The jungle is everything. Every leaf, every stone, every tree and every creature. All the water, all the earth, and even the sky. All of it is part of the jungle. It always has been. There is nothing else and never will be. Its name is Raakshas: the monster. Hear the sound of its beating hard! The scream of the apes, the falling trees, the rushing mountain stream, the fire burning through the woods, the ubiquitous buzzing of insects and the wind whispering through the branches.

Smell its seductive odor: The millions of flowers, the freshness of the sparkling waterfalls, the musky scent of mating animals or the smoking lava of an eruption volcano. Feel the warm rain, which is the jungles breath, on your naked skin, the gentle stroke of fern, the jungles fingers, and its kiss, the taste of juicy fruits and the meat of the water buffalo.

Embrace the jungle, embrace Raakshas.

Now, take a deep breath, dive into the crystal clear lagoon through the deepest caves into the endless darkness. Let yourself go. Forget all hate, all fear, and all your wishes, shake off all emotion and then, when there is nothing left but the pure thought of an explorer, dive out and see Emerial.

Deep in the hard of the jungle, the Mountain Emara towers over the endless green. At its sacred feed, where the five holy streams flow into the river of Guantala lies the city once founded by the gods, meant as a sanctuary for mankind, as a cradle of civilization and the very heard of all human life: Emerial. For thousands of years, this was and still is the center of the Empire, where the decadence of the gods and rulers of the world ensure the survival of Mankind by holding back the great destroyer, the ultimate conqueror, the eater of worlds: Raakshas.

See the thousands of stone houses alongside the river where the third cast lives and works for the glory of the Empire. See the marketplace crowded with merchants, servants, and workers, where meat and wine, coconuts and bananas, spices and jewelry are sold. Where brown-skinned women with silklike black hair, only wearing feathers and flowers, enjoy the sunny day by gossiping and shopping.

And now look up to the mountain, over the city of stones to the quarters of the first and second cast, where the ivory-colored spiral towers of the seven families reach through the clouds. See the white-skinned ladies covered in colorful transparent spider silk which makes them look like butterflies, richly decorated with gold and silver and diamond jewelry.

From here, look down to the other side of the river where the city wall separates the workers quarters from the slums of the fourth caste. Look to the tends and wooden hoods between the offshoots of the jungle, where the poorest live in hunger and despair but still do their part to fight against the growth of the sprouts. Watch the dark-skinned girls only clothed with palm leafs, their skin covered in black and white tattoos, making fires to keep the permanently growing trees and grasses and lianas away. Smell the smoke and feel their pain standing in the heat of a lost cause, while deep dark columns of smoke build a wall between them and the Jungle. Raakshas towers over their heads, growing like a spore, with all his roots, and stems, boughs, leaves, and blooms coming over them like a tsunami in slow-motion.

Everything eventually comes to an end. Everything, be it a fly, or a pig, a man or a tree. May it even be an all mighty mountain, everything needs to die in the end. And for the city of Emerial and the glorious Empire this time, after centuries of prosperity has finally come!

This is a story about hope and fear. About hate and love, revenge and forgiveness. It is a story about two women an a man trying to save the world, each of them in their way. Each of them failing miserably!

Or maybe not, maybe, you can do something about it...