Governance
Persistence is a socialist confederation, providing housing, food, education and other necessities to anyone within its three city-states. Each of its three distinct city states are autonomous and have distinctive culture, but are united in redistributing wealth and defending against the threats. Persistence values artistic talent highly, and uses art as its currency. Small pieces are created by artists and bartered off for food, clothing, other other material goods.
The Three City States
Engazi: Engazi is a bustling city-state built into a massive limestone quarry in Tai Ke. Engazi is composed primarily of viero, though Shifuni seeking to learn stoneworking or pottery journey here to train. Masterful craftsmen perfect the creation of limestone weapons within Engazi’s walls, and summoners call earth elementals to aid in building and crafting. Engazi is protected from the heat of the desert by the bowl into which it is built.
Nixus: Built into a crack in the mountain of Tai Leng, Nixus has long been protected from the elements and the predators who stalk Tai Leng’s harsh landscape. It is only natural that the city use its fortifications and location to repel Hong Xa’s predations as well. The shifuni who dwell here study at the esteemed Riparian College, which floats above a river of meltwater. Nixus has long been a center of academic and magical learning. Many of the most well respected scholars of the arcane arts make their home in Nixus.
Vuur: Where the ice of the Amiraz Floe and the scorching heat of Tai Ke meet, clouds of steam create rainfall and spur the growth of beautiful oases. The largest of these oases lies at the center of Vuur, the third city state of Persistence and home to many paeori. Vuur is an artistic metropolis, a crossroads at which beauty, culture, and magic intersect. Vuur is most well known for its encaustic art. Colored beeswax is melted on metal plates placed over steam vents and used to paint works inspired by the idyllic landscape. Vuur’s most esteemed artist have their work hung in La Gran Galère, a museum which encircles Vuur’s central oasis.
The Alevay Concordance
A thousand years ago, when the Dusk Crusade first fell upon the world, a shifuni by the name of Conal Alevay approached the leaders of Engazi, Nixus, and Vuur. He asked that they join together to combat the darkness spreading across the land. Each city state was embroiled in its own political squabbles, seeking to control their citizens and resources, and their leaders dismissed Conal with disdainful insults. So Conal went to the people of each city to gain support. In a swift and decisive coup, the people overthrew their governments, and instated the Renaissance Council to bind their people together. The new leaders of each city state signed what came to be known as the Alevay Concordance, establishing their commitment to work together towards a brighter, safer future.
The Renaissance Council
his scholarly body of artists studies artistic trends and publishes guidelines on the value of artistic currency. Artists of many backgrounds who work in many different mediums staff the council, and as such the guidelines published from year to year are often wildly different. Vuur’s encaustic art, Nixus’s illuminated texts, and Engazi’s limestone sculptures tend to have the most steady values and as such are the most used forms of currency.
Persistence is a socialist confederation, providing housing, food, education and other necessities to anyone within its three city-states. Each of its three distinct city states are autonomous and have distinctive culture, but are united in redistributing wealth and defending against the threats. Persistence values artistic talent highly, and uses art as its currency. Small pieces are created by artists and bartered off for food, clothing, other other material goods.
The Three City States
Engazi: Engazi is a bustling city-state built into a massive limestone quarry in Tai Ke. Engazi is composed primarily of viero, though Shifuni seeking to learn stoneworking or pottery journey here to train. Masterful craftsmen perfect the creation of limestone weapons within Engazi’s walls, and summoners call earth elementals to aid in building and crafting. Engazi is protected from the heat of the desert by the bowl into which it is built.
Nixus: Built into a crack in the mountain of Tai Leng, Nixus has long been protected from the elements and the predators who stalk Tai Leng’s harsh landscape. It is only natural that the city use its fortifications and location to repel Hong Xa’s predations as well. The shifuni who dwell here study at the esteemed Riparian College, which floats above a river of meltwater. Nixus has long been a center of academic and magical learning. Many of the most well respected scholars of the arcane arts make their home in Nixus.
Vuur: Where the ice of the Amiraz Floe and the scorching heat of Tai Ke meet, clouds of steam create rainfall and spur the growth of beautiful oases. The largest of these oases lies at the center of Vuur, the third city state of Persistence and home to many paeori. Vuur is an artistic metropolis, a crossroads at which beauty, culture, and magic intersect. Vuur is most well known for its encaustic art. Colored beeswax is melted on metal plates placed over steam vents and used to paint works inspired by the idyllic landscape. Vuur’s most esteemed artist have their work hung in La Gran Galère, a museum which encircles Vuur’s central oasis.
The Alevay Concordance
A thousand years ago, when the Dusk Crusade first fell upon the world, a shifuni by the name of Conal Alevay approached the leaders of Engazi, Nixus, and Vuur. He asked that they join together to combat the darkness spreading across the land. Each city state was embroiled in its own political squabbles, seeking to control their citizens and resources, and their leaders dismissed Conal with disdainful insults. So Conal went to the people of each city to gain support. In a swift and decisive coup, the people overthrew their governments, and instated the Renaissance Council to bind their people together. The new leaders of each city state signed what came to be known as the Alevay Concordance, establishing their commitment to work together towards a brighter, safer future.
The Renaissance Council
his scholarly body of artists studies artistic trends and publishes guidelines on the value of artistic currency. Artists of many backgrounds who work in many different mediums staff the council, and as such the guidelines published from year to year are often wildly different. Vuur’s encaustic art, Nixus’s illuminated texts, and Engazi’s limestone sculptures tend to have the most steady values and as such are the most used forms of currency.