Arcem Archives by Kronus Eotral

• A deepening gloom is beginning to settle over countryside - celestial engines are beginning to crumble - the realm falling into chaos led by beasts of the Uncreated

Peoples of Arcem

• The Shattering - Akey (southwest reaches and northeast coast) & Din (central and northwest regions) Main Groups - Ren invaded the southern coast just before the cataclysm


• Din (pale skinned, light eyes and hair), Akeh (dark skinned, curled or braided hair), Ren (Ivory to Bronze skin, dark hair and eyes)


• Ethnicity means little - community first and then nations

Languages of Arced

• Ancient languages: Old Din, Ancient Akeh, and Classical Ren - derivations of each by nation - trade dialect developed by traders and seafarers


• The “Holy Speech” from the Thousand Gods is a polyglot language by the initial theotechnician engineers


• The “Primordial” of angels and theurgic magicians - impossible for mortals to speak


• Most can speak in that of the trade dialect and that of their native language

Technology

• Medieval based technology throughout the realm


• Gunpowder, complex mechanisms, chemical reactions, and advanced metallurgy are rare - decaying celestial engines cause fluctuations in the laws of nature - makes these things difficult


• Magic can sustain these advanced technologies


• Etheric nodes of the bright republic


• Visio mechanists embed magic in their prosthetics


• Iron Tsar of Nezdovha rules over automaton nobility fashioned by human artificer


• Tribes of the Thousand Gods preserve technology by communing with their deities

Magic

• Almost every nation has some native tradition of magic


• A true sorcerer is rare - most who practice magic keep to themselves and study in solitude


• Magical artifacts are rare and expensive - mostly created for practical use

Religion

• Chaotic in Arcem - the last war, shattering, and the death of the Made Gods have created base theological differences


• Some religions work - provide miracles and keep those from descending to hell in their afterlife

The Church of the One

• Most common - Believers known as Uniters - Faith known as the Unitary Church


• Revers the absent creator of all things


• Is slightly different by region - each region has their own appointed head


• Bishop, patriarch, matriarch, priest, nun, priest-knights

Ancestor Cults

• Honor dead to protect their offspring - remain in the spirit world and bestow blessings on the offspring


• Very private affair -temples exist but it is conducted by the different families

The Doctrine of True Reason

• Followers known as atheocrats - the Atheocrat is known as the “Voice of Reason” - Antipriests bring wisdom to a god-riddled world


• Deny the power of Hell


• Have the Pyre - priests are able to enter - those who return with the knowledge in tact have magical abilities and are elevated into high positions

Lesser Faiths

• Can be found all over the regions - revolve around local made gods


• Dangerous cults of the parasite gods - grants cultists incredible power and a thirst for more - geographically limited to regions of celestial decay


• Few cults have direct angelic manipulation - bound of hell’s flames

Post-Shattering Wars

• Patria and Dulimbai - 1000s of years on and off - Dulimbian invasion just before the shattering drove the Patrians back until they were finally stopped at Lake Nemia (beast infested, fortified lake)


• Bloodshed has become a political tool


• Rumors of a revitalization of the war have spread through the realm - end the wars before the recent Godbound will have an effect


• In the north, Lom fight the sluggish war with the raiders of the Ulstang skerries - witch warriors and dead crews - also trying to clear the uncreated monsters from Ancalia to the east - fighting howler tribesmen to the southwest - sand prince raiders from the Oasis states in the south


• Ancalia fights the Uncreated - neighbor regions blame them for tampering with the magic that spawned their Uncreated infestation


• Nezdovha seethes over the secession of the Raktine Lords


• Raktine Confederacy at war with itself - independent lords thirsty for independence


• Bright Republic has had peace and prosperity - decaying celestial engines force them to find a solution - mercenaries in other countries including the first Godbound (rumor)


• Nomads in the Toba plains fight uncreated and Thousand God raiders

History & Nature of the Universe by Rhotos Aledon
* The cosmos is divided into four parts: Heaven, the Realms, Hell, and the Uncreated Night that surrounds them all -
* The Realms
* The world that was in the beginning was supposed to be created by the One God who dwelled along with his angelic hosts in heaven
* This initial world was vast and populated by numerous nations - it was a world like any other but for the great mystery of theurgy
* Theurgy - great form of sorcery - mastery became the singular goal of every nation to conquer their brothers
* From theurgy sprout an age of great wealth and luxury where art spread and flourished - the nations quarreled over subtle matters
* Hundreds of different paradises where imagined and implemented by the nations - conflict was inevitable - people fought about what utopia was the all-encompassing
* Ancient theurges sought to end the conflict by bringing their issues to the most high of all - God
* With their power, the ancient theurges ascended to heaven where God would settle all matters
* They fought legions of angels with legions of their own until finally the angels fled into the fires of Hell below
* The throne stood empty
* Theurges scattered in confusion and wrath - many wondered if God was not there, was there not room for another?
* The wars of the former empires changed - theotechnicians and theurges labored to forge new gods to rule from shards of plundered celestial engines - these made gods of the empires embodied their ideals
* These gods wrought disaster and destruction - they stormed heaven to claim more and more power - in their wars against each other in heavens and within the realms, the empires began to crumble - portions of heaven spiraled into the Uncreated Night
* Some gods tried to take the place of God but always died in the act - the last war slowly began to wind down as the gods began to disappear
* The broken empires struggle more year after year as the celestial machines slowly fall to ruin without the angels to support them
* The Shattering - Creation unwinds slowly the nations fragment into realms and float apart in the Uncreated Night
* Something new - the corpses of Made Gods are disintegrating - ordinary men and women are being touched by ancient power - the lost words of creation are ignited within the flesh of common humans which only the gods of old could embody - the Godbound
* Heretics of the Unitary Church whisper that it was God’s plan all along - that these Godbound will redeem the sins of their ancestors
* The world is slowly fading and beasts of the twilight hour are rising from the dust
* The Uncreated Night
* The uncreated night is an inky void and a primordial chaos from which all living things come
* In the emptiness emerge things (the Uncreated) like creatures but wrong - driven by pain, hunger, and simple hate - dangerous even to the bravest of hers
* To cross travelers must take the dangerous and narrow Night Road that erupts into isolated ad remote parts of the realm bringing the uncreated night
* Night Road - titanic arches that span the darkness - created by angels? by God? Ancient Theurges? - constructed with way-houses and citadels along the path
* Entrances tend to be warped by magic into impossible environments that sometimes leave mysterious magical objects
* Once the Night Road is created in a realm the only way to break it is a blast from some tremendous theurgic power
* Most roads connect two points while other large highways can connect multiple realms and locations
* Worst effect - monsters of horror storm from entrances to the Uncreated Night - only powerful theurgy can collapse them
* Paradises
* Created by the Made Gods or by ancient former empire powers to testify their glory - each was fashioned in the image of its creator - citadel & dwelling place for the god and their followers
* At death the followers would translate safely back to these paradises instead of to hell where they will praise and glorify their God
* Some collapse entirely into war or into the Uncreated Night
* Heaven
* Heaven is broken much like the realms - pieces float in the Uncreated Night
* Grand and dramatic - cloud-pale stone, arches of burning glass, perfect spiraled throughout - yet slowly falling to ruin
* Unspoiled war zone of traps and snares - celestial engines are particularly dangerous - strange and exotic powers
* Celestial engines maintain the realm’s existence and the continuance of its natural laws - once they stop that part of the realm slips back into the Uncreated Night
* Many powers have scavenged the engines of heaven over the thousands of years - many still stand from the tremendous durability
* Hell
* Refuge for the exiles of heaven - a burning land of terrible engines and nameless torment - bitter angels
* Once a soul falls into hell it can never return
* Original warden - Arch-angel Samuel - driven out - he’s said to dwell in the labyrinths of Hell - terrible rage from the perversion of his once glorious domain
* Reached through hidden Night Roads or through death after receiving funerary rites
* Infiltrating hell is not difficult but escaping is more of a difficult enterprise