Differences

This shows you the differences between two versions of the page.

--- operations:public:world_lore [2025/05/29 06:11] – eric
+++ operations:public:world_lore [2025/06/13 04:27] (current) – [Other Realms and Peoples] eric
@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 ====== World Lore ======
-The world of **Tala**—where Volaire takes place—is one of beauty carved by trauma. Magic once brought prosperity, but now lingers as a dangerous inheritance. Nations rise from ash. Empires fracture. Every character who steps into Volaire does so with the weight of history pressing behind them.
+This page serves as a living archive of the known world of **Volaire**, capturing its geography, culture, power structures, and historical roots. Whether you're a new player building your first backstory or a veteran seeking deeper connections to the setting, this guide is your gateway to understanding the world your character inhabits.
-This page introduces the current state of the world, including cultural forces, power structures, and recent upheavals. It is a foundational resource for players writing backstories or immersing themselves in the greater setting.
 ----
-===== 🌍 The Continent of Tala =====
+===== The Continent of Tala =====
+Tala is a vast and often unforgiving continent, shaped by elemental forces, arcane shifts, and political ambition. While precise maps are rare, the known land stretches across deserts, forests, mountains, and ruins—some reclaimed by nature, others still haunted by echoes of war and ritual.
-Tala is the largest known landmass on the planet, surrounded by oceans and punctuated with smaller island chains. Its geography includes:
-  * Vast deserts, deep forests, highland ridges, and mountain ranges
-  * War-scarred cities and crumbling arcane ruins
-  * Borderlands haunted by shadowspawn, corrupted ley lines, and undeath
-Magic is both a tool and a threat. Civilization teeters between innovation and collapse.
+Tala consists of a **large central landmass** ringed by remote island chains, jagged archipelagos, and sunken remnants of old nations. The terrain can be deeply inhospitable, with more than half considered uninhabitable due to wild magic, ancient battlesites, and the still-corrupted influence of undeath and shadow.
 ----
-===== 🏛️ Major Powers =====
+===== The Ariadnian Empire =====
+The dominant human empire in western Tala, **Ariad** is a fractured yet enduring relic of a once-glorious civilization. Known for its diversity of arcane practices, its openness to unconventional power, and the ideological split between its major baronies, Ariad represents a chaotic balance between liberty and self-serving ambition.
-The balance of power in Tala is fragile. Most regions operate autonomously, ruled by city-states, baronies, or ancient bloodlines. Two dominant factions define the current political landscape:
+==== Major Baronies ====
+The Empire is divided into three prominent baronies, each with its own leadership, identity, and interpretation of power:
----
+<WRAP center round box 100%>
+=== Seshtau ===
+Ruled from the necromantic capital of **Umbris**, Seshtau reveres power over life and death. Its people embrace undeath as a tool, and fear is considered a weakness. Red and black banners adorn its towers, and whispers of clawed hands bearing skulls mark their creed.
+</WRAP>
-==== 🦅 The Ariadnian Empire ====
-Once a true empire, Ariad now functions more like a **coalition of baronies**, each with its own values, goals, and approaches to power. The Empire prioritizes survival, strength, and the reclamation of knowledge—regardless of the cost.
+<WRAP center round box 100%>
+=== Forsetidale ===
+The home of the balanced blade, **Forsetidale** is a barony of knights, judges, and blacksmiths. Order is forged through honor, and justice is as important as strength. Golden symbols of justice shine proudly above the city of **Dalefaer**.
+</WRAP>
-  * Magic is embraced, including necromancy.
-  * Undeath is not universally condemned.
-  * Political power is localized under barons and baronesses.
-Key Regions:
+<WRAP center round box 100%>
-  * [[operations:public:interactive_rulebook:core:world_kingdoms|Barony of Seshtau]] – Ruthlessly necromantic and power-centric.
+=== Tuatha ===
-  * [[operations:public:interactive_rulebook:core:world_kingdoms|Barony of Forsetidale]] – Seeks balance and communal strength, healing from a faerie occupation.
+The **Tuathan** people dwell closest to nature. Magic is natural, undeath is abhorrent, and the land must be nurtured. Their capital, **Almuril**, thrives on agriculture and textile craft. They believe life and death are part of a sacred cycle to be protected—not manipulated.
-  * [[operations:public:interactive_rulebook:core:world_kingdoms|Barony of Tuatha]] – Deeply druidic and nature-bound. Fierce opponents of undeath.
+</WRAP>
-Each barony operates semi-independently, making the Empire a powder keg of contradictions held together by history and ambition.
----
+Each barony has its own embassy, military guard, and approach to magic, governance, and diplomacy. While they are united under the banner of Ariad, tensions between them run deep.
-==== 🏛 The Kingdom of Leib-Olmai ====
+----
-Situated to the east, Leib-Olmai is a **rigid, militarized nation** built on rationalism and secular law. It upholds the **Principles of Illumination**, a civic doctrine that governs thought, speech, education, and magic.
+===== The Kingdom of Leib-Olmai =====
+To the east lies **Leib-Olmai**, a powerful and disciplined kingdom defined by rationality, structure, and civic order. Its secular doctrines—the **Principles of Illumination**—form the basis of law, education, and magic regulation. Unlike Ariad, magic here is highly scrutinized and undeath is an abomination.
-  * Necromancy is forbidden.
+Led by **King Lirum-Duhl IV**, with his successors vying quietly beneath him, the kingdom is a breeding ground for philosophical intrigue, cultural rigor, and political rebellion. Cities like **Verasi**, **Tharnspire**, and **Cael’Rethan** are known for their symmetry, education, and military discipline.
-  * Magic is highly regulated and secular.
-  * Debate and logic are used as weapons just as often as swords.
-Leib-Olmai is known for:
+----
-  * **Verasi** – A geometrically structured capital of law and civic pride.
-  * The **Dawnguard Legions** – Elite, disciplined military forces.
-  * A hidden civil conflict brewing within the royal family.
----
+===== Other Realms and Peoples =====
+Beyond the two dominant kingdoms lie scattered city-states, hidden enclaves, and wandering cultures:
-===== 🏙️ The City of Volaire =====
+  * **The Ramtovi Caravans** – Nomadic traders and mystics, loyal to one another and fiercely independent.
+  * **The Wild Elven Groves** – Secluded and anti-arcane, the Wild Elves uphold their own primal code.
+  * **The Dwarven Holds of Qualtah** – Isolated mining settlements full of tradition, treasure, and grudge.
+  * **The Hidden Courts of the Fae** – Chaotic, unpredictable, and barely understood even by their own.
-The game’s namesake and primary setting. Volaire is a **neutral city-state** located on the edge of Imperial and wild lands. It was once a hub of magical progress but now sits in disrepair.
+The continent teems with ancient magic and ruins from long-lost civilizations. Many cultures share whispered tales of [[The Shattering]], an epochal event in the distant past that shattered the balance of magic and laid waste to many of Tala's greatest cities. No scholar agrees on its true origin.
-  * The **Guild of Light**, **Mage’s Guild**, and **Artisan’s Guild** have all fallen.
-  * The city is surrounded by arcane fallout zones, cursed graveyards, and unstable ruins.
-  * The **Wards** keeping the city safe are weakening.
-New arrivals—refugees, scholars, mercenaries, and wanderers—make their way to Volaire in hopes of safety, answers, or a second chance.
 ----
-===== ☠️ Current Threats =====
+===== Guilds and Institutions =====
+Several major organizations once anchored the town of Volaire and the wider world:
-The world is under siege from within and without. Magic has not stabilized since the collapse of the Guilds.
+  * **The Mage's Guild** – Center of arcane research and ritual development. Now fractured, with rogue sects still roaming.
+  * **The Guild of Light** – Once a bastion of healing and protection. Now mostly in ruins.
+  * **The Artisan's Guild** – Innovators, inventors, and creators. Their workbench legacy still exists across Tala.
-  * **Shadowspawn** – Born from the rupture of the Weave. Some say they are sentient. Others say they are echoes of guilt.
+New characters may discover fragments of these orders in-game or choose to align with their philosophies.
-  * **Skeletal Undead** – Raised by corrupted rituals or tethered to cursed objects. Their numbers grow in lands touched by magic gone wrong.
-  * **Arcane Instability** – Old spellfields still pulse. Portals open without warning. Magical items hum with unintended power.
-  * **The Food Crisis** – Crops spoil unnaturally. Livestock vanish. Some suspect magic—or sabotage. Volaire is slowly starving.
 ----
-===== 🔍 The Fall of the Guilds =====
+===== World Themes and Player Hooks =====
+The world of Volaire is shaped by the following recurring themes:
-The **Age of Light** ended in collapse.
+  * **Survival through Adaptation** – Magic, undeath, and invention offer power—but at what cost?
+  * **Ideological Division** – Kingdoms, baronies, and guilds all interpret morality and magic differently.
+  * **Legacy and Ruin** – The ruins of ancient empires hold knowledge, relics, and dangers.
+  * **Mystery in the Margins** – Hidden truths lie beneath the surface, often protected by lies, oaths, or forgotten spells.
-Once, guilds held everything together:
+----
-  * The **Guild of Light** offered healing, justice, and moral clarity.
-  * The **Mage’s Guild** curated spells, rituals, and magical discipline.
-  * The **Artisan’s Guild** developed alchemy, trade, and production.
-Their fall was not a single event but a sequence of betrayals, disasters, and forgotten decisions. Some say the guilds turned on one another. Others believe an external force—still unnamed—tore them down from the shadows.
+===== A Note on Geography =====
+Geography in Volaire is **intentionally mutable**—not because it's undefined, but because it's **experienced**. Maps are drawn by the living and constantly revised. Terrain shifts. Ruins appear. Roads vanish. Magic tears at reality in slow waves.
-Their ruins still shape the political and magical landscape.
+This allows both players and Game Managers freedom to craft new places without needing rigid cartography. Towns grow or fall based on plot. Mountains may be swallowed by shadow. What matters most is **how your character interacts** with the world they walk in.
 ----
-===== 🧠 Using Lore in Your Backstory =====
+===== For New Players =====
+If you are creating a new character and seeking to tie them into the world, consider these questions:
-Questions to consider:
+  * Does your character come from Ariad or Leib-Olmai? How do they feel about their homeland?
-  * Which power do you trust: the Empire, the Kingdom, or none?
+  * What barony, kingdom, or independent faction shaped their early life?
-  * Was your homeland destroyed in the Collapse?
+  * Do they believe in personal freedom, civic duty, arcane supremacy, or natural balance?
-  * Are you fleeing persecution, investigating ancient magic, or seeking someone lost?
+  * Have they witnessed ruins, horrors, or wonders that changed them?
-  * Do you see undeath as an abomination—or as a tool?
+  * How do they view the fractured world they now walk—and what do they hope to build, or destroy?
-You might come from:
-  * A ruined border town between baronies
-  * A state-run academy in Leib-Olmai
-  * A wandering tribe or hidden refuge untouched by politics
-  * A baronial court, serving or betraying a noble family
 ----
-===== 📖 Regional Highlights =====
-  * **The Pale Ridge** – Militarized borderlands. Frequent skirmishes. Ideal for ex-soldiers or spies.
-  * **The Blight Ranges** – Mountains still burning with dormant rituals. Few return.
-  * **The Palewood** – Forest older than records. Some call it alive.
-  * **The Ashen Lowlands** – Salt-cracked soil and empty villages. Home to scavengers, liches, and exiles.
-  * **The Halix Steppe** – Public forums, war games, and civic speeches of Leib-Olmai.
 ----
-**Volaire is not just a city. It is a wound. A crossroads. A promise.**
+<wrap em>**Navigation:**
-**Your character enters a world on the brink—what part will they play in its unraveling or redemption?**
+[[operations:public|Return to Wiki Home]] | [[operations:public:interactive_rulebook:start|Interactive Rulebook Hub]]</wrap>