children. Otrera promised that she would convince them to stop the attacks for as long as Thesilea would keep quiet. Saying nothing, Thesilea left her sister waiting for an answer and returned to the city from which she came. Not many days after Thesilea’s departure, she returned to the royal palace, only this time it was to lead thousands of furious Oiriopata to battle againt their traitors. The daughters of Otrera; Aetolia, Hexate, and Morrigan were all killed in the siege. To Thesilea's great displeasure, their bodies were somehow lost. Queen Otrera had also gone missing. It was assumed that she had found a way to steal her daughters' bodies. An unceremonious change of command took place afterward. Nexus, the home of the Oiriopata, was heavily damaged but it would be restored with Thesilea as its new Queen.

Many years had passed since the mysterious “walking blurs,” with their ghostly howls and ominous auras, were last seen. The obscure creatures that had dominated the nightmares of the Oiriopata for so long were vanquished for good, or so the giantesses thought. The feelings of dread, warping of walls and floors right before their eyes, and the bone chilling howls carried by the wind had returned. Crashing down on Nexus were the hazy images of humanoids, beasts, and hybrid creatures. The figure that stood out the most however was that of the Goddess Khaos; she was just as the Oiriopata had always envisioned her except that her faces were those of Aetolia, Hexate, and Morrigan. Somehow the bodies of the three sisters had been transformed and fused into one of those creatures, and they had taken the form of the primary Oiriopatan Goddess. The only way Thesilea could understand that happening is if Otrera understood the process for creating the strange creatures and had performed the procedure to save the lives of her daughters. It was hard to believe, but there was nothing else to believe. No matter how it happened, they were now one menacing being called Khaos and her faces spoke in unison before she unleashed havoc on the city.

“All that was born from Khaos shall be returned to her.”

Like an invisible tidal wave, the power of Khaos leveled the palace in a single blow. The Oiriopata fought fiercely but the creatures’ abilities to phase in and out made them incredibly hard to wound, and some of the Oiriopata were even possessed by the shadowy beings. The giantesses were being overwhelmed by this new generation of monsters that were smarter, more determined, and even more powerful than their predecessors; there was no choice left but to flee through the Hex gates. Although it took many years, and many worlds were ravaged along the way, Khaos and her army of monstrosities arrived in Felarya. What came of them afterward is a mystery.

[The Sibling Prodigies]

Long before they began colonizing Felarya, the Oiriopata were already extending their reach across the universe through dimensional-based magic and technology. In their home world, referred to as Nexus, the former Queen Otrera was addressing the growing number of complaints concerning the behavior of her three daughters Aetolia, Hexate, and Morrigan.

A child prodigy, a troubled youth, a lost cause; these descriptions were used interchangeably between the sisters who were the cause of great anxiety among the Oiriopata. It became very apparent at their young age that they would one day surpass Queen Otrera in power, and possibly take her place as ruler, but each had also shown signs of harboring a deeply sadistic nature. As an example of their worrisome behavior, the sisters visibly gained great pleasure from openly torturing and devouring smaller sentient creatures. While most of those creatures were male and therefore seen as inferior life forms, the disturbing acts of cruelty against them were still viewed as contradictory to the way the Oiriopata raised their daughters to carry themselves. The reasons behind their dark fetishes remained a mystery for many years to come, but it was only just a precursor to the dark future that lied ahead.

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The Dimensional Gates (also known as Hex Gates)

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Just one of the Oiriopatan Dimensional Gates could transport a person anywhere in the multiverse and to almost any point in time, but building one was a labor and expense laden endeavor. The simplest versions were constructed of stone and were rectangular, but were only so conducive to magical use. The best gates were constructed of crystal and were regular hexagon shaped. Naturally, the stone gates were the more viable option as one needed to be built in every Oiriopatan settlement. The advancement of the gates benefited greatly from the later involvement of Otrera's daughters, namely Hexate. Hexate developed a method of summoning one of the many gates from Nexus to any point across the multi-verse.

To summon a gate from Nexus, the gate first needed to be marked in Oiriopatan runes that contained an identifier. The summoner then marked the location that the gate was to be summoned to in runes, and the spell was recited. The gate would appear instantly; not traveling through space, but leaving space and re-entering, essentially having its position in space changed by the runes. The Gates returned to Nexus as soon as the release spell was recited.

The Oiriopata were finally able to chose quality over quantity, and began building the gates of crystal. An additional improvement upon the gates was the ability to act as a window, showing the user what lied on the other side before they passed through it. This reduced the risk of entering a world where the conditions were not as the user imagined; conditions that could be hazardous. These dimensional gates were renamed Hexate Gates, or Hex Gates for short.

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The Origin of Witches in Felarya

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During the time of great wars in Felarya, the former Queen of the Oiriopata, Otrera resurfaced. She reached out to all the members of the female gender, especially those who were familiar with the Oiriopata, and she offered them an alternative to what they had been taught. Without a doubt, females were still the superior beings in the universe but it went much farther than that; they were all divine beings connected to the Goddess Khaos through their femininity. She went on to tell them that when the universe is returned to the chaotic form it once held, then all would be as it should. Otrera’s teachings were unquestionably dark and maybe even illogical but she found plenty of females that were eager to follow her, almost all of them human. Her teachings were to be preserved in books, and passed down to future generations.

Legend has it that Otrera was eventually discovered and killed by the Oiriopata soon after Khaos and the rest of the Phantasms were driven off. Before she was killed, Otrera warned that it was only a matter of time before her children returned, and so would she. It was those words that prompted Thesilea to order Otrera’s body to be burned.

[Witches in Felarya]

Danger: Moderate

Occurrence: Rare

Mistresses of dark magic, these cannibals are a nomadic class of humanoid women that carry a tradition of using powerful magic to prey on other humanoids. Witches are typically human and are very careful not to draw the attention of law enforcement. Whether by artifact magic, rule based magic, or alchemy; they have been known to shape-shift, disguising themselves as small black cats to become even more elusive. Because of their magical abilities and cannibalistic culture, other Humans are reluctant to consider Witches part of their species; they are looked upon entirely as predators. It is popular belief, that the only way to kill a Witch and ensure that she remains dead is to burn her body to ashes.

Witches prey on other humanoids by concocting potions and forcing their target to ingest them somehow. Sometimes the potion is baked into meals and other times it can be turned into a powder (or dust) that the target will breathe in. The potion causes their prey to shrink, making them easy for the witch to then feed on. Witches have developed powerful magic abilities to cast curses because of the nature of their upbringing. From the day a future Witch is able to speak her first word as a child, her mother will begin immersing her in the world of dark magic. Rule based magic spells, wild magic spells, and alchemy are all contained in the pages of the books that have been passed down from mother to daughter since the first Witch, Otrera of the Oiriopata, began the tradition centuries ago. Many pages are added with new spells as time passes.

The stereotypical image that people have of Witches wearing a tall pointed hat and riding flying broomsticks are actually not far from the truth. The Witches do wear this sort of attire, but only for special meetings or rituals. Normally, a Witch appears in the typical image of "the girl next door." She could be little Suzie, the daughter of Nisael, the donut shop owner. She could be Mary the nun at the Temple of Tsuzeth; there's just no telling. Because of this, some cities or villages have been known to carry out Witch trials. Many innocent girls and women have been burned under the suspicion of being a Witch. As for the flying broomsticks, they are among the various artifacts with magical properties that the Witches possess.

Witches are also considered to be part of a religious movement, or cult. While there are several divisions, the largest group claims to be carrying on the true teachings of Otrera; they await the return of Khaos the Trinity Goddess to Felarya. It is their firm belief that Khaos will bring the destruction of this world and the "birth" of a new, which the reborn Witches shall inherit. For them to ensure that their culture is carried on, they will find a mate and remain with their mate until a daughter is born. The Witches ingest a potion that ensures only female offspring will be conceived. Sometimes a Witch might have up to three girls before she decides that she is done with her mate. After doing away with the father, the mother will take her daughters and raise them into full-fledged Witches.