[h1]Qor, Playground of the Triad Dynasties[/h1]

[hider=The Lore, as ascribed by the Triad]This world, known to the mages as Qor, is no agrarian sprawl. The pangean caldera of which the Qorite people settle lays no claim to be the site for which empires large and wide, rich and prosperous, could lay dominion over. It is a hostile landscape, littered with inhospitable weathers clashing under the influence of thunderous arcane winds most ferocious. Even so, it is a landscape where human beings could manifest their own designs. So long as they remain reasonably realistic.

Much of Qor remains for none to see but the ferocious beasts and hellspawn which the winds of magic birthe as they influence life and the world itself like an unseen hand. And those who deem it fit, perhaps through wrongly placed ambition, to colonize the land beyond those small crevaces and islands which humanity was birthed will soon find their dreams quashed under the roiling currents of an ever-shifting evil which lacks neither aim nor guidance.

It is by chance that those of the Qorite peoples who could eventually manipulate these phantasmal winds were granted their gifts, and it is by chance that their cities prospered or collapsed. The master of Qor is circumstance, a circumstance beyond the knowing of any mortal or immortal mind which has decided to survey it during their flickering existence.

The arcane wind, the by-product of the world's inception, the immaterial force which lead to the dimension's birth, and the last remaining proof that its longevity was never infinite as some philosophizing minds would have lead their followers to believe during the world's many spiraling cycles.

Even so, there were some who decided to persist. A kind of people born and bred by chance, allied their kindred soul, and banded together to form something which even the mountain-shattering, forest-clearing, and desert-spewing nature of this world could not displace. These would be the same people who came to call the world by its first, and last, lasting name. 

Whilst the Qorites were originally one people of many others, they were granted the circumstantial ability to harness the winds, and redirect their amorphous and ever-changing properties towards shifting the landscape, and fertilizing their fields. Whilst few, their impact was great, and their kind were originally a selfless nobility who quickly came to power and authority.

The first cities were built under their wise council, and the teachings they acquired from their interaction with this chaotic cosmic force they called magic was shared amongst each community for the sake of unified prosperity.

During times where pestilence was birthed under the guiding hand of arcane circumstance they united, and when their cities were besieged by their reborn dead, they fought back these newfound invaders as a united caste.

Though as the times passed, and as their nations developed, division was merely another eventuality to be faced. The Qorite people, now claiming dominion over vaste swathes of interconnected settlements, outposts, communities, and peoples, became too powerful for their selfless ideals to remain. 

Nations which had historically only just emerged now battled for territory, under no other grander objective than to rule all that was civilization. The grand cities of the Qorites became castles and capitals for which the mage-caste may rule their domain, and through their magical expertise, they morphed their own humanity into something which no longer could resemble it under scrutiny.

At present, the pangean caldera which had birthed both horror and joy was now only the back-drop for which these grand rulers vie for dominion, disregarding much of the chaos which the force that their power heralds from spawns in order to overpower one another.

It is a performance beyond the comprehension of the people which they rule over, the waste which their armies leave behind attributed to little else but another random act of the 'celestial wind' which their 'gods' claim hegemony of.

Though their quest for unobscured mastery of the cosmic forces which their world had always been embroiled within has cost them greatly. The peoples of Qor now limited to the nobility which their few cities govern through, and oppose eachother with. Three cities, with three dynasties of Mage-Kings, lorded over by a suspicion great enough for them to ruin their own natural genetics through sterility, prolonging their destinies through the haphazard force of magic with which they mold their offspring. 

The potential masters of Qor, considered as such only due to the ancient heritage with which they support their rule, are the Acakan mages. Born in the purple since the time of the first cities, they are the only presently-standing lineage of 'immortals' with a right to rule and a city with which to manifest it. Their master, referred to within the mages' archaic and needlessly ceremonial traditions as the Many-Winged One. Having ruled for two centuries, the regular humans with which his wingspan encompass and his influence extends to known him only as a deity of impeccable stature and power, the arcane winds a result of his celestial flight across all creation.

Though in truth, he is merely another Mage-King amongst three who share an equal division of power through the nature by which their magic does not use, but instead directs, the forces which truly rule towards their own desire. Even so, whilst the Many-Winged One, referred to as Acakan as if he was the only one of their family that mattered, is one who is far more capable of truly ruling a nation than others of his kind. A hobby builder, the man finding solace in the expansion of his own ordained culture and divinely-censored aesthetic styling across the shattered continent.

The Acakan nation is no massive entity, no nation across Qor maintaining such status, but it is one which is stunning in its appearance and projection. Cities placed onto the flattened peaks of former heaven-touching mountain ranges, bridges spanning the vast distance of great rivers, and buildings ornate enough to be considered treasures in their own right litter his egotistic projection across the world which he allows the habitation of humans as if little else but dolls to accentuate the beauty of his sense of architectural genius.

Acakan is however threatened, not personally, but nationally, by the second dynasty of arcane rulers which consider the world of Qor to be their home. The Arkon, a dynasty of one maddened ruler who holds sway over a land entangled within the shattered coast which divide the northwestern and southwestern end of the pangean caldera. Arkon, another immortal, seen by Acakan as an imbecilic lunatic, wishes little else but for himself to be the only sovereign to hold sway upon the 'fabric-firmament,' or magic, which supposedly stands as the last veil between creation and uncreation. He wishes to control Qor's entirety of magic so as to create a better creation under his ever-wise guiding hand. Arkon, whilst being the only mage of his dynasty, having massacred the rest in a deicidal struggle which resulted in the shattering of the lands which his lineage had previously lorded and the sinking of their cities, still carries the arcane moniker of 'the greatest destiny.'

Though mage culture practically demands of its subjects to derogatorily refer to them simply as Arkon in defiance of their previously acquired titles. Arkon, once being a bright mind, is seen as having fallen under the influence of the fabric-firmament which the mages direct and channel, which is why his once impressive moniker is reserved for few others but the fishermen which line the shattered coast regard as an ocean deity. Arkon's city, lying on the ocean floor, given respite thanks to the efforts of a mighty whirlwind produced around the city's expanse which keeps its streets dry.

The last of the great triad is the 'Landless Sun,' the self-designated shepherd of the nomadic Hoka'oi people who once lived at the expanse of the canyon-kingdom which Arkon's ancestors ruled before the land's decimation. An enigmatic figure amongst their own kind, and a mortal deity to their chosen people, the Landless Sun, and their Ramonkahud dynasty now wander the lands in a purposeless exodus, perhaps in vain hope that by its end, their equals would have destroyed eachother, and seeded the land for which the Hoka'oi to cultivate.

The Landless Sun is unidentified, and its dynasty seemingly appearing from the aether according to all attempts to dust up an origin from which they could originate. Not even the endless pages of Acakan's greatest libraries containing any clues with which to guide their quest for explanations. 

Though to the two rivalling cities' benefit, the roaming city of the Ramonkahud steers clear of any would be confrontations between the world's definitive powers, seeking instead to bolster its own growth with the displaced peoples which their imbecilic masters displace due to their pointless conflicts.

All this, however, is not for mortal minds to know. These are the puppeteers which direct and instill purpose and vision into the minds of the easily afflicted.[/hider] 

[hider=Civilization beneath the Flight of Many Wings]Acakan's dominion surrounds the entirety of Arkon's influence limit and claims sovereignty over the two ruling kingdoms which both dominate their given side of their newly formed peninsulas. 

The Aoideoi Kingdom, birthed a century into the past during the 'enlightened conquest' of former mountain-peoples' holdings and steads, is the northern master of the lands which center around the shattered passage, is a kingdom divided in two functional halfs. Connected through an intricate highway known as the Acamoidean road which crosses the spine of the mountain range with runs through the realm's borders, the nation is ruled by two monarchs who individually govern each half of the nation, and during times of external danger, meet upon a flattened plane on the Acamoidean road's center to decide on the entire nation's direction.

Whilst divided, the Aoideoi Kingdom shares one language, and largely one culture amongst its dominant population, though the governance of each half could vary extraordinarily. It is said that during times of the greatest need, the Many-Winged One shall whisper words of wisdom to the rulers of the Aoideoi, and usher in a prosperous reign.

The Aoideoi face two large threats, aside from the ever-potentiality of national collapse should tradition be ignored. The first, is the northern mountain-peoples under Ramonkahud's lordship. Their raiding, in combination with the beasts and monstrocities of the uncharted territories beyond them, lead to its northern regions facing strain. This was dealt with in two ways, the eastern monarch decided to bolster the border and militarize. The western decided to cede territory to the mountain-peoples, so that they have to deal with the wild beasts as oppose to the Aoideoi.

The second threat is the seafaring peoples of the submerged one, which would be Arkon. They are a scattered people without much for central rule, but an ever-thirst for ways to enrich their own meager existences and claim ever greater reward from whatever authority they bow before. Though good fishers, and capable of traversing the whirling sea between the two peninsulas thanks to Arkon's aid, they lack much of what makes Acakan's realms powerful and potent, but because they do not abide by his illogical restrictions, they can equalize through different means beyond simple battlefield engagements.

On the other side of the whirling sea, and the other side of Arkon's reach, lies Ean. Unlike the Aoideoi, the Ean Empire's foundations was built along the mutual protection afforded between seperate villages during the age of the first cities. These villages would come to grow under the divine guidance of the Acakan dynastic vision, and its history would grow ever richer, and more mythic by the passing centuries. 


It now culminates into an electoral empire lodged into its soil to the point of immobility, producing a powerful bulwark for which Arkon's ambition is poised. Whilst the mage-cities of the three dynasties are locationally unknown, it is whispered that this is where Acakan's golden city resides, and these whispers are also the reason for which Arkon's southern realms carry the torch against its northern regions.

The territory is held stable, if only through the fact that its national components, the city states, are immensely entrenched within a landscape seemingly molded to its benefit. Its cities, farms, and fortresses covered behind strange formations of earth, and strategically located lakes to make any would-be invader grind their teeth.[/hider]

[hider=Realms within the Submerged's Embrace]Northern Seafarers are the lesser of two evils in the eyes of Acakan's chosen people, their holdings protected by deep fjords and intermittent islands. Whilst it serves as capable defenses, it also isolates them from an offensive directed towards the northern realms, instead demanding them to utilize their seafaring to raid along the peninsula's northern coasts. The northern seafarers share no other distinction, beyond their location, their faith, and their skills of navigation, with which to distinguish themselves from each other. Instead, the shattered coasts consist of small territories, typically lorded by a village head, or the owner of the largest farmstead.

Their culture artificially warlike as a result of Arkon's guidance, they conduct raids to stock their supplies and fill whatever goal their seers place upon their righteous mission to oppose Acakan's realms.

The Northern Seafarers congeal, additionally, into the southern seafarers due to many villages and small cities along the northern coast deeming the south to be the more righteous target. Perhaps because it is easier to gather larger armies across the southern peninsula's northern terrain.

The southern seafarers are a breed all to their own, the land of the southern shattered coast settled with an altogether different intent to the fishing cities of the northern seafarers. Blistering with logging camps, magically ripened soil for which to feed large hordes, and plentiful supply of freshwater lakes, the land belongs to the warring clans of the seafarers who see on the death of the untrue god as their ultimate objective.

The terrain is flat and open, opportunistically hilly only for a stronghold to be strategically located, and interconnected by a web of systems ultimately geared towards conquest and ruination, the southern seafarers were told stories of great conquests from birth, led into the path of warriors by religious dogma, and ultimately sent towards the great southern realm of Ean to pillage every generation.

It is a land with great grudges, albeit self-imposed by their way of living, towards the south, and a people with ever-expanding ambition and god-given destinies.

Whilst not truly united, the seperate tribes of the south follow the banner of faith into battle, their pagan crusades shepherded by the Warteller, a god-given identity placed on the most devout warrior, so that they way walk the lands of the southern shattered coast and unite its seperate clansmen under the great banner of the One Submerged.[/hider]

[hider=Those who walk under the Homeless Sun]The Hoka'oi peoples were the former lower-caste of the kingdom which once littered the now submerged lands which once unified the Qor's spherical encumberance. Though since the disaster, they migrated northward, and southward, under the guidance of the Landless Sun of the Ramonkahud. Those who went north became known to those who dwelled there as the mountain-peoples, never given asylum by the realms of the Acakan, instead forced to live amongst the wilderness, and the manifest chaos which the 'Fibric-Firmament' delivers upon the world.

Forced to hunt the beasts that lie beyond the known world, their bodies were altered, and their natures were changed. Mutations became rampant, as their guiding light did not prove competent enough, or willing, to shepherd over the land as the other Pantheons did with theirs. Thus, the mountain-peoples grew indistinct from beasts and horrors, differentiated only by their vague baseline humanity, now considered indistinguishable from the beasts they hunt in the eyes of the Aoideoi.

The Hoka'oi who ventured south, beyond Ean, and into the Tallest Desert, perched upon the shoulders of great mountains, were scorched by the arcane winds which permeated the strange wasteland. Their skin was blackened beyond colour, and became aetheric and formless. 

They became shadows, and their entire civilization was removed from the material, instead left to roam inbetween forms. All recollection of their existence concludes thus, making the assumption that they still inhabit the region southwards of civilization, though the extent by which they do so unknown to mortal minds.

Some believe it was a deliberate act, on the part of the Landless Sun, so as to ensure they could exist without others' interference.[/hider]