Savages of the Sacred Salvage
There are two lines of thinking about the God Maze. You've heard it said that the Bright Gods directed the first, extraordinarily clever humans in building it for them, for their own purposes. And you've heard it said also that it was built by the ancient humans directing the magic of the Bright Gods as they descended into madness. Either way, it's clear it wasn't made for any normal humans to inhabit. Narrow passages twist this way and that between towers sailing up to the sky, with the wind wailing eerily between then. Some are crumbling and broken with grasses and trees growing both inside and outside, while some are still white and shining within and covered in pristine crystal panes that reflect the starlight. There are walls everywhere, and metal fences running crazily, and stairs plunging suddenly down.
It's true the shelter provided can be valuable, and this is why most of the major tribal territories are set up within the outskirts of the God Maze. Your people might occasionally modify what they find, such as clearing a collapsed ruin to build a goat enclosure as the then Chief did once when you were a girl, but the sheer scale of the structures is intimidating, and you all adapt to them or work around them more than anything. Not too difficult on the outskirts, but except for certain specific routes the interior is rarely traveled except by messengers, pilgrims to the various Bright Gods within, and the hunters of the birds and other small game that have taken up residence among the strange architecture. And of course, Oath takers, because there's never any telling what those idiots will do.
You make your way along a route you dimly remember from your youth, towards a kind of ceremonial meeting place used by several tribes, a plain of cracked stone leading to the temple that houses many Bright Gods.
Once you encounter a demon locust, hungrily dismantling a small, insignificant god and stuffing the pieces in its belly. These are the gods that are vaguely shaped like men, and there used to be hundreds of them around before a kind of locust came that was intent on eating them. You haven't seen any in a long time, actually; this one must have survived so long due to being half hidden in such an out of the way place.
Later, you stop to get a drink from a cracked fountain in an overgrown plaza, and have just started sizing up a wall for the best way to get over or around it when you hear voices nearby. You start to greet them, but before your announce your presence, something stops you. Whoever it is, they're speaking in a quiet and furtive manner, and moving stealthily. Something just feels a bit off here. Stepping out of sight behind some tall shrubs, you wait and watch as an unfamiliar man appears, warily scouting the area before gesturing to others. There are eight and all, each carrying a weapon, and they take turns drinking from the same fountain you were just at, always with the others standing guard.
There are no tribes at war with each other, and no one travels the God Maze with such carefulness, unless they themselves are up to no good.
They've started talking among themselves now, and you creep closer to listen in.
"Remember, turn the goats loose first and scatter them. It'll be dark, they'll not notice a few extra people moving around when they're all running around to gather them, and we strike the Chief's household then. By the time they realize, it will be too late, and we'll be moving on to the next tribe before any news can get out. We should be able to hit both in this area tonight."
Your heart is pounding and for a moment you remain paralyzed in your hiding spot as the words sink in. The men's accents are strange and you don't recognize anything about them to indicate they're from any particular tribe. They must be the kind of murdering outlaws you never thought existed outside of stories. As they speak more, you realize they intend to go to your tribe first, and then to the nearest neighbor's.
It's true the shelter provided can be valuable, and this is why most of the major tribal territories are set up within the outskirts of the God Maze. Your people might occasionally modify what they find, such as clearing a collapsed ruin to build a goat enclosure as the then Chief did once when you were a girl, but the sheer scale of the structures is intimidating, and you all adapt to them or work around them more than anything. Not too difficult on the outskirts, but except for certain specific routes the interior is rarely traveled except by messengers, pilgrims to the various Bright Gods within, and the hunters of the birds and other small game that have taken up residence among the strange architecture. And of course, Oath takers, because there's never any telling what those idiots will do.
You make your way along a route you dimly remember from your youth, towards a kind of ceremonial meeting place used by several tribes, a plain of cracked stone leading to the temple that houses many Bright Gods.
Once you encounter a demon locust, hungrily dismantling a small, insignificant god and stuffing the pieces in its belly. These are the gods that are vaguely shaped like men, and there used to be hundreds of them around before a kind of locust came that was intent on eating them. You haven't seen any in a long time, actually; this one must have survived so long due to being half hidden in such an out of the way place.
Later, you stop to get a drink from a cracked fountain in an overgrown plaza, and have just started sizing up a wall for the best way to get over or around it when you hear voices nearby. You start to greet them, but before your announce your presence, something stops you. Whoever it is, they're speaking in a quiet and furtive manner, and moving stealthily. Something just feels a bit off here. Stepping out of sight behind some tall shrubs, you wait and watch as an unfamiliar man appears, warily scouting the area before gesturing to others. There are eight and all, each carrying a weapon, and they take turns drinking from the same fountain you were just at, always with the others standing guard.
There are no tribes at war with each other, and no one travels the God Maze with such carefulness, unless they themselves are up to no good.
They've started talking among themselves now, and you creep closer to listen in.
"Remember, turn the goats loose first and scatter them. It'll be dark, they'll not notice a few extra people moving around when they're all running around to gather them, and we strike the Chief's household then. By the time they realize, it will be too late, and we'll be moving on to the next tribe before any news can get out. We should be able to hit both in this area tonight."
Your heart is pounding and for a moment you remain paralyzed in your hiding spot as the words sink in. The men's accents are strange and you don't recognize anything about them to indicate they're from any particular tribe. They must be the kind of murdering outlaws you never thought existed outside of stories. As they speak more, you realize they intend to go to your tribe first, and then to the nearest neighbor's.