Vendrith Wiki

Devmap- Horiza

1 min read

Textext

imageBases:
  - path: _admin/Assets/Horizan_Open_World.1.1 1.png
markers: H.markers.json
markerLayers:
  - Default
minZoom: 0.25
maxZoom: 8
wrap: false
responsive: false
width: 100%
height: 480px
resizable: false
resizeHandle: native
render: dom
id: map-mm0uo0sy

Horiza is a region. This map might give too much info tho.

Horiza

Horiza, sometimes called the New World, is a great mass of mostly unsettled land discovered beyond the World Fleece to the east of Iduria. It has since had its coastline settled by the Horizan Guild. These lands’ enormity, unique features and sudden discovery has made it an object of exceptional fascination and speculation, and for some, reverence.

The name Horiza is thought to derive from a story about the mythical island of Eve, which Horiza has been compared to, which frequently and poetically refers to “the Horizon” as if it was a character.

Other languages name these lands after its often blue and silvery viewscapes.

On one hand, Horiza has been described as endlessly large and beautiful, with vibrant blue and silver colours to its waters, mountains and skies unlike anything anywhere else. On the other hand, Horiza is, besides its coastal waters, so barren of (edible) life it sometimes causes a great feeling of unease, loneliness and even paranoia in its visitors. The plant-life of Horiza is namely uniquely lacking in nutrition, and is often poisonous or otherwise hostile. The wild-life too is both scarce, and unwelcoming. Much of its inland creatures (besides those imported from Iduria, which has happened in waves) have ways of blending in with the environment or otherwise tricking humans and remaining hidden.

An early explorer zoologist once said:

“Even if we account for the creatures which have adapted themselves to hide better, I’d say Horiza only has about half, no, a third of the wildlife it should have. And that’s not even thinking about the complete lack of living humanoids!”

Horiza’s coasts are seemingly an exception to most of these rules, containing some modicum of edible land foods (or the ability to plant them), and the ocean-life seems rather plentiful and normal.

There’s a saying about Horiza that’s based of the tale of Eve:

“Our stories of Eve told us we’d find a blessed horizon beyond the stormy seas. Yet all we got was a calm shore and a cursed horizon.”

Geography

Due to the stark division between coast and inland, pretty much all of the permanent settlements of Horiza, as done by the Horizan Guild Association, is limited to the coast and short ranges inlands from it. The inlands, or the Horizon as its often called, is seen as something mysterious and in need of deeper exploration. Due to the lack of food, potentially increasingly hostile terrain and fauna, and the unknown element of it all, deeper expeditions are rare and expensive - and are usually staffed by highly experienced adventurers.

Loneliness and desolation in the vastness of Horiza.

The three biggest and most important settlements of Horiza are Friedport, Adamsworth and Newshore, founded in that order. Each of these contain a fortress that doubles as the settlement’s granary and stockpile of all goods they can’t easily get - heavily fortified due to the fear and suspicion that others in the lands would raid it given the opportunity. Lesser settlements have been subject to this, and often rely on hiding their stockpiles, often underground or somewhere outside the actual settlement.

Chocolate Isles

Chocolate Isles

Friedport sits on the Chocolate Isles, a relatively plentiful area due to its abundance of coastline and fishing. It is also home to a number of pirates whom hide away in its geography however, and sometimes stark class divisions due to its longer history (such as the Landcrab-Guild divide in Friedport).

The Chocolate Isles are a relatively green part of Horiza. It is also home to some edible foods, as well as wildlife that sometimes imitates the food or terrain.

The Chocolate isles largely speak Idurian. The main islands of the Chocolate Isles include:

  • Everydry, the biggest island, home to Friedport and its immediately surrounding Raltron and Mahanbamville. Other settlements include the Rum Hills, Thymesville, Shadebay and Meadport. At the centre of the island is a slumbering volcano called “Mt. Chalkstone” by the locals.
  • Hershrin, a small isle right across the bay of Friedport. Home to Tuntontown, and a sacred secular temple.
  • Cookiebatter Island, east of Everdry, home to Saint Earlybird which disputes Friedport’s claim to being the first settlement of Horiza.
  • The Cockathrees, three to four small isles between Cookiebatter and Everdry.
  • Damesland , south and west to Everdry, home to Loushea and Honeykiller.
  • Fistacuff, a smaller isle just across from Loushea. Home to a prison fort.
  • The Foolsnuggets, the Flurries, and the Whirlwinds; sparsely settled island chains north of Fistacuff.
  • Greenskvat, Bightraun, and Smallthraun (in order of smallest to largest) are three unsettled and thickly jungled islands to the north of Everdry and Cookiebatter.
Link to original

The Mainland

Adamsworth and Newshore, just a bit into inland on the mainland, have both taken an increasingly important role as the population balloons and the desire to explore (and perhaps importance of exploring) the Horizon only continues to grow. These settlements have to make do with less available ocean food, and have only gained a limited success in certain forms of agriculture - and thus are highly reliant on their exchanges with the homeland in order to be fed. The Mainland speaks Idurian only for business, with the common folk’s day to day language being either Languages or Languages.

A typical sight in Horizan geography is sudden stark height differences, even in its inland lakes. These spots are often simultaneously beautiful, and eerily empty.

Other settlements on the mainland include: To be detailed more later

  • Dirgwall
  • Fallheim
  • Farmen
  • Fort Shingle
  • Gab
  • Gillymen
  • Lillac
  • Quietwatch
  • Survalley

Society

Horizan society is a creation of mixed origins, often ones fleeing from conflict, and a cautious peace and balance between various home world factions. Certain topics, like that of the Eternal Crusade and the worshipping of Titan or Titan-like deities, have become subject of a social taboo in public in order to maintain orderly relations. It is still common to acknowledge and accept more subtle or secular forms of spirituality and religious-like community, and few commoners object to the private worship of deities.

Exploration and the hunt for knowledge and treasure - adventure - remains a cornerstone of Horizan popular imagination.

Some say that Horiza has inherited a core element of each of its three originators. The Talvan/Rubyfirthers are said to have gifted it its love of commerce, treasure and plutocracy. Canath is said to have given it its caste systems and reverence of prestige and heroics. And Mogxa is said to have inspired its love of secret societies and cautious backroom politicking.

Horiza speaks the Idurian, Bay Pidgin and Harza Pidgin languages.

History

The history of Horiza is quite short compared to most corners of the world, told only from the Discovery of Horiza. The history of its settlement and politics is largely the history of the Horizan Guild Association.

The Horizan Guild.

The initial explorers who confirmed their journey to Horiza all returned after their first voyage there, reporting a vast, beautiful but empty land. Despite their claims they found nothing of much value, even nutritionally, the news spread quickly and caught the ears of powerful Talvan/Rubyfirth merchants who sought to make these lands their (effective) property. These were experts in navigation and shipbuilding, and had uniquely large funds and legal freedoms (from any sovereign king or emperor) that allowed them to undertake such ventures. The Forgotten Dawn Society, a guild focused on exploration, and largely, archaeology, was instrumental in the process to come. They founded and took on a leading role in the Horizan Guild Association (HGA), which was to be the sole organisation capable of exploring and settling these lands. Inviting important Mogxan and Canathi figures to the table, the guild initially played these two’s desire to not pass any opportunities up to each other as a way to keep their influence low whilst extracting concessions, resources, and funding.

The Guild set up its Idurian headquarters on the island of Jed, as a neutral place in-between worlds, and one which symbolised the ability of Canathis and Mogxans to work together.

First and Second Waves of Settlement

In this initially balanced and neutral state, the HGA set out on its first wave of settlement. Compared to later waves, this one was rather small and focused but also diverse, sending a variety of adventurers, researchers, mages and other experts willing and enthusiastic to set up operations in these new lands. The first settlement was either Saint Earlybird or Friedport (accounts vary), though it is the latter which became the hub of the new world. The Chocolate Isles these both sit on were named so after the Chocolate Beans the voyagers had brought, hoping to be able to plant this luxury item in a climate that was supposedly good for it - though these agricultural attempts largely failed. The colonies remained food scarce, and reliant on importing food from the old world. Due to the masses and cost of food demanded, this often had to be done in exchange for something valuable in return, including treasures and knowledge (raw resources are often too heavy/bulky to be worth the hull space). This food scarcity led society to become both stratified along certain class/caste lines, as well as more equal within these classes/castes. Many people turned to banditry, and especially, Banditry in these conditions - especially targeting those gathering treasures to send home in order to bargain and demand portions of the food to come. The first wave almost all spoke the Idurian language (with the exception of a few slaves), which was to become the language of commerce and official activity of these new settlements.

The second wave of settlement happened as the colonies pleaded for more people. One of the stated goals was to set more people on uncovering ways to find reliable and sustainable food sources, and to reduce the reliance on unreliable food transports from Iduria. Seeking greater masses of people, the second wave picked up a variety of people largely around the Rubyfirth Bay, including a number of Kholos whom had been migrating northward (others would end up in Galae), as well as Talvan Amurrun and Veducian Tripkee. Many Canathis of all sorts travelled to the Ruby coast to embark on this journey, though those of a known and explicit allegiance to the Crusaders were rejected on the grounds of the neutrality between Canath and the Mogxa. These people founded the first sizeable settlement on the Horizan mainland, Adamsworth. This varied group ended up developing a new language to cross their various linguistic barriers - called Bay Pidgin - which co-exists as a language “of the people” alongside the Idurian “of the guild.” Friedport remains the settlement with the highest literacy of Idurian.

Third Wave and Politicisation

By the time ideas of a third wave of settlement had started floating around, the Mogxan Sanitorium had set itself the goal of gaining influence over the HGA. They had been quite successful in many regards, using much of their experience with guild politics from their Secret Society culture. Another important point of leverage was the developing and strategically placed port city of Singsong, which they had been tempting the HGA with as an ideal connecting point to Horiza. After securing the agreement that the next wave of settlement would come from there, the Mogxans got to work with trying to create a fleet and migrant force so large it would overshadow any previous settlements - with the intention of creating a Mogxan population to rule Horiza. In practice however, the mass of people needed and the cost (in form of both risk, and a life-changing move) that they asked, it was often those who had especial reason to want to leave Mogxan power that went. This, ironically, meant that many on these voyages were those who were discontent with or even rebellious against Mogxan authorities, such as those from its contested or tributary-status borderlands. This also includes a number of Dragonbloods, despite the official ban on their free mobility. In addition, the ease of which people could get on these ships due to this mass effort may have actually caused many from abroad to sneak themselves into Mogxa exclusively to catch a sail to Horiza. This wave of settlement, from a different background than the second wave but also too folksy to speak Idurian, ended up creating the Harza Pidgin language as they arrived. While this influx certainly helped the population of Mogxa, it was too diverse and biased against Mogxan rule to serve as an effective source of much more influence.

The rising influence of the Sanitorium over the HGA, and their blatantly self-serving ways of overseeing the third wave of settlement, has caused the Crusader-aligned Canathis to increasingly protest, and even withdraw from, the guild. While there are still Canathis sit at the table, nominally as independent and only representing their home cities or kingdoms, it is clear they’re under pressure from the Crusaders to either take over or leave the guild altogether. Crusader-HGA relations were worst hit after a Crusader incursion landed on and tried to occupy the island of Jedaia (as a precursor of the March of the Corpse Flowers). While the Crusaders didn’t engage in official hostilities with the HGA representatives or headquarters there, it is clear their intentions were to gain control of them. The operation failed to gain any swift ground however, and has turned into a stalemate as the local Jedaians keep the Crusaders at bay, whom fight on from the jungle.

The Monstrous Ark

A set of ships built around a flagship known as the Monstrous Ark is believed to have sailed a variety of Creatures, including many Monsters, from their natural habitats of Iduria to Horiza - before running aground in the Chocolate Isles. It is unknown who ordered and manned this, and for what purpose, as no high Horizan Guild official have recognised or discussed it.

Current Status

The breakdown of the mostly civil relations in the HGA, and the threat to its headquarters (which have temporarily relocated), has caused it to slow down its plans and operations. While the third wave of settlement ended quite recently, there are still those who already speak of a fourth wave of settlement. This however is mostly a way to refer to the existence of informal, technically illegal (as per the HGA Charter) voyages of people who go to Horiza on their own - circumventing the guild’s monopoly. There are rumours of both experienced Crusader pirates managing to sail across, as well as secretly-sanctioned Mogxan soldiers and representatives being sent over. The Crusaders are said to have an interest in these lands due to the myth of the Continental Army that awaits there, preparing to help return the Titans from exile. Likewise, the Sanitorium has an interest in preventing any such discovery if they do exist, or to even go pre-emptively destroy them themselves. The Desecrators of Horiza may consist of a mix of those who got in by HGA convoys and those whom have made the voyage “in the dark.”

Link to original

Graph View