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Dominion began around 300 years ago as a modest mining village known as The Junction, established by settlers who broke away from a larger city in search of autonomy and opportunity. Tucked deeper into the rugged lands, The Junction grew steadily, shaped by rich mineral veins and the harsh resilience of its people. For nearly two centuries, it was ruled by a line of emperors and empresses, a dynastic system that brought both stability and controversy.
The age of monarchs ended almost a century ago with the assassination of Empress Heavalyn, the last sovereign of Dominion. Her death marked a turning point in the city's history. In the wake of the tragedy, the people rejected hereditary rule and formed a new government: a council made up of one representative from each of the four city-districts, along with a fifth seat—the People’s Choice Councilor—elected by popular vote. This council structure brought a new era of shared power, debate, and civic engagement, laying the foundation for the modern Dominion.
Chronicles of Dominion
There is no understanding of why people went underground though people can speculate that an unnatural disaster happens, and the most common thing brought up in Dominion history is nuclear warfare. However, there is emphasis that it could have been any unnatural or natural phenomenon that was threatening to end humanity and going underground was the only way to avoid extinction.
In the beginning of the descent, there is no knowledge or official history of those times, and everything that is to do with the beginning is called “The Lost Age” because there is no hardcore evidence or facts. After this period everything begins to unravel the centuries of history that the people have gone through to get to where they are in modern Dominion.
The only thing that Dominion society has of that day was the reliance of oral tradition and ancient scribbles on the stone of cave walls. Being able to decipher the language was difficult at first though it translates to something along the lines of “The Sky Turned,” which doesn’t give anyone much of anything to go off from. These engraves on cave walls are ancient and no one in Dominion was alive when there was access to these ancient sites.
There is an assumption that there was about 150 years between coming from the surface and when records of people started living but there is no certainty. An era that lasted almost 300 years has been referenced as the “Suffering Era” because of all the evidence that shows mass death from the people that came from the surface. During these three hundred years, light sources were sacred and only leaders had access to something called glowmoss and other bioluminescent fungi.
Groups were beginning to focus on the fauna and flora underground and began agricultural techniques to keep these items abundant in their supplies.
However, the beginnings of fully understanding the circumstances were slow and most people seemed to die out because of famine, disease, and chaos.
During the next step into history, this was when people grouped up and began to go their own ways to what they thought was best. This period is referred to as the “Fragmentation Era” because there seemed to be a lot of disputes and issues during this time that caused people to go their separate ways.
Amongst the fragmentation of society in that day, there are known to be 15 official groups that spanned out underground to do their own thing with 3 major groups participating in trade with the rest. All these groups seemed to develop unique technology, techniques, and culture – from evidence it appears that some focused-on steam, others harnessed geothermal energy or went with domesticating glowing fauna and flora. What is considered a dead language today was used up until these points and there is evidence to show how language emerged today – the different groups were slowly losing the language of the surface and began to merge into a strange dialect in each ancient society.
A handful of decades after the range of the Fragmentation Era the city of Stone began to be documented, and it was a subterranean city state that was ruled by dynasties. Another major point was the flourishing writings about religion that showed “The Above” which is to reference the surface became a realm of demons and angels while “The Below” was a sacred and nurturing place – something safe.
During this time, ancient machinery was found amongst other things, and the referencing of “First Worlders” was used heavily and questions of people from the surface or the above started to show a twisted reality of being sky gods.
Exploration was beginning a giant thing in society and people were venturing deeper into the ground where vast caverns, fossilized forests, and other findings were successful steps into the future.
It is unknown how long this city lasted though it is believed that the City of Stone was functionally running for roughly 500 years before the rebellion happened.
There was a 45-year rebellion that was heavily documented in a variety of perspectives and the majority of what is known is that the rebellion was called “Illumination” and the people of this group focused on bringing light to the people in the city and knowledge. Opposing the dynasties rule.
Near the end of the rebellion, the City of Stone fell, and democratic communities briefly rose and a common phrase began to show up in a lot of educational documents to personal journals – ”We must remember forward.”
Sometime after the rebellion, there wasn’t much documentation for about 60 years, and the first major documentation after this period of silence was talking about an unexplainable geological event known as the Stone-quake which caused a ton of networks to collapse and be lost forever.
There was a lot of loss, knowledge, technology, people, fauna, flora, and more. This was the beginning of a second dark age referred to as the Silence Age. There is a variety of personal journal entries that can be found over the next 100 years which is believed to be how long the Silent Age lasted.
A new era came to place called the “Rebirth of Below” and it showed that survivors of the Stone-quake were reclaiming lost knowledge and resources. Steam engines became a very common thing during this time. Different trade routes were discovered and created. A talk about mole caravans (gigantic digging creatures) and cave-skimmers (machines) were used to reclaim trade routes.
Languages continued to morph and a main language that looks like Modern day Dominion was created and used vastly though modern-day individuals have no idea what it says unless translated.
The surface began to be a large topic during this time, questions of whether it was cursed or okay to go up, and plenty of other discussions about going higher or lower for the sake of society were done during this time.
During this time, a hidden library of stone which is referred to as “The Vault of Dawn” was uncovered. There were plenty of professional and private writings, packaged seeds (known and unknown), full skeletons of creatures that were unknown (some small to others being as big as whales), maps of caverns, and plenty of other resources to help society to move forward.
Religion began to appear again, groups were worshiping “The Above” again. This influenced expeditions to the surface though there was never an uncovering of the surface. However, plenty of other things were found such as man-made tunnels (sewers), shafts with chains and squishy wires (elevators), and fossilized creatures.
There were reports of people seeing some type of light coming from cracks in the ceiling. Others referenced this as a hallucination and a sickness called “Sky madness”. People who had seen these “lights” were being treated negatively.
The period of undesirable tension began and individuals who were content with life were beginning to find tension between the cults that worshiped the surface. These individuals were called “Children of the rift” and influenced expeditions to the surface where man made home-like things (vaults) were discovered. Some of these things had writing on the wall in a variety of substances (coal, blood, ink) that said ”This is not a test,” and “Please help!” or plenty of other phrases that struck fear into the people of this time.
This caused uproars and most of society moved deeper into the earth. Societal influence caused people to be ashamed of thinking about going to the surface. People were referencing “Sky Madness” again and institutions opened to help people with over reactive fantasies about the surface.
And during this time, the first documented mention of “The Cult of Darkness” started though there is not much written except quick statements – some good, some bad, and most neutral. People referred to this cult as an “over correction” because of the surface cults. Another breakthrough was the discovery of “other humans” and how the majority of these “other humans” looked similar though they were able to do things normal humans could not. These tribes/groups were starting to be studied during this time.
Dominion was a city that was created after a large population went deeper into the surface after another terrible occurrence though this was not a natural phenomenon but references of “giant” creatures that were long and terrifying began to disrupt the known cities of the time. This was about 300 years old. There aren’t any other cities that are known to be functioning though no major expeditions continued after a continuation of running into these gigantic worm-like things called “tunnelers”.
People began to focus on Dominion which was called “Junction” at the time and started out as a resource harvesting establishment before growing into a foundational city which is now known as Khia. About 70 years after Khia began and it being upgraded, Qona was discovered, and with the discovery of Qona – advancements started to speed up – which is where Slia began to be established about 20 years later. All of these “cities” were being continuously upgraded and improved which allowed the creation of Esille to come into play about 50 years later.
During these times, “Emperors” and “Empresses” were the leaders of Dominion. A single emperor ruled with an empress until about 100 years ago. The last to rule under this governmental foundation was Empress Heavalyn who was murdered, and nothing came out of the investigations.
This caused the government of Dominion to change into a council because people feared what could happen if they stepped up to rule. Too many threats and not enough societal support allowed the council to continue into what is known today. There was about 20 years of “false leadership” that happened and once a council was officially established laws were becoming formed to protect people in society and to protect Dominion as a whole. One of the first strict laws happened about 30 years ago when Burrowers were officially not categorized as “people” and moved into a class of “subhuman” and were kicked out of society.
The Cities of Dominion
The Core Cities
There are four cities: Khia, Qona, Slia, and Esille. These are massive underground metropolises powered by geothermal vents and bio-luminescent plant life. Enormous vertical shafts, reinforced by ancient machinery, connect these cities like a beehive. Most people do not leave the cities in fear of the wildlife and dangerous outside of the immediate walls, understandably, but people have been wondering why the leaders have not attempted to start outsourcing resources that are beginning to dwindle. It's causing curiosity and for people to get the resources themselves.
Khia
is known as the oldest city and possibly the first one of advancement in the century long council-based government and civilized system that Dominion has. This city has the largest and most unruly population out of all the cities. It was once a great place but the majority of people that live in the area are anywhere from stricken and stuck in poverty to purely middle-class individuals. Another attribute of this city that helps keep the Dominion functioning is that this is the city where resources are gathered and processed. A lot of resources are in this city such as minerals, precious metals and natural fuels, farming land, and more!
Another fact about this city is where one can find the Grey Market where you can find almost anything you want for a price. Everything has a price. Plus, this is where people go to do procedures if other cities medical systems reject them for artificial enhancements. Not everyone that goes under the knife comes out of that back room, you have to pay good, and have a little bit of trust!
Qona
is known as the city of wonders and dreams. Everyone seems to be pretty happy in this city and the lower classes in this city find basic jobs or route themselves to work in Khia. There is barely anyone under lower middle-class in this city but there isn't many families in this area that are higher than a little richer than most.
This city is the city of education, there are public and private options in this area. Private options are similar to what the surface societies once referred to as "Homeschooling" and families (married or not) that have independents are allowed to take governmental assistance to have children tutored at home. The requirements are for one parent to stay home because the Qonian people believe there are roles in society. They see raising children as a full-time job and encourage a parent to stay home or a family to have an in-home-nanny. This is doable in this city because of the great council member Tarin Geode!
This city is also known for its higher forms of education! The university, Geode of Dominion, was founded by Tarin's family decades upon decades ago. A ton of people have put a lot of work into the GoD university.
The GoD has improved life for all of Dominion by tenfold since it has opened and the university can start at any age. There are students as young as thirteen enrolled because of their abilities and quick-to-learn certain topics or a career field. The average enrollment age is 16 while the average graduation age is 20.5 for a masters degree.
Slia
is another city in Dominion that helps the whole ecosystem of this civilization to be prosperous. This is the only city that has access to fresh water and has a man-made dam that filters and purifies the water to make sure there are no contaminants or outbreaks of any kind.
The people of Slia are referred to as the Slia, a softer pronunciation versus when people refer to the city. S-lie versus S-L-eye.
Slia's population is a bigger one with wider horizons compared to the other cities in Dominion. There are areas that are more in the natural rock walls that are known as the "Slums" and they are more outside of the city while there are extremely wealthy individuals who live after the dam and have the purest and freshest water out of everyone in Dominion.
Esille
is known as the shopping district city. There are a ton of people that live in this city though this city is somewhat centered between the other three. It has high end establishments for anything including where the council members met for every meeting to adult night clubs that have used their resources to make artificial dancers and workers.
This city is the city where the medical establishments are and where processing of requests, legally, can be done. This is the heart of the civilization. If you want to buy a home, you have to go to this city. If you want a medical procedure or to not be worked on by first-second ranked medical students in Qona (which is the cheaper option!) go to Esille instead. If you are going to court, you are coming to one of the legal buildings here. You want to buy a lover valentine gifts? Go to Esille.
refer to quite a few systems that are higher than Dominion. These areas range from ancient sewer systems that are right under the surface of the earth to mock-sewer systems under cities that are no longer standing underground. These can be found anywhere between the ceiling of Dominion and the surface of the earth. Some of these tunnels even lead to ruins that no one understands but is technology based.
These technologies can be found in the upper tunnels, way beyond Dominion, and they are large iron doors that are locked. Some are open and lead to complex areas of what appears to be a forgotten living area. People who try to enter the closed doors tend to "disappear" and people who enter opened ones tend to disappear as well. However, people always sneak around and seek to uncover lost memories of the world but they have to be careful.
Very rarely do regulars go up this high unless they have a wanted poster in the cities or they could be curious. There might be a few other reasons though someone that is too curious could find semi-decent make-shift homes in drier rooms of these upper tunnels. Sometimes these rooms are forgotten, sometimes you are the first to come across one and can loot it, but be careful! You never know who is living in one or has claimed it as their own. Usually groups are found in these areas but loners roam around as well.
Natural Areas
These Botanical Nodes come in a wide variety of variations though they consist of underground ecosystems. These nodes are chalk full of life and tend to hold dozens of flora and fauna. Some nodes have water systems which are naturally filtered and safe to drink from.
These nodes tend to have bioluminescent plant and animal life that allows individuals to move around in some form of light source.
In this world, humans are known as "regulars" because they are the only race that is currently fully accepted in society. The majority of regulars live in the complex city system of Dominion and never get to see the outside world. However, there are regulars out beyond the walls though they have choose to live out there for one reason or another.
A few reasons why regulars would find themselves out beyond the walls are for:
Having a child with genetics that classify them as a dweller or even a burrower Being a criminal (chosen to go beyond the wall or exiled to) Not being able to integrate into society and hoping they can find something else Falling in love with a burrower Joining the cult of darkness
Drovalari
Burrowers
The more common name for these individuals are "Burrowers" by the Dominion government and citizens though these individuals, especially the natives refer to themselves as Drovalari which translates to "The People of the Caverns". These individuals are classified as subhuman or different in the eyes of the Dominion government and were outlawed about three decades ago. They are not allowed in the walls of Dominion and them being in the walls of Dominion can be a death sentence by existence.
There were plenty of reasons why these individuals were outlawed though the main two reasons were:
> Genetics: The natural evolution of adapting to the caverns. These individuals tend to be stronger, have an easier time seeing in the dark, and have abilities that make it easier for them to live in the wilderness of the caverns.
> Inability to integrate into society: These individuals had a difficult time integrating into society for plenty of reasons though the main one was prejudice reasons. Naturally, they had more difficult times behaving in school, learning in a traditional sense, or being able to get standardized jobs. They were classified to be nuisances rather than citizens which led to their outlaw.
Basic Information
Characteristics: Burrowers come in all shapes and sizes so there is no real definite way to describe these individuals though they tend to have features that allow them to blend in with the natural flora, fauna, and environment of the caverns. Most tend to be lengthy and slim versus bulky and stout.
Average age: 25-35 years old. The survival rate plummets for individuals before the age of 20 and after the age of 35. Which means 30+ year olds are considered "Velan" which means elder.
The creature is commonly referred to as a "Burrowbulb" though it has a scientific name [Sphaerosquamatus rodentus] which means "Round-scaled rodent" or the native name Kul’zarna which translates to "The Rolling Beast of Earth" and all of these names reference the creature's fantastical ability to burrow into the earth with ease because of their front and hind claws that are made for burrowing large tunnels.
These creatures can get up to 500 pounds.
They can have litters up to 12 pups.
They are family orientated and tend to roam in groups of twelve to thirty-six with a focus on matriarchs.
Tamed Burrowbulbs tend to be in cavern farms where they are raised for meat and their scales/hide can be used for armor, tools, and similar items. These individuals are dangerous because of their size and aggressive properties in captivity.
Wild Burrowbulbs are not known to be aggressive and tend to be very sociable. These occurrences of friendly socialization have been reported more by the Drovalari [Burrowers] then the researchers of Dominion. The nomadic Drovalari have used these creatures as guides through the caverns and their tunnels are used as routes by the native people.
Duskhound
This is one of the most common predators that can be found in the caverns and they can be very dangerous. A singular Duskhound can easily end a group of people and they typically roam in familial packs of 3 - 5, sometimes more and sometimes less. They are commonly known as Duskhounds with a scientific name [Crepusculus canis] which translates to "Twilight Dog". Natives refer to them as Vashdrekaz and that translates into "Shadow/dusk hunting beast/hidden stalker" since the Drovalen’zan language lacks the official term "hound/dog" in it.
These beasts tend to stand in between 3.5' and 4.5' at the shoulder and can weigh up to 180 pounds. These are not known for their sight though they have fantastic evolutionary traits that help them detect prey. They have whiskers on their face that help them feel the electromagnetic pulses which is why they can partially see in infrared, they have an amazing sense of smell, and it is believed that with how their ears are structured that they can determine where the smallest of sounds are coming from.
They have a terrifying laugh that they use to hunt prey.
A typical breeding pair of Duskhounds have two pups every 18-30 months though there have been cases where a breeding pair can have up to 5 pups in a single litter.
Darkleaf Fruit is scientifically known as [Umbrafollis carnosa] and is a fruit that can be found in the caverns. The outer layers of the fruit are edible though they are not very tasteful. It is like chewing on crunchy water and resembles purple cabbage leaves. There is about 2-6 layers of leaves before the red and purple blend of arils are. These arils tend to be very sweetly tart.
These fruits can be found growing in very steamy, moisture thick, and rough conditions in the caverns where their vine-like appearance will wrap all around the cave that is growing in. These plants can get gigantic and can produce anywhere from a handful to dozens of fruit. These fruits are the size of a soft ball and can weigh up to 8 pounds.
Other variations of these fruit can be found in higher caverns and their outer layers tend to be yellow and orange while the inner layers are green and blue in color. This kind is almost sickeningly sweet like honey.
