<This is a historical entry for the ramau compendium, compiled from recent historical discoveries; Inaccuracies may be present due to the considerable lack of ancient ramau documentation.>
** The Story of Vanaai, Ediraan & The Raubahn **
Near the edges of the capitol of Raubahn on Amoria stands a large tower-like structure built with white and gold marble stone. It bears the name 'Shrine of Light' and is one of the oldest structures in the city.
The Shrine of Light used to be the home of two female ramau, over 90,000 years ago: Vanaai the Just, and Ediraan the Indomitable. Respectively the first Feyrn in the history of the Ramau and the very first Sunwalker.
Before the time of the Yuun-a, the Ramau race was divided into four different tribes whose names have been lost. For reference, they are addressed by their relative geographical locations: The North, South, East and West.
Vanaai and Ediraan were of the East tribe, the most technologically advanced of the four. The East had settled into small villages across a portion of the desert where they employed powerful magic and simple machinery for their time to create their stone structures and empower their society.
Ediraan was the chieftain's daughter, and Vanaai was a servant who had been raised along with her mistress. They became very close, and eventually took each others as mates -- though their roles as mistress and servant never quite abated during this time.
The other tribes specialized in other things: The Northern tribe consisted of Ramau who were bigger and stronger, but allegedly less intelligent than their southern kin. Their furs were thick, made to withstand the cold of the northern wastelands, a frozen land which only saw the twin suns for one moon out of twelves. They could not survive the heat of the desert unaided.
The Southern tribe and Western tribe were offshoots of the Easterners; the Southerners settled in more suitable oases further to the south and developed into a farming community.
The Western tribe took to the ocean and constructed a city that floated on the water; an artificial island all to themselves. There they lived on fish and sea-based agriculture. They were accomplished sailors and explorers.
The story of their ascension is a long one, supposedly, but only a short summary of the legend has been able to be produced:
When Ediraan's father declared that he wished for all the tribes to be united as one and form the first ramani empire, he was poisoned and killed.
Eager for vengeance, Ediraan took Vanaai with her and chased the poisoner around the world of Amoria. On the way, they were constantly being held up by the troubles of the people that they encountered. Regardless of which tribe and their smaller offshoots that they visited, there were always problems. Large problems that caused a great deal of misery to the Ramau people.
Eventually Ediraan and Vanaai both decided that their people's suffering outweighed their desire for revenge, and they abandoned the chase for a new purpose: righting the many wrongs of the Ramani tribes to make their lives better.
Ediraan was an accomplished warrior already, wielding staffs and the suns' own fire, and she oft served in a guarding and hunting capacity.
Meanwhile Vanaai's prowess as a strategic thinker, her natural charisma and her kind and forgiving demeanor, swiftly elevated her to a leading role in the South where they started their work. Vanaai truly flourished as a leader, and the South soon decided to pledge their allegiance to her. And so Vanaai moved the South to the north-east, where she hoped to merge them with her own.
During this journey, the South tribe stumbled across an ancient ruin from a heretofore unknown fifth tribe, which was later determined to be a precursor to the ramau race. Within those ruins, Vanaai and Ediraan discovered an ancient vessel, far older than any other creation in known history. Light as golden as that of their holy sun emitted from the walls, and the inside of it was littered with all kinds of ancient metal furniture. The vessel's creation seemed almost divine, and then as they reached its apex, it spoke to them.
The vessel introduced itself as The Raubahn (no translation exists) and declared that only the true blood of the god could wake its engines from slumber.
They all tried, Ediraan and every single member of the South tribe. None of them could wake it. But then Vanaai approached the console, and with force and determination, she shouted for the Raubahn to stir. And it did.
The engines began to roar with the power of a thousand leonine cries and the vessel shook powerfully as it burst out of the sand and took to the skies. The front morphed into glass, showing its guests the world which they inhabited for the first time from the eyes of the birds.
A new voice filled their minds, Yuun's voice, and bathed the ramani passengers in warm bliss. Like velvet, it spake that the Raubahn would be their divine instrument with which to unite the ramau people. The vessel would inspire love and faith in all true believeres. But woe be those that would oppose their god, for they would be struck down with misery and despair.
And so Vanaai used the Raubahn to collect the remaining two tribes. Except the North. The Northern tribe rejected their god and the Raubahn's soothing light, turning to their familiar darkness and their false deities.
For this, their god Yuun would strike them down, but Vanaai turned the vessel against the god and declared that they be left alone. That she would refuse them if they were forced into submission, and that they have the right to choose.
And Yuun relented, moved by her heartfelt plea, cementing her title as the Just.
And so the vessel Raubahn carried them back to the eastern lands, where it settled in the sand and would never take off again. Yuun declared Vanaai the first Feyrn of this new empire, which would last a thousand years.
They say that Ediraan never left Vanaai's side, and together they ruled the unified ramau race until Yuun took Vanaai's power and life to pass it to another.
And so began the first cycle of Feyrns and Sunwalkers, which continued for dozens of thousands of years before the modern practices emerged: born at exactly the same time, two babes of equal sex were inexorably linked for life, fated to be together -- ruler and guardian -- until their god passed their lives to the next generation.
And The Raubahn served as home and palace for them all, for all eternity a dormant, silent guardian. A living vessel, around which its charges built a metropolis with its name.
