Heimurn Chronicles (No, SV, you're a young valkyrie in the middle of a bizarre and dangerous journey)

[Teloch]

Entry excerpt from Lucifina's journal dated 16 Bloom 1469



Lately, I've been musing about races that inhabit this world. Not only because of what Karl told me concerning the distribution of arcane aspects between the denizens of Heim, but also due to the sheer variety of them and my own concerns regarding my belonging.

After Ren, Sephie, and I returned from our visit to Rene's ruined belltower, I had a hard time turning in for the night due to all the thoughts circling on my mind and referred to writing this entry instead. And Amalia, being herself, sniffed out my mood with ease, after which we engaged in a discussion about all the significant species populating the known world. While doing so, she, to my surprise, snatched my journal and began to sketch all the main racial groups. This quickly drew Sephie's attention and transformed into a cozy bedtime gossip party with jokes, birch juice drinking, and illustrating. We always knew that Amalia is a girl of numerous talents, but, until now, we did not suspect that drawing is one of them.

Also, I wasn't expecting Amalia to draw me, too. But thinking of it now, it seems like she did so for me to not feel like a lonely alien in this vast and sometimes scary world. Lia, if, by any chance, you are peeking into my diary and reading this entry, I want to say 'Thank you.' Thank you for being so kind and caring to all of us and myself.

 

[Teloch]

Fragment of conversation with Inga the Kheree huntress on Bloom 17 of the year 1469

Do you want to know what behemoths are? Really? Not that I'm ridiculing you, but getting this deep into Blugd-Tur without being wary of those is... never mind. So, have you encountered baavgurs? ... They are less common on the eastern side of Blugd-Tur, so seeing them around Baathor isn't ordinary, yet neither is it unheard of. Guess, when the dust settles and the recent beast's plague passes, we will have to rediscover and relearn quite some habitats' locations in the valley.

Anyway - back to behemoths: try imagining something resembling a baavgur, but time and a half to two times larger, with three huge claws on each frontal paw, sharp tusks, the ability to move biped, and of absolutely vicious temper. I kid you not: baavgurs, who are generally considered one of the most ferocious beasts in Blugd-Tur, are but moody house cats when we compare them to behemoths. These bastards, unlike most of the big game in the valley, are not rational: even if they are not hungry or protecting their territory, with high odds, they would try to kill anything they see that is smaller than them, which is a lot of things, really. Yes - they are incredibly dumb and don't know what fear is. Idiotic to the point when, during the mating season, males would fight among themselves, frequently with lethal outcomes, mate with a female, and then fight the female - also at times with fatal results - because they forgot what they were doing or whatever else reasons. Perhaps, their stupidity and the lack of self- or kin preservation are the reasons that keep them from overrunning the plains.

But aside from their notorious idiocy, these beasts are true survivalists: they are omnivorous, even if meat is more to their liking. Their stomachs and livers allow them to sustain on the almost wholly rotten carrion without risking poisoning. Floral or animal toxins have negligible effects on them. Neither nigh-arid nor freezing weather seems to do a number on them. And, if this wasn't enough, they have nearly no natural foes aside from themselves, draconids, and a handful of apex predators like chimeras or manticores as they are fairly fast, ferocious, and unwearying. Even the most capable veteran hunters would be disadvantaged should they decide to take on such a beast alone, so we hunt them in groups of seven to twelve pairs of hands. The best course of action for those traveling in fewer numbers or incapable of fighting back would be to hide and wait for the beast to pass. Luckily, the behemoths' senses are somewhat duller than that of landers or roths. Also, coming with the height of about two to three adult landers with the ash-gray to crimson-brown fur colors make locating them before they sense you reasonably simple. But even then, they are a tremendous nuisance to the locals and hence to us whenever a beast gets reported. It's worth noticing, however: their pelts and leather are of an inquisitive quality when used for outfits or armor.

You see, behemoths usually - and I emphasize usually - fall into slumber in midwinter. They become more active late winter or early spring as they need to replenish fat from half a season of hibernation. While unpredictable and dangerous enough when roaming around in search of food, it is in the middle to late springtime when they become genuinely aggressive as it is their mating season. After heeding this nature's call, the survived beasts would proceed back to their territories, fighting the infringers and preparing for the next cycle for males and making a cozy lair for the upcoming litter when females are concerned. Peculiar fact: behemoth males are one of the worst fathers, even among the highly territorial animals. Should they stumble upon behemoth cubs, the odds are, they would eat them, even if they are their own offsprings. Like, male behemoths have only two tasks in their lives: to mate and to survive until the next mating season.

Female behemoths, however, are incredibly protective mothers and would take down anything that approaches their nest with cubs, be it smaller predators, people, or other behemoths. They beget from one to three cubs typically. With every brood, a female behemoth makes a lair in the new location, so one should always be wary even when traversing the known routes, especially during fall when the beasts actively hunt to prepare themselves and, in the case of brood mothers, their cubs for winter. Another peculiar detail: unlike baavgur cubs, who can look cute in their infancy, behemoth cubs are outright repulsive from childhood, reminding degenerative pseudo giants rather than your average mammals. Aside from the hideous looks, their behavior isn't any better, especially concerning their siblings, which is why usually only one cub from the litter would survive until early adulthood.

And, that's about all if you wanted the brief. If only your group didn't have quite a formidable fighter and especially a fire-spitter, to whose magic behemoths can be highly suspective, I would've been worried sick for you as we are about to enter one of the two dangerous seasons as far as these monsters are concerned. But even though your band might be capable of taking down one or two behemoths, I'll stress to you to follow the hunter's first rule and never lose vigilance. Otherwise, it would be a shame if fair folks like yours would end up a dinner for something this brutal yet stupid.

 

[Teloch]

Spoiler: Finalized version

Spoiler: Rough version

Done by this fancy chap. Possibly one of the most comfortable to work with artist I encountered.

 

[Teloch]

Fragment of conversation with Karl Norskov on Bloom 17 of the year 1469

You wish me to tell you about the body arcane aspect? Not that I'm annoyed or anything, but haven't we had a talk about thaumaturgy yesterday, and don't you have Leofric Vaughan's tome with you? Of all the Lyf academics, your patroness used to hold him in high regard, about which she rarely forgot to remind me... Oh, so you'd like an opinion of someone directly associated with the higher arcana practitioner's circles, the workings of the metaphorical kitchen, so to say. I'd give you this, Lucifina: your proficiency with flattery is becoming dangerous. But, well, consider me bought for this one.

So... With your levels of interest and involvement in the arcane spirit aspect, you are undoubtedly knowledgeable about how it is perhaps the most heatedly debated topic in the arcanists', philosophers, and scholars' circles. But, if you would ever need to find an example of people's double standards and the desire to win social points by following the herd, go no further than the debates around ethics of the spirit aspect manipulations and the blatant absence of such in regards to the body one. Why blatant, you ask? You see: the spirit and body arcane aspects are considered "siblings" in most archetypical models that list life belt magic, while mind and emotions are - for the better phrase - their "cousins." That being said, while the spirit aspect operates the very core of all beings, the body facet encompasses the mantle into which this core is nested. It would be a folly to suggest that our frames, through which we not only operate but form, are less important than our souls. And yet, whether it is halls of the Lyf academia or a soiree of the major arcana practitioners, the odds are you would hear about the somatic magic only in the context of someone getting rid of a pesky migraine with its help lately.

The most popular reasons for this are the ordinary carelessness of people about their health until it gets degraded and the disinclination of audiences to dig below the conventionally-accepted beliefs or thoughts more than required. So, if we roll with the latter reason, an average person who knows at least bare minimum about theurgy would say something like, "the body arcane aspect is a branch of magic which belongs to the life belt division, works through the law of empathy just like its siblings, and focuses on manipulating the innate lifeforce of entities involved." If the said person is not just an amateur but a curious one, they would likely mention a whim of the "Vitae as a bodily substance" theory and list several ways a healer could manipulate it through transfusion or circulation tampering. As cute as it would've been of them, they would barely scratch what the body aspect truly is.

You see, somatic magic is the most scholastic branch of the aspects tree, boasting the highest possible synergy between the distilled knowledge of the subject and possibilities offered by arcane methodology. On this immense foundation, multiple schools and sects of healers and body sculptors were formed. Most of them are of the Alvizian origins, like corpus chorists, who learn to attune to the "tones" of a body and, through parsing it reveal all of its secrets, starting from its general vigor, weak & strong points, and the harmony of the entrails. Or the leechers school, who have chosen blood as their primary medium of operation. By sampling it, they could not just describe the status and processes within organisms but also relay a lot about their lineages' traits, the backlog of phylogenesis, and even the imagery of their possible offsprings; no wonder they are famous in Alvizian kingdoms. Even these savage lands we are now forced to navigate through have their own school of healers: the fleshweavers. As you can imagine from the name, it has a whole lot to do with bones and tissues. Perhaps, I'll pass on the further detalization, if you don't mind.

Due to the persistency and universality of the empathic principle among all the life belt aspects, it's no surprise that the most physically developed mages would have an easier time reaching the immense depths of this domain. But, perhaps the most rawly endowed with the arcane body aspect proficiency are the gvuroths. As you might have guessed, gvuroths are the physically mightiest among everyone recorded with the somatic bound. Their potency in manipulating vitae, modifying the principal architecture of any flesh, and the firmness of control over the corporeal processes are simply unparalleled. While scarce in numbers, gvurothean grandmasters of the bodily magic are said to be able to restore living beings' lost limbs in close semblance to gvuroth's natural gift but without the protracted agony tied to it. Fixing the hereditary flaws of the flesh is also considered to be within their competencies. And I'm not even touching on all the stories of the miraculous restorations from the brink of death or even back from its antechamber.

Suffice to say, even without ever reaching the absolute peak of the somatic domain attunement and after losing some of it due to age, Claudius is still one of the - if not the most qualified flesh sculptor in the Lyf kingdom. However, as a life belt practitioner, you must be more than aware that the life belt domains are just tools in people's arsenal, which bestows the choice and responsibility for how to use them. The shocking stories of malicious body aspect mages committing heinous traumas, hideous amalgams, or creating mockeries of life are not exactly unheard of, but let's not dwell on it for now, shall we? After all, my rant is to educate you a little and not fill your imagination with even more morbid imagery.

Ahh... I told you that the body arcane aspect is way more profound than it appears on the surface. What? Are you, by any chance, think there's a story behind my enthusiasm about it? Well, you wouldn't be entirely wrong: they say that a pasture is always greener on the other side, so as an elemental belt mage, I am drawn towards the fruit I'll never savor. Or, perhaps, I knew someone engulfed in it a long time ago, subconsciously having a soft spot for everything they associated with... And maybe they would've held the same sentiment if only I was a better friend... or even just a better person...

 

[Teloch]

Fragment of conversation with Ulren Kyres on Bloom 19 of the year 1469

Roths? You want to hear about roths in general and not something specific? Even with hodaroths and chorots? At what point did I mistreat you so gravely that you didn't even bother to read about my kin or ask Rosaline? Fine, fine, I jest. Couldn't you tell?... What?! Now, I know I'm not the most vivacious fellow around, but that did sting, actually.

Eh - It's alright, bunker comfily, and I'll tell you what I've learned and experienced living as one of your subjects of study. First, you need to know that roths are not as much a group of entities as continuity. We - the bhiroths, at the very least - view ourselves as links in the chain of the ancient kin, stretching from antiquity's depths preceding even the heavily mythologized by the contemporaries' reisors to the classic rhathos, and finally, to the many branches of the modern roths.

Condensing loads of kin-related lore that the mentors bury us under in the first two years of any bhiroth's orientation decade, reisors are believed to be the progenitors of us in our current form, time and a half larger and twice mightier than an average bhioth, possessing incredible vital boon that lets them regenerate from devastating injuries, withstand diseases, and live for many centuries, with many if not all of them having command over elements on top of it all. They are also believed to be related to the great ancient dragons like nephews would, putting it in landers' terms...

Don't give me that look - I was somewhat skeptical myself when I was a wee lad and had to listen to all of this, but I tell you what: they didn't teach all of us a few basic draconic hollers and tones and send us to practice them in the Sud-Dalur colony for nothing! Yes - I've been to it once, brought there by the kennadur mentors with the rest of my tuition group to exercise those skills. Not sure whether it was me doing a fine reproduction of the tone and yells or was it just my black-scaled, interlocutor being a house-sized softie, but we did establish a quick rapport. Be it due to smell, shape, or any other sense, 'em royal dragons still see us differently from the rest of the species. Perhaps, the feral dragons do too, but unlike the ones living in colony-kingdoms, you never know what they would do with it.

As you might have figured out by now, the traits that make us roths - the shape, vitality, and magic inclinations - are attributed to the obscure time-buried intersection of our bloodline with those elder beasts. It is also believed that those attributes diminish as the generations come after another and our kin spreads across the world. This is why rhathos - the forebearers of the modern roth - are believed to be the intermediate step, closer to us than to reisors. But unlike reisors, rhathos were depicted and well-documented, with less room for mythologizing embellishments like the former had. In principle, rhathos were like us but just with some extra. A bit longer lifespans, sometimes reaching up to three centuries, a bit larger frame, comparable to that of my bigger kindred, different brow spikes patterns, and the vitality boons of all the roth branches undivided if somewhat thinner overall.

Rhathos were numerous and constituted the core of the Orn-Rhathon empire on the eastern side of Heimurn. If you thought there are far too many arguments and theories thrown around by the Lyf scholars concerning whether or not Highfather exists, you haven't experienced the sheer number and heat of the debates kennadur lorists and scholars have regarding the causes of the Orn-Rhathon's decline and the subsequent exodus to the west. In the same vein, it is endlessly debated whether or not rhathos were diluted and fractured as a species during, shortly after, or long before the migration wave. If you want my opinion, from seeing bhiroths living among gvuroths far to the south of Eldhaetaed and bearing regular bhiroth offsprings, I will lean to the latter theory.

But here, we come to the next most crucial factor concerning roths: we are the products of resettlement, and our societies are but opposite visions of how our kin should press forward. There are three such visions right now; four, if you still count in chodaroths, whose empire we destroyed in the war of the First Star over thirty cycles ago, with their remnant population now having to survive in the badlands spawned by that conflict and exacerbated by the Gaian flood. I'll start not from them, though, but from the branch I haven't ever interacted with aside from hearing stories and dubious claims about - the hodaroths.

The roths of Hod are believed to inhabit the woody peninsula and islands to the northeast from the North Heimurn's badlands once occupied by the Corethian empire, sharing their domain with northern alvizians tribes. Also, they are told to be the second largest minority of the Yrsengard's southern realms. So, essentially, they are bound to the White Sea, and it is primarily bhiroth sailors and fishermen who ever get to interact with them. Not being either and never being out into the sea, I have never seen a single living hodaroth myself, but others told me they are a bit taller than us yet noticeably slimmer and lighter. Their vitality boon is that of high resistance to exposure and elements, which helps them thrive in the harsh climate of their habitat. From what I've learned, their society is based around clans making up tribes, much like the northern alvizians with whom they share the land. Yet, they are mostly peaceful and isolationistic, preferring the inhospitality of their homeland to the conflicts of the valley nations.

The next ones would be choroths: our eastern neighbors and, until recently, our longest-time bitter rivals. Ever since the tribes of roths settled in Pheotor, bhiroths and choroths set diametrically opposite courses for their societies. While we adhered to the code of the rhathos kin, they absorbed the feudal ways of landers and alvizians, aiming to outdo them and undo us. Needless to say that in twenty-four generations since arriving here, we've had more wars with choroths than with westlanderers, bouncing between odd, upper-hand-seeking truces and times of unbridled total warfare. It was only a matter of time before... Ack, the topic is getting too dark for what you might've bargained for, so pardon my ramblings and the old gripes with which you have nothing to do with.

In any case, when it comes to their frames, they diverged from all other roths the furthest, and their later generations became an odd middle ground between us and landers: shorter and lighter, but more numerous and slightly shorter-living to make up for it. There is a popular misconception that it was caused by them mingling with the Cullanor's "high" - as they call themselves - alvizians, but that's hogwash - a roth and an alvizian can't crossbreed, so something else was in play there. But in any case, they were still roths in the end, possessing the boon of health, resisting ailments easily, seldom going down with sicknesses, and hardly experiencing poisonings or intoxications. Their mages are born with half-similar elemental bounds layout to that of ours, which makes them look and function like a distorted reflection compared to the rest of roths: opposite, but not dissimilar.

The roths of Gvur also have a bit of that "like us yet not quite," but more positively, one might say. Once again, using the landers' terms, they are like cousins: they live just as long, are built almost the same if a bit more toned, and have nigh-identical skull spikes' patterns. The differences begin with their vital boon, which is ridiculous endurance and vim, making them somewhat restless in comparison, and that their mages are born with semi-similar elemental leans. Much more than the marginal physical differences, we diverge in how our societies are structured, as gvuroths prefer city-states-level dynastical and class hierarchies compared to our caste- and merit-based one. Still, despite Olfadir and the cluster of East Kingdoms separating our domains, we are the closest roth branches among all, with many individual instances moving to others' lands when they could not find themselves in their homelands. And I estimate the Bhir-Gvur roth half-bloods outnumber all other roth combinations by four to one ratio. Damn, I myself moved to Ebongale once and almost managed to settle there.

And finally, there's us: the bhiroths. We live up to two centuries and a half. Our women are ordinarily capable of rearing up to six children. When young, we can regenerate severe injuries up to regrowing limbs. However, This vital boon is depletable and can easily become a curse if the recovery goes wrong or fails to stop. I've been hurt badly before and had to experience for myself these months and months of agony, which are enough to drive mad those of frailer hearts. As for how we organized, I told you before that we live in a caste-based society, with three major and three minor castes, united by the ideology of the kin's chain: the modified rhathos code, aimed at carrying the kin's legacy into perpetuity, disregarding the costs...

Ah, sorry: I've got carried away a little. I know it might be selfish, but I can relay only so much about my kin without getting... you know. If you still want to hear more, I'll make sure to oblige the other time.

 

[Teloch]

Fragment of conversation with Amalia Brant on Bloom 25 of the year 1469

Westlanders? Lucy, my ears are not clogged, so I may not have misheard you, right?
...
Of all the mysterious denizens of this world with their most exotic societies, you asked me to tell you about the most numerous and - pardon me - plain species inhabiting Pheotor. Why? What did I do to you to earn your grudge? What? They do look "different enough" to you? Aawh, fair enough. Fine, I can tell you about 'em westlanders and even try to spice it with something actually interesting, but you'd have to lend me a hand with laundry while we're at it. Deal?

So, like I told you earlier when you asked about the Olfadir church, Westlanders - or any Landers, for that matter - are not Pheotor's natives but rather migrants from Yrsengard. Over three thousand years ago, the first Yrsk Landers braved the white sea and began to spread from the northern Pheotorian Valley further south toward Cullanor, Heartland, River Valley, and even further south to Eucad. There are still legends lingering about those fae folk, beastmen, giants, ancient alvizian tribes, and other strange natives whom we pushed from their lands or, at worst, eradicated in our expansion. Sounds terrific for a race that doesn't seem to stand up to any other in any way, right? Do you know how did this happen?

Numbers. I'm sure there is some posh word academics in Lyf use for this particular case, but we simply outbreed everyone else despite living even shorter than Alvizians. Our numbers, coupled with our ability to swiftly cozy up in whatever land we wind up by living off its resources and shaping our lives according to its rules, is what sprung us so wide worldwide. That's how we got our name "Landers" - the people of the land. Westlanders are a pure example of this strategy.

You see, when someone says "a Lander," it is commonplace to presume a Westlander by default, as they may be the most numerous group of Landers in our purest form due to how and where they live. Westlanders occupy the fertile and plentiful Pheotorian heartland that allows extensive farmland communities, hunting settlements around numerous forests and low mountains, and fishing villages on countless rivers flowing into the Ars Ocean. Food is plentiful there, which allows for larger families, pushing for even more food production and, with it, even more free farmhands. This food-labor-food cycle is a part of the reason why Westlanders constitute anywhere from one-third to almost half of Pheotor's total population.

But the second reason is the already-mentioned fertility. An average Westlander woman - or any Lander woman really - can beget up to thirteen or even fifteen children if she starts to... Ack, sorry! I did not want to freak you out, so let's just say she starts to pursue mothership early in life. Anyway, even if only half of her children would survive to maturity, it would still be about as many as what's considered a fairly large family among Alvizians, a very huge one for Daevas, and about the lifespan fertility ceiling for Roths. Other Landers can technically pull this off, too, but this is where the rule of the land kicks in, resulting in smaller families among Lyflanders, Eastlanders, and Freelanders.

Another thing worth mentioning is the changeability innate to Landers and Westlanders in particular. A person who might move from the Heartland to Eiborea or Yrsengard and have initial discomfort living there would quickly get used to it and become almost like the locals. And should they proliferate with them, their offspring would also possess the traits of both parents and be highly adapted to life in both realms. Because of how easily various lands change us, we Landers are much more diverse among ourselves than the elder races usually presume. Like, Freelanders are slightly more enduring than the Westlanders but don't have their mental resilience and aptitude for a labor of the latter. Or How Lyflanders are the most magically gifted and long-living among Landers, yet they look like tender homegrowns compared to imposing and rugged Yrslanders.

But with all the mentioned flexibility and fertility, Westlanders also have heavy disadvantages compared to other races. The most obvious one is that they don't naturally excel in anything, be it grit or ingenuity. They can nurture their aptitudes throughout their lives and become pretty competent in something, but they are unlikely to surpass others naturally predisposed toward certain things species who have way more years of life to cultivate themselves. An average Westlander would be lucky to live into their seventies. In contrast, Alvizians usually live between a hundred to a hundred and thirty, and Roths live as much as around two centuries and up to forty years extra. Doesn't look like an even playing field, isn't it?

Aptitude for magic is also among their downsides: while they seemingly had practitioners of all kinds of arcane, compared to other races, there seem to be few, if any, tales about Westlander magi who approached the apex of their arcanum. Magic runs thin through their blood, even compared to other landers, and fewer Westlanders ever discover it in themselves. However, this may also be connected to how spellweaving is viewed in Olfadir, meaning that those wielding it would never willingly report so out of fear for their lives.

Now, I reckon you might have got a less than flattering characterization of them after all I've said yet, and it may not be without bias as I am an Eastlander myself, and we have, uh, "history" with them. So let me be clear: they have significant advantageous traits compared to other Landers, being the descendants of people who built the largest empire in Pheotor's written history.

As you may assume, their main strengths come not from their bodily might or magic talents but their sociability. They are incredibly cohesive internally - the polar opposite of individualistic and opportunistic Freelanders. More often than not, they are hard workers, at times rivaling even Bhiroths with their "we live to work" motto. They are also often stubborn and dig in their heels whenever facing troubles or confrontations, especially as a group. Sure - these traits do have their downsides as well, but they are the reason why there's a saying: "Every Riverland king dreams of reigning over Westlanders, while every Olfadir bishop covets the Eastlander flock."

So, there you have it. Hm? Not as dull as I told you it would be? Perhaps. But you know what's better? We're almost finished with laundering. Maybe I should ask you to help me out with something in return for a tale more often...

 

[Teloch]

Fragment of conversation with Karl Norskov on Bloom 27 of the year 1469

My word! Did you just inquire about runism? Please, don't give me those eyes - I'm just merely amused because you not only weave arcane almost as good as somewhat-rusty-your's-truly but also leech the interests of established major arcana practitioners of the north. I wonder for how long your hypothetical debut to the Kirhol's coven would've distracted fair sorceresses and respectable wizards from pursuing their mundane intrigues. But I digress...

The reason why runism is an eternal hot topic in the majors' arcanists circles is absolutely the same as why commoners will never stop gossiping about the recent affair developments in their communities, especially if there's a smidge of suspected adultery to them: it's a thrilling pastime of mixing few proven facts with many made-up assumptions for the sake of novelty and shock value. There is little we know about runism in scientific terms, but what we do know suggests you should avoid using the term "runecrafting" unless you use it in the strictly minor arcana manufacturing context.

You see, we do not "craft" runes - we merely use those of them that we sometimes stumble upon by blind chance. We know nothing about the nature of those reality-bending patterns or their source except that they exist and aren't static. They are not just geometrical etchings but something akin to rituals with multiple requirements, and they have drastically different effects and magnitude correlative with the scale and complexity of the mentioned requirements. Sounds nothing like the diluted popularized image, isn't it? Yes - you are starting to understand why this topic is an ever-giving spring for speculations, but let me give you more trivia before you fancy dipping yourself into this pond.

So, the first thing you need to know concerns what "is" considered a rune. Laymen think it's just a mysterious or bizarre-looking scribble or engraving, but in reality, it's also all the circumstances, such as the material on which the pattern was made, the style, method, or material with which the symbol was made, the time of day and the surroundings in which the presumably functioning rune was composed. A pattern of clay urns filled with particular contents and connected to each other by a trail of blood taken from a lethally dehydrated goat is as much of a rune as an engraving made by an acid extracted from a sea creature applied to an incomplete mythral blade under a specific phase of moons.

It sure does sound terribly ritualistic, and to relay more into the nature of runes, let's dig into the most famous example of its usage: the rainfall rituals of the lost Shentolla kingdom. This realm existed during the Pherinian empire's early "mythical" era and occupied the entirety of modern Eiborea. You will find more trivia on what that land was like and why it is considered to be Eiborea's first golden age in thematic literature, if you so desire; as for me, I'll only mention that it shared the same geographical woe as its contemporary does - the lack of unsalinated water. Obviously, it severely hampered agriculture, especially with the lack of modernized infrastructure.

However, the evidence, as well as works of folklore, suggest that, for at least half a millennia, this shortfall was compensated through the massive-scale runic ritual of rainfall summoning, which was taught to the denizens by a local cryptid nicknamed "Moontrail Mistress" or "Lady Silver Hind." I can see in your eyes the growing pile of questions like who this entity was, what that kingdom was like, and how exactly it was "lost," but for our topic, only the last question matters. You see, Shentolla fell once the rainstorm ritual stopped working. Yes - just like that, after centuries of practicing it, all the power it manipulated was whiffed from it. Increasingly desperate Shentollans attempted it repeatedly, with variations and without such, but the power was no longer there. And soon enough, the once-prosperous kingdom crumbled, no longer able to sustain its inhabitants.

This is what I meant by them not being static. There is a hefty number of recorded glyph catalysts and ritualistic requirements that were whiffed out like candles, while some speculations also suggest new symbols obtained unseen before powers. Pardon my vulgar metaphor, but using runes is akin to living off someone's backyard garden: for a time, you think you can get away with pinching their raspberries unnoticed, but then you sneak in only to find the bushes missing or replaced with turnips.

What about the efforts to study runes as phenomena? Oh, there sure were and are many. Some collectives dedicated solely to this purpose are alleged to exist even in the Lyf kingdom. Although it may just be the perpetually trendy topic of secret societies, so take it with a fistful of salt. But if we step back from particular conspiracies and look at the known groups studying this phenomenon, they can be sorted into three distinct groups: deists, astrologists, and scryptors. The former claim runes being one of God's mysterious languages, whose usage by the mortals can lead to disastrous effects like turning people into a bloody mist or forcing demiurges to depower the runes they think are abused. The astrologists believe the entire universe is an interconnected living tapestry, where bringing together archetypically aligned entities, materials, or events could create bursts of primordial power. And the scryptors stick to the belief that our entire world is some sort of an encrypted, unending metaphysical writing, where everything and everyone are its glyphs and hence can be manipulated through peculiar syntax.

As you may conclude, these thought schools have more of a basis in philosophy than cold, actual science, even though I'd like to credit scryptors' extravagance of imagination. This is why I compared runism to gossiping, as both endeavors are highly speculative. And what should you believe concerning this topic?... It's not mine to advise such a clever lady as yourself.

 

[Teloch]

Spoiler: Final version

Took a while, but hey. Done by the same artist as the thumbnail and three previous chararts.

 

[Teloch]

Excerpt from "Harnessing the elements. Introduction to the lower Arcana" by Prof. Graham Crawford, sen. of the arcane crafts department, Lyf academy

Enchanting is often viewed as an act of mystery — a wonderwork if you'd like. However, among all the disciplines of the lower arcana, scientific advancement, especially that of recent decades, spurred by the rise of alchemistry, robbed this term of its mystical flair. After all, the workings of the arcane aspects are nothing more or less than the extension of the powers of nature, which are quantifiable, explainable, and quite often predictable.

We won't spend much time delving into the semantic battlegrounds that are widespread in mixed practitioners' conclaves regarding terminology: I'll give you the short, systemic definition from the perspective of the minor arcana practitioner, followed by the perhaps shortest overview of the topic you'd meet in this book as we'd review almost the same principles in the next chapter.

So, enchanting is the process of imbuing a target material object, be it organic or inorganic, with the arcane aspects of power from singular or multiple sources to discharge that energy further efficiently. The emphasis in this term lies on the word "process" — it may be an instant action, akin to grafting out a rune, or sustained, like continuously siphoning the caster's conflagration aspect through a tool. However, Enchanting is always a process of three steps following in this order: power transfer, power storage & conversion, and ultimately - discharge control.

For an example of enchanting, we may take a hypothetical situation when a major arcana practitioner with the bind to the body aspect tries to imbue their 92-percentile silver surgery tools to rid their patient of impure body abscesses. Since silver has a robust negative resonance with the arcane body aspect, the arcane power the healer would put into the tool would, with proper focus and dosage, amplify the repelling and severing effect against all things organic, enhancing the efficiency of the tool's working side. Moreover, an experienced practitioner could switch the tool between arresting, repelling, and disintegrating properties against the ailing living matter on the fly by swapping their method of power projection. Sustaining source host, inversing effect medium, controllable manual discharge - all three elements of the sustained enchanting are in place.

Let us look at the second example: the famous Rosanrican fire wands—not to be confused with the runic torches. These are perhaps the most widely known enchantment objects in the world. In case you haven't heard of them, these wands are made of a volcanic glass frame and a single gemstone core (varying from opal to either ruby or diamond). Due to the mentioned gemstones' potent direct resonance with the conflagration aspect, by focusing on the core, a pyromancer can deposit its thermal charge power into the item and use it either as an easy-to-carry bank of additional arcane power or as a proxy projection device at their convenience. A perfect portable torch, the equivalent of the flaming arrow bow, and abode's hearth, all coming in pocket size.

However, be it stored or sustained enchantment, one from an inanimate object or caster-sourced, it is necessary to remember that the efficiency of the enchanted object has its limits, most of which are dictated by the material and composition of the said item. Similarly, no enchantment—even that siphoned by grandmasters of aspects and deposited into the most expensive mediums—doesn't last forever. Even runes, whose belonging to the discipline of enchanting is an often-debated topic, especially between the Lyf or Rosanrican scholars and the scrivener runemasters, have their expiry dates.

In the next chapter, we will review more of the enchantment principles and limitations and explain why it's incorrect to confuse enchanting with arcane crafting.

 

[Teloch]

Excerpt from "Harnessing the elements. Introduction to the lower Arcana" by Prof. Graham Crawford, sen. of the arcane crafts department, Lyf academy

As we reviewed in the previous chapter, enchanting is often confused with arcane crafting, especially by higher arcana practitioners and even more so by non-arcanists. However, these terms are not equal, as enchanting is just one of the parts of the arcane crafting sequence. You likely remember that the enchanting process consists of three stages: arcane power sourcing, storage and transformation, and the discharge method. Similarly, the sequence of arcane crafting consists of medium manufacturing, the enchantment of the mentioned material medium, and its exploitation and maintenance. As you can see, enchantment is but a step in arcane crafting - close but not the same because of a different fractal.

To solidify this knowledge and prevent you - my dear reader - from falling into this semantics trap that so many before you got into, I'll give you a simple example, once again lending the lower arcane craftsmanship traditions of our Rosanrican colleagues.

A volcanic glass blaze wand that is being powered by an actual pyromancer wielder out of their physical vim is an example of enchantment. Meanwhile, the composition of a runic fire torch using the Ars Fir or any other conflagration-resonating sort of wood, along with the correct composition of alchemical wax bearing the carving of the spark rune, that would be later broken upon the object's one-time-off usage, is an act of arcane crafting, where the middle "enchantment" stage is the moment the rune's requirements are met.

As you can surmise, the process of arcane crafting is much more encompassing than that of its single stage, as it also includes the medium manufacturing phase, and the final logistical stage. These two other stages, especially the former, require a wide knowledge of the materials' properties, limitations, interactions, and the many overlap the arcane manufacturing has with the fine craft of alchemy.

With the terminology and basic overview out of the way, it would be prudent to bring some extra examples of arcane crafting to give you a taste of its variability and immense scalability potential.

If you were an attentive reader, you might've memorized a few references and mentions of the grand crucible forge of Hermsdir. Located in the heart of Eldhaetaed mountains, this massive installation, rumored to be created by a lost predecessor civilization, is now exploited by our Bhiroth colleagues. This enormous site is manned by three brigades of workers: up to forty major arcana practitioners of all the elemental belt aspects enchant the elements of the installation to create unique thermal and pressure conditions in the crucible's chambers; half a hundred expert craftsmen then operate with the materials while the mages sustain those workable circumstances, and then up to a hundred of laborers foot the material logistics and the factorial maintenance.

This gargantuan collective systemic effort produces unique, otherwise unnatural materials such as the eldhaetaed ebonsteel and solarite gold, which are then used in the most intricate alchemical efforts or in the manufacturing of the mightiest armaments and artifacts. None of this would've been possible without the crucible's collectively enchanted chambers and operators' immense knowledge of the substances' arcane properties, backed by the experimentation mindset and plenty of research.

The second example that splendidly demonstrates the "manufacturing - enchantment - (re)utilization" logical chain is the now-forbidden yet not-forgotten art of Rosanrican golemcrafting. The "manufacturing of the medium" part of this arcane crafting sequence is represented by the forging of the fitting shells and cultivating of viable soul stones, which would then be used to fuse a sacrificial soul with its new "body" shell during the "enchantment" stage rituals. Naturally, back in the Rosanrican silver age, such artificial shell servants had been used for both matters of labor and war, bound to their owners from esteemed families, who then had to maintain them both in terms of the hull's upkeep and the stability of the entrapped soul. In this example, the golems themselves are the objects of the arcane crafting sequence, and from the historical perspective, it is thanks to this lower arcana process that Ars Islands managed to safeguard their independence from the late Pherinian empire.