Alysara hasn’t talked to me for a while now. Kayafe mentally sighs.
It’s hard to keep track of time in the Mana Arc, but she can tell a long time from a short time. Normally she would go dormant and wait for the young girl, but she never came. It’s not the first time this has happened, as life often throws obstacles in one's way.
She’s probably busy curing her cursed skills or anima.
It reminds her of the time Dwohl was so focused on curing his own cursed skill.
Did he ever manage to cure it? Kayafe wonders.
Memories flash in Kayafe’s mind. Memories of a time more adventurous, more alive than now.
* * *
“This blasted curse!” Dwohl swears, hissing as wisps of ectoplasm drifts off his arms like steam. He shakes his four powerful arms as if trying to shake off the pain. “I promise that I’ll get rid of it one day!”
He grinds his tough digging claws against each other as a way to distract himself from the pain.
“Your flesh is weak,” Verdant remarks, almost teasingly. “We elves need no pain we ju—”
“Ah, shut it, you leafy bastard!” Dwohl kicks a fist-sized rock, sending it flying into the brush “I’d like to see your kind dig through earth and stone as easily as a dwarf!”
Dwohl raises his horn head high as if to challenge the elf.
“Enough!” Alexander barks. “We need to get to the top of this mountain today, we can’t stand around all day arguing! You two, scout the perimeter. Kayafe how much longer will the butchering take?”
“Almost done,” She replies, her spells extracting the best of the monster materials.
* * *
The memories stop, but she can’t help but feel nostalgic. Dwohl and Verdant were always arguing over something or another but their rivalry only made them best of friends in some weird way. It was only a month after climbing that mountain that they’d see the consequences of carelessly handling cursed skills and after that Verdant started helping Dwohl research cursed skills.
* * *
Ting! Your party has slain a Displacer!
All around them, people and things are melded into the ground, trees, and walls. Houses are stuck halfway into the ground as if being swallowed by the earth. Hands, legs, and halves of people stick out of the ground, their faces contorted with pain, making the scene look like a horrifying nightmare.
The cursed being would teleport people and things into other solid objects, quickly killing them. Death spirits drift around, spreading small amounts of death essence in the air. No one was spared, not even the women, children, and infirm.
They had nearly died as well; none of them had teleportation resistance, nor do most people. It was only because of Verdant’s healing that they are still living. It’s such a rare ability to offensively teleport others, and there are usually safeguards built into the skill to prevent something like this from happening.
“Such, terrible power.” Verdant says solemnly. “Is this what cursed beings are capable of?”
“This is only the beginning,” Dwohl says. “The kid only had a level thirty skill, imagine if he had a level two hundred skill. Imagine how powerful the cursed being would have been”
“You mean to say that the stronger the cursed skill is the stronger the cursed being they become?!” Verdant looks at Dwohl, his emerald eyes wide with shock.
“Yes,” Dwohl hesitates before speaking further. “We… I was part of the king’s experiment, a mere test subject. We were never told the consequences, just that we’d be allowed to ascend if we followed orders” Dwohl spat out the word like it was venom.
“Thankfully, I escaped after one of my brothers transformed into a cursed being. He had a level one hundred sixty skill, and his death, or rather the death of the cursed being he became, was worthy of a world message.”
“A cursed being equal to a legendary being?!” Alexander looks aghast. “Dwohl, your skill is over two hundred! That’s way higher than a hundred sixty!”
“Yes, If I were to absorb my skill into a Class or Race I will become a very powerful cursed being” Dwohl looks down at the corpse of the cursed being, with anger and confusion in his eyes.
“I told him not to do it! Why did he not listen?!” Dwohl takes a deep breath to recenter himself “It took me a few weeks after my escape, but I eventually learned to never do that. However, it’s more complicated than that. Levels aren’t everything, breakthroughs matter too, if not more so. A level capped skill may produce a weaker cursed being than a skill of the same level but more breakthroughs. We need to find a way to remove or cleanse the curse from a skill to prevent this from ever happening again, and so maniac kings don’t take advantage of this bullshit for their own gains!”
They all share a moment of silence before Verdant speaks up.
“I never knew you had such a troubling history. I will help you in your endeavors to cleanse this world of these foul abominations"
“You have my oath that once the human kingdom and its corrupt rulers are overthrown, I will support your cause with everything I have to spare, we will see to it that this will never happen again!” Alexander motions to the ruined village around them.
“I too will help you if and when I can, Dwohl; you are not alone in your efforts.” She says.
Dwohl crosses his four arms and turns around to hide his emotions.
“Thank you,” Dwohl says, trying to control his tears.
* * *
That was before they reached Legendary tier, and the fight had been their most difficult fight yet even though the cursed being itself was not equivalent to Legendary tier. The mere notion of fighting Legendary beings had never even crossed her mind, even if they would have to, to overthrow the human kings.
Kayafe can’t help but wonder if the old dwarf ever succeeded in his quest. How would he react if he knew Alysara had pretty much figured it out? She might have been able to solve it if she had spent more time training [Sense Mana] and evolving it to [Sense Magic]. How different would the world be if things had gone just a little differently?
There's no point in thinking like that, the last few breakthroughs would have been too hard to figure out by the time she settled in the Nexus. In the end, she only managed to survive her journey because she trained [Manipulate Mana] so much.
So what about Verdant then? Was he able to go further in the heirloom tier like Alysara? He got his Heirloom race after getting his first Legendary point, so compared to her, he was far behind; or maybe she's just far ahead?
* * *
Verdant lays motionless on the inn's feathery bed, one would think he's dead if they didn't know better. Elves don't have lungs, so they are particularly still when sleeping.
Outside, a flock of feathery birdmen gathers around, hoping to see the one who slew the Great Scorcher.
"I hope you don't take this the wrong way," Holoo, one of the winged feathery men, says. "But please let Verdant take full credit, the people can accept a plant man to be the slayer, but wingless surface dwellers? Your names are not on the world notification so no one will believe it."
"What?!" Alexander furiously exclaims. "And whose false pretense is it that your people are somehow better? I didn't see any of you fighting that Scorcher!"
"Aside from Kayafe, we are born Heroic or Exalted tier; you Oowals are only born Major tier. You would do best not to argue supremacy!" Dwohl growls threateningly.
"That matters not" Holoo shakes his head. "You have no wings. It shows that you are descended from those who flew too close to the great flame and had their wings burned off. The wingless are cursed, and it shows, as it was the plant-man that got the slayer notification, not you who are undeserving."
"What utter nonsense! You try to justify your prejudice with myths!" Alexander glares at Holoo, rage burning in his eyes.
"The truth does not rely on you believing it, but don't say I didn't warn you. Our people despise glory takers, especially from the wingless."
"Hypocrite!" Alexander says to the man as he turns and leaves the room. "I know you're used to this kind of thing, Kayafe, but this is the type of thing we aim to solve; you should speak your mind more."
"There's little use arguing about it, Alex. Only through shared bloodshed can two different people learn to see past their differences. Those who think themselves superior are reluctant to admit they are wrong." Kayafe says.
"Perhaps," Alexander says after a minute of thought. "But isn't that just something they learned? If we teach them that all races can achieve the same level of power no matter where they start, before they learn this crap, then they won't be so prejudicial."
"I second that opinion." Dwohl nods in agreement to Alex’s argument. "Every other dwarf I know believes any race with a tier less than Heroic is incapable of emotion and doesn't feel pain. But I never grew up in normal dwarven society, so I never learned any of that. When I escaped, I could see with my own two eyes the pain and torment other races are subjected to under dwarven slavery, unlike my brethren."
"In order to prevent prejudice and crimes on such large scales, we must tear down these barbaric cultures that perpetuate it and build one that accepts all races for who they are." Alexander declares.
"Even if that means tearing children away from their parents? War and destruction? That will only teach other races to hate humans more." She says.
She is conflicted; on one hand, Alex isn't wrong that it is through bad tradition and culture that prejudice persists, but on the other, the actions that Alex thinks need to be done, she can't agree with.
However, before they could discuss anything further, Verdant woke up, revealing a third emerald eye on his forehead.
* * *
Alexander did not heed Holoo's warning, and they were chased out of town that evening. However, as fate would have it, this was a stroke of fortune as a few days later, that town was obliterated by a phoenix, a foe they could not have hoped to contend with at their power at the time.
As the first among them to reach Legendary tier, Verdant was the most helpful in slaying more Legendary beings until she was able to get the second kill. However, Kayafe was the third to reach Legendary tier since Alex realized he was born with a point due to being a reincarnated Legacy soul.
With three Legendary tiers in the group they felt powerful and ready to take on anything, however, soon after descending from the sky islands, they learned what true power really was.
* * *
Before them sits a dragon, no larger than a domestic Forron, but one with stars and planets for scales. Space around it cracks and fragments like shattered glass only to be healed seconds later as if it is on the verge of rupturing permanently while strange spacial waves sweep through the temple, distorting everything they pass through.
A being of such unparalleled and unobtainable power that even its very presence rends space itself apart and could even kill a Legendary being without effort, if it wanted.
"So you wish to traverse the realms?" The dragon asks.
* * *
That was the start of their adventure across realms. The dragon followed them, often offering advice or commentary and transported them to other realms but otherwise never interfered. It explained that it was a traveler, not an adventurer, and that it made a promise to itself not to interfere in foreign realms.
That, she has to admit, is a good thing, for if that dragon had destructive tendencies, the world would have been destroyed already.
Kayafe sighs, growing weary of nostalgia, and drifts off to dormancy, the last thought running through her mind is if Alexander has had to use that dragon's parting gift yet…
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Holup Alexander, as in Alexander the human emperor, whose (racist) empire just fought off a bunch of cursed beings early on in the story?
Edit: My definition of racism is being discriminatory and not giving opportunities to some races that are afforded to others solely on the basis of race. The human empire objectively did this even if they were working towards not enslaving/exterminating every single non human.
Yes
I wouldn't call his empire racist. Rather of a heavy paternalism, a little like the least contemptuous European colonization.
Obviously, according to our moral criteria, what he does remains wrong, since he erases cultures to impose his own, but it is not because he believes human culture to be superior. This passage shows his motivations: he thinks that it is the discriminatory beliefs that are the problem and that to remove them, you have to wipe the slate clean.
The empire is actually against racism. They simply use extreme means to destroy the racism.
@MrNerfGun yes, and before blaming the human empire, remember one thing: there really is a natural hierarchy of races in this world, even if it only applies to magic power. Maybe the emperor sincerely thinks that it's best for the other races to live under human tutelage, or maybe in 10,000 he's had time to test several other social systems and this is the one whichever works best.
@Alcyon With how terrible the dwarfs/elves seems like from the few tidbits we get about them, I honestly don't care about the flaws of the human empire. Or rather, I support the human empire in this story.
On a side note, the human empire in this story reminds me of The Empire in the Warhammer games and Karl Franz.
@MrNerfGun I would go back and read side story 1 if I were you, regardless of the attitude of Alexander, the empire itself is clearly racist in the invading natives, stripping them of their cultures and languages then forcing them into menial jobs sense.
@Alcyon @MrNerfGun Racism is a spectrum, no a binary yes/no.
They are not free of racist tones, but compared to the setting average they are doing really good.
maybe in 10,000 he's had time to test several other social systems and this is the one whichever works best.
Very very minor spoiler
most of the 10k years has been spent stabilizing the empire
My take of this (that is not specifically supported by anything) is that the tech level of Humans is low-ish as what kills off the desire for slaves is having more cost effective tech to fill the niche
@Mantiswin What I meant is that it is very different from European colonizations. The Emperor truly wants to integrate the other races. He doesn't tolerate slavery and when a race has been "civilized", they become citizens with the same rights as the humans. They are even helped by the government to find jobs because of their racial disadvantages.
Saying that the empire is racist is ignoring what really happens and putting it in the same group as with civilizations that did much worse to satisfy their own greed. You'll understand what true racism in the world of Alysara is once you get to read about the other "greater" races. (you can already get a taste of it by reading what Dwohl said about the dwarves)
Also, a human saying that another race is lesser is actually justified (though not in an intellectual sense). They are born Exalted, the highest mortal tier (An Adept race like the Runalymo gets a 100% racial bonus while for Humans it is around 2500% racial bonus). And having no racism as we call it in our era is nearly impossible with the diversity of that world (would you behave the same with someone that looks like a moving plant or a bulky small humanoid with four arms with 2 having claws and a horn on their forehead ?), it is already incredible that the Empire doesn't allow the slavery of other races.
@MrNerfGun Just because they are not genocidal pro-slave maniacs does not mean that they are not racist. I said that the empire as a whole was racist and that should be apparent to anyone who reads side story 1. They treat other races as lesser individuals, that is all it takes to be racist. I said absolutely nothing about them being worse or better than colonial powers.
@Mantiswin The other races are literally lesser, it's a fact, not a justification for Human supremacy. But the way you wrote that the empire is racist still feels wrong to me as they are the only greater race trying to make everyone equal.
@Mantiswin To give you a comparison of what is happening, it would be the same as if our pets (the harmless kind) suddenly gained sapience and the government forced us to treat them as equals.
@Mantiswin You cannot judge something out of its context. For example, talking about racism in antiquity, when all peoples thought that the rest of the world were barbarians, makes no sense. In a world where races are naturally unequal in terms of power, defending equality is more complicated. Of course, humans relegate other races to menial positions when they could be given responsibilities that don't involve fighting, so the discrimination isn't just based on real facts. But the fact is that there really is a natural hierarchy of races in this world with the system. And that makes it much harder to justify equality. From this point of view the Emperor Alexander has achieved a feat in terms of progressivism.
@Alcyon Alexander being so progressive compared to his empire just proves my point. You have a society where there is still a shining example of tolerance in Alexander, and what occurs in this society. He is barely able to increase tolerance to the point where only one race is shown partially integrated into society. And this was done by stripping them of everything that makes them a people. The people of the empires response to this was to massacre entire cities in order to create cursed beings in protest. Even in real world history there have always been people that stood counter to racism even when scientific consensus called other races lesser.
@MrNerfGun They didn't gain sapience they always had sapience and they got mad when someone said that they had to stop treating sapient beings as people. How you can see a socio treating sapient beings as lesser because of their race and not call it racism is mind-blowing.
Maybe this is a misunderstanding, but what I'm trying to show is that the empire as a whole is racist, not Alexander in particular.
@Mantiswin Reread the chapter: it is not non-humans who created cursed beings to free themselves, but humans opposed to the Emperor's policy who want to be able to enslave other races.
@Alcyon I was talking about the humans that opposed racial integration, not non humans. Hence why I said "people of the empire"
@Mantiswin Yeah, my example was the closest thing I could think of in the real world. What I meant is that compared to humans, the other races are just a bunch of weak uneducated warmonger animals that are inferior in nearly all aspects.
And the tiers clearly makes the other races lesser. If they call them lesser, it wouldn't be racism but realism.
Spoiler:
The rebellion wasn't caused by the integrated races but by the humans who wanted to be able to do slavery all they wanted and they were helped by the elves who had other motives. As I said earlier, the other races are too weak to even resist the humans. Edit: forget about that
And about saying that the empire as whole is racist. Now I understand what you mean but, when you say the EMPIRE, it means the government. So that means that you said that the rules of the empire enforces racism. What you should have said was that the POPULATION of the empire was racist.
But if you say that the humans are racist, then you should know that nearly every races are racist (I'm including minor racism in there (like, being rejected for a job because of your race)) , even the low tiered ones. Favouriting one's race is the natural thing to do when you are still trying to survive.
The thing is that when you don't have a common ground where everybody can learn about each other, nobody will be able to trust the other, thus you get racism or nationalism. It is normal for any non-contemporary era.
And what you did with your comment was accusing the humans who are the only proactive progressist race. Yes, they are doing evil, but in the long term, there would be way less deaths and atrocities because of war and racism which is in the process of elimination.
@MrNerfGun So, in the end, I believe that labeling the humans as "racist" is irrelevant because they are one of the least racist race.
It's like calling a doctor violent because he sticks you with a syringe to cure you. (what I mean is that there is no real violence. I'm not talking about the integration program, that's another thing)
@MrNerfGun When you say "What I meant is that compared to humans, the other races are just a bunch of weak uneducated warmonger animals that are inferior in nearly all aspects." The only lense we are viewing this through is the lense of a human. Furthermore this is the EXACT SAME justification that European powers used in order to "civilize" Africa.
On the topic of comparison just because other races are more racist doesn't mean that humans aren't racist. Comparing wiping out entire cultural identities in order to make a people more civil, to a doctor curing them of their savagery is unsettlingly close to real world justifications for Eugenics.
@Mantiswin
The difference between the Empire and the European colonizations is that the Empire truly wants equality while for Europe it was just an excuse for pillaging and slavery.
About the doctor thing, I chose the wrong comparison, this is why I said that I wasn't talking about the integration program but specifically racism. I'll rephrase it. "Would you call someone a violent person for accidentally bumping into you? ".
And you are still misunderstanding the point of my comments. I didn't say that the humans weren't racist but that racism does not represent who they are and that calling the empire the "racist empire" is wrong because in that case you should also call every kingdom, empire and other types of nations: racist nations. (Even the Runalymo call the humans an evil race, thus they are also racist. )
I actually don't care if someone or something is justified or not or good or bad in a novel. I just don't like when something is misnomed.
@MrNerfGun Ok I just thought you were calling the empire not racist I put (racist) in parentheses because that's what I remembered about the empire and we've seen a few other empires more recently.
For me, the big problem is that if in the real world there are only humans and all people are biologically identical in their capacities, in this world there are several species with different capacities. If we were in an MMORPG, the different races would have strengths and weaknesses that balance each other out and make them equal, but here it is nature (or the system) that decides their potential, according to the hazards of evolution and with arbitrary strength differences between them.
Suppose we discover a genetic treatment allowing a part of human beings to have a perfect eideitic memory. With equal rights and education, this unique advantage would automatically make them the pinnacle of our meritocratic society. But to compensate for this, for example with a policy of positive discrimination, you have to give up the equality of citizens, with the problems that you can imagine. This is also one of the concerns of transhumanism: since only the rich can afford improvements, this will end up creating a new hereditary aristocracy, except that its atavistic superiority will be real.
Now transpose this problem to the world of Alysara, with dozens of races that must coexist in the same society while some are naturally geniuses and others handicapped. How to prevent a hierarchy from establishing itself naturally? If you establish a system of compensation so that power and wealth are distributed fairly, it is the heroic and exalted level races that will feel discriminated against. The society created by the Emperor may just be the best possible compromise for now.
It wasn't a racist empire.
The existence of 'lesser' races is a matter of fact in the system. The aim of the empire was to combat misguided (according to them) cultures and help other races reach higher tiers. Other than that, they were pretty much full citizens of the empire once they had been culturally integrated.
It's hard to accept from our modern perspective but in that world racial supremacy is simply a reality while in ours it isn't.
I understood it, and I find it audacious on the part of the author. Most stories dealing with discrimination do so in a very consensual way, showing discrimination based solely on prejudice and/or resentment, and where the protagonists just have to perform a few feats to change mentalities. Here, the racial hierarchy is a scientific reality, which makes it much more difficult to create an egalitarian society. The only other example I know of this pattern is the manga Magi: Labyrinth of Magic.
100% factually incorrect about them being racist. Runalymo, Fylox, and many more are not Humans.
But yea it's the same guy I just checked.
@RandomReviewer the same guy ?
@Alcyon It's Alexander the guy we saw back in the first side chapter?....
@RandomReviewer yes
@RandomReviewer In story race is defined in the status screen. The prejudice is against what is referred to in the status screen(Chapter 2 Alysara's system calls her Race: Runalymo). Treating individuals as inferior due to what their race is, is by definition racism.
@Mantiswin The only way Alexander could be racist is if you twist what race generally means or if he was actually shown to discriminate by race. Most people generally agree that it is incredibly minor differences in a Subspecies, but some weird people go as far as to call people with different beliefs a different Race (Those that follow Judaism for example). Under that example Culture discrimination is Racial discrimination, which is frankly stupid.
Alexander has only been shown to discriminate based on Subspecies and Culture. Never once has he been shown to discriminate based on race. It's actually up for debate if he has, because there are both pros and cons to discriminating based on race when integrating a Subspecies into the Empire.
Very minor spoilers for the next few chapters:
The issue is that the system does distinguish between Races, allowing them to gain ranks independently of one another, but doesn't easily distinguish between Species or Subspecies. Meaning there is no way to figure out if a "race" is a different Species, Subspecies, or Race.
I believe this is caused because the Author doesn't actually know the difference between a Species, Subspecies, or Race. To further add to the confusion the definition of Species is based off the ability to procreate, which I'm inclined to believe Alexander could procreate with a dragon because magic, both figuratively and literal shape shifting magic. This is made way more convoluted when you realize that EVERYONE is a different race because of evolution choices.
TLDR: Author doesn't know the difference between Species, Subspecies, and Race, and as a result has never shown Alexander discriminating by race, only Subspecies and Culture. According to the system, Alysara's entire family is a different race from one another.
@RandomReviewer Firstly Alexander isn't racist, I never called him racist, I called the empire itself racist. Secondly it's a fantasy world, I personally do not expect a fantasy world to use the same terminology to differentiate people. Especially since race is only an informal term in taxonomic hierarchy due to it being a social construct in our world.
If the system says that race refers to the Human race, or the Fylox race, then that should be taken as the formal term for race in this fantasy world, and trump over the informal definition of race in our world.
@Mantiswin Unraveling this mess, re-remembering my tired train of thought, it getting difficult and becoming a major headache so I give up.
Fine, Alexander, his Empire, Alysara, Kayafe, and everyone else in this world are racists then. At some point they absolutely will not hire someone because they don't have the correct race. Why? Because your race is determined by your occupation in this world and gives direct bonuses to your occupation. I'm not even sure if it falls under the definition of Racist at this point, but you can debate that with yourself.