(As Known to Those Who Still Live Near Them)
Civilization in Atherfall is rare, hard-won, and deeply ideological. Where cities endure, they do so not by accident, but by belief, coercion, or brutal necessity. These powers are not nations in the modern sense — they are survival philosophies made concrete.
Between them lies hundreds of yalms of wilderness where law dissolves and form decides fate.
The Free Kingdom, The Revenant State
To outsiders, the Hidden Eidolon appears equal in strength to the Sun-Kissed Crown. To those who understand power, it is something far more dangerous.
The Hidden Eidolon is built around a single, unyielding doctrine:
No being may own another.
Its great temple is dedicated to the Chain Breaker, Goddess of Chaos and Freedom — a deity reviled by empires, feared by slavers, and worshiped by those who remember what it means to choose.
Slavery here is not merely illegal.
It is the highest conceivable sin.
A thousand years ago, this land was ruled by a human king whose wealth was built on chains. The first stones of the capital were laid by slaves. When the Chain Breaker intervened, she did not smite the city — she freed it.
The slaves rose.
The king died.
Those humans who rejected the goddess were driven out.
The kingdom that followed was not ruled by a throne, but by memory.
Power rests with the Revenant Council — representatives of the many races who call the Eidolon home. Humans exist here, but they do not dominate. No race does.
The council’s authority is absolute, but fractured by design.
No single will may rule.
Sanctuary for escaped slaves
Tolerant of monsters, constructs, and aberrant forms
Deeply distrusted by religious hierarchies
Quietly feared by every slaving power
The Gilded Kingdom, The Church-State
Where the Hidden Eidolon preaches freedom, the Sun-Kissed Crown enforces order.
This kingdom gleams — golden banners, white stone cities, endless monuments to faith and prosperity. It is also built, quite literally, on the backs of slaves.
Though a king sits upon the throne, he does not rule.
True authority rests with the Bishop and the Church, who govern the kingdom in the name of divine order. Other races are tolerated only as labor, resources, or tools.
The Church teaches that hierarchy is natural.
Chains, they say, are mercy.
Slavery is legal, institutionalized, and normalized
Non-humans are systematically devalued
Faith is mandatory, dissent is dangerous
Expansion is slow, methodical, and ruthless
The Sun-Kissed Crown considers the Hidden Eidolon heretical, dangerous, and contagious.
And Hell’s Gate?
That is a personal grievance.
The Eternal Dynasty
An ancient, militaristic state whose people live in peace precisely because they believe collapse is impossible.
The Domain is orderly, disciplined, and immense. Its roads are patrolled, its borders fortified, its citizens fed and protected.
The Dynast King is never seen.
Rulers change, yet nothing appears to change. This has given rise to a persistent rumor:
the bloodline is immortal.
Whether this is truth, illusion, or something worse is unknown.
Slavery exists only as criminal punishment
Humans and non-humans coexist under law
Military service is honored
Stability is worshiped more than gods
The Domain does not fear monsters.
It absorbs them.
Its greatest strength — certainty — may also be its greatest blind spot.
The Clanlands
Far beyond the reach of the great kingdoms lies the Beastkin Alliance — not a nation, but a pact.
Formed centuries ago between countless tribes and clans, the Alliance exists to ensure that no beastkin stands alone again.
The Alliance lies across the Astrean Wildlands, separated from the other powers by over six hundred yalms of untamed wilderness. This distance has kept it safe from conquest.
Each tribe governs itself, but all answer to the pact.
The capital, Lupis, serves as neutral ground — a city of many forms, voices, and instincts.
Once a simple village, Kiojafell sits at the edge of becoming something more. Whether it grows into a city, a symbol, or a battleground remains to be seen.
The Spirit Court
An insular realm shaped by tradition, myth, and the belief that some things should remain unseen.
The Yokai Kingdom does not expand.
It does not conquer.
It remembers.
Deals are binding. Stories are power. Outsiders are tolerated only if they respect the rules they do not understand.
The Blood Court
A kingdom ruled by Alucard Xanthe, vampire sovereign and chosen of the God of Blood.
Hell’s Gate is not expansionist. It is not cruel by default. It is transactional.
Blood is sacred, not casual
Strength is respected
Neutral in most conflicts
Except one.
The Sun-Kissed Crown is an enemy.
Not politically.
Personally.
Between all of these powers lie vast regions of wilderness where:
Law does not exist
Civilization fails
Evolution decides survival
Most who are isekai’d do not arrive in kingdoms.
They arrive between them.
And whether they ever reach a bannered land depends entirely on what they become along the way.