The Rescue of Rym

Rym is the work of Ollie Canal, and has been a part of FurryFaire for quite some time. The creator and artist of Rym and the work there has been granted to the MUCK for free use. As such, the campaigns presented on the web page as 'unfinished' have been left hanging.

Leaving Rym a static setting, where the timeline of FurryFaire moves forward while Rym's does not, seemed counter-intuitive. Rather than leave the setting to stagnate, the Head Wizard of FurryFaire has decided to move the time line forward.

Partially, it would be hoped that the players of FurryFaire would take the initiative themselves, but rather than simply leaving everything player-driven, the story of Rym is split into two parts: The first part is fiction and 'background event', driven by rumour and short stories. The second part is driven by players, either reacting to the fiction and rumours, or taking the initiative and visiting Rym to take part.

Background of Rym

Rym is a setting created by Ollie Canal, a game world that has been used on a number of MUCKs and which has a detailed history. It was always considered a work in progress, as Ollie had intended it to be used as an ongoing campaign. Rym has existed in one form or another for at least twelve years, and he was willing to leave it open for use by the fans of his work. In the mid or late 1990s, RymMUCK was opened by a fan of Ollie's work, while at the same time Ollie played on FurryFaire, using the signature character Lairu.

The most famous race from Rym is the lutrai, a race of shamanic otters who are led by the Solinar, a paladin-like order who revere the only surviving goddess of Rym, named Kij. The lutrai are opposed to the slow destruction of their world by a group known as the Spiral, which is 'ruled' by an entropic force known as the Eater. The world is post-apocalyptic, and has a number of additional furry races.

In the early 2000's, Ollie gave the Head Wizard Tashiro of FurryFaire permission to use Rym as he saw fit. With this permission, the setting has slowly begun to move forward, with unresolved threads being tied into the FurryFaire setting. As of 2007, there is intention to release a setting book involving Rym as part of a table-top FurryFaire game.

The Resurrection of Nyx

The first player-driven event was the resurrection of Nyx. The players involved did not know enough about Rym and the setting to really understand that they had complete freedom in the game, and the campaign did not move ahead as smoothly as would have been liked, but the goal of the adventure was a success -- the remnants of the Goddess of Night was discovered, and she was resurrected and brought to Kith Kanaan to recover and rejoin her sister, Kij.

The Destruction of the Cepn Homeland

This player-driven event was an unexpected one. The cepn involved in the resurrection of Nyx was later involved in an encounter with a nation of vampires. In the hope of removing the near-godlike vampire threat and freeing the nation, he tricked the vampires into passing through a gate into Rym. Unfortunately, only one of the vampires passed through, and his presence was strong enough to draw the attention of Nigh. The vampire, and the region he was in, was utterly destroyed, thus wiping out the Cepn homeland.

The War for Magic

An order called the Emerald Adepts serves Mana, the Goddess of Magic in Kith Kanaan. The group has learned of the four Elemental Worlds in Rym, and how each is somehow connected to the flow of magic for that world. With the death of the gods of Rym, the world's magic is slowly decaying, allowing the Spiral greater strength. The success of the resurrection of Nyx has emboldened this mystic order, and they have begun research on how gods 'die'. The information gained has given them the near-suicidal goal of tracking down the bodies of these deceased gods, and finding the means to bring them back. The first steps of this arc are done as fiction. Future developments will continue either as fiction, or through player-driven activities.

You Did What?

Rym was created using the Dungeons and Dragons RPG, and a lot of the setting draws upon the cosmology of that setting. As such, when a god dies, their body is shunted to the Astral Plane, a giant, floating husk of 'rock' that just slowly drifts around in Astral space. It is possible, given the right circumstances, to re-animate these gods, and if done correctly, the gods re-awaken, retaking their place in the cosmology of the realm. The keys to bringing Nyx back to life in Rym was there to be found on the official web page, and there are enough hints scattered about to show that yes, it is possible to save the other gods of Rym. Doing so would restore magic to the world, and provide a foot-hold for defeating the Spiral (the 'good ending' for the Rym campaign).

The Rise of Nyx

Nyx has a temple in the New World, found to the west of Kith Kanaan. While her worship has not spread far there (as it is a heresy to the remaining vampire-god), the temple does provide Nyx with some strength. Recently, she has found converts among the tribes of Lemuria, providing her a stronger foothold in Kith Kanaan, and preparing her to subtly aid in the war in Rym -- as long as she does not need to face Nigh once again.

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