Double Capybara — Roleplayer Guild

1 Might spent by Ilunabar to create the Ruby staff of Kivico
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Stories regarding Shamanism/Susa and the Vascogne are no longer part of Nokeyeor and will be dealt with later.
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07FE - The Harbour Kingdoms of Igar-Kuri (Tri-Harbor to foreigners) and Kodekzia form a trade alliance.

15FE - Yothar Vascogne, sucessor of Marel Vascogne, visits Kivico, a city that should be struggling under the Igar-Kuri Kodekzia trade deal, but is actually having a sudden boom in prosperity. He meets with the daughters of the king, the sisters Eahi, Byotheoha and Sheru (Also known as the Ogre of Kivico, she is just a tall human). He leaves with Eahi to explore a possible trade route on the north.

26FE - In the south, Imganane and Imganice get in a war. The first serious realm-on-realm war of Mesathalassa soon moves north, as alliances and intrigues bring the whole western side of the continent into a conflict. Puperute is besieged and burnt.

35FE - After losing key battles and getting its capital besieged by Kivico, the realm of Kodekzia starts to hire mercenaries to help in the war, enter Tihtzin, a dusklander who quickly grew in popularity and became a general.

37FE - Kodekzia is recovered, Tihtzin grows even more popular, the way he led armies slowly becoming a whole political belief in a confused western Mesathalassa. He visits one of Kodekzia's councils who gives him some old dusklander stuff he held to in hopes of finding a dusklander who would understand them, Tihtzin is particularly entranced with the word Dzanyavehar, vehar meaning people's land in a very radical wordbuilding way.

37FEb - Runza Thanfong is a princess of Imganane, who is working with Kivico, and spying on Kodekzia. She ends up getting captured, which increases the amount of enemies Kivico has.

38FE - Tihtzin leads an unsucesful raid on Kivico, is captured by Sheru. The two talk, sharing ideas, and Sheru making it clear its all Just According to Keikaku on her side. Since killing Tihtzin is a bad idea due to his popularity, she frees him, knowing that the tensions with the mercenaries were about to blow up on Kodekzia's face.

40FE - Things aren't getting better on Mesathalassa, droughts and lack of trade breaks most realms. Kodekzia's alliance and army breaks down, the city suffers a coup that ends the librarians' reign. Kivico takes over Jan and Krastas but much of those realm's territory is lost to the theocracy of Mirny, which grows more influent each day. Imganice wins against Imganane and claims to be the true sucessor of Imga. Tihtzin rebels against Kodekzia, takes over the realm of Tabata forming a free land for all humans and even hain.

44FE - The free realm of Tabata is reconquered and Tihtzin exiled back to the Dusklands. Most of Imganae's noblity, the Thanfong clan, is hunted down and killed by Imganice, now Imga. Mesathalassa is back at peace... lol.

Nokeyeor 1 - Mesathalssa Divinus Wikia page

Nokeyeor 2

07 FE - Igar-Kuri

The great harbor of Igar Kuri definitely showed how great could sometimes be a word only meant that something is quite large, which the area called by foreigners as Tri-Harbor was. In the ambition to become of such immense size, however, the city forgot a few important aspects, such as sanitation, law, education, roads, bridges, architecture, and all else that one would expect for what was supposed to be the heart of the civilized world, in the Mesathalassan scope of things, of course.

Thankfully the one thing the city did not lack was fire prevention, else it would be cinders, even without the attack of seven years prior, a service provided by the endless rows of damp wooden shacks and decadent mud bricks huts. 

The heart of Igar-Kuri was its location, in distant times to its west, there were great rock formations standing as tall as a giant, after the flooding of the world these rocks would become little islands that could be used to access far more areas of the ocean than what any other harbor kingdom could dream about. The first patrician, the man who took over once the man who kicked the kings out, Jan, was too kicked out, was perhaps the core person to create the rules of a harbor kingdom, he was also the first one to bend these rules in a power grab, building harbors all around these small islands thus claiming them without exactly going against the tradition.

Back in the days the amount of fish was a nation's wealth, Igar-Kuri was the wealthiest, also the smelliest. Now times were changing, while Igar-Kuri stayed in the lead of population growth, the wealth was no longer how much you could feed, but also how many shiny and big things you had, and all other harbors felt like they had something better than the city and its huge trade deficit, scrapping the bottom of the barrel to even have enough barter to keep their supplies of weapons and such.

A more 'proper' town would have already organized armies and created grand schemes to usurp the wealth of others, thankfully for the others, Igar-Kuri was often fighting and scheming against itself to make such moves. Even outside of the politics, the citizens had a serious civic issue, how could the local low life go around pirating with a tradition of insurgency so great even the captain of a one-person rowboat could be at the losing end of a mutiny.

Actions were being taken by the patrician and his council, who had been making some wild bets over the commercial future of Igar-Kuri, the centerpiece of his schemes being the Salt Road that connected Mesathalassa to the land of the dwarves, it had made the reindeer riders of the distant south rich and the patrician wanted a share of that. Furthermore, it was, if the legend was true, a city under a mountain led and protected by a goddess, so the patrician had little worries about it not being a safe investment, something like that would not just vanish, not while it had a god at their side.

However, keeping all eggs in one basket was not wise, and the council had prepared quite a few contracts with other entities in the region.

Today the visitor was a clay scholar brought from Kodekzia. The man walked into the Hill Palace (Yamu-Uheah), which was a not so impressive building in a general context, but the local contrast did make it look quite luxurious. The man had the typical build of a librarian, bulky with very strong arms, all gained from moving clay blocks all day.

The patrician had prepared him a feast, pumpkin stuffed with venison, spicy coconut chips, shark stew, even some mushroom salad imported from the far north. The librarian, a mix of stoic intellectual and hard working brute, did not care much. "No wine?" the man said.

"Oh no, no! What sort of host would give wine to its guest?" the patrician said.

"A good one? What is the issue?"

"Well... It would be seen as me trying to manipulate you, wine diplomacy they call it."

The man chortled. "A glass of wine doesn't manipulate an ant."

"Right! Right." He ringed a bell and soon someone walked in, talked with the patrician, and soon arrived with a bottle for the guest. "Now, may we continue?"

"Yes. You want us to send a few scribes right? Adapt the writing to southern speech, all that."

"Indeed. There is, of course, a generous payment for this, and it would help our two realms to create a bond that could be useful for the future. Heard the lands of Kodekzia have been having trouble with agriculture."

The librarian looked visibly angry at his implication, but the patrician knew it was not at him, but at his situation. Agriculture had bloomed in the region, everywhere had not only rebuilt back to what they had before the stars fell, they went beyond, and then went even further. Fields of plain green spread across the fertile land at a dramatic pace, towns followed them closely.

Kodekzia's situation in this order of the world was not the best, while wine exportation continued to be reliable, they constantly struggled to start proper crop agriculture in the rocky lands of the Cogne basin. The kingdom's plan was to act as a port between the south and the far north, steering the trade through their ports.

The northern kingdom expected the trade deal to be established as soon as Kodekzia helped Igar-Kuri with the scribes, but now the librarian saw the patrician just wanted to start a promise for now, that would not do.

"Indeed, but it is not like the land is infertile. We have countless explorers trying to search for new plants to use on our land." the librarian said. "Going back to the deal, just out of curiosity, how much will you ask from those who want to be trained as scribes?"

"I do not plan on having that system, instead, it will be free." the patrician answered.

The librarian rose one eyebrow up. "For free? You surely do not plan on trying to teach everyone it, do you? It takes years to train a scribe, and what use does a farmer or fishermen have for it?"

"Oh no, of course not. I am thinking more of a ... cooperation with the local guilds, have it be on the grounds of invites instead of payment. I want to have scribes helping to archive knowledge and help with the tasks."

The librarian nodded, it was easy to see why the man was the leader of a chaotic town such as Igar-Kuri, he was not subtle in his plans, but the schemes were not half bad. Everyone knew the local guilds were more like gangs, with a strong hold on the knowledge that kept the city going they could do anything and not fear too much repercussion. Writing would change that, if say, the intricacies of shipbuilding were passed down to clay, then the patrician would be free to raid any carpenter guild without the risk of causing the collapse of the town's economic system.

From that, the librarian deduced the man was a power grabber, desperate to take power away from the rising middle classes such as the guilds, or at least creating new powers to the governing elite to keep the current balance of power going.

"Helping with governing tasks eh? Do you plan to create a better port authority system? That would surely help with the taxation of goods." The librarian said.

"Yes. I think that would be great, to keep track of the goods that enter and leave the town."

"We plan on doing the same up in Kodekzia, of course, such systems do work better with two or more ports taking part in it..." This should do it, if the man was not giving Kodekzia a trade deal by goodwill, he surely would give one by greed.

"Yes, I imagine that would be the case..." the librarian held back a smile, the patrician too.

15 FE - Kivico

Yothar Vascogne walked up the Ruby Way of Kivico, towards the great palace of the town. The city road was decorated with tall metallic posts with large ruby gems atop each, making for an absurd display of wealth, one Yothar was very interested in.

His first suspected source for those gems were the Quara Korala wanderers who had recently appeared on the region. Nobody knew much about them, but they had become beloved guests of the kings and patricians of the region, always trading jewelry, dyes, cloths and many odd objects with specific functions. Back when he was a child, Yothar's grandmother, Marel Vascogne, had got an amulet from one of these Korala traders that would project little fishes swimming around him.

<<There are no signs of Quara Korala caravans in this region lately.>> The griffin echoed around him.

The phantasmagoric beast made from transparent magenta light only he could see had been insisting on this point lately, well attuned to his suspicions. It seemed like it was yesterday he woke up suddenly, a painful sensation filling his mind as all his senses warped and thoughts flooded his mind, before the entity told him he was now the new head of the family and that his grandma had passed.

He knew it could be wrong, the simple absence could be just a group that went past unnoticed. But he could not rule something else, perhaps there were other entities that could provide a shining ruby the size of an apple.

He was now almost at the palace gate, he turned and looked behind, seeing Kivico, the jewel of the west, in its full glory. It was a neatly organized town, well, at least in its middle section, the streets spreading in neat parallels and the clay houses well kept. The rubies shone all the way down to the royal quarter gate, and beyond the walls of the city, fertile fields of crops flanked by colorful forests spread all the way to the horizon.

It was hard to know the town was under deep pressure for the entire last decade. The deal between Igar-Kuri and Kodekzia saw many of the trading galleys that once brought riches to Kivico now simple navigating past their port, their silhouettes against the western horizon almost an insult to the city.

Checking his grandmother's notes, it was clear Marel shared the same worry as he had in earlier times, that this would be the spark that ignited the oil bowl that was the Western Coast. Thankfully the king of Kivico was somewhere between graceful and sly, hard to tell the difference even for someone blessed by the Griffin, and dealt with the problem with innovation and reorganization.

Kodekzia was an organized city, some even said they controlled the history of Mesathalassa with their libraries, rumor which they did no effort to deny, going as far as making the Nokeyeor Kebur, the tablet of history, the central piece of their library. Yet they lacked the manpower to truly influence and policy their neighboring villages, opening a lot of room for a bigger city such as Kivico to influence the shared border between the regions. Igar-Kuri was much simpler, the town still couldn't take care of itself, imagine anything outside, its advantage was that it was big and a natural flowing point of all trade.

New roads were built, in an effort to reach deeper inland was made, local agriculture was reorganized and nearby towns were bullied into doing what Kivico needed, which was mostly two things, expanding wine production to rival Kodekzia and making the so-called Safe Harbor Law, which was euphemism for a clear attempt at increasing contraband trying to escape the taxation of the two rival harbor kingdoms.

All of that did little but mitigate the consequences, the dent the contraband gave to things such as the trade of Duskland goods and the Salt Road was negligible. Luck, however, soon shone upon Kivico. Salt Road trade was severely disrupted by unknown causes, rumors said the gods punished the Citadel, but came from so far it was hard to judge anything. Some sort of tribal war had also happened in the Duskland, and it seemed soon the flow of silk and silver could be affected. At the same time, Kivico saw a great wave of reforms and sudden wealth, such as the apple sized rubies, that was harder to explain, but Yothar hopped to understand it soon.

With that thought in mind, the man turned back towards the great palace of Kivico, and walked into it. The town was one of the first to adopt the fish scale system for its banner, it was also the first one to use it in decorations as a way to increase local identity, now, in front of the palace, recently sewed cotton banners waved against the wind, in it, an adapted version of the fish scale pattern that represented the town, a red gem with the two red stars in front of a white background.

He would not get an audience with the king, instead, he would have to meet his daughters, not an ideal scenario, but Yothar would do what he could with what he had.

Sheru, noble princess of Kivico, finished yet another glass of Cogne Wine.

"Another one, ma'am?" the shady looking man said, his looks only fitting the room they currently were in.

"No... I have something in the p... Ugh." the woman said, before standing up, towering over the bartender. She was happy to leave the room behind, it had a terrible smell and everyone in it looked like good for nothings. Yet, it was the only place they could get a good Cogne Wine in the town, the sweet stuff from up in the north, not the bottled acidic Tall Garden Wine that they tried to force into the realm, forcing the princess to disguise herself and sneak into places such as this. In truth, everyone saw through her deception, no other woman was as tall and as scarred as her in Kivico, people just did not say a thing to avoid being rude.

The ogre of Kivico walked with her chin up as she walked towards the palace, there was a sense of pride to her, to be the daughter of the man who kept the city steady in such changing times. There were, of course, some objections to so many resources of the region being used to build the great palace, but in the end, it became a beacon for the nation, something for the people to look up to, a sense of greatness. At least it was what she told herself, and with the town becoming greater and greater, there was little reason for her to think otherwise.

After taking a few secret paths, she joined her sisters in the planned meeting. She did not mind that she was late, her sisters were always the ones better fit for such things. The youngest, Eahi, was observant, her eyes almost the same as that of a bird looking over the world below. The oldest, Byotheoha, had the best looks and probably the keenest mind, she moved about with grace and wit, like a fox or a jaguar.

The guest left her confused for a moment, the man looked similar, but she could not pin point from where. She stared him up and down, until he served Eahi another glass of wine, and then it clicked on her.

"Oh damn, are you from the Vascogne family?"

Eahi looked bothered by her outburst. "We told you we would meet him, Sheru, did you not pay attention?"

"I did not. Sorry." Calmly, she sat on the table along with them. "Why is he here though, I thought we had stopped dealing with anything from Kodekzia."

"We are not necessarily under Kodekzia, though it is true that a deal with Kivico would bring certain pressures towards us, should the deal be out in the open, that is."

"Ohhh." Sheru said aloud, while the others nodded.

"Though again, we are fine in terms of trade right now, I can not see what Vascogne can offer. Your specialty is wine, and we have our own wine quite fine.

"I must say, I was not here to propose a deal in that sense, instead, I seek your help with a project of mine. To create new trade."

This left the trio somewhat confused. "Go on," Eahi answered.

"See, I think there is more in the north than what we are currently exploring. I heard reports of new islands on the duskland, colorful and weird, full of unique and peculiar critters."

Eahi and Byotheoha looked mildly displeased, while Sheru was visibly surprised. 

"So have I heard!" Eahi dismissed. "But is it not dangerous to sail in that region?"

"Well, with the islands, we could do land routes."

"Land... routes?" Eahi echoed, in the end, the conversation was mostly between Yohar and Eahi.

"Yes, so we can reach the lands beyond the duskland. That is the trade I am speaking about, of course."

"Oh, you were talking about that."

"What else would I be talking about?"

"Nothing, absolutely nothing. Now onto your idea, how do you think we could help?"

"I need manpower and equipment."

"Also someone who knows the region, no?" Sheru answered, before feeling Byotheoha discretely pinch her arm so she would stop.

"Not that we know any such person, but surely someone from Grehvew would know." Eahi fixed.

"Indeed! But can I count on your help with opening up a new trade route?"

"Of course, provided Kivico gets its fair share."

Yohar smirked, so his supposition was right. Earlier that day, When he walked by the harbor, he analyzed each and every boat he saw, it was easy to see what routes a galley sailed when you could remember everything down to its minute details, barnacles with a darker coloration, feathers of the crows who lived in the north, pointed towards the Duskland. However, the town lacked the typical duskland goods, nobody had silk, silver or pearls. 

"Actually..." Eahi added, suddenly, before hesitating. "If you are to set up an expedition to the north, I would like to accompany you."

This caught Yohar by surprise, he feared actually having to invest in a trade route, all that talk was just to get the information he wanted. "What?"

"It is something I have been wanting to do."

"Wait, sister," Byotheoha interjected. "What about court duties, our father..."

"You and Sheru are able enough. Furthermore, Kivico is a blessed city, is it not? All will be fine." the later was not just pride, indeed, the city had been blessed. Much of its design, newfound authority and even the enchanting of the rocks that now shone in the streets was caused by a magical staff given by the gods to her father. It provided great clarity to the owner, and gave them a visionary outlook on how to command their land, with such a relic in their control, there did not seem to be a need for Eahi to waste her life with court politics. What Byotheoha couldn't deal with her diplomacy, Sheru would surely solve.

26 FE

It was winter, though in the snowless Mesathalassa it was easy to just fuse together the season with autumn for a long period of dryness, where the grass turned ochre, and even the most insignificant of sparks could lead to great fire.

It all started due to a very mundane situation, in a realistic approach one would consider the constant hostilities in the region first born from when the princes were exiled from Igar-Kuri and only further raised by the advent of agriculture that brought with it the need to keep many satellite villages, but the court of the chicken ended up being iconic of the situation and the petty squabbles of southern nobility.

A chicken left its pen, crossed a river and started pecking at the fruits of one orchard, this angered the local farmer, who shot the animal with an arrow. Somehow, this was noticed by the owner of the bird, across the river, in another village. An argument started, one side arguing it was right to kill the animal, other side sayin it was not, chickens were still a rare animal in the region despite the domestication, a status symbol of sorts, so there was great offense with the death of the animal.

The argument soon got both villages involved, and in the south, where dwarven beer still flooded the area despite the Citadel being long gone, words soon became punches, and the villages were at war. Imganice and Imaganane soon got involved, at first trying to stop any further fight, but soon realizing the presence of agents from the other kingdom, and instead only increase the tensions. The idea was that one side would step back, neither side did.

To the west, the patrician of Igar-Kuri at first took the news of the war between the two lands breaking with a moderate balance between "Oh well, it was inevitable." with a "this could be a moderate issue for our food supplies." but at first, he only considered it a minor issue, he highly doubted a regional power would rise from it and a city that couldn't control itself like the one he led would never be able to control foreign realms. All changed with a single sentence.

"Imganane has sent a caravan to Mirny in the north."

It made sense, a war needed weapons, but at the same time it did not. How serious were the two kingdoms about their wars? The patrician expected just a series of raids, maybe a few villages burnt, but a sudden move to arm up like that told another tale. And worse, it would get Mirny involved.

"Krastas and Jan will not allow a land route to be established, it would destroy their trade routes."

That was true. Neither would want it, but cooperation between the two rivaling states was impossible, and if one moved... The patrician finally realized what was happening, this was not a war of two villages, neither a war of two realms, this was a Mesathalassam War.

Krastas made the move, trying to siege Mirny to stop the caravan from interacting, only to return to their home as soon as they heard news of Jan trying to do a sneak attack against their realm while a share of their soldiers was away.

News of that soon went north, past Kivico, which hoped to stay neutral, and towards Kodekzia.

Kodekzia had become rich since its troublesome start after the attack of the Realta, a regional influencer for all the north, it managed to turn Puperute into little but a puppet state, while also asserting certain dominance over Tabata and Grehvew. It rivaled Kivico, but the realm to the south rarely ever answered with hostility to any of Kodekzia's moves.

That was what people saw, but the council of the library saw things in another light, the numbers on their clay tablets showed a much drier reality. Something was odd with the world, the riches of the dusklands to the north and the riches of the salt road to the south had all but disappeared from their trade, to make matters worse, the desert that surrounded Tabata was seemingly advancing, many regions within their realm reporting droughts and crops no longer growing where before they would thrive.

The plans of a unified northern realm were not only delayed, but seemed to be working in reverse, and this war of the south seemed to only make matters worse, Kivico would surely come up as the dominant realm should Jan, Krastas and Mirny fight, no matter if they stayed active or not, and an even stronger Kivico would be the end of a struggling Kodekzia.

While the council discussed such matters, news arrived that Puperute had just cut all relations with their realm, confiscating all of their goods from the harbor. The town had been struggling since the changing climate collapsed carrot production, the local governor had tried to continue with the cash crop despite the issues, leading to starvation, which was the opportunity for local troublemakers, the so-called "Gardners" who wanted the town to become a theocracy once again, to rally the locals into committing a mistake. 

That would not do. That was an attack on Kodekzia's future that would not be accepted, the council would have its northern kingdom with or without a realm as insignificant as Puperute. The ensuing response would be one of great infamy, though it had mostly been not the band of soldiers sent by Kodekzia's fault, the city would still burn for days, and all would look at the kingdom as a pretend tyrant.

Yet, it helped to keep Tabata and Grehvew in line, and whether or not it was the intention, it worked. Rumors were that Kivico had been the one to support the Puperute rebellion, and how useful those rumors were. A march against Kivico would be exactly what Kodekzia needed to unify the north, a symbolic victory that would bring the people together.

35 FE - Tabata

The armies were getting ready, men from all regions gearing up for a long journey, Tihtzin could remember well when he first stepped in the deep south, the promise of well paid mercenary work so much better than to have to deal with the wars of the collapsing clans up in the Dusklands. The situation he found was simply depressing.

Right as he discovered that the extreme south he knew was just the tip of the north of a vast land, he also came to realize that the people in said wide land did not know how to war at all. It was impressive, the clans of the duskland were always at each other's throats, sure they preferred espionage to fighting, but even the bandits from his land seemed to know more about organization, planning, and warring than the folk of the south.

The stories he heard were almost comedic, how Jan, a realm far in the south from where he was, started the war in a very advantageous situation, troops readied, all equipped with weapons, armor and their characteristic turtle shields, even 'besieging' the enemy city of Krastas, just to then lose it all by poor supply and poor choices. And not surprisingly, the rival did not capitalize on that moment either.

Five years into the war was when the powers decided that it would be wise to seek those who knew better, which was pretty much everyone, by contracting mercenaries. Hunters from the west, reindeer riders from the south, and of course, warriors from the north. Tihtzin saw his people as probably the most valuable, reindeer would never make it into the warmer north, hunters would never do much against a well-organized army. Lucky thing too, his side was definitely the only one which could be said to be losing the war.

Kodekzia was by far the largest realm, even if informally, so the council of librarians had simply assumed gathering countless soldiers and sending out would do the trick, it didn't. There was someone in the enemy city they called "The Ogre of Kivico", Tihtzin did not know ogres to tell if the woman was that or not, what he knew is that Kodekzia's human wave broke against her army, and she knew how to capitalize on that, soon, the city of the library was besieged and the arms of the ruby banner were free to raid the north.

That had been one year ago, the city was not breached yet it helped that they were not able to close up the ports. There were few ways to go into a walled city, but one never knew, what is impossible today might be made possible with one simple idea. Retaking the lands before Kodekzia fell was the ideal objective, in truth, even if it fell, the war would continue normally.

His men were ready, his band was the Dzamo Pura, most others just took a local name, but he liked to keep things a bit north-minded. His band was far from a pure Dzanyawahar band, it was half dusklander, half locals he personally trained. It was not simply the act of teaching them the basics of teamwork and how to swing a sword or charge with a spear, he felt like he needed to teach them how to think too. In the south, most people believed in duality and harmony, all could be divided into Night and Day mentalities. Tihtzin did not like that mentality, not only was it extremely rude to the morning, sunset and twilight, but it led to odd assumptions in their thought as if 'balance' would come naturally or was desirable.

The mercenary leader did not know exactly how the thoughts of his people differed yet, he was a soldier, not a thinker, but he felt his views and that of his soldiers were different. As time went by, he started to understand what the southman struggled with, above all, they needed to learn there was not simply defeat and victory and there was no balance between either, that victories needed to be capitalize and defeats mitigated, that stalemates were not valueless but an important tool of control.

"You cannot deal with a forest as a whole, you cannot look at it and try to decide if you will bring an axe or a basket. Doing either will result in loss of valuable wood and fruits. Ideally, everything would be given a proper response, realistically generalizations are necessary, knowledge is the art of having the most proper responses you can give."

He finished telling to the little band of generals that camped outside of the walls. Some nodded, some looked confused, others were offended, nevertheless, it gave him some room to dictate the moves of the secondary army, the main one would continue to defend fortifications south of Puperute. It was not so much that they respected him, but that he spoke in the fanciest words, giving them some better line than "Let's try to defeat the enemy."

Tihtzin plans were deceitfully simple, start a raid on turncoat villages within Kodekzia's realm, measure the response, and try to advance deeper into Kivico controlled land. Ideally, they would be able to cut the ruby armies off from their city, they had no naval control, so it would lead to a total collapse of their war. Life wouldn't be so kind, for sure, but the very fact such a fantastic result was a plausible one filled the man with determination.

37 FE - Kodekzia

The dusklander mercenary rested against the couch, absolutely exhausted. The room had more luxury than any other he had been in his life, save for the one time he visited a clan leader's home during a marriage ceremony. He felt trapped, moving about the shell armor he had been given so he could breathe properly.

His work on the last years had been war changing, his name was whispered from Grehvew to Igar-Kuri, he still didn't realize why exactly. To him, he was talking about generals discussing if they should focus on quantity, sending more man, or quality, better equipping them, the silly attempts at generalization and take everything as a whole system, but in an era where trust in the leaders was low, he became a bit of a guidance, a new way to understand the world. That was not what he wanted, and it made him many enemies when all he wanted was to finish the war and get his payment.

Someone knocked on the door.

"Yes?" the man opened the door, getting a curious stare of the person calling for his attention, he could be part of the library council, but he had never seen someone with that odd mix of white hair and pale brown skin. Being rude to a councilman was hard in his situation, so he waited.

"Mr. Moyi...jedzu...?" he struggled with the pronunciation.

"Call me Tihtzin, no need for such formalities as a clan name."

"Yes, of course. Could you follow me for a moment? There is something which you may find interesting."

Tihtzin turned his head at the sudden request, sure he had some troubles with the local leadership, but it felt too soon for assassination attempts... if the southerners knew about those, anyway. Then again, they wouldn't send a librarian for that.

The mercenary nodded and followed him, down to some house near the library, not part of it, but it sure felt like it, with many shelves full of clay tablets and all sorts of random objects. "Back... A few years back, before the war, way before... I hosted a person from the same land as you here. The man... had an interest in language. Though he left suddenly long ago. I wouldn't be able to describe him for the life of me, pale white, dark hair, not enough leads. Never gave me his name... odd fellow, but bright."

While nodding at the librarian, the dusklander started to look over at some of the tablets. Picking a few and squinting as it didn't seem to be in the same language he was used to, even if he did not know how to read Kodekzian very well, those letters seemed foreign, also similar to traveler code, which some of his fellow mercenaries used, but it was not that either.

"Here, this is something he gave to me." he handed the mercenary a carved wodden stick.

Tihtzin analyzed it, the work was a bit primitive for dusklander standards, but it was charming, on a leather band, there were was a bit of traveler code. "Night Peopl... no, this is not the word for people." he knew what the code was for dusklander which was Dusk 
 People, this would be a more proper translation of the word he actually used to refer to himself, if it was people, but it wasn't exactly that. "Is it... land?"

"Traveler code is not my specialty, but from what I got, its an amalgamation."

"So people land? Dzanya...vihar?"

"Ah... yes! Dzanyavihar, that was the word he said. These staffs are meant to guide a traveler to something, always was curious what was his purpose."

It was extremely improper to do that, to use an end of syllable h and use it as an h- 
syllable... yet Tihtzin loved the effect, for h was the tone of earth and r was the tone of heaven, there was a lot being claimed in that single word. Furthermore, it played with how words were constructed, there was a clear difference between conceptual groups of people and physical groups of people, an army was Purahar, nobles were Dyuchuhar, but dusklanders were Dzanyawahar and southners were Tsapuwahar, people of, but in this odd new word there was no conceptual barrier, it was one thing...

"Sir?" the librarian broke his thoughts, bringing him back to reality. "It seems I was right it would give you something to think about, but, the least you could do, I think, is to give me a few insights."

37 FE - Kodekzia

Runza looked down, and saw the long fall below her feet, only the brittle clay trim of the wall between her and a death not fit for a girl of her lineage. She worried not, fate alone dictated great people like her would only meet an end in an equally great situation.

Continuing to slowly walk in the dark of the night, the girl finally managed to reach one of the main windows in one of the adjacent buildings to the library, from there it was easy, she took out a brass cone and pressed it against the wall, if her information was right, she would...

"Now that we have our city back, it is essential we restructure our army."

"Yes, Kivico has suffered enough defeats now, if we can move from defense to an attack now, it will be a decisive victory, we need to use a restructured main force along with the mercenaries..."

"No, enough of mercenary work, they were useful during the blockade, now we pay them and send them home."

"That is absurd."

"What is absurd is that half of our generals are foreign, how can we defend the realm like this?"

"I understand the problem, but there is no need to take such harsh actions. We can delegate..."

"Now you are speaking like one them."

"That is a futile discussion, we do not have a mean to pay the mercenaries now, it is better to keep them under our work, sidelining them. Not paying them would be dishonorable, but... we can make sure the negotiations are favorable."

The girl smirked at all she got to hear. It seemed even the council was having its issues with the mercenaries, it was expected, after so many years of issues, any idea told in a passionate enough voice was taken by the people as a wild new path to be taken. Foreigners had it easy, their new ideas were not new but their own, and a more charismatic one was bound to be able to tell them in a way that captured the crowds, dusklander war doctrine, wildlander spirituality and order, all was being introduced and twisted in the harbor kingdoms. Of course, there were locally brewed offers too, from the mindsets of Kivico and its sisterhood, to whatever is the latest rage on the damp taverns of Igar-Kuri to priestess Dahleria of Mirny's view of family, goddess and sacrifice.

Runza didn't care much, as her father always told, bronze was louder than words, politics was just a way to get power, which was exactly why her, very likely successor of the realm of Inga once she was done dealing with her older siblings, was sneaking up a tower in the far north, aiding a realm that was technically in a war against them but not in actuality.

She pressed her ears again and listened to the words, suddenly, she noticed a voice.

"Once the mercenaries are dealt with, the reformed army will be under my control, the intrigues of the council will be a thing of the past."

"It is wise. Families have an organic structure unlike that of councils and republics, gods have kingdoms, not federations." Dahleria answered.

The defeat of Kodekzia, despite the current victory returning all lost, had been a wake up call to the librarian, the inability of the realm to act despite being the first one to move was telling of how councils worked against kingdoms.

This was odd news to Runza, as far as she knew, Mirny was not against Kivico, in fact, it was probably on Kivico's side... Though, considering her situation, it was easy to understand what was happening. That was not good, could Kivico handle an attack from the south too?

"It is important that you keep certain people safe though, particularly, the dusklander. See, if you kill that man, he will have the heart of the people, him leaving is good, him being humiliated is ideal."

Those words were actually similar to what Sheru of Kivico had told Runza. What-was-his-name, the prestigious dusklander mercenary captain, was better dealt with if allowed to fail. Runza never cared much for what he said, it was all obvious, and nothing new, but of course, pretty words made the people think they were doing something and he was doing something else, and worse, since he made it an issue, some people started to in fact try to do those things they did not do, 'concise decisions, trusting discipline over one's decisions, no grey between good and evil' among other such things. It was all silly, and when Runza was queen, she would not allow such foolishness in her realm.

"What we need, is a good reason to attack Kivico, whether we want it or not, people perceive our realms as allies..." the priestess continued.

Runza had heard enough, she needed to tell this information to Sheru in Kivico, the 'Ogre' would know how to proceed, as she left, she decided to take another path, a brittle piece of clay falling on a roof. Like clockwork, a face peeked out, and yelled at her, the council of the library and the priestess soon were on their window, all looking at Runza.

38 FE - Tall Garden, East of Kivico.

Tihtzin was frustrated, even more than ever. The offensive had went well, the discovery of an Inganane princess spying on one side (how had they not expected someone to try to spy on them was beyond the man's understanding.) through the already broken alliances of the southern realms into full chaos, as Kivico should not be dealing with such a person even if she was just some girl barely out of childhood.

This was great for the start of the counter-offensive, with new allies, the realm of Kodekzia would have the numerical and logistical advantage against Kivico, even if The Ogre would continue to haunt the northern front. At least that was what he thought, yet, he saw himself constantly under the orders of man who knew not what they were doing, the attempts to take him out of the stage were clear to him, and at times, he understood why, yet, Tihtzin did not know what else to do, when he joined the ranks, all he wanted was to come back home rich, fund his clan, and reconquer land that was rightful of his banner...

But the more he stayed in the south, the more alienated he became from the intrigues of his homeland. What was the point, to come back home and fight more wars? For what? Prestige? Riches? Those felt worthless. He touched the walking stick on his belt, Dzanyavehar... such concept to him was as distant as the realm of the gods, there was barely a Dzanyaveh or a Daznyawahar, imagine both. There was nowhere that staff could lead him to, his land was one of the decadent nobles, ranting priests and arrogant generals, it was impossible to unite such land, the pride and the blood were too thick between each clan, and the common people could not see a life beyond fighting for the glories of others.

Yet, as alienated as he felt to his homeland, this south was not his home either. These battles proved it. Every single combat was a struggle to him, something that asked all of his skill and all of his luck, one day, something bad would happen, and he and his army would be done for. Everything he proposed had been denied for the sake of it, his Kodekzian superiors wanted all the glory for themselves and would not take the advice of some mercenary, the same was happening with all other groups, even ones that were barely foreign to them. They would be at Kivico's gates now if things had gone his way, if so much time was not spent going back and forth between the orders of their commander and the kingdom.

Sighing, the general waited, he had been the vanguard attack past the Cogne river into Kivico's lands, a dangerous position, but the area was known to be poorly guarded, from here, there would be a good path towards the realm's capital.

"Sir!" one of the scouts reported. "Army approaching from the north."

He nodded, only people in the north were the expected forces from Kodekzia, Kivico was stuck in the west and south. It was about time they arrived.

But as he waited, he suddenly started to notice something odd. He knew well the man that led the main force, noble, arrogant, and full of hate for the foreign mercenary. He always sent a scout to him in order to make sure he would have "proper, non-barbaric, shelter." Yet there was no word yet.

He ran to the side of the hill in which he was encamped and saw it, not its color, not its holder, just the silhouette of that banner. "Gods be damned... MEN! GET READY. I WANT ARCHERS ON THE HILL AND EVERYONE ELSE READYING UP FOR A RETREAT."

Nothing more nothing less than Sheru, The Ogre of Kivico, was on his way, full force. The bastard even smugged horses, though only enough to count on one hand, far more than what she nedded to pin him down. He always expected something like this, with horse ridders their information ran faster from one point to another, but he did not expect it to happen to him.

Arrows flew, but they were few, even if all struck true they would still be in a terrible situation. "LET'S GO!" He yelled, all packed up and ready to leave... "Wait." he said to his most trusted men. "I need a few brave ones to come with me and be a good bait, their vision is not perfect because of the hills."

"Sir, that is suicide..."

"I know. It cannot be helped. I will try to bait them to the jungle, this will give the main group the moment to escape."

"But sir..."

"Please, a soldier's main task is to survive. Go to Tabatha, ask for your rewards, and then retire, go live a happy life in the dusklands."

Sheru's secret was to not consider all of this a war, but a full collapse of something, maybe diplomacy, maybe society, but something was broken nevertheless. Interventions in villages to the south and the fortification of key points were what made possible to avoid the surprise attack on their lands. To the north, the situation was not so clear, she had made sure to spare her army from overextending too much in the defense of the lands taken from Kodekzia, but they would not make it past the Cogne into Kivico's realm. What she worried about was the future, if the war was even to end, something would have to be done.

With a sigh, she moved towards the makeshift prison the camp had.

"Tihtzin of the Dusklands." she calmly declared. "So finally I see you in person. A bit shorter than in the tales, but still a curious sight."

"The Ogre of Kivico, right? I can see why the nickname, but you are a bit cute in person."

"I think it is a bit late for flattery."

"What I wanted I already got, do not think I am trying to squeeze a victory out of this situation, or that you can use me to further your plans..." he smirked for a moment.

Sheru laughed. "You really love underestimating the locals, do you not? Yes, we do have a problem with being a bit insular and any well-spoken idiot can make waves by saying basic crap, but, what we do not have an issue with is finding a way to make things work nevertheless, the intrigues of the harbours make your little silk-clad intrigue up in the north look like child play."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"You think I did not know where your man where? That you were bait?" she shook her index finger. "The plan was to separate you from your army."

"For what purpose? My band is only a small piece of the Kodekzian forces."

"That they might be, but they are one of the most prestigious. Though, without their charismatic leader, they lose their bargaining power... and you did ask them to get their payments and leave, did you not?"

The dusklander's response was just to tilt his head slightly.

"Once trouble with payment arises, the mercenary side of the army will melt, if not outright revolt."

"So what? There are still the main forces."

"Yes there are." she clapped her hands together. "Well then, in case this didn't make it clear, I am willing to let you go later. I have no use in killing or punishing you. Furthermore, I do respect you somewhat, quick and sharp, the way you quickly rearranged your army to counter my moves was very exciting."

"Can I go now?"

"Not yet, and even then, it is quite a storm outside..."

"A storm..."

"Yes! A storm, and you know what that means. The Cogne will flood, the main army will be pinned down and separated..."

"That doesn't look too good."

"Oh it looks terrible, and it will be so fun. Things have gone amazingly well so far, I loved how you decided to move forward past the meeting point of your army, really made things easier for us. I appreciate your strategy, but you do have a bit of an arrogance problem, do you not?"

The dusklander frowned, the woman being called an ogre made one think she was a brute, which she admittedly was, but it helped to cover the fact most of her victories were won by trap-setting and good planning versus simple brute force. 

"It is not like that..." Tihtzin started. "Look, I never asked for all the prestige, all I wanted was to win battles and go home. People took my words and transformed them into something else."

"It is understandable. You see... how can I explain, hmm, how old is your family?"

"How old? Uhm... I think the earliest person from my clan that is not mythological is from, eh, six hundred years ago?"

"The earliest one I know is my great-grandfather. The very city my sister now rules is merely sixty years old."

"Ah, that is young."

"Yes, and much like adolescence, these harbor kingdoms try to find themselves on all levels, from religion to politics to the will of the common people. Due to wars and disasters, most people who lived to be old didn't get to born and die in the same village, everything was very fluid until my generation. We are the first ones who have to care about more than simple survival and shelter building."

"Seems like quite a turmoil."

"It is. I feel paradoxical things. Sometimes I look at Kivico and I feel nothing ever changes, something I look and I feel everything changes and nothing stays. I spent my whole life wishing to make the city more than just a collection of homes, yet as I succeeded, this war and the rise of so many tyrants cast doubt on my objectives."

"Well... Being old doesn't grant you that either. You southerners just see the dusklands as one entity because of contrast, yet each southern kingdom is many times larger than the lands of a duskland clan. Over there, neighbor fights neighbor over some offense done between clans centuries ago."

Sheru pondered for a moment, before shrugging and opening the cage so the man could move to somewhere more comfortable. "I imagine, I am not a fool like so many others, including the so-called librarians of Kodekzia, self-hating to the point they assume anything foreign must work better. Yet, at the same time, I do not think the ultra-insular are any better..."

"See? You can't deal with it as if it was day and night," he smirked.

She rolled her eyes. "Stop acting as if you invented the wheel and everyone before your graceful presence just dealt with yes or no answers."

"That is never what I say, but, I did notice how often the generals would reduce the plans to two choices even when it was far from necessary. It is a weird thing going on over here."

"Hmmm... you think so? I can't see it, but tell me more..."

40 FE

Peace had returned to Mesathalassa, not by means of great victories, but by sheer exhaustion. Droughts continued to come each year, greatly reducing some realm's fighting capabilities, meanwhile, the flames of revolts and banditry started to turn the nights red as now military trained populations were far more able to contest local authority.

Perhaps none would be as iconic as the Tabata take-over, when Kodekzia tried to pay far below what the mercenaries employed by them expected, taking advantage of their most prestigious captain being captured by the enemy. Yet the captain returned, and with a boosted morale and hearts full of ambition, they took the realm over in one strong move. Forming an independent kingdom not of Sunmen and Eveman like all others, but of all the peoples and even some hain and sculptors.

News of that spread fast, with two great consequences. One was dissuading Imganice from not paying their reindeer riders properly as the total victory over Imganane became clear. The other was to quickly demolish the Kodekzian army, with the realm's army taking heavy casualties in the Cogne Valley and all mercenaries deserting as the news of improper payment rose. Worse, with a hurt honor, soon Grehvew would leave their war, and even Puperute, once a loyal vassal, would once again rise in defiance with what strength the raised city had left.

The final blow was a full out coup against the demoralized council of librarians by one of their own. Similar mutinies would follow in Krastas and Jan, realms blamed for the long era of war, among others. By the end of it, Kivico, Mirny and Igar-Kuri would be the only remaining government which existed before the war. Though not all were broken by revolt, Imganane, upon its victory against the rival city, would form a unified kingdom of Imga, house Rok eliminating house Thanfong as the true successors of the antediluvian realm.

Along with Imga, many saw Kivico as another 'winner' in the war. The city managing to dismantle its rival to the north and find a good excuse to occupy Krastas and Jan. Yet, Mirny too, had won a lot, along with Dahleria's radical-elysian cult and philosophy, much of the inland villages in the realms of Krastas and Jan would become de-facto parts of her realm, even if technically under Kivicois control. Igar-Kuri would soon see Dahlerianism growing in it, though so far it was only a small voice in the din of the metropolis.

One of the main propulsors of such radicalism had been Tabata, Dahleria always warning against 'foreign' influence, taking advantage of the sudden approximation between the Sunman and Eveman cultures that dominated Mesathalassa, and now she had the ears of the people, who had grown with old Dawnman cautionary tales about Hain and Sculptors, but also of the ruling houses, who feared what Tabata could mean.

In 44 FE, after surviving for five years, this would bring an end to the free realm of Tabata, besieged by a coalition formed by way too many realms to reinstate the previous ruler of the city. Tales tell of how Tihtzin was set on fighting to the end, but one day, after being visited by one of the surviving members of library council who brought with him a child, the man accepted leaving peacefully, returning with his loyal Duskman, and even some Eveman and Sunmen who grew to respect him, and returning to the north.

44 FE - Imga

An old woman's head fell to the ground with one swift swing, joining its family down the stair. The people cheered. All but one of the Thanfongs survived, Xabud, now king of Imga, had tried to get the girl back, but the north was still a mess, and he could not wait any longer and risk someone trying to break his rivals out of prison.

With this move, the local elysian priest handed him the amber scepter, a replica of the one carried by his ancestors when they first arrived in this land, but the people did not know that. 

The sun shone bright, way too bright, as if claiming the man's title as king of Imga, the sun, as true. He smiled. And then a little snowflake fell on his forehead, making the man look up. Snow. In Mesathalassa. Where the winter was snowless and just dry.

His wife hugged his arm. "A new era starts, the past is past." she observed, interpreting the event, the man nodded and even the crowd was silenced by this odd event.

44 FE - Solace

The southmost realm of the Habour Kingdoms was one often forgotten about, especially after the end of the salt road that led to the citadel through the reindeer rider's land, yet the small theocracy lived a simple life, nested on an island connected to the mainland by a bridge. It was a place of deep thoughts and silence, but that silence was broken by the sounds of someone running across the bridge, breathing heavily, before collapsing.

"Naxad, what has happened to you... is this blood? An arrow..." the local head priest always liked to meditate near the bridge, so he was the first to see the boy. He remembered that man leaving a few days ago to the south, to trade with a village.

"Your holiness... You have... to listen to me." he grabbed at the man's robe with his last strength. "Burn the bridge. Now! Else... It will be too late..."

The man died in his arm. The priest didn't know what it was that did that, but he would not risk his village, in minutes, they would be demolishing the bridge between the island and the shore. As the smoke of fires rose, the night was lit in red. The priest looked at the burning bridge then glanced at the horizon and saw it. A hundred banners, and more than a thousand horns.
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