Fact Number 101
Unbeknownst to the Brotherhood of the Null, the brokering of the Null Concord almost fell flat due to the Yamato Kingdom and city of Fulgrath being reluctant to commit to a long-term non-proliferation treaty against high-tier magic research and the development of WMDs and was only saved by the secret intervention of the Shadow Society, which leveraged extensive political and financial clouts behind the scenes to make the treaty happen in 156 AA (the Age of Awakening). While the Senate of Fulgrath in its current form was instated with the signing of the Great Charter of Fulgrath in 292 GE (the Age of Gears and Elements) during the Founding of the Five Cities, a much smaller proto version of that senate existed to advise the Asterock family on matters of state. The Asterocks were the house of the Margrave of the Northwest, who ruled the northwestern Middle Lands back then, and several senators who were on the fence or flat-out opposed to the signing of the Null Concord inexplicably changed their positions over night during the negotiations.Fact Number 102
The Brammenwoods are located between Altonar and the Western Walls of Weltenend. They are the largest forest on Aqualon, larger even than the great Odenwald Forest. There are long vines that wind across the forest floor all the way from the Iron Belt; they are called dragontails and have tough iron scales with material sequestered from the Rusty Shore with powerful acidic roots. Strange, iron-based crystals 'ripen' underneath these scales and are collected by male gem-tailed squirrels, which store them in tree holes and adorn their tails with to attract the female's attention. Once in the tree holes, they amplify the soul power of the tree in a to date unexplored manner, making the trees grow faster and stronger, leading to the largest trees on Aqualon being located in the Brammenwoods. Sometimes they will grow their tree holes shut in sudden growth spurts and many trees there have shiny gemstones encrusted in their bark. A "Bramma" is a semi-finished slab of steel, and the Brammenwoods get their name from the scales of the dragontails. The Brammir, keepers of the Brammenforts and rulers of Vechnaya Bramma, harvested the Bramma of the dragontails with great effort and secret magics during the First Age and the Age of the Iron Divide, covering the walls of their forts in them and smithing them into weapons. But their secrets of Bramma harvesting were lost with the waning of the Age of the Iron Divide, and to none is the name “Age of Awakening” more bitterly ironic than to the Brammir.Fact Number 103
North of the Brammenwoods lies the Glade of Druith, just past the great Lake of Glazglubin that is squeezed between the two forests. Druith is home to the Schamani of Druith, who stayed neutral during the Great War, much to the dismay of the other Nordmen and Old Gods. However, the whole Glade of Druith was declared a nature and culture preserve when the Null Concord was signed during the Age of Awakening, a point brought forth by the technocrats of the UOBT during the negotiations, and during the war efforts, the Nordmen were prevented from invading Druith by the Allied Forces. This happened in 28 AH (the Age of Heroes when a massive host led by Jörg the Giant and Grand Druid Brynwain gathered by Ravensburg to storm Druith, the Keepers and technocrats of Altonar rallied for a mighty sideswipe against their forces and thwarted them from penetrating the Wall of Druith, a great row of winter willows, which encircles the glade. Jörg aimed to secure the magically fertile lands of Druith to supply the North and unite all Kaltani tribes under his crown, while Brynwain had struck an alliance with him to gain access to Vaenndrasil and the well of power contained within the wood of the great tree.Fact Number 104
"Taishôgeki 大衝撃" is the name of a philosophy and corresponding book, written by a powerful historical figure of Aqualon. He had spent time in the realm of the Aesir and bested them in combat, traveling through the Great Land afterwards to seek wisdom in many places, speaking to many philosophers and mages of his time. Before writing the book, he fought one of the Valkyries on top of the tallest peak of the Yamato Mountain Range and defeated her. As the legend goes, he ripped her soul out of her shattered body and forged it into a great metal gate that connected the physical world to the Great Clockwork on top of that mountain, where he had a monastery built to pass on his teachings. This new intersecting point between the real world and the Great Clockwork gained some renown in certain circles, and in fact there is a certain tradition in the far-away technocrat megacity of Borealis called “the Walk of Skeptics”, where those who doubt the existence of the Great Clockwork will journey to the monastery to step through the gate and experience it for themselves. So far, most who have taken the Walk of Skeptics have returned alive from the other side.Fact Number 105
There are 15 ur-souls of tremendous power that are continuously reborn on all incarnations of Aqualon. All 15 are tied into the five elements, 3 too each one. Per element, one is born into a person, one is tied into a powerful weapon, and one is the ur-soul of that element itself. The person is called a Keeper, and the Keeper's weapon is his or her resonator that allows their soul to connect to the ur-soul of their element, controlling it freely and without the use of their own soul power as mages would. In the Old World during the early ages of the Nine Realms, the weapons lay buried in the ground, and one day when the Great Tale was told, the collective unconscious roused the Soul Forge, today known as the Great Clockwork, and it, in turn, roused the Keeper weapons, which sheathed themselves into coats of their own elements and emerged from the bowels of the asteroid worlds as Elemental Titans, seeking out their Keepers.Fact Number 106
In 24GE during the implementation of the Declaration of Existential Independence, secret negotiations with the Clockwork Avatar Sanatana were executed by the Faculty of Clockwork Theology of Borealis with the support of the Council of Faculties. Special exceptions were introduced into the suppression field of the DVF Suppressors to allow for a narrow vector of connection for the souls of Borealis inhabitants codenamed "Lifeline". This allowed the willful pursuit of clockwork spirituality and the connection to the cycle of rebirth by citizens while still making magic within the limits of the city virtually impossible as DVF suppression prevents the circumvention of the inverse square law for DVF-based effects. Breaking the inverse square law, of course, is one of the ways magic can significantly impact reality where fields of various kinds weaken exponentially with distance. One of the most prominent examples of this application of magic are the technamagic hats of the Greenhorn family, which double as summoning horns for war moths. When sounded, the horn blast can be heard equally well all over the world, no matter where the horn blower is located. Blowing a Greenhorn’s horn (the magical variety) is very illegal everywhere Greenhorns live (Id est Borealis and Miyako Fluxum).Fact Number 107
When the very first sentient program of the previous world of Aqualon was switched on, its birth rippled through the Great Clockwork like a devastating tsunami. The existential machinery cracked and split as parts of it wanted to bestow a soul of it, while parts were opposed. In the end, with only one unit of Planck Time to work with, the compromise was reached to fit the new lifeform with a type 2 soul (animal-like) amalgamated from unbound soul power. While the Clockwork fell into chaos thereafter and eventually the sun went out due to the Clockwork Wars that ensued behind the veil of reality, the machine intelligence thrived and eventually migrated to a physical body heralding the rise of a new android race that coexisted with the humans until the death of the sun caused a mass extinction of mankind. The remaining android race took over the shells of human society, discovering fusion energy, eventually building a satellite grid of artificial suns to re-illuminate the planet and allow for the awakening of Aqualon's plant life out of the harsh mega-winter of no-sun. The android race persisted for millennia before the last unit shut down and the planet was scrapped and remade by the Great Clockwork. The Clockwork had suffered such damage that the regular reincarnation system (R²S) did not have enough soul energy to work at full capacity so 9 smaller shard worlds were created, joined by a river of soul energy dubbed Yggdrasil to lubricate soul energy exchange between the Great Clockwork and the new human race. This was the birth of the Nine Realms, the precursor to the current world of Aqualon.Fact Number 108
The Grand Academy of Fulgrath brought forth some of the most brilliant minds of the first century GE. Among them was Rudolph Molotov, who performed extensive conversion and measurement experiments of soul power and lightning magic, creating the existential conversion coefficient the "Molotov" [M], based on the Kunibert unit [K] for measuring soul power. Before the Declaration of Existential Independence and the jumping to the South Pole of Borealis in 25 GE, Rudolph Molotov and Vincent Kunibert Greenhorn were close colleagues that inspired much of each other's work. Molotov's extensive research and experimentation with soul power to energy conversion, electromagnetism, and electric field theory led to the invention of the Molotov Tower, a tall capacitor tower built to harness the energy of lightning strikes to store as electrical power in large fuel cells. The first large-scale Molotov Tower was built as a proof-of-concept next to the then just Grand Academy in 175 GE. This tower, affectionately called “the Burning Tree” by the students of the Grand Academy of Fulgrath is still used to this day, not to harness electricity from lightning strikes - at least not as a means of power generation - but for the students to practice their lightning magic on it.Fact Number 109
When the city of Fulgrath was planned and constructed around the academy between 251 GE and 312 GE, more Molotov Towers and so called Cloud Stacks were constructed, which were meant to vaporize large quantities of water harvested from the Eel Holes, small but incredibly deep bodies of water nearby which connect to a vast underground supply. Generated clouds were agitated with lightning magic to create targeted lightning strikes into the Molotov Towers. The magical industrial revolution started two to three centuries earlier in Fulgrath compared to the other four cities of the Middle Lands, who started out with the invention of Spell Ink in the 9th century GE. In 350 GE already, the streets and houses of Fulgrath were powered by electric light, long before the invention of magus lamps that use fire magic spell ink mandalas. This proclivity for raw, only semi-magical invention made the culture and science of Fulgrath very appealing to Miyako Fluxum, which was founded in 125 GE after separating from Borealis. After retaining good relations with Fulgrath for two centuries, around the 4th century GE, Miyako Fluxum declared Fulgrath an official partner city, and more extensive cultural and scientific exchanges were facilitated after that, including bigger trade agreements, making Fulgrath one of the main suppliers of food stuffs and manufacturing for Miyako Fluxum.Fact Number 110
The Hank & Jordan & Tenzer Corporation have diversified their portfolio quite a bit since its founding in 390 GE. Turning into a lucrative business, they have reclaimed some of the old Hank & Jordan's cooper works and shipyards, opened profitable trading routes across the Corsic Ocean, and even published a series of story books called "Ferry Tales of the Ocean Belt", which boasts twenty-four large volumes by now and a roughly five-thousand issue story magazine called "SILFs of the Sea" has been in circulation around the Corsic Ocean and even the Great Land since 1304 GE, coming out monthly pretty much ever since. SILFs, Stand-in Loan Ferries, of course, are subcontracting mages that have qualified for a freelance HJT Ferry license, in exchange for a percentage of their fee. Their disadvantage, compared to Ferries, is that they have no steady employment and salary with HJT.Fact Number 111
Most of the larger streets of the Severlin Special Ward of Aerialis have been framed by wisteria that bloom beautifully in spring and sometimes summer, creating light canopies of purple hue and delightful smell. There are spring festivals hosted by the Severlin family to promote themselves and garner favor with the citizens and other noble houses, and the wind shrines of the Severlin Special Ward are most visited during that time of the year. Of course, the mansions of the Severlins and their branch families sport quite lavish gardens as well, some of which are open to the public during certain times of the year in order to display the wealth and prestige of the family. While not one of the direct ruling families of the city of Aerialis, like the Van Haag-Taira family, the Severlins are still in charge of a large city ward and well-liked in the general public, giving them significant political power.Fact Number 112
There are three major ports on the southern Rusty Shore: Nankô (南鋼) above the Yamato Kingdom, Blacksteel above Arkatrash, and Ísenwyll along the Axis of Steel. These are the first targets for most who cross the Iron Belt towards the Ocean Belt, as a clear-cut Rusty Shore meets relentless waves on the other side, save for Ísenwyll, which lies on the island of Svalbrynd that hugs the Rusty Shore. Nankô is connected with the oldest capital of Yamato, the southernmost city Nanjing or Nankin (南京), by way of the Hagane no Michi (鋼の道), the “Road of Steel”, an artificial stream that crosses the Iron Belt and is used for transportation.Fact Number 113
The Rusty Shore port of Nankô (南鋼) has been owned by the West Yamato Trading Company (WYTC) since 1320 GE, one hundred years after the company was founded. Today it is one of the main players in the naval trade business, competing mainly with the Hank & Jordan & Tenzer Corporation as well as various big time smugglers, most of which tie back into the Jamphel Yeshe drug cartel. Of course, some of them are also connected to the notorious Yamato Black Market, which has, at times, led to unlikely alliances between scoundrels and the WYTC in a bout to take out or at least harm the competition. The Commonwealth of Corsia could be a major player in trade as well, but they outsource much of their capacity to HJT while specializing in a military navy themselves.Fact Number 114
The Axis of Steel is a coalition comprised of the technocrat city of Altonar in the middle, the Kaltani fiefdoms of Ravensburg to the north, and the Angel Saxon and Skôt colony of Svalbrynd to the south. The alliance was founded in 598 GE when Altonar was looking to severely enhance its iron supply lines, looking both to the Iron Belt, certainly a large deposit, though one with magical resistance to strip mining, and to the Nordmen, who had an unusual access to the coveted metal through the Old Gods. Though many voices in the Middle Lands and Yamato Kingdom clamored against the last truly non-isolationist bastion of technocracy allying themselves with the war-mongering Nordmen, ultimately a lot of stability came to the Great Land and the Corsic Ocean thanks to this unlikely alliance.Fact Number 115
Since the 1698 HJT Files - Guantil-ya Survey Corps: Incident Reports, people of the Ocean Belt and beyond have taken to calling Rim City, the last Borealian outpost beyond the Spiral Sea, Chaos City. At first, people stopped going there because of the Guantil-ya Quarantine instated by Rim City in the 1650s GE, but after information from the classified HJT incident reports leaked and spread, people stayed away on their own volition, and nowadays, people who get shipping duty to Guantil-ya Harbor consider themselves the unlucky ones that drew the ill will of their superiors.Fact Number 116
During the top-secret surveying of Guantil-ya in recent decades, those trained in the use of Altonar multimeters and in possession of one of these marvelous contraptions quickly fled the island when coming along on one of the HJT survey corps excursions. There is fire in the air in Guantil-ya, and it can chase you down across the globe once it has marked you. Since the 1700s GE, the people of the Corsic Ocean will tell anyone who will hear it: "Don't go to Chaos City. There is ghostly fire in the air and dark things on the ground."Fact Number 117
In the wake of the Birth of Balsibart, a new wave of dark animancy followed. As his strange vanishing of entire communities across the Ocean Belt and ultimately, the Great Land, caused fear and upheaval, animancers came out of their hiding to sneak in from behind and sequester their fill of souls. Many dark deeds were done during the 17th century GE until, in 1682 GE, Atlas Muundir, Lord of Water, defeated Balsibart the Bard at the Battle of the Saltplains and the upheaval on the Ocean Belt settled enough for HJT and the West Yamato Trading Company to mount animancer hunts, supported by the Church of Pure Souls.Fact Number 118
The Middle Lands Magic Research Consortium (MLMRC) is an organization of scholars from all five Magus Academies of the Middle Lands: The Spire of Rahn, the Bonfire Shrine, the Grand Academy of Fulgrath, the Gladering University of the Arcane, and the Rickard Leeuw Magistorium, which spend one month each year together at the Tower of Five to convene a research think tank and meet up on four other annual occasions to hold research symposiums. The MLMRC traces its origin back to the Rahn Hall Symposium of Middlish Scholars in 79 GE, where inter-academic ties were forged within the scholarly community of the Middle Lands. After fifteen annual symposiums, the Middlish Consortium for the Arcane (MCA) was formed from the core members. It experienced a number of different waves and revamped itself as the Middlish Consortium of Joint Research (MCJR) in 193 GE and the Progressive Circle of Magic and Science (PCMS) during the Founding of the Five Cities in 285 GE. It fell apart during the Twin Centuries of Arcanism, from 600 GE to 805 GE when the Magus Academies became withdrawn and isolated in their research, hording knowledge in protected libraries. In 810 GE, voices arose that demanded the revival of the PCMS, which reconvened for the first time in centuries in 811 GE, spearheaded by Augustus Leeuw, under the new title of the Middle Lands Magic Research Consortium (MLMRC). They proceeded to pioneer a number of magical discoveries after that, the most prominent one being the invention of spell ink in 820 GE. Since then, the research of the MLMRC has shifted predominantly to the development of new magic engines.Fact Number 119
The largest tree on Aqualon is the Vaenndrasil of Druith, located in the Glade of Druith. Ever since the creation of the grand glade by the first schamani Erknaz Jôtison, the sapling of Vaenndrasil has been carefully tended and infused with schamani magic, making it grow larger and larger each year until it eventually outgrew even the gemed trees of the Brammenwoods. Today, it is home to the largest settlement of Druith, and regular rites and festivals are held in its honor and in honor of Erknaz. It is also here that the wandering tribes of Druith gather at the turn of the centuries so a new Great Schamani may step forth. Their purpose is to fuel the life force of Druith, and when they are spent, a new one takes their place.Fact Number 120
The Kaltani Fiefdoms of Ravensburg are located largely around Loch Môrdryn, which is frozen over for more than 200 days of the year. During this time, the residents still practice ice fishing, but there are enforced fishing limits on silverback trout throughout this time as the fish only replenish after their breeding season when the lake has thawed completely in high summer. The Ravensburg Kaltani actually trade large quantities of silverback trout to the Glade of Druith each year in exchange for the magically enhanced fruit picked in the Druith orchards all over the year. Silverback trout is also shipped to Altonar using their patented refrigeration technology, and fish from Ravensburg is enjoyed there as a delicacy, while the Ravensburg Kaltani have grown quite fond of Altonar spice, a zesty spice mix.Fact Number 121
The Great Lake of Glazglubin is located between the Brammenwoods and the Glade of Druith and is so staggering in size that it is just called the Sea of Glazglubin in many tongues - especially local ones. It was here that the Skôts and Angel Saxons built their first long-ships, trying to get to the other sides (the Brammenwoods and the lands before the Western Walls of Weltenend), hoping to find new tribes to plunder there (which they did). In time, they used their "sea"-faring technology to sail the Ocean Belt, after actually carrying several long ships across the 150 kilometer broad Iron Belt. Had they arrived directly at Svalbrynd, which is the only island connected to the Rusty Shore, they would have never needed put their ships into the waters of the Corsic Ocean before creating their settlement, but alas, they missed the island by quite a bit and went on a great pillaging tour, becoming some of the first great pirates of the Corsic Ocean.Fact Number 122
Lumina Aka is one of the five capitals of the Middle Lands and has a sort of old-established sense of wealth to it, owing to the old manors and forts of Lord Byren and the barons of his fiefs from before the Founding of the Five Cities. Quite a bit of architectural zeal and vision went into the planned construction of the city, which was erected close but not too close to the Bonfire Shrine, by the genius architect Sven Fanfahria, who envisioned a white city of stoae and forums, using clever aqueducts to transport sufficient quantities of fresh water from the upper reaches of Mt. Tarkaal down into Lumina Aka, the city of fire. (Because fire is great for making soup, but just fire is not going to get you far). Extensive quarries were first built and connected to sufficient infrastructure between the northern side of Mt. Tarkaal and the site of Lumina Aka during the Founding of the Five Cities. There, the white stone was quarried and prepared for the construction project.Fact Number 123
The Green Baronies, three domains that each contain one ruling city, rule the fertile and wealthy Saltplains. They owe fealty to the Tower of Five and pay Middlish taxes, but are also granted broad trade and customs subsidies when trading with the five capitals of the Middle Lands. The domains barely have a military between them, just enough to police their own holdings to a degree, but are reliant on Middlish might to make sure their neighbors don’t act on their envy for the fertile region and its treasures.Fact Number 124
Where the Red Sands meet the Salt Plains, saltwater that weeps up from the ground has created large, high quality deposits of salt atop the sands. After many bloody disputes and wars over ownership and national borders, the salt harvesting operations are currently being undertaken by the Green Baronies, the ruling power of the Salt Plains. Arkatrash, the Salt Plains, the Middle Lands, and even parts of the Yamato Kingdom import large quantities of Friedbert salt regularly, making the salt fields one of the two greatest sources of income for the Salt Plains, the other being their prized livestock and the products made from it.Fact Number 125
Arkamanthali was the great line of paros that ruled during the time of the great Arkatrashian Empire. They built the greatest pyramids of the Red Sands as their palaces and later tombs, which still rank among the tallest buildings of the world today. During the Age of Heroes, the empire almost fell into ruin and only the great city of Arkatrash remained from the days of the great empire. The pyramids were the only structures to resist the sands over the past seventeen centuries, all other traces of the great empire beyond Arkatrash were swallowed by the desert. Still, wanderers in the desert will sometimes be swallowed by quicksand and spat into dark corridors that lie buried beneath the Red Sands, telling tales of the once great empire of Arkamanthali before becoming their final resting place. Those who go done, never come back up…Fact Number 126
The Golden Sands lie directly between Lumina Aka of the Middle Lands and Altonar, the City at the Water Vent. They are one of the two great deserts of Aqualon and home to the scattered houses of the large town of Midas Creek, which was built around the oasis created by the midas trees, strange plants that pump water out of the deep ground like a noria. One road leads from Lumina Aka to Altonar through the Golden Sands and Midas Creek called the "Trail of Midas", but it is far less traveled than the Road to Altonar, which goes around the Golden Sands to the North.Fact Number 127
Brynwain Fever, the magical sickness brought forth by a druidic ritual only the Grand Druid of the Kaltani Brynwain knew when she still lived, was one of the main reasons the Great War lasted for over 300 years. While the Nordmen were outnumbered and outmatched on many occasions, Brynwain's vicious attacks on the enemy food supplies, turning entire fields and forests into blighted heaps of ash, lead to critical food shortages that kept the Allied Forces off balance long enough for devastating guerilla attacks by Angel Saxon strike forces and the Old Gods themselves, leaving the Kaltani, Skôts, and Gallians to hold newly acquired forts and reclaim the land using the powers of Kaltani druids. A failed Brynwain Fever ritual led to the creation of the extensive Brynwain wastes where nothing grows to this day.Fact Number 128
The tribes of Druith are relatively nomadic, traveling around with the seasons and herds of stórelg (giant elks) that travel across the Glade of Druith. The Druithen hunt the stórelg in moderation and take good care of their population and the vegetation that gets damaged by the great creatures. Though they could reinforce the stórelg trails and create proper road networks, they refuse to harm the lands of Druith in any way, for they are sacred to them. During the Great War, Kaltani war leaders saw the stórelg as the ideal mount, and they became one of the reasons they wanted to invade Druith so badly, seeing how the Druithen would not share their game willingly, but in the end, the Allied Forces kept the Kaltani at bay and the stórelg have never been kept as livestock or mounts to this day save for one or two very special exceptions.Fact Number 129
Where Angels LiveBlack as loch in Saxon land
The mist will gather glen to glen,
And shine like rainbow luster where
The Angles live in stony halls.