As expected, lunch was a brief affair. Thal wanted badly to talk with someone about the days’ events. My first murder. But the group sat together through the duration of the meal and he didn’t want to say anything with Boss around. After finishing his meal he opened his Atmere spell-book and continued to read through different spells for atmer beginners. He had decided what he wanted his first Atmere spell to be; it was a fire-based invocation, that would throw fire at enemies at a close range. It could also be held to maintain the stream of fire for as long as the caster could manage. It was one of the simplest in the book, so Thal figured it was a good place to start. It felt strange, having studied magics for years and choosing a new “first spell”.

What was my real first spell? An orb of light?

He seemed to remember a lot of novices starting with that one. Before he had read more than a few pages, Boss was on her feet and ordering everybody to mount up. He closed his book and found his horse, knowing it would be some time before they stopped again.

Sure enough it was nearly sundown before Boss gave the order to abscond the road and find a suitable place to set up camp. As they had ridden further from Berrus, trees had become sparse and the ground had become dryer and rockier with every mile. That meant a spot imperceptible from the road would be hard to come by. With Namu’s guidance they found a rocky outcrop that met their criteria. Just like the night before; Boss gave everyone jobs to do before the sun set. Toka had saved some of the meat from the bandit’s camp, but it would not be enough, so Hunter went out hunting and Namu went with him, insisting that if there was any wildlife worth eating here, he would be able to find it first. Boss would patrol the area. Naturally. And it was Toka’s turn to take care of the horses. Once again Thal was on firewood duty and Sun, with nothing better to do, tagged along to speed up the process. It didn’t take long for them to strike up a conversation.

“So you’re an atmer…” Sun started.

Here we go.

“But you don’t fight like one. You cast in the classical Draconic style.”

Thal was pleasantly surprised by the perceptiveness of the question.

Not naming names, a certain Vanaran was less astute with his inquiries.

“That’s right. I’ve only ever trained in the college in Berrus, so I’ve only ever studied Draconic magics.”

“But I also noticed that spell-book of yours. I don’t recognise the language it’s written in. It’s Atmere, right? And I couldn’t help but notice you have two implements; your wand and that ring of yours.”

I had no idea anyone had been watching me so closely.

Still he trusted the cleric for some reason.

Maybe because he’s a cleric?

“The book is Atmere, yeah. And it’s very new to me. These past couple of days have been the first chance I’ve had to read it. I haven’t actually tried any of the spells yet…”

Abruptly Sun cut him off; “But you have cast Atmere spells before, haven’t you?”

“Well I… no. I haven’t had a chance yet.”

Those words put Sun, momentarily, into deep thought.

“I’ll gather the firewood. You go try out those spells. I can meet you back here when I’m done.”

“Really? You wouldn’t mind?”

“Not at all. I insist, in fact. You cast, and I will fetch,” said Sun, “Just promise me you won’t start any fires.”

“I promise” replied Thal, and with that Sun was away.

“Thank you” Thal called out after the receding figure, but no reply came.

He looked around and, as if by chance, they had been strolling through an apposite spot when they stopped. Several boulders would hide him from sight while providing quite suitable targets.

He said not to start fires… But I really want to try out that fire spell.

Thal ultimately decided that the sparse vegetation and his own sense of responsibility would mitigate any chances of him starting a forest fire. He hadn’t thought to bring the book with him, but he had been running through a couple of Atmere spells in his head all day and had effectively memorized them in his excitement. The young mage adjusted his father’s ring, took another look around to make absolutely sure nobody was watching and paced a little, nervously pondering. Finally he faced one of the nearby boulders and extended his arm towards it. He took a deep breath and he spoke the words

“Netum kra-ki” – throw fire – in the common tongue.

Even before the words had finished leaving his mouth a small, steady wave of fire began flowing out of his hand and splashing against the boulder.

It was quite unlike anything he’d ever cast before. The movements involved were very simple and the words were familiar to him; words that he had known his entire life. And what surprised him most was that the flames did not burn him, as had happened so many times before in his studies. This flame wasn’t merely emanating out from his hand, it was his hand. He felt as though his body’s energy was converting itself into fire and projecting itself out across his arm. He then ended the spell, not with an intricate dismissal or with a crucially delicate flick of his wand, but by simply stopping. As though he were exhaling air, it just sort of ended. The young mage took a while to process everything that had just happened. As the excitement died down he started to think more clearly. It was not the greatest spell he had ever cast. The power of the flame, the range and the intensity were a far step below what he could have produced with his wand. But it was his first Atmere spell and it felt more natural than anything he had cast before. He knew what he needed to do next; exercise the elements like they were muscles in his body, meditate on each until he understood them completely.

According to the book, at least.

All he needed was practice, and there was no time like the present. He cast the spell a second time, and a third, and eventually a twentieth.

After a while, Thal found the exertion was affecting him. He expected as much, but it was not at all like the spellcasting he was accustomed to. Casting a lot of spells in the Draconic style would usually leave him feeling drained, giving him a sort of light-headed sensation and causing his spells to weaken. Hobse always said it was because his body’s ability to channel the natural energies required was wearing thin. This was different; his entire body was fatigued, it was set in his muscles, in his lungs, as though he had run a mile. Here the young atmer did find one similarity between this new endeavour and Draconic spellcasting; that there was only one concrete solution to overexertion. He had to rest.

Soon Sun re-appeared, bringing with him firewood and a number of questions. Thal confirmed he had been successful, much to Sun’s excitement. After some congratulating and a multitude of questions, Thal decided he had something he would like to ask Sun.

Something a man of faith should be able to help me with.

“Sun; you’ve been adventuring for a while, right?”

“I have. You’re trying to guess my age?”

“Not that. You’ve done your share of killing, I imagine.”

“You want to talk about today?”

“If that’s alright.”

“Of course.”

There was a silence as Thal tried to form the right questions in his mind. He must have taken too long, because it was Sun who spoke next.

“How about I tell you about my first kill. How I processed it.”

“That would be nice.”

Wait…

“Not nice, I mean…”

Sun cut him off; “I know what you mean. It happened back in Okatan, before I made the long journey here. I was actually younger than you are. I was in training, still not ready to call myself a cleric. As part of my training I was told to travel Okatan and offer my services as a healer. Well, I was in a region quite a way from where I started and I met a man. He was hurt; I never found out how. But I could see blood and, like a good cleric, I offered to help. Then he drew his dol and charged at me. I was shocked, but I had been undergoing martial training for several years so I knew what to do. I blinded him with a spell and dispatched him with my weapon. The whole thing had me rattled, but I came to terms with it eventually.”

“Didn’t you feel guilty?”

“Well, yes. But not for too long. It was my god’s teachings that put the whole thing into perspective.”

Sun paused, sensed that Thal badly wanted him to continue, and so continued.

“In my faith a key belief details the reasons behind our actions. Followers of Bul-khan, like myself, believe that people simply are what they are. The choices we make, our actions, are a symptom of who or what we are. Nothing else. And we cannot really change who we are. So the best thing to do is to discover who we are and act accordingly.”

“But how did that help with your guilt?”

“Well, I see it like this. The man wanted to kill me. That is who he was; a man wanting to kill. I didn’t want to die. That is who I was, a man willing to kill to survive. Thus he was true to his self and I was true to mine. That is all that could have been asked of either of us.”

Thal took a moment to apply that line of thinking.

“So the bandit was a bandit, who would kill to steal. And I was me, who would kill not to be killed and stolen from.”

“And you acted accordingly. Everything you did; that is who you are.”

“I’m a murderer?”

“As am I. As is Hunter, as is Boss, as is Namu, as is Toka. That is only a part of who we are, but it is who we are. Most people are murderers, I think. They just haven’t had the opportunity to learn that about themselves.”

Lucky me.

By the time their talk had come to an end, the pair had arrived at the camp and the sky was growing dark. Thal built a fire and ignited it using his newly learnt Atmere spell. To his chagrin – and relief, convexly – no-one seemed to notice he had used a different spell than the previous night. Hunter came back into the camp with a wide smile and a small goat under his arm. Namu followed with several herbs and a couple of foxes.

“Can that Vanaran find food!” he announced, throwing his trophy down by the fire.

Within no time at all Toka had assembled a roast, cooked the spoils and the party were feasting on a fattening meal of goat and fox meat, alongside the remains of the food salvaged from the bandit camp. Thal couldn’t recall having eaten fox meat before, but as Hunter put it; "There's nothing like hunger to get you trying new things.”

Once finished, the group began unravelling bedrolls and settling in for the night. Once again Thal and Toka took first watch. It was just as the previous night, a peaceful camp, a sky full of stars and nothing but the sounds of nature. Thal had meditated quite a lot over what Sun had told him. Strangely enough he found peace-of-mind in what the man from Okatan had shared with him. The wizard went back to reading his book and Toka was Toka.

Vanarans are, perhaps, the most intriguing of the humanoid races. Their bodies are, simply put, simian in nature. They have fur, they have tails and they have quite a distinct odour. Seeing one in the flesh (or in the fur) is frankly startling. Meeting one, on the other hand, can be quite grating.

But they are not the only puzzling walking-and-talking beings to originate from Vanara. The Lizardfolk do also, as well as a couple of other curious species. In this tome I will lay out the summation of my work examining the physiology of these peoples, as well as the environments that moulded them. I will also go into as much detail as I reliably can about their histories, and the shorter history we share with them regarding their roles in our societies.

A Summation of Research on the Vanara Continent (translated from Elvish) – Ralnor Torvul