Note: This information is from the perspective of, and for the background of, the Research League.
Mist-Travelers and other playable cultures will not come into game with this information.
Doslidnyky - The Researchers
Someone has to restore this world. One way or another, it’s going to be you. But first, you must gather as much information as possible. The Research League is made up of people who strike out above ground into the old city, as well as researchers who stay underground to preserve their knowledge. They don’t take risks that aren’t absolutely necessary, though the amount of risk they are willing to take on still beggars belief in the ranks of the status-quo maintaining Meshkantsi.Whether they are taking surface samples, devising new methods of measuring the influences of Erasure, preserving history, or making planned expeditions to specific areas of Upper Strava, the Doslidnyky consider themselves bold but methodical. They have devised charts and maps with exposure levels and monitor their time in hot zones with fastidious precision. Once an away team has had near or too much exposure, they are recalled underground to wait until they have recovered, working with Biata Memory Healers and having their observations catalogued.
Each away group is composed of a specialized team that is balanced by their skills and experience, though the groups are fluid. The roster of their members is broken down into categories of expertise - protectors, researchers, and “canaries” who are equipped with or skilled in means of scouting into dangerous areas and returning with minimal harm. They keep good relations with Smittyari for their mutual benefit, since their reach is limited by their conscientious nature.
Historia Calamitatum
As stewards of history, the Research League as a whole knows more about the contested history of Strava than anyone. The Meshkantsi know what is solid and certain, but collecting legend and prophecy in order to find a solution to the Fading is more under the Doslidnyky’s purview. For this, they know most of what precipitated King Tešimir Bystreva’s retreat to the palace, and his encasement by the mages of the Academies in a last-ditch effort to keep his well-intentioned extremism from destroying Strava.The Research League has been asked to keep the knowledge of the fall of the Bystreva dynasty from the layfolk of the Meshkantsi to avoid stirring any trouble, especially since the rest of the Bystreva line is presumed dead. If the people knew and remembered that their monarch had been encased to prevent further destruction, leaders in the Meshkantsi fear they would attempt to destroy his prison prematurely to end the Fading without considering the ramifications.
Those who remain underground are often the longest-lived and most constant of the Doslidnyky, including Biata, Elves, and Sylvanborn who chose not to leave and sequester themselves in the ill-fated Vault of Regret. In fact, those who count themselves among the elders of the Research League are often the only ones within the tunnels who remember such a place exists. They are also some of the few who remember having been sheltered by the last dragon and the time of Starfall.
Known Perils
The Fading - The Doslidnyky take great care to keep a “heat map” of the overland and study the deleterious effects of the phenomenon that gradually degrades memories and personalities of people who have ventured too far or too long into the city center. The league is the group that has set and strongly adheres to safe exposure limits while sending their composed teams into the academies to recover physical records.
Blank Bodies - Blank Bodies, or Blanks, are prevalent dangers in the middle zones between the palace and the outer areas. There is some evidence that they are individuals who were corrupted by the ancient influence known as Erasure through its agents. What is certain is that they are unrecoverable, permanently dead and puppeteered by strong magic. Now, they are pitiless guards of unknowable immortal masters. The Doslidnyky have occasionally routed and tried to capture specimens that have attempted to bar their way home, but the bodies have yielded little information.
The Butchers - Known as The Butchers of Forgotten Flesh by those who have seen the true faces of these beings and lived to write about it, these entities are agents of Erasure’s influence in the world. Doslidnyky researchers and guardians alike are trained not to trust those who offer to “make (them) better” or “take (their) pain away.” If they are encountered, the crew is to come together in a show of force, politely decline, and move away from the suspected Butcher. From all viable translated accounts, they are nigh-unkillable but require consent to begin the process of changing a mortal. Remain alert: Butchers are known to resort to causing amnesia and charm to obtain this consent.
Encrusted Elementals - These elementals have lost much of their former glory, strategy, and intellect. Most of these elementals were summoned long ago and plied by mages, though their employers have long since passed from the world. The material encasing them seems to be crystallized flux tempris, and written records intimate it has caused their degradation and prevented these elementals’ return to their home planes.
Captain Kseniya Pribulova - Identified by Elder Segev twenty years after Fading (AF), the stalwart spellsword captain of the royal guard still stands their post at the palace, armor plated in the same glassy substance found on elementals and rumored to have been used in the Encasement of King Tešimir Bystreva. Do not approach them or the castle. They are highly dangerous. All Doslidnyky are trained to recognize and take immediate action to turn back and leave the immediate area if they are spotted. Learning how they have resisted the Fading is not worth your life!
Points of Interest
The Academies - A treasure trove of information from before the Fading began, the Academies - the Academy of Stozhary and the Academy of Táltos - held and still hold much information relating not only to the incidents leading up to the Fading, but times before detailing a time known as Starfall. Alongside tomes, scrolls, and items of great foundational power, Stozhary contains the prophecies of the fallen family. Táltos, for its part, contains information regarding the dual arts of magisterium and is rumored to hide an ancient homestone.
The Tower - The protections of the tower have vexed many a well-prepared Doslidnyky expeditionary team. Some have made their way through, though by the time they returned to the safety of the tunnels they could not remember how, only that they had met with a mage known as Falstaff of Four Winds. While the mage of the tower seems to be quite powerful, they have no desire to leave the comfort of their tower and the circle within.
Burial Mounds - Often, these burial mounds at the edge of town hold moderate risk for marginal reward. Whether a researcher will find undead, a well-trapped Smittyari hideaway, a grim goblin burrow, or secrets of the past buried with those who could not reach their homestone is an unlucky gamble.
Vault of Regret - So called due to its use in the Starfall and prophesies of ill-fortune befalling those who retreated to it at the start of the Fading, it was populated by some of the brightest minds in Strava. Unfortunately, we all know how powerful academics can be when forced to be in one another’s presence for long periods of time. The given name of the vault is the Illuminated Vault, a rather fantastic name for a doomsday bunker built to shield long-lived academics, artists, their patrons, and their servants. Its location was unwritten for “security” but is believed to be beyond the sea wall.
The Palace - This palace is a tomb, and the epicenter of the Fading. Though much remained unwritten of what precisely came to pass, it is known that whatever is contained inside emanates strong magic that erases and twists memory.
Segev‘s Lab - In the depths of the tunnels beneath Strava, though it started out as the laboratory of Elder Segev, it is a colloquial name for the reinforced dungeon-like rooms with ventilation shafts to the surface where the Research League lives and works. Referred to by Meshkantsi as “The Lab”, it is largely avoided. Of course, the class of 140AF may have had something to do with this, owing to their tendency toward uncouth pranks while visitors were in.
Contacts
The Primacy - Elders. They control the flow of information and set the rules for going to the surface, and are mainly composed of long-lived races. Sylvanborn are thin on the ground in their numbers, especially since they tend to be a bit more free with information and... well, everything. Being in their good graces means following exposure limits and recovering useful information. Owing to experience, they are some of the preeminent researchers and ritualists underground.
Vorozhyla - strange but useful Selunari who dart through some of the upper tunnels and mete out their oddball prophecies at their own whims. Being the target of one of their prophecies is often seen as a bad run of luck, though their scribblings have proven useful to the Primacy in advising the Meshkantsi leaders to abandon doomed expansion projects and preserve food.
Smittyari - scavengers of the overland, they know the streets of Strava better than even a well-prepared expeditionary group. With clever trading of supplies and magic items, they can be persuaded to act as guides or risk their lives to recover important information. Use discretion with them, but they can be very helpful.
Meshkantsi - dwellers of the tunnels under the Liquidator’s scavenged remains. What separates them from the Doslidnyky is often their reticence to go up above, and generally their willingness to submit rules that keep the population below relatively static. They have many practical people among their number who are capable crafters, resourceful by nature.