Stage 1 -

Reawakening

Mages are able to use the Radiant Souls as a source of energy for their magic.

Before they can do so however they need to build a trusting relationship with that soul - a process not everyone can succeed at.

Sometimes an apprentice has already built a relationship with a Soul when they enter formal training but for most, the training begins with an extraction ritual in which they ceremoniously remove a soul from its tree.

The Apprentice then extends their mind towards the soul until they get used to finding each other. With effort, they can contact each other over long distances and even through walls.

At first, these Souls are dormant. They exist in a state that has been described by many cultures in many different ways as either “one of all”, “primal self” or “non-self”.

It can only be reached by appealing to its sense of incompleteness - that there is a mission to be pursued, a meaning left to fulfill or a responsibility to carry. If done correctly, usually with the help of old fables and myths, the Soul is reawakened and will remember its past life and values.

Apprentices often struggle with this and need the assistance of a psychedelic drug which is extracted from the Soultrees.

Once the contact has been established, the Mage needs to share and listen to build trust with the soul.

This is crucial because the Soul has the ability to withhold the energy needed for a spell and will usually not provide anything for a purpose it does not support. Or with other words: The Soul will not provide Energy for actions that it deems immoral - making almost all actions of combat, war, crime or other abuse of power close to impossible for Radiant Magicians.

Stage 2 -

The Amplifier

Once the connection has been built and the Soul is willing to help the Magician, an amplifier is required to channel its energy into action.

A rune - simply referred to as Naturune - needs to be engraved on it. It is a codex that binds the Soul in space to this object, allows it to provide energy and protects it from use against its will.

Often additional functions are added by extending the “Rune Logic” engraved on the surface of the Amplifier - most commonly these are additions to the Base Amplifier Rune allowing the Mage to channel more energy through the device with the side effect of making it harder to control.

Usually, the mage has to train up his ability to let energy flow through the amplifier.

Stage 3 -

Choosing a Path

So now, what might a Mage use this newfound power for?

The Powers of Radiant Souls are limited to affecting living things - but they can interact with them in different ways. Broadly speaking, there are four main fields of study that a Mage may pursue.

Inner Magic

(1) Mages who focus on affecting the minds and emotions of others are known as SHIRU. Shiru require a deep sense of empathy and gain the ability to understand different sides of an argument, the deep pain of a person or the human condition in general. They learn to understand the workings of the mind better than anybody else and serve likely in such positions as philosopher, therapist or minister.

(2) Getting in touch with animals will make you an ANIMUR Mage. You will be able to communicate with horses and oxen, giving them tasks, encouraging them, keeping them company or find work in a communication tower with pigeons, sparrows, falcons, eagles and other birds commonly used for messaging. If you want to talk to your horse whilst riding into town, this is the one you choose.

Outer Magic

(3) The MEDICUS is capable of affecting the bodies of the sick. They have a deep understanding of anatomy coupled with what is known as the “Medrem”: The ability to mentally probe a body in order to identify what is amiss. They are often more capable than any other doctor in the healing of wounds - but acquiring such skills is a great challenge and not all Medicus are equally capable. After all, the body is a complicated instrument and a slight error on a Medicus’ part could have dire consequences. We owe the Mages who advanced deep into the Medrem the identification and healing of many ancient and formidable diseases.

(4) We all know them. They keep our modern society running: Becoming a TERRACI will give you the ability to affect plants. You will be able to feel a network of roots and floral structures everywhere. It gives you the ability to remove pests from crops, accelerate growth and artfully grow almost any plant in almost any shape. Where would we be today without their abilities.

The Sentinel

Most Mages pick a discipline and stick to it. Overachievers pick up a second. And while many dream of learning all four, a few exceptional Mages actually do it.

One might be a Terraci and a Medicus but he can not call himself a Sentinel until he has mastered all forms of Radiant Magic. These exceptional Mages who long ago in the Age of Honor were sent to defend mankind against the “Beasts” are now sought after as exceptional bodyguards - making them only Radiant Magician to frequently engage in combat.

They are not just valued for their abilities but also for what they represent to societies. The wealthiest aristocrat might buy the most expensive swordsman but the Souls of the Sentinel will not simply protect anyone: Only the one worth defending in combat. A small guard of Sentinels in a Kings or Queens Guard is a sign of righteous rule. And the people of many countries know it.

Stage 4 -

Finding Work

You might have been gifted an amplifier by a Mage or bought it for yourself and trained to any of the abilities above, maybe with the help of a mentor.

But in most cases you will have learned your craft in an University Order.

University Orders

They filter applications, reach out to talented students and then educate their selection in the fields mentioned above. They tend to have various colleges specialized in the different forms of radiant magic pertaining to diverse fields of study ranging from politics to science to the performative arts, craftsmanship and trading. They typically also financially support research expeditions by its faculty. In the old days they were mostly self-sustaining as the students were made to work, growing food and maintaining the property. But today governments often substitute with funding if the Order is representing their preferred religion or it is prestigious and useful enough to be supported. Parents or grants pay for individual students and “Provider Orders” add funds in return for “First Looks” at the new students.

Provider Orders

These Provider Orders usually service larger companies, aristocratic ventures or government contracts, functioning much like an agent, making contact with various potential employers. They are for obvious reasons interested in attaining only the best students. They often have several branches, sometimes across different countries, with the largest of them managing atlas-wide international contracts. Provider Orders, needless to say, are where the big bucks are.

Elite Provider Orders

Next, we have what I call Elite Provider Orders. These are the prestigious organizations which are usually associated with a higher government body like the Order of Tian who is servicing the 4th Estate in “The Dynasty”. Rather than poach from the Universities, these orders seek to bring talented and prospective Mages into the fold from an early age - all the better to foster a sense of purpose, duty, loyalty and adherence to the Order’s Traditions.

Mage Guilds

On a smaller scale, we find Mage Guilds. If a citizen requires healing, if an independent farmer has a pest problem or any other issue disconnected from a larger organization arises, it is a Mage Guild that will answer the call. These Guilds work locally and are often run by a committee. This is especially true around the Boon & in the West where the committee is many hundreds of years old. Although they have less geopolitical influence then other Orders, they are very influential locally, as having an effective and well organized Mage Guild will be a great blessing to any community.

Freelance Mages

Of course there are also Freelance Mages - maybe because they didn’t meet the official requirements or because they simply did not want to share a cut of their profit with a third party. These mages never agreed to or managed to cancel their contract, creating their own business as they wish. Some simply wander from town to town in search of work, sometimes doing jobs which do not even require their special skills. Others are highly sought after for their abilities but will only agree to contracts on their own terms and with 100% of the revenue going into their own pockets.

Closed Orders

Although since the Stock Market Boom in the early 800s they are an ever less frequent sight, closed Orders still exist today. They train their own Mages but then retain them and dedicate themselves to the religious pursuit of finding the right answers to the question of meaning and to contemplate better ways of living. They sometimes decisively engage in social crises but exist as self-sustaining monasteries away from all financial incentives and interactions.

Additional Stage

Looking into One’s Shadow

I hope this presentation on Radiant Magic contained at least some new information for all of you. However, I have one more thing to share - something quite exciting.

During the visit of the Order of Tian the apprentices would go through a special stage: Making contact with a Shadow Soul.

I was not permitted to watch it initially. Already aware of it being a special procedure we insisted and eventually two days before we were scheduled to leave I was let in as an apprentice was establishing a connection.

He had trained for a month to withstand the psychological pressure.

Now: I am aware that many of you might not be aware of the fact that a Shadow Soul needs to be intercepted on its way towards the depths of the earth. There, in deep caves where the “Haunting” makes survival an implausibility, expeditionary forces are tasked with locating them on their way down.

This makes them very valuable and not many Orders believe it to be a worthwhile investment.

But the Order of Tian owns two such passageways into the Shadows and it trains the students there to prepare themselves mentally.

The exercise is meant to show them the dark side of humanity, to have them look into what life can erode to - a type of cautionary experience. It was made very clear to me: The Order will not use this exercise for magic but for the purpose of looking into one’s own Soul.

This needs to be a very controlled experiment.

Radiant Souls usually are hard to awaken and one has to gain their trust. This is because they have something to give and they only give when and how they see fit.

A Shadow Soul will reach out for you, is up for anything and oftentimes makes an active effort to make you lose yourself or abuse the energy the Soul can provide you. It wishes to corrupt.

Sitting some distance away, I observed the apprentice stare into the sky and wondered what it was he was thinking, what he was seeing as in front of her the shadows in the soul slowly moved in a circular manner.

And then, a second later, his head snapped towards me and a bolt of lightning flooded out of his fingers and towards my very seat. Fortunately, as it turned out, he was not yet skilled enough to aim or control the energy properly so I came away with a few singed hairs and slightly stunned from the shockwave of the pillar exploding behind me from the impact of the flash.

After she was parted from the Soul and the situation had de-escalated, one of the mages who lead the experiment explained to me that the Shadow Mages were uniquely able to channel raw energy: Fire, lighting, storms.

There is a concerning trend in some of our eastern countries to accept Shadow Mages to practice their abilities in preparation and application for warfare. After seeing how easily a Shadow Soul was able to corrupt this prepared trainee - and how destructive the magic it produces is even with no training - I believe the Shadow Mages application in warfare is inevitable. I strongly advice - despite the disadvantage - not to be tempted to join into an arms raise. It will have dark and lasting repercussions on our own societies.

The Choice

Today I will be trying to convert you to every single major religion on the Soul Atlas to show you their merits.

Of course, if you lived in the earlier centuries, you were born into a family which already believed in a religion. Though some of us made up our minds and switched beliefs. Here are your two main choices from the age of resettlement (0 YT):

Edany

The Nature Goddess of Chaos, Akash, has been nothing but destructive. She has sent the beasts. She has sent plagues - some that simply kill you - but others unnecessarily cruel: causing insanity, liquifying you from the inside or causing larvae to grow within you. She has created the Haunting to prevent you from reaching the depths of the world where she lives and giant sea creatures that prevent you from reaching far out into the Oceans. She is even believed to sometimes walk amongst the people in order to seed dark and murderous thoughts. And there is nothing but mankind to stand in her way.

It is through the absence of any other power clearly self-evident that there is only one God(ess) - and she is evil. All that she possesses will, upon their death, fall back into the ground to reunite with her - evil to evil.

Only the human community can overcome Chaos. If you wish to prevent your Soul from being sucked below after your death: You must create meaning for yourself. Protect the human community. Strengthen it. Build it. Let us face the darkness, the uncertainty and the cruelty together. To overcome our doom.

Everyone who has lived a life of rightfulness and service may prevail amongst the living or peacefully sleep on the surface of the earth.

Now you might think this way of thinking is suspect or contemptible. Most likely because you were brought up differently. It is possible that your set of beliefs looked quite different, more like:

Ancestor Reverence

Nature Goddess, Awa, has challenged mankind since its inception. We have not grown strong in spite of her but because of her. She nourishes us, allows our crops to grow plentifully, our animals to be healthy, she lightens our labour with her rains and when tired she allows us to cool ourselves in her meandering streams. She is not just the rivers, but also the wide lush fields or the shade that protects from the sun.

She challenges us to establish Order.

She has sent forward the Beasts so that the best among us might distinguish themselves. She has forced us against her creations so that we might rally in their pursuit. So that our resolve and the capabilities of our community might be strengthened.

On our day of judgement she bestows upon us a soul tree to protect our soul should we be worthy and she recalls us to the depths to be punished if we are not.

Awa leaves those most worthy among us so we may study them, revere them and aspire to live up to, or even surpass their ideals. These we call Reverends. If you want to be both challenged and blessed, you may join us. We will provide you with the community, the rituals and the support to overcome the dark times and find meaning through ordering the chaos.

It is actually remarkable - although they dislike hearing it - how similar both the aforementioned schools of belief are in their conclusion. The reason for it seems to be that both religions sprang from different interpretations of the same ancient religious texts, known as the Antigo, written by the Ancient Prophet and referred to usually like: “As written by the Ancient Prophet in the Story of the Three Valleys …”

Of course, there is the odd one out. The Religion that was always chosen by a few and never abandoned. It has essentially no atlas wide institutions and is independently believed by many who consume Soul Tree Extract. It goes by the collective name of Nature Worship:

Nature Worship

At the beginning of time, the great Mother met the first man on the face of the barren Atlas. With the help of her spirits, she enchanted him like she had done with so many before and placed him on her belly where she could see him for as long as she wished. He wandered around there, enjoying her closeness at first, but eventually, growing weary, he demanded to continue his journey. Not wanting him to leave, she created around him a jungle surrounded by deep waters and filled these places with dangerous beasts & to keep him company she birthed many animals and spirits to accompany man and to do her bidding. Soon after creating the jungle, water & beasts she fell into a deep sleep and has not awoken since. It is said she will awake when man has built a home where the two of them may live together. Man, growing weary of his imprisoned comfort went on to fight her creations through the jungle in order to free himself.

Using the Souls of the Ancestors and calling upon the good spirits you may become an Apostle of this creed, builder of the long-awaited home of the mother.

However, align yourself with the shadow soul’s whispers and demon spirits, a deceitful entity born from human treachery, and you will fall and all of Mother's realm will have her revenge when she awakens.

Until the year 400YT roughly these were your only choices. A few minor sects and cults were created but these only garnered small followings. Though towards the end of the Age of Honour - which I am sure my colleague Blue-Antares will touch on - a new splinter sect of Edany gained popularity:

Star Edany

The Edanists and Star Edanists agree: Akash is the correct interpretation of the Goddess under the Atlas.

Akash, undoubtably, is evil beyond measure. But nonetheless, there is good in the world. Fortune is brought to us by the Sun Goddess Sorna and at night our moon couple Lua (small moon) and Gatar (big moon) watch over us. We see it as our duty to cut down the Soul Trees so the Souls may drift skywards to become stars, reunited with the embrace of the gods that watch over us.

It has never been up to such humble creatures as humans to decide all the ends of the world. It has always been a divine struggle between powers far beyond our grasp. One day our ancestors will be so many in the sky that you can see by night like you can see by day so that no evil might hide in the shadows ever again.

Edanists and Star Edanists did not get along very well. Mainly because Edanists thought Star Edanists to be heretics who handed their destiny to some made-up gods who they had never managed to establish proper contact with. On the other hand, Star Edanists thought Edanists were way too serious and arrogant to believe they were in control of the universe.

Anyways - this resulted in a series of bloody conflicts. Embittered by this deep divide the middle north (Star Edanist) and the middle south (Edanist) fought each other in the Edanic Crusade.

From this brutal period which intermingled with the Age of Empires came an intense desire to rise above the violence. Out of it was born Theozen, a very different kind of school of thought and more of a philosophy than a religion:

Theozen

There are too many wars fought over mere speculation, too many friendships broken, too much division between people we love because we know them and people we hate because we don’t. Yet we can surely see that there is a divine power at work in our Atlas. It is therefore our burden as the priesthood of Theozen to travel from country to country, to extract wisdom about the divine from all myths of creation and all Ancestor Souls. We will connect with nature through the Soul Tree Extract and we will call upon the Shiru’s from all over the Atlas to gather wisdom from people of all classes.

From our age-old burden comes the great “Book of the Divine” printed over and over again to contain the old and the new wisdom alike. You may not initially believe but once you read our book you will find it difficult to continue an unbeliever.

Join us in Tribute and in Gratitude.

Theozen gained extreme popularity during the Age of Invention and saw an additional increase during the Moral Revolution. Generally, time periods in which people were well fed and the future looked bright, people would go to visit the Theozen Temples to read from the great Book of the Divine and they would sit and talk with the priests. Many Ancestor Reverends and Edanists converted to Theozen as they were looking for a way out of the rigid norms and traditions they had been forced to adhere to.

But Theozen, clearly being manmade and simply comprehending the divine was not enough to sway cultures and peoples during dark times and so they would fall back on praying to their old deities, searching for guidance from the beyond.

When in the year 994 the great recession brought down the established world order and left the Immortal Kingdom in ruins, the allure of another pseudo-religion spread, finally finding roots in Castodia where it developed and here is what they believed:

Honordom

Who are you to interpret the will of the Souls, the wisdom of the Ancestors? You must give them to the honorable Tribunal. There we will make sure that Akash, Edany’s Goddess of Chaos, has not infested their wisdom. In this tribunal those trained to be doing just this will extract the will of the Ancients, the wisdom of those before us and there we will also find the truth about past attrocities.

It is through this process that they may come forth to reveal the God Emperor/God Emperess chosen by the will of the Souls. This one person, the highest of all relevant ideals, shall be the ruler of the nations. They shall know good from evil better then anybody else. Those they choose to do the peoples bidding will be divinely so. Their decisions may feel irrational given their long term understanding as society will be one sunrise at the time lifted towards the highest Ideals.

Now this came at a time where the world was in disarray and where nothing was more needed then a divine ruler to right the wrongs of the world. This is why it managed to spread through Castodia, Frengenland and Catomea (where it was the cause for civil war). Unfortunately it had a crucial weakness as a functioning religion existing mostly for humanities wellbeing: The “Order of Sol” which appointed the Ruler would take their cut of tax profits in return for keeping the Emperor in chair. They could not choose competent rulers who would see through the façade of the “selection” just being a hoax. In reality the Souls which were collected from grieving families (sometimes by force) were dumped down a hatch in the many Temples across the country. Then the Order in charge of these Temples would declare who or what was useful to them as the divine will. They would then go on to choose puppet emperors who they could control, often rulering from the shadows. Honordom countries eventually locked down fully. Becoming fervent separatists. Now nobody really leaves or enters anymore. Honordom is now a state religion in Frengenland, New Catomea, Castodia (and “Malar” a splinter that was gifted directly to the Order of Sol to build their pilgrimage site) and recently after a bloody civil war, Amurea.

After hearing of all these changes, crusades and instability. One can understand why Reverends swear on their view about rigid traditions and order.

But there is another religion maybe even more resistant to change:

Below the water levels where almost exclusively submerged people live there is a religion that is the most common and wide spread in underwater civilizations: Pantheon. From Aqflama, to Etlentis to Lua people believe in the Gods of the Depth:

Pantheon

From the deep bottomless dark into which no one has ever ventured the gods watch you. Everyone of them has their own virtue - honor, truth, loyalty and more in mind, asking you to live up to their standards. Of course appeasing all gods is impossible as we are mere mortals. Therefore every city or settlement must select one god such as for example Uminur, the God of Bravery (in the face of darkness). A guardian shall be selected to represent your town and together with other settlements and towns as many virtues as possible shall be represented.

In times of conflict there is no need for unnecessary bloodshed if the guardians of a city are proper. Elected by the people, the guardian may be the defender of the cities virtue. An attack on the city is an attack on its virtue and therefore the guardian is asked to step forward and in a dual with the enemy guardian defend the claim to the cities god. These duals will take place in the great temples of fate, guardians swimming above the deep dark with the bottom open so the gods may watch.

May you too take on the virtue of the gods, devote your life to a higher ideal.

Now Pantheon has existed in the depths for longer then perhaps any other religions. Its simplicity of devotion to one ideal before everyone else's and its way of structuring society in a relatively peacefully manner have made it stick around for longer. These beliefs are so intertwined with society that they only ever risk being forfeited if outsiders come in or if the submerged ascend to the land.

We believe that our little world is the whole world. Even those of us in positions of power, where we have to consider many little worlds at the same time sometimes experience trouble understanding all these realities. Therefore I present to you some carefully acquired and edited first-person accounts of what life is like in the strangest places to be found on the Atlas.

Life is different

In Submerged Countries

We have lived down here for over generations. With the help of Radiant Magic thousands of years ago, we started to settle underwater towns and villages. Our thick-walled houses are well stocked with the water tongue plant, which turns water into breathable air for those accustomed. You may enter the houses through a small floodgate as a door but don’t be surprised by the warmth: That’s just the furnace because our best friend the water tongue likes it warm. Sometimes when pests get into our plants we might need to spend some time with neighbors as we clean out our house.

When we travel we make use of our abilities to stop breathing for many hours or even days depending on our health and age. Our various sign languages are of great help whilst we go about our business outside. We usually do so no further than 20 maybe a few more meters below the water surface. After all, there is very little light that reaches this deep- even during the day. And of course the water pressure there is immense.

Additionally settling near a deep rift, pit or the “deep bottomless dark” as we like to call it, is inadvisable. Mostly due to the possibility of lurking predators which are hard to hunt as they can always return into the darkness to where we can not follow.

Of course, sometimes we have to move between settlements using the Yperetis carriages or as a single rider and this is usually a scary experience - especially by night where everything that surrounds you is dark and your Algae or Soul Lantern will not hit any landmarks for days on end. Usually, people travel in convoys or with bigger submarines to keep predators such as the fierce Terroryba (or Red Terrorfish), the Hollowshriek or Mutheci Shark away.

In Underground Countries

Our Caves are made of stone - either by nature, by us or the civilization before us - and in them, little grows that can illuminate the expansive darkness with the exception of some moss species and fungi. But if you lay down a good bit of earth from the above world you will be able to grow with a handful of Lumotropic jungle seeds a whole glowing jungle down here.

Our cities are now illuminated in all kinds of ways and only seldom when travelling to the surface do we see the sunlight.

You, of course, need to be careful to always eat your Kergtaim (a silvery glowing moss) otherwise you will get sick from being down under for to long.

On the topic of getting sick: Your city or settlement needs to be built near a rift or vertical shaft due to the sewage system needing to have somewhere to flow. If this is not the case - do not stay there. The disease will catch you. This often makes lower levels of below-ground cities a very illness-ridden and stinking affair.

But you shouldn’t go there anyways - the deeper you go the higher the risk of being caught by the “Haunting”. Endless archaeological expeditions looking for old dungeons, halls and shadow souls have disappeared without notice. People who live down here know that the very lowest caves are literally alive. The walls of the caves move as strange roots try to strangle you and the strangest and most terrifying beasts stand guard aside elusive demon spirits.

Of course, there is, with a few exceptions, when travelling between cities no need to go down there. You can today manage most of these travels on higher routes or using the tunnel express - a Fagaerium held floating train powered by horses on board that propels passengers through tunnels at enormous speeds.

Many of the tunnels we use to travel have been left to us by the ancients whose remains are to be found to this very day throughout the cave networks of the Atlas. We honor them with the release of their Souls skywards because we owe them many of our most impressive - and frankly impossible to recreate - halls.

In the Hot North

I live in Zaria, a city in the Acilantran state. Most of our town is underground and this is the design for the majority of our cities here in the North. The parts of the town which are outside are made to be walked through when the days are cooler, from sunset, through the night & into the early hours of the morning. We usually sleep during the day and go about our business from the evening onward. It is at this time you can behold the glow of a thousand lights illuminating our Night Cities.

Of course, the reason for this is the burning sun. Everywhere beyond the cloud and mountain-protected Reonur mountains along the costs of Acilantra, Sokuzan and of course Follon we never stay out for more than three glasses at a time without big coolers which can help us survive out here for an hour or more.

There are few fields of desert grain, which have the peculiar behavior, at least for foreigners, to sink into the ground when the days are too hot. A variety of cacti are a common dietary staple as well. Yet we still often experience difficult times if for whatever reason our food imports from Sokuzan or Catelon are interrupted or delayed.

Travelling above ground is usually quite difficult for this reason with us needing to exchange our coolers every hour walking from sunbunker to sunbunker. Of course traveling tThis is helped by the great “Dark Tanaman”. Its roots extend far into the depths breaking open the stone & creating habitable rifts for us to live in. And of course one can travel by night - an option that has become more viable over the last centuries as dragons and other wild predators have been driven away from the most important routes.

If you want to traverse the sea for a journey longer than a single night you must usually do so until you reach the Togu Naga Coast, Reonur or deeper down the Sokuzan Delta in a submarine. It’s usually pulled by Yperetis and if you are within a trade convoy you need to be acknowledged by the submerged civilizations whose territory you are passing through. Our great underground ports are hidden, but impressive sights to behold.

In the Cold South

If you go far enough south, the snow almost never melts. Out of the endless snow we have carved our civilizations of which there are three - Freya, Caletsa and of course the “Sehwitar” - a group of people so closed off that they will not even talk to us fellow southlings. Down here we consider ourselves the countries of the Sled rather than the countries of the Wheel. But much of our treacherous terrain really requires airships to traverse which was one of the reasons why the most important Inventions for air travel tend to come from Freya.

Life out here is hard. This hostile place cannot sustain many people. Only the toughest like our ancestors. They were mostly builders & hunters. This shifted with the discovery of Fagaerium and now Freya owns the valuable Fagaerium-rich mountains whilst Caletsa is barely holding on leading to two very different experiences:

In Freya you may live in stone houses, often frequenting Ice Temples, flying between your destinations and be more likely to be funded by the Aristocracy to do more creative labour.

In Caletsa all live an arduous existence deep within the frozen ground. Coal and crude oils are burnt for warmth and for lighting their underground cities. These very ragged housings are carved almost exclusively from glacial blocks or as tunnels into the ice.

We have always been resistant to the cold ever since our forefathers and mothers travelled down here in the First Age. But new Freya has become too acquainted with the warmth. They now rely too heavily on their ovens and stone buildings. Often for hours on end comfortably conversing in their furnace-heated studies and palaces. Of course not everyone lives this way - think of the Fagaerium mines and the hard labour at unforgiving temperatures.

Many have already left, and there is a slow, but steady exodus south - even Freya, the once proud country that was so horribly beaten in the Aristocracy Wars, has been on a steady decline till this very day.

The Ages

I wish I could give you a full and true history today, ladies and gentleman. But of course, that is impossible. Today we live in Ynorian time and carefully record the many goings on of our world. But there was a time before Ynorian time and civilizations before ours. We have discovered their smoldering ruins. We have learned that their abilities equaled or even exceeded ours. The scant surviving artefacts they imbued with magic – an art we have yet to rediscover – have played an important role in warfare, special operations, magic and science. Why these civilizations fell we are not sure.

Some of the theories will be brought forward on the second day as understanding how such doom was possible is surely important to the security of our civilization today. For now, I shall stick to the facts.

The First Age

Facts such as these: The First Age began with the creation of Ynorian time. In the great tower of Ynoria's Capital, the Sunset City, a colossal hourglass tower was built, which spins eternally, setting the standard time for the whole Atlas.

We know very little of this time because people left hardly any written texts and only a few pictures. We believe there were comparatively few humans - probably around 45 million in total and they were all crammed into the small country of Ynoria. Despite the existence of impressive temples, castles, roads and towns all over the known world, it truly seems as though none survived anywhere but Ynoria at this time. Of course, as the years went by, Ynorian settlers went out to claim these other lands, which today we believe were their old homes.

Those settlers faced a terrible foe. Known as “The Beasts.” These giant creatures of various shapes watchfully protected their territories and were always searching for human trespassers to kill. We believe that the existence of the beast caused an immense slowdown in expansion and made many people change their minds about leaving Ynoria. It also lead to most Eastern territories being settled about 300 years later than Western lands, which has contemporary consequences such as lower population density.

Those settlers who succeeded formed small communities with Old Edanist, Ancestor Reverend or Nature Worship traditions and did their best to hold on in the chaotic and deadly world they lived in.

It is from that time when humans lived like the rats under the floorboards that the most meaningful age of history, as it is dubbed by nostalgic (and not always very factual) reverend historians, came to pass:

Age of Honour

This age grew out of the need for stability and safety. Small communities and caravans had little ability to care for themselves or truly face the threat of beasts. Humanity was mostly a fractured people of very small tribes – again, outside of Ynoria, at least.

But people found a way. Inspired by Ancestor Reverence or Old Edany's ideas of how people should treat each other, Kings and Queens put themselves forward with the intention of forming a safe haven for their people. They managed to organize greater tribes of humans which eventually formed proper kingdoms.

Together, it was now possible to fight against the beasts, rather than only run. Humans started to claim territory permanently. Kingdoms grew, as towns and villages thrived in open, relatively safe terrain.

Honor was what made this possible. Soldiers who protected us against the Beasts and other creatures of danger were held in high esteem. To serve the country was an Honor and to live a life of Honor was a life of the highest meaning.

Age of Imperials

The defining characteristic of the Age of Empires (also Age of Imperials) is war and crusade. Battle lines began to be drawn not just over territory, but religion. A new sect – “Star Edany” - began to rapidly polarize the population. Soon, kingdoms started to suspend their independence temporarily to go to war against their ideological enemy.

The first and most famous example of such a crusade was, after the “Purge of Agaiatar” in which local Star Edanists were widely killed, the “Crusade for Mankind’s Soul” as it became known by both sides.

Age of Aristocrates

The Age of Invention, often also called “The Age of Aristocrates”, was triggered by the elegant concept of the propeller.

In the previous ages, air travel had been very expensive and slow. Usually, ships were carved from a Fagerium-rich stone and propelled forward by many rowers with giant paddles. Nobody had yet thought of a way to load or unload the Fagerium which would make airships hover so the airships were fixed to a certain height, making it relatively impractical for most civilizations except for those living in the flying mountains.

On the other hand travel over land was often full of dangers. Not only were the roads constantly besieged by wild animals and beasts but also by robbers, pirates, foreign raiding parties and to top it all off, not a lot of material could be transported on any single cart.

The New Age

In 994 YT the economic bubble burst in what came to be known as the first Atlaswide Financial Collapse. The collapse was triggered by a run on the Immortal Bank, which lacked sufficient precious metal reserves and was forced to suspend convertibility. Its Terraci Bonds collapsed, as did other overleveraged bonds all over the world. The value of many assets, especially stocks and bonds, evaporated.

Never before had the world economy faced such a scale of unemployment and such a degree of catastrophe. It was unclear whom to blame.

This led to a period of extreme instability. Acilantra disintegrated. Togu Naga and Reonur gained their independence. Valano and Ynoria were severely destabilized.

But without a doubt, it was the central west that was hit hardest. There, the whole Edanistic World collapsed. Where the so-called Immortal Kingdom had once stood, only a fractured, anarchistic political wasteland remained. There, countless petty Lords feud over their individual provinces – collectively, these fractured holdings are known as “The Dukedoms.”

Even today, a clear political order has not been established in this region, although Morou, Harlon Eru and Frengenland have founded nation-states with defined borders. These countries have had variable degrees of success in stabilizing their population and are therefore not officially part of “The Dukedoms,” despite existing in the former holdings of the Immortal Kingdom.

Meanwhile, the countries of the middle east turned to Honordom as a method to avoid collapse and protect the power of the ruling elite. Notable to the east of this region is the Dynasty, which weathered the crisis shockingly well and evaded Honordom expansion. They were able to do so because they had a stable native currency, strong domestic markets and because they had taken great advantage of the rubber revolution.

A word on that revolution: around the year 900 people had started experimenting with Rubber as a material. It found first use in slingshots, and eventually repeater slingshots replaced repeat shot bows. Their smaller ammunition proved to be a great boon to clip capacity, ammunition storage, and logistics. After the technology had found use in the military it reached civilian life where rubber hammers and presses were invented. The press could be hooked up to a water wheel on a river, store the rivers energy and then deliver it as needed. This created factories, assembly lines, standardized airship models and cities strategically positioned on rivers filled their towns with industry as factory made commodities swept the market and materials like iron was more widely then ever forged and used on mass. Although this technology emerged around the beginning of the new millennium only few countries were able to make effective use of it, embroiled in civil strife and financial collapse as they were.

Yet Honordom countries succeeded here, and indeed we can trace much of their present influence to humble rubber.

While some countries struggled and others thrived in any given moment, the reality was that technological progress continued to march on. As production facilities and dependencies of countries became more sophisticated (just like the financial market had become before the initial collapse), countries were forced to rethink national security issues.

The whole system of interlinking parts to, for example, make the Air Force a reliable weapon in uncertain times, required an extraordinary amount of different resources, specialized facilities and logistics between these to work properly and be effective during wartime.

This led to an array of wars in which a new kind of manoeuvre warfare was used which devastated earlier powerful nations. This was the main reason for the rise of the Sokuzan Confederation which attacked the Yatur Empires at crucial weak links, unsecured ammunition factories, airports and general infrastructure, instead of attacking the armed forces directly.

At the same time, Honordom expanded. After they secured all Fagerium Mountains from Norus, which remained at a fraction of its former strength, they advanced West.

In Amurea around 1079YT a civil war broke out fomented by heavy Honordom-funded propaganda. It was in a way the most significant event in the East in the last century as it saw the involvement of both the Dynasty and the Holy Empires, especially Castodia, which both officially (or unofficially in the Dynasties’ case) backed one of the two sides in the conflict, leading to the defeat of the Dynasty backed rebels and the adoption of Honordom in Amurea. The Country was first led by a puppet government and later officially integrated into the Holy Empire in 1088YT.