History rewriting-shenanigans.
At the end of the Landcrab Plot campaign, a phenomenon occurred in which memories about Karvi Massiri seemingly were rewritten to differ from the The Landcrab Plot whom stopped him. What follows immediately below is the widely remembered and believed story, whereas what the Newcomers remembered will be listed further down.
Summary
Karvi Massiri is one of the first largely recognised saints honoured in Horiza, now an icon of Sincerity and fighting the urge of Hypocrisy. A Minotaurs prodigy from the Singsong area, he arrived in Friedport as a teen and became ingrained in the city’s Landcrab culture, eventually becoming a spiritual and community leader.
Life
Massiri Family
Content Warning: Physical, familial abuse, implied suicide.
Karvi Massiri was raised in an eastern Mogxan noble house, in a manor not too far outside of Singsong. He had a Minotaurs father and grandfather, and a Kholo mother and sister.
The Massiri family is most known for Karvi’s grandfather, whom was a popularly beloved Knight of the Round. With such responsibilities however he rarely visited the Massiri household, and remained mostly an aspirational symbol. Karvi’s father, son of the famous Knight, had a condition which amongst other things caused his leg muscles to atrophy, preventing him from becoming a warrior like his own father. It is perhaps because of this he put so much pressure on the young Karvi to become a hero. When it became increasingly clear Karvi had inherited this condition, including potentially having a stunted growth as a whole, this pressure turned into denial and abuse. Karvi was scolded for showing signs of having the condition around anyone.
While Karvi was incapable of achieving the physical heroics of his grandfather, he was very much an academic prodigy. His mother, valuing social intellect and intrigue, attempted to have him raised into a sly socialite capable of furthering their goals without physical strength. As she was not much for showing care or teaching herself, she hired a ruthless kholo teacher towards this end. This teacher recognised Karvi’s great intellectual talent, but pushed him to his absolute limit. The perceptive Karvi, having uncovered signs of an affair between his father and the teacher, was once again the target of abuse trying to keep him quiet. The teacher, from a traditional tribal culture, covered this up by pretending she was merely beating Karvi’s left-handedness out of him.
Karvi’s sister and their pet cat were the few bright spots of his life. She was carefree and freer from family pressure than Karvi. While she became quite protective over him, she still did not openly defy their parents - instead getting up to games away from the household’s prying eyes. She greatly adored Karvi’s grandfather, and would idolise him as the two played pretend heroes and villains.
One day, the knight returned home in a casket, dead. The family, distraught enough their main source of income, prestige and purpose had passed without a ready successor, missed Karvi’s sister disappearing from the grounds after this news spread. After eventually beginning a search, based on a last encounter with Karvi, it was believed she went to disappear forever. The young Karvi had lost his bright spot, and knew his life would only become more of a hell from now on.
In an incident that would sink the Massiri family name into shame and obscurity forever, Karvi reached his breaking point. Utilising his prodigal intellect and a tome on the origins of flesh golems in the family study, Karvi broke into the morgue, and, in a matter of speaking - revived his knightly grandfather as a golem or undead creature. Karvi had also cut off his own left arm and right leg. It was to this gruesome image that his family found him and freaked out. Who was responsible for what followed next is uncertain, but all in the Massiri family except Karvi would end up dead, and the manor in flames. At age 13, Karvi Massiri was suspected of killing his family, and, orphaned.
Middle childhood - adoption and espionage
Karvi’s name would not reappear in the records, but he would end up adopted by philanthropic elderly couple in Philosophia - the Meisters. These two, much kinder than any family Karvi had experienced, wanted to give him a new start and a chance to grow up and develop his talents at a reasonable pace. Here, Karvi took on the new name Krynn Meister, and enrolled in the Academie Peripherie. Karvi began writing his thesis about Leylines and Entanglement Stones at the mere age of 14.
Surrounded by intellectuals and well-travelled folks, Karvi began to make connections and friendships with a handful of people well above his age. Discussing a variety of topics about the arcane, leylines, and the great silence, Karvi was very eager to talk at length about anything. This included the lives of his beloved adoptive parents, whom were quite heavily involved in Sanitorium affairs in the background. Little did Karvi know that someone he had spoken to at length was a Crusader spy, utilising the information gained to do further espionage, and, sabotage Sanitorium operations.
When this was eventually revealed after a massacre of sanitationists (also in which high-profile sanitationist agent Chaucer was captured by Crusaders) in what would be known as the Espionage Crisis, an uproar spread across the city. Karvi, put on blast as a spy, saboteur and traitor, was expelled from his academy before finishing his thesis. His name was also connected to that of the Massiris. While the Meisters managed to save Karvi from being imprisoned and prosecuted, they were forced to bid him a final farewell as they sent him into hiding on, on his own, with little but the clothes on him.
Karvi, now 15, made his way to a port town full of refugees he could hide amongst. Here he met Doctor Doctor Hallan Aerf treating the sickly and wounded refugees. Seeing a dead kholo girl on the operating table, a fervour took over Karvi as he used his knowledge of necromancy and golems to once again perform a ‘resurrection.’ The Doctor, impressed by the young prodigy, became acquainted with the teen and invited him on a special voyage across the seas to Horiza. With nowhere else to go without being recognised, he accepted.
Late childhood, becoming a Landcrab
On his voyage from Singsong to Friedport, Karvi suffered malnutrition and Scurvy. As he was found out stealing oranges from the ship supplies by the Iron Brothers, he was beaten into an inch of his life, losing most of his teeth.
Arriving in Friedport bruised and sickly, Karvi was taken into the care of the Theatre Orphanage on the orders of Kiam Lockneed. Here, he would befriend The Prince, Su Na and Etcetera - the former of which would also become an important figure to the Landcrabs. Having began to learn Arcane Spellcasting at last, with the help of Hallan he got his teeth replaced with ones containing arcane glyphs functioning like that of a spellbook. As the orphanage kicked him out as a late teen, Karvi had regained his health and confidence.
Karvi Massiri, now in Friedport.
Becoming more and more engrained in Landcrab culture, at 25 years old Karvi Massiri participated in the trials set out by the Landcrab Patriarchs in order to prepare candidates for Summer Games. After completing them, in what would be remembered as the Viceroy Incident, Massiri was publicly physically beaten by the indignant HGA Viceroy that looked down upon and thought he had outlawed such customs. Coming to his defence, Ragnil Veldaks sunk her teeth into the Viceroy’s neck while he loomed over the fallen over Karvi, killing him in a widely celebrated act of defiance. A statue in remembrance of this incident once briefly sat in Portaupearl, but can now be found in Waterlogg Street.
Following this incident, Karvi became personally acquainted with Ragnil Veldaks, and would frequently visit her manor. Some say it is as if he was adopted under the Veldaks family banner, whereas others believed they were romantically involved during this period.
Spiritual and community leader
Having earned the trust of many Landcrabs, Karvi would go on to take a community leader role, and even delve into being a spiritual leader. While titan-worship was taboo in the city, he formed a sort of religion-philosophy based around secular and saintly principles - much like that of early Landcrab religion centred on the Shrine to New Horizons. Seeking further freedom to express their developing traditions, however, Karvi headed a project to build a secret church underneath the wooden favellas of the city - the Driftwood Church.
As father of the Driftwood Church, Karvi began to push more and more towards ideas of Landcrab rebellion and radical reforms to unseat what he perceived as the lies and hypocrisy of the Horizan Guild running the city.
Karvi was known to keep a journal titled “Hypocrisy,” in which he outlined every example of the titular phenomenon he experienced. Using this book, he categorised and taught about the alluring nature of not being sincere to one’s thoughts and principles, and warned against losing one’s truth. Some few instead saw this as a petty project, listing personal slights and designating people to be exiled from the movement or targeted once the Landcrabs took over.
The Landcrab Plot and Death
Seeking to finalise the brewing Landcrab Rebellion, Karvi participated in the Summer Games. Here, he lost to the The Landcrab Plot, but had still succeeded in inspiring his many followers in the city into finally realising the free landcrab city they’d envisioned. However, during these events, golems attacked en-masse from the depths of The Starfish. After many of the participants of the Summer Games had returned to Friedport to stop these events, including Karvi, he was never found again. Karvi Massiri was declared dead at age 42, and mourned in the aftermath by the Landcrab city, now finally undergoing reforms making the Landcrabs equal citizens to those of the Guild and Portaupearl.
Other Side of the Story - the Scurvymaster
Secrets ahead!
While anyone is free to read what’s ahead, everything else in this article is privileged knowledge only known to a few specific people in the world of Vendrith. Take particular caution to not assume your character knows these things, or avoid it entirely if you’re worried about keeping your own and your characters’ knowledge separate!
In short: the newcomers remembered him for having lead the Landcrab Plot, cooperated with the local Blackout Crusaders officially lead by Hallan, and murdering dozens towards his end of an independent Friedport where lies could no longer be told.****
The first victim was Carlos Valenci, found killed in the Portaupearl Crypts. Another victim which did not die was Develyn Barbie, which he had scoped out as having a suitable arm replacement, which he stole with the help of Doctor Hallan. He was acquainted with Sister Amelie Kenton, which he manipulated and pressured into helping him towards his greater plans. Half a dozen people were killed by him in the Haven Massacre, including Sister Innocent, which he lured away to a murder location under the disguise of being Brother Archangel. Lastly, he also killed a worker named Spit Furst at O’ Captain’s mansion.
Towards this end he had obtained the Vestitur and prepared the local Leylines to essentially cast an enormous spell preventing the telling of lies over the city. This version of Karvi styled himself as “The Scurvymaster.” In the end he was thwarted by the Newcomers, and exiled himself using Entanglement Stones to a Labyrinthine plane.
🎵Theme of the Landcrab Priest 🎵Theme of Pursuit 🎵Theme of Watery Ambush