Regarding the worldbuilding for Rayan, several things came together. This matriarchy of Gardyan is inspired by gothic aesthetics as well as the autumnal beauty of nature. Rayan’s national plant therefore could only be a red maple. Its national animals are the dragon and the fox. Its ruling family is House Arayona, with the fox clan of Sion being an autonomous force in nations’s south-west.
Rayan
Rayan is the northern matriarchy of Gardyan. Its flora excels in capturing all of autumn’s lovely colours. But one of those certainly excels all others. Crimson. From the burning leaves of the country’s blood maples and blood castor to the sanguine flowers of dragon salvia, red geranium, copper roses, bleeding heather and aromatic nose-tweakers, red certainly is Rayan’s main colour.
Embedded into the Red Forest and surrounded by massive mountain chains, many locations of the realm are enchanted by a mysterious blood mist. ‘Tis the divine aura of Rayan’s mother deity Arayona, the maple goddess. Her children, the Rayonaigh have inhabited the land for millennia and rule over it as is their birthright.
Exceptionally skilled swordsmen of the country’s warrior caste known as Raji’Draq defend the maple throne with steel and iron fist. Truly, a martial folk per se, driven by the animalis of the blood fox, blood dragon and blood raven. Every Rayonaigh feels the feral impulse in their genetic makeup when the blood moon rises during fall each year.
Many a young man then succumbs to frenzy, leaving no doubts about their primordial yet sacred origin. It is reflected in every ruby tree and shrub native to the Red Forest—Arayona’s wild and fierce ancestry. Even the dragons living in the Ray Mountains carry parts of the magical bloodline that once created the people of Rayan.
A fringe group of Rayan’s population are the Sionnaigh. Located in the matriarchy’s South-West, their Fox Clan rules over the forest of Red Branch. As a ranger society by default, their lifestyle greatly differs from the aristocratic structures in Rayan’s capital Rubinburgh. Moreover, is it their exceptional knowledge of animals that provides war dragons to the Raji’Draq’s military forces. Only at Dragon Peak’s, the Sionnaigh’s clan fortress, are those magnificent beasts nursed and trained. Another tradition that adds to the complex dynamics of Rayan’s great houses.
Characters
The history of Rayan is a troubled one… While its origins were untainted by dark forces, some decisions made by the nation’s mother diety, the Maple Goddess Arayona, turned out to have had a negative impact on the Red Forest.
Many suggest that her creation of the Rayonaigh was flawed from the very beginning. Her first children having been stillborn, several historians take it as an omen that Rayan’s population should’ve never existed in the first place.
Others insist that the dark challenges for Arayona’s creation were a trial of strength and willpower in order for the Rayonaigh to become Gardyan’s most feared and dangerous protectors.
The truth, as so often, might lie somewhere in between. Many from the southern borders would argue that the most lethal protectors of Gardyan aren’t of Rayan descent at all but come from its sister matriarchy Nemesava. It cannot be denied either that the Maple Goddess seems to at least have underestimated the conflicting potential within her creation.
However, Gardyan’s matriarchy of the north has also proven repeatedly that in times of need, they will defend their mother’s forest and even their allies to the blood. None shall ever claim Rayan’s people to lack a sense of honour and loyalty once they’ve affiliated themselves with a cause. They certainly would convince every critic of it, by a blade to the neck if necessary.
