The Tinkers- Prophets without Gods

[Allanon Creel]

It is well known how the dozen or so prophets who walk the land receive their foresight to act as messengers or other task-managers for in a few instances in history, the main gods yet normally for powerful tribal gods, thus they are chronicled enough. It is the enigmas known as 'Tinkers' that have required deep investigation to know of. Born as boys and girls with the capability to see the future without divine alteration or blessing, the children develop the ability to foresee almost every possibility of every choice made in the lives of those who's lives's paths would inter-twine with their own at any point in time. It is due to the uncountable amount of possibilities and turnouts of everyone they had and would ever see and hear, that day by day the children slip further and further into madness, until inevitably they are consumed by the madness and are either euthanized or cast out on their own, as their behavior becomes infrequent and hostile in most cases. Almost all of the children, due to any number of actions done in full-blown insanity who are not put-down are sent away either to the streets or to the forests, where almost all of them die from being on their own. Yet there are the few that manage to somehow either with luck or aid manage to survive their childhood and are mentally strong enough to keep from killing themselves long enough to reach their entry to adulthood and they are those who some how conquered the desire to cease their existence. The reason for the sudden disappearance of the desire to commit suicide has yet to be extracted from the odd bunch, as researchers have never gotten decipherable answers from their chancy encounters. The average lifespan of one born to this condition is roughly 50 summers, though there have been the odd cases of some still walking the roads born up to long as 200 years ago.

Another phenomenon involving the Tinkers is why they do what gives them their names the first place; as the broken minded have no pre-meditated plans. They gain the title 'tinker' as literally all of them, every single living adult of their kind end up collectors of all things; from weapons they find, to potions they brew, and in the rare case, novels some write of the events taking place in their minds, of which most of the general knowledge of them originated. The Tinkers are can be found anywhere in the world with man-made or natural trails either walking the paths with Mules, or to the side of passages in crudely setup shops. Due to the stories told of them, and the scare of running into these 'psychos' and as some have given them the label, all but the bravest or most persistent actual tinkers travel the roads selling their wares, thus they have over time become the only tinkers, giving them their name. As for their shops, reports have been collected from bold explorers having found a shop so close to the beginnings of the Sundered lands of Nactor the bleached lands were within sight from the shop. Yet whether they are stationary or mobile, despite whatever they sell, they always seem to have 'mules', of which nothing is known but their ability to complete tasks without receiving any notice as to having done tasks such as starting fires, packing and even cooking.

These unstable folk generally smother their hostility of childhood with an eccentric and friendly take to things, and express themselves as theatrical manners with the capability to imitate nearly any pitch or sound. They, for all their developing and eventually developed insight have never and most likely never will be able to see their own futures, as there was only one who had such a power and he'd passed long ago, slain in a 4 year man-hunt as his insanity and abilities had led him to cause a multitude of different wars around the globe, turning kings against each-other, families to break apart and brawls in some of the most sacred of temples. Since his time, many superstitious villages affected by the hostility he caused, have forbid even the attempt at caring for the afflicted children, lest another manipulator be born in their small communities.

The factor that gives the Tinkers the intimidation factor that has built up over time would be that should a Tinker be awakened to anger, as they do have outbursts of random wrath to the smallest amount of disrespect in their perception, are masters of curses of the most unorthodox variety. Of the now few instances of confrontation, the most first defense or offense of the Tinkers has been a classic of theirs; the cursed would do and say the complete opposite of what they intended. To this dilemma, the only solution would be to return to the same spot upon the second night of the next moon, doing the Tinker a favor of his or her choosing. There are many others, yet most likely the worst to note would be a curse wherein the cursed would to the end of their days, upon sleep or even shutting of the eye lids be brought back to the saddest, most grief causing or enraging failures or situations of their lives, repeatedly. Rarely spoke of even by those who had experienced it, however, is that some Tinkers in their madness have experimented and in several instances gripped a firm hold of minor demon conjuration and summoning as well as pact creation; explaining the mysterious intelligence in the eyes of some 'Mules'.