Mavolia

''"When we first arrived- we saw the tall, shining towers... the crystal flowers, the gardens of glass kept by these people. They greeted us with smiles and food. But in the same breath they used to welcome us, they next clapped us in shackles and sent us miles below to toil in the mines..." - Deceased explorer, 807 '' AC.

The continent of Mavolia lies near to the darkened lands of Aproriya, once a part of the same land mass. Over a thousand years ago - the battles of the Divine War tore it from its original landmass, carving-out a broad sea that now separates it from the lands of Cain and his blood-sucking spawn. Many near to Aproriya fled to this land seeking to escape the Vampires, only to discover the Mavoles instead.

Mavolia is home to a strange race of humanesque creatures made by a Nameless Angel of the first Divine War. To speak her name is taboo, and an aspect of Kraus ' punishment for her was the striking-out of her name from Eternia. Now, not even her children remember her name, but still do they pray to faceless effigies of her as a Goddess of Sacrifice...

The magical nature of Mavoles makes them a plague on their own motherland and all natural life died-out on Mavolia over nine centuries ago. Though it is a barren wasteland, it is not an ugly place: beautiful cities, quartz trees and crystal gardens of masterful craftsmanship cover all the land. The Mavoles rose these very sights as if to replace the ancient landscape that was here before they were.

Terrain
Mavolia is a tragically barren land that once housed a diverse and wonderfully varied biome of fabled creatures given life by the Angels of the First Divine War, when Eternia was very young and not yet ravaged by supernatural warfare or Divine Magic. It is a mountainous place, full of jagged cliffs that gouge-out into the sky, but on these cliffs are also hundreds of inter-connected crystal towers that ever glow with Mavole magic. Shard bridges connect these towers, called the 'Witchtrees' - a military construct of the Mavoles.

Any life that was once on Mavolia went extinct long ago, save the Mavoles themselves. Nevertheless do lifeless forests of enchanted crystal, bending glass vines and ever-chiming reeds of shining prisms cover its landscape in riotous profusion. The Mavoles are an obsessive, neurotic species, and do not accept that their homeland is barren; these vast forests of glass and crystal are their compulsive work, done to hide the damage that they have wrought upon their motherland.

The Mavoles depend on the land's vast cavern networks for fresh water and abundant natural resources. Most every metal and precious stone is commonplace in Mavolia's mines, a natural resource that would make them an envy of the world were they not such a bitter and malignant species. But the Mavoles themselves are frail, and cannot mine these veins of precious ore and brilliant gems; hundreds of human slaves trudge down into these caves every week, shackled and dragged by heavy chains.

Climate
Although Mavolia is a jagged, rocky wasteland, it is visited often by torrential rainfall. It is a cold place but rarely does it freeze there- instead, a frigid fog rolls-over the land in clouds that hover strangely close to the earth, making Mavolia a difficult place to travel on foot. Hypothermia, the wiles of its deceptive mist-clouds and the unforgiving terrain of rocky spikes and sharp cliffs render it inhospitable to normal species.

Mavolia is situated further south than Aproriya, receiving more sunlight in a year. But Mavolia is also much higher in elevation, as a mountainous isle of clawing cliffs and rugged hills. It is relatively devoid of humidity apart from its misty sheets of fog and though it is a chilly place, the winds there are calm and the weather is most always stable. Had the life of its lands not been choked-out by the Mavoles, it would be a rich and fertile land...

Though nothing but Mavoles and their slaves live on the island's surface, the true beauty of Mavolia lies beneath its tunnels and caves down into its deep caverns and great waterbeds, which teem to life with fish from all over the world. It is these migrant fish which provide Mavolia's squalid slaves a dire source of food, especially during the harsher months. Rivers flow through the caverns in smooth, coral-like channels that gush across pale branches and forked veins of warped silver, opening into spectacular chambers alight with precious beauty.

Cities & Buildings
Mavolia is not a large landmass, but most all of it is cultivated and used. Three great cities mark its rugged landscape, joined together by ice-bridges, floating mirror shards of megalithic size and the hundreds of crystal 'witchtree' castles used by the Mavoles to repel invaders. Mavolia has a very stratified society however and thus all its cities have a very different function and location:


 * Glasfel, City of Memories: Glasfel is the closest thing Mavoles have to a capital city. It is a wondrous, but sparsely-populated land of shard castles and crystal estates, which house the city's true purpose. Glasfel is a Tomb City- as Mavoles are desperate to escape mortality, aging Lords and Princes may come here to enter stasis at the roots of a grand Witchtree. Noble Mavoles might survive indefinitely in this state of torpor... but precious few are ever freed from it, merging into crystalline pods that grow new shafts, brambles and roots as so to join existing Witchtrees or form new ones. Apart from this purpose, Glasfel is where the Princes and Princesses of Mavolia meet to vote and make decrees, acting as the seat of its government. Libraries attended by crystallized automatons serve as well to commemorate the history, knowledge and crafts of the Mavoles themselves here, and any Mavole of status will visit Glasfel at least a few times a year if only to access the knowledge housed there.
 * Loslorien, Hearth of Mavolia: Under the mountain-peaks which cradle the city of Glasfel, the great and sprawling structures of Loslorien can already be seen as close by as the base of the mountains. This is where Mavoles both great and meek live and work- often every day of every week. Spiral towers of glass exhume the smoke of Mavolia's enchanted forges, which produce mobile fortifications, naval components and siege-devices more than any plain weaponry. Crafts of all kinds not exclusive to war practices are also practiced here, while human slaves toil as the actual laborers in these elaborate factories, galleries and offices. Most of Mavolia's entire military is spread out across Loslorien, which is built to protect Glasfel and all but encapsulates it. Loslorien is a wide and vast city with little centralization, allowed to grow freely across the continent...
 * Gemma, Pit of Slaves: The riches of Mavolia come from beneath its soil and the Mavolians themselves cannot retrieve them. Carved-into its lower cliffs, Gemma is a dire undercity of miserable slums, floating gaols and slave camps where the laborers of Loslorien work tirelessly mining and working on simpler labor. Most slaves work hard in Loslorien, hoping to learn a skill or gain a position that makes them valuable. Slaves which don't end up here... swinging pickaxes, digging with shovels and eternally breaking their bodies to turn mill-wheels and crank huge cogs in machinery. Actual parts and components made in Loslorien often end-up here to be assembled and completed by slave laborers, who arrive constantly by sea on Mavolia's war-ships.

Although not part of the cities, there is also an isolated structure to the island's far north showing an enormous figure fused into a tombstone. This gigantic mass is theorized to be the final remains of the Angel who created the Mavoles. Though she appears sallow and warped here, this idol is no less a sacred object to the Mavolians, who see her as having perished there to lay the foundation for their civilization. Only the most honored and esteemed Mavoles can ever hope to see it.

Mavolia's coastline is heavily fortified by tall towers set into the ocean, all joined by tall curtain walls. Huge crystal prisms rise from the towers, used to amplify magic and fire it at invaders or foreign vessels. Chains, giant spikes and skeletal ships trapped in rocky sea-cliffs mark the gravesites of countless vessels lost near to Mavolia's shores.

Society
Mavolia houses an extremely stratified, meritocratic civilization. Birth alone greatly shapes what a Mavole's life will be... and on this rugged continent, non-Mavoles can never be anything but slaves. However- even enslaved races live in strata and classes unto themselves, sometimes pitting even slaves against each other.

Life is competitive in Mavolia, where there are only so many resources and fewer freedoms to be allocated amongst the entire population. Strict, powerful societal order prevails in Mavolia, upheld by laws and ancient traditions.

There are five classes in Mavolia. There are Princes, Lords, Knights, Magisters  and Slaves- in descending order of importance. Princes and Princesses are very few and command more than just one of Mavolia's castle-forts, owning thousands of slaves and in some cases nearly a dozen fiefs. A Lord or Lady owns a single of these fiefs, commanding Mavole Knights in their service to send on missions near and far. Knights are somewhat lowly but still esteemed nobles afforded great privileges and vast means in pursuing their missions; a single Knight can be sent afar commanding ships, to raid human lands and bring slaves back. Most all Knights command a group of Magisters, too- a class of soldier mages who follow a Knight's orders and aid them in achieving their missions. Every class only cooperates with their betters in hope of proving their merit and being promoted themselves in order to enjoy greater freedoms and luxuries. Slaves are hopeless captives of Mavolia who will work until their dying breath. Unlike the other classes, a slave does not have mobility in Mavolia's society: they can be a house-slave, a skilled craftsman or a miserable ditch-digger, but no matter their worth they will always be mere chattel. However, slaves do compete for positions of worth and more productive or more skilled slaves are treated markedly better than unskilled laborers. Well-off slaves might even own their own residence and eat good food. But they work with fearful vigilance, very much aware that Mavolia is an unforgiving land...

Most Mavoles work towards a single aspiration: extended lifetime. Life in Mavolia's upper classes is absolutely lavish and its nobles want for little besides life itself. Unfortunately, most are near middle aged by the time they attain these classes, leaving them with barely a decade of good life left before they begin to petrify and undergo a bitter decline into Mavolian aging- one of the worst ways to die, in which a Mavole slowly loses control over their mind and body. Aged Mavoles grieve and anguish, their bodies tormented by pain and later paralyzed with burned-out nerves. Every Mavole watches their relatives and forefathers perish in this way, and desperately works to avoid the same fate.

Only the Nameless Goddess of Mavolia can extend the lifespan of a Mavole to abet their aging process. However, only four great Mavoles have ever received her aid:
 * Gremore, the First and Last:  Gremore is the only King that Mavolia has ever known and founded its nation in 146 AC, shortly after the first Divine War. He conquered the island continent's original inhabitants and established a feudal government which largely lingers today, except there is no longer a King. Gremore was revitalized by the Angel of the Mavoles herself, and lived until 346 AC as a powerful monarch that either enslaved or sacrificed every non-Mavole on Mavolia and gave the land the name it is known by today. However, the immortality he received was false, and Gremore eventually petrified into a crystalline statue once the Goddess of Mavolia could do no more to save him. It is said he's still alive, though nothing remains of him but a wild overgrowth of multicolored crystals that cover his old throne...
 * Idoun, the High Priestess: After the decline of Gremore and his effective death, Mavolia underwent a period of strife and turmoil where his sons and daughters battled for the throne of Mavolia. Civil war broke out- but as Mavolians are a largely infertile race, every death was grievous and costly for their kind. Idoun was a mere Knightess who betrayed the old Princes and led a revolt against them. She caused a great religious revival among the Mavoles, who still retain many of her teachings and ceremonies to revere their creator. She was chosen by the Nameless Goddess as her prophet and lived for two-hundred years, before dying of utter petrification in the year 557 AC. Mavole pilgrims travel to Glasfel to pray at her petrified corpse there to this day.
 * Golan, Bringer of Chains:  After the 600 's, Mavolia suffered a decline in its Akashic pool after the last native life on its continent apart from the Mavoles themselves died-out. Golan, a mere Knight at the time, strayed from his Lord's orders to sail into the Peace Barrier, from which he returned bearing a host of human slaves. Once returned, he brought his captive before the Goddess Icon... and slew them all in a terrible, ritualistic massacre, binding their lives to the Akashic pool. This abetted the decline of the Mavoles and bought them decades of time, in which many Knights began to brave the Peace Barrier hoping to imitate Golan's success. He became an esteemed Lord and lived for over a hundred years, but is presumed to have died in the late 700 's either inside the Peace Barrier itself or in attempting to raid a foreign land.
 * Celere,  Hunter of Heroes: Celere is the longest-lived Mavolian of all time, and is said to still be alive in some legends told today. She was but a lowly Magister of the 700 's who followed Knights attempting to replicate Golan's efforts in bringing sacrifices and slaves home to win fame and riches. But like many of these foolish would-be pirates, Celere's commanding Knight perished in a hail of spears and arrows as her vessel clashed with an Aproriyan war-ship full of Vampires. She survived the battle and later devised anti-vampire spells bloodily honed to kill the spawn of Cain. Promoted to Knightess, she began a new practice of not only fighting-off but raiding the Aproryians to steal their human livestock. Many people were glad to be liberated from the Vampires, only to later curse their foolishness as they died in the Witchtrees or worked to death in Mavolia's mines... Celere was granted a long life by the Goddess, and roamed ever at sea, felling foreign ships and crossing the Peace Barrier to hunt-down anyone who put up resistance to Mavolian raids. However, like Golan himself, she disappeared during the 900 's and has yet to be located.