**Encyclopedia and Glossary**

INCOMPLETE, UNDER CONSTRUCTION

The world of Dark Art is based on classic fantasy stories that we are all familiar with, with certain changes made by me after I simply grew tired of the overused tropes commonly found in most of these stories. However, I recognize that this can be jarring or confusing for writers (and readers), so I decided to create this "chapter."

Birth control no longer exists in this world. The Sylvire, luddite cousins to the Besire, once knew the secrets of a herb that could be used to prevent pregnancy, but the herb was reputedly rendered extinct from overharvest by the other races in a **** attempt to protect their women from being bred by Orcs. Most people resort to the pull-out method, non-penetrative sex, or anal sex to prevent pregnancy. Certain races, however, are able to "resist" pregnancy because of their biology or through certain tantric techniques similar to pompoir.

For example, the incredible physical superiority of elves translates on the cellular level as well. Compared to humans, human sperm would find it incredibly difficult to survive long enough in an elven woman's vagina to fertilize an elven egg, whereas for elven sperm, this is simply the normal state. By contrast, if a human woman were inseminated by an elf, the elven sperm would have no issue surviving in the acidic environment and resisting attacks from antigens. Most humanoid women, however, with intense training, can learn a technique to clench their cervix shut even during orgasm, when the cervix typically opens and "swallows" cum into the womb. Mastering this technique, vaask, can reduce the amount of sperm that can enter the womb to near zero, but it takes incredible concentration and causes significant strain when it is done while experiencing intense orgasms. Only the most practiced women can resist dozens of **** orgasms before they are no longer able to control the euphoric uterine contractions, typically resulting in a flood of dangerous amount of sperm into their wombs after they "give out."

There are ways to induce the loss of a pregnancy if it is done quickly (similar to moon tea from GRRM's series), but these are abortifacients.

The Dark Lord is the name humans and Besire call the current leader of the Druchire. No living Dark Elf has ever seen the Dark Lord's face. Little is known about the Dark Lord as he has destroyed all written records about him and that he is a skilled stoneshaper who built the Dark Tower and the Spire singlehandedly out of magically imbued blackstone. The Dark Lord is the sole resident of the Dark Tower, has never left the Dark Tower, and possesses no servants other than husks. On occasion, the Dark Lord takes a wife, selected from the most eligible of Druchire women. Those women (or their children) are never seen again.

Druchire (See Half-Elves below) or Dark Elves. The Druchire are the half-elves of the Black City. They are a recent (past few centuries) political phenomenon. As the half-elf populations in human and Besire cities grew uncontrollably, both humans and Besire began to chafe under the pressure of this increasingly influential and vocal minority.

The Besire feared that the half-elves would displace them and the humans feared that the half-elves would outlive them. Both began to isolate the half-elves into ghettos. The term "Dark Elf" predated the word "Druchire." It was initially adopted by the half-elves who opposed the oppression of the humans and Besire in rebellion to the slang term for Besire, "Bright Elf."

One half-elf, Serhi Druchi, found it incomprehensible that such a powerful, resilient, and magically attuned species such as his could be oppressed. However, most half-elves had grown up under the thumb of systematic poverty and were conditioned not to stand up against authority.

Charismatic and incorruptible, Druchi led protests in the largest half-elf ghetto in the great human city of Deepwater Down. These protests became highly successful and began to spread to other ghettos through the use of portal magic. Through a combined operation by Besire agents and human sorcerers, Druchi was assassinated by a cruel, vicious poison - meant to be a signal to the remaining protestors. Rather than die down, the protests found a renewed energy, with the Dark Elves adopting a new moniker, a portmanteu of the name of their slain leader and their Besire ancestors: "Druchire."

The protests culminated into the Dark Elf rebellion, which was concentrated in the human kingdoms. The Dark Elves lost and countless were enslaved. Eventually, a powerful leader skilled in the magic of stoneshaping arose amongst the Druchire, and managed to convince their captors to free the Druchire. This leader, known today only as the Dark Lord, led his people into the Wasteslands south of the Dread Mountains, where he singlehandedly built the Black City for his people and erected the Dark Tower and the Spire. The Druchire were immediately attacked by the humans and elves, but were victorious in the end, thanks to the magical abilities they inherited from their human ancestors.

When the Druchire recovered, they launched upon a campaign of vengeance against their oppressors and now-mortal enemies. Guided by the occasional suggestion by the Dark Lord, Druchire slavers terrorize human cities and Druchire sorcerers concoct devious plans of **** on the Besire.

Today, Druchire society is an oligarchy dominated by its sorcerers. While the Dark Lord ostensibly rules the Black City absolutely, the most powerful sorcerers and their respective powerbases make all the real decisions. As such, the Druchire are obsessed with increasing or preserving the magic in their bloodline. Druchire women retain their notorious, but well-deserved reputations for **** promiscuity and all social gatherings begin and end with orgies.

Ironically, some Druchire philosophers have commented that their people have become everything Druchi, the martyr whose name they took on, despised and hated about their oppressors.

The last census of the Black City indicated that there are over eight hundred thousand Druchire in the city alone.

Dwarves in the world of Dark Art are a race of humanoid miners and smiths who generally dwell in the great under-cities of the Dread Mountains and the World Mountains.

Dwarves are known to grow long whiskers and beards. Dwarves generally do not venture above ground during the day as the sunlight blinds them, and require thick goggles or sunglasses resembling glacier glasses during the daytime. Dwarves have an enhanced sense of smell, night vision, and hearing. The Dwarves have always been the butt of jokes amongst humans and elves for their comical appearance and short, stocky frames. That reputation ends when it comes to their crafts. They are natural-born smiths who are able to bend metals with their bare hands, and Dwarven-made shields and armor, though often aesthetically misshapen, are considered the most comfortable, functional, and protective in the world.

Long ago, the Dwarves were known to be a proud, friendly, and industrious but aloof craftsmen and miners, their reputation in modern times have been tainted by their alignment with the Or'Khan. When the Or'Khan crossed the Dread Mountains, the first race he encountered were the Dwarves . It is unclear what exactly happened when the Orcish horde beset itself upon the Dwarves, but the Orcs and Dwarves reached an accord that day where the Dwarves totally surrendered to the Or'Khan.

After the Or'Khan's defeat, the Dwarves took command over his remaining auxiliary forces and retreated to their mountain holds. Today, the Dwarves (besides Uptown Dwarves) are known as "Molemen" and are regarded with contempt and hatred, a far cry from the respect they once held. Strangely, reports from human settlements near the Dread and World Mountains echo the statement that at night, the Molemen have ventured out from their bunkers to conduct raids, **** humans (in particular women) and bringing them back to their mountain holds. On occasion, when a Moleman was captured or killed, the human defenders observed that the creatures smelled foul and looked mutated and stunted beyond measure.

A minority of Dwarves live on the surface - known colloquially as Uptown Dwarves, who are employed by the wealthy human elite to make the high-class their toys (war machines and advanced plate armor). Many Uptown Dwarves have achieved considerable financial success and pivoted from industry to banking. Uptown Dwarves believe that humans have invented stories about Molemen in an attempt to engender racial hatred of them by association. Recently, in some human cities, Dwarves have been beaten and their stores ransacked by discontent humans under the theory that Dwarves secretly wish to impregnate human women and replace relatively impoverished human men, not only economically, but socially. These rumors have not been helped by the Dwarves' cultural self-consciousness and overreaction to the most innocent jokes, and the fact that numerous successful Uptown Dwarves, have, in fact, taken on numerous attractive human wives as concubines.

Some humans believe that the world and all world events are influenced by (if not directly controlled by) a cabal of Dwarves led by a mysterious figure, Q.

Elves, who by and large refer to themselves as Besire (Beh-see-rey) in Dark Art, are a cold, emotionless, methodical, race. These traits make the Besire philosophers, scientists, and alchemists. The Besire resemble classic elves of lore that we are all familiar with: tall, unnaturally beautiful, pointed ears, and slim. They are also, with rare exceptions, blonde and light skin that tans easily. This has led to them being referred to as Bright Elves by some humans unable to pronounce "Besire."

Besire are incredibly long-lived, as the average human life is a mere speck in time compared to their own. Besire are physically stronger, faster, and more resilient than their human cousins (and to a lesser extent, the Druchire half-elves) and have incredible endurance and a powerful immune system. Besire can survive almost all traumatic injuries except head injuries and possess an incredible healing factor.

There are some unintended negatives to these traits, however. Because of their longevity, many Besire have experienced all that the world has to offer many times over, and are depressed and world-weary. Prior to the war against the Or'Khan, suicide was the leading cause of **** among Besire. Besire's healing factor also means that wearing certain forms of jewelry (i.e., piercings) is impossible, women never lose their virginity as the hymen simply "grows back," it actually requires substantial effort to tear a healed and intact Elven hymen, and Besire men continue to suffer phimosis into adulthood. Because Besire pregnancies last decades and the act of childbirth itself can take days, Besire women view pregnancy as a form of humiliation and punishment, with nobles typically engaging in surrogate sex (the male Besire noble's valet will have sex and impregnate the female Besire noble's handmaiden, rather than the noble herself). All of the above make penetrative sex highly undesirable and painful to both parties (more so women than men) and have contributed to an extraordinarily low birth rate among the Besire. When Besire men feel aroused (which is relatively rare), they are encouraged to relieve themselves with females of other races.

Besire have no attunement to magic, but at the height of their power, were so scientifically advanced that they were able to genetically modify themselves, used advanced firearms, and create supersoldiers in gigantic cauldrons known to the ancient Besire as the Vatborn. The rest of the world knows these vile creatures as Orcs.

While the Besire cultivate an air of nobility and a reputation of being the elder, protector, and guardian race of the world, the existence of the Orcs belies the true nature of the Besire and how depraved and evil they can become. The Besire claim to be the oldest race in the world and the progenitor of the other races. While there is some truth to that, the true nature of the Besire is much darker, and they are closer to their human "cousins" than they want anyone to think.

Following the Orc wars, less than five thousand Besire remain in the world. Most live in the now-deserted streets of their once glorious capital, Poort Vandemeer. They are considered a dead race, though the remaining few continue to live in decadence and opulence, willfully oblivious to their impending demise.

Half-Elves, derogatorily known as "Halfbloods" or "Bastard Elves" or "Whore-kin," were created through the union of the daughter of the king of the Besire and one of the most powerful human sorcerers of the Orc wars. While their issue became the most popularly known of the first Half-Elves and are regarded as the first Half-elves, this is merely the "official story." Prior to their selfless intervention against the Orcs, young male Besire nobles had been known to capture, ****, and **** human women when Besire women were not able to satisfy their sexual needs. The mothers of these half-elf children often did not know that their children were half-elven until they found them aging much more slowly and entering adolescence as they were dying of old age.

Persons who are exactly half-elf and half-human are virtually indistinguishable from humans. Most do not possess pointy ears. However, they possess a greatly reduced version of their elven progenitors' genetic traits: increased strength relative to muscle mass, increased endurance and resilience, robust constitution and immune system, longevity (though not functionally immortal like Besire), and a slightly increased healing factor. Half-elves essentially could indulge in every human vice that Besire found distasteful (such as penetrative sex), but in greater quantities and for far longer. They also possess their human progenitors' tendency to be emotional and sensitive, and much like their human cousins, half-elves tend to be magically attuned to varying degrees, depending on their genealogy. However, most half-elves are unable to use magic when the Source is waning (see the Source below).

Ironically, rather than ascending to the apex of society, because of their semi-enhanced traits, half-elves were exploited for them. Half-elves found themselves shunned and looked down upon by their Besire cousins, who viewed themselves as their betters. Humans viewed half-elves (normally born into poverty with a single parent) with suspicion and relegated them to the most menial tasks. Male half-elves found themselves doing hard labor or soldiering. Female half-elves possessed elven beauty, resilience, and endurance but were horny, like humans. The diminished healing factor of half-elves was another boon for female half-elves - their hymens healed incompletely after being worn down to a degree, turning into a source of pleasure rather than pain. Female half-elves (immune from venereal diseases and difficult for humans to impregnate for the same reason as female elves) became synonymous with slutty behavior and came to dominate brothels and whorehouses.

Many half-elves these days leave the routine of their lives to join with their Druchire brethren. There are hundreds of thousands of non-Druchire half-elves.

Humans in the world of Dark Art are a "younger" race that only flourished after the Bright Elves, or Besire, defeated the Or'Khan, but were greatly weakened as a result. Humans are a diverse bunch, ranging from all sorts of heights, weights, skin colors, and hair colors. Compared to the Besire, humans are incredibly fecund, and "fucking" is an activity that is enjoyed often and with gusto by both sexes.

Humans are an extremely emotional and sensitive race, and it is their raw emotions that allow them to tap into their magic. Humans have always been magically inclined even before the opening of the Source (see below), but the magically talented have always been shunned by society and murdered in pogroms as deviants and mutants. Generally, the more emotional a human is, the more magical potential one has.

To fend off the Or'Khan's forces, the divided human kingdoms all permitted sorcerers and hedge witches, to use their powers to aid humanity's armies. When the war ended, these sorcerers and witches were hailed no longer outcasts, but powerful commanders, courtiers, and celebrities. Combined with a weakened Besire state, humanity's magically powered armies dominated the continent.

Humans are the most populous race in the world, but unlike the Besire and Druchire, are not united under a single banner. Across these kingdoms, there are tens of millions of humans.

Husks are sadistic, twisted creations - the Druchire's attempt to replicate the Besire's supersoldier Vatborn project through different means. Unable to achieve the Besire's alchemical prowess, the Druchire create Husks from dead slaves (generally humans, the most numerous race) by using their powerful magic and medicine to selectively revive only certain organs in the dead ****, with the consequence of turning the former person into a soulless, thoughtless, perfectly obedient automaton.

Totally compliant, Husks can be directed to act in formation by trained war mages, who act almost like puppeteers in combat. Husks do not feel pain, do not eat or drink, do not get tired, and do not suffer from poor morale. As such, they are an integral part of the Dark Elf army, given that the Dark Elves are few in number compared to the human kingdoms. In recent times, advancements have allowed Husks to be implanted with artificial limbs and organs, turning them into walking bombs or indefatigable sex machines. Though, the very nature of being fucked by a dead, being falling apart at the seams is so disturbing that sex with a Husk is considered one of the most heinous punishments a Druchire can receive.

The creation of Husks has slowly become monopolized by the Crone, an ancient Druchire sorceress. Whispers abound in the Spire that the Crone not only takes the dead to turn into Husks, but the living as well.

Magic was not always prevalent in the world of Dark Art. Magic cannot be learned, only trained, as one is born with an attunement to magic. In the past, those born with a magical connection were considered cursed and left in the forest to die or shunned as outcasts. The degree to which one is attuned to magic is genetic, with the offspring of two powerful spellcasters being likely to be at least as powerful as their parents combined. This has led to some societies selectively breeding the most powerful sorcerers in the world. In modern times, sorcerers are considered the elite of society and the celebrities of their respective societies, though many secretly feel trapped - by the burden of their power and the arranged marriages they will likely be **** into someday. See The Source below for more.

Mutants are the animals or people who have been unfortunately exposed to the terrible power of Source Storms (see The Source below). While some mutations are relatively benign, such as growing horns out of one's forehead, others are not. Bears have been turned into ravening beasts of gigantic proportions. Men find their heads replaced with a bull's. Horse and rider (often unable to take shelter) have been fused (mind and psyche) into centaurs.

So prevalent that Source Storms have become that there is a significant centaur population in the world.

Orcs or the Vatborn (sometimes referred to as the "Cauldron Born") are chemically enhanced, genetically engineered, and artificially grown supersoldiers created by the Besire the exterminate an unknown, forgotten race. An examination of the Orcs reveals just how depraved the Besire alchemists who created them were: they were purpose-made to eradicate a race completely, with an uncontrollable libido and a virulent seed that could only result in male Vatborn. So powerful and potent is Orc seed that even Besire and Druchire women can be impregnated by Orcs unless the woman is trained to resist pregnancy with the tantric arts of physical birth control. Thus, Orcs would attack and pillage a city, ravish the female inhabitants, and soon have access to a new stock of Orcs in mere months.

The Vats (and the chemicals therein) used by the Besire to quickly breed the Orcs (that gave them the name Vatborn) have largely been lost to time. By the time Or'Khan descended from the Dread Mountains, his Orcs relied solely on the wombs of their female victims to replenish their numbers.

It is unclear how many Orcs there are in the world.

Portal magic or Portalism is one of the most powerful, but also most versatile forms of magic. Though it appears to be relatively benign and harmless, and considered "basic magic" used for transportation by sophomoric neophytes or "for the unskilled" by practitioners of more technically-demanding magic, portalism is considered one of the "Dark Arts" for good reason. Portalism is limited only by the user's memory and imagination - so long as a portalist can remember the location in vivid detail, a portal can be opened to that location.

Sure, a seasoned elementalist can increase the ambient temperature and condense atmospheric water molecules into a jet of superhot steam. But a portalist can just open a portal over a geyser in front of you. Opening one portal is a skill that every novice of the Spire has learned, but opening a dozen, oriented in different directions, will challenge even the most technically proficient sorcerers.

Portal magic can be highly dangerous. Untrained portalists may trap themselves in a completely hostile and foreign place, or even in the nether between two worlds. Worse yet, keeping a portal open for an extended period of time has resulted in invasions of the material world by the Unbidden.

Portalism is also strongly suspected to be the magic misused by humans that led to the opening of the Source. Some scholars believe that the continued use of portals is making the Source expand; others believe that the use of all magic is causing the Source to expand.

Sylvire, or what some humans refer to as Forest or Wood Elves, and what remaining Besire refer to as luddites, are Besire whose ancestors abandoned the Besire's unchecked technological and alchemical experimentation, and chose to live a more basic, crunchy life in the woods. The Sylvire have largely escaped the events of the last millennia unscathed, though there are rumors that their gene pool has become increasingly depleted.

The Source, sometimes referred to as the Scar or The Tear, is a magical rip in the fabric of reality between our world and an entirely different dimension or realm. The Source was accidentally created when a group of the most powerful human sorcerers combined their powers and attempted to open a portal to "heaven." Visible only at night, it is visually similar to a more wildly colorful and vivid version of our Northern Lights. If you look long enough, you begin to get the feeling of growing unease that something or someone is looking back at you. As such, few people can manage to stare for long.

No one really knows what is on the other side, but it is the source of all magic in the world, hence its moniker. Scholars report that the Source looks different to each person. Some philosophers reason that the other side of the Source is an immaterial world representing raw emotions, invasive thoughts, and uncontrolled desires, which are then channeled into the material world through the expression of these emotions. Supporting this theory is that the Unbidden, creatures that have been known to be stranded in the material world following the sustained opening of a portal, are literally the stuff of nightmares.

Like the moon, the Source is wider at times and smaller at others. Occasionally, the source completely closes in a "source eclipse." Only those who are highly attuned to the Source are capable of using magic when the Source is closed (like the original human sorcerers). When the Source first opened, it was viewed as a marvel and a testament to human magical prowess, despite its inadvertent creation. Contemporary magical experts, however, have grown to see the Source as a threat, as astrological measurements show that the Source is growing in size, year by year.

Whenever the Source is waxing, the source causes "source storms" which produce strange phenomena and can cause terrible mutations to those caught within who are not able to shield themselves from the raw, radiating power of the Source. Typically, staying indoors is enough.

The Spire is the Druchire magic academy in the center of the Black City, responsible for churning out war mages to command the Druchire's legions of husks and sorcerers. Given the position of importance held by sorcerers in Druchire society, the Spire is the de facto seat of government of the Black City.

The Unbidden is a catch-all term for the nightmarish creatures that sorcerers and scholars theorize come from the other side of the Source. Though the Unbidden have been found in areas affected by Source Storms, Unbidden are more commonly found after mass troop movements using portals. Scholars theorize that keeping a portal open allows the Unbidden time to creep in between the junction between one portal and the next and emerge out one or both sides.

The most common form of Unbidden that scientists and alchemists have studied are tentacle beds. These writhing masses of monstrous, hyperfecund, mollusk-like creatures are individually similar to razor clams, and appear to lay dormant until women approach. Then, with surprising alacrity, the tentacles rapidly snake around the unsuspecting female, ensnaring her. Female tentacle creatures have an ovipositor while male creatures have a penis-type tentacle, and the two will engage in coitus with the female until she is infested with eggs and then inseminated. Each tentacle bed consists of approximately 20% female tentacles, and 80% male tentacles. Following a few days of rapid gestation, the bred female will feel increasingly overheated and seek out a body of water, whereupon she will begin birthing the fertilized eggs. The eggs then continue to develop on their own, usually taking decades before turning into full fledged tentacles. Curiously, most horrified victims ultimately report that the **** is not unpleasant, but that oviposition and the subsequent birthing can be painful and orgasmic in equal measure.

Leading human and Druchire scientists believe that two examples of tentacle beds, the Black Grove, a forbidden forest near the Spire, and the Fields of the Fool, the grassland immediately surrounding the Besire capital city, were created by prolonged and repeated uses of portal magic to transport armies. After decades of study, Druchire sorcerers have discovered that being inseminated by tentacle beds can lead to an incredible increase in attunement with the Source - not unsurprising considering that the tentacle beasts are unbidden hailing from the Source itself - women inseminated by them are essentially taking a direct dose of pure magic into their wombs. As a result, some elite Druchire sorceresses maintain their own chambers filled with male tentacle beasts, and routinely fornicate with them to boost their baseline magical abilities. On the other hand, oviposition and being infested with tentacle eggs carries no known benefits whatsoever. The Druchire use female tentacle beasts, and subsequent public birthing events, as a humiliating form of ****.