[KAT] History Report, Part the Second
Briefly on Linlea and Afraia, then...
Linlea lies to the west of Atlunova, and north of Virilana. Its terrain is dominated by frigid mountains. It is more of a nation by exclusion than anything else; its people don't have a formal government, but each and every one of them is a member of an order of highly spiritual monks, called simply, the Linlean Order of Monks. They are highly skilled in melee and hand-to-hand combat and can manipulate an energy they call "chi", which, I know from personal experience, is quite different from magic.
While a sorcerer's magic comes from a reserve of energy within themselves, a reserve that not everyone has, the monks maintain that everyone has chi. It is life itself, they say. The monks can use their chi to heal and produce effects that are often mistaken for magic. And when I say effects, I do not mean visual effects.
Take an example from my own journeys. While travelling with Rori and Enin, we ran into one Linlean monk for the first time in a Virilanan town called Greenhaven. (We also encountered him several times afterwards, and he eventually travelled with us.) This monk, Imarn Rouris, was a self-styled demon-hunter; Greenhaven had been recently ransacked by a demon who was searching for some sort of artefact, and its entire people had been slaughtered. Imarn had come to Greenhaven and killed the demon already, but had lingered upon discovering that Rori, who was half-demon, was in the area.
We won the ensuing fight, but what happened during the fight is somewhat noteable. Rori was the one who fought him at first, but when he managed to best her, Enin and I stepped in and began attacking him ourselves. (We had not yet met Caiman at this point, so he wasn't there.) After I had struck him with a spell of my own invention, Imarn made to strike me with the butt of his quarterstaff; I stepped back to avoid the blow, and the staff itself never hit me... but I was struck and blown backwards into a wall regardless. Quite painfully, I might add. There was no visual effect as there would have been if it was a spell. Simply an invisble force tossing me backwards.
Imarn later told us that he often used Chi strikes in combat, and that was what he had done during that fight when he threw me into the wall. The force that had done so was his own chi, focused at the end of his staff for the attack.
Anyway. Linlea doesn't really have a capital, indeed, it doesn't really have towns. What it does have is various monastaries and temples dotted around the country. The largest of these is called Egacias, and it is treated as their capital, as it is the primary gathering place of the Linlean order.
And secondly, Afraia. The West-North-West part of the continent of Antis-Ethium is dominated by a vast desert, which is shared by Virilana, Afraia, Linlea, and Actia. (Actia shall be discussed the next time I write a history entry.) One of the more noteable things about Afraia is that they had a pantheon of deities all their own; they are the only one of the nations of Antis-Ethium that was polytheistic. More accurately, they had a group of gods that everyone acknowledged as such; however, each person would choose a patron from these deities and focus their worship on that deity.
Their people are also skilled warriors and accomplished architects. With our limited technology they managed to construct buildings that should have been nearly impossible under the circumstances. Yet they managed it.
Their towns are focused primarily along the coastline and around oases in the desert. They would wear loose, light-colour cotton robes unless indoors, in which case their clothing was made of light, breathable linen. Nobles often wore a lot of gold jewellry.
...Now that I look for a culture here that's similar, I find that they're almost exactly like the ancient Egyptians of this world, except for certain areas of ethnic groups which resemble the Arabs, or Roma, or Nubians of this world.
I will write about Actia and Albynmor tomorrow. Until then.
-Aiden
Linlea lies to the west of Atlunova, and north of Virilana. Its terrain is dominated by frigid mountains. It is more of a nation by exclusion than anything else; its people don't have a formal government, but each and every one of them is a member of an order of highly spiritual monks, called simply, the Linlean Order of Monks. They are highly skilled in melee and hand-to-hand combat and can manipulate an energy they call "chi", which, I know from personal experience, is quite different from magic.
While a sorcerer's magic comes from a reserve of energy within themselves, a reserve that not everyone has, the monks maintain that everyone has chi. It is life itself, they say. The monks can use their chi to heal and produce effects that are often mistaken for magic. And when I say effects, I do not mean visual effects.
Take an example from my own journeys. While travelling with Rori and Enin, we ran into one Linlean monk for the first time in a Virilanan town called Greenhaven. (We also encountered him several times afterwards, and he eventually travelled with us.) This monk, Imarn Rouris, was a self-styled demon-hunter; Greenhaven had been recently ransacked by a demon who was searching for some sort of artefact, and its entire people had been slaughtered. Imarn had come to Greenhaven and killed the demon already, but had lingered upon discovering that Rori, who was half-demon, was in the area.
We won the ensuing fight, but what happened during the fight is somewhat noteable. Rori was the one who fought him at first, but when he managed to best her, Enin and I stepped in and began attacking him ourselves. (We had not yet met Caiman at this point, so he wasn't there.) After I had struck him with a spell of my own invention, Imarn made to strike me with the butt of his quarterstaff; I stepped back to avoid the blow, and the staff itself never hit me... but I was struck and blown backwards into a wall regardless. Quite painfully, I might add. There was no visual effect as there would have been if it was a spell. Simply an invisble force tossing me backwards.
Imarn later told us that he often used Chi strikes in combat, and that was what he had done during that fight when he threw me into the wall. The force that had done so was his own chi, focused at the end of his staff for the attack.
Anyway. Linlea doesn't really have a capital, indeed, it doesn't really have towns. What it does have is various monastaries and temples dotted around the country. The largest of these is called Egacias, and it is treated as their capital, as it is the primary gathering place of the Linlean order.
And secondly, Afraia. The West-North-West part of the continent of Antis-Ethium is dominated by a vast desert, which is shared by Virilana, Afraia, Linlea, and Actia. (Actia shall be discussed the next time I write a history entry.) One of the more noteable things about Afraia is that they had a pantheon of deities all their own; they are the only one of the nations of Antis-Ethium that was polytheistic. More accurately, they had a group of gods that everyone acknowledged as such; however, each person would choose a patron from these deities and focus their worship on that deity.
Their people are also skilled warriors and accomplished architects. With our limited technology they managed to construct buildings that should have been nearly impossible under the circumstances. Yet they managed it.
Their towns are focused primarily along the coastline and around oases in the desert. They would wear loose, light-colour cotton robes unless indoors, in which case their clothing was made of light, breathable linen. Nobles often wore a lot of gold jewellry.
...Now that I look for a culture here that's similar, I find that they're almost exactly like the ancient Egyptians of this world, except for certain areas of ethnic groups which resemble the Arabs, or Roma, or Nubians of this world.
I will write about Actia and Albynmor tomorrow. Until then.
-Aiden