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auriphrygiate) wrote2020-06-01 06:26 am
auriphrygiate) wrote2020-06-01 06:26 am
Entry tags:
{ ooc | world information }
The world of Valthea is a typical fantasy world. It contains all the great races — humans, orcs, dwarves, trolls, goblins, and halflings — along with many others of varying degrees of animalistic or strange. Most important of all (in their own unbiased opinion..) are the elves. Two subsets exist: the tall and multicoloured Rim'ithil (People of the Full Moon) and the shorter and lighter-coloured Rim'fael (People of Gleaming Brilliance). They (and to a lesser extent their extremely distant, distant cousins the trolls) are the original inheritors of Valthea. It was only after the gods had turned their eyes to the planet that the other races began to appear.
Both the Rim'ithil and Rim'fael are users of magic; the Rim'ithil have a greater affinity and preference for more natural forms of magic, such as what might fall under the umbrella of druidry and their practises typically involve some lunar aspect. They are typically silver-eyed and nocturnal, well-suited to the dark lands on the Western Continent where they make their home. The Rim'fael are what could be considered 'true' magicians. They also look to the heavens as their cousins do, making use of astronomy and astrology, but are also masters of many classes of magic as well that afford them far greater influence over their environment. Both types of elves make use of a light-based healing magic. While magic is available to all the races of Valthea, it is only the Rim'fael who have made it such an intrinsic piece of their everyday lives. Magic cleans their homes, cities, and streets. It is as normalised and ubiquitous as getting a morning coffee or washing one's hair. They have even managed to permanently alter their environment — the lands of the Rim'fael kingdom of Sel'enial exist in a state of permanent spring time thanks to ancient enchantments. However, such a dependency on magic has made the Rim'fael addicted to a force that is essentially corrupting.
Valthea is no stranger to conflict. While divine hands might have played a part before, the gods are not so invested in the lives of their creations as to intervene to prevent them from fighting one another. Alliances of convenience or simply out of desperation to survive crop up and then dissolve with the changing times. The Rim'ithil have historically taken a more isolationist stance, preferring to keep outsiders out of their territory. It is only very recently that they have been more open and willing to engage in outside contact. The humans originally appeared on the Eastern Continent and their numbers have spread north and south. The kingdoms of Laorden, Galecrest, Glaisne and the independent city-state of Dalanar are the four major divisions of humanity.
- Laorden is a sprawling kingdom to the north of the Eastern Continent whose territory borders Sel'enial (and a few hotly contested territories that the Rim'fael annexed long ago but the local forest troll tribes still consider as belonging to them).
- Galecrest is a large kingdom further south on the Eastern Continent. It is often the first line of defence when conflict erupts involving the orcish tribes that make their home in the south.
- Glaisne is a much smaller kingdom than the others and is far more isolated. Their lands border Laorden to the west. Fairly recently, they closed their borders entirely and none have gone in or out in many years. It is rumoured that some terrible calamity may have befallen them.
- Dalanar is a city-state rather than a kingdom and exists surrounded on all sides by territory belonging to Laorden. The city of Dalanar was once a part of Laorden and fell under the jurisdiction of the Laorden monarchy, but some time ago the city became a place of higher learning intended to exist for the benefit of all the races of Valthea. In the interest of promoting this, Dalanar declared itself as its own entity to avoid being tied to the whims of human-centric politics. Dalanar is still considered a human territory as humans are the majority race but is also home to many other races as well. Neutrality is law here and particularly dark and dangerous forms of magic are either heavily restricted or outright forbidden with severe punishments or exile as the consequence for being caught practising such things.
Like their nocturnal cousins, the Rim'fael also maintained an isolationist policy for a very long time. Powerful protective wards surround Sel'enial, forming an impenetrable barrier to the south and make approaching by sea impossible unless one knows how to get through the enchantments. You can try, but even the most experienced mariner would find themselves sailing in endless circles without a guide. As one would expect it takes an incredible amount of power to be able to weave such massive and elaborate spells, so it is very fortunate that the Rim'fael have a giant well of pure arcane magic at their disposal known as the Crith'ari or "sun spring".
Several tribes of forest trolls had settled much of the land to the north before the Rim'fael ever decided to carve out their own hoeme there but were largely driven out by the elves and their superior magics. The long period of conflict between the Rim'fael and the rolls are known, simply enough, as the Troll Wars. The Wars formally ended some time ago but the trolls were not driven completely to extinction as many retreated deeper into the more mountainous forests. Even in the present day there is a risk of raids and attacks by trolls.
It is a known fact that the Rim'fael were responsible for bringing magic to humanity and teaching the first human mages. They had a hand in helping to establish Dalanar. The kingdom of Sel'enial was counted as a strong ally of humanity for a very long time although the elves generally stayed out of any conflicts, only lending aid when it seemed as if those conflicts might spill over onto their territory or Dalanar's. While not the most ideal alliance it was considered acceptable enough to simply keep the favour of the elves as the Rim'fael are not a people anyone wants as an enemy (unless you're a forest troll, apparently, but then the elves would tell you that trolls aren't known for their intelligence).
This attitude began to shift with the coming of age of Prince Arsath of Laorden. Arsath was widely considered to be a man of fine character who acted with the force of the Gods of Light. People believed he held great promise and an era of peace and prosperity was expected to follow when he would become king. As it turned out, Arsath was neither as good or Light-filled as anyone hoped. It is unclear what exactly caused him to change but he eventually succumbed to the darkness and cruelty inside him, forging pacts with demonic forces that granted him the power of Undeath. The Prince was transformed and filled with new purpose, now bent on eradicating all living beings on Valthea. He started with his own kingdom, murdering his family in cold blood and razing Laorden's capital city. With his newly granted powers, every death only caused his undead army to grow in number. It wasn't long before the kingdom of Laorden had been completely destroyed and Arsath set his sights on Sel'enial. His demonic masters demanded he perform a dark ritual to increase his power by binding them more firmly to the physical plane, but in order to carry it out Arsath would require a considerable amount of magical power. Crith'ari was an obvious target.
Even with his power and the now massive undead army at his disposal, there should have been no way that Arsath could succeed at breaching the wards. The elves considered themselves perfectly safe behind their protective barriers and did not see a reason to mobilise in response to the threat gathering at their southern border. They certainly did not anticipate being sold out by a traitor. Some of Arsath's army were actually living followers — cultists who believed that in undeath was the ultimate state of perfection that would grant them immortality. This death cult had existed for some time, ever since humanity was taught the gift of magic and someone had had the bright idea to try and raise the dead, therefore discovering necromancy. Inevitably, more ambitious (and morally loose) individuals discovered other dark forms of magic and were either killed or exiled from their orders but left behind enough of their findings to inspire the next and the next, onward until pockets of these strange death cults had popped up in several places. It was only natural then that they should flock to the side of the corrupt prince. The traitor of the Rim'fael would be appointed head of the now more organised death cult and serve under Arsath as a trusted advisor. For this he traded the secrets that allowed Arsath and his army to disable the barriers and pass through. The undead were marching on Sel'enial and there were no preparations in place to stop them.
In the end, the Rim'fael population was decimated by nearly ninety percent. They also lost their king and Crith'ari was corrupted beyond repair after Arsath performed his demonic ritual. What allies they had turned their backs on them, fearing for their own lives. Without their source of arcane magic, the surviving elves began to suffer from horrible symptoms of withdrawal as their bodies had evolved to become dependent on the magical energy after being bathed in it for thousands of years. Determined to keep his people from being completely wiped out, Prince Khalatse made a pact with the very same demonic entities that had corrupted Arsath. Fortunately, their reasons and ambitions were not the same. In exchange for his people's service, they were granted access to entropic demonic energies to sustain them. For most people this created a new addiction to this new noxious form of magic, marked by a shift in the colour of the bioluminescent glow in their eyes. What had once been blue with the glow of arcane magic turned sickly green. The closer to the source of the power and the more they consumed, the more corrupted an individual would become. Particularly severe addiction and use would corrupt the body to the point of physical changes and mutations. This risk seemed quite reasonable though when the alternative was to suffer debilitating withdrawal that would eventually cause them to lose their minds and sense of self to the overwhelming need for magic as well as the eventual destruction of their bodies.
The Rim'fael are an extremely resilient people, however. It took another thirty years after the events of the Fall of Dawnstone that things began returning to a sense of tenuous normalcy. It certainly helped that the ongoing campaign against Arsath had finally yielded results. After departing from Sel'enial he took his forces to the frigid Northern Continent. He established his seat of power in the middle of some of the most inhospitable territory on Valthea while the undead Blight threatened to sweep across the world. New alliances formed in the course of this long, terrible war as old enemies did their best to set aside their differences to fight for their survival. After a final, desperate push Arsath was finally defeated and his reign of terror came to an end. However, the power he wielded did not simply die with him. Undeath would always be a major part of Valthea now, but at least the threat was greatly diminished without a master to rule them. The majority of undead things were simply mindless ghouls and zombies, after all. They could be dangerous, ravenous creatures but were utterly simple and lacked the capacity to properly organise or even have an actual desire to do more than blindly seek out food.
The world had to adjust to these new circumstances. New orders had formed in response to the undead threat. Light-wielding paladins who considered themselves to be the sworn enemy of all things demonic or undead appeared in greater number. It was rumoured that the Dawn Knights — the Rim'fael order of paladins specifically — possessed some sort of secret that allowed them to wield their powers and suffer far less of the debilitating withdrawal symptoms. Most of the Dawn Knights had only used very little of the demonic energy. Most people were not inclined to believe they were managing it with prayer and meditation alone.
Almost the antithesis of a paladin were the Blackguards — highly specialised and powerful knights that wielded a power similar to that of Arsath himself. They were generally assumed to be the elites and were therefore the most deadly. At one point during the war Arsath's power was temporarily destabilised, allowing a fairly large number of Blackguards to break free of Arsath's influence. They formed a new faction called the Blades of Acheron and negotiated a tenuous alliance with the living factions. They were not very easily trusted, of course, but quickly proved themselves in battle as well as in the sharing of valuable intelligence.
In addition to the elite Blackguards, many lesser undead were also able to break free. They would eventually form their own group as well and make their home in the ruins of what was once Laorden's capital, referring to themselves collectively as the Desolate. Their efforts to reclaim the remnants of Laorden have brought them into conflicts with others who either desired to take the land for themselves or simply refused to see it inhabited by undead. After many years without a sign of life, the wall that had closed off Glaisne finally opened. As it turned out, they had been dealing with something terrible, in the form of an awful werewolf curse. They have since become an annoying werewolf problem, given their immunities to undead plagues.
Even after Arsath's fall most of the living races do not have much trust for any of the undead that now live among them as most people possess a very justifiable fear or repulsion, but they have certainly proved to be valuable allies to have when other conflicts have broken out and now seek to carve out a place for themselves in the world.
With their puppet king in Arsath defeated, the most recent threat to Valthea was the demons themselves in the form of continued, open aggressions as time allowed them to secure ways of invading in great numbers. Heavy losses were suffered, including Prince Khalaste. Although he lost his life he was able to remove the destructive shackles that would free his people from the cruel influence of their demonic overlords. As a result a Regent was appointed to oversee the ruling of Sel'enial as well as the care of the late Prince's young son until the boy came of age.
Both the Rim'ithil and Rim'fael are users of magic; the Rim'ithil have a greater affinity and preference for more natural forms of magic, such as what might fall under the umbrella of druidry and their practises typically involve some lunar aspect. They are typically silver-eyed and nocturnal, well-suited to the dark lands on the Western Continent where they make their home. The Rim'fael are what could be considered 'true' magicians. They also look to the heavens as their cousins do, making use of astronomy and astrology, but are also masters of many classes of magic as well that afford them far greater influence over their environment. Both types of elves make use of a light-based healing magic. While magic is available to all the races of Valthea, it is only the Rim'fael who have made it such an intrinsic piece of their everyday lives. Magic cleans their homes, cities, and streets. It is as normalised and ubiquitous as getting a morning coffee or washing one's hair. They have even managed to permanently alter their environment — the lands of the Rim'fael kingdom of Sel'enial exist in a state of permanent spring time thanks to ancient enchantments. However, such a dependency on magic has made the Rim'fael addicted to a force that is essentially corrupting.
Valthea is no stranger to conflict. While divine hands might have played a part before, the gods are not so invested in the lives of their creations as to intervene to prevent them from fighting one another. Alliances of convenience or simply out of desperation to survive crop up and then dissolve with the changing times. The Rim'ithil have historically taken a more isolationist stance, preferring to keep outsiders out of their territory. It is only very recently that they have been more open and willing to engage in outside contact. The humans originally appeared on the Eastern Continent and their numbers have spread north and south. The kingdoms of Laorden, Galecrest, Glaisne and the independent city-state of Dalanar are the four major divisions of humanity.
- Laorden is a sprawling kingdom to the north of the Eastern Continent whose territory borders Sel'enial (and a few hotly contested territories that the Rim'fael annexed long ago but the local forest troll tribes still consider as belonging to them).
- Galecrest is a large kingdom further south on the Eastern Continent. It is often the first line of defence when conflict erupts involving the orcish tribes that make their home in the south.
- Glaisne is a much smaller kingdom than the others and is far more isolated. Their lands border Laorden to the west. Fairly recently, they closed their borders entirely and none have gone in or out in many years. It is rumoured that some terrible calamity may have befallen them.
- Dalanar is a city-state rather than a kingdom and exists surrounded on all sides by territory belonging to Laorden. The city of Dalanar was once a part of Laorden and fell under the jurisdiction of the Laorden monarchy, but some time ago the city became a place of higher learning intended to exist for the benefit of all the races of Valthea. In the interest of promoting this, Dalanar declared itself as its own entity to avoid being tied to the whims of human-centric politics. Dalanar is still considered a human territory as humans are the majority race but is also home to many other races as well. Neutrality is law here and particularly dark and dangerous forms of magic are either heavily restricted or outright forbidden with severe punishments or exile as the consequence for being caught practising such things.
Like their nocturnal cousins, the Rim'fael also maintained an isolationist policy for a very long time. Powerful protective wards surround Sel'enial, forming an impenetrable barrier to the south and make approaching by sea impossible unless one knows how to get through the enchantments. You can try, but even the most experienced mariner would find themselves sailing in endless circles without a guide. As one would expect it takes an incredible amount of power to be able to weave such massive and elaborate spells, so it is very fortunate that the Rim'fael have a giant well of pure arcane magic at their disposal known as the Crith'ari or "sun spring".
Several tribes of forest trolls had settled much of the land to the north before the Rim'fael ever decided to carve out their own hoeme there but were largely driven out by the elves and their superior magics. The long period of conflict between the Rim'fael and the rolls are known, simply enough, as the Troll Wars. The Wars formally ended some time ago but the trolls were not driven completely to extinction as many retreated deeper into the more mountainous forests. Even in the present day there is a risk of raids and attacks by trolls.
It is a known fact that the Rim'fael were responsible for bringing magic to humanity and teaching the first human mages. They had a hand in helping to establish Dalanar. The kingdom of Sel'enial was counted as a strong ally of humanity for a very long time although the elves generally stayed out of any conflicts, only lending aid when it seemed as if those conflicts might spill over onto their territory or Dalanar's. While not the most ideal alliance it was considered acceptable enough to simply keep the favour of the elves as the Rim'fael are not a people anyone wants as an enemy (unless you're a forest troll, apparently, but then the elves would tell you that trolls aren't known for their intelligence).
This attitude began to shift with the coming of age of Prince Arsath of Laorden. Arsath was widely considered to be a man of fine character who acted with the force of the Gods of Light. People believed he held great promise and an era of peace and prosperity was expected to follow when he would become king. As it turned out, Arsath was neither as good or Light-filled as anyone hoped. It is unclear what exactly caused him to change but he eventually succumbed to the darkness and cruelty inside him, forging pacts with demonic forces that granted him the power of Undeath. The Prince was transformed and filled with new purpose, now bent on eradicating all living beings on Valthea. He started with his own kingdom, murdering his family in cold blood and razing Laorden's capital city. With his newly granted powers, every death only caused his undead army to grow in number. It wasn't long before the kingdom of Laorden had been completely destroyed and Arsath set his sights on Sel'enial. His demonic masters demanded he perform a dark ritual to increase his power by binding them more firmly to the physical plane, but in order to carry it out Arsath would require a considerable amount of magical power. Crith'ari was an obvious target.
Even with his power and the now massive undead army at his disposal, there should have been no way that Arsath could succeed at breaching the wards. The elves considered themselves perfectly safe behind their protective barriers and did not see a reason to mobilise in response to the threat gathering at their southern border. They certainly did not anticipate being sold out by a traitor. Some of Arsath's army were actually living followers — cultists who believed that in undeath was the ultimate state of perfection that would grant them immortality. This death cult had existed for some time, ever since humanity was taught the gift of magic and someone had had the bright idea to try and raise the dead, therefore discovering necromancy. Inevitably, more ambitious (and morally loose) individuals discovered other dark forms of magic and were either killed or exiled from their orders but left behind enough of their findings to inspire the next and the next, onward until pockets of these strange death cults had popped up in several places. It was only natural then that they should flock to the side of the corrupt prince. The traitor of the Rim'fael would be appointed head of the now more organised death cult and serve under Arsath as a trusted advisor. For this he traded the secrets that allowed Arsath and his army to disable the barriers and pass through. The undead were marching on Sel'enial and there were no preparations in place to stop them.
In the end, the Rim'fael population was decimated by nearly ninety percent. They also lost their king and Crith'ari was corrupted beyond repair after Arsath performed his demonic ritual. What allies they had turned their backs on them, fearing for their own lives. Without their source of arcane magic, the surviving elves began to suffer from horrible symptoms of withdrawal as their bodies had evolved to become dependent on the magical energy after being bathed in it for thousands of years. Determined to keep his people from being completely wiped out, Prince Khalatse made a pact with the very same demonic entities that had corrupted Arsath. Fortunately, their reasons and ambitions were not the same. In exchange for his people's service, they were granted access to entropic demonic energies to sustain them. For most people this created a new addiction to this new noxious form of magic, marked by a shift in the colour of the bioluminescent glow in their eyes. What had once been blue with the glow of arcane magic turned sickly green. The closer to the source of the power and the more they consumed, the more corrupted an individual would become. Particularly severe addiction and use would corrupt the body to the point of physical changes and mutations. This risk seemed quite reasonable though when the alternative was to suffer debilitating withdrawal that would eventually cause them to lose their minds and sense of self to the overwhelming need for magic as well as the eventual destruction of their bodies.
The Rim'fael are an extremely resilient people, however. It took another thirty years after the events of the Fall of Dawnstone that things began returning to a sense of tenuous normalcy. It certainly helped that the ongoing campaign against Arsath had finally yielded results. After departing from Sel'enial he took his forces to the frigid Northern Continent. He established his seat of power in the middle of some of the most inhospitable territory on Valthea while the undead Blight threatened to sweep across the world. New alliances formed in the course of this long, terrible war as old enemies did their best to set aside their differences to fight for their survival. After a final, desperate push Arsath was finally defeated and his reign of terror came to an end. However, the power he wielded did not simply die with him. Undeath would always be a major part of Valthea now, but at least the threat was greatly diminished without a master to rule them. The majority of undead things were simply mindless ghouls and zombies, after all. They could be dangerous, ravenous creatures but were utterly simple and lacked the capacity to properly organise or even have an actual desire to do more than blindly seek out food.
The world had to adjust to these new circumstances. New orders had formed in response to the undead threat. Light-wielding paladins who considered themselves to be the sworn enemy of all things demonic or undead appeared in greater number. It was rumoured that the Dawn Knights — the Rim'fael order of paladins specifically — possessed some sort of secret that allowed them to wield their powers and suffer far less of the debilitating withdrawal symptoms. Most of the Dawn Knights had only used very little of the demonic energy. Most people were not inclined to believe they were managing it with prayer and meditation alone.
Almost the antithesis of a paladin were the Blackguards — highly specialised and powerful knights that wielded a power similar to that of Arsath himself. They were generally assumed to be the elites and were therefore the most deadly. At one point during the war Arsath's power was temporarily destabilised, allowing a fairly large number of Blackguards to break free of Arsath's influence. They formed a new faction called the Blades of Acheron and negotiated a tenuous alliance with the living factions. They were not very easily trusted, of course, but quickly proved themselves in battle as well as in the sharing of valuable intelligence.
In addition to the elite Blackguards, many lesser undead were also able to break free. They would eventually form their own group as well and make their home in the ruins of what was once Laorden's capital, referring to themselves collectively as the Desolate. Their efforts to reclaim the remnants of Laorden have brought them into conflicts with others who either desired to take the land for themselves or simply refused to see it inhabited by undead. After many years without a sign of life, the wall that had closed off Glaisne finally opened. As it turned out, they had been dealing with something terrible, in the form of an awful werewolf curse. They have since become an annoying werewolf problem, given their immunities to undead plagues.
Even after Arsath's fall most of the living races do not have much trust for any of the undead that now live among them as most people possess a very justifiable fear or repulsion, but they have certainly proved to be valuable allies to have when other conflicts have broken out and now seek to carve out a place for themselves in the world.
With their puppet king in Arsath defeated, the most recent threat to Valthea was the demons themselves in the form of continued, open aggressions as time allowed them to secure ways of invading in great numbers. Heavy losses were suffered, including Prince Khalaste. Although he lost his life he was able to remove the destructive shackles that would free his people from the cruel influence of their demonic overlords. As a result a Regent was appointed to oversee the ruling of Sel'enial as well as the care of the late Prince's young son until the boy came of age.