-or- Register at the Citadel

Society/ Organizations
Ethnic/Cultural
Country/ State
3.67
6 Votes

19xp


Hits: 3832
Comments: 10
Ideas: 0
Rating: 3.6667
Condition: Normal
ID: 2636

Submitted:

Updated:
June 27, 2007, 5:35 pm

Vote Hall of Honour

You must be a member to use HoH votes.
Author Status

Options


Print Friendly and PDF

Styrics

By:

Styrics are an emotionally led people who inhabit the land between the coastal waters of the Circ’l'd Sea up to the Ahrad desert.  Viewed by outsiders as a confused and un-intelligent people they provide a vital port for the fledging traders of Arnor.

The Syrics are a major races in The Elenium, a series of fantasy novels by David Eddings. The same races also appear in the sequel to The Elenium, The Tamuli.

The Styrics

Along the northern coast of Ambyor live the Styric people.  Originally thought to be descendants of the Mhongols they stand slightly taller than 5 ½ feet with medium tanned skins.  They have slightly almond shaped eyes and commonly dark hair.  Few Styrics develop facial hair, and those that cultivate such things manage small thin moustaches and beards only.  They are a very emotionally lead people that lead outsiders to view them as un-intelligent.

Daily Life

The Bulk of Styrics live in a specific area of land between the coastal waters of the Circld Sea up to the edges of the Ahrad Desert.  Most are simple herders who tend herds of goats which they herd from feeding ground to feeding ground until the summer sun drives them back to the few coastal cities and towns to await the cooler autumn.

In these cities and towns they are often targeted by Desert Prophets who stir up the farmers, inciting them into violence against non-believers (i.e. anyone non-Styric).  But then the summer months pass and they move back out to their grazing grounds before any true momentum can be gained. 

Zemoch

Zemoch is the largest city of the Styrics (indeed their only settlement worthy of the name in Arnor terms), which has been built on the edge of a large bay, a perfect natural harbour.  This has become a gathering point for the Ahrad and Arnor ships and the Styrics there have built great storehouses and markets to trade the wares brought there.

Zemoch contains a number of temples dedicated to the Styric god/gods, and a number of them claim to contain the remains of their greatest prophet Ashand, meaning either his body was dismembered and shared (which they all deny), or that some of them have it wrong (which they also hotly deny).

Religious Beliefs

Styrics either worship a thousand gods, or a single, multi-faceted god with a thousand faces, no one appears sure (not even the Styrics it appears).  Each of these gods or facets commonly represents their own spheres of influence that often overlap or merge.  For example there are gods/facets for various aspects of war (riots, slaughter, cunning), also lust, greed, love, hatred, madness, insanity, power, domination, storms, etc.

Each of the temples is lead by its own priests who each teach their view of the gods and the religion.  This has lead to a very broken view of the gods and their teachings as each temple has its own slant on how the teachings are interpreted.  The changes can be subtle or wider ranging, and can change as the priests change.  The differences can lead to marked viewpoints between worshipping Styrics and violence has erupted between temples over interpretation of the teachings. 

To complicate matters further, around 500 years ago a prophet emerged named Ashand.  He claimed to receive new messages and teachings from the god/s, and set up his own temples and developed his own following.  Now the Cult of Ashand is hailed as the true religion by some and decried as the ramblings of a madman by others, thus splitting the temples further.

One aspect that seems to have filtered on to all the temples however is the sanctity of the Goat.  Ashand was, like many other Styrics, a goatherd.  Goats are considered a sacred animal to the Styrics.  They remain the chief source of food also, but they are granted a right of passage to walk unmolested and all must move out of the way of the animals when they wish to walk down a path.

Styrics believe that their land, Xanthes as they call it, is a holy land gifted to them by their god/s, and many refuse to leave it.  Yet Ashand preached that others should be allowed to know the enlightenment of the teachings of the Styric god/s, and so many of his followers leave Xanthes to travel and spread word of Ashands teachings.

No Styric, however, will listen to the teachings of other gods and they do not have much tolerance of other religions in their own homeland.  The brave few who have set up temples with a view to converting the Styrics have often met with a bloody and sudden fate. 

Outsiders Views of the Styrics

Those from outside Xanthes tend to view the Styrics as a confused people lacking in intelligence.  Popular opinion has it that the hot desert sun has baked their brains to mush.  However, they are tolerated, as they are needed to man the harbour of Zemoch and maintain a vital trade point for the fledgling Arnor trade ships.



Additional Ideas (0)

Please register to add an idea. It only takes a moment.

Join Now!!



Gain the ability to:
Vote and add your ideas to submissions.
Upvote and give XP to useful comments.
Work on submissions in private or flag them for assistance.
Earn XP and gain levels that give you more site abilities.
Join a Guild in the forums or complete a Quest and level-up your experience.
Comments ( 10 )
Commenters gain extra XP from Author votes.

Voted Murometz
May 17, 2006, 9:33
0xp
A few comments

1- Like the peculiar name Circ'l'd Sea
2- When you say they are simple farmers, I think you meant to say they are simple herders..?
3- not crazy about Mhongols as a name. Too close to real thing.
4- LOVE their religion, and the fact that the dismembered pieces of Ashand may or may not be distributed among the temples. Nice touch!

Nice submission, after your long hiatus :D
Voted Cheka Man
May 17, 2006, 11:42
0xp
Nice. 4/5.
Voted manfred
May 17, 2006, 15:02
0xp
Not bad, they have some colour to themselves. Oh, and don't be afraid to use some bold on the titles, it will make it nicer.

A believable group of people.
Voted MoonHunter
May 17, 2006, 16:31
0xp
Nice solid post. There are some dramatic hooks.

Bold for the titles would be nice.

The one things I cound most off setting was:
Styrics are an emotionally lead people who inhabit

You should be more careful for your introductory blurb. It colors people perception of your entire post.
Voted CaptainPenguin
May 17, 2006, 17:13
Only voted
Priv8eye
May 19, 2006, 5:15
0xp
Thanks for the comments.

I spelled checked most of it but never Grammar checked the blurb - quite right to point that out.

If anyone can tell me how to do the bold (not entirely sure) then I will edit it and clean it up a bit.
manfred
May 19, 2006, 14:30
0xp
Easy: add html tags for bold into the text. (There is also html help on the right side of the editing screen.)
Priv8eye
May 22, 2006, 3:51
0xp
Updated: Edited for Grammar and to define headers in bold
Voted Michael Jotne Slayer
February 16, 2011, 6:32
Only voted
EchoMirage
February 17, 2011, 16:31
0xp

This is more or less copied from David Eddings' works. Not inspired by them, copied.



Random Idea Seed View All Idea Seeds

A noble claims that a stranger did not enter the town by any normal means, but trough his mirror. The man in question is ravening mad and mutters on about vast halls connecting all the mirrors in the world.
By: Michael Jotne Slayer | Visit | UpVote 3xp

Creative Commons License
Individual submissions, unless otherwise noted by the author, are licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
and requires a link back to the original.

We would love it if you left a comment when you use an idea!
PayPal
Powered by Lockmor 4.1 with Codeigniter | Copyright © 2013 Strolen's Citadel
A Role Player's Creative Workshop.
Read. Post. Play.
Optimized for anything except IE.
0.0450