Black Rabbit Field Manual: Wilderness Survival

All Black Rabbits are expected to operate independently in hostile territory and are trained to provide themselves with the necessary food, protection, and shelter to survive — and even thrive — in the most dangerous environments in Drak’Terra. When the Black Rabbits find themselves in a scenario where they will have to wait in the wilderness for several days, or otherwise wait for an opportunity to escape, they are trained to remember the following acronym:

HIROAD

Keep Hidden

Use your Intelligence

Return to your master

Accomplish your Objective

Stay Alive

Do not Dishonor the clan

This simple acronym is drilled into the heads of all Black Rabbit trainees, and is sometimes referred to in code when their superiors tell them to “keep to the high roads.”

Black Rabbits must remember the fact that despite being trained as deadly warriors, their bodies are still fragile and susceptible to the elements. Without protection, extreme heat and cold may prove to be fatal.

Adequate clothing is the first line of defense for any Black Rabbit in the wilderness. In cold environments, they are instructed to never let any metal parts of their armor touch their skin. Typically, layers consist of a light, comfortable under-tunic usually made of cotton or linen, over which is worn the Rabbit’s armor of choice. A surcoat is worn to conceal the armor, and a woolen overgarment is worn over this, sometimes with the addition of a fur-lined cape for added insulation. In warmer weather, lighter armor is preferred. Boiled leather is typically worn over silk or other thin garb.

As far as the basic need of shelter is concerned, a Black Rabbit must make his wilderness encampment both secure and concealed. While they are trained assassins who can survive on long days without sleep, rest is still a necessity, especially when lying in wait days in advance of the arrival of a target.

Naturally occurring shelters such as caves are preferred over constructed ones, especially if the Black Rabbits in hiding are careful not to leave any trace of them ever being there. However, a prominent cave would be well-known to locals, and may, unbeknownst to any Black Rabbits, serve as a secret meeting place for cultists or lovers who may alert others of their presence.

When natural shelter is unfeasible, the Black Rabbit must construct his own shelter. These are meant to be temporary structures, easily disassembled or destroyed to make tracking harder. Any shelter should be assembled in the least obvious locations, away from prominent landmarks. Rough terrain, especially that which is impassable by horse and hidden by vegetation, makes an excellent camping spot.

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When assembling a shelter on an elevation like a hill, Black Rabbits are trained to camp three quarters of the way up. Never at the base of a hill or at the very top. Noises from ridge to ridge tend to dissipate, and whispers made in a valley will magnify as listeners get further atop a hill. Shelters located three fourths of the way on a hill are subject to more daytime and less nighttime winds, minimizing the chance of detection by smell from any Kanis scouts or other hound-like animals.

Waterways like lakes and rivers are avoided. Even though it would be good to have easy access to fresh water, anyone camping by the water risks detection from fishermen, especially species who live near water like otterfolk.

When constructing camouflage for a shelter, Black Rabbits are trained never to take leaves and branches from the immediate area of their campsite. While foliage should still match their surroundings, a Rabbit typically gathers camouflage materials from an area no less than a hundred paces from their actual campsite. This is done to misdirect any search team that stumbles across the broken branches and stripped bushes the Rabbits leave in their wake.

A Black Rabbit trainee’s survival skills are ultimately tested during an event called “the Long Night" held in a particularly dark recess of the Northern Whisper Forest. Recruits are sent into the forest alone, watched by their mentors from the shadows. There they will be subjected to spells that alter their body temperature, perception, and sanity over a period of several days. Those who survive the ordeal will be one step closer to earning the title of Black Rabbit.

The Life Matrixes

It is theorized that the event that gave the five Dragon Realms their modern form was an explosion caused by a single super dragon manifesting into existence that was so immense and powerful that he could not contain his form and caused a cataclysm that destroyed all present dragons save for Cypress, Scorch, Blight, Stratus, Abyss, Agaas, and Un’Draago. This event is called “The Reckoning '' to all Draak’Terrain scholars.

It is well known in draconian scripts that Agaas and Un’Draago sent their Dragon Walkers to mend the fallen dragons’ wounds, but try as they might, they could not save the realms. Shortly after this, the dragon realms slipped into a coma.

With the realms slowly dying, it was Nihlio, a strange cosmic being who was escorted by his flight of angels, that sought to save the dragons. He used his divine creation magic to form 5 crystals that he plunged deep into the bodies of the realms. These were called the “Life Matrixes.”

They did not wake the realms, but kept them on life support with the hope that one day each would regain their breath and luster, waking to be reborn as truly living dragons.

The incredible magic from the life matrixes birthed a small clan of elves, each taking on their own features. However the amount of power required to sustain Blight left its matrix too weak to spawn its own elves.

The elves flourished, with many from their core family branching into different tribes.

Nihilio, now known as Father, populated each realm with more and more creatures of all shapes and sizes from humans to mice, tuskores to elephants, harekins to yikahti, and even avians to birds. It was decided by both elves and dragons that the life matrixes needed protection and so a tribe of elves was chosen to protect the realms.

For a hundred years the matrix of each realm was guarded without incident, until the ice elf family, the Whiteblade, sought to claim the right to control the other matrixes. So started the twenty year Elven War. Had it been for the dragons of Stratus getting involved, the ice elves may have been victors.

The dragons exiled the ice elves from Crystal Peak, turning it into their own city, Draconicus. They also formed the “Guardians of the Frost,” a knighthood of dragon riding humans and draconians dedicated to serving Draconicus and the Life Matrix of Stratus.

Some ice elves struggled to save face and reclaim their honor among the other elves, while others cared little for the world outside their kind.

To this day, the Life Matrixes remain closely guarded and most of their locations are kept a secret from the curiosity of all other beings.