The Arcanium: A Realm of Magical Supremacy

The Arcanium

A Realm of Magical Supremacy

The Arcanium is a magocracy found in the southwestern region of Velas known as the Southern Anchor which comprises of the dwarven lands of Katetia, Drath of the dark elves, Yagotzia of the hobgoblins, the Sothian Palatinate which holds the high priest of Soth known as the Thanarch, the Court of the Night which is an alliance of undead creatures that made a deal with the living, Tarkaria which contains nomadic bestial tribes, the goblin lands of Golgotzia, the Arcanium, the dragonkin-filled Samdiria, the blue Urkain inhabited Ruk, the elven land of Syldania, and the human colony of Thrale. The Arcanium is a land of magic users. It is dedicated to the mastery of magic, the mastery of the world around oneself, and the mastery over one's rivals. The Arcanium is world-renowned for its powerful mages and the colleges that produce them. It is ruled by a sorcerer supreme, one who has climbed on the top of the Arcanium's hierarchy by means of their magical strength allowing them to crush all over rivals. The realm is very small as a nation, dwarfed in size by its neighbors. Despite its smallness, it is one of the most fearsome lands to exist in the world. This is due to the massive concentration of wizards and mages who dwell within it. This massive concentration exists due to the major colleges of magic that exist within it that produce mages with great ability. At a high mortality rate.

A History

The Arcanium came about during the height of the reign Empire of Mekkhor, a powerful empire that stretched across a swathe of western Velas. During this time, the cult of Lathras put the ban on magic-users and killed any they could get their hands on. Magic was blasphemous to Lathras who provided her own miracles to her chosen clerics. The temple also had a vested interest in removing a competing power. The Lathrians were entrenched into the Mekkhorsi's governmental systems and culture and another option for power like theirs could weaken their position within the empire. So it was done that magicians, Heka users, Kah users, and anyone that did not use the energy of Will was cast out of the empire. The Aeth users fled to the Anchor, chased out by the temple. They settled the as of yet untamed land and made their own nation. The magicians held a burning hatred for the Lathrians and the Empire itself for their mistreatment. Before the Lathrians came about, they worked in concert with Hekanites, Kah masters, and others as the healers and utility mages of the empire. They were removed from their rightful positions.

Supremacy through Mastery

This hatred involved into a superiority complex that infected the entirety of Arcanite culture. In the Arcanium, a man existed to discharge their strength, all else was will to power. It was determined by the Arcanites that the strongest should rule, and the strongest were determined to be the most powerful mages that earned their power through mastery of Aeth and no one else. No charlatan priest, no dullard king, no money-grubbing merchants, and especially not the dirt of society, the common man. This thinking contributed to the birth to a new plan of world domination that was planned by the Arcanium elite and the sorcerer supreme a hundred years have they were established. This domination would not be explicit subjugation of the world but a secretive infiltration of its power structures. The Arcanium would turn mages to their way of thinking and be rid of the dregs through a dangerous curriculum used in their colleges. These mages would infiltrate the world once they had their chance and gradually change the world to their image.

Defending its Existence

The Arcanium had to defend its right to exist against multiple threats over the years. In the time of the Cold Death, the undead marched on their lands and they did battle with the liches that controlled them. The dragons of Samdiria thought to conquer the little magocracy again and again and they were fought back time and time again. The vampires that existed in the land that is now known as the Court of the Night also attempted to infiltrate the magocracy and make powerful servants of its inhabitant's copies. They were fought back again and again and the Arcanium remained.

An Opportunity

The Epiphany of Saint Bromae, by which the first high priest of the war god Alar emancipated all mages across the land from harm and suppression, became the first massive push the Arcanites needed to push their plans. They were able to keep the Arcanium as the sole place to learn mastery of Aeth for millennia by shutting down any other colleges of magic that sprung up through sabotage or secretive influence. They made a parasitic alliance with the Temple of the Five that ensured the Arcanium had religious protection against being shut down. Indeeed, the Great Unburdening, a time when rationality and science was promoted and the secular power of religion waned, was one of the greatest setbacks they had experienced. No longer could their alliance keep their works from ever biting them in the future. New colleges of magic rose and these had ample defense against the Arcanium. However, it still remained a nation and institution with a massive amount of influence in the world. Nary a royal court could be found without an Arcanium-trained court mage at a king's side. Their reputation for having high-quality education also kept them in the public eye. Their power seems unassailable

Equitianism

Although many do try to assail it. Equitianists are some of the greatest vocal critics of the Arcanium. Their implied magical supremacy goes against the movement's egalitarian nature and they are ever vigilant about any organization that makes power plays like the Arcanium. Dasili Geriov, The founder of the ministry of magicks which controls and teaches magic use in the cold lands of Equilibratist Skalovia, was a massive critic of them in the first epoch. He grew within the Arcanium under a different name, Daeglas Pearl, and became disgusted at them when he found their ultimate plans of world domination. When the opportunity arose, he joined the great radical dragon general Uhlion the Broken in his Skalovian Revolution, a conflict fought between the enthralled kobolds and their sympathizers and leaders including Uhlion the gold dragon vs the draconic Scale Prince rulers of the city-states that littered the land. He joined the revolution because he believed in Zelienism, the founding ideology of equitianism, and because he wanted to help create a state that would eliminate the Arcanium's control by way of its own resources including a magic school that was against everything the Arcanium taught. He taught that mages are not above the people, but are part of the people. They are to use their strengths in ways to help their fellow men rise past their weaknesses following equitianist ideology. True strength is found in the collective back and forth between individuals to create an equitable society. He battled the magocracy over his lifetime by skullduggery as an official of Skalovia. His successor ministers still fight that battle today. The Arcanium's alliance with nations that are foundational materielists, an oppressive economic system to equitianists, has also made the fight against them double in importance.

Today

The Arcanium still stands as one of the greatest places for someone to send their young to learn magic. Their tuitions are quite high at 300,000 silver (or $300,000 in GURPS terms) but they can instill a great mastery of magic in their students. As long as they do not die from the live fire exercises the university has which results in a third of their students being killed or expelled. That is only the classes, one's fellow students and professors may also kill their rivals or shame another out of the program in their scramble t the top.

Mekkhas the Conqueror

Mekkhas the Conqueror
10,954 ON to 10,887 ON

Mekkhas the Conqueror was a prince born in the region of Lekkas that lies in the north-eastern portion of Mekkhor found west of Skalovia and south of Gromdalia on Velas. He conquered his way into becoming an emperor and his empire stretched from the lands in western Velas known as Lekkas, Orcini, Ravois, Catarein, Ashriq, and Malkhabir. His legacy includes much of the societal foundations of Velas in the Age of Flame and the current borders of the modern Velassian regions as of 0 ND. His famous tale is told in multiple history books, by bards, and his tactics and methods are still taught today by military theorists. He united nearly all the lands by military conquest and created the powerful Mekkhorsi Empire which would last for over three thousand years and go on to influence the world after.

Origins

Mekkhas was born to Doreios and Anteia of the city-state of Nessalonika which was found in northeastern Lekkas about three hundred miles west of Skalovia, a cold land inhabited by draconic kinds that was ruled by dragons. Mekkhas's father was the basileus of Nessalonika, its king, and he was often absent in Mekkhas's life due to the multiple campaigns he lead when warring against other city-states and the encroaching Skalovians. Lekkas, a northern region of Mekkhor on the continent of Velas found on the western border of the Fang mountains of Skalovia, had long been at war with Skalovia and the Scale Princes, the draconic rulers of the frigid land that claimed individual city-states within it. His mother personally taught him what she could of history, legend, mathematics, and how to be a great general in the vein of his father. Mekkhas grew in the shadow of war in Lekkas and he served with his father as a strategos along with his older brothers Kephelon and Maiandrios. He had served for only a year when he had seen his father and brothers fall to draconic invasions, burned to death by the red dragon Cagath at the tail end of his final invasion of Nessalonika. 

Escape and Wisdom

Eventually, Nesalonika fell and Mekkhas escaped to the city of Paiontos. There he met with Anaxis of Many Colors, a mercenary captain that had made quite a hoard of gold from fighting in wars across the lands of Lekkas, Orcini, Ravois, and Catarein. He became a drinking companion to the young Mekkhas and fed him knowledge he had learned in his time across the land. Men only respond to power. That power is won by iron and blood. All else is pageantry. Mekkhas joined Anaxis on his campaigns and learned of these other lands and how they lived and warred. He realized he was narrow-minded in his thoughts. Lekkas was insufficient and too small to truly defend itself. Lekkas was also not the entire world. Mekkhas of Nesalonika swore to unite the human lands together in order to create a world for man to prosper and rule. He began his campaign with several shrewd moves working within Anaxis's mercenary company. He bargained for lands and titles instead of gold. He created his own united kingdom in southern Lekkas and then spread its influence through conquests. He met and won the loyalty and respect of men like Anaxis who had true wisdom. These men would become his archons, generals and governors, and raise professional armies in his new kingdom of Thralonika built in the western portion of Lekkas. 

Empire Building

His kingdom became an empire once he caused the city-states of Lekkas to submit, the tribal chiefs of Ravois to kneel, and the kings of Orcini to lay down one crown for another as they were convinced to become archons. He continued his conquests well into the south, into Catarein and the deserts of Ashriq. He planned multiple projects over the decades including renovations of cities, great works made in the empire's name, and the establishment of some of the earliest institutions in Mekkhor. His name would ring out with greatness and every man that bowed to him at one time in shame would grow to adore him. He would always keep his eyes on Lekkas and sent legions to keep back the Scale Princes from progressing forward.

Tragedy and Succession

Unfortunately, Mekkhas died before he saw his dream achieved. He died of a fever at the age of 67 in the harsh deserts of Ashriq. His heir, Anakreon, would take over and finish what he began. He personally saw his father's home freed and the lands of Lekkas torn away from the greedy talons of the dragons. Once the realms were united, a great invasion of near one million men was launched into the cold reaches of Skalovia. Not by the princes did the army of one million see its number halved, but by the cruelty of the frigid land. Skalovia is deadly cold in its falls and winters and it requires the use of magical hearthstones to produce heat. In the beginning, the legions of Anakreon were able to procure these stones in the warmer spring but they were in short supply and the area they covered could not support all the men. Many died in the cold numb, their blue faces in permanent expressions of chilling pain. The war went on for decades despite this, but every year would see the men grow weaker, grow in unhappiness, and lost the original vision their predecessors had. They grew tired of war and fighting hundreds of thousands of kobolds, scalebound, monks, and the abominations of the Scale Princes along with the dragons themselves. They pushed the princes back into Skalovia, and this was seen as victory enough. The men returned home to Mekkhor and a great wall was built that separated the two realms. The princes would continue to breach it and many succeeded but they would not grab a permanent foothold like they once had.

Audovauld Bromae of Lorcilly: The Patron Saint of Battle

Saint Bromae

-5931 ON to -5879 ON 

Saint Bromae is the patron saint of battle and one of the most important figures to the Pentaphany, the largest religion on the planet Kyr. He was specifically devoted to the temple of Alar, the god of war in the temple of the Five. He was known for leading and fighting against the mass undead invasion known as the Cold Death where liches and vampires that were hidden in the depths of the cold sea marched upon the north to reclaim lands that were once theirs. Many stories abound from that time of his bravery and courage, his ability to lead men, and of the blessings and miracles he did on and off the battlefield. He is also a special figure to magic users across Pentandom, the lands that worship the Pentaphanic gods, due to his key role in freeing them from the original proscription the Pentaphany had upon the use of magic. He ascended to anathemahood, a demi-godlike state of power, to continue his master's work upon the world. He is often silent, as quiet as his god, but he is known to lend his power to his believers and adherents. He is seen as a figure representing the struggles the kinds have had in defending civilization.

Audovauld Bromae was born to the blacksmith Berengar Bromae and his wife the seamstress Rinilda in the town of Lorcilly which was found in what is now modern southern Ravois. Growing up, Audovauld was taught to become a blacksmith by his father and to learn the family craft. His mother told him stories of myths and legends from a tome that her family had passed down for centuries. Due to the nature of his father's work, Audovauld was often in the company of soldiery. He attended ceremonies, marches, dinners, and events that his father was invited to for his work in making arms for the legions of Mekkhor, the empire that ran from the north of Lekkas to the bottom of Malkhabir. There he saw the warriors and heard their tales of heroism and valor and decided he wanted to become one. His father attempted to dissuade him of this want but his head was full of the stories of legends and these men he looked up to and Berengar could not stop him. He grew in the fief of the Archon Cyr, a well-known warlord and loyal governor of the Mekkhor Empire. When he came of age, he joined the local archon's forces. He trained well and became a working part of the army's forces. He rose through the ranks despite his personal problems with what he found in the army. When he was first deployed, he soon became dismayed at what he was required to do as a soldier. He had to fight his fellow Mekkhorsi that were rebelling against the empire or other warlords attempting to make their own claims outside the Emperor's rule. He watched as his comrades pillaged from the lands they fought in, and burn down villages and cities in the name of the emperor and the empire. He wanted a better way.

Behind the backs of his commanders, he would personally attempt to discipline the soldiers from engaging in immoral acts on the battlefield. Sometimes a fellow warrior would be found severely beaten or dead with wounds from unexplainable sources. Many disappeared. His role as an authoritative figure shielded him from investigation and he was loved by much of the men he served with so these strange discrepancies were ignored. 

Audovauld grew in the light of Lathras, the old god of life that many Mekkhorsi worshipped long ago, but he was introduced to the Pentaphany by a traveling missionary from the land now known as Khattiba, a desert region found southwest of Ravois within the region of Ashriq. Her name was Laiqa the Wanderer and he met her when he saved her from a zealous band of Lathrians that were attempting to stone her to death for spreading the word of the Five, the gods of the Pentaphany. After her rescue, they grew to know one another and she taught him of the epiphany of the Five, the claim that all gods were facets of five: Sothe, Liestra, Alar, Prythe, and Astres. He grew very interested in this new religion and especially of a god of just war, Alar. He asked Laiqa to baptize him in the name of the Five and he swore to uphold their will. He would see war become just.

War did not become just with the arrival of the Cold Death invasions, a grand set of invasions from the sea by liches controlling the undead from ages past. Audovauld, now an officer in archon Cyr's army, saw firsthand the havoc the undead unleashed upon the living. This was during a time of great instability in the empire as the War of Dying Flame, a civil war between three emperors that had claimed they were the true heirs of the empire, was growing to a close and the Mekkhorsi empire would never see itself with the same entrenchment of stable power ever again. The Cold Death was one of the final nails in the coffin of the Mekkhorsi Empire as the archons looked to themselves and did not help the south where the dead became hordes. Archon Cyr was similarly impotent due to not having the knowledge necessary to deal with this type of threat nor its scale. That left the army almost all alone with the archon having gone mad with stress in his castle.

Audovauld refused to see his land snuffed out. He rallied the army around a new banner bearing the symbol of Alar. At the end of a great booming speech made to inspire his men, holy energy erupted from the banner he raised a great gout of miraculous energy that speared into the sky. The banner could now be pointed and used as a weapon with great tendrils of energy flowing out of it and destroying all in their paths. It was said that even Audovauld was surprised when this occurred but he found it inspiring and knew that Alar was with him. He was ecstatic in the new power given to him by his god but kept his original ideal of a just war in his mind and never found himself overtaken by a sense of corruption. For a decade of war, Audovauld united the southern Ravoir into a fighting force under the banner of the Pentaphany and Alar. He would win many converts by his acts of valor and many would flock to him, including the first paladins that he found himself able to bless with his miracles. The warriors of Irenia, a region to the southeast of Ravois that would one day become Alaria, also joined him and they brought the word of the Five back to the region. For all of his miraculous and great work, he would be named the first Bellarch, the high priest of Alar. He saw the Cold Death beaten off and turned his work into helping the Pentaphany solidify itself as an institution.

His defense against the Cold Death would help him see his great epiphany that would emancipate mages in the eyes of the faithful of the Pentaphany. Before his epiphany, mages and magery were banned from being practiced by the Pentaphany and the previous Lathrian religion on pain of death. It came from a source that was not holy and it made up the essence of monsters thus it must have been sinful and evil. Magic-users would be exiled from the empire and put to death if they attempted to stay. The Arcanium, a realm ruled by great wizards boasting one of the greatest magic schools in the world located to the south of Mekkhor, came about during this time and it began as simply a nation of refugees and then became something more. In this war, he saw many mages come to the aid of Mekkhor. Many of these mages were those who would profess a love of the Five but could not due to the banning of their kind. In this war, he saw time and time again that even with the miracles he could summon that many more Ravoir would have died without the powers of the mages to send deadly spells down upon the undead, serve utilitarian purposes in sanitizing food, healing when the Liestrian clerics could not be around, and helping to raise fortifications and defenses much more quickly than the army would be able to do on its own. 

He became the defacto commander of the Pentaphany's forces and formed the first Council of Five Palatines with the Thanarch Jullian, the Vitarch Fikra, the Iustarch Ladron, and the Stellarch Kalesius. There they decided to spread the Pentarchy across Velas and laid down the foundations of thee modern temples. Audovauld and the first Pentarchy had nothing to do with the barring of women from the temple clergy aside from Liestrian and Astresian temples. That was created in later centuries with the entrenchment of the patriarchical feudal system.

He took part in the war against the worms and was a welcome presence. In -5879 ON, he ascended to Anathemahood becoming the Anathema of Battle to complement the god of war. He now acts behind the scenes and is able to empower his followers. His holy banner is found in the Palatine of Alar, and its power remains. It has been saved for use in another great world-threatening war.

A chapel dedicated to him exists in modern Lorcilly and many Alarian organizations and orders have been dedicated to him. Notably, the Firmament dedicated their organization to him but they also disregard his emancipatory epiphany. 

Gromdalia: The Ancient

Gromdalia

The Ancients

On the northern edge of the known world lies one of the oldest confederations known to history. It is inhabited by tribes of the duerthi people, or dwarves as they are more commonly known. Gromdalia lays claim to the Gromdal mountains, snowy high-rising mountains found in one of the coldest climates of the world on the northern edge of Velas butting up against the Fangs. Underneath the peaks and within the rock of the mountains themselves lies the Gromdalian civilizations. They have cities hewn from the stone of the mountain that are covered with statues and great inscriptions of art formed upon the walls, buildings, and sides of caves. The Gromdalian's vast history is written on these walls but some has been lost to time due to neglect or pure age. Connecting the great cities, known as kyrgs are great underways, highways built between the cities that patrolled by heavily armored guardians. Each kyrg contains a ruling Teyrg, a merchant guild that serves as the government for the duerthi people. While a high king once ruled Gromdalia long ago, the royal dynasty was lost to a horrible plague and in its place rose the second most powerful institutions of Gromdalia: the guilds. Gromdalia is home to one of the oldest forms of magitek in the world: rune scribing.

Duerthi

Duerthi are short, stout people that stand at between three feet and four feet tall. They are often robustly built and long lived, reaching around six hundred years in age before succumbing to natural causes. They are one of the oldest Kinds in the world and have seen and lived through many ages.

Ancient History

Gromdalia has existed since before the Age of Twilight, the time when the great elven empire of Velas took its mysterious exodus away from the known world. The duerthi and the aelthi once worked in concert together before the empire took power and the elves treated all other kinds as beneath them and only suitable for submission or extermination. Before the aelthi could put the boot to the dwarves, the ancient kind had seemingly disappeared. Gromdalia avoided being conquered by the ancients hiding within the deep parts of the mountains. It was a miserable experience that saw many dwarves die by starvation without the massive fungal farms they had cultivated with the kyrgs of the upper mountains. Along with this, monsters rose in hordes the deeper in the mountains one goes. The fight for survival was on two fronts. When they retreated, they created a system of scouts that could stealthily creep to the upper levels and watch if the Aelthi still continued on their path of destruction. This went on for centuries. The duerthi were able to settle the lower levels and quell the numbers of the monsters to manageable levels by the end of their time in the depths. They still longed for their homes. Eventually, the strangest thing occurred. The Velassian Empire was no longer in the known world. In its place new primitive Kinds that now claim the earth. The duerthi of this time recognized these Kinds and knew their origins. They disregarded the new Kinds of men, bestials, and the others as little more than upright animals and kept to their own business for thousands of years. Over time, the knowledge of why the dwarves refused to communicate them was lost with the death of several venerable longbeards, a name for the oldest dwarves going on 500-600 years old. Duerthi are long-lived but they can succumb to death from natural causes. The newer generations would eventually reach out to these young Kinds and parcel out information to help them prosper. This resulted in the technological advances of humans becoming accelerated to iron age level. Along with this, many discoveries the duerthi had known on a scientific and philosophical level were shared with the humans to their south, the Lekkenics. Giving out of select information over time was done out of fear of creating a brand new Velassian Empire. In the ancient days, the duerthi helped the aelthi and suffered for it. So, these new Kinds were given bist and pieces. This information along with their own newly found advancements would lead them to the technological and societal level they were before the Epoch of Flame. The main vectorrs of this knowledge were the humans of Lekkas.

Runic Inscription

Runic inscription has long been part of duerthi culture. It is credited for allowing the dwarven kyrgs some of their greatest works and their beautiful hewn cities. How it works is that the runes are built into different objects, not just stones, and their shapes intrinsically draw upon aeth, the energy of magic. A similar phenomenon was seen with the chordant stones of Talah except instead of notes focusing music, the inscriptions summon it through their physicality. They often glow with the power of aeth once finished. Runic inscription was one of the very last things the dwarves passed onto the younger Kinds and forr two good reasons. One, they were trying to not allow them too much power. Two, it is exceedingly difficult unless one knows how to do it. It takes specialized tools and a special form of enchantment magic to work. It can take decades to learn how to use both, which is one reason why the discovery of the more easily used aetherium was so valuable to advances in magitek. Still, runic inscription is used in the Age of Flame, especially on aeroships to make them light enough to float.

Scriber Guilds

Scriber guilds can be hired for high prices to mark runic inscriptions on different objects. They are renowned across the world and hired for special projects by the wealthy and powerful. (In game terms they mainly use the enchantment system of GURPS Magic)

Equitianism

The guilds of Gromdal do not care for equitianism. They see it as an upstart movement that has not had the millenia of testing that their ancient traditions have had. However, not all duerthi in Gromdalia agree. Many have chafed under the power of the guilds for hundreds of years and find truth in the ideology. This truth is exemplified by the multiple ways the upper class of the guild masters have oppressed the lower classes in Gromdalian history. Underpaying them, keeping food when famine struck, forcibly suppressing dissenters, and always keeping the senior members of the guild at the top and almost never allowing the younger dwarves to prove themselves in a cyclical nature that sees new generations finally receiving the positions they yearned for and then keeping the next at the bottom. Along with this, open equitianists had to keep their alliegances secret or risk the shuttering of their jobs and exile. Because of all this, many Gromdalian dwarves flocked to the Skalovian Revolution and became key figures in the early history of the Uhlionic Republic. One Gromdalian resident that stayed in the Gromdal mountains, Regar Jarnsir, was a homegrown equitianist that had known Sylvaras Zelie, the elven creator of equitianism, and was a known theoretician and freedom fighter. He took part in the original rebellion against the Dai Empire in Liresku but left with the disappointing rise of the Dominion, the legalistic Prythian cult that ruled the lands with an iron fist. He was a supporter of the Uhlionic Republic, the newly raised revolutionary government that toppled the Scale Princes of Skalovia that ruled the land before. Regar saw it as his personal mission to pass on his personal friend Sylvaras's movement in liberation of the workers of Gromdal. He turned against the Republic and denounced vanguard-theory-based Equilibratism with the atrocities committed in Klastte and the invasion of Gromdalia in a clear act of imperialism.

The Gromdal War

Many of those dwarves would see themselves fighting against their own kin in what was to be known as an ultimately pointless war between the confederation of guilds and the Republic, now an ascendant land-conquering republic to their east. The Republic outwardly fought to liberate the dwarves from the masters of the guilds; it was actually thought up as a land grab to gain more resources including new veins of aetherium, the crystal that is key to modern magitek tools and creations, found within the Gromdal mountains. The URA, the black powder using Uhlionic Republican Army, was exhausted from two consecutive wars beforehand and the occupation of Klastte, a fallen kingdom now under the control of the Republic. Along with this, the revolutionary spirit of fighting in defense of the motherland was drained with those wars and the premier's cruel policies taking their toll. Along with this, the URA's weapons were not suited to the underground, requiring wide spaces to form lines upon. The Gromdalians knew the terrain, had prepared for such a war, and were ready to fight back the invaders. While not an excessively bloody war, totalling at around 20,000 casualties, many did die on both sides and this was the final black mark against the Republic in the eyes of even fellow equitianists, let alone the rest of the world which planning to create a massive coalition to smash the Republic. The black eye given to them was seen as enough for the time. Gromdalia won and expelled the URA from their lands.

Changing Times

Gromdalia is going through a relatively massive amount of changes in a short time throughout the Epoch of flame. The powers of the guilds are waning and the newer generations have a bevy of new ideas. Only time will tell if the ancient kingdom changes from its ancient traditions.

Drath: A Lost Past

Drath

A Lost Past

Found within a great plain of rolling grassland and steppes in southern Velas, Drath is the homeland of the Drathi people, or dark elves as they're more commonly known. Drath is home to a unique form of magic, blood magic, that all Drathi have a genetic predisposition for using. This mysterious realm came to be only a few centuries beforehand with the return of Aelthi that were long thought lost forever arriving in new changed forms.

The Drathi

Much like the other elves of Kyr, Drathi often have slender graceful bodies and long ears. They similarly have magic blood and are tuned to aeth naturally. They, however, have snow-white skin almost to an elf, black eyes, and naturally growing ivory-colored hair. They also seem to have genetically built-in knowledge of their particular form of blood magic. This blood magic concerns not sacrifice (like certain devils desire) but rather the literal use of blood as energy to focus aeth, the energy of magic, into spells. This has been theorized as an alternate use of kah, the energy of life, or potentially a mixture of the use of kah and aeth in a hybrid form but the mechanics are not well known by even the Drathi. Most civilizations abhor the use of blood magic whether through association with the Tithing Realms, those hells ruled by the archdevils and archdemons, or through general squeamishness. Along with this, it is rather difficult and possibly fatal to learn blood magic. 

The Return
-431 ON

Drath was formed when a flotilla of strange ships bearing the Drathi peoples approached the known world. They came to sail around southern Velas having no memory of where they came from nor why they were in this part of Kyr. However, they to an elf had an impending sense of doom that they shared with anyone who would listen that the Velassian Empire was to return to their old lands one day. They begged for sanctuary from the states in southern Velas as most of those upon the ships were starving and dying. They were denied such, as Thrale could not see themselves taking them on, Katetia has a long burning hatred for their ancient Aelthi enemies, and Yagatzia was in the middle of a war. The Tarks had no such delegation at this time, still being a roaming series of tribes. The one state that would help was the Sothian Palatinate but this was during the time of establishing the Court of the Night and resources were thin. Dismayed at this state of affairs the Drathi docked their ships on the near-barren lands that the nation stands on today. They would not live to see the next spring if sacrifices were not made. A lottery was held and the winners were cut down and their blood drained to power the magic necessary to create a new settlement. Near 33% of the population on the ships died this way. This was spearheaded by a female Drathi named Lleiwyn Narain, who would become the ruling despot of the new nation.

The Despotate

Despot Narain decided she was one of the few of the flotilla that could ensure the survival of her people. A strong-willed drathi, she directed the survivors in settling this new land with help of an inner circle of guards and would hear no dissent to her plans. She was brutal in putting down any that would threaten her rule with punishments such as crucifixions, public butchery, and bloody displays of her own accumulated power. In her way, she settled what is now known as Drath over the span of a few centuries. Her subjects are equally split in abundant gratitude and deep-seated loathing. 

Blood Stones

Blood Stones are family heirlooms given to the head of a house. They are strange magical stones that can store more blood than their palm-sized round shape suggests. Often they are fed by their uses who bleed themselves to fill the stones in increments over the days. The use of a bloodstone can create powerful magics without killing the user by using the accumulated blood in one's spells.

The Drathi Diaspora

Many Drathi have fled from the Despotate and Despot Narain has wished good riddance to them. They have found new homes across the world but often find themselves in marginalized communities similar to the Fallow and Djiinari. One large concentration of Drathi is found in Uladreng, the masked realm.