happy wbw :’) do you think could you give like a mini history of how tal’ren, avarice and glitter glaze were founded? what are the main features of the city that it’s residents are proud of (and what you are, if it’s different from the citizens lol)?
hello!!! yes of course, and sorry this ask took a while to get to!!! <3<3<3
i have A Lot in the glittergale tag as of today, so if you want wayyy more depth on it than i was expecting to go into, feel free to check that out :D
also: this got Quite Long, but I tried to keep it in a bit of a narrative tone, so hopefully you enjoy everything behind the cut!! i tried to go in depth on everything, though glittergale got a bit cut off because ive talked so much about it today :)
but!!! the founding of Tal'Ren, Avatica, and Glittergale, coming right up!!!
Tal'Ren
Once upon a time, Sieril was a very peaceful and prosperous land, with a capital city that stretched for miles just off of the Dir’Kal mountains.The Sharali and Rill Ehlves lived side by side, intermingled in urban centers, and were some of the most fortunate people in the world.
And then the Rillian Decay happened. All of the cities of old have fallen into ruin, the Sharali suffered an apocalyptic plague that nearly wiped them out, and the wilds have reclaimed the wonders of the Rill Ehlves of old. Only a few scattered towns and cities cling to the edges of the bayou and the geyser country, while the temperate rainforest wilds are completely uninhabited, and the Sharali are stuck in the northern swamps.
Tal’Ren was the first safe haven outpost after the Decay, and it’s slowly been built up over the last two thousand years. It’s not quite a city, as it’s all in one fort, and just a few thousand people live within, but it’s the biggest settlement that far inland, now. And it’s important enough to the Rill that it’s become the default seat of power for the Rillmother.
The thing of most pride there would have to be the Archives, in world, which I’ll delve into in a later ask. Though as the author, I also really like the indoor gardens that are the center for the community. They make what could’ve been a very dreary and depressing hideaway into a lively, colorful haven.
Avatica
Avatica is a city nearly five thousand years old, and though that seems like a long time, it’s in a land of much older civilizations. And, well... Humans didn’t originate anywhere on the current Ehlverse map. They came from a continent known as Eqia, that spanned a large portion of the massive ocean between western Sieril and the eastern Maelands.
A decay struck Eqia about five thousand years ago, in the Decay that came before the Growth of the Common Tongue. The entire continent disappeared, as well as thousands of years of Human history, and any other peoples that may or may not have lived there, too. What few people were in the Maelands at the time built up a ramshackle town to call home on the edges of the Melkan prairie, overlooking the bay they had first stepped foot in, and resigned themselves to a life in a land practically unknown to them.
It’s turned out alright, so far. The crowning achievement of the city is probably the Avatica University of Alchemy, which is the best college to attend if you want to become an Alchemist, Enchanter, or Runesman. Back before the Eternal Three, the fort at it’s center would probably have been more important to them, but with the rise of Alchemy, the government switch to a democracy rather than monarchy, and the Human Eternal himself taking more pride in the university, it’s an easy choice.
Glittergale
Glittergale is it’s own masterpiece, in the eyes of the Dwarves. As one of those most ancient cities of the Maelands, it’s people have had plenty of time to transform it into one of the wonders of Ehl.
Long ago, a small colony of Dwarves were mining into a mountain on the edges of Nimia, when they stumbled upon a giant geode, and the glowing crystals within. This geode was so huge, when other Dwarves started flocking to see it, they decided to found a city within it’s walls of calcite - and, eventually, the city spilled out into the rest of the mountain. And onto the top of the mountain. And into the river beyond, as it widened and met the ocean.
Eventually, the mountain it began in was gradually mined away, so the city that spanned it’s entirety on the outside was held up by the pillars and city of the inside. All centered around the geode, which had since been sculpted into a gorgeous, glowing palace. The river’s natural widening became more and more custom-made for the Dwarves, as they instituted a delta of docks and floating markets and tide-lifted buildings.
The most amazing thing about Glittergale is Glittergale itself, and all who visit are sure to remember that.
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Hey, happy wbw!! I wanna know about the alchemy/magic academy where penn goes. What influence does it have on the rest of the world? It’s in avatica, what is the culture there like? What kinds of things are taught there? Just ramble away about it to your heart’s content
happy WBW to you, too!!!
Okay, so, Penn Fleetwater attended the Avatica University of Alchemy, which is the biggest specialized college the humans of the Ehlverse have! It's everyone's go-to place to learn about Alchemy (potions, not transmutation), Enchantment (what Penn does; basically forging magic into items, like, say, a cloak that is specially sewn to turn into a pair of wings when you fall), and for more combat-minded folks, Runes (blood magic that fucks with space and time on a small scale; this is how u teleport, if ur dedicated, or how you become a speedster for a few seconds in battle).
The main influence the AUA has on a large scale is the training of Enchanters and Alchemists who go on to provide unique, sought-after supplies to the world! Since Alchemy and Enchantment are learnable magics, and have nothing to do with figurative blood, anyone can theoretically attend and learn the ways of the craft. This also leads to apprenticeships for more minor learning opportunities; most people who attend the AUA end up becoming Magic Chemistry Grad Students, but the basics are easy enough to teach to a layman.
The culture in Avatica is actually quite chill! Because of the way their government is set up (which i'm calling a recursive democracy) everyone has a very good sense of what's going on on a grand scale at all times, and if they don't like it, it's pretty easy to voice those complaints and have them heard/addressed. There’s a lot of people in a fairly cramped space within the walls, and even more in the surrounding area outside the walls, so there are occasional fights breaking out, but the human culture is much more persistent on talking through problems. Arthur has set a good precedent a;sldfjk
happy wbw!! what about the human and the goblin government?
aaaa happy wbw, fran!! <3<3<3
SO the human government took a bit of inspiration from the Goblins, so I’ll cover them first!!
Essentially, the Goblin government has a central power at all times, but where that central power is depends on a form of election! They’ve got several cities: Wasi (the current capital), Gyr, and Palor are the biggest. The way they figure out what the capital city is goes something like this:
A city holds an election for a council of five lawmakers for every 50,000 citizens. This city has a population of, say, 500k people, so they will have a legislature of 50. Those 50 are now responsible for electing one representative for every 100k people in their city to be part of the federal council. So, that’s five people in the federal council, and there, they will cooperate with the other representatives from other cities to decide who among them will be the “president” (i need a better name for it but that’s the idea). Whoever the president is, their city will be the capital city until they either a) retire, b) die, or c) get on so many people’s bad side that they get overthrown (not by a rebellion, usually; there’s a voting process to change the leader or capital, and if there’s a three-fourths majority, it will go through).
This overthrowing thing happens a lot, by the way. Wasi is on the longest streak of having the capital status - it’s been about a hundred years, and twelve different leaders. The previous record was seventy years and fifteen leaders, so it’s stabilizing a little bit.
So, way back when Arthur Coldstone was supposed to take over the monarchy of the humans, he saw this structure that the goblins were using, and saw a way to maybe improve it for a people who didn’t want to shift their political maps every few years. And he also wanted to make it work for smaller gatherings of people - Goblins rely on their cities, and any smaller outposts are temporary and effectively lawless. Humans, on the other hand, are often in towns of less than a thousand people, scattered among the countryside.
And, of course, he didn’t want to be a king. Sure, everyone calls him one even to this day, but a title is not a sign of qualification.
So he changed it to work on a smaller scale, and be a bit more recursive. A representative for every fifty people, so even the smallest towns could have a leader of some sort. For every five representatives, there’s one that is sent to work with the others of their kind that are the closest. For every five of those, the same thing. Towns with more than two of these smaller councils, each council is given a zone to govern. Cities with more than five zones have Districts consisting of 2-5 of these zones. Once you hit district-level government, your council stops sending 1/5 of itself to the higher ups, and you start sending 1/10 of your people to Avatica in the central government.
A lot of people in human towns/cities are very well-versed in how their government works, because of this :D Almost everyone knows someone on a council, no matter how small of a scale that person is governing over. Council members on the lowest tier do their best to hear the thoughts of everyone in their community; it’s expected that you pass these on higher and higher up to get the majority opinion on every major decision the government makes.
Also, the shift in Avatica is seasonal, and rotates between District leaders. It helps get more opinions weighed in, as well as getting people from all kinds of backgrounds the voice they deserve.
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Thank you again for the ask!!! this has been v fun to talk about :D
