Artura

"Sing now, O magus on the rampart ruins, thy spear of light hence, thy hand which slain the Witch a dozen times. Sing of thy failure, and our success, of the rise of the Breaking of the Crown. Of the fall of the Witch-Queen, and the rise of the People, by whom all things can be properly governed and raised."

Artura is the fifth planet from the star Cammrien, a murky sphere with a scarred supercontinent in the middle of a planetary ocean. It is in a state of flux, climates still adjusting to the geographical and technological upheaval in the 8000s CE. Once a remarkably promising candidate for colonization and expansion, its own politics and history have estranged it from the rest of the galaxy, giving way to a tumultuous series of decisions and wars that have damaged, at least somewhat, all of this world's environment. Work is being done even in the present day to reverse the symptoms of its traumatic past, and the old ideas that brewed such fury still lay dormant in the lessons of its inheritors.

Politically, Artura's position within the Greater Celestial Concord is tenuous, as its belligerent acts earlier on and relative concentration of powerful magi make it a potential threat even to its own allies. A crazed politician drunk off of their own personal power attempting to pull a coup within the Concord would not be the first or even second of their kind.

Physical

Artura's planetary data is relatively average for a terrestrial world. A little smaller than average with a decently thick breathable atmosphere, it has an appreciably stable climate with low seasonality. Its temperature has warmed significantly since its initial settling, a result of hundreds of new small tectonic rifts across its ocean floors. It would not have been inaccurate to call the old Artura a winter world, but currently its temperature lies at about the average for human-inhabited worlds.

Artura's surface was once a single supercontinent surrounded by ocean, with very few outlying islands to speak of. This supercontinent, Ascatrine, was initially desert in the middle with several biomes surrounding it, mostly dictated by the seaward humidity gradient and the latitude. Most of its surface was and still is covered by the Great Ocean, though two thirds of its dissolved halite have been replaced with sodium fluoride from industrial operations.

Moons

Artura has two moons, Vothstradt and Morneidth. They were both only protected by thin atmospheres, though much of what remains of them are husks, mined out for metals necessary in core-operating machines for the Mythride Harvests of Vivianna.

Government

Artura's government is locally the Concordance of Artura, a democratic treaty and council of its various landmasses dedicated to allocating and balancing resources whenever times of scarcity or environmental disaster emerge. This Concordance is made up of specialists in each local and worldwide industry, including representatives from the sparse colonies on the system's other planets. It used to have a prominent body of magi, but this has largely been phased out.

The Concordance of Artura itself is a member state of the Greater Celestial Concord, an alliance that spans an array of star systems throughout Zalanthium. It is one of the more militaristic members, with its representatives historically advocating for more spending on defense and weapons research than any others.

History

Founding and Separatism

The initial colonization and habitation efforts by the Greater Celestial Concord in the year 6255 went smoothly, as the first plants and decomposers were added in for a five-year ecological transformation before permanent residency was allowed. The first cities spread quickly, shaping the land into environments suited for the developing biosphere that could then be worked with. The interior of the supercontinent was driest and least suited for extensive phytoforming, and became the central axle to the concentric rings of cities that sprung up on Artura. This great wheel-like structure of civilization, planned for and monitored by the Concord, was inhabited entirely by humans, whose naturally inclined climate aligned well with (albeit several degrees hotter than) Artura's ecological range.

The economic value of the planet skyrocketed, and its local government eventually fell to the influence of separatist factions. Wanting more independence and control over the world they lived on, Arturan industries and politicians pushed for total secession from the Concord. This was not kindly looked upon by the regional governor, who had long been loyal to the Concord. A few years and several social lobbies by mining operations that were continually denied later, and the people were angry enough to respond to that governor's opinions with a bullet to the chest and hooks in his entrails. A political assassination, perhaps, but a rather inelegant one. In absentia, the council of city managers took up an interim position while the Concord decided who to send in as a replacement, and in their moment of power they voted for complete and immediate secession from the Greater Celestial Concord. Artura became its own nation, armed soon after with a powerful military dedicated to forcing its freedom to be obeyed.

This separatism and militarism would become something of a social poison between cities, and as the natural resources were paved over and consumed for the expansion of industry, economy, and military. Slave labor was only used sparingly in the beginning, quickly replaced once hardy and cheap machines had been produced in excess to supply the necessary growth. But the tension between rival cities and companies vying for, for lack of a better term, territory, eventually caused the united Arturan empire to crumble and split, a thousand splintered nations stuck on a single landmass together.

Thaumic Wars

As the wars raged on for decades, magi began to be used as resources. Machines were relatively expensive, better suited for internal affairs as the arms race of defense seemed to always be ahead of the offense. Humans, though, were easily replaceable and capable of thaumaturgy, which proved much more valuable in combat. As the new micro-nations warred throughout the 6400s, magi-legions became more and more common. Programs dedicated to training paladins, breeding for more potent pylons, and other inhumane experimentation were widespread. The governmental form of the magocracy took precedent.

By the 6500s, the small subset of the population that showed thaumic prowess was lavishly rewarded with guaranteed military employment, and those dedicated to becoming Paladins had a chance at gaining some of this glory as well. Further forms of thaumaturgy were divided by usefulness, but the wars remained largely at stalemate. Every nation had similar access to resources, and developments spread quickly. An upset was required to break this harsh order.

Rise of Vivianna

A high-ranking official in the central-East nation Ilvann, one whose name has been lost to the records but has been definitively identified as a Harmonic magi, was the one to break the balance. It is said that she had her defining moment at a lakeshore, trying to bind a spirit she called into a sword as proof of concept, getting it to understand the idea of a "weapon". The spirit she called, however, had a strong will, and in her brief stint as a practitioner of Shamanic thaumaturgy she lost the battle of willpower against it. Her mind was fully shattered, and the spirit that took her body did something unforeseen. Instead of abandoning it and returning to the Noosphere, she firmly established control over the body and named herself Vivianna. Vivianna demonstrated new thaumic prowess previously unheard of, made possible via her connection to the Noosphere as a spirit. This possession and the creation of Vivianna as a personality happened in 6787 CE.

Vivianna became uncontested magarch of Ilvann and proceeded to conquer her way through the rest of the nations, unifying Artura under one banner once again. Heralded as the peace-through-violence and the new Queen of the world, Vivianna declared that she would reign eternal. Something had begun to bother her about the body she had acquired, though: its expiration date looming on the horizon. Technology and thaumic discipline augmented her as time went on, but it still only delayed the inevitable. Each new piece implemented more limits on her power, her growth upward as an individual, as a pillar and representative of Artura's entire might.

Through study of the cosmos and of the Greater Celestial Concord's historical findings, Vivianna found what she thought to be a solution. The Benefactor, a massive being that idly eats the most precious metals of the universe and doles out esoteric boons as business deals, could potentially be the answer. A space program packed with megatons of neptunium, plutonium, and refined uranium was prepared, with Vivianna aboard it. In her stead, a council of advisors would rule, under threat of death upon her return if they allowed disorder to spread.

The Benefactor deal was difficult to manage. A million tons each of mythril, adamythril, and eitr were the price, set as an annual quota for one thousand years, making a billion tons of each in total. Vivianna would have infinite time, a body of incredible regeneration and strength, and a much deeper channel through which she could use thaumaturgy, but this cost was ridiculous. Unbeknownst to Vivianna, this annual quota was unusual for the Benefactor to demand. She ended up taking the deal, figuring the rocket load of nuclear fuel shouldn't be wasted on waking the Benefactor up without getting what she came for. Newly immortal and set for Artura, the now-Warlock Queen returned.

War of Adamyth

Artura's climate degraded from more mundane mining operations, but other planets in the system were specifically designated to harvest the materials needed for the new annual tithe. All went well until the adamythril deposits ran dry on the planet deigned for it. Its moons were used to replenish the supplies, but those lasted all of a year. As the system seemed to run out faster than she could establish new operations, Queen Vivianna grew desperate. She had come to know of Tangda, the prime world for adamythril deposits, and strode in on the highest armada in her empire. She demanded a cut of the mining operations, threatening violence on the basaltic world if not met. The response was three tons of refined adamythril, launched at her ships in the form of thaumic bombs. Thus began the war with Tangda over its adamythril deposits.

Kertya Goldlotus, Tangda's Honored Saint and resident Warlock, who started the adamythril mining operations for his own debt and had been in deep meditation for the better part of a year, awoke after the third attack on Tangda. He sent Vivianna off with a wealth of adamythril, ordering her to return next year for negotiations but commit no further harm to his people. In secret, he traced her movements to locate Artura, and noted the planet's location for later. When she returned again, she received another sum of adamythril and was told that she would get no more from him. It was surplus of what she required, and so Queen Vivianna took it to her hoard in her fortress-city of Vivifold.

Vivianna sent an automated probe to Tangda to test a travel route, attempting to land near one of its less-populated mines. The year was guaranteed for her quota, but no effort for a stable supply was too soon. Artura's prosperity under her rule was too great of a thing to risk with a successor. Her victory over the chaos of the world she controlled must be maintained. The probe returned after several months, carrying a small chunk of unprocessed adamythril ore.

A week later, signals were detected. Spheres of molten metal approaching Artura were sighted, shortly followed by a bombardment of lead rain. Thousands were killed on the initial entry. Vivianna confronted the terrorists, which turned out to be Tangda's own elite military force. The foremost ship revealed itself to be Kertya's own transportation. Tangda's Warlock declared that the Arturan people had broken a sacred oath with the citizens of Tangda, and that as Warlocks bound to the same Benefactor, Vivianna had broken a far more grave promise by stealing from him. He declared war, as casually as a god-emperor would, but with much more conviction he demanded Vivianna face him in combat.

Taking advantage of the code of honor set by Kertya, Vivianna agreed to hold a battle one year later, between just the two of them. She was well aware of the fragility of the body at that point, though, and had a cunning plan to save her people. Bombardment by the fastest ships known to her kind, set to glass Tangda a week before the battle. This bombardment was sent off at its proper time, and as the Arturan people anticipated their Conquering Queen's victory, only silence followed.

Kertya Goldlotus descended onto Artura alone, transported on a flower made of boiling lead. The bombardment had completely failed, and the violation of the laws of battle was, in his words, "an unforgivable act in conflict with the very cycling of the heavens and the earth, from which no man, spirit or god can hope to escape rightful retribution," and "the barest hubris displayed by any fool who shakes the pillars of Creation upon which they stand". This was followed by Kertya parting the seas and crust of the shore he had arrived on, the very corner of Artura's sole continent, and unleashed his legendary evocation of his power. Before Vivianna could retaliate to defend herself, the continent was shredded, tectonic plates themselves sundered by sheets of boiling magma and hyper-compressed water. Her body was shredded and scorched by the torrent, destroyed and chemically denatured so utterly that it had no point from which to regenerate.

Kertya's singular attack left Arturan infrastructure devastated, and for decades they did not have enough military to launch a retributive attack of their own. The new magarch, coronated a month later, fell mysteriously ill. As roads struggled to rebuild and seas filled the rifts between the once-continent, a familiar presence rang through their airwaves.

The Witch-Queen Era

Vivianna, being a spirit first and immortal Warlock body second, was not entirely destroyed, and re-emerged through the body of the second appointed magarch. Her presence could still be linked to a person through her crown, the object and symbol of her absolute authority. However, her body no longer had the immortality that the Benefactor had granted her. She used much of her time and energy personally organizing rebuilding efforts, but planned another trip to the Benefactor to sort out this issue. The ultimatum she brought forth was clear: either return the immortality she was promised as part of the contract, or she would consider it broken and no longer provide her quota. The Benefactor is quoted indirectly as having merely laughed and saying, "You will provide."

Within a few months, Vivianna had returned to technological implants and ceased all operations for more of her required metals. She used the supplies she had garnered to construct better technology with which to rule Artura, taking corporations as partners in her monarchy. Artura prospered slowly, but Vivianna made very few public appearances. Her body lay emaciated and cold. Another magarch was appointed, and Vivianna reawakened. Once again, the individual body wasted away, like a corpse. Demanding an order of healthy young women to be prepared as her sacrifices, Queen Vivanna body-hopped year to year, month to month, eventually on a weekly basis.

Under this twisted order, Artura was... reimagined, somewhat. The planet was rearranged to make life as productive as necessary, now that its Queen was free from the burdens of her contract. To solve the weekly requirement, she drew up plans for an Artura focused as cleanly on breeding as possible. A large and fast-growing population would sustain her eternally. But her policies grew rash, and her appetite grew to include blood, and slowly she sank into hedonism, as if a piece of her original governance was lost to each body. The curse of mortality inflicted upon her was a shallow one, yes, but the long-dead Kertya (after how many bodies that Vivianna slayed?) had given her an incredible pain and freedom.

Life on Artura broadly decreased in quality over the next century. The demands of more opulence and luxury and for people to marry and reproduce were too much, and the strain on the environment clouding the fractured land with smog caused consistent health issues. An order of thousands of young women that existed in highest luxury only to have their personhood erased by the Witch-Queen's crown was now the only uncontaminated population. This semi-religious order was known as the Vivian Princesses.

Revolution

An order of magi, gathered in secret over the course of ten years, decided in 8069 CE that they were going to assassinate Vivianna. They had spread significant numbers through every islet of Artura, and were prepared to do a full coup. One by one, regional governers were executed in their sleep, with a final culminating act of terrorism being the release of the Vivan Princesses, including the slaughter of those who did not decide to leave. A difficult and grim choice to be sure, but it was necessary.

A final confrontation that night, the one right before the Witch-Queen's transference, was spearheaded by the foremost combatant in the group, Taliesin. He used powerful thaumaturgy to destroy her body and crown, but was injured by a surprise retaliation from an older body of Vivianna. She had stored and frozen extra bodies for her consciousness to implant into in case she failed to make a transference in time. The consecutive ten nights were spent in battle, with Taliesin falling the final time by being speared on a wrought-iron fence.

A counterattack led by one of the Vivian Princesses, Ceridmorn, would be the one to finally end Vivianna's reign. They both were strong magi, as Ceridmorn was meant to be one of Vivianna's new bodies, and while they tore the palace Vivianna produced a sword with a familiar gemstone into it. The crown had been decoration for that gem, which was the true object her spirit was bound to. Stabbing Ceridmorn, she attempted to transfer bodies, but was met with unparalleled will. The Princess, no, the revolutionary had practiced disciplines of thaumaturgy forbidden to her, becoming a true and realized Shaman. As the light left Vivianna's body and remained in transfer in the gemstone, Ceridmorn destroyed it and severed the spirit's connection to the physical universe. The reign of Vivianna the Terrible was over.

Concordance

A new Concordance of Artura was established January 1 of 8070, a democratic orderly council of magi and local analysts from each region. Over the next 120 years, with Ceridmorn as Speaker-figurehead, Artura rebuilt itself again and dedicated efforts to undoing the environmental and social damage caused by the warped policy of Vivianna. The legacy outlasted any of the revolutionaries, their social change seeping so deeply into the subconscious of their new public that it seemed like life had always been at peace. At the start of the 83rd century, they reached out to the stars yet again.

Meetings with residents of Tangda and Indar went well, reparations for the former and negotiations of alliance with the latter. While still rather headstrong culturally and prone to bouts of great-man tirades, Artura successfully rejoined the Greater Celestial Concord in 8212 CE, and have been a member state ever since.