A marvelous castle stood right in front of Apollo, it never occurred to him that one day he would spectate a living breathing castle, he saw many pictures of castles back on Earth but they were all so old that they paled in comparison. The one standing high and mighty in front him was different, its on a whole different level in terms of size and beauty. It spanned far into the horizons, you would expect that such a gigantic city would take centuries to build but in fact Apollo read that Hollevin only took a decade to look like what it is now. This was primarily a cause of magic, to be more specific, earth magic. Spell casters who specialised in earth magic would be hired in droves in order to build colossal cities like Hollevin. High level earth casters were especially sought after due to their ability to instill magic resistances to the tall walls of various buildings. Even as of now, Apollo could see casters on top of the walls in the distance, creating massive stone blocks that further expanded Hollevin's scope. He inspected a spot on the wall and out came a brief description, "Compact stone block:, Good quality stone blocks enhanced with magic fortification, able to resist most magic spells by 15%".
"Alfredo, has anyone ever tried laying siege on Hollevin before?"
"No, in fact it's difficult to destroy cities unless you were at least a Grand Mage", although cities such as Hollevin were heavily fortified with magic resistances, it could still fall into ruins if powerful individuals like the royal mage of Redania were to cast a powerful Annhilation grade spell like Armaggedon, a heavenly spell that summoned a lesser meteor from space.
"How powerful is a Grand mage?"
"Powerful enough to change the tide of war, however, there are only a handful of such individuals alive on Greiss currently, one of them being the Royal court mage of Emperor Khan", a very old man came to mind when he said that.
"Does the Byzantine empire have a Grand mage?", the Byzantine empire consisted of 11 countries in the south of Redania ruled by emperor Constantine, historically speaking, the Dracir empire ruled by emperor Khan had fought countless wars with the Byzantine empire resulting in heavy casualties leading to unbreakable grudges between one another.
"None as of yet but they do have several Prefect warriors that could threaten the Dracir Grand mage. Although, the Gaul empire in the North does have one". Redania is considered human territory and it is split into three parts, controlled by three different sovereigns, Dracir being the most powerful of the three, it had controlled the entire central part of Redania, stretching from East to West. Gaul was in the north and Byzantine to the south.
"It is fortunate that we are in an alliance with the Gaullic empire, else Emperor Khans conquest of the midlands wouldn't be so dominating", continued Alfred. Truthfully, Gaul has been neutral for the most part due to their emperors policy of seeking a peaceful era, they personally haven't joined the conflict between Dracir and Byzantine. The alliance between Gaul and Dracir may seem pointless but it kept a balance between the three human empires and it was rumoured that Gaul will lend their arms in battle if the other opposing races were to invade Redania such as the brutal orcs of Hasha in the western part of Greiss. Hasha and Redania were only separated by a mere ocean. To put things into perspective, Redania was "sandwiched" by three different continents, the previously said Hasha, the dwarven Cavas at the top of Redania and the elvish continent of Vanir, just to the right of Redania.
Walking through the portucullis of Hollevin, Apollo couldn't help but ask, "Are warriors capable of killing Grand Mages?", afterall he had planned on pursuing a career in magic should he get the opportunity to attend an academy.
"It is possible yes but it is highly unlikely if conditions are unfavourable to the warrior, you must understand that mages of that degree are capable of short burst teleportations thus they can have ridiculous advantages which includes range. However, if a Tribunate class warrior were to battle a grand mage, then you could say that the mage stood no chance at all" Although, mages were typically stronger than other professions of the same grade, they were still susceptible to higher ranked enemies such as Tribunates, mages were also often rarer to find as magic could not be used by most people.
"That makes sense, I'd like to visit the public library today, lets make haste before my mother gets worried"
After walking for what seemed to be 20 minutes across busy streets and commercial districts, Apollo and Alfred came upon a beautiful white building of gothic aesthetics, Apollo frequently visited this very building as it was a good source of knowledge, he had always been reading books in an effort to expand the Encylopaedia in his mind and he did so diligently, knowledge was power in his humble opinion. He entered the establishment and quickly found himself lost in the wonders of literature, he would pick out books that expressed useful information about Greiss and if he could, he would try to look for books about mages and the immortals. Alfred would simply pick out a random book as he closely watches over the young boy, he did not really mind spending his time waiting, his strongest point was being loyal to House Heimarch, it had been deeply ingrained in his mind that he must look after Apollo at any cost.
Not a lot of people visited the library, on a busy day only a maximum of a hundred people visited the place to read, it was mostly consisting of scholars or men in their middle ages, It was very rare for a young person to visit the library. The primary reason for this was because of it's location in Hollevin, it was situated in the noble district away from the commonfolk and although it was considered a public library truly only the rich could enter and read. The social construct of Greiss in general was very unequal, It was heavily skewed for people in the higher class and it was them that had the most priveleges. Unfairness and inequality was rife in the lower social classes, 'peasants' were especially discriminated against. In fact most cities were divided into districts based on social classes and Hollevin was no exception. Despite wearing inexpensive clothes, Apollo and Alfred were still given access due to Apollo's possession of a noble stamp given to him by his mother.
Stamps were readily used for letters and signing documents but its biggest function was to clarify a persons position within the social ladder, it was classified into four types: Royalty, Nobility, Common and Peasant stamps each made from a different material. The royal stamp was pure gold, the noble stamp was pure silver, the common stamp was made of pure iron and lastly peasants had wooden stamps. Slaves were an exception as they weren't considered part of the social construct, they were viewed as nothing but animals. Apollo was very shocked when he learned of this fact, coming from a modern society, where he had not witnessed slavery, he could not help but feel guilty. Guilty of the fact that he was reincarnated into a ruling class, he wanted to help those in need but he knew that it would be an impossible task to change the perspective of everyone in the world, even back on Earth inequality was still a social problem, it could not be fixed unless he was a God capable of rewiring every mortals way of thinking. As harsh as it is, he thought that it would be in vain to spend his time trying to save the poor around Greiss, its simply not part of his goal and he didn't feel obligated to do so.
Apollo has two different stamps to his name, a merchant class noble stamp that he used to access the library and the decorated noble stamp that denoted his ruling class background tucked away in his inventory. He did not wish to use it as it implicated who he was and that caused him various problems, therefore he resorted to the other less-prolific stamps. There were many other types of stamps used such as guild stamps or religious stamps each varying depending on their hierarchy, for example, the warriors and mages guild were often higher than the rangers guild due to a difference in organisation power. The rangers guild was not very prolific or influential in Redania due to the low number of members in their guild, however this would be the opposite in the elven continent as most elven combatants were rangers (archers). On the other hand, the importance of religious stamps varied depending on a countries belief in different types of gods, the two major Gods of Redania were Adam & Eve, the proclaimed ancient ancestors. These stamps were usually in the possession of priests and the other members of the clergy.
In order to prevent the use of stolen stamps, Johann Bludmun, a renowned blood mage of the past proposed a contract bound by blood which created a link between an owner and his stamp. Of course, only a percentage of the total population ever knew of this fact. Government officials almost encouraged thieves to steal stamps so that they would be caught redhanded once their stolen stamps had been inspected by patrolling inspectors. It was a bloody trap, quite a clever way of ousting criminals. Stamps had a special importance especially within religious organisisations so if you were caught red-handed, a bleak end was to be expected, execution or slavery was the common sentence.
This was a surprisingly recurring event that took place throughout Greiss as petty thievery was always done by the uneducated. Some countries have even exploited this secret in order to obtain large groups of slaves as a cheap labour force. Apollo always thought that this was a dreadful conspiracy, but of course he couldn't do anything about it ; he feared that releasing widespread information would incur the wrath of multiple government bodies who would surely hunt down the whistleblowers.
