Keywords II - Mundus Edition

----Overview----

It has been a long time since humanity discovered that they were not the center of the universe. According to the investigations of the Academy of Magic, it was proven that Mundus is, in fact, a massive celestial body that rotates around the Sun along with many others. This theory was at first rejected by the Divine Church, but eventually, they settled their differences, though with the Church still maintaining its own beliefs.

With the exception of the Sun, the most important celestial bodies for the inhabitants of Mundus are its two moons, Unus and Ergo. Unus provides a balance on climate changes of Mundus, whereas Ergo prevents the seas from raging over the lands and tectonic plates from crumbling.

The Empire has plans to visit and step on Unus, making there a new base for exploration and potentially new resources, be they scientifical, magical, or else. Ergo is completely inhabitable; It contains an extremely lethal dark miasma that is the antithesis of life. Any living being that makes contact with it dies in seconds. The Academy of Magic once reported having seen movements and temporary constructs within the surface of Ergo, although without a clear resolution due to being too far away, which tips humanity's curiosity even more.

----Continents----

Mundus' lands are divided into three continents, Lotus, Mizu Tochi, and Umbra. They do not intersect and are instead separated by the Bedlam sea, in a triangular shape, with each continent being at one of the three supposed extremities. It is speculated that there are two more secret continents, unknown even to the Empire, with one of them possibly being submerged deep underwater.

-[Lotus]: The main continent that represents humanity. It contains five countries: Anthropy, Kori, Edinu, Ibris, and Yura. Its structure has an overall area of 25 million km², the second biggest continent of the three. Human inhabitants exists here ever since 10000 years old.

-[Mizu Tochi]: The continent that represents the elf race. It contains four countries: Xýlo Gi, Agios Gi, Kenós Gi, and Érimos Gi. Its structure has an overall area of 24 million km², and its elf population is estimated to have existed ever since 40000 years old.

-[Umbra]: A dark continent whose inhabitants are 99% comprised of evil creatures. It is surrounded by extremely powerful storms and a menacing miasma that induces fear, diseases, poison, and eventually death. It is the biggest continent of the three, having an overall area of 50 million km², and by far the oldest of them, with its inhabitant creatures existing ever since the dragons freely wandered across the surface of Mundus. The Empire, and coincidentally the Church, have plans to conduct a crusade into this place in search of valuable resources, lands, power, and primordial untold secrets until then buried from humanity's grasp.

Each of the three main continents is roughly the same distance away from each other, that being 20000 kilometers.

----Countries----

-[Anthropy]: The most relevant country of Lotus, localized at its east. This is where most humans reside, including the three main organizations. It is a well-diverse country, housing not only humans but non-human visitors and immigrants as well, such as elves, dwarfs, demihumans, etc. Most of its large territory consists of large ecosystems, including forests, mountain ranges, tropical jungles, rocky terrains, icy environments, and so on.

-[Kori]: The country of ice, localized at the north of Lotus. This place is always cold (around 1° Celsius), with its climate always being winter and snowing. Snow and ice storms are common here, and many creatures here are well adapted to them, which resulted in most of them gaining ice attributes in their physiology over the course of millennia.

-[Edinu]: Localized at the south of Lotus. It is a desert oasis with countless lands of sand mounds, with over thirty different large and long rivers, and six different kingdoms separated by the three biggest rivers. This place is feared for its harsh climates and the many uncanny creatures that lie buried underground.

-[Ibris]: A country formed mostly of rocks and volcanoes, localized at the west of Lotus. Not many creatures live here due to the fact most of its territory is covered by magma and an extremely hot rocky environment. The creatures that do live here are often shown to possess a certain degree of adaptation to the magma, evidenced by the fact that their body parts are also partially constituted of it. Ibris was once a prosperous ecosystem that came to an end after an earthquake disturbed the flow of magma of Mundus in a certain spot, causing several terrains to eject and erupt. Some rumors say that people have found a certain dragon roaming around the skies of Ibris, which scares off adventures from Anthropy.

-[Xýlo Gi]: Xylo Gi is the home of the Wood Elves, it's the northern islands of Mizu Tochi, and the most densely forested areas in all of Mundus. The Wood Elves are a pagan culture believing in the old gods of elven beliefs, which would carve away mountains and utilize the new flat lands to expand the forests' reaches. It's because of the old gods that the land grew the way it did. The trees reach kilometers in height on the below-average scale with bustling wildlife. There's also a myth that all plants and wildlife that go extinct will one day resurrect within the forest. The names given to the old gods by the other elven races in defiance of the beliefs of the Wood Elves are Nymphs, the spirit of water, air, fire, earth, and many other natural elements.

-[Agios Gi]: Agios Gi is the home of the Sun Elves, aka Sun-Touched Elves, believed to be the strongest and purest kind of elves to exist on Mizu Tochi. It's a matriarchal culture with Queen Lux leading them for thousands of years. This portion of the islands is within the center of all the island masses and is a massive land mass covering nearly 10 million km of Mizu Tochi. It uses a circular format in its construction, having the towns circling all around the island and then separated by small rivers. There are four towns in total, each one have a river in between before you get to the capital where the royals and the castle lie. Sun Elves worship the Divines and are at constant threat by the Void Elves. They have a port leading to the Wood Elves which they have an alliance with, and are constantly taxing.

-[Kenós Gi]: Kenós Gi is the home of the Void Elves aka Void-Touched Elves. They are a very ritualistic culture of the eastern islands. On this island many of the plants and wildlife are bioluminescent. Void Elves are considered genius inventors and make many of the crafts of the islands. Their religious beliefs are unknown to even other elven races but it's believed they worship deities called Princes. It's believed that these deities are the reason why the Void Elves have advanced so much and can even match the Sun Elves. The Void Elves have bioluminescence ability in small marks on their bodies and they're very skilled with void magic.

-[Érimos Gi]: Érimos Gi is the home of the Wastelanders, a race that's typically seen as trash by the Sun-Touched Elves. They're also some of the rarest elves as they're primarily taken as slaves by the Sun-Touched Elves and usually die quickly in their mines. Their home is the southern islands which are multiple desert landmasses. The Wastelanders have adapted to this environment and typically hunt in the sea and are skilled swimmers with the ability to survive long periods submerged. It's believed that the Wastelanders are the descendants of a breed of Iguana, which the Human Empire calls Marine Iguana, and Sun-Touched Elves. This is typically what makes people believe why the Sun-Touched Elves are disgusted by them as they're the unclean of the past choices. There's one main capital of the islands which's where the temple of their god, Hachūrui the Serpent God, is located.

----Oceans----

Nothing is said much about the oceans of Mundus, but for good reasons. The first one is: Almost all of its territory is unknown and yet to be discovered. Even the Empire with its advancements in magic and technology only managed to explore 5% of it. The second one is: The creatures that lie deep below. Hundreds, if not thousands of abyssal monsters inhabit the deep oceans all across Mundus, with many of them having colossal sizes that dwarf dragons and giants alike. Many ships and submarines from both the Empire and Church have been utterly decimated by those creatures before a counterattack could be had. The biggest sea creature that the Empire has been able to catalog until now is the Krebsklum, an eel-like creature reaching 50 kilometers in size, impervious to all kinds of supernatural damage.

Mundus' oceans are classified into four types:

-[Bedlam]: The central ocean that lies in between the three main continents. If each of the continents is the point of a triangle, Bedlam lies in its center. The existence of dangerous sea creatures here is far lower than in the other oceans, mostly due to it not being as deep. It is mostly a calm ocean with humid temperatures (23° Celsius).

-[Chaostide]: The rest of the ocean that spans across the entirety of Mundus' circumference. It is here that most of the sea creatures live, including dangerous ones. In some areas, its waves often have massive sizes, ranging from 100 meters to one kilometer, and raging vortices that can reach as far as 200 meters in diameter. In comparison to Bedlam, the water temperature here is rather cold (14° Celsius).

-[Polaris]: The ocean that lies at the north pole of Mundus. Its water temperature is very cold (1° Celsius) and houses both its own innate species and a few from Chaostide. Many icebergs and glaciers are present here. It is a calm sea with its waves being barely existent. The overall climate above the waters reaches 10° Celsius.

-[Lafell]: The ocean that lies at the south pole of Mundus. Almost no species lives here. This is because of Lafell's paradoxical nature that cannot be explained. It has a water temperature much colder than Polaris, reaching an abysmal value of -200° C, and yet, the water does not freeze completely. Like Polaris, many glaciers and icebergs exist but liquid water at those temperatures is also present in Lafell somehow. Additionally, the climate above the waters is also abnormally cold (-150° Celsius), making it nigh-impossible for explorations.

----The Trinity----

Mundus's main organizations consist of The Empire, the Academy of Magic, and the Divine Church. They are responsible for overall ruling the continent of Lotus, with the Empire having a slight influence over Mizu Tochi as well.

-[The Empire]: The organization most responsible for pulling the strings of humanity, and renowned for its massive military power. They possess immense advances in every field, combining science and magic with other unknown forces. It is unknown when exactly they came to be, but it is speculated that they are active ever since the Third Great War. Their objective consists of completely conquering and controlling Mundus, as well as what lies beyond it, and of course, protecting Mundus from any potential threat to its existence. They watch over most events that happen on Mundus' lands, and they channel the advance of those people towards whatever goal they desire. Their base is located right at the center of the Anthropy, within the state of Argos.

The Empire currently holds an affiliation with the Academy, with the latter providing magic training to the Empire's soldiers in the exchange for a considerable quantity of money, lands, resources, and influence. They have no direct alliance with the Church, but they are slightly aware that it possesses heavy influence over Lotus and secret mystical weapons that could put the Empire itself in a corner if they are not careful.

Within the branches of the Empire, the most notable one would certainly be the Order, an extremely secret strata, composed of agents and paladins specialized in espionage, assassination, infiltration, and censoring. They are the main go-to option for the Empire when they need to, for example, quickly take out supernatural beings behind everyone's nose or stealthily kill people that are a potential threat to their mandate.

-[The Magic Academy]: A massive institution whose purpose is to introduce, teach, and guide people from all over the world into the esoteric realm of magic and sorcery. Its main base is located on Anthropy but within the state of Belfort.

Many humans and non-humans who aspire to become wizards or mages have the Academy as their first option. The magic variation ranges from the basics to very advanced spells that require years or even decades of practice encompassing all elements of nature. Despite all of this, they prohibit and do not teach Dark Sorcery or Void Spells, for their nature eventually corrupts the user into evilness and rots their soul. Numerous attacks on the Church and the Academy have been orchestrated by factions that specialize in dark sorcery, and some rumors say that the Empire's Order has users with said spells.

The Academy has a lot of financial power, mostly due to its vast content of knowledge of the occult that only they know, something that even the Empire has an interest in, providing them money and influence in exchange. The Church, however, does not trust the Academy, as the latter not only provides help to non-humans but uses supernatural powers that do not come from the gods, the opposite of the Church's dogmas.

Like the Empire, the Academy has its own combat-specialized faction, called the Arcane. A group of extremely powerful magicians, all of who know most spells, including advanced ones. When the Academy needs to defend itself from threats or to conduct explorations, they call the Arcane.

-[The Divine Church]: The 2nd most influential organization within Mundus. It has as its goal the promotion of the godly faith amongst all of its inhabitants, assuring that its word reaches them. Over the course of the centuries, it has turned into a spiritual guide for millions of people, and it has increased its influence in all fields. It also deals with charity and helps those that are in need of it. Yet, it takes on another aspect that is much darker.

It seeks to destroy all that presents itself as a danger to its dogmas. This is because they condemn the existence of anything not deemed human. Any supernatural creature that is not a human is greatly looked down upon by the Church, and if within the Church's territory, will be hunted down upon. The exceptions are only if said beings are residing within the territory of the Empire or the Academy, which then they adopt a more neutral stance and try not to stir up things, but often they will try to secretly capture those creatures and take them out to the Church's own lands so they can enact their judgment properly if need be. The economy of the Church is based principally on the tithes and collections it receives from all over the world. Its main base is also located in Anthropy but within the state of Sendel.

The Divine Church is composed of the Clergy, which is hierarchically divided into Pontiff, Archbishops, Bishops, and highly influential Priests. While a good portion of the Clergy seeks to help people, a significant portion of it takes the dogma far too radically, to the point of even torturing and killing humans that side with supernatural doings and creatures.

Despite being the bane of the non-human creatures and doers, this is not to say that they don't use similar weaponry either. The Clergy draws their power from their faith in their gods. By worshipping and devoting themselves to the divine, they are rewarded with great power, neither magical nor technological, but something else of holy nature instead.

Like the Empire, the Church has its own secret strata that deals with the supernatural behind the veils, called the Inquisition. The Inquisition is composed of specialized priests created to find and purge heretics. Its mission is that of exterminating monsters and demons, but for them, any supernatural being represents a demonic entity that deserves death. The inquisitors are in no way normal people; they are initially children picked up ever since 10 years old, which are then extensively and inhumanly trained for the purpose of becoming efficient killing machines of the Clergy. Many are not capable of withstanding the training and die before even reaching younghood.