Astraea

## OFFICI**Λ**L DESCRIPTION

The main setting of The Arcana is set in **Astraea**, also called the **"Hidden Realm"** or the **"Hidden World"**, is a fictional world that inhabits humans, familiars, mages, and Warlocks. It's the world parallel to the real-world Earth, and Astraea's inhabitants are aware of the Earth's existence and its humans- calling them *Earthlings*- even without the other party knowing Astraea and its people exist. Astraea sees Aerith Xalvador as its goddess figure for the reason that she's the first to actually do something to prevent the Warlocks from taking over the entire planet.

**Belvoire** is one of the more specific "countries" that Astraea has; Belvoire in particular houses Belvoire Academia of the Arcane, where students of the magical arts attend to learn more about magic. Belvoire is mentioned to be interconnected by streams and canals and is divided into three districts; **Velaris**, **Venice**, **Crescent**, and an island called **the Lazarette**, which had been cut off from the rest of the country years ago.

## BELVOIRE'S GEOGR**Λ**PHY

Divided into three districts; **Velaris, Venice, Crescent**, along with the island **Lazarette**, Belvoire is a country cross between France, Czech Republic, Greece, and Italy. It has an alarming elevation level of just one meter, which is about only 3 feet, battled with its land mass which is around 650,328 km², which is roughly the same size as France and Texas, California- albeit Texas is slightly larger.

## PL**Λ**CES OF INTEREST

#### **Velaris District**

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The most important district as it has the school.

```

* **Belvoire Academia of the Arcana**- The school where Indirah Alnazar is enrolled in as a third-year student, and Kellan Xalvador, Xylon Lozano, Sapphire Chauvera, and Izaiah Alnazar as first-years. Lucio Damaris is the most recent addition to the student body, enrolling late and in the middle of the year as one of Indirah's classmates.
* **Black Forest**- This is the enchanted forest that Aerith Xalvador cast a spell on so Warlocks couldn't get out of their caves, also being the border between Warlocks and everyone else.
* **Warlock Caves**- Warlocks are the sole inhabitants of this place, as the name implies. It's located on the southend border of the Black Forest, and despite its name, it's actually a volcano. Lucio Damaris lives here, as well as his parents when they were still alive- Indirah Alnazar, her parents, and Sapphire's parents were once here because Warlocks kidnapped them, except for Sapphire's father.

#### **Venice District**

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This residential and market district is flooded, hence the "Venice" in the name.

```

* **Alnazars' Shop**- Doubling as the Alnazar's residence and place of business for fortune telling (especially tarot card reading), Cygnus, Agatha, Indirah, and Izaiah reside here before most of them were kidnapped by Warlocks.

#### **Crescent District**

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An crescent-shaped area especially made for residents.

```

* **Villa Xalvador**- Unbeknownst to Kellan, him and his parents (most likely even with Aerith when she was still alive) live in this mansion before the plague caused a pandemic in Astraea. While Kellan is yet to be 17, it was Indirah Alnazar who took care of the villa and cleaned it.

#### **The Lazarette**

```
The remote island cut off from the entirety of **Belvoire**.

```

* **The Lazarette Hospital**- Located in the middle of the country, **the Lazarette** serves as the temporary residence and hospital for the people infected with the Crimson Plague- and only for this plague. This is the place where Emelaigne and Kent Xalvador died along their son Kellan, and where Sapphire's father has been working in as a plague doctor.

## TRIVI**Λ**S

* Astraea means "Goddess of Justice", which matches Aerith Xalvador's status in the fictional world. In Greek mythology, Astraea (Astrea or Astria) means "starry night" or "star-maiden", and she is the virgin goddess of justice, innocence, purity and precision.
* Belvoire is a spelling variant of the word "belvoir", which means "beautiful view" in French.
	+ Its currency is related to this fact; "Voir" means "see" or "to see".
	+ Neither **Austin Dy** nor **Kit Aguinaldo** knew what the meaning of "Belvoire" is, they both admitted to an online Q&A that they just think the name suits a fantasy country.

* Kit Aguinaldo stated in an interview with **Genius Inc.** that Astraea's inspiration would be both Kepler-22b and the most recent planet discovered, TOI 1338b by Wolf Cukier. It's mentioned that Astraea looks exactly like Earth, although its skies are more on the light purple and pink hue rather than blue and white.

* It was the country that was named after the school rather than the usual other way around. Belvoire Academia was founded first before the country it was in was named.
* **The Lazarette** is actually a last-minute addition, with Austin pointing out that there should be a quarantined place where the infected people should be- away from other people.
	+ Big Hero 6's Akuma Island is one of the two inspirations for the Lazarette, with both being a quarantined island from their respective locations. The second is Poveglia, which is a remote island 3 miles from the coast of Venice, Italy.
	+ Poveglia has a hospital on it and was used to cure patients infected by the Bubonic Plague in 1347, much like how the Lazarette is a remote island used to cure patients with the Crimson Plague. The said hospital in Poveglia is called *The New Lazaretto.*
		- Kit revealed that the Lazarette's name was originally "The Ruins", but since she says it "strikes fear into the hearts of unsuspecting readers", she and Austin changed it.
* Despite Belvoire being a country interconnected by canals and streams, it was only the **Venice District** that was called "the flooded district", even though Belvoire in general is flooded itself.
	+ The country's elevation is only one meter (3 feet), which is the same level as Venice, Italy, one of Belvoire's inspirations.
* In the early drafts of the story, Belvoire is originally a kingdom in Europe, where Xylon Lozano is supposed to be the crown prince. In *Chapter VIII: Strength*, Izaiah Alnazar mentions that he dislikes the idea of federal republic systems, which means that Belvoire follows some kind of a constitutional monarchy or somewhat close, although the royal family of Belvoire isn't mentioned.