The group made their way down the path as the stable owner instructed. When they crossed the bridge they did begin to notice a foresty area. From that point on there was only one path to follow so it was pretty straightforward. The further into the woods they went, the more they began to notice remnants of various pillars and structures. The Faor woods lead to another wooded area on the map. At the end of those woods was a small, wooden bridge. When they crossed it they began to see even more of the strange, broken down pillars. Across the bridge, the trees and the general scenery was different. It was more tropical on the other side of the bridge than in the forest.
Immediately after crossing the bridge they noticed an area to the left. It had two tall pillars that if reconstructed would probably form some kind of entryway. Around them were remnants of walls with very intricate carvings. There was even a single fallen pillar of what looked to be a dragons head at the end.
"Oh! I've read about this place!" Exclaimed Tekina.
"What is it? Doesn't look like anything friendly is down that way," cautioned Avarice.
"That's because there isn't. This entire river is shaped like a dragon, you can even see it on the map. Down that way leads to the dragon's mouth. Everything past these pillars belonged to an ancient Kishan tribe. I read about it in a book back at the ancient lab. It was addressed to head scientist Phoebe as some kind of report on expeditions into research on Kishan history. I don't know who wrote it but there's a whole series. The pen name was R.A."
Sin and Sora looked at each other and laughed. "That's one of Illya's aliases," stated Sora.
Avarice cocked his head. "When'd she do that? Mom never talked about research like that before."
"That's because it was way before you were born," said Sin.
"What did it say?" Asked Nikiro curiously.
"Well, apparently these people were a tribe of fierce warriors. Eventually, though they became something akin to secret service and were loyal protectors of the royal family. However, when Queen Kishar died, her tyrant husband wasted no time in disposing of them. Two sects derived from the warrior tribe. They were known as the Shina and the Kisha.
The clan was named the Kisha clan in honour of Queen Kishar. As the world evolved, so did they, they became less aggressive and strayed further from their warrior routes. As the Kisha continued to advance in technology and intelligence, the warriors felt that it has strayed too far from their original heritage and so they broke off, marking three sects now, the Kisha, Shina and the original warrior tribe.
The Kisha tribe moved Eastward and settled in a small village, thoroughly hidden and encased by the mountain's which is probably the Ruarza Village that the stable owner mentioned. The warriors settled here, where one of the holy springs is located. Apparently, it's in the opening of their base. They were savage warriors with no tactical approach to battle. They went for brute force. They also developed a cult-like religion."
Nikiro thought for a moment about why that sounded so familiar but couldn't quite remember what exactly struck him as familiar in the first place. Tekina continued to explain excitedly.
"Their god required frequent sacrifices and killing was as necessary as breathing for them. At first, people believed they had just made the whole religion up to hold onto something after leaving the new generation Kisha tribe, but they soon realized that was not the case. The chief of the warrior tribe began to hear a demonic voice which he mistook as God.
This voice demanded blood sacrifices and if they worshiped him as told, he would grant immortality to the person who proved to be the most devoted to learning the secrets of his art. None of the warriors were able to accomplish this extensive and grueling feat no matter how hard they tried. According to Illya one young man was able to achieve this immortality but disappeared shortly after.
The Shina, on the other hand, is a group of Kishans who split into their own sect sometime after the warriors split. The Kishans became thoroughly devoted to Queen Sheila after she was born. The Shinas didn't like the fact that even though they had the technology and the power to overthrow the royal family and become a race akin to God, they were being treated as puppets by those very Gods and made to worship them. Not to mention there was still bad blood between the royal family and many Kishans after the many massacres of our people that the royal family ordered.
In reality, the Kishans decided to follow her of their own accord since she was considered an outsider to the royal family. Nevertheless, the Shinas felt like they had the power to surpass God and so they split and became the Shina Tribe. This also occurred in opposition to the royal family at the time. Despite being part of the resistance, Illya's parents were also held in contempt for they were also royalty and the Shina view royalty of any kind to be unjust and cruel.
There were several events in Kishan history where their tribe was persecuted for their intelligence and quickly developing clan. The King was famously obsessed with power and simply could not allow anyone to be more powerful than himself. So he rounded up the Kishans and locked them away in a dungeon.
Apparently, Illya discovered that very dungeon during her travels. It is essentially a series of catacombs as well as a torture prison. Many Kishans were tortured and killed here, but in her report, she wrote something along the lines of 'The air was so stagnant with malice I couldn't go further into its depths.' During the time the Kishans were locked away here, people seemed to believe they had simply vanished. Even their village was reconstructed as a village for the citizens of the King's land. This didn't completely kill off the Kishans and there were a few wars between the king and the Kishans that ensued shortly after, this was during the time other races were also at war with one another.
While a good chunk of Kishans chose to hide away in the mountains and live modest, humble lives while the wars raged on, the Shina, upon creation, moved to a valley within the Jerdanian Highlands, the lands that separate the desert from Central Aruma and Faor. They never achieved their goal though because they were cut off from the advancements of the Kisha Tribe and ended up becoming nothing more than rogue assassins that have it out for Illya as she is the daughter of the Goddesses Queen whom they despise so much."
Avarice looked back at the pillars as they continued down the path. "That was...an unpleasant story." He said.
"Kisha history is unpleasant," Tekina stated.
"I can see that..."
"According to Illya's report, the warriors had it rough too. They were already a very primitive tribe and Aruma An went through hundreds of years of different races at war with each other. It was like that right till the end. A lizard-like race saw the warrior tribe as an easy target because of their primitive nature and invaded their home. Despite being warriors. The opposing race had many stealth abilities and thus came out victorious.
Illya speculated that the aforementioned man, the last remaining pure blood of the warrior was the one to relocate what was left of their tribe, but followers of the cult dwindled greatly and he didn't like this. He killed his remaining tribesmen who refused to go back to following their God and lived alone in seclusion, where he unlocked the secrets of immortality gifted by his practices."
"This guy sounds intense," Nikiro noted.
Not too far from the entrance to the ruins was a bridge, identified on the map as Sarion bridge. Here, there was a break in the tropical canopy and they could clearly see overhead. The sun was setting and they were still quite a ways away from any stable or proper shelter. Sora wasn't opposed to the idea of setting up camp somewhere but in unknown territory and considering there was five of them, he'd rather have a piece of mind that they were going to be safe. So he made the call to keep going. A rustling behind them and sounds of quick, darting movements didn't startle them in the slightest. Not a single one of them passed it off as anything more than an animal.
In the growing darkness of the forest, a man breathed out an eerie laugh as he faded into the dark.