The year the mists opened was an eventful one.
After hundreds of years of limited and unreliable mist travel through the vitrified mist of Strava, the dissolution of mists proved a catalyst to launch Strava out of its dark age. The Fading of memories and personages was put to an end when the ritual to release the King In Glass was completed, but King Bystreva's mind was warped even before his imprisonment in vitrified mist.
The Fading marked the end of what had once been the Celestial Jewel, the citystate of Strava. In comparison to the two hundred year blight of thought, the catastrophic event of the Starfall centuries before was a mercy. They'd known, they could prepare, they could rebuild. In the threadbare twilight of the family dynasty, the Smittyari scavengers had their ranks supplied the banished and the supposedly lost.
But the stars are bright, and the way is safe to return to the surface. For the Meshkantsi dwellers and Doslidnyky research league, it was a chance to live, to thrive, to rebuild the city. Since the opening of the mists, glyphs around the city began to charge, restoring functionality of their long-dormant potent magical effects. The most powerful seemed to be within the palace itself, a palace that is now contested territory. Without the threat of the Fading to deter bonepickers or the guardianship of the Glass Knight after she retired her post, temporary control of the palace has been taken by Surface Security from Lower Strava. At least, councilwoman and now Commander Rhav has issued assurances that it is a temporary measure until such a time as consensus can be reached about what the future holds for Strava.
Some who emerged had only ever been to the surface on short missions. Due to fears of the Fading, few had never come above ground whatsoever. With the increased population of unusually large animals and some rather aggressive flora after the mists reopened, most of the surface security corps has set up immediately around the palace, leaving ill-trained militias and the aid of adventurers to make living areas safe.
The celestial academy was all but destroyed by the machinations of its former chancellor, an apparent supplicant of an entity known as Erasure. Although he defected from Erasure's cause after having been rejected by the being from beyond a portal to another plane, another spoke to him, identifying itself as Panopticon and imbuing the Chancellor with power and knowledge. Thankfully, he was slain by adventurers, leaving little behind after his body disintegrated.
With glyphs throughout the city regaining power and reestablishing a dome of protection over the island city-state, Strava is at least protected from external threats. Internally the teleportation network has been steadily stabilizing, though teleportation targeting has been something of a work in progress to refine. Doslidnyky scholars, particularly glyph researchers, have been working to understand and adjust targeting to allow easier travel of people and resources throughout the rest of the city.
Strava is recovering gradually, but without direction in its care it will slowly fester. Though some hold out hope that their memories will return in time, those who lost people and memories to the Fading have had to simply move on and live their own lives. Those lives are under threat of destruction by hazards of the world they know longer know as much as they are by internal threats of opportunistic individuals trying to gain or build personal power in the wreckage.
There is the matter of who will lead, who will guide the city to greatness again. Smittyari who had been banished or struck out on their own to have freedom from life underground have largely felt their way of life is being challenged and degraded by those who try to impose rule upon the land they have called home. The estranged princess has not been seen for some time, and the seer-cousins of the royal family in the Vorozhyla have been rumbling about their ancestral claim to leadership, while the Council of Neath has tried to keep a continuity of stewardship over their people despite the conditions which held up their authority being vastly different.
The world is changing, reacting, and adventurers have been a rather explosive catalyst.
After hundreds of years of limited and unreliable mist travel through the vitrified mist of Strava, the dissolution of mists proved a catalyst to launch Strava out of its dark age. The Fading of memories and personages was put to an end when the ritual to release the King In Glass was completed, but King Bystreva's mind was warped even before his imprisonment in vitrified mist.
The Fading marked the end of what had once been the Celestial Jewel, the citystate of Strava. In comparison to the two hundred year blight of thought, the catastrophic event of the Starfall centuries before was a mercy. They'd known, they could prepare, they could rebuild. In the threadbare twilight of the family dynasty, the Smittyari scavengers had their ranks supplied the banished and the supposedly lost.
But the stars are bright, and the way is safe to return to the surface. For the Meshkantsi dwellers and Doslidnyky research league, it was a chance to live, to thrive, to rebuild the city. Since the opening of the mists, glyphs around the city began to charge, restoring functionality of their long-dormant potent magical effects. The most powerful seemed to be within the palace itself, a palace that is now contested territory. Without the threat of the Fading to deter bonepickers or the guardianship of the Glass Knight after she retired her post, temporary control of the palace has been taken by Surface Security from Lower Strava. At least, councilwoman and now Commander Rhav has issued assurances that it is a temporary measure until such a time as consensus can be reached about what the future holds for Strava.
Some who emerged had only ever been to the surface on short missions. Due to fears of the Fading, few had never come above ground whatsoever. With the increased population of unusually large animals and some rather aggressive flora after the mists reopened, most of the surface security corps has set up immediately around the palace, leaving ill-trained militias and the aid of adventurers to make living areas safe.
The celestial academy was all but destroyed by the machinations of its former chancellor, an apparent supplicant of an entity known as Erasure. Although he defected from Erasure's cause after having been rejected by the being from beyond a portal to another plane, another spoke to him, identifying itself as Panopticon and imbuing the Chancellor with power and knowledge. Thankfully, he was slain by adventurers, leaving little behind after his body disintegrated.
With glyphs throughout the city regaining power and reestablishing a dome of protection over the island city-state, Strava is at least protected from external threats. Internally the teleportation network has been steadily stabilizing, though teleportation targeting has been something of a work in progress to refine. Doslidnyky scholars, particularly glyph researchers, have been working to understand and adjust targeting to allow easier travel of people and resources throughout the rest of the city.
Strava is recovering gradually, but without direction in its care it will slowly fester. Though some hold out hope that their memories will return in time, those who lost people and memories to the Fading have had to simply move on and live their own lives. Those lives are under threat of destruction by hazards of the world they know longer know as much as they are by internal threats of opportunistic individuals trying to gain or build personal power in the wreckage.
There is the matter of who will lead, who will guide the city to greatness again. Smittyari who had been banished or struck out on their own to have freedom from life underground have largely felt their way of life is being challenged and degraded by those who try to impose rule upon the land they have called home. The estranged princess has not been seen for some time, and the seer-cousins of the royal family in the Vorozhyla have been rumbling about their ancestral claim to leadership, while the Council of Neath has tried to keep a continuity of stewardship over their people despite the conditions which held up their authority being vastly different.
The world is changing, reacting, and adventurers have been a rather explosive catalyst.