The Hnura’i (People)

We are back with more world building for The Lioness of Shara Mountain. We’re rumbling along quite well behind the scenes to get the book out to you early next year. In the meantime, here’s something about the world as voted by my Ko-Fi subscribers.

The Hnura’i

The Hnura’i can refer to three things; the Empire, which shares the name, the people of that empire generally, and, more specifically, the ruling class of that empire. For the purposes of this entry, we are specifically referring to the ruling class of the Hnura’i Empire. The lower classes, having very little admixture, still refer to themselves along tribal or clan lines when speaking of themselves and their own belonging.

The Hnura’i have their origins in the south, and are late-comers to the northern continent. At the conclusion of the Second Darkness in the south, the Emperor of the Keshaly’i, who rode beneath a dragon banner, saw the desolation and devastation that his people suffered as a direct result of the war. Heartbroken by the destruction, he vowed to keep his people safe and so gathered them together and set off in boats, vanishing into the mists of the north-eastern ocean. They were never seen again.

There were, however, many Keshaly’i left behind; those warriors and war mages too wounded or unwell to travel, and those who volunteered to remain behind to help them heal. It was understood that they would build boats and follow their emperor when they were well enough.

For their part, they certainly tried. The survivors built their boats and, launching from the site they last saw their emperor, set sail for the north east. But their journey did not bring them to their own people.

Suffering under intense fog, violent ocean storms, becalmings and various other disasters, the Keshaly’i lost their way. They never reached the shores of their promised land, and were instead left adrift on the ocean. The voyage lost them many of their comrades. The mages perished on the journey, leaving the Keshaly’i entirely cut off from the rest of their people.

They sailed for years. For generations. It was in these years lost at sea, after the loss of the last of the mages, that they abandoned the name of Keshaly’i, and adopted the name they are known by today: Hnura’i. The lost people. They believed themselves punished by their emperor and lord, who morphed from riding beneath a dragon banner to being a dragon in the Hnura’i imagination, for some transgression or failure they would spend the rest of their spiritual lives trying to understand.

They forgot their southern providence, and believed themselves to be born of the stars they relied on for navigations, and so also referred to themselves as Starborn. They came to believe that they were cast from the heavens by their lord, to learn some vital lesson before being permitted back into the sky to join their brethren in their perpetual song and dance.

When at last they sighted land that appeared inhabitable, they abandoned their quest for the land of their dragon lord, believing it needed to be earnt, and instead settled on the southern coast of this new land mass.

They established a city on the coast. The loss of their mages meant that they had to build in wood and stone, instead of singing the trees into shapes in which they could live, creating the first of what would become many cultural differences between the Hnura’i and Keshaly’i peoples.

Shortly after the building of their city, they came into direct conflict with the people of the north-eastern part of the continent. In possession of superior smithing crafts, and having never wavered in their training while at sea, the Hnura’i were the victors. Rather than enslave the defeated, the Hnura’i instead chose to include them in their territories, considering it their sacred duty to bring the lesser people toward enlightenment, which they believed would enable them to rise upon death to at last rejoin the dragon lord in their promised land.

Following the battle the Hnura’i began a period of exploration, and the once unified Hnura’i people split into several separate kingdoms. Shared history was forgotten, and the kingdoms soon devolved into conflict, each vying for a greater share of the land and resources on offer in the eastern third of the northern continent.

Born into this ear of conflict was Ban Ao, a soldier who had memories of many lives lived before the year of his birth. With the wisdom afforded a man who has lived many lives, he foresaw the doom of his people if they continued down this path. And so, he gathered about himself loyal friends and, with the promise of reuniting the Hnura’i, overtook the city he was stationed in and made it the capital of his future empire.

This first conquest began a period of conflict and conquest. Ban Ao was charismatic, and the promises of peace after generations of war and bloodshed proved powerful motivators. Ban Ao and his dragon warriors presented a force that could not be overcome. By the end, they Hnura’i had conquered the entire eastern third of the continent in an empire that spanned the southern shore at the Bay of Figs to the City of Spires in the north, and from the Rainy Shores of the East to the World Gates at the edge of the western desert. Surprisingly, few battles were fought. Such was the power of Ban Ao’s promises and the goodness of his soul, that many a regional king bent the knee after long negotiations and philosophical debates. Some kingdoms, however, resisted, making battle necessary.

Ban Ao proved as capable a commander as he was a politician, and his armies won decisive victories.

What followed was a time of prolonged peace. The Hnura’i built an efficient bureaucratic administration, headed by an Emperor, who was believed to be Ban Ao reincarnated; the only Hnura'i to live multiple lives, rather than rise to the Palace of the Dragon Lord after death. The empire prospered, carefully balancing the Hnura’i beliefs about their physical and spiritual superiority, and their deeply held beliefs about their obligations to the people in their care.

It continued this way for many generations. Until a new threat began to stir in the West, and a strange, divinely-appointed warrior arrived in their lands…