Statues and Empires are all at your hands,
Water to Wine and the finest of sands
When all that you have's turnin' stale and its cold,
Oh you'll no longer fear when your Heart's turned to Gold

The Isle of Archadia

The Marshland Elves

Archadian's
The Arcadians are human in appearance, though they are easily seperated from their human counterparts by the scars cut into the surface of their flesh. Secondly is their lifespan, twice that of a normal human though still making them almost as distant as their elven bretheren due to their long lived nature. An Archadian who is only twenty four is still considered a child to those in their culture.
The pigmentation in their scarification is caused in part by their magic

The Isle of Archadia

Government type:  Republic / Aristocracy 
Religions: Grand Array / Athiest 
Healthcare: Socialized Medecine 

Overview

The Isle of Archadia, split into it's eastern and western ranges by the cliffs. The eastern side is home to the marshland, the incline itself slowly sinking down back to the sea and into the shoreline. The Elves keep to this side of the island, and their ways, their gods are a rather strange occurance. The interact little with the Arhadian's outside of trade, even then their belief system has worked its way into Archadian culture. This is where the lighthouse comes from. The beacon to gide ships through the night and through the fog. Though it seems only the magicless fear the powers of the Old World on the island only visible from the highest point in Archadia on the days when not a cloud fills the sky. 

Their government is primarily a republic where elected oficals are called upon to bring forth the concerns of the people though the true power is held in those whose bloodlines are connected to the Dragons of old who gifted to the Archadian's their magic. It is by this bond that the Archadian's freed themselves from the magic of the old ways the magic of blood and bone.


Modern Archadia  

The Archadia of today is no more than a shell of its former glory, if that. The harbor takes no ships, the fog rolls off its borders, consuming the island. The lighthouse is no longer lit upon the hilltop. And her people, over generations have once again began to disconnect from the dragons which freed them from the old magic, and reconnect with the ways of their ancestors. Though no changes seem to be visible upon the surface with most of its everyday citizens, though the most glaring is their lack of a shadow. It is those who have spent time with the Primal magic the most who have been consumed by it. 

The smoke that escapes their lungs is at it's earliest form like a smog. Adding to the fog around them which barely breaks after midday. There is now a price to pay to perform the magic that had once been like breathing to the Atlantians, paid in blood.

 Gheisthølm       

Far on the Eastern side of the sea there is another island, which few would dare travel to. It is a place built upon the rock whose shorline falls into thick pines and fog. Barely visible from the shoreline of Atlantis even with the proper tools, Gheistholm is home to the elves, the dragons and creatures of legend yes but the old magic and its system of sacrifice is something no Atlantian would ever wish to discover for themselves.

The heady air is filled with the scent of cedar trees and the fog never breaks before mid-day. Further inland it's architecture begins, the towering homes made from lumber twisting, connecting into stonework carved from the mountians. It's people are silent, somber and calculating. Their magic comes to them in the mist, the smoke and the dust of the world. It is an infection, a curse and nothing to be trifled with. 

In the deepest part of the woods, the entrances to the caves begin feeding into the stone like the hydra, if one were to collapase surely another would open in its place. And from these tunnels the fortress sits atop them, a feat in itself. The stone should not be able to hold something of this magnitude. But here it sits, the fortress marked by a swan like creature carved into its gates.