Originally Submitted to FurAffinity.net on Mar 29th, 2012 02:04 AM. Before it was transferred to Inkbunny it had 211 views and 10 favorites.
This is a picture of another lord of the noble house of Dan. His name is Offisium Dan and his style of fighting was mainly hand to hand combat. He trained as a warrior monk in Adleria at the Holy Temple of Winds near the capital of the kingdom. Despite the name of the temple, many styles are taught there. His style was a cross between a Fudo (immovable mountain) style and Eagle style or martial arts.
In this picture he is meditating in a Buddhist style of meditation that has been adopted by the Adlerian state religion. His religion and that of Adleria's religion is not Buddhist, even though it has adopted a few elements from Buddhism such as meditation, use of beads, incense and the use of a wooden turtle drum. Even the architecture of Adleria's temples has been heavily inspired by Asian religious temples. However, beyond that, Adleria's religion is based on the worship of 12 deities by whom control a different cardinal wind direction.
The location that Offisium Dan is meditating at is the family temple located on the estate of his family's manor in Adleria, also pictured in the picture https://www.furaffinity.net/view/7662843 .
On the walls of the temple are holy scriptures of the Adlerian religion written in the language of Adleria. The Adlerian language stems from ancient times before the kingdom was established and the avian races that helped establish the kingdom were still residents and travelers in the areas of western Asia. At the time the avian races spoke and wrote in languages like Sumerian, Egyptian, Sanskrit and early Mandarin. Over time, the avian races combined in an area around Asia Minor and utilized a combination of the languages and script of the 4 languages and script into one of their own. As they traveled north and west to find more lands to live in, they adopted words and syntax of Latin, Greek and, eventually, early German before founding a kingdom of their own on the continent of Hyperboria.
The Adlerian language is a mix between early Mandarin, Sanskrit, Egyptian, Sumerian, with influences from early Greek, Latin and German. The Adlerian script is part syllabary and part logogram and its writing system. Its pronunciation is mainly tonal with elements of Germanic pronunciation, due to being the most recent influence language wise.
Also on the wall is an ink painting on a long scroll of rice paper made from an Adlerian variety or wild rice. The Adlerian rice paper is similar to normal rice paper, except more tan looking and slightly thicker to give it added weight and room for the occasional embossing and engraving upon the surface of fins ink paintings and calligraphy. The painting shown is a normal ink painting with no embossing nor engraving, yet still worthy of being displayed in the family temple due to its intricacy, near mint condition and age (around 700 years old at the time of the year 1892).
The script on the walls are directly engraved into the stone walls of the temple, like with Egyptian temples, and then filled with a black marble. The black marble is matte in its sheen whereas the walls, made of white marble, are polished to a high sheen. The floor of the temple is covered in tightly knit mats varying in shapes of squares and rectangles.
The low wall off to the side are where the statues of the Adlerian deities are held at. The indoor statues of the Adlerian deities are small and held in an area behind a low lying wall with a roof height above it to allow for dramatic lighting unseen. The main hall of the family temple is mainly one room with a little less lighting so as to make focus toward the statues.
On the other side of the room from the low lying wall are a series of light wooden doors with screens of thick Adlerian rice paper. The windows above and around the room, above the entrance side and the two walls on either side, have no glass on them. Instead, there are banners of thin strips of silk in each of them that move with the slightest breeze of the wind. In case weather gets rough, there are wooden screens just under the roof line to close of the open windows.
The floor plan of the temple is basically one large rectangle. One side has the statues of the Adlerian deities, the other with a long line of doors for the entrance and windows on three sides. In all there are 12 windows, 3 on either of the short sides and 6 on the side with the doors, each to represent the 12 cardinal winds and deities of Adleria.
Adlerian family temples, if an Adlerian family has one to call their own, are arranged in such a fashion with a gardened courtyard in front. It is often either surrounded by a low lying wall and / or surrounded by parts of the family home or manor.
In the family temple of the noble Dan family, it is a gardened courtyard with (when standing at the entrance of the temple facing away from the temple and toward the garden) an tall arcade with balconies and a gallery on top extending 9 floors on the right hand side. This is area is one side of the main living hall of the manor where the noble Dan family resides in. It is freely open to the temple area so as to allow easy access by the family.
Ahead at the front is a series of steps leading down 3 floors to an even larger courtyard with a variety of plants, flowers, trees, wind stones and fountains (The temple area lies on an artificial plateau 3 floors in height). The stairs are lined with columns marked with holy Adlerian scripture and has a silk banner on each, a total of 12, or 4 on each of the three levels of the stair case. The side entrance to the main family living area is found not far from the bottom of the stair case (the main living hall is actually 12 floors in height).
And on the left hand is a low wall with long series of see through screens. This side has a sheer drop off of nearly 300 feet and has a striking view of the valley and mountain range of the area where the Dan family rules over as a noble house to the emperor of Adleria. In the old picture https://www.furaffinity.net/view/2323896/ one can see the view from one of the upper floors of the main living quarters of the noble house of Dan (the picture is also that of yet another Lord Dan from the 14th century in the style of a painting from the era and the hands are unrealistically portrayed as well, lol).
Behind, besides the temple, is yet another drop off. The temple area, besides being on an artificial plateau, is also on a dramatic corner. The main living area of the Dan family is on a dramatic edge and looks as though it sits on a pedestal over the entire area. The idea is similar to the castle Schloss Neuschwanstein, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuschwanstein_Castle , and has a series of carved and artificial terraces spiraling down the manor in three main sections, withe main family living area on top, the administrative area in the middle and the staff living areas and visitor areas at the bottom. The carved and artificial terraces was inspired by the Incan royal estate of Machu Picchu, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machu_Picchu , only I imagined it in a spiral fashion from top to and on down.
Non family and more official temples are more complex in shape and much larger. Also, the statues of the deities in official public temples tend to be on either two sides of the temple (6 on each side) or in the middle in either a square or circular fashion. A few are open air temples, but most are either square or circular in shape with either an oriental style roof on top (for square shape ones) or a Greco / Roman dome (for circular ones). The layout of public temples can range from looking like Karnak, http://www.kennykemp.com/books/twmr%20thebes.htm , in its layout or similar to Japanese Buddhist architecture, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_Buddhist_archite... , with the main temple hall in the middle and with 4 obelisks on either side of the complex along the walls with a silk banner representing the 12 deities of Adleria and the 12 cardinal winds. Differences in layout depends on region of the kingdom with the north favoring the latter style and the south favoring the former design layout.
The clothing that Lord Offisium Dan is wearing is the common garb of an Adlerian warrior monk. A robe of silk held in place by a silk sash indicating his rank in mastering his art and, on top over the chest, held in place by a button made of cord tied in the form of a flower. The arms of the robe are tied in place at the wrists by bands to keep the arms of the robe from moving about along the arm. Also, Lord Offisium Dan wears no shoes of any sort, nor any socks. He does, however, wear simple metal bands on his ankles. This is to self intentionally weigh him down and slow his movements for training purposes. There are also metals bands along his legs, waist, torso and arms for the same reason. The ones on the ankles tend to be the only ones that can be seen due to the robes.
In his right hand is a decorated yet humble wooden mallet to hit the wooden turtle drum with. In and around the left hand and wrist is a long chain of transparent glass beads in varying shades of rose red and jade. The glass is hand made, yet as hard as stone and as transparent as water. Often used for meditating, the beads can, when necessary, be used as a chained weapon.
Lord Offisium Dan grew the feathers in the back of his head into a long and bushy like ponytail. Though it seems to be hefty in weight due to overall size and shape, it is actually very light being feathers and all. It is tied in place with a simple cloth band that, in turn, is attached to and part of the neck line of the robe. The length of the ponytail indicates how well he can dodge and avoid attacks since the longer an avian ponytail gets, the easier it is to be cut off. The current length shown is of the length indicating an S+ Class master of martial arts.
