Lore: Entertainment

Lore:

Entertainment

Just like Ashanians’ law, the entertainment in Ashania was often obsoleted by the outside world, making it an attraction to merchants and traders. From the morbid death of a prisoner to the joyous mutaki-eating competition, Ashanians often found entertainment in the most eccentric way possible.

During the Tyrant’s week, which Ashanian’s were entertained by events such as the parades on the streets and square. The Ashanian’s Colosseums would held gladiatorial fights daily during the celebration. For eighteen days, Ashanians would visit the Colosseums and cheer for their favourite gladiator in the ring, satisfying the bloodlust of many Ashanian’s nobles and peasants. Of course, Lord Bornia would be present during the tournament and following the traditions of deciding the loser’s fate. These gladiators were usually Ashanian’s prisoners or Eastern Miriandynus slaves that was imported to Ashania. Abandoning the life of slavery or escaping the death sentences, the gladiators fought fiercely and valiantly as they were promised of great fortune and that the winner of the annual Tyrant’s gladiatorial tournament would be granted freedom and spared from any punishment or death penalty for the next coming five year.

The other entertainment that shows the eccentric and violent nature of Ashanian, would be the stoning of prisoner. Some might consisted this as more of a punishment then entertainment. However, local Ashanians would disagree with that thought. Stoning had always been Ashania’s tradition, tracing the origin of such entertainment back before the Seifer’s rule, when Ashania was still a cluster of divided villages and cities. The stoning was held weekly in west Ashania, families would bring their children to the event, and could participate by throwing sharpened stone that the Ashanian’s royal guard had provided. If the prisoner was fortunate enough, he would survive the stoning and would be freed from the crime he committed. However, such cases rarely happened as the stoning events were normally filled with passionate peasants that was looking for an alternative to vent their frustration and anger. Or simply for the pleasure of it, as who wouldn’t want to release their stress after a long day of farming, and probably endured a tons of scolding from their spouse while they were at it.

 

 

Lore: Festival

Lore:

Festival

The Ashania kingdom celebrated many events, it’s festival ranges from the celebration of the first harvests to the offerings of the Gareel. In fact, Ashania had so many celebrations and festivals, that there are at least 8 days of holidays every month throughout the whole year.

The most prominent festival that showed the jubilee spirit of Ashania has to be The Tyrant’s week. The origin of the festival came from an event 650 years ago when Ashania was still ruled by the Old Tyrant King, Seifer Vandran Bonia Da Ashania. The old tyrant was ruthless and cruel, torturing Ashanians with high tax rate and waging wars with neighbour nations, crippling Ashania’s economical and political well being. It was when Seifer finally hind his counsel’s advices to hold a celebration for the victorious battle against a neighbouring country named Celifron, located to the south of Ashania. For eight days, Ashanians peasants and farmers did not have to pay taxes and soldiers gets to return home to celebrate with their family. The Colosseum of Bornia held gladiatorial fights for eight days straight. The old tyrant would visit the Colosseum daily to enjoy the fights and gets to decide if the victor gets the pleasure of finishing the opponent off.

It was on the last day of the festival when Seifer was deciding whether to give the victor the pleasure. The victorious Gladiator, Goin, flexes his muscles and tendon, winding his body like a spring, and in a spit of a second, releasing his spear, hurling it towards the direction of the Tyrant king. The spear travelled through the sea of crowds and pieced through the chest of the Tyrant, ending his 50 years reign. Ashania celebrated for another ten days for the death of Seifer.

For eighteen days straight, local Ashanians would prepare tons of delicacy and delicious treats for the family daily. The kingdom would be filled with cheery shouts and waving hands. There would be performances and mascot parading at the common square and streets, illustrating the events where the hero, Goin, slayed the Old Tyrant King with his signature wavy bladed spear, resembling something like a flamberge sword. The festival was an attraction for many travellers and merchants, being promise of the businesses and money that would be made during such festival.

The festival also celebrates the opening of Ashania to the world. After the death of Seifer, Ashania opened up their seaports and trading route for merchants and travellers all over Miriandynus to trade, increasing their wealth to mitigate the expenses spent on 32 years of warring and besieging.

Lore: Law

Lore:

LAW

Ashania’s law was dictated by their religious teachings of Gareel and the moral compass of local Ashania. There were many laws and punishments obsoleted by the outside world, but still continued to practice in Ashania. To understand why Ashania’s law was so vastly different from other nations and cities, we have to first understand the nature of the religion, Arilism.

Arilism was originated from an older religion called Honislianity, used to spread the teachings and wisdoms of the god named Gareel, illustrating his journey while in moral form from Miriandynus to other planes and worlds to find the Truth, the Answer, to the origin of the multiverse. Gareel’s pilgrimage was met with trials and dangers, and was often lured by demons and beasts away from the path to the truth. One such demons was Moir. Unlike other of her kin, Moir genuinely loved Gareel and all his moral struggle, and even found his journey to the Truth a noble cause. In many events, the demon even saved Gareel from danger. However when Gareel was nearing the Answer to the origin, Moir betrayed and killed Gareel, wishing that Gareel’s pilgrimage would continue forever, even in afterlife, so she could accompany him on his endless quest. But death did not stop Gareel from reaching the Truth and ascended into godhood after his death.

The teachings did not specify what was the Answer to the origin. Scholars and mages had travelled all over the world trying to find artifacts of Gareel, to find the Answer. Some treated the Truth as a metaphor for life. Due to the unspecific nature, many followers have their own interpretation for the Answer/Truth to the origin, and each popular interpretation gave rise to different faction(later into religion). Arilism was one of such faction.

Arilism believed that the Truth to the origin was a form of realisation. The moment Moir betrayed and killed Gareel, it was then Gareel realised that he could trust no one, not even the ones that loved him, therefore he was able to ascend to godhood at that moment. Due to Arilism’s monotheism nature, its followers were hostile towards other religion, believing that other gods and goddess are false and cannot be trusted, only Gareel was the one true god.

The one most commonly enforced law that shows the Arilistic nature of Ashania was the inappropriate reciting of other religious teaching. Ashania was a vast kingdom filled with different races, it was no surprise that there were different religion that different races followed. However, it was forbidden for them to openly spread the words of their religion. In the past, the punishment for such crime were often burning on stake or public stoning. Throughout the years opening its trading route and sea port, Ashania was afraid that such actions might affect their economics and political standing, therefore the punishment for the crime grew lax and the offenders were often punished with public shaming, sometimes even just with a warning.

The second law that was unique to Ashania was the use of certain demonic images. When Ashania opened its gate to different races, they have bought in different religious practices too. Although Ashania forbids people promoting their own religion, they did not stop them from practising their own rituals. One of such rituals were hanging “demonic” images at the doorstep, warding off evil spirits and beasts. There wasn’t much of a problem to that, except for the image that was being used. A dwarvish folktale had that a unknown female warrior fought off a thousand demons and beasts, but ultimately died at the battle protecting the dwarvish ancestor. It was then onwards, dwarves hang the portrait of the female warrior on their door, warding off evils. However, the features of the warrior was awfully similar to the demon, Moir. This cause an uprising and rebellion from the followers of Arilism, accusing the dwarves of worshipping demons. Houses were burned and thousands of dwarves lost their home in that event. The portrait was later changed to a male warrior and a law was set to avoid any further conflict.

 

Chapter 2: Stone & Fire

Previously

“We are the knights of Ashania, from the unit of the golden lion.” The leader revealed.

But that did not answer any questions that Evraset and Ima had in their mind. Before the two could post anymore questions, there popped out an elvish girl from nowhere. With amazing speed and agility, she sprinted towards Evraset and Ima, with her sword raised against them.

Chapter 2: Stone & Fire

Both Evraset and Ima were shocked, not by the threat, but by the elvish girl resembling some features of the innkeeper. If she was indeed the innkeeper’s daughter, why was she protecting the bunch of bandits or knights that just kidnapped her?

Ima ignored the threat and walked forward. “Greetings, young one! A little too young to wander off into the woods by yourself?” He offered the young, beautiful elf a bow. Evraset pushed Ima away and turned to the elf.

“Are you a Windra?” Evraset questioned. Her piecing, white orb stared at young elf.

“Are you illidan’s daughter?” Evraset deflected the sword off the elf’s hand. The young elf fell to the ground after hearing her father’s name, worried about what the duet had done to him.

Ima ran to Evraset’s side and whispered. “What!? Are you crazy? You can’t threaten our goods? If she is hurt, we may not get our money. And our lodging!”

Under the sun, the young elf caught a glimpse of Evraset under her hood. Her beautiful features tained by the dark skin. The young elf grasped. “e’ Felent (The Fallen)

Ima turned toward the young elf. “Good, not as ignorant as you looked. Putting that aside, your father send us here, to ‘rescue’ you from the ‘bandits’!”

“What have you done to him! He will not hire your type!” She stated flatly, the intensity of her stare matches Evraset’s.

“We have done absolutely nothing to him, I promise. He and Mardi are in a state of extreme desperation when we met them. They misses you dearly, darling! And we offered good rates for our services!” Ima boasted, relieving the tension that was building up.

“Forgive us! How can we forget our etiquette! I am Ima and this distances cousin of yours is Evraset.”

She looked at the eccentric and ghastly Ima, and found it hard to believe him. Caught the cue, Ima tried to convince her again.

“Now darling, your father would reward us if we bring you back in one piece. Don’t be rude and tell us your name. And we will get you to Ashania safe and sound.”

“She… We can’t go back to Ashania anymore. Not without our protection and not while we are don in this armor.” The defeated leader muttered.

“Then remove it! We have questions for you ‘bandits’ and the she-elf while we are on the road.” Evraset hissed.

“It’s Nei!” The elf barked back.

(Player’s questions and responses)

[OOC] If you have not read the last reply in chapter 1, it is better if you do! Alrite now, you can ask any questions! The characters would answer with the best of their knowledge. Ask the right questions and you might get some unexpected information! However, each of you have only 2 questions to ask, so used it wisely. And try not to move on with the plot, there are some events that is going to happen in Ashania. Sorry, but I try to make all this restriction as little as possible.

 

 

 

Lore: Architecture

Lore:

Architecture

The Architecture in Ashania is grand and functional, but mainly built for the purpose of impressing, to show off their wealth. There are three major key factors that Ashanian architect considered before designing and building their houses.

First and foremost, the quality of air. In the vast, populated kingdom of Ashania, it is not uncommon to see gigantic walls and titanic castle at every corner. However, the wall and castle blocked off winds and causes the air around to be hot and stuffy. With regular precipitation and the air being warmer, it is the breeding ground for many disease to plague local Ashanians. To resolve this issue, some building have in-built air ventilation system, by building pipes that reached the top of the building, using the wind’s kinetic energy to ventilate the houses. While some uses magic to do so, the most traditional and ingenious way to achieve ventilations is using fire. Built on the theory that hot air rises, a simple fireplace heats the stuffy air in the building, causing them to rise and forces the cool air around the environment to ventilate the building. Because of the effectiveness of this method, many Ashanian’s architectures comes with a in-built fireplace.

Secondly, the weather. Ashania’s weather is known for it changeable characteristic, bringing about an old Ashanians saying, “Snowing today, raining tomorrow”. The unpredictable nature forces the architect to use some unorthodox method to solve their problem. Of course, magic is often used to keep the building warm during winter period and cool during summer. Ashanians architect realised that grey mudstone is extremely effective in insulating heat and releasing the build up during winter. However, this wonderful discoveries was not well received by local Ashanian’s lords and ladies, due to the dull appearances of the grey mudstone. As Ashanian’s architecture is built to impress, a layer of dressing stone or wood is added on top of the grey mudstone, allowing craftsmen and artist to decorate the building. The grey mudstone was found in the southern part of Miriandynus, and its value was greatly appreciated when traders exported it to Ashania. Many commoners and farmers were unable to afford such prices, and will just have to make do with their fireplace.

Lastly, the religious function. Ashanian is no doubt a religious kingdom. Priest and priestess were often found on the street, spreading the teachings of Gadreel. Therefore the architect often have to consider the lighting and atmosphere of the architecture. In every household of Ashania, the best lighting were often reserved for religious function.

The Ashania’s Architecture is no doubt beautiful and grand. There are many architecture issue that was solved using ingenious and clever method, proving the prowess of the architect’s design.