Suritran Home Life

The Suritrans are a people of grandiose luxury - their entire society stretches across a wide, winding river which provides rich soil for the farmers of the cavern, known as the Bagdi river. The river ends in a large delta where the city of Ubaid lies, the capital of Suritra, conveniently right next to the Eastern Gate of Polaris, making them one of the first nations to make contact with Polaris. They make a fortune trading with Polaris, exporting minerals and fine jewelry, and that wealth is felt amongst all the citizens of the land. Many amongst the middle class are artisans like jewelers, magicians, and government workers.
To those who can afford it, Spirit Crystal’s magic has allowed the people of Suritra to enhance their minds, allowing them to comprehend complex mathematical operations, fetching a high price for their services as accountants and general statisticians for the government, able to read through extensive government documents and produce graphs and charts by hands. This effect, however, is only as long as a Spirit Crystal’s magic is operational, and as such requires great skill to maintain.
At the top of the chain is the Pharaoh, the god-sovereign who is the reincarnation of the supreme ruler of all the gods, Maruk. This bloodline reigns from a massive palace in the heart of Ubaid, guarded by their Brass Guard, elite soldiers who serve them. The state is a surveillance state with a massive police force stretching across the nation. At the heart of this is the Correctionists, a secret organization of government agents who specialize in altering memories using Spirit Crystals in order to dispel unrest and remove political enemies. The Correctionists require immense control over Spirit Crystals to not only overpower other people’s minds, but also to enhance their own mind to be able to comprehend and alter the minds of other humans.
Spirit Crystals are a form of magic that can conjure lightning and manipulate the mind. Many use it for combat as an overwhelming force, but it is also used for storytelling. Fable Lockets are special Spirit Crystals that have been placed in intricate jewelry masterfully crafted to store & share memories. This is used to create gripping fables, both from real memories & from the imagination, that can be shared like films experienced in the first person. However, they too require an enhanced mind to safely operate, meaning for non-Suritrans there is often a professional Fable Caster who casts the memory into another’s mind with their permission. Those casters are highly trusted and are put through an incredibly rigorous process to ensure they do not abuse that access to another’s mind.
There is no working class citizen in Suritra; instead, there is a slave population which serves as the manual labor of the city. They have no rights under the law and are heavily monitored by the Correctionists; if they show unrest, they are “altered” by the spirit magic. In order to supplement this, Correctionists operate as priests of Maruk in slave temples, preaching the word of the Pharaoh and preventing slave uprising.
Despite the wealth of the nation, Suritra is a dangerous dystopian state with little room for dissent within its population. It teaches rigorous nationalism fused with religious notes to keep the average citizen assured of Suritran supremacy. One group stands out as an exception: The Babylonians.
The Babylonians were a separate state within the Igios Valley who built the city-state of Babylon at the source of the river, a waterfall at the very opposite end of the cavern. Babylonians enjoyed great prosperity but were small relative to their Suritran cousins. They worshiped Bagdi, the god of the river, and were the original creators of the Fable Lockets. In the past century, Suritra conquered Babylon and forced them to join Suritra. Great dissent still exists in Babylon, and the Correctionists struggle to convert the population because most of the Babylonians dissent against the state.