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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 8947233" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/aNe1jde.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> <img src="https://i.imgur.com/yHM6jGX.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> Chapter 7: The United Lands of ArneriaLocated in the east of the Beast World, the United Lands of Arneria is a nation of dual identities, different yet bonded by nearly a millennium of friendship. The western half of the realm is a lush rainforest known as the Bat’yan, and the eastern half is a sprawling desert known as the Beylik. An elevated stone road known as the Causeway is its most internationally known feature, spanning over a thousand miles through both lands with entire cities existing upon its foundations. The culture of the Bat’yan is inspired by the Philippines, while the Beylik is inspired by the various cultures comprising the Ottoman Empire. Mice are the predominant Beast in both lands, although ligonine sloths are common in the Bat’yan and bison and desert vulpines have traditionally lived in the Beylik, with armadillos and donkeys commonly found along the Causeway.The Bat’yan has a decentralized system of government, where local villages known as barangays are run by a datu, whose members are drawn from the upper classes or Pirhouan religious leaders. The closest thing they have to a regional leader is a raja, who is invariably a diviner possessing magic to link the minds of every datu, which is used to speak on behalf of them when dealing with the Beylik. Men and women tend to have more separate social lives divided by the time of day and labor, with women doing more indoors and domestic duties by day, and the men at night, and during the afternoon everyone takes a siesta-like nap to sleep through the hottest parts of the day. The book acknowledges that life can be tough for people who don’t fall in line with traditional gender norms, although there’s encouragement to be understanding for people in the process of figuring themselves out.The Bat’yan’s greatest threat at the moment is a region of utter darkness known as the Blackwild, which is roamed by demons on the outskirts. Anything entering the void is never seen again, and the paladins of Drapmphine erected a stone wall around it to guard against its dangers. The lands beyond the wall that don’t touch the darkness are known as the Ring of False Blessings, a seemingly-pristine land inhabited by delicious fruits, bodiless singing, and animals and plants with beautiful colors not found naturally among their species.There are 9 places of interest detailed in the Bat’yan: Castaway Point, a treacherous coastline and isolated port city home to a group of “sea rats” who make it their mission to prevent others from dying among the treacherous waters; Duyan Vale, a Causeway town famed for its delicious foods and rare herbs which are becoming harder to obtain due to Dungeon appearances; Kal’oro Grove, a community in the rainforest home to the Kapre Druids, sloths who are closer to Seelie than mortals and mastered the secrets of immortality; and the strange swamp villages of Mitalu Swamp, who prefer to be left to their own devices and are particularly suspicious of paladins and other people who can detect fiends.The Beylik is an old land whose harsh environs have encouraged the inhabitants to rely on tried and true means of architecture and resource management. From this, their society was among the first to develop advanced mathematics and a broader culture of learning. Broadgate University is the oldest magical academy in the Beast World, whose scholars invented the creation of crystal-clear glass and the Magic Missile spell. Gems are a popular trade good, and to facilitate their transport a network of roadside inns known as caravanserai were built across the desert.The Beylik has a more centralized form of government in comparison to the Bat’yan, and is ruled by a figure known as the bey.* Many lower-level government positions come from the bey’s many sons and daughters, who is married to many wives to make their numbers larger than just a few. Beyond his wives and progeny, the bey also has three viziers, the Eye, Star, and Hand of the Bey who have masterful knowledge in certain fields vital to good governance. The current bey is a bison known as Vartan who was leader since before the Invader War and is liked more than his father who ruled the land with a harsh grip.*The title is consistently lower-case save for one time.The Beylik has 11 interesting locations detailed: some of the more interesting ones include Glimmerpool, an underground Loamlink city and considered the “ligonine capital” of the Beast World as it is an important religious pilgrimage site to all three of their species; the Omniscient Temple in Harik, dedicated to Yttrus the god of knowledge and secret keepers of the Vessel of Yttrus artifact which was used to terraform the surrounding desert into a more livable region; the Kavrama Mines, whose operations are suffering due to entire sections being compromised by Dungeon appearances; and the Sun Bull Dunes, the hottest place in the Beast World and a place of religious significance to the Aubadism religion, where worshipers enter a trance and venture to a gigantic pillar of black sapphire to smash a piece of it to carry back to civilization.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/4i9Ddtz.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />The Causeway is the primary means of transportation through Arneria, built over a thousand years ago at the end of the Attamek Wars to unite east and west in a symbolic gesture of peace. Before then, even the Beylik wasn’t a united land, and there were many wars that in modern times are remembered as doomed endeavors that only brought misery to everyone.In addition to transportation, the Causeway serves as a safer method of travel, particularly through the Bat’yan as its roads are above the rainforest canopy and out of reach of most monsters. Hanging gardens, elevators, and aqueducts are used to make living long-term on the elevated roads possible, and due to this Arneria’s common folk are more well-traveled than their peers in other lands.Pirhouanism in Arneria is a religion that emphasizes self-discipline, its bethels being quiet buildings of quiet introspection. Its three Divine Charges include using one’s labor to make the world livable, encouraging one to think what is best for the community, and order and mercy to ensure that everyone pulls their weight so that nobody is left starving or forgotten.However, there is another deity who is as popular as Pirhoua in Arneria: Aubade the Sun Bull. They exist with some begrudging tolerance, where it is determined that open warfare would be too costly and so are allowed to exist provided they channel their zeal into more productive means of allowing Arnerians to blow off some steam (violence is viewed as an art form among the Sun Bull’s worshipers). Aubadian chapels are common in most settlements and are tight-knit, having no formal leaders and instead being a gathering of equals.Far’soro is the capital of Arneria, a Causeway city home to the bey’s Sapphire Palace and located above a harbor that links the ports of distant lands to the United Lands. Although the bey encourages sticking to traditions, Far’soro has adapted well to the influx of foreign Delvers who use the metropolis as a hub for Dungeon operations in the country. The Arnerian General Post Office maintains legions of postal donkeys delivering messages and goods across the Beast World, and a fortress of Dramphinian paladins known as the Moon Needle is dedicated to some secret task their order doesn’t share with others. The Rooftop City is a collection of shanty roofs next to the Causeway where the poor live, and the rivers of Attamek Harbor are swollen with merchants and fences who braved swift currents and eagle-eyed authorities. The mouse Hiraya is the current raja of the Bat’yan, and he and the bey Vartan despite each other. This may seem a problem, but there is a tradition of having friction exist between the rulers of east and west in the belief that both act as a check against each other’s power. The bey’s viziers are thus legally bound to report to the datus if the bey and raja get along too much so that the latter can be replaced.This seems counterintuitive to me, but I won’t lie in that it creates some great adventuring opportunities.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/cwlViOu.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />The Storied Histories League serves as our end-chapter shop/service, although it is more detailed than the prior chapters. The Storied Histories League is but the official stamp of a long-lasting Arnerian cultural tradition, a combination fighter’s guild and theater troupe where members adopt colorful titles and melodramatic stories to engage in mock battles with each other for the purposes of entertaining crowds via a more involved story. Basically, it’s professional wrestling.Matches can happen anywhere, although the most prestigious rings are in the Far’soro Grand Arena where the reigning Champion has the right to wear a distinctive belt that they can keep for as long as they don’t lose to the many, many other fighters seeking a place at the top. This entry goes over common wrestling tropes such as heels and faces along with the concept of kayfabe, albeit reflavored for the fantasy world tropes of the Beast World. For instance, there are different League divisions tailored to the talents and capabilities of fighters, such as a Spellslinger Division where fighters don’t use weapons and instead engage in “mage duels,” or the Tag Team Division where two combatants share a gimmick and fight together in matches. For gaming groups that prefer all of their PCs to participate, there is a new Delving Crew Division where two teams of four combatants compete against each other.There are unique rules for kayfabe combat; generally speaking it follows the normal strictures of 5th Edition combat, but the goal of the fight is to gain Stars during a fight, which determines how much the crowd enjoyed the fight. There are a variety of ways to gain and lose stars, and the rules encourage making fights interesting and varied rather than straightforward: for instance, risky near-misses, expertly-landed hits, alternating between different actions and spells, and using Charisma skills to influence the crowd are good ways of building up stars than just trying to knock out or immobilize your opponent.We also get a sample establishment, the Pit, which is a bar that hosts SHL tournaments, and two unique NPCs include Prince Kemal who is one of the bey’s sons whose real passion is in the sport and not governance, and Umber the Dragon who is actually a bear* and the current reigning Champion. The other establishment is Ramil’s Crate Shop, a jeweler fennec fox who is particularly interested in art from the Dungeon, and two of his employees are interested in getting involved with the delving lifestyle.*He's called that for his signature dragon horns gesture of raising a hand to one’s forehead with raised index and pinky fingers.Our chapter ends with an in-universe journal by a Dramphinian paladin chronicling the final years of the Attamek Wars.Thoughts So Far: I like this chapter, although I feel that it is lacking something I can’t put my finger on in comparison to the prior lands. Although there are locations with Dungeon-related trouble, this is the only chapter that doesn’t have a stand-alone entry for how people treat the Delve, and the discussion of the rival faith of Aubade is pretty bare-bones in explaining why they are at odds with the worshipers of Pirhoua. The next chapter goes into more detail on the gods of the Beast World to help answer these questions, although as this chapter comes first I feel it could’ve used more fleshing out in detail. The professional wrestling minigame rules seem interesting, although I’d have to test them out in actual play to see how well they hold up.On the plus side, Arneria as a chapter has some pretty strong entries in wondrous locations to visit. The Causeway serves as a convenient means for efficient long-distance travel between locals in the nation, and the named locations in both the Bat’yan and Beylik contain sites of both cultural and adventuring significance. Join us next time as we go beyond the Beast World in Chapter 8: Cosmology & Religions!</blockquote>

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