Riddle of Flame GURPS: Aizarin

Aizarin

Epoch 1

The Holy Firmament

Overview A nation ruled by martial law of the knightly order that founded it, the Firmament is as familiar to war as their patron god, Alar, although saying as such may be labeled as blasphemy and punished. The firmament is heavily populated owing to both very fertile farmland and the blessings upon the land by their clerics. The Firmament was founded by crusading knightly orders fighting Alarian heretics on the Wahdalian peninsula in defense of multiple holy sites. The Wahdalis, as they were called, surrendered after a long and bloody war and were subsumed into a new crusader state that was founded beyond its original parameters. It now attempts to continue its eternal crusade into Aizarin and find themselves at odds against the Arjit (bug people) ruled Zoth Republic and the Zhuan empire (with a wide diversity of Kinds).

Government Religious Knightly Grand Chapter Martial Law headed by a Grand Master picked from an Inner Circle. The Inner Circle are an oligarchy of 7 chosen by other Circle members that rule the nation. They decide laws, they dictate borders, and they dictate diplomacy and policy. The regions are split up into marches and ruled by a master of the order chosen by his fellows. The marches are required to tithe manpower to the army. It is considered Traditionalist.
Kinds Humans, Aelthi, Duerthi.
Environment The Firmament takes up the mass amount of a peninsula known as Wadahlia. The eastern coasts of Wadahlia give way to desert into around 20% of the peninsula. Past that are giant rolling green hills and fertile land that takes up around 50% of the nation centered in the middle. Large forests exist near the middle along with multiple small ponds where much of the freshwater comes from. The lands do not grow higher than hills. The northern, western, and southern coasts. are mainly grasslands.
Origins The Holy Firmament was once an alliance of chapters of the Alarian Order, a knightly order dedicated to the god of war. This order acts as errant knights that hunt monsters, bandits, and demons along with generally being used to hunt heretics or whomever the Alarian prelate has declared blasphemous (like Equitianists). A simple call for action by the Wahdali Sultanate, an Aizarin confederation of independent princes, snowballed into a large scale invasion. Upon entry into the nation, it was found that the Wahdali sect of Alar had fundamentally changed multiple facets of the original religion that came from the continent of Velas. They were iconoclastic and allowed those without power investiture to perform certain rituals that they were not allowed to. Including women and bestial kinds. The Alarian religion has no discrimination based on Kinds but unlike Sothe, Liestra, and the Twin Gods they disallowed the involvement of female kinds until -1334 with the Alarian Reformation that was a response to the Great Unburdening. This chapter, known as the Brotherhood of St. Bromae, both Kinds that deviated from humans, aelthi, or duerthi were subhuman and not worthy to war in Alar's name and women's role was to make soldiers and make homes. This chafes incredibly with the Gravestone Templars of Sothe, many whom are women and are as proficient and zealous fighters. Notedly in terms of public relations, Gravestone agents are liked (but feared) and allowed throughout the entire world including the Court of the Night. The Alarian Order Chapters, including the Bromae Brotherhood, have to have special permissions or own the land too enter it. The invasion in -297 PR was fought by not only the Brotherhood and their knights, clerics, and paladins but also many foreign soldiers and mercenaries out of zeal or want for plunder. The invasion forces finally won in -256 after alternating times of war and peace with pushes and pulls of territory with the Brotherhood gaining the advantage eventually. In their victory, they established a formal state inquisition and burned out any remaining heretics, mages, and kah users.
Trade Trades silently with many Velassian nations. One major trade being plunder barter for special equipment, both Magitek and Divinely blessed. Trade in special Aizarin goods like silk, cinnamon, specific spices, and herbs.
Religion Nominally worships the whole Velassian Pantheon, but focuses mainly on the god of war Alar, having been an extension of the Alarian Order. All other gods outside of the Pantheon are banned, even those that are accepted to be alternative interpretations of the pantheon.
Culture The firmament is militaristic and heavily religious culture; this is fitting for a nation established as essentially a crusader state; the cross planted being the Holy Icon of Saint Bromae, paladin of Alar. It has an extensive police state and its own secret police in the form of Alarian inquisitors. These inquisitors descend from the same ones that slew the Scarlet Prophet for heresy when they invaded Skalovia.
Magic Magic is banned as blasphemous in the Holy Firmament. Only clerical and paladin investiture is allowed. They do not follow the Epiphany of Innocence for Magicks decreed in -7345 declared by the Sothe blessed figure, saint Uril. All magic users are to be killed. Kah users are similarly lumped in as sinful and similarly have the ban put upon them.
Military The military is a mixture of professional soldiery chosen from the peasantry and knights chosen from the nobility as a sort of tithing process every fifteen years. Children as young as 12 can be chosen to join and be trained in the ways of war. Their highest warriors are the Companions of St. Bromae, paladins wearing blessed armor and using blessed weapons that make them powerhouses in combat, able to strike at a dozen enemies at once with their melee weapons and use devastating blessings on the battlefield and to empower the lesser. Their general forces are spearmen, man-at-arms professionals for melee combat, bowmen, crossbowmen, light harassment and routing cavalry, heavy barded and plated lancing cavalry, their specialized heroes in the form of the Companions, the supporting medics and empowering clerics of Alar, and mercenary artillery in the form of trebuchets, ballistae, and Lekkenic Fire throwers. The Firmament's Levies seem backward to many in Tys in Epoch 1 when the world is slowly transitioning from spearmen and archers to linemen and cannons. They have many tricks up their sleeves to keep up. For one, they keep with them holy relics enchanted to lessen or even turn back firearm and arrow-based weaponry alike along with imbuing their lesser troops with increased morale and strength. Along with this, their specialized Companions are gigantic powerhouses on the battlefield that can break men's wills and bodies in great numbers. Furthermore, they do not reject the Broken's firearms on account of their creation being 'blasphemous'. They indeed do use them, they just adopt them slowly and Aizarin is not close enough to Velas when much of the continent start to make their own weaponry in large numbers to regularly trade and outfit many. Also, until meeting the Zoth Empire and their Heaven Engine, their ways worked. However, they are now at a stalemate as of 0 PR.
The Alarian Order has close ties to the Firmament although they are separate organizations. The Order does recruit from the Firmament more than any other nation; the amounts of new initiates gathered are only second to Alaria.
Aesthetic (Meta) Imagine if the military oligarchy of Sparta had survived into the late middle ages and adopted plate armor but had a mixture of dress, barding, and features that resembled the Spartan Hoplites of old and the newer historical Basileia Rhomaion (or remaining Roman Empire or Byzantine Empire). Imagine a historical spartan hoplite mixed with a spartharii mixed with a central European knight of the 1300s from Germany or France put together.

Epoch 1

The Fall of the Firmament

Monsters
Jaewan Principality
Jri Theocracy
Union of Nikao
Temura Khanate

Wakamoto

Perfect Harmony

Wakamoto is a beautiful island nation that hosts the Wakamotoese Empire. The Empire is known for its beautiful art, its unique cuisine, and its fearsome samurai who to a man wield the power of kah to defend their homeland and the crane emperor. Wakamoto is one of the more prosperous nations of Aizarin due to the luxury of division from the Rasp across the water. While the north is often under attack by the forces of the Rasp, the rest of the nation is freed to develop and hone their crafts. Graceful perfection is sought by every Wakamotojin from the lowly peasant to the courtiers of the high palace and its pursuit is ingrained in the culture of the realm. This culture ingrains duty to one's betters and one's place is to be known and acted within. The Wakamotojin are told this knowledge of one's place is what keeps the nation safe from the terrors outside its borders. The Crane Emperor's power is to be unquestioned. His power helps his legitimacy. The Crane Emperor is part of a near-unique phenomenon of living anathema. His god-like abilities can be unleashed to devastating effect. He can create large typhoons, terrible hurricanes, and colossal tsunamis. Not only can he create them, but he can also stop them as well. Many lives have been saved by the Crane Emperor and this is why his people have utmost love and respect for him. However, many fear his servants, the samurai, more than respect them.

Samurai

Samurai, or bushi, are a class of warrior created for the protection of Wakamoto against the Rasp. They are raised from the young of noble families to become fierce fighters. Their main outward weapons are the spear and the bow, but what makes them very fearsome are their kah abilities. Each samurai is given monk-like training to master the life energy in order to combat the undead that invade the island from across the water. They have special abilities from this training along with increased power in their attacks. They can even use their training to affect their weapons and their spears, swords, and arrows can be enhanced by their abilities. Special monasteries train the samurai in these abilities and these monasteries have produced many masters of kah.

Samurai are defenders of the nation and the strict class code of Wakamoto. They cannot give up arms and farm with the peasants. They are prevented from becoming the leech class of merchants. They cannot rise to become rulers. They make sure that the lower classes stay in their place to promote harmony. Peasants are to farm. Craftsmen are to create. Those that would raise their hand against their betters see that hand cut off. Those that act in unbecoming or uncouth manners are to be physically punished. One not bowing one's head to one's better loses that head. It is in this way they are feared by the people of the nation they protect.

They do so to protect the harmonious order and the Crane Emperor. The Crane Emperor's harmony is upheld by the samurai. To break harmony is to doom the nation.

Onmyodo

Magic is outlawed to all but a few special families. Any caught doing magic that are not of those families are put to the death. These families report directly to the emperor and are trained in an ancient tradition to produce Onmyodo, court mages. Onmyodo serve as direct servants to the emperor and aid his warriors in their battles.

Oni

Oni are monsters that are produced by the followers of Oni King, the anathema of battle. Oni were created by the Oni King in Wakamoto. Oni are special in that they occupy a halfway space between anima, servitors made from the aspect of an anathema, and monsters, spontaneously created creatures powered by aeth. The Oni king does not occupy the hellish Tithe Realms of the Woehltriv and the Woehltan. Indeed, he has his own realm outside of the Tithe Realms. The Oni King once walked the earth as a man and was slain, but the combined fear of him and the belief remaining worshippers turned him into an ascended large red horned beast. The Oni King has a cult within Wakamoto but it is very difficult to be an open cultist in such a society. The Oni King after his ascendancy has materialized into the world and in his visits he created a new line of oni fallow.

Oni Fallow

The Oni King's fallow resemble him with red skin, horns, fangs, and white hair. They are capable of the ferocity of their sire but are not predisposed to it. They are not forced into being monstrous and can live normal lives. Unfortunately, the Crane Emperor has a permanent edict of genocide against these Oni-blooded which has driven those that give birth to them to leave them on hills to die of exposure or murder them once born. Those that survive even this are to be killed. A diaspora of oni fallow exists around the world and they can be found as far east as Xatla. Some have even settled in Thrale which has been kinder to its fallow population. Although they have had more difficulties than Velassian fallow in establishing themselves.

The Wakamotoese Language

Wakamoto much like the majority of Aizarin did not adopt Universal like Velas and Xatla did. The Rasp and the Cursed Realm makes trade more difficult and as such, they do not have the rate of interaction that facilitated it from taking hold. Some merchants may know it and the invention of aeroships may make its use much more common.

Wakamotoese Trade with Skalovia

Wakamoto made a trade agreement with Skalovia in Epoch 1. The Skalovians were briefly confused about why someone would would make the three month trip to do so but then realized that the Wakamotoese had been made known of their firearm weaponry. They wanted it as an extra weapon for the defense of the island and lacked the religious ban against firearms that the Pentaphany enforced.

The Cult of the Emperor

The subjects of the Crane Emperor worship and revere the emperor as a living god. This cult has been syncretized with local animist beliefs. All other religions are banned. To worship other gods is to invite a death sentence.

The Monasteries

The monks do not worship the Crane Emperor like the rest of the nation does. They have their own religion separate from the cult of the emperor. They are allowed to keep this privilege due to their training of the samurai and their knowledge of kah. Their religion is of the old animist traditions of Wakamoto and they can use heka along with their kah.

Epoch 0

The Blood Struggle
In a time of famine, it was decided by the emperor of Wakamoto that each kind would have to battle to choose the surviving species of the kind. Those that refuse would be killed off in their entirety for defying the god-emperor in their selfishness. This was decided after refusing to prepare for a foreseen famine which was advised by his court and by the onmyodo. That is one of many reasons Wakamoto will rise in Harmonist sentiment and boil into revolution. To date, three kinds of hare has been extinguished, six bird kinds have been extinguished, one kind of wolf, and the red fox kind has been also almost been entirely extinguished and left the white fox kind.
Food: Rice wine, Cinnamon Sweet Rice,
New Xheolia
Zhuan Empire

Epoch 2

342 PR - 353 PR

The War of the Fallen Emperor

In 332, the unthinkable occurred. The Crane Emperor died after millennia of rule. How it occurred is a mystery. Natural causes? The loss of faith naturally bringing down an anathema? An ancient conspiracy by the Oni King come to fruition? A Harmonist or Equilibratist plot? A samurai plot for their decreased importance with the slow reclaiming of the Rasp? The Pentaphany bringing down a false god? A new Crane Emperor reincarnation claiming the essence of the old? An anathema taking his place? So many explanations were given and each of these had their own reactions with the people high or low. His death meant that there was no longer a singular powerful force to stop the natural disasters of Wakamoto. There were ways to soften them or outright stop them but it would require a major reshuffling of society that had been in stasis for thousands of years and had known little else. Any reshuffling would come without the lynchpin anchoring Wakamotoese society. Multiple groups would attempt to claim the throne.

The Craneblood Society

The Craneblood society were a number of aristocrats and samurai families which claimed they held the blood of the Emperor. The Crane Emperor had created a few lines in the past and held wives. The Cranebloods were certain that of their kin they had the heir that would either become the emperor or produce it. Much of the old guard of Wakamoto including most samurai were drawn to them in hope they would produce a new Crane Emperor and bring life back to the traditional ways. Many of their supporters were courtiers, samurai, and noble families which had prospered under the Crane Emperor's rule and would see it continue rather than see Harmonist or Equilibratist upstarts claim it.

Ikimasu League

The Ikimasu League (Ikimasu meaning "The Way" in Wakamotoese)were those influenced by the spreading ideology that reached their borders from increased aeroship trade with Thrale and Mekkhor. They were made up of mainly middle class and lower samurai families along with merchants that had been popularly seen as lesser and parasitic throughout Wakamotoese history. Merchants mainly were doing their job but they acted outside of the social parameters of harmony which made the upper classes wary of them and the pursuit of profit made them threatening as they could serve as visual examples of those excelling without the old harmony system. Many samurai of the Ikimasu League chafed under the rule of the old guard that made up the Cranebloods as many were forced from their homes to make way to the old strongholds of the north. This was seen as corralling dissidents. When the Rasp was fought back, this was especially seen as lacking any other purpose than control. The Ikimasu League grew large with these lower gentry able to speak to the lower classes, however a new movement that had been in the making for three centuries would become a competing factor.

Jindomei

The Jindomei (a shortening of People's Alliance) were an equilibratist group and one that had been building under Wakamotoese society for a considerable amount of time. Though they may deny it, the Jindomei began with those that spoke to the officials of the Skalovian embassy (an embassy that contained its own clandestine agitprop department) and learned of Uhlionic Equitianism. They were taught well to keep this knowledge a secret and they slowly and silently spread the ideals over time. One of their largest bases was found in the south of the nation and the first supporters down in the south were the Kaze people. the Kaze are some of the oldest inhabitants of Wakamoto and the creators of the animist tradition of Zei which the monks of Wakamoto draw upon in their own religion. Zei also teaches the use of beseeching local kami, or spirits, to draw upon the energy of heka and perform invocations. The Kaze's culture was suppressed, bastardized, and taken from them by the Wakamotoese millennia ago in a series of wars. They have had to hide their traditions in all this time and keep them alive. They were some of the first to heed the Equilibratist call. The peasants of the south also took well to the ideology. The lower classes often were punished the most by the removal of southern samurai because they had the privilege of being able to farm alongside the peasants. Without Onmyodo to help their crops nor another resource they could openly use like Liestrian miracles or heka they would be hit the most by poor crop yields. The old guard of samurai that stayed in place of those sent to the north were also callous thieves and brutes that hurt and murdered multiple peasants. Equilibratism was seen as a way to remove these oppressors through an alliance of force for the peasants and they were joined in arms by the ethnic Kaze. A few samurai were sympathetic to the ideology as well which tracks with history of Equilibratism gaining adherents in the nobility that turn against their classes (see Uhlion the Broken and the Black Prince). The final group that contributed greatly to the alliance were the Oni fallow. The few that stayed behind and the diaspora abroad gathered under the Jindomei banner in order to seek justice for the way they had been treated in the past. They were expelled from the nation, had genocide committed against them, and then left the nation finding that most realms were not kind to them. The Jindomei gathered many of these fallow in order create a stronghold where they could be free. Some did join the Ikimasu and these were usually the oni fallow that had issues with Equilibratism or were found in the north where the Ikimasu were stronger. The Ikimasu did uphold emancipation for the fallow in the end. The diaspora of those clans that had fled during the blood struggle also returned in large part where the Ikimasu and Jindomei promised them the ability to see their homelands again.

The War Itself

Tensions built up over the years with false claims of a new Crane Emperor being born. The Cranebloods saw the different factions gaining power and placed the nation under martial law. Although honestly it wasn't that much different from before and indeed it showed to the Ikimasu and Jindomei what the old guard and Cranebloods thought of them. War began in 342. Now a very interesting phenomenon occurred. The Jindomei suddenly revealed weapons such as breech-loading rifles, gun-platform aeroships, and Drazhnev rotator cannons at the same time that the Ikimasu revealed Thralish rifles, clipper aeroshhips, and Pearlhart rotating guns. The Cranebloods had their own supply of modern weapons along with near half of the kah empowered samurai in the nation. The kah-enhanced arrows quickly lost their luster when being shot by properly rifled guns, however. The Ikimasu and Jindomei squeezed the Craneblood contingent in the center of the nation until they enacted a brutal dual-siege of the capital where the crane regent lived. Then, there were the two armies. The Grush war had only ended a decade beforehand. Enmity between harmonists and equilibratists was high. However, during this time a series of typhoons and a great tsunami had devastated key settlements for both sides. Rather than risk a war that would surely lead to starvation and slaughter, it was decided that the nation would be split into a northern portion and a southern portion. The North Ikimasu Republic, and the South Jindomei People's Republic.

Changes to Wakamoto

Outside religions were allowed within the nation for the first time in generations. The samurai remaining either had to transition to a non-warrior class, leave, be expelled from the nation, or be put to death for crimes against their countrymen. All fallow were welcomed within Wakamoto along with those whose clans had fled. New organizations consisting of magicians, heka users, and clerics were built to combat the natural disasters. The crops flourished under new magical and miraculous help.

North and South

However, tensions still remain and it is rumored in hushed tones that each side could swarm the other in a moment. Their patrons and now allies would enjoy their ideology to take full hold. It is even said that spies and agitators from each nation are embedded with the opposite nations in Wakamoto...

The Zothic Republic

Overview The Zoth Republic was the first known true representative republic in the world and the home of the Arjit (bug people) and the Jaleaq (arachnids including spiders and scorpions). They live in the Banelands, named either in pride by its inhabitants or in fear and hatred by its enemies. Around 75% of the citizenry inhabit great underground cities beneath the desert where one major trade is the continued mining and expansion of the city. The Zoth Republic was born out of conflict with the [Worms], much like Lusmia, and its once multiple disparate warring tribes unified into a diverse and formidable force. It has constant tensions with the Holy Firmament, the nation that neighbors it to the east; New Xheolia, a nation of sea Kinds to its west; and the Zhuan Empire, a very ancient regional power.

Environment The majority of the nation, around 60% of it, comprises of a region of Aizarin known as the Banelands, a mixture of badlands, desert, oasis, rivers, plateaus, and mountains. Where Skalovia is murderously cold for the fall and winter, the Banelands are torturously hot during the summer and spring. To cross them, special crystal formations that create a huge cooling effect in a 100 yd radius are needed. Rather than being the result of the magic stuff of stars, these are earthborn crystals that are touched by the Aether found in underground caverns.
Origins The Zoth republic is an old place, untouched even by the ancient Velassian empire. It grew sapient kinds of unknown origin. Some theorize spontaneous Aether formations out of the local fauna, which is a similar theory to the rest of the Kinds of Central Tys. Some possibly think they are lab experiments that escaped their labs, and are possibly offshoots of the [Worms]. In any case, they have a history of tribalism and insularity. Originally, the land was split up into a few hundred tribes known as Feis. The Feis warred for good farmland, water sources, and when they were found, the great inhabitable caverns that grew fungi and edible flora and fauna. They were left alone by the old Aelthi Empire, the rising Cao empires, and their neighbors. They rose to prominence with the second invasion of the [Worms]. All the tribes were going to be driven to extinction, with a distinct lost being the total indoctrination of the wasp Feis. This was until they discovered the Heaven Engine. The Heaven Engine was a glowing cylindrical thing shaped like a giant machine tool that gave those that interfaced with it powerful abilities and the ability to inflict godlike destruction. It was used to drive back the worms. All the tribes that used the engine looked upon the destruction the engine caused and the deaths of many of their people. They destroyed old grudges and formed a council union that was in -5323 PR. They declared the land to be Zoth, or "Unified" in the shared language known as Tijling. This was an oligarchical and Kind based union that faced much strife. That council eventually became a proper republic in -103 PR after a civil war and the exclusive use of the Heaven Engine by the Archons. The Archons are an all-inclusive group that any can join, and their heads, the Hiearchs, are voted in by the public among the Archons' members.
Government The Zoth Republic is ruled by a president democratically chosen by direct voting from the citizenry of Zoth. He precedes over an executive branch and bureaucracy that runs multiple arms of the nation. The president has term limits of 10 years and an individual may only be elected once. The legislative arm of the republic is the Chorus, a congress that is voted in by representative members called Singers per Section, the municipal division that comprises an area and the people within. The Chorus numbers 1 per district which comprises 10,000 citizens minimally and 15,000 citizens maximally. Any more or less requires redrawing of Section borders. This can cause massive bureaucratic headache, but citizens can opt in to choose themselves as part of a local district until their restructuring finishes. The Sections are administered by Section Departments. This system does not discriminate between city and rural regions (or really oasis and regions that border the desert). The nation comprises of around 20,000,000 citizens. That adds up to 2000 singers. The singers write in laws, decide on important matters, and are required to be consulted before the nation goes to war. Then there is the judicial branch which is technically also theocratic. These are the Archons, and they are both the supreme judges, ruling on legislative matters and allow or veto policy, but also act as priests to the great Heaven Engine. They would be considered Harmonist.
Culture The culture is a very individualistic sort. The deaths of most of their Kinds left the Zothians to reevaluate the worth of each member of their species. They were the first to adopt a Kindist attitude: they espoused the importance of sapient life, its matters rather than external divine or supernatural input, and express the value and inherent goodness of kinds when they are not forced into conflict. They showed the unification in the face of the [Worms] as proof of this when they could have ran and left the world to their mercy. The common needs of kinds are emphasized. Even the cult of the heaven engine is not quite like other organized religions. It's more accepted that it is a part of their daily life and that rituals are good to show their appreciation to it. (Metawise, it's similar to Shinto in that way). Their very government and upbringing is made to express the value of the individual. They took well to materialism when it spread from Xatlaxa but also agree with aspects of equitianism, often hybridizing the economics of the two.
Economics The Republic of Zoth massively trades with the rest of the world. They trade in silk, special minerals, medicines using chemicals from their mines and processed in the undercities, and trade in their unique beasts and monsters. They were one of the first to trade with the State of Skalovia just like Kesst and Wakunan.
Magic Magic users are allowed to freely enter and exit the Republic. Although they deny it, the heaven engine is also very clearly Kah based and many monks and Kah users have said as such. They did not have magicians or supernatural powers until the engine, but they welcome foreign ones and send off their own young to magical universities to return and use their gifts.
Military The Zothians know the value of deterrent force. They will be one of the first to fully outfit their forces with Skalovian muskets. The variety of the kinds in the nation also use their individual strengths in different roles. Scarab and Beetle kinds act as heavy frontline infantry with large curved blades to soften up battle lines or breach defenses in sieges. Moth kinds serve as harassment and router units, using their flight to act as dragoons with a lot of flexibility. Scorpion kinds tails are often used as spears above heavy defensive shields, and they have been recently outfitted with muskets along with many other kinds. The military is not worshipped in the Banelands but it is respected.