Post by kitzu on Jan 3, 2013 23:57:40 GMT -5
The land of Arcadia once played host to a prosperous world of many races, with a rich collection of ecosystems and numerous species of flora and fauna. Though its citizens would not say so, it was a paradise for life. It was perhaps for this reason that it became the magical hub within its solar system, with many of its native sentient races developing magical abilities. Two in particular were particularly adept: the reclusive and imperious dragons; and the nomadic humans of the steppes.
Some say that it was magic which brought about the downfall of Arcadia.
No-one knows for certain what happened to cause the onset of the Great Darkness, though many theories have circulated throughout the ages. All that is known is that one day the sun--- later to be revered as a distantly remembered pseudo-myth known as the Star--- disappeared from the sky.
The results were catastrophic. The world was plunged into cold and dark, and slow agonizing deaths lay waste to the once beautiful landscape. The more resourceful sentient races scrambled to devise some means with which to survive in this new lightless world. Some met with success while some--- such as the dragons--- failed with disastrous consequences.
Out of this muddle formed three civilizations, each relying on a different means to ensure their survival.
The Sprawl (a brief people's history):
The enormous city-state known as the Sprawl which would eventually develop as the dominant civilization in the Age of Black Sky traced its roots back to not one but three separate races.
Elves existed in the Age of the Star as first the small, shy people of the mountains, before developing early technological advancements which would spur them on to becoming vastly widespread. Highly adaptable, they were industrious, with quick clever fingers and minds. They were inventors and tinkerers, and traded their inventions to the other civilizations in return for a wider variety of food as well as raw materials.
The Catkin of the great forests were extremely suited to their homes, living in semi-nomadic tribes which subsisted primarily through hunting and gathering. As time went on, they established more permanent towns in the canopies, but their lifestyle remained the most unchanged of the three races. They were most notable for their hardiness, natural athleticism, and their unique ability to see in the dark with their gold, cat-like eyes.
Finally, there were the humans. Originally plain-dwellers and wanderers not unlike the Catkin, they were the first people to invent farming. They were the great builders, creating vast kingdoms with the help of a reliable source of food. They were the most crucial to the creation of the Sprawl for a different reason however: their magical aptitude. Specifically, their bond with the Shijin, a people from a different dimension. When a Shijin and a human synchronize on a particular mental wavelength and form a bond, the human gains access to the Shijin's elemental magic, while the Shijin gains strength from prolonged exposure to the particular conditions of the human's mind.
The Shijin were led by the four great leaders of their races, but above these reigned an entity known to them as the Huang-Long, also known as the Golden or the Central Dragon. Said to be a physically manifested god, the Huang-Long was possessed of immeasurable power.
Enough power to keep a planet alive, perhaps.
When the Star died, the then-tiny Order of Shijian Mages sought the help of this Huang-Long. With his consent, they sealed a portion of his power deep within their land, compensating for the absence of the Star's life-nurturing light. Though not a perfect substitute, this provided enough energy to preserve the quality of life to some extent, and to allow the evolution of life forms larger than bacteria to exist. In the present day, the Lightless Wilds are home to a host of hardy, dangerous plants, most of which are predatory, as well as various animals who have in turn adapted to their new surroundings. It is said that there is even a population of people wandering the Wilds, but if they exist, they must be extremely tough. The world of the Wilds is cut-throat, and nothing is wasted. If any individual shows even the slightest sign of weakness, it is quickly consumed by the rest. That is the way of the Wilds, where everything is scarce.
The Sprawl itself, however, isn't quite as inhospitable.
A vast city-state roughly the size of a small nation, the Sprawl would have been considered unusual in the Age of the Star for the fact that it has no "gaps". Every part of the city is packed with buildings, facilities, and the like. No stretch of road is bordered by empty scenery. The city also exists in tiers, with each building having many floors and each floor connecting with those of nearby buildings at similar heights with bridges of varying size and sturdiness. Though haphazard in places, it creates a tightly-knit city. The Sprawl has evolved this way because of the difficulty of expanding its territory, and because of the vital need to prevent gaps from forming within the city, which would weaken the protections placed upon it.
The first tier, closest to the ground, is used almost exclusively for agriculture. The lack of the Star's light and the nature of the Huang-Long's gift means that, excepting water, everything necessary for the growth of plants comes from the soil. The second tier is the closest residential and business area to the ground, and therefore the most coveted. The slums of the Sprawl do not exist on the outskirts of town, where the fortifications are heaviest, but in the highest tier of the city-state. This is where both the warmth and the protective wards are thinnest, and thus the least hospitable place to live.
Its population calls itself the Sprawlers, and are by now a fairly thorough mix of the three races which created the great city-state, though inevitably any given individual will represent one or another race more strongly, and on occasion there are individuals born with a high concentration of the genes of one particular race. Aptitudes, however, are not limited along lines of race, varying instead on an individual basis.
The Sprawl exists primarily with the assistance of Shijian magic. Thus, the Shijian Order is central to the city itself. Their magic not only defends against outside danger, but assists with heating (Senzaku), agriculture and construction (Byakko), water distribution (Genbu) and air quality (Seiryuu). Their extensive facilities exist at the very center of the city on all levels, and as the beating heart of the Sprawl itself, are prioritized over all else in times of crisis. The Bonded in each generation are chosen by the Shijin before they make the cross, and are each given a unique birthmark which identifies them. Though they are collected between the ages of five and ten, when their brains have developed sufficiently for bonding to be possible, allowing harm to come to a Shijin's chosen is the greatest crime possible in the Sprawl. A Shijin will always know what befalls his chosen.
The Dragonkin:
Dragons were another of the sentient races, though vastly different from most others. They came into their magic completely without outside assistance, and their magic is said to come from within rather than by manipulating energies, as with Shijian magic. It is with this magic that they made their own attempt at saving their world--- by attempting to bring back the Star.
Their ritual went badly awry, and the vast majority of dragons were then turned into Wraiths, mindless predatory creatures with a myriad of corrupted powers that now prowl the Lightless Wilds.
The Dragons were not totally lost, however. A few dragons had been living with a band of Catkin. The Dragonkin have their own oral history about how this came about. According to them, their ancestors were a Catkin man and a dragon female who had fallen in love with one another. The dragon was shunned by her own kind, but the Catkin tribe welcomed her as one of their own. Some time later, the small tribe was attacked by a much larger band, and the pair worked together to defeat them, with the Catkin riding upon the dragon's back to signify their partnership. He was the first Dragonkin. From then on, they traveled amongst the dragons and spoke of their partnership, and a few other dragons joined them. From this population descended the dragons of the Dragonkin.
However, this "partnership of equals" is not exactly as the Dragonkin present it, and there is a slightly different tale passed down in secret amongst the dragons with the keenest minds, said to be the dying words of the original dragon spoken of in the myth. This recollection agrees that the dragon fell in love with the Catkin man, but she had agreed only reluctantly to assist him. Something changed in him after that battle, and he saw her less and less as his beloved and more as a source of power and prestige for himself and his people. They did not recruit other dragons. Instead, she was sent to entice away males and mate with them, bearing hatchlings which were taken away from her before she knew them and raised to think of men as their masters. When she had laid her third clutch in three years, she wasted away of overbreeding and despair.
The difference between these two tellings of the tale reflect the divide between dragons and the Dragonkin. As things stand now, the Dragonkin rely on dragons the same way they would an exceptionally valuable and dangerous beast of burden, despite the fact that dragons are sentient and in some cases of greater intelligence than themselves. The young are raised with painstaking care to indoctrinate a lifelong mentality of subservience to their 'partners', and only those with the greatest mental strength can resist it enough to maintain some free will. These keep the remnants of their old culture alive, passing down knowledge of lore and magic in secret.
The Dragonkin themselves were formerly nomadic when their numbers were smaller, relying on their constant movement to avoid the larger and more dangerous predators of the Wilds. Now they have their own stations and barricades scattered around a partially tamed region, though bands of scouts, hunters and foragers are often sent out. The smaller population and the use of dragons makes travel much more practical. The cities, however, are essential as hatching grounds and nurseries, storage areas, and lines of defense against particularly tough foes.
The Wilders:
The Wilders alone survive the Lightless Wilds without the help of any magic. What little is known about them suggests a culture of unparalleled brutality. They are said to emphasize 'survival of the fittest' and 'waste not, want not' to inhumane degrees, systematically culling the weak and partaking in cannibalism, or occasionally using the body as bait if the victim is too diseased or otherwise unfit for consumption.
Despite their dangerous lifestyle, or perhaps because of it, they have only very primitive technology such as spears and crude hide clothing. They have almost no 'culture' to speak of, beyond the policies necessary for the groups to survive, of which the culling is one. Some would hesitate even to classify them as human anymore, and no-one is certain of which of the three races they are descended from.
Some say that it was magic which brought about the downfall of Arcadia.
No-one knows for certain what happened to cause the onset of the Great Darkness, though many theories have circulated throughout the ages. All that is known is that one day the sun--- later to be revered as a distantly remembered pseudo-myth known as the Star--- disappeared from the sky.
The results were catastrophic. The world was plunged into cold and dark, and slow agonizing deaths lay waste to the once beautiful landscape. The more resourceful sentient races scrambled to devise some means with which to survive in this new lightless world. Some met with success while some--- such as the dragons--- failed with disastrous consequences.
Out of this muddle formed three civilizations, each relying on a different means to ensure their survival.
The Sprawl (a brief people's history):
The enormous city-state known as the Sprawl which would eventually develop as the dominant civilization in the Age of Black Sky traced its roots back to not one but three separate races.
Elves existed in the Age of the Star as first the small, shy people of the mountains, before developing early technological advancements which would spur them on to becoming vastly widespread. Highly adaptable, they were industrious, with quick clever fingers and minds. They were inventors and tinkerers, and traded their inventions to the other civilizations in return for a wider variety of food as well as raw materials.
The Catkin of the great forests were extremely suited to their homes, living in semi-nomadic tribes which subsisted primarily through hunting and gathering. As time went on, they established more permanent towns in the canopies, but their lifestyle remained the most unchanged of the three races. They were most notable for their hardiness, natural athleticism, and their unique ability to see in the dark with their gold, cat-like eyes.
Finally, there were the humans. Originally plain-dwellers and wanderers not unlike the Catkin, they were the first people to invent farming. They were the great builders, creating vast kingdoms with the help of a reliable source of food. They were the most crucial to the creation of the Sprawl for a different reason however: their magical aptitude. Specifically, their bond with the Shijin, a people from a different dimension. When a Shijin and a human synchronize on a particular mental wavelength and form a bond, the human gains access to the Shijin's elemental magic, while the Shijin gains strength from prolonged exposure to the particular conditions of the human's mind.
The Shijin were led by the four great leaders of their races, but above these reigned an entity known to them as the Huang-Long, also known as the Golden or the Central Dragon. Said to be a physically manifested god, the Huang-Long was possessed of immeasurable power.
Enough power to keep a planet alive, perhaps.
When the Star died, the then-tiny Order of Shijian Mages sought the help of this Huang-Long. With his consent, they sealed a portion of his power deep within their land, compensating for the absence of the Star's life-nurturing light. Though not a perfect substitute, this provided enough energy to preserve the quality of life to some extent, and to allow the evolution of life forms larger than bacteria to exist. In the present day, the Lightless Wilds are home to a host of hardy, dangerous plants, most of which are predatory, as well as various animals who have in turn adapted to their new surroundings. It is said that there is even a population of people wandering the Wilds, but if they exist, they must be extremely tough. The world of the Wilds is cut-throat, and nothing is wasted. If any individual shows even the slightest sign of weakness, it is quickly consumed by the rest. That is the way of the Wilds, where everything is scarce.
The Sprawl itself, however, isn't quite as inhospitable.
A vast city-state roughly the size of a small nation, the Sprawl would have been considered unusual in the Age of the Star for the fact that it has no "gaps". Every part of the city is packed with buildings, facilities, and the like. No stretch of road is bordered by empty scenery. The city also exists in tiers, with each building having many floors and each floor connecting with those of nearby buildings at similar heights with bridges of varying size and sturdiness. Though haphazard in places, it creates a tightly-knit city. The Sprawl has evolved this way because of the difficulty of expanding its territory, and because of the vital need to prevent gaps from forming within the city, which would weaken the protections placed upon it.
The first tier, closest to the ground, is used almost exclusively for agriculture. The lack of the Star's light and the nature of the Huang-Long's gift means that, excepting water, everything necessary for the growth of plants comes from the soil. The second tier is the closest residential and business area to the ground, and therefore the most coveted. The slums of the Sprawl do not exist on the outskirts of town, where the fortifications are heaviest, but in the highest tier of the city-state. This is where both the warmth and the protective wards are thinnest, and thus the least hospitable place to live.
Its population calls itself the Sprawlers, and are by now a fairly thorough mix of the three races which created the great city-state, though inevitably any given individual will represent one or another race more strongly, and on occasion there are individuals born with a high concentration of the genes of one particular race. Aptitudes, however, are not limited along lines of race, varying instead on an individual basis.
The Sprawl exists primarily with the assistance of Shijian magic. Thus, the Shijian Order is central to the city itself. Their magic not only defends against outside danger, but assists with heating (Senzaku), agriculture and construction (Byakko), water distribution (Genbu) and air quality (Seiryuu). Their extensive facilities exist at the very center of the city on all levels, and as the beating heart of the Sprawl itself, are prioritized over all else in times of crisis. The Bonded in each generation are chosen by the Shijin before they make the cross, and are each given a unique birthmark which identifies them. Though they are collected between the ages of five and ten, when their brains have developed sufficiently for bonding to be possible, allowing harm to come to a Shijin's chosen is the greatest crime possible in the Sprawl. A Shijin will always know what befalls his chosen.
The Dragonkin:
Dragons were another of the sentient races, though vastly different from most others. They came into their magic completely without outside assistance, and their magic is said to come from within rather than by manipulating energies, as with Shijian magic. It is with this magic that they made their own attempt at saving their world--- by attempting to bring back the Star.
Their ritual went badly awry, and the vast majority of dragons were then turned into Wraiths, mindless predatory creatures with a myriad of corrupted powers that now prowl the Lightless Wilds.
The Dragons were not totally lost, however. A few dragons had been living with a band of Catkin. The Dragonkin have their own oral history about how this came about. According to them, their ancestors were a Catkin man and a dragon female who had fallen in love with one another. The dragon was shunned by her own kind, but the Catkin tribe welcomed her as one of their own. Some time later, the small tribe was attacked by a much larger band, and the pair worked together to defeat them, with the Catkin riding upon the dragon's back to signify their partnership. He was the first Dragonkin. From then on, they traveled amongst the dragons and spoke of their partnership, and a few other dragons joined them. From this population descended the dragons of the Dragonkin.
However, this "partnership of equals" is not exactly as the Dragonkin present it, and there is a slightly different tale passed down in secret amongst the dragons with the keenest minds, said to be the dying words of the original dragon spoken of in the myth. This recollection agrees that the dragon fell in love with the Catkin man, but she had agreed only reluctantly to assist him. Something changed in him after that battle, and he saw her less and less as his beloved and more as a source of power and prestige for himself and his people. They did not recruit other dragons. Instead, she was sent to entice away males and mate with them, bearing hatchlings which were taken away from her before she knew them and raised to think of men as their masters. When she had laid her third clutch in three years, she wasted away of overbreeding and despair.
The difference between these two tellings of the tale reflect the divide between dragons and the Dragonkin. As things stand now, the Dragonkin rely on dragons the same way they would an exceptionally valuable and dangerous beast of burden, despite the fact that dragons are sentient and in some cases of greater intelligence than themselves. The young are raised with painstaking care to indoctrinate a lifelong mentality of subservience to their 'partners', and only those with the greatest mental strength can resist it enough to maintain some free will. These keep the remnants of their old culture alive, passing down knowledge of lore and magic in secret.
The Dragonkin themselves were formerly nomadic when their numbers were smaller, relying on their constant movement to avoid the larger and more dangerous predators of the Wilds. Now they have their own stations and barricades scattered around a partially tamed region, though bands of scouts, hunters and foragers are often sent out. The smaller population and the use of dragons makes travel much more practical. The cities, however, are essential as hatching grounds and nurseries, storage areas, and lines of defense against particularly tough foes.
The Wilders:
The Wilders alone survive the Lightless Wilds without the help of any magic. What little is known about them suggests a culture of unparalleled brutality. They are said to emphasize 'survival of the fittest' and 'waste not, want not' to inhumane degrees, systematically culling the weak and partaking in cannibalism, or occasionally using the body as bait if the victim is too diseased or otherwise unfit for consumption.
Despite their dangerous lifestyle, or perhaps because of it, they have only very primitive technology such as spears and crude hide clothing. They have almost no 'culture' to speak of, beyond the policies necessary for the groups to survive, of which the culling is one. Some would hesitate even to classify them as human anymore, and no-one is certain of which of the three races they are descended from.