------ Where we were at ------
https://imgur.com/a/WR30bEg here's a map if you need to follow along.
Kordi finds himself at a monastery to avoid getting dragged into politics between rival groups within the Condrican Kingdom, you have about 3 different faction groups with the Corrin Kridimirts in the north (who initially tried to scout Kordi), the Condrican Ordumirts, and the southern Kridimirt nobles who migrated over after the Estruscans kicked their butts. Here Kordi becomes the disciple of Morgana, a witch of rot. What's that? That is a tangent:
Witchery varies a lot in this world but basically it seeks to bypass the hard-coded cellular immunity to most forms of magic being activated within the cell. Yeah that's not something I would have actually said in the story but we're opening that curtain. Millenia of evolution has adapted life on this planet to be immune to stuff like death magic and stuff like being boiled from the inside out. Curse witchery for example was something I'd hint towards with the Eyke arc as he basically figured out how to ignite the dead skin cells as curse witchery strives to invent ways to bypass that immunity with new spells or to weaken said immunity. Rot witches use fermentation and decomposition to create new chemicals that can basically do something similar. It is not all harmful because the body has immunity to limit even healing magic to prevent stuff like cancer. Therefore, weakening that healing immunity is one way to boost the power of healing. The thing is, Morgana's master was very infamous as her experiments resulted in her getting a type of leprosy. This resulted in the brand of Rot witch and many witches of that branch have tried to lay low and focus on fermenting medicines. They make amazing pickles btw. Morgana moved away and continued the innovative research but learning from her Master has included many precautions. One of which is why Kordi's coat stinks, its a mix of microbial colonies that are not harmful to people but a great deterrent of disease, but maybe a bit TOO potent.
------ Chapter 17 ------
So, on this chapter I did struggle a bit to plan out as the villain to be was too underwhelming and generic which put me on a path to come up with a more fleshed out character. He does come from the Deimund Empire but is an Ordumirt, this was also part of why I did the Eyke arc as it introduces the background of this plot. Basically the Deimund Emperor abolished slavery after taking over which would free a LOT of different kinds of Mirts, but these Mirts would be something of a 3rd class citizen and were forced to live underground. Which is where Eyke's chapter takes us. The guy in charge of this underground city has schemes though and he gets this villain and other Mirts to do some scouting of the Mirt lands in exchange for some benefits for their status. This brings information about something of interest to this schemer and he tasks the villain to take it. The villain has plans to use it against his oppressors but the schemer actually wants that to happen.
This thing of interest is stored in the monastery Kordi is at, it is a vessel sealing a Mara Lord. I lead up to this in the previous chapter with some of the history as the Ordumirt who would become the Condrican King was a legendary adventurer to had been apart of Ordumar's company splitting off when Ordumar made the first Mirt kingdom. This Condrican king-to-be would continue his adventures south eventually establishing where the city of Condrica would be. The goblins and koblins who were plentiful here were not happy because this adventure was just a lot of genocide. Driven further south and more desperate the goblins made a deal with the Mara Lord of the Berra Mountains.
Mara are as different from animals as animals are different from plants. Mara cells actually need magic for their metabolism and while in the Calbin arc I had a little bit of this shown with wispy Mara that feel suffocating for people when in large numbers those Mara feed off "atmospheric" magic which isn't very "calorie" dense. Working up in size Mara can take more solid form but then need an increase in their diet. Most Mara make a den of sorts (I initially wrote this in my notes as a dungeon) which warps the environment to make the den more comfortable as they lose less magic ambiently. These scale in size depending on the Mara and their numbers with some dens forming a magic mineral core that helps maintain the warped space. Scale up to the apex of Mara, a Mara Lord and you can find vast underground ecosystems where the Mara Lord even bends and regulates things like water and airflow to maintain a habitat that attracts other lifeforms to live which aid the den's core to run forever. The Mara Lord itself can thus become almost un-killable. This Berra Mountain Mara Lord used to feed on the Koblin and Goblin tribes but certainly preferred the taste of Mirt, forming a contract with the Goblins where it would store its form in a vessel for transport outside its den to conserve itself and the Goblins would unleash it against the Mirts in battle.
Eventually the Mirts rallied and stole the vessel in-between the battles.
So, this group of Deimund Mirts show up to the monastery posing as adventurers (which they used to be prior to defeat and slavery) stealing the vessel which the old historian is the only one there who really knows about it. Keep in mind, there is still a bunch of battles going on to the north near Calbin with the Goblins and Koblins so there is a shortage of fighters down here, thus an opportunity appeared. Kordi would find the old historian bleeding out from an arterial wound and start healing it when the villain and his group come by with the vessel in tow. I decided to have a little exchange where the villain doesn't like what he's doing but has determined it must be done, he leaves Kordi who just appears to be a boy grieving for the old Mirt. Because the old Mirt would survive the villain's goal would be partially revealed, the ritual for unsealing the Mara Lord is recorded in the den within the Berra Mountains. It is not known what the villain's next move is after that but a group of guards is formed to pursue, which Kordi volunteers for and is accepted because of the effectiveness of his healing.
Leni, who is friends with Kordi... well it is an awkward friendship, also volunteers to be Kordi's bodyguard. She's from a merchant marine family from the Sharamirt Republic of Feval. Merchant marines are basically these Sharamirts who would guard merchant ships that made enough money they became merchants themselves... but they are still very skilled warriors. Leni has a mithril sword too which she is skilled at using for her age, mithril is still rare and the small group decides they need the help.
The group makes haste into the Carran Monarchy where they alert the Carrans but find that most of the warriors have also gone north with enthusiasm to fight the Goblins it would take time to get help so they keep going. Neighboring Lebel would also be in a similar situation but Carran would alert them as well anyway, after all this might mean the return of a Mara Lord which is a big deal. The group heads off to try and stop the worst from happening, climbing up the mountains to find the entrance to this den, it is partially occupied by Goblins who use it as a place of shelter but the Goblins do not like to stay for long and the group can sneak by to go deeper into the den.
My concepts for what this place would be like definitely would take some inspiration from "Made in Abyss" because my initial concept was almost skyrim cave level of bland. I would change the concept to include glowing mosses, a variety of plants and animals living underground with creeks and streams maintaining an entire ecosystem. Some pits are found around that pool CO2 which dense mosses convert into breathable O2. They end up finding the villain's group at a place where the ritual process was carved into stone; however, the confrontation would be quickly interrupted by the shrieks and wails of vicious Mara creatures and both groups would be forced to flee. During this terrifying chase the only ones to make it out would be Kordi and Leni, the saving grace... or I should say the saving odur of Kordi's coat would do horrible things to the Mara that bit into Kordi. Spores from the coat debilitate the Mara from pursuing. His coat would be torn apart though.
------ Stevis Company ------
The pair would flee from the den and head down the mountain until they tired, trying to get as much distance as possible in case the Mara would follow. Knowing they cannot stop the villain with just the two of them they make their way back into Carran lands with some hope they can meet up with the reinforcements they remember being prepared. They eventually find an adventure company lead by Stevis Vil Naelis who is an Elvamirt (a long lived branch of Mirts from the western part of Southern Valdera). Stevis decides to help Kordi and Leni, one part because Mara Lords are a bad thing to let loose, and another part because he knows talent when he sees it. Stevis wants Kordi and Leni in his adventure company he'll help them stop the villain. The company manages to track the villain's destination westward through Pergus and into the Deimund Empire.
Stevis' adventure company is very diverse and his Elvamirt race is not in conflict with the Deimund Empire and is instead a valuable trade partner so Stevis has little problem getting the company into the Empire where they make their way to the city of Durron. There it becomes clear the villain's goal is to unlease the Mara Lord in the city to kill the Deimurgan oppressors (the different Murgan races invaded Central Valdera from the seas, taking many Mirts as slaves). The ritual would get interrupted by Kordi and Len, it would still unseal the Mara Lord but without the safety insurances of a properly completed Ritual. The two take the vessel and run under cover of the chaos and meet up with Stevis to escape. The Mara Lord would be "slain" yet this would just return its essence to the vessel. The Adventure company would make haste to the city state of Pern before going to the Estruscan Kingdom's forge city of Rutel.
Rutel is an interesting city of note as it is one of the two places with an established Dvaren quarter. One of the company members is Dvaren named Das Durrol (though he never uses his family name of Durrol), these people were long wandering refugees of a great kingdom that arrived in the east of Valdera and were welcomed by the Sharamirts after the Dvaren taught them how to make iron. There are only three Dvaren of the many refugees who kept the secrets of steel among other metallurgic knowledge. One of these Dvaren made a deal with an Ovel senator helping to supply steel which lead to the creation of the Ovel Empire. In exchange that Dvaren's group were given their own quarter of the city where they set up a great forge and produced Mithril by combining Sithril and Steel. True Dvaren steel is also extremely high quality, basically akin to modern steels. The second Dvaren with this kind of knowledge took a similar deal with the Estruscan Kridimirt King establishing a great forge in the Dvaren quarter of Rutel. The third Dvaren metallurgic master remains nomadic with the majority of the Dvaren refugees and was actually the one who made the Mithril sword by Varrel in the Calbin battle and the Mithril sword Leni uses.
The company's destination is another major Estruscan city of Mez, this one is known more for its research into magical gems and such. It also has a large research school of magic and such. The goal for Stevis was to deliver the vessel here because it would be worth the most which would help fund his next goal. Meanwhile Stevis arranges for Kordi to get temporary permission to be in the research school, in particular Stevis finds a Kridimirt girl struggling with learning healing magic named Colella Lauca. The Lauca family would be useful in getting a ship to take them north via the Vala Sea, it also creates an opportunity for Kordi to breakdown healing spells into more efficient ones that helps Colella. Though the two mostly accomplish this through a lot of trial and error work; however, this would be a big boost to Colella's mood as she had believed that only those with some kind of natural talent could accomplish things.
One day Kordi sat in on class about gems and catalysts when another young student by the name Ranil was presenting a thesis on catalysts for improving the effect of molten magic. Ranil had run into a problem with his catalyst experiments and was eager to get picked up by a master. Ranil is a talented mage and summoner; however, he had won a wager against a temple adept and gained a lesser spirit from that adept. This is a spirit of molten from the Enden volcano that sits between the Kridimirt kingdoms north of the Vala sea of Elben and Eudera. The greater spirit of this volcano Enerdik is known as the molten god of the temple of Enerdik whom receives these molten spirits. The temple sought to pay for the return of this lesser molten spirit yet Ranil's ego took hold and he refused. The lesser spirit would lose its contract with the greater spirit Enerdik and with that a significant amount of its power and the temple would ensure that Ranil would not be received by any masters.
Most present for Ranil's thesis were interested yet none would actually go any further than that nor help Ranil with the flaw in his catalyst. For Ranil this catalyst is his key to strengthening his weakened spirit which is unable to merge fire and earth elements to form molten. Kordi ends up pointing out that the catalyst being used cannot handle the high temperatures and burns a fraction of a second before the catalyst could come in effect(Mara bone being the specific ingredient). Ranil denounces Kordi as everyone sees him as some rural witch. So, Kordi digs out some gobite mineral he had as left over from processing some back at Rutel to make sithril. It works as a catalyst which embarrasses Ranil enough he challenges Kordi to a duel of sorts over making the better catalyst. Kordi agrees but wants at least a week to make something better. He ends up using a fermentation process specifically using mara "miasma", gobite mineral, and "dung crystals" aka saltpeter.
For the duel Ranil uses a mostly charcoal core for his spirit to manifest in as primarily a fire element golem, Ranil's magical skill and power is shown to be better than Kordi's who tests wind and water magic on it before deciding to test his catalyst. He had packed the catalyst around a copper billet which fire magic caused to become molten, the effort to maintain this with no practice drained Kordi but he was able to stabilize it long enough the release of it caused a thin molten spear to pierce through Ranil's golem. Stevis would later recruit Ranil into the company after this playing on Ranil's desire for a rival.
------ Wendin we go ------
Stevis has spent this time gathering supplies and material for his real objective, dragon hunting. Elvamirt who live 4 or more times longer than other Mirts have some of the best crafters in Valdera and one of the most valuable materials for their crafts is dragon parts. Dragons mostly live in Northern Valdera and it is usually far too dangerous to go that far north and get swarmed by multiple dragons. However, in the Wendin region there are often fewer dragons which has resulted in the region being known for dragon hunting. Because the Elvamirt are willing to pay huge amounts for the highest grade of materials the money gained by dragon hunters has resulted in the region being fractured by warlording groups. Stevis has a plan to get dragon materials back to his family in Estelva to recover his family's difficult position which is why he searched for talented adventurers. The materials he gathered within Mez would also be valuable for making fire defensive measures, which the company work on while on a ship sailing the Vala sea toward the port city of Rael.
North of the Raelic Kingdom they would make their way to Wendin. Wendin can get complicated as a region, the borders I drew on the map are not actually the borders... these Wendish Mirts frequently change who rules what. The basic "life cycle" in Wendin goes like this, start as an adventure group with your best buddies, work at it until strong enough to slay a dragon, make obscene amounts of money from that hunt, buy a bunch of mercenaries, and take over some land from someone else. These groups are often called petty kingdoms and they usually don't last by the next generation because some other group of upstart dragon slayers with a band of mercenaries takes a jab and then all of the neighboring petty kings see an opportunity to tear that petty king apart. Or the sons of the petty king tear each other apart when their father passes.
Crossing the border into Wendin, the Stevis company arrives in their first petty kingdom, this one is ruled by the petty king Rainholm who actually has an alliance of sort with the Raelic Kingdom. Ironically not because the king wanted one, Wendish Mirts have a dislike for their southern kin for things like diplomacy that doesn't involve swears, booze, and a fight. In a joke the Rainholm petty king agreed to the Raelic King's constant requests to marry a son to his daughter. So he did, he wed his youngest son Dieter.
Dieter was considered the weak runt of the family. His brothers distanced themselves or bullied him believing it would toughen him up. But this was mostly an excuse. The petty king accepted the proposal and wed the Raelic Princess Elenelise to Dieter.
In the following year, the Petty king waged war with a neighbouring Petty king to expand land for his sons to prevent said sons from killing each other when he passes. However, the battle did not go well, his sons were mostly killed. The petty king himself fell seriously ill from a wound. Then, his remaining strong son died hunting a drakvern beast (think smaller, wingless, non magic dragons).
The Petty King passed away leaving the title to his youngest, weakest son. Dieter only managed to hold the title because his ambitious wife Elenelise took authority, called for support from her father, and set about suppressing any rebellion.
Neighbouring petty kings hesitated to invade since they would be fighting Raelic soldiers and mercenaries which could invite invasions from other wendish warlords who would take any opportunity to attack a distracted neighbour. This was also a plot by Elenelis where she sent messages to different warlords and petty kings. Some messages were forged, aimed to incite distrust between petty kings and their retinue. Some messages tipped ambitious warlords about prospective targets by giving information about their common neighbour’s movement of warriors. She would even support other warlords with weapons, equipment, and funds knowing they would cause problems for someone that may cause her a problem.
This resulted in Dieter being a puppet petty king, his subjects had no respect for him and this further damaged his own confidence.
This is fortunate for Stevis company by the way, because new adventure companies coming to hunt dragons are usually not provided aid by the Petty Kings. Elenelis though was not Wendish and she was very welcoming of Stevis company knowing they are not going to turn warlord, Stevis is also Elvamirt which is a step up in terms of being considered civilized. Though it is mostly passed around through rumor because Elvamirt society is very high class since VERY few non Elvamirt are allowed into their realm. Anyway, Elenelis and Dieter become more important later... much later.
Traveling deeper into Wendin Stevis company would find a petty king who would house and supply them by the name Davannos Kugrim.
Davannos fought in many bloody campaigns during the chaotic times after one petty king died of age. The neighbouring kings sought to claim the land or divide it between each other, yet the locals rallied under the banner of one of the old king’s lords. This lord was favoured to become the next king until he was assassinated by one of his close courtiers who claimed the title the night after his lord made peace with the last invading king.
This courtier attempted to solidify his position by killing potential rivals; some like Davannos survived and rallied again to usurp the new king. Davannos ended up being the last surviving leader of the rebellion, this happened because Davannos stayed behind to hold a sieging force for months while the other leaders attacked the new king.
The attack failed and much of the army was crushed leaving Davannos in a bad position, he sallied out and forced the sieging army to withdraw, turned around and ambushed the king’s reinforcing army, and then turned back to ambush the rallied sieging army attempting to turn back.
Exhausted and fatigued, Davannos knew his army couldn’t fight another battle so, he and his five best fighters attacked the king’s camp at night. The king was killed and Davannos would have been captured if the soldiers sought revenge. However, their fear of him became respect, and the king’s counsellor brokered an agreement for Davannos to become the new king. This would stabilize the province and give the much needed peace for the people.
Davannos is peak Wendish, so much so that he'd rather try and recruit Stevis' company that stop them. Of course they should slay a dragon themselves first. He knows the company leader Stevis would go back to his Elvamirt lands after, then what of the remaining company? The ambition of Davannos seemingly knows no bounds and he celebrated the Stevis company and tells them of his proud Wendish ways. Also an important character for later. *wink* *wink*
It is also important to mention that Stevis could employ actual hunter guilds in the area, these are dedicated dragon hunters who own specialized weapons and skills for hunting dragons. However, they take a BIG chunk of the profit. This is for good reason as they actually do most of the work and many dragon hunter companies end up employing them to secure a dragon kill before any rival companies get it. Less profit does mean less mercenaries to do warlord things but it also means more dragon hunts succeed. Either way Stevis has no intentions of hiring these hunters, which does fuel more distrust but also is part of why Davannos took notice.
------ Dragon these... you know ------
The usual dragon hunts prioritize young dragons that travel too far from their northern nests, many of which are in the Great Kollar Range, these mountain ranges are ROUGH, excellent nesting grounds for the dragons but a massive pain to hike up there. Extra dangerous with how many dragons can be in an area. So whenever a single young dragon wanders too far south it is almost guaranteed to get hunted.
Stevis realizes they won't be getting one of those, too much competition. However, there is a sighting of an older dragon that likely lost its territory and migrated south. The hunters keep tabs on it but will probably wait for it to get older and weaker before hunting, it may be old now but it is close to its prime age and very experienced. From a few encounters it was reported to be experienced with being hunted as well, which makes it a no-go for the regular hunters. To Stevis this is what he wants, its materials will be of higher quality than a young dragon without being too aged, but also still a large creature. It will be risky but he feel confident in his company's ability. By now Kordi has developed things like salves that basically repel heat, strong healing potions, etc. It has been a long journey with plenty of time to blend, ferment, and brew all kinds of things. It also helps that they can test this stuff against Ranil's fire elemental magic, though dragon fire is still a league of its own.
The elder dragon by the name Ainzwe had been an issue for the nearby Wendish Mirts, terrorizing their livestock herds when it was younger. After growing older it went north to compete for mates until a stronger dragon eventually forced him back south. The hunt for Ainzwe would take a YEAR for Stevis company, which was not uncommon for a difficult dragon hunt. The professional hunting groups that only go after young dragons could do so in a month but they use these huge warbows made out of wood, horn, bone, silks, etc that could be powered by magic to fire ballista sized arrows. Young inexperienced dragons were easy to bait into these weapons but older dragons were not.
Their hunt would take them over a couple of mountain ranges with multiple battles spaced sometimes over a month apart. The company would largely make it through because of the speed they could recover, the fire resistance would prevent fatal exposure but there would still be severe burns. Kordi had brewed up the kind of meds that would regrow skin by this point... which wouldn't do much to help the company's mental state. Being engulfed in flames with skin melting off only to recover in a few hours would still leave that person traumatized. That also wasn't the only danger, getting knocked down a mountain side and having half the bones in the body broken would also happen. Sure Kordi could piece the bones back together but he can't piece the mental state back. Eventually Ainzwe starts to figure out that these annoying hunters are recovering rather fast and ends up spotting Kordi as the healer leading to the last battle where Ainzwe makes for Kordi during the battle knowing Kordi would quickly move in to stabilize someone's wounds. This however, opens Ainzwe to receive a mortal wound.
There wouldn't really be celebration as the fight was exhausting, I'm not sure if I would have had members of the company die during the battles. They just patch up and butcher the dragon before preparing to leave.
------ Cutting out the middle mirt ------
Profits from Dragon hunting gets eaten by all the different groups along the trade route so even though the hunters get rich the total amount when sold to the Elvamirt kingdoms in southern valdera is enormous. So, what if the hunters just took the materials directly there? Well they would probably get killed and have it all stolen, it is paying off the authorities, or merchants passing the materials from one to another since each merchant has deals and agreements with the locals.
Now, what if you took it by sea? I mean if you have the map open it looks simple enough right? Vestelva is not that far by sea from the Kridimirt lands of Central Valdera. There are two problems there, first are the Murgans who colonized the south west coast of Central Valdera which includes the Deimund Empire but also a few other Murgan kingdoms. The Murgans have better navies and regularly have trade fleets travel between Valdera and their homeland when the sea conditions are ideal for the crossing. The Murgans have watch towers all along their coast to spot for Mirt ships as well. So, why not sail further out to sea?
This brings up the second problem... sea monsters. These creatures are HUGE, like they can eat a ship whole. The Murgans time their crossing along a more shallow part of the ocean at a certain time of the year so the winds and sea current pull their ships across the fastest. Going north to south does not benefit from this and the seas are deeper on the Mirt side allowing the larger sea monsters to roam closer to shore.
Therefore, Stevis came up with a plan, he had been working to collaborate with Kridimirt shipbuilders by getting Elvamirt carpentry techniques suitable for making a ship that would fit his needs. Instead of traveling back from where they came and running through a gauntlet of factions that would take a cut of the dragon materials Stevis company would go west to the coast. There he had his contacts he set up with while in the Estruscan Kingdom go back to their coastal fishing village farther along the north west coast and start work on a batch of ships. The company would avoid Wendin settlements along the way to avoid getting unwanted attention as the Wendin petty kings would take everything from the Stevis company if they knew they would not get a cut. Because their route took them west no one was expecting that and thus no one was on guard, because the battle took a year the Wendin had mostly forgotten the Stevis company too.
Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.
Stevis company arrives and finds the ships are close to completion, there are three being made and they mostly just need some sea trials. The construction of these would combine a variety of techniques from ship building of the Murgans, the Sharamirts, and the other more southern trade ports. Particularly the hull design and sail designs were going to allow for a much greater speed at sea without needing large crews for rowing. During some of the sea trials they take the ships north to a very deep part of the ocean along the northern side of the Great Kollar Range. This is where dragons often hunt sea creatures where a dragon dives from the sky and actually grabs a sea creature pulling it out of the ocean before a more dangerous one shows up. The company doesn't have to worry about dragon attacks as the dragons are not familiar enough with what the heck a boat is, they are here to practice against a sea creature.
The hull of these boats is wide to deter the large mouthed types from just swallowing the ship whole and the small fleet stays close to shore where the larger creatures won't come close. These larger creatures could destroy the hull with a whack of their tail after all. Their plan is to practice using ice magic enhanced by strong catalysts to make it even more difficult for a creature to bite or smash the hull. This largely works at deterring the sea creatures until a larger persistent one won't give up, Kordi ends up timing it so the ice catalyst activates inside its mouth freezing its jaw and gills killing the creature.
By this point some groups are starting to catch on to Stevis company's plan and the group makes their voyage south along the coast, which is in spies different merchants have set up to signal. They assume that Stevis will take their fleet through the Vala Sea bypassing half the kingdoms that would take a cut and since the company departed from Estrusca it was also assumed that would be whom they would go to. Therefore, a fleet of Elben and Euderan ships planned to attack as soon as Stevis company sailed into the Vala Sea. Stevis would instead cross directly south towards the Murgan lands while keeping just far enough out of sight from the coast as to reduce the chance they are spotted.
They do sail by some Murgan ships making a trip from their homeland but these Murgan ships were not fast enough to catch the Stevis fleet. However, while making their way around the southern part of Vestelva a sea creature attacks. The ship that Kordi is on takes the creature on and manages to wound and drive it off but the ship needs repairs quickly but cannot stop at sea, so it is decided for the other two ships to continue to Estelva while the third ship makes for Vestelva at night to hide the ship in the woods while repairing.
The Vestelvans do find their ship and seize them, towing the ship to port. There things become tense as this ship is loaded with dragon materials being brought through their lands enroute to their rival kin. However, the Vestelvans quickly begin quarreling about who would get it. The members of the company including Kordi do declare their willingness to trade their goods for fair price as claims of them smuggling should only apply to them if they had been sailing within their waters in line of sight of the shore. They came ashore due to damage. Some Vestelvan did not care, yet others saw an opportunity to use this as a way to improve their chance of getting material themselves.
------ Elvamirt stuff ------
Now, at this time the monarchy is preparing the coming of age celebrations for a princess of the monarchy line and this sort of celebration became the cause of art competitions. Elvamirt are very big on competing over their arts. I'm still not 100% sure on whether or not I like the concept I was going for with the Elvamirt but I'll lay it out here. Elvamirt females become far less likely to be pregnant as they age, when they reach their 40s it is nearly zero, yet they can live into their 400s. Elvamirt politics are dominated by the Matriarchy as their families set up marriages that use this limited time to birth their next generation, after doing what is seen as their duty to the family (which can happen before they reach their 40s) the woman gets full rights as a member of her family's matriarchy joining the others in running the family. The part that I'm hesitant on, because it weirds me out, is that in this kind of society the mates would be Elvamirt men who are much older because the matriarchs basically sign contract/deals with other families for services which are signed by temporary marriages with set numbers of children etc. Men of skill are much more sought after therefore, there is this weird inverse of young Elvamirt women being of highest value while young Elvamirt men are lowest value in society. Overtime the Elvamirt men practice their arts and crafts to become more desirable. It is not like there are no lovers, it is just that marriage is seen as a contract between houses. If a house wants to build a structure the matriarchs reach out to houses with skilled carpenters, masons, etc and set up marriages to bring those skilled crafters over for the project.
The men see it as their duty to also show off and improve their art and craft at any time they can. But that likely means the men would be in their hundreds when they get married to a women likely in her 20s. Elvamirt do age very oddly, from their 20s to basically 300s they don't really age. The genes for this are also very recessive so mixed Elvamirt with other mirts do not have this, which has resulted in Elvamirt society becoming isolated and a bit inbred. Elvamirt who leave their realm are sterilized, in the case of Stevis he willingly had this done. Elvamirt surgeons are very good and can undo the operation. Unless the Elvamirt was criminally exiled, but in Stevis' case anyone who leaves for business or other foreign affairs must get their "tubes tied."
So, regardless of how I'd have settled on the Elvamirt culture they have a huge passion for competing with each other over the arts and crafts which is why they absolutely want dragon parts. Kordi doesn't actually want to sell his share of dragon parts, he's been processing some of them during the journey too which the Elvamirts arn't sure if they want to take that mess of rot. What does get decided is that the planned celebrations will be used to decide who gets the privileges of buying the parts, the monarchy basically showed up and laid down the boot. Kordi negotiated his participation in an attempt to see if he can keep his share and the Elvamirt really doubt he can be a threat.
Honestly, Kordi is quite out of his league here, but because of that he's able to use a spot in a crafter's workshop. Said crafter had suspicions about Kordi, from the sithril quality of Kordi's equipment to the way he processed materials. The would sort of bounce things off of each other as the Elvamirt craft master picked up on some of the innovative refining methods Kordi used while Kordi would learn a few things while working on his project, a bow. The bow entries would be the most competitive of them all and Kordi picked this mostly because he had never really made a bow before and because the craft master was a bowyer Kordi was able to learn a lot.
Time for the event comes closer and the two other ships from the company return but not with good news, it would turn out that the house Stevis belonged to had fallen so when they arrived in Estelva they would not have anyone to parley with. Thus, their cargo of dragon materials is taken under the excuse of being illegal smuggling. The situation in Vestelva was looking worse as well, the members of the company had been spying around and learned that during the celebration various families had plans to take the money set aside for the sale of the dragon materials. The Monarchy was going to buy the materials off of the adventure company but the exchange would only happen after the celebration. Some houses figured they could just take the money and no one would care. Now part of the deal was that Kordi would give the bow as a gift (the Elvamirts do scoff at the thought) to the monarchy in payment for arranging this sale, so for the adventure company they decide to beat the thieves to it and get their payment then leave.
However, the question then comes to what next, Stevis isn't fit to lead anymore he's demoralized and mentally not there so the others come up with a plan. Leni's family is a merchant marine house of the Feval Republic farther east, they can sail there in case their bridges are burnt with the Central Valdera kingdoms. Not only that but according to Leni, what the Estelvans did is a big taboo for the merchant marine in Feval. It was then decided to see if they could hire the Feval marines to get their stolen property back.
It is of note that the Elvamirts are in some ways very skilled fighters but this has specialized around duels with strict rules. No one wants to attack the Elvamirt because they have such high end luxuries and equipment on offer. Yet, Estelva has solidified trade relations with their neighbor the Ovel Empire who has been annexing its neighboring Sharamirt republics. Feval now sits at the border with Ovel and they do not like each other. Because of that Estelva does not trade with Feval and it is very risky to try and sail close to shore from Ovel, even if a merchant does make it the Estelvans have a deal to seize anyone's ships as smugglers or pirates. The Vestelvans do most of their trade through the Murgans.
When night falls the adventure company raids the warehouse storing the payment preventing the other thieves from taking it and they sail out making a wide course to avoid Ovel, and even if they were spotted their ships now also light were very fast. Upon arriving in the large port city of Fev the company meet with Leni's house. It takes no convincing the house patriarch, he knows an opportunity and there are several here. First its an excellent reason to raid the Estelvans which would not receive condemnation from other sea merchants and second the new ship designs brought by the adventure company were more valuable. With more ships like that they could bypass their rivals and trade directly with the Vestelvans and even the Murgans. So, the company didn't need to pay money, just hand over the ships after.
It takes very little time for the other merchant marine houses to gather as they are very keen on doing this and a big fleet of Sharamirts sets off with the adventure company. Stevis by this point has stayed behind, he knows he can't stop this and isn't sure if he should try. The raid fleet is big enough that the Ovelan fleet does not leave harbor and they just watch the Feval fleet sail by. The Estelvan raid goes very well and they find most of the dragon materials in storage where the Elvamirts were still quarreling over who owns what. While they do not retrieve all of it the Feval marines loot what they consider a "fair price" worth of goods to make up for it and also as payment for their trouble. With these materials in tow Kordi was able to get his hands on some more dragon parts to use but most would end up getting sold to the Feval merchants who planned to sell a lot to Vestelva and some along their southern trade routes to the distant nations for high profits.
------ Money money money~! ------
Basically the adventure company is now obscenely rich. What do they do with all this wealth? No one really knows except for Das (the Dvaren) who has decided he will fund an expedition into the Berra Mountains to clear some caves of goblins so some of his nomadic people can settle there. Dvaren are mostly still a nomadic refugee people and many have difficulties living in Mirt lands unless they can make steel which few know. Most move camps along the mountain ranges of the Berra Mountains to along the Heilow Barrier living in tents and whatever cave they can temporarily clear. There is a major goblin "citadel" in the Berra Mountains, which is what I call these extensive goblin underground cities that have been massively fortified to stop the Mirts from genociding the goblins.
Das thought of this idea when they were in Wendin. The rest of the company decides to also contribute, Das is a close companion of theirs and goblin citadels are no easy fight. For some other context, very early on in the story when Kordi is in his hometown in the Ferrel Valley the Mirts were fighting continuous raids from the goblins in the nearby mountains. Those mountains have a large goblin citadel dug deep throughout the mountain. Ironically these deep citadels are also where the goblins mine and process gobite which the Mirts melt into sithril after looting the goblin's gear.
With all this money they begin sending out word for a great campaign to clear the Berra Mountain Citadel of goblins, by this point the battles with the goblins around Calbin was over so there were a lot of bored adventurers. Kordi also meets the merchant from back in Ferrel who helps bring in supplies.
During this time a trade fleet returning from Vestelva returns and a thunderous boom announces the arrival of Deyna, the Elvamirt princess whose birthday coming of age celebration was going on at the time they stayed there. That loud boom was from the bow, the same bow Kordi made. Turns out he had made the bow not only with some very well refined dragon materials and other things but he also made use of his use of electricity (which was basically static back in the day). This "thunder dragon bow" could launch an arrow that would release a high voltage surge of electricity. The bow didn't look fancy on the surface though but it was light, sleek, and easy to use. Deyna loved it and decided Kordi needed to be a servant under her family and since no one else really shared her enthusiasm she got on the Feval trade ship. I'll also mention, she's mostly in it for the adventure of it.
So when Kordi declines because they are preparing a massive campaign to clear a goblin citadel, she's like, "okay I'll come along."
Now the Berra Mountain campaign is also one of these VERY long ordeals, the goblins literally carved themselves into the stone with arrow slits everywhere. Goblins also have a sort of symbiotic tolerance with certain cave spiders which is where all their silk clothing comes from but also gives them a source of venoms. This war would involve a lot of battles from big pitched sieges of strong points to constant guerilla raids. During all of this I planned that Kordi would actually take a vacation, visiting Morgana at the monastery, exchanging some things like cultures of dragon gut flora. Then he visits home after being gone for YEARS, he's basically a man at this point hardened by quite a lot. I planned to use this to show things from a normal person's perspective as Kordi's younger brother is conflicted about meeting his famed older brother.
Kordi after all participated in the key defense of Calbin against a goblin warband, then he pursues some evil Mirts looking to release a Mara Lord (the Mirts saw it as the Murgans trying to use the Mara Lord against them and not that the Mirts who stole it were trying to use it against the Murgans), then Kordi travels to Wendin to slay an elder dragon. Next they sail the dangerous seas fighting sea creatures to make huge profit off of the dragon, got betrayed by the Elvamirts before returning with a Feval fleet to take back their lost treasure. Now Kordi is part of a war that seeks to clear the Berra Mountain goblins from their impervious citadel. What the younger brother imagined was an older brother with the kind of arrogant celebrity attitude he'd see from boisterous adventurers passing through. What he'd actually see if a worn out and tired young man who doesn't know how to be normal.
When Kordi returns to the Berra Mountains things pick up again as many Dvaren from Valdera have decided to join in with Das, we find out that Das is the twin brother of the third Dvaren who knows the secrets of steel and metallurgy. Because of Dvaren inheritance only one can get the knowledge, Das was not much of a smith when he was a child. The reason Das ended up leaving the refugees was because of superstitions about twins, some believed that the twin would covet the knowledge and slay his kin. With Das' brother backing the Berra Mountain campaign it would legitimize the effort and would establish an actual Dvaren home. Though because the fighting was also done by many other races it would not be a specific nation for Dvaren. The location of this nation would put it in the perfect place for trade between Central and Southern Valdera, which was part of why Feval would back the campaign. The goblins were disrupting trade through the Berra Mountains and trade around the southern route would be frequently disrupted by the Ovel empire's wars.
------ Orks orks orks... but first, the Wendish ------
News spreads about a large warband of Orklin, orklin are kind of related to goblins and koblins but live in the North Valera tundra. They are very nomadic and the last time they paid a visit to Central Valdera it was right when the first Mirt Kingdom of Ordumar was formed and the Orklin destroyed it. The Orklin are quite smart compared to the goblins and much smarter than koblins but they despise labour. So, they really liked all those Mirt slaves they picked up centuries ago. Meanwhile there were some other migrations that crossed the tundra which satisfied the Orklins need for labourers. This was mostly the fate of the Kungri, some of whom made it through to Central Valdera settling north of the Sharic Kingdom. In fact, one of the adventurers in the company with Kordi is a Kungri, Vephar. Vephar's a bit mysterious in that regard it was rumored that he was exiled from the Kungri lands but we would find out here that he had escaped Orklin slavery, the branding on his body was done by the Orklin. His presence disturbed the Kungri of Valdera so he became an adventurer.
This Orklin warband was spotted slowly making its way towards Wendin and there was a feeling of revenge within the Mirts which called many to travel to Wendin to help. The only problem is the Wendish. The Mirt kings called on the petty kings of Wendin to join together and fight the Orklin, which went unheard. Well, Davannos took this as a sign that he needs to subjugate the other Wendish kings. Meanwhile Elenelise would find that most of the Mirt Kings put their support behind her to try and unite the petty kings, the problem there is Elenelise is very unpopular for her un-Wendish ways and her weak husband Dieter just plays with Drakvern all day. The other Mirts are mostly not looking to get directly involved fighting other Mirts so the Valderan Kings pressure a confrontation between Davannos and a coalition of weaker petty kings. Davannos ends up winning and continues to coerce the other petty kings to kneel. He does not pursue the remains of Elenelise's faction since winter sets. Kordi and the rest of the company decide to split and figure out what can be done, Kordi's group goes to Davannos while the other half stay with Elenelise. Davannos wants to show off his way to Kordi by traveling with a small band during the winter to fight and subjugate the other petty kings before spring when he'd finish off the weakened coalition.
However, on the other side the group left with Elenelise see how there's no love towards her husband Dieter but they feel she needs the help from him and not anyone else or their relationship will just stay flat. Dieter is quite meek but is passionate about one thing, the Drakvern he's been raising. No one really cares what he's done so he's been raising and selectively pairing Drakvern not as food but as friends. By this point he has a herd of rather domesticated Drakvern which are quite big, like horse sized windless dragons.
Mercenaries who had come for work took notice of this because they had fought the Murgans bordering Estrusca. The Murgans fought mounted on beasts with the Deimurgans being particularly notorious for using viscous and barely tamed lizard/raptor like beasts as mounts. These were devastating shock cavalry in battle and so they convinced Dieter to all practice riding his Drakvern. During all of this martial training Dieter's confidence would grow as well which improved the opinion of his wife.
When the battle between Davannos and Dieter's armies happens, Davannos has by far the larger force but in part of how Davannos is and also Elenelise's constant messaging with forgeries and rumors spreading around the subjugated forces under Davannos stayed back. Which Davannos didn't seem to mind as he believed even a 1:1 fight he would win just like before the winter. What would happen is his vanguard would get smashed by a heavy charge of Drakvern with Davannos being mortally wounded trying to duel Dieter in a last stand. He would refuse Kordi to heal his wounds wanting to die a true Wendin warrior.
Dieter would make an announcement to the warriors and petty kings gathered around and not claim to be the King of Wendin like many thought (his wife included). Instead he declared himself the warband leader to join forces with the Valderans to fight the Orklins. Which all the petty kings agreed on. When he was questioned later about this, Dieter told that he knew this would not last, he would just be endlessly challenged until eventually defeated. Which is why he wanted to buy time for his wife to keep building connections and deals to give pause to the petty kings about challenging Dieter while also giving time for a new generation of Wendish to grow up without thinking that constant war and backstabbing is normal.
------ Okay, Ork time ------
Well, this would be a point where I didn't come up with many plot details. Basically a bunch of battles, hadn't thought of much else for this. The Orklin rely on slaves for working their fields, making equipment, etc while the Orklin themselves focus on hunting and battles. They fight each other, they fight others around the northern regions, it wouldn't exactly be easy but I hadn't decided if there would be any big plot twists or things of that kind to build tension and suspense outside of big battles cool.
So, that is kind of underwhelming to type haha!
------ Is that all? ------
No, that would not be all, I'll put in some other things going on here that I came up with. Over in the Deimund Empire that whole Eyke story kinda gets skipped which was an annoying part for me looking back at it. Basically the steward of Durron Eykidi Sha had planned to use those Mirts unleashing that Mara Lord to consolidate more control within the empire, didn't really work out for him, darn, oh well. He's still got his underground control and he has been coming up with more schemes, in particular he found out about this eastern religion known as Loralism, or Xanto Loralism.
Now, this isn't on the map so here: https://imgur.com/a/Dc7ldp3
There is a slave trade that goes from all the whacky nonsense going on over there which is currently in a bit of a religious war. There's this Xanto guy, according to the Regilor race of people there, who is claimed to have spoken for the one true god and is known as their prophet. While he was getting disciples and spreading the word around what would be known as the Great Xanto Basin he ended up visiting one of his disciples Lora (he had many, hard to track) who was considered problematic. Lora was certainly a devote follower; however, she was very poor and had to use means like gambling and prostitution businesses to get the funds needed for her community. She was also of low birth. This meant of course that she was rapidly gaining followers and Xanto visited her to speak multiple times. Depending on who you ask it could be to try and sway her to the righteous path or that Xanto was struggling to fully come to understand god's message and his visits to Lora would help him finish his text.
When the Prophet Xanto died Lora had the largest following of support compared to the other disciples. Those who followed Lora named her the true Apostle of Xanto. This resulted in a divide between those who supported Lora and those who supported the other Disciples, many of whom wished to maintain the Xanto Commonwealth they were left to inherit.
To the other disciples, Lora was going against the Prophet’s last wishes, she was plotting to rally the poor masses against those left in charge by the Prophet. The Loralists believe that the disciples were fearful that Lora’s words would inspire the people to reject the abuse and corruption they received from the wealthy.
The result was that Lora withdrew from the Xanto Commonwealth’s land with a great number of followers. She brought her followers south around the Bei-lo Range, settling along a lake fed by the Tur-go Range. The following years of Lora’s life were spent converting the locals and establishing a small nation.
After Lora’s death the title of Apostle was passed down to one of Lora’s disciples. This would continue, the Lora Apostate is a nation which acts to manage the religious rule over all Loralist factions. The followers spread through the wide valley and established four other nations which have continued to grow outwards taking more territory, even from the Xanto Commonwealth. The Loralist nations are not closely allied like the commonwealth; however, this does allow more economic, diplomatic, and military freedom to each nation.
While the Loralists do not hold strict rules between different status between people, they are not completely liberal about them. A king is a king because he made himself one through his actions, the will of god goes to those of action, not breed. Slavery, narcotics, gambling, and prostitution is allowed in Loralist nations, unlike Orthodox Xantoists. However, there is regulation of these practices which the governments profit from. Slaves are to be treated to decent standards and receive opportunity for freedom (unless sold elsewhere); narcotics are not to be over consumed where dependency debilitates one’s life; gambling must not deprive one of all their possessions and worth (if the player does not stop the house must force them to stop or else the house will receive punishment).
So, slaves from all the raiding and waring in the region sometimes end up in Valdera, of note, Stevis had recruited Naea-Raji a Regiri from the northern Tur-go mountain range who was a slave he freed from captivity under a band of bandits who stole her with some Ovel nobles' possessions. She was enslaved by Loralist invaders and sold off. She travels with the adventure company the entire time and is particulairly worried of Stevis after the events in Estelva.
Meanwhile back to Eykidi in the Deimurgan empire, a Loralist slave girl would end up in his underground city who was blinded by disease. This girl had been converted to Loralism by a former slave turned missionary named Mollah who taught her to somewhat see through sensing with magic. Mollah would actually be an agent of Eykidi who was tasked with spreading Loralism as he saw it could be useful to control the lower class. Mollah would teach the girl who would receive the name Pyra for her golden flame like hair as a rare mixed blood of Regis races as that meant "sun" while her now pale eyes were called Muua for moon to create the image of a blind seer who would receive the gift of sight from god with the power of the sun and moon. However over time the growing followers would follow Pyra off the course Mollah was tasked to take them by Eykidi. Meanwhile Eyke is the leader of Eykidi's underground guard and they discover Mollah's plot to murder Pyra and frame it on Eykidi, which Eyke kills Molla. This causes Eykidi to put Pyra closer under his watch as he wants to steer her in the direction he wants.
This will lead to the difficult choices ahead for Eyke as his loyalty to his adopted father is tested against his growing passions for the loving Pyra who stands at the lead of a growing faith of desperate people. Even his own underguard brethren will become split between siding with their new faith or their master and father figure who gave them the strength they hold.
------ Other planed stuff ------
I had then planned for having Kordi and some of the company leave eastward, maybe out of wanderlust, maybe because far east is where the Dvaren lost homelands apparently are. Either way, that lets me go through the eastern area. I don't have it mapped out beyond that point but basically when they go far enough east there's this really big underground area under a shallow sea, it is possible to cross the sea by going underground, the sea itself is full of small islands with caves opening their way into the caverns. Its a giant labyrinth that the Dvaren spend centuries lost in with some getting out only to be enslaved by the Regis around the area. That sea drains south through a deep canyon where a city is built into the western side. This is because that canyon divides what is now known as the Mara lands. There's an ancient conflict between the animals and the mara which was why so many migrations were happening. The Mirts of old just packed up and left instead of dealing with the Mara Lords to cross over to the other side of the world. The Dvaren speak of old tales where their great kingdom was besieged by some great enemy and their allies did not come to their aid. Many were forced to flee into the vast underground labyrinth.
For the Mara Lords of that area they kinda calmed down, grew large enough they ended up competing with each other. But also there are too many geological barriers in their way from expanding more. So, one thing that I planned would be during their travels east they would meet a faery who decides to stick around and help be their guide. The thing is, this faeri is one of those types of Mara but these are infiltrators who have spend hundreds of years helping the animal races while gathering information. Faeri can actually change how their form develops allowing their bodies to look more like the groups they infiltrate or usually a variation of that with a focus on attractive appearances.
However, there is a darker side to the Faeri. Particularly within the main Faeri kingdom where they utilise another of their metamorphosing abilities to actually blend species creating various mutant-breeds. The Dorgea are a well established mutant-breed of Mahr and Mirt. Back then, the Mirts were in a loose coalition against the Mara during an age of primitive stone and magic.
Many of the Mirt tribes migrated north into the frozen wastes to avoid the conflict while those caught underwent a process that would fuse them with shadowy Mahr. The Dorgea eventually grew and prospered enough to establish their own nation outside of their Faeri creator’s lands. The Faeri were okay with that, they have more curiosity than ambition.
Many species have some degree of meddling because of the Faeri, the Regis had an infusion of beastial traits, Kungri would have their thick skin developed because of the Faeri, and the Murgans have some as well. There are those who do not have any trace of tampering, the Mirts and Dvaren are considered natural branches from a similar and ancient ancestor. This is why there is some cross breeding between the various sentient species/races, there is enough genetic relation for successful reproduction even if it is not always successful.
So there's this whole thing I was working on where Mara Lords can find recruits from Dorgea settlements, the Dorgea being a Mara-Mirt mix are not welcome in non-Mara lands. But Dorgea were actually made by the Faeri as infiltrators with specialties in darkness magics, their scent glands are even genetically removed. There are some species like the centaur like Letauri whose tribes sometimes send warriors and raiders to join Dorgea warbands. There's also the Heira, an almost insectoid species the Faeri basically made from scratch to provide labourers and warriors to the Mara Lords.
Of note was a concept for an underground horde species known as the Geshi who have bred themselves into specialized castes and probably fight each other more than the surface dwellers. They basically raid the surface for organic matter to feed their underground fungus groves.