Cycien

## The Anchorite Kingdom

The isolationist nation of Cycien—also known as the Anchorite Kingdom—is a mountain kingdom that lies north of the Imperium. It is ruled as a magocracy where the most powerful magic users occupy the highest positions of government. The government regime is ruled by a council of the country’s six most powerful mages—one for each major college of magic.

Though the Anchorite Kingdom recognizes the Proximian classification of magical colleges, they do not adhere to the belief that there are three sources of magical energy. Rather, Cyciens believe that all magic is divine, and that all mana originates from the holy realm of Elysium. This heterodoxy has resulted in a split from the Proximian church—Anchorites do not recognize the supreme spiritual authority of the Proximus Vitem Mortem. In fact, Anchorites recognize no single spiritual leader, and their religious community consists of many independent churches that often have different theological interpretations.

Citizenship in Cycien is based solely on magical aptitude. Individuals who are deemed ill-suited to the sacred practice of the arcane are invariably enslaved—they are fitted with magically enchanted collars that cut them off from all sources of magic, rendering them entirely incapable of using magic. Such slaves are often referred to as The Unclean—their eternal damnation made manifest by their inability to wield magic as the gods intended. The Elect—those who have an aptitude for the arcane arts—have already been chosen by the Gods and are preordained to ascend to Elysium. One who has been Elected can take no action to alter their divine destiny—just as no Unclean soul may achieve providence through their works. The Gods, according to an Anchorite, are all knowing and know the fate of a person before they have ever been born—they have marked those who are good by blessing them with magic and cursed those who are evil by ensuring they are incapable of using the divine gift.

Slaves in Cycien outnumber Citizens by an order of 100 to 1. They are considered subhuman—below that of even an animal due to their impending damnation—and are regularly terrorized. Once a year, the citizens of Cycien perform a religious festival in which they cull the strongest, most able-bodied slaves. All others are tortured and beaten mercilessly—not as penance, for such miserable wretches are doomed to the fires of Erebus, but as punishment for their wickedness. This festival is collectively referred to as the Hobbling.

Cycien is very mountainous and forested, though there exist many agricultural plantations in the valleys between Cycien’s icy peaks. Northvale is both the capital and most populous city; its magical architecture is a fantastical defiance of physics and geometry. The city was built around the Academia Arcanum which was constructed in the Aevum Ortus and serves both as an academy for the divine arts and center of government from which the heads of the six colleges control Cycien. The kingdom is cool throughout most of the year, and the winters are exceptionally harsh—temperatures often plummet to below -20 degrees Fahrenheit in the nation’s northern reaches.

Notably, Damocles the Smith was trained with the Academia Arcanum as an enchanter and would later use that skill set to forge the Vitemium and Mortemium blades. Those blades were used by champions of the Anchorite kingdom until it was conquered in the Aevum Bellum by the Illian Empire.

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