Ambal Lore
Ambal is set in a high fantasy spiritual world, mixing different cultures and backgrounds, where every creature, plant and even natural places have a distinct spiritual essence. There are three notable species/races inhabiting Ambal and you’ll see them portrayed in some cards.
“We are proud to initiate the first Ambal Tournament, an event to unite all humans and celebrate the incredible prowess and courage of the ones who risk their lives to defend us.
The Ambal Tournament means more than just competition or performance, it means bringing society together in a quest for prosperity and safety of all people and creatures in Ambal, a quest that’s become even more important now that the Seasons are gone.
From the destruction of Nisu by the vile primeval spirit Shinkai to the increased appearance of tormented spirits, the past taught us that we should be prepared to face the wrath of powerful beings living in Erra.
This first tournament will be a foundation for the newly developed Schools of Knowledge, a symbol of our dedication in seeking wisdom and balance so we are better equipped to defend Ambal.
Dear competitors, these tournaments belong to you, these Schools of Knowledge are yours. Master them and push their limits to new heights, a spectacle to be witnessed by citizens from all five capitals. Give them the fascination we all desire, make your city proud. May nature watch over us and let the Ambal Tournament begin!”
High Council spokesperson
Races in Ambal
Tenko
The tenko are a kind and intelligent species of shape shifting creatures that found home in forests, lakes, rivers or any place with abundant wildlife. They are deeply connected to nature, performing purification and healing rituals to keep the environment around them in balance and safe from Shadows. Most of them aren’t interested in magic besides healing and shapeshifting, but some, especially elder ones, become gifted spellcasters.
The tenko’s transforming ability only allows them to take the form of living things like animals and plants. Most humans don’t know their true form, but when someone lost in a forest received help from an animal, it is believed that the animal was a helpful, but shy, tenko.
They are known as guardians of the forests, being very territorial sometimes and attacking or scaring anything trying to harm nature. They can be impulsive, especially when transformed into animals.
They are really curious and love to explore new places, with the most adventurous ones wandering into human cities as small animals.
Yoro
Mysterious and complacent, that’s how humans see the immortal yoro, who looked down on them as if they were an inconvenience. It was believed they were in small numbers and lived far from other intelligent species, by the mountains and caves. Only interacted with other species to trade materials or information, if it was advantageous for them. The yoro were loyal to each other, working to gather knowledge and researching different forms of life and materials to use in their rituals and idolized the Behemoths, huge creatures that roamed Erra since its formation.
The yoro valued and admired strong creatures over smaller and weaker ones, and didn’t seem to have a spiritual connection to nature. For them, nature was a source of materials and research, yet they still treated it with care as not to break nature’s energy balance.
The yoro appeared in Erra before the humans and think the humans don’t deserve the rich land of Ambal. It is unknown for certain if their immortal trait is inherent from birth or acquired through their rituals.
Their immortality makes them not fear death and they find pleasurable things (in the human perspective) to be eventually boring since it’s just something they do it over again, with no real meaning. When they grow bored of simple activities like eating or sex it comes a feeling of emptiness, and that’s when they turn into research for knowledge, in order to occupy their minds and fill their inner void.
The Yoro explore the world in ways unimaginable for other races (with torture, sickness and more), because they don’t experience death, that intrigues them and it became a major obsession for some individuals.
Horume
In the underground live the horume, skilled in digging, mining and crafting, they don’t trust the races above the ground, especially the yoro who they describe as rude and disrespectful. Even though the horume were generally not so intelligent, every once in a while a special kind was born, an individual far more intelligent, rivaling even the smartest of the humans. Those were destined to become elders of horume tribes and were the few capable of using powerful spells.
The horume were apprehensive with anything that came from the surface, they feared the light would hurt their eyes and all they knew from the above was through old unverified tales and objects that ended up in the underground, giving them an overall shadowy vision of what the surface might be. Their fears prevented them from seeking the truth above the ground and the horume never believed new stories from those who ventured to the surface.
Their big eyes and slender figure in the darkness was enough to scare most humans and their language is far too complicated for humans to sound out, and they didn’t seem eager to share it anyway. The horume were superstitious, timorous and primitive but despite that the horume elders were able to learn how to communicate in simple human language.
They were kind with the humans that they built a relationship of trust with but shy and evasive with all the others, getting irritated or aggressive with strangers that got too close. Not all the horume tribes were accepting of humans though and would try to take advantage of them.
These underground dwellers formed small colonies in some of the countless caves below using the interconnected tunnels as roads to travel. They would rarely go to the surface, unless in rocky mountain areas at night, but some seemed interested to trade with the humans to acquire things from above, and would often tell stories of pitch dark trenches farther deep with ancient creatures and dark spirits, believing atrocious beings lived there.
Creatures and Ethereal Beings
Shadows
These are malicious creatures with an ethereal body that can have different shapes and sizes depending on how strong their origin. They are energy vampires hunting in groups, or alone if they are strong enough, to to drain the life of living things.
It is said that if an area is lifeless, like a dead part of a forest, there might be influence of the Shadows. Even though they couldn’t speak they could still communicate by transmitting feelings and desires, sometimes creating a connection with other beings. They were still part of Mother Nature, maybe existing for balancing the energy or just a bad energy vibration caused during the creation of Erra.
Immaculates
The Immaculates are the opposite of Shadows, they don’t try to absorb energy from other living things, but rather roam around isolated places providing purification and healing. Extremely low in quantity compared to Shadows, these spirits rarely stay in the same place for too long, prefering to travel and seek empty places in caverns, deep into forests, lakes, rivers or the sea.
The Immaculate can be born from purified Shadows or Tormented Spirits and their shape and size also vary with their power. Sometimes they might assume physical forms (for example a white/gold fur rabbit that might lead the way out of a forest or cave).
Primeval Spirits
These spirits are older than Mother Nature itself, independent and powerful entities that exist in the void. Many of these spirits decided to join the realm of Mother Nature, attracted by its beauty and growing Energy. Some of these spirits even helped create Erra, while others wanted to take control over it.
Can assume, or possess, a physical body and don’t obey the usual nature laws, so their appearance can be extremely twisted and magnificent, different from anything in Erra,
Tormented Spirits
Tormented spirits were once part of Mother Nature’s energy, but because of some trauma or deep corruption a land, creature, lake or vegetation could lose its balance going wild. Evil is not a word to describe these beings since they rarely knew what they were doing, just a mass of destruction without control of their actions and powers, threatening the energy balance of everything around, a rupture in the energy fabric that connected the entire Mother Nature. The purification powers were the only way to stop a tormented spirit after it was weakened, so its energy would become part of Mother Nature once again.
Like with primeval spirits, the tormented spirits bodies didn’t obey nature’s laws, causing them to have mind defying shapes.