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--- zeitgeist:places:risur [2022/04/13 21:07] – [Slate, the Historic Capital.] neyrick
+++ zeitgeist:places:risur [2025/05/21 21:07] (current) – external edit 127.0.0.1
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 either chocolate or honey.
-===== Terrain =====
+==== Terrain ====
 Four main landscapes make up Risur. The northern Avery Coast is
@@ Line 63: / Line 63: @@
 richest mining lands, all the way north to the capital.
-===== Flint, City of Industry. =====
+==== Flint, City of Industry. ====
 The industrial powerhouse of Flint sits nestled among dozens of
@@ Line 174: / Line 174: @@
 night sky are actual worlds of their own. To the Risuri, such belief
 reduces the prominence of the mortal races, instead placing greatest import on beings from realms no human has ever visited.
+===== Fey and Mortal Realms =====
+The folk of Risur know that the Dreaming exists, though they
+might call it the Feywild, the Green Land, the Unseen House, the
+World Beyond the Looking Glass, or the Happy Hunting Grounds.
+Most Risuri treat it like an unpredictable neighbor. While human
+kings rule in the material plane and there are clear cities, nations,
+hierarchies, and borders, the Dreaming follows rules mortals can
+only struggle to understand.\\
+Once every few years the Unseen Court sends emissaries to col-
+lect the tribute that King Kelland promised the fey titans at Risur’s
+founding, typically made in the form of magic items, prize hounds
+and horses, or more exotic gifts. In one notable event, a cadre of
+archfey arrived on the summer solstice and demanded one thousand
+engraved silver moons before sunrise.\\
+The ultimate desires or motives of the Unseen Court are unknown,
+but so far their requests have never been onerous. When they are not
+appeased, however, they retaliate by sending agents to seize infants
+from cribs, drive wild animals into cities, or call forth impossible
+weather like flashdroughts and hailstorms of frozen toads.\\
+The most famous manifestation of the Dreaming in Risur is the
+Great Hunt. Every seventeen days a mass of mounted fey warriors
+tromp across the entire length of the nation, avoiding cities and
+sticking to the uncertain borders of civilization and the wilds. The
+wind carries the stamping of their steeds’ hooves, the melodies of
+their riding sounds, and the baying of their hounds, but they are
+only ever seen by the light of the full moon.\\
+Many folk charms are said to ward off the unwanted attentions
+of the fickle fey. Lines of salt block their crossing, iron and the
+sound of iron bells drives them away, and red liquid — blood, paint,
+or muddy clay – distracts their attention. They are unsettled by any-
+thing with spinning parts, from wagon wheels to the gears of a
+clocktower, and often try to break such devices as fervently as a
+man might chase a mosquito. On the other hand, milk or cheese left
+outside a home will win a fey’s favor. Of course, as a fickle lot, fey do
+not always follow their own rules.
+<WRAP relinfobox>
+<WRAP relinfoboxtitle>Sword of the Black Needles</WRAP>
+Five centuries ago, as Lanjyr was reeling\\
+from the fall-out from the Great Malice,\\
+the Voice of Rot rose up against Risur and \\
+cast a smoky pall across the sun. The king \\
+at the time, Dukain, was a mighty but aged \\
+wizard who wielded magic through his sword. \\
+He traveled to a mountain ridge overlooking \\
+the High Bayou, known as the Black Needles, \\
+and there he battled the fey titan, which had\\
+taken the form of a towering anaconda of \\
+smoke and peat.
+The king battled the titan high into the \\
+Black Needles, and after three days neither\\
+side could force the other to surrender.\\
+Realizing he could not defeat the titan \\
+and thus was unworthy of his crown, Dukain\\
+cast aside his sword and abandoned the\\
+battle. The titan, in its fey logic, saw\\
+that it and the king were equally matched,\\
+so when Dukain ceased to fight, so did the\\
+titan. Dukain yielded his crown to his\\
+chosen successor, the titan returned to its\\
+slumber, and Risur was saved.
+Scholars fear that should the lost Sword\\
+of the Black Needles ever be recovered,\\
+it would signal a resumption of battle \\
+for the fey titan, and once again threaten\\
+the existence of Risur</WRAP>
+==== Fey Titans, Archfey, and the Unseen Court ====
+The fey titans are five creatures of colossal scale and near god-like
+power, which in their heyday could reshape terrain or alter weather
+with their will. All the creatures in their domain, from the lowliest
+bug to the primitive elves who had just learned to craft stone, hon-
+ored them and catered to their will. When Kelland became the first
+king of Risur, he challenged the five titans and bested them. Rather
+than slay them, he made a pact that his people would honor them,
+but in turn the titans would never attack his nation.\\
+Today, the five fey titans slumber, and on the rare occasion they
+do awaken, lesser fey quickly seek to appease them to prevent what-
+ever devastation their discontent could cause. For this service, these
+fey are able to draw upon the power of the titans.
+The five titans, known to every child in Risur, are:
+  * **She Who Writhes**, a kraken that slumbers on the ocean floor. There are whole societies of merfey and far more alien aquatic life that tap her power to control the water ways. The archfey Beshela, for instance, ensures Risuri ships can travel safely in exchange for regular gifts of appeasement.
+  * **Father of Thunder**, a many-horned gazelle-like herd beast that fell asleep and has been coated in a grassy plain. Farmers make offerings to him for good weather, which are gathered by grigs and other field fey, who then herd the various wild animals that the Great Hunt will chase every 17 days.
+  * **The Voice of Rot**, a white serpent who controls swamps and dead animals. He is roused from his slumber most often, since there are few mortals who live in his domain and think to leave him offerings.
+  * **Ash Wolf**, a white-furred hunter who rests in a forest cave with her pack. She’s said to awaken during great forest fires, so woodsmen are encouraged to gather brush and burn it before they go hunting.
+  * **Granny Allswell**, a corpulent gremlin snoozing somewhere in the mountains. Her gremlin offspring harass miners because they don’t want the noise of digging to wake her. They likewise hate loud machinery and tend to break it if they can.
+Archfey, meanwhile, are simply fey of substantial power, all of
+them long-lived, most of them humanoid. Some are servants of the
+fey titans, other simply mighty warriors or mages who have a domain of their own in the Dreaming analogue of Risur.\\
+Then there is the Unseen Court. The Court represents feykind
+in negotiations with Risur, but their internal politics are nearly
+impossible for outsiders to fathom, having as much to do with style
+and emotion as with any tangible effect. The actual members of the
+Court are, true to their name, never seen except in truly exceptional circumstances, but they have many agents. Some vekeshi mystics claim to speak for the Court, but there is practically no way
+to confirm or deny this.\\
+Sometimes the archfey serve the Court, but their interests do not
+always align. The common metaphor Risuri use to understand the
+affairs of the fey is that the Court are the nobility, and the archfey
+are wealthy land-owners. It’s much like politics in the real world,
+except with more giving men donkey heads and tricking people into
+falling in love by sniffing poison flowers.
+===== Monarchy and Government =====
+Risur’s current monarch, King Aodhan, rules from
+Torfield Palace in Slate. Now in his seventies, Aodhan was only thirty when the previous king chose
+him as his successor. Aodhan had distinguished
+himself in the Third Yerasol War against Danor,
+performing feats of strength and heroism most today assume are just tall tales.\\
+Aodhan has always been fascinated by Danor’s
+technology, ever since he lured its first steam-
+powered warship into a kraken’s reef lair, waited
+for the crew to abandon ship, then beat back the
+kraken and single-handedly piloted the vessel—still
+bearing scars of the kraken’s tendrils—to the harbor of Flint. (Or at least, that’s one story of how
+it happened.) Once he took the crown, Aodhan
+pushed for industrial investment to keep up with
+Danor, but regional governors forced him to keep
+foreign technologies out of Slate. Flint became the
+next most obvious choice.\\
+King Aodhan’s aged wife died four years ago.
+Though heredity and marriage has little impact
+on national succession, many wonder whether the
+king will seek a new bride so late in life. Despite his
+great strength in his youth, the king grows weaker
+each year.\\
+Many suspect he will name his younger sister
+Duchess Ethelyn of Shale as his replacement, and
+indeed she has distinguished herself as a leader in
+the Fourth Yerasol War that ended seven years ago,
+even though her city nearly fell to Danor. She is rumored to have close ties to the Unseen Court, and
+acts as Risur’s ambassador to its nearest neighboring nation. However, her coronation would be the
+first in Risur’s history that transferred the crown
+between two blood relatives.
+==== Politics ====
+Twenty-three governors direct the affairs of Risur’s
+various provinces. Most of these are of noble lineage, descended from one of the nation’s previous
+kings. Noble governance tends to follow family
+lines, unlike the crown. Each governor sends several representatives to the national Parliament,
+which handles the details of implementing the
+king’s decrees and can with a supermajority overrule them. Various officers of the court and of
+Parliament direct specific sub-bureaucracies and
+agencies to handle affairs involving the nation’s
+commerce, culture, defense, and so on.\\
+Perhaps the most prominent noble these days is
+the headline-catching Catherine Romana, a descendant of a previous queen and ally of Duchess Ethelyn.
+She stridently opposes Danoran-inspired industries,
+and prefers to counter that new technology with
+arcane innovations. She is rumored to be planning
+a major announcement later this year, and has been
+seen in the company of brilliant researchers from
+Pardwight and Mitchell University.\\
+One famous exception to the power of the nobil-
+ity is Roland Stanfield, the deva governor of Flint.
+Five hundred years ago he witnessed the fall of the
+eladrin goddess Srasama, and in various reincar-
+nations he has called Risur his home ever since.
+Forbidden by the rites of rulership from pursuing
+the crown because he is no longer precisely ‘mortal,’
+Stanfield was long content to govern Flint and its
+relatively insignificant province of farmers, miners,
+and fishermen. When King Aodhan decreed Flint
+would become the seat of Risur’s industry, however,
+the old deva eagerly took to the challenge, claiming
+he was excited to try something new after so long.
+==== Royal Homeland Constabulary (Gendarmerie de Défense Royale) ====
+With the recent influx of foreign technologies and
+therefore foreign influence, thirty years ago King
+Aodhan ordered the formation of a new government agency to protect the traditional identity of
+the Risuri homeland. Within a decade this mission
+had morphed into investigating significant threats
+to the nation, particularly those involving technology. Today the Royal Homeland Constabulary uses
+a combination of investigators, spies, and warriors
+to root out, undermine, capture, and if necessary
+kill any groups who endanger Risur.\\
+Though most activity occurs in Flint, officially
+the Constabulary’s central chamber is based out
+of Slate and headed by Viscount Inspector Nigel
+Price-Hill, who was a commander in the Fourth
+Yerasol War. His Lordship’s greatest success as
+director was presiding over the apprehension of a
+group of Drakran necromancers attempting to animate undead dragons in the Anthras Mountains.\\
+Regardless of where they are based, agents of
+the Royal Homeland Constabulary have broad jurisdiction throughout the nation, and enjoy mild
+immunity while overseas when acting in an official,acknowledged capacity.
+===== History and Place in the World =====
+Risur paved the way to nationhood, and many
+others followed the same path. By placating the
+dominant fey titans of Lanjyr they turned the continent into a land for mortals. The Risuri people
+have always respected the spirits and the fey they
+share the land with, but they believe the era of
+those beings has rightfully passed.\\
+While the northern nations waged holy wars between the Clergy and the Seedism faith of Elfaivar, Risur was preoccupied defending its borders from
+the sub-men of what is modern Ber. The dragons
+who terrorized the lands south of the Anthras
+Mountains feared the progress of civilization, and
+would often gather armies of savages to raid or as-
+sault Risur. It is believed that two centuries ago
+King Boyle slew the last great dragon of Ber, after
+which attacks from the south finally faded.\\
+No sooner had Risur found safety to its south
+than did Danor arise in power to the north. Risur
+and Danor have warred for nearly two hundred
+years, mostly using the islands of the Yerasol Ar-
+chipelago as a proxy battle ground, in a series of
+four Yerasol Wars. Occasional waves of conquest
+have lapped over each nation’s shores, and today the
+two countries have more in common than either
+likes to acknowledge. The current king assumed
+the throne at the end of the Third Yerasol War,
+four decades ago, and he presided over the fourth,
+in which Risur lost much land against the threat of
+Danor’s superior technology.\\
+Leaders of Risur’s merchant guilds, its military,
+and its noble families are grateful for the stabil-
+ity, but fear a resumption of hostilities. They have
+taken advantage of the new international cordial-
+ity in order to catch up with Danor’s technological
+revolution. Whether the next threat comes from
+Danor or another foe, Risur is arming.