Esoteric Mirror

Gonne-Wynn is an extra-national, or “Megacorp” as they are more commonly referred to. Serving as the major weapons manufacturer of Europe, though it has endless subsidiaries relating to computers, mining, transport and Cybernetics along with various minor endeavours, it is physically headquartered on the Württemberg coast, granting it access to the Mediterranean. 

Originally called “The Imperial Cold Arms of Gonne” it was commonly shortened to “Imperial Gonne”. Granted chartership to be the be sole weapons exporter during The Restructuring thanks to being already large and the personal connections to the imperial court, it was never strongly controlled by the Holy Roman Emperor. When Albion emerged from the mists, it was in dire need of weapons to make up for its dreadfully outdated arsenal in order to defend itself from Altlantis, Imperial Gonne was in excellent position to provide arms. Manufacturing primarily occurred safely away from the north sea, and they were subsequently transported to the north via direct rail, then shipped from private ports, Gonne having acquired significant wealth by this point. It partook in constant sabotage of other manufacturers as well, from simply preventing transport of their goods to very hostile takeovers, having managed to acquire independence from the duchy of Württemberg thanks to legal manipulations, though still a member of the empire and thus, owing dues to the emperor. 

It Merged with the Wynn North Sea Corporation to form “Imperial Gonne-Wynn”. WNSC was an Alban-Atlantean Chartered corporation formed after the the end of the Northern White War to manage trade between Albion and Atlantis, which grew rapidly thanks to excellent connections to the Atlantean islands and the north of europe, along with blatant piratical tendencies.

It declared extranationality in due time. In fact, it had a very secret plan for doing this planned out, the details of which can be found in the Gonne-Wynn Museum on the island of Ebnet. However, these were thrown out the window and it had to be rushed at the start of the First Oceanic War (183) for two reasons.

First was the son of the FurstDirector attempting to wrest control away from his father and take the naval manufacturies and ports in the northern coast, in Kiel. His father at this point had been in charge for over 80 years, his life and wellness dramatically enhanced with the latest medicine and sorcery, and while he took less of a direct influence in the day to day running of things, he still refused to allow his sons more than token control. As such, his son, seeing the disruption of the war between the empires, as it was known at the outbreak, decided to take direct control starting with the assasination of the yes-man that had been installed at the northern headquarters.

Secondly was the more pragmatic reason. A simple telegram informing the company that the emperor was exercising his right to seize imperially granted property for the needs of war, and that the FurstDirector needed to attend the Imperial Diet. While modern legal scholars discuss the legality, at the time it wasn’t seen as too much of an overstretch, given that it was legally an imperially chartered corporation. Any of the reichsfurst that would have questioned it under normal circumstances likely wouldn’t have given the needs of the situation to resist the Atlantean threat. The case made by the Emperor suggests that he was aware of the secretive plans for independence by the corporation and so focussed more on rousing the chamber to his favour, ensuring the FurstDirector would look poorly should he choose to refuse.

However, The FurstDirector chose a third option, and declared independence from the Holy roman empire. Though stories say he declared it there, casting his imperial badge of office onto Atlantis on the map on the floor of the imperial diet chamber, this is apocryphal. It was merely a messenger, stating a simple secession was declared, and that it chose independence in the conflict, though it would be willing to supply arms at fair prices. At the same time as this messenger was being sent through, The Gonne-Wynn Army was being sent north to seize the now rapidly fortifying Kiel ports before they became too independent. 

At the time this declaration of independence of a corporation hadn’t occurred in the Holy roman empire, and as Gonne-Wynn had worked to destroy much of the competition locally and as much abroad it could, angering them was seen as a dangerous proposition, and the quality of their army was quickly seen in the siege of Kiel. The Emperor chose to play it safe, not knowing what Gonne-Wynn had in backup, yet more evidence that the secret plan wasn’t as secret as considered by the Board of directors.

the fortunate island of the Bresaeli, this island has long been a centre of trade and operations for much the Dochren ocean before the merge. Since the merge, it continued to be an extension of Atlantis, and many megacorporations situate their headquarters there. The quality of life is very high for the upper and middle class employees who situate themselves there. As more and more of the islands original pine forests and heather fields were cleared away to establish more urban space for the expanding population of migrants, the bracie cattle, a relative of the cassiteride cattle, along with other animals became extinct as more and more food became imported and more intensive foods needed to be farmed in the remaining arable land.

The highly built up society requires a large population of workers to do all the manual work, and many of these come from other colonies, or “exclaves” as they are typically referred to on mainland Atlantis. One of the favoured sources for service jobs is the cassiteridies, as they share similar languages, and their nannies are seen as being stereotypically the best one can hire. Other excalves are hired from for any number of tasks frmo plumbing to catering to arena combat, and though they are brought over with promises of better lives, they are still bound by legal control chips as part of their contracts to remain on the island, as are their children.

Many of the newer generation, called “Furies” by older Bresaeli becuase of their attitudes, are stuck either fitting in to societal expectations but with little advancement prospects, attempting to attain respectability among Bresaeli and attain a patron to permit attendance at Atlantean universities to that they can gain enough respect to be considered Bresaeli and join a corporation, or slip away with black market doctors to remove the legal control chips.

Protests and riots are illegal, and quickly resolved upon identification of the protestors. While it is not illegal to remove the control chips, if you are found to have no chip judgement will be harsher as the assumption will be that you intended to cause havoc. 

Some minority rights groups have attempted to push for full permanent citizenship for exclave citizens in Hy Brazil, but little advancement has been made. Or, rather, a lot of noise has been made for every small step made, while enforcement is lax on those steps that have been made.

The influences of the celestial harmonies on the temporal world was only realised after the merging. It is currently theorised that when the the two worlds split in antiquity, the mirror world was left with the magic and this world was left with the order by which the magic worked. This explains why magical traditions in the mirror world are so disordered, even the finest Atlantean traditions were incredibly haphazard. Records of the mirror world indicate no regular "Wandering stars”, which in our world were well recorded for millennia. They had records of irregular stars, but nothing more. 

No sun, no moon, the only light brought by wandering suns lit by Solar harmony, the only order that brought by humanity. After the merge, the shock of a regular day and night cycle with a sun and moon was known to have killed some of the travellers. However, they adapted quickly enough, as our world adapted to the principles of magic.

With the merging of the worlds, the order of granted by the harmony of the spheres allows for ordered magic, rather than extremely difficult refinement of rituals and schedules, which could be lost track of simply by the mentor refusing to set the timers correctly or not telling the right order. As losing track of time is extraordinarily difficult to recover from, oral traditions were given a great deal of respect since the timing between valid periods as well as timings during a spell. Instrumental harmonies helped somewhat, but destructive interference was a regular occurrence when trying to force this, leading to it being a somewhat risky affair to force it.

Kepler, who had been studying the planets to exacting detail had already determined a great deal of the order within the celestial spheres, and his work on “Harmonices Mundi” has been speculated to be part of the mystery of the merging. Nonetheless, it was incomplete, and the seven harmonies were found to be inadequate to fully explain the full spectrum of magic, and to satisfy the orbital mechanics of the planets. It was these inconsistencies that lead to the discovery of Caelus and Neptune, which completed the most of the inconsistencies. There are some arguments around that thanks to modern advances in physics that there may be another planet, and that some of the astral instrumental harmonies might be collected into this.

The currently most well recognised listing of Celestial harmonies among Atlantean traditions are as follows:

Earth - The domain of beasts and plants, harmony couldn’t be derived without existence in relation to another, and so earth is the basal harmony.

Moon - Humans too have an associated harmony, thought distinct by virtue of humans capacity for self-awareness elevating them to lunar harmony

Mercury - Knowledge and foresight, the hour star captures that which is just on the edge of perception.

Venus - The morning star, compassion and healing lying between wisdom and warmth.  

Sun - Physical forces from heat, light, kinetic to other more esoteric forces.

Mars - the red of bloodshed stains both this world and this harmony, and violence and war are both associated with mars.

Jupiter - the order of command comes from Jupiter, who orders the trojans and the greek asteroids by his authoritative harmony.

Saturn - Harmonies of spite and vengeance are nonetheless magical, and under the influence of Saturn.

Caelus - Discovery lead to the cultivation and casting of Caelean harmonies, who allows the imprinting of stillness to magic. 

A small archipelago to the south of Albion, it is a minor player in the affairs of the world, but still worth mentioning.

The locals spoke a dialect similar to Bresaeli, a Gaelic language mixed with Atlantean influences from the nobility. When the mirroring occurred, the proximity to Albion made it "barely a bolts light" as the locals would describe the short distance. And when the White storm defences were initiated, the cassiteridies were battered by them, not being considered in the original calculations.

However, in the subsequent solstice, they had been actively accounted for, and parties had gone forth to attempt to claim the islands, for these islands had a great value. they were one of a few sources of Caelean flint and harmonic tin, zinc, lead and other soft metal deposits, potent resources for crafting enchanted materials.

Some early examples of orichalcum trade goods are able to be found on this island, though most have been claimed by one private collection or another, with the largest public collection being in the Atlantis museum of natural history.

The native population were matriarchal, with the women holding a coming of age ritual at reach to top of the volcano of one of the islands. There they demanded the blessing of the local volcano deity to grant them the wisdom of fire and stone. Then they had to live upon the island without speaking to anyone until they had made fire and crafted a traditional hooked blade which she carries until she is an elder. After then she is not seen as needing the blade any more, having shown her ability to live this long and possibly also able to put curses and channel the complaints she hears into sicknesses.

Not all manage the ritual, and those who fail sometimes commited ritual suicide to the volcano, leaving her body among the many unsettlingly preserved bodies at the crater, but those who choose to turn back are permitted to live, but must always live under the Dominion of the next who passes.

The men are the ones who do the mining (except where necessary for a womans ritual) and farming, seen as tedious work. Women control the herds of small wooly cattle, driving them across the islands to graze on suitable lands and distributing them across farms as needed across the year, as well as crafting goods. Inability to raise a child, especially a daughter, well, was seen as a grave slight on the mother.

These practices are no longer however. All that remains is a strong tradition of matriarchal families among the island, curved Caelean flint knives, oft hidden, and waryness of complaining about ones elders.

At first the light but firm control by Atlantis with local marriages and where necessary, public examples only lightly changed the culture, but when Albion, then known as the kingdoms of "England" and "Scotland" and the lordship of "Ireland" and "the Celtic bridges" seized control, the behaviour was seen as affront to God, and significant changes was enforced all the while the resources were still extracted. When finally Atlantis took it back, it was with an iron fist, though less direct, as the locals disliked Albion more than Atlantis.

Of course, with mass manufacturing and the various wars, many of the easily extracted resources of the cassiteridies had been exhausted, and all that was left was a small archipelago that has few dues left to pay or ability to do so, but still under the dominion of Altantis.

The Kurs of the Holy Roman Empire technically hosts around 3800 formal members, though only around 700 appear formally more than once a year. This State of affairs came about after the crushing of the Prussian Revolution. the details of that war can be detailed another time, but suffice to say, the system is a terribly complicated mess of historical rights granting and inherited lands and legal obscurities and of course, Maximillian III’s confused mix of tactical rights granting for miilitary support but otherwise incompetent ruling giving ultimately the electoral college much more control of the empire, while still retaining the aristocratic, landed rights.

Though the larger city states elect their electors democratically, there remain a number of hereditary knighthoods and religious electors in bishoprics and abbeys. One of the methods used to prevent the rapidly expanding Kurs was the requirement that electors be taught at imperially sanctioned Universities. The goal being that this cuts down on incompetent politicians, it naturally immediately resulted in increasing exclusivity as a result of the greater wealth of the upper classes being able to access them. Some lower class individuals do manage to make their way into these Universities, but these scholarships make up a smaller proportion than the rest of aristocracy.

Still, due to the laws involved, the imperial university course required isn’t specified. with the ever expanding growth of imperial universities to compete with newer and more experimental universities, to catch the attention of more wealthy and more foolish members of the moneyed classes. Those who go to the esteemed and historic Oxford or Cambridge to study Classical history and politics cannot be an elector, though they may be a prince and provide support to elector princes during Kurs, and stand in for a vote of an elector by their leave. 

Meanwhile an imperial Graduate who studied knightly heraldry would have more electoral rights than them. 

The merge didn't merely bring lands from the mirror earth, it also brought seas over. Though some would contest that these seas are more accurately described as the earth's land being flipped to the mirror earth.

The Ural Ocean, while not a true ocean, stretches from the Ural mountains to the Altay mountains and reaching south eventually through to the Caspian and Aral seas. It was considered an ocean for a number of reasons historically related to the sudden cutting off of burgeoning russian expansion, and the seeming endless nature of it at the time when it was unmapped.

The straights leading to the Caspian have been controlled by the Astrakhanate, who emerged from greater Kazakhstan in the century of expansion and growth resulting from the resources in the seas.

The Ural Ocean appears to have originated from a true ocean, according to records in kitezh, backed up by the biological adaptations of the species to long migrations.

Civil Unrest comes in many forms. Protests, at least in this day and age, are few and far between. Those that are performed are often simply those "permitted" by the authorities. Implants are easy enough to perform wideban disabling on for dispersal of spontaneous protests by the many people who rely on them for their work, and many important governance locations are nowadays built on sites aligned to Saturnine Harmonies, permitting state sorcerers to bind, counter and spy upon any inappropriate protests outside.

Corporate defences are similar, but often more subtle. Executive direction is often directed from the exo-net, and PR, Spin, and marketing all being well tuned to direct the motion where desired. Many Megacorps also have private islands where conferencing with Sovereign ambassadors occurs should longer term planning be required.

There have been some successes in the short term from protests against both dictatorial governments and hungering corporations. However, all too often, the end result is a change in name, removal of scapegoats, maybe even a breaking of a megacorp into subsidiaries, shares still owned by the original CEO and other higher ups.

In real terms, this means no real change, unfortunately from mass protests alone.

Cybernetic enhancements are commonplace, thanks to the many medical advancements in recent years, as well as the ever increasing demands of the unbound growth in the economy.

Implantation of the tech can be performed with minimal trauma, and some companies even require them. Usually however the enhanced productivity it grants means that employees volunteer to procedures for the benefit of the greater whole.

Cybernetics come in a large number of varieties. Prometius Koinonia was one of the first Megacorps that developed what are considered "true" cybernetics, binding machine learning flash chips to nerves to provide communication between flesh and technology without the inconsistency of magitech.

As they expand their developing range, they developed five core chips which connect into different areas of interest, and have since become the global standards.

Earth chips tend to work towards maximising productivity, and are the most common implants. "Swiss keys" are built based on these, and simply allow the controller to deactivate tiredness and wearineds reception in the brain. Other ones include "Gilder Locks", a common economists tool to enforce company trading standards while allowing much more autonomy than would be typically allowed.

Water chips are used for thing such as holographic manipulation and artistic expression. Laser gyroscopic balance plugs are connected using these, as are Virtual Echo soundboards common to daytime television hosts, who want to provide live entertainment to the guests, though Virtual Echo provide a range of instruments.

The other chips are Air, which is used when connecting to both inter- and exo-nets. Fire, used for combat enhancements such as Knois Reactive plates, though most have them for weapon recognition chips required by most sovereignties that permit firearms. And finally Aether chips, which connect to raw bodily enhancement implantations via a distributed net. These implants are more extensive and advanced than simple "Keys", which simply hack into the brain to prevent recognition of exhaustion, and instead improve the bodies capabilities, from enhanced intelligence to muscular activity re-organisation to simple nanobot healing.

Claims that imbalanced implantation of these chips cause mental health problems in those using it is often derided as luddite fear mongering, but some independent studies have shown that the hijacks used can lead a person's identity being over-worn, and that testing currently performed is inadequate, as it is often done on wealthy, middle class Atlantean students or other Student populations likely to be in a better situation to be capable of adapting and defining themselves outside of the implants, or in general population studies volunteers tend to be those with various implants already, and are thus able to balance the nerve drives better, since the inventors designed them for interchangeability and mutual compatibility.

Meanwhile, those who end up with them as part of employment, whether that's corporate demands or necessary to keep up with the times of their respective industry, usually have far less balanced implant schemes.

Thule, or Tihyle in Albach Gaelic, is a large island due north of Albion. The land grows millet aand rye and assorted herbs, and in summer honey is harvested and stored.

This island would be fairly minor in the grand scheme of things, likely rendered another arctic night state, were it not for the Alban ploy to bring their experienced sea-witches to Albion under the accusations of cursing their fishing ships. The accusations, while true, were ultimately minor, as the goal was actually a unified ploy between the nobles of Thule to break free of Atlantean dominance ongoing since before the Shift and Alban defence against Atlantean Europan Oceanic dominance.

What these witches taught brought about the well known "white storm" defences that inhibited sea travel between the Europan and the North sea. The long period of isolation lead to peculiarities developing in the full region, and Thule ultimately exchanging one master for another, though at least the second was less spread out between colonies.

When ironclads and stormbreaker vessels were build in the late 2nd century, allowing the white storms to be breached, Thule was reclaimed by Atlantis, and the centuries of independence were not appreciated. All sorcery was banned by local citizens, as is typical for atlantean colonies, but locals were forbidden from swearing fealty to the Dual monarchs and the assembly gnostic. The island was ruled with grinding dominance to make them suffer for the folly of attempting to resist Atlantean and to make up for the wounded pride.

“Le trésor cathar.”

The Cathar treasure, that lead to the revitalisation of the gnostic sect. The gnostic sect which just so happened to line up with the atlantean philosophies as the oceanic empire went about reforming its outposts and seizing control of the surrounding landmasses. 

When this hidden treasure was discovered by the soldiers laying siege to the southern borders, it was quickly seized upon as a valuable tool. The tomes harmonies rang with the harmonies of some of their martyrs chronicles. When diplomatic envoys came to demand accession of the land as well as the blood price for the insolence of the French monarchies choice to slay the Atlantean soldiers, the tome proved a valuable method for integrating the people with a pre-existing belief structure that worked for both the locals and the overlords. 

These days, Albigensia is known for its vineyards, and being one of the major connective hubs from continental europe to Atlantis. The Cathedral of the archbishop of Albi is a sight to behold, as the astronomical organ lit up the cathedral in sorcerous light.