Vasille

Illustration by Joel Mandish

## Main

- culture is centered around constant competition to be the best or, failing that, the most acclaimed, in your chosen field

- this is partially due to wanting to please the three avatars of the plane's worldsoul who pop up every now and then, bestow rewards or inflict punishments based on their own inscrutable reasons, never speak, and then vanish again, but partially also due to a case of the libertarianisms that has spread across the populace

- the whole plane is comprised of several gated communities surrounded by a wilderness used alternatively as a dumping ground for undesirable stuff and a source of resources to exploit. the wilderness also has a demon realm filled with imps, devils, demons, and a bunch of other heinous nasties. smaller settlements also exist in the wilderness

- general theme: if you're weak, poor, or have genuine principles, fuck you

## Sociology

- the government is a warped meritocracy; if you've got the skills or the fame, people will follow your orders (if only to suck up to you, take advantage of you, or to lull you into a false sense of security so they can surpass / get rid of you) and you have the power, personnel, and resources you can get your hands on

- given how positions of power have a high rotation rate, legislation changes at the drop of a hat and varies according to region. just about the only thing that's consistent, though, is that theft, murder, and worse are fine, as long as they're not done in public and the populace can pretend it's not happening. breaking decorum like that'll get you with some kind of consequences. unless you bribe whoever would be imposing those consequences

- this lends a bizarre kind of freedom to the general populace; you have a fair shot at being allowed to do anything you want, but also a fair shot at anything you want to do being in the way of someone who's higher up than you, who will then stifle you by the force of their superior prestige

- very stratified, and poorer regions are also walled off within the communities

- since infrastructure is built privately for either profit or worldsoul impressing reasons, it is often enough of dubious function

- the plane's worldsoul is considered to manifest in three parts, the specific worship of each of whom is an organized religion

* the green-aligned Heart of All Life, thought through its actions to value the preservation of wildlife, the sustenance of life as a whole, and abstinence from dishonesty and needless complications. in its name, Vasille sustains various nature reserves, pays (lip-service) tribute to the wilds outside and justifies the exploitation of them as living true to one's nature as an animal
* the white-aligned Decider of Boundaries, thought through its actions to value peace through borders, happiness and prosperity through mutual care, and honor through restrictions. when laws are made, they're made in the Decider's name, even when they're ultimately for the benefit of the lawmaker alone. the Decider is also invoked to justify walling the "good neighbourhood" away from everyone outside of it, even other sapients
* the black-aligned Exemplar of the Self, thought through its actions to value being true to yourself and your own feelings, caring about yourself, and working to become ever better and achieve ever greater things. of the churches, the church of the Exemplar has the least pretense, and its teachings largely boil down to "look out for number 1"

- the plane is aware of planeswalkers and considers them celebrities par excellence, pampering them and giving them the finest treatment in hopes of showing their favour off for others as a trophy of sorts

## History

- the plane used to be far less of a warped pretentious meritocracy; it worshipped and valued the worldsoul as one entity, espousing a balance of all three aspects as the proper way of life in order to achieve true spiritual nobility. the population was more spread-out, the wilderness was still vibrant and demon-free, the worldsoul would talk to its people and hang out with them on a friendlier level, and life was good all 'round

- then a cataclysmic event happened, temporarily killing the Worldsoul and allowing a demagogue to become grand supreme leader and influence hearts and minds broadly in an attempt to buttress his own personal comfort and power. then he was usurped and undone by the very hedonistic worldview he created. let me play the world's smallest panharmonicon

- then the Worldsoul came back, saw what was going on, and felt some kind of super bad and traumatizing way about it, hence its current state

## Points of Interest

- Rheila: (vaguely mutant) viashino planeswalker. master healer. did some unethical medical experimentation shit here. arrived on the plane later to make amends for past evil shit he did there. fortunately, a past consumed by the same kind of fuck-you-got-mine mindset that permeates Vasille was decent training that helped him fit in with the system so he can game it well enough to get info

- Dajaman: viashino, Rheila's mate, likewise planeswalker, geo/pyromancer, practices a nonlethal fighting style aiming to subdue and end fights quickly. accompanied Rheila so that they could both get closure for the aforementioned unethical shit. also showed up a few years earlier to find out about said shit

- The Rise of the Disfigured: a mysterious serial killer-y event that occurs at Some Point in the timeline. partially Rheila's fault, because back in his shit edgelord brain fungus days he was involved with a cabal of healers who experimented on sapient life for knowledge and profit. now the subjects are rising up, led by one of Rheila's own tortured mutant guinea pigs, Saljan. eventually ends in a way I haven't come up with yet, in the old kaleidoscope set it was Rheila telling some of the mutants "look, I can't let you kill me, Daja would be upset and also I have work to do, so tell you what: you stop with the indiscriminate murderings and I pull strings to get you help". some did, some didn't, Rheila killed the ones who didn't and felt like shit about the whole thing. it might be like that in the reboot too, idk yet

- Saljan: leader of the Disfigured in their uprising. kinda sorta immortal due to all the experimenting. cares less about justice for his kin and more about avenging his (partially legitimate) anguish and rage onto the world, uses the anger of his fellow outcast test subjects to accomplish that but still cares about them on some level. eventually merced by Rheila