Lamento: Beyond the Void-1

A post-apocalyptic world where humans are nowhere to be found, and the dominant species -- a race of cat-people called Ribika -- build their civilization in the ruins of that which the "Two-Canes" left behind.

Type: Bud

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Overview

Sisa is a world that has forgotten the existence of humans. The Ribika (named after the goddess they venerate), are the closest thing to humans that exist; they are cat-people. Legend goes that the gods grew angry with the humans -- the "Two-Canes", as they're remembered -- and destroyed them. Even hiding deep underground could not spare them the gods' wrath. The gods' wrath did not stop with the Two-Canes, however; it razed the earth, killing most of the life in the land.

However, it's said that the Goddess Ribika and the last Two-Canes came together in union, producing a rainbow-colored egg. She took that egg high over the land and dropped it, and as it fell it restored the flora and fauna. She could not restore the Two-Canes, but instead the life in the egg face new life to the 'cats', who had served the Two-Canes. It was in their memory that the Goddess Ribika became a cat, and the Ribika (the people) were born. When she became a cat however, she could no longer hold the sun. It dropped into the ocean, coloring the waters golden. For light, the Goddess broke the moon in half, so there was a Moon of Light in the daytime, and a Moon of Shadow at night.

These days, the world of Sisa is recovering from a great many threats that burdened it with the threat of destruction -- the Void, the Sickness, and the evil sorcerer Leaks. Waiting for the night of the lunar eclipse, the first one in thousands of years, to amplify his magic, and raised the dead all across Sisa to attack the living. A group of friends -- along with their unlikely allies, the Four Devils -- from Ransen, the biggest city in Sisa, managed to vanquish Leaks. In doing so, they lifted the curse on the land, and both the Void and the Sickness disappeared.

But even with the threat of destruction no more, the Ribika cannot yet focus on living out their lives to the fullest. A great many people have been driven mad by the seventeen years of the effects of the Sickness and the Void. And there are still Devils about, feeding upon the souls of those who would be tricked into giving them away. Will those damaged people recover, or will they continue to hurt others? And what about the Devils? What future lies ahead for the cat-people of Sisa?

Ribika

Ribika are the dominant species of Sisa; they are a species of what appear to be cat/human hybrids. There are two types of Ribika -- "small-type" cats and "large-type" cats. The former, small-type cats, have more pointed ears and overall tend to be smaller. There are a great deal more of the small-type cats in Sisa. Large-types tend to have more rounded ears, and tend to be taller and/or more muscular. Small-type cats seem to be based loosely on/around domestic cat breeds, while large-type cats appear to have features based loosely on big cat species.

Touga

This is the word for a warrior. A touga is merely a cat who has the strength, speed, and/or toughness to take down opponents in a physical fight. Some use swords, some use daggers, some are brute-force monsters, others are insane berserkers. This term is only used for a warrior who works with a sanga, however.

Sanga

Some Ribika are born with, or develop, the ability to create "music" that strengthens and aids a touga in battle. The sanga does not actually have to sing or play an instrument, however; rather this music comes from inside of them. Some do play an instrument, some sing... and still others cause themselves grevious injuries with their claws -- whatever the sanga must do to bring out his or her special "song".

The Void

Formerly, parts of the world began to change, as if it was being overlayed by a whole new world... one that did not want sapient life. The signs of the Void having consumed an area are, surprisingly, bright colors. The plants, the animals, even the very ground, all looks bright enough to seem venomous. If a sapient creature touched anything poisoned by the Void, it would violently reject their presence, causing wounds on unprotected flesh as if it had cut them. Gloves and clothing could protect one, because they were not sapient. But the instant any unprotected flesh belonging to a sapient being touched anything tainted by the Void... injuries.

It was discovered that Leaks had made a pact with a powerful Devil, and had offered the whole of Sisa in sacrifice. Leaks's wish? To create a world where there were no complex higher emotions, where only those instinctual thoughts existed. No sapient creature could have existed in Leaks's new world. Since his defeat, the Void has been withdrawing and disappearing; it's only a matter of time before it's gone altogether.

The Sickness

A disturbing magical illness in which body parts would simply disappear. One could be fine upon going to bed and wake up missing the arm from the elbow down. Or be walking down the street and suddenly lose one's balance because one's foot has disappeared. Unlike typical loss of limb, one suffers no "phantom limb" sensations -- the limb is GONE, physically and astrally. Besides this, the Sickness (or "Shikku", as it was called) causes intense pain that can drive a sufferer insane. While it's not uncommon for a sufferer to merely lose one body part to this curse, it's more common still for parts to continue to disappear, until the victim doesn't have enough of his/her body left to sustain his/her life.

Like the Void, it was discovered that the Shikku, too, was an artifact of Leaks's hatred of sapient beings. His wish was that sapient beings would "disappear", and they began to -- a piece at a time. With defeat of Leaks, sufferers of the Shikku who survived found some measure of peace. While the body parts that have disappeared will not return, these poor cats will lose no more of their bodies, and the pain of their condition subsides.

Devils

Devils are once-mortal beings who gave in to a negative emotion in a big way at the point of death. They feed on emotions, and find their nourishment from feeding on either strong sources of the emotion itself... or by consuming the soul of a sapient being that has been taken over by their emotion of choice.