Slavery

Slavery

At the beginning of the Epoch of Flame, slavery had only just been slowly dialing down in use over the course of a century. Before then, the practice of owning other sapient kinds to perform labor had been around for many millennia. The religions of the world did not see it as sinful and the practice had been regularly accepted in society. Contractor quests could include returning runaway slaves to their owners, Prythian paladins would process and identify slaves to make it easier to return them, and often the higher classes' palaces and keeps would be stocked with slaves. 

Slaves vs Serfdom

There is a distinction to be made with serfdom and slavery in that serfdom was technically not the same but the movement of serfs was restricted by their lords and they could be separated from their families if they were seen as needed more in another place than the one they resided in. 

Sources of Slaves

Slaves were often prisoners of war, debtors, and captured criminals. Slavery based on the superiority of one Kind over another that had one group force another into captivity is actually a more recent invention based on a confluence of factors in multiple regions. One key region that saw the last gasp of chattel slavery was Thrale in the first century PR.

Compliance

Slaves were kept in line by multiple tools. The whip and the chain were used in regularity to instill submission upon slaves. Physical beatings, painful punishment, refusal of nutrition, and other means were also used to keep slaves in line. One of the greatest tools to insure compliance was the covenant ring. These were magical rings that were made to link one's mind and physical feeling to another in order to ensure cooperation or a deep intimacy such as a lord and their bodyguard or two wedded spouses. The pain one felt would be shared as would the thoughts of both parties. If one died, the other died. Covenant rings could be modified into slave bands where one party would be excused from sharing themselves but the other would have all the effects of the band still active on them. These tools were used by rich slave owners to doubly ensure compliance not only from those banded but also to intimidate those around them who would want to ensure the safety of the banded. The bands were expensive but effective and often were given to the most influential members of a community of enslaved people such as the elders.

Waning Practice

Slavery has not truly been completely ended in the Epoch of Flame but the sight of slaves serving at their masters call in normal society and the practice of regular chattel slavery and indentured servitude has died down by 0 PR for multiple reasons. One, having individuals and families responsible for their own feeding and housing is cheaper than having to do so for slaves. Two, non-slaves can be expected to learn and expand upon their abilities without fear that they could use those abilities against their masters. Three, with the settling of Velas and Xatla the options to procure slaves was reduced as many were captured in war and then sold. Four, debtors could potentially be more profitable to bosses looking for laborers than slaves as one can squeeze money out of them for longer. Five, it became easier to convince a man to work and suffer in silence if he thought himself free versus one that could chafe under their captivity even if they had a comfortable living. Six, an abolitionist movement had sprung up in the last century before the Epoch of Flame which had slowly but surely ended the explicit practice. These types would succeed in most places except Thrale where other means were taken.

Modern Slavery

Slavery is not dead on the planet Tys. Prisoners are forced to labor against their will as terms of their sentences in places like a Thralish penitentiary or a Skalovian gulag. Sexual slavery and the violent coercion of men and women into prostitution to pay off debts or for pure profit exists in the dark cracks of the cities in civilization. Even chattel slavery is still practiced but the explicitness of its arrangement is often hidden.

Thralish Slavery

Thralish settlers captured the bestials found within and beyond their borders to work the land and till the fields. They had no legal recourse to freedom and were objects and possessions just like the ox and plow. Their children would become property. They were banned from learning that went beyond what was necessary to do the hard work their masters gave them. They justified this as an economic necessity along with a moral one. It was claimed that the bestials had no ability to form proper civilization by themselves and thus they needed other, more intelligent and forward-thinking Kinds to help them. Ignoring empires ruled by bestials across the water and in contradiction to the growing queendom of Wakunansi Hyenidae bestials known as gnolls who would grow to create cities and landmarks from profiting off of the land trade and protective guidance they gave merchants. Nevertheless, this idea would develop into Kind Burdenism, a belief that it was the civilized kind's duty to try to uplift the lesser kinds and bring them into the light of civilization. Another way the Thralish justified their practice of slavery was the supposition of the inborn supremacy of Kinds over others. Humans created empires, humans mastered magics to deep degrees, humans built nations, humans warred "better" than others and as such they were superior to other Kinds. This superiority meant the weak should respect the strong and follow their lead. After the end of chattel slavery in 46 PR, these ideas would feed the new Tierian movements.

Slavery in Play

If a player takes a slave, ask them to not unless they are playing in an evil campaign. There is no such thing as a lawful and good society that contains slavery. Any who would forcefully attempt to trample the dignity and spirit of another living thinking being deserves a bullet. Being seen owning a slave is cause enough to be imprisoned or summarily executed in most nations.

Healers Beyond Realms: An International Organization of Saviors

Healers Beyond Realms

An International Organization of Saviors

Healers Beyond Realms, HBR for short, is a neutral international organization comprised of mundane doctors, kah users, magical healers, clerics whose mission is to provide medical care and relief in conflict zones, impoverished areas, and warzones to all injured and suffering within those place. Founded in the aftermath of the combined alliance of the Sea Wars in the First Epoch of Flame, HBR has since been seen around the known world giving aid and care to all combatants, non-combatants, and civilians in the areas they operate in. They are funded by a world council of multiple nations along with private charities that buy their equipment, provide transportation, and pay their healers salaries. They are given special privileges and access to the areas they operate in that very few organizations have. Along with this worldwide laws have been enacted that outlaw combatants hurting or killing them. An offending party will be punished by the healers not being required to heal the offending party's wounded along with incurring sanctions upon any nation that trespasses on their mission. Some groups and nations disregard this and beyond intentional harmful intent, being an HBR is a dangerous job that pays less than a contractor doing the same work for a specific side. HBRs are picked from strong-willed individuals that understand the dangers they face and are willing to make sacrifices and put themselves in peril to do their jobs. 

HBRs are hated by Tierians, claiming them to be a subversive equilibratist conspiracy while even some equilibratists are wary of what they represent due to the way they are funded. That does not prevent nations such as the Uhlionic Republic from allowing them within hot zones they operate in and they have a special relationship with the Republic in much the same way Gravemarker Templars do in that their special skills warrant privileges others do not receive. While a majority of their funding comes from Harmonist nations, HBRs do receive patronage by equitianist and traditionalist nations as well, with the Republic and Wakunan making up near 39% of their total funding. The latter nation has multiple monks and healers involved in HBR.

HBRs in the Grush War

HBRs partook in the Grush conflict and treated both sides. While having to dodge fire from the Uhlionic and the Thralish alliances before they were recognized, they were often given the access they needed to heal both the armed forces and the civilian urkain caught in the crossfire. Temporary hospitals set up by them were left alone and they often mediated disputes between different troops from opposite sides being housed in the same buildings. The Neo-Firmament forces did not treat them differently from their enemies in Uhlionics and their allies and hospitals containing HBRs have been shelled and individuals of the organizations murdered. While tolerated for a while by the Thralish side, the Commonwealth needing the extra help to wage a war a longways from their homeland, these murders had a huge effect on public and national support of the Thralish alliance. 

The Maxim of Steel: In a Land of Dark Towers

The Maxim of Steel

A Land of Dark Towers

"This land                                  is                                              shudder." -Broken Telegram sent by the Erchwald Expedition.

Past the Sea of Tumultuous Peril, littered with hundreds of destroyed naval vessels, is the continent commonly known as Shudder. Shudder is the land of black spires jutting upward from a land containing many biomes. Its size rivals Velas in width and the breadth of it contains hundreds of colossal black spires that reach toward the heavens. These frightening edifices are sanctuaries in this new harsh land. Strange anomalies, constant calamities, terrible monsters, paranormal activity, harsh landscapes, and unknown terrors lay beyond the radiating cordons around these spires. The towers themselves seem to reach past the heavens and range from 5 to 20 miles in width while the outside cordons terminate around 20-50 miles in a circle. Within the cordon is arable land containing sources of water. Inside every tower are angel engines in miniature facsimile to the miraculous Heaven Engine of Zothica. These angel engines do not to give the same powers. The purpose of these strange machines of glowing tubes and metal legs is unknown. They may be responsible in keeping the terrors of the land at bay. They do not keep back the dangers up the floors of the towers. 

Shudder is subject to colonization and expansion aided by aeroship companies, nations, and organizations with interest in what can be found within the towers along with what can be gathered outside their safer cordons in the perilous reaches. For in the towers lies the great risk of dangers from the terrain of the different levels and the monsters within but also treasures and loot that can fill the bank of simple contractors and provide greater treasures for the powers that be to exploit in their goals. Great charters are bought from aeroship companies that hold each tower in a strange lease. These charters allow one to claim these towers with the foundational and continuous aid of the aeroship companies. The companies guarantee trade, communication, and shipments between the towers and the old world. However, each charter company has ulterior motives and each are most certainly motivated by profit. That is when they are not outright arms of old-world powers with their own agendas. 

The towers and the rights to settle within them are bought by hard cash through the charters or by funding from outside interests that can simply take them if they have an aeroship fleet. 

The Maxim of Steel Setting

The Maxim of Steel is a setting within the greater world of Riddle of Flame. It is a settlement building, dungeon diving, and exploratory setting. The players are Keepers, chartered owners of a black spire on the continent of Shudder, and they are responsible for delving up into the monster, trap, and puzzle-filled levels of one of many colossal black spires along with enticing new settlers to their claim and building a settlement from a simple colony to a thriving vertical metropolis within the safe ground borders of their home. They do this via loot from the tower, by the use of longterm resources found within them, through research funding, and any other means to exploit the towers and the lands. 

The towers themselves have ascending levels that present multiple small worlds to explore. One can find themselves ascending the great stairs snaking along the circular walls of the tower and find themselves in a humid jungle with man eating sickle-appendage trees and then after chopping through the brush and climbing a mother set of stairs will find themselves in a frozen tundra with man-swallowing creatures disguising themselves as puddles on the ground and then climb up the stairs again to find caverns filled with an ancient enemy to civilization long since thought undead to then climb the stairs again and find a giant stone cemetery guarded by vengeful spectres. The levels are random in what can be found and within are treasures including magical artifacts and the less obvious sources of unique resources such as plants that can treat heart conditions that jut from those sickle trees or special crystals found growing within special nooks and crannies of the tundra level which can serve as an alternate source of power to aetherium. What may be extremely interesting to researchers are the aetheric stones found embedded in the roof and walls of each level that seemingly allow the different levels to exist by their effects. A jungle level may have a stone that gives off the life-giving energy of the sun while another stone produces the necessary components of the rain to nurture the flora within the level. These may even be able to be scavenged and used like the magical hearthstones and air bubble stones of the old world, but at the cost of ruining the level. The levels are more difficult to tame the further one goes up and seemingly not one charter settlement has reached the top. 

The frontier of Shudder offers multiple opportunities as a setting. Instead of getting into the nitty gritty of settlement building one could be a simple contractor hired on to explore the towers, find loot, and give a percentage back to the town while interacting with a steady cast of characters. The dangerous wilds outside the cordons contain great rewards for great risk in the form of magical anomalies and the chance for hunting exceptionally dangerous monsters. Along with this, the towers themselves are often engaged in diplomacy, rivalry, and intrigue. Towers trade with each other, ally with each other, sabotage each other, and outright war with each other. One could play as a contractor or railroad boss exploring and mastering the lands by building great fortified rails across land connecting one tower to another in great fortified trains and defending the railroad against raiders, monsters, saboteurs, and others that would deter progress.  

Gothica: A New World of Horror

Gothica

A New World of Horror

The United Colonies of Gothica

The Colonies of Tavertland (Purple), Borieauxland (Blue), Genea (Red)

Gothica is a colony of a new continent in RoF found within the middle years of the first epoch of flame. Found and partially exploored within the first few decades of the 100s PR, Gothica's settlements swelled with the worldwide invasion of the Xhenonics in the second century. Fleeing settlers of all kinds and walks of life found new homes in the strange continent. Some found their riches. Some found the manifold mysteries and terrors that lay in this strange new land. Gothica is host to a myriad of magical creatures, ancient ruins, strange geometries, and natural bounties. The new colonies established found a land without living inhabitants for possibly good reasons as outside the cities of Gothica strange terrors body-rending and mind-bending await. Among the dusty hamlets, walled towns, cosmoplitan metropolises is a plethora of secrets, sin, and scintillating horrors lying under the surface. 

Gothica is a setting in development that will play host to thriller and horror settings found in books like Lovecraft Mythos, Steven King Stories, and others. The setting will set the stage for mystery, horror, crime, and supernatural genres. Even the natural is not safe in the reaches of Gothica as one can find themselves trapped in a bayou by vicious killers or stuck on a snowy peak with isolation driving one mad.

Gothica differs from Velas, Xatla, and Aizarin in that Gothica does not have the natural bulwark of multiple established realms that grew in their ability to combat monsters and the dark over the course of millennia. Gothica as a new colony now has multiple prosperous settlements but the settlers are in greater danger than even a peasant living in the borderlands between Jaewa and the Rasp or Uladreng and the vampiric lands of Xatla. Gone is the coralling of the undead into a compliant nation-wide arrest like the Court of the Night or the isolation of the squabbling lords of Groza. Now there is true wilderness once again.

Contractors make the journey to Gothica in search of riches and fame. Monster hunting is quite popular and there's always something going bump in the night that could use a claymore or a six-shooter to stop its disturbing racket. The faithful of the old world also have set up shop with temples, orders, and missions to light up the night. Taming the land requires effort wrought with blood, iron, spell, and prayer.

The cities are great places of commerce with seedy criminal underbellies, political machines with hands in multiple pies, and unrest. These bulwarks against the night are not quite the adamantine strongholds against the intrigue of the living day. 

Gothica vs Shudder (Maxim of Steel)

While both lands are mystical, strange, and dangerous in their nature, Shudder offers a more structured core playing style with its dungeon-crawl-like setup and the settlement system. Shudder can be used outside of this diving and buildup and the outside of the reach of the towers is a strange, dangerous, anomalous, enigmatic, and magical place. The main difference between them is drawing more upon frontier stories and Gothica is drawing more upon horror stories. Shudder resembles the Wild West mixed with STALKER and a splish-splash of Fallout. Gothica resembles settings containing spooky stories about swamp cannibal clans, deadly hauntings, secret parasitic aristocracies, deadly predators, and remnants of old dead gods. While there are plans for western horror once this core setting is developed, it still will be a different feel from Shudder.

The current regions of Gothica are based on different genres one can explore within the setting.

Gothica is meant to be played in Epoch 2 much like Shudder.

Tavertland - New England Gothic. 

Borieauxland - Swamp and Southern Gothic. 

Genea - Midwestern... Gothic. 

Tavertland is settled mainly by Thralish, Alarians, and Talahvir. Borieauxland is mainly settled by the Ravoir and Tarkarians. Genea is a melting pot of everybody with New Hope serving as a grand cosmopolitan trade port and central government of the new colony. 

Tavetland is settled by good godsfearing folk in hamlets and small towns with deep and dark secrets lying underneath the surface.

Borieauxland is made up of a series of swamps, marshes, and highlands settled by settlements and swamp clans.

Genea is split between being mountainous and flat and settled by a multitude of different cultures and kinds making their living from mining and other pursuits. There are foul things in the mountains and you may end up as one if you're not careful.

In the future, the rest of the continent may open up for western horror ala Deadlands.

Wakunan: The Golden Savannah

Wakunan

The Healing Savannah

Capital Jaesorih
Capital Building The Doun
Government Zikaeziism, a democratic equitianism. All positions are elected by a direct voting system.
Head of State Premier
Head of Government Prime Minister
Executive and Legislative The Greater Pack Council

Military New Wakunansi Army

Wakunan is an equitianist state and major trade nation home to a sprawling savannah. It is inhabited by a majority of large bipedal hyena bestials known as gnolls. It was the second nation to change itself to having an equitianist government and it holds close ties to the equilibratist Uhlionic Republic. It is known for its wealth built from trade, its monasteries, its foundation of kah use in Velas, and its strange syncretic faith. It has a long and jaded history that has led to the nation's current state.

Ancient Wakunan

Wakunan was once a very fertile land where green trees and fields covered the land. A variety of different kinds lived in the area in simple tribes. The hyena bestials of the area took too much from the land and when their land was ravaged and ran dry they encroached on other tribe's lands and raided and conquered them. The conquered tribes were destroyed or expelled from the lands, many to the south where the Wynde and Tarkaria laid. This was continued until the land was ransacked and pillaged of life or worth. The great green fertile realm became a dry desert and the gnolls warred upon each other and feasted upon the flesh of fellow hyena bestials. The hunger was never sated and they would have been assuredly destroyed by their own greed and gluttony if it were not for their ancient prophet's intercession.

Kunan

Kunan was a weak and sickly gnoll cub that had been abandoned to die of exposure by her sire. She learned to survive from wandering unknown figures that may have been elves of Cymrie. Over time, she noticed a natural absence the land had and traveled beyond the desert to learn what that was. She asked a great many people what could be gone and meditated for many nights, depriving herself and forcing down her intensive hunger to find enlightenment on what she sought. From this, she was able to discern the life energies that living things integrally held, which she named kah. She trained and learned how to wield this energy and sought wisdom of its nature. She learned how to properly respect ones surroundings and how to practice temperance through self-control. Through what she learned, she realized what had to be returned to the desert and how to save her people. With her abilities, she performed great feats that made strength-respecting gnolls pay attention to her words. She convinced pack after pack the ways to heal their hunger and heal their environment in the reconciliation of their and their ancestors' abominable acts. She gathered a large following and was able to reach the whole of the tribes. She was named high queen of the gnolls and the land that had to be gradually healed was named in honor of her, essentially meaning Kunan's Bounty in old Wakunansi.

The Matriarchy

The gnolls were not healed of their gluttony or greed overnight and it was determined that the packs needed further guidance and shepherding to follow Kunan's words. At this time, the gnolls only knew respect of arms and force and so those largest and most powerful of Kunan's worshippers took control of the hyena bestials and built them into proper packs and societies that would facilitate Kunan's vision of a healed savannah. The most physically intimidating tended to be gnollish females and they created a matriarchical hierarchy from these original creations. However, the assumption of this as a natural way for gnolls to be ignored the male apostles of Kunan and their presence and influence was ignored and outright deleted from the ancient histories in the strengthening of the matriarchy and the place of matriarchs at the top of gnollish society. So for millennia the females hyena bestials would be at the top of the ladder and the males would serve them at the feet. This form of society also came without reparations paid to the descendants of those that were killed and expelled in the gnoll's ruination of the land.

Healing the Savannah and its Dangers

The desert was a long way of becoming the ancient fertile lands of ancient Wakunan. It was healed by a mixture of the cultivation and rehabilitation of the land through magic, clerical work, and mundane practices that took generations to have the lands gain fruit in the form of healing. By the time of the first epoch of flame, Wakunan has greatly healed from that scoured land and is now the home of many natural species. However, it is also invaded regularly by monsters. A class of male warrior braves, m'wana, formed during this time as disposable monster hunters to send against abominations that preyed upon the gnolls. From this class came the husbands that would be chosen to join the matriarchs' harems as her bodyguards. M'wanas would persist pass the end of the matriarch system as elite bodyguards and mercenaries for hire.

The Monasteries

Kunan's mastery of kah inspired other gnolls and her first apostles learned from her how to use the power. This would lead to the formation of multiple monasteries built in and outside of the settlements of Wakunan that would be open to any student that they approved of. Wakunan was also the place where kah use spread from to the rest of Velas by those that learned its mastery straight from the masters of the monasteries or were inspired to make their own forms of use. 

Kunan's Ascension

Kunan is an anathema and her domain is self-control. This has led to a conflict of faith between the Wakunansi and the Five where the gnolls utterly refuse any form of faith that does not include their messiah. Kunan's power investiture includes powers that cross over with Liestra's domain including the enrichment of land and plants but also include defensive and offensive powers based upon the feats she had to perform to win the respect of the gnolls. Her role is somewhat distant and the more lively and friendly living Kunan's soul seems to have been transformed into a more stoic and quieter anathema in her ascension.

Wakunan as the Golden Gate

Wakunan served as the ultimate middle vector between western Velas and the lands to the east. Even with the adoption of aeroships, it was often profitable to send western and eastern goods across Wakunan which the Wakunansis taxed. They would be able to amass wealth through the goods and gold that crossed their borders. They invested this wealth into their cities and the development and rehabilitation of the land. One large symbol of this wealth is the capital Jaesorih, a truly cosmopolitan metropolis where kinds most all types can be found from various nations and lands. Along with this, Wakunan grows their own crops and goods. 

Fall of the Matriarchy

The matriarchy would not fall with the aplomb of warcries and clashing blades but with a peaceful transition. The stability of the nation was secured, the coffers filled with foreign gold, and the land was healing. However, males were still treated as second class citizens and many transgressions visited upon males were seen as the normal way of things. Along with this, the promised reparations to non-gnoll diaspora had not been paid and the gnolls grew prosperous with an undercurrent of selfish greed that resembled a subtle form of their old gluttonous ways. This was brought to a head when Zikaezi Arh'Kae, a striped gnoll and disciple of the elvish philosopher Sylvaras Zeliei, produced and printed a pamphlet to spread to the gnolls named "To Suffer Surrounded by Decadence". Within the pamphlet came an argument informed by her equitianist teachings against the matriarchical system and the need to change the queendom into a form all would prosper from. She also opened up debate with those defenders of the old system and grew a large gathering much like Kunan of old. She and her followers would spend decades trying to convince the nation about the virtues of equitianism and the need to change into a land of true justice and equity. The matriarchs against her had not the callous manner of the Scale Princes and did not want to murder her follows into submission. They resisted through their own propagandistic campaigns. The Zikaezians protested and spread far and wide across the nation to convince those on the fence to join their cause. In the end, the matriarchs and even the high matriarch of the gnollish royal family had to concede defeat. Rather than a dolorous age of terrible war, the Zikaezians were able to build a nation from within and transitioned it with near-unanimous agreement among the different packs of Wakunan. Along with this, they were militarily secured by their alliance with Skalovia and the Republic. Any fears of encroachment were laid to rest knowing the great guns and aeroships of the Uhlionic Republic would come to their aid. So the nation became equitianist.

Equitianist Wakunan

One of the first things done was to replace the old royal council to the queen with a representative and democratic mixture of a parliament system. A set of premiers would be chosen with at least one male and one female chosen for the titles via direct electoral vote. This reflected a growing trend to equalize Wakunansi society by making sure most every profession and job had at least one male and one female working it to normalize equality and break away from the social matriarchy that existed before. Under the premiers would be the Greater Pack Council which comprised of pairs of gnolls from different regions that would represent the interests of their different regions. These representatives would be chosen by a direct vote electoral process by the members of those regions. Initiatives and policies would be put forward by the representatives in the Council and a direct vote would be held to decide whether to enact them or not. The monasteries of Kunan, known as the Ess'Wunn monasteries after their founder, fell in line with the new Equitianist government quickly. They were some of the first to criticize the matriarchical system. They were also some of the first ambassadors sent to Skalovia to deal with the Scale Prince remnant problems, especially the Cult of Gor and their similarly kah-powered monks. Hierarchical harems with a female gnoll at the top treating her male members as submissive and lower were outlawed entirely. Polyamorous marriage flourished with the combinations being varied and each partner being treated as equal by the government and eventually by the people. The guns of Skalovia were shipped en masse to arm the new NWA, the New Wakunansi Army. The separate levied pack armies were united into a national force that would patrol the roads and defend the borders along with giving aid to their greatest allies in their time of need. The wealth of Jaesorih and the other rich port cities was spread among the width of Wakunan and roads were rebuilt or newly made instead of just the rich trade routes being maintained and policed. Along with this, reparations would be paid to bestials and the other kinds that had been expelled or victimized. They would be welcomed freely into the new regime and over time those returning minorities had a voice in government.

Wakunan still held a neutral position in much of the world. Trade through it would be too profitable to lose for those that took a poor disposition to the upstart ideology. Tensions between it and Thrale increased from the natural enmity built due to the enslavement of gnolls that wandered south into Thrake's Vale and Tarkaria. It would be forced to make difficult decisions when its greatest ally committed terrible acts in the coming decades. At the end of it all, it would remain loyal to the equilibratist nation, even if they disagreed on key points of equitianism from government to how it should be spread.

Alaria: Holy Wars

Alaria

Holy Wars

Epoch 1

Alaria is a feudal and theocratic palatinate state of the god of conflict, Alar. Alaria was once a divided realm of multiple warring kingdoms until united under the guidance of the leader of the temple of Alar, the Alarian Palatine. Alaria's original kingdoms and tribes were restructured into a single feudal state that built a kingdom paying homage to the god of conflict in its structure and foundation. Alaria has some of the most fervent worshippers of the Pentaphany in the world and has produced the greatest amount of clerics, paladins, and priests dedicated to Alar in all Pentaphandom. However, it has also produced some of the largest multiple religious divides within one temple of the Pentaphany. 

Holy Wars

Alaria and the Alarian temple have gathered great hosts of the militant faithful in defense of civilization many times over the millennia. These were paid for by coffers filled with tithings from the faithful. Many threats have had the Temple of Alar and Alaria involved in providing manpower and direction including great undead incursions, dragon invasions, monster hordes, heretical nations, vampire overlords, and more. Alaria's populace are readied to be levied at any time via realm-sponsored training and outfitting to march at the will of Alar. Their recreation and traditions are very martial based and great coliseums, arenas, and tourney fields have been built to inspire the populace to hone their skills and body in service of Alar. This is what accounts for their stability and continuation along with the natural downsides one has by trying to invade a nation dedicated to a god from a religion with a very large following.  

Knights and Chivalry

Alaria did not create knights but it did become a sanctuary for them when over time they had become obsolete in the face of realms wanting to remove the landed gentry's power from the military in exchange for professional soldiers, levied forces, and the phenomena of contractors. Along with political reasons, knights had a horrible reputation across the lands as being thieving bullies and sanctioned brigands that would steal from the people and act like thugs and kill peasantry with little repercussion. One constant mission of the Temple of Alar was the rehabilitation of knighthood into a respectable and worthy class that would honor Alar. One invention in pursuit of this was the knightly system of chivalry that would lead knights into being honorable, respectful, and dutiful warriors of the war god that would protect the weak, uphold the honor and dignity of the lowly, and serve their god and lords well in life. This had mixed results. Many knights paid no mind to this and barely gave lip service, but the most successful attempts at instilling chivalry came from knightly orders that grew from monasteries and had its laws and values enforced socially and physically upon their members. From these knightly orders came a great militant force for the Pentaphany to use in pursuit of their goals whether they were the destruction of monsters terrorizing the laypeople, joining conflicts in the name of the gods to exert their influence militarily, or as sources of social influence that they could lay upon secular nations that were faithful to the Five. 

Knightly Orders and Errant Knights

Knightly orders were one of the few groups of warrior classes that would change to keep up with changing times and stay relevant. The older landed knights fell away but orders stayed and prospered in the contractor system by acting as religiously-aligned contractor guilds and companies with funding from the temples and resources for training paladins and clerics. Along with this, errant knights, paladins, and clerics fell into the contractor system as either solo workers or parts of parties. The changing reputation of errant knights gave them leeway with lawful individuals as their status and level of respect could open doors that would be closed to mercenaries or other contractors. Errant arms and armor were often paid for by the temples and they were trained by the faithful and serving as proper paragons and models to the faithful which gave the temples even more influence. Knightly orders could also fall to selfish or greedy ends, however, or hew to interpretations and zealous readings of religious scripture and become fanatics or simply fall into old habits of knightly past. Along with this, the temples did not have time to root out every single order that went bad and the use of inquisitors was a time consuming and possibly agitating process even for the truly faithful that were investigated. All this while the temples still paid their salaries, paid for their equipment and training, and had an interest in keeping these orders and errants respectful on the back of the laypeople's tithes. Inquisitors, contractors, governments, and militaries have had to deal with orders and knights that have gone bad. 

The Firmament's Creation in Alaria

Alaria is responsible for the foundation of the Firmament, a crusader state that rules over conquered land in eastern Aizarin. The Firmament came out of a conservative grouping of Alarian clergy, paladins, and laymen that rejected changes to the structure and rules of the Pentaphany over time; especially those that came from the Great Unburdening but they took issue with those that had come before as well. They reject the emancipation of fallow and their ability to worship and join the temples seeing their devil, demon, and anathema blood as corrupting to their own souls and the other faithful. They reject the addition of women to the Five's hierarchy seeing them as only worthy to bare more warriors as mothers or as cloistered ascetic nuns. They reject the Epiphany of Saint Bromae which emancipated magicians and magic use along with other use of energies like Heka and Kah; seeing only will as a properly pure method of power and all else being sinful deviations from the will of the gods. The Firmament movement named itself after their ideal of a holy society untethered by worldly sin that resembled their vision of how world fits it's symphonic purpose in the hands of the gods. They were given the chance to make such a society in their invasion of the Wahdali Sultanate. A vast majority of Firmament followers left Alaria.

Aggregationists and Reconciliationists

Two religious sects grew in Alaria that conflicted with each other based on centralization and decentralization movements. Similarly to the Firmament, Aggregationists believed that temples should reverse the course set by the Great Unburdening and take on more secular power to steer the world to stability and peace. Reconciliationists were those that had aligned themselves with the values of the Great Unburdening and even considered the removal of the temple's power over Alaria itself, seeing the Firmament and the Dominion as evidence that wordly control of the realms at a nation level was doomed to fail. More can be found about that argument under the Alar heading here: https://riddleofflame.blogspot.com/2020/02/the-deities.html.

The Alarian Civil War 1 PR to 22 PR

The civil war that took place in Alaria had the sectarian split as a driving factor. Multiple reasons could be cited for this war. The loss of the scroll of Saint Bromae, a very important figure in Alarian theology, and with it the loss of theological teachings that the palatine of Alar held along with important abilities including the ability to speak to Alar directly. The death of Queen Arabelle, the uniting monarch who left no heirs. Another factor was agitation by equitianist rabble rousers that were inspired by the methods the Uhlionic army used along with much larger harmonist agitators from Thrale and Mekkhor like Beauvoir, Arkoun, and Eco. The last and largest reason for the war were the main factions of the Reconciliationist League and the Aggregationist League coming to a head after a long time of feuding. The Reconciliationist League fought for an absolutist monarchy that would transition into a parliamentary system to remove Alarian religious influence over secular power structures. This would allow the Alarian clergy the ability to pursue their personal goals in a method similar to Sothian clerics and templars. The Aggregationist League fought to create a martial state ruled by a knightly order and a grandmaster chosen from the best of the order. They would oversee the ruling dukes and those dukes would use martial law to sustain order and stability. They were each led by a palatine, the Aggregationists by the chosen Polemarch and the Reconciliationists by the original Bellarch, and each palatine declared excommunication upon the other. This had the exact same effect of cutting each other off from their ability to perform miracles. Why this happened is still debated by theologians, and it was kept silent until decades after the war.

The harmonist and equitianist factions were kicked out of the war by the middle mark due to not being able to gather enough influence or power to truly challenge either of the leagues. The Reconciliationist League won the war and planted the right-hand man Utharic Lograthi to Palatine Rellic Rathian as the absolute king. The Aggregationist remnants fled to the Firmament. The Lograthi dynasty would hold up their promise of creating a constitutional parliamentarian system by 53 PR.

Epoch 2

Alaria's Dissolution

The Risen Realm: Dominions of the Sea

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