Tuxman Thu Jun 07, 2012 12:35 pm
A Short History of Occidentem:
Occidentem was once a nameless fishing village on the western coast of Nobilissimum. Life was peaceful there, because the huge Lignum forest protected it from the troubles of the easterners. They were a tributary of the Old Empire for a time during its heyday, captured in 1450 PE. During that time, money and power flowed from the Long City, the Old Empire's capital, to Occidentem to fight the Elves of the Lignum Forest. During this time, many were trained and employed to use the steel dueling sword to deal with the Elves' agility and weaponry during the Elven Genocide in 1500 PE. Soon however, Long City fell to the Northern Alliance, and Occidentem was burned as well. The year was 1000 PE.
For 1100 years, there was no Occidentem. While the culture was not destroyed, for many still inhabited the region, there was no city at Occidentem. Then with the rise of the Empire, the construction of the Magna Via began and it lasted for 100 years. Occidentem would be the ending point for the road so soldiers from the capital gathered up the population of the region and established Occidentem in its current form in 100 E. At the completion of the great road, stagnation of the empire's economy caused a collapse where Occidentem rebeled in 200 E. A short period of turmoil happened in the continent before a new Empire rose from the old ashes and its armies marched on the free city of Occidentem. All cities and regions weren't working together so the new Empire had no trouble besieging Occidentem after it took over the northern region. Occidentem was very strong however, and was sieged for 5 years before the gates mysteriously broke down and the city was sacked.
Over the next two years, the empire would mobilize its exhausted forces to the southern region to work towards completing its conquest of the continent, leaving its own people as the nobility of Occidentem. The game takes place about then, two years after Occidentem was captured.
As a city, Occidentem is fairly wealthy though there is a significant lower class. Dueling with rapiers to the death was often a way to settle scores hundreds of years ago, but now dueling to first contact is a popular sport among young men and women. Dueling to the first blood is how scores are settled now. Nobilissimum has a history of sexism but the New Empire and the Empire do not, and for the past 125 years or so women have been treated as equals to men. Occidentem has a varied diet of fish from the sea, crops from one of its southern tributaries, and game from the upper and lower Lignum forest. Elves still stalk the lower lignum forest, but stay far away from the humans, who don't kill them on sight anymore but do refuse to interact with them and kill them if they get too close and the humans are reasonably armed. The elves kill any humans who find their retreat but otherwise keep to themselves. Metals and stone flow in from a northern mining town tributary, and lumber from the forests, keeping the city well supplied with weaponry.
In terms of religion, there are no real gods, but there are a few belief systems shared for the most part between all races and sects of society. However, most humans are not very religious and the New Empire does not recognize any official religions. These belief systems are philosophies people enjoy.
Bellacouse - What is paid must be repaid. Dwarves tend to stick to this belief system, while it is less popular among other races. They strongly believe that the most honorable thing to do in life is to pay the debts of your father and mother and fulfill Bellacouse~ a state in which one owes nobody anything and is owed nothing. Some use it to justify revenge.
Values:
-Repayment of debts
-Independence
-Self Sufficiency
Otium - Life is to enjoy. This is a popular philosophy among more spiritual humans that dictates one's goal in life should be to enjoy it. To be in a state of Otium is to be at peace with the world and be happy in the greatest sense. Some use it to justify hedonism.
Values:
-Happiness
-Love
-Peace
Indeclinates - What is, must be. What was, is. What is, will be. This is a popular philosophy among the elves and among humans. It dictates, in essence, that the world ideally would be unchanging and that a constant state of flux is not good for anyone. Some use it to justify having more than others.
Values:
-Stability
-Dependability
-Consistency
Magic in Nobilissimum
There are several classes that use magic in 3.5. Since there are no gods, clerics are a little different. Anyway, I will list the setting specific changes here:
Sorcerers - The magically gifted are identified at birth and taken to the magical college in Orientem, the eastern province, where they are taught to safely control their powers. Sorcerers that are in isolated places often aren't identified and end up being unregistered mages. The New Empire (and before, the Old Empire) facilitates the colleges and monitor sorcerers after they graduate, wherever they find work.
Wizards - There is a large college in Orientem that students who can tread the difficult path of learning magic are allowed to attend. The college is the largest, but there are smaller magical schools in each province. Due to the recent turmoil in the country, student attendance is at an all time low. Still, many budding mages cross faction lines to attend, and numbers are ever on the rise since the New Empire has retaken some of its territories. Of course, with an old spellbook or a wizard mentor one could learn magic on their own.
Clerics - The divinely gifted are not trained by any specific order and do not adhere to colleges. Their skills manifest when their spirituality reaches a certain point. To be a cleric in Nobilissimum, one must be spiritual.
Druids - Druids derive their power from nature and therefore cannot be easily taught or monitored by the New Empire, so it simply doesn't try. Druids are accepted as existent, but considered akin to evil spellcasters because they are misunderstood. Only those who commune with nature can become a druid.
Last edited by Tuxman on Sun Jun 17, 2012 4:15 pm; edited 2 times in total
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