Vaqone

Map of Vaqone by tumblr user @thewatchau

Vaqone is a continent in the northern hemisphere of the Mortal Realm.

Some parts are still undervelopment, there are no country names

Vaqone has a forest in the north and a desert in the south. It has mountains on the east. East of those mountains is the nation that Borrike was having skirmishes with during 1613.

All Youtubers will be linked at the end of the page

## Foreign Relations

The eastern part of the continent is mostly civil with Tirónar, with the exception of the territory beyond the mountains, which have had issues with Borrike in the past. However traders from the main continent do come to Tirónar, and leaders from the Random Encounters country has worked with and collaborated with various leaders in Tirónar, including King Mark, King Sean, Admiral Matthew, and Nathan of Fasithe. The western countries don’t really affiliate with Tirónar on account of distance, but traders looking for adventure make the trek.

There are four major southern islands that are considered part of Vaqone, and couple of them have worked with the Grump Council of Halennor, Princes Dan and Phil of Lantraeth and King Sean.

### Major Exports

Silk, rabbit angora, gemstones, dye, rice, spice, pepper, peppers, coffee (in the far south)

### Known Allies

Haneul, Duilintinn, Fasithe, Leyfel, Lantraeth, Halennor

### Public Opinion

Generally positive or neutral in Tirónar. Still some issues with the T Series territories in Borrike

## Administration

### System of Government

Varied, mostly single leaders, with several kingdoms having joined in marriage to form one kingdom. The RandomEncounters country has a council, but it is very clear that AJ is in charge. In the north west where Tom Fawkes holds sway now used to be held by a combination of Chuggaaconroy, ProtonJon and NCS, then Tom gained enough power to hold what became enough land for his own kingdom, curtesy of three other leaders. NCS, Lucajin’s and ProtonJon’s territories have shifted a bit over the years to compensate for Jon and Luca’s union.

Currently FamilyJules and Adriana are interesting, since they are in a relationship, but their countries are split from each via the lake! It’s not common to see vessels from their countries going back and forth across it.

### Military

Varied, some don’t have large armies, some do. Coastal countries and the countries bordering the lake have decent boat craft and navy. The countries surrounding the forest have excellent archers, as do the countries surrounding, but not in, the desert. They have more of a cavalry and mounted archers while the forest archers are on foot, or in trees.

### Education

Varied. As a general rule history, performing arts, story telling and music are all taught, but obviously not everyone goes for it. Various levels of intensity across the continent, some have formal schools, others learn as apprentices, all depends on where you are and what you are studying.

## History

Vaqone’s history has not been elaborated upon in full yet in canon. However, a few details are known:

Cerca the year 0 on the Duil-Feadhainn Calendar, a large fleet of ships from islands north of Tirónar found themselves stranded in southern Vaqone after attempting to explore the Borrian Ocean. The languages and cultures of these people groups would combine with the native tongues and traditions of southern Vaqone to influence the region’s modern language and culture.

At some point during or prior to the mercantilist conflict between Senfara, Iontassia, and the southwestern regions of the Unnamed Continent, ships from southwestern Vaqone and ships from the northeastern Unnamed Continent encountered each other and began trade relationships between the two regions.

In the early 1610s, a nation on the eastern coast of Vaqone began expanding dramatically to cover the entire region east of the mountains and several of the islands east of Vaqone. In 1613, this expansion accidentally resulted in a territory dispute with Borrike of Tirónar over several of these islands. Though tensions were high for a time, the conflict was resolved within a year.

## Geography

### Major Features

Desert-Not so much sand as low precipitation. Dry baked earth with the odd oasis and high winds. The closer you get to the middle the hotter it gets and the stronger the winds become, kicking up dust and making it hard to see. It’s said that some of the oasis’s don’t stay in the same place, that they shift and move. People do live there (OSP): they tend to be focused on older myths and history, with a strong focus on education. It’s said that ruins and powerful creatures can be found under the dust and earth. Giant sand snakes, creatures made of rock, living cacti. No luck finding anything in the ruins so far though, every time a ruin is found it can’t be re-found.

The Lake-It’s almost like another sea inside a continent, only the water is definitely fresh. There are marshes, fens and bogs all around the lake and populated islands inside it. These islands are mostly focused on story analysis, theories and rewriting. It is said powerful creatures sleep beneath the water.

The Forest-There are definitely creatures in the forest. Whether of magical origins is uncertain, but forests that big attract stories anyway. People live in and around this forest anyway. Given it’s large size there is large shift in species and climate, moving from a roughly temperate forest in the north, to downright tropical in the south. The people who live here (8bitgaming and Dawko) have a specialisation in scary stories and horror. Which is interesting given that they are surrounded mostly by musicians.

The Mountains-The range has various passages for traders and other travellers to go through. Other than the mountains are generally impassable. The temperature varies on either side of the range. The north is colder and gets more snow, the south more temperate and warm.

Islands- to the east towards Tirónar are three islands who have ties to both Vaqone and Tirónar, the Jaden island being one of the closest to Tirónar, the other being the KickthePJ island. Jaiden’s island also has rich bird life and thick jungles while PJ’s is a bit more urbanised, but really embodies the storytelling that Vaqone loves. The middle island (Odd1sout) is more agriculture based, the closest to Vaqone island (BrizzyVoices) is known for mimicking voices, either through mundane skill or magic or both.

### Climate

Variable. Colder in the north, warmer in the south. More specifically, the north west is on the same latitude as Tirónar so a similar so of western continental Europe (Italy, Spain etc). While as you move south it becomes much warmer. The desert is the first real heat spot, and while it does get warmer in places further south, there is more rain. Beyond the mountains it generally colder than the rest of the continent.

There is an annual monsoon season that hits the south east and travels west as much as it can before petering out around the lake.

## Ecology

### Wild Species

Snakes. Snakes everywhere. Burrowing snakes, swimming snakes, gliding snakes. If you’re afraid of snakes, Vaqone is not for you. Although to balance it out, there are plenty of mongoose, no flying ones though.

There are various species of wolves, some can be found mostly in the north and along the mountain range, while a smaller, lighter variation can be found in and around the desert.

Tigers and similar large cats can be found in the south, and the further south you go the brighter the wildlife becomes.

Foxes and deer are common, along with small cat species, monkeys, penguins along the coast. Parrots, cockatiels, racoon dogs, giant squirrels (ratufa genus (bicolour, affinis, macroura, and indica) specifically), large birds of prey

### Domestic Species

Pigs, ducks, dogs, cats, small horses, rabbits, silkworms

### Fae

Fae Gardens tend to be more common in and around the forest, lake, and desert, so those bordering countries tend to have more Fae activity. The Fae also have a wide range of appearances and appear openly in some cases. That said they can be different to separate from some of the native magical creatures that are not Fae.

One of the more well known forms of Fae in Vaqone takes the form of a Baku, which is similar in appearance to a tapir and is said to eat nightmares.

## Culture

### Language

Common is spoken, especially along the east coast, but it is not the predominate language. There are a mix of languages across the continent, with a French like language in the northwest, with some Latin like based in there. Around the rest of Vaqone I would imagine languages similar to the variety in our East Asia would be found. This came about from the northern Tirónar islands in approx. Feadhainn year 0 decided to make the foolhardy journey to Vaqone and became shipwrecked there, and a version of their language combined with the native language of the time persisted in the southern regions of Vaqone.

### Cultural Highlights

An imaginative and artistic continent, some focus more on art, some more on various forms of music and storytelling. Some countries have a louder population, some quieter, there’s no real directional shift, it really depends on the country. Attacking Tucans is particularly loud.

The Western half of the continent every year has a Coliseum, which is a weekend straight of events around storytelling, music, competitions, comedy. Stephen and Mal have another annual similar event. All of these events are in aid of raising money for worthwhile causes.

There are many stories that have common threads that persist across the continent, although no one telling is exactly the same. Common threads include giant spike turtle monsters, a re-incarnating hero, princess and villain, doomed to battle throughout generations again and again, sentient weapons, and enlisting fae and magical creatures to battle in your stead.

The latter is so popular that there is a physical token and card game around it, most popular in the northwest, but has pockets of fans elsewhere. The leader of the Chuggaaconroy country has his own large collection. Some of these creatures are based on dragons fleeing the Dragon War who made it to Vaqone.

### Food

Dependent on location, rice can be grown around the coast, the lakes, and rivers, wheat, buckwheat and soy most other places. There’s fruit like peaches, plums and cherries in the north, pomegranate, lychee, and mangos in the south. Seafood and fish. Desert is a tricky place to grow things, they rely on the areas of their country furthest from the desert and imports from other countries for food. Duck and pork are common sources of meat.

### Perspective on Magic

Some believe it exists, some don’t. As a general rule, the closer you are to the desert, lake, or forest, the more likely you are to encounter magic. There are mages, and in working with the rest of the continent usually use it for performance, art and storytelling, but of course not everyone’s focus lies there.

## Sentient Races

In addition to humans and human changelings, there are six (currently, could change) known soul bearing sentient races that populate the continent of Vaqone:

* The Kokkil and their changelings, the Baem
* The Eopsin and their changelings, the Naga
* The Kirin and their changelings, the Kirae

### Kokkil and Baem

The most well-known beyond Vaqone, the Kokkil and their changelings the Baem are the most recognizable beings with souls in Vaqone.

#### Name Origin:

The name Kokkil is the Common name for them, not their native name, and is similar the Haneul *(cough, Korean)* word for elephant, since that is what they resemble.

Kokkil Changelings are called Baem in Common, again from the Haneul word for snake and is vaguely similar to the Common word bone, if you squint.

#### Appearance:

They have a wider variation in colour and patterns to irl elephants, from pale yellow to black to dark green, with dappling and striped patterns, more obvious in young Kokkil. Their size varies depending on their common stomping grounds, those that live near forests are a little smaller for example. They tend to range between 8-11 feet tall at the shoulder.

The Baem look rather like snakes and are more solitary than Kokkil. They however aren’t quite as flexible as snakes and don’t move as quickly. The tusk makes up most of their body, the broad end having the head and the narrow end the tail. The head pokes out the end with a covering of tusk over the top of the head. The body is segmented to allow movement.

#### Social Behavoir:

Kokkil are prolific travellers and wanderers, and don’t really care about human notions of borders, they will go where they go. They keep to large family groups, with a matriarch leading the way. While very secretive regarding their magical records (described below,) they do offer their services as history and lore keepers with other races, in exchange for unusual food and interesting goods. They’re pretty self sufficient and rarely need to trade with other races.

Baem are usually found among the Kokkil, having different roles among the groups. Kokkil are good at heavy lifting, some delicate tasks, and remembering. While Braem are good at organising and retrieving, they all work together. Elder Baem aren’t so easily found on the surface, it’s rumoured that they go to where the records are stored to act as librarians of sorts, but since no one but Kokkil and Braem go there, no one else can confirm.

#### Magic:

Their tusks are their physical magical focus, so when their Changelings come about, that’s the base of their form. They tend to use their magic to mostly keep magical records, which are stored in a location that Kokkil know but aren’t willing to share, even with the most earnest of human scholars. It has been theorised to be in the desert somewhere, given the nature of ruins being impossible to find again.

### Eopsin and Naga

Eopsin and their changelings Naga aren’t as widely seen or open with outsiders.

#### Appearance:

Eopsin look almost entirely like large snakes of various colours, easily the size of an irl anaconda. The only clear difference between them and mundane snakes are human like ears, which can be folded back against their heads for ease of movement.

Naga are consistent with many of their modern iteration, lower half snake, upper half human, with scales going up their arms and onto their face. Variety of colours, tend to be somewhat solitary or in small family groups. Usually there only one or two Naga young to a couple at a time, and they remain with their parents until adulthood.

#### Social Behavoir:

The Eopsin tend to be solitary and avoid other races, the only exception being when they hatch. They hatch in large nests where a parent will bring food and teach them magic for the first few weeks.  They don’t have a physical focus, but most of them having a decent focus before they leave the nest. They mostly use their magic to act as their fine motor function and branch out from there. Eopsin are most commonly found in the forest and in the desert.

Naga are found in roughly the same place as Eopsin, with appropriate colouration and adaptations, although the two rarely cross paths. Many Naga use magic, quite enjoying the mysterious nature it gives them. They enjoy illusions especially, but are more mischievous than malicious, be a good sport and they’ll be fine with you.

Naga are somewhat reverent of Eopsin, the latter being closer to nature than the former can be.

### Kirin and Kirea

While Kirin tend to keep to themselves, their changelings the Kirea are one of the most commonly sighted non-humanoid soul-bearing races seen in Vaqone.

#### Appearance

Kirin stand around 150-180cm at the shoulder, with the body shape of a deer, but instead of fur, they have scales in a variety of colours. Some are big and bold, the colours of gems and precious metals, while some are more natural colours. They can enchant their own scales to change colour. They have a ruffed mane like a lion, mostly fur but they tend to put feathers in them. A tail like a lion, cloven hooves and a pair of curved antlers, which branch out into two points and are a physical magical focus.

Kirea are their Changelings, and look like small dogs with a neck ruff of fur. The antlers tend to cover the fore and hind limbs and torso, so new Kirea tend to move stiffly and have bare antler as a form of exoskeleton, with a head sticking out. As they get older the antler begins to break and shift, revealing skin and flesh, and bright fur growing up in the new gaps. They tend to only reach a metre or so in height.

#### Social Behavoir

Kirin are considered wise and knowledgeable, and they like to cultivate that reputation. This also makes them rather haughty and aloof to other races, but they will happily work with someone in a tit for tat kind of way. I do this for you, you do this for me.

They tend to be in large herds, but anyone deliberately seeking them out will usually only find the leader or the wisest. They tend to have ranges in the countries along the southern and western coasts.

Kirea are less haughty and very playful, more than happy to venture into human settlements, Naga nests, or Eospin nests, or otherwise follow Kokkil to play and rough house. Older Kirea tend to be a bit calmer, but still tend to embody ‘here for a good time’

Kirin, being as haughty as they are, generally pity their Changelings and look after them. Kirin will let them ride on their back, although the phenomenon has rarely been seen. It messes with the wise and mysterious image after all.

## Dragons

During the Dragon War some dragons fled in the direction of Vaqone. However, dragons are not built for that kind of long distance travel and most of them would not have made it. The ones that did would have left quite the impression on the collective psyche of the people of Vaqone. Massive creatures no one had ever seen before flying over and crashing spectacularly. Given the rumours and legends, it’s assumed that a couple of dragons got as far north as the lake and even desert, before crash landing. From there they most likely died of mostly exhaustion, combined with injuries of crash landing, and the one that fell in the lake probably drowned.

That said, the modern depiction of dragons in Vaqone is vastly different than the ones that originally flew from Tirónar. This is likely down to a number of factors, including:

* The prominence of snakes in the continent.
* Oral storytelling and the natural variance that comes with retelling.
* The wing bones of found dragon skeletons are likely damaged irreparably or so crushed that they couldn’t be found.
* The most similar creatures to dragons in Vaqone are Kirin.

Thanks to the combination of these factors, dragons depicted in Vaqone are much more serpent like, either lacking wings or having small wings, with manes or ruffs of feathers like Kirin. Additionally, they are more often associated with water rather than fire, possibly because the dragons may have arrived on the continent around the same time as the annual monsoons.
However, because of all this, there are a handful of King’s Eyes roaming around, although with a different name. There’s definitely one in and around the lake, somewhere. It remains elusive, sparking rumours when glimpsed. Other King’s Eyes may also be on the coast or on the coastal islands. Additionally, while most sentient races of Vaqone are completely unaware of its existance, the Kokkil and Baem know of a specific King’s Eye that resides where they store their records.

## Trivia

At one point, the tentative name for Vaqone was Muetju. That name will later be used for a country within this continent.

Another old tentative name for Vaqone was Keirfell. That name will probably end up as either the name of the currently Unnamed Continent or a country in Senfara

Kokkil, Baem and Kirae are beings that are completely made up, Naga, Eopsin and Kirin are all mythological creatures and beings that exist in our word.

Kokkil is a slight change from the anglicised (from google translate) Korean word for elephant, which is anglicised as Kokkili. Baem has not been changed from the google translate anglicisation.

## Meta list of countries

### Let's Play half

   Chuggaaconroy

ProtonJon

NintendoCapriSun

Luchajin

Tom Fawkes

StephenPlays (and Mal)

AttackingToucans

MasaeAnela

JoshJepson (and Brooke)

Marriland

Donnabellz

SuperJeenius

ACFan120

Ari Zona

### Music Half

Adriana

Caleb Hyles

Peter and Evynne Hollens

Family Jules

Lindsey Stirling

Jonathon Young

Ellie Monty

Elsie Lovelock

Chris Holfelder

8-Bit Drummer

Random Encounters

CG5

Andrew Stein (Mando Pony)

Smooth McGroove

Seth Everman

In the Forest

8-bitGaming (8-BitRyan and Bazamalam)

Dawko

In the Desert

OverSarcasticProductions

In the Lake

SuperCarlinBrothers

Wotso

The Islands

BrizzyVoices

Odd1sOut

JaidenAnimations

KickthePJ

## General thoughts and random lore

Most of the kingdoms with two names are ruled by a married couple, each have their own channels but for the sake of the AU they have mostly been combined. First we have Peter and Evynne Hollens, who were married in 2007 (1). Stephen and Mal were married in 2011 (2), Josh and Brooke in 2015 (3), and Jon and Luchajin in 2018 (4). Because their marriage was so recent the kingdoms have not merged yet.

ProtonJon's kingdom will probably get the name Muetju, since I based that on the French language and he's Canadian. This is the same reason he's got the mountains.

Chuggaaconroy has mostly lived in desert or otherwise southern states throughout his life. He and MasaeAnela are irl in the same state, and are good friends. Naturally people ship them, although they have denied constantly they are a couple. This is my reasoning for them to be on opposite sides of the desert.

Stephen and Mal both live in a seaside city. No more explanations needed.

Chuggaaconry, ProtonJon, and NintendoCapriSun are the founding members of a group called TheRunawayGuys. They've had many guests (and not all of them are on this continent), but they are the core trio. Tom Fawkes did some animations for them and now he does stuff for them (I don't know exactly) So his kingdom exists as a sort of republic state between the three of them. A mix of TRG fans and Tom Fawkes fans that Tom has been put in charge of.

Tom Fawkes is possibly the only one in this lot I know of with an Ego of sorts. Lord Donator, an 'ego' who appears during the Coliseum and is basically Chaotic Good. He'll kidnap Lamp and hold them hostage so people will donate more to charity.

The only other person I can think of with an 'Ego' is MasaeAnela, with Chibi Masae. She may serve as her second in command, and the Chibi's violent urges have to curtailed every now and again.

Mases has animals from across the continent as her pets (IRL sugar gliders, ferret, dog and bird)

Masae and Jon both do streams, and sometimes those streams are raided, both have countermeasures. So this could translate to a friendly testing of each country's defences.

Chuggaaconroy is notoriously innocent and a bit frustrating sometimes. It is said in their get togethers that you can hear King Jon scream "EMILE!" from the other side of the continent.

AttackingTucans and JoshJepson are close together because they have a competitive Versus channel.

Marriland has helped out Chugga a lot, but is still very separate, hence why opposite him.

Stephen's parents feature prominatly in his vlogs, as do many of his friends. His friends I will probably cop out with and have them as a court of some sort. His parents were the previously rulers who abdicated, because that makes more sense honestly. That way the can still provide advice.

Every year the entire east side of the continent will stage a Coliseum event to raise money for charity. Other kingdoms will have their own fundraisers, but the Coliseum is a massive event that many people get involved with.

FamilyJules and Adriana have also appeared on Coliseum so that's why they're so close to the Let's Play half. 8BitDrummer has also appeared, I was just a goof about remembering which is why he's so far away right now.

Chris and Peter have collabed, which is why they're nearby.

Caleb and Jonathon often collab as well.

I tried to put people who have collabed with Random Encounters near them, as well has having RE on the coast because people off continent have collabed with them too.

Caleb's kingdom was once plagued by a Phantom of the Opera like figure, who kidnapped Caleb at one point to forcibly train him to be a better singer (this happened on the channel in 2015, before any serious ego stuff from Mark or Sean) (5, 6). He appears to have deleted most of the videos around this except from the two linked, the beginning and the end.

Proclamations in the West in general would be educational, since the style of Let's Play here is more walkthrough than reactionary. This is not always the case, but is a general rule.

In the East, mostly musical performances, big focus on the arts.

Stephen and Mal are kinda interesting, since they do daily vlogs, lps and Mal has an art channel (Mal Makes). Masae is also artistic, so art is often coming out of those kingdoms too.

As of the 19th April 1615, the third Coliseum, the Lamp commonly associated with Lord Donator appeared in Stephen and Mal's kingdom, lighting itself after being blown out, or when deprived of fuel, glowing red of it's own accord (7).

09.09.20, 9th September 1615, Emile posted his first video talking about his extensive Pokemon card collection (8), which I reckon can be transplanted to the AU. Pokemon can be Fey like creatures that appear on this continent, or at least, some of them.

11th May 1615 the Lamp made a return within Stephen and Mal's kingdom during the Colesseum, and appears to be actively malicious (9). Stephen was unable to destroy it and it seemed to able to control him in some manner, making him choke himself. Magical scholars are cautiously investigating, and there have been some calls to return the Lamp to Lord Dona'tor. Yet Stephen and Mal were both present at the Colesseum, unharmed.

Lucajin's country should really have a decent cavalry or have horse based industry

Stephen usually gets referred to as 'Grandpa' despite only being about 30 irl, no idea how to relate it to AU just thinking brain tired

## Citations

(1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXKBQY3DgPU

(2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79mjnJgbFZU

(3)https://www.famousbirthdays.com/people/josh-jepson.html

(4) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHQbTnD2Ajg

(5) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRE8z\_iOngI

(6) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtkOiQt24EQ

(7) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsfOG\_LhTk8

(8) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViCdh-Dk1IM

(9) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ht6EbmpJwM