Rilli

Rilli
Climate: Open grass or farmlands
Frequency: Common
Seeded Worlds: Azureus
Organization: Herd
Diet: Herbivore
Intelligence: Average intelligence
Size: Large
Danger Level: Low danger

Rilli are used as beasts of burden in Emaria, primarily as mounts and pack animals. They stand nearly two meters tall at adulthood and can easily support the weight of an armoured knight. While they are almost as intelligent as Emarions and humans, they make no resistance to this way of life because the work is easy and the food is free. That said, they’re incapable of human speech and don’t have an intricate language of their own. They can be taught languages with reasonable ease, however, and while they can’t communicate back, their gestures are enough to convey what they want to.

Combat: Rilli are used as mounts in the military because they don’t scare easily and can move much more swiftly than a humanoid walking. The Rilli themselves usually don’t fight, and if nobody is mounted on them will run away instead of battle. When cornered or defending their master or chicks they can deliver a powerful kick that can even pierce thick armour.

Habitat/Society: Undomesticated Rilli form herds of twelve to thirty on the open plains, and move as a group looking for food. Most of the time there’s a leader, who is the strongest or fastest of the herd, and who leads them from place to place. When they encounter a humanoid who wishes to capture them for domestication, all but the Alpha Rilli back away, and the hunter must essentially mount the back of the Alpha. If he succeeds, the entire herd will be loyal to that one person and usually will gladly work for him in return for good, open lands to live on and enough food to keep the herd comfortable. If the hunter fails, the entire herd will just run away, much faster than anyone could travel on foot, until they’re sure the hunter isn’t puruing them anyway. Usually a herd will have one or a few members who split off even if the hunter succeeds, and if he tries to stop them, the entire group flees as well.

Domesticated Rilli like a lot of space to run around when they aren’t working, though Rilli in the military are more content to live in a much smaller area or indoors. Rilli who are overworked tend to just stop working once they’re tired, unless what they’re doing is particularly important and time is an issue. It’s also notable that domesticated Rilli don’t reproduce, though sometimes express the wish to temporarily leave their master for that purpose. In that regard they honour the master’s decision either way.

Ecology: Rilli eat plants, mostly those which grow close to or in the ground (a common favourite being potatoes), and also enjoy fruit for a treat. They can also eat more common grasses and roots, but those taste bad to Rilli. They don’t need to eat a lot, but with a full stomach can go two full days comfortably without any food, though they do need water.

Mhogul

The biggest defence the Necros posed against anything is their total immunity to divine magics. None of the gods can directly harm them. Though, despite their almost unlimited intelligence, it took Mhogul, the goddess of knowledge herself, to apply the logic of Occam’s Razor–that the simplest solution is always the best. After the Emarions managed to launch a skyship into the Blackness, it took less than five years for the plans for their prototype ship to reach the deepest depths of the Abyss where the Necros spend their unlives plotting the damnation of all that lives. In about D2250 the Necros managed to launch a massive capitol ship into space which, at the time, surpassed anything the Emarions had yet done.

Needless to say, the Emarions decided something had to be done to make sure that would never happen again. The gods could not help, and the Abyssian Warlord, as the ship was called, remained in the Blackness for many years after. Still, the living races could not allow the Necros to launch another ship of that size. For almost a year after, the Necros launched ship after ship, and each one was just barely shot out of the sky before it left the atmosphere, and every weapon used to destroy them was costly to fire and simply not adequate for that kind of warfare.

Because weapons crafted by the gods were also useless, the nine could do nothing but stand by and watch, warning the Emarions every time the Necros were about to launch. This would not last forever, though, and the gods, Emarions, and Necros alike knew it.

Finally, after a long, hard year of keeping the Necros grounded, Mhogul had an idea that quite possibly saved the galaxy; Weapons made by the gods could not harm the Necros, but weapons designed by the gods and built from materials they provided were mundane in the sense of divinity, yet powerful enough to keep the planet safe, and easily automated as well. Within days Azureus had ten turrets up and running that could knock any hostile out of the sky and required only basic maintenance. Her brilliant idea garnered a lot of respect from the other gods, in that it was just what the mortals needed, yet so utterly simple.

Black Terror

Black Terror
Climate: Dark caves and especially evil places
Frequency: extremely rare
Seeded Worlds: Azureus
Organization: Twin (seeing more than two together is unlikely)
Diet: Unknown
Intelligence: Exceptionally Intelligent
Size: Large
Danger Level: Extremely Dangerous

Black Terrors are considered one of the most dangerous creatures that are native to Azureus. Their capacity for arcane magic is terrifying when paired with the knowledge that they lurk in dark places. Even more dangerous is the being created from a reanimated Black Terror, known as a Necro Terror because only a Necros has the ability to raise such a powerful creature.

Combat: Black Terrors are adept in dark magics fuelled by corrupted essentia, and will unleash said magics in full when faced with combat. Necro Terrors are even worse, with spells that can outright kill all but the most hardy adventurers. Even worse is that both will actively seek combat with anyone entering their lair and will only flee if the Terror is obviously no match for its opponent.

Habitat/Society: Black Terrors are, in rare occasions, encountered in twos, making them exponentially more dangerous. This is the only known case where Black Terrors will be seen together. Necro Terrors, on the other hand, are found often leading lesser undead minions, or worse, being led by one or more Necros.

Ecology: Black Terrors are not known to eat, though meat from other creatures is assumed. Terrors of both kinds leave an evil taint in any place they occupy, and it takes powerful light magic to nullify such a taint, which has adverse effects on local flora and fauna while it remains. Luckily most Terrors are found deep in the Abyss, where evil creatures already dwell.

Emarion Marriage

Most civilizations have at some point had a custom for the joining of two people in various regards. Marriage in Emaria, unlike some customs, has little legal hold on either party, however. Taxes are payed jointly by both, and that’s about the only bureaucratic ligature it has.

More important to people is the custom itself, and the ceremony that goes along with it. Ceremonies are usually small, with only immediate family and close friends attending, normally fewer than twenty people. The ceremony, which traditionally takes place outside, is often conducted by one of the parents, a priest, a town’s mayor, or in some very rare cases even a god.

The people attending all gather on a lush hill or whatever’s available. They sit either on the ground or on benches or other seats set up for some degree of comfort. Last to arrive is the couple getting married, who walk to the centre of the group. The others turn to greet them and give their full attention. One from the couple, usually the husband, relates the story of how they first met, and some stories about the times they spent together up to that point, usually leaving out the method and place he (or she, if the wife did) proposed the marriage. The other then speaks briefly about their plans for the future, where they plan to live, how many children, et cetera. In the case of same-sex couples the explanations can go either way.

The couple then speaks vows to each other to support each other, have no other romantic links and other such promises which, in older times before and shortly after the Dragonian War, the attending family and friends were actually expected to hold the couple to those vows. The couple then sits together in the middle of the group and everyone eats a large meal. As people finish eating, they give their best wishes to the new couple and leave the wedding. When everyone but the couple and the person conducting the ceremony have left, the conductor presents both of them with a piece of jewelry to signify their marriage, usually rings or amulets.

The jewelry is usually silver or gold with gems that either match the others’ eyes, or are the favourite gem of the wearer. Once they’ve donned the jewelry, the conductor leaves the ceremony as well, leaving the couple alone, who then sit together and just enjoy the company of the other for a while before leaving as well.

Abomination

Abomination
Climate: Warm caves
Frequency: Rare
Seeded Worlds: Azureus, Eterna, Entrega, Ifavi (extinct)
Organization: Colony
Diet: Carnivore
Intelligence: Average
Size: Medium
Danger Level: Tough to Very Dangerous

Abominations typically come in three types: Shamanic, magic-users who patrol cooler caves in the Abyss; Savage, which possess a large horn and prefer hotter climates; and Clan, which always travel in fours and have no preference of climate, even being seen above ground in rare cases. All three varieties have the ability to float in the air as if levitating, and even sleep while doing so.

Combat: Shamanic Abominations, when faced with combat, will normally cast spells until the opponent gets close, then attempt to bite it. Savage Abominations bite and try to impale anything living they run across except other Abominations, and will continue to attack until the enemy is dead, even if it runs away. Clan Abominations are much smaller and tend to avoid combat with larger enemies, unless they are hungry, in which case they will attack anything human-sized or smaller. They have weak magic they can cast, and large teeth compared to their size, but their main form of attack seems to be slamming headfirst into enemies to knock them down, then bite down on the throat.

Habitat/Society: Other than Clan Abominations, they are rarely seen in any societal roles, though they tend to ignore each other rather than attack, as they do any other living creature they run across. Clan Abominations are almost always within ten meters of each other, and don’t openly interact with each other, indicating they may be connected by a hive mind with each other.

Ecology: Abominations are rarely seen eating, and waste doesn’t seem to be a problem, leading many to speculate that Abominations don’t actually exist entirely on this plain. Only Clan Abominations seem to require food, and most of the time they just eat whatever they kill, until danger draws near.

Onyx Crawler

Onyx Crawler
Climate: Caves, grasslands, and forests
Frequency: Very Common
Seeded Worlds: Azureus, Eterna, Oastanai
Organization: Nest
Diet: Omnivore
Intelligence: Animal
Size: Medium
Danger Level: Low

Onyx are a type of creature appearing in two forms. Crawlers are the workers, defenders, foragers, and diggers for the nest. Queens are the hive mind connecting them all, laying new eggs and directing the current Crawlers to better the nest. Onyx are one of the most common semi-dangerous animals on the face of Azureus and Eterna, and are slightly less common on Oastanai.

Combat: When faced with combat, Onyx Crawlers will attack with their front two legs, and often their tail. They will only ever run from battle if the nest is low on resources and can not easily afford to lose Crawlers. If they are caught in a battle in the queen’s chambers, they will do everything to protect her, sometimes just blindly rushing the opposition in hopes it will slow it down. That said, the exoskeleton on an Onyx Crawler leaves much to be desired, and they are easily killed if provoked or looking for food.

Habitat: Onyx Crawlers thrive under the open plains. Many nests have dug complex cave systems and established hives where survival is relatively easy. The Crawlers are connected via a hive mind to the Onyx Queen, which can order them around up to a hundred kilometers away. In some cases rogue Crawlers can be found, which usually means the Queen was killed or the distance between the two was great enough for the connection to sever. In these cases the Crawler will generally just search for food and try to survive on its own, but with a limited mind of its own, this generally proves ineffective.

Ecology: Onyx Crawlers forage for food wherever they can find it. Being omnivores, this means fruit if they can find it, herbs if they can’t, and meat on the rare occasions they manage to swarm something before it has the good sense to run away. Onyx Crawlers are more often than not found alone or in groups of two or three, because Queens generally want to cover as much ground as possible at any given time. Onyx Crawlers tend to be good for the natural environment, providing fertility to soil when they die and maintaining a manageable population. The caves they dig are sometimes home to other creatures and they don’t eat too much so their impact is minimal.

Lyndor

The Lyn are a subrace of humans, the immigrants to Viridia who landed in the northwest and build a flourishing country for themselves where other races had little interest in travelling. They established their capitol in Ironmark, and set up other forts in the mountains and along the Ashen Coast. There were also smaller established villages in the mountains, and two larger cities with no accompanying fort.

Physically, the Lyn have little variance outside of facial structure. Their skin is uniformly fair, and the only naturally occurring hair colour is brown, sometimes with a bit of red. Their eyes boast a larger variety of blues, browns, and greens. A lot of Lyn dye their hair different colours through dye, magic, or the odd magic dye.

The people of Lyndor make their livings in enough varying ways to render the country completely self-sufficient, but almost every man, woman and child has some role in their main source of entertainment: one-on-one swordfights between some of the best swordsmen in the world. This form of entertainment draws crowds (including non-humans) to the Lyndor forts every year for a large organized tournament.

Traziun besting an opponent

The competitors use the flats (or in the case of one-sided weapons, the backs) of their swords when fighting, and due to the high amount of skill in the professional fighters, injuries worse than the expected bruising are rare. In organized fights, the competitors stand about ten meters apart, and when the start of the match is signalled, quickly close the distance and lock blades in an attempt to gain an advantage on the other. The match is usually over when one of the warriors surrenders, which doesn’t normally take too long given the amount of pain involved with getting hit in the side by a broadsword.

Naturally from this sport celebrities rose out of the best fighters, including a man who held the tournament’s championship for five straight years, Traziun, who was the favourite at nearly every tournament he entered, including his first. In his sixth year holding the title, Traziun was defeated in the championship match by a Connor Gibbs, a first-year competitor who had bested every combatant in record time leading up to the match.

The fight was spectacular, lasting hours instead of minutes, and in the end Traziun lay defeated, only losing when he lost consciousness. It took a month for both warriors’ wounds to fully heal, and when all was said and done, both fighters retired, leaving the title empty for the first time since the tournament began. Ten years later, both warriors entered the battlefield one more time, facing each other to give the audience a long-awaited encore. Their second fight ended an hour later, with Traziun left standing this time, and while the match was shorter than their first, it was by far more intense.

There was no bitterness between the two afterwards, because like good warriors, they respected their opponents too much. Fans of both cried for one final match, to settle the tie, but even Connor admitted that Traziun was by far superior and declined the tie-breaker. Neither warrior fought in another structured match after that, but Traziun went on training new swordsmen, ending in several championship-holders before the end of his career.

Upon Traziun’s death, a statue was erected in Ironmark to honour his memory, while Connor eventually faded from memory, happy enough of what he had once accomplished.

Humans

Humans were essentially the first living animals in the entire universe, being Youle’s first creation after the gods. They were placed on several planets all over Emaria’s galaxy, most notably on Azureus, specifically the continent of Crim. Humans lead a shorter lifespan than Emarions, but live longer than Bangar, at an average of about eighty five years.

At the start of their history, humans were savage people, killing each other over land or in the name of false gods. This went on for hundreds of years, with vague tribes forming and being consumed by larger tribes. Some time after Youle’s departure, before Histan began creating his children, humans had organized themselves into various nations, all holding their own section of land and maintaining an uneasy peace with each other.

Traziun, a famous Lyn warrior

Of course, such an uneasy peace rarely lasts and by 433D the various nations were picking fights with each other, sometimes for ridiculous reasons. Several nations formed navies and went to explore the seas and avoid the fighting. One such country was that of Lyndor. While the Lyn valued battle like many other humans, they hated unbalanced and chaotic fighting. They in 382D the entire Lyn nation sailed east in a massive fleet of ships and landed on what became Astock. They settled that small island and moved on to the mainland, creating several forts where they could comfortably maintain a warrior tribe in the cold mountains.

On the opposite end of Crim, around the same time, the Dragonian tribe, a dragon-worshipping nation of golden-haired warrior-mages. The Dragonians landed in the north of Emaria, a harsh desert that, due to the conditions of their homeland, made them feel right at home. The Dragonians, however, were not so much against open war as the Lyn were, and after moving further west over the mountains had several clashes with Lyndor, though they were repelled easily with every attack.

As news of both countries’ arrival reached the other races, an understanding was made between the Viridians, and relative peace was established over the continent, which lasted until the Dragonian War.

During the Sky Age, both the Lyn and the Dragonians made their own claims around the universe, unlike other human tribes. The Lyn, as with their move to Viridia, chose star systems with little to see, which would attract little dispute or visitors. As a result, Toroi is the safest of the core systems. The Dragonians, on the other hand, took land wherever they could get it, placing their capitol planet in Fuu’u'll and sharing several outer systems with Lyndor and Emaria.

The Abyss

“When you look into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you.”

~Friedrich Nietzsche

Nearly every serious adventurer from the rise of the Emarion empire to the sky age took their chances within the Abyss at least once. The Abyss was a series of caves, caverns, and otherwise underground locales that stretched all across the planet Azureus, all interconnected in a confusing web that represented the madness contained within. The abyss was first the perfect place to explore for the lionhearted, home to dragons and less dangerous creatures, and second the spawning grounds for the Necros, who used the twisted halls to confuse interlopers and keep their secret ritual chambers safe.

There are numerous entrances to the Abyss all over Azureus, but the largest, best-known, and most travelled is that which lies in the mountains east of Dragonmark. Many known entrances also exist on the continent of Crim, and there is one closely monitored cave inside the city-island of Materia itself.

With locations on every continent, it’s clear that the Abyss runs under the oceans themselves, and one stretch cavern stands out from all others; a section that runs underneathe the ocean, totally exposed to the waters, with a still-breathable pocket of air that presumably replenishes itself. There explorers can see the waters above them, as well as what lives at the very bottom of the sea. The location is clearly magical, and is roughly circular with a high ceiling that’s best described as “membrane-like” with a diameter of about half a kilometre. Credit for this locale is often given to Levia, as water is her specialty.

Dimensional gates are also believed to exist within the Abyss, and many delve into the cave hoping to find a portal to another existence, though this belief was never truly confirmed. Most who went in with the express desire to locate a dimentional warp never returned, either because they found one, or because they found a hungry black dragon or a patrolling necros guard. Those who did return never found anything, or barely escaped with their lives.

There are those who manage to make the Abyss their homes, mostly demented souls, or those who desire complete seclusion from the trappings of civilization. Most who attempt this quickly die, but as a person becomes accustomed to the unforgiving conditions of the Abyss, it grows into the perfect arena in which to hone the instincts and achieve amazing mortal power.

Luckily, for most people, the Abyss is a place for all the bad things in the world to exist in one convenient location, and for adventurers to go get themselves killed. The Necros and occasional angry dragon are the only serious threats in the entire history of Azureus to consistently crawl out of the Abyss.

Emarion Time Scale

It’s about time I explain the various aspects of the standard Emarion calendar, and perhaps do something absurd like calculate the age of the universe when it dies. For starters, the second is the same length as our second, mostly for simplicity and because there’s no point in it being any longer or shorter. Emarion time also uses a sort of base sixty, so minutes are sixty seconds and hours are sixty minutes.

From there on it distinguishes itself from our time. There are 36 hours in an Emarion day, eighteen of them night and the other eighteen day. The average person sleeps about ten to eleven of those hours. Weeks aren’t really counted, though Bangar culture separates the months into two fortnights with one day in between each, the days being holidays of sorts. Each month is thirty days, no more and no less.

The months are separated into four seasons, which each contain two months, making the months per year eight. Each month is named after a god, and each season is named after an element. Thus, the season of Fire (Summer) contains the months Ifire and Oriin; the season of Wind (Autumn) contains Mhogul and Indra; the season of Water (Winter) contains Leviah and Histan; and the season of Earth (Spring) contains Shadou and Bhrin. The new year is considered to be the first of Ifire.

After Eathanu became a god, he added two more days to the year, in which a season of his creation universally affects Azureus. The days are slightly foggy and small ice crystals descend, not completely unlike snow, but they are always moving slowly straight down. The two days became a holiday that, during the Sky Age brought a lot of pilots home for the display. These two days technically lengthened the year and required the orbit of Azureus be slowed by that amount, which the gods agreed to, and they stayed there every year proceeding the year D0.

Speaking of which, it may be obvious, but in case it isn’t, year notation is simple. 1000D means one thousand years before the Dragonian War, and D1000 means one thousand years after. The year zero is usually shown as D0 instead of 0D, just as a standardization.

That leads us to the semi-promise I made on the last article. The universe was created by Youle in 1648D. The universe ended in D4024, which means the universe was only 5672 years old when it poofed. This seems like very little time, and it is, but since Emaria pretty much takes evolution out of the picture, with all of the existing races having been created by a god, it’s actually a decent amount of time (and, as I understand it, longer than our universe has been around, according to the Bible. Go ahead and correct me if I’m wrong on that). So (*deep breaths*):
The universe was 5672 years in existence,
24 712 seasons passed (including one for each of Eathanu’s two days),
45 376 full months of age,
1 369 328 days in number (again counting Eathanu’s days after the war),
49 295 808 hours to it,
2 957 748 480 minutes alive,
and 177 464 908 800 seconds old. Holy fuck.
One hundred seventy-seven billion, four hundred sixty-four million, nine hundred eight thousand, eight hundred seconds in all of this universe’s life. I expected several times that.
Oh, and in Hex that’s 2951BB9C00. Cause, you know, I like hexidecimal.

Hopefully this was, in a way, informative. At least I can start typing out whatever relating to months or seasons and not think “are is my reader going to get that?”