Theme:FFAC-1 Odin
ODIN, THE IRON DESOLATION
OVERVIEW
There is no continent as brutal as Odin. The Iron Desolation demands more from its children than any other part of Galianda. It is a harsh, inhospitable land, rich in minerals and poor in fertile soil and farmlands. Scraps of green poke forth from the landscape like a promise to the desperate, and are yanked away by the horrible iron machines that lurch forward like zombies from the metal, ready to destroy the hopeful. The Odynari are a tough, resourceful people who have carved out something resembling a dominion on the edge of this hellish steel wasteland. Generally untrusting of outsiders, they sit in their fortress, the Junkyard, and eke out an existence of moderate comfort in the middle of hell, proving that humes are the most stubborn creatures ever to walk the face of a world.
CLIMATE
Odin is the coldest, hottest, and most desolate of the continents. Even fiery Ifrit cools down to a livable temperature in the eve, and icy Shiva warms up during the hot season. Odin is a land of contrasts - when it is hot, the very surface of the plate burns. When it is cold, the continent sticks to skin, making it hard to simply walk. It is the most brutal landscape imaginable, a binary place that flips between states like a lightswitch. Heatwaves and cold fronts are killers on Odin. In some areas, when Phoenix passes, the landscape can even shift and buckle under thermal stresses, creating upheavals that shatter establishments and tear open spiked, shearing crevasses or create harsh, spiked mountains of metal.
Nothing is more feared than magnetic storms, however. These tornados are equal part wind and lightning, picking up heavy, naturally-occuring metal objects across the plate and flinging them at incredibly high speeds. It is because of the magnetic storms that only the Junkyard has managed to remain established as a city - it sits at the very center of the continent, where the magnetic storms are weakest.
On the edge of the continent is a massive ocean of liquid metal, known as the Iron Oceans, the Mercury Seas, and a number of other menacing colloquialisms. It is a barren and inhospitable place where few are willing to venture.
PEOPLE
The Odynari are warriors born and bred. The First King demands much from his descendants; the blood of Odin flows through their veins, marked upon their very bodies by the metal that grows with them from childhood. They are tougher, stronger, and heavier than any other Hume species, except perhaps the Titanics, out of necessity. They tend towards metallic hair colors, eye colors, and earthy skintones, frequently tan. Some very rare Odynari, known as “inverse”, have pale skin, pale hair, and pale eyes, and a great gift for magic - unfortunately, their metal is laced throughout their musculature, making it all but impossible for them to move easily without tearing themselves to shreds.
The Children of Odin fight a never-ending battle for their right to rule their continent. They stare down the Iron Horrors that pull themselves from the very landscape of the Desolation without blinking, rove out into the continent to gather meager scraps of food and water, and live under an unsteady aegis constant paranoia and familial - and cultural - loyalty. They are taught from an early age how to kill monsters, with softness and compassion in short supply among older Odynari. The more modern - “Spanner” - Odynari are starting to adapt to the Ramuhan cultural norms that spread across the Great Span, but even they understand that compassion and weakness can kill you out in the Desolation.
At the same time, there is nothing more important than the family. To the Odynari, the only people you can truly trust are your own - first the family, then the tribe, then the city, then the world. This brutal pragmatism leads to less competition than one might imagine - in fact, it leads to an understanding among the citizens, and contributes to the stories of Odynar loyalty, as it’s a rare Odynari that will kill a man without survival being on the line. This bizarre form of compassion is the closest thing to love many Odynari are capable of expressing, though that is by no means universal.
THE TRIBES
The Junkyard is made up of countless settled tribes of Odynari. It is a necessity - the City Of Blades was born out of need for a fortress, a place where the Iron Folk could fight against their homeland’s never-ending siege. The Treaty Of The Junkyard was established in the distant days, before the other continents ever had ready contact with Odin, but it holds true without fail even now, in this age. The tribes that founded it remain its rulers, a massive democratic council made up of the elders of each tribe. Odin is the only continent besides Bahamut not to undergo any form of governmental change whatsoever; the Odynari found something that works, and they stick to it.
Odynari culture is equally pragmatic. There’s a strong focus on craftsmanship, especially the building of tools and weapons. Odynari art rarely has only aesthetic value; if it isn’t useful, it’s a waste of resources. Poetry and writing are the most common forms of non-visual art among the Odynari, as a poem takes up nothing but air, and writing can be done on any surface. The walls of the Junkyard, as well as many Odin-forged blades and armors, are covered in the poetic musings of countless people, the stories and the histories of ancient conflicts, and the myths and heroes of ages past. Similarly, dance is extremely popular among the Odynari, especially dance that incorporates martial arts or killing techniques. Dancer is one of the most common subjobs among the Odynari for exactly this reason - it is expressive, it tells a story, and it is excellent exercise.
Odynari place a powerful value on their history. Though their history is mostly one long series of battles, both between each other and the Iron Nightmares, the tales of their ancestors are told even to this day. The Odynari, culturally, know more about their ancestors than any other Hume subspecies, as they supposedly can trace their ancestry back to the tribes that were present at the Chaos War. It is an exceptionally rare Odynari - generally orphans alone - who doesn’t know at least his or her most famous ancestors.
THE MONSTERS
The Odynari share their continent with a scourge more horrible than any other conventional monster type: the Iron Nightmares. These creatures pull themselves together from the metal that makes up the plate, taking bizarre and terrible shapes to assault Odynari for reasons known only to these mindless beasts. Even the dead can become Iron Nightmares, as the metal in Odynari flesh does not die with them. Only the center, the Junkyard, is immune - for reasons known, again, only to these mindless beasts. Iron Nightmares can frequently gain elemental attributes, as well, depending on the location of the other continents when they’re born - reflecting Odin’s primacy over all the gods.
On the flip side, though these creatures are beyond dangerous, they are also beyond profitable. They are made of the finest of metals, the best of materials, and often come in useful shapes easy to hammer into weapons. Nightmare Arms go for incredibly high prices, and the raw materials that make them, in the hands of a fine blacksmith, are said to be able to rival even Ragnarok in their potence.
A popular urban legend claims that, in the Iron Oceans that ring the continent, a massive Iron Nightmare known as "Babil" exists. No one has ever found actual proof of Babil, as the edge of the continent is generally too dangerous to explore; fierce iron sea life swims in these liquid metal oceans, preventing most attempts to journey into it. The fish of the Iron Oceans is a sweet delicacy, however, if one is willing to venture through the hellish wilds of Odin to catch them, then pry metal off their bodies to get to their sweet meats.
