If a sorcerer told you that he was heading to Buôn Ma Thuật, he was not lying.
“So, how was the trip?”
“It was fine.”
“Did you retrieve anything interesting there?”
“Oh, a lot. But more importantly, our group managed to confirm a rumour that has been circulated for decades.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Buôn Ma Thuật does exist.”
“Buôn Ma Thuật? Don't you mean Buôn Ma Thuột?”1
“I know what I said.”
“It's real?”
“Yep.”
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Catalogue
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History
Buôn Ma Thuật is an anomalous region located within the jurisdiction of Buôn Ma Thuột City, Daklak Province, Vietnam. With a surface area of around 113 km2, the southern border of Buôn Ma Thuật stretches for 13 km along the north shore of Srepok River, directly bordering Daknong Province.
The geographic location of Nexus-132.
Pre-Nexus Era (~2700 BC - ~400 BC)
According to archeologists' hypotheses, Buôn Ma Thuật had been around since at least ~2700 BC during its discovery. At its early stage, Nx-13 possessed an abnormally large amount of thaumaturgical energy, causing the region to be geographically separated from the surrounding area. This separation was attributed to the magical streams that continuously impulsed the process of geological and climate changes, from there affected the natural factors inside, imperceptibly impacting the original streams of thaumaturgy. The ecosystem seemed to have undergone a quick, major alteration during this time, which was completely different compared to other areas. However, no specific conclusion could be made regarding such alteration due to the lack of fossil evidence.
During the Nexus' early days of around 400 BC, the local inhabitants began to research and study a form of thaumaturgy called the magic of nature or the magic of five elements (metal, wood, water, fire, earth), which they simultaneously managed to develop into lots of complex forms, such as a mixture of other natural magics. Some magic forms were the manipulation of light, darkness, or thunders, etc. The population here began to expand heavily, with villages built and trading thrived, turning the region into a market with various items popular at the time. Many large business contracts were recorded by the scholars of Chenla from as early as 618.
Nexus Forming Era (~400 BC - 1200 AD)
Throughout these 1600 years, the Nexus constantly saw shifts for both its nature and society, scattered settlements gathered to unify their community along with thaumaturgy discoveries. However, these discoveries were not remarkable due to the slow and stable development.
The First Great Discovery (1200 AD - 1471 AD)
The hypothetical diagram for the region's topographic cut.
Around 1200 AD onward, the region entered an era where local thaumaturgical techniques were strongly developed thanks to the foundation that had been set for 1600 years. During this time, there were many figures who appeared and created the fundamental understanding for the rules of magics, some of the names are Lý Tường Lâm, Rajiraviya, and Cao Mân Hợp, etc. The era also saw the births of many famous thaumatology doctrines, and even though these doctrines contained many flaws, they still were a contribution to modern thaumatology. The most notable among them is the "Three early rules of magics."
- Rule 1: To perform a witchcraft, one must need a sufficient amount of thaumaturgical energy for the work to be done perfectly. This means that the value of thaumaturgical energy is fixed. Failure to provide a suitable amount of thaumaturgical energy for the witchcraft would lead to either unwanted result or complete failure.
- Rule 2: The knowledge of a performer would affect the result of a witchcraft. This means that the procedure for a witchcraft is completely based on the knowledge, faith, and the ability to concentrate and visualize of the performer.
- Rule 3: "A short-sighted man only has short-sighted values". This means that the values of all items are dependent on the standpoint of their witchcraft performers.
Painting of a Vietnamese sorcerer during the 15th century.
Throughout 1800 years since the inhabitants learned about natural magics, sorcerers here had constantly developed techniques and expanded their operations, pushing for connections with outsiders and forming a solid social foundation. This allowed sorcerers to conduct deeper researches regarding advanced thaumaturgical fields, such as the magic forms to create fake life, or the magics of life and death which can now only be found in forbidden books. Local inhabitants of the region had also formed practices and concepts about the trading of items and each of their original value. For instance, a commercial trend at the time was: a kilo of silkworm could be exchanged for a kilo of cotton, a pound of apples could be exchanged for a pound of meat.
The Decline of Champa (1471 AD - 1800 AD)
In 938 AD, Đại Cồ Việt regained independence from the Southern Han (a dynastic state located in the south of China during the Five Dynasties - Ten Kingdoms period). Starting from 982, the Vietnamese gradually began their conquests to the south, one which lasted throughout the Đinh, Early Lê, Lý, Trần, and Hồ eras, constantly causing the territory of Champa to shrink and change.
In 1471, an army commanded by Emperor Lê Thánh Tông of the Later Lê Dynasty successfully conquered Vijaya (the capital of Champa) and captured King Maha Sajan, who died while being brought back to Thăng Long (the capital of Đại Việt). In the newly annexed region, Emperor Lê Thánh Tông established the province of Quảng Nam along with two tribute states: one named "Hoa Anh"3 (located in modern-day Phú Yên & Khánh Hòa), the other called "Nam Bàn"4 (located in modern-day Gia Lai, Kon Tum and Daklak).
Because of this downfall, many Cham people fled to Cambodia and Malacca (now part of Malaysia). This caused the Cham population in Buôn Ma Thuật to drop, allowing Vietnamese and other ethnic groups to migrate and study the region. From there, settlements and markets of what is now Buôn Ma Thuật began to develop.
The Second Great Discovery (1800 AD - 1919 AD)
An ancient magic inator.
During the 1800s, with the development of modern science and specifically the First Industrial Revolution, sorcerers began to have the idea of combining magics and machines, they then created mechanisms that could optimize thaumaturgy. Some of the leading inventions were magic storage devices and magic inators.
Modern Era (1919 AD - Present)
Since 1919, the thaumaturgical world had undergone many changes. Notably, magical communities began to connect and trade with each other, strengthening societies of thaumaturgy-enhanced individuals. This community thus would slowly gain itself a name: "Buôn Ma Thuật", a major commercial area filled with natural, magical resources of Southeast Asia.
The era also saw the rise of many innovations regarding magic-technology integration, one of which was the "instant transportation system" - a system that uses magics and automatically initiates magic to transport goods to other regions, though it costs a huge amount of thaumaturgy to activate.
“So how does the place look like?”
“Oh, it's crazy!”
“Elaborate.”
Geography and Climate
Geography
Geographical boundary of Nx-13.
Buôn Ma Thuật has a similar geographical feature to its bordering region, with a basin terrain located deep inside the mountainous forest. Moreover, there are multiple canals that go through buildings and housings in the area, creating a convenient environment for social activities. Along with them are anomalous features of the Nexus' geography such as lands that float in the sky at a permanent spot around giant trees, which have been formed into non-Euclidean housing structures using paranormal means. The geographical nature of Buôn Ma Thuật is extremely chaotic due to the constantly moving thaumaturgical flow in the environment. Despite that, because of long-term human interference, the thaumaturgical flow is showing clear signs of slowing down, and the subsequent affected changes have been utilized for living.
Climate
Surrounding region of Buôn Ma Thuật during the early settlement era.
Instead of having the same climate characteristics as the surrounding lands in Daklak, Nx-13 possesses a completely independent climate because of the regional own anomaly and the control from its inhabitants. Specifically, most climate from within Nx-13 is regulated by a small group of interest in the community named Weather Painter/Điều Khí Hội5 (which includes sorcerers who worship "the weather" and wish to use it as a mean to develop personal skills for thaumatology) by using its thaumaturgical ability to control. Generally, the climate inside Nx-13 is relatively mild, most of the time it has a humid tropical climate with light wind and drizzle appear on a daily basis. Occasionally however, there would be cases of paranormal weather such as "flowers falling in the sky, or unseasonal snow,…". The explanation for which is that the Weather Painter was doing businesses and trading "weathers" with the locals.
Infrastructure
Nx-13 does not have a fixed urban planning diagram as the region itself is always affected by outside factors. However, the Foundation has discovered and recorded the existence of certain places, believing them to be important in Nx-13.
A. The Central Quarter
The central quarter can be regarded as "the New York of Nx-13". Aside from the historical values of multiple ancient relics and monuments built in the area, the central quarter is also an intersection where important areas are connected. Every individual in Nx-13 considers the central quarter as a place to gather during major events.
The central quarter of Buôn Ma Thuật also has a special and unique zone, roughly one km radius wide, where the usage of magics is prohibited.
An oil painting depicting "Miss Thương's Brush Shop" - an old shop in Nexus-13. It is located at a prime location of the Central Quarter.
In this spatial zone, every form of magic will be ineffective and eliminated. Despite being an area where sorcerers and witches can be neutralized, such individuals seem to hold an extremely high respect for The Silence Zone, and regard it as a "special" place to sign huge business contracts or resolve conflicts peacefully .
Some sorcerers have managed to gain deep knowledge of the zone, with early records of Buôn Ma Thuật stating that: because the natural magics here are too strong, it has created an anomalous pocket dimension that can neutralize all forms of magics. This would also explain the absence of extreme paranormal weather like rain, thunder, and storm in the area, as the natural magic energy there could neutralize both natural and artificial phenomena, including those created by the GoI Weather Painter, allowing The Silence Zone to always stay in the state of clear sky, no cloud.
There have been multiple researches to re-construct this "anti-spell" mechanism, with the most successful attempt seeing the usage of a forbidden magic for as long as eight minutes. This magic form has been passed down to police sorcerers of Nx-13 to suppress disorderly or rebellious individuals in the Nexus.
The Silence Zone is managed by a group made from people of different social classes in Nx-13, called the Council of Witches Coalition (also known as the Council of Devotion). Having the role of maintaining Nexus' neutrality and peace, the Council must make important decisions that significantly affect the structure of this paranormal place.
B. The markets
“It will be a miss if you visit Buôn Ma Thuột without trying the coffee there.”
“Aren't we talking about Buôn Ma Thuật?”
“Magic coffee… also lots of herbs.”
The Coffee Market (Chợ Cà Phê)
The Coffee Market, also called Herb Market, Alcohol Market, is a market located at the central area of Nx-13. Up until around the early half of the 20th century, the place was widely known as Herb Market as it focused on selling light forms of drugs and magical items for daily use. However, after the French colonial expeditions at the Central Highlands and the import of coffee plantation technology, the market had switched to harvesting and serving coffee for the French military officers and the Vietnamese feudal officials, marking the start of a coffee industry in Nx-13.
In around 1980, half a decade after the reintegration with post-war reconstructing South Vietnam, the Coffee Market (the area name during French colonization) began to re-open trade with special processing coffee. For witches and sorcerers, coffee is a popular product due to its immediate effect in increasing concentration and prolonging consciousness. This is especially true for the coffee from Nx-13 as they have much higher quality than the standard one. In recent years, the Coffee Market has turned from selling coffee for its benefits to selling it for its popularity, leading to the birth of modern soft drink businesses at the market. Nowadays, beside the original products from the old Herb Market era, the Coffee Market also focused on providing coffee, soft drink, energy drink, and different types of alcohol.
The Vanity Market (Chợ Phù Hoa)
Sculpture of Chinese mythical figures in the area.
An area where Chinese thaumaturgists gather, it is located in the Northeastern Buôn Ma Thuật. When a group of Chinese thaumaturgists visited Nexus for the first time, they saw the potential for trading and researching thaumatology here and so decided to stay. With approval from the leaders of Buôn Ma Thuật, Chinese thaumaturgists began to set up their own place. Starting with a single shop, they slowly but surely developed into one of the busiest areas in Buôn Ma Thuật. The area was structured in a large circle, with small streets interleaved between shops that were built close to each other, causing many tourists to get lost when visiting the market according to records. However, at the entrance of the market lies small stores that sell anomalous maps which can locate its users, and from there draw out the shortest route to their wanted destination.
Below are some notable sights at the Vanity Market.
- Yên Phụng Store (Cửa Hàng Yên Phụng): A large old store located at the centre of Vanity Market. It is famous for having rare and high-quality thaumaturgist goods, such as the ancient sword of magics or the esoteric incantations. Structurally, the store is divided into three floors, with the first floor is where incantations and thaumatology books are sold, the second floor is where people trade thaumaturgical tools, and the third floor is the living space for the store owner's family. Incantations and thaumatology documents in the first floor are reported to have diverse origins, from Asia to Europe. Meanwhile, magical tools and items of speciality placed in the second floor are reported to have appearance and usage similar to those from Egypt, India, and China. With quality always ensured, the Yên Phụng Store has become a favourite place for thaumaturgists every time they visit the market.
- Mộc Lâm Drugstore (Quầy Thuốc Mộc Lâm): Located in the north of Vanity Market, it is a drugstore for commoners to find all types of medicinal herbs and paranormal pharmacy materials, owned by an old thaumaturgist couple and their daughter. These medicinal herbs are often raw materials that are either yet to be processed, or drugs that are already packaged. When Foundation researchers undercovered as thaumaturgist customers asked to see the raw material warehouse, the owning family consented and led them to the place. There, researchers were shocked to discover an enormous amount of anomalous herbal materials from across the world, notably the ignis fatuus flowers from Southern India, the skull grass of from Northeastern America, and the blood castor oil plant from Northwestern Vietnam. Additionally, researchers also found teleportation magical matrixes in a residential house behind the drugstore. As of now, it is uncertain as to how these materials are harvested, but researchers believed that the drugstore manages to collect paranormal herbs from across the world using the mentioned matrixes.
Library of the Lữ Clan.
- Library of the Lữ Clan (Thư Viện Lữ Gia): Despite having the structure of a small tea shop from the outside, it contains an enormous large space from the inside with an estimated total area of 500m². There are thousands of rooms and bookshelves lying across the library. The place is famous for its massive archive of thaumatology documents and anomalous potions, like those that heals injuries caused by magics, or those that simply heals injuries quickly and can be seen by the naked eye. The anomalous site is maintained by the Lữ clan, originally a group of trusted scholars in the region. Using their deep knowledge, they play a major role in educating those who wish to be taught right inside the library. Additionally, the number of various thaumatology documents with all types and origins is also one of the main reasons that make this place attractive to thaumatologist scholars.
Mugwort Market/Viet Market (Chợ Ngải/Chợ Việt)
Êgar Stilt House.
Located in the Northwestern Buôn Ma Thuật, Mugwort Market is a large area that specializes in selling and refining all forms of incantation charms. Structurally, the Mugwort Market area is square in shape with four gates facing East, West, South, and North. From each gate, there would be a huge road that leads to the market, each of which would then branch off into smaller ones stretching throughout the market.
According to records, four roads at the Mugwort Market's four gates all lead to the centre of the market, a place notable for having a massive stilt house called the Êgar Stilt House. Local Nexus inhabitants consider the Êgar Stilt House to be a gathering house for traditional activities of the ethnic group living in Mugwort Market. Moreover, this Stilt House is also where the elders from every tribe meet to discuss the development for the whole market.
The Krôm tree houses (Nhà từ cây Krôm): Stores in the Mugwort Market all built in a unique structure using wooden ropes harvested from old Krôm mistletoe trees. These stores have dome shapes and are used by the inhabitants for both businesses and living. Goods from these stores are commonly forms of incantation charms (bùa ngải), such as clove incantation (bùa đinh), stone herbs (ngải đá), philter charms (bùa yêu), dementia herbs (ngải loạn trí), lucky charms (bùa cầu tài), talisman herbs (ngải cầu may).
Illustration of "a Krôm tree house".
Houses of the local Mugword Market residents are divided into two rooms, a front room used for business purposes, and a back one used as the area for living and refining incantation charms. In the back rooms, Foundation researchers have recorded the existence of rituals and incantation charms refining methods with anomalous properties. Speaking of the occult nature and anomalous properties of these incantation charms refining methods, we should also mention the procedure to refine stone herbs (ngải đá), a type of mugwort that gives the victim a feeling of hundreds of pebbles running under their skin, causing extreme pain. To refine this type of mugwort, the conjurer must first prepare a pot of chicken blood, three boiled eggs, a handful of grave soil, and a fairy herb plant. The conjurer then dips the three boiled eggs into the chicken blood and starts chanting, after completing the mentioned process, the boiled eggs would be minced and mixed with grave soil, before putting the fairy herb plant onto that soil. After forty-nine days of constant watering and chanting, the conjurer would begin the process of harvesting the refined herbs. During the process, the herbs must be fed with living animal meat and the conjurer must not eat garlic or chicken meat.
Additionally, Mugwort Market also has shops that sell weapons and tools used in rituals, such as amulets, bronze basins, or processed stones from magical ores that are specialized for fortune telling and future predicting.
Due to the number of trading goods and materials needed to be transported across the large area of Mugwort Market, the locals here often use elephants within the place. There are also services allowing tourists to rent elephants with riders to take them around the market, with the instances used here are of an anomalous species called Ê-wa elephant, known for their extreme speed and strength compared to their regular counterparts. Foundation researchers also recorded an elephant moving at a velocity of 184km/h while carrying a cargo of about 3 tons.
As of now, the Mugwort Market is still a mysterious area attracting any thaumaturgists visiting Buôn Ma Thuật. Having all forms of incantation charms and their convenience to use in all types of work, Mugwort Market has become one of the most visited places in Buôn Ma Thuật.
Neighbour Market (Chợ Giềng)
Neighbour Market, also known as Siamese Market, is one of the oldest markets in Nx-13. The Neighbour Market has been operated since before the First Great Discovery, existed as a gathering place for various neighbouring tribal groups in the area, hence the name. As of now, the market has seen the arrival of generations of traders, making the place have the highest yearly population density, as well as the highest stall density.
Neighbour Market is often called "Siamese Market" due to the fact that the Thai inhabitants made up more than 70% of the local population. Because of the Thai residents, the market has many Thai cultural aspects shown from pagodas and unique forms of incantation, charms, tools, to the popular thaumaturgies of rivers and water. Additionally, the West Port (Bến Tây) is a Neighbour Market's port used to extract natural resources from the Srepok River. The boatmen on the Srepok River are skillful witches who possess the ability to harvest the river flows, or can use their boats to instantly transport goods and passengers across the Siamese Market, the Love Market and the Coffee Market.
“So what is this Love Market about? I heard that place is very famous.”
“Well…”
“Hold on, are you two blushing?”
“Please don't mention that place.”
“What about you? What with the face?”
“There's a reason why the place is both famous and infamous in Buôn Ma Thuật.”
Love Market (Chợ Tình)
Love Market is a place that holds both an extremely famous and "infamous" reputation in Nx-13 for having the freedom to conduct all kinds of trading activities and sell all types of products. The Love Market is open from sunset to sunrise in local time, even during summer and winter solstice days. At which point, stalls in the Love Market would appear at random locations of closed daytime stalls, then they would begin to operate.
An entry neon sign to the Love Market (The characters wrote 香蓮 - Hương Sen/the Scent of Lotus).
Structurally, the Love Market is scattered across the Southwest of Nx-13, stretching from a single axis in the main market and extending along a road named Sahpni Canal, with little stalls appeared lying around it. The arrangement of Love Market is completely random and each night it opens, the location and shape of its stalls would almost always change. Because of this, any tour visiting the Love Market could be considered a unique experience.
To enter the Love Market, the simplest way is to search for those night market areas and ask local merchants. However, a more common approach is to find colourful light neon signs hanging at the stalls at those markets, as they usually lead to either the alley entrance to Love Market, or one of its stalls. Due to the unusual structure of the Love Market, its entrances are also not fixed and will change every night. A less common way often used by regular visitors is to seek out for the Dianic Witches (Phù Nữ) and ask for help after using their service.
The Love Market is a combination of stalls that sell or provide services relating to sexual and affectional desires, such as philter bartendings (pha chế tình dược), thread of fate charms (bùa tình duyên), feeling fortune telling (bói tình)… Despite its random placing structure where locations change every night, the Love Market still has famous stalls that are considered notable tourist attractions.
One-Night-Stand Drugstore (Tiệm thuốc Tình Một Đêm) is well-known for being one of the "69 affair" drugstores in the Love Market. Being established by French sorcerers around the transition from 19th to 20th century to sell and trade abnormal virile medicines. The drugstore quickly became a phenomenon and managed to build a reputation for the first 30 years of operation. Unfortunately, the store had to close down during the height of the resistance wars against the French and later the American in the Indochina peninsula. Four decades until now, the store has re-opened its business with the participants from members of the Caldeira group, which dramatically increased the reputation of "One-Night-Stand".
Love Seer Stall (Quầy Seer Tình)6, known as Fate Seeking Tent (Lều Cầu Duyên) before 2010, is a fortune telling stall opened and operated by a single individual called "Knat the Psychic Lady" (Bà Đồng Knat). Its business started in circa 1970 and has since always seen the highest number of customers in all of Nx-13. The reason being the fact that the Psychic Lady provides extremely accurate love predictions as well as honest romantic advice. Despite the stall's success, many were worried for its future as the Lady always worked there alone. Fortunately, the stall recently see two new apprentice girls
Matchmaking Shop (Se Duyên Quán)7 is part of a famous shopping chain with the most customers visited in the area, especially those who have problems regarding their love matters. Being historically an unnoticeable anomalous tailor shop, the Matchmaking Shop manages to develop rapidly in recent years thanks to the change in their business strategy, switching from tailoring paranormal formal uniforms, to clothings and accessories with emotion-related effects. Some of their worth-mentioning services are shirts and pants that can grab positive attraction, couple shirts that can increase mental bondings, fate cutting service, and fate connecting wristlets… all of which has allowed the small shop to develop into a popular business chain as it is today.
Antique Market (Chợ Cổ Vật)
Abnormal exorcism tools bought from the area
The Antique Market is a relatively small branch of the overall market, located in the far east of Nx-13. It was built in a region where forbidden items are stored and the Sap'hirre graveyard resides — the largest cemetery in Buôn Ma Thuật. The Antique Market does not have many activities and often only seen public sales during certain points of the year, the biggest being on the full moon day of the seventh lunar month.
Among the stalls famous for their periodical business in the Market, the most notable one is perhaps the Artifact Auction Floor (Sàn Đấu Giá Cổ Vật) or Auction Floor (Sàn Đấu Giá) for short. The Auction Floor does not have a fixed organizational structure, it opens only once a year on the full moon day of the seventh lunar month, which also takes the form of a special event freely held by an unfixed-membership group with small shops and stalls in the area. Products from the Auction Floor are often either forbidden or ancient artifacts found in ruins, storages, or witches' graveyards, with scholars everywhere waiting to purchase.
Soul Traders (Đoàn Buôn Vong) is a group of merchants operating periodically at the Antique Market, near the eastern border of Buôn Ma Thuật. Activities of the Soul Traders surround the capturing and exorcising ghosts and otherwise extranormal entities based on requests or for business purposes. Because of their concealed activities, the true size and capability of the Traders are difficult to determine. However, certain massive ghost capturing missions that the Soul Traders proceed in the Sap'hirre graveyard during the early 2001 are often used to illustrate their ability.
“Ah, so we do have Ghostbusters at home?”
“Yep.”
“But what if there are no more ghosts to bust? Won't they all be unemployed?”
“Well, this is just a rumor, but some said that the Soul Traders train these ghosts to escape after they were sold so that buyers have to pay to capture them again.”
“So, professional scamming?”
“Yep, professional scamming.”
Beast Market (Chợ Thú)
Located in the Southeast with an arc structure stretching all the way to the border, this area surrounds the most densely populated region in the South of Buôn Ma Thuật. With food stalls mixed with shops selling both alive and dead animals, it is an excellent fresh food night market. The Beast Market sells both abnormal and normal creatures from across the world, sometimes it even has products made from them. Most customers visit this place for either living animals or fresh ingredients. Certain animals, such as pandas and kangaroos, which are now strictly prohibited from hunting, importing, or exporting, used to be commonly found in the market, but overtime has been successfully regulated by both the local government and the government of Vietnam. This area only opens on certain days of the week, usually on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, with the remaining one being used for cleaning and sanitizing purposes.
Notably, there is a pet shop in the market named Kyu Kyu Otherworld (Kyu Kyu Dị Thường Giới). Being maintained by an amateur sorcerer with mythical beasts-ability and a young lady, both about 20 years old, the store has only opened for 3 years yet has attracted lots of visitors. The lady first heard of Buôn Ma Thuật through a post made by the mentioned sorcerer on a Parawatch forum, after which they decided to start a career in the region in hope of a long-term foothold in the paranormal world.
Nhục Dâng Thiên8 Restaurant.
Known for its cleanliness and comfortable style in the middle of the market, the pet shop sells from small anomalous life forms like Flying Hamsters and Glowing Fish, to mythological creatures such as the Bạch Trạch (more specifically, a tamed version of the Bai Ze species which are commonly bred in Chinese anomalous communities) and Ngư Kê (a fish with the shape of a chicken, surrounding stalls also sell this species though treat it more as a type of food due to its coffee-like meat).
Nhục Dâng Thiên is a famous restaurant in the market, located at the border of Buôn Ma Thuật. The place is designed to be airy and spacious, separating itself from the humid environment in the center of the market. The restaurant carries the theme of mythology, especially those of Buddhism through decorations and vegan menus. With plant-based meat, the restaurant can turn them into excellent delicacies, though perhaps the most noticeable trait is the restaurant' seafood dishes made from both regular and abnormal species using a Buddhist ritual. It is believed that these ritual dishes can erase the consumers' sins and help them escape the Naraka, possibly derived from the Hōchō-shiki (ritual knife ceremony) from Japan's Heian period. Whether or not such rituals are effective is unsure, but field agents had described them to be 'pretty beautiful'.
"There are buildings with early Nguyễn architecture. A mansion that has been passed through generations of different lords, but it is constantly renovated and kept clean by the restaurant owner. The religious theme and rituals are cool. Five stars review, will visit again in later field missions."
C. Livestock farm/Residential area
Animal husbandry in the area is carried out in similar customs to the Central Highlands ethnic groups, however, due to the abnormal nature of the area, livestock farming families have developed different ways to locate or limit the range of movement of animals using thaumaturgical methods (such as placing charms on animals, and barring area with ritual or exorcist circles, etc.). Of course, there are still fenced pasture areas just as regular farms. Such pastures are located at the entrance and centre of Buôn Ma Thuật, with the central one seems to have existed longer, having a way of farming diverse species of livestock, ancient trees surrounding this place are connected to each other, forming a fence that separates the dense forest. Perhaps the farm was built from the early days of the settlement era. Smaller pastures or those located in spatial dimensions also exist and are used by private households.
A 19th-century temple of Buôn Ma Thuật.
Husbandry animals are mostly local livestocks such as Central Highlands boar–pigs, water buffalos, cows, junglefowls, etc, though with larger size than regular instances of the same species as they absorb the "magic forces" of Nx-13.
The residential houses in Buôn Ma Thuật were built scattered among the market areas, concentrating in the alleyways hidden behind shops and stalls. Though, houses are mainly located in the North and South areas. Regional architecture is a combination of diverse cultural building styles from various ethnic groups, mostly the Rade and the Tày people, including stilt houses, thatched houses, or open huts. These houses are not built too solidly as the inhabitants migrate occasionally and do not stay in a place permanently. The building method is also different depending on the area with anomalous elements, often using the abnormal phenomena of the region or the spatial dimensions.
There are not many brick structures here due to the difficulty in material transportation, along with criticism from local inhabitants. The government of Buôn Ma Thuật has also passed a law that prohibits permanent settlements to prevent their effects on the environment and nature of Buôn Ma Thuật. The brick structures here date back to the 17th to the late 19th century, most of which are small temples used to worship ancestors or deities, and are located separately from the busy markets. There are also old mansions with different purposes, some of which are for holidaying.
“I must say that while wandering around the area, for a mere moment, we feel as if we were the Vietnamese from the 1800s. Let's go back there in future field missions.”
In the present, the development rate of Buôn Ma Thuật has been decreasing. It seems that only places near the ancient trees and floating settlements can be developed, the reason being that Buôn Ma Thuật surrounding forest is also anomalous in nature and has hostile abilities (See section Flora and fauna). Planned deforestation is only done by the local government through rituals.
D. Testing Areas
Yara Niê Research Institute (Viện Nghiên Cứu Yara Niê)
Illustration of the "Yara Niê Research Institute".
Located in the Northeast of Buôn Ma Thuật, the Yara Niê Research Institute was established by two great scholars named Đào Thái Sinh and Hầu Minh Vương during the Second Great Discovery era to research, create, and test thaumaturgy application.
With the total surface area estimated at up to 114000m2 and an anti-sorcery safety system, the Yara Niê Research Institute attracts prestigious scholars in thaumaturgical communities across the world. In the name of researching, creating, and testing magic applications, the Research Institute has produced many breakthrough magical inventions, greatly contributing to the development of Buôn Ma Thuật. Some of the notable inventions are the magical energy-securing device, and the automatic plant-caring machines that can adapt and change its setting based on the caring conditions of each flora species. Among them, there is also the improved teleportation magical matrix, which was researched and constructed by two great scholars of the Institute — Đào Thái Sinh and Hầu Minh Vương. With this invention, the transportation and trading of materials will become easier, making way for the Nexus development.
Structurally, the Yara Niê Research Institute is a massive area containing multiple different institutes, which are categorized based on the thaumaturgy speciality. These institutes are mostly built and designed in a way where scholars can use it for both working and living. Moreover, there are also places used exclusively for the testing of magics where the magical energy from scholars is needed for fuel. There, scholars would be provided the Cursed Solving pills (thuốc Giải Ấn) to help them escape the influence of the anti-spell zone for six minutes. After which, scholars are free to perform their thaumaturgical experiments, however, the process would be strictly surveillanced by regional security staff. If an incident happens, the scholars will face punishment depending on the severity of said incident. Some examples of punishment are prohibition from performing experiment, having the body's magic locked permanently, or even getting exiled from the Research Institute.
Located at the heart of Yara Niê Research Institute is the Central Research Institute (Viện Nghiên Cứu Trung Tâm), where presentations and licensing ceremonies for thaumaturgical inventions take place. The licensing ceremonies often happen in the beginning of every three months, at which time a series of senior scholars from all schools would attend as judges. They will evaluate and interview each participating candidate regarding their profession. After all candidates have finished their presentations and interviews, they would receive votes for their respected magical application from the council of judges. Candidates with more than eight positive votes will have their inventions licensed.
Question: Are there any interesting animals and plants?
Answer: Not only is there a unique natural system, but it also has connections to witches. And I don't mean those generic owls or black cats, no. The witch group there have much cooler stuff.
Flora and fauna
Most of the creatures existing in Nx-13 have the same appearance as their counterparts from the outside, with animals such as dogs and cats are kept as pets, while buffaloes, cows, and chickens, etc. are raised as livestocks. This also applies to plants in the Nexus. The only difference is that these creatures all have some sort of random mutations physically – specifically, they acquire abnormal abilities from the magic of five elements: roosters that scream out fire, cats with fur made of grass,… Local inhabitants explain that the constant usage of thaumaturgy in Nx-13 for thousands of years has caused artificial magics to be absorbed into the environment. And as magic of five elements is used the most, animals and plants here have been affected to become more anomalous.
Additionally, based on the legends of Buôn Ma Thuật, the Foundation has also theorized that the Nexus' surrounding region may be more sensitive to the magic of five elements, and through information, they believed that some creatures representing the elements may have used to exist.
Plants
“Is this the sample?”
“No, I bought this for you. Drink it when you need to, it's kinda like energy drink, but it actually works and without side effects. Or so they said.”
“Right… I will still use it for research. Have you tried it yet?”
“Uhm, let's not talk about this.”
“It's the Love Market again, isn't it?”
A thaumaturgical Orchid species in the area. Currently grown for seeds at Site-29-VN.
As mentioned above, the regional geography is similar to that of its surrounding area with an addition of floating lands. The vegetation also possesses unique anomalous properties . For instance, aside from herbs found in the Coffee Market, there is also a species of solanum procumbens that are bred and farmed by Buôn Ma Thuật inhabitants for daily purposes; originally used to treat natural illness like detoxifying liver, or reducing headaches and dizziness; the local has developed a species to harvest materials for the magic disillusion medicine and common drugs, which enhance the body's physiology, circulatory system, and temporarily magic forces. It is unsure whether or not one can do the same for plant instances outside of the nexus, but the inhabitants believe that only plant species grown and affected by the area could possess such properties.
At night, the forest at the regional border would see abnormal phenomena such as unusual lights, howls of animals, and sometimes even sounds that can only be described as "a night parade of the giants". Because of this, few Buôn Ma Thuật's trading areas operate at night, with few people dare to travel around or enter/exit Buôn Ma Thuật at night. Many believe that these abnormal phenomena are either evil ghosts trying to lure humans or the forest deities making an appearance. As a compensate, spatial anomalies such as the Love Market have been used as a path to travel around Buôn Ma Thuật, perhaps this is also why the Love Market was formed in the first place.
Regarding the Forest Deities, Buôn Ma Thuật has three famous anecdotes about these creatures. Those variations are as below:
- A historical event that set up a foundation for the settlement, an ancient sorcerer made a deal with the forest deities to create these spatial anomalies.
- A fairy tale about a person tricked by a forest deity and had to marry said deity, he lived and passed away in the forest, just to then suddenly wake up and find himself back to the day when he first entered the forest. It seems that the tale was meant to teach about human desire and the brevity of life.
- A story about a time of chaos during the early settlement era around Buôn Ma Thuật, which angered the deity. Details of this story are blurry.
Every month on a full moon night, several trading families in Buôn Ma Thuật would move to the edge of the forest to organize ceremonial offerings for the deities. This seems to be associated with a folk beliefs of local ethnic groups.
Question: If I may ask, are there any laws in Buôn Ma Thuật?
Answer: In Buôn Ma thuật, you should play by the market's rule~
Laws
The current official symbol of Nexus-13.
Nx-13 does not have any specific ideology, social system, or political system like those outside of the Veil. For the individuals living in Nx-13, they all secretly follow a set of laws made to maintain peace in the region.
The mentioned laws were originally written by ancient witches/sorcerers during the early days of Buôn Ma Thuật with certain effects. The laws could be considered one of "the standard rules of morality" for this community. They are as following:
- Behave civilly, compete fairly, and avoid causing harmful conflicts within the Nexus.
- The possession, exchange, or trade of any form of forbidden items or magics are prohibited within the Nexus.
- Actions that could damage the Nexus as a whole are strictly prohibited.
Influence from Groups of Interest
Nx-13 places itself in a neutral position towards most groups in the paranormal world as Buôn Ma Thuật is a trading area for people of magics across the globe. GoIs such as the Ambrose Restaurants, Marshall, Carter, and Dark Ltd., and Wilson's Wildlife Solutions,… are always considered as potential customers for Nx-13 since they are willing to pay for most of the products here. Despite this, Nx-13 would reject any of these group's attempts to form a regional branch/syndicate.
Additionally, members from GoIs such as the Chaos Insurgency, the Global Occult Coalition, or the Valravn Corporation would be banned from doing business here if their identities were revealed, with local inhabitants showed clear attitude of boycott, and refuse to communicate with or serve those involved in the usage of anomalous weapons for violent purposes.
The Foundation has established several facilities and front agencies in Nx-13 (mostly outposts of Site-21-VN disguised as magics and small items shopping stores), as well as planting field agents who know thaumaturgy to impersonate reclusive residents. As of now, the Foundation has successfully formed cooperative relations with some persons of interest living in Nx-13 to gather more information regarding the area.
More works from KirQ/Dept/RedEyeMikeyy/Jasian_Nguyen/Lehola1000.
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