The Joined

The Joined are a rather unique race in that they're not an individual species, but rather, a collection of different creatures who act as host to a Link. The Link is a sub-sentient creature shaped rather like a horseshoe crab. When the Link is settled near the top of the spine (for vertebrates) or near some other major nerve center (for non-vertebrates). The link digs in and enters into a symbiotic relationship to the host. The intellect of both host and Link increase and fuse together into one gestalt being.

The Links themselves are all the remains of the god Halst, also known as the Scholar. Halst was relatively unconcerned with the raging God War going on about him, but he did see it as an opportunity to add to his vast store of knowledge. He formed the Links, small portions of himself and scattered them about the world. The Links would find a host, become Joined and the Joined would act as Halst's agent. Infiltrating the domains of the other races, they would learn all they could before returning to Halst. The Scholar would re-absorb the Link (killing the Joined in the process) and would sift through the collected intelligence.

Although Halst was destroyed in the God War, he did prove that he had a bit more common sense than most gave him credit for. His form (and his vast knowledge) was transmutted to a flood of Links that scattered themselves into the seas around the Evenstar Peninsula (Area F on the map). Over time, those Links re-emerged back onto the shore and quickly formed new Joined. Each newly-made Joined contained some small portion of the sum knowledge of Halst. It is the belief of the Joined that while Halst is gone, restoring his vast knowledge is the highest purpose for life on the planet.

The Joined certainly had a head start in the rebuilding after the Silence. Many Joined possessed useful skills and the peninsula was blessed with a fair amount of natural resources. In a very short time, the Joined had a small, but thriving civilization going. Along the coastlines, the Joined fished and searched for more Links. In the mountains, they quarried small amounts of stone and ore. The woods were converted into vast permaculture farms to provide food and timber. At the very heart of the peninsula was the Sanctum. Here the Joined coallated all the information they had and turned their intellects towards the great mysteries of the universe. Although it was still very early days and most of their efforts were directed towards collecting information, not organizing or using it, and although their theorizing turned out mostly to be low-level philosophical distractions, the Sanctum has given the Joined a reputation for old and hidden lore that they've always carried with them.

See next The Schism of the Joined