There was only silent, from the small platoon. Gouvle was sitting in the wagon piloted by the Geist. He examined the mace once again. An object bought from another interplanar creature, effective against demons influence as it said. Sadly, he know that they won`t find demons.
Krusher was countig her bolts, twenty-five of silver. Fourtheeth of wood. Good enough against vampires, an werewolf. Her crossbow was blessed by an Geist of an hunter, famous for her accuracy.
The Cathars were travelign with horses, while the magues were carried in one wagon.
They were tense. After the oil-scourge, the influence of the Church over Nephalia was weakened. Since then, the Stromkirk, the "Stitcher-guild" and the cult of Krothuss have claimed the land as theirs.
These weren`t the defended lands of Gavony. They were foreigners here.
The road was bordered by the swamp. The town wich the Dusk` legion took residence was at least from three hours apart. They will arrive soon.
The plane of Innistrad is divided in four great regions, called the "Provinces".
The first province, Gavony, is the "safest" area for humans in Innistra, and thus the province with the highest number of humans. Gavony is home to Thraben, the High City. Ah, Thraben! The largest city of the continent. The center of the Church of Avacyn. A fortress built to resist all supernatural attacks. It is here that Avacyn the Archangel once resided, wthin Thraben's Great Cathedral, and the city is located on the mesa of a lake known as the "Lake of the Herons" (in Innistrad, herons are believed to the the birds of the moon, and by extension symbolize goodness and Avacyn's power). At the northern edge of Gavony, Thraben is a city of cleanliness and order, inhabited mostly by clerics, merchants and artisans. Everything is neatly divided and organized within the city, usually in ways reflecting the social order. Take the Great Cathedral. During worship, it divides itself in three parts: the Chapel of Noble Peers (opulent, gilded chapel for high-level clergymen and nobility) ; Midvast Hall (larger and less opulent hall, for ordained people and the lesser clergy) ; Common Cloisters (covered corridors alongside Midvast Hall, where commoners stand during worship). The divisions extends to the numerous walls that surround Thraben - some old, some recent, some well-kept, some in ruins, some great, some small, they form a complex interwoven puzzle. There are five main walls: the Outer Wall (main defense of the city, thick and high wall that has been several time expanded to avoid the overcrowding of the city) ; the Merchant's Wall (a series of halls that acts as the market square and commerce-center in the city) ; the Bloodless Wall (a prison for vampires, where they are chained to the wall and left to starve to death) ; the Fang Wall (an execution ground for werewolves, their fangs are embedded between the stones of the wall) ; and the Child's Wall (Thraben's oldest wall, surrounding the Old Cathedral, with the name of every child born in Innistrad engraved on it - it is a pilgrimage site for new parents, who believe having their child's name on the wall expands their life).
From Thraben, all sorts of "smaller towns radiate outward", throughout Gavony's rocky moors, and rolling hills and heaths, dotted with "small copses of trees". Safety is the main concern and currency in Gavony: the rich, wealthy and powerful live comfortably within fortified manors, while the poor spend all of their money on talismans, magic wards and blessings of the Church (because the Church does ask for a bit of money in exchange of their heavenly power). And while there is a growing resentment towards the Church's greed and self-centeredness (the higher ups of the Church, with sheltered and comfortable lives, tend to not understand the harshness of the rest of the continent), there is still a very strong sense of community within humanity in the province, and the Church stays the basis of human society. As the Guide to Gavony explains: the basic social unit of Gavony is a parish, organized around a local chapel, and they can be as tight as clans. In Innistrad, the Church is the State and the State is the Church: judges and lawyers are ordained by the Church, and in return the Church keeps confirming and supporting the rule of the law. All education across Innistrad is the domain of the Church. Merchants and artisans are the only jobs that are technically free and independant from the Church, but even them have to respect the Church, because their guilds and organizations (called "fellowships" have to be sanctioned by the Church.
Unfortunately, having a high population of humans also means Gavony has the largest numbers of cemeteries across Innistrad - which also means more undeads and more geists than elsewhere on the continent.
The second province is Kessig, the "vast, wooded hinterland" of Innistrad. It is said that autumn is perpetual within these deep woods, for the green constantly mixes itself with golds and muted reds ; and at night, under the moonlight, everything become "stark and steel-like". Humans carved themselves farming villages and rolling farmlands within the dense, dark woods ; and if they are not farmers, they will be hunters and trappers. But everybody knows that it is a suicidal act than to venture in the woods at night: Ulvenwald, the misty woods, are haunted by both ghosts and werewolves. Ulvenald is almost "supernaturally dense" - no normal wood can have so much aspen, birch and maple trees growing in such a dark, sinuous and compact ensemble. Travellers of the forest at best will be haunted or attacked by spirits and beasts - at worst, they will mysteriously disappear in the mist.
The humans who live in Kessig have a life strongly focused on work. You need to work to survive: Kessigers learned to be self-reliant, pragmatic and plainspoken. They are farmers, millers, weavers and stonemasons: they don't purchase their tools, they do it themselves ; they do not learn mathematics or history, they learn the harvest cycles and the edible weeds. They are hard-headed and unpretentious - and are part of Avacyn's religion in their own way. They do not trust the cathars (holy warriors) of the big cities ; they do not like the Gavony ghost-hunters who are too pritine and shiny ; they do not understand the decrees of the aristocrats of the High City of Thraben... But they believe in Avacyn with all their heart, and their motto is: "The worked earth below us, the hand-hewn stone walls around us, and the angel above us". This is their world. Given superstition and fear rules in Kessig, it is polite when you meet someone for the first time to show that you wear an item made of silver (unfortunately there is a lot of "counterfeit" silver going around, especially sold at Nephalia). Wreaths of living wood are a common gift, and are placed on the door of homes where a child was just born. Before going onto a journey, people either fast up to a whole day, or eat sour root soup : it is believed it makes humans less appealing for werewolves and hungry beasts. To be fat and well-fed in Kessig is to become an easy prey. A local tradition in Kessig is the "Sleep Revel". On the anniversary of a person's death, they are celebrated - or rather, one successful year stayed in the ground is celebrated. The "undisturbed sleep of one's ancestors is seen as almost a greater blessing than the continuing birthdays of one's living relatives".
The werewolves are the main dangers in Kessig, because they haunt the woods in packs or as lone wolves. It is known that the "howlpacks" as they are called wane and waxe with the moon, and that many werewolves live secretly among Kessigers (causing a lot of suspicion and speculation among Kessig's human communities). Add to that the fact nobody agrees on how to detect, hunt or cure werewolves - let's just say persecution and prejudice can run rampant around. Kessig is also a land plagued by geists - but not "regular" geists like other provinces, oh no! These are green-aligned geists, that is to say not ghosts of the living, but wild spirits of nature opposing the civilized life. Mischievous poltergeists, blood mists that devour the living, surreal fires that burn of a cold flame, beautiful nature spirits of vine and thorn, feral possessed beasts... Due to the omnipresence of werewolves and nature spirits, most of the other supernatural threats are banished, but it doesn't mean they are not absent... For example, at the foot of tall stone hills, a smoking and boiling fissure called the "Devil's Breach" is known to cause minor and sporadic demonic activity.
Trivia: Due to not having much around, Kessigers consider zombies as symbols of the "evils of the big city", and in their mind they associate and equate "necromantic alchemy" with all the other vices of "big cities": murderous conspiracies, black market, religious heresy, and prostitution.
I will place the two other provinces under the cut:
The third province is Stensia, which is fully and completely under the control of vampires. Stensia is known as the "darkest" part of Innistrad, figuratively and literaly. The sun never manages to fully shines beyond Stensia's perpetual cover of oddly-colored clouds - only the light of the moon can truly appear. It is a very mountainous area dominated by the "Geier Reach", a mountain chain of impossibly high peaks of indigo and black rocks. The forests there are of evergreen, forested midlands of black pine "riddled with whisps of thick fog". The mountains split the region into two distinctive valleys with a dusky pastoral charm, and two distinctive bogs, where old graves and dead conifers slowly sink. The mountains also separate the wary human villages inhabited by fearful, if not paranoid humans, who stay however loyal to their land and passionate about their lifestyle ; from the vampire manors and the blood-thirsty rulers of the region. Right in the middle of the mountains, you can find Ashmouth, a deep chasm glowing with magma at the bottom - and a literal gateway to Hell...
Stensia is divided between "human culture" and "vampire culture". The human villages are prepared for vampire attacks: they are all circled by moats (that vampires cannot cross when the moon is out), and they have nearby hawthorn tree groves to keep access to "living wood". Large cottages and rich people place mirrors on their frontdoors, and build their house near a hawhthorn tree, that the eldest child of the family must care for. Due to the rocky soil and dim light of the region, Stensia humans are not farmers, but relies on sheep for their woll, milk, leather and meat - Stensian wool is said to be the finest of all Innistrad, and thanks to the vampires' presence, werewolves do not haunt the area. Generations of seeing their children and neighbors die, and of living near the vampire threat, made humans stoic, non-expressive and non-demonstrative. They are proud and fervent, but will seem rude, violent and cold to outsiders.
Vampires meanwhile, are self-centered narcissists who believe themselves the guardians and "shepherds" of humanity, and that the sacrifice of their humanity is somehow something humans should "honor". Vampires are basically the most decadent nobility you will ever find, living in days of feasts, balls and parties, keeping all sorts of grudges and organizing betrayals just to amuse themselves, demanding the finest and most luxurious items for themselves. Olivia Voldaren, a prominent vampire of the area (I posted her card in the Multicolor section), invented a disturbing three-days feast called "The Court of the Vampire King/Queen". The principle is simple: kidnap a human being, bring him to the greatest gathering of vampires of Stensia, and name them "King of the Vampires" or "Queen of the Vampires". This is a vampire's Carnival or Feast of Fools: the mock-queen is served the best foods and drinks, entertained by all sorts of shows, and the vampires around must obey the human's every command (except those of making the ruler "abdicate"). At the end of the three days of party, the human is killed and their blood shared among all the revelers.
The last province is Nephalia, the coastal side of Innistrad. Nephalia is the watery region of the continent - nearly treeless, it faces the foggy and dark sea of Innistrad, and all the rivers of the inland end up here, creating all srots of deltas, marshes and bogs. The beach is made of a silvery sand, the towns are all here small or medium-sized ports, and the region is filled by a system of tunnels, underground pathways and sea-caves known as the Erdwal or "The Ditch". It was originally a set of trenches between the three main towns to resist zombie and werewolf attacks. Then it became a "network of defensible walkways" to transport the goods and ensure the trades in a region filled with hungry zombies, angry geists and demons. Merchants turned this system into the true "artery of trade", and then a "bustling underground economy" appeared within it, "in all manner of grey and black market goods". On the Erdwall you can buy assassins, human blood, curses, necromancy spells... It is a "trench marketplace of colorful rogues, seedy merchants, filfthy sailors and gaunt stangers, all doing business in dark alleyways and roughly hewn tunnels branching off the main trench". Alchemists, skaberen and ghoulcallers have a notably active presence there - selling human blood, buying pieces of corpses for their flesh golems, dealing with transmutation of base metals into pure silver... Sometimes a "defective" creation of a skaberen can get loose and slaughter all those in the tunnels. Nephalia managed to create a cold "understanding" and an uneasy "truce" with the Church of Avacyn - as long as those dark dealings happen below the ground, the Church won't do anything. This is why it is commonly said that "sloughs, sea mists and mysteries cloak Nephalia's commerce and crimes".
Nephalia is notorious for being the most "mixed" province in terms of population. Human, geists and vampires alike haunt the region, seeking business, secrets, or solitude. It is money and commerce that unites them. Nephalia needs the Church of Avacyn to maintain a general order ; but they also buy or sell human beings to vampires as "food". Skaberen and ghoulcallers profit of the illegal "corpse market" of the region, and can find little secretive places where they carry on their experiences - as long as they stay discreet and hidden. The "metzalar", the merchants of Nephalia are truly the glue that maintains the region cohesive, keeping each party separated from each other, and yet linking them all in a web of exchanged goods and money flow.
There are many more info about Nephalia on Magic's official Guide to Innistrad, but a last trivia: the region suffers from the "Breath of the Sleepless", a phenomenon where the spirits and geists come and go with the tide. Given the tide is related to the moon, its ebbs and flows have something mystical that attracts or repels ghosts. While there are many geists in Nephalia, the most common types are "niblis" (frost phantoms) and "marei" (the ghosts of drowned sailors).
Outside Havengull, the group make an camp in the nearby plains. Lost have been since Nephalia saw any forest.
As Kresick prepares the fireplace, Bromley scout the surroundings.
Meawhile, Gouvle prepare some wards around the camp, symbols of stone and woods of Avancyn, don`t bigger than his palm.
"Blessed be these ground, than not malign force perturb us, neither in our vigilance, and neither in our slumbers" Recited the pray Gouvle, one of the few pray that he keeped from his priestly days.
"Blessed be these grounds" Recited once again, as he sweeped the plain with his eyes. It was lifeless. " That not malign force perturbed us...." Maybe the ritual was unnecessary. This land was devoid of any ghost and much less banshees.
The province of Nephalia, arguably, is one of the lands which have taken the least damage from the latest disaster that plagued the plane.
It was land where the influence of the Church had to compete against the vampire dynasty of the Stormkirk, the unorthodox cults such as the Spawn of Grolnok, the Temple of Toxrill, and the cult of Krothos.
Without mentioning the presence of Skaberen laboratories, many scholars even argue that their science was born in this province.
This hotpot of factions has made of Nephalia a troublesome thumb over the influence of the Church. But, as isn`t my surprise, this independence had made this province as less affected by the Turmoil and the weakening of the Church.
Today, the Stomrkirk are arguably the rulers of the province, cause they must negotiate now with the different cults that start to sprout due to the epiphanies about the multiverse, the horrors beyond our worlds, and dangerous interplanar beings, like certain doors with moth motif.
The Skaberen are a big problem for the Stormkirk. While they are disorganized and independent from each other, their inventions and skaberens pose a great danger to the population and the vampires themself.
It was only a matter of time before one illuminated skaberen of the Selhoff decided to exploit the Nebelgast, the mist-geist, as an eternal fountain of energy.
My contact even told me, and later confirmed, that an Omepath exists within the seas surrounding Nephalia towards Ixalan: Kurthos Gate. Named after an sea deity worshipped by Runo Stromkirk, the dinasty`s founder.
Suddenly, the sighting of pirates from a crew called the Brazen Coalition became a common view in the port towns. Even more, there are tales of the strange beings who accompany these pirates. Bird-like men are called sirens, big humanoids knowm as orcs, and small monkeys goblins.
I can hardly imagine how both planes will be affected by these news trades.
(OC: A series of entries that I decided to write, in hwich I share my speculation about how Innistrad`s provinces changed with the Omepaths)
