Memo - 'Jirou's Note'

Document: Jirou's Note
Found in: Kirie's notebook

'Dear Kirie;
Sensei said your last homework assignment was a disgrace of epic proportions. These were the very words he used, and after I had a chance to take a look at it, I sadly couldn't but agree. I'll leave this here to help you out on your next one. There are only a few dates you need never forget. They are not as hard to memorize as you think. I'll write them down for you:

Fall of Darkness = February 10, 1050
Overture Battle = March 4, 1050
Battle of the Three Armies = September 16, 1059
Sunshine Morning = July 24, 1060
Armies of Darkness Civil War = January 4, 1063 - March, 1066
Battle of the Goddesses = June 20, 1067
Battle of Tears = November 7, 1075
Battle of the Dead = July 14, 1077
Here are also a few pointers you should observe when writing your paper:

Iron Realm and Below Fero don't have "kings" or "rulers". They call the country leader a "regent" ever since Liaison Rock and the Rock lineage took over, since Liaison would supposedly fill in for a proper king of royal blood, which was never found. Largo Rock, LaShaka Rock and Goro Rock are all regents (and don't forget: even though his name is officially Hellias, regent Goro took his mother's name when he rose to power in 1068). They are not the only people in charge: a People's Parliament also used to exist, composed of members of every major trade in the realm. One could not act without the other's consent (I know History shows things differently, but you should know regent Largo never really cared much for what the Parliament said).

Rice Realm also didn't have "kings". Oromaru-sama and his kin are known as "emperors" of Rice. In fact, their original title was "Emperor of the Five Waterfalls and Lands of the Rice."

Before their breakup in 1048, Grass Realm had a triumvirate (a government composed of three people), not a "trio".

Dark Realm has leaders, not "dictators", even if their political organization is a lot like a dictatorship. And we call "darklings" to the inhabitants of Dark Realm infected with the plague, but this is just a nickname. We do not go about calling people from Tree Realm "teelings", people from Bamboo Realm "bamboolings" and people from Iron Realm "ironlings". Even I raised my hands to my head when I read this nonsense.

In any period in History was Ice Realm ruled by two leaders. Ridvia and Selspar Tyrnea Timmorn were "lords of Heasi" (and it is not spelled R-E-A-S-Y either - it's the Wild Elven dialect and it means "those above"), but Ice Realm was and is ruled by shamans. The Tyrnea Timmorn brothers are entitled "lords" (in elven "lan"), because they are to interpret the shaman's wills and warnings, and act accordingly. They never held the same power either: the elder brother Ridvia ranked above the younger, Selspar. Hence their disagreement in 1056.

There were two separate and independent governments in Bamboo Realm. The humans were under ruling of lady Yoshino the Hummingbird throughout the whole 1040-1050 decade. The elves were under ruling of the Order of Druids. One was not superior to the other and they hardly ever contacted, let alone be allies.

Incidentally, druids and shamans are not the same thing. Ice Realm, Bamboo Realm and the Free Lands had plenty of druids and they are common figures among the elves. Only Ice Realm had shamans. Ask Luca about that, he knows plenty about the elves and their traditional way of life. He can explain to you the difference between a druid and a shaman better than I can.

Hachi had (and has) a government of plutocracy, not "plurocracy". It means only the people belonging to the aristocracy are allowed to vote when picking a leader for the following four years.

Never bother to write "the government of Indestructible Town" did something. Strange as it might sound, IT never had a government. The gnomes of Honshu have no ruler, and in IT they abide by a sort of odd guidelines... most of us have long given up on trying to understand how they do things. Just write "the gnomes of Indestructible Town". Please don't ask any gnomes to help you with this. They'll keep you for hours.

Samurai clans have heads of clan, not "clan's heads". That expression implies something else and is highly offensive. Never forget samurai tend to pay a lot of attention to these things and so must those who deal with them. Sadly enough for me, the Manako clan was never among the top five samurai clans in existence. The most powerful ones were, from the strongest to the weakest, Issun - Makimura - Kurosawa - Oono - Nagaka.

The Resistance has leaders, not "commanders". They are not a military organization. The Kyushu militia, on the other hand, has "captains". They are a para-military group and use the same ranks as navy officials.

There is a very important difference between a "High Priest" and a "Head Priest". The Head Priest, or Head Cleric, is the maximum superior of a church. For instance, the last great Head Priest in existance was Hyuga Hiachi - he was the leader of the Church of Mishakal in Honshu until he gave away the charge in 1049. A High Priest is the leader of the Church in a given place. For instance, Amano Elina was the High Priestess of Sanctuary - in Sanctuary, the was the top ranked cleric. I know it's confusing and they all sound alike, but they're very different things, don't confuse them!

A group of sorcerers is a Conclave. A group of Druids isn't: it's called an "Order". In the past, there were various Orders of druids. When all the Orders join up, they form a "Congregation". An Order of druids ruled over Fellyn Woods. A Congregation of shamans made rules in Ice Realm. Everyone in Fellyn Woods was of the same Order. The people in the Congregations belonged to different Orders. Again, Luca knows a lot more about that than me.

The Green Shuriken was a House, not a "guild". A guild is a group of people who practice the same trade and may or may not work for the same person: merchants, bankers, miners, thieves, rangers, they all have guilds. The House of the Green Shuriken used to be a major ninja clan, who came to be Bamboo Realm's special OPs.

The Visionaries were also special OPs for Rice Realm, by the way. Not a "secret police".

Hammaren was a dwarven newspaper. Not a dwarven army.

Pax Arcana is not a "government", it was an academy of arcane practices. Tarth Moorda is not considered an academy because it trains archmages and warlocks. It follows military ranks, so it should be called "training grounds".

Clerics don't do "godly magic". They do "divine magic" (you seem to confuse divine spells and divination - there's nothing in common!). And "black magic" doesn't refer to the magic done by the black robes. "Black magic" or "dark practices" is what we call drow magic unrecognized by the Conclave. Their clerics still do "divine" magic.

And speaking of Conclave, the Conclave of High Sorcery is an institution, not a "group of deans". They run, but are independent from the Pax Arcana academy. Some people in the Conclave were deans in the academy. Some were in the military ranks of Tarth Moorda. Some were neither.

The leaders of the Conclave are eight. One per school of magic. Not ten. The deviant types of conjuration do not count, the whole school is represented by one person.

Honshu had only eight separate realms. The following are independent, out of general jurisdiction or free: the Southern Seas Isles, the Free Lands of Northwest, Greyswulf Mountain and surrounding area, Dwarven Hills of Iron Realm, Indestructible Town, Fellyn Woods, and any darfellan or dargonesti community set over 15 miles of the shore. Kyushu Isles were disputed between Grass Realm and Dark Realm while fighting for its independence, and after 1050 they were pretty much left alone, and thus are considered "free".

Only the drow say "Lolth in All Her Grace". We do not. Under any circumstance. In fact, we often refer to their Goddess with other epithets you shouldn't write on essays either. This would be like writing "the Dragon Rider Paladine" or "Majere, the Weaver of Dreams" every single time you needed to refer to either deity.

And finally, Luca can help you a lot in essays and I find it very kind of him to. But when it comes to the Armies of Darkness, don't believe a word he says. We do not call them "the shades", "tints", "critters" or "scourge". When referring to them on an essay you must use "the drow" for people, "the Darkness" for their whole and "Armies of Darkness" or "Armies of House X" for their military. Their religion is the cult of Lolth, not the "church" of Lolth - Lolth is a minor Goddess. Never EVER read the second L in Her name either, like you did last week. Plus, "drow" is a genderless word, it does not have a plural form (we do not write or say "drows", the correct form is "the drow") and it's not like "elf" or "dwarf". Something belonging or relating to the drow is not "drowen", "drowing" or "drowling".

Best Regards,
Jirou'