Desuya: World Information.
CONTENTS
☀ GENERAL/HISTORY
☀ LIFE IN DESUYA
☀ MAGIC
☀ HIERARCHY
☀ RELIGION
☀ SUMMONERS AND THE SUMMONING
☀ IF WATER RUNS OUT
☀ LU’UZ
☀ GENERAL/HISTORY:
Desuya is a desert planet, circling the binary star Sinon and Secue (reference for terrestrial planets and binary stars). Originally it was a fine planet, a little warm and with large spans of desert, but with water and foliage and plentiful life. The people of Desuya flourished, their magic strong and powerful, most people finding an aptitude for one particular concentration. But the universe is fraught with danger, and it was this that led to Desuya’s downturn.
Desuya’s axis is on the line of the ecliptic-that is to say, there is a side of light, and a side of dark (reference; see "strange spin"). During one of these seasons of day, an asteroid struck the opposite side of the planet.
The results were disastrous. Although they could not feel the impact, it was impossible to miss the wave of smoke and ash that followed. The best air mages of the day were called to band together, using their magic to clear the air around the villages, rotating shifts of mages powering the barrier that kept the air around the village clean. Despite this, thousands of people died from the aftereffects; this was later known as the Sweeping Death. Eventually, though, the toxins in the air began to dissipate and people went back to their normal life. However, it was clear within a couple generations that something dire had happened to the planet. Lakes began to dry out, foliage began dying, and within a hundred years the surface had become almost inhabitable.
The asteroid had created a gigantic crater on the reverse of the planet, but its repercussions were even greater than the Sweeping Death. The impact had actually knocked the planet a couple degrees closer to the suns-the suns took a greater gravitational grip on the planet, and although it was not enough to pull it into the sun, it did lock the planet into synchronous rotation with the suns. The sun would never set on the villages again.
As conditions on Desuya’s surface began to worsen, it was decided that something needed to be done. After years of discussion and debate, it was decided that the entirety of the Desuyan people would move belowground. Eight ground mages were selected and joined their powers, working for two days and two nights to hollow out a large section of the world’s crust. The people went below, building houses and halls, storage buildings and training facilities-even a crematorium, for they knew they would not return to the surface. As they built below, the Creators returned to work above, building a webbing of stone and earth to create a ceiling that would protect them from the outside elements. The work was hard and took several years, but finally the entirety of the Desuyan civilization had moved underground, an event known to all as the Great Migration.
While conditions outside continued to deteriorate, Desuyans flourished for several years-but after a while, it became evident that they would need to scavenge outside. At first they scavenged for any that might have been lost during either the Sweeping Death or the Great Migration, but as time continued on they found that they could harvest materials above, such as the discarded skins of animals or abandoned nests of sand-walkers. Such tasks were dangerous and it was not uncommon for men to be killed whilst working, but the materials harvested were too precious to forego.
They continued to learn from the things that remained above; if other organisms could continue to live above, then it was possible that they would, as well. They learned about the creatures that spawned above and learned the limits of the surface (one such lesson being that water was never to be cast with magic aboveground; such magic drew sand-walkers to them like moths to a flame).
However, all was not well belowground, for magic was beginning to falter. Stuck belowground, the powers of air and ground began to falter and weaken, and water mages were cut off from their element almost entirely, and their powers failed. It seemed as though all life would die out, in spite of their newfound life.
But the Creators stepped forward again. Their goddess had appeared before them and thanked them for their devotion to the village-“Once again I must ask too much of you.” She bestowed upon them the power to summon forth large quantities of water, enough to sustain the village. And so for the rest of their lives the Creators were hailed as saviors. When they died, it was rumored that their power would die as well, but instead, they found that the power had been passed on, that a new Summoner had been selected.
And so it has continued.
☀ LIFE IN DESUYA:
Desuya is very much a male-dominated society, almost to a surprising degree. Family lines are patriarchal, and only men are permitted to go aboveground to scavenge. From youth, children are raised by the entire village, until they enter school at the age of twelve. They are taught for the next several years, in a system that allows children to move on to the next level when they are ready, instead of progressing from year to year in grades. When they graduate this basic school, they split. Boys then continue on to the training academy, a school where they learn to better control their magic, as well as to fight and defend themselves from anything that they might encounter aboveground. This academy is much more intensive than the basic fighting classes they participate in in basic schooling, and takes at least three years to complete (excepting special circumstances). Girls have the choice to continue on to another school, where they also learn to control their magic better, or to apprentice themselves to another member of the village.
At age 19, the boys of the village are taken aboveground for the first time. They are considered “juniors” for the first three years, and become a fully-fledged “adult” at age 22.
Finding an oasis aboveground is another integral part of a Desuyan man’s life. Because of how the planet moves, it’s very difficult to reliably pinpoint the location of any of the oases they know of. Discovering one’s first oasis is a rite of passage every man must go through, and when he finally finds one, he receives a tattoo, a curved triangle that is inked just below the right eye and is split into three parts. If someone should find their first oasis as an adult, his tattoo will be dark blue-if it is while he is a junior, he receives a dark green tattoo instead.
☀ MAGIC:
Magic in Desuya comes entirely from oneself. Your magic reservoir and how easily you draw from it is influenced by two parts: lineage and spirit. Magic reservoirs are passed down through bloodline--if two strong mages have a child, odds are that the child will also be a strong mage. It's in their blood. The other component to drawing on magic is spirit, and can be influenced by a multitude of variables including mental health, sense of self, and determination (for instance, somebody who is suffering from depression might find it harder to work magic than somebody who is fine; somebody who is secure in themself and is confident will easily outmatch somebody who is certain that they're a failure; and a woman trying to save her brother will find it much easier to draw on her magic than someone who's simply shown off his new trick one too many times).
In using magic, one does not have to take from their surroundings, but instead can produce their element from themselves--that is to say, if a fire mage is sitting in a room with a candle and lights his fingertip on fire (a common trick), he is not taking the fire from the candle, but using the power inside himself to create flame out of nothing. Similarly, ice mages create ice from nothing, and water mages, rather than summoning water from a tangible source, are creating water out of the magic within them and their own memory of it. If a source is readily available, a mage may choose to manipulate that rather than produce their own (fire mages manipulate candles, water mages using the water already present in the baths), but for the most part they create their own.
☀ HIERARCHY:
Desuya is run by a chief, who is the head of a council of elders. Past them, command falls to the Summoners. The current chief of Desuya is Sialen LeDrüne, though most also defer to his mother, Sotele LeDrüne, currently the oldest member of the village.
☀ RELIGION:
The Desuyan people believe in a singular goddess, known only as the Maiden. She is said to be a young deity, and while she is known to have family, they are rarely mentioned. The Maiden is sister to the reaper of Death.
It’s common knowledge in Desuya that it was due to the Maiden that the Creators were granted the power of summoning.
☀ SUMMONERS AND THE SUMMONING:
The first eight Creators of Desuya also became the first Summoners of Desuya. But what most people don’t know is that the Creators never died.
Upon their death, each Creator was approached by the Maiden, who asked them of their devotion to their society and asked if they would be willing to remain. After their lives and all that they’d accomplished, all eight accepted-now, although their physical bodies are dead, they live on as spirits. These spirits are where the real power for the summoning comes from. When a Summoner dies, the spirit living on in them is released, and he (or she; there were female Creators) selects somebody new from the living to become the next Summoner. The spirit lives on in this newly-chosen Summoner, giving them a considerable boost in magical strength.
The Summoning is the ceremony in which water is brought to the village. This takes place biweekly, and most all of the village turns out to watch. It’s just as important for its theatrics as it is for its use. The eight summoners stand in two rings, their positions already decided by whose power they have inherited (it is important to note that the people cannot distinguish whose power they have inherited; to Asuka, he would be standing in Thenusu’s old place, not Nereus’s). Together, they all release their power at the same time, their power being drawn out of them by the others-most summoners find they are much stronger at a summoning than they are at any other time-and the power manifests itself as a long, dragon-esque being (and when I say dragon-esque I mean the more snakelike Asian dragons, rather than the leathery wings and rearing up dragons) known as a water-crawler. The water-crawlers at first circle the crowd, interacting with the villagers, until the cry of “There she is!” inevitably goes up.
The Maiden herself comes to the village during the summoning, though she is completely a figure of water. She approaches the “head” at the time (in Asuka’s time it is Kazarath LeDrüne; he is not only a summoner but also the son of the village chief and found a double-oasis on his first discovery) and interacts with them, then raises a hand into the air-this is the only time in Desuya that rain falls. The rain does not replenish the reservoirs, but instead is a gift to the people, a relief and a curiosity they don’t understand, something that is entirely otherworldly to them. At this time, the water-crawlers take flight and it is they that do the work, mucking out all the “sewage” and cleaning the water in the baths, filling the drinking water and taking away all the filth. While this is going on, the Maiden remains, and she finally calls the water-crawlers back to her, alighting on one of them, and they all fly away to fade from view as they near the ceiling.
☀ IF WATER RUNS OUT:
If for some reason the biweekly summoning does not come fast enough and the town runs out of drinking water, it is a simple task for any summoner to replenish the stores (though they may not be able to fully replenish the stores on their own). Each of them has great power on their own, but it is when they all come together that the magic happens, flushing the town of waste and refilling the baths.
☀ LU’UZ:
A club, the only club in Desuya. Come on, just because they’re underground doesn’t mean they don’t know how to party it up!
Okay, okay. There’s a lot more that I (obviously) haven’t included here, but I think this is more than enough for a start! XD; Also, Abi is lazy and wants to upload this to the journal before she has to take off on a long drive home. >.>;;;
☀ GENERAL/HISTORY
☀ LIFE IN DESUYA
☀ MAGIC
☀ HIERARCHY
☀ RELIGION
☀ SUMMONERS AND THE SUMMONING
☀ IF WATER RUNS OUT
☀ LU’UZ
☀ GENERAL/HISTORY:
Desuya is a desert planet, circling the binary star Sinon and Secue (reference for terrestrial planets and binary stars). Originally it was a fine planet, a little warm and with large spans of desert, but with water and foliage and plentiful life. The people of Desuya flourished, their magic strong and powerful, most people finding an aptitude for one particular concentration. But the universe is fraught with danger, and it was this that led to Desuya’s downturn.
Desuya’s axis is on the line of the ecliptic-that is to say, there is a side of light, and a side of dark (reference; see "strange spin"). During one of these seasons of day, an asteroid struck the opposite side of the planet.
The results were disastrous. Although they could not feel the impact, it was impossible to miss the wave of smoke and ash that followed. The best air mages of the day were called to band together, using their magic to clear the air around the villages, rotating shifts of mages powering the barrier that kept the air around the village clean. Despite this, thousands of people died from the aftereffects; this was later known as the Sweeping Death. Eventually, though, the toxins in the air began to dissipate and people went back to their normal life. However, it was clear within a couple generations that something dire had happened to the planet. Lakes began to dry out, foliage began dying, and within a hundred years the surface had become almost inhabitable.
The asteroid had created a gigantic crater on the reverse of the planet, but its repercussions were even greater than the Sweeping Death. The impact had actually knocked the planet a couple degrees closer to the suns-the suns took a greater gravitational grip on the planet, and although it was not enough to pull it into the sun, it did lock the planet into synchronous rotation with the suns. The sun would never set on the villages again.
As conditions on Desuya’s surface began to worsen, it was decided that something needed to be done. After years of discussion and debate, it was decided that the entirety of the Desuyan people would move belowground. Eight ground mages were selected and joined their powers, working for two days and two nights to hollow out a large section of the world’s crust. The people went below, building houses and halls, storage buildings and training facilities-even a crematorium, for they knew they would not return to the surface. As they built below, the Creators returned to work above, building a webbing of stone and earth to create a ceiling that would protect them from the outside elements. The work was hard and took several years, but finally the entirety of the Desuyan civilization had moved underground, an event known to all as the Great Migration.
While conditions outside continued to deteriorate, Desuyans flourished for several years-but after a while, it became evident that they would need to scavenge outside. At first they scavenged for any that might have been lost during either the Sweeping Death or the Great Migration, but as time continued on they found that they could harvest materials above, such as the discarded skins of animals or abandoned nests of sand-walkers. Such tasks were dangerous and it was not uncommon for men to be killed whilst working, but the materials harvested were too precious to forego.
They continued to learn from the things that remained above; if other organisms could continue to live above, then it was possible that they would, as well. They learned about the creatures that spawned above and learned the limits of the surface (one such lesson being that water was never to be cast with magic aboveground; such magic drew sand-walkers to them like moths to a flame).
However, all was not well belowground, for magic was beginning to falter. Stuck belowground, the powers of air and ground began to falter and weaken, and water mages were cut off from their element almost entirely, and their powers failed. It seemed as though all life would die out, in spite of their newfound life.
But the Creators stepped forward again. Their goddess had appeared before them and thanked them for their devotion to the village-“Once again I must ask too much of you.” She bestowed upon them the power to summon forth large quantities of water, enough to sustain the village. And so for the rest of their lives the Creators were hailed as saviors. When they died, it was rumored that their power would die as well, but instead, they found that the power had been passed on, that a new Summoner had been selected.
And so it has continued.
☀ LIFE IN DESUYA:
Desuya is very much a male-dominated society, almost to a surprising degree. Family lines are patriarchal, and only men are permitted to go aboveground to scavenge. From youth, children are raised by the entire village, until they enter school at the age of twelve. They are taught for the next several years, in a system that allows children to move on to the next level when they are ready, instead of progressing from year to year in grades. When they graduate this basic school, they split. Boys then continue on to the training academy, a school where they learn to better control their magic, as well as to fight and defend themselves from anything that they might encounter aboveground. This academy is much more intensive than the basic fighting classes they participate in in basic schooling, and takes at least three years to complete (excepting special circumstances). Girls have the choice to continue on to another school, where they also learn to control their magic better, or to apprentice themselves to another member of the village.
At age 19, the boys of the village are taken aboveground for the first time. They are considered “juniors” for the first three years, and become a fully-fledged “adult” at age 22.
Finding an oasis aboveground is another integral part of a Desuyan man’s life. Because of how the planet moves, it’s very difficult to reliably pinpoint the location of any of the oases they know of. Discovering one’s first oasis is a rite of passage every man must go through, and when he finally finds one, he receives a tattoo, a curved triangle that is inked just below the right eye and is split into three parts. If someone should find their first oasis as an adult, his tattoo will be dark blue-if it is while he is a junior, he receives a dark green tattoo instead.
☀ MAGIC:
Magic in Desuya comes entirely from oneself. Your magic reservoir and how easily you draw from it is influenced by two parts: lineage and spirit. Magic reservoirs are passed down through bloodline--if two strong mages have a child, odds are that the child will also be a strong mage. It's in their blood. The other component to drawing on magic is spirit, and can be influenced by a multitude of variables including mental health, sense of self, and determination (for instance, somebody who is suffering from depression might find it harder to work magic than somebody who is fine; somebody who is secure in themself and is confident will easily outmatch somebody who is certain that they're a failure; and a woman trying to save her brother will find it much easier to draw on her magic than someone who's simply shown off his new trick one too many times).
In using magic, one does not have to take from their surroundings, but instead can produce their element from themselves--that is to say, if a fire mage is sitting in a room with a candle and lights his fingertip on fire (a common trick), he is not taking the fire from the candle, but using the power inside himself to create flame out of nothing. Similarly, ice mages create ice from nothing, and water mages, rather than summoning water from a tangible source, are creating water out of the magic within them and their own memory of it. If a source is readily available, a mage may choose to manipulate that rather than produce their own (fire mages manipulate candles, water mages using the water already present in the baths), but for the most part they create their own.
☀ HIERARCHY:
Desuya is run by a chief, who is the head of a council of elders. Past them, command falls to the Summoners. The current chief of Desuya is Sialen LeDrüne, though most also defer to his mother, Sotele LeDrüne, currently the oldest member of the village.
☀ RELIGION:
The Desuyan people believe in a singular goddess, known only as the Maiden. She is said to be a young deity, and while she is known to have family, they are rarely mentioned. The Maiden is sister to the reaper of Death.
It’s common knowledge in Desuya that it was due to the Maiden that the Creators were granted the power of summoning.
☀ SUMMONERS AND THE SUMMONING:
The first eight Creators of Desuya also became the first Summoners of Desuya. But what most people don’t know is that the Creators never died.
Upon their death, each Creator was approached by the Maiden, who asked them of their devotion to their society and asked if they would be willing to remain. After their lives and all that they’d accomplished, all eight accepted-now, although their physical bodies are dead, they live on as spirits. These spirits are where the real power for the summoning comes from. When a Summoner dies, the spirit living on in them is released, and he (or she; there were female Creators) selects somebody new from the living to become the next Summoner. The spirit lives on in this newly-chosen Summoner, giving them a considerable boost in magical strength.
The Summoning is the ceremony in which water is brought to the village. This takes place biweekly, and most all of the village turns out to watch. It’s just as important for its theatrics as it is for its use. The eight summoners stand in two rings, their positions already decided by whose power they have inherited (it is important to note that the people cannot distinguish whose power they have inherited; to Asuka, he would be standing in Thenusu’s old place, not Nereus’s). Together, they all release their power at the same time, their power being drawn out of them by the others-most summoners find they are much stronger at a summoning than they are at any other time-and the power manifests itself as a long, dragon-esque being (and when I say dragon-esque I mean the more snakelike Asian dragons, rather than the leathery wings and rearing up dragons) known as a water-crawler. The water-crawlers at first circle the crowd, interacting with the villagers, until the cry of “There she is!” inevitably goes up.
The Maiden herself comes to the village during the summoning, though she is completely a figure of water. She approaches the “head” at the time (in Asuka’s time it is Kazarath LeDrüne; he is not only a summoner but also the son of the village chief and found a double-oasis on his first discovery) and interacts with them, then raises a hand into the air-this is the only time in Desuya that rain falls. The rain does not replenish the reservoirs, but instead is a gift to the people, a relief and a curiosity they don’t understand, something that is entirely otherworldly to them. At this time, the water-crawlers take flight and it is they that do the work, mucking out all the “sewage” and cleaning the water in the baths, filling the drinking water and taking away all the filth. While this is going on, the Maiden remains, and she finally calls the water-crawlers back to her, alighting on one of them, and they all fly away to fade from view as they near the ceiling.
☀ IF WATER RUNS OUT:
If for some reason the biweekly summoning does not come fast enough and the town runs out of drinking water, it is a simple task for any summoner to replenish the stores (though they may not be able to fully replenish the stores on their own). Each of them has great power on their own, but it is when they all come together that the magic happens, flushing the town of waste and refilling the baths.
☀ LU’UZ:
A club, the only club in Desuya. Come on, just because they’re underground doesn’t mean they don’t know how to party it up!
Okay, okay. There’s a lot more that I (obviously) haven’t included here, but I think this is more than enough for a start! XD; Also, Abi is lazy and wants to upload this to the journal before she has to take off on a long drive home. >.>;;;