In the tumultuous era of war that birthed the Second Kingdom, ancient martial techniques re-emerged from their ancestral tribal roots. Some less suited for the dangers that opposed them in the form of Beastkin magic, many withered away in the face of adversity, while many others rose to prominence, paving the way for lineages of heroes like the Scezitars, Dahnari, and Exoren to step down into the annals of history and step up into the corridors of power. It was the collective strength and wisdom of those who endured that served as the basis from which Second Kingdom combat training would develop.
Among the various schools of swordsmanship that blossomed during this turbulent era, one stood apart from the rest. Despite its successes in battle, it would not be heralded in the same regard as the others. Strange, mystical, and at the time definitively incomprehensible to even to its practitioners, the Shiata martial art was ostracized. Accusations likening it to the Beastkin combat styles cast a dark shadow over its reputation, driving it out of public sponsorship and into secrecy.
Shiata was forced underground, becoming an even rarer form as its practitioners were discriminated against and, in some instances, were executed under the claims of practicing magic. Soon, Shiata became an unspoken word, forgotten except among those few who remained covertly steadfast to its teachings.
Centuries drifted by, and with Shiata’s numbers teetering on the precipice of extinction, the last of its members followed the wave of migration into the unknown beyond the Mirage Desert. Driven by the desire to find freedom of expression, they risked confronting the long-awaited demise of Shiata as a whole. The two survivors of this perilous journey found a new home in Tenebris, where they would raise their daughter, Lirenthia, in their art of the blade before joining their fallen companions years later.
Lirenthia, a precocious prodigy in the ways of the sword, carved out her path as a formidable mercenary soon following her parents’ passing, wherein her exploits would greatly aid much of Third Kingdom’s early expansions. With her unrestricted access to magic enabling her to gain a better understanding of Shiata than any who came before she ever had, she transformed it into a technique known as Blade Arts, melding it with her magic to become a force respected by all who ventured into the lands of the new world. Stories of those who fought alongside her attested to her ability to summon up to one hundred blades that could make the skies rain with a tempest of falling feathers and raze fields of grass down to dirt in under a minute.
Lirenthia of One Hundred Blades.
And then… silence.
Decades later, Lirenthia resurfaced in the City of the Sky. She shared a friendship with Seriele, the Monarch of Magic, and took on the role of passing down her ancestral Shiata to a new generation of students through Blade Arts, continuing a legacy that spanned centuries as its one and only successor. Through Blade Arts, she has molded countless heroes and individuals into formidable warriors during her illustrious career.
In the City in the Sky, you can locate the Shiata Blade Arts Academy, a distinctive institution separate from the similarly named Academy in the Sky. These two institutions collaborate closely, offering students a unique blend of knowledge and guidance, with an emphasis on favoring the blade over conventional magic.
