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.

Emarion

Sirius Orillion, sporting a fancy set of armour

Emarion is the term usually used to describe members of the race, rather than people living in Emaria. Emarions are usually regarded as wise and charismatic, and make good leaders in any setting. These qualities established them as the dominant race on the planet, and eventually the galaxy, early on.

Thier kingdom, a constitutional monarchy, was founded in 412D when Lord Sirius Orillion united the Emarion people under his own banner. Due to his unrelenting courage shown during his many, many skirmishes with Goblin hordes, the majority of the Emarion people accepted his rule without question, and soon after he set up a balanced government, placing himself at one of the heads.

Emaria was ruled by a king, who made most foreign decisions, a judge, who would settle domestic disputes and work with the king on regular domestic rule, and an oracle, who could challenge the decisions of either to essentially place the decision in the hands of their opposite. While the position of king was entirely hereditary, the judge and oracle were both elected positions, changing every ten years. Orillion ended his rule in 298D, technically three days after his death.

Emarions can live longer than many races, up to three hundred of their years on the outside (Azurean years being only a hair shorter than Earth years) and most do not even die. If an Emarion dies when their body is mostly composed of the essentia (magic), they can become immortal. This is a lesser godhood that denies them the ability to interact with the material plane of existence, except through sight and sound. This immortality binds them to their general position on death, however, not unlike a ghost, but in the case of Azureus simply means they can’t leave the planet.

Many Emarions spend their lives pursuing a means to achieve this state of essentian infusion because the alternative, death, is not exactly pleasant in this universe.

Emarions are typically divided into two subraces: Northern Emarions from Alexandria to Port Avalon and Fort Dragonia in the north, who are normally fair-skinned with brown, blond, or white hair and blue or green eyes; and southern Emarions from places like Dali and Destinye in the south, who are darker-skinned with almost uniformily white hair (and some blond exceptions), but a wide range of eye colours. Of course, both are found anywhere in the kingdom and beyond, but they’re clearly the Emarion majorities in their regions. Emaria’s capitol has always been Alexandria, and understandily so, considering its central location in the kingdom.

No idea what’s coming in the next update.