Daruner
The Daruner are a lost people. Pure-blooded Daruner no longer exist. All known survivors carry mixed heritage. Yet their blood remains the single most politically significant substance on the continent. Civilizations were built on it, and those civilizations still run on it today.
Appearance
Section titled “Appearance”Daruner are unmistakable: jet-black skin, white hair, and a luminous geometric mark, most often a diamond or square, that glows on the forehead. This mark is the most reliable visual identifier of Daruner heritage, and it persists across generations in mixed bloodlines, because Daruner blood does not dilute.
The glowing mark is not decorative. It is the visible expression of their polarity: Coalescence made manifest on the body.
Highborn: When an individual carries Daruner blood through a noble house, they are called highborn. The geometric mark may still appear in such individuals despite lighter skin and other lineage traits, marking their status visibly.
The Law of Coalescence
Section titled “The Law of Coalescence”The Daruner lineage polarity is Coalescence: the capacity to seal, bind, condense, and contain.
Daruner Ren is the foundation of the continent’s infrastructure. Sealing spirits. Minting Ren-infused currency. Establishing binding legal oaths. Constructing prison wards. Securing dynastic seals. Every major institution that requires something to hold, to stay bound, to stay sealed, to stay contained, relies on Daruner polarity to function.
In direct confrontation, a Daruner Rennim’s most feared capability is stripping enemies of their own greatest strengths: sealing their polarity, containing their power, removing what makes them dangerous.
Culture & Society
Section titled “Culture & Society”Across almost every people on the Remnant Continent, Daruner blood is understood as a mark of divine right to rule. The Highborn class, those with verifiable Daruner heritage in a noble house, sits at the apex of most political systems. Their blood is not merely respected; it is structurally required to exercise certain forms of authority.
This has made Daruner blood a commodity as much as a birthright. Highborn families track and guard their lineages carefully. Those of verifiable heritage are valuable as political partners, as hostages, and as the only people who can perform certain civic functions.
The Highborn Houses
Section titled “The Highborn Houses”The following houses carry verifiable Daruner heritage, granting them the lineage rights and civic functions that Daruner blood makes possible in their respective political systems.
| House | Affiliation |
|---|---|
| House Lyllynet | Nylvish nobility; the Imperial Family |
| House Ristila | Dosharen nobility; the republic’s foremost council house, drawing legitimacy from deep Yrialin alignment |
| House Oshim | Dosharen nobility; river trade and docks |
| House Dash’rii | Dosharen nobility; Ren research and the Gate of Zerathrain |
| House Adimor | Dosharen nobility; agriculture and forestry |
| House Reshani | Dosharen nobility; harbor tariffs and foreign trade |
| House Diramesh | Dosharen nobility; kerim mining |
| House Tareshin | Dosharen nobility; turim refinement and distribution |
| House Ejarif | Dosharen nobility; mountain passes and overland trade |
| House Majithem | Dosharen nobility; fishing fleets and coastal supply |
| House Shirajen | Dosharen nobility; shipbuilding and naval contracts |
| House Sejathin | Dosharen nobility; Marathat antiquities |
| House Dajimir (the Sand-Swept Princes) | Shejaran nobility |
| House Miniras | Elkyrian nobility |
| House Arisal | Elkyrian nobility |
| House Mithadar | Dreamweaver house |
| House Kitoren | Okoi house |
| House Norjiq | Paledusk nobility |
| House Tados | Dawnplains house |
| House Erdig | Titan house |
| House Cassid | Haqol house |
The Lost Race
Section titled “The Lost Race”Pure-blooded Daruner disappeared some time in the deep past. The true cause is not known, and the theories that circulate vary wildly.
What makes Daruner heritage distinctive is how it behaves in mixed lineages. Daruner blood does not dilute. It balances. A child born to one Daruner parent and one Janim parent is half Daruner, half Janim. If that same individual has a child with a fully Janim partner, the child is still half Daruner and half Janim. The Daruner proportion does not shrink. If they have a child with an Anamor instead, the result is one third each: Anamor, Daruner, Janim.
Daruner blood holds equal standing alongside every other lineage present. It does not recede. This is why the geometric mark persists across generations in Highborn families, and why Highborn genealogists track their lineages with such precision. The blood is always measurably there, in equal proportion to whatever else it shares a body with. It is also this property, more than any other, that makes the existence of the Theridim possible at all.
GM: The Truth of the Daruner
The Marathat were the Daruner. The great civilization whose ruins are now being rediscovered across the continent, with technology that no living people have matched: that was them. This connection is not publicly known. Most scholars theorize that the Haqol were the Marathat (fueled by the presence of Harmony-polarity enchantment in some ruins), but that is false.
The pure-blooded Daruner did not die of war, famine, or plague. Their life forces were consumed by Yndryr, offspring of descended spirits and mortals, to resurrect another Yndryr. In-world knowledge of the true cause is essentially nonexistent.
No Thuim corpses have ever been found in any Marathat ruin. This conspicuous absence is one of the most discussed mysteries among scholars of the ruins, and no prevailing theory accounts for it correctly.