Archemi Online Chronicles Boxset

by James Osiris Baldwin

  Mercurions make magnificent assassins, due to their immense physical stamina, cold-blooded impartial natures, and a strong warrior culture. They also have a very strong Artificer culture and are reknowned to be the best smiths in the world... but those who have seen the glowing, sigil-covered weapons of war they produce and use on the battlefields of Zaunt report stories of juggernauts, spider-legged constructs seemingly made entirely of blades, and weapons which produce massive explosions. Those same people are usually killed by Mercurion assassins. They have a senate council and no single appointed leader.

  Culture

  The foundation of Mercurion society is the family. A family's size is its wealth, and so Mercurions naturally form into clans and houses comprised of large families. The houses of Zaunt are called Tlaxican, and they vary extensively in size and power. There is essentially no social mobility within Zaunt. You are born, live and die in your place within the Tlaxican.

  The most powerful houses are those which have their own mana well (San'chit). There are three Tlaxican in S. Zaunt and one in N. Zaunt which have their own wells. The three in S. Zaunt have small-ish wells: the one in the North has a Dragongate which surpasses every other well in Zaunt by itself.

  Within Tlaxican, there are numerous family units which are called Tlaxi'glica (literally 'lineage') which are analogous to immediate family units. The smallest houses may only have two lineages: the largest have hundreds, or even thousands. This is particularly so in the North, where the vast majority of Mercurions are the children of Tlaxican Quchan ('Chew-chan'), 'The House of Birds', and bear Quchi as their fore-name.

  Culture now varies between the two ends of Zaunt, but there remain some commonalities.

  Reproduction

  A Mercurion child is generally born to three parents, as Mercurions marry in threes. Tlaxican measure their wealth in the number of children they have, the quality of those children, and the reserves of mana they have to create them. To reproduce, Mercurions sculpt their children with a mana-treated silicon elastomer, glass, silicon-carbonite (which is relatively common in Zaunt) and specially softened metals. Their techniques are derived from the technological processes used by the Aesari and Drachan nearly 5000 years ago, and are one of the closest-kept secrets in Archemi.

  Mercurions from the richest families are created along very particular clan lines in line with their laws using parts from their ancestors, whereas poorer families tend to craft children less skillfully. This is reflected in the term 'Lixu' - literally 'plain' - which is used to describe people of lower status. Lineage is taken very seriously, and all Mercurions of standing recognize the Tlaxi'glican in their House by appearance alone.

  Families within a house have guidelines for crafting their children which must be adhered to to preserve the characteristic appearance of that family. Filigree, eye-color, face shape, proportion and body type are all decided by tradition, and the married triad who are crafting the children are generally honored to do so. Appropriating the features of another House or Lineage is considered a grave insult, and the child is scorned as a 'Juchi', a copy, which is analogous to a bastard in human feudal societies. Juchi are created, however: and they are frequently employed as spies and assassins for the duration of their short, violent lives.

  Mercurions are a subterranean people: they live in enormous cavern and tunnel complexes which are sculpted into underground cities. Mercurion cities and towns are not dark and gloomy places, but they are often hostile to other lifeforms. Because of their immunity to poisons and [Stranging], Mercurion Tsonyan (Cities) are generally built near veins or lakes of mana, and they suffer no ill effects from gas pockets, carbon monoxide, or magical vapors. Because of the near universality of mana and the age of the cities, the buildings sprout glittering crackled covers made of glass dust and mana, as well as crops of bluestone and Stranged fungi and lichen. The resonance would be enough to give a human mage a stroke, though the glittering beauty of Mercurion cities cannot be denied: it would be the most beautiful half an hour of their life, before the Stranging took and their lungs became full of crystallized mana.

  Mercurions have some of the most sophisticated, haunting music in Archemi. Their signature instruments include a 27-stringed instrument called a Chiki, the Sasuk (a hammered dulcimer) the Jik (a thumb piano similar to a Kalimba), the Tuntikhi (a kind of metal drum similar to a space drum), the Zai (a harpejji) and the Moun, a quartz cantabile. Every house has a Singer who specializes in music, but all Mercurions are sensitive to sound and are tuned for singing. Their education is primarily musical, with great emphasis on teaching songs, ballads, and lists. Reams of information are memorized musically.

  It is thought that the Gate of Eternal Longing, the gate which imprisons the draconic deity Veles, was constructed in Zaunt.

  Death

  Mercurions are not a long-lived people, as they were created to be shock troops, not a species in their own right. As such, the techniques to create and imbue them are fundamentally flawed. From the time they are born, they gradually slow down as their Seid metabolism decreases. A Mercurion has no 'childhood' to speak of. They are educated in their ways within a year, and the next 30-40 years are spent as adults. No Mercurion has lived past 46, and due to the civil war and various other conflicts, they rarely live past 25 in practice.

  It is absolutely vital for them to recover their dead to recycle their matter into the next generation, and often, the times that Mercurions will fight the fiercest is when they are denied the option of retrieval. They attribute great significance to the re-use of materials, with Tlaxi'glican forming from lineages on this basis. Incorporating the previous generation into the new is of fundamental importance, and even in the civil war, battles which have resulted in large numbers of dead have seen ceasefires to allow both sides to collect the dead for reincorporation.

  Mercurions have no fear of death, despite being non-religious. The fear of death is actually fundamentally alien to them: their lives are so short and their mentality so communal that the average Mercurion views their own death as the point in which they pass the baton to their family's children and grandchildren. Brave soldiers are commemorated through being recycled into future generations, individuals of which will be named after them for their bravery in combat. Because of their sentience and rapid metabolisms and minds, they do not experience temporal contraction. Mercurions are born, live and die fast.

  The recording and passing on of important information in an accurate and accessible manner is another extremely important activity, and for this reason, triumvirate marriages are common. These are usually between two soldier caste members and one scholar or artificer, who is relieved of the duty to sculpt children due to their important work in research, record-keeping, machine construction and scribing.

  Archemipedia: Ilia [Grade C Knowledge]

  Ilia is a large, very old nation which comprises the end of the Garda Peninsula, the westernmost point of Artana. Formerly an absolute monarchy, it endured a decade-long civil war which culminated in the Council of Stewards, the Crown's advisory court of lords, seizing power under the leader of a low-born soldier, Warden Scandiva.

  In ancient times, Ilia was home to tribal societies of Meewfolk, who were slaughtered and driven out by the Aesari when they began their migration to Artana from the far north. The city of Cham Garai was built around the oldest of the dragon gates, the Gate of Glorious Dawn, which is the grave of the great dragon goddess of Light, Solnetsi.

  The Aesari were eventually overthrown by the combined forces of Sachara, the Demon Queen of Dakhdir, and her lover and comrade Grigori Skyrr, a human slave who discovered a method to bond and fight with dragons without dying of mana poisoning. The Skyrr name is where the Skyrdon of St. Grigori take their titles from, though it means nothing other than ‘laborer’ in the language of the Aesari.

  Religion

  Yea, both Prophets were in accord; Brother and Sister were in accord when they spake: “From many small instances in time, one large re
sult may emerge. If the small things be good, the emergence is good; if the multitude be unfortunate, then the results shall be unfortunate. Strive to perfect the small lest the culmination of your actions crush you.”

  -The Corpus Harmonia, Axiomata of the Prophetess 4:53

  Ilia worships two gods common to the majority of nations in Artana. They are Liric, the Lord of Light, and Kyrie, the Lady of the Law. It is an absolutist, proselyting faith which actively seeks new members and is heavily involved in the law of Ilia and other devout nations. The two deities operate in twin churches. Churches of Liric are referred to as Cathedrals, and churches of Kyrie are generally referred to as Oratories.

  The religion operates on the fundamental idea that humans were once higher beings who dwelled in perfection on Erruku, thought to be a world made of gold, where the lore of the universe was stored. Humans fell from grace when they warred against the gods and fell to Archemi, where they were enslaved by demons and used to fight in their conflicts. They were freed from their bondage 2500 years ago by the prophet Esara and her brother Ansin, who commanded magic and was able to control the demons. She was served by Asir - the early Mercurions - and chased the demons from Artana.

  For many years, Ilia was a complete theocracy, ruled by a Starborn Primeria and Imperator who were spiritually considered to be brother and sister.

  The primary holy text of the church is The Corpus Harmonia, often simply referred to as the Harmonia. It is arranged in five books, which claim to trace the history of all humankind from the Fall through to the present day. It is supplemented by tracts written by every Imperator and Primeria. Imperators are tasked with recording history, and Primerae must review and restore law.

  Archemipedia Entry: Solonkratsu (Dragons) [Grade-A Knowledge]

  Introduction

  No creature inspires so much terror and awe in humankind as the mighty Solonkratsu – the dragons of Archemi. The dragons once ruled a sophisticated, bustling empire that spanned all continents and islands of the world, but their reign came to an abrupt end with the Drachan War. In the modern day, dragons are rare, inhabiting isolated outposts or, like the Dragons of the Eyrie, working in partnership with human or Lys dragon knights.

  Body structure and type

  The Solonkratsu are magically-enhanced theropods, and bear more similarity to the bird-like dinosaurs of the Late Cretaceous period than anything reptilian. They are hollow boned and warm-blooded, with metabolisms comparable to modern birds. They are able to regulate their body temperature through panting and shivering.

  The body-plan of Solonkratsu is functionally bipedal. Like a T-rex, they walk on powerful hind legs, balancing the weight of their hindquarters with their tails and wings. Their heads are wedge-shaped, with a slightly rounded muzzle and powerful jaws capable of opening as wide as a snake’s. Top and bottom rows of curved slashing teeth are concealed by a rim of scales, and the teeth do not extrude past these stiff ‘lips’. They have special flat scales just forward of their nostrils which cover bundles of special sensory nerves. They can judge windspeed, temperature, and many other things through these sensory patches.

  The nasal bone is fused and tough, the maxilla (the primary tooth-bearing bone of the upper jaw) very rigid and strongly fortified. This allows dragons to deliver bone-crushing bites to downed prey, but also to open their jaws wide and slash with the upper teeth – their main method of combat with other dragons. The skull is crested, with ridges that protect the eyes and partly shield them from wind. The shape of the Solonkratsu skull is highly aerodynamic, with the scales patterned in such a way as to allow air to smoothly pass over and around their heads.

  Most dragons have horns, with horn patterning varying somewhat from region to region and clan to clan. In all instances, horns are smooth and sweep backwards from the skull. They are not embedded in the bones of the skull: horns in dragon-kind are purely for display, not combat, and they are set into cartilage and supported by muscle and membrane. This means that dragons can flare, drop, fold and lift their horns expressively.

  Queen dragons will typically be born with a horn pattern that characterizes their bloodline. Horn length and health, and the ability to display with the horns is one of the considerations all dragons, male and female, use when selecting mates.

  Archemi’s dragons are six-limbed, with the arms and wings set on a strongly fortified ‘butterfly’ shaped pair of fused shoulder blades. The forelimbs are weak compared to the jaws, wings and hindquarters – however, the dragons have flexible wrists and four fingered ‘hands’ – three fingers and a thumb – that are dexterous enough to use tools with if the claw is shaved down. Dragons who cut or shave their foreclaws can hold everything from paintbrushes to lutes and wrenches with their hands, allowing them to perform activities such as building and crafting. Dedicated Solonkratsu craftsdragons will often dock and cauterize their foreclaws to be more effective tool-users: to be ‘blunt-fingered’ is known to be the mark of a dedicated artisan, and is one of the few forms of body modification considered to be acceptable.

  Solonkratsu are quite gracile (lightly-built) for their size, with medium-length, graceful necks, very long tails, deep chests reinforced by furcula (a boomerang shaped ‘wishbone’ set above fused clavicles) and cross-hatched gastralia (belly ribs) which protect and support their high, arched, sinewy abdomens. Their backs are very straight and powerfully muscled, especially around the shoulders and at the base of the tail. The chest is narrow and their body streamlined for speed, giving them a narrow, lean, greyhound-like appearance.

  Flight

  Flight for Solonkratsu is partly magical, partly physiological. Archemi has slightly less gravity and more oxygen in its atmosphere than Earth; in addition, the mana in dragon blood and the Words encoded into their flesh relieves them of approximately 50-75% of their terrestrial bodyweight while in the air, making even fully-grown Solonkratsu highly maneuverable, swift flyers. However, they still have many physical adaptations: massive, four lobed lungs capable of functioning at great altitudes; the ability to control their blood pressure; extremely efficient, short gastro-intestinal tracts that remove and expel moisture from food; and most notably, two hearts.

  The Prime Heart in dragons is a massive organ that takes up a great deal of the chest cavity, pumping blood through five major arteries to the head, limbs, wings and tail. When a dragon spreads and flexes its wings, they activate a second auxiliary heart, the Drive Heart, which only serves the front-end of the dragon’s body: the wings, lungs and brain. The auxiliary heart falls into sync with the primary organ, working alongside it to pump mana into the wing membranes, sharply increase blood pressure, and provide support for the hydraulic system of tendons, muscles and cartilage that support the dragon in the air. In autopsy, the auxiliary heart is quite visually different to the primary heart, having white flesh and a much denser structure.

  There are also many external features which help to stabilize dragons in the air: fins, horns, the shape of the skull, dorsal ridges along the back, powerful muscles at the base of the tail and a fan of specially-shaped scales along the tail assist with maneuverability.

  Because of their physical and magical adaptations, hatchlings are born with proportionate wings and already know how to fly – a characteristic vital to their survival in the wild. They are usually hopping and gliding within hours of leaving the shell, flying short distances by the end of their first week, and are fully flighted within a month.

  The Solonkratsu have exceptional endurance for flight and spend a great deal of time on the wing, as they cannot truly run as a human or a dog would. Like the large theropod dinosaurs, they must always have one foot on the ground. Their terrestrial bodyweight – combined with the limitations of their hollow bones – makes anything over a quick lumbering walk impossible. They can only reach top speeds of 45 mph on the ground, compared with up to 100 mph when flying and up to 350 mph when diving.

  The challenges of flight can sometimes limit a dragon’s senses. While thei
r forward vision is excellent – better than that of hawks – dragons have poor peripheral vision while in flight, as they cannot move their eyes or turn their heads while moving at high speeds. Wing extension ‘locks’ the neck in place while in flight, a safeguard against whiplash and fractures while the dragon is potentially diving on prey and slashing at large animals with their upper jaw.

  Another issue is hypoxia. At high altitudes, a dragon’s body must function on reduced oxygen, inducing a euphoric, trance-like state which tunnels their vision even further. For this reason, specially-adapted human riders serve as a value set of eyes and ears during high and/or long-distance flights. Dragons cannot fly higher than 12,000 feet – their typical ceiling is 5000-7000 feet.

  Breath weapons

  A dragon’s breath weapon is mostly magical in nature, and is inherited through their Queen’s bloodline. To express a breath weapon, the dragon ‘breathes’ a Word of Power as they expel magically charged blood-plasma through three glands (one in the throat just behind the soft palate, two beside the salivary glands on either side of the tongue). The spell consumes the plasma, manifesting as a projected breath weapon in a fashion similar to the way human fire-eaters will spit a flaming plume of alcohol during the course of a stunt.

  The most common breath weapons are variations of fire, but lightning, acid, ice, sonic and plasma weapons are possible.

  A Queen dragon is born with Words of Power and a breath weapon unique to her and distinct from that of her mother’s. She will pass that breath weapon to all her progeny until she has a Queen daughter of her own. Even if a Queen mother and daughter pair both breathe fire, the Words of Power that trigger the effect will be different in the daughter, meaning that countermagic that works on the mother’s breath weapon would not affect the daughter’s even if they are visually similar.