Knox knew this had to be them, but they also hungered for the real Promise. They sent their fiercest battleships to go to the exact point the monks had to descend the Startspring. They wanted to rip the cave walls out and study them in their own kingdom; however, none of these expeditions succeeded. Thousands of Knox soldiers died trying to perform a task seven holy people in a crude boat had performed a year prior. Knox gave up trying to get the Promise and instead devoted themselves to an even more extreme religious fervor. They would be the land where Spirit revived; it was the only possibility.
The Mortanions wanted to share this information with all the people of Corseca, as it seemed to be concrete proof at last of God Aegis. They also encouraged scholars of neighboring countries to verify the authenticity of the original rubbings as much as they could. They wanted to share this gift with everyone; it mattered not which land was chosen.
Although it was not the Promise itself, those foreign scholars could not disprove the validity of what they saw. The dim, fuzzy photographs confirmed it to be the genuine article, and a massive conversion spread across the lands of Khur and Casperland. Both those nations were spiritualist or completely neutral, their beliefs ranging from in Spirit alone, nothing, or anywhere in between, which made the transition rather simple. Alafor had their own religion, a conflicting albeit complementary faith known as Spathalíeism. Due to their current faith, even with the discovery of the Promise, MortiAegism held little sway.
The King of Casperland, Quincey Helvendeere II, was so moved by the discovery of the Promise he officially converted his land’s national religion to MortiAegism is 949. He sought the help of the brotherhood, opening churches throughout the capital. He went to so far as to appoint a Mortanion Cardinal as his chief advisor, opposed to the scholar knights Logos who had always been right hand to the king in the past.
The sudden shift toward devotion in Casperland terrified the Emperor of Knox, Halix III, into waging war against them. He would not allow another land to gain Spirit’s favor. At first, Casperland did nothing but defend themselves, but as the war raged on over decades they fought back. When Halix III was succeeded by his son, Halix IV, the war grew outrageous. He turned his sights to all lands outside of the continent Knox, making enemies of Alafor and Khur as well. His goal was to eliminate all others so that his kingdom would be the only choice.
This war that still rages on is known as the Aegis Conflict. The heaviest number of casualties occurred in the bombings of Pottleton in 975, a neutral township of Alafor, and Casper in 978, the second largest city of Casperland. Knox bombed the City of Wings in 978 as well, a metropolis on Alafor’s eastern shore, yet a blizzard dampened its destructiveness. Casperland sent numerous battalions to Knox as counterattack, the most successful of which being the scourge of Thornwood in 980. Knights and monks killed over 70 percent of the hundreds of thousands living there. Thornwood was not a key military target, but it still served as a grave threat to Knox.
There has been no sign of submission on any side in the war. The church refuses to speak on Aegis’ behalf, neither condemning nor condoning the war. Despite constant pressure, the Archbishop of the Mortanion Brotherhood also refuses to muse on the chosen land whatsoever.
The neutrality of the church and the complete lack of communication between nations are leading the conflict to seem endless. Faith in MortiAegism seems to still be going strong; however, resentfulness toward the church has also grown as the war rages on. This is especially true in Khur and Casperland, though any voicing of this is a punishable offense.
Another thing of note is the relationship between the MortiAegis faith and faelocks. Despite the fact that the parents of the species are the two condemned interlopers, the spawn themselves are not necessarily hated. This species is believed to have not yet existed at the time of the prophet, so his voice on it is not known, but the church vehemently believes Aegis and the prophet would show these creatures mercy. The reasoning for this is based on intent. The ogres and faeries were intentional in their theft of the spark of life; they themselves craved it and stole it. The faelocks were simply the offspring of thieves; they had no choice in their birth or in not being human.
Although they are not condemned, it is also thought they are not welcome in the kingdom of heaven as they are not Aegis’ children. Some more benevolent members of the Mortanion Brotherhood feel that with true faith and devotion to the teachings, even faelocks can join in the afterlife promised. Conversely, there are groups within the church who treat faelocks the same as the other interlopers and disagree with showing acceptance of their kind. This sentiment is almost exclusively found in Knox, where faelocks are treated as subhumans and live very difficult lives.
Appendix II
A Brief History of the Casperland Nation
THE CONTINENT of Centra had been inhabited by nomadic tribes since the beginning of recorded history; however, it did not become widely populated until near the year 300. A mass exodus from Knox began a decade after the death of the prophet of Aegis and the subsequent wide spreading of MortiAegism. Heretics, doubters, all those vehement in the continued practice of magic, as well as those who voiced their belief solely in the Spirit of Existence, were sent either west to Centra or east to Khur. Amongst all this forced exile by the church, a group of about two thousand people, spiritualists and students of philosophy, sought freedom from the growing control of MortiAegism.
The group was organized by a young man named Darus Helvendeere. He and many of the other pilgrims had been students of the great philosopher Casperius, an over three-hundred-year-old ogre. It was after the execution of Casperius by the emperor of Knox in 274 that they began planning their relocation. After the teacher’s death, his students decided to identify themselves as students of Logos. They were the followers of the logic spoken by Casperius, not sheep led by blind faith in Aegis.
They were some of the best educated people on the globe in those primitive times and were able to discreetly prepare and assemble their five ships, draw up blueprints for their new structures, and come up with detailed plans for their new society. In early winter of the year 289, they sailed south from the Aegis-controlled shores of Knox, hoping to create a home for themselves in the Palelands.
Prior to departing, the students of Logos and the other dissenters had agreed upon emulating Knox and forming a tribunal of sorts. They determined it should be a group of three acting as leader, an ogre and two humans, one Logos and one not. They also decided to later implement an elected governing body to handle most matters. The group took it upon themselves to choose leaders before departing so that order could be managed as quickly as possible in their new home. The Logos overwhelmingly chose the brave and charismatic Darus, as well as highly endorsing Casperius’s brother, Drummond, as the ogre party. Drummond was indeed chosen; he and Darus were joined by the leader elect of the outsiders, a sorceress from the southern tip of Knox named Lyllu Misril.
A succession of storms and a strong western current blew them well off course. One ship was lost completely; however, the other four ended their grueling journey in the spring of the year 290, when they finally hit land. Upon disembarking, they thought they actually had reached the Palelands due to the peninsula’s similar shape. It was not; instead it was the tail of the large continent Centra. This new nation was named Casperland in honor of their teacher, with the first colony known simply as Casper.
The two human leaders journeyed in the same vessel, whereas Drummond rode in a separate ship designed to transport ogres comfortably. The ship held about twenty ogres as well as a good fifty Logos and other humans. This ship was tragically the one that separated from the group. It not only got blown off course by the typhoon, it is also widely believed that the ship was caught in the swirling storm surrounding the Startspring. Of the few successful ventures to the Aegis Isles, ogre bones were found on the eastern and southern isles. They do not deteriorate the way human bones eventually would, so it is plausible that they could belong to
Drummond or his comrades.
Despite Casperland not being the intended destination, they embraced the land they found. They got to work at once on building up structures, the skeleton of what would be their utopian city, but the work did not go easily. In all their planning and the schematics they had drawn up, they planned to rely heavily on ogre strength. With their ogres missing, the work was spread amongst all the humans. No one was exempt from the toil, not even Darus or Lyllu. Luckily, the Logos connected with some of the nomadic natives and were able to get their assistance as well. These natives were never treated as slaves; conversely they were the only workers reimbursed monetarily for their toil. By the year 293, the settlement was mostly complete. All the habitations were constructed; a large common eating hall and bazaar were built, as well as the small but carefully crafted Hall of Logos, the building that would hold the tribunal.
All the time spent leading together brought Lyllu and Darus so close that they eventually fell in love and married. Darus had refused to entertain the idea of electing a third member to the tribunal before their marriage, as he was convinced Drummond would make his way to them eventually. After their matrimony it was clear they were essentially living as monarchs of the thriving society, which disturbed Darus. He did not want to be above his people, he wanted to be amongst them. He finally gave up on Drummond and pushed for a third member to be chosen, yet both the elected parliament and his brothers of Logos objected.
They had come to accept the idea of a monarch as ruler of their land, as it was easy for the people to understand. They determined it would not turn out awful or militaristic as it had in Knox as long as the power did not belong to the king alone. The ruling of Casperland would still be divided by three, but they would be three groups, not three individuals. No laws could be passed without majority vote, and no vote would be more valuable than the others. One vote would be held by the senate, those elected by the people themselves (referred to as the hand vote); the second vote would come from the Logos, the educated scholars who were eternally devoted to their land (the head vote); the third would come from the symbolic leader of Casperland, the king or queen whose blood came from its first leaders, Darus and Lyllu Helvendeere (the heart vote).
Darus himself did not understand this, as he was a student of Logos, nothing more. He felt he should not have a vote separate from theirs. His contemporaries had come up with this monarchy on their own and were quite convinced it would benefit them. They believed that having a party one must be born into—with no possibility of buying membership or entrance to— would eliminate its corruption in ways the senate and even the Logos could be vulnerable to. Despite the fact they wouldn’t know the goodness of each monarch to come, it was assured at least they could not be handpicked by any enemy. Darus felt there was merit to their argument, although he believed in the idea of pure democracy and thought it should be given a chance. He was alone in this idealism, and so he submitted to his own coronation.
The nation of Casperland grew to become much what their forefathers had dreamed of; a society focused on logic and scholarly endeavors, not budging on its stance of spiritual neutrality. The city of Casper grew large and industrialized at a rapid pace. The three-vote rule had worked splendidly, and there had been no internal conflict worth mentioning. In the year 410 it was clear the people of Casperland were outgrowing the first settlement, and it was decided that a new colony should be formed.
A group of specialized Logos who were trained in combat, known as knights, scouted out the land heavily. They eventually decided on a plot of land next to a canyon sitting beside the ocean, perfect for a port. The land was quite fertile and mostly vacant and it would offer a much needed contrast from the crowded and industrial Casper. The only peoples living in that region were all of the same family. They were living in squalor, sleeping in crude wooden structures, and hunting for their meals. They seemed to be completely wild, yet they communicated with the knights just fine. They identified themselves as the DuBois, masters of the land on which they stood.
The Logos were expecting some contest from the DuBois in acquiring this land for their new city, but they were surprisingly accommodating. Their demands were simple: that they got to have the largest and fanciest house, people to clean it for them, and to never have their position as wealthiest in town disputed. The knights were shocked such savages knew of things like wealth and status, yet they were willing to indulge them. Casper was to remain home of the King and Queen, so there was no worry in giving the DuBois a grander estate.
The parliament was hesitant to give special treatment to strangers; however, the scouting knights had won over their elders and the current King, Jacob Helvendeere, by convincing them that it was an indisputably perfect location. Not only was the land fertile and quite temperate, the canyon port it sat against could prove invaluable from military and trading standpoints. The agreement with the DuBois got both the head and heart votes, commencing the building of Casperland’s second great city. It too came to be named after an ogre, and Drummond was a livable habitation by the year 422.
The city had four distinct quarters originally designed for agricultural purposes. It allowed for a cycle between fallow lands, active crops, and livestock to be moved seasonally, with the eastern quarter surrounding the port. The eastern quarter’s focus was and remains fishery and importing. In the center sat what started as a house but eventually became a massive palace.
The Logos had thought the wealth the DuBois had spoken of would have to be provided to them, but they were quite wrong. From whence it came is unknown, yet the DuBois had vast stores of gold and gems. It appeared they simply wanted acknowledgment of their nobility and to finally look the part. The DuBois not only funded the ever increasing palace, but also poured money into building up Drummond. Despite the filth they lived in before, it seemed they were not satisfied with their city being simply a country farm.
Drummond grew to be just as large and industrialized as Casper in less than a century. A Hall of Logos was constructed beside the DuBois Palace, and later a secondary parliamentary house was built in the southern quarter so that all politics of Drummond could be handled from within. All farming was pushed out to a few villages surrounding Drummond; however, they still thrived and provided vital resources deftly to both cities.
The storms raging in the southern ocean of Corseca are constant, making trade to Casper difficult from the other large nations. Despite that, Casper had the distinct advantage of being parallel to the Palelands and landed at the end of a strong western current from that island. The Palelands was one of two places where ogres could still be found and the only where faeries lived amongst other species. The magical wares and advanced medicines that came from them were unlike any others, and the only place with whom they traded was Casper. This made it the wealthiest city on the planet and helped establish trading relationships with many other nations. Those nations would still go through Drummond, but all the goods were thanks to Casper.
Casper’s fortune took a drastic turn in 561, though the tragedy was not truly its own. Corseca suffered a ground-shattering quake, the effects of which spread the entire globe, with the epicenter lying under the Palelands. The movement of the plates was so sudden and severe that it triggered the plentiful natural gasses beneath the island to release in excess. Among these were methane and carbon monoxide, deadly substances that spread over the entire land. All creatures present on that island, all the ogres, anything organic was killed off either by firestorms or simply poisoned. The land remains arid and has never recovered. The gas leaks continually, and the island appears to be cloaked in dingy clouds. Ogre bones have been seen via telescope amongst the broken landscape, but any expedition to the Palelands was aborted before docking. The land is so toxic that many travelers fell ill or perished simply from sailing too close.
Casper was affected by the quake some as well; however, it was merely structural damage with no casualties. The true harm was Casper’s new obsolescence in t
rading. Casper was an industrial city and could produce goods but was now devoid of its constant cash flow. Casper’s economy became dependent on the success of Drummond. It seemed the rest of the globe was aware of the capital’s weakness and almost all diplomatic meetings were henceforth held in Drummond.
It was apparent by the year 600 that Drummond needed to become the new capital, at least in terms of foreign relations. The governing bodies were unsure of whether the royal family needed to be moved until they received an impossibly good offer. The Knights of Logos had met with the patron family DuBois to inquire of their thoughts on moving the capital. They thought they would be met with resistance; instead, the current head, Chammerline VII, was ecstatic. She had long wanted to mingle with the royal family and to have their lineages mix. She offered up DuBois Palace as the new Helvendeere Castle on the condition that her daughter Gertrude would be promised to the next heir, the ten-year-old Prince Quincey I.
Chammerline had the second largest estate in City Drummond constructed within two months, choosing the most industrial quarter. The western edge of town had the easiest land to snatch from its poor owners and also the flimsiest of buildings to knock down, so it was a rather practical decision. It was strange for the richest residents to suddenly be neighbors with the poorest, yet the DuBois seemed to not care about such things.
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