Kalimor

**Kalimor** (demonym: *Kalimori*) is a city-state of around 20,000 located on an archipelago off the eastern coast of Aphelion, closest to the tribal island of Dorama and southwest of the Oceanic Republic of Voshe. In the modern day, Kalimor is a serene and picturesque city characterized by its florid environment, sweet wines, cuisine, music, aquatic activities, and an interest abundance of polyglotism. It is a popular vacation haven and tax shelter for the Voshi, Dashari, and Dreitonese peoples.

Ethnolinguistically, Kalimor is one-of-a-kind; their people are pale-skinned, much unlike the Voshi to their north and the Dashari to their west, and also unlike many of the tribal peoples in their area. Their official language is also a language isolate, composed of symbolic characters written right-to-left. They are able to communicate with the outside world due to a robust language education system, and many speak a mixture of Occan, Oceanic, Aquilan Standard, and even Zetashari, lending heavily to their tourism-focused and warm and welcoming image.

The town's natural wonders include lush forests, pristine beaches, and diverse marine ecosystems, making it an ideal destination for eco-tourism and wildlife enthusiasts.

## History

All modern Kalimori are not native to the nation's archipelago; their genealogy and language can be traced back to a thalassocratic citystate named **Cielo** off the western coast of Aphelion. Information on this root civilization is sparse; it is believed that they numbered about 10,000 at their end and were comparable in technological development to our world in the 4850s. The state was destroyed in the mid-2800s by an extremist black mage faction in the context of a greater Magus War happening throughout the surrounding waters and on the western Aphelian coast of that era. Almost all its citizens perished; a few hundred, believed to be about 300 in number, escaped the destruction in hiding and boarded four royal ships. Taking all possible means of sustenance with them as well as minor artifacts and technology, they departed northward, with the goal of circumventing the greater continent in search of a new island-home.

The survivors led a nomadic lifestyle for a period of about 2 years, settling briefly in communities in and around modern-day Windforth, the island of Cih, Corona, and Asten, before finding a new home in their current archipelago. Their fleeting stays in these regions is evidence by ruins of waterside farms and quaint huts, similar in material composition to the preserved homes of antiquity in modern-day Vuraki Island.

The nomadic survivors, having kept their number level since their departure, easily settled into their new land, which closely resembled their old home in terrain and climate. However, they were not alone; native to the island were many covens of white mages who practiced subsistence farming and devout lifestyles in a network of communities. They were a peaceful people, and so allowed the Cielo pilgrims to settle into the larger Vuraki Island, which had a mostly flat terrain of plains with forests protecting it on its northern and southern coasts. For 3 years, the Cielo pilgrims and the white mages lived in harmony, dining together and sharing in the fruit of the land. It is also evidenced by a number of bas-reliefs and ancient scripts that the mages taught the settlers the most basic of white magics, including mostly light healing and ailment relief.

Years of peace were broken by the outbreak of a crippling and eventually deadly plague in the year 2862, similar in symptoms to the Imperial Zombie plague that would ravage Kilran and Khotan 30 years later. Fearing for their existences for the second time in 5 years, and still deeply distrustful of magic, the settlers turned against the white mages and captured and tortured many in crude facilities beneath the infant town of Kalimor. When the mages failed to treat the plague in its entirety, they would be killed mercilessly, burned, and dumped into cells in those facilities. The plague acted quickly; it first addled the mind and cause profound dementia before paralyzing the patient and rendering them unable to breathe, suffocating them.

Prior to the peak of the genocide, a group of five young adults, among them a gifted chemist from the old islands, embarked westward on the **Expedition of the Lights**, in search of materials to cure the disease or at least scholarly help in regards to the plague's origin and prognosis. The five never returned. In their stead, a tall, well-dressed and olive-skinned man arrive at the town's center one day at daybreak, with a briefcase in hand. He informed the townspeople of the deaths of their young heroes, but assured them that they were not in vain, as they had handed him the vaccine and cure with their dying breaths. Mysteriously compelled to listen to the man, the townspeople imbibed the sweet solutions passed around to them. After it was certain that all the townspeople had taken the medicine, the man disappeared without a trace. All cases of the mysterious plague were cured, and it was never seen again.

Days later, it was revealed that another gifted biologist from the old home, Clyptus, had poisoned the town's central well with a violent neurological agent in hopes of turning the townspeople against the mages. Although he succeeded, he was executed. The town fell into a deep depression and repentance, having lost five of their young, many of their relatives, and now being alone in the world. Their overwhelming guilt was not enough to save them from a worse fate; the final 10 mages who remained after the murder and suicide of their kin cast a karmic curse upon the town and its people, conjuring a dark beast of unknowable proportions that destroyed the land and gored its denizens unless one pure-hearted person of pilgrim origin was cast as a sacrifice to have their life force rapidly drained. Upon the person's death, the beast would be released into the land once again. Such was the beginning of the position of Sage Malditus, whose first holder, Bertus, was among the few Kalimori to decry the genocide.

Four sages are documented: Bertus, Lionus, Marcus, and Ignacius. They held the position for a combined twenty-two years before the death of Ignacius. It is unknown if another sage was appointed in secret or if the Kalimori's repentance defeated the curse.

After the bloodshed of their foundation, Kalimor became a strictly pacifist civilization, destroying their technologies of war and focusing on agriculture and other machinery. Many of the poems and songs of the following two millennia are well-documented and popular. Kalimor bloomed into a vibrant archipelago state, decorated with vivid flora and known for their friendly and welcoming people. In the modern day, Kalimori cuisine and especially wine is coveted and even imitated all around Aquila; the popular wine, Lucia's Spirit, is highly acclaimed by food critics the world over for its sweet, addictive taste and compatibility with all meats. Its jazz and piano music, too, are known far and wide. Being self-reliant and community-oriented, they are just now, in the 4800s, the subject of worldwide attention and tourism, and prioritize giving more back to the world than they receive. Many Kalimori students study abroad in Occa and Aphelion. Those that return bring back language mastery and technological expertise to help their communities, while those who do not seek highly-regarded work in hospitality or music.