Traansadoor

One of the most technologically advanced countries in the world. They use spirits as fuel.

File:Traansadoor.png

## **Vampires, Exorcists and the Binding of Souls**

The first thing one will notice, upon stepping into a Traansadooran city, is how bright it is. Day and night, rain or shine, the streets and buildings are always flooded with light, shining from omnipresent panels of specially treated metal. Traansadoor is the only country in Kalarain to have achieved something like this. They have done so by binding spirits into objects, and using them as a power source. Traansadoorans are prone to forming violent, angry, pitchfork-bearing mobs, and they do not like spirits.

## A Trifecta of Trauma

Around four hundred years ago, the fledgling nation of Traansadoor was sledgehammered by a series of spirit-related catastrophes that have deeply scarred the way Traansadoorans view the world. First, a well meaning attempt to use a sigil site to reincarnate lost spirits turned one of their territories, the area now known as the Vale of Ghosts, into an unlivable nightmare of constant spirit possession. Then, notable megalomaniac Varamir the Revenant, a Traansadooran Ectochoir, figured out a method of controlled repossession, and attempted to coup the government multiple times (once doing so during his own cremation). Finally, worship of the worldspirit Melita, a spirit of death, took off in a big way (encouraged by Varamir), and murderous death cults popped up all over the country.

This bruising sequence of events had a very high death toll, and it left Traansadoor with a very hostile view of spirits. Speakers are barred from practicing. Spiritborn and Ectochoirs are viewed as inherently evil; there is no formal law against being one, but when bad luck strikes the land, they are who the people of Traansadoor take it out on. Elementals and Anids are treated with suspicion, and most leave at the first opportunity.

## The Dark Heart of a Shining Country

Deep within Traansadoor’s rocky centre, on the bank of Lake Zephir, there is a spirit magic sigilsite. In the centuries since its discovery, the mages of Traansadoor performed a great many experiments, and around 150 years ago they discovered how to do something long thought impossible. Traansadoor figured out how to trap spirits within material objects. Viewing spirits as an inherently evil force as they do, they took to this eagerly.

Over an 120 year period, Traansadoor launched a quiet war against the spirits on their island, and bound tens of thousands of them into vessels. Halfway through this period, they deciphered a method to bind spirits of the second tier. Traansadooran mages believed they might even be on the cusp of binding spirits of the third tier when, 30 years ago, the Sorrow came to Traansadoor. One of the Lamentations it left behind was a null zone encompassing the Lake Zephir region. This Null zone deactivated the sigil site, and the spiritbinding, which relied upon the sigilsite as its central key, was stopped in its tracks. No one has been able to replicate it since.

The majority of the spirits were bound inside pieces of crystal or glass. These objects are known as spirit shards, and Traansadoor uses them to power its civilization. Making use of complex arcane matrixes and specifically tailored conduit materials, the island nation has developed a set of technologies that can use the spirit shards as incredibly long lived fuel. Their major cities are hooked up to spirit shard energy networks. Cables and panels made of an iron-mithril alloy are used to provide light and heating to buildings. Notably, this power cannot be switched off; middle class Traansadoorans usually have dedicated ‘light rooms’ in their house. Other things include: kettles, heated baths, street lights (common all over Traansadoor) and advanced ovens. Traansadoor does occasionally have localized power outages; vigilantes (from Vernon-lament and Sarea primarily) occasionally slip into the country and steal spirit shards, trying to rescue them before the spirit inside burns out.

Traansadoor also has trains. These are the most complex Traansadooran invention, and nothing like them exists anywhere else in the world. Scattered across the country are long stretches of iron-mithril rail, connected to spirit shards. The trains are relatively simplistic metal locomotives that look like flat platforms, made of the same material. Passengers sit in specifically designed seats, while goods are strapped down. Trains only go one way, away from the spirit shard that is powering that section of rail. Stations sit in the unpowered zones, with crews of burly train workers needed to move trains onto the next section of powered rail when a stop is complete.

## Vampires and Exorcisms

Traansadooran cities never go dark. The government keeps them flooded with light, and they do this because light keeps the vampires away. Vampires are leech Anids who have mastered dark magic techniques to absorb the life energy from living creatures via their blood, techniques which have warped their physiology into a state where they must consume the blood of sentient creatures to survive. Anids emerge in the aftermath of powerful spirit magic rituals, and thanks to the Lake Zephir sigilsite, there have been a lot of these. Traansadoor has a lot of vampires and vampires can get very powerful.

Vampires are sensitive to light, and especially sensitive to spirit light; they find it painful to be around and it blocks regeneration. For this reason, Traansadoor keeps its cities bright. When vampire activity is noticed in a region, the populations of rural towns and settlements flee to the safety of the larger cities, and wait out the vampiric threat.

One exalted Traansadooran profession is the exorcist. Practitioners in alchemy and spirit magic, exorcists have traditionally specialized in tracking down echtochoirs and spiritborn, and then ‘dealing’ with them, either through rituals to expel the foreign spirit from the body (which often work on ectochoirs, but never work on spiritborn), or through straight up murder. While not especially organised or coordinated, Traansadooran exorcists often mark themselves by wearing a medallion or badge with a silver, four-pointed star.

Traansadooran exorcists are usually capable killers, be they fighters or assassins. When the vampire threat really started to take off, they branched out, incorporating vampire hunting into their repertoire. Trannsadoran exorcists do not operate only within Trannsadoran borders, and many go vampire, ectochoir and spiritborn hunting abroad, though when it comes to the latter two, they tend to stick to the laws of the land they are in and shy away from unlawful killing. A family who has just discovered an ectochoir in their midst may find an exorcist knocking at their door in the dead of the night, offering their services to expel the dark spirit.