Ayken

## Main

**Ayken** is a sparcely populated, agrarian plane of nation states and nomadic gauchos. Vast pampas extended into a seemingly endless horizon where wild cattle and horses roam as a vast Cordillera splits the plane in two.

Ayken is featured in *Pampas of Ayken*.

## Regions

The main continent of Ayken, so far the only known, is traditionally separated on seven different regions, vaguely correlating to the nation-states, or "Provinces" found within them. From west to east lies first the Province of Lontanahue, a province with a mediterranean climate that runs along the stretch of land found between the vast ocean surrounding the continent and the cordillera which runs not too far into the mainland of the continent, althought the land turns arid as it runs into its double frontier shared with both Ichigual and Calcha.

North of Lontanahue lies Ichigual, a mostly landlocked region that lies almost entirely within a plateau that forms the northernmost section of the large Cordillera that runs through the continent. Its climate is desert-polar with strong and cold winds, but is extremely rich in minerals.

Directly south of Ichigual, and east of Lontanahue lies Calcha, an uncharacteristically dry and hot country for the plane with the least arable land in the entirety of the continent.

Farther south of Calcha lies the remote region of Sanavira, locked in by mountains and engulfed by temperate rainforests, this cold and rainy region is surprisingly fertile and has an abundance of fauna and flora unique to the region.

North of Sanavira and east from Calcha lies Mochane, an extremely green and fertile grassland that extends as far as the eye can reach, it represents by far the largest part of the landmass of the continent. It's uncanny featurelessness feeling dazzling and almost unwelcoming to strangers of its nature.

Directly north of Mochane lies the independent City State of Silver City and its surrounding dependencies, although geographically the region still encompasses the same features as Mochane, it does possess a stronger maritime climate and subtropical temperatures. It's also known for being a particularly wet region, given that most of the rivers of the plane eventually debouch at the entrance of the Silver City.

Finally north from the Silver City and east of Ichigual lie the tropical region of Maraya. Strong winds and yerba mate plantations characterize a region otherwise mostly covered in jungles and small missionary outposts.

## History and Politics

Although recorded history only stretches back a few centuries, it is known that continent has been populated by nomads and remote settlements for millenia, the first empire of note was the Kingdom of Huancagua, which rose nearly a thousand years before present, and united most of the known regions of the main continent under its rule, stretching from the Altiplano in current day Ichigual, where its seat of power lied, up to the northern frontiers of Sanavira. As romantic idealism and republican ideals swept across the continent, the empire began to crumble, finally falling about a hundred years before present, creating the succesor states of Lontanahue, Ichigual, Calcha and Mochane, as well as the free city of Silver, whose name eventually developed to become known as the Silver City.

About three decades ago the Silver City discovered a loophole in the metaphysics of the plane which allowed for a regional take on industrialism, powered by musical magic, with Tango taking a center stage. This led to a mass immigration to the city in the hopes of finding wealth and fortune, which enabled it to obtain economic hegemony and, eventually, political domination over the surrounding regions.

Currently the Silver City is presided by Franco Sarmiento, a boastful and authoritarian Gaucho born in the pampas of Mochane who's sworn to unify the entire continent under his Iron fist, having formed an alliance with the Fist of Lontanahue, he annexed the provinces of Maraya and Mochane while the fierce resistance of the people of Calcha have stopped his ambitions as well as those of the army of Lontanahue.

The Church of Saints is the second largest power within the continent, a polytheistic, descentralized religion having its origins in Maraya, it is a religion built around the worship of "Saints", greater than life beings whose mere memory can grant miracles and summon manifestations of the idealization of the worshipped saint. Bringing hundreds of pilgrims to the shrines of each saint, the place in which they died, to grant requests and fulfill penances. The church itself is ran independently at each parish by an Abbot (or Abess, as the case requires.) People who are in charge of keeping a clear narrative towards the memory of a particular saint in their care, as well as directing the writing of hagiographies to set a canon for the worshipped saint.

Both Lontanahue and the Silver City are presidential republics, while formerly Mochane possessed a president as well, nowadays it's ran from the Silver City as well, while Calcha's government has completely collapsed and is ran by guerrilla bands and warlords who wage resistance warfare against the invasion forces. Maraya has never had a centralized government and is considered as an unincorporated territory by the Silver City. While most of the population of the Province follows the rule of the local Abotts and Abesses who run the local churches that dot the country. The government of Ichigual is run by a largelly ineffectual monarchy that's duly aware of their status as a rump state, although the local festivals and festivities keep the population content, as well as the mining guilds who truly run the country. Finally Sanavira, due to its extremely remote location, has escaped most means of effective governance by outside influences and most decisions are ran either by local landlords or by the councils of warlocks that have sprung up across the Province.

## Flora and Fauna

The few planeswalkers that have found Ayken have noticed the peculiar subtleties of the natural cycles within the plane. As if it behaves slightly strangely, but not enough to catch the eye immediately. Although the plane does possess a natural day and night cycle, as a natural satellite can be seen in the sky, as well as a star which provides light and warmth and several more stars that can be seen in the far distance, the natural cycle isn't completely tied only to forces outside the continent. Camahueto cattle do directly interfere in the behavior of the water cycle within the plane, guiding the courses of water, from source to delta, encouraging growth of flora and periodically razing and recuperating entire stretches of land as they migrate from one region to another. The entire balance of the natural cycles of the plane is directly tied to them.

Sentient races found within the continent, and the surrounding seas, include leonins, cuca minotaurs, humans, elves, supays, cavilolen demons, angels, pincoya sirens and centaurs. With Infernal azras being a subrace born out of a human and a supay parents.

Another notorious phenomena is the Alicanto birds, biometallic organisms who feed on and reproduce out of consuming metal. Although it's not understood how, there is evidence that this is an acquired characteristics, and many other creatures and species can acquire these metallic qualities, to varying degrees, under as of now unknown circumstances.

## Metaphysics

Unkown to all but the higher eschelons of the Silver City's government, the nature of magic in this plane is unrelated to faith or belief. Passion powers all arcanism within the plane, and only the most passionate creatures can be the most powerful spellcasters. Sufficient passion can animate living embodiments of idealized characters, such as the Saints, or of certain traits and ideas, like Angels and the tanguites of the Silver City. If sufficient people share a common belief or saints who embody similar traits, these traits can become manifest in the form of Apostles.