Annual Darturian World Exposition of Science and Magic

How far the world has come! The marvels in technology expanding our view of life; the possibilities to expand our minds; the progress humankind has made to enravel the world's mysteries. And you can all see it in one place, at the glorious Annual Darturian World Exposition of Science and Magic, sponsored by our dear Regent Leonis Dartur the Third himself!

— Excerpt from the Trandit Times in 1683 AR

History

After the Regent Leonis Dartur III came to inhabit the throne at a rather young age, the technologically very interested monarch was eager to see the newest technologies and magical advancements his people had made in recent times. On his request, the academies of Baradolia gathered on the grounds of the Academia Baradolia nicknamed the Crystal Garden in 1682 AR to present for the very first time the newest technologies and inventions. The place gave rise to the name of the "Royal Crystal Exposition" for the very first instance of the exposition.


The monarch was very happy with the shown results and proclaimed the exhibition open to the public for the following week, so that every citizen of the glorios city of Trandit could be inspired by the marvels of technology. Over the course of the following days, this spontaneously developed into a larger fair, as local inventors, craftsmen and marketenders opened up shop directly next to the exposition.


Leonis was highly pleased with the turnout, and the people, still recovering from the latest war, loved their young regent for this event. Before the proclaimed week was over, Leonis declared the Exposition of Science and Magic to be repeated the following year and to be open for the public from the first day on.


The second exposition was held in Trandit once more, this time even having guests and entrepreneurs from Sevelang, Ethoressi and one eccentric inventor from Rhomedan


In honor of King Leonis Dartur's thirtieth birthday, the exposition of 1684 BR took place in his birthplace Zumaton. After that year, the exposition started to move around through various cities, even taking place in Sevelang and Ethoressi so far.

A celebration of progress

Each exposition so far has been opened for ten days. It is customary the first three days be only opened for the royal family, scientists and magicians of the participating academies - as well as a small contigent of writers and drawers reporting about the event. The following days are open for the general public, though usually the area surrounding the exhibition already will be crowded by an inofficial exhibition and market from the first day on.


Within the inner exposition, presented projects are judged and titles and prizes are given out during the first three days. Those projects have then the honor of being presented at the central podium of the exposition. It is already considered a high honor to be awarded with such a title and the winner is allowed to call themself "Darturian Inventor".


The exposition not only features temporary projects. So far each city where the expotision resided has contributed in some longer lasting way, to show off local technological or magical progress.

Marvels of Technology and Magic

The expositions were, by design, an ammassement of ingeniuity. Many breaktrhroughs were achieved in an effort to impress the other nations and the exchange of ideas sparked new innovations in all participating nations. The following is only an excerpt of the most impressive marvels:

Daylight Crystallamps

Originally thought to be a decorative gimmik, the Daylight Crystallamps that were illuminating the exhibition after sunset were soon realized to be immensly useful. In normal cases the easy to produce crystals absorb daylight to be able to illuminate the evening for a few hours, providing safe light after dark. More by accident it was discovered and demonstrated on the Exposition that combined with a certain gas the light will remain longer, is brighter and can be additionally charged via magic.

The following years every Exposition was brightly illuminated by Daylight Crystallamps.

Steamboat-City of Bernport

In accordance to the more nautical theme of the 1685 AR exhibition, Bernport constructed a fleet of interconnectable steamboats, capable of housing a full floating village on the plattforms. While being a terrific feat of enginerring, it also led to some tensiosn between delegates, seeing the construction as a provocation towards Baradolia. The Steam Fleet is currently used to support the trade lines but are under treaty not allowed to port in Bernport or any Harbour in the Amber Bay again.

Middle Range Communication Crystals of Conassa

During the exhibit of 1685 AR, Conassa demonstrated the properties of crystals that can pairs of crystals can be influenced over rmedium distances to change their color and start or stop to glow, mimicking the appearance of their paired crystal. Reginas Tromador developed this into a basic way of communication and used the plattform of the exhibition to successfully find sponsoring in setting up a network of signaling towers. The Tromador Line is currently under construction to connect Trandit with Conassa.

Automagical Smeltery of Greystone

Always being a city known for many capable smiths and forges, being directly located near Vitukua's Spark and being densely populated with dwarves of the Dinitur Clan, Greystone constructed the Automagical Smeltery as center piece of the Exposition of 1687 AR. They impressively demonstrated the magically enhanced processing of ore directly into magically fortified alloys while only utilizing small numbers of magicians to work. The Smeltery's design is currently being adapted in multiple places of Sevelang and Baradolia.

Cone of Trandit

For the upcoming exhibition of 1692 AR, which will be ten years after the first exposition, Trandit is currently working on demonstrating its abilities in architecture and metalworking by constructing the Cone of Trandit. Planed to be an over 100 meter high, spiraling structure of metal beams it is aiming to be the highest building using only non magical concepts of static to keep standing. Currently there are high doubts that the ambitious project can be finished in the remaining time, though.

Open Issues

An inventor from Sevelang claims fevorously that suspiciously many awards for the title of Darturian Inventor have gone to Baradolians.

A ragged Rhomadanian Magician is looking for assistants to prepare his mysterious project for the upcoming Exposition.

Several travelling noblemen are looking for protection of thievery or other pesky annoanyces during their trip to the next Exposition.

A group of dwarves wants to impress the regent with their project in order to get a future exposition take place at their dwarven home.

The city guard is on higher alert since rumors of people planning commotions at the fair started floating around

A group of workers is protesting about the treatment in the factory of the last "Darturian Inventor". This developement is seen as very embarrassing for them.

Origin

Started as a request by Baradolian Monarch Leonis Dartur III in 1682 AR and evolved quickly into a public festival of science.

Date(s)

Annual Exposition at various places. Usually held in the month of Maned.
Duration of 10 days total, with the last seven days open to the public.

Participating Human Nations

• Baradolia (founder)
• Kingdoms of Sevelang
• Ethoressi (upcoming host)
• Rhomedan
• Independent Isles of Bren

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Traditions

Host

The hosting city of the Exposition varies each year, represented by one or several resident academies. The host provides the venue for the exposition and usually presents one big project as centerpiece. Several cities currently compete for the right to host upcoming expositions.

Award of "Darturian Inventor"

During the first 3 days, jurors from the hosting city as well as highly respected guest jurors choose the most outstanding project of their fields. These projects will then be placed at the central stages of the exposition.

Secondary festival

Although not part of the official exposition, the area around it is usually filled with markets, attractions and exhibitions by inventors not invited to the main exposition. One particularily enjoyed attraction is a new invention that creates puffy, caramelized sugar on a stick.

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Locations of the World Fair

• 1682 AR: Trandit
• 1683 AR: Trandit
• 1684 AR: Zumaton
• 1685 AR: Partourna
• 1685 AR: Bernport
• 1686 AR: Conassa
• 1687 AR: Greystone
• 1688 AR: Etonne
• 1689 AR: Meerburg
• 1691 AR: Apacreos (planned)
• 1692 AR: Trandit (planned)

Related Ethnicities

• Baradolian
• Ethorian
• Keandran