Nylah was born into the world to Mothraki parents, likely even given a Mothraki-esque name, but would never come to learn the ways of her people all the same. Orphaned a few days after her birth due to a Bastelian raid, it was only the actions of the same veteran Bastelian warrior who slew her biological parents that she managed to frankly even survive the event. After this event, she was taken far, far away and eventually settled down in the human village of Dawn alongside her new caretaker and parental figure. Quite the story to behold, though to her things have been far simpler than that. To her, she has always known the Bastelian who raised her as her ‘mother’ and that was ultimately that.
It was a strange childhood where she never knew a single individual of her own species, a strange roadside attraction to locals who happened to live among them with a member of another species who initially made them nervous. At times her mother would be out to get something simple from within the village, or bring something to someone, or simple little tasks that were usually kept brief. They earned their fair share of stares, among other minute issues or situations that arose from time to time in those first years in Dawn, but her mother always pushed her to not lash out. In her mother’s words at the time: “We cannot afford to.” At the same time, however, her mother would seek to drill skills into her in the long-run that would be of use to her in the future. How to fight using a spear, watching as she practiced magic and giving her what tips she could, and teaching her other general tips and tricks and techniques for survival. She was not allowed too far away from home at first, especially after one a small number of incidents where a small group of the local human children bullied her, though as a small child she did try to sneak away sometimes to see more of the world around her. It began as a simple thing, both a challenge as well as a time to be punished for breaking the house rules, but almost became a game for herself and her mother by the time she grew up somewhat.
Indeed, in time things would generally get better. Things would become progressively better as they became normal to see around the village, as her mother took part in the hunting of food for and helping in the guarding of the village, and their presences became less and less of a standout thing and more just a simple fact of life. Nylah would seek to prepare herself as well for the road of adulthood ahead, starting to learn skills underneath the mundane healer of the village, alongside all her mother did to try to prepare her and teach her about the world and living within it. But as part of this…her mother would eventually pull her aside and tell her the truth of their situation. A cruel truth of the world that, in reality, the one who had raised and loved her and still did was the one who had made her an orphan and stripped her from her people and land of birth. In response, however, she simply hugged her mother.
…Six hours later, after this revelation had been given to her, The Elder Beast of Rime would pass through Dawn. And once more, though now far older and more aware, she would almost lose everything once again.
Goals: To become a powerful magic user and healer, a heroine capable of protecting what and whom she values most as well as helping those in need. Naive? A bit. But her goal is basically to become a great heroine.
-{Enthralling Dust} (Racial): Mothraki produce a potent pollen like dust upon their wings. Merely by existing they spread this where they go, though it's mostly harmless if not inhaled in large quantities. Causes hallucinations and dulls one's senses. As one may expect, people tend to frown upon this sort of thing.
-{Journeyman Light Magic}: A magic encompassing pure light and illumination, ranging from harmless orbs to light up one’s path all the way up to rays/beams of light as attacks to even light barriers and other light constructs such as swords and spears and shields and so forth. A versatile magic that does not call upon the fire of the sun, but does have its myriad uses and capabilities.
-{Novice Herbalist}: Non-magical practices of a healer, ranging from identifying or figuring out the use of new herbs and recognizing familiar ones, to making things like certain poultices and healing-based alchemy/potion-making, to how to handle wounds/injuries and such using these things.
-{Herbalist's Bag}: A simple leather bag with a well-built shoulder strap, that is filled with a good number of many types of herbs, a good amount of bandages, and finally tools to make tonics, poultices, and potions alongside a scare few pre-prepared ones that are within the bag itself. She usually wears it around most of the time.
-{Small Knife}: A gift from her mother, made with a smoothed-out bone handle and treated with certain oils, mainly used to help cut things like vines and plants when out collecting herbs and so forth. Also a very niche emergency self-defense tool.
-{Food}: A small pouch sitting on her opposite hip that contains a few strips of preserved game meat and a few dried edible herbs from the local area. Not much in amount, since it was meant to be snacks for heading into the woods to gather herbs before 'that' happened.
-{Wristband}: A simple little bracelet made of pretty stones dyed in various colors, carefully having had a hole made through each, sitting on a band made of twisted and treated leather strips. Worn on her left wrist and given as a gift to her by her mother. How long it took to acquire or even make is unknown.
-{Cuteness}: She is a definitely cute moth girl. This is inherent to her existence. Yes.
-{Wings}: Useful for slowing falls and gliding/hovering briefly in the air. (Ala the GM: "Mothraki can't fly, per say, but they could slow their own falls/hover a bit though not for long. You could learn to fly later.") Could she learn to fly? Eventually, yes and hopefully.
-{Scaling for Skills}: "Novice ->Apprentice->Journeyman->Expert->Master"
A flash of light from around the corner, the sound of her summon being cut down with ease, people running, people shouting, and the statue getting blasted as something popped its head into the room. Something not exactly on a 'side' outside of its own. At least she wasn't the only one to see the stupidity in this situation...
"The kid and the other guy have some solid points you know!"
...which would have almost given her some relief to know, but then out of the walls and everywhere ghosts and angry balls of dead spirits looking like fire swarmed into the room and animated the various things around the room like it was a children's movie. Then last but far from least was the now-attacking possessed suits of armor now trying to get at her! It was enough to make the esper react by launching herself away with a great leap to try to get some good distance. The intent was to push herself away from the suits of armor ASAP, landing near Silmeria in a roll and getting back up on her own two feet and facing toward the direction of the suits of armor that had tried going at her.
If this succeeded, she intended to touch her staff on the floor a bit in front of herself to create another summon. Something to try to protect her and her ally defensively and keep the suits of armor busy if or when they approached. At least if it could even hold up to that beyond a mere distraction. Depended on how tough these armors suddenly were after being possessed by a ghost, at least compared to an esper. From that point she brandished her staff in a ready position, turning partly to the side to get a glimpse on where Gunther was but keeping low and her back mostly to Silmeria (if her ally made it to where she was moved to on the map OOC) and readying herself for what would come next.
Still, she did hear what Klava had to say at the very least. It was better than no information at all about this particular enemy at the very least.
Nylah was born into the world to Mothraki parents, likely even given a Mothraki-esque name, but would never come to learn the ways of her people all the same. Orphaned a few days after her birth due to a Bastelian raid, it was only the actions of the same veteran Bastelian warrior who slew her biological parents that she managed to frankly even survive the event. After this event, she was taken far, far away and eventually settled down in the human village of Dawn alongside her new caretaker and parental figure. Quite the story to behold, though to her things have been far simpler than that. To her, she has always known the Bastelian who raised her as her ‘mother’ and that was ultimately that.
It was a strange childhood where she never knew a single individual of her own species, a strange roadside attraction to locals who happened to live among them with a member of another species who initially made them nervous. At times her mother would be out to get something simple from within the village, or bring something to someone, or simple little tasks that were usually kept brief. They earned their fair share of stares, among other minute issues or situations that arose from time to time in those first years in Dawn, but her mother always pushed her to not lash out. In her mother’s words at the time: “We cannot afford to.” At the same time, however, her mother would seek to drill skills into her in the long-run that would be of use to her in the future. How to fight using a spear, watching as she practiced magic and giving her what tips she could, and teaching her other general tips and tricks and techniques for survival. She was not allowed too far away from home at first, especially after one a small number of incidents where a small group of the local human children bullied her, though as a small child she did try to sneak away sometimes to see more of the world around her. It began as a simple thing, both a challenge as well as a time to be punished for breaking the house rules, but almost became a game for herself and her mother by the time she grew up somewhat.
Indeed, in time things would generally get better. Things would become progressively better as they became normal to see around the village, as her mother took part in the hunting of food for and helping in the guarding of the village, and their presences became less and less of a standout thing and more just a simple fact of life. Nylah would seek to prepare herself as well for the road of adulthood ahead, starting to learn skills underneath the mundane healer of the village, alongside all her mother did to try to prepare her and teach her about the world and living within it. But as part of this…her mother would eventually pull her aside and tell her the truth of their situation. A cruel truth of the world that, in reality, the one who had raised and loved her and still did was the one who had made her an orphan and stripped her from her people and land of birth. In response, however, she simply hugged her mother.
…Six hours later, after this revelation had been given to her, The Elder Beast of Rime would pass through Dawn. And once more, though now far older and more aware, she would almost lose everything once again.
Goals: To become a powerful magic user and healer, a heroine capable of protecting what and whom she values most as well as helping those in need. Naive? A bit. But her goal is basically to become a great heroine.
-{Enthralling Dust} (Racial): Mothraki produce a potent pollen like dust upon their wings. Merely by existing they spread this where they go, though it's mostly harmless if not inhaled in large quantities. Causes hallucinations and dulls one's senses. As one may expect, people tend to frown upon this sort of thing.
-{Journeyman Light Magic}: A magic encompassing pure light and illumination, ranging from harmless orbs to light up one’s path all the way up to rays/beams of light as attacks to even light barriers and other light constructs such as swords and spears and shields and so forth. A versatile magic that does not call upon the fire of the sun, but does have its myriad uses and capabilities.
-{Novice Herbalist}: Non-magical practices of a healer, ranging from identifying or figuring out the use of new herbs and recognizing familiar ones, to making things like certain poultices and healing-based alchemy/potion-making, to how to handle wounds/injuries and such using these things.
-{Herbalist's Bag}: A simple leather bag with a well-built shoulder strap, that is filled with a good number of many types of herbs, a good amount of bandages, and finally tools to make tonics, poultices, and potions alongside a scare few pre-prepared ones that are within the bag itself. She usually wears it around most of the time.
-{Small Knife}: A gift from her mother, made with a smoothed-out bone handle and treated with certain oils, mainly used to help cut things like vines and plants when out collecting herbs and so forth. Also a very niche emergency self-defense tool.
-{Food}: A small pouch sitting on her opposite hip that contains a few strips of preserved game meat and a few dried edible herbs from the local area. Not much in amount, since it was meant to be snacks for heading into the woods to gather herbs before 'that' happened.
-{Wristband}: A simple little bracelet made of pretty stones dyed in various colors, carefully having had a hole made through each, sitting on a band made of twisted and treated leather strips. Worn on her left wrist and given as a gift to her by her mother. How long it took to acquire or even make is unknown.
-{Cuteness}: She is a definitely cute moth girl. This is inherent to her existence. Yes.
-{Wings}: Useful for slowing falls and gliding/hovering briefly in the air. (Ala the GM: "Mothraki can't fly, per say, but they could slow their own falls/hover a bit though not for long. You could learn to fly later.") Could she learn to fly? Eventually, yes and hopefully.
-{Scaling for Skills}: "Novice ->Apprentice->Journeyman->Expert->Master"
"Pain Is An Old Friend Of Mine...As Is Nearly Getting Shot For That Matter"
Lilliah could barely eek out a sound as Ashley healed her, trying to make it sound as 'uh huh' as possible to confirm. The sides of her mouth barely could move, not even enough to make a smile at first, though Jacquieline's request about blood magic did draw her gaze over as she turned her crispy neck to look over. She didn't even bat an eye at Binky's seemingly unaffected attitude, however, as she was right. Justin needed to be stopped, and grieving and stopping would not make anything better. It would not bring back lives, it would not make things better, and it would certainly not revive the dead in any sort of favorable fashion. She didn't even need to respond to Merry's speech either for that matter. She would simply pull herself up and try to dust off some of the ash and debris, though the patch of charred, seared, and blackened flesh on her back that remained was a painful reminder of what had happened.
Even so, she had to admit that Su had ultimately voiced a similar train of thoughts to her own to Jacqueline about the matter of blood magic. Bravery was great, but not greater than the risk it could take to do something that work on an 'exchange' basis like Blood Magic on the fly. Then again it wasn't like she was rather brave herself...but she was alive. She was alive and had managed to get her way out of it somehow. And she planned to keep it that way if she could.
Yet speaking of life and death, her mind was wanting to race about once more as she fell into formation and walked along with the others. All those memories returning so vividly wasn't something comfortable, and more than anything she was forcing them back at the point of her staff as best she could. She couldn't let her mind wander. Not now, not in the next room, and not on the job. It was the determined will to see the mission through still that kept Lilliah focused on the path and task ahead well enough, though a chill ran down her mostly-healed back as flickers from 'then' popped in and out along the way. Wukong hung out near the back of the pack, and admittedly feeling glad about it by the time they got into the new room and people working for the Maverick-...oh.
Yeah, it made sense someone else had a grudge against Justin here, but seeing the opposition approach was not so fun. Especially when recognizing a few familiar faces from the police station mission out of the crowd. However, this was simply part of the job as well. Freelancers were Freelancers. It was not what stopped her in her tracks for a moment...
...rather, it was the statue itself that gave her that brief moment of pause. Seemed blood drinking was a sexual fetish thing for vampires, and her mind would never get used to the concept whether it was classical literature or not. Gross. So very gross. Forever gross even.
Listening to Binky and Billy speak to each other before blitzing off down the hall, however, the simian esper began to move the closest armoire for cover as quickly as she could. By the time Su made her hand gestures, Lilliah had her head poked back around the corner just enough to be looking back at her allies. Did she want a battle? Not really, it would be nicer to gang up on the vampire first in case things went sideways for the two leaders somehow. Still, 'Breacher' proved her codename apt as she kicked things off with a literal bang of her gun toward the enemies and Wukong dove as fast as possible behind the nearest armoire to hide as she began to cast a melody.
As she landed in a roll, Lilliah's staff touched the ground to cast her summon spell just outside of her hiding spot to bring forth a wind-element summon to try to assist her allies by having it attack the nearest enemy. At the same time, however, the room erupted into a flurry from all the shots and movement and mere seconds it took for the meeting to become a firefight. Cards flying, shots fired, a flashbang potentially being thrown if that ended up happening, and Klava charging in to try to get to them. All whilst two leaders ran for Justin themselves...idiots. Didn't matter how strong they were, it felt stupid to ignore the main threat whose home turf they were on before anything else. At the same time, however, it was frankly inevitable for this to happen between their groups after meeting here. Like how people talked about dogs and cats being around each other. It was natural.
If Apollo threw the flash, however, Lilliah would barely miss it going off as her vision was outside of the blinding light. At the same time, however, it did limit her ability to help outside of the melody she'd cast reflexively to try to provide a distraction or some kind of helpful boon to her team initially. By the time Klava came over to try to rush them, Lilliah would be out of reach and frankly sight. The summon? Who knew what would happen. It had its orders.
Time seemed to slow down to a crawl before her eyes, almost stopping as events played out around her in near stop-motion as perception and mind raced faster and faster.
The sheer pain of being cooked alive in the deepening flames she'd been sent flying into, the body of the bony monstrosity she'd tried to hurt prior crushing down on her chest, her respiratory system convulsing terribly as the smoke flowed in and the blood-curdling screams of raw pain and terror came out of her mouth, and even the searing stones and broken fragments cutting into and burning her back was all simply unimaginable. Unimaginable to live through this far at the very least. Any less luck on her end, or the lack of her grimoire's activation, and she'd have been outright dead and left as food or worse.
This all frankly was going on as her staff was already, since the beast had pounced on her and she'd reflexively raised that staff, pushing as hard as possible back against the beast's body in a rather desperate and reflexive reaction to try to keep its away from her head. Her hands likewise gripped the staff as tightly as possible, the one thing seemingly keeping its maw away from herself for all she knew.
Yet to ever say this whole situation was foreign to her was something of a lie if she had to be honest...because this sort of thing was not something she thought she'd ever feel again. She still saw it all in her nightmares now and then. Just as vivid as is she was still there those many years ago.
She could virtually feel the contrast of the piercing, deep cold of that day as it had crept into her very bones like specter.
She could hear the crunching of the dense northern forest debris underneath her feet with each hurried and panicked step.
She could remember the feeling of the tremendous foot of that beast crushing down on her chest, and feel the claws starting to gently sink into her flesh as it didn't even bother to go for the kill. Toying with her, even as her last real sibling tried to get the thing's attention.
Hell...oh hell. She could hear the crunch of Lyria's bones in its maw after it has tossed her around for fun. The images of that thing as the crimson blood dripped from its face, and as its eyes stared into her very soul, would forever stain her memories and nightmares alike. It was carved deep into her, etched in like a deep wound that would never fully fade away. Or had it ever fully healed in the first place?
What had they done to deserve this? Why? Why?Why were things like this???WHY WERE THEY JUST WATCHING THEM DIE LIKE THIS WITHOUT BATTING AN EYE?!?!
She wanted to run, flee, be anywhere and anything else than there. Her basest instincts screamed at the top of their lungs, and her heart felt like it was racing faster than any car could comprehend. She could see the almost-darkness starting to encroach on the farthest edges of her peripheral vision. The pain began to deeper. The panic began to settle in even more.
It had to stop.
'I-I...'
There had to be some way to make it stop.
'I...'
Please, anything, anyone, please make the pain stop!
'I...!'
MAKE IT STOP!!!
The adrenaline surged through her body, and Wukong forced her body to eek out a melody with all of her remaining strength. It was a desperate plea for survival eeked out in reality as soon as she could force it to as soon and quickly as possible. This desperate melody, this attack cast out as her staff was pressed against the general body of this monster, was her way of screaming the words she had taken most to heart 'that' day.
Yet right now, her very soul silently shouted these words out far louder than any sound vocal chords could have ever made. Louder than any siren or bell, louder than anything she could imagine on the face of the planet.
'I WANT TO LIVE!!!'
She would fight to her truest and most final dying breath. She would struggle until the most bitter of ends came. She would defy death until every bit of life in her was spent.
Her journey was not yet over, not if she had anything to say and do about it!
As the blood-knight nun’s instrument swung toward Wukong, empowered into a full-on threat beyond what the nun already had been, the simian esper reacted the only way she and her grimoire knew how to do on the fly…adapt!
Despite the instincts telling her to jump back from the attack, Lilliah’s body refused to do so. Or rather, it did not refuse to do so…but couldn’t?! Like something held her back from moving farther away. In her panic the siminan esper ultimately rolled to her own left, dodging as the nun’s attack came crashing mightily vertically down where she once stood. At the same time, as she came back up to her feet and primed to make another move, Wukong struck out with her staff, aiming to use her reach to poke out/at one of the blood knight-nun’s own eyes.
“For a nun, you really do stick around like a bad habit!”
The matter of reach, however, no longer mattered. Her mobility options sealed by the nun’s cursed eye, the two dueling espers were now both within reach of each other’s weapons, and any step forward they took would further decrease the amount of space they had to maneuver. Which, of course, was fine with Lenore.
As Wukong’s staff thrust out, the armored nun took another step forward, tilting her head to one side. The bludgeoning weapon clipped the side of her helmet instead, the damage minimal, and with a twist of her hips, she swung her falchion diagonally towards Wukong, the blood-graced blade aiming to carve into the soft flesh beneath her ribs.
As the bloody blade sliced through the air toward her midsection, Wukong was casting a melody of her own as she pulled her staff to block the attack. With how little time she had to react, however, the most her staff would do is intercept the enemy’s blade closer toward the handle. And yet…
Bronze Touch
Damage X
Push
…she hoped this would work. She really hoped this would work.
“Finally!”
Moments before sword would meet staff, Wukong noticed it. The shifting of Lenore’s posture, her knees dropping and her back straightening out, her exposed eye glimmering with an arcane light. She was expecting something. She understood something. She sensed something.
With the echoing of a great gong, one that resonated from the very depths of Wukong’s soul, her crimson battlestaff unleashed a rippling force against the incoming falchion, repelling it with magical force. Yet the nature of Instruments was indestructibility, and though the simian esper could hear the fractures racing up her opponent’s arm, she saw too, the reason for the change in posture. The falchion was pushed away at a tremendous speed, but the person wielding it had steadied herself against the incoming force.
So what had happened?
Spinning around, even faster than her first strike, Lenore delivered another horizontal slash, this one propelled by her opponent’s spell, to bisect the wind-blessed martial artist.
Noticing something was wrong in those moments before contact, the shift of her opponent’s posture and so forth, Lilliah’s eyes widened as the gong-like echo of the blow rang out into the air and through her very self. She yanked her staff to the other side of herself as the blow pushed off of her staff, both hands and her body barely moved to the ‘safe’ side of her staff and holding onto it for dear life as she tried to block the blow with the midsection of her instrument where her hands were now not holding it. Her body also twisted as she moved to do this, lining up to brace in full behind the staff itself whilst taking a knee.
Known among their own kind as the “Asu’rai” (Asu = ‘people’, and rai = ‘divine’; more specifically in context being ‘of the divine’), they are a former race of Gaia whose history before the cataclysm came about with a…rocky start.
The Asu'rai are a race that was once embroiled in endless tribal wars among their own, living in an area of fertile and vast plains defended naturally from the north and west by great mountain ranges. Those plains have been soaked in more Asu'rai blood than any can hope to recall or count, and the fight for resources and competition for dominance kept them embroiled despite pieces of peace existing here and there in their home territory. Still, the race would come to be one with the arts of war and would hone their own crafts and tools of it to match. They would ride large, six-legged beasts called “Gir’thru” (Gir = ‘beast’, and thru = ‘swift’; contextually as in ‘as swift as the wind’) and could wield multiple weapons in their six arms. Their three faces would be used to keep an eye on the world around them with acute observation, and their stature places the females’ average height in turn as being 5’9” to 6’0” tall. Females trend toward being taller than males until they reach adulthood, where males will overcome them right about the time they reach adulthood.
The race is also highly resistant to fire and heat, whilst also having notably redundant bodies and the ability to regrow lost organs and so forth over time (yet slowly, like a natural healing process). Further, the skin of male Asu’rai reddens with age, starting off a pale caucasian white, whilst females start a light pink and become pale caucasian at a young age before remaining so for the rest of their lives.
(Males)
(Very Old Elderly Male)
(Female)
((More Could Be Added Later))
The majority race of the Kil’vush (kil = ‘scaly/rough’, vush = ‘islands’) Isles, which are called the“Volrest Isles” by the locals. In the Rolvfen tongue the name means “Royal Isles”, or “The Isles of the King”. Also a race that exists on the mainland within the bounds of the Empire’s territory.
The Rolvfen themselves are a humanoid race with tough draconic scales, two arms, and two legs. Their heads are dragon-like in shape, with eyes whose pupils are round in the daylight and become a bestial-looking slit in the dark (or when they are very panicked otherwise). The species stands with the males having a taller-than-the-females average height of 5’5”-5’8”, and females’ average height being 3-4 inches below that. The scales on their bodies are able to withstand rubbing against even coarse substances, and are made to also help them get a grip when walking around on slippery surfaces. Those living on the mainland tend to have more earthy and simple skin tones as well as others like golden yellows (think harvest wheat) and blues (if their people live near enough to a big body of water like a big lake or the ocean). The skin tone changes based on where they live over the course of about three generations, reflecting it in a sense and passing on that heritage to the next generation. It is said in their most ancient legends that they were made like this to help them survive against predators in their own very ancient past. The race in regards to the mainland also has eye colors ranging from a crimson red to violet to verdant forest greens and earthy browns and golden yellows and so forth.
Yet in terms of skin tone those living on the Isles have only one of two: Red or White. In this case it does not matter where they live or for how long or how many generations, which is a major oddity among their kind elsewhere. They also stand out in that their eye colors range from gold to silver to various gemstone-like colors. This is also where their past history and strife comes into play, as the Reds and the Pales (as they call themselves) are said to be descendants of a pair of mighty and powerful dragons who once ruled the isles and led their people to them for sanctuary from a great disaster of some kind. The Reds possess a higher stamina than the Pales whilst having tougher-than-normal scales for a Rolvfen, whilst the Pales possess stronger senses and a notable resistance to magic instead.
Whilst those living on the mainland eastern coast were either semi-tribal or otherwise disorganized when it came to governance, at least before the Empire emerged and swept them in, those living on the Isles were far more distinct. They had kingdoms that warred against each other, using longbows and leather armor and scale mail chest pieces and a simple chainmail skirt and leather woven sandals for their soldiers. They had small straight shortswords, and petty grudges going back generations upon generations to when their benefactor-founders infused them with their blood and supposedly died in battle against each other over some matter or issue very much long forgotten by time. Like the other areas on the eastern mainland, and the Empire to boot, the Rolvfen of the Isles had to deal with the presence of dragons and at times would serve them or kill them or ally with them or so forth based on whatever was going on at the time.
Rolvfen in general have clutches of 2-4 eggs that are protected by the female and male in tandem, one protecting the eggs usually due to their instincts. After hatching, males tend to venture out and females rule the ‘nest’ back home as it were. Children are held as important enough that females with eggs are expected to protect them and have those egg-protecting rights respected in ancient Rolvfen law. Meanwhile females who do not have eggs can work in any other jobs the male Rolvfen can. Male Rolvfen whose mate has died are expected to step up or find another mate/wife to help by traditional law as well. However, in many but not all ways the imposition of imperial law by the Empire has changed the status quo after over a century of enforcement and revolt and other civil issues leading to the eventual reforms and certain grants and such being made to keep order on the Isles.
Mainland Rolvfen compose about half of the Rolvfen population of the Empire, whilst the “Isles Rolvfen” compose the other half of the Empire’s Rolvfen population. Differences in culture are easy to see, and despite the retained ability to have children with each other the two differing Rolvfen populations had been separated (prior to the Empire) for a very long and unknown amount of time as well.
((More Could Be Added Later))
(Example: A Young Faerur With Her Hair Grown Long On Purpose)
The Faerur are from the second biggest of the Volrest Isles, located to the northwest of the largest island that long ago housed the majority of the Isles Rolvfen population. They are beings that exist somewhere between a centaur and a fae of some kind, beings who have the grace and mystery and oddity of the fae and all of the body shape of a proper centaur. They all have silvery hair, with various eye colors that always appear in mismatched pairs with no reason or rhyme. A gold eye and a brown one, a silver eye on a green one, a chocolate brown eye and a blue one, and so forth are among the incredible range of eye colors they can possess. In fact, to find any two Faerur with the same color eyes is already an incredibly rare feat, and to find two with the same eye colors in the same specific eyes as each other is even more extremely rare. They also have fae-like pointy ears and unicorn-like horn on their heads. Their skin colors too are odd, ranging from pale whites and snowy light grays to oranges and soft reds and light pinks. In this manner the Asu’rai themselves saw a sort of distant kinship with them and tended to treat them somewhat more favorably in the initial years and decades after taking over the Isles.
Prior to the involvement of the Empire, the Faerur were a race usually picked on and pushed back by the Rolvfen over and over again as the latter tried to subjugate the former. At times this succeeded for a time, and at others the Faerur would push back and be free once more. Immediately before the Empire arrived and took over, the Faerur lands had been split in half with more of it subjugated than the Rolvfen had ever managed before. After this the Faerur found themselves in a more favorable position underneath their new overlords, with many moving willingly by themselves or Empire mandate to the mainland or taken Rolvfen land to escape the past and others remaining home.
Traditional Faerur culture would usually see them organized into groups, a kind of thing parallel to fae courts which they called ‘councils’. Such Councils would war against each other here and there, work together one day and be sabotaging each other the next, and would even sometimes target others in the Isles for actions or mischief or so forth. Only when the Rolvfen became more of a problem over the years did the Council begin to grow more in size and war less with each other than they did try to survive the enemy and toy with them all the same. When the Empire took over, many abandoned the old system due to the changing times having already begun to break it down by this point prior. The Councils system was then in final shattered for good within the smaller portion who stayed back in their homeland, though it would take a civil revolt of those last few Councils before they were crushed. Since then, the native population in the Faerur homeland has barely recovered to pre-Imperial-conquest levels as more immigrants were moved in and peoples were moved all about to mitigate potential rebellions all over the Isles.
Being natural mages in their own right, Faerur have an innate magical talent that can be honed through actual training. Untrained, their magical talent can at least do little whimsical things like hide things and switch the placement of things and small-level small-scale stuff like that.
((More Could Be Added Later))
The Gnomar, who call themselves the “Lepraus” in their native tongue, are very small, diminutive humanoids who began on the north part of the largest island of the Isles. Sharing their home with the Rolvfen, however, proved to be less than ideal to say the least. The race has an inborn talent to dig through dirt with their strong but small little hands, but would eventually come to live in hillsides and similar underground abodes that would be wrought to keep hidden from enemies and to keep one’s children and food safe from invaders. They became industrious people who came to be close to the earth itself, and whilst not tricksters they would come to embrace traps and holes and guerilla warfare from day one due to their short stature being a great disadvantage in regards to reach. Their bodies are dense and their skeletons are tough, and they can take a brutal beating for something their size. They produce a lot of heat in their bodies as well, and possess a natural and inborn green thumb that they can fiddle with. So too do they make good spies and agents, able to be hidden in things and getting into places anyone as large as a human would not be able to.
Of course, becoming known for hoarding food and other valuables they own in their hidden homes, they gained a reputation somewhat akin to dragons. It does not help this that their other inborn talent is for keeping track of numbers. Yet this secondary talent makes them good merchants to boot, albeit some break the mold through sheer personal…’lack of talent’ as they tend to carefully put it among Gnomar.
The race’s land has mostly been ever occupied by the Rolvfen, with minimal interactions with the Faerur save to trade or make deals with a Faerur Council near the coast. The ingenuity of the race led them to survive very well, but with the arrival of the Empire the occupation of their lands was generally ended in favor of taking a lot of them and the other races of the Isles and resettling them elsewhere all over the Empire. Even so, they’ve found more success on the mainland than they did alone back on the Isles. Likewise with the redistribution they can be found scattered all over the empire…even if they do still remain the smallest minority and shortest race in the whole of the Empire.
~Population~
20 million
((If That Number Doesn’t Work, I Will Negotiate @_@))
~Plane Description~
The name of this plane the Empire inhabits has been dubbed "Aiag", a reversal of a word in an old foreign tongue from a place far away from the original migrants' homeland back on their former plane of existence. A word both reversed and foreign, representing a new plane that was both familiar and yet foreign at the same time. A fitting thing in the eyes of the original Asu'rai. It possesses fertile valleys and titanic mountains, looming volcanoes and islands scattered about the seas, frozen wastes and icy depths to the far poles, rolling hills and verdant fields, great oceans and clear lakes, vast deserts and stretching savannas, and so forth in a mirrored but differing image of the "old world" recorded of in the Empire's most ancient and precious records. Yet this would not be all.
The Rolvfen sitting north of the grand area the Empire would be founded in would be brought into the fold first, and would be the first contacts of this new place. Disorganized and scattered, word and legend tell that more of their kind live far west of the pine forests and the northernmost boundary of the Empire. Rarely are some vaguely Rolvfen heads supposedly seen from those dense pines and the glint of nighttime firelight, and at times other ones that to the imagination seem to snarl back in the dark from afar. Rumor has it that a vast desert with jackal-eared humans lies far beyond to the southwest, ruling a vast nation and riding upon giant insects, but none remember for sure outside of the ancient mainland Rolvfen oral traditions and scant information or such tales that come from the rarely seen northern traders at most.
Yet to the north of the Empire, the frozen wastes and icy tunda and subzero temperatures and jagged rocky protrusions and so forth that act as home to host to life and beings that have been long honed to withstand and subsist in this place...and to survive the terrors that lurk deep underneath the layers of glacial sheets and soil of that horrific land. From this place the warrior-people of the north have long struck out invasions, sent raiding parties, and come against the Empire before being driven back. On rare occasions, however, traders arrive from this region and deal peaceably in goods and tales and stories of their homeland on the northern border. On other occasions, a dragon or other gigantic or even titanic shambling horror or mythical beast will emerge from the far north or northwest and threaten the Empire itself on their rampaging path.
To the east and southeast of the Empire's southern heartland, dubbed the 'Fertile Basin', are the vast, warm oceans that grow colder the farther north one moves. Yet from due east and northeastern directions, across the oceans, would come the occasional ship of oddly hostile island Rolvfen of a stranger sort, and even ships made of wood manned by myriad beastfolk or alternately floating etched stone platforms held aloft by magic and manned by avian peoples would come over to do trade after initial run-ins with exploratory groups in the past. Ships would be sent back in return, talking of vast lands of farms and myriad nations in wars with each other and vast stone keeps that stretched out for miles to keep hold of an area. Yet at other times such beastfolk or avian peoples would return as enemies under other banners or flags or designs made for their craft to distinguish them differently somehow, seeking invasions or the taking of goods, and would have to be repelled once more with more or less effort.
To the south, two kingdoms would border the Empire itself. One is a kingdom of demonic-looking treefolk and dryads and elf-like folk, a strange people of ancients and peculiar mannerisms who would be at on-and-off war with the Empire and their other neighbor to the south. The other kingdom, in turn, would turn out to be a kingdom of different elvish-like folk and frog-like beings and even bull-like people who would be usually a trading partner and at other times riding about on a warpath atop vulture-like beasts diving down onto their foes from the sky.
Such is what is known thus far of other inhabitants of Aiag, and with the securing of the Volrest Isles over a century ago the opportunity to seek out what else lies within this vast new world has become tempting. At the same time, however, the opening of the Rift once more has led to its own sense of awe and panic among those who know. For only the gods know what lies beyond that gate, and what other worlds and peoples and places and dangers might linger or lurk beyond that ancient magical veil...
((More Could Eventually Be Added Due To Events On Aiag Itself In The Future))
~History~
Over two thousand five hundred years ago, a great and powerful Asu'rai warlord managed to unite the warring tribes into one contiguous body. With the might of his arms, the wisdom of his brow, and the light of his brilliant spirit (as the folklore goes among the Asu'rai), he was also a literal reincarnation of the first Asu'rai and had been sent by the gods to lead them to victory and greatness. With bloody slaughter he purged the ill elements preventing their unity, as well as slaughtered their enemies nearby and afar. With great knowledge he organized the people and their armies into one great throng, and took over lands unseen and places unspoken and races yet unmet and brought them under the Asu'rai heel using diplomacy, military might, and other various measures. Due to him, in the literal sense, the Asu'rai forged a mighty empire that stretched farther and wider than their homeland ever could have imagined. He lived long enough to forge a succession as well, passing on the empire he founded to his oldest son.
Holding true to his bloodline, the second Great Ach’hak ('Ach' = 'mighty' (('like unto a mountain' in the context of this particular word)) and 'hak' = 'leader' ((a generic term for leader)) would make gains elsewhere and push the borders of the empire to their furthest by taking other areas and subjugating them. He would then turn more major attention to the internal affairs that had begun to backslide in his days, though his heir would die before he in turn fell ill and died along the way to his capital due to an unknown and mysterious disease From here the next ruler, his younger brother, would mostly focus on internal matters and barely maintain enough troops to keep the ‘core territories’ of the empire stable. The dramatic focus on the exponential issue of internal matters eventually led to unfavorable laws being passed to keep things in check, which would then lead to the leader’s fall to assassination by his younger twin siblings (half siblings themselves by another mother) after the loss of several periphery areas due to a lack of management. This duo took attention back to the military, pushing back out into certain lost areas and leading a purge in other internal ones to get rid of riotous elements. They would end up leading together until one died on the battlefield, and the other would become the victim of an assassination attempt he would survive but be crippled by.
By the time he died, the second twin (who was childless) had placed the only child of his twin brother on the throne and assigned the child’s mother as regent. Yet after a decade of regency on his behalf before he could come of age, the empire had been reorganized into a very decentralized form simply to try to hold itself together. In this time, however, it would also steadily crumble away to places forming into independent kingdoms and so forth on their own. It was under this last Great Ach’hak that the Asu'rai would make one last big offensive that would strike deep into trying to regain the past glories of the first Great Ach’hak. Yet with the ruler’s mother being the real power behind the throne, the current ruler being mostly a general with no political savviness, and the decentralization accelerating more and more over time, the empire of old would collapse into warring internal factions and attempted successor kingdoms and so forth.
By the time the Cataclysm came around, the most stable and long-lasting of these successor kingdoms that survived the times would become a hub of activity for many of the surviving Asu’rai once more. Refugees poured into this kingdom, with attempts to save sacred texts and old records somehow made along the way, and ultimately once the plans to make a Rift spread the move to construct one was made. Survivors were rallied underneath the last direct blood-relative of the former founders of the empire, a queen who took the throne with wisdom and grace said to have been bestowed on her by the gods themselves to ensure the survival of their people. It was under her enlightened rule in even these darkest of times that would bring the remaining population, at least those within her own lands by the time the Rift was completed, through the magical gateway and into a new home for their people.
…And what a home it would be. Great mountain basins/valleys filled with hills and vast open plains, as well as rivers weaving in and out and tributaries all over. All over there was fertile soil, with the vast mountains forming a rough terrain and a vast range protecting the western border stalwartly. To the east there was proper safe access to the sea, expanding out and moving gently downward to a sprawling eastern coastline and warm seas. A paradise that had been wrought from tumult or magic or whatever other forces of the world, but an area that would come to host the new rebirth of the Asu’rai race that was to come. The people would spread out over those titanic mountains and throughout the vast fertile mountain basins and valleys, and would fan out in time alongside the large and warm eastern coastline. They would reach from the top to the bottom, farming and mining and seeking a new future wrought from the ashes of the past. Also from this idea came the name for their homeland: “Ish’ull’rai”/Ishullrai (ish = ‘ash/ashes’, ull = ‘rebirth’, rai = ‘divine’). Rapid population growth from the plentitude of food, three civil wars, and numerous conquests (ones stretching in all directions) later, and the centralized Ishullrai Empire has become something of a powerful local force and very prosperous nation indeed.
Among the more notable conquests of the Empire throughout the last 500 years, the Kil’vush (kil = ‘scaly/rough’, vush = ‘islands’) Isles (called the“Volrest Isles” locally) in the colder seas to the northeast are among the more notable ones. Inhabited by three component races who have become part of the Asu’rai’s nation for the last 125 years, the area they live in is a land that has seen much war in and of itself as well. The treatment of the locals has changed over the years, depending on the ruler and other ongoing events, and immigration of Asu’rai to these islands and locals back to the mainland from the islands has been performed over the years to try to water down potential civil unrest to an effective point of success for the most part.
~Culture and Society~
~General~
The Empire enjoys a wide variety of festivals and celebrations, most being once a year ones held for deities or even ancient heroes. There are even specific festivals held to celebrate the harvest season and the start of a new year as the old one fades away. There are also feasts held to celebrate births, for those who can afford to put on one, and weddings and funerals more commonly so. At feasts for weddings and funerals one is expected to partake if they come to it, as it is to take in part of the bounty that symbolically represents the new life and joy the wedding rings in…or alternately the joy brought to the lives of others by the deceased whose funeral it is.
The Empire’s people enjoy the art of theater, with men and women participating, utilizing exaggerated gestures and masks and set pieces and songs. It is also a passion that began with the Asu’rai and became a general staple of the Empire in the end.
The smaller the theater the less the background pieces would be, leading to the idea of ‘simplified theater’ that focuses more on the actors. It is more dependent on the individuals, where actors can more splendidly shine individually but are relied on to tell the story of the piece/play. They go about being entirely minimalist in scenery and setting pieces, sometimes having nothing but a platform and seating all about to watch it in the most bare-minimal cases, by current times.
The larger and more wealthy the theater the more one can find, such as clockwork mechanisms and fancy backdrops and such, which in time has led to the idea of ‘epic theater’ that seeks to enthrall the senses and where the actors are a part of the fantastic scenes and so forth going on as part of the story. This form of theater can also make use of subtle details or such included in a scene, requiring one to have a keen eye to notice or best appreciate the occasional hints at the plot or little subtle cues and clues here and there which tie back into the story or help accentuate a scene. The fine details in both actors and the stage set apart ‘epic theater’ from the other form, and the use of clockwork karakuri-style dolls or such is also mixed into this form of Asu’rai theater.
People of the Empire also enjoy dance, which is common for certain festivals or celebrations such as one’s coming of age. Guests or not, one’s skill and accuracy does not matter when it comes to the dance. It is an expression of joy and jubilation and the fire of life when it is a public thing, though dancing in regards to a performance is a whole other thing requiring training and skill and grace to perform.
((More To Eventually Be Added))
~Religion~
A people who lived upon the land of their original home for longer than they have memory of back on Gaia, the Asu'rai were also religiously acquainted with the land. Mountains in their religion are seen as conduits to the divine, protecting them from harm as a shield from many foes and reaching up to the skies like a great pillar built up from the world itself. To live on one is to live upon or within a holy place, and to show proper respect to it. The eternal sky above stretches out like the ground below and also like unto vast bodies of water, and it is believed the gods/goddesses live beyond it and beyond a far more vast ‘sea of darkness and light’ which conceals their presence. During the night, this ‘sea of darkness and light’ can be seen if the skies are clear enough during that time.
To die is to be buried near the conduits of the gods, a mountain, or at least have a metal or stone-wrought mountain-like headstone called a “Rai’ach” (rai = “divine”, ach = 'mighty’ but ‘like unto a mountain' in the context of this particular word) to place over the grave to the same effect. ((This term is also the name of their chief deity, who presides over the endless sky that stretches out over all.)) The idea of this is of one’s spirit being transmitted out to the gods to either lay at rest with them if one was righteous, or to be cast down into a hellish realm of punishment if one was evil. Rebirth is also possible and seen as a thing, mostly being for those who are sent by the gods to again touch the mortal realm for some divine purpose or another. Evil people can also be reborn if their evils are weighted and judged as lesser enough to be given a ‘second chance’, in this leading them to hopefully live a new and good life so they may achieve rest within the gods’ divine realm. One might have to live multiple good lives to burn away the negative evils and sins of their first life, but it is a struggle the traditional Asu’rai faith holds to be an eternal one until all redeemable souls pass into the pure realm of the gods and those who remain purely evil burn away in the ashes of punishment.
((More To Eventually Be Added))
~Random Additional Cultural Notes: Asu'rai Linguistics~
Asu'rai language uses a constructive or 'building block' style of formatting to convey ideas. They use an apostrophe to combine 'simpler words/terms' into more nuanced and detailed 'complex words' that are chained together to make sentences. Individual context of these simpler words, as well as the order they are used in, will ultimately affect the end meaning when the language is either written or spoken. Misordering simpler words can make larger words mean wholly different things.
Likewise, very complex things or very alien/new things can result in very long and highly complex words needing to be used. This can be highly tedious for speakers or writers, but the Asu'rai language is admirably flexible enough for it at the same time. Very long complex words can also be the result if new simpler words are needed to describe things which don't already have a term or concept for them, resulting in new simpler words being made over time to adapt.
Further, multiple different simple words can all refer to and signify the same base concept (like 'strength'), but will each have different nuances attached. This is also important to understand when trying to write or speak their language, as these nuances can also very readily affect the meaning of complex words.
((More To Maybe/or/Eventually Be Added One Day))
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~Governance and Politics~
Has a breakdown of organization from the smallest to the largest: Local, District, Regional, and Provincial. Then there is a great senate/council of experienced and well-seasoned governing individuals, including in their ranks the most wealthy and influential people of the empire.
Officials are paid by the state and are made part of it, with state organizations for tax collection, census taking, and so forth being set in place. The bureaucracy formed from these officials all over is basically what forms the day to day machine of the imperial government, with governing individuals being chosen via examinations held to help choose fitting people for positions throughout the Empire. Even governmental organizations use these examinations as a rule of thumb, and being proven unworthy of the position or corrupt and not doing your job is not going to lead to a ‘good’ end to say the least...
The monarchy remains hereditary, but monarchs will have multiple children who are educated and raised and eventually take their own exams to test their mettle and strength and intelligence and so forth. Among them, the most qualified will usually be chosen by the monarch. Otherwise the monarch does choose who their successor will be among their children, though if they die before doing that then the great senate/council chooses from among them instead.
~Technology and Magic~
The Empire has also not been lacking in terms of advancements over the years.
Crop rotation is utilized in order to help maximize the fertility of the soil and production of food. These ideas began in the more mountainous and fringe areas, as well as in a few areas where fertility in the soil seemed to start dropping, before eventually coalescing together as the concept was pieced together and came to be adopted formally about 275 years ago. Since then it has become a big hit, with the scholar who brought up the idea in a book about farming he wrote being credited with it publicly.
Methods of preservation such as pickling, dehydration (such as sun-drying), some curing done by hanging meats and such in dry/salty air blowing up on mountain slopes closer to the sea, and even mountainous root cellars are the types of preservation utilized within the Empire. The people of the Empire also actively make use of certain kinds of oils to store some foods, weighing them down with chunks of salt in jars of oil (the jars being sealed with wax or beeswax or similar sealants) in order to preserve them and use them for cooking later. Sometimes heavier foods might be covered in a thick coating of preserving spices and salt before being buried in the oil as a precaution, which also flavors the oil in the long term. Both versions of oil preservation make a generally useful byproduct for cooking called “Chu’ihs” (Chu = ‘long’, ihs = ‘meal’) due to how they flavor the oil in the containers of preserved foods. Chu’ihs is useful for adding calories and fat to even dishes with little meat and substance to them, as well as imparting meaty flavors and so forth secondarily that might be more of a morale thing than not. In areas with not as much fresh food access year-round, such as mountains, making food with Chu’ihs is a very common and reliable staple indeed to stretch out one’s food stores and improve one’s meals.
Further, the Empire has most notably emerged into the creation of gears and clockwork-style automata/mechanisms. Both magical and non-magical designs exist, utilizing anything from mana-generating ‘magic cores’ to power them to a series of levers or manually-operated means. Bridges that can be lowered or raised using gear-based mechanisms to cut off access during times of war, palace and city gates able to be opened and shut with cool mechanisms, dancing automata in the richest theaters, and so forth have had time to proliferate throughout the Empire in its major cities and many smaller towns. Naturally this doesn’t mean such things exist everywhere within the Empire’s lands as a standard, as the most distant and fringe areas or generally rural enough places of habitation don’t usually see them at all unless traveling elsewhere. For such people and foreigners traveling in or through the Empire, the sight of such things is a fascination and novelty that brings forth gasps of awe and gazes of wonder to the forefront. These advances also have extended to the military to boot, with auto-firing ballistae operated using easy-to-spin wheels to fire ammunition from atop carriages or on the field, as well as things like enchanted self-assembling automata trebuchet and well-improved crossbow-cocking designs, have become integrated inherently into the military.
Windmills and waterwheels also exist as technology made use of within the Empire, far more commonly so in the simple running of mills and grindstones and such. These things are also far more uncommonly used to help move or operate certain clockwork mechanisms in certain places in particular.
In terms of magic, most of it is rather standard to the ideas of casting spells using mana and using one's own mana or from the environment itself. Spells that call forth elementals or other beings from alien planes to serve as familiars under a magical contract, the creation of fireballs and magic missiles, and so forth feature among the vast array of generally but not entirely standard fantasy-magic faire. Artifice is also a very major area of magic-craft within the Empire, creating items and automata and golems and tools and weapons and so forth to make use of, and is a very well-developed area of magic use within the Empire to boot. There is also the use of uniquely movement-based magic called 'Ahtma', which uses symbolic movements to cast spells by drawing on the 'meaning' of said movements and the content created by using various movements in sequences. Ahtma looks a lot like martial arts or yoga or other such things, with anything from simple movements to complex ones being utilized within it. However, Ahtma users must train in the arts of using it and bringing effects and understanding to those magic-casting movements themselves in order for it to function in the first place. Simply imitating Ahtma moves isn't going to work, as the art requires its own sort of education and training and learning and so forth to be grasped or acquired in order to make use of it.
~Military Overview~
~Professional Living Army~
The former has evolved from what was once a thing controlled by nobility and knight-like warriors into what a professionally-trained force paid for by the Empire and not any particular person or group elsewhere. The food production of the Empire is its biggest and most prosperous area of its economy, that much cannot be denied, allowing it to fuel and keep moving a large standing army even far away from its heartland However, having a lot of food does not make a big army pop into existence either. Garrisons of troops exist across the Empire, helping put down any unrest and rotating here and there during times of peace…and taking on any threats that arise within or without the Empire. Monsters, enemy invasions from the north and south and at times the east, bandits, and so forth have become the usual long-term problems of an empire that controls a very wide swath of land as the Ishullrai Empire does. Highways act as major transit routes as well in order to keep goods and troops and so forth moving in good order, usually with a ‘route only for troops and messengers’ and a ‘route only for all other civilian traffic’ being built next to each other to facilitate this.
Military academies in the capital and other great cities of the Empire fuel the creation of new officers and so forth, and the training of soldiers properly and the implementation of regular pay is something that has created a highly-disciplined and well-drilled force to be reckoned with indeed. Such academies also prepare military engineers, logistical corps training, and so forth to add support roles. Other supporting units include mages and clerics and herbalist healers, who can be brought in to help assist wounded after battles and so forth, as well as messengers whose job it is to assist in sending messages back and forth.
Crossbows are deployed as the far more common type of projectile armament of choice, useful in both open areas and closer spaces depending on the size of crossbows used. Greatbows are the lingering remnant of what was once the dedicated archery core of the Empire’s armies centuries ago, being giant in size compared to a normal bow and being fired with all six arms of an Asu’rai (three to hold, three to draw back the string to fire) and firing powerful arrows a rather far distance (think more handheld ballistae in a sense). Clockwork ballistae can be used to fire larger bolts or rapid-fire many much smaller ones, and larger trebuchet who sometimes incorporate a bit of clockwork are usually manually operated and put together or taken apart to help in greater sieges to boot. Gunpowder components are something that exist within the Empire’s lands, but outside of the schools of magic in the greater cities and capital tinkering with materials no one has really come across the concept at all in the first place. However, enchanted ammunition and things like somewhat hollow oil-filled siege projectiles that use a stored fire spell to set the unfortunate impact area alight have been invented among other attempts to be creative.
In terms of melee weapons, one-handed, curved scimitar-like blades with strong cutting blades are used as the standard infantry weapon to cleave through lightly-armored or unarmored targets as a standard. A secondary spear, also a standard weapon, is used to help deal with armored foes and cavalry. These are paired with a shirt of chainmail, plate helmet, treated leather pants, a cushioned leather ‘shirt’ with a soft cloth interior layer, boots, and a shield for all light infantry. Heavy infantry utilize the same armor and shield as light infantry alongside an additional plate cuirass, light plate pauldrons, and proper plate greaves. In this manner both heavy and light infantry can act as both an anti-infantry and anti-cavalry role depending on the battlefield and its needs. However, in return for the versatility there is a lack of proper specialization to boot outside of how heavily an infantry unit is armored or not.
Shock infantry are a rather small minority force in the professional army, rather small but having their potential uses against very lightly armored or unarmored foes and other less-protected targets. They utilize the same cushioned leather ‘shirt’ with a soft cloth interior layer, the same pants as other infantry, and a plate helmet. For a weapon, they make use of a small selection of weapons. A large two-handed blade able to cleave through beasts and people alike, axes, and flanged maces are weapons they utilize. These weapons are two-handed as a general rule of thumb, but one-handed maces or axes might be paired with a shield in certain scenarios. These troops are meant to slam into the enemy and deal damage, as much as possible as quickly as possible, before letting the other infantry come in and handle the rest of the battle with superior armor and tools for a drawn-out clash.
In terms of cavalry a similar level of standardization has been used. Light cavalry utilize lances and light armor, moving fast and well-protected from most lighter weapons and blows in key places. They charge into and fight vulnerable enemy units, charge into enemy flanks for hit-and-run attacks, and sometimes might be equipped alternately with crossbows and used as an effective moving hit-and-run mobile ranged detachment. Heavy cavalry, meanwhile, have more dedicated armor and less mobility but are far harder-hitting on the charge. They do not go as far as being cataphract-level armored, though do have extra frontal armor as a matter of note. The heavy cavalry are meant for charging into enemy lines decisively with a heavier but more lethal lance, before pulling their secondary swords as arms and engaging in extended melee. Fast-moving and light carriage-mounted ballistae might also be used in a battle, firing in on enemy formations and troops before skirting back and being protected by the light cavalry depending on the particular battlefield.
~Automata/Golems~
Kept and maintained in long-term warehouses during times of peace, and constructed as needed during times of war as losses are sustained, this army differs from the professional army in far more than just what it is composed of. It costs notably more to build up this so-called ‘second army’ as compared to the professional one, but to maintain it over time and make use of it is far cheaper and exceptionally easier than any living army in comparison. That is where this army comes into play best, able to be used to supplement and assist and fight alongside living forces as well as to alternately supplant living forces when the Empire is stretched out too much militarily. It can also be used as an elite gut-punch of a force, using raw force, the self-repairing automata, and the heavy-hitting golems composed of various elements or builds or such to attrition and hammer into the enemy to buy time or do so for other strategic reasons. This secondary army is just that, secondary, but its uses are made to be rather potent when they are brought into play. They’ve slain large dragons and great monsters alone or alongside other living troops, and the corps of magic who attend to them and work with them and so forth are very skilled and drilled and trained by the military to boot.
The automata are generally equipped with enchanted weapons ranging from swords to spears and more when it comes to melee weapons. They can also use crossbows that use magic to draw in more ammo from vast storehouses kept filled way back home behind friendly lines. They move incredibly fluidly and smoothly down to the minute level, far more than most average civilian automata in this regard at least, and this has been noted as ‘creepy’ and ‘disturbing’ by those who have seen them in action on either side of a battle. This is also because they possess a humanoid-style appearance, four arms, and a peaceful but stoic-looking ‘face’ on their heads. They can rebuild each other and repair themselves in the field, even scavenging materials for doing such and adapting them to their own bodies as needed, and can be sent on magically-automated patrols or such things without the need for constant supervision and guidance/care. Among their ranks are also automata cavalry as well as self-assembling automata siege weapons or ballistae and such.
The golems are similar, possessing two to four arms and having the ability to be used in battle and even sent on magically-automated patrols or such things like with the automata. However, their construction tends to vary quite a bit. They can be generated locally for a battle by the Empire’s military mages, allowing them to be crafted from the local area and local materials, and can be stored away for war as well to boot. They are usually crafted elementally, using water, fire, earth, air, and even wood or metal to forge their bodies into something powerful and mightily strong. For what they lack in sheer numbers, which the automata and even living armies better make use of, they make up for in raw, pure power. Earth golems creating stone barriers and collapsing nearby cliff sides, water golems engulfing enemy forces and drowning them, fire golems tearing a hot red scar through formations, metal golems throwing oversized javelins or metal chunks generated from their own bodies to hit enemy placements, and otherwise are not something to underestimate on the battlefield. They are few, which makes the loss of them bad for an ongoing battle, though they can be more easily recreated between or outside of battles (not during battles). They can also be armed with weapons, sometimes ones magically wrought from their own element, in order to try to give them another advantage. However, this is mostly seen as a waste and is set to the wayside.
The title and enduring nickname for this ‘secondary army’ is “The Silver Army”.
The slime was eating up hunters and changing and gurgling something aloud, and for a second the Bastelian almost imagined the thing even gurgled out the word 'mother' or something. Not to mention that she saw a female someone bolt away from the scene whilst the others got nabbed up, which made her suspicious and brought only one word to mind. Soyala. Whatever the Hunters had been doing on this side of the portal, however the Slime ended up appearing here, however Lazhira of all people had been around this spot, she didn't trust anyone outside of the inquisitive girl and the allies she herself was currently working with. That much Leannah knew for a surety.
Time for the big guns then.
Leannah darted around the left side of the beast (it's left, not her left) and kept out of its reach. At the same time she prepared her one real offensive spell once more. Yet this time she did not hold back so much. She let power flow into it, just as much as she had put into it back in the Illuminator's divine realm...and much more. Enough juice to hopefully turn this giant enemy slime into boiling remnants sitting on the ground. It wasn't a closed, contained area she was tossing this into, but Leannah all the same hoped she wouldn't make this worse than it already was.
Then, when she had the lineup to blow the beast clear off the cliff but not in the direction of her allies or the carts (in the hopefully worst case scenario), the Bastelian threw the attack with all of her might at the slime to where it would land dead in front of it. Immediately after, she nearly threw her own body down onto the ground as she moved to duck and roll away and lie on the ground as quickly as she could. Her right side, already burnt, would be facing the potential heat wave and fire of the blast at most.
Yet as she made her move to dive away she didn't stay silent either.
"GET FLAT ON THE GROUND, NOW!!!"
She hoped this worked. She really, really hoped this worked.
Her moment of daze hadn't lent itself well to anything, at least in the simian esper's mind. The enemies were already moving to take them down, Orion was gone, Sil and Valkyrie were sent flying back covered in something, someone had already charged the vampire mage, and a cloud of toxic fumes was coming down on them. By the time the fire lamp was cut, Lilliah reflexively was about to try to launch herself to the side to get away. Yet her actions would be interrupted as a certain dragon lady's melody would sweep herself, and a lot more, off of the ground.
Wukong, as it was, was then left standing on a piece of debris as her coworker's spell seemingly saved their collective hides in some manner or another. At least until it all landed back down and Su's construction arose around them. Yet the protection of the columns and railing, however, would not be forever. If they all did make it, however, she was tempted to secretly send Su that bottle of alcohol for this (the one she'd kept from the safe) as thanks.
But more pressing matters needed to be attended to.
Yet the vile enemy rider atop that horrid beast, still hanging above, remained. Wukong would then immediately move to cast a melody against the vile mount itself as Merry made her move to take a shot at the nun. She just hoped the end result worked to better her and her alies' own situation. Somehow. She would track the target as best as she could if it moved, however, prior to the melody firing off if it came down to it.
A Giant Enemy Slime? The rest of the Hunters?! A deer thing?!?! LAZHIRA?!?!?!?!?! Albeit the lattermost party seemed to bolt, which was good, but it did not look good at all.
This was not any kind of good. The Hunters were under a rather bad impression as it was about Lazhira, and this monster was nothing good in the first place. Nothing good at all. She couldn't see Narkissa or any of the others, but she did not trust the Hunters. Neither had anything slipped out of the gate with them, she knew that much. She could see the remnants of some kind of crate next to the slime as well, as if someone had...ah. The slime was an obvious threat, but hell if she was not suspecting the worst right now!
"Akando! Eirhild! Protect the Carts! The other Hunters and Soyala are enemies, and are all also after Lazhira!"
Leannah directed the cart to the side to avoid plowing forward into the mess, stopping as quickly as she could and standing up. She did not hesitate to leap off of the cart, holding out one hand and beginning to channel the same 'failed light spell' effect as she had before. Not as potent and big as she had before within the Illuminator's divine realm, but stronger than what she'd thrown back in Delphiti's old lab. Potent enough and burn-y, and without being too big or too little...or being used in a rather contained and much smaller space. She'd made that mistake once, and wanted to keep it that way. Still, Leannah gauged the distance needed to be safe of the blast radius based on her experiences with this spell's use so far, both after using it in a closed space and a not-so-closed one as well.
But there was no time to hesitate, no greater time to think or ponder the situation. She had to pick and unleash her attack at a target. A monster was here, and their obvious enemies were as well. Thus they had to act, and fast. Yet Donovan charging the slime made her initial choice of target impossible, and so the Bastelian had to choose a second target and throw her spell before it was too late or became too big.
Leannah thus desperately hurled the miniature exploding sun as hard and true as she could muster strength from her body, sending it flying beyond to the other side of the slime. With her quick change in aim the idea was to place it as close as possible to the nearest hunter on the other side. Far away from herself and the carts and known allies being in the blast radius at all, and hurled over the top of the slime to avoid hitting Donovan. It wasn't much of an aim, chosen at the last second but hopefully not having regrettable consequences.
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