Khortos is a world which its inhabitants are experiencing resource withdrawals oftenly referred to as 'mana' which is a term used for magic. Nations within this world heavily relied upon the powers of mana, carrying it into the industrial era and beyond. Originally, mana was a blessing bestowed by the gods referred to as the Harbingers and Nurturers of this world. It was originally received as a gift via objects called a 'Ritual Lantern'. Ritual Lanterns are found in caves and many parts of nature, and people would simply place an offering to receive its power, depending on the contents of said offering.
Hundreds of years later when the industrial revolution kicked in, mankind eventually were able to build machines that would take a Ritual Lantern and extract its contents not for it to be possessed by humans as a form of 'gift', rather to be put in a liquidized state and many other forms. 'Mana machines' and 'mana fuels' were born, its power were countless times more effective than coal, fossil fuels, oil, and natural gas. Industrialists exploited and commercialized mana related products, eventually abandoning 'pre-mana industrial technologies'. Mana eventually fell into the hands of powerful nobles, princes, and in some free nations, corporations as well. As the era of absolutism never really ended. This left the middle and lower classes with almost no access to the supernatural powers.
370 Standard Hemispheric Time, all of the Ritual Lanterns malfunction almost immediately in the form of a shockwave. Nobody knew where it originated from nor what caused it, but mana of different forms did not react the same. Mana used to fuel planes and boats would sometimes combust, leading to a near-collapse of entire navies and airforces, 'gifts' once inhabited by people dissappears, only the most powerful remained able to cast powers. With this, entire industries halted production and the economy experiences a severe recession. The world took 8 years to barely recover as many rushed to use the old 'pre-mana industrial technologies', by that time most people either use pre-mana tech or post one that had been partially scrapped and modified with a pre-mana to increase effectiveness.
Shortly after, Harbingers would secretly send out their informants to approach a rare bunch and recruit them as 'Contractors'. The game is simple, participate in death-threatening missions and they in return would be able to receive 'gifts', something that this world had lacked. Contractors are considered rare on most regions, they mostly resides in urban centres and would take advantage of local unrests to execute contracts.
A second event started following humanity's invasion by another species known as the 'Sabisians', widely rumored to be a byproduct of a previous war conducted amongst gods. It turned out that a species created purposefully for war combined with superior technology would instantly decimate all hopes of human victory. Which brings us to today, 157 celestials (years) after the invasion.
"Had greed killed us?"
Khortos is a world which its inhabitants are experiencing resource withdrawals until now. It was first created about 5500 years ago as one of the many hemispheres branching out from one big tree, which itself had been created by the Council of Kharukh (the ruling gods of this world). In an effort to organize the universe which before the creation of the mundane world that is the 'Tree of Life', had always been filled with nothing but wars between the supernatural. As previously mentioned, the tree of life contains many branches, and those would sustain many hemisphere-shaped worlds with their own inhabitants.
Timeline
Pre-Khortos
(all dates referenced uses the Standard Hemispheric Time format)
The era that existed before recorded history exists before Khortos and possibly the tree that nurtures it was created. The Council of Kharukh however, had already existed during this time. It ranges between the time of bitter division and intrigue amongst the creators, gods fighting one another with their powers. Until a period of eventual unification, with the creation of Kharukh.
Over the span of a few centuries after the council was created, the ‘tree of life’ became their best of creations. For a long time, the balance between gods and the mundane was disorganized, their borders are lacking consistency. So, the council considered creating a world just for the mundane, a tree of life, with the council living right on the very top.
This surprisingly worked, many mortals lived inside of the tree in hemispheric shaped worlds, some residing inside of it, some living in their life orbs, etc. Between all these worlds, Khortos was created out of tree barks, producing a stable ecosystem. Khortos was created by the council, not just one of the gods, though the scrolls suspect that one amongst them provided them with the necessary materials to create it.
Present Era
According to the Standard Hemispheric Time, recorded history began at approximately -5000 celestials. The most powerful nation referred to as the Empire of Eukelesia was formed in 0 celestial, thus creating the time format. Only remnants of it exist nowadays.
Khortos is a world currently occupied by races known as the Sabisians, a militaristic seemingly aggressive race that supposedly had unknowingly came out of nowhere and nearly conquered the human race. The confirmed theory is that they are the byproduct created by a Kharukh Council Member that rebelled against the rest of the council. Breaking the boundaries between the mundane and supernatural, this council figure created a race that while deemed inferior amongst the supernatural, are superior to the mundane in order to deal with mortals siding with the council.
According to the books found amongst the scattered debris of the former Eukelesian Royal Library of Humanities and Expression, the Sabisians are suspected to have started their invasion in the former Federation of Bethoz during the late 400s celestials, before rapidly advancing and nearly taking over the entirety of the planet in the matter of weeks. The maps illustrated are of course outdated as the Sabisians have yet to begin their final assault into the Empire itself.
“They [The Sabisians] overran our defenses. The strange thing I experienced is that when they stormed our lines, they made gurgling noises. When the first unit was overran the military trucks were quickly crushed into literal dust then sucked into their supposed ‘pores’. As if they were ravenous, desperate for nutrition. That’s when I knew our final chances of liberating Cleonia were no more.” - Commander Zachary of the 23rd Imperial Division
Before the Sabisians
History is fuzzy before the Sabisians came to be, this was due to the fact that Sabisians spent great efforts censoring history and remodeling them to appease the collaborators. Despite this, a few key historical events are still recognized by the public eye. The most significant event being the Council of Kharukh’s first origins that led to Khortos’ creation.
The origins of Khortos are filled with ‘Precursors’, former species that came before the human race. It is widely believed that the rebellion against the Council of Kharukh that kickstarted centuries long of heavenly wars led to their extinction. As the opposition known as Sabisia did not respect the Tree Code (code widely agreed between supernaturals to limit their divine intervention towards the mundane). The biggest violation being the creation of Sabisians to wipe any encouragement of opposition in the mundane world.
After The Sabisians
Below are events known to have happened in Narklan after the ensued invasion:
- 381 celestials: After getting pushed back on all fronts, the Imperial Army’s 3rd Corps decides to counter-attack south to Narklan after rumors of a Sabisian relic had been found. After the Sabisian WMDs deployment however, this mission would turn out to be a failure.
- 382 celestials: deployment of WMDs at the Narklani border by the famed Sabisian war hero, Rax’ar.
- 382 celestials: Pymenoan tribes, among them the famed Wadi ad Dawasir tribe, arrived and landed in Narklan to escape from the Sabisian scourge.
- 383-411 celestials: Lacking manpower, other than the 5-child initiative policy, the Imperials also decided to create the Duchy of New Falkusia as a compromise to incorporate the newly arrived Pymenoan tribes. A class divide began to emerge between Eukelesians and Pymenoans who were eventually ‘reformed’ into New Falkusians through state education and the careful surgical removal of their language. This would blow over to the New Falkusian war for independence, as they are in the majority, the New Falkusians would win after less than a year of fighting in 411. The Shallami bloodline takes over, the Eukelesian Duchy of New Falkusia reformed into the Knighthood of New Falkusia.
- 411-425 celestials: Sandhoran war of independence after they claimed their race to have been 'exploited for centuries'.
- 425-430 celestials: Reports of several phenomenon and mysterious changes in behavior of the Sabisians had been documented, though little is known to this event.
- 430 celestials: reformation of the Eukelesian 3rd Corps to the Grand Army, with individual cores created, up to 10 in total.
- 430 celestials: war begins to die down as both exhausted themselves and Narklan is isolated from the rest of the world.
- The ensuing 108 celestials would see massive environmental change as a result of the Sabisian WMDs notably creating the New Falkusian desert, skirmishes alongside the creation of TUFLoK to the north treated as a safe escape for pre-war industrialists suffering against the Empire’s tighter regulations, Solum Eukelesia is also created from the disgruntled nobles, and the radical Orthid Crusaders who in a daring act cutted themselves off of the central Akvarian church in 433.
- The skirmishes would last for 108 years, until a resurgence in 538 celestials.
Worldbuilding
Technology and Mana
Mana is the term used for the substance that humanity had depended on for so long. With the rapid progress of science during the golden age mostly occuring in the 420s, mana was able to be extracted from a person’s body. It originally took in the form of a gaseous substance as a form of blessing when one activates the Ritual Lanterns. During the golden age, scientists were able to contain the gas, and even extract mana from the body of the person, converting it to many more forms such as liquid.
The collapse/Ritual Lantern malfunction occurred 8 years ago. During that time, the liquidized manas simply turned grey, the gaseous forms evaporated away, and the ones that are currently used as fuel explodes. Leading to the biggest international disaster ever witnessed.
In terms of technology humanity has started to rely on older ones following the collapse, sometimes scrapping the parts of newer ones and using them to improve older ones without the use of mana.
In reference to pop-culture, Khortos adopts a fine mix of cassette futurism and steelpunk. Mana would take a considerable amount of space to store it, computers would need to be large to port USBs connected to power it. This was also inspired by mankind's pre-mana industrial technology. The same style applies to humans after the Sabisian invasion.
The Supernatural and the Mundane
In this realm there exist four main hiararchies:
- The Gods who are the original creators of the ‘tree of life’. (The Lord of the Sabisians are one of them but they had broken the 'Tree Code' by intervening too much in the Mundane World, disrupting peace.)
- The Harbingers which enforces the philosophy of balance to keep the universe alive despite the cutthroat nature of heavenly politics. (e.g. Harbingers and Nurturers)
- Guardians which are subordinates of the keepers aiding them in doing so such as informants which involves themselves going into mundane worlds and living amongst commoners. (e.g. Informants)
- The mundane which are basically humans and other sapient beings on the planet bounded by the laws of physics and reality, that may only be broken by the 'gifts'.
One planet could contains at least 10 or more keepers (Harbingers and Nurturers), and hundreds of guardians. Keepers has no clearly defined regions, rather they keep the balance of power by opposing one another, interpreting intrigue as a ‘healthy competition’ to keep the balance.`
Calendar System
Khortos uses the Celestial system or Standard Hemispheric Time (SHT), a system that had been used since the pre-mana industrial revolution. One celestial equals 3 cycles, 1 cycle contains 4 phases (months), 1 phase equals 30 days. One week equals to 10 days, and there are 3 weeks in 1 phase.
4 Phases being: Phase of Luddite, Harvest, The Autumn Sun, and Coldwind.
10 days being: Day of Akdir, day of Ebweus, day of Blessings, day of Labor, day of Mid-Rest, day of toil, day of Akadrin, day of creation, day of redemption, day of clarity.
Example: Day of Mid-Rest (Day), 20th Harvest (Date and Phase/Month), 2nd Cycle, 538 Celestials (Year). Weeks are usually not specified.
Below shows the calendar system from Phase then below to weeks and days. (Remember that 1 Phase equals to 3 weeks, and 3 weeks equals to 10 days).
(Consult the google docs rulebook for further information): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1urYNNPQNl2TihFyGS_B3lK0Ndhe94VT_nvZj01dCuKU/edit?usp=sharing
Status of Contractors
Contractors are relatively known in this world though there's really nothing that other non-contractors may do about it. Contractors are hired when they are summoned to the Heavenly Realm, oftenly when they are asleep. Furthermore, the world is busy dealing with the recent instability to properly look at them. Contractors not serving under the same Harbinger and of conflicting interests may encounter one another.
