The Circled Areas are Xhenon Domain Cities
The Risen Realms are a collection of civilizations built by the Xhenons. The Xhenons were secret civilizations of deep sea kinds that avoided discovery by the world through the natural cover of their ocean floor cities, an extremely repressive caste of priest lords that kept an iron fist over their people, and their society-wide compliant secrecy. Their domains are massive cities and settlements found under the water that only xhenonic kinds could normally live in. Even magic users could not reasonably stay within them due to the deep-sea pressure, lack of oxygen, and even past that the concentration and energy to keep air bubbles and livable pressures would strain even the most powerful dragons or wizards. And they have. The only way for land-bound kinds to visit these places are either through vehicles built to withstand such natural deterrence and air sanctuary stones. Sanctuary stones are made of the same stuff that hearthstones are and they are the result from the same great astral rain of past millennia. They create spaces with livable pressures and even supply breathable air for landbound kinds. They are as required for transport for a person of the land as hearthstones are for traveling in Skalovia's marrow-chilling winters.
Xhenonics resemble bestials in that they look like bipedal humanoid mixtures of a human and sea creatures. The known Xhenonics include sharkkinds, mantakinds, eelkinds, and whalekinds among others. They are naturally proficient swimmers and have a natural ability to center themselves upon the ground of the ocean. They can speak both the languages of the sea and lands with only as much difficulty as any other kinds that learn another language. While they seem to have gills they are also able to breathe the air of the land. Xhenonics tend to have trouble in transitioning in how they live from sea to land. They may find the way they physically feel to be turned upside down. Xhenonics sometimes feel intense dysphoria when living upon the land or find themselves in depressions similar to land-bound kinds that live for long times without sunlight. Many have been able to transition to the land, however.
The first introduction of Xhenonics to the utter surprise of those kinds of the land came from the Great Sea Wars of 156. During this time, the Xhenonics of Tys were united into a singular civilization by the lord priest cast known as the Iedoua. For millennia, they had gathered their power over the cities through their cult of the sun which taught that the Xhenonics were a chosen people that were dispossessed by the shiftless, sinful, and valueless land kinds that had once ago stolen the glory of the sun's life-giving love away from the sea kinds. The Iedoua taught that the Xhenons were destined to gather their power and take back their birthright. They proved this through predicting natural disasters and saying they came from those of the land. Through many years they gathered power, gained millions of followers, and readied for the final invasion.
Now, the Iedoua profited greatly from this cult talk. Many of the highest echelon did not truly believe in the cult. They profited off of their followers fear and tribute. However, they were forced to move their plans forward when the Iedoua of Xheolia, a far off domain off the northern coast of Aizarin, invaded the land. The Iedoua was a true zealot believer and even had power invested in them via miracles of the sun they could perform. None of the other Iedoua had this ability and in order to quickly cover up their powerlessness, they went ahead and invaded the lands from their domains as well. Massive armies rose from the sea and rolled over unprepared defenders.
This began the Great Sea Wars that lasted over a decade. The kinds of the land were able to push the Xhenonics back into the sea after consolidating their efforts as they once did for the Cold Death invasion. Once within the sea, there was a definitive impasse. Armies of the sea could not fight for a prolonged time within the sea even with sanctuary stones. Their weaponry was also massively limited because of the water and natural physics. Along with this, the xhenonics had their greatest strength in the water. However, xhenonics were not able to make permanent inroads onto the land either.
It was during this time that those xhenonics that had been influenced by the land began to question their rulers. Translated literature and simple conversation with the land kinds that had no idea of what the sun cult said became the beginning of the end for the Iedoua. More and more xhennics questioned what they were doing for the first time in millennia. In the end, they realized they had been duped by a caste of conmen and a great civil war waged in the sea between those that still believed in the Iedoua's words and those that wanted revenge against them.
Eventually, the Iedoua's regime was destroyed. Civilization had to be created and with the loss of unity between the domains they developed in separate ways. Over time, innovations from the land and sea made it possible for the two to be connected and for the xhenonics to join the rest of the world. While keeping their unique cultures, the kinds of the sea did also adopt things from the land.
While there is still a sense of alienness about them, by the second epoch there would be a small presence of Xhenonics in every major port city in the world and they would join the land and become contractors.
Known DomainsSholica
Tlaeica
Zaedica
Klaeica
Auradica
Dolomica
GURPS racial templates to come
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