Could there be magic-inhibiting substances, anomalies, creatures or materials?
Some ideas I had where: - The realm from which the mages draw power from (lets call it "Arcanum" for right now) could be a fickle thing and waxes and wanes in terms of how strong it is.
- Some illegal drugs could possible have a strong sedative properity that interfers with magic. Hell, sedatives or stimulants in general should make it harder since they will mess with your brain.
- Using certain forbidden or extremely powerful spells has a chance of conjuring up a magic demon beast or something and not even master mages can completely negate that chance.
- There should be some normal beasts that can "see/feel/sense" magic and thus can track people, espeically mages, across otherwise impossible terrain and hunt them.
I have some more ideas on materials, but that's another list in it of itself.
- There should be some normal beasts that can "see/feel/sense" magic and thus can track people, espeically mages, across otherwise impossible terrain and hunt them.
External substances depend entirely upon how one imbibes them or uses them. An alchemist experimenting with anything and everything he can in pursuit of some new arcane formulae is likely to do as much if not more harm than a spiritual advisor, shaman, sage or seer; someone who is tied to the understanding and well practiced in the gathering, refining and dispensing of altering goods. No less, it keeps the practice secret, limited and word-of-mouth, passed on from mentor to pupil within a tribe or people. When you go on a "spiritual journey" or "dreamwalk" through medicinal herbs and a bit of magical tact, you get a radically different experience than simply quaffing down a potion the local apothecary has thrown together based on some book. One is a positive, enlightening experience and the other is... varying, depending on any number of factors. However...
Magic ceases being magical when you begin to refine it down to a science. Even mighty wizards, who spend their entire lives pursuing the art, are not always so certain why some things do as they do. Forcing it into whirring cogs, grinding gears, and machines turns it into a science. It removes the mystery of it all, what makes it arcane or complex for a number of reasons, not the least of which is availability. When you turn magic into any other tool, any fool can then wield it. You keep magic limited to liveliness and as much art as it is science, you make people with it distinct. It needs to be a power that as one grows in scale of a spell, the more wild and awesome it becomes; world changing magic does just that, but often in unpredictable ways.
A mage might be proficient enough to cast lowly bolts of flame without danger, but a great wizard who has been preparing a spell for many, many long years? He might indeed cross a planar boundary and travel ahead or back in time, but the sheer power of the magic unleashed could let other things in too, or cause great harm to the surrounding environ. You can never be too sure. He can check and recheck his books, calculations and studies, but there is always that chance. Yet, he is a wizard so that is but only a chance, right?
On another note, I am very fond of the concept that people who attempt to "study" magic begin to edge closer to madness the deeper they dive, whereas those born into the talent adapt with it. A wizard contrasting a sorcerer; the absent minded, aged man with beard and innumerable studies who bumbles and babbles to the keen, almost seductive beauty and power that someone was just born with and commands on whim. A sort of envy arises from that and a desire to pursue it.
Returning back to the subject of cats which drew me here, felines of all forms have a great number of magical mythos and properties associated with them across a number of cultures. If there's any animal one might think to be a danger to magic and mages, even the common house cat is an option; they're said to see spirits, receive visions, steal away life itself or breath it into others, balance the power of plagues and illness, chance or change fortune, among other things. Not to mention they are a very classical familiar to the scholarly, cloistered and magically inclined. Your larger cats? Some are informally called "ghosts of the mountains", others are divine spirits, representing everything from unchecked, pure and impartial wrath like the tiger, up to keepers of secrets, tricks or mystery as with a lynx.
If there is something a mage might not want to dabble in, that would be a terrifying mythic or enchanted beast, that would be any cat.
@The Harbinger of Ferocity You have many good point there. I'm not an expert on different mythologies and ancient pantheons, but I know that at times cats have been significant symbols, for example, to ancient Egyptians, and they've also been linked to witchcraft. In the Witcher books, if I recall correctly, cats were magically inclined animals.
Abd I agree on the magic = not science. Magic can be studied and understood to a degree, but it is a neverending swamp - one day, you might sink into it too much and drown.
I have really liked to magic in G.R.R. Martin A Song of Ice and Fire series - it is there, but it is also accesible only to a few people and barely understood, as most of the ancient lore has been lost.
If you are seeking someone schooled in feline mythos and lore, you needn't look too much further, @Oak7ree. The feline kind is my area of expertise, to include that aspect. All animals have magical attributes associated with them, even to this day, but I cannot name too many that have as much variety in the matter as cats both greater and lesser do. They are as much a friend as they are foe, going back to before man even so much as walked upright. One can only imagine what magical beasts could do given that. This also lends itself well to prospects of animism, shamanism and totemistic tendencies. What is more frightening than the barbarians outside your gates? An army of them, headed by a shaman who can divine the future, turn into a predator or conjure terrible storms to plague your people.
With regard to magic, I find from experience that mingling darker, lower fantasy elements with the potential to encounter high fantasy has greater and more bombastic impact. Not just from a reader or player's perspective, but that of an observer. If all common folk had even some semblance of magic, why are they common? Surely they would discover and evolve those talents further. But, if you were to keep that knowledge coveted, secret and shrouded in mystery, now you are toying with potentially shattering perceptions. It makes powerful figures reasonably powerful - a court wizard of a kingdom is, beyond a doubt, perhaps the one person who truly has any idea about a magic that could affecting a people and failing that, at least has a place to start.
A nobleman's private mage, who acts as the champion of his house? Much less experience, but still a person of effectively knightly station. Someone the regular rabble wisely clears out before when he's present. Sure, he might not need a sword and he might not be able to teleport across continents, but he can still set a man on fire, move things with seemingly just a thought, leap huge bounds or any other of regularly impossible feats. His weakness is however, he is just a man, a man many are likely to hate and a man probably bound by law.
What if there was a (harshly illegal, of course) drug that could temporarily create magic abilities in a regular person? These might be wild and uncontrollable, and probably mess with the user's mind as well. Also, the powers caused might not be actual magic, but effects similar to spells, with only the drug itself being magica.
@JaceBeleren Like some sort of bad trip? For example, could give you power as to cast fireballs, but as soon as it fades it leaves a gap in your mind of somthing that you never had really, you just tapped into it for a little time. I like the idea, but I think it sould be even more than just illegal, it should be something terribly specific, right? Like you need either specific elements which are hard to get or laughably huge amounts of materials and/or time to prepare it.
It would be reasonable to have the substance unlock the latent magical potential in a person, say by flooding that force which connects them to the realm. For someone who is not born into this, one can imagine this alchemical compound can have profound effects, say extreme as burning away parts of the soul itself. It withers the spirit, heart, mind and body. It is too much for the average person to maintain. Despite this, you can imagine the wealthy or elite might be drawn to that taste of power the envy, after all they are the elite - why should mundane folk be the only one allowed such power and just because they were fortunate enough to be born with it?
Understandably so such a substitute for real power, be it inborn or studied, would be rare and costly, but as with many forms of power or potential, it is an attractive option. While it might eat away at a person the addiction is powerful. A little bit more would not hurt too much would it?
If anything I imagine the substance to be a powerful psychic stimulant, awakening the powers of the mind to tap into magic. Of course psionics do this, but those are gifts discovered by a select few. Something rarer than wizardry, witchcraft or sorcery. Even more poorly understood and far more unpredictable.
It might cause episodes of mania just by itself or awaken those urges.
Long ago, ere the first man beached his wooden long-boat on the shores of Kaledan, a great happening arose in the North. Suvei Malthorion, youngest prince of the King of the Wood Elves, had fallen in love with a mysterious spirit. This spirit allegedly hailed from the northern icy wastes where none dared pass then, and around her a harsh cold would swirl. But young Suvei could not contain his love for this spirit, and when their love was found out, he was bidden to go out from his father’s presence and never return. Seeing no place to go but his wife’s homeland, Prince Suvei prepared himself for a lifetime in the ice. It is said that the children of the fallen Prince and of the icy spirit are now what we call the anor’suvei - the children of Suvei, the snow elves.
PHYSICAL APPEARANCE
The snow elves are markedly different, both in countenance and bearing, from their wood-elven kin. Their hair and skin are a natural frosty white, a possible result of evolution for camouflage in the wastes of Haithorost. Their eyes are a piercing icy blue, or in some rare cases almost completely gray. The latter are often seen to be blessed by the Goddess. Snow elves also have an inhuman - indeed, almost magical - tolerance for the cold. To put it in perspective, a snow elf would probably feel rather comfortable in a two-piece bathing in the waters of Antarctica. This is why many snow elves tend to dress rather sparingly when in warmer climates. Snow elves are also rather carnivorous in their diet, favoring polar bear, whale, seal, and occasionally, khakoric snake, able to forgo lifetimes of not touching a single vegetable.
CULTURE
The top priority of a snow elf was, is, and will always be sheer survival. Surviving subzero temperatures and carnivorous polar wildlife leaves little time for the niceties of books, poetry, or music their siblings in the south enjoy. Besides delegating the portions of a hunt after a long day and yelling warnings of hungry polar bears behind unsuspecting travelers, snow elves rarely speak - let alone write. A snow elf seldom thinks beyond his next meal, his next place to sleep, and whether he will awake alive the next morning. For some, this way of life may be uncultured,uncivilized, and devoid of any deeper meaning, but for the snow elf, it is merely practical.
Snow elves are divided into tribes that wander Haithorost on caravans of sledges following the migratory patterns of great whales or polar bears. However, these tribes are not always bound by family - in fact, they rarely are. The governing rule of snow elven society is simple - you are a liability unless proven otherwise. For snow elves, whether you can contribute to the continued existence of the tribe or not is far more important than familial blood, gender, or age. This is why snow elves struggle to grasp with the idea of family and the conventional notion of friendship. An ailing old grandfather and a weak young child are both reduced to the same thing in the eyes of a snow elf - a hindrance to be discarded. Because of this, snow elves tend to not be bound by blood, but whether they can keep each other alive. This belief may seem cold and heartless to the outsider, but without it, the anor'suvei would not be around today. There is also a flip side to this dogma - if you happen to save a snow elf's life, the resulting bond will run deeper than any family member. Snow elves are not heartless - they just happen to value tangible safety more than ideals and concepts.
One of the more unique traits of snow elven culture is ‘mavokal’ - literally ‘to cast out’ in Elvish. There are three types of mavokal. The first type - ‘sohleri’ - occurs when a snow elf is deemed incompetent by a tribe. Sohleri snow elves are simply cast out into the icy wastes with a few supplies to fend for themselves and hopefully find another wandering tribe. However, when these exiled elves manage to find another tribe in the frost, they are often given a hero’s welcome for having proven their worth and having earned their second chance. The second type of ritual is ‘dai’haga’ - often administered to youths coming of age. The dai’haga means being separated from the tribe at least a month to survive on their own. After that month, they are also expected to find their own tribe. The dai'haga aims to stress the importance of society and what it is like to be 'useless'. The last mavokal is the most shameful one - the ‘yurai’. One who counts himself among the yurai has probably caused several deaths with his blunder. The unfortunate snow elf in question has a cross carved into his scalp and is given either a bottle of khakoric snake venom or a knife to take his own life in the wastes, before the cold gets him first. A yurai will never be accepted by another tribe or any snow elf worth his salt. Indeed, a yurai will probably never speak again to another living thing out of sheer shame.
The snow elves, for all their practicality, can be very superstitious. For what else could keep you alive in the wastes than divine intervention? The snow elves pray to Haithora - the bride of Suvei Malthorion - for warmth, a good physical sense of direction, and luck, most commonly before and after hunts. However, her priesthood is nigh nonexistent, and the training of youngsters in the arcane arts is seen as a waste of time when a trusty harpoon could do the same job as a fireball.
The snow elves rarely have dealings with outsiders or foreigners. A snow elf outside the wastes is most probably a yurai, or adopted. Most races regard them with wariness, but for all the hospitality and understanding of the wood elves, they are one of the only races in Kaledan who truly hate the anor’suvei. It is not uncommon to see the kindest of wood elves physically and verbally lashing out at snow elves in social interactions. In the eyes of the anor’mulia, the children of Suvei were, are, and will always be traitors to the elven race. This is why snow elves rarely venture south, for fear of dying of the heat, or being lynched by their wood-elven brothers.
Also, I would prefer a more mysterious feel to the magic system - very little practitioners exist, the ones that do are well into old age, and are left alone at best, and ostracized at worst. Right now, the magic system feels like a science - a systematic study. I personally think it would be better if it were respected as an esoteric art, an expression of the self. Magic would seem more 'random' and in the heat of the moment to the untrained eye, rather than a clear application of a spell.
I'd also like a more conflicting feel to the religious system - divine magic may exist, but no one is entirely sure where it's coming from, or how to gain it in the first place. People war over whose god exists, not whose god is better.
Wait, I actually kinda backtrack on what I said earlier. Magic and a divine pantheon could certainly be universal, but actual communication with the gods would be extremely hard to do. The gods should influence the world in little ways mere mortals can only glimpse at. So we get the idea that they exist, but we're not quite sure what they're doing. Seers or oracles would then become extremely valuable.
Also, in order for a universe to be implemented gracefully in storytelling, there needs to be an overarching theme with the world. Tolkien was all about the gradual decay of the world and the sinfulness of mankind. George RR Martin wanted to illustrate power-lust and what it did to people and society. George Lucas wanted to show how hope could prevail even in the darkest of times. I saw in this thread a while back about dragons heralding great events of some sort, so probably this universe should be all about prophecy, turbulent times, and how people cope with change. We therefore should go about formulating great events that have triggered change in the world.
~i'm pushing the line here with a quadruple-post, I know~
Extra idea:
- The world could be divided into ages, with the first being the Age of Stars, when the gods walked the earth. To make it even edgier, we could have the resulting ages represent the five stages of grief.
- Denial could be the mortal races still communing with the gods, albeit not in physical form, but eventually their divine intentions become murkier and murkier. This could be a false golden age, where magic seems to be at its peak, yet decay starts to entrench itself.
- Anger could be an all-out Age of Blood, where the mortal races war with each other, blaming each other for drawing away the gods.
- Bargaining - one empire eventually does dominate the others, and is built upon communing with a dark, unstable deity - a deity who happens to still be the closest to the mortal realm. This age would end with this empire getting overthrown.
- Depression - this is the current age, where magic is dying and the gods drift further and further away from mortal affairs. Magi are ostracized at best, and hunted down at worst. Many of the other races dwindle in number.
- Acceptance - Certain sects of society are determined to not let this age come to pass. All across Kaledan, heroes strive to gain favor from their divine patrons. Magi submerge themselves in study to commune with the gods. The mortal realm will not let the gods leave Kaledan - without a fight.
Actually, stories could be set in any of these ages, for greater plot opportunities. But the main theme of the setting is that the world has seen better days.
Extra idea part 2:
- The elves could be Kaledan's native race, inhabiting a continental forest which the early human settlers cut down. This creates an age-long hostility between the two races.
- The humans could have come from 'a land of dark shadow' in history books.
- Orcs regularly war with the dwarves and are seen as vermin to be exterminated by humans.
- Halflings are greedy assholes and con men.
- Elves are antisocial.
- Humans are supremacist.
- Dwarves are socially and mentally rigid.
- Orcs are either warring themselves into extinction or enslaved by humanity.
@BingTheWing I often like fantasy worlds that have down to Earth feel - magic and gods are fine, as long they don't become the main enteinment. My favorite series include The Witcher and A Song of Ice & Fire. In both, politics and scheming play a major role. Human affairs are in the forefront. And I dislike descpribing a fantasy race in just few adjectives. Cultures, nations and life in general are much more complex and diverse than that. You can't do that in real life, as it is too deeb an ocean to measure with only few words. It's like saying "All Americans like baseball." It might hold true to some Americans, but not evryone is interested in baseball. Human lige is complex.
And I would make a writing prompt to everyone: try to write a nation. How it was formed? How about economy or military? Is it centralised or decantralised? How about political situation? Does the monarch answer to a parliament, or does he rule by the grace of the gods? How about towns? Remember, towns were often small, housing a few thousand at most, and most people got their living off the land. Is it a feudal, an imperial society? A republic, a princibality, a duchy, a kingdom? A city state? A free city within a latger nation? How about religions or cults? How about enviroment? Is it mountainous or flat country? How rich is its farmland? How about rivers, lakes and streams? How do they affect travel? Is there dangerous wildlife, like bears or cougars? Is there prey? Study medieval examples and take a few pointers. And I don't want to see extremes, where everyone is a mage or whatnot. Magic is like Tabasco - not everyone likes it, but it spices life nicely when used wisely.
Ps. These are just some guidelines and questions to help forming a nation.
@Oak7ree I understand where you're coming from, but sometimes one really has to generalize when describing entire races, for the sake of brevity. Most non-human races will probably roughly fit into a stereotype (though that stereotype may be unjustly bestowed). As for Americans, a great deal of them do like baseball, though not every single American will fit into a cookie-cutter personality like that. However, what I do have planned for the races here is for the negative traits of their race to be more apparent, e.g the humans are overbearingly imperalist instead of merely ambitious, and the generic elvish mystery found in most universes becomes full-blown racism. I'd want to eliminate the notion of good guys bad guys for entire races (much like how Tolkien generalized all the orcs to be bad), and rather instead instill a sense of flawed humanity in the world. For example - the Lord of the Rings usually paints elves in a distant, but benevolent light. Whereas I imagine this story to be more of the Silmarillion, where the elves are outright rebellious dicks in their specialness.
TL;DR - Yes, I'm going for an edgy deconstructionist feel.
And while you were writing that, I've already kinda sunk my teeth into this. So, introducing the Seers!
The Seers
“We perceive the Will.”
Known as among the last few to truly sense the will of the gods in Kaledan, the Seers (or the Order of the Seers) are a magic order who are committed to maintaining a stable means of communing with those Beyond. They have hunted down fell beasts and men alike, discovered things of unspeakable power, and have spoken with the gods themselves. They usually only accept young children as initiates, but besides that, their ranks are by no means exclusive - any sentient race capable of wielding magic has a place within the Seers. Though they are enigmatic, they are most certainly respected.
The Seers began as a secret order of elven mages in the Age of Mist, who decided to pool their forces in order to keep the presence of the Gods alive in Kaledan. The founder of the Seers was an elderly wood elf called Thonnen Lavarion ’the Great’, one of the most powerful mages to ever exist, and who had reputedly seen the face of the Great Tree. As of that time, the dwarves warred with the orcs in the mountains to the south, and humans had yet to land on Kaledanic shores - so it was natural that this secret order was exclusive to the elven race. At first, they served none but the Prince of Anor, the ruler of the wood elves, and helped him consolidate his power over the Anorian Wood. However, when the first man to land on Kaledan felled the first tree of Anor, heralding the end of the Age of Mist and the beginning of the Age of Blood, the Prince ordered his Seers to carry out unspeakable acts of war on whomever dared cross the Secret Wood. Many humans, dwarves, and orcs fell at the hands of the ancient Seers. It is for this reason that at the end of the Age of Blood, the Seers were able to break away from the Princedom of Anor and went into hiding into what is now known as the Silver Tower, concealed by magic so that no mortal can reach it save with the guidance of a Seer himself. The subsequent dominion of the Khaveri Empire cemented the Seers’ oath to swear fealty to no one but those who lie Beyond. It is for this reason that Seers refuse to advise any mortal rulers nor command any army.
The Seers, of course, spearheaded the Golden Rebellion in opposition to the Khaveri Empire. Though they communicated seldom with other rebel leaders and refused to hold territory, the Seers certainly were of enormous help to the greater revolution. The devastating fireball attacks that razed entire city blocks earned the Seers the nickname of ‘Dragon-men’ amongst the ruling and working class alike. The man who killed the Emperor of Khaver, the humble peasant knight Moren Dolevolt, was said to be assisted by an elderly Seer in his quest.
After the war, the Seers yet again retreated back into their secret bases and towers, and now spend the majority of their time in deep meditation, attempting to call back the gods. The world of Kaledan is large, and her people in danger - but the Seers will not let the gods abandon the realm, no matter the cost.
---
The Seers only accept children as initiates, preferably below the age of five. They spend their entire adolescent lives within their Cloister, learning the basics of the arcane. When they have come of age, they are given a choice - either to stay within the walls as a Mystic, communicating with the gods, or to venture outside as a Magus, safeguarding the realm in the absence of the divine. At first the Seers only held elves within their ranks, but with their secession from the Princedom of Anor, all manner of race can be found here.
It is to be noted that the Seers do not have an official ranking system - Seers do not believe in such petty political affairs, and a Seer can already magically sense the seniority of another. The Seers do not have a supreme leader - they do have a Grand Council composed of nine appointed members who deliberate on actions and decisions taken by the Order as a whole.
The Seers are unique from most other groups within Kaledan in that they do not punish gross misconduct or incompetence with death or exile. A Seer’s spirit can never truly rest, due to his strong connection with the gods, and neither can one let a misbehaving Seer wander Kaledan unrestrained. So what the Order usually resorts to is magical imprisonment: this usually involves the offending Seer being condemned to live in a pocket dimension for a certain amount of time - in the gravest cases, eternity. Within these pocket dimensions, the Seer is practically immune to death, making it a living hell for gross offenders.These dimensions often take the form of earthly prisons like towers, mazes, or even dungeons.
Given their massive role in shaping the history of Kaledan, the Seers are often granted the unoffical status of ‘local problem-solvers’ by ordinary mortals, much like the Istari of Middle-Earth. Many magic groups from dwarven runemasters to orcish shamans respect the Order, or at the very least fear it. The Seers, however, refuse to claim authority over any of the aforementioned groups.
Long ago when wanderers still pressed far to the north that would later become the Northern Reaches, there arose a kingdom on the borderlands, one ruled by men known further south as "barbarian kings". Brutes some would say, but such dishonorable and disparaging terms never left their lips in person, rather only behind closed, barred doors in fits of frustration. The true story of Altgarde is far more telling than such utterings, in that the initial kings of this cold forest land were the first line of defense against the actual outsiders and men beyond. They settled it not for their own gain, but for the benefit of those they once served; a reward and honor to fight on behalf of their reigning monarch.
It grew not because of any attraction for many who found themselves there arrived out of some unpleasant necessity. No, rather it remained and endured still despite deep winters and long falls as the men of the land came to embrace its ruggedness. They were free to rule and take from it what they saw fit, paying their debts to the crown not in gold, but in safety. The riches they reaped were their own and many warrior-lords arose through contests of strength. Man and woman alike proved their grit, be it the customs of traveling the wilderness unarmed upon a challenge to a mountain top, or in fair contest of strength and skill; a blunted sword or axe wielded in the lame hand, the other bound to their belt behind their back.
To outsiders the people of Altgarde were quite queer in their strangeness, never a people for many words and with a propensity for challenging dissenters with unusual and strange contests of individual prowess. However, the realm's Shield of the North did not last forever. The promise of personal riches at the cost of work drew in more and more eager hands and mouths while the threat ever dwindled away in the face of swelling numbers. Age old cultures of the Kingdom of Altgarde began to wither and die upon their fruitful vine, most notably with a tax levied upon them from beyond; tradition had been broken and the land splintered into fierce conflict. Now too broken to face the threats of the land, it was not more than a generation or two of meddlesome folk later that it fell away entirely.
The "Wvalgentar a'Wuden" or the "Winter War" approached, just as its name implied, with the fall of the countryside's most remorseless of seasons. A tremendous chill unlike anything known to man since he first began his history in the realm enchanted the very earth and seeped deep into the soil. This age of ice brought with it the great glaciers and storms of the Northern Reaches, but worse yet the most mighty of beings that had only been seen in rare myth. Powerful, grand beasts both men and animal descended on Altgarde not as knowing invaders, but seekers of opportunity; the great watery divide had once again been frozen over.
Broken by their own infighting and consumed by the complacency of the southern states, the factions of the shattered kingdom only realized too late what their oncoming fate was. Thorps, villages, towns and soon cities fell as nature began to reclaim them before their eyes. Winters grew longer and more unbearable, with the beasts and men becoming more aggressive in pursuit of their quarry. True barbarians, long thought chased out, began their marauding attacks against the last fringes of Altgarde, mercilessly laying claim to whatever scraps they could scrounge. Nightfall became one of the greatest enemies of all lesser folk, for the very wolves at their door had become real and the safety of flame had become an increasingly valuable commodity.
For nearly two decades the failed rebellions fought a losing battle against the north, that was until the south paid them dear mind. Scholars, now mesmerized and awed by this turn of events unlike anything they knew prior, had but stories of ages past to work with; legends and rumors of a terrible power of nature, something forgotten until now. Wisely an entourage was sent into the heart of Velkhan, the last remaining kingdom on the borderlands. Through their studies, pressing deep into the stretches of the wild in all corners of the region, they uncovered the barrows of the past; tombs of long dead druids. It was clear now what was to come, for the cycle was evident upon the very walls they explored, sheet after sheet of parchment scrawled in record.
The magical winter descended upon the realm to give it new life later as a spring.
The corruption and fall of the realm was both a metaphorical and practical thing, a time where Altgarde itself needed to wane in importance of its summer. These lost people knew this truth well and had prepared for it for quite a time, long beyond their physical life and long before their history could be known. But there was more to it than this. Something more sinister awaited the region, which now prowled with dangerous beasts and roving packs of men. Before the scholars could make it known, they vanished without a trace; consumed by the savage powers at work within the forested mountains, rolling cold plains and infinite white face that stared down upon the world.
It has become a subject of interest to the resisting crowns of Altgarde such as the Kingdom of Altgarde itself, the entire "Winter War", some going so far as to discover their old roots to survive within it. However, most fear its presence above anything else. There exists no church now in the region that does not preach its arrival as anything less than punishment for their crimes of cowardice and greed and no temple that dares speak of the magic thought to be involved. Those who do know, the ones who have joined with the land of old as their long dead ancestors did, are not sharing; they have rediscovered that primal power. Magic has again sprung to life from the very earth in that sense, beckoning those who would dare do the unfeeling bidding of the land.
Though such "traitors" are vilified and perhaps rightfully so. Perhaps it was them, those who tapped into these tombs before the scholars themselves, who rediscovered the ancient powers and called upon them for their own benefit, but none can be certain. The war among the people and against the environment itself rages, barely held off for now and drawing ever greater attention with each passing year...
The region is less a kingdom than it is anything now, made up of five or so "states", one of which is official and recognized as a proxy state of a greater monarchy while the rest are varying forms of unofficial ascensions. Historically, the environment belongs to no one and there's no certainty among the people, even educated people, of the actual line of pedigree. Thus, as one can imagine, it has become a contest of hearsay and claimed legends, be them true and false. While the leaders of these factions skirmish with each other however, their people live in growing fear of the ever longer nights and the wild outside.
While not entirely shrouded in snow, one can view the environment as a mixture of high tundra, alpine forest, cold grasslands and at its most modest, "cold forest". People have been pressed increasingly south, with the majority of refugees having fled several generations ago from the creeping cold. The majority of such people in exodus had nowhere to go and either starved or settled where they could, making meager livings for themselves. The wild life is made up of both megafauna and regionally appropriate fauna, everything from the woodland chipmunk, prairie dog, deer, elk and the like to bison, ground sloth, mammoth and so forth. Predators are exceedingly dangerous, with the most "mundane" being bobcat, foxes or lynx, up to wolves, dire wolves, giant wolverines, grizzly bears, cold lions and various sabertooths.
Magical beasts are more common than magical monsters, but the latter are your associated winter wraiths, ice elementals, wood trolls, and the sort. They are not frequent threats, but they are difficult to best in a land where fire is considered precious and essential to life. More menacingly is that the environment, while bountiful to those who know how to hunt and gather, often has powerful and unpredictable weather in its mountainous terrain and almost seems to target regular folk. The seasons, by proxy, are less pronounced and generally all varying states of cold, but can be beautiful and exotic when entire carpets of wildflower blossom; a site few would ever see or imagine.
Magic itself in the land is a close kept, almost dead secret. Those who do command it know it as a source granted from nature, something one needs to tap into in their soul and draw out from the land itself, making it outright deadly because of how exaggerated it can become. A bolt of flame might be unimpressive, but a whirlwind turns into a small hurricane of tearing crystalline ice and snow. As such and because of the people's beliefs, it is almost entirely unknown; prior to recorded history of humans, this magic was more common than the arcane studies, but was used like some now is through faith and connection.
With regard to faith, the dire situation has turned many churches into places of apocalyptic threat. Almost all of the major practices, short of the minor more culturally locked, view the very assault by the environment itself and nature as punishment by the divines for the greed their people gave into. People go so far as to hold mass destructions of objects of wealth, like meltings of gold, silver, finery and the like as sacrifice and casting it into deep lakes, hoping that it will stop the advance. The overall mood of the people is one of a crushed spirit, not only because their environment has turned from bountiful to grey and skeletal, or so they see and believe, but because their noble lineage and line exists not at all anymore. They are viewed as poor savages whose very skin is cold to the touch by outsiders, despite these rumors and misleading failing to be true.
The overarching objective of this submission? A place where the environment and its people are out to get you. Not because they are evil, corrupt or anything, but because that's just the nature of it.
