Age of Dissent

Era beginning/end

The survivors of the The Fall Interregnum live primarily in a series of walled cities known as Bastions, weaving a rich tapestry of culture from the ruined kingdoms of days past. Poor in resources but rich in diversity, these city-states maintain tightly packed fiefdoms, clans and tribes with their own traditions and quarrels within their walls. Few live beyond the walls, though brave hunters, farmers and woodsmen must inevitably fight the nightmares of the badlands for food and raw materials. Some are cast beyond the walls as exiles, a punishment doled out regularly by the Grand Accord for even trivial crimes, but others go beyond the walls intentionally to experience the freedom and space of an age past.

Overpopulation in the Bastions The survivors of the The Fall Interregnum live primarily in a series of walled cities known as Bastions, weaving a rich tapestry of culture from the ruined kingdoms of days past. Poor in resources but rich in diversity, these city-states maintain tightly packed fiefdoms, clans and tribes with their own traditions and quarrels within their walls. Few live beyond the walls, though brave hunters, farmers and woodsmen must inevitably fight the nightmares of the badlands for food and raw materials. Some are cast beyond the walls as exiles, a punishment doled out regularly by the Grand Accord for even trivial crimes, but others go beyond the walls intentionally to experience the freedom and space of an age past.   The Decline of the Accord The scars of the Blood Wars and Conscription Wars of the Grand Reformation Interregnum are fresh. It has been just a year or so since the city of Ebih and Toprakkis broke away form the Grand Accord, establishing autonomy after peace talks with the Highest Shala-Ri, Empress of Shinar and former Empress of the Empire of Kalam. Heralding Ebih as a 'great wheel of commerce' through the empires of Geron are free to conduct trade outside of the Accord's strict authority, Shala-Ri has promised to honor locally elected leaders in other bastions as well, freeing up the economy and allowing the smuggler-merchants of the bastions to officially establish series of unsafe but lucrative trade routes overseas.   Alliances and kingdoms are beginning to change and factions are beginning to emerge within the Grand Accord as a result of this political devolution, with the Grand Accord functioning both a crutch and a straw man for many issues faced by all the bastions of Geron. With the Grand Accord's influence seemingly on the wane, several factions have formed, each with different visions of what re-election of the next Highest will look like.   Rise of the Underworld As various scholars the Arcane College have been absolved from their positions of authority within the Acccord, they have turned their attentions back to the wonders of the old world. Many are surprised to discover that ravages of the all The Fall has had little if any impact on life underground. So called 'dark' kingdoms close to the dangers of the ancient past now seem no less unsafe than Geron's surface, creating new opportunities for trade and diplomacy with people thought lost to bygone ages. Forays into fungus, slime and insect cultivation common in the Archaea seem to promise a reduced the reliance on the penal workforces and immortal sacrifices born of the Accord's strict legal system, something which could lead a to a softening of the authoritarian Accord.   A world of tombs Geron is world of decaying relics, a series of ruins stacked on top of one another to form a large and complicated labyrinth of bygone peoples. This subterranean maze of 'dark kingdoms' stretches hundreds of millions of years into Geron's past, snaking through uncountable miles of underground passages, vaults and even entire lost cities.   These dimensions have provided shelter for many who fled into them during the great cataclysms of the past, resulting in a rich but struggling tapestryh of surface and subterranean cultures trying to survive in a world corrupted by the psychic influences of the Veilfall and the ancient Akkan-Shai.