Blood of Karn

Karn the Ram-God, is the Spirit of Freedom native to the Titan's Range mountains . He tolerates no bindings, he cares not for laws or property. He simply eats, fights, wins, and celebrates. Those who drink his breath and become his blood have an obligation to follow only his laws and serve only his wild spirit.
As an organization, the Blood of Karn is best understood as a network of semi-religious lodges of warriors, hunters, and healers. They are loosely confederated and avoid trying to control their member's lives, and instead keep to a small but strict code of conduct. Each member of the Blood is free to wander as they please, but those with prestige within the Blood typically mark themselves according to their home lodge. Each lodge has a small number of elders known as "The Old Rams" or "The Old Goats" who are the most seasoned and popular old warriors of the lodge. These Old Goats act as judges for cases of possible code violations, though contested cases can be brought before the Mystery Cultists at the Temple of Karn for a formal trial.
Whenever a foreign power tries to invade the Titan's Range mountains, or whenever a local Prism hold tries to conquer itself a state, the Blood of Karn rallies to exterminate the threat. It is perhaps for this reason that the region's major power, Kingdom of Ezekos, pays tribute to the Blood of Karn - not only does it prevent them from raiding the Kingdom's towns, but it keeps the area a safe no-man's land.

History

While the fighting arts of the Blood of Karn date back to distant past, the Blood itself is relatively new. Ironically, it began as a compromise and a peace settlement. From 1300 to 1500, the region was wracked by civil war. Zihari missionaries, seeking a new Dragon Forge, had begun propping up local regimes to try and conquer the region and settle its people into more profitable states. The champion and cultist of the Temple of Karn, Ruta the Horned Queen, rallies warriors to her banner to crush all attempts to invade or change the region, and she brutally extinguished these state projects town by town. In 1505, she was offered magic items and great wealth by a mystery cult known as the Cult of the Sacred Geometry in the neighboring Kingdom of Ezekos in exchange for her reigning the violence in from their borders. And with these resources, she was able to muster an army that drove the Zihari from the mountains and burnt all the churches they left behind.
When the dust settled in 1510, Ruta gathered the greatest warriors of the region at the Oathhenge - a place of moots and meetings, where peaces are made and wars are formally declared. Rather than claim the mountains for one faction or another, Ruta made a blood oath that she and her cultists would slay any who tried to fill the power vacuum. And, from 1510 to 1550, she kept her word: nine tribes stepped up to try and build their own states, and nine tribes were scattered to the wind. 
After her death in 1591, Ruta's cultists carried on her work of culling any local power that sought to crown themselves masters of the land. During the late 1700s and early 1800s, the Sarakan Temple tried to extend their reach into the mountains - and while they converted many, they were forcibly prevented from building any kind of organized priesthood. In 1840, the Sarakan Temple formally named the Blood of Karn a mystery cult of their religion and congratulated themselves on a territory converted, despite having effectively lost their half-hearted missionary effort. And then in the late 1800s, prospectors and mercenaries tried to muscle their way into the Southeastern mountains and founded the Kingdom of Ukredo. This kingdom has become the Blood of Karn's primary antagonist, and those seeking prestige within the brotherhood often use their towns as a violent proving ground.

Military

The Blood of Karn teaches its initiates the art of the battle trance: while fighting, their warriors enter an altered mental state where pain is pleasure and reality feels flimsy and illusory. Their bodies are unusually tough, and their fighting styles transform their relentless offense into a defense in itself. 
There are also a few paladins, a few druids, and a small but growing number of Meako.

Foreign Relations

The Blood of Karn has excellent relations with the Kingdom of Ezekos, who pays them well to keep the region safe and unclaimed. Many blood brothers and sisters also join the kingdom's military as mercenaries. 
The neighboring Kingdom of Ukredo is on far worse terms - the two groups have been at war for several centuries now, and the Kingdom of Ukredo has steadily lost ground. Those lodges near or on previously Ukredan territory are far more aggressive and vicious than most other lodges.
The Riders of the Free Flame and the Blood of Karn have a very uncertain relationship that varies from lodge to lodge of each. While they share a common enemy in outside settlers, the puritanical traditionalist Saraka religion of the Riders is a sharp contrast to the institution-hating hedonism of the Blood.

Tenets of Faith

• Seek Pleasure: Your body is the body of Karn - your joy and satisfaction is his. Given this, you have a spiritual and moral obligation to have a good of time as possible at all times. However you find pleasure, pursue it relentlessly
• Feel No Attachment: Material things are petty and fleeting. To feel sadness or rage over the loss of physical possessions is to deny Karn joy over a childish attachment. To act on those feelings is to shame Karn to the world.
• Take Not From the Unwilling: To use any coercion to make someone your servant, lover, child, rival, or meal is to poison the blood of Karn. All things want to love Karn - if you need to lie, threaten, or manipulate, you are shaming and poisoning Karn. This also means you must respect someone who denies your challenges. It also means that unwarranted murder is banned. It notably does not mean that stealing is banned, as thefts only impact fleeting material objects
• Respect Challenges: Just as rams lock horns for contests of strength, you must respect the power of a physical challenge to resolve issues. You can turn a challenge down, but you must accept that the other person is owed leadership and dominance if you do.
• Defend the Mountains: You must protect the freedom of the Titan's Range mountains. Any attempt to build an organized state or religious institution is a challenge to fight Karn to the death. So kill them

The Wise Goat Knows No Law or Master

Founding Date

1510

Type

Social, Brotherhood

Alternative Names

The Horned Ones, the Brotherhood of the Ram

Demonym

Ramblooded

Location

Titan's Range

Controlled Territories

• Titan's Range

Neighboring Nations

• The Kingdom of Ezekos