Groups of people band together because they share a common ideology, goal or simply for mutual interest.
The following pages describe the principal organizations existing in Veridia, giving an insight about their history, structure and diplomacy.
- Magic Council
- In-depth: Magic in warfare
- Church
- Psychic Order
- Mage Order
- Blood Order
- Time Order
- Knights of the Sun
- In-depth: Way to knighthood
- Defenders of the wilderness
- Magitech Ministry
- Martial arts schools
The history of magic is a topic that can't be discussed without introducing the Council.
Magic is undoubtedly an old art; however, the first users couldn't even imagine the impact that spellcrafting had and still has on Veridia. Innumerous studies, theories and spells have been endorsed by the Council, making it a symbol of progress and culture.
The Magic Council itself was conceived by great Cerunian sages. In the third century magic had not yet seen widespread diffusion, neither was it a reality known only to few enlightened.
More than half of all Veridian wizards lived in Cerunia; many of them were born in distant countries, but felt the necessity to get closer to the epicenter of new spells' discoveries. At the time, studying magic meant a life of sacrifices due to the lack of financial incentives from the majority of the nobles, who took perhaps too many decades to realize the importance of wizardry.
The most knowledgeable wizards worked hard to gain the necessary resources to set up an independent organization, having the sole aim of researching the magic arts. They released the first proper compendium of spells, called 'Principles of elemental mastery'. Shortly after, the Magic Council was established by the same individuals and practically every wizard in Cerunia joined with enthusiasm.
The Council's presence boosted immensely the rate at which new spells and enchants were discovered. On the bad side, it gave momentum to the subtle dislike between the Cerunian wizards, who were now Council's supporters, and the wizards living in other place of Veridia, who wanted to pursue their studies in autonomy.
With Larrel Terious' rise to power as head archmage of the Council, the situation turned to the worst possible outcome. The Council approved several dispositions to put unauthorized wizards in grave disadvantage. Initially non-members were denied the possibility of following lectures; some years after, they couldn't even access the books stored in the affiliated libraries. However, none of those poorly disguised attempts at forcing unlicensed wizards to join had much success, worse, groups openly opposing the Archmage became a reality.
Larrel decided to put an end to all oppositions inside the magic society by declaring wanted all wizards devoid of a license, with the accuse of performing dangerous spellcrafting. Amusingly, several rogue wizards (as they were commonly called) were indeed studying deprived forms of magic or were conducting cruel experiments, still they were only a tiny part of the total independent practitioners.
In the sixth century the rogue wizards hunt reached its peak. The Council involved the Church and the Empire in its attempt to eradicate the outlaws. By the way, Emperors never cared much about the matter and gave a modest contribution only to preserve their alliance with the Inner Circle.
When the Mage Order began its quest to cleanse Veridia from vicious spellcrafters, the Council struggled to keep the hunt going. The knights' efforts to discern the true rotten wizards from the legit ones led to roughly the same amount of accusations towards licensed casters and independents. It was then clear that the hate against unaffiliated wizards wasn't well motivated; new, more tolerant policies were adopted by the Council, including partial memberships and, most importantly, a license wasn't needed anymore to practice magic.
In the following centuries the Magic Council cemented its power first and foremost in Cerunia, keeping also strong ties with the other western Veridia countries and with Belusa.
The Council is a strongly centralized organization. It's a custom for all highly influential wizards to live and work in Cerunia.
Each member of the Inner Circle has the right to claim one of the twelve towers as his personal workshop. The thirteenth and most imposing tower is the favored place for the Council's reunions; here, in absolute reservedness, the archmages take all non trivial decisions concerning the magic society.
The position of ultimate leader, called the high archmage, is not always occupied by someone, rather, it's more often than not left vacant. After all, it's rare for a wizard to have so much power to be able to control the whole Inner Circle.
Members of the middle and the lower classes of spellcrafters are by now present in every corner of Veridia; even the weakest noble of a isolated town in Belusa has probably a court wizard, sent by the Council, at his service.
Status and appointments in the magic society are gained mostly by merit. Charisma and well chosen words can only net a small advancement in a wizard's career; when the role is one of relevance the candidate must possess the appropriate skill set and knowledge.
The three main activities supervised by the Council are research, teaching magic and territory surveillance.
Research is frequently the wizards' favorite job; many of them, after taking care of their daily duties, devote some hours to experiment new spells or techniques.
Only exceptional spellcrafters have the luxury of doing full-time researching. Archmages, for example, like to keep their mind focused on studies whenever they aren't busy with administrative stuff.
Many experienced yet not very talented wizards aim for a teaching position. It's surely a profession worth of respect, almost always entailing a comfortable life in Cerunia and a good reputation. By the way, the old tradition of occasionally choosing a disciple and nurturing his talents it still practiced by wizards, even in this age.
Territory surveillance is a new name for an old task: apprehending malicious magic users. The whole investigation routines have been completely overhauled from the past; far are the times of inconsequential accusations and fake trials. Despite the Council's great efforts and numbers, the Mage knights remain the most feared enemies of every rogue wizard, or better, of the ones dangerous enough to draw their attention.
Feeling too weak, from a military point of view, when confronted with the Mages, two centuries ago the Council created a special unit composed of battle hardened soldiers. The wardens, as they are called, follow blindly the archmages' orders, who in turn are fully responsible for their upkeep.
Wardens are equipped with state of the art weapons and armors; they also have access to custom made seals that can be used by normal people to cast simple spells.
Magic is the art with the biggest impact on human society, thus is only natural for the Inner Circle to be in good terms with nearly all Veridian countries.
Faragar is one of the few places where the Council doesn't have any influence on the local government. Wizards are welcomed and some schools are even financially supported by the state, but magic is seen only for what it is: a useful, ambitious discipline with many practical applications; therefore, in Faragar, the Council find itself unable to overstep its role as cultural institution and exert political leverage.
The Council has not yet extended its area of influence to include the islands, mostly because it doesn't care about such a low populated region, partially plagued by pirates or other kinds of troublemakers.
The Mage Order is a long time rival of the Council. The latter is the party most inclined to go to the offensive, trying to damage the other one's reputation and credibility. In spite of the occasional little disputes and the philosophical divergences between these two powers, we can safely assume that Cerunia's political situation is quite stable.
Lastly, there's the Council's hated archenemy, the Magitech Ministry. If you were to ask a wizard what is wrong with magitech, he'd answer: everything; the methodology, the attitude, the principles, they are all considered a disgrace to magic.
It goes without saying that the archmages never side with Izarea. In addition, they strongly advice wizards to avoid going there altogether; and it's not like the Ministry would allow an abundant usage of spells, either.
Luckily the animosity has not yet evolved from a total refusal of each other's methods to a violent conflict.
Humans are naturally fascinated by the capabilities of spellcrafting; in fact, many wizards dedicated their whole lives to understand magic and to develop new kinds of spells. Still, it would be naive to think that curiosity is the only motive behind magic researches. A myriad of spells exist only to aid people in doing what they seem to love the most: war.
The categories in which these spells can be classified are a lot and they slightly vary from school to school, but the general roles that a wizard can fulfill in battle are by now common knowledge.
The first, most basic, role is the all around spellcrafter; he knows a wide set of spells without specializing in any particular class. In many countries this's the best magical support you can find, except, maybe, if you have very good connections.
Healing is a straightforward task, almost exclusively performed by a druid or a priest. It should be hard to find one of them in an army, but considering the Church's moral flexibility, it's instead quite common to see men of faith walking around in battlefields.
The typical Cerunian magic schools' arrogance translates in a very aggressive approach to war from their wizards. They serve as a heavy offensive force specialized in destructive elemental spells, although at the same time poorly adept at following even basic war tactics.
In Lyr, the so-called battlemages are well trained in military disciplines and what they lack in spellcrafing expertise is compensated by a flawless coordination with the other soldiers. Lyran wizards are middle to close range fighters, or, more rarely, dedicated supporters.
Finally, it may happen that an army uses the aid of a summoner to boost its numbers with conjured creatures.
The origins of the Veridian Church are ancient but, before it, primitive religious cults already existed.
In the distant past people of Veridia were not ardent believers. In some places, in both the West and the North, legends spoke of mysterious entities and spirits; with time, the commoners began to fear and respect these being, often telling stories about them with the intent of scaring strangers or impressing the neighboring towns.
However, no provincial legend ever compared to the events surrounding the Church's birth.
The idea of a supreme entity's existence didn't spread until Saint Agatha journeyed through Veridia to preach about 'God' to people of any race, wealth and status. Her speeches were met with interest and joy by many, along with indifference by a small minority; the absence of an already established strong cult, united with Agatha's rare charisma and presence, were the winning factors of her campaign.
Soon, the newly founded religion gained a huge amount of power and influence; converted nobles and merchants alike took advantage of the situation to shape an infrastructure having, on paper, the sole purpose of serving the faith. It came to be known as the Church.
Agatha didn't take part in the Church's conception, neither was she a high ranked member during any moment of her life. More correctly, the cardinals didn't have enough time to give her an appropriate position before the woman went missing in that same year, the 430, after completing a journey in Rasantis. There were rumors depicting Agatha as a troubled person, unable to cope with her immense popularity, while others talked about a supposed strained relationship with the cardinals. Whether she died or she travelled to a faraway country, there are no records able to clarify the mystery.
Religion followers were shocked by Agatha's disappearance. The Church swiftly calmed their spirits through intense speeches and by making the woman the first Saint in history.
But how did the existing Veridian kingdoms react to the Church's rise to power? Many kings and princes embraced the religion, yet very few of them felt joy when the cardinals started to meddle in their affairs; furthermore, they regretted their tolerant policies as soon as the Church showed its army to the world.
Strengthened by the people's enormous support, things were going very well for the believers, so well that Theodore, one of the most influential cardinal of his time, orchestrated the audacious plot leading to the Empire's creation.
Theodore was indeed a cunning man: he realized that by helping a king gain massive power, so large it would be impossible to handle alone, the Church could reap huge benefits, just by giving him support. Therefore, he chose the most fitting candidate, Milos Dupan, the king of Lyr, and promoted a pacific campaign of unification appealing to all western Veridia countries. The whole operation was very well conceived, in fact the only opposition encountered was made by few nobles, too attached to their independence, and by a mysterious group known as the 'Snakes', who didn't hesitate to use violence in order to sabotage the Empire's first steps.
The Snakes attempted many assassinations, aiming even at Theodore himself. Anyway, a powerful force within the Church, the Blood Order, dealt with the rebels once and for all, storming their bases and capturing their leader, though there were doubts about the latter's real identity – the true mastermind might have been someone else.
After the institution of the Empire, the Church was officially the Veridian people's religion. It gained so much power that even today a level-headed king would think twice before upsetting a prestigious member of the clergy.
A couple centuries later, the Church survived very well the Empire's fall. The cardinals were divided on which strategy to follow: one faction wanted to preserve what remained of the Empire or, alternatively, set up a similar centralized power, whilst another faction wished to hasten the dismantling, thinking that the Church would only strengthen its position if it were to continue alone on its path. In the end the two parties ended up working against each other, neither improving nor damaging the Church's standing.
Countless clerics were deeply involved in the Crusade, in particular for what concerned logistics and support on the field for the injured. Volunteers from every country joined forces with the knights and set sail to Belusa; the cardinals skillfully used this chance to improve the public image of the Church.
The Church is a very large organization built upon beliefs that are both old and vague. Often the same principles get interpreted in different ways by one follower in respect to another; this issue is the root cause behind the Church's distinctive sloppiness. Anyhow, many strengths compensate the not many weaknesses: widespread support from the people, great resources and a favourable diplomatic standpoint, to name a few.
The important decisions are made by the members at the top, namely the cardinals. Formally, they should be experts on spiritual matters but, in practice, they speak more easily of politics than of faith.
On a step below lie the bishops, who serve as religious heads of a moderately sized community or as councillors for a cardinal. In western Veridia and all the more in Luminia, bishops are strongly focused on their career, always aiming for a promotion. Nevertheless, it's perfectly possible to find truly humble bishops, men of faith with a gentle heart; the sad truth is that they rarely manage to get a cardinal's seat.
Going lower in the hierarchy, the number of ardent followers of God increases. Those who don't indulge in zealotry are good men who spend their lives trying to improve others' living and spiritual conditions.
In conclusion, the Church has many examples of extreme opposites, which make practically impossible to judge the organization as a whole.
The Church has set up a vast net of diplomatic deals, by far the widest of any Veridian power.
Of foremost importance is the close collaboration with the Blood Order, a reliable military force whose history is closely interwoven with the Church's one. Priests and missionaries have great confidence in the knights' skills and moral prowess; often taken as a role model, the knights feel a strong sense of duty towards the believers. Cardinals have quite a different opinion about the Order: they see it as a powerful yet stubborn ally. The Church goes to great lengths to maintain a good dialogue with the knights; sometimes even influential cardinals must abandon their course of action because the Order is firmly opposed to it.
The royal dynasty of Lyr is a solid ally of the Church since the Empire's era. After the split with Rasantis, Lyr has kept a friendly attitude towards the believers, allowing the construction of many monasteries scattered around the capital, Leistander, and on the shoreline.
The situation in Rasantis, unsurprisingly, is a complicated mess. There are both nobles officially supported by the Church and nobles entangled in some cardinal's plot; other nobles state to be followers of God yet they fight against a more 'blessed' lord. The latter eventually come asking for the Church's military aid in order to overcome his adversary.
Mercenary companies work indifferently for a cardinal or against one; an exception are the 'Fists of Iskelar', who accept only contracts approved by a religious authority.
Faragar is perhaps the civilized land where the Church has the least influence. There, people are free to worship whatever deity they choose and at the same time support for charitable initiatives isn't missing, but Psychic knights pay extra effort to ensure that the Church stays involved only in matters of spirituality.
In contrast to Faragar, Izarea's concentration of believers is far smaller. The important difference lies in the presence of few communities of fanatics that follow blindly certain cardinals' words, providing them a solid foothold in many of the country's bigger cities.
Cerunia represents a bold political rival, not so much because of its king, but more due to the presence of both the Magic Council and the Mage Order. Cardinals tried endless times to build a network of alliances, only to see their work compromised by the intervention of wizards backed by the Council. The dialogue with the Mages is left to the Blood knights who are proving to be capable of handling the task.
The Church recently turned its attention towards Belusa. The kingdom's heir is a man of strong faith, willing to heed the advices of the Luminian cardinals.
The Order of the Psychic knights was originally an idea of the noble Arthur Gurtis, who was part of an important family close to the Emperor's bloodline.
Arthur lived in Luminia and together with a small group of ambitious people, both noblemen and commoners, sought a new way to manipulate the inner energy, called 'fervor', already used by Blood knights.
The yet to be born Order struggled to get acknowledged at first, due to a severe lack of popularity and members; it was basically a very small circle, counting no more than twelve companions, none of whom was renown for any remarkable feat.
Arthur was planning to use his family's leverage to obtain an appointment directly from the Emperor. Unfortunately, Arthur waited too long; in the meantime his house had lost almost all its influence in the Capital, due to an unsuccessful political move.
Nonetheless, he asked the Emperor a chance to prove the worth of himself and of his comrades. His majesty didn't establish the new Order instantly, even though the psychic techniques showed him were extremely well crafted; instead, he gave them an unofficial command to move in Faragar and aid the army's front line, by clearing the land and securing safe places suitable to become future towns.
Arthur gladly accepted the proposal. He could go far away from the Empire's heart, where he wouldn't be discriminated for being part of a crumbling noble house.
So, Arthur and his fellow friends travelled to Faragar, where they helped the locals and the militia until the whole region was under the Empire's control. They had to wait few years more, but finally the Emperor called the warriors back in Iserith and officially knighted each one of them.
During their long permanence in Faragar, the Psychic knights grew fond of that land and its settlers, so much that they renounced to the right of having a stronghold in Luminia. In the end, the knights returned to Faragar to continue what they started one decade before.
The Psychic Order has its roots in Faragar. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that it's the organization most involved with the territory on which it resides.
The central headquarters are located in Logoroch, a city-castle in the middle of the region, at the bottom of the great mountains.
The Order maintains a nearly total control on whatever happens in Faragar. The Order's head, and consequently the country's leader, is the general of Logoroch; under him, several knights work as advisors and emissaries.
Members of the Order are divided in two equally important categories: the landmasters and the free force.
As the name suggests, landmasters have the task of governing the land; each city, town or fortress has its own one, appointed by the central headquarters. This also means that people outside the Order have little or no possibility of making a political career in Faragar. However, citizens never complained about this matter, neither about the fact that democracy is practically nonexistent: they are familiar only with this system and, up to now, the Order has never failed to met their expectations. Besides, the people's opinion regarding the appointed ruler is taken very seriously by the general. On the other hand, supervision over the general himself is done by his advisors in Logoroch. Many say that such method is not a sound one; while it has worked thus far, it's hard to contradict this critic.
According to foreign scholars, the landmasters are a political class on their own: only them could have led a very poor land such as Faragar to rise on par with Veridia's most powerful countries. What'd have happened if Faragar was instead a prosperous and culturally advanced place to start with? Could it has become a new empire? The scholars share the same opinion, namely that a rich state, with a well established social structure, wouldn't have let the Psychic knights take any power at all.
Surely landmasters deserve every bit of their reputation; they have to sacrifice everything for the sake of their city. When a landmaster is appointed he loses his last name and he won't be able to use it again, even if he gets demoted. His new last name will be the name of the city he is or was responsible for. Philosophically speaking, it means that his identity will forever be connected with that land and its inhabitants. Even more relevant is the brand new kinship acquired by the knight with every citizen: it is nearly equal, for importance and obligations, to parenthood. All these details indicate very clearly how much is the Order willing to take responsibility for the well-being of Faragar's people. It's worth remembering that, at least officially, the kinship is lost if the knight is transferred to another town, although it's indeed a rare event.
The conduct of a landmaster must be impeccable. Like another Psychic knight, he usually doesn't have personal possessions, he simply 'borrows' what he feels is needed for his job (weapons, clothes, means of transportation). There's no well defined limit to what a knight might ask; the people are trusting them to not take more than the strictly necessary.
Differently from travelling knights, landmasters reside permanently in their town's palace. Rumor has it they eat daily at a big table together with the poor, sharing food and shelter. Curiously, more than a few Faragar's visitors confirmed this tale.
Governing a city, especially a large one, is complex and time-consuming. To amend the issue, the chief knight is allowed to nominate collaborators freely; naturally, he's responsible for their conduct and misbehaviors.
The Psychic knights of the free force are a highly trained and powerful corps, capable of working in conjunction with the army, leading other soldiers, or acting in small units or even alone. The most common operations assigned to the free force are: reinforce a landmaster's territory, aid a fellow knight, diplomatic expeditions, missions outside Faragar and collaborations with other Orders.
Speaking of equipment, Psychic knights generally prefer to wear heavy composed plate armor while swords are the weapons of choice.
The Psychic Order decides not only its stance towards the other countries, but it's in charge of Faragar's entire diplomacy.
At east, with Izarea, the situation is frozen. Knights have no sympathies for the Magitech architects, who in turn are carefully avoiding any move that could increase the tension.
At west instead, the Order would like to help Rasantis to somehow overcome its everlasting state of civil war; however, the chaos and the subtle power struggles between external powers trying to gain profit, have halted the Order's intervention.
In 990, a secret assembly of the Lions' Army evaluated the possibility of a military action in Rasantis, upon request of the Psychic Order's general of the time. All parties were favorable except invited representants from Rasantis: they feared the abrupt change and the damage caused by the fighting. Suggesting that a revolution was not a solution, they outlined the importance of finding stability by themselves rather than having it imposed with force.
Finally, Faragar takes a pretty much neutral attitude towards all other Veridian states.
The Psychic Order is in very good relations with the Time knights, so much that they consider themselves brothers. The latter helped Arthur securing Faragar from raiders and local hostile tribes; some say that they even put a good word with the Emperor. The years passed by yet their relationship remained solid. When the Time Order lost its position in Izarea, the Psychic knights, their most trusted ally, were ready to take action againt the Ministry. Today the two Orders are working together on many operations spanning over the whole Veridia.
The Mage Order is another ally of great stature; relations have always been good with them. It's common for a mage to ask the aid of a free knight when his mission is near Faragar's territory or when he needs highly qualified support.
Rapports with the Church are a bit rough because the two powers were in disagreement more than a few times during the past decades. The Blood Order tries to mediate as often as it can, avoiding a worrisome deterioration of the already lousy contacts.
Lastly, the Order maintains a peaceful dialogue with the handful martial arts schools that concern themselves with Faragar's matters.
Many centuries ago, during the prime-time of the Empire and in the middle of the Cerunian magic restructure, a group of former Blood knights and wizards founded the second Order in Veridia.
They studied for many years how to cast spells with the same naturalness as Blood knights used their distinctive abilities. After gathering some of the best experts in both fields, the group theorized a new way to use magic: it was quicker and easier to learn, at the expense of power and versatility. Unfortunately, all these efforts were useless because the theory never worked in practice; the basic principle behind it, however, was revised many years later to develop magitech.
Mage knights reached their goal through other means: instead of bending spells into a different form, they changed the core principle altogether. In other words, they emulated the effects of magic, becoming able to cast almost the same spells only from another kind of energy source. Once perfected, the Mages' techniques could emulate Cerunian schools of elemental magic with ease.
From this point on, it was only a matter of time before the newborn Order received the Emperor's blessing; it quickly began to accumulate power and influence everywhere in Veridia, effectively challenging the position of the Magic Council as the second biggest power after the Empire-Church coalition.
The Mage Order is by many considered the most powerful Order ever created; it's unclear if its might surpasses that of a Western country, since it's difficult to quantify the secret resources at the Mages' disposal.
Justifying the Mages' great fame is easy. First, they have a fairly good number of members (for a Knight Order's standards, that is). Their techniques are extremely valuable in open field situations, when armies clash against each other, and are also among the most versatile from a combat-oriented point of view. Last but not least, the Order seems to run on infinite founds, giving birth to all sorts of speculations; the most diffused rumors say that either they got a way to create gold out of nothing or they take undue payments from various countries.
The Mage Order is very well organized internally. From five fortresses situated in Cerunia it keeps a strong grasp over the region, just as the Magic Council does. Differently from the latter, knights are seldom interested in economical and cultural affairs, and, of course, they don't take part in discussions about spells regulations or similar topics. Mages are attentive only to the danger posed by incautious, irresponsible use of magic or violence, to which they respond swiftly as if they were an independent police force.
The Mage Order is lead by a committee of knights, usually the most experienced and wise ones. The group decides how to handle requests asking for help, in other words, if such requests should be considered at all and who might be sent to solve the issue. On a side note, it's important to remember that travelling knights, in particular those currently not involved in any mission, are free to accept any request without notifying the headquarters.
The committee's second responsibility is to provide and collect a well-maintained set of proposals for the Order's next actions and diplomacy. In fact, every decision must be put on vote and approved by the associates; the voting range from a simple expression of consent or denial, to the more convoluted 'choose the best option among all available ones'. Controversies regarding a fellow knight's behavior are resolved in a very confidential manner, without following a fixed procedure.
Ranks nowadays are only the remains of an old tradition; they don't preclude a knight from occupying a crucial position or to take part to a perilous mission. After all, the Mages are known to be quite bizarre in both behavior and appearance.
Mages prefer to rely on their standard equipment on most occasions: melee weapon, a coat of white mail and, on top, a scarlet red element-resistant cape.
The lower class includes the apprentices, the students and every other member that isn't combat ready or is too inexperienced to undergo a mission alone.
Ordinary knights are given the rank of companion, although it's actually very rare to heard this word today, because they are called just 'knights'.
The top of the hierarchy hasn't a proper name; it is indeed a vague category incorporating the most esteemed members. Traditionally, exceptionally skilled Mages choose a custom title for themselves or, before they can do so, people give them an evocative nickname.
Another, much more detailed, system of military ranks exists and it was made at the time of the Lions' Army to coordinate large scale campaigns. It was not used again after the Crusade, but Psychic and Mage knights still assign this alternative grade to their members.
The Mage Order's notorious activity is executing operations of various nature throughout Veridia. Groups of knights, varying in size from a minimum of one to a maximum of five, are sent away to take care of delicate issues plaguing the citizens or menacing a country's stability. Solving diplomatic tensions, hunting criminals, capturing outlaw wizards, are only a few examples of endeavors.
The standard procedure says that the local authorities should be preventively notified of the Mage's intervention; it serves only as a form of courtesy, because the Order doesn't care if the residents are willing to cooperate or not.
The Mages are in good terms with other Orders. Both Psychic and Time knights allows missions inside their territories without concerns, and while they had always been friends, since the Crusade a bond of fraternity developed between them. Mages knights are regularly supporting Faragar's policies by using their large influence on western countries.
Izarea's current government is treated with distrust, due to what the Magitech leaders did in the past and due to the belligerent use they make of their own technology.
Cerunia is a quiet and comfortable host for the Order. The current king doesn't meddle in their affairs and he governs with remarkable wisdom. Nuisances arise only when the Council tries to steer the kingdom's efforts towards goals that are not of the knights' liking.
As everybody knows, the Council is in fact the Order's greatest rival since the latter's birth. The two organizations fight a subtle battle on many fronts, starting with the struggle for influence upon western Veridia's countries and ending with the contention about who manages to capture the most rogue wizards.
In the last century the Cerunian kingdom has treated the Order and the Coucil equally well. The knights are more popular among the nobles and the commoners whereas the wizards get support principally from merchants and spellcrafting enthusiasts.
Looking at both powers' reputations outside Cerunia, it clearly appears how much they are feared and respected. The Order is probably a more trustworthy ally than the Council, who is known for its calculating ways but, at the same time, it's highly open to reach questionable agreements of mutual interest.
Investigating and securing rogue spellcrafters becomes consistently a reason for disputes, when Mages and Council's agents pursue the same individual. Sadly, they don't collaborate or even share information in most of the cases.
The Mage Order has recently intensified its presence in Belusa, increasing the amount of expeditions near the southern border and in the countryside. Rumors of a possible arrangement with the Duchess of Frevi have spread in the whole region, however the Mages could be simply following their own agenda.
The origin of the first knight Order is a little mystery, surrounded by tales and speculations.
The legend says that once upon a time Saint Lawrence was travelling in Luminia and sought rest in the village of Cyris.
The local count had lent the fields outside the city walls to the poor farmers that, in exchange, repaid him with a yearly gift. This time the Count wanted at all costs a magnificent statue of himself. The statue's crafting took longer than expected and the noble was very upset for the delay, all because he couldn't show it during his birthday party. As punishment, he asked the villagers to place the statue in center of the lake of grief, to symbolize his dominance; refusing to do so would mean giving back both the land and the houses they had built with much effort.
The poor people could not afford an expensive ship to cross the lake, thus a group of young men decided to carry the statue with a precarious raft, facing the risk of falling inside the cursed, flesh-burning water. Lawrence was moved by the men's courage and prayed the Lord to help them in any way possible. God acknowledged the sincere plead, giving the Saint the strength to carry the statue on his shoulders without being hurt by the lake's waters. The Saint's blessed blood was later called Sanguis, arousing a strikingly similarity to the Blood knights' noteworthy ability.
According to ancient historical documents, Saint Lawrence appears to be truly the first Blood knight and founder of the Order. Still, not much is known about the organization's early days, in particular it's uncertain if it started as a section of the Church or became one later.
Curiously, the Blood Order is the only one who was established by the Church, to be precise by Cardinal Hans Harmagh, instead of the Empire.
During its long history the Order gained the people's sympathy; the reasons are many but above all are the knights' achievements in the Crusade. They were among the most eager to take action to defend Belusa, and they were also responsible of gathering and leading soldiers from every place and social status, creating the immense army that later defeated the bulk of the orcs' military force.
The Blood Order is a self-coordinated section of the Church; it means that it's financed by the latter's coffins and supported by its infrastructures, but it retains almost complete decisional independence. Of course, the knights tend to collaborate as much as possible by providing essential services to the clergy.
The Order holds only three operative bases, all in Luminia. It doesn't need more to support its activities because the affiliates can use churches and monasteries freely. Sometimes even civilians will let blood knights use their houses and food; this example shows the unparalleled popularity they possess among the believers.
Whilst they are much active in the western and southern parts of Veridia, Blood knights aren't very numerous, probably as a result of the strict requirements to become one. In fact, they strive to follow moral principles such as temperance, humility and charity to the maximum extent; at the same time, they must be able to cope with all faces of the Church, a difficult feat when cardinals are more concerned about their temporal power than anything else. Unfortunately, in several occasions high members of the clergy tried to use unaware knights in their suspicious schemes.
From an organizational point of view, the Order's structure is simple yet efficient. The knights are divided into a vertical hierarchy, with titles assigned by the three headmasters in base of one's experience, feats and demeanor. Having a respected position is certainly a reason of pride, but it doesn't mean that members care much about promotions. In addition, while giving advices to subordinates is encouraged, imparting rigid orders isn't a common practice except in tough battle situations.
The majority of Blood knights are indeed religious followers, but the Order accepts even agnostic people into its ranks as long as they possess the right spirit and valor.
The Order's symbolic colors are white and red, generally arranged into a checkered pattern; speaking of equipment choices, most affiliates prefer heavy armor and weapons heavier than a sword, such as maces or polearms. Blood knights are proficient in classic fighting techniques, above all unharmed combat and swordsmanship; this knowledge is fundamental because they fight very similarly to heavy infantry soldiers.
Sanguis is undoubtedly the Order's pride and most feared secret. It's regarded as one of humanity's legendary achievements, for its mysterious nature as well as for its effectiveness in and outside battle.
One of the Order's crucial diplomatic goals consists in keeping a harmless coexistence with the Church. It's not just the place from which the knights get their financial support, they can also count on the help of the priests scattered around Veridia; besides, they hope to steer the Church's action in a better direction by watching closely the cardinals.
On the other side, the Church is interested in keeping close the knights essentially for two reasons; first, doing so it can boost its popularity among the lowest social classes and, second, the knights are an efficient military force that can be trusted to act as guardians.
The Blood Order always kept a slightly detached yet respectful attitude towards the fellow Orders: it rarely works with them and only in urgent circumstances. Members are free to do as they please, however.
Other organizations usually don't come in contact directly with the knights, they approach the Church instead. It can be said that most of the everyday diplomacy is handled by the clergy.
The Order has its good share of allies and enemies in Rasantis, all made while accompanying the Church in the seemly endless quest of uniting the country and restoring peace. Fighting for and against the local nobles is an ordeal that cannot be completely avoided, due to the heavy commitment of a large faction amid the cardinals, known as the 'Griffons'.
Lately, the Blood knights have been frequently called in Belusa, to aid the cardinals close to Evereth, the kingdom's heir and an ardent believer. It's highly possible that once he becomes king, Evereth will give a new fortress to the Order, expecting a great increase of the latter's presence in the territory. Rumors says it could be a preemptive move to consolidate his reign in face of the growing power of his vassals.
The Time Order is the third guild of knights created in Veridia. Its founder was Nassan Dupan, who was the throne's heir before he renounced to his birthrights to pursue a different path. His younger brother, who became the new Emperor, was more than happy to quickly acknowledge the Order with an official decree.
Nassan and his first comrades spent a couple of years in Luminia, gathering many apprentices with the help of the Empire's funds and thanks to a rising popularity. However, he wasn't content of the Order's current state; as he was the absolute leader and part of the imperial family, he could freely choose which assignment to go with. All these privileges were distracting Nassan from his original purposes, so his last decisions as leader were to move far away from the capital, in Izarea, and then abolishing any kind of internal hierarchy.
Without an internal structure, the Order went through a period of idleness and apathy. Things improved only after the knights reflected and confronted each other about their ideals: determined to be paragons of freedom, equality and democracy, they began to get involved in various activities both inside and outside Izarea's borders.
With time, the Order became an important guide for the people of Izarea; it was also one of the readiest organizations to lend its strength to the countries in need. The Crusade might not have happened if the Time knights didn't put a huge effort in persuading other militant groups to join.
The Time Order had an enormous influence on the population, much like its 'brother' in Faragar, although it adopted a completely different approach. In fact, in Izarea people were free to choose their governants who, by the way, were always civilians unaffiliated with third parties. Large and small factions characterized the local political scene. The Order's role was that of a respected advisor, one to call when the situation was delicate or when particular competencies were needed.
This fragile yet inspiring equilibrium lasted for centuries until Magitech arrived in the country, revolutionizing its society. Joseph Vres found in Izarea a perfect environment for his studies; the land never lacked progressives ideas, so he had little difficulty in finding a rich man willing to invest into a promising research. Obviously many aspects of magitech were heavily influenced by this founding strategy and, as a result, the most significant progresses were made on the warfare applications.
Time knights were initially very favorable about magitech's adoption for peaceful purposes. Seeing how things were starting to turn for the worse, the Order tried, maybe too late, to oppose the new technology's advance. But Vres was long gone and on his place there was now a fully fledged organization, the Magitech Ministry, a name intentionally chosen to show a subtle irreverence towards the hated Magic Council.
Magitech authorities were able to get into the most influential political positions democratically, while keeping the Order at bay by developing some useful technologies, such as the famous regional train, alongside the usual weaponry. On the other hand, knights never attempted to fight the Ministry directly, because they believed firmly in the citizens' right to decide the path for themselves.
Essentially due to the flourishing of a new lifestyle, Izarean people gradually began to be less dependent on the Order's advices. In few decades the knights became extraneous to their country's affairs, at least on paper.
A steady decrease in founding and in intervention requests pushed the Order to seek more activities in other lands.
The Time Order isn't considered a powerful force by the best part of Veridian countries; this's a grave mistake, however. Even after losing almost all of its supporters, the Order is still strong and has a large number of affiliates. Maybe, it's indeed more dangerous than before, as proved by recent events.
By not having a political or diplomatic relevance whatsoever, Time knights can often commit actions outside the boundaries of countries' laws without fearing retaliations. Thus, they assumed the form of an undercover force, helping other knights on both proper missions and secret ones.
The Order became famous for its extreme ultimatums. In some cases it has solved sticky situations with threats or, worse, assassinations; justified or not, no other agency could do the same without incurring in grave consequences.
Normally, few jobs come from explicit requests of the population, and almost all of these are issued by the small minorities still faithful to the old Izarean beliefs.
It might seem a contradiction, yet it must be remarked that Time knights are among the less violent armed forces in Veridia. In full accordance with their particular traditions, nearly on every occasion they try to solve problems pacifically: they are renown for the games and bets they propose to deal with stalemates, often provoking hilarious results. The aforementioned behavior puzzles or bother many parties, who therefore hope to avoid any interaction with the knights; this explains the outrageous low number of allies that the Order picked up in the last centuries.
As expected, the Order doesn't have any rule recommending a particular fighting style or equipment. The members' preference goes to light armors, common clothes and a sword, occasionally paired with a backup one for when the first blade breaks during combat.
Having a large number of small fortresses spread out in Veridia, the knights can reach almost every location quickly and safely. Many of these bases are kept secret, in particular all but one castles in Izarea are hidden from the Ministry. In more friendly places, like Faragar and Belusa, the knights can act with less secretiveness; even so, they prefer to maintain a certain distance from other factions, seldom revealing important information about the Order. Lastly, it's worth remembering that each Time knight has total freedom about his actions and choices; in the worst case, he might even work against his own guild or reveal vital secrets.
The Order doesn't have any particular interest in politics. It's friendly and cooperative towards organizations deemed worthy, often sharing with them some common goals.
Each member has his own allies and enemies, however, from time to time, knights find themselves reunited in short-lived alliances, fighting for some cause.
All knights share a common intolerance towards the Magitech Ministry, caused by the latter's vile past and present activities. Displaying great wisdom, they never let this resentment cloud their judgment.
The Time Order has collected many hostilities since its new life after the misadventures in Izarea, which brought a tremendous increase in threatening and assassination missions. Being practically invisible in Veridia's political scene, it was spared from retaliations and public shaming; anyway, the positive effects of the Order's actions can't be ignored, despite the questionable method to carry out justice.
Whilst engaged in some task, knights try to avoid contacts with the local authorites, except in places such as Faragar, where there are people in charge who have their respect.
The Sun knights are a small group of gallant men who make use of the mystical element of light. They descend from the Blood and the Mage Orders.
Although they are feared because of their impressive powers, these knights never received a formal acknowledgment, thus they do not constitute a real Order; they haven't near enough members and, by the way, they aren't interested in becoming one.
It's no surprise that the 'Flares' have a unique view about what is meant to be a knight - very different from the traditional one adopted by the canonical Orders. Honor and rightfulness are still essential values, but Sun knights don't see a particular necessity to prove one's worth by forcefully meddling in the lives of others; of course, this doesn't mean that a knight shouldn't help the needy or defend the weak, but they will do so only if the opportunity presents itself.
Sun knights are often found travelling alone or with adventurers, experiencing the world firsthand. They abandoned the idea of raising an organized force to achieve some arbitrary goals, like other knights typically do. A consequence of this choice is that the Flares don't have any relevance in Veridia's power struggles, neither have they sworn allies nor enemies. Yet, the Veridian Orders consider them their equals and the same opinion is shared by the people too, no matter whether they live in the West or in the East. A few Mages even went so far as saying that light is a more impressive element than the traditional Cerunian ones.
In the Aegos islands, precisely in Bathyr, the knights have a small temple; here, visitors can always find an experienced member willing to pass on their teachings to worthy disciples.
Although the exact details of the initiates' training varies from Order to Order, it does exist a shared vision according to which newcomers are allowed and integrated in the knights' ranks.
In a nutshell, becoming a knight is about whom you want to be, rather than what you want to do. The toughest endeavor is perhaps to keep one's integrity during his whole life; youth does bring a lot of good intentions, but inevitably many of these are slowly replaced by feelings of delusion or impotence. Still, there have been plenty of examples of people who took the path to knighthood at an advanced age.
Fervor, the source of a knight's might, is cultivated by introspection and meditation instead of practice and studies, as almost all other disciplines are. This unusual characteristic well explains why fervor is considered a state of mind, or better spirit, rather than a simple skill.
Initiates are not pressured to reach a certain set of goals in a given time; furthermore, examinations and scores are concepts extraneous to a knight's training. Members in general are never put in direct competition with each other, on the contrary many regular activities aim at improving cooperation and teamwork.
However, in the end, not everyone manages to become a knight. In most cases it's the disciple himself who realizes that such way of life doesn't suit him. Very rarely are trainees expelled from the Order, and only if they commit grave offences. Equally to what happens for regular members, initiates who stray from the path to righteousness experience the phenomenon called 'praetentus', which causes a sudden loss of resolve and thus the inability of performing techniques related to fervor.
The defenders are a group of fighters with a long history, living and operating in Lyr. They watch over the large forest in the country's east, Eventide, together with the local druids.
The guild's mission is to protect the ancient trees, which are supposed to give strength to the whole forest and, at the same time, keep away evil spirits coming from the northern lands. The forest's animals are also under their protection as well as the nature in general.
The defenders have been active in Veridia long before the Church existed, however, since they rarely leave the forest, people are not in touch with them and countries barely recognize their existence.
The most representative characteristic of these fighters is the ability to craft weapons and armors with wood cut from the blessed old trees. Such equipment is never sold to anybody and it's treated with extreme care; each defender chooses a tree and devotes many years to listen to its inner voice; apparently, they are able to understand the trees' feelings, up to the point of sharing an emotional connection.
The defenders spend most of their time in the forest's deepest areas, where the only human company they can find are the druids. Both have great respect for the natural environment so they are usually in friendly terms. Outside the forest, the defenders have neither enemies nor allies, maybe except for the Blood Order. The latter has approached them with humbleness and patience; sometimes it was even able to obtain their help for missions of great importance.
The history of magitech began in the ninth century. His creator, Rumey Xeleth, was a recently appointed archmage, considered by the whole community one of the most promising talents of his generation.
Xeleth was a researcher at heart. He wasn't really interested in pleasing his elder colleagues to secure his position in the Inner Circle, but neither was he avoiding sincere exchanges of opinions or friendly guidance.
The young wizard would have had a bright future ahead of himself, if not for his obsession about a single topic, magitech. His idea was the following: identifying the core forces behind magic and binding each one of them to a schema, so that they could be embedded into inanimate objects and therefore used as building blocks for unimaginable complex architectures.
The exact reasons leading Rumey to clash, and later leave, the Council are not well known. For instance, his fellow archmages were either skeptical towards his beloved theory, criticizing the huge costs in terms of time and money required for its development; or they were simply afraid of such massive discoveries, which coincidentally share the same roots with studies made by the Mage knights.
As every person in Veridia knows, Xeleth left his past behind. He took upon the name of Joseph Vres as he travelled for years before finally settling in Izarea, where he found open minded benefactors willing to found his research. Sadly, he didn't take into account the price he'd had to pay to get the much needed money. Magitech went through many revisions and it had to be altered to accommodate needs not originally envisioned: warfare. The backers didn't care about Joseph's meticulously crafted, life-improving designs: he had to make destructive weapons. So, the poor wizard spent many years working on projects he hated, whilst devoting every bit of his free time to creations he thought could be truly useful. He couldn't endure the situation any longer and died of heavy stress two weeks after his 49th birthday. The book he left to the future generations, titled 'Signs of a noble civilization' is a masterpiece speaking of philosophy and science alike; it contains his best designs, nearly all still left unrealized, with the exception of Izarea's regional train and few others.
After Joseph's death, his closest collaborators continued their work albeit even more focused on the military inventions; they were indeed quick to learn magitech's secrets, but lost track of the spirit behind it.
The Magitech Ministry became the home of many brilliant minds. Eventually, it outsmarted the rich men who were initially controlling it. Finally free from the hands of the greedy, the Ministry decided to take sustainment from another source, Izarea's citizens. The plan was simple: all there was to do was to take command of the country's government and divert huge sums of money into the army's expansion, which of course would have made extensive use of magitech technologies.
Fooling the people with half truths and shallow promises wasn't particularly hard; on the other hand, tricking the Time Order proved to be impossible.
Thus, the Ministry exploited the knights' fairness, hitting them in a way that they couldn't retaliate. The architects slowly destroyed the connection between the Order and the people, even if it meant to upset the society and the traditions of Izarea. The campaign was largely successful also thanks to the Order very mild defensive reaction.
With nobody hindering its path, the Ministry won every single political election, except one in 1080, virtually dominating the Izarean democracy.
The Magitech Ministry has a complex yet very efficient internal administration.
It's ruling party resembles closely the Magic Council's one, both being oligarchies; how directives are imparted to the lower ranked functionaries, however, is completely different. An accurate management, coupled with severe inspections, makes identifying wastes of resources and sloppy members very easy, and these setbacks are fixed without hesitation.
The two broad categories working inside the organization are the architects and the laborers. The former have a much higher prestige and monopolize all influential positions; putting aside these details, they are responsible for conceiving new magitech designs as well as oversighting the realization of existing blueprints.
Akin to magic, magitech is still a thriving field. Advancements are made steadily and better or cheaper techniques are discovered every year.
The architects have shown multiple times to possess a marked sense of superiority; this unpleasant behavior is likely caused by the excessive emphasis put on being the best. In fact, studying magitech at a high level entails, in addition to the significant effort needed to learn the subject, a restless battle among peers to prove who's the most talented scholar. Encouraged by a strongly meritocratic environment, such competitiveness shapes the students' character, making it insensible to a lot of sentiments otherwise cherished outside the Ministry's community.
The Ministry's stance in respect to the other Veridian powers is clear and rather straightforward. Long lasting alliances or wars are to be avoided; every step taken must be aimed at maximizing the gains while reducing the risks. Consequently, the architects tend to partake in many small but advantageous agreements with different parties, often simultaneously, making hard for an extraneous observer to guess their diplomatic standpoint.
An exception to the previous guideline happens for the Magic Council. Maybe due to the radically different approach they have towards wizardry, or for the fact that wizards never considered magitech a proper field of study, the Ministry and the Council hate each other. An attempt to mend the hostility has been made once, by High Archmage Castaldo. He was having a hard time keeping the Inner Circle under his command, so he thought that if he could reach out to the Ministry and secure an alliance, his reputation would increase tremendously. The Magitech community didn't even send back a courtesy response to Castaldo's proposition.
The Ministry has signed quite a few commercial arrangements with various Belusa's nobles, following the discovery of many places rich of high quality ores, typically used to refine crystals.
Martial arts are not widely popular in Veridia, so schools that teach them can be found only in specific places, often far away from the inhabited lands. Would-be disciples are few yet firmly motivated; after all, resoluteness shouldn't be lacking if one wants to endure the harsh trainings and a lifestyle of self restraint.
There is a vast array of martial art paths; each of them has different teachings and a precise view about life, death and humanity. The only thing they have in common is the unwavering conviction in their respective beliefs, source of a fair number of problems to followers who had to blend in with people.
Following a path means to adhere to its core principles, broad or specific as they may be, and nothing more. Upon everything on which the path does not offer its guidance, the follower has total freedom and no one can criticize his choices.
People have always been in close contact with wild animals, specially in the past, when towns did not exist and villages were rather small and far apart from each other. The most natural reaction that beasts provoke in the human heart is fear, however somebody may also feel curiosity or even admiration towards them. Said feelings were the driving motives that led to the creation of the feral path of martial arts.
The path's followers observe the beasts' habits and spirit in order to strengthen their body, until they become able to overcome the limits of a normal, fragile human being.
The disciples are aware of the harsh and lengthy training they must face; further, they are fully prepared to lose, little by little, their humanity while growing closer to the wild creatures, not exclusively in the physical attributes but also in the state of mind.
The path has its principal schools situated in Faragar's high peaks; little knows the local population about the followers, as it tries to avoid living or travelling close to the higher mountains.
Unsurprisingly, devotees of the feral path are equally independent as the beasts they admire so much, being perfectly capable of surviving alone in the woodland.
The path promotes a fierce sense of honor and an even stronger sense of self preservation. Disciples remain deeply grateful to their masters for the rest of their life and, in general, show respect for the companions more knowledgeable about the path.
Rivalries are devoid of spiteful or malicious feelings; hence, they are seen as a good way to boost one's will to improve his abilities. On a last note, killing without a valid reason is considered a vile, cowardly act.
Followers of the devil path can be found everywhere in Veridia, although they prefer to dwell in hugely populated areas, such as country capitals or important merchant cities. In such places they have access to secret shrines. A shrine is the home of the local dispatch of 'devils', name used internally to indicate the followers who completed both the training and the initiation trials.
The path acts as a whole, with masters taking decisions while the disciples try their hardest to fulfill the tasks given to them. Only inside the shrines are new missions assigned and alternative courses of action examined – doubts or delays must not be displayed to the outside world, at any cost. Furthermore, an ordinary follower is not allowed to leave the inner quarters except if he has been given a job that requires so.
New initiates are chosen with great care. Experienced followers frequently look out for potential candidates, in most cases testing the latter's worth without letting them notice. After a minimum of two masters are convinced that the selected individual possesses all required talents, the local shrine's members or the masters themselves make a move, revealing the path's interest to the person concerned. The devils aren't famous for accepting a rejection quietly: in such case the matter ends every time with someone's death.
A cruel fate awaits also the followers who are sufficiently brave or foolish to attempt to abandon the path once and for all.
The path's main objective is to spread chaos in society and to observe how humans react to temptations, finding out if they are able to behave themselves in the face of morally challenging situations. To reach these goals, the devils feint to support a faction against its rivals, while in reality all they do is cautiously exploit their connections to create turmoil.
The myth path is very particular in terms of traditions and background. Born and grown in Xanas, no temples dedicated to it are situated outside the aforementioned country.
Followers of the path are treated with respect; people consider them men of wisdom, possessing extensive knowledge about ancient legends and seemingly lost secrets. This happens in Xanas, whilst in the rest of Veridia they are not even acknowledged or, at best, seen as another breed of martial artists.
The path's teachings have their roots in archaic lore and scriptures dating back to over one thousand years.
Gaining experience and advancing to the next rank gives a follower the possibility to learn new techniques from the masters or to read directly the treasured books. For an affiliate, having access to this invaluable knowledge is worth way more than an increase in personal reputation.
The masters are sought by Xanas' authorities for their enlightened words or for help during critical times. It could be said that the minimal presence of external powers in the country has given the necessary space for the path's diffusion.