Pascaria

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File:Pascaria.png

## **Switchies**

Pascaria should not exist. It is a nonsense country, a social experiment that has survived far, far longer than anyone expected it to. Every six months, everyone in Pascaria stops what they are doing and trades lives with someone else. And the people who don’t tend to get attacked by spirits or removed by law enforcement (or both).

## The last true Escaran Patchwork

Pascaria is a Patchwork country, the one confirmed Patchwork country left in the world. It has an unusual heritage. The Patchwork countries, or Escaran Patchworks, were constructed societies established using mind magic by the elves of the ancient empire of Escaro. No other nation knew mind magic was even a possibility at the time, and Escaro’s mages used it on a mass scale to basically rewrite other cultures to their whims. Their motives and creations varied, but one Escaran archmage seems to have found the idea of a country where everyone switched lives every six months either deeply fascinating, or absolutely hilarious. Pascaria is the result.

## The Shuffle

Every 6 months, Pascaria has a Shuffle. The good citizens of Pascaria each receive a letter, which lists a vocation, an address (a novel, unusual Pascarian concept) and a handful of other details. On Shuffle Day, they get up, bid farewell to the people they have been living with for the past six months, and venture out to move into their new life. It is customary to leave behind a manual of instructions and a biscuit. To many many outsiders, this is horrifying. To properly raised Pascarians, it’s wonderful. They get to experience so many different lives, try so many different occupations. The Pascarian ethos holds that this is the best, purest, most equal way to live, experiencing all that Pascaria has to offer, and never growing too bogged down by attachments to temporary families. And who knows, someday you might even see them again!

Some elements of Pascaria, by necessity, do remain static. A small handful of Pascarians are chosen at random to be part of the Apparatus, the institution responsible for coordinating the switches. These Pascarians hold these positions their entire lives. One of the most diabolical aspects of the mind magic created norms of Pascaria is that everyone is so happy to enforce them. The youth of Pascaria are conditioned to throw themselves into the Shuffle with enthusiastic fervour. The Apparatus Pascarian are overjoyed to facilitate the exciting, ever-changing lives of their fellow citizens. Pascarian are raised to be happy. It doesn’t always take, though, and many Pascarian have fled the country.

## How in the name of Saraa did this country survive?

Pascaria has survived a thousand years of history largely by chance. The land is incredibly fertile and has consistently mild weather (likely the only reason any of its shoddy buildings remain standing). The country probably would not have survived if it were otherwise, as a society where the farmers switch every six months is incredibly inefficient. Pascaria is also home to a group of spirits of the second tier who regularly possess people who try and defy the system, and march them to where they are supposed to be. There have been attempts at coups in the past, and these people usually get attacked by said spirits; it is dangerous to push.

These spirits ascended to the second tier astonishingly quickly after Pascaria’s founding and have been instrumental in maintaining the status quo. Preventing this spiritual interference could be possible, but the Apparatus actively fights attempts to do so. Pascaria’s borders are also ringed with mountains and easily defensible, and their only terrestrial neighbours are Lenore and Thur Farim, neither of which have ever been interested in invading.

Pascarian dress in extremely flamboyant garish clothing, with big hats and terrible color combinations. They also wear socks and sandals.