The Penestae
The Story of the Light Horse
Running through the woods on all fours, Tsala devilishly laughs at how good the wind feels flowing under her feathers. Her reverie is broken when she hears her stomach grumble. The noise draws her attention to her starvation. She winces at the pain before her eyes fall upon a creature in the wood.
Her keen eyes make out a horse. Under the pale moon light, it looks pure white, and there are feathered wings wrapped around it. Seeing the wings, Tsala unintentionally twitches her own. The pale horse startles, and it takes to the sky.
Tsala gives chase, cackling at the joy of this hunt, but she is unused to the wings, and falters. Still, the white horse is seeable above the trees, and the wereraven is able to always keep an eye on it. When the horse stops fleeing eastward and instead ascends straight into the sky, Tsala believes she finally has a chance to catch her meal. She flies up after it, but as she sees the orange sky of an early morning sun, she feels the fear descend from her throat to her heart as she begins shedding feathers, a strange wax-like substance sloughing off of her. She begins to fall, and she curses her blindness in the night, but as she once again takes to her moon elf form, the horse catches her. When the two return to the ground, Tsala dismounts the pegasus and thanks it for letting her see the beauty of another sunrise.
The Charioteer, The Aryon, and the Pegasus
The Penestae believe in a tripartite soul represented by the members of a chariot: the Charioteer, the Dark Horse, and the Light Horse. Some Penestae believe this tripartite soul to be metaphysically true whilst others believe that it is a simple analogy to help people understand the deep complexities of people's psychologies. Whatever the case, the Charioteer is an important belief that guides the Free Peoples in their control of Scorc Lycanthropy and resistance against demonic corruption.
The charioteer represents a rational will which is what allows people to make choices and be responsible for their actions. However, no choice is unbiased as all choices are first approached by the two horses which drive the chariot.
One horse that drives the chariot is the Dark Horse, also known as the Aryon. The Aryon connects people to beasts, the planet, and the moon. It drives people to survive and grow. It makes one more worldly and accepting of possible growth, but it can make the actuality of life feel suffocating.
The other horse that drives the chariot is the Light Horse, also known as the Pegasus. The Pegasus connects people to the heartplanes, the stars, and the sun. It drives people to analyze and explore. It makes one more knowledgable about the way things are, but it can blind people to the way things may be.
It is the goal of the Penestae to ensure that people utilize the Charioteer to bring the Aryon and the Pegasus into balance.
Perception
Purpose
In the North, the Penestae are necessary to help those with Scorc Lycanthropy control their Aryon. In the South, the Penestae are necessary to strengthen the Pegasus against the influence of the final call of demonic Night. These are not mutually exclusive, but those in the North deal less with demons and those in the South have a better relationship with Scorc Lycanthropy which requires less work to control.
Social Status
Similar to their different purposes, the status of Penestae in the North and South are different.
In the North, Penestae are seen as a necessary evil. They are seen as having a stronger Aryon, giving them an innate skill at controlling the Aryon. Moon elves, reviled by most in the North, are accepted as long as they serve as Penestae. As such, the Penestae are only a notch above undead thralls in social hierarchies.
In the South, Penestae are an honored profession. They are seen as symbols of wisdom who are capable of identifying and dealing with ethical problems with unmatched precision.
Demographics
Most Penestae are Sun or Moon elves, having a propensity to the Pegasus or the Aryon respectively. It is believed that in order to operate as typical humanoids do, these elves already have to have learned to account for their overactive Pegasi and Aryons. This gives them an innate benefit to serve as excellent guides for typical humanoids.
History
The Penestae developed out of the cultural mixing of the followers of the Olympians and the followers of the Seldarine post-Collision. In the early days, the Penitents were made up of mystics with Scorc Lycanthropy who advised on protections against early demonic incursions into the Greater Scorc'Heim region. The Argos Forest, known to house Pegasi, became a place of meditation from which Penestae across Scorc'Heim would perform great Pilgrimages to seek guidance from the creatures. Some Penestae became warriors, hellbent on capturing demonic nightmares and coaxing battle knowledge and prophecies out of the beasts.
When the Varangians of A'leclich made Scorc'Heim their home, the connection between the Penestae and Scorc Lycanthropy grew beyond the membership of the penitents. The Varangians had lycanthropes of their own, but unlike the revered Penestae, the berserker lycanthropes were a tolerated nuisance. The Penestae helped protect their newfound cousins and integrate them into hybridized Scorc societies or died in Varangian purges reacting to the growing power of lycanthropes.
Following the hybridization, the Penestae's purpose became to deal with the large lycantrhope population and not to use their connection with nature to guide their people. Many moon elf Penestae now have to prove they don't have lycanthropy to ensure they don't have an overly misbalanced soul.
The Unguided and The One-Horsed Chariots
Scorc societies share a belief in the nature of the soul of demons which is derived from the belief in the Chariot Soul model. The demons were created by the gods in much a similar manner to other persons in the world, but they were not given a will to bring the Pegasus and the Aryon into order. There, in the chaotic domain of Chaos and Nix, the strength of the Aryon grew unchecked. The demonic need to consume the world and snuff out its light is caused by this misbalance, but it also means that demons cannot be held responsible for their otherwise despicable actions in the way Scorcs hold devils responsible for theirs. As such, many Scorcs see demons as divine constructs. These divine constructs have a fiery Aryon within them which needs to grow its own flame, guided to the hearts of Scorc'Heim by a corrupted Pegasus.
However, most Scorcs don’t see actual constructs as being built in the same way as demons. Instead, constructs can’t be held accountable for their actions because they only have a Pegasus driving the chariot. Without an Aryon to counterbalance the Pegasus, the constructs can learn all in the world and how to react to them, but they can never learn to create something new.
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