Atlas of Tabula

At the center of the world, they sprawl east and west, and their capital city -- Babel -- is (like many seats of power throughout history) built into and onto the huge an unknowable edifice of one of the Pillars of Heaven. Babel, stretching as it does around the pillar and sitting astride two continents, is like Constantinople, and Delos has the sprawl and cultural clout (and probably history) of Rome. If it is Renaissance-related in our world, Delos has it and Babel has it in abundance. Sprawling "industries" of specialists in magic and archanics. I imagine they're on a lot of hilly grasslands and are bordered in the west by mountains, and maybe also in the south (or some other natural barrier). I wonder if Delos, in their incredible leaps and bounds to understand magic and the elements and the soul and such have hit a point where their primary religious faith revolves around -- for example -- the central Pillar "at the heart of the world" and the significance of the Pillars as a collective (that are literally holding up the sky and magically maintaining the equilibrium of the world around them) is maybe lost on them or waning.

I think Endell might be kind of more a classical medieval vibe, but who knows. Rome once said "let them see to their own defense" in regards to ancient Britain, and so I think maybe Endell is our ancient Britain in some ways and not others. I think Endell is one of many territories that bends the knee as a tribune of Delos, and so still technically enjoys its own political borders, even if ultimately it has no authority of its own. As such, its own capital -- Endell (likewise built into and onto a Pillar of Heaven) -- has long since been stripped of its significance and is now a shadow of its former power and glory. I think there is a northern and southern territory of "true Endell" maybe? I wonder if the fair-featured Endellians once sprawled so far north and south that they have a religious beliefs incorporating the three eastern Pillars. I also think that the Endellians within the Empire, are incredibly loyal and mighty warriors, with some kind of ancient pacts or significant history that makes them feel tied closely to Babel and the Imperial line.

It used to be part of the kingdom of Endell but part of their history is that a man called Gesi climbed the Pillar itself. Whether he *actually* did is the stuff of myth, but we do know that he returned a changed man, full of fire, and determined to declare Nara's independence from the kingdom of Endell. War ensued. In present day, Nara is technically part of the Delos Empire, but with distance, the actual military presence is thin. And there are constant rumblings about the 'sons and daughters of Gesi rising up again'

a bit like Dorne from GoT, or the Australian outback - very sandy, lots of desert, lots of stretches of nothing, but also patches of incredible beauty in its mountains and rocks. Eskara has also built onto the Pillar (the Pillar of Sand? the Pillar of Dust?) in a very literal way. Their city consists of massive brass-like arms that rotate around the pillar like hands of a clock, and the city's buildings and farms are built upon the arms. There's a fairly strict hierarchy in place - the higher up you are, the more important you are, with the Queen's Palace on the highest arm. Airships conduct business ferrying people and produce too and fro. Generally speaking, they have a major interest in mechanics, and look with a bit of disdain upon magic.

Known by many other names, these are star-elf samurai who guard their pillar against the forces of shadow and darkness that long to consume it. Great leviathan beasts lurk beneath the waves, just as vicious flying lizards take to the skies at night, their eyes and spines glowing orange as they are drawn to the Pillar, and the eight temple-forts that protect it. By land, the assaults come from the shadazi, terrible wolf-spiders of shadow and smoke that dissipate when they are slain, and that reform if they are not killed by soul-forged / powered weapons. The Samitra are a dwindling people, and their centuries-long seige may soon be coming to an end.

the Yade Doma are just one caste of priest among several. Some random googling told me Doma exists in Greek as "gift," and its derived from Didomi which in Greek is "to grant, give over, deliver" so I can imagine a high holy leader called Yade Didomi. In my mind's eye I am imagining that the Yade Didomi has passed away, and now -- as if the equivalent of the Pope dying -- a bunch of "cardinals" are sat in moot, awaiting a sign to name the next Yade Didomi. So the country has kind of ground to a halt... which is what lead the northern territories to secede to the Empire, and then came the soul-forge followed by the disaster that created the Dregs, and now what we're seeing is a religious schism with these Yade Doma seeing fit to take matters into their own hands before their god-given holy land is desecrated any further.

I'm thinking this was a less developed place, but an environmentally rich one. The people had strong ties to nature and believed that the natural world had spirits that were not to be so much worshiped as respected, though they called on their ancestors for strength and guidance. This nation had a tradition of handcrafting exquisite goods, everything from dyeing and clothmaking to woodworking and pottery and leather working.

In spite of not being as technologically advanced as other nations, they were intellectuals who wrote great works of poetry and literature, and were keen observers of the natural world, understanding more about biology and medicine than some cultures.

With the people scattered, they struggle to keep their culture and traditions intact. Their children are being born in different nations, never learning their people's native language that their parents and grandparents speak. In some places, they experience racism and are trying to assimilate as much as they can, changing their names to sound more like the names of the people around them. Meals are necessarily prepared with different ingredients, and typically without the vibrant spices of the homeland. The idea of "nature spirits" is largely dismissed or mocked in the big cities, so they do not speak of such things to outsiders or observe those traditions.

People from this nation that took refuge in Delos have developed a diverging culture from the people who settled in Endell. The fracturing of the diaspora has made maintaining a cultural identity difficult, and elders fear that their ways and culture will disappear, while a vague and generalized prejudice will remain.

Existing for maybe thousands of years before their eventual collapse, the Fomorians left shattered ruins and ancient magitech behind. In their absence, the world was cast into the dark ages for centuries. The world is full of ruins and lost knowledge and no doubt lots of history and myth are about the Fomorians, seen through a clouded glass.

During these dark ages, the Delos Empire rediscovered magictech, the study of souls, and the scholarship of magic that all now culturally dominate; during this time they expanded and over the last 300 years have gained many tribune states.

Over a century ago, a man called Gesi climbed the Pillar of Life on the distant Isle of Nara and returned to the Kingdom of Endell a changed man. Full of fire, he declared Nara's independence from the kingdom of Endell. In the war that followed, Endell was sundered into feuding fiefs that never truly recovered. Today, Nara is technically part of the Delos Empire, but with distance, the actual military presence is thin. And there are constant rumblings about the 'sons and daughters of Gesi rising up again'.

40 or 60 years ago, the Koga people abandoned their island and went into exodus in the wake of the destruction of the Pillar of their homeland. Their spiritual views, while not necessarily at odds with the rest of the world, differ foundationally (real, live, thinking, powerful nature spirits exist and are owed respect) and are looked down on.

Over the last 20 or 30 years, strangely-dressed visitors hidden behind featureless black masks appear and disappear across the world. Ghost stories and folk tales explain away their interest in the Pillars and the most isolated reaches of the world.

A year ago, rumors emerged that the Didomi -- living-god and head of state of the Yade Theocracy -- had fallen ill. The northern territories took this opportunity to secede to the Empire of Delos, seemingly overnight. The Yade Doma sat in vigil, awaiting a sign anointing their new leader... a sign that never came. Since then Yade has seemingly persisted on ritual and bureaucracy alone.

Within the last Several Months, the Empire of Delos constructed a never-before-seen soul-forge in their newly acquire tribune state on the contested border with the Yade Theocracy. While intended to passively draw soul-energy from the environment, tapping into the ephemeral and untouchable elements of air, light, and darkness, catastrophe followed. Now, these lands are called The Dregs: they say nothing grows here, nothing is born, and the very elements themselves are twisted.

What was the cause of the collapse of the Pillar in the northwest, and how can it be stopped from happening again?

How has Babel protected itself from the monsters and demons that hunger for the soul fuel used in the archanic engineering that fills every inch of the capital?

What is the portal that has opened near the Pillar of Light, and why is it here?

Strange figures in featureless black masks have been spotted in remote locations, typically around pillars. They carry portable equipment in packs on their backs and seem to be doing something to the ground/water/plant life. On the occasions when they have been approached, they quite literally disappear. Upon inspection, there is a red-grey residue left behind from whatever their experiments are. It took a while for these incursions to be noticed and for the pattern to be surmised.

Of course, accounts vary - some say these figures are abnormally tall and thin, but some don’t remark on any physical abnormalities at all. The featureless masks are commented on in almost every account, though some say the figures are wearing robes and others say they are wearing some kind of uniform. Some report smelling something very sweet in the air. Others have stated they saw strange flashes of light.

The Yade Doma, are doing two things: carving iron from the pillar in the south east, mining it, weakening it, fashioning powerful weapons from it. In the wastes to their north, the Dregs, they have discovered a ruined underground city filled with soul-forges. These, when hapless fools are cast into them, will render the souls in such a way that they can be forged into the black iron weapons. Spears, swords, daggers, glaives -- known to cut through all other metal, no armor can withstand them.

An extremist Koga Cult out to scar the world in a bid to heal it. Their charismatic leader has conned others into believing that he knows why the pillars have begun to fall. He believes that the world is a body and that they must inscribe a tattoo across the face of the world in order to restore balance. And by tattoos, of course, he means salting and burning the land itself.

Devastating meteor storms that leave behind luxstone, an alluring new material with dangerous side-effects. Since the collapse of the Pillar in the lands of Koga, lights have streaked across the night sky -- and where those lights have fallen, only devastation has followed. Scholars call these lights "meteor showers," and the heavenly objects that lay waste to countryside and village "meteors." Meanwhile, artisans who have seen fit to cut and shape the cursed rock call them "luxstone." Regardless, there is no predicting the fall of luxstone, its timing or its devastation. Luxstones carry within them a well-spring of magical energy, and even fragments can be used to create and augment incredible works. This leads the foolhardy and power-hungry alike to seek them out, facing down lux-twisted monstrosities in the process.

Cracks have been discovered in [the pillar in Babel]. And they're spreading.

[Airship] Pirates! Believing the situation on land to be getting worse and worse, people from many nations and lands who have either rejected their homelands or were forced out have joined roving pirate bands preying on free traders. [...] Maybe there have always been pirates to some degree, but recently they are becoming more organized and gathering under the banner of pirate warlords.