Sorcerer Kings

The Enclaves

It is perhaps difficult to fathom the level of comfort and luxury the Enclaves enjoy without understanding that due to the patronage of the Elemental Courts, the elements themselves work in their favor. In the cities the heat of summer and the stench of so many bodies crammed together are wafted away by cool breezes that never let up. Their farmers are blessed with perfect rain patterns and rich soil upon which to till their fields while the rivers never flood, but gently irrigate the fields next to which they meander. Fire has been completely tamed and their forges can run day and night, producing some of the cleanest alloys and finest steels mankind has ever seen. This has allowed their craftsmen and scholars an unparalleled amount of freedom to perfect their craft, resulting in some of the most beautiful works of art and architecture in the world, while their libraries, relics salvaged from the last days of the Old Dominion, have continued to grow, and prosper.

This affluence, though, has a price. The population of the Enclaves exists purely to serve the needs of the Sorcerer Kings. The laborers exist to fuel the craftsmen and scholars, who in turn exist only to provide the Sorcerer Kings with new potential recruits. While the Gift does not distinguish between vocations or heritage (much to the chagrin of more than a few enterprising Sorcerers) so if a higher percentage of the population is educated, then a higher percentage of those who awaken their Gift will be educated, shortening the training period for an aspiring Sorcerer significantly. If a child is shown to possess the Gift, they are to be immediately presented to the local Raj who will reward their family for the loss of their child as they embarks on the long journey to the Trophaeum Peak, where the Elemental Courts meet, to decide their fate. There, depending on their Gift and inclination, they might be apprenticed to a Sorcerer of one of the Elemental Courts and begin their journey into the Domains or, should their Gift be judged weak, relegated to the role of servant for their betters.

Every aspect of the Enclaves exists only to further the interests of the Sorcerer Kings, its population subject to the changing needs of their distant overlords. Until recently this was scarcely felt beyond the occasional loss of a favored child as their Gift awakened, but as the gaze of the Sorcerer Kings turns to the fertile lands of Alektria and beyond, the needs for manpower and servants for the expeditions is rising, pressuring a population long accustomed to comfort and plenty. Whereas in other societies one could chose to leave, the lands that surround the Enclaves are blasted and barren places, where only the destitute, the exiled and the Tribes roam, giving the poor population of the Enclaves little choice but to follow the whims of their masters.  The notion of rebellion can scarcely be countenanced when the entire population and way of living depends on the largesse of the courts, and that is before one even considers the ever-present gaze of the Rjakur regiments, recruited from exactly those desperados and hardened survivors who roam the wasteland outside the Enclaves. Brought in from the deadly badlands that surround their Enclaves into a life of plenty these men are trained, conditioned, and indoctrinated by the Raj and his Sardar commanders until their loyalty is beyond question.

Centuries of isolation have made the population of the Enclaves, and the world, forget their true purpose: to provide what the Sorcerer Kings need to establish Dominion once more over the known world.

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