Comic:Nahast - Lands of Strife

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Nahast: Lands of Strife
Image:nahast-derrexi.jpg
Artist: Al-X Melchor
Writer: Al-X Melchor
Characters: Derrexi Tzelan, Xu're, Yanti, Larriki, Eclipse, Niriko, Behari, Jakitza, many others.
Updates: Once a week, usually on mondays
Began: 11-02-2002
Ended:
Art style: anime-influenced, but not completely
Rating: Web 14
Website Website

Derrexi Tzelan, an accomplished swordsmistress with a past she's not very proud of, is tasked by the Empress of Solerne to open a branch of the order of the Hawk Maidens in the city of Beldatz, training a cadre of girl warriors to serve as the city's defenders when the beleaguered City Watch is away. She will soon find herself in the middle of a shadow war between the city's political and supernatural factions that might threaten the fabric of the Empire itself.

The setting is a fully developed and evolving world based on Asian and Prehispanic cultures and mythologies, and includes ever-growing information about how to use the setting in a d20-based fantasy role-playing game.

Contents

The Setting

Nahast takes an uncommon approach to fantasy, which is to base its setting in a fusion of Asian and Mesoamerican myths and cultures rather than the more common European legendry. It is a world where spirits can coexist with mortals, and gods are in a constant state of celestial war. The world is undergoing its Fifth Age, after all previous ones ended in a great cataclysm as the dominant race of each failed the Time of Testing, a period during which the greater forces of the universe present an existential dilemma. The mortal races of the Fifth Age are just beginning their Time of Testing, and whether they are even able to recognize what the test is -let alone succeed in it- will determine whether the world continues, or it ends to begin anew.

The Empire of Solerne

The comic's story takes place in the Empire of Solerne, one of the largest human kingdoms in the continent. Solerne is a mix of Chinese, Japanese and Toltec cultures, and was born after several smaller villages and nations joined forces during the Demon Wars, a time where the armies of the Demon Princes breached the walls of the world, and it took the joined efforts of gods, spirits and mortals to drive them back.

Solerne is a nominally egalitarian society, where Emperor and Empress hold equal authority over different aspects of government, although local customs will change the general dictates of Imperial Law. The lands are ruled by Noble Houses that swear fealty to the Imperial throne but are more or less autonomous, and often conflict with each other.

Beldatz

The adventures of the protagonists have the city of Beldatz as its main backdrop. Beldatz is actually the place where the Empire was born, as its patron goddess Suze'en accepted leadership of the Solernian pantheon against the Demon Princes in this place. However, Beldatz has not been the capital for a couple of centuries, and is reduced to one of the most important trade ports in the northern reaches of the Empire.

Built on the shores of the Bay of Dawn, Beldatz is a focal point of the Empire's supernatural balance, and so, several dark forces have converged to take advantage of the powerful energies within and around its lands.

Other Lands

The only other kingdoms that have any bearing on the comic's story are:

The Empire of Zergune: A nation that also suffered the ravages of the Demon Wars but emerged victorious through slightly different means. Zergune represents some of the harsher aspects of Japanese and Aztec cultures.

The Amiyalli Nation: An ethnic group that once was the dominant force in the land, but slowly dwindled until the Demon Wars reduced it to a sad shadow of their former glory. The Amiyalli people survive as a Noble House in Solerne, with their own territory and customs different from the rest of the Empire, and as a subjugated group in Zergune. The Amiyalli and their history are modeled after the Mayans.

Maehvindra: The woodlands of the savage and xenophobic forest elves, who live in a complex clan structure and trade with their neighbors only grudgingly. The Maehvindran elves are slightly influenced by pre-Siddharta Hindu brahmanism.

Kang Lo: The most accessible of the dwarven underground kingdoms, they trade copiously with human lands and have their own districts in many human cities. The Kang Lo dwarves show influences of China in the Warring Kingdoms period.

Races

Originally created as a Dungeons & Dragons setting, Nahast thus has a variety of fantasy races found in other settings, although they have been twisted and adapted to fit in the setting's cosmology of the Five Ages. The races of the Fifth Age are called Children of the Elements, as each has a secret patron in the directions corresponding to the elements of a tweaked classic Chinese alchemy.

Humans: The Jandeki, Children of Wind and Magic, are scattered and chaotic as their patron is, with little to bind them together as a race. They raise the strongest magicians in the land and their technology and sciences advances in leaps and bounds ahead of the other races.

Elves: The Prahja, Children of Water and Life, divided in two early in their history: the forest-striding Maehvindra and the seafaring Viryuni. While both have diametrically opposed attitudes towards others, they are together in their worship of the force of Life itself, and so the strongest witches and rangers are usually elves.

Dwarves: The Zhong, Children of Earth and Death, live strict disciplined lives in the bossom of their patron element. Great craftsmen and alchemists, their clans have been at war for centuries without anyone else even noticing.

Halflings: The Whanau, Children of Wood and Fate, are insular and seldom seen outside their tribal lands deep in the southern seas. While they can be as savage as the Maehvindran elves, they are also deeply spiritual and are actually the only race that understands the passage of the Five Ages, and the only ones aware of the coming Time of Testing.

The Beastfolk: These half-animals were once the ruling race of the world during the Fourth Age, but their dominance shattered along with their southern lands when the gods took a star and hurtled it upon the land to stop the beastfolk from making a mistake that would destroy the world. Having forgotten their former civilization, the beastfolk tribes have learned to coexist with the people of the Fifth Age.

The Reptilians: Once the rulers of the Third Age, the reptilian castes created the first true civilization of Nahast, but devolved into barbaric brutes when they failed their Time of Testing. Still, thanks to the secret awakening of a few Celestial Dragons, the reptilians are seeing a rebirth of their nations, slowly recovering the ancestral memories of their magic, martial arts and technology.

The Protagonists

Against such a complex background, the heroes of Nahast: Lands of Strife are mostly unaware of the possibly cosmic consequences of their actions, and are just trying to fulfill their duties and figure out their destinies:

Derrexi Tzelan

First-born daughter of House Tzelan, Derrexi was never a proper noble lady. She joined the order of Hawk Maidens early on, but a fatal error in judgment saw her expelled, for reasons still unrevealed. She then joined the infamous Obsidian Battalion where she matured both in character and skill, fighting demonspawn along some of the roughest and toughest the Empire had to offer.

More sedate and responsible in her adult years, she was getting ready to assume her duties as the heir of one of Solerne's main Noble Houses when the Empress tasked her to create a branch of the Hawk Maidens in the city of Beldatz. Full of doubts but not ready to settle down yet, Derrexi accepted and now finds herself in the middle of politics both mortal and supernatural, and is becoming aware that the Empress might have more than one reason to send her there.

Xu're

A young Zergunese man, his past is a mystery. He is a shaman, one who can see and talk with the spirits of the land, and he fled Zergune to obey the spirits' calling, who led him to Beldatz and have not yet told him what he's supposed to do there, only that Derrexi is probably involved.

Xu're always travels with his spirit guide, an opinionated warrior spirit called Thunder of the Emerald Forest. Xu're and Thunder are bound together by the laws of the nahual, and while the spirit grants many powers to the young shaman, they both benefit from their union. Xu're is prone to being possessed briefly by spirits who speak very uncomfortable truths in the form of riddles that he can barely understand.

Larriki

This priest of Suze'en is a raptor birdfolk, a humanoid hawk. Adopted by the Temple of the Aureous Feather in Beldatz, he has curbed his predatory nature with a deep understanding of the teachings of Suze'en, goddess of the wisdom of dawn, but his natural weapons have often served to protect pilgrims and travelers along the dangerous mountain passes.

Larriki is very knowledgeable in the history and legends of the region, and he has been having prophetic dreams about an approaching conflict. In meditation, the servants of Suze'en revealed that he is to aid those who come to Beldatz called by the upcoming conflict, and he has already identified Derrexi and Xu're as those whom fate has called to Beldatz.

Yanti

This boy is warm and friendly like most of his kind: a trickster dogfolk, a member of the untrusted and often shunned tribe of the Quetzerri. Like most of his tribe, Yanti resembles a fox in his natural form (the other part resemble coyotes), but these beastfolk are the only ones who have rediscovered part of the ancient beastfolk legacy of skinwalking. The power of assuming other shapes was lost at the end of the Fourth Age, but the Quetzerri have relearned it in the form of illusions, rather than true change.

Yanti appears as a human boy most of the time, but he can also take on the appearance of a human girl, and he uses both to have fun. He was impressed into service to Derrexi after she used her new influence to free him from jail, and so far has found the experience of running errands for her rather interesting, so he remains loyal.

Eclipse

Eclipse is a member of the Moonshades, a half-legendary order of spies and assassins whose reach and goals are a secret even to those who even know that they actually exists. Eclipse has orders to watch over the comings and goings of Derrexi, and help her from time to time, but her agenda is her masters', and this attitude could change in the future.

Eclipse has shown that she is not 'normal', but that she might actually be two people at the same time, with a soft, shy and timid personality she fights very hard to suppress with overt cruelty and ruthlessness. Her harsher side is rebelling against her master, giving some free interpretation to the orders she receives.

The Hawk Maidens

The order of Hawk Maidens was born after the Demon Wars, when the wives and daughters of the warlords had to band together to lead their people in defense of their homes, with the warriors away. These brave women ascended to the heavens to join the court of Suze'en as the goddess' elite bodyguards and warriors. Solerne honored their memory by creating the Hawk Maidens, girl warriors who have served as a settlement's last line of defense as well as protectors and bodyguards.

The seven young girls who accepted the challenge and are studying under Derrexi in Beldatz are:

Niriko Zarranz: She is a blonde in a land of dark-featured people, and this is because she's amongst the youngest of the first generation of half-elves ever born. As far as she knows, though, she's the only one.

Behari: An Amiyalli girl who escaped her life as an indentured prostitute, with no knowledge of why she was condemned to such a fate. Angry and sullen, she must learn to trust people again.

Jakitza Egoski: The daughter of a local magistrate, her dream is to pass the exams at the capital and become an Imperial Magistrate, but a recently passed local law destroyed that, and so she joins the Hawk Maidens to get the equivalent diploma she needs to fulfill her goal, not knowing that fate has other things in store for her.

Gisako Gizaletzi: Daughter of a wealthy merchant, she is sick of the corrupt and decadent lifestyle of the rich and powerful. Initially, she decided to join the Hawk Maidens out of rebellion, but a chance encounter at a party has given her an idea of just what is at stake around the success of the new Hawk Maidens.

Eruhien: A girl from the poorest district in Beldatz, she has no inclination to become a warrior, but she joined to alleviate the burden of her upkeep from her destitute parents, and devotes all the money she receives as her pay to help them out.

Zintzi Tainoz: A motherly and mature girl whose parents own a small store. She's Niriko's friend from school and joined the Hawk Maidens because just a year before, her boyfriend joined the City Watch and she wants something to share with him.

Waio'ko Xiang: A dwarf girl, daughter of an up-and-coming dwarven merchant. She convinced her father to let her join because it would give renown and recognition to their clan amongst the humans, but her real reason was to escape the strict upbringing of a dwarven teenager.

Movers and Shakers

These are the generals of the secret conflict brewing in the shadows of Beldatz, people who see Derrexi's arrival as an opportunity or an obstacle to their schemes.

Diru Aspikeri: Leader of the Merchant Guild, he has increased his power through illegal and quite often immoral means, so that the Guild is now challenging the nobility's authority and influencing the governor's decision.

Lord Oskardi Matzidari: Governor of Beldatz, he appears addle-brained and downright senile, but he's much, much smarter than he looks, but sadly not as much as he thinks.

Lady Matzidari: The governor's wife is the leader of the Moonshades of Beldatz, and has been undermining her husband's hold on the city for years to follow her own, dark agenda.

Xisve'ki: An undead sorcerer from the Third Age, his natural form is that of a cobra-like humanoid with decaying flesh. He has been working 'for' Diru Aspikeri, but this just until he recovers his full power and understand how the Fifth Age works so he can rule it, or destroy it.

An Ancient Celestial Dragon: A Celestial Dragon, one of those whose spirits are attuned to the greater power of the heavens, has been awake under Beldatz for a few years, and is monitoring the situation, just observing for the time being while he guides his worshippers, a tribe of small reptilians, to serve Derrexi as the staff of the Hawk Maiden academy.

The Role-Playing Game

The author has been working on rules that translate several aspects of Nahast into the d20 rules used by Dungeons & Dragons, so that people can use them in their own games. Most of the rules and information found on the main site are only a glimpse of the real rules document sitting in the author's hard drive.

There were plans to finish the book and release it for sale as a PDF, but the announcement of the release of Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition has forestalled these, and so the release of the Nahast source books has been put on hold while the author gets a hold of the new ruleset and license.

External links

Retrieved from "http://cgwiki.comicgenesis.com/index.php/Comic:Nahast_-_Lands_of_Strife"
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