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- History
- War and Aftermath
- Nations
- Irgar
- Jurica
- Lasinia
- Vegdarbarra - Grey Order
- Engineering
- Exploration
- Fashion
Lasinia
Society
Overview: Lasina is known as one of the main seats of academia and learning throughout the world. It prides itself on being civilised and manners are of the utmost importance to the ruling classes. The social structure is roughly pyramidic. At the top the extremely wealthy tend to follow politics and academia. Slightly below them are the affluent middle classes who generally engage in trade. Clockwork is also thought of as a gentlemanly pursuit to persons of this class. Lower middle classes take the form of traders and shop owners, who live comfortably in the cleaner parts of the city. After that there are various more important manual labourers who can live reasonably well but never really hope to advance their social standing. The very lowest class, the plebeans, live in poverty. Hygiene in the lower quarters is poor, despite the nations many advancements in the area, and terrible diseases are all too common.Women: Traditionally women were never expected to do very much other than care for the home and family. Recently though attitudes have changed and a number of exceptional women made their mark on history. Alexia Adious was the first notable female academic and she became famous for her studies into mathematics and astronomy, particularly charting the sun’s unusual course across the sky. She campaigned for women to be allowed to attend university and succeeded in having the first women admitted roughly 150 years ago. Women are now allowed to run freely for the senate, although it is often still an uphill struggle. A woman may become governer if she does not have a brother, and campaigns continue to alter this so the eldest child may rule irrelevant of gender. Even so it is still a predudiced soceity. Not only women but also those born into lower social classes often suffer scorn when trying to enter academia. Essentially for someone of a low social standing to suceed in science they have to be something truly exceptional indeed.
Religion: The church of the Intercessor is popular amongst the more “enlightened”. Many academics also practice alchemy and in recent years there has been a surge towards the power of humanity rather than that of the gods amongst the more intellectual. The masses, however, are superstitious and in the more impoverished quarter temples to a vast patheon of gods and powers, many of which probably never existed, can be found. Worship of gods other than the Intercessor is of course as in the other nations illegal but at the end of the day “no one really cares what the plebs get up to in their own time”. Ritual sacrifices of livestock and harvest goods are also given by some to protect them from the gods wrath.
Politics
Overview: When the empire fell apart a number of opportunistic individuals seized.The Governor: The current governer is a man named Lord Thadeous Avarius. He has a close relationship with his elder sister Portia and rumours abound that the strong-willed woman is the true power behind the country. It is often speculated that the two are also rather more than siblings but none of this has ever been proven.
The Senate: Only those of a certain social standing my run or vote for the senate. Originally they were designed to serve in a merely advisory capacity to the governor but over the years have been granted the power to vote on important constitutional changes to the law. The governor is still allowed to take emergency actions, such as in a state of war but there are many on the senate who wish it were not so. Indeed there are many who question the need for a governor at all. Altogether there are 14 members of the senate who are all allowed to vote on major political decisions. They bicker constantly and are for more concerned, for the most part at least, with their own wellbeing than that of the country as a whole.
Local Councils: The government of the people. Unlike the senate the plebs are allowed to vote in these elections. They are responsible for things like maintaining hygiene levels in their district and looking after roads and railways. In reality they have little true power and, outside wealthy districts, a lack of funding.
Academia
The college of the Enlightened has its main base in the capital of Lasinia. It takes a wide range of pursuits under its watch. One may study mathematics, biology or literature within its walls. The very wealthy often spend their vast amounts of free time discussing science and philosophy in the courtyard of the university. It is not uncommon for ambitious members of the middle classes to stand and watch their debates, in the hope of improving their status. Clockwork is also studied in some of the smaller colleges, which are attended by members of the middle class hoping to make their wealth through trade. There are other colleges dedicated to the study of alchemy, although these are less common. Most of the students of the college of the Enlightened are aristocrats far more concerned with the sampling of fine wines than the pursuit of real academia. It is in some ways ridiculed by the other two main universities for its “drunken brand of philosophy”. Nevertheless its graduates earn some respect.Rumours
Lady Portia Avarius is the true power behind the country and she is merely waiting for the right moment to take out her brother so that she can consolidate her rule.Lady Portia is a militant feminist who keeps her brother drugged so that she can have him under her control. Womens' rights have been improving drastically all of a sudden.
Underneath its seemingly pristine surface Lasinia is rotten to the core. Hygiene in the poor sectors is abismal and the senate overlooks all sorts of depravity that goes on amongst the aristocracy in exchange for substantial bribes.
The senate is planning to overthrow Lord Thadeaus and his sister and build a new republic.
The College of the Enlightened is just a place for drunken aristocrats to spend their time until they are ready to take hold of their lands. They haven’t made any decent discovaries in years.
Lady Portia secretly is a worshipper of Versinya, it is from her that she draws her power.