6 People of the Day - The Lesser Eight

"It is not truly known when the first civilization arose on Arkhaia. According to the far east, it was the mythical Shen dynasty or the Kingdom of Kunlun. According to human archaeological finds, the Na'shir culture were definitevely the first. Furthermore, evidence from multiple sources are strong in all these claims of being the cradle of civilization. Thus, the truth is far from being known. Perhaps, only the gods could answer….."

- Prehistory Volume 1, p. 132

After six thousand years, Amanah returned to create for the final time. All the races she had created previously are beginning to make their marks upon the vast world. The Haoma have grown massive and powerful, some of their brethren rivalling mountains in size, moving forests of pure magical power.

The dragons in the east have shaped the land with their magic, forming mountains and contours, artificial lakes and even inland seas. In a show of developing early cultures and customs, the dragons divided themselves into factions and castes.

The oldest dragons, the first eight were of the highest castes, declared as the True Dragon Gods, ought to be revered and respected, even worshipped by some. Each True Dragon God represents a faction possessing a fraction of their native continent in territory.

Eight states, ruled by each of the first dragons. These states became the home of all dragons, each assigned their own territory in reflection to their power and seniority. The highest dragons below the eight ruled over provinces, then rule over entire biomes, then rule over mountains, with the lowest ones only ruling a lake of their own, a mountain of their own or a city sized territory of forest.

The Leviathans had begun their conflict since 5,000 years before, fighting and mating to produce more of their kind in the abyss. The sea boiled and drenched in the blood of hyper evolved titans, but instead of declining, their population grew. One defeated the other and mated with the defeated, eggs layed and hatched to join the abyssal arena.

The blood of the Leviathans are highly acidic and toxic, but in high pressures, they quickly decay into nutrients and beneficial chemicals for life. This caused an unexpected abundance of nutrients in the sea floor near the trench, causing new ecosystems to form near the trench of the leviathans.

The other tribes have not developed much culture, living mostly as hunter gatherers and nomadic tribes in their territories. Despite six thousand years of existence and development, none of them had expanded or explored beyond a small country's worth of area individually. Due to this, the six are highly isolated from one another and largely unaware.

The four were also relatively caged, with the dragons never seeking to reach beyond their conquered continent, the Haoma rarely exiting the forest expanse surrounding the Tree of Seasons. The Leviathans remained in their deep trenches, locked in perpetual struggle while the Petralos wandered aimlessly on the continent of Lemuria, never settling for a particular area.

Amanah had come to finalize her creation and spawned eight races. She began with the elves, fashioning them to have the pointed ears that her firstborn son possessed. The elves were granted a thousand years of life and blessed them with an affinity for magic.

The elves would live longer as their magic grew and their potential for magic will be the greatest of the lesser eight, leaps and bounds ahead of any other. The elves were created as three progenitor pairs and placed deep inside a forest in the south.

Born as adults, Amanah taught them how to use their magic and awakened the basics of their abilities. She taught them to harness the essence of the world and wrote a tablet made of pure gold, writing in a mysterious language that only certain people could read. 

The later elves would call the tablet as the Essence of the World, worshipping Amanah as the nature goddess and venerating the tablet. After Amanah left, the three protoplast pairs would read the tablet and use the knowledge within to harness the magical forces over the earth, the wind and light.

Then, Amanah ventured far east, to the easternmost edge of Arkhaia. A small continent separated by several hundred miles of ocean from the dragon continent. In the forests of this land, Amanah created the Kunitsu.

The Kunitsu were special spirits possessing great magical powers. They start their lives as immaterial specters that are bound to a certain object. When creatures die touching that object or die but have eaten a piece of that object in the past, the creature's worth of magic will be granted to the kunitsu of the object.

The kunitsu are formless until creatures die and feed them magical power. When these creatures perish, the kunitsu gains the power to manifest in their form. This form can be mixed and matched freely.

For every life that contributes to them, the kunitsu's influence expands from a single object to an area centered by the object. Over time, a kunitsu's sphere of influence could expand to encompass an entire mountain and grant them a massive amount of magical power.

Kunitsu are born through a random process. When an object is struck by lightning 3 times, a kunitsu is born. In areas with frequent storms and magic concentration, certain periods of the year would be ripe with the emergence of new kunitsu.

Though oddly powerful for a newer race, the kunitsu have one large weakness. If the central object of their influence sphere is broken, a kunitsu is imprisoned within the radius of its sphere of influence. This central object can only be restored by a massive amount of magic, forcing a kunitsu to essentially undergo rebirth without memories or power in order to restore its central object.

Then, Amanah ventured beneath the sea and created two species. First, nearly humanoid sharks with an athletic form, skilled in the art of hunting. Amanah named them the Chondri and set them upon the open ocean, blessing them with superior instincts and physique, granting them an intelligence rivalling even the elves.

The chondri stood seven feet tall at average, and the largest ones would surpass a great white shark in height alone. They do not possess webbed hands but indeed have five claws on each hand. Beneath their abdomen is a long tail with fins to help them maneuver at great speeds underwater.

The chondri were one of the lowest in magic potential and to rectify that weakness, they gain power from their injuries. A chondri is given four hundred years to life and could grow no more than twenty feet in height by any genetic makeup. However, for every certain amount of blood spilt and for every jolt of pain, a chondri grows younger and larger.

The second was a race of humanoid koi, the Aqarit of the western ocean. The aqarit dwelled in the reefs and the sunlight zone of the ocean, granted physique ten times greater than that of an elf and an intellect far superior to the elves. Terribly weak to magic, the aqarit are balanced with their frightening intellect.

Far superior to the elves and chondri, who are merely three fourths of an aqarit's intellect at best, designed to be highly advanced engineers and mathematicians. It helps that their skin could detect electricity flow and magnetic fields from up close, with sensitivity surpassing even modern detectors.

The aqarit are six feet tall on average, nothing as large as the chondri. Their bodies are muscular yet average, with webbed arms and feet. They tend to be predominantly pale blue, black, white, violet or orange, with at least two other colors. 

The two races were placed twenty thousand of miles from one another and started with twelve adults. Amanah departed from the water and they knew not of her involvement in their creation, much like all the tribes that were not raised by her.

Next came the orcs, with their seven foot tall muscular green bodies, biological immortality and superior regeneration. Their magic potential is overall very low, though prodigies would have potential similar to that of elven prodigies. The orcs could regrow any limb in one week and anything less than beheading them, critically damaging their heart or liver or burning them alive would not kill them, and they will return in at least a week.

The orcs began with only one pair, for orc mothers can naturally birth up to three children at a time, with pain comparable to normal human birth. The stronger orc physique however, allows these powerful women to withstand the pain much better and survive almost any birth pains.

After the orks, Amanah created the beastman tribe, a diverse tribe possessing many races instead of one. The beastman possess varying abilities, with physical strength and magic offsetted for one another. All land mammals and land reptiles are represented in the beastman tribe, with a pair of progenitors for each of their kind.

The last of all created creatures are humans, the weakest in both physique and magic but granted the highest gift of all. Mankind may not be the strongest, faster or most proficient, but mankind is the one race that will have Amanah walk amongst them.

The only race Amanah will appear for them by their own whims and not a cosmic purpose. A gift that no race will ever receive beyond humanity.

Amanah created 7 pairs of humans instead of one and graced them with her presence. Like what she did with Daevel, the Lord of the Night, she did with the 14 humans. She raised them all for 49 years instead of 18, living inside a large hut, though a borderline castle and a wide field of farms.

She taught them how to hunt and build tents, how to farm and tame wild animals. She told them how to cook and skin animals to make primitive clothes and how to carve wood and mold clay into pottery. The humans she raised lived immortal lives until she sent them away.

As the seven pairs packed their belongings and prepared to depart to the wilderness, far from one another, Amanah gave them a warning. Of course, the evils of free will shall reveal itself in time and a warning would remind them to not stray from the straight path engraved in their souls.

On the day of separation, the fourteen ancestors of humanity knelt before their mother for her blessing. She held out her hands to them and recited her blessing, "You shall be fruitful in all you do and your weaknesses shall not impede you. You may be the least among nations but hold fast to your mother's teachings and I will raise you into kings and not slaves."

Then, she gave her warning upon them, "But do not cross your mother and seek what is wrong before her eyes, for every iniquity shall deduct your life. Honor your parents and you shall live long and prosperous. That is my blessing and my curse, you may all leave now."

The ancestors scattered through the lands, equipped with knowledge. They ventured to forests, deserts and even crossed seas. At the end of their roads, they settled for favorable lands and made love to one another. Their innocence banished the thoughts of lust and the teachings of their mother made them fear corruption.

They kept their mother's word and each gave birth to seven children, protected from the defects of inbreeding by genetic markers built by their mother. This marker would decay and vanish once enough generations have passed.

She had anticipated it and mankind will not be overwhelmed with lust over their close brethren, and the consummation of their marriage would be of neccesity.

A thousand years pass and the Lord of the Night awakens from his tomb.