This is not a chapter, but it contains information concerning this project. The upper part is spoiler free, I recommend reading it. If you post a reply to this post, and that reply contains spoilers, please tag it as such using [#spoiler] text containing spoilers [#/spoiler](without the #)

Stuff that has nothing to do with a specific chapter, but rather the story in general, goes here. Will also contain the encyclopedia of my created world once I'm done with it to an acceptable extend.

Last updated the 21.02

How to read this work:

- This is something that's more convenient to be displayed as a table, like lists, or a message created by Mana's skill.

- “SFX” “Dialogue”

- (thought)

- “words(what speaker thinks while speaking)words”

- (“Voice only heard in ones mind”)

(no actual sound is being made, but recipient(s) can still “hear” it)

- Third person/ narration by a character.

[Announcements:]

!!!The gender of the MC is pending. It has no actual impact on the story. Mana is a spirit, part of a "thing" that is within a male elfs body and has X-ray vision. And has his/her/ emotion supressed by a skill. The gender, to me, doesn't matter. Poll is http://royalroadl.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=43955

Don't expect any chapter around Christmas. Precise date: from the 18.12 to the 14.01. . I'll be on an island with my relatives, and yes, their house does not feature internet. And I'm not going to use my phone, the bill would be hilarious. Also, I'll have other stuff to do over there.. hiking, climbing, sports... yay... ......

Status of the story:

Update frequency: average 1 new chapter every week.

Chapter length: 4-5 DINA4 Pages in times new roman, 12.

Finished text:

chapter 18: 020%

putting stuff into tables, proofreading, stuff like that (chapters that have been, will soon be released):

chapter 18: 000%

I'm using align=justify to format my chapters. Please tell me if this causes any kind of problems or discomfort.

Understand that reading further than here may result in spoilers.

Work on the forum has been shifted to a yet inaccessible google drive folder. I will release the link to it once I'm done organizing it.

"Events" (you readers get to affect the story)

Create your own character!

You can create a character that will/may be mentioned in the story. If you only give a character a name, that name will most likely be used as long as it follows the "rules" for creating names:

Elven:

Spoiler :

"name" ,"family name", (of , "tribe they were born in" if addressing/ addressed by strangers)

own name: anything that's not to crazy is fine.

family name: same as with the name

tribe: list of tribes coming "soon", but they aren't important if you are just creating the name.

Example: Quintus Rhodis of the Southern Lake

Human:

Spoiler :

“name”, (if noble: “de” ) “family name” (if noble: family name must "fit" the prefix "de". I'm inspiring myself from the French language.)

Example:

"Normal human": Dave Bowman

Noble: Randall de Font

Dwarwen:

Spoiler :

"own name", "name of father"-son

Example: Caleb Marlonson

Beastkin:

Spoiler :

"name", (if large clan: family name), "clan name"

name of beastkin should be among the lines of "Wu", " Xie", you get what I mean.

Clans are named after magical beast after googletranslating the beasts name into Chinese. The iron wolf clan would be the Tielang. However, I'll take care of clan names myself, you should give me ideas for magical beasts to name the clans after. I haven't got that much, "Iron/silver/etc wolves" "Dragons (earth, fire, ice, wind)".

Example: Wu Tielang

You may also give your charachter a background story, however, this may make it more difficult to include your character into the story. Please make sure that your character's background does not contradict with what happened in the story, nor with the information given in the general and specific spoiler texts. (This is currently not recommended as I still have to finish writing the encyclopedia entries concerning the information needed to create background stories EXCEPT for humans)

Rough map:

map 1 (focus: the empire): 

if able to read=FALSE, open the image in a new tab and zoom..

Information to create background stories:

general:

Spoiler :

Religions:

"The one"

Spoiler :

Religion of “The one” in a nutshell:

The one is the omniscient, almighty, and always above everything in terms of everything being that is beyond and above everything one could ever hope to comprehend or think of.

It created "Viracocha", the white being. It is basically the "raw material" of this world, but also beyond our understanding.

Then came Vulcan, Vayu and Vichama.

Vayu is the divine of “life”. After Vulcan had build the world with its plants, landscapes and animals, Vayu found it lacking. He called it a masterpiece that lost its value as no one would ever understand it. It was beautiful, but served no purpose. Thus he gave some of the things within the world the divine energy (mana), thus turning them from “parts of nature” into actual living beings. Now possessing the divine power those beings were able to learn from Vulcan, and participate in creating, and appreciate, his ever evolving masterpiece. Vayu has the color red. A divine that's “celebrated” in regular intervals (childbirth(when successful)), whenever magic turns out to be convenient,

Vulcan is the divine that forged "nature" and created the art of crafting. He is said to have walked the world looking like a mortal, working on the landscape, creating the fertile land and the desert, mountains.. all the while teaching others the art of “crafting”, this includes writing and generally all work related to “death” materials. His color is green. The most popular divine.

Vayu, having spend all his divine power to gift it the beings of this world, made a mistake. Vulcans creations were meant to change, but the power of the divines would forever remain. This led to “spirits” of the dead haunting the world long after their bodies had decomposed. Thus the last of the three, Vichama, had to act. He is the divine responsible for “death”. It is his purpose to collect the power of the divines, cleanse, purify. His color is blue. He's the type you rarely care about, but when you do, then you REALLY do. (mostly because you noticed you neglected him and your dead father just might turn into a spirit).

Vulcan creates and changes the body, Vayu fills it with life, and Vichama takes it once it is over. Thus is their cycle of life and death.

Vulcan is related to crafting and art, and fertility of soils, hunting, just about.. everything.. except:

the stuff Vayu is related to: birth, healing, magic.

And the stuff Vichama is related to: a “proper” death (not turning into a spirit), cleansing ones soul for it to be reincarnated.

And at the very last.. comes the “black” divine. His name is to never be spoken, never be written, and never be thought of. Thus he has none. He is the counterpart to Viracocha, and also beyond the comprehension of man. Nobody knows what he actually does, if he exists right now, or not.. if he ever did or will. But one thing is certain, ALL will end with him. He stands for power beyond everything, but also bad luck. There is a cult around him, and they are the sole to associate anything to him, and that's what they associate him with. Their goal is to become the strongest at absolutely all costs and risks, which will make them more powerful, yet still more likely to die than others, and they embrace that.

Elves:

Spoiler :

Work in progress

Humans:

Spoiler :

Humans are the dominant species (among the top 4 (humans, elves, dwarves, beastkin))on the western half of the continent. They are all living within the so called "empire".

The following is a list of rough descriptions of how society functions.

General information: women can do all of these jobs, but it's rare for them to do so. Usually their "job" is to be a wife. They are equal by the law, but still discriminated against unless: they do it because their husband died and they have no son, they do it helping out their husband, they do it because they are forced to. (in the later case, they are usually discriminated against for being in a situation in which they are forced to (like being a slave))

Info on slavery:

Slaves are, for all purposes except communicating with them and "maintenance", "objects", their owner is responsible for their actions, and may use them however he sees it to be fit, unless he would break a law by doing so (not by, let's say, mistreating the slave, that's perfectly fine, but by using the slave to break the law).

One can be slave due to unlucky circumstances (ambushed travelling alone) or due to unpayable debt. Once that happens, there is no going back, and one becomes an "object". This being the case, I will not include slaves as a part of society. (Because their conditions vary entirely based on their owner.) Society considers slavery as normal, with some rebelling against the system, but those are in the minority and actions to act against slavery are considered a crime.

Exception: fighting against a slave trader. Slave traders are in the grey zone of the law, as their initial actions are a crime, but the second they achieve their goal they cease to be a crime. If one escapes a slave trader without having a slave collar put onto oneself, one may sue them for the damage they caused, but one may not demand for them to "give back" their new earned "property", which may happen to be your old friend, lower, family.. because that's perfectly legit.

Killing a slavehunter in self-defense is perfectly fine as one was a human fighting for ones life. Killing a slavehunter hunting someone is also ok as one protected another human life from an assault. Killing a slavehunter after he caught someone is a crime, simple murder for "no reason".

Slaves are, while accepted by society in general, NOT common. Usually only nobles and other rich people can afford them. The demand for slaves thus isn't that high, it's unlikely for a normal person to become target of slavehunters. Traveling alone, being a beautiful woman (reasons), a man with strong physique(worker) or a "rarity" (elf, beastkin, dwarf) increases the risk, as does travelling through dangerous areas.

The empire functions as follows:

The fundamental 3 (Farmers, nobles and guards):

Spoiler :

There are the farmers, responsible for producing goods. They do not earn money for doing so. In exchange for delivering their goods to the cities, they receive protection by the soldiers (which are paid by the nobles to which they give their goods) and some sort of "life insurance" should the harvest fall low due to unexpected circumstances. Live as a farmer is simple, not really dangerous, far, far away from being luxurious, but one does not risk to loose ones job.

They may sell any goods they produced after meeting their tribute, but must give a fixed percentage of those goods to their lord. (Example, after having delivered 1000 units of grain, thus having met the tribute, a farmer still has 300 units left, in this case he may give 100 units to his lord to be allowed to sell the remaining 200)

If one is a farmer, one will stay a farmer for life. This does not apply to your children however. One can either choose to become a farmer, or may be forced to do so if one has no money and has to pay of a debt. Farms are sometimes attacked by magical beast, especially those holding livestock (sheep, cows, etc..), the farmers are not only allowed, but required to run for their lives and MUST inform the guards. Not attempting to do so is a capital crime, and punishable with the death sentence. This is to ensure minimal damage to the food production.

Next are nobles. They are responsible for wealth management and the paperwork. Their main income consists of: taxes, selling the goods delivered by farmers, rent (buildings within the city). Some (most) use their income to hire people to do all of the work for them. They all must use some money to hire guards/soldiers which are tasked with enforcing the laws and safety of their people. A guard disobeying the law will either be forced to leave his job (usually becoming an adventurer or, if he is too weak, a farmer) or, in case of major crimes, be sentenced to death. Those are the only ways a guard can be punished, and they will be punished. Reporting a guard breaking the law will earn yourself the not negligible sum of his monthly pay. Because of these laws it's near impossible to find a corrupt guard, and guards work in groups to prevent themselves from being scammed.

Ah, if you are a noble, there is not even the need to pay a guard to “look the other way”. Nobles> other human beings. Always. Guess who judges crimes? The noble families. Only them.

This covers the “essential” system. Nobles, soldiers and farmers, these 3 ensure the functioning of the rest of the society by providing food and safety.

Now for the “middle class”

Spoiler :

Carpenters, bakers, tailors, smiths, etc... they are all part of the “middle class”. Every job is monitored by a large guild. The guild is tasked with: ensuring stability (how big is one loaf of this type of bread, what grain was used to bake it, how much does it cost) thus preventing competition. Members of the guild pay the guild for doing so. And they do it because instability might let them loose their job. Obviously, there are still new things being “invented”. Such inventions (like: “I discovered a new thing we could add to clothes, I call it the “button””) must be brought in front of the guild, and then be approved, and then one is allowed to use them for a variable amount of time depending on the invention, and THEN the other members of the guild are allowed to do the same.

This has slowed down technological progress a LOT. This alongside the fact that science does not exist in this world. Not as we know it. What matters for a job is expertise and mastery of existing techniques, not developing new ones. And the church takes care of explaining every phenomenon one might wonder about.

But not going into the details, this just about covers the “middle class”.

Next is the trader /trading merchant/ merchant.

Spoiler :

Anyone can become a trader. All you need is money, then you can start making more money. Transporting goods from a to b. But it's a really, really risky job. Get that one delivery stolen and you are ruined. And will become a farmer for the rest of your life or otherwise punished. It takes guts to be a trader. As a trader you need to protect your goods from thieves and potential attacks from magical beasts on long travels. Who're you gonna call? Yep, the adventurers guild. As a trader you need to know your connections and have a little bit of luck.

Traders get the goods from person a in location a and bring them to person b in location b and get paid for doing that. They don't sell their goods. They are usually hired by the guilds.

Trading merchants are traders that sell and acquire their goods themselves. The guilds can't stand them. But they are still their most important customer.

Merchants are “localized” traders. Basically, they specialize in having connections within a specific region, don't move around that much. They get their goods from their connections or traders, and sell them to those who pay for them, including the guilds. Most of the basic necessities are already covered by the guilds, so merchants usually sell luxuries. Their main customers are nobles and really strong adventurers. Merchants can also be specialized craftsmen. Someone creating jewelry is not part of the smiting guild in most cases, but a merchant. The guild simply does not cover rarely used luxury goods in their regulations.

To prevent excessive power struggle among these professions, there is a traders alliance. Actually there are many of them.. 5. And those five work together as “the” trading alliance.

(map of the five alliances above)

Traders may join them or not do so. Those that don't risk a LOT, but with a lot of luck and skill and luck they may make a much bigger fortune. But no one is taking that risk on a large scale.

Next is the “dangerous” profession: adventurer.

Spoiler :

Anyone can be an adventurer! Adventurers each have a "license" certifying their rank. To prevent it from being stolen or lost it is engraved into their bodies, usually the chest or head. Putting it in is painful, but taking it out is.. well.. even more painful. Yeah, having it stolen still is possible, but those with a low rank are safe because theirs is useless, and those with a high rank... there is a reason they are there.

The device works in a very simple manner: If it is powered with mana it will glow. Color = rank. The guild is the only instance that knows how to “upgrade” them. They technically are a rune armament. Defense and offense value is close to 0.

Additionally, an adventurer must register himself under his adventurer name, which does not have to be their real name, and a code. The last set of numbers of the code is defined by the guild house they registered themselves in, and that guild house keeps track of all codes ever distributed by it and checks if the code they are about to distribute is still available, preventing a code from being used by two persons at the same time. If your "License" is stolen, you will need that name and that code, and have a bit (- lot) of patience to get your ranking back, depending on how far you are from the last guild house that upgraded your rank. In the meantime, you'll be stuck at the lowest rank again.

To accept a mission, you have to show the rank, give the accountant your name, and your number. If you are leader of a party, your name alone is enough to register all members of that party for a mission, but you must have registered that party first. Because doing so saves time in the long run and most adventurers form parties anyways, it is common for adventurers to be in one.

Adventurers are the only people allowed to perform the tasks adventurers do (missions). Non-adventurers may perform tasks similar to adventurers, but they won't have the connections the guild provides. Adventurers are “strong” people. Or a group of mediocre people. But one thing is certain, on a mission, the weak die. This somewhat filters out “noobs”. The job pays well, you don't even have to work at all (but you only get paid of you do).. the downside is you may die.

Also, while you may be a trading adventurer, those people usually disappear under mysterious circumstances. It's an unspoken rule to not become “self sustaining” a.k.a. not requiring either alliance to do both (paying with your own money for goods, transporting them for free, selling them yourself for a profit, thus never handing over any percentage of your profit to either the adventurers guild or trader alliance). As long as you still issue a request and then accept it yourself, everything is fine however. That is as long as the guild is able to earn something from that request. If they feel they don't.. so yeah, it's not worth the risk.

Last comes the church!

Spoiler :

If (and really, IF) you manage to become a church official (more than just a believer), well, good job. A life free of worries awaits. Do a bit of work here, pray a bit there, do what you are told by those ranking above you, and live a rather comfortable life. It's not luxurious (in the lower rankings, in the higher ones.. well..), but it's paradise compared to being a farmer.

Requirements:

Believe in the church, be able to read and write, have a non-crippled or otherwise disabled body, there must be a spot free in the ranks of the church.

Further conditions:

If you break the codex you get punished. May include getting kicked out of the church, loosing everything you ever had.

Codex:

No sexual intercourse. Be devoted to god. You must give up all status, money, and everything else to enter the church. If you are a noble this includes your status as a noble. But this also includes crimes and debts...

You must read and act accordingly to the holy scripture. This includes helping out others.

No matter the stuff mentioned above: do what those ranked above you tell you to do. Not doing so is at your own risk.

Life as a church official:

Lower ranks:

You are required to read and study the scripture. Once you read through all of it, just do it again. Try to understand it's incredibly deep meaning while doing so. Then, take care of the tasks given to you, like cleaning, harvesting in the garden containing the medical herbs, etc. also, do everything you are told by those above you. Life is simple but good.

Higher ranks:

Hey, is this expensive food? Nice! Let's distribute it among the poor.. well, I can keep half of it right?

Even higher ranks:

Have a say in politics. Why even work? But get ready for a powerstruggle..

What you do:

The job of the church is to “heal” and gather information. They are the people that are responsible for writing down everything. The only large libraries in existence are within buildings of the church.

Especially skilled at using medical herbs, some are also able to use the “heal” skill, THE requirement to get into the higher ranks. If nothing else works, they just pray for you. They also listen to your worries and give counseling. It's not a job for people that dislike social interaction. Most people respect the church officials. Some hate them.. but most really respect them for what they do. Ah, they are also the only instance allowed to create and distribute alcohol. The knowledge was discovered by them, and they successfully monopolized on it. Their main source of income.

That's it! More about more specific stuff some time later.

Dwarwes:

Spoiler :

Work in progress

Beastkin:

Spoiler :

Work in progress

List of magical beats:

Dragons in general:

Spoiler :

Dragons are large creatures that can attain incredible ages. The older they get, the bigger and stronger and smarter they are (adult dragons are smarter than most humans). Period. That is until they reach the final stage of their growth..

They cannot “fly”, but an adult dragon jumping is almost the same. Fire and ice dragons have wings they use to glide and slow down their speed to control the jump. Earth dragons, living underground, do not “jump” for.. obvious reasons. They are a very rare species, and it's unlikely for a dragon to enter another dragons territory, which can encompass hundreds to thousands of square kilometers, outside of the mating season. The males will approach the females territory and fight each other during that time, and the damage caused by their battles has led this species to be hated by most humans. The ratio of males to females is roughly 3 to 1. Mating season is once every 100 years, and the time is different for each race.

A dragon can, depending on the race, grow up to 10 meters high and 200 meters long (including the tail), but it does take thousands of years for them to reach those measurements. The highest but also shortest are the earth dragons, with only 100 meters of legth, while wind dragons are the smallest, with only 5 meters of height. Ice and fire dragons range in between.

Female dragons boost greater defense and endurance than male dragons, and male dragons have greater strength and offense but can't maintain their power for an extended period of time, so in a drawn out battle, a female dragon actually is the more dangerous opponent by far. But except dragons, who would last longer than a few seconds when facing a dragon?

Once they have reached full adulthood (peak of their power) dragons are faced with a choice: they may remain a dragon or become another species to gain that species power in addition to their own, but will be greatly weakened after the transformation. Popular transformations are: Other strong beast, in case of aquatic creatures this has led to “water dragons”, or the “cheater” species: human, elves, beastkin. Sometimes for power, sometimes for.. love. Sigh. Actually, in case of female dragons, this feeling is sometimes caused by a “cheater” defeating the dragons fighting for her.

Especially when they leave after doing it. That is because it is their instinct to mate with the winner of the fight, and under normal circumstances nothing would stop the winner from doing so, and he himself wouldn't just say no either. And if the winner just leaves without doing anything.. The resulting emotional chaos can have serious side effects. Like, a dragon transforming into a human.

Fire dragons

Spoiler :

(Most) live atop of volcanoes. Their special ability is a scorching hot breath (but no flames), with increasing strength and range according to the dragons age. They are more on the offensive than the defensive side, but that is when compared to ice dragons- their defense is still incomparable to other magical beast. The dragon species most hated by humans due to the aftereffects of unleashing its ability- the temperature will incinerate everything and cause large scale fires.

Scales: variations of red to blue. Very rare cases can have other colors.

Ice dragons

Spoiler :

They live atop cold mountains. Their special ability is a freezing cold breath with strength and range increasing according to the dragons age. Can survive in incredibly cold environments. Colors of the scales range from blue to white.

Wind dragons

Spoiler :

The agilest among the dragons. A little bit weaker, but a LOT faster, their special ability is the ability to produce incredibly sharp and fast blades of wind. Lives in forests and plains. Unrivaled by the other (non dragon) beast upon reaching adulthood. That aside, there is not much to say about them.

Color of the scales can be any shade of green.

Earth dragons

Spoiler :

The cause of the dwarwens hatred towards dragons. They love caves and tunnels, and even worse (for dwarwes) are usually unaffected by the traps within. And at the epitome of causes is the fact that they eat ores.

These dragons are rather slow, but have incredible defense and offense. They live underground and their special skill is to be able to have their scales get stronger by consuming ores. Their scales turn into a magically enhanced alloy of the ores they have consumed. The larger a dragon is, the more he has to consume to obtain a notable effect. A large earth dragon that had enough time and food is considered to be unkillable.

In some very rare cases however they will consume crystals instead. These earth dragons are a rare variation that will be weaker in the first few hundreds years of its life, but then surpass their kin in just about every aspect.

In general, they have been hunted to the brink of extinction within the dwarwens territory for both their value and the troubles/ casualities they cause in dwarwen mines.

Iron wolves

Spoiler :

Big wolves with a fur of iron. Despite the weight, they are quite fast, so their strikes carry notable destructive power. The fur also acts as a natural armor. There are variations with other metal than iron as fur.

Work in progress