Einya
Einya, a land of magic. Einya, a land of civilization. And, yet, Einya, a land of division. Not that it surprises me; if I have learned anything in my journey around the universe is that we are idiots, regardless of our species. Why do we insist so often on dividing unity?Einya is a planet that orbits Maineia and is inhabited by humans and other creatures with lower levels of intelligence. It's a world with a high level of intrinsic resonance, which means that the arcane arts are very much alive and integrated into the society of this world. In fact, there's so much intrinsic activity that the energy materializes into being made of energy that the locals call sparks. The technological level of its societies is quite advanced, although they have not yet developed space travel technologies. Arcanists in this planet view magic as something that is divided into six different types, and each one has its own School of Magic. Even though the Six Schools of Magic and the civilian governments of Einya coexist in a seemingly peaceful manner, the era of the power of the Schools has left deep scars in the society of Einya, from the simple fact that years are still reckoned from the foundation of the first school to the serious conflict caused by the coexistence of Mages and the Unwilling.
Arcanists
Channelers are generally called arcanists in this planet.Mages
I swear by my name and my power, by the sun and the great sky snake, that I will never use the arcane arts against what is considered moral and just. I pledge my total and absolute obedience to the School, who has been and forever will be my home.Arcanists who have studied in one of the six Schools are called Mages. All Mages have a vow of obedience to the School in which they studied. Mages who have studied in all six Schools are called Archmages and pledge their obedience to the International Council of Archmages.
The Unwilling
Unwilling? Foolishness... a bunch of resentful terrorists, that's what they are!On the flip side, Arcanists who have not studied in a School are called Unwilling. The reasons that can lead an Arcanist to avoid a School are diverse, but whatever they are, being an Unwilling implies, with rare exceptions, being a victim of discrimination, prejudices, and stereotypes. Most of them, unless they enjoy a good social standing, are confined to the suburbs. Given that everyone on Einya can use the arcane arts, the title of Unwilling is reserved for those who have an advanced understanding of their abilities without having an official title.
Six Schools... six arts?
These are the six types of arcane arts as classified by the Schools:
Topomancy - Physimancy (also known as Druidism) - Gnomancy - Thanatomancy - Pseudomancy (also known as Illusionism) - Metamancy
It's worth noting, though, that any Arcanist can potentially access any arcane art and this division is completely arbitrary. However, since the Schools only teach their respective arts, this division has also influenced how different cultures use the arcane arts. For example, the School of Topomancy is located in Eimai, which is known to have the best travel infrastructure thanks to their usage of this discipline.
Shadows of old
Behind the apparent mask of normality held by the governments and the Schools, lie the memories of the Old Traditions. Few remember the power that a single mage could wield before the Schools, enough to subject nature itself to their desires, enough to create the Six Wonders. Even more unfortunate is the loss of what a mage should be: selfless, humble, dedicated to the common good.Species
Einya is the second planet I've seen with a single sapient species (the other one being Earth). It's funny how monosapient societies have their theories about how unlikely it is for a planet to have two coexisting species, while polysapient planets just state the opposite.Einya is inhabited by a single sapient species, humans. The rest of animal and plant species are a mix of magical and mundane creatures, with varying levels of intelligence. Something unique about Einya is how absolutely all animals are hybrids of animals found on Earth. There is definitely some sort of deeper relation between Einya and Earth, although I haven't been able to find what it is exactly yet. There are also some creatures that don't exactly fit the description of "living being". Einya, being a planet with high resonant activity, has a high amount of ressonances that the locals call "sparks". They adopt different forms depending on their mood, and can often be found imitating creatures around them, in both shape and actions creatures around them. They generally can't talk and aren't smart enough to think rationally, although there are some exceptions and occasionally multiple sparks can join into a single intelligent hive mind. Finally, elementals also exist in Einya. Just like most places in the universe, they are uncommon and are the personification of the idea of an element. With modern science in Einya disproving the traditional idea of the four elements, elemental creatures are slowly disappearing, but they still pose a thread in some places in the planet.
Religion
WARNING: this section is completely outdated!
Religion in planets with high resonant activity is always interesting to study, and Einya is no exception. Although there are different religious practices scattered around the world, all of them are deeply influenced by the presence of visible sparks.The major religion of Einya is simply called Spiritualism, and is based around the belief that spirits are the expression of perfection, and so everyone should do their best to achieve this state of natural perfection. It's a religion with no structure and no sacred texts, based solely around this fundamental belief. This has allowed for the religion to have quickly spread through multiple countries, but with a small downside: because this basic belief can be interpreted in many different ways, there are multiple denominations within Spiritualism. Traditionally, followers of this religion generally believe that a supreme force, different from the spirits, created the universe; however this belief has never been part of the core of the religion, and with the raise of science, it has almost completely been removed from the religion. The other major religion is Ambfrashtru, native from the Circle of Skafrontse. This religion views spirits as different aspects from a single god, who is omniscient, omnipotent, and created everything. They also worship spirits, but only as a way to reach the one true god. One of the ideas from this religion is what some scholars have called "the triviality of death". Generally speaking, Skafrontseshk people do not view death as a negative or dramatic event, but as something that is perfectly natural and expected. This is probably why this religion does not have anything resembling the "heaven" or "hell" from other monotheistic religions. There are other minor religions scattered through this world, including Elementalism, which worships elementals instead of spirits. However, they have never been regarded as major religions and probably never will due to the fact that spirits are visible and clearly with power beyond scientific understanding.
Countries
Einya is an interesting planet. At first sight, it might seem that all countries live peacefully, with no interest of going to war each other. This is not an absurd conclusion, given the influence that the Schools still have over the different governments, and the historical peacefulness between the six of them. However, when looking into it with more detail, one can find definite symptoms of tension. Not only in the ever-expanding armies, but also in the amount of prejudices and stereotypes everyone holds about other countries.Einya is divided in two archipelagos (Eimaui and Skafrontse), two big islands (Sham and Omaeru) and the main continent, which contains the Walls of Eirean and other less important regions. These territories roughly correspond to old countries which used to be ruled by the Six Schools. However, most of them are currently divided into multiple countries. Only two historical regions keep their unity: most of the Circle of Skafrontse is now the territory of the United Islands of Skafrontse (UIS) and most of the Eimaui Archipelago is ruled by the Eimaui Confederation.
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