R1 - 4 History & Magic

Ragnar who entered the library was surprised at the massive space within the building, from outside it appears like a small building but from inside it appears large to the point it would not lose against the largest library in the world, The Library of Congress.

"Welcome to the Library, if you need any assistance you are welcome to ask me anytime" a Elderly lady said to Ragnar before she turned her attention back to the computer screen where she was currently working on.

Ragnar walked around while looking at the list of books he had to read and one of them was the history of the Weber family. Although it had nothing to do with magic, but his mother told him it was important to have a general understanding of his clan's roots and how they came to be to where they are.

He naturally did not complain about it since he made a promise with his father to never complain so he immediately went to get the history book, it was quite a thick heavy book that had a animal leather cover and the pages were slight yellow but there was no signs of decaying.

With little effort, Ragnar carried the book to the table before dropping it on the table with a bang

"Please do not make noises in the libr-- Oh? You interested in the family's history? Work hard boy" The elderly lady who was about to scold Ragnar stopped when she realized that the book he carried was the biggest one in the library which contained the history of the Weber family who was currently situated in the southern parts of Africa.

After reading the book, Ragnar could more or less summarize the events written in the book. Weber family which was one of the few Germany old generation magician family who joined the expedition team to explore southern Africa together with several others led by a man from the De La Rey family.

But in truth the Weber family were fleeing from their enemies in the entire Europe region and the expedition was truly a life-saving opportunity for them, the journey at first was long and dreary testing the will power of everyone in the team whether they could succeed.

After months, when they finally reached the southern point of Africa. They were confronted by various tribes who are the native occupants of the land. At first, the meeting between the two was only at being vigilant, that was until the team began to hunt in the region's controlled by the tribe or some became greedy for resources such as women.

Because of the hatred accumulating and due to lack of communication to resolve it diplomatically, the tension escalated faster than the exploration team expected and thus an inevitable war broke up between the two parties. It was a fierce battle to the death for the mortals (People with no knowledge of the supernaturals) in the open, while an intense magical battle took place between the magicians, super-warriors, shamans and weapon masters fought against each other in order to settle the war faster.

Surprises kept rolling in as the supernaturals of the foreigners could not have expected how the magic system of the African natives progressed similar yet uniquely different, the magic system of the shamans resembled those of Far East Taoism and some ritual professions, however, unlike they who gain their power from gods, demons and such. These shamans gained their power directly from nature.

The close-quarter combatants were called the Bushmen, unlike their poor looks of only wearing unique embroidered rags to cover their crotches and their weapons made from wood. Their prowess was no lower than those of the veterans. But their prowess did not stop at spears and bows, these ferocious wild bushmen could tame the wildlife of Africa to fight along their sides making their numbers even more prominent.

The battle was incredibly difficult, not only could the foreigners (Exploration Team) not advance but they were also hard-pressed to come up with solutions towards these strange unique magical curses of the shamans.

It would take a few months for reinforcements to arrive, coupled with the disadvantage of battling in a foreign world they could only remain in defence while waiting for the reinforcement.

But the solution did not help them in the long run as they discovered how difficult it was to procure food for their people and hunting outside would expose them to dangers. It was during these difficult times which the first patriarch of the Weber family household, David Weber stood out above all the masses.

Not only did he managed to lead a team to built a stronghold near fertile lands rich with resources, but he managed to secure several animals they could domesticate and breed for meat and wool.

This achievement due to the circumstances was more than enough to give the household enough power to directly involve themselves politically in decisions made for this exploration, just as much it gave them riches and status, it also gave them potential enemies who felt jealous and threatened of their sudden rise in prestige.

It was a long arduous battle, there was still a long time before the reinforcement would arrive. Thus a group of pacifists proposed to learn the language of the opposition in hopes to initiate communication.

This was met with oppositions, but the majority who faced the reality of the situation gave their approval and thus they began to capture some African tribesmen to start learning their language in great difficulty.

Because of the complexity of the language, it caused the initial prediction time they would initiate negotiations to delay. Despite the team being full of smart minded men, the study was arduous but also kept their interest and thus began to study the language of the Zulu tribe, Xhosa tribe, Setshuna tribe and many others.

Later they discovered that the language shared similarities in words similar to the language in Asia where some words sound the same but meant different things, it was a tough long month before the team finally managed to learn some of the languages.

With the method to communicate in hand, the foreigners began their approach to negotiate. It was at this time when the Patriarch of the Weber family, David knew he could not get to involve making him appear to be greedy due to his previous achievements already placed his family in the spotlight and asking for more would turn his blessing into poison.

Instead of fighting among his peers for immediate resources, David instead first gain the approval of the leader before he negotiated for a good piece of land surrounded by mountains where he and his household members could start building their homes.

At first, they wanted to oppose, but when the leader indirectly mentioned that the Weber Family withdrew from gain a piece of the pie they all agreed without hesitation. This allowed the Weber Family to become independent and no longer required to follow the exploration team, their goals had been met after all.

Years gone by, trading between the African tribes and many foreigners of different countries continued to flourish and expand. So did the encroachment of the foreigners who began to take over the lands that were owned by the African tribes, this followed by hidden skirmishes filled with greed for resources such as slaves.

This farce continued until another full-blown war took place when the Weber Family Patriarch noticed this he immediately called back his household members and isolated the family from the outside world.

Some members of the family opposed this, including the pressure from both the African natives and their former peers who wanted Weber to join either their sides for this war.

When news of the Weber Family withdrawing themselves from this war, both sides grew angry where the African natives directly attacked them in the open, while the former exploration team members all planned a coup.

With bribery, promises, rewards and many other tactics. The first patriarch of the Weber Family, David. Died due to poison during a family gathering, this followed by a swift change within the family as the firstborn son of David, Paul to take the seat as the second Patriarch and the first thing he ordered was the family to join the group to fight against the African natives.

With the Weber Family joining the war, the African Tribes were suppressed until they finally succumbed under the assault. The first thing that happened was that the Africans were isolated in several districts where they were monitored strictly, but the truth behind it all was that the supernaturals used this to suppress the shamans and bushmen from acting recklessly.

It was only after a long time, with interferences from varies powers did the Shamans and Bushmen gain their advantage to restart the war once again. It was only after many sacrifices did they managed to succeed and the country began its era of Freedom. Yet, hidden from public eyes the war still continued to this day as many people still have a desire towards these lands and its people.

In the end, the Weber family was one of the few last surviving families who were "accepted" to live in this country after they negotiated with the tribes. Thus the second Patriarch gave up his seat for his third brother, Noah Weber who continued to lead the family.

Ragnar stopped for a moment after closing the book, although the content was not that much important to him but it gave him several ideas of his surroundings. For example should he ever leave, he would have to look out for the natives since the relationship between both sides were not entirely peaceful.

But honestly he did not care much about it, what he was excited was the following books he would get to read. [Introduction to Magical Theory], [Introduction to Fairy Magic Theory], [Introduction to Summoning magic theory] and many other theory books which explains the magic system of each kind, Emilia believed that having theory knowledge before learning the pratical of each kind of magic would be beneficial for Ragnar.

Luckily for her, Ragnar was really interested in magic. Although magic was a every day thing of the Weber family, he however wanted to create magic for him and him alone. "Let's study!" Ragnar motivated himself while reading through the pile of books unawares of the happening at the main family house