Shamans

Shamans are brethren who live at the intersection of scholarship and adventuring. A love of history unites these loosely coordinated humans and their closest allies. They work to preserve remaining human culture after unknown generations clung to survival in the Broken World. 

A Tradition Outlasting Traditions 

During their world’s slow spiral into chaos, the brethren were a scattered and broken race. As their dying world forgot its natural laws, mortal danger was constant for generations. When people face poverty, danger, and insecurity, their cultural memory gradually fades. Traditions are forgotten when survival is uncertain. So it was with the brethren of the Broken World. 

As others scattered and isolated themselves, a few stubborn humans refused to let desperation steal everything. Eventually, they became the only humans who could navigate the treacherous landscape separating their communities. These early Shamans wandered to discover survivors huddled around whatever old machine enabled them to continue. They brought information from across the remaining world. They brought food and medicine, and taught how to make more whenever they could. And most of all, they brought hope. 

Humanity’s rescue and resettling in the Beast World made the Shamans’ cause even more important. In a new home free of constant mortal danger, the Shamans can focus their effort on retaining human culture and preserving it for future generations. 

Recordkeepers of a Lost Time 

The time between the start of the Broken World’s decay and the Pilgrimage that saved humanity is a mystery. No written record chronicles the initial scattering of humans. The means of creating the technological marvels that litter the Broken World are knowledge that is lost forever. Over time, the cascading crash of magic tore apart human language, and people only identified themselves by their immediate surroundings. The only remaining human traditions centered on the tools they used every day, to wrest survival from the clenched fist of the world’s corpse. 

What does survive is the oral history of that struggle. By gathering the story of how humans found joy and laughter despite their hardship, the Shamans gather something magic can’t conjure: the soul of their people. They go to great lengths to hear as many stories as possible about life in the Broken World. 

Fixing Up History 

Shamans’ second fascination is cataloging and studying the brethren curios. Curios are human possessions carried through the Pilgrimage, as well as objects scavenged from later trips. Shamans are unrivaled experts in deducing what a curio is used for, how to operate it, and how to restore a broken one to working order. 

Many Shamans exchange curios to earn money to travel the world for interviews and artifact cataloging. Large cities have curio museums run by Shamans, where visitors can view objects humans considered precious enough to carry. These museums also sell a few curios to well-meaning collectors who pledge to take good care of them. 

Garments are the most common brethren curios. When they arrived in the Beast World, every human carried the clothes on their back, at least. Shamans have mixed opinions about the celerine species’ love for human clothing and their desire to blend it with Beast World styles. 

Some Shamans are thrilled. They argue there’s no better way to drive interest in preserving human aesthetics than to put them on people’s backs and let culture blend and transform as people will it to do so. 

To others, the practice is a hurtful smothering that threatens to devour what remains of the very cultural memory they fight to preserve. Their fear is that chic celerine styles pull attention from accurate depictions of humanity’s past and toward a crass mockery of irreplaceable treasures. 

The Brethren Holy Grail 

Every Shaman’s greatest desire is to see the Broken World before it earned its name. Writing exists from before the nature-shattering event, and most curios have some text on them. However, Broken World language has proven utterly indecipherable. A ray of hope shot through the Shamans’ hearts when they first learned of the tongues and comprehend languages spells, but dejection soon followed. Attempts to use the spells have always been unsuccessful. The world’s scrambling lashed out at the essence of communication and shattered language itself. 

A dictionary or decipherable written record would be among the grandest revelations in human history. Such a treasure is in the back of every Shaman’s mind when they scavenge in the Broken World. However, the human historians are grateful enough that brethren near-instantly attuned to the magic of the Common tongue and can speak with their beast neighbors. Life goes on. 

Shaman Membership 

Local leadership and word of mouth are the backbone of the Shamans’ organization. There’s no exam to join, and even beasts who show commitment to the cause are invited in. Because of the frequent traveling their work requires, Shaman news is nimble and well-informed. New members who make a worthy discovery are mentioned in the excited chatter of faraway places, so the organization is self-governing and largely horizontal.