The Elves: Cultural Profile

Introduction: The elves are technically just one of many species native to the Lonely Island, however to leave it at that would be far too reductive. The first elf was born 592 years ago, the result of hundreds of years of magical experimentation and downright evil breeding programs, the subjects of which were forced to participate against their will. The perpetrators of this atrocity, the Arcane Order of the Walled Garden, oversaw their evil work in order to have an inherently magical, immortal army to attack the First Empire with, but the first generation of elves, upon reaching maturity, recognized the terrible things that were done to their ancestors and took their own revenge against the Walled Garden, completely wiping out the mages and abandoning their facilities. Since then, the elves have been doing quite well. While much of their biology and what went into their creation is still a mystery, the elves were able to recover a great deal of information on the Lonely Island, its ecosystems, and the many different organisms that call the place home. Choosing to completely leave their creators’ vision behind, the elves have gone on to establish four towns around the island which exist in perfect harmony with the surrounding environment. Although descended from humans, every elf is born with a random combination of skin, eye, and hair colors, each of which can be nearly any color in the spectrum. Their population grows slowly because elves with uteruses can only get pregnant on the solstices, a small blessing as elves seem to achieve biological immortality around the age of 30. They each have pointed ears that stretch out several inches farther than regular human ears as well, and each elf is also gifted with at least one inherent magical power that they can use at will. These powers run the gamut of effects and it is said that for every problem one may encounter, there is at least one elf out there with the perfect power to deal with that problem.

Magic and Technology: The elves tend to see complex technology of any sort as being too similar to the evil practices of their creators, and so they do not utilize technology beyond simple tools and implements, relying on the magic talents of community members to perform any functions that might be done with technology in other societies. While an elf may have eating utensils, plates, cups, and various tools for grooming, it is understood that these tools are all crafted by magical means and that any repairs that need to be made are to be done by someone with an appropriate magical ability. Arcane magic such as enchanting and spellcasting are also seen as pointless pursuits that are too similar to Walled Garden practices, and so elves are not only expected to seek out other elves with appropriate abilities to help them when they need something difficult done, but to provide whatever assistance to other elves that their abilities allow them to when requested.

Society: Elves have defined themselves and their society in direct opposition to the ideals and goals of the mages which worked to bring the elves into the world. Elf society expects individual elves to live in harmony and cooperation with each other, providing whatever services they can to those who ask at no charge or expectation of returning the favor. Despite a lack of knowledge in the early days, the elves have had time to move on and learn about themselves. The elves now know much more about who they are and what their lives should be like. This, along with the culture of harmony and cooperation, has allowed elf society to flourish as elves use their unique gifts to help each other and contribute to their mutual survival. Over the centuries, this has resulted in a very comfortable society in which struggle and toil are seen as unnecessary because there will always be someone around who can do what you need instantly and through very little effort. This system actually works quite well as most elf powers can be applied broadly with some creative thinking, producing a surprising amount of overlap in which elves can help with which kinds of problems. Keeping track of this complex web of mutual relationships and magical abilities is the basis of elf communities, turning their towns into massive, interconnected societies in which every elf is fully aware of how they give and receive help to each other. Over the centuries, this state of affairs has helped the elves to answer many of their lingering questions about themselves.

        There is, however, one mystery that seems to preoccupy many elves. A sort of existential dread hangs over every elf regarding their own mortality and their overall place in the universe as a manufactured species. The first elves, as well as all subsequent generations, have not aged a day since their 30th birthdays, remaining in a state of near-perfect health the entire time. As such, no one is entirely certain if elves can die of old age. Elves are immune to all pathogens and do not suffer from congenital diseases or deformities, so the only way for an elf to die appears to be through physical injuries, poisoning, and other external causes of death. Although they are in tune with the spirits of the Lonely Island and the environment around them, many elves worry that their biological immortality and created status brings them out of harmony with the universe overall. Aside from distancing themselves from the attitudes of their creators, many elves also practice a harmonious existence to alleviate some of this worry.

Religion: Strictly speaking, the elves do not practice any kind of religion or organized spiritual practice. The Arcane Order of the Walled Garden was composed of mostly anti-theists, people opposed to the worship of the powerful spirits and forces of the universe. The elves do not share this view, but were also never introduced to traditional religious ideas because of it. Despite this, most elves are deeply connected to their local communities, including the various spirits that inhabit and look over the natural features of the Lonely Island. As such, each elf is encouraged to find ways to commune with the spirits of their home and determine how to stay on good terms with them as individuals. Elves see these relationships as being similar to the relationships they maintain with other elves, and so see no reason for anyone other than individual concerned parties to take actions to appease local spirits. The end result of this approach to the spiritual world is that all elves end up with some kind of obligation to the spirits of their immediate home area, although there is a high degree of variability in what these obligations actually are. Some are quite minor, such as being sure to leave an offering of food at a shrine once each week, while others are more major, such as complex cleansing rituals that must be performed on a daily basis while staying in a certain place.

Towns: The elves have established four towns around the Lonely Island, each in one of the main environments of the island. The towns are simply referred to by the ecosystem they are in, making their names Rusted Plains Town, Bluesalt Marsh Town, Crusty Mountains Town, and Bronze Woods Town. To the untrained eye, it is nearly impossible to tell that one is in a constructed space, even in the center of a town. Even more impressive is that these towns are each home to a little over 1,000 elves, all completely hidden unless they wish to be seen. This is because all aspects of elf towns are constructed, through magic, to blend in and exist in perfect harmony with the surrounding environment. In the plains and the marsh, this usually means the creation of hills which living and working spaces can be constructed under, while areas with more trees tend to see towns that are built out of massive hollow trees.These towns have no true government and have built up based on complex networks of mutual obligation and assistance and free association. Any elf is free to enter, leave, and become the resident of any town at any time depending on their whims, they are simply expected to become members of the local community, establishing bonds with others and providing the benefits of their magical abilities as needed. Should an issue that impacts more than a few elves in a town ever arise, a meeting is called for all impacted parties to attend. At these meetings, only those with a reasonable stake in the issue are allowed to attend, but all those attending are entitled to have their opinion heard and understood by all others present, and after deliberations a vote is held on what to do about the issue. Whichever solution is able to get a simple majority of votes is what people are expected to do, and thus far no issues have arisen with this system because the elves who get outvoted tend to value being a part of the community and their mutual relationships over getting their way. Rarely, these meetings will be between entire towns, and once, shortly after the arrival of the farporters, a meeting was held for all 5,000 elves living on the Lonely Island, in which the vote of secrecy from the newcomers was held, resulting in the hidden nature of the elves. To this day, the elves have all held to the vote, however some are beginning to believe that the farporters are trustworthy enough to reveal themselves to. This is still a minority opinion, but it is slowly gaining popularity as the elves become more and more curious about their new neighbors.

The Farporters: Cultural Profile

Introduction: The farporters are relative newcomers to the Lonely Island, having established the city of Farport about 130 years ago. Consisting of mostly humans with a few disguised snake people living among them in secret, the farporters are the modern descendents of First Empire dissidents who wanted to get as far away from the influence of their homeland as they could. Farporter society has since evolved in direct opposition to First Empire culture, valuing community, struggle for the good of the many, and loyalty to each other. The farporters have taken these values to heart and undertaken the hard work of starting a new settlement in a remote area with little access to trade. The city of Farport has banned First Empire citizens and merchants, even from docking in the harbor, reducing their options to the few gnome merchants willing to make the voyage. This has made the farporters good at making due with the materials at hand and finding resources on the Lonely Island that they can replace an expensive trade good with. Today, despite setbacks such as the Terror’s Rampage and resulting famine, the people of Farport are beginning to feel they know the island well enough to start founding new settlements. More conservative segments of the population, however, are of the opinion that people should stay and help Farport grow and that the rest of the Lonely Island should be left to the Island Lord and his Holy Lieutenants. Whether or not new towns are founded on other parts of the island, the farporters overestimate their understanding of the island, not even being aware of the four elf towns which have been on the island for hundreds of years now.

Magic and Technology: While the farporters are descended from First Empire citizens, as are the sporadic influxes of new dissidents from the empire, the people of Farport tend to be luddites, eschewing much of the technology and magic of the First Empire in favor of doing things with their own bodies whenever possible. As a result, most farporters deliberately live with technology comparable to early 17th century Europe from the real world. The main exception to this is magic and technology for safety, healing, and construction, which farporters see a great deal of value in. In farport, the technology, enchanted items, and schools of magic are focused exclusively on healing, safety, and things that make constructing buildings easier. The Academy of Arcane Casting is the only established school of magic in Farport, and it only teaches people to cast spells which pertain to the three approved applications. The academy does, however, offer these lessons for free, provided each potential student is able to pass a rigorous entrance exam, all supported by community donations. Enchanters, on the other hand, work out of several shops throughout the city and take on apprentices with some regularity, although new apprentices must buy their way in and become a partial owner of the shop they apprentice in. Each shop tends to specialize in crafting items which are useful to just one of the three applications. Those Farporters who manifest magical talents and interests outside of the approved types are viewed with distrust, seen as individualists who want to grow their own power rather than use their skills to help those around them. This is considered an “imperial attitude” towards magic and often forces people to pursue their taboo studies in secret.
        Mages and enchanters, despite their importance to Farport, are relatively rare, with the vast majority of folks having their time taken up by assignments for the good of society such as hospital duty or construction work. Perhaps one in every 100 farporters is trained in magic, although mage services are freely available to those who need them so no one complains too much about a lack of numbers. One side effect of this is that people generally have a good opinion of those who graduate from the Academy of Arcane Casting, graduates of which are almost exclusively hired by the City of Farport and paid a comfortable wage to perform their work for the other residents of the city. This has resulted in a healthy population living in well-constructed homes who are able to ply their trades and explore their home island as much as they desire. Most people are unaware of the dangerous magical leftovers from the Arcane Order of the Walled Garden that are scattered around the Lonely Island, but if they were, they would probably want nothing to do with it.

Society: Farport, in direct contrast to how things are run in the First Empire, is not ruled by any one person or even any one group of people. Instead, the residents of each building in the city (businesses, shops, workshops, etc. excluded) are expected to provide a single representative in the Council of Many. This body of thousands of people, some the sole occupants of their homes, is expected to meet on the solstices and equinoxes of each year in order to hear policy petitions, vote on them, and perform other tasks such as interviewing prospective city officials like the captain of the guard or the city planner. Some representatives are more invested in the council than others. In order for any bill to be made law or a person to be appointed to a position, at least 80% of the Council of Many must approve. This high burden of acceptance is meant to ensure that no city policy or official is put in place without good reason. These officials and policies can be revoked at any time, however, if just 21% of councilors vote to revoke, a vote that is only held in emergency council sessions as needed.

        The cultural values that led to this form of government are loyalty, communalism, and the willingness to undergo hardships for others. These values can be seen in most structures and traditions in Farport. As dissidents from the more individualistic and cutthroat First Empire, farporters would rather live in opposition to such values. This can be seen in the main conflicts over whether or not to establish new settlements elsewhere on the Lonely Island. Those against new settlements argue that it would not only risk cutting people off from their sense of community with Farport, and thus the ties of loyalty, but that to do anything other than expand the space they’ve already claimed would be disloyal to the island and the spirits that govern it. Others say that one day Farport will need to stop or risk becoming a blight on the land, so they should be allowed to take on the struggle of creating more space for people to have less of an overall impact on the environment. Spiritual arguments back both sides of the debate, and the Council of Many has only ever reached 65% acceptance for any proposals of new settlements, despite being happy to fund dozens of expeditions into the Lonely Island each year. This is the biggest tension in Farport at the moment, but other than that, people tend to live peaceful, comfortable lives.

        Laws and city guards in Farport are rarely harsh, the only exceptions being made for those who even appear to show support for the First Empire. Farport maintains a robust social safety net and a healthy trading relationship with the gnomes. People have access to goods from all over Tero, and they have the money to pay for them because the city provides medical services and housing at no expense to residents other than a progressive income tax which results in the wealthiest farporters paying for the housing and medical care of the poorest farporters. People generally enjoy this arrangement and take pride in their city’s ability to take care of its residents. In day-to-day life, the only strict rules that ever seem to impact people are those against contact with current First Empire Citizens. Newer waves of residents from the First Empire often leave friends and family behind and wish to stay in touch. The founders of Farport established the rule of no contact, not even to trade for vital supplies, before they even landed on the Lonely Island, and this policy has remained in place ever since.

Religion: After leaving the influence of the First Imperial Cult and veneration of the First Emperor, most farporters are wary of religious belief and organized practice. Despite this, a local religion has developed. Some of the first settlers in Farport received visions of the locations of vital resources which the more spiritual of the early farporters attributed to a single spirit which governs the entirety of the Lonely Island, a figure they refer to as the Island Lord. The assumption was, based on the helpful visions, that the Island Lord favors the farporters and wishes for them to succeed. In return, there are eight different festivals of thanks each year to reaffirm Farport’s loyalty to the Island Lord while thanking their god for the gifts of the natural world he provides through the island. Most of these festivals consist of many offerings and elaborate sacrificial rituals to the god, intended to honor the Island Lord through complexity and decorum.

        Over time, explorers started to return from expeditions with tales of strange, unique creatures that live alone on the Lonely Island. Early members of the Church of the Island reasoned that such legendary beasts must be the lieutenants of the Island Lord, able to act within the material plane on behalf of their Lord. Several smaller cults, considered priestly orders of the overall religion, have been established to worship these legendary creatures, each of which is associated with a specific region of the island. The Armored Behemoth is said to roam the Rusted Plains, the Elephant Bird rules the Crusty Mountains, Shepherd Jim guards Big Bay, the Shoveltusker makes its home in the Bronze Woods, and the Terror of Farport is said to live deep within the Bluesalt Marsh. These priestly orders make up the organized portion of the religious community, maintaining calendars of holidays particular to their chosen lieutenant, the celebration of which is optional, unlike the 8 festivals dedicated to the Island Lord. One such priestly order, the Behemoth’s Children, not only venerates the Armored Behemoth, but has developed a form of martial arts based on their subject of worship. This is unique among the priestly orders of the Lonely Island, but they have never caused any trouble so no one really bats an eye at them.

Farport: Farport is a growing, bustling city that sits on the North bank of the Iron River, at the point where it empties into Big Bay. Although relatively young compared to other cities of Tero, the occasional influx of new settlers and the steady growth of the existing population has caused Farport to grow into a decent-sized city of roughly 100,000 people. Construction teams are able to keep up with this growth through magical means, utilizing mages and magic items to essentially grow buildings out of the ground fully formed. Housing and healthcare are provided to residents free of charge, they just need to be registered with the tax office and up to date on their income tax payments, which is not usually an issue. People are happy to send representatives to the Council of Many, the governing body of the city, and important city services are staffed and led by competent people. Most residents of Farport are quite happy to live there. The only strict rules are around First Empire citizens being banned from entering or docking in the city while residents cannot have any contact with current citizens, even by mail. This is tough on some people, but every time reversing the policy has been suggested, not nearly enough votes were cast to abolish the policies.

        To support such a large population, thousands of acres of farms have been established in the Rusted Plains around Farport, growing food crops that are native to the Lonely Island which can tolerate the high iron content of the soils south of the Crusty mountains. Rustroot is the most common crop and a staple food for the people of Farport due to its highly nutritious, tuberous roots. Other crops grown for food include red sunflowers, the seeds of which are used for oil and turned into flour, and the sweet yucca, which produces fibrous leaves that can be woven into cloth and a sweet fruit that can be eaten either raw or cooked. There are some farporters who get their meat by hunting metallic kangaroos out in the Rusted Plains, however most get their protein from imported, preserved meats and fish. Supplying such a large population with imported protein is one of the jobs of the massive port that gives Farport its name and acts as the only access most people have to the world outside the Lonely Island. Anything that cannot be produced on the island must be imported, and some domestic products are of an inferior quality to equivalent items from other parts of the world. While few gnome merchant companies have ever chosen to make regular voyages to Farport and First Empire merchants are banned from doing business entirely, that has not been an issue as the few gnome companies that chose to make the initial voyages have prospered and grown greatly. These once-small trading companies now maintain merchant fleets of hundreds of ships, built off of their near-monopoly on trade with the farporters. Not only do the people of Farport spend a lot of money on goods that wouldn’t be worth trading in other places, but the medicines and enchanted medical instruments that they produce have gained a worldwide reputation for their quality and efficacy. The native foods of the Lonely Island and the unique fabrics woven from dyed sweet yucca thread are also sold as exotic goods abroad, making the trade relationship fairly balanced overall.

The Lonely Island: Setting Details

Introduction: The Lonely Island is a remote, poorly-known island far away from any other landmass on Tero. Due to its extreme isolation and large size, the diverse habitats of the Lonely Island have produced a number of highly unique ecosystems such as the Rusted Plains, the Bluesalt Marsh, and the Bronze Woods. Contributing to this high level of biological uniqueness is the lack of interference from the outside world that the island experiences. Ancient lizard folk settled on the island and persisted after their great catastrophe, but like there kin in other parts of the world, the ancient lizard folk were content to adapt to the resources at hand rather than import new plants and animals, so all they have left behind is buildings which today sit in ruin. This time without major disruption came to an end, however, with the arrival of the Arcane Order of the Walled Garden. At the time of their arrival, these mages were exiles from the recently-formed First Empire with the goal of developing magical weapons to use in some future attempt at revenge for their exile. The magical experiments of the Walled Garden irreversibly changed many aspects of the island, creating strange magical scars in the landscape that still cause harm hundreds of years on. Among the victims of these experiments were the lizard folk of the Lonely Island, wiped out by target practice and augmentation attempts. The Arcane Order of the Walled Garden would receive justice, however, in the form of their own creations.

        The elves were an attempt to create an army of naturally magical, immortal fighters to serve the Walled Garden and its goals. Luckily for the people of the world, the first elves recognized the darkness behind their creators’ eyes and revolted, killing all of the members of the order and leaving all of their facilities abandoned. The majority of the elves chose to stay on the island, fearing that the other people of the outside world were the same as their creators, and founded several towns to live in harmony with their environments and try to heal some of the damage done by the Walled Garden. While some elves chose to explore the world, the majority have chosen to stay in their homeland, the reason why elves remain such an obscure and mysterious species to this day. The elves and their history remain a secret even to the community of humans which have settled on the island due to their distrust of outsiders, particularly humans, so it is no wonder that most people in the world are unaware that the elves originated on the Lonely Island.

        Today, the people of Farport, the sole human settlement of the Lonely Island, continue to explore and try to understand the new home their ancestors chose 130 years ago. After more than a century of difficulties and famines, the farporters are considering acting on their decades of exploration and sending people to found new towns around the island. With this increased interest in the rest of the Lonely Island, the people of Farport are encountering the dangerous creatures, natural features, and magical leftovers of the island in larger numbers than ever before. Although most people would be discouraged by the tales of elf towns and gigantic creatures that return to Farport, the cultural value placed on collective struggles means that there is always an ample supply of people willing to do difficult things for the good of their community. Lacking any successful new settlements, the farporters have not started expanding yet, but when they inevitably do, it is likely that they will come into conflict with the elves, the creatures, and even the environments of the Lonely Island.

Geographic History: The Lonely Island has always been an island, never once in its history connecting to another landmass. The island of today straddles a rift between diverging tectonic plates which has not only produced a large number of earthquakes and hotsprings over the years, but the island itself. A few hundred million years ago, the Lonely Island first erupted above the waves as the slow process of volcanic buildup at the rift brought the highest sections of oceanic crust into the air. Over time, these mountains built up into the Crusty Mountains of today, splitting the Lonely Island into its rainier North side and drier South Side. To this day there are active volcanoes, earthquakes, and hotsprings caused by this rift and which residents must contend with. This volcanism actually means that the Lonely Island is slowly growing as its two halves move apart, although this growth is inhibited by the only slightly slower rate of erosion that the edges of the island experience because of the ocean. After its initial emergence, the long distance to the nearest land resulted in a long period of barrenness on the Lonely Island that was exacerbated by the high concentrations of metals in many of the rocks and soils of the island. The southern portion of the island is rich in iron while the northern and western regions are rich in copper and tin. These unique soils have not only produced an environment that is difficult for plants and animals to adapt to, but one which actively poisons those plants which cannot utilize or filter out the metals in the soil. Several unique ecosystems have developed around these different soils and levels of precipitation which include strange plants, animals, and even a few beasts which seem entirely unique to the island.

        One of the stranger and less well-understood environments of the Lonely Island is the Bronze Woods, a forest which covers all of the land north of the Crusty Mountains and which is primarily composed of bronzeleaf trees. These trees have leaves that are embedded with a network of bronze mesh, produced by extracting the necessary metals from the soil, which protects the photosynthetic portions of the leaves and makes them inedible to all but the one group of creatures which has gained the ability to digest them, the ballistic possums. These creatures are a diverse group of marsupials which have developed tube-like snouts made of thick bone and muscle which can not only crush and swallow the leaves of the bronzeleaf trees, but launch balls of bronze extracted from their food at lethal speeds. These creatures are the dominant group in the Bronze Woods, coming in many sizes from the tiny pistol possums to the massive ground-dwelling artillery possums. The bark of the bronzeleaf trees is, like the leaves, a mixture of bronze and plant material which renders the bark of the trees not only as strong as bronze but inedible to all but the most specialized of species. Bronze-billed woodpeckers, with their metal beaks, are able to penetrate this protective layer to eat the metallic sap of the trees, but little else is able to feed on the trees, save for whatever is able to access the deep roots of the tree, the only parts not embedded with bronze. Other, more conventional plants exist in the region as well, but all grow in the shade of the bronzeleaf trees, many of them even siphoning nutrients from the roots of the trees they grow under. The low number of conventional plants means that the herbivorous artillery possums and bronze-billed woodpeckers make up the base of the food web with several different predators and scavengers making up the rest of the large animal residents. Some of these predators are found on all parts of the island, such as the saber-toothed ferrets, while others are more particular to the area, like bronze-taloned hawks, which prey upon bronze-billed woodpeckers and smaller ballistic possums.

        On the southern side of the Crusty Mountains, contrary to the lush, metallic forests of the rainier north, are the reddish hues of the Rusted Plains. These plains are covered in a reddish sea of irongrass, a plant which grows crystals of iron oxide within its leaves to wear down the teeth of herbivores, as well as poison them if they cannot stomach the metal. The sea of red grass is punctuated by patches of more conventional grasses and bushes which provide valuable sources of food for the non-grazing herbivores of the region. The stilted rats, herbivorous rodents with long, spindly limbs to let them see above the grass, move from green patch to green patch, eating whatever they can as they stay on the lookout for packs of the massive saber-toothed ferrets. Of all of the species endemic to this region, the most impressive may be the metallic kangaroos. These animals form large herds which roam the Rusted Plains, grazing on the irongrass and incorporating much of the iron into their fur, which has a shiny, metallic quality that reflects heat and sunlight off of the animals on hot days while collecting and radiating body heat back onto the animals on colder days. The kangaroos are often too big for any but the largest groups of saber-toothed ferrets to attempt to take down, but plains chameleons, massive, solitary ambush predators, are able to use their color-changing scales and projectile tongues to get the drop on herds of kangaroos and pick one or two of them off.

        To the west of the Rusted Plains is the Bluesalt Marsh. Here, the waters of the Bluestream not only spill out to soak the entire region on a regular basis, but they deposit copper leached from the rocks and soils of the headwaters, which precipitates into a crust of blue salt that covers the more stagnant areas of the marsh. Here, very few plants are able to cope with the crust of blue salt, save for some hardy mosses and horsetails. These plants are soaked in copper and are poisonous to pretty much everything on the island, so the area is mostly home to birds which take advantage of the otherwise empty area to build their nests. A few creatures have moved in to take advantage of this, but little more than a species of saber-toothed ferret which lives a solitary life and raids bird nests for food. There are tales of a creature which roams the marsh and plucks whatever unlucky birds it can catch, however not everyone is sure that it exists.

        Dividing the island are the Crusty Mountains, a mountain range as old as the Lonely Island itself. Most of the hotsprings on the island are found among these volcanic peaks, but travelers must be wary because the frequent earthquakes of the Lonely Island also tend to cause frequent rockslides as well. Truly unlucky travelers may even be caught in a volcanic eruption, something that is rare on the timescale of a human life but which happens fairly regularly over the course of decades and centuries. Although these volcanic eruptions provide the density of nutrients which allow many plants to survive despite high amounts of soil metals, they have built up to a point in the mountains themselves that the soils are mostly free of the metals found in the more shallow soils of the rest of the island. Because of this, the Crusty Mountains are home to a rather conventional pine forest as well as smaller, mountain-adapted varieties of many of the animals from around the island. Mountain rats, shorter than the stilted rats of the plains, can be found here, browsing and avoiding saber-toothed ferrets much like their plain-dwelling kin. A few species of ballistic possum have also adapted to this environment, consuming pine needles and firing balls of hardened pine resin instead of bronze, but which are still deadly. The Crusty Mountains act as a meeting point for the ecosystems of the island, allowing for visitors to see parts of the entire locale while still experiencing a unique ecosystem unto itself. Of the inhabitants of the Lonely Island, those such as the lizard folk and the elves chose to live in harmony with the unique environments they found themselves in, the Arcane Order of the Walled Garden tried to master them and only ended up causing harm, and it still remains to be seen what impact the farporters will end up having.

Farporters: The farporters are a group of humans which arrived on the Lonely Island about 130 years ago as disillusioned dissidents of the First Empire, in many ways mirroring the Arcane Order of the Walled Garden from hundreds of years before. Luckily, the farporters are more interested in their own survival than developing magical weapons, so they have spent most of their time exploring, learning, and building up their city, Farport. Farport itself is on the banks of the Iron River near the point where it empties into Big Bay. This is not only the place that the initial group of farporters landed their boats, but it is also an excellent natural harbor that provides plenty of deep water for merchant ships to dock in. This is important as the farporters, despite developing a culture in which they help each other to overcome the challenges of their environment, are not able to produce everything they need to survive on their own. For example, while several local food crops are being cultivated for human consumption, no one has been able to tame metallic kangaroos, the only viable livestock that can eat the local irongrass. This means that the vast majority of the meat eaten by farporters takes the form of either imported, preserved meats or fish. The farporters’ cultural values of collectivism and loyalty are evident in many of the structures of their society, such as the Church of the Island, which is devoted to showing loyalty to their island home and the spirits that govern it through rituals and sacrifices at certain times of the year, as well as festivals that are celebrated by the entire city of Farport. In general, the farporters are kind people who are content to help each other to survive in their challenging environment, although there are always some who long for more and wish to go on adventures and find new places for people on the island to settle.

Elves: Elven existence is governed by a deep, pervasive sense of unease. Aside from the fact that they were created to be the magical army of power-hungry wizards, all information on how the elves were created and what their biology is intended to be like was lost in their uprising against the Arcane Order of the Walled Garden. As a result, no elf is aware of anything about their species save for whatever was passed on orally and whatever has been determined through observation and experimentation since the overthrow of their creators. The things elves know about themselves are that they were created through a terrible, evil breeding program run by the Walled Garden; each of them is born with pointed ears and random skin, hair, and eye colors that can each be any color one can imagine; every elf is born with a unique magical ability that they can use at will, as often as they like; elf women can only get pregnant on the solstices; elves cannot get sick or fall ill; it takes roughly 30 years for an elf to reach full maturity, at which point they cease to age and can only be killed through injuries and poisons. Other than these things, the elves are ignorant of themselves and must learn and define on their own. This unease and discomfort with the purpose behind their creation has resulted in a paradoxically good-natured, relaxed, and peaceful culture which cultivates compassion for others and the environment at all times. Lacking any kind of religious tradition due more to ignorance than anything else, the elves have come upon this lifestyle more out of opposition to their creators than anything else. Going with this philosophy, the elves have settled into four towns around the Lonely Island, one for each of the main ecosystems of the island, and built them into the landscape so that at a glance, each town seems to be formed from their surrounding environments, even being mistaken for natural formations by the particularly naive and whimsical. Some elves prefer to travel and see other parts of the world, but for many of them, they are quite happy to live in their towns and practice a harmonious existence with each other and the world around them.

Rough Timeline

• 4,000 years ago- The ancient lizard folk civilization collapses, a few groups persist on the Lonely Island
• 1,000 years ago- The Arcane Order of the Walled Garden, a group that had been the main challengers against the now-immortal First Emperor, are ousted from the newly formed First Empire and forced to find a new base of operations
• 964 years ago- The Arcane Order of the Walled Garden settles on the Lonely Island, then untouched by humans, with the initial plan of developing magical weapons to take revenge on the First Emperor
• 960 years ago- The last Lonely Island lizard folk are murdered in magical experiments after being captured by the Arcane Order of the Walled Garden
• 592 years ago- The first elf is born on the Lonely Island, marking the first success in one of the Walled Garden's many projects.
• 560 years ago- the first generation of elves reaches physical, mental, and magical maturity, allowing them to overthrow the Arcane Order of the Walled Garden, kill every single member, and abandon all of the organization's facilities to form their own small society
• 130 years ago- Dissidents from the First Empire arrive and found the colony of Farport, unaware of the island's history of habitation or the existence of the elves
• 126 years ago- The elf villages convene and agree to stay hidden from the Farporters until they have proven that they are no danger to the elves
• 125 years ago- The Church of the Island is founded, worshiping the island itself and the multiple unique beasts of the island as a chief god and its lieutenants, respectively 
• 50 years ago- the Terror of Farport eats all of the food in Farport, resulting in a massive famine which is commemorated by a statue of the beast
• 6 years ago- While exploring the island, a man named Frederico Buscando discovers an abandoned Arcane Order of the Walled Garden facility and the ancient magics inside, forming the Thieves in the Garden along with several of his close confidants on his return to Farport in order to organize more expeditions to go out and take Walled Garden artifacts

Major Factions
Farporters- The residents of Farport, descended mostly from the original First Empire dissidents that founded the city but bolstered by sporadic groups who are similarly trying to escape tyranny. The Farporters have developed a culture based on collective struggle and loyalty. Their only settlement is Farport, although there are regular Farporter expeditions into the Lonely Island's interior. Lately, the leaders of these expeditions have made claims that they are scouting locations for new settlements, although people aren't sure if enough people would be interested in moving to make such an endeavor worth it.

Elves- The elves are the result of the experiments of the Arcane Order of the Walled Garden and because many of them participated in the overthrow of their creators, they are generally cautious of outsiders, especially those with magical knowledge. The elves have 6 towns hidden around the Lonely Island, each of which is blended with the local landscape to show coexistence rather than mastery over the land. This is a direct reaction to the attitudes of the Walled Garden wizards. Shortly after the arrival of the Farporters, the elves decided to keep their existence hidden from them until the humans showed themselves to be trustworthy and safe. This was over 100 years ago and the majority of elves are still withholding judgment until more evidence can be collected.

The Thieves in the Garden- 6 years ago, Frederico Buscando discovered and survived the ruins of a Walled Garden facility. He went on to get whoever he could trust to join him in forming an organization that goes out and finds Walled Garden ruins to loot. Currently, the group is collecting resources and magical artifacts with the goal of revealing themselves and gaining power in some way once a certain threshold of wealth and magic has been reached.

The Behemoth's Children- A group of warriors who venerate the Armored Behemoth. They maintain a shrine and school of martial arts in Farport where they give offerings of diamonds and high-carbon steel to the Armored Behemoth in the hopes that it will grant them durability in battle like it has. The group is known for wearing heavy armor at all times, even while training, and using spiked clubs as weapons.

Gnome Merchants- The people of Farport, as First Empire deserters, have banned First Empire traders and merchants from doing business in the city, leaving room for a few enterprising gnomes to step in. While there are rumors that some of these merchants are tied to the Gnomish Mafia that is present in other places, none of these rumors have been found true yet.

Fleance the Dragon- Fleance is a massive purple dragon who has lived on the Lonely island for 10,000 years. He lives in a cave which can only be accessed from the highest peak of the island and remembers the rise and fall of the ancient lizard folk, among many other major events that have been forgotten by the historians of modern societies. Fleance is quite active and can frequently be seen flying over the island, although he mostly stays to the Rusted Plains, where he can hunt his preferred prey, metallic kangaroos. Inside his lair, Fleance has amassed the world's largest collection of medicinal plants. Over the course of the last 10,000 years, Fleance has had time to set up rooms to perfectly imitate all of the natural environments of Tero so that he can maintain a living collection that he can harvest from and preserve in various ways. While Fleance's personal collecting is limited to the Lonely Island, he will occasionally arrange to have plants from other areas brought to him, allowing him to have medicinal plants from all over the world. Fleance's collection includes many plants that are otherwise extinct, many of which also have strange, potent magical effects. Fleance is generally unwilling to share anything from his collection with anyone other than those he considers his equals, which is mostly other dragons.

The Church of the Island- Shortly after their arrival on the island, some of the more spiritual members of the original group of farporters started to receive visions of the locations of useful resources. These visions were attributed to a single spirit which looks and has power over the Lonely Island, and spirit known as the Island Lord. As people started to return from expeditions to remote parts of the island with reports of strange and unique creatures, these devotees took them to be lieutenants of the Island Lord who protect and maintain different parts of the island on behalf of their Lord. The Church of the Island venerates these beasts along with the Island Lord, seeing them as integral parts of the holy ecosystem they rely on as residents of the island. The farporter values of collectivism and loyalty show in church doctrine as a recognition of their place within the greater ecosystem of the Lonely Island and a sense of loyalty to the Island Lord for overseeing and managing this ecosystem.

The Vibes Are Strange

 This is a bit of a departure from the usual content I post here, but I have made a short comic book. I consider myself an amateur cartoonist, so expect short, hopefully funny little comics. I am terrible at drawing backgrounds, so the whole thing is done in collages, which was actually a lot of fun to make. The PDF is pay what you want, so feel free to download it for free even.

https://cursed-gm.itch.io/the-vibes-are-strange

The Dusterinos: Cultural Profile

Introduction:
    The Dusterinos are a hardy, independent folk who are renowned for their mastery of survival in the Sea of Dust, one of the most inhospitable environments on the planet of Tero. Every year, the Dusterinos endure a brutal dry season without rainfall, and then an equally as brutal wet season with afternoon thunderstorms that bring flash floods, high winds, and even hail and tornadoes. Dusterino culture celebrates logic, observation, and knowledge of the natural world, seeing these as the three most important things one can take into the desert for the annual season of wandering. The dry season is spent in small, independent towns and villages built around springs and oases that can provide fresh water through the sedentary season. This traditional lifestyle is a part of an ascetic religious philosophy within the religion of the Dusterinos, Dusterism, which overtook and unified the Dusterinos around 1,000 years ago. Today, the Dusterinos seem mostly content to live without the conveniences of advanced magic and technology, although there is a small, growing movement of Dusterinos who wish to live a settled life and trade with the merchants from the First Empire for various comforts. This new movement is still small, but it has the support of the merchants, themselves all too excited to start exploiting the Dusterinos for cactus water which is sold as a health drink in the First Empire heartland.

Magic and Technology:
    Much like their Convergent Wanderer forebears, the Dusterinos seem to have little use for advanced magic or technology when they spend about half the year wandering and they need to pack light. Unlike the Convergent Wanderers, though, the Dusterinos spend half the year in small towns built around the few reliable sources of water in the Sea of Dust. This allows the Dusterinos to build some permanent infrastructure and produce things like steel tools and weapons to make the season of wandering easier. By the same token, some Dusterinos use the settled season to study and practice magic, with enchanted items and spellcasting having a minor presence in most villages. Despite these material and magical practices all going back thousands of years, the small population of Dusterinos and cultural tendency to wander, even before it became a religious mandate, has given these developments a certain focus.
    Technological progress has always been hyper-focused on developing technologies which can help people survive in the Sea of Dust. Portable shelters which can be set up and taken down in minutes and which are large enough to shelter up to 8 adults while being light enough for a single person to carry have been around for a long time. The weapon of choice for the majority of Dusterinos is something that was brought over more recently with some of the Ashmount Herder exiles, the rifle. By utilizing mines close to some of the villages, the raw materials for new rifles, bullets, and gunpowder can be easily obtained during the dry season. The rifles produced and used by the Dusterinos for both hunting and warfare are known as dusterifles. Dusterifles are breech-loading, bolt action rifles which can hold and fire a single bullet, equivalent to a real-world 9mm round, before needing to be reloaded. Some Dusterino gunsmiths have experimented with higher capacity dusterifles, but these have not caught on. Outside of these well-developed tents and weapons, Dusterinos are happy to use more basic knives and tools, in line with the ascetic lifestyle their religion demands.
    Like their technology, Dusterino magic tends to be focused on what is useful for desert survival. Spells and enchanted items which help people find and purify water are the most common, followed by magic to heal people and mend objects. These magics are usually passed down to the next generation from older members of the Dusterino community. Most never bother to learn, but there are always a few students learning from their elders during the dry season. More powerful magics are generally seen as a waste of time by the Dusterinos, but there are a few lone individuals who have chosen to leave dusterino culture entirely to study magic deep in the desert. These wizards usually act strange and eccentric due to their lack of social contact, but each of them seems to have found a different obsession, researching and developing magic solely related to that. This has resulted in a rather negative view of wizards in Dusterino culture, the stereotype being that of a mad hermit living in the deep desert, so detached from reality that they believe their mastery of obscure and specific magic will let them take over the world. This is not wholly accurate, but Dusterino wizards do tend to be a bit strange.

Society:
    Dusterino society has spent the last couple centuries in a self-imposed state of theocratic anarchy. About 500 years ago, the leaders of the Dusterist Union agreed to dissolve their government due to irrelevance. Religious belief and practice had resulted in much of the population wandering the desert in small family groups for half the year, with the expectation that they would be self-sufficient for this time. Towns and villages, usually populated by a few extended families during the settled season, were self-governing at this point as well. As part-time nomads themselves, the last leaders of the Dusterist Union saw no reason to fight a losing battle and chose to let towns and villages be fully self-reliant and independent when they were populated, while getting out of the way of the nomads during the wet season so that individual families could deal with issues as they came up.
    This state of affairs has apparently worked fine for centuries, with the vast majority of Dusterinos choosing to follow the religious mandates to live humbly and wander for half the year. Within the last few years, however, a woman named Serena has started calling herself the third reincarnation of the prophet, claiming to speak on behalf of the god of the Dusterinos, Ol’ Dusty. Serena preaches a fully settled lifestyle which takes advantage of the comforts of magic and technology. In her words, Ol’ Dusty wants the Dusterinos to be comfortable and happy, allowing them to better pursue the studies of logic and the natural world. Serena sees wandering the Sea of Dust as an important rite of passage for each Dusterino, but she says it does not need to be done every year. More conservative segments of society hold their noses up at this radical philosophy, claiming that it is foolishness that will only deplete the limited resources of the dry season settlements. Serena argues that the Dusterinos have mastered the techniques needed to supplement their water supplies with other sources such as ground and rainwater. Other supplies can be bought from First Empire merchants with the cactus water they want to sell back in their homeland. To keep supplies flowing, Serena even claims that cactuses can be farmed and harvested from without taking precious water away from the towns.
    For the most part, more traditional Dusterinos tolerate Serena and her followers, seeing them as a small group of weirdos who won’t ever be able to gain influence. Although Serena is a radical and an outcast by Dusterino standards, she still preaches the importance of logic, observation, and knowledge, maintaining a lot of common ground with those who are committed to their annual wanderings. No one, except for the very young and old, stays in the towns during the wet season, allowing Serena’s followers to stay behind unchallenged and pursue their new way of life. Since each town maintains its own rules during the dry season, formal recognition of this growing movement varies greatly between settlements. Some towns have set up brand new systems of government to accommodate year-round residency, while others have no recognition of their permanent residents and they are left on their own when most of the town leaves for the wet season. Some groups have seen the recent growth of Serena’s group of radicals and feel like their traditional way of life is being threatened. While this is not necessarily the case, tensions have been rising and there are people on both sides who feel that it is only a matter of time before violence erupts. Until then, tolerance continues and peace is upheld.

Religion:
    The religion of the Dusterinos, known as Dusterism, is practiced by almost all Dusterinos and centers on the worship of a god known as Ol’ Dusty, the collective consciousness of all of the grains of sand in the Sea of Dust. There is no organized system of worship or religious order associated with Dusterism, but rather the teachings of Ol’ Dusty have been passed on to the other Dusterinos by prophets who speak on behalf of their god. Stella, the first prophet, was the originator of Dusterism 4,000 years ago. She was the first person Ol’ Dusty ever revealed himself to, and her teachings are recorded and passed on in a document known as “The Book of Stella”. There was a second prophet, Starla, 2,000 years ago who claimed it was Ol’ Dusty’s will for all Dusterinos to be united under a single banner, and so she started the second unifying war to expand the Dusterist Union and follow the will of Ol’ Dusty. Starla’s teachings are recorded in a book known as “The Book of Starla” so that future generations of Dusterinos may always be able to access her wisdom. Today, Serena is claiming to be the third coming of the prophet, calling for a return to the settled lifestyles that the Dusterinos lived thousands of years ago. While her prophethood is still in question, many believe Serena to truly be the third coming of the Dusterino Prophet.
    Without any kind of formal rituals or priests, Dusterism is a religion that is mostly practiced by reading the books of the prophets and living a life that cultivates the skills needed to survive in the desert for extended periods. Most Dusterinos see the teachings of the prophets as desert survival guides couched in philosophy and morality. Regardless, the followers of Dusterism have always seemed to have an easier time in the desert than others, so anyone who doesn’t believe in Ol’ Dusty and his prophets tends to follow Dusterism out of pragmatic self-preservation. That said, there is a more mystical side to Dusterism as well. The prophets all teach that all Dusterinos are inherently tied to the desert and that when they die, their souls become one with Ol’ Dusty and the sands of the Sea of Dust until the appropriate time for their souls to be reincarnated back into the Dusterino population.
    The most devoted followers of the more mystic teachings of the prophets believe that there is a way to achieve enlightenment, becoming one with Ol’ Dusty while alive and gaining absolute control over the Sea of Dust. Through deep meditation and solitude in the deepest parts of the deserts, these Dusterino mystics hope to achieve this state, although no one has ever managed to do it. What seems to happen more often than not is that one who is on the cusp of enlightenment is subsumed by Ol’ Dusty, dissolving their body into sand as they fail to wrest conscious control of the desert away from their god. Ultimately, each mystic has their own goals for achieving enlightenment and gaining absolute power over the desert. Most simply wish to gain a complete understanding of it, while others have more sinister goals. One day, one of them may attain full enlightenment, but until then, they meditate in the deep desert, hoping to succeed where so many have failed.

Towns:
    Each Dusterino town or village is built around a permanent oasis or freshwater spring which is able to produce enough fresh water to sustain a group of several extended families for the duration of the dry season each year. When they are inhabited, the towns are independent and self-sufficient, rarely communicating or trading with each other. By tradition, each extended family in a given settlement is able to elect one representative to a town council for the duration of the settled season. This council exists to hear and pass judgment on conflicts, petitions, and policy proposals that their people bring to them. Their decisions are binding, but only for the duration of the settled period of the year, and those who dislike the decision are free to start their annual wanderings early if they no longer wish to be bound by the ruling. Year to year, the councils tend to have the same members and goals, resulting in a great deal of stability for a nominally anarchist society. Each town is under no obligation to have any particular laws or policies so the laws and practices in each town can be wildly divergent and diverse. Because of this, some towns are much more open to the growth of Prophet Serena’s followers than others, with policies spanning the spectrum from complete persecution to full acceptance and adoption of Serena’s teachings.
    As far as taking in outsiders goes, some villages are more welcoming than others. All Dusterino settlements are concerned with maintaining the sustainable use of their water sources, and this has led some to be less welcoming to outsiders under the concern that they will be too much of a burden on their food and water. While this has presented an obstacle to travelers and merchants in the past, the attitude is becoming less common over time. The Dusterinos are generally curious about outsiders, sharing their culture and stories in exchange for the same from the outsiders. Merchants seem to have a hard time making money in Dusterino villages due to a focus on traveling light during the wet season, but thanks to Serena and her followers, this is slowly changing. As more people start to follow her teachings, more cactus farms spring up, providing more cactus water for the merchants to buy up. This is creating a quickly growing technology and culture gap between those who follow the new prophet and those who follow the traditional Dusterino lifestyle, a technology gap which is causing increased concern among the avowed traditionalists. More traditional towns feel like their independence and way of life is being threatened, and it is possible that this conflict will result in violence in the near future.

The Sea of Dust: Setting Details

Introduction:
    The sea of dust is a massive desert which lies between the Tortoise Herd and Coda Mountains. This region is hilly and sits at a higher elevation than the surrounding areas, with no major rivers, or really any rivers at all, which go through it. Additionally, its location between two large mountain ranges on its east and west puts the Sea of Dust inside of both rain shadows, resulting in very little and very rare rainfall. When it does rain, it comes in massive thunderstorms from the north and south during the wet season, which can quickly overwhelm the capacity for the soil to absorb moisture, resulting in flash floods. Very few permanent settlements exist among the shifting sands and cactuses, but a single group of humans, the Dusterinos, have managed to build a thriving society of semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers who spend the hottest, driest parts of the year in settlements built around extremely rare oases and springs and the rest of the year wandering the sands and gathering food and water from the few wild sources they can find. There are, understandably, rather few Dusterinos considering the size of the territory they claim. No one else, however, wants to live where they do, so their way of life has been mostly undisturbed by outsiders for thousands of years.

Geographic History:
      The Sea of Dust has been a dry, hostile desert for millions of years, ever since the end of the last ice age. When Tero was much colder and had permanent ice caps, the Sea of Dust was quite green and pleasant. Since then, the area has become much hotter due to the now-warmer climate of Tero and annual rainfall has gone down as the Ashmount Range has slowly grown. These forces worked together to eventually bake the land into the massive expanse of scrub and dunes that people see today. The region contains a wealth of fossils from groups of animals that have since left to colonize more hospitable places. Today, the Sea of Dust represents a major boundary to the spread of plants and animals, an apparent reversal of its role in the deep past. What plants and animals that remain today are hardy and tough, being able to survive for years, in many cases, without any liquid water. The most notable of these are the cactuses of the region which have evolved to store vast amounts of water within their stems, along with single-humped camels which seem to be the descendents of llamas who adapted to the desert as it dried out rather than leave for the mountains. As one of the few animals able to eat cactuses, spines and all, camels are the most common herbivore in the Sea of Dust.
    A few species from the northern reaches of the Great Convergence have adapted to the desert and now live throughout it. These include raccoon-wolves, which tend to have a thinner coat with sandy colors to match the desert, and ducks, of all things. Exactly one group of ducks from the Great Convergence has moved to the desert, getting used to the lack of water, losing the webbing between their toes, and becoming what are now known as lost ducks. Tiny flocks of lost ducks roam the Sea of Dust looking for insects and edible plant matter to eat with their relatively sharp and narrow bills. Additionally, several species which are common in the Ashmount Range to the west have found that their adaptations for the dry, volcanic mountains also work quite well in the Sea of Dust. The most notable of these creatures is the burrowing bear. These creatures which originated in the loose, ashy soils of the Ashmount Range, have found their massive claws and thick skulls well-suited to the loose sands that cover most of the Sea of Dust. The end result of all this migration is that the desert is home to a surprisingly diverse array of animals on its margins, although diversity begins to drop off sharply the deeper one gets into the dunes. Dusterino myth states that the very center of the desert is so dry that even the hardiest of plants and animals will dry out within a matter of days, the thirsty air sucking the water right out of them.

The Dusterinos:
    Dusterino culture was originally born from a mix of Convergent Wanderers from the Great Convergence and Ashmount Herders from the Ashmount Range. Outcasts from the two groups were forced to survive on the edges of the Sea of Dust for hundreds of years without support, eventually learning the ways of desert survival and developing their own, unique set of beliefs and traditions. Today, the Dusterinos are semi-nomadic, spending the dry season in towns built around oases and springs. The rest of the year, the Dusterinos roam the Sea of Dust, foraging and hunting for their food in small family groups. Although there is rarely any kind of surface water in the desert, the relatively wet and cool season of wandering is when large cactuses can be tapped for water. This time of year is also when game species are most active in the area, allowing families to stock up on food for the dry season in the towns. Being in tune with the cycles of nature like this is very important to the Dusterinos. Dusterino culture values factual knowledge about the natural world, the application of logic to practical issues, and the ability to observe the world around oneself accurately. They believe that these qualities are imperative to surviving in the desert and that their god, the collective consciousness of all of the grains of sand in the Sea of Dust, rewards those who display such qualities with good health and bountiful harvests. Dusterinos do not have much interaction with the outside world, since merchants have very little that interests the Dusterinos and the Dusterinos do not seem to produce anything of interest to the merchants. The sea of dust is fairly easy for merchants to go around without going through the desert, so there aren’t very many opportunities for trade anyway. This seems to suit the Dusterinos just fine, however, and they seem to be happy with their way of life. They are generally distrustful of magic and technology, preferring to live life simply in the desert. All of this may be changing, however, as the merchants recently realized they can sell the water tapped from cactuses during the wet season to people back home as a health drink.

Rough Timeline

• 6,000 years ago- The Convergent Wanderers move into the Great Convergence to the south of the Sea of Dust and begin exiling outcasts and criminals to the vast desert
• 5,000 years ago- The goat and sheep herders of the Ashmount Range to the west of the Sea of Dust first arrive in their mountainous home and begin exiling outcasts and criminals to the vast desert
• 4,800 years ago- The first generation to call themselves Dusterinos is born, taking on the label as they recognize that they have developed a distinct culture and way of life from their two source groups
• 4,300 years ago- Clive the Great begins the first unifying war after generations of violent conflict between the various Dusterino towns and villages, which were permanently inhabited at the time
• 4,250 years ago- After Clive the Great dies with only a single oasis outside of his unified Dusterino Kingdom, his son, Giles the Finisher, takes command and captures the town, unifying all Dusterinos under the rulership of a single king
• 4,000 years ago- Dusterism, the belief in and worship of the collective consciousness of all of the grains of sand in the Sea of Dust, referred to as Ol’ Dusty, begins as the result of the efforts of a woman named Stella, who claims to be the first and only prophet of Ol’ Dusty
• 3,670 years ago- After centuries of persecution and hardship, the towns and villages which have adopted Dusterism are allowed to secede from the Dusterino Kingdom by King Billy the Tolerant
• 3,500 years ago- Dusterino settlements which have adopted Dusterism join together into the Dusterist Union
• 2,400 years ago- After nearly a millennium of decline, the Dusterino Kingdom fractures into many smaller kingdoms as Jesse the Protuberant dies without an heir and no one seems interested in taking over more than a small chunk of the desert for them and their extended family
• 2,000 years ago- A woman named Starla, claiming to be the reincarnation of Stella, the prophet of Ol’ Dusty, calls for the expansion of the Dusterist Union, beginning the second unifying war
• 1,900 years ago- All Dusterino settlements have been conquered or coerced into joining the Dusterist Union and all Dusterinos have been converted to Dusterism
• 1,430 years ago- A radical sect of Dusterinos who follow an anti-magic, anti-technology interpretation of the two prophets’ teachings starts to gain popularity all across the Sea of Dust, although they remain a minority in most communities
• 1,000 years ago- The radical sect of Dusterists has become the dominant form of Dusterism in half of Dusterino settlements, with a significant minority following them in other towns and villages, leading to a civil war over which sect should be dominant in the Dusterist Union government
• 980 years ago- The civil war ends with the radicals in control of the Sea of Dust and almost all Dusterinos start to follow their version of Dusterism
• 500 years ago- After centuries of decreasing reliance on magic and technology, as well as a general rise in nomadism among the general population, the Dusterist Union votes to dissolve itself, leaving behind no successor state, in favor of letting each family of Dusterinos fend for themselves as they believe Ol’ Dusty desires
• 330 years ago- Very few Dusterinos now live in the settlements year-round, most of them having taken up the practice of wandering the desert during the wet season as per the teachings of radical Dusterism, and those who stay behind are the very old and the very young
• 100 years ago- First Empire merchants start to visit Dusterino settlements during the dry season, accepting payments in cactus water, sold as a health drink in the First Empire, in exchange for exotic foods and supplies
• 30 years ago- Several Dusterino settlements ban all outsiders, believing that merchants and outsiders have brought a decadent lifestyle to the Sea of Dust which is making Dusterinos soft and unsuited to the desert
• 5 years ago- A woman named Serena, claiming to be the reincarnation of the prophets Stella and Starla, starts to gain a following by saying that Dusterinos ought to live a more settled, less restrictive life and that Ol’ Dusty has no issue with people taking advantage of the comforts of magic and technology

Major Factions
Dusterinos
    The Dusterinos are the largest group of people in the Sea of Dust, having lived there for thousands of years. While their way of life and culture has changed over time, the Dusterinos have always maintained small settlements around the few oases and natural springs and there has always been some portion of their population which prefer to live a nomadic lifestyle out in the desert. For the last 500 years, each Dusterino town has been self-governing, with small family groups dispersing during the wet season to wander the desert and handle their conflicts however they see fit. The result is a highly dispersed and decentralized society where only the very young and old stay in settlements year-round. Lately, a radical movement has gained popularity in a few small communities which preaches a sedentary, modern lifestyle as the logical way to live when groups like the First Empire Merchants are able to provide a consistent level of comfort for all.

The Prophet’s Followers
    Serena, a woman who claims to be the third reincarnation of the prophet of Ol’ Dusty, Stella, has gathered a small group of followers in some of the most remote towns and villages of the Sea of Dust who believe the annual wanderings of their people are unnecessary and that Ol’ Dusty wishes for his followers to take advantage of the comforts available to them. In particular, Serena’s followers are living in their settlements year-round and trading with the First Empire Merchants for useful technology and magic, both of which are considered taboo in contemporary Dusterism, which almost all other groups of Dusterinos follow. Those who follow Serena’s teachings are barely tolerated by other Dusterinos, but some have been disowned by their families and publicly mocked for their defiance of social norms. While this discrimination has not escalated to violence yet, there are many among Serena’s followers who believe it is only a matter of time until someone decides to change that.

Convergent Wanderer Exiles
    For thousands of years, the Convergent Wanderers have been exiling those whose behavior is so abhorrent that they have no idea how to punish them to the great desert to the north of their homeland. Through ancient custom, no Convergent Wanderer enters these lands unless exiled, although the existence of the Dusterino culture which their exiles helped create is well-known at this point. Knowing this, many of the Wanderers form small communities of other exiles in order to help each other assimilate into Dusterino culture and learn the ways of the desert. With the annual season of wandering, many of these exiles tend to feel right at home in their new communities.

Ashmount Herder Exiles
    For thousands of years, the Ashmount Herders have been exiling those convicted of treachery against their kin to the Sea of Dust. The herders are generally aware of the culture this practice has helped create in the desert, although they are generally dismissive of the culture made of exiles and criminals. Regardless, the exiles, the only Ashmount Herders allowed to enter even the fringes of the desert, frequently find themselves taken in by small groups of other exiles who teach them the ways of the Dusterinos and desert survival. Many of these exiles find difficulty adjusting to their new way of life, used to getting everything they need from livestock which are hard to come by in the desert.

First Empire Merchants
    While not official diplomats of the First Empire, it is common for the First Emperor to grant trade licenses with new frontiers well before sending the Diplomatic Corps. Given the decentralized nature of the Dusterinos, this has been the status quo for First Imperial relations with the area for almost a century. Merchants and explorers have been doing their best, in the meantime, to try to find some good or ware that they can trade for and extract from the region. For now, they have settled on going through the villages during the dry, settled season and buying up as much cactus water, a product harvested from any sufficiently large cactus in the desert, as they can to sell as a health drink back in the First Empire. This has been difficult due to the culture of asceticism which dominates the Dusterinos. Seeing an opportunity in Serena the prophet’s movement, the merchants have been supporting her with good deals on products in exchange for a year-round, steady supply of cactus water. Should it come to it, these merchants would most likely help fund or even manufacture a revolution in religious thought and even a third unifying war, something which would grab the First Emperor’s attention and maybe even result in the diplomats establishing an embassy.

The Convergent Wanderers: Cultural Profile

Introduction:
    The earliest people to inhabit the Great Convergence are a group of humans collectively known as the Convergent Wanderers. They are a nomadic people who hunt and gather in the swamps and scrubs of the Great Convergence, as well as the group which the gnomes of today are descended from. Despite being driven out of most of their ancestral lands, there are still several parts of gnome country set aside for the wanderers by treaty, and the easternmost reaches of the Great Convergence have never been very appealing for other peoples to settle, so the region has been recognized as Wanderer Lands by the rest of the world. The Convergent Wanderers, for their part, see political boundaries as meaningless and themselves as many small groups rather than a single people. The one unifying factor is that all Convergent Wanderers come to the southernmost point of the Wanderer’s Peninsula in Gnome Country for a massive festival on the Winter Solstice, known as the Winter Solstice Festival. At this festival, the Wanderers pay their respects to their ancestors, the spirits of the Great Convergence, and throw one of the wildest parties on the planet. While this event is certainly enjoyable, it also holds a great deal of cultural and religious value for the Convergent Wanderers and is an integral part of their yearly wanderings.

Magic and Technology:
    The vast majority of Convergent Wanderers live in what settled people would consider abject poverty. They do not have personal homes, their only possessions are those they can carry themselves, and their only access to metal tools and enchanted items is through occasional trading with the settled peoples of the Great Convergence. The Wanderers, by contrast, prefer to live this way and see the settled folk as slaves to their governments and the material possessions they keep. While they certainly see the benefits of more advanced technology, the Convergent Wanderers tend to believe that what they have is adequate and anything more would get in the way of their wandering.
    Magic, like technology, is something that most Convergent Wanderers seem to have little interest in outside of how it can help them in their day to day life. Wanderers rarely stay in any place long enough to learn spellcasting or enchanting, although most Wanderers have a solid understanding of the inherent magical properties of the plants and animals around them, along with how to use them to their own benefit. Channeling is also somewhat common among the Convergent Wanderers, with the spirits of the Great Convergence offering each person a unique magical power provided they never sleep in the same place twice, they only eat food that they hunted or gathered themselves, and they participate in the Winter Solstice Festival each winter solstice. Most of the Wanderers do not ever try to follow this lifestyle, but those who do often become important members of their tribes who are able to deal with problems in ways that no one else can. These powers usually grant some level of command or influence over different plants, animals, and minerals, but sometimes the spirits give someone a truly powerful magic ability that allows them to accomplish almost any goal. Oddly, Convergent Wanderers experience a higher rate of individuals with inherent magical powers than other communities. The reason why is unknown, but the individuals born with these powers are usually given special status within their tribe. These individuals are seen as gifts from the spirits of the Great Convergence to the families in which these children are born, usually seen as a reward for maintaining their traditional lifestyle despite adversity. In actuality, the phenomenon is completely random and has nothing to do with spirits or lifestyle.

Society:
    The Convergent Wanderers are divided into a multitude of small, mobile groups. Each group, usually made up of a small group of related families, wanders the Great Convergence as they wish through the year, with the exception of the Winter Solstice, when everyone is usually at the Winter Solstice Festival. These groups tend to maintain their own unique traditions and distinguish themselves from each other with all sorts of decorations and clothing. Some of these articles of clothing can get quite elaborate, although there is a limit to this since the clothing must be portable and somewhat functional. Most groups try to stay out of each other's ways the rest of the year, not wanting to overburden any of the resources that they rely on, but sometimes they are forced to share space through circumstance. Usually this goes fairly well, with the groups doing their best to cooperate and share, but sometimes this is not the case. For any number of reasons, ranging from the personal to the pragmatic, groups will come into conflict and fight each other. While this is relatively rare, most groups of Convergent Wanderers keep an oral history of dozens of conflicts with other groups over the millennia, although there are often several generations between each one. All conflicts are put on hold for the Winter Solstice Festival, however, and are rarely resumed afterwards.

Religion:
    Convergent Wanderers follow a shamanistic tradition where one member of each group, the priest, is responsible for communing with the spirits of the Great Convergence on behalf of the larger group, maintaining the oral history of the group, and making the necessary sacrifices to the local spirits in each place they camp. Priests also tend to act as the moral leaders of their groups, using their connection to the local spirits to let the rest of the group know what kinds of behavior will appease the spirits. Not everyone listens to the priests, but those who do tend to find that the landscape is just a bit more welcoming and easy to traverse. Luckily for the Convergent Wanderers and their way of life, the spirits of the Great Convergence tend to value independence, living in harmony with nature, and supporting one’s friends and family. While this is not really seen as a religious mandate to continue living the same lifestyle, it does help many Wanderers feel content in their desire to live outside of settled civilization. Overall, the Convergent Wanderers live cosmically neutral lives and accept their place in the cycle of reincarnation that comes with the neutral alignment. Their religion, much like the rest of their culture, seems to be content with where they are and what they’re doing, and that makes the Convergent Wanderers quite happy.

The Snallygaster Snake People and City States: Cultural Profile

Introduction:
    Controlling almost half of the geographic area of the Great Convergence are the squabbling city states of the Snallygaster Snake People. These snake people have developed a unique culture based on refusing to live in secret among the humans like many other groups of snake people, and instead using their natural shape-shifting abilities to express themselves and show off among the other snake people of the cities. With snake people as the rulers and majority populations of the city states, the Snallygaster Culture has been able to thrive and grow without the usual fears of persecution from a human majority. Because of this, it is fairly common for snake people from other parts of the world to come to the city states and adopt the practices of the Snallygaster Culture. The culture is very welcoming to these immigrants and there are several orders of Snallygastrus worshipers devoted to helping these newcomers get starters and adjust to life in the open. The city states, each ruled by a different line of archons and their families, have never gotten along well, with minor border skirmishes in the hinterlands of the cities being an almost annual occurrence. Each archon seems to believe they have the right and duty to conquer the rest of the city states, unifying the Snallygaster Snake People and allowing them to expand outward like the great snake person empires of old. At this point, no city state seems to have anywhere close to the ability to do this, and it is unclear if any of them will gain that ability in the future.

Magic and Technology:
    All snake people have the inherent magical ability to alter their appearance however they want, provided they stick to a humanoid shape and maintain the same mass as before. With these being the only true limitations on their abilities, however, snake people are able to get incredibly abstract and outlandish with their appearances. Control over this ability is a skill that needs to be practiced to achieve truly outlandish forms, so there are several schools in each city devoted to the practice of magic, usually geared towards training students for the professional body pageant circuits. Talented individuals who win many pageants are often celebrities in Snallygaster society. This fame and fortune is known to be quite fleeting, however, as novelty fades quickly and the public’s focus can shift in an instant. The few snake people who have managed to ride these waves and stay popular for a long time are absolute masters of their shape-shifting abilities, their public image, and what they need to change to stay fresh and relevant. For everyone else, however, learning to control their shape-shifting is about gaining the ability to express themselves in any way they want to regardless of what other people think, and much of the other magic practiced by Snallygaster snake people stems from this desire to express oneself and honestly show who they are to the world.
    While the city states have taken advantage of their positions along important rivers and trade routes to import whatever enchanted items and magical practitioners that they need, their homegrown magics are often harmonious with their goals of openness and honesty. Spells to see true forms and undo illusions are very common, almost seen as essential in a society where true forms are often hidden. Those who specialize in illusion magic frequently have a bad time in the city states. Another field of magic which has received a lot of study in the city states is magic to compel others to tell the truth, although the morality around this is a little gray. While Snallygaster culture values honesty and truth, they also value free will and willing expression, so any magic that infringes on free will tends to make Snallygaster snake people uncomfortable. Related to this, and as an extension of their natural abilities, Snallygaster snake people have also developed many spells for transforming others into different forms and for extending the limits of their own transformations into larger and smaller forms, or even forms that are completely without humanoid shapes.
    On the other hand, followers of Snallygastrus who are particularly pious and follow the tenets of their religion perfectly gain the ability to channel several powers from their god. These devotees, referred to as Paladins of Snallygastrus, are able to grow feathered wings capable of flight out of their backs, turn their teeth and claws into razor-sharp, steel blades of death, and produce an aura in which it is impossible for anyone to knowingly tell a lie. To gain these incredible powers, a snake person must always be completely open and honest with themselves and others. They must always tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Furthermore, the paladins may only use violence against those who have directly attacked the paladin or some other innocent person. Finally, there are several religious rituals and holidays that must be observed in the correct manner throughout the year. If all of these conditions are met, a snake person gains the abilities of a Paladin of Snallygastrus and is thus expected to act as a paragon of honesty, goodness, and protection within their community. Given the difficulty of maintaining this lifestyle, there are rarely more than a handful of paladins in each city. Regardless, their magical powers are often useful in defending city states from external threats and maintaining peace when defense is not necessary.

Society:
    Snallygaster culture is centered on the city state as the main political unit. Each city state controls a hinterland in which farming, hunting, and gathering can be done to find raw materials to trade and feed the cities. Those who work in the hinterlands usually live within the closest city and commute to their place of work each morning. Most snake people of the city states, however, work in the city they call home, usually either directly in or related to trading goods and materials with those who travel along the rivers and coasts of the Great Convergence. In the 800 years the Snallygaster City States have been around, some individuals have been more successful than others, allowing them to leave considerable wealth behind for their descendants to use, benefit from, and grow. These wealthy families have built their fortunes on commerce and have gained influence, even with the archons of their respective cities. The archons themselves usually claim to be direct descendants of their city’s founder, with the oldest living member of each line taking the office. In the last 800 years, several of these dynasties have been overthrown and replaced by usurpers, but these events always seem to result in a new archon being declared with a usually tenuous connection to the city founder’s line. The immediate and extended families of the archons tend to fill the other offices and executive roles in each city. There are frequently several levels of bureaucracy made up entirely of the archon’s relatives before other families are seen in government positions, but some of the archons prefer to appoint people to positions based on merit rather than relation.
    In general, the archons try to make a show of being kind and generous to the people of their city states. Most of the city states have some kind of system in place to help poorer residents get the things they need, and many archons see public charity as a good way to stay popular with their citizens. This, along with several religious groups that try to help the poor, has led to a generally good quality of life for the majority of Snallygaster snake people, at least compared to places with less of a social safety net. On the flip side of this, many wealthy snake people seem to believe that they deserve their wealth for one reason or another and do everything they can to justify the existence of a wealthy class. In turn, they seem to think that the poor are poor because of character flaws or a natural hierarchy. City archons are frequently sympathetic to these beliefs, mostly because wealthy snake people have greater ability to meet with and influence their archons.
    To help justify their wealth, the rich and powerful of the Snallygaster City States frequently sponsor lavish parties, spectacles of public art, and most popular of all, they sponsor body pageants. Body pageantry is one of the most important and popular aspects of Snallygaster society, as it allows snake people to show off their skill and mastery over their innate shape-shifting magic. Pageants are held frequently, at all levels of skill and formality, with several subcultures and associated styles of pageant being present in pretty much every city state. Large, public pageants sponsored by wealthy snake people often feature the highest caliber of contestants, referred to as artists, who wow the general populace with the most intricate and beautiful shapes they can imagine. Smaller events are much more common, with neighborhoods, families, and even religious groups organizing events that anyone can join and compete in. The winners of body pageants are traditionally given a bouquet of white roses with pink polka dots and a cash prize in an amount proportional to the scale of the event and the wealth of the organizers. The cash prizes can be enough for an individual to live off of if they participate in and win many pageants. The roses, with their unique color pattern, are native to the Great Convergence and are known as pageant roses due to their close association with Snallygaster body pageants. The importance of these pageants in Snallygaster culture cannot be overstated, as they seem to support and reinforce the values that many snake people think of as defining their culture.

Religion:
    Snallygaster snake people are a surprisingly religious group, with most of them worshiping the god Snallygastrus to some degree. There has never been one single organization, but rather there have always been a multitude of competing orders with different focuses and goals. For the most part, snake people will attend the weekly sermons from the closest temple to where they live, but they do not usually consider themselves a member of that order and will go to different ones for different things depending on their specific beliefs and needs. For example, there are several competing funeral traditions based on varying interpretations of what an open and honest funeral ought to look like. While there have been religious conflicts in the past, the various orders and traditions of Snallygastrus worship have come to an uneasy peace in the modern day.
    The thing that unites the various sects of Snallygaster religion is a belief, apparently based on communication with their god, that all goodness and morality is the result of being honest, open, and kind. All Snallygaster religious orders have this as their central commandment and conceit, although the priorities and executions differ between groups. Of note is that the worshipers of Snallygastrus do not see their god as a creator figure, but rather as the source of their morality, culture, and way of life. Most sects teach that all of Snallygaster snake person culture and society is born from the revelation of the three virtues to the first Snallygaster snake people, who then chose to leave their homes and find a new homeland. The story goes that they wandered for several years before finding the Great Convergence and settling in the upstream region and the western deltas, areas that the gnomes had always left unsettled as part of an early treaty with the Convergent Wanderers. Conflicts between the Convergent Wanderers and these early settlers have led to a lasting religious taboo against interacting with the Convergent Wanderers. Because of this taboo, Convergent Wanderers are banned from entering most cities. The Convergent Wanderers don’t seem to be too bothered by this, although they certainly recognize the injustice of being forced from their ancestral homes and then barred from entering the settlements set up by the invaders.

City States:
    Each Snallygaster city state is independent, with the archon of each city usually seeing the other cities and their leaders as direct rivals. Many of the archons have the goal of building up enough power to take over the rest of the cities, unifying the Snallygaster City States into a single state which can then move on to conquering other parts of the world. The large number of archons with this goal, however, means that each city is constantly watching all of its neighbors and covertly preventing them from gaining enough power to threaten other cities. This is done through a sea of constantly shifting alliances and ententes between the cities along with the occasional war. This situation has made it almost impossible for any one city to gain enough power to actually unify the city states or to even conquer their closest neighbors. Many of the diplomats and traders from afar have described the archons as having a bucket of crabs mindset, working together to tear down anyone who starts to be too successful.
    Each city state maintains its own diplomatic and trade relations with the rest of the world. Additionally, each city also maintains its own taxes, tariffs, and import laws, a state of affairs which has maddened many merchants through the years. If not for the importance of the Great Convergence for global trade routes, the city states would probably see much less trade due to the expense involved in trading with more than one or two Snallygaster city states on a single route. Many outsiders have attempted to conquer the city states and put an end to the fractious state of affairs, but it seems as if the only thing that is able to unite the Snallygaster archons is an outside threat. When the city states unify, they seem to field an unbeatable army, supported in their defensive wars by the Paladins of Snallygastrus, considered the most powerful warriors in the Great Convergence. These alliances tend to immediately fall apart when the threat is dealt with, however, and things tend to continue in much the same way they had been going before the attempted invasion.