The World

The world of Weird Century is vast. With great empires and land tamped by civilization, wild frontiers where settlers endeavor to build a new life, and unexplored areas ripe for discovery. It is a world shared by different races and cultures, where the mundane and mysterious are deeply intertwined.

The modern day

It's a dirty world that man lives in, at least if one comes from one of the big cities of the great empires. Industry is the center of these growing technological superpowers that are a constant threat to the smaller kingdoms, city states and nations that yet hold their independence. Ever since the introduction of trinitum, the world has not been the same. Where man once walked on the earth, he now rides in the sky. The world has become much bigger and at the same time much smaller. New areas of the world have been discovered and are being explored, science has taken giant leaps and technology that once was beyond dreams has become the daily order. It seems that with every new discovery of flora or categorized fauna it only proves that this is the era of true enlightenment and exploration.

As rational science and technology is heralded as the true path forward and a movement for secular society is ever growing, humanity sees itself as being at the forefront of any field, be it philosophy, epistemology, ethnology or technology. It is a golden age to be sure, but even though scholars want to explain the world through scientific means, there are still many things that they cannot rationalize. Despite the best effort of many learned people, mysterious things such as told by folklore or superstitions that has followed mankind since the beginning of history is becoming harder to ignore, even going so far as to devoting a separate field of study for them and other mysteries that dwells around the world as everything becomes more connected through the use of trinitum.

However, in the shadows of the light of natural science, the darker side of the same world lingers and grows. For even as the brilliance of knowledge and reason seem unstoppable, never before has man been more ignorant and prone to be ruled by desire. For as the great empires wish to rule and industries wish to grow, the people find themselves lost in a world that is constantly changing in front of them. For some, this constant change becomes too much and they look towards the sky for refuge or towards the great untamed lands in the unknown world. But as the empires grow, so does tensions between them and fears of what might be if they decide to match their strength leave some without sleep, for they see the dark clouds gather on the horizon. 

Trinitum

In the world of today and for the last half century the mystical blue shimmering crystal called trinitum has become the cornerstone of society and a pure necessity in the great empires and their colonies. Through its use wonders beyond the limits of physical laws could be achieved. Materials refined with the crystal would gain supernatural capabilities, ushering an golden era of engineering with the airship as its golden herald. Goods refined with it can be found in any home or place in the civilized world and is being spread to all corners of the known world. As it is used in the majority of modern industry, it has become the standard of value for all imperial currencies and thus the supply and demand governs any and all value in the world.

To the regular person, the interest or knowledge of the mineral usually don't go further than what is considered common knowledge of it being mined, refined and used in industry before arriving in their homes. But however wondrous trinitum might be, it also has a darker side. As it changes the world, it also changes people. Exposure to pure trinitum is dangerous as it poisons the body and mind. People talk of it as a disease that ravages the body and turns one into a husk in the end, or worse, it changes you into something inhuman. Even more frightening are rumors whispering that those that die from the sickness come back to haunt the living. Officially though, all of this is written down as superstition and blame is put on something else, as the worth of trinitum is too high to be squandered by rumors. Still, fate might be even worse for the one that manages to survive as they might find themselves changed in more or less obvious ways but anyone that was once afflicted by the disease will always have a shimmer in their eyes that is same mystical blue as the mineral does.

The discovery of this mysterious material is generally attributed to a man by the name of John Hartmann, which according to accounts brought back the crystal from an expedition to Ignosia and being a subject of the burgeoning Commonwealth, he took his discovery to the royal academy where it made quite the stir. Some say it was done by the masters of the academy while others say it came from the crown itself. But despite efforts to keep it a secret it didn't take long for the world to hear about this new wonder and its supernatural potential to affect material, both living and inanimate. Though to this day there is still a lot of controversy around the mineral since there is no clear scientific explanation still to how the mineral is performing its supernatural wonders.

Trinitum wars

In a world that is fully dependent on a mysterious crystal, only found in sufficient quantities in the deepest of mines, with the means of refinery being the most guarded secret in history, conflict over resources is inevitable. The only place where trinitum has been found is in the unknown world of Ignosia and so far there are only three mines that produce enough material to feed the ever growing empires. One is managed by the Commonwealth, one by the Hauberian Empire and the last by the Confederation of Independent States. The remaining empires either trade for their trinitum or rely on the small quantity they find in shallow veins or occasional byproducts of ordinary mining. It is however well established that those that control the trinitum also has the potential to rule the world. But more than that, the need for trinitum to keep modern society running is what drives the chase for more of the mineral.

Glowing disease

While being a wondrous thing in what it enables, trinitum carries dangers with it. Exposure to trinitum is poisonous and with time anyone handling it will likely contract "glowing disease", called so because of how the afflicted gets a dim blue glow in their eyes and as it progresses the same glow can be seen in the veins of the sick. The disease is most common among those that handle larger amounts of trinitum in their everyday routine, such as miners and factory workers. However anyone in the modern day may fall victim. Early symptoms of poisoning is fever and fatigue, it is however first after this sets in that any glow will appear and become more pronounced as the affliction progresses. As the affliction worsens, coughing and cramping become new symptoms. Towards the final stage delirium sets in and is shortly followed by atrophy and the afflicted also loses all pigmentation in their skin, leaving them pale white as well as total loss of hair which makes the glow of the veins stand out even more. In this final stage the afflicted is likely to pass within a very short period of time.

The deviousness of trinitum poisoning is that it is a creeping affliction. It is unsure if or how the body sheds trinitum from the body but it has been seen through experimentation that most people can only purge so much trinitum during a set amount of time, which leads to any amount beyond will accumulate in the body and turn into poison. So far there is no known cure for trinitum poisoning or glowing disease. Most that recover do so in the earlier stages when the glow appears, at which time they are recommended to stop any contact with trinitum they may have. Still many are hard pressed to give it up as so many items have the mineral within them, which sadly only furthers the progress the poisoning. If the afflicted is lucky the fever will claim them before they fall into the later stages where  because even if they were to manage to stop adding to their poisoning, if having entered into the final stage there is no coming back.  

The ocean in the sky

With the use of trinitum, man has found a way into the skies. Where before travel was at best done on cart or boat, now sailing on the winds have become the common means. Above cities the sky is full of small and large airships of a myriad of variants. Anything from simple balloons with a basket and a small boiler to huge ships powered with great steam engines. The refinement of trinitum has allowed for things that earlier were impossible and travel to the farthest reaches of the world has never been more achievable. There is a boom in travel and communication today that enables the empires to manage their huge territories with reasonable lag and for traders to quickly acquire new goods for the market, making great profits in the meantime. But those that make the most out of this superior way of travel are the explorers and adventurers that fearlessly go into the unknown to make a name for themselves.

Travel in the skies isn't always as simple as many would like it to be though. Obstacles like strong winds, no landmarks and harsh conditions at higher altitudes, a ship can easily go off its course and piracy is a constant threat, especially where patrols are few and far between. 

Airships

In the earliest days of airships the common design was to simply attach a balloon to a boat or ship with its masts moved from the main deck to the side of the ship. Sails were the main means of propulsion in the beginning, up till when simple steam engines and propellers where introduced. The propellers had to go through some iteration to gain efficiency, going from small blades purposed for water to larger blades efficient for air. Alongside better means of propulsion, finding a good ratio between size, weight and carry capacity of airships. These sorts of ships are defined as first generation ships, defined by their open design of both balloon and ship-gondola. It did not take long however to realize the great disadvantage of this sort of design partly because of the tendency of balloons to deform because of either air resistance during travel or by encountering strong winds, and partly by the vulnerability of the balloon to damage. One even to underline this was when the airship Spontaneyos was shot down by bandits after refusing to give up their cargo. The Spontaneyos fell from a height of barely 100 meters above ground. The impact utterly destroyed the ship and all of its crew and passengers with it. In the wake of the event, the bandits were tracked down and summarily executed by the royal lawmen. This also led to laws pertaining to airship and air travel, which requires any airship to respond to any call of help by another airship and the prohibiting of knowingly and willfully to attack an airship and to cause the potential demise of it. To ignore an airship in need became punishable with substantial fines for crews and potentially stripping officers of their rank. The later would without pardon be a sentence of death for any individual involved.

The second generation of airship design tried to mitigate the vulnerabilities by either incorporating the balloon and gondola into one combined form or to add structure around the balloon itself to shield it from harm. Inadvertently this also solved the issue of deformation from drag and wind. However, the added weight of structure and armor called for more lift to compensate. At first the tradeoff between carrying capacity and structural defense had to be decided between for the airship. In practice it meant that transport ships went for only enough structure to keep the balloon contained while keeping the gondola lighter. Ships meant for combat on the other hand added more armor at the cost of speed and lift, reducing mobility and height capability. This also meant that combat ships had a hard time properly patrolling routes and even harder to hunt down pirates.

Third generation continued the incorporation of lift-gas containers into the main structure.

Air Pirates

As the empires of the world seek to expand, they crave resources. To ensure that needs are met, explorers were sent out to map the edges of the world in hope to find areas suitable for colonization. With the promise of either fame, fortune, adventure or a piece of land, people take their chances to build something for themselves. But without the stability that civilization brings, order becomes hard to keep. As more people start to travel and sending transports between the colonies and the old empires, there are those that believe that it's all free for their taking. In the early days, it was just the occasional roaming robbers. But as the colonies grew, with more and more ships traveling on established routes, the size and intensity of attacks did as well.

People sometimes talk about it being an age of piracy, a term that came into being after the hijacking of the HMAS Victoriae, a battleship of the Commonwealth air navy transporting strongboxes filled with tax collected in the colonies back to the empire. The thing that solidified the idea, however, was that as the Hauberian Empire established its own colonies they started to issue letters of marque and encouraged privateering. Those that jumped at the chance to gain easy loot were mainly Kuvmac clans. An unintended effect of this was strained relations between the Commonwealth and the Tukham, because military patrols and mercenaries attacked any ship of Tukham design, since for anyone outside of the Tukham culture, the distinction between a Tukham and a Kuvmac ship is near impossible to see. Even worse, those Kuvmac that did not engage in piracy were still targeted and shot down, sparking even more resentment among the outcast clans against all empires. At the brink of open war, the Warlord of the Tukham, most likely after pressure from influential merchant clans, ordered all ships to clearly mark their allegiance to avoid further attacks, and at the same time sending emissaries to the other empires as to explain the difference between Tukham and Kuvmac ships.

Gods, spirits, and religion

Deities and spirits have a profound presence in the world and the worship of them is a key part of societies and cultures, with stories and anecdotes of divine interventions and spirit manifestation are very common. The most common factors among different religions and practices of faith are the worship or reverence of a deity or spirit in an attempt to either garner favor and blessing or to ward off the anger of the deity. It's common for people to erect small shrines or altars, either in their homes or at important places where a deity or spirit have strong connections.

Among the great empires of Evperia the teachings of the light bearer it the dominating religion. The faith centers on a messianic figure that carries a lantern on the end of a staff leading believers towards the Promised Land while shielding them from the corrupting darkness. There are three major interpretations of the faith, the introspective, the extrospective, and the orthodox. While each interpretation shares the same basic frame, the practices of each is very different from each other, which has lead to conflicts historically. 

The Faith of the Light bearer is the most prevalent of religions practiced in the world, however there are many different interpretations on how to correctly practice the faith. Still whichever variant of the faith is followed or practiced, they share a somewhat similar core and story of founding and creation. The most common variant of these belong to the faith practiced in the human empires;

Long ago the world was filled with light and peace. All people lived without want or fear until all was cast into darkness and corruption, as the dark ones came, jealous of all that was good. But in the darkness there came the light bearer to lead the faithful out of the dark and save them from corruption. With his lantern on the end of a staff, the light bearer showed the path through the darkness, warding off the dark ones, and led the faithful back to the world of light. But the world was ruined and the corruption of darkness had faded all that was good and put suffering into the world. The light bearer bestowed wisdom to those that had followed him, laws that they were to follow so as to protect themselves and remove suffering from the world, before leaving them to go back into the darkness to ward off the dark and continue leading others back to the light.

Besides the founding story, what differentiate the variants of the faith are parts of the laws and words of the light bringer that over time have changed several times and different interpretations have even been grounds for religious fighting.

The organization of the faith, the church of the light bearer, in its current form began in the era of building after a pillar of light stood for three days rising from the peak of mount Vincere, in the Medtrian corridor. Coming down from the mountain afterwards were three people, a human, a dworig, and an uruk. These became the first apostles, taking on the task of telling what had happened on the mountain. Each one became the founder of different followings and interpretations of the faith. 

Technological level

Divided into three playable periods:

Early period has recently begun using steam engines for driving larger machinery, including trains. Electricity is only experimental. Trinitum in raw form is beginning to have an impact on society.

Middle period has standardized steam use and fine mechanics (analogue) with some level of electricity. The use of Trinitum in refined form allows extraordinary workings and creations of materials with supernatural properties.

Late period has advanced mechanics and electricity to peak. Trinitum refinement has reached a very advanced form which allows for even more extraordinary creations.

Precision work and machining 

Fine precision craft has historically been associated with dworig craftsmanship, especially by the guilds in Ebeor and the Spine mountain Republic. While being truly masters of their craft the drawback was the philosphy that crafting was something that should be made by hand, effectively ignoring the progression of machines beyond hand-powered tools. Humans that manage to learn from the dworig on the other hand had no such limitations and managed to incorporate the principles of precision handcraft into precision machining. This lead to human workshops outcompeting many of the dworig guild craftsmen but, as a twist of irony, the ones to best care and service the tools and machines were the dworig craftmen.

Steam power and engines

In the modern day the steam engine is the beating heart of society. It powers all sort of industry and used in different variations and configurations to propel all forms of mechanical vehicles such as trains, boats, and airships. Thrifty steamtechs are experimenting and continuing to improve the engine, trying to implement it into ever more contraptions.

The earliest records of using steam in a contraption comes from the old Medtrian empire in the form of a container of water connected to a suspended sphere with two small pipes which when heated spins as jets of steam escape through the pipes. It took a long time however before the true potential of steam would be applied in a practical manner. The dworig in the Spine mountains would be the first ones to put steam to use, at first powering a winch pulling cart filled with ores out from deep within their mines. Later on it would power the rod-engine used to pump water out from flooded mineshafts as well as pushing down fresh air to clear out bad air and miasma from the deeper parts of the mines. Within a short period it became a common implementation in mines throughout both the Spine Mountains and the Kaza Mountains.

Later on human inventors would come to study the machine and come with improvements to the construction, increasing power output and potential applications. One of these would be the steam powered locomotives which came about when an invetor from the Northern Kingdoms would put an engine on a rail cart to pull loads of timber and charcoal to the dworig blast furnaces up in the mountains and return down with ingots.

While continuing to improve the steam engine, a request was made to fit one onto an airship to improve the steering and traveling capabilities. Earlier versions had low efficiency due to a bad power output caused by size and less than optimal power transfer. But as technology advanced the efficiency increased by magnitude so that even the largest of ships can be driven with ease.