Prologue
My story begins in the southwestern part of the island of Kel’Tirael, where my kind still live. Unlike other Litraks, I was not as closed-minded and stubborn as is customary among Litraks, which is why I live with the Morans. My father is a Litrak from the southeastern part of the island and my mother is from the southwest. The Morans are the exact opposite of the Litraks; they are open to wisdom. The Litraks tend to be hot-headed, while the Morans are calm as the surface of water most of the time. However, even the surface can be disturbed by wild waves. So you can imagine the chaos that can sometimes result from a combination of a Litrak and a Moran. Although my parents decided to lead an orderly, conventional life, I longed for greater discoveries. In my opinion, life is too fleeting to live it the same way as previous generations. My older brother, Ayxtal, understood this very well. He had a similar outlook on the world, but he was a little more attached to conventional life. However, he respected my point of view and understood it very well. I decided that I wanted to see the unseen, taste the untasted, and think the unthinkable in my life. So I first set out on a journey around our island of Kel’Tirael, and then I planned to see all the islands that surrounded us.
Unlike my peers and even my family, I always looked for connections just around the corner. Why are there eight islands? What is on the other seven islands? Has anyone been there? What are the possibilities of this world? I confronted my mind with these questions every day, and one day I decided to answer them myself. Since Litrak people are rather conservative, they don’t travel anywhere, nor do they often allow anyone else to visit, so it’s obvious that when someone saw a half-Litrak with the features of a Moran traveling, they were shocked. However, these looks full of condemnation and fear of the unknown did not stop me from planning my route. I was too hungry for knowledge and developing my understanding of the world around me to pay attention to the judgments that radiated from the eyes of others. I bought a map from an old Moran. The Litrak people barely have a map of their part of the island. So I had to go to this old man, who has been contemplating for many ages not far from my favorite place in Moran territory. I originally came to ask him only if he himself had undertaken any expeditions during his long life. He replied only that he had gone as far as his mind allowed him. It was half a cliché to me and half didn’t make sense, because after all, we all do, behave, and travel only as far as our minds can reach. If we decide to return, our mind is the first to know.
Nevertheless, I thanked him for the map and valuable advice and set off toward the human settlement. To describe the nature of the individual tribes that inhabit our island, I should probably start with the Litrak. The Litrak are very intelligent, but at the same time very hot-blooded. Their hot-bloodedness often overpowers their intelligence, as hotheads often think only after they have already acted. However, when they are not under pressure and do not feel that they must make a decision immediately, they are able to understand things in great detail and think through various consequences. The Morans are similar in terms of intelligence. However, they tend to be cold, not very communicative, and prefer to hide from the other beings on the island. This is not so much because they are afraid, but rather because they see no need for unnecessary interaction. They realize that excessive contact with other tribes can lead to a lack of impartiality, which they try to honor to a certain extent. Likewise, they are not particularly interested in the lives of other tribes, as they are, so to speak, somewhat self-centered and draw their energy primarily from within themselves. The Litrak are more communicative and draw their energy mainly from transactions they may have with each other and with other beings.
The Surtans, inhabiting the northeastern region of Kel’Tirael, are a yellow-colored, technologically advanced tribe that spends most of its time despising other tribes and believing in its own superiority. They are beings about 3-4 meters tall with a thin, asthenic build. They can be recognized from a distance because of their shiny golden eyes. They are largely isolated from the rest of the island, which can be seen in the artificially created mountains surrounding their territory, which prevent unnecessary intrusion by other tribes. It is no wonder that the Surtans keep their distance, given that they are neighbors of the Pelodems.
The Pelodem are 2.5-3 meters tall, very corpulent creatures who specialize mainly in a consumerist lifestyle and sea travel. The Pelodem are essentially the least intelligent of our four tribes, but their dull and inconsistent judgment is in many situations better than the overthought judgment of the Moran. The Pelodem are therefore still smarter than humans, but probably the least intelligent of the four tribes. However, this does not bother them too much, as they are indifferent most of the time and therefore constantly celebrate and rejoice in the life they have been given. The Litrak would prefer to constantly devise battle strategies, the Morans would constantly ponder situations that may arise and those that have arisen, and whether they arose in the best possible way, the Surtans would prefer to keep moving forward, and the Pelodem are happy that they can rejoice and do not have to worry about what tomorrow will bring or what happened yesterday, because they cannot influence it anyway.
Only humans remain. Humans are a separate chapter – they are not a particularly respectable tribe inhabiting the center of Kel’Tirael. They are more of a combination of the negative traits of all four tribes from their immediate vicinity. Like the Litraci, they are hot-blooded; like the Moren, they are impractical; like the Surtan, they are overly proud; and like the Pelodem, they are lazy. From my point of view, I don’t understand how they could have survived for centuries, given how inconsistent and stunted they are. They are smelly, ignorant, arrogant, and disrupt any symbiosis with their stupid traits. They are unable to empathize with others, unable to think about things from a broader perspective, and completely incapable of behaving with respect. However, this is a tribe that was once led by a very wise individual who was different. He treated others with due respect and was able to show his affection and appreciation to such an extent that other tribes accepted him and promised not to destroy his kind. For the Litraks, the Surtans would have made it a mere formality. Enough about humans, we’ll get to them later. At the moment, I have the following route planned: go from Litrak to Til’Moran, visit the human city of Kel’Dar, where I will procure the most important things for the journey, get to the Surtan area, where I would like to exchange some technical gadgets, and move on to the Pelodems, who will hopefully help me with my journey to the other islands.
