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Rundown of the context
Condensate is a metaphysical energy that can manifest as something else that is metaphysical or s something physical. If something exists it has a condenscate. It is called condenscate because it's the essence of that thing. For living beings for instance the founding unit the soul relies on is of condensate.
The things that have most condensate were the primordials , entities so grand words cannot explain what they are or where do they come from but they are theorized to be the first signs of life ever.
The second thing with most condensate is the universe itself , the space they interacted in. Primordials are the one we owe to admist many things conditions for our life to appear in this universe.
First life forms other than primordials were the starborn. They descend directly from the primordials in a way that isn't biological -a bit of struggle to explain that- and being the first life form they always saw themselvs a little bit as the older siblings of life forms in this planet in the way older siblings should be encouraging caring and just letting you live your life while watching over you .
Amongst the many other life forms and planets on this universe that appear are the one our story is gonna follow closely Arzad.
Arzad is where humans were first born , one of the most admirable kind of life in the universe and a favorite of some primordials. Humans and starborne lived in a very closeknit way as the siblings they actually were and witnessed the appearence of many things good and bad in the universe.
However relationships between them got tougher as primordials started mysteriously disappearing and entity of gods taking place . At first , facing these happenings the big siblinghs role of the starborne became more of a defending and strict sibling trying to keep everything in check after the parents mysteriously disappeared trying to protect others from malevolous gods.
After a great event that caused a major shift in starborn behavior a war started between not only starborns against humans but also gods against humans .
Heroes rose in these wars by proving themselves to have a strength above gods . We call them Grand heroes , their identity forgotten to time but their titles remaining (Grand knight , Grand mage , Grand hunter etc...)
- Mistakes of emotions first of all , the emotional toll and psychological toll the war took on people is still felt until now. The elderly are still heartbroken of who they had to kill sometimes it lead to betrayals or very costly revolutions.
- Mistakes of ignorance second , magic and the usage of condensate was something new for the grand heroes and they didn't understand its consequences yet. Especially the consequences of having a dead god around. As establishement previously said condensate is metaphysical but can influence the physical and here comes the problem. When a god is defeated , the condensate has to be properly disposed lest it twitches as if it was in a panic and thinking the host was dying instead of dead. It seeps into the land and corrupts it creating abominations that try to mimic life
- Lastly mistakes of youth , the grand heroes did not understand what it meant to be a great hero. None of them were mad to be leaders and it showed, just like every normal placed in front of everyone some broke down , some made bad decisions , some focused on the war instead of ruling.
Despite these mistakes , Arzad is understanding of the past and tries to fix the consequences of the mistakes and keep going and since then , Arzad becaame a truly independant planet. No guardians to it , humans from generation to generation have to stand up from themselves and continue the tale of the grand heroes to defeat evil gods or banish them to a moon.
As of today , beasts grow restless and the Condensate seems to start crawling at a concerning rate towards somewhere one would struggle to tell where or why it does that. The only thing that is for sure is that it is causing problems and these problems are impacting your lives in way that makes it hard to ignore and that will eventually need to get fixed.
Magic
But as you know, condensate is also used as the basis of something existence thus you might as well drain yourself out when trying to cast a spell that asks too much condensate. Thankfully, our physical form limits the amount of condensate that can be channeled through us a limit that can be higher or lower depending on the individual and how much they are habituated to magic usage.
The main (but not all) types of magic are :
creation :
to turn your condensate into something physical (to use for constructive or destructive purposes) . For instance it can be a fireball or it can be a source of light or it can be a wall of bones. The greater the amount and the more complex it is, the more experience and condensate it takes.
conjuration :
is to use your condensate to bridge between Arzad and the afterlife (or Arzad and its many moon, even if one is admit that it isn't very wise to do so). It allows you to call for the help of entities from either the skies or the depths, the more sentient they are (and sometimes the more big too) the more condensate it asks. For more sentient entities, it might even come as asking a favor out of them or signing a contract. Additionally, it seems that objects and machinery (more precisely automates) can also be summoned, the complexity deciding of the condensate cost.
infusion:
magic and technology always have been in a race of imitation and retaliation. But here they work in tandem to improve the life of Arzadians. Sampling old starborne tech from the war, engineers have been able to recreate and mimic their condensate based technology and started work On Arzadian based condensate tech. Melum II is the current name of the main material Arzadian tech used, it can be manufactured or created magically by infusing a material we call Urmel with condensate. It is used in anything tech relayed going from magic using weapons to prosthetics to automats made of long Melum II carving we call golems (and akin to how we'd imagine advanced robots /small robots and even AIs albeit fairly basic ).
However, starborne used a material that seemed more interesting and more advanced in machines we have yet to reverse engineer. Melum I. Which allows to create far more advanced machines up to automates that are quasi sentient... It however is rare enough to nearly be considered a currency in inventor circles.
To close things off
Creation and alteration magic are available to everyone, conjuration and infusion less so. Smaller types are either unknown or too basic to be mentioned. And while all types are available on paper, all of their usages seems to be tied to a sort of trend related to the caster as a person, for instance. A person might only be able to cast plant related magic or ice related magic or life related magic while some Just focused on infusion in general or conjuration . And while some people have been able to find some wiggle space that limitation , it is still a rule many follow.
Culture
This part (unless mentioned elsewhere) concerns the culture of Adassi the place the rp is starting in
spirituality:
In Arzad, the afterlife is not a speculation more of a certainty something people refer to as a fact because by their definition there's indeed a life after the death of the body. Additionally, the concept of God doesn't exactly exist in the Arzadian mythology so fights over it are not really common. Afterlife in Arzad is divided into three, the skies - what we would call heavens - the depths - what we would call hell - and the medilands, some sorts of land between the skies and the depths.
The skies seem to situate themselves in prairies of a temperate climate, there is more fauna than flora and here and there one might find small Arzadian communities gathered around in peace. For the depth , it is arid hostile lands with what was identified as condensate leaking in from somewhere. The flora is less dense and fauna more common but also sort of hostile. Thou groups of surviving Arzadians can be found there too. As for the lands between most of the time they are a plateau where you can find nothing but a wind howling
To access the afterlife, one needs to leave their body behind (usually through death). They will fall in the lands between before appearing before the grand judge an ancient champion and considered one of the guardians of the afterlife that will decide if they are to go to the skies or to the depths and will teleport them there once judgement is passed.
The concept of Arzadian afterlife appeared shortly after the start of the war. A place of rest for Arzadians have lead an eventful life by their living. Now in death to not worry about war and finally get their rest. Rumors of massive sealed doors in both the skies and depth are heard, some swear to have witnessed them. But these doors were sealed eons ago. They are rumored to lead to other layers of the skies or the depths. But are these rumors to be believed? What is behind that door... If you really wish to know then how do we open it?... And even then, would it be wise to do so?
spirituality and gods:
This part (unless mentioned elsewhere) concerns the culture of Adassi the place the rp is starting in
In Arzad , the concept and title of god is something frowned on , no surprise they did start a war against them. The reason for that hatred and for that war is something that we prefer forgotten to time : "No god is innocent even the most good willed." , you can believe that it is just an improvised casus belli considering that crime that robbed them from their innocence is never mentioned but ask the highest ranked veterans they all know about that crime. It is simply so horrible they cannot mention it...Or perhaps because it is something easy to do , after all gods were so common for a reason weren't they?
gods are divided into two , true gods. persons that were always gods. False gods , beings that appeared as a purpose to become a god (born from channeled extreme hatred for instance) or beings that ascended to godhood. Though , be careful of calling the latter false gods when it comes to Arzadian. We prefer the term champions or grand heroes.
the process of... grand ascension.... is not really known through the Arzad , but we understood that through their accomplishement and the faith we put in certain people we channel some of our condensate into them and past a certain point they become strong enough to face gods...
These grand heroes remain people still..while their tales are counted, achievement singed through the lands , and all the good they did is the narrative Arzadian temples are trying to push. They remain humans , some of them knew an untold downfall , went crazy with power....or commited human mistakes that caused them to fall from very high. However despair breaching in breeds hatred and hatred breeds more false gods to deal with...and these people still remain heroes and to that the three pillars payed their respects.
pillars
The pillars are Arzadian religious institutes as an effort by some grand heroes to centralize faith considering the fact that it is one of the concepts that seemed to be exploited to create false gods. The pillars are in number of three each representing a value of Arzadian Spirituality and given an artifact by the grand heroes as a token of legitimacy, they work hand in hand instead of being competitive, their number is mostly due to the fact at least one should be there if others fall.
- pillar of pride :
A testimony to the strength of Arzadians past and present, this pillar contains people with an affinity towards summoning and prestidigitation. Using their magic they make shapes come to life even if just for a bit to count stories that deserve to be celebrated past or present. The artifact they were given was a graal, a cup they can fill with condensate to channel the energy that of grand heroes to name new ones or summon long gone grand heroes again
- pillar of Spirituality :
This pillars job is to help reassure less devoted people about what is after death, the0 state of their loved ones, or the state of the after life. They handle apparitions like ghosts and know how to - sort of - astral project or even straight out travel in the afterlife for a short period of time. The artifact they were given is a giant door.. Or perhaps many of them ,allowing you to cross physically to the afterlife for a bit... It is used for long distance travel in short time much to the dismay of the grand judge that tolerates it so they still try to keep it limited
- pillar of community :
This pillar tries to assist everyone the best they can through humanitarian aid or magical intervention... We will come back to it later but their artifact is highly complex repurposed starborne tech that seems able to bend the weather and offer it many different proprieties, from healing wounds to giving life back to land to washing away festering condensate
spiritual authorities
Priests
Priests in themselves are the PR of a pillar , while they may only work for one pillar at a time. They can cover the shift of someone from another pillar or temporarily pose as the priest for another pillar. However they are expected to have another job to help out with rounding the end of the month (still under the image of their pillar however so being careful is important)
Pillar knights
Under the order of the grand king and all the three pilliars , these are the knights in shining armor there to serve the people! We except them to be the heroes of the day and you never know when one of these heroes might awaken as a grand hero...
they work mostly under the order of the grand king but sometimes pillars or priests or even mercenaries -affiliated to the king or pillars- might ask them for help
Grand heroes
Through their acomplishements or by cheer chance , someone might gather enough condensate to awaken the title of "grand hero"
While unknown what it exactly is , some theorize that it is the spirit of Arzad itself believing in you and lending you a bit of its power to protect it from the threats you were fighting
the titles of grand hero seem to act as a way to distinguish what Arzad blessed you with , however while the pillars try to keep titles varied (just for the sake of pr) two and more people can share a title despite them not calling it the same thing
and not all grand heroes are heroic.
About Arzadians
Arzad is the planet the story takes place , The word Arzadian reffers to the inhabitants of Arzad that we call humans by abuse of language. Condensate is the metaphysical essence that translates into the physical. And by it translating into the physical it gives to everyone a very unique physical form depending on how much you used your condensate or just how much you have to start with...While humans as we know them count as Arzadians. Features can get more crazy ranging from animalistic to Artropodian , mechanical , aquatic , vegetal ...all of them can grant their adventages and disadventages.
However a key rule is that while your physical form can get very crazy with features , a physical form will be something that puts you into permanent pain. For instance , unless your envrionement allows it, you will always be born with skin over your flesh just to avoid you permanetly suffering
About condensate sealing
One way to get rid of condensate is to seal it into something , somewhere , or someone. We try to not do that the latter as sealing decaying condensate can be really detrimental to one's mental but even worse is to seal live condensate .
This kind of incident can happen in three ways:
- sealing condensate too early ?not making sure the condensate's owner is dead for a bit of time
- - sealing condensate into someone that already has too much in their body which reverses the sealed condensate decaying process
- - purposefully sealing part of an entities condensate because it proves too hard to defeat.
While two of those totally seal the entity inside of the host and allow the host to take the risk to channel their condensate despite the risk of them over taking the host , the last one allows a better control of the condensate sealed inside of you as it is just one part of it but one better be careful as now said entity is trying to hunt you down to get its power again....This one is the one most used when the entity is sealed somewhere (for instance all the entities sealed on the Arzadian moons have an Arzadian with a part of their condensate) , one can find solace in the fact that even if an entity wants them dead just for existing they're chained SOMEWHERE however the strength of these chains do rely on the state of your health too.
Lastly , two things they have all three in common is that the condensate of the sealed entity do show on them -be it mentally or physically- and if ever bored...They can always try to strike a telepathic conversation with the sealed entity as *normally* there should be an available mental connection at all times due to being connected through condensate
Other cultures:
i'm so sleepy rn. I'll work on them later but feel free to go WILD with suggestions for your chars and I'll add in other stuff laterRP starting point
Welcome to Adassi , Once the beacon of hope in the grand war it became a landmark in the Arzadian landscape. Everyone heard about it in the past and with the recent developements , some people go back to it for the sake of safety
Are you a traveler? Someone who's looking for something in there and only staying temporerily ? Or are you a local? But mostly , what role will you play in the upcoming story?
Map
To sum up the region quickly , Assadi is the capital giving its name to the region. it is mostly surrounded by farms. At its east , a mining village and further a city known for its industrial activityAt the north you can find the last village before entering the floral plain that seems to be crawling closer and closer south!
in the west one can find the economic heart of the region , three coastal cities handling the economic flow of in and outs
the city at the south hosts the invetor fair starting in a few weeks! be sure to head there to catch some extra melum!
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