Zemia - Setting Primer

ARTICLE NOT FINISHED. All '___'s are places where I am planning on adding more info.

Since I started working on it in 2019, the land of Zemia has been the context of many passion projects of mine. In what has seemingly become my signature style, I have started projects such as a Magic: The Gathering set, a conlang, a D&D book, and much more, and although none of them are 'finished' the ideas that I explored in these projects have given me plenty of inspiration for my worldbuilding and thus have worked towards a world which blends many themes into a very cursed worldbuilding smoothie (mind the chunks).

Magic

In Zemia, all magic is fuelled by Mana, which is a substance can be thought of like dark matter (or Dust, if you're familiar with His Dark Materials). It is a gas-like substance that is normally invisible and able to pass through solid matter without issue. But living creatures can influence the flow of the natural currents of Mana, and by concentrating enough of it in a single spot they can have a tangible impact on the world - this is the basis for all spellcasting in Zemia.
An individual's ability to manipulate Mana is dependent on their mental and physical power. This is dependent on a factors like their willpower and mental state. This is why spellcasters, when shocked or scared, may find themselves temporarily unable to cast high-level magic.

Magentium

Magentium is a substance originating from the Purple Mountain, Şūfmibū. It holds the unique property of being the only nonliving substance able to interact with Mana. This means that it is used for any sort of magical object, including vials for potions. It can also be formed into spell-beads which can store Mana within and then release it to give their user a brief boost to their magical capabilities.

Spell Levels

Spells are generally grouped into arbitrary 'levels' (sometimes called 'tiers') depending on how much mana they require, which roughly translates to the potency of the spell. These levels are useful for legislation as they allow governments to restrict the use of certain levels of spells, and the highest level spell that a person in able to cast is a good general indicator of their magical proficiency.

Spells

The exact way that magic must be manipulated to cause certain spell effect can be very finnicky and complicated. Extensive study of spellcasting, a.k.a. Wizardry, is a lifelong pursuit. All spells are a series of complicated mental steps ordered in a specific way, analogous to a programmer writing lines of code. This also means that, as the framework and understanding of spellsculpting evolves, older spells can sometimes be 'rewritten' to be more powerful, or more efficient. An excellent example of this is the Fireball spell, which used to be fourth-level until a particularly clever wizard managed to rework it to be more mana efficient, decreasing it to third-level while still retaining it's power.

Religion

There are two major religions in Zemia: Ştu-Sabo (Four Gods) and Saratiamī (The Pantheon)

Four Gods

the ancient Four Gods religion matches a god with each season of the year. They believe that their gods are distant observers that have only interfered with the world a handful of times throughout history.
This religion was once the majority on the continent, but has since fallen to dangerously low numbers due to strong oppression from followers of The Pantheon.

The Pantheon

The Pantheon is a religion comparable to that of the Forgotten Realms, with a collection of gods that each represent a certain aspect of the world. The largest difference, however, is that these gods literally live in Zemia, and interact with the people. Those of other religions claim that these 'gods' are simply immortal beings that simply claim to have a higher power, but it's quite hard to dispute the existence of a god when they can find you and come beat you up.

Of Gods and Kings

Historically, the gods of The Pantheon have kept their nose out of politics. There have been times throughout history when a God has led an army, or ruled a nation, but this has led to divisiveness that has ended up losing the god more popularity than it gained them, and to a god popularity is power.
Now, there is an informal agreement that the gods shouldlet their followers govern themselves and that they should act more as a guiding hand than a raised fist.

Geopolitics

Central Zemia

Central Zemia is often seen as the beating heart of the continent, and is in many ways more developed than the rest of the continent. It can largely be divided into the Ƶetrun Plains to the north and the Plaksen forests to the south. This rough geographic divide was once the front lines of the largest war in the history of the continent, the Rebellion of Five, and is now the border between the United Republic in the north and the Plaxen Kingdom in the south.

The United Republic

At a glance, one might compare the United Republic (UR) to Europe's historical Holy Roman Empire, but that wouldn't be quite right: the UR is in essense a federation led by the Midborne Republic, which is to this day scrambling to cling onto as much of their fallen empire as possible.
The Midborne Replublic is the rump state left by the collapse of the Midborne Empire, the largest political entity since the Thirty Thousand Sorrows. No longer able to supress their peoples through military might, they have now entered the arena of politics, and often attempt to appease the lesser members of the UR to keep them loyal. This plan of action has been fairly successful so far, but many speculate that it's only a matter of time before Midborne runs out of concessions to make, of gifts to give. The United Republic has a large majority human population, but have many minorities scattered throughout the realm, the largest of which being orcs.

Other Republican Powers

Some other noteable powers include Silverkeep, Płyni, and West Pemer.

Plaxen Kingdom

After the Five Banners cripped the Midborne Empire in the Rebellion of Five, they consolidated their gains in Plaksen and formed the Plaxen Kingdom. Plaxen is a state held together ony by the will of it's people, making it a land of state and civic nationalism unlike anything else on the continent.
The laws and culture of Plaxen promote individual freedoms and inclusivity first and foremost. The gevernment relatively rarely gets involved in the everyday lives of it's citizens, and on a day-to-day basis they trust the state-backed Adventurer's Guild to handle smaller jobs so that they only need to personally contract more large-scale operations, such as road maintainance.
This does have some dire consequenses though - with little regulation, the quality of goods and services is not guaranteed and there's a general lack of standards across the kingdom.
In spite of their generally liberal values, the monarchy of Plaxen is very popular with the people. It has a rather unusual system that I've taken to calling a Cyclic Monarchy. There are five royal houses, and at any given time four of them will act more as nobles that administrate various parts of the government and country. Upon the death of the monarch, the head of the next house will inherit the throne. Plaxen has no clear majority population. Their cultral value of inclusivity mean that, over time, many different species of all shapes and sizes have migrated there. In fact, the blending of all these different species has led to the rise in population of half-breeds, creating brand new minorities. The only species that sees some resentment and discrimination is humans, although this is entirely derived from the struggle of the Five Banners against their human oppressors and is seen by many to be an outdated view.

Crystal Duchy

The Şūfmibū, the Purple Mountain, is often called the Pearl of Zemia and it is said that whoever controls the mountain controls all trade. To that end, it is often the source of wars and political tensions for those able to exert influence over it. After the fall of the Midborne Empire, the Şūfmibū fell to Plaxeni hands, but they were more recently forced to give the Crystal Duchy their independence after a disatrous war against the United Republic.
Now, the duchy operates as a free city that prioritises controlling the Magentium trade and establishing good relations with all of its neighbours. By international treaty their military capacity is very limited so they are forced to play the diplomatic game, while using their wealth to hire mercenaries and adventurers to for domestic issues, such as civil unrest, that otherwise could have been handled by an army. As a former part of Plaxen, the Crystal Duchy has a similar mix of species.

East Zemia

East Zemia is dominated by bogs and swamps due to it mostly low-lying land adjacent to mountains.

Desçov Dictatorship

The Deschovians have long been a proud people who embrace cultural syncretism with their neighbours, which has led to the Desçovian republic being a historically peaceful one. This was greatly helped by their alliance with the Midborne Empire, who acted as a close ally and trading partner.
This all changed when a man named Ristix came to power and transformed the republic into a dictatorship. In his 20 year rule, he reformed almost every aspect of the country in his own image, turning it into a more expansionist and authoritarian regime. Desçov has no majority species, but the largest minority is human which is followed closely by dwarves.

Lunaris Queendom

Although geographically in the south, Lunaris is cultrally seperate from their largest neighbour, Plaxen, and as such is often lumped into the 'eastern' region. Lunaris is the oldest state in Zemia, being the only one to have in part survived The Sorrows. The royal family of the nation is a line of dragons that can each rule for hunreds of years. It is unusually politically stable, and it's proximity to the Aurora Barrier along with the geographic seperation of the Plaksen Forests to their north make it highly isolated from the rest of Zemia, and as such any travellers from the Queendom are usually seen as 'outsiders'.
Within the Queendom, the people live in a feudal system where commoners are tied to the land they work, and a chain of command leads to the Dragon Queen with near-absolute power.

Truga Confederation

After the tribes of the Dētaşū Jungle were invaded during the Scramble for the Tomb of Khamukas, they decided to form together into a loose confederation. Although they still act independently, that elect (or decide by war) a single tribe to represent them in external politics.
The Dētaşū is an unforgiving place, and is considered to be Zemia's last frontier south of the Krengo mountain range. To outsiders, it is a land of strange creatures and savage people. To it's locals, it's a bountiful place to live where the extensive flora and fauna are both a boon and a bane.
The Truga population is fairly mixed, although the first species that would come to the average Zemian's mind when asked would be Tabaxi, as they are native to the jungle. Many members of the confederation have a majority population of Şti (a.k.a. Four Gods), a religion no longer present in most of Zemia.

Zabeşi Tribe

The Zabeşi are an organised tribe from the eastern plains that managed to unify control over the ancient Hollow city of Ciłetdētī. Although still a minor power, this achievement makes them the most prominent of the eastern tribes, and could set them on course to economically dominate the region.

North Zemia

Northern Zemia used to be a lot larger, but rapid desertification over the last two centuries has led to the depopulation of most of the region. This has resulted in the complete dissapearance of the Orcish nations to the north as they mass-migrated to safter lands. Now, the last two nations in the region are fighting tooth and nail to keep the desert - and the monsters it brings - at bay.

Privrmeti Triumvirate

"From many, one"
The Triumvirate of the ___

Krengo Lordship

___

Skdētī

There is a third unrecognised country in the north of Zemia. The ancient city of Skdētī is united under the banner of the monstrous races, which were able to create a peaceful border with the more intelligent and powerful beasts of the Puestyn desert. The rest of Zemia sees them as no different from these desert monsters and thus refuse to engage in diplomacy with them.

West Zemia

West Zemia consists of the various islands of the western ocean, collectively called the Sylvan Isles. There are some smaller islands that are not significant enough to appear on the world map.

Feimori Kingdom

The Feimori Kingdom is a newly established country, after the union of the Fei kingdom and the Jikichi magocracy. They are by far the most powerful nation in western Zemia, although their territorial claims on a map are somewhat misleading: The Lost Forest that covers must of the Sylvan Isles is a place of wild magic and migratory tribes, and as such sees little to no influence from the capital.
The Lost Forest is the least well understood part of Zemia. The many denizens such as fairies and dryads that each vie for control over areas as small as a few trees mean that the political web is incredebly complex. Feimori is a traditionally multiethnic nation but the High Elf ruling class ensure rights and benefits for elves first and foremost.

Batsuri Order

The Batsuri Isles, in turn a part of the Sylvan Isles, are a collection of larger islands who's remoteness make them hard to administrate from elsewhere, yet whose population and military capabilities are too small to keep them independent. At the moment, the Feimori Kingdom rules Batsuri through their vassal, the Batsuri Order, managed by a theocratic council.