Anecdotes of Sociology

This small chapter is a description of the world as we know it. If you are not curious, then skip it. Knowing how the world works might enrich your experience or not depending on how you like to enjoy novels.

The world that these individuals are currently residing in is quite simple.

Most humans live growing crops or raising cattle.

The places which people call "kingdoms" are really mostly places where one goes to exchange goods.

Basically, they are places where trade is made possible.

Most Hunters live in kingdoms and are the ones that are accepted into these places of residence. The very few humans that do reside in these areas work under the ruling family of the city.

There are many reasons as to why the world has developed in this particular manner.

First of all, even if regular humans gather together, a Hunter with blood in their hands (or one that has Hunted before) can easily wipe out any settlement, no matter how many humans attack the individual.

A Hunter that has hunted enough prey can become immune to most metals. This is also the reason why weapons tend to be discouraged among Hunters.

Second of all, Hunters, unlike humans, tend to be more of a solitary species.

Hunters could gather among a particularly strong individual, but this is mostly out of admiration. Without bonds of love or blood, these groups tend to dissolve. Most of them dissolve out of sheer envy, as Hunters can obtain that person's powers if they are killed. Because of this, powerful Hunters tend to fight and live alone.

However, groups of Hunters do exist, such as the Dead Dreamers or the strange cult of Rue. But these are not the only gatherings of Hunters. Those who were born as Hunters and have been Hunters for generations have more training against their urges of solitude. These Hunters form kingdoms, which are often found in the overworld of Epsilon.

Let us focus a little more on the families that can be encountered at these trade centers.

What we call "nobles" are the ruling family of each kingdom. The head of the family would be the respectful ruler of the area. It was stated before that these areas are mainly trading centers, as these families do not tend to be large groups of individuals. Yet, because of their pride, they do not become farmers like the rest of the humans.

Instead, they offer protection between the exchanges of farmers with a high tax, as people cannot grow everything they need, and finding another farmer tends to be a hassle without a meeting point.

There are many cities in the overworld of Epsilon, however, a detailed map has never been made available to any individual, except Louis, whose knowledge of the world is protected.

As such, no description shall be given of the different cities, nor of their location and distance between each other.

Finally, because of who Hunters are, they tend to enter conflict easily with each other. As such, wars happen quite often.

Since throwing humans is discouraged because of how easy they are to kill, and the need for agriculture is still quite high, nobles do not tend to form large armies.

In fact, many nobles use war as an excuse to experiment on humans to become stronger. The results of these experiments are flimsy at best, but exactly how efficient they are is unknown.

This is the overworld of Epsilon, where many of the characters in the story come from.

Epsilon is an unknown land, which is why no description is given.