Consciousness in Runehack

Sometime recently, I turned 10.000 days old. I really wanted to publish an article on such an opportunity, but I didn’t have anything ready. I’m still working on the Moorwell article, having a hard time getting to it because of the hardships I’m currently experiencing. Perhaps a short article on an obscure topic of consciousness will do for this occasion.

Didn't want this article to not have any art in it, but it's difficult to find a picture for a topic like "consciousness", so... let's pretend this is a digital ghost as described later in this article.
The picture comes from the Daily Renders June 2021 collection by Josh Pierce.

Consciousness

One of the core concepts of the world of Runehack is consciousness. It’s different from something being merely alive or animated, consciousness means awareness of yourself and your surroundings. What are some oddities about the consciousness present in the world?

For one, people of this world have a concept of submemory, which is a part of one's memory that persists even if it's not in one's memory. So a fairly popular but unverifiable theory suggests, that consciousness is somewhere not in one's body, perhaps not even in the physical world. The following aspects of consciousness would suggest that this theory might hold true.

Dreams and Elves

When someone falls asleep, their consciousness enters a dream. It's not known whether there is an actual place where the dreams happen, or if it is just a mind's illusion. Strangely, the elves of Runehack possess a mysterious ability of dream-walking, which lets them enter other people's dreams while sleeping. The dream-walking is largely forgotten for several reasons: the impracticality of setting it up, the moral quandaries of using it, and the ease of instant communication thanks to the runetech connected to the Mistweb.

Each elf retains a supernatural link to its blood, even once it leaves the elf's body. When an elf falls asleep, they can sense the presence of people who are very close to their blood (a couple of inches or centimeters at best). This distance is unlimited when the ring moon's light shines upon the elf. The most reliable way for an elf to dream-walk would be to touch the sleeping person whose dream they wish to enter, but some elves create pendants that hold a small amount of their blood to give to people. An elf in another person's dream is largely ignored by the dreamer and their dream characters. If the dream-walker attempts to shape another person's dream in a way lucid dreamers would, the dream characters will turn aggressive towards the intruder until they are removed from the dream. This aggression can be overcome in two ways - either if the elf is trusted by the dreamer whose dream they have entered, or if the elf does so during the Blood Moon (lunar eclipse).

The practice of entering the dreams of someone who an elf hates, only to haunt the dreamer with an uncontrollable nightmare has led to the elves being judged in many societies. Thus, this practice has become a taboo, something that parents don't even teach their elven children is a possibility anymore. When an elf in the present day finds out, it is either through an old scripture, experimentation or from someone else who has found out already.

Consciousness Duplication

Thanks in part to Nixly’s genius, the technology that allows for one’s mind to be copied is real in this world. It’s a lengthy process that takes roughly an hour or so to complete, during which one’s head has to wear a scanning helmet made for this purpose. Using this technology, plenty of people have been backed up and turned into runebots and/or ghosts. The difference between a ghost and a runebot is a presence of a physical body characteristic for the runebots, as opposed to a hologram-like illusory visage of the ghosts. A ghost can enter a runebot body, and a runebot might be able to produce a ghost.

After Nixly has been retrieved from the Wineholm, her creation has been integrated with the potential to interact with the Mistweb, allowing the people whose brains have been scanned to interact with the technology. This marked the invention of the first truly conscious Artificial Intelligence... in a way. While its existence is based entirely on the runes, it is not actually artificial - it has existed before being scanned and emulated.

The first experiments were to restrict these minds to the runebot bodies, which turned out to be quite successful. Afterward, Nixly suggested the creation of a utopia at the bottom of the sea to test out the potential of her ghosts (illusory projections of these emulated minds), creating an afterlife of sorts for those who can afford it. The city was called Everling, and anyone who's wealthy enough can send their mind scan there to live on forever, as long as the city's server keeps running. Slowly and cautiously, the ghosts are nowadays getting integrated into the common society, limited by a plethora of restrictions.

Rumors claim that memories between a person and the emulation of their mind scan can "leak" over long periods of time when one of them ceases to be, whether it's due to the emulation stopping irreversibly, or because of the person dying. There are no actual records of this sort of thing happening, which is why it's treated as a mere myth by normal people. And yet, there are still people who would consider this to be yet another proof that one's consciousness exists outside of this world.

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That's about it for this topic. I wanted to write, and it seems I finally succeeded in motivating myself into doing so. Thank you for reading, I hope you've enjoyed it, and have a nice day!

Design of Runehack: Fairy Heist

Much like last year, this year I decided to join the One-Page RPG Jam. After a bit more than a week worth of designing and working on it, I've made my submission, a game called Runehack: Fairy Heist. I'd love to share with you some of my processes regarding how I've designed it. Enjoy!

Art provided by my wonderful girlfriend, Arell.

Theme

This year's theme is exploration, so my thoughts started there. I didn't want to hold on too tightly to the theme, as long as it would lead me somewhere interesting since the theme on this game jam is optional anyway.

The first thing that sprung to my mind when I read that word is all the mechanics for exploration in the D&D. Managing your food, traveling through the wilderness, avoiding getting lost, deciding how fast you're going. I tried to think of how to put a spin on that and came up with a concept for a game that I worked on for a bit until I lost interest in it. It would be a game about a religious pilgrimage northwards. It felt less like a roleplaying game and more like a resource-management strategy game. I might publish it nonetheless someday, once I figure out some good ways to weave roleplaying into it.

I tried to think of some interesting unusual spaces that one could explore next. The identity, the outer space, the myriad of worlds,… In the end, I was inspired by a wonderful video that has taught me a couple of interesting things. Among others, the one that caught my attention the most was that a home can tell a lot about a person. Sure I might not have conveyed that in the final product, but that got me thinking: who could be exploring other people's houses a lot? Since they were mentioned in the video, I was reminded of borrowers, but I decided to put a malicious twist on it: fairy burglars. Just regular burglars, but they are fairies.

Mechanics

Making the player characters this tiny has some interesting consequences. In the Timberhaven article, I talk briefly about the biology of the fairies. Their heights vary quite a bit in their terms, going from 6 to 17 centimeters. Curiously, that reminded me of the range of results one can roll on 3d6, from 3 to 18. I believe it's at this moment that I decided to use only d6's in this system. A height difference of 10 cm isn't that significant for humans, but it is very much so for the fairies. Immediately, I remembered the Lasers&Feelings and came to realize that this is the perfect opportunity for using the mechanic. Someone who's extremely tall is, after all, stronger than someone who's shorter. And on the other hand, someone shorter has much greater finesse and agility. Or well, they could in theory, but that's what I'm running with here.

I knew that I'd love to have this game take place in the world of Runehack, so the fairies would be using a couple of abilities with their runetech, most likely the runecards. I came up with a couple, kept tweaking them, and ended up with a total of 6 abilities. Thanks to the adjustments I've made, each of the abilities should be useful to the player even outside of the heists, mostly in social encounters. If I were to add more abilities, I would definitely do my best to make them work in both of these contexts. I'll definitely want to write an article on my thoughts regarding social encounters in the future.

Systemic Design

After some time spent working on the system and the rules behind the heist segment of the game, I came to realize something. I could turn this into a systemic game. I wanted to write an article on how to make systemic games for quite a while, but never really had the focus and motivation needed to do so. Perhaps subconsciously, I made this game systemic once I began using the phrases "can('t) see" and "can('t) hear" everywhere I could. How do the big folk become aware of the fairies? By hearing or seeing them. When can they hear them? When they do something loud, like flying in a neighboring room. I know that fairy flight is usually in media rather silent, but in this context, I decided otherwise to make the game more interesting. It makes sense if you consider these big folk to be highly vigilant of potential burglars, especially in a world in which they can be 10 centimeters tall. Once I started permitting combinations of abilities to work with each other, I knew that I've got on my hands a game that's systemic, and I was actually pleasantly surprised about it.

Action Economy

Let's talk about the big folk and the turns. While a fairy can move twice and perform one act on their turn, the big folk can move four times and perform three acts, to depict the stark difference in scale. In order to make it a little easier for the fairies (pun not intended), I've added a free option for them to retreat to a hiding spot within their current area, making it feel fair once again (... pun intended). The big folk have to first search a hiding spot, then try to catch a fairy, and then either hold it in their hand, or imprison it. Once a fairy is captured, that's it - they can't do anything until someone else does something to free them. Every big folk on the map can hold 3 fairies at most, but there's a trade-off: The Distract ability has a 1/day use, in which it can make someone fall asleep. No rolls involved, it costs 1 credit, and just like that - the big folk is asleep, and all fairies held in their grasp are free.

Enemy Variety

Fitting rules onto a single page is very difficult, but luckily the rules permitted me to add variant rules, GM side rules, and lore on the second page. One of the sections I wrote in there described the variants of the big folk, most of the Runehack's sentient species. While in this case I left the human as an exception with no special abilities (to let the GMs start off easier), the rest each has some way of breaking the players' routine.

• A dwarf can automatically sense the presence of others in the room, as long as they touch the same surface. This means that some of the obstacles can be searched by a dwarf without expending any additional actions on it.
• An elf is immune to the ability that would make him fall asleep, rendering him as both a dangerous foe to be captured and not let go by, but also an ideal opponent for heists which involve only one big folk.
• A goblin is capable of crawling through passages for fairies only. Figured this would be the easiest one to explain for the goblins.
• An orc can either move or perform one extra act on their turn.
• A runebot can detect the presence of other runetech devices (such as the runecards that the fairies use their abilities through), and they can also manipulate them through their access to the Mistweb.
• Finally, while they are not a single sentient race per se, I figured I'd give a bit of a spotlight to the arunic folk, who are by this game's rules immune to all illusions and telekinesis provided by the fairies' abilities.

I'm quite satisfied with the options I provided within my ruleset, and the curious interactions. I feel like I'll keep getting surprised with this system, especially if I continue expanding on its abilities. I hope to publish a supplement that would contain more abilities for the game, as well as several maps that a GM could take wholesale or adjust before using them in their own games.

I've already been shocked a couple of times with the rules interactions that are built into the system, and I want to actually run a campaign in it. In the meantime, thank you all for reading, and have a wonderful day!

Moon, Time, and History in Runehack

Sometimes, it is tempting to go way too deep into worldbuilding details to make the world feel more real. Since people can't remember every little detail about the world, I'd rather keep things simple. It could be neat to have custom names for months, week days, hours of day, centuries, etc. I've decided to keep things simple... relatively speaking. I don't want to focus on custom names, I want to focus on curiosities instead.

Moon

Let's start with a very important fact that you can already see in the picture below. Yes, the Runehack's Moon is a torus.

If you love it you should put a ring on it. I love how Runehack is turning out.
This, as well as other pictures of the Moon in this article, were kindly rendered by Kobold. Thank you for the help!

Years ago, I watched a video about how a donut-shaped planet could exist. While it's theoretically possible, it probably isn't formed naturally, and it would need to spin very fast around its axis to balance out the gravity that would otherwise cause the celestial object to collapse with centrifugal forces. I figured that if this works for planets, it could also work for its moons, no matter how unlikely it could be.

Runehack's Moon takes exactly 30 days to orbit the planet, and just like our own Moon, this Moon is just far enough from the planet to cover up the Sun all around its edges when it eclipses the Sun... with the exception of the hole in the middle, of course.

Some of the Runehack's Moon phases. Going from top to bottom, left to right: Ring Moon, Waxing Gibbous Moon, Waning Broken Ring Moon, Waning Double Crescent Moon.

Culturally, torus has become a symbol of change and cycle, while a circle without a hole in it stands for a stasis or permanence. This is because the Moon changes its phases, but the Sun doesn't (at least not visibly to a human observer). There's also another symbol that's culturally prominent, and it looks like a ring with a small dash crossing it on the upper left side (similar to the letter Q rotated 180 degrees). The founder of the Pantheon of Misfortunes religion has witnessed one day a comet flying through the Moon's hole, a once in a lifetime sight. This holy symbol represents a cycle that "heads somewhere", describing the core philosophy behind scorning the pantheon: one should give up on all the negative aspects of life, and learn to move on beyond them.

Calendar

Runehack's year lasts 360 days. There are two calendars that are used widely around the world: the seasonal, and the lunar.

The seasonal calendar divides the year into the seasons instead of months. Each season lasts 90 days, and their names are identical to those in our world: Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. Of course, depending on where in the world you are, they can have different effects on the weather. It is widely used in the modern cities with the mistweb access.

The lunar calendar divides the year into 12 months that are 30 days each. All of the months are divided into the same four seasons as listed above, and thus commonly named after them, with prefixes that determine whether the month is at the start, in the middle, or in the end of the season. Thus, the full list of months is as follows:

Evespring, Midspring, Endspring, Evesummer, Midsummer, Endsummer, Evefall, Midfall, Endfall, Evewinter, Midwinter, Endwinter.

The modern world sees this sort of calendar as archaic, similar to how we would treat the Roman numerals. In the present day, it's more often used in the cities without access to the mistweb, such as Wineholm.

No leap years, no irregularities. Even the day lasts exactly 24 hours. This world is almost suspiciously consistent.

History

I've been avoiding this part for a long time, and I'd love to keep avoiding it for as much as I can, but we'll see.

Yearlong Resting

Have you ever realized that the epic adventure you played over the course of years of actual time has actually lasted way less time in the game's world? Did recognizing that your characters have gone from level 1 to 15 in months of in-game time make it feel less epic and more like a guide for quick leveling in World of Warcraft? Maybe you'd like your legacy to live on in adventurers who you raise.

This is an idea of mine that hopes to fix all that, returning the campaigns that air of grandness that they deserve. It might not be developed for now, but that's because I don't know yet if it's worth developing. Please, entertain me for a moment as I try to sell you on an offer of long rests taking months, if not years, to finish.

Time keeps marching onward. The world needs heroes, and chances are you're not gonna be around forever. You're likely not adventuring every day, so how about you invest some of that free time in the next generation?
Art is drawn for the game Artifact, by Magali Villeneuve.

Variant Rule: Yearlong Resting

Using this variant rule, a short rest takes 8 hours of sleep, and a long rest takes 3d12 months of downtime. Any abilities that describe altering your sleep during a long rest, such as the Trance racial trait of the elves, instead alter your short rest in the same way. After a long rest, all of the character's hit dice are replenished instead of one half.

Why

The main goal of this rule is to provide a natural way for long durations of time to pass between the adventures to enhance its feeling of epicness. In the game as written, it's not worth it for the players to invest their resources or time into some long-term goal because of the adventures that span mere days. But with this rule, the heroes get some breathing space between significant adventures, letting them invest their time in various activities: whether it's crafting new equipment, building a house, training their successors, starting a family, learning new languages or tool sets, working a fairly normal job, or something completely different is up to the player. Once the adventure calls for it, the characters gather together once more to venture out and do what has to be done in a matter of several days.

Another important factor that this rule brings into the game is the age of the characters. How many times have you actually seen a character's age increase over the course of a campaign without using supernatural abilities such as the ghost's Horrifying Visage? With this rule in play, your characters will get older as their level increases, and the players realize rather quickly how their character will progress over the course of the campaign into becoming older and older. Once they get too old, they start to consider who to pass their art to next - should they raise a child of their own? Or perhaps they could find a competent promising young individual to train into becoming an adventurer. Their riches and their equipment are suddenly not theirs alone, nor does it belong to their adventuring party necessarily. What if whatever they leave behind could be inherited by someone they personally chose? Or they could just try their luck and keep chugging those potions of longevity.

A nice advantage that comes as a side-effect is a fact that players can more easily join and leave this campaign, or try out new characters. Usually, a player whose character dies introduces their new character in the next session, which can feel rather off. An established adventuring party mourns the loss of one of their own, only to walk into the nearest tavern, and let the first person who looks at them join their cause for no in-world reason. If the longer rests are available, players can describe how they got to meet this character in their downtime, months after the loss of their friend, and how they slowly but certainly accept the newcomer.

When doesn't the Yearlong Resting work?

This rule isn't meant for the games with time-sensitive plots. If the villain plans to destroy a kingdom important to the players within six months, it would be rather difficult (and kind of unfair) for the players to try saving it. You can give it a go if you really wish to, but I do not recommend it.

Additionally, during the lower levels (especially 1 and 2), the game can feel especially boring for the spellcasters who get to cast 2-3 leveled spells per adventure. While previously I claimed that this is the issue of the Gritty Realism variant rule that this house rule is based on, now I recognize that it is a weak spot of the house rule. Personally, I would either skip the first two levels of the game and start my players' characters at 3rd level or use Gritty Realism/regular resting rules until the player characters reach level 3.

Considerations

I've pondered this for a time and had a couple of discussions with others regarding this house rule. Here are my attempts to address some of the common concerns and issues that arose, in no particular order.

• Short-lived Races. What can one do about races that have a lifespan of fewer than 100 years? The solutions here would boil down to three options: either the DM doesn't change anything, or they alter all of the races to have a lifespan of at least 100 years, or they give players with such characters a reward during one of their adventures in the form of a magic item, blessing, supernatural gift, or some other kind of reward that increases their lifespan or lowers their age somehow.
• Old Characters. Players are heavily disincentivized from playing old characters since they're much more likely to die during the campaign. I see this as a plus since it always seemed to me ridiculous that an old studied wizard some player made up for their first session only knows 6 spells and a handful of cantrips when they begin adventuring. If you wish to let the players do this, though, consider implementing rewards that boost their lifespan or make them younger, as described in the previous bullet point.
• Hit Dice. It felt to me silly to have the characters regain only half of their hit dice after several years spent not adventuring. I'd probably bump this number up to all of the dice, but I wouldn't be surprised if any of you choose to ignore it.
• Long Rest Spellcasting. For narrative purposes, I would let the players cast their leveled spells even if they lack their spell slots during the long rest. As long as it's not abused just for the sake of powergaming, I'd be down with the players making a new teleportation circle or a couple of magic mouths between adventures free of charge (but not free of the expensive Material components).
• Downtime Activities. The current rules assume mostly that the downtime will last a couple of days, with some exceptions being crafting equipment or learning new languages. If this house rule were to be implemented, it would need a rework of the downtime rules to let the players perform the same downtime activities over long stretches of time with little to no (mechanical, not narrative) complications. This should include things such as building a house, starting a village, or creating a family of their own.
• Character Catching Up. In the case of a death, the player could choose to use their character's student or relative to use as the next adventurer. It is however likely that this character didn't reach as high of a level as someone who went out adventuring regularly. If this rule were to be more fleshed out, it should be considered whether they are going on adventures of their own, how to determine their starting level, and how they catch up to the party. When it comes to catching up, I usually have the character level up upon finishing every long rest until they match the highest-level party member. Of course, this assumes that all other characters are of the same level, and one can play the game with characters of wildly different levels, but it's easier this way.
• The Intensity of Adventures. The characters go out on an adventure for roughly three days and come back to unwind from them for months. During this time, they don't go on any intense adventures, but that doesn't mean they can't adventure at all. A character could go out to hunt some feeble creatures in their free time, whether it's to earn money or for sport. The important keyword here is intense. If it's a call to a major adventure that the players might want to play out, it might not make for a good adventure. At the same time, the DM should consider the fact that downtime is a time for calmness, which means that none of their players' adventures should be mediocre in order to keep the campaign interesting. The DM should keep increasing the importance and stakes of the quests that their players do outside of their downtime.
• 3d12. I chose the 1d12 because it felt like the most thematic die to represent a fraction of a year, with 12 sides representing vaguely the 12 months in a year. If your calendar uses more or fewer months, feel free to adjust the die's size to whatever fits your needs. On average, a roll of 3d12 will yield a result of 19.5 years, which can feel like a lot or too little to some DMs out there. You can adjust the number of dice, altering thus the minimum, the maximum, and the average number of months that passes between the adventures. I chose to go with 3 dice because it gives plenty of space for downtime between the adventures.
• Villain. Of course, someone who wrote a cookbook about them (yet to bind it into a single document) would think of the villains too. If you wish to have an overarching baddie, the most obvious ideal choice would be a creature that lives for centuries, such as a lich, a dragon, a vampire, or something different along those lines.

But What about the Numbers?

Mechanically, it is identical to the Gritty Realism variant rule, so if there's any question regarding the encounter balancing or resource management, search or the commentary on that about whether this incentivizes short rest classes or makes rogues into gods.

What I'd rather focus on is the complaint that this will make the actual campaign last way too long before the players make any progress. For this, I made a handy table that I'd like to share with you.

To keep things short, I followed the guidelines in DMG regarding the Adventuring Day XP budget and combined those with the required XP for leveling beyond the 1st level, which gave me a rough estimate for the number of adventuring days (and thus long rests) between each level up. Turns out, most of these take 1 or 2 adventuring days, with the only exceptions being going from level 5 to level 6, and going from level 8 to level 9 which take 3 adventuring days each. In other words, even if we assumed that each adventuring day will happen over the course of 3 sessions, you'll get a level-up on average once every 6 sessions (1.5 months of real time if you play weekly, 3 months if you play once every two weeks).

The Easier Option

As /u/BladeBotEU has pointed out to me before I started writing all of this down, a much simpler option would be to make leveling up take much longer instead of long rests. But I hoped to get some discussion going mainly regarding my idea, to see if it's worth working into a proper document or not, instead of taking someone else's idea that they already use and running with it to the public.

An even easier option would be to announce a time skip every now and then, but that feels rather forced to me as a DM unless the players request it for some reason. I've never personally seen a group of players request that their party takes a break for several years, but I've heard at least one person tell me about it.

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I felt this is a neat enough idea to write an article about really quickly. I was mostly inspired by an animated indie series Tales of Alethrion that's all about an epic fantasy adventure that weaves its epic tales and complex relationships over the course of decades. Maybe one day I could make this a core aspect of my own RPG instead of trying to push it into D&D, but until then this is all I can offer. An idea, a bunch of recommendations and considerations, and if I get enough feedback on this, maybe a written supplement on this in the future.

Thank you for reading, and have a nice day!

Game Mechanic: Rooms and Doors

About one and a half years ago, I came up with this mechanic for space traversal. After 17 months, I decided to turn it into a short blog post in case someone would find a good use for it, whether it's me or someone else. It's not a perfect system or a mechanic even, just a rough idea I had back then.

A room is a small region in the world encompassed by the doors. A door is a border between two neighboring rooms. Each door has a size. A character (NPC or player's) has a speed and size. An object has a size. The speed of a character defines how many doors it can pass through in one turn. The size of a character or object defines the size of doors it can interact with in various ways.

The default size for a character is 0. In a game about humans, a human's size is 0. In a game about giants, a giant's size is 0. A character with a greater size is physically larger than a character with a lesser size. If a character carries an object of a size greater than its own, its size is considered greater for the purposes of dealing with the doors.

Let the size of a character or object be C, and let the door's size be D.

• If C ≤ D, a character or an object can move through the door.
• If C ≤ D - 1, a character or an object can squeeze through the door.
• If C ≤ D - 2, a character can interact through the door (attack, use objects, etc.).
• If C ≤ D - 3, a character can perceive through the door.
• If D = ∞, the door is a wall.
• If D = -∞, the door is an open space.

This system could be applied in systems that are not about traversing a physical environment, but I do not have good examples at the moment.

Leytech

I always thought ley lines are a cool fantasy idea that could make for a lovely source of magic. These days, I've been pondering how to make a world, in which people could make technology using some sort of magic, but also utilize this magic on their own. Divtech and orbtech are both bound to their items, a human couldn't use their magic without them. Runes can be drawn on any surface, and all it takes is amber, but it's impossible to draw them without it.

Seeing how last time I changed my mind a lot right after publishing the article, take things written here with a grain of salt (pun intended). It’s a proof of concept, not written in stone just yet.

I wish you a good time while reading this article!

X marks the spot! Except the lines would be hovering high up in the sky, and way wider.
The art is drawn for the Magic: The Gathering card Leyline of Singularity, by Zoltan Boros and Gabor Szikszai.

Azureley

• Magitech System: ley lines that rush the saltwater along their direction
• Input: ley energy, flowing saltwater, mechanical valves, and metal rings
• Output: water that's colored or vibrated in different ways using metal rings
• Motion: water turbines, cogs, and pistons
• Fuel: ley energy

The world of Azureley is a planet enveloped in a multitude of ley lines. A ley line in this world is a stream of energy visible high up in the sky that resembles an aurora borealis, continually flowing in a singular direction at all times. Each ley line is a circle, going around the sphere exactly once without crossing itself. The ley lines radiate ley energy, which compels saltwater within a certain range of the ley line to flow in the same direction when the water absorbs the energy. This can lead to sights uncommon to our world, such as saltwater rivers flowing out of the ocean uphill, digging canals into the earth and rock, permanent whirlpools if three or more ley lines form a small enough shape, causing the water to flow in a circular motion within them, and more. So far, there are no known means of creating, destroying or redirecting ley lines, and it is uncertain whether the ley lines will last forever.

Humanoids and animals of this world are capable of absorbing the ley energy while staying within the range of one or more ley lines. When a living creature focuses on releasing some of its ley energy, it can shape saltwater, or direct it to flow somewhere. Running out of ley energy runs the same risks as dehydration, which is why most of the major settlements are built underneath ley lines, especially at the ley crossings where the exposure to ley energy is greater.

When humanity discovered that hollow metal rings can change the properties of ley-infused water that flows through them or telekinetically prevent it from passing, it was only inevitable before they could create ley-powered machinery. This technology—leytech—is built out of stainless steel and glass pipes, too small for even a pinky finger of most people to fit in. The rings have the following properties on the ley-infused water that flows through the central hole, even if the water is not in contact with the metal:

Aluminium: Cooling

Water that passes through a ring made out of aluminum will become colder.

Cobalt: Heat

Water that passes through the magnesium ring will become warmer.

Copper: Information Relay

These rings only operate if there is at least one sending copper ring and at least one receiving ring with matching identification. The receiver rings will only let water through if at least one of the sending rings has water flowing through it. What exactly lets these copper rings be identified as pairs, as senders or receivers, and what constitutes the contents of water is yet to be determined by me.

Its opposite can be achieved through the use of Tin: a receiver ring made out of tin will only let water through if none of the sender rings made out of tin with a matching identification has water flowing through it.

Gold: Color

Fill this ring with one or more dyes, and the water that comes through it will be colored appropriately. If the ring is empty, any gold-induced coloring of the water is removed. The dyes are made out of specific materials, but for the purposes of this article they are not so important that they’d need to be listed. Picture them as a powder of a single color.

Nickel: Sound

When water passes through the tin ring, it produces a sound. … please don’t ask me how, I don’t have an explanation for this yet. After trying to somehow mix nonelectric hydraulophones with talking piano illusions for hours, I'm resorting to just saying magic and leaving it at that.

Silver: Filter

This ring will let through it only material that the inside of the ring is filled with. For example, if the inside of the ring is filled with fresh water, all of the salt will gather on the inside, while fresh water comes out. These are used commonly in households to make sure the used water is fresh, but they need to be cleaned a lot. If the ring is filled with a water that’s been colored using a gold ring, it will only let through water colored using the appropriate dye.

With all of the above as well as the natural properties of water, people were capable of creating various machines such as vehicles, plumbing, computers, and even their own equivalent of the internet. Besides these, they also possess their own weapons powered by leytech: frostguns and hofficers. Their operation is simple—a human uses their ley energy to fire a deeply frozen projectile at the target. In the case of a frostgun, it is a bullet roughly as big as a single digit of a finger or smaller. In the case of a hofficer, it’s a cannonball a little smaller than a human head. Due to its temperature, the projectile won't melt after being shot, and in the hottest weather, it takes less than an hour to melt inside of a wound.

Azureley is a world that consists of one stretched mega continent that passes through a pole and one ocean filled with a myriad of islands. Sailing along the ley lines is popular, though a ship must avoid leyline crossings on the open sea for the chaotic currents and the risk of getting caught in an eternal whirlpool. At the same time, the continent has its desert recently populated by people looking after the riches hidden within it. The formerly unpopulated desert is seen as an opportunity for a new life, which is why some folk have taken it into their own hands to bring justice to this land.

So in a nutshell, this is a world of water-bender cowboys and pirates possessing water-powered smartphones and the internet, as well as railguns that shoot ice bullets/cannonballs, while northern lights are all around the place. Not exactly cyberpunk, but silly enough to sound like fun to me.

Happy anniversary for the first article of a Runehack city, New Prista! I'm so happy about how much the world has changed. From a runic system that could do basically anything, all the way to a fleshed-out unique world with such a huge potential for stories. What's more, it has siblings now. While the siblings might not all be as cyberpunk and universal as Runehack, each of them feels like it has its own aesthetic, which I find cool. I only hope I'll be able to make up more of these magitech worlds that I could later find a nice use for and possibly flesh out.

Thank you for reading, and have a wonderful day!

Runehack: Helethon

If decades worth of movies and nearly one century of comic books tell us anything, it's one thing: people love their superheroes. And I want people to love my world So maybe I should put some superheroes into it. Probably focused in one place so that they don't alter my world too much.

Helethon

Deep in the Hidden Valley found in one of New World's numerous forests stands the majestic city-state of Helethon. What seems to be an ordinary modern city owned by a corporation surprisingly disconnected from both Nexuspace and Lifestock turns out to be a system corrupt to its core. As soon as the sun goes down, the crime rate grows tenfold. However, the valley this city exists in is a zone overflowing with anomalies. It is a valley of superstitions and myths come true, of deities walking among the mortals, of scientific experiments gone wrong in an amazing way, and of real magic. If you believe just hard enough, you too might gain the capabilities to change this city for the better... or worse. All of this has led to many vigilantes seeking ways of curing the city, only to get tangled in its web of corruption.

Geography

Helethon is found in the Hidden Valley that's supposedly found someplace in the continent of the New World. Its precise locations are kept secret from others for a reason that's unclear to most, if not all. A legend says that whoever will wander into the wilderness and follow their heart will stumble upon this place within a season. The city's walls encompass a fairly large lake, as well as a small mountain.

Whatever people need, Helethon can provide. An abundance of meat from chicken and sheeplets, as well as rare cows, pigs, and goats, are raised on multiple farms found within this city's walls. Many fish are caught in the lake, which also provides plenty of other resources. All sorts of vegetables, and many fruits, are also grown here. Silver, amber, gold, iron, and many other minerals and metals can be mined in the mountain that the city of Helethon protects. This mountain also provided the city with plenty of wood, and its powerful warriors are known to protect the woodcutters doing their work outside of the city walls by fighting off the morphers. Strangely, however, this state is unwilling to export or import any of these goods.

History

The Hidden Valley was left untouched until 52 years ago, when a collective of wandering humans, elves, and dwarves entered it. Due to unknown powers influencing the valley, some of these people have gained supernatural powers. Within years, they’ve gathered enough materials to build up a city, with more and more people moving in. The city remains independent from both Nexuspace and Lifestock to this day.

Structure

Helethon's districts are extremely straightforward, named after colors that dominate them. While residences tend to be brown in color on the inside, outsides of the houses of each district are mostly monochromatic, using various shades of their district's titular color. Vigilant and villainous lairs are hidden in each of the districts.

Blue District. The lake, as well as all ports, are part of this district found in the northern parts of the city. It borders the Green, Red, and Yellow Districts.

Gray District. The mountain, along with all its mines, makes up this district. It's found in the southern part of the city. It borders the Green, Red, and Yellow Districts.

Green District. The district dedicated to the variety of people who grow plants for a living can be found on the western edge of the city. Contained within this district is even a small forest, grown by the local vigilante Dryadica. The Green District is on the west of Helethon and borders the Blue, Gray, and Yellow Districts.

Red District. This formerly residential district on the east has been turned into the nest of most lowly criminals, which has led the Helethon’s governing body towards training guards and sending them to this area. This is where most villains’ henchmen usually come from, as well as where most trained non-vigilante soldiers reside. The Red District borders the Blue, Yellow, and Gray Districts.

Yellow District. If you wish to visit a bank or someone in a corporate position of power, you should visit the central district of the city. It borders all other districts.

Culture

For the most part, living in Helethon is like living in most other city-states owned by corporations, such as New Prista. However, all the differences come from the fact, that people can seemingly develop powers out of nowhere due to the secretive influences of the Hidden Valley. And civilians have largely adjusted to these.

If there is a fight between a vigilante and a villain that can’t be observed safely, civilians of Helethon struggle internally with a choice between two opposing forces. Either give in to the curiosity and approach the struggle to watch how it will end, or rush as far as one can to safety. Observing dangerous combat can be risky for those who lack special abilities that would let them survive it easier, and yet many do it in order to watch the spectacle, or sometimes to try and help the vigilante. News of such fights spread faster than a wildfire thanks to technology. 

Due to the possibility of the city getting destroyed, people of this city try to minimize assets that they own which could be put at risk when two or more superpowered individuals face off. Ownership of cars or other vehicles that are hard to hide in case of trouble is rare since most civilians prefer to use public transportation. Owning a big house or multiple buildings, personal vehicles that aren’t used for work, and expensive fragile possessions is a display of either courage, riches, or both since it translates to a higher chance of getting damaged in dangerous combat between vigilantes and villains. The damages tend to be repaid by the villain if possible, or in uncommon cases the vigilante if they were proven to act recklessly enough, or the villain can’t be proven to be guilty.

Beyond managing their villains and their personal problems, the vigilantes have one more thing to look out for—public relations. If people love the vigilante, they are seen as an idol, celebrated by others whenever witnessed personally. However, not all vigilantes do or can manage their public relations so well. Whether it’s negligence, arrogance, incompetence, or a different reason, vigilantes like these actively hide from the public eye to avoid hostility from the civilians. Of course, companies capable of fixing one’s public relations for the right price are commonplace in Helethon.

On the 10th day of the summer, fans of vigilantes (and occasionally even villains) gather together for the VIVICON, a meeting of people rooting for the superpowered masked individuals. Many people bring their costumes here, in order to appreciate these individuals for their contributions and efforts to society. Panels with the vigilantes are held, where they tend to talk about themselves, what they do, and how they do it. Most of all, though—it is the one day of the year when villains are not judged by the public unless they decide to commit a crime on that day. As it has been proven in the past, sometimes a villain needs only a kind heart, an open ear, and some comforting words in order to turn back to the side of good. Actual vigilantes and villains mingle with the crowd, blending in and interacting with people even in their alternate personas because they belong. Ever since VIVICON has been organized on the Blue District’s beach once, it has been the preferred location for everyone involved.

The following are some phrases and slang words used in this city:

• “Battleground” is, simply put, an area in which a violent fight between a villain and a vigilante is currently going on.
• “Curio” is a nickname for a person that always rushes toward a battleground to witness the fight.
• “Daft” is used as a verb describing the transformation of a vigilante into a villain, be it because of a reputation that goes way too low, broadening the scope of means through which one is willing to achieve their goals or another reason.
• "Rolling uphill" is what happens to the vigilantes and villains drawn to other, way more famous vigilantes and villains, with hopes of challenging them and usurping their fame. It can also be used as a description of what someone is doing, for example, "rolling uphill to defeat Reaal".
• "Skyfolk", "seafolk" and "groundfolk" are all nicknames used for bizarre alien invaders who lived in the sky, sea, or earth respectively, and try to overtake the city or the world.
• "To wick" is when a vigilante kills a villain. Vigilante who does so is sometimes called "wicker", and villain who dies due to this is posthumously called "wickee". It tends to be one of the signs of a vigilante who's about to daft into a villain themselves. Wicking is followed by a punishment equivalent to murder if possible.

Subculture Showcase: Vigilantes and Villains

Note: This time, this section definitely implies that the presented subculture is unique to this city.

Vigilantes and villains of Helethon prefer tight form-fitting clothes since those tend to be ideal for fighting and moving around a lot. This art was kindly created by my amazing girlfriend Arell.

Art Curiosities: Depicted here are two of Helethon's many vigilantes: ML8R on the left, and Long Joanna on the right. Showing their superpowers was rather difficult to figure out, especially in Joanna's case, but I'd say that this art turned out great.

Duty resides in power. There are four types of people in this city: those who commit crimes, those who try to stop the criminals legally, those who take the matter of stopping the criminals into their own hands, and those who do nothing about it. The difference between a vigilante and a villain is that vigilantes step outside of the bounds of law in order to stop the villains who do the same.

To a villain, ends justify the means. These are people so driven to achieve their goals, that they will do anything for them, even if it means paying lowly criminals to do their bidding. What ends are they trying to achieve depends from villain to villain. Riches, power, chaos, death, or some weird contorted form of justice are usual suspects. Sometimes they unite their forces into organizations, but for the most part, they operate without the assistance of other villains. That being said, rumors say that most of the villains in the Helethon serve the Cabal of Five, a secretive group of five unknown figures who supposedly pull all of the strings behind their actions. Plenty of villains claim that their actions are independent of any greater force, but it’s generally unknown if this is true if there are five of these figures, who they are, and what powers do they hold.

The vigilantes are people with supernatural abilities who oppose villains in fulfilling their plans. While their methods of doing so tend to vary, usually it ends in some form of violence. What unites vigilantes overall is their desire to avoid unnecessary murder. The villains are sent to the Forgiving Penitentiary for a hopeful reformation and change for the better. The vast majority of the prisoners held there however manage to escape the facility, leading them back to wreaking havoc upon the world once again. The henchmen usually get away with a mild slap on their wrist due to how little importance they have in the overall crime when compared to the villain. While vigilantes start working on their own, it's normal for them to join not one, not two, but a whole lot of vigilant organizations that mirror the villainous ones.

The two sides are united by the fact that their superpowered persona is merely an alter-ego to their actual identity. Its name, outfit, and supernatural abilities are all hidden from the public in order to let these people experience an ordinary life too, free of judgment. It is frowned upon by both sides when a vigilante or a villain has their secret identity exposed, and it is seen as a brave move for someone to expose it themselves (such as Long Joanna).

Relations

All other countries are aware of Helethon, but none of them knows where the Hidden Valley is. Thus, if anyone travels anywhere, it’s usually Helethon’s denizens traveling to and from other cities temporarily.

Curiosities

Much like the Hidden Valley, Helethon too holds a multitude of curiosities, such as:

• Cairn Manor is located on the edge of the Yellow and Blue District. It is the home of lonesome millionaire triplets who have inherited the ownership of several city banks when their parents died. Gossips around the city claim that at least one of them is secretly a vigilante, despite the fact neither of them seems to have any extraordinary powers.
• Esqape is a name of a nightclub frequented by both vigilantes and villains. All enmities vanish in this place of true neutrality, letting anyone who wishes to reveal some personal aspects and opinions of themselves while relaxing here.
• Forgiving Penitentiary is the prison dedicated to reforming all captured villains. It's found on the bordering point between the Gray, the Red, and the Yellow Districts. Rumors claim it's a former factory building repurposed to serve as a prison, and that over the years many secret tunnels have been built into the walls of the building without its guards becoming aware of it.
• Justice Hall is home to a court, in which vigilantes can serve as judges side-by-side with non-superpowered judges. It has been established because oftentimes it has been proven that issues regarding the villains need the perspective of both vigilantes fighting them off, but also civilians who are affected by the collateral damage.
• Memorial of the Thousand Burdens is a massive stone statue in the port area of a man holding a gigantic boulder on his back, representing the duties so many of the superpowered people in this city hold. It is a frequent target of attempted attacks by the villains trying to convince the vigilantes that they are not obliged to fight.
• The Sentinel University is an educational institution dedicated to training those who have developed supernatural powers and wish to become vigilantes. It’s located in the Blue District, where it can be easily found thanks to its golden tower. There are still many vigilantes who are self-taught in their powers, not seeking any guidance on the use of their abilities and instead choosing to learn on their own.
• The Violet Tower is a tower covered by violet velvet fabric that can’t get wet, created by the Pink Genius. This vigilante has lost her life when Reaal tried to kill half of Helethon’s population by detonating a massive runic bomb. Nowadays, her tower remains unvisited by anyone except for the vilest of villains and teenagers who have no respect for her or what the tower came to represent—the sacrifices that the vigilantes have to make sometimes in order to save others.
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Important People

Helethon is a home of many vigilantes and villains, which is why each of these characters will have its nickname listed in front of its actual name.

• “Achoe”, Snozz Lozz, goblin, male; a minor villain with the ability to make any person or group of people sneeze with a snap of his fingers. Generally viewed as a harmless nuisance. Tends to get annoying when he has a song stuck in his head that he can’t help but snap to.
• “The BubbleBot”, no other name given, runebot, female; a vigilante who traps the villains she fights in psychic spherical force fields. She is enthusiastic about the prospect of fighting the villains, and oftentimes seeks ways of making people’s days generally better.
• “Dryadica”, Lesann Woods, elf, female; vigilante who embodies the soul of the forests. She can grow plants, flowers, trees, and vines as she wills, and seems to be partially made out of wood herself.
• "Emulator" also known as "ML8R", Hed Lived, human, male; vigilante who was brought back to life by an unknown being from another world that also granted him shapeshifting powers. Many citizens dislike him despite helping them out because they think he is a very intelligent monster that has infiltrated the city and is trying to gain people's trust. Curiously, the silver is his weakness—when touching it, his muscles strain and lock, causing him paralysis everywhere except for his face.
• “Meatball Moon”, no other name given, unknown, unknown; a sentient villain that was a shapeshifter equivalent of a rat king. This ball of flesh has hurled years ago towards the Helethon city without any other city noticing. It has been dispatched by the combined forces of several vigilantes, and now it is gone.
• “Mr. Kat”, Marquis Katoward Felmund Starfur XVII. of Amberwatch Lineage, cat, male; an orange-furred villain who’s extremely wealthy, influential in the society, and possesses an army of custom-made runebots with cat heads. All of the tools he uses are cat-themed, and he speaks through a runetech-powered translator. His superpower is to access all of the memories of his ancestors named Marquis Katoward Felmund Starfur, but he can’t do so on the first day of a season. On such days, he goes on a wrath-filled rampage, knocking down any objects placed on top of other objects. His only weakness that’s a well-kept secret is his love for layered pasta meatcakes, which are capable of incapacitating him until he’s done eating them.
• “Runegirl”, Amber Drawn, dwarf, female; a vigilante with the ability to manifest the effects of runes out of nowhere. Her powers also allow her to access the Mistweb intuitively through unknown means, which is why she uses plenty of Mistweb slang and analogies. She likes to browse encyclopedic articles in her free time.
• "Traveler", Long Joanna, human, female; vigilante with a supernatural speed (roughly twice as fast as a trained runner), and an ability to teleport anywhere she can see. Her vigilante nickname has eventually been used less and less in the actual stories. She loves teas that she makes on her own at home.
• "Æp", Tarisha Greenblossom, fairy, female; vigilante with a magical ability to forbid people from taking some actions (or to take this restriction away), as long as she can touch them and speak. In her personal life, she serves as a judge giving out life sentences, and she battles the temptation to use her powers every day.
• "Reaal", Joh K'eeng, orc, male; villain with the power of commanding people to take certain courses of action. The main opponent of Æp, and one of the few people with willpower strong enough to resist her powers.
• "Fowls", Bay DeVeil, goblin, male; a villainous farmer with the power of transforming into and controlling game such as chicken, ducks, geese, and pheasants. Strangely, his powers also cover games played with cards, dice, boards, and balls. His main enemy is Mr. Kat.

I would like to suggest you read out loud to yourself the nicknames of the last three superheroes in quick succession before you continue.

The Truth

Now that you know what day I've published this work on, here's the truth about this city: It is a work of fiction within the world of Runehack. People produce comic books, movies, and stories of these fictional characters in this fictional city, for the same reason for which we've done it. Entertainment. And this was quite an amusing city-state to write about for me. I can only hope you've enjoyed it too.

Runehack: Wineholm

Worlds should have a variety of places. In a world like Runehack that can be a little difficult, but even then, I firmly believe that it's possible to make up cities that stand out here. It might actually even be easier here, seeing how I have an excuse for the cities to be isolated. I hope you'll enjoy this article, and have a beautiful day!

Wineholm

Centuries before the morphers overwhelmed the wilderness, there was an ancient kingdom that prohibited the usage of runes. Within it, a small island was populated solely by people who were arunic. Once this island has established its independence from the kingdom, it has surrounded itself by walls. What could have been a truly preserved landmark of the old era before the age of monsters has been turned into something entirely different when The Spiritual Advent occurred.

Geography

The Antediluvia Jungle hides within it many wonders. The kingdom of Bedenblume is one of them, and it encompasses the Gray Sea within it. Wineholm is an island found in this inland sea. Its beaches are surrounded by walls, and a portion of it goes into the sea, framing a ship gateway.

Due to the Wineholm being an island, it has some space for the safe wilderness. This means that people can hunt for their meat in the forests, gather fruits there, grow them in their own fields, and find other kinds of resources too. While amber and silver are scarce on the island, it's rich in iron, wood, and other natural resources. Fortunately, it doesn't need silver, since it is surrounded by a kingdom that's protecting them from the morphers.

History

Centuries ago, the kingdom of Bedenblume has spread all around the Gray Sea. The royals who ruled the Bedenblume began their kingdom based on the prohibition of the runic magic. Over time, they noticed that some of the people were completely unaware of the runes' effects. Seeing these as the blessed people, they decided to gift them an island of their own, Wineholm.

Eventually, the people of Wineholm have forgotten what the rulers of Bedenblume have done for them, and demanded independence. When the larger kingdom refused the offer, Wineholm started to a revolution. Shortly before their success, the era of monsters began, and this has weakened Bedenblume enough to force them into giving up on Wineholm's island. Several kinds of rulership have been tried in Wineholm since then until it has settled into rulership by a trinity.

Years after the era of monsters began, a handful of denizens of Wineholm found out that they can see ghosts. Eventually, it was found that an elven woman living in the city was to blame. They exiled the necromancer to live in a tower. The problem kept getting worse, until the day when she vanished mysteriously. Those who could see the ghosts, labeled mediums, reported that the ghosts have started to vanish one by one, as the necromancer's magic was fading after her supposed death. Several years later, the island has gone through what's referred to as The Spiritual Advent. Mediums describe that the island has been submerged in a dozen of ghosts, who constructed ethereal structures around it and spoke many wondrous things of the outside world, beyond Bedenblume.

Structure

Wineholm is an island, surrounded on all sides by a wall. Within these walls are a sizable forest, a singular hill, several small hamlets, and a settlement built on the hillside. The round capital of the island nation, most often called Wineholm just the same as the island, is surrounded on the outside by the farming fields. It lacks a dedicated residential district, and on the inside, it's split into the following seven districts:

Alliance District. The southwestern district of the city is primarily focused on relations with the outside world. While Wineholm borders only with the kingdom of Bedenblume, the kingdom is populated by a large variety of smaller groups of people to keep relations with. It borders the Guild District, the Military District, and the Trinitial District.

Artisan District. Most of the artists and plenty of shops can be found in the northwestern part of the city. It borders the Alliance District, the North District, and the Trinitial District.

Guild District. The craftsmen are mostly concentrated in the Guild District, which makes up the southern part of Wineholm's biggest city. This part also includes the port that serves as an entrance into the Gray Sea. This district shares borders with the Alliance District, the Scribe District, and the Trinitial District.

Military District. The military of Wineholm came to be all the way back in the beginning when the city had to defend itself from the wilderness that surrounds it on the island. Quickly, the northeastern district became the focal point of training and housing soldiers of this nation. It borders the Alliance District, the North District, and the Trinitial District.

North District. Found in the northern part of the city, the North district mostly concentrates on the religious aspects of people's lives. A vast amount of temples and priests can be found here. It borders the Artisan District, the Military District, and the Trinintial District.

Scribe District. Science is an area that's rather new to Wineholm. Its district is populated by researchers and inventors, trying their best to collectively or individually understand the world. Libraries are for the most part found in this section of the city. It borders the Guild District, the Military District, and the Trinitial District.

Trinitial District. Trinitial district is home to most of the governmental bodies of Wineholm, most importantly the trinity. It borders all six of the remaining districts, located in the center of the city.

Culture

Traditional outfits worn in the older times featured legwear that reaches up to one's knees, scarves that were tightened up in the case of windy weather, and long sleeves that could be rolled up while working. I don't know what kind of material would they use for these, I'm not that knowledgeable in history of fashion.
All art featured in this article was kindly created by my wonderful girlfriend Arell.

The population of Wineholm is mostly made up of humans and dwarves, with a very small minority of elves and fairies present on the island. Goblins and orcs are unheard of on the island itself, so it is an oddity to them when some make it to the island or sail the seas. The first assumption of Wineholm's denizens was that orcs and goblins are humans and dwarves respectively, corrupted by the upper class of Bedenblume through some unknown magic. While the tension between Wineholm and members of those species still persists, currently they recognize orcs and goblins as living sentient beings, independent from other species in their origin.

Wineholm lacks knowledge that's common in the majority of the civilizations in the world due to their isolation. The runes are a secret art, only practiced by the mediums since they have near to no usefulness for others. Runetech is something that the mediums only hear about from the ghosts present on the island. While the existence of morphers as a general global issue is unfamiliar to the denizens of Wineholm, it's a common fact that the ruler of Bedenblume can shapeshift, and so can some of her soldiers. On the other hand, thanks to their abundance of animals and flowers found on the island, they possess a greater awareness of the natural world and its inner workings. While it's not as in-depth as sciences taught in the Avurai University, it is broader and taught in a way useful to common people.

Dichoarchy is a religion that's widespread in most parts of the world, ever since an expedition has reached the North Pole. However, it has developed during the Wineholm's fight for independence, after which the era of monsters began, which is why it hadn't reached this solitary kingdom. Due to this fact, this island is the only place in the world where the most ancient religion is still worshiped, with very few alterations. Simply called Faith, its followers believe in a single omnipotent deity that created the world and all the life in it. As its story of the world's origin goes, all life began egocentric and selfish, caring only for oneself and not for others. Until some of the beings realized that they do not like being treated as such, but to not be treated in that way, they must change first. The core belief of the Faith is that all things born into this world are evil, and they must learn how to become good during their lives in order to get into a good afterlife. Ever since the Spiritual Advent, the religion has adapted itself, and the priests claim that those who do not learn how to be good are doomed to remain in the spirit realm among us, only permitted to converse with the mediums, until they are ready to leave for good. The ghosts of the spirit realm are less about unfinished business and more about an afterlife that has to be earned.

To see the ghosts and the spirit realm in the first place is considered a blessing. Mediums are born with such blessings and are always encouraged to become priests. At the same time, the believers in Faith discourage mediums from having children due to a superstition that a medium gives birth to a vessel, which can be possessed by any of the ghosts present. Elves and fairies are subject to same opinions, which has lead to tension and founding of a hidden hamlet that's far away from the Wineholm's capital city. Currently, the number of fairies and elves in capital city is fewer than 5.

Some of the phrases used in this region, and traditions practiced here include:

• People of Wineholm consider the first day of spring to be the beginning of a new year. The local belief is that plucking a bloomed flower on this day brings you good fortune for the rest of the year. This is why people of Wineholm sometimes refer to a beginning of something as "spring".
• Every year during the winter, plenty of hummingbirds visit Wineholm, flying there from the north. This is why followers of the Faith say that hummingbirds are holy birds, bringing goodness from the north and reminding us at the end of the winter what we should strive for.
• "Elflike" is an adjective that came to mean "introverted, reserved, mysterious". "Fairylike" is synonymous, but it implies that the person hides their intentions or thoughts on purpose.
• The Spirits Festival is celebrated during the 7th and 8th week of autumn. In this time, people remember those who have passed away by drinking to their memory and using special dyes mixed with phosphorus that glow in the dark to imitate the visions of spirit realm that the mediums share with others.
• One common format of a joke in Wineholm is "A researcher, a priest, and a socialite enter a tavern", with the order of the three profession varying depending on which of them will be the punchline of the joke.

Subculture Showcase: Dichoarchy

Note: This section is not meant to imply that the presented subculture is in any way unique to or most represented within this city. It is just a subculture I chose to present because it felt most thematically fitting and it wasn't introduced yet.

Art Curiosities: I have yet to figure out whether the mask markings have some deeper meaning. Originally, the purple colors on the green outfits were an accident made while recoloring, but I think I'll keep it. I like the symbolic contrast between the starry sky and a pink-flowered meadow.

While the religion is not present in the Wineholm, most of the world outside of it is at least familiar with it. It came to be as an explanation of people's findings in the North Pole. For the longest time, people debated whether it's the star or the Mount Boreal drawing them to the north. Once the first successful expedition there found out it's both the ground beneath, but also the Still Star above, the Faith had to adjust to accommodate for this fact, evolving into the Dichoarchy.

All believers of Dichoarchy divide themselves into two groups, depending on which they personally believe to be the greater good. Those who believe in the Sky God believe that what matters the most in judging the morality of one's actions are its consequences and results. Making the world a better place is worth it if the benefits outweigh the costs. They wear blue colors with golden details that represent the stars. The believers of the Earth God claim that the most important facet of an action when judging its goodness are the intentions. Even if your action (or inaction) resulted in something terrible, you did well as long as your intentions were good. Their color of choice is green, with purple or pink highlights sometimes included in the designs.

Even if they both believe their definition of what is good to be superior, plenty also recognize that both are equally necessary. However, not everyone throughout the history thought the other side is necessary, leading to conflicts between the groups. This has resulted in the development of a secretive tradition, in which each believer of this religion keeps their preference of the deity a secret to protect themselves outside of temples.

Relations

Wineholm is clueless about the world beyond the kingdom of Bedenblume. Currently, its relation to that kingdom is neutral, as the tensions have cooled down over the years. What people of Wineholm are not fully aware of is that they have a connection to the city of Everling, which is sending its tourists into the city digitally. When the Everling discovered and started to visit Wineholm, the locals called it Spiritual Advent, wrongly believing it's a supernatural bridging of the realm of spirits with theirs.

Curiosities

The island of Wineholm holds many curiosities, some of which include:

• Cathedral of the Faith is found in the North District of Wineholm, and it is the greatest Faith temple in the world. It's rotund in shape, and its main chandelier is shaped like an arrow, always pointing to the north. Legends say that it has been forged from a starmetal, gathered from a fallen star.
• Hidden Elven Village is a village located somewhere on the Wineholm island, in which majority of island's elven and fairy populations reside. Some mediums claim they have found it, but none of them is willing to share its location with those who do not possess the sight of the spirit realm.
• The Invisible Runestone that stands in the middle of the Trinitial District's main square is an illusion of a great monolith of impossible geometrical regularity. It has the instructions for scribing the runes written on it, and it has been created by one of the ghosts who linger in the city, X8R. Only mediums can perceive it.
• The Tree of Peace is a massive tree grown in the Guild District's port by the former ruler of Bedenblume. It's a sign of truce between the two nations that has been planted there when Wineholm became independent.
• Tresethes is the palace in which lives the trinity that rules Wineholm, located in the Trinitial District.

Nixly Everglade

Nixly has been born in Wineholm shortly before the era of monsters began. She was one of the few citizens of Wineholm who could be influenced by the sacrilegious runes, so she spent her life researching two things that fascinated her the most: the runes, and overcoming the death. Once she managed to combine the two and perfected her art, she's been exiled from Wineholm by people who labeled her 'the necromancer', forever forced to live in her tower alone. That is until people from beyond the Wineholm came to her rescue on a strange hovering construction. The only thing she left behind was her legacy, and half a dozen undead, who roam the land to this day.

Nixly has thus been taken to a whole another city, filled with wondrous creations. It turns out Wineholm was unique—most of the world's population can be influenced by the runes. In fact, most of the cities have constructed marvelous devices using these runes, and they wanted to incorporate her creations into them. With their assistance, her creations have taken on a new form—scans of people's minds could either emulate digital ghosts or enter special runebot bodies for them to animate at their whim. The genius of Nixly Everglade has forever changed the look of the modern world.

Wineholm never understood her genius.

Important People

A few examples of the important people from Wineholm:

• Abaron Sevenshield, human, male; the head diplomat of the current triumvirate.
• Belixta Treesap, human, female; the head researcher of the current triumvirate.
• Caldiffer Starsteel, dwarf, female; the head priest of the current triumvirate.
• Jeribel Freestone, elf, female; the founder of Wineholm who started the fight for its independence.
• Nixly Everglade, elf, female; the dreaded necromancer whose invention started the development of runebots and digital ghosts.
• Ricford Allwill, human, male; a fierce soldier who fought in the war for Wineholm's independence.
• X8R, ghost, either; one of the most well known ghosts in the Wineholm who has created many illusory markings in the capital city.