Houjen

Houjen was the first success of creation's monk, within creation's monastery. In his early years, he was raised by the monk, and was taught the monk's knowledge. In the many years since, from him and the monk, the monastery grew to hundreds of comrades, monks, librarians, assistants and beacons. Whilst this forced all in the monastery into a social life, it hardly mattered to Houjen, whose focus on documentation and research of the monk's extraordinary abilities, those same ones that granted him and many comrades their lives was, and many more anomalous occurances within the monastery undisturbable, following the monk's words: "brute strength might get you far, but with knowledge, all will get closer".

Within creation's monastery, all lasted well for many hundreds of years, but that would not be long. Houjen one day found a strange creature, of his shape, yet pink and soft, shivering and struggling to exit through a crack. Holding the human back, Houjen sensed its fear, so very thick it could be smelt within the air. The human was mumbling about flesh floating, but had gone silent after he was grasped by a cold hand, feeling fleshy yet rotten, and dared not even breathe. "I assume you've seen him, then? But why do you fear?" Houjen asked the human, although its reaction was not at all expected. The human began to flee, his shoulder, held by Houjen, now torn apart. Houjen was curious, but could not leave the monastery no matter the occurance, in accordance to the monk's laws. But then, the monastery began to shake, as it never had before. This, rather reasonably, caused confusion among the monastery's many comrades, but that confusion was not long-lasting, as it quickly turned to fear, for the monastery was collapsing! Houjen, who was far too busy in study to note the shaking, did take note of the many chunks of calcite within his now unroofed hut, quickly escaping the monastery, and running onto the nearby hills he had never seen before, he began to view the destruction and note down every detail. Looking at the view nearby, and of the sea and rivers rising from the monastery's water supply, he decided, in mere moments, that now as the monastery is all but gone, he is to research and discover all he can, and complete his work, thus beginning his travel.

## The Travel To Ontari

As Houjen began his travel from the monastery, he was quickly surprised by the variety of lands within the world. Whilst the monastery was built of calcite and diorite, white and lacking in variety, across his journey, Houjen saw lands scorched and volcanic, flat and oaeken, tightly forested, and mountainous, taking some years to record and research on each one. Right of a mountain, Houjen spotted a cave as large as could be, and for the first time within his journey, he spotted the same strange creatures as he had before the monastery's collapse. These humans appeared to have been entering the cave in large numbers, which was rather odd, considering there was pottery and buildings, which, assuming these humans were already here, should have been guarded, for it was unlikely for all the human citizens to leave their settlement together. Further watching for a few more years, he noted not only that these humans were building and writing far differently than seen in the pre-existing objects, thus it was likely that these humans were in fact taking over a previous group's lands, and he never saw them practice the ways of creation. This seemed strange to him, as previously, Houjen believed all humans understood the ways of creation, or another of the divine ways, but watching even further, now that he was no longer as confused by the lack of understanding, Houjen noted few humans, dressed somewhat more elegantly than those previous, walking towards a statue of a glass lion which he'd noted but considered of no importance, holding some books on them, looking wiser than most other humans. As one of them had an epiphany, Houjen had an assumption this would grow further, by much, and correct he was, as the land of the cave had grown. Yet still, despite that, he had failed to find any mention of creation, and even worse, he had barely managed to find any well-compiled and recorded information nor history, although he had managed to learn some in regards to the cave's following of Transcendence. And as his curiousity grew, Houjen decided that it was time, after many years of observation from afar, to begin interaction with the cave's denizens.

As Houjen walked down towards the settlement from his temporary viewing outpost hidden above it, he was quickly greeted by the town's guards and questioned for his intentions. Quickly thinking, Houjen answered that he wished to gain citizenship to the settlement, and was thus brought to a differing building. judging by the building's similarity to others in the area, it appeared to Houjen that the settlement was slowly progressing and developing, without any rush. Being further questioned for citizenship, Houjen noticed not only that the system was simple, hinting at a lack of people and workforce, but also that he wasn't questioned in regards to his look, size, or any other difference from humanity, thus causing him to consider it possible either that others of his sort have come by the settlement, which he learned was called ontari, the capital of the Kingdom of Emori, or that perhaps they are merely used to variety in Ontari. After gaining citizenship successfully, Houjen requested all knowledge that was had in Ontari. Whilst he was disappointed that there was indeed no knowledge of creation or the divine ways, solidifying his thoughts, he was also rather overjoyed to see that they had much information in regards to the world of the outside and its civilizations, with all of their different cultures, although the majority of these were situated above ground, for they hadn't much need to worry and hide, nor did they have a connection to the area, as the emorians did. Thus, having learned all there was to learn at the present in regards to ontari that he could or considered of importance, Houjen went off from ontari and continued to travel, hoping he might find some researchers of the world outside, and perhaps join them in the quest for knowledge and discovery.

## Promising Comrades

Houjen continued traveling across the realm of Avalor, only to find disappointment. All people he found hadn’t much information, and all he could get was hints to some additional civilizations. In addition to this, he discovered the Locoda Institute of Historical Research, a small institute based in the Northern nation of Oori do Narada, in which he met Peckett Locomor, its head and Oori do Narada’s leader, titled “Ggab”. The two conversed and came to theorize on some historical assumptions which Houjen could now understand with the assistance of the institute’s grand compendium of Avalorian history, and certainly, this compendium would have brought a visible smile to his face, had his face itself been visible and not hidden behind a mask. However, remaining in the institute proved itself unfulfilling, and so Houjen went off once again, with a tinge of hope tainting his mind.

Watching the sea to the far end of Avalor, Houjen took note of the unfortunate great storm at the current moment, weather unfitting for sailing, not that anyone would sail in this weather regardless, apart for the young elvish adventurer shipwrecked just in his line of sight, of course. Greeting the young adventurer, who only took note of him after a long series of rather careful steps around the shore, Houjen felt rather clearly the danger emanating from the young elf, as he had needed to do in order to avoid death to the monsters of Avalor, and quickly attempted to calm the clearly foreign elf. After some conversation between the two, the elf was revealed to Houjen as a foreigner to the whole land of Avalor, having come from a strange land of repetitive structure called the evershade, his parents long dead, and seemingly, to Houjen, the elf had great potential as a researcher. Thus, Houjen decided, with some request from the elf called Yvin Aphelios, to teach the young elf of Avalor’s many cultures and history. They both traveled and found many structures of Avalor, many missing histories, strange anomalies, destroyed cultures and religions, and so, Yvin Aphelios learnt of Avalor, quite possibly knowing molre of it than he did of his previous home, The evershade. Quickly, through study, they both bonded further, becoming no longer teacher and student, but rather, close friends, who eventually had no differences in knowledge, none knowing more than the other in regards to the history of Avalor. Eventually, however, Both Yvin and Houjen decided to split off, and continue their research individually, vying to meet up in the future if a possibility.