Date: Mon, 24 Nov 1997 02:33:14 -0200 (EDT) From: Andre Martins Subject: Morient - How long will we keep quiet? Hi, We have been going slowly lately or does any of you think ours is a lightning pace? I know I have been REALLY busy this year and unable to contribute anything, but I hope to get the time for it now, even if it will be slow. So I decide to toss a few ideas for discussion. I am writing this without my compillations of MOrient material at hand, so feel free to criticize and change automatically whatever doens't fit on the previously discussed material (specially spellings). Or like it so much you want to change any dicrepancies :) I am also unsure if my mailing list is correct. Let me know if any of you find any discrepancies. Rohindarta, as the legends tell A long time ago, a woman and a dragon fell desperately in love by each other. The dragon took the woman to live with him and they were very happy for a long time. When the mother of Rohindarta got pregnant, she dreamt of a huge dragon coming to her and entering her womb. The dragon was as gold as the sun when if first appeared, but its collor kept changing. It was escorted by millions of other creatures, common and strange, most of which the woman had never seen or heard of. All of them had the same bright light coming from theirs forehead. The sages told her that the baby she was carrying would one day rule the world or save it. The creatures were all its previous incarnations and represented all the wisdom he would be carrying to this life. However, his was to be a dangerous path and there was a great chance he would get killed before fulfilling his fate. His mother died one week after his birth. His father loved their son very much and decided to shield him from all the dangers in the world, as he didn't want to lose his son after losing the woman he loved. He built a great palace to house him, where loyal servants would take care of him and where he would now nothing about the sufferings of the world or its problems. The palace was inside the top of a high and unclimbable mountain, so that the son would never be able to leave, as he was born human in shape. The only way out was flying through the top, the exit his father used, concealed by powerful magics. The boy grew up strong and intelligent and had a very good life. When he was 16, he married a beautiful dragon girl, disguised as human, in a marriage arranged by his father. They had a son who would later become the ancestor of the emperors. One day, one pegasus (or any chinese mythical creature, maybe a phoenix, any suggestions?) descended into the palace and Rohindarta started to talk to him. He was very curious to hear there was an outer world and wanted to hear all about it. The pegasus talked about it and the boy decided he wanted to see it by himself. After much asking, he convinced the pegasus to fly him to the nearby villages while his parents were gone. There he found out all the suffering of the world, disease, sickness, old age and death. And he decided to leave his great palace to look for a way of stopping it all. His father found it out in time and forbade him of leaving, declering that anyone who would help him by carrying him outside would have to suffer his wrath. The boy simply discovered he could turn into a dragon and flew away. He spent years meditating and fasting and there are many views about what happened after. Some say he just sat under a tree until enlightment came to him. Other cults claim he realized he should try a middle path, while fasting was an extreme path. Anyway, all agree he became enlightened, knowing the truth behing the veils of illusion of life. The tree where he sat under, meditating and where he was assailed by the forces of ...? still stands in the province ... and many make pilgrimages to sit under it. When he reached enlightenment, all immortals came to watch him and pay their respects to him. They recognized he had achieved a state of complete union with the universe, something beyond their small mundane powers. After that, he started teaching people how to get free from pain and suffering and estabilished our sacred nation of Chung-Eun. After teaching the people, he embarked in many mystical journeys to teach his words to the gods and other beings. Rohindarta, as the Immortals know it (do they?) Rohindarta was real origins are as clouded in mystery as those of the elder Immortals. Maybe he belonged to some race ancestor to the dragons, but nobody tells it. When Blackmoor reached its peak, he was the reigning Hierarch of Time. He was shocked as many other Immortals when that nation almost blew the whole world, and decided to walk the land to understand what had come to pass, somtehing he didn't do for quite sometime, even in mortal identities. He took many forms and found out the hand of Thanatos behind the whole thing. He was really moved by the suffering of the people and decided he had to do something about it. He knew that he couldn't war Thanatos, they would just reach a stalemate after bringing much pain and death to the people in Mystara, as the powers of both were equivalent. So he decided he should try something higher. He had heard the legends about the Old Ones and decided to regain mortal status and regain Immortality. First, he created an artifact that would keep sending spells and powers to his priethood. He wanted to have all his followers still with him, when he regained immortality. He prepared the region that would later become Chung-Eun, planting legends that would help his ascent and decided to be reborn as a dragon, son of a human woman. There he created the dynasty that exists until today, as well as the Dragon Trone and fulfillied the task to regain Immortality. Sometime later, he reached Hierarch status again and was taken by the blackballs. The artifact he had prepared before giving up immortality must still exists in a modified version, as his followers still gain some powers and Thanatos is continuosly plotting to uncover its location, to no avail so far. I will send descriptions for th Tree, the Dragon Trone and something for the clerics of Rohindarta later. Comments? Andre Martins