The Martial Unity

Rui was not unfamiliar with the Kandrian Martial Festival. The Kandrian Martial Festival was a month-long festival dedicated to Martial Art. However, this festival was quite unlike normal festivals. For one, there were no celebrations of the normal kind. The festival was a dedicated event to exhibiting and demonstrating the Martial prowess of the entire nation. The festival was characterized by innumerable Martial tournaments of all scales and sizes, making for a bombastic and exciting one month for the Kandrian Empire.

However, it was a festival that was held once every five years.

This was a decision that the Royal Family and the Martial union for multiple reasons. Firstly, Martial Artist work force was extremely important to the Royal Family and especially to the Martial Union. The completion of missions was an extremely necessary economically and politically. The Martial Artists not just sustained the Martial Union, but contributed to holding the very empire as a whole together.

It was not possible for the Royal Family and the Martial Union to allow the Martial workforce to stop working for a whole month every year, on many levels.

The nation as a system would start breaking apart at the seams, and the Martial Union would experience a noticeable plummet in income.

Thus, they had chosen to limit it to five years. Five years was just long enough for the benefits to outweigh the detriments.

The positivity associated with the Kandrian Martial Festival was one of the means by which the Royal Family and the Martial Union ensured that Martial Artists as a class of society wouldn't grow too disconnected from the Empire and its people. It was a means by which it aimed to tether Martial Artists not through incentives, or benefits or practicality, but through some degree of patriotic sentiment.

Of course, this was almost entirely ineffective against mature experiences Martial Artists of the higher Realms. The same, however, could not be said for younger Martial Artists of lower Realm, especially Martial Apprentices.

Martial Apprentices accounted for close to ninety-percent of the Martial Artist population. Due to how large a proportion of the Martial Artist they comprised they were the most important Realm of martial Artists in many ways. The Martial Festival was a way just one way of ensuring cultural integration between the more malleable youth of the Martial Artist population with the Empire.

conflicts between the civilian population and the Martial Artists. After all, Martial Artists were undoubtedly privileged and blessed to possess the sheer power that they did. It was not uncommon

different from how the poor felt about the

and emphasizing the need for Martial Art, they could keep the friction to a minimum. It did also help that the Martial Union did not accept privately commissioned offense class missions within the boundaries of the Kandrian Empire. Meaning that Martial Artists did not run around hurting and killing

people in defense-class missions

the law during Royal

Kandrian Martial Festival?" Rui asked. "That makes sense. It's just not something that occurred to

about it." Dalen explained. "Martial Families often train their

Festival has always been fun the two times I experienced it, but being trained

Festival you know." Dalen laughed. "He's one of the

ever told me about all of

Dalen sighed. "The Festival isn't that far away too, he would do anything needed to avoid

was five and the other when he was ten. Both times he had been too young

experience the Martial Festival would be after he

across not just the town, or even the region, but perhaps the entire nation bred an extremely romanticized picture

Martial Festival is in less

at him. "Do you