Profiles in History: The Sho

The Sho were one of the Heritages who found the portals from Ispar to Dereth and came through them, never to return. They were a beautiful people, with golden skin and almond-shaped eyes, poets and philosophers, skilled in many forms of art. At the beginning of the Golden Age they were already beginning to lose their cultural identity, as they traveled and mingled with other Human Heritages, and in the ten generations the Humans spent in the shelters they intermarried with Aluvians, Gharu'ndim, and Viamontians, and contributed their genes to the healthy hybrid stock that make up the Human race today.

On Ispar the Sho had lived in the extreme southwest of the Great Continent, south of Rouleia; in Dereth they settled in the southeast region of Osteth, where the soil was rich and swampy and good for growing rice. Many of their towns and cities lay along the southern reaches of the Prosper River.

Leaving Aluvian lands south of Rithwic and travelling downriver, you would first encounter the town of Yanshi It had been built around a central square with a huge rock planted in it, associated with the legendary warrior Ben Ten; but Yanshi was destroyed by Gaerlan, leaving only the streets, the rock, and a portal into very dangerous places, and the townspeople relocated in tents north of town. Continuing downstream, you would find the river waters dispersing into the great Blackmire Swamp and the marshes surrounding the town of Sawato; the ruins of this town have disappeared altogether, being replaced by the Catacombs and later the Lake of Artefon. Below Sawato the river waters came together again and flowed southeastward to Shoushi. Not far downstream from Shoushi today, the lands of Osteth break off; the rest of the Sho lands are in Omishan.

Below Shoushi the river turned further eastward and flowed into the sea between Hebian-To, the capital of the Sho Heritage, on its southern bank and the deserted Fort Aimaru to the north. East of the river mouth the land curved up sharply into the Tou-Tou peninsula, even as it does today. At the very tip, north of the town of Tou-Tou with its luxurious bathhouses, an old Empyrean lighthouse stood casting mysterious energies out to sea.

Southwest of Hebian-To lay many ranges of green hills and a few high-peaked mountains. Well to the west and a little to the south of Hebian-To lay Baishi, at the foot of Mount Everwhite; further south of the capital the little towns of Lin and Nanto lay hidden in the hills. Southernmost, in a valley near the sea, lay Mayoi, best known for the tower of the mage Shoyanen Kenchu that stood on the bluffs above town. South and east of Mayoi, the land has been riven again, tearing away the Linvak Ranges (which now form the central craton of Linvak Massif) and the high mountain settlement of Kara, of which nothing remains, unless it be the East Oriad Outpost.

During the Golden Age, many Tonk of the reunited Shi xuta migrated southward from Palenqual and settled in the Sho lands, which they also found attractive. The Shi Tonk and the Sho Humans lived together peaceably until the Cataclysm, and the ruins of many of their towns show clearly the ground-built Human houses intermingled with the high platforms and treehouses of the Tonk.

Of late, a resurgent interest in Sho Lore has led adventurers to the newly repopulated town of Zu, where you may begin a series of quests that will lead you through many of the ruined Sho towns.

High in a tree on the southern border of Zu you will find Shi Seunawa, who will send you to investigate the ruins of Hebian-To, further to the south and west. Hebian-To, as I have said, was the capital of the Sho Heritage and was noted for its great Library in which many volumes of Sho Lore were on display and others were available for sale. Here one could read tales of the great warrior Koji, child of humble parents, who because of her virtues was given a sword, a Tachi, of exceptional excellence. Here also one could read the philosophy of Jojii, the philosopher-monk who promulgated the doctrine of the Four Stones.

Since the Hebian-To quest is simplicity itself--go there, talk to a ghost, find a Rusty Sword Blade, bring it back to Shi Seunawa--I will tell you instead a little of the Jojiist philosophy. Of old the Sho people had venerated three qualities and the three mystical beings that embodied them, the Three Elders: the Unicorn of Grace, the Firebird of Splendor, and the Dragon of Power. Jojii, however, had a vision in which he saw four Stones: "I saw in a vision myself standing in the middle of a square, with four stones at each corner. Ahead of me stood a stone called Humility. To my right stood a stone named Discipline. To my left stood a stone named Detachment. Behind me stood a stone called Compassion. I knew then that Humility must always be before me; that Discipline was my weapon to cleave through all foes and vices, and that Detachment was my shield against all hurts and sufferings. And ever supporting me and following me was Compassion, which should be the only footprint that I should leave behind in life."

The Stone of Discipline came to be associated with the Dragon of Power, for discipline is that which breeds power. The Stone of Detachment is the Stone of the Firebird of Splendor, for splendor is that which soars above the cares of the world. The Stone of Compassion is the Stone of the Unicorn of Grace, for compassion is the highest of the invisible graces. The Stone of Humility was sometimes called the stone of Man, since it is through humility that Mankind grows. But the Jojiists insisted that all four of the Stones were for Mankind, since only by proper adherence to their qualities could Humans achieve Paradise.

When you have brought the Blade back to Shi Seunawa, he will direct you to Shi Burigawa, outside his hut on the hillside, who will send you to the Ruins of Lin. There you will meet a spirit who will mention both Koji and Jojii, and send you to slay some Nefane. When you have done it, she praises you for your Discipline and directs you to an item she calls Koji's Wheel.

Koji was the daughter of a humble man and wife who tended a shrine of Jojii in the Sho-lands back on Ispar. They were so poor that they could not afford a real sword for her, so she practiced with a wooden tachi. On her way to tend the shrine one day she was attacked by a cunning serpent-demon that splintered her wooden sword to fragments, but in its place appeared a tachi of surpassing quality, with which she easily cut the serpent in two. She offered it to the shrine, but the statue of Jojii told her to keep it. Koji went on to many other adventures, in which her adherence to the Four Stones granted her power, splendor, and grace.

After you have shown him Koji's Wheel, Shi Burigawa will direct you on to Shi Lezawa, on the road south of town, who will send you to the Ruins of Baishi. The spirit there tells you of a monk who centuries before had come from Hebian-To to Baishi and given one of the inhabitants a key, a gift from Ben Ten.

Now, Ben Ten was one of the first of the Sho people to come from Ispar to Dereth: a mysterious figure, a hooded sword-warrior; for a long time no one even knew whether Ben Ten was a man or a woman, until one day Asheron himself happened to refer to her as "she". Ben Ten was said to have been associated with the rock that stood in the town square of Yanshi; during a terrible attack by Hea Tumeroks she stood atop the rock and fought them so valiantly that most of the townsfolk were saved. Rumor had it that one who had seen her had recognized her tachi as the legendary weapon of Koji herself. Any artifact belonging to this renowned figure must be of considerable antiquity and value; and so you go into the nearby basement and retrieve the key.

When you have shown the key to Shi Lezawa, he directs you to Shi Ehrietawa, the old warrior in charge of Zu's defenses. He tells you that there are two pieces of Ben Ten's Tachi yet to achieve, and that you must seek one in the ruins of Yanshi, which now lie beneath the Burun town of Blackmire.

You look at the map and tremble: Yanshi was near the Blackmire Swamps, yes; but it stood upstream of Sawato (now Artefon) and Shoushi. But now its ruins lie downstream from them, along the sundered Prosper in Omishan, and you envision dimly how terribly the lands of Dereth were rent and scattered during the Cataclysm. But you go there; and you slay the disgusting Burun High Shaman and take from his treasure chest a piece of ancient jade.

You show the Aged Jade to Shi Ehrietawa, and now he sends you--as soon as you feel up to it--to the ruined Empyrean Lighthouse north of Tou-Tou, which is the town of Zu itself. You climb its dizzying heights to the place where in ancient days a small chamber stood, full of magical energies, long gone now. But some more of the crumbled rock has fallen away from the spire and you find revealed a door that opens onto a long flight of steps that descends deep into the earth. At the bottom you slay a Slithis and its impudent Spawn, and bring back an old Broken Arrow.

Now you have all the parts, and Shi Ehrietawa gives you a book that tells you how Ben Ten, as she lay dying, disassembled Koji's Tachi and distributed the parts across the Sho lands, where they could be used for other purposes. For, she said, the Sho were assimilating to the other Heritages, and the ways of Jojii and the stories of Koji were forgotten, and the spirits were departing from the land: but one day they would return.

Now you know how to reassemble the Tachi: the rust falls from the blade under your hands; the arrow is the tang of the blade; the wheel is its platinum hand-guard; the jade its pommel; the key hangs from it like a tassel. It lies in your hand, light as a feather, lively as a dancer, full of ancient power. Go and slay evil things with it; honor the ancestral spirits; remember the Sho.