The Dreamer: Nurhasi
The Berythian Tradition spread from the continent of Rela, (home to both Khyr and Rachpar Empires) to many others. The benefits of its systematic approach to magic swayed locals using more primitive methods, and in just short of two centuries after the publication of The Ildhuat Soher, the name of Beryth echoed halfway across the world, successfully supplanting rival traditions as per the wishes of the book's authors. Nurhasi was born in the land of Delhiza, a strange, dark land composed of soaring mountains, deep jungles, and extensive swamps. Berythian tradition had already been established for thirty years in her homeland when she arrived, corresponding to invasion by the Kingdom of Khyr (3100-2600). There was barely a war: due to endless squabbling and infighting between members of its aristocracy, Delziha proved easy pickings for the trained Khyr forces. Its people submitted less than a month after their arrival. The Khyr were highly adept administrators and quickly established a bureaucratic infrastructure which actually improved many aspects of Delhizan life, such as medical care and education. However, the Khyr conquerors also insisted on the suppression of all Delhizan cultural traditions in favour of those from their own homeland. Some natives preferred the benefits of good government and counted their lucky stars, but deep malaise struck the heart of most people from being unable to sing their songs, or tell their stories. Some met in the jungle to preserve traditions, but these were brought to justice, fairly at first, but severely enough to act as a deterrent. Nurhasi's parents were artisans. Growing up, she learned the ways of creativity by watching her father, a painter, and mother, a potter. Prior to the invasion, they fashioned traditional crafts with a focus on Delhizan legends and cultural figures, but later adapted their practice to make utilitarian items for the Khyr. Though resigned to their lot in life, they longed to reconnect to their roots. When she was very young, Nurhasi fell ill with a terrible fever and came very close to death. During the worst of it, she was beset with fitful dreams. Later, she would identify their content as the old Delhizan gods speaking to her, beckoning her forward as a leader for her people. When she awoke, she found herself able to create small objects (“illusions”, in vulgar parlance) from her imagination – a parallel to her parent's creativity. Her mother and father were both fascinated by this newfound ability and terrified about what might happen should her talent be discovered. All Delhizan children with the Gift were required to report to the Berythian Order, and there had been tales of parents being disallowed from seeing their children following their absorption into the fold. But after a nightmare of Nurhasi's nearly devoured the family house, the parents, at their wits end, turned her over to the Order for training. Her magical Gift was soon recognized as highly pronounced, although the form of magic that came naturally to her was discouraged. Instead, she was forced to learn about the Elements. It was like a left-handed person being forced to rely on their right: she hated every minute of it, and disagreed with many of the precepts of Physicalism, which insisted that everything in the world could be reduced to one of the Four Forces. She continued to have powerful and insight-producing dreams, and to demonstrate the capacity to bring on what she would call Waking Dreams, phantasms from her own mind that others could see. There was vigorous debate by her teachers about how they were generated by the Forces – were they produced externally by light, and thus aligned with Fire? Or were they transmitted directly from one mind to another, like Air? Mind itself held almost no place in Berythian thought, so there was no more sophisticated model than this to contextualize Nurhasi's talent, and Nurhasi herself felt intuitively that her illusions, as they came to be called, came from a much more ambiguous source. Nurhasi's graduating spell created small dancing figures within existing flames, a specific channel for her dreams through the element of Fire, i.e. the optics of light, but it proved quite impossible for her to teach Loraeically-trained Mages how to craft a dream within her own natural language. Her Apprenticeship was longer than the decade most pupils spend due to her difficulties, but she retained a position and even went on to teach within the Order after this. One night, she had another powerful dream in which she saw the souls of Delhizans being devoured by wolves, a clear symbol related to Khyr heraldry. In her heart, she knew she was being called to renew the spiritual life of her people. She vanished from the Order and travelled to an ancient shrine, an old and dying thalim tree she had seen in the dream. Legend says that when she found the tree, a bolt of lightning struck her and she was dissolved into spiritual form, wandering the countryside disembodied, observing her people and listening to their dreams. When she returned, the pupils of her eyes had turned a solid sky blue. It is the distinguishing feature of Nurhetic Mages (the tradition of Nurhasi) to this day. More relevantly, she had also managed to clear closed magical channels within herself, and liberated immense power stemming from the dream source. She had access to all of it at once, as this kind of power was not acquired through book learning, as in the Berythian tradition, but from the unconscious self."Truth is Hell"
- Nurhasi
by Midjourney
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