Hood and Jesses: A History, Viva la Jokoslavia!

Hood and Jesses: A History
By: Gordo
To: Those fool-hardy enough to believe we’re just a club.

Long, long ago, in a small town called Bow, there lived a man and his name was Bob Jozokos. Not many new Mr. Bob, but he knew everyone. His pony-tail and bald patches astounded most, but lived in infamy for others. His zany and otherworldly clothing frightened the women and children, even brought some men to tears [thoughts drift back to the dress]. This was Bob Jozokos to the masses... but to us, he was a legend.

Bob had a dream, and that dream was Hood and Jesses. It started out as a mere play thing… a demented child for a crazy scientist, but through the process of evolution it became... epic. The thought of transforming one’s self into a medieval hero intrigued Mr. Bob, and many of his students at Bow High School, or Castle Jokoslavia for the groupies.

Here will be spun a tale, from the most early of days for Castle Jokoslavia, and its militia of miscreants – doing battle with the most rapacious and incoherent villains the mind of an English teacher and his fantified students can imagine. Stick around, enjoy the show, and remember…

Viva la Jokoslavia!
(Also a small island somewhere in the Nallias Chain)
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This is just a topic where I'll be posting the events of previous years. They'll be long and drawn out -- "Everyone else writes a character bio, Gordo writes a book." - Alena Allegretti --, so bare with me. I'll be posting the chronicles of past years (up to when I first came here and the infamous King Riza and Volpex). Sit back, enjoy, hopefully I'll do a satisfactory job!

P.S. - Feel free to post replies, like if you have any questions or suggestions, or opinions! Please, don't flood the thread. Thanks! Enjoy!

**Fantified = Becoming one of fantastical lore. To become a fantasy.** (I made it up! Live with it!)

XD I have a feeling you're gonna make these funny and enjoyable to read... Jokosalvia.... Hilarity!

Looking foward to it. Y'know, you can also talk to myself or Dave for Hood and Jesses B.G.(Before Gordo). There's some insight on the past years there.

Hundreds of years ago, the greatest territories of both Man, Elf, and Orc waged war against one another. For sole proprietorship over Helgadad, no man's land to most.

Anfangulith of the elves proved a courageous foe, though they smartly picked their battles.

Fangorn and the Orcs within it's domain decimated any force that met them in open combat.

Conascliffe and its Human inhabitants fought valiantly against both Elf and Orc alike, neither seeing a clear end to the war.

Neither side could see a clear victory for them, but each waged war to fight for that clear image of peace and tranquility. A peace wrought in their image, and of their ideals, one that would have no place for the other races.

During the World War, a vampire by the name of Derek Blackheart conquered the middle land, Helgadad. He became a truly fearsome foe with Helgadad as his staging ground.

The three great nations, under the rule of Queen Elenor of Auquitaine (Anfangulith), Raisa of Bordeaux (Conascliffe), and Fork Splinterbone (Fangorn) had made an uneasy peace, at best, in order to destroy the threat that was Derek Blackheart.

The uneasy peace didn't last long after Helgadad became free once again, for either of the three to conquer, and soon became the new battleground. With the political instability of Bordeaux, Volpex's abduction of Raisa's son, and the indecisions on all sides as to what to do with Helgadad, a new war sparked.

Volpex held Raisa's son captive, insisting he had some connection to the ancient Lethani and wanted their power. Raisa, fighting on several different fronts, proved to be a strong and able leader to his armies, but couldn't stand it for long. Volpex killed his son, drinking the blood of the ancient race and drew forth its latent powers to his command.

Here was born a great and terrible man, the Emperor Volpex. Spawned from the blood of the long dead Lethani, he wielded the very power of the great Dragons. From his hand could he loose great fireballs, and walk through the licking flames of war like a demon posessed of one goal - world domination.

The eye of Volpex lives in legend, as the first symbol of the Emperor's great power. Through these eyes, Volpex spawned an army of deadly followers. Their powers similar to his own, but no where near equal magnitude.

The pain of loss filled the soul of Raisa, and a great enemy had he created, so he swore to banish. Back to hell, where such an evil could only reside.

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The territory of Fangorn soon came under the control of Elenor of Auquitaine after the Derek Blackheart incident. Elenor herself was an Orc.

So with Fork and the rest of the Orc nation behind her, Elenor fought more ferociously than before against Raisa and his Kingdom of Bordeaux. It was a long drawn out war, with sporadic battles following a small militia all over the greater continental map.

The war was not easy for either side, though the daunting thought of the Orcs fighting for Elenor truly troubled Raisa, and didn't help his current situation.

His son had been abducted by his trusted prison guard, who was threatening to kill him and the entire world seemed to be bearing down on him. He knew the other side of the world was in the middle of its own war, and any help they might be able to lend was non-existent.

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The men and women of Bordeaux looked up to Raisa as a great leader, even with the dissention in the ranks that ran rampit through his dominion. Raisa was indeed a strong and able leader, but with how much trouble he was encountering, no one was sure how much longer the war would last, for him.

Between Emperor Volpex abducting, killing, then drinking the blood of his son - to Elenor and Fork pressing in on his lands from all sides. Raisa was fighting a losing battle, no matter how you looked at it, except for him. He wasn't about to give up so easily, not just yet.

Soon after drinking the blood of Raisa's son, Emperor Volpex became a great power throughout the land, and all three great rulers could come to an agreeance that he could only be defeated if the three teamed up. At least, that is what they hoped.

The three formed an uneasy alliance yet again, in an attempt to destroy what appeared to be a greater evil than their own hatred for each other. Here, the High Council was born. A group of individuals, including Raisa, Fork, and Elenor, that delegated how they would deal with the rising threat that was Emperor Volpex.

On one fateful eve, the High Council had scheduled to meet, but when they did was when Emperor Volpex struck. The ancient Lethani power granting him the ability to obliterate the spirits of each and every council member on the spot. Fork put up the longest fight, but in the end was laid to rest, unpeacefuly by the words of Emperor Volpex who literaly obliterated their spirits.

With the only threat to his great Empire destroyed, Emperor Volpex was free to continue his domination over the world and even the heroes of that time were forgotten in lore, as simple miscreants trying to mislead a great good, presented as Emperor Volpex.

For years, peace was upon the land, Emperor Volpex ruled with an iron fist and let not a single shred of doubt spread through the hearts of those under his dominion.

Now, is the time of Narr. Narr, the great undead leader. An ancient Lethani, still alive today. Narr was the giver and taker of life, a true Lethani, and despised Emperor Volpex for his boasting of being of the Lethani. Narr despised the Emperor and sought to destroy his land, his power, and him.

A war was waged between the two greatest evils the planet had seen in a long time. There was something different here, there was no Elenor of Auquitaine, Raisa of Bordeaux, Fork of Fangorn. It was two men fighting to prove who's superior to the other.

Emperor Volpex, with the help of his able militia, imprisoned Narr within the confines of a magical, anti-dead barrier that encompassed all of Helgadad. It was no easy feat, and took years to be completed. Emperor Volpex had failed once in this attempt, but finished it later.

The peace didn't last long. Helgadad, a long dead place, the plants never grew, there was no life there, served as a memorium to the war that was waged between the two great men.

Narr, being immortal, was merely trapped by the prison. It was Emperor Volpex's power that kept the barrier up, and when that faultered, so to did the barrier. Emperor Volpex's life had indeed been prolonged by the ancient Lethani blood, but it was not that of Narr's and the fact that he was still mortal plagued him throughout the rest of his life.

When Emperor Volpex's power came to a point where he could no longer sustain the massive magical barrier to keep Narr and his minions at bay, he found himself surrounded by enemies, with no means of escape. It was then, tens of years down the road, that Emperor Volpex met his doom as an old, wrinkled, weak man with no power to stop the tide of destruction that was Narr.

Here is where we see the Barony Wars.

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Volpex was weak, and Narr was close on his tail. Not many could withstand the great force that was the undead army of Narr, but still they tried. Sir Viktor Thunderfist recruited a rag-tag militia to do battle with Narr's forces, and secure the Baronies all over the land. He made mention of the constant battle between Narr and Volpex's forces on the borders of Helgadad, and only appeared to get weary of it as the war progressed.

The militia was in charge of keeping the peace in the land between the baronies, not to have to kill a baron because he was transformed into a vampire and burn down his estate, or pick one of three to fight for in the end.

They fought valiantly and kept the peace, until the news reached them...

Volpex was dead, his army shattered, nothing remained in Helgadad to speak of and Narr's army was finally washing over the land like a great tide of destruction.

The militia was forced into battle on all fronts, until the great threat was ultimately defeated by their combined strength.

Where Volpex had failed so many times before, this group of men and women succeeded and destroyed the great evil that was Narr.

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The peaceful times were short lived however, when three great Barons decided they wanted control and began waging a battle against one another. Each Baron begged and pleaded with the Militia to aid them in the battle, until one went rogue, and the other two joined against him.

The rogue baron's army of expiremental creatures was destroyed. Both creatures that were half-orc, half-insect that could burrow, and those who would burst forth from men and women's chest had been defeated when he was slain.

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Now came the impending darkness. The world came to chaos, and none could stop it. All were enveloped in it, and some revelled in it. It was a time of troubles for the lands and its inhabitants, but for now, their story is done...

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We find ourselves on the world of Athairis. A realm of archapeligo islands. Stretching from Romm to Escarr and across the world to the barren waste, Helgadad.

There isn't much here, a time of peace finally arriving after the great Continental Wars that severed many political ties between islands that once might have welcomed each other's inhabitants with open arms.

The Continental Wars were a long and bloody series of battles fought between the nations of Romm (ruled by a monarchy) and Escarr (ruled by democracy), mostly over the issue of slavery. Romm was in favor, Escarr was against. The war began when the nation of Escarr found that Romm was using the Nallias Chain, a series of small islands under the jurisdiction of Escarr, as a place to transport slaves.

The battles between the two finally ended when The Solarian Guard, an anti-slavery organization founded by Raif Therrin, aided Escarr in a bloody and prolonged battle at the Rommian Capital city. A peace treaty was signed between Romm and Escarr, marking the beginning of a golden age.

Though the world was experiencing an unparalleled age of knowledge and philosophy 200 years running, it was not meant to last. In the small town of Rivera, a group of adventurers were recruited by Atlan Isak to rescue his son Damian from a mysterious assassin known as Bane. Though they were successful in their mission, Atlan was killed by Bane, his last wish that the party not tell his son. The orphaned Damian was in the care of the heroes, for better or for worse.

The party received a note from Bane, inviting them to meet him at Fellwyr, where he gave them a cryptic warning:

"The Wheel is Spinning. Soon it will be unbalanced, and the world will fall."

Eventually, the Party arrived at the Farenkend Library, in search of Raif Therrin (whose long history and deep knowledge might lead to a clue)'s journal, they learned that "the wheel" referred to by Bane was the legendary seven-spoked Wheel of Evil, each "spoke" being a demonic embodiment of one of the seven great evils: Sloth, Greed, Wrath, Gluttony, Lust, Envy and Pride.

Legend said that the Wheel was normally a dormant force, but if it became active, the demons would enter the world of Athairis, taking the bodies of various races as hosts to spread their corruption. But if one were to be destroyed, its power would be evenly distributed amongst the remaining demons. To make the wheel dormant once more, every demon spoke would have to be destroyed.

The party, upon defeating the first demon, the Spoke of Sloth, discovered that the Demon's essence would transform into a runestone, a magical item bound to the soul of the first mortal to touch it.

The Blood Diamond Guild, five devious treasure hunters wielding the Blood Diamonds, ancient artifacts of deadly power, desired the power of the Runestones, and began to harry the party's quest. They battled the party for posession of the Sloth runestone when its first owner died at the hands of Bane, but were unable to take the runestone of Greed.

But fate would drop the Runestone of wrath into their hands. A Kollish barbarian known as Naiilo Goldencloud posessed said stone, and was beginning to grow disillusioned with the other heroes. Corrupt and arrogant, his thoughts turned to betrayal. He sold out the party's secrets to the Blood Diamond Guild. Instead of being welcomed, he was stabbed in the back by the guild. They tore the Runestone from him with the aid of the Blood Diamonds, and left him at the mercy of his former allies.

The Young Damian Isak nearly met his fate after Naiilo's betrayal, wandering off to contemplate life and clear his head. He was attacked by Bandits and cast off a cliff, only to be saved... by Bane. the party was unable to make sense of this, and it left their minds as they focused on their primary task.

The demons of Gluttony and Lust fell next, as the party began to learn more about the history of Raif Therrin from the journal they had recovered at the Library. Finally, the demon of Envy was destroyed. With the last demon unrevealed, it seemed that things were looking up for Athairis.

But Bane had other plans. He arranged for the Heroes to oversee the renewal of the peace treaty between Romm and Escarr, and assasinated the King of Romm and the Escarrian President & senate. Framed for the murders, the party was on the run.

Aid came from an unlikely source: a cleric the party had previously met known as Raif Therrin. He offered to take them to the last Demon Spoke, and told them of how the wheel was unbalanced once before. Finally, Raif brought them to the location, wherein the final Spoke revealed to them his host: Damian Isak. The party was forced to strike down their young friend. Before the final blow was dealt, the spirit of pride rifted away, boosted by the power of the other spokes.

A final confrontation with Bane led to the shocking realization that he was Raif Therrin, the founder of the Solarian Guard. Tempted by Pride the last time they fought, he gave up his quest to destroy the wheel for immortality. But Pride was duplicitous, and placed a part of his own tainted essence in Raif, resulting in the creation of Bane. Raif’s last act of good was to lead the party to Pride. The Blood Diamond Guild then attempted to destroy him, but perished as the diamonds power overwhelmed their minds. After the confrontation, Pride returned and reclaimed the fragment of his essence from Bane. Using his power, he took the runestones from the party and the bodies of the Blood Diamond Guild. He was complete, and poised to throw the world into chaos.

With the tainted essence gone, a rapidly aging Raif transported the party to Pride’s location, where after an epic confrontation, the party emerged victorious, but at the cost of many a dear friend. The world was wounded, and those who would seek to profit from the devastation waited eagerly in the shadows…