Post by Admin on Sept 7, 2013 21:05:20 GMT
Lodan:
Lodan is a city built on technology and powered by steam, one that many neighbouring towns grow jealous of for its vast array of knowledge. City of endless possibilities, it is a playground for merchants, inventors, engineers and visionaries alike. However, in such a popular and powerful place lies a dark secret; humans are not the only ones to call Lodan 'home'.
There lies another race, banished away from Lodan's upper crust society and condemned as demons, this race is called "Andersweltlers". Originally hailing from another realm, they sought safe refuge in Lodan; as their home land was being destroyed by a terrifying force, a force that managed to wipe out the vast majority of their numbers. In desperation, the Andersweltlers' most powerful mages opened a portal to the nearest safe haven. The portal chose Lodan, much to the distaste of the Humans upon being invaded by these 'Demons'.
The invasion caused an uproar, Humans refused to share their city with these strange beings, despite their human-like appearances. For 50 years, battles were fought, Humans & Andersweltlers were killed and only paused their attack on each other to fend off their mutual adversary known as the shadow beasties. The royal family called a halt to the bloodbath; capitalizing on their temporary alliance and demanding that a peace treaty be signed. However, this peace treaty came with one condition for the Andersweltlers. They were to seal the portal to their realm, closing off the connection which the force that drove them out of their land could possibly use to threaten the city of Lodan next.
The condition was agreed and using the best mages they had, they sealed the portal; making sure that no one could leave or enter the opposite realm, including those still fighting off the terror. 100 years following their initial arrival, Andersweltlers have been more accepted amongst the humans, but they are still seen as a lower class; most of the Andersweltlers living within the slums of the city and hired to do lower paying jobs. The Andersweltlers agree that it's not a perfect life, but they have safety; more or less, if one could overlook the Post-Century Civil War so fresh in our minds. Now everyone sits, watches, and waits, as they start rebuilding their strengths and bidding their time.
Technology utilizes the resources in Nature, obeying its laws, but destroying it.
This is Lodan, where Technology and Magic are at war.
Andersweltler:
The Anderswelt, also known as Otherworld, was once a vast plane. It was beautiful, full of magic and creatures humans could only dream of; there was enough land and food for everyone and the races living in that world were just like humans. However, every race thought they were better than the last. The Feline Andersweltler looked down on the flying ones, the winged Andersweltler thought those chained to the ground were nothing and the general Andersweltler with their supreme magic looked down on the other two. There was a truce for many, many years; until the darkness descended. Magic collided and the beasts created from the shadows became stronger, they were reproducing at such a fast pace that the Andersweltlers were outnumbered quickly. The land started to die, crops started to wither and there was much bloodshed between the Andersweltlers, whom wanted to protect their home and the shadow beasts, whom only wanted to cause chaos and misery. Slowly, the once flourishing planet, was dying. The three races realised they couldn't keep going, and the few that were left decided to work together. They asked their most powerful mages to create a portal to another realm, half of the Andersweltler races were left behind to fend off the dark enemies and the rest made their way through the portal, to Lodan: the city of gears.
A hundred years ago, that portal was opened for the Andersweltlers, desperate to find refuge; but the humans they imposed on were both shocked and displeased. Those...creatures...were different and they came through the portal by the hundreds, causing the humans to feel intimidated. Still they slipped into society, and started to acclimate and blend in. However, the sudden mass of Andersweltlers resulted in a lack of employment, and without enough jobs or coin, the area that the newcomers initially made their new home was scantily at best and well-known as the slums. They felt prejudice every day, which forced them to hide their true selves and lie to protect their secret, in order to secure hope of procuring a job. Stealing and murdering was too often the quickest way to get food on their plates and coins in their wallets. History has not changed much, the discrimination and the detestable professions are often the same, but the Andersweltlers are biding their time and rising in stature all over the city, whether the human's realize who they truly are in person or not.
Humans:
Magic was once part of the human world too, until Technology reared its mechanical head. In Lodan, many centuries ago, magic was an important part of daily life and the city flourished thanks to that. Nevertheless, around a hundred years ago the steam-engine was invented and many other Technological innovations soon followed suite. It became as though everyone could do great things like the human mages of the distant past, as technologists became as powerful as the Magicians. Eventually, the magical will inside every human died out and was replaced with a thirst for technology and the once blue sky became clouded in smog. The humans kept creating, even after they realized the city was smothered by industrialization. Shortly, after the smog appeared, beasts no one had ever seen before started to roam through the streets, some believe they slipped through the portal with the Andersweltlers, putting Lodan in dire peril as the army tried to fight back. After all, they were first sighted around the time that the 'demons' appeared, calling themselves Andersweltler. Some members of this biped humanoid race had claws and glowing eyes, others beautiful wings so they could fly, and a third sort basked in an aura giving them great beauty.
Overall they intimidated and frightened the humans, threatening the great steam city with their influx of magic. They drew the last straw when they recognized the shadow beasts, giving the humans another reason to resent and willingly shunned the new race. To separate themselves from the hatred of shadow beasts, the Andersweltlers agreed that they would help fight off the beasts and close the portal to their home realm. A truce was drawn between the Humans and Andersweltlers and with great success, they drove back the beasts, forcing them out of the city and into the borderlands. To their best abilities, the humans kept the Andersweltlers out of the upper crust society while still upholding the terms of their truce with the invaders, but the once great economy didn't cope well with this arrangement and it started to slip, there were too many unemployed people that needed to be fed. Thieving and crime grew worse and regardless of what race was involved, the humans always blamed the Andersweltlers, which drove them even futher into secrecy. The vast majority cling to the old prejudice, even though some humans have come around and become secretly sympathizers. Those who do sympathize do so quietly or else risk being accused of having Andersweltler blood or not being humans at all.