Old Ornian culture

The Old Ornians were a culture derived from the K'Shaali culture. They fell shortly after the Ordering. Most of what is known of Old Orn comes from contemporary sources that have survived to be found in ruins, be they on the continent, or on extraplanar enclaves whos connections could be reestablished. Some clairvoyants may delve back to the distant past, given the right foci, but sympathetic connections like these are dangerous, as viewing the horrors of the Destruction of Orn still breaks an unprepared mind.

Remnant

The term Remnant is a definition for a humans of Vanathul used during tail end of The Age of Rust. It belonged initially to the culture that threw off the shackles of the fey and attained arcane mastery, and later to those whose common cultural heritage originated with the descendants of K'Shaal.

Due to the stratification that emerged in the K'Shaali, and later also in Ornian societies, the term was eventually used to encompass only the elite in the later centuries before the Ordering. Lower castes of non-casters, soldiers, or other unlucky were merely human, which for the most part was not too bad by most standards.

The Transfer

Central to all Remnant cultures derived from K'Shaal, such as with the Old Ornians, was their reliance on transplanting their mind and spirit into younger or healthier hosts to extend their lives. This came at the cost of the lives of their servants and slaves. Little of the practicalities of the process survive to the present, but it is obvious that some magic was involved.

Initially the Transfer was reserved for dying or mortally injured distinguished individuals, and the hosts were willing donors, coerced or otherwise. As time moved on however, the moral and societal restrictions on the process relaxed, and as is the way of things it was eventually performed for frivilous reasons. In the decades before the fall of Orn many unlucky slaves lost their life to a vain Remnant who had grown tired of their current body, and wanted to try on something new.

It is speculated that the elites on Old Orn cultivated potential hosts like a gardener cultivates his plants, weeding out unfit subjects, and nurturing variants of special interest - like the Khimer.

In this manner it is further theorized that the Transfer is related to the many variety of human derivatives created in the latter centuries of Orn, leading to the geniekin and the planetouched, who were used as hosts if sufficiently stable.

According to the most critical sources of the process, little thought was given to the comfort of these potential hosts. They were often abused and tortured, enduring the modifications of fleshsmiths, knowing their only salvation would come in the oblivion after having their mind and soul pushed aside by some vain Remnant.

Other accounts are less harrowing, the Aasimar program opting to sedate candidates, and in some cases even retaining the original mind and soul, favoring the desired ideological drive rather than the overwriting with the psyche of someone else.

Ideological drive

As a result of The Transfer a greatly reduced emphasis was placed on the physical aspect of the heritage of a person. Instead they favored ideology and traditions. Family units often diverged greatly in appearance and genetics. Even age could vary greatly, with parents at times being physically younger than their children. These children were in turn rarely even related to either of the parents in any biological sense to begin with, and adoptions from the common human stock by the ruling classes were a usual occurrence.

In essence the notion of genealogical purity as seen in noble families outside this age had been replaced by one of ideological purity, with unusual structures rising to replace the otherwise natural family model. That is not to say that the bodies of these individuals were corrupted or degrading in some way. They were all beautiful, exotic or exceptional by most standards.

Social classes

From what has been surmised from archeologists and dungeoneering scholars, the old Ornian society was divided into the following categories.

Mortals/Commoners

The common people of little to no magical talent. Not actually slaves or direct servants to the upper class, but lacking the abilities needed to thrive in elite circles.

Augmented

In addition to class differences there are records of modified humans, where their physical or mental abilities were augmented in some way.

Records tell of people with senses enhanced to those of apex predators, like the sight of an owl for darkvision, natural weapons like fangs, or the flexibility of felines. It is commonly agreed upon that this was a warrior class of some kind. The word used to describe these soldiers were Khimer (Khimer), which loosely translates to "beast"

Other sources mention more exotic variations, with elemental or even planar influences. Mentions of these are rarer. The reason for this is thought by many to be because the Ordering sparked the ability to create this kind of augmented humans, and that their development was cut short when the continent fell.

Perpetuals

The perpetuals, also called the immortals, were high status, rich and magically talented elite. They primarily relied on consciousness transferal to extend their existence.

The planesmiths were of this social strata. Their multiple lifetimes granting them the experience to become the great magicians they undoubtedly were. Others were political leaders, wealthy merchants, favored artists, and selebrated philosophers.

Symbology

From what has survived to the present, there was a recurring emphasis on snakes in their iconography. The prevailing theory is that this was symbology to represent the process of shedding the old and being reborn anew.

From the ruins and still standing buildings there is an obvious favoring of stone and marble, with inlaid precious metals for decoration. An observation often amended with the fact that any less resilient material would surely have decayed in the centuries since the fall. So colors and even magical decorations may have been present to begin with, but could have decayed over the centuries.