ooc OOC Thread

DKArthas · May 5

Atmor (Ready for Review)
Region: 26 (Sansar)

Geography

The orchards and vineyards, carefully nurtured in the fertile plains of Eskor steadily give way to massive, wild rainforests toward the north. Situated near the equator, and nourished by nearly constant year long rains, the region is home to a humid and rich biome, filled to the brim with a wide variety of fauna and flora. Indeed, the biodiversity of plants alone is so vast that it's theorised by some that several of the species are the result of ancient techno-arcane experimentation from before the eternal bombardment.

The most famous of these are the enormous trees of green, brown and red, piercing the very heavens, their vast roots covering the surface in all directions for miles on end, giving the region a distinct character. Often the Towering Trees are surrounded by smaller grooves sheltering under their aegis, surviving on what little light makes it through the dense canopy and more importantly, deep roots leeching arcane energy flowing through plentiful leylines below the earth. Fed on such a diet, it is no surprise many of them end up acquiring exotic and useful properties that make them highly sought after across the continent and beyond.

The highly intertwined network of stem, branches and roots also serves as a natural reservoir and font of arcane for all who would call the region their home, the local ecosystem becoming reliant as much on the unpredictable ebb and flow of raw magic through the underground leylines as on the wider sansarite climactic pattern. This phenomenon has resulted in overlapping secondary ‘seasons’ roughly equivalent to winter and summer, the former taking place during harrowing periods when the strange principles and laws governing leylines lead to sometimes months or even more of arcane droughts. Most urbanised towns and cities in the interior of the forest, far from the coasts, are usually found under the base or in the branches of the towering trees, oasis that are able to escape the worst of the consequences of such events.

People

Inhabited by a people thought to have at least partial elvish descent, arcane rich diet and prolonged exposure to the local environment has wrought biological adaptations and physiological changes in their body, turning them into a much more unique species. Over the millennia, they have increasingly come to resemble the environment among which they live; brown bark-like skin, nails capable of puncturing flesh with worrying ease and an affinity toward manipulating nature being among some of the less radical mutations found in the population. Such mutations are generally found in greater quantities among the elderly. The people who live here are known for their mercurial moods, being in turn generous and cruel, based on a highly confusing religious code of conduct.

The local industries and livelihood as could be expected largely depends on the harvesting of lumber, almost ubiquitous in its usage. From beautifully carved and decorated furniture that can withstand decay for centuries to great flying machines running on steam or mystical energies and even modern weapons of war analogous to guns and artillery are painstakingly carved and forged from locally gathered and procured lumber. Once solely the domain of skilled craftsmens and mage-smiths, recent decades have seen the introduction of mass production techniques that have left the highly prestigious profession in a somewhat precarious position.

Further afield on the edges of urban civilization, life remains much simpler, often ground is ruthlessly cleared of vegetation and put to the flames, transformed into new seasonal farmland through back breaking toil, before being abandoned again for a few years, allowing for slow recovery. Others eschewing such sedentary rural lifestyle still stubbornly and proudly eke out a living as nomadic tribes in the untamed wilds as their ancestors have done for long centuries before them, hunting great beasts grown mighty feasting on local vegetation, their furs, skin and meat still a highly sought after commodity.

Government

Before the arrival of the Radiant Republic, the region was divided between a few highly centralised Queendoms and a lone tribal confederacy. The only sense of unity coming from a shared religious and quasi-cultural basis. The Queendoms tended to be fairly traditionalist, the dual rulers deriving their authority and legitimacy by claiming descent from the Twin Goddesses, and performing ritual sacrifices and offering to them, in the presence of an influential priestly caste, who also served as bureaucrats in the autocratic administration. Below this hierarchy, the various urban professions were organised in guilds based on a royal charter, and bestowed certain judicial authority over their own members, in return they were obliged to provide mandatory service to the reigning monarch, in both peace and war.

The Twinspear Confederacy on the other hand was a decentralised alliance of several tribes, banding together to slow the seemingly unstoppable encroachment of the Queendoms across the great forest. A pan-tribal council of elders collectively made decisions for the confederacy, though the influence of warrior assemblies saw steady growth in the course of the conflict.

Resources

Export: Shadewood [Construction Material/Magical items]

The vast forests that cover the entire region are a treasure trove of extremely valuable lumber, supremely suited to holding enchantments as well as being naturally sturdy and resilient to decay because of constant life long saturation in arcane flow and radiation. The combination of natural affinity toward magic among local inhabitants and a significant base of craftsmen has allowed the establishment of a lucrative wood based manufacturing economy, with many of the finished products like magical charms, artefacts, ships and other goods finding their way across the many markets of sansar, becoming a important source of revenue for the Queendoms, a large reason for their ability to launch the more recent industrialization drives and maintain a standing army, in response to the growing threat of avaricious elects.

Import: Fuel and Power.

The arcane energy flowing through the roots and stems of local trees, drawn from underground leylines, proved itself incapable of keeping up with the exacting demands of an increasingly mechanised economy and a growing urban population. Manual harvesting of lumber for one had come to be replaced by new wood-wrought machines with razor sharp enchanted, automated blades, far more capable of helping keep up with the growing demands for lumber but also hideously power-hungry in turn, a fact that required new consistent sources of fuel and energy.

Religion

Exalted Dualism (Majority): Nearly hegemonic in influence in the great cities and tributaries of the Queendoms. This cult reveres the Twin Goddesses, once mortals who it is said rose to embody and claim the thrones of Winter and Summer. Orthodox and Heterodox sects prescribe wildly different ways to follow in their footsteps - Some argue sacrifices and offerings to them are enough, now that the paths have been laid bare, others consider this foolishness and believe that only by embodying either of them in actions and deeds can one strive to reach their Courts. Stranger still, royally sponsored priests claim that only by dutifully and humbly serving their mortal descendants can worthiness before the divine can be proved. Whatever the truth, the temples represent a powerful force in local politics, being the main keepers of the holy texts and records of the Goddesses’ mortal lives, the presence of their representatives required for almost every ritual and sacrament. In return for these services, they were often rewarded with generous donations and land grants in outlying areas.

Awaiters (Minority): Originally a myriad set of beliefs and traditions based on reverence for nature and the Towering Trees, its only remaining adherents are largely found among the tribes of the confederacy, pushed to the outskirts. Many await and pray for the coming of a prophesied saviour who would lead the tribes to victory over the Queendoms and restore the original way of life before the coming of the Goddesses - when nature was respected, not ruthlessly cut down and exploited for resources in ever greater quantities.

Edited May 9 by DKArthas (see edit history)

BladeofOblivion · May 5

So it turns out this has been sitting in a word document unposted for a week because I forgot to post it.

Lyla ("Elder Daughter", Region 106), Veehra

Body

Geography

There are two dots in the sky of Veehra, known to the clans as the Elder and Younger Daughters. The Soom never thought they'd have the chance to claim one for their own. What was found in the surveys, though, surprised them - they had expected a simple mass of rock hurtling through space, but what they found was a city sequestered in the stars, the rubble pile long since mined out and reinforced into a livable orbital habitat. The city is not named; it is one and the same as the moon, but for a few false parks the locals pretend are wild spaces. At the center of that city lies an oldtech drive, maintained but ill-understood beyond that it helps maintain Lyla's stable orbit - supposedly, without such maintenance it would drift dangerously closer to Veehra over the course of centuries.

People

The people of Lyla are human in origin, though have since engaged in radical genetic engineering and have become highly heterogeneous - many have animalistic features reminiscent of Agbadans or the techniques of the Kildorans. An insular culture with limited outside contact has come to glamorize its own institutions, resulting in a labyrinthine bureaucracy, "transparent" in that every aspect of it is reported on in some way, yet an ocean of reportage becomes impossible to sift through. The government is socialist by necessity; its manpower needs for both its extensive social and maintenance operations (and rigorously reporting on itself) causes it to consume much of its own private sector, with only the iconic Cornelian Mercenary Company serving as a large enough private institution that it cannot simply be nationalized. The mercenary company is instead the gorilla on the scales when it comes to Lylan City Policy; the monolith that it is warps politics in this little pond, and more frequently than not the Mayor is a former or even current Mercenary Captain.

Faith

Majority: Quantum Predestination

Though there is a considerable buildup of ritual surrounding it, the core belief of quantum predestination surrounds the teachings of a figure from ancient history, the Deep One, whose ideas regarding the body and mind a unit of primarily quantum data rather than physical matter. Followers of the Deep One were maligned, and oppressed by scientists from this ancient land, and long ago they claim to have been banished to this forsaken moon - as was always the plan. The spin is long but it returns in time. It is inevitable, and quantum data is immutable in a way the body is not.

Minority: Nominative Determinism

Followers of Nominative Determinism believe that ritual consecration of a given name at birth can "lock in" an individual's quantum fate, though the individual must affirm their name on a regular basis to avoid drift. Mainstream Quantum Predestines scoff at this, though do not persecute it.

Resources

Resource: Cornelian Mercenaries (Soldiers/Spacecraft). The Cornelian Mercenary Company (so named for the sharp, geometric "horned" appearance of their fighters) is an institution that attracts and trains hotshot pilots in droves - and in-house factories build and customize fighters for them too. Though they have a reputation for rowdiness out of the cockpit, their flying skills are not to be underestimated and the sight of their distinct profiles in the sky fills the knowing with dread - or hope.

Required: Precious Minerals. The Cornelian Company trusts Kroesids, but less so any other fiat currency - where possible, they prefer their pay in mineral value that can be liquidated as needed.

Edited May 5 by BladeofOblivion (see edit history)

Tychris1 · May 5

Region for Approval

Hanwa (region 64)

Geography

Hanwa is a north pole desert region on Veehra. As such, it is plagued by the usual dust storms, but these are cold and arid and cutting. Occasionally the Hanwans find refreshment when a rare moist wind blows in from the green lands across the pole, and the storms grow cold and wet and icy instead.

The central feature of Hanwa is the Great Glacier, known locally by its native name Galas Hawale. It covers a full third of the region and dominates the horizon for the remainder of it. The ice sheets have grown so thick and compact that some scientists have theorized it might have enough water to flood most of Veehra. That is… if it truly is all water. Galas Hawale is full of tunnels through its ice. Some of these have been dug by its native people, some of them by other species, like the burrowing witlanag, the white snakes of Hanwa. These tunnels ensure shorter travel times than those who travel across its harsh and jagged surface, but those who enter without a trained navigator often end up lost. Few signals of communications technology reach that far down into the ice, so the Hanwans who reside within Galas Hawale dig tunnels and construct communications towers that pierce through the ice above them.

From this Great Glacier flow a few small rivers that are frozen nearly year-round. They unfreeze for one month during summer, feeding into the few oases that Hanwa boasts. These oases are vital to any travelers who go between the neighboring regions to come to the Great Glacier of Hanwa.

Finally, there’s the Pit of Endless Tar. It is largely surrounded by myths and legends, folktales about how it gained its name, often seeming little more than tall tales or jokes made at the expense of foreign visitors. Such visitors should make no mistake however, for the pit truly is deep and beyond the reach of sunlight it truly is full of tar. Usually when someone in Hanwa goes missing, their corpse can be found covered in a sheet of white icy dust a few days later. Those who are never found must either have been eaten by a very hungry witlanag or fallen into the Pit.

People

The local Hanwans are hunched humanoids, standing about as tall as most humans, but taller in theory if they could stand upright. They have wide bodies that appear to have a vaguely lizard-like bone and facial structure, but they are covered with a thin layer of fur on most of their bodies, except their faces, chests and the palms of their hands and the soles of their clawed feet.

When outside of the tunnels of Galas Hawale, they usually go dressed in thick padded protective suits, with only their faces and claws poking through. Their faces usually are then covered up by a mask to protect them from the dust storms.

Hanwans have thick, leathery skin in grey, brown and green tones, with fur in white, brown, black and orange. Their eyes have goat-like pupils, black sclera, and irises in bright shades of yellow, green or blue.

Culturally, Hanwans form family units with one person who guards and takes care of the hearth, home and children, with the others focusing on hunting, fishing, digging and painting. These roles aren’t limited by sex or perceived gender. Typically when asked about their gender, Hanwans have taken this to mean “what is your role in your family?”

Hanwans can be very physically affectionate with their friends. They like to sleep together with those they are close to, for skinship and body heat, though some Hanwans have found that many humans seem to take this as romantic or sexual in nature. Unlike their land, Hanwans are a warm people.

Religion

The native religion of Hanwa is Felinism. Hanwans keep and practically worship domestic cats (“barely domestic wild beasts more like” in the words of researcher Seteb Ilibin), as to them they are representative of many virtues they hold dear. They are great hunters, they are affectionate when they want to be, and they are soft and fluffy.

While at one point in the distant past this may have begun as simple appreciation of felines, this has since then grown into full-blown cult-like behavior, with a lot of Hanwan paintings and ice sculptures featuring cats, many pieces of furniture, mugs and other utensils shaped to resemble cats, and more.

Resources

Hanwa’s native resource is Davisonian Paints (Luxury Goods). These are pigments that are found within Galas Hawale and appear to result from the native white snakes burrowing through the tunnels, causing a reaction between the packed ice and their bodily fluids that they expel. While the paints are inedible, they have a unique smell some find pleasant, especially felines, on which it has a catnip-like effect. For this reason, felines are often used to find spots to harvest the paints.

Unfortunately due to the large absence of trees and any rock and clay being thoroughly frozen, Hanwa is sorely lacking in Construction Materials.

Stygian · May 5

Kaitiaki Nui, “the Great Protector” (Region 105)

Geography

Kaitiaki Nui is a bit unique in the fact that it is only one section of an unfinished orbital ring that rests in high orbit around Badal itself. Despite the impressive amount of work that must have gone into construction of the colossal arc, signs of abandonment are present along the outer rim--with some districts remaining disastrously open to the vacuum of space.

Blessedly, no souls try to eke a living in these blackened spots. Perhaps the state of disrepair is owed to the War itself--or perhaps some other calamity that the inhabitants are unwilling to speak of. Perhaps they simply ran out of resources, manpower, and will to see it through. A half-constructed docking platform reaches out to its sister station, as if the two were meant to join into a larger body at some point in the future. Smaller solar panels along the hull are used as a form of renewable backup energy for the station and its maneuvering thrusters.

Inside, the station is clearly meant for function over form. The inner walls of the original construction are lined with murals depicting the history of Badal--its fall from a paradise, the exodus of lesser lifeforms, and the wrath of the sun god. What sections of the station aren't devoted to living quarters, cryostasis chambers, or cargo storage are instead used for the repair and manufacture of Badalian ships--including Derzin Rockets and some of the older kanmarran ships that have been put in for extensive retrofits.

Currently, kanmarran officials have parked a handful of older civilian ships in orbit to expand the station's working capacity--though in practice, these ships are used mostly for entertainment and as a base for diplomatic outreach while engineers figure out the best and most power-efficient way to begin finishing those exposed hab-blocks.

People

The majority of Kaitiaki Nui's population can trace their lineage back to the original population that inhabited the station prior to the War of Eternal Bombardment. An impressive feat facilitated by unbroken lines, a secure facility unwelcome to solicitors, and the occasional indoctrination of aerostat dwellers from the world below to prevent pollution of genetic lines. Though the population is largely human, there is a minority of other humanoids from across Badal, and strangely enough, a significant percentage of native Glix among the workers present. The hivemind for these Badalian Glix is not connected to their Mekhalan kin, though they do not elaborate much as to the root cause of this--they seem largely unwilling or unable to discuss their kin at length.

Kanmarran engineers, military personnel, and scientists inhabit only a slice of the station proper--while smaller, space-worthy ships remain in close proximity while engineers investigate the best way to expand out the architecture without compromising its integrity.

A standing offer has been given to the Black Cloud Coalition to allow a small exchange of workers--to better survey both stations and delve into the secrets and technology of an age long gone.

Government

Kaitiaki Nui is largely ruled by a panel of three overseers that deliberate on day to day matters. Data regarding performance, repairs, financial reports, and security needs, is filtered in from various department heads across the orbital platform, and any pertinent decisions that affect the whole are passed down via internal memos. As part of the confederation with the Eucrus Alliance, Kaitiaki Nui has been granted a seat on the military council--as opposed to the civilian council. The reasons for this aren't immediately clear, and the request was rather unconventional, given that the usual protocol is to the opposite effect. One might hazard a guess that the terms were involved in whatever defense contract was brokered as part of the annexation.

History

The history of Kaitiaki Nui as the Alliance understands it is one that is massive and still unfolding. The station long predates most—if not all of the modern polities beneath its watchful gaze, after all.

What is known ties largely into the propaganda of the Thrinakrians. At some point in the long eons before the Sea of Clouds, Badal was allegedly something of a paradise. These cultists-turned-engineers wished to explore beyond the skies of Badal, and began construction on a multi-part orbital ring—meant to act as a waystation between Badal and the rest of Tekhum. Over time, they learned of ways to harness the sun god’s bounty—using it to power their mining operations, drones, and even the nascent cargo ships that had come into development.

With the War of Eternal Bombardments, it is said that the Thrinakrians grew greedy and restless—and this nigh-apocalyptic event brought the wrath of their god, transforming Badal into the relative hellscape of today. Troves of technology and ancient history were lost—and as the first aerostats rose to the skies, the cultists took it upon themselves to ensure the survival of the last Badalians.

For the last two thousand years, they have remained in a sort of twilight exile—never stepping foot personally on one of the aerostats, never venturing outside of their cargo vessels to bring more supplies for their self-imposed wards.

The true shock came with the rise of the Elect—whose nascent Imperial drives put them once more on par with their counterparts from antiquity, if not beyond. Their purpose uncertain, they have acquiesced to another form of protection—allowing Alliance officials and their allies to utilize their shipyards for building new fleets.

Faith

Thrinakrians - Majority
The Thrinakrians are nearly as old as the station itself. Originally heralded as doomsayers, the inhabitants of this station are descendants of the original Badalians who witnessed the War of Eternal Bombardments—and the following exodus of many who deemed Badal as an appropriate refuge from the storm.

Competing doctrines within the faith both describe Badal as a paradise despoiled by desperate scavengers and a last haven for those who had no other path. What is certain is that adherents of the faith place Badal’s hellish landscape as a result of the hubris of sentients everywhere—and punishment for offending some sort of primitive sun god that theologians outside the faith conflate with dozens of different figures—whether Avva, the Emperor himself, or any number of minor gods.

In the modern day, Thrinakrians act as wardens in both senses of the word—protectors and nurturers of those who live in the world below, and perhaps also as guards—making certain that those they safeguard do not run amok.

The latter sentiment has become harder with the uprising of Elect, leaving the faith scrambling to adapt with space travel now being a common affair.

It is said one day Badal may be redeemed and restored—though they are unwilling to elaborate on what would achieve such a redemption when pressed.

Resource

Derzin Rockets - Spacecraft / Industrial Machinery
Tucked away on a segregated section of Kaitiaki Nui, a cluster of ancient spacecraft remain docked--their bulky frames arrayed with scars from countless interplanetary voyages. These ancient spacecraft predate the War of Eternal Bombardments, used long before the Elect were uplifted by the High Lords and Ladies of Ophon--and long before the system itself was set ablaze by conflict.

These early designs were not without issues--fuel intensive, with high power demands and a limited amount of space for manned operation. In fact, due to the length of voyages even to neighboring Sansar, pilots would be put into a state of cryostasis to reduce the need for non-essential cargo. Simplistic algorithms and advanced sensor suites handled the majority of course corrections and accounting for environmental hazards without the need for a living organism at the helm--which often meant that disoriented "pilots" woke with no recollection of what had occurred from launch to landing. Upon arriving home, automated drones would parse out supplies to individual aerostats—ensuring these last bastions of Badalian civilization could yet survive.

Once Badal's lifeline for crucial imports, these shuttles have served less of a purpose in recent years due to cost concerns and the recent redirection of fuel from Kaitiaki Nui’s sister station. With the advantage of Imperial drives and the Alliance's resources, these vessels may yet be retrofitted for use in the modern age--trivializing certain aspects of commerce for the Alliance's ever-expanding borders.

Needed Resource: Fuel and Power

Any functioning spaceport needs fuel to be of use! For Kaitiaki Nui, this is a rather recent development due to the Black Cloud Coalition’s recent repurposing of solar arrays that their rockets once relied on to function. Without a steady fuel supply, “dry dock” becomes a far more literal term. Beyond simple supply needs, the Alliance is hoping for a more efficient source of fuel to renovate the existing supply of Pre-War cargo ships.

Tychris1 · May 5

Region for approval

Umgilas (region 70)

Geography

Umgilas is a surprisingly verdant region, with rainforest near the large sea of Gelthise, home to treehut towns and fisheries.

Further away from the sea are the plains of Yleehra. The grasslands stretch far and go from green to yellow savannah and eventually to the rocky and sandy deserts of Veehra. Some farms eke out a living here, largely tended to by Corvée Laborers.

Finally, there are the Khildyeran mines, upon which the few large cities of the regions are built. Gaping maws into the open air where dust swirls around but never leaves and never entirely settles.

People

The local tribes of this region largely consist of the Gelthurnac, Yldanac and Umgilac tribes, with various smaller ones between them. They’ve formed a confederation or compact of sorts, with the Umgilac at the top of the proverbial food chain… and rumored to occasionally be a literal one.

The tribes are a reptilian people with wide mouths and few, sharp teeth. They have multiple pairs of slit-like eyes, stand a head taller than a human on two relatively short legs, and otherwise come in a variety of sizes. The workers tend to be more sinewy, while the freemen of the region are more thick and heavyset, with the lords of the region being in-between as they are free to devote themselves to physical tasks only for pleasure and aesthetic.

The Gelthurnac live mainly in the rainforest near the sea of Gelthise, the Yldanac mainly in the plains, and the Umgilac in the urban centers near the mines.

The Ungar tz’Umgal is a kind of priest-overlord of the Umgilac, the chief servant of the Demigod-Kings and thereby she must be served by all who are lesser. All who are lesser than the Umgilac, that is. The Ungar tz’Umgal is a sorcerer of great power and has a measure of power that they can bestow unto others, creating a cabal that directly answers to her.

Religion

The only ones above the Ungar tz’Umgal are the Demigod-Kings, who are never seen, for only the Ungar tz’Umgal may see them and return alive. They are tended to in their tomb-like palaces by laborers who enter and never leave, surrounded by guards who are sworn to secrecy and eternal servitude by dark blood oaths. They are worshiped by all the local tribes, whether they want to or not. There are four of them: Geltz’Um, Yltz’Um, Kiltz’Um and Bahn-Khil. The culture and economy of the region is structured to serve their needs and whims, no matter what they may be.

Resources

The resource of region 70 is Corvée Labor (Laborers). The Demigod-Kings press other local tribes into forced labor to fulfill their needs for servants and workers in the farms, mines and fisheries of the region. None of these local industries are currently very large, as the local rulers never bothered with improving the lot of the workers. They saw no need for it, as the slaves met all their needs. For this reason, the primary export of the region has always been the laborers themselves.

The Desired Import of the locals of Umgilas is Industrial Machinery. Perhaps machines will help make their lot in life ever so slightly easier and more comfortable. With enough machines, they might even not have to work at all anymore!

Edited May 5 by Tychris1 (see edit history)

volthawk · May 5

Got one of the two writeups done. Not sure if it's too late to avoid unrest, but at least it's done. Will get the second up ASAP.

Eigh Mothaid (108)

Geography

Eigh Mothaid is in a state of...controlled disrepair is what the locals have come to call it. While automated systems are still operational enough to seal breaches in Firmament (a fact that was last tested during the invasion by Eilif Dhaoine), the state of other systems tend to be much messier - in particular, climate control. Unpredictable weather is common here, and the climate tends towards a humid heat, but when Eilif Dhaoine first came here they called the region Eigh Mothaid - a name that brings icy mountains to mind, not jungle. That's because they first encountered the other side of the coin, their breachers inadvertently entering from below into water and their vehicles suddenly having to deal with cold unlike any they have had to deal with before. The water here, primarily found in the Great Lake but also pooling from broken pipes out of sight in the ceiling or forming rivers throughout the rest of the region, tends to be extremely cold, something else the locals explain as flaws in the climate control systems here. This dichotomy defines life here, and civilisation clings to the waterways and coastlines as much as they can, relying on the frigid waters for relief from the heat, and occasional frigid rains are a fact of life.

History

Eigh Mothaid's history is quite fragmented, in no small part because the locals have only recently begun to think of it as one region after being conquered. Instead, most of the history here is local history, often going a fair amount back but usually getting murky before long, owing to the heavy damage this part of Firmament sustained in the War of Eternal Bombardments, the effects that had within the ring, and A' fuireach incursions. While the exact details of the first few hundred years after the War is debated, the overall picture is clear enough - people endured here, came to the Great Lake and found succour from the chaos of the jungle, and spread from there - avoiding the desert or the A' fuireach-infested stage trees, but still filling a large segment of Firmament, broadly staying independent and separated but with common culture and understanding of their way of life.

When Eilif Dhaoine came, backed by the White Pawns, those many, varied powers pulled together and formed a militia to repel the invaders, led by Cabbage Monger Xiu - the owner of many of the largest Spacer's Cabbage plantations around the Great Lake, and a figure of no small influence among many of the countries within Eigh Mothaid. After the militia was annihilated by the overwhelming numbers used by Eilif Dhaoine, Xiu took stock of the situation and realised that no small amount of the local officials were already speaking the praises of the Dhaoine, the invaders' diplomats having gotten to work before the dust had settled from the war. Negotiations with Eilif Dhaoine followed, the invading country taking a softer stance than it has before, and soon an agreement was struck which ensured that those officials the Dhaoine had not gotten to in advance went along with becoming part of the growing territory of Eilif Dhaoine, and in recent years an increasing amount of Dhaoine spaceships have started docking with Firmament and using this third of the ring as their main port.

People/Government

Eigh Mothaid's web of countries, independent settlements and city-states are overwhelmingly human, and there's a fair amount of distrust towards non-humans among the general population of the region - something many put down to the existence of the A' fuireach in the parts of Eigh Mothaid furthest from the Great Lake. They tend to live close to the water, and usually travel in versatile vessels that can traverse the water as a fuel-saving measure (often with much of the vessel under the water) or take flight as air- or spacecraft - either way, they need to be sealed climate-controlled vessels that can withstand great cold and varying temperatures. One of the striking things outsiders tend to point out about settlements here are the large amount of pipes, transporting the vital frigid waters wherever they're needed and passively cooling buildings as a nice side benefit.

These days, governance of the region exists in an odd state, but not a unique one - after all, Eilif Dhaoine simply repeated the methods they used in the Emerald Expanse but better this time. Rather than a single figurehead and his toadies being the main go-between between ruler and ruled, there is instead a council of representatives, reflecting the many powers in the region, who relay messages from the Dhaoine to their respective states, and serve as a way of voicing complaints or passing on information in turn. A few of these representatives, elected amongst themselves, live in the Reserve and work in the halls of government of Eilif Dhaoine itself, a move the Dhaoine made to convince some of the more reticent states that this system wouldn't lead to them being entirely ignored by their new rulers.

One notable aspect to the culture here is an appreciation of the virtue of patience. The locals like to say it comes from the water - in its natural state, it's often too cold to directly drink or bathe in without risk, so you have to take it out into a container and wait a little for the heat of the jungle to warm it up until it's nice and cool but not unpleasantly so. While these days advances in technology and storage/dispensation techniques mean that the wait itself is much shorter than it used to be, the idea has persisted culturally.

Faith

Aecusians (Majority)
While much of the early history of Eigh Mothaid is uncertain and disputed, one figure is common across most stories - Aecus, founder of the first city on the banks of the Great Lake. Several modern-day cities claim to be Aecus' citiy, while the stories told by those further away from the lake tend to describe it as a long-gone city, but either way Aecus is seen as the father of the common laws and principles held by those that live here. Over time, Aecus' position in the mythology here has grown in stature, and he is deified by the modern-day Aecusians, a reward by the creator of the universe for his mortal works. His priesthood tend to travel, serving as roaming judges, adjudicators and in some cases vigilantes when they feel local laws have drifted from Aecus' mandates, while those sedentary followers of Aecus tend to take up positions in government and law enforcement.

Resource/DI

Spacer's Cabbage (Fruits and Vegetables/Spices)
The name "Spacer's Cabbage" is said to have come from the old days before the War of Eternal Bombardments - the story goes that Firmament was used as a resupply point for ancient ships travelling across Tekhum, a place for travellers to get a taste of Sansar without needing to land on the planet or take the space elevator down. Spacer's cabbage was one of the main food supplies sold to those travellers, a tailored plant which provides all the best of Sansar's produce in one. In the years since the War, they took root as a wild plant in Eigh Mothaid's forests, prewar modifications proving their worth in ensuring the plant endured the chaotic climate of the region, and the survivors quickly started relying on it for survival, and it wasn't long before farms were built all around the Great Lake.

The plant itself is not quite what someone born on Sansar thinks of when they hear "cabbage" - while the plant does have the same kind of leafy head, it is found at the top of a long stem, somewhat like a pineapple plant's fruit but taller, with flowers, broad leaves, and in some months small fruits growing out of the lower parts of the stem, while underground it has thick roots. These other parts are where the idea that Spacer's Cabbage was made to be an all-in-one plant comes from, as the locals have found that nearly every part of it is edible and tasty in its own way, and those that aren't eaten directly - roots, seeds, and a few parts of its flowers - are processed to serve as spices.

Desired Imports: Labourers
Constant maintenance is a fact of life in Eigh Mothaid - most of it isn't particularly technical, but it is time-consuming. With travel to and from Firmament becoming increasingly common, the idea of a new hired workforce taking some of the load and leaving the locals with more free time is becoming more and more popular.

Rolepgeek · May 6

Kaituku Nui, “the Great Provider” (Region 104) (WIP)

Geography & History

Segmented sections forming close to half of a massive ring orbiting in tandem with Kaitiaki Nui. Each segment stretches outwards, away from the swirling clouds of Badal, like a spike - or, from certain angles, the rays of a sunburst. Some reach for tens, even hundreds of kilometers, vast arrays of solar panels in all manner of condition and disrepair sprouting like leaves from every edge, but most bear the scars of violence, age, and bout after bout of ill-fated attempts at reconstruction and repair.

Thought to have been originally built to support Badal's settlement (one of many, presumably, given the age of the Empire), Kaituku Nui possesses a number of laser launch systems once used to transfer energy to, records suggest, the autonomous surface mining operations before they were capable of generating enough power independently by way of their spires. Since repurposed (as almost everything else has been) and long disused, they've recently become a major hub for Coalition voidship arrivals and departures.

Though orbital stations are often highly dependent on imports for supplies and material, especially those with such sizable populations as Kaituku Nui, the Great Provider was built to be self-sufficient wheresoever possible. Much of the Ophon-facing surface area of the orbital demi-ring host aeroponics facilities and microclimate grow rooms nearly as efficient as any aerostat's agricultural facilities - clever use of microgravity and the station's angled orbital inclination creates a synthetic framework of day and night for growth cycles without additional moving parts, while maintaining light exposure on unique crop types at all times. On the inorganic side, mass drivers on Badal's surface deliver materials to processing docks according to some inscrutable schedule, seemingly synchronized to the needs of the orbital itself.

Behind this sunlit exterior, the heart of the station: once-cramped living quarters, numerous recreational facilities and communal areas, repurposed commercial and industrial sectors, and, of course, the luxurious accommodations of the Glix Queens and their Retinues - even without the weight of enforced royal privilege, the pressure of tradition and popularity mean that only the Queens, their Retinues, and Coalition-appointed officials have voluntarily resided within since Kaituku Nui was seized by the pirate fleet.

Government & Population

The residents of Kaituku Nui are the product of countless waves of emigration and immigration between orbit and atmosphere over the long centuries since the war of eternal bombardment. While still mostly human, a sizable fraction of the locals, and those with the oldest claim to the station by all accounts, are the Glix, both Worker and Queen. Unlike the Glix of Mekhala with a Jubilee cycle of 61 Sansar-years, the Glix of Kaituku Nui have a Jubilee cycle of 59 Sansar-years - scholars place their last concurrent Jubilee well before the War of Eternal Bombardments, and communiques with the Glix Combine suggest that this may be a result of once being a distinct overmind-colony-complex.

Over 40 million sophonts currently call the station home...(wip)

Faith

Icon Crafters - Minority

The oldest faith of Kaituku Nui, and the most lasting, is the faith of the Queens. With little in the way of a formal name, and too many disputes historically to have a clear native term for what is otherwise a very similar set of practices, the simplest option left is to simply call it 'icon crafting' for one of the chief magical and spiritual activities of the belief system. Deeply invested in the history of Kaituku Nui and her people, , Icon Crafting makes use of heraldry, symbology, and runic arts passed down for millennia, carved into the very fabric of the Great Provider itself, to create the intricate, almost fractally detailed Icons to both commemorate events and recall their essence, as well as serve as a locus of veneration for the many microcults that populate Kaituku Nui.

Iconoclasm - Plurality

Approximately forty years before the selection of the Elect, a heterodox sect burst into existence within

Resource

Solar Panels - Fuel & Power / Magical Items

The solar panels that emerge from the manufactories of Kaituku Nui and decorate its surfaces are of an ancient and arcane design, unchanged for millennia - the microcircuitry in the panels hold a power not dissimilar to that of the recently developed Thaumonuclear Reactor. Besides their capacity to turn light into electrical power with remarkable efficacy, but the symbolic circuitry grants them a more esoteric power: when touched by Ophon's light specifically, they are also capable of drawing from the power of the stars themselves to produce mystic energy capable of being utilized by any competent sorcerer or runic conduit.

Needed Resource: Computers

Once, Kaituku Nui was surely a marvel of automation. Now, though, the systems which once managed that automation are split across a hundred or more operating criteria, the result of centuries upon centuries of attempted updates, break-ins, refurbishments, reconnections, and more. Uniting these networks is a difficult feat, but a necessary one to keep the ancient station functional and cohesive. To this end, an adequate supply of Computers is key to bridge the gaps created and cope with the data-intensive networking protocols necessary.

Edited yesterday at 01:53 AM by Rolepgeek (see edit history)

GrimRanger · May 6

My writeup has now been finished, just linking it again to avoid it being buried on page 6! Link here

volthawk · May 6

There we go, second writeup is done.

The Solarian Plains (43)

Geography

The Solarian Plains, as their name suggests, are an immense stretch of grasslands that dominate much of northwest Chonkia. Ruined cities, devasted in the War of Eternal Bombardments and never repaired, dot the landscape, connected by cracked and broken roads, while the scattered small settlements that the Solarians have built in the centuries since then show a little more in the way of signs of life. To the south, the grassland transitions into scrubland and trees become denser and more numberous as one approaches the Flowering Lands and its lush forests, while in the north the increasing cold heralds a transition to the tundra of the Wyrmlands. While the Solarian Plains are overall fairly flat, beyond a few river valleys, things get a little hillier to the east - not enough for outright mountains, but enough to indicate that a traveller is slowly getting closer and closer to Chonkia's great mountain ranges and Moonsoul in particular.

History

In the days before the War of Eternal Bombardments, the Solarian Plains were lightly settled, a few cities and villages scattered across the grassland. Those communities were not lived in by the Solarians, as far as anyone can tell - the Solarians themselves claim that they were always there, living as they do now out in the Plains, but outsiders in neighbouring regions have suggested that they migrated to the region in the time immediately following the War, displaced by the destruction as so many others were. In any case, the Solarians were the only major presence in the Plains once the dust had settled - those that lived in the towns and cities were mostly killed by orbital bombardments, and the survivors were either absorbed by the Solarians or fled to elsewhere on Sansar.

The Solarians, guided by their faith, didn't move in to the ruined cities and instead built new camps and settlements across the Plains, organising under lords who laid claim to stretches of the Plains as their sole territory. They fought amongst themselves over these things, as most would, building up individual armies that collectively numbered amongst the largest in Tekhum, and regardless of their personal issues the Solarian lords agreed on one thing - the Plains must never be conquered by an outsider.

Sure enough, unlike everywhere else within the realm of Eilif Dhaoine, the Solarian Plains were never conquered. Not fancying a war against the Solarians, particularly given the amount of their population that would be willing and ready to fight, the Dhaoine instead tried diplomacy here - a tricky task, given the distrust towards outsiders displayed by the average Solarian, but one that eventually bore fruit after over a decade of work. The argument put forward to the Solarians was fairly simple - in this new post-Elect world, it was inevitable that their isolationism would not last, and if the Dhoaine failed to conquer them then any one of the other militaristic Elect countries would, perhaps even one that isn't from Sansar. Being a part of Eilif Dhaoine would provide protection against the attention of those other powers, and compared to many of their peers the Dhaoine didn't ask for much in return - they would expect loyalty when called upon (part of the deal that was eventually struck involved the Solarian communities contributing a portion of their warriors to fight as an auxillary unit in the Dhaoine military), yes, but they also had little reason to try to change the Solarian way of life and were willing to broadly leave the Plains alone. They even offered a way for the Solarians to have a voice in the Eilif Dhaoine government, offering those of sufficient skill and standing a position as Knights of the Dhaoine. It took time for the majority of Solarian settlements to accept the deal, but eventually the persistence of Dhaoine officials paid off.

In the years since the confederation of the Solarian Plains was officially declared, life has sure enough gone on more or less as normal. The main change has been the construction of Dèangrian, a Dhaoine settlement in territory that isn't claimed by an existing Solarian group, and the main place the Solarian lords and the Eilif Dhaoine government make deals with each other and plan for the future.

People/Government

The Solarians are winged humanoids, capable of short bursts of flight (particularly when aided by magic and/or technology), although most of them spend the majority of their time on the ground - their ancestors used some of the more pliable beasts that roam the Plains as riding mounts, and while a few keep that tradition alive the motorcycle has been the preferred means of transport for Solarians for centuries now, put together from vehicles found in urban ruins and accompanied by open-topped cargo transports when moving between settlements.

Solarian government is organised around individual lords (often hereditary arrangements, but some put lordship up to a contest of some kind or even elect their ruler) who claim jurisdiction over large swathes of the Solarian Plains and control a handful of camps and settlements across that territory. The people live a semi-nomadic lifestyle, living in each settlement for some time depending on the needs of the season, the state of the local ecosystem, the movements of rival neighbouring lords, the need to access specialised industries built in that settlement, and so on. Before too long, it's time to pack up and move, travelling in vast convoys across the open plains, before settling down at another settlement or occasionally building some place new.

Faith

Solarian Isolationism (Majority)

The main faith within the Plains is the one that the Solarians named themselves after, and a key force shaping their culture. Sun worship tied up with centuries (if not milennia) of cultural norms and unspoken trauma from the War of Eternal Bombardments has all merged together into a religion that values isolationism, a disdain for urban living, and freedom of movement above much else. As the Solarians tell it the War of Eternal Bombardments, while something carried out by mortal hands, was a punishment from the sun for the way that pre-War civilisation lived, and if one wishes to avoid such punishment/karmic justice falling onto them and theirs, they must live as the Solarians do - always remaining free and mobile under the sun, never shackling oneself to the earth as old civilisation did (the current established settlements and industries the Solarians use is something of a compromise between ideology and practicality, scorned by the more extreme followers of the Solarian faith, but seen by the moderates as an acceptable risk, so long as they don't stay in one specific settlement for too long), and keeping a healthy amount of distrust towards those not of the faith, who don't understand the stakes and risk bringing damnation on themselves. The Dhaoine are suspicious to the more ardent followers of the faith, given the nature of cities in the Reserve, but the majority see association with them as an acceptable risk - after all, if Eilif Dhaoine brings their own reckoning down on themselves, the Solarians remain free enough that they can save themselves easily enough.

Rabid Misanthropy (Minority)

An extreme form of Solarian Isolationism. A few ardent followers of the tenets above, after examining the wider world through the lens of information from InterPlaNet, have come to a conclusion - mortal kind is doomed. The conditions that led to the sun's vengeance and the War of Eternal Bombardments are inevitably going to happen again, if one examines the nature of mortals and realises that none are free from sin, and sooner or later karmic justice will come for them all - even the Solarians will not be able to escape the sun's wrath forever. Naturally, a doomsday cult like this hasn't been too successful in spreading among the general Solarian population, but it has nonetheless attracted enough followers, and at least one lord, that a few Solarian communities overall take this stance, displaying greater than usual dislike towards outsiders (even other Solarians) and a tendency towards building underground, in the vain hope that they can better prepare for the inevitable apocalypse.

Resource/DI

Positronic Brains (Computers/Specialists)
When ideology makes cooperating with your fellow man difficult, one turns to the machine. Solarian settlements have always used artificial assistants to help them with their tasks - their distant ancestors used golems, digging clay pits with which they shaped their servants before giving them life, and the modern-day Solarians have turned these pits into mines where they extract the materials needed to make advanced artificial intelligences. They use these to carry out specialised and nuanced tasks, ensuring that their machines' synthetic brains can understand and learn whatever is needed.

The rabid misanthropes make particularly heavy use of specialised positronic brain-piloted machines for many roles - as well as making up for their low numbers compared to their peers, there's also a belief that the machine is somewhat more innocent and less likely to bring divine judgement than mortals.

Desired Import: Fruits and Vegetables
Much of the Solarian diet is meat, their settlements able to broadly feed themselves through hunting and the occasional ranch, occasionally supplementing that with foraged plants and fruit. That said, modern analysis has shown that the average Solarian diet is sorely lacking in several key vitamins found in fruits and vegetables, and the recommendation from Solarian doctors is that they should be eating more plants. Starting large-scale agriculture from scratch seems impractical (or perhaps just undesirable) to many Solarian lords, and they have instead decided to make this one of the benefits they get out of their unfortunately necessary arrangements with outsiders.

Minescratcher452 · May 9

Writeup reviews:

If I missed yours, let me know.

On 4/21/2024 at 7:58 AM, GrimRanger said:

READY FOR REVIEW!

Falfey (Region 13)

History

An old aerostat that had long been abandoned by its former inhabitants during the war, Falfey was a structure of some importance to imperial nobility, as it was once the source of luxurious Shadow Silk feeding the insatiable demand of Emperor's court for new fineries. The initial raids seeking to rob the production hub of its materials and forcibly recruit the inhabitants were all the incentine needed to provoke the departure of the former inhabitants, and after the success of initial raids died down, the fleets of Badal had targets of much higher importance than a textile production facility in their minds.

Left mostly unmolested as a result, the aerostat remained capable of limited operations in this reduced state, the few remaining families that had hid out the chaos used the massive trade and textile manufacturing hub as their home for a time, watching out the conflict that erupted across the system... but as the dust began to settle and managing the massive structure entirely by themselves grew ever more troublesome, most of the remaining survivors departed to find new lives in the aerostats with actual population, leaving only the automatic diagnostic and self-repair drones active to maintain the slowly drifting aerostat.

By the time the repair and scouting crews from Senkar arrived to assess the viability of Falfey for continued settlement, the old systems were beginning to fail, threatening to send the aerostat plummeting towards the planet below... and while timely arrive of Djinn-guided repair personnel prevented such an explosive end for the production hub, the arrival of criminal elements, competing business interests and somewhat self-aware repair bots meant the place was about to develop an atmosphere somewhat removed from its opulent origins.

Geography

While it has been damaged some by the passage of time and the burden of only the most rudimentary of maintenance being performed upon its structure for many years, Falfey is regardless a sight to behold. A manufacturing and trade hub with a spherical manufacturing center as its center, the rest of the aerostat is compromised of half a dozen floating districts orbiting the central structure, as well as a small fleet of floating platforms and small vessels moving about its innumerable loading docks. The style of the central structure is one of somewhat stripped-down opulence, the clear signs of archetectural style and furnishings of imperial court still visible through the renovations being made on it by the newly arrived colonists.

The surrounding floating districts and smaller craft create a peculiar sort of ever-shifting street network around the central manufacturing hub, districts often altering their position around the aerostat to allow deliveries and movement of people to occur most effectively. Due to the somewhat glitchy nature of some of the old systems and the whims of semi-sentient drones the travel around the floating streets can at times be somewhat frustrating or hazardous, with an accident happening every now and then to an unfortunate colonist too poor to afford traveling in style and safety of their very own craft.

As a distribution and trade hub, nature aboard Falfey tends to be limited to carefully maintained plants grown mostly for their aesthetic value, although there are often reports of odd pests inhabiting the deeper parts of old superstructures that repair crews avoid for fear of provoking a catastrophic malfunction. The drones have those handled for most part, right?

People

As the former inhabitants of Falfey abandoned their old homes and workplaces, the former population of the aerostat is supposedly entirely absent from it these days. Instead, colonists from Senkar have stepped up as the majority population, the tall ectomorph humans forming their society in Houses and Courts common on Senkar.

While they are by all means the majority population of Falfey, the inhabitants of Senkar are joined by majority population of traders from all across Badal, the manufacture of precious shadow silk having drawn attention from far and wide.

The most peculiar slice of the aerostat's inhabitants are the mechanical drones that have long upheld its vital systems, but the matter of their citizenship is a often debated thing. While they exhibit considerable signs of personhood, tests have yet to prove the matter of their sapience, although the population has mostly accepted their inclusion without much issue so far.

Government

The government of Falfey is ultimately under the rule of High Court aboard Senkar, with the enforcers of Lord Speaker assigned to the newly repaired aerostat to keep good order and rule of Senkar's laws in effect. Regardless, Falfey has its own political circles, ones that somewhat differ from the ones practiced by United Houses of Senkar at large.

While the Low Courts and Houses making up their number scheme and one-up each other much like they would at Senkar, their worst excesses are tempered by the need to deal with both emerging criminal syndicates that control multiple districts floating around the central manufacturing hub, as well as the ineffable will of the drone collective still managing several crucial aspects of the aerostat's manufacture. The day to day managing of the aerostat largely falls onto small council of representatives from each of these three major factions, with their supervisors at High Court caring little as to who sits among their number as long as they manage to maintain the aerostat's operations in satisfactory manner. While this arrangement is unlikely to last forever, it has proven an effective way to manage the new territory in the interim.

Resources

Resource: Shadow Silk (Fabrics and Textile Products)

The fine silk produced by the systems of Falfey allows for creation of all sorts of exotic finery, as well as more mundane yet durable textile products.

Desired Import: Precious Minerals

As the completion of many of the more expensive fashion choices favored by nobility and imperial dignitaries requires exotic embellishments, Falfey requires a constrant stream of precious minerals to refine into all sorts of buckles, adornments and accessories.

No notes, approved.

On 4/23/2024 at 4:44 AM, farothel said:

Themis Space Station Write-up

Layout

The base started as a ring with six drydocks for building battleships, connected by a ring. Now some of the drydocks were expanded to build fortress ships up to 5km in length and two of the six have been converted to Activated DarkMatter production facilities as these can be more easily seperated from the main base. While the ring is mostly manufacturing and laboratories, inside the ring they build a giant sphere to house people. When finished, it can hold about about 80 million people, but nowhere near that number live here yet.

People

Themis is colonised by Volethans. Most are construction workers, finishing up the construction of the base as well as spaceyard workers, administrators and military staff. Some families already live there, mostly from military personal and spaceyard workers stationed there. As soon as more production will be started up (some products are easier constructed in zero-G, more workers and their families will move to the station. The maximum population is 80 million, but it will take years to get to this number.

Government

Currently the station is under military governance, although in a few years a civilian governor is slated to take over. The base will have a local council to handle local affairs, and will send representatives to the ducal council as well as the parliament. It will also have local communities and they will handle local affairs, just like towns and cities in Bafatis.

Religion

The Mind is considered the most important thing, as for everything else the Mind can create a machine to do the work for it. Some priests are on the base, mostly in the military, although a larger presence still has to be established.

Resource

Activated Dark Matter: While the base will build most ships for the Bafatis Space Navy as well as civilian ships, in its labs Bafatis scientists have created Activated DarkMatter, a form of matter that decays into regular matter releasing tremendous amounts of energy. While its properties are not yet fully understood, it needs zero-G production facilities protected by the best armour and shields. Two of the orginal six drydocks have been rebuild to produce this resource while scientists keep studying it.
categories: exotic matter, fuel

Desired Import

Ores and Alloys: With all the construction that is going on in the base, they always need more material to build with. Also the creation of the activated Dark Matter requires materials to begin with.

picture

No notes, approved.

On 4/28/2024 at 11:36 PM, MadMapManPK said:

Region Submission (53)

Ipatida

Geography

In the shadow of towering skeletal remains of once-great factories, a vibrant community thrives amidst the rusted metal sheets and skeletal frames that litter the savanna of Ipatida, especially in the coastal towns by the Great Sea. Here, long after a forgotten industrial era, resourceful scavengers eke out a living by salvaging these relics of the past for essential supplies. Similarly to the neighboring Agbada, gardens of vibrant greenery thrive in the cracks of the concrete, with vines and moss covering entire structures from top to bottom. Even children play in the ruins, their twittering and chirping echoing off the rusted walls as they haphazardly design toys from discarded scraps. Unlike the great cities around Castle Kiniun, however, these remain in disrepair. Flashing neon lights and computer service are nowhere to be seen, and streets are merely a result of many a talon walking the same path.

Further out, however, it becomes the sandiest and dustiest region in which the Animals of the Confederation have been able to settle. A smattering of small villages is painted across the western wastes, where supplies from the south are regularly transported in. These regions are primarily inhabited by the Vultures, adhering to the moral code of Dustbound Chivalry.

People

Most of the citizens of the region are anthropomorphic birds, including the aforementioned Vultures, as well as Hawks, Ostriches, Roadrunners, and Ospreys. Due to laws of thermodynamics, however, none of these peoples are able to fly, leading many to feel jealous of the simpler creatures around them. There are no grand aviaries or soaring towers where communities come together. Instead, they make their homes in the abandoned factories and warehouses, fashioning nests and beds from scavenged materials and fortified with whatever scraps they can find. Life here is harsh and unforgiving, at least relative to the rest of the Confederation's holdings. Indeed, they scavenge tirelessly through the ruins, searching for anything of value that can be traded or repurposed. Metal scraps, mechanical parts, and anything else that might fetch a few scraps of food or clean water from the occasional oasis are highly prized commodities in this harsh landscape.

These Houses have been integrated into the government system of the Confederation, each ruling over its newly defined territory as set by the Holy Presbyter’s Council and gaining a seat at the table among Agbada’s elite.

Faith

The Cult of Avva is the faith of the majority now that the Confederation has taken Ipatida under its wing, and it is welcomed with open arms, as the daytimes are peaceful and productive under the watchful eye of the Sun God.

From dust all rise and to dust all return. Dustbound Chivalry is a code of morals, ethics, and ideals followed by those living near the dusty borders with Narsai and Vesper. Many claim that their historical homeland may actually lie somewhere among these border regions, not defined by today’s national boundaries. Indeed, wherever the dust is most present is where they belong. However, their lineage has yet to understand the secrets of Dust Hardening, and therefore can only make futile attempts at charging headfirst into the dusty deserts with honor at stake. An underground tournament is held on a yearly basis: the strongest non-cheater receives the blessing of the Grandmaster to attempt returning to the dust.

Resource

Sorcerous Swords (Weapons, Armor, and Munitions & Exotic Matter) are among the strangest living(?!) beings on Tekhum. Believed to be ancient animated automatons no longer bound to any known charging station, these levitating and often rusty swords are approximately two feet long and, when dissected, are unable to be classified as any known modern metal. They can be found in the basements of the ancient structures littered throughout the region. A single eye rests near the hilt, which can blink and look in any direction it pleases. Looking into the eye of a Sorcerous Sword for too long results in a burst of shadows in all directions, knocking over anyone unlucky enough to be nearby. Only by beating one of these weapons in a duel can a soldier gain the right to wield it in battle. Grabbing its hilt otherwise results in one’s life energy being drained. (Salmon Steve and the Grandmaster, among others, are able to wield a sword.)

The power of the swords cannot be understated. Therefore, qualified soldiers willing to tame them are necessary. Else, the swords will inevitably drive out those who call these lands home. Mercenaries to protect stashes among the ruins are also welcome.

I'm not totally sure on the Swords being Exotic Matter rather than, say, Magic Items (or Specialists??), but as long as it makes some sense that they can fuel quantum entanglement, etc. this is approved.

On 5/1/2024 at 12:08 PM, The Snark said:

The Orochon Shieldplains (Region 63), Veehra

Geography

At the western edge of the northern highlands stands the ancient shield volcano of Mons Orochos, the tallest mountain on Veehra - indeed, the tallest in all of Tekhum, barring some colossal peak hiding in the outer system. Despite this, Mons Orochos is not impressive to look at; it's simply too big for the human eye to properly grasp its scale, save perhaps when looking down from orbit. Stand at the lip of the caldera, and the base of the mountain will be beyond the horizon. There are no jagged peaks or breathtaking clifftop vistas, as one might expect to find among Sansar's violent tectonic upthrusts, just hundreds upon hundreds of klicks of the land sloping ever upward.

Like many of Veehra's mountains, Orochos offers a refuge from the desert. The dust storms that plague the open plains are buffered by the slope and gentled by the thinning atmosphere; the higher one rises, the weaker they become. Fog, rain and snow are common at higher altitudes, as the mountain catches whatever moisture escapes from the northern oasis, and ancient glaciers nestle on the upper slopes, feeding rivers and streams. Barren dust gives way to rich volcanic soil. With water and soil comes life: the native flora and fauna of the Orochon shieldplains must adapt to thin air and bitter cold, but adapt they have. Gnarled trees and thick brambles form a girdle of sorts around the lower slopes; burrowing mammals make nests in snow and soil; flightless birds stalk the rocky scree. Humans dwell here too, farming the fertile slopes during the warmer seasons and huddling in underground communal dens when winter comes. Notable flora and fauna include:

Wildlife

The rootspine tree bears bears more resemblance to an oversized creeper vine than a typical tree. It rarely rises above head height; its woody trunk grows along the ground rather than standing upright, resulting in a sprawling, knotty mess of thorns and branches. Its namesake roots extend downward to pierce the earth in a dozen places, fixing it in place against the storms and allowing it to draw more nourishment from the soil. On the upper slopes these trees are uncommon, as the locals cut them down to make room for farmland, but on the lower slopes it grows wild, forming a thick, thorny girdle around the mountain - an impromptu wall against desert raiders.

The redthistle plant is a local staple crop, better known as Veehran wheat; see Resources for details.

The olmy is a rangy red-furred omnivorous scavenger about a foot or two long. Known for their intelligence, their eerie high-pitched cries, and their disquietingly floppy-looking limbs, olmies are capable of squeezing their bodies into crevices far narrower than their body, which helps them both to elude predators and hunt down small burrowing creatures. Some of the locals keep them as pets, but most regard them as pests - they're very hard to keep out of places where they're not wanted, such as granaries and poultry pens, and nearly impossible to train.

The yddrik is a predatory flightless bird close to the size of a human, alarmingly fast and agile on the boulder fields and rocky scree that make up its hunting grounds. Fortunately for the locals, these are solitary creatures, and generally prefer to avoid humans... though wise humans avoid them in turn, especially if traveling alone.

The pygmy mastodon is a docile creature used as a beast of burden by the local farming communities.

The whitefin is a massive flightless bird akin to an oversized penguin... if penguins were terrifying ambush predators. In summer, it hibernates above the permafrost line. When the winter snows arrive, it ventures downslope to hunt, burrowing beneath the surface of the snow and waiting for prey to venture close before bursting forth to seize it, maul it with its cruelly barbed beak, and drag it under the ice.

The highest reaches of the mountain are uninhabited, save for lichens and one implausibly hardy species of microscopic arthropod; the atmosphere here is too thin to sustain human life without an oxygen mask. The stars are visible even by day, the blackness of space creeping into the meager sky. The caldera itself contains a frozen lake; Loop-born surveyors suspect it is artificial, given the total lack of rainfall at this altitude, but no trace is left of whatever city or aqueduct it might have once fed. Strange fish and algae live in the depths, many as yet uncatalogued by Tekhum's scientists.

History

Like most of Tekhum, the Orochon Shieldplains suffered badly in the War of Eternal Bombardments (referred to in local stories as either the Eleventh or Fourteenth Great War). The glittering domed cities of High Orochos were easily shattered by orbital strikes, dooming hundreds of thousands to death by suffocation and exposure; carefully targeted bombardments of the great glaciers unleashed catastrophic floods on the densely populated middle slopes. A few escaped unscathed by taking refuge in the massive bunker complex buried beneath the mountain, built for just such a purpose - among them the very lords and princes whose hubris had brought the sky's wrath down in the first place. Yet even they had only delayed their fate. The war lasted longer than they ever imagined it could, and over the course of decades starvation and infighting thinned their numbers to nothing, leaving only a mausoleum dedicated to their past and future glories.

The story of Orochos since the war is one of long, slow decay. Though the people were nearly wiped out, the land itself remained alive. The survivors regrouped and rebuilt as best they could. City-states arose in the ruins, dreaming of reclaiming the glories of the lost age... but the trade networks that had allowed the metropoli of the pre-war era to flourish were gone. The devices of the old world became precious relics, hoarded jealously and passed down from generation to generation until something broke that they had not the knowledge or resources to fix. Ancient steel buildings wore away to nothing under the endless assault of rain, snow and dust, to be replaced by stone huts and underground warrens. Petty kings and would-be tyrants fought with spears and slings as often as guns - and as the long centuries passed, even that grew rarer. Mons Orochos passed into a twilight era, its people content to eke out humble lives beneath the great glaciers...

... until outsiders began to visit - not to rob and plunder, but bearing precious metals and furs as gifts, and offering word from beyond the sky. Some of the Orochons are wary of the newcomers, believing that this is the first step on the road to the next great war. Others believe the long night has passed, and it is time for Orochos's people to wake and join the wider world again. The wise suspect both may be true.

People

Most of the inhabitants of the Orochon shieldplains live on the middle slopes, high enough to avoid most dust storms, but below the snow line. They are akin to their desert-dwelling neighbors in form: human, or close enough that it's hard to tell the difference by sight. Unlike the desert clans, they are not nomadic: the bitter cold and rocky terrain makes traveling arduous, while the rich volcanic soil is fertile ground (literally) for agriculture. Small towns and villages dot the mountainside, each one laying claim to dozens if not hundreds of terrace farms.

Violent conflict is much less common among the Orochon tribes than their desert-dwelling neighbors. Food and water are plentiful, removing the need to fight over basic necessities; conversely, they lack the technology to easily travel long distances. Trade is arduous, conquest difficult. No polity claims more territory than they can walk across in a day or two. Some of the lower villages feud with one another, engaging in ceremonial raids to seize captives and luxury goods. These ritualized clashes bear little resemblance to the life-or-death raids of the open desert, but they do keep some semblance of a martial tradition alive, which is useful on the occasions when desert marauders make their way onto the slopes. The higher villages shun these customs, believing the mountain herself frowns on it - tradition holds that she will bury her children in snow to stop them from fighting one another.

The Orochon communities are primitive by Tekhum standards; although not wholly unfamiliar with modern science, they have almost no industrial capacity of their own. What little technology they possess is either salvaged from ancient ruins, or made by hand: water-driven mills, flintlock rifles, electric heaters, solar power collectors. They favor simple, sturdy tools that anyone can take apart and put back together with a little trial and error. What good is a fancy calculating machine if you have to travel a thousand klicks to find the parts needed to keep it working? Better to rely on something the local smith knows how to make, using what can be dug out of the mountain. Their knowledge and history is passed on largely through oral tradition; writing is impractical without paper or parchment.

There are stories of people living above the snow line, inside ancient sealed habitats. Most of these sound more like fanciful tales than historical accounts: ancient warlords biding their time until they can unleash their nightmarish war machines on the world once more, savage frozen-hearted marauders who kidnap unwary or disobedient children... Of particular interest to the Castaways is the tale of the City-in-a-Bottle, which on the eve of the war sealed itself away from the world; legends say that they relive the halcyon day before the war endlessly, although whether they saved or damned themselves depends on the teller.

Government

There is no unified government among the Orochon shieldplains; each community has its own leader, typically either a chief or a council of elders. How much power these rulers hold, and how they choose to exercise it, varies widely. Some villages pass authority down family lines, while others select based on merit (typically determined by contests of wits, strength or skill) or by polling the leaders of respected local families. None can claim leadership over more than a handful of towns or villages - the difficulty of traversing the slopes without vehicles or beasts of burden (both in short supply) makes it hard to exert authority farther than a day's walk or so. The days of kings and empires are long gone in Orochos, and most of its inhabitants feel that's probably for the best.

Faith

Like many cultures on Veehra, the Orochon people revere the land around them and the cycle of death and rebirth; but where their lowland neighbors see Mother Serpent as the embodiment of the land, the Orochon focus on the mountain herself and the slow passing of Veehran seasons. Snow yields to rain; flowers bloom and rivers run; crops spring from the ground and bear fruit, then wither again; rain yields to snow. Human history is no different; its arc is longer than any one person will live to see, but no less inevitable. What once was, will be again. Everything that may happen, has already happened. To think otherwise is folly.

Though the Orochons lack any formal religious structure, every community has at least one Storyteller, responsible for keeping the oral history of their people. These histories are extraordinarily long and detailed, though they do not always agree with one other across communities; the Orochons themselves simply shrug and say their neighbors have remembered the same events from a different cycle. Storytellers are also the keepers of practical knowledge - few Orochons are literate, and the basic principles of electronics, metallurgy and agronomics must be encoded in song and verse alongside myth and history.

Most of the Orochons regard the cycle of history as an inevitability, to be celebrated or at least accepted with good grace. A few disagree, viewing the structure of the cosmos as inherently cruel and injust. What comfort is there in knowing all the tragedies of the past will inevitably repeat? A few - mostly those living among the majority faith- rage against the cycle but see no hope of escape. Others believe in a promised path to freedom: that if the right people undertake the right actions at the right time, the shackles of history can be broken forever. This messianic belief is typically in the few towns where this is the majority view. Unsurprisingly, the two sects get on poorly; there hasn't been (much) overt violence in the last hundred years, but wars and pogroms have been waged on both sides in the past, and neither side has forgotten.

Resources

Veehran Wheat
Though the volcanic soil found on the slopes of Orochos is richer than anything outside Veehra's greenlands, not many plants can withstand the thin air and the bitter cold. The most useful of those plants is the redthistle plant, colloquially known as Veehran Wheat. The grain it produces is small and bitter-tasting, but edible; as a result it is widely farmed, and forms the bulk of the local diet.

Veehran Wheat has an unusually high mineral content, due to the iron-rich soil it grows in; this often leads to long-term health problems among the Orochons. Loop-born scientists speculate that it was one of the base organisms the Sorcerers of New Kildora altered to create their famous Silver Serpent crops.

Desired Import: Fabrics and Textile Products
Thin air and frigid temperatures are a constant hardship on Mons Orochos, especially in winter. Orochon homes are well-insulated, built into the mountain itself and heated by fire or electric heater... but eventually, one has to venture outside. There are few local animals large enough to yield useful furs, and the flax-like plant the Orochons use to weave most of their clothing is poorly insulated. The best cold-weather clothes they have use downy feather linings to keep body heat in, but there's rarely enough of these to satisfy demand.

Still tinkering with some details, especially regarding faith and history, but this should be mostly ready for review.

No notes, approved.

On 5/4/2024 at 1:06 AM, TheDarkDM said:

Responding to notes.

Zimbir, The High Court of Mekhala (Region 81)

History

Before the War of Eternal Bombardments, the enormity of the Empire strained even the capabilities of InterPlaNet and the more esoteric technologies of Ophon. Centralization of power within the Emperor's court led to sometimes-costly delays in response to crisis, and fomented discontent among those vassal states who felt they lacked a voice in the golden halls of power. In response, and to free the High Lords of the tedious mundanity of day-to-day administration, the Emperor decreed the creation of a number of local divisions of the Imperial Bureaucracy to better administer their far-flung demesne. Among these were branches of the Imperial legal system, district courts that could litigate matters unworthy of the Supreme Imperial Court. Though their authority was limited, each served as a repository for the vast body of common law, noble lineages, and Imperial Decrees that combined to form the bedrock of law in Tekhum. Zimbir was one such repository, the least influential and least prestigious, presiding as it did over the sparsely-populated hinterlands of Mekhala.

The War changed everything. Most outposts of the bureaucracy that survived the initial wave of catastrophe found themselves cut off from the aegis of Imperial power, their highest officials evacuated to Ophon while armies of subordinates and functionaries were left to fend for themselves. The mechanisms of governance were repurposed into mechanisms of survival, the great machine of Imperial oversight smashed apart to build crude states and fleeting dictatorships that were everywhere undone by the convulsive aftershocks of universal war. Everywhere, that is, save for humble Zimbir. Isolated from the intrigues of great states and the heaving aftershocks of thaumonuclear detonations, Zimbir and its priceless archive of knowledge endured.

Cut off from Ophon's guidance, the legal apparatus of Zimbir attempted to function for a time. Tentative relations were established among the surviving powers spread across Mekhala, the Imperial Magistrates passing down decisions they believed would lead to compromise and recovery. Decisions that were too-frequently ignored in favor of mercurial ambition. Without the backing of Imperial power, it eventually became clear that Zimbir was little more than a relic of a more civilized age, and as their neighbors turned towards conflict and avarice the people of Zimbir turned in on themselves. The cybernetic implants designed to interface with the systems of Ophon became the mechanism by which they survived the growing privation of Mekhala, while the automated court systems at the heart of the habitat grew old and unreliable, legal algorithms and analytic subroutines catching in recursive loops and logic spirals in the absence of any true legal matters to occupy their energies.

Geography

While a number of substantial orbiting bodies occupy Zimbir's territory, life in the region is centered on a massive, pre-war habitat constructed by the Imperial Court. Its opulent exterior a monument to the prosperity of the pre-war period, High Court Zimbir contains living quarters for its magistrates, litigators, and support staff, their judicial chambers and legal offices, court rooms of enough size and spectacle to be worthy of the Emperor himself, and the labyrinthine warren of databanks, autoscribes, and evidence vaults that jurisdiction over an entire orbit demands. Over the centuries of abandonment and independence from Ophon many of the nearer asteroids were also colonized, serving as additional housing at first but eventually evolving into the feudal territory of the most renowned Litigator Clans. Now returned to the fold of something approaching Imperial authority, many of these far-flung fortresses and boltholes have been repurposed as additional storage for the business of the Court, and as holding cells in the event of a criminal trial.

People

While genetically human, the people of Zimbir bear the mark of their ancestors' cybernetic integration into Ophon's pre-war bureaucracy. With so many of the systems in the High Court reliant on these integrated machine interfaces, time and necessity only expanded the ubiquity of these implants, while isolation demanded the slow regression of their beauty and grace. Where once the magistrates of Zimbir enjoyed the regal simplicity of skin-sheer golden implants, the current generation makes do with utilitarian metal protrusions passed down from grandparent to grandchild, each one slowly accumulating a collection of minor flaws that is woven into a family history. While the average inhabitant of the habitat may only boast a few obvious prostheses, such as a mechanical limb or the ubiquitous bulge of a spinal neural port, the great Litigators and Magistrates are a biomechanical symphony, a strange beauty emerging from the grotesque asymmetry of their forms. The imposition of the House of Fire's authority over the region promises an influx of technology and resources beyond anything the region has previously enjoyed, and already some children have reached the age of majority with sleek black implants derived in the depths of Gunzir Massif, but it will take some time before the archaic living sculptures of Zimbir disappear completely.

Born into a society founded on the precepts of Ophons laws, the people of Zimbir gradually became a microcosm of those laws as decades turned to centuries. Titles that were once simple professions have evolved into ceremonial positions of growing power, the law offices that once balanced the work of representation factionalizing into Litigator Clans claiming rulership over different areas of the habitat. While the Imperial Magistrates (and their descendants) are the figureheads vested in traditional authority, in practice their judgements are tempered by the very real power of the Litigator Clans who rule in their name. Or at least, so it was before the House of Fire finally broke the power of the Litigators after a decade-long campaign.

Government

Following the conquest of the region by the House of Fire, the military might of the Litigator Clans was officially disbanded. While the domestic functions of the station were not meddled with by the Ducal Armada, the presence of qualified technicians as well as an influx of foreign materials and spare parts only further diluted the authority of the reigning warlords. This may have precipitated further bloodshed and uprising, had Litigator Prime Apil-Sin not emerged from Ducal custody as a voice to bridge the gap between the two cultures. Made fully aware of the terrible wrath the House of Fire was capable of as well as the deep charity they were prepared to offer Zimbir, Apil-Sin convinced many of the other Litigator Clans that prosperous submission was preferable to the brave futility of rebellion. For his efforts, he was named the first Governor, ruling in the name Esarhaddon III.

Meanwhile, the powers of the Imperial Magistrates has been reinvigorated. While Litigator Prime Apil-Sin attends to the domestic reorganization of the region and the Ducal Corps of Engineers carries out desperately-required maintenance, the Imperial Magistrates have new case loads to consider. Integration of Zimbir with Dur-Shalkhir's legal apparatus has resulted in the resolution of many age-old deadlocks in the archive systems and among the Magistrates themselves, and new precedent has begun to emerge at last from this surviving bastion of Imperial order.

Resources

Resource: Lawyers (Specialists, Information and Data)

Trained from birth, the chosen members of the Litigator Clans possess an encyclopedic knowledge (in many cases aided by their cybernetic implants) of Imperial Common Law and are trained in rhetorical techniques ranging from the high civility of Ophon's court to the lethal simplicity of trial by combat. Freed from the demands of internecine strife, these legal experts are now available to any Elect with the fortitude to embrace their legal code.

Desired Import: Arts and Cultural Products

As systemic shortfalls are reversed and the tensions of inter-clan rivalry dissipate, many inhabitants of Zimbir are free to pursue the higher callings of art and beauty for the first time. However, for all its apparent majesty the habitat is a poor place for free expression. Too much of Zimbir is dedicated to the dry work of case law and contract, and so the people look to the Empire at large to satisfy their souls.

Faith

Spacer Supremacy

Though it initially served primarily as a societal bulwark against chaos, the original purpose of the High Court and its heritage of Imperial significance gradually degenerated into a more discriminatory mysticism. With little knowledge of the inner orbits save vague snatches gleaned from long-haul traders and the uncertain claims of InterPlaNet, the inhabitants of the High Court came to regard themselves as the last remaining bulwark of Imperial civilization throughout the wider expanse of Tekhum. Convinced of the corrupting influence of atmosphere and gravity, they married their presumptive enlightenment to their isolation in the void. This gave rise to a monastic obsession with the purity to be found in emptiness and weightlessness, and the supreme moral authority that accompanied liberation from gravity. So girded by their unassailable virtue, the people of Zimbir had no doubt of their ultimate victory against the incursions of the House of Fire, until the myth of their invincibility was cruelly shattered. Left now to reckon with the rule of those touched by gravity, if not atmosphere, the tenets of Spacer Supremacy seem doomed to a lingering descent into irrelevance.

Bīt Ereshkigal, The Hexacrypt Wilds (Region 22)

History

Located punishingly near to the site of the White Pawns' apocalyptic resistance to the Empire, much of what once stood atop the Hexacrypt Wilds has been irrevocably lost. The corpses of vast cities and staggering infrastructure projects endured no better than bone or sinew against the radiant fires of the War of Eternal Bombardments, and were abandoned as cursed earth by those who survived. While none were so foolish as to abandon technology as a whole in the wake of the war, none who scrabbled to survive the aftermath wished to return to the days of madness. A sleepy, forgotten culture grew up in the cracks of the apocalypse, and might have remained so were it not for the enterprising work of one young woman. Her name is lost, scrubbed from living memory and digital record, but she was an engineer in a land of farmers. Somehow, she rediscovered a means of interfacing with the infrastructure that had survived the war, burrowed under her peoples' feet like the work of a trillion ants. At first, she used her "powers" subtly, re-engaging water filtration systems or the uplinks to the few surviving weather satellites, but as the prosperity of her town and those near it grew so did suspicion. Too knowledgeable of her peoples' prejudices to risk the truth, the woman vanished into the wilderness, and the brewing scandal died. Until she began to appear in their dreams.

Taking refuge in a central hub of the old world, the first Baba was not content to leave her work half-done. She envisioned a brighter symbiosis between her people and the quiescent technology beneath their feet, and was dedicated, perhaps obsessed, with realizing that dream. Tapping into the water filtration system, she unleashed a flood of tailored nanobots into the region's water supply, and within a month enough of the microrobots had embedded in the brains of her people to establish contact. Drawing the from their dreams into the first datastream, she plucked recruits from among the exceptional and the disaffected of a hundred communities, training the first generation of data witches even as the wider populace slowly awakened to the shared reality of their new lucid dreams. Some, fearing some outside force, tried to resist, but they quietly disappeared into the mists of history. Whether the first Baba eventually died or became something more than human is not known, but from their first generation the data witches have watched over the people of the Wilds as unpredictable, sometimes capricious guardians.

The arrival of the outside world threw this balance of power into chaos. While some witches and their allies among the local councils welcomed the might and majesty of the Empire, others resisted it with bitter will. The ancient technologies that had connected the people to their digital reality were repurposed to create legions of cyborg warriors, and though their homunculi were defeated the witches remain. Now they wait and watch, hiding in plain sight, as a new domed palace rises from what was once old growth forest and sorcerers with fiery eyes turn their attentions to the datastream.

Geography

Stretching along the eastern coastline of Zabava, Bīt Ereshkigal descends from a sinuous line of western mountains through towering deciduous forests into coastal lowlands that frequently give way to swamps. Once jagged and wild, the terrain has worn down under the weight of millennia, becoming a rolling tapestry of green, grey, and black. Not so the forests it embraces, however - the wilderness of what was once known as the Hexacrypt Wilds is the equal of any on Sansar, save perhaps the untamed nightmare of the Reserve to its south. The bright lights of sparsely-scattered civilization are almost swallowed by the arboreal gloom, and a complete catalogue of the mutated flora and fauna has not been attempted in the post-war period.

For all that hostility, civilization does thrive in Bīt Ereshkigal. Small towns and villages thrive in forest clearings and along lazy rivers, while rugged mountain camps draw wealth from the black earth. This wealth flows down to the coast, where a handful of small cities thrive on trade and the quiet indifference of more bellicose neighbors. To the naked eye, it might seem quaint, but the naked eye can only perceive half the truth of Bīt Ereshkigal. Hovering above the towns and cities in an invisible haze is the datumplume of its inhabitants, an augmented reality tended to and ruled by the unseen data witches that command fear and respect in every household. In this second sight, towns become glistening towers of light and shadow, and the humble cities are transformed into soaring digital metropolises. This digital reality stretches along the subterranean ley-lines of fiberoptic cable and circuit left behind after the War of Eternal Bombardments, the arcanodigital circuitry alive with digital ghosts.

People

The people of Bīt Ereshkigal exist, much like their civilization, in two worlds. In the real world, the largely human inhabitants nurture an insular culture of extended family ties and old grudges, though these rarely give rise to violence. Rather, the small communities dotting the Hexacrypt Wilds give little thought to the people living outside their immediate sphere, tending their own fences rather than peering through them. However, this provincial attitude is turned on its head in dataspace. Divorced of the reality of the physical world, the inhabitants of Bīt Ereshkigal manifest avatars reflecting their inmost selves (and those who seek to deceive or dissemble with their True Face are invariably punished by the Data Witches). Through a wireless connection that manifests as REM sleep in the outside world, the inhabitants of Bīt Ereshkigal skim the length and breadth of their digital paradise, indulging in revelry and debauch that does the High Lords of Ophon proud.

Government

The communities of Bīt Ereshkigal are organized around democratically organized municipal councils, a collection of reeves and mayors that only rarely come together to form anything resembling a centralized government. While this fractured jumble of authority would normally leave the region vulnerable to exploitation or attack, there is another power at play that acts to unite the scattered communities. The digital realm is also divided along more esoteric lines, each datastream overseen by the dictatorial will of one of the Data Babas. These elder data witches wield staggering power over the constructed reality overlaying Bīt Ereshkigal, to the extent of manifesting phenomena in the physical world if they are sufficiently angered. While they are insular and inscrutable, the Babas are aligned in a singular coven that protects their ambitions and their interests. Though their power waned in the days of occupation after the Eucrus Alliance defeated their warrior Mechadea, the House of Fire has made tentative overtures to bring the Babas more securely into the fold. Certainly, the ancient circuitry that fuels their powers is a miracle of the old world, and greatly of interest to the Imperial Cult. Meanwhile, the regional councils have bent the knee to a Ducal Governor installed in the quickly-growing new city of Irkalla.

Resources

Resource: Roleplaying Games (Art and Cultural Products, Magical Items)

While the reality of the datastream is ever-shifting, there exist rites and rituals to capture a facsimile of it in a set form. This form of protean code carries with it the echoed thoughts and desires of every inhabitant of Bīt Ereshkigal, and is capable of reacting to fulfill the fantasies of those who interface with it through the potency of those echoes.

Desired Import: Planetary Vehicles

While the people of Bīt Ereshkigal enjoy limitless mobility in the datastream, that freedom is far harder to find on the material plane. The dangers of the Hexacrypt Wilds are manifold, and if the region is to prosper beyond the digital phantoms of its inhabitants dreams then a reliable means of transport between mountain, forest, and coast will need to be established.

Faith

Data Witches

More than a faith, the presence of the Data Witches is a reality for the inhabitants of Bīt Ereshkigal. Though they recognize, intellectually, that the Witches must live among them in the physical realm, they reach so close to the divine within the datastream that their avatars are the subject of fearful reverence. Names are never used, both to avoid offending a Witch through tempting their true name and to instill in the Witches an immortal quality. Rather, the Witches are believed to embody broad aspects of life and force to be found in Bīt Ereshkigal, with the inscrutable tides of the datastream attributed to such figures as Baba Sorrow or the Crawling Tree. The witches themselves seem to favor this arrangement, which affords them a degree of anonymity even within their anonymous existences, and it is whispered that a number of minor covens, subordinate to the coven of Babas, have united in common cause to better pursue the tenets of these digital phantoms.

Looks good, no further feedback! Approved.

On 5/4/2024 at 1:42 AM, Elemental said:

Anso-Chor
Region 67

History

The History of Anso-Chor goes back to the foundation of the Imperial Embassy in times long since gone recorded by calendars forgotten by all who live on Veehra save for the most pedantic of Imperial Bureaucrats, but the triumphs of that history have left no markers on the land save the Embassy itself for when the War of Eternal Bombardments came not even the proximity of so important an Imperial institution served to shield the peoples of the land as fire rained from the sky and undid all they had built. Untold thousands flocked to the gates of the Embassy for shelter and huddled in its direct shadow they were spared death by fire and sorcery, only to face disease and starvation. Perhaps out of kindness or merely the desire to prevent having to view something as unsightly as a plague ridden tent city outside their office windows, Imperial officials distributed aid and with this seed a city began to grow.

Thousands more across Veehra made the trek to the Embassy seeking salvation and safe haven in the years of chaos and as the land recovered the population grew and prospered. Eventually other cities were founded and alongside the surviving Sindra and Vekanen populations a network of small states developed. However unlike elsewhere on Veehra these small states never coalesced into anything larger. Despite the fertile soils and growing prosperity that could have fuelled dreams of conquest, local rulers were unwilling to act the part of conquering warlords, afraid that such an act would bring a repeat of the fires that destroyed the old world.

Today Anso-Chor is a patchwork of small monarchies, tribal confederations and leagues of city states, passed over for Electoral power as a result of this decentralisation and eclipsed by the demon summoning wolfmen of the west, the hydra cult of the south and the isolationist thinkers of the north.

Geography

Anso-Chor is a particularly low lying region lying between the Highlands to the west and the Great Sea to the east. Several rivers lazily cross the plains, their banks often lined with swampy ground that is inundated on an annual basis with the Spring thaws in the Highlands. The lowest slopes of the Highlands extend into Anso-Chor's western frontier and a range of hills extends roughly along the southern border with Nadiratna. Beyond these regions and isolated hills, the landscape is extremely flat and extremely susceptible to flooding as a result. Vast networks of flood walls and levees crisscross the land to protect cities and towns given the scarcity of high ground.

These annual floods combined with the rain coming off the Great Sea to the east has resulted in Anso-Chor being one of the lushest regions on Veehra. Woodlands once covered most of the land with their remnants still being among the largest forests on all Veehra, especially those in the hills of the west and south. Along the coast of the Great Sea these woodlands give way to what may be Veehra's only rainforest, The Jade Wood. Though hardly tropical and as snowbound during the Winter months as the rest of the region, this tangled, primordial forest merges seamlessly with coastal marshes and extends for almost two hundred kilometres inland.

Over the centuries much of the land has been cleared, though the Jade Wood remains more or less untouched, and given over to the cultivation of all manner of moisture tolerant crops. Perennial rice fields are in particular quite common as if the fields are being flooded every years it seems sensible to grow something that doesn't mind that so much.

Anso-Chor is colloquially known as the Land of a Hundred Cities. This is an exaggeration, but its cities are indeed numerous. Each seems to have worked to set itself aside with grand monuments and extravagant festivals, but the rise of industry has caused most cities to become somewhat overshadowed by great manufactories that somewhat spoil their aesthetic value, damaging ancient stonework and spreading clouds of pollutants through the land.

The largest city is Tanevi-Nur, the City of Forges. The great Corbomite foundries stand at the heart of this city and dominate it both visually and economically. They in turn support vast secondary industries that utilise the Corbomite or piggy back off the thousands who move there looking for work.

The most important city, however, and also the second largest, is Juran-Nur, The Imperial City. Towering above the ancient heart of the city are the brilliant white spires of Veehra's Imperial Embassy. The Embassy complex itself is almost a city in of itself and it soars high to reach the sky, an undeniable symbol of Imperial might. Its gardens, those on the ground and elevated high on roofs and platforms, are full of exotic species from across Tekhum.

People

Anso-Chor has a population of approximately of one hundred and eighty million people (or whatever number keeps it below Agbada). The majority of the population, about two thirds, are Ansos, an ethnically mixed grouping of settled humans who trace their history to shortly after the War of Eternal Bombardments. They can trace their lineages all across Veehra as the Imperial Embassy attracted thousands of refugees to its shadow in the chaotic years after the Bombardment, however they are predominantly of roughly the same stock as their fellow northern greenlanders. Most of the remainder, or approximately forty million people, are Vekanen, lizard people with green scales, twelve million are Elves, one million are Ishtahn frontiersmen and and the remaining seven million consist of more recent migrants from across Veehra in the past few centuries who mostly retain their own cultures.

The Ansos, as stated, are regular Veehran humans, mostly of northern greenlander ethnicity with a fair admixture of blood from elsewhere across the planet. Culturally they value art and craftsmanship, loyalty, service and tend to be enthusiastic supporters of The Empire even if mostly they aren't strict followers of the Imperial Traditions. Historically they were primarily engaged in farming, but with the rise of industry most have moved to growing urban centres to benefit from the ready availability of work.

The Vekanen are viviparous lizard people who are green in colour. They stand on average at around six foot six inches and are powerfully built. They have a row of spikes that start from their head and go all the way down their back and along their tail. Despite being reptilian, they are well adapted to the cold temperatures of Veehra and need no protection from the elements and wear clothes only for reasons of modesty, culture and self expression. There is little in the way of obvious sexual dimorphism among them save for slight variations in skull shape and proportions that one would either have to be very observant to notice or have spent enough time around them to become used to. Many of them still live tribal lives as their ancestors did within the Jade Wood, but most live in coastal cities and towns from where they fish and ply the trade lanes of the Great Sea as part of an ancient maritime tradition. The Vekanen reject any notion of Imperial Divinity and are as one firm Chorbists whom they believe sheltered them in the Jade Wood during the Bombardments.

The Elven population, or the Sindra, live more or less entirely within the wooded hills of the south, keeping themselves mostly apart from the outside world. Through their magic they were spared the calamity that befell their kin in Nadiratna and when in their native land will never die of sickness and none can recall the last time someone died of old age. Elsewhere they find themselves subject to the ravages of time and as a result they rarely leave for more than a few months at a time and view it as their highest taboo to bring sickness or death with them on their return. They value art and beauty as their highest ordeals and are liberal in their use of magic in pursuit of this goal. Despite their isolation they worship Chorb, something they claim to have always done.

The Ishtahn population of Anso-Chor are merely an offshoot from Ishtahnos who used to range across the frontier lands, ended up settling there as farmers and herders and eventually converted to Chorbism.

Magic

The arts of magic are much more prevalent in Anso-Chor than they are in Ishtahnos. Though nowhere near sufficient to rival the sorcerers of Kildora, the Ansos do possess a number of sorcerous adepts who have delved into many aspects of ritual magic using what they've managed to glean from Kildoran texts. The Sindra possess great magical powers, but these fade quickly beyond the borders of the enchanted forest they call home.

However the principle form of magic is that performed by Chorbist priests/shaman. Through an as yet unknown process that may or may not prove the existence of Chorb and the primacy of their faith, these individuals are able to effect rapidly accelerated recovery from injuries and illnesses in others through various sacred ceremonies. Despite initial assumptions that they are related to the ritual practices of Kildoran style sorcery a closer analysis indicates that there is no relation.

Government

Anso-Chor is divided into a number of smaller polities that previously vied for political and economic influence. Traditionally disputes would be resolved through combat between champions with outright war beyond skirmishes being extremely rare. There are eight polities of significance listed in rough order of population alongside several minor states not listed.

The Jade Confederation is, as expected, a confederation of small chieftaincies and coastal cities situated in the Jade Wood. The populations is primarily Vekanen and they are very traditionalist and fierce adherents to Chorbism. The capital is the port city of Nak, known for the Tower of Pearls, and they are ruled by a confederal council.
The Kingdom of Olan-Sul dominates the west of Anso-Chor. It is furthest removed from the affairs of the Imperial Embassy and has a tendency towards belligerence. The inhabitants are mostly Ansos who have adopted some Ishtahn customs, such as the riding of Nightmares. They are ruled by the House of Sul from the city of Malevenos.
The Kingdom of Tanevi is a relatively small kingdom centred on the City of Forges and its outlying metropolises. It is very densely populated and very heavily industrialised to a level that even the other industrial states of Anso-Chor are growing concerned. They are ruled by the House of Tanev.
The League of Hurun is made up of small city states and feudal demesnes stretching across the north of Anso-Chor. Each state is quite weak individually and so despite their fierce independence they have banded together for mutual defence for fear of being absorbed by stronger polities. The chief, but not largest, city of the League is Hurun, selected mostly due to its centralised location and comparative unimportance.
Sa-Sindra is the name given to the Elven state hidden away in the wooded southern hills. It is a mystical place that abounds in natural beauty where time seems to stand still. Outsiders are not forbidden, but they are discouraged. At the heart of Sa-Sindra is the City of Dreams where their unnamed King holds court.
The Pentapolis is the name given to five great cities that joined together in order to flex their already prodigious economic might. They are roughly spread evenly throughout Anso-Chor and consists of the cities of Janek-Nur, Luriem, Viccandra-Nur, Ban-Sadru and Vaylenore. They head themselves with a five member council elected by the nobility of each member city.
Juran-Nur, or The Imperial City, is perhaps the strangest polity. They control no territory beyond their city limits and it has remained virtually unchanged for centuries despite the growing industrialisation and booming populations elsewhere. The local nobility are made up of those whose families have worked as low level support staff in the Imperial Embassy for generations. They wear their red-purple uniforms with pride and put their work within its walls above all other worldly concerns. The custom of painting one's house purple to show one's affiliation with this class spread throughout the old city as the artisans who provided luxurious goods to the Imperial Bureaucrats at the Embassy claimed the status for themselves.
Kavendrinore is the smallest state both in population and territory, even compared to the Imperial City. It is a city built on an island in the sea near the southern border with Nadiratna. It was once a pirate stronghold but they have since done their best to present themselves in a more positive light as a hub of trade despite all the evidence of their past and their still non-existent approach to prosecuting people over dealing in stolen goods.

Resource

Corbomite (Ores and Alloys, Fuel)
Corbomite is a complex alloy of steel produced at extremely high temperatures under bombardment by exotic thaumionic radiation not found naturally within Tekhum. Though it is far from lightweight, it is extremely strong and almost impossible to bend without unreasonable amounts of force. Corbomite itself is brilliant white, but most people believe it is iridescent as few people have ever seen a non-anodised piece. Indeed for almost all applications Corbomite must be anodised under a mix of argon and krypton gas to produce an inert layer of Corbomite Argides and Kryptides as without this protective layer on the surface Corbomite has a tendency to burst into flames. Violently. It will even react with nitrogen gas to produce volatile nitrides and strip the oxygen from carbon dioxide. Fortunately the anodised layer is harder than even diamond and tougher than the underlying Corbomite and not liable to get disturbed.

Corbomite's primary applications are as support beams in large structures and as plating for armoured vehicles, though it is also used for ornamental purposes and has also been forged into weapons and armour on occasion.

Unfortunately due to the unusual conditions required, there is only one facility on all of Veehra capable of producing this material, a series of ancient pre-bombardment foundries in Anso-Chor built atop even more ancient leylines that route arcane power from across Veehra. These foundries are responsible for all stages of the production from refining of raw materials and Corbomite scrap to casting to anodising. The only change in this process in the past thousand years is that sometimes small pieces of Corbomite are stopped before they reach the anodising chamber and are shaved down with Corbomite and diamond edged tools. The shavings make for brilliant, if dangerous, rainbow fireworks and are great for jumpstarting other furnaces and forges.

Conductors and Circuitry
The cities of Anso-Chor are heavily industrialised, their manufactories constantly churning out products as fast as they can make them, but the demand for electronics outstrips the available raw resources available to produce them locally. Without a supply of suitable materials or imported electronics the industries will eventually grind to a halt.

Faith

Plurality: Chorbism

Chorbism is a non-centralised religion that reveres the deity Chorb. While the exact specifics of religious practices and rituals diverge greatly between the urban and tribal cultures of Anso-Chor, there are several common features. Chorbist priests/shamans, the word is used interchangeably locally, act as conduits of Chorb, entering trances and engaging in secret rituals to reach a higher state of consciousness they believe allows them to hear the whispers of Chorb and see his faces to receive guidance and insight into the future which they then pass onto the lay folk. They also dispense blessings, healing and perform sacred ceremonies. Beyond this the practices of Chorbist priests/shamans are for them alone and they don't take kindly to outsiders trying to unravel their secrets.

What they aren't secret about is 'what is the deal with Chorb', this they will expound on greatly. Chorb is the spirit of the land and sky, bringer of wind and rain, shepherd of wild beasts and grower of all things green under the Sun. He is also a five faced, five armed, ten winged cherubic abomination that looks and moves always in five directions, sings constantly in five angelic voices and knows five secrets about everyone who has ever lived. In one hand he bears a shepherd's crook wrapped with vines; another an ever-flowing golden jug of water, plain and unornamented; the third is raised perpetually in blessing; the fourth holds a trident stained with blood and ichor; and the fifth and final hand holds life itself. He has the face of a falcon, a serpent, a jackal, a bear and a creature known only as a "kindness" with no additional explanation given.

The teachings of Chorb as followed by his people are quite simple, "do no harm to others and to the land" is the best way to sum them up. This latter point has caused some consternation due to the spread of polluting heavy industry through most of the urban centres of Anso-Chor, especially among non-urban populations who benefit less from the generated wealth and suffer more from the spread of pollution.

Minority: Imperial Traditions

The Imperial Traditions are less a strict religion and more a series of cultural norms and codes of protocol and etiquette that grew around the Imperial Embassy. Followers do revere the Emperor, though less as a god and more as the supreme arbiter of truth and justice in Tekhum.

Love the detail! Approved.

On 5/4/2024 at 3:15 AM, FriendlyHeadcrab said:

Outerock (Ready for Review)
Region: Mekhala 99

People

The people of Outerock are humanoid, but with a very strange differentiating feature. A large grey blob rests upon their head, like an oversized hat. These are headcrabs, and every person on Outerock is mounted by one. The combined person of headcrab and host are called the Outerockians.

Long ago, before the time of the bombardment and following isolation, headcrabs were unleashed upon Outerock. The people of the time fought and resisted, but ultimately were overwhelmed by tide of parasitic space crabs. As time passed, the isolation led to adaptation. The two organisms, headcrab and human, evolved specifically for the other, eventually creating new species of headcrab and human.

The human part of Outerockians have smaller brains than the normal species, while the head itself is slightly larger. They are born nearly braindead, and cannot function without a headcrab for direction and thinking. The skull itself has adapted with specific grooves for the headcrab to directly attach to the top of the scalp.

The headcrabs themselves have become more civilized. Their method of attachment relies far less on the gnawing of teeth, and a softer meld. They have lost the ability to attach to non-Outerrock humanoids, as their biology evolved in tandem with the Outerock population. However, this loss of predation features is not a loss. Instead, the headcrabs themselves have gained intelligence. They have created a functional society that looks not unlike that of Humaniod populations all across Takhum. Just as it was with single-celled organisms long ago, parasite and prey evolve together, slowly merging into a single new organism.

While headcrabs are not birthed directly on the Outerock humans just yet, but that point seems near. Headcrab and humanoid birth occurs simultaneously, the mounted headcrab gives birth just as the child is born. The babe headcrab usually attaches to its new host within minutes of birth.

Every headcrab is female, creating its offspring using by pulling genetic data from their host. The headcrabs perform the mating rituals of humans, using their human bodies. With the new crab being birthed as an afterthought.

Outerockians now refer to themselves as a single entity. And consider this cycle of life to be natural and wholesome. The human body is their own, and is created to be inhabited by the head. The fact that the head is created from the headcrab means little. They expect to be respected and treated just as any other sapient spacefaring species.

Geography

The Region of 99 is primarily empty, save for a singular large asteroid. This asteroid has been carved to the point of near complete hollowness. The inside a giant cavity in which the peoples of Outerock live.

The inside of Outerock is a web of walkways, interior circular buildings, and décor. The cramped space creating a heavy density of constructed homes and buildings that are held in place by a series of long bridges.

Religion - The Sisters

The Outerockians worship the Six Sisters of Pleione. The theology dogma states that long ago, of all the headcrabs deployed on Outerock, six found success and bore childcrabs. These crabs form the heritage of all modern crabs.

The sister of one's is difficult to track, but is important culturally. The crabs declare their believed ancestor, and follow the virtues of civilization defined in their image. The six sisters represent and control domains of existence, from kindness to life support.

There is also a minority that believes in the Seventh Sister. This cult believes that one other headcrab survived to produce children. These children believe that they are meant for more than to be confined to the simple domain of the existing humaniods on Outerock. The Domain of the Forbidden Seventh Sister is expansion, to devour and control the brain of non-Outerock humanoids. Of violence and growth. This cult seeks to leave Outerock and expands to all asteriods of Mekhala and beyond, and to replicate the success of Outerock headcrabs in all sections of the system.

Resources

An interesting biological feature of the headcrabs is the creation of biological silk. Historically, a headcrab could ambush from above, swinging on silk to improve accuracy and range. Nowdays, the weaving of headcrab silk is tied deeply into the religious rituals of the Outerockians, leading to the creation of beautiful Embroidered Fabrics. Along with being Fabrics and Textile Products, these handcrafted garments are also Luxury Goods. Simply amazing both in comfort and in fashion.

The Outerockians desire soldiers, primarily as they fear discrimination from the humanoid races throughout Tekhum, who they expect may be less than understanding of their unique and valuable bond with the headcrabs. For this reason, soldiers for defense are greatly required.

Terrifying. :p Approved.

On 5/5/2024 at 9:00 AM, DKArthas said:

Atmor (Ready for Review)
Region: 26 (Sansar)

Geography

Geography

The orchards and vineyards, carefully nurtured in the fertile plains of Eskor steadily give way to massive, wild rainforests toward the north. Situated near the equator, and nourished by nearly constant year long rains, the region is home to a humid and rich biome, filled to the brim with a wide variety of fauna and flora. Indeed, the biodiversity of plants alone is so vast that it's theorised by some that several of the species are the result of ancient techno-arcane experimentation from before the eternal bombardment.

The most famous of these are the enormous trees of green, brown and red, piercing the very heavens, their vast roots covering the surface in all directions for miles on end, giving the region a distinct character. Often the Towering Trees are surrounded by smaller grooves sheltering under their aegis, surviving on what little light makes it through the dense canopy and more importantly, deep roots leeching arcane energy flowing through plentiful leylines below the earth. Fed on such a diet, it is no surprise many of them end up acquiring exotic and useful properties that make them highly sought after across the continent and beyond.

The highly intertwined network of stem, branches and roots also serves as a natural reservoir and font of arcane for all who would call the region their home, the local ecosystem becoming reliant as much on the unpredictable ebb and flow of raw magic through the underground leylines as on the wider sansarite climactic pattern. This phenomenon has resulted in overlapping secondary ‘seasons’ roughly equivalent to winter and summer, the former taking place during harrowing periods when the strange principles and laws governing leylines lead to sometimes months or even more of arcane droughts. Most urbanised towns and cities in the interior of the forest, far from the coasts, are usually found under the base or in the branches of the towering trees, oasis that are able to escape the worst of the consequences of such events.

People

People

Inhabited by a people thought to have at least partial elvish descent, arcane rich diet and prolonged exposure to the local environment has wrought biological adaptations and physiological changes in their body, turning them into a much more unique species. Over the millennia, they have increasingly come to resemble the environment among which they live; brown bark-like skin, nails capable of puncturing flesh with worrying ease and an affinity toward manipulating nature being among some of the less radical mutations found in the population. Such mutations are generally found in greater quantities among the elderly. The people who live here are known for their mercurial moods, being in turn generous and cruel, based on a highly confusing religious code of conduct.

The local industries and livelihood as could be expected largely depends on the harvesting of lumber, almost ubiquitous in its usage. From beautifully carved and decorated furniture that can withstand decay for centuries to great flying machines running on steam or mystical energies and even modern weapons of war analogous to guns and artillery are painstakingly carved and forged from locally gathered and procured lumber. Once solely the domain of skilled craftsmens and mage-smiths, recent decades have seen the introduction of mass production techniques that have left the highly prestigious profession in a somewhat precarious position.

Further afield on the edges of urban civilization, life remains much simpler, often ground is ruthlessly cleared of vegetation and put to the flames, transformed into new seasonal farmland through back breaking toil, before being abandoned again for a few years, allowing for slow recovery. Others eschewing such sedentary rural lifestyle still stubbornly and proudly eke out a living as nomadic tribes in the untamed wilds as their ancestors have done for long centuries before them, hunting great beasts grown mighty feasting on local vegetation, their furs, skin and meat still a highly sought after commodity.

Government

Government

Before the arrival of the Radiant Republic, the region was divided between a few highly centralised Queendoms and a lone tribal confederacy. The only sense of unity coming from a shared religious and quasi-cultural basis. The Queendoms tended to be fairly traditionalist, the dual rulers deriving their authority and legitimacy by claiming descent from the Twin Goddesses, and performing ritual sacrifices and offering to them, in the presence of an influential priestly caste, who also served as bureaucrats in the autocratic administration. Below this hierarchy, the various urban professions were organised in guilds based on a royal charter, and bestowed certain judicial authority over their own members, in return they were obliged to provide mandatory service to the reigning monarch, in both peace and war.

The Twinspear Confederacy on the other hand was a decentralised alliance of several tribes, banding together to slow the seemingly unstoppable encroachment of the Queendoms across the great forest. A pan-tribal council of elders collectively made decisions for the confederacy, though the influence of warrior assemblies saw steady growth in the course of the conflict.

Resources

Resources

Export: Lumber [Construction Material/Magical items]

The vast forests that cover the entire region are a treasure trove of extremely valuable lumber, supremely suited to holding enchantments as well as being naturally sturdy and resilient to decay because of constant life long saturation in arcane flow and radiation. The combination of natural affinity toward magic among local inhabitants and a significant base of craftsmen has allowed the establishment of a lucrative wood based manufacturing economy, with many of the finished products like magical charms, artefacts, ships and other goods finding their way across the many markets of sansar, becoming a important source of revenue for the Queendoms, a large reason for their ability to launch the more recent industrialization drives and maintain a standing army, in response to the growing threat of avaricious elects.

Import: Fuel and Power.

The arcane energy flowing through the roots and stems of local trees, drawn from underground leylines, proved itself incapable of keeping up with the exacting demands of an increasingly mechanised economy and a growing urban population. Manual harvesting of lumber for one had come to be replaced by new wood-wrought machines with razor sharp enchanted, automated blades, far more capable of helping keep up with the growing demands for lumber but also hideously power-hungry in turn, a fact that required new consistent sources of fuel and energy.

Religion

Religion

Exalted Dualism (Majority): Nearly hegemonic in influence in the great cities and tributaries of the Queendoms. This cult reveres the Twin Goddesses, once mortals who it is said rose to embody and claim the thrones of Winter and Summer. Orthodox and Heterodox sects prescribe wildly different ways to follow in their footsteps - Some argue sacrifices and offerings to them are enough, now that the paths have been laid bare, others consider this foolishness and believe that only by embodying either of them in actions and deeds can one strive to reach their Courts. Stranger still, royally sponsored priests claim that only by dutifully and humbly serving their mortal descendants can worthiness before the divine can be proved. Whatever the truth, the temples represent a powerful force in local politics, being the main keepers of the holy texts and records of the Goddesses’ mortal lives, the presence of their representatives required for almost every ritual and sacrament. In return for these services, they were often rewarded with generous donations and land grants in outlying areas.

Awaiters (Minority): Originally a myriad set of beliefs and traditions based on reverence for nature and the Towering Trees, its only remaining adherents are largely found among the tribes of the confederacy, pushed to the outskirts. Many await and pray for the coming of a prophesied saviour who would lead the tribes to victory over the Queendoms and restore the original way of life before the coming of the Goddesses - when nature was respected, not ruthlessly cut down and exploited for resources in ever greater quantities.

The only thing here is that, if another Lumber resource turns up, it would also have to be Magical Items. I like the fluff, so if you want to rename the resource to something a bit more specific to reference the second category, I think it would be a good idea. Otherwise approved.

On 5/5/2024 at 10:50 AM, BladeofOblivion said:

So it turns out this has been sitting in a word document unposted for a week because I forgot to post it.

Lyla ("Elder Daughter", Region 106), Veehra

Body

Geography

There are two dots in the sky of Veehra, known to the clans as the Elder and Younger Daughters. The Soom never thought they'd have the chance to claim one for their own. What was found in the surveys, though, surprised them - they had expected a simple mass of rock hurtling through space, but what they found was a city sequestered in the stars, the rubble pile long since mined out and reinforced into a livable orbital habitat. The city is not named; it is one and the same as the moon, but for a few false parks the locals pretend are wild spaces. At the center of that city lies an oldtech drive, maintained but ill-understood beyond that it helps maintain Lyla's stable orbit - supposedly, without such maintenance it would drift dangerously closer to Veehra over the course of centuries.

People

The people of Lyla are human in origin, though have since engaged in radical genetic engineering and have become highly heterogeneous - many have animalistic features reminiscent of Agbadans or the techniques of the Kildorans. An insular culture with limited outside contact has come to glamorize its own institutions, resulting in a labyrinthine bureaucracy, "transparent" in that every aspect of it is reported on in some way, yet an ocean of reportage becomes impossible to sift through. The government is socialist by necessity; its manpower needs for both its extensive social and maintenance operations (and rigorously reporting on itself) causes it to consume much of its own private sector, with only the iconic Cornelian Mercenary Company serving as a large enough private institution that it cannot simply be nationalized. The mercenary company is instead the gorilla on the scales when it comes to Lylan City Policy; the monolith that it is warps politics in this little pond, and more frequently than not the Mayor is a former or even current Mercenary Captain.

Faith

Majority: Quantum Predestination

Though there is a considerable buildup of ritual surrounding it, the core belief of quantum predestination surrounds the teachings of a figure from ancient history, the Deep One, whose ideas regarding the body and mind a unit of primarily quantum data rather than physical matter. Followers of the Deep One were maligned, and oppressed by scientists from this ancient land, and long ago they claim to have been banished to this forsaken moon - as was always the plan. The spin is long but it returns in time. It is inevitable, and quantum data is immutable in a way the body is not.

Minority: Nominative Determinism

Followers of Nominative Determinism believe that ritual consecration of a given name at birth can "lock in" an individual's quantum fate, though the individual must affirm their name on a regular basis to avoid drift. Mainstream Quantum Predestines scoff at this, though do not persecute it.

Resources

Resource: Cornelian Mercenaries (Soldiers/Spacecraft). The Cornelian Mercenary Company (so named for the sharp, geometric "horned" appearance of their fighters) is an institution that attracts and trains hotshot pilots in droves - and in-house factories build and customize fighters for them too. Though they have a reputation for rowdiness out of the cockpit, their flying skills are not to be underestimated and the sight of their distinct profiles in the sky fills the knowing with dread - or hope.

Required: Precious Minerals. The Cornelian Company trusts Kroesids, but less so any other fiat currency - where possible, they prefer their pay in mineral value that can be liquidated as needed.

Love all of this. Approved.

On 5/5/2024 at 11:05 AM, Tychris1 said:

Region for Approval

Hanwa (region 64)

Geography

Hanwa is a north pole desert region on Veehra. As such, it is plagued by the usual dust storms, but these are cold and arid and cutting. Occasionally the Hanwans find refreshment when a rare moist wind blows in from the green lands across the pole, and the storms grow cold and wet and icy instead.

The central feature of Hanwa is the Great Glacier, known locally by its native name Galas Hawale. It covers a full third of the region and dominates the horizon for the remainder of it. The ice sheets have grown so thick and compact that some scientists have theorized it might have enough water to flood most of Veehra. That is… if it truly is all water. Galas Hawale is full of tunnels through its ice. Some of these have been dug by its native people, some of them by other species, like the burrowing witlanag, the white snakes of Hanwa. These tunnels ensure shorter travel times than those who travel across its harsh and jagged surface, but those who enter without a trained navigator often end up lost. Few signals of communications technology reach that far down into the ice, so the Hanwans who reside within Galas Hawale dig tunnels and construct communications towers that pierce through the ice above them.

From this Great Glacier flow a few small rivers that are frozen nearly year-round. They unfreeze for one month during summer, feeding into the few oases that Hanwa boasts. These oases are vital to any travelers who go between the neighboring regions to come to the Great Glacier of Hanwa.

Finally, there’s the Pit of Endless Tar. It is largely surrounded by myths and legends, folktales about how it gained its name, often seeming little more than tall tales or jokes made at the expense of foreign visitors. Such visitors should make no mistake however, for the pit truly is deep and beyond the reach of sunlight it truly is full of tar. Usually when someone in Hanwa goes missing, their corpse can be found covered in a sheet of white icy dust a few days later. Those who are never found must either have been eaten by a very hungry witlanag or fallen into the Pit.

People

The local Hanwans are hunched humanoids, standing about as tall as most humans, but taller in theory if they could stand upright. They have wide bodies that appear to have a vaguely lizard-like bone and facial structure, but they are covered with a thin layer of fur on most of their bodies, except their faces, chests and the palms of their hands and the soles of their clawed feet.

When outside of the tunnels of Galas Hawale, they usually go dressed in thick padded protective suits, with only their faces and claws poking through. Their faces usually are then covered up by a mask to protect them from the dust storms.

Hanwans have thick, leathery skin in grey, brown and green tones, with fur in white, brown, black and orange. Their eyes have goat-like pupils, black sclera, and irises in bright shades of yellow, green or blue.

Culturally, Hanwans form family units with one person who guards and takes care of the hearth, home and children, with the others focusing on hunting, fishing, digging and painting. These roles aren’t limited by sex or perceived gender. Typically when asked about their gender, Hanwans have taken this to mean “what is your role in your family?”

Hanwans can be very physically affectionate with their friends. They like to sleep together with those they are close to, for skinship and body heat, though some Hanwans have found that many humans seem to take this as romantic or sexual in nature. Unlike their land, Hanwans are a warm people.

Religion

The native religion of Hanwa is Felinism. Hanwans keep and practically worship domestic cats (“barely domestic wild beasts more like” in the words of researcher Seteb Ilibin), as to them they are representative of many virtues they hold dear. They are great hunters, they are affectionate when they want to be, and they are soft and fluffy.

While at one point in the distant past this may have begun as simple appreciation of felines, this has since then grown into full-blown cult-like behavior, with a lot of Hanwan paintings and ice sculptures featuring cats, many pieces of furniture, mugs and other utensils shaped to resemble cats, and more.

Resources

Hanwa’s native resource is Davisonian Paints (Luxury Goods). These are pigments that are found within Galas Hawale and appear to result from the native white snakes burrowing through the tunnels, causing a reaction between the packed ice and their bodily fluids that they expel. While the paints are inedible, they have a unique smell some find pleasant, especially felines, on which it has a catnip-like effect. For this reason, felines are often used to find spots to harvest the paints.

Unfortunately due to the large absence of trees and any rock and clay being thoroughly frozen, Hanwa is sorely lacking in Construction Materials.

No notes, approved.

On 5/5/2024 at 11:52 AM, Stygian said:

Kaitiaki Nui, “the Great Protector” (Region 105)

Geography

Kaitiaki Nui is a bit unique in the fact that it is only one section of an unfinished orbital ring that rests in high orbit around Badal itself. Despite the impressive amount of work that must have gone into construction of the colossal arc, signs of abandonment are present along the outer rim--with some districts remaining disastrously open to the vacuum of space.

Blessedly, no souls try to eke a living in these blackened spots. Perhaps the state of disrepair is owed to the War itself--or perhaps some other calamity that the inhabitants are unwilling to speak of. Perhaps they simply ran out of resources, manpower, and will to see it through. A half-constructed docking platform reaches out to its sister station, as if the two were meant to join into a larger body at some point in the future. Smaller solar panels along the hull are used as a form of renewable backup energy for the station and its maneuvering thrusters.

Inside, the station is clearly meant for function over form. The inner walls of the original construction are lined with murals depicting the history of Badal--its fall from a paradise, the exodus of lesser lifeforms, and the wrath of the sun god. What sections of the station aren't devoted to living quarters, cryostasis chambers, or cargo storage are instead used for the repair and manufacture of Badalian ships--including Derzin Rockets and some of the older kanmarran ships that have been put in for extensive retrofits.

Currently, kanmarran officials have parked a handful of older civilian ships in orbit to expand the station's working capacity--though in practice, these ships are used mostly for entertainment and as a base for diplomatic outreach while engineers figure out the best and most power-efficient way to begin finishing those exposed hab-blocks.

People

The majority of Kaitiaki Nui's population can trace their lineage back to the original population that inhabited the station prior to the War of Eternal Bombardment. An impressive feat facilitated by unbroken lines, a secure facility unwelcome to solicitors, and the occasional indoctrination of aerostat dwellers from the world below to prevent pollution of genetic lines. Though the population is largely human, there is a minority of other humanoids from across Badal, and strangely enough, a significant percentage of native Glix among the workers present. The hivemind for these Badalian Glix is not connected to their Mekhalan kin, though they do not elaborate much as to the root cause of this--they seem largely unwilling or unable to discuss their kin at length.

Kanmarran engineers, military personnel, and scientists inhabit only a slice of the station proper--while smaller, space-worthy ships remain in close proximity while engineers investigate the best way to expand out the architecture without compromising its integrity.

A standing offer has been given to the Black Cloud Coalition to allow a small exchange of workers--to better survey both stations and delve into the secrets and technology of an age long gone.

Government

Kaitiaki Nui is largely ruled by a panel of three overseers that deliberate on day to day matters. Data regarding performance, repairs, financial reports, and security needs, is filtered in from various department heads across the orbital platform, and any pertinent decisions that affect the whole are passed down via internal memos. As part of the confederation with the Eucrus Alliance, Kaitiaki Nui has been granted a seat on the military council--as opposed to the civilian council. The reasons for this aren't immediately clear, and the request was rather unconventional, given that the usual protocol is to the opposite effect. One might hazard a guess that the terms were involved in whatever defense contract was brokered as part of the annexation.

History

The history of Kaitiaki Nui as the Alliance understands it is one that is massive and still unfolding. The station long predates most—if not all of the modern polities beneath its watchful gaze, after all.

What is known ties largely into the propaganda of the Thrinakrians. At some point in the long eons before the Sea of Clouds, Badal was allegedly something of a paradise. These cultists-turned-engineers wished to explore beyond the skies of Badal, and began construction on a multi-part orbital ring—meant to act as a waystation between Badal and the rest of Tekhum. Over time, they learned of ways to harness the sun god’s bounty—using it to power their mining operations, drones, and even the nascent cargo ships that had come into development.

With the War of Eternal Bombardments, it is said that the Thrinakrians grew greedy and restless—and this nigh-apocalyptic event brought the wrath of their god, transforming Badal into the relative hellscape of today. Troves of technology and ancient history were lost—and as the first aerostats rose to the skies, the cultists took it upon themselves to ensure the survival of the last Badalians.

For the last two thousand years, they have remained in a sort of twilight exile—never stepping foot personally on one of the aerostats, never venturing outside of their cargo vessels to bring more supplies for their self-imposed wards.

The true shock came with the rise of the Elect—whose nascent Imperial drives put them once more on par with their counterparts from antiquity, if not beyond. Their purpose uncertain, they have acquiesced to another form of protection—allowing Alliance officials and their allies to utilize their shipyards for building new fleets.

Faith

Thrinakrians - Majority
The Thrinakrians are nearly as old as the station itself. Originally heralded as doomsayers, the inhabitants of this station are descendants of the original Badalians who witnessed the War of Eternal Bombardments—and the following exodus of many who deemed Badal as an appropriate refuge from the storm.

Competing doctrines within the faith both describe Badal as a paradise despoiled by desperate scavengers and a last haven for those who had no other path. What is certain is that adherents of the faith place Badal’s hellish landscape as a result of the hubris of sentients everywhere—and punishment for offending some sort of primitive sun god that theologians outside the faith conflate with dozens of different figures—whether Avva, the Emperor himself, or any number of minor gods.

In the modern day, Thrinakrians act as wardens in both senses of the word—protectors and nurturers of those who live in the world below, and perhaps also as guards—making certain that those they safeguard do not run amok.

The latter sentiment has become harder with the uprising of Elect, leaving the faith scrambling to adapt with space travel now being a common affair.

It is said one day Badal may be redeemed and restored—though they are unwilling to elaborate on what would achieve such a redemption when pressed.

Resource

Derzin Rockets - Spacecraft / Industrial Machinery
Tucked away on a segregated section of Kaitiaki Nui, a cluster of ancient spacecraft remain docked--their bulky frames arrayed with scars from countless interplanetary voyages. These ancient spacecraft predate the War of Eternal Bombardments, used long before the Elect were uplifted by the High Lords and Ladies of Ophon--and long before the system itself was set ablaze by conflict.

These early designs were not without issues--fuel intensive, with high power demands and a limited amount of space for manned operation. In fact, due to the length of voyages even to neighboring Sansar, pilots would be put into a state of cryostasis to reduce the need for non-essential cargo. Simplistic algorithms and advanced sensor suites handled the majority of course corrections and accounting for environmental hazards without the need for a living organism at the helm--which often meant that disoriented "pilots" woke with no recollection of what had occurred from launch to landing. Upon arriving home, automated drones would parse out supplies to individual aerostats—ensuring these last bastions of Badalian civilization could yet survive.

Once Badal's lifeline for crucial imports, these shuttles have served less of a purpose in recent years due to cost concerns and the recent redirection of fuel from Kaitiaki Nui’s sister station. With the advantage of Imperial drives and the Alliance's resources, these vessels may yet be retrofitted for use in the modern age--trivializing certain aspects of commerce for the Alliance's ever-expanding borders.

Needed Resource: Fuel and Power

Any functioning spaceport needs fuel to be of use! For Kaitiaki Nui, this is a rather recent development due to the Black Cloud Coalition’s recent repurposing of solar arrays that their rockets once relied on to function. Without a steady fuel supply, “dry dock” becomes a far more literal term. Beyond simple supply needs, the Alliance is hoping for a more efficient source of fuel to renovate the existing supply of Pre-War cargo ships.

No notes, approved.

On 5/5/2024 at 1:09 PM, Tychris1 said:

Region for approval

Umgilas (region 70)

Geography

Umgilas is a surprisingly verdant region, with rainforest near the large sea of Gelthise, home to treehut towns and fisheries.

Further away from the sea are the plains of Yleehra. The grasslands stretch far and go from green to yellow savannah and eventually to the rocky and sandy deserts of Veehra. Some farms eke out a living here, largely tended to by Corvée Laborers.

Finally, there are the Khildyeran mines, upon which the few large cities of the regions are built. Gaping maws into the open air where dust swirls around but never leaves and never entirely settles.

People

The local tribes of this region largely consist of the Gelthurnac, Yldanac and Umgilac tribes, with various smaller ones between them. They’ve formed a confederation or compact of sorts, with the Umgilac at the top of the proverbial food chain… and rumored to occasionally be a literal one.

The tribes are a reptilian people with wide mouths and few, sharp teeth. They have multiple pairs of slit-like eyes, stand a head taller than a human on two relatively short legs, and otherwise come in a variety of sizes. The workers tend to be more sinewy, while the freemen of the region are more thick and heavyset, with the lords of the region being in-between as they are free to devote themselves to physical tasks only for pleasure and aesthetic.

The Gelthurnac live mainly in the rainforest near the sea of Gelthise, the Yldanac mainly in the plains, and the Umgilac in the urban centers near the mines.

The Ungar tz’Umgal is a kind of priest-overlord of the Umgilac, the chief servant of the Demigod-Kings and thereby she must be served by all who are lesser. All who are lesser than the Umgilac, that is. The Ungar tz’Umgal is a sorcerer of great power and has a measure of power that they can bestow unto others, creating a cabal that directly answers to her.

Religion

The only ones above the Ungar tz’Umgal are the Demigod-Kings, who are never seen, for only the Ungar tz’Umgal may see them and return alive. They are tended to in their tomb-like palaces by laborers who enter and never leave, surrounded by guards who are sworn to secrecy and eternal servitude by dark blood oaths. They are worshiped by all the local tribes, whether they want to or not. There are four of them: Geltz’Um, Yltz’Um, Kiltz’Um and Bahn-Khil. The culture and economy of the region is structured to serve their needs and whims, no matter what they may be.

Resources

The resource of region 70 is Corvée Labor (Laborers). The Demigod-Kings press other local tribes into forced labor to fulfill their needs for servants and workers in the farms, mines and fisheries of the region. None of these local industries are currently very large, as the local rulers never bothered with improving the lot of the workers. They saw no need for it, as the slaves met all their needs. For this reason, the primary export of the region has always been the laborers themselves.

The Desired Import of the locals of Umgilas is Industrial Machinery. Perhaps machines will help make their lot in life ever so slightly easier and more comfortable. With enough machines, they might even not have to work at all anymore!

No notes, approved.

On 5/5/2024 at 1:18 PM, volthawk said:

Got one of the two writeups done. Not sure if it's too late to avoid unrest, but at least it's done. Will get the second up ASAP.

Eigh Mothaid (108)

Geography

Eigh Mothaid is in a state of...controlled disrepair is what the locals have come to call it. While automated systems are still operational enough to seal breaches in Firmament (a fact that was last tested during the invasion by Eilif Dhaoine), the state of other systems tend to be much messier - in particular, climate control. Unpredictable weather is common here, and the climate tends towards a humid heat, but when Eilif Dhaoine first came here they called the region Eigh Mothaid - a name that brings icy mountains to mind, not jungle. That's because they first encountered the other side of the coin, their breachers inadvertently entering from below into water and their vehicles suddenly having to deal with cold unlike any they have had to deal with before. The water here, primarily found in the Great Lake but also pooling from broken pipes out of sight in the ceiling or forming rivers throughout the rest of the region, tends to be extremely cold, something else the locals explain as flaws in the climate control systems here. This dichotomy defines life here, and civilisation clings to the waterways and coastlines as much as they can, relying on the frigid waters for relief from the heat, and occasional frigid rains are a fact of life.

History

Eigh Mothaid's history is quite fragmented, in no small part because the locals have only recently begun to think of it as one region after being conquered. Instead, most of the history here is local history, often going a fair amount back but usually getting murky before long, owing to the heavy damage this part of Firmament sustained in the War of Eternal Bombardments, the effects that had within the ring, and A' fuireach incursions. While the exact details of the first few hundred years after the War is debated, the overall picture is clear enough - people endured here, came to the Great Lake and found succour from the chaos of the jungle, and spread from there - avoiding the desert or the A' fuireach-infested stage trees, but still filling a large segment of Firmament, broadly staying independent and separated but with common culture and understanding of their way of life.

When Eilif Dhaoine came, backed by the White Pawns, those many, varied powers pulled together and formed a militia to repel the invaders, led by Cabbage Monger Xiu - the owner of many of the largest Spacer's Cabbage plantations around the Great Lake, and a figure of no small influence among many of the countries within Eigh Mothaid. After the militia was annihilated by the overwhelming numbers used by Eilif Dhaoine, Xiu took stock of the situation and realised that no small amount of the local officials were already speaking the praises of the Dhaoine, the invaders' diplomats having gotten to work before the dust had settled from the war. Negotiations with Eilif Dhaoine followed, the invading country taking a softer stance than it has before, and soon an agreement was struck which ensured that those officials the Dhaoine had not gotten to in advance went along with becoming part of the growing territory of Eilif Dhaoine, and in recent years an increasing amount of Dhaoine spaceships have started docking with Firmament and using this third of the ring as their main port.

People/Government

Eigh Mothaid's web of countries, independent settlements and city-states are overwhelmingly human, and there's a fair amount of distrust towards non-humans among the general population of the region - something many put down to the existence of the A' fuireach in the parts of Eigh Mothaid furthest from the Great Lake. They tend to live close to the water, and usually travel in versatile vessels that can traverse the water as a fuel-saving measure (often with much of the vessel under the water) or take flight as air- or spacecraft - either way, they need to be sealed climate-controlled vessels that can withstand great cold and varying temperatures. One of the striking things outsiders tend to point out about settlements here are the large amount of pipes, transporting the vital frigid waters wherever they're needed and passively cooling buildings as a nice side benefit.

These days, governance of the region exists in an odd state, but not a unique one - after all, Eilif Dhaoine simply repeated the methods they used in the Emerald Expanse but better this time. Rather than a single figurehead and his toadies being the main go-between between ruler and ruled, there is instead a council of representatives, reflecting the many powers in the region, who relay messages from the Dhaoine to their respective states, and serve as a way of voicing complaints or passing on information in turn. A few of these representatives, elected amongst themselves, live in the Reserve and work in the halls of government of Eilif Dhaoine itself, a move the Dhaoine made to convince some of the more reticent states that this system wouldn't lead to them being entirely ignored by their new rulers.

One notable aspect to the culture here is an appreciation of the virtue of patience. The locals like to say it comes from the water - in its natural state, it's often too cold to directly drink or bathe in without risk, so you have to take it out into a container and wait a little for the heat of the jungle to warm it up until it's nice and cool but not unpleasantly so. While these days advances in technology and storage/dispensation techniques mean that the wait itself is much shorter than it used to be, the idea has persisted culturally.

Faith

Aecusians (Majority)
While much of the early history of Eigh Mothaid is uncertain and disputed, one figure is common across most stories - Aecus, founder of the first city on the banks of the Great Lake. Several modern-day cities claim to be Aecus' citiy, while the stories told by those further away from the lake tend to describe it as a long-gone city, but either way Aecus is seen as the father of the common laws and principles held by those that live here. Over time, Aecus' position in the mythology here has grown in stature, and he is deified by the modern-day Aecusians, a reward by the creator of the universe for his mortal works. His priesthood tend to travel, serving as roaming judges, adjudicators and in some cases vigilantes when they feel local laws have drifted from Aecus' mandates, while those sedentary followers of Aecus tend to take up positions in government and law enforcement.

Resource/DI

Spacer's Cabbage (Fruits and Vegetables/Spices)
The name "Spacer's Cabbage" is said to have come from the old days before the War of Eternal Bombardments - the story goes that Firmament was used as a resupply point for ancient ships travelling across Tekhum, a place for travellers to get a taste of Sansar without needing to land on the planet or take the space elevator down. Spacer's cabbage was one of the main food supplies sold to those travellers, a tailored plant which provides all the best of Sansar's produce in one. In the years since the War, they took root as a wild plant in Eigh Mothaid's forests, prewar modifications proving their worth in ensuring the plant endured the chaotic climate of the region, and the survivors quickly started relying on it for survival, and it wasn't long before farms were built all around the Great Lake.

The plant itself is not quite what someone born on Sansar thinks of when they hear "cabbage" - while the plant does have the same kind of leafy head, it is found at the top of a long stem, somewhat like a pineapple plant's fruit but taller, with flowers, broad leaves, and in some months small fruits growing out of the lower parts of the stem, while underground it has thick roots. These other parts are where the idea that Spacer's Cabbage was made to be an all-in-one plant comes from, as the locals have found that nearly every part of it is edible and tasty in its own way, and those that aren't eaten directly - roots, seeds, and a few parts of its flowers - are processed to serve as spices.

Desired Imports: Labourers
Constant maintenance is a fact of life in Eigh Mothaid - most of it isn't particularly technical, but it is time-consuming. With travel to and from Firmament becoming increasingly common, the idea of a new hired workforce taking some of the load and leaving the locals with more free time is becoming more and more popular.

Love this, approved.

On 5/6/2024 at 11:15 AM, volthawk said:

There we go, second writeup is done.

The Solarian Plains (43)

Geography

The Solarian Plains, as their name suggests, are an immense stretch of grasslands that dominate much of northwest Chonkia. Ruined cities, devasted in the War of Eternal Bombardments and never repaired, dot the landscape, connected by cracked and broken roads, while the scattered small settlements that the Solarians have built in the centuries since then show a little more in the way of signs of life. To the south, the grassland transitions into scrubland and trees become denser and more numberous as one approaches the Flowering Lands and its lush forests, while in the north the increasing cold heralds a transition to the tundra of the Wyrmlands. While the Solarian Plains are overall fairly flat, beyond a few river valleys, things get a little hillier to the east - not enough for outright mountains, but enough to indicate that a traveller is slowly getting closer and closer to Chonkia's great mountain ranges and Moonsoul in particular.

History

In the days before the War of Eternal Bombardments, the Solarian Plains were lightly settled, a few cities and villages scattered across the grassland. Those communities were not lived in by the Solarians, as far as anyone can tell - the Solarians themselves claim that they were always there, living as they do now out in the Plains, but outsiders in neighbouring regions have suggested that they migrated to the region in the time immediately following the War, displaced by the destruction as so many others were. In any case, the Solarians were the only major presence in the Plains once the dust had settled - those that lived in the towns and cities were mostly killed by orbital bombardments, and the survivors were either absorbed by the Solarians or fled to elsewhere on Sansar.

The Solarians, guided by their faith, didn't move in to the ruined cities and instead built new camps and settlements across the Plains, organising under lords who laid claim to stretches of the Plains as their sole territory. They fought amongst themselves over these things, as most would, building up individual armies that collectively numbered amongst the largest in Tekhum, and regardless of their personal issues the Solarian lords agreed on one thing - the Plains must never be conquered by an outsider.

Sure enough, unlike everywhere else within the realm of Eilif Dhaoine, the Solarian Plains were never conquered. Not fancying a war against the Solarians, particularly given the amount of their population that would be willing and ready to fight, the Dhaoine instead tried diplomacy here - a tricky task, given the distrust towards outsiders displayed by the average Solarian, but one that eventually bore fruit after over a decade of work. The argument put forward to the Solarians was fairly simple - in this new post-Elect world, it was inevitable that their isolationism would not last, and if the Dhoaine failed to conquer them then any one of the other militaristic Elect countries would, perhaps even one that isn't from Sansar. Being a part of Eilif Dhaoine would provide protection against the attention of those other powers, and compared to many of their peers the Dhaoine didn't ask for much in return - they would expect loyalty when called upon (part of the deal that was eventually struck involved the Solarian communities contributing a portion of their warriors to fight as an auxillary unit in the Dhaoine military), yes, but they also had little reason to try to change the Solarian way of life and were willing to broadly leave the Plains alone. They even offered a way for the Solarians to have a voice in the Eilif Dhaoine government, offering those of sufficient skill and standing a position as Knights of the Dhaoine. It took time for the majority of Solarian settlements to accept the deal, but eventually the persistence of Dhaoine officials paid off.

In the years since the confederation of the Solarian Plains was officially declared, life has sure enough gone on more or less as normal. The main change has been the construction of Dèangrian, a Dhaoine settlement in territory that isn't claimed by an existing Solarian group, and the main place the Solarian lords and the Eilif Dhaoine government make deals with each other and plan for the future.

People/Government

The Solarians are winged humanoids, capable of short bursts of flight (particularly when aided by magic and/or technology), although most of them spend the majority of their time on the ground - their ancestors used some of the more pliable beasts that roam the Plains as riding mounts, and while a few keep that tradition alive the motorcycle has been the preferred means of transport for Solarians for centuries now, put together from vehicles found in urban ruins and accompanied by open-topped cargo transports when moving between settlements.

Solarian government is organised around individual lords (often hereditary arrangements, but some put lordship up to a contest of some kind or even elect their ruler) who claim jurisdiction over large swathes of the Solarian Plains and control a handful of camps and settlements across that territory. The people live a semi-nomadic lifestyle, living in each settlement for some time depending on the needs of the season, the state of the local ecosystem, the movements of rival neighbouring lords, the need to access specialised industries built in that settlement, and so on. Before too long, it's time to pack up and move, travelling in vast convoys across the open plains, before settling down at another settlement or occasionally building some place new.

Faith

Solarian Isolationism (Majority)

The main faith within the Plains is the one that the Solarians named themselves after, and a key force shaping their culture. Sun worship tied up with centuries (if not milennia) of cultural norms and unspoken trauma from the War of Eternal Bombardments has all merged together into a religion that values isolationism, a disdain for urban living, and freedom of movement above much else. As the Solarians tell it the War of Eternal Bombardments, while something carried out by mortal hands, was a punishment from the sun for the way that pre-War civilisation lived, and if one wishes to avoid such punishment/karmic justice falling onto them and theirs, they must live as the Solarians do - always remaining free and mobile under the sun, never shackling oneself to the earth as old civilisation did (the current established settlements and industries the Solarians use is something of a compromise between ideology and practicality, scorned by the more extreme followers of the Solarian faith, but seen by the moderates as an acceptable risk, so long as they don't stay in one specific settlement for too long), and keeping a healthy amount of distrust towards those not of the faith, who don't understand the stakes and risk bringing damnation on themselves. The Dhaoine are suspicious to the more ardent followers of the faith, given the nature of cities in the Reserve, but the majority see association with them as an acceptable risk - after all, if Eilif Dhaoine brings their own reckoning down on themselves, the Solarians remain free enough that they can save themselves easily enough.

Rabid Misanthropy (Minority)

An extreme form of Solarian Isolationism. A few ardent followers of the tenets above, after examining the wider world through the lens of information from InterPlaNet, have come to a conclusion - mortal kind is doomed. The conditions that led to the sun's vengeance and the War of Eternal Bombardments are inevitably going to happen again, if one examines the nature of mortals and realises that none are free from sin, and sooner or later karmic justice will come for them all - even the Solarians will not be able to escape the sun's wrath forever. Naturally, a doomsday cult like this hasn't been too successful in spreading among the general Solarian population, but it has nonetheless attracted enough followers, and at least one lord, that a few Solarian communities overall take this stance, displaying greater than usual dislike towards outsiders (even other Solarians) and a tendency towards building underground, in the vain hope that they can better prepare for the inevitable apocalypse.

Resource/DI

Positronic Brains (Computers/Specialists)
When ideology makes cooperating with your fellow man difficult, one turns to the machine. Solarian settlements have always used artificial assistants to help them with their tasks - their distant ancestors used golems, digging clay pits with which they shaped their servants before giving them life, and the modern-day Solarians have turned these pits into mines where they extract the materials needed to make advanced artificial intelligences. They use these to carry out specialised and nuanced tasks, ensuring that their machines' synthetic brains can understand and learn whatever is needed.

The rabid misanthropes make particularly heavy use of specialised positronic brain-piloted machines for many roles - as well as making up for their low numbers compared to their peers, there's also a belief that the machine is somewhat more innocent and less likely to bring divine judgement than mortals.

Desired Import: Fruits and Vegetables
Much of the Solarian diet is meat, their settlements able to broadly feed themselves through hunting and the occasional ranch, occasionally supplementing that with foraged plants and fruit. That said, modern analysis has shown that the average Solarian diet is sorely lacking in several key vitamins found in fruits and vegetables, and the recommendation from Solarian doctors is that they should be eating more plants. Starting large-scale agriculture from scratch seems impractical (or perhaps just undesirable) to many Solarian lords, and they have instead decided to make this one of the benefits they get out of their unfortunately necessary arrangements with outsiders.

Also looks good, approved.

DKArthas · May 9

3 hours ago, Minescratcher452 said:

Writeup reviews:

If I missed yours, let me know.

No notes, approved.

No notes, approved.

I'm not totally sure on the Swords being Exotic Matter rather than, say, Magic Items (or Specialists??), but as long as it makes some sense that they can fuel quantum entanglement, etc. this is approved.

No notes, approved.

Looks good, no further feedback! Approved.

Love the detail! Approved.

Terrifying. :p Approved.

The only thing here is that, if another Lumber resource turns up, it would also have to be Magical Items. I like the fluff, so if you want to rename the resource to something a bit more specific to reference the second category, I think it would be a good idea. Otherwise approved.

Love all of this. Approved.

No notes, approved.

No notes, approved.

No notes, approved.

Love this, approved.

Also looks good, approved.

Maybe Shadewood would work? Gonna put it in my write up unless you have objections.

SerakHawk · May 9

Region Write-up for Approval: Fount of Transcendence

Region: 01 (Badal)
Region Name: Fount of Transcendence
Owner: Illumined Utopian

Fount of Transcendence - Geography, Fauna & Flora

The aerostat now dubbed the Fount of Transcendence by the colonists of the factory pipeworks producing XQI is dramatically different from the ill-repaired structure found hovering over the Badalian North pole. While still locked over the North Pole significant work has been completed to make it fully habitable. Through the work of the Illumined Utopian and the Telepathic Convention Gestalt the region is continues to be under significant repairs and upgrades on all of the structures as the habitats and factory zones are repaired and restored to glory. A Shining Aerostat on the top of Badal greats all comers who wish to partake in the Communion with the Universe. The twisting network of brass and copper pipes and cables have mostly been left alone while residences and additional habitats are built above and around the inner workings of the factory.

The Pipeworks - The factory areas of the Aerostat are referred to as the Pipeworks by all the inhabitants, while the central console with runes is no longer easily accessed by anyone and instead dedicated to the workers who help the facility produce XQI in large quantities tours of the pipes, basins and inner-working of the magi-tech distillery are held for those curious shells. After some additional research and testing of the strange pipes the ability to reproduce the construction still alludes the Illumined Utopian and the Transcendent Masters; however they have gleaned some of its workings. The Pipeworks somehow distills XQI out of the interference of the cloud composition, leylines and the magnetic field that confluence on the North Pole of Badal. This confluence of various magical and physical phenomenon allow the large brass and copper factory to condense the magical substrate that eventually is processed into XQI through various magical and mundane methods of distilling, pipes, heating and cooling that run through the factory before being collected in large basins throughout the aerostat.

The Fount - The confusing maze of pipes were discovered to funnel into several large basins that collected the processed XQI. The Telepathic Transcendence Masters when consuming the substance to delve the purpose of the Pipeworks discovered that bathing in it was the most effective method of it releasing its potency into one's shell. These basin sources had additional piping attached to connect all the new homes and residences to the XQI network in addition to H2O piping to insure all residents could bath in the substance at their leisure. However in the early days of the settlement the first Masters created a fountain and public bath in the central square of the habitat so that all could easily marinate in the stimulant. The Fount remains as a public socialization and communal bonding area for all of the gestalt members to enjoy.

Communal Warrens - The influx of Jy'mar and Durat colonists prompted a new approach to the standard Warren tunnel and tube construction that the Jy'mar traditionally use in new habitats. Instead of the winding tunnels, large central tubeways connect the various segments of the habitats allowing more than just Jy'mar passage but also Durat and even other beings who decide to move in. The various larger residences are compacted with Jy'mar apartments and homes built right into the walls and in the traditional dead space of 'giant' constructions. The increased density and potential for strife and conflict between the different types of inhabitants is mitigated by the free allotments of the XQI substance and the unity and drive the chemical gives all the inhabitants.

Fauna & Flora - Mycelia, Moss and various badalian insects nests had found purchase and homes among the pipeworks myriad of nooks and side passageways. Initially the Jy'mar colonists had to fight tooth and nail against the creatures and plants growing as they did with all other Badalian life; however, once the XQI substance was released on the Masters and the factory reproducing the substance all of the creatures and plants started living in harmony with the colonists, some even providing aid and lifting loads and helping construct the habitats for new residents as if they were all part of the same hive. Mycelia growths started popping up eatable growths that seemed to be tailored for a Jy'mar's dietary needs while mosses and other plant growths wrapped themselves around atmospheric leaks and structures to seemingly aid in the repairs to the aerostat.

The Inhabitants

The population of the new settlement is predominantly Jy'mar settlers, Jy'mar Transcendent Masters as well as ecstatic Durat Pods. The Colony once fully operational and running is open to all races, peoples and ideas as the goal of Universal Communion drives the TCG forward.

Government: Telepathic Convention Gestalt

The Telepathic Convention Gestalt (TCG) is the group of original Masters who investigated the pipeworks and determined their purpose and use in the distillation and collection of XQI from the polar gases of Badal. These Masters have formed a Gestalt with each other and other willing Masters and Durat Pods to form what is known as the Telephathic Convention, the Governmental body of the Found of Transcendence. After taking XQI they originally strayed from the faith of Soul's Expression but the influx of new immigrants and colonists has offset the quantity of Telepathic Transcendence followers.

Faith: Telepathic Transcendence

Telepathic Transcendence is the pursuit of a higher commute with all beings, creatures, plants and things. The telepathic abilities granted by XQI expand the horizons of the mind to look beyond superficial differences of one's shell and delve into the deeper connections between all creatures. Everything is equal before the gaze of the endless universe, all things in communion could be completed.

As the state of heightened compassion and unity is exemplified while under the influence of the XQI stimulant the faith of Telepathic Transcendence is one of extreme passivism, avoiding any and all conflict as best as can be avoided while promoting the importance of telepathic communion with all beings and things in the universe.

The substance XQI is a pivotal part of their faith, as it is the source of their ability to commune with the universe, but instead of jealously guarding and hoarding it they believe it is to be shared with all nations so that the Telepathic Communion would spread through all of Tekhum to achieve the the first goal of Tekhum Telepathic Transcendence.

The Ultimate Goal of the Telepathic Transcendence masters and the faithful is to eliminate suffering, war, and all that ails the world by achieving Universal Communion with all things.

Resource: XQI

XQI {Magical Items, Medicines and Drugs}

XQI is a magical chemical stimulant produced in solely in the factory sized production facility that is the Pipeworks. The Substance significantly enhances the intellect of the user while also imparting temporary telepathic abilities while the substance is consumed on a regular basis. Further testing indicated that a sufficient dose or 'marination' in the substance would cause actual physical and mental changes in the body and augment the user to more readily accept the substance and make the gained intelligence and telepathic abilities permanent. The substance has been noted to allow communion with various different lifeforms, even those not traditionally considered 'intelligent'. XQI can be aerosolized but the TCG determined that submerging in a liquid solution of the substance was more effective than breathing it or consuming it, allowing it to fully permeate the body.

Desired Import: {Ores and Alloys}

The new colonists strive to fully repair and delve the myriad of pipeworks and distilleries for the XQI substance which is continually falling into disrepair due to its age. Continued import of Ores and Alloys to ensure the structural integrity and expansion of the pipeworks is critical to maintaining the flow of the stimulant.

Elemental · May 10

Hopefully this arcology fluff works for sways.

Tanevi-Nur, the City of Forges

The largest city of Anso-Chor and one of the largest cities on all Veehra, Tanevi-Nur is a vast and ancient metropolis built around the even more ancient Corbomite foundries at its heart. The wealth of the foundries has filled the city with grand public buildings, temples, palaces and towering monuments that fill the Old City nestled against the upwind side of the Great Foundries. The booming population of more recent centuries has caused the city to expand in all directions and great manufactories and towering tenements buildings spread in all directions. The buildings, even the homes of the poor, have facades of black stone, richly carved with statuary and ornamented with Corbomite detailing and windows of stained glass.

Even these modern buildings that soar dozens of stories into the sky cannot compete with the Great Foundries. A monolithic structure of steel and black brick, its smokestacks and spires soar nearly to the edge of space and it's sublevels extend an unknown depth into Veehra's crust. There are three such foundries, each one the size of a city, and they were built in an age now long since forgotten. The city was clearly built to copy it, though their sheer scale could not be matched even with modern construction techniques.

Dozens of massive, if smaller, manufactories take the Corbomite cast by the Great Foundries and use it in all manner of products. Even those manufactories that don't work on the Corbomite itself use Corbomite in their machinery. The goods produced though are themselves quite mundane, except for those produced by the Guild of Pyrotechnicians. Though they only take up one manufactory, their incredibly dangerous work produces the most spectacular product. Corbomite fireworks are only slightly more dangerous than regular fireworks once produced and when ignited fill the sky with a blazing rainbow of colour that can turn night into day.

Frostwander · May 11

TacDoc submission for General Ekatrin Raikier:

Surgical Precision: +3 to Battle Roll, -10% to opponent's casualties

"War, even when necessary, is often a bloodthirsty spectacle and a detestable waste of life. Precision is the difference between a butcher and a surgeon." With Surgical Precision, an efficient general strikes exactly as hard as needed, targeting key points of an enemy's defense. Enemy troops need not be killed if they can be subdued. Battles need not be won by attrition when they can be won by superior positioning and control.

---

Artifact submission:

Book of Geometries: +1 to one Exploration per round

'Books of Geometry' are a tool developed in the last half-century to assist in teaching Geomancy to students of Practica Arcanai, and to assist in urban projects. By tuning to the shapes of the surrounding world, the books condense insights into the spatial relations of objects in a small vicinity to an intuitive interface. The culmination of years of study in advancing this field has produced a more comprehensive volume with a significantly boosted range. This book allows the user to read the exact geometric relations, positions, and relative motions of objects within a significant radius - thousands of klicks - to more effectively chart regions.

Rolepgeek · Wednesday at 04:25 AM

On 5/11/2024 at 7:48 PM, Frostwander said:

Artifact submission:

Book of Geometries: +1 to one Exploration per round

'Books of Geometry' are a tool developed in the last half-century to assist in teaching Geomancy to students of Practica Arcanai, and to assist in urban projects. By tuning to the shapes of the surrounding world, the books condense insights into the spatial relations of objects in a small vicinity to an intuitive interface. The culmination of years of study in advancing this field has produced a more comprehensive volume with a significantly boosted range. This book allows the user to read the exact geometric relations, positions, and relative motions of objects within a significant radius - thousands of klicks - to more effectively chart regions.

Looks good to me!

Text_1	Text_2	Text_3	Bold_1	Accent_1	Mood_1
Warm_1	Warm_2	Warm_3	Bold_2	Accent_2	Mood_2
Cool_1	Cool_2	Cool_3	Bold_3	Accent_3	Mood_3
Bright_1	Bright_2	Bright_3	Bold_4	Accent_4	Mood_4

ooc OOC Thread

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