The Warren Union

## Warren Union

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# Overview

The Warren Union is a nation located in northern Kashar and populated by a race of rabbit-like folk, renowned for their golems and other arcane devices. The bnuy art of magic notably doesnt include instantaneous spells, instead delving extensively into the enchanting or crafting of magic items.

# History

**•** The Age of Strife

The territory occupied by what is now the Warren Union was originally factured, split between various warring tribes. But amidst the bloodshed of the Age of Strife emerged a mysterious goddess - Eni, first of the mages. With her host of golems and other previously unseen magical devices, she swiftly subjugated the divided chieftains, unifying the various tribes into a single Kingdom of Bnuy. Each of the defeated chieftains were forced to mate with her and were declared to be her loyal concubines.

**•** The Age of Wrath

Eni entrusted the former chieftains with the governance of each of their original territories, blessing them with extraordinary longevity and investing them with her own magic. But power corrupts, and as Eni relegated more strength to her concubines, they started plotting to overthrow her.

The plan never came to fruition however, as Eni was prematurely notified of the scheme. Enraged, the goddess cursed her concubines and their men to be constantly in heat, a searing reminder of their rightful place as her toys. The Bnuy were helpless as they felt themselves sprout round, fluffy tails and long silky ears - a leporine legacy that still affects the species to this day. To prevent such a rebellion from happening again, the concubines were stripped of their blessings and replaced by new, shorter lived Bnuy that were personally selected by the goddess every generation.

**•** The Age of Hubris

Anti-Eni sentiment rose in the Kingdom of Bnuy as citizens found themselves morphed into strange forms. But rather than roll back on her drastic transformations, the goddess opted to alleviate discontent by providing the public with more divine boons. Previously unachieved magical feats were accomplished, and the centerpiece of Bnuy Artificery - golems - reached sentience.

Life improved exponentially for the Bnuy as their golems could carry out more complicated tasks, and their magicks became more effective. But the sudden development also brought unseen hazards, one of which was the birth of Ropel, a god of golems that had started being worshipped by thousands of the newly created sentient golems.

**•** The Age of Shame

It was a matter of time before the Bnuys' magical servants rebelled, fed up with being treated like mindless drones. Led by the Golem God Ropel, they took the Bnuy military by surprise and engulfed the kingdom in civil war. The fighting dragged on for several years, as while the golems could not make more of themselves, there was already a great number of them. Finally at the battle of Sashpi, the Bnuy goddess descended upon the battlefield in all her glory, having decided it was time to teach the golems their place - just as she had taught the concubines theirs.

Eni's defeat at the hands of Ropel came as a shock to both sides. Bnuy soldiers could only watch on in disbelief as the Golem God went on to strip the goddess of her divine artifacts, binding her to the very form she had cursed her subjects with. The ensuing route would go on to mark the highest casualty rate seen in a single battle throughout the entirety of Bnuy history.

**•** Formation of the Warren Union

Surviving Bnuy waged guerilla warfare from undergroud bases they called warrens, scattered across the country in hidden storage areas or natural enclaves. Many perished at the hands of eldritch abominations lying in wait for them at their supposed havens, others at the hands of golemic bounty hunters seeking to drive the last of the Bnuy out of the nation. But through numerous sacrifices, the golems' numbers were whittled down and eventually what little remained of the sentient golems went into hiding, having ultimately failed at replicating themselves. It was only a matter of time before Ropel would fall as well, unable to sustain himself with the few remaining worshippers he had.

After the end of the conflict, various warrens started to unite, rebuilding Bnuy society and infrastructure. Eni was held responsible for the premature creation of the sentient golems, and the threat of strengthening Ropel to subdue the goddess once more brought equilibrium to the balance of power berween Eni and the Bnuy. A constitution was drawn up to limit Eni's power, and the election of Concubines was finally reinstated after the previous centuries of absolute monarchy.

**•** Conflict with the Doge

As peace came to settle in the Warren union, populations increased and many started migrating to the south in search of cheap land or easy riches. As these Bnuy pioneers expanded south, they came upon several tribes of Doge, folk with canine features contrasting with the more leporine settlers. The Doge posessed coyote-like ears and tails, hunting giant birds resembling turkeys that they called the birb. Doge tribes greatly varied in their ways of life; some utilizing a farming system involving a group of crops called the three sisters and others exclusively hunting for birb in the great plains of Kashar.

As Bnuy settlers encroached further into their land, the Doge tribes grew restless. it didnt help that the Bnuy were often openly fearful or hostile in the presence of Doge tribesmen, who, with their canine features, invoked instinctive fear in the Bnuy. Many of the rabbitfolk, fueled by their leporine curse, lashed out at the Doge tribes and drove them out of their own land, ruthlessly assimilating conquered tribes into Bnuy culture so that they may "quench their bloodlust".

## Notable Figures

**•** Eni

   Eni was the first Bnuy mage, a powerful goddess who shaped the Warren Union throughout the course of history. Little is known about her origins, but it is clear her magical capabilities do have a limit, as evidenced in her defeat at the hands of Ropel at the battle of Sashpi.

Eni is most often described to be proud, arrogant and unforgiving toward those who irk her. Many modern Bnuy fear that their threatening her with the strengthening of Ropel will have dire consequences if she regains full power over her people.

**•** Ropel

   Ropel is the god of golems, currently greatly weakened due to a lack of sentient golems and thus a lack of worshippers. He is generally characterized as competitive and jaded, scarred by the years of abuse the Bnuy had wrought upon his people.
Ropel was forced to serve Eni after the formation of the Union as revenge for the shame he had dealt her previously. He takes various forms depending on the Queen's needs; sometimes a smoky throne, other times a stone steed.

## Theory of Magic

*•* Overview

Bnuy have utilized magic for centuries, and while they have recently joined its global study, the Warrener perception of magic greatly differs from that of their colleagues. For instance, while Lacunae, or Void energy, may be residue waste for some foreign scholars, the Passive Omniscient branch of Bnuy magic utilizes it to learn of the past and future, focusing more on its retention of past forms over its quickly dispersing status. As a result, many older Bnuy mages prefer using traditional monikers over their their more ubiquitous counterparts when referring to magical concepts or phenomena.

**•** Classification

    Bnuy magic theory is made up of four major branches, each centered around harnessing one type of energy, though it is only recently that the bnuy learned of continent-wide concepts such as Vitae or Lacunae.

Variable Magic is based on the utilization of Vitae, although traditional Bnuy philosophy rejects the existance of any "life force". For the Bnuy, it adds or removes, altering the net mass of the universe. For instance, a fireball created using conjuration magic doesnt come from somewhere else. In reality however, Variable Mages are actually turning their vitae into mass or vice versa, as they produce and consume it in much large quantities than other species.

As such there are two branches. Conjuration, which is making; and Exterpation, which is vice versa.

Static Magic on the other hand uses Idae and is thought to keep the net mass the same. You cant make new things with Static Magic, and as such all materials must be provided before the magic can be used.

Displacement emulates Variable Magic without making or destroying new materials, for instance switching the location of two objects or liquifying solids by prying apart molecules (although the mages dont posess concepts of molecules or the like).

Reinforcement magic is simpler in that it stops any sort of change. Everything is frozen under the influence of powerful reinforcement magic, sometimes even time.

Active magic taps into Sophiae, reaching into the soul and unlocking secrets in a target's psyche.

Telepathy is about unlocking logical, conscious thought while empathy is more concerned with enotions and instincts.

Passive magic uses Lacunae. Its been other types of energy, and it contains what the Bnuy call "memories". Those who delve into the secrets of passive magic learn about the truth of the energies, the past and the future.

Prognosis is the art of prediction, while diagnosis converns itself with the past, or what one might concieve as the present.

**•** Golems

    The most studied of all the Bnuy branches of magic is Static Omnipotence, or the manipulation of Idae. This is mostly because Displacement and Reinforcement, its two main subschools, are often the most effective and versatile of all the schools of magic.
One such utilization of the branch, and primary export of the Warren Union is the golem. Created from inorganic materials such as wood, stone, or sand, the main principle of golemcraft is the simulation of Vitae through the manipulation of Idae. Back when such volcabulary was foreign to the Bnuy however, it was commonly explained that golemcraft was the art of life through Displacement.

Golems are created when a mage twists the strands of Idae in and around an object in accordance with the laws of Displacement, granting it movement and set mannerisms similar to that of a living creature.
Today, golems see widespread use throughout the Warren Union, serving as vehicles, laborers, or even moving abodes for rich Bnuy families, although the creation and sale of intelligent golems are banned by the royal decree of Eni.

**•** Displacers

    While Displacement is a powerful school of magic that fuels the movement of golems, the full extent of its uses is far from limited to powering the Warren Union's staple export. A more complicated application of Displacement emerged during the Age of Hubris.

The displacer was an item developed to replace the ranks of the Bnuy military's slingers with ranged options that would be trained more easily and cheaply. Most displacers featured a crossbow stock for convenient aiming, topped with a long metal tube built to withstand the various propulsion mechanisms employed on different models with as little magical reinforcement as possible.

Given its intended purpose and method of use, the first displacers, called Reinforcement Action Displacers, or Reinforcers for short, could best be described as magically enhanced slings. In what is called spin-cycling, the user twirled the device from its lever, letting it spin several times. With the aid of Displacement magic, speed would build up, letting the bronze sling bullet gain torque. This state of momentum would be frozen in time and thus maintained via the Reinforcement magic cast upon the displacer, ready to be released when its user squeezed the metal rod embedded in the grip.

However, despite its easy use of spinning and firing, the reinforcer was expensive to make, as it required two separate schools of magic to be used. As such, a single-school displacer was commissioned. Inspired by the realization that most matter expanded when it was melted or boiled, these pure Displacement firearms were built to fire any ammunition filled into its barrels, from pebbles to handfuls of sand. However this meant the firing process had to become much more complex. The firing of a pure displacer first required the user to break open the breach of the barrel. Then the user was to pour in the ammunition of their desire, place a bronze tack called a primer on top, and seal the breach once more. When the trigger was pulled, displacement magic would rapidly vaporize the bronze tack inside, causing molecular expansion to push out the ammunition at incredible speeds.

The third variant of displacer, the extirpator, was developed ro solve the ammunition problem of earlier displacers altogether.
This was the Bnuys' first foray into a relatively unresearched school of magic called Extirpation. While in theory, the concept of removing objects from existence was promising, previous attempts at extirpation devices had been unsatisfactory due to how little they could remove at a given time. But the advent of the Diagonsis school of magic brought about the first bnuy-made telescopes, opening a small niche for the relatively underwhelming school of magic - sniping. Although it took painfully long to determine the exact location of the target, extirpators were as accurate as they could get, since they werent affected by wind, snow, or other natural phenomena. There also was no visible or audible ques enemies could use to locate extirpators when they eliminated a target, making them extremely specialized for the role they were developed for.

The most recent of displacers however, is the conjuror. By far the simplest of all displacers, conjurers are also unreliant on ammunition. But they carry one fatal flaw, and it is that they run on life force, or Vitae. This means that the more shots someone fires, the weaker they will become. Regulation is hard to master, and its neglect can be fatal. Even the Bnuy, who reject the concept that the Conjuration school of magic relies on Vitae, acknowledge that firing a conjurer can become very tiring very quickly.

A conjurer is used by sliding the pump attached to its underside up and down, filling the gun with the users vitae and injecting it into the chamber where the magic takes place. To fire the weapon, the user must aim it at the ground near their target and squeeze the trigger to create a small explosion in that area. Aiming it in the air will cause the firearm to conjure explosions far away and out of sight, on the first relatively solid surface it meets

## Government

The Warren Union is a Constitutional Monarchy, meaning that while Eni holds the power to issue commands, decress, and various laws, she is limited in what she can do by the constitution. The system was set in place to break free of the ways of the old Bnuy Kingdom, which gave much power to its importal queen - Eni. The Bnuy hope that by sharing the power and responsibilities, they would be able to make wiser choices and stop Eni from being too liberal with the rights of her people.

## Ideals and Philosophies

**•** Nationalism

Bnuy pride in the antebellum Union is soaring. This is partially due to the millitant and patriotism-centered education of many Warrens, still rife with propaganda. For decades, unity and belligerence have been idealized traits, as thats what had kept the current Warrens alive in the face of frequent golemic raids. While the government remains teeming with veterans and fearful politicians who never really got over the war, this sentiment will likely have a hard time fading.

**•** Expansionism

    The war against the golems was one of attrition. It was likely that a parent would lose their child on a given day, or a child their parent. As such, many postponed their life decisions until the end of the war. When the golems were finally ousted and the economy stabilized, Bnuy populations surged, and newly formed families either escaped the wartorn province of Becksom, or settled in its newly founded capital of Koniborough. Those migrating to the great planes found precious metals and huge, fertile land, fit for ranching and mining. Towns popped up all around newly settled Yuksa, but the steady march has been showing no signs of stopping as fresh stories of riches flood local papers all around the Union.

## Geography

**•** Koniborough

    The provincd of Becksom and its capital of Koniborough is a densely wooded area and ancestral home of the Bnuy. Wood and game are its main exports, though the war has scared away much of the fauna.
Relations between Becksom and the frontier are strained, as the ever expanding territory strains the nation's resources and military.

**•** Frontiers

    The Union's frontier is a vast, sparsely populated expanse stretching across Kashar's northern plains. Settlers expand against Becksom's wishes as they chase prosperity and fame.

## Notable Events

• Union- Í Cámai War

• Long Darkness