Aurani Society: Thrones of Iron, Crowns of Gravity
The Aurani live in an age of crowns and courts — a feudal patchwork of monarchies where banners wave, treaties are sealed with blood or marriage, and nobles scheme in marble halls.
But where other kingdoms use horses, ships, or even cannons, the Aurani stride the earth in mechs that would make Nova Prime’s brightest engineers weep. To the Aurani, though, these colossal machines are no marvel. They are tools — sacred in some places, disposable in others — but never the stuff of awe.
“A Grav-Phalanx is no different from a plow. Both till the land. One merely tills it with fire.” — Aurani proverb
The Three Pillars of Society
Civilians (The Common Striders)
Farmers use Striders with plow-arms to cut furrows in high-gravity fields.
Merchants pilot ornate mech-caravans that carry silks and ores across impossible terrain.
Even bakers may own a tiny “Oven-Mech” powered by grav-cells to knead dough and stoke fires.
Outsiders call these miracles. Aurani call them “chores.”
Military (The Crown’s Fist)
Each kingdom boasts its own legions of Grav-Phalanx — towering mechs clad in heraldic sigils.
Battlefields look like jousts magnified a thousandfold: banners unfurl, lances shimmer with grav-pressure, entire valleys quake as noble houses duel for honor.
Soldiers don’t dream of rising ranks — they dream of earning the right to paint their mech’s crest in their family colors.
Religion (The Oracles of Heav)
To the Aurani, gravitic resonance is divine. It is the “breath of the stars,” proof the gods sing through matter.
Oracle mechs are temples that walk. Inside, priests chant equations as hymns, while the mech radiates stabilizing fields believed to bless crops or heal sickness.
Pilgrims travel great distances to kneel at an Oracle’s feet — some even crawl beneath its shadow, believing the mech’s grav-field purges sins.
Monarchies & Courts
Each Aurani kingdom is ruled by a monarch who is less a bureaucrat and more a living conductor of power. Their throne is fused with gravitic conduits, allowing them to literally speak across miles in harmonic pulses, felt in every mech under their banner.
Succession is rarely peaceful. Assassins, arranged marriages, or even mech-duels often decide who wears the crown.
Nobles host lavish tournaments where mechs joust, dance, or duel. These spectacles serve as both entertainment and military training.
Culture & Attitudes
On Technology: What Nova Prime calls “god-tier engineering,” Aurani dismiss as mundane. Their children learn to tune grav-engines the way others learn to tie shoes.
On Status: Owning a mech is expected. The poor may have only stripped-down frames, but even the humblest Aurani farmer can “walk the iron path.”
On War: War is inevitable, but it is also ritual. Whole battles are often pre-announced, fought for honor, and then recorded in elaborate songs that double as legal documents.
Why They Matter to the Wider Universe
To Nova Prime, the Aurani are terrifying: peasants with access to world-shaking technology, kings who can redirect armies by thought, priests who bend faith into physics.
To the Aurani themselves? They’re just living. Arguing about succession. Worrying if the harvest will be good. Complaining that their mech’s leg joints rust too fast in the rain.
Their world is a paradox — where kingdom politics and mech warfare are one and the same, and where what looks like sorcery to others is just Tuesday chores.