CW - Mention of gore and dark content

I stared down at the map in front of me, and noted the fact that, despite being considered two continents, they were attached via a rather large land bridge. Although, what with Earth having three continents better connected, this was fairly normal. The real issue herein is the measurement of distance because, either this continent is ridiculously tiny or I’m just misreading. ”Sir,” I asked as I bit at the inside of my lip, “It’s fifty-nine… um… How far…”

Iberis smiled down at me, “It’s fifty-nine thocs, a thoc is the distance that the typical horses you see everyday travels or thereabouts in a single sctrye’s worth of time.”

So… I hate math, and I would be hard pressed to figure it out, what with me being a four-year-old right now so I’m not sure how far that is in miles, I do know that sctrye are basically this world’s version of hours, and they’re an hour and a half essentially. I’m not sure why, but there has to be some sort of reason.

“So, it’s fifty-nine thocs to Ulnalabuz from here?” I mused.

“Correct,” my teacher answered, “However, we’ll leave geography to another day, you still have a history lesson at the moment.” I nodded and slipped down from the chair as my teacher began writing on the chalkboard in dirty gray chalk.

As I sat down, I looked towards the writing.

948 E.P – Birth of the Western Alliance

“As you already know from the founding story, our country is primarily made of elves, groundfolk, and humans. Other races also live here, but they fall far short of the population of the those three. Furthermore, those races are refuges. Due to the ongoing wars with Zamunz, towns closer to the borders suffer greatly. While we do share a northern border with them, the area north of the mountains is almost completely abandoned, though we do have a few fortresses there. As such, fourty one years ago, we were approached by diplomats of Stilia, Kanuan, and Fard.”

Iberis wrote the three names on the chalkboard. “These three nations approached the Emperor and the three Kings. Obviously, our leaders were averse to the idea of joining the war efforts, seeing as it had only been just a few decades since the last conflict at the time, and as such we simply provide resources such as weaponry, food, and research. This led to the foundation of the Western Alliance. Should any of three nations reach dire straits and near collapse, only then will we provide full force aide and troops. Thankfully, perhaps due to the baptism of war, this hasn’t happened anytime in the past four decades.”

I blinked, no wonder the game had never introduced any of this. It was complex and almost akin to a medieval version of the world wars. To think I went from a world that was mostly peaceful to something so tumultuous. This whole scenario was also, I have to admit, so interesting! Four nations were at war with one of the largest nations, and some of them for hundreds of years.

“Sir?” I raised my hand to get his attention and used my absolute biggest puppy dog eyes. The main benefit of being a child again, adults would usually fulfill my requests, hehehe.

“Miss Astrid?” he waved his hand.

“Why is Zamunz attacking everyone so much?” I asked.

“Ah, a good question I likely should have answered before,” my longhaired teacher mused, before closing his eyes, which were an interesting shade of blue I had never seen before, “Perhaps, seeing as much of modern history has to do with them, I should elaborate on our aggressive neighbors.”

His opened his eyes, “Miss Astrid, you are merely four, so I shall warn you now. Zamunz is, even considering the East, the most violent and despicable country in our world. Most children learn, at an age younger than yours, to fear the north. Their actions are some that would make many a grizzled warrior tremble, do you still wish to know?”

I bit my lip and nodded slowly.

“Very well. If need be, ask, and I shall say no more until you are ready.”

“I will sir.”

“Good. The Zamunzian Empire, unlike other nations, tolerates no other races except as slaves, except those who would renounce their god and worship theirs. All human, elf, and groundfolk cities in their borders have long since been destroyed down to the last child. Some races who were once native to those lands no longer exist. The so-called Holy Race of the empire have two names. In their tongue, they are the Amun, which means something similar to dark elf in our language. Outside of those lands, due to their similarities to a race of common monsters, they are called Hobgoblins. Their eyes are blacker than night, their ears droop straight down from their heads, their noses are upturned, and some are known to have tusks. They have skin such a deep green it is nearly black.”

Iberis turned around and began drawing upon the chalkboard, “This of course, is not the origin of their particular strain of madness. Instead, that spawns from the only religion practiced by these creatures. They worship the god of ruin and terror, Zeloc, who they refer to as the Lord of the Deep. According to their religion, Zeloc was once the lord of demons in history long lost, until time came that he nearly destroyed the people of his own creation and the last of them renounced him. The other gods spurned him and expelled him from the heavens. Lost amongst deep caverns of the earth, he created the first of the Amun. He then bequeathed his new creation with a crusade; to destroy all other races, even those who he once made before, and through this, bring him the power to destroy the other gods who he considered beneath him. They refer to this, their religion, as the Depths Gospel.”

“Their priests and cardinals are the Shaman Lords. Their emperor, the center of their faith, is known as the High Amun. Throughout known history, the hobgoblins have hung the leader of any force they destroyed from their emperor’s castle and set them aflame while still alive. Their advisors are given to the Shaman Lords, who adorn their manors with the limbs and their staffs with the rotting heads of their victims. Their status is based on the number of skulls and heads on these staffs. The remaining forces are gutted, eaten, enslaved, and so on.”

I felt my stomach churn as I looked down at my desk, a deep unsettling sensation of disgust and horror setting it into a turmoil. Back on Earth such things had happened, especially during the world wars, but not to such a degree in some time, as far as I knew. No wonder every other nation on this continent was embroiled in war.

“Miss Astrid, are you alright?” I heard Iberis ask, followed by footsteps. I nodded my head, in case my stomach decided to betray me by releasing my breakfast. In another moment, I felt small, though larger than my own, arms wrap around me. I turned and saw the face of Keo, a big smile on his face.

“It’s okay sister,” he said, “I would never let some nasty hobgoblin touch you! Father wouldn’t! Mother wouldn’t either! Nor will uncle or anyone else! Right teacher?”

“No need to worry, Miss Astrid, we are quite far from such a vile place.”

I nodded, “I know that and I know they wouldn’t. It’s horrible that such things happen though, all those people who died like that…”

“And that, Miss Astrid,” I heard Iberis say, “is precisely why this continent fights. At least, I can hope.”