Worldbreakers

A dangerous class of powerful and solitary Emetian warriors, Worldbreakers are an exclusively male group over 19 years old who could not be tied down by any Emetian women, and are instead ostracized from society, convinced the world itself is against them, and forced to roam the Uncharted Desert, raiding settlements to survive.  

Unsettled Warriors

Halfway through their 19th year, Emetian males are sent away from their homes as part of a ritual known as Ⱬzha Ⱬzhösha. Before this ritual, they spend most of their early years learning how to fight and training their strength with their parents. All of this is for one reason: they are to fend for themselves in the Uncharted Desert soon enough, and their fighting skills will help them survive there until they find a new home and someone to settle down with.   Once they leave home, they roam the desert and go to other Emetian villages in search of a mate. These roaming young males fight the single females who are of age in these villages, and when one of the women defeats them, that woman becomes their wife and the male settles down in that town. This act anchors the male to their village, deciding who his mate is by showing that there is at least one woman in that town capable of providing for and defending his family just as much as he is. In fact, it is seen as better for Emetian women to be stronger and more capable of this, as the matriarchs run the society and keep their villages culture intact (as can be seen by the fact that the women remain behind in Ⱬzha Ⱬzhösha while the men leave).  

Exceptions to Every Rule

There are exceptions to anything, of course. Not all men can be defeated by the women of a village, and if that is the case they move on to the next. The males are meant to fight with all their might, anything less is a slight against the women of the village and themselves If their success in combat, but failure to secure a mate, continues for three or more villages, the male is given the title of "Worldbreaker".   Word of them then spreads faster than their feet can carry them, and all villages are warned of the coming danger. These men will not be defeated, and they will only endanger the villages they travel to. They must be turned away at all costs or else. Thus, the Worldbreakers are ostracized from Emetian society, and often even not allowed in outside settlements as well (if they can even make it that far on their own).   Worldbreakers are Emetians who are unable to find a spouse, too strong to settle down and provide for a village, they are forced to roam the Uncharted Desert instead, where they fend for themselves. They are a threat to all, considered a foe to every man, woman, and child alive, and are often the most dangerous people in the desert (if not all of Eastern Elone).   The name Worldbreaker comes from the Emetian idea that the family as they've defined it (an equal partnership where the wife is at least equal in strength, if not stronger, than the husband) is the center of the world itself. Marriage upholds the world. Any threat to this idea is a threat to the world, and Worldbreakers exist as an existential danger to the Emetian concept of family. They are kept away from villages because they may kill the women, but more than that they may convince all the young folk in Emetian society that their family values are not worth as much as they believe they are. Thus, Worldbreakers must be kept out and killed before they can spread such dangerous ideology. There can be no future for Emetians if they have too many Worldbreakers and not enough fathers.   Homosexual Emetians are also considered Worldbreakers, as they intend to break the cultural norms as well. If they are not Worldbreakers, they are in loveless marriages to disguise their true feelings, and this idea has been called in some cases "Corebreakers" because, while they don't attack the world in view of all of society, they strike at its core still by taking the heart out of Emetian marriage.   Some Emetians have tried solving the problem by marrying foreigners, but the issue with this is that most Emetian villages are deep in the Uncharted Desert, where one must survive a long journey to meet what few Gnomes, Humans, Draconians, or Ophidians may live closest to their settlement. Beyond that, it still makes them a Worldbreaker, as they are not furthering Emetian society in any way, just abandoning it. Worldbreakers are not just outcasts in the desert, but are feared the world over.   Any attempt to reform Emetian society to bring Worldbreakers back in (be that heterosexual, homosexual , or any other form of Worldbreaker) has been met with immense backlash and has never made it very far. Worldbreakers are considered a necessary evil for the prosperity of their people, and they often die out anyway without causing too much havoc. But when they are alive, they are unstoppable and unfathomably dangerous.  

The First Worldbreaker

A man named Vankelot once set out for his Ⱬzha Ⱬzhösha, or so the legend goes, and it says as well that he was the first to find no challenge in any village he entered. Uncontested after hundreds of battles, he had gotten so strong that he was no longer just defeating them, but also killing them in the process (though accounts can never agree on whether this was intentional on his part or not).   After the fifth village he had entered and conquered in battle, the elders residing there began notifying other Emetian settlements of his coming, warning them to turn him away or repel him by force if needed.   One elder is said to have warned:

"If this man's rampage continues, there will not be a world left, for he will destroy it all. The Ⱬzha Ⱬzhösha is sacred, but this man is Hell incarnate, and we do not take kindly to fires that burn down what we have built for generations."

This is the first use of the term Worldbreaker, though it wasn't said outright and wouldn't be coined for another few generations. Nevertheless, the excuse that later became a title of shame was used to turn Vankelot away at every settlement.   In the first village where this occured, Vankelot took it as a minor slight. It was only as this kept repeating over and over again that madness began setting in. Seeking vengenace, he returned to the villages that turned him away, destroying them entirely. It was not just the women he attacked in his fury, but all residents, and anyone else whose path crossed his. He retraced his steps through even the villages he'd been accepted into on his journey, and even returned back to his home village.   Sadly for Vankelot, Detser Gnome mercenaries waited at his home, and dispatched him with great effort. Exhausted, the first Worldbreaker could do little more than put up one final fight before he died. He lives on as a legend and a title passed on to all Emetians following his destructive precedent.