The Dragon's Clause

Chapter 1: A Review

The Empire of Nusjuro was one of five empires across all the realms that had been founded around the same time some eight hundred years prior. Each of the empires had within them several kingdoms. The Empires themselves offered protection to those kingdoms willing, and able, to pay them tribute.

A sign of deference and reverence.

Kingdoms unable or unwilling to pay the tribute often found themselves razed to the ground and struck from the records of history. The empire itself rarely even had to raise a hand, simply allowing other surrounding kingdoms to wipe the offending kingdom from the maps and records through their own greed.

Such actions struck you as foolish, when the lands beyond the borders of any given empire were rife with monsters. It seemed wiser to have more people focused on dealing with the abominations, than wasting resources and lives over foolish things like borders.

The foul beasts were born up from some source none could be sure of. It was agreed that the creatures were hardly natural in their creation, but despite the ferocity and danger of them, their existence was lucrative. Beasts from the wild were soaked in magic, so all parts of them held value, from their hides to the bones. There was a cost in pushing them back, but it was often off-set by the beasts' own corpses.

Your own country of Lulusia was lucky enough to border lands with particularly useful beasts at its border. Coming out ahead with monsters was a mix of how difficult it was to deal with the beast, and how effective its remains could be processed. Lulusia made decent coin from its monster expeditions, though the neighboring kingdom of Goa struggled to break even on the costs of its own expeditions.

What Lulusia lacked, however, Goa had in spades, and so the two kingdoms had known prosperous trade and peace for some time. Lulusia's king, your uncle, was good friends with Goa's king, as the two had attended the academy in the kingdom of Germa back in their youth.

Germa was the academic center for the Nusjuro empire, and almost all nobility, and most assuredly all royalty, attended a year or more at the academy there. Less time was needed for those who had taken up academic studies prior to attendance, and more time was needed for those seeking to specialize in some variety of magic or academia.

Magic in this world was easily categorized into three sections: Basic magic, or cantrips as they were more commonly called, advanced magic, also known as restricted magic, and specialized magic. Cantrips were little more than ways to make one's life easier, requiring almost no magic to conjure, and very little knowledge to command. Cantrips were useful for things like lighting stoves and campfires, donning and doffing armor used by knights, mending clothes, and helping road-weary travelers stay clean when there was neither an inn nor bath within easy reach.

Advanced magic required more magic, and with few exceptions, formal instruction of some variety. Advanced magic applications covered the gamut from teleportation magics, to destructive rains of fire, to defensive capabilities. Often one either dedicated their time to learning magic or the sword, though there were plenty of people well-practiced in both. Knights capable of wielding advanced magic were either Guardians, or Elemental Swords, depending on their specialization.

Guardians protected themselves and their charges with defensive spells, and Elemental Swords, or simply Swords, were often adept at a single element of magic, and incorporated it into their fighting style.

Your father had been a Sword, and a grandmaster at that. He had three elemental magics he was adept with, and had utilized that flexibility to be the best border knight that Lulusia had known for some generations. His capacity in that regard, and his decision to step down, had kept the small kingdom at peace despite concerns about a war of succession between him and his brother.