The Doctrines of Comalan

The Values of the People

Among the most important things guiding the various cultures of Comalan is how each relates to the Gods. For most, emulating the values of the four elder gods colors the temperament of almost everyone. A lot about each character's personality can be gleaned from their religious identity.

Basic Religious Identities

Non-Religious People: While the existence of deities is considered an established fact to nearly everyone on Comalan, some people choose not to follow the precepts of any religion regardless. This decision is often regarded with indifference among the majority as most simply assume they have yet to find the right religion. In stricter, more dogmatic regions such as Heron and Southern Resta, however, non-religious people are often treated with ridicule and hostility.

-Bolreck

-Aennin

-Kaleth Marle

-Eione Astersong

-Voltairine Maloran

-Benedicte Zeringue

Doctrine of Power- The Doctrine of Power, also referred to as the Doctrine of Strength, represents a complete devotion to the ideals of Chaos. It is believed that the king of the Gods values strength above all else, which is why he is said to have created all of the dangerous beasts and cultivated the existence of evil. It is through triumphing over adversity that those who follow the Doctrine of Power believe the path to glory in his eyes can be found. Practitioners of the Doctrine of Power prize courage, strength, and self-reliance, although many are criticized by outsiders for their austere personalities. This religion is practiced primarily in Heron, and in various parts of Resta.

-Garanda

Doctrine of Knowledge- This faith emphasizes worship of Crane and the desire to emulate his curious nature. Followers of the Knowledge Doctrine desire to understand the world around them and search for the gods’ intentions in everything they observe. This religion emphasizes scholarship, critical-thinking, and exploration and is observed primarily in Galeon and Resta. However, this religion has the weakness of lending itself often to arrogance, as pride in the scope of their chosen god’s contributions to the world tests the limits of other people’s patience.

-Tir Apollo

Doctrine of Tranquility- This faith dates back to Tanis, but has since spread through modern-day Resta. These followers of Serenity teaches people to appreciate the inherent value of peace and the potential that comes with it. Serene devotees often take it upon themselves to show others what they could be in a world without conflict; often turning tacticians into philosophers and warriors into athletes. Their virtues are calmness, pacifism, forgiveness, and protection, but their ideology leaves many people vulnerable to sloth. 

Doctrine of Storms- This faith is practiced mostly in Resta, but its basic precepts are observed in various forms throughout Midania as well. Interpretations of this religion are constantly in flux, but everyone seems to agree that the primary responsibility of good people is to manage their feelings and maintain a solid awareness of the consequences of their emotional choices. Followers of this doctrine value empathy, self-love, and friendship.

Hybrid Doctrines

Doctrine of Shadows- A hybrid of the Power and Tranquility doctrines that is practiced in the southernmost parts of Resta, most famously the city of Palon. Practitioners of the shadow doctrine view the most necessary qualities of Chaotic and Serene individuals are necessary components of the the other. To fulfill Serenity’s desire to protect the weak requires the strength found in Chaotics while their motivation to grow stronger is found in the comfort of their symbiosis with Serenity. Practitioners of the Shadow Doctrine typically maintain traditional identities, in that they worship one deity over the other. In addition, they regard any follower of the opposite faith  with the same kinship typically reserved for those who share their own.

-Seth Midas

-Telandra Dawnstrike

Doctrine of Rage- A hybrid of the Power and Storm doctrines practiced most commonly among many templars of the Blackstone Monastery. Followers of the Rage Doctrine are often the most zealous believers in both Chaotic and Salican ideals. This quality lends itself to a devotion to the gods that is so strong that they consider their body instruments of the gods themselves. This lends itself to a preference for healthy living, intense training, and rigorous self-discipline. It is said that the name is derived from the frustration of many who are tempted to quit their training as templars. Those who internalize the strength of Chaotic virtues and the motivation that comes with embracing Salica, however, tend to make the most competent templars the Monastery can produce. Despite this zeal, those who follow the Rage Doctrine tend to be the most supportive of other faiths in general as their mindset encourages them to think of all of the Gods as the most perfect beings. This religion contrasts from the Doctrine of Power due to its tolerance for weakness and from the Doctrine of Storms for its strict emphasis on feelings for the gods--sometimes to the detriment of everything else.

-Kartal Marle

-Mia Gold

Doctrine of Justice- A hybrid of the Knowledge and Storm doctrines, practiced as a minority faith in Galeon. Outsiders sometimes find the term “Justice” to be an odd one, considering the impression some receive of its followers. These people are sometimes seen as wild, lawless hedonists who eschew all authority, but this view ignores the philosophy behind the way of life of those who follow the Doctrine. It is a faith that values freedom and will above all, believing that the highest honors one can give to Crane and Salica are to follow one’s heart and mind without apology, and holding no mortal form of authority higher than this. Followers of the Doctrine state that the highest good, Justice, follows when every mortal is granted the right and means to live in this manner as well, with the only limit occuring when this imperative threatens the ability of another to pursue the will of their heart and mind. 

Doctrine of Dreams- A hybrid of the Knowledge and Tranquility doctrines that is notably practiced by people of the Theian faith tradition, founded by Aoide Theia, a Galean priestess and philosopher. Practice of this tradition is centered on Iris Isle, the site of the Theia Seminary, though it also prospers as a minority faith in Galeon, and to a lesser extent, Resta. This interpretation of the Doctrine of Dreams emphasizes peace and equality through rationality and mutual understanding. While devotion to the gods is a strong aspect of any Doctrine, the Doctrine of Dreams places a stronger importance on religious practice and fulfillment of certain ideals. Theians believe in honoring the gods through the creation of a just and compassionate society - one where each person, regardless of who they are, can pursue their dreams. The Doctrine of Dreams contrasts with the Doctrine of Knowledge in its emphasis on the societal and moral, while it contrasts with the Doctrine of Tranquility in its emphasis on the active pursuit of peace for all.

-Atunis Astersong

-Sara Marle

Doctrine of Ambition- A hybrid of the Knowledge and Power doctrines that is considered to be the farthest-reaching of all of the hybrid faiths since it represents the two longest-known deities. This combination of Intalan and Chaotic ideals is typically considered anathema to most who accept either set of ideals due to the historic conflict between the brothers. Despite this, followers of the Ambition Doctrine can be found in all parts of Mortanis save the western woodlands-- where the elves are famously hostile to Chaotic ideals. This religion emphasizes the value of the gods who created Comalan and encourages speculation on the purpose of their genesis. The prevailing theory among this faith is that mortals were created to help solve the extinction of the Fadalians’ own race. Thus it is the assertion of the Ambition Doctrine that mortals are destined to someday stand among the Gods as peers and possibly surpass them.

-Gyanda Maloran

Doctrine of Beauty- A hybrid of the Tranquility and Storm doctrines that’s observed near the Restan riverlands, often in isolated villages along the Clearwater River. Those who follow this religion choose to celebrate the sisterhood between Serenity and Salica. The Doctrine of Beauty teaches those to admire and preserve the beauty that they feel the divine sisters have brought to Comalan. This includes not only the virtues of both of their doctrines, but the splendor of nature and the diversity of animal life-- which were previously designed by Chaos and Crane only to sustain and temper the bodies of mortals. The first rules of the Doctrine of Beauty are to acknowledge that the Brothers created a world for people to live in, and to profess that the Sisters made the world worth living in.

-Maya Marzett

Galeon

Artist's rendering of Galeon, built from stone and tile inlay along a wall in the Fides Ampitheater.

Galeon, formerly known as Eris, is Mortanis' southernmost nation, bordering Resta to the northeast, Tanis to the northwest, and the Lost Sea to the south. Geographically, Galeon is highly notable for its diversity of climate, and the fact that it boasts some of Mortanis' most fertile land. From olives and grapevines in the fertile west to greens and rice in the central wetlands, this agricultural center doesn't consider food a commodity, but rather, a public good that belongs to all. Many citizens in this land, where Crane is venerated, consider a society where basic needs are guaranteed to not only be the most humane, but the most rational.

Galeon is known for its culture of acceptance and open-mindedness, which has often made it a haven for those who experience repression or discrimination in their home nations. That being said, many of Mortanis' more conservative citizens have found traveling to the land to cause a high degree of culture shock. Restan traditionalists tend to see Galean culture as overly permissive and frivolous. The Heronite nobility has even used the threat of Galean influence to sow distrust of anti-feudal elements in their own citizenry. Among the most austere Heronites, Galeon is a symbol of decadence and degeneracy, destined to someday destroy Comalan with its "meddling" with the natural, God-created world.  

In the early days of Eris, the land was governed by what was known as the Council Republic, in contrast to the very loosely governed direct democracy that Galeon exists as today. It was to the credit of the Windlords, who used the power of their order to champion transparency and undermine the rule of the Council, that Galeon would become the nation as it exists today. The national capital of Galeon is Fides, a bustling city on the largest hill in the country. While there are some idealists from outside Galeon who see this democratic system as utopia realized, the actual people of Galeon are divided thousands of ways with regards to their own system. Issues of diplomacy, justice, and even the existence of the democratic system itself are still hotly debated among the Galean citizenry. Any outsider who spends more than a week in the Fides Ampitheater will come away hard pressed to consider the system utopian.

As a largely Intalan nation, it comes as no surprise that Galeon is Mortanis' center of science. The country contains a large number of schools and research centers accessible by anyone, as knowledge and its fruits are, like food, considered a public good. Like the Tanisians, Galeans consider equal access to education to be crucial to a healthy nation. This philosophy has yielded things like the famed Galean Monorail, which provides cross-country travel with ease. While most Galeans benefit greatly from many of these scientific advances, the field of scientific ethics has gained popularity in recent years as some question whether science can sometimes go too far. 

While most of the populace venerates Crane, Galeans value religious diversity, and have found great benefit in embracing religious minorities. Unique religious practices have grown from the merging of other religious traditions with Galeon's largely Intalan culture. For instance, Salican travelers from Resta would find the traditions and practice of the Galean-Salican retreat of Moon Lake to be quite unfamiliar, but still enlightening. Galeon is also the source of the Theian sect of the Serene religion, which seeks to synthesize Serene and Intalan beliefs into one humane, rational philosophy.

***

Society

• History of Eris - A societal and political history of the region, from its origins to the creation of the modern nation of Galeon.

• The Windlords - A thorough look at the Windlord Order.

• Galean Theatre - Some information on the performing arts in Galeon.

Folklore and Festivals

• Galeon's Winter Festival - The folklore and traditions behind Salica's holiday, as celebrated in Galeon.

• The Festival of Autumn - A little about Crane's holiday, as celebrated in both Resta and Galeon.

• Talib's Arrow - A short explanation on one of Galeon's most famous folk tales and the hero behind it.

• Shamira's Comet - A beloved Galean folk tale, and an explanation of the holiday inspired by it.

Locations

• Isle of Qwara - About the mysterious island off the southern coast. Nobody ever goes there.

• The Rashara Operahouse - A cultural treasure, the most prominent landmark in the coastal city of Rashara. 

The Windlords

A gentle breeze. The faint sounds of footfalls with unseen sources. These are the signs that only the most perceptive will uncover when a Windlord is around. They travel the many lands of Comalan in secret without any discernible number to their ranks or limit to their reach. Hailing from the veritable metropolis of Aeros Academy, these spies and champions of transparency fulfill what many consider to be a vital service to the people of Galeon: making the information that people need accessible to all. They are the watchdogs who inform people of any dishonesty of the people in power the world over, and the official intelligence agency of both Galeon and its Erisian ancestors.

The Windlords as a whole call themselves the Order of Aeros, which finds its origins in the First Age. Back then, many people of Eris had been inspired by a class of intellectual elites known as the Windtalkers to meditate on high, windy hilltops, which are believed to this day to be spots of communication with the Gods. They sought mental and spiritual enlightenment from the mind of Crane himself, as the Windtalkers claimed to have found. It is widely believed that Windtalkers would make up stories of their treks of discovery, but the people who followed in their alleged footsteps would find true enlightenment. What many would find telling of the Windtalkers is that those whose hilltop voyages could be corroborated reacted far differently to their experiences than these supposed prophets did.

Those who were determined to have actually meditated on the hilltops were Eris soon began to meet each other in secret, a revelation that was once made by an Erisian knight known as Artemis the Unrelenting. He reported that this secret group of true enlightened had mastered and comfortably exerted an unusual control over the air itself, a property that surely contributed to these people being dubbed the Windlords. From their discovery, the first Grandmaster of this group unveiled their intent to gather and share information for the good of their society. It was at this point, in the two-hundred-and-fiftieth year of the first age, that construction began on a massive tower encompassing an entire city worth of space that reached upward of fifty stories in height. They began to stock this tower with copies of any book, scroll, or document they could find in an effort to consolidate information in a timeless collection. They called this place Aeros Academy, a structure so large that it can be seen from almost anywhere in the western side of the country.

The Windlords had always had an adversarial relationship with the Windtalkers' who often consolidated information as they had, but always seemed to hoard it to their own benefit. While the Windlords worked constantly to provide information to the public, the Windtalkers actively discredited their social rivals to the point of campaigning for their arrest as menaces to society. This campaign of slander would, in turn, lead the Windlords to investigate the Windtalkers personally, leading to a decades-long power struggle.

At the end of this conflict, the Windlords stood victorious and would consequently guide Eris through its transition into Galeon and bring democracy to the country. For this, the people of Galeon felt a gratitude for the windlords that lasted less than a year into the Second Age. The reason for their downfall was equally simple and complicated: they had turned their skills toward a place Crane had never intended them to see.

The Windlords were said to have infiltrated the mythical Skyres city, an adventure that could only be corroborated by scant reports of inebriated windlords bragging of their intent to gather the secrets of Crane himself. This was the treasure everyone believed to be contained within the ancient city of dragons located somewhere in the sky. Whatever truly transpired on that year was lost to history throughout the entirety of the Second Age, when people could only gather that the survivors of that faithful mission had returned with complete amnesia and curse marks in the shape of Crane's symbol; a tattoo in the shape of Selon Res, the last dragon.

In the span of a single week, the Order of Aeros was completely decimated, without a single member able to retain an iota of the Windlords' legacy. Curiously, these curse marks were passed on to the offspring of these Windlords, a phenomenon which slowly developed into a cultural stigma towards the descendants of those who dared to steal the secrets of the God of Knowledge himself. It wasn't until the Third Age that the Windlords would find their redemption. At this time, Richard Blackstone--the First Avatar of Crane-- had visited Galeon and gathered everyone he could find who possessed one of Crane's curse marks. He had been charged with reviving their order with the specific intent of helping him to resist a powerful cabal of evil creatures known as the Knightmares. 

In the Third Age, Windlords retain the controversy of old, but on a larger scale due to their increased international activity. The people of their homeland generally regard them with positive feelings, although modern Galeans feel more concern about the secrets and power they hold compared to their Erisian ancestors. While they venerate the Order's stance on transparency of information, they critically speculate on the possibility that the Windlords might use their power to destabilize other countries. 

In Resta, they are considered professional rivals to their own organization of spies, Royal Army Intelligence. In their efforts to maintain the tactical superiority they had cultivated throughout the second age, RAI regularly spies on the windlords in turn. 

In Heron, they are feared for their perfect infiltration abilities and general air of invisibility. Heronite lords have a long history of using the Windlords' exploits to sew distrust in their rebel elements. It is not uncommon for the Lords to blame any information gathered on them by the Heronite resistance, a movement of feudal abolitionists, on Windlord intervention.

To the people of Tanis, windlords are generally regarded with indifference. To the elves, windlords provide a necessary service to their people. But since Tanisian society is inherently transparent, they feel the least fear toward the prospect of Galean infiltration. They often pride themselves on having nothing to hide, and will often welcome Windlords as honored guests.

Meanwhile, the people of Midania typically hold more distrust for Windlords than anyone else. While the human citizens of the country's satellite territories hold superstitious attitudes toward their perceived lust for power, the sai'mul of the mainland are brought up on tales of Erisian sabotage of what was once the Akisian empire. Their oldest citizens, who lived through the First and Second Ages, stand as the only people who can testify to the dangers of Windlords intervening in the affairs of other countries.

All in all, the Windlords' reputation is one they defy every day. While they do not discriminate in the subjects of their investigative endeavors, the Order of Aeros has a very strict policy against unnecessary intervention. While Aeros Academy is rife with all of the world's secrets, they curate all of the information they gather and release only what advances their core ideals of an open and just world. They have many critics who question the value of their judgment in this matter, but with their mastery of stealth and wind magic, no one can stop them from doing what they do.

Tir Apollo, the Avatar of Crane

Tir Apollo, the Avatar of Crane

Tir Apollo, the Avatar of Crane, is Galeon's most popular Avatar, respected greatly as an academic and for her pull with the Windlords, who are also highly thought of in the region. She is also revered by the Tanisians for her heroic actions during the sho'kai invasion, to the point where a popular restaurant bears her name. Tir's most controversial position among the people of Comalan is her continued support of her predecessor, Richard Blackstone - more specifically, her personal concern for him and belief that he can be rehabilitated. This has caused many to, at best, question her ability as his successor, and at worst, question her motives. Despite this controversy, those who have met her or worked with her personally consider her to be both confident and trustworthy.

***

Tir was born in the Crowmont territory of Heron to her father Alim, a Galean machinist and inventor, and Leora, a Galean-Heronite writer and seamstress. Alim had moved to a small mountain village in Heron to live with his wife. They had a loving family until Leora disappeared when Tir was eight. She was presumed dead, and Alim told his daughter that she had died of an illness as she slept. 

Tir and her father were very close, and she often felt that he was the only other person in their village who understood her. He avoided telling her stories about Galeon, fearing that they would only make her feel unhappy with the small village that they lived in, but Tir was smart - from a young age, she loved to read, and had learned many things that her father didn't teach her. She was also highly rational for someone so young. She often chose not to discuss certain things with him in order to spare his feelings. 

As she grew older, Tir found she had an affinity for machinery and engineering, picking up the skill quickly under the instruction of her father. Engineering was how they made their living in the small village they lived in, constructing lamps, ovens, and lumbering equipment for the people there. All Tir knew was that the people there valued her and her father deeply. 

Despite the affinity Tir felt for the place she had grown up in, as she entered her teens and twenties, she felt more and more of an urge to leave. She desperately wanted to go to Galeon in order to train in one of the Intalan temples there, and to experience the life she could have had if her father had not stayed in their Heronite village. Seeing how restless his daughter had become, Alim could no longer keep her with him, despite how much he would miss her. He told her that it would be alright if she left, and so she did. 

Tir traveled to Galeon and found she had an instant affinity for the place. She traveled to the Temple of Crane in order to train in the art of foresight, and it was this action that started Tir on the journey that would acquaint her with the first Avatar of Crane, Richard Blackstone, which would eventually lead to her becoming his apprentice and taking his place as Avatar.

Tir in her Starlight Crusade uniform, of which she serves as Fleet Commander, as well as the commanding officer of the Selon Res.