If you are receiving this letter, then you have been
called.   You have heard the Long Lost Song, have
taken the trials, and were deemed worthy.

I was told this would happen, the last time I
traveled with Tiger.   He showed me a longhouse far
from the water, filled with Wildlanders willing to
work as one to return a natural place to its natural
Wonder.

We have a chance to go someplace that almost is Deaf,
and bring it back to the Animal Spirits.   We have a
chance to lure the Spirits back to their natural
place.   We have a chance to restore what is silenced.
 The land is on our side.   The Present is on our
side.   Even the Future is on our side, if we take
this moment.   Although I have not met you, I believe
in you... if you passed the trials, the Spirits want
you on the Mesa.

So, call to your Animal Spirits, and ask them to
follow you.   We shall come together on the High
Plains, and go to work.

Welcome to the Mesa.

Dektecca Whitesun
Daughter of the River and Plains
Shaman to the Mesa Longhouse

Heroes from the Eastern Wilds

The East is vast, unmapped, and wild. It stretches from the raw and stony coast in the far south to forests in the North where land climbs into the clouds and disappears. In high table lands there are expanses of grass that spread out under the sun filled with herds beyond count. There are immense trees woven into whispering forests; trackless places that are home to fearsome animals. The Eastern People walk in these places as children; are fed by the land, taught by the land, and live with the land's spirits as brothers and sisters. As long as parent teaches child how to listen, and child follows the teachings of parent, they will be at ease and in their place in the world.   

The peoples of the East are many, from various climates and with different local customs. They have no blacksmiths, have no organization larger than tribe, and have no desire to assimilate into other cultures.

 

Shaman

Where wisdom is needed from beyond the village's memory, the Shaman will speak with the Animal spirits and hear their counsel.

A source of medicine and guidance, the shaman is the link between the people of the Eastern Wilds and the many animal spirits from whom they draw inspiration. The chief endeavor of the Shaman is to understand the ways of the animal spirits, to gain their gifts with which to serve the community, and to keep the people on the right track to living according to tradition. Shamans rely on their spiritual gifts for personal protection and for interpreting the world. Along with their spiritual knowledge, Shamans pass on traditions in Herbalism and tribal lore.

Hunter

"Some from within every village must be set apart, whetted and strengthened, and set within reach in case of war."

When terrible times come, each village has at least one who will step out from the others, one prepared to stand between the People and Whatever Threatens. They will carry a weapon ready to shed blood and will endure the cruel sun, and arrows, and claw and fang, the unknown. They will fight for days, springing to their feet again if struck to the earth. They will follow prey in the shadows of the Wood, lie for hours on the windswept ice - silent and unmoving. They will stare in the face of Tiger until he hunts elsewhere. They will do this with a simple stone mace, a shirt of thin leather, and an unblinking eye.

The Touched

Some animal spirits will have their way with Man; they will find one of us alone and breathe their spirit into him or her. The child may go mad or else fall into death. They that do not are marked by a Spirit for the rest of their lives; walking, seeing, speaking, with changed eyes and with the marks of that Spirit upon them. Shunning those Touched is a grave insult and invites the wrath of the those who bestow such Gifts.