Tourmaline

Continent

A vastly diverse landscape, buried under the shadow of a thousand spellstorms cast generations ago. To the north, near the ocean, only granite cliffs sheltered the mainland from thick shadows that could choke a dragon -- or tear it apart. The people of former Sunsplash Province were thus cut off from what had been the lifeblood of their economy -- the sea. Even with the cliffs, however, the entire continent is shrouded with shadows. People breathed it in and became sick. They died. They are still dying.

Neverending tsunamis barrage the eastern coast, while to the south, a mother storm births dozens of hurricanes every year. What had once been Tourmaline's agricultural heartland is now virtually uninhabitable. Still, people brave the storms and shadows. They must eat, after all, and there is no way of leaving the continent.

The central lands, once sprawling prairies and proud stone towers, hosts a giant rift that swallows everything that comes near it and sizzles with bolts of dark purple energy -- poison to all life. To the west, where there was once vast redwood forests and mist-covered mountains, four volcanoes now rain down lava, ash, and poison gas.

The skies are eternally grey. Every so often, clouds rain down black droplets the size of ping pong balls. The people have developed filtering techonology -- but they know better than thinking it will really protect them. Here, people regularly die as early as 25. Whether it's the tangible shadows that fill up their lungs, or the water that seems to always retain some of its inky swirls, or the volcanoes, or the storms, or starvation or disease -- people have simply become used to it.

Ascension, Anni, and Lu dialects, as well as Universal Language and Common Tourmali

Several millions -- too much chaos to know for sure

Metal shaped into leaves (for smaller units) or flowers engraved on coins (for larger units)
Name of Currency: Tourma(e)
Smallest Unit: Bamboo Leaf, 1 Tourma
10 Bamboo Leaves --> 1 Maple Leaf, 10 Tourmae
5 Maple Leaves --> 1 Peony, 50 Tourmae
4 Peonies --> 1 Honeysuckle, 200 Tourmae
5 Honeysuckles --> 1 Plum Blossom, 1000 Tourmae

Let us not go quietly into the night.

people appeared cause evolution and made civilizations in river valleys

Year of Earth 681

As civilizations blossomed and spread in the fertile river valleys of the former Heartland, they inevitably came into conflict with each other. Small agricultural villages quarreled and clashed and banded together into city-states, then into kingdoms and self-proclaimed empires -- the Anni in the east, the Ascension in the south, the Sil in the center, and the Lu in the west. Clashes between the empires grew in strength and ferocity until, village by city by province, the Ascension absorbed the Sil, the Lu, and finally the Anni. Having surrendered before the war had progressed much, the Anni fared the best out of all the conquered empires. There was little of the death and destruction that had ravaged the the western lands. The Sil, who had resisted fiercely and continued to host small uprisings, were thoroughly crushed and wiped off the map; their language and culture destroyed and their cities repopulated with Ascension citizens. As the Anni and Lu provinces agreed to follow the laws of their new rulers, they were allowed to preserve some of their language and customs, leading to the three distinct cultures today.

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Of course, peace could not last forever. Over the years, corruption squeezed and crept its way into the government and resentment grew in Tourmaline's cities.

And then came the Universal Invasion.

The neighboring continent of Ridgewing had benefited for centuries from Tourmali materials and inventions. It had been at a state of almost constant war for generations, compared to the relative peace and prosperity of Tourmaline. Now, with resources depleted and tensions building, its nations looked toward Tourmaline for fresh opportunities.

It started with the most innocent things. The sponsoring of new projects: railroads, houses, banks. The encouragement of trade and development of intercontinental relations. Then it moved to buying large swathes of land and demanding more and more until the Lu and parts of the Ascension provinces had basically been carved up into new territories for Ridgewing nations. The Universal Language of Ridgewing was introduced, and Ridgewing citizens flooded into Tourmaline, whether looking to open casinos, hotels, restaurants, or simply for a fresh, exotic place to live. Ridgewing nations coaxed the Tourmaline government into allowing them more and more control over their territories, and when it refused, they attacked. The Tourmaline navy was bombarded into oblivion, the coastal cities were crushed and moved into Ridgewing control, and then came the land invasion, with Ridgewing armies invading and occupying city after city, imposing their language, customs, and laws onto the Tourmali and looting, cheating, burning, and killing. The much weaker Tourmali army could do nothing against them, and so the government made surrender after surrender, concession after concession, until it was reduced to nothing but a figurehead with no real power, despised by every Tourmali and treated with contempt by every Ridgewing.

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With one uprising after another, the resistance movement quickly developed into a full-blown rebellion. Cities were taken, weapons and ammunitions seized, armies formed. Regiments of poorly trained, poorly equipped, starving Tourmali marched against the Ridgewing occupiers, raided local farms and warehouses for food and basic necessities, and left wide swathes of destruction in their wake. Soon, nearly every citizen had to face a choice: join the ranks of the rebellion and risk their properties, their families, and their own lives to fight what seemed like an unwinnable war against the foreigners, or stay with the Ridgewing occupiers and risk violence and death should their city or town be taken by the rebellion. Resentment against the rebellion flared, but even more blamed the Ridgewing forces for setting the whole thing into motion. Sometimes even families were torn apart and set against each other in the often-violent disagreements and confrontations. Tourmaline was set aflame; its citizens wild with fury. The continent broke apart into factions and smaller rebellions. The Ridgewing occupiers massacred all unidentified Tourmali regardless of affiliations and crushed multiple uprisings, but there were always more to replace the dead and dying. Lulls in the fighting could last for days or years, and nothing was ever certain. Ridgewing resources began to strain and morale plummeted in the home continent. Tensions grew between allianced occupying armies. Protests both peaceful and violent and political upheaval finally forced the Ridgewing people to withdraw, while Tourmaline was thrown into even more chaos. Ridgewing and half-Ridgewing people left behind by the exodus were tortured and killed en masse. Independent resistance movements clashed in a war of ideologies and thinly veiled power struggles while the bonds of family and friendship were destroyed and former comrades pitted against each other. Movements that had once called for freedom, equality, and democracy sought only power for themselves. Death tolls mounted until hundreds of organizations became tens, then just four, and then one.

(WIP, omg ppl tourmaline doesn't need more bad things to happen)

(WIP, everything gets wrecked cause they somehow offended Ridgewing aGAIN, like nukes except more magicky)

(WIP, current Tourmaline)