I love old world widgets

The space suits in Nuka World are just recolors of the hazmat suit, but hopefully this looks a wee bulkier- nowhere near like an actual spacesuit, but is okay.

Okay, so the gist is that ~2500 years ago, the continent of Edoth (above) suffered a magical apocalypse that pretty much wiped out civilization. Because society at the time was so heavily built upon magic, the rupture of ley energy was so catastrophic, pretty much nothing survived the fallout. The only hints at what life may have been like exists through surviving mythology, but it's been through 2 millenia of telephone, so it's impossible to tell what was true and what has been altered through the years.

Magic is now a tainted and corrupted force. Think of it as like a chunk of corrupted code than can now only spit out junk and corrupts your data. The place where magic used to be is now a festering wound, and the remnants of it act as a sort of magical radiation, warping and twisting things that spend extended amounts of time near it, and places where ley energy used to aggregate.

As such, over the millennia, people turned to science and technology to replace what magic had destroyed. They have electricity, trains, airships, and the general amenities one might expect of our Edwardian era. magic is viewed with awe and suspicion - and honestly, with good reason.

When the magic exploded, it didn't wipe out magic planetwide. It seemed to have only affected this one continent. However, where the magical energy meets the dead zone, it has created a permanent, violent storm. Sea travel is extremely deadly, not only because of the storms and rough waves, but due to the sea creatures, which have all been heavily mutated by the decayed remnants of magic.

leviathans are some of the monstrous creatures in the sea. they are massive animals, easily the size of ships, that are deadly and aggressive - but they're hunted for their oil, which is used to power the majority of their technology. their flesh is inedible and toxic, so not much else of the animal is actually used. (hunting leviathans is dangerous and deadly work, and is accomplished by a specific class of ship called a dreadnought).

Bloodcraft (or fleshcraft, or blood magic, whatever you want to call it) is the only magic that still really exists. it was largely unaffected by the magical apocalypse, because while arcane magic used energy from the land and could affect things externally, Bloodcraft draws energy from the caster/recipient, and only affects things internally. Bloodcraft is the manipulation of energy inside someone's body, so it can be used to do a number of things - whether or not that's healing, or killing, or attempting to induce mutations. Healing is much more difficult, as the healer has to know how the body is meant to be put together. Otherwise, they could heal things incorrectly, and cause a wound far greater than the one they were attempting to cure.

here is a scene i wrote where valda kills someone with Bloodcraft. (tw for blood and gore).

before arcane magic went Kablooey, it was used in tandem with bloodcraft to create mutated humans, such as Luthen. One of Luthen's ancestors, some millennia ago, agreed to undergo a mutative process to endow them with some beastial traits, as well as make them taller, faster, stronger, and with overall keener senses than a human. because the magic used was so powerful, these traits don't dilute much down the generations, so Luthen is more or less just like his ancestor was thousands of years ago. These types of mutations are now no longer possible, as they were facilitated by arcane energy that is now no longer accessible.

Unfortunately, this process failed more often than it succeeded, which created a group of endemic abominations that now live and breed in the Ormor mountains. They were once human, but were so heavily mutated and altered by magic, that now most only bear passing resemblance to humanity, and do not have human level intelligence (although they do tend to be smarter than animals.)

(some weird style creatures that one might find in the north) ^

In the north, Bloodcraft is considered a sacred art, mainly used for healing. People who can use Bloodcraft are trained by sages in a collective they call the Synod, and those who have passed their training generally bear some symbol of the Synod on their person. Because they are so intimately aware of how deadly Bloodcraft can be, the use of the magic is highly monitored and controlled. those who have not been trained by the synod are simply called blood witches.

In the south, Bloodcraft is highly, HIGHLY illegal. it has really only been used to create abominations such as those made by Claudian. For a time, it was not illegal, and it was quite heavily used to alter people's bodies, but it was declared to be heresy when the head of the church at the time saw it as a corruption.

the types of abominations one might now find in the south, either formed by blood witches, or by corrupting wells of ley energy that mutates organic matter within.

here is a map of the north zoomed in. "The North" or Scarvugor, spans from Kestling/Ormorin to the north coast. The lake that I refer to is the lake that sits between Illos and Estos, and generally separates north from south. The lake is massive - more of an inland sea - and is often thickly shrouded with fog or mist. it serves as a metaphorical separation between the more magical and superstitious Vugorí people, and the people of the Imperium in the south. (The lake is also one of the most sacred burial ground for Vugorí people and the bottom is pretty thickly covered in bones).

The Church of the Flame is the "main" religion in the setting (and yeah yeah, it's fantasy catholocism, oh well...). The patron saint of the church is Saint Beyrn, who it is said was God's last holy man on earth. He began preaching his doctrine a few centuries after the apocalypse, before anyone had really gotten back on their feet. He was martyred by beheading, and it's said that his body and the body of his executioners burst into flame upon his death. The belief is that this was Beyrn displaying his holy power one final time.

Saints are the EXTREMELY rare few who are able to tap into what remains of the magical energy - but because the energy is so decayed and corrupted, their control over magic is wildly dangerous and unpredictable. They are often eventually afflicted by madness and paranoia, which usually results in a spectacular death of them and those around them. There have been a handful of other Saints over the centuries, but they are exceedingly rare. They're almost always snapped up by the church. If not - or if they refuse - they're labelled as heretic Black Saints and often executed by the church.

The body of the church is split into the White Priesthood and the Red Priesthood. The white priests, or the curates, carry out the duties that one might expect of typical clergymen. They perform ceremonies and blessings, and intercede in prayer. A group of white priests is called an Amity.

The red priesthood are warrior priests - an elite caste of warriors that are wholly devoted to god and the protection of the church and the faithful. among their duties includes hunting blood witches and abominations, but in recent years they've also been dispatched to assist in several ongoing occupations of the further Southern territories. A group of red priests is called a Brotherhood.

Here is elys modelling the armor he wore when he was an initiate in the red priesthood,and the vestments of an ordained priest

There are other religions, such as the northern pantheon, and the old gods of Orod, some material of which i will link below:

the oric pantheon

the temple of amura

Here is a link to an ellipsus document with the Oric creation myth and the birth of Ashaaba

Ashaaba, the first of mankind in oric mythology, who was formed out of granite and given life by the goddess Imea

UMMMMM...... i think that's all.... if you have any questions or want me to elaborate on anything pls feel free to ask!!!!