User:GoldenYak/Chronicle/Gannon

Gannon, also known as the Realm of the Arcane and the Magical Realm.

Overview
The world of Gannon is a realm that bristles with the magic of the arcane. Arcane magic forms the underlying order of all things, binding together matter into stable forms and ensuring physical laws remain constant. The arcane is also a source of tremendous energy, the binding force that holds all things together, and if disrupted can dissolve reality itself, becoming the energy known as fel magic, a force of chaos and destruction.

Geography
The essence of order permeates Gannon. The inhabitants, both animal and sentient, make use of arcane magic as naturally as a creature might breathe air. The vast majority of the population dwell in cities crafted of pure arcane force that are not built upon the surface of the world but high in the air above it. These immense cities encircle Gannon, forming a lattice that if seen from a great distance would appear to cover much of the world's surface.

In fact, Gannon's surface is almost totally inhospitable to all but a handful of species. The world once boasted a multitude of climates - forests, jungles, mountains, plains, deserts, and seas. But some calamity unleashed long before recorded history has flash-frozen the entire world, turning it to magical crystal. Now, unmoving crystal forests cover crystal hills, and crystal waves are frozen in place, eternally crashing against crystal cliffs. Arcane energy glimmers in every facet and sparks at the tip of every shard, but in truth the world's surface is all but lifeless. Frozen crystal creatures are caught midstride in forest glades or trapped beneath crystal waters like insects in amber. Many poor souls can be seen frozen in place, locked in their final moments in whatever futile efforts they attempted to escape their fate.

The disaster known as the Crystal Cataclysm did not claim all life on Gannon - the sentient races escaped the crystalization into the first magical cities, many of which predated the cataclysm. Since that time, the cities only grew larger and larger, until the present day when they have achieved their world-spanning size. Magi conjured vast nature preserves within their cities, mystically recreating lost climates and populating them both with life saved from the world below and new creatures of their own creation. Some preserves are vast, miles and miles of wilderness indistinguishable from the natural, all springing from the immeasurable power of the arcane.

The majority of conjured territory on Gannon are the great cities however, huge rings of streets, buildings, and fortifications forged of solidified arcane energy. The cities are not level with relation to Gannon's surface, but curl and spiral, their inhabitants kept firmly rooted to the surface by enchanted gravity. Homes and castles and towers and keeps and farms and fields and workshops and more form vast, encompassing rings that criss-cross Gannon. Looking up from one street, a visitor to Gannon can see half a dozen or more vast ring-cities, their streets bustling with inhabitants. Indeed, visitors to Gannon often find the sight intensely disorienting and even frightening, feeling as if these sprawling cities must come crashing down upon them at any moment. Yet the magical force that generates the cities and holds them in place prevents such an occurance, and the enchantments that keep the inhabitants safe have held for thousands of years, renewed and maintained by the innumerable spell-casters that hold constant vigil.

A keen observer can note that while the cities do not fall or collapse, neither are they truly motionless. The complex lattice of magical cities forms a shell over the world of Gannon which turns slowly. In fact the lattice itself is made of numerous inner lattices, ten concentric sphere-structures composed of cities that each rotate in varying orientations. If viewed at an accelerated speed, the cities of Gannon would appear as ten independant lattice-spheres, turning delicately and carefully, each one nested within the other.

Outposts and cities
.

Inhabitants
The power of the arcane permeates Gannon, and those who master its use rule. Nearly every civilization is led by mages and spell-casters. The arcane is the most frequent form of magic - shamanism, druidism, and dualism (Light and Void) are very rare. Warlock magic is almost universally outlawed due to its corrosive effect on arcane energy, but warlocks can often be found practising the dark art in secret, sometimes even sanctioned by ruling authoriries, though invariably hidden from public view. Rogue warlock communities are hidden within the deeper levels of the largest cities, or located in distant, uninhabited regions of the Lattice that have been abandoned.

Humans of Gannon
Humans of Gannon live under the rule of mages, who reign over populations of less magically-adept citizens. Some kingdoms are led by one autocratic archmage, while others are led by a council of skilled elder magi. Humans possess a highly variable degree of magical acuity, and a citizen's arcane skill is ranked on a very careful and measured scale. Often times, one's magical potential can determine one's rank in society. The most common scale is the Eight Circles, which ranks a human's magical potential from one to eight, eight being the highest. Societies which employ the Eight Circles system are always ruled by magi who attain the eighth circle. Each circle is considered to be an exponential of the previous circle to the eighth power - that is to say, a mage of the eighth circle is considered equal in power to eight mages of the seventh circle. A mage of the seventh circle is considered equal in power to eight mages of the sixth circle. And so on.

Human cities are crafted through spellwork, like all cities on the Lattices of Gannon. All labour that on other worlds would be done with physical effort, with blood, sweat, and tears, is instead accomplished through magic. Magi of the highest circles will conjure entire boroughs into existence, fashioning manors and great halls with a wave of their hand and the proper incantation. The most powerful spell-casters dwell in the most oppulent of accomodations, often ones they have conjured themselves. Less lavish constructions are built of conjured material, wood and stone, by spell-crafters who use magic to assemble the materials. The lowest quality construction is done by laborers and masons who simply use conjured material and assemble their works with physical effort. Often, even the meanest constructions will be enchanted with illusions to make them more pleasing to the eye. In some kingdoms, skilled labour done without magical assistance is sometimes seen as highly desirable and respectable, or often as novel and exotic, though such work is still often enchanted afterwards.

Humans mages glory in the exploration of the arcane and their mastery of magic. Magic supplies the needs of every citizen - food, clothing, shelter, all are conjured from pure arcane force, which Gannon has in abundance. Thus the citizens are free largely to explore their own desires. Art and music, philosophy and science, magical study and experimentation are the pursuits of the human populace. The lowest citizens often perform labors for higher ranking citizens in the hopes of advancing themselves rather than out of a need for payment or recompense. A family of the first circle that serves a third circle mage's household, for example, might gain the favor of the mage and earn their child a sponsorship among a more prestigious school of spellcraft, enabling the child to one day advanced to a higher circle and in doing so elevate their family. Even those who remain at the lowes tier of society rarely find themselves in need or want - basic needs of all citizens are provided freely by higher circles. This is as likely to be done as a show of power and wealth by the ruling authority as out of genuine compassion - a circle that does not provide at least the bare essentials for its subordinates can be regarded as weak or feeble. Social prejudice between circles is often high - those of a lower circle are looked down upon with condescension at best and scorn at worse by those of higher circles.

Dwarves of Gannon
Dwarves of Gannon cleave to notions of order more than any other race. Unlike the realms of humans, dwarven cities are set in place, rarely shifting or changing. Each one has been constructed to a specific and precise plan meant to maximize order and efficiency. For dwarves, the ever-changing essence of magic is dangerous and must be locked firmly in place - the triumph of order over chaos. Dwarven mages use the power of runes, magical sigils that lock arcane power in place more firmly than any other form of enchantment, to preserve their spellwork cities.

Few dwarven mages employ the more immediate and impactful spellcraft of the other races. Dwarves prefer to carefully and meticulously craft an enchantment to imbue a weapon with elemental flame, rather than hurling that flame as an explosive bolt. None can match the skill of dwarves when it comes to imbuing matter with magical enchantment. Be it a mighty weapon, a towering fortress, or a simple tool, dwarven magi are without peer when it comes to forging arcane magic into solid, runic forms. Dwarven warriors march into battle fully armored in both wrought steel and runic enchantment, with spell-proof shields, nigh-invulnerable armor plate, and lethal enchanted blades. Death at a distance is dealt by technology ingeniously enhanced with magic, rather than crude destructive spells.

Orcs of Gannon
Orcs of Gannon live in clans ruled over by spell-casters. Orcish magi occupy the top tier in clan society, followed by warriors with little or no magical talent, followed by peons who are all orcs ill-suited to be either warriors or mages. A single Archmage rules the clan, though they are supported by a council of skilled mages, each one a representative of the various tribes that make up a clan. Orc clans are skilled at conjuration and manifestation, and consider the act of magically bringing a living thing into existence to be a sacred act. Magic is not worshipped as such, rather acts of magic are seen as worship in and of themselves.

Most orc clans are devoted to the natural world, and see it as their duty to reintroduce nature to Gannon. Orcs are one of the few species who dwell on Gannon's crystalized surface in addition to cities above it. Orcs also dwell within magically preserved natural territories suspended above the surface, tending to miles and miles of magically protected wilderness.

Orc mages were the first race to discover how to permanently reverse the nature of the crystalized surface. Earlier efforts by other magi had temporarily reversed the crystalization in small areas or in life-forms, but without a constant expenditure of mana the crystalization invariably returned. Orcs discovered that by transplanting elements of nature into a region that had been de-crystalized, the crystalization could be permanently halted. Orcs painstakingly take trees and topsoil produced in their enclaves and transplant it to the surface, all while magi continuously weave spells of disenchantment to push back the crystalization effect. The end result of their efforts is that small regions of nature have been returned to the surface of Gannon. The regions are still minute compared to the world's surface that remains trapped in crystal, even after several generations of effort, but the orcs are patient and devoted to their cause, and they are prepared to labour for thousands of generations more until at last the crystal sickness is purged from Gannon.

Orcs seek order in balance, and believe that a balance between nature and civilization is vital to preserve the world. They shun the immense magical cities of other races which choke out the natural world, while they also see an existence of nomadic wandering in the wilderness that orcs of other worlds lead as flawed. Rather than build a tower of conjured stone and wood, they use magic to shape living wood and preserved rock into the form of a tower. Dwellings are grown and shaped, not built or conjured. Orcs spread their dwellings throughout the nature preserves of the lattice, not through clear-cutting or strip-mining, but sculpting and shaping. They are not adverse to changing nature, altering the course of rivers, removing indiginous wildlife, or other actions which races typically devoted to nature worship would find unacceptable. Likewise, should the orcs seize an area of a Lattice that is choked with construction and fortifications, they will tear down such structures and conjure forests, hills, swamps, and mountains. The orcs envision a world that is both city and forest, fortress and mountain, nature and civilization no longer separate but blended together into a single whole, with the orcs acting as stewards of it all. Orcs call this vision of the world 'the Holt.'

Trolls of Gannon
The trolls of Gannon are one of the more hostile races. They see themselves as the rightful rulers of Gannon, and their history claims that in fact they did rule all the other races in the distant past when all dwelled on the surface. Some trolls even hold the belief that the Lattices were originally their creation, and that they were responsible for bringing other races to the cities there in order to survive. Indeed, trollish ruins can be found at the deepest levels of many Lattices. Troll cities are also found across the surface of Gannon, frozen in crystal. Some believe that the trolls were responsible for unleashing the crystal cataclysm in the first place. The oldest known Lattice contains a core of structures that are evidently not troll in design however, leading some to believe that the trolls were taught their art by another, unknown race, and the trolls used these secrets to attain dominion over Gannon.

Troll cities are vast, sprawling complexes of stepped structures and walled fortifications. These citadels are ruled over by troll magi, who in turn lord over non-magically inclined trolls. Troll magi provide themselves with everything they could need using their magic, maintaining dominion over the populace by controlling mystically conjured food sources and other goods.

Trolls use magic the same way an engineer uses components to build a machine. Spellcraft and enchantments are woven atop one-another in intricate layers, building upon one-another to produce a magical effect greater than the sum of its parts. These complex meta-spells allow trolls to accomplish feats no other race can match - constructing an entire fortress in moments, shuffling the layout of one of their cities, or unleashing a chaotic storm of multiple elements upon an enemy force.

Trolls are also experts at creating golems, constructs powered by magical spells. Golems are used both in war and in defense of troll cities.

Troll peasantry are mainly labourers constructing the ever-expanding cities of their mage-lord masters. Their food is provided by the magi, who conjure energy into immense outdoor basins flooded with water and rich silt where crops grow. Troll farmers harvest the mystically grown crops, which sprout rapidly - fields are harvested nearly continously, with a new crop ready to be picked as soon as the previous one is fully harvested. Crops feed both trolls themselves and herds of animals that are used as sources of meat.

Trolls consider themselves the rightful rulers of all other races and hold their magical abilities as superior. While many troll kingdoms have non-aggression treaties with other races, even the most peaceful of troll kingdoms believe in their inevitable rule and are simply waiting for the right time to take their place as masters of all. While some more benevolent trolls expect that the time will come when lesser races willingly accept troll rule, others are preparing for war and conquest, planning to take the world by force.