Creative Exercise: The Sovereign Dominion of Eyros

[Rystil Arden]

The gladiatorial arenas popular in Eyros have been attracting freeman competitors from distant lands in recent years, exciting the crowds with new blood and exotic appeal. Dark-skinned Mo'ahhi warrior-women with their ginta whip-daggers and bone half-armor, olive-skinned Nientese sword-dancers with their curved bastard swords and lacquered leather armor, and O'hoa'ti bloodspell zealots with their copper daggers and wicker armor.... All have braved the difficult trade-route passes through the Blue Mountains in eastern Eyros, traveling from distant lands across the Dead Waters Isthmus in the frozen north beyond the Blue Mountains.

The aging Grand Monarch is increasingly worried that these foreigners are testing Eyrian combat skill and readiness, and he has posted more of Zhalccu province's forces near the Blue Mountains part of the border, worried that a foreign invasion may be coming in the near future. The Grand Monarch harbors suspicions that the Sultan of Indracca has been trying to garner aid in freeing the declining Sultanate from inevitable Eyrian rule.....

The appealing Mo'ahhi warrior-women, with their revealing bone half-armour, are the subject of many stories told in hushed whispers by young men in Eyros. They say that the Mo'ahhi are only women because they kill the man after mating with him, sharing the flesh of his heart with their Imha'oa (a close-knit group of seven Mo'ahhi, none of which is related by blood what who regard each other as closer than sisters), tearing his sinews and ligaments from the corpse to make their whips and taking his bones to make their armour. The Mo'ahhi are very protective of their whips and armour, known to ruthless slay any opponent who damages them, lending credence to the belief that the warrior-women consider themselves in a marriage relationship with their arms and armour. Although Eyrian women who hear of these things are repulsed by the barbarity, the rumours only tend to make the young men more fascinated with the Mo'ahhi.

 

[domino]

The appealing Mo'ahhi warrior-women, with their revealing bone half-armour, are the subject of many stories told in hushed whispers by young men in Eyros. They say that the Mo'ahhi are only women because they kill the man after mating with him, sharing the flesh of his heart with their Imha'oa (a close-knit group of seven Mo'ahhi, none of which is related by blood what who regard each other as closer than sisters), tearing his sinews and ligaments from the corpse to make their whips and taking his bones to make their armour. The Mo'ahhi are very protective of their whips and armour, known to ruthless slay any opponent who damages them, lending credence to the belief that the warrior-women consider themselves in a marriage relationship with their arms and armour. Although Eyrian women who hear of these things are repulsed by the barbarity, the rumours only tend to make the young men more fascinated with the Mo'ahhi.

Among the taverns, inns, and other gathering places of Eyros, games of dice are popular. Regular attendees of taverns will often play several games together, and establish a ranking system.

Often, these local champions will challenge each other, in search of new tests for their skill. And of course, money, from bets placed on the fall of the dice, and also the stakes that are played for.

Those who are found cheating are often assaulted, thrown out of the location, and made unwelcome to return.

As an aside, someone might want to come up with some sort of qualifying system. These new gladiators probably wouldn't be able to just show up, without proving themselves somehow. Else they'd go up against the champ, die, and that's not entertainment.

 

[Sarellion]

Contribution: The arcaneum

The Arcaneum is the imperial office regulating spellcasting affairs. Originally it was a small bureau that was tasked to regulate the standardisation process and compile the lexicon, but the Senate tasked them to deal with all arcane matters, concerning the administration.

The arcaneum as it is now is responsible for:
The registration and classificaton of new spells
Advice the senate on matters arcane
Testing new wizards who want to teach for their competence
Testing freelancer experts for magical knowledge. These freelancers work for merchants and for other civilians.
Training Eyrian wizards in the basics of magic. They cannot teach the Masks because the Masks use a different spellcasting technique, but Masks are still sometimes sent there to learn the required discipline (at the Pillar's option).
Granting permissions for enchanting magic items to freelancer spellcasters
Commission and acquistion of magical items for use by the imperial adminstration.
Detection of malign magical influences in the courts. They ensure that criminal spellcasters don´t fool around with the clerk behind the desk or the higher ups.
Education of the adminisration about magic and its uses.
Surveillance for mystical phenomena

The Arcaneum is more of an andministrative office than a wizard´s guild. There are wizards within the arcaneum but most members are clerks with knowledge about magical theory. They are the experts when the civil offices have to deal with magic or need to use magic. The Arcaneum has 25 active wizard members, 50 Magewrights, and a high number of clerks and experts on duty. They often hire out freelancer spellcasters to aid in lessons, and so at any given time, they may have up to 29 wizards and 58 Magewrights on staff.
They also hire freelance experts as needed.

The arcaneum also works together with the Masks and the Praes Thanatos in classifying spells deemed dangerous. Spells with area effect are deemed dangerous and only upright magicians of the common classes and nobles are allowed to learn this spells. The Knock spell is only allowed to the Praes Thanatos and has been dubbed gnome´s magic key by the common people. The use of the magic door opener also explains the term skeleton key.


The Arcaneum is led by a council of seven Magistrates, 2 Wizards, 2 Magewrights, 1 Praetorii Arcanae and 2 Bureaucrats. The Magistrates often meet with members of the Patriae Sicarii to discuss policy and these two arcane-minded groups see eye-to-eye on most issues.
There are some resentment based on the usual department rivalry between different departments of the same government. The arcaneum officials like to make jokes about the creepy gnomes and jokes about Arcaneum beancounters and wannabe mages are a favorite among the ranks of the Praes Thanatos.
But both organisations know that they need the other one. The Praes Thanatos cannot survey the whole lands of Eyros and are dependant upon the data provided by the "wannabees".
The Arcaneum on the other side needs the arcane power of the necromancers to deal with these problems. Also most of the arcaneum officials are happy that they don´t have to walk into the dangerous situations, the "creepy gnomes" are regularly forced to deal with and that they themselves are respected rather than feared. They like to be invited to parties.

The Arcaneum has a militant branch, whose members are all hexblades, the Praetorii Arcanae. These are responsible for providing magical security for the senate and the highest offices, like the Imperial Treasury. They are not the only guards for this installations but part of the senate´s security forces. Embassies in foreign countries have one Praetorii as the other branches, Masks and Praes Thanatos are unsuitable.

The Praetorii are normally not deployed away from this posts unless the Praes Thanatos and the Six Magistrates in council decide that there is a need for them.

If the local arcaneum official perceive a magical problem in their area they are expected to assess the problem and call on the Praes Thanatos or the nearest Mask to deal with the problem.

 

[Rystil Arden]

...

 

[Khorod]

The Arcaneum is the imperial office regulating spellcasting affairs. Orignally it was a small bureau that was tasked to regulate the standardizaion process and compile the lexicon...

Very interesting. The protector division would never survive the mysterious necromantic-induced deaths. The Praes Thanatos (particularly Thanatos) are obviously paranoid about spellcasters. Spellcasters powerful enough to mean something defensively would not be uncontrolled.

As bureaucrats and theoreticians they're quite nice. I can particularly see them proctoring tests among the Elven community, a glowering gnome in the background, to find those Elves with arcane potential.

New Contribution:

There is an older faith in Nistadeen which is quietly included today as just another cultural tradition. This was the shared faith with the country that came to be dominated by necromancers and known as Valjaria. It centers around the worship of certain sacred trees. Groves of these trees are found in most cities of Nistadeen, and the sage-mystics who look after them have enormous powers in working with plants.

Many holy days now appropriated by the Corythos faith coincide with days when these gardeners enact certain ancient rituals that were said to make the Elven land pleasant, fertile, and safe. Once, these were called the Sacred Gardeners, but such formal recognitions were stripped with the Realization of Corythos. Still these gardeners are very popular to advice-seekers on many matters, and when a group of three or more gardeners wants to speak to anyone in the Elven realm, they do so. It is not a good idea to avoid this audience.

 

[Abisashi]

recent contributions and the wiki

Hey guys (and girls?), I'm really swamped with school right now, but I'll have lots more time next week (when it's my spring break.) Until then, could someone move the posts that have happened since the last contribution over to the wiki? At the very bottom of each chapter is a blank section called "Unsorted Posts," and if you guys could just drop the posts in there, that'd be great. I'll do a bunch of organizational stuff next week, after which it should be a lot easier to find information.

I moved over my post on magic, but that's it so far. When you add a post, give the editing comment as "Contribution #<post number>"

If you move multiple posts, just say "Contributions #<post number>, <post number 2>, etc"

Thanks

 

[Rystil Arden]

Hmm...next week I have Spring Break, so I will have a lot of free time then. If we still don't have the contributions compiled by then, I can definitely do it then, but I'm not sure I have the time until then.

 

[Sarellion]

I see, I envisioned the Praetorii Arcanae to be all spellcasters and professional soldiers. I think of them as the magical part of the security forces who guard an important civic administration together with normal guards.

Guardian Masks are probably unsuitable as they are sworn to protect the empire from outside threats and are deployed on the border. They are the border police and coast guard and 40 guardian masks is a low number for a lot of borderline. And what will a guardian mask do if some internal force, like a house or the emperor moves on the senate wanting to close it down?

I think that the Praetorii are a force sworn to the senate and the senate wants its own forces guarding him instead of guys who are sworn to the emperor or a single house.

 

[Rystil Arden]

...

 

[Sarellion]

Yes, it was in the summary. And 40 guys are not much considering that the border is a long one. The masks are probably not the only guys watching the borders but is still a low number.

I thought that the Praes Thanatos don´t like the praetorii guys much, they were made as a counterweight after direct control was dismantled. I mean the Praes Thanatos are pretty uncontrollable in all things arcane as it is now and they have their own undead troops.

So they managed to reassign some of their duties to them but let them guard the senate. The Praes are the secret police and pretty much the police in matters of state and that´s enough for them. As an analogy to the real world, they are the FBI and NSA, let the senate have its secret service (the bodyguards of the U.S. president and other politicians if I know correctly).

The gnomes are also specialised on necromancy and dealing in stealth and stuff like this, this means that they lack in other areas. The Praetorii are more like a normal guard, with spells for blasting.

And what should the gnomes do? Tell the senate not to? They probably did and the senate said, Thanks for your opinion and now stop buggering, we are still in command here.

So the Praes Thanatos did what every good governmental institution did and started to intrigue. They managed to burden the Arcaneum with paperwork they didn´t like and transferred most of the duties they wanted.