The Struggles of Man

[Heerlo]

You, the world of family and friend, the world of joy and tragedy, of fate and of destiny; the world of leaders and conquerors, the world of kings and empires, of great powers and authorities; the world of good and evil, the world of misunderstanding and superstition, of climax and ultimate fate.

You are to be the subject of a grand story. The story of a race that is beginning to flourish within your four corners. A story that will span generations of generations. You are about to become the site of beginning and end, rise and fall, life and death. You will never be the same, for you are witness to the many actions of this race, both good and bad, and they will shape you forever. You will be changed-whether it be for better or for worse-by the events that are to take place. The struggles of a race which will seek to tame and cultivate you, or exploit and ruin you for its own benefits. The struggles of those who are to rule you.

The Struggles of Man.

 

[Heerlo]

Spoiler :

Wang Lung

Histories of Europa: Preface

cpm4001

Shaeb Mahadd: A New History of Raspur in the Ancient Era: Chapter 1

Wyverncraft

Polynesia

Heerlo

Book of The Last Elder: Chapter I

 

[Wang Lung]

Histories of Europa - Lucius Ciones Graeca, Athens 1200 A.D.

Preface​

Europa has had a long and varied history. Her many peoples are diverse and divided. Over her existence numerous empires have come and gone, but she has endured. Her people have survived, they have prospered. She is a powerful land. We Europaens are the beacon of enlightenment in a dark and chaotic world. But how did we get here? Where did we come from? These questions matter if we are to move forward, if we are to continue to make progress and innovate, if we are to continue leading this world in the great experiment we call civilization.

I am Lucius Cicones Graeca, son of Deukalion of Athens. I have been commissioned to compile a complete history of Europa and her various peoples. Due to the complexity and interconnectedness of my subject, I will approach it thematically rather than strictly chronologically. At many times too much is happening contemporaneously to adequately capture the significance and context of each event if done in chronological order. The general flow of my work will start at the beginning of our civilization and slowly make its way forward in time, but at any one point I may be farther back or closer to the present depending upon the subject matter. I will do my best to communicate dates when available, but generally history is best understood as a sequence of events, a narrative really, rather than in terms of specific dates and times.

In the interest of preserving this text for future generations, and making it more acceptable for general use today, I will write in the Common Tongue. Though when necessary I may incorporate snippets of regional dialects and languages to help fill out the picture of different peoples and cultures. I pray I am able to adequately fill the role that has been assigned to me. With courage and conviction I shall begin.

Lucius Ciones Graeca
son of Deukalion of Athens
Scholar at the Royal University

​

 

[cpm4001]

Excerpts from the Introduction and Chapter 1 of "Shaeb Mahadd: A New History of Raspur in the Ancient Era" by Khashabi 'Alin*​

About the Author: Khashabi 'Alin is a retired Naqib in the Albahriat min Raspur (Navy of Raspur) and an amateur archaeologist and historian specializing in ancient Raspur.​

Between the lack of a written language and the simple fact that Al-Miah has been in continuous habitation for millennia, it is not surprising that details about the first Raspurians are sketchy at best. Despite this, ongoing archaeological digs (often spawned, by governmental law, during construction projects), have unearthed some fascinating clues about these ancient people.

The general consensus amongst my fellow archaeologists is that it is impossible to determine where these Raspurians arrived from. I dispute this; by my reckoning, there is clear evidence that these early settlers arrived from up the Airtifae Alnnahr. More points in favor of this concept will be demonstrated later in the book, but for now consider the recent discoveries in the caves to the west of Al-Miah, going into the Aljibal Algharbia. Naysayers claim that the ritual burials in the regions are not Raspurian and instead those of earlier inhabitants of the region, but these people are, quite simply, wrong. Carbon dating proves that these deceased were buried five to six thousand years ago, and more importantly were buried with primitive but recognizable stone agricultural tools. To our knowledge, none of the earlier inhabitants of the Al-Miah region had this sort of technology, but early Raspurians most definitely did (and placed the sort of value on these tools that would lead them to be buried with them). Identical stone tools have been discovered up the Aljibal Algharbia, and dated to roughly the same time. However, Raspurian settlement did not arrive in that region until several centuries later, and so far as we can tell there was no permanent agriculture there until the Raspurians arrived. How do we account for this, then? Clearly, that Raspurians originated in this region, and then migrated down to Al-Miah.**


*All 'Arabic' from Google Translate, which is almost certainly incorrect enough to ensure that Raspur has its own language.

**An alternate (but still wrong) theory:

Spoiler :

Pointless anecdote: I went out to eat at a hole-in-the-wall Vietnamese place near campus the other day, and as the TV was playing the History Channel's "Ancient Aliens" I had a silent fist-pump moment when I saw our old friend the Aliens Guy outlining how Bigfoot is an alien genetic experiment.

 

[Wyverncraft]

The world is big.
And it is round.
And so it has always been, and will always be.

On this world, there are people.
They speak, and dance, and sail, and fight, and sing, and see the great sky above them.
And so it has always been, and will always be.

One of these people is called Kaliquaha.
He is the greatest speaker, and dancer, and sailer, and fighter, and singer, and knows all of the great sky that hangs above him.
And so it has always been, and will always be.

And on a boring day, where the sky was gray and the world was dull, Kaliquaha was bored.
He looked at mud he sat in, and the tree before him, and he had an idea.
And so it was.

And he put the mud on his hands, and brought his hands to the tree, and wrote.
He wrote a world.
And so it was.

The world was big.
And it was round.
And it had people.

But the people didn't sing.
They didn't dance.
They didn't sail.

The only spoke cruel words.
And fought viciously
And were content to look at their feet during the most beautiful of nights.

Kaliquaha wrote these people, and all the things they were.
He saw what he had written, and he felt bad.
He saw the sadness that they dwelt in, and felt guilt.

But he had almost no clay left, and could write only a little more.
And so he had another idea.
And so he wrote.

He wrote that the people looked up, and saw Kaliquaha, and saw the happiness he dwelt in.
And they saw the sadness the dwelt in.
And they saw all the things that they were.

And they found that the world they lived in, and the world that Kaliquaha lived in were the same.
And they found that that they, too, could sing, and dance, and sail, and see the sky above them.
And so they sang, and danced, and sailed, and saw the sky above them

And as Kaliquaha wrote this, he stopped.
He had no more clay.
The world he had written would be as he had written it.




And so it has always been, and will always be.

 

[Heerlo]

Chapter I

I am the eldest of the ones called the Masutā, and the last to hold our ancient knowledge. They have now built a new city. They call it Machi. But it is nothing like the civilization our ancestors built. I alone remember that nation, called Kagayakashīdesu, the beautiful land of Utsukushi-sa. It was glorious, for a time.

Until our ways became corrupted. Until evil and wickedness filled our hearts and minds. I was young when it happened, but I could never forget the horrors I witnessed. The gods did away with us for our deeds, our once mighty civilization reduced to nothing. There were very few survivors. I was among them. We traveled for years, until reaching this place, the place I call Shinkyo. All the ones I knew, my friends and family, were destroyed. All because of our pride in what we had built. We believed we were the masters, that we controlled all things. It was our downfall.

That is why I leave this story to a future generation, who will know nothing of our past. They must know why their ancestors fell. They must avoid that same fate. My name is not important, nor is my knowledge. Only that they read this. The time will come. I don't know how long it will be, but it will come. They will rediscover our ancient knowledge. They will read my writings, and they will know the truth. They must not make our mistakes again.

 

[Heerlo]

Chapter I

Yoon sits on the hillside, overlooking the sea to the west. The evening sun is now shining out across the water and creating a scene that looks like one of the village fires, a bright orange glow spreading out across the sea. The water at the base of the hill washes up continually, occasionally splashing high into the air. The ambient sound of the ocean soothes him to no end. Behind him, he hears what seems like a choir of a thousand birds singing, all of them a different tune, a different pitch. An evening breeze coming from the sea blows over him, a nice way to cool off after a hard day of work back home.

This place, across the river and away from the village, has become his hideout, his secret place to be alone and away from the cares and worries of everyday life. He had heard his family talk about Tengoku, the place of peace and happiness where you would ultimately end up after death if you lived righteously. But to him, this is Tengoku. This is the only place he would want to be once he's gone. He could stay here forever, if only he had forever.

He pushes himself up off the rock seat and stands. He knows father wanted him home early tonight, because the villagers consider the area to the south dangerous at night. They say great beasts lurk in the darkness that will rip you apart like a rotten cloth. But Yoon can't help wanting to stay and watch the sunset, just one evening.

He sits back down upon the hard rock. I'll just stay long enough to see the sunset, and then I'll head back, he thinks. There should still be a little light, and no beasts would attack him that early in the night, would they?

 

[Heerlo]

Chapter II

Spoiler :

It didn't take long. After starting back toward the village, darkness fell over the forest south of Machi. With the moon not yet risen up high, almost no illumination hits the forest, and Yoon finds himself in the blackness of night surrounded by thick brush and trees. He continues forward slowly, the leaves and straw under his feet crackling as he tries to make out the environment around him. In the distance, he hears Fukuro, a bird that voices a spooky, high-pitched sound. It is ironic that the very thing that helped to soothe him during the day, birds, now gives him a scare at night.

He brushes off the eerie sound, continuing toward the river. The darkness is so intense that he trips over a tree root several times. Off in the distance, he hears something else. The sound of something walking, along with the sound of brush and sticks breaking with each step of the unseen creature. It's not a villager, for they would be calling out, looking for him. But the speed of the steps tells him something: It's a four-legged creature.

He ducks down behind a fallen tree, trying to make as little noise as possible. And trying to keep himself as calm as possible. The sound draws closer and closer. Crunch, crunch, crunch, the sound of its steps continuing to ravage the forest floor. Whatever it is must be heavy.

Finally, he sees the creature as it rounds the other end of the fallen tree. The huge beast known as the kuma. He can barely make out its features through the darkness, but he knows the descriptions of the creature: Brown fur all over, a tail, and sharp teeth in its mouth. As for size, it is considerably taller than most of the villagers, even on all four legs. But perhaps the feature most relevant to the situation at hand: it's sense of smell. They say these creatures can smell you from a days journey away. No doubt it has already picked up his scent.

He knows that if he tries to flee now, it will certainly hear him. Now the best he can do is to remain completely still and hope it doesn't notice him. The beast is still stopped at the end of the log opposite from Yoon. The creature looks around, then stands up on its hind legs, as if trying to get a better view of the area. In this stance, it is nearly twice the height of the average villager. Yoon remains completely still, as if he were literally frozen. Insects and who-knows-what crawling on him make it all the harder to remain still.

The beast finally returns to four legs, and after what seems like an eternity to Yoon, continues to walk the other direction. It lets out a long, quiet growl as it leaves, tromping on leaves once more. Yoon is pretty sure everything on the forest floor has been crawling on him while he's been waiting for the creature to leave.

Once the beast is nearly out of earshot, he rises to his feet, scraping off leaves and bugs of every kind. That was close, he thinks, as fear and adrenaline fall off him like weights. Just as he starts to head toward the village, he hears the concerned voice of his father, Nam: "Yoon! Yoon, where are you?"

His eyebrows instantly raise in alarm. If his father is yelling at him, the Kuma will hear. It will come back. I have to get to him. He begins running, because there's no sense in trying to be quiet now that the beast knows they're here. However, the thick darkness of the forest makes it difficult to run without hitting obstacles. He continues as fast as he can in the darkness, trying to reach his father before the beast gets back here.

After hitting several trees and somehow running through the forest in the dark, Yoon reaches his father. He can already hear the Kuma not far behind, grunting, growling and roaring. "Run!" he says before his father can utter a word. Of course Nam hears the beast, so he follows his son without hesitation. It's almost as if Yoon can feel his father's fear as well, even though he can barely make out his figure in the dark.

"A Kuma?" Nam yells as he tries to catch up to his son.

"Yes, father."

After hearing what the beast is, Nam wastes no more time with words, but instead focuses all his effort into running. He is not in the physical condition he once was, but when a beast such as this is trailing not far behind you, you forget about your supposed limits. He runs right next to his son.

Suddenly the situation reminds Yoon of when he used to race his father for fun. Wonderful memories, those times. He could never outrun his father back then, but with fear fueling his speed, he just might be able to now.

But enough with those idle thoughts. He has to focus entirely on getting away alive right now. His hope rises when he realizes they are near the river, which means they are getting close to Machi. But wait, the river! That presents a major obstacle for them to cross while being chased by a hungry beast. They could try fleeing into the woods, but he knows that even if they did, they couldn't outrun the Kuma forever. It would catch them and rend them to pieces.

"Father, which way?" Yoon asks. "The river or the forest"?

"The river" Nam says.

No doubt his father wants to lure the beast back to the village where they have greater numbers. But Yoon wonders if they can really outrun the beast through the river. However, he knows he shouldn't question his father. Nam has always had his son's best interests in mind, and he's always been good at taking care of his family. Now Yoon regrets disobeying his father and not coming back before dark. And not just because it may cost him his life. His father has always taken care of him and the family. He should respect and obey him for that.

His mind snaps back into fear as he once again hears the beast behind them, its feet making a loud galloping sound on the ground. It growls and hisses once more as it struggles to catch the pair. It is gaining ground, and they are nearly to the river. But just as they near the water, Nam yells "This way!" turning to head downstream toward the forest.

"But I thought we were crossing the river?" Yoon asks, adjusting to follow his father.

"We are."

Although Yoon doesn't know what his father is up to, the sharp turn seems to have slowed down the beast slightly, allowing them to get a little farther ahead. They head downstream, the waters growing stronger and swifter as they go. More rocks, more obstacles. It will be harder to cross up here, Yoon thinks. But as he continues to observe the river, he sees it: a fallen tree, stretching all the way across the river, forming a walkway. Then he realizes, Father is leading us to that tree. The Kuma is so large that it will likely have a hard time crossing without falling off. And even though it may cross the river anyway, that should allow them to get ahead.

But there's just one problem. They may very well lose their balance running across the tree. But it appears they have no choice now as the beast is about to catch them and there is nowhere else to go.

"Cross that tree, son!" Nam yells as they near the the wooden walkway. "Get in front of me!"

Nam slows down slightly, and Yoon gets in front of his father. Just before he gets to the fallen tree, he turns slightly away from it, then turns back toward it to get a straighter run. If they don't make it across, they will become a night time meal for a hungry Kuma. As his father mimics the move, Yoon says to himself, I have to do this.

As he starts across the log, fear hits him again as if the fallen tree hit him in the stomach. He hears the beast growl again as he tries to maintain his balance. It feels like time has suddenly frozen. A thousand thoughts run through his mind in a split second, but the most notable one, If I fall I'm going to die.

The next thing he knows, time starts up again and he's on the other side, still running. He looks back only to realize that his father isn't there, and neither is the Kuma. He stop in his tracks as his feet nearly slide out from under him. Oh no, he thinks. He fell!

Fear rushes over Yoon again, and after a moment of hesitation he starts back toward the river. Just then, a voice calls out from behind him. "Yoon, wait!"

Startled, he turns around to see who is speaking. A very old man, thin and frail, with a head of hair nearly as white as the winter snow. He carries something in his hands that Yoon can't quite fathom. Something a little longer than a villager's arm, silver in color, with a wooden part built onto one end of it. And he recognizes the man from the few times he has seen him: The one they call the Elder. A man who mostly ignores the other villagers and seems to care little about village affairs.

The man begins running toward the river, carrying the strange object with him. After a moment of hestitation, Yoon follows him. He catches up to the man and they both arrive at the edge of the river at the same time. He can hear the Kuma growling even as they approach, and the gut-wrenching fear suddenly overcomes him. It may have killed his father.

Yoon and the Elder squint their eyes in the darkness, trying to make out the location of the Kuma and his father. Yoon finally spots the beast in the river, just before he sees his father, also in the river, trying to get away. Crawling, squirming, anything he can do to escape. He isn't standing. The fall has obviously injured him. And suddenly Yoon feels like there is nothing he can do save his father. He can't fight the beast alone, it would kill him, too. But he knows he has to try. He can't let the Kuma kill his father.

His thoughts are interrupted by an extremely loud, Boom!

Yoon staggers , his thoughts completely unraveled by the unexpected and frightening sound. He hears another sound, much more quiet, a small click. The Elder raises his strange object, pointing it toward the Kuma.

Boom!

The sound goes off again. And suddenly Yoon realizes: The sound is coming from the Elder's object.

The Kuma roars and grunts as if in pain. It tries to run back across the river, and barely makes it back to the other side before collapsing. It breathes hard, and Yoon cannot comprehend what just happened. The beast lies there, obviously wounded, and looks as if it's going to die.

Yoon is suddenly speechless, trying to figure out what the man did to the vicious beast, while still hearing a ringing in his ears from the noise. Does the Elder have some otherworldly power from the gods? Is he a god himself? What is he carrying, and what does it do?

He finally comes to himself as the Elder speaks to him in an agitated tone of voice: "Help your father out of the river, boy. Do you want him to drown?"

"No, um.....Elder" he replies as he struggles to gather his thoughts. Yoon hurries to obey the command, now fearing the man known as the Elder. Just before he starts down into the river, he sees the Elder rest the strange silver object at his waste, letting it hang toward the ground. The man turns around quickly and heads back toward his isolated hut on the outskirts of Machi.