Phoenix Imperium

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The following is information relating to the Phoenix Imperium, a fictional setting.

Contents

[edit] Great Houses of the Phoenix Imperium

The massive Empire of the Phoenix is one of the oldest nations in the known world. Ruled by the Imperial House of the Phoenix, the empire’s foundation lies in the Beast-Troth. These Houses are fabulously wealthy and wield obscene amounts of political clout. Generally, the Phoenix Empress chooses her lovers from among the men of the Great Houses, and so they also have unprecedented access to the throne.

Each of the Great Houses was, according to legend, founded by one of the Nine Heroes of the Phoenix Imperium. The Great Houses use the beast Trothmate of their founding Hero as a heraldic animal in their symbolism; moreover, those members of the family who become Troth-Bound to that animal are almost guaranteed to rise high in the House's ranks, as they are clearly destined to be leaders of the House. So prevalent is this belief that even complete strangers who become Troth-Bound to an appropriate animal are often married into the House - the commoner know that the quickest way to sudden wealth and power is through discovering a Troth-Bond with one of these animals.

Each of the Great Houses is acknowledged to rule in a given dominion of the Phoenix Imperium, though the Great Houses have some kind of presence throughout the Imperium. Generally speaking, outside of areas they rule, the Great Houses maintain manors that effectively serve as diplomatic embassies and vacation homes for the members of the House.

The Elder Councils: With the exception of the Imperial House, the masters of the Great Houses are led by small councils of Elders, all of whom are Beast-Trothed to the heraldic animals of that House. These Elders have all undergone the Trothmark, and so are invariably potent individuals who guide the fate of their Houses.

Households: Each of the Great Houses is a massive, sprawling network of nobles, many of them hundreds strong. By Imperial philosophy, each Household shall be ruled by a single Elder of the House. A Household without a sponsor is fair game for the ambitions of its Elders. By Tradition, a Household that can boast of at least one Scion Trothbound to the proper Heraldic animal must be left alone by other Elders.

Those Households that do not have any such potential Scions are fair game to the ambitions of the House Elders, though, so most "orphaned" Households launch desperate searches for anyone that bears the Trothbond to the appropriate animal, in hopes of luring them into their Household by marriage. Likewise, if a Household is already ruled by an Elder, and it produces another, that new Elder is expected to take his personal holdings and those of his children and form a new Household - orphaned Households frequently find themselves absorbed in such consolidations, effectively making the old Household identity extinct.

  • Imperial House of the Phoenix, the all-female House from which the Imperial Phoenix chooses a new Phoenix Empress every one hundred years. Heraldic Beast: Imperial Phoenix.
  • House of the Burning Night, the nobility of the Flameleaf Reachmen, the House of the Burning Night is founded on the ideals of the hunter. What the hunter is to his community, the House of the Burning Night takes pride in being for its people: provider and defender. Heraldic Beast: Tiger.
  • House of the Towering Oaks, the nobility of the Skyreach Peoples, the House of the Towering Oaks has a reputation as simple giants among the other Great Houses. Known for their boisterousness and love of wine, song and lovemaking, members of the House of the Towering Oaks tend to be tall and strong-limbed, and appreciate feats of strength. Heraldic Beast: Bear.
  • House of the Heavenly Wind, the nobility of the Tosuni, the House of the Heavenly Wind is quite canny and politically astute. Members of the House of the Heavenly Wind are known for their prickly sense of honor and their networks of spies. It is well-known that the finest archers in the Phoenix Imperium are those troops trained by the House of the Heavenly Wind. Heraldic Beast: Hawk.
  • House of the Emerald Eye, the nobility of the Pearl Coast, the House of the Emerald Eye has a reputation as a hotbed of dilettantes and spoiled, simpering nobility with nothing better to do than intrigue. To some extent, this is quite true - the House offers its respect only to those with strong political aspirations and the cunning to make those aspirations a reality. Sometimes this breaks out in a spate of poisonings and other political assassinations within the House - more than once, the Phoenix Empress has had to intervene to keep the House of the Emerald Eye from all-out civil war. Heraldic Beast: Serpent.
  • House of the Jeweled Morning, the nobility of the hillfolk of the Morning Hills are an enigmatic group. It is well-known across the Imperium that the finest assassins come from the clan-holds hidden in these hills. Thus, it is rightfully assumed that the House of the Jeweled Morning has some kind of ties to these murderers. Of course, the House claims to be nothing more than the simple nobility of a humble herders and rice farmers, but it is difficult to miss the sinister cut to the House's preferred black garb, the occasional flash of small, hidden blades in their clothing and the silent menace of their favored servants. Heraldic Beast: Hill Spider (a breed of tarantula-like spider in the Phoenix Imperium that hunts from pits, and is about the size of a medium-sized dog)
  • House of the Shadowed Ash, the nobility of the Darkwood nomads, the House of the Shadowed Ash has a wild and untamed reputation to it. Quite conscious of their honor, with something of a barbarian's bearing, the members of the House of the Shadowed Ash take a great deal of pride in the survival training all their young receive. It is whispered among the other Great Houses that the House of the Shadowed Ash worships some deity or pantheon that was too wild to be absorbed into the Path of Filial Honor, and that the oldest members of the House go into the forests to commune with those savage gods and live out the rest of their days among the roots and branches of holy trees, until their hair grows wild and tangled with the roots, and they become one with those trees. Heraldic Beast: Wolf.
  • House of the Iron Hooves, the horse-lord nobility of the Arusali peoples, the House of the Iron Hooves boast the finest horsemen in the Phoenix Imperium. It is not enough for the members of this House to simply possess the finest-trained cavalry in the Imperium - renown is won within the House for a member's riding prowess and skill at arms. Ultimately, these men and women are generals and war-mongers, like their Heroic ancestor, and take great pride in that. The current peace within the Imperium has lasted too long, in their opinion. The Imperium is fed on war. Heraldic Beast: Horse.
  • House of the Avenging Storm, the strange lords of the Eastern mountainmen, the House of the Avenging Storm produces more sorcerers and invokers than any other single House. They claim that the ancient pacts between Sumelin and terrible spirits of storm and wind are maintained by the House to this day, and that when their sorcerers draw upon those powers, it nearly equals the power of the Troth. The House of the Avenging Storm is unconcerned with the love of their people - they have their fear, after all, in their houses that seem built as high as possible, to bring them closer to the storms and further away from the populace they rule. Heraldic Beast: Storm Wyrm, a winged serpent-like creature of the Eastern Mountains some eight feet from snout to tail.

[edit] The People of the Phoenix Imperium

According to history and legend, the lands that currently make up the Phoenix Imperium were once completely separate, warring states. It was by the actions of the Nine Heroes – the heroes of those eight cultures – and the efforts of Nansaru, the First Phoenix Emperor that the Ancient Nations were joined into the Phoenix Imperium.

[edit] Appearance

Generally speaking, the people of the Phoenix Imperium have skin of a coppery bronze hue, ranging from a light tan hue to a deep bronze-brown. Their eyes are usually dark, generally of a brown or black hue, though more exotic colors such as amber, yellow-gold, caramel and deep black eyes can be found. Hair is almost exclusively black in hue, with other colors generally indicating the presence of foreign blood somewhere in the lineage. This coloration ranges, though, from the deep blue-black of the Arusal peoples to the black with red highlights of the Reachfolk. Age brings a change to a silvery hue, rather than the grey or white often found in other places.

Moreover, the art of hair dying is well-known, and the peoples of the Pearl Coast are well-known for their artistic dyeing of hair. Tattooing is not only uncommon, but the mark of certain criminal societies, while piercing is only still performed as part of certain barbarian rites of passage.

The use of henna patterning is quite well developed, however, and women and men both consider certain henna designs to be as vital to the appearance of a well-dressed outfit. The nuances of henna-work are quite well-developed in the Phoenix Imperium, to the extent of using certain minerals and powdered plants in the mixtures to achieve crimson, deep blue, pure black and a forest green henna, in addition to the more common burnt umber hue. Though it is tremendously expensive, henna mixed with certain minerals that cause the patterns to flash with metallic hues in certain light are sometimes used by nobility for special occasions. Historians agree that the use of henna designs began with forehead decorations that denoted loyalty and reverence of a particular deity, a practice that no longer continues among civilized citizenry, but is still common among the dwindling tribal populations.

[edit] Clothing

Clothing in the Phoenix Imperium is made from a variety of different materials. In the mountains, wool clothing is probably the most common material, while linen and cotton is most common in low-lying areas. Leather is also quite common in rural areas, but it is considered the sign of either a tribesman or a country bumpkin, and furs are worn only among the tribes. Silks (often crafted into fine brocades) are common among those who can afford such things, though most urban dwellers have some piece of brocaded silk clothing (or other cloth embroidered with silken thread) worn for special occasions.

[edit] Ethnic Types of the Phoenix Imperium

  • Tribes of the Flameleaf Reaches: (hunting lodges)
  • Skyreach Forest Holds: (berserkers, healers, lovers of song and women)
  • Tosuni: The people of the Tosun Plains are justly famed across the Phoenix Imperium for their dark eyes and beautiful blue-black hair, which generally falls long and silken, generally worn long. The tribes of the Plains often braid their hair in specific patterns, to denote tribal membership and achievements, but braiding one's hair is seen as a "backwater" or somewhat barbaric thing to do - even workers in urban areas prefer to simply tie their hair back. The tribal peoples of the Tosuni Plains are justly famed for their archery and hawking skills. Hawks are commonly bred in the Tosun Plains, and a common sight in urban, rural and tribal areas.
  • The Pearl Coast Cities: X
  • Clans of the Morning Hills: X
  • Darkwood Forest Nomads: X
  • Horse Tribes of the Arusal Plains: X
  • Holds of the Eastern Mountains: X

[edit] The Nine Heroes

According to legend, the Empire of the Phoenix was founded by the Nine Heroes. Each of these heroes was Beast-Trothed to one of the Nine Imperial Companions, great and powerful beasts, legends in their own rights. The cultural impact of these heroes cannot be overstated – they are essentially held responsible for creating nearly every aspect of the Phoenix Imperium’s civilization, from joining the original warring states that occupied the land now claimed by the Imperium, to joining the various and sundry gods of those lands in an act that might be termed consolidation theology.

Many philosophers and historians believe that these heroes were perhaps not strictly speaking individuals; rather, they believe that the legends of any one of them essentially amount to a sort of composite hero made up of the various tribal legends of the people that hero represents. Thus, the nomads of the Flameleaf Reaches were represented by a hero that embodied the virtues they extolled in life. These philosophers also believe that the actions of these heroes are representative not of the actions of individuals, but of those original cultures as a whole. Thus, the marriage of Alisara and Sumelin is representative of the political joining of the coastal city-states of the Pearl Coast with the mountain-holds of the Eastern Mountains – likely the first steps towards the birth of the Phoenix Imperium, with the tribes of the Flameleaf Reaches, once strong allies of the Pearl Coast cities, rising up against the strength of that union. The story of what is essentially a political struggle survives in the form of the Tale of Peonies, the story of Alisara and Sumelin’s love, and the anger of Alisara’s former lover Sukoros.

Of course, official Imperial doctrine teaches that the Nine Heroes were actual individuals; indeed, many of the Houses still hold artifacts that they claim were possessions of their founding Hero, and at least three maintain highly-honored tombs where their founding Hero is supposedly interred. That said, most philosophers also believe that such things are rarely one or the other – likely, these are relics and the corpses of individuals that contributed to the body of lore that came to be associated with the hero in question. Educated opinion is that the historical accuracy of the Nine Heroes versus the legendary accuracy are irrelevant – that the Nine Heroes serve as historical symbols of political changes, representatives of generations-long evolution of culture and compilations of actual peoples’ deeds does not invalidate their role as great heroes.

In fact, Imperial doctrine holds that those who are educated enough to understand the Nine Heroes not simply as individuals who did great things, but as symbols of civilized development are simply understanding another facet of the truth of the Nine Heroes.

[edit] The Nurturers of Civilization

Imperial doctrine holds that while the noble Houses, led by the Imperial House, act as the defenders of civilization and culture, they are simply its guardians. The continued propogation and growth of culture are the function of others in the Phoenix Imperium, most of whom are given an Imperial Mandate to continue their tasks. Their place in society is firmly established by Imperial bureaucracy, and the organizations that perform these functions receive small Imperial stipends and grants of land and buildings when necessary for them to fulfill their Mandate.

[edit] The Knights of the Phoenix

X

[edit] The Keepers of the Phoenix Flame

The Keepers of the Phoenix Flame are the bureaucrats, functionaries, lawyers, philosophers, ritualists, historians and other highly educated individuals responsible for maintaining and propagating the Imperium itself. The people of the Imperium, as part of their childhood schooling, are given tests for intelligence, honor and Imperial fidelity throughout their education. Those who consistently score well and are seen as ideal citizens are given the opportunity to apprentice to one of the Keepers of the Phoenix Flame when the time of their childhood education is at an end. The Keepers teach that the Imperium is like a phoenix itself, dying and being reborn each and every day; so long as they keep the flames of its nest alive, though, the phoenix will be reborn, and they will be there to midwife it.

[edit] Divine Ministers of the Hearth

Relevant Article: Phoenix Imperium Architecture

Effectively the urban planners for the Phoenix Imperium, the Divine Ministers of the Hearth are responsible for the structured growth of all settlements in the Phoenix Imperium, from the smallest to the largest. The Divine Ministers are expected to adhere to Imperial requirements for harmony, order and aesthetic pleasure in the construction of settlements, and they must be artists as well as engineers (or at least retain several fine artists on staff to ensure such).

[edit] The Wearers of the Iron Mantle

Imperial doctrine holds that slave-owning is detrimental to civilization, an act for barbarians. Likewise, the Path of Filial Honor teaches that the act of forcing a human soul to labor for another instead of seeking out his own destiny imperils the soul of the slaver. Yet, the Phoenix Imperium also recognizes the necessity of slavery in its growth and the maintenance of its wealth. Thus, the burden of slave ownership is placed on the Wearers of the Iron Mantle, a bureau of slave-owners who set their charges to laboring on behalf of Imperial and noble concerns, and in public works. No man may work as a Wearer of the Iron Mantle for more than ten years, and after that time, he is still denied his earnings as a slave-owner until he has spent another ten years in a monastery, purging himself of the evil he wrought while he held other souls in thrall. The Wearers of the Iron Mantle have a series of strict tests that those who wish to join their ranks must pass in order to be accepted.

This dynamic results in a social phenomenon that many strangers to the Phoenix Imperium considers strange: the average citizen of the Imperium views slaves with pity and remorse, and often go out of their way to shower with gratitude and small creature comforts where they can. As a result, slave-owners are usually incapable of some of the true depths of slave abuse, as those they work for refuse to permit such barbarity, even in the name of Imperial growth. It is quite common for the locals in an area where a slave-band is working to get together once a week or so and give a feast for the slaves who are working on their behalf.

The Phoenix Imperium maintains an active slave-trade, purchasing slaves from foreign traders. It is illegal to engage in slaving within the Imperium. Moreover, it is absolutely illegal for any citizen of the Imperium to be enslaved - the Phoenix Imperium has no indentured service or similar customs. The only time the Imperium itself engages in slaving is as an outcome of war, whereing military prisoners are often enslaved.

In the instances where a citizen breeds with a slave, the child is considered a citizen as well, and is the legal child of the citizen in question. Imperial doctrine rules that the blood of citizens overshadows that of slaves.

The purchasing and freeing of slaves is not simply common, but is considered a high virtue, though Imperial doctrine also considers it somewhat selfish and demonstrating in a lack of community-mindedness. Still, most Wearers of the Iron Mantle that are about to leave the slaving business sell off most of their slaves, keeping the brightest, most loyal and hardest working slaves and freeing them just before he undertakes his decade of purification at a monastery. Indeed, some savvy businessmen make a point of setting these new citizens up with businesses. The former Wearer still owns the businesses - they are simply considered part of the wealth he has accrued as a slave, and cannot be touched until his time of purification is over.

The Imperium does not differentiate between its native-born citizens and its freed slaves; there is not freedman class as in some other nations. Imperial doctrine states that citizenship in the Imperium transcends mere bloodline and ethnicity, and racism is considered a hold-over from barbaric days before civilization. This is because it is also Imperial doctrine that eventually all peoples of the world will be citizens of the Imperium.

[edit] The Path of Filial Honor

Once, the disparate peoples that make up what is now the Phoenix Imperium worshipped a hundred different gods and goddesses, of all manner of appearances and purposes. With the establishment of the Phoenix Imperium, however, civilized thought turned to theology, and some of the most brilliant thinkers discovered the common thread that lie throughout all of those divinities: all were some expression of the Divine Mother and the Divine Father. Of course, not all the various little gods and entities worshipped by those peoples were incorporated into Imperial theology — the scholars of the Path of Filial Honor weeded out those which were deemed simple manifestations of mankinds fear of natural events, or were the guises in which rashkasa demons bullied men into worshipping them.

Every major settlement has at least one shrine to the Filial Divinities (as the Divine Mother and Divine Father are called), and larger ones have full-blown temples. These holy places nearly always feature statuary or other artistic renderings of the Filial Divinities in their guises as the Thousand-Handed Parents, forms symbolic of the Filial Divinities as the source of all divinity. The Thousand-Handed Mother is a beautiful female form, in the middle of dance, with many hands and wearing several layers of veils, which represent the many tasks she fulfills in her various divine guises. Likewise, the Thousand-Handed Father has many hands and is presented in a seated position, wearing at least one mask while other masks are arrayed around his head or hanging from his neck. The precise details – both in terms of what the veils and masks look like, and the implements or symbols they bear in their hands – depend on the community in which the temple is found. These statues invariably have small troughs of sand before them and a lit candle to either side, allowing petitioners to light available prayer reeds (sticks of incense) and place them into the sand. They also bear three to ten vertical posts about a foot in length, placed so that they are sticking up from the floor before the shrine. These are prayer posts, where prayer cloths are tied.

These places are not the expression of day-to-day spirituality in the Phoenix Imperium. Instead, nearly every home, workplace and other place where Imperial citizenry spend any amount of time boasts a Sun and Moon Shrine, a small box shrine on a pivoting post. One side of the open box shows a small representation of the Divine Mother in one of her many guises, usually a goddess appropriate to the household and community, while the other side of the pivoting box bears a shrine to the Divine Father, also represented as a deity appropriate to the needs of that site. These shrines can actually spin freely on their pivot, and the tiny internal mechanisms make a pleasing, tinny musical sound as they are spun. The front of each side of the shrine also has several small posts or hooks, from which prayer cloths can be tied.

A major aspect of spiritual practice in the Path of Filial Honor involves the use of prayer cloths. These are strips of cloth or other similar material of any quality, from the specialized embroidered lengths of silk and satin used by noble houses to simple lengths of cloth, ribbon or even hand-braided rope. To use them, the petitioner either lights incense (when at a large temple or shrine) or spins the Sun and Moon Shrine — it is believed that the pleasing scent or sound of music draws the attention of the divinity. Then, with the length of cloth wrapped tightly around the left hand, the petitioner begins to pray, holding the left hand outward between herself and the image of the god. It is believed that the longer one prays, the more the cloth becomes infused with the prayer, and the more likely it is that the god or goddess in question will hear the prayer. At the very least, it is generally agreed that to stop praying before a prayer reed is half-burnt, or before the Sun and Moon Shrine is finished spinning is a waste of time. Once the prayer cloth is infused with the prayer, the cloth is tied to the post in front of the statue, whether a large wooden post in a temple, or the small hooks on the sides of the Sun and Moon Shrine. Every time the wind blows through prayer cloths, the Path of Filial Honor teaches that it reminds the Filial Divinities of the petitioner’s request.

Though the Path of Filial Honor teaches that the only place in which it is proper to tie prayer cloths is on prayer posts, the cultures of the Phoenix Imperium use them in other ways. A mother whose son is marching to war might leave the prayer for his safe return tied to the shrine of a martial deity right until he leaves for war, and then fetch the cloth and tie it to his spear. Likewise, the wife of a fisherman might tie a prayer for a bountiful harvest to the front of his ship, or make him wear a prayer against drowning tied around one arm while he is at sea.

[edit] The Blossom-Manacled Slaves

The Blossom-Manacled Slaves aren’t genuinely slaves, per se. They are, however, an elite order of Imperial servants dedicated to the precepts of personal beauty as an outgrowth of cultural growth. Individual Blossom-Manacled Slaves work in noble Houses and in households that can afford the expense of maintaining one of their elite service. These ministers go about entirely veiled, wearing a thick veil over their lower faces, and a second, sheer veil to conceal their eyes while still allowing them to see. The only time their faces go unveiled is when they sit before a mirror, creating new expressions of cosmetics and personal beauty. Blossom-Manacled Slaves define the concepts of personal beauty and grooming in the Phoenix Imperium, setting the standards for clothing, cosmetics, hair designs, scent and jewelry. Though Slaves are not permitted to receive payment from their patrons, their patrons must provide everything else the Blossom-Manacled Slave needs to innovate new concepts of beauty while in their service, as well as acting as servants to the men and women of their patron’s house when it comes to grooming and preparation for public presentation.

Blossom-Manacled Slaves are, however, allowed to charge merchants and craftsmen sums of money in exchange for getting together with the individual and discussing the upcoming season's fashions, effectively offering them the means to most benefit from the swift changes in fashion. Of course, this payment is never spoken of and not even genuinely acknowledged; a Slave is simply invited by a local merchant or artisan to tea, where they discuss the state of fashion and the spectacle of the last Seasonal. Then, on the way out, one of the servants simply slips the Slave a little bag of coins surreptitiously. Because of this sort of influence, however, many Slaves become quite wealthy and influential, particularly in areas where the nobility seek to outdo one another.

This ministry of beauty is led by the Blossom-Manacled Saints, elder Slaves that owe no fealty to any individual. Instead, the Blossom-Manacled Saints travel from place to place, overseeing the developments in an area. When a Blossom-Manacled Saint arrives in a given locale, those Houses and households that support one of the Slaves find themselves in a vicious competition to see who can win the honor of serving the Saint as hosts. The Blossom-Manacled Saints have two duties: the continued training of all the Blossom-Manacled Slaves, and the hosting of the Seasonal Blossom Gatherings. There are four such Gatherings: the Blossoming of Vernal Purity, the Blossoming of Summer Finery, the Blossoming of Autumnal Glory and the Blossoming of Winter Perfection. At these gatherings, Blossom-Manacled Slaves (or their patrons) pay large sums of money for the honor of participating. These parties serve only one purpose: to provide a social venue in which the normally secretive Slaves may present their designs, scents and cosmetic techniques for the judgment of the presiding Saint. All Slaves are both designers and models for these innovations, and those who are chosen as the winners are judged on equal parts creativity, beauty and performance. Ultimately, the Saint passes judgment on all presentations, and the winner’s styles set the standard of fashion for the upcoming season in the area. The winning innovations are also added to the Saint’s ever-growing repertoire of teaching materials, to be taught to all Slaves he or she encounters.

Because the Blossom-Manacled Slaves are expected to set fashion trends for men and women alike, the art of cross-dressing is considered a vital tool of any Slave. A female Slave must be able to show off men’s fashions and grooming techniques, and her performance as a man while doing must be impeccable. Likewise, a male Slave must be able to perform convincingly as a woman, the better to present his concepts with a proper feminine allure. Blossom-Manacled Slaves are taught a wide variety of herbal and chemical concoctions that aid them in their disguises, from teas that raise or lower the voice an octave to salves the prevent or foster facial hair growth and the like.

Finally, Blossom-Manacled Slaves have a reputation as voracious lovers — many a scandal-tale features the unnatural appetites of one of these purveyors of beauty, who are often portrayed as being unearthly alluring. Simultaneously, they are portrayed as being so obsessed with concepts of beauty that they cannot resist the advances of those who they find attractive.

[edit] The Eternal Garden

Imperial doctrine teaches that the continued growth of civilized culture is like maintaining a garden. Wild nature is cultivated by a disciplined, learned hand, and shaped into something more beautiful and meaningful than mere nature might achieve on its own. In order to do so, however, one must begin with young plants, placing them where they will do the most good, shaping them as they grow into their fullest potential and guarding them from misfortune.

To this end, each settlement of significant size has an Imperial Gardens, a walled-in compound manned by the Diligent Gardeners, men and women trained in the education of the young. Each afternoon, the bell in the center of the Imperial Gardens rings, and all children of the settlement are required to gather there for lessons. Each of the Gardens is built with five pavilions, representing the Five Stages of Growth, where they are taught lessons. Monthly comprehensive tests are given to determine where a given child stands in his education, and once he or she has learned everything they can under one pavilion, they are sent to the next pavilion. Families often throw small parties to celebrate this movement from one pavilion to the next, to honor their children.

Generally speaking, children begin attending the Imperial Gardens when they reach the age of five or so, although since the only requirements to begin attending is that a child is capable of both communicating and behaving well in public, many parents seek to enroll their children earlier. On average, it takes approximately a year and a half to move from one pavilion to the next, although particularly dedicated or intelligent children may accomplish the move much more quickly. Most children finish their educations at the Imperial Garden by the time they are twelve or thirteen, and ready to enter into an apprenticeship. Those children that demonstrate quick intelligence, obedience and good behavior are recommended by the Diligent Gardeners into positions within the Keepers of the Imperial Flame, the Path of Filial Honor or may even enter training to become Diligent Gardeners themselves.

Not all children graduate from the Imperial Gardens, it should be noted. Most children who reach the age of thirteen or fourteen usually find social pressure sufficient to cause them to stop attending the Imperial Garden. This does not prevent them from achieving an apprenticeship; it is simply that children who graduate from the Imperial Garden are usually given preferential treatment by masters looking for apprentices. Additionally, graduates of the Imperial Garden have their apprentice price partially subsidized by the Phoenix Imperium, giving particularly bright students the chance to enter fields their families might not normally be able to afford training for them in.

All Imperial Gardens are laid out in the same style: a walled garden with a central, five-story tower, surrounded by five stone or wooden pavilions. The Diligent Gardeners sleep, eat and store works of literature and education in the central tower, and the five rooms of the tower (one per level) may also serve as classrooms when the weather is too bad to meet out in the pavilions. When they are not teaching classes (which take up only approximately four hours), the Diligent Gardeners are expected to tend to the beauty and upkeep of the garden — the condition of the Imperial Garden is understood to reflect the skill and diligence of the Gardners who teach there, and a community will lose faith in its educators if they cannot maintain a beautiful, healthy, proper garden. Diligent Gardeners spend evenings as they please, often furthering their educations, composing their own written works or attending social events.

[edit] Magic

[edit] The Troth-Bound

Perhaps the most potent magic in the world is based on Troths – the act of spiritually investing one’s spirit into an object/creature, and taking that object/creature’s spirit into oneself. Trotholders (as those who Hold a Troth are called) are stronger than other mortals, and gain powers based on their Trothmate. With the Troth also comes an expanded lifespan — those who live past their normal mortal allotments undergo a transformation of some kind, called the Trothmark.

[edit] Sorcery

Though legends claim that once sorcery was an art practiced by all manner of peoples, now only those among the noble Houses of the Phoenix Imperium practice it. Indeed, those without noble blood are forbidden from practicing it, although generally those found guilty of its practice are simply employed for their talents by the first noble House to notice them.

Sorcery is odd, in that it can be practiced by anyone, though the Trothbound wield it with greater facility and potency than most normal mortals. At its core, sorcery taps into the power of a connection of some kind, drawing on that power to accomplish its ends.

Unstated but strong connections between people, such as familial bonds and the ties between friends provide the weakest kind of power. Deliberately and intentionally created bonds between people, such as marriage bonds, oaths of vassalage and the like are generally stronger. Finally, the bonds created by ritually established oaths between a mortal and a supernatural entity of some sort are even more potent yet, with the strongest of these being the Troth-Bond.

Nobles taught the arts of sorcery are generally guided through a specialized ritual oath of fealty to their House and its Elders, both as a means of providing a ready source of power to the noble, and in order to facilitate greater loyalty to the House. The practice of sorcery using such bonds can dramatically strengthen those bonds. Likewise, however, a sorcerer that makes a mistake during his use of sorcery can actually harm the other end of his bond, and fragment the connection. Thus, the Elders of the Houses accept the risk of magical harm to themselves and the risk of eroded loyalties in exchange for the near-guarantee of their Household sorcerers coming to regard them with greater respect and obedience. Nobility are also taught to never use their marriage bonds or other mundane oaths for this reason: the Elders of a House are magically strong individuals, and one’s spouse, children, business arrangements or similar connections should never be endangered by forcing them to bear up the power flow for a sorcerous Working.

The Troth-Bound are, of course, taught to use their Troths first and foremost – despite the usefulness of teaching sorcerers to draw on an oath to the House, such an oath simply can’t compete with the power that comes of the Troth.

Likewise, many of those who study elements of the occult simply learn the rituals of calling certain entities and binding oaths with them. Such oaths need not be impressive things: a simple binding between an elemental, who swears to think fondly of the magician at every full moon, and the magician, who swears to never utter the elemental’s name where a mortal may hear it, is sufficient to tie the two together and provide power for the use of sorcery. Most of the sorcerers found outside the noble Houses tend to be practitioners of this sort and feared for the kinds of power and versatility maintaining a variety of bonds can provide even to a single Working.

Even the same Working performed using different bonds as a power source can turn out very different. Workings are all the same, determining what the sorcerous effect created is. The bond used to power the Working determines how it accomplishes that, and what general scale of power doing so invokes. Thus a Working such as the Foe-Ravaging Working, which attacks an enemy may simply cause terrible grief and suicidal thoughts when marriage vows are drawn upon, while using a bond with an elemental may cause the target to be wounded by freak storms, sudden landslides or flash fires.

Likewise, a destructive Working that draws on a nobleman’s ties to his Elders may cause him to not only run afoul of that House’s wrath, but to suffer a defensive mistake at the most vital moment, while that same spell worked by Troth causes immediate and terrible damage – in the form of ephemeral animals attacking the target, of suffering the ill effects as though he were caught in a disaster on a Land-Bound’s home domain, suffering multiple weapon-blows from a Relic-Trothed’s sword or even spontaneously working, dancing or drinking himself to death, when the sorcerer is Rite-Trothed.

This material is © 2007 Joseph D. Carriker, Jr. and may not be used or reprinted in any format, electronic or otherwise, without explicit permission.

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