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Selejia during the Age of Legacy
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The Warband discuss Selejia during the Age of Legacy!
Malediction Weekly Lore Drop: The Legend of Midrasil
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Transcript
Introduction and Episode Overview
00:00:07
Garrett
Hello, everybody, and welcome back to episode nine of Into the Malediction. I am your one of your hosts here, Garrett Vance, also known as Admiral Tater, joined by my co-hosts, Alan and Nick.
00:00:22
m3rcier
Hey everybody, it's Alan or Mercer on Discord.
00:00:26
Nick
And this is Nick or Fetty 315.
00:00:29
Garrett
And today we've got a pretty fun episode.
Life in Silesia and Faction Towns
00:00:32
Garrett
ah We've covered all the factions now. And today we're going to do a little bit of a deep dive into what is it like to live in Silesia, the continent, and just kind of do a couple i dives into some of the free cities, how we think everything functions, kind of like what would it be like to live in some of these actual faction towns or something.
00:00:59
Garrett
And then We've also got a really fun, I think this is one of my favorite short stories yet, The Legend of Midrassil.
The Legend of Midrassil and Lore Discussions
00:01:07
Garrett
And Alan is going to read that one for us and summarize.
00:01:11
m3rcier
Yes, thank you. So the title is The legends or the Legend of Midrassil. And again, we have a quote, this time by one of our Seekers, Oric. I'm going to read that real quick.
00:01:24
m3rcier
Orc Evenhand i've walked on its once majesstic calls and i saw the statues of the heroes of yore who saved us from the fall and helped erect our beloved order it still shines even as the plague reeks from every speck of dust i could still see grandeur never again shall you name it mysmic grounds squire reckon my patients an intervention of the triumph and repent or on hand even hand So um he's chastising one of his squires for what I believe is probably using slang for midrassil.
00:02:04
Nick
ah So, so miasma is a ah old Greek word for bad air.
00:02:11
m3rcier
Okay.
00:02:11
Nick
That's where we get the the plague doctors with the the masks were to keep out the miasma.
00:02:11
m3rcier
So...
00:02:16
Nick
Because that's how they used to believe plague was spread.
00:02:19
m3rcier
Okay. So... an an apt description but the Vol'kyr probably do not like it.
00:02:24
Nick
Yeah.
00:02:28
m3rcier
So just a ah bit of notes here. ah The Vol'kyr were created by the Galdron or were created by the Everlasting Galdron to build the walls around Olam. So he created them so they could help him build the walls.
00:02:44
m3rcier
In order for them to learn their craft, he had them build Midrassil for themselves. And then during the Everlasting War and the Fall, the Volker were split, with some being loyalist to the Triumfrid, because Galdron was loyal to the Triumfrid.
00:03:00
m3rcier
Which goes into a little bit of detail, I think, not sure. ah And those who ended up at the Iron Keep after the after the Fall.
00:03:16
m3rcier
And then also some went to the Primal Blood. As we've discussed before, Thunder Steps emerged from the Malediction and was wreaking havoc around the lands. So the Order of the Shattered Throne gave an order to Onyx Hammerhaft, who is the king of Midrassil.
Midrassil's Destruction and Thunder Steps
00:03:38
m3rcier
And that order was, leave Midrassil and kill Thunder Steps. know we need We need him dead. He is rampaging across the lands. Onyx, being loyal to the Order, attempted to do so, but was not killed, gravely wounded, and carried back to the city on his shield.
00:04:00
m3rcier
And in doing so, Thunder Steps indirectly destroyed Midrassil because he essentially gave Onyx a plague that his body brought back and spread throughout his own kingdom.
00:04:14
m3rcier
So it's not a ruin in the sense that Thunder Steps destroyed the city through might. It's a ruin because if you go there, you get a plague and die. So anyone that wasn't infected left and went either to the Order, the Iron Keep, they just scattered to the winds.
00:04:33
Garrett
Yeah, this is a super cool story, and it adds... It's like the amount of lore that has just dropped in these paragraphs is huge, because we've got stuff about um where they come from.
00:04:46
Garrett
They got stuff about where the Vilkir went after, right? They spread out. And then we've got how we have the ruins. We've got how Thunder Steps destroyed it.
00:04:58
Garrett
We've got... ah a new idea that if you, if you fight thunder steps, uh, are you going to bring a plug back to wherever it it it comes from?
00:05:02
m3rcier
I
00:05:10
Garrett
Right. Um, that's, that's pretty.
00:05:13
m3rcier
i mean, the biggest thing for me is we we found out what Midrush Hill is. we We were talking about that last episode.
00:05:17
Garrett
Yes.
00:05:18
m3rcier
We were like, I wonder what it is, how it was destroyed.
Veloma and City-States Politics
00:05:22
m3rcier
and then we get this lower drop.
00:05:22
Garrett
It's in my, in my head, it's, it's Moria, right. It's Moria.
00:05:27
Nick
Yeah.
00:05:27
Garrett
It's, uh,
00:05:27
Nick
yeah
00:05:28
m3rcier
Yeah.
00:05:29
Garrett
It's Kazadum or whatever it's called. um it's And the idea of that it's in pristine condition, i but it just is abandoned is super cool.
00:05:42
Nick
yeah it's like a ghost town.
00:05:42
Garrett
I love the idea that not only are the the the Volker infected with whatever this disease was, but also the city is infected, like the actual stone itself. So it's like you you like can't inhabit it.
00:05:57
Garrett
and they have to find a cure in the malediction for it
00:06:00
m3rcier
yeah what i would What I find interesting is you have the Kyber Mauler or the Vol'kyr that are in the Primal, but they hate all Vol'kyr hate Thunder Steps. So like if you're a Kyber Mauler, how do you justify fighting for him if you have to? Or in the lore, will no Kyber Mauler join Thunder Steps, even though game mechanically they can't?
00:06:21
m3rcier
I mean, part of me would like to see something on the card, keyword or something that prevents them from being in a Thunder Step deck, just to bind them more.
00:06:28
Garrett
Well, I, I think it's a, it's, it's a kit system, right? Like it, I mean, Thunder Steps is in charge.
00:06:33
m3rcier
Yeah.
00:06:34
Garrett
If he tells you to do it, I mean, you can either do it or he's going to kill you. So i don't think they have a lot of choices.
00:06:40
m3rcier
Or you could just, you could go join Ingor or one of the other kits.
00:06:44
Garrett
You could. Yeah. It's, but it's possible. Right. So, um,
00:06:48
m3rcier
So... I just thought it was pretty interesting because they they all hate him, but yet some of them game mechanically can fight alongside him.
00:06:57
Garrett
Right.
00:06:58
Garrett
um but yeah awesome story
00:06:59
Nick
Yeah.
00:07:00
m3rcier
but new art New artwork. I'll have a link to this story in the show notes, so go check it out. And then I think we have a pretty pretty juicy ah main lore discussion.
00:07:06
Garrett
and yes so i think nick i think nick decided the outline of this and so we're gonna go via his his journey here ah Selecia. that's our continent.
00:07:26
Garrett
And he wanted to start with free city states. And I love that idea. So the first topic is the main neutral hub of this place. So Veloma, of course, named after the what we what we now call a seeker.
00:07:43
Garrett
But it was a criminal that was sent into the malediction, found a legacy and came out.
00:07:47
Nick
Thank you.
00:07:49
Garrett
And then they named the city after her. ah This is the, not really a capital, but the way I look at this place is it's kind of like, uh, Karth, Korth out of a song of ice and fire.
00:08:05
Garrett
That's
00:08:07
m3rcier
Yeah.
00:08:09
Garrett
how I think of it. And cause we don't know anything about the politics of it, but, um, it's pretty cool. It, it controls the gate, right? Uh, the, ah now it's escaping my head transfer gate.
00:08:20
Nick
It's the Triumvirate.
00:08:20
Garrett
Is that right?
00:08:21
Nick
Yep.
00:08:22
Garrett
Yep. And so,
00:08:23
m3rcier
Which is hilarious that the order doesn't control that one.
00:08:26
Garrett
yes, ah which they tried to remember in the the Luminous Crusade, they they went for it. Now, I also, you know, i like to look the map. You can draw so much information from looking at a map. And so the writers and authors and artists all decided to put this thing called the Golden Road.
00:08:45
Garrett
And this Golden Road goes through vloma and then it it connects the Legion to the Order, right? It goes from Ravensford all the way through Veloma, through a couple more free cities, and then down to New Ostra, which then leads back up to Astaris.
00:09:06
Garrett
ah And so this is like, this is a peak place to live because there's all sorts of people coming to trade. There's all sorts of people coming to hire mercenaries for malediction stuff.
00:09:19
Garrett
ah And I think this is probably just like a melting pot of all these different races hanging out together. And we know Vilkir lived there, and we know that probably some people from the Legion lived there.
00:09:27
m3rcier
Yeah.
00:09:33
Garrett
and Of course, I'm sure it's a major place that the Conclave sells at, right? To all these mercenary groups and the other factions, except for probably the primal who are not and probably invited.
00:09:47
Garrett
what do what do you What do you guys think about Veloma?
00:09:50
m3rcier
Yeah, I mean, so if you look on the map, Veloma is the only unaligned city that's not just a
Strategic Cities: Brighthold, Jennifer, and Waypoint
00:09:58
m3rcier
dot. It has, you know, the fuller, bigger image, like kind of like Astartes does or a Belusa or Dusk or Nexus.
00:10:06
m3rcier
So this is the largest of the free cities. And Veloma actually did when she came back out of the Malediction with her legacy. She started the Age of Legacy. That was year one of the Age of Legacy.
00:10:21
Nick
yeah I'd love to see some some artwork. Hopefully we'll get maybe like a lore drop in the future about like what's going on there. Because it's interesting because we we can extrapolate a lot of information from some of the other factions based on like, you know, we're given so much information around the factions and like what they what they're about.
00:10:39
Nick
you can kind of You can kind of make some like inference on like what's going on in this city, what's going on in that city. With Veloma and all the other city-states, it's just kind of like What's happening there? What's what's going on?
00:10:53
Nick
Like, do they have a king? Do they have like a council of 12 people that run, you know, like a rep?
00:10:59
Garrett
That's how I imagine it. i imagine like that.
00:11:00
Nick
You know, yeah.
00:11:01
Garrett
that the What were they called? The pureborn or something like that? i don't don't remember.
00:11:06
Nick
The encar- it was, oh man.
00:11:12
Garrett
I've sprinkled in a lot of references to other IP as I go along here. Right.
00:11:16
Nick
Yeah. so it's been It's been a while since I've read through Song Ice and Fire. I can't remember.
00:11:20
Garrett
Right.
00:11:21
m3rcier
Yeah, and Veloma was, i think Garrett, you've mentioned it, Veloma was where a Valkyris priest was assassinated. The Order marched on it to try and capture it Vordenhall led the Legion in defense of it and defended it.
00:11:35
m3rcier
And then instead of taking it, he just left. So it is a very pivotal city for the entire continent.
00:11:44
Garrett
It's also super close to the malediction itself.
00:11:49
m3rcier
Yeah, it looks like it's the closest city to the Malediction. The only one that might have been just as close or maybe a little bit closer, Ravenford looks like it's potentially the same distance, but there's a mountain range that blocks Ravenford.
00:12:03
Garrett
Yeah.
00:12:04
Nick
Mm-hmm.
00:12:04
Garrett
ah Like you're
00:12:05
m3rcier
And whatever the ruins of Tenebra are look to be about the same distance away from the Malediction also.
00:12:11
Garrett
right. if you're living in Veloma, like you just looking out and you can just see those walls of Gauderun just every day, just looking back at you.
00:12:23
Garrett
The only thing separating you from like the actual hell, which is pretty cool.
00:12:28
m3rcier
Yeah, hope hope those walls never break.
00:12:32
Garrett
Right. um So that's Veloma. Moving along here, then moving along. Brighthold. uh brighthold is we have the brighthold custodian brighthold's interesting it is it's super far north uh on its way to the pale expanse on the northern part of the continent and it is definitely the furthest separated free city because all the other coastal cities or river ones are controlled by the conclave uh so i think it's interesting that brighthold is independently
00:13:07
Garrett
And, but also they're clearly like kind of order aligned because Bright Hole Custodian is from the city. And the way I thought of them is like, maybe these are like mercenaries that the order hires.
00:13:21
m3rcier
Yeah, when it's so's up up the coast, it's at the mouth of the Lucent River. And I'm just looking at it, I don't see a way for them to get into Dynas from where they are.
00:13:31
m3rcier
Like they'd have to go all the way around down south, past the Paxos and then back up north, or make the probably very perilous crossing of the Magnus Mountains to get into Paxos.
00:13:42
Garrett
Yeah. And we don't know the condition of those mountains because we do know that ah the Vilker Kingdom was there, right? So are those mountains infected with this weird plague thing?
00:13:51
Nick
Yeah.
00:13:55
Nick
Oh, yeah. Who knows? Because, yeah, like, there's, it's hard to tell on the map, right? You know, we don't, there's not like a pass that's named or something.
00:14:05
Nick
But we have like two rivers that are kind of like skirting the mountain range. um But right, like, if that, plague that brought low mid-rezil, like, infects the stone. Is that reaching, like, into the mountain range itself?
00:14:22
m3rcier
Yeah, and if you read the, like I'm looking at the Brighthold Custodian card, he has armor that's kind of reminiscent of the Order, like his pauldrons.
00:14:35
m3rcier
But other than like the gold pauldron, nothing really screams Order to me. They have the Malediction logo on their on the thing that covers their head. And in the flavor text is the movement of eyes, the twitch of the smile, grimace of pain, all weaknesses to be exploited by the enemy.
00:14:53
m3rcier
The custodians are above such inadequacy. I mean, i don't i don't know if these guys are actually part of the order or as Garrett said, they're just being hired.
00:15:05
Garrett
Yeah, I think it's just like they live in that area. And so what else are they going to do? Right.
00:15:11
Nick
It would be interesting to see if they're allied like you know if they're neutral, but they're allied with the Order, because it would be the Order's like only access to the coast.
00:15:20
Garrett
Yeah, it's kind of like the Vilcord, right? Like they are not um humans. So, but they are aligned with the order.
00:15:32
Garrett
Most of them, like the major... uh, amount of them are order citizens.
00:15:37
Nick
Yeah.
00:15:38
Garrett
So, and maybe bright hold is kind of like that. They're just an independent human city who is not under control, but is aligned and can keep their alignment. Like you said, because they are on the coast and run a city. So it's like, it's like new Orleans, right? All the trade goes through that spot.
00:15:56
Garrett
And since it's independent, it's probably more fair for the order to do commerce through bright hold than it is to go through a conclave port.
00:16:03
Nick
Yeah, probably. they probably can't control The church can't control it directly, but they don't want to lose like the allegiance. So it's just kind of it retains its independence.
00:16:12
Garrett
Right. And Brighthold is an interesting name.
00:16:13
Nick
Yep.
00:16:14
Garrett
Like, why is it called Brighthold? What does that mean? Is it a fortress? They're called custodians. what are they what What is their purpose there? So both those things can be expanded upon.
00:16:23
Nick
Yep.
00:16:26
Nick
Yep.
00:16:27
Nick
What we got next?
00:16:28
m3rcier
Okay.
00:16:29
Garrett
Well, I'll just keep going. We got Jenifin, or Yenifin. know how you want to say this. Jenifin the city. So this is this goes along the Golden Road theme I've got here. This city is another spot on the map where the the road and a river both cross. So it's called the Titanflow River, and this flows all the way from the Paxos to the Churning Sea.
00:16:53
Garrett
The Churning Sea is like that bay where the conclave... islands are and I can never remember the name those islands. what are What are they?
00:17:01
Nick
A Quinvala.
00:17:02
Garrett
Quidvala. Okay, thank you. um When I was writing this, was like, man, I'm not going to go control off this right now. But anyways, ah it's another, it's it's like a spot and it's, I just love looking at maps, but it's also before you get to another mountain range. So there's a mountain range that separates Jennifer from vloma So it's like, it's really perilous journey, I think along the golden road from Asteris down the new Osteris.
00:17:33
Garrett
And then you got to travel all the way along the Paxos forest border. So I'm sure this is just another area where, you know, you can't, you need to like be able to get to these cities in a day. Cause like staying out on the road would be just absolutely suicide.
00:17:52
Garrett
Um, due to the risk of raiders from primal, right? And then another city that has the perfect name, Waypoint. And I'm sure this is just ah it's just, it's only there probably to be an outpost that people can stop and sleep, get gear, and move on.
00:18:11
Garrett
Because again, it's right next to the forest. And these places, i like and I don't think anybody's living there for the aesthetics. i It's just too close to Paxos and these absolute monsters who actually live in the forest.
00:18:28
m3rcier
Yeah, well, both Waypoint and Yennefin are on rivers also. So there's, you know, yes, Veloma is like probably the largest trading hub because it's neutral. These two are probably have pretty strong trading because of the rivers.
00:18:42
Garrett
Yep.
00:18:42
m3rcier
Because the Conclave control the mouth of both of these rivers, the Quicksilver for Waypoint and Titanflow for Yennefin. And at the river of, or I'm sorry, at the mouth of Titanflow is Gateway.
00:18:56
m3rcier
And then at the mouth of the Quicksilver is Mellon, which are both conclave outposts. So I could see the conclave shipping stuff up the river, or at least Waypoint and Unifin shipping stuff up the river.
00:19:10
m3rcier
So the conclave can just teleport, but I don't know if it's worth them teleporting like entire carriages of supplies and stuff because you know it has a cost.
00:19:17
Garrett
and i i don't think I don't know if the teleports work ah outside of where there's teleportation machinery, right?
00:19:30
m3rcier
Towers.
00:19:31
Garrett
So I think you can only teleport to cities that have towers, right?
00:19:36
m3rcier
Yeah, we don't know where the towers would be or any of that kind of stuff yet.
00:19:40
Garrett
I would assume like in conclave cities, but I i just, a huge shout out to, who i don't I don't know who drew the map, but i it's and whenever I see a map and people put cities like where cities will be built, like along rivers, just good job.
00:19:54
Garrett
All right, good job. Because that's how life works before like you get things like railroads. Everything's built on rivers, right? Because that's how trade works.
00:20:02
Nick
Mm-hmm.
00:20:03
Garrett
and commerce um in a pre-industrial society. ah Anyways, moving on. So that's the that's the Golden Roads, free cities.
Vol'kyr and Iron Keep's Independence
00:20:12
Garrett
And next we have, but going back over to the other side of the continent, is Iron Keep.
00:20:19
Garrett
And this is so cool um because now we know ah some info about this. It's the, another like Volker,
00:20:33
Garrett
Outpost, like they built this.
00:20:34
Nick
Thank you.
00:20:35
Garrett
The ones who didn't want to align themselves with the Order ah built this in the mountains there next to Veloma. i think that's I think that's pretty cool.
00:20:45
Garrett
Independent Volker Nation.
00:20:47
m3rcier
Yep, the ones that didn't trust the order.
00:20:50
m3rcier
They found another mountain, which is, it's crazy because, you know, the Volker are kind of like the darts of the setting, but they are not short. They are, mean, they don't share that attribute, but they did do share the resilient attribute as far as there are hardy people that are hard to hard to take down.
00:21:09
m3rcier
But they went and built another keep in the mountain.
00:21:11
Garrett
literals literal literal stone.
00:21:13
m3rcier
Yes.
00:21:14
Garrett
Like there's I think it's so like the dwarf like they're obviously supposed to be like the dwarf the dwarves of this of this thing, but I like how they're just super sized dwarves. So they have all the benefits of being a dwarf and none of the drawbacks.
00:21:30
Garrett
yes's Because they're just they're also huge. So absolute tanks.
00:21:34
m3rcier
they're powerhouses
00:21:37
m3rcier
next one we kind of went over in the short story the ruins of Midrashville
00:21:41
Garrett
Yes.
Quest to Reclaim Midrassil
00:21:43
Garrett
We talk about this a lot and I really, and then so we know what happened to it, got destroyed, plague, yada, yada. ah but But I think the biggest thing here is the, the quest that Auric has to basically reclaim Midrassol.
00:22:03
Garrett
And I, that's like his entire goal is going into the malediction and Finding a cure to fix the problem. So he operates at a new Osteristh, which is right on the border. So he's like right on the front lines the battle with primals.
00:22:19
Garrett
And his whole thing is, you know, trying to unite and create the kingdom again. Which I don't know how that's going to work out in the future with the order. And if they will like that.
00:22:31
Nick
don't know that they would hate it.
00:22:33
Garrett
Yeah, it's it's it all depends. like it just depends if if when they do take back the land, do they stay loyal to the whole Order of the Shattered Throne system.
00:22:47
Nick
Maybe.
00:22:47
m3rcier
I mean, i probably because on ah Hammerhaft was.
00:22:47
Nick
yeah
00:22:53
m3rcier
Like, he took orders from the order. I hate that those words are exactly the same, but he's the one that was commanded to do something and did it.
00:23:03
Nick
And they were originally like, they're originally loyal to the triumvirate.
00:23:03
Garrett
Yeah.
00:23:06
Nick
So they align with the same kind of, you know, like structure.
00:23:13
Garrett
Yes. However, the modern order is very different with the whole Oathbound Light soul reaping situation because, you know, Galdron wasn't asking them to, you know, cut off a piece of their soul. He built them up, celebrated them, gave them skills, gave them life.
00:23:33
Garrett
And that's why they were loyal. Not all them.
00:23:36
m3rcier
Well, yeah, but they were they were still loyal to the order once it was formed because it wasn't, well, Midrassil was, which is their their homeland.
00:23:37
Garrett
Not all of them. Yeah.
00:23:41
Garrett
not all not all
00:23:46
m3rcier
It wasn't until it fell that you know there was a ah mass exodus from there. So you still have the ones that are in Iron Keep, the ones that are in the primal that you know may not go back to the order, but they will probably damn sure least visit their her homeland.
00:24:06
Garrett
Yeah, so I was like i would like to see some conflict.
00:24:06
m3rcier
Now, how the order handles that is going to be interesting. Like, there's primal Vol'kyr or unaligned Vol'kyr in a city that they consider theirs. That'll be interesting lore development. Like, how does that happen if they ever get it back?
00:24:21
m3rcier
What's the fallout from it?
00:24:21
Garrett
Right.
00:24:23
Garrett
And then another spot on the map, which I don't think is meant to be like a free city, but it's gray, so we're talking about it. It's the ah the ruins of Tenebrio. We have like no info on this at all. It's just it's just a hanging a thread for us to speculate about.
00:24:39
Garrett
um Maybe it fell also to a plague ah from Thunder Steps, perhaps. We do know it's close to the Lost Gate, so that might be connected My theory is it was another Vulgar kingdom that Thunder Steps took out.
00:24:50
Nick
Oh,
00:24:54
Garrett
ah But maybe it'll be more exciting. i don't know. what Do you guys got any theories on that?
00:25:00
Nick
I wonder. So, I mean, we have like, so we have the Lost Gate with the Forlorn Peninsula, the Ruins of Tenebria. It's all very, like, dark, right? um And so I wonder if it's connected to the Legion somehow.
Tenebria and Faction Ideologies
00:25:14
Nick
um You know, something with that, something more like with death or or darkness.
00:25:20
m3rcier
yeah i think probably somehow connected to the legion but i mean also iron keep is connected to vulk here and it's clear on the other side of the map so who knows what this one's going to be about i mean nick is tenebria greek and it's latin what's it latin for okay so that it that fits perfectly with with the area it's in so
00:25:36
Nick
It's Latin. Yeah. It's ah latin Latin for shadow or darkness.
00:25:41
Garrett
do I like that.
00:25:43
Nick
Yep.
00:25:47
m3rcier
Yeah, I'm going to go with Legion. It just, it seems to fit that vibe, but what, what fell it?
00:25:53
Nick
Exactly right. That's I was like. It's so close to malediction. It's got to be something like the lost gate has got to be some. It's got to be connected, right? It's right there.
00:26:02
Nick
So, ooh, spooky. ah
00:26:06
Garrett
Oh, man. So anyways, as
00:26:07
Nick
Something.
00:26:07
m3rcier
Maybe it's, maybe it's a faction that we don't know about, or Maybe it was an area controlled about, I think we have six or seven unknown everlasting. Maybe an unknown faction controlled by an unknown everlasting that was obliterated by the Triumph that we're just not aware of yet.
00:26:25
Garrett
Yeah, because it talks about there being other kingdoms that have rose and fell.
00:26:25
Nick
Yeah, ups.
00:26:30
Garrett
Because like you know a couple thousand years is a long time for things to happen.
00:26:33
Nick
Yeah, it's a lot. It's a lot of time.
00:26:35
Garrett
So you know it's just it's hard to know exactly. But i do love the idea that you know that it's full of spirits and wraiths. Or it's just it'd be a fun place to explore. Now...
00:26:51
Nick
Yeah, maybe we'll get it.
00:26:51
Garrett
now
00:26:52
Nick
Maybe we'll get another spirit seeker that comes down from the ruins, you know?
00:26:56
Garrett
Yeah, that that'd be cool.
00:26:56
m3rcier
Yeah.
00:26:58
Garrett
Or maybe Countess goes down there.
00:26:58
m3rcier
When it's, it's, it's crazy because you have the ruins of Tenebria, the ruins of Midrithfield, places that would be awesome to explore. But this continent has the malediction, which you know is full of treasure and power.
00:27:13
m3rcier
So like, I guess the explorers that have the ability, you're going to go into the malediction for the riches and the plunder and all that kind of stuff. And if you are more timid explorer, okay,
00:27:20
Garrett
Well, Ork Evenhand did find his legacy. and his arm in midrassil, right?
00:27:28
m3rcier
Yeah, but they probably knew that was there because that was Vol'kyr apparatus anyway.
00:27:36
Garrett
Yeah, but I mean, you had to go there, right?
00:27:38
m3rcier
But you there could be there could be legacies or vestiges hidden in Tenebria because if it is another everlasting that we weren't aware of, there could be a vestige there.
00:27:38
Garrett
They had to know it was there.
00:27:50
m3rcier
But I mean, do you look to the unknown place or do you look to the malediction when you're when you're looking for power and treasure?
00:27:57
Garrett
Right.
00:27:57
m3rcier
I just think that most explorers are going to go to the malediction. And unfortunately, these other places that are just right there are probably being ignored because no one knows about them. Or it's like, we don't know there's anything there. It could just be a waste of our resources to go there.
00:28:15
Garrett
right I think that's a big thing. They just don't know. Because Arik only went to Midracell because he got um secret knowledge passed down to him because he was an actual heir.
00:28:24
m3rcier
Got checked.
00:28:28
Nick
Yeah.
00:28:28
Garrett
to the throne. It was not common knowledge that, you know, right.
00:28:31
Nick
Yeah, he he knew what he was looking for. Alright.
00:28:35
Garrett
Now, we don't, but we don't know about Tenebra. So I don't i't know. That's great though. That's a whole and nother thing they can expand on later. um But now moving moving on from Free Cities, ah Nick, want to you want to introduce our next section here?
00:28:49
Nick
Yeah, sure. yeah So, ah you know, we've covered all the factions in detail, and we've pretty much covered the entirety of the lore primer now. So i want to start shifting our gears a little bit instead of discussing stuff that's been written.
00:29:02
Nick
And, we're going to talk about some faction ideologies and like social philosophies and how the people on Silesia and the people under the rule of these factions, like live their day-to-day lives.
Order's Social Structure and Soul Contracts
00:29:16
Nick
And so there's gonna be some speculation here, uh, just upfront. This is kind of, kind of a warning for everybody. Like this is going to us just kind of talking about what we know about the lore. This is not going to necessarily be things that is written,
00:29:27
Nick
um you know, in the Lord Primer or anything that's like, um, canon, right?
00:29:34
Garrett
Let's make a cannon.
00:29:36
Nick
Let's make it canon. Yeah. Right.
00:29:37
Garrett
Just
00:29:38
Nick
It says, Hey, Hey, loot studios, you listen, pay attention.
00:29:42
Garrett
kidding. Don't kick us out.
00:29:44
Nick
So don't get, yeah. So, uh, just, I'll just go ahead and we're going to recap a little bit.
00:29:46
m3rcier
right.
00:29:50
Nick
Um, we're gonna talk about the four factions first, just kind of get everything on the same page and talk about them. Uh, so, First, the first action we covered, Order the Shattered Throne. So what we know about them is they have a very highly rigid social structure, right? It's all run by the church.
00:30:07
Nick
ah So you have this religious, the theocracy where your devotion is kind of your social like credit, right? And so your role in society can be determined by your faith, whether that's perceived faith or genuine faith.
00:30:25
Nick
ah We don't really know if the priests are able to really determine if you're faking or not. Right.
00:30:33
Garrett
I think they can tell a little bit. Because, like, somehow you've got make this sole transaction. ah
00:30:41
m3rcier
Yeah, you have to you to tie your soul to them.
00:30:42
Nick
Yeah. But is that, is that, But is that you go to your priest and you give them part of your soul? Or is that just kind of like if you pray and you're youre you engage with the Oathbound Light, like the Oathbound Light takes some of your soul without really...
00:30:52
Garrett
I... I think... The way I understood it, or the way I understand it, either the way I speculate it, that you have to believe for real at least a little bit to make this soul thing work. Because if you don't, they do have a way of, like, taking it from you, right? From killing you.
00:31:15
Garrett
So...
00:31:15
m3rcier
Well, there's ah there is the, hold on, because we're going to touch on this next episode a little bit more also, but ah one of the rites is the rites that, where is wears it It's one of the rites that maintains the rite of Falkers.
00:31:34
m3rcier
They're the ones that do the tithing and all that, so it's a magical pact that So when you tithe your soul, you're soul binding yourself to the oath bound light.
00:31:45
m3rcier
So you can do so even if you yeah you could do so even if you don't have faith in it.
00:31:47
Garrett
They're the nice folks.
00:31:51
m3rcier
It's just a magical, ah basically a magical contract you're making.
00:31:52
Nick
Right.
00:31:56
Nick
right
00:31:56
m3rcier
But they can probably tell. i mean, I know it's a little bit of what we're going to talk about next thing, but the and it's in the lower primer. If you've had healing magic used on you,
00:32:09
m3rcier
It leaves a mark on you. Like if you got your arm cut off and the priest healed you, like another priest can see that you've had your arm healed, which essentially shows that someone thought you were genuine.
00:32:21
m3rcier
Now, could you fool a priest? yeah I think absolutely yes.
00:32:27
Nick
Yeah. Yeah. it's ah it's It's interesting because it's and we get, know, I've had the same discussion a lot in like the past, like playing like Dungeons and Dragons where, you know, your magic is so real. It's so apparent.
00:32:40
Nick
How can you not believe, you know, in cleric's God when they're performing miracles in front of you? Right. And so you had the same thing here with Valkyrie's priest. They can do magic.
00:32:50
Nick
you You better believe in something.
00:32:53
Garrett
That's see, that's what I'm saying.
00:32:53
Nick
Yeah.
00:32:55
Garrett
like i I'm going to push back. I'm going to say to be a compliant ah citizen, you are willingly you. I mean, you believe in it because it's happening like this system here is real.
00:33:09
Garrett
These priests are doing real stuff and i you're either a citizen willingly giving over your soul to power the kingdom's magic. And i if you don't believe, i don't think you can fake it.
00:33:23
Garrett
I think you can get caught. I think you can caught by that other right that seeks out those who need to like do penance.
00:33:30
m3rcier
Oh, well, you you you probably do get caught and, you know, penance and all that, but I don't think it stops you from making dip the agreement to tithe to your soul, nor does it stop them from stop the old bound light from using you.
00:33:45
Garrett
Yeah. So you guys so i like you guys think that it's just a magical contract that works no matter what. I think you have to ah agree to the contract for it to work.
00:33:59
Garrett
Otherwise you get caught.
00:33:59
Nick
Oh, yeah, it's it's hard because we have the story of like they would sacrifice like an entire village for a crusade. What's like is every single person there a willing martyr or is it the priest that is pulling the souls for the sacrifice?
00:34:07
Garrett
Right.
00:34:14
Garrett
Yeah, i think i think that i think I think it was mentioned specifically when whole villages get wiped out, it's like a different system because at that point, they're just reaping souls instead of compliant citizens who are giving a part of their souls to tithe.
00:34:24
Nick
Yeah.
00:34:27
m3rcier
Yeah.
00:34:32
Nick
Yeah, no.
00:34:32
m3rcier
Yeah. And I think it is the, the pact, like you can be made to, to enter in other fantasy settings, you can be made to enter a magical pact against your will.
00:34:33
Nick
Yeah.
00:34:43
Garrett
Yeah, no, I definitely see where you're coming from. I'm just trying to make the system as rigid as possible.
00:34:45
m3rcier
And i could I completely believe the order would well they have uh they have ways to uh punish those they feel are unbelievers or those that are less faithful we'll cover that uh in the next episode but they do have ways to do that but they it's
00:34:59
Garrett
Yes.
00:35:02
Garrett
And they can also kill you. They can take away your soul on purpose.
00:35:06
m3rcier
yes so it's it's a it's a very rigid
00:35:13
m3rcier
rigid society that, I mean, if you if you buy into the faith and you're in your you do what the faith wants you to do you may have a good life or it may you may be asked
Primal Blood Society and Thunder Steps
00:35:29
m3rcier
to martyr. you know There may be some pain in it, but as long as you're doing what's asked of you, you could potentially have a good life there.
00:35:36
m3rcier
Now, ah if you think freely, probably not in my mind.
00:35:43
Garrett
right Yeah.
00:35:43
Nick
but that's That's where I get thinking too because like the order expands and like conquers like primal territory. well like the primal The primal blood are so connected already to like their goddess. like the Their whole reason they exist is because the the order is like, no, we worship the everlasting. and It's like, well, no, you guys are the ones who put our goddess like to sleep.
00:36:05
Nick
We're never going to follow your your gods. so you know That's how I'm thinking of like how do you how do you assimilate into that kind of culture?
00:36:17
Garrett
Yeah, that's a good question actually. Let's think about it. Does the average order citizen ah know about the Thorn? Do they know about Ymiris? Do they know any of that stuff?
00:36:29
Garrett
um
00:36:29
Nick
I would say no. Like you, in order the, if you keep this, yeah, if you keep this, you keep this like strict religious society, you can't like let people like, well, yeah, this is what happened.
00:36:31
m3rcier
got Not at this point. It's too old.
00:36:39
Nick
Like, No, it's like, no, like the everlasting, our, our like path of enlightenment. There are a path to being one with the Oathbound Light. And that's all you need to worry about.
00:36:52
Garrett
Yeah, because the Valkyris priests definitely know.
00:36:52
m3rcier
Yeah, and it's a very it's also very human-centric, and humans were created by the three triumphant. So to a human, those three everlasting are their gods, not Ymiris.
00:37:06
m3rcier
She's just a fairy tale to them.
00:37:08
Nick
Man, yeah.
00:37:12
Nick
Ooh, yeah, that's kind of crazy to think about.
00:37:16
Garrett
Yeah.
00:37:16
m3rcier
ah Well, you want to you want to take your favorite faction, Garrett?
00:37:20
Garrett
i Listen, I'm getting really pigeonholed into Daddy Thunder Steps here. um
00:37:26
m3rcier
Oh, we didn't say Thunder Steps.
00:37:26
Garrett
<unk>
00:37:27
m3rcier
We just said the blood.
00:37:29
Garrett
Jeez. Primal Blood.
00:37:30
Nick
We didn't hear.
00:37:31
Garrett
i will i will take I will take it. i will read it. All right. So anyways, Primal Blood, right?
00:37:35
m3rcier
it
00:37:36
Garrett
It's ah it's our system of kiths, which, listen, this word is really hard for me to say. I really want to add an L to it, either after the K or before the T. I just i just want to see so bad.
00:37:47
Garrett
Kiths. um Listen, there's no government here. all right. There's no government. It's a bunch of it's a bunch of Oricans just running around in the forest ah doing King of the Hill.
00:38:02
Garrett
I'm in charge. I'm a berserker or I'm a shaman and I harvest fruit and sculpt monsters and and hang out. ah This place is wild.
00:38:17
Garrett
um They're all sad. Constantly. And like suffering. Because they're connected to this suffering goddess of the planet. ah There's scooping flesh out of this tree.
00:38:30
Garrett
um You're raiding people. For what? I don't know. It's not like they care about wealth. ah Or weapons. Because they make their weapons also out of. Like the the the clay of the land. Right? Mixed with the blood and the tree and all that stuff.
00:38:48
Garrett
Oh my god.
00:38:49
m3rcier
It feels like it's like Sparta with grim dark magic.
00:38:54
Garrett
Yeah, but like 10 times worse.
00:38:54
Nick
Mm-hmm.
00:38:57
Garrett
um
00:38:57
m3rcier
Yeah.
00:38:58
Garrett
It's so bad. Like no one would ever want to live here. like This is just horrific. um i think it I think it was better, probably, ah when Ingor's family ruled.
00:39:13
Garrett
When the shamans were in charge. I think everything absolutely went way downhill as soon as Thunder Steps crawled out of that hole and turned the whole thing upside down.
00:39:26
m3rcier
Well, and then it's it's probably getting worse over time because when they first started, they were not corrupted by Ymiris. they Her echo wasn't as corrupted yet.
00:39:35
Garrett
Well, right, they were normal Oregon's. Yeah, it's gotten so much worse. But, like, Thunder Steps has ruined it more, right? Because he's taken them out and changed their society into more offensive uh work for what purpose we don't really know we're gonna understand we don't know uh but we do know think igor's goal is to probably fix avakra's heart and yimri's uh but thunder steps is i don't i don't think he's doing things in a constructive manner and it would not be a nice place to live uh
00:39:58
m3rcier
Chaos.
00:40:15
Garrett
nick's got some really funny uh notes here about trade diplomacy and cities still need food water and maintenance and i'm like i'm like yeah there's no cities right it's like loose loose tribal um hunter gathering things
00:40:30
m3rcier
very very large village and then a bunch of much much smaller villages
00:40:34
Nick
Right. Yeah. right yeah
00:40:35
Garrett
i don't and i don't know if they need food um maybe i get i mean yeah they're probably eating they're probably eating animals they catch uh They're just, you know, they're just working around.
00:40:44
m3rcier
yeah i mean they they eat the animals and you know that they uh they change and then we read it somewhere i think where if one of them dies in the Paxos, like the animals that eat them also underatein undergo changes from eating them.
00:40:59
Garrett
Yeah, the whole system is just absolutely bonkers.
00:41:02
Nick
It's just evolution on steroids.
00:41:04
Garrett
It's not okay. It's not okay.
00:41:05
m3rcier
Yeah, it's like Yamiris' creation magic has just been, one, corrupted, and two,
00:41:06
Garrett
And
00:41:12
Nick
Just let loose.
00:41:14
m3rcier
someone accidentally left the door to the kitchen open and stuff's going and coming at will.
00:41:19
Garrett
It's very good they're not more organized, right? And like try to do these things in a directed pattern, right? Like taking a group of animals and then moving them to different forests on the continent.
00:41:32
Garrett
Because they could cause some real havoc.
00:41:32
Nick
It's a, let's, let's make another, i want to make a second Song Ice and Fire reference in this episode.
00:41:38
Garrett
Yeah.
00:41:39
Nick
It's, they talk about the Dothraki in the and Game of Thrones in the first book about how like there, there's a bunch of them out there, but it's dangerous when there's one strong leader that gets all of them together because then you don't know what they're capable of.
00:41:44
Garrett
Yes.
00:41:54
Garrett
Yeah, it's like that guy who rebelled and led the slaves out, right? Like they were they were on track. They were doing good tell ah and until he died.
00:42:03
m3rcier
It's probably when the free cities have to pony up a lot of extra tribute to the Dothraki is when they're unified. Probably the same thing with the Primal Bud. Some of those free cities have to buy them off when they have a unified leader.
00:42:15
Nick
That's why we have New Ostarath is like so like deep into Pac- you know, you look at the map and like, why is it there? it's like It's there to keep the Primal Blood in check.
00:42:23
Garrett
new new Ostrath is Osgiliu.
00:42:26
Nick
yeah
00:42:27
m3rcier
Who thought it was a good idea of putting that city there? I mean, I know what the strategic purpose is, but like who was like, I'm going to go build a city there other than some very arrogant, well-funded order elite.
00:42:35
Garrett
Yeah. Well,
00:42:40
Garrett
It was probably, ah like, because we know the Paxos has slowly expanded, right? Because it was probably that the absolute heinousness was confined to the area around the original tree, right?
00:42:54
Garrett
And then it it is just, like we said, evolution on steroids. It is just ballooned out of control through that entire area. And so I'm sure the order puts on a lot of work.
00:43:06
Garrett
of maintaining like a tree line of to keep these monsters from moving into their territory, destroying their farmland.
00:43:08
m3rcier
I eat
00:43:16
Nick
yeah so uh on i guess one thing i wanted to ask though uh while we're talking about just like the average citizen of the primal blood like what do you what do you do if you're just kind of like a normal guy right like you're not the strongest well i don't think they all die necessarily right they eat you but then they gain my weak they they eat me and gain my weakness
00:43:27
Garrett
You die. they They eat you, Nick.
00:43:34
m3rcier
eat you.
00:43:37
m3rcier
I mean, they, yeah,
00:43:41
m3rcier
I mean, in some of the villages, you know, there's, there's going to be, cause they do need a populace. So there is breeding, there are, you know, more Oricans. Uh, but if you're in any of the ones that are the big villages and stuff like that, there, there's gotta be some type of, uh, hierarchy.
00:43:57
m3rcier
It's just, it probably changes on a weekly basis.
00:43:59
Garrett
Well, yeah, they get hierarchy. It's just a loose hierarchy. But also, it's loose in the terms of administration, but very strong in terms of who's in charge.
00:44:04
m3rcier
Yeah.
00:44:11
m3rcier
the The person with the bigger ax or the better spell is in charge.
00:44:14
Nick
Yeah.
00:44:14
Garrett
That's right. That's right.
00:44:15
Nick
Well, and remember, too, there's also there's a a Berserker and a Shaman who lead every kith. So you still have like the, um you know, you still have people who people may who may be like more wise than strong that are still seen as as leaders.
00:44:26
m3rcier
Some level of order.
00:44:31
Garrett
Yeah, but I'm saying Thunder Steps has ruined the system. Right? Like, I don't think the shamans have any authority at this point. And they're just doing what Thunder Steps does because Ingor's whole thing was trying to come back and put the shamans back on top, right?
00:44:50
Garrett
And he got his, his, ah what did I call him? Quasimodo looking butt kicked, right? Twice.
00:44:59
m3rcier
yeah but thunder's not always around like he he he roams and he roams uh as far as we're aware aimlessly which i'm sure the the crystal crystal i know but when he's not there they probably
00:45:10
Garrett
Yeah, but daddy's daddy's always coming back.
00:45:17
m3rcier
have some level of a civilization, and then when they know he's coming back, you know they're going to acquiesce to him. butchered that word. God, I butchered that word.
00:45:29
m3rcier
that's that's That's called being a Texan. I don't know.
00:45:30
Garrett
Acquiesce, is that the word?
00:45:31
m3rcier
Yes, there you go.
00:45:32
Garrett
Acquiesce.
00:45:32
m3rcier
God, I butchered it. I said it, and while i was saying it, I was like, I can't say this word right. Why why did my brain try to spit it out?
00:45:41
Garrett
Oh, yes.
00:45:42
m3rcier
But, ah yeah, but when he's not there, they're going to do what they're going to do.
00:45:42
Nick
Yeah, but I'm with Alan on this because we do, like, the whole point of the Primal Blood being like a loose collection of kits is that the kits kind of lead themselves. And like when thunder Thunder Steps comes comes home, sure, like the surrounding kits will be like, well, we're going this way because like yeah know he's rallying everybody up. But when he's not around, or if you're just like you're not in eyesight of Thunder Steps, you're just doing whatever Urtakra
00:46:12
Garrett
Yeah, i'm sure I'm sure he's got some some lieutenants, but ah phil listen, if I was in the in the primal blood, I would move my little primal butt down Kutra's Den on the very southern tip of Silesia, as far away as possible from Paxman, and live there.
00:46:13
Nick
Khoritakra are telling you to do.
00:46:33
m3rcier
I don't know. that's that's in That's in the woods, and I'm sure that that is eventually going to become just a second Paxos.
00:46:40
Nick
And I'm sure, I think, Garrett, I think you would not have many people who would follow you because they would see your cowardice.
00:46:40
Garrett
That's
00:46:48
Garrett
I didn't say I was going to lead. I said I was running there. um I'll live to the ripe age of like 18 or whatever these guys live to. and And die in the ash roots.
00:46:58
m3rcier
All right.
00:47:00
Garrett
Alright, that's the final. Listen, it sucks. What a terrible society. Alright, Conclave. Now, this is such a story. i i love that we have I love that we have these guys and then we just have a like Like they have telescopes reaching for the stars, teleportation towers, ah like lightning magic, space magic.
00:47:26
Garrett
ah the The difference here is wild.
00:47:29
Nick
It's a different world for sure.
00:47:33
Nick
Alan, do you want take Conklin?
00:47:33
m3rcier
uh yeah so uh the the conclave is man uh i think the primal and the order are probably like exact polar opposites and then the conclave while maybe it sits in the middle of those two it still goes its own direction a little bit so instead of a linear line we kind of have more of like a sphere and they
00:47:34
Garrett
Yeah, Alan, you were charging on Concliffe.
00:47:58
m3rcier
or in the middle, but it is essentially a culture dominated by learning.
The Conclave's Ambitious Society
00:48:04
m3rcier
However, that learning happens, be it through you know just normal study and or experimentation, and their experimentation doesn't really have moral boundaries, which is rather concerning for probably the average person.
00:48:20
m3rcier
But their universities, their spheres are both a learning place and a corporation. along with a governing body. Uh, and then their resource is Lee Istrom, uh, cause it's a power source and a magical source. Uh, and then their other trade good is information.
00:48:41
m3rcier
So Lee Istrom and information are where they, uh, excel at, uh, I don't think altruism is a thing here. I you have a note that says it would never be rewarded. I wholeheartedly agree.
00:48:55
m3rcier
I think they get rewarded on new discoveries, results, ah that kind of thing.
00:48:57
Garrett
Results. Results.
00:49:03
m3rcier
If you're altruistic, you're probably not going to do very well here.
00:49:09
Garrett
This is where you go if you get that Sigma grind mindset, right?
00:49:15
Nick
my god.
00:49:16
Garrett
going That's where you're That's where they're making the TikTok reels here.
00:49:19
Nick
I wake up every day at 4.30. That's the...
00:49:22
Garrett
They do. That's their whole thing.
00:49:23
m3rcier
So,
00:49:24
Nick
that's
00:49:25
Garrett
Climbing the ranks, man.
00:49:28
m3rcier
Well, in Laundrielle, I mean, she called him out for corruption, but she also had She grew up in the Order, and then she also grew up somewhat in the Paradox when it was still, ah you know, before it was destroyed.
00:49:41
m3rcier
So she was kind of used to a rigid, structured society that had morals if you only look skin deep.
00:49:51
Garrett
Yeah, she's a real buzzkill.
00:49:52
m3rcier
And then she gets to the Conclave, and she's just like... They say this doesn't kill you, but I've watched it kill 23 people. Like, hoop ho what the hell? ah Yeah, the Conclave is probably not my choice.
00:50:08
m3rcier
Definitely would rather there than the Primal. But they are, I think, a solid middle ground between the Primal and the Order, but with a little bit of flair separating them and drawing from both of the Probably, i don't want to say drawing from the good of those two factions, probably draws more from the bad of those two factions.
00:50:29
Garrett
like, listen, just have some talent and you'll be okay.
00:50:34
Nick
I know we we joked we joke about Primal Blood being Garrett's favorite, but i think we know Garrett's favorite faction.
00:50:35
m3rcier
Yeah, but... ah
00:50:41
Garrett
Listen, I'm not, I don't want to work that hard. That's way too much work. That's crazy, man.
00:50:46
m3rcier
I mean, I don't mind working hard. The part where through no fault of my own, I might be exploded or turned into something or just some other horrible fate.
00:50:54
Nick
No.
00:50:58
m3rcier
Yeah, that's not no bueno.
00:51:02
Garrett
If you can find some middle ground there and be like the teleport tower, like maintenance dude in some random city like Antos, you know, I think it wouldn't be that bad of a life.
00:51:02
m3rcier
Sorry.
00:51:15
Garrett
As long as you're not trying to get into the the order of wizards or whatever, um trying to try to make your way to that Oracle, yeah it would be fine.
00:51:24
m3rcier
Yeah, well, you won't get eaten or consumed by the primal. You won't be asked to martyr or murdered for your soul. ah But there is a chance of ice from poisoning because it's everywhere in the conclave.
00:51:36
m3rcier
It's like one of their things. So probably better than the other two, but there's still a high amount of risk.
00:51:39
Garrett
Yeah.
00:51:39
Nick
Yeah.
00:51:43
Nick
and And Garrett, to to counter your well to counter your your place in Antos, you want to be just the you know technician that pulls the dials on the teleport tower, but like you you know they're not going to tell you the risks of Liastrum.
00:51:57
Nick
You're not going to know what you're dealing with until you know your arms start falling off and you grow a second head.
00:52:02
Garrett
i think you're I think you're gonna figure it out when there's no one else there older than you.
00:52:10
Garrett
Just a cut off.
00:52:10
m3rcier
Listen, those older people, they just went back to Quinvala to do something. like They're still alive. They're just a spellbound meat sack or something.
00:52:20
m3rcier
The Bohigogen?
00:52:20
Garrett
At least I have my whole soul and i don't live in Paxos. So.
00:52:30
m3rcier
All right. ah You want to take your favorite faction, Nick?
00:52:31
Garrett
Um,
00:52:35
Nick
I think I might. Yeah. So last final faction here, Legion the Fallen.
00:52:40
Garrett
This is the juiciest.
00:52:40
Nick
ah
00:52:41
Garrett
This is the juiciest by far.
00:52:41
Nick
I, yeah, the, they the, the lore for these guys has just, I'm completely won over on Legion.
00:52:48
Garrett
It's so good.
00:52:48
Nick
So yeah. So the Legion of the Fallen is a, is a monarchy. um And it's run or overseen by the court of whispers, which is all the noble families that are just, that date back to the three original children of Tataan Ravulum.
00:53:06
Nick
And so we saw in our last episode talking about Legion, how there were three different philosophies. And so the noble families over time, like, you know, ah we're talking hundreds of years have kind of like become like, we have three different like subcultures within this hierarchy.
00:53:26
Nick
And we know that the fallen handle most of their, labor and their like military and like their dangerous and menial tasks. Um, but we still know that there is like, there's cities, like there's a lot of cities and in the Legion and there's going to be people throughout.
00:53:46
Nick
Um, you know, we don't have confirmation like on the demographics or the numbers, but you can assume that like Melios is a, is a thrive or don't know about thriving, but a,
00:53:59
Nick
functioning, you know, country.
Legion's Structure and Undead Labor Force
00:54:03
Garrett
Yeah, like we said, they got to get new corpses, right? like These corpses aren't making themselves, so...
00:54:09
Nick
Right. And the magic, you know, like somebody has to raise the corpse, give them orders and stuff like that. Like, ah you know, it's interesting to think like if you're running a construction site and you had the necromancers come out and raise you, you know, two dozen bodies, you know, just big hulking laborers. And then like,
00:54:29
Nick
what happens to if something happens to you and the project never gets finished, like what do the fallen do? You know, do they just keep working until they fall apart or do they just like hang out?
00:54:39
Nick
They stand around just like, nobody's here to give us orders because the one living person, one living person died of a heart attack.
00:54:43
m3rcier
Yeah, and
00:54:47
m3rcier
well, they have to have a continuous flow of living beings that have just died to be converted into the fallen because the way the the soul breath the or the the magic that is what the Legion uses, it's very hard to resurrect someone that's been dead for a long time.
00:55:07
m3rcier
And in order to use the magic, it has to they have to draw the soul breath from the surrounding environment. And it we'll talk about this in episode 10. It decays over time. So there have to be fresh living people. So they I would guess if it's not fifty fifty it's sixty forty or 70-30. There's a large contingent of living people there.
00:55:28
Nick
Definitely. Right.
00:55:29
m3rcier
And they're all... I mean, I guess an analogy to our our world would be low middle class, middle class, upper middle class, and high class.
00:55:39
m3rcier
There really isn't a lower class or a poverty within the Legion because that's what the undead do for you. They get to live Kush lives because they, for lack of a better term, they have a an entire indentured cast that does whatever they want for them when they want.
00:55:59
Nick
Yeah, it's a really interesting, ah like, it's, it solves like the, the puzzle of up like doing any kind of like world building or, or civilization building and look at history.
00:56:10
Nick
It's always about food, right? So how do you sustain a large kingdom? It's yeah how much, how do you produce that much food? how do you transport that much food? Well, when you have like tireless undead providing the food, what can you do with that?
00:56:25
Nick
Now that you don't have to like produce the tens of thousands of farmers that are out there working all that land. What do you do with the people?
00:56:34
m3rcier
They don't have to eat. And also you're able to, knowledge is retained because if the person, if there's only one person with that knowledge and they die, you cut their head off, you put them in the library, you make arrangements with them, they share the knowledge or you can torture it out of them. But either way, that knowledge isn't lost unless they die outside of where the magic can bring them back.
00:56:59
Nick
Yeah.
00:56:59
Garrett
I don't know if you got torture about him It seems like ah the system's been running here for like a millennia. So I think and once you die, i think you're well aware of whether you're going to Necropolis to be a worker and soldier, or if you get to go be in the the head museum in Epitaph.
00:57:06
m3rcier
Yeah.
00:57:19
Garrett
And I don't think they have to cut your head off.
00:57:19
m3rcier
Hey, you have to...
00:57:20
Garrett
you can I think you can walk around still. What a weird system. But...
00:57:25
m3rcier
Well, no, in the in the epitaph, they said it was your head. You ain't walking around in the epitaph.
00:57:28
Garrett
Only heads? I don't remember saying it's only heads.
00:57:30
m3rcier
ah
00:57:31
Nick
It, it, I don't know if it explicitly said it's always only heads, but it did, it does say that you only need a head and yeah.
00:57:31
Garrett
I could be wrong. I could be wrong. But...
00:57:39
Garrett
For logistics, I could see why.
00:57:39
m3rcier
Yeah.
00:57:41
Garrett
you're Like, storing all these bodies would be a lot.
00:57:42
Nick
Oh yeah. They take a head takes up like a 10th of them.
00:57:43
m3rcier
Listen, it's just, they're just USB drives.
00:57:46
Nick
Exactly. Yeah.
00:57:46
Garrett
Basically.
00:57:47
Nick
Yeah. I always, so I picture when I read this to bring up Dungeons and Dragons again, ah you know, communing with dead or um speak with dead is like, it pulls like the memories like almost like a computer, like a database, right? It pulls the memories without the emotion and personality of the corpse.
00:58:05
Nick
Now we do know from like Morita's backstory that um when she's speaking with Akrifista, like they're apparently like, you know, she's able to get angry. She gets upset when she, when she mentions Vordendal. So we know that Epitaph is a little different than that. Like it's not just pulling databanks.
00:58:21
Nick
And because we have like the soul whisperers, like we know that there's some kind of communion between the dead and the necromancers that has to,
00:58:24
Garrett
um are
00:58:30
Nick
they have to make some deal or that they kind of pull it. So I don't know how, you know, complicated it is in Epitaph to get that information back.
00:58:35
Garrett
Well, they did say, ah so the soul breath system, the sooner you get necromanced, or whatever the word is, the sooner you get revitalized, the better off you are, right?
00:58:46
m3rcier
the better.
00:58:51
Garrett
um So it's it's like a timing thing. The faster, the better. The fresher you are, you know you'll stay more fresh. And then I think you have probably more of yourself left, right?
00:59:04
Garrett
But the longer you're dead before somebody gets to you, you know, the more like zombie like you probably are.
00:59:11
Nick
Yeah. So do you think that means that in epitaph, all these heads and bodies are like that you, you know, you show up to epitaph with a head, you drop it off at the front git front desk and they bring it back.
00:59:23
Nick
Do you think they immediately raise it back into its state so that it can commune and then they just put it away in a drawer somewhere? So you're a head sitting in a drawer waiting for somebody to open it up and say, Hey, I have a question for you.
00:59:35
Nick
And you go like, what?
00:59:36
Garrett
yeah Oh yeah, it's gotta be like a library, right?
00:59:38
Nick
Right. Yeah.
00:59:39
m3rcier
I think it's a bunch of heads like in Game of throne Thrones, you know how they have the the faces.
00:59:40
Garrett
Like...
00:59:45
Garrett
Yeah.
00:59:46
m3rcier
the I think it's something like that.
00:59:47
Nick
It's
00:59:47
m3rcier
I just think it's walls of heads.
00:59:50
Nick
our third Game of Thrones references episode.
00:59:52
Garrett
Oh man. Hey, we had a Lord of the Rings, right? ah Two Lord of the Rings. um
00:59:56
Nick
Yep.
00:59:58
Garrett
Oh man.
00:59:58
m3rcier
I mean, Lord of the Rings isn't nearly as dark as a bunch of heads on the wall.
00:59:59
Garrett
That's true.
01:00:02
m3rcier
So I don't i can't i can't i can't think of a reference for Lord of the Rings for heads on the wall.
01:00:03
Nick
It's true. It is a little harder to pull.
01:00:04
Garrett
That's true. i i What I'm really thinking about is Futurama and the heads in the glass.
01:00:11
Nick
but
01:00:13
m3rcier
The head the jar.
01:00:14
Garrett
nix Nixon and them.
01:00:14
m3rcier
Oh, I got one. Have you seen, oh this is going to be a spoiler because it's newer, but the new Fallout, the Fallout series, ah they they don't have a head in jar, but they have a head in a a cage that ah basically they're farming her personality out of that head to put into other people.
01:00:33
Garrett
Yeah, yeah.
01:00:33
m3rcier
I'm not going to deeper than that because it's a newer show and I don't want to spoil it for anybody, but it's a good show.
01:00:34
Nick
Ooh.
01:00:38
m3rcier
Watch it if you have access to it.
01:00:40
Garrett
Yeah. No, that's funny. um Yeah, okay, okay, okay. So we got Epitaph, we got the Tecropolis, which we talked about, i mean, just last episode, especially if you're listening to The Row. It's where all the all the soldiers and troopers are kept. But, like, as as a normal person,
01:00:58
Garrett
i i guess it would be okay.
01:01:00
Nick
what What are you doing?
01:01:01
m3rcier
You probably have a pretty good life here.
01:01:01
Garrett
I mean, you're still... i mean you're still uh you still gotta live i don't like you still have to produce skills i guess um i don't like i don't know how far the undead uh labor force goes like right can they be blacksmith maybe i don't know probably yeah
01:01:14
Nick
i
01:01:22
m3rcier
They're not artisans.
01:01:22
Nick
Yeah, I picture them as like unskilled labor, right? Like you can, you know, you can maybe have, you could probably make a fallen that can make nails, but it's never going to create like a wrought iron fence, right?
01:01:38
m3rcier
Yeah.
01:01:38
Garrett
Right.
01:01:38
Nick
You know, so like I think of it like it's very ive this I think a lot about the Renaissance, that era of you have a lot of skilled craftsmen, a lot of artisanal trades coming up because you don't need to work the land so people can work on skills and more refined things.
01:01:39
Garrett
Yeah.
01:01:42
Garrett
That's going to be my headcanon.
01:01:47
Garrett
Yes.
01:01:58
Nick
So you have architects and people who lead the fallen to build things. But then you have the masons who come out and do like the fine details and like the you know They're not the ones moving the stones. They're the ones that are chiseling the columns. right
01:02:12
m3rcier
I think you're going have a lot more people in the arts, in the sciences, in the like engineering, ah because those are probably take the living mind to do those types of things, not the undead bind.
01:02:29
Nick
I'm calling it now.
01:02:29
Garrett
Well, oh, sorry, I was gonna say, i they have an amazing university though at the Epitaph.
01:02:30
Nick
Oh, yeah. Go ahead, Garrett.
01:02:35
Garrett
So,
01:02:35
Nick
Yeah. I'm gonna say I'm calling it now. I think your industrial revolution starts in the Legion.
01:02:42
Garrett
yeah, yeah, because they have the most knowledge passed down.
01:02:43
Nick
like Because
01:02:46
Nick
although it's counterintuitive because we know the industrial revolution was led by a small, like a low population.
01:02:52
Garrett
Yeah.
01:02:53
Nick
So the fact that they have the expendable labor means they don't have the need for innovation. Ah, you know.
01:02:59
Garrett
yeah the slave problem is a problem it holds back societies uh now now okay so we have the normal part of legion but then uh across the river can't even read that says ravelings tears re ravelums must be ravelums right
Life in the Umberlands and Personal Preferences
01:03:17
Garrett
zoom in enhance ravelums tears We have the Umberlands, which is not a place you want to live.
01:03:17
Nick
Yeah, rival arms-tangers, yeah.
01:03:24
Garrett
it is so It is just a huge plane of souls going around trying to talk to you and like torment you. And Countess lives out there and she's crazy.
01:03:36
m3rcier
It looks like it's marshland, which is not like the forest or the plains of the southern part of that region.
01:03:38
Garrett
Yeah.
01:03:44
Garrett
So like, I wouldn't, I wouldn't want to be there, but like everywhere else in Legion is like, it's, you and also you would just be used to it. Like you're born surrounded by living skeletons and it wouldn't be unnerving to you. It would just be like another day at the job, right? Another day in the office.
01:04:01
m3rcier
Well, I see, I compare the Umberlands, or at least this is my headcanon for the Umberlands. If you want to go somewhere we're in the real world, there's the Umberlands, take a trip to Southern Louisiana.
01:04:12
Garrett
yeah
01:04:12
Nick
no
01:04:14
m3rcier
So it I have family from there, you know, that's, that's where my family came from decades ago.
01:04:20
Nick
Yep.
01:04:20
m3rcier
So not Nothing negative, but it's Marsh, ah and that's where I would say that's the closest analog we have. At least in the States, there's probably other places in the world that have a pretty good analog to the Upperlands, too.
01:04:29
Nick
Yep.
01:04:36
Garrett
yeah legion anything else we could talk about i don't yeah i mean i just think it's really cool um that yeah we have a this and their population just has to keep exponentially growing too as well um but i guess they probably drop a lot of bodies into the malediction um because they're probably just funneling you know ah it probably it's probably like i don't know like
01:04:37
Nick
Yeah, I take it.
01:04:48
Nick
Yeah.
01:05:01
Garrett
it takes 10 skeletons to equal one knight from the order probably. Maybe even 20 to one. I don't know. I don't know what the stats are.
01:05:08
m3rcier
I don't know. You've played this game too. you know Two or three stitch corpses can demolish a knight.
01:05:11
Garrett
Yes, that's true. It depends. It all it all depends on the D20.
01:05:14
Nick
i was I was like, I mean, if we we do game mechanics, it's not that big of of a stretch, but we could say lore is maybe a little.
01:05:20
Garrett
Yeah, but in worlds.
01:05:22
Nick
yeah ah we You know, I think too, like because you have this kind of revolving door of death, do you really have like high value on life, right? If you know you send people in to die, knowing that like you're not truly losing anything of value because you're just going to bring them back.
01:05:42
m3rcier
I think so, because for the most part, if you die, you're losing yourself. When you get resurrected as dead-at-arms, stitched corpse or whatever, probably not you're probably not all there any anymore.
01:05:56
m3rcier
ah
01:05:57
Nick
Oh, for sure, yeah.
01:05:57
m3rcier
there's There's probably still some value. like As an individual, you probably value your life. As far as the leader's value in your life, eh, I don't really care if you're alive or dead.
01:06:03
Nick
Yeah.
01:06:09
m3rcier
Either way, you're going to serve us and be useful in some manner.
01:06:13
Nick
Especially Vorndahl.
01:06:15
m3rcier
Yeah, I would definitely not.
01:06:16
Garrett
Oh, yeah.
01:06:17
m3rcier
If I had to live in the Legion, I would not want to be a soldier in his army.
01:06:22
Garrett
Yeah, Vorondhal is...
01:06:22
m3rcier
there's actually there's There's actually a flavor text. Let me pull it up while y'all chat.
01:06:27
Garrett
i was to say, Vorondhal a huge problem, right?
01:06:27
Nick
Yeah.
01:06:29
Garrett
Because once they told him he wasn't going to be in charge of the Legion, his whole his whole goal now is to like overthrow the ruling monarch.
01:06:34
m3rcier
yeah yeah He got mad.
01:06:41
Garrett
So he could destroy this entire system himself.
01:06:42
Nick
Yeah.
01:06:45
Nick
I think it's really, yeah i go ahead.
01:06:45
m3rcier
All right. i Go ahead. I was going to say I the flavor text. It's on the spell card. Forced March. Amidst Lord Vorindal's army, there is no command more dreaded than forward now.
01:07:04
Nick
Nice. Yeah. I, it's, I find it really interesting how we have collectively kind of all come to the same conclusion that like, we don't like the order shattered throne, their approach to things, but we all agree that like Sigrith is a, like, you know, Sigrith would be somebody that we, we see as maybe a good person, right? She believes what she believes, but she is very like ju judicious with her actions and her decisions.
01:07:32
Nick
And then you have the Legion that we say is like it's a pretty chill place to live. But then you have like Vorondahl, who's this despicable person that you don't even want to be like, you don't even want to be like in the same like five mile radius of him.
01:07:44
Garrett
Yeah, you've got to hope that your ruling council, that the ruling monarch who's ever in charge right now, because don't know, can like defeat him.
01:07:44
m3rcier
yeah be
01:07:52
m3rcier
Keep him in check.
01:07:55
Garrett
But he's getting more and more powerful each time he goes into the malediction.
01:07:59
m3rcier
ye and I don't know if they would want to get rid of him because of all he's done for them. They just need to, they probably try do as best as they can to keep a leash on him, to keep him focused where they need him.
01:08:11
m3rcier
Because if they don't keep him focused and he gets to do what he wants, probably not good for other people.
01:08:18
Garrett
Yes. Okay. Okay. Listen, we got it.
01:08:19
m3rcier
it'll be It'll be interesting to see what Sigrid does if she ever finds out like how bad the order actually is, or does she already know?
01:08:19
Garrett
we got
01:08:28
Garrett
I think she's bought into the system, but now we can talk about that later. was We got to wrap this one up. We got to wrap this one up. All right. Last question. Last question. Where would you call home?
01:08:40
Garrett
ah Alan, where are you living? Final answer.
01:08:46
m3rcier
the free cities, Veloma or Breithold?
01:08:49
Garrett
Okay, all right, Nick, what do you got?
01:08:51
Nick
ah I honestly i think I'd live an epitaph I think I would love to work as an archivist yeah
01:08:58
Garrett
i That's exactly where I want to go, because imagine the things you can ask all day long, right? All the way back to the Everlasting Ward. All right, ah so that's going to be it for the lore part of this.
01:09:08
m3rcier
Oh, well, yeah, but...
01:09:09
Garrett
Next, next, Alan's going to talk about...
01:09:09
Nick
you want to
01:09:10
m3rcier
ah that that it That is a, well, that question is also for the viewers.
01:09:12
Garrett
Okay,
01:09:15
m3rcier
Leave a comment. Where would you like to live?
01:09:16
Garrett
okay. Yes. Great idea. Yes. Where would you like to live? Would you like to be insane and live in a Vocker's desk? Yeah.
01:09:24
Nick
I was like, do we all agree that we don't want to live in Paxos?
01:09:27
m3rcier
ah I would like to live in in no no primal village city anywhere near the Paxos.
01:09:35
Garrett
Absolutely not.
01:09:36
Nick
I would also say i would i would hate to live in Quinvalu. I would not like to be part of the Conclave just because I know that I would be taken advantage of. I'm
01:09:47
Garrett
ah would be Yeah, I can handle that task.
01:09:49
Nick
going to end up waving over my head because i was just I'm just too nice
01:09:54
Nick
yes
01:09:57
m3rcier
Perfect.
01:09:58
Garrett
Okay. Okay. All right. All right. Alan, tell us about our events.
01:10:02
m3rcier
All right. Yeah, we have the, again, the June trials of the everlasting. It's a 2v2. It's ongoing right now. ah My friend here, Nick, will be at Chaotic Good in Lexington, Kentucky on June 27th doing it a demo day.
01:10:17
m3rcier
Lone Star Open.
01:10:17
Nick
This Saturday.
01:10:19
m3rcier
Oh, yeah. It will be this Saturday from ah when this airs. So go see him. ah I don't think, Garrett, you're not goingnna be there, right?
01:10:29
Garrett
Now I will be out of town at a different convention.
01:10:32
m3rcier
All right. And then August 1st, Lone Star Open. Come see me. I'll be the TO. o You will not walk away empty-handed. Gen Con, July 31st, August 2nd, and August 3rd.
01:10:45
m3rcier
The 31st is the 2v2. The second is the one v one And then the third is Learn to Play, which Nick will be doing Learn to Plays on the entire weekend.
01:10:56
Nick
ah Just on Saturday.
01:10:58
m3rcier
On Saturday, Garrett will be playing.
01:10:59
Nick
But I'll be...
01:11:01
m3rcier
ahead.
01:11:01
Nick
i was just saying, I'll be around an out audition crew, I think, on Friday, too.
01:11:05
m3rcier
Okay. And then Garrett, you're playing in the 2v2 and in the one v one
01:11:09
Garrett
Indeed.
01:11:10
m3rcier
Do you have a partner for your 2v2 or could a potential?
01:11:11
Garrett
Indeed. I do. I do. Unless something catastrophic happens to him between now and then.
01:11:14
m3rcier
Okay. You had somebody.
01:11:18
m3rcier
All right. ah You want to share who it is?
01:11:21
Garrett
Oh, I mean, he's just, he's just, uh, my friend Bronson, uh, he's just, he's just coming along.
01:11:25
m3rcier
You're
01:11:26
Garrett
You guys, you guys don't know him. He's not listening.
01:11:28
m3rcier
dragging them along to play with you. All right.
01:11:30
Garrett
Yeah. He's excited to come. He's like, yeah, I'll play it.
01:11:32
m3rcier
And then,
01:11:33
Garrett
Like, yeah, yeah, you will.
01:11:36
m3rcier
And then Tacticon in Denver, Colorado on August 29th and 30th. And then this should this episode will air on the 23rd. So two days after this episode airs, go see
01:11:52
m3rcier
Toke Tomas. He's ah another Herald. He is going to be the TO for a friendly three-round tournament in Nova Scotia, Canada at XOR Games from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
01:12:05
m3rcier
Go see him, get some games in, and have some fun. And that is it.
01:12:11
Garrett
Amazing. Well, thank you everybody for listening to another episode into the malediction. have been one of your hosts, Garrett.
01:12:20
m3rcier
ah have been one of your other hosts, Alan.
01:12:23
Nick
And I'm here too.
01:12:25
Garrett
Thank you, Nick. Goodbye.
01:12:26
Nick
y'all. see'll
01:12:28
m3rcier
night.