founding

After casting Arsene to Nix, the angry spirit of Bartholomew collected whatever survivors he could find and assembled them in the east. Using invocations, he altered the plants in the region to produce great amounts of freshwater from their fruits and leaves. He spread his knowledge of invocation and other Camellia-sanctioned philosophies around the region, particularly emphasizing astrology. Over time, Bartholomew's knowledge and astrological predictions proved themselves reliably true, and his ethos was accepted as not only effective, but almost unquestionably correct.

The tribes of the east are united in this ethos, which holds Arsene as the subversive enemy of God and mankind and all goodness. With a common enemy to blame things on, few disasters, a surplus of resources, and frequent cross-pollination between clans, Palida's internal relations have been relatively (relatively) amicable for all of its history.

geography

Palida is flooded with water from Nix – it is an archipelago on a toxic sea. Formerly a rocky land of towering cliffs and deep canyons, Palida's geography is now a mix of treetop cities, artificial islands, atolls, lagoons, half-submerged mountains, mangrove fields, and swamplands. Deep underwater rests the ancient remains of drowned cities, valleys, canyons, forests, and so on, each overtaken by gardens of algae, anemones, and coral. The climate is humid and tropically warm. Waters are clear and blue, with thriving sea, insect, and bird life.

society

Palida is a tribal, collectivist society that draws extensively from Camellia's time ruling The Glen. Analogous to High Terran authority is the Palidan concept of mana, the holy quality of Camellia's presence in everything. Individuals, groups, objects, and places with mana resonate deeply with the energies that formed and empowered Camellia, while those without mana are weak, ineffective, and possibly defiled.

Palidans sanctify their ancestors, their land, and the constellations. All three of these things are repositories of incredible mana: ancestors are repositories of skill and wisdom, who may still influence the world posthumously by invocation. So long as their spirit reintegrates with Camellia, nobody is ever gone. Land is a cornerstone of personal, familial, and tribal identity, imbued with hints to understanding the puzzle of creation and symbols of eternal archetypes. Constellations are both ancestors and symbols of eternal archetypes, whose invocation can alter the world, whose movements prophecize the future, and whose existence holds a cypher for the meaning of life.

Arsene has absolutely no mana. While other things may gain and lose mana by action or insult, Arsene alone has absolutely no mana or capacity to ever have mana. He is the opposite, the enemy. He and his presence are nuku – corrupting, defiling, a spiritual leech on mana and an outsider to creation. Law & Order Palida has no explicit civil laws or centralized governing body. In disputes, aggrieved parties discuss in public forum mutually agreeable terms for conciliation. If none is found, a cycle of escalating reprisals begins until a conciliatory gesture is offered, a bout between leaders is called, or a shaman resolves the dispute spiritually. Leaders of tribes or communities can mark certain things or places as prohibited for human use, at risk of defiling the mana of those things. Prohibitions can be circumvented by specific rituals.

The killing of humans is a major taboo in Palida, even moreso than it is anywhere else. They value reciprocity in all spheres, partially in terms of revenge or reprisal, but also in the form of repaying previous good treatment and being good hosts to guests. When one community treats another, it's expected the guests will reciprocate with their own invitation and hospitality later. Palida remembers these slights and favours for generations. Industry & Technology Palida leans away from large-scale industrialization and imports most of its technology. Settlements are generally modest, though usually equipped with electricity and plumbing. Its economy and industry are weak, without much importance placed on cultivating these areas.

Craftsmen, fighters, and orators are highly valued. Shamans especially are venerated, but are usually somewhat separated from the community, as simply being in their presence without proper ritual is thought to defile them.

Main exports are food, water, wood, precious stones, animal products, live animals, and saplings. Access to shamans is also sometimes used as a bargaining chip. People & Culture Native Palidans have pale skin, with hair colours ranging from blonde to light brown, and blue, green, or amber eyes. They have both a nictitating membrane and tapetum lucidum, allowing them to see clearly underwater and in the dark respectively. Their lung capacity is superhuman, being able to hold their breath for up to twenty minutes. Finally, they are resistant, but not immune, to the poison in the world's water.

Typical cuisine includes seafoods, gulls, egg, edible grubs, breadfruit, hala fruit, taro, sweet potato, banana, lime, lemon and a variety of fictional fruits, vegetation, and spices. The national language is Palidan, while Terran is considered a somewhat defiled language unless spoken as Camellia spoke it, which most can't.

Religion

Camellia is an agent of creation – an architect – who has assembled the world at the whim of a greater force. Camellia himself was largely ignorant of this force, though whenever he did recognize it, he surged with urgency and panic. Particularly he emphasized the constellations as primal archetypes and tools for augury, cyphers to the framework of reality. As the only creation of Camellia's with the capacity to think, humanity has inherited the puzzle of what on earth was Camellia deciphering.

Arsene obstructs this mission. He is a strange leech from outside creation who covets the strength of these underlying forces, particularly fixated on Camellia for being its fountainhead. He confuses and distracts, then defiles and entraps, dragging others to his own level of emptiness and ignorance. Any manifestations of Arsene are evil and must be destroyed. Then if possible, enlightened, to let untampered mana refill them.

The thirteen ancestral constellations are those of the Zodiac, plus Ophiuchus. Being the souls of actual people, individual stars are understood both as bones to complete the overarching archetype of the constellation, and progenitors of significant bloodlines across various regions, usually racial ones. While blood links are significant, personal resonance with any archetype (and their combinations) is dictated more strongly by the positioning of stars at a child's time of birth than anything else.

Resonance with an archetype facilitates easier invocation of its concepts. Shamans are typically invokers of their sign. Those who dedicate themselves to deciphering creation undergo specialized trials at holy sites to solidify their legitimacy, guided by a fellow invoker of the same sign but opposite gender as consort. Only those who share the gender of their sign can undergo its trial.

Fire Signs – action and energy, masculine. Aries Physical Aspect: Fire.
Conceptual Aspect: War, conflict, initiation, revolution, rebellion, destruction.

Leo Physical Aspect: Light.
Conceptual Aspect: Fortune, vitality, achievement, pride, leadership, charisma.

Sagittarius Physical Aspect: Heat.
Conceptual Aspect: Energization, galvanization, journeys, personal development, the husband.


Earth Signs – practicality and limitation, feminine. Taurus Physical Aspect: Plants & animals.
Conceptual Aspect: Home, nourishment, indulgence, beauty, sedentary comfort, the wife.

Virgo Physical Aspect: Soil (+ minerals, gas, oil).
Conceptual Aspect: Fertility, agriculture, civilization, order, productivity, conversion of fallow to fertile land.

Capricorn Physical Aspect: Rock (+ mountains, canyons, tectonic movement).
Conceptual Aspect: Trials, punishment, consistency, restriction, control, tradition, the father.


Air Signs – intelligence and freedom, masculine. Gemini Physical Aspect: Wind (+ sound, silence).
Conceptual Aspect: Information, language, transmission, trade, bargaining, trickery.

Libra Physical Aspect: Gravity.
Conceptual Aspect: Balance, reciprocity, revenge, compromise, conciliation.

Aquarius Physical Aspect: Electricity.
Conceptual Aspect: Progress, experimentation, invention, liberation, individuality.


Water Signs – emotion and contemplation, feminine. Cancer Physical Aspect: Tidal Waters.
Conceptual Aspect: Empathy, sympathy, attachment, safety, security, madness, mood swings, the mother.

Scorpio Physical Aspect: Deep Waters.
Conceptual Aspect: Death, concealment, pretence, mysteries, sex, psychological transformation.

Pisces Physical Aspect: Life Waters (+ fresh water, bodily fluids, souls).
Conceptual Aspect: Tolerance, forgiveness, intuition, creativity, enlightenment, dissolution.
Pisces is considered defiled for Arsene's poisoning of water and instatement of soul rot. Its mana is weak and members thought prone to defilement, but are not reviled themselves.


Null Sign – is and not, genderless. Ophiuchus Physical Aspect: Space.
Conceptual Aspect: Duality, disunity, unification without synthesis, contradiction, overlapping states, invocation.


Ophiuchus is the only actively reviled sign, understood as a defiling force by its association with serpents and by extension Arsene. Laymen (and most shamans, refusing to touch it) regard it as the sign of Arsene, symbolizing evil and chaos and treachery and generally bad things, with those born under its sign as murderers, defilers, and exploiters. Pains are taken not to birth children into Ophiuchus. When it happens anyway, the defilement to the parents and tribe is so massive, the mother must kill the child immediately to even begin to absolve herself.

For a more nuanced reading, Ophiuchus represents multiplicity. Its energy presides whenever things are simultaneously true and false, whenever something simultaneously is and is not, and in transitional phases between one state and another, when the object in question is already considered both states. Inherently, it relates to Kenoma, but also to invocation and the unexpressed ideas in any fragment of Pleroma (and by extension in Camellia's soul). For an example, being simultaneously human and monster, simultaneously living and dead, witches are ophiuchian. Demons are, also.

Ophiuchus-born individuals accommodate and resist the harmful aspects of these multiplicities. Ophiuchian witches retain more of their humanity and more easily control their monstrous sides, while capable of more advanced magic before injuring themselves. Equally, though, they comfortably embrace their monstrousness despite their stronger control of it. This principle applies generally to Ophiuchians. Integration with 'other sides' brings the conceit of co-existing with them in ways others can't, which becomes arrogance, which becomes pointless attraction to forbidden things. They are deliberate boundary-pushers. Unlike the lashing-out of Scorpio or humanitarian theorizing of Aquarius, they do it while seemingly delighting in the simple fact that, hey, they can.

Camellia is regarded as an Ophiuchian archetype, and the only one not dismissed as evil. Still, his love and indulgence of Arsene exemplifies the chaos even the best Ophiuchians bring by wilfully consorting with forbidden objects. Humans should not invoke Camellia as they cannot circumvent his Ophiuchian tendencies (too much of this turned Kitiven into snake-worshippers like seriously).

Archons are favourably regarded as hand-picked exemplifications of certain archetypes. They are uniformly respected and deified in the same way as constellations.

Death Rites

Tribes either cast souls into the ocean to rot and drown, or purposefully let souls rot and actively destroy the ghoul. The latter is preferred, as it ensures the creature dies (and its mana is reintegrated with Camellia), but it's riskier. Severing souls is taboo in Palida.

Notable Places

Trivia's Shrine: A shrine to the Archon Trivia, patron of travellers, built upon one of the smaller peaks of a vast mountain range. Notable as her place of death and ascendancy, access to the shrine is quite restricted, but still sees its share of pilgrims.

Kuanehe: A small island atoll whose general area is known, but exact location is always shifting, that is also the exclusive residence of Lisbet.

Tianuku Gol: A cave with water from the Spring of Life flowing up and out its length. It directly links Palida to Nix, and is the source of the water flooding Palida. Though its mouth has been sealed with boulders, water still flows out to Palida unimpeded.

The Drowned Tower: A large zeppelin tower and major landmark of ancient Palida, in the middle of a drowned city. Though the city sealed itself before it could be flooded, it remains uninhabitable, several hundred miles below sea level with no ventilation.

relevant characters

Trivia: A frequent visitor to the country who died while undergoing shamanistic treatment to cure a witch's hex. She was then raised as an Archon. The site of her death has been sanctified, with her remains and belongings enshrined there.

Swift: Trivia's life and travelling partner, who died alongside her. For centuries now, his spirit has haunted her shrine, cyclically reliving the last few minutes of his death in the shape of a small bird.

Lisbet: A mysterious outsider who was initially mistaken as a demon and banished to Nix. After escaping and reversing the works of a particularly nefarious demon, Lisbet is now revered as the authority on Piscean concepts and recognized as one of the few Piscean shamans. She is also an Archon, compounding her notoriety.

Zachary: A chieftain’s son born premature into Ophiuchus, to the horror of his community. His mother escaped with him across borders, and since then his whereabouts has been unknown. The shame and paranoia his existence brings to his estranged tribe remains strong.