WEN

The Wen are the native people of the dragon coast. As a people, they are little more than tribesmen and cavemen, although some have embraced the civilisation to be found in more advanced settlements such as Porter's Bar, Port Elizabeth and Paria. They follow a simple nature loving faith, with a demon, Varen, who will punish them if they abuse the natural world or intercede for them in times of need.

Read more about the Wen here

In the beginning …. A Wen story song, that speaks of the origins of the world and their culture.

The Wenino are expected to live from the fruits of the land, and should live in harmony with their surroundings. For Example: Taking whole plants (including trees) is ok - so long as they are taken singly and the immediate locality given a chance to recover before another plant is taken out. EG single trees are OK - logging operations are not. Farming is questionable, large-scale commercial enterprises, set up to generate money, are seen as bad.

There are no temples or churches a such, but the gods are everywhere. Nor are there are specific services, instead each person makes small offerings through their daily life. It might be something like feeding the ducks (or the fishes), helping a bird that has fallen out of a nest, watering a plant in a drought or even scattering the seeds from the fruit you have just eaten. It includes a concept of just taking what you need – if you aren’t going to eat that weed eel, then release it back into the water alive. Don’t pick all of the fruit and then let it go mouldy – something else can use it. Community use is OK, as is local barter (I’ll trade you this eel, that I can’t eat, for some of that extra fruit you picked).

Spell casting Wen are extremely rare and are usually Sorcerer (with the Solar bloodline) or Shaman (with the Nature spirit). Both classes are seen to be 'touched by the gods' and are treated with fearful respect. They often live isolated lives away from any specific family group, but generally in walking distance of more than one family, and serve as conscience, healer, prophet and seer to the whole community. They are known to make images, deep in dark caves, of natural phenomena, such as animals, trees, sun and moon.

If you go about things the right way, Varen might intercede for you.

The Wen believe that when a person dies his body and his spirit become one with mother earth. However, just like life, there are trials and tribulations for the soul to overcome before it is absorbed into the earth Mother. First the soul must fight off the doomed spirits that did not make it into mother earth’s bosom and then at the end of that exhausting journey they must cross the river of fate that is the final border between life and mother earths bosom. It is possible to swim across the river, but the current is strong and if you are swept away by the river of fate, your spirit is lost and you are doomed to eternal nothingness. However, if one of the living asks properly, Varen will intercede for you. If you don’t cross the river, you wander on the paths of the dead until you slowly wither away.

On death the corpse must laid out and offerings made, while Varen is asked for help. Each of the friends and relatives leaves a small parting gift with the body although the offerings are small and in consequential - it might be a few berries from the Vini plant, a fir cone or a little spilled water. Really small inconsequential things, often gathered on the way to the sacred place – but a parting gift nonetheless. Once a year the Wen have a ceremony where they remember their ancestors with singing and dancing - If you take the time to honour and remember your dead properly, they will remember you, then when you die, one of them will come and guide you past all the troubled souls, directly to the river of fate.

When you are down and need a little bit of help, advice or guidance, you should call on Varen. Best results come if you take an offering, normally food or money, to a priest who will petition on your behalf. Sometimes the priest will help directly, other times they will offer advice as to how you can help yourself. However, don't ask too often, or else Varen will turn his back on you - after all everyone has to live their own lives and be responsible for themselves and their own actions.

In the beginning there was Gaya, (the earth), Lune (the Moon) and Sol (the sun). All three were close and spent much time together. As they grew, Gaya started to feel the needs of a woman, and Sol and Lune started to feel the needs of men. Secretly Sol lay with Gaya and Lune did not know. Then Lune lay with Gaya and Sol didn’t know. But eventually it was seen that Gaya was with child, and Sol proclaimed the child his … Then Lune declared the child his - and that is how Lune and Sol discovered that they had both lain with Gaya.

Lune and Sol, both demand that they were the father of the child – but Gaya insisted that she was the mother and that she would care for the child … After an argument Sol and Lune grudgingly agreed to this, and both went off in a huff, and have not really spoken civilly to each other since.

Gaya was so upset by this that she cried all the way through the rest of her pregnancy and thus the seas were made. But eventually, she gave birth to the first people, …..

Gaya she gave then the animals as their companions and helpers and then made the wolf to teach the men how to hunt, the spider to teach them trapping, and the squirrel to teach them how to store food. The hairs on her head and body became the plants that grow from the ground, and she showed the people how to take the fruits from the trees and eat them …

Sol, deciding that they must be his children after all and that he would be a father from afar, so he gave them a gift too - he gave the children the gift of fire from his own body, and taught them how to make fire to keep themselves warm and to cook there food. He stayed and watched the children while they lived and played and went away while they slept. Sometimes they angered him, and he would send the searing heat to punish then - or he would be saddened and he would come less (Winter) - but all in all he watched over the children.

Lune saw this, and decided not to anger Sol anymore, however he still wasn’t sure if the children were his. So rather than give a gift he decided to watch over the children from afar. When Sol is away, Lune will peek down at the children and watch over them and give them ‘toys’ to play with. Some even say that that he is Gaya’s lover, but he only visits with Gaya while Sol is away and can’t see.

As Sol watched the people he felt sorry for them. They wandered the land cold and hungry - and they died so quickly … Sol was in a good mood that day, he had decided that the people were his children, and when he saw them suffering, it saddened him.

He decided that he should help – but how? As he watched he saw that there were a few people who were more devout than the others - they lead the prayers to the gods and prayed even more often themselves. That was good in Sol’s eyes. He also saw that that the families each had a leader, the one who made the decisions for the whole family, and he decided that was good too. So he thought, and he decided on a plan …

• To those who led the prayers he gave the secret of fire, when they called upon him in the right way, he would give them some of the flame from his body (Fire spells) and he also taught them how to make flames by rubbing sticks together in the right way. BUT there was a price…
  1. First was a compact for all the people - the fire had to be treated as special - after all it was a part of Sol - the fire wasn’t to be used to hurt Gaya (ie can’t be used to burn trees down etc) and it had to be respected.
  2. Second was a compact for the priests – they had to support the leaders, become their guide, their reminder of the gods' will - after all the leaders were so busy making sure their family kept alive, sometimes they forgot. It was the priest's job to make sure they didn’t forget for too long …

Gaya's dreams made it easier for her children to survive, and gave them their basic societal structure.

• It was on one of those long hot summer days when all you ever want to do is lie down in the shade and snooze that Baran had his first dream. In his dream he saw himself running with the wolf pack, chasing down one of the huge forest birds and bringing it down, sharp teeth rending the life from the prey and then the whole pack gorging on the flesh. When he awoke, he couldn’t get the idea our of his brain - the wolves running as a pack - like the family they were, and bringing finding food that would satisfy them all - But how, he didn’t have the teeth to fetch the birds down - He was sure it was a dream from Gaya but he didn’t know how to make it work. He puzzled over the matter all day - but still nothing came to him - so the last thing he did before he went to bed was to ask the gods for help. He was embarrassed to ask Gaya again, after all she had sent him a dream and he didn’t understand it, maybe he wasn’t worthy to ask her. But Gaya heard. That night Baran dreamed again, he saw the pack hunting and then the scene switched - this time he saw the devil-bird hunting. Rather than the sharp teeth of the Wolf ripping the flesh from the prey, the sharp beak came down and stabbed the prey to death. Next day, Baran spent ages finding a special shaped piece of rock and working out how to tie it securely to a branch. And before long he had the first spear and went out hunting with it, for the very first time.
• Ever since he could remember Arrak and his family had been collecting fruit, nuts eggs and grubs like the first dream had shown them - but his family was large and it was hard to collect enough food so the children were skinny and weak. In his desperation Arrak prayed to Gaya for her guidance and this was his dream. As he slept a giant spider came to him and lifted Arrak up onto his back and carried him off. Arrack was frightened but all he could do was hold on for dear life, as the spider sped away across the treetops. The it stopped and called and a hole host of little spiders appeared, and Arrak realised that the spider had problems feeding his young too - and that this must be a dream from Gaya. The spider marshalled his young and set them to building a web, a huge web bigger than anything the spider could build alone - and then they waited - and waited. Eventually a huge moth was caught in the web, and struggled to its death - and its body made a feast for the spider family. At that point in his dream Arrak awoke, the memories still fresh and a prayer to Gaya on his lips. The very next day he made a net, which he used to catch birds, and so Gaya and the Spider taught us how to trap for our food.
• Many years ago the people were like the birds that come to visit us every year, they travelled the land looking for food, and only stopped somewhere long enough to hunt and eat. One winter hard winter when the fruit was scarce and the people wandered the land looking for food. Many froze, as they could not start the fire that Sol had given the people as his gift - for the wood was cold frozen and wet. Many animals died, and the people found hunting hard - and many people died. The old people and the babies were first - but many of the stronger, younger people died too, the winter was that hard. Then Sharika the leader of one of the groups had a dream that must have come from Gaya. He saw the squirrel building his drey (nest) in spring so that he had somewhere to live and mate through the summer. Then in his dream he saw the squirrel and his mate collect nuts and seeds and bury them in the ground, and he saw how the squirrel came in the winter to eat the buried nuts and seeds, and that the squirrel and his family survived even the worst snows. Being a wise leader, Sharika learned from his dream. As soon as the weather started to clear, he found a good place for his family to stay in through the winter. The other families laughed at them - and then laughed even harder as they started to collect food and preserve it for the winter. But it was Sharika’s family who had the last laugh, they were comfortable and warm through the winter, living in their caves, eating dried fruit, smoked meat and the nuts they had collected. Everyone else shivered and went hungry. Soon every one had learned from Sharika and the dream he was given by Gaya.

Lune is, perhaps, more concerned with the more sophisticated things in life :}

• In Fyan’s dream, Lune gives the secret of cooking. Fyan is a young girl who sees her family tearing at the raw meat caught by the hunters, sees the ancients and children not getting their share - and her heart weeps for them. Lune sees her distress and shows her how heating the meat over Sol's fire softens it and makes it more palatable … From that developed the art of cooking.
• In The Lovers’ Dream – Lune introduces alcohol and music in one go! Two youngsters (Brenna and Galtin) love each other from afar, he sees they are too shy to talk to each other, and that both will spend their lives in misery - so he resolves to help them. First he teaches Brenna how to make Vinibeer, by taking the berries of the Vini tree (see Sclerocarya birrea) as they are starting to rot, and leaving them to ferment in water. At the same time, he teaches Galtin about rhythm - he learns of simple drums and scrapers to make rhythms and music. Eventually the two come together around the village fire one evening and the first party/celebration is created … needless to say Galtin and Brenna manage to meet and express their feelings for each other - in the end they both live happily ever after.