Originally Posted by
Blueraven's Grimoire
All things considered, it really could have been worse. We weren't even jailed, threatened with human sacrifice, tortured, or roughed up a little.
A few hours ago, we were rifling through the barren remains of a human kingdom, Achu Kintan. Now we're being given a first class ride through the desert on an unusual contraption that reminds me of an Alerian/Salvic train crossed with a Raiaeran vessel running on a crude but powerful magitech engine. Its wheels run in huge treads, its base is fairly wide, and its top speed is a little better than many of the horses I've ridden over the years*. It's got three decks, rows of siege ballista on all of them, and ten fortified turrets for casters to sit in and lob spells with relative impunity. The crew numbers about sixty-eight, counting the ten battle mages and six mage-engineers who keep the engine running. Most of them dress in sturdy, uncomfortable looking cloth and leather; the kind of stuff that can shrug off shrapnel and light knives, even if it doesn't look terribly comfortable.
A handful of them have souvenirs, I guess you could call them, taken from the orcs. Guns are spreading through the human realms of Kebiras, but not nearly fast enough. There's some kind of technical imbalance between the two races, and the presence of the demielven Treserán* is a wild card nobody seems to know how to deal with. The wyrmfolk are basically known by all, distrusted by all, but tolerated and serve as the continent's traders-in-chief. I don't know if any of the human kingdoms have skyships yet. If they don't, it's just a matter of time before the orcs grind them down.
And just think: The Alerians could be doing this right now back home!
...except probably less genocidey and maybe a little elfier instead.
We're en route to a place called Tchao Kantul. The captain, who wears a nice coat and who held me at gunpoint earlier, claims that it's one of the last real bastions of human civilization in this part of the world. I don't know his actual name. The orc mages are, apparently, big on hitting people with curses and the locals have caught on to that. He calls himself Stonecoat. The rest of the crew have similar adopted nicknames. Wormaxe and I have opted to use our Sorcerous Names; they didn't trust Aeraul or Rowan enough to have anything but their real ones. Aeraul for obvious reasons**, Rowan because his Voice still has not faded. I'm honestly a little worried about it myself. Keep burning your power that long and there's bound to be some kind of consequence to it.
On the bright side: They're feeding us.
I don't know what, but Aeraul isn't committing cannibalism so it's okay in my book.***
* Such-and-such years later, I finally learn that Era's people are called Treserán -- Treserá for one person. It translates roughly as Three Will Be, which...fits, I guess. They derive from an unheard of mix of elf, orc, and human ancestry. They're a relatively young people who have only recently formed anything close to an actual nation or civilization of their own; most are still living among the orcs or, more rarely, among the humans. Actual elves, as we know them from Raiaera and Alerar, do not exist here anymore. The Treserán are the closest people to them. I find all the ironies of this situation to be downright delicious.
** They actually mistook Aeraul for a Treserán several times, until he corrects them that he's human. This is usually followed by funny looks and the occasional (impolite) declaration of disbelief. Most have taken to identifying him as an orc or a half-man. He's taking it remarkably well, I think.
*** It comes from dragons. I'm okay with that.