May their legend live on...
As far back as the history of the Lupo went, there was a Kühn to record it. They were the history keepers, the ones who tracked and recorded bloodlines. They were priest, shaman, guards, soldiers and their duty was to protect the heart of their people. Without history or any of these roles, the Lupo people had nothing to call their own. They knew the laws and enforced them. They were called to pass judgement when no one could find a solution.
They were trusted. And when it was time for war, they were the only ones who voted to leave their lands to protect the people. Their advice went unheeded and they watched the Faythe slaughter their brothers and sisters. They made a singular sacrifice to protect their knowledge, they walked away from the war. Were the Kühn to die, so too the Lupo people. So they sacrificed their roles in the war to stand in the shadows and record what happened, but let the Clans fight their losing battle. They moved everything they protected far far from the reach of the Faythe and put their hopes on the coming generations as a small system was seeded with life for the day when a leader would choose to leave their birth-land to save their people and fight someday in the future when they had the strength.
When the war eventually ended, the survivors looked to them wanting to know why they let them die. And their answer 'If the guardians of our history die in war, the Lupo's story dies and it's people cease to be' and so they could not fight. Fighting risked everything their people were and what they could be again. The real answer, for no matter what the old Alpha had said they would feel betrayed, was that they had needed every member of the clan to safeguard the treasures of the Lupo. It had taken all their strength alone to see the Faythe didn't get as much as they hungered for. After, the dead needed collecting, rites given and bodies cremated. Every member of the clan since was taught three things. Duty to their Trust, survival by any means and do nothing if what is asked endangers your primary duties. They helped where they could, but more often than not they had to let people die to keep themselves secret. It meant they could trust no one, it meant they could save, no one.
Eventually the name of their clan became a ghost story, thought lost like so many others. The Faythe thought they had taken the heart from the Lupo, but the heart was simply kept in shadow. The Kühn more than any other clan could not lift a hand because if a single one was caught, there was no telling how or when someone would tell their most dire enemy what they knew. If a Kühn faced capture, he was to see that he or she died. To that end they developed a method programmed into the tattoo upon their backs. This would erase their marks and kill them along with corrupting the genetic material behind so that any corpses found could not be tied or traced.
Eventually when all that was left were the dead and a few worthless relics, the duty of the Kühn turned to making sure their dead were laid properly to rest. The clan collected Lupo remains where they could, bones and even a pelt. It was grim work and broke the hearts of many, but they had a singular hope. Live, till the day they could show their people to a home they could rebuild on.
The moon of Islimore is a small place and was the land the long ago king gave to the clan so they could keep themselves apart to fulfill their duty.
In a little inlet by the sea they chose to make their new home. From this point Islimore rises proud and hangs in the air for all the clan to see. It is said this intentional choice was made so that no one within the clan could look to the heavens and forget their duty.
However, when the fighting began and the Lupo people became hunted, the Kühn to a man vanished leaving behind their ancestral home. It is believed the Kühn were the first hunted by the invaders, but without a trail left behind who can say if this is true?
Legend passed from one survivor to the next says that to any Lupo discovered alive, a path to safety will be revealed guided by the Kühn who finds them.
Most believe this legend to simply be a vain hope made up by child's fancy, for no Lupo has seen anyone in this clan for himself. It is even said that the reason this story cannot be proven is because those saved never return to validate the tale and thus this flicker of hope stays lit.
For the Kühn would never abandon their people, this is known...
Name: Mark of the Grand Hunt
Designation: Nanite Technology
Manufacturer/Designer: Clan Kühn, Clan Drage
Availability: Limited to the Kühn family
Year Introduced: 1,000bby
Classification: Tattoo
Features:
Inheritable between those who share the same genetics
Forms a set of predetermined markings visible on the skin
Has a kill command to kill the host
Virtually impossible to replicate in a non-Kühn host.
Advantages:
Aside from simply looking cool for those uneducated to it’s true purpose, the tattoo also lists the members of the bloodline starting from the first and following the male line in the tree. The names change depending on who was the father of the father of the newest member of that individual’s line. So if someone’s uncle shared a father, it passes to the uncle and then his son’s. Now if that uncle had a brother, it would go from father, to that brother to his heir showing slight variations in the heritage line within the mark.
It also switches to show the female Kühn line, albeit given the rarity of females, this list will be shorter. If there is no pure lupo female and the mother was human, the female in question would follow her father’s line and then if she has a daughter, her name would be listed as part of the lupo female line minus the mother’s name replaced with the father instead. Duplication of this tech is incredibly difficult without the permission of both the Kühn and the Drage working together for any dna harvested from a living Kühn is rendered inert as the nanites self destruct upon removal contaminating the sample. It would take far too much resources without their assistance to counterfeit.
Disadvantages:
Kills the host if the implanted trigger is removed.
Description:
It’s a very intricate tribal clan tattoo that features marks of the host’s bloodline and bears the crests of all the clans. Spanning the entire back and parts of the upper arm. Before the development of this technology a paste that inked the skin for ceremonies was used to define the Kühn from other Lupo. With modern tech it can be passed to a fledged successor by either mingling the blood by cutting and pressing a wound together or by adding the nanites themselves via a syringe. The nanites will sample the blood, identify that the host is part of the approved bloodline and the mark will write itself in the skin. The nanties can turn blank and look like skin, if a particular pre-programmed metal is laying against the skin. Meaning, if the host is wearing a ring, earring or necklace that contains a trigger mental, they appear not branded with the mark. Rings and earrings are preferred because they are always in contact snugly with the skin or inserted into it whereas a necklace might hang off or could be easily torn off.
The trigger to release the command is the removal of an implant embedded within the skin. As such, a member of the clan carries hidden on his person at all times a tool designed just for this purpose. The removal of the safety implant triggers a chain reaction in the host that causes corruption of the corpse very like immolation. The reason is to contaminate and corrupt anything that could be used as dna and identification. However, the beginning stages are unpleasant and painful, which is why any Kühn goes out of their way to avoid a situation where this must be used. The tool itself is a pen-like thing that sits over the implant, cuts and pulls out the implant. Small, compact and it too incinerates itself.
There are three main distinctions within the clan. All members of the clan can serve the Lupo people, but within the clan there are three main positions.
This is the ruling bloodline of the entirety of the clan. It is from them that keeps things running smoothly and is made up of immediate family. The Core family also has the added burden of education for those who have had none in those Lupo outside the clan if they have no one in their own clan to provide it.
When new things were discovered the scouts would learn the skills to make it or have whatever it was sent back with the details on how it could be made or grown written down and sent with it.
They would also send money back to the clan to help other scouts fulfill their roles. and to provide for their children
It is said that with the fracture of the people and the legend that rose that it is the scouts of the Kühn that find those Lupo who are lost and guide them to a new land.
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The scouts traditional role was to the males of the clan originally. The young second and third sons who otherwise may not receive things traditionally bestowed to the first born were to spend time outside their homeland.
As with all young things set free the sowing of seed was seen as a gift to the clan and any children that resulted who were burden to their mothers was taken back to the Kühn.
They are the crafters, the merchants, the herders and everything else needed to make a clan thrive. They are the most important member of the clan and in the event the Core family dies due to something dire, they can choose a new family to assume the empty role.