Bone Lord

the Voices of Man

Bone lord was a title of the leaders of the Neo Noch culture during the Randagri Period. A culture of mask wearers, the bone lords wore masks carved out of bone. By the end of this culture these would be made of full skulls. The bones used were usually Lizardfolk or Dragon, but archologist have found Human skull masks in some surviving Neo Noch ruins.

Beginning as priests of the culture's cult of ancestor worship the bone lords eventually evolved into leaders of their community. While often thought to be a title for one leader, due to few surviving, and often vague, records, as well as what it later evolved into, we known that the early bone lord titles were granting to every priest of the faith. Ancient texts suggest there were twenty priests at any given time to reflect the ancient Council of Man myths.

Some evidence suggests the bone lords discovered that the ancient ruins of Noch, that their city of Resh Noch was built upon, was a Shadowfell. A place in the world where the vail between Aldern and Beyond Aldern was weak. Through this, it is suggested, they began communication with the Nod Noch Nine. This shifted their cult away from ancestor worship, into worship of the "Old Ilu(god)".

It is common doctrine among the faithful of the Pantheon of Nine that the bone lord leadership had foreknowledge of the Gilgurth impact. How is lost to history, though the cult often claims Tyre, or one of the other Nine, told them of the coming event. There is some strong evidence of this, in that a powerful ritual was created pre-impact to channel the energy from the blast wave into Etu Enur to Kur, using the Shadowfell of Resh Noch and a channel. This ritual was an attempt to shatter the prison, freeing the Nine.

While the ritual ultimately failed, it did give the Nine some access to the material world despite being still bound in Kur. The ritual itself brought the death of the bone lords and most of the cult, which the exception of a single bone lord whose corpse was possessed by Tyre spirit, with the aid of Elilli. Tyre held control of this rotting corpse for much of the Randeris Period. Through this body, Tyre work to establish the foundations that would become the Pantheon of Nine. Tyres possession of the last bone lord was also the reason for early scholars believing there to be only one such leader in history. This bone lord is believed to be the first known Avatar in the world.

On the rare occasions Tyre takes an avatar he calls himself the Bone Lord. A way to inspire fear and awe into his followers and enemies. He achieves this avatar through the use of the Bone Lord Mask. An artifact created to channel his spirit into a body.