Blithney

The choke of smog covers the ruins of the industrious Realm of Blithney, a world gifted with the innovation of the Industrial Revolution. Rampantly the world expanded, becoming much smaller to all those within it. But the greed of those in power has led the world into an age dark, for the people now drown in their seas of soot. Endless wars between the rivaling factions have grinded down the people to a size far more controlled by the unanimously corrupt and oppressive governments, with no breath of relief from the conquest raging on. Great machines march across the ravaged lands, and sever the acrid clouds above. The people of this world are lost and without control of their lives, their only hope of escape is the cause of their damnation. Steam.

Geography

The Realm of Blithney is dominated by three large continents, and the archipelagoes which strewn en mass between them. Many great swaths of the landscape have been choked by the progress of the people, fields and forests alike have been strangled by the coal smog. Rivers and ponds have been soured, their banks lined in red rust and foam. Walking machines lumber the forests, and greedy mechas formed around drills pile into the mountains for any resource it may offer for the constant war machines. Seldom has been untouched yet, preserved pockets of nature which only few sets of human eyes have ever gazed upon. The thick rainforests and remote isles, where capped explorers land from the sky upon shores to explore what may be strangled from them.

Governments

A constant struggle between each of the governments have left no true supreme rule, outside of the lucrative Ascended Authority cultists and the foreign W.A.E.F. invaders. Ruling over the vast Realm seven entities stand above the rest.

W.A.E.F.

The Western Alliance Expeditionary Force comes from a land ravaged by its own wars and greed, they come now for our own corrupt territories. To take everything we have for their insatiable war machine. They speak in a tongue foreign to us, and laugh at our struggle against them. To oppose the W.A.E.F. is suicide. The only engagements that have been recorded of the recently fielded W.A.E.F. were shows of force, for never was diplomacy an option for the foreign aggressors. Truly they have come only to test their metal and steam against the divided world.

Orchveik Federation

The chill winds blow through the expanded lands of the Federation, frosting over the cold and relentless steel which drives the nation forth. Rising across the snows cross the engine of the Orchveik war machine as hungrily the oligarchal Karoluns organize the newly occupied territory of the former lands of the Taiyun Imperial Dragon. Seeking hands to feed into the Federation’s workforce, the Federation now offers the people of Taiyun a choice. For each three laborers who arrive to work in Orchveik factories, one Taiyun prisoner of war will be returned. The Orchveik knows well that this will be a noble sacrifice that the beaten Imperials will obey well, as the Karoluns shift their gaze across the ruins of the land. Prepared for expansion.

United Mercantiles of Lorreichester

The Captains of Industry who shall lead this world into progress and feed the growing population with the required goods have birthed the Lorreichester Mercantiles. A government funded by large corporations who pull the strings and assure that their doings remain laissez faire. Those who take to the skies in grand and opulent vessels, parading their wealth above as the menial workers break their backs for class and company. The states of Lorreichester have been decorated between the hidden gloom of the coal dusted slums, as the public streets are adorned by statues worn by the acrid rain. The mercantile empire of Lorreichester has armed themselves with the greatest fleet of airships to service the world, delivering to each corner with coin their produce.

Relvic Industiral

What once was a dwarven city with a sole factory built by one Oassiuwitzald Zackharelvic, or Oswald Relvic as he has most recently been known, has grown into its own expansive country. Built from the ground up the country is run on the backbone of producing the great war machines designed by Oswald Relvic himself, to which none other mind may compare. His great mechas, humanoid machines built for each task of war. For each nation who wishes the advantage over the other through innovation must look to the Mechas of Relvic for their answers, and pray the enemy cannot purchase the same.

Ascended Authority

In a world dominated by sin and the will for innovation through the means of brass and steam, some eyes wander elsewhere. Scientists, scholars, archaeologists, leaders, and politicians alike in this world will often find something unexplainable. Whether it’s an artifact, a monument, streams of coursing power beneath the earth, or tears in the darkness which reveal the unknown. Most all will find the abyss of the unknown, and it is the Ascended Authority who are the ones who have stared at it to find its gaze back upon them.

Now an entity which lurks behind the decisions of the world, many of the world leaders have been rumored to be apart of this cult. Some, alike the Orchveik Federation have outlawed its presence in its lands entirely, announcing such through the seizure of a holy Vyasa, Paulo Ambrovia. An act which has since been denied entirely. But an act which will not impede The Foundation supporting it all.

Raised City of Taiyun

Recovering from the near crippling blow delivered by the Orchveik Federation’s conquest upon their territory, the Grand Dragon of Taiyun, Yeshen, and all her greatest advisors lead her remaining people from their crumbling nation. Taking to their capital ship, the Haido, hundreds of airships were ordered to leave in abandonment of their lost nation, to recover to fight another day. Now in their city of the sky, the Grand Dragon maintains her rule over what equates to be a ramshackle resemblance of a state. The small city is governed by a heart mourning their fallen nation, remaining orderly under the hope to one day reclaim their previous lands.

History

A world enraptured by the promise of progress, fate had not aligned for the smogged world of Blithney. A millenia ago, these people lived lives alike those in Aversia, a realm which predates the industrial machine and the promise which steam provides. But everything changed when the governments were provided a secret of technology, suddenly the divided and rivaling states of Lorreichester produced new machines. Ones which rose them above all other nations, and allowed for the mass production of all goods, from textile to luxury. Secrets stolen and meddling, word of the secret power of steam echoed throughout the world. Not more than two decades after, the young Orchveik party would march alongside machine and form in the following years the Orchveik Federation. A threat which would later put the bordering Imperials of Taiyun into peril, as their nation falls into occupation beneath the expansive Federalists. Each of the nations rise, fighting amongst themselves for total control over the resources of this land, as the W.A.E.F. disembarks upon their divided shores.

Culture

The cultures of Blithney are diverse, varying from each city and nation. Despite their different forms of culture, each are built upon the backbone of steam, and the opportunities and damnation it has provided.

In the W.A.E.F. men and women stand rank in file, studiously consuming news from the front in their shared barracks. All await for their service required by their superiors, a life-long expectation to which each and every one of them are reared for. What the lives of the W.A.E.F. truly appear as is an unknown to this side of the world, for some believe only the strong are selected at their births to survive. Whilst others believe that their tyrannical governments employ an unpopular draft, for how else would they be able to employ so many troops?

In the Orchveik Federation men and women coat their families and children to work in the state factories for their bulky war Mechas, and supervise the foreign Taiyun laborers to meet their high quotas. As many others now stand at the border, congregating en masse in occupied Taiyun expecting to stabilize their expanded territory before venturing further into the ruined landscape. From young ages, the Federation children are taught of the greed of the Lorreichester Mercantiles, the inappropriate blood enthralled inventors of Relvic Industrial, and the misleading liars who believe in the existence of a supposed Ascended Authority. Propaganda runs young, and the state will lead its children on into a glorious life as the Orchveik Federation.

Those workers in Relvic Industrial’s state enter the grand dwarven forges, working alongside towering machines to hammer in rhythm, as ingenious minds place pen to parchment hoping to find the next design of their war machines. Ironclads the size of a dozen buildings lay in their massive underground vaults, sparks flying as their armaments are attached. These are a people devoted to their art of industrialized and mass produced war. Standing as monuments in their cities are their sleeping war machines, great bodies of steel or brass which will stand guard before their forges and workshops. A cacophonous rhythm fills the people of Relvic, as the thunder underground of their work shows to all their progress. But, the people are not without their fear, for upon their eastern shores have landed the foreign W.A.E.F. a people unknown to all and threaten conquest to their mountains.

Not far off are the United Mercantiles of Lorreichester, who are perhaps the greatest consumers of Relvic Industrial’s sky outputs. Employing a vast airforce of cargo ships which will of course need protection from sky pirates. The most devoted to a life of philanthropy and eccentricism, the cities within Lorreichester’s bounds will be populated with pieces of modern art encircling most often timeless uncovered artifacts. A desire and passion of history sweeps behind the currents of the nation, drawing in archaeologists from across the world to present their uncovered jewels to the high paying Lorreichester merchants. Made of a population of Elves, Humans, and the interbred Half-Elves more oft than not, many families will send their young children to the textile mills where their tiny fingers will work the hulking machines.

The Ascended Authority is behind it all, and such is no metaphor. Their scientists, their scholars, their archaeologists have been provided with enlightenment, and powers unseen to the rest of the world. Lead by the foundations guiding hand, they will experiment and learn more of each of the oddities of the realm which do not make sense. The Leylines fascinate them, the Veil tears open new gateways for them to discover from. For an organization which knows so much, it is only by how much they have learned that they know that they truly do not know anything. But, progress must be attained, often in the form of experiments. Many dozens upon dozens of individuals do now occupy cells and pods in each of their facilities, and an extremely efficient means to feed and nurture them until they will have use for them. A fascination soon came from this to use live people for experiments, as a new tool has been provided to them by their guiding hand. Red crystals which pulse with light, a disease which they have found to take quickly and rampantly on their subjects.

Ropes are strewn from ship to ship in The Raised City of Taiyun, and the families venture across in their daily tasks in this city. The only difference is that Taiyun now resides thousands of feet in the air. Even in these greatly changed circumstances, the people of Taiyun attempt to continue their traditions. The ropes which strew between each of the homes are decorated and never frayed, golden threads hold aloft many coloured flags, bringing colour and vibrancy to the ageing airships. What were previously vessels for sailing or commercial use have been changed in years since, fitted now for homes. The Haido itself, the Grand Dragon’s own airship has been fitted with grand stretching sails of gilded thread and opulent decks, forming the new palace. The people of Taiyun grasp at their previous lives, hoping to retain their orderly and well founded traditions. What were previously well maintained roads have become their ropes, their decorated homes have become lustrous airships with what materials they have gained, and public buildings of civil service and education have taken form in grand public airships.

The World of Aethius • The Multiverse of Aethier