The Zorai are a race of blue skinned homins that reside in the continent of Witherings.
The first Zoraïs were a mysterious group of peoples who lived in the ancient jungles in the region known as Zoran south of the river Ti-aïn. It is not known exactly when the Zoraïs settled in the area but it was probably somewhere between 2199 and 2205. The first Zoraïs set up camp in the jungle when a tribe of them came into contact with Kami entities. Given to mysticism, the Zoraïs built up mysterious temple cities centered around the worship of the Kamis. The goo infested area the Zoraïs had claimed was not prized by other peoples and their civilization was able to quickly expand becoming a force to be reckoned with. Led by a dynasty of spiritual chieftains, they were able to annex jungle land easily fending off Fyros attacks on their impregnable temple cities.
Under the Cho dynasty they undertook a campaign of territorial expansion to house their ever increasing populations. They began to set up settlements to the north nearer to other homin civilizations. On witnessing what they saw as barbarous acts of cruelty they began the construction of a great wall delimiting their territory to preserve peace and harmony within and to keep undesirables out. This policy enabled them to steer clear of futile and soul destroying acts of violence and to keep out of the scourge of interracial warfare that continuously ravaged the ancient lands.
In the cover of their vast protected provinces, they were able to develop a form of writing and gave themselves to spiritual enlightenment. However, in 2481, under the authority of Min-Cho, the great dynasty crumbled like a house of cards with the kitin onslaughts which, in their self-imposed segregation, the Zoraïs were powerless to counter. [1]
With a natural penchant for the sublime, over the centuries the Zoraïs have grown close to the mysterious Kami entities whom they regard as higher disciples of Jena, the Goddess of Atys. They proudly wear the Kami mask of kinship, genetically sown into their faces, distinguishing them from other homins. Zoraï society became structured around magnificent magnetic temple-cities where grand ceremonies were orchestrated to parry the flora devouring goo cancer which the Kamis were powerless to repel themselves. Since the devastating swarming of kitins, the surviving Zoraïs have once again expressly chosen their new sites in the middle of the enchanting jungle where the goo is rife.
The Zoraïs have passed master in the manipulation of magic magnetic fields which they use in the fabrication of weaponry and buildings.
[2]
Great Sage Mabreka Cho is the leader of the Zorai
Main Psychological Traits - Endowed with mature intelligence and a strong sense of mysticism. - Well-measured, eloquent and calculated way of speaking. - Possessed of discernment, judgment and discretion, he is the ever-steady voice of reason that guides the Zoraï people on. - Of strenuous moral virtue, is faithful to his god (Ma-Duk) and his duty (to promote Kami enlightenment). - Superior but not haughty, though strong-willed, he has a strong presence of mind and knows how to bide his time. He knows that harboring Yrkanis, for example, will bring him merit later as Yrkanis would be more tolerant to the Kamis than would Jinovitch. - Sought as an arbitrator far and wide and though devoted to Ma-Duk, he never allows it to influence him unduly.
Short Biography
Born on the route of the exodus. His father, the great warrior magician Leng Cheng-Ho, is a founder member of the guild of Force of Fraternity. Matini Bremmen Kalus Cheng-Lo was named after the other founder members of the guild (Matini Roqvini a Matis, Bremmen Dingle a Tryker, and Kalus Hym a Fyros). The first names were then shortened to Mabreka. These famous homins helped save Leng, his wife, eldest son and two daughters from being devoured by kitins on the route of the exodus. Mabreka was in the belly of his mother at the time.
Arrives in Zora with his family from the route of exile.
Mabreka is 8 when his father is killed saving the young Matis prince, Yrkanis. The young Zoraï is taken into the house of the childless Grand Sage Hoï-Cho who gives the boy teaching.
Hoï-Cho begins dictating his encounters with Ma-Duk. Mabreka, at the age of 10, is the faithful scribe.
Mabreka accompanies Hoï-Cho to Pyr where the Grand Sage negotiates a Pact of Alliance with the Fyros. In Pyr, Mabreka makes the acquaintance of Dexton, the future Fyros emperor. This marks the beginning of a lasting friendship.
War over Lagoons of Loria between the Trykers and the Matis brings a Fyros contingent led by Dexton through Zoraï country to join sides with the Trykers. During his stopover in the Zoraï capital of Zora, Hoï-Cho warns Dexton of the consequences of war. Mabreka reminds him too of the fraternity of the four peoples that Kalus Hym and the others of the Force of Fraternity had so keenly defended. Dexton promises to take prisoners when he can.
On hearing about Dexton's capture by the Matis, Mabreka volunteers to step in as go-between to negotiate his release. The aging Hoï-Cho, unable to travel far, agrees to send Mabreka on his first official mission, despite his youth. The Grand Sage counts on the young Zoraï's capital of sympathy with the Matis king. Indeed, Mabreka's father had lost his life saving Yasson's son from the jaws of kitins.
At the age of 16, Mabreka successfully orchestrates the release of Dexton for one million dappers, and plays a preponderant role in the Watergate Border Post Peace Treaty.
Mabreka is 19 when Hoï-Cho dies without officially designating his heir. Despite his growing popularity, Mabreka is forced to find exile in Pyr when Fung-Tun, an old and influential guru, takes the power refuting the Hoï-Cho writings, and reinstates Jena as Kami Superior. In Pyr Mabreka is able to preach the enlightenment of Ma-Duk to the Dexton, his friend and Emperor of the Fyros, to bring him closer still to the Kamis.
Mabreka distinguishes himself in battle alongside Dexton in a campaign to crush a Matis crusade to convert the Fyros lands to Jenaïsm. Meanwhile, in Zora, Fung-Tun has gone insane, the Zora administration is in danger of losing control and guards are posted to keep all foreigners out so creating confusion and conflict at the Fyros frontier. It is thus amid great acclaim that Mabreka returns from Dunes of Exile to calm spirits and with a proposition of a Fyro-Zoraï peace treaty and a pact of alliance in the name of the Kami. Fung-Tun is deposed, Mabreka is elected Grand Sage by the High Council. Mabreka takes the name of Mabreka Cho to rekindle the spirit of the Cho dynasty and faith in Ma-Duk. Mabreka Cho pushes for total commitment to Hoï-Cho's teachings throughout the lands. He misses not an occasion to sow the seeds of faith.
Mabreka gives asylum to the late King Yasson's son, Yrkanis, and helps him muster an army to dethrone the ultra-Karavan king, Jinovitch. Mabreka figures Yrkanis would be a more tolerant king and thus more receptive to Kami enlightenment. Mabreka and Yrkanis agree to resume trade if the prince's bid to the throne is successful. Mabreka also manages to negotiate the non persecution of Kamis in Matis lands.
Mabreka and Dexton join forces against a swarming of kitins in Knot of Dementia and Dunes of Exile. Mabreka proves himself in battle to be as valiant a warrior as his illustrious father and as wise a leader as Hoï-Cho.
Following the Fairhaven Peace Treaty signed in 2515, Mabreka orchestrates the summit of Hoï-Cho where the four homin powers sign a Free Trade Agreement to establish free movement throughout homin lands. Thus the pro-Kami guild of Cho are at liberty to spread the word of Ma-Duk throughout the lands of Atys.
At 39, Mabreka Cho has consolidated the teachings of Hoï-Cho throughout the Zoraï and Fyros lands. The Kamis are accepted and sometimes revered in Tryker and Matis lands. He would now like to bring all the homin peoples another step closer to the eternal bliss of Ma-Duk. [3]
Each Zorai wears a mask. They are not born with this mask, it is placed on the faces of young Zorai by the Kami during an adoption ritual. They are living masks and act as the face of a Zorai for the remained of their lives. They are made of bone, of cartilage, of flesh and of sap. [4]
The Adoption Ritual is composed of four ceremonies.
The first one is collection. The Kamis ask each child to collect certain items, and then the children scour the Eternal Tree for them. When each child has filled his Hai-Phon, a bag weaved by his/her family, the second ceremony can begin.
This is the one of separation. The Kamis invite the children to make the collected items into a figure. The making up must bring the child to distinguish between truth and illusions. This ceremony is very long, every one of them taking their own path. Some achieve it in a few months, others in a few cycles.
The third ceremony is that of purification. The children meditate, focused on their making up in order to free themselves from illusions and lies. There again, this ceremony takes months, even cycles.
The last ceremony is that of adoption. The young homins then go down to the chambers of dreams, hidden deep into the roots of the Eternal Tree. They stay there for a few days, deep in a trance that enables them to initiate harmony with Ma-Duk. During this trance, the Kamis give each child their kinship mask. When the child wakes up, s/he is back in the jungle, not far from Zora and will wear his/her kinship mask forever. From now on, s/he is no longer a child but an adult. [5]
The Zoraïs once saw the Karavan as disciples of Jena, the Matis and Tryker goddess whom they now consider as a deity borne of the imaginations of less spiritual homins. The Zoraïs have abandoned all alliance with the Karavan believing them too cold and soulless to be worthy of their veneration. Incidentally, the Zoraïs were at the root of the first open Kami-Karavan conflict. One day the Kamis seriously 'cautioned' a Karavan expedition for attempting to destroy a Zoraï village as punishment for refusing to carry out a Karavan order. This conflict left the Karavan in the knowledge that they were not the only major force on Atys!
The Zoraïs are reassured in their belief that the Karavan are not of divine substance as many were actually killed by kitins during the Great Swarming. The Karavan are nonetheless still considered as a dangerous entity and many Zoraïs sense they are deliberately stirring up hostilities with the Kamis, which can only denote some imminent event.
The Zoraïs believe that the Kamis are the living embodiment of pure energy (Ma- Duk, see below) on Atys sent to stand vigil over the plant kingdom and ensure that no one may destabilize the fragile equilibrium of the planet. The Zoraïs believe themselves to be the chosen children of the Kamis because among the homins it is they who have most retained the pure energy. Kami worship has become part and parcel of Zoraï existence. Indeed, no sooner had they surfaced from the Prime Roots after the Great Swarming than Hoï Cho instituted a week of fasting to commemorate the period which left them bereft of Kami enlightenment.
The Zoraïs worship a superior life energy which created Atys, Ma-Duk. They do not see it as a superior hominoid being but as an energetic entity free of body that presides over a kind of nirvana. They readily give offerings through favors done to the disciples on Atys, the Kamis. The Zoraïs believe in the existence of another world, indeed of other worlds where homins may accede as stepping stones to finally be fit to enter eternal all-knowing bliss. In the ancient lands they built places of high magnetism where homins could find tranquility and energy resource to help them through life on Atys.
Since the encounters between Hoï-Cho and Ma-Duk which began in 2483, Jena no longer has any place in Zoraï culture. They consider her as a deity borne of the imaginations of less spiritual Atysians.
Many Zoraïs believe the apparition of Elias in 2481 to be a manifestation of a Great Kami. He appeared in a halo of light some three generations ago to a chosen few to tell them how to lead homins from kitin infested lands through a rainbow to the relative safety of the Prime Roots of faraway lands. During the years that followed, some Zoraï sages founded the Guild of Elias with other homin races to keep his memory alive. This guild was later portrayed by the Karavan as a sect opposing the church of Jena and prohibited, many members were able to take refuge in Zoraï territory where the Karavan were least present.
Members of the Guild of Elias still reside in Zoraï territory. The Zora government is against the guild as it creates discord within the long standing Zoraï social system. This guild which operates 'underground' has gathered testimonies of every encounter with the strange hominoid entity.
The Zoraïs at first saw the Matis as barbarous tribes as they witnessed them hunt down and kill every one of the primitive primates known as the momos. Outraged and horrified at such a display of barbarity the Zoraïs began the construction of their great wall which ran across the lands of the Matis and the Trykers to the north of their jungles lands. But with news of a peace treaty between homin races, rare Zoraï travellers began venturing out of their lands to see with amazement the great cities and bastions of the Matis.
Despite Matis love for the Karavan the Zoraïs consider the Matis with a certain respect for their refined knowledge of plant life. The Zoraïs are nonetheless staunchly against the Karavan and are prepared to try every means to bring the Matis around to the Kami way of living. Indeed, the present Matis king, Yrkanis, was given refuge in Zora in 2509 and helped to muster an army to depose the ultra-Karavan monarchy and install a more tolerant government. This, for the Zoraïs, was the first step to coax the Matis into the Kami world. In accordance with their agreement of 2509, trade between Matis and Zoraïs has resumed. However, it would seem there is growing opposition against Yrkanis within his own kingdom. The Zoraïs remain vigilant.
In the early years the Zoraïs saw the Fyros as barbarous primates ready the cut the life out of a body before the soul was prepared to meet the maker. But with the peace treaty of Karavia in 2436, some rare Zoraïs ventured to the desert lands where exchanges of knowledge were made in the great halls of learning of the capital city of Fyre. Along with their wisdom the Zoraïs brought word of Kami enlightenment to which the Fyros were receptive.
Since the coming together in the Prime Roots after the Great Swarming, the Fyros are considered to be making good progress in their spiritual development, having clearly chosen the way of the Kamis.
Today the Zoraïs consider the Fyros as brash but valiant warriors to be relied on. And indeed, their new alliance, built around the Kamis, has been put to the test many times over recent years and each time their friendship has grown stronger. They fought together against the Matis dictatorship in 2506. In 2512 the two peoples came together to fight the kitins that were mustering on lands bordering the two territories in Knot of Dementia. The present Zoraï leader, Mabreka, was given refuge at Pyr during the totalitarian reign of Fung-Tun in 2504.
The Zoraïs have never had much regard for the trivial Trykers who were seen to treat the Kamis with frivolity. They feel their minds are not mature enough to be fit for a place in the higher spheres after life on Atys, indeed they have a long way to go on the road to spiritual enlightenment. When the Matis invaded Trykoth in the old lands, the Zoraïs kept behind their walls with their gates closed despite Matis warriors at their heels. They felt the Trykers' spirit was too wayward and no doubt unworthy of receiving Zoraï aide in the face of the mighty Matis knights. Again during the Great Swarming the Zoraïs kept their gates locked though this time their walls crumbled under the brunt of the Kitin onslaughts. [6]