Tyzeka was an austere and meticulous man.
He appeared, in the simplest terms, unremarkable. Perhaps it was his light, average face that made no impression, or maybe muddy brown hair and dirt colored eyes. Even when he spoke, his voice seemed to carry an underlying buzzing sound, making it difficult to pay attention to. He took care in his wardrobe, often wearing muted colors and clothing that made his appearance fade, like a shadow. In all physical aspects, he appeared rather ordinary.
Yet, because of this, Tyzeka became one of the Granv’el Empire’s best trackers. He spent many years cultivating his current persona, melding into the masses and leaving no trace of himself. His skill and record became so renown that his nickname became the ‘White Hound’. And like a spectral bloodhound, he hunted his prey to the ends of the earth, never letting them escape.
Nevertheless, recently, he found himself growing steadily impatient.
For the first time, Tyzeka ran into difficulty with tracking down his prey.
Eight years ago, a ritualtech engineer dared to defy the Amethyst Emperor, taking away with him a top secret weapon and vital research data. Due to the sensitivity of the research data and power of the weapon, the Empire could only send out a special undercover unit to chase after him.
After three years and multiple false leads, the unit returned to the Empire, empty handed. It was as if the engineer had vanished into thin air.
Left with no other choice, the Empire assigned their best trackers with the task. Tyzeka had been called in by his superior one evening, and handed a chip without word. The little chip contained all the data gathered by the unit, as well as specific sensitive information on the weapon that the man absconded with.
Even though much of the information had been censored...ah, to think his homeland was working on something so terrifying.
A wry twists of his lips suddenly broke his carefully crafted dull illusion. It wasn’t his place to criticize the Grand Empire of Granv’el’s ambition.
To think, even five years later, he would still be chasing the engineer’s shadow.
Karvelis. It wasn’t an uncommon name. During the early days of the Granv’el Empire, the god-hero, Karvelis Faxine, along with the first Amethyst Emperor, united the 11 States into the Central District, establishing the foundation. Karvelis then went on to becoming the head of Granv’el Empire’s state ekklav, honoring the 10 gods. According to the old legends, Karvelis’s power came from being the Avatar of the god Rhavt’el, the Overseer of wisdom and civilization.
Thus, it would be more correct to say, the name existed as one of the most common within the boundaries of the Empire.
Normally, be it the most common or least common, it still wouldn’t be much of a trouble for him to track someone down. No, the problem stemmed from the thorough mechanizations of not just one person. Likely speaking, this Karvelis received inside help, though when Tyzeka voiced his assumption, the response they gave was simply: Impossible.
At this point, he couldn’t be sure if the withheld information carried some vital clue or if he missed something. The research branch, which heavily involved itself in the investigation, held too much pride and politics for any query he gave them to be effectively answered.
Pulling out a cigarette, he lit the end with his finger and took a long drag.
With the evening came the slowly growing flow of clients into the pub he sat in. Most people barely threw him a glance as they walked by, so much that he was quite sure that even the barmaids forgot he existed.
Closing his eyes, he leaned back on his chair, tapping the end of the cigarette into the provided ashtray.
Hell, the hunt didn’t even have a proper photo of the engineer to go off with. The multi-complex facility of the Research Branch had a camera in every corner both hidden and visible - minus the top secret levels. Yet - even that was tampered with. The only things left behind were nothing better than anecdotal descriptions given by the staff that matched a majority of the citizens of Granv’el.
But he was Tyzeka, the White Hound. Once he caught a scent, he never let the prey go. It was a matter of pride.
As he ruminated on his situation, the seat across him filled. A stocky man in his late 40s sat down, the low light of the bar bouncing off the silver in his dark hair. He dressed in thick skins of many wild beasts stitched into clothing common among the northern clans. Without directly looking at Tyzeka, he waved over a barmaid and ordered some common beer. Though his occupation stated reindeer herding, his real job was to operate as Tyzeka’s eyes in the far north.
The two sat in silence while the noise level increased noticeably, the man’s stern face, weathered from decades of cold weather, remained expressionless as he took a swig of alcohol.
Tyzeka flicked over a card, which the man caught. His face broke into a wide, toothy grin.
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“You’re the only one that knows proper manners these days.”
Tyzeka raised an eyebrow incredulously. The man in front of him wouldn’t know manners from a dunghill, let alone proper ones. If the man knew what the hound thought, he acknowledged none of it.
Leaning in, he spoke in a low voice. “Lately, there has been an increase in ritualcraft ability and technology in one of the Hakkur settlements. Though the village is known for being notoriously tight lipped towards outsiders, one of the clan’s herders boasted loudly about it. No one seems to be inclined to say how they got it though...considering how heavily controlled ritualcraft knowledge is in the neighboring Da-en Kingdom.”
The initial conflict between the Hakkur and the New Da-en Kingdom dated back to early after the Second Cataclysm. After the devastating event, a huge portion of the Old Da-en Kingdom became heavily affected by the neighboring origin poisoning of Shii’el. Due to the heavy fracture of leylines from the Second Cataclysm, which originated from Shii’el and expanded to various other areas of the continent and planet, a curious phenomenon of hyper-dense origin sinks appeared, constantly pulling heavy amounts of energy from the environment and making the zones almost uninhabitable for all life except the most hardy. Song Seers declared that the Will of the planet itself willed it, out of sorrow and rage towards what humanity had done. It seemed that the land absorbed and expelled origin at an almost equal amount, transforming into a domain of perpetual cold.
When in low concentration in the atmosphere, origin energy caused little to no issues. Only when the energy concentration passed a certain break point in density would the true danger begin to occur. In heavy concentration and high purity, the energy would become unstable, clinging to interference in order to stabilize itself in a crystalline form. Should any living creature attempt to enter a high density zone without proper protection, they would soon quickly find themselves crystallizing from the inside out, until they became little more than living statues that origin would attempt to latch onto. Frankly, it could be considered a fate worse than death.
Thus, to no one’s surprise, the Da-en Kingdom withdrew and abandoned its eastern edge, expanding westwards and northwards.
However, to the west, the Kingdom encountered severe resistance from the now named Constellation Alliance city states and eventually, after suffering heavy losses, decided to concentrate their forces northward against the less centralized Hakk’yel. Although majorly protected in the south by the Olmesa mountain range, many of its southwest steppes and mountain valley settlements soon fell under Da-en control, cutting out an important ancestral nomadic herding land of the Hakkur, becoming the Da-en New Kingdom. For centuries, most of the skirmishes were minor, as the northern zone of the Olmesa lived up to its other name - The Blue-Silver Aegis, Urlil-Zeite Axoa.
Even so, it could not protect against the first major conflict; the senseless slaughter of a Hakkur clan.
On the eve of the first day of the month Men’yui the Dreaming Will, 60 years ago, the Da-en Imperial Soldiers marched through the Sixth Branch mountain pass. There, they came across the Yangur clan trade city and promptly slaughtered a majority of the Yangur Hakkur. In a single night, Da-en not only gained a strong foothold in the Olmesa mountain range, but also the enmity of not only the clans allied with the Yangur, but those that saw the slaughter as inhumane and cowardly. In the span of five years, the Da-en Kingdom gained control of a majority of the mountain passes and all of the commonly used ones, cutting off the central Hakk’yel from most their south west trading routes. The conflict would go on for another five years or so, the Hakkur unable to properly defend due to the lack of heavy centralization.
Eventually, the governing body of Hakk’yel, relented, bled out by the vicious tactics, and called for a diplomatic peace treaty with Da-en. Yet, this would only add oil to the fire. Da-en sent out one of its princes as an ambassador to negotiate terms with the Hakk’yel representative body, only to be killed en-route to the largest city of Hakk’yel - Ulzar. Four days after, in outrage, the Da-en Kingdom invaded through the seven major mountain passes, enforcing an ethnic cleansing policy. The renewed conflict would last for three years, leaving 1/4th of the Hakkur population dead.
Perhaps, the sorrow of the Hakkur became too much to bear for the gods. For the massively succeeding Da-en to suddenly find their good fortune overturned shocked the continent, which had, until then, been watching quietly from the sidelines.
The appearance of an Avatar.
Reportedly, she appeared weeping, under the ascending star of Ia, bathed in blood. Embodying Ia, Will of Life and Death, the girl became a mass of vengeance that consumed Da-en soldiers and driving the army back. Although Da-en had secured allies prior, no one dared to lift a finger; after all, what fool would dare incur the wrath of a god? The ire which Da-en had drawn upon themselves could only be resolved by the Da-en Kingdom alone.
The Ia Avatar passed into the Da-en Kingdom, bringing mindless death in her wake, until finally, at the cost of a massive amount of lives and several talented generals, she was driven back to the Olmesa mountain range and killed. Her death deviated the natural flow of Origin, birthing a powerful surface leyline and strengthening the Urlil-Zeite with the flow expelled by Shii’el.
Effectively, this sealed off Hakk’yel from the New Da-en Kingdom, preventing large future invasions; however, it also caused the effect of sealing off almost all of the mountain passes.
Compared to the loss of trade routes, it could be said that Da-en suffered more. The conflict led to the death of many intelligent generals and a vast amount of human resources - specifically the strategist who was responsible for the Kingdom’s success. Two years after, the Da-en Kingdom suffered from a major, unforeseen epidemic, further adding insult to injury. The government, in order to maintain power, placed the blame upon the Hakkur, relying on centuries of discrimination. Because they had lost much during the recent conflict, the Da-en Kingdom found themselves forced to allied with the Granv’el Empire in order to maintain stability. Even though a toddler could see who was the wrong one in the conflict, the Da-en Kingdom continued to operate with heavy Hakkur discrimination to this day.
Taking another draw from his cigarette, Tyzeka narrowed his eyes. It wasn’t surprising that ritualcraft knowledge would appear in Hakk’yel. Although its trade routes on the Da-en boarder were sealed off, there were still the Constellation alliance and the Northwest trade routes that connected the the neighboring one. Although the country lacked centralization, the inner Hakk’yel was rich in various resources such as ores and Origin veins. It could be reasonable to assume that a group interested in trading for those resources would exchange ritualcraft knowledge, something the Hakk’yel did not have much of.
And it could be reasonable to assume that the engineer may have been among them.
“Do you know what settlement the man originated from?”