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A Setting: The City of Sethennai

Because I’ve spent long enough tinkering on this that I might as well share it with a population of more than a half-dozen potential players. Also it could almost certainly use an editing pass, and I don’t want to lose it all next time my computer dies.

So, a collection of densely packed plot hooks in the shape of a city

City History

The City of Sethennai is quite possibly the oldest city in the world, or at least the oldest still inhabited. When the first Dwarfs and Goliaths fled the Titans for the coast, they found ziggurats already rising from the water and tunnels dug beneath their feet, ruined by some already ancient cataclysm. Supported by fertile soil and full waters, they built their own city over it, and welcomed their own gods to it, a center of resistance to the Titanomarchy that became an empire in its own right.

Centuries passed and power drifted inland, to the mountain palaces of the Titans’ Giant heirs and the divinely appointed heroes who sometimes overthrew them. The City was rich, but peaceful, its soldiers only raised when one princess or another took it as a capital during a civil war. Such was the case when the first ships appeared from the East.

The adventurers from the League of Free Cities had been spurred across the sea by visions of fortune and glory, overwhelming the defenders with armies of goblin slaves and the ability to evoke demons far beyond what they could deal with. Their leader Sethennai proclaimed himself Emperor and renamed the city in his honour, taking it as his capital. After his assassination some years later the ‘empire’ fell into an anarchy it has never quite recovered from, but the name has stuck, and for the two hundred years since wonders and riches have flowed across the eastern ocean while mercenaries and adventurers have poured west in ever greater numbers.

The city’s ruler for the last fifteen years has been Prince Cael, an adventurer universally believed to be supported by the League’s political rivals back East. If so, they got what they paid for – experts and financiers have been imported and sponsored, and trade opened to anyone capable of paying the reasonable import duties.

Until two years ago, he had been the picture of brutal decadence, rousing himself from luxurious hedonism only to brutally deal with any threats to his power. Recently though, he changed – sponsoring vast expeditions into the ancient palaces of the interior and the ruins buried on the city’s outskirts, and installing a self-proclaimed Hierophant whose heresies had earned her a death warrant back East in the city’s grandest temples (violently banishing the cults which had held them since the Conquest in the process).

One week ago, at exactly noon, the sun vanished from the sky for one minute, and the entire city was filled with a deafening scream. Since then, the Prince’s grand palace has been sealed tight, with ingeniously horrifying magical defences ensuring that anyone who tries to force a door or window isn’t around to try again. Everything’s very rapidly falling apart, and the city’s traditional power brokers are reacting like so many rabid weasels in too small a cage.

It is, then, a perfect opportunity for people with the will to seize it.

Districts

The Palantine

If Sethennai is the oldest continually inhabited city in the world, the vast palace complex which crowns its central hill is probably likewise the oldest building still in use. Its foundation is burrowed deep into the hill on which it stands, to the point that some delvers and historians have theorized that it was once a truly massive pyramid now mostly buried by the ages. Rising out of it are two great peaks - impressive ziggurats in their own right - of obvious dwarven make, fashioned to house their ancient Ancestors-Kings and gods in suitable splendor, and since renovated and built over to house the city’s rulers and most favored priesthoods. Surrounding them are a dozen smaller peaks, each the estate of one of the city’s foremost patrician families, teeming with retainers and servants. The land around them is pristine and perfectly manicured, full of wondrous botanical gardens and menageries for the amusement of Sethennai’s greatest citizens.

Location of Interest: The Throne

A palace built on the ruins of a palace built on the ruins of a palace. The grand ziggurat which the city’s rulers have called home since time immemorial is built into and sits at the peak of its highest hill, the highest point in the sky for dozens of miles in every direction. Its labyrinthine apartments, kitchens, vaults, galleries and corridors house the Prince and his family, dozens of favorites and notables, and hundreds of guards, servants, retainers and entertainers.

Or, well, housed.

One week ago, the sun vanished from the sky, and a scream echoed through the city. Since then, the palace complex has proven impenetrable. Every door and window is closed, and attempts to open them by force have fared...poorly. In a ‘never going to walk again’ sort of way. Scrying and other means of magical surveillance so far attempted have simply failed. No one has tried to escape, and no noises have been heard - the whole complex is simply silent.

Of course, that means that all its secrets and riches are there for the taking. Or that’s the growing consensus - at least three separate groups have camped out near various gates and major entrances, each preparing their own scheme to break in and seize everything within. There’s no fighting between them. Yet.

Faction of Note: The Hierophant

Yri Cenred is many things. A self-proclaimed ‘experimental theologian’. One of shockingly few mortal humans to piss off the Illyrin clergy enough to be specifically declared Anathema. A member of the Commonwealth’s very exclusive list of ‘Enemies of Reason’. Empirically immune to thunderbolts from cloudless skies and most other signs of divine disfavor. Easily one of the most powerful mages in the city. And, for most of the last two years, its High Priestess and Hierophant.

No one knows quite how her first meeting with Prince Cael went, and whether she was responsible for her change in personality or if he sought her out because of it. All anyone knows is that shortly after she arrived in the city a few days ahead of Imperial Witch-Hunters looking for her head on a pike, Cael forcibly expelled the Khasali cults which had occupied the Palantine’s grand temples since the Conquest, and installed her in their place with the newly minted title of Hierophant for the city. Since then she and her growing coterie of acolytes (bright-eyed, motivated and young, though you can flip a coin as to whether their hands are stained with ink or blood) have been extremely busy, though no one can say exactly what with. Certainly they haven’t held any public rituals or services. Despite the costs - both political and monetary - in protecting and sponsoring her, Cael never seemed to question whether it was worthwhile.

The general opinion on the streets is that she’s probably to blame for anything and everything worth complaining about. The only real divide is between those who think she bewitched the Prince and turned him into her puppet, those who think she’s the one who killed him, and the moderates who think the correct answer is probably ‘both’.

Foundrytown

The New World is absolutely full of exotic reagents, fuel sources, and materials to craft and invent with. It is also absolutely full of people who will pay in your currency of choice for finished goods, armor, weaponry, and whatever nasty alchemical tricks you can keep from blowing up in their face until they want them to. Foundrytown is the sprawling mass of smokestacks, workshops, factories and markets that has spilled to the north of Sethennai’s walls, exploiting both opportunities to the fullest while limiting the chance that some idiot will burn half the city down (again). Robber barons, militant workers, loose fraternities of tinkerers and half-trainer artificers, and the occasional rogue clockwork or alchemical monstrosity all jostle for space and control of the beating heart of Sethennai’s economy.

Faction of Note: The Grand Bazaar

Official Imperial theology accords true dragons a place of honour - the Princes of the Earth, entrusted by Heaven with containing the fury of the elements within themselves so as to render the world peaceful enough for cultivation by the younger races - and forbids very few things to wyrms willing to play the part. (Principally, do not become undead, a god in your own right, or an archdemon of the elements. Though some justification can usually be found for how any sufficiently problematic dragon is actually doing one of those).

And Tyramara the Magnificent, the Fire of the Deeps has not technically done any of those things. Still, the ancient wyrm has little interest in allowing the wasting disease which has crippled her continue to spread, and her solution is unorthodox enough that she thought it prudent to abandon her palace-lair in Imir and relocate to the New World, six treasure galleons worth of her hoard in tow.

One of the city’s wealthiest residents from the moment she landed, she has bought a plaza in Foundrytown and offered her sponsorship to nearly every tinker and engineer who cares to set up shop there, provided they help sustain and improve the mechanical and hydraulic prosthetics that supplement and replace her dying organs. She has promised a full half of her hoard to any who can permanently deal with her condition, a fortune men have killed for in the past, and certainly will again.

Faction of Note: The Hellworks

They’re not officially called the Hellworks - there are, in fact, absolutely no devils involved. Still, between the billowing clouds of soot and steam pouring from their chimneys at all hours of the day, the severe architecture, and the bound spirits who keep the looms running at all hours of the day and eagerly take any opportunity to leave anyone who gets too close crippled or maimed to vent their anger - well, the name stuck.

One of the most obvious consequences of Prince Cael’s turn towards the esoteric these last years, the ' ‘Royal Sethennai Weaver’s Trust” is the brainchild and absolute domain of the Lady Binder Katerine sol Dalme sol Telrin ir’Paimon. An Illyrin magister with heterodox opinions on the proper uses of magic, popular opinion is divided on whether it’s more accurate to say Cael invited her to reside in the city, or just offered her asylum before her elders had a chance to properly condemn her.

Regardless, after six months of operation she - and her half-dozen strictly bound and extremely unhappy ifrit, and several hundred eminently replaceable more mundane workers - are already well on their way to supplying all the clothing and textiles Sethennai’s teeming masses require single-handedly, produced at a scale and speed far beyond what any traditional artisans guild could hope to compete with.

Crossroads

Dominating the Old City - synonymous with it, really - that the district is called the ‘Crossroads’ is often considered something of a cruel joke by new arrivals. The ‘Labyrinth’ is usually offered instead. Ancient stone tenements and storehouses are basic facts of geography, surviving through conquest and fire, and over and around and through them are generations of newer building - mansions of imported oak and marble, shantytowns of cannibalized carts and derelict ships built on rooftops, and nondescript inns and stores conveniently built on top of trap doors and tunnels leading to much more exciting locales. Natives of a neighborhood who know all the secret passages and blind alleys can quickly get to anywhere they like. New arrivals are strongly advised to pay well for a reliable guide.

Faction of Note: The Dreamers

There’s something under the harbor. There always has been. There probably always will be. Most people can go their whole lives without noticing it, but a certain few find living in the Old City a haunting experience, their nights spent dreaming of drowned palaces and impossible angles, their days spent lost in alleys and markets that have never existed. Inevitably, they come out of a daze and find themselves perched on the waters edge, staring into the filthy, polluted depths with an intense sense of longing.

Called the Dreamers, they’re an eclectic and informal fraternity, living in makeshift houseboats or the cheapest tenements that press against the water. Quite a few simply sleep on the streets. They’re something like a religion, and something like a guild - the most personable and talkative are merchants, selling the fish that others catch, the strange relics and minor treasures that their divers retrieve from the harbor, and the often beautiful - if always uncanny - art they produce. They take care of each other and, though no one has ever seen a dreamer raise a hand in anger, every attempt by syndicates or rival cults to extort or expel them has ended with their opponents going mad, screaming and clawing at their flesh in the middle of the night, or found poised in some elaborate and improbable suicide. After the third time, everyone more or less got the idea.

No one knows who leads them - if anyone does. Insofar as they have a public face, Zoe Alvane is it - a street urchin who ‘found the sea’ before she had hit puberty, for the last few years she has been the one who spends seemingly every hour of the day ensuring her ‘aunts’ and ‘uncles’ have food and shelter, and looking after the other beggars and poor in the neighborhood while she can as well. She’s also the one outsiders deal with when they come looking to buy information - it’s a disquieting fact of life in Sethennai that the Dreamers’ know almost everything there is to know about almost everyone. They are generally content to be left alone, and Zoe is very sympathetic and willing to offer personal advice and play the part of fortune teller to anyone desperate and willing to trade or do a favor - but it’s generally agreed that trying to force information from them is a bad idea.

Faction of Note: Ironfang Mercenary Company

When Prince Cael seized the throne, he didn’t do so single handedly. He needed trained, disciplined soldiers to seize the Palantine and coastal forts, ensure no one escaped the palace, and keep order on the streets while the messy business of extinguishing the previous dynasty was carried out. For all this and more, he relied on the professional expertise of the Ironfang Company.

Formed around a core of hardened hobgoblin veterans of various border wars and colonial filibusters in the Free Cities, the Company has for the last fifteen years been the Prince’s favorite tool for securing his interests, keeping order, and bloodily making examples of any threats to his rule. For their trouble, they’ve grown fat and happy - a steady paycheck and yearly bonuses have left every officer with a townhouse, and most common soldiers with coin for families and apartments for them to live in.

Despite the lack of real combat - and the need to take on locals as new recruits, as more and more soldiers retire or die over the years - Captain Azaersi is a leathery old warehouse who has never let her troops grow soft. Even week the grand parade ground in Crossroads echoes with screaming drill sergeants and the crack of muskets, and it’s an open secret that the Prince paid to import stocks of grenades and munitions from Quepta for her arsenal. No one knows quite how she plans to deal with the sudden disappearance of her patron and employer, but for the moment the Ironfang seem content to keep order in the corner of Crossroads around the arsenal and parade ground that they call home.

The Ruins

The ruins are not, legally, part of Sethanni, and absolutely no one with anything resembling sense would ever actually choose to live there. No one actually knows where the eponymous ruins come from - or at least, no one can agree which section is from where. Shantytowns of the most despised and desperate and built on top of their predecessors, which are built on top of battered and broken pre-Conquest ziggurats and homes, which are built on top of - well, some of it is just a natural cave system, and no one is sure about the rest. Or ever found just how deep it goes. Aside from the casualties of the Prince’s attempts to map it, the Ruins are inhabited exclusively by those that would be strung up or burned alive if they tried to live anywhere else, or those sufficiently dedicated to their greed or ambition that they’re absolutely certain they alone can unlock the secrets and find whatever wonders are buried beneath all the traps and monsters. Not great company, either way.

Faction of Note: The Weavers’ Masquerade

Sethennai never really followed its ‘sister cities’ in the League in religion, with a sort of tolerant anarchy of different gods and sects almost always predominating over the gleefully blasphemously sublime demon-cults that the conquerors originally brought with them. But the small cultists that did exist at least enjoyed a luxurious, privileged irrelevance, with sanctums in the city’s grand temple. That finally changed when Cael seized the temples for his new Hierophant - and every relic and sacred text in them, as bloodily as necessary. Which with demon worshippers meant a massacre - letting one escape and beseech their patron for aid in crafting some horrible vengeance being generally agreed to be a terrible idea.

Not that that actually worked, of course. One acolyte managed to escape - no one’s quite sure how, but then, probably best not to ask unless you’ve got a particularly strong stomach. Well, that’s one of her stories, anyway - she goes by Maia Dayal, Beloved of the Architect, Wearer of Ten Thousand Faces, and sometimes she prefers to say she’s a recently arrived priestess from Celmy, or a street urchin who found enlightenment entirely on her own. As might be expected by the self-proclaimed title, she also changes her face (and build, age, species…) about as often as everyone else bathes.

While she has shown no interest in actually taking bloody revenge on the Prince, Dayal has done plenty to earn the price on her head. The Masquerade that has grown around her is a carnival of wonders and horrors, where all manner of temptations are offered to the truly desperate, debauched and vile. Skinweavers and facetakers always need raw material, and secrets and deaths can both be easily bought for the right price - though in keeping with their patron, the Masquerade is hardly a safe or stable place to do business, and offending the wrong cultist can easily lead to a shift from ‘visitor’ to ‘canvas for artistic expression’.

Faction of Note: The Keendream Expedition

Over the last two centuries, the actual facts about the pre-Conquest city has (with few exceptions) been buried under the weight of legends, rumors and (when necessary) several tons of rock. Despite this (or because of it) whenever things get bad (...worse) for the original population of goliaths and dwarves who can trace their lineage back to that time, stories about some hidden savior or buried relic that will free them spread like wildfire. This is just such a time.

Ilidak Keendream Kathu-Viano is an explorer from a family with some grounds for its claim of being pre-conquest nobility. For the last year he has worked on commission for the Prince, leading a large and incredibly well-armed expedition into the ruins across the water from the Old City, digging into them in search of..something. No one who knows the goal has been willing to talk, but certainly it has involved hiring every historian and scholar with anything like knowledge of the city before it was Sethennai (not to mention half the charlatans and rumor mongers who might know something).

Once news of the Prince’s disappearance reached Kathu-Viano, work shifted from its previous sedate pace to something much more determined. Certain paranoid minds have said it’s almost like he was waiting for this. Other, moderately less paranoid ones have pointed out it’s a bit odd that the government-sponsored expedition is so short on patricians and city notables and so high on mercenaries form the interior and goliath clans with far more reason to listen to Kathu-Viano than the Prince, should some conflict break out.

The Stacks

Museums, exhibitions, satellite campuses, mystical archives, storehouses of eldritch knowledge, and one actual wizard tower - if the faint taste of ozone in the air doesn’t warn you what you’re getting in for leaving the city’s eastern gates, then the architecture certainly will. Wedged between variously reputable bookstores and inquisitives, different formalized and longstanding campuses are dedicated to the arts of conjuration, enchantment, sparkcraft, and practical cosmology. Competition for new discoveries and to fully unlock ancient secrets are good natured and nonviolent - at least, that’s all you can get out of anyone left standing once the smoke clears.

Faction of Note: The Bookhounds

The Bookhounds aren’t any sort of formal organization - and at least half of them would roll their eyes at the name - but rather a loose network of gutter mages, disreputable academics, private inquisitives and researchers for hire, and people with a little talent or cash to burn and far too much curiosity for their own good. They act as a sort of volunteer police force in the Stacks, passing each other clues and leads and doing each other favors to track down stolen (or escaped) relics and curses, stop idiots from unleashing anything really dramatic, and generally help people and save the day. Not to mention accumulate really impressive bags of tricks and rare books themselves in the process.

While they don’t have anything like a real leader, the group’s beating heart is Nikos Roth, an Esheri academic who arrived in the city as a fresh-faced student on a three month expedition a decade back and who never intends to leave. Running a small, incredibly ramshackle-looking secondhand book store wedged between two tenements, he nonetheless has one of the more impressive collections of occult lore in the city, and is more than happy to trade for more of it, or connect anyone in need with a specialist who can help them. As more than one would-be thief has discovered, he’s also a fairly talented mage, and for all that being entirely self-taught has left him with some obvious holes in his training, it’s also left him with some tricks that basically no one comes prepared to counter.

Redgate

Once, Redgate Prison stood alone, a fearsome warning of the Prince’s power to anyone looking south from the city center. Eighty-some years of steady urban sprawl later, most of its inmates would probably just need a running start from the prison walls to land back home. Filled mostly with those whose dreams of a new world fell flat, but with too little cash or too many enemies to get home, the slums of Redgate are a natural habitat for street gangs, drug peddlers, flesh traders, and everyone else looking to take advantage of the desperate and vulnerable. The prison itself - and its infamous and heavily armed wardens - has stumbled into being the center of law writ large, dealing out summary justice for criminals that are (correctly) assumed to be beneath the Prince’s notice.

Faction of Note: Regate Prison

Sitting on a steep hill across the water from the Old City, Redgate prison was at one point a fortress, but for generations has been put to use housing the city’s worst, most dangerous, and most profitable criminals. Given the sprawling, crime-ridden slums that now surround it, its wardens also work as a sort of brutal police force, keeping the pretence of order on the street and preserving the Prince’s Peace. Usually.

The problems with discipline start at the top, really. The Prison’s infamously brutal First Warden is also its oldest and most dangerous prisoner. Before the Conquest, Vrocdruk was one of the city’s lesser gods, enthroned in one of the Palantine’s grand temples. When Sethennai - the man - defeated him, he chose to pull his demons away before they could tear the god into so much bloody aether. Instead he was crippled, lessened, and bound to a new home in the fortress and a new purpose; defending the city and its rulers. Later, less skillful, princes altered the binding, making him responsible for most crime and punishment and hoping that his sacred nature would make the native dwarves and goliaths more obedient.

Vrocdruk is still crippled, still bound to the prison, still forced to obey the orders of the city’s acclaimed ruler, and still extremely unhappy about it. He takes any excuse to work out his unhappiness on criminals or troublemakers with the incredible bad luck to catch his direct attention. His wardens largely follow his example, often acting less like agents of justice and more like a particularly well armed gang - to the point of semi-officially collecting fees for ‘security’ from nearby businesses, supplementing the cash extorted from prisoners and their families for both necessities and luxuries while incarcerated.

Sootcliff

Trailing south of Foundrytown, on and under the steep slope beneath the city’s western walls, the densely packed tenements of Sootcliff are certainly stained grey enough to earn the name. Existing primarily as a source of blood and sweat to feed into the ever-hungry foundries and assembly lines to the north, The buildings are cheap, massive, and constructed at the lowest possible cost, with all the consequences you would expect from that. With easy access to weapons and alchemical supplies from Foundrytown and (literally) beneath the notice of the Old City, Sootcliff is famous as the home of militant bands, revolutionary conspiracies, disgraced artificers, and generally anyone who has a dream for a new world and a plan that will require a lot of explosions to get there.

Faction of Note: The Painted Doctors

Less a single organization and more an extraordinarily loose confederation of - often feuding - crimelords, the Painted Doctors are a fraternity of (largely half- or self-) taught alchemists who have over the last year grown to be the dominant criminal guild in Sootcliff. The name sometimes refers to the incredibly distinctive tattoos each ‘Doctor’ has covering much of their body, universally agreed to be somehow enchanted or cursed. Otherwise it refers to the incredibly alien and vibrant skin tones that their test subjects and muscle develop after repeatedly ingesting their ‘miraculous’ potions and tonics.

While possessing remarkably little actual magical talent among them, the Doctors have perfected the recipes for several extremely useful potions - several incredibly addictive drugs, a half dozen forms of acids and grenades, and a dizzying variety of enhancing tonics to improve themselves and distribute to their thugs - and have managed to keep both the recipes and their sources for the necessary reagents entirely secret. This has left them in the enviable position of being able to promise anyone signing on with them that they’ll be able to more or less become a regenerating ogre for an hour whenever they need to fight, while their opposition has had to settle with advising their men to stock up on fire and acid.

The leading light of the Doctors is one ‘Dr’ Fadre - almost certainly not his real name - an alchemical savant whose ‘miracle cures’ are bought and resold across the city. A flashy and well dressed sort whose patronage has turned several of Sootcliff’s most prominent dens of vice into something close to palaces for those who can afford it, he’s said to be far less interested in the nuts and bolts of running a criminal empire than enjoying its fruits and indulging his passion for the Sciences. It doesn’t hurt his reputation that he doesn’t look a day over thirty, and has for as long as anyone has known him.

Chance

Facing Oldport from across the river’s mouth, the docks of Chance are significantly new, cheaper, and altogether more ramshackle. Not really a part of any conscious design, Chance grew organically as the city sprawled beyond its original walls, essentially smuggling docks so successful it was easier to legitimize and start taxing them than it was to hang everyone involved. They now provide the city with a constant infusion of nerdowells and fortune seekers, and the district around them takes great pride in fleecing new arrivals of every penny to their name by the end of their first night on land. Hostels and boarding houses are usually safe, traditional vice dealers less so, and anyone selling treasure maps or magical amulets not at all. Still, they’re probably more harmless than the various mercenary recruiters and ‘exiled princes’ promising to give new arrivals exactly the thrill and fortune they came searching for.

Faction of Note: The Red Ocean Trading Company

What is now the Red Ocean Trading Company has gone through several dramatic changes over it’s eighty years of existence. First a privateer fleet hired by the Free City of Celmy during the First Armada War. Then eventually growing strong enough to seize several islands as an independent pirate state, before being crushed by the Esheri Navy during the Second Armada War. It’s remnants learned a bit of humility from that, and it is now seemingly content with its existence as either (depending on who you ask) a obscenely profitable shipping firm, or one of the most widespread criminal syndicates in the world.

The Company’s significant interests in Sethennai - nearly half the docks in Chance, guides and guards for anyone heading into the Interior, and fingers in quite a few less legitimate pies as well - are ably represented by Captain Arun Prem, a(n in)famous adventurer and scoundrel in his own right, apparently enjoying his semi-retirement behind a desk by getting outrageously drunk with his favorite mercenaries and criminals every night and swapping incredible (and implausible) old war stories.

There’s plenty of rumors, of course - that he’s here in de facto exile after angering the Company’s mysterious senior leadership. That he’s a thousand-year-old vampire and is the Company’s mysterious senior leadership. That he ate a kraken’s heart, and is immortal as long as he doesn’t lose sight of the water. That he’s biding his time to prepare an army before heading inland to carve a new kingdom for himself. That he’s only in the city for as long as it takes to carry out some truly spectacular heist. That he killed Prince Cael in a secret duel and trapped his soul in the pocketwatch he wears at all times. And so on. Of course, other rumours say that he started all of those himself to preserve his mystique as he grows fat in his old age.

Oldport

Facing out to the harbour but safely ensconced within the city walls, Oldpot is, as the name implies, one of the oldest ports in the new world - and certainly one of the busiest. Fully loaded merchant ships arrive daily, their cargoes emptied and replaced with the plunder of the New World almost overnight so they can return home on the next turn of the wind. Beyond the grand ports themselves, this district is home to all the most respectable shipping companies, merchant banks, hotels, and townhouses and apartments, as well as all the official consulates and embassies that Sethennai plays host to.

Faction of Note: First Bank of Sethennai

Despite only being as old as Prince Cael’s reign, the Bank already feels like an eternal and irreplaceable part of Sethennai. This isn’t something people are necessarily happy about, but its leadership had done a truly amazing job at keeping dissent to grumbling and resentment of the inevitable, and not actual resistance. They’re good at that sort of thing, even when they used Prince Cael’s (and, thus, the City’s) massive debts to his foreign benefactors as justification for taking control of the city’s tariffs and tolls, and began rigorously enforcing them, possibly for the first time ever.

Combined with a legal monopoly on the ability to mint coins, this has of course made the Bank incredibly wealthy. But not to the degree that might be assumed - the riches collected are to a large degree shipped back east to foreign creditors. Of the remaining, quite a bit is invested with as much an eye for politics as strict profit.

Executive Director Salman Ticaret, like most of his staff, is a Sethennai native who sought education in the Commonwealth (like most, he took a new name on gaining citizenship). Along with modern accounting and investing techniques, he came home with a firm grasp of political economy - and so for the last decade and a half has been more than happy to offer favorable rates to well positioned patrician and merchant houses, in exchange for their own favors and consideration in turn. The result is that the bank’s marble halls and adamant vaults house information as much as money. And Ticaret is perfectly willing to invest both, if the opportunity is promising enough.

Foreign Interests

The League of Free Cities

The League of Free Cities is not so much a single power as a collection of fiercely independent deomcratic city-states held together by the intertwined private empires of their leading citizens, deep and interdependent trading relationships, and a common religion that the rest of the world calls demon-worship - they view this as deeply offensive. Also they’ve been doing it for hundreds of years and they’re not all dead yet, so clearly everyone else is just doing demonology wrong. Politics are a mess of knives in the dark and openly bribing the voting populace with feasts and spectacles, with glory and riches to anyone who can hold the mob’s favor for long.

Demonic evocation - and the arts learned as a result of it, like fleshweaving, orienomarchy , breaking reality down into elemental chaos and shaping it to your whims, and so on - are in the rest of the world generally met with very thorough execution, making the freethinkers of the League the world’s bleeding edge in magical innovation. The entire culture of the League is also nearly custom-made to produce bold idiots willing to do what it takes to get rich or die trying, and the various Free City’s Adventurers Guilds are (in)famous the world over.

Until recently, the Free Cities considered Sethennai, if not one of them, then at least a younger sibling or benevolent dependency. Prince Cael’s coup has been taken as something of a wound, and the merchant interests who have lost out as he opened trade have made sure that in the decades since his name has become synonymous with bloody-handed tyranny. The first broadsheets celebrating his death will sell out in moments, and the acclaimed merchant adventurer Vyas Asraya, said to be en route to the city, is said to be very optimistic about future trading opportunities.

Holy Illyric Empire

Technically speaking a vast and sprawling feudal state unified only in the person of the Sovereign (Empress of Illyrin, Queen of Belthaya, Defender of the Hierophant of Imir, Grand Duchess of Abhari, etc, and so on, and so forth), the Empire dominates the better part of two continents, and in terms of size and prestige is unquestionably the foremost state on the globe. It is also a bureaucrat’s nightmare, its aristocracy distracted from their internal feuds only when they need to defend their ancestral rights from central overreach.

Ancient controls and long established relationships make Imperial binders the most fearsome conjurers and thaumaturges in the known world, a process not at all hurt by the wholesale incorporation of any powerful spirits or terrestrial god who will sign on the dotted line into the official pantheon. Illyrin Paladins are also easily the most storied heavy cavalry the world has ever seen, and Abharic necromancers are generally held to be the heirs (or direct pupils) of the inventors of the craft.

Illyric interests have prospered under Prince Cael’s reign, but the last years have seen Sethennai become a haven for heretical priests and radical binders, something Ambassador Konrad Reingard has been rumored to be increasingly frustrated with, though no one heard a word from his Oldport estate since the chaos began.

The Sublime Esheri Commonwealth

A thoroughly modern and enlightened state, the Commonwealth is history’s gift to the cartographer, an empire with firmly delineated borders and clear, rationally determined administrative divisions. Governed by a Janissary Corps educated and conditioned from childhood to put principle above self interest and the good of the Commonwealth above friends or (nonexistent) family, the Esheri control far less land than the Illyrin Empire, but has been able to fight it to a standstill and even force it to abandon certain far flung dependencies over a series of wars across the last century.

Beyond a ruthlessly efficient system for taxation and conscription, the Commonwealth’s military might is credited to two sources - on the one hand, its marines are the finest and most disciplined line infantry anyone is likely to ever see, experts in the use of gas and artillery and famously cool under fire. One the other, their heavy automata are an answer to any conjured devil or bound beast, enlightened clockwork providing enough force to cleave through scales and enchanted plate without missing a beat. But the Janissaries are as happy as their enemies to admit that they prefer unfair fights - though they credit their infamous spy network to the fruits of their scientific studies of society and history, while their enemies instead blame the corrupting effects of gold, blackmail, and a complete indifference to the morals of those they work with.

While the Commonwealth does have an embassy in the city, it mostly exists as an appendage of the First Sethennai Bank, the private institution responsible for printing and guarding the solvency of the city’s currency, its entire upper rung staffed by experts trained in the Commonwealth and generally considered Prince Cael’s way of paying back their support for his coup. More recently, it has been rumored that the Secretariat has taken an interest in the struggles in the interior. Coincidentally, an ‘Academic’ has been seen floating around various less than reputable bars in Chance, ostensibly as part of a project to record the city’s myths and folklore.

The Warlord States

For the last two hundred years, the interior has been an evershifting patchwork of successor kingdoms, native revolts, monstrous empires, released horrors, and stranger things besides, the unending tide of weapons and adventurers ensuring that no single player was ever able to secure dominance (and the various rulers of Sethennai have certainly played their part in keeping things that way). At the moment the foremost powers are a giantblooded kingdom led by a messaniac priest-king claiming to be the reincarnation of a Titan, a personal union enforced at sword point between a Khasli pirate queen and a goliath ‘emperor’, a red dragon who has claimed an old giant palace and forced the dwarves living in the mountains around it to provide tribute and worship, and several dozen more minor principalities. It should go without saying that war is the natural state of being, and soldiers are sucked up like ships in a whirlpool.

Adventurers are the lifeblood of Sethennai, and they don’t only flow one way. A constant stream of veterans - either enriched or embittered - skulk, limp or run back once they’ve had their fill of the wonders of the new world, usually missing something important or carrying something priceless - sometimes both. The courts and inner circles of every powerful warlord are composed exclusively of this sort of hard, tricky and generally insufferable type of rogue, and they’re often the only agents trusted enough to be dispatched on delicate missions. The line between warlord and criminal kingpin or pirate magnate is also extremely thin - sometimes nonexistent - as smuggling, sabotage and assassinations are simply basic tools of statecraft in the ruthless arena of the interior. More than once, an ambitious Prince of Sethennai has attempted to recreate their ancestor’s short lived empire, only to be found butchered in their bed but the agents of one warlord or another.

The Warlord States view Sethennai as a vital artery for supplies and funding, and for manpower to refill their armies with disposable bodies for their constant border wars. On a grander scale, those with ambition view it as either a crown jewel and future capital, or a bleeding ulcer on the land which needs to be razed to its foundations. In either case, few are interested in a strong, stable government for it. Regardless of their opinions, sending emissaries and embassies to the city is the first (and often only) diplomatic initiative of every new warlord state - though in truth their role is often closer to mercenary recruiter and fundraiser.

#this is theoretically a writing blog #D&D #abhari #well D&Dified but mostly #worlbuilding

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poorly-drawn-akira · 4 years

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Jojo’s Bizarre Fantasy Lore Masterpost

Locations:

Kimyonah- Name of the Pangea-esque continent where the majority of people live excluding small island populations and populations beneath the oceans. Cities: Bohken- A relatively centrally located city-state. A central hub for trading of all kinds and neutral ground for diplomatic meetings. It hosts the Council of Races, a collection of representatives from a handful of Kimyonah's races who wish to view policies as a collaborative effort.

Orinoco- An underwater city of the Moringua people. Their ruling city. It is the only settlement of the Moringua Empire that is partially above water. This part is the hall where the king receives foreign dignitaries, diplomats, guests, etc. Nalion- A small, peaceful kingdom open to all, regardless of past or race. Was founded by a man named Erikson, but is currently lead by his son. Though officially labeled as a kingdom, Nalion functions more like a closely knit town. Its western border is lined by the coast, and its northern, southern, and eastern borders are lined by forest. (by daily-rubbersoul-redux) Vyliesi- A western kingdom that is mainly populated by humans. It's customs are fairly old-fashioned, though the current king is trying to change this. It is said that this land is home to pegasi, and its terrain is fairly mountainous. (by daily-rubbersoul-redux) Hilonia- A desert kingdom that not much is known about. It is said that the inhabitants are all 'wild animals', and most who try and travel there never return for one reason or another. (by daily-rubbersoul-redux) Ashen Grounds- A medium sized, recently discovered place that resides within a decrepit forest. The kingdom got that name because when it was discovered, the whole chunk of it had seemingly no live fauna, making it hard to breath, the ground permanently stained with ash, there are barely any buildings except for the jagged pikes of stone, and large castle of obsidian. The only “living” things inhabiting there are the king himself and these sentient constructs made out of ash and fire magic. (by kalos-absurd-crusade)

Riposo: A fortress city that was originally used as a strategic point to intercept other nation invasions.. Now though it houses many adventures and their respective guilds. A place that is always bustling with people with requests for adventurers. With requests being as simple as gathering herbs, to battling the most fearsome of monsters. (by asknerdizzy)

Cielo: A city in the clouds that is mostly populated by avian like species. It is a city that rarely ever lets anyone enter. The residents who choose to leave can’t enter again unless on urgent business with a seal of approval from a ruler. This is all due to a massacre that happened when someone brought in an unknown individual who seemed to know the city’s layout beforehand without them ever entering it. It was suspected that one of their own was behind it, so this rule was set in place. It’s highly guarded, with mages working around the clock casting anti-intelligence magic. The city is filled with high class individuals, and relics of the Gods that most be protected at all costs. (by asknerdizzy)

Villages: Morven- A small village located in the Kaldae Mountains inhabited by humans. Winters can be rough, but it is sustained by snow runoff in the warmer months, which allows the villagers to store enough food for these winters. Due to it's isolation, they rarely trade. Malik-Kei is worshiped as a guardian of the village who protects it’s inhabitants through the tough winters. A shrine to her resides on the south side of the village. It houses her stone.

Aether- Tree bound village of the Gruidae people. Due to a near genocide that only halted 30 years ago, Aether was established as a magically protected city for Gruidaes.The main temple of Crah-Dia is located in it’s center, and there are several members of the Fellowship of Everyday Miracles who live within Aether who serve to protect it. Wasamond- A small village under the lake of Bridgegar Thicket for merfolk, it's mainly women and children but there are mermen. It's a place to avoid the unstable conflict of the seas. (by moriohs-little-demon) Rootwood- A small village built and inhabited by the Elzen people. (by dio-of-shadows)

Landmarks: Kaldae Mountains- A large mountain rage in the north-east of Kimyonah. It contains the isolated village of Morven. Morven is located on one of the lower peaks, Malik-Kei, named by the people of Morven for their guardian spirit of the same name. Bridgegar Thicket- A forest with a large lake in the middle. The forest is bordered by nigh impenetrable thick, thorny brush. Due to being unable to see past it, most creatures write the forest off as nothing of value. Openings to the forest are only passable by taurfolk and nature spirits. (by moriohs-little-demon) Thalai's Grove: named after a rumored dragon that was laid to rest there, the grove is home to a large lake with an under ground cave system. In the caves, there is a shrine to the god of health, Taymos, where Elves would pray for good health and leave gifts of food, wine and gold. (by hold-my-flowercrown) Eternity Graveyard - A desolate wasteland was a battlefield where warriors from several different nations clashed for supremacy. It now serves as the home base of The Brotherhood of Eternity, and has been the sight where many adventurers meet their end. (by dio-of-shadows)

Battaglia: An underground Coliseum lays under the city of Riposo. It was once, and still is, used as a shelter to the people in times when the city is under siege. The Coliseum itself is protected with many Magic runes lining its walls that makes it difficult to destroy from most magic. When the city is not under attack the Colosseum is used to advertised adventures and their skills. Usually battling other adventures or caught monsters in the ring. Some common folk come down to watch the spars for entertainment, some watch to find new people to join their groups, and some bet on the battles. These bets are what largely helps with the financial upkeep of the Colosseum. The inner hallways of the Colosseum are filled with many stalls for blacksmiths to advertise their wears to the people. The more powerful weapons are bought here. (by asknerdizzy)

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Races:

Humans: Humans are as the name implies. However, they can possess varying levels of magical ability. Witches- Humans who have above average magical abilities. White and black witches exist. White witches may form guilds in order to train others and to more effectively do good, but it's not uncommon to encounter lone white witches. Black witches tend to chose to be alone, although rumors of a guild exist. Black witches may not actively seek to do harm, but what sets them apart from white witches is a desire to grow their power whether that be through deals with demons, rituals, etc.

Half Bloods: Demons- Half demons are typically the result of a masculine demon and a feminine mortal creature (usually humanoid). Half demons tend to possess some level of dark magic and horns of some kind, although these horns tend to be smaller in size compared to a full demon. Other indications may include odd body markings, animal body parts such as legs or paws, and, very rarely, extra eyes or wings. Half-Demons are considered to be rare. They also often gather a following from cults, and they can become immortal and maintain this immortality if they consume the souls of the damned at an extremely high rate. (added by dio-of-the-shadows) Dragons-

Humanoids: Arisen- A blanket term for any creature brought back to life by necromancy. Typically, an Arisen was human, but most humanoids can be subjected to the process. An Arisen will maintain their personality and memories without additional spells being applied. An Arisen cannot heal themself when injured and has no need for sleep or for food. If an Arisen is taken too far from who resurrected them, they will begin to decay. Their creation is frowned upon, if not outright banned and/or punishable by execution, by most settlements and races.

Gruidae- Tall humanoids who can take the form of a crane. In their humanoid form, they have small feathery tufts resembling small wings where other humanoids would have ears. Over the past few centuries, they were nearly wiped out entirely for their feathers and blood, both of which were widely used in potion crafting. The remaining population resides almost entirely in Aether, and allow themselves to be governed by the Council of Races, of which they have a member in. Whoever is elected for the Council also serves as Aether's governor. Akumaoni- A race that is considered to be the guardians of the afterlife. They are humanoid in appearance, though they typically have horns, sharp teeth, and their pupils are always little more than a slit. They are said to work beside the gods, and even are considered a part of the Renian Pantheon, and their numbers are few. (by daily-rubbersoul-redux) Komoriberi- Humanoids with the ability to transform into bats. While in humanoid form, they retain thier wings, fangs, and have bat-like ears. Their diet mainly consists of fruit and small animals, and though they are often mistaken for vampires the sun has no more affect on them than it does on a normal human. (by daily-rubbersoul-redux) Dragons- Humanoids that have the ability to transform into a... well a dragon. The exact type of dragon can vary (as can size), and most have some sort of elemental affinity. While in their humanoid form they will not have access to many of their abilities, though they will usually have horms and some may have wings as well. (by daily-rubbersoul-redux) Divine Dragons- Similar to dragons, but have an extended lifespan and divine powers as they are considered to be gods. It is possible for a dragon to only be half divine if only one of their parents is of the divine lineage, in which case they will have little divine powers if any at all. (by daily-rubbersoul-redux) Dryads- An all female species of spirits that reside in the forests. They punish trespassers and keep peace in their forest by any means necessary. While they aren't immortal, they do have a very extended life expectancy compared to humans, about triple that of the average healthy adult human male. (by moriohs-little-demon)

Angels: A Humanoid race that has the only avian trait of wings sprouting on their backs. They are more adapt with the magic affinity of light and fire than some species and have a longer life span than humans. (by asknerdizzy) Okami- A race of wolf folks. They keep themselves away in the woods and the outlands of the continent. Being canines, they are actually omnivorous, and hold no ill will towards other species. However, during full blood moons, they become irrational and feral, attacking anything in sight (by moriohs-little-demon) Werewolves- Infected creatures who take on the tails, ears, and rough warm furlike hair of the Okami. However, they keep most of their original race's appearance during the daytime. They experience feral instincts more often as they are not raised to overcome the animal instinct to hunt, happening every full moon. (by moriohs-little-demon)

Elves: Elzen- Elves recognizable by their pointed ears and mastery of magic. Once every 100 years there is an Elzen oracle who is able to look into the future. (by dio-of-the-shadows)

Merpeople: Moringua- An entirely male race of eel mermen who live in temperate oceans. They are immortal, but not invulnerable (weapons kill them, but time won't). They are known for their bloodthirsty, warmongering natures. Due to this, they are governed by both a King and a General. The General overseeing military plans, training of forces, and the overall making sure the other elected officials are doing their jobs. King serves to handle diplomatic affairs with other races and to oversee reproduction. Reproduction is a closely guarded secret. Several theories exist on the subject, but no definitive answers have been given by the Moringas.

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Factions:

Paladins and Soldiers: Order of Hamon- A paladin order who work out of Bohken. They modeled themselves after folk heroes of human lore such as Jonathan Joestar. They resolve themselves to uphold the laws of the land and to protect innocents without question. This does lead to some of their members making lawful stupid choices. Their patron deity is Sol, the God of the sun.

White Lily Platoon- A small army hailing from Vyliesi, lead by the royal knight Sir Jacain. The lord that this platoon serves is unknown, as is their current objective. (by daily-rubbersoul-redux)

The Bladed Roses- A small traveling group of do-gooders, lead by a knight named Taiana. The group is quite odd-ball in terms of composition, but is almost always accepting new members. (by daily-rubbersoul-redux)

Clerics: The Fellowship of Everyday Miracles- A cleric order who's main temple is located in Aether. They travel about, healing people where needed. They will often stick around a town for a few weeks, accepting shelter and food in return for healing, before leaving again. Some may chose to travel with questing groups if they come across them, or if asked by said group. Their patron deity is Crah-Dia, the God of healing.

Assassins: Bloodwater Assassins guild- A small group of assassins that has been known to do even the dirtiest of jobs. However, it is rumored that a few members have been committing traitorous actions as of late. (by daily-rubbersoul-redux) Bandits: The Brotherhood of Eternity- A cult of bandits that worship the one true ruler of hell and earth. They are known for stealing from various kingdoms and pitting other countries against one another so they can collect the spoils. (by dio-of-the-shadows)

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Deities:

Gods and Goddesses: Sol- The God of the sun. He is associated with the sun and shining light on hidden things. This last aspect is what the Order of Hamon focuses on: Bringing what is in the dark into the light. Certain mortals are said to be blessed by Sol, and this gift is known as Hamon: The ability to deliver the sun's energy through their hands. Taymos- A God of health. (by hold-my-flowercrown) Crah-Dia- A God of healing. He is associated with healing through magic as opposed to medicine. His temple is located inside of a large, hollow tree in Aether where a spring with healing properties resides. The World Serpent (Deceased)- A deity of the abyss of the unknowable night and proclaimed Father of monsters; this foul snake sought to swallow the world in order to propagate - claiming that in its bowels it’s followers would be eternal and emerge in the new world as saints. When slain by a band of unspoken heroes, this dark god cursed the cowards and weaklings who did not fall upon the invading blades to save their god and master. What has become of this cult remains mostly unknown… (by BD-Handystand) Renian Pantheon- A group made up of many of the Nalionian and Vyliesian gods, many of which are considered to be divine dragons. The main gods names are as follows: Shoza, Naoto, Fionei, Kaisho, Aiota, Aogei, Juniji, Synia, Altitha, and Yomeinu. (by daily-rubbersoul-redux) Shoza- The original divine dragon, he is known as a god of the skies. However, he turned his back on mortals long ago, and now has little involvement in their affairs despite still being a major religious figure. (by daily-rubbersoul-redux) Hina (deceased)- A divine dragon known as the goddess of love, she gave her life to avert a great tragedy. She was wed to Shoza, and many speculate that her death lead him to become bitter and cold. (by daily-rubbersoul-redux) Naoto- The son of Shoza and heir to the divine throne, though little is actually written of him in religious texts. He is said to wield a divine lance, and to travel the world in an attempt to bring peace. (by daily-rubbersoul-redux)

Fionei- A dragon whom ascended to godhood upon marrying Naoto, and is said to bring good fortune to those who practice the arts. As she was not born a god, she has no true divine abilities. (by daily-rubbersoul-redux)

Kaisho- Son of Naoto who inherited all the powers of the divine. He is a god of knowledge who is believed to have rejected godhood. (by daily-rubbersoul-redux)

Aiota- One of two twin gods, who is also the daughter of Naoto and considered the goddess of rebellion. It is said that she only inherited one divine ability, but little else is known besides that and her name. (by daily-rubbersoul-redux)

Aogei- The other twin god, who is also the son of Naoto and considered a god of nature. It is said he can heal others and control the growth of plants, but not much else besides that and his name is known. (by daily-rubbersoul-redux)

Juniji- A fell god said to be Shoza's brother. Supposedly had only one divine ability, and the power he gained from it drove him mad. Little else is known. (by daily-rubbersoul-redux)

Synia- An Akumaoni goddess who rules the afterlife, though she often more-so acts as the guardian to its gate. Is said to take on a role similar to the Enma. (by daily-rubbersoul-redux)

Altitha- A human who ascended to become the goddess of strength and vengeance after losing someone to Juniji. (by daily-rubbersoul-redux)

Yomeinu (deceased)- Former god with the power to raise the dead. His species was unknown, but many feared him due to his powers. In reality, he only ever used them to hold a yearly festival in which families could give their loved ones a final send off. (by daily-rubbersoul-redux) Mylia- A worshiped deity of the Dryad race. She is said to be the creator of the Bridgegar Thicket to protect the bounty of nature from the likes of war, pestilence, and death. When prayed to, one may expect health, luck, and bountiful hunt in their future, so long as they do not waste the gift life has brought them. (by moriohs-little-demon) Demons and Spirits: Cake- A minor demon of wrath. Malik-Kei- The alleged spirit of a young woman who died in the cold waiting for her fiance to return. According to the legend, her body turned to stone and her spirit remained as a guardian of the mountain. A sacrificial ceremony that involves a mock wedding to the Malik-Kei stone is preformed by the village of Morven during years of unsatisfactory snowfall. An unmarried man between 16 and 30 is chosen by lottery to be sacrificed. The "groom" is then dressed in traditional wedding garb (which is very light as weddings are traditionally done only in summer). The sacrifice is tied to the stone so that he is kneeling next to the stone, and a wedding ceremony is held. The sacrifice is then left out with the belief being that if he is frozen to death overnight that the sacrifice was accepted. Black Mages- Considered to be great wielders of magic in the mortal realm, and are extremely well known for diving into the darker arts. They are only known to be demons and half demons. (by dio-of-the-shadows)

Corrupted Spirit: Spirits generally are apparitions of elements, such as nature. Several of them have some form of sentience. However a corrupted spirit is one that was tampered with either by magic, great tragedy, or the desire of the spirit. Turning it into a physical manifestation based on the intent of the spirit, magic or tragedy. The spirit can be corrupted by a cleric or paladin. (by asknerdizzy)

#jjbfantasy #Lore masterpost #More to be added as more lore comes in

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dragonladdie · 3 years

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Xeno-Hiraeth

Warning: The following document delves into topics such as (systemic)racism, classism, colonization, (implied)genocide, and slavery. This is not to promote, justify, humanize, or normalize these things in any way, shape or form, and, quite frankly, the opposite of the story's initial message.

The author does NOT approve of such things. If you think any of the above is justifiable in ANY manner, you can leave right now, thanks.

Lore

Xeno-Hiraeth was the first ever planet made by the Seraphs, a race of divine entities with the power to create entire galaxies with the simple flick of their wrist.

There are four sapient species on this ancient planet: The proud dragons, the reclusive lungs, the gentle sphinxes, and finally, the mageia, the first Beings, and made in the Seraph's image.

Not only is Xeno-Hiraeth the first world, it is by far the largest. It is infinitely larger than our Earth, and far more magical. It's teeming with wild magic and a myriad of magical and strange creatures. At its center is Cor Meum, seven continents surrounding the Heartland. The Heartland holds the Capitol, where the Queen resides.

As previously said, there are four sapient species of Xeno-Hiraeth. You would believe the mageia would rule the world, as they were the first Beings, and are made in the Seraph's image. You would be correct, but, millions of years ago, when all but one Seraph suddenly vanished from the cosmos, the mageia fell into chaos.

The mageia waged war on each other, dragging the other three races with them. This started the Cold Age. After thousands of years of distrust, chaos, and all-out war, the remaining Seraph could no longer speak to their people.

They ended up turning the world over to the dragons and lungs, giving them a secret gift that allowed them to reunite the world again. They were supposed to rule the land together in order to retain at least some form of unity. But, another thousand years later, after high tensions, the dragons and lungs turned on each other. The lungs ended up breaking from the dragons and went into hiding, making dragons the singular dominant species of Xeno-Hiraeth.

Sphinxes are a somewhat independent species, and try not to get involved with the other three species' affairs. They normally exist in one of twelve clans, but few unlucky sphinxes live their lives as personal servants and slaves to dragon nobility, and are treated as wealth statuses rather than individuals.

Geography of Notable Landmasses

Heartland

The Heartland is the central continent of Cor Meum. A vast valley surrounded by mountains, and at its center is the Capitol, the largest metropolis in the world. The Capitol is mostly inhabited by dragons, and is also where a good 60% of dragons in Xeno-Hiraeth live. The Heartstone Palace is both the tallest and largest built structure in Cor Meum as well, and it's tallest tower can be seen from miles in any direction. The Heartstone Palace is the home of the Queen and their family.

Makatu Valley

The continent just North of Heartland is a combination of floating isles and mountains. It's the home of the longmas' kingdom, Sahar. Mistiko, the capital city for Sahar is located between one of the two largest mountains on Cor Meum, known as the Twin Peaks. Instead of sitting at the foot of the two mountains, the city actually stands on the top of a huge floating aisle, just above their peaks. It's only accessible by airships and flying.

Rama Forests

The continent of Rama sits upon a rich iron mine that stretches down and out for miles. Even though they have a seemingly infinite amount of it, every scrap of metal is treated graciously, and no amount is wasted. On the surface are lush forests on the foot of a small mountain range. The capital city, Stonehill, sits on the base of said mountain range.

Taiao

The continent of Taiao is a combination of forest and open plain, perfect for the diverse population of Alam. Taiao has bountiful lands to raise crops, and thus there are countless farming villages across the continent. The "capital" of Alam is called the Thicket, which is a town surrounding a huge tree. Inside the tree is the High Sage and their council, made up of all sorts of backgrounds.

Vjetar Plateau

The Vjetar plateau is located at the furthest Northeast point in Cor Meum. The only way up is by flying, airships, or making your way up Zephyr's Road, a dangerous foot trail filled with predators and rogues. Atop the plateau is a flat, lush steppe occasionally dotted with rich forests. There is a small patch of frigid mountains to the north, and the west drops off into the sea. The soil is adequate for the nation's agricultural needs, and produce farms are the majority of what you will find when exploring the land. The capital city of Gisa stands in the middle of a windy meadow.

The Sear

The Sear is a scorching desert to the West of Cor Meum. The farther center you go, the hotter the sun beats, and the taller the sand dunes stand. But, smack in the middle of the desert, springs the Blessing Oasis. It's the largest oasis in the Sear, and most of the qilin population lives here.

The Wai Peninsula

The Wai peninsula is home to Ngaru, the native kingdom of the kelpies. To the Northern entrance to the peninsula are swamps, marshes, bogs, and mangroves. Then, there's the Iridescent Jungle. Though it's a gorgeous sight to behold, it's filled with dangerous animals and man-eating plants. Then, once you finally make it out of the jungle, you are rewarded with a calm, tropical paradise. The capital city is located on the shore, along with the Summer Palace. But, during the winter and fall months, the royal family retreats to the Underwater Palace. A secret entrance on the surface is provided for non-kelpie visitors.

Kahore Mountains

Nihil, the native kingdom of the nix, is based underground and in the mountains of Kahore. The entirety of the continent is just mountains that stretch almost completely off the Eastern coast of Cor Meum. The capital city of Covert lays below the surface of Titan's Maw Summit, the largest mountain in the world.

Ledas

A combination of icy plain and taiga to the north of Cor Meum. It is mostly unexplored by the other Beings, and is occupied by the Fa and Noh sphinx clans.

The Barrier Mountains

Several oceanic mountain ranges that erupt from the water, and surround Cor Meum. There is presumably nothing past these mountains, only open ocean. However, all voyages that set out past these mountains never return. Rumor has it that beyond these mountains lies the secret home of the lungs.

Additional landmasses

Within the Barrier Mountains are several other small islands, whether they humbly sit on the water or float above it. None of them are big enough to be marked fully as continents, however, and most of them are colonized by dragon villages.

General Society

The Queen is a hereditary, gender-neutral title worn by the ruling dragon. It's passed on from parent to oldest child, but it's not unheard of for the crown to go to one of the Queen's spouses, siblings, or even a trusted Council member if either they believe their children aren't cut out for the job or die before they have any.

The King is the first spouse of the Queen(the King is also a gender-neutral title). The King acts as an advisor to the Queen as well as a companion, and is incredibly influential. Consorts hold no political power, but may hold certain influence as well, depending on their background/actions outside of the palace walls.

The current Queen is Nefriah, and her heir is her first son, Valo. She has one spouse, King Solan. Their other children are Naika, Naseem, Kasigo, and Vanja.

That being said, there are no gender roles in Xeno-Hiraeth! Gender identity and expression is something that is a personal preference, and is figured out during childhood(all children are referred to with they/them pronouns at first, unless they choose differently later on). Androgyny is the dominant gender expression, and no individual would be made fun of, judged, or barred from certain tasks/jobs for their gender identity and/or expression, or lack thereof.

While the Queen rules over both dragons and mageia(and to some extent, the sphinxes), it's the Omnis-Sovereign who carries out the laws to the mageia. The Omnis-Sovereign is typically a longma mageia who not only rules their own kingdom, but the other kingdoms as well. While all kingdoms have their individual leader or leaders, they all answer to the Omnis-Sovereign, and the Omnis-Sovereign answers to the Queen. The current Omnis-Sovereign is Jerome.

The Prophet is the religious leader of Cor Meum, and secondary advisor to the Queen. Their job(supposedly) is to make sure the will of the Seraph is followed. They also are responsible for keeping the Queen in check. They are hand-picked by the Queen themself, and serve until death. The current Prophet is Rek'yen.

The Queen's council consists of the King, Prophet, General, Treasurer, High Mage, Archive Keeper, Charter, and High Judge. King Solan currently doubles as the High Mage.

There is an unspoken racial hierarchy amongst the mageia, in order of preference of the dragons; the longmas, the re'em, the dryads, the perytons, the qilins, the kelpies, and then the nixes.

Disabilities are not usually an issue in Xeno-Hiraeth. Non-verbal and/or deaf beings are taught some form of sign language, or given a slate to write your thoughts down. Blind individuals are taught to use their other senses to make their way around, and/or given a guide(whether they be a Being or familiar), or a cane to feel around with as you step. For those with lost limbs, there's a number of different prosthetics to choose from, and there are special prosthetics for different jobs and activities(including wings!).

In regards to technology, think steampunk-esque. Tech such as robotic prosthetics, arcane-powered machines, airships, explosives, and simple firearms such as pistols, bayonets, and shotguns are craftable items.

Tharcanas are enchanted items, all with differing abilities. Some examples would be a piece of jewelry that immediately returns to the owner of it's ever stolen, a small orb that gives off light when needed, a flute that puts listeners to sleep, bracers that give the wearer super strength, etc.

Being Biology & Info

Dragons and Lungs

Dragons and Lungs have a rather… chaotic biology, to say the least. While they can't be classified into several distinct races, almost every dragon or lung family has something unique about their pedigree. For example, some families may be able to grow plant life on themselves, or breathe fire, or have insect-like wings, etc.

Curiously enough, some dragons and lungs have similar features, such as some dragons having manes down their topline, and lungs having small, vestigial wings.

No matter what their features are, dragons are the largest species, standing at around 7-8 ½ feet at the shoulder. They are typically scaled, with at least one pair of wings, and at least one horn.

Lungs, on the other hand, are only slightly taller than the average mageia, but have long, snake-like bodies. They have fur and/or scales, with a mane down their topline/around their head like a lion. They usually have at least one horn.

Mageia

Mageia are huge creatures(the average mageia is about 6 ½ feet at the shoulder) with a canine-like head filled with sharp teeth, front paws(or claws, or talons) back hooves(can be one toed or cloven) a horse-like mane, and a lionel tail.

The mageia have seven races, each with their own unique features:

Longma biology

Pure longmas are mageia who share a common ancestor who was half dragon. All Longmas have at least one horn and draconic wings.

Pure longmas always have:

draconic wings

at least one horn

Longmas can have:

scales somewhere other than the topline, wings, and tail

scales along their topline

serpentine tails

draconic fins

Additional info

Famously pompous and devoted to individualism, Longmas are proud, innovative, and fiercely passionate.

Traditionally classist, recent years have seen the ladder to success grow more accessible, but the line between nobility and commoners remains distinct and nearly impossible to cross.

Longmas consider themselves the ideal and dismiss other mageia as uncultured, barbaric entities.

The gap between Sahar's civilian classes is significant, with the nobility sitting comfortably at the top of the ladder. The Nobility are revered, or at the very least begrudgingly respected, by the lower classes. Their political significance is rivaled only by their implied wealth, which may or may not be as grand as an individual noble claims. Nobles are the only longmas who have surnames, portrayed by their House. While there is some wiggle room for wealthy commoners to rub shoulders with the elite, they are unlikely to be accepted as an equal.

Re'em biology

Re'em are readily identified by their horns, which range from the traditional single spiral to jagged monstrosities, sometimes made of gemstone and metal.

Pure re'em always have:

horn(s), typically on the head.

Pure re'em can have:

Horns made of minerals such as precious gemstones, metals, glass or rock

Gemstone/metal attributes

Additional info

The re'em of Lux are proud people, known for their prowess in battle. Thus, friendly sparring is a common pastime for young re'em, though older re'em enjoy the activity as well.

When a re'em dies, a replica of their horn is carved and shaped from the same gemstone/metal that their real horn was made from. Simply painting a clay sculpture is an alternative to those with simple keratin horns.

Although the re'em have a reputation in other kingdoms as being uneducated, simplistic brutes, intellectual prowess is lauded, and complex, strategy-based games are enjoyed in households.

A single back hoof stomp is a more "aggressive" greeting, and thus is conducted by soldiers and rowdy adolescents, the harder/louder the more impressive.

Dryad biology

A pureblooded dryad is identified by the plant or animal life that thrives from their body. Plant life usually goes through seasonal changes or stagnates at full bloom, but there are always anomalies. A depressed or sick dryad usually suffers from wilted, or even withered growth.

Pure Dryads always have:

plantlife (or plant-esque, such as coral, bark, rocks/minerals/gemstones, etc.) growing from their body

Dryads can have:

extra hair (such as an extended mane down their top line).

antlers.

gemstones.

bark or rock like texture on their body.

Additional info

When hunting and farming, no part of the plant or animal goes to waste. Anything one does not eat is made into jewelry, tools, or simply fertilizer for the next batch of crops.

Outsiders are welcomed, but watched carefully. The dryads of Alam are hospitable and friendly to all, but won't hesitate to give you the boot if you choose violence.

The native mageia of Taiao live in peace with the environment, never taking more than what they need. Wastefulness, in any capacity, is not tolerated. What you take from the land is a blessing, and should be treated as such.

The High Sage is the religious leader of Alam. They interpret signs seemingly sent by the Seraph themself, predict the success of the next year/harvest, and make sure traditions are followed, and outdated ones are updated. The Council are the political leaders, and do most of the paperwork, overseeing official events, recounting population, distributing resources, etc.

Peryton biology

All pureblooded perytons will have at least one set of wings. Feathered wings are the most common, but there are plenty of individuals who sport wings reminiscent of bats, and rarer still are the individuals who grow insect-like wings.

Pure perytons always have:

at least one set of wings(wings can be feathered, bat-like, or insect based)

Perytons can have:

feathering on the body.

feathers in place of a mane or tail.

more than one set of wings.

Additional info:

The perytons are proud, loyal, and cunning, and reside in a nation shrouded in mystery. While often misunderstood, they have a rich history and culture that defines them.

There is so much freestanding land in Vjetar that it is commonplace just to petition for a small plot to build on, and more often than not, it will be granted.

Most families in Sirocco are rather large, as couples generally have anywhere from three to seven children.

The Divine is the kingdom's spiritual leader, acting as the conduit through which the last Seraph makes their will known, while the clerics act as the kingdom's clergy and healers. While the Divine rarely leaves the Holy Temple of the Seraph, and never leaves the great city of Gisa, Clerics live all throughout the nation and assist where the Divine can not.

Qilin biology

The Qilin is immediately recognizable by the presence of body scales and antlers. This race is almost entirely resilient to heat.

Pure qilins always have:

at least one antler, though typically two.

scaling somewhere on their body.

Qilins can have:

antlers that resemble various different deeror antelope.

Additional info

Qilins of Hariq are hardy survivors, a family of mostly nomadic individuals joined together by their mutual love and respect for every member of the Sear.

Humble, accepting, and naive, these gentle mageia are trusting of others to a sometimes dangerous fault. Though they make up the smallest population, they are not to be trifled with: every member has received some form of combat training, and their desert home is a frightful place to wage war.

The traditional qilin would die for their virtues and the safety of another.

Deeply spiritual and fixated on being one with and coexisting with the world, the qilin ways are mystical and rooted in their religion.

Kelpie biology

Kelpies will always possess two forms that they are able to shift between: a land form for traversing terrain, and a water form that allows them to swim and breathe underwater. The aquatic half of a kelpie can be based on fish, cetaceans, octopi, seals, or any other marine creature.

Pure kelpies always have:

a land form.

a water form.

Kelpies can have (in both forms):

fins and scales.

a fishtail.

stingers, tentacles, barbels - anything that correlates to their aquatic animal(s) really.

bioluminescence.

Additional info

Kelpies are famously the most accepting of outsiders, and thus hybrids are not a rare sight in Ngaru.

They are skilled soldiers, fishers, and sailors, but extremely superstitious. Angering the last Seraph is said enough to damn you and your family for generations.

While they are accepting of outside races, they stay as distant as they possibly can from the other nations, and try not to get mixed up in their politics.

As a collective community, Ngaru generally works together to keep themselves in check to prevent interference from the dragons.

Nix biology

Though they lack the fantastical features of their counterparts, there is beauty in simplicity. Rare genetic mutations can give this race additional eyes or even visible auras.

Additional info

Since nixes lack any interesting features, they're seen as boring, tasteless individuals, which is far from the truth.

They're secretive and selective on who they let into the Underground, and fewer ever get to see the capitol city.

The nation is built on a sense of community, and secrets rarely stay hidden for long.

A lot of nixes travel the continents of Cor Meum in hopes of finding wealth elsewhere, and it isn't uncommon to find a travelling Nix merchant setting up shop in the streets in a completely different continent than their own.

Hybrids

Opinions on hybrids vary from kingdom to kingdom. In Sahar, Lux, Sirocco, and Nihil, hybrids are frowned upon or at the very least judged, but in Alam, Hariq, and Ngaru, it's not as much of a big deal. Still, most hybrids are vagabonds, finding their place elsewhere, outside the binary kingdoms.

There is a rumor floating around that off the shore of the Wai Peninsula is a floating isle that is a safe haven for hybrids and wayward beings of the like, conducted by a longma with strange abilities and a gun-slinging nix. They're referred to as the Devil's Duo. Urban legend says that they're a pair of adopted siblings who took control of a ship that once hauled kidnapped sphinxes to slavery. Now, they recruit runaways and misfits, looting and raiding unsuspecting ships, whether they be in the water or the air. This group of misfits is called the Vindicators. The Duo's true names are unknown to all but this group.

Sphinxes

The Sphinxes are felines about the size of an Earth horse, with wings and talons like birds. They naturally belong to one of twelve clans, and usually communicate in a series of both feline and bird-like sounds(such as, but not limited to: chirps, hisses, meowing, cawing, roars, etc). This language is referred to as Dimali colloquially amongst the Sphinxes.

The Sa Clan

The vast desert sand dunes are occupied by the Sa, the smallest of all the clans. The Sa sphinxes closely resemble sand cats, but with a more slim face. They have longer fur that sprouts between their toes to protect their feet from the hot surface sand. Sa culture surrounds on how precious water is, treating water wells as sacred locations. The Sa worship snake spirits, and have elaborate hunting rituals for the rare giant serpents of the Sear.

The Ri Clan

The Ri are a very reclusive clan, preferring to hide deep in their forests surrounded by ancient trees and spirits. They are typically much smaller than the average sphinx, and display dark colors with rich reds on their fur. They have small, "kitten-like" faces with mildly fluffy tails. The Ri are adept with magic, often hoarding their secrets from outsiders. It is said that they have a close connection with the lungs, which is where they derive their magical knowledge.

The Tas Clan

The Tas live in the tropical rainforests of the Wai peninsula. They're the most colorful and vibrant of the sphinxes, with an endless range of fur colors and patterns. Their wings are similar to cockatoos. These sphinxes have a special fondness for feather and fur dyes, and can produce every conceivable color(including UV reactive and glowing dyes).

The Fa Clan

They occupy Ledas, the snow covered isle to the north of Cor Meum. This clan is nomadic, wandering their large territory to hunt and sustain themselves. They're the only sphinxes that hunt whales, more specifically the ivory B'Eshuul whales. These sphinxes have long, white fur and are similar to Norwegian Forest cats. They are so similar physiologically to their slightly southern neighbors, the Noh, that they might be considered a subgroup of them.

The Noh Clan

To the southern part of the Ledas are the vast pine forests, the home of the Noh Clan. Like the Fa, they have long fur and resemble Norwegian Forest cats, only their fur is more darkly colored. Both are also large, tough, and cold-resistant. With dark colors, keen instincts, and incredible strength, they make excellent hunters and warriors.

The Wen Clan

The sphinxes of the Wen occupy an island southwest of Cor Meum dominated by ancient red trees and volcanic activity. While they tend to be more disconnected from the other clans, it's not entirely by choice. There are many rumors about the Wen that make even dragons fear them. From their close connection to volcanism, to the idea they are spirit possessed, or possibly immortal. Tall and graceful, the sphinxes of this clan bear pale fur and sleek, noble eyes. They also have unique feather arrangements and tufted ears, which adds to their exotic profile. They have a knack for creating delicate and beautifully crafted jewelry and adornments.

The Fen Clan

The Fen sphinxes occupy the coastal cliffs of the Vjetar plateau and the islands surrounding it. Characterized by their bright orange colorization, they are shipbuilders and explorers. Having mastered the art of navigation, they bring goods and news from distant islands that are untouched by any of the four Beings. Sphinxes of Fen have more narrow, elongated wings similar to seabirds. This clan has close ties to the Noc, who have provided star charts to them for generations.

The Noc Clan

The Noc are loosely based in the mountains around the continent, mostly nomadic and nocturnal. The sphinxes of this clan are very owl-like, with large eyes and wings built for stealth. They are known to be great astronomers. They are often traders of secrets and information.

The Pel Clan

The clan of Pel occupy a large swath of land between the Sear and Taiao. Tricksters at heart, they are fond of poisons, venoms, and weaving. Mythology for the Pel surrounds storms and lightning, and the most impressive thunderstorms can be found in their territory. Though they're tricksters at heart, their elixirs are mainly used for medicine crafting. They are excellent runners for their species as well, mastering the art of long distance travel.

The Ku Clan

The Ku Clan make their homes in the northernmost point in the Sear, and their territory is a mix between red canyons and pine forests. They tend towards a rusty red color in the canyons, but to the north their coat coloring is grey and ticked. The typical Ku home is an elaborate, carved out chamber in the canyon walls, often with multiple chambers. After many generations of the practice, masonry and stonework are common skills. The Ku territory is rich with salt deposits, which is mined and sold to generate some of the greatest wealth amongst all the sphinx clans of the continents.

The Mal Clan

The sphinxes of Mal inhabit the dense mangrove and marshes between Wai and Taiao. They're the largest clan next to the Fa and Noh, with short fur in different shades of brown, and large, webbed wings. These sphinxes have the unusual ability to breathe underwater, and have developed fins on their topline, webbed talons, and a fish-like tail. Even though they're big clunky, these fins make them surprisingly aerodynamic, making them some of the best fliers amongst the sphinxes. They worship fish and water serpent spirits, and have a deep connection to the winged snakes of the swamps called amphipteres.

The Lin Clan

A mysterious, secretive clan who dwells in perpetual darkness beneath the surface of Cor Meum. They are very much bat-like, with large, beady eyes, huge ears, and bat-like wings that have finger-like appendages at the top to help them grip the cave walls. Their patron spirit is the Iron Root Spirit, also called the Mirror Tree. On the surface, it looks like a normal tree, but its roots take form to grow another tree seemingly growing from the cavern ceiling. Stories say that it talks to all of those able to listen, and will sometimes bestow the iron legs of their ancestor, Diersha. Rumored to be extinct, the Lin Clan spends their days mining and crafting prosthetics, unbothered by the world above… and blissfully ignorant of its current state.

Enslaved Sphinxes

Sphinxes that are owned by dragon nobility. Most are born into slavery, while others are clan sphinxes kidnapped by slave traders. Those who are born into slavery do not typically have any specific features to any one clan, but rather a cluster of hybrids of sick, selective "breeding" over generations. Many have grown accustomed to this life, and keep their heads low in order to survive. The existence of these slaves are exactly the reason why most sphinx clans keep far away from the other Beings.

#she's finally done @~@#Joka #Joka story #worldbuilding #fantasy world #xeno-hiraeth #mageia #dragons #lungs #sphinxes #racism tw #classism tw #colonization tw #genocide tw #slavery tw

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lonelypond · 3 years

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Moonlight Becomes You: Apocalypse Midnight Dance Party, Ch. 24

NicoMaki, NozoEli, RinPana, KanaMari, YoshiMaru, YouDia, Love Live/Love Live Sunshine, 1.9K, 24/?

Summary: Rin arrives on the scene, Nico ignores the problem, Hanamaru prepares for a trip.

Rin To The Rescue

“MAKI!!!!”

Maki was sitting in the room You had taken her to, staring at her phone, wondering what she could say to Nico, wondering why Nico wasn’t texting her, angry that Nico could just leave. Maki had been there through Nico’s rabid feral roommate crisis and this, this...Nico had just gone out the door.

“MAKI!!!!!!”

Rin? Here?

Pounding on the door.

“Maki?!?!?? Are you in there? Are you arrested?!!???! I’ll break you out.”

It was Rin. Only Rin would be yelling things like that in the middle of a police station. Maki almost giggled, forgetting Nico for a moment.

“Get in here.” Maki opened the door, grabbed Rin and dragged her inside, “Why are you here?”

“You left me in Canada.” Anger was a rare look on Rin’s kind face, but Maki could feel the glare.

“It was an emergency.”

“Leaving me in Canada is an emergency, Maki.”

Maki slumped, “I’m sorry, Rin.” Head in hands, Maki was torn between aggravation at Rin here confronting her and relief that Rin was here, confronting her. Wait…”How are you here?”

“Kayo-chin tracks our phones.”

“WHAT?!!!” Maki was on her feet again, looming, but Rin didn’t back away.

“That’s not the problem.” Rin wagged a finger under Maki's nose.

“That is the problem.”

“Why are you under arrest?”

“I’m not.”

“You were locked up.”

Maki sighed. Rin was a very literal person.

“I did that.”

“Why?”

Maki didn’t even know where to start. Why was she here? Nico left...Dia, Dia…”Oh gods.”

Maki closed her eyes and sank to the floor. “Mama.” Dia had called her Mama. And Eli had three tails and Maki’s mother was buddy buddy with cryptid central’s favorite cop…

“Maki, what’s wrong?” Rin was sitting beside her, only concern in her voice. Of all Maki’s blessings, the biggest was her friends. Rin and Hanayo had been there so many times. All the music Maki could ever write couldn’t repay them for helping her acknowledge what she wanted in her life.

Maki always told them the truth.

“Dia thinks I’m her mother.”

“Who’s Dia?”

Oh right, Canada. Maki stood, “C’mon, it’ll be easier to show you.”

“Oooh, field trip.”

“There’s a lab. Don’t blow anything up.”

Rin saluted.

###

Nico paid the driver, forgot to tip, or smile, or speak. Step out of the car, walk to door, unlock door, open door, throw phone into couch where the vibrations would be absorbed and Nico could ignore them, head to room, pack for trip. Be a professional. Maki obviously didn’t know anything about being a professional with her house that could be used for an action movie set and gigs she could have her lawyer on retainer cancel at a whim. Not professional. Nico would never cancel, unless it was a family emergency…family...

No. Not going there. Nico survived by focusing. And Nico always survived. And thrived. Everything would work out.

Nico wasn’t sure if that was the buzz of her phone she heard before she slammed her bedroom room door.

###

Hanamaru enjoyed visiting Riko. Although this occasion was not so pleasant, with Yoshiko so worried. But Hanamaru always relished opening the shop door and stepping out into a future where more care was being taken of people and the planet. That care, that hope made the entire atmosphere more...sparkling, like water droplets in sunlight over cresting waves, a tingling exhilaration. But Yoshiko’s nightmares were concerning. The candles and incense as Hanamaru entered her meditative state had soothed the worries, just long enough for her to focus on Riko, the prophet's bright tone dampened by anxiety. As Hanamaru stood there, centuries of books a fortress, ready to leave this safe space to meet Yohane’s prophet, she wondered what would be changed on the other side of the door.

Open, step out, breathe in, the sparkle gone, replaced by the slightest tang of ash burn. Then hurry.

###

Dia stared. Younger Rin was exactly the same as the Rin she knew, all bouncy energy and pushing Maki ahead of her into rooms and adventures.

“So where’s this Dia?”

How had Rin got here and what had Maki told her? Probably everything. Rin had always known more about Maki than anyone other than Nico. Dia wasn’t sure if she should actually look up from where she was titrating a test mixture to add to a milliliter of Eli’s blood. Nope, she was just going to keep glancing shyly.

Rin hmmed, extravagantly, hand on her chin, circling Dia. “No eye contact, tall, smart, mole like your mom…” And then Dia was in a crushing hug.

“Bzzzzzttttt…let go!!!” Dia jumped back off the stool, dropping the glass burette she was using. Startled, Eli started whining, Nozomi trying to shush her.

“She’s a Nishikino, all right. All prickly.” Rin hugged Dia again, “Welcome to the family. Your Aunt Kayo-chin will be so excited to meet you.”

Maki rolled her eyes. Rin being here made everything less strange but a lot noisier. Dia seemed to have relaxed slightly.

Rin threw questions out, rapid fire. “So are you from Norway? Do you like lamb and cabbage stew? Did it hurt?”

“What?!!!!!???” Dia hissed.

Of course Rin went there. Maki doubled over with laughter. Dia looked so confused. “There is still no such thing as mystical monkey time travel, Rin.”

Rin, a ridiculously smug look on her face, raised and lowered a hand pointed at Dia and then widened her eyes at Maki, sticking out her tongue.

Dia giggled.

###

You hustled down the hall. She'd done all the Dia errands she could while here and now it was time to check on her friends. Who were doing exactly what she expected. Not coping well. Yoshiko anyway. You's office was way too small for Yoshiko’s increasing cloud of gloom and her worries over Dia. Kanan was her usual unruffled self, sitting at You’s computer, texting Mari and laughing at the memes Mari sent back.

“We’re all going to die.” Yoshiko muttered as soon as You entered.

“Cheerful.” You closed the door quickly.

“WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE!”

Yoshiko’s wings unfurled, slapping You on the cheek, Kanan glanced up, snapped a pic, and sent it to Mari.

Yoshiko, panic transforming into kinetic energy, was now hovering several inches off the floor that all of You’s loose paperwork was now occupying due to wing windspeed.

You grabbed Kanan’s phone, “Take her somewhere. Where’s Hanamaru?”

“ZURAMARU!!!!!!” A wail. “Zuramaru walks into a future that no longer exists, to risk all for a chance to gain wisdom from the prophet who sees into my dreams.”

“Riko.” You rubbed her forehead, cheek still stinging. “I’d like to take care of this with common sense, not more people ‘borrowed’ from the future.”

Kanan snorted, “Common sense lost the race when the dark angel here dropped her kidnap victim into the pool.”

“I didn’t kidnap her,” whining, “We could have had a simple chat, but she had to…”

You held up a hand, her voice edged with anger, “Just stop there, my friend, before I think too much about what you actually did to Dia.”

Yoshiko landed, wings pulled over her head, subdued.

Kanan leaned back in You's chair, arms behind her head. “Least it’s quieter in here now. Can I have my phone?”

“You are not helping. Please get Yoshiko out of here. I’m going to clear everybody but Dia out of the lab and try to do damage control.”

“Look cute. Use your adorable smile.” Kanan winked, “Charm her.”

“This is not a date.”

“You can’t date her, you can’t mix someone from the now now and someone from new then, or someone from the now then and someone from…” Yoshiko paused, temporarily choked up, confusion had put panic in a full nelson, “It’s a now no no.”

“I’m not dating anyone. I’m not interested in anyone. I’m just someone Dia doesn’t want to clock on the jaw.”

Kanan raised an eyebrow, but after a glance at the quivering Yoshiko decided to help You, not contradict her. She stood, her hand on the fallen angel's shoulder. “C’mon, Yoshiko, Hanamaru might be back by now. Mari says she dropped her off more than an hour ago.”

“See you later and tell her I said ‘hey.” You was half out the door, tossing Kanan her phone. “And text me what she finds out.”

“You.” Kanan sounded serious.

“Yeah?”

“Be careful.”

A grin and a cocky salute, “Ay Ay.”

###

There was a new person in the room. You counted again. Dia, Maki, three tailed Eli, Nozomi, and the new person. “Why is there a new person??”

“I’m Rin, Maki’s bestie. I rescued Maki from jail. Are you the cop?” Rin and Eli were nose to nose, and You couldn’t shake the sudden image of a ginger cat facing off against the Russian very mixed breed. “You’re pretty.” Rin reached for one of the tails. Eli swatted her. “And weird. Want to play fetch?”

“Rin.” Maki winced, glad Nico wasn’t here to hear that.

“What? She’s probably bored. Science is boring.”

“No, it’s not.” Dia muttered as she added to the list of things she needed You to acquire. “I need some more supplies.”

“Gimme the list.” You hopped over to the table.

“She seems helpful for a cop.” Rin was now standing next to Maki. Eli was following You. Nozomi seemed to be thinking.

“I’m a Coast Guard officer.”

“Lieutenant Commander and police liaison.” Dia slid her notepaper toward You.

“Why don’t we just call Mama?” Maki frowned at a stain on the wall, “There are much better labs at the hospital.”

You rubbed her hair, “Yeah, that might be a good option. We can just tell Dr. Nishikino we’re working on…”

“An antibody therapy.” Dia filled in.

“I thought you were working on a vaccine?”

“Those other cryptid blood samples you found and I tested had the same viral material as Eli’s. I think it’s much more prevalent in that population than anyone is aware so an antibody treatment would be of more immediate help.”

“So would anybody’s infected blood be good?” You asked.

Dia shook her head, “There’s something else in Eli’s blood. I think it’s helping her fight it.”

Maki sighed, “She is a lot calmer. Nico had me bring a muzzle…”

Eli growled a warning.

Maki held up both hands, “Sorry.”

“If I had a sample from when she had a single tail, it would be easier to isolate.”

“Is Eli in any danger?” Nozomi asked softly. Everyone jumped a little.

“I believe she’s past the riskiest stage.” Dia smiled at Nozomi.

“Will she stay like this?” Nozomi knelt, to gather an eager Eli into her arms.

Dia glanced at You, then spoke confidently, “The Eli I know is in complete control.”

You threw up her hands, “Got the winning lottery numbers for tomorrow? I need a change of luck. Yoshiko’s rubbing off on me.”

Rin petted You on the head. “You’re fun. And cute." Rin gave Maki a thumb's up. "I like our new friends, Maki.”

Maki was going to cry if she laughed and Nico still wasn’t calling or texting. Maybe that room You had taken her to was still empty.

“I’ll go call Mama.”

Dia watched her leave. Rin came around the lab table to give Dia a hug, “She’ll be okay.”

Dia nodded, desperate not to cry. You pulled a clean, delicate handkerchief embroidered with little flowers from somewhere and handed it over. “We got this.”

It was the wink that did it, launching Dia into full tears into Rin’s shoulder. You should have just kept quiet.

A/N: May

#NicoMaki #DiaYou #Nishikino Maki #Yazawa Nico #kunikida hanamaru #tsushima yoshiko #Kurosawa Dia #Watanabe You #Ayase Eli #Tojo Nozomi #Hoshizora Rin #Love Live #Apocalypse Midnight Dance #NozoEli #Science #Time Travel #Kim Possible #norway #Matsuura Kanan

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qualityretainingwalls-blog · 4 years

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centralcoastretainingwalls · 27 days

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cincinnatusvirtue · 5 years

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Let’s talk tactics: Highland Charge

The Scottish Highlands historically has maintained its own unique culture which touches on virtually all aspects of life, food, drink, fashion, family, religion and even warfare. In the art of warfare the Scottish Highlands contributed in two ways one its rugged topography leading to a guerilla style of warfare and two in its infantry tactics and one that conjures almost a romantic vision, the Highland Charge. Before we discuss the tactic itself, we need to know the history of the region from ancient times until the modern era and how topography and tradition shaped the Highland Charge.

Historically, Scotland has been viewed by many an invader to be wild and untamed land. This was true of the Romans during the age of Roman Britain from the 1st-4th centuries AD. The Roman legions encountered a number of various Celtic tribes that caused them troubles in the modern day regions of England, Wales and the Lowlands of Scotland. The areas that often leant the Romans the most difficulty were areas of rugged topography, namely the Britons of Wales in particular the Ordovices and Silures of the mountains of North Wales and valleys of South Wales respectively. Topography in war is a sometimes underappreciated part of strategy and it took many years and much loss of life and the development of forts and garrisons to finally subdue these tribes in Wales. The same can be said of the Highlands of Scotland. The Lowlands known to the Romans as Caledonia was conquered but this remained the greatest extent of Rome’s northward expansion. To the north in the Highlands with its rugged mountains, hills and many glens were a related but distinct Celtic people, the Picts, who spoke a language identified as Celtic but somewhat distant from the Common Brittonic southern tribes.

The Romans associated the Picts as pirates in later Roman Britain along the coasts and fierce warriors in the interior of the country, conducting raids and disappearing into the Highlands before the Romans could send legions after them. Rome’s response to this was to build and garrison Hadrian’s Wall along the modern English/Scottish border. The Picts were never subdued by Rome unlike the rest of Britain and this was to have a ramifications overtime and echoes throughout history in the Highlands in which they resided.

In time as the lower portions of Britain saw the Romans retreat, leaving the Romano-Britons to their own defense and the subsequent establishment of the Welsh and Cornish as distinct Celtic nations so to would the Picts meld with their fellow Gaels from Ireland and Western islands of Scotland’s coast giving birth to the modern Scots. While the southern Britons in the start of the Middle Ages faced the Anglo-Saxon threat. The Scots merged into their own kingdoms with the Gaels becoming overlords of the Picts and eventually both Celtic confederations synthesizing into one distinct entity.

In time Scotland, like the rest of British Isles was subject to Viking raids and the establishment of Viking petty kingdoms, but unlike England and even parts of Ireland, Scotland’s Viking rule was largely relegated to the Hebrides, Orkney and Shetland islands on its periphery, the Highlands and much of lower Scotland remained the Scots Gaelic speaking land that forged out of the blending with the Picts. The topography of the Highlands as always contributed to this isolation.

As the Middle Ages wore on, the Kingdom of England would see troubles in its attempts to subdue Scotland, especially of note was the Scottish Wars of Independence against England under Edward I and Edward II of England. Despite some English successes their overall rule of Scotland remained somewhat limited due to in part to Scotland’s difficult to manage geography and its Clan system.

The Clan system had been a tradition found in Scotland and Ireland throughout the centuries, an important dynamic that social groups were built around. The Highland clans had a fierce sense of independence from both the English and Scottish crowns and from each other at times, alliances were formed and rivalries as well. Murder, warfare alternating with peace and cooperation were part of Clan lifestyle throughout the centuries. The romantic and distinct image of the kilt and tartan clad Highlander Clans really forged in the 15th-17th centuries. Gradually, English rule, settlement and influence over the Lowlands of Scotland lead to the spread of the English language being spoken along with a distinct derivative Germanic language called simply “Scots” quite separate from this the Highlanders retained their Scots Gaelic language and Celtic traditions. Once again geographic isolation a contributing factor.

The Highlander Clans alternated their allegiance to the Crown of Scotland when it suited them. Some clans would rebel against the Crown while others supported them, less out of honor bound duty to the king and more pragmatically for the chance to rid themselves of a rival and gain riches and territorial expansion for their own clan. Clans were led by chieftains who in time were granted titles of nobility and rewarded with wealth and land for their service to the Crown. Highlander Scots became famed for their prowess in combat and became mercenaries throughout Europe, serving in various armies at various times. Some Highlanders became involved in England’s conquest of Ireland, namely after the Elizabethan era establishment of the Plantation of Ulster in the North of Ireland, Highlanders would side with both the native Gaelic Irish and English and Lowlander Scots depending on motivation ranging from cultural and familial ties to money and the promise of wealth. Ultimately, the English gained control over Ireland and the Scottish Highlanders added to the mix with Lowlanders and English to form the Scots-Irish or Ulster-Scots community of Northern Ireland.

By the late 17th century Scotland had much upheaval due to Stuarts of Scotland becoming the royal dynasty of England as well. They remained separate kingdoms under one monarch. The War of Three Kingdoms and the English Civil War along with religious fervor all caused Highlanders to alternatively suffer and profit, largely depending on which winner they would back. By the year 1688, James II of England/VII of Scotland with his Catholic leanings was overthrown and in the so called Glorious Revolution by his Protestant daughter Mary and her husband and his Dutch nephew and her cousin William, Prince of Orange and Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic. They were crowned William and Mary of England and a de-facto personal union now existed between the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, Ireland and the Dutch Republic. James II/VII fled to France and later to Ireland to conjure up support among the Irish Catholic populace in hopes of regaining the throne, he also raised some support from loyal Scots and French soldiers too. This started the Williamite War, the British theater of the Nine Years War. William III of England now forged an army of Protestant forces made of English, Scottish, Irish, French, Dutch and Danish troops. Famously in 1690 at the Boyne River north of Dublin, Ireland, James and William’s armies met. However, the better trained Protestant forces won the day and James fled Ireland ultimately returning to France. However, he never accepted in theory that he or his direct Catholic descendants were not the rightful rulers of Britain. This was to have repercussions in the form of the Jacobite Rebellions and it would play out its final stages with the Highlander Scots and the famed Highlander charge.

The House of Stuart tried to regain the British throne in exile with French support in the early 18th century. William and Mary had no children and they were succeeded by James other daughter, Anne. Anne like Mary and William was raised Protestant and under her rule Great Britain was formed with the 1707 merging of the Crowns of Scotland and England officially as one with a single parliament based in London as opposed to a separate Scottish one as had been the case for the last century. Anne in turn passed away without an heir and was replaced by her closest Protestant relative, the Elector of Hanover from Germany, now George I of Great Britain.

The Jacobites were supporters of the Stuart royalist cause in exile and hoped to restore them to the throne of Britain. Jacobites were so named for the Latin name for James was Jacobus. Jacobitism as an ideology had Stuart restoration as it central tenant but the individual motivations were varied largely depending on the country the Jacobite supporter was located in. In Ireland, it was support for a Catholic monarch in and the promise of religious toleration that James II had granted earlier. In England and Wales a Catholic minority showed Jacobite support but largely its greatest support was found among royalist conservatives or Tories who believed in the divine rights of kings and felt the Glorious Revolution had been an unlawful usurpation and was in violation of what they saw as God’s natural order. Nevertheless, the vast majority of England and Wales were Protestant and anti-Catholic so it is a matter of academic debate among historians just how strong Tory support of Jacobitism really was. In Scotland the reasons were also varied. For some, the Jacobite cause was in solidarity amongst the Scottish Catholic minority. For Highlanders, their own feudal Clan system prized a tradition of feudal service to a landlord, namely the King. Despite the Highlanders varied legacy of service and opposition to the King was a matter of pragmatism but the essential relationship between Highlander Clans and the Crown was still rooted in a traditional belief in the divine rights of a monarch as feudal landlord of all Scotland and the Clan chieftains were loyal subjects granted a certain degree of autonomy in exchange for their recognition of King’s nominal authority and service to the Crown in times of need. This established a looser form of nobility than the later English influenced tradition. However, the traditional ideological and religious causes were in reality only the surface for Highlander support for the Stuart cause, as always economics, a sense of autonomy coupled with what they saw as a defense against an encroachment on their way of life was the primary motivation. Opposition to the Act of Union 1707 which united Scotland and England into one nation under a common monarch and Parliament was viewed by some Highlander Clans, particularly in the northwest of Scotland as to the detriment of Scotland namely for economic reasons and due to certain laws barring Scottish nobility from serving in the House of Lords in London, opposition to the Union was also strong in Edinburgh, the modern capital of Scotland and seat of its own Parliament.

From their positions in France and later Rome, Italy the Catholic Stuarts with French funding often tried to stir rebellions to their cause back in Britain. From 1689-1745 a number of Jacobite Rebellions occurred with the goal of Stuart restoration being central to their goals. 1715 and the final one of 1745-46 were the most notable, particularly for their support among the Highlander Scots.

1715′s rebellion was a clash of Highlanders in some ways. Under John Erksine, 6th Earl of Mar Highlander clans were rallied to the Jacobite cause and army was assembled with took over the Highlands and spread on down to Stirling Castle in the heart of Scotland. They had declared James II’s son James Francis Edward Stuart the new King of Scots, he was also referred to as the “Old Pretender”. In opposition to him was the Hanoverian British government and its commander in Scotland, John Campbell, 2nd Duke of Argyll. Campbell was a well known Highlander Clan with the Earls and Dukes of Argyll as its primary chieftain, the Campbells of Argyle had become very wealthy and politically well connected, perhaps the most well connected Highlander Clan in Scotland by the 18th century. Argyll led his force against Mar the Battle of Sheriffmuir in November of 1715. Both sides would claim victory but it was inconclusive, the Highlanders fought on both sides of the battle, largely depending on which clan one was a member. Ultimately, the Jacobites were beaten at the later Battle of Preston and the cause was frustrated in its goal once more.

1745 would see the most famous Jacobite Rebellion, it was an outgrowth of the concurrent War of the Austrian Succession. During the greater European wide War of the Austrian Succession, France and Prussia formed a coalition with Spain and other German and Italian states against Austria, Great Britain, the Electorate of Hanover and the Dutch Republic with other German supporters and limited Russian support. The new Jacobite leader was Charles Edward Stuart, known to the Jacobites as the “Young Pretender” after his father and to the Scots he was affectionately called “Bonnie Prince Charlie”. Charles was smuggled into Scotland to start an uprising when British military power there was weakest due to the bulk of Britain’s military being on the continent in war against the French coalition. Charles had hoped for French support to help knock Britain out of the war and raise him to the throne but bad weather prevented this from happening. Nevertheless, he gathered local support mostly from the Highlanders of northwestern Scotland.

He captured Edinburgh and was declared King and subsequently the Highlander Jacobites routed the Hanoverian British government forces in September 1745 at the Battle of Prestonpans, thanks to the Highland Charge. Further success was later had at Falkirk Muir in January 1746, once again the Highland Charge was instrumental to Jacobite success. However, by spring of 1746 the good fortunes of the Jacobite cause was fading. That winter they had marched into England toward London which caused a panic. They made it as far as Derby but realizing the French support they long hoped for never materialized and now facing a large, disciplined and experienced government army fresh from war on the continent, under the command of Prince William, Duke of Cumberland and son of King George II, the Jacobites returned to Scotland in high spirits but achieving no last strategic outcome. With Cumberland in pursuit the Jacobites retreated to the Highlands themselves, there they hoped to blend in and lead the government force on to ground of their own choosing where they could defeat them decisively.

Since 1689, government forces had been often been overrun by the Highland charge tactic in battle. Largely this was due to lack of discipline in government troops and the Highlanders fighting on topography of that catered to their advantage. The Duke of Cumberland was aware that these elements had lead to government defeat in the past, he was not apt to repeat the mistake of past commanders. The battle that finally took place in April 1746, known as the Battle of Culloden, fought near Inverness in the Scottish Highlands was not fought in the hilly or mountainous terrain that favored the Highlanders but instead on a boggy moor ground which slowed their advance in the face of modern weaponry (muskets and canister shot from cannons), the result was an hour long battle culminating in the last Highland Charge in history and the last major battle on British soil. It ended in bloody fashion for the Jacobites, Charles was thoroughly defeated, though he escaped Scotland back to the continent, disguised in drag. His Highlander force was butchered in the aftermath of the battle and so with Culloden died the Highland Charge tactic and effectively the Jacobite cause with which it had become so linked...

The Highland Charge tactic itself was essentially a infantry shock tactic. It required speed and relied on overwhelming force, it was psychological weapon as much as a physical weapon. Enhancement to its success was the charge being initiated downhill from the high ground head on into the enemy’s front or flank. The Scottish Highlands being rife with hilly and mountainous countryside, were a logistical nightmare for large armies used to fighting pitched battles, a lesson the Romans on down to the English had learned. In turn, they were the perfect place for a loose fighting formation like the Highlander Clans which operated as functionally a guerilla army against their opponents, they possessed local knowledge of the terrain and could blend in to hide from the enemy and then ambush and disappear seemingly at will. The tactic developed overtime from the original Scottish Highland tactic of fighting in tight formation. The Scots overwhelmed the enemy with their ferocity in battle, heavy weaponry and unsettling war cries. in battle they fought with battle axes or two-handed heavy swords called claymores. By the 17th century with weapons shifting to gunpowder based firearms and artillery, these tight formations were becoming vulnerable to ranged weapons which could cause many casualties at a distance. The Highlanders instead adapted the formation to one more reliant on terrain, looser and faster in format overall but still using the goal of traditional overwhelming force with unsettling war cries. The weapons and clothing were also adapted to better accommodate the charge. Instead of a claymore, the Highlanders carried a single handed broadsword which was large but lighter, they also carried a targe shield for defense and a smaller dirk thrusting dagger. Their clothing below the waist was reduced to a kilt.

The Highland charge was launched downhill on firm open ground at great speed in a wedge formation with loud war cries to raise the attacker’s morale as well as frighten a hopefully inexperienced and ill-disciplined enemy. The charge was meant to hit the enemy as high speed and break their lines with the “savagery” of their fighting, sometimes the mere sight and sound was enough unnerve and overrun the enemy. The Highland charge always anticipated a number of casualties due to a initial musket volley from the enemy, but the speed would be too much for them to reload in an era of single shot firearms. By the time the enemy was reloading they were struggling unnerved by the wails of the Highlanders and already being engaged with swords and dagger hacking and stabbing them to death. In many cases like at Killiecrankie, Prestonpans and Falkirk Muir the charge was successful due to the essential elements, speed, terrain and ill-disciplined enemies. Psychologically terrifying and well timed it proved to be a classic shock tactic. It shortcomings however were the danger of modern ranged weapons like artillery and muskets hitting the enemy at range, especially those fired by a professional disciplined army not inclined to turn and run at the sound and fury of the charge. Additionally, its implementation over broken ground or flat terrain or a combination of two in the face of modern weaponry like at Culloden could yield fatal consequences. The Highland charge has its roots and a resemblance in the ancient shock charge tactics of the Scots Celtic forbearers of Britain against Roman legions and other enemies. It embodied an ancestral connection and became a romantic image in and of itself, forever etched in the minds of historical memory when we think of the Scottish Highlands, kilted-tartan clad men running at full speed with sword, shield and dagger in hand, screaming like a banshee right into the enemy’s front, cutting down their opponent with fierce and wild abandon. The ultimate image of the barbarian fighting to preserve his way of life and freedom in the face of modernity. That’s the kind of image Killiecrankie and Culloden conjure, the image Walter Scott in the later Victorian era somewhat revived. The ultimate picture of Scottish romanticism on the battlefield...

#military history #scotland #romanticism #culloden #jacobites #highlands #1745 #1715 #1689 #britain #celts #infantry tactics #shock tactic #highlander

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bryonysimcox · 5 years

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Quenching my thirst for Urbanity: Week 7, Spain

Wow. It’s been one of those weeks that have been crammed full of stuff - from arriving into València to now feeling settled in the city, from connecting with new people and clients to rekindling my love for urban exploring. It’s been a week full of sunshine and surprises.

My first thought is that in light of the current Covid-19 crisis, this blog feels truly ridiculous and self-indulgent. What started as a handful of people showing flu-like symptoms has escalated into a pretty scary global health threat, and I must admit I’ve gone from passing it off as ‘something that will blow over’ to really taking it seriously. I’m not into scaremongering, but I now see the potential impact of a virus like this on each and every one of us and on the liberties we are so used to.

All that considered, it still feels important to document our travels and to celebrate the good stuff that’s still happening. Life here in Spain feels fairly unaffected by the Corona virus at this stage (apart from a conference I attended today being about 75% empty), but we’re also following developments across the global stage where life really is being affected. I would at least say that it’s encouraging to see the way in which countries are rallying together and catalysing action to tackle this crisis (if only we could do the same for the climate crisis). Our own plans have been affected as we were headed to Italy next, but for now I’m going to focus on the last seven days that have passed here on the Spanish coast and which have marked our seventh week on the road. In reflecting on this I hope to send out a little ray of sunshine!

(image) The sun sets from our parking spot in Valencia and we’re thinking of friends and family around the globe.

This week started with our final day on the road coming into València. We were treated to a chilly ocean swim, a daytime wander around Castellón, and an adventurous evening drive up to an incredible panoramic camping spot.

On that first day of the week we woke up in an eerily deserted coastal spot, and then drove a little further south to ‘Playa Miami’ to have an ocean swim and a wash under the outdoor beach showers. Locals wrapped in layers walking past thought we were nuts, but were all pretty friendly and made us feel very much welcome - which is such a nice feeling when you’re in residential neighbourhoods and you’re concerned about being perceived as unwanted van-dwellers...

I was pretty chuffed to find a cheap refill for our gas bottle in Playa Miami too, half the price that we’d paid in France a month earlier. Spain is definitely a fair bit cheaper than France, not only in terms of fuel but also food shopping (which makes sense given that more fruit and vegetables are grown here). Restocked with supplies and setting off again, we continued southbound towards València, making our next stop at Castellón de la Plana for a lunch break.

I didn’t know much about Castellón, but George and I were enamoured by its character and spent a few chilled-out hours there.

(images, left to right) People-friendly streets with integrated bike lanes in Castellón, gorgeous orange blossom on our walk into the city, and one of a few murals I spotted and really enjoyed there.

The first thing we observed was how cool the city’s public transport was. The tree-lined boulevard we had parked on was a key spine providing access into the city, and while we opted to walk along its generous pavement, the road also offered a bus route and city bikes. The buses weren’t just any old buses though. They were electrified buses with movable electrical conductors which flipped up and down depending on if there were overhead powerlines. The bus effectively acted as a tram, moving in a dedicated lane and with raised stops with digitised signs.

Closer into the city, the buses merged with normal traffic lanes and (presumably) ran off batteries which store power from being charged by the overhead lines. The bikes were also pretty innovative - being the most basic design out of all the city bike schemes we’ve seen but clearly being well-kept and effective. Seeing places like Castellón, which isn’t even one of the major cities in Spain, simply offer inventive and effective urban mobility solutions as part of everyday life gets me even more frustrated about the state of transport in the UK and Australia. We could learn a thing or to from mainland Europe!

Walking from the edge of Castellón into the city centre and old town, our journey was a delightful multi-sensory experience. Orange trees blossomed, letting off a sweet aromatic smell, and electric buses left the streets peacefully quiet. The town itself boasted attractive historic buildings like the Cathedral and Theatre, with pedestrian-only lanes animated by the mid-afternoon lunch break (which sees shops shut down and cafes come to life between 2ish and 5pm or so). After a coffee and cake in a charming plaza, we hopped back into Suzi and continued on our way towards València.

Up a steep and sketchy road, our parking spot for that first night offered one of the most incredible views down towards València and across the ocean.

(images) Tackling the ascent to our camping spot to the north of Valencia. Not sure if George is loving the 4WDriving or fearing for his life!

In order to feel safe and secure we decided to park a fair way out of the city, and were not disappointed by the camping spot we chose on Park4Night. Suzi handled the rocky ascent really well (even when she was still in 2WD) and we finally reached the parking spot on El Picaio in the Parc Natural de la Serra Calderona, next to the Santuari de la Santisima Verge de la Medalla Miraculosa, a small catholic chapel atop the mount.

With a celebratory beer in hand, we watched the sun set over the ocean and looked into the distance at the city of València, beyond the rocky hill and the green expanses. I felt overjoyed to be in such a stunning spot and really cherish these moments which are free and yet bring us so much value.

(images, left to right) Walking to a vantage spot from our parking, a couple of celebratory beers at the top, and the chapel we parked next to.

On Wednesday, George and I drove into València. I visited once before back in 2012, but had very few memories of the place and didn’t really know what to expect this time. The main reason that this city was on our itinerary was cause of a guy I met through Twitter, four years back. Ramon is a Spanish economist and urbanist, who was undertaking some research in Australia back in 2016. He discovered me online and we were brought together by a shared interest in placemaking, eventually meeting for a drink along with one of his colleagues at the Bank Hotel in Newtown, Sydney. We have since stayed in touch, and I followed the impressive progress he was making as Chief Strategy Officer at the emerging ‘Marina de València’. The more I learnt about the waterfront project, the more it seemed that La Marina was an intriguing subject matter for a documentary, and as such it was arranged that we would come and stay in València to film.

Reconnecting with a like-minded individual like Ramon after meeting four years ago has been a wonderful affirmation of the power of networking, the internet, and sharing with others.

Not only will Ramon feature in this upcoming documentary about La Marina, a transformative project on the Mediterranean coast, but he has been the most welcoming host we could have asked for. He has hooked us up with a safe and well-appointed place to park up, which is a key consideration when staying in a city, and he’s been a friend and tour guide too, introducing us to so many passionate individuals and revealing this city’s incredible places and the stories behind them. If George and I decide to stay in València forever, it’s Ramon’s fault!

(images, left to right) Creamy skies over La Marina, our friend and urban strategist Ramon, and some of the new branding for the La Marina, which I’m really fond of.

Against the backdrop of this picturesque city, the week that has ensued has been a mix of really getting to know La Marina, the usual film editing and vanlife admin, working on some exciting commercial videography projects and exploring this new Spanish city.

We coincidentally picked the craziest time of year to come, when the city’s annual festival, ‘Las Fallas’, marks the start of spring.

We’ve signed up for the city’s bike hire scheme, which although a little heavy, are a really easy way to get around the city. It also really helps that there is an extensive network of bike lanes, well signed, separated from traffic and all joined up to one another. On Thursday we used the bikes to explore València by day, pairing a ride around iconic large-scale landmarks like the Ciudad de las Artes y Ciencias with a meander around more human-scaled, everyday places like the twisting streets near the Mercado Central and the old town. Other days have seen us cycle into the city at night, when the continuous cacophony of people setting off fireworks and festivities spilling out of community centres (‘las casales falleros’) marks the start of Las Fallas.

(images, left to right) One of the remaining city gates retained from Valencia’s historic city walls, wandering the streets during Fallas celebrations, and the Centre del Carme brought to life for a night-time concert.

Las Fallas is pretty nuts, a pagan festival which was reappropriated as a Catholic celebration and is now a mash-up of satire, religion and anything related to fires and fireworks. It’s just hard to believe the Valencianos sustain this level of partying and putting up with perpetual fireworks for more than two weeks...

On Saturday afternoon, we filmed a free concert at La Marina, one of many socially-oriented initiatives which make what could be an otherwise exclusive yacht-owners’ paradise a place for the citizens of València to come, hang out, and connect to the waterfront (of course, there are yachts here too, but the place just has a really open and inclusive vibe). After the concert, we took another bike ride into the city centre (about 30 mins from the Marina where Suzi is parked up), this time for a jam-packed evening which started with a free concert at the Centre del Carme contemporary art space and ended with tapas and a midnight tour around the city’s landmarks with Ramon. After a cycle back ‘home’ at 2:30am, with full bellies and hearts, I was reminded why I love the eclecticism and vitality of cities so much.

Visiting València has strengthened my passion for urbanism and that renewal has certainly been a highlight of the week.

Stepping away from my ‘career’ as a placemaker last year was a big decision for me, and a lot of my focus over the last twelve months has just been to get the van built and make this trip happen. I haven’t spent much time in a city since we were living in Sydney, where we had access to many of the assets and activities that urban life can offer. So spending a considerable amount of time here in a major city, and especially making a documentary about La Marina, a strategic urban development with placemaking it its heart, has got me super inspired again.

(images, left to right) George attracted to a camera shop (like a moth to the light...), delightful laneways and street art, cycling around the City of the Arts & Sciences.

There was one really special moment this week, when George and I stopped mid-afternoon in a small plaza. We had been wandering through the old part of town, just south of the magnificent ‘Turia park’, a green corridor that runs through the heart of the city, and we found a spot to stop for a beer in the street. This plaza wasn’t necessarily anything special, and it certainly didn’t feature any dramatic design or grand gesture, but there was something about it that George and I both picked up on that made it a really great urban space: a place.

Perched on a wall with a cheap lager in hand, we analysed the square, full of the dynamism and complexity that just can’t be created overnight or by one master stroke. There was a restaurant with seats that spilled over onto the pavement, walls layered with peeling paint and posters advertising raves and protests, a bunch of homeless people sat nearby a lone tourist who was eating churros, bought from a temporary van selling the sweet treats for the festival period. On all sides, apartment buildings of different shapes and sizes, though mostly 4 to 5 stories, punctuated by balconies hosting flags and flowerpots and the occasional ‘to let’ sign. And of course, there were plenty of people sitting, standing, chatting, reading, busking, eating, looking and just being. And (surprise surprise) there wasn’t a chain store in sight.

A city which is layered, complex and contradictory, shaped by many hands, worn, colourful, intriguing to the eye, fun, full of confusing juxtapositions which harmonise and clash all at the same time - that is a good city.

I’m excited to see what this coming week has in store for us here in València. Wherever you are, remember to stay safe in light of the virus that dominates our headlines, but don’t forget to enjoy the layered spaces and places around you too. *Footnote*:

After finishing writing this post, I was informed that Las Fallas has now been postponed, yet another devastating impact as Covid-19 shuts down our cities. I'm gutted not to experience Las Fallas, and more importantly for all the companies, organisers and attendees affected. Pretty scary times ahead. We need collaboration, resilience, clearmindedness and positivity more than ever.

#traveldiaries #SuziTheVan #toyotahiace #digitalnomads #overlandadventures #BryonyandGeorge #vanlife #hiacevan #lifethroughalens #vanliving #consciouscommunity

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autodidact-adventures · 5 years

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English History (Part 8): The Anglo-Saxons

In 430, Vortigern hired Saxon mercenaries to defend England against the Picts (from Scotland) and marauding bands from Ireland. Vortigern was the leader of the confederacy of small kingdoms that England was divided into, and this was a common strategy (the Romanized English had used it at various times).

The Irish landed on the west coast of England, within easy reach of the Cotswolds. The central part of Vortigern's kingdom was situated in that region, so that may have been the reason he was the leader in this struggle. The Picts, it was reported, had landed in Norfolk. The sailors painted their ships and bodies the colour of the waves, so they couldn't be seen so easily.

According to historical legends, the Saxons arrived in three ships, each holding 100 men at most (there were probably more ships than that). The Saxon mercenaries were well-known for their ferocity and valour. They worshipped Woden (god of war) and Thor (god of thunder), practised human sacrifice, and drank from their enemies' skulls. They shaved the front of their heads, and grew their hair long in the back, so their faces would seem larger in battle. A Roman chronicler of the 400s stated, “The Saxon surpasses all other in brutality. He attacks unforeseen, and when foreseen he slips away. If he pursues, he captures; if he flees, he escapes.”

The main part of the Saxon force was stationed in Kent, and they were given the Isle of Thanet in the Thames Estuary. Other groups of soldiers were stationed in Norfolk, and on the Lincolnshire coast; they also guarded the Icknield Way. The remains of the Romanized armies (in the north) were stationed in York, which was strongly fortified.

The Wantsum Channel no longer exists, so the Isle of Thanet is now part of the mainland.

This show of strength seems to have been enough. The Picts gave up their plans for invasion. The Irish were held back by the tribal armies of the west and west midlands; the kingdom of the Cornovii (with their capital at Wroxeter) played an essential part in this.

But Vortigern's allies either would not or could not pay the Saxon mercenaries, and also refused to give them land instead of coin. According to the Kentish chronicles, the English declared that “we cannot feed you and clothe you, because your numbers have grown. Leave us. We no longer need your assistance.”

The Saxons immediately rose up, with the uprising beginning in East Anglia and spreading down to the Thames Valley. They took over many of the towns & countryside regions in which they had been stationed; they appropriated large estates and enslaved many of the native English. Then, the Saxon federates encouraged their compatriots to come and join them. The land was prosperous, and Thanet itself, as a granary, was especially prized.

Four main tribes provided most of the migrants – the Angles (Schleswig), Saxons (regions around the River Elbe), Frisians (north coast of the Netherlands) and Jutes (coast of Denmark). The river system provided already-established routes of settlement, so the settlers advanced along the Thames, Trent and Humber.

The Angles settled in east and north-east England, and by the early 500s, the people of east Yorkshire were wearing Anglian clothes. The Saxons settled in the Upper Thames valley; the Frisians were scattered over the south-east, with an important influence in London. The Jutes settled in Kent, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight (the New Forest was once Jutian land).

In some places, the Anglo-Saxons (who weren't called that yet) were welcomed; in other places they were resisted. In some places, they were accepted by the working population who had no real love for their native masters. Eventually, the Anglo-Saxons made up about 5% of the population we now call English, and it may have been about 10% in the eastern regions. However, there is no evidence for the deliberate genocide and replacement of the native population.

One of the reasons for their migration to England was that they were being pushed westwards by other tribes in the great westward migrations of that time period. Another reason was the rising sea, which was causing the northern European coastline to sink.

The Saxon revolt led to the downfall of Vortigern, who was overthrown by Ambrosius Aurelianus, another Romanized English leader. Aurelianus led a counterattack against the Saxons, and engaged in a series of battles that lasted for 10yrs. In 490, the English won a great victory at Mons Badonicus, which was probably near modern-day Bath.

The leader of the English forces for that battle is unknown. However, the name of Arthur is mentioned as dux bellorum (leader of warfare), and he is said to have taken part in 12 battles against the Saxons. He may have been a military commander with his headquarters within the hill fort of Cadbury. During his supposed lifetime, 7.2 hectares of that hill fort were enclosed.

However, as part of the spoils of war, the Saxons kept control over Norfolk, East Kent and East Sussex. There was a division in the country – Germanic tribes with their warrior leaders to the north, and small English kingdoms to the south. The division may have been marked by the construction of the Wansdyke, designed to keep the Saxons from crossing over into central southern England.

Some of the most Romanized parts of England were now controlled by “barbarians”, and so the town and villa life receded greatly. Gildas (an English chronicler of the early 500s) complained that “the cities of our contry are still not inhabited as they were; even today they are squalid deserted ruins.”

However, some of these towns and cities were still actively used as markets and places of authority. The Saxons set up their own trading area outside the walls of London (the modern-day district of Aldwych), but the old city of London was still a place of royal residences and public ceremonial activities.

In the countryside, things carried on much as usual, and there wouldn't have been any changes in agricultural practice. The Germanic settlers laid out the same field systems, and respected the old boundaries – for example, Germanic structures in Durham were set within a pattern of small fields & drystone walls from prehistoric times.

Furthermore, the Germanic settlers respected the lie of the land, and formed groups that followed the boundaries of the old tribal kingdoms. At a slightly later date, the sacred Saxon sites followed the alignment of Neolithic monuments.

For the next 2-3 generations, the English kept the Germanic settlers within their boundaries. At this time, the average life expectancy was 35 years.

But by the middle of the 500s, the Germanic peoples wanted to advance further west, to exploit the productive lands there. The main reason for this sudden expansion probably was the bubonic (and perhaps pneumonic) plague that spread from Egypt to all over the previously-Romanized world, during the 540s. The native English were struck down by it (and the Germanic peoples weren't), and the population may have dropped from 3-4 million to 1 million. There were fewer people living on the land, and fewer men to defend it. The Angles and the Saxons took advantage and moved westwards.

Ceawlin of Wessex, one of the Saxon leaders, reached as far as Cirencester, Gloucester and Bath by 577. Seven years later, his forces had penetrated the midlands, and the native kings were deposed. This was the pattern throughout England.

Pressure was growing on the Durotriges (Somerset & Dorset), and many native people left for Armorica, on the Atlantic coast of north-western France, where their leaders took control of large areas of land. They may have been welcomed there, as they may have been part of the same tribe. The region of Brittany emerged there, and the Bretons retained their old tribal allegiances, never really thinking of themselves as part of the French state. Some returned to England – the forces of William the Conqueror included a Breton contingent, and they chose to settle in south-western England.

Eventually, the native English would be mixed with the settlers, and terms like Saxon or Angle would no longer have any meaning – everyone would be English. But it was a slow process. 200yrs after the first Saxons arrived, much of western England was still under the rule of native kings. The kingdom of Elmet (now the West Riding of Yorkshire) survived until the early 600s. The “Anglo-Saxon invasion” really only came to an end in 1282 when Edward I captured Gwynedd (leader of a kingdom in north-western Wales). There were still Celtic speakers in Cornwall at the beginning of the 1500s, and the language didn't die fully until the 1700s.

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thatssogayvenrp · 5 years

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A Brief History of Lossan

(this is one of the things Nari read in the bookshop in Sixth Terrace)

A Brief History of Lossan and Foreword to the Seventh Edition, by Sindhail Opalback, Honored Historian: Though I may be censured for the words to follow, I would be neglecting my duty as a historian and citizen if I were not truthful about my beloved city’s history and its more contemporary developments. My role as a historian is not only to report events as they have happened, but to examine such events through a lens that tells the broader story. That such a story looks grimly upon certain members and movements in this country is not a fault of mine, as their actions and the effects of their actions are their own for which they must accept responsibility.

As many know, Lossan is one of the prominent ancient coastal cities, known for its rich history as influenced by the iron trade to which it owes its national prominence.

Borders and fortifications

The north of the city is bordered by the Kismet Ocean. Shipbuilding and fishing have become prominent industries on this northern coast of the city and the beaches are necessary to visit if one is touring the area. Sailors and fisherman who have lived and worked on the coast for many years always muse to bar patrons, their protégées, and tourists that there is little more humbling than looking out into the vastness of this ocean.

To guide ships returning to port, there are 3 lighthouses named for elven deities. The central lighthouse has been affectionately named “Lady Moonbow” after elven goddess Sehanine Moonbow. The western lighthouse is called Lady Hanali for the elven goddess of romantic love and beauty. The eastern lighthouse is called Lord Naralis, named for Naralis Analor, the minor elven god associated with healing. These lighthouses and their corresponding deities were praised and honored as guides to bring home returning travelers. They were also places one could get healing if needed when returning form a voyage, but also places of safety and protection in times of invasion and war. Not only are these places of great utility as lighthouses (and outfitted with battlements and other wartime protections), but they are often frequented and revered by visitors as if they are also temples to the elven deities.

Despite the protection provided by the Kismet Ocean to the north and Two Moon Bay on the city’s eastern and southern borders, the city’s planners over the past many centuries have nonetheless erected a wall around the city, as is seen protecting many of the landlocked cities. Fortifying the city has been a priority since the city’s founding from both coastal/foreign and domestic invasion, the latter of which was more pressing around the period of the Reign of Human Kings but less pressing after the peace and unification under the Free State of Falschegal. The former, in contrast, was more of a prominent concern prior to the arrival of humans on the landmass that would become known as Falschegal. The city’s elven and dwarven founders protected the city from invading nations to the west, most of all humans. Humans would eventually arrive on Lossan’s shores claiming a desire to peaceably integrate themselves into the city’s society. The native non-human populations would, over time, watch the human population burgeon and displace the founding and native families in civic and other prominent positions of power.

As this history has long passed, every generation of the city’s leaders since then has been jokingly chided for maintaining the coastal fortifications. The truth, everyone knows, is that the lighthouses and the Northern Wall are integral parts of the city’s heritage.

Though coastal and foreign invasion was a frequent concern throughout the city’s history, the more contemporary worry since the rise of Dunghill Kunt has been domestic invasion from the east. The city’s Western Wall has, as a result, garnered more attention in recent years. That is the only part of the city bordered entirely by land, and though the adjacent cities have historically been Lossan’s allies, the city’s leaders have still not wanted to risk adjacent cities being used as pathways for other domestic invaders. The Western Wall’s fortifications have been strengthened over the past few years as a result, and the city’s liaisons to the neighboring towns have insisted that it is nothing personal against their allies. Human followers of Dunghill Kunt have used the situation to their advantage, attempting to sow discord among Lossan and its allies, with the hope that Lossan will find itself isolated and more vulnerable to attack when the time comes.

The iron mines for which the Iron Coast is known are not located in Lossan and her sister city, Angesco. For Lossan, rather, the mines are clustered around the city along its western edge. Historically, Lossan and Angesco rose to prominence as mining populations in adjacent cities sought nearby locations for commerce, recreation, and eventually long-term habitation. As Lossan and Angesco have also played prominent roles in converting saltwater to freshwater in their respective parts of the region, they have burgeoned over the years as sprawling metropolises. While smaller in size and population than Broadison and Wells Pier, Lossan is nonetheless larger and more populous than its southern brethren, Atlas and Sixth Terrace.

To the south, the Iron Bridge connects Lossan to a neighboring city, Haeldürn. Founded by dwarves who were heavily involved in the iron industry, inhabitants of Haeldürn have remained allies with Lossan (though, anecdotally, the uncouth, rough-handed miners have had a thing or two to say about the “softness” of Lossan’s city folk). To the east, the Waller Bridge connects Lossan to another ally city, Khleebur, which was founded by elves and grew around one of the Iron Coast’s more prominent universities. There is arguably more cultural and intellectual similarity between Khleebur and Lossan than Lossan and Haeldürn, which has led to good relations between Lossan and Khleebur through both cities’ histories. Indeed, students from Khleebur often find themselves in Lossan for recreation when they are taking breaks from their studies.

Topography and climate

Lossan is perhaps most known for its hilly topography. Indeed, the hills rise the farther one travels into the city, and from a distance outside of the city, it is clear that the hills have raised the center of the city high above the walls at the city’s borders. Such is one of many visual quirks that speak to Lossan’s uniqueness and beauty. Some say it is a cornerstone of a childhood in Lossan to have stood at the top of one of these hills and let a smooth marble or a wheeled toy race down a steep hill, rejoicing as gravity accelerated the chosen objects down to the bottom. It is also for this reason that the city government and records are housed at the center of the city, where the hills are highest (the rationale being that, in the case of invasion, the higher ground would be the most secure and harder to storm).

Naturally, the variant topography has affected the distribution of the population within the city by social class over the past few centuries. The center of the city has been hailed as more prestigious, particularly because of its higher ground and greater protection. Those that have made the City Centre their home or place of business tend to be wealthier and are able to afford the requisite transportation to get them to the tops of the hill. The wealthier occupants of the city are also rumored to have exclusive, heavily-guarded destination circles for teleportation to avoid strenuous uphill travel, though existence of these circles has never been confirmed. In contrast, the poorer populations have found themselves relegated closer to the city walls and farther from the City Centre.

Aside from its hilly topography, Lossan is also known for its warmer weather, despite being farther north than many inland cities that experience colder average temperatures all year round. That being said, a morning chill has been to known to overtake the city, as does a distinct fog that surrounds the Iron Bridge before dissipates by the early afternoon.

Culture and relations

Culturally, Lossan is distinct in its own right while also being emblematic of a broader common culture on the Iron Coast. Lossan bears similar cosmopolitan characteristics as Angesco, Broadison, Southport, Wells Pier, Sixth Terrace, and Atlas in that the city’s population is more diverse in the races and species that occupy and pass through the city daily. Such diversity has normalized an acceptance and peace among varied races and species that are less common in smaller towns farther inland, where many towns have self-segregated by race and species, with human towns being the most insular.

Anecdotally, it is often observed that those from the Iron Coast are far less tense than those on the Lake Coast, particularly those living in or near Broadison. Again, most of these observations are entirely anecdotal in nature, with very few studies or empirical evidence confirming this distinction or its causes. Nonetheless, one only needs to think of friends or family raised on the Iron Coast and compare their general disposition to those raised on the Lake Coast — the reader is free to come to their own conclusion about these alleged regional differences.

There is often a playful rivalry with the Iron Triangle regarding the competing iron mining, processing, and manufacturing industries. Such a rivalry is most prominent in the dwarven populations from both competing regions, as dwarves have historically been most proactive in the rise of the iron industry. Around the time of Falschegal’s unification and the expansion of travel, there was some brief competition between the two regions, as they both fought to retain overlapping buyers and distributors in equidistant regions. Overtime, however, the competition surrounding mining has tapered off, as the quality of the iron itself from either region was found to be comparable. The primary difference was found to be in the manufacturing process and the purposes for which the iron was used. As the dwarven miners were less responsible for what happened to iron ore after it was mined, they let the rivalry carry over to the manufacturers and distributors. Thankfully, the rivalry now is mostly in jest, as many of those who work in the iron industry gather from all over the country, from Iron Coast and Iron Triangle alike, to amicably discuss the status of mining in their respective regions, compare techniques and seasonal yields, and revise standards for worker safety.

My contributions to the Seventh Edition have come at a time of great strife throughout our country, and it is my greatest hope that readers now and in the future will look upon these writings as informative and an accurate representation of both current events and Lossan’s history. Lossan was a city founded upon and continues to be a city that emphasizes inclusivity, cooperation, and acceptance. My greatest hope is that my beloved city carries on in this great heritage for years to come, no matter what darkness befalls her and the country at large.

#BoE #eniddm #lossan

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