Xeriar/Setting

Setting Information

Technology

The Tech stuff is inspired by, and stolen from, Blaque.

• Dragon King tech has a techno-tribal look to it. Many things take on the form of primative jewelry, looking grown or carved rather than forged or constructed. You got the veggie technology also, which adds to the primal, organic look of their stuff.

• Mountain Folk stuff looks retro-tech. Say you were in the 1880's, and tried to predict what technology would be like in 2005. So things have a lot of smooth white surfaces, tubes, steampunk, cables and all that underneath boroque Germanic, Italian, or Greek design.

• Shogunate Era stuff starts with the hardcore mechanical stuff. Things still may be mechanical in nature, with pistons, rivets, gears, wires, and steam. But there is still a bit of art to the designs of such things. There are glowing rune plates on things. Ships and automata look like animals still. And while the implosion bow or Essence canon look pretty crude, they still glow all cool like, have a pseudo-kanji look to the glyphs, and are made into pretty shape sand whatnot. Still an art to things, even if it is sitll basically an Apache helicopter.

• Autochthonian stuff looks pretty much the least "magical" of the setting's magitech. Their Artifacts have cables, pistons, turbines, fans, and all that sorta jazz. The parts that would of been artistic runes and whatnot on Creation's machines that needed them have simple geometric patterns and designs, more like a microchip then a picture. There is little effort given to Form beyond the pseudo-Aztec shaping to things like armor, equipment, and the few decorations on things there are. Ugly, greasy, industrial or diesel-level technology look mainly.

• Modern Realm and Lookshyan stuff looks like the Shogunate stuff, mixed a bit with the Autochthonain things too. Though, the Realm leans more on the Chinese or Roman look, while the Lookshyans keep a more traditional faux-Japanese look to things.

• Haslanti is on its way to becoming a Machine God Cult in the next few years. Mainly because its been found that certain prayers have attracted rather exotic elementals that may lead to the developement of newer, better flying machinery. Otherwise, their technology is pretty much Renaissance-level.

• Meanwhile, Varang is going a different route with its machinery. They utilize a lot more of clockwork thing then the Haslanti's very primative magitech. They simply use a lot of things with cranks, pullies, windings, and whatnot. Not a scrap of real magic is really used in much of their designs beyond basic thaumaturgical rituals. Most of them are powered either by winding, or cranks. This of course does include things like spinny deathy blade war machines, and Roman-style ballista, but overall, the Varang City States are too focused on using their stuff for timepieces to do more with it.

• The rest of Creation is pretty much on various stages of Pax Romana, Medeival China, or Post-Spanish Mexica. Medical technology is decent, people know of infection and atleast some sense of sanitary practices. Printing presses themselves are pretty rare (the Realm, Lookshy, Haslanti, Varang), and tend to solely produce propaganda, government, or religious documents.

Time Changes

1. My games begin in the year 764 (1,356 Shogunate). No sense in waiting around for four years.
2. To clarify, there are 25 hours in a day, 7 days a week (Sun's Day, Moon's Day, Mars' Day, Mercury's Day, Jupiter's Day, Venus' Day, Saturn's Day), four weeks a month, three months a season (Ascending, Risen, Descending), and five seasons a year (Air, Water, Earth, Wood, Fire), with the year ending with five days of Calibration.
3. Fire is the hottest season, culminating in the dangerous heights reached in Descending Fire. Then Calibration begins, bringing five days of moonless night. The heat quickly turns to cold, difficult to bear even in the deserts of the South, and then Ascending Air begins - the coldest month of the year.

Population Changes

1. There are about ~120,000 Dragon-Blooded in Creation, about one per ten thousand. Over a hundred thousand are of the Realm, and over ten thousand in Lookshy alone, leaving them frightfully rare in the rest of Creation (about one per hundred thousand).
2. God-Blooded are about one in a thousand, overall, including Beastmen.
3. God-Blooded of any sort do not Exalt into Celestials, though some with distant blood might have minor, cosmetic mutations and still Exalt.
4. There are 500 Celestial Shards, attuned to about a thousand souls. The souls change over time, some becoming legendary, others falling from the status (by virtue, being consumed through Oblivion, etc.)
5. 100 Sidereals, ~100 Lunars, ~100 Chimerae, ~50 Solars, ~50 Infernals, and ~100 Abyssals.
6. Because there only -are- 50 Solars, there are only two Cult training camps. Each will grow to a little more than a dozen Solars in a few years, holding sway over 3/4ths of the Solars.
7. The population of Creation is about 1.2 billion. The Realm hosts some 400 million, the East some 600 million, the South about 100 million, the North some 80 million, and the West 20 million.
8. A number of cities (such as Nexus and Looksky) are given larger populations to reflect this. The Imperial City is host to over three million people.
9. The population of Autocthonia is a little larger, about 50 million.
10. The mortal population of the Underworld and the Shadowlands is about 50 million.
11. The Mountain Folk have only about a thousand Enlightened. This number grows slowly as the proper jade segments are found for a new Enlightened to be crafted, but that is the limit of them - lifting the Great Curse will not aid their numbers, though it will let them achieve Essence 6 and a few other benefits. They are divided into six closely allied nations, governing over a billion unEnlightened. Their are only two main Castes, Upper and Lower, but the Lower is greatly subdivided according to role.
12. The dead population of the Underworld and the Labyrinth is ginormous. Stygia alone, as a city, is host to a over three billion ghosts. Most other dead cities only host one to two million ghosts, Sijan being the great metropolis of the dead at three million.

Character Changes

1. The Bull of the North's Victory at the Battle of Futile Blood comes at the cost of his life, at Tepet Arada's own hands. Of his Circle, only Samea remains. The Tepet Legions actually did quite well in the campaign, though over half of the mortal soldiers perished.
2. Many of the printed Solars have either perished, or turn Abyssal.

Location Changes

1. Demesnes are a lot more common. One per 50 square miles, or so, with an average level of 2. Geomancy can bring these -very- close together.