Darth Wiki / Dark Fantasy X

DFX is a world that started out as a The Magic Goes Away type of setting that led to Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane type of demythified world where magic was rare and was treated as myth, This era was known as "Normalcy". But then The Magic Comes Back and with that the dragon population explodes (previously thought to be extinct, or was going extinct), Atlantis rises from the sea, and low-level magic is about as common as cell phones are today and so on. Most of the protagonists great-great grandparents' in this setting was born during the cusp of this. And their children don't remember the time where none of this existed. It's fantastically mundane to them as they grew up in the world in it's (eventual) Fantasy Kitchen Sink state (at least in terms low level magic, demi-humans would show up much later). When the magic originally left there was centuries where technology (mostly Steampunk and Diesel Punk) was starting to fill the void that magic left behind creating a Punk Punk type industrial revolution. Scientists was the replacement for sorcerers, witches, and wizards. Before then humans had grown accustom to technology and science. And all the fantastic elements before that era was forgotten and thought of as children's stories, or at best seen as exaggerated parts of prehistory. Interestingly enough Expy versions of Christianity, Judaism, and Islamic religions started to form as well. But that's where the fantasy and supernatural stuff ended. Unfortunately, there was three cases of a Great Offscreen War (In-Universe known as The Three Great Wars) that destroyed the more advance Punk Punk technologies and civilizations. Creating several instances of Black Box artifacts. But they mostly became Lost Technology. The wars are also the reason why the world is stuck in a borderline Medieval Stasis that they can't quite fully get out of. Clock Punk technology and some Steampunk tech survived but that's about it. Of course the wars humans raged against each other after the great wars didn't help either with constant Succession Crisis and bickering between noble houses over land, fortune, and slights. Also primitive forms of fire arms exist but only a handful of nations has them, as they're somewhat difficult to mass produce (and by handful of nations we mean three). So they're primarily used as last line of defense for said human empires/nations or special military units. The primary weapons for human infantry units are still swords and shields.

When the magic initially came back it was very low scale, with only a handful of fringe practitioners, but over the decades it slowly grew stronger, and when it got stronger something darker became stronger with it. Dark Magic....

With the rise of darker forces emerging with the returning magic, lingering in the air is a sense of dark bleak dread, tension and impending doom. Villages are massacred by roaming clans of Werewolves, Orcs, Vampires, and possibly demons from hell, and other interdemensional terrors (the former three races was mostly fleeing from the latter though). What makes it worse is that the human race has long been factionalize since BEFORE the magic first went away. Originally ancient humans was one nation/tribe, but split off due to spiteful wars of attrition and bitter ideological, sociopolitical, cultural differences, and even human on human racism (eventually including xenophobia when demi-human races appeared two and a half decades post Avalon spell). DFX primarily focus on a young group of royals/nobles and their empires who are trying to rebuild the human coalition, as they fear that something terrible will happen if they don't get their shit together. Most human nations and empires hasn't accepted the offer. The young royals hope the coalition that they do have is enough. The fear coming from a mutual spiritual adviser sorcerer warning the rational human leaders that if humans don't work together they'll face certain doom by the forces of darkness. This was decades post-Avalon and the three founding Alliance empires was still squabbling with Aemera, and Tomazville at the time. The advisor and the eventual arrival of Elven and Dwarven emissaries put a brief hold on the conflict...for now.

In fact there's a frighteningly large dark army that's been amassing power in the shadows, and sending out scout forces to terrorize all the human nations. Including non human nations, which forced the demi-humans to ask humans for help in the first place. The dark army only attacked small rural remote settlements initially. That's why a lot of the world's Nobility didn't pay it any mind till the emissaries showed up, and the advisor prior to that warning them of whats coming. No one knows who's behind this terrible military force. What's even scarier is the rumor that their might not even be anyone behind the large force. The story also implies that the protagonists' great-great-great grandparents might have been responsible for bringing the magic back the way it is now accidentally in the pursuit of the Avalon spell. The world map of the setting is ten times that of earth so there's quite a few large nations and empires.

Dark Fantasy X is basically a Speculative Fiction, Fantasy Kitchen Sink, Real Politik, War Is Hell, Dark/Horror Fantasy story, with a dark gritty low fantasy facade and veneer. For now it's told through the story's tropes. It's best described as Warhammer (minus the humor) meets The Lord of the Rings meets A Dance with Rogues meets The Witcher meets World of Warcraft meets A Song of Ice and Fire meets Baldur's Gate meets The Wire meets Dungeons & Dragons, meets Syriana meets Warcraft meets The West Wing meets Fable meets Castlevania meets Final Fantasy meets Risk meets Civilization, meets Dragon Age, meets The Elder Scrolls, meets Diablo meets Magic: The Gathering, meets Ravenloft, meets Darkest Dungeon, meets Grim Dawn with some aesthetics of Dishonored^note Specifically during the normalcy era, and all three great wars with a medium dosage of H. P. Lovecraft. The setting in the work has a lot of low sci-fi elements, but the overtone is most definitely straight forward horror and dark fantasy.

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Notable Factions

Alliance members

• The Dragon Empire-aka The Urbania empire is a fantasy-industrial (but eco-friendly) type human empire that was built by the former slaves of Aemera (spearheaded by House Waller) who fled during "the great migration" era circa 20+ years B.A. Consisting of what could be described as medieval fantasy equivalent of American Blacks. The nation had a rough time with nation building as Aemera would constantly try to subjugate the populous, until the Waller family started rearing dragons. The empire also had other problems with inner-conflicts which divided the empire thanks to sociopolitical differences. The divide was mostly over the fact that Urbanians wanted to cut themselves off from Aemera, while the future Tomaz citizens still wanted some of the conservative culture to remain in the new country. The former didn't want to have anything to do with it anymore. For decades this divide built up until it became impossible to co-exist. The after effect was "the exodus"; a large group of Urbania's citizens leaving to join another nation not too far off from Urbania called "Tomazville" (or just Tomaz), A Protestant like theocracy counterpart that also had a falling out with Urbania, and D.S. over the same issues. The founders (The Waller Family) also had divisions that caused a lot of infighting among the great family. Less about political beliefs and more so about petty spite and familial rivalry, and naturally greed. Not unlike The Lawrence family, whose situation became way much worse and tragic. It was so annoying that Emperor Torre changed his last name to Dragonknight just out of bitter spite. Most of the inner termoil was from Torre's older aunt and uncles feuding with the younger aunts and uncles due to a none twin form of Sibling Seniority Squabble^note Torre's young aunts are actual twins and ironically avoided this. It's got worse when a sudden illness and death of the eldest heir, caused her son to be passed over in favor of her nephew, Torre^note Tishauna likely had a hand in putting Torre in line of succession cause she favored him over his cousin Rashad "Roy" Waller, well that and Torre's her male BFF. Urbania itself is fairly large roughly the size of the USSR of old. Because of it's slight industrial nature and history with D.S. they're strong supportive allies that import and export with each other. Urbania was the first to discover rubber, and plastics, thus helping advance both empires infrastructure and military down the line. The founding Waller family dug up lots of petrified dragon eggs during the first wave of settlements on the land. And for whatever reason came back to life after being in contact with said family. Because of this, Urbania was able to raise these terrifying beasts of battle as military support for the fledgling D.S. Empire while they worked on the spell of Avalon. The family was so efficient with the creatures they developed a bond with the beasts. Which enabled them to train a army of Dragon Knights. Current ruler is Emperor of Dragons Torrellis "Torre" Dewayne Dragoknight^note formerly Torrelis Dewayne Waller aka The Young Dragon.

• The Starr Empire or (formerly D.S. Empire)- was formed out of the partnership of roma like black creole refugees from Aemera (The Delacroix family and allies), and Tomaz defectors (The Starr family and allies). This empire became one of the fastest rising nations, and eventually one of the most advanced and powerful. Eventually 5 Starr siblings (four girls and one younger male sibling) ran away from Tomaz and other Starr relatives because of the stifling moralism, Boomerang Bigotry, and oppressive religious family members (Their mother and grandmother would follow 2 years later). Of course once this happened the Starr family was broken in two. So now there's essentially two Starr families. The oldest Starr girl (Tisha) bonded with the young Delacroix boy when they arrived at the new fledgling nation at the VERY YOUNG age of 11 and the Delacroix-Starr coalition and empire was born. Thus starting a cold war with the formerly presumed partner Tomaz. (This was also probably the intent of Tisha's mother (Tishuana's grandmother) as she secretly didn't want Tomaz to be a part of the new empire instead opting for her daughter and heir to court Urbania instead) The early era of DS was always in danger of being overthrown by Aemera forces due to the fact they were in partnership with Delacroix, who are seen as treasonous traitors by Aemera. So when the magic came back they chose to embrace and experiment. When the other non human races eventually showed up to propose a inter-species alliance later in the timeline, the Starr family agreed (D.S. allies like Urbania followed suit), and in return got help with nation building and defense, turning D.S. into what it is now. But mostly thanks in large part to the Avalon spell that was used a few decades Prior. They also opened it's boarders to other human immigrants which brought the nation a diverse work force and population. Aemera was caught off guard at how fast the nation built it's military. Especially it's naval fleet and army, and was the first nation to have a Air Force. Which legitimized the nation as a legit independent empire (much to the chagrin of Aemera). Unlike Urbania D.S. is a mixed bag as far as tech and culture goes. In a way it's like modern America when it comes to cultural/ethnic diversity. Somewhat of a idealist progressive liberal high-fantasy version of America. It's fairly large being about the size of ancient Rome. The Empire is ruled by House Starr, Current head ruler is empress Tishauna Diana Delacroix Starr aka Tish aka The Starr Empress

• The Delacroix Empire- The Delacroix family was refugees whom escaped from Aemera's dark page in it's history. Eventually landing on a continent that had a diverse Eco system which could help them be self sufficient. The continent also reminded them of their own homeland back in Aemera, with it's prairies and lush woodlands, and swamps, kinda like Louisiana if it also had white sand beaches as well. For a long time they were a coalition known as the Delacroix-Starr empire with their cousins, the Starr family. The Empire became large enough to where it became it's own independent hold eventually Ruled by House Delacroix. But is still very closely tied to the Starr Empire. The Delacroix family has a long military service with Aemera, being military blue bloods and all. But over the decades, they grew weary of their under appreciation, the lack of advancement in the Aemera political and military hierarchy, plus the abhorrent treatment of people of color. Because of all of the above they decided to help organize the independent settlements of Delacroix-Starr, and Urbania. The land the Delacroix family settled is roughly double the size of Australia. And it's similarly not landlocked like Australia. Current Ruler is high queen Alyssia Erykah Delacroix^note Paternal aunt to Tishauna Starr
  • The State of Sabine- Sabine is a few miles off from the mainland of Delacroix. The family ruling over the land is the House of Malveaux, cousins to the Delacroix family. Sabine is also protected under The Delacroix empire and its allies. Sabine is the banner-men and Vassal for Delacroix but is also a large source for their agriculture and livestock. It's roughly the size of Texas. Current ruler is lady Lyzbeth Malvaux
  • The State of Lawrence- House Lawrence (cousins to the Malveaux family) is another Vassal of Sabine and Delacroix who contribute a lot of grain, honey,and other agriculture to the Delacroix empire. Unfortunately around 38 AAV a power struggle has caused a devastating civil war due to extended family members falling out with the royal bloodline of Lawrence siblings. Think of the conflict as a medieval fantasy version of the Syrian civil war in terms of devastation. Sabine has been lending their forces to help, and have been the primary enforcers for the Lawrence family. Sabine eventually asked for more support from Delacroix as the situation kept spiraling out of control. Current ruler lord Ethan Lawrence

• Leveaux-Leveaux is another vassal of Delacroix, ruled by House Leveaux (also cousins to Delacroix). Not big enough to be considered a kingdom, But too big to be a Micro Monarchy. THE largest vassal of Delacroix, who's family roots are deeply connected to the House of Delacroix. It's military is highly regarded among the Delacroix allied military. Probably second only to Delacroix itself, Also some of the noble family members has some ties to Ninjas, and Ninja training as well. Current Ruler Atlas Leveaux.

• The Britannia Empire- Britannia is basically the setting's United Kingdom, and old British empire, a nation that's one of the oldest human nations with vast influence in the human world, ruled by House Whitecomb. Formerly an ally to Aemera until the setting's current events (and political machination in the background^note namely the fact that Alexander's mother Sharyn Elizabeth Whitecomb pressured him to join the alliance due to Aemera being ineffectual about dealing with the rumored dark army that killed her husband and first born, eldest son in a brutal battle.) forced them to switch sides by joining the alliance. Mostly for pragmatic reasons. However; if the former patriarch had known what his successor would do politically, he would have likely left it to said successor's younger brother instead. Current ruler King Alexander Dorian Whitecomb III

• The Noa Empire- The Noa are a benevolent, Ambiguously Brown indigenous like race, and probably the second oldest race of humans behind Shadowlanders (think Africans) that lives a little far off from most modern nations, on a large continent the size of real world South America, but they have tribe settlements as far out as the arctic, and western Aemera. The Noa is a Culture Chop Suey of a combination of Native Americans, South American natives, Polynesians, The Yupik, Inuit, Eskimos, and The Eloi. The nation is often pillage and razed by a Nordic like nation to the north west of them, and by Aemera to the far east of them. The Noa although benevolent are fierce warriors who'll fight till the bitter end to protect their land But also very forgiving, and tend to get over whatever horror that befallen them in the past. The large nation has brought goods and trades to the alliance like certain types of fruit, cocoa beans, sugar cane, and sugar leaves (a type of plant that works just as well as sugar), Honey, coffee beans and so on. These existed else where but was hard to cultivate. Now with the new found alliance they can be mass produced and or exported as The Noa has them in full abundance. They also harvest a root that doubles as a very effective birth control, females stop using it when they are ready to have children. They also raise kukoo's (basically giant chickens, that lay large white or brown eggs). In Tish's words "imagine a egg that can feed 2 large families!!, Or a giant chicken that could feed a whole community!!". Considering the Noa are a proud warrior race type a good chunk of the population count as 90% of the Noa army. Oh and The Noa population is a little over 400 million. That's one of the main reasons they have been able to hold off from being completely overtaken by enemy forces. Current ruler Empress Takiya Greyeyes

• The Viska Empire- Viska is a Nordic large but economically struggling nation that allied with The Noa due to having a common enemy. Viska was a former Vestigial Empire on the brink of collapse till it joined the alliance, solving most of their agricultural and financial woes. Current ruler is queen Brunhild Kroess

Neutral Nations

• Tomazville- or Tomaz (named after the capitol) for short; is a moderate protestant/southern baptist like theocracy, more or less a mostly black version of Aemera, which it resents in secret, but work with in public out of necessity sometimes. Forged after being disillusioned by both D.S., Urbannia, and Aemera. In the beginning it was just a coalition of 3 independent colonies, made up of disgruntled and marginalized black ex-Aemera citizens. The country is still rather bitter over being subdivided from both Urbania, and DS. History books is real muddy when it comes to whether or not they were exiled or left on their own. Tomaz already was a independent colony, and the biggest one out of the coalition (up until the clouds of Avalon spell was cast on D.S. and Urbania territories). Tomaz believe DS, and Urbania became immoral and decadent and forgot their religious upbringing over the decades (There's SOME truth to that). Where as the former nations claim Tomaz was close minded, and is using moralisim as a weapon to control people, and twisting the word of god into something oppressive (there's definitely some truth to that). Basically the more progressive members of the coalition had a falling out with the more conservative members of the coalition. So Tomaz continued on being it's own nation without the rest. In the beginning, the nation was conservative but fairly moderate. Over the decades however, they have sunk to being brownosers for Aemera and Social Climbers. Something that the founder of Tomazville would be disappointed by. Current appointed leader is Jeff Freese.
• The Aemera Empire-Aemera's history pretty much coincides with the real world's American history, but in a Medieval Stasis Punk Punk setting. It has come a long way from it's dark oppressive past, but not long enough. Aemera see's themselves as a democracy. Delacroix, Starr, and Urbania see Aemera as a power hungry, Oligarchy with some democracy sprinkled in. Either way Aemera is the most powerful and influential human nation besides Britannia in the known civilized world. Although it's starting to show uneasiness over the fact Urbania, Delacroix-Starr, and Ch'in Empire are not far from behind as far as military power and global influence is concern. In fact they might have already caught up. Current appointed leader for life is Joseph Kaine.

• The Ch'in Empire- Is basically Imperial China.

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The work provide example of:

• Action Girl: Female knights, soldiers, military commanders, and adventurers. When the magic started to come back women were now a common sight in most human armies. Averted with cultures that still adhere to classic gender roles though. Action girls was likely very common during the pre-history era as well.
• Advanced Ancient Acropolis: Quite a few. This also how the Delacroix/Starr Empire acquired alot of their Magitek.
  • There's several of these, one such ancient city being deep in the Shadow lands. Lots of valuable artifacts and resources are rumored to be there, which inspire tons of doomed expeditions. Most of said expeditions would dissappear into oblivion.
• A House Divided: The setting over all theme. But it especially applies to the humans.
• Airborne Aircraft Carrier: Found mostly in the D.S. and Urbania navy. Britannia has a few though.
• The Alliance: Made up of Britannia, The D.S. Empire, Urbania, The Noa, The Elvish Kingdom, and a few others that was forged together to stop the oncoming darkness.
• All Myths Are True: The Ark Of the Covenant, The Necronomicon, Ancient Astronauts,Pandora's Box, The Goose That Laid the Golden Egg (several in fact), King Author, Snow White, Santa Claus, etc etc...
• All Theories Are True: Anti-matter and/or dark matter, Genetic Memory, Genetic engineering and animal gene-splicing this is also probably the source for some of the exotic creatures in this world, thanks to The Greys..maybe
• Alien Sky- A Gas Giant with rings, and two moons, one of which is partially shattered! Presumably caused by one of the Three Great Wars, and also might be the source of Celestial Steel/Ore, aka "Starr Metal".
• Alternative Calendar: One starting before The Three Great Wars, noted by the use of BGW (Before The great Wars), and AGW (After the Great Wars),and the second one after the Mists/Clouds of Avalon. Noted by the use of BAV (Before Avalon), and AAV (After Avalon).
• Alternate Character Interpretation: In universe example of all of the major political leaders, royals and nobels. Some are hated, some are liked. Others tend to have nuanced pragmatic views about them.
• Always Chaotic Evil: The Legions Of Hell, and the corrupted Goblins. Some high ranking demons are Lawful Evil though.
• Amazing Technicolor Population: Tiefling skin tones can be just as normal as humans, but can also come in vibrant shades of blue, purple, and red. Orks are mostly green, but some have grey-skin, or red.
• The Artifact: Whatever fell in the backyard of the Delacroix-Starr Empire centuries ago is this. Which is implied (to the reader) to be of extraterrestrial origin, though the protagonists don't know that. Although Bettina, and Angelina get the gist of it.
• Anachronism Stew: ALOT!..Depending on the geography certain towns, villages, and cities have different period architecture. Some look medieval, Victorian, colonial etc..
• Artifact of Doom: The other half of The Artifact that crashed in the arctic, which "unknown creatures" escaped from.
• Apocalyptic Log: A messenger bird arrived at both Britannia, and Delacroix-Starr empires asking for help and describing the massacre that befallen the village when the hive attacked. Even describing the creatures themselves in bone chilling detail. The gruesomely surreal message even disturbed some the hardest military commanders in the alliance....even Tish and The Stoic 47 Ronin.
• Badass Army: A few actually; Britannia, Aemera, Starr Empire, Urbania, The Orc forces, The Delacroix Defense Force, The Elven Army, even the Dwarves.
  • This is all Delacroix ever produces, primarily being made up of bad ass noble family members whom have a long bloodline involving military service and sharp martial skills. Then there's the Delacroix divisions and the spec-ops support group the black rock onyx guard which is brutal, mobile, and highly tactical. But so is the standard Delacroix military as well.
• Bad Future: As seen by Tisha through her Amplifier Artifact. The future was apparently so bad she refused to show her children what she saw, or give any descriptions. Because according to her it was so bleak it was demoralizing.
• Bee People: The Hive, Outside the "imitators" breed that try to mimic humans, there's the monstrous 6 foot warrior drones that's not unlike the reapers from Resident Evil 5.
• Big Bad: Several lesser big bads, but who's THE big bad remains a mystery.
• The Big Easy: The Delacroix kingdom, and the small island of Nola is a Southern Gothic, Fantasy Counterpart Culture version of New Orleans/Louisiana.
• Big, Screwed-Up Family: Woo Boy! A lot of the Nobles and The gentry. Get ready for a long list of examples that don't quite scratch the surface;
  • The Waller family: Torre's extended royal family consists of 9 uncles and 8 aunts. Including his mom (Dorothy Lee Waller) that makes 18 total. And of that 18, there's countless cousins born. Some of whom was bastads that had to be legitimized by Torre cause his Grandparents didn't bother (especially his Paternal grandmother, more on her later). Of his 9 uncles only three, maybe four are actually responsible, and of those three only two are dependable, and the other selfish and materialistic, but want to be the head decisionmaker for the family. The rest either had substance abuse problems, too many bastards (which the other cousins embraced unconditionally anyway), flaky, aloof, insular or have gambling problems. Of his 9 aunts, the oldest (Shirly Anne Waller) was a manipulative, selfish, materialistic bitch. Of her children only her son (Rashad) and second oldest daughter (May) was nice. Unfortunately, her oldest daughter (Tasha) is bitterly selfish, with a chip on her shoulder, and a overall nasty attitude that got worse after her mom died, but the two younger siblings are prone to following behind her like obedient meek little puppies. Then there's the grand matriarch (Carrie Ann Waller) who was very stern, authoritative, and cold, and sometimes forbade her children from helping each other or other people, or from being too close to each other (or that's the way it seemed). Not to mention she was only ever close to just Three of her 18 kids. Those being Charles Waller, Shirley Anne, and Mark Waller. Even then it probably wasn't unconditional in the case of Shirley. There's also a nasty rumor within the family that a few of her kids are from infidelity, particularly the twins Mark and Mathew. Either way, because of this behavior the rest of the family formed their own separate family circle for gatherings and holiday get togethers. The extended family grew even further apart after the grand patriarch Walter Lee waller died (who was basically the back bone of the family), and Torre was crowned, and even further after Carrie died. There's also several secret instances of Kissing Cousins when Torre and his cousins hung out with each other during wild balls, banquets, galas, and orgies when they were tweens and teens. Likely influenced by the decadent, and sexually liberal Starr family, as having trists with cousins wasn't seen as abnormal by them, unlike the older Waller family members who would frown apon it. Which brings us to;
  • The Starr Family; Generally noble despite their absurdly vast wealth, but the large family is also incredibly hedonistic, and full of Kissing Cousins, especially the younger members, alleged incest, Sapphic relationships with handmaidens, and even female friends from other noble houses. The family is also prone to an abnormal amount of female offspring and a abnormal amount of identical Twins, even a instance of female Septuplets. Tisha, and Arron Delacroix had 11 kids. But Arron would also have trists with Tisha's 3 younger sisters, sometimes all four at the same time in a open Polyamorous relationship. So in actuality Tishauna has 14 younger siblings, (8 girls, who are the oldest after Tish herself), and 2 younger brothers. Also 5 half siblings, whom are also cousins 4 sisters (again the girls are the oldest), and one brother whom is the youngest over all. However two of Tish's younger aunts gave birth to "full cousins". One of the aunts with nine kids. The older eight consists of girls,the second oldest of said girls are identical twins, and the younger seven are the aforementioned Septuplets who was born with the assistance of a magical artificial womb. They've been described as gorgeous but quiet and eerily physically similar. And the youngest over all is a young boy. The other young aunt gave birth to three girls (Talissa Starr, Tessa Starr, and Teeshah Sarr) and a young boy Tyree Starr whose been described as quiet, shy, and distant, but friendly. They're all very close. Maybe too close in some people's opinion. Tishauna is also known to have massive orgies, which would also include her siblings and cousins, including large female orgies that sometimes included her aunts. Outside of some of the taboo sexual escapades they're otherwise normal...sorta.
  • The Whitecomb Family; A history of domestic violence, incest, genocide, evil colonialism, countless dis-inherited bastards, and too many other things to mention. The family spent centuries on subjugation and expansion of their family wealth in the name of Britannia. Dorian Whitecomb III mother is of Aemerian descent and comes from very old money from Aemera, she also has a sexual taste for black tween and young teen males. Even having a harem full of them. In fact she bonded with Dorian's aunt over their secret shared desire. In Universe this would be a none issue had she not been a high standing woman with the title of queen regent. Which is why it's a sorta-kinda secret. She also had multiple secret female Paramores. Then there's Dorian's grandfather Lord Dorian Abernathy Whitecomb the First (and his men) had a reputation of raping native women from The Dark Continent. There's also Ser Michael Hayworth who's basically a midevel fantasy expy of King Leopold II. Being the commander of the military force for one of the banner-men of Britannia, he's tied to a lot of grim things abroad.
• Bigger Stick: Urbania, Delacroix, and Starr Empire love technological terrors of the Punk Punk, Magitek variety; Mostly out of distrust of Aemera...And to spite them. During the battle to take back Jaruba Tish introduced her secret weapons, like weaponized airships. The biggest however were TANKS!. It's introduction was a huge frightening shock to the Aemera, and Tomaz high command because it was CRUSHING their infantry and was in relatively huge numbers, on top of that they had zero Intel regarding the frightening mechanization. It was the turning point that made Tish into a serious adversary and strategist. And solidified the D.S. empire as a force to be reckoned with.
• Blame Game: After the cluster fuck that was the battle of Jaruba, the loss became a highly controversial political football for Aemera. Mostly over how they miss calculated, and overly underestimated the D.S. military capabilities which caught them waaay off guard. And the fact they lost to a 18 year old young woman.
• Break the Haughty: Happens to the Elves and Dwarves when their world was invaded by the dark army. They pushed them back but this is the situation that forced them to go crawling to the humans for help.
• Came Back Wrong: the magic itself came back concurrently with other much darker elements.
• Civil War: The Lawrence Empire, cousins to the Delacroix side of the Delacroix/Starr family. A bitter civil war broke out between the main royal family and a few extended members. Causing the infrastructure to collapse, and the entire navy broke ranks, went AWOL and became a roaming pirate armada in the south eastern seas. While the defense force is fragmented and spread real thin. D.S. wanted to interfere but had problems sorting things out. They're still trying to stabilize the empire, which is in absolute chaos right now, with hundred of thousands of refugees. Rumor has it the empire was showing cracks even before D.S. used the Avalon spell. Other rumors said this was intentionally set up by Aemera through third parties. Britannia, and Urbania intelligence believe it was a False Flag Operation. The conflict also has had collateral damage towards another independent hold (that's under Aemera protection) by the name of Johnston, which was annihilated, as payback from what was left of the Lawrence empire defense force. Supposedly Johnston was a instigator (probably for Aemera).
  • This is what almost happened to Urbania, except there was no outside influence in that regard.
• The Corruption: The other half of The Artifact that broke off in atmosphere is the cause of this, Specifically when concerning the Necro-Borg.
• Cool Airship: D.S. and Urbania has these as "capital ships" for their "air navy" of Zeppelins. And they're usually armed to the teeth. Tish has a even larger one that doubles as a sort of air force one equivalent (called Skyy Starr 1). Which is a cross between a monstrous warship/battle station command center and a gorgeous sky yacht which has 2 air craft carriers attached.
• Cool Boat: Most human nations have incredible armadas, The biggest ones are Aemera, Urbania, and D.S. Empire. D.S. specifically have large cruise ship size battle ships as "capital ships" for her sea faring navy. Tish herself has her own extra large Yacht/Aircraft Carrier/Battleships called the SS Ronin, and another called the SS Shogun. The even larger one is called the S.S. Starrkiller which is both a floating fortress/palace/battleship/command center/with a double deck aircraft carrier on each side. She's working on a even BIGGER one called The Starr Supremacy.
  • D.S. and Urbania also has a significant fleet of long large submarines. And yet again Tish has her own ginormous "Leviathan" class submarine. Which is a giant candy red heavily armed and armored sub called Deep Starr 7. DS 7 is about as long as 7 foot ball fields, with star metal armor, and with over 12 Hundred Missiles!!. Excluding the depth chargers and torpedoes. Can emerge and double as a large battle ship with retractable cannons. It's HEAVILY powered by and armed with bleeding edge Magitek.
• Cool, but Inefficient: The aforementioned tanks was more or less prototypes that were clunky, hard to maneuver, and ate fuel for lunch!. However the cannon was frighteningly accurate, and the intimidating factor of the metal behemoths made up for it. Eventually they would become more efficient and dreaded on the battle field thanks to the help of Dwarven engineering.
• Cool Plane: during the great wars Diesel Punk styled air fighters was used, not unlike the ones from Crimson Skies. Both Starr/Urbania empires would eventually use a more sleeker real world equivalent of the P-51 Mustang. First manufactured by Urbania, and then shared with D.S. later I the time line circa 40 AAV.
• Construct Additional Pylons: A in-universe spell called The Clouds Of Avalon (sometimes called Mists of avalon) works this way...kinda. The spell basically clouds and protect your territory while you rebuild, or build, especially military and government infrastructure. Time passes differently within the cloud wall, seven days could add up to 7 centuries. This is how Urbania, and D.S. went from medium sized colonies with skeletal infrastructure to sprawling empires. Imagine the awe and terror once D.S. and Urbania emerged from the clouds.
• Cosmic Retcon: Tisha does this to spite tomaz, erasing their history with the D.S. Empire
• Crazy Is Cool: Tishauna, not so much her, but her plans tend to be crazy, and awesome.
• Crossover Cosmology: All of them, theres Expys of Norse-mythology, Greek Mythology, even Judeo-Christian ones. And the list goes on
• Culture Clash: There's a TON of this between Democracies and Monarchies in terms of laws, and cultural mores. For starters, In a lot of monarchies there's child soldiers, female soldiers, prepubescent kids in harems (in addition to some demi-humans like Elves, and halfbreed Orcs), child brides, and child grooms. But they're also surprisingly progressive (for the most part) when it comes to females in none gender conforming roles such as military commanders, small council positions, interracial, and inter-species relationships etc. Democracies on the other hand SEEM to be against some of the decadent aforementioned things which they consider morally abhorrent (at least on the surface), Especially Tomaz who more or less has the same values as Aemera. Aemera is mostly semi founded with conservative theocratic leanings and less on Blood lines and nobility. The only thing that made Tomaz not be a full ally is because of the Jim Crow like treatment of none white humans.
  • All in all though the issue of gender roles, and gender equality among monarchies are a mixed bag. Some monarchies are progressive about gender roles, some are not. Some are even a mixed bag in this regard with highborn women being independent, while low-born women have rights but are still seen as unequal to men in terms of some legal rights.
• Deep Cover Agent: The Koga Clan is this for Tish.
• Demihuman: TONS of different semi-human species, like mermaids, minotaurs, centaurs, cat people etc etc. They're usually no more malevolent/benevolent than humans. They were all either in their own pocket dimensions and or their respective Hidden Elf Village until most were flushed out by the dark army.
• Diabolus ex Nihilo: Draygon full stop, it's been described as basically being a sentient natural disaster.
  • several decades after Avalon there's been countless "incursians" by monsters and other terrors throughout the world. Growing more in frequency every few months.
• Dragon Rider: Urbania's crest is the dragon, and they're the only nation that thought of domesticating dragons as Beasts Of Battle. Dragon warriors/soldiers fly small to medium sized lightly armored/armed dragons respectively. Dragon Knights are part of the royal guard that commands the soldiers and warriors ranks. Dragon Knights also have much larger heavily armored (usually with Starr metal) dragons that's large enough to have cockpits. The cockpits control all of the various Magitek weapons such as twin Vulcan cannons, twin Gatling guns, and 2 machine guns that shoots RPG IN FULL AUTO. They also uses missiles that's guided by scrying stones for homing abilities. Dragon riders serve as both infantry and air support. Even the smaller dragons that are used can still have hides that are strong enough to with stand small arms fire, and 50 cal guns. Dragon riders are very versatile and can be used for different military purposes. Although cool it's actually quite practical considering that the early prototypes for the slowly emerging fighter planes still had ways to go. Although Starr empire had the first air force, it could be argued that it was actually Urbania that had the first albeit unconventional air force before Starr empire. Most rider however are young nobles of the Waller family as they bond really easily with the giant reptilian weapons of mass destruction.
• Divided We Fall: The ancient wizard warned the alliance leaders this is their possible future if they don't work together.
• Eldritch Abomination: Whatever the crew of the artifact was running from seems to be this.
• Enemy Civil War: The vampires are at war with one another. There's two species of vampires, The supernatural species, And another subspecies that's more born out of nature and genetics (like the vamps from Underworld). Both sides consider the other to be "abominations"
• Enemy Mine: Tomaz shockingly teaming up with Aemera to spitefully deny Delacroix, and Starr Empire the island of Jaruba. It cost both sides dearly.
  • The warring vamps, and werewolves had to call a truce in order to stop a massive orc army that was attacking their kingdoms.
• E.T. Gave Us Wi-Fi: Particularly D.S. which shares the tech with Urbania.
• Eviler than Thou: There's a lot of this going on in the setting.
• Evil Colonialist: Britannia, Française and Aemera has heavy shades of this.
• Evil Versus Evil: Apparently evil has the same petty hang up's as humans. Although this trope also includes humans.
• Exotic Weapon Supremacy: D.S. Empire, and Urbania.
• Fantastic Racism: And just flat out racism.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Aemera is a fantasy version of a center right socially conservative USA, there's also counterparts for Japan, Nazi Germany, Africa, Poland, Israel, Egypt (separated from Africa), Persia, China, India, The U.K., and Russia. Though most were destroyed in the cataclysmic Three Great Wars.
• Fantasy Gun Control: Subverted, While rare guns do exist in nations that has the resources to build them.
• Fantasy Kitchen Sink: Downplayed,For example; There's fairies, there are ghosts, vampires, werewolves, mummies, Sea Monsters, giant worms, superhuman mutants, zombies, pixies, aliens, time travelers, dragons, espers, angels, demons, Satan, THE God, Jerkass Gods, Evil Gods, Lazy Gods, Eldritch Abominations, Precursors, magic, psi, chi, elves, mermaids, dwarves, gnomes, griffins, phoenixes, flesh eating zombies (that's based on max brooks rules, and a little bit of Romero's memory rules), wights, pirates, hoodoo zombies, goblins, cyborgs, trolls, ninjas, and so on. But a lot of the more fantastical aforementioned stuff including WMD level magic is in the shadows, inadvertently hidden and undiscovered.
• Fish People: like the Elves and Dwarves was flushed out by the dark army, the "Deep Ones" flushed out the merfolk. Causing the Atlanteans and merfolk to create a underwater alliance. But eventually they too sent emissaries to the above ground world for help as the enemies incursions became more and more numerous.
• Gender Is No Object: Zigg Zagged in universe. Women's roles in certain male centric positions varies wildly across nations and government.
• The Greys This MIGHT be what the crew of The Artifact possibly was
• Great Big Book of Everything: Documents the history of all the cultures and nations, and races.
• Great Offscreen War: During the later decades of the "Normalcy" era there was 3 back to back monumentally huge cataclysmic global wars. It's the primary reason for all of the lost advanced versions of Steampunk, Diesel Punk, Schizo Tech, and Magitek. It's also the reason for the Medieval Stasis the world is in.
• Grey-and-Grey Morality: Usually when humans deal with other humans. D.S. and Urbania vs Aemera specifically though.
• Grim Up North: The area of The Viska Empire by far, and even further up into the arctic there's The Land of Always Ice, aka "Frozen Hell". Where there's rumors of huge monstrous deformed white bears, and other weird creatures.
• Godzilla Threshold: Delacroix-Starr empire does this a lot..
• Gorn: Well the returning magic did brought back with it unfathomable evil that never existed before. The evil that came back with the returning magic caused horrendous massacres, atrocities, and battles.
• Hidden Elf Village: Both the Elves and Dwarves had this, until they didn't anymore thanks to an invading demonic army.
• Humans Are Bastards: Can't get past their petty differences. Culture, race, politics, and religion has pretty much polarized the humans.
• Humans Are White: Gloriously subverted.
• Humongous Mecha: The empress of the Delacroix-Starr empire love these. She has guardian "sentinels" for the empire's cities, Seven bigger/kaiju sized ones guard the empire's entrances. They're a mixture of Magitek, Alchemy, Steampunk, and Diesel Punk. Dwarfs are also known to use Steampunk exoskeleton types for combat.
• Impoverished Patrician- Numerous petty noble houses are still wealthy by peasant standards but nowhere near what their families used to be, often as the result of backing the wrong noble house in a schism. Also, numerous prominent high noble houses and kingdoms that are in dire financial straights are in danger of being preyed apon by Aemera. Starr/Delacroix/Urbania takes advantage of this and uses their financial influences to keep said noble houses afloat in exchange for their support, and in turn they receive protection from the alliance.
• Interservice Rivalry: Between the 47 Ronin and The Shadow-Koga Ninja Clan of the DS Empire. Technically neither was a part of the empire's military force, but were in fact on the empress' personal payroll (The Shadowkhan & The Koga), or was loyal to her personally (The Ronin). However when all of the 47 Ronin was indoctrinated and upgraded from being Tish's Secret Service to "Shoguns" or generals in the actual DS military, friction grew as the Shoguns were now field officers. Thus causing complications when ever the shoguns encountered the koga ninjas running secret ops that sometimes interfered with the DS marine force/and shoguns' operations. Samurais and Ninja are rivals anyway so it's kinda hard to get them on the same page. The Koga are a classified group and the only people who are aware is the Ronin. They have to share information whether they like it or not in order to not undermine the empress.
• Kaiju: Draygon; The elemental dragon aka "the king of dragons". A monstrous highly intelligent three headed dragon that breathes lightning, fire, ice, and water. It has reduced places to burning embers, and molten glass.
• Kill It with Fire: Certain things can only be killed with Fire
• Kill It with Ice: Certain things can only be killed with Ice
• Kill It with Water: Certain things can only be killed with Water
• King in the Mountain: The extended, and immediate Royal family of Delacroix/Starr, and Urbania during the Clouds of Avalon spell.
• Lensman Arms Race: D.S., Urbania (and likely The Ch'in Empire) with Aemera. In fact D.S. dedicates at least a little over a Real Life equivalent of a TRILLION dollars a year to it's defense budget. Their factories produces battle ships and other war machines none stop. and the budget is extended to go for the next 20 years. D.S. also supplying Urbania.
• Loads and Loads of Races: Elves, faeries, humans, mermaids, trolls, and tons of other sapient species and offshoots.
• Lost Common Knowledge: Thanks to three global cataclysmic wars. Some info survived but it's speculated that 87% of it is lost.
• Lost Technology: A lot of advanced Punk Punk technology was lost to cataclysmic wars called The Three Great Wars.
• Magic Versus Science: When the magic came back there was a lot of conflicts, battles, and wars that was magic versus conventional science and weaponry.
• Magitek: Predator drones, and cruise missiles that uses scrying stones as a GPS', dragons mounted with 50 cal machine guns, and of course there's alchemy.
• Masquerade: Despite the magic coming back, only low level magic was ever discovered and harnessed, even then it's outlawed by most nations and empires ^note  save for Urbania, Delacroix, and Starr. Other elements however fall completely under this trope (likely unintentionally though). Probably for the best all things considered. The only real WMD type of magic that has ever been witnessed was The Clouds Of Avalon spell. As far as anyone else knows magic seems to be very limited. This belief also is the cynical antithesis to the If Jesus, Then Aliens trope.
  • Werewolves and Vampires still existed in secrecy during the "normalcy era". Likely because they weren't supernatural, or mystical in nature....just Natural freaks of nature.
• Matriarchy: Quite a few.
• Micro Monarchy: Alot of the indie colonies can be seen as this. In which a lot has come under the protection of alliance members like Urbania, Starr Empire, and Delacroix.
  • A lot of alliance members bannermen are this.
  • The Delacroix family had one called Nola prior to the mists of Avalon. But it was annexed by force by Aemera, causing the Delacroix family to flee with their meager defense forces (which was mostly made up of family and hired guns). A couple of decades after the fall of the mists, and the formation of the Delacroix kingdom and military, the then Delacroix matriarch (Aliyza Delacroix) was very frank towards Tish about getting it back at all costs, with, or without her help. This is why Jaruba was a huge clusterfuck. It wasn't far from Nola thus having a strategic value in the dust up. But...Aemera knew that too, causing a brutal battle over said island. Tish was never going to stand in the way of her eldest aunt's goals. So she decided to help any way she could.
  • Delacroix could sort of count as well as it relates to the Starr empire. But not really "micro" though.
    • The nation of Lawrence is one as well, which is currently going through a brutal civil war.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: Some of the typical fantastical beats that you can find in the world. Most are probable experiments from the crew of the artifact that crashed centuries ago. Possibly even some of the demi-humans.
• Morality Kitchen Sink: Heroes vs. Anti-Heroes vs. Anti-Villains vs. Villains. Possibly not in that order. Basically every Shades of Conflict is present.
• Mundane Fantastic: Humans eventually got use to Demi-Humans (sorta) by circa 50 AAV, and most low-level magic. In fact Demi Humans like Elves, Dwarves and Tiefling are probably closer to humans than not. With the exception of possible unusual skin tones, horns, and possibly being longer lived. Completely subverted when it comes to high-end white/dark/black magic of mass destruction, and other-worldly monsters.
• Ninja: The Shadow-Koga Clan In the truest since of the word, Yes they use actual magical tricks, But other wise fulfill the roll by doing real world jobs like black Ops, espionage, infiltration, reconnaissance, sabotage, and assassinations.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Sometimes in the literal since. One instance had had the Starr Empire's special forces unit fighting an invading force of steam/diesel punk cyborg zombies called the Necro-Borg.
• Nothing Is Scarier: There's a fear that there is actually nobody behind the legions of hell.
• Our Elves Are Different: Despite being long lived they're not all that different from humans. Also elves have different types of ears. For example; Some can have high pointed ears, some can have high pointed ears that sticks out to the side, and others can have short stubby pointed ears ala Vulcans from Star Trek. Half human elves usually have the latter. Also tends to have unconventional eye colors.
• Our Mermaids Are Different: Over 6ft tall, elongated and slender like an Olympian swimmer, small fins on arms and square irises, and sometimes unnatural colored hair (like turquoise, or aqua marine etc.), and unconventional eye colors, including completely black like a shark. They're lower half can also come in different colors like tropical fish. But otherwise they're very conventionally attractive by human standards.
• Patchwork Map: The settings geography is basically this in some areas.
• Powers as Programs: A few magicians/sorcerers/wizards uses powers in this manner.
• Punk Punk: Take a pick; The setting has Steampunk, Dungeon Punk, Desert Punk, iPunk, thanks to the alien tech but this is a very small isolated case however, Sandal Punk, Diesel Punk, Clock Punk. Most of this tech was during the "Normalcy" era, especially during the Three Great Wars.
• Puppet State: Tish plans to use subterfuge, and sabotage to get a ally to ascend to a throne of Française a nation that's True Neutral.
• Race Fetish: Female Orcs have some pretty perverse lust for human males and females. Even consume human semen as a fertility drug and or aphrodisiac. They have also been known to rape and keep humans as slaves sometimes.
  • A lot of the times the attraction is mutual between human males, and female half breed orcs who can actually be very attractive. Even full blooded female orcs have been known to actually be beautiful in a lot of cases, being a sexy examples of promiscuous Statuesque Stunners and Amazonian Beauties. More or less a hoard of She-Hulks, in terms of looks.
  • Elves is this too for humans due to how exotically beautiful they are and their openness towards sex. Especially female elves who often can be found in brothels and harems along with aforementioned female orcs and human women.
  • The Noa as well, being gorgeous exotic Ambiguously Brown race of indigenous humans.
  • Black human women from the "Tropic Isles", and "dark continent", on some occasion draws the attention of rich white male nobles/explorers who tends to make them sex slaves. It's one of the reasons Kianna turn down the prince of Britannia's uncomfortable advances.
  • The mono-gendered demi-human equivalent to Succubi called "Tiefling" loves elves and humans because they LOVE human and elf pheromones. Also why they can be found in most mixed race brothels, and harems. They also prefer to breed with Human, and Elf males exclusively.
  • Subverted with male orcs who find humans to be hideous, especially human females.
• Real Politik: This is how most human nations do politics. particularly Aemera.
• Rebellious Rebel: The country of Tomaz is this to Urbania, and D.S. Empire..with a dusting of We ARE Struggling Together thrown in.
• The Resenter: Again Tomaz to D.S. and Urbania and vice versa.
• Ridiculously Fast Construction: The Clouds of Avalon Spell. All though it appears to be fast from the outside. While inside time moves different so it appears things got built fast within just 7 days. It actually took 4 centuries within the cloud.
• Rip Van Winkle: The extended, and immediate Royal family of Delacroix/Starr, and Urbania during the Clouds of Avalon spell. Lets just say it was a Awesome Christmas gift when they woke up from their deep sleep and saw their sprawling Empires and military forces.
• Science Fantasy: Both magical and scientific nations, and or people fighting or teaming up with each other
• Sexy Monster Girl: Tiefling, succubus looking Demihuman females. And potentially female Orks.
• Shades of Conflict: The setting has conflicts that fall in the gray area, black area, and white area.
• Shocking Defeat Legacy: The battle of Jaruba, a Caribbean island which had a certain strategic value for the Starr Empire. Tish's forces suffered a horrendous lost at the hands of a partnered Tomaz, and Aemera, losing 60% of her garrisoned forces. Afterward she was a laughing stock, the fact that she was just 19 at the time only added to people saying she was a incompetent leader. She later personally regrouped the remaining battered 40% and reinforced them with a small naval, and zeppelin fleet and retook the large island. Devastating the Tomaz army, and pushing back the Aemera forces. After that nobody was laughing anymore. It's a sore spot for all parties involved, Particularly Tish. But it was a victory for her nonetheless.
• Schizo Tech: TONS!!..There's indoor plumbing, refrigeration, central air and heating, and modernish medicine (there's also a basic sense of microbiology). you go further outwards of these cities and towns it gets more rural and typical middle ages. There's also some fire arms, in addition to alot of Punk Punk type machinery and equipment.
  • It's also evident in the architecture in certain areas, alot of the government buildings like royal palaces, and castles are a mixture of old and slightly modern designs. For instance the Starr palace is a ginormous medieval looking house that has alot of modern McMansion aesthetics (it has a infinity pool the size of 7 football fields for example) mixed in with modern Persian palace designs. Also in some other larger capital cities there's even a few sky scrapers, however they're not modern in design. Some cities are even slightly industrialized, they're mostly found in major nations like Urbania, D.S., Aemera etc.
• The Siege: The siege of fairfield village, after the residents was force to hold up in the village's fortress after being attacked by The Hive.
• Skeleton Government: DS, and Urbania started out this way, because essentially they were just more or less two colonies before they both started to build government infrastructure, and military forces.
• Standard Fantasy Races: The Sapient races are:
  • The Humans:
    • Vampires: whom are technically humans genetically speaking (excluding the supernatural vamps)
    • Likewise werewolves and skin-walkers.
    • Avians: Basically humans with bird wings who live on a Floating Continent. Usually mistaken as angels. In fact real angels sometimes affectionately call them "pretenders".
    • Atlanteans: That has a lot in common with the Atlanteans of this film, and possibly a ethnic offshoot of The Noa. Uses VERY advanced Magitek. They're generally peaceful and benevolent. But they're also a major supplier of Magitek to the alliance. Particularly D.S. and Urbania.
  • Elves: For awhile was in self imposed exile and Neutral Good, but has joined forces with the human alliance.
  • Dwarves: Chaotic Good, and generally helpful to the alliance. They seem to be just happy that they're fighting for something again.
  • Orcs: Chaotic Neutral to True Neutral. But mostly the former.
  • faeries and other off shoots. Generally good but also runs the gamut of Chaotic Good to Chaotic Evil.
  • Dragons; some are as intelligent as humans and are capable of speech.
  • And a few debatable species...like The Hive giant bugs whom may be sentient but not sapient..
  • Anthropomorphic animal species.
  • And a HUGE load of other sapient mystical/mutant/hybrid Demi Humans.
• Sleazy Politician: Aemera is full of them, including the opposing "liberal" party. Tomazville knows this, but is too scared to pivot out of fear of putting someone worse in power. So they still support them in hope of incremental change. The other Tomazville supporters are true believers of their moderate policies.
• So Cool, It's Awesome: Empress Tishauna uses a giant Magitek, steam and diesel powered humongous mecha to fight Draygon. She loses and Draygon wins (barely), but Tishauna is in the process of building a better more advanced one. One that's reverse engineered from the artifact's tech.
• Start My Own: DS and Urbania are prone to this, but are usually successful.
• Sufficiently Analyzed Magic:
• Summon Bigger Fish: Has been Starr Empire's Modus operandi for a while.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Another theme of the setting.
• The Time of Myths: Ancient History was more or less this.
• Tome of Eldritch Lore: 7 volumes to be exact..
• Uncanny Valley: The Hive has the alpha bugs whom are giant flying bugs that try to imitate humans, not unlike the Judas breed from Mimic. The imitation goes as far as vocal mimicry and even wearing clothes. Their faces are basically husks with creepy surreal facial features and vacant opaque eyes that covers the insects true face like a mask. One village saw a large group of these creatures and thought they were a wondering band of nomads, or tattered and weary refugees until they disrobed and showed their true identity and started to slaughter and eat the villagers.
• The Unmasqued World: initially, the conflicts post Avalon were mostly human based for the first few decades. Usually between Aemera, sometimes Tomazville, and the founding empires of the Alliance. This all changed when Elves and Dwarves (among a few other demi-humans) was forced to come out of hiding to ask for help. Thus breaking the Masquerade of Elves, Dwarves and other demi-humans being thought of as extinct or outright fictional. This changes everything from then on out. The world goes from gritty dark low fantasy, to gritty dark high fantasy.
• Unobtainium: Starr Metal, a type of metallic ore that can only be found underground beneath the Delacroix-Starr empire. A magic sensitive metal that's harder and more durable than steel, and Adamantium.
• Voluntary Vassal: Urbania, and Starr Empire have a few of these. Delacroix was this to Starr but was big enough where it became it's own thing but still remained ally to Starr. Delacroix would also do the same for two of it's Vassals, Arcana and Lawrence respectively. The latter which fell into a horrific civil war.
• We ARE Struggling Together: Surprisingly subverted when the 7 nations first come together. Their coalition isn't perfect by any means though. Played cynically straight with the non alliance human empires/nations. This trope is also one of the setting's many themes.
  • At one point Tomaz, Urbania and D/S Empire suffered from this. leading to Tomaz, Urbania/D.S. breaking up. Values Dissonance helped this along, Especially under the younger leadership of Urbania and D.S. One huge reason for the rift is that Tomaz was more moderate and pragmatic with how they dealt with Aemera, believing they were playing "3D Chess" so to speak. Where as a lot of the leaders of the future Starr/Delacroix/Urbania empires was more radical, progressive and maybe even revolutionary than the Tomazville leadership. Tomazville being more pragmatic was likely concerned about how Aemera would react to said radical beliefs from those leaders, which cause Tomazville to distance themselves from them out of fear of repercussions/reprisals from Aemera. They also believed that they could do some internal reforming since their was a moderate political party in the Aemera government that Tomazville was connected to. Leaders from Starr/Delacroix/Urbania side thought it was pointless considering Aemera wasn't really a democracy, but more of a facist-lite Oligarchy, with some democracy sprinkled in. Not to mention there's a growing Religion of Evil that's analogous to a medieval WAS Py christofacist like cult that's spreading in the country. So while most people think the rift was due to religion and moral differences, it's actually due to bitter political differences, including political strategy.
  • Tomazville and Aemera don't really trust each other but they do try to use each other when it comes to the Alliance since they both know they're a mutual enemy/rival that they have in common.
  • Not helping the situation is that the alliance was also trying the whole Internal Reformist thing with progressiv members of the same political party. Which only amounted in bitter infighting since said party is mostly controlled by moderates and centrists (usually with ulterior motives) who try their best to keep progressives out of any real position of power. Further putting a wedge between Tomaz and the alliance is the fact that Tomaz cynically hedge their bets on the moderate members thinking they're the only ones that could realistically get in power, or just view it as the path of least 1resistance. The Alliance on the other hand think Tomaz is just being strung along. Though it's implied that some members of Tomaz know this but just don't see another realistic option. However, a few have started to see the writing on the wall and started to defect to one of the three founding Alliance empires. Much to the chagrin of Tomazville.
  • Another thing keeping things stalled is the fact that said party is a "big tent party", so there's tons of competing goals from different social groups. This is due to Aemera being a two party empire. Basically there's the Far-right and everyone else piled under one political tent cause they have no choice. The Far-right party use to be a general garden variety conservative party but has morphed into a obstructive christofacist ethnocentric like cult where everyone falls in line and stays on message. The opposing party tries to have the same discipline but the cracks between liberals and progressive starts to show whenever the leadership of said opposing party settles on a compromise where they barely get anything out of it.
  • Tomaz was not expecting the three founding Alliance members (Urbania/Starr/Delacroix) to get as powerful as they did. Even then, they were still all the more reluctant to come to their side of reasoning. Instead just doubling down on their own strategy, which proves to be barely incremental at best, and stagnant at worse.
• Weird Weather: There's several Advanced Ancient Acropolis on the Dark Continent where Aemera and a few other independent prospectors like to go for valuable artifacts and relics, but in one area it's said that the rain is corrosive and has a oily texture to it.
• Wild Card: All of the human nations that aren't part of the alliance. Specifically Aemera due to its democratic nature. The Aemera public is politically polarized and often influence the country's policies, which tends to be kinda schizophrenic thanks to the bitterly polarized public. Sometimes they're helpful other times their passive aggressively obstructive and hypocritical. Which tends to piss off Tish and Torre respectively, whom would rather not have to deal with them at all. That and the fact they don't trust Aemera to begin with due to the bad history both empires had with the country. Tish also believe Aemera to be using proxy wars to undermine some of the alliance's interests. Alex on the other hand tries to convince them it's in their best interest to be diplomatic with Aemera. This also why the Dwarves, Elves and and the merfolk decided to go to the Delacroix-Starr/Urbania empires first to form an alliance.
  • There's also The Ch'in Empire a fantasy counterpart of china. NOBODY trusts them. Although The Ch'in Empire is a isolationist country with out a navy so the paranoia might be a little over blown.
• Year Inside, Hour Outside: The Clouds of Avalon spell causes this. It gave Urbania and D.S. enough time to Construct Additional Pylons. Essentially going from medium sized colonies with a glorified militia as an army, and a skeletal infrastructure to sprawling empires with terrifying armies.
  • This has also caused some interesting drama involving family members of the citizens who lived outside the walls of the Avalon spell in other countries. Learning that their son, daughter, brother, sister, cousin or whatever is long dead, but instead meeting their great, great, great, descendants. The royals, and nobles of Urbania, and D.S. avoided this due to the King in the Mountain type spell.
• Zeppelins from Another World: Urbania, and D.S. uses these as "air naval" units. The first of their kind in this setting.
• Zombie Apocalypse: There's been a sudden rash of these outbreaks in the independent villages and towns. Even in this setting it's a serious threat because science, nor magic has a cure. And it mostly effects humans. There's different types of zombies though. The Borg-ish Necro-Borgs which are more akin to Virus, Hoodoo zombies, and the traditional flesh eating zombies.

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