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PostSubject: Lore & Informations   Lore & Informations Empty29/1/2017, 02:44




Welcome to Oakenshore!

A thriving coastal town, where the humanist movement just started spreading, encouraging the use of sciences and bettering the people of the town's lives!
While magic runs strong here, it's not the only such strong feeling; an adventurous mood took over the town centuries ago during the fundation of Oakenshore's Academy for Adventurers and Wizards, a school famous through the land for its excellent education, providing the neighbouring kingdoms and the city-state itself with large amount of heroes willing to go on any quests.
With the new discoveries within reach now thanks to the advancement of sciences, what great adventure awaits our newest recruits?
Will these new changes, will the humans further their domination over the other species and finally establish themselves as uncontested superior beings, or will the various centaurs, merfolks, faes and elves take this as an opportunity to raise and defy the current order?
What of these new hybrids, half human, half animals, abominations created by a twisted use of Alchemy?

Welcome to Oakenshore, a town thriving with endless opportunities for good or bad.



Lore Summary




Playable races





Political System





Chronology





Town description





Mythology






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PostSubject: Playable races   Lore & Informations Empty29/1/2017, 19:12

Humans







Humans are the most common and numerous people around the town. They often tend to be in the ruling class position and seem to assume they get the say in everything. While they are at peace with the other species around the town, they still often are not the most trusted by said other species.
While they do not have the same inherent talent at magical things other creatures have, they make up for it with a creative and innovative use of sciences to help them control it better ; they often need a staff or a wand to really level with other creatures.
They're fairly sturdy and generally are friendly and willing to meet new creatures, though there have been cases of them treating said creatures wrongly.


Elves/Faes







Often smaller and more nimble than humans, these creatures are direct creation from the Witch and dwelled in the woods around town long before it was created. They are on peaceful terms with humans but many play tricks on them still, going against their peace treaty. They are inherently good at magic and tend to disregard technologies. Some of them have wings while some other are earth bound. They are more fragile than humans and may become sick easier. They have a long oral tradition, but rarely share it with people of other species, making them hard to understand as most do not read or write. They live longer than humans on average, easily reaching two to three time the average lifetime of humans.
Their customs make them often look cruel or barbaric even, though it is merely cultural difference. They think themselves superior to any other creatures.


Merfolks







These creature, often having a human-like shape but very visible fish characteristics, live deep down in the sea. While they trade with the town and have canals all over it and all the way to the academy to facilitate exchanges, they still mostly keep to their own small community. They used to be feuding with humans for drowning them and eating them in the first days of the town, but those days are long since gone and they now get along. The large ships that recently were built in the harbor has raised some tensions, making them mostly feel suspicious of humans, though they are fast to warm up and eager to learn.
They have the ability to breath both under and over water, their torso often being very similar to humans apart from a few scales, though their arms have fins and palmed hands and their lower half often looks entirely like the one of a marine creature.
They also often live a little longer than humans, though their lifespan seems similar ; magic wise, they naturally are able to control water fairly easily, though they often limit their studies to the water elemental field, and rarely ever try anything out of it.


Centaurs







A proud type of hybrid creatures, they often shy away from different species and hide in the countryside. A lot of different type of centaurs exist ; the majority of them look horselike, but deer, reindeer, or even goatlike one also are a thing. These creatures often live simple lives ; as strict vegetarians, they often either work in the woods or the fields, using their greater strength to carry heavy load and produce a lot of farm goods. Created by the Forester, they have a strong affinity for the forest and nature in general. Though they could use magic if needed, they are generally uninterested. These creatures admire strength and speed and can often be found organising races or brawls.
When first discovered by the humans, they were enslaved and used as workbeasts ; however around a hundred years ago they were recognized as intelligent creatures despite their simple ways of life and officially freed. Owning a centaur is now illegal, but that doesn't stop them from being mostly wary of their past tormentors.


Hybrids







A very recent type of creature, born in a mad alchemist's mind, and the reason why the science is currently under incredibly tight supervision and seen as slightly evil.
These creatures were carefully groomed and created through various transmutations, mixing kidnapped human children with other animal creatures. So far dogs, cats, foxes, rats and owls were found to have been used in these process, but it is still unsure how many actually were created and let out.
It is still debated whether these hybrid should be granted free will and rights similar to those of humans, as they were artificially made, but the law grants them freedom for now, even if they are often disliked or disregarded as unnatural abominations.



Ghosts







An odd type of creature, as it is not a specific new creature as much as the remnant of a dead one, left behind or unable to find their way toward the underworld. These creatures often cause chaos, either from repeating patterns from their old lives as they didn't realise they had died, or simply because they must roam the world to be forgiven for some sins, which they often find hard to accept and instead carry on their evil actions.
In very few instances, good soul decide to stay behind to help other creatures by guiding them or protecting them, though these type of ghosts are fairly rare.


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PostSubject: Political system   Lore & Informations Empty29/1/2017, 19:18

On Nobility and Royalty :







Oakenshore is a small independent town-state that used to have a royalty system. However, after famine and peasant uprisings, the King was demoted in a fairly bloody fashion and his bloodline sadly didn't survive.

The Nobility, while it was in disarray and ready to exile itself to survive the bloodsheds, was spared and slowly came back to town ; their title was restored as their ties to various royal families and other powerful houses around the world gives them a lot of sway and it would be suicide for the town to harm them ; they would not have the defense system to fight off a bigger nation and the nobles are, as such, the most pampered hostages around.



On leadership of the town :







In an effort to appease the population, the town and surrounding land belonging to it now is ruled by a mayor elected by the citizens. Obviously, by citizens one means nobles and very rich merchants, as it is a bought title.

While titles of nobility cannot be gained other than by marrying in the family, showing enough wealth to contribute to the town's development and buying a right to vote is something commonly done. Which means a certain elite mostly made of merchant and old noble families gets to decide on who rules, and it often ends up being someone from their circle.

However a title may be obtained through great fits such as a discovery, slaying a powerful enemy of the town, or anything that greatly benefit the town itself, which leads a lot of poor people to leave their children in the Academy in the hope they will bring them honor and a better way of life.



The Academy :







The Academy itself started as a religious retreat kind of place, where children went to enter the orders. However, the education aspect of the thing outgrew the bonds of plain religion and it now serves as a famous place to study the arts of adventuring and wizardry. Often considered an oddity due to its independance from the town and setting its own rules to protect anyone who studies there, they still have a say in all things political as it is a big part of why the town is flourishing nowadays.

The headmaster often has a spot in the town council and has a right of veto if they feel the school is threatened.
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PostSubject: Chronology   Lore & Informations Empty29/1/2017, 21:20

From year -300 to ~ 0 : Only the fairfolk and merfolk living there ignoring one another.

Year 0 (dated back 652 years ago, though that was set later on): Humans start settling in the cliffs near the sea; they start small farms on the plains.

Year 43-75: The humans, after invading the forest to build their settlement, start a war with the fair folk living there. It ends in a draw and a peace treaty.

Year 84: Merfolk-Human war, after the humans took boats to the sea to fish. The merfolk quickly surrender.

Year 162: The settlement is taken over by King Leonard the First. The small principalty is then established in his name.

Year 225: Discovery of centaurs. They are kept by the humans as work animals, despite their higher intelligence.

Year 247: Taint. The taint was brought to town by a traveller; as it started to take over, a representative of the church set it all on fire. Lots of casualty but no traces of the taint remained.

Year 248: Beginning of the creation of the Academy, which was then a simple retreat for religious servants who needed peace and quiet to study mythological facts.

Year 362:
Centaur uprising. After a very well written plead by the Centaur Hero Mildred, it was accepted the Centaurs were now recognized as being capable of thoughts and thus freed.

Year 363: without the help of centaurs, the farmlands couldn't keep up and a great famine striked the small kingdom.

Year 437: New great famine, this one caused by the lavish lifestyle of the nobles who ended up inflating prices of basic foods.
The big peasant uprising happened that year.

Year 439:
The peasants won their uprising by hanging the King, proclaiming a new kind of leadership by electing their mayor.

Year 451: The leadership changes, one now needs a citizenship to be able to vote. Citizenships can only be bought.

Year 523: Science is now not considered a bad thing anymore; alchemy, astronomy and biology are all now allowed and no longer risk a jail or death sentence.

Year 597: Hybrids are created. Remembering the Centaur exception, the law permits them to go free.

Year 631: Second coming of the taint; however a group of wizards keep it at bay and manage to cleanse the taint off the town with very little casualties.

Year 652: Current year. A new mayor was just elected and allowed the creation of the biggest boat the town has ever had so far.
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PostSubject: Oakenshore town description   Lore & Informations Empty30/1/2017, 00:06

Oakenshore is a small town built in a fairly typical middle age like fashion. Built on a hill, it's composed of a few different levels, the higher ones being the richer ones, as it descends down to the poorer areas of town.



Its main place is at the center of the town, surrounded by a nice stone bricks castle that used to belong to a king and a few other imposing buildings. It's nicely paved, a few streets going in circle around said main place; said streets have many big houses and mansions; most of these are old and in a nice romanesque architectural style, usually not having more than two floors. The thick walls often have small windows, though a lot of arcades and openings of similar shapes tend to bring in light anyway. In addition, it is fairly common to see a lot of nice columns to hold everything up. The inside of the houses often have vaulted ceilings; it is considered to be a nice sign of riches  and quite elegant to own a house with a dome. Of course only the richest and most extravagant of nobles also add a tower to their houses, often signalling this way to everyone around they were the true elite.

Colors wise, this part of town seems to feature mostly light grey stones, darker somewhat brown stones often used to strengthen the walls and as decoration, and nice blue tiles on the roofs. The cobblestone used to pave the streets tend to be a lighter color, as the place is fairly clean.
Additionally, there is a tradition to paint the doors and shutters in a nice royal blue hue.
All this is surrounded by a first wall on top of a first layer of cliffs.
When it come to decorations, the walls often are carved in nice patterns; there also are quite a lot of fountains around the main place and smaller places around it, and a bit of vegetation since it brings controlled, quaint countryside for the leisure of the people living here.



The second level, which is lower and wraps around the first, is a peculiar mix of styles; it is fairly obvious this is where the town really started and started to grow as the elite monopolised the top of the hill.
The small cliff the first level lays on is carved all around, unveiling strengthened archways going a few meters deep inside the rocks at most, often open on the main street; often used as shops and restaurants, these small areas make for perfect stalls.

Around the main street, going circular around the cliff, are a lot of small houses made out of strong timber frames strengthening thinner brick walls, often covered in a white or cream colored plaster or cob. These houses tend to clutter around small squares which often feature a small communal garden and a well for the neighbours; it's a tradition in Oakenshore to plant flowers at the windows,  a silent and friendly competition of sort between houses as to who has the nicest, most colorful flowers.

The marketplace is a mess of wooden stalls stacked around the main street, culminating in a huge mess right in front of the town's church. On the cobblestone paved, huge church square, it is often almost impossible to walk from the main street to the church down the middle as it's bustling with life, people selling their wares and others trying to buy them.

On both sides of the church place are low and long buildings, separated in many smaller spaces where one can find more permanent shops and workshops, making the church area a loud, somewhat smelly one people love to go to.

The church itself is a tall, imposing building in a more gothic style, full of gorgeous stained-glass windows depicting the gods and light. Carvings and paintings are still present all over, gorgeous frescoes showing the mythology and tales of the gods.

The colors most often seen around this part of town are a mix of dark brown woods and white or cream walls, as well as generally grey bricks for various building; the roofs tend to be darker reds; the colors come mostly from flowers and come in all hues, but most houses aren't otherwise really decorated.

These two parts of town are peculiar in their architecture because of the presence of canals and bridges along all the main roads; these secondary roads were created for the merfolks of the town.



Finally the third part of town, separated from the other two by yet another outer wall of sort, forms half a circle around the back of the town/
This part of town is made of all sort of sheds and quickly build, flimsy houses in clutter; there is one big road crossing it but otherwise the streets aren't really well defined and it seems to be alive in the way new houses appear while older one disappear daily, constantly evolving. The main materials used there tend to be plain bricks and wood, the architectural style going from very simple huts to more advanced halls.
The only few buildings that never change there are made of thick strong walls and are situated along the wall and lonely road there.
The streets are often dirty and made out of simple dirt at best.
The colors here are generally darker more muted tones, though wild vegetation grows here and there, adding touches of green.
The Prison and hospital are tall, twin buildings made in a similar simple style; thick stone walls and many small windows, surrounded by a smaller wall to give a courtyard of sort.



Finally on the other side of town the outer wall opens on a large cobblestone road that facilitates travel; it soon forks in different direction, the main road continuing toward the closest neighbouring city-state while a slightly smaller one turns toward the harbour, and finally another branches out toward the forest and more mountainous area where the Academy stands. Around these roads are huge fields and small farms scattered around; not too far out of the plain the forest line can be seen.



The harbours have a small amount of houses around it, though the most notable buildings are big warehouses made out of bricks and black roofs, where a lot of goods from all around the known world are stocked and exchanged daily.



The Academy is surrounded by a part of the forest and is right where the mountain start, a good hour walk from the town by foot.

The oldest building is the teacher's faculty; the old monk's retreat, made in a simple romanesque fashion, has thick cream colored brick walls and very little in terms of windows or accommodation; thankfully a few spells bring illusions of huge windows, making for an interesting and light inside area. A main room is shared by the teachers who may cook for themselves there; the building also has some thermal like baths in its back, where the teacher can go and wash themselves following schedules so the males and females do not risk meeting in there. Finally the room are low vaulted rooms with deep comfortable beds and a small desk, as well as a nice looking chest for them to store their belongings in.

The school in itself is made mostly of sturdy grey bricks and has roofs that shine in the light and seem to change colors as the sun and moon follow their course in the sky; the walls are simple yet elegantly decorated with the various engraved columns used as support, and the building itself is fairly tall yet features no staircases, instead showcasing a resolutely modern magic activated elevator; the sysyem is complicated but a wooden platform surrounded by a small fence transports people in bulk from one floor to the other.
On one side of the building you can see a very obvious latter addition, made of similar materials but in a lower, longer shape; the library is hosted there, filled with books from the floor to the high ceilings all along the walls. A real labyrinth for newcomers.

The dorms finally are two very cosy looking little houses built in the back in the middle of the botanical garden, made of a nice white wood with large timber frames holding it up; the roof is of a similar material to the school. While they look small, the inside of said houses is remarkably big and comfortable; each student gets to share a dorm with three other people and share a small kitchen area as well as a bathing area, which is a very luxurious commodity to have.

Finally further back is a tall tower that looks abandoned and overrun by vegetation; said vegetation is likely to come to life and keep you from entering as the tower itself contains many dangerous items and creatures for classes.
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PostSubject: Re: Lore & Informations   Lore & Informations Empty30/1/2017, 00:17

 Gods






Mother god, takes the shape of an owl. She created the world as well as the other gods, and is in control of it all. She is all powerful but mostly takes care of coordinating the acts of the other gods. She represents fertility and life.

Forsaken god, rarely takes a defined shape, usually seen as a sort of swarm ; He used to be in charge of the weather with his twin brother, but grew jealous of the other gods who could control something all alone. In an attempt to prove himself, he tried to leave the pantheon and create something new to control, though it didn't work and he instead made the taint. The Mother gave him what he wanted by banishing him from the pantheon, telling him he wouldn't come back until the taint was entirely gone from the world. He now is the god of the taint and redemption as he tries to win his place back amongst his peers.

Queen of the night, a raven shaped goddess controlling the night and its creatures. Considered evil by humans due to the creatures she created, though she also represents calmness and quiet. She is invoked when people need some peace or time alone. When she's not on earth, she lives in another plane considered to be the underworld. She is also considered the goddess of knowledge.

The Great Witch, goddess of magic. She is in charge of both good and bad magic, as magic is but the mean to a goal. She is often invoked when people need help getting rid of a curse, or to curse someone else. She represents duality because of her changing nature, and is one of the most flimsy gods in the pantheon. She is represented by a fox and is often also considered to be the goddess representative of magical creatures.

The Scythe wielder is the god of disease and death. He's considered inherently evil by humans, though he's merely the one to take the souls of those who's time is over. He's a compassionate god who accompanies people in the afterlife and ensure their souls doesn't get lost. He's often seen as a pale ghost or as a bigger representation of Death itself. He's the one people call when mourning, and the one people pray to when they want to avoid diseases.


The Forester is the God of nature ; he takes the shape of a deer. He's the twin brother of the god of taint. His job is to make sure the seasons roll by peacefully, ensuring the forests grow and generally have the nature go well. He's the one people invoke when they want their crops to grow well. He tends to reside in the deepest forests with the Great Witch.

The Mecanic is the god of humanity and technology. He's the youngest of the gods, born when humans started to grow and add technology. He's usually represented as a wise old man. He's invoked when people do science mostly and is usually seen as the god to pray to when it comes to discovering things.

The Guardian is the god in charge of guarding the god's plane ; often considered evil for keeping anyone else from entering. He represents anger and war and is often invoked before battles, though he himself is more about defense. He is often seen taking the shape of a fire ball shaped creature. He's also the one who fuels the sun every night so it may go back to the world and keep it warm.

The Mermaid is the goddess of the sea and anything relating to water ; she often takes the shape of a manta ray. She is invoked whenever someone goes at sea, and is also often seen as cruel. She is one of the most moody gods along the Great Witch, creating storms when she gets angry. She mostly lives deep in the ocean,being one of the very few gods to actual interract daily with her creatures ; the merfolk can often claim to have met her.

Mythology






A long time ago, the world was made of nothing. The only existing thing was a sleeping spirit. The spirit awoke and felt the need to turn the nothing into something ; the Mother was thus born. The Mother left its slumber to get to work, starting by shaping a world. It is said she is never done working on it and is always adding to it. She worked and worked, making a huge place ; however it was all flat and grass. She felt this wouldn't be good enough, despite the fact she had turned the nothing into something.

She created a big nest and there thought of ideas, that turned in big eggs. Thus were born the first two gods ; The Forester and the Forsaken, who's initial name is now lost. To them she told she wanted to see the world shaped differently ; she had dreamed of a lot of diversity in landscapes, and gave orders to the Forester to shape the world with them. She asked the forsaken one to help shape it.

They set to work happily, but the Mother wasn't satisfied. She went back to her nest as her first children worked, laying three more eggs. Out of those three eggs came out the Queen of the night, the Scythe Wielder and the Guardian. She asked the Queen of the night to provide a way to rest for the two first gods, as well as some creatures to explore the world as it was now. Thus were born the first non-god beings, bats and similar creatures of the night. The Mother asked the Guardian to light a signal for the other gods it would now be time to work and stop resting. As she saw the life created would eventually keep on reproducing until the world couldn't hold them, she asked the Scythe Wielder to find ways to reduce that population, creating diseases and death.

The Guardian having finished his task, he was asked to ensure the Gods had a safe place to go back to to rest, not allowing any other creature to join. As the souls of dead creatures also needed a place to rest, she asked the Queen of the night to create and supervise an area with the help of the Scythe Wielder. She then thought it would be good to create more creatures to experience the world and asked the Gods to participate ; The Queen of the night created all sort of new creatures to live during the night, while the Forester was invested with the task of creating animals to live during the day.
However this decision created the first problem in what had been so far a very smooth beginning. The Forsaken one grew jealous, as he felt cheated. He too was one of the first born, yet the task of creating creatures fell to his twin and a younger sibling. While the mother had plans for him to populate the oceans and take care of this life, he decided he would leave and create things by himself. However the children gods do not have the dreaming abilities of the Mother, and as such his attempts failed. When he tried to dream up a new sort of dimension, the dream turned to a nightmare. He irremediably corrupted the land, creating the taint.

The world quickly started to degenerate due to his mistake, until it all was covered in taint or completely disturbed. The mother appeared before him, weeping as she had to banish one of her children ; The forsaken one was stripped of his now forgotten shape and name, before being sent away. His only chance of redemption would be to cure the world of the taint entirely. He himself was now made of the taint.

The Mother gathered her children and spoke to them ; the world as it existed was now lost, but they could recreate it. The taint wouldn't be gone though, and something would need to be done to keep it under control. At that she retreated to the nest and created two more eggs. When they hatched two goddesses appeared.

One of them took the place the Forsaken God should have had, reigning over all water plans. The other one was given the task of containing the taint, granting the new world the Gods worked on a certain power to defend itself, thus creating magic.

The New world was created, even nicer than the previous world ; However the Goddess kept on crying over her lost child. The other gods had to make the New World work all by themselves ; conflict started to arise due to the fact the Mother retired to her nest to mourn so often. Eventually, they all gathered and decided to try cheering her up by creating a new creature she could care for.

Thus were born humans, made of the love all the Gods had for their Mother. The Queen of the night gave them their Intelligence. The great Witch gave them the gift of magic to protect them of the taint if they so wished. The Scythe Wielder gave them their mortality and feelings. The Forester shaped them. The Guardian gave them their resistance and ability to adapt to hard situations, while the Mermaid gave them their blood, bringing them to life. Finally the Forsaken one appeared, making the other gods fear for their new creation ; He gave them their imagination, showing them the secret to dreaming, giving them a chance to avoid doing the same mistake he himself did.

The new creation was presented to the mother, who seemed to revive, making the New World much brighter. Soon enough the mother laid her final egg ; The Mecanic was born, sworn to protect the humans and grow with them, guiding them on the road to technology. The Pantheon didn't change since then, though the Mother still works on expanding the world while her Children explore it and ensure everything works as it is meant to work.
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