To those reading or hearing this, greetings. I am Rhiann of the Sauk, Priestess of the Web and this is my story. Please allow me to elaborate.
I know, you have many questions, not least of which is, “Who are the Sauk?” The simplest answer is that my People are not human or related to the Native American nation known as the Sauk. While my People now have some things in common with who the human Sauk once were, until now no representative of either People has ever met.
That’s right, I am not human, though once I was. To human eyes I look something like the North American red fox bearing hawk-like wings and walking erect. At best this is a simplification since there are far more differences than apparent to the naked eye. On the other hand, you are reading or hearing this through the technology that my People have shunned for over a thousand of your years; technology that resulted in the destruction of a great civilization and the impending extinction of my world’s sentient life-forms. The Sauk avoid technology and destroy it when they find it to prevent a recurrence of the catastrophe that has caused our world to revert to savagery and eventual non-sentience. Why should you rely on machines when the mind can do the same thing? Because I am a Changeling, I understand the usefulness of some machines, this one I’m using now allowing me to communicate with you who could not understand me without it.
The other sentient life-form I mentioned is a People who call themselves Pardu, who look something like a bipedal mountain lion with two sets of arms, one set larger and stronger than the other. Why do I mention them? Because they created the technology that eventually destroyed both peoples. With their tiny secondary arms and hands they have the skills to craft amazing works of art with incredible delicacy. Their larger arms however, carry a power belied by the elaborate decorative weapons they carry. Were their weapons to be compared to those of the Sauk, you would deem them to be the more civilized and intelligent, to the extent of comparing Renaissance Europe to pre-feudal Japan. However, you would be wrong. Rather, they are equally intelligent though are far different in philosophy.
But this is not their story; at least, not yet. All I have told you is just to give you a small reason as to why I am telling you this tale.
