#corpse:longpost

[necromantiaonline]

The Federated Varan's Education System

Introduction

All schools in Varanria are under the purview of the Ministry of Education, which itself is a subsidiary of the Varanrian Department of Citizenry (for example, it's sister ministries is the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Welfare)

The Ministry of Education oversees the school systems of its Territories; being such a broad category, their job is mostly to set up basic educational standards, ensuring that the Territories aren't breaking any of their stated goals, and doing things like setting up nutritional standards for school lunch.

However, they do have a special function: in the event that an individual school or school district is not part of a Territories' system, it instead becomes a "Federal School." There's several categories of schools that fall under the Federal School system, notably Neo-Fruzhelist Academies. These schools derive their funding from the fully Federal government, and follow a "federal curriculum" alongside religious studies. Another category are schools in Territories and areas that are subject to more intense Federal control. All schools in the Cobak Territory are Federal. In some cities, all schools within some jurisdiction may be Federal-only as well. All in all, these types of schools combined make up about 20% of the schools in Varanria.

By and large, though, Territories are legally considered sovereign republics (hence, why its a Federation.) They're allowed to set up their own divisions of education and dictate their own standards. This is mostly done so each Territory can administer its education in the local language and culture (especially the case in the former Clanlands.) Again, theyre beholden to some mandatory subjects in their curriculum, like. Territories HAVE to teach the history of the Varanrian Revolution and Civil War in accordance to Federal standards. They also are obligated to offer religious studies classes and religious services, though this is an issue that's been increasingly contested as not everyone in Varanria is Neo-Fruizhelist, or even the brand of Fruizhelist Varanria is.

Lower Education

The Ministry of Education mandates that all schools offer compulsory, free education ages 5 - 16. Afterwards, students can either go straight into the workforce, attend a trade school (2 more years of education), or attend university.

Schools are divided between primary and secondary schools. One for ages 5-12, and then 13-16. Naturally, primary schools are a more front-loaded since they cater to more kids from different age groups. Advancement is dictated through grades. Grade 1 students are generally 5 years old, while Grade 11 students are 16. Grades 1-7 encompasses Primary School, while Grades 8-11 encompass Secondary School. Grades 12 and 13 are referred to as "Special Grades," and are reserved for Trade Schools.

Primary schools are almost universally standardized to Federal regulations, with Secondary School varying more. Some territories employ a system where students have to test and apply to which secondary school they wish to go to, though this is mostly a measure for students who are preparing to go to trade school or university. Territories that don't have this system and instead automatically place their students into schools based on proximity have developed a culture of prep school, which offers the same preparation to students after school hours

Generally, class sizes in Varanria are 25-30 students per class, with at least 2 teachers presiding over it, though this is only the case with the lower grades. By grade 7, classes are probably slimmed down to Secondary class numbers, which are often half that number per class.

Students stay with the same class throughout the year, with rosters scrambling after each advancement. This is the same across Primary and Secondary schools. Special Grade students have individualized schedules, so this isn't the case for them.

The MoE mandates that Primary School offer basic language (both in Lishky and Territorial language), social studies, and math classes. Secondary goes more in depth with required literature, history, advanced math, and "theory" classes. "Theory" encompasses what we would consider economy and government, alongside studying [Socialist] theory.

While it isn't mandated, all schools are obligated to offer religious studies across all levels of educations, which parents can opt in and out of.

Primary Religious Studies are rudimentary, and focus on children reading from Fruizhelist stories and parables, with a basic introduction to the Fruizhelic Canonical Texts. Secondary Religious Studies fully delve into the Canonical Texts. How SRS's are administered is one the few instances where an outside entity is able to have say over the educational content of a school. In this case, the Territory's Archbishop builds the religious curriculum, and local Abbeys often aid in teaching the material.

Higher Education

Universities are also subject to the MoE, and are the educational institutions they have the most influence over. There is such a thing as "Territorial Universities," which mostly focus on medical and industrial practices (example: the Cobak Territorial University is home to the nation's most developed "Etherite Studies" program, given that the region specializes in that industry.)

All other universities are funded by the Federal government (Territorial Universities can apply for federal subsidies), are free, and are more likely to be research based and offer degrees that deal in what we would call the "liberal arts"- philosophy, literature, history, alongside engineering and the like.

Universities offer, at the least, 3 year degrees- these usually concern industrial practices. 4-year degrees are often packaged together with 2-year "mastery" certificates; these are usually practices like education or engineering which may require further schooling. After 6 years of continued education in a specific study, a student is eligible to become an honorary Sergeant Major within the Varanrian Armed Forces once they complete a written and oral dissertation on the subject.

[necromantiaonline]

On the creation of the Holy Kingdom of Kepia...

In the early years of the 6th Era, Kepia was home to many dozens of disparate city-states, stretching from south of the Dragonrange to the Manira Isles. Despite their common cultures and customs, these city-states were disjointed at best and constantly fought amongst themselves. These qualities made Kepia ripe for the taking when the New Augantian Empire invaded Visoklya in 6E435. Some cities allowed themselves to be absorbed into what would become the Visoklyan Protectorate, while others were crushed completely under the Augantian heel. It wasn’t until the Balance Temples of the Dragonrange Mountains, devout monks who followed the goddess Statelis, that Kepia was able to break free from total Augantian control. But the damage had already been done. With the old social order thoroughly broken, social and political instability went on to plague Kepia for centuries. It was only when the Holy Kingdom of Kepia formed that the region finally entered a new age of peace and prosperity. 

But to understand why the Holy Kingdom became the way it is, we must go back to an era before. 

The Luxis Empire was a large seafaring empire that controlled the entirety of the Kepvish continent, as well as the Manira Isles, Thelen, and the coastal regions of the Orkriva Commons. In their time they were considered to be the most advanced civilization in the region, and in fact the largest land-empire in Visoklya. They were the center of trade and commerce, and so their art and culture was exported all across the region (particularly Thelen, which would carry on its traditions even after the empire collapsed).

But this was not a traditionally centralized state, like its predecessors or its contemporaries. Luxis employed a proto-parliamentary system, made up of three factions- the House of Blood, House of Coin, and the House of God- that each appointed a certain number of members to counsel the Empire. These houses represented the traditional land-holding nobles, the powerful merchant class, and the traditional priests of the patron-god Zolta, respectively. How long each “council member” served the emperor was very inconsistent, and the whole process was marred with nepotism and controlled by only a handful of powerful families.

Luxis lasted for some 230~ years, and might have lasted more had it not been for the Witch Plot. The exact details of the Witch Plot have been lost to history, and only second-hand accounts have survived as all those directly affected by it died soon after its effects. What is known is this: Sometime in the 5E480s, a dissatisfied branch of the House of God planned to coup against the then unpopular Emperor, and create a new status quo where the House of God was the dominant power. To do this, they employed demonic, soul-corrupting magic, so as to create an army of soldiers to carry out their will.

Safe to say that they succeeded. The Emperor and his bloodline were killed. Unfortunately for the Witches, the demon-soldiers they created turned on them, killing them as well before going on a rampage that was only stopped when the magic that gave them physical forms dissipated. 

While this was understandably very bad for the stability of Luxis, the power vacuum that opened from the death of the Emperor was soon filled by the name oligarchy that served under him. So though the Empire broke apart and survived only in name, many of the systems that existed under it survived and were re-purposed under the new rule of the City-State Era. These city states were all controlled by “high lords'', nearly all hailing from the handful of noble families that survived the fall of the Empire. 

The city-states were in a perpetual state of war against one another. By the time the New Augantian Empire appeared, these cities had already exhausted themselves with their own civil war. The creation of the Visoklyan Protectorate was as easy as peaceful occupying the cities of apathetic populations tired of war. To this end, the Augantians were welcome conquerors to the urbanites of Kepia, though their rural counterparts had other opinions on the matter. Soon though, this prolonged occupation (6E438 - 7E001) sowed the seeds of dissent and dissatisfaction that would explode into the 1st Kepvish Civil War in the aftermath of the Collapse. And indeed, the creation of the Holy Kingdom of Kepia.

[necromantiaonline]

Order of St. Fruizhel

The Order of St. Fruizhel, colloquially known as “Fruizhel’s Hounds”, was a Fruizhelic military holy order established in the early Sorcerian Age by Kecynyan knights. It was founded in the Kingdom of Adsky, and remained headquartered there after the old kingdom was integrated into the Varanrian Empire following the Viktarian Unification.

Initially starting as a simple charity based organization that aimed to ease the suffering of the many poor, sick, and rejected in classical Fruizhelic practice through hospice care and protection, the Order soon its purpose rapidly changed with the first awakening of the Dread Lord.

Centuries before he set across on his first Crusade, the Dread Lord gathered his power and steadily built up his influence across all of the Corpse’s lands. As a part of these preparations, his mass of followers set about to complete various demonic rituals, pacts, and summonings, all culminating in a rapid and gross increase in demonic activity that did not quell until his defeat in 8E026. Visoklya was the most affected out of any other region in the Corpse, and though nations here were able to form a stable defense against the demonic horde in the form of dedicated Demon hunting units in their respective militaries, these units would never be enough. Especially for many rural provinces that lay far away from the governing centers of these nations.

Visoklya was in dire need for those that would fight against the Demonic Threat wherever it struck. To this end, the Order of St. Fruizhel began to direct all of its efforts into transforming itself into a paramilitary organization, taking in volunteers from all across the continent and, at the height of its existence, the world, becoming one of the first truly global organizations.

As the order grew it became increasingly influential, especially within the traditional Fruizhelic circles that resented the growth of Viterism and what they saw as a defilement of traditional Fruizhelic beliefs. It became a central pillar of the community, and the many nomadic priests that traveled across the land in the Order’s name became an attractive alternative for those in the Visoklyan countryside that resented the many preachers sent forth by the Viterist church. Especially for those nations outside of Varanria, who saw Viterism as yet another instance of its Imperial hegemony.

In this way, the Order became the traditional Fruizhelic analogue to Viterism’s own Church of the Imperial Wind. Which was a stark contrast. Viterism served as the Varanrian Empire’s de facto, state-sanctioned religious organization, which had the power to build hundreds of churches all across Varanria and employed just as many religious officials. The Order on the other hand was never meant to be a centralized institution, and it adhered to the very traditional Fruizhelic belief that one’s relationship with Suffering and Hardship- and by extension The Winter- was one that was to be actively disseminated and discussed with others, rather than the admittedly heavy handed approach used by Viterist officials where they outright dictated what that relationship was. But that is a religious discussion for another time, and I digress.

The point is, the Order was not a true church, and any proselytizing done in its name was only an aside to its primary goal of exorcism.

The structure of the Order, as it was during its height, was very much decentralized, and relied heavily on local leaders to keep the many hundreds of chapters scattered all across the Corpse in order. Their ‘headquarters’ in Adsky was mostly symbolic, and in practical terms served an entirely logistical role. With the use of ether marks(1) and illusionary crows(2) Order officials could organize everything from relief aid to mass hunting parties and direct them to high-risk areas all across Visoklya. However, doing these things were certainly much easier said than done, and there are very few recorded instances where such events actually occurred.

In spirit of the Order’s decentralized power structure, so too was its hierarchy. The order was headed by Priest-Knights, who held the same power as a Viterist prelate, but were in actuality simply senior members of the Order that had served with distinction. Under the Priest-Knights were the priests, who were more akin to the traditional Viterist counterpart. Priests in the order, however, differed greatly in that they also served as ‘religious officers’, as the militant nature and purpose of the Order required its priests to serve leadership roles on the field. Priests often required some formal education and distinction on the field to be offered as a promotion in the Order. Finally, under priests there were the “apostles”. Apostles were the rank-and-file members of the Order, who were often derided as being part of a ‘peasant army’. Anyone could join their local chapter of the Order as an apostle, and indeed many apostles were lower-to-middle-class persons who wanted to protect their homes from demons where the local militias failed.

However, a significant part of the apostles were made up of criminals. Those that were tried from everything from petty crime to murder were given the ‘opportunity’ to serve out their sentences in the Order, ostensibly to regain their honor in the field or be killed by demons. Because of this the apostle army was often given a bad reputation, and during the height of the Dread Lord’s First Crusade the majority of apostle armies was actually made up of convicts, which conversely led to a more urgent need for priests to ‘keep them in check’.

It was during this era of the Order’s history that the nickname “Fruizhel’s Hounds” was given, and though the use of criminals faded as the ages went by, the name stuck. The Hounds remain unique in that unlike their contemporaries the scope of their activities extended far past Varanria, and indeed Visoklya, as Hound activity has been recorded across the entirety of The Corpse. Some chapters outside of Visoklya were more active than others, the most famous one being the Winter House in Uroji City in modern-day Hiyyamal.

While the Hounds remained an official organization up until the end of the Dread Lord’s Second Crusade (9E075), they were most active from the 7E300s to the 8E040s, as the first death of the Dread Lord marked the end of the demonic instability across The Corpse that had necessitated the need for the Hounds on a large scale.

A type of magical tattoo wherein the written components of a spell is written in Divine using diluted liquid Ether, circumventing the need for the individual to learn said spell. Ether Marks are, of course, very expensive, time consuming, and dangerous if done improperly

Or just referred to as “crows” were magical constructs that could send pre-recorded voice messages to any individual that had the corresponding ether mark for the spell. At sufficient distances, individuals could even hold real-time conversations through the use of crows, very similar to modern-day telephones. These crows were limited only to priest-knights and other such high ranking officials of the Order deemed important enough to be granted the mark.

[necromantiaonline]

The Collapse (6E499 - 7E050~)

The world history of The Corpse can most generally be divided between two categories: the world before The Collapse, and the world after it.  This can be attributed to many things: the apocalyptic scale of the event; the political, economic, and social consequences that came from it; the intense shift in status quo that resulted from the devastation of approximately 1/3rd of the world. To say that The Collapse was significant would be an understatement, to say the least. 

Despite this, the exact causes of The Collapse remain a mystery, even to this day. We know how it happened, and we know how the conditions of its most affected areas (see: The Great Expanse) contributed to the destruction, but going any farther than that is pure speculation. All evidence of its causes would have been wiped out with everything else it obliterated in its wake.

But back to the basics. What was The Collapse?

The Collapse was the mass collective implosion of all raw ether crystals within an approximate 2,000 km radius of The Heart. To make a long story short, every crystal within that vicinity simultaneously underwent a version of nuclear fission, resulting in a chain-reaction of magically-charged explosions all throughout The Great Expanse. 

Raw ether crystals develop naturally, usually deep underground in the extensive caverns that tend to form around Veins. Some raw crystals, however, grew in abundance some miles all around the perimeter of The Heart, as the constant flow of raw liquidized ether provided the perfect conditions for crystallization. Had this been the extent of the crystal’s reach, then the damage of The Collapse- while still devastating in its own right- would have been relegated to the explosive natural disasters common of the region.

What made The Collapse so uniquely disastrous was the ongoing practice of Crystal Harvesting.

From the early 300s of the 6th Era onwards, the Bhanta Kingdoms dominated much of Central Bondawi engaged in an ‘arms race’. 

Once a part of the greater Bhanta Empire, the Bhanta Kingdoms were the result of years of political instability and succession crises. What all these disparate kingdoms had in common was their desire to form and be the head of a re-unified Bhanta Empire, one that hearkened back to its golden age at the beginning of the 6th Era. Invasion, conquest, and ideological warfare followed suit. 

As violent and unsustainable as this arrangement was, for a time this caused a huge surge in technological and magical innovation. The relentless war effort exerted by these powers meant that they constantly had to keep an ‘edge’ over one another, lest they fall and be assimilated one by one by more powerful kingdoms (as eventually became the case nearing the end of the era.) 

One such innovation was the harvesting and utilization of raw ether crystals in everyday life. Simple in use and design, these crystals would be harvested directly from The Heart via slave labor (usually prisoners of war conscripted into service), cut, and be used as power sources of the many Wonders Bhanta’s wizards created. Because of how thorough The Collapse was in the destruction of these Wonders most of their designs, mechanics, and even purposes remain a mystery, only appearing in second and third hand accounts of merchants and other travelers from the surrounding regions. 

Crystal products were widespread across all Bhanta Kingdoms, and most concentrated in urban areas where most people had congregated to not only enjoy the increased quality of life granted by this new technology but to also enjoy the constant conflict of the countryside waged by their rulers. 

Additionally, while the Bhanta Kingdoms enjoyed most crystal products, they did engage in a ludicrous crystal trade with other nations of The Expanse found wanting their crystal-powered weapons, thus expanding the range of these crystals even farther.

When The Collapse hit, when all ether crystals in its vicinity underwent [nuclear] fission, the explosion’s epicenter was at the most densely populated points of The Expanse’s civilizations. The Bhanta Kingdoms were immediately decimated as once-great cities were reduced to smoldering, burning piles of rubble and stone, and farther still once-great nations quickly entered states of national disasters as storehouses and even armies themselves suffered massive damage. 

As modern readers we may be tempted to compare the scope of the destruction and devastation that took place to the many scorched earth campaigns enacted by the Dread Lord during the Nightmare Wars. But in contrast to the Nightmare Wars, where the destruction of entire cities and cultures were prolonged and were, for the most part, able to survive the ordeal, The Collapse wiped entire peoples off the map. Languages languished as its native speakers expired overnight, and the secrets to Crystal Technology, which is said to have included rudimentary but implemented designs of firearms, power generators, and even motowagons are likely now lost forever. 

To finish, a quote from a Nahe merchant who witnessed the direct aftermath mere days into The Collapse, after landing port in what is now modern-day Uroji City, 

“Where once a shining city stood lay a cesspit of desolation. It looked as if angry War himself set foot and razed it to the ground. I saw fires of strange colors dance across piles of what used to be homes and stores. I saw churches and wizardry towers reduced to rubble. I saw pockets so utterly destroyed that there was nothing left save for black, scarred earth. The miasma of death stenched the air. Those that were not buried under the destruction were dragged out onto the street, where their broken, bloodied bodies fed the vultured hordes above. When I saw the shambling survivors, looking so much like corpses themselves, I truly felt like the world was ending before my eyes.”