A bit of history

Once there was a great race of people. They lived very very far from here and knew much of magic and were masters at using it in the five forms. Their Self Masters saw the links the planets made in their galactic dance, saw that those supporting life formed a rapport, and reached out to one another across the vastness of space. They learned to track these linkages, to learn the grandly subtle language of the planets and worked with the other Elemental users to create great ships to quickly traverse the distances to other inhabited planets.

The first peoples they came upon where the Dohlkele. If you've never seen one it's very difficult for me to describe them. They are small, winged, and resemble a cross between a deer and a crow. They have long tails for steering and claws on their legs for gripping trees. The oddest thing about the Dohlkele, however, isn't their appearance, but their memory. They have none. When this space-faring people came upon the Dohlkele they were greeted by a chorus of voices, all speaking in unison. They have a hive-like mentality and a collective memory. They took one of the Dohlkele with them on their ship and soon found he was unable to remember from day to day. The space-farers saw how vulnerable the Dohlkele would be to outside invasion and made a deal with them to always protect them from harm in exchange for the use of their planet.

The space-faring people, which you by now might have guessed to be your Jothani ancestors, prospered and became numerous. They explored many different planets, but no creatures they encountered they enjoyed spending time with quite as much as the Dohlkele. When the Dohlkele's sun was dying, the Jothani worked to make a home for them on one of the moons in their own system. This was done, and both races prospered.

But this time of prosperity couldn't last forever. A great Cataclysim occured. Some say the Elemental users used too much, some say a hostile race was discovered and attacked before any could give warning, some say it was the Jothani's pride itself that brought the once great nation to its knees. Either way, the Jothani were forced to evacuate. They took the Dohlkele and as many native creatures as they could and fled the system. We know there was an explosion, it rocked the bonds of the living planets and shot the Jothani farther and faster than they had ever ventured before. They became trapped around a system that held one small yellow sun and nine planets, the third of which called to their navigators. It was teeming with life.

-Excerpt from The Exodus, as recorded by Raoute Le, Jothani Archivist.

Fete reassurances

The whole village was buzzing with activity today, indeed had been for the past few days.

"Roburt... when do you think they'll get here?" Shoda eyed the preparations going on down the road. It looked like the pavilion was being raised and the bonfire mound was being piled with kindling and logs. She bit her lip nervously. She and Laok had never been to one of the famous fetes. They only happened every five to ten years or so, an opportunity for all the tiny outlying mixed villages to come together, trade goods and services, and equally important, provide young Humans and Jothani chances to meet other youngsters their age. Shoda herself was quite past the age when young Jothani women normally married, but because of recent raids it just wasn't safe for large numbers of Jothani to travel openly anymore.

Roburt seemed to sense what she was thinking and circled her shoulders with a long bony arm and smiled, "Lassie, I don't think ye needin' to be worryin'. I've been keepin' the worry hounds busy enough chasin' me own mind about these years since ye parents be trottin' off this earth, dah? I do be seein' great things for you and Laok, and be keepin' in mind, Ye be not the only older young'un comin' lookin for companionship."

She smiled shyly. She was 26 this year, but Jothani usually married ten or more years earlier. Now that she thought of it, Laok was getting a little up there too. It wasn't like she should really be worrying anyway, pure Self users were pretty rare, so they would both be welcome wherever they went.

Use of Self

There was a sloshing and a squelching slowly making its way closer. Shoda didn't bother to raise her head, there were only two it could be, and she'd find out in a second. Her clever fingers worked the tiny paring knife around a particularly knobbly eye in the potato when a soft 'clack' told her exactly who was walking up to her. Now she raised her head, brushed her hair out of her eyes and smiled. A face more lined with age than the delta was with streams smiled back at her. His dark eyes sparkled and his wooden wading shoes clacked softly against each other as he levered himself up onto the ramp to the house and joined Shoda on the porch.

"Hullo dah." Shoda greeted warmly, putting the now peeled potato in the bucket with the other ones as the tiny fish made off with the last of the peelings.

The old man chuckled as he watched their antics. "Ye bein' ready for tonight? Ye bruther's been makin' fish to walk practicin' dah."

Shoda shook her head and sighed. Laok liked to impose his Self on the weaker creatures, he said it helped him practice, made him stronger. She didn't like it. More often than not she'd come along after he was done and get enough practice herself by putting to right what he had messed up. The fish, for example, would be left gasping for air, their gills burned and rasping. It wouldn't take but a little application of her own Self to heal the wounds and make it right again, and they were only fish, but she still didn't like it. "Why do you let him do that Roburt? It hurts 'em and it's just plain mean."

Roburt just chuckled and laid a knobbly hand on Shoda's shoulder, "Dah, he's just bein' a young lad, he be seven years ye junior missy, 'tis a phase. In time he'll turn his Self to the healin', as is right."

An Introduction

All along the treetop the cacaphony of birds was just a background lullaby to the young Jothani woman who sat on the porch, swinging her legs and peeling potatoes. She wasn't normal, by any stretch of the imagination, something alien once, now just hated and shunned.

But not here.

Something odd had happened here, in this small village out in the great back of beyond marshlands that swallowed up any suggestion that the great river was anything more than a trickle. Here for miles and miles around the great river had widened to a delta, split into rivulets during the floods, but mostly just made everything soggy. Out here where horses couldn't travel, cattle's feet would rot, and Human law dared not penetrate. In these once poisoned deltas something amazing had happened for those willing to brave the dangerous, mutated beasties that still roamed around. Human and Jothani lived side-by-side peacefully.

And so, Shoda Mayeki just sat on the porch, swinging her legs, tickling the fish that were brave enough to try to nibble on her yellowed claws, and peeling potatoes.