Based on Postbag from the Hedge 17, it seems Ak-Haranu is native to the Eastern Lands Continent, and not the Wushanko Islands. When a player asked how he got the bolt clips for Karil's crossbow, he explains that he "must sell equipment from empire's armies to get home". This suggests that the bolts he sell are provided by the armies of the empire he comes from, that he might be a member or an associate of said army, and that he must sell the exotic goods he brought with him (the bolt racks) before returning home. This also suggests that there is an empire in the Eastern Lands, which has similar automatic crossbows as Karil's crossbow, which were inspired by the medieval Chinese repeating crossbows, implying that said empire is at least partially inspired by medieval China.
The key word here is "empire": the Wushanko Islands are not under the rule of a single or even multiple empires, but are split into khanates that govern a single population center with possibly smaller, mostly uninhabited islands under their control. This suggests that Ak-Haranu's empire, which seems to be a continental empire similar to medieval China, is seperate from the multiple khanates of the Eastern Lands. The fact that Karil's crossbow uses bolt racks and was given to him by Sliske could also imply that Sliske has some contact with the Eastern Lands Continent, possibly during the God Wars, but possibly even since then. In fact, it could be very well possible that most pre-Ports NPCs from the Eastern Lands hail from the mysterious continent, as many describe it being directly east of Port Phasmatys, not south-east like where Wushanko Islands are.
13-Oct-2016 15:16:00
