Horizon: City of Traitors

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HORIZON IS OVER!

The webpage remains up as a permanent archive of game material, mainly for the benefit of nostalgic players - although if you'd like to run a Horizon-inspired game for your friends, that's wonderful too. Horizon will be succeeded by Legacyin Trinity term of 2006.

If you like you can look at the (sketchy, incomplete) GM notes as well.

Dead Gods

Many more deities are mentioned in the tales of the Mythic Dreamtime than are believed to be active today. Many sorcerers have loudly declared that the gods are a dying race, and that mankind will ultimately eclipse their achievements; whether this arrogant prophecy is true or not, it does seem to be the case that the barges of the Gods are growing dark and silent.

Here we describe a number of Gods who live no more. Whilst they themselves answer no prayers and grant no spells, mystics and wizards are always on the lookout for relics and remnants of their power. Occcasionally, cults have been formed to worship them, but such misguided outfits are never successful; members drop out rapidly when they realise that their prayers are falling on cold, dead ears.

Old Deaths

The below gods have been dead since the First Age (if not before), but are known to modern man through legend and song.

Thezir - God of Knowledge

In the Mythic dreamtime Thezir (the God of Knowledge) was at his most powerful. The world was changing so much, and there was so many things to learn about and knowledge to be recorded that he was in his element, and with every new thing to be learnt and every being wishing to learn about it, his power grew.

He set about recording everything he could in large tomes so that all could learn what he had learnt if they so desired. But he guarded his knowledge well and granted it only to those who pleased him. Other gods tried to steal his books and take the knowledge away from his control – they threatened to weaken him.

Man at that time was docile and easily influenced, so with his cunning Thezir persuaded Man to build a monument to him to house his store of knowledge. However, in the completion of this task and spending much time in the presence of the God of Knowledge, Man's own knowledge increased and brought him that bit closer to becoming fully awake and gave them the idea of books. Perhaps if Thezir had not built his storehouse, man would not have risen so easily against the Gods – but that is something that will never be known.

Thezir finally left this world forever soon after the start of the First Age (and to this extent had only one avatar – a man who read too much). Man created his own books and stored his own knowledge between the pages, so the tomes of Thezir were no longer needed. It is thought that Thezir took most, but not all, of his knowledge with him when he left.

The God of Oaths

The God of Oaths seemed to die at some point before the end of the Mythic Dreamtime. Tales are told of how he was honourable to a fault, fulfilled his Oaths to a word, and was merciless when he got his hands on an oathbreaker. Many regard him as an admirable role model, and even the Church of the Intercessor has conceded that he might not have been malevolent as the gods who survived the Mythic Dreamtime. Others are not so sure - one of the most thought-provoking plays in the Horizon theatre recently was Song and Words, an adaptation of an epic poem concerning the God of Oaths' killing of his own wife, the Queen of Song, when he learned that she had been unfaithful.

No avatars of the God of Oaths have arisen in recorded history; furthermore, there are certain Oaths he makes in the ancient tales that he never gets around to fulfilling, and given his nature it's certain that he would have had he lived.

Rumours about the God of Oaths

The God of Oaths didn't die - he became the Intercessor. The Message of the Intercessor is his last and most potent Oath.

The dogs of Horizon are a gift to mankind from the God of Oaths - a gift that even the Church doesn't dare condemn.

Dogs were first created by the God of Oaths; when he died, his duties and powers fell to them, as his heirs.

The God of Oaths gave mankind the gift of speech, so that they could swear Oaths to the Gods and to one another.

The Deus Irae

The Deus Irae ("God of Wrath" in Old Imperial) is referred to once, in the ancient song-cycle The Vengeance of the Gods. The song-cycle speaks of the terrible curses, punishments, and fire-and-brimstone horror that the Deus Irae would inflict on the world "if e'er man says no to his masters, if e'er the Gods are defied". His spectacular failure to deliver on this bombastic promise is the major indication that he is either dead or incapacitated - if he ever existed, and The Vengeance of the Gods is not just a clever forgery of a Mythic Age saga.

In the First Age, a ferocious madman known as Richard the Wild attacked and destroyed a number of isolated towns and villages in Lasinia, and was eventually slain by a hail of arrows from local militia. The widespread assumption is that Richard possessed his manic strength and burning anger because he was an avatar of the Deus Irae, and his aimless slaughter was a wild lashing-out following the death of his master - however, others have suggested he was a powerful shaman of the Fire, if not a daimon in human form.

Rumours about the Deus Irae

The Deus Irae was killed, or crippled, or mortally wounded by the Intercessor, and that's why the Gods failed to punish mankind for its rebellion.

The Deus Irae was never real: he was a bluff on the part of the Gods, who in the flesh are weak and fragile. When the Emperor struck down and killed a God, he called the Gods' bluff - and they paniced and fled.

The Deus Irae is the God that the Emperor killed to begin the rebellion against the deities. Let's face it, if you're going to rise up against your oppressors the guy who's in charge of stopping you is going to be your first target.

The God of Oaths and the Deus Irae were one and the same, The Vengeance of the Gods being an Oath the Deus Irae swore to his fellow deities. When he failed to deliver, he killed himself in shame.

New Deaths

Several gods have died or disappeared in the last twenty years - two died during the Year of Chaos. Here is what is known of them.

The Mutilated One

The god known as the Mutiliated One occupies a strange place in mankind's tales of the gods; the oldest myths, which tell of the games the gods played against each other before the beginning of the world, barely mention it. Neither do the stories of the building of the Wall and the Intercession. It seems that whatever it was, the Mutilated One had few dealings with other gods. Indeed, those who were not of its cult were forced call the god "it" because so little was known about it. In recorded history, the Mutiliated One has only ever been known to appear in dreams - and has never done so since the Year of Chaos. In such dreams, the appearance of the god was never consistent; its appearance and even gender were variable but were always heavily mutilated, with the face entirely concealed by bandages. These dream manifestations, it is said, were not accompanied by speech, but the dreamer would wake with a conviction that they had seen the Mutilated One, and sometimes with something more; a message or warning. No-one admits to being a cultist of any god, so it is difficult to say for certain, but it is thought that these dream visitations were not restricted to the god's worshippers. Whatever the case, these messages indicated that the Mutilated One considered itself the adoptive parent of those who are not physically or mentally whole, and was determined to protect them. How such protection was supposed to work in practice is anybody's guess - certainly, curing the crippled and the mad was not on the Mutilated One's agenda. On the other hand, there are numerous folk stories of villains who have been stricken with ill fates and terrible afflictions after abusing or neglecting the vulnerable and needy. There are also accounts of people considered to be village idiots performing feats of magic and attributing them to "the man with the bandaged face". Perhaps these sporadic acts were what the Mutilated One meant; the Intercessor warns, after all, that the gods are fickle.

The darker side of the Mutilated One's reputation concerns its supposed desire to spread the "gift" of its adopted children. In these legends the Mutilated One hounded those it wishes to recruit through dreams and the waking world until an "accident" occurred, and the god gained another child. Such stories may or may not be true, but their circulation has caused some of the vilest incidents that are associated with the faith of the Intercessor, as weak and vulnerable people have been beaten or killed on suspicion of being cultists of the Mutilated One, and seeking to spread the "gift". (Though it should be stressed that these incidents were always condemned by the Church, and it was common for priests of the Intercessor to protect cripples from angry mobs such as these.)

The Mutilated One had no major cults aside from the Beggars of Horizon, whose King was - some argue - the Mutilated One's only avatar. Certainly, when the Beggar King was hounded to destruction by the Ghouls, it is said to have been the death of the Mutilated One; always the weakest of the Gods, it seems that the shock of losing its avatar was too great for the Mutilated One, and it has never been heard of since.

Versinya

Versinya was the goddess of decay and corruption both in a literal and metaphorical sense. To follow her could grant you immortality, but generally at a terrible price. Her cultists were known to embrace the worst parts of their nature. Her barge was filled with the bones of those who died before their time and she was waited upon by a host of those who destroyed something they loved in life. Her cults, needless to say, were very unpopular, even compared to other malicious gods.

Rumoured Avatars

Assumpta: She appeared as a woman who was very beautiful but for the empty eye sockets in her skull. She was the patron of the perversion of love and haunted those who destroy something they love. The myths tell that she was once a young mother, who so frustrated by its cries, suffocated her own child. Her fellow villagers removed her eyes as a punishment when they realised what she had done. They say her eyes could be anywhere they wish and see anything that happens, although this is mere superstition.

The Boy: Known only by this name, he appeared no more than 6 or 7 years of age and had striking blond hair and blue eyes. He was generally spotted playing on street corners and if you did not know what you are looking for was unidentifiable from any other child - persistent rumours maintain that he was able to sneak into the Del Orto Orphanage this way, and drove one of his playmates there to suicide. He symbolised lost innocence. Many years ago it is written that a small child wandered off from his family and made his way into the Treacherous Lands. The child was found a few days later rambling incoherently about darkness and hopelessness. The Boy tended to speak in riddles when he felt the need to speak at all, and those who encountered him were filled with an inexplicable sense of dread.

Cassius: In life a noble hero who had hated Versinya and all she stood for with all his heart. As a child his family was murdered and put forward as a burnt offering to her by a group of insane cultists. Versinya, however, in her twisted perversion saved his life so that she could forvever torment him. Everyone who ever touched his life was destined to fall to pain and sickness. He became a servant of justice and attempted to fight for good but at every turn his actions were twisted and ended up contributing to the cause of evil. In the end he took a knife to his own heart and attempted to kill himself. But as he plunged the knife he found to his horror that the wound which ought to have been fatal would not kill him, and from thenceforth he served the goddess against his will. He was lured into Horizon through trickery and bound by sorcerers, forcing Versinya to come from her dread barge to prevent the wizards stealing Cassius away from her; when she came forth, the heroic Baron Montague struck her down, and she died, but not before unleashing a plague which would haunt the world for a decade.

Arikel, the Toolmaker

It is not known whether Arikel is truly dead or not. Even the date of his disappearance is not known precisely, since it was accompanied by none of the calamities that accompanied the destruction of the Mutilated One or Versinya. On one hand, some magicians claim that they can still steal the spells of Arikel - but only those which do not necessitate direct contact with the god. On the other hand, former cultists of Arikel have confessed that Arikel has fallen silent in recent years, and that the cults of Arikel are powerless, their leaders struggling in vain to regain contact with the Toolmaker. It seems that if he is not dead, Arikel has at least abandoned the world. This being the case, we'll speak about him here in the present tense and hope he is truly dead, rather than speak about him in the past tense and tempt fate.

Arikel is known as the toolmaker of the gods; it is said that at the beginning of time it was he who first harnessed Fire and forced it to act as a tool. These legends go to tell how Arikel tried to prevent humankind learning the secret of fire, or tried to take the fire away, around the time of the Intercession. Relatedly it is said that Arikel resents the Intercessor and his church more than the any of the other gods, although the exact connection is always vague. From these tales it might be thought that the Toolmaker hates mankind, but other tales tell that he is fascinated by the technologies that humans have created. In these tales Arikel is more of a uncle figure (albeit a very stern uncle) who inspires human inventors to their greatest inventions. Indeed, writings attributed to cultists of Arikel claim that he is the ultimate source of all technology. This may be an exaggeration, but here are plenty of accounts of inventors and engineers who later turned out to be cultists of Arikel. It should come as no surprise that the god gives out magical powers only sparingly; he prefers his followers to work with technology and science, occasionally helping them with his own ideas and devices.

Socially, the cults of Arikel have a somewhat ambivalent position. All right-thinking people are suspicious of any god, but the emphasis of Arikel's cults on reason and progress has mitigated this to a certain degree - and now that the God no longer speaks to them, they cannot use his magic to make mischief. Still, it is not safe to be publicly known as a member of one of Arikel's cults. Legends also suggest a darker side to Arikel's work in the world, with the Church of the Intercessor leading the way in accusing Arikel of seeking to stifle human creativity, in the hope that mankind's achievements will never overshadow his own.

A few tales are told of Arikel's avatars. It is said that once every millenium he takes on two people as apprentices; these learn Arikel's crafts from him, and also act as his avatars. In the past these apprentices have achieved fame and notoriety as the Empire and the Church of the Intercessor have sought to destroy them and their influence. One of these took the name Michael Slanard but is more generally known as "the Smith"; he built up a mighty business as a master armourer in Lasinia nearly a thousand years ago before being discovered and driven out by the priests of the Intercessor. In more recent times, a fairly well-known scandal was the fall of Iterech Alamar, appointed by the Emperor as the first Head Professor of the Faculty of Engineering in the newly completed Imperial University (about five hundred years ago). Under his rule the department thrived, but Alamar was uncovered as an avatar of Arikel. In some versions of the story he escapes from the city under cover of night; in other versions he is slain and burnt by the Imperial forces; in others still he switches his appearance somehow and survives in the department until a few years before the present day.