The World of Vistularia
Time Period | The War of the Enlightened | World Period | Dilatatio et Bellum |
Welcome to the world of Vistularia. The continent you find yourselves in, Cartesia is one of mystique, wonder, and soul. Here reigns The Cartas Empire. Your adventure starts in the port city of Portglassia, as you each venture in to be registered as adventurers with the Adventuring Guild.
The Cartas Empire
Politics and Government The Cartas Empire is all you have known, a ‘democracy’ whose rule but moreso influence is felt throughout the land. In reality, this parliamentary system is often viewed as merely just a system placed to keep the races in harmonic accordance.
Despite the many parties that situate themselves as bastion’s of hope for the plights of the common, the educated sentiment is that these demagogues merely conform to one of the two largest parties, the Modicus who believe in that societal conformity to the strengths and weaknesses of each race dictate their duty and thus the success of the empire, and the Cambiare who believe that the current societal hardship experienced comes from these archaic ideologies and that it is the individual who must be given the power to decide their societal, business, and legislative influence. From the perspective of the common, these abstract ideals are not rooted in any sort of tangible improvement and as such are not worth considering until the weeks of the local ballots each year.
Despite the bureaucratic disconnect with the populace, one member of the The High Court does garner public interest, and that is the seat of the Royal Head. The matriarchs or patriarchs of each royal lineage make up the High Court with the Royal Head holding significant voting power in the parliamentary system. The royal lineages of each race maintain a degree of structure ensuring that the seat on the high court is rotated among each race after terms of 50 years, or the death of the royal head. The royal lineages are said to stem from before the Unification. The current seat is held by Queen Elaine the III, the Queen of the Human Domain and the previous seat was held by the high elf royal family. The royal seat remains one of the only governmental points of interest in the public, with their exploits and lives often reported in the local news and tabloids.
Demographics
There are six primary races that inhabit the Cartas Empire. These are the Humans, Dwarves, Elves, Gnomes, Tieflings, and Orcs. There are myths and records of prior races that may have inhabited the continent, but that all seems to have been before The Great Unification, begetting an underlying mystery that has gone unanswered for centuries.
Amongst the Mystery of the Lost Races records and depictions have been uncovered that include the Drow, Giants, Aaracokra, and Myconids.
Peace & Poverty
However, despite the apparent structural peace within government and religious circuits, the people of the empire may tell another tale. The slow but growing decline of magic has slowed the technological progress of the empire and as such resource inequality remains at a higher level than ever.
While trade within the empire continues, there exists an additional income and meritocratic inequality between the nobles/upper class and the rest of the society. This brewing discontent and plague of poverty has often brewed riots and protests in many rural and underserved city regions, where the government has dispatched their knights to ‘maintain the peace’.
As such Crime & Smuggling guilds (The Crimson Smuggling Guild, The Tricksters Guild) have also seen an increase in prominence over the last hundred years. The discontent with the government has also not been aided by the fact that the Queen Elaine the 3rd has not been seen publicly in the last 10 years.
Officially Recognized Guilds Unofficial Guilds The Guild of Arcana The Crimson Smuggling Guild The Adventurers Guild The Tricksters Guild The Tinkerers Guild The Guild of Lutes and Luck The Merchants Guild --- The Guild of Healing ---
Tribulations of Trade
Trade outside the continent and thus the input of new resources to the continent, has been stalled for the last 500 years. Exit from the continent in the North is blocked by the Northern Wastelands, cruelly cold and brutal lands of which explorers have never returned.
Additionally, any escape beyond the continent by Sea has been halted by the Ader Vortex, a brutal current that destroys any ship that ventures more than several miles from the coast. As such visitors to the continent are unheard of and the Empire has concluded that civilized society outside of the continent must be devastated, savage, and dangerous to interact with.
Advent of Adventurers
While the legendary heroes found their beginnings as adventurers, the role of adventurers had fallen out of practice by 100 A.U. By this time, most of the remnants of terrible monsters had been wiped out and all that remained were the pesky creatures that were hardly left a stable income for the adventurers. The Northern Forest was the only area known to have Monsters roaming, albeit ones that were quite strong.
However all that has changed in the last 75 years. Monsters began to emerge again in the forgotten regions of the continent and they soon found their way into threatening rural populations. Combined with the public distrust, decline of magic, and the increase in crime, the Cartas Empire officialized the The Adventurers Guild, an entity outside of government control to manage and contract new parties of adventurers. While the The Royal Cartesian Knights and the The Tenfold Heralds - the mysterious ten strongest individuals on the continent - were able to take on larger threats, the adventuring guild began to nurture the growth of new adventurers, albeit hard to convince many to take on the arduous and dangerous lifestyle.
Currently, there has been a stall in adventurer growth and the Cartas Empire has just announced the implementation of Officially Recognized Adventuring Parties, where adventuring parties who prove themselves will be given sponsorship by the government in addition to access to both known and rumored government resources.
Cities of the Cartas Empire
City Description Portglassia Western Port City, Adventuring Guild Headquarters Cavaros The City of Mines & Museums, Dwarven Royal Family Jimbasa The City of Trade & Travel, Halfling Royal Family Shalteros The Capital City of Cartas Empire, Central Government Rupa The City of Nature, Wood Elf Royal Family Silinea The City of Magic, High-Elf Royal Family Muristar The City of Knowledge, Gnome Royal Family Krysocene The Northern Fortress City Baruba The Southern Port City Klogoth The Roaming City of Orcs
Religion & Magic
Gods & Mortals
The gods working together was an important takeaway from the legend of the Unification, where the Cartas Empire has allowed the freedom of religion to all the people, so long as the religious organizations do not threaten the safety of the empire.
However, where many believe that the power of these deities allowed them to walk the planes with us before the Unification, the interaction of these gods in our current time is very rare and often reserved to a couple words or guidance given through the veil from the Holy Realm or Faerun. As such, only the powerful priests and priestesses of each religion can maintain a semblance of communication to their gods, but the line of magic that supplies the power of clerics, paladins and warlocks do remain, albeit to a fewer amount of individuals as the years progress.
In fact, magic in general has begun diminishing over the last 300 years where popularity has grown in the development of Wizarding and Healing Guilds as their services become rarer. Religious membership has perhaps grown in the opposite direction, with a majority of the populace with varied levels of commitment belonging to a religious organization. The heads of these organizations/temples often convey the guidance of the gods to their followers and also hold a degree of power within the government where a seat on the high court is also given to the Chief Religous Officiate chosen by the Great Religious Council.
Organized Religons
There are four major organized religons within the Cartas Empire which are represented in the courts through The Greater Religious Council. These four organizations are the The Church of Winter, The Church of Spring, The Church of Summer, The Church of Fall.
The Cartesian Pantheon
God Role Affiliations Pelor Summer, Sun, Healing The Church of Summer Chauntea Life, Harvest The Church of Spring Wakeen Commerce, Trade The Church of Fall Mystra Arcana, Magic The Church of Winter Bahamut Justice, Order Select Worship Oghma Knowledge, Arts Select Worship Torm Duty Select Worship Eldath Comfort, Healing, Serenity Select Worship Garl Glittergold Luck Select Worship Luthic Unity, Safety Select Worship Gond Tinkering Select Worship Shaudakul Traders, Miners, Adventurers Lesser Worship Lathander Birth, Renewal Lesser Worship Kelevmor Death, The Damned Lesser Worship Eilistrae Moon, Redemption Lesser Worship Illmater Suffering Compassion Lesser Worship
History and Mystery
The Forgotten
Perhaps the lack of interest in government tidings can be attributed to the general era of peace that has encompassed the continent for the last 500. Wars between races and domains are unheard of and large scale bloodshed are a thing of legends, but rather that is all the they could be.
You see, the current year is 502 A.U. (Anno Unifico) and 502 years of history is all that really exists. The legends and records of the empire go back the last 500 years, back to the event of the Great Unification, however history past that point has been lost, forgotten. Records in the libraries of the great cities detail nothing past this point and perhaps the great tomb of the capital may contain more, but society has accepted that this lost time frame is beyond our capabilities to ascertain, or more so, a time frame that doesn’t matter, that isn’t worth remembering.
Even those who lived through this period of forgotten history have seemed to forget all details of the society and events of the time, only holding on to the seldom memories of their fellow bonds and core knowledge. While this lost time was perhaps a great concern before 100 U.P., the priority of collecting this knowledge has fallen to perhaps a few historical researchers at the great universities or noble houses and the Cartas Empire officially ruled many years ago that this time was forgotten for good reason, perhaps through magic or collective trauma, and would serve no purpose in the modern society.
Legend of the Great Unification
However, the general legend that does surround the Great Unification has pervaded through the ages. Before the Unification, the races & religions warred with each other and the people suffered both through mortal and wicked bloodshed. Monsters were commonplace and terrorized the people where war often seemed like a preferable option. The respite to this darkness came from the Legendary 6 heroes, adventurers from different races, domains, and walks of life. These heroes banded together and worked with the gods to destroy the sources of darkness, sacrificing their lifes in the process.
Their tales of heroism, their saga, and even their names have found themselves as folk stories across the continent, perhaps lost in true details after centuries of storytelling, but not lacking in their inspiration. It was their sacrifice and defeat of the darkness that marked the Great Unification, where races now lived together in peace and the Cartas Empire became the hope of Vistularia. However this only accounts for the 6 key races that make up the continent. The legends and ruins often point to many other races existing, however these races were thought to have perished before the Great Unification and have not been seen in the Cartas Empire.
Prophecy & Poetry
As the divine connection has weakened in the empire, so has the adherence to divine prophecy. The legends of the Unification describe the great prophecies of the past and how they chose and guided the Legendary 6 heroes, however the only prophecy since the inception of the Cartas Empire was told after a century of silence in 100 A.U. The only words muttered by the oracle were, “The Song of the Firebird tells the past and future indiscriminately…”
The experts of the empire thought this to refer to the great poem & song written by Daxys, the bard-paladin and leader of the legendary 6 Heroes. The famed poem titled “Our Fateful Phoenix,” was written to his love before the final battle and details the exploits and heroic nature of his party. While the poem in it’s entirety is hard hear, many subsections or rewrites find themselves in taverns performed by bards as a classic love sonnet. Since no danger came after the divine prophecy was told, the empire gradually took this to mean that the Great Unification was the last mythical quest necessary and the future holds only mortal struggles.
The Six Great Cartesian Mysteries
While the daily life in the Cartas Empire is seemingly uninquisitive, recent and past events have brewed a cauldron of mysteries that simmer against the tranquility. These are often know as The Six Great Cartesian Mysteries.
Mystery of the Great Unification
What happened during the Great Unification? Who were the Legendary Six Heroes of the Unification? Why can nobody remember what happened before? Why are the records missing before the Great Unification? What happened to the other races in the Cartas Empire?
Mystery of the Land
Why is information classified about certain Cartesian regions? What happens in the Glimmer Isles? What rests in the depths of the Jungle of Jewels? Why is there an unmapped region? What lines Titan’s Scar? What created Crystal Crater?
Mystery of the Divine
Why are there no more Oracles? Why are there only 15 gods in the Cartesian Pantheon? Why are the Gods involvement diminishing? Where are the Morai? What does the last Oracle mean? What is the full Phoenix Saga?
Mystery of Beyond
What exists outside of Cartesia? What happened during the Tragedy of the Tides? What is beyond the Northern Wastelands? Why can nobody escape the Ader Vortex?
Mystery of Magic
Why has magic been diminishing across the continent? Why are mana crystals getting increasingly rare and expensive? Why have monsters begun to emerge in the last 75 years? What are the ‘Fuzzy’ Spirit sightings?
Mystery of the People
What happened to Queen Elaine? Why are riots in the kingdom growing among the villages? What is the mystery of the Abaragarza? Who are the Tenfold Heralds? Why have the Cambiare suddenly gained popularity? Who were the Pirate Lords of the Past? Who runs the Crimson Smuggling Guild?