Domain of Malakain

The Domain of Malakain is a place of marked contrasts. It is a place steeped in faith, with the priesthood holding immense sway over both daily life and politics. Once the realm was quite welcoming to Imperials but is now a fierce opponent, locked in the brutal Scarlet War against the Empire and the Scarlet Guard.   Before the Empire first opened the Relay path and made contact with Malakain, the realm was an elective monarchy headed by powerful noble families who elected the King or Queen from among their ranks. But even this process required the Holy Church's support for the new monarch to be regarded as the legitimate sovereign. When the Relay was opened, the kingdom agreed to let the Empire manage the Transit Relay and the port which grew around it. This rankled the priesthood, who saw the Imperial presence as both unwanted and even corrupt. They schemed to gain control over the Relay but weren't able to until a radical movement gained traction among the priests. This radical faction asked, why should the Church which legitimates the nobles rule, suffer their treachery and possible heresy? Should not the Church rule over Malakain? If so, then they could push to seize the Relay port and throw the Imperial out of the holy realm of Malakain. And after decades of scheming and buildup, the priesthood finally chose to support the radicals and overthrow the monarchy and nobles. Once the Church's rule over Malakain was secure, the military led an attack on the Imperial Port and gained control over Malakain's side of the Relay path. From there, things quieted down. The priesthood further radicalized and in their zealotry, desired to bring their faith to all Domains in the Ethereal Heavens and Seas, no matter what it would take. And so the Church led a buildup in the military in preparation for leading the crusade into the Scarlet Sea.   Finally, the Malakite theocracy declared a crusading war against the Empire and all those who would resist Malakain. The Malakite fleet launched itself from the Relay into the Scarlet Sea at Port Shar. This surprise attack let the Malakites take the port, securing control over the Malakain-Scarlet Sea Relay path. From there, they attempted to take the Imperial stronghold at Port Andersen (later Black Hollows) but were repulsed. Following this, the Scarlet War burned a bit quieter as much of the Malakite fleet was either destroyed or badly mauled in that brutal battle. While the remnants of the Malakite fleets were able to hold onto their early gains, the superiority of the Empire's engines and forces keeps the zealous Malakites in check.   The Malakites, before the coup and war, were able to get basic Imperial engine designs and had a bit of success in recreating the technology within their own Domain. However, the Imperials were not blind to the antipathy showcased by the priesthood and specifically kept the designs show in Malakain to old military models or civilian ones which kept the modern knowledge out of Malakite hands. This proved wise as the Malakite crusading forces were forced to rely on a different stratagem. Instead of building engines which were equals to the Empire's designs, something they knew wasn't possible at the pace desired, the Malakite engine yards created locomotives which were easy to make, cheap to make and reliable enough for transport and combat. However, these early models proved far worse in battle than anticipated and it became a goal of the engine yards to improve their engines. Unfortunately for the Malakites, their need to produce large numbers of engines quickly has slowed down their ability to produce better engines as their losses mount. This is especially true on the Scarlet Guard front, as their locomotives routinely suffer losses against the powerful tamed sky-beasts of the Scarlet Guard. Over the last seven years, the fleets have grown but new designs are slow to be implemented.   Malakain as a Domain is a place of boundless energy and faith that is being slowly squeezed under its powerful priesthood. In general, the population is accepting of the theocracy's rule but their focus on the Scarlet War allowed elements of the old monarchy and nobility to survive the coup and purges. These elements have been working to use the worsening conditions to strengthen opposition to the priesthood. But said faction remains the in shadows, wary of trying to move too soon.   Malakain is much like Ascalon is its general environment, rather arid compared to Sozomon or Solomon's Reach. But unlike Ascalon, Malakain is studded with many oases, which form the core of the Domain's population. Malakain is also akin to the Scaled Kingdom in that its ports are more random in their placement and aren't really organized in any particular way. The capital of the realm has also never been in the Domain's center, but off to the side. For this exploration of Malakain, I'll use the Relay port as the main node, which is in the south of the Domain at current.   Were one to travel back to the port now called Merhiyon's Wake, one would find a very different town indeed. Before the coup, the port was a thoroughly Imperial colony called Marren's Eve and was a territory of the Empire near the edge of the Domain. Marren's Eve did not exist as a settlement before the opening of the Relay path, aside from a small settlement in ages past which had long been abandoned. As the Imperials set about building a new home, they made contact with the locals, who had formed a monarchy not dissimilar to the later found Scaled Kingdom. This was the first time Imperial scouts made contact with a formal nation out among the wide Ethereal Heavens and it was a joyous affair. The emperor of the time, Lucian, personally visited to meet with his Malakite counterpart to formalize Imperial-Malakite relations. It was in this meeting that the Malakite king agreed to relinquish control over Marren's Eve since the Empire had lost dozens of locomotive scouts trying to find the Relay path out of the Scarlet Sea. While this wasn't contested within the Malakite royal court, the priesthood was far more displeased with the situation regarding Marren's Eve. But they lacked the political or popular will to overturn the formal agreement with the Empire at the time.   Marren's Eve was built in accordance with typical Imperial architecture and during the roughly 20 years of peace the port was something of a resort town to the Malakites. They found the distinctive architecture of the Empire fascinating and a small school for architects was founded in the port as a result. The conquest of the port during the coup saw the Imperial population of Marren's Eve expelled and they were replaced by a thoroughly loyalist group to the priesthood. To cement this change, the port was renamed into the modern Merhiyon's Wake after a prominent god of fortune among the Malakite pantheon. The port soon became a major supply and training center for the growing Malakite military in the lead up to the Scarlet War. Once the war kicked off, Merhiyon's Wake became the principle staging point for crusading forces heading out into the Scarlet Sea to gather and prepare.   While much of the old Imperial town was torn down and rebuilt after the coup, certain elements were retained and repurposed. The old Imperial Church cathedral was reconsecrated into a grand temple of the Malakite Church. The old Imperial iconography was either removed and stored or covered up. New Malakite religious works have been slowly added in to cement its transition to the Malakite faith. Its tradition now for new crusaders to have a farewell sermon in the cathedral before deploying to the front.   The other two Imperial structures remaining is the Transit Relay, which has been left more or less as is, and the old Imperial meeting hall which had acted as the municipal hall of Marren's Eve. It now serves as the headquarters of the Malakite Navy Logistics Corp and the seat of the Vicar of Merhiyon's Wake who practically governs the town.   Located around 90 degrees counterclockwise from Merhiyon's Wake is the current capital of Malakain, Lantegos. Lantegos has, for many generations, been the seat of the priesthood and home to several holy sites. The city has consistently grown over the last century and since the coup has exploded in size to match the old monarchy's capital. The core of Lantegos is the Cathedral of the Heaven's Ascension, named in honor of the pantheon's ascent to power over the titans of yore. The Cathedral is where the Hierarch of the Church, head of the faith, is located along with the other major elements of the Church's government. While it has taken on expansions to allow the Church to manage temporal rule, the majority of new arrivals to Lantegos are pilgrims wish to worship in the Grand Cathedral. Lantegos is also home to the premier seminary schools from which new priests are trained at.   Since the coup, Lantegos' explosive growth has seen a new, unexpected element arise. The arrival of non-pilgrims seeking to find fortunes and homes overwhelmed what services were provided by the Church. As such, a of series shanty towns has grown on the asteroid chains around the core of Lantegos proper. Services are quite poor in these areas and the Church's inability to properly care for the people around Lantegos proper has been a growing criticism against the Church of late.   Located nearly opposite of Lantegos is Kurenos, the old seat of the monarchy and former capital of Malakain. Prior to the coup, Kurenos was the largest settlement in Malakain and sprawled across nearly a dozen asteroid settlements that had been slowly drifted together to form a single city. While much of the prestige of the city has been lost to Lantegos, the priesthood hasn't been able to truly wrest all political forces away from the old Lion City. Many extant noble houses, guilds and other powerful people and groups remain in Kurenos as few wish to fully relocate. Most have established a "new main office" or equivalent in Lantegos to satisfy the expectations of the new regime while keeping much of their old business in the old capital. This along with the raging Scarlet War allowed for remnants of the old monarchy and high nobility to survive, as the nobles especially did not want the war nor the Church's supremacy in Malakain. That said, most opposition forces remain quiet, as the Church still possesses a large amount of momentum and support among the general populace and elements of the elite. Instead, the Opposition has been working to spread the truth about the state of the Scarlet War and the sheer devastation its doing to both the Malakite military and population. Even more importantly, the Opposition has been working to publish the truth of the myriad Malakite losses and the simple fact that, aside from minor seizures of territory, the Church and its crusaders have failed to make any practical gains against either the Scarlet Guard or the Empire. Sadly, the Church's stranglehold on printing means that the Opposition needs to be creative in dissemination its message around Malakain.   Located near the edge of the Domain near Kurenos is the Sokwa Reserve, the old royal reserve of animals and plants. In decades before contact with he Empire, Sokwa was a grand place, a specially crafted oasis built to allow a wide array of beasts and plants to thrive in a smaller region of the realm. Once Imperial contact was made, it took on many strange flora and fauna from the many other Domains the realm had contact with. But when the coup struck and cast down the monarchy, the Church pointedly did not support the reserve any further. The Church leaders saw Sokwa as a symbol of the decadent monarchs and nobles and wanted little to do with it. As such, the Royal Reserve lost most of its funding and has steadily shrunk down its activities. For a few years it even opened up fully to the public but even this wasn't able to bring in enough money or support. And so, the Sokwa Royal Reserve formally shut down roughly a year ago. But just because the formal strucutres are no longer running, doesn't mean the reserve itself isn't active. The flora and fauna of the reserve are well established at the the time of the closure and there are many unique specimens of all types, plant or beast, which are now beyond Malakain's reach due to the isolation of the Scarlet War. Many of the powerful and wealthy of the realm have made contracts to private locomotive captains to go and acquire a plant or beast from within the Reserve and they pay quite well. Even the Church does this, though quietly and within its own ranks as much as possible. There are simply too many valuable substances from plants or animals within the Reserve to ignore. But none ask for more than a small amount as, with the ending of the Reserve Keepers, no one knows what lives within the Reserve any more. There have been calls within the Church to reform the Reserve Keepers, but the growing demands of the Scarlet War absorb most resources and attention away from this possible project. The Reserve itself has begun to overgrow and become a wild and dangerous place. While most engines are successful in their hunts, every crew that returns to greater Malakain has noted that the Reserve is becoming more dangerous with each passing year without someone to control or regulate the wildlife within it.   A short week or so journey at worst northwards from Kurenos is the historic cemetery and museum of Ludjenna. This port is home to many ancient tombs and in the century before the outbreak of the Scarlet War was expanded to be a repository for historical artifacts of the kingdoms of Malakain, a true monument to the history of the realm. The museum in particular was a strong tourist site, getting many visitors from across Malakain and its social strata. During the period of peace with the Empire, many Imperial crews visited Ludjenna to better understand the history of their new neighbor. While officially the monarchy itself ran Ludjenna in practice the museum had been managed by the royal court's Church representatives, as they alone were able to get sacred relics added to the collection at Ludjenna. After the coup, control of Ludjenna was entirely within the Church's hands. And here, the high priesthood saw an opportunity. They subtlety changed many of the exhibits and materials over time to slowly shift the historical focus away from he monarchy towards the Church over several years. They even sent out a recall for old books and materials, citing "newly discovered inaccuracies" which needed to be corrected. The end goal was simple, to turn the museum into the propaganda piece against the monarchy and asserting the righteousness of the Church and its works. This also extends to the period before the coup, with a steady villainization of the Empire being done in lockstep with those schools under the Church's control. At current, the efficacy of this work is likely not the best as far too many souls still remember what happened in the past. But the Church is entirely willing to rewrite history as their grand work, the conversion of the Ethereal Heavens to the Malakite faith, is their overriding goal and few if any methods are off the table for the Church's leaders. Even desecrating history and the old mausoleum and museum are accepted for their ultimate goal.   Within the heart of Malakain is a decidedly calm place, untouched yet by the Church's works. Assago is an old monastic retreat dedicated to growth and healing. While renowned as a healing place, Assago is not a hospital in the typical sense. Assago has been a place for restoring ones soul and healing wounds of the spirit and mind over physical ailments. Founded by the reverend Likayos, Assago has always looked within for healing and guidance. Pointedly, the monastic order of Assago has held itself apart from the mainstream Church and in fact long predates the modern Malakite Church. Its particular nature as a monastic retreat has kept Assago apart from the general conflict, both of the coup and the Scarlet War. But it isn't totally beyond these battles. Assago welcomes anyone who seeks to restore the spirit and refuge. As such, the old royal family in its entirety fled to Assago to seek refuge, for which they were given. Even when the Church Hierarch arrived with Church paladins to try and take the royals, they were politely rebuffed. Even though they are technically part of the Church, the Assago order is quite willing to use its impartiality to its advantage. The royals were granted asylum not for political but spiritual reasons and more importantly, any effort of violence within Assago would be hard to justify. Even the Church wouldn't be able to prevent a counter coup or even full blown civil war if work got out that the Church violated the sacred retreat of Assago for political gains. What credibility they had would be torn from them in an instant and the Church would likely collapse internally as well as externally. And so, the royals were left along in Assago so long as they remain there, which they do even now.   Assago as such has become a safe haven of sorts for individuals who find themselves staring down the ire of the Church at current. A new order of monks dedicated to protecting the monastery, the Order of the Shields of Assago, has been informally made who live outside but around the monastery to ensure that if the Church ever decides to seize Assago by force, the monastery will have some protectors at their side. But thus far, the Church leaders have ordered the retreat be left alone.   Located in the north east of the Domain is Besako Coliseum. Besako has long been a major center for grand public shows, particularly among the elite of Malakain. While physically closer to the Church's center at Lantegos, Besako has been used equally between the temporal and spiritual authorities of Malakain since the advent of a unified kingdom. Besako first became prominent out of convenience, it is a massive, naturally basin shaped asteroid that had been used by various groups for festivals for many generations. The earliest monarchs used Besako for triumphs during the consolidation of the Domain. The almost routine, periodic collapse of central authority over many centuries led both nobles and priests to maintain private military forces. This practice developed for the Church into the military orders. During stable and peaceful periods, Besako shifted from a purely civilian amphitheater. Gladiatorial combat gave private soldiers, and even the Royal military, the ability to train and battle in peacetime. With Besako being the largest natural amphitheater, it became the centerpiece of these gladiatorial shows. The Church took advantage of these shows and kicked off a large series of propagandistic ones following the coup's success as a way to legitimize their rule. Afterwards, Besako Coliseum is used to help train ground forces and act as a site of ritual combat to baptize up and coming crusaders. The Coliseum has even been adapted to allow for mock locomotive engine battles, to let crews get familiar with their engine in a safe environment.   Besako is in a state of growth under the Church regime. The original basin-arena is relative unchanged beyond structural enhancements to better permit mock engine battles. The real growth is around Besako proper, however. The actual port lies mostly within the asteroid mass, unlike most larger ports which prefer to cover the surface or dig quarry spaces out. Besako's growth also involves newly built arenas in the surrounding asteroids, which are custom built to allow for mock engine battles for better training purposes.   While the Church's main center is the port-cathedral of Lantegos, the Malakite Church has many outposts scattered across the Domain. One of the somewhat newer sites is Teherro's Rise, located in the North Polar Zone of Malakain. Teherro's Rise is strictly a ritual site, used for various Church ceremonies of importance. Most commonly, these are secondary ceremonies that aren't necessarily meant for public view. It is here that most new bishops are given their most formal regalia and undergo the oldest rites of the Church, for example. Many other rituals and ceremonies are done at Teherro's Rise. As such, it is a common meeting place for the Church elite. It was at Teherro's Rise that the coup was first plotted out and where the early plans for the war against the Empire were formulated.   Teherro's Rise is named after the ancient prophet Teherro, who according to longstanding Malakite belief, ascended to the Heavens at the Rise. For most of Malakain's history, Teherro's Rise was an extremely popular pilgrimage point and even after the coup, there is still a flow of pilgrims to it. However, the Church has carefully moved the areas where pilgrims go to away from the more sacred and important sector under the pretense that the old sites have to be sealed off for repairs. The new pilgrimage site is a near perfect replica which has, for the most part, satisfied the wider populace with the policy shift. But it is another small arrow used by the Opposition faction that the Church leadership hasn't reopened the old, sacred sites for pilgrims even though the repairs should have been completed within the last 30 years.   While Lantegos is the seat of the Church and there are several important holy sites around the Domain, the most important and sacred site is Litenya, a massive diamond shaped octahedron which sits in the heart of the Southern Polar zone, directly below Assago. The octahedron of Litenya itself is an anomaly, as it wasn't made by mortal hands. The very oldest written records of the Malakites, along with the oldest known oral histories, all affirm that the great Octahedron was always where it is. It has simply always existed and no one knows why. As far as the Church and the faithful believe, it is the work of the Gods. The most common belief is that the Litenya Octahedron is the lodestone holding the Domain together and was wrought into existence by the entire Pantheon after their victory against the titans. As far as what little research has been done, the Litenya Octahedron is a solid asteroid mass and is not hollow in any way. For most within the Church, altering the Octahedron in any way is sacrilege. Though its long existence has meant that the surface of the Octahendron is covered in various reliefs, writings and so forth. Currently the Church prohibits any further additions or alterations to the holy monument but acknowledges that it was altered in the past. As a part of this, touching the Octahedron is forbidden but creating detailed replicas of the many reliefs on the Octahedron is acceptable.   The actual port of Litenya is located on the asteroids surrounding the holy monument. Most settlements have been built such that one has a very good view of the Litenya Octahedron and traffic to the port is vigorously routed in the surrounding area. As it is easily the holist site in Malakain being a work of the Gods, Litenya sees a constant stream of pilgrims and the port caters to this population. The port exports truly vast amounts of religious trinkets, holy scriptures, and really anything faith oriented that a pilgrim is willing to purchase. The Church formally doesn't run the Litenya port, leaving that to the longstanding natives of the area. But the Church does take a small slice of the revenue from the pilgrims' purchases, as the Church itself brings in a large chunk of the exports of the Litenya markets at this point.   As can be expected of an old institution, the Malakite Church is by no means fully unified. Even with the dedicated work of spreading the discontent and views of the radical faction, not everyone was happy with the coup or the following Scarlet War. But most of these groups have already aligned with the Royalist Opposition. But in Salazzo lies another faction. This group has no name and its members refer to each other simply as Brother. But it does exist and the Salazzo Brotherhood has its own agenda apart from the Church's high leadership. Salazzo itself is an old noble estate in the lower North Polar Zone that was bequeathed to the Church after the last member of the Salazzo family passed away with no living heirs. It has, over decades, been converted into a sort of retreat and seminary for lower ranked priests beginning their journey up the Church hierarchy. Ostensibly, one heads to Salazzo to strengthen one's relationship with the Gods and deepen one's understanding of doctrine and scripture. But this has lead the priests of Salazzo to be somewhat apart from the upper echelons of the Church. The current Hierarch, Lukius Minnaro, and his inner circle who led the coup are not particularly popular with the Salazzo priests. The Salazzo Brotherhood is an informal faction from among these priests who seek to undermine Hierarch Minnaro and eventually replace him and ideally the rest of the Church's high leadership. While still relatively weak, several higher ranking Churchmen have joined Salazzo as a way of showing dissatisfaction with the Minnaro hierarch-ship and have been courted cautiosly by the Salazzo Brothers. In regards to the Scarlet War, the general feel of the Brotherhood is that they aren't totally against the conflict, but they do believe that Minnaro and his subordinates have damaged the ability of Malakain to truly win the war as they have proclaimed. The Brotherhood is also not interested in seeing a restoration of the old monarchy, as this would likely see a curtailing of the Church's authority and influence given that the Church led a coup after all. But there are members of the Brotherhood who have voiced the possibility of working with the Royalist Opposition if need be.   While Salazzo may be one of the secret home of discontent with the ruling elite of the Church, Astavo is that regime's truest home. Astavo is the personal estate of Hierarch Lukius, a holdover from his family of which he is the last. Astavo is located near the "top" of the Domain, high up near the North Pole and nearly directly above Assago. It is at Astavo where Lukius and his closest allies first began voicing their most radical views and discontent with the path the king and nobles were charting for Malakain.   Astavo has been expanded over the years to function as a small town dedicated to the cause of Lukius and his allies. But unlike the more public showcases of fiery oratory, the work done in Astavo is decidedly of a darker nature. Astavo is where Lukius and his allies have their assassins trained and prepared before sending them out. It is through these assassins that several prominent members of the old nobility and royal court were removed from political play in the early hours before and after the coup was launched. While they weren't successful in eliminating the royal family, their effective exile in Assago was sufficient for Lukius' needs. Since the coup succeeded, the assassins of Lukius have removed several open remnants of the Opposition that could have roused greater resistance to the Lukius' goals. But since the outbreak of the Scarlet War, most of the assassins have been deployed in the Scarlet Sea in the hope that they can eliminate key leaders of the Imperial Navy and military to weaken the Empire's positions. Seven years in, no grand miracle has occurred but the assassins continue to seek out advantageous positions. Notably, infiltration into the Empire is at this point nigh impossible. The Malakite accent is quite distinct when attempting to speak any common Imperial language and the appearance of Malakites are different to both the majority and minorities within the Imperial population. Astavo is where new major elements to the regime are fully inducted into their plans once an individuals loyalty of the Church and Lukius is thoroughly confirmed. The newest main plan, kept quiet from the rest of the Church, is to attempt a false flag attack in the Scarlet Sea and have enough credible witnesses to use this event to further stoke hatred to the Empire. Lukius and his cohorts are hopeful such an effort will be enough to see a surge in volunteerism in the military, which has begun to taper off after seven years of only the most modest of victories. With the future surge, the plan is to finally crack the Empire's lines with a mass assault.   The newest port, located in the northwest of Malakain a few days travel from Kurenos, is Serhenna. Serhenna is the primary engine yard and factory of Malakain. It originally was born a decade after Imperial contact was made, as by that point enough knowledge about locomotive had been shared that a Royal Malakite engine yard was practical. Thus, Serhenna and the Royal Steamworks Yard were born. In the years since the coup, Serhenna has grown massively as the Church consolidated much of it and the Royal treasuries into a massive military buildup. There are a few other engine yards but Serhenna is Malakain's best. Serhenna is around the size or slightly larger than New Draycott, though the vast majority of this new growth and size is purely dedicated to engine production. As mentioned before, most Malakite designs are easy and cheap to make but are less than sturdy. While one would expect there to be a fair bit of innovation, the sheer amount of pressure for output put upon Serhenna has dulled its engineers' ability to experiment, iterate and innovate. Small improvements have been made but most are done by hauling back old Imperial wrecks for study, which are still ongoing.