The Settlement: Information and Summary thread

[Reenk Roink]

How the sea creature's attack led to societal reforms and the revolutionary plot





For much of the trip on the calm sea it was busy yet uneventful for the priest king Reenk Roink. He shuttered himself inside his dimly lit office most days, making plans for the settlement he would lead when the ship reached land. The problems he faced were many and the solutions to them were obscure, but what kept Reenk Roink going was the high esteem in which he held his followers, the settlers. Though he had very little interaction with them, his first impressions of them gave the priest king lofty thoughts of their quality which made him optimistic about the future. Reenk Roink did not pay too much attention to the increasing complaints about them from his Bronze Companions...

After almost a month of peaceful sailing, the ship was violently jarred one night. Everyone on board rushed to the stern to find a large sea creature attached to the hull! The Bronze Companions immediately drew their swords and hacked away at the monster’s tentacles, while most of the settlers fled in cowardice. In their stampede away from the stern, one man even knocked over a drowsy and confused Reenk Roink. This was the start of the rapid loss of respect that the priest king had for the settlers.

After a short but intense period of fighting, the swords of the Bronze Companions had done enough damage to force the sea creature to release its grasp and retreat to the murky sea. It was after this that everyone saw what had attracted the beast. A slightly gnawed corpse hung from a rope on the stern.

Reenk Roink had the body pulled back up on deck and as soon as this was done a wailing woman threw herself on the corpse, her sorrow overpowering her aversion to the ghastly sight and horrid stench. A well groomed man who pushed himself through the Bronze Companions explained to the priest king that the dead man was one of his slaves, his grief coming from the fact that he had lost property rather than over the loss of a life.

The well groomed man callously shoved aside the weeping women, now identified to be the dead slave’s wife, and knelt over to scrutinize the corpse. After several moments of searching for something, he suddenly got up and, with a disgusted look on his face, spit on the dead slave’s wife, exclaiming: “You will have to pay for the bag of coins I gave him!”

The priest king Reenk Roink got very angry at this display and immediately confronted the well groomed man: “How dare you treat even a slave like this? I will not tolerate this as your ruler!”

The well groomed man however seemed unrepentant for his action and instead snapped back at Reenk Roink: “Who do you think you are? Small, petty king! I served real kings before. Kings who had men like you eat from the scraps that fell from the side of their table. You would be unfit to take my slaves’ daughters’ hands in marriage!”

At this affront, the priest king pulled out his sword and struck the well groomed man across his face with the flat side, sending him whimpering to the ground. The crowd that had already gathered around the argument became outraged, but not at the well groomed man for his cruelty or insolence. Rather they began shouting at their priest king: “Brutal Tyrant! Brutal Tyrant!”

Reenk Roink signaled to his Bronze Companions to put down the rebellious settlers, using force if necessary. However, one of the Bronze Companions leaned over to the priest king and whispered: “Perhaps we should consider indulging them. After all, times have changed and the masses are less obedient to the gods much less the priest kings. These are people you have no bond with; their loyalty will be weak and their treachery will be dangerous.”

Heeding the sound advice of his trusted friend, Reenk Roink turned to the chanting mob and attempted to appease them: “Please settlers. I am indeed as much a servant to you as you are to me. However, for a society to function, there needs to be order, and I am the keeper of that order as chosen by the gods!”

One well dressed man from the mob spoke up: “No priest king! Despotism is the reason we are forced to leave our homeland in the first place. You must ensure that the rich among the settlers, being the best in education, temperament, and odor, have a decided influence pertaining to all matters of government. We demand representation!”

Cries of support from the well dressed people of the mob were heard.

Another man, who only wore ordinary clothes, and whose fingers were blackened with dirt despite being away from land for a month interjected: “We also demand equal representation!”

While this drew cheers from a large portion of the mob, the well dressed people were angered at the thought of being seen as equals with those who were just ordinarily dressed. Soon a bitter argument emerged.

An old man wearing clean, elegant, though unextravagant clothes spoke up in a conciliatory tone: “Please my sons, we are all small under the gods, and we all should have a voice. At the same time, there are those among us whom the gods have favored more than others, and they should be given a degree of superiority, as is their right according to our traditional ways."

Such an eloquent appeal brought tears to Reenk Roink’s eyes, but the sentiments of the priest king were not shared by the two groups, who both rushed to beat the old man, and in doing so, began to beat each other.

Soon women and slaves and even children spoke up, demanding representation, and at this, both parties could finally find a common ground: “Never!”

Seeing this agreement, the priest king Reenk Roink quickly had his Bronze Companions to separate the mob and spoke: “It will be done as the old man has said. The good men among you will have the voice of two men among you who will also have a voice. This is what I have decided, and it will not be overturned!”

With this the priest king was about to storm off, the grand opinion of his people broken forever in his mind, when he noticed that the corpse of the dead slave was gone, and a pendant lay in its place! Examining this pendant, Reenk Roink noticed that it bore the symbol of Vode, the god of wars and foreign peoples. The priest king did not know what to make of this omen as the ship sailed on...

Good Men:

GeneralHankerchief
seireikhaan
Captain Blackadder
Gaius Scribonius Curio
Beefy187
TheFlax
Jolt
Yoyoma1910
Tristan de Castelreng

Men:

Sasaki Kojiro
taka
White_eyes:D
Lord Winter
Psychonaut
CountArach
FactionHeir
Andres
boudica
TinCow
Ichigo
pevergreen
Sigurd
shlin28
777Ares777
Askthepizzaguy
LittleGrizzly
Seamus Fermanagh