#world introduction

[of-sinners-and-seas]

World Introduction

Guisse

If one stands still enough in the heart of Guisse, they may hear the wailing of Spirits weaving songs of tragedy along with the wind.

Such is the story of a land too young and too isolated to offer anything except pain.

Guisse was shot in the foot before it was even given the chance to prosper. Colonists from Northern Eiffel had parted from their homeland in the hope that such rich forests might bring fertile soil - the likes of which might rival Polarys, with its grip on the riches of Lorallyn. When they dared tread to the Northwestern seas, just north of Valoma, with a penchant from the Crown, they landed in a place that seemed altogether holy.

Forests covered the land like hair - wonderful signs of life and promise for a bright, bright future on a global scale.

Lakes and hills, thick canopies that nearly cover the sight of the distant Northern Moors...

The fog should've been their first warning.

it was denser than the hands before their faces, and it clung to their skin like the humidity in Southwest Eiffel. Nothing would ease its grip on the land. Days, weeks, months, it would linger there, flickering as a candle would between stages of visibility.

Then came the plagues.

The Hauntings, they're called. Dubbed from the way diseases seemed to follow them, no matter how far the colonists had gone to distance themselves. Villages - sometimes great numbers at a time, vanished without a trace. Only corpses were left in their wake: frigid and still, lying in their beds or sitting in chairs, undisturbed for years on end.

Eiffel has long since abandoned its claim to Guisse, thinking it nothing but a ghost land, or a calloused warning against Pride. But pockets of life have sprung up throughout the years, and some have remained.

TAGLIST: @the-inkwell-variable @fifis-corner

[of-sinners-and-seas]

World Introduction

The Desolate

Insects fester within the bark of a dead tree.

Wolves wail for their fallen brethren, but the blood hasn't yet left their tongues.

Shadows fall born in the heart of night cling to the hours of the day, like a baby to a breast, nursing on the midnight clouds that hang over the sky.

Oceans of dead grass, on occasion, are broken for the rubble of a town. Piles of stone tell of its age. Pots and pans lay abandoned on the stove. A child's doll, crudely fashioned from sticks and straw, hangs over a giant gash in the ground, where now, there is only dirt.

The old cathedral is a cemetery for statues' remains. Among them, among dirt and stone and dead thickets and thorn bushes, stained glass captures the light of the stars - a display some with their marble features caked in mud, may never see again.

TAGLIST: @the-inkwell-variable @fifis-corner

[of-sinners-and-seas]

World Introduction

Valoma

Crowds roar above the clanking of metal chains. Beast tamers ready their whips while animals thrash in their cages, and fighters line up one by one as nothing but pillars to each other’s slaughter. Screams of delight flee from wet, drunken lips as the sun dips low into the ocean’s palette. Shadows rise and fill the air of the arena.

The Chosen lift their thumbs.

The show begins.

An active volcano watches over all from its throne in the mountains of the main island, chanting the anthem of the people.

A tale of hunger. A tale of bloodlust. A tale of tradition and pride, of suffering and stagnation.

Welcome to Valoma.

A set of islands perched in the Western Ocean, it’s often debated whether or not humanity was birthed on its very shores. Skeletons, whose names have been stolen by centuries and centuries of desert sands, seem to breathe new life when they drink the sweat from archeologists' brows.

Valoma takes this belief in stride - flaunting it to other kingdoms whenever possible, and opting for the ways of the past in lieu of modern magic systems and mechanical caskets. The streets of the capital, Roselly, are winding mazes littered with cloth shields from the searing sun. The street markets buzz with merchants who scream one another hoarse, children dash about while dogs wail for bones from the butcher.

Not a single coin lies within any of their pockets.

High on the hills, before the mountainous volcanoes, are the palaces of the rich. Gold coins scatter about marble flooring. Guards and army men lie in wait for an enemy that's bound to come. Among them, ancient statues whisper their secrets - tales of a time long, long ago, when great heros weren't so treated like the slaves below.

TAGLIST: @the-inkwell-variable @fifis-corner

[of-sinners-and-seas]

World Introduction

Eiffel

Being the central and largest island on the map, Eiffel has more than its fair share of influence. With its sheer breadth and wealth of history, Eiffel has set a standard the rest of the world may only strive to compete with.

While there are a plethora of striking cities known to it, none are quite so notable as the capital, Monarisse. Towering mountains and winding caves dress her shores the same as they do the rest of the land, providing an ocean of crystals that never run dry.

To Eiffel, crystals are currency as much as they are decoration. And the magic often found within them give power to the technology seldom seen in any other kingdom.

With a sprawling maze of Art Deco buildings, all dressed in a haze of precious metals, music and light and laughter pour out from every window. Cameras roar with pops and flashes, capturing monochrome photographs for the simple price of a rhinestone or two. Horseless carriages race past couples strolling hand in hand, while a blanket of stars overlook them all.

It isn’t a wonder why Katalina of Envy has made this place her home.

TAGLIST: @the-inkwell-variable

[of-sinners-and-seas]

World Introduction

Geldour

Perhaps the only land that competes with Eiffel’s technological advancements, Geldour is home to the sin of Greed. Lightning buzzes in the air - the sky always lit by storm - while, down below, energy crackles in the land's mechanical heart: the city of Grayve.

Home to a steampunk-industrial maze of skyscrapers and penthouses, only the richest of the rich own the right to rule in Geldour. Denizens of all sorts may cast their vote for the Grand Duchy, but in the end, just a single vote from the aristocracy may overturn all.

Smog laces the breaths in one’s lungs, as they skate down the streets of endless night, starving dogs, and orphans hunched at their feet. While they race like rats in the sewers, the jingling of coins and jewels tell of one’s great worth. A rhythm fills the air as much as the great airships that fly overhead - a rhythm of cogs and gears, of clocks and steam, of chattering and the sharpening of knives.

It’s ancient wisdom to hold your fortune to your chest. It’s never truly safe in a pair of empty jaws.

TAGLIST: @the-inkwell-variable

[of-sinners-and-seas]

World Introduction

Polarys & Lorallyn

A kingdom that looks down upon all from its throne to the far North, Polarys was once the home of the twins, Lust and Pride. While they each shared the title of heir, Morannah of Lust was the one chosen to be groomed for the throne - a decision quite contested, though mostly from the mouths of the heirs themselves.

It is, after all, Pride that rules the streets of the capital. Not Lust.

With a crown forged in iron, Polarys sees no issue in taking what they think they deserve. They make themselves rich from the bounty of islands they’ve laid claim to throughout the many centuries of their existence.

Lorallyn is but one of these.

Once its own kingdom, ripe with vegetation and waters fairer than the eyes may comprehend, Lorallyn was overtaken by Polarys many centuries ago. Tales from the days of independence are carried on like rumours across generations.

A time when buildings were more than gothic strips of black and red and sapphire blue. A time when polar winds hadn’t spread across their land like a plague. A time when their waters ran warm and hot - never frozen, never stolen for divination or healing.

No one knows what the sun feels like anymore.

TAGLIST: @the-inkwell-variable