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When the Pheonix Cries: Setting Info
Sep. 25th, 2020 04:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
profEloreth
The world in which this tale takes place. It is the year EC 830. Technology is primitive - such wonders as the steam engine have yet to grace this world. Humanity is governed by magic and steel. However, over the next thirty years, this world will begin to change at an incredible pace. Technology and new forms of magic will sweep across the world, throwing an ordered world into social chaos.
Magic
Magic is obviously real - the world is enshrouded by a field of energy called the Aetheric Field. Interacting with it requires a specialized organ, called the Aetheric Gland (AG). Animals with naturally-occuring powerful AGs are called monsters. Humans with naturally-occurring powerful AGs don't exist - the most magically potent humans by nature would struggle to move a pin across a table with magic. However, there's a loophole: An AG strengthens with use, and can be transplanted between people. Thus, by carrying the same aetheric gland through many generations, it will gradually amass power, until the person it's inserted into will become a mage.
Of course, there's more to magic than having the right organs. Tapping into the aether without a spell will lead to reckless, random chaos and destruction. Spells are how humans 'program' magic - each one is a set of mental instructions that combine to manipulate the aether in specific ways. Advanced spells can push the limits of how much information a human can keep in their mind at once, which is why runes were invented. These complex inscriptions and shapes allow some of the complex information of a spell to be offloaded into geometry, requiring only a mage to put the power into it. These can be printed on paper and assembled into spellbooks, inscribed on objects to form magic items, or even tattooed onto the body. Through slow, steady progress, and with intelligence and experimentation, humanity has conquered the cosmos.
Well, okay, the lucky few have done that. Because of the difficult surgeries and multiple generations required, nearly all magi are restrcited to long-running mage families. These families have risen to become the most powerful in the world. For the rest of humanity, magic is something to be admired from afar, as the most powerful become even more powerful, and you stay standing right where you are: on the bottom.
The Aetheric Engine
The above is the state of the world in EC 830. Soon, a new invention will overturn everything about how society is ordered. The Aetheric Engine is a device that anyone can use to tap into the aetheric field. In the world of the future, anybody can use magic, provided they're holding an AE. This brings a new kind of equality to the world, but it won't come easily - those who once held all the power are finding that anyone can now have that power, and this scares them.
Doubling the tension in this new era of EC 860 is the fact that something is happening to humanity. Once by one, the ancient, bloated aetheric glands carrying power through the generations are starting to die. Any of the old kind of magi can lose all of their powers at any moment.
True Magic
What is called 'magic' by most isn't true magic. It follows rules, it can be controlled, and it can be understood. However, true magic does exist.
None can say how true magic functions. It's rare, mysterious, and breaks every rule of the world. To those with a desperate immediate need to change the world, a limitless force of will, and who have put hard work into mastering a skill, with vanishing rarity, a miracle will be granted.
The Three Kingdoms Alliance
We set our scene in this corner of Eloreth, where three great kingdoms have set aside their differences to face the greater threat faced by Lord Lacuna. This land's history is one of near-constant warfare, with the current alliance being hailed as a miracle, despite the grim circumstances that motivated it.
The three kingdoms in question:
The Kingdom of Hirac
A nation ruled by magi. The old rulers were overthrown about 200 years ago, and a new world where magic makes right was created. The king is the nation's greatest mage, and your place within society is determined by your aetheric gland. If you have power, you can use it to challenge those in positions of power to mage duels for their titles, slowly rising through the ranks until you've become powerful enough to challenge the king herself. However, those with the power to oppose those already in power have proven to be few and far between.
The Kingdom of Quaenwan
An older kingdom than Hirac, still valuing the ties of old blood over the power of magic. The same royal family has ruled for centuries, and they have little to speak of in the way of magical power. To this extent, they decry Hirac as a barbaric wasteland of survival of the fittest, celebrating instead the bonds of family and the laws of true succession. Then again, it seems like magi do quite well for themselves in Quaenwan... and that the government puts their weight behind making sure that continues to happen. Who's really in charge?
The Kingdom of Raemeth
In this massive kingdom, magic is outlawed. Any use of magic within their borders is punishable by death, in order to prevent the same kind of thing they saw in Hirac and Quaenwan - those with magic becoming the center of the universe, at the expense of anyone else. Raemeth has become famous for their Mage Hunters - an order of warrior-assassins specializing in using mundane weapons and tactics to eliminate magi. For the truly powerful disturbances in their harsh social order, there are a small number of authorized magi, trained and sworn to use their powers only to hunt down other magi. For most, Raemeth is a place where you can live peacefully and find prosperity... so long as you follow the rules and don't get in the way of the military police.
The Rise of Lacuna
Nobody knows where the one known as Lord Lacuna came from. It was a recent affair, within a matter of months, but their power defies imagination. They can command monsters at a whim, and use magic far beyond anything mortal magi have ever seen. Such questions as their identity and their objectives are all secondary to the one desperate goal of the Three Kingdoms Alliance: Lacuna's destruction.
The world in which this tale takes place. It is the year EC 830. Technology is primitive - such wonders as the steam engine have yet to grace this world. Humanity is governed by magic and steel. However, over the next thirty years, this world will begin to change at an incredible pace. Technology and new forms of magic will sweep across the world, throwing an ordered world into social chaos.
Magic
Magic is obviously real - the world is enshrouded by a field of energy called the Aetheric Field. Interacting with it requires a specialized organ, called the Aetheric Gland (AG). Animals with naturally-occuring powerful AGs are called monsters. Humans with naturally-occurring powerful AGs don't exist - the most magically potent humans by nature would struggle to move a pin across a table with magic. However, there's a loophole: An AG strengthens with use, and can be transplanted between people. Thus, by carrying the same aetheric gland through many generations, it will gradually amass power, until the person it's inserted into will become a mage.
Of course, there's more to magic than having the right organs. Tapping into the aether without a spell will lead to reckless, random chaos and destruction. Spells are how humans 'program' magic - each one is a set of mental instructions that combine to manipulate the aether in specific ways. Advanced spells can push the limits of how much information a human can keep in their mind at once, which is why runes were invented. These complex inscriptions and shapes allow some of the complex information of a spell to be offloaded into geometry, requiring only a mage to put the power into it. These can be printed on paper and assembled into spellbooks, inscribed on objects to form magic items, or even tattooed onto the body. Through slow, steady progress, and with intelligence and experimentation, humanity has conquered the cosmos.
Well, okay, the lucky few have done that. Because of the difficult surgeries and multiple generations required, nearly all magi are restrcited to long-running mage families. These families have risen to become the most powerful in the world. For the rest of humanity, magic is something to be admired from afar, as the most powerful become even more powerful, and you stay standing right where you are: on the bottom.
The Aetheric Engine
The above is the state of the world in EC 830. Soon, a new invention will overturn everything about how society is ordered. The Aetheric Engine is a device that anyone can use to tap into the aetheric field. In the world of the future, anybody can use magic, provided they're holding an AE. This brings a new kind of equality to the world, but it won't come easily - those who once held all the power are finding that anyone can now have that power, and this scares them.
Doubling the tension in this new era of EC 860 is the fact that something is happening to humanity. Once by one, the ancient, bloated aetheric glands carrying power through the generations are starting to die. Any of the old kind of magi can lose all of their powers at any moment.
True Magic
What is called 'magic' by most isn't true magic. It follows rules, it can be controlled, and it can be understood. However, true magic does exist.
None can say how true magic functions. It's rare, mysterious, and breaks every rule of the world. To those with a desperate immediate need to change the world, a limitless force of will, and who have put hard work into mastering a skill, with vanishing rarity, a miracle will be granted.
The Three Kingdoms Alliance
We set our scene in this corner of Eloreth, where three great kingdoms have set aside their differences to face the greater threat faced by Lord Lacuna. This land's history is one of near-constant warfare, with the current alliance being hailed as a miracle, despite the grim circumstances that motivated it.
The three kingdoms in question:
The Kingdom of Hirac
A nation ruled by magi. The old rulers were overthrown about 200 years ago, and a new world where magic makes right was created. The king is the nation's greatest mage, and your place within society is determined by your aetheric gland. If you have power, you can use it to challenge those in positions of power to mage duels for their titles, slowly rising through the ranks until you've become powerful enough to challenge the king herself. However, those with the power to oppose those already in power have proven to be few and far between.
The Kingdom of Quaenwan
An older kingdom than Hirac, still valuing the ties of old blood over the power of magic. The same royal family has ruled for centuries, and they have little to speak of in the way of magical power. To this extent, they decry Hirac as a barbaric wasteland of survival of the fittest, celebrating instead the bonds of family and the laws of true succession. Then again, it seems like magi do quite well for themselves in Quaenwan... and that the government puts their weight behind making sure that continues to happen. Who's really in charge?
The Kingdom of Raemeth
In this massive kingdom, magic is outlawed. Any use of magic within their borders is punishable by death, in order to prevent the same kind of thing they saw in Hirac and Quaenwan - those with magic becoming the center of the universe, at the expense of anyone else. Raemeth has become famous for their Mage Hunters - an order of warrior-assassins specializing in using mundane weapons and tactics to eliminate magi. For the truly powerful disturbances in their harsh social order, there are a small number of authorized magi, trained and sworn to use their powers only to hunt down other magi. For most, Raemeth is a place where you can live peacefully and find prosperity... so long as you follow the rules and don't get in the way of the military police.
The Rise of Lacuna
Nobody knows where the one known as Lord Lacuna came from. It was a recent affair, within a matter of months, but their power defies imagination. They can command monsters at a whim, and use magic far beyond anything mortal magi have ever seen. Such questions as their identity and their objectives are all secondary to the one desperate goal of the Three Kingdoms Alliance: Lacuna's destruction.
