Archive:Dankonia, the Begrudged

Beginnings

Dankonia came to the world of Alathra by ferry from an outland colony in the summer of 2021, shivering in the warmth of the newfound land as he awaited landfall. By birth, Dank belonged to a small band of cold-weather settlers, humans, with many a day being freezing temperatures, and was hence unused to the hot climate of the new world. By negative consequence, his previous residence and village was incinerated when after his tribe had a run-in with unfriendly neighbors, and, ergo, natural coexistence with his previous climate took priority to wealth and security upon arrival, being unable to adjust. He settled in Hightide, an icy region off the coast of Eastern Arith. While accustoming to his new climate, however, he found the town in the region to be malicious and seething with animosity - sheets of cloth and coin were used to represent product and material wealth, unlike the collective wealth and barter between settlements which took place in the outlands. It also seemed to him that this coinage would then be used for only nefarious things, the comings and goings of drunks and threatening people from races diverse in origin being the basis for his ideas. The worst part for Dank was that everyone wished to have more of it. No one was spared. To Dank, life operated off of it here, and if you didn't have it, you were forgotten. Some were killed for it. Some even became corrupt. Dank took note of this but continued to try and adapt to the new situation he was presented with.

The Spiral Downwards

Dankonia's Fall into Madness

Dankonia suffered a deal of blows from people which he considered allies while they attempted to drive him out of his old ways and pressure him into conforming to his new world. Dank, in retrospect, has confronted this time and identified it as cultural bereavement, or a series of events which would isolate, ostracize, and dehumanize him from his old acquaintances and life in ways which fractured his psyche. While Dank in the current day has confronted the idea that he is indeed mad, he has not forgiven the many people which forced him into this mindset, nor the people for the amount of time he had to spend reckoning with his mind before he became (mostly) healed.

The First Begrudging

Resuming where stopped, Dank, stuck in the ways of collectivism, borrowed materials from neighbors in the village to create a house near the Hightide Castle, and began to reach out to people in his community to get to know the area. The first person he came to know was Cody2979, the then-ruler of the Free Cities of Alathra and mayor of Hightide. Cody introduced him to the local culture, which Dankonia promptly dismissed, and the local storage, which Dankonia promptly took notice of. Then, when Cody then took a leave of absence for nearly a week the next day, Dank used nearly half of all the wood and ore stores which the town had saved up. Upon his return, Cody told Dank of the punishments which would occur if he was to repeatedly steal from neighbors and the treasury, with confiscation being the least of the actions. Cody also told Dank that the materials he wished for building could be found across Arith and purchased with money if collected, and so Dank set off to create money.

However that was achieved, Dankonia did not know, but shortly after, he was sure that it could not be found in Hightide, as icebergs did not contain anything at all except food (from personal experience). Traveling across Arith in search of a higher source of money, he stumbled into a tavern where he heard that gold could be found in higher quantities in mesa formations. Conversing with Cody shortly after hearing this, he agreed that he would depart from Arith, Hightide, and the F.C.A., taking all of his possessions, and relocate to the mesa region in Acquendavia claims. This, he agreed, would disassociate him from the F.C.A., but on a personal note would also force him into a slaving, tireless search for safety in an uncomfortable climate. And, only for the sake of the source of life: money - a cause which he already found ridiculous. Dank departed by nightfall, taking few personal affects with him, and established a settlement on the Southwestern Prospit Mesa known to locals as Adavvit. Upon returning to vacate the rest of his possessions, however, he found his home to be gone. It was found that the day before, soon after Dank left, Cody had instructed the town to tear down his house, claiming most of its possessions for the treasury of Hightide. Dankonia sank to his knees at the sight of a small crater and wept. How could Cody, a man with everything, rob a man who is so devoid of possession and take what little possessions he had? What was the purpose? What could the materials Dank had used and collected mean to a figurehead? Dankonia, now Begrudged, figured Cody to be a tyrant, a floundering leader with corrupt motives and petty attitude, and silently took his leave, wishing to one day burn down the crown jewel of what was a flatulent ruler.

The Long Haul

In between the first begrudging of Dankonia and the second, he began to build his settlement in Prospit slowly but surely. Starting out with a single claim, a chunk, he eventually expanded to a twenty-five by 25 chunk claim. On the edges, wooden platforms were braced with fence posts to the ground, and the platform hovered nearly twenty blocks over the ground, while the center pieces sported stone, a grassy knoll, and rose to a point on which a complex gazebo containing the port sat. This gazebo sprouted limbs, if you will, which led to above ground buildings on the stone, one of which became Dank's home where he distilled beer as a hobby.

However, this was just the topside of the structure. Dankonia's true show of prowess and determination for his earnings are shown in the lower level of the Adavvit structure: just beyond the ground access port on the interior sits an intricately lit and designed pit, and below that, a sixty-four by 64 by 18 pit inlaid with mosaic tiling. This pit was intended to become a grand bazaar, hosting products from all over the world, and the pit a political hall, with the wooden ring in the upper level to host embassy plots that were to make profit through taxation. The build took many days. However, upon nearing the end of the build, not everything went according to plan.

The ruins of Adavvit can still be found today, located roughly two hundred blocks north of the former capital of Acquendavia.

The Second Begrudging

After building most of his new dominion from the ground up, Dankonia came down ill with a strong fever, halting the completion of his beloved project. This fever would be attributed to the climate, which was diagnosed as too 'hot and strong' for Dank when he went to get examined in Lothridge. As many days of rest as it would take to break the illness and medication was prescribed, and so Dank returned to Adavvit, shambling home along the road without assistance. As he laid down to recover in the center chamber, Dank wondered how soon he would be able to resume construction - a few days, maybe? A week? Hopefully not a month, he thought, and began to rest.

Dankonia awoke from his slumber a while later. Having been tossed into a corner, he found himself on a hard floor and inside an empty building: no bed and no belongings. Dank scoured his home for signs of the men who did this, although he knew that they would be long gone - his slumber felt far longer than intended. When he found nobody, he decided to check the damage, and found relatively little in the core, where his stores had been. A final survey, though, of all the other damage he had found strewn about made Dank stagger: broken ceilings were rampant from grievers, as well as broken walls. The pit had been defaced, with the floor nodes having been splintered and cracked so that you could see the bazaar below. The bazaar itself no longer sported its colorful mosaic nor its stalls, and parts of the knoll had been desecrated and torn up, with dirt missing in some places and towers of stone receding into the sky in others. His home had been destroyed yet again. For days, he confined himself in the pit of Adavvit, attempting to rebuild his second home, but instead he wept, another home stolen from him by bandits, and he fled to yet even further shores on the nearby continent of Koganon, looking for a new beginning.

An Era of Flight

A life on Koganon ensued for Dankonia in the careful hands of the Sublime Arcadian Altanate, a sprawling, vastly wealthy nation of builders which were committed to expanding the wealth and scope of their nation. While Dank thought this to be a compromise of his ideals, he resigned to the fact he needed money and decided to settle in Kais Kogong to craft a home. Upon the settlement of his home, though, he began a shop which would not receive any income or assistance from fellow Arcadians, leaving him where he started off his most recent chapter of his life: isolated, unwanted, unsure of what was true. So, taking time to explore the immediate surroundings, he set off to find resources to begin production of more valuable items.

But, somehow, he began to notice suspicious things instead. People didn't come to this city, nor did people leave. Only two regulars frequented the city. And, goods often came, but they didn't leave, nor did the balance of the town increase - they just came and disappeared. To Dank, this place become more frightening at every turn, his madness having turned into paranoia. Fleeing into the forest to start an isolated cave dwelling known only to few as Kais Uthdur, he began to question his own sanity: for thinking that this beautiful pristine place full of wonderful buildings a fluke, was he truly arriving on the threshold of insanity, or was it really a mirage like he thought it was?

The Final Days

Dank despised life, and traveling to a mesa biome, he gave into his deepest fear: money. He began a shop at Adavvit, a small east mesa town which he began long ago and refurbished/ repaired upon arrival. And, coming into his age, he passed away, no closer to peace at any other point in his life except then.