Æthermark

The Outmarches; Gondara's Western Lowlands

Also called Aedermark or the Outmarches, Æthermark is a minor kingdom comprising much of the meadows and boggy lowlands of far-western Gondara.

Outmarchers have a reputation as a remote, dopey and simple people, but nonetheless are hospitable hosts, capable sailors and important tradesmen. In fact their naval alacrity is proving invaluable as the Sunken Expanse recedes and the value of shipwrights, state-sanctioned pirates and ships’ cedas (nautical mage escorts) rises. Despite the reputation as bumpkins, the University of Halewijn is one of the more important magical and philological academies in the Broken Empire, rivaling even the bustling amphitheatres of the Dai'an Assertia in Nurin.

Their demonyms are "Æthermarker" and "Outmarcher" and their family of languages is called Æthermarker or Markish. Most in the nation can also speak Middish Common. A major pejorative term is "bogwalker", which references the iconic sight of Outmarcher farmers standing on their tall stilts, harvesting their water-tolerant crops in their swampy farmsteads.

Geography

The Broken Empire

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And its myriad peripheries. Map represents much of Waking Materia's Gamma Quadrant.

Description

See also: Image Gallery: Fashion & Scenery of Æthermark (External)

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Æthermark covers both the Coreward and Voidward peninsulas of Gondara's far western plains, fens and lagoons. This includes most western islands, most notably Aukslanding, Farawayland and the Wyrmscrest Islands. Its capital, Halewijn, is located on the main inland delta between the two reaches.

The major settlements of Jura are as follows, in order of population:

• Halewijn (Capital)
• Valkenswaard
• Graalsvesting
• Veenhuyzen
• Arnhem Priory
• Aukslanding
• Tijdswatch
• Caer Hvalros
• Awaysborough

Anthropology

Æthermarkers can generally be distinguished from their Midlander cousins by their lighter complexions. Though it is easing with time, this often leads to distrust and even persecution by other clans of the the Broken Empire: at best light skin is considered sickly, at worst it’s a sign of mixed heritage with the enari of the Coreward Autumn Isles, whom the continental humans treat with suspicion and fear, thinking them seal women who kidnap human men for their underwater harems.

Their fashions are similar to most Middish and Allesander cultures, though generally simpler, with little interest in talismans, tartan or other adornments (another reason for their simple reputation, at least among the crest-bedecked Midlanders and Allesanders.

Religion

Outmarchers rarely stray outside worship of the Pantheon of the People. Worship of Saint Ajora is especially common here, partly because the harvest is so important in their sparse fields, partly because many consider her to be from the Antediluvian region of what is now Aedermark, born in Arnhem Priory on the island of Aukslanding. The original manuscript of her final writings, collectively called the Edda of Saint Ajora, are housed there.

Æthermark

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Quadrant
Gamma

Region
Gondara, The Broken Empire

Capital
Halewijn

Rulership
King Valdemar Deathfarter

Type

Geopolitical, Province

Profile: [Left to right] An Æthermarker friar and cathar, both of Saint Frances Heronseye.

Profile art: Norinori

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Banner art: [Left to Right] Ivan Onohkin, Wayne Reynolds, GLiuLian. Pictured centre is a township cathar or paladin of Saint Ajora.

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A farmer on his iconic Aedermarker stilts, tending to his crops.

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An Æthermarker fortress under the effects of a weakening in the Veil, wherein the Duskscape becomes "closer", colours distort, objects take on odd shapes, et cetera. Unless they have the means to reëstablish the local Veil strength this fortress may be in danger of attacks by chimerae, hauntings by ghosts or other surreal phenomena.