Cemeas is divided into Five Quarters, with a bit of land around the city before you reach the sea. Most of this land is farmland, though there are a few small, usually unnamed villages on the north and east sides.
The Palatial Quarter situated in the west part of the city, is also called the Noble's Quarter, set up against the cliffs over the sea, and contains most nobles Palatial Mansions, including the Palace itself. Most noble families in Cemeas are fairly new, averaging one or two generations from wealth, though a few are long-time nobles from other nations, most prominently the Tremadogian Empire. Wide lawns, imported white marble and fine plazas are the norm here. Guards are very prominent but not very visible here.
The Merchant's Quarter in the northeast, is where most big business goes on, and while some people who are unable to afford these wares or unwilling to travel to the Quarter do their shopping elsewhere, most people know to shop around the Merchant's Quarter for all the best deals. There is always a lot of foot and wagon traffic between the Waterfront Quarter to the south and the Merchant's Quarter. The Merchant's Quarter features wide streets often filled with wagons (sometimes even horseless carriages), a strong presence of rifle carrying guards and flashy storefronts on every side.
The Waterfront Quarter in the south abutts the water. A badly planned pile of warehouses, docks, storage areas and trading houses, filled with sailors from every corner of the world. Always crowded, always busy, always half-flooded and never boring. The guards are here, with rifles and side swords. The streets are straight but the alleys are twisted and cramped.
The Channeler's Quarter in the northwest is an area of the city carefully split into six sections for each of the Houses of Titans. There is little traffic in this quarter of towers and fine lawns. There's little to see here unless you happen to be a channeler, and even then it's easy to get to the tower you wish to be in. There's not too much cross traffic between towers either. There are few guards here, as with battle Channelers nearby every day, it's hardly needed.
The Foreign Quarter in the southeast is a winding, twisty rats nest of alleys and sidestreets. Guard presence is near nil, and most of the buildings are held up by glues and hopes. The poor and disenfranchised live in this Quarter, as well as foreigners and many dockworkers from the Waterfront. The only exception is the Canak Enclave (considered a tiny piece of sovereign territory), which is ordered, efficient, well fortified and adequately guarded. The Canak run a tight ship and are brutal with lawbreakers.
Channeling (Magic System):
Channeling is based on seven incredibly powerful semi-divine entities known as The Titans. Each one controls a single element, in balance with the others, except The Stranger. These entities have been worshipped by many different cultures and places in many different forms. Those that use the powers of the Titans are called the Marked, Channelers, or after the Titan they follow (Builders, Hunters, Destroyers, etc.). The Houses of the Titans in Cereas embrace this diversity claiming that being beyond mortal ken, the Titans may be represented in whatever form chosen by the individual. The Seven Titans are as follows.
The Builder is the Titan of Earth. Builders tend to be calm, centered and considered. They rarely move to action without long planning and intense deliberation. Their channeling can be used to throw and move earth, to incite or calm lust in people, draw great strength from the earth and to move extremely quickly overland.
The Hunter is the Titan of Wood. Hunters tend to be solitary, humble and flexible, but personable. They often avoid recognition and fame, wishing instead to simply ensure that things are handled quickly, quietly and without fuss. Their channeling can be used to hide themselves in wooded environments or move and shape wood. Their wood senses tend to make them excellent archers.
The Destroyer is the Titan of Fire. Destroyers tend to be direct, stylish, angry and charismatic. They are often glory hounds, tend to have explosive tempers and often move ahead without a plan. Their channeling can be used to create and throw fire, inspire fear or pride in people, and keep things warm or cooled.
The Messenger is the Titan of Wind. Messengers tend to be flighty, impulsive, and a bit scattered. They find comfort in other people, be passionate in the extreme and find joy in simple things. Their channeling can be used to manipulate the wind, speed up their own perceptions, and in particularly powerful cases; fly.
The Smith is the Titan of Metal. Smiths tend to be cold, aloof and practical. They enjoy the intricacy of precise machines or cold steel armor and weaponry. They tend to make excellent swordsmen and engineers. Their channeling can be used to enhance the strength or sharpness of metal they touch, bend, shape or move metals, and to ignore pain or impediment.
The Mariner is the Titan of Water. Mariners tend to be thoughtful, introspective and empathetic. They tend to be excellent readers of people, avoid large crowds and enjoy sailing the rivers or sea. Their channeling can be used to read others emotions, move and shape water, and make sailing or swimming easier and smoother.
The Stranger is the newest Titan. Strangers seem to share no particular traits, though the wish to change things seems to be slightly more popular among them. Strangers are able to use their channeling for any of the purposes the others have, including almost anything their imaginations can come up with if they have power enough. The Stranger is the only Titan who sometimes steals Channelers from other Titans. Often ruining their lives in the process. Being marked by the Stranger is, in Cemeas, a sentence to either death or lifelong imprisonment.
The players in this game will all be Channelers of the Stranger (Strangers as they're commonly called). They will all have been caught by the authorities and en route to Blackstone Penal Institution. Channeling will be a required skill by all characters, though it may be at any level between Average (+1) to Great (+4).
A Brief History of The Island Nation-State of Cemeas:
The Nation State of Cemeas was originally founded slightly under 400 years ago by the Nementian Confederacy (The Founding Year is year -223C, where 0C is the year of independence.) A walled fortress of a city sitting firmly within far catapult (and later cannon) range of three very profitable trading channels, the city grew and became prosperous quite quickly, the influx of trading taxes causing Five major districts separated by their own interior walls to spring up within the first 100 years, even when military action in -134C caused the city to come under the thumb of the Tremadogian Empire, who heavily taxed the cities trade profits. Ruled originally by a council of natives, then a governor installed by the far off Empire, the city lived uncomfortably under the yoke of colonialism for 134 years until Maera Kilyn, an elven woman and consort of the governor, worked with a small group of local Channelers led a violent coup on the Tremadogians. Surprisingly, many of the Tremadogian and mercenary guards turned on their masters and employers. Historians blame this in part on the locals more common acceptance of other races than the mostly Elf- and Humano-centric Empire, as well as the locals tolerance and respect for technological advancement making the lives better for the working class, and not least on the fact that due to travel being too expensive for the common soldier, many of them had strong relationships to those in Cemeas itself.
After the coup, the royal line began with Queen Maera I of the Kilyn line. The City established the Houses of the Titans the following year, appointing the Heads of Houses to the newly created Council of Seven, consisting of the Queen and each Head of House. Those without the ability to Channel were given no representation within the Council, leading them to be disenfranchised and unhappy. Things progressed much as they had for the populace, as Noble Houses cropped up in the wake of political and merchant power gained in the absence of the Empire's taxes, more common merchants hawked their wares both near and far, dockworkers traded their backs for some coins and beggars who'd lost even their strong backs traded anything they had for another day.
In the year 38C came The Stranger, a new Titan, without a House and seemingly without a limit to his power. The Titan chose very few people compared to the other Titans, and there seemed to be no pattern to those chosen by The Stranger. Where many could tell by certain talents or temperaments if someone would be chosen by The Smith or The Hunter, The Stranger seemed to decide on his Channelers with an eye only toward those who would shake things up, making the underdog the only reasonable pattern. (Though not every underdog, The Stranger chose far less Channelers than most). In addition, those marked by The Stranger were initially imperceptible, unlike other Channelers. This led to a big shakeup in power structure, with many people who were completely powerless and quite resentful about it finding themselves with the amount of power normally reserved only for those who had trained for years or decades. Robbings, vigilantism, fires, murders and destruction came to the powerful with the merchants, soldiers and poor dying in the crossfire. It took 5 years before those marked by The Stranger were declared enemies of Cemeas. A new prison facility was built by Channelers of The Builder. An imposing monstrosity of a prison towering over the Foreign Quarter known as Blackstone Penal Institution. The walls of the institution are laced with blackglass (obsidian), the only known grounding agent to The Strangers. Soon being a Channeler for The Stranger was punished only by death or a one-way trip to Blackstone.
In the year 71C, the city was hit by a plague the city called The Spellblight. While a dark time for the general populace, who suffered around 25% losses (slightly higher among non-human races), it was absolutely devestating to the cities Channelers, who suffered an infection rate of almost 90%, with well over three fifths of cases being fatal. With the numbers of Channelers cut by almost half and trade with the world outside the island cut off entirely, more people starved and everyone suffered. The discovery that Strangers seemed to be immune to the Spellblight caused a mass panic, making massive witch hunts among the angry and scared populace for those they blamed for causing the plague. Dozens were killed in lynchings and kangaroo courts, finally ending with the accusation and execution of Queen Marae I by her half-elven son and heir King Lyrant I. Whether the accusations against the First Queen were true has never been chosen, but that doesn't stop rumors and King Lyrant I's popular nickname, The Traitorous Prince.
The reconstruction efforts after the plague and purges lasted almost 2 decades. One of the major changes was the reconstruction of the Council, since the Channeler's numbers were to a small percentage of what they had been, the angry populace promoted Guilds into the Council under threat of riots and rebellion. The Guilds consisting of Merchants, Sailors, Farmers, and Soldiers promoted their Heads to the Council, quickly followed by The Representatives for each quarter, making the final and current Council of Fifteen.
In the year 96C a warship full of Canak (A violent, tyranical, short-lived race of spiked, snowy white humanoids from the north) crashed on the rocks of the isle containing Cemeas. Declared heretical by their own people for pollution of outside ideas, the Canak survivors eventually found themselves moved into a ghetto within the Foreign Quarter and largely forgotten. Attempting to recreate their homeland they spread their strange religion in the ghetto and beyond, where it took root in much of the disenfranchised workers who lacked a guild or other representation, including those marked by the Stranger. The Canak philosophy preached a system of knowing your place and conforming to your role, and protected converts as though they were born to it, including those who were criminals or outcasts in their own lands. In the intervening hundred years the philosophy has gained strength in the poor districts, but found few converts in the nobles and tradesmen. One of these converts was quite important, that being Princess Atrius, heir to the throne, who cast away her title to join the Canak ghetto in 105C. When the King discovered that his daughter had defected from his court with the help of her mother, he divorced her, and scandalized the court by taking an Ork, Queen Nicoult as a second wife and having a new heir, the half-ork, quarter-human, quarter-elf Prince Nikolas and his younger brother by 15 years Prince Lyrant II.
After a series of short trade wars (consisting of little more than occasional naval skirmishes) with neighbors, assassins from the Nementian Confederacy, Strangers all, killed King Lyrant and his Queen in their bed in the year 131C, causing the coronation of King Nikolas I, the first Non-Channeling King of Cemeas. A small faction within The Houses of the Titans, including the head of The House of The Destroyer, worried about losing their power and favor in the City, conspired to kidnap Prince Lyrant II and placed him under guard. Many lies and half-truths were used to convince Lyrant that his brother was an ineffectual and foolish ruler, and that the young Lyrant would be a better fit for the throne. Eventually the conspiracy used Lyrant as a figurehead to launch a civil war against King Nikolas. The Brother's War was long and bloody, lasting for 12 years, but luckily for history, King Nikolas was gracious in victory. The conspiracy was rooted out (mostly) and it's leaders put to death. Prince Lyrant II remains at the Palace, a prisoner in name only who has accepted that his brother is a fine ruler and has avoided entangling himself in politics. The King's treatment of his brother and his traitorous supporters and soldiers has earned him the moniker "The King in Grace".
This will be very steampunky. Lots of swords and cutlasses, matchlock rifles common with flintlocks for the rich and maybe even a couple of wheellocks floating around, but most violence is still done the old fashioned way. Cannons are used in defense of the island and on a few advanced ironsides. Gentry but no feudalism.
