Location Info

Posted 5 years, 10 months ago (Edited 5 years, 1 month ago) by Dohmalore

Navigation

01 Overview/ TL;DRs

02 Angstrom

↳ 2.1 The Ashlands

↳ 2.2 Ledrakile

03 Stratah

04 The Feywilds

↳ 4.1 In-between

05 Belvite

Formatting mostly copy-pasted from Starlipop's Code Resources
Dohmalore

Overview

Brief summaries of each Location, for those who would rather have the gist than read an entire article about each one.

Angstrom

The cities are full of military propaganda and poverty, the countryside is full of bandits and fugitive witches.  On the plus side they're the leaders in advancement of non-magical technology.  Unfortunately that only happened because ~200 years ago the country was blasted into a permanent magical dead zone by their enemy-of-the-month and they were forced to rebuild from nothing without the only power source anyone's ever really bothered with in all of human history.  Also the no-magic thing bricked half their infrastructure & there was an actual apocalypse about it that they never really recovered from.

The Ashlands

A volcanic valley claimed by the ridiculously OP Ezra after batting away every attempt the angstromi government made to apprehend them for the crime of being a witch.  Other fugitive witches and their families have gathered around them to take advantage of the protection they're offering in exchange for fealty.  Combination cult and base of operations for the Revolution.

Belvite

A desert town in the no man's land between human civilization and feywilds.  Technically lawless but they have a system involving buff magical girls with swords & a big angry demon who eats anyone who abuses their power and hey if it ain't broke don't fix it.

The In-Between

Regions between human territory and feywilds.  They vary in thickness and exist mainly because fae are not great at agreeing on/recognizing specific spatial borders.  Generally a dangerous place to live regardless of species, sometimes heavily contested and sometimes warily shared.

Feywilds

Territories claimed by the fae & heavily-populated with weird magical creatures.  Feywilds are not one region, but several scattered ones.  Many are in places humanity doesn't have the ability or interest to populate(polar regions, places with super-harsh weather, underwater), but those that aren't undesirable have had interspecies wars fought over them to keep humans out.

Hampapa

Small country, mostly just poor farming villages. Also land of the Shepards(aka fae hippies).  

Ledrakile

A small settlement on the west coast of Angstrom, and the only sliver of land outside of the magical deadzone.  Previously territory to a flock of dragons but they got kicked out fairly easily.  Mostly full of nerd researcher types & their families, not actually politically important to anyone but the ousted dragons, who have joined forces with the witch rebellion in hopes of getting their land back after overthrowing the government.

Stratah

Obligatory floating island, with two parts: a side where the native population of  demon-worshipping magical socialists dwell, and a side where people from all over the world gather either as students at the oldest/largest magical university in the world, or as creators/entertainers/tourists.  Almost all labor is done by magical constructs so the humans are free to pursue their passions. There isn't a formal/official separation between the foreigners and the natives, but they do tend not to overlap much.

gGNIEr3.jpg(As you can see, my worldbuilding is totally airtight & completely developed)

Dohmalore
TL;DR: A human nation that rejects magic & magic accessories.  Full of volcanoes and propaganda.

Angstrom

Geography

Angstrom is a cold and rocky place, has a very grey aura, just generally feels bleak as hell.  It's pretty large and hard to navigate, the landscape is dominated by mountains and riddled with volcanic activity.  Much of the country is uninhabited and most of the population lives in a handful of cities crammed on the banks between cliffs and waterfront(cities tend to build up rather than spread out, lots of tall buildings)(also lots of tunneling into the cliff faces/basementing).

Climate leans towards very cold, it's got a near-arctic positioning.

THERES DRAGONS IN THEM THERE HILLS

Politics

"I'll kick anybody's ass.  I'll kick your ass.  I'll kick your allies' asses.  I'll kick my own ass" -Angstromi leaders, probably

At war fucking constantly, probably on the verge of civil war.   At one point was an empire spanning many many nations but over time has lost most of its territory, mostly due to the Siphon-bomb launched on them a 100+ years ago that destroyed the country's ability to hold onto ambient magic and essentially sparked a localized apocalypse & sent the whole place back to the stone age.  After that they kinda had to retract to the homeland and deal with their entire destroyed infrastructure & having to essentially redo their entire technological revolution from scratch since they're the only place on the fuckin planet that can't rely on magic.

A Venn-Diagram of the rich and high-ranking military officials is nearly a circle, and the middle part is where almost all of the politically-powerful people reside.

Culture

Someone from Angstrom is Angstromi.  Their language is similar to earth's french.  Despite it being kind of a shithole patriotism is pretty high thanks to generations of propaganda, and foreigners do not generally receive a warm welcome.  Actually distrust is kind of a staple personality trait for the Angstromi.

There are pretty much 3 classes: the rich, the poor, and the military.  The wealth gap is very high; with the rich living in insane luxury and the poor slated to lives spent either in mines/farms/factories owned by the rich, or in the service industry.  The poor who wish to escape this life often turn to the military(or immigrating elsewhere, or CRIMINAL CRIMES,  but that persnickety propaganda & a cultivated systemic pipeline make the military route seem much easier to get into & much more glamorous/honorable).  (Well, as long as you're able-bodied.  Social programs are minimal & if you're barred from access to the military u prolly can't do manual labor either so unless u have family to support you ur kinda fuckd.)

Agriculturally, they do a lot of fishing, raise domesticated seabirds for their eggs, and grow most of their produce in vertical farms.  Canning food is the most popular method of preserving it.

The population is mostly human, any demons who don't want to be hunted down & harvested do their best to blend in, and the fae population is assumed to be near-zero.

Not really any queerphobia, in that there is nothing in their culture priming them to hate gay & trans people in order to prove their religious/political convictions?  Most people only know about queerness in that 'i have a gay cousin' way, and at most it's seen as a weird quirk and pronouns changes are tolerated/respected even if nobody really 'gets' it.  I mean u might get microaggression'd but nobody's gonna assault you over it.

In other countries they tend to have a reputation for being selfish and aggressive, stereotyped as criminals.

Magic

Magic itself is mostly limited to witches, or those wealthy enough to be able to import stored magic for their magical studies.  Culturally, magic is viewed as a dangerous/corrupting force, magic users are distrusted, and witches when discovered are taken in by the military, 'for the protection of all' (aka drafted & forcibly trained into living weapons and/or batteries).  They tend to prefer the more technical magical terms & categorize it into Physical/Metaphysical/Chemical.

Humans with atypical features/mutations(pointed ears, tails, odd skin tones or just regular-ass birth defects/disabilities) tend to be associated with magic & viewed negatively because of this.

Their hatred of magic has made them leaders in development of technology that doesn't rely on it, though?  They take a lot of pride in their scientific endeavors(i mean it's mostly in attempts by the military to build better weapons & more efficiently move/provide for their armies but a lot of shit useful for daily life has come out of it).  Electricity is mostly geothermally harvested.

Trivia

  • smoking is pretty popular
  • there is no Angstromi CoL branch, although not for lack of trying
  • City aesthetic is militaristic, utilitarian, steampunkish, influenced by early-1900s western aesthetics.  
  • Country aesthetic is inspired by iceland.  
  • Culturally inspired by USA w/ the dystopia factor turned up a couple of notches.

The Ashlands

A subregion of Angstrom wilderness claimed by the fugitive witch Ezra and their charges, which are mainly other less-powerful witches seeking refuge from government enslavement.  

Territory

Ezra has claim over a particularly active region of volcanic activity, a boon for the lavamancer in their fight against government agents attempting to capture them.  Their claim solidified when the military decided it wasn't worth chasing them anymore, and assuming nobody was even aware they had a presence in the area failed to create a cover story until after news of Ezra's victory was widespread. 

Politics

Its very formation is an affront to the standing government of Angstrom, and becoming a  haven for witches & beacon of hope for the Witch Rebellion certainly didn't make it any less of an inherently-political entity.  Whether this was Ezra's intention from the beginning is unknown, but they have embraced their role as a leader of the people and have made a lot of large claims regarding the control of the country as a whole.

Raw power is an amazing asset, but as the population grows so does the demand on resources, until there is simply not enough in the valley to remain a self-sufficient settlement, and the opposition is taking advantage of their lack of resources, disrupting their barely-established supply lines and hoping to starve them out before it can come to an actual Civil War(and also just propaganda out the ass to present Ezra as EVIL CORRUPTING WITCH MONSTER and prevent the public from sympathizing/thinking to help them.

Ezra's desire to firstly build an Angstromi throne & then sit upon it is on the backburner for now while they struggle with infrastructural issues.

Culture

Kind of strained and unstable, what with the population ranging from scared families wanting to protect their children to revolutionaries on pilgrimage to an underwhelming end, and everybody being pretty hungry and living in caves.  Belief in Ezra is the unifying factor among the population and though their personality isn't exactly comforting it's not bad enough to send their new wards back where they came from.

Everybody's trying their best to get it working but nobody really has experience founding a nation so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Their view on magic is tainted by the Angstomi view that it is a force of evil, but seeing as everyone there has a personal relationship with magic or a magical being as a rule they are trying to move past that and celebrate it as the medium of their salvation rather than damnation.


Ledrakile

A settlement in one of few areas in Angstrom that has somehow retained its ambient magic. 

Territory

A smallish sliver of coastal land, far-flung from the majority of civilization on Angstrom.  Dragons used to live here but they were chased off decades ago.

Politics

The population is mainly comprised of military researchers and their families, as the place was mainly founded to study the magic in the area.  It isn't super involved or important in the politics of the nation as a whole.  The only real conflict in its history was the battling with dragons during its founding, but that didn't last long enough to actually be labelled a war, or even a proper rebellion.

Culture

Pretty chill for a military base?  They're so far out of the way from both proper leadership and other nations that there's minimal need for security at all and as long as the governor isn't looking and no one important is visiting/hounding them for deadlines the atmosphere is basically lax with a side of old-fashioned Angstromi depression.

Dohmalore
TL;DR: Obligatory floating island.  Founded on demons and magic & still full of both.

Stratah

Geography

A large island that floats over the planet surface at an elevation of about 9,000 ft and orbits at a temperate latitude; the majority of its path is over ocean or feywilds.  

There is one main settlement on the rear-facing side of the island in the form of a large city that shares its name with the island.  The rest of the upwards-facing real estate is mainly devoted to agriculture, but there is a good chunk of preservation for the unique native life.  The novelty of the island's floating attracts tourism & is a good source of income to the nation.

Politics

The city was founded by worshippers of Nix and the still-young Coven of Laharr, and their virtues of love and knowledge sharing are at the root of most of their culture & political maneuvering.  The city is ruled by a monarch with an array of advisors, including Nix herself alongside specialists on any number of relevant subjects.

The  difficulty of getting to the island en mass, and the fact it prefers to stay neutral in respect to other nations, have kept it out of war so far.  They often send aid in response to foreign crises & disaster, tho.  

Culture

Someone from [tba] is [tba].  Their language is [tba].  A pious nation who worships the living god Nix and it shows heavily in the architecture & such the closer you get to the city center where her main temple & residence is.  They're an extremely social people; most spaces are public and even private residences are more like small communities than anything resembling a nuclear family(someone living completely alone is practically unheard of).  Child-rearing is a communal responsibility.  Arranged marriages are common(they expand the social web of everyone and prevent any one community from isolating itself too much from the whole, theoretically).  Polyamorous extra-marital arrangements are also fairly common.

People expect and are expected to depend on each other & encouraged to be kind and loving above all else, and they tend to be very welcoming of strangers.  Demons mingle freely among the population, so long as they don't make any big enough waves for Nix to notice and banish them from her territory.

The arts are popular; there's lots of displays of visual & performance art around, they make a lot of entertainment that's enjoyed all over the place.  Very little of their architecture is purely functional; even if it's built that way someone will eventually come along and use it as a canvas for paint or engraving(so long as they don't disturb the runing).

The side of town that houses the University and CoL's base of operations is less overtly Nixite and more of a cultural mix due to students coming from all over the world(and they're more there for an education than a cultural experience so they tend to not travel far).  Demons tend to be less welcome on this side of town, or just prefer to stay away from people who know how to capture and harvest them to fuel whatever magical invention they're working on.

Agriculturally, they raise mainly poultry, but some larger livestock has been imported.  They grow most of their produce in fields.  Most menial/particularly laborious work is automated with the use of magical constructs(either synthesized 'creatures' or simpler 'machines').

In other countries they tend to have a reputation for being magical, weirdo demon worshipers whose friendliness is a cover for their desire to convert you to their cult.

Magic

It was founded with magic, hosts the world's oldest and greatest magical education center, and is in general considered to be the most flagrantly-magical human place in the world.  There's runing etched in every street and building and with most of their technology being magic-based, the average person picks up a small arsenal of spells just to get through daily life (using lights, heating water, activating rune arrays, minor enchantment maintenance, etc).

Trivia

  • legend says Nix raised the island from the ocean and keeps it in the sky (she didn't but she endorses the story anyways cuz it sounds cool)
  • aesthetically a mix of christian & indian influences, with a bit of generic fantasy sprinkled in
  • those travelling between the island and the mainland below must take preventative measures against altitude sickness.  This is mainly done by using/wearing enchanted items to minimize it.
  • those who have lived on the island for many generations have adapted to life at high altitude without the assistance of enchantment, tho
Dohmalore
TL;DR: General term for places with high fae density that humans have not settled in.

Feywilds

Geography

There are feywilds all over the world, so the geography & biomes come in a wide variety.  Many cover areas that are inhospitable to human life, such as polar regions, deserts, and the deep sea.  Those that don't happen to be of interest to human occupation have historically been contested by the two groups, and the borders are less hard lines than wide swaths of No Man's Land called the In-Between.

Politics

  • Generally, the closer you are to In-Between Territory, the more animosity there is between Fae and Humans.  
  • Polar Fae rarely see humans and while less likely to react to them violently, are still something to be wary of.
  • Seadwellers are wildly inconsistent, there are  groups that go out of their way to murder every human they come across, there are groups who don't know what humans are, there are groups that do their best to be helpful to them, there are groups consiting entirely of capricious jackasses who love nothing more than pulling asinine pranks,,, Seafaring is a wild job.
  • Druids are a....friendly-ish group of fae who go around magically helping humans purely to gather debt & guilt them into giving them human sacrifices(not to murder, allegedly) & also vowing to stop reproducing.  They're.  Yeah.
  • Feywilds are more of a human concept than a point of unity for all faekind.  Feywilds to humans are collectively branches of the same entity but fae consider them differently (most of their internal politics goes on in non-physical planes)

Culture

All over the fuckn place.

Magic

For sure.

Trivia

  • BIG WIP
Dohmalore
TL;DR: Fae borders are fuzzy.  This is the in-between.

Belvite

Geography

Belvite sits on an oasis in an in-between desert.  The land is fairly flat, the vegetation is hardy, and there is no escape from the sand.  The town used to be bigger, but conflict with the fae of the area forced them into a smaller area.  If you venture beyond the well-marked borders of town the ruins of what was are still standing (and also free for the taking if you are up for ceding the protection of the Belles & dealing with fae yourself.  On top of all of the other shit that comes with not having town infrastructure to attach yourself to).  

Politics

The town was founded on the concept of lawlessness, by the type of people who have reason to leave their old lives behind to get a fresh start & would settle for as dangerous a location as Belvite.  Even hundreds of years later they still claim to technically be lawless but there is a political/moral hierarchy, mostly tied into the Belles of Belvite Organization.  But there's also a mayor, which is weird.

Culture

Actually pretty chill in modern times, despite the rough start.  It's a small town, everybody knows everybody.  It's mostly a bunch of ranchers & cows.  Their religion is,,,christianity-adjacent(one main god, heaven/hell concepts).

Magic

Despite housing a surprisingly-large CoL-affiliated library and an unusual ambient magic that's a known curiosity to researchers, culturally there's something of a distrust for magic in Belvite.  They kinda just see it as a dangerous, fae-adjacent thing and are kinda scared of it.  That said they're less inclined to form a mob & burn the witch than they are to just...awkwardly shun particularly-magical people.  

The disdain doesn't extend to the Belles who use magic in their line of duty, of course Belles need to use the Fae's power against them if they want to do a good job.

Trivia

  • very few paved roads or large vehicles, most travel is done either on foot or via smaller rides (horses, bikes, flying brooms if you're the local witch)
  • Aesthetic is inspired by the wild west, southwest USA deserts, maybe w/ a bit of japanese influence if you squint
  • Wildlife includes: cactus, ant, Big Lizard, goats who Refuse To Be Contained By Mortal Fences, animated cow skeletons,