#11 – LAY OF THE LAND

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In this week's dev blog, we're going to talk about the "lay of the land" – that is, about the basics of the world of Spire of Sorcery that most of its dwellers learn as they grow up. What's the Empire? What happened with non-humans after the Cataclysm? Who lives in the Far West? And why the Watchers are deadly, even though they cannot move and have no teeth or fangs?



If we place the Empire in the middle of the map, with its capital at the centre, then to the north lie the White Peaks. As the elevation increases, there's snow, then ice, and then the peaks and ravines that are made impassable by the wind that blows you off the trail. Who lives there, and what lies beyond the mountains, nobody really knows. Life as it is right now, after the Calaclysm, is already hard enough, and there's no spare money to spend on any sort of exploration, especially if the region is as hostile as the White Peaks are.

Illustration 1: "The Lay of the Land" (a drawing by your disciple Mizegul, whose corpse is currently in the Treasure – awaiting the time when you learn how to bring dead to life).

To the west lie the lands populated by a number of barbarian tribes. On the extreme west, these lands reach the ocean. This region was always fertile, with plenty of fruit and abundant fishing grounds off the coast, which ironically meant that following the war of the mages, there hasn't been really a need for any sort of state to unite the dwellers: since people are able to survive by picking their food in the forests, they tend to go here and there depending on the season, and with their horses getting a plenty of grass wherever they go, they prefer to stay on the move. As such, they don't really have much to do with the Empire: occasionally, a tribe would trade, or fight, with a border settlement, but most times the barbarians remain uninterested in any sort of meaningful interaction with their neighbours.

To the south, the Empire borders on the same Ocean as the barbarian lands of the west. Some of the books – of course, forbidden from mass circulation by the Inquisition – mention lands that lay across that ocean, and visits of mages that dwelled across the water, but since these lands (if we are to believe such books at all!) are really, really far off, there are few means and no desire at all to send anyone to explore them. And what would be the purpose? Years ago, the High Council of the Inquisition debated the issue, and decided against any action in this regard, because of the risk of catching some deadly disease – or leading a potential enemy back home on the expedition's tail.

To the east, the Empire ends and the Wild Lands begin, which after a while merge into the Distorted Lands. The Wild Lands are populated by the mutants. To be honest, nobody likes mutants, and even one group of mutants generally dislikes other groups of mutants.

Illustration 2: A typical village at the edge of the Empire. People are mostly occupied with their own survival, with little time to spare to be curious about the world outside.

Mutants used to be humans who got too much exposure to the stuff of the Distorted Lands: not enough to kill them, but enough to affect their children, and their children's children. Their skills, and their looks, are different from those of regular humans. If they would have the courage to show up in the Empire, they would be murdered on sight, since most in the Empire believe that mutations are some sort of a disease, which can spread across entire villages. Occasionally, mutants would trade with the remote settlements, sending forward the folks that look _almost_ human – well, at least as long as they don't take off their coats or face masks, and if the times are tough or a deal is lucrative enough, the settlers would close their eyes on such a trading partner.

The other dwellers of the Wild Lands are the non-human races that were created centuries and centuries ago by the mages of the ancient times. Those of non-humans that managed to survive the Cataclysm, got attacked by the Inquisition that was looking to "clean" the world of the foul legacy of the mages, so the survivors generally moved north and east until they got out of the Inquisition's reach. What sounds like abomination in the capital of the Empire – say, asking mermaids for help, or buying iron from the cyclops, – tends to be seen as less of a scandal among the lords and villagers at the Empire's eastern border. After all, a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do to get by.

Illustration 3: The Distorted Lands defy description – for in the regular world, there's simply nothing similar to compare them to.

Moving further east and crossing into the Distorted Lands, things change considerably. From the animals that adapted to live in a totally different environment to, well, other things. Take the Watchers, for example. These look like some sort of columns. Sometimes pale, sometimes covered in brilliant colours of all sorts. They are common around Battlefields as well as Black Pools. Intriguing at first, they are in fact deadly – for they are hypnotic, and will put to sleep, and then suck out the living energy of any creature that falls within their range. If you see one (which is highly unlikely), the best thing is to run away as fast as possible, and don't you make the mistake of trying to save anyone in your party who falls prey to them.

The few adventurers who made it into the Distorted Lands and back, talk about something else: a race of intelligent creatures that seem to feel at home in that aggressive environment, called 'morphings' by the mutants. If you thought that mutants were 'different', then it's a challenge to come up with the correct word to describe these: they are highly intelligent; but almost impossible to interact with, as rather than speech or telepathy, they communicate by changing their shapes. Whether they are aggressive or not, is anybody's guess, since when parties disappear in the Distorted Lands, there's no one to follow in their footsteps to confirm the exact way that they have perished.



The Empire is the only state that came together, following the Cataclysm. It's centrally-managed, with the Emperor residing in the capital city and the army doing the rounds across the land. According to the Empire, its rule is built on the goodwill and thankfulness of the population. According to the population, the Empire's grip on power is built on pure brutal force: pay the tribute – or feed the crows with your corpse.

The Emperor presides over a number of regions, with a dual structure of power (though in theory, there's no provision for such duality): there are the Lords, who come from the local communities and represent the strongest families living in their high castles; and there are the Governors, who come from the capital at the appointment of the Emperor. On paper, the Governors preside over the Lords. In real life, it's a sort of a symbiosis: if the Lord denies the direct order of the Governor, the Governor may ask the army to step in, and hang the rebel; though oftentimes "the rebel" might be able to hang the Governor before the army arrives, which creates a delicate balance of the relationship between the Lords and the Governors.

In towns, there's also the institution of the Town Council: an organ elected by the wealthiest citizens to manage practical issues such as bridges, markets and town prisons. Town Councils tend to be very pragmatic and are known to go for some deals that the Governor or the Lord won't even consider – as long as these deals benefit their towns. The other party that can pursue its own agendas in towns is the Guild of Thieves, but little is spoken publicly about their structure since secrecy and exclusivity is at the heart of their success.

Illustration 4: The Inquisition is organised into different ranks, from the simple soldier monks and up to the members of the Council.

Finally, there's the Inquisition, which exists as a parallel structure. In every big town, there's their embassy, and in the capital of the Empire, there's the magnificent Holy City, the main seat and the centre of the Inquisition's power. The Inquisition was born as the response to the Cataclysm, and is seen as the only force that is able to prevent the destruction of the world by reckless, uncontrolled magic. They manage the highly restricted Guild of Mages, the only "ghetto" where anyone with a known magic talent is allowed to live and work – to the benefit of the Inquisition.



We promised to get back to the fate of your faithful disciple Mizegul, who died after contracting swamp fever. He was a long-time follower – but his health was very weak, due to being born to a very poor family and often going hungry when he was a small kid.

With his corpse safely stored in the Treasury, you can be certain that no rat (or worse) decides to nab at him while you progress with the Healing Magic far enough to learn how to Rise Dead. We must note that while rising dead is a way of bringing back the loved ones, they generally return with a few perks that are anything but nice; as well as with a crippled will to live, which may cause prolonged depression (and even a suicide).

Your experience with Mizegul goes back to your days at the Guild of Mages, when he got accepted as a younger student and you took him under your wing, seeing that he’s been in a bind. Already thinking that at some point you both will run away, you put a lot of effort into teaching him Battle Magic – something that is normally prohibited at the Guild.

What exactly happened to Mizegul before he got apprehended by the Inquisition, he did not like to tell. So you had to guess a few things to fill the gaps. Coming from a low social background, his childhood was anything but happy, and when he finally ran away, nobody really missed the extra mouth to feed at the table.

To survive, he resorted to stealing – using a few ‘tricks’ that were actually simple domestic magic, and was eventually caught. Luckily for him, the guards who got him saw him for what he was: an uneducated mage, and so instead of sending him to a dungeon, they handed him off to the Inquisition, which placed him with the Guild of Mages.

It’s quite a common theme for the kids born to poor families not to recognize their magic talent, which may have fatal consequences: if left untrained, these mages may hurt themselves in a bad way. Since mages are the conduits between the Chaos and the real world, they may burn like a candle when casting spells without protection.

You did your best to teach him how to properly practice magic, but you failed to take into account his weak constitution when sending him on that swamp quest… So now we’ll have to just wait a little, until you can rise him from the dead. He certainly won’t be the same old friend you knew before his death, but he might still be so much better than any new disciple who could take his spot at the Spire.

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