#revolve lore

Izerko is the youngest of all the Realms, formed at the start of the War of Arcana six thousand years ago: as the first Livi was cast out of Arcana and tore through the edges of Vaieni and Ferive, parts of those Realms fell through with viem and were bound to vier energy

the Realm created itself around the host of the First Fallen, who has since then been called the Opal Queen of the Realm, and is held together by their shared mana. many people fled here to protect themselves from the War of Arcana, which was wrecking havoc on Vaieni. after the war, many Kori took refuge here, helping shape the Realm into what it is now and bringing even more people, their followers

Izerko has no sky. it is entirely made of a system of tall underground caves, disposed more or less into five levels stacked one on top of the other and identified through common properties of the terrain and of the living creatures in them.

in total, Izerko is made of forty-three caves, all unique in purpose, structure, vegetation, fauna and sometimes even composition of the stone itself. while some caves have a dedicated purpose, such as urban areas, farming or water collection, many are much more varied

occasionally, apertures into the ground connect caves one above the other, allowing air, water and light to travel among them, and used by the people to transport materials from one level to another. the various levels are also connected by a singular staircase going from the highest level — the Luminary — to the only cave in the lowest level, which houses the capital Dusmuriziet

as it is completely underground, Izerko has no sky. and consequently, it has no suns or moons. instead, the day cycle is regulated by mosses — named xysinads or fade mosses — that grow over the cave walls and ceilings (especially in the Luminary layer) and glow at different intensities in a steady rhythm

most of the cycle of life is taken care of by the people of Izerko, who grow xysinads and other glowing plants and crystals where the ground is most fertile, redirect the water up the levels through feats of engineering and magic, and adapt the caves to their needs. the entire ecosystem is made and maintained by the Izerkean people

Deris

the limited light and vast amount of magic needed to live in Izerko, as well as the close contact with the Kori and their hosts, made change necessary for the survival of the people who took refuge into the Realm. as such, they rapidly evolved a number of traits that make them uniquely adapted to this dark, harsh and highly magical environment that make them very distinct from their predecessor, to the point they are considered a whole other species (much like the shirevi that evolved from humans on Navilee)

this new species, named deri, is highly recognizable for their eyes and ears, optimized to see magic and in the dark and to hear at a greater range. as such, deri eyes have very bright irises with white diamond-shaped pupils and (for pureblooded deris) black scleras, while their ears are long, pointed and downturned, with a great range of motion

deris are not a unitary species, as they evolved in three phases as a result of the three major migrations that populated Izerko. as such, they can be further classified in three subspecies, more adapted to life in Izerko the longer they've been there:

deri'lamis evolved from the third migration, about two thousand years ago. they tend to have darker skin, and only really present deri eyes and ears

deri'seneis are by far the majority of the population and they come from the second migration (a little over five thousand years ago, right after the War of Arcana ended). they're the ones who followed the Kori, and they developed really bright hair colors, a far larger mana core and serious muscles

deri'kerijis descend from the humans in the first migration. they were the people taking refuge in Izerko immediately after it formed, working alongside the first Kori to go there to shape the Realm and hold it together. they are the most similar to the Livi, probably because the people in the first migration often had relationships with the hosts of the Kori. in fact, they have a lot in common with half-Livis, such as claws, fangs and extremely mana-sensitive horns. they also have a wider range of skin and hair colors, not necessarily as bright or pale as deri'seneis

Realm and Kingdom

Izerko is an incredibly small Realm. it's total surface area is roughly equivalent to Greece's, and it's population is a little smaller than Argentina's. the various caves also rely majorly on one another for survival and cannot be independant

thus, politically and governamentally Izerko acts as a sovereign nation on it's entire territory. it's led by the Opal Queen, accompanied by the Council of the Twelve (twelve ministers; traditionally three Kori hosts, three elected from noble families and six elected among the people), who oversee the overall organization and delegate specific tasks to more local authorities

Izerko has a few noble families, which are pureblooded deri'keriji families documented to descend directly from the eighty or so people who helped the Kori shape Izerko during the first migration

there is one rumor that spread recently (last couple hundred years) across Izerko and into other Realms about a different type of organization: the Opal Court, supposedly the Opal Queen's innermost circle, made up of diplomats, functionaries, spies, assasins and guards, recogniziable for taking on a gemstone's name as an alias. no one has been ablo to prove its existance so far

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Blood Magic

for most of history, blood magic has been the base tool of necromancy, used in rituals to strengthen one's life essence or to make binding contracts that have devastating effects on those who break them

most of its negative reputation however comes from the wars, where necromancers on either side would prowl the battlefields and use the blood and bodies of fallen soldiers to make monstrous puppets under their command

yet in modern times, blood magic is by far the more widely accepted of the two branches, having recently recovered from it's reputation as a dark art. this is thanks to medical magic, as the spells for blood analysis, genetic analysis and the study of diseases has been developed with blood magic as a starting point

but in the medical field, it's gotten even further past that point. many countries require emergency rooms to have at least one blood mage present at all times, and it is common practice to have a blood mage assist surgeons during intensive or invasive procedures. these blood mages often become medical professionals of their own and hold great prestige for their fine control over such delicate magic

Soul Magic

soul magic hasn't had the same graceful redemption as blood magic, and it's still for the most part considered a taboo magic. this is because it was the far greater tool of necromancy, as it is capable of bending the will and soul of people (both living and dead) to the caster's own

thus, soul magic has a long and horrible history, littered with dark lords who sought to turn the people around them into mindless slaves or who would sacrifice multiple villages in an attempt to reach eternal life

the effects of such magic can still sometimes be found today, in ruins where the wind howls with the cries of loyal servants turned stone guardians and in hidden amulets that still contain the necromancer's will– and such will is much stronger than yours. it will possess you

thus, as its main use was to subjugate the soul and will of others and to alter the cycle of life and death in irreparable ways, soul magic is largely declared illegal

there is only one exception, which is soul bonding

soul bonding derives from bilateral soul binding, but it is much weaker in scope. rather than isolating two souls from the cycle of life and binding them to each other, it links two souls together in such a way that death can still part them while still allowing the soul-bonded people to easily use magic on each other without overly-influencing each other

there are two types of soul bonding, with minimal differences between them. the first one is equilateral soul-bonding, done between two peers that consider themselves equal, such as two friends, spouses or siblings and such. the other is asymmetrical soul bonding, usually done between a parent and non-biological child as one of the two people involved takes custody of the other

soul bondings are a widespread cultural rite in Navilee, and in many places it is the norm to include soul bondings in weddings or adoptions. as such, soul bondings present as an actual legal status in many Navilean countries. soul-bonded pairs can act as medical and legal proxies or with the full extent of parental rights, and even take precedence over biological relationships. because of this, soul bondings are a tightly regulated practice (especially asymmetrical soul bondings) despite the extremely positive reputation they have

with the rise of soul bondings, bilateral soul bindings (which you can find more about here) rapidly became less common because of their complexity, sacrilegious and far darker nature and their deeper ties with necromancy, and have by now almost completely fallen out of the general population's recollection

on the other hand, unilateral soul bindings are far more known and far more feared and abhorred. a unilateral soul binding ties a soul to something inanimate for eternity, or at least until the enchantment is broken (something much more difficult in practice than in theory). they are one of the prime tools of necromancers, as it allows them to render themselves or their servants effectively immortal, if somewhat limited by the vessel they choose for themselves

there is many a case of a dark mage who bound their soul to a construct, such as a droid or a golem or a sculpture and kept on terrorizing their area for decades after their death, but even more terrifying is the creation of necromini. these are fully sapient souls tied to fresh corpses, often their own. because death has such little claim on these vessels, necromini continue to grow old as normal yet not untouched. it is nearly impossible to tell apart a necromus from its living counterpart. this sort of ritual used alongside magic to slow the aging process is how many necromancers have been able to live even up to a millennia undetected

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for starters, there are five Realms that are in some way involved with each other from a political standpoint:

Izerko, home of the deris (custom vaguely nephilim-like species)

Ferive, home of the fae

Earth, home of the humans

Navilee, home of the rerai (i.e. shirevis (magical humanoids), orcs, goblins, avians, merfolk, lionfolk and so on)

Zeimiria, home of the elderscients (i.e. dwarves, elementals, spirits)

these five Realms have... a lot of beef and prejudices with each other, but some common lines are:

deris are cruel and evil warmongers and responsible for the War of Arcana (they aren't)

the fae are heartless tricksters more concerned with studying magic than any sort of ethics (not inaccurate, but definitely not accurate)

humans are dumb and magicless (not really) and completely unaware that magic exists (even less true) so why bother?

the rerai are either too self centered to care about other Realms or overreaching control freaks (i assure you most are in a middle ground)

the elderscients are too focused on the "proper" way and pleasing the gods and will try to impose their will on anyone (they don't actually go that far)

this taints a lot of the inter-Realm relationships, and the few incidents or situations that involve more than one Realm are approached with an unealthy dose of "do we really have to?". just the procedures for inter-Realm crimes (like say, a crime committed by a spirit on Navilee) took centuries to smooth out, and are still handled with a lot of tension

on the intra-Realm front, there are a couple extra things

Izerko is one singular Nation with a fairly complex government and political system, on account of it's fairly diverse population. you see, deris evolved in three waves with the migrations to Izerko, and thus they're pretty much divided in three subspecies, and their government system is made to balance that. it's a kingdom, and the Queen is the Queen and you cannot change the Queen because the Realm is literally tied to her life force. it's the twelve Ministers and the Sina'baj (cross of a governor and a marquess) that are elected and align with political parties, plus the singular ministries have democratically elected members. i could go on forever about Izerko's government system if you ask me to tbh

Ferive is made of very independent colonies, which are basically city-states but made of multiple cities very dependant on each other. most colonies will have a court or a citadel at its core where the government functions of the colony take place, then a varying amount of settlements packed close together and close to the core tending to the daily life, like farming, trading, healing, construction and such, then an outer ring of defensive settlements to defend against the wilderness. and because traversing the wilderness is extremely dangerous, most colonies hardly ever communicate with each other. if they do, they'll probably go through Navilee or Earth to travel in safety. for the most part, it's every colony for itself

Earth is our Earth, with the addition of the Harbingers of the Otherside, aka an international group of people interested in the study, conservation of and defense against magic. they're not a political group in and of themselves, but they have very political goals such as bringing the existance of magic up to the UN, gaining recognition and approval to act as a UN-associated agency and get the systems to communicate and interact with other Realms set up

Navilee is the one with the most worldbuilding simply because of the amount of nations. it's currently in the 70-something and i'm not yet done. it's the Realm where the CMN was founded and operates, and it has a lot of problems. for now, know that you can basically consider it Earth: Magic Edition. each country has its own political system; there's a variety of kingdoms, still a couple of empires, many a republic (parliementary, democratic, presidential, and even other creative systems), tribal nations, federations, confederations, hell Ona declares itself as a city-state like the bitchass liar it is. and to add to the chaos, you can add territorial disputes between one nation that occupies the inside of a mountain range and the nation that occupies the mountain's sides. or the flying islands over the oceans and the merfolk kingdoms beneath the water. or where do national waters end when you have a siren tribe little ways away? international waters? what's that?

and then there's Zeimiria, which... is troublesome. elderscients don't take well to organizational structures and politics. most of Zeimiria is made of clans and their territories, or a single powerful spirit that takes up territory for themself and may or may not grant protection to those in their territory. the fact that Zeimiria is not a static Realm but more like a patchwork of interconnected semi-Realms that drift and expand does not help

as for your questions, my favorite relationship? allow me to be a little basic and say the relationship between the Empire of Reiki (or just Reiki) and the Esluxian Alliance (or just Esluxia). let me give you some context

this is a (draft of a) map in which you can see the continent of Isertia. the Empire of Reiki is to the west of the black border, while the Esluxian Alliance is on the east. they are the first two places i came up with, and they have quite a bloody history

for starters, they "descend" from the same ancient empire — Saertia — that was split by multiple civil wars, and historically both claim to be the "one true heir" of that empire. but in addition, Saertian texts from just before its fall claim that they had gotten close to the ruins of an even older place, Ademar

now, Ademar is an important place. think Atlantis, if Atlantis was proven to be real and incredibly magically advanced because it had direct communication with the gods. everyone wants to find the ruins of Ademar, because it would unveil knowledge of magic that has been lost to the millenia thanks to the War of Arcana. (Arcana was the Realm of the gods, and Ademar was said to have a direct bridge to it. Ademar was wiped from existance when Arcana fell) (the destruction of Ademar split the old mortal Realm into Navilee and Earth and created Izerko from pieces of the Realms that were broken) (this is why everyone hates the deris)

the ruins of Ademar are supposed to be somewhere in the middle of Isertia, right along that black border between the Empire and the Alliance. which is why the Empire and the Alliance weren't even formed when they started fighting for the border, and i'm talking the worst war crimes that magic makes possible. it got to the point where about 600 years ago (after around 200 years of conflict) someone (probably a god) came and put a 10k meters tall barrier of pure magical energy on what was the border at the time. it's not impenetrable, but it takes a lot to open a passage. like, with modern magical techniques it takes 8 mages specifically trained to keep a passage open for anything longer than 5 minutes. supposedly, Ademar's magical techniques would make it much easier to pass through. thus, there are still a lot of border conflicts, and many many people studying what is now known as the Unbreakable Barrier

there are many a slight, both real and percieved, in their shared history, but through all of it they have been known as bitter enemies. they're not currently at war but neither at peace, y'know? it's mostly a matter of they can't fight openly because they're both in the CMN and have signed the Asglen Treaties, so if one attacks the other they very much risk retribution from all other countries in the CMN

there is exactly one incident, comparatively extremely recent, that somehow made things both better and worse. in March 2157, something that is censored in reports launched a mass attack along the Unbreakable Barrier on both sides. the Empire's army guided by its then-Imperial Prince (now Emperor) Witia Narzikov and the Alliance's joint militias guided among others by the then most favored Xire candidate (the Xire being the leader of the Alliance) Lula Akarai fought side by side to repress whatever it was. three weeks later Lula Akarai disappeared into nothingness, and things between the Empire and the Alliance have been bad for the nineteen years it's been since. that incident is heavily debated as both the sign that the two can work together and that they can't

and my favorite political body has got to be the either the Phoenix Court or the Phoenix Council. those are respectively the legislative body and the executive body of the Esluxian Alliance, both presided by the Xire, which is currently Lukiat (sidenote: i truly reccomend perusing Lukiat's tag, he gets up to Shenanigans™)

the Esluxian government as a whole drives a lot of the plot and conflict in Revolve, because it's simultaneously the instrument Lukiat uses and the obstacle he faces

you see, the Esluxian government was originally set up mostly as a farce. the Xire didn't really have any power and was mostly subjected to the whims of the Court, with the Courtiers being largely on the respective Nation's payroll. at the same time, the Councillors often received bribes from various Courtiers or merchants or institutions to abide by their will. by the time Lukiat was the favored candidate to become Xire, most of the government was being bribed by someone, often even to close an eye or cover up extremely fucked up shit (cough cough the Five Rings cough). the first thign Lukiat did before even getting the title was, through a series of misadventures, air out everyone's dirty laundry or discreetly have people removed, then gave a little more power to the Council

so as it stands, the Courtiers both hate him and are terrified of him and the Councillors are either extremely dutiful in their "Esluxia above all" or have something going on with the Xire. this kind of situation is both a blessing and a curse in normal circumstances, but in wartime? i love

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