Faction History

Each faction in Syrellia was purposely divided to create specialised workers for each technology being developed in the city. Unfortunately, the members of each faction tend to take things a bit too far, and it is common to have faction members argue over technological superiority. The more civil intellectuals discuss with full intention of understanding and learning, but not much can be said of those who are a little less well-mannered.

Each faction has had a troubled history, which often lends itself to every single argument most of the faction members get themselves into. It is noted that the leaders find the whole "let's bring up our faction's tragic past to win sympathy points" strategy a little too overused at this point.

Lords of Fusion
The Lords of Fusion were formed when humans, who were the main race to rule Syrellia, declared that instead of abusing science and magic the two resources should be combined. Of course, the magic based races opposed this decision and ridiculed the humans.

However, as time passed and Syrellia fell into further disrepair, many of the races began turning to the approach of combined science and magic. The elves were the first to convert; they worked alongside with the humans with their advanced technology and skilled hands. The result of the combination began to change Syrellia's power, and things began looking up for the city.

Although many magic based races refused to follow in the elves' footsteps, those who were renown for technological prowess decided to take the approach as well. Dwarves, gnomes, goblins...they began to move towards that approach in the hopes of improving Syrellia's condition.

As time passed, those who chose to support the fusion of magic and science experimented and attempted to create a substance to work with. Without funding, however, they could not develop their research, and soon everything threatened to fail. In despair they turned to the powerful aristocrats of the city, seeking the money they needed to continue their research.

The ruling houses agreed to supply them with money and resources, but at a price - they were to sell any successful product, along with the patent, to the ruling houses. At first many were reluctant, but eventually they gave in and agreed to do so. The ruling houses provided them with plenty of money and resources, and one day a young man in one of the workshops dedicated to the research developed a strange viscuous liquid, glowing blue. The man's name was Hirin Verse.

After being subject to experimentation, the liquid appeared to be as harmless as water, and yet supply engines and machines with a power beyond imagination. When Hirin was questioned, he replied that he had simply compressed an 'extract' of magic from the atmosphere.

The discovery made Hirin famous overnight. The liquid earned the name dinhal, or 'blue light', and was promptly turned over to the ruling houses of Syrellia. Hirin went along with it, as the creator.

The nobles were very pleased with this, and when Hirin requested that they allow his family to follow him, they agreed, and also asked if he would like to have any requests. Their generosity led to all those who helped in the research move into the heart of Syrellia - the 'upper class district', as it was called.

Those who had moved turned proud of their achievements and eventually began looking down on their not so well off counterparts in the other areas of the city. Families divided, friendships were broken...and, very slowly, the original nobles were afraid of the lower regions rebelling against them. In their fear they built, with the power of the dinhal, a barrier around the city, guarded against the poorer classes.

Behind this barrier, an organisation formed, consisting of the newer aristocrats - some of who used to be or are skilled in combat. By installing the dinhal in shatterproof glass containers onto their weapons, they were able to create an incredible arsenal that soon was feared by many.

This organisation grew in numbers as they developed weapons with dinhal utilised in them, called Nuanar and ranged from cannons to even swords. The Nuanar line became the much preferred brand of weapons.

The nobles of Syrellia grew prouder with each achievement. They named the heart of Syrellia as Sinkamma, Syrellian for "sun lord" - the old name given to the Kylaran, who had integrated science into the city. Their organisation, nothing more than a servant of the aristocrats and yet powerful and feared everywhere throughout Syrellia, was named the Lords of Fusion.

Magicka Versus
A faction like this had long existed since the founding of Syrellia, way before the Kylaran had touched down in the Melssentenian Republic. They had been peaceful magic practitioners, only with the intention of helping the needy and advancing the future of Syrellia by the power of magic alone. It was comprised of specially appointed, high-ranking magic practitioners who had earned the honourable title of Moon Warden, as the moon is a powerful symbol of magic in Syrellia.

With the discovery of dinhal, the production of the Nuanar and the formation of the Lords of Fusion, the Moon Wardens were greatly angered by this abuse of magic in the atmosphere. The production of Nuanar worsened the situation, as not only did the power of the concentrated magic in dinhal began to rupture the magical atmosphere, but the power of Nuanar themselves began to affect the lands greatly.

Dinhal is toxic to the land, and tonnes of waste dinhal are discarded every year. As the waste dinhal polluted the land, animals and plants began to die, and slowly the outskirts of Syrellia turned into a wasteland. The Moon Wardens were horrified at the sight of this, and the industrial waste from Sinkamma that poisoned their drinking water. Crops began to die, and soon those who had not turned to the side of the Lords of Fusion began to suffer from poverty and neglect.

The Lords of Fusion, meanwhile, stretched their iron grip across Syrellia. They promised to the people sustenance in exchange for their loyalty, but never kept their word. The Moon Wardens were soon wanted criminals, and they were forced to flee to the wasted outskirts of the city. There, they hid underground, still tending to the people who needed them.

As time passed, the Lords of Fusion grew richer and more powerful. The elves abandoned the Moon Wardens' side and were given permission to enter Sinkamma, where they worked to stop the pollution. Alas, they too turned proud and boastful of their newfound power, and refused to return, while turning away their rejected kin - the dark elves - from Sinkamma. Every day, more and more people outside the barrier of Sinkamma died.

Finally, the Moon Wardens' tolerance had run out. They spread the word of a rebellion against the Lords of Fusion while they set out across the republic to a small forest, where a certain species of tree grew. They came back with the seeds and planted them around Sinkamma, where their old homes were.

As the rebellion grew quietly, the seeds took root and quickly grew into seventy foot high trees. These trees had a bluish tinge to their leaves, and when the moonlight illuminated their trunks, the brown gave way to a silvery tinge. They were the famed Halaian trees, known for feeding off 'unclean' or 'waste' magic and purifying it to the pure magic that was once used by the Moon Wardens. The heavily polluted soil provided so much nutrients that the trees reached their full height within a few years.

Slowly, people began to move into the trees and carved homes into the trees' great trunks. As long as no one touched the white cores that ran through the trunks from the roots, the trees still lived. The white cores also gave out natural light for the people; the Halaian trees provided food by their great silver fruits, and soon the water deep underground was purified enough.

The Lords of Fusion attempted to burn these trees down in the great Halaian Fire, but they were poorly informed of the Halaian trees. Not even the elves had known about them, because only the Moon Wardens knew the secrets of these ancient plants - one of them was that the Halaian trees flourished in high temperatures. The Halaian Fire caused all the Halaian trees to bloom and purify magic even faster. As the Lords of Fusion drew back, mystified, they were ambushed by the then-early forces of the Moon Wardens.

The Moon Wardens caused a great number of casualties to the Lords of Fusion, but were deeply saddened by how they had been forced to kill and injure. As a result, they swore that their magic was primarily to help others and defend their followers' homes. The people named their district Talathir, Syrellian for "deep magic".

Although the Moon Wardens exiled themselves to the mountains, they swore that those worthy of their tutelage will study under them for three years before being granted the title Moon Warden. These new Moon Wardens would be the only ones who could take the faction leader position of Talathir's first, and only, hope and defence against the Lords of Fusion - the faction Magicka Versus.

Scientia Nouveau
There was much fighting between Magicka Versus and the Lords of Fusion after that. At first the Lords of Fusion, with their powerful Nuanar, seemed to take the upper hand. However, Magicka Versus began to receive support from races that had previously been assumed long extinct - the demons, the werebeasts, and so on - and with their help and knowledge of the deeper magic that lay in their world, they began to fight against the Lords of Fusion.

The man who had created dinhal, Hirin Verse, watched the ensuing conflict from afar with much sadness. He had only designed dinhal to aid his fellow citizens, not to start a war. He had been forgotten by now...and he was growing old. He had never liked magic - it had simply been a whim of his that he had fused science and magic together.

Eventually he made the decision. Taking his family, he left Sinkamma and escaped to what was outside of Talathir, where travellers had begun setting up little rickety villages on the outskirts. The Halaian trees' extensive roots had grown into the land so far that the ground was purified and was now close to what it had been years ago, before the dinhal had been discovered.

Hirin Verse set up a little farm with his sons, and eventually was able to live off the land. However, his comfort was not for long - he soon began to tinker around with old machine parts.

It did not take him very long to set up a small engine powered by burning the dead wood of the Halaian trees. He managed to incorporate this into Syrellia's first steam-driven plough for his fields. One thing led to another, and slowly a new technology rose around the outskirts of Syrellia - the power of steam and fossil fuel.

After Hirin died, his legacy was continued by his sons. They began to build what the inhabitants of Talathir called the Steam Empire. Scrap metal from Sinkamma was melted down and worked on; the production of cement, bricks and mortar soon followed. Those who supported Hirin's love for science and science alone left Sinkamma for the new area. Some had contacts in the industrial city of Orosvian, capital of Halanar, which was particularly famed for its mines. Orosvian agreed to lend some of its mining technology.

It was only a matter of time that mines were found, and quarries built. The rickety wooden houses gave way to cemented homes with workshops. The area grew larger - even larger than Talathir - and soon the first steam engines were running on rails laid out across the area. The Lords of Fusion demanded that Orosvian stop supplying the outer regions of Syrellia with mining equipment, but by then it was too late. The outer regions were flourishing well under the new steam technology that Hirin had begun.

Magicka Versus decided not to intervene with the new developments, but the Lords of Fusion retaliated, regularly attacking areas of the new area in an attempt to impede the development. The plan succeeded to a certain extent, but the people kept on going determinedly. Soon chimneys of black smoke were part of the skies over the atmosphere, and the sound of metal being worked, and the hiss and chug of the trains became everyday sounds of the inhabitants of Talathir who lived near the edges of the forest.

Eventually, the building was finished. The Lords of Fusion decided to attack once again, and began amassing their forces around the borders between the new area and Talathir, in a secretive place.

The night before they were to attack, they were caught by surprise by whirring engines. They had run out to see great beams of light sweeping across their encampments followed by flying machines bearing a strange logo - a wheel with wing like extensions and looking very much like a compass. The machines dropped explosive objects and fired at the encampments; many of the members of the Lords of Fusion had to run for cover into Talathir.

That day, the Lords of Fusion learned to fear the science-based, machine users of Scientia Nouveau, for they were the first to master flight by artificial means. Ever since then, they have avoided Illudois, the largest district in Syrellia, for it is where Scientia Nouveau resides.

Outside Respons
The news of the factions soon spread across the Melssentenian Republic, and indeed...across the continent of Eduria, where it was located. Countries in the republic began to question the motives of the three factions, but it was the city of Orosvian that sent the following message to Syrellia:

"You should be aware of the situation of your city, not of your powers or your technology. Beware - there are empires out in Eduria that will take advantage of your divided people and come to attack you."

The Lords of Fusion, Magicka Versus and Scientia Nouveau remembered their original intentions of rebuilding their failing city, and turned to seeing to it. To this day, the three factions are not interested in warring and are bent on regaining what has been lost.