Blood and Seasons

I have yet to think a whole lot about bloodlines so some brainstorming in the near future is needed. Off hand I wanted to involve the World Tree and perhaps the seasons. It could be something like a freaking acorn fell from the World Tree unto the world and those few who partook in its goodness became something more than men. Generations later this became the bloodline families that they are today. Okay, but nothing special in terms of ideas.

Another one would be to involve the severity of season. Lets say the 4 seasons ebb and flow as far as length. Once a generation a particularly severe season would come across and cause a big mess. A 7 year Winter would certainly suck. For our case though since 'eyes' are involved perhaps a 10 year summer a couple hundred years ago really jacked the ecosystem, and perhaps changed the human survivors rather drastically, at least those that stayed out in the endless bright sunlight. That sounds more interesting to me. As for the other prolonged seasons:

* The endless Spring would essentially be a paradise, forever blooming.
* The endless Autumn would start out timid and serene but would eventually become a great rot with forests of mushrooms and compost.
* The endless Winter would suck ass, probably the closest thing to a cataclysm this world has.
* The endless Summer would be a mixed bag. The bright light and heat would eventually tear things up. Trees and critter would grow into huge sizes and so forth.


So the past history would something like so:

24 year - 7 year Spring (sapphiron) - 22 years - 4 year Winter (hibernel) - 28 years - 6 year Autumn (leafenfel) - 33 years - 9 year Summer (Estaoculus - the summer of eyes) - 32 years - 4 year Spring (sinchola) - 41 years - 3 year Spring (vaunderfel) - 21 years - 4 year Autumn (the great rot) - 31 years - present year

So, the Summer of Eyes, which brought forth the bloodlines was 145 years ago, plenty of time for a political culture to develop around the bloodlines it brought (think how quickly the Kennedys, Bushs and Clintons became mega-powers). The other prolonged seasons would have similar impact upon the world, although I have nothing in particular in mind for them at this point. The elves on one hand revel in these prolonged season and indeed plan their lives around them in some extent, perhaps creating divergent species if the process gets messed up (ei Hibernel creating the Drow?). Dwarves, they see nothing but problems and randomness in these long seasons, and probably sneak away in their deep workshop dens. Halflings, probably an opportunity to set in motion a great change and are very mobile during these times.

So now it seems like a good origin for the bloodlines to me. Creating the actual bloodline trees should be fairly straight forward and something for another post. The descriptor should be in terms of the power it gives such as; Eyes of Thoughtless Acts, Eyes Chaos Unbound, Eyes of Just Fate and so forth. Or perhaps I will make them more vague with named based upon the original member who had the bloodline.