Palstrine

Palstrine is an industrial and unstable kingdom. The pollution is heavy and its streets are gang ridden. The current royal family don't care for the kingdom outside of their factories, with income being their main interest. There are Demon Hunters within the kingdom linked to the monarchy, but will only send them after Demons are are known to be meddling in their affairs, but there are those who work alone.

In Palstrine, there is a police force, but hunters are seen to be above them.

## History

### Early Age

Palstrine is located on the South-East Coast of Capellus, one of the initial nations of Capellus. Palstrine throughout it's early life was extremely controversial. Palstrine, unlike Azuria, remained a small city-state, controlled by large landowning men. Palstrine and the early Demons fought constantly. The Demons would conduct raids on Palstrine and neighboring lands, enslaving, burning, and murdering thousands of people yearly. Palstrine being the only large power nearby would send their own men to protect the neighboring towns and villages. However, when The Great Isolation Period of Hell began Hell's Legions retreated back to the depths, but numerous Demons where left out on Capellus. These Demons were not the soldiers from Hell rather the civilians from level 7 of Hell, trying to make a new life. These Demons had no choice but to go to Palstrine for safety, there they were forced into slavery and shackles. On the other side of Capellus, Azuria, saw this as inhumane and fought on behalf of the Demons, as innocent people where being put into slave collars and human trafficking became an issue within Azuria itself. Due to Azuria's greater size and development the war was favored in Azuria's side, as well as Azuria's first "Soul Fire" Queen lead the charge against Palstrine. After a five year war, Palstrine was forced to free the Demons and pay tribute to the Azurians. The Demons were finally freed, however, they weren't looked upon with good graces. Forced into slums and ghettos, and shown with much prejudice, as the Palstrinians remembered the countless wars against the Demons and the war with the Azurians greatly increased this prejudice.

### Middle Age

After suffering defeat from the Azurians, the Palestrinians formalized many things about their nation. Originally an Oligarchy, after their defeat they decided to switch to a Monarchy, as during the war the indecisiveness of the wealthy proved to be detrimental to the military. The King was decided to be the war hero Darius, him and his family have been involved in Palstrine since the early days. Extremely influential and well connected his succession was easy and smooth. Darius, as being on the field, first hand knew why Palstrine lost. Darius focused on conquering, annexing, and integrating nearby independent towns and villages. He issued an edict of cultural integration, giving money or land to any single man or woman who married these new people. His reasoning was to "breed out" any differences between their cultures and so their children or grandchildren will be loyal and a native to Palstrine. After his time consolidating the neighboring lands, he focused on the gathering of raw materials such as, crops and ores. Palstrine was plentiful in ore, coal, and the newly conquered land had fertile soil. As this went on the capital city began a massive reconstruction, introducing urban planning and had an complex sewer and water system throughout the city. One of the first at its time. Darius spent the remainder of his life in peace and satisfied, the pieces were in place. Darius let his people have relative autonomy, and focused his time in raising his son, David. The population of Palstrine boomed, as the new towns and villages had ample food, money and land to expand. Darius eventually passed in his sleep, ruling for numerous decades. He died a respected hero and King of Palstrine. King David unlike his father valued knowledge above all else... He introduced a new section of Palstrine, inspired by Scholas, he created a grand research center, deemed by many "The Palstrine House of Wisdom." This brought many thinkers, scientists, entrepreneurs, and engineers to Palstrine. Eventually Palstrine had a massive breakthrough. Throughout Capellus, everything was done through manpower or through beasts of burden. When the Great Aether Expansion happened, manpower became much more efficient and viable. However, Palstrine, even though having a big population boom, only had a 1/5 of Azuria's population. They needed to conserve their manpower for more important sections like the military. The Palstrinian thinkers came up with the idea of using the expansion of gasses to do work. Eventually after much funding they invented the steam engine. Palstrine was rich in many flowing rivers and used hydroelectricity in unison with these new steam engines to increase the efficiency of their products by leaps and bounds. Artisans where quickly replaced with factories. These factories pushed Palstrine into economic supremacy in Capellus. These engines were a closely regarded secret and only those trusted many glance at the blueprints and build these machines. Using the resources left by his father, David, was so close to closing the power gap of the Azurians. However, David was not long for the world, died from a heart attack during dinner. David only ruled for 15 years before passing on. The next section of kings attempted to be the next David, however, unable to find that next breakthrough, merely continued guiding Palstrine into economic strength.

### Current Age

The Modern Era in Palestrine began under King Cyrus I, the start of King Cyrus marked the beginning of the rule of the Cyrus'. Unlike the King David and the other kings, he decided to make his own legacy. The Demons at the time were rebelling against Cyrus. The Demons were unorganized which caused a lot of innocent lives to be lost. Using this moment to tighten the collar on his citizens and get rid of the threat the Demons created, Cyrus created the Demon Hunters. A personal division under the King, a paramilitary force, that roamed the streets hunting for Demons. These hunters acted as the pseudo police force of Palstrine. Enforcing any new laws the King added, Demon or not. The Demons were initially slaughtered in the streets. Which was only increased when The Palstrine House of Wisdom created the famed Anti-Demon Weaponry, which was a highly reactive substance that would increase in intensity when in the presence of Demonic Aether. The Demons didn't stand a chance. Many Demons fled to neighboring nations and towns, others hid as best they could within Palstrine, hoping for a peaceful life, while the militant and young Demons hid in the sewers. After many generations the layout of the sewers became extremely complex, giving the Demons a good place to gather. This was the creation of the Palstrine Freedom Fighters... Cyrus I was known for further consolidating his power, and began to invest more in the numerous factories to increase his personal coffers. *Cyrus' last edict was to modernize the military, introducing a new beast to the Palstrine Military, it was a small mech, (similar to the the ones in FF 6, needs approval) these mechs provided armor and cover to their men. This new invention finally gave the Palstrinians the firepower they needed to match the Azurians. (Still in progress)* KingCyrus I eventually passed away being known as King Cyrus "the Tyrant" as he ruled with an iron fist and there was very little room to negotiate with him. His son Cyrus II was relatively short lived. During the transition of power, the rebels of the Palstrinian Royalty striked, and successfully assassinated King Cyrus II. The assassin was caught, however, committed suicide before being caught. The assassin was a demon. Throughout the generations, the civilians began to question the treatment of the Demons, however, after the assassination of their king, the majority of the public was in outrage of the Demons. Going as far as selling out their own neighbors for harboring or for being a Demon. This suppression was further increased by Cyrus II's nephew, upon taking the Throne he changed his name to Cyrus III in memory of his Uncle. Cyrus III used the public's rage to gain massive support, which he used to consolidate the power of the King compared to the Oligarchs. Cyrus III along with the now experienced Demon Hunters, quickly made short work of an threats of a Demon Uprising. Making his own personalized unit of Demon Hunters, the Extinguishers, used this highly trained men for not only high risk Demon Missions, but to silence any Oligarch that spoke out against him or posed any threat. Cyrus III's reign was focused on stability of the Kingdom and for the people. Cyrus III worked on developing new schools and libraries, expanding the food reserves, and increasing working conditions (only slightly). Now this wasn't out of the kindness of his heart, with the schools and libraries came propaganda. The young can be easily molded into whatever you desire. The young were taught about the numerous evils of the Demons and the greatness of all the Kings. Increasing food storage was to prevent empty stomachs as a hungry man is a rebellious man. Increasing the working conditions was more of a formality, and resulted in little to no change for the workers. Due to Cyrus' efforts against the Demons and the current climate of Palstrine, Cyrus III went down as a popular king. His son Cyrus IV was were great change for the life of the Demon changed. The Palstrine Freedom Fighter (P.F.F.) slowly adapted against the tactics of Demon Hunters and began to start a chance against the Hunters. An outsider Demon blew up a key factory for the Demon Hunters which marked the start of P.F.F.'s gradual change in power. This outside Demon joined the P.F.F. and throughout the year the P.F.F. slowly turned the tides of the battle. Eventually King Cyrus was forced by the Oligarchs and the people to open up negotiations as the P.F.F. blew up factories and the many innocents were killed from both the P.F.F. and the Demon Hunters. The Demon Hunters tried a massive attack on the P.F.F. HQ in a desperate attempt to capture the leaders of he P.F.F. However the confusing layout of the Sewers led to a Demon victory and with the death of an important Extinguisher, the King was forced to the peace table. However, with one trick up of his sleeve and the betrayal of the P.F.F.'s leader, the P.F.F. crumbled. Leading to the Demons being enslaved, with new slave collars, which will ensure Demons obedience. Finally Demons were integrated into Palstrine society, but as slaves not freemen. Lastly the current King of Palstrine King Cyrus V (I'm done here, add to it as the story goes.)

## Social Life

Palstrine is quite the dystopian society. There is a harsh income inequality, the vast majority of the people are living in sub-humane conditions, they barely make enough to meet basic needs. The extremely rich is made up of the royalty, investors, merchants, and high officials in administrative and military positions. The majority of the people live in the slums, with the only ounce of pleasure coming from the red-light district. The air within Palstrine is extremely poor due to all the toxic fumes coming out of the many factories. Slavery is common in Palstrine, however, the majority of the slaves are demons. Demons in general are seen as sub-human in Palstrine. In court demons have bias against them and have a low percentage of won cases. The Palstrine military regularly patrols the streets of Palstrine and is known to abuse their powers and commit inhumane atrocities, there's never a peaceful day in Palstrine. The only sense of economic mobility in Palstrine is to either risk your life in the military or join the many gangs littered around Palstrine. The gangs constantly fight with each other and the Palstrine Administration over territory and factories.The gangs who own these factories and land have to pay certain amounts to the Palstrine royals or they risk becoming an enemy to the Palstrine military.

## Demon Hunters

Hunters are Quintessians who hunt Demons and have a strange bloodlust for them (which causes them to randomly act out and kill demons). They are equipped with special equipment that can negate the auras of a Demon and deal more damage. However, there is a family of Demons in Palstrine that often works for royalty, called Stako, and so hunters are told to not pursue them. Regardless, there are those who go rouge and attack the family regardless of what the royals instructed them to do. These hunters are very quick on their feet and ruthless. They go through intense training daily so that they can stand up to powerful demons. These demon hunters also have the ability to register a demon from a crowd using high trained sensory aether (this is why its very dangerous for non-rangers to be roaming the streets of Palstrine).

## Police Ranks

### Extinguishers

The extinguishers are the highest rank in the police force. They are only sent out via direct order of the captain of Palstrine police or the king himself. They are usually paired up with steam-powered robots armed with mini guns and amps. Amps are aether devices made to disrupt any aethertech and either temporarily or permanently damage them depending on the quality. It is also capable of disrupting aether ducts which reduces the strength of their opponents aether and causes them to rely on their combat skills and weapons, which also can be used on other extinguishers. Every extinguisher squad consists of 3 personel and one robot. The extinguishers make up all of the Palstrine Military.

### Cleansers

Cleansers are the middle rank in Palstrine. They come armed with mid-grade armor capable of defending against low tier bullets without any problems, automatic weapons, and long-swords capable of aether application. The cleansers are capable of using fire and wind aether. The cleansers only move in when peelers call for backup. The cleansers commonly use their aether more than their weapons.

### Peelers

Peelers are the lowest rank of the police force they are armed usually with minimal to low armor, single-fire weapons, and long-swords. They’re more adept at swordplay than they are at shooting, and none of them are proficient at using aether.

## Palstrine Rangers

The Palstrine Rangers are the demon slaves of Palstrine. These rangers are led by the Stako family, a family of demons that have had a contract with the all-powerful demon known as Slip. The royals use the Palstrine Rangers to do various tasks such as, manual labor/servicing the many factories of Palstrine, cleaning the royal district of Palstrine under the supervision of demon hunters, work guilds would usually do (killing strong aether enhanced beasts/doing inhuman tasks), and even killing their own kind when ordered to by demon hunters.

## Palstrine Freedom Fighters

The Palstrine Freedom Fighters are the "heros" of Palstrine. The PFF's goal is to free and protect any PR's (Palstrine Rangers) from demon hunters grasp. They are usually equipped with a cloak, a gas mask, and some light armor. The light armor is to protect themselves from demon hunter weapons, the cloak and gas masks are used to conceal their appearance, hide their overall identities, and to filter the horrible palstrine air. The PFF are situated in the sewers of Palstrine. They know these sewers by heart and all of them are equipped with a map of them. Any demon hunter seen entering these sewers have never made it out alive, and somehow no one is aware of the PFF HQ. There are also rumors that the PFF has double agents situated inside of the royal district of Palstrine so that they can have some inside information.

## Notable Characters from Palstrine

* Endie Stako

* Angel Stako
* Azreal Malaphar
* Elise
* Cab Velasco