Fantasy Shadow of The Seal - Lore Page

[Wyll]

• World Map
• The Pillars of The Seal
• Races

• 
  
  The World of Tainam
  
  
  The world of Tainam is several thousand years old but the individual lands only started caring about exploring and interacting with each other just over a thousand years ago.
  
  Prior to that, the world was made up of small settlements, tribes and villages, each one distinct from the other. As time passed, however, settlements turned to communities, communities turned to town, towns turned to cities and cities turned to kingdoms. For several years, it seemed that everyone was content in growing and building their cities, each group of people learning to take advantage of the land around them. Eventually, they would establish trade routes, learning more about their neighbors and even the cities and kingdoms across the water.
  
  For a while, there was normalcy. But then Aya happened. One day, a rumbling was felt throughout every corner of the world and it seemed as though it was coming from the island of Al-Aya. A land that had previously gone unnoticed and undisturbed. All eyes turned toward the island and its secrets as earthquakes and floods changed the entire landscape of the world. The Garrim Isles started sinking; the continent of Ijapa was torn in two, forming the continents of Abas and Emem; the Abong Peaks emerges from the depths of the ocean...the world was never the same.
  
  However, the world started finding a new normal, the new lands learning to make peace with the world they now lived in. But where there is growth, there must be prosperity, and where there is prosperity, there must be greed. Greed in this world calls itself Falin. Just over 600 years ago, Falin brought war to the world of Tainam and once again, life was never the same for the people of Tainam. War and survival was now their new normal. And after four centuries of conflict, Falin conquered the entire continent of Hebron, renaming it the Falin Empire.
  
  
  Further information on individual locations and cities will be in the posts to follow, such that you are able to react and reply to each individually.
  (Wyll was too lazy to put them all in a nice tidy code and so had to justify a reason to send them as individual posts and that was the best he could do.)​
• 
  
  The library always has the same four pillars: The Bookie, The Keep, The Guill and The Seer.
  These roles are filled by different people as time goes on and those in the role pass on the torch to the next generation.
  These are the current Pillars.​
  
  Bookie
  The library doesn't stand without Bookie. He is the head librarian and oversees everything that happens in the library. His duties revolve around the hiring of librarians and their training, assigning missions, and protecting the library. Without exceptional combat skill, his arsenal is mainly made up of magic. He specialises in spatial magic and, in a general sense, this allows him to infuse his magic into objects and spaces, allowing him to move object with his mind, cast illusions. At its height, it allows him to freeze the area around him for a maximum of one minute. More to the library though, over the very many years he has been in charge of the library, he has been slowly weaving his magic into the library, creating a domain for himself. This domain ensures that nothing happens in the library without Bookie seeing it or hearing it. The domain gives him a pseudo-omnipresence within the library, even allowing him to teleport from one place in the library to another. Within the library, Bookie is a devastating threat and a near-unstoppable force. However, he will avoid violence and only resort to it if all other options have failed. He is the only Pillar that is seen by civilians and is definitely the Pillar most members will interact the most with. He usually sits in a quiet corner of the top floor of the library where he is out of sight from everyone but is still accessible to those who know where to look for him. Of all the Pillars, he is the oldest, seen as the wisest and all other Pillars look to him in terms of having the final say on any matter, whether it be hiring, missions, or general upkeep.
  
  
  Keep
  Keep is the Bookkeeper of the library and is a much quieter figure than the other three Pillars. Unless specifically sent to him, most people - even the librarians - don't have much interaction with him. His duties are mainly to bring new books into the library, create the code systems the librarians use and document all activities that go on Behind the Seal. Every spy mission, every assassination, every new hire, anything that happens at all, it is Keep's job to know and to write it down. Of the four Pillars, he has the lowest combat ability and magic ability, but his intellect is unmatched, in part due to his perfectly photographic memory. While it is his job to write down everything that happens, he only stores them for the benefit of others. Once he's written it down, he will remember it until the day he dies. He is a pivotal part in the assigning of missions and hiring of new people because he has all the information about similar missions and the places and even the people they are hiring from. If a potential recruit has ever crossed Keep's eyes or ears before, he brings that information to the other Pillars, in addition to everything he knows about them. Despite being the weakest Pillar, he is also the one Pillar you do not want to mess with because all other Pillars take it as their duty to protect him because they understand how valuable he is and they all agree to protect him since he isn't very great at protecting himself. ​
  
  Guille
  Even the most daring and skilled members know not to cross Guill. She is the Pillar in charge of combat training and oversees all the assassins. Before an assassin in fully hired, they must have a fight with Guill. For their own sake, they are permitted to use real weapons, whichever they choose and she is limited to a wooden dagger. Since this started, Guill hasn't sustained a single scratch. The fight is never to see if they will win against Guill - as that is taken to be an impossibility - but to see how the assassins fare in insurmountable odds. The match against Guill is to represent everything that could go wrong during an assassination and the best assassins are those that can keep their cool and keep their focus on finding new ways to overcome her. Those assassins that give up and forfeit...haven't been heard from since. She is known for her speed, surprising strength and versatility. Despite a clear preference for daggers, rumor has it that there is no weapon she is unable to use. She follows newer recruits on their first missions to ensure the assassination happens no matter what and is usually on standby in case an assassin runs into difficulty eliminating a target. In a way, she is the certainty behind every single letter sent out with The Seal. On the rare occasion she herself is sent out on a mission, that would only be because that mission is of the highest priority and a single mistake cannot be allowed. Of all the Pillars, she is the most feared.
  
  
  Seer
  With her shapeshifting ability and her seemingly all-seeing eyes, many fear Seer and are wise for doing so. She combines Bookie's magical prowess with Guill's combat prowess. She is the leader of the spies but is also an extremely capable fighter, not at the level of Guill, but not far off either. In fact, Seer is confirmed to be even faster than Guill. In terms of magic, it says a lot that Bookie learned his domain magic from her, however she herself doesn't use it. She specialises in mental magic. Able to read minds, create vivid illusions, communicate telepathically and even draw out the truth from someone whether they like it or not - whether it be the truth about their fears, their feelings, or a case she needs information on. Despite each of the Pillars (except Keep) having their own recruiting process, part of that process includes running potential candidates by Seer, who goes on to investigate the person to see if they could be a threat to the organisation. Of all the Pillars, she spends the least amount of time in the library and spends most of her time out in the field, casually surveying places she travels to. Similar to Guille, she's rarely assigned as the spy on a case and, when she is, it is because that case is treated as an extremely high priority case Because of that, it is safe to assume that any case that Seer is the spy on, Guille is the assassin on, and vice versa. Of all the Pillars, she is without a doubt the most dangerous. And given the skill of the other Pillars, that says a lot. ​
• 
  
  This is the current list of races but it is not exhaustive (I can't possibly know all Mid-Fantasy Races). If there is a race you would like for your character to have that you do not see here, please, please let me know and we'll see if we can add it to the list.​
  
  

  
  

  Allowed Races
  
  Humans
  Elves
  Dwarves
  Fairies
  Faefolk
  Giants
  Hobbits
  Mermaids and Merfolk
  Changelings
  Shapeshifters
  Elementals​

  
  

  Prohibited Races
  Angels
  Demons
  Demon Lords
  Vampires
  Werewolves
  Deities
  Ghouls
  Spirits
  Undead
  Succubae and Incubi​
  
  
  In terms of lifespan, the race with the shortest lifespans are the humans, with a life expectancy of a hundred years old and the races with the longest lifespans are the elves and faefolk with a life expectancy of about 500 years.
  For specifics of the races, a quick search told me that most online sources generally agree on information about the allowed races, so you're free to base your information about your character's race on information gathered from any reputable forum. If you're not sure whether something will be allowed or not, as always, you are more than welcome to ask me.​

 

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DeathUnchained roxybirdie Klown anyasjoy lostbird CloudySkyLoftyMoon WillOWispJJ q r o w mi casa lyn. CrimsonInk Dokka pancake_wizard hery Talathel

Forgot to mention it above, so here's information on the Magical Institutes.​

Doran
Magical Institute of the Doran Woodlands

Rumar
None

Kidem
Magical Institute of the Kidem
Western Magical Institue of Kidem
Eastern Magical Institute of Kidem

Kumi
None

Mt. Ianis
None

Garrim Isles
None

Cathior
None

Al-Lotoy
None (officially)

Lost Land
None

Falin
Magical Institute of Falin
First Magical Institute of Falin
Northern Magical Institute of Falin

Kehinde and Taiwo
Magical Institute of Kehinde
Magical Institute of Taiwo​

Institutes within the same city/kingdom are assumed to be of a similar level, however, there is a ranking for which cities/kingdoms are more known for their magic and that is as follows.
​

1. Kidem and Falin share first place as the magical powerhouses of their respective continents with several years to learn, study, practice and perfect their magic and their teaching of it.
   9.2/10​
2. Doran - thanks to its connection and appreciation of nature, Doran benefits from near infinite access to resources
   8.7/10​
3. Al-Lotoy - I'm sure this doesn't come as a surprise to anyone, but Al-Lotoy does have a place to learn magic (just not an institute). The magic here is experimental, powerful and dangerous.
   8/10​
4. Kehinde and Taiwo - While the magical institutes here are, by no means, bad, they simply aren't as good or powerful as the ones above them.
   7/10​