The Sagasingers

V'Shaat al-Avra, one of the founding members
of the Sagasingers.

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The Sagasingers are an ancient and austere order of skald-monks who trace their origins back multiple millennia and across vast planar distances. The order predates even the First Empires of Man and the dawn of Waking Materia's First Age. Though not natives of Materia, the great heroes that formed the Sagasingers would eventually ascend to become the Insurgent demigods, sworn to protection of the plane in opposition to the Colonial Lichlords. While many have fallen, some members remain in service of the plane to this day.

The Godhead of the Sagasingers is the demigod of fire, travel, skaldry, diplomacy and surfacer dwarves, Galadnock mac-Kenzie, though the order maintains a wide pantheon of ascendant heroes, past and present. Though mac-Kenzie is himself a dwarf, it is an inclusivist order that demands only adherence to the philosophies of mac-Kenzie and the techniques of Tong Deum.

Their alignment is predominantly Chaotic Good.

History

The history of the Sagasingers is a long and storied one. Its origins begin with a coming together of two great heroic groups: The Flamespeakers under Galadnock mac-Kenzie and V'Shaat's Irregulars under V'Shaat al-Avra.

The Flamespeakers

The Flamespeakers of Tong Deum are a monastic order of skalds, monks and shamans, originating on the mountainous, arctic plane of Pitravat. It is primarily a dwarven order, but all races are welcome (save for the Pitravatish frost giants, who are ancient enemies of the Flamespeakers). They are called such because (though the techniques are very multifaceted), the most iconic technique is the breathing of fire. Though Galadnock mac-Kenzie and his suborder traveled from plane to plane, the Grandmaster of Tong Deum still lead the group in the traditional style. His closest ally and fellow Grandmaster was Hrafnagaldr Fistpoetry, perhaps the finest practicioner of unarmed combat ever to grace Materia's round face, who died heroically defending Materia during the First Dragon wars.

V'Shaat's Irregulars

Under the loose, unofficial leadership of V'Shaat al-Avra, V'Shaat's Irregulars grew from a band of thieves to a mercenary group to a respected paramilitary, taught planeswalking by one of Tassalit's ruling sphinxes and set to work destabilizing an enemy empire before eventually going rogue. Alongside V'Shaat, who was a powerful self-taught spellsword and pyromancer, were her two closest allies, B'Non il-Anrau and R'Ani il-Duat, who would also ascent to become part of the insurgent pantheon. Like Fistpoetry, they died fighting God-Killer Otrinax's draconic forces during the First Dragon Wars.

It was initially V'Shaat's initiative to join the other Insurgent heroes, Emeliat Reis and Merlinkainen, in defending Waking Materia against the Colonial Gods, with mac-Kenzie and his Flamespeakers joining shortly after.

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The Colonial-Insurgent Godwars

The wars between the Insurgent and Colonial Gods would stretch thin the Rebel militaries, forcing the united Sagasingers to split into separate roles. While mac-Kenzie and Fistpoetry continued to guide the Sagasingers in a bardic-monastic capacity, V'Shaat formed the Dreadnoughts as a more secular, guerilla military. The two still remained fast friends and the purviews of each group were complimentary: the Sagasingers were an unassailable source of morale and fervence in the hearts of the Insurgents while the Dreadnoughts' brutally surgical attacks struck fear in the hearts of the Colonizers.

The Third Age

Though both have taken heavy divine casualties over the centuries, the Sagasingers and the Dreadnoughts remain to this day, still under the divine governance of mac-Kenzie and V'Shaat, though more distant as the two deities grow more distant and involved in alien, temporal affairs. Their roles have remained more or less intact, with the Sagasingers representing a religious-monastic order and the Dreadnoughts a firey paramilitary.