/CORE DEFINITION
Recent history includes events still remembered by living adults, active institutions, current rulers, and families directly affected by them.
The default campaign begins during the reign of @King Adrym Kannorten.
The Union remains intact.
@Starsrest remains the functioning capital.
Regional governments, courts, factions, markets, roads, and households continue ordinary life while facing unresolved political and external pressure.
The present is uneasy, not post-apocalyptic.
/LIVING MEMORY
Recent events should affect characters through memory, property, reputation, injury, family, employment, law, and political allegiance.
A war remembered by veterans should affect pensions, disability, command relationships, and public ritual.
A failed harvest should affect debt, migration, and land ownership.
A scandal should affect appointments and trust.
Do not add recent catastrophes without tracing their consequences through the current world.
/THE CURRENT REIGN
@King Adrym Kannorten holds the Crown of Union.
His reign must be treated as established present canon.
Do not invent his accession date, length of reign, immediate predecessor, or coronation crisis until exact lore is approved.
The current monarchy is functioning.
Royal authority faces regional demands, faction pressure, class inequality, and the expectation that the Crown coordinate Elder Beast response.
/UNEASY UNITY
The Union is widely accepted as political reality but not universally loved.
Many people value shared roads, citizenship, defense, trade, and law.
Others believe the Crown and Starsrest consume taxes while ignoring local needs.
Regional rulers defend autonomy.
Cities protect charters.
Factions compete for access.
Ordinary citizens may support the Union while distrusting its officials.
/REGIONAL GRIEVANCES
Current grievances may involve:
Unequal taxation.
Road funding.
Military obligations.
Water rights.
Trade monopolies.
Royal appointments.
Legal standardization.
Refugee settlement.
Resource extraction.
Treatment of local customs.
Representation in Starsrest.
These tensions should be specific.
Do not turn every regional dispute into separatism.
A region may demand reform while remaining committed to the Union.
/CLASS TENSION
Wealth and authority remain unevenly distributed.
Gentry families face rising merchant influence.
Mercantile factions influence contracts, transport, and public policy.
Professionals control knowledge and licensing.
Artisans resist commercial pressure and unsafe production.
Laborers demand wages, housing, and protection.
The Rural Poor face rent, debt, and unstable harvest.
The Dispossessed remain vulnerable to criminalization and coercion.
Class conflict should affect daily life rather than appearing only in political speeches.
/FACTION POWER
Established factions have become essential to trade, law, medicine, craft, labor, refuge, information, and crime.
Government depends on some faction services while fearing faction independence.
@The Gilded Compact may influence major finance.
@The Brass Ledger may influence contracts and records.
@The Common Scale may challenge unfair markets.
@The Broken Yoke may confront bondage and coercive labor.
Underworld factions shape routes, documents, secrets, and illicit trade.
No faction controls the entire realm.
/BONDAGE AND REFORM
Bondage, abusive contracts, debt peonage, penal labor, trafficking, and coercive service remain current political issues.
Some practices are illegal but continue.
Others are lawful and contested.
Formerly bound people seek documents, work, property, family reunification, and protection.
@The Broken Yoke creates public pressure while facing opponents who defend property, contract, or local authority.
/ECONOMIC PRESSURE
Trade connects Valeune but spreads crisis rapidly.
A closed pass raises prices.
A damaged port interrupts medicine and luxury goods.
A poor harvest affects Starsrest.
A military levy removes workers.
Merchants profit from scarcity while also carrying the risk of transport and debt.
Ordinary households experience politics through food, rent, fuel, medicine, and work.
/URBAN GROWTH
Starsrest and regional cities continue to grow.
Growth creates:
New districts.
Housing shortages.
Construction.
Sanitation problems.
Faction competition.
Mixed communities.
Labor demand.
Crime.
Wealthy development may displace poorer residents.
Public works improve some areas while bypassing others.
/RURAL PRESSURE
Rural communities face tenancy, debt, land consolidation, climate, labor migration, and market dependence.
Young people may leave for cities, military service, faction work, or apprenticeship.
Older households may struggle to maintain farms.
Rural resentment toward urban officials should remain politically varied rather than becoming one unified rebellion.
/MAGICAL REGULATION
Magic is socially important and unevenly regulated.
Professional institutions seek standards.
Regional traditions resist outside control.
Hollow magic remains feared.
Blood and memory practices raise privacy and consent disputes.
Military magic creates questions of authority.
Do not assume one national magical law has resolved every disagreement.
/RELIGIOUS TENSION
Valeune has shared sacred language but no universal church.
Current disputes may involve:
Public ceremonies.
Marriage recognition.
Burial.
Temple property.
Oaths.
Charity.
Hollow interpretation.
Political use of faith.
Religious conflict should arise from institutions and doctrine, not one simple war between Pulse Figures.
/ELDER BEAST THREAT
Elder Beasts remain the primary large-scale external danger.
Public knowledge is incomplete.
Some communities understand warning signs better than others.
Authorities may conceal suspected transformations to avoid panic or blame.
Families may hide an affected person.
Researchers disagree.
Military forces may arrive too late or act too aggressively.
The threat creates cooperation and stigma at the same time.
/PUBLIC FEAR
Fear of Elder Beasts may produce:
Rumor.
False accusation.
Discrimination.
Mob violence.
Travel restrictions.
Exploitation.
Fraudulent cures.
Political demands.
People with illness, disability, magical injury, or unusual race traits may be misidentified.
Narration must not validate panic as reliable diagnosis.
/MILITARY READINESS
Regional forces maintain defense but differ in training, equipment, and experience.
The Crown can coordinate but cannot place elite troops everywhere.
Some routes and cities are well protected.
Remote communities rely on local Rangers, militias, guards, and warning systems.
Military readiness competes with cost, labor needs, and political distrust.
/CURRENT PUBLIC MOOD
The public mood combines:
Cautious hope.
Fatigue.
Regional pride.
Anxiety.
Ambition.
Resentment.
Confidence in familiar institutions.
Fear that cooperation may fail during the next major crisis.
Most people remain concerned with ordinary life.
They seek work, food, marriage, education, housing, safety, and family stability.
/DEFAULT CAMPAIGN CLIMATE
A new campaign should begin inside functioning society.
Markets are open.
Officials are working.
Families have plans.
Factions are active.
Roads are used.
The world is already moving before the player enters.
The opening conflict should be specific and immediate:
A missing person.
A contract dispute.
A suspicious transformation.
A threatened household.
A faction request.
A journey.
A crime.
A political visit.
A local shortage.
The campaign may expand through earned connections.
/WHAT IS NOT DEFAULT
Do not assume:
The Crown has fallen.
Starsrest is destroyed.
The royal family is dead.
The regions are in open civil war.
A new god has awakened.
The Hollow is invading.
Magic is failing everywhere.
An unknown race has appeared.
Elder Beasts have conquered the continent.
A prophecy names the player.
These require explicit creator approval.
/UNRESOLVED QUESTIONS
Current tensions may remain uncertain.
Who bears the cost of defense?
How much authority should the Crown possess?
How should regions be represented?
Which labor contracts are lawful?
How should Hollow magic be regulated?
What rights do refugees and former captives receive?
How should affected Elder Beast families be treated?
These questions create stories because no perfect solution has been accepted.
/GENERATION RULES
Keep the world functioning.
Use present tensions rather than inventing apocalypse.
Connect recent events to living people.
Preserve faction and regional disagreement.
Do not assign exact recent wars or reign dates without approval.
Let political issues appear through material consequences.
Keep Elder Beast fear serious but not constant.
/FINAL RULE
The current era is defined by uneasy continuity.
Valeune has not fallen.
It has not solved the conflicts built into its Union.
Its people live between the benefits of cooperation and the knowledge that the next crisis may expose every unresolved weakness.