A History Carved in Bone

     I've mentioned molemen before on this blog, a race of rodent-people coexisting (albeit uneasily) with humans in Descent. This, of course, is not the whole story. The molemen are a people subjugated, enduring endless indignities as they are pressed into a tiny portion of what once was their homeland. There is only one record of the true history of the Ikhatikk (for this is what the molemen call themselves) that is kept with the Bonekeeper. Each passage of Ihkatikk history is carved by the apprentice upon the bones of the former Bonekeeper, kept concealed from all but a very select few. The bones tell ancient stories, those of heroes of the Beneath, explorers of the tunnels and leaders of the people. The bones tell of the lives of the Ikhatikk, collected stories preserved in the mind and body of the Bonekeeper.

    The early centuries of Ikhatikk civilization are a difficult task to compile, as their stories often contradict one another due to the biases of the different tribes. What is known is that there were once tribes of Ikhatikk across the deep caverns, each one with their own culture and myths. However, one thing bound them all together. The murmurings of the Voice in the Dark, that black pulsing soul of the world, the sea of godhood from which all life on Vall stems. In time, as tribes contacted each other and merged, they discovered that the words the Voice spoke could be spoken back to the dark to create miracles.

    These miracles provided the Ikhatikk all they needed, deep tunnels and soft earth, and prosperity reigned. This is not to say that there was a perfect peace, for when any group of people come together there will always be conflict, friction. These disputes were over the old sagas, what version of the truth was indeed true. This was when the practice of the Bonekeeper was created. Nobody would dare carve lies into the bones of someone who had died in search of truth.

    The history of the Ikhatikk spans two millennia, though their measurements of time differ from those used today. What modern Descentians would call "two thousand years," they would call "eight blinks of the Great Eye." It is worth noting that the time between blinks is erratic. The time between the seventh and eighth blinks was "but a few moments," according to the left femur of Bonekeeper Shik'akht. Following the eighth blink, over the span of "half a cave's breath," strange creatures appeared in the caverns. These things had never been seen before, their near-hairless skins a wide variety of colors and shades, their garb strange and their weapons alien. The Tall Ones, as they were known, attacked almost immediately. They saw the Ikhatikk as vermin, a bump in the road towards their new life belowground.

    What followed was a long and bloody war. The Mole War. There are several accounts of this conflict from both sides, all noting three important details. The first, the Ikhatikk were slaughtered, their arcane chants not suited to the quick-and-bloody warfare of the Vespisians. The second, this was the first instance of people returning from death. Both humans and molemen rose, screaming and thrashing, although in some rare cases they returned perfectly sane and cogent. The third, the survivors (less than a hundred thousand out of what once was millions) were subjugated, made to assist in the building of the city of Descent, and crammed into filthy ghettos once it was completed. 

    Seeing even a part of the history of the Ikhatikk, one can start to understand the anger they hold as a people. The popular term for their race, "molemen," is less of a description than it is a pejorative, bordering on a slur. It is not hard to believe, then, that most of them harbor revolutionary sympathies, working hand-in-paw with an underground civilian resistance in an attempt to overthrow the Lord Mayor. To say that the old ways of Ikhatikk culture are dying would be a half-truth: they are being killed. The Descentian Grand Guard (known colloquially as Bluebacks) are engaged in a long and bloody war against the last vestiges of Ikhatikk tradition, seeking to eliminate the Bonekeeper, and in doing so smother the spark of Ikhatikk morale.