After Darius was done offloading the meat that had been clogging up his rather large Inventory, he parted from Derek and returned to the library. This time, Darius made sure to speak about the history of Andrato with Portia, and she added a lot of knowledge that wasn't penned down for obvious reasons.
Apparently, what Portia heard was that the founder wasn't actually an advocate for men's rights, but the loser of a battle for the crown. In order for the winner to successfully exile her, they pinned this tag on her in order to lower her standing in public.
As for being exiled here to conquer the Plains of Death, it was basically a random excuse so they could send her out to die. After all, the Plains of Death weren't named as such because one could cross it safely and easily.
Darius rubbed his chin as he listened, finding the politics behind this kingdom's formation quite interesting. There was so much to digest and so much that was different from the norm that he found it novel.
Darius then moved onto geography. He learned the general makeup of the world and filled up many areas of his System Map this way. Apparently, the world was split into 10 major continents, with each so far from the other that denizens needed to use warp gates to cross.
Darius was also surprised to find out that each continent was not the same in terms of era. There was a continent called Gravitas that was described as having metal warriors and natives using metal boxes to move around.
That sounded awfully like mechs or robots for the first and some form of car for the second. This meant that the Gravitas continent was either futuristic or set in the modern age, which baffled Darius.
What the hell was Faust? He understood from what Caesar said that Vena created Faust solely to thrust him here and have him act out entertainment, but this world… this stage he had been given… it was too chaotic!
What made Darius even more confused was that there was a continent called Unyris that was basically - from what he could tell of the description - a land stuck in the pre-historic age with giant lizards, t-rexes, and bizarre wildlife.
The 10 continents were as follows; Fallon, Unyris, Gravitas, Houto, Pan, Pokterr, Ludo, Elysium, Armadon, Kiel.
As far as he could tell, they were currently on the Fallon continent which from the descriptions, seemed to be a medieval era land with a focus on magic and cold weapons.
Unyris was the pre-historic continent with sparse sentient life and rich natural resources that made all other continents drool, but its beast and monster populace were the second strongest in the entire Faust.
Gravitas was the least documented land as they were extremely xenophobic and looked down on all other species on Faust. Darius could not find anything more on them despite how much he read.
Houto was a large island nation that - from what Darius could see here - was basically old Japan. There were mentions of three prominent races on Houto, the humans, the Oni race, and the Yokai. That was largely what clued Darius in.
Pan was a bit harder to discern with these confusing descriptions. If Darius had not been from Earth and well-read, he would not have been able to grasp the make-up of the Pan continent. Putting aside the bizarre descriptions, Darius was able to understand that Pan also shared similarities to old China, and there were four races that existed there.
They were the Demon Beasts, Divine Beasts, Mortals, and Immortals. Darius was certain that Mortals and Immortals were the same race, but it seemed that Faustians didn't agree, especially the Immortals from Pan.
Pokterr was a subterranean continent that was hard to locate on the world map, and was almost inaccessible except through warp gates. It was mostly populated by… insects and moles? And as if that alone had not made it special enough they were giant in size as well.
Apparently, entry to and from Pokterr was strictly regulated since the insect race had once launched a horrible invasion of Faust that nearly ruined the world. If it wasn't for the innocent mole race that betrayed the insects to help the world, the continent would likely have been shut off for eternity.
Ludo was a saharan continent with sparse human life and civilization. It also lacked natural resources for sustenance/consumption, but its wealth of resources in terms of metals and minerals literally supplied 70% of the world!
Elysium was - as far as Darius could tell - the continent where the Gods of Faust resided and had their main churches set up. It was a location that was relatively easy to enter among the many continents, but getting to stay there was almost impossible.
Armadon was the opposite of Elysium apparently the continent where the demons and devils of Faust made their home. A hellish, barren wasteland of fire and brimstone, it had nothing to give the world except endless brutal demons, monsters, and even worse, devils. Entry to and from Armadon was not controlled as no one knew how to get there but those in the know.
Kiel was a continent located far to the north, and was a snowy continent full of strange tribes. It didn't belong to one particular race or have a set theme per se, but according to what Darius read, it is said that the core of Faust could be located there.
Darius digested the knowledge slowly throughout the course of the day. There was a lot more to read up on as some books detailed the locales, provinces, and states within certain continents, but Darius ended it here today as it was now late.
Portia had long fallen asleep on his lap and Darius found that he had been absent-mindedly playing with her hair. This made him smile kindly as this was the exact same position his beloved Miranda had fallen asleep in when Darius had tried to educate her.
Eventually, he had given up and decided to pamper the darling girl while focusing his teaching on the more stoic Solena and later Martin.
