World of the Sapaksa
Fern said, “So, er, you said wizard? Beri told me everyone here is a Sapaksa.”Willow smiled in a friendly way. “Beri said you don’t know much about our people. We have called ourselves the Sapaksa since the first use of language. The wings, you ken, set us apart from other magical people. But today we often say wizard, or witch and warlock, just like anyone else when referring to someone magical. It’s such a common term. Although,” she looked thoughtful, “we’re not.”
“You mean there aren’t many Sapaksans?”
“No, there are. I mean our way of living isn’t common, even for magical people. Sapaksans don’t often integrate into the human world. We like to fly. Sapaksans created their own settlements so they’re free to use their wings.”
“When did you move to these settlements?”
She shrugged. “Thousands of years ago when everyone else was settling into a farming lifestyle. We just used our powers to hide ours. We’d already reached the most remote areas where the humans found it difficult to travel back then, so we stayed. Safer you know, when you’re so different.”
“And everyone here can work magic?”
“Aye. Some have more power than others, more talent if you will.”
Sapaksa is the Sanskrit word for winged person. A Sapaksa can focus the stream of energy within himself to generate feathered wings for flight. This group of magical people lived throughout the land during the nomadic times, but because of their unusual gift, decided to separate and hide their communities using magic.
Still, they evolved at the same pace as humans, so most Sapaksans live and work in a similar societal structure within towns and cities, the oldest being Bonterra in Ireland and Terraqua in the state of Colorado in the United States.
A few enclaves, such as Emerald Isle, have remained more remote, and therefore more tied to tradition. These communities live closer to nature, are still able to communicate with the native wildlife and can imbue certain plants with magical energy. This is very helpful in assisting their agrarian lifestyle, for the magic in the plants transfers through the soil into surrounding plants and improves the growth of the entire habitat. With the elevated fertility, the Sapaksa can grow and harvest additional plants and live entirely off the land, what humans call self-sustaining farming.
Regardless of where they live, town, city or rural, the Sapaksa depend on their community of wizards to hide their existence to continue their chosen lifestyle. It’s a life that depends on what’s called magic, power or, even more correctly, energy. That energy comes from the sun, but the ability to tap into and absorb the loose energy cycling continuously over the Earth’s surface is genetic. Over the millennia, Sapaksan families have evolved to convert the energy in varying amounts across the visible spectrum. Therefore, the energy available to an individual manifests hereditarily as different colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet, and rarely, silver and gold.
Living so closely to the natural cycles of the earth’s energy, the Sapaksa naturally are devoted to caring for the planet from which they derive their gifted lifestyle. They have always followed what humans today refer to as green living practices. At first those techniques were found and adopted randomly, but during the industrial age, Sapaksans formalized their research and development as the humans did. Eventually, everything was clustered under HIT.
HIT, Human Information Technology, is a wizard research facility where every new human product is analyzed and either used or pirated to be reworked with wizard technology (read that as magic) for enhanced Sapaksan use. To be accepted, every product must be Earth-friendly and not detectable by humans. For example, the Sapaksa never used electricity. Small water generators were used until the discovery of solar power in the 1860’s, which the Sapaksan then borrowed and perfected. Today, solar energy use is widespread, allowing Sapaksans to live off the grid, but enjoy modern conveniences.
