Lore Thread

[Kestrel]

Dharan as a nation

Dharan is a southern nation with a small population traditionally divided by it's deserts. Historically, due to it's limited resources, Dharan has been a land roamed by nomadic tribes without overarching governance.

However, a new way of life has emerged in recent years: The Dharan League. The League, ruled by Queen Ishtar, is a chain of cities and town built in a way that emulates northern society. The League is formed from many tribes who came together to create a society in which they could be secure. Many other tribes have joined the League by their own free will, and others have simply been forced into subjugation in order to repay debts. Despite being relatively new, the League easily has the power to rival Dhara's largest tribes.

The League's rise has drained Dhara of many of its already scarce resources, leading to dissonance between the tribes. Many of the smaller tribes were forced to borrow large loans that they could not repay from larger tribes. When they could not repay their debts, they were enslaved and used to for the gain of the tribe they were in debt to. One of the larger tribes, the Byda, began to use their new-found power to settle feuds with other tribes, and even slaughtered some in their entirety.

Thuran Tribe

Amongst these enemies was the Thuran tribe, a long-standing nomad community that had been at war with the Byda for generations. Although the Thuran too fell before the mighty Dharan league, they managed to keep some of its members alive. However, they had to turn to robbing other tribes to keep themselves afloat. Many of the things they robbed where magical artefacts, which they sold on to wealthy mages or collectors from other nations. In order to keep themselves safe from the inevitable retaliation, they would dwell near the nests of feared beasts and summon dark spirits to drive pursuers away. The Thuran are now known as some of the vilest and most dangerous bandits and assassins, feared for their dark practices and unauthorised possession of magically inclined artefacts.

However, this way of life could barely sustain the Thuran, and the tribe ended up as its own worst enemy. Some of the tribes-people desired not to lash too harshly against their enemy, so that they would produce enough for them to steal, but others desired the total destruction of the tribe that had brought them to their knees. For thirty years the former ideology was the more popular, but after one raid a hunting party was followed by armed warriors from the enemy tribe. They were lead by a spirit charmer who dispelled the dark spirits which protected them, and had his men slaughter as many as they could. Those who escaped became enraged and blamed the disaster on the tribe's chieftain, whom they executed. Still not content, they exiled his family, many of whom died in the desert, and others were captured and made slaves.

Dharan Magic

Dharan magic takes two forms; sealed djinni and appealing to iblees.

Djinni can be sealed into items (called artifacts) for singular purposes, making it a one spell per artifact deal, but they can be cast instantly in exchange for a small portion of the user's mana; a resource that replenishes over time. Because sealing a djinn is no small task, artifacts tend to be rather weak, and those which contain powerful djinni are massively expensive... And rather cost inefficient because of it. Powerful artifacts are either considered cultural treasures or sought after only by the power-mad and most extravagant of collectors. These powerful artifacts can have maddening influences on those near it; as seals grow older they grow weaker and the power of a djinn can slip through...

Iblees are intangible, cursed spirits roaming the sands of Dhara. Theirs is a black magic, able to spread disease, bring misfortune or insanity upon it's intended targets or twist the fabric of space itself. It's appliances are versatile, but it's price high. Iblees demand payment in flesh for their curses. Those who practice their magic frequently miss a finger, arm, eye, or even worse...

[Flexar]

Gar

Gar as a Nation

The nation of Gar was formed over a century before any of the nations that Taakeira is currently divided into. It has been ruled over by the same family almost since its birth, and its currently ruler is the elderly king Uther. Much like many of his predecessors, he rarely gets involved in the lives of his people. This is of little concern to the people, as most of them simply want to get on with their lives.

Gar is currently doing very well for itself, and enjoys trade with every other nation on the continent. The formation of the Dharan League would open up plenty of new doors for international trade, so a good deal of funding the League received upon its inception was from Gar. Most of the people of Gar enjoy a high standard of living, particularly those in the cities. Due to the nation's financial prosperity and powerful military crime is very rare, although the odd bandit raid on remote villages or merchant caravans happens every so often.

As far its geography, Gar has a fairly temperate climate; the winters are not too bitter and the summers are not to sweltering. This has been vital in ensuring the success of Gar's agriculture, alongside the large areas of fertile land that form its countryside. Alongside its fields, Gar is also home to large areas of moorland and coniferous forests, as well as smaller deciduous forests and marshes.

Southern Gar and the Boneshaper Mountains

Gar is separated from one of its southern neighbours, Akhar, by a chain of mountains known as the Boneshaper Mountains, named after the tribe that inhabits them. This tribe is the reason that neither nation has attempted to lay claim to the mountains, as they are considered savages by both nations. They are highly protective of their home, and often attack anyone trying to pass through, even without provocation. As a result, anyone living on either side of the border is reluctant to even go near the mountains.

The Boneshaper Clan is formed from many small settlements throughout the mountains, but they are all ruled by the clan's patriarch. The position is not hereditary; successors are all chosen by the current patriarch. The Boneshapers are so called because of their avid use of bone and other animal products as building materials, whether it be for architecture, weaponry, or any other possible use. They are not picky about where they get their bone from, going as far as to use the bones of their own dead, even those of their patriarchs. In fact, it is Boneshaper tradition that a new patriarch should be inducted by being presented with a sword made from his predecessor, so that he can continue to serve the tribe in death. It is also not uncommon for Boneshapers to eat the flesh of a deceased loved one as form of mourning.

Garian Magic

Magic is something that is fairly new to Gar, and is by no means widespread. Many Garians feared magic because of its avid use by their Boneshaper neighbours, but an entirely new form has risen from the country's mages' guilds, the largest and most influential of which being the Arcane University of Coppergate. While Boneshaper magic relies entirely on spirits and other beings, Garian magic relies only on the user and their equipment. Garian mages use magical items to channel their own mana through, such as staves and rings. Mana can be moulded in various things such as bolts of lightning or torrents of water when passed through the correct channeller. Different mages have different natural connections to different elements, so some mages may be able to create fire with ease but struggle to form even a cube of ice, whereas some mages may be able to let loose blizzards with minimal effort but be unable to form more than a spark of flame.

Prolonged use of magical channellers can eventually leave the user able to cast magic without one. As useful as this sounds, it can be very dangerous if the mage is careless in their casting; if their concentration is broken then their spell could backfire on them, and leave them mortally wounded or permanently crippled. Some forms of magic, such as fire, are far too dangerous to use without a channeller, whereas others, such as light, present a much smaller hazard.

Boneshaper Magic

The magic of the Boneshaper Clan can be divided into two main categories: Summoning and Necromancy. All users of magic within the clan are known as Shamans.

Summoning can also be divided up into two categories: Invocation and Evocation.

Invocation is the practice of drawing a spirit into a living body. Invocation also takes two forms: Exo-Invocation and Endo-Invocation. Exo-Invocation is the more common of the two forms, which involves summoning a spirit into the body of another being. Spirits can be summoned into a body whether or not it is willing to let the spirit in, although it is easier to invoke spirits into willing vessels. An example of a willing vessel would be a Boneshaper warrior who is allowing a shaman to imbue him with a spirit in order to grant him more power, whereas an unwilling vessel might be a wolf a shaman wants to turn feral against his enemies. Spirits can also be summoned into plants, often to turn them into eldritch abominations for use against a shaman's enemies. Endo-Invocation is the summoning of a spirit into one's own body, which is far less common, and is practised only by the Boneshaper patriarch. Endo-Invocation gives the patriarch more control over a spirit and its powers than Exo-Invocation would, and reduces the chance of the spirit permanently taking over his body. Invocations have different effects depending on the spirit that has been invoked, but all invocations are used to increase the subject's power; how that power manifests is what varies. The most common effect of invocation is enhancing the subject's physical strength, although other less orthodox powers are invoked by stronger spirits, such as the ability to fly or to summon fire. Stronger spirits will also cause visible changes in the subject, such as bony spikes sprouting from their arms or markings appearing on their skin. The subject of an invocation must be strong both in body and in mind; if their body is weak the invocation will kill them, if their mind is weak they will lose their body to the spirit or go insane.

Evocation is the summoning of a spirit in its natural form. Weak spirits can be evoked by a single shaman, but they rarely bother to do so. The spirits the are most commonly evoked are those that the Boneshapers revere as gods. Summoning these spirits requires several shamans and often a living sacrifice, which must sometimes be human. These spirits take various forms when evoked, but all are incredibly powerful. However, they are not bound to their evokers, meaning that they must be handled with great care.

The final form of Boneshaper magic is necromancy. The Boneshapers have no qualms about reanimating corpses to fight for them, or with binding the spirits of their enemies so that they can torture them even in death and prevent them from passing on to the afterlife. However, it requires a constant flow of mana from the shaman to keep corpses reanimated, so the Boneshapers cannot create and endless army of undead. The strength of an undead tends to be slightly less than its strength while alive, and its movements are often sluggish.