Absolver: Treacherous Isles (Interest Check)

[7achary]

The gray cloaked figure turned to face him with slow, deliberate movements and planted their feet to assume a defensive stance. Fists clenched and raised before them. Jack mirrored the stance, his palms open. The noon day sun shone harshly on his already sunburnt skin. The mosquitoes buzzed relentlessly, the humid summer air produced their golden age. Eyes closed tight, Jack cleared his mind of all distractions. The lake. He focused on the lake.

His emotions and daily concerns fell like rain, each droplet caused a dozen ripples to cascade across the surface. Jack took a deep breath and stepped forward. His heavy tread caused dust to rise. His feet moved from the defensive ox stance to a more aggressive tiger style. His hands wove an archaic pattern before him as his loosely held open palms became a mimicry of talons. The buzzing in his ears ceased, the sweat on his brow a distant memory.

Reflections of slow moving clouds were the only thing that disturbed the lake's surface. Jack opened his eyes and turned them to the gray silhouette impassively. His next five steps carried him in quick succession across the court yard. After three he began a pirouette and sliced his right leg in a roundhouse toward the figure to land in ox stance. His shin connected with an iron arm long before anything vulnerable. His fifth step was followed by a full hammer fist which the gray blur evaded with seemingly supernatural speed. The gray blur retaliated by snaking their own arm into Jack's and attempting to hold him there. Jack ended his opponent's advantage with a purely reflexive palm to the solar plexus and stepped again into tiger.

The gray blur kicked out without precision forcing Jack backwards. Jack watched as his opponent's breath come in shallow bursts. He dashed forward, fingers again arched like talons and launched a barrage of claws at the gray blur. As his fourth strike landed home and his victory almost at hand, Jack suddenly lurched back and scrambled away as a devastating axe kick from the gray blur sent clouds of dirt and grass through the air like shrapnel. The gray blur moved flawlessly from ox into monkey and grabbed Jack's forearms. He would later remember a vague moment of weightlessness and then darkness.




When Jack came to he was on his back in the shade, a clay urn stood nearby filled with water. The young man stood and limped to the urn to dunk his head inside. He gulped greedily of the mineral heavy water before he raised his head and gasped for air. In the moments it took him to gather his breath, he studied his own reflection. Normally light walnut colored hair was now dark with wet and hung in his pale face. The face of a hung mao, a white man. While few of the Han or Afrikanz would openly point out his deficiency, those that did always make themselves known. Jack was considering one person in particular when he was shaken from his dark mood.

"There is an old hung mao saying, 'Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." Jack turned to see his master Tzu Chen approach. The hood of his gray robes was pulled back to reveal severe Han features. Small golden eyes, like fresh embers peered up at Jack.

"But if someone's sight is limited does that mean beauty is also limited?" Jack responded quietly as he removed his hands from the urn.

Chen paused and watched his pupil thoughtfully. He had intended the comment to pick on Jack's vanity, but found a dark poetry to the young man's thoughts. Instead of perusing that line of thought he replied instead, "I was impressed by how quickly you changed stances. While nowhere near as quick as the lowliest Absolver, I feel only three of the other students here might stand against you. Remember, I have taught you the basic forms as I know them. There are endless variations on each one. More advanced Schools may incorporate some or all, while a simpler School may only use one. Mantis is simply a variation on tiger. While drunken uses heavily from both tiger and monkey stances."

"I know this, Master Tzu." Jack rubbed the back of his head ruefully. "I'm not even a Prospect and only full Absolvers may join a School."

"You will be chosen soon."

Jack almost stumbled in his walk alongside his master. It was forbidden for a Lord Absolver to give any hint as to when a Prospect was chosen from the monastery. Did the Lord Absolver share counsel with Master Tzu?

"Don't look so shocked boy. It is no sin to speak of what is obvious to all. You are near enough a man that you could be selected as a Prospect any day in the next few months and I would not be surprised." Chen pulled a small opium pipe from within his prodigious sleeves. As he packed and lit the bowl the two men walked for some time in silence.

The sun sent long shadows through the garden and up the high stone walls of the monastery. White orchids and dogwoods in bloom turned pink in the deepening twilight. Hundreds of young children in the early stages of their training and others that had drawn duty bustled about in the last light, each with business to end before the day was out.

As Jack surveyed the grounds and the people that had been his brothers and sisters, uncles and aunts; he felt a twinge of regret. Something inside him knew, even if he himself did not fully admit it, that once he left it would never be the same as it was at that moment. In that moment he would always remember the first time he considered himself separate from the monastery ranks.

In the next instant he was filled with pride that Master Tzu thought him ready. And excitement at finally leaving the grounds since he had come here as a child. Soon, he reminded himself. Soon but not yet.

Jack let the excitement dissipate naturally without a feeling of loss. He knew it was still there, and he would wait. Soon.




This will be an Absolver role play in three arcs. The first arc focuses on the young Prospects as they are given their first missions and face life in the outside world since they were adopted by the Absolvers and raised to be Prospects. This is a post apocalyptic setting. A world in decline. The streets of ancient cities are filled with failed Prospects turned to banditry. Some become leaders, others soldiers and thugs. Few become Absolvers.

The series of broken islands where Flying Swan Monastery is located has three city states; Manchu Province, Karlsberg, and Shan. Manchu Province is the largest of these and is a Han ruled island with a population that reflects the most diversity of race in the Treacherous Isles. Karlsberg is made up of a dozen caravans, made up of mostly Hong mao and Afrikanz, all packed with seemingly little organization around the walls of an ancient tower. They are an insular and superstitious bunch. Finally, Shan, is a religious city where Han are a higher class of citizen than any other and hung mao are forbidden to carry a weapon within Shan's walls. More will be posted about each later if there is interest. There are other people and places, these are just the most influential.

Hung Mao or blamed for what is commonly known as the White Curse. While the details of the fall of modern civilization are lost to antiquity, it is known that the hung mao's hubris grew too great and they struck the world with folly. The Han are the most populous race in the Treacherous Isles and the Shan believe themselves to be the saviors of humanity.

The second and third arcs are not important now, but there entities and creatures beyond the scope of what is written here. The Treacherous Isles are a testament to the civilization of man reclaiming a small part of the world from the White Curse.

Anyone that knows Absolver will know that I added quite a bit of my own flavor, borrowing from Chung Kuo, and a dozen other scifis. If you are interested post here.