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Rune Casting

I've found a game that is played on the island, it appears similar in form to chess or perhaps more like draughts.

Overview

Rune Casting is a two-player game. The aim of the game is to defeat your opponent by combing your rune stones to cast certain moves to force your opponent to remove tiles from the board.

Components and Rules

A board is a 10x10 grid which is placed between the two players.

Each player has a set of 80 stones containing two lots of 40 individual rune characters.

A dice is rolled to determine which player takes the first turn.

Stones are placed one at a time anywhere on the grid, players want to combine three stones in a row to cast a move, this is called a set. There are 120 possible sets with corresponding moves.

Players can place stones next to another players stone and include that players stone in their set.

Winning or Ending the Game

The game is won by taking over 80 spaces on the board, having placed all your stones.

If the board fills up before either player can reach 80 the game ends without a winner.

There is also a maximum time limit of two hours, if the game time reaches this before a player has won, the stones on the board are counted and the player with the most tiles wins.

There are many strategies to winning. Some players prefer to place stones quickly to increase their chances of placing 80 stones before the time limit as well as confusing their opponent. On the other hand some players take more time to place stones to plan out their moves and try to win by exceeding the time limit with the most tiles.

Moves

Competitions

Rune Casting competitions are held three times every school year at Cape Morrigan Academy.

Competitions have four leagues: Preparatory (ages 6-10), Junior (ages 11-15), Senior (ages 16+), Expert (won more than 2 competitions)

Competitions are held in a tournament style, players are paired up and the winners will go on to compete further until there are two players in the finale. The winner of the finale wins the competition.

There are prizes for the winners of each League as well as the semi-finalists and finalist.

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Education on Glendin Isle

Although very different, there does appear to be a very clear education system set up on the island. I will attempt to chronicle it.

Primary Education

Silverton Preparatory School

The only privately funded school on the Island. It was set up to offer the highest quality education to the children of the more established families who could afford it. This school had no catchment area but the majority of the attendees lived in the surrounding areas of Silverton Cove, Southwark, Cape Morrigan, Farndwell and Anngeal.

Itbron Junior School

A publicly funded school located in the city of Ashwick. It was set up to educate the children from the areas of Ashwick, Pitney, Ravensgyhll and Naeron. It offers basic primary education.

Masterton Primary School

A publicly funded school located outside the town of Masterton. It was set up to educate the children from the areas of Masterton, Saida Point, Huwen Bay and Yorel Fen. It is a small rural school that offers basic primary education.

Internal Education

The two orphanages on the Island offer their own primary education within the institution. These include the Open Arms Orphanage in Pitney and Stafford House outside of Anngeal.

Home Education

Some families choose to educate their children at home from the ages of 3-11 either by themselves or with a private tutor. This option is often considered if either the public curriculum is seen as inadequate or if they are outside the catchment area of a school. For example, some families choose home education in Anngeal if they cannot afford to have their child attend Silverton Preparatory School as it is outside the catchment area of other schools.

Secondary Education

Cape Morrigan Academy

The only secondary school on the island and is solely funded by the church. The school was designed to congregate and teach the children of the Glendin Isle the skills and magic they needed for adult life as well as bringing them up with the religious principles of the church. Attendance was mandatory for all children between 11-16 on the Island. There was a heavy emphasis on their place in society with the children coming from established families trained to follow in their parents' footsteps and continue their lineage.

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The Hybrid Relay

The national sport of the Island, played mainly by those at the secondary school, Cape Morrigan Academy

Premise and Rules

The Hybrid Relay is Cape Morrigan Academy's inter-class sports competition. It is a multi-stage obstacle course, each match holds different challenges but generally, the teams of eight players compete to pass a baton from one member to another until they reach the finish line. Usually, each team member is separated and must face an individual challenge to reach their next teammate.

The course is unique to each match and the teams receive five minutes at the start of every match to survey the course and decide their player placements. There are few rules surrounding how players must complete their challenges as the game aims to inspire creativity and lateral thinking. This even extends to sabotaging the other teams which is sometimes even encouraged.

Scoring

For the first six matches, only two teams compete against each other with the winner, the team who crossed the finish line first, earning 5 points and the losing team earning 1.

During the final all four teams compete together and the points depend on their placement:

First place earns 10 points

Second place earns 5 points

Third place earns 2 points

Fourth place earns 1 point

Win History

1792 - Force Team

1793 - Force Team

1794 - Astral Team

1795 - Terminated before final

1796 - Terminated before final

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Major Families of the Island

Founding Era 1547 - 1681

There weren't many prominent families during this era because of the fluid population and less established economy but a few of the families that settled there early on grew in size and renown. Some of the emerging families of this time were: Alpin, Pace and Pollock.

Early Glendin Reign 1680s - 1700s

After the borders closed the Clergymen and Elders started to distribute the power amongst themselves and established an early semblance of hierarchy centering around positions within the church so families and close friends of Elders had increased importance. Because of this, family status became more desirable as it could secure your position financially and within the Clergy. The noticeable families from this period were: Kirk, Blackwell, and Gibbs as well as the previously mentioned families.

Late Glendin Reign 1720s - 1796

At this point, the established families started branching out or merging into other families following a significant population increase as having many offspring was encouraged by the Clergy as it would extend bloodlines and demonstrate wealth and influence. Some other families gained increased status through proximity and connections made through marriages. The Pace family gained a connection to the McFadden family, additionally, to the Alpin family. Alongside the Paces, the Alpin family became merged with the smaller Webber and Lockett and Ellison families, the latter of which branched off into the Ward family. The Ward family, however, quickly branched in two, one strand becoming the Lancaster family and the other joining the large Kirk family. The Gibbs family became connected to the Underwood family, who rose in status because of it, and the Stibbons family through the Underwoods. The Pollock family were one of the only major families to keep marrying into smaller families but the name kept going.

A few families managed to grow without connections to other families either through gaining wealth or by simply increasing in size, these included: the Shepherd, Millington, Fraley, Pollard and Linchstone families.

On the other hand, the Blackwell family were one of the first to fade out during this time, ending in an unfortunate series of deaths. They were soon followed by the Millington's fall in status. Some of the other family names ended when they ran out of male heirs to carry the name, or their bloodline stopped when family members didn't have children.

New Age 1796 - 1810

There was limited familial growth during this time as many of the major families were associated with the Clergy so went into hiding to avoid conviction. Also many other families moved away from the island when the borders opened so there were limited pairings that could be made between the remaining families whilst avoiding incestuous relations. Although, there were still some connections made. The Kirk family was joined by the Shepherd, Fraley, Ike, Pollock and Smith families, and there was an attempt to merge the Pace and Linchstone families, however it was interrupted by the series of arrests made following the Battle of 1810.

This battle ended many of the prominent families as almost all of those that had hidden previously were discovered and arrested. These families were Gibbs, Linchstone and McFadden as well as some members of the Pace, Shepherd and Pollard families.

Liberty Era 1810s

After the web of Clergy families were dismantled, there was less of an emphasis on status but some of the family names naturally continued. The remaining families were Kirk, Shepherd, Fraley, Pollard and Pace. The Fraleys became disconnected from the Kirks, and the last remaining Blackwell heir married the last Pace family member.

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Eras

Founding Era 1547 - 1681

The early years of the Island's colonisation before the borders closed.

The Glendin Reign 1681 - 1796

The period of time when the Island was under Theocratic rule.

Glendin New Age 1796 - 1810

The era following the Siege of Cape Morrigan and the dismantling of the Theocracy.

The Liberty Era 1810 Onwards

The post-Battle era when the Island recovered from the past conflicts and rebuilt its economy and population.

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The History of Glendin Isle

I've done a lot of searching over the years and resources were scarce, but here are my findings on the island's history:

1540s - 1650s

Glendin Isle was Colonised after conflict between the church of the Chosen Believers, and the church of The Devotion of the Chosen. The Chosen Believers believed that all they needed to reach ascension was to be a good, kind person and that the Càel Testaments were just loose guidance on how to do that and that some passages were outdated or even incorrect. The Devotion of the Chosen believed that in order to reach ascension you needed to live a strict lifestyle that included following all the teachings in the Càel Testaments to the letter and preserving the purity of magic by not 'mixing' with non-magical beings. Many battles had been had in Calegan over monarchs and religious influence in the government and eventually, many followers of The Devotion of the Chosen, led by a group of leaders called the Clergy, just decided it would be better if they could govern themselves so they founded their own country.

1660s - 1680s

At first, the borders of Glendin Isle were open and goods were often traded between the island and the mainland in order to sustain the economy but soon Calegan decided to remove the monarchy and move towards an elected government system called the Administration, with separation of church and state. The Clergymen and Elders on Glendin were furious and closed their borders. With the closing of the borders came the first Priest who became Glendin's first solo leader and head of the church. Priest Glycias was afraid of losing his position of power so decided to secure the church's control by gradually removing any evidence of the mainland from the island and burning any record of their past history. They also made the church the sole source of education on the island, founding a school that all children would be required to go to (Cape Morrigan Academy).

1690s - 1700s

As a new generation was being born on the island and the Clergy slowly assumed more and more control over the island, a new priest was selected after the death of Priest Glycias in 1699 and he ruled with an iron fist. A small underground uprising began. A group of mainly parents started teaching the true history by word of mouth and highlighting lies in the Clergy's teachings. The Clergy and Priest Asellus remained unaware of this for a number of years but when students started disagreeing with information at the academy they worked quickly to remove children from these parents and execute those adults spreading the truth, for crimes against the church. This was dubbed the mother's massacre. Some of this generation, orphaned because of this tragic event, grew up to spark the next revolution and some were successfully indoctrinated by the Clergy, being told that their parents were traitors of the church and that their only choice was to repent or never reach ascension.

1720s - 1750s

A small group of children resistant to the Clergy's teachings and fueled by revenge for their murdered parents grew to create the next rebellion. They were led by Bevan MacDonnell and had more knowledge than the previous generation of the inner workings of the Clergy and the details of their teachings, and they learned from their parent's mistakes so instead of spreading the truth through children, focused on adults with doubts about the church and fought to preserve the memories and knowledge of the first Glendin settlers who were dying out. When Priest Asellus died in 1734 there was growing hope that the Clergy's reign of terror could be brought to an end. This group had a better idea of who to trust and for many years the rebellion grew in the shadows and became an organisation known as The Stand. The new Priest, Priest Elford, was the youngest one yet at only 31 so many people believed this would bring forth a reform of the Clergy, however, he proved himself to be equally as power-hungry as the previous one, which only spurred the resistance on more.

1760s - 1770s

Eventually, the Clergy became aware of growing adult distrust in the church and decided to weaponise their children against them. Priest Elford created the Nox Clan, initially a network of children instructed to spy on their parents and neighbours during holidays and relay any information back to the Clergy but it developed into a more weaponised secret police service. Older students of the academy were encouraged to join the Clan if they demonstrated enough devotion to the church and it was seen as an elite society very attractive to those susceptible. However, this radicalisation of children only angered The Stand more and the rebellion became more active and visible. MacDonnell became the face of this group and he was forced into hiding. Unfortunately, Macdonnell was unaware of planted Nox Clan members working undercover as members of The Stand and in 1773 the clergy staged an attack on his hideout and Macdonnell was arrested, tortured and murdered. His body hung in Ashwick outside the Clergy temple alongside other captured members of The Stand. This was effective in halting rebellions for a few years. During this time, Priest Elford discovered a way to preserve his reign and prevent his death through slowing the rate at which he was ageing.

1780s - 1790s

The Clergy and Priest Elford relied heavily on using fear to control the population of Glendin Isle. By this point in time, most adults had been frightened into submission and only the compliant survived, however with another new generation came new problems. With the information on the history of the Island being so restricted there was a lot of curiosity amongst the children and students at Cape Morrigan Academy, something Priest Elford tried to squash with force. However, this only created further instability at the Academy. It began with Professor Omar Riggs, a Creative Arts teacher and surviving member of The Stand who had changed their identity since the execution of Bevan Macdonnell. Riggs saw an opportunity to build trust with the students by being on their side against all the punishments and rules they were being subjected to. He had initially hoped to just protect them from harm but their intrigue for the true history spurred him on and he began to spread information to a select group of students that came to his classroom for support. The number of students grew and the Deputy Headmaster, Elder Cassiar Hammond, became increasingly suspicious. Elder Hammond weaponised the Prefects against them and staged an intervention, capturing and torturing these students. Omar Riggs, wanting to save the students confessed and was subsequently arrested and executed. This sparked a rebellion amongst the students, those angered by Rigg's execution sought to fight back by spreading the information they'd learned amongst the other students and encouraging them to join in on a protest, which was to write only about the true history during their exams that year. Headmaster, Priest Elford, and Deputy Headmaster, Elder Hammond caught wind of this plan and attempted to stop it immediately, they held an assembly and threatened those who planned to take part in the protest with failure and expulsion, which would lock them out of almost all job prospects in the future. This sparked uproar and a fight broke out resulting in the injury of Elder Hammond who ended up in a persistent vegetative state. The students responsible for the uprising were arrested and placed in the island Penitentiary as there were laws in place against the murder or execution of children due to passage in the Càel Testaments about the sanctity of the lives of the youth. However, within the Penitentiary information was passed along freely as most of those in there had committed crimes against the Clergy, so belief in the existence of the mainland was widely spread. The prisoners plotted to escape and succeeded in doing so, and with the assistance of students remaining at the Academy, a handful of convicts managed to cross the sea and reach the mainland of Calegan. There, they told the Administration the truth about the Island and the mistreatment of students under the Priest's reign. And in 1796 the Calegan Administration planned to intervene and confront the Priest and Clergy, however, when they caught wind of this on Glendin Isle, the Priest ordered for the Academy to be placed on lockdown, arming the teachers, Clergymen, Elders, Nox Clan and Prefects to prepare for war, and holding the remainder of the student's hostage inside the school. The Administration planned for a peaceful response, focusing on negotiations and a rescue mission for the students trapped inside. However, when they arrived they were met with a barrage of attacks so the Administration called for military backup. A siege took place and the Administration outnumbered and overpowered the Clergy, resulting in the death of Priest Elford and the evacuation of the school. The majority of the casualties from this battle were students and the Administration was not able to make a large number of arrests following the event as many Clergymen fled and entered into hiding.

1800s - 1810

With the new century came a lot of change; the borders of Glendin Isle open after the Siege, under the temporary rule of Administration appointed officials, but soon a new permanent leader was elected, the first being Aldene Helm, who ruled justly and tried her best to help the island recover after the conflict. However, Helm passed away three years into her tenure and a new leader filled the position, Octavius Blaesus. He was less of a strong ruler and there were many changes of hands in leadership as the economy began to plummet. Through the years those who could afford to, migrated to Calegan to escape the impending crisis and shadows of the Clergy era. The remaining population were hit hard by a recession, so, when a young Elder on the island ran to lead; promising to move on from the tragedy of Cape Morrigan and to build a new future, they won the election by a landslide. Everyone on the island seemed to be of the belief that he only had good intentions, but those on the outside could see the warning signs. Elder Augustus Licinius created a political party that included many former Clergy members, most of those less well-known or less prominent members from the previous Clergy era. They promised the population that they could make Glendin Isle strong and independent once again and focused a lot of their efforts on boosting self-sufficiency within the island by creating more farms and factories as well as building a military. There was growing trust and support for this government as the economy started to recover. However, there was suspicion arising from Calegan as survivors of the Cape Morrigan siege recognised the potential danger of this government, especially following the alleged assassination of Octavius Blaesus. This was furthered when the construction of a new school began and it became known that children were being radicalised once again, as Glendin Isle prepared for a war over independence. This plan was luckily discovered before the Government of Glendin Isle had managed to gather full military force, but they were still better equipped than before, after taking inspiration from the weapons and battle tactics used by the Calegan Administration during the siege of 1796. Tensions rose within the final year of Licinius' tenure as people feared he would launch a war to extend his rule and prevent a future election. On October 10th 1810 a battle began when a small group of ex-students broke into the Government Central of Glendin Isle, hoping to discover the military plans. The Administration arrived to support this group after it became clear an invasion of Calegan was being planned by Elder Licinius and his Government. The battle lasted for three days consuming the entire city of Ashwick and surrounding villages, which were used as base camps for the Administration as they fought to take the Government Central. Eventually, the conflict came to an end as Elder Licinius took his own life when faced with surrender and all his government party members were arrested.

1810 onwards

After the battle in 1810, the Calegan Administration hosted an open conference with Glendin Isle to discuss the future and prevention of further conflict. Within this, a treaty was created, that formed a co-dependency between the two countries with a solid trade system and exchange of goods. Glendin Isle agreed on a separation of church and state and wrote a set of new laws that coincided with Calegan's, mostly including child protection policies and violence laws. Extremist groups like the Nox Clan were disbanded and criminalised, and young members were put through a reform program and were closely monitored. There was an emphasis on improved education and public services and this system continued to work.