Shale

The Country of Shale was once referred to as The Separated Land once plagued by a seemingly endless war between two tribes, those of the Durak Sand Orcs and The Planarah Hobgoblin clans. The two tribes waged war on these islands for hundreds of years,what they could not know as natives of this land was that Shale was a magical place. A place where the "Veil" between our world and the other realms is very thin, as a result, magic; which comes from the veil was more powerful here than most places in Orund. And that more sorcerers and those gifted in the magical arts were born amongst the tribes far more often than usual. The magical powers of both tribes began to grow, and in time Shamans and powerful witch doctors rose in their ranks. The result was huge magical battles with Orcs and Hobgoblin alike reigning down fireballs and summoning demons and fiends to fight in their stead. In once such instance the Orcs unleashed a devastating earth shifting spell that shattered the country into the islands that they are today.
At some point, Ulaka The Observer; an Orcish woman who had separated herself form the war, and a powerful sorceress realized the war was leading to the extinction of not only both clans but the Island itself seemed to be dying, getting weaker. So she traveled to Andrim and met with who was at that time the headmaster of The Sultrace Academy and explained the situation to the council of magus that administered the academy. The Merlin at that time, a man by the name of Pelragus; used his powers to gather some of the most powerful wizards, witches, warlocks and sorcerers of his age. He explained to them that Shale was a place that should be monitored and controlled by Magi, as it would disperse magical discharge and create powerful magical feedback as long as it was preserved and monitored. Some were reluctant to war, reluctant to the idea of traveling to a foreign land to stop a war; in the end two were chosen, the chief strategist in reclaiming the Island was powerful Kaldorian Wizard Lucian D'valo; a man with a pension for necromancy and the dark arts, but one of hte keenest minds of the age. Talion Aleios, a great warrior proven in battle through magic and sword alike was chosen to his General. They five were tasked with dispatching groups of wizards from the capital lands of both Andrim and Kaldore onto the shores of Shale's islands and reclaiming it from the orcs, closing any potential rifts in the "Veil" in the process. Within two years, the wizard forces had mostly placated the Orcs and Hobgoblin; However a horrible truth was discovered, Shale was not the site of a mere magical rift but that the anomalies occurring within were caused by a constant font of pure magical energy that could not be quelled or stopped. Lucien theorized that if the magical energy was left untapped that the Orcs and Hobs would eventually become powerful enough to destroy the islands or worse. Both tribes were given an alternative after an event called The Battle of The Flaming Sky to surrender the land over to the wizards in exchanged to being transported to somewhere new to call home. The Sand Orcs stood their ground till their last man and woman, forcing the wizards to room them out of their homes and villages if they wanted to take them. Eventually the isles were completely emptied with the exception of the wizards themselves.
Lucian began gathering a group of who he perceived as being the most capable leaders and wizards of his remaining forces, as well as contacting someone who refused the initial offer to participate in the conflict, a man by the name of Regulus Blackstone to come and investigate the font; Lucian convinced them to began settling the island for a long term research project around the font. Both Kaldore's emperor King Balaste of Andrim had authorized the initial expedition but now both were plotting to take the island from the other, hoping their agents would betray their research partners in favor of their countries. Some time into research, the Magi discovered the longer they spent near this font the more their magical abilities grew, and they discovered ways to channel it outward into the land itself, encouraging a rapid growth of the plant life as the environment recovered from The conflict of the past few years. As they worked out and instituted this "magical irrigation" system of sorts, the Magi began settling the area, first a small camp, then a settlement, a village, a town, having families, raising them, fifteen years went by, then twenty. The once young Lucian and Talion were now grown men with families, and had grown very close as leaders of the small community. They began to dream about a place, a country only for Wizards, Sorcerers, for all those kissed by magic, and with the presence of the font it was almost certain most children born on the Isles would be magically inclined. Lucian gathered the friends he considered his closest allies and leaders of the small community they build in Shale; His apprentice, Greenscale Val'Nax was sure to follow her master in any endevour, the others, Tavari Baz, and the brilliant Regulus Blackstone were recruited into this coup shortly after. Lucian and the Magic, or "The Circle" as they began calling themselves planned to separate themselves from their own countries. Powerful spells were performed by the Circle to ensure the waters of Shale would be impassable by their homelands boating forces, as well as began breeding magical creatures to occupy the waters. After that they began reaching out to Magi across the world and inviting them to come live in Shale, building towns and settlements at a rapid rate, integrating magical methods for mundane task like agriculture, irrigation, stone masonry and metal work. The islands rapidly became the most technologically advanced region in the world as it's entire infrastructure was rooted from the beginning in integrating magic into every day life and the font seemed to contribute greatly to their success in this regard.
Eventually the circle fully separated themselves and the islands from their former homelands, they made a declaration for their separation from the Empire and Kingdom and to their surprise neither ruler attested and granted them full amnesty as a sovereign nation. With their independence granted, the magi elected 3 more members to the Circle and proclaimed the region "The Magus Isles" after Magus, the first of the Magi and the center island remained named Shale, a mispronunciation of the Orc word for the islands. Lucian and Talion now helmed perhaps the greatest city the world had ever known, and while Talion still had many years left to enjoy the work they had done, Lucian was beginning to slow down; his body failing him more and more as he became older. The war for the island had begun later in his life than most of his companions, and they began preparing for the day the greatest mind among them would no longer be around. However, Lucian did was he did best, and he thought the issue over, he had heard of rituals, magical practices, experiments where certain powerful magi were able to extend their lives beyond natural means. Lucian discovered that the magical font at the center of the city of Shale proper would certainly increase his ability enough to do the ritual with minimum risk. Lucian escorted a man who the Circle had arrested for using magic to deceive another, which lead to that persons dead down into the catacombs beneath the Circle's fortress in the center of the city. Once he arrived he retrieved a dark book from within his satchel and began reading in a language not spoken by man in hundreds of years, beginning the ritual. However Lucian would need much more than just this one sacrifice, he discovered. To obtain enough power to extend his own life indefinitely he would need to consume several souls; and so he began escorting people down into the catacombs, at first just criminals, people who had betrayed the circle in some way. Then any city guard unlucky enough to be caught alone with him to be asked to come along for a special task. When it became too much to hide from one source he would move on to another, it wasn't long after he started taking people off the street that the circle became aware of the disappearances. By the time they figured out it was someone in the circle, Lucian had already recruited a signifigant number of wizards into his schemes, as he consumed more souls he lost all trace of the humanity that carried him to the position he occupied. He wanted to overthrow the Circle and declare himself overlord of the Magus Isles, and began calling himself Magnus. He left shale and took a small island for himself within the chain, the circle hunted him all through the isles but he was able to evade them, he began amassing worshippers not only from the Isles but beyond, who came to his small fortress to train under him, absorbing his doctrines. When he felt he had amassed the resources to take the circle he lead the charge in a raid against Moselk, a city on the main isles. Over three hundred magi were killed in the attacks, and nearly a hundred more joined forces with Magnus after. This was the start of The Magnus War.
The war carried on for many years, with many people on both sides switching and playing double agent to the other, Lucian had grown unrecognizable by the time the war entered its 5th year and much of Shale was under his control. His former colleagues had been fighting a war they were on the losing side of for some time, and they were down to a few dozen low level sorcerers, some divine warlocks and the apprentices of the wizards remaining, the leadership was down to Tallion Aleios, Greenscale Val'Nax, Tavari Baz, and Regulus Blackstone. With the help of The Fairy courts, Tavari Baz secured the Nevernder; An ancient magical artifact of the celestial age the increased a users magical power exponentially, combining it with the power of the Font under Shale it formed a source of arcane energy that Lucian could not ignore; he roused his forces to take the city of Shale and claim both the font and the Neverender for himself. By forcing his hand early, the Shalian forces had a chance to retaliate, every citizen of Shale was armed with a blasting rod and defended their homes from the servants of Magnus. Magnus himself flew to the Golden Arcanius tower where the font of magical energy was being directed, there in waiting for him were his five former friends; the group engaged the Lich in battle, they knew they just needed to hold lucian back until their strike team was in place to destroy Magnus's phylactery; in his haste to acquire the font he had left it relatively unguarded.
The strike team, a group comprised of mostly aurors with some members of the Locket guard and one of the Circle Wizards; came up against a vicious Naga guardian protecting the phylactery. What they could not have known is that Magnus had a powerful glyph warding the object and when they struck it to sunder, it erupted in a powerful arcane burst. Magnus's lair, the phylactery and all the Magi inside were lost; but it allowed the group fighting back in Shale to defeat Magnus for good, killing him with one final united spell from the group; With Tallion raising both his sword and The Neverenderr in the final moments of the fight, killing the Lich.
In the aftermath of the battle, The survivors and remaining forces of the Circle spread out to capture or kill any remaining necromancers. With many members of The Circle being killed in the battle or in what would later be referred to as The Magus War, a new group of wizards was selected, and the core group that faced Lucian resigned their positions as members of the circle for various reasons. The New Circle, limited to 8 members; began making many changes to magical law, first and foremost they outlawed the study of Necromancy completely; Despite the protest of Greenscale Val'Nax and other prominent necroologist who aided in the defeat of Magnus.
Shale was a nation ravaged by civil war, but slowly recovering, and with the help of it's residence magical skill and knowledge the recovery was much faster than any other nation would have been able to achieve. Yet those four that remained had more questions than answers left over from the conflict; Tallion called them all together on one of the Eastern Islands in Shale. A magical wood of great fey power resided here, making it much more malleable to enchantment and warding. Tallion suggested they had a responsibility of sorts to train a new generation of Magi to protect the Isles in the event something like this ever occured again. Regulus Blackstone confessed he found the Apprentice/Master method of teaching magic extremely outdated and unnecessarily lengthy. It would take a wizard twelve or sometimes fifteen years to impart basic knowledge of the Arcane to a student, usually producing 1 capable wizard as a result. With a new system in that time Regulus suggested they could teach hundreds at a time by creating classes of apprentices. Greenscale Val'Nax pondered why she was invited to this summit as necromancy and other dark magics were banned and therefore none of the new students would be able to learn them; Tallion and Regulus assured her that her abilities would still allow the students to learn how to defend themselves from dark magics; as well as know what they would face in the event of another Magnus like figure arising. Tavari Baz however, refused to participate unless the school could also be a home for the "Sorcerers" or those born with magical abilities or powers from their bloodline or being exposed to high amounts of magical energy, and "Warlocks" or those chosen by Planar or holy beings to wield power on their behalf in the material realm. The others agreed that all those that were magically gifted deserved a place in this new undertaking, and that they would need all the students they could muster if Magnus was to ever return somehow. It was around this point in the conversation they began using the terms "School" and "Academy" and within that year; Construction began on the Magus School of the Arcane.
The school was built with a four class system, each led by one of the four founders; however over time it was realized a better system was to have a unified teaching and class system, thus creating the four houses the school is so famous for; House Talion, House Val'Nax, House Tavari and House Regulus.
Now Shale stands as a bastion of magic and the height of technology on Orund, the most advanced civilization on the planet. The city is a gargantuan labyrinth of towers and spires and a winding magical rail system that offers transport to its citizens among many other amenities. Walking the streets of Shale youre more likely to see two people outside of a pub or tavern settle their disagreement with a duel of wands, or more likely to see a person out walking their pseudodragon rather than keeping a goat or a dog. The entire continent breathes magic thanks to the Font that still expels arcane energy periodically from the Golden Arcanius, and powers the very city itself. The city is currently ruled by the Circle of Magi, 8 Elite Wizards, Sorcerers, alchemist and more that have some of the most knowledge and arcane skill the entire world could offer.

Structure

Mageocracy, Ruled by the Circle of Magi

Public Agenda

Forwarding the study and education of Magical Practices across Orund

Assets

Population almost exclusively magi, or those that practice the arcane; creating a very magic integrated society. This makes Shale the most technologically and scientifically advanced Country in the world. The Magus School of the Arcane is located on one of the Islands just off the mainland.

Et Magus Veritas

Type

Geopolitical, Country

Alternative Names

The Magus Isles, The Separated Lands

Demonym

Shalee

Controlled Territories

• The Magus Academy of Arcane Arts