Venosar was quite a sight to behold for one who had never seen eastern cultures. Most of the buildings seemed to be made of wood and clay as opposed to western stone and refined planks. The town wasn't huge, but it wasn't very small either. Most of the largest buildings in town surrounded a road, the only paved road, that cut directly through the city but as the eyes strayed from the road the buildings on both sides gradually became smaller and smaller till there were nothing but tents and small makeshift shelters.

Hundreds of years ago man crawled forth, unwashed and loathsome, from deep scars within the earth and defiantly they challenged the creatures who inhabited the surface world. After a war that lasted ages, man conquered the world using loyalty, iron, and magic. Magic has been with man since its roots, or so it is said, but when men began to spread out across the surface world magic seemed to deteriorate slowly until very little knowledge of the art remained. Many blame this on Leto who abandoned his many students and left man to fend for themselves near the end of the war. Others debate Leto's' actual existence and claim that the mythical First Mage was in fact nothing but just that, a myth. Leto's true shape or existence is of no matter in our current world, but what is of matter is the masses growing fear of magic and mages growing inability to use it. The arcane arts are slowing dwindling as each generation grows weaker and loses attunement with their inner-energy. Within the next five generations many have predicted that finding a true mage will be nigh impossible and what we will be left with is urchins and callow fools who will be nothing but impudent street performers and inutile court mages whose greatest magical feat will have been turning a page within a tome using their vile dribble. For Aestaria to remain a power within the world we mustn't allow ourselves to fall behind others, I have been to the east, to Yarris, and to the country of Shara where another type of magic has become commonplace. Shara is a land where soldiers train themselves day and night to reach an advanced state of spiritual understanding so that they may freely tap into the deep reservoirs of energy within the bodies' and unleash destruction on their foes. Shara has never lost a war, ever... The Sharasi have always obliterated those who have stood before them using magic, these are people who have never even heard the name Leto! So what excuse does the west have for allowing their true power to dwindle? We've grown passive and inattentive, perhaps even apathetic to the world about us. Many mages of the west have no idea what a gate is, the most fundamental part of magic has been lost to so many. Gates are the basic part of a network inside the human body that allows energy to travel about, this includes the areas where energy is stored, released, and captured.

All humans release some type of energy from their first gate, but only by birth attunement or training can we feel this energy being released. This energy is generally faint and can be used to perform minor feats such as controlling already existent elements such as the fire of a torch or the water of a flowing stream. The power of the first gate is completely dependent on the opening of the second the gate, a task that only a mage or someone who has a strong sense of center can achieve. It is from the second gate that all true mages draw power, and the more power they have the stronger their first gate becomes. This power can be used to create flames from the simple oxygen in the air, or call down great bolts of lightning. In Shara they refer to the second gate as an area of the body known as the Coen Zhusa. The Sharasi unlock energy from the Coen Zhusa by performing spiritual exercises repeatedly from dawn to dusk. Some of the exercises include moving the body about in flowing motions whilst breathing or punching a stone wall until your energy naturally shields your hand from harm. These exercises may appear, to the untrained, to be completely artificial- but they are not. The Sharasi men are capable of releasing amazing energy from their second gate and with little trouble they were able to redirect the energy to any point of their body. Men were able to shatter stones with a single strike. Others were capable of allowing their body to be directly struck by spears and glaives, but sustained no damage. The western mind is not able to comprehend what these men were truly capable of, their power was so raw... Words cannot describe the ferocity which stirred deeply inside their bodies, but that ferocity was inhibited, made to bend to the users will, travel where they wished it, expelled only when they determined it.

Opening the second gate and drawing on its power is no easy task, the men of Shara, as stated before, have trained for years upon years performing the same exercises over and over until their bodies could handle opening the second gate and drawing upon it. Many mages from elsewhere have learned to open the second gate through exercising usage of their first gate, though this seems to be a working system it still can lead to undesirable side effects. Some mages, after first tapping into their second gate claimed they felt as if they were disemboweling themselves and that they needed to vomit to discharge some kind of uneasy force from their bodies. Others suffered through severe lightheaded-ness, temporary loss of the motor skills, consciousness, vision, and numerous other senses such as touch and hearing. These side effects eventually fade away after the second gate has been fully opened and the power within can be tapped into but how far one can exert themselves is still limited by how much energy is stored behind the second gate. Scholars still do not agree what happens to one who overexerts themselves when attempting to tap into their second gate without proper training. The Pyromancer in-training Hessik Vareen could perhaps serve as a model for what might happen to one who is capable of ignoring the side effects of exhaustion and continue to attempt to open their second gate. Hessik was part of an open rebellion of foreigners lead by his teacher Galvin of Aitos. The rebel forces clashed with Aestarian forces at what is now known as the battle of Greenwert. Many of the rebels were killed during this battle, including Galvin, the rebel leader. Hessik on the other hand was captured and carted off to the capital to be tried and executed for treason, but on the way to the capital Hessik and all the men inside his prison cart were caught in a small fiery blast the originated from inside of Hessik's body. According to one rebel Hessik was attempting to conjure forth a hellish inferno in an endeavor to escape but was unable to do so as he had never been train to perform such an act. Allegedly he was wailing in pain, crying and even vomiting but was able to continuously exert himself until he violently cooked himself from the inside out. Hessik's fate should serve as an example to every mage, the example being that they know and understand that they have limits that must be aptly and knowledgeably challenged so that they may overcome them. The idea that you must pace oneself when learning anything is common knowledge, yet many seem to think they can change the rules of anything with magic. The Sharasi believe that purely through strength of will they can rise above and beyond even their own gods who were long ago just ordinary people as well. This idea that a strong will and complete devotion to your art can somehow allow you to achieve a level of perfection, even if it is faux perfection, has left many outsiders completely questioning their own lives. Though Sharasi rarely use their art to control the elements and instead seem to favour using their energy to bolster themselves and their weapons, I believe every mage must look to the east for a true understanding of what magic truly is. Without observing the Sharasi's brilliant and romantic world of recluse warriors in training one can never and should never consider themselves a true master of the magic arts. The Sharasi have much to teach and have always been willing to help others who wish to achieve the ultimate state of understanding, Yeo Danhao.

Yeo Danhao is believed to be the ultimate goal of the Sharasi way. Only one who has dedicated their entire life to being one with the world around them and having complete mastery of their inner energy can achieve this state. It is believed that each of the many gods of the Sharasi religion achieved this absolute state and ultimately became so powerful that they could no longer be contained in a single place, and as such became part of the ambient energy that emanates from all things in nature, the first gateway energy. Though the western understanding of the energy gates is much less mystical and more 'scientific' therefor cementing it as an absolute study rather than a loose teaching, I still find myself more interested in the eastern approach to magic and to my grave I will continue to insist that every mage should make a pilgrimage to the east and study in one of the many autochthonous mountain monasteries.