14th Day, Middle Wind Month, 1 CE
“Tilapia! Fresh Tiger Tilapia from Crystal Lake!”
“Bamboo baskets! Canes of all lengths!”
“Liana! Jute ropes! Straw and thatch!”
Ilyshn’ish adjusted the yellow rawhide band wrapped snugly around her wrist as she and her companions wove their way through the crowded river market. Thus far, no one had tried to eat her while she was wearing it, so it appeared to be working as advertised.
...
2023-01-06 04:08:00 +0000 UTC
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13th Day, Middle Wind Month, 1 CE
So like this, and then like this…
“You keep doing that one,” Mitra said. “What does it mean?”
“I’m not sure…”
Ilyshn’ish made the swiping motion again. The movement she was making was a low, horizontal swipe meant for slicing apart and knocking away opponents near the ground. She supposed it was a movement that felid Beastmen didn’t perform often. When felid Beastmen used th...
2023-01-04 06:08:00 +0000 UTC
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“There was once a righteous ascetic by the name of Sattva, who lived in the days before magic was known to all and sundry. He was a man renowned for his wisdom and virtue, and was a welcome guest in many countries.”
When they crossed the plaza to its eastern side, they found Ilaan at the centre of the small crowd of men and women. The Human mystic – who referred to himself as a Soryo – had voluntarily accompanied them from Rivergarden to minister to the slaves. It was a good thi...
2023-01-02 08:01:00 +0000 UTC
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An image of Florine that I made for a future character sheet. I love how this one turned out and I think it captures her character well, but it's difficult to work in this style for some reason...
2023-01-02 01:43:23 +0000 UTC
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“Were there any fires?”
“Nah, it was just Mitra screwing around.”
“I see…”
Xoc’s eyes went back and forth between Saraca and Girika as the rough-looking Nar bodyguard reported his findings. What sort of ‘screwing around’ resulted in lightning bolts falling from the sky?
“Lady Xoc.”
“S-sorry, where were we?”
“The Masons wanted to begin restoration work on the clanhold’s second terrace,” Master Leeds said. “But a handful of...
2022-12-31 10:01:38 +0000 UTC
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This is a habit, isn’t it?
The stray thought crossed Ilyshn’ish’s mind as she wandered around the shaded trails of Xoc’s clanhold. Though the Ocelo called it that, it was more a lived-in ruin than anything else.
It’s because I grew up in Feoh Berkana…no, it would have eventually happened anyway.
Since Feoh Berkana had been her home for over a century, the habit was a strong one. The Mountain Dwarf capital was a ruin that she had explored in her ...
2022-12-29 11:56:38 +0000 UTC
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10th Day, Upper Wind Month, 1 CE
In the darkness past nightfall, a barge silently glided up the river to bump against the pier below Xoc’s ancestral clanhold. Xoc disembarked, padding her way over the wooden boardwalk and ascending the ramp to the top of the ancient stone hillock.
“Father?”
Her father, Itzli, looked up from a stone brazier above the Cuorocos Cliffs.
“Xoc? Welcome back! You’ve been gone for so long that I started...
2022-12-27 14:08:59 +0000 UTC
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7th Day, Middle Wind Month, 1 CE
A small tornado tore its way up Achi’s western wharf. Saraca and Girika silently stared at the phenomena from where they were seated near one of their barges.
“Hey, Girika.”
“Yeah?”
“Can you get tornadoes in a jungle in the middle of the night?”
“Beats me. Ask a damn Druid.”
Screams of panic rose as droves of Beastmen were driven before the whirling twister. Occasionally, a bo...
2022-12-25 16:08:01 +0000 UTC
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I thought this one would be easy but it actually took a while? Hopefully this image of Florine somewhat matches what people envisioned~
Personally, I think her chest got too big, but what do I know :0 Well, there will be other images of her for people to peruse...
2022-12-24 10:10:17 +0000 UTC
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Is this the ‘Noble hospitality’ that Lady Wagner spoke of?
The hold of Clan Oro bore little resemblance to the holds of Human Lords. There was no manor or keep – only a spacious expanse under the boughs of a great tree. The tree itself grew near the top of the city’s highest hill, and many dens were fashioned in its shadow. il-Enawe con Oro entertained them beside a clear pool fed by channels of rainwater that...
2022-12-23 18:08:00 +0000 UTC
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5th day, Middle Wind Month, 1 CE
“Hold it right there!”
Ilyshn’ish froze just as she was about to leap from one cliffside outcropping to the next. Below them, on a narrow ledge, a set of eyes reflected the faint moonlight leaking through the clouds.
“I’ve not seen your kind before!” The voice echoed off of the cliff face, “Who are you?”
“My name is Pebble.”
“‘Pebble’?” Another voice snickered, “What kind of name i...
2022-12-21 20:08:59 +0000 UTC
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2nd Day, Middle Wind Month, 1CE
“I can see why the civilian clans fled, now. I’ve never seen so many Undead in my life.”
“None of us have, il-Enrenatha. Thank you for preparing the appropriate response.”
“One would be a fool to dismiss a warning from nar Ki’ra,” il-Enrenatha replied. “And those fools in the north cost us one of our finest with their empty pride.”
Thurgakhr sighed and stared down at the blanket over her...
2022-12-19 22:08:18 +0000 UTC
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So many Dragons…will we be running into them everywhere beyond the Theocracy’s influence?
Ludmila and Ilyshn’ish departed the huge Beastman city by the lake, heading off to see how far the country extended to the south. After an hour of flying over misty jungle carpeting low mountains carved into countless ravines and valleys, the skies cleared and the landscape below started to turn arid. Ludmila found what she could only describe as an ocean of sand, barren plateaus and...
2022-12-17 23:15:10 +0000 UTC
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1st Day, Middle Wind Month, 1 CE
“B-Beastman!” The man shrieked.
“Hiiiieeee!!!!” Zu Chiru shrieked back.
Ilyshn’ish unbent her Human frame and popped her head out of the cargo container. Both the Human Merchant and Zu Chiru were cowering on the ground. She frowned and came out to address the man.
“How rude,” she placed her hands on her hips. “Master Chiru is a Quagoa.”
“A Quagoa?” The Merchant peeked out from b...
2022-12-16 01:13:44 +0000 UTC
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So I've been jiggering around with art. This is the first image that I'm somewhat pleased with.
2022-12-15 12:26:31 +0000 UTC
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30th Day, Upper Wind Month
“Are you alright, Your Excellency?”
“I’m good.”
“But your clothes…”
“I’m good.”
Emmad Zorlu limped alongside Baroness Zahradnik as they performed their inspection. It was the fifth time he had been asked the same question in as many minutes since they arrived at the city barracks. Though he kept his face straight through the fact that everything hurt, some things just couldn...
2022-12-14 03:54:00 +0000 UTC
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28th Day, Upper Wind Month, 1 CE
Emmad Zorlu disembarked onto a pontoon pier anchored off of the city of Oriculon. A hundred metres of water stood between the pier and the Sorcerous Kingdom’s future exclave, which had been cleared of every building. Even the pavement and underlying sewer system had been torn up, leaving a desolate swathe of mud and debris.
“What happened there?”
He looked over his shoulder at Captain Sella, who was rockin...
2022-12-12 06:00:46 +0000 UTC
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“The Sorcerous Kingdom is up to something.”
Zoren lolled his head towards where Salacia had seated herself in the city hall’s lounge.
“We’ve been travelling and working all day,” he said, “yet you still have the energy to make ominous statements.”
The buxom young noblewoman shot him a glare.
“This isn’t some sort of joke, Carillo!”
“Then rather than say something like that,” Zoren said, “you should supply us with something substantial....
2022-12-10 07:55:07 +0000 UTC
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“Nothing personal,” Liane said. “It’s just business.”
Silence filled the main hall of the Blighthold Merchant Guild. The space was recently used as an inner-city shelter, but the men and women gathered before her were oblivious to its lingering odours following Liane’s statement.
“…it sounded like a threat to me.”
“What’s the point in that?” Liane replied with a laugh, “It’s time to face the facts. The Beastmen ran off with your gold reserves. You...
2022-12-08 10:08:59 +0000 UTC
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27th Day, Upper Wind Month, 1 CE
“One Beastman Lord,” Tira said, “as requested. I’d call it an abduction, but we never left his place.”
Ludmila glanced at the Gao Lord, who was glaring at them from where he was chained and bound to a column in Phelegia’s central keep. Unlike the great halls in the cities of Re-Estize and Baharuth, those of the Draconic Kingdom did not belong to any presiding lord. Instead, every city belonged to the Queen...
2022-12-06 12:08:01 +0000 UTC
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Liam joined Kai on the rooftops, testing his footing on the slick wooden beams. The expected moonrise never came, but the rain that he smelled earlier certainly did. He looked up for signs of their ‘aerial observers’, but he couldn’t see anything against the starless sky.
“Are those Elder Liches really there?”
“They’re there,” Kai said. “You’re just not good enough to sense them yet.”
“Can the Beastmen see them?”
“Probably not. We can’t ac...
2022-12-04 14:09:10 +0000 UTC
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25th Day, Upper Wind Month, 1 CE
“Next.”
A sheathed dagger was placed in front of Liam. He drew the thirty-centimetre-long blade, examining its honed and oiled edge. After a moment, he reached out for the vial resting on the table by his right arm, opening it to apply Wyvern Venom to the dagger. He resheathed the weapon and presented it hilt-first to the waiting Rogue.
“Next.”...
2022-12-02 16:08:01 +0000 UTC
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“What makes a good story, papapapa?”
Draudillon looked up at her great-grandfather as he flipped a page of well-oiled vellum. The rich scent that rose from the leather-bound tome on his lap added to those in the air of the Royal Archive: the odours of countless other tomes, varnish and the slightest hint of woodsmoke from the crackling fireplace.
“A good question, little Wyrmling…or are you a Juvenile now? Those descended from mortals always seem to grow in the blink of an...
2022-11-30 18:08:00 +0000 UTC
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They didn’t stay long with the clerk from the Merchant Guild, not wanting to take up what was likely limited time for him and his staff. What they learned, however, was invaluable in developing their picture of the Human country. After leaving the office, Xoc breathed a quiet sigh as she stole glances at the Humans peeking at them from the second and third-floor windows around the plaza.
“I don’t get it,” Xoc said. “How could he treat you as guests just like that? We’re thei...
2022-11-28 20:09:00 +0000 UTC
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8th Day, Lower Water Month, 0 CE
“Rana–er, Maharana Dratha sure is amazing…”
Great, even Xoc’s calling him that now.
“Is he?” Saraca asked.
The young Ocelo looked up at him, nose and whiskers twitching slightly.
“He’s not?”
After taking a look at all of the markets and speaking to the new residents around Corrin – that was what Mitra said the signs called the city, at least – for a couple of da...
2022-11-26 22:10:30 +0000 UTC
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“You,” Saraca leaned forward. “What’s your vocation?”
“Noooooo!!!”
The Human male fled with a shriek. It was a flight that only lasted up to the bars of his cage. The entire thing shuddered as he knocked himself out.
I guess we won’t be able to speak properly in this sort of environment…
Having Mitra do the talking was an option, but that would probably lead to hours of curious – and annoying – questions by Khhschlr.
The ...
2022-11-25 00:08:01 +0000 UTC
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5th Day, Lower Water Month, 0 CE
“Keep going,” the Baagh official said. “The lands here have already been claimed.”
“I see. Thank you.”
Saraca pushed off from the wharf and returned to his seat. The wind and the steady splashing of the barge’s paddlewheels were the only sounds that accompanied them as they left yet another town on their journey down the Rol’en’gorek. They were now roughly sixty kilometres west of Eastwatch, bu...
2022-11-23 02:08:01 +0000 UTC
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4th Day, Lower Water Month, 0 CE
It took Devi two days to liquidate her remaining inventory for a ‘satisfactory amount’. Without cargo to ship, however, their journey down the Rol’en’gorek was swift. It took a week and a half to paddle the eight hundred kilometres downriver to the border of the Draconic Kingdom with limited stops in the cities along the way.
Rana Dratha’s criers w...
2022-11-21 03:42:41 +0000 UTC
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“You’ll…you’ll really do it?”
“Of course,” Elder Patli chuffed in good humour. “Karuvaki and I have discussed many of the opportunities that our efforts here might lead to. To seize them efficiently, however, leadership is required. Besides, I think it will be good for our people. Despite being surrounded by so many others, so many Ocelo live lost and alone in this all-engulfing city. Building a strong community will drive away that insidious malaise.”
Saraca exc...
2022-11-19 06:08:01 +0000 UTC
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“You’re really going to teach me?”
“You make it sound as if you never expected me to hold up my end of our bargain.”
Karuvaki, of course, wasn’t satisfied with a summary of Elder Patli’s operation, so Saraca’s entourage split up to pursue their respective tasks. Devi went to the docks with a handful of guards to start trading her goods while Saraca and Mitra went to a more quiet part of Xoc’s holdings with the young Ocelo female.
They entered a glade create...
2022-11-17 07:54:57 +0000 UTC
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