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Fabled Class: To Iona

PLOT SCOPE The barrier holding back Abaddon — powered by the Twelve Heavenly Crystals — has started to weaken, and Gates to that realm are tearing open all across Zeon, threatening to unleash floods of fiends onto every civilization in their path. In response, the Fabled Class sends Kei and Vincent on a critical scouting mission into the Sunhonghin Imperial Kingdom (Iona). Their goal: infiltrate the Shengyowon vault during the once-every-three-years Fang Heian festival, track down the crystals, and figure out what's draining their power. Once they arrive in Iona, the pair builds a cover story and ends up crossing paths with Princess Choi Yejin, leader of the Blood Rose division. After demonstrating their combat skill through a series of trials and duels at Zheng Fort, they're formally brought into the imperial ranks as her retainers. Their journey deeper into Iona, headed toward Lingwen Fortress, takes a sharp turn when the Southern Alliance Treaty (SAT) launches a full-scale invasion. Forced to fight alongside the Hwa-Samurai along the coastline and take down enemy commanders in the process, Kei and Vincent find themselves stretched thin — juggling their cover as loyal retainers with their real mission, all while something darker moves quietly behind the scenes, working to tear down the barriers protecting their world. SYSTEM Practition is the dominant power system across the world of Zeon, rooted in teachings passed down by Amaterasu when she first came to the realm. Those who wield it go by practitioners, though terms like mage or sorcerer are used just as often. At its core, practition draws on two fundamental forces: Prana and Mantra. Prana is the raw energy of life itself — every living creature carries it, tracing back to the moment the God Tree, Drassil, first gave rise to life. Within practition, prana's main use is healing. When compressed tightly enough within body and soul, it transforms into something else called Anima, which practitioners use to enhance their physical abilities beyond normal human limits. Mantra, meanwhile, is the energy woven into nature itself — present everywhere except the empty dark beyond the realms. Practitioners typically use mantra to bend natural elements like fire, water, earth, ice, and wind, and at the highest levels, even light, space, and time itself. When prana and mantra combine, they produce something called mana — the energy most practitioners rely on day to day. Mana goes a step further than simply bending existing elements; it lets a practitioner generate the element from nothing at all. It can also be channeled into weapons, making them sharper and more durable. The possible uses for mana are so broad that no single practitioner could ever master them all. There's a third fundamental energy, though, that humans were never meant to touch: Nethra. It clashes violently with prana, corrupting both body and soul wherever it takes hold. Yet in rare cases, that corruption doesn't destroy the host — it reshapes them instead, into something far more powerful than they were before.
Dnarxus · 9.5k Views

Voyage Throughout Samsara

There were once two. Man and Beast venturing throughout samsara. One starts out desperately wishing to be acknowledged—to be seen not as a useless thing, but as someone who can eventually have a stake in the world, and more importantly, in their own life. Only to eventually… Sever it all. The other wants merely to live a quiet, peaceful life, surrounded by those he deems family and friends—to live without disturbance and with few attachments, out of a deep fear of suffering. And yet, he does something ever contradictory: he chooses to… Embrace it all. Until eventually— The ground trembles with their every step. The stars dim their lights to avoid being seen. The forces beyond the ever-crumbling World Boundary watch in caution. Azure Pearl:Eastern Sky “I have traveled through this world, bound by the manacles of karma. I have lit the Nine Lanterns; incorporated the Five Aggregates; accepted the karmic causes impressed upon myself. And at last… I have formed the ever-desired ‘Me’… Yet, to step beyond the cosmos— Sever your karma. Douse the Nine Lanterns. Dissolve the Five Aggregates. Relinquish even the truth you have discovered. Extinguish your concept of Me. Do not desperately grasp at the ever-changing self. Only then will you truly become whole.” Scarlet Agate:Western Earth “I have traveled through this world, bound by the chains of karma. I have set ablaze the Nine Lanterns. I have experienced hunger, deprivation, satiety, hope, grief, and acceptance, all led by the Six Sense Bases. And now, through a myriad of causes and conditions, I am my desired ‘I’… Yet all things born from cause must change. All things arisen from conditions must twist into something new. The body rots. The world drifts through the eternal encompass of space. Mountains crumble, only to reform anew. The very stars' opaline lights dim. Even memories will not be left untouched. So I shall not sever what ties me. Let the Nine Flames burn until their very last flicker of life. Let every bond, every loss, every feeling leave a scar. I will neither preserve yesterday nor fear the future. If all things born from cause must change, then in my inexorable pursuit of power— I shall change to no end, too.”
N_lokii · 15.4k Views