Sarea

A kind and gentle neighbour, but not a soft one.

File:Sarea.png

## **Light in the Darkness**

Sarea is a country of heroes. A medium-sized nation on the Southern Peninsula, its people suffered a great atrocity at the hands of a monstrous mind-mage. No one came to Sarea’s rescue. Now, the country is driven by single communal ideal, burned across the national psyche. They will be the saviors they wish had rescued them.

## The Binding of Sarea

For most of history, Sarea was a quiet, unremarkable coastal nation that largely kept to itself. Without great natural resources or strategic value, it avoided conflict. The culture tended towards politeness, insularity, and mostly being concerned with one’s own life.

But Sarea had a secret. The nation had been built over a sigilsite of the mind magic, one of the largest in the world. The inhabitants didn’t know this. But it was discovered, and discovered by the worst possible person.

Dancell-Praise-Cesar of the Talons of Camara, a mind-mage of immense ability, learned of the sigilsite. And he tapped into it, made its power his own. And then he enslaved the people of Sarea, the people who walked above it. Arcane tendrils bound around the minds of every single inhabitant. They were his.

They were used for labour, of course. Resources exploited for the benefit of Camara. But worse, Dancell-Praise tormented them. He made them see and hear terrible things, used his mind-tendrils to send spikes of pain through the people of Sarea. But they were not allowed to express it. Dancell-Praise forced them to carry on as if nothing was wrong. They had to keep living their lives, smiling and laughing, while his mocking voice pricked and pecked at them. Their bodies continued living, while they sat, trapped behind the eyes.

This was the Binding of Sarea. It lasted for ten years.

Sarea’s liberation came from the most unlikely of sources. In 1042, the Sorrow manifested, and the first place it did so was Sarea. The very first thing it did was turn the entire population, and every living thing in the country, to stone.

Two years later, the Sorrow was defeated at Black Isle, and Sarea was freed from the curse of the stone. Almost. Around a tenth of the country’s sentient population remained petrified. But all other life in the country woke up, and they woke up free of Dancell-Praise’s mental enslavement. The Talon had been missing since the day the Sorrow arrived.

One popular theory behind the Sorrow’s origin suggests that Dancell-Praise was behind it, and he used the Sarea sigilsite to create or call it somehow. Certainly, he had become more arrogant from his success in enslaving a nation. But the truth, if it can ever be discovered, remains opaque.

The remaining petrified Sareans are petrified still. They sit, packed by the thousands, in dark, silent warehouses.

## The Sunstone Sisterhood

In the last three decades, Sarea has exploded across the international stage. The modern Sarean cultural identity revolves around coming to the assistance of people in need, and protecting those who cannot protect themselves; wherever Sarea can do this, it will. People from other nations who agree with the Sarean mission statement have moved there and added their knowledge, wealth and skills to the cause, turning a once almost irrelevant nation into an international powerhouse.

At the head of this cause sits the Sunstone Sisterhood, a Sarean organisation whose members travel the world opposing tyranny, battling threats and helping people in need. The members of the Sisterhood are known for their kindness, empathy and almost suicidal bravery. The Sisterhood isn’t an official part of the Sarean government, but there is clear support there. The Sisterhood has strong ties to the Slayers of the Fractal mountains, due to their similar goals. It is an all-gender organisation.

The influx of do-gooders to Sarea has turned the country into something of a melting pot, a bright kaleidoscope of cultures, cuisines and styles of dress. Where Sarea traditionally leant towards kimonos and tea ceremonies, the modern nation emphasises individuality and expression, and there is a norm of non-judgment. The Sisterhood is especially ecclectic. It is not uncommon to see an armored samurai in the company of a chain-mailed knight, a red-robed sorcerer and a black-hatted witch, heading off for a heroic adventure.

Mind magic is absolutely forbidden in Sarea, and is treated with horror and revulsion by its people.