ＯＵＴ ＯＦ ＬＵＸ discussion

Mod

   ＯＵＴ ＯＦ ＬＵＸ
   
   
ＷＯＲＬＤ ⠀ＬＯＲＥ

   Because there is a ton of information about this world and we keep
   building more lore and such, we now have a topic specifically for the
   history of the world we have built.

   

   • 𝗛𝗜𝗦𝗧𝗢𝗥𝗬 𝗢𝗙 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗜𝗧𝗜𝗘𝗦

   In ages past, Voxthain and Asterath were one city. A global seismic event
   cracked the city in two, plunging Asterath beneath the surface of Lux,
   turning it into a cavernous city. In a need to adapt, the people below the
   ground turned to their magic, filling their new cavernous home with
   neon lights. As the magic usage in the twin halves of the cities diverged,
   the culture too shifted.

   Voxthain was all harsh lines and strict adherence to magical guidelines
   while Asterath allowed for more creativity and imagination in the use of
   magic. Voxthain turned to clockwork magic, melding gears and cogs with
   the magical essence of movement and life. They created autonomous
   carriages, flying dirigibles, magic-infused automatons. Down in the
   caverns of Asterath, magic was more freeform and infused with glowing
   color. Hoverboards zipping through the air leaving trails of neon,
   glowing potions infused with the nutrients they were no longer receiving
   from Luminos, and brightly-colored prosthetics with unnecessary
   contraptions like fireworks and confetti-shooters.

   As the two cities grew and changed, conflict between the governing
   bodies became more and more commonplace. The people of the
   underground were wild and lawless, flaunting their use of magic in ways
   that were prohibited in Voxthain. Nobody could decide who was in
   charge of what, the fracturing of power never resolved after the initial
   split of the two cities. Eventually, a war broke out. Fighting in the streets,
   bombs and magic and death. This war ended with a tenuous peace
   between the cities that grew into a powerful bond as time passed.


   • 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗜𝗧𝗜𝗘𝗦 𝗡𝗢𝗪

   After the war was settled, it took a while for the cities to find balance, but
   they did. The war had many casualties and the loss everyone faced was
   not one they were willing to repeat. This brought the two cities to find a
   middle ground and decide on a government system that would stand
   the test of time and the citys’ different ways of evolving. They settled on
   dual Councils—equivalent distribution of power in Voxthain and Asterath.
   The seven Councilors of each city’s Council would work closely together,
   elected by the people, ensuring tranquility and peace for the eons to
   come.

   Voxthain is dignified through the eons, Asterath rocking the neons. As
   such, the social hierarchy looks different than the identical Councils.
   Voxthain’s rich and powerful are their nobility while Asterath’s most
   innovative and chaotic people formed rival gangs. The civilians of
   Voxthain are elegant and refined, nobility or not, whereas the Asterath
   civilians are creative and free-spirited.

   

Mod

   

   • 𝗪𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗘 𝗗𝗜𝗗 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗦𝗛𝗔𝗗𝗢𝗪𝗙𝗢𝗚 𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗘 𝗙𝗥𝗢𝗠?

   We hadn’t nailed this down before because, truthfully, we weren’t sure
   either. But now we are! Probably!

   The working explanation is this: the mountain was the site of a massive
   magi-tech experiment, something between a magical reactor and a
   weaponized energy source. It may have been built to power the
   continent indefinitely, or perhaps it was an attempt to merge magic and
   technology to achieve immortality. Who knows?

   Whatever the intention, something went catastrophically wrong. The
   system became corrupted somehow and now it's caught in a feedback
   loop. The fog is its byproduct: a kind of magical waste. It’s the machine’s
   excretion, eating magic to sustain itself and releasing shadowfog as a
   form of anti-magic pollution.

   The nation and scientists responsible for the experiment were the first
   to fall—consumed entirely by the fog. No one remains alive who can
   explain it or undo it.


   𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗜𝗦 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗙𝗢𝗚 𝗗𝗢𝗜𝗡𝗚? 𝗪𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗘 𝗜𝗦 𝗜𝗧 𝗔𝗧 𝗥𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧 𝗡𝗢𝗪?

   The shadowfog consumes magic as fuel for the ancient machine beneath
   the massive mountain to the northwest on the continent of Faerûn. It’s
   not just spreading—it’s feeding. As it advances, it drains the land of all
   magic. Even Voxthain and Asterath are not safe—as the world is a globe,
   the mountain has also released shadowfog into the ocean bordering it,
   which leads over towards the cities’ continent of Valoran.

   But it’s not unstoppable, and the Runalithe team has discovered that.

   When concentrated magic is pushed into the fog—enough that it
   overwhelms the system’s ability to metabolize it—the fog falters. It
   recoils, like a living thing, unable to digest such a flood. Villages,
   landscapes, even corpses still rich with magical residue can cause this
   effect. That’s why Runalithe harvests magic from the dying (or murdered),
   sealing it into containers. Enough magic forced into the fog creates a
   momentary breach in its advance—a temporary pushback.


   𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗠𝗔𝗧𝗛 𝗕𝗘𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗗 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗠𝗔𝗚𝗜𝗖

   The fog spreads at a rate of 20,000 square miles per month over on
   Faerûn. Because the cities are so very magically active, the shadowfog has
   yet to break the barriers miles outside of Voxthain. It is slowly
   approaching, but at an astronomically slow pace.

   Every 20 deaths = 1 container of harvested magic.

   One full container has just enough magical density to push the fog back
   by one month’s spread—that is, 20,000 square miles.

   1 death = 1,000 square miles of fog reversed
   20 deaths = 1 full container = 1 month’s pushback

   It’s horrifyingly efficient, for sure, but the system is only sustainable as
   long as there are people left to kill, and magic left to steal. Asterath
   and Voxthain each have similar populations of about two million. That is
   more than enough to kill a couple thousand and get away with it, but
   with how obvious the deaths have been made? It’s a matter of time before
   discovery.