Dicathen

Dicathen
Information
Inhabitants	Humans Elves Dwarves Mana Beasts
First Appearances
Novel	Prologue
Webcomic	Prologue

Dicathen is one of the three continents of the world and is divided into four main regions, the three kingdoms and the Beast Glades.

Regions

• The Kingdom of Sapin, mostly inhabited by Humans, located at the eastern border of the continent.
• The forest Kingdom of Elenoir, inhabited by Elves and located inside the Forest of Elshire, at the north.
• The underground Kingdom of Darv, inhabited by Dwarves, located at the southern border.
• The Beast Glades, a vast territory populated by mana beasts of all levels. This territory, however, remains unexplored due to the danger of exploring deeper regions.

Natural Formations

• The Forest of Elshire
• The Grand Mountains
• River Sehz.

Known Minerals

Ironite Diamond: One of the most valuable gems found on this continent. It has properties capable of storing a lot mana to use in case of an emergency.

Technological Advancement

This continent is pretty much technologically underdeveloped since it relies too heavily on magic. From what Arthur could infer, there didn’t seem to be much technological advancement in this continent. The only source of transportation appeared to be horse-driven carriages, that varied in size for overland use, and ships with sails for rivers.

Although this later changes with Arthur’s and Gideon’s intervention. See Gideon’s page for more information.

Apart from that, the people in Dicathen heavily rely on teleportation gates, which where left behind by the Djinn. The technology used to create Dimensional Rings, which the people in Dicathen also use nowadays, was left behind by the Djinn as well.

Differences between Dicathen and Arthur’s Old World

Weapons were freely allowed and not really regulated unless you were visiting the royal family or people that held authority in this continent unlike Arthur’s old world were only soldiers and guards carried concealed weapons, yet they weren’t for the purpose of killing, but to deter crimes from happening.

A similarity that both this world and Arthur’s previous world shared was the system of monarchy. The continent of Dicathen had Kingdoms, each ruled by a king and his royal family. Unlike his old world though, the king was chosen based on lineage; the title passed down from the son of the King, to his son and so on.

Newspapers seem to exist in Dicathen.

On Earth, practitioners learned how to condense and utilize the innate ki that they had in their body. Think of it as a muscle if you will. Repeatedly breaking the ki center down through exhaustion followed by rest would cause the ki center to grow stronger, allowing access to a bigger pool of ki. The ki would then be channeled throughout the body via special veins or meridians and utilized for the strengthening of the body and weapon. In this world, instead of ki, it seemed to be called mana and the more surprising thing was that it existed in the atmosphere. Thus, Practitioners, or Mages, would use the surrounding mana and draw it into their bodies, ultimately condensing it in their mana core. In Arthur’s old world, ki only existed and was formed inside the body. Whether ki had never existed in Earth’s atmosphere in the first place or ceased to exist because of the pollution caused by humans, we’d never know. On Earth, while practice was incredibly important, the size of a user’s innate ki center was even more important because the limited amount of ki one had in his body was all one could work with. Augmenting was very close to using ki, except you could also draw mana in from your surroundings. The reason why there weren’t any kinds of conjurers in Arthur’s old world of Earth was because there was no mana in the atmosphere to draw from and create a phenomenon. Because of the uncanny similarities between the ki center from Arthur’s old world and the mana core in this world, Arthur found it hard to believe that one needed to be a young adolescent to manipulate mana. In his old world, children could already meditate and sense the ki scattered inside their bodies. Once the ki migrated into a single place, the ki center would form. As a matter of fact, he proved this wrong by creating his mana core before the age of three. By the way, in Arthur’s old world on Earth, a similar phenomenon happened when a youth awakened. A clear barrier appeared around the awakened and a small pushing force would surround the barrier. Arthur guessed that the repelling force in this world was lot stronger because of the mana in the atmosphere, something that wasn’t present back on Earth. Arthur spent a lot of his time reading his book on mana manipulation during his journey to Xyrus City as a 4 year old child, trying to find more discrepancies between mana and ki. So far, it seemed pretty similar except that, in rare cases, an augmenter’s mana usage could take on the property of elements. Reading on, he noticed that for beginners who were able to dabble in this, it wasn’t as distinct as what one might see when conjurers casted spells, but more like the quality of each distinct element. For example, an augmenter, assuming he has an innate compatibility with fire, would have mana that showed an explosive quality when used. Water would naturally have a smooth, flexible quality. Earth would have a firm and rigid quality. Finally, Wind would have the quality of a sharp blade. Back in Arthur’s old world, these kinds of qualities in ki had nothing to do with elements, but rather depended on how you utilized your ki. Shaping the ki into points and edges would give it the so called "wind element," while storing up your ki into a single point and bursting it at the last moment would give it the "fire element" and so on. Sure, practitioners had preferences and were naturally better at practicing one style more than the other, but he wouldn’t go as far as to say it was rare. Only the most basic use of ki involved reinforcing the body and weapons. During his fight against the slave traders, Arthur realised that he could use his ki knowledge in this world as well, since the mana in this world reacted in the same way as Ki did in his past world. To be more specific, Arthur can manipulate his mana usage to take on the property of the elements he wished if he used his mana in the same way he used his Ki in his past world.

If you want to know more information regarding Magic from this world, look at the following page: Magic and Objects

In Dicathen, birthdays are celebrated starting at the age of 3 because of a tradition from a long time ago when babies were more susceptible to death before the age of three. That’s also the reason why Arthur’s parents hadn’t bothered celebrating his past two birthdays after he was born.

Due to the decreasing numbers of children born and limited amount of resources, The Councils of each country in Arthur’s old world assembled and, after countless months of discussion and arguments, came to the conclusion that if wars continued to exist, they would eventually wipe themselves out. Getting rid of war would lead to two major outcomes: decrease in the death count, leading to a population growth, and a decrease in destroyed harvestable land and resources from the result of nuclear arms. The solution that they came up with and enacted was to replace wars with a different form of combat. What replaced wars became known as the Paragon Duels. Whenever there was a dispute on a level that impacted the state of the country, a Paragon Duel would be declared, with each country sending in a representative that they deemed was the strongest or in other words the kings of each country.

While Dicathen did have formal wear that were very similar to tuxedos from Arthur’s old world, Dicathen did not have ties. Instead of ties, handkerchiefs were wrapped underneath the collar and tied fashionably.

Religion in Arthur’s past world: Arthur mentions that he enjoyed visiting the orphanages and playing with the children in his past life. Arthur recounts one day rather explicitly, when a boy in the orphanage - Jacob was his name - asked him a question. "Brother Grey, do you believe in God?" he had asked, looking up while tugging on Arthur’s sleeve. Arthur never believed in God, or whatever higher being some of the people believed in. How could there be a god in a world where your level of martial strength determined how you could live your life? Parents who birthed physically weak or crippled babies were considered humiliations, often ridiculed by others behind their backs. Those babies, even if they did grow up to live past adolescence, would never be able to amount to anything. They would have about as much recognition as a fly buzzing in someone’s face: annoying, better off dead, useless. Even a woman, no matter how beautiful and charismatic she was, would only amount to a high-class prostitute if she didn’t have at least the minimum strength needed to be considered ’mediocre’ amongst practitioners. Even those old bastards in the council, that sat on their asses all day and used everyone like pawns, were once grand fighters and famous figures. How could a god exist in a world like that? Even if a god or deity existed in Arthur’s previous world, Arthur believed that he certainly wasn’t very merciful or loving, let alone fair. When that child, Jacob, asked Arthur if he believed in God, he couldn’t answer. These children believed, like he once did, that there was a higher power watching over them... protecting them. In his current world, Asuras are considered as deities in both Dicathen and Alacrya.

History

The continent of Dicathen was populated by those who are commonly referred to as the Ancient Mages but who Arthur refers to as the Djinn. After the disappearance of these powerful entities, the three races were leading a nomadic lifestyle. They lived in fear of the mana beasts, which, at the time, inhabited all parts of the continent. To prevent the downfall of the races, asuras endowed each race with two artifacts, which could each grant tremendous power to their wielder.

With the help of these artifacts, the three races were able to fend for themselves, and slowly, as the powers bestowed by the artifacts were studied, people learned of the existence of mana. Thus, even regular people were capable of becoming mages, solidifying their supremacy over the continent, and driving the mana beasts into the Beast Glades. Eventually, people settled down, and cities were built around transportation portals left behind by the Ancient Mages.

Later on in the story, Dicathen and Alacrya entered a war due to the Asura-Vrita conflict, which ended in Dicathen losing the war for two reasons. First, due to the asura's failed attempt to kill Agrona when his forces were divided during the war. As a consequence, an harsher treaty followed, which prevented the Asura’s from Epheotus to take part in the war. The second reason is the gap in magical and military power between Dicathen and Alacrya, which ultimately led to Dicathen’s downfall.

During the end of the war, Arthur and Sylvie were presumed dead after their battle against Nico and Cadell, which resulted in the Alacryan occupation of Dicathen for over a year. Unbeknownst to anyone though, Arthur survived the battle and managed to flee into the Relictombs in Alacrya at the crucial moment before his defeat. He stays there for a whole year while gaining new powers during the process.

In the events, that followed after end of the war, the right side of the continent, from the Beast Glades to the Kingdom of Elenoir, was destroyed by Aldir’s world-eater technique, killing millions of people from Dicathen and Alacrya alike.

Subsequently, after a year Arthur Leywin returns from Alacrya to Dicathen after the Victoriad events in where he cripples Nico, kills Cadell and escapes from Agrona right in front of his eyes, embarrassing him greatly in front of all the Alacryan spectators. After Arthur arrives in Dicathen, he fights with then kills Taci shortly after who was sent there by Kezess, because the remaining Dicathen’s in the Sanctuary refused the New Artifacts made by the Asura when they learned the truth of Elenoir's destruction. Following that, he reclaims Darv and then later kills a squad of Wraiths who were sent by Agrona after him. After killing the Wraiths, he burns an entire military camp in Vechor and then returns to intimidate Melzri and Viessa into retreating.

After Arthur recovers from his injuires during the battle of Darv, he helps the remaining lances(Varay, Mica and Bairon) to increase their strength by removing the seal placed on them by Kezess's blood oath artifacts. Thereupon, he reclaims the rest of Dicathen in one fell swoop and even captures the retainer Lyra Dreide as a prisoner, who informs him of Seris rebellion in Alacrya that happened after Arthur's victory in Darv, which gave Arthur the time he needed in order to recapture Dicathen in the first place.

Notes & Trivia

The Aurora Constellate: Once every ten years, a special phenomenon occurs. Supposedly, during that entire week, the mana density in this continent reaches its peak, giving mages the resources to make breakthroughs and even allowing non-mages to experience what it’s like to feel mana. For that week, classes were cancelled in Xyrus Academy and students were allowed to either stay on campus or go back home to meditate and train as much as possible. When this phenomenon happens, the people in Dicathen hold a festival to celebrate this event.