The link for where I got the names for my various random characters and plan to use for other random characters from the various species didn't appear when I put it the end of the first chapter, so I am going to just put the website title. Fantasy Name Generators, subtitle-Warhammer

…...

Tower of Hoeth, Belennaer

It had been several weeks since the arrival of Ranma and while there wasn't a physical change in the White Tower there was certainly an atmosphere change. The White Tower usually felt old, stuffy, it felt like it was stuck in the past, with people constantly trying to find old and lost knowledge instead of creating new spells and artifacts. It was more like a monument or tomb of past glories that no longer existed, everything in it stuck in the past, decaying and dying.

However, since the arrival of Ranma it was like a breath of fresh air had gone through the place, there was excitement in the air as new ideas and information passed through the halls, it was enough to make him feel half a millennium younger. His student Teclis was especially excited, he constantly went on about the potential of humanity and how they would probably become the most powerful of the civilized races, most of the Asur didn't agree with that assessment. Seeing humans as little more than unwashed barbarians that barely know how to work metal, however Ranma's revelation about the sheer technological achievements of the human race in his world quickly shut them up.

What race in their world can claim to have visited the moon? Capable of creating ships that could fly through the stars, perhaps the Children of the Old Ones if they have some leftovers from their old master the Old Ones as they were a spacefaring species. Although some of the inventions that Ranma talked about horrified him and many others, those nuclear weapons for instance were unquestionably one of the dangerous things he has ever heard of and the fact that they are creations of science, not magic meant in theory anybody could create them as long as they have the raw materials and the know-how. Luckily Ranma just knew they existed and what they could do, he had no idea how to even begin building one, so their world would likely not suffer under the horrors of such a weapon.

He still remembered Ranma's explanation of the various mystical powers of his world.

Flashback

They were on one of the training courtyards, the same one Ranma appeared in although the crater was no longer there.

"I already made an example of one of the powers of my world, ki it is the power that I have the most experience in and knowledge about. However, the mystical powers of my world are divided into five categories" lifting up his hand and raising one finger for each power "ki, magic, spiritual energy, demonic energy and divine power.

FIVE! There were four other mystical powers as Ranma put it other than magic in his world? This was perhaps the greatest discovery since the discovery of magic by their ancestors.

"iKi is life energy, and I don't mean that you sacrifice some of your life force every time you use it, it's using excess body energy, stamina would be what it could be best described as you have a limit and get tired and can even be knocked unconscious if you use too much of it. In theory you can use your actual lifeforce to power yourself but that is rare and usually happens instinctively when you are trapped in a life and death situation where there is no option but to attack with everything you have or die. So only in really desperate situations where the choice is between dying or giving up some of your life force" Ranma explained.

In that sense it's little different from the magic of our world, Belennaer thought, everyone in their world had limits when it came to using the Winds of Magic and using it too much can and has led to exhaustion, death and mutations. So, in a way ki could be described as safer since there was no risk of being corrupted by the Chaos Gods eliminating one of the three major risks and the risk to your soul.

And it's in everything, the body, air, rocks and everything else. It unlocked in several stages, the first stage would be sensation which many people unlock without knowing and never surpass that stage. Most who do unlock it are fighters as with sensation you can sense danger or someone's desire to harm you however it is mostly instinct, and few realize they have it and its scale varies from person to person. As most have no idea they have it they may just feel a chill coming down their spine or their body telling them to run or duck for no apparent reason not consciously realizing they are in danger. Others can sense it several seconds before whatever danger happens and realize that they are in danger, predicting the attack, which direction it is going to come from and what form the attack will be, allowing them not to panic and counterattack. It's often called the sixth sense" Ranma continued.

Now that was interesting, he knew of many people who had that "sixth sense" as Ranma put it, knowing somehow that they were in danger when there were no obvious signs of danger. He himself and many other Loremaster's and Swordmasters also possessed it along with countless other dedicated warriors. And indeed, it varies from person to person, so that is the first stage ki.

"The second stage is called channeling and while this can still be done by instinct it is mostly done consciously even if the person doesn't exactly understand the power they are using or how they are doing it. Channeling consists of focusing ki into their bodies or objects. For an object this makes it much stronger, harder and depending on its edge sharper, for example" as Ranma then took out a red gymnastic ribbon like Kodachi would use.

"This is a completely ordinary ribbon, at best you could take somebodies eye out with a lucky hit but otherwise it's pretty much harmless but adding ki to it make it much more dangerous" and with that he lashed the ribbon at a wooden and straw training dummy and cut it right in half.

"Kuno that noble idiot I talked about before also does it, he uses a bokken a wooden practice sword which usually can just bruise someone. However, by adding ki to it he manages to destroy stone walls with nothing but air pressure from the bokken with over a foot distance between the bokken and the wall" various Swordmasters actually grinned at this and that didn't surprise Belennaer, after all if someone could destroy stone from a distance with a wooden practice sword then imagine what the Swordmasters with their magically enhanced Ithilmar Swords could do. The thought of what they could do would be like getting engaged or married to someone they love, to put it bluntly they were very happy.

"Usually, you have to maintain contact with the object for it to retain the ki, however some people could have the object retain the ki after letting it go, most for only a few seconds, so people who could do it, usually used them as short, ranged projectiles to throw at the opponent, catching them off guard with something that is usually very harmless like cloth. In the hands of a channeler everything can be a weapon even a blade of grass can be used as a dagger, or a teapot as a pretty strong club able to bash someone's head in" Ranma explained.

Now that could definitely be useful, the Asur as a rule really didn't officially have spies or assassins, the Asur considered themselves to "civilized" to need such things or lower themselves that much, but the Loremasters and the Shadow Warriors fulfilled that role. The Loremasters and their Swordmasters subordinates were counter spies whose job it was to root out Chaos Cults and Druchii agents, while the Shadow Warriors were an unofficial branch of the military so their actions could be disavowed. They were the spies and assassins of Ulthuan but both branches of the High Elves espionage would find the ability to turn almost anything into a deadly weapon very useful.

"Channeling through the body pretty much has the same effect as channeling through objects, it increases one's strength, speed and reflexes to an inhuman level for example how high can an ordinary human jump?" Ranma asked.

"About half a meter or just less would be the average I think" Teclis responded being the only Asur there who has probably seen a human jump.

Ranma then preceded to jump ten meters high... straight up without bending his knees or having a running start and when he landed, he then from his sleeve he removed an iron ball with a chain on the end. The iron ball was about as high and as wide as Ranma, he then lifted it without seemingly exerting himself or even breathing hard, the thing must have weighed several Tonnes. Then for an encore he then ran around the training yard and the only reason they knew that was because he stopped at every corner as he moved so fast all they could see was a blur... Once he began to slow down near the corners.

And when Ranma returned to his original position he was greeted by the sight of many wide eyed and open-mouthed Elves. What Ranma just showed them was supposed to be impossible, especially without the aid of some legendary magical artifact. Oh, the strength that Ranma showed was common enough... for HIGH LEVEL CHAOS CHAMPIONS AND GIANTS and everything else was as Ranma stated completely inhuman. Especially the speed, Ranma could perhaps be called one of the fastest living things to have walked on the planet!

Fortunately, Ranma gave them a few minutes to collect their thoughts and regain their composure.

"That was a most impressive display" I said, now this could be really useful, if even only a handful of them could learn how to use ki in that way then they would have several elite warriors capable of fighting Greater Daemons on fairly equal terms.

"There are also several other benefits and abilities that one can use for channeling ki, the first is healing, while ki is unable to regrow lost limbs as far as I am aware, it is able to heal cuts, bruises and broken bones at an astounding rate, I once had nearly every bone in my body broken, an injury that should have taken months if not a year to heal properly and there should have been some issues after I healed as no injury that extensive should have left no problems for the rest of my life" Ranma sighed "I was fully healed and functioning with no side effects from my previous injury in a week".

I was astonished, not only by the healing rate as Ranma out but also the nonchalance way Ranma described himself so heavily injured, like it was a regular occurrence but considering the tidbits of his past he has revealed so far, it may very well have been.

"The best example that I am about to show you of a more advanced way to use channeling is a family technique invented by pops, one of the ones that individuals while have to win my trust and approval before I even consider teaching them" he gave them a hard stare that just DARED them to try and force the secret behind that particular technique from him "this is the Umiseken" then he disappeared from sight.

While this surprised them it didn't amaze them like the other abilities, many mages and Loremasters were skilled enough with illusions to make themselves and others invisible, then there was the Shadow Warriors and the Shadow King Alith Anar, many Asur believe him to be dead or perhaps a myth, but the Loremasters knew better, though reliable sightings of him were rare there are sightings, the last one during the Witch King's most recent invasion of Ulthuan. But they too had a way to "disappear" and even the Loremasters were unsure how exactly they accomplish it. The only advantage this provided them with was that the usual ways to detect invisible people were probably useless as their method relied on magic which could be detected in numerous ways, this Umiseken on the other hand used ki, so they had no method of detecting it.

Ranma reappeared, looking at them "That didn't impress you as much as the other examples, did it?"

Teclis gave an enigmatic smile "Many of us have our own ways of concealing ourselves" before he did his own disappearing trick.

That almost made me smile as my student gave his own shock to our guest and judging by the looks my colleagues were giving, they were enjoying it and, in all likelihood, wanted to join in, after all reducing a proud Asur into a wide-eyed open mouth fish does need some compensation.

However, I noticed that Ranma was looking and following something, something invisible and if I strained my magical sight, I could see something in the spot Ranma was looking at. Teclis was skilled and that is the reason why someone as skilled, powerful and experienced as me had trouble seeing him when he cloaked himself, yet Ranma saw him immediately and seemingly without trying although, he squinted a bit at Ranma. Were his eyes glowing?

"You can see him?" I asked, catching the others by surprise as they now noticed that Ranma was watching an invisible person.

Teclis then reappeared, looking intrigued "Very few can sense me when I am concealed and most of them would have to put some effort into finding me, meaning they already knew to look for an invisible person" turning his head towards Ranma "and while you knew there was an invisible person the ease in which you could find me and track my movements is astounding".

"Technically it is another ability you gain through channeling but "Ranma seemed to be trying to find the right words for it "it is much more complicated than just putting ki into your eyes. It's like the ki version of magic sight, everyone who uses ki can technically do it, but most are unable to use it. With it you can see someone else's ki, their aura, which allows you to see what emotions they are feeling at that moment, as well as the emotions they usually feel, their personality if you will. Through experience you can tell how great the emotions are, how controlled a person is by them and in later stages how physically powerful they are and whether they are lying or not".

"The only people capable of fooling ki sight would be masters who can conceal their auras and misdirect those by faking emotions in those auras" now looking at Teclis "unfortunately for your magical concealment it was designed to hide your body and not your aura, see I could see you pretty easily"

Now that was also very useful, the ability to see magically concealed people would make finding and stopping Druchii Shades and Assassin's much easier although from Ranma's statement such people would be few in number and probably be spread thin in protecting numerous important places and people but still incredibly useful.

"Then there is projection of ki, the most basic version of it is the battle aura" with that Ranma was surrounded by a blue light and then they felt a pressure and every part of their body screamed that this person was dangerous, and they should avoid fighting him, they were afraid. He was afraid. Him! Belennaer the wise, oldest living Loremaster, survivor of countless battles and defeater of many monsters that plagued Ulthuan was afraid? By a little bit of light?!

The light show then ended "Projection is the use of ki externally, outside of the body or an object. The battle aura is usually used to display the difference in power between two ki users, the bigger the aura the more powerful the user is. However, it can also be used as an attack, you probably noticed a pressure and a feeling of fear?

Belennaer saw the various Loremasters nod, some of the younger ones looking fairly pale.

"The battle aura has been known to make opponents freeze, run away or wet themselves in fear, knock them unconscious and even kill them by causing heart attacks however the more powerful or strong willed the opponent is whether it be a sentient creature or animal the less of an effect it would have and before you ask no I wasn't giving it my all" explaining the use of a battle aura.

He wasn't giving it his all?! That aura was nearly enough to make him shake in fear and Ranma was still holding back?! By Asuryan no wonder he wasn't scared when he entered a room full of some of the most powerful Asur currently alive, he was much more powerful and dangerous than originally thought. Though how powerful was the question. He looked around and what he saw convinced him others made the same conclusion as he did.

"If you want a proper attack using projection then this is my favorite Moko Takabisha" Ranma yelled as a large blue light projectile went from his hand towards another training dummy at a very fast speed and preceded to blow it to bits.

That blast was very much like Shem's Burning Gaze from the Lore of Light, I thought but a bit more destructive and probably affected all targets instead of just corrupted ones, seeing the small crater where the dummy once stood.

"Most Projections are fairly similar, blasts of energy that exit the body but there is another way to use it than just pure combat, although only skilled and experience master would be able to do it and that is to heal. As stated, before ki healing cannot regrow lost limbs but can deal with most other injuries. A master can transfer some of his ki to another person, making them more powerful but it is more often used to help heal or stabilize an injured person" Ranma said explaining a fairly non-violent side of ki usage.

So, ki can be used similarly to the Lore of Life, I thought, although it seems a bit more restrictive than the Lore of Light.

"The final stage although it can be called the mastered form of projection is manipulation, where you can turn ki energy into or control other things like this for example" a blue light erupted from his hand, but it looked more solid, it was also thinner and stopped a fairly short distance from his hand with now a line of blue light stretching from Ranma's clenched fist. The light faded to reveal a sword.

"Masters can manipulate ki to create objects, with limits decided by the amount of ki the master has, the amount of control he has over it and the imagination he has" Ranma explained. Another useful thing for espionage and especially assassination.

"However, real masters can use it to manipulate the forces of nature itself after all ki is in everything" and with that Ranma did a display that wouldn't leave their minds anytime soon. He summoned mini tornadoes that surrounded him before changing them from pure wind to ice, fire, stone and water. He created an ice rink and from that ice came a small army of ice golems, shaped and armed in various ways, for example several had six hands with swords in each of those hands.

He then performed several other manipulations of the elements that all together could be considered a dazzling work of art and skill, Ranma ended the performance by flying a few inches off the ground.

"Still haven't managed to master flying just yet at best I can only hover" Ranma said somewhat embarrassed.

Again, their guest was treated to the sight of several dumbstruck Asur, me included. That was a display of power worthy of himself or Teclis, combined with his physical capabilities that are beyond even Tyrion's. The level of power he showed was now a myth, something that only existed in the days of Aenarion the Defender... Perhaps we can return to those days, came the stray thought, as a feeling of something that he hadn't felt in a long time, not truly, it took him a moment to place what it was, hope.

Flashback end

Ranma's display of spiritual energy and magic was far tamer. From the limited observation between the two parties their magic, the Winds of Magic was external, while Ranma's magic was internal, he drew his magic from himself while they drew it from around them.

A second source of magic that had no risk of Chaos corruption was certainly something everyone in the White Tower wanted to get their hands on, but he cooled them off by pointing out that it would be difficult to learn an entirely new system of magic. It's like training a right-handed person to now use his left hand as well, possible but difficult to just stop using a now ingrained habit and even if you trained yourself to be left-handed you would automatically go for your right hand without thinking about it, even if you meant or it would be better to use your left hand. They would still try and learn to use but it would likely be the next generation of Loremasters and Mages that would be able to successfully use it.

iiSpiritual energy unlike ki and magic in Ranma's world was not something you could just learn, you have to be born with the power, you could know the prayers forwards and backwards, you could create the talismans blindfolded and they wouldn't have any power in them if you weren't born with spiritual energy.

However, from Ranma's display and description of the various powers and the duties of priests and priestess in his home nation that power could be useful. Ranma's world didn't have the Chaos Gods or Daemons, but it did have demons, creatures that seemed to be made of solidified living manifestation of hate, greed and other negative emotions and acts which they feed upon. To see if spiritual energy could purge Chaos energy, they decided to test it on some low-level Chaos artifacts that they confiscated over the millenniums and decided to keep for such a purpose, to test spells and other things on them to see how effective they would be against Chaos.

The effect was surprising, spiritual energy was even better than the Lore of Light in purging the foul taint of Chaos, either destroying the artifacts or returning it to its original state before it was corrupted.

Then there were the barriers and talismans, they proved most effective and there was already an idea to create a massive barrier that would surround Ulthuan. Daemon invasions would be impossible, the Norscan's and Druchii would lose a significant amount of power if they crossed the barrier, either dying or being reduced to ordinary elves and humans, making them far less dangerous and easier to deal with. Ranma, however, stated that he didn't know if it was possible to create or maintain such a large barrier but considering his life, he wouldn't say it was impossible either.

Next was the blessing or rituals of spiritual energy, they warded off disease, helped bring a favorable harvest and a number of other benefits but the one that interested them the most was the one about increasing the odds of healthy births. That one nearly had several Loremasters about to demand Ranma perform such a ritual to that effect, but he quickly caught them before they could blurt out, they were a dying species, as he pointed out while they know what spiritual energy does to Chaos, they have no idea how it would affect the Asur or their world, he wanted several tests done before such a ritual should be performed.

In terms of demonic energy and divine power, Ranma was not capable of performing those abilities although he did have a handful of demonic and divine artifacts, that he kept from his adventures mostly to keep the rest of the Nerima idiots as Ranma put it from getting their hands on them.

And considering the handful of adventures and situations that Ranma informed them about, he was involved in Belennaer had to agree with Ranma's sensible idea of keeping those objects under guard and away from the "Nerima Wrecking Crew", which was apparently their unofficial title by the locals.

He entered one of the many libraries and saw Ranma with Loremaster Edios, as they were fulfilling their end of the bargain, teaching Ranma the history of their world, language and other things.

"Hello Belennaer" Ranma said with a slight smile, the Loremasters long since given up making Ranma show respect in private, although they managed to make a compromise where in formal ceremonies and other such things, he would follow their traditions and acknowledge the titles and the respect those titles conferred on the individuals during such events. The odds are as a human he wouldn't be involved in such things, but they wanted to nip that potential problem in the bud just in case it happened.

"Is it alright to publicly insult a Pheonix King?" Ranma asked, catching me off guard with that question.

"Which one?" though I had a feeling which one of our esteemed monarchs Ranma would want to insult.

"Caledor the second" came the blunt and expected reply.

"While not illegal to insult a Pheonix King, it is not really publicly acceptable to do so, although many do it privately and Caledor II is considered the worst monarch that we have in our entire history, followed by Aethis, both crippled and nearly destroyed the Asur with their actions, short sightedness and foolishness" he answered.

That was completely true, Aethis while a reasonable peace time King, allowed their military to fall apart, their people become divided over petty politics that greatly damaged the unity of the Asur that was still healing to this day and allowed their society to be overrun with Malekith's agents. Causing himself to be assassinated and the Druchii invasion of Ulthuan, it took a nearly four-hundred-year war to drive the Dark Elves from their Island continent.

Caledor the Second on the other hand was unquestionably an incompetent buffoon who should have never been elected, he was a good warrior and a reasonable general, but he was short sighted, quick and easily angered, easily manipulated, incompetent in diplomacy, civil and administrative matters and the only solutions he could think of were military brute force decisions. This led to the War of the Beard or the War of Vengeance as the dwarves called it, that saw the destruction of most of the Asur Empire and most of their overseas colonies, the complete dissolution of their alliance with the Karak Ankor, to the point that even over four thousand years later Dwarves and Elves still hated each other on sight. That war broke the power of the Asur, all because Caledor decided to go to war instead of investigating what in the name of Asuryan was going. Why were elves attacking dwarves or at least why were dwarves claiming they were attacked by Elves? If he did that then it was likely that both the Asur and Dwarves would unite and send an invasion to Naggrond to show their appreciation to Malekith, likely destroying the Druchii once and for all.

If only, I thought, sighing internally.

"I thought my world history was violent, but the wars of this world make the Sengoku Jidai look like a small drunken brawl both in scale and importance to the safety of the world and at least there are periods of peace in my world, this world hasn't had peace since the War of the Beard from what I have been reading so far" Ranma said looking a bit uncomfortable and unbelieving.

I pity Ranma, while he got into fights on a regular basis, he only had to kill one person and he didn't even permanently kill them. To be transferred from a mostly peaceful world to one where blood is shed on a nearly daily basis on a scale that hadn't been seen in his world since World War 2, I think that what Ranma called it? Which happened decades before Ranma was born, a nation that had decades of peace didn't currently exist in this world. Even now we are facing nearly daily raids and mini invasions by both the Druchii and the Norscan's. The Empire, Dwarves, Kislev and Bretonianns were facing constant Beastmen, Chaos, Skaven and Greenskin incursions, while the smaller city states of Araby, Estalia, Border Princes and Tilea were constantly fighting each other along with other threats. True peace was something that this world has not experienced for thousands of years, there are just periods where there are no major wars.

"By the way is there some sort of event going on, the place seems to be awfully empty?" Ranma asked genuinely curious.

I internally winced, while Edios did wince, Ranma then realized that he stumbled on a very uncomfortable topic.

"Ahhh, sorry" Ranma said looking a bit uncomfortable himself now.

"Well, you would find out eventually" deciding to sit down in an empty silver chair "the Asur are dying out, we don't know why but we are having problems reproducing and every generation it gets harder and harder to have children. Once there were millions of us, we were the rulers of continents and able to field armies of dedicated warriors that numbered in the hundreds of thousands. Now? We are only the rulers of our home continent and a few outposts, we have to rely on militia forces for the bulk of our military rather than proper warriors and we are barely able to hold back the forces that desire to invade Ulthuan".

"It all started with the Sundering, something I believe that you already read about" Ranma nodded at that" Ulthuan population was devastated by the war but luckily most of our colonies were left intact, in time we would recover but then the War of the Beard happened, and those previously intact colonies were destroyed and abandoned. And each invasion by the Druchii takes its toll on us, combined with a continuously lowering birth rate well" he then waved his arms around the noticeably empty library they were in.

"We are not in danger of extinction" he said holding up a placating hand to Ranma" but if things continue on like this in another thousand years we may very well be in danger, especially with the threat of another Druchii invasion, they always cost lots of lives of many Asur, and we barely defeated the last invasion. If things continue, we will probably be defeated in the next major invasion".

Ranma frowned and seemed to be thinking or trying to remember something before his eyes lit up. He then put his hand up his sleeve and began to jostle in it like he was looking for something and considering his ki space he probably was.

"Where is it, it's got to be here somewhere" they heard Ranma mutter "ah here it is!".

Ranma then removed an old looking book that absolutely reeked of magic, a magical tome of some kind I mused but what had that to do with what he explained.

Ranma then looked embarrassed "Well how to explain this, I already told you that I learned magic from the Amazons of my world" and wasn't he surprised to learn that there were Amazons on this world as well, somewhere in Lustria. It was amusing to all observers when Ranma was told that about that as he panicked somewhat and spent the next week looking over his shoulder and every shadow as if he expected them to pop out of nowhere to harass him or as Ranma said "Worse marry me!".

"They are a bit perverted" ah that's why the embarrassment "they developed many spells, artifacts and potions to do the eeehhh nightly activities" Ranma's face was pretty red at that moment "one of them is a potion that guaranteed children after such a night" holding the book showing the necessary page with said potion on it.

"While I am unsure whether it would work for Asur or if you have all the ingredients in this world it can serve as template for your own version" Ranma said.

I gave him a sharp look and made immediate plans to summon another conclave of the Loremasters, probably the shortest gap between conclaves in recent history "Tell me the recipe".

i In case you're wondering how I divided it, I used which has plenty of information about Ranma, this particular tidbit regarding ki is under Ranma ½ and ki mastery

ii I am basing spiritual energy mostly from Inuyasha and what some of the Priests in Ranma 1/2 do, if this offends any Japanese or Shinto readers for not properly portraying their religion or beliefs then I apologize