Ashalan

An Ashalan

The Ashalan were a race of ancient immortal sorcerers. They considered themselves the guidance of the Younger Races.

Appearance

Ashalan had a skin ranged from the lightest brown to the darkest blue, and brilliant light trails glowed form within them, forming lines upon their skin, making unique tattoos. At first glance, they appeared human, but upon closer inspection, it would become clear they were not. Many of the first Ashalan made the tattoos into a coming-of-age ritual, signifying that the person given the tattoos was experienced enough to be involved in the group's decisions.

Politics

Government

The decisions of the Council were typically followed by all Ashalan, and it was through this peaceful governance that they were able to quietly guide many of the factions that can be found in the Burning Sands, carefully shaping the destiny of those who lived above the City of the Seventh Star. The city was deep in the depths of the earth under Medinat al-Salaam. It housed the last of the Ashalan, as the rest had been killed and lost to time.

Laws

Those who risked the community were temporarily cast out. Any Ashalan would sacrifice himself to preserve the life of an ensouled. An all those who used violence against the Council were utterly destroyed.

As the Council had dwindled, some members of the Ashalan race had grown callous and uncaring, even arrogant. They believed that if they had to pay the ultimate cost, other races must be prepared to do the same, and the weak among them must be removed.

Settlements

The Ashalan were known to have had some structures on the Plains Above Evil, though the bulk of their lands seemed to border somewhere between the Ivory Kingdoms, the Burning Sands and Rokugan. Their population was lower than almost any other species, but their vast numbers of slaves and servants appeared to preserve these lands in their name. ^{[citation needed]}

Culture

Lifespan and abilities

The Ashalan had only twelve souls, and the rest of their race have not a soul. These twelve members were the Council, and they were the only ones that could have a birth. Even when the Ashalan were effectively immortal, generally only meeting their end via violent deaths, they had an extremly low birth rate. Only three Ashalan children were known to have been born in the last thousand years. The first pure Ashalan child born in six hundred years, Onaja, was kidnapped by Kaleel's Legion to use the infant's corpse as the vessel that would allow the return of the Jinn Lord Kaleel. Their skill at deception could draw parallels to the Kolat or the Shadow.

Wedding Rites

Wedding was a political matter in the Ashalan society. The child could host the soul of his parents, and with it all the knowledge it had gathered from thousands years. Wedding was a main event, and before it happened the betrothed were investigated. Their lineages should match to produce a new Ashalan with the capabilities to improve his race. Marriages only ended with the death of one of the partners.

Funeral Rites

The corpses of the dead were cast into the Nahr'umar's current. The body splintered into a thousand tiny stars, dancing up toward their final resting place atop one of the Ashalan city spires.

Magic

Tattoos

Originally the Ashalan tattoos were used to identify the lineage of each family, but after the Day of Wrath they absorbed the power of Shilah. It made them vulnerable to the Sun, and they could not spend much time under Shila's wrath, or they would fall sick and die.

Domination

The tattoos of the Ashalan were known to enslave the wills of others. It was unclear how this worked, but the Ashalan were masters of bending the wills of others to their own. Ashalan domination could not be undone. They granted the tattooed target all of the benefits and disadvantages of the Ashalan race.

Elemental Servitors

The Ashalan used to summon servitors forged from the raw stuff of the elements, earth, ice, and fire. They were their expendable armies.

Origin

During the First Age the Ashalan was one of the Younger Races originally created by the first Jinn, Kaleel the Jinn Lord, spawned by the Moon and the Sun, Kaleel and Shilah. The jinn quickly realized the mistake in making another race of beings with eternal life and created the humans making them mortal. With the curse of the immortality the Ashalan had lived for thousands of years since that time, sharing twelve souls amongst all the members of their race. Those "ensouled" members lead the others and, until recent events leading up to and including the Awakening, most of the Council of Twelve had survived all the way from the Ashalan race's creation until the present day. They were considered the progenitors and protectors of Medinaat al-Salaam.

Slavery

The jinn wished only to be revered, but the Younger Races refused to worship them, turning instead to pagan idolatry. Kaleel the Jinn Lord saw it as a mistake, and it should be undone. The Jinn Lord began to plot against his godly but infantly minded parents. The Second Age began when the Jinn Lord and his legion toppling the Moon and casting him into an eternity of quiet slumber in the First Jinn War. They invaded the night sky, dousing thousands of stars and capturing the rest in the Night of the Burning Sky. With the dawn, Shilah was imprisoned and alone she quickly fell into madness. The jinn enslaved the Younger Races including the Ashalan.

The Seal

The Ashalan worked to be free, and developed the Sandsmithing, allowing to create weapons that could harm the jinn. They also became the first Sahir, and researched a new spell that could be used to be in contact with imprisoned Shilah. The spell offered a way to contact Shilah directly trespassing her prison's walls.

Day of Wrath

Awakened from her lunacy, Shilah witnessed the Jinn through the veracity of the Seal, what had happened outside of her prison. In one climactic moment, the world dissolved around the Jinn, Ashalan, and humans. Those who thrived from magic and lived were forced out of Shilah's sight. When Shilah enacted the Day of Wrath the Ashalan civilization was destroyed. For almost a thousand years the Ashalan hid from the might of Shilah, fearing another Day of Wrath and preparing for a time when they would have to pass the secrets of the Fallen Star to a new age of heroes.

Insane Shilah

The Ashalan believed Shilah was insane and they had to awake Lord Moon. Only in this way the balance would be restored.

Consequences

The Ashalan tattooes gained the power of the Sun. It allowed the Ashalan to became the most powerful Sahir in the Burning Sands. But it had a cost, if exposed during enough time under the Shilah's Wrath, the light of the sun, they weakened and die. The energy that had infused the Ashalan's tattoos was actually attempting to return to the Sun, pulling some of the life-force from their kody at the same time. The Ashalan were obliged to live in the shadows and built the City of the Seventh Star beneath the surface of the place known as Medinaat al-Salaam.

Ra'Shari

The Ashalan appeared at Pahatan, where the Temple of the White Tiger, devoted to Vishnu th Preserver had been destroyed. They told the world had been burned, as the consequence of the First Jinn War and the wrath of the Sun against her son, the Jinn Lord, Kaleel. The No-God would return one day, and the world should prepare to fight against it. They made a magic ritual which poured all the current knowledge over this peoplem the Ra'Shari, every word recorded in the Chronicles by the scribes was inside the memory of them. They had to keep them save, and decided to live in a nomadic way, until the end of the Age, when all the knowledge was again necessary to defeat the No-God Kaleel.

Mankind

The Ashalan bestowed the information of the seal to the human Hakhim, who aided by several Ashalan mastered the Hakhim's Seal. Sharing its knowledge with mortals the tradition of magic would not die out in the place now known as the Burning Sands.

The Naga

The rest of races also suffered, and three quarters of the Naga race was destroyed. With their Akasha, the mind-hive, this kind of destruction could doom the entire race, unable to forget the sudden loss of many of their kind. The Ashalan used the magic to remove this memory from them, but with a drawback. When the Naga realized the destruction, and without knowledge about what really had happened, blamed against the Ashalan as the only responsibles.

War with the Naga

It began an ancient bloody feud between both races. The Ashalan-Naga War was so destructive that the Bright Eye was forced to end it and placed a curse upon both races. The Naga could not leave their territory and the Ashalan could not enter the Naga's. The curse would twist any member of the race that broke the curse, turning them into abominations to their respective race. This conflict stood for centuries, as the races were very long lived and knew how to hold a grudge. Naga and Ashalan could sense one anothers magic, to them it was a foul stench that they could not mistake.

Alternative Tale

Other sources said the 300 years before the Great Sleep a large force of Outcasts forcibly entered the Cobra city of Vyakarana, stole a number of sacred pearls, killing many jakla in the process. A force of Asps pursued the traitors across the Burning Sands and destroyed them. Eventually the Asps run afoul of the Ashalan, who came to believe that the Naga held the key to overcoming the problems that plague them, waging terrible war on one another. While the ashalan were vastly more powerful, the naga possessed far greater numbers. In time, the ashalan discovered that the naga did not possess the knowledge that they required, and returned to their home beneath the sands.

Curse

Other said the Ashalan levied a curse upon the Naga. The Naga, who were capable of reshaping themselves to suit any environment, were crippled by the curse on all who were shaped by this power. The Naar Teban, the Naga who entered the Burning Sands, were rendered mindless beasts, consumed with rage and bloodlust. Those who ventured too far into the Ivory Kingdoms became bestial and feral. The Naga who ventured into the sea forgot themselves and became the ningyo. Only those Naga who remained within the borders of the territory which would be nown as the Emerald Empire were spared, but even then the curse of mutation visited them.

The Prophecy

The Ashalan knew that after the Day of Wrath four powerful artifact, the Bahiya, were scattered across the Burning Sands. They contained the souls of the four women that would mark the start of the Third Age, the age of heroes. The Ashalan began to seek them.

Jinn

Many of the unnamed jin were destroyed the Day of Wrath, and others had been doomed to the Blighted Realms, called the Black Earth by the Rokugani. The rest of Jinn had to avoid Shilah's Wrath, and the Ashalan convinced them to came inside the corpses of human individuals. The Ashalan knew Kaleel would come again, and that day these jinn bounded to an human, Jinn of the Qanon, would be instrumental in the Jinn Lord's defeat. They also began to bind jinn in the Ashalan City of the Seventh Star, waiting for a time that would awaken the jinn of the Qanon.

Ki-Rin Clan

In the year 50 the Ashalan met the Kami Shinjo, and shortly after began the City of the Seventh Star, which would be instrumental in events which would come. In 266, during the Ki-Rin's Exodus, the Ashalan were met by the Ide and Moto families of the Ki-Rin Clan.

Revealing the Myth

In 655 the Ashalan finally began to reveal themselves to the people of Medinaat al-Salaam.

The Awakening

The Ashalan worked to bring about a prophecy that would release a Goddess. In 332 they built a crystal tomb for the Goddess Shinjo in the City. When the time would come, the Awakening would free her, and the magical enchantments of the Tomb would release the jinn of the Qanon from their human hosts. In 655 they exposed themselves at Medinaat al-Salaam, and the citizens began to know about the ancient race. In 1132 they gathered together four Avatars of the Goddess who were instrumental in the Awakening of Shinjo from her imprisonement at the Black Earth.

Katani made a speech in the City of the Seventh Star. She told the time of the Ashalan in the mortal realm came to an end, and the Younger Races would be alone without the Ashalan guidance. They would move to the stars, and a new age would begin, with new heroes. But this moment was the moment of the Ashalan. During the Night of the Seventh Stars they would spend seven hours of freedom and power, and after they passed, the Ashalan race would retire until the end of the days.

Jinn Lord

The Jinn Lord, Kaleel, was also released during the Awakening, and the Ashalan had prepared to fight when he would return. Many of the Ashalan and Ra'Shari died in the battle, but the Kaleel's Legion was defeated, and avoided that the Khayel, known as the Lying Darkness by the Rokugani, could undone the world.

Future of the Ashalan race

Midnight, one of the original ensouled Ashalan had passed his soul to Hakim Yamen, who became the Ebonite Balance. The Circle of Three believed the Ashalan and their knowledge could survive in such way. The Ashalan abandoned the City of the Seventh Star, and scattered across the world.

Activities with other organizations

Beyond the Sands

Ashalan Sun-Riders explored many of the lands beyond the Sands, finding allies in the Ivory Kingdoms, among the Merenae and Thrane, with the Yobanjin tribes, and gaining influence in the home nation of the Yodotai.

The Scorpion

During the exile of the Scorpion Clan to the Burning Sands were able to make some Ashalan allies, and one, a sandsmith Hojyn, even returned with them to the Empire. Though this was thought to be very odd by most Ashalan given their general sceptical view on mortal races. The Scorpion Clan Champion Bayushi Yojiro took full advantage of his allies' abilities during the War Against the Shadow and the War of Spirits. After these wars, Yojiro chose to secret his few Ashalan allies in hidden strongholds across the Empire and beyond its borders, avoiding constant scrutiny upon his clan and these strange gaijin. They lived at the depths of the Shinomen Mori, the desolate peaks of the Twilight Mountains, the untamed jungles of the Islands of Silk and Spice, and even the mountains beyond the Unicorn Clan.

The Shadow

According to myth, the Ashalan used the Shadow to help create the world as it was. Whether this was true or not, the Ashalan seemed to have a connection to the shadow, and were known to be able to use its powers.^{[citation needed]}

The Gozoku

Several Ashalan supported the Gozoku leader Bayushi Atsuki. They wished to erase the Naga once for all. Atsuki promised to bound the Nothing to his will, and he would use its power to break the curse, releasing the Ashalan entrance in Naga territory. When Atsuki was supposedly dead he was hidden in a handful of Ashalan-built towers deep within the Plains Above Evil. Eventually these Ashalan were defeated in 1166 by the Shogun's legions and Atsuki murdered.

The Unicorn

The Unicorn Clan were the Shinomen Mori guards, defenders of the Naga cities. So their relation only could had one outcome: confrontation. In 1170 a group of vassals of the Ashalan marched to the Shinomen and were defeated by the Unicorn in the Western Steppes.

Destroyer

Kali-Ma, the foul avatar of Shiva the Destroyer, after she became the Champion of Jigoku unleashed the Destroyer War against the Emerald Empire between 1171 and 1173. In her ranks were blue hued Destroyers, who wore a ward in the thing's throat and a blue Ashalan mark in the heart. If the ward was removed the being regained their will and usually attacked the ones still controlled by Kali-Ma. It was confirmed that Ashalan were under Kali-Ma's command.

Dark Naga

In 1198 the Ashalan believed the rise of the Dark Naga was a threat to the Ashalan race and to the world, and began to plot agains them.

Crystal

an Ashalan Sandsmith

Ashalan were master artists when it came to crystal. Over countless centuries they had mastered the art of sandsmithing. Their weapons were almost always made of a crystal they call Crysteel. It was impossibly strong, light and powerful. It was perhaps not by chance that they were masters of the one material that was capable of hurting the dark jinn.

Schools & Paths

Schools

The following were the basic Schools within the Ashalan:

• The Blood-Sworn (Warrior)
• Children of Midnight (Sahir)
• Heart-Seeker (Warrior)
• Sun-Rider (Diplomat)

Paths

The following are the Advanced Schools within the Ashalan:

• Ashalan Sandsmith

Known Leaders

Khadja	? - ?
Anbari Khalil	? - Present

See also

• Ashalan/Meta

References

• Fires of Toshi Ranbo, Parts Two
• Unexpected Allies, p. 119
• Exotic Arms Guide, pp. 82-83

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