[ic=The World of Orrery]The Core is the center of the world, a bright, white sun around which the continents orbit. There is no ocean, but the free sky around each of the floating lands. We live on the brightside of each continent, facing the Core. Clouds drift around, evaporated from the Deeps, the waters outside the small, fragile bubble of existence. It is a place where night is only when the orbitals pass in front of each other, before continuing on their way
Skyrcraft cut through the open air, guided by Orrery Spirits, allowing the mortals to transverse the clouds, to other orbitals, the flat planes that dance in a delicate, fractally complex ballet around the stationary point of brightness, the Core. There are six superpowers with advanced skycraft technology, and they are in a mad scramble to colonize the hundreds of unclaimed orbitals for resources, for territory, for new markets, for time, and for glory.
Magic is a science, rational Thaumaturgy, Alchemysm, and many other systems dot the orbits, allowing many marvels, and likewise many horrors. There are secrets here, both on the wild shards and within the civilized nations. Old powers are slowly awakening, threatening to pop the illusion of existence the mortals cling to, building cults and creating legions of cultists. Likewise, new evils are made with war, thaumaturgy, and just plain politics.
Despite all this, mortal civilization survives. Though both the light and the dark threaten to consume Orrery, somehow a path in the middle is found, towards survival. [/ic]
[note=Setting Notes] This is a mix between LOTR, Indiana Jones, and Space Operas. It's also a high magic setting, and is quite simply as large as it needs to be. It's designed to be a patchwork pastiche of a lot of fantasy tropes, spun in hopefully a new and exciting way. This is the Setting repository, where I'll post all the info. Please post comments and questions in this thread (http://www.thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?76342), likewise, be sure to read this thread, as there is still some info I haven't moved over yet.[/note]
Physics and Description of the Core System
[ic=Physics]
Continental sized land masses are free floating in the sky, orbiting around the Core. The only real 'night' would be when the continents orbits would line up. As you get farther away from the core, it would get damper and damper, until fog gave way to the Deeps, the waters beyond the skies.
(http://www.freeimagehosting.net/image.php?98ab7b5bba.jpg)
Gravity is a function of the fifth dimensions (the other four are left/right, up/down, forward/backward, less entropy/more entropy (time)). The various land masses create a fold in the space-time fabric, which gives us gravity. The shape of the gravity well is different than a planet's, and thus a different shaped land mass.This gravity well is strong for about a hundred miles, depending on the size of the layer, and acts to pull objects toward the layer that made it. So if you were traveling fast enough to break out of the gravity well, theoretically you could 'fall' into the deeps, if you missed all of the other continents.
You also could in theory walk all the way around a land mass. Practically, it's a good way to commit suicide because of the crosswinds at the edges of each continent that would blow you around and smash you onto the nightside. Also, even if you managed to get yourself onto the other side, you'd probably freeze to death. That said, four expeditions on different continents tried your idea. Only one made it back with anyone alive. They told tales of an endless waste, snow, blocks of mercury, and cold. It took them a year to transverse it.
Orrery Spirits cheat their way around the escape velocity issue. They move by oscillating the fifth dimension around them, basically creating their own gravity well, and thus why skycraft based around Orrery Spirits (read: all of them) have their own gravity. However, their maneuverability and top speed are limited in a gravity well.
Most magic in the setting could be broken down into ritual and harmonic. Harmonic relies on using sound waves to manipulate the space-time continuum by way of making the individual strings alter their vibration (fantastically applied string theory). Ritual magic would instead directly fold space time in the higher dimensions by way of chemical compounds, higher mathematics, and a personal connection to the strings. Blasting someone with fire or telepathy is Harmonic, while building a teleportation channel or binding a spirit to an Orrery would be Ritual. This all falls under the heading of Rational Thaumaturgy. Gravity, Electromagnetic energy, the Core, and Spirits are examples of Natural Thaumaturgy, because they are manipulations of the fifth dimension that occur without sentient control. [/ic]
[ic=Bestiary]
Jormagund Wurms
Hidden in the mists, on the border of the Deeps, titans dwell. We've all heard the tales of the Cloud Leviathan, with its many tentacles, and the nightmarish Golgatha that warps time around its great bulk. Neither of these is the apex predator of that lightless, vicious ecosystem.
By adulthood, the Jormagund Wurm reaches a length of around four miles, it's about four hundred feet thick at its widest. Its sinuous body is covered in massive scales, each about the size of a small skycraft. Fleshy wing-like membranes run from the spiny tail to just below the bony crest that rests on the wurm's head. The head has no eyes, but it does have a set of truly massive jaws, easily able to swallow an Idjku Charnel Barge whole. They are terrifyingly quick, with surprisingly good maneuverability to the point that it destroys what few laws of physics we cannot break with rational thaumaturgy. Their normal speed is somewhere between 30 knots and 45 knots.
Jormagund Wurms are blind. The way they see is through an extra set of nerves, running throughout their bodies, that is designed to pick up on the harmonies of magic. It is theorized that Jormagund Wurms can use these nerves to 'tunnel' through space, but the evidence is inconclusive. It does however, make them incredibly difficult to cast spells on, due to their interference on local 5-dimensional space and time. Orrery Spirits do not set off the Wurms (nor do any sort of summons or bound spirits), thankfully, but any sort of active thaumaturgy will. So if you do travel into the Shadowed Mists, do not cast spells!
[/ic]
Reserved Magic Systems
Concordat of Dalengard
[ic=Concordat of Dalengard] The Concordat is a large, relatively new super power that has only in the last few decades begun to expand. It was originally invaded by Kun pirates, and after a long bloody war against colonial oppression, finally came out on top. They stole many technologies from their invaders, and comparatively, modernized quite quickly. It is a huge, multi-racial parliamentary nation currently led by Prime Minister Oris Uricson, a Dwarf who actually fought in the War. It has a lot of resources, a lot of manpower, but is behind the curve technologically. Most of the Thaumaturgy is based off of Alchemysm, a melding between many different older traditions from the earlier era when all of the races were embroiled in a huge genocidal conflict with each other. This leads to many racial issues within the nation, and several extremist groups. [/ic]
[ic=History]Dalenguard was a series of fairytale kingdoms, about two hundred years back. Hundreds of small human fiefdoms dotted the large continent, ruled by chivalrous knights, worked by serfs, and epic heroes fought for justice. Magic was scarce, in the hands of the old and wizened few who would only take apprentices as they began to die. The 'monstrous' races were stuck in a never ending battle with the humans and 'goodly' races.
This all changed when the Kun raiders arrived.
20,000 raiders, armed with modern weapons, skycraft, and thaumaturgical technologies that allowed the ruthless Kun Warlord Drennak to sweep over a quarter of the entire orbital in six months. Modern tactics shredded the medieval armies, the undead conscripts used by the Kun military machine quickly swelled the ranks after each battle. Bombing claimed fewer lives than it could have, given the decentralized population, still thousands died to the explosives. Nearly a hundred thousand human refugees were displaced. The Dwarves managed to dig in to their mountain strongholds and barely keep the line against the Kun. The Elves used their twilight roads to escape the destruction of their kingdom.
The 'monstrous' races were hit just as hard, driven from their ancestral homes and barely able to fight back. The goblin tribes and the Gnolls took particularly heavy casualties, and the ogres were all but wiped out. Hags were exterminated, now entirely extinct on Dalengard.
All of these refugees, monstrous or not, met up, along with emissaries from most of the fiefdoms, the Nolni Dwarves, The Sages of the Cyrill, the Northern Ulak Nation, the Sylvan Elfin nation, and drafted the Treaties of Skyfall. Based on the Ulak nation's original set of laws, the treaties created the nation-state of Concordat, ruled by a parliament based originally on racial demographics. A single elected official would lead this alliance in times of war, and would nominally run the military on the Parliament's wishes.
Of course, not everyone agreed with this, and a small faction of humans, gnomes, and elves protested even going to the diplomatic table with species that had been killing their families, friends, and countrymen for untold centuries. Ultimately, they left in disgust, and conducted a guerilla war against both the Concordians and the Kun invaders. They called themselves the Keepers of Purity.
Due to awkward coordination in the early phases, the Concordat of Dalengard had a difficult time integrating the many different cultures into a cohesive fighting machine. However, the Sages helped to marginalize this problem by creating cheap amulets of communication, which allowed the wearer to communicate at a distance and in any language. They also began to figure out ways to brew huge vats of healing balms, which lead to many other potions and thaumaturgical consumables being mass produced and experimented with. This is probably where the roots of Alchemysm can be found. They also began to train as many thaumaturgists as they could, this new generation got a very eclectic education in Goblin mysticism, Minotaur Animism, Cyrillian enchantment, Kobold sorcery, Sylvan secrets from times before man, and others. This new breed of scholars began to form the tenets of Alchemysm as it is known today.
The combined might of this new nation created the single largest military force on the entire orbital, nearly a 100,000 trained battle-hardened soldiers and warriors, with more joining in with every fiefdom that got attacked by lesser Kun Warlords, intent on carving out their piece of the pie, or when Drennak, frustrated by his lack of progress through the Dwarven Mountains, simply flew around them, attempting to cut supply lines and starve them out.
However, Kobold-made tunnels allowed supplies in easily, and the Kun had no way of attacking them so far beneath the earth. Shortly after Drennak had begun his siege of the Norni Holds, a team of Gnoll scouts came upon a downed skycraft. The crew had died in the crash, but the Orrery spirit was still bound to the wreck. The Sages of the Cyrill examined it, and quickly began to replicate much of the thaumaturgy that made the craft work. Within eight years, the Concordians had skycraft technology. This was the turning point of the war. Once again, the Keepers of Purity came to the fore, after stealing the skycraft tech from the Sages. They split into two factions, the first being the Purifiers who wanted to stay and cleanse the evil from the continent, and the Exodians who wanted to leave Dalengard to wallow in its own moral weakness. The Exodians left, founding Purity city.
Oddly enough, Dalengard was more advanced in several ways than the Kun. The Kun used iron weapons and armor, mass produced by animated corpses day and night. However, Dalen smiths could produce steel with blast furnaces, and were capable of almost matching the efficiency of the Kun industrial complex by sheer numbers. Dalengard is a huge continent, the third largest in the system, and the largest habitable orbital. The other two are too far out in the mists, too cold and too barren for life to flourish. Nearly 500 million people inhabited the continent's manifold valleys, plains, and forests before the invasion. Idjkun at the time only had about 20 million, even counting the dead. Dalengard also did have better construction technology, which allowed them to create better defenses and shelters against Kun weapons.
After a decade of intense fighting, the newly united continent drove off the Kun. During the war, the races had come to an uneasy alliance, and threatened to once again fall into anarchy, but cooler heads prevailed. Many of the 'goodly' soldiers when they returned home brought tales of fighting alongside the Ulak orcs, who not even a decade ago would have terrified the populace, now shown in a positive light as freedom fighters and noble savages. Likewise, goblin warriors told tales of the valor and courage shown by their human, elven, and dwarven allies, shifting the public opinion slowly but surely towards unification. This was also helped by a distinct shift toward secularism after the war. People were disillusioned by the mass graves after bombings, the dead rising up to fight back, the sheer brutality of modern warfare, the disease, starvation, and lack of basic necessities, since almost everything went into the war effort. It was a different vision of war than they were used to, and it changed everything. People lost faith in the older religions, and were more focused on survival in the post war era. Some clung to their gods and were instrumental in obtaining the right of religious freedom.
However, capitalism and industrialization helped to unite the nation through trade. It forced trade roads and tunnels to be built. Soon populations were more enmeshed than ever, simply because they needed each other to make it through the lean years.
The process of integration was a long and arduous period, fraught with outbreaks of racial violence, religious conflict, and political disharmony. It took about a hundred years for most of this become calmed. Today, many of the elder races like elves, dwarves, minotaurs, and so forth, still flinch at the sight of their racial enemies hawking their delicacies on street corners or plying their wares. They remember fighting in the racial wars of old. The shorter lived races have integrated better for the most part, since they grew up Concordian, rather than in the warring era.[/ic]
[ic=Politics]In the contemporary era of the Concordat of Dalengard, the constitutional Parliament is run on a territorial basis, the land divided up into roughly equal portions and a representative for each one, rather than a racial demographic in the earlier incarnations. There is a prime minister who keeps everything running smoothly, and helps to set policy for the nation.
Currently, Prime Minister Oris Uricson, a middle aged dwarf born in the Norni Holds, is in power, backed by the Unificationist Party. He is considered a fairly conservative leader, and resides in Freedom, the capital of the CoD. Of late, he has been favoring a number of monopolies that have been funding his cronies' reelection campaigns. However, this policy has brought a lot of industry to his country, which in turn has helped to boost the economy a fair amount. The primary opposition parties are the Old Blood party and the Destined. The Old Bloods represent much of the old Aristocracy, left over from the feudal days. They favor a very isolationist view, trying more to build infrastructure and developing what resources Dalengard already has. They also are trying to pass a segregation bill, that has met extremely fierce opposition on the floor, and the Old Bloods are rumored to have ties with the Purifiers. The Destined want to push outwards, and push forwards, increase taxes on the wealthy, fund the thaumaturgies, education, and the army. They want colonies, and have a very expansionist outlook on international affairs. Uricson has mostly been stepping very lightly in the international scene, much to both oppositional party's disgust. He has acquired two protectorates, but has mostly left them alone, using their land as military staging grounds. He also has managed to get involved in the giant fiasco that is Dawnland. He has funded and supplied the drow tribes with advanced weaponry, logistics, and occasional direct military support against the other super powers.
Of late the Purifiers have been getting more and more violent. No one knows why. Hundreds of non-humanoids have been attacked without warning. The Parliament set up a task force to handle this new internal threat, but it is either too corrupt or too incompetent to handle the problem.
Dalengard is practically a world unto itself, given the size of it, and has enough internal problems to keep it from using the brute force of its burgeoning industrial complex, plentiful natural resources, and huge population to out-produce every other nation. Likewise, there are several currencies and economic systems used within the COD, even two hundred years after the fact, however the most widespread is by far the Daleni lucre. However, they also have the Sylvan kendi, the dwarven bar, and the Ulaki gul in common circulation. This has become a problem, because most outsiders don't recognize the secondary and tertiary currencies, which makes international trade very difficult with the COD, even though they would love more contact with the outside world.
The Sylvan elves each live to be about 700 Daleni years, which is a longer orbit than most, and as such, the War for Unification is something most surviving elves lived through. They tend to see themselves as a separate nation within the COD Protectorate that also has a voice in how it is governed. This is not how it legally works, as the Sylvans did sign the treaty that turned them into a territory of the Concordat. In practice, they produce their own currency, use their own language whenever possible, and are very insular. The younger generation of elves, from 100 years old to younger have a strange, love-hate relationship with the Sylvan society a whole. Some want to keep the old customs, but a rather large and steadily growing faction has been vocally supporting a more integrationist philosophy. They like the new technology Alchemysm has introduced, they like the arts and the exciting new cities forming in the plains, even though many of them remember a time when those cities didn't exist. However, the prejudices of the ruling class, all of which are over 400 years old, make such a philosophy difficult to put into practice. They grew up indoctrinated against the 'parasites and vermin' that they, despite their disgust and trepidation, had found themselves allied to in the War. While officially anyone is made welcome in the Sylvan estates, what kind of welcome depends in the species and political stance.
Dwarves, while not as long lived as the elves, are twice as stubborn and conservative. They do their best to continue on as they had for thousands of years. Again, they use their own currency, the bar, and speak their own language. In the Norni mountains, it isn't uncommon for a dwarf to not know how to speak Daleni Commons. However, change is slowly but surely taking a hold, mostly through the military. Forging weapons and using them to kill your enemies is a very time-honored Norni tradition. Consequently, serving in one of the all dwarf units in the military is a very dwarfish thing to do. If you serve in the military, you must swear to serve the Concordat of Dalengard faithfully, in Daleni Commons. For a Dwarf, violating an oath is almost unthinkable; they would rather tear out their own spine through their stomach than even be thought of as a someone who even bent this rule a little. Soldiers come back from their tour of duty with Alchemystic wonders, tales of foreign lands that scare and excite the little dwarflings, and they bring back a lot of money (something dwarves respect a lot, understandably). Some of the younger dwarves have begun a trickle out into the cities.
[/ic]
[ic=Military] The Concordat has the largest standing military of any of the superpowers. Its navy has the most ships, even if they are mostly on the better edge of mediocre. It truly excels at wars of attrition. Dalengard has happily taken to mass production, and it has the population base and the resources to really make it shine. Coupled with the excellent medical advances with Alchemysm, as well as some of the other spiritual technologies provided by that science, creates a very efficient occupational force; Dalen soldiers, no matter what race, never give up ground. Many of the old knightly orders became their own units in the military, although a few found their home in the police force. Most became air calvary, using war-bred Wyverns captured from Kun raiders during the War for Survival. Horse and worg based calvary is slowly being phased out, simply because they are obsolete. They are also noted for their mobile artillery, especially given that it is generally carried by Minotaurs and Ogres. The mixed race policy has really given the Daleni Army an edge in the field.[/ic]
Technology
Religion
Ecology
Telemachos
[ic=Telemus, the Confederacy of Telemachos, and the Aviates: A Summary]
The orbital of Telemus is a strange mixture of terrain, soaring cliffs and quiet moors. There are few trees, plants mostly falling into shrubs and grasses. Because of this rather unique landscape, and it's two moons, Telemus is a very stormy continent. Thunderstorms are common, as are rainstorms and windstorms. In the center of the continent, three inland seas, named Uror, Veroandi, and Skuld, surround the Stormspire, the tallest mountain on the orbital. There are around three hundred different species of grasses, a hundred species of shrubs, almost two hundred varieties of climbing vines, and 3000 types of lichen. Animal life is mostly small warm blooded rodents, many birds, some herd animals like the Alpine Uot, and a couple of pack predator species.
The Aviate are humanoid birds who live on Telemus, and resemble crows, rooks, and magpies. At about five feet tall, they're covered in black or mottled grey feathers. They have slightly smallish heads, long black beaks and large black eyes. Vaguely humanoid in appearance, they only have two arms, two legs and a head; they do not have wings. Rather their arms are built much like a bird's wing, and hang down nearly to the ground when extended. Their arms also have feathers reminiscent of flight feathers, ending in long-fingered, delicate looking scaled hands. They do not have hollow bones. Once they lost the power of flight, they quickly developed a heavier bone structure. They've tamed Telemus as much as it could be tamed, and live in a rather tightly-knit confederation of city-states centered around the Stormspire, where the Skybreakers live and are educated. Their natural language is a series of clicks and harsh calls, but the Aviates are adept mimics and most know three or more languages. They also have an eye for shiny objects, much like magpies and crows, it is believed this trait developed because of all the lightning storms that ravage the continent. Personalities tend toward a flock mentality, but this is a generalization. They respect any form of learning, treat males and females as equal, and tend to not discriminate based on species. Slavery is illegal, but indentured servitude is common.
Resource-wise, Telemus is quite bare, only having stone, decent farming soil, sheep, and water. However, it is also rich in magic. Elementals tend to born in the numerous storms, ley lines crisscross the land, and the Fair Folk are attracted to the highly magical environment. It is because of this that the Aviates are the first race to develop skycraft technology. They are the first race to discover and create a contract with the Orrery Spirits, and then bind them into skyfaring vessels. The Aviates are a highly magical people, and always have been. The Skybreakers, Aviate thaumaturgists, focus primarily on weather control, and their techniques are unrivaled in that arena. As you can imagine, the power to spontaneously generate storms in a world that is mostly clouds and sky has lead them to become quite well-respected in the political arena. They build large ritual circles of stone dolmen that they can use for several purposes, but mostly as a place to commune with the elementals and fair folk. These circles also serve as amphitheaters where the lords of each city can meet with each other and the Skybreakers, who act as the judges and spiritual leaders of Telemachos.
The primary religion would be animism if it wasn't a cold, hard thaumaturgical fact that these spirits do exist. In that sense, the Aviates of Telemus are a very secular people. However, there are a number of mystery cults that the Skybreakers are trying to weed out, collectively known as the Scavenger Cults. They tend to revere a single deity, the Scavenger, who guards the entrance of death, and practice ritual scarification to achieve a closer connection with death. They also have been noted users of Necromancy, which in Telemachos is illegal, unlike in Idjku. They also have been known for their cannibalistic rites and their use of humanoid sacrifice. They are also rumored to posses contracts with some of the demonic nether hells. Quite a few cults have also sprung up around the Drowning Lord, an alien god who lives far into the Deeps. While they aren't known cannibals, they do have a number of rituals that amount to torturing their unlucky victim to death, often with various forms of drowning, knives, and poisons.
Most cities are built among the cliffs that are so incredibly common on Telemus, a mixture of carving and construction. The Aviates favor caverns for travel within the city, and large stone buildings for living quarters, often built on the larger ledges and cliffs. Statues of various Nymphs, Elementals, and Fair Folk dot the halls within the cliffs, as well as many reliefs of daily life. Even if they cannot fly, the Aviates do have a marvelous head for heights, so they tend to build tall megalithic spires.
Their airships are long, sleek ships, with the spirit who is bound within' face carved on the bow, originally made from the few trees on the continent. Now with their colonies, they use imported lumber. Coming in a few different classes, they go from the 30 foot long Talon, to 800 foot long Maelstrom, which carries a number of Rocjarls and their Roc mounts along with a sizable detachment of Skybreakers.[/ic]
History
Politics
Military
Technology
Religion
Ecology
Pax Phaethusa
[ic=Pax Phaethusa, a Summary]
Phaethusium is the moon of Emri, and the capital. It was an asteroid from the Deeps that got trapped in the gravity fold that Emri inhabits, and now orbits lengthwise around it. In 1267 LC (Lunar Calendar), Heliarch Euthyphro II of the Irenian Empire, finally had built a successful Skycraft, The Falcon, and after a successful expedition to Phaethusium, decided to build a palace on it. It was named because of the high silica content in the rock that made up the moon, that would reflect and refract rainbows of light across Emri. After about a month of construction, it was discovered that Phaethusium actually rotated slowly, about once every Lunar Calendar; in other words they couldn't build anything because it would fall off The Calendar was corrected to reflect the new information, and the Thaumaturges began to weave spells of stability. It took then ten years to figure out a way to halt the rotation, using runic wind manipulators and Quartz focussing lenses. Within a year of Heliarch Euthyphro II's arrival on the moon, it was brought up how useful Phaethusium would be as a massive weapons platform. It was the legendary Thaumaturge Macroclese who invented the Crystal Cannon, a weapon that could take the light of a candle, and turn it into a city-destroying weapon of unprecedented destruction. Upon the successful construction of the six primary batteries of Crystal Cannon, Euthyphro II declared war on the rest of the continent, quickly conquering it by destroying every other nation's capitals. His legions of professional soldiers occupied the confused and fearful populace. By the end of his life, Euthyphro II had united Emri under the Pax Phaethusa, declared Phaethusium the capital of his empire, and begun the construction of a colonial fleet.
The City of Phaethusium is one of the most stunning sights in the Orbitals, an entire city made of crystal spires. When the Core's light catches it, rainbows are reflected out across the protective mists that cling to the floating city. They can be difficult to pilot a skycraft through, however, as they confuse the Orrery Spirits' sense of direction. Phaethusium is aptly named, as at noontime, the glare from the various hexagonal buildings can cause momentary blindness. To say that Phaethusium was built is misleading, as it would be accurate to say it was grown. Every building was magically grown and carved out, even the Pallacium, where the Heliarch and his queen, the Lunarch, live and rule over Pax Phaethusa. The Judiciarchs are the police force of Pax Phaethusa, and rule with an efficient, if merciless fist, particularly within Phaethusium itself. Their Judicial Thaumaturges have the ability to scry through any solid reflective surface, which within Phaethusium is every single building, every single wall, and every single window.
The Religion of Phaethusium is Core-worship, like the rest of Pax Phaethusa. The Heliarch is regarded as the Core's will manifest in a human bloodline, where as his queen, the Lunarch is regarded as the moon's will manifest. Both are the head of their respective priesthoods, and live in the largest temple of their religion, the Pallacium. They are serenaded by a chorus at Coreset, and Corerise (sometimes to their consternation). This is one Coreset and Corerise only have meaning on a moon like Phaethusium. The current Heliarch, Jeremeth IV is considered to be dangerously liberal by some of the elder priests. He is strong supporter of Rational Thaumaturgy, and personally thinks that he's not Core's will manifest (primarily because he doesn't believe the Core has a will). However, he is a ruthless and cunning political player, and has thus far managed to control his and his wife's cults while pushing the boundaries of Pax Phaeuthusa farther than ever before.
The arts flourish, as do the thaumaturgies. The Arcanum Phaethusa is one of the most widely respected centers of learning in the orbital system, having produced some of the finest minds in philosophy, thaumaturgy, and mathematics. This is primarily because of both the Heliarch and the Lunarch's generous budget, as they both recognize the need for a lead in rational thaumaturgical advances. Painting is almost regarded as a defunct medium within the Pax Phaeuthusa Primus, as most visual artists are channeled into sculpture or Lightbending, making three dimensional holographic images out of light bent through a prism. However, printmaking still thrives, as it is excruciatingly difficult to reproduce the Lightworks, requiring special inks, and the quality is poor.
Society on Phaethusium is separated into the common folk and the two Priesthoods. The Judiciarchs are a civil authority, second to the Heliarch's cult and the Lunarch's cult. Most people in the city are commoners, and in general have very little contact with the priests and priestesses, except on holy days. To most people the Judiciarchs are the face of the Heliarch's regime, and are regarded with a fair bit of fear.[/ic]
History
Politics
Military
Technology
Religion
Ecology
Reserved Belsarius
Reserved Idjkun
Reserved Aranast
Minor Powers
[ic=Purity City]
To the skyward eye, it looked like a patchwork continent. On the ground it wasn't much different. On some corners you see Dalen alchemystics, hawking their chemical enlightenment to anyone with enough money. On others you can see the solemn and dour Telemachian Skybreakers leading meditations. Orouni prostitutes, the Goblin Mob, Merchants from even the Xenophobic human nation of Akkun ply their wares to the highest bidder. Kobold riggers brush shoulders to knees with Ogre loaders on the Twenty different Sky Docks in Purity City. Most of the architecture can only be described as ramshackle at best, thrown together by people who didn't know much about how to build things, but in the older sections, you can see the inhabitants are slowly converting their quarters into stonework.
Purity City was originally, twenty years back, a rather little known colony of religious fanatics from the orbital of Dalengard, extremists from a mixed race nation that called themselves the Exodians, composed primarily of humans, gnomes, dwarves, and elves. However, not even a decade ago, it was discovered that the orbit of the small shard of land that the colony was built on was in a very advantageous place for trade, as it passed near all six of the major land masses and many of their colonies. Within a week, a mercantile shanty town had been set up, much to the religious fanatics' displeasure. They'd come this far to get away from the pathetic racial impurity of society, not to wallow in it. This led to some tensions between the original colonists and the new ones. This problem was solved when the merchants and their muscle basically walling the religious zealots in their own monastic compound after they set fire to half of the new city. They haven't left since, but the original name somehow stuck.
The only thing remotely resembling a government on this heavenly body of a caravan, is the Guild of Merchants, who make money on tariffs mostly, and enforce the trade codes, which notably punishes theft more harshly than murder. The Golden Protectors, the Guild's enforcers are actually for sale by order of their charter, and are quite possibly one of the most corrupt institutions in the sky. Many outlaws, misfits, and adventurers favor Purity City for just this reason. It's easy to find just about whatever or whoever you could possibly need, and you do not necessarily have to suffer the shackles of law, unless you're into that sort of thing. In that case, it's usually reasonably priced.
This also means that crime abounds throughout Purity City. There are innumerable gangs that fight a never-ending war for every inch of turf on that rock, except the Temple Quarter, but no-one knows what goes on in there. The current leaders in the war are Lightning Queens, the Monsters, and the Demaniacs. For every sentient race in Purity, there is an organized crime ring, although, the Goblins and the Sylvans have divided most of the city between them, as well as most of the more illicit industries.
Every religion is represented somewhere on Purity, except in the Temple District. Depending on how hard you look, you can find the Church of the White Night, which worships the Lady of Indulgence and provides mostly free treatment to prostitutes, to the self-cannibalistic witch doctors of the Far Reaches, so narcissistic as to believe that the only thing worth feeding on is themselves, to the hard-nosed Order of the Books of Law I,V, VII, XI, and XXVII, who are in a cold theological war with the Order of the Books of Law II,V,VIII, IX, XXI, and XVI for control of the entire Church.[/ic]