...Whilst it wasn't intentional, the Mothraki could not help but overhear what was going on as she'd gotten things prepared for the food and fire. Even a year ago it would have still pulled at her heartstrings, hearing a child having to ask such a question at all, and yet within the last few weeks alone she'd learned things. Things...er...she was unsure how to word it. Things she'd never really questioned since being raised in the village itself. And then, before any more could be talked about the matter, the blizzard and all sorts of things had broken loose onto the village and her mother was bedridden.
So many dead. So much gone. Mother had ben cautious well enough indeed, but since then she'd done her best to help care for her alongside Akala's efforts and so forth. Bringing hot meals from time to time, coming to check in on her every day and before heading out of the village for anything. Etc.
And yet, thinking back on those revelations of the past she couldn't help but feel something rather vaguely familiar as she'd overheard the two. Not much, but a spark of something. Mmm.
She would continue her preparations, though she had visibly taken some pause briefly in the middle when hearing Leuca speak, but had refrained from looking back or making comment. Then, finally returning her attention to her guests properly, she found herself looking at Sorcha seeming to be back to she'd been since they'd met not long ago. Like a switch had flipped back and forth simply talking to the young one.
“Thank you for the consideration, but I’ll prepare our meals myself.”
“If there will be nothing else then, we’ve had a long day and I would very much appreciate some rest.”
Nylah gave a small, acknowledging nod to the woman before her whilst trying to not look at Leuca for fear of triggering some reaction in Sorcha herself. Even so, she tried to not get lost in her own reminiscence again. Tried to at least.
"Of course, take you time. Hopefully once Enli is ready I can bring him here or at least help you get to speak with him. Though whenever you run out of food, please let me know so I can get some more from the storeroom. Likewise if I step out of the village for any time, I shall let you know when about I should be returning as a matter for formality at least."
The Mothraki let out a small sigh, as if the anticipation of the work ahead was already taking its toll. Even so, she seemed to go into thought somewhat afterward. As if trying to-, ah!
After a moment she seemed to perk up before digging in her satchel and pulling out a single healing potion and handing it out to Sorcha. Were the woman to not accept it, she'd set it simply by the edge of the doorframe where it could be easily seen and reached.
"An herbal healing potion of sorts, even if a basic one. In case either of you sustained any sort of simpler injuries on your travel here. You need not use if it you've any worries, we have just met each other after all, but it is an offer all the same.
In the meantime, I will go back to look Lissa and your other former traveling companion. In truth I've business of my own, so I hope to return again soon, but if I return with them I will head to the main room to ensure you both are left alone to rest at least."
With that, the Mothraki gave a small bow to the duo, before doing a quick visual check to ensure she brought the right things in and starting to head out of the room. Situation or not going on with these new arrivals, she needed to talk to Lissa. Perhaps even the dwarven woman. Oh...what was her name again? Drat. She would have to ask again Yet if there was a chance to relieve Mie and have her maybe in the debt of the village in some capacity, or something of the sort, then perhaps the village...could...
...
Crap.
A nagging feeling was latching onto her, digging its claws in when she tried to leave. A thing she felt like she needed to do.
But why? It made no logical sense in some ways, and yet it was enough that Nylah briefly paused before she'd fully left the room.
She then eventually let out a quiet sigh of defeat, before looking back briefly again in at her two guests.
"My apologies if this seems a bit too much to add...but...you seem more than capable, Miss Sorcha, but should the worst ever happen whilst I am gone there is a hidden space. There's a small wooden trapdoor hidden as part of the floor underneath the wood pile in the back. It is a smaller space down there, but enough to hide in...in truth, after this house was built my Mother made it herself to hide me when I was younger. Just in case the worst should ever happen whilst I was home in those first years were were living here.
Because...sometimes people do not seemingly have a reason for saying or doing some horrible, horrible things. Perhaps, even in hindsight, we still can't fathom some of those things...or help but worry about them...but even so we can only go about our lives one day at a time regardless. One thing at a time, focusing on the next step ahead of us."
Advice from Mother, once again coming back into her mind. It felt so silly and out of place to say it all she felt like she could die of embarrassment alone, interjecting like this, and yet once she was done she would quickly nod again in a hurried manner.
"N-Now th-then, I'll leave you both be to r-rest. S-S-Sorry..."
With that, Nylah quickly left the room and made her way to leave the house in a hurry. No looking back. Perhaps she was a fool, a soft idiot talking like this to these strangers. It was so very foolish. Nothing like Mother. Nothing like how her mother was strong, powerful, determined, beautiful, and so many admirable things. Yet at the same time, she'd done things Nylah herself couldn't imagine. Shocking things. Painful things.
...Why did she save her that night? Why that night, and not some other child before then? Why? Why so much slaughter? Why were the Mothraki and Bastelians even doing these things to each other? She didn't even have an idea of what her own people were like. Her own race. She hadn't been able to get more answers after that night of truths being revealed to her. She'd been afraid to even ask, not wanting to change things even more so, though she didn't shy away from the only parent she'd ever known either.
Blargh. All thinking about it did was just make her feel...bad. Strange. She couldn't put a pin on just what it all was or meant, but she knew one thing for sure in the end: She needed to help her Mother get well again. No matter what.
...
...
...
Eventually Nylah would make her way back, and upon seeing Lissa and the dwarven woman still around she waved at them as she jogged over. Something in her eyes seemed more tired than usual, though the nerves about what she wanted to ask Lissa about were coming back gradually as her focus returned to the original matter at hand.
A rescue mission, or something like that, being discussed.
"There you both are! I was worried you'd be standing in the cold too long. Sorcha and Leuca have been settled in, but I'd hoped you both would come along as well. I can at least get a warm meal going in the Main Room for you both before we chat more, if that would be acceptable."
((Sticking a tongue out? The little purple dress looked nice, but...so mean. She'd just wanted to kindly imagine a nice cute dress on her to help after the mini-goddess' other clothes had been burnt off. To try to be nice to her...))
-Herbs/Herbalism Knowledge:
***Kyr Reed acted as a sort of coagulant as well as sedative. Made people calmer…not particularly useful for treating frostbite on its own, but it was useful for staunching bleeding or injuries. Could be crushed into a paste with a variety of other things to achieve various effects. Wind-Leaf acted as more of a stimulant. When properly mixed with Kyr Reed it made salves and healing poultices good for bolstering the immune system and promoting natural healing. Coral Moss and Slug mucus were a bit harder to find, since the slugs only could be found in shallow water during the day, with Coral Moss being found in damp sea caves off the coast near the Goddess Spear. Slug Mucus was good for making topical salves for alleviating pain, while Coral Moss, when exposed to certain other substances actually heated itself to temperatures good for gentle rewarming of frost-bitten areas.
***Making anesthetics and preparing healing potions and salves.
It’d be easy enough to prepare both of those things especially with the things she had on hand. Fresh water for a base, crush the ingredients, then boil it to a broth. Simple enough, they didn’t have time to refine it. The Salves could be made by taking the same ingredients and crushing them into a paste without the water. Better for topical use on flesh wounds.
***
***
-{Enthralling Dust} (Racial): Mothraki produce a potent pollen like dust upon their wings. Merely by existing they spread this where they go, though it's mostly harmless if not inhaled in large quantities. Causes hallucinations and dulls one's senses. As one may expect, people tend to frown upon this sort of thing.
-{Journeyman Light Magic}: A magic encompassing pure light and illumination, ranging from harmless orbs to light up one’s path all the way up to rays/beams of light as attacks to even light barriers and other light constructs such as swords and spears and shields and so forth. A versatile magic that does not call upon the fire of the sun, but does have its myriad uses and capabilities.
-{Novice Herbalist}: Non-magical practices of a healer, ranging from identifying or figuring out the use of new herbs and recognizing familiar ones, to making things like certain poultices and healing-based alchemy/potion-making, to how to handle wounds/injuries and such using these things.
-{Herbalist's Bag}: A simple leather bag with a well-built shoulder strap, that is filled with a good number of many types of herbs, a good amount of bandages, and finally tools to make tonics, poultices, and potions alongside a scare few pre-prepared ones that are within the bag itself. She usually wears it around most of the time. (EDIT: Has refilled her supplies, with three total healing pots remaining now. Also now has four vials of baby-chameleon-thing poison.)
-{Small Knife}: A gift from her mother, made with a smoothed-out bone handle and treated with certain oils, mainly used to help cut things like vines and plants when out collecting herbs and so forth. Also a very niche emergency self-defense tool.
-{Food}: A small pouch sitting on her opposite hip that contains a few strips of preserved game meat and a few dried edible herbs from the local area. Not much in amount, since it was meant to be snacks for heading into the woods to gather herbs before 'that' happened.
-{Wristband}: A simple little bracelet made of pretty stones dyed in various colors, carefully having had a hole made through each, sitting on a band made of twisted and treated leather strips. Worn on her left wrist and given as a gift to her by her mother. How long it took to acquire or even make is unknown.
-{Cuteness}: She is a definitely cute moth girl. This is inherent to her existence. Yes.
Sorcha seemed to be a woman not afraid to speak her mind, that much was for sure, though the comments about the poor state of the village were as redundant as anything. They'd weathered the passage of a proper Elder Beast through their area, and the fact the deaths had been limited to what they were felt like a miracle. Yet in contrast, Leuca seemed to be as eager and bright and hopeful as anything. A clear contrast to, and somewhat a relief from the comments of, Sorcha herself. If naught else, though, the visage of her home was something that brought a sense of some small relief to the Mothraki.
A lovely house near the sea, built well and cozy with tall ceilings and a lot of space to move. Carpets and mother's weapons, icons of the goddess Kythet and a large fire pit, the works. She'd never thought to ask her mother if it had been made to resemble designs of her old homeland, but in truth she'd not needed to ask such things. She'd been content to learn, to grow, to...to live with Mother around and to try to make her proud. By the time such questions became apparent, the Elder Beast had arrived after and things had become a mess. A grand mess.
“I am surprised to see a Mothraki living in a house with holy symbols and icons of the Bastelians. I take it this ‘mother’ you spoke of is a Bastelian, then?”
Was it so odd? Then again, Mother had acquired her in not the best of circumstances. Not all details had come out, but she had figured that time to talk more about it would come. That they'd be able to sit down more, all before that illness had stricken the only parent she knew down and left her bedridden. Ill.
"Ah...y-yes. Mother is a Bastelian, and the only mother I've ever known. In truth, I've no real memory of living anywhere else but here in the village either."
Not far from the main room with the fire pit and such, and across from her own room, Nylah would guide the duo to the spare room she'd mentioned prior.
A large and open spare room, of the same style as the rest of the house, filled with spots on the floor for extra bedding that was piled up in the corner along with some wood and tinder and other very simple supplies. Enough of a place to host a guest, or a few guests when Mother had kept some hunters over a few times before the night before a big hunt in particular in the past. The room likewise had a smaller fire pit in the center of it, one that was surrounded with stone and ventilated out of the ceiling. Even so, no wood currently sat in the pit that had gone unused since before the Elder Beast's arrival.
Decorations were scarce, but some hide carpets and such did provide a certain sense of 'home-i-ness' when it came to the local tastes of the village. At least it didn't look so empty, if nothing else.
After entering the room proper with her guests, the Mothraki would quietly walk over to the stacked wood and bedding were and work on pulling some bedding down for the duo to make use of. She would keep it close together, as she figured Sorcha would prefer most likely, and would begin to perform the process of stacking some tinder and wood and getting a fire going with a flint and small bit of metal to strike with left sitting by the smaller fire pit's edge. Not that there was must left to make use of at this stage, compared to their stock prior to the blizzard, but she'd managed to get some help once or twice restocking some after events. Somewhat. Truth be told she'd had to make do herself with most of the work, even if it was a struggle, and that had been after providing mutual assistance to those who'd helped her.
And, somewhat ashamedly in her mind, some of the unusable housing and other ruins left in the initial wake of things had been scavenged by herself and others a bit for useable wood and materials. All out of desperation.
Pursing her lips as she focused, eyes unwavering from the task in front of her hands despite the somewhat far-looking glaze that had formed in her eyes somewhat, Nylah would eventually get the sparks going as Mother had taught her. She almost didn't need to think about it at this point, as starting the fire and keeping one had been a chore for so long it had become second nature to her. So natural and basic, and yet...something so vital to survival all the same. Like breathing air.
"Whew...well, there's some bedding and a fire at least! If you need more, there's more bedding here in the corner as well as more wood to keep the fire in here for warmth. I'll go to the storage and see what to get simmering in the pot over the main fire pit, though Mother was very insistent we keep things that would preserve and last before the blizzard hit."
Perhaps...once she and Mother were through the nightmare things had become, once she found a way to make Mother well again, then she could make her a hearty and piping hot dinner again as well. Something to bring back something of better days. Even if just a bit. Even if just for one evening.
Still, once food got going well enough she could perhaps even go back for a moment to get Lissa and the other newcomer. She'd hoped they would come along with her and the others, but they had apparently stuck back behind to talk. Hmm. She'd wanted to talk to Lissa about going to to assist Mie and her group, even if it meant sneaking in to provide medical assistance or something, but she didn't want to simply up and walk away from her guests either.
(("Alas, with the mini-goddess re-clothing herself Nylah hadn't the chance to imagine her a cute little dress. Though the fact the mini-goddess had lost clothing from that little event was a small shock to her indeed."))
-Herbs/Herbalism Knowledge:
***Kyr Reed acted as a sort of coagulant as well as sedative. Made people calmer…not particularly useful for treating frostbite on its own, but it was useful for staunching bleeding or injuries. Could be crushed into a paste with a variety of other things to achieve various effects. Wind-Leaf acted as more of a stimulant. When properly mixed with Kyr Reed it made salves and healing poultices good for bolstering the immune system and promoting natural healing. Coral Moss and Slug mucus were a bit harder to find, since the slugs only could be found in shallow water during the day, with Coral Moss being found in damp sea caves off the coast near the Goddess Spear. Slug Mucus was good for making topical salves for alleviating pain, while Coral Moss, when exposed to certain other substances actually heated itself to temperatures good for gentle rewarming of frost-bitten areas.
***Making anesthetics and preparing healing potions and salves.
It’d be easy enough to prepare both of those things especially with the things she had on hand. Fresh water for a base, crush the ingredients, then boil it to a broth. Simple enough, they didn’t have time to refine it. The Salves could be made by taking the same ingredients and crushing them into a paste without the water. Better for topical use on flesh wounds.
***
***
-{Enthralling Dust} (Racial): Mothraki produce a potent pollen like dust upon their wings. Merely by existing they spread this where they go, though it's mostly harmless if not inhaled in large quantities. Causes hallucinations and dulls one's senses. As one may expect, people tend to frown upon this sort of thing.
-{Journeyman Light Magic}: A magic encompassing pure light and illumination, ranging from harmless orbs to light up one’s path all the way up to rays/beams of light as attacks to even light barriers and other light constructs such as swords and spears and shields and so forth. A versatile magic that does not call upon the fire of the sun, but does have its myriad uses and capabilities.
-{Novice Herbalist}: Non-magical practices of a healer, ranging from identifying or figuring out the use of new herbs and recognizing familiar ones, to making things like certain poultices and healing-based alchemy/potion-making, to how to handle wounds/injuries and such using these things.
-{Herbalist's Bag}: A simple leather bag with a well-built shoulder strap, that is filled with a good number of many types of herbs, a good amount of bandages, and finally tools to make tonics, poultices, and potions alongside a scare few pre-prepared ones that are within the bag itself. She usually wears it around most of the time. (EDIT: Has refilled her supplies. Also now has two vials of baby-chameleon-thing poison.)
-{Small Knife}: A gift from her mother, made with a smoothed-out bone handle and treated with certain oils, mainly used to help cut things like vines and plants when out collecting herbs and so forth. Also a very niche emergency self-defense tool.
-{Food}: A small pouch sitting on her opposite hip that contains a few strips of preserved game meat and a few dried edible herbs from the local area. Not much in amount, since it was meant to be snacks for heading into the woods to gather herbs before 'that' happened.
-{Wristband}: A simple little bracelet made of pretty stones dyed in various colors, carefully having had a hole made through each, sitting on a band made of twisted and treated leather strips. Worn on her left wrist and given as a gift to her by her mother. How long it took to acquire or even make is unknown.
-{Cuteness}: She is a definitely cute moth girl. This is inherent to her existence. Yes.
@Liotrent@Jeddaven It is done. Well, mostly complete anyways. The flag and image of the colony's location are things I want to add to it sooner or later!
Also is not meant to be some invincible undead nation. Undead can get blown apart and living lives lost, etc. Just because I overthink and worry. I just wanted to add fun flavor for the undead and such. Hopefully no one else has tried to do undead? Maybe? Eh, anywho... (@_@)
The Grand United Democratic Republic of the An-ki
Name of your Nation: The Grand United Democratic Republic of the An-ki (Known as the “An-ki Republic” in/for short.) (Colony on the map in particular is known as “Gukou Colony” or “Gukou Island” to the Republic.)
(Flag and Map Images To Eventually Be Placed Here)
Type of Government:: Constitutional Democratic Republic
Demographics:
Undead - Classified and specific according to the national “Two Categories and Seven Types of Undead” created by the Council after thousands of years. In the case of actual national demographics, it specifically refers to the sentient/sapient undead population in this case.
Vampires - An undead created by means of a Primordial Curse of super-ancient times that originated from fiddling with demonic presences and natural laws. Its origin is unclear for the most part, save for the general gist derived from all the ancient knowledge the An-ki Republic has in its possession. It has been dubbed, within vampiric society and the Council and An-ki Republic since then, as “The Crimson Rose” or “The Bloody Tulip”.
Said curse is infused into a living body, but it does not initially take effect at this stage. It is binding and bitter and deep-rooted in its nature, and only takes effect when the bearer’s body physically dies. After this the curse blossoms and matures within the deceased bearer, it goes about altering the body and flesh. After this the user awakens once more as an undead vampire. The more damage to the bearer’s body, the longer it takes. A vampire created from someone hacked to pieces and tossed in a mass grave is still very possible, but it would take a much longer time to rebuild and reanimate the body via the curse in this particular situation.
The curse even has ‘strains’ that run within it, mostly due to the original curse versus derived ones spreading around that sought to mimic it by copycating. The Lesser Curse produces Lesser Vampires, whilst the Original Curse creates Greater Vampires. Most Greater Vampires in the world live multiply within the An-ki Republic’s borders by modern times, though their kin are far, far more numerous. Meanwhile Lesser Vampires are the most well-known in the world due to their greater numerical presence historically and so forth as well as due to being far more common. What makes the two differing vampiric curses distinct is that the Original is far stronger than the Lesser one, very notably so in application.
Lesser Vampires have more weaknesses, but are more easily created due to their numbers historically and prevalence of material about them. They are very weak to blessed or sanctified holy weapons, can be repelled with certain types of magic talismans, die if beheaded and then have a stake driven through their heart in combination, are allergic and weak to silver and do not have a reflection. Yet in return, access to magic and superhuman capabilities and shapeshifting into animal forms (specifically, and how they can fly at all), eternal youth as a form of immortality, fire, disease immunity to standard non-magical diseases, and subsisting by drinking blood are among their prime benefits. They can out weather and outlast, and even make use of charms and enchanted clothes and such to protect them from sunlight and such if they are prepared and wealthy/intelligent/skilled enough.
Meanwhile Greater Vampires are far stronger and have the same powers and greater strength whilst lacking most of these weaknesses, not burning in sunlight at all, having a reflection, not as drastically weak (but still vulnerable to) holy weapons, not vulnerable to special talismans, they have no reaction to silver, and beheading and heart-staking being useless against them entirely. Starving them out is the best tactic, weakening them and restraining them away until they starve of blood and burn up from the curse is the most reliable, even if not-quick, method of defeating one. Keeping them stuck or bound up in a fire until they burn to ash is also viable. Blessed holy weapons or consecrated/hallowed ones will, as long as they remain such and aren’t broken or tainted, do extra damage to them as well. Yet removing the heart and burning it fully in a very hot fire is the one singular and sure way to kill one most quickly, but not doing so quickly enough will result in the vampire regenerating back again with a vengeance. Mistakenly eating part of the vampire’s heart will infect one with the curse, as is partaking of or having the Greater Vampire’s blood forced or put into your body (even if it simply consumed and in the victim’s stomach somehow) otherwise.
Vampires can also make thralls by tainting another with their blood, but then activating the curse early and hollowing out the mind and life of the victim into that of a Reanimated-type undead.
It goes without saying that Lesser Vampires are far more common, Greater Vampires are far more rare but a lot stronger.
-
Soul Gem Constructs - Once held under the same general category of undead a Liches for a while, they were eventually separated out as distinctions became clearer and better understood. Whilst Liches had phylacteries, these did not have to be some kind of Soul Gem. Meanwhile the nature of a Soul Gem was different at a fundamental level, and its creation and use made it applicable in non-living constructs such as automata and golems and otherwise.
At first they weren’t even part of the classification, and simply rendered as ‘sentient constructs’ in their classification. Yet with time they would see eventual reintegration into the broad umbrella of ‘Undead’, especially after it was found the souls of the already-dead could be harvested from beyond to create Soul Gems. Whilst it is more technical a definition than the Council like at first, it was cemented formally in law by the time the modern government of the nation emerged. With the general restrictions and issues regarding Soul Magic even historically, the population of these undead has always been on the small side in a general sense.
Can destroy these by just destroying the Soul Gem, like by shooting it with a gun or something like smashing it off the side of a mountain. Etc.
-
Liches - Undead who can possess a skeletal or non-skeletal appearance (more often the former than the latter much more notably so by modern times), depending on one’s preferences, created through the shunting of one’s soul into a phylactery which differs from the likes of a Soul Gem. The body is preserved and operated like normal, but with the soul residing in the phylactery it means that even if the body is destroyed it will be restored to the same appearance and conditions as it was when it died. In essence, an undead that can only ever be sentient/sapient in nature and possesses a ‘magical backup’ in the form of the phylactery.
However, if said phylactery is destroyed the lich will automatically die as well and their body will disintegrate. This being noted, a phylactery is usually kept in a safe spot or secure and legal “Phylactery Storage Facility” by those who can afford to keep one there.
-
Revenants - A type of undead akin to Wights, wherein a spiritual being possesses their own corpse or the corpse of another living thing and reanimates it. This is caused by strong enough attachments to the living world, usually very specific things powerful enough to attach them back, or otherwise to seek out revenge for their death. Whereas “Wights” are merely Reanimated-type undead who are overcome by their emotions and desire for vengeance that they have no higher mental faculties and are no more than beasts at best that are possessed by angry mindless spirits, many once anciently inhabiting graveyards as cannibalistic beasts who subsist on the flesh of anything to survive, Revenants are a higher-tier version that have their mental faculties intact and control over their bodies.
It is as such one of the most common forms of ‘voluntary undead’ created within the An-ki Republic, due to the ease of creation when magic is involved, though its non-sentient counterpart is used for police work by using it to find murderers and killers by police. Wights are so very single-minded they can be recycled by using magic to transfer some of another Wight or Revenant’s lingering emotional energies into the bestial Wights to track killers in some other cases to boot!
Revenants can come in a range of flavors, as it were, ranging from banshee-like physical beings to others bound back into the flesh proper in one way or another. Will not be covering all of those subtypes here though for the sake of sanity and time. But they are also by and far the most common form of sentient/sapient undeath living in the Republic have chosen at one point or another. Rather reasonably and consistently so since they can be rendered to look like normal or like they did in life basically. It is just a matter of re-binding the soul to the deceased body, but not resurrecting the body to full living status again, unlike the natural process of the soul having to grasp to the mortal plane in some manner or another.
-
Geists - Sentient/Sapient spiritual beings, ranging from the wailing banshees to poltergeists to myriad others. The most general and varied category of sentient/sapient undead that can interact with the physical world. Also the second least-common type of sentient undead above that of Soul Gem Constructs. The wild versions are usually found as trouble and cause a number of issues, even being impossible to normally see due to their instability in some cases, whereas sentient ones can at least remain visible consistently and go about.
Spiritual exorcisms and the use of necromancy to purge them out and put them to rest forcibly is the best way to ‘kill’ these beings. Magic and consecrated objects/weapons/tools can be used to hurt them properly as well, though mundane weapons and things without magical or holy natures/blessings cannot so much as touch them in return.
Those who choose this as a form of voluntary reanimation into an undead do so for a number of reasons, a more common one being usually to watch over loved ones or such during the rest of their lives before eventually retiring to be put to rest after said loved ones eventually die themselves. Like an elderly husband watching over his wife as a Geist until they can both attain rest together. Etc, etc, etc.
-
Greater Mummies - Undead created through holy rites/symbols/magics and the act of preserving the body of the targeted undead. In a sense, religiously-created undead who usually only awoke in ancient times when robbers came to pilfer their tombs and the protections on it reanimated them and any buried animals or such with them to help protect said tomb. Now mostly used as a category to designate undead created by holy or religious magics, including holy symbols and sacred trinkets and other religiously-oriented tomb/grave-based protection magics, who have incorporated means of bodily preservation or embalming along with this.
Their most notable trait is being immune to any and all holy-originated symbols and magics that seek to harm or damage them, and they are further immune to traditional undead-slaying or anti-undead spells. Proper spiritual exorcisms, carefully dispelling the magics binding them together, and even the use of knowledge of the proper religious rites used to make them to undo them in reverse are all applicable. Likewise blasting them to pieces and chopping them to bits properly and fully will destroy them assuredly just as well. Otherwise they will eventually regenerate back from the damage done to them if a big enough chunk of their body is left behind for it to 'rebuild' from.
Humans - General humans who seem to live everywhere in the world and whatnot. Includes both ones native to the homeland and ones native to the Archipelago, as well as any human subspecies not too distinct to be separated into something like elves and dwarves and so forth.
Amirai/“Amazons” - An all-female race of women who lived in the An-ki Republic colony’s land, before their eventual conquest by colonial forces scattered many about the other colonies and even as far back as the homeland in a forced diaspora. They have gained a distinctly growing presence as a minority population within the homeland in the last 100 years, alongside the spread of other colonial races throughout the Republic's colonies and back to the homeland. It has also remained a prominent demographic within the Gukou (named for a famous foreign expert who sought audience and funding to explore the seas for the An-ki Republic, and who helped guide colonial efforts of the homeland to several key places including to routes that led to the founding of the colony in the Archipelago named after him) Colony as well, since it was and is their homeland.
They are tall, densely-muscled, and yet somewhat lithe yet curvy humanoids/humans who formed a small bit stone-working kingdom within the Archipelago. They were known for raids on other fellow natives, and anyone else within striking range, even raiding the tribes and peoples of the lesser kingdoms on their home island for goods and slaves and so forth. Some even came to hold positions of power within (insert sigma’s bug people’s race’s name here) cities within what would eventually become the Gukou Colony itself. Yet for all their strength, they became stuck in a number of ways and exposed to other factors that kept them held back in that age of a civilization whose cities were wrought from stone and warriors.
Initially their greatest single kingdom traded with the initial colonists for some time, but initiating trade made them look on the colony inherently as a tributary of sorts whose trade was exclusively for them alone in return for not getting raided or sacked. Eventually this led to war with other locals who wanted ‘such a valuable tributary’, and then eventually to war with the kingdom itself once the truth was finally realized and relations had begun to deteriorate. That war started off decisive for the locals at first, but rapidly turned for the colonial side as reinforcements and other things were pulled into the conflict. The war was swift and decisive, and the following consequences notable, for this people/race in the aftermath as well.
Those who surrendered or submitted, as befitted their culture to a certain extent, and mostly assimilated peacefully. These were also vectors by which some of their culture has remained preserved and through which the old ways were ultimately recorded down alongside the work of other early colonial scholars. The remainder had their children raised in the homeland/colony’s ways and in their vein of education, with those too old or adults too stubborn and still fighting back sentenced to lifelong labor in hard labor camps for the rest of their natural lives alongside other ‘un-rehabitable’ trouble-making native locals from within what would become the colony’s borders.
Elves - Any types of elves within the An-ki Republic, bearing the approximate elvish traits to be placed under this category.
Dark Elves - A local species of the Archipelago, members of whom have been assimilated either locally or from freed and rehabilitated Amirai slaves/captives. Some have entered into the colony and become citizens via defecting to elsewhere and eventually migrating to the colony proper indirectly via trade and other means.
Sea Elves - “{ }” = notes added by the ones compiling the demographics report to the quote describing the sea elves as noted by Bessarugan sources. Quote-
Native to the vast coast of Bessaruga, {which lies to the south and west of the Gukou Colony} Sea Elf tribes made their living with semi-aquatic lifestyles, often migrating for whaling seasons atop large, flat-bottomed boats. They are very capable divers and swimmers.
Dwarves - (Dwarves.)
Dragonkin - Used to refer to any draconic-like peoples or draconic-blooded peoples within the nation’s demographics as a general term. Subspecies are further broken down below-
Vasiris - Inhabiting the colonially-owned mountains to the South, and along the East of Bessaruga's frontier, the Vasiris closest to the colony were noted as being at constant odds with the Amazons of the northern part of the island. Especially the kingdom the Amazons had formed in that part. Often the target of land raids and warriors wishing to fight against a foe at dangerous attitudes for ‘the challenge’, a number were found among the Amirai slaves that were freed after the subjugation of the latter.
{The} Vasiris are a humanoid peoples with several, Lepidosauric features, including predominant horns and scaled appendages. Some have been led to speculate that the Vasiri peoples may be distant ancestors of other draconic peoples -- an idea that has gained traction in academia, but so far has little concrete evidence to validate this theory. Vasiri are quite strong and do not tire easily, and are also known to pick up kinesthetic and athletic skills quickly.
(insert sigma’s insect people’s race’s name here) -
Centaurs - (or Centaurs/etc, basically, or whatever works best)
Population: 10 million (Sentient/Living specifically, not counting mindless undead or reanimated because they aren't sentient/sapient.)
Governance & Politics:
The nation is built with a constitution by current times, and has an Oligarchy at the top formed of the persisting-since-ancient-times though had-to-replace-members-at-times “Council of the Seven Deaths”. These, however, are simply at the very top of the government and at the top of the political food chain. The government below them is split into three parts, with the Council existing as the Executive part and holding these executive and certain special powers, a Legislature split into a House and a Senate who do the law-making work, and then a Judiciary which has nine members maximum by law.
The Council is the oldest part of the government, originally being the whole of the government in ancient times before time and war and other factors have led to its persistence into modern times as the constitutionally designated Executive body at the head of the nation. It was formed as a simple Oligarchy founded for undead alone to rule, but through countless wars and internal struggles and replacements and reforms it has changed and shifted along with the various types of undead-scholars who still form and compose the body overall still. Unlike in older times, where the amount of Council positions shifted depending on the types of undead they classified to actually exist, the modern Council is hard locked into seven Council members proper. The Council, if a position is somehow ever opened up, fills it in by appointment and approval by the remaining council members. Usually there’s a list the Council updates and maintains, which of course changes from time to time, of prime candidates to replace Council members in the case of a potential vacancy. One type of each undead is required to be on the council, no doubling up allowed by law.
The Legislature is voted in within both houses, and brings a voice to the people from across the Republic proper. It is also the newest and youngest part of the government, having been adopted about 110 years ago alongside the nation’s constitution in the aftermath of a number of ideas adopted and put into place by the Council after a series of internal corruption cases and struggles to maintain the aging bureaucracy that the Council was looking to replace in general by doing research into other and new ideas emerging in the rest of the world. It has also taken an amount of pressure off of the Council itself to do all the lawmaking as well, which has been a boon in the Council’s eyes to boot. Both living and undead serve in the Legislature, with term limits used to keep both types of citizenry in-check and in-balance more so in this part of the government.
The Judiciary is formed from a body of lifetime-serving judges, and is the highest court in the nation proper. Albeit they are limited to being living (not undead ever) and cannot use magically-based or magically-generated means of life extension in order to ensure a fresh influx of judges will occur at some point. The Judiciary is composed of nine members, who are nominated by the Legislature, interviewed and investigated by the existing Judiciary (or if none of the Judiciary is alive then a joint temporary council of lesser judges from one governmental level below this), and then denied or approved by the Executive. Below this, things are electoral in nature. Judges start with a proper and required Judicial education to become valid potential candidates to become judges. Said candidates usually gain experience by getting voted into judicial positions in order to climb the ladder, making them seasoned veterans and qualified to enter elections for higher judicial positions in the land. Albeit they must actually live in the area, district, province, etc they are gunning for to be able to seek the position. Those most seasoned and experienced candidates are then applicable to be nominated for joining the Judiciary.
At lower levels one can find sometimes regionally varying laws, though it’s the really far fringe or isolated enough boonies that one can find some of the stranger things still in place. For example, in one small isolated county’s case one can challenge the person their spouse cheated on them with to a serious, lethal duel and it is fully legal and just in the eyes of the law. In another one cannot skin deer on the first two days of the week, with a fine being placed on them and that includes being publicly shamed in the town square.
Culture & Society:
To say a very large number of languages exists within the An-ki Republic would be an understatement, as over the ages the Republic has seen everything from what amounts to ‘dead’ languages elsewhere all the way up to modern ones that have emerged or been imported as they persist within the borders. Languages almost as old as time itself, languages invented more recently or coming in from the outside, and the like exist aplenty indeed. Yet the ‘Common’ tongue is the most prolific, uniting tongue that living and undead within the nation use. It allows them to communicate with the outside world, it allows them to communicate with a notable ease internally, and so forth. It is the first or second language of many, and the spread of education throughout the Republic has seen it become ubiquitous. Not that all the other languages have disappeared or gone out of use, not by a longshot, but for a foreigner in the Republic’s lands the use and teaching of Common by and to locals respectively is most definitely a boon.
Along this line, visitors will find themselves in a generally cosmopolitan society where some consistent running undercurrents and ideas unite a rather large and varied populace over a rather large but united nation overall. Not that things will always be perfect, pro-undead and anti-undead hardliners are persistent minorities the government has generally suppressed to enough of an extent in successfully seeking to unify and in promoting a proper national identity within its borders. There are also those who don’t like one group or another from elsewhere, but it depends on the region and place and so forth as to ‘who could be a problem where’ to try to word it as politely as possible…
Education has generally been important within the An-ki Republic due to the nature of the Council itself deriving from scholars. Eventually scholastic mindsets would persist over the idea of magical supremacy, however, and this would lead to seeking the establishment of more schools for those of enough wealth and status and the like. The matter became more treated pragmatically as time went on and unity was sought through times of external conflict and internal issues alike, leading to eventually widespread education being provided and enforced as a pragmatic means of instilling unity, keeping up with the times practically, and in part preparing and better utilizing the population during the nation’s several decades of rapid and government-facilitated industrialization. Locally it is touted as a ‘right of all sentient life’ to learn and to grow mentally, and it is highly encouraged with scholastic programs even encouraging scholarships at higher levels of education (among other things). In this vein the An-ki Republic stands as perhaps one of the best-educated nations in the world with one of the higher retention rates for students at various levels of education proper.
Undead and living do go about living with each other, with various living races and undead ones existing in tandem. Society, especially heading into modern/current times, has also had a lot of force put in forming a national identity. One that brings in all locals under one banner. It has been for the most part successful, in fact rather successful, though being so large and spread out there are still…issues from time to time. Undead who don’t like living descended from certain places internally or externally due to grudges or undead-supremacy ideologies or other things, living who are anti-undead due to ancient influences in the region, and the like have been notably weakened but still ever-present thorns in the side of society. Most of these issues are more pronounced in rural areas, more so in the most rural and remote areas, but not to an extent they’d throw the whole nation into chaos. Mostly the government has used education and so forth to push back on these things, keeping them down but also keeping them silenced. One way this education has worked is, rather than focus on the differences between people, to focus on what all have in common and the unity of fighting under the same banner and learning in the same schools and living on the same lands and the like. One body. One throng. One unity.
Due to the nature of the Council itself, and its origins, the classifications and types of undead are acknowledged and have their definitions in society. Albeit it has taken a rather long time for it all to bleed and be pushed into society as a matter of fact. The two main categories that exist within local education and such are “Reanimated” and “Risen”, the former being non-sentient in nature and the latter being sentient.
The former includes types of undead such as: Zombies, Skeletons, Lesser Mummies (called “Preserved” formally), Reanimated Vampiric Thralls, Wild Geists, Undead Constructs, Lesser Mummies, and Wights (non-sentient revenants possessing a living body in particular).
The latter category of the two primary ones includes sentient types of undead exclusively, such as: Vampires (Lesser and Greater ones), Soul-Gem-infused Constructs, Liches, Revenants, Geists, and Greater Mummies. This is how society identifies, classifies, and even makes legal use of the undead, as Reanimated are used for labor and in factories and so forth en-masse and with augmentations whilst Risen are treated as citizen species by right. In the case someone creates a sentient Reanimated species, the case is reviewed for prosecution, the subject is treated with citizen rights, and the infractor is punished.
The choice to become a sentient undead is one given to living citizens either just prior to death, if possible, or after necromancy is used to consult their soul on the matter. Should they reject doing so, they are allowed to remain dead. If they choose yes, from there it is a matter of choice of which form of undeath depending on the circumstances of death and so forth (and individual’s desires, etc). Undead can also choose to have release, wherein their undeath is released by magic (or other means like an execution if they are something like a criminal) that puts them to rest.
One can also sign a contract to donate their body to general necromancy, wherein upon their death their soul is left in death and the recipient of this deal gets a sum donation of money depending on the quality of the donator as an undead. From there, the dead body is stripped of identifiable traits and is brought up as a Reanimated rather than a Risen (Risen having their minds/souls when Reanimated have none). It is a form of common ‘life insurance’, though the exploitation of this in certain sensational legal cases has led to increasing regulation on the matter.
When it comes to foods, one can find a wide variety of them spread out within the ____’s lands and regions. It is a big nation, not simply a small one, and to some this has been confusing when traveling through its lands. Seafood and urban staple foods rooted in home cooking along within the greener southern regions butting against the coast, hardy ancient recipes for jerkies and desserts from ancient lost tribes paired alongside new and innovative ideas created by undead or living chefs combining all sorts of techniques, hearty meals and homemade jerky recipes going back thousands of years and even region-unique desserts derived from the more rural northernmost lands, and midland desert delicacies combining foreign ingredients that traveled through the area, one can find a rather large variety of things to eat depending on where one goes within the An-ki Republic’s territory.
It is not really specialized in its tastes in the nation’s food, as they vary and range, but that is also the nation’s strength when it comes to food culture. Variety of both the new as well as historical things once thought long lost, all and everything in-between can be usually found living in this land just as the ancient dead move and work alongside the modern living. That dish that once marked the birth of a faraway foreign king whose kin are long since dead. That dish someone on the coast just innovated by mistake using ice magic and berries. Etc.
Firearms and other weapons are a legal right to citizens as noted in their constitution. Whilst order is enforced in proper, that much can be ensured in the Republic’s case, swords and guns and such can be had with the proper licensing (gotta renew every so many years) and logging of them under a special binding magical contract the city keeps a hold of to keep a count of things. Military grade is kept for the military due to costs, though surplus of these can be sold if they are far enough out of date and enough time has passed. Of course a few landmark legal cases where someone in the military hid guns on purpose to try to exploit this law for profit was….harshly punished. Very harshly.
Policy in the colonies has been more lenient in regards to the logging of the weapons by a binding magical contract, mostly as the build-up of infrastructure usually takes time to catch up with these things. It has led to a bit of chaos here and there, but mostly just local colonial things that get wrapped up neatly as things get built up sufficiently enough.
On the celebration of the day the modern government was instituted in full, 110 years ago, one can definitely find some celebratory gunfire and weapons play going on in the more rural regions. Albeit those who do not use mandated anti-projectile barriers to contain the celebration inside get fines…or worse if some poor individual gets killed or maimed or such by unprotected celebrations. The suburban and urban ones are confined to spaces set aside for it, with barriers usually put up in urban areas by police and other authorities who keep a close watch on such behaviors in those places. Still, the celebrations mark a big national holiday and celebrate the continued survival and independence of the nation in the face of such a long and struggling history. It is not just the day the government attained its modern form, it's this new holiday that has been combined with an existing historical holiday celebrating the survival of the nation since the time of the major crusades into its land.
When it comes to societal jobs, the lowest level ones that are simple or hard labor in nature are mostly filled by unidentifiable reanimated-type undead who have been tweaked with magic. These are maintained by a steady but smaller living force, ones broken into constituent parts meant to keep them maintained, keep things running, and ensure efficiency and so forth. The addition of machines and industry have led to some things like part-machine part-undead constructs that run themselves, undead and unique undead constructs crafted to be magically prepared and ‘programmed’ via magic to be used in assembly line style work to further expedite and improve their efficiency and so forth.
Meanwhile, work and jobs requiring skilled living hands have remained prolific despite the implementation of reanimated-type undead in industry and such. Support jobs in this, and specialized ones needing skilled hands and sentient beings as support, have been areas for the living to really get involved in with this field of industry. There are also jobs reanimated-type undead can’t do, ranging from complex magic use to inventing things to improving and tweaking machines to cutting hair and the like. Larger and smaller farms, for example, still have farmers but also have these farmers trained in basic conjuring necromancy to create reanimated farmhands and safely implement them in many ways. Larger ones will also have minimal needed living/sentient helpers to also assist them in maintaining the undead and getting things done, mostly doing so in ways that the undead can’t be set to do on their own and that the farmer alone can’t handle. Etc, etc, etc.
Whilst Necromancy and such is integrated into the beating heart of the An-ki Republic, there is one aspect of it that does see stricter regulations from even a historical perspective: Soul Magic. The capture of the souls of the living, or conjured up souls of the dead, which are imprisoned in crystal-like “Soul Gems” created by magic. These Soul Gems can be used to create independent and intelligent constructs of some kind, to power magical devices and rituals without ever ‘running dry’ (though a cooldown period is needed when overusing a Soul Gem powered something or another), and even to torture the souls of the unfortnate victims using magical means. It is a far darker side of Necromancy that was once legal and used without hesitation, but as times changed and the Council’s approach changed it eventually became a banned and strictly forbidden magic altogether in most (but not all) applications. The “Act on the Right of the Soul” was a series of edicts, eventually pulled together formally into this act within the modern government, passed even before the modern government emerged about the matter to make note of and dictate legal ramifications for it.
In current times, the use of Soul Magic to act as a medium and contact the dead is fully legal. It can also be used in hidden deep-site government prisons where the worst of any war prisoners go to be interrogated or dealt a harsh punishment before their eventual execution, though by law the soul is returned to the victim’s body (which is kept alive by magic) in the aftermath (likely to be considered cruel and unusual elsewhere in the world). Likewise it is legal to use it to make a willing construct, one where the soul in the soul gem is in full control in a case of ‘willing and voluntary undeath’ a dying or deceased living can choose to partake of. However, the population of these soul gem constructs has remained low consistently due to the myriad crimes involving soul magic even into modern times….and the horror it has instilled even into even the undead about the matter.
Magic & Technology:
Undead have been a staple of industry since ancient times, even having been used under the original council as far back as 1000 years ago in rudimentary assembly lines before falling out of favor and then going back into use once technology returned to that idea. Enchanted bone sword blades that seek out the foe when swung in battle and are rendered harder than steel, cursed undead hounds used to harry invaders when evacuating towns and dealing lingering curses to those they bite, disease-filled miasma spells set off by saboteurs in the enemy’s supply line during a major battle, detached undead limbs used to operate doors or handing supplies to working necromancers, and the like have been present historically as well.
Even as technology began to tread forward, some now-outdated things were once used…such as (but not limited to, as with any of this): Wild Geist possessed doors that open for the owners but stay closed or wail at potential thieves/intruders. Cursed fingers taken from enemy soldiers that are fired back using old muzzle-loaders as homing bullets that dig into the body to try to carve it up from the inside. Vengeful wights used to sniff out murderers. Metal-cast enchanted beast/humanoid teeth taken from the dead and placed in old blunderbuss-like guns, only to grow into minor skeletal minions when ‘planted’ in the bodies of unfortunate victims they got embedded in by being shot at them like shotgun pellets. Even skulls imbued with angry non-sentient spirits cast inside of metal cannonballs or metal objects like a skull goblet, either fired at enemy fortifications or camps or ships with secondary functions or respectively being used as hidden home defense measures to keep around the place.
In modern times, similar trends in technology have been created in the vein of merging magic/necromancy and industry/technology together. Machines with pulsating parts made of undead to help automate their functions, undead augmented with explosives inside of them that detonate on being riddled with bullets or struck with spells, magic communication devices that will eventually be blended with radios for further efficiency at home and on the battlefield, the wood of unique magic vampiric trees created from being fed lots of blood used in gun stocks to help keep soldiers alive through horrible hurt and damage on the battlefield, bullets steeped in curses before being fired at enemies in order to afflict them secondarily, geists used to chill the inside of boxcars to help deliver ice and temperature-sensitive products to far away safely, artillery shells imbued with toxic gases and wraiths (a type of malignant Wild Geist by An-ki’an classifications) that do horrendous things to those in the effective radius of the shell once it is fired and detonates during a battle, and the like have emerged as technologies (etc, etc, etc).
Military Overview:
Trench-like warfare has eventually developed within the An-ki Republic as its primary mode of defensive battle and sieges, stemming as far back in some ways as the 1600s in its existence with tactics used to siege out fortresses or enemy cities or the like. Defensive fronts usually have had trenches dug about, smaller concrete-wrought higher-up bunkers for gun-toting infantry to fire out of or to protect placed or embedded artillery, and the use of things such as barbed wire and defensive wards and other shored up spots to hide behind or store things in and allowing defending parties to protect themselves or hide in. Likewise in use are things such as artillery, hidden back and placed to fire over at enemies, and illusion-infused charms, embedded loosely or hidden in some trench walls to confuse invading enemies by leading them in circles or disorienting them, are also employed defensively. Not to mention some of the most important defensive setups will incorporate means to reanimate slain soldiers as reanimated as a contingency and to try to get the enemy if the defensive position is overrun/taken from them.
For offense, the idea of softening up enemy lines and moving in more or less quickly (depending on the situation) is generally the approach taken. A far call from the zombie-horde and magic-toissing tactics of very ancient times. Artillery barrages and cobbled undead monstrosities (also used as any sort of cavalry if any) and such being sent in to soften lines and harass the enemy and hit them in irregularly-spaced waves is the general way things start, before the major sentient troops move in backed by monstrosities and further leading artillery fire before they truly push hard. Whilst the idea of tanks and machine guns does not yet exist, once they do prove themselves they will see ultimately/eventually integration of both the offensive and defensive tactics of the Republic’s military in one way or another.
History: ((Need to get this hammered out one day in a general version at some point in the future if I can. If i can. (@_@)
Until then, a hider below this part will contain the basic gist and rough overall history of the region as seen via the survival and progress of the old “Undead Council” through it and its governed land growing and changing and shrinking and so forth to the point of becoming “The Grand United Democratic An-ki Republic”. I typed that bit out before ever writing the rest of this app, and so it is the closest I have to a general history section at this point to be honest.))
Other:
1 ) The homeland is vast USA-grade size, sits somewhere between the east and west, has a large southern coastline, lots of mountains on the western and eastern borders as well as rough terrain, and the terrain varies from north to south. Since the homelands aren't the major focus, and the colonies are, it goes without saying that is just a sort of fun flavor and style for the homeland at least.
2 ) The Gukou Colony itself, to give a brief summary, is a prosperous and industrialized colony that has been worked on since its inception a few years after the The Grand United Democratic Republic of the An-ki formed into its current state. Not that it didn't have colonial ambitions beforehand or during that time, as it was prepared to launch those expeditions and ten years later would settle the Gukou Colony proper.
3 )
((“The Undead Council” -> “The Greater Council of Undeath” -> “The Council of the Seven Great Lords”))
The body began back in ancient times underneath the original Magocracy of sorts, being their own ‘department’ and controlling a region of the land as a council of undead magi who as scholars sought to organize the types of and debate the nature of the undead. L:ikewise it was their jobs to experiment with undeath and accumulate knowledge of it. It was a back and forth and debate within this council that took the classification of undead from seven to fourteen to frankly more classifications of undead and types of undeath as they were debated or merged or identified or the like over the decades and so forth. It was equally scholarly and ruling as a body, a vassal of the Greater Magocracy in general but counted as part of its territory. Yet with the eventual degradation of the Magocracy and its parts, The Undead Council would find itself thrust into a position of independence as its own territory was among the few areas to hold firm during the following time of turmoil.
Eventually expanding back out and taking an amount of the territory once owned by the Magocracy, the renamed “Greater Council of Undeath” would seek to arrange a more stable administration underneath them to help manage the day to day matters. It would lead to the adoption of some amount of republican ideas in the process, and in the pursuit of being able to create more undead the matter of the living and how to reasonably arrange things would become the next major issue. Lingering older habits and methods were ultimately rather blunt, and constant warmongering for bodies would only hurt the work in the longer run as it built up more negative sentiment. The eventual uprising of the northern region’s living in rebellion would see the rebels supported by outside powers in the region, mostly as a means to keep the so-called “Undead Menace” in check, and this would persist for some time until the conflict came to an end as the outside powers in one way or another had to or ended up pulling out of the affair.
Despite having to work against some of the more conservative officials in power, and seeing two internal civil wars over the matter that led to losing a couple of council members who had to be replaced, the Greater Council would ultimately avoid the collapse of the nation and grant equivalent social and economic status to the living. Indeed, they could now become scholars and soldiers and mages and so forth, rather than simply being fodder for working farms and producing undead. At the time it was a rather big and controversial step indeed, but with the pragmatism the council was shifting toward in its operations it was seen as a wholly practical step in moving forward after much debate and discussion alongside adopting the use of conjured undead rather than just creating new ones from scratch alone. It would also see the more stable growth of the national borders to absorb some more of their weaker neighbors through battle or diplomacy (mostly the former) to try to remove troublesome elements should those from outside come knocking into the region again to try to stir up or support troublemakers in the region. Again.
In medieval times, the region would find itself subject to a number of religious crusades and military offensives from the west of the region it called home in the mid to late medieval era. Those who sought to purge the undead, wipe clean the region for living settlement, and that sort of thing. It saw several parts of the overall region set up with foreign-controlled or foreign-puppeted or even foreign-supported living states, ones with strong anti-undead sentiment to boot. It would see several centuries of conflict with waves of these attacks and crusades and such hitting the land, though it provided fuel for local undead forces aplenty and the crusaders could never penetrate too far eastward in the valuable middle or southern regions to boot. Trade from the west to east was ultimately a more minor but economic pursuit of the crusaders as well, though the crusaders sought to make links farther east in their wars, with only with the eventual loss of steam in later ‘crusades’ due to financial costs, the reconquest of less-than-stable crusading states left behind, outside rivalries and conflicts, and other factors such factors leading to the end of this.
In the aftermath the Council, a third of which had been killed during this time period, would ultimately rebuild and grow the national borders beyond what it had seen even prior to the medieval time period. Likewise, involvement in the west saw trade and occasional alliances with western powers as time went on. Similar situations would pop up in the east, though more slowly so than in the west, which would likewise lend to the region’s building up of a flow of trade through its lands. Ironically what some of the crusading parties had sought to prevent, a powerful undead-led nation, was created. Likewise what they had sought in trade of exotic goods from the east and vice-versa was enabled by this new reinvigorated undead-ruled nation. Many living had begun to tire of the outsiders during the prior era which made incorporation of a number of areas in the region smoother initially, and those who did resist generally didn’t have the support or resources to keep up independence. Bit by bit they were absorbed, until this general region became something of a united Republic of sorts in its own right. With the Council focusing more on the long-game than the short-term, this time of general stability in a generally post-medieval world was a boon to how the Council worked best then. Fostering a sense of regional unity, long-term plans, education and the application of practical technologies and magics, all would see the building up of this undead-led Republic into a force of its own.
The eventual rise of ships and improved craft seeking to bypass the Republic for trade with the east would see an eventual decline in this respect, but not with some sense of stagnation attached to the Republic in turn. Valuable airship pit stops built up over the years, naval ports that still saw an amount of trade on the nation’s singular southern coastline, and land trade for goods produced in the region itself would help keep it afloat. It would not be the golden age the region had existed in prior, that much would become certain, but it would see some weakening in the region’s once prolific wealth until the eventual (even if later than others) embracing of the Manarite Industry and the discovery of vast deposits and wealths of different forms of manarite in the region would fuel a local boom. A major boom at that. One that would see the region elevated from ‘somewhat backward or stagnant in technology but no one can afford to try to take over its land because of endless undead swarms’ to ‘rising economic and modern power’ that would give the region ground to advance and move forward into current times proper.
Resistance to the changes, outside attacks from certain parties, and other little factors would see another period of internal conflict emerge during this modernizing time period as well. Whilst it would not be as bad as the times of the crusades into the region prior, it would initially see the Republic on the back foot and some northern land lost once more until the eventual buildup of advancement and industry, trade with other nations to import experts and so forth to help them modernize, and the supporting use of necromancy would see the nation and Council pull off a miracle in modernizing within under 40 years. Many credit this most notably to the centralized government, increasing flexibility of the council to adapt to the times over the ages, and the strategic implementation of necromancy and long-term planning in support of industrial efforts.
Indeed, while it took some time the nation was able to adapt and learn and overcome, just as it had for centuries upon centuries. That is also perhaps the region’s greatest strength, as each time it has had to adapt and grow and learn further it has done so in shorter and shorter time periods than ever before. In undeath, unlike the popular living rumors about it, stagnation is not some inevitability. Rather, it is a chance to grow and learn for far longer than the living could dream of.
Where in the world were these travelers from?! Not that Vammy's involvement helped many social situations at all, ever or if at all in her mind, but the killing intent from the woman was as clear as day. Not that she blamed anyone for being afraid of someone like herself, given what she could do...her mother had let her know that much at least. So too had experience. History. The far past. It had been a boon against that ridiculous beast from a few days ago at least, though, which made her glad to have had some means to help that situation if nothing else. But still...hmm. At least the child, Leuca, seemed to be friendly and trusting enough to give her the benefit of the doubt. A potentially dangerous thing, as the child's obvious protector likely knew, but in this case it felt like a small relief.
Not that the murderous gaze didn't send a visible chill down her back and make her lips stay tightly shut to not interrupt Sorcha's words.
But as the child spoke up at the end Nylah found herself somewhat surprised. The elf she'd heard was helping out the fishing issue, Seelay, gone? Just like that? Perhaps some business had popped up at her own home that required attention? Or, er...the Mothraki had no idea really. But it was information that could help that particular problem at least, even if the one who had procured it had left.
Still, the Mothraki seemed to ponder on Leuca's words briefly before letting out a small sigh and looking to the others and ultimately on Sorcha and her charge. The woman seemed generally in-charge of whatever was going on with these travelers, or enough so at least.
"Y-Your warning is duly noted, Miss S-Sorcha. I wouldn't dream of hurting a child, though that is simply my word as a stranger.
But before we all speak further, perhaps we can head to I and my mother's home to get you all settled first in the spare room. Certainly Enli would want to hear of the news about the fishing, but until he returns we can't really tell him this either. I can get some food over the fire in the meantime, at the very least, and try to help make you comfortable before I check in on mother as well."
Nylah let out a small sigh, before motioning to the others to follow as she began to walk away toward her home.
Things had been slowed a bit, but guests taken out of the cold would at least be the right thing to do in her mind. The spare room was plenty big enough, and she could get a fire started within it to help cook as well. That and...well...she'd been wanting to talk to Lissa anyway about a potential rescue mission. Or something like that, she supposed, considering they were only two people. So getting things comfortable would hopefully ease the situation for the travelers, let her check in on her mother before heading out anywhere if they did go on some mission, and frankly give them all a chance to talk in a less chilly spot.
Not that Sorcha didn't still make her a bit nervous. She was trying to not make direct eye contact out of fear another murderous glaze would come her way. But with mother not in prime condition, perhaps the one silver lining was them not being seen as a worse threat perhaps. Maybe. Hopefully?
Hmm. Perhaps the sooner they arrived and got settled, then, the better things would be.
***Kyr Reed acted as a sort of coagulant as well as sedative. Made people calmer…not particularly useful for treating frostbite on its own, but it was useful for staunching bleeding or injuries. Could be crushed into a paste with a variety of other things to achieve various effects. Wind-Leaf acted as more of a stimulant. When properly mixed with Kyr Reed it made salves and healing poultices good for bolstering the immune system and promoting natural healing. Coral Moss and Slug mucus were a bit harder to find, since the slugs only could be found in shallow water during the day, with Coral Moss being found in damp sea caves off the coast near the Goddess Spear. Slug Mucus was good for making topical salves for alleviating pain, while Coral Moss, when exposed to certain other substances actually heated itself to temperatures good for gentle rewarming of frost-bitten areas.
***Making anesthetics and preparing healing potions and salves.
It’d be easy enough to prepare both of those things especially with the things she had on hand. Fresh water for a base, crush the ingredients, then boil it to a broth. Simple enough, they didn’t have time to refine it. The Salves could be made by taking the same ingredients and crushing them into a paste without the water. Better for topical use on flesh wounds.
***
***
-{Enthralling Dust} (Racial): Mothraki produce a potent pollen like dust upon their wings. Merely by existing they spread this where they go, though it's mostly harmless if not inhaled in large quantities. Causes hallucinations and dulls one's senses. As one may expect, people tend to frown upon this sort of thing.
-{Journeyman Light Magic}: A magic encompassing pure light and illumination, ranging from harmless orbs to light up one’s path all the way up to rays/beams of light as attacks to even light barriers and other light constructs such as swords and spears and shields and so forth. A versatile magic that does not call upon the fire of the sun, but does have its myriad uses and capabilities.
-{Novice Herbalist}: Non-magical practices of a healer, ranging from identifying or figuring out the use of new herbs and recognizing familiar ones, to making things like certain poultices and healing-based alchemy/potion-making, to how to handle wounds/injuries and such using these things.
-{Herbalist's Bag}: A simple leather bag with a well-built shoulder strap, that is filled with a good number of many types of herbs, a good amount of bandages, and finally tools to make tonics, poultices, and potions alongside a scare few pre-prepared ones that are within the bag itself. She usually wears it around most of the time. (EDIT: Has refilled her supplies. Also now has two vials of baby-chameleon-thing poison.)
-{Small Knife}: A gift from her mother, made with a smoothed-out bone handle and treated with certain oils, mainly used to help cut things like vines and plants when out collecting herbs and so forth. Also a very niche emergency self-defense tool.
-{Food}: A small pouch sitting on her opposite hip that contains a few strips of preserved game meat and a few dried edible herbs from the local area. Not much in amount, since it was meant to be snacks for heading into the woods to gather herbs before 'that' happened.
-{Wristband}: A simple little bracelet made of pretty stones dyed in various colors, carefully having had a hole made through each, sitting on a band made of twisted and treated leather strips. Worn on her left wrist and given as a gift to her by her mother. How long it took to acquire or even make is unknown.
-{Cuteness}: She is a definitely cute moth girl. This is inherent to her existence. Yes.
The Mothraki felt another small pang in her gut as she watched the oni and Miss Calra leave, but would try to refocus herselff as Lissa finally responded to her question. Yes. It seemed the other girl outright wanted to help, and that perhaps made her chances of getting the human to join her on a stupid venture more likely. Then perhaps if Mie and them were assisted soon enough, it would at least help flesh the village out some and put the...well...maybe in the debt of the village a little bit. Help and safety in return for some help, among other potential trades they could make if they scrounged up some things to give to the merchants in return. Well, then again that'd be if things worke, they all got back, and there were still goods and such to trade for that remained! Plus it'd save more lives from needlessly being lost out there...
Ugh. It all made the mage-herbalist's head hurt some, though something would soon ring in her left ear that made her nearly jump up to the ceiling.
"Watch your ass, mothie."
she could jump as Vammy's little 'message in a bubble finally popped next to one of her ears. It had arrived silently, without warning, much like the light hammer of butt-protection and friend-protection had before. Even so, she'd been keeping more aware since Vammy's arrival and intentions becoming clear at least. Or at least intentions to grab butts and harass one of her best friends. Hmph! The nerve!
That being noted, before the Mothraki could go back to think more on the ramifications and details of her and maybe Lissa's potential quest she was interrupted. A trio of new arrivals walked abruptly in, and ultimately targeted her and her compatriot to talk to. Lissa seemed to give them the most basic gist first, at least, but out of habit the moth waited for her turn to speak before piping up.
"This is the village of Dawn, as Lissa has told you, and I am Nylah. However our Elder, Enli, has had to go off on other likely business for the time being it seems,", Nylah said, motioning to Lissa as she said her name before looking back at the trio of new arrivals. She was likewise trying to be polite, though as the summary of the situation came to mind it pushed at the edges of her mouth as if trying not to grimace at the grim situation overall, "The village has been still undertaking many efforts to recover after...after Elder Beast Azral Suralng and his kin passed through this area. The area has been a general danger for travelers, of which a few have stopped and sought to help us in our time of need. I and Lissa were about to talk about one of these matters.
We could look for Priestess Akala if you wish for sanctuary here for the time being, until Enli can speak with you, but there are yet still many dwelling here who have lost homes.
If you seek some rest in less cramped quarters, I could for the time being host you at I and my mother's home in the meantime at least. We have a spare room you could stay in."
It was a somewhat sudden, but modest, offer. But without Enli here, or another big representative, it was the least she could try to offer these potential travelers seeking to stay out of the cold. They at least didn't seem hostile, but all the same she had no idea of their intentions or frankly who they were in the first place. So whilst her polite offer to help was genuine, it wasn't without some measure of proper caution being silently held and left unspoken on her part.
***Kyr Reed acted as a sort of coagulant as well as sedative. Made people calmer…not particularly useful for treating frostbite on its own, but it was useful for staunching bleeding or injuries. Could be crushed into a paste with a variety of other things to achieve various effects. Wind-Leaf acted as more of a stimulant. When properly mixed with Kyr Reed it made salves and healing poultices good for bolstering the immune system and promoting natural healing. Coral Moss and Slug mucus were a bit harder to find, since the slugs only could be found in shallow water during the day, with Coral Moss being found in damp sea caves off the coast near the Goddess Spear. Slug Mucus was good for making topical salves for alleviating pain, while Coral Moss, when exposed to certain other substances actually heated itself to temperatures good for gentle rewarming of frost-bitten areas.
***Making anesthetics and preparing healing potions and salves.
It’d be easy enough to prepare both of those things especially with the things she had on hand. Fresh water for a base, crush the ingredients, then boil it to a broth. Simple enough, they didn’t have time to refine it. The Salves could be made by taking the same ingredients and crushing them into a paste without the water. Better for topical use on flesh wounds.
***
***
-{Enthralling Dust} (Racial): Mothraki produce a potent pollen like dust upon their wings. Merely by existing they spread this where they go, though it's mostly harmless if not inhaled in large quantities. Causes hallucinations and dulls one's senses. As one may expect, people tend to frown upon this sort of thing.
-{Journeyman Light Magic}: A magic encompassing pure light and illumination, ranging from harmless orbs to light up one’s path all the way up to rays/beams of light as attacks to even light barriers and other light constructs such as swords and spears and shields and so forth. A versatile magic that does not call upon the fire of the sun, but does have its myriad uses and capabilities.
-{Novice Herbalist}: Non-magical practices of a healer, ranging from identifying or figuring out the use of new herbs and recognizing familiar ones, to making things like certain poultices and healing-based alchemy/potion-making, to how to handle wounds/injuries and such using these things.
-{Herbalist's Bag}: A simple leather bag with a well-built shoulder strap, that is filled with a good number of many types of herbs, a good amount of bandages, and finally tools to make tonics, poultices, and potions alongside a scare few pre-prepared ones that are within the bag itself. She usually wears it around most of the time. (EDIT: Has refilled her supplies. Also now has two vials of baby-chameleon-thing poison.)
-{Small Knife}: A gift from her mother, made with a smoothed-out bone handle and treated with certain oils, mainly used to help cut things like vines and plants when out collecting herbs and so forth. Also a very niche emergency self-defense tool.
-{Food}: A small pouch sitting on her opposite hip that contains a few strips of preserved game meat and a few dried edible herbs from the local area. Not much in amount, since it was meant to be snacks for heading into the woods to gather herbs before 'that' happened.
-{Wristband}: A simple little bracelet made of pretty stones dyed in various colors, carefully having had a hole made through each, sitting on a band made of twisted and treated leather strips. Worn on her left wrist and given as a gift to her by her mother. How long it took to acquire or even make is unknown.
-{Cuteness}: She is a definitely cute moth girl. This is inherent to her existence. Yes.
Nylah kept quiet as the Oni gave what information she had to them, though a small but deep pang of guilt striking her stomach with each cough and hack on Haruno's part. After Haruno would finish speaking, then, the Mothraki would give a small nod to her. She made anoother glance at the invisible (to the others for all she knew) tiny goddess watching a rat, fox, and hound chasing each other before looking back to Haruno. To others, she hoped it would look like she was in thought somewhat. Hopefully. But it brought back some of Haruno's words to mind all the same.
"I asked Lady Mie and she simply said that the Krysa were being unreasonable."
Unreasonable? Mie had said that, but what had the other two parties said as well? She almost wondered if they had asked for food or such, or perhaps demanded such rather than seek a more diplomatic route. Not to mention the Elder Beast passing through had sent things into a tailspin for everyone, including the village, meaning that...hmm. Perhaps they were desperate for food and supplies, and were trying to force Mie to hand over her goods?
It was all an initial guess at best though, an estimation.
She had no way of knowing what was going on or had gone on outside of Haruno's testimony, and however it actually was out there with the full situation they needed Mie's goods and so forth. Assisting her, perhaps, would be a boon for the village in that sense. If they could save her. If they could get people out alive and any remaining goods along with them in the caravan.
On the other hand, she was happy to see Lissa having come over as well. She'd been hoping to finally find her.
"Unreasonable...," Nylah said, quietly at first, letting the word mull and roll over her lips for a moment in thought before meeting the oni's eyes once more and speaking at a normal but respectful volume, "Thank you, Haruno. We can take things from here. Please go rest...ok? I'll even update you on things if we figure anything out, as soon as I can at least. You have my word."
Her own eyes were filled with a genuine worry and concern, and a bit of guilt more so now, but she couldn't stand seeing the oni in that much pain either. She needed rest, and as a healer...or...well as a person she couldn't stand it. It was her own problem, she knew that much, but it wasn't good to be running around bleeding or such either.
The apprenticing herbalist then looked over to Calra, gave a small nod, and then stood up once more before turning to Lissa.
"Could...uhm...we talk somewhere more private for a moment?"
Hopefully a spot with no more chameleons as well. Please no more of those things. And apparently the one that had chased them, according to the hunters, was a baby! A baby!!! If they'd met an adult she didn't want to think about it. Now she was considering something to ask Lissa about that was perhaps just as if not more dangerous.
Ugh. It made her antsy just thinking about it, increasingly nervous to boot.
She just hoped Lissa, ah, did not hold any extra sore feelings for that event a few days ago. Though she seemed willing to help Haruno's allies at least, from what the other girl had said, so Nylah had some hope they could work together again.
***Kyr Reed acted as a sort of coagulant as well as sedative. Made people calmer…not particularly useful for treating frostbite on its own, but it was useful for staunching bleeding or injuries. Could be crushed into a paste with a variety of other things to achieve various effects. Wind-Leaf acted as more of a stimulant. When properly mixed with Kyr Reed it made salves and healing poultices good for bolstering the immune system and promoting natural healing. Coral Moss and Slug mucus were a bit harder to find, since the slugs only could be found in shallow water during the day, with Coral Moss being found in damp sea caves off the coast near the Goddess Spear. Slug Mucus was good for making topical salves for alleviating pain, while Coral Moss, when exposed to certain other substances actually heated itself to temperatures good for gentle rewarming of frost-bitten areas.
***Making anesthetics and preparing healing potions and salves.
It’d be easy enough to prepare both of those things especially with the things she had on hand. Fresh water for a base, crush the ingredients, then boil it to a broth. Simple enough, they didn’t have time to refine it. The Salves could be made by taking the same ingredients and crushing them into a paste without the water. Better for topical use on flesh wounds.
***
***
-{Enthralling Dust} (Racial): Mothraki produce a potent pollen like dust upon their wings. Merely by existing they spread this where they go, though it's mostly harmless if not inhaled in large quantities. Causes hallucinations and dulls one's senses. As one may expect, people tend to frown upon this sort of thing.
-{Journeyman Light Magic}: A magic encompassing pure light and illumination, ranging from harmless orbs to light up one’s path all the way up to rays/beams of light as attacks to even light barriers and other light constructs such as swords and spears and shields and so forth. A versatile magic that does not call upon the fire of the sun, but does have its myriad uses and capabilities.
-{Novice Herbalist}: Non-magical practices of a healer, ranging from identifying or figuring out the use of new herbs and recognizing familiar ones, to making things like certain poultices and healing-based alchemy/potion-making, to how to handle wounds/injuries and such using these things.
-{Herbalist's Bag}: A simple leather bag with a well-built shoulder strap, that is filled with a good number of many types of herbs, a good amount of bandages, and finally tools to make tonics, poultices, and potions alongside a scare few pre-prepared ones that are within the bag itself. She usually wears it around most of the time. (EDIT: Has refilled her supplies. Also now has two vials of baby-chameleon-thing poison.)
-{Small Knife}: A gift from her mother, made with a smoothed-out bone handle and treated with certain oils, mainly used to help cut things like vines and plants when out collecting herbs and so forth. Also a very niche emergency self-defense tool.
-{Food}: A small pouch sitting on her opposite hip that contains a few strips of preserved game meat and a few dried edible herbs from the local area. Not much in amount, since it was meant to be snacks for heading into the woods to gather herbs before 'that' happened.
-{Wristband}: A simple little bracelet made of pretty stones dyed in various colors, carefully having had a hole made through each, sitting on a band made of twisted and treated leather strips. Worn on her left wrist and given as a gift to her by her mother. How long it took to acquire or even make is unknown.
-{Cuteness}: She is a definitely cute moth girl. This is inherent to her existence. Yes.
A pat on the head from Miss Calra. It brought a small flush to the Mothraki's face at the tie, as in all honesty Nylah hadn't expected it as she had gone about trying to help clean up in the aftermath. Blood soaked up from the floor and table, gathering used cloth to wash the next day, putting up the unused herbs and taking care of the fire, but nothing she felt would get her such accolades. Well, something a simple as a pat on the head and a 'good job' anywho. She'd just been doing her own job to save a life, and it had been Miss Calra herself to really do the major work. All she'd done was support, which was something she was glad to have been able to do at the very least.
Yet her teacher seemed to be in good spirits, and it was enough to ultimately put a small smile of gratitude on Nylah's face at the time.
Simply to watch Calra work had been something she'd admittedly done a lot more of than she'd expected, all as she'd primarily gone about making the potions and poultices and such things to provide as best as she could. Stitches. Bone setting. The exposed muscles and tissues and any kind of organs that could be seen from where the Mothraki had worked. Like she couldn't totally look away...or perhaps didn't want to. She wanted to learn more, and this in part was true for why she'd been looking, but likewise she'd felt like keeping an eye on the injured oni still too. Out of habit. Instinct. Care. Haruno had been her patient to stabilize and get here, and it was a miracle she'd been able to.
It had made her think back to those days she'd been first learning all of this, and the first sight of blood and viscera of even some small kind. She'd nearly fainted on the spot! But she'd gotten better. And better. And better at seeing it and working around it at least. Learning to focus when it came into the picture, and to keep her mind on the tasks. Or, well, perhaps in reality 'numbed' was the particular word that described her adjustment process thus far into her learning. Desensitized, but not ignorant or uncaring by any means. If that made any lick of sense.
Safe to say she'd been happy to head home, the caress of the moonlight on her skin a reminder of the peculiar situation she had with the moon goddess herself. She could see this display and these things, and even a tiny goddess she could interact with in her head! It was crazy, like madness, and yet it was real and something she only knew about her own situation of having to deal with. Were there others? She had no idea. Yet was that not fitting in the end somehow? A mystery, shrouded in moonlight in that little regard when it came to the whole span of things.
Whatever was to come, she had gotten home as soon as she could to finish caring for her mother. Sleep was good, but to reduce the fever and such using a small humble bit of the leftover herbs was mandatory in her mind. Ensure a cool cloth was nearby. Make sure she was as comfortable as possible. Wait until she fell asleep before Nylah herself went to bed. In short, the nightly ritual ever since mother had fallen ill.
One more day. Please. Keep hanging on until she...until she could find the solution for this. For this illness. For all of this stupid mess!
This was the only parent she had ever known, for better or for worse, and she loved her dearly. She didn't want to lose her, nor would trade her for that matter, for anything in this world that she could imagine or dream of.
...
...
...
Wood. Food. Enough to get them through the next few weeks at least. And a plan to take care of the fishing issue? Perhaps that would even more so help the food matter, though at least that giant chameleon hadn't been a waste of an experience after all. Maybe.
Even though seeing the meat-removed remains the next day had left the Mothraki feeling uneasy anywhere near the tongue of the thing. Felt like it was going to shoot out and eat a moth salad at any second! But she'd wanted to collect some poison from it in a few vials to keep with her, and that was what she'd gone out to do the next day after getting up especially early.
Not a pretty sight to watch it get butchered, but she'd seen that sort of things before with her mother.
And beyond taking care of her mother, and heading over each day to check in on and try to help Haruno, she'd tried some lesser excursions to replenish her own herb and poultice and potion supplies. She'd given all she'd had at first to Miss Carla, but with time and some patience she'd at least been able to get a personal stock back up. Just barely enough though.
But today? She had an idea, but first...
'BONK'
The light hammer of justice would come down toward Vammy's head from behind once more, sound and fury erupting from the silence as it brought a hopeful end to the waist grab. It had become a habit of trying to improve sneaking up on the strange girl in service of saving Lazhira. Almost like a game, even if Nylah herself did not find it openly funny.
"Give her room the breathe, you lecher!"
With a simple but visible 'humph', the Mothraki would look to her childhood friend with a smiling face despite the small amount of concern easily read in Nylah's eyes otherwise. She would gently take the other girl's hands into her own for a moment.
"Don't listen to her, Lazhira. If anything is troubling you, we can talk later if you'd like! Same spot we used to go, like always."
Nylah spoke as reassuringly as she could, if nothing else.
She couldn't just let a friend look troubled and not offer help, not when she seemed so concerned over something or troubled. She could tell after all these years when Lazhira had something on her mind well enough. But she didn't want to force herself either. Whatever the case would be though, whether she would get a response or not, the Mothraki would eventually bid Lazhira a friendly 'farewell' before heading to her next target. She had serious business, and it was not going to be easy to say perhaps.
Not that she'd get to talk to Enli before he seemed to get dragged off by Atzi. The same Atzi she'd shouted at after seeing her with only one arm now! What in the world had happened?! She had no idea, and any chances to talk in-between had been taken up with so many things going on in general. It was frustrating, to sum it up in one word. But watching the dragging-away did make her stop and raise an eyebrow to say the very least.
Nylah would keep an eye out for Lissa, though ultimately would head on over to where Haruno and Calra were before standing next to them. Her eyes glanced again over the bandages and other wounded parts she could see of the oni, carefully so, her brows furrowing for a moment before she spoke:
"I know Miss Calra is helping you as well, but...please, please be careful."
She tried to put a hand on the oni's shoulder for a moment, touch as worried as her face was notably concerned. Even so, Nylah did hesitate for a moment. Like she was trying to formulate words in her head, but was afraid to say it. The right words? No idea if they would be that. But she had something she wanted to ask regardless. That much was visible and apparent about her as well.
"I want to ask you something, but if you don't wish to tell me then I will respect this. I do not wish to bring up anything you are not comfortable with.
However....could you tell me anything about the situation at Mie's camp when you left? Injured persons, supplies, umm, if the Yaga and Krysa said anything useful. Anything that might help give us more of an idea in detail."
Anything that could make a potential rescue that much more viable. How long they might last, how bad the pressure from the attackers was, how much medicine might be needed to help the wounded. Things like that. It was a desperate stab into the dark, but if they could learn something, anything useful at all, maybe it would create an opening to help somehow.
She'd already thought about bottling containers of her own scale dust, but trying something alone would not be a good plan either. Lissa she knew had been out to help with her before, but even then after the incident with the chameleon...ugh. She was trying to think of something. Anything to help after something else had gotten her thinking.
The moon goddess is watching a rat, a fox, and a hound chase each other in circles.
If all else failed, all she'd have left to try to do alone would be talking to Akala and seeing what a magic user like herself could do.
Things were going on beyond this, she could tell. So much to do, so little time, and she was only one person. The best she had was light magic and herbalism on her side, among any other things she could try to learn maybe to help the village. Even Lazhira seemed troubled, one of her best friends, and she wasn't sure if she could do anything to help.
But focus on the next task. Get the next thing done. Yes. This would work, as it was all she could do somewhat.
@Rune_Alchemist (And @ERode secondarily just because of a small Atzi mention in the post)
-Herbs/Herbalism Knowledge:
***Kyr Reed acted as a sort of coagulant as well as sedative. Made people calmer…not particularly useful for treating frostbite on its own, but it was useful for staunching bleeding or injuries. Could be crushed into a paste with a variety of other things to achieve various effects. Wind-Leaf acted as more of a stimulant. When properly mixed with Kyr Reed it made salves and healing poultices good for bolstering the immune system and promoting natural healing. Coral Moss and Slug mucus were a bit harder to find, since the slugs only could be found in shallow water during the day, with Coral Moss being found in damp sea caves off the coast near the Goddess Spear. Slug Mucus was good for making topical salves for alleviating pain, while Coral Moss, when exposed to certain other substances actually heated itself to temperatures good for gentle rewarming of frost-bitten areas.
***Making anesthetics and preparing healing potions and salves.
It’d be easy enough to prepare both of those things especially with the things she had on hand. Fresh water for a base, crush the ingredients, then boil it to a broth. Simple enough, they didn’t have time to refine it. The Salves could be made by taking the same ingredients and crushing them into a paste without the water. Better for topical use on flesh wounds.
***
***
-{Enthralling Dust} (Racial): Mothraki produce a potent pollen like dust upon their wings. Merely by existing they spread this where they go, though it's mostly harmless if not inhaled in large quantities. Causes hallucinations and dulls one's senses. As one may expect, people tend to frown upon this sort of thing.
-{Journeyman Light Magic}: A magic encompassing pure light and illumination, ranging from harmless orbs to light up one’s path all the way up to rays/beams of light as attacks to even light barriers and other light constructs such as swords and spears and shields and so forth. A versatile magic that does not call upon the fire of the sun, but does have its myriad uses and capabilities.
-{Novice Herbalist}: Non-magical practices of a healer, ranging from identifying or figuring out the use of new herbs and recognizing familiar ones, to making things like certain poultices and healing-based alchemy/potion-making, to how to handle wounds/injuries and such using these things.
-{Herbalist's Bag}: A simple leather bag with a well-built shoulder strap, that is filled with a good number of many types of herbs, a good amount of bandages, and finally tools to make tonics, poultices, and potions alongside a scare few pre-prepared ones that are within the bag itself. She usually wears it around most of the time.
-{Small Knife}: A gift from her mother, made with a smoothed-out bone handle and treated with certain oils, mainly used to help cut things like vines and plants when out collecting herbs and so forth. Also a very niche emergency self-defense tool.
-{Food}: A small pouch sitting on her opposite hip that contains a few strips of preserved game meat and a few dried edible herbs from the local area. Not much in amount, since it was meant to be snacks for heading into the woods to gather herbs before 'that' happened.
-{Wristband}: A simple little bracelet made of pretty stones dyed in various colors, carefully having had a hole made through each, sitting on a band made of twisted and treated leather strips. Worn on her left wrist and given as a gift to her by her mother. How long it took to acquire or even make is unknown.
-{Cuteness}: She is a definitely cute moth girl. This is inherent to her existence. Yes.
As Nylah watched Haruno be undressed, the sheer extent of her wounds beyond what she'd been able to see made the Mothraki's bite her lip nervously as she worked to make the anesthetics and as many salves and healing potions as she could. Her hands would become sore just trying to grind some things down in the first place, not to mention the drain from pushing her magic so far and so fast to get back to the village. And yet her own ache felt somewhat secondary, the focus shifting to the injured oni on the table. Just what had happened to her? What events had sent her into a battle, against animals, and then running all the way to Dawn?
She had no clue, but she hoped to be able to ask the oni girl later at the very least. But for now? She had to keep working.
Wait, how many herbs had she just gone about crushing? No, wait, that was likely enough. Yes.
Ok, put them in the fresh water as the base. Good-
[coplor=tomato]"Ah!"[/color]
A small, quiet peep from the Mothraki came out as she nearly dropped the herbs she crushed so far.
No, don't fumble-fingers! Almost lost some of her ground up herbs Thanks the gods she hadn't been near the fire-
"When you set your mind to something, you need to focus. See what you are doing, but don't become blind. Control your breathing, and let your hands do the work."
...Yes. That was right. Just like mother had told her when practicing. Similar to what Miss Calra had told her when training in this in prior days. Don't let the other thoughts of what happened get to her. This was what she needed to do, and someone's life was on the line. Yes.
Breathe. Controlled. In. Out.
Get some of the crushed herbs mixed with the water, and get that water over the fire to boil into a broth. Remember how long it took to make a salve while the water is boiling over the fire. Get more of the crushed herbs she had and grind it into a paste without the water. Keep an eye on the fire, let the water turn the right color for the broth. Good.
Bit by bit, Nylah would make the medicine she best she could for Miss Calra. Indeed she seemed to gradually become more focused. Serious. Calm. Just like she was back in the woods trying to help Haruno stabilize to get back to the village again.
If she wanted to help her mother, if she wanted to make her better again, she had to do these things to her best ability. No matter what.
***Kyr Reed acted as a sort of coagulant as well as sedative. Made people calmer…not particularly useful for treating frostbite on its own, but it was useful for staunching bleeding or injuries. Could be crushed into a paste with a variety of other things to achieve various effects. Wind-Leaf acted as more of a stimulant. When properly mixed with Kyr Reed it made salves and healing poultices good for bolstering the immune system and promoting natural healing. Coral Moss and Slug mucus were a bit harder to find, since the slugs only could be found in shallow water during the day, with Coral Moss being found in damp sea caves off the coast near the Goddess Spear. Slug Mucus was good for making topical salves for alleviating pain, while Coral Moss, when exposed to certain other substances actually heated itself to temperatures good for gentle rewarming of frost-bitten areas.
***Making anesthetics and preparing healing potions and salves.
It’d be easy enough to prepare both of those things especially with the things she had on hand. Fresh water for a base, crush the ingredients, then boil it to a broth. Simple enough, they didn’t have time to refine it. The Salves could be made by taking the same ingredients and crushing them into a paste without the water. Better for topical use on flesh wounds.
***
***
-{Enthralling Dust} (Racial): Mothraki produce a potent pollen like dust upon their wings. Merely by existing they spread this where they go, though it's mostly harmless if not inhaled in large quantities. Causes hallucinations and dulls one's senses. As one may expect, people tend to frown upon this sort of thing.
-{Journeyman Light Magic}: A magic encompassing pure light and illumination, ranging from harmless orbs to light up one’s path all the way up to rays/beams of light as attacks to even light barriers and other light constructs such as swords and spears and shields and so forth. A versatile magic that does not call upon the fire of the sun, but does have its myriad uses and capabilities.
-{Novice Herbalist}: Non-magical practices of a healer, ranging from identifying or figuring out the use of new herbs and recognizing familiar ones, to making things like certain poultices and healing-based alchemy/potion-making, to how to handle wounds/injuries and such using these things.
-{Herbalist's Bag}: A simple leather bag with a well-built shoulder strap, that is filled with a good number of many types of herbs, a good amount of bandages, and finally tools to make tonics, poultices, and potions alongside a scare few pre-prepared ones that are within the bag itself. She usually wears it around most of the time.
-{Small Knife}: A gift from her mother, made with a smoothed-out bone handle and treated with certain oils, mainly used to help cut things like vines and plants when out collecting herbs and so forth. Also a very niche emergency self-defense tool.
-{Food}: A small pouch sitting on her opposite hip that contains a few strips of preserved game meat and a few dried edible herbs from the local area. Not much in amount, since it was meant to be snacks for heading into the woods to gather herbs before 'that' happened.
-{Wristband}: A simple little bracelet made of pretty stones dyed in various colors, carefully having had a hole made through each, sitting on a band made of twisted and treated leather strips. Worn on her left wrist and given as a gift to her by her mother. How long it took to acquire or even make is unknown.
-{Cuteness}: She is a definitely cute moth girl. This is inherent to her existence. Yes.
Redline PRT Headquarters, her destination...finally!
Whilst the paperwork issue had not stalled her much, thankfully, traffic had been another matter altogether when she'd been inside of the taxi. The trip had been long, the time she had short, but to pass the time and avoid getting too antsy she'd begun to try to talk to her driver. An older, easygoing, friendly, and even-tempered gentleman who was rather familiar with Redline named Gus. His grandkids were going to be visiting for Thanksgiving, and coming back for Christmas later in December. He'd been driving taxis for over forty years, and hadn't left it since he enjoyed the stories and conversations he could have with those he was driving around. Wife had died fifteen years ago from a form of throat cancer due to her smoking habit, and it was enough to get him to kick it for good himself in the aftermath.
By the time they had rolled up to the PRT Building, she'd found herself enjoying talking to the older man. Yet with the sight of the building and the taxi pulling over to drop her off, Eleanore found heart racing as she looked over to the taxi's clock. She was late! Not too late, but very late anyway!
"Thank you, Mr. Gus, but I must be leaving now! I'm late!"
The elderly man simply tipped his flatcap at her in return with a knowing smile as she hastily got out of the taxi cab, her bag with her mask in it in her right hand, and rushed toward the building. Her prosthetic leg would make its usual 'click clack' as she hurried along, almost overlooking the relatively imposing and grand stature of it before she ran in to the reception desk. What was that phrase agai-...ah.
"I'm a victim of crime. I'm here to complain that your mom has been hypnotized by the League of Door to Door Salesmen into planking in the post office!"
The receptionist sighed for a second in response, but silently motioned for her to go on in deeper into the building. Her eyes could likewise catch a glance of a boy heading deeper in as well. Ah. She wasn't the only one to arrive like this, was she?
Eleanore lightly grimaced for a moment, before giving an appreciative but quick nod to the receptionist.
"Thank you, mam! And sorry!"
With that, she could take off running down the hall after what actually seemed to be...two boys?!
...
Arriving with a smaller delay after Lito would enter the room, Eleanore would find herself amidst the throng of other Wards. The girl then reached to pull out her mask, holding it in her hand, before looking about at the others. Apparently they were already both in-costume and not. Wait, was that power armor? Was that also a floating blade in the air for a moment there? Things were also getting a bit crowded as well from her angle of things as well. That and she boy she'd followed seemed to be shrinking away some and rubbing his wrists.
She would, however, at least speak aloud to the room to make her presence properly known.
"Apologies for being late, the traffic kept my taxi from getting here quite on time..."
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