M I R A S
The Shadow Within - Vade Eye
An Empire Divided22 000 years after the Fall of the Ruunic Empire, the Realm of Mirrors remains as their tomb.
What was once a global civilization wielding powers that bent the fabric of space and time has now been shattered into a myriad of independent kingdoms while the ancient "magic" of the Ruunic forefathers has been lost to time... or has it? |
A land of intrigueA myriad of races, cultures, religions and technological marvels cover the continent of Miras, each region a distinct pocket of civilization that has evolved over millenia - ravaged by war and colonized by thousands of varying peoples over indescribable lengths of time.
You have arrived, for what reason is unknown, and yet there is another who seeks what you seek. What that is... will be illuminated. |
Kingdoms of Miras
A Survey and History of Miras by Lykke Eyashade for His Majesty King Rimah III of Caspar
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Capolan
Capolan is the merchant kingdom of the West. It is geographically semi-rugged with forests in the North-West and center, marshes in the East, fertile cropland and plains in the central South, and arid semi-desert in the far South. It is ruled by a merchant aristocracy in Dansk, the island capital in the heart of the Navoo Basin. Capolan's peoples are mostly of the Axian race who have olive skin, green eyes, and red hair. The architecture here is famous for its grand archways and domed buildings. The kingdom was founded along with Caspar after the dissolution of Marctolia - the successor kingdom to the Axian Empire. Capolan is also a major naval power as they have economic dominion over the western isles, namely the prison island of Banthos and the marble quarries of the Hyleagaran Isles. In recent history Capolan has fallen into a tumultuous civil war following the end of the War of the Prologue against the Kingdom of Jade. This has resulted in the isolationist movement of the Ozzok Il taking the city of Bermura as its divided stronghold along the North of the Il River. The war has spread across the kingdom's western region scarring the counties of Gira, Xezbeth, Ereval, Eb, and Po. Helping to resolve this war is the mercenary leader-turned general Vade who has beheaded the Ozzok general and taken back the Capolani half of Bermura. Vade has since set sail for the Crimson Tower on the continent of Iris, taking the abandoned home of the mysterious Red Wizard who now exudes great power in the Capolani capital. Dansk is the legacy of what was in aeons long past the former seat of power of the ancient Empire of Danmar, the knowledge of its ill-fated end having fallen into legend. In even more distant times Capolan was the seat of all power across Miras along with thousands upon thousands of other Realms, as it held the ancient great city of Ruun in its far South nestled at the edge of the Caspen Mountains, having been founded some 500 000 years ago. |
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Caspar
The gem of the South as it is called by its inhabitants. Caspar is a hot subtropical kingdom of grassland, desert, mountains and wetlands, home to the rich Caspari. It is a religious center for many sects who wish to explore and debate the mysteries of archaic "magic." There are many temples and shrines across the land of various kinds owned by different religious communities, the main one being the Magentic Order. Caspar is also a great artistic haven as it produces the most creative exports in the form of crafts, religious art, fabrics, magic items, and music. There are two main races who inhabit the land, one being the elite Axians who make up the urban population in Damaske and the Rebeen wetlands and the other, the enigmatic Uruunki who inhabit the western grasslands in tribal collectives. The Uruunki are of a different lineage than the Axians and are believed to be indigenous to the Realm prior to the Ruuni's arrival. They are tall, black skinned with red eyes and blond hair. Their language is only known by a select few intellectuals in the capital who have studied the race. Damaske is its capital, nestled in the Axian Vale within the Caspen Mountains. The Caspen Mountains are tall, jagged, and rocky and separate the arid grasslands of the West from the fertile wetlands of the East. Damaske is home to the Imperial Red Tower, built by the ancient Axians, where King Rimah III now rules over Caspar as an independent kingdom. South-West lies the smaller Blue Tower, also known as the Wizard's Tower, where I, chief-wizard Master Lykke - known as the Blue Wizard - conduct research into the ancient Light of Ruun. Here I perform experiments with the fabric of space-time, an art known as the Light which I was trained in many years ago, hoping to discover the origin of the phantom threat that has since plagued and injured Mirrors. I am however not of this Realm, for I am a traveler from a different place entirely, and I am bent on uncovering Mirrors' secrets in the hopes of restoring order to the fallen Realm of the Ruuni. 
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Maradoir
Maradoir is the expansive western-most kingdom of the mainland. It is divided into three geographic regions - the southern swamps and rainforests called the Doir, the arid coastal dunes of Sadiva in the North-West, and the volcanic Veth plateau to the East. Doir is the largest region and gives the kingdom its name (Doir meaning wet) and it is the main inhabited region that holds the most political power. Maradoir's capital is the tall swamp city of Cess built out of rusted metal pylons, wooden planks, and ornate houses that rise out of the water in a vertical stretch. The ruler is King Horne (known as the fattest man in all of Miras) who is famous for his bad breath and renowned nose-pimple. He rules Maradoir with a drunken fervor while supporting organized crime and piracy against the neighboring kingdoms. Many who have been in his presence speak of the mountain of food that is hoarded in his kitchen which is believed to be stripped from the peasantry as tax. The people of the Doir are mostly of the Maran race known for their pale ghostly skin, straw-like blond hair, and pearly green eyes. The Mara are an offshoot of the Ruuni that are believed to have been a product of breeding with the original inhabitants of the swamps - a long vanished race known as the Nago. Sadiva is home to another race called the Sara. The Sara are the inhabitants of the dunes beyond the Hoo Mountains that divide the wetlands from the desert. Due to the nature of their region they are always clothed in robes and metal masks that hide every corner of their bodies. It is believed by the Sara that they must hide their skin so as to protect their true nature from the outsiders, namely the Ruunic descendants and the other races, as so desired by their goddess Deva Araaya. Araaya is one of the goddesses that makeup the western pantheon used in Capolan, Caspar, Maradoir, and Vail. The Veth Plateau is inhabited by outlaws and Vethmen who prowl the volcanic plateau in search of travelers to ambush. Veth is scourged by ash, smoke, and flames, and is sparse in vegetation. The terrain is rocky with many hidden basins and tunnels where the natives reside. 
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Vail
Vail is the western maritime kingdom known for its great ship builders. It is a trade center and military power among the western kingdoms. Piracy is also hugely prevalent in Vail as it is seen as a heroic profession in Vailin culture, however disdained it is by their rulers. The Vailin are tall and built with blond hair and ice-blue eyes. Their frames are larger than the average Ruuni. The Kingdom of Vail largely consists of coastline and forest along the Hieraic bay. The island of Megarta at the edge of the bay is home to many wealthy estates made rich by the naval industry. The Vailin are chief allies of Capolan and staunch enemies of Maradoir. The Sara to their south often become involved in clashes between the two kingdoms. 
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Lemen
Lemen is a long mountainous kingdom built on a peninsula that stretches far North into the sea. It is ruled by the Lemenese - a tall silver haired people with long faces and pale skin. The Lemenese are primarily a scholarly people who prize knowledge over all else. They are famous for their schools of philosophy and scribes who perfect the art of bookmaking. Books are the primary symbol of Lemenese culture and libraries are built all across the Smoky Mountains in high towers guarded by guildsmen. The Lemenese peninsula is made up of a volcanic chain known as the Smoky Mountains which are tall, sharp, and snow-capped. The South of the kingdom is verdant and more temperate harboring many wealthy towns where rich lords rule. The Lemenese are allied with Dorion but enemies of both Vail and Maradoir over long existing conflicts tied to legitimacy over the western isles. The Lemenese people are believed to be from another Realm. Ironically however, they themselves do not know from which Realm they come from. 
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Torr
Torr is the island kingdom off the coast of Lemen across the Sea of Rust. It is a rugged landscape filled with ruined remnants of the ancient Ruunic civilization. Torr was once a large industrial island used solely for the Ruuni's space program. It was here that massive inter-dimensional ships were built and launched into orbit before breaking the dimensional barrier. The landscape is littered in rusted scrap metal as a result. Ancient factories and subterranean power plants now serve as dark industrial dungeons where the Charma race reside in droves. The Charma are grey-skinned subterranean peoples with thick knotted hair and pearly white eyes who live in isolation from the surface. This race is believed to be descended from prisoners who were kept in large converted underground facilities during the end of the Ruunic Empire. Legend has it that the ruler of Torr, during the late days of Ruunic civilization, arrested and imprisoned all of his populace who did not swear allegiance to a mysterious foreign power. They were forcibly imprisoned in the converted factories and power plants beneath the abandoned spaceports. The Charma prey upon surface dwellers who dare venture deep into the industrial depths. One must be careful when visiting Torr for there are ventilation shafts that lie hidden beneath the bushes, allowing for a dangerous plummet. More frightening is what may come up and bring you down. The capital of Torr is Torica along the Ist river in the South of the island. The Toric people who inhabit the surface are golden skinned with thick black hair. Due to the highly industrialized environment of the island, they are the primary engineers of the Realm. The Toric have forged an intellectual alliance with the Lemenese in their quest to use science to rediscover the ancient "magic" of inter-Realm travel. The northwestern city of Brii is Torr's cultural capital while Mekana on the island of Gaid, off the eastern coast of Torr, is its industrial capital. Mekana is famous for its large iron bridge that binds the main island to Gaid and then continues eastwards into the Sea of Rust where it drops off, believed to have connected Torr and Lemen in ancient times. 
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Dorion
Dorion known as the Flat Kingdom or, ironically, the Land of Colours, is the most eastern kingdom of the western lands. It is barren plain and grassland with the occasional tree that achingly climbs out of the rocky ground. Known for its general lack of colour with its grey cold windswept plains, it bears this ironic nickname for its famous painted murals that adorn a variety of structures across the land. These murals are the craft of the Windmen, the subservient class of people that live on the plains under the tyrannical rule of the crazed King Saadrewa. Saadrewa, who rules from the iron-walled capital of Sonea at the heart of the plains, is a cruel bitter man who is rumoured to have poisoned his father, the previous king, to gain the throne when it was found out that he would not be chosen as successor. King Saadrewa uses the Dorion cavalry to terrorize the populace into submission while he plans a war against Maradoir and Capolan. Dorion is known for its poor soil and thus most grain is imported from the South. In order to maintain his power, Saadrewa has wed his sister Zonia to the Lemenese King Ishtur to utilize the Lemenese navy at his disposal should Capolan decide to intervene in the affairs of Dorion and cut off his grain supply. The Windmen are horse riders united in rebellion against Saadrewa and their calling cards are the colorful murals which depict the crimes of the King and the proud history of Dorion in the hopes of inspiring a rebellion. The people of Dorion are the Zerradan race, the pale-skinned and black-haired inhabitants of the plains. Their eyes are greyish-blue and their stature is on average tall and rail thin. These people cover themselves in dark fur robes for fear of indecency as is the cultural norm in Dorion. Their chief deity is Zoraia, the goddess of Ara, which is believed to be an ancient Ruunic Realm whose inhabitants immigrated to the Dorion plains during the height of the Ruunic Empire. Here the Aran race came from their home world to establish a new society far away from the existing turmoils on Ara. In the subsequent millennia they interbred with the Ruuni forming the Zerradan race. Their language of Zerradan is largely rooted in ancient Aran. 
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Larm
Known as the Silent Kingdom as it is ruled by a petty king in a town no larger than a hamlet for a non-existent people. Larm is scarcely populated save for four villages on its western edge. The majority of the kingdom is fetid swamp and marsh poisoned by gaseous sulfur vents. Asivis is the largest of the towns and holds the King's hall. The three villages of Anga, Trimadi, and Lara are home to six inns and two meager farms. Drink is really the only true friend in Larm. |
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Tokai
The heartland Dominion of Tokai is densely forested in mammoth trees that rise more than half the height of the Imperial Red Tower at the kingdom's core. Their trunks have diameters wider than many Axian homes and are used to house interconnected cities built out of mud and wood high up in the canopy by the Tokeni race. The Tokeni race are native to the Realm and have never interbred with Ruunic colonizers for the two races are too genetically disparate to adequately reproduce. The Tokeni are short and thin with large heads and thick straight black hair. Their eyes are large and dark and their noses short and flat. The Tokeni rule Tokai with a high king based in the forest capital of Tok. Here he rules in a massive wooden palace high above the ground. The Tokeni forest begins at the eastern edge of Capolan in the county of Oshvo, on the western coast of the Heartland Sea, and grows in size and height eastwards into the heart of the continent. The Heartland Sea is home to many forested islands where the Tokeni fish and hunt. There are networks of boardwalks among the shallow stretches of water where reeds grow that connect village to village, island to island, and provide easy fishing spots designated with symbolic carvings. The Tokeni do not worship any of the chief western deities but rather their own deity named Amka who is the deity of the sun. There are many temples to Amka across the waters visible by large cloth sails depicting the solar rays of Amka. Within the forests are the massive chain of mountains known as the Ankhen Mountains which rise up out of the woodland to scrape the clouds. The Ankhen Mountains are the largest and tallest range on Miras. The further East one ventures, the higher and more rugged the terrain becomes. The easternmost section of Tokai is less inhabited and home to larger varieties of trees that block out the sun from the forest floor. Here, deep in the shade, are many species of large glowing fungi that are bio-luminescent in nature, some a deep blue, others a bright yellow or burning orange. 
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Ackeron
South of the Heartland Sea is a large peninsula in the shape of a horn that stretches out into the southern ocean. This is Ackeron, a kingdom that is a veritable hothouse filled with crime, dangerous wildlife, and scorching heat. The West of the kingdom is covered in savanna where large mammals graze and Goraden warriors hunt. This savanna is halted by the Volkuri mountains, a volcanic range that is in formation and as a result is one of the most hostile regions on Miras. Ash and lava are spewed out of the chain on a regular basis and wild carnivorous simians prowl the mountains in search of prey. The eastern side of the mountains holds the Jadavi desert, a long stretch of highly arid and scorching hot desert covered in majestic dunes. The South of the peninsula is covered in deep red-leafed jungle that grows out of the volcanic residue left over from the forming range. The coastline is rocky with many shipwrecks. Piracy is ripe here and indulged in by the Ackeron nobility of southern Axian princes. Ruled from the desert city of Manitir, the Ackeroni trace their lineage to the great rulers of Axia of the third and last Empire. Axia was the last time Miras was united under one rule, and the Ackeroni trace their bloodline back to the ancient capital of Axia in the Axian vale, now conquered and rebranded as the city of Damaske. The Ackeroni claim legitimacy to Axia and enlist pirates and bounty hunters in eliminating their foes and controlling trade so as to expand their rule across all of Miras. 
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Jade
The Crystal Kingdom as it is called. Jade is a completely alien world as compared to the rest of Miras. As the Tokeni forests give way to the fungi ecology at the edge of the Ankhen Mountains, so do the fungi give way to a myriad of new bizarre species of flora as one ventures further East. The forest gives way to grassland at the edge of the Ankhen range and here the fungi that were flourishing in the depths of Tokeni forest are allowed to grow to tremendous heights. The eastern fungi have evolved to stand tall and slender like Tokeni trees amid the vast fields of Jade, forming a new family of flora altogether: the jadai. The jadai evolutionary branch is hallmarked by large brain-like parasols that are segmented and brightly lit by bio-luminescent cells that shimmer like crystal, and change colour in waves in response to the weather and various stimuli. Thus Jade is named after the jadai. The jadai have out-competed the once tall forests of the region, although small varieties of trees exist, the landscape is largely jadai based - ranging in all types from skyscraping tower varieties to short and wide varieties. The Jadic people are from an entirely separate branch of Ruuni that split off before the fall of their empire. They are taller with red, turquoise, and purple eyes, pale skin and a variety of hair colors ranging from silver to red to pale blue. However, the Jadic are a flamboyant culture and prefer to color their hair in striking colours to match the jadai which they revere. Hair is often cut in fan-style either horizontally from one ear to the other or as a crest from front to back. Body ornamentation is highly prized in Jadic culture as it is a sign of wealth and cultural capital. Tongue piercings, chains, nose rings, and elaborate nails are all elements of traditional Jadic dress. The capital of Jade is Narma which is a megalopolis of twisting black towers capped with onion domes that encircle a central palace and temple. The religion of Jade is a mix of eastern Deva worship and philosophical mysticism tied to arcane "magic" in the pursuit of the ancient Light of Ruun. Contrary to the Caspari who believe that "magic" is the nature of the Light, the Jadic believe "magic" is a means to regaining the ancient Light and thus bettering it. The Jadic nobility are closely tied to the kingdom's religious leaders and use the fear of the so-called "Vana" to entice the population to perform ritual sacrifice to the temple. The Jadic rulers speak of the Vana as the destroyer and consumer of all Miras and ask that their people must sacrifice for the coming war. They speak of an outsider known as the Nemirea, or Mirror Man, to defeat the Vana and lead the Jadic as the rulers of all Ruun back to their home world. 
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Lune
The northeastern kingdom and the most mysterious of all. Covered in swamp, forest, mountains, and cold desert, Lune is the kingdom of the Lunare. The Lunare are a race separate from the Ruunic bloodline and trace their lineage to the ancient realm of Lun. Lun was once a Realm conquered by the Ruuni at the height of their empire; their people brought to Mirrors as slaves in the industrialization period of the moon (Mirrors is a moon no smaller than that of my birth Realm of Earth, orbiting a ringed-rocky super-planet.) After the fall of the Ruunic Empire, legend has it that the Lunare were united by a wise woman known as Heira The Great, who called on all Lunic peoples from across Miras to found a new civilization in the North-East. Here they would plot to join the Vana in destroying the Ruunic people and find a new Realm to conquer themselves with the help of the Vana whom they revere as gods. Lunic temples are built out of obsidian in reverence to the Vana whom they believe will consume the negative forces of all Ruun. The Lunare themselves are tall, grey skinned, with deep blue eyes. Their symbol is the black cobra with a deep blue halo above its head and piercing blue eyes. Lune is home to many serpent species which gives it the name of Snake Kingdom (or the Black Kingdom, a term used by the Westerners and Jadic to elicit fear in their people of the enemy Lunare who are considered a threat to all Ruuni). Due to this long existing hatred of the Lunare, it is considered quite a luxury to own a Lunare slave as it is a symbol of Ruunic authority and wealth. Moreover, the Lunare are fierce warriors inspired by religious frenzy and thus are harder to capture. The Ackeroni as a result have become masters of the slave trade, and with the help of Jadic princes, engage in generational human trafficking of Lunare for Ruunic customers. Lune's South is forested by tall coniferous trees while the West is covered in swamp along the Moth coast. The North is cold and arid with ice-capped mountains that cover barren expanses of land. At the edge of the Dharas Sea is a peninsula of red-stoned mountains where at their very center resides an enormous active volcano named by the Lunare "Mount Vemm", meaning "Mother". The northern Lunare tribes-people worship Vemm as their goddess whom they believe will destroy both the Ruuni and Vana as they believe that the Vana will betray the Lunare and destroy them as well. These peoples call themselves the Vemmic Lun and reject the black snake as their symbol along with the main Lunare temple. 
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