4.1 - The Growth of the Crimsonhood

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The Crimsonhood continued to develop and evolve, meanwhile, and as it grew, it gained followers from across all of the great cities of Ambal. However, the Crimsonhood’s headquarters remained in the location where it had been founded, in the outskirts of Ocayba.

This was the first guild ever formed, creating a group of people bound by similar interests and goals that were larger and wholly separate from those of their individual tribes or cities.

Inspired by its success, other guilds soon appeared. These new, smaller guilds were usually based on trade, exploration or crafting. The guilds stayed away from political matters, yet their presences were nevertheless noted when they continued to grow larger and memberships reached into the thousands.

This was the case with the Crimsonhood, and as its numbers increased, the Guild began to feel its power, with some of its officials increasingly coming to the belief that their Guild deserved to have a louder voice in the greater affairs of the land itself. Some members worried that these secret beliefs and desires, while hidden deep within, could eventually corrupt some of the Crimsonhood Guild as surely as blight within the heart of a rose.

Yet now was a time of brightness and belief, for the most part, and led by Kadu Goodthorn, the founder of the Crimsonhood, the Guild never ceased in its dedication toward constant vigilance as well as its commitment to protecting the land of Ambal from threats.

During this period, as it had always done, the Guild continued to dedicate itself to maintaining peace across the land, and to uniting all of its peoples and all of its many diverse and vibrant cities in harmony and fellowship. Kadu knew, thanks to the land’s turbulent past, that humans needed to work together for their own protection. He also knew that relying on the help of the Seasons or other Spirits for rescue could leave them in a vulnerable position.

With this constant vigilance and desire for peace by the Guild and its allies in all of Ambal’s cities, some groups were given the task to explore the borders of the land while bringing aid and support to the smaller villages as needed, reporting any strange activity they might witness upon those far-off borders. The reports from these small-group explorations provided key and vital information to the Guild leaders, who in their secretive way then decided what and when to share what it learned with the five civilizations for their own safety and peace of mind.

Within the Crimsonhood Guild itself, as part of their core values, all members received combat training, so that if a time of need arrived they would be prepared and ready for battle. The Guild took nothing for granted, and aimed to possess strength in numbers, as well as skill, fitness, and agility.

However, this training was solely for the protection of the people from the corrupt or chaotic Spirits, Shadows, and other entities. The edict, established by Kadu, prohibiting violence against other humans, tenko, horume or yoro continued to be a vital one among the Guild, and it was a rule that was strictly followed in order to maintain peace and goodwill among the diverse peoples of the land.

Kadu, meanwhile, continued to be a charismatic and beloved figure who commanded great respect—not only in Ocayba but in all other cities as well. He was still a source of courage as well as wisdom, bravely leading his guild in battles against highly dangerous Shadows and Tormented Spirits, and his kind ways and effortless humility gained him admirers and followers whenever he went.

Despite all of Kadu’s good and noble intentions, some members of the Crimsonhood were not as generous and great of heart, and those corrupting, once-hidden desires for power grew even stronger among some of their higher ranks. These arrogant and selfish individuals believed that they were above the laws of the cities, creating tension within several governments due to their search for power and affluence.

This growing corruption, now more visible as a source of arrogance and power in the Guild, created problems in the larger sense, as the cities had already had mixed feelings about the Crimsonhood because of its secretive nature. Many times through the years, the Guild’s members had demonstrated that they would often keep information to themselves instead of sharing it with outsiders, while they also alienated others with growing frequency through the pompous behavior of some of their more arrogant members. Still, the leaders of the great cities knew that the Guild’s organization and discipline were important for the protection of Ambal, and therefore their own.

When he heard of the haughty behavior of some of these Guild members, Kadu gathered his officers and then spoke to them with great passion and wisdom, reminding them of their goal to protect Ambal, as well as of the importance of being respectful to every civilization. Kadu’s vision was to create a Guild that could harmonize and synergize with the great cities, in a similar way to that in which the cities already collaborated between them. He emphasized that humans had common goals, and that they were all united in the pursuit of the purification of energy and the prosperity of the land, even if they had different approaches or methods for achieving such objectives.

4.2 - The Rise of the Horume

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After the formation of the five great cities, the land of Ambal grew rich and prosperous. It was still a time of great change, though, and the Seasons continued to roam the land in both their beast and human forms as they did their part to come to the aid of all of the peoples of the land in need.

The underground realm of the land, on the other hand, was still something of a mystery for those living on the surface—at least, for those besides the horume, as even the Seasons would not venture there willingly very often, as they preferred to be closer to the sky. There was some awareness among all of Ambal’s peoples that in the underground lived the horume, however the humans knew little about them other than the fact that they rarely ventured to the surface. The only exception to this knowledge was that of the people from Aaraxa, who told tales from the times they had labored to both understand and engage with the horume in the past.