The great chessboard unveils a grand game played by goddesses and populated with proud, powerful women as the pieces. Politics, intrigue, mystery, and deception abound; no goddess is secure for long, and ambitious women with divine aspirations can easily usurp the position of their masters to carve out domains for themselves. While the great ladies scrabble for power, the poor and downtrodden are left destitute as pawns in the game. Participation in the game is mandatory; hard survival enforced by brutal necessity is a cold reality constantly at the forefront of the mind. Welcome to Talonhaute, a Phantelle world.
Table of Contents:
Talonhaute: An Overview
Mission Mechanics
The Shoes and the Women
The Shoes and the Magic
Social forces in Talonhaute
Understanding Goddesses
Map of Talonhaute
Frequently Asked Questions
OOC Notes
An overview of the Game of Heels
Talonhaute is a world of conflict themed around an asymmetric balance of power struggle, magic and high heels.
The world itself is controlled by various goddesses forced by the system to compete against each other. A goddess' power and stature depend a great deal on the number and fervor of her female worshipers; goddesses who lose all of their worshipers can find themselves devoured by other divinities for the remaining scraps of their power. However, for all their knowledge and might, goddesses cannot intervene directly on Talonhaute; instead, they must rely on influence and use their followers. As a result, the mortals of Talonhaute are often treated as little more than expendable pieces in the divine game.
The gift of magic is granted by the goddesses of Talonhaute and can be likened to a seed. Once planted, it germinates and grows within a mortal follower to eventually blossom into a tree for the goddess to harvest. Goddesses can only grant magic to women and they do so in the form of a pair of high-heeled shoes which will manifest when the time is right. These shoes appear on the girl's feet and bring with them the gift of magic, a divine spark which must be carefully nurtured and trained before it can mature into mastery. Magic is a double-edged sword however, since it also binds the girl as a servant to the goddess who granted it.
When a goddess grants magic to a girl, she also assigns a task to the girl which the mortal must carry out as instructed. Failure to do so entails dire consequences, often condemning the girl to eternal slavery. When the assignment has been completed, the girl's feet are no longer bound to her shoes and she may freely remove them, but she will retain the magic that has been planted into her soul as a reward from the goddess for completing her mission. She also becomes available for more divinely-mandated tasks. This process acclimates mortal women to being used as tools by the goddesses of Talonhaute and imbues them with power to carve their own paths in life.
Goddesses cannot influence or use men directly. As such men need never fear the tyranny of a goddess imposing obligations upon them, but they are also unable to wield magic except under highly unusual circumstances.
Mission Mechanics
When a goddess places a pair of heels on a girl, the shoes are bound with a magical clasp which prevents their removal. This seal forces the woman to wear the same pair of shoes until she finishes her mission or runs out of time. Upon task completion, the seal dissolves and she may now freely remove her shoes.
In addition to having missions assigned, a goddess' shoes also come with a time limit to carry out their duties. As the deadline for duty completion nears, the goddess' admonitions for the girl to focus on her mission grow more frequent and insistent. Her shoes may sharply tighten to squeeze her feet at random times, her sense of magic may grow more turbulent and erratic, she will begin to suffer bodily and mental pains, her heels may animate of their own volition and force her to walk towards her destination, and when she has very little time left she will experience the looming gaze of the goddess piercing her soul upon her at all times, a sensation which she cannot ignore. If she still resists completing her mission, in spite of all the goddess' urgings, then the gift of magic meant to serve her will rebel and trap her instead.
While all goddesses devise unique punishments of their own for servants who fail to obey them, by default the woman's body and consciousness are absorbed into the heels that she is wearing, leaving them unattended as her mind is trapped within the shoes. Her magic is also locked with her and she remains trapped until another girl (who is not currently on a mission) accepts her mission by putting on both heels. Should the substitute complete the mission, she gains access to all of the magic power wielded by her forerunners; should she fail, she will share their fate and the cycle continues. If the mission becomes impossible to complete, the heels will vanish and the women trapped within them will dissipate with the shoes; their ultimate fate is unknown.
No woman can be assigned more than one mission at a time, denoted by the shoes that she wears. Having an active mission prevents her from being chosen by any goddess for a new one until her current objective is completed. Each new mission always brings with it a new pair of high heels, and women who have accomplished many errands in service of goddesses amass a collection of shoes. Some of the most prolific servants of a goddess, such as Saint Jehannes of Linas, can wear a different pair of heels for each day of the year without exhausting their closets.
Very importantly, there is no requirement that the girl herself must be the one to personally accomplish her mission unless if stated to her in her mission statement. Most goddesses aren't picky, so long as her assigned task is done, though exceptions always exist. Nearly every girl for her first shoes and initial duty receives a task which she must complete personally as part of her training, but this does not necessarily hold if she is chosen for subsequent assignments. A woman may ask the assistance of companions in service of the goddess and it is understood that there is no shame inherent in such requests, while those who assist her also share in her credit. Indeed, some women offer themselves specifically for "group assignments" intended to be shared with friends and family. Nevertheless, all duties are ultimately personal and the responsibility for their completion devolves upon the woman who received the gift.
A woman may also formally delegate her task to another, a ritual which transfers the bulk of her magical capacity to the person chosen to complete the task in her stead and mentally links the two. This is the only known method by which a man may use a goddess' power. It is understood, and expected, that such arrangements must be voluntarily entered into, or that the delegate must at the very least acquiesce. Social customs surrounding such a ritual vary widely from area to area, mostly to ensure that such aid is uncompelled. For example, in the queendom of Solle a woman who delegates another woman must do so in the presence of at least three witnesses, while a woman who delegates a man or unheeled girl must do so in the presence at least five witnesses, at least one of whom must be a man. The woman is also held accountable for giving her deputy all information reasonably required to complete the goddess' duty. If the task is not completed in a timely fashion, then the original woman who received the heels from the goddess bears ultimate responsibility in the eyes of the goddess and will suffer the consequences, but her delegate will also be prosecuted under the legal system of Solle. Therefore it is essential that a woman who designates a volunteer does so responsibly. This ritual can be revoked at any time by the woman, which immediately rescinds the deputy's magical power and duty to complete the task. If extreme circumstances or duress warrant, a woman may forcibly thrust her task onto a nearby individual, but such an action is not lightly done or pardoned. The ritual of delegation, being magical in nature, can be resisted by another woman if undesired. Men and unheeled girls who have no inherent magic have no such resistance and most societies impose a harsher penalty for a woman who does this to such individuals.
Duties handed down by a goddess must always have a definite completion condition which will free a woman from her high heeled captivity. It is possible for circumstances beyond control to render a mission unable to be completed; in these events, the woman's shoes will vanish from her feet and any progress she made in development of magical ability while wearing those shoes is lost, but no further penalties are imposed by the goddess. However, a woman may also voluntarily request a mission from the goddess, and if sought such missions can be indefinite in length (such as, for example, "Go and heal the sick"). This marks a woman's willingness to devote herself to a service to her patron deity or to a specific task. If granted, the goddess will give the woman a pair of heels to wear for the rest of her life which are bound with a special permanent seal that dissolves only upon death and prevent any other goddess from claiming her.
Even if a woman is born unable to serve, such as being born without legs or being blinded, a goddess is able to make her servants capable of carrying out their assignments. When a goddess assigns a duty, she also heals her chosen servant of injuries and infirmities, to the point of growing entire limbs anew. However, she also increases the difficulty of her duty accordingly lest her daughters become reckless and take her blessings for granted, offering themselves for simple heels and missions merely as a quick cure all.
The Shoes and the Women
The high heels of Talonhaute are protected by the magic of the system. When clasped to mark the indentured servitude of a girl, they cannot be removed by any means magical or mundane unless if the girl permits her feet to be cut off. Doing so, however, signals a rejection of the goddess; this will immediately cause the magic within her to fade to nothing and she will remain crippled for life, often shunned as a pariah of society. Strictly speaking this is not a final decision, but it is rare for a goddess to heal such an injury and grant the girl another set of heels, thus giving her a second chance; if done, the mission is most assuredly a difficult and demanding one.
All heels, when given out, are plain and uniformly colored when they first manifest on a girl's feet. As a woman wears her shoes and develops the particular magic augmented by that pair of heels, the heels will gradually gain decorations of their own. An elegant shoe highly decorated with lace, frills, and filigree indicates that the magic facilitated by the shoe has been refined to a high degree. When a woman wears such a pair of shoes her magic is greatly strengthened. Conversely, a plain shoe lacking ornamentation shows that the wearer is just beginning to explore the potential of her magic. Most women have a favorite pair of high heels which displays a magic they are especially proud of mastering. Under the rare circumstance that it happens, shoes that change ownership retain their magical potential but lose their enhancements and embellishments, forcing the new owner to develop their innate power anew. The higher the heel, the greater the magic potential residing in the shoe. A low, one-inch heel contains magic which can be learned and mastered in mere weeks and will never bear much decoration; a five-inch heel may require a lifetime to develop magical mastery.
The divinely-gifted heels of a goddess are invulnerable to harm, capable of withstanding even the most extreme heat, and cannot be deformed regardless of the amount of applied force. If not worn, they can serve a variety of practical tool uses, although this practice is usually frowned upon as the heels are considered gifts from the goddess and not mundane instruments. A woman's shoes are furthermore locked to her and cannot be worn by anyone else, man or woman, unless if she has forfeited ownership by incurring the displeasure of a goddess; attempting to do so has been known to cause extreme discomfort and even pain. Upon death, a woman's lifetime collection of heels dissolves into magical aether, accompanying her to the afterlife.
Goddesses are known to gift a variety of shoe types, from wedges and slingbacks to stilettos and mules. The one common trait to all of them is that the higher the heel, the more difficult the mission that was assigned and the greater magical potential within. In a way, a higher heel is a sign of a goddess's faith and trust in her servant. Sometimes a goddess also deliberately sets up an unwilling slave to fail and it can be a nasty shock for a woman to awaken one day with very high heels irrevocably bound to her feet. A very high heel can be a virtual death sentence but also brings the potential of unmatched magical power, so a goddess must be wary lest she inadvertently arm a woman she intended to eliminate with potent magic. The system thus ensures a degree of fairness by requiring a goddess to give a woman the opportunity for powerful magic if she is to be saddled with a difficult mission.
The tasks assigned by the goddess vary greatly in their difficulty and nature. An experienced observer can often discern the salient details in a single look; for example, heels shaded red denote warrior tasks and confer magic which is oriented towards combat and offense. Such women are often sent into danger armed with powerful magics of flame, lightning, and wind. Conversely, a light blue or aqua shoe is the mark of a healer gifted with supportive magics, able to bring people back from the brink of death. The rare woman granted black heels is a divinely appointed executioner whose mission requires that she put her target to death. A necessary trait enforced by the system is "Goddess Grace," which ensures that no discomfort is felt by any woman wearing divine shoes; female soldiers in five-inch heels are able to traverse rough, broken terrain at the same rate as their male compatriots in heavy marching boots. As different shoes amplify and modify different kinds of magic, a woman with a large collection of heels can often switch from offensive to supportive to defensive magic simply by swapping shoes.
As the high heels are gifts directly from a goddess, most women take diligent care to properly maintain and treasure their shoes. It would be a woman reduced to desperate straits indeed who would sell off her heels and nobody else would be able to use them.
The Shoes and the Magic
The magic granted by a goddess can broadly fall into four separate categories: offensive, defensive, utility, and restorative. These categories are somewhat arbitrary as there is inherently a great deal of overlap between the magical types and it may be more accurate to say that there are four uses for the same magical gift. The gift of flame and heat may be used to burn an edifice to the ground, or to cook a cauldron of soup. Nevertheless, certain shoes will confer and amplify proficiency in various uses of magic. Some general correlations exist for a shoe's color and its magic, but the exceptions are innumerable and it is most accurate to say that the goddess' gifts are personalized to each individual girl.
Magic can be used to affect the world around a woman, or to affect the woman herself. The dreaded deepest black heels which mark a woman's mission of extermination also grant her the ability to swallow her prey whole and gruesomely digest it in her stomach, even dragonscale or adamantine. Many a girl granted the sky blue heels of a medic will also find that she can develop the ability to unbirth others and store them in her womb for accelerated recovery. Simultaneously, women with the heels of Living Prisons can turn their uteruses into impregnable cells, condemning their victims to a lifetime spent in a cramped cage of muscle and flesh. Magic can be used to strengthen oneself, making a woman stronger, faster, quicker, more intelligent, and even to bend the currents of time. It can also be used to debilitate an opponent, slowing his reactions, fogging his thought, sapping his strength, or miring him in time. A woman with size-altering magic can make herself a giantess, or reduce others to the size of her finger. With certain magic, a woman can also see great distances or traverse them in an instant, or to peer backwards in time. However, there is no magic which enables a woman to see into the future with certainty. The system resists any attempt to control or bind it.
Given the versatility and ubiquity of magic, it is little surprise that magic is often used in everyday life for all kinds of mundane utility. Engineering is not well-developed as magic provides a cheaper, energy-free, and much more readily available alternative. Instead, engineering and artificing are considered to be a male pursuit, usually limited to manufacturing simple tools and trinkets. Though magic is innate to a woman's soul once granted by a goddess and cannot be stored like natural forms of energy, still it is possible for many women working together to accomplish massive feats of construction or landscaping. Goddesses being of different personalities, their worshipers often gain magical powers corresponding to the goddess' purposes.
Magic is of a nature that follows certain rules of its own, but a goddess can with extra expenditure of power grant a follower special magics which break the rules - in this case, the woman's magic becomes "anything the goddess says I can do, I can do" as all exceptional magic ultimately belongs to the divine. Natural magic is also unlocked by a goddess' gift but will remain with the woman unless sealed and do not require any special attention from a goddess. It is not enough to unlock one's power as a girl; for magic to become a useful tool, it requires diligent training and a great deal of practice. As such, societies provide magical training for their women, from the age-honored tradition of individual study of mistress and student to grand academies of thaumaturgy.
Social Forces in Talonhaute
Different goddesses being women of different temperament, societies are shaped in a great degree by their interactions with a goddess. A goddess who is kind, caring, and nurturing naturally draws followers who reflect those traits, giving rise to communities where crime is unheard of, citizens are happy, and her powers are used to protect. Conversely, a demanding goddess who imposes difficult or distasteful burdens on her girls gives rise to resentful, paranoid, and mistrusting societies, where heels are described as "shackles on our souls and feet" rather than "the gifts of the goddess." Under the system where a goddess is dependent upon her followers for power (and vice versa), however, there are strong incentives for a goddess and her mortal worshipers to work together.
In theory, at least, any goddess may claim any girl at any time, as long as she is not serving another goddess at the time. In practice there are restrictions which apply. Near her worshipers, a goddess' power is amplified and enhanced, and as the bestowing of heels costs the goddess effort and power it is usually simpler to distribute a number of shoes in areas where her domain is strongest. Goddesses may also interfere with each other; for a goddess to place shoes on the feet of a woman who is in another goddess' domain and has served that goddess demands great expenditure of power and concentration, potentially leaving her own followers open for poaching. While all women serve, many become resentful of being pawns in the divine chess games between distant and uncaring goddesses, where today's friends might be tomorrow's opponents. For this reason many goddesses have special temples or cities where their presence is strongest, surrounded by loyal followers and allied worshipers. This also means that countries and nations are bound by strong cultural and religious ties, a nationalist identity founded upon the goddess' personality; depending on the goddess served, they may also be insular and inhospitable to outsiders.
As heels and magic are uniquely gifted to women, women have leveraged their magical power into political power. A girl can be certain that she will be granted magic from the goddess early in her life, and while such magic takes many forms it is more than a match for a man's physical strength when even moderately developed. To defend against magic requires one's own magic and as such men have no innate resistance to a girl's magic, which cannot be sealed or taken from her except as a penalty imposed by the system. This effectively means that women enjoy a monopoly on force which men have no recourse against. All societies therefore concentrate power in the hands of women, from the most primitive of tribes to the most sophisticated of queendoms. In some places this means that men are little more than slaves of their sisters, wives, or even daughters. More enlightened societies extend the same rights to men as those given to women, although not always the same civic responsibilities; in the queendom of Solle, for example, men are not permitted to vote or serve in the armed forces. Some goddesses frown upon mistreatment of men, others are indifferent, still others actively encourage their persecution. While men are unable to use magic except when delegated a task by a woman, this also means that goddesses cannot use them directly as they can with women. A man at least has the security of knowing he will not randomly wake up with a task that he is forced to accomplish, his life held hostage until completion.
Many societies do not consider a girl to be a fully-fledged woman until she has experienced her first moon's blood and completed her first task for a goddess. Oftentimes, polling stations require women to wear their heels to cast a vote. Where both men and women serve together in the armed forces, oftentimes only women may advance to the upper echelons of the officer ranks. Though men on average tend to be taller than women, a woman's heels mitigate this discrepancy to a degree or reverse it altogether. Most cultures also forbid a man to wear any kind of high-heeled footwear, or only permit it if he has been delegated a woman's magic and her current mission. Heels occupy a special position of reverence to many a civilization; in some places to even manufacture a high-heeled shoe carries severe penalties, as such an act is seen as blasphemy.
Due to the matriarchal nature of all cultures on Talonhaute, descent is traced through the mother's line. As such, the concept of illegitimate children is a foreign one as a mother can always be certain that a child is hers. Women also enjoy sexual privileges which are not afforded to men, and it has been noted by observers that men tend to suffer heavier legal and social repercussions for being unfaithful to their wives than women for being unfaithful to their husbands. Boys are considered to be under the authority of their mothers, their sisters if their mothers die before marriage, then their wives, then their daughters if they outlive their wives. In public affairs men are expected to defer socially to women. Perhaps no phrase encapsulates the prevailing attitudes as well as, "A woman's duty is to queen, country, and goddess; a man's to home, family, and wife."
Understanding Goddesses
At this point the discerning reader may ask the question: why are goddesses so concerned with granting magic, acquiring followers, and mortal lives?
A goddess' own power and presence amongst her peers is determined to a very great extent by her influence on the physical world, the number and fervor of her worshipers, and the magic which her followers channel. A goddess with many followers, much territory, and great magical demesne is capable of making weaker goddesses defer to her, or even coerce them outright. However, no goddess is entirely secure on her own as her strength depends on her followers. A goddess who loses all her followers and ceases to be worshiped may lose her divinity altogether, prey to other goddesses who devour her for the remaining scraps of her power. Thus, even the divine may perish; any special powers granted by a goddess who has lost the divine game are extinguished and her followers can no longer use them.
A mortal woman may also ascend to divinity, though the way is exceedingly difficult; established goddesses are wont to be jealous of their station, their influence, and their demesne. If a woman can persuade enough women and men to worship her, however, and can successfully complete a Rite of Sovereignty, then she sheds her mortal form and ascends beyond the physical to take her place amongst the divine. The Rite requires intense magical energy which can only be supplied by hundreds or even thousands of women working in unison, and becomes more difficult to perform as the number of extant goddesses increases. Once a woman has become divine, however, her consciousness expands greatly and she must take care to immediately secure her power base lest she become a victim of her hungry compatriots. As a goddess, the woman may now issue high heels of her own.
For a woman to force her way into the ranks of the divine is normally a very rare occurrence which seldom happens without extremely fortuitous circumstances. While goddesses cannot prevent such apotheosis directly, they can exert influence on their mortal followers to prevent it from happening. Sometimes, a goddess may also wish to raise a follower of her own to the stature of goddess, and in such cases the goddess may directly supply the power for the Rite of Sovereignty. Divine politics is a treacherous, complex affair filled with constantly shifting allegiances; permanent alliances are rare, and a goddess may be forced to spend a great deal of time scheming and plotting to stay ahead of her rivals. In such situations, a threatened goddess may wish for an ally from her worshipers and elevate one to be her friend. Yet once raised, a goddess cannot be removed except by the destruction of her power base, and a new goddess may eventually turn against her patroness.
The ultimate goal for a goddess is to eliminate all of her rivals and become the sole ruler of Talonhaute, forcing the entire world to serve her. Such a state of equilibrium is a temporary one at best, however, as apotheosis becomes trivially easy when there is only one goddess, meaning that just about any woman can ascend to divinity. Goddesses therefore have a keen interest in preventing any of their number from becoming too powerful, even if it is a friend. Not all goddesses are so ambitious as to wish to become omnipotent, however; some are dedicated to maintaining the game, some merely to survive, others still have no purpose except to instigate chaos before their own inevitable demise. No matter if a winner emerges, Talonhaute will continue to be a chessboard of the divine. The final tragedy of Talonhaute is that the desire for power has made slaves out of every single individual involved: goddesses who can never be entirely safe from the eternal rivalry of their peers, women who are granted power but beholden to goddesses and mere tools for them, and men who are immured from the goddesses yet powerless to stop women from imposing their will upon them.
In the end, only the system wins.
Map of Talonhaute
To be done. These interactive maps are a LOT of work.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. Do women have the ability to tell which goddess granted a pair of heels?
A. The woman wearing the heels always knows since the goddess will communicate her task to her. However, the people around her may or may not. Some goddesses "sign" their heels with signature decorations or flourishes, but there is no requirement that they do so. In the absence of these markings, it is impossible to tell for certain. Goddesses can also be cunning enough to disguise their heels as those of other goddesses.
Q. Can a goddess give out a mission of indefinite duration or without an end condition?
A. Not on her own initiative. Such heels and duties must be specially requested by the mortal, and once given cannot be delegated to another. This rule ensures that goddesses cannot permanently claim pieces for themselves without giving mortals a say in the matter.
Q. What happens when a woman delegates her task to a man?
A. The heels stay on the woman. The magic transfers until the task is finished or rescinded. The spark of magic is not retained and he goes back to being unable to use magic. The woman is rewarded, in the sense that she keeps the heels, however any magic development made by the man does not transfer over to her. It evaporates and she must train it herself if she is to grow her skill.
Q. Can men turn into women (or vice versa)?
A. Yes, though it is an involved process which requires the person to be unbirthed and having primeval magics wrought on his or her body over nine months. Very importantly, a goddess cannot force or command her followers to do this. It has to be done on a woman's own initiative with the (wo)man's consent.
Q. Why not?
A. It unbalances the chessboard of Talonhaute, so to speak. If goddess could make their followers change genders, there would be a rush to turn as many men into women as possible and slap heels on their feet, as a way of bolstering the goddess' own presence. Thus goddesses have tacitly agreed that they will not do this, and any goddess who overtly breaks this rule risks the antagonism of EVERY other goddess. (Note that unlike the indefinite mission rule, this is a soft rule enforced by political agreement rather than a hard rule enforced by the magic system.)
Q. Is there a way to end the eternal game of heels?
A. There is! See if you can figure it out.
Q. Can we get a tl;dr of the checks and balances?
A. With pleasure.
Goddesses:
+ Goddesses can force women to obey.
+ Goddesses can withhold magic entirely from women.
+ Goddesses can eliminate troublesome pieces directly by giving impossible missions.
+ Goddesses can collude with each other to bring down rivals.
+ Goddesses have a semi-omniscient view of events, pieces, and plans on Talonhaute.
+ Goddesses are not susceptible to physical harm.
- Goddesses are reliant on worshipers and their magic.
- Goddesses cannot use men at all.
- Goddesses cannot intervene directly on Talonhaute, they can only influence and use pawns.
- Goddesses cannot stop other goddesses from stealing their followers.
- Goddesses cannot stop apotheosis. Since it becomes easier when less goddesses exist, consolidating power by eliminating rivals only makes it easier for other rivals to take their place.
- Missions are only impossible until someone actually completes them.
Women:
+ Women can develop and use magic.
+ Women can withhold magic from men.
+ Women can ascend to become goddesses themselves.
+ Women can refuse to serve, obey, or worship a goddess even at the cost of their own lives.
+ Women can intervene and act on Talonhaute directly.
+ Women and magic are easily much more powerful than men and brute strength or technology.
- Women can only use magic by serving a goddess.
- Women can be involuntarily forced to obey a goddess.
- Apotheosis is difficult, dangerous, and often incurs the displeasure of goddesses.
- Women cannot continue the species without men.
Men:
+ Men cannot be controlled by goddesses at all.
+ Men can assist women on missions without fear of divine retribution.
+ However, goddesses and women still need men to continue the species.
- Men cannot use magic without a woman's delegation or help.
- Men cannot influence divine politics the way that women can.
- Generally weak and powerless.
OOC Notes