Currently I am calling this The Eastern Empire, though it really isn’t an empire, more of a loose confederation of city states.
A rough distance scale would be from Forwitch to Rosill is about 1000 miles. So from Norton to Forwitch would be about 250 miles.
History of the Region
Until roughly 100 years ago, each of the named cities were independent city states. They were frequently at war with each other.
The Institute for Advanced Arcana
This changed when an agreement was signed between the leaders of Forwitch, Porelta, and Norton to create The Institute for Advanced Arcana, for the purpose of uniting their efforts to fight off raids from the Mut warbands in The Twisted Lands, and further their understanding of the power.
Each city already had a training academy of some sort for training their battlemages, but now they were expanded to offer other programs of study including engineering, artifice (magic item creation), medicine, herbalism, arcane theory, history, art, music, till eventually they became much like a large state university system.
The three different campuses have different specialties they are known for. Norton trains the best doctors. Forwitch is known for high energy research and large scale artifice projects. Porelta is know for weather working and maximizing farming yields.
The typical program of study is three years. A student spends a year at each campus taking a variety of standard courses and electives meant to develop your focus of study. About half the students go out into the real world to ply the trade they have learned over the three years of study. Those who want to work for The Institute will then do a fourth year of specialization at a campus they choose.
So, if you wanted to be a local healer in a small town making potions and setting broken bones, only three years would be required. If you wanted to be a battlefield surgeon supporting the garrison of battlemages, you would want to do a fourth year at Norton.
The Mage-Lev System
One challenge the three cities had, was the long border with The Twisted Lands that they needed to defend. The great river acts as a natural barrier, but the Muts are not stupid. They can build rafts and simple boats and steal boats that move trade goods up and down the river, so they can easily cross if they are motivated.
When the pact was signed to create The Institute, one major goal that was outlined was to find a way to move their troops from one city to another as quickly as possible to be able to reinforce each other. It is one thing to say we will work together but another to march 250 miles to actually do that.
The solution was provided about 10 years later when a young artificer was working with making certain materials very cold and they discovered the magnetic properties of super cold superconductors when one such sample levitated when it became super cooled. From this discovery the Mage-Lev train was developed.
The Mage-Lev is like a maglev, but run by mages obviously. The trains are operated by Conductors. One at the front of the train and one at the back. They use the power to conduct heat out of the levitation element to supercool it so it levitates the train above the track. The Conductors also set the train in motion, using the power to provide the force to accelerate the train to its destination. The Mage-Lev travels at 250 miles per hour, so a trip from Forwitch to Norton or Porelta takes about an hour.
While it took another 10 years to complete, this was the gamechanger. They built watch stations every 25 miles with garrisons of battlemages, a train car, and a couple conductors. Anywhere the Mut raiders tried to cross the river, the defenders could have reinforcements coming in waves every few minutes. Within a few years the Muts had learned that trying to cross the river to raid farms wasn’t worth it.
The Siege
Unable to raid in their small warbands anymore, the Mut tribes came together to form The Horde, a super warband of all the Mut warbands. They were lead by an elite force of sand dragon riders that had tamed and mind melded with these terrifying beasts.
They laid siege to Forwitch, setting up a makeshift city of their own directly across the river to constantly attack, harass, and torment them. The Muts sabotaged the Mage-Lev tracks to prevent supplies and reinforcements from arriving and sunk or captured any vessel on the river.
Norton and Porelta immediately sent reinforcements to Forwitch, but with the sabotaged tracks they were forced to use other methods.
Porelta mobilized the merchant and larger fishing vessels in their area and sailed an armada up the river to assault the Mut encampment from the south.
Norton’s army crossed the river to the opposite bank and marched south and inland to come at the Mut position from the rear.
While the siege lasted three months, most of that was due to the travel time involved and then the time it takes to send messengers back and forth to coordinate the attack. The final battle that routed the Mut forces only lasted a day.
Pax Academia
Following the siege of Forwitch, the Mut population was scattered and demoralized.
During the years that followed, legends spread across the eastern city states of the heroic deeds done in fighting off the Muts. This was in large part due to an invention made during the siege by the artificers in Forwitch.
The mood in Forwitch was bleak during the siege, and several artificers wanted to find a way to cheer up the children of the city. One had written a story that had brought comfort to her own child and wanted to find a way to mass produce it so that every child in the city could read the story. A week later they had built a magical printing press and book binding machine.
After the siege they started printing books about the heroic figures, championing the agreement made long ago to create the Institute as the main reason they prevailed.
But what good are books if not a lot of people can read them. The citizens of the border cities had the benefit of the free education provided to them by The Institute, but the rest of the inland cities didn’t have that.
The Institute opened its doors to anyone who could pass the entrance exams and would pledge to answer the call to arms should the Muts return. Previously, you had to be a citizen of one of the border cities to gain entrance. Now all are welcome.
Over the years many people from the eastern side of the continent have studied at the institute. Being able to read the common script is a requirement for entry, so reading programs have popped up in every city and town. Book wagons travel the countryside from village to village teaching people to read and selling books.
By the time of the “present day” an entire generation has grown up with books. Books are the largest non-essential good consumed in the eastern region. And everyone’s life goal is “I want to do bla bla bla for a while, then write a book about it.”
In addition, the Mage-Lev system has been extended to all the major cities. Only The Valley is excluded, partially because of the dead zone surrounding it, but even if it wasn’t there they are so isolated from everyone else that they wouldn’t want to be connected directly to the rest of the cities. It is planned to connect the costal cities directly eventually, but as it is you can get from any city to another in a day’s travel instead of months.
The Institute is now essentially the government of the whole region, but it is enforced through soft power not through laws and decrees.
The City States
Norton
A trade hub for goods coming out of the northlands across the lake. One of the original pact of the border cities. Their branch of The Institute is known for training the best doctors. In addition they have a reputation for breeding exotic plants and studying herbs. Their school of drama, poetry, and music is also very well regarded.
The night life in Norton is legendary, especially in the long nights of the winter. A vibrant beer and spirits industry is supported by the locals love of alcohol.
Norton has a very working class feel, but here actors and musicians are considered core elements of the working class, with theaters, dancehalls, and other performance spaces all over the city.
The winters are cold, and the people of Norton seek friends and family and strangers and strong drink to keep warm together.
Forwitch
The vanguard, the center of the line of defense against the denizens of The Twisted Lands.
Since the siege, they have expanded across the river to occupy and improve the makeshift city constructed by the Muts when they laid siege. In addition a drawbridge has been constructed across the river, with guard towers and the ability to pull the bridge back in case of attack.
The Institute here is focused on arcane theory and research. This is the MIT of magic.
They have a high energy research unit that has built a device to amplify the power to extreme levels but also act as a buffer between the power and the caster so that it doesn’t kill you.
Their artificer workshops are top notch with every component you could imagine. They are responsible for many of the major technology breakthroughs that have made their current world possible.
This is also the location that most battlemages want to go for their fourth year but only the elite few are chosen for the program.
The culture in Forwitch is centered around magic, combat, and books.
The nightlife is mostly centered around coffee shops, tea shops, hookah bars, and cannabis cafes, with book readings, signings, writers groups, and book clubs often being the reason for meeting up and talking late into the night hopped up on caffeine, nicotine, and THC.
Everyone is working on their book and looking to get published, but there are only so many of the magical printing presses in operation, so competition is fierce.
If something more exciting is desired, the Arcane Arena has different events each night, from magic story time for kids, to battlemage duals.
Recently a strategy board game has caught on called Courier, where you try to get your courier to your opponent’s back row or capture their courier. The game is played on a 15 x 15 hex grid. Each side controls an army of ten pieces including one special piece, the courier. Your goal is to arrange your forces, moving piece by piece, so that when they clash with your opponent you are able to either get through their lines and capture their courier, or punch a hole in their lines and get your courier through to their back line.
Porelta
The crossroads of the world. They are a port city that is the largest trade hub in the known world. A very cosmopolitan city, all shades of people, many different languages heard in the street, a hustle and bustle permeates the culture. Everyone has a hustle and a side hustle in this city and normal business hours happen to be whenever it is time to take care of business.
The Institute here is known for weather modification research as it pertains to ship navigation and improving crop yield. They are thinking big, but wanting to do practical things with it. They also have a rich tradition in shipbuilding and the making of glass and lenses for glasses, spyglasses, binoculars.
The people of Porelta are fanatics for a game called Crows Nest. It was originally developed by the survivors of a shipwreck as a way to pass the time while they hoped for rescue. They stuck the broken mast of the ship with the crows nest on top in the sand on the beach and marked concentric circles around the mast as different point zones. The goal was to throw the ball into the crows nest. Farther away you were, more points you got. Two teams, 5 on 5. After a score, the other team takes the ball out beyond the last circle and they try to score. It is essentially basketball with one basket in the middle. After they were rescued, they set up demonstrations of the game when they got back and it caught on. Now Crows Nest courts are in every park and every beach around the city. A league has formed and teams from every neighborhood compete at different age levels in games every day. Some of the older residents think the game is a nuisance and should be banned.
Oakint
An important trading hub. The city is ruled by The Harbormaster who is appointed by the Council of Merchants. They are old money, dating back to the founding. They appoint their family members to various government positions and levy taxes on all commerce. In return they provide start up capital, insurance for lost goods, protection, and a fair market to sell your goods. Corruption, bribery, and extortion are all part of the cost of doing business here.
The citizens are caught up with ever shifting fashion trends in clothing, food, the latest magical gadgets, and social status. They are a city that prides themselves in social mobility, but while you can rise from deck hand to trade merchant, there is a level of society, the old money merchants, that can only be married into.
They have the largest navy in the world, and frequently battle the pirate barons to keep trade routes safe.
They have a long standing rivalry with Sanove and even in the relative peace of the last few years, they still regularly clash over where the border is that divides their fishing rights.
About the time the pact of the border cities was signed, Oakint tried to start a dispute with Porelta over resources and territory. The Porelta battlemages made quick work of the flotilla sent to aggressively negotiate and there has been no trouble there since.
The Valley
A place of wonder and mystery. Due to the shape of the mountains surrounding this valley, the power bends and focuses creating a hot spot 10 miles across. The power here is equal to that of the border cities.
However, due to the same cause, there is a dead zone surrounding the valley in a ring a mile thick. This helps to make the valley very easy to defend. The dead zone has also been cleared of trees so there is no cover for approaching attackers. The defenders can stand in a very strong area of the power and lob spells at their powerless (unless they brought batteries) attackers.
The inhabitants are close to nature and their magic philosophy is very different than the magic taught at The Institute and the other cities around the east. The people of The Valley make their homes out of plants that they train into the shapes of houses. Their houses are as elaborate as any civilization, but are alive and are tended rather than constructed.
The people here live close with animals. Many can see through the eyes of animals, speak with them, hear their thoughts, and some have such an affinity that they can shape shift into various animals.
The shape shifters are the most admired members of this society. They comprise the warriors, hunters, and civic leaders. Much of your status in The Valley is how attuned to various animals are you.
Not many people who are born in The Valley ever leave. Those that do are typically people who don’t have much affinity for animals and are made to feel like they are lesser beings because of it. The attitude is one of pity and they are treated as poor broken people who will never know the full experience of what it is to be alive.
Artifice here is looked down upon as a cheat, but they do recognize that magical children’s toys are delightful, so it isn’t completely banned.
Most of what they know about the world beyond the dead zone is what they learn from the carnival caravans that come through a couple times a year. These are collections of wagons with all sorts of games, rides, comedy shows, plays, musical acts, potion vendors, toy sellers, and of course the book wagon. These carnivals stay for a week to entertain and party then move on. The people of The Valley buy things they can’t get otherwise, and learn news of what is going on in the world.
Ironhold
The city of industry. The mountains surrounding this area are dotted with iron, copper, tin, gold, silver, coal, quartz, and other valuable materials needed throughout the eastern lands. It has made them quite wealthy and quite well armed.
Before the days of the pact of the border cities, Ironhold was the most powerful city in the region regularly making war on Norton and Forwitch. When the pact was signed, Ironhold was put on notice that if they attacked, they would be treated the same way as the Muts, with all three border cities responding to an attack on one. This has kept them in check ever since.
King Ironside, the ruler of Ironhold, looks for any opportunity to be a thorn in the side of The Institute, and often challenges their plans openly. They opposed the expansion of the Mage-Lev to Harfeld saying the route was unnecessary because there is no reason anyone would want to go to Harfeld and it will just mean their filthy peasants will try to migrate to Ironhold and infect their hardworking city with laziness.
The miners, farmers, and other workers are treated poorly and many are trapped in schemes where they have to pay for the tools to do the job by mining a certain amount, or harvesting a certain amount, but they barely are able to keep up with their debt, making them basically slaves.
The soldiers are well paid and keep the population in line. Opium, stimulants, and alcohol are in heavy use here by the working class and upper class alike. The booze and drugs are all manufactured and distributed by the King’s Company, a private business owned by the royal family for centuries.
The people of the city, lead by the example of the King and royal family, are very pious religious folks. They worship God the creator and judge of all things. It is a very guilt centric religion. The good things you have are due to your devotion, the bad things that happen to you are because you are not devout enough. Those who are most devout rise high in society, those that are least are cast into the gutter.
Using debt, violence, drugs, and religion, the royal class keeps the lowers in check and the natural resources The Institute requires flowing.
Harfeld
Small port city. Main industries are timber, apples, tree nuts, and giant snow crabs.
They act as the primary distribution center for giant snow crab boats to offload their catch. This is a once a year event, where all the crabs of the year are harvested within a few weeks, put on ice and then shipped out to the cities along the coast. Now with the Mage-Lev, they have been able to reach markets in all the cities and more crab boats than ever go out each year.
They have a rivalry with Ironhold. It only started when the Mage-Lev from Ironhold to Harfeld was proposed. Before that they had never had any real quarrel as they don’t compete for markets. The Jarl decided to invest in prospecting efforts in the mountains just south of the great glacier and was rewarded. They now have a mine that produces the levitation material for the Mage-Lev in large amounts. This has only proved to make Ironhold more hostile and the Jarl recently brought in several veteran battlemages to recruit and train a professional army.
They are close allies with Rosill, as the people of Rosill have a love of the snow crabs and are the biggest importer. An agreement has been made between the Jarl of Harfeld and the Sorcerer Queen of Rosill to come to each others aid if Ironhold moves against them.
Rosill
The city of flowers. The layout of this city resembles petals of a flower. Flowers of all kinds are planted around the city, with various types timed to come out at different times of the year.
Their favorite food is the giant snow crab and they have a huge feast celebrating the end of harvest and the coming winter and gorge themselves on crabs and mead.
There are great bee hives placed throughout the city, and every child is taught how to handle and behave around bees from a very young age. The honey they produce is sold throughout the world and different districts are known to have different flavors based on the flower types around the hive.
This is a city of romance. The arts scene is only rivaled by Norton. Most people here work in cottage industries making hand crafted jewelry, clothing, tools, toys. Most people live above their workshop or storefront in densely packed neighborhoods. The city is very walkable and the people are friendly and talkative.
When the sun goes down, the flower lights turn on. These are magical lanterns strung across the streets that paint the buildings in vibrant colors. Taking the night air is a favorite way to spend the evening with a romantic partner. A typical first date is a stroll in one of the flower parks around the city at sunset.
Rosill is ruled by the Sorcerer Queen Anika Rosillien. Previous generations were just called the Queen, but this queen studied at The Institute and served as a battlemage for 10 years, winning the Arcana Arena battlemage tournament twice during that time. Her legendary exploits and royal heritage earned her the nickname Sorcerer Queen, and when her sister died at the hands of a jealous lover, she was recalled to take her place.
They have an alliance with Harfeld in case Ironhold decides to attack. Anika hopes Ironhold does attack, as she is a bit bored being queen and wants to go back to being more of a sorcerer. She plans to lead her forces personally if it comes to that.
Sanove
This town organically grew up at the mouth of the San river and because it was about half way between Oakint and Rosill. Leadership and government structure has changed multiple times over the years. Currently it is governed by a Council of Elders that are elected by each district in the city. They then elect a Mayor, Treasurer, Chief Ambassador, Supreme Judge, and Commandant of the Watch.
The people here are fiercely independent and mocking the Elders and elected officials is a long standing tradition. Practical jokes and pranks are part of every day life here. Sketch comedy and improv troops perform all over the city every night of the week and comedic magic displays are part of every major holiday.
They are looked down on by the suave and posh people of Rosill and constantly harassed by Oakint about their fishing rights.
The people of Sanove don’t really care about the fishing honestly. They know the border has been at a certain point on the shore because their ancestors have been surfing that break for centuries.
Surfing is an ancient tradition here, dating back at least 1000 years. It is one of the oldest known pass times in the world. Surfing hasn’t spread to the rest of the world, because the techniques and materials used in shaping surfboards is a closely guarded secret.
The only ships that call this port home are tour ships that go out with a bunch of surfers looking for good breaks.
They don’t have much of a military, but will band together to defend their breaks from pirates, the Oakint navy, sea monsters.
Dan Horstman 