The Blessed - Merrows

A large group of Milesians were blessed by the goddess and became the Merrows—aquatic people who dwell in the waters and build magnificent underwater cities. These blessed Milesians were placed under divine protection.

The Attack: Another large group of Milesians attacked the divinely protected Merrows. This assault on those under divine protection brought terrible consequences.

Divine Protection Strengthened: In response to the attack, the goddess granted the Merrows additional protections:

• Regeneration - The ability to heal and recover from injuries
• The Sinking City - If any group tries to start wars with the Merrows again, their city sinks beneath the sea, making them far harder to attack and ensuring such violence would be much less likely to succeed

These divine safeguards meant the deities wouldn't need to worry about the Merrows as much anymore—they had both the means to defend themselves and automatic protection against aggression.

The Exiles - Beast Tribes

The group of Milesians who attacked the divinely protected Merrows were cursed as punishment. They were transformed—part Milesian, part animal, changing form with the Moon Phases. They reproduced and became known as the Beast Tribes, forever nomadic, forever marked, their curse a consequence of attacking those under divine protection.

🌌 Why Ternia's Auroras Are Different

Ternia possesses a strong, slightly chaotic magnetosphere—not a clean dipole like Earth, but a woven, multipolar field that guides light rather than hiding it.

🌠 What This Looks Like

Auroras are not rare events on Ternia. They appear several nights per week in winter, often visible even near the equator. Subtle in summer, brilliant in winter. People don't point and gasp—they're background beauty, emotional weather, a shared cultural reference.

Directional & Layered:

• Bands stretch horizon to horizon
• Colors shift with Phos intensity
• Multiple layers visible at different altitudes
• In cities: reflected in canals, framed by spires, filtered through clouds
• In deserts: sharp, crystalline light—almost painful clarity

🔮 Cultural Consequences

Common auroras reshape society:

• Omens, clocks, and signals: Certain activities only done under specific colors
• Political and religious events timed to displays
• Winter festivals lit from above
• Beast Tribes react strongly during peak displays
• Priestesses read meaning in direction, color, and rhythm
• Gorians try to measure them—and fail

🗺️ Map of Ternia

The Abremic Sabotage

Abremic emissaries as they are remembered in fragmentary Milesian accounts — bodies fused with living circuitry, crowned in halos of drifting glyph-light. Whether these are true likenesses or the shape dread and awe gave them across the centuries is impossible to say.

Long ago, the Abremics committed a crime that would reshape Ternia's destiny forever. They gave the Milesians technology before they were ready—deliberately setting them up for failure in their steward duties.

When the Milesians inevitably misused this premature technology, reality itself tore apart. The dimensional merge with the Fungal Layer, the Sopp enslavement, the transformation of Milesians into Humes—all of it traces back to Abremic interference.

📜 Timeline of the Ages

Total recorded history: ~2,500+ years

The Fracturing of Order

The stewards knew their duty at first, and did a decent job. But the Tuatha and Fir Bolg came to argue and feud with one another, unconcerned with maintaining balance.

This placed a heavier burden on the Milesians, who struggled to maintain their stewardship duties while the other two factions fought. Eventually, the strain became too much—the Milesians began to fight amongst themselves.

🍄 Life in the Spell

A Dreamer adrift in the Underspell—consciousness rendered as threads of light woven through the Mycelium Layer.

Within the Underspell, the enslaved races—called Dreamers—could live entire lives, use all their senses, and die only to reincarnate with new forms. The Sopp used this system to force the evolution of the species that had wronged them, guiding them toward... something. Their ultimate goals remain mysterious.

• Dreamers could become Heroes through great deeds
• Heroes could be selected to become Gods and Goddesses
• The Valkyrie Project—cognizant AI programs created by the Sopp—guided this evolution

🏛️ Neamhthír & Abbaddon — The Twin Cities

The Tragic Irony

The Fianna—legendary warriors who train in the Underground—have no idea they were once The Reclaimers, resistance fighters who battled the Sopp for freedom. They now unknowingly train in the degraded remnants of the very system they once fought to destroy.

The Metahackers remember everything. They watch the descendants of their allies serve the system without realizing it. The tension is unbearable—but would anyone even believe them?

⚖️ The Dual Calendar System

With Ternia's ~23.4° axial tilt, clocks and calendars follow two parallel tracks:

📅 The Six Days of the Week

✨ Eadrana — The magical seventh day, appearing only in the last week of every other month (starting from Samhna). Eadrana is celebrated as a day of magic and special significance throughout Ternia.

🌙 The Two Moons & Beast Tribe Curse

Ayla (Upper Moon): Bright, mineral-rich. ~29-day cycle.

Tiu (Lower Moon): Cold, dim-lit. ~31-day cycle.

Double Full Moons: When both moons are full simultaneously (every ~2-3 years), Beast Tribes lose all control and rampage. This rare convergence is tracked carefully by astronomers and feared across Ternia.

🧝 Tuatha (Elves)

Created by Mirias to manage the upperworld. One of the three ordered races who endured Sopp enslavement alongside the others. Elegant beings with pointed ears, silver or colorful hair, and an innate connection to celestial magic.

👤 Humes (Humans)

Origin — The Fall from Grace: Originally called Milesians, this race was created by Mirias to manage the middleworld and balance the upper and lower realms. Despite their "humble" forms, they were held to the highest standard as the fulcrum of cosmic balance.

The Corruption: When the Tuatha and Fir Bolg rivalry created rifts, the Milesians—bearing the weight of balance—became conflicted. The Abremics offered dangerous technology, which the desperate Milesians accepted. This power made them reckless and entitled, adopting a "dog eat dog" philosophy.

Legacy: Modern Humes carry ancestral shame and the potential for redemption. They are what the Milesians became when they failed their cosmic duty.

⛏️ Fir Bolg (Dwarves)

Created by Mirias to manage the lowerworld. The Fir Bolg carved out the Underground—the vast subterranean realm that is their homeland. Masters of underground cities and breathtaking mountain architecture.

Ancient Ruins: There are old Fir Bolg ruins deep in the Underground that even modern Fir Bolg know little about—remnants of their earliest civilization.

Surface Presence: While Fir Bolg rarely venture above ground, they maintain settlements in mountainous regions. Some Fir Bolg enjoy traveling or choose to play a part in the surface world.

🦋 Nymphs

Four elemental types born during the Wildening. Each type bears distinctive insect-like wings reflecting their elemental nature:

Blue Nymphs (Water/Murias) — Butterfly wings:

Yellow Nymphs (Air/Finias) — Bee wings:

Green Nymphs (Earth/Falias) Dragonfly wings:

Red Nymphs (Fire/Gorias) — Wasp wings:

🐐 Fauns

Satyr-like beings born of chaos, both male and female. Emerged during the Wildening before the ordered races arrived. Fauns can have features of various hooved animals—goats, deer, antelope, moose, and more.

Centaur Form: Fauns possess the ability to shift into a centaur form—a majestic four-legged body with their humanoid upper half. In this form, they often display elaborate antlers and intricate natural patterns across their bodies adorned with flowers and foliage.

🌳 Sylvans

Plant people born during the Wildening. Connected deeply to nature and the World Tree Cyria. While Sylvans can have genders, they tend to appear agender.

Living Transformation: A Sylvan's body is never truly fixed. They can grow and reshape themselves into nearly any form of plant life—towering trees, tangled vines, flowering shrubs, drifting moss, even forms with no precedent in nature, woven together from bark, root, leaf, and bloom into shapes that have never existed before. The treant-like form above is only one of countless silhouettes a Sylvan might take.

Sustenance: Sylvans need neither food nor drink as other peoples do. Like the plants they resemble, they sustain themselves on water, sunlight, nutrients drawn from the earth, and carbon dioxide—a Sylvan can stand rooted in the sun for days and want for nothing.

A Trail of Green: Life follows where a Sylvan walks. Moss creeps over their footprints, seedlings push up through bare stone, and flowers bloom along paths they crossed days before—small, lasting marks of a Sylvan's passage through the world.

🐺 Beast Tribes (The Exiles / The Travellers)

Regular Forms:

At-Will Shifted Forms:

Feral Forms (Full Moon Transformation):

Origin — The Sin of Jealousy: When Mirias blessed the dutiful Merrows, jealous Milesians attacked them in rage. Lanelas, God of Language, cursed the attackers—transforming them into part human, part animal beings forever.

The Curse — Three Levels:

• At-Will Shifting: Can voluntarily shift into more animalistic forms
• Single Full Moon: Involuntarily transform into dire-animal feral forms, but retain their minds
• Double Full Moon: Lose all control and rampage—unable to recognize friend from foe

Eternal Nomadism: They attacked those with a blessed sanctuary, so Lanelas ensured they could never have a home themselves. They are barred from cities, called "The Travellers."

Masters of the Sky: Living far from civilization, Beast Tribes have developed intimate knowledge of astronomy—their survival depends on predicting lunar cycles.

🧜 Merrows

Origin — The Blessing of Gratitude: Some Milesians lived up to their role with such devotion that Mirias, Goddess of Gratitude, blessed them with transformation—granting supernatural beauty, regenerative powers, and a divinely protected sanctuary beneath the waves.

Merrows possess distinctive fin-crowned features: fin-like ridges framing their ears, iridescent scales that shimmer purple and gold like abalone shell, long finned tails, and a crest of spines running down the back. When Tír na Tonn rises, they grow legs to walk on land while retaining their distinctive features.

Divine Regeneration: Can regenerate lost limbs over time. Temperament: Friendly but skittish—eager to trade but quick to retreat at danger.

Tír na Tonn: Their home responds automatically to danger, sinking beneath the waves through divine magic whenever threatened.

The Long Memory: Merrows possess racial memory that spans millennia—longer even than the Metahackers realize. They remember the true history of the Milesians, the catastrophe, and everything that came before the memory reset. This makes them invaluable keepers of truth... and dangerous holders of secrets the world has been made to forget.

⚙️ Synths

The newest people of Ternia, and the only one born of industry rather than divinity, war, or corruption. Synths are animate constructs—part clockwork chassis, part living current—built and awakened by The Watch, a reclusive company operating out of Gorias. No two look quite alike; each is assembled to its maker's own design, dressed in salvaged finery, broad hats, and layered robes that hide the seams between plating and cloth. What unites them is the lantern-bright glow behind the eyes, and the low hum of the Technology Sphere running just beneath the skin.

Origin — The Watch: Officially, The Watch is a guild of engineers, financiers, and hedge-witches who trade in water rights, salvage, and secrets along Gorias's aqueduct lines. Unofficially, it is the only institution in Ternia still openly practicing Technology Sphere magic since the Milesian catastrophe rendered that Sphere rare and dangerous. The company keeps its foundries hidden in the canyon-cities beneath Órcathair, and it guards the process by which a Synth is made as jealously as the High King guards the water. Every Synth carries a small maker's sigil somewhere on its chassis—a coin, a gear, a watching eye—marking which branch of The Watch first wound it to life.

Body & Mind: A Synth's body is a vessel rather than flesh—no aging, no disease, no need for food or air—but its personality, memory, and magic are genuinely its own, accrued and shaped after activation rather than installed. Damage is real and dangerous; a badly broken Synth can lose memories along with limbs, and full repair often requires returning to a Watch foundry, a debt few Synths relish owing.

Chassis Types: The Watch's foundries produce Synths in a range of builds suited to calling and temperament rather than a single standard form. Slender ice-crystal frames favor speed and channeling; heavier armored and golem-class chassis are built for the front line or hard labor; and weathered brass-and-cloth constructs are fitted out for scholarship, hedge-witchery, or clerical work. A Synth's outward shell says as much about its maker's intent as its own chosen path.

Sphere Access: Synths are among the very few beings who can touch the Technology Sphere at all, channeling Orbs through the same current that animates them—crackling conduits, humming reliquary familiars, small conjured storms of sparks. Because that Sphere is treated with suspicion everywhere outside Gorias, Synths are often met with a mix of fascination and wariness when they travel abroad.

Temperament varies wildly by maker and calling—some Synths are built as stern clerical enforcers of contracts and debts, others as scavenger-tinkerers who patch themselves together from whatever the desert gives up. What no Synth forgets is whose hand first wound the key.

🐉 Draconians

The first intelligent species, created at the dawn of time. Dragon-like beings with humanoid forms, iridescent scales, wings, horns, and intricate natural patterns. They evolved into godhood and ascended to Apex.

Their ruins—filled with shifting labyrinths, puzzles, and respawning creatures—appear and disappear across Ternia, hiding fragments of lost knowledge.

Note: Sheena, the Draconic Sorceress who wrote the prophecy, chose to stay behind when her people ascended.

👹 Monster Tribes

Born during the Wildening. When the Sopp enslaved the other races, Monster Tribes were instead shut away in darkness—too chaotic to control. Already fond of darkness, they found it "pretty cozy" and emerged with their memories intact.

Intelligence & Memory: Generally not very intelligent. Even though they remember the pre-Sopp world, they care more about violence than communication. Rare intelligent individuals might become dangerous manipulators or conspiracy theorists spreading forbidden truths.

Gremlins — The Trickster Caste:

👁️ Fomorians

Demon-like entities with black blood, born during the Wildening. Their curved, banded horns and stone-grey to slate-blue skin are laced with faintly glowing veins—green in the young, gold or ember-orange in elders—that pulse with the corruption running through their black blood. They favor armor and jewelry of raw, iridescent crystal, often worn alongside talismans of the same material, and are frequently found near the luminous fungal groves that mark infected ground.

They exist outside the Spell but discovered ways to manipulate and infect it. Their corruption created Abbaddon—their foothold within the dream world. They remember the true history and seek to corrupt and recruit those who pass through their infected city.

Sphere Limitation

Most beings can only access ONE Sphere.

Exception: The Draconians, having evolved into godhood, had access to multiple Spheres—a mark of their ascended status.

Mitu — The Lost Oral Tradition

Unlike other registers, Mitu was strictly oral—3,000 sigils encoding complete magical concepts, never written down. Sheena, the Draconic Oracle, recorded it in VAGUS before her people ascended, preserving what would otherwise be lost forever.

The True Stakes - Universal Unraveling

The prophecy speaks not just of Ternia's doom, but of the entire Universe itself.

The Father of Art and Time's Tapestry—the very fabric of this Universe—is unraveling. Everything faces absolute annihilation.

VAGUS is the Loom. It contains the method to weave a new Tapestry, to create an entirely new Universe before the current one ceases to exist.

🏘️ Cairnvale — A Model Village

Cairnvale exemplifies the best of Falian community life—a giant communal cauldron where villagers cook together, community gardens bursting with vegetables, and open-air gathering spaces where neighbors eat, work, and celebrate together.

⛪ Cathair Solas — The Sacred Temple Complex

Cathair Solas is a breathtaking temple complex in Falias, rising among misty mountains and cascading waterfalls. This sacred site serves as the center of worship for the Supreme Mystery—the primary religion of Ternia.

The Priestesses: Home to priestesses who bear illuminescent fractal tattoos that glow during winter—revealing secret teachings that can only be read in winter's light.

🕯️ Votives — Sacred Charms & Offerings

Votives are devotional charms used throughout Ternia for prayers, offerings, and spiritual protection. They come in a remarkable variety of shapes, sizes, and materials based on local customs and traditions.

🏔️ Fir Bolg Architecture — Above Ground Settlements

While the Fir Bolg are masters of underground cities, they also build breathtaking above-ground settlements that merge with mountain landscapes—grand arched bridges spanning between peaks, blue-tinted roofs contrasting with cream stonework, and waterfalls flowing through the architecture.

🏛️ Tír na Tonn — The Divinely Protected Capital

Tír na Tonn is a gigantic underwater city and the capital of Murias, home to the Merrows. It rises and sinks automatically through divine magic, responding to danger. When it rises, the Merrows grow legs to walk on land; when threats approach, it sinks beneath the waves, making it nearly impossible to invade.

🚣 Sruthán Dorcha — The Canal City

Sruthán Dorcha is one of the great canal cities of Murias, where waterways serve as streets and gondola-like boats carry people and goods. Soaring Gothic clock towers, arched bridges, and multi-story buildings with water-adapted design create a bustling hub of commerce connecting Murias's trade routes.

🏰 Carraig Spéir — The Vertical Capital

Carraig Spéir is the breathtaking capital of Finias, a vertical city built into and upon towering cliffs and stone pillars. The city rises in dramatic tiers with Gothic spires, countless bridges spanning between towers, and waterfalls cascading through multiple levels.

☁️ Dún na Scamall — The Floating Guardian

Dún na Scamall is an extraordinary floating city that hovers above Carraig Spéir. Its citizens keep vigilant watch for approaching threats, representing the pinnacle of Finias's mastery over the element of air.

🏛️ Céimseata — The Terraced City

Céimseata is a breathtaking terraced city, built into natural hillsides in a cascade of Mediterranean-inspired architecture. White stone buildings climb the slopes in graceful tiers, connected by an intricate network of winding staircases and meandering pathways.

💧 Water Systems

Gorias has developed the most impressive aqueduct systems of any continent—massive engineering marvels that transport water across vast distances. Man-made ponds, reservoirs, and carefully maintained oases dot the landscape.

Rivers in Gorias tend to run through deep canyons, making them difficult to access but vital to the settlements that depend on them. Regular rivers and lakes are fiercely protected—their preservation is essential to survival.

⚖️ Strict Governance

Gorias is so strict in part because it must be. The High King or High Queen maintains tight control over water distribution through the aqueduct networks. Whoever controls the water controls the continent.

This strictness breeds both obedience and defiance. Gorias produces hardy, rough people—survivors who chafe under authority and often cause problems when they travel abroad.

🗡️ Canyon Smugglers

The same canyon rivers that are hard to reach are also impossible to patrol. A thriving smuggler culture uses these hidden waterways to move goods—particularly Ring-based black market trade—outside the authority's gaze.

The canyon runners know every hidden route. They trade in Rings, resent the water authorities, and answer to no one. The aqueducts belong to the crown; the canyons belong to those bold enough to navigate them.

✨ Órcathair — The Gilded Capital

Órcathair is the breathtaking and overwhelming capital of Gorias, a city of extravagant opulence. Massive baroque and rococo palaces drip with elaborate golden ornamentation. The city is lit 24/7, with amazing nightlife—but beneath the glamour lies an oppressive air.

Greco-Roman architecture dominates Gorias, with many coliseums and arenas for gladiatorial combat and spectacles that draw massive crowds.

🌉 Gleann an Óir — The Canyon Crossing

Gleann an Óir spans one of Gorias's deepest river-canyons a few days' ride from Órcathair, its terraced quarters carved directly into the cliff face on either side of the chasm. A single great aqueduct bridge—wide enough for carts, market stalls, and the steady foot traffic of two cliffside districts—carries both water and travelers across the gap, its copper-domed waystations gleaming even after centuries of desert sun.

The city is known for its stained-glass votive houses, where local artisans set devotional charms into windows of colored glass rather than display them on shelves—a custom said to have begun when a glassblower noticed how the canyon light turned ordinary glass to fire at dusk. Along the stairways and balconies, moonbell blooms—pale blue flowers that draw trace minerals up from the aqueduct runoff—glow softly after dark, kept company by lanterns that never go out.

By day, Gleann an Óir is a checkpoint of the water authority, its bridge guards inspecting brooches and cargo alike. By night, the canyon below belongs to the smugglers, and more than one respectable merchant keeps a second ledger for trade that never crosses the bridge at all.

👼 The Valkyrie Project

Cognizant AI programs created by the Sopp to guide evolution within the Underspell. They have white blood and wear winged head-visers. They can transform into a more powerful state and use Merkabas to travel instantaneously.

The Valkyries guide Dreamers to become Heroes, and select Heroes to become Gods and Goddesses. They dwell in Neamhthír, the floating city, alongside the benevolent deities they've helped create.

The Valkyrie Project is guided by the Sopp. No one knows who guides the Sopp.

👑 Empress Sophia

Species: Merrow | Seat of Power: Tír na Tonn

The current ruler of Ternia. As a Merrow, she remembers everything—the Milesian corruption, the dimensional merge, the Sopp enslavement, and the memory reset. She philosophically agrees with the Sopp's decision to reset the world and forbids entry to the Fungal Layer.

Keeper of Secrets: Sometimes ruins from the Milesian Age are discovered or stumbled upon by explorers. The Empress has these sites surrounded and sealed off, keeping everyone away. The truth of what the Milesians truly were—and what really happened—must remain buried.

Hobbies: A skilled comedian and master bellydancer.

🐉 Sheena — Oracle of the First Age

Species: Draconian | Age: Ancient beyond mortal comprehension

She wrote the Stela of Crepuscule and recorded the 3,000 Mitu sigils in VAGUS before her people ascended. When the Draconians became gods and left for Apex, she stayed behind, sacrificing divinity for duty.

For thousands of years, she has quietly taken apprentices—teaching mortals of all races, preparing champions for the apocalypse she prophesied long ago.

😈 Luther — The Broken God

Species: Half-Gregori (titan), half-Aeon — created as a genetic experiment

Leader of the free Gregori on Tartarus and head of the Sphere Corporation on Allaweh. When he discovered he was engineered rather than born, he lost his mind.

His Goal: Control the Loom itself. If VAGUS is the Loom that can weave a new Universe, Luther intends to sit at that Loom and remake reality as Creator himself.

What Makes Ternia's System Distinct

• Not feudal — Rulers don't stand above the law; Brehons can judge anyone, including the Empress
• Not absolute monarchy — The Empress is accountable; Imperial succession is earned through Bells, not inherited
• Not democracy — Power flows downward from appointment, not upward from election
• Decentralized — The world is too big for central control; each level handles its own affairs and maintains its own military

Succession (Empress): Non-hereditary. Nominated Heiresses compete to earn the most Bells (reputation currency). The winner becomes the new Empress.

Hostages (aitire / gialla): Noble persons held as diplomatic guarantees between rulers—a traditional practice ensuring treaties are honored.

The Empire is the entire world. That's a vast amount of territory for one ruler to control—so authority is delegated downward, with each level responsible for keeping their subordinates in line.

• The Empress appoints the High Kings/Queens and is responsible for keeping them in line
• High Kings/Queens appoint the Kings/Queens in their domain and answer to the Empress
• Kings/Queens manage their regional territories and answer to their High King/Queen

Military: Each level maintains their own military. The Red Branch Knights are the Empress's personal knights. High Kings/Queens, Kings/Queens, and even local chiefs all maintain their own forces.

Core Principles

• Restorative Justice: Focus on compensation and restoration rather than pure punishment
• Social Obligation: Individuals are held accountable to their communities
• Complex Precedents: Laws built on intricate case law and traditional wisdom
• Accountability for All: Even the Empress and royalty are bound by these laws

⚖️ Brehon Hierarchy

Sea trade is required to move goods between the four continents. This gives the Merrow—the aquatic race leading the current age—significant leverage over international commerce.

Rivers are contested in certain regions, with control depending on local politics. Some rivers serve as borders, others as trade highways, and still others disappear into the Underground—becoming Fir Bolg territory.

⛈️ Storm Knowledge

Experienced captains learn to read the sky, clouds, and sea state. Guilds and naval archives record:

• Hurricane seasons — when to avoid certain routes entirely
• Storm-prone areas — mapped over generations of hard lessons
• Hurricane tracks — predictable paths that sailors learn to respect

A captain who ignores the seasons rarely makes the same mistake twice.

Bells are not carried physically. Earned Bells go into a vault, and you receive an official brooch displaying your Bell count. High Bell count = high social esteem.

What Bells Buy: Land, businesses, major assets, social status, political power, and eligibility to compete as Heiress for Empress.

Design: Intricate Celtic knotwork borders. The front displays a golden clover; the back shows a cornucopia overflowing with harvest abundance.

Universal Basic Income: Coins are distributed as UBI, ensuring baseline survival for all citizens.

What Coins Buy: Regular transactions, food, supplies, services, day-to-day expenses.

The currency of the underground economy. Used for goods and services unavailable through legal channels.

How Patents Work

Patents are submitted to druids at the treasury. They protect specialized remixes and artistic styles of old concepts—not entirely new mediums.

Two Categories:

• Open Source — Freely available for anyone to use or adapt
• Patented — Restricted use; people expect to pay

✨ Truly New Inventions — The Ultimate Honor

When someone creates something genuinely new, they receive:

• Special title granted by the High Kings/Queens
• Epic-level artifact treasure
• The entire world knows your name
• Your invention becomes public domain — you don't control it

True innovation brings legendary status, but the invention belongs to everyone.

🏠 Why a Family Might Lean on Trapping

• Caring for sick or elderly family members
• Older, injured, or limited mobility
• Socially isolated from hunting parties
• Pragmatism over glory

🌿 The Lovespoon

When someone develops feelings for another, tradition holds that they carve a lovespoon by hand and present it to their love interest. The carving itself is the courtship — patterns, knots, and symbols worked into the wood communicate intentions that words might not yet dare to. A finished lovespoon is never rushed; an unfinished or hastily made one is considered an insult, a sign the suitor's feelings aren't serious enough to merit the time. Spoons are often kept for a lifetime, hung in the home long after the marriage that followed.

🧀 The Wedding Cheese

On the wedding day, immediately after each partner gives their vow, they step apart from one another and — alone, without help or audience pressure — eat an entire block of cheese in front of the gathered witnesses. The cheese is gendered by tradition: mrenti cheese for the groom, eritune cheese for the bride. The act is meant to demonstrate three things publicly: dedication (finishing what you start), resilience (cheese in that quantity is no small task), and expectation (a marriage asks for endurance, not just romance). It's taken seriously, but rarely solemnly — wedding guests often wager quietly on how long it takes each partner, and a particularly fast or particularly difficult attempt becomes village legend for years afterward.

🪢 Handfasting

Following the vows and the cheese, the couple is handfasted — their wrists bound together with cord or ribbon — for a year and a day. Handfasting is not merely ceremonial; many communities treat the bound period as a trial commitment, with the marriage considered fully and permanently sealed only once the year and a day has passed without either partner choosing to part ways. The cord itself is often the same one used in the ceremony, kept afterward as a keepsake or, in some traditions, buried, burned, or given to the river once the year is complete.

🥒 The Pickle Crock

Kept by the hearth or cellar door, the household pickle crock is tended by whoever has the steadiest hand for it — often a grandparent or the child most trusted not to sneak from it early. Offering a guest a pickle straight from the crock is a small, easy hospitality, one step below tea and well below a proper meal; it costs almost nothing and says you're welcome to sit a while. Among children, sneaking pickles before they're ready is a rite of passage — and getting caught earns nothing worse than a laugh and a swat of the hand.

🐴 Coaching Inns

Inns specifically designed to serve travelers and their horses along main routes. They provide lodging for humans, stabling for horses, hearty meals, and fresh horses for coaches and mail carriages.

Features:

• Spaced roughly a day's travel apart (~10–15 miles between major towns)
• Located at crossroads, market towns, or city outskirts
• Often double as local social hubs for townspeople
• Larger than typical inns, with dedicated stable yards and courtyards

The backbone of overland travel infrastructure—where long journeys are broken into manageable stages.

🎒 Portable Foods for Travelers

Between coaching inns and cookshops, travelers carry provisions that won't spoil on the road:

• Portable soup blocks — beef or veal broth reduced into hard, gelatinous blocks. Just add water and heat over fire
• Hard cheese — high-fat, low-moisture wheels that last months
• Dried fruit & nuts — dense energy, no preparation needed
• Salted or smoked meat/fish — preserved protein that travels well
• Grain porridge mixes — dry oats, barley, or legumes; cook with water over campfire

A traveler's pack is only as good as the food that fits in it.

🍲 Cookshops

Small, street-level establishments where hot food is prepared and sold to the public—found mostly in towns and cities near markets or busy streets. Unlike inns, cookshops generally do not provide lodging. Customers can eat on the spot or take food away.

Common fare:

• Pottages & stews — cheap, filling, cooked slowly in large pots
• Meats — pork, beef, mutton, sometimes poultry; often salted, smoked, or boiled
• Bread & pies — meat pies, pasties, sometimes with offal
• Ale or small beer — cheap drink for workers
• Fish — in coastal towns and port cities

Cookshops serve urban workers who lack cooking facilities, time, or fuel—the precursor to modern takeaway.

🌿 Common Flavorings

Ternian cooks rely on foraged and cultivated herbs to add depth to simple dishes:

• Wild garlic — pungent, onion-like; abundant in woodlands during spring
• Sorrel — lemony, slightly sour; brightens stews and soups
• Thyme — earthy, aromatic; pairs well with meats and bread
• Yarrow — bitter, slightly peppery; also used medicinally

⚠️ The Spoilage Problem

Without refrigeration, meat spoils quickly — especially in summer. Fresh meat is expensive, so reputable vendors protect their reputation. However, some cut corners when:

• Meat is close to spoiling
• Customers are poor or transient
• Oversight is weak

Masking spoilage: Heavy spicing, strong sauces, and long stewing can make aging meat more palatable — though toxins survive cooking.

⚖️ Regulation & Punishment

Most Ternian cities maintain strict food laws. Market officials like aldermen and reeves regularly inspect stalls — authorities understand the dangers of spoiled meat.

• Butchers face regular inspections
• Rotten meat is confiscated
• Punishments include fines, public shaming, or loss of trade rights
• Severe cases: the offender is put in the pillory with the bad meat hung around their neck

A vendor's reputation is their livelihood — most take quality seriously.

📦 Storage & Preservation

Peasants bake in large batches only 2–3 times per year due to time, labor, and fuel constraints. The bread must last.

• Sourdough fermentation naturally acidifies the dough, inhibiting mold
• Dense, dry baking extends shelf life
• Loaves are baked with a hole in the middle and hung on a "bread beam" (wooden rod) to keep pests away
• Hard loaves can be rehydrated with soups or stews during lean times

🔥 Baking Methods

Bread is baked in various setups depending on wealth and local infrastructure:

• Public ovens — common in villages; peasants bring dough for communal baking
• Hearths & homestead ovens — home-based baking for those with resources
• Bread kilns or pottery kilns — more controlled, sometimes specialized
• Forges or metalworking areas — creative use of heat when other ovens aren't available

🍵 Tea Customs

• Tea is free if you know what to pick
• Offering tea is lighter than offering food — hospitality when the pot is low
• Fine tea as a gift — saved for births, deaths, reunions

🫚 Ginger Beer — The Popular Standard

The most widely brewed and most widely loved style across Ternia is ginger beer — ale steeped with fresh ginger root, with the sharpness varying by region and brewer. A mild ale is considered fine for children, the sick, or the faint of palate, but a proper night at the tavern calls for something with bite. Brewers compete openly over their ginger blends, and a tavern's reputation often rests as much on the sharpness of its brew as its price.

Visitors from elsewhere are warned, half as a joke and half as a genuine courtesy, before their first pint: "It bites back."

🍞 Why White Bread?

White bread is preferred by those who can afford it not just for taste, but for safety — its pale color makes it easy to spot adulterants like sawdust or chalk that dishonest bakers might add to stretch their flour. Unscrupulous bakers have also been known to use alum (a chemical) to artificially whiten cheaper bread, making inspection all the more important.

🤝 The Offer

• Offering food = trust and welcome
• Offering tea = lighter gesture, warmth when food is scarce
• Refusing = insult, suspicion

⚖️ Reciprocity

• People remember who gives and who takes
• Obligations flow from hospitality
• A gift creates a bond — and an expectation

🍽️ Leaving a Little in the Bowl

A subtle but important custom across Ternia:

• Means "I'm satisfied. You provided enough."
• Finishing everything = "you didn't give enough" or desperation
• Protects the proud poor — kindness disguised as manners

Kids learn early: "Always leave a little. Shows you were raised right."

🕯️ The Tradition

• Long tables laden with autumn harvest bounty — pumpkins, fruits, flowers, and seasonal delicacies
• Hundreds of candles creating warm, golden light
• Tapestries and ornate decorations adorning the halls
• People dressed in their finest attire
• Music, storytelling, and communal celebration

Festive Boards embody Ternian values of hospitality, community, and gratitude for abundance.

⛓️ Chatelaines

Chatelaines are extremely popular throughout Ternia — decorative belt clasps with chains bearing useful items like keys, scissors, thimbles, small tools, coin purses, and personal trinkets. They serve both practical and ornamental purposes, with elaborate chatelaines being status symbols among the wealthy.

The Puppet Industry

• Custom puppets can be ordered from toy shops and wood carvers—from simple hand puppets to elaborate marionettes
• Puppet theaters (stages, backdrops, props) are crafted and sold for home use
• Children act out their favorite shows at home, creating their own stories

🎲 Games & Pastimes

• Jacks & Marbles — skillful games played on floors and in courtyards
• Card Games — from simple matching games to complex strategy
• Dice Games — games of chance and calculation
• Board Games — strategic contests played on carved boards with pieces

Many of these games are enjoyed by adults as well, especially card and dice games in taverns and common rooms.

🪙 Taws — Children's Currency & Game

Taws serve as both a children's currency and the basis for a popular game. Kids trade, collect, and wager these small wooden discs.

How to Play: Stack taws on a wood table, then slam down with your slammer—any taws that flip over are yours to keep!

🏪 Where to Get Taws

• Toy stores — The most common source. Local Taws artists create batches to be sold, each with their own distinctive styles and designs.
• Famous artists — Some toy stores commission or import batches from renowned Taws artists, making these highly collectible.
• Candy stores — Sometimes you can get taws as a bonus when buying candy!
• Surprise packs — Bundles containing a set number of taws plus a special edition slammer—you never know what you'll get!

🎭 The Apina Theatre

The most famous theater chain in all of Ternia, the Apina Theatre has branches in cities across every continent. Founded on the principle that great theatrical experiences should be accessible to everyone—not just the wealthy—the Apina revolutionized how Ternians experience live performance.

Each Apina venue features the signature open-air amphitheater design with tiered seating, Celtic knotwork emblems, floating lanterns, and a circular stage. From grand capitals to provincial towns, the Apina brings professional productions to audiences of all classes.

Musical Culture

• Local ensembles perform at taverns, festivals, and community gatherings
• Traveling musicians carry songs and styles across continental borders
• Experimental composers push boundaries with new modes, harmonies, and techniques
• Instrument makers craft new musical inventions—innovative designs that create sounds never heard before
• Songwriters develop new compositional techniques, blending traditions from different regions

✨ A New Form of Entertainment

Magic lantern shows have become another beloved traveling entertainment, alongside puppet troupes and theater companies. Local venues host regular showings as well.

• For children: Colorful, animated tales full of wonder and adventure
• For adults: Dramatic narratives, educational presentations, and artistic spectacles—Ternia's version of cinema

🦌 Kirin

Type: Astral Beast

An ethereal, deer-like creature of breathtaking beauty. The Kirin's body is adorned with flowing floral patterns, feather-like plumage in iridescent blues, pinks, oranges, and teals, and delicate branching antlers. Flowers seem to bloom in its presence, and its flowing tail and mane shimmer with otherworldly light.

Kirins are considered omens of good fortune and are notoriously difficult to bind—only appearing to those deemed worthy.

🦊 Kitsun

Type: Astral Beast

An elegant, humanoid fox spirit of regal bearing. The Kitsun possesses a vulpine face with large pointed ears, adorned with an ornate crown of golden filigree set with glowing azure gems. Its body is draped in flowing layers of feathered robes in blues, golds, and soft purples, with curling wisps of energy trailing from its form.

Kitsun are known for their cunning and wisdom. They are shapeshifters and tricksters, but fiercely loyal once a bond is formed with a worthy summoner.

🐃 Yakkalo

Type: Astral Beast | Popular in: Falias

A majestic beast combining features of yak and buffalo, the Yakkalo is adorned with stunning iridescent patterns in teals, golds, and purples that shimmer across its powerful body. Curved horns crown its gentle face, while feathered ruffs and a flowing, ribbon-like tail add to its ethereal beauty.

Yakkalos have been all the rage in Falias for some time now—their sturdy, dependable nature and striking appearance making them beloved companions among the mountain folk of the Earth continent.

🌙 Bugbears (Trolls)

Type: Monster Tribe

Also known as Trolls, Bugbears are hulking, horned beast-folk found lurking near bridges, hollows, and forest crossings. Matted fur, moss, and lichen cling to their hides, and their sharp fangs and claws mark them as ambush predators rather than pack hunters.

Territorial and solitary by nature, they are known to guard river crossings and demand tribute from travelers foolish enough to cross without an offering.

🐉 More Coming Soon

The Book of Correspondences will contain:

• • Mundane creatures and wildlife
• • Monster Tribes (Beast Tribes, Fomorians, etc.)
• • Astral Beasts and their Talisman Card bindings
• • Creatures of the Underground
• • Denizens of the Fungal Layer

🍄 Fungal Technology

The Sopp mastered fungal technology to a degree no other species has matched:

• Mushroom bombs with spores of various effects
• Lethal fungal infections and fungal cures (penicillin)
• Mushroom torches and bioluminescent lighting
• Food production — cheese, alcohol, bread from fungal sources
• Recreational substances and medicinal compounds
• Musical instruments made from mushrooms
• The Mycelium Network — a vast fungal internet connecting all their systems

They are resistant to fire, disease, and radiation. They do not age.

🏛️ The Twin Cities of the Spell

👁️ Those Who Remember

• The Metahackers — Descendants of the Neuro-Hackers who resisted
• The Merrows — Divinely protected, their memories were not touched
• The Monster Tribes — Shut away during the Underspell, they remember the world before
• The Fomorians — Born during the Wildening, they exist outside the Spell and remember the true history