Sandchasing

Sandchasers are usually trained usually for three years. At the beginning of the training period, the chaser is paired with an infant sand seal cub. These cubs are always male, while the support seals are female and do not necessarily have to form a strong bond with their chaser. This cub becomes the lead seal, the most important seal on the team and the one that directs the others.   Besides raising their seals, sandchasers also need to spend their training period getting physically fit. In particular, their arm muscles and quads need to be developed so they can handle the strain of tightening and slackening the reins as well as enduring the sharp turns at the ends of the track.   In the highest level of profession sandchasing, some chasers hire actors or coaches to help them hone their theatrics and develop a likable image. Gaining and retaining a rabid fan base is sometimes as important as being a strong competitor, as the audience's devotion to a sandchaser can help them both inside and outside the arena.

Races are usually held by the government or local institutions. Prize money is given out for first and second place. Additionally, professional sandchasers are managed by a team and paid a salary. Bonuses are often awarded to promising or tested sandchasers as well as to incentivize them to stay with a particular team and not be seek a trade.

Sandchasers are some of the most famous people in southern Nioa. They are cultural icons, particularly in Iskendra, where sandchasing plays a role not just in entertainment but also in politics. Sandchasers have influence over their fans and some have even accidentally incited riots with their statements for or against certain policies or politicians. Sandchasers often also gain the ability to get special favors from the government for their family, friends, and even their hometown.

• To entertain an audience

• To promote one's self and their interest

• To promote one's team, team members, and managers

• To promote the interests and politics of the team

Most sandchasers are from lower class communities. In the Mashiq, most sandchasers come from rural desert communities while in Iskendra, most sandchasers come from urban communities with ties to the industry already. Some sandchasers pass on the trade to their children. Sandchasing is a path from poverty to wealth and higher status, however, like acting or adventuring, few wealthy families would ever consider encouraging one of their children to pursue the career.

>1% of the total population is engaged in sandchasing. The industry itself employs around 150,000 persons total. This includes trainers, managers, servants, barkers, security, seal breeders, seal wranglers, stadium staff, and publicists.

Sandchasing began in the Mithril Era when small communities of earth genasi domesticated sand seals. These creatures were used as transports across dangerous stretches of quicksand in the Marrow Desert. Eventually, races were held between various tribes of genasi, with the winners gaining fame, goods, and in some cases access to important territory. These tribes eventually came into contact with other communities such as the Marrowmen thri-kreen, the Temekanian Empire, and the dwarves of the Shanindar. These larger kingdoms and empires contracted the genasi to help them transport goods across the quicksand lakes of the Marrow and eventually witnessed the sand seal races. It was the Temekanians who first imported sand seal racing to their cities along the Old River Niru. These races were more dangerous than today's races for fights between racers were common and the tracks were still out in the open quicksand lakes and not in enclosed arenas.   After the fall of the Temekanian Empire, the Palladian Empire conquered much of the land once used by the genasi for sandchasing. It was the Palladians that gave the sport its name, for they employed genasi racers to chase down dragonborn and dwarven slaves that escaped into the brutal wilderness of the desert. Eventually, the Grand Sandchaser Arena was built in the capital of Iskendra. The arena was built alongside a new series of walls and connected to them, to act as a buffer between the city's populace and the Imperial Palace. The Palladian Emperors had a secret causeway that connected their residences to the Imperial box, allowing the public to see and interface with the Emperor in grand ritualized races. Many times, the public would voice their support for or their displeasure with the Emperor through their chants and the Emperor would respond with various ritualized actions that were integrated into the race such as ending it early or awarding a special prize to a team that was racing in the name of a particular issue. During this time, sandchasing was further exported to the provincial capitals of the Palladian Empire, finding itself in places far from the native habitat of the sand seals. Sandchasing arenas could be found from Faleret to Decca though the sport never truly caught on among the local populace or the slave races of the Empire.   Even after the Sundering Arcana left the Palladian Empire in ruins, sandchasing lived on. It has remained popular in cities with a long history of Palladian influence and control such as Iskendra, Alameen, and Tanis, though it has lost influence in regions without easy access to quicksand or sand seals. Today, most of the arenas outside of Nioa lie abandoned and in ruins, unable to support the infrastructure needed for the games. However, in Iskendra, sandchasing remains as big as ever and is used consistently by the common people as a way of expressing their opinions to those in power. Riots are often a concern, and gangs of youths control sections of the city on race days, beating anyone not showing the proper colors. As a result, many sandchasers find themselves with outsized influence over current affairs and the safety of the city's populace—a reality that some both inside and outside of the sport exploit for their own means.

All sandchasers wear a uniform of the color of their team on race day. Often times the appearance of their uniform will have something to do with the sandchaser's persona—for instance, the infamous sandchaser Silviana Kalendos wore a green, alchemically-dyed cheetah pelt to in reference to her moniker, "the Leopard."   Sandchasers also each use a sand board, a kind of circular disk made out of cedar wood and coated in a thick, slippery resin. The resin side is placed on the ground and allows the board to skip across the quicksand when pulled. The racer straps their legs into specially built sandals attached to the board, which displaces their weight. This allows the racer to move along the quicksand without sinking. The sandchaser also holds a set of reins that are attached to harnesses around the bodies of the three sand seals. The seals themselves are connected to one another by axle bars. The sandchaser's reins really only control their lead seal, which is why having a strong connection to the lead seal and good signaling is so important.

Sandchasers usually practice on a quick sand track with a shallow bottom. In cities, these tracks are usually found near or built into the main arena, while in the countryside any quicksand lake of a reasonable size can do. Large arenas have storage facilities, training yards, and underground holding areas for both the seals and their trainers.

The most obvious danger in sandchasing is the quicksand. In naturally deep quicksand lakes or basins, a fall without a rescue seal standing by leads to a slow and agonizing death. However, most arenas have only one fatal stretch of quicksand. The stretch, called the Tomb, is only about forty meters long but is sufficiently deep enough to swallow a man whole and cause them to suffocate. The rest of the track is built atop a hollow chamber, allowing fallen contestants to drop to safety. However, even above the hollow track, a fallen contestant is still in danger. If they fall and are in the way of another team of seals, the chaser may in fact be trampled or gravely injured. Moving out of the way of a charging sand seal while sinking is near impossible, so large arenas have rescue seals that go out and try to lift the racer to safety. Even still, rescue seals are often injured or killed shielding a racer from an incoming team. Purposefully running into a fallen contestant is techincally illegal, but there is little anyone can do to prevent this from happening.   To prohibit sandchasers from being the subject of curses or magic in the crowds, many undergo a ritual cleansing which serves as an antimagic shield during the race. However, repeated use of this ritual can cause one to gain essentially a resistance to all magic, including healing spells. While this resistance does go away eventually—this can vary from a few weeks to over a year, depending on how many antimagic rituals the racer has undergone—the lost time spent in recovery can spell professional and financial ruin for a racer. Many a sandchaser has gone back on the track without their injuries fully healed and been crushed by the strains of the race.