Stisedo

A Nation coveting knowledge and technology with an obsessive desire so strong that loss of live in the pursuit of such was expected and even welcomed. Within Stisedo the chilly weather caused winters so harsh it often forces seclusion and starvation, without proper clothing the fierce weather will kill most within minutes.
Stisedo is a nation with as many great achievements as it has flaws. Stisedo unlike most nations in the Mainlands, is run by the Captious or the council of 7 minds, this council takes in the "interests" of their people to run the government in a satisfactory manner, of course they will occasionally pass laws or place restrictions for their "own benefit", for the most part, the citizens are content with their lives. Within Stisedo the empire runs on a strict caste system, this system ranges from the following in order of lowest rank to highest: Slave, Citizen, Civilian, Curse Researcher, Xiarch, Councilman. Despite the caste system, even slaves are able to rise in status, this is achieved through ones display of understanding of knowledge and technology as it is known within Stisedo, because of this everyone within the nation, including the slaves have the right to gain education, whether or not they have the capability or passion, is however a different matter. In this way many of the current day Stisedo nobility were lower caste populous that had raised their status through their knowledge, or roaming intellectuals who decided to join Stisedo immediately gaining a nobility status when their capabilities were tested. Many who are ignorant of worldly matters are unaware of what sort of knowledge would catch the eye of the researchers to Stisedo, but those who do not live under a rock have heard through the grapevine that Stisedo have in recent decades been putting forward all their resources into the research of Cursed energy and its effects, this leads to a large majority of nobility within the nation to be powerful Curse Users.
The endless hunger for knowledge will lead Stisedo to commence controversial actions, such as sheltering a wanted Cursed User criminal for the sake of learning what they may know or have discovered about Cursed energy and its properties. It is for this reason that despite the current and ongoing concern towards increasing numbers of Cursed Abominations other Nations have been quarreling with Stisedo both politically and with force, demanding Stisedo's Councilors to release the criminals they shelter. While Stisedo lacks a powerful military force seen present in other nations, they make up for this by taking advantage of their snow covered lands forcing their enemies to slowly wither their forces before striking when they are at their weakest. Additionally, Stisedo's act of sheltering dangerous criminals some wanted throughout the entire continent often delivers to them a deadly, albeit undisciplined and disloyal, elite force. Stisedo is a land where knowledge gifts you power and control, and as long as you can guard your own knowledge, you may even rise to be one of the 7 who control these frozen lands.
Due to Stisedo's Technocratic government style in terms of both technological advancement and curse research they are by far the most advanced of any nation in the world, in the recent decade the most popular of these advancements is a high level military advancement of "firearms". 
== History ==
Excluding uncivilized times, originally the territory that now makes up Stisedo was a collection of various city states, each with a different culture and government. These city states with their different structures had prospered through trade and non-aggression pacts between one another allowing themselves to not be caught far behind other nations at the time. However, after three centuries of the peaceful and symbiotic relationship between these city states, a physically powerful and charismatic figure arose, Fahjera, who began a series of wars for conquest, slowly uniting what is now known as the central and northern part of Stisedo. 
After completing his goal Fahjera became known as The Tyrant, as he ruled his newly created nation with an iron fist, revolts were aplenty, but he had many loyal followers willing to give their lives for his continued rule, alongside The Tyrant himself having a monstrous physique. The Tyrant for all his evil was able to develop the infrastructure and military to be almost equivalent to the Empire of Rokare, which at the time was regarded as the most powerful nation across the world. However, public opinion was heavily curated and any seeking to talk down of The Tyrant would fine themselves swiftly executed by his loyal followers, one could only achieve a high position though shows of extreme loyalty to The Tyrant. After 40 years, The Tyrant had begun to care less about his nation, focusing the nation's wealth on obtaining all forms of luxuries purely for himself, to such a degree that even some of his soldiers and followers became disillusioned with the grand warrior king they had believed him to be. This could not have come at a worse time for The Tyrant, as around this time curse energy was initially discovered, while cursed abominations had yet to appear, most still believed it to be a dangerous power not worth risking one's life over, those under the rule of The Tyrant, couldn't disagree more, and started fervently learning how to use curse energy through trial and error, although hundreds would die in the process. 
Although The Tyrant was used to quelling rebellions this new rebellion led by some of his own followers, aware of his tactics and a weaknesses, with curse fueled soldiers able to best dozens of The Tyrants own, were able to begin a grand rebellion unlike any The Tyrant had seen before. Despite the plentiful advantages of the rebels, the rebellion would go on to last 5 years, Despite The Tyrants relatively diminished state, he still had thousands of loyal soldiers and followers, alongside the capability to lead from the front and cleave his opponents with but a single swing. However, in the last two years of the rebellion, on the side of the rebels a curse user who called himself "Executioner" appeared with a great sword with the tip cut off, signifying it as an executioner's sword, he was both a great boost to morale alongside an excellent fighter. Over the two years after the appearance of Executioner, the rebels had eventually defeated The Tyrant and as per his title Executioner had brought The Tyrant to the center of his own capital and promptly beheaded him. 
As curse energy was one of the deciding factors that allowed the people to free themselves from the grasp of The Tyrant, it had become an integral part of their society and culture. Additionally, out of fear of another individual such as The Tyrant appearing, they had decided on a government structure lead by 7 councilors, who would lead in unison and keep each other in check so that no one councilor could obtain ultimate power. This nation that had risen from the ashes of rebellion began to call itself Stisedo, and offered aid to minor nearby nations, while these nations would be eventually be assimilated forming what is the full territory of Stisedo, the first couple decades of Stisedo's existence was rather peaceful, before the accumulated wealth had begun to dry out, and the heroes of the rebellion forming the first Council members began to die or choose successors. After new Councilors began to appear Stisedo's philosophy and ideals rapidly changed as they integrated a strict hierarchy and begun enslaving their own people depending on their lack of wealth, leading to the current Stisedo.
== Shadow Brokers ==
An organization of Information brokers who exist hidden throughout all of Stisedo (and some parts of Zaveron) they are most infamous in that they refuse to accept any monetary payment for information, and instead one can only gain information by trading for information the shadow brokers deem "equivalent" to the information that one is requesting. Due to a combination of their payment method and expert spies/scouts the Shadow Brokers know practically everything, anywhere from relevant contemporary information regarding a prominent individual, to forbidden knowledge lost to the world over a century ago. Curiously, several groups have noticed that information between Shadow Brokers travels with extreme speed, as information given to them, is sometimes mentioned at another location halfway across the continent the next day. 
However, finding the Shadow Brokers in the first place can be quite the difficult task, with many of their locations hidden in plain sight in the midst of bustling towns and cities. Additionally, should one find a Shadow Broker and seek to threaten them in order to gain information for free, this is perhaps one of the biggest mistakes one could ever make. Until the individual "atones", the Shadow Brokers will freely advertise and give out any and all information regarding any who dares breach the sanctity of their information trade. 
== Hierarchy ==
The Stisedan Hierarchy is the most strict hierarchy within the world, the sheer power and authority given often creating such a gap in status that those on the lower end of the hierarchy can only suffer while bowing their heads to those above them until they themselves rise their status. While there are some exceptions based on the specific culture within a city, all of the Stisedan Cities follow a general outline for the hierarchy, below is the various ranks of society, and a small description of them :
Slave : 
The lowest dregs of society, while Stisedo does not engage in wars or often go out to catch foreigners as slaves, slaves are nonetheless commonly caused by an individuals inability to pay a debt or otherwise fulfill an agreed upon transaction. However, that is simply the official and legal method through one becoming a slave, other methods exist such as kidnapping and enslaving of Desert barbarians, and while not directly legal, they are rarely stopped or interfered with in any manor. Another example, is if a village chief were to perform an act which enrages a powerful individual such as a noble, it is entirely possible that the noble would proceed to enslave the entire village for the crimes of the village chief against them. The role of a slave is simple, they act as the primary workforce for manual labor and other tasks that are either dangerous (such as being a test subject of a curse user) or don't require much skill (such as being the simple servant of a noble). Due the dangerous tasks slaves are forced to undertake, it is said that hundreds of slaves die daily within Stisedo.
Civilian : 
The average individual who simply lives within Stisedo and is expected to pay taxes or risk becoming a slave, because of this, even while not being a slave, most live in fear of the prospect.
Citizen : 
The difference between a civilian and a citizen is that a civilian exists within Stisedo while a Citizen actively contributes to society, these include roles such as : inventors, mercenaries, merchants, and chefs (indispensable for nobles). These Citizens thrive in Stisedo far more than the average person, while still experiencing much less luxury than even the smallest noble houses. Almost every citizen has effectively zero worry about paying their taxes or becoming a slave, and in some cities such as Vuttera these Citizens may be treated equivalent to even nobles.
Curse Researcher : 
The most well known status of Stisedo, almost every single Curse Researcher is also a Curse User, and many of these same Curse Researchers are practically insane, having taken refuge in Stisedo after being chased from some other corner of the continent. These Curse Researchers can get away with almost any illegal action they partake in for the sole reason that they give a portion of their findings to the Stisedan government, this includes occasional slaughter of slaves and civilians, as long as they claim it was for "research purposes". Depending on the power of the particular Curse User, and how much they have contributed to the government, it is possible for them to be higher in status than even nobles, but, these are the exceptions, and most are more important than Citizens but less than nobles. 
Noble : 
The upper class of Stisedan society, they experience the finest luxury, and stand far above 99% of the population of Stisedo. However, even amongst nobles their are differences in status, this stems from what makes a noble house a notable existence within Stisedo, namely being : Influence, Wealth, or Power. While the largest noble houses in all of Stisedo may excel at multiple of these attributes, most medium and small houses focus their proficiency in one field. If developed well, even small noble houses are not to be trifled with, a house focused on influence is likely to have many friends, of which others may not risking getting on their bad side, alternatively, this house could be using their influence to gather information and blackmail as both a resource to be traded and a shield from which to protect them. A wealthy house simply exists as such an economic powerhouse, that if the need arose they could hire hundreds of mercenaries with ease, or perhaps underground criminal guilds to deal with their enemies. Noble houses that specialize in power are often unhinged, as they had done anything and everything in order to gain their power, the most notable example is the Infamous house Chimera, who selectively bred Chaosborns with one another creating increasingly dangerous, unstable, unintelligent Chaosborn almost reaching a level akin to that of Cursed Abominations. Other than small noble houses, each house has its own territory of owned land, most of them being a single town and the surrounding villages. Information on various houses can be found on the following page : Noble Houses (WIP) 
Xiarch : 
These individuals are the direct servants of councilors, serving as the second highest status figure wherever they may be, each councilor has three Xiarch's, each of which is usually in charge of handling a specific field of work that is not important enough for the Councilor to need to preside over. While the Xiarchs are hand selected by the councilors they serve, while they are usually up and coming prodigies of their respective fields, some Xiarchs are selected through powerful noble families may attempt to coerce the residing councilor in their city into making one of their family members into a Xiarch. Additionally, the Councilor may also just select one of their own family members, in order to guarantee the loyalty and expected skill. The exact amount of power that a Xiarch holds depends on the Councilor, lazy councilors may give extreme authority and power to their Xiarchs in order to ignore any administrative task they may have to perform and instead allow themselves to focus on research or other interests.
Councilor :
The highest status individuals in all of Stisedo, a rank that can only be reached by the most prestigious and talented of prodigies around Stisedo, a Councilor is selected by the previous Councilor before they retire or die, should the Councilor die before they make a decision the rest of the Councilors vote on an individual to replace them. Within Stisedo there are 7 Councilors, and each Councilor is given a city to rule, additionally, the Capital Vor Macht, is ruled in cooperation by all the Councilors. Each of the cities ruled by a Councilor is most often known by the field in which the Councilor specializes within, and example is "the city of control" or "the city of power". This is done so that the city attracts curse users, nobles, and other individuals who are most interested in their specific field and wish to raise their status. The only unique Councilor in terms of authority that the others do not possess, is an individual who is elected as "The Speaker", The Speaker is the effective representative of Stisedo wherever they go, anything said by The Speaker is assumed to be the effective consensus and agreement of the whole Council, as such, their appearance in any other country is worrisome at minimum.
== The Councilors ==
1st Councilor "The Speaker" Lucius Maximillian - 
Representative and voice of Stisedo, the primary example of both worlds, born into a noble family, however, his noble family was for all intents and purposes a fallen and destroyed family. The family was of such low standing that he was practically a normal citizen, over the course of his life he used his political insight, natural persuasion, and research into curse energy to steadily rise through the ranks. Eventually, after becoming a councilor, he would be elected for the title of “the speaker” after the previous “speaker” had passed recently and needed replacing. The primary reason for his ability to become “The Speaker” is that the other councilors had noticed that he had the adoration of both the common folk and the nobility, allowing him to communicate the will of Stisedo most effectively. The city this counselor resides over is Taekir, this city is known as a clean and good city, is has all the features that one would expect from a Stisedan city, but with the notable lack of a major underground presence, rarely is any major crime reported to occur in Taekir, and so it is known as being the safest city.
2nd Councilor of Transformation Damain Hayes - 
Eldest son and Successor of the Hayes family which is renowned for its efforts in pioneering the curse jammer and modern day common knowledge on curse abominations within Stisedo. Originally, Damian was not the successor of the Hayes family, his younger brother was, but after a series of unfortunate events fell upon Damian, such as the loss his wife, he rapidly gained knowledge and power, allowing his to claim back the role of successor. Damian is a odd and unique case among the Stisedan nobility, primarily, because despite being a noble himself, Damian is noted for a fierce and intense hatred of nobility, to the extent where he is openly hostile towards any nobility and all of his Xiarchs are regular civilians or citizens. The city Damian governs is Volaris, similar to Damian himself this city is known as a relative oddity, as compared to most of Stisedo the treatment of the average individual is largely the same, even slaves being treated fairly close to normal people. Buy and large due to Damian's preferred field of curse usage, the city of Volaris primarily attracts Mutators, a rare sub-type of curse users, with most eager to do whatever Damian commands to learn his secrets of expertise in its usage. 
3rd Councilor of Technology Rhys Gallagher -
The youngest councilor amongst the current council, he is generally calm, kind, and welcoming, albeit very excitable and curious. Rhys is a genius who quickly rose to prominence his incredible intellect inventing several technologies, additionally, he even garned the interest of curse researchers around Stisedo as the one to invent the material known as Svototh which acts as a conduit and enhancer for either spirit or curse energy. In recent years using this material he has come up with an invention to create a device capable of inhibiting the deadly mist of the cursed wastes. Rhys governs over the city of Vuttera, and rules over it with his interests in mind, namely rapidly promoting any inventor who can create an invention that peaks his interest, additionally, he hosts a invention contest once a year with a heft reward to incentivize the local inventors. Due to this, and Rhys' own bias towards inventors, citizen inventors within Vuttera have a higher status than even nobles in some cases, something that isn't seen anywhere else in Stisedo. 
4th Councilor of Control Ator Aghim - 
Sadistic, Paranoid, and Vengeful, the three best words to describe the cruel and despicable councilor of the ever powerful Aghim lineage. Every first heir of the Aghim family line is practically served a councilor spot on a silver platter, for it is their power and influence that is so wide that none can truly deprive that right from them. Between his families resounding power and influence, and his own cunning, almost every noble and curse user he meets quickly becomes subservient to his whims. Neorell is the city that Ator governs, using his magic of control, he will frequently publicly state that no conversation, no underground dealing, no secret, will go unknown from him within the city. As for the city itself, the city is quite... Stisedan, the nobility rule far above all else (except a few curse users), while the slaves are treated worse than rats scurrying across the streets, as such a large amount of nobility who desire this massive gap in status find themselves residing in Neorell.
5th Councilor of Power Vigo - 
One day the council had received a visitor, he was covered in blood and introduced himself as Vigo before demanding the rank of Councilor. While the council as a whole saw this as no more than the plea of a madman, only one had immediately stoop up and denied him, in a moment, this councilor was nothing more than a pile blood and guts, shortly afterwards, Vigo had proven his ability, and replaced the councilor who officially died to a mysterious illness. Vigo is an absolutely insane individual who cares for nothing other than to satiate his insane whims, and is only capable of being a counselor through his sheer uncontested power. Vigo resides over Hadeus, which is more commonly known as the City of Power, the individuals who flock here are curse users who are... lacking, in terms of intellect or research based capabilities, this leads a large amount of unhinged and battle hungry curse users residing in Hadeus who battle and destroy parts of the city constantly in fights of dominance. For normal citizens Hadeus is a horrendous place to live, there is constant collateral damage to homes, factories, and otherwise, due to the powerful curse users fighting, and the only nobility that can thrive in Hadeus are those who can overpower the crazed curse users. While Vigo is the Councilor who resides over Hadeus, many of the residents would describe him closer to a "powerful visitor" rather than any form of lord, he comes and goes from the city as he pleases, and only seldom changes anything about the city, however, his orders are followed without question, primarily in fear of his extreme power. 
6th Councilor of Mind Lilith Shyrra - 
Not much is known about Lilith, other than she is master of manipulating others, whereas other councilors may dominate over nobles through power or political blackmailing, Lilith takes full advantage of her charms and unique field of curse usage. Lilith "governs" over Rovari, but in reality Rovari is a hedonistic mess a city, where all forms of depravity and excess run rampant. 
7th Councilor of Creation Nursul Yiston - 
While not much is known about Lilith their daily events and activities of depravation are still all common knowledge, but Nursul is a councilor shrouded in secrets, it is said that even the councilors don't know anything about his appearance, connections, or his background. The one thing Nursul is open about, is his proficiency in conjuration curse usage, of which, he has mastered to such a degree that in Qohros, the city he governs, slaves aren't needed for manual labor, as he and curse users underneath him utilize conjured creatures to take on the task. While Conjurers aren't usually known as the most powerful curse users, Nursul has risen it to such an high level that even Vigo, in all his madness, does not actively antagonize Nursul.
== The Five Taboos ==
The Five Taboos are fields of curse utilization that for one reason or another is banned within Stisedo, these taboos are so grand that anyone found practicing these taboos is immediately labeled a criminal, even councilors aren't except from this rule. 
While the taboos are banned from being learnt, and no books, manuals, or other written teachings of them publicly exist, determined individuals or shady nobles with connections to the black market will find a way. While most of these individuals are caught and then promptly killed, some are powerful enough to fend off those who seek to catch them or cunning enough to not be caught learning a taboo in the first place. Within the Stisedan black markets, while not "officially" sponsored, there are many bounty contracts for getting rid of notable taboo breakers. Below are the aforementioned taboos and a small amount of information on them :
1. Biological Replication : 
Out of all the taboos this is the only one to not exist, however, the mere possibility of it existing is far too dangerous, even for Stisedo. Even from a theoretical standpoint the mad and ambitious dare not tread upon this territory as they are fully aware that such actions could easily spiral into the artificial creation of Cursed Abominations, such dangers have made this into being considered the highest of taboo’s and the only one to exist with no previous ill history, an odd conclusion considering Stisedo. Nonetheless, If it were to be achieved it is thought to be the aspect of curse energy which would be the apex of conjuration. 
2. Malediction : 
(think generally hexs or "voodoo") This taboo is a tricky and relatively enigmatic field of curse usage, with many sources of information being brief and vague. What little is known is that the turning point bringing it to become taboo is a curse user called Raixr who used his malediction on several curse users permanently disabling them from using curse energy, additionally upon being killed by a councilor he had a powerful malediction cast on himself to relentless chase and kill the murderer. After the loss of a councilor and several previously accomplished curse users, the remaining councilors decided that Maledictions would from then on be a high level taboo.
3. Poison : 
This aspect of curse energy is naturally corruptive akin to curse energy itself, this corrupts both the users mind and body, making them slowly be consumed by evil desires while their body is slowly turned into vat on the deadliest poison imaginable. Most ambitious and power hungry curse users find themselves attracted to this due to its intrinsically deadly nature, but these fools often go mad within days, ending up killed after whatever miniscule slaughter they achieved, there are only two Poison curse users who have survived after years of learning the field of curse usage, one is an poison obsessed madman, the other is a living disaster referred to as the Crimson Nightshade.
4. Permanence : 
Utilizing curse energy to create objects or tools that can operate infinitely without sustained curse energy supplied from the creator. The art of this technique was first pioneered in Stisedo around 70 years ago, they found that although it could be incredibly powerful the technique required one of the three downsides. The first being that the technique had to be exceptionally weak, let's say, a curse energy powered light bulb, or the like. The second is that the technique would need immense time consumption to the point where saying it would take a year to create a device capable of unleashing power equal to a novice’s first technique, would be an understatement. The third… was to enact a sort of restriction that was more along the lines of a trade, some would sacrifice people to enact their techniques, but that was the majority, it got much, much worse. To the point where after an event 63 years ago that nearly brought Stisedo to destruction, it was then considered Taboo across the entirety of the Mainlands.
5. Blood : 
Dangerous due to the damage to one’s self leading many who have attempted to tame this power to kill themselves in the process, it is however the lowest ranking of the taboo’s as its negatives stops there, as long as you can control the amount of blood you are utilizing you can effectively use this power. Usually curse energy resides in the soul, however, to use manipulate one’s blood, they must spend countless moons meshing their blood and curse energy together, this is the process that leads most to die, as the simplest mistake in control would lead to a detonation of all the blood in your body as your curse energy rampages out of control. Furthermore, since Blood curse usage lends itself to wounding or even killing oneself at the cost of amazing power, in the past there were some terrorists who would enact suicide attacks against councilors and other Stisedans of high worth.