The Kingdom of Vialina: It's History and Culture

  Collected by Lansen Arturo Benswell

  23 Thawsight 1203 After-Catastrophe

  The history of the Kingdom of Vialina is equal parts rich and mysterious. Founded in the ancient past, the details of the kingdom's formation was lost to time. What we do know is the first king, Dane of the wolf-clan, along with his love, Mirabel of the deer-clan, defeated a great threat to the land.

  The threat was a result of an unknown catastrophe that befell Alios. From what scholars have been able to glean from scattered records, the world's magic abruptly changed. How it was before is still unknown. It was during this change immense creatures came to the land and spread destruction.

  Dane and Mirabel rose up and, with their power and skill, defeated the threat. Dane was able to leverage his status as an All-Attuned, a mythical figure of impossible power. Some scholars believe Dane's status as All-Attuned is an exaggeration. The legends claim the evaluation sphere glowed white under his touch and, despite a claimed rating of 110%, was able to leverage his mastery of every element.

  Dane, along with Mirabel's healing prowess, defeated the catastrophe and brought peace to the land. It was their child, whose name is lost to the ages, who founded the Kingdom of Vialina. Tradition speaks of the Vialinan Royal Family as being descended from Dane and Mirabel to this very day.

  The victory, however, came with great cost. Text, history and culture was lost during the upheaval. Nations fell and institutions crumbled. Our first true records of the past came long after the events of the catastrophe. Even so, they were written in a form of proto-Vialinan text which requires many decades of dedicated study to decipher. There are, to my knowledge, only two scholars versed in proto-Vialinan in all of the world, myself included. So far, remarkably few texts have been found and others have been misplaced by the Exterminator's Guild Central Library, so our knowledge of those centuries is murky at best.

  There are rumors of other nations with greater access to the past. One such rumor comes from a nation said to be 110,000 kilometers to the east of our continent. We only know of such a place through spoken tales from foreign traders and the excessively rare manufactured good, all of which are purchased by the Crown for its personal collection. The nation, called The Holy Empire of Hivastock, has outlandish claims of its power and providence, no doubt a result of its tale passing through many mouths.

  While we have no doubt such a nation exists, many factors such as it controlling a vast land covering two continents and an archipelago are, at best, exaggerated tales of troubadours. A nation of equal scholarly pursuit and steeped in a warrior culture, the Empire is said to have never expanded its borders through military might. The most outlandish claims come from stories portraying the Holy Empire's archives as having detailed records from before the catastrophe and their Imperial Family is descended not from a great hero, but from the divine.

  Because of the scarcity of traders who have even indirectly come into contact with such a distant land, the Empire's very existence is unknown among the general public. This is seen as fortunate given the absurdity of the tales. Scholars, apart from a few extreme crackpots, disregard the nation as a credible source of information, particularly in the great risk of forming an expedition to such a distant land across multiple dangerous ley lines and nexus points.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  Still, despite the dark era of the past, the legend of Dane and Mirabel has left an indelible mark upon our nation. To this day, Dane and Mirabel are popular names for newborns along with variants such as Doun and Mira.

  We next come to the earliest era from which we have reliable records. Still written in proto-Vialinan, the records describe a land of clans. Vialina, then a small coastal village, was the home of the wolf and deer clans. The other clans who make Vialina home were scattered and insular, preferring to remain among their own kind, not like the cosmopolitan world we live in today. Save the foul rat and rabbit clans. Why King Varsan Vialina agreed to accept them as residents fifty years prior to the publication of this piece is a topic of great contention to this day.

  As the population center grew, conflict inevitably followed. Vialina, situated in the then village of Leoren, was the best situated of all the clans within our section of the ley lines upon the continent. Blessed with a coastline, river and rich farmlands, the wolf and deer-clan peoples grew and prospered. They were, in time, able to defeat and absorb the other clans over the course of a millennia. After the subjugation of the kingdom of the badger-clan at Obsidian Gulch a century ago, Vialina finally secured the territory within the ley lines and became the kingdom we know today.

  Even though many clans have been absorbed into the kingdom for centuries, scholars can still track their homelands by the population census. The old clan holdings still, to this day, have a population predominantly made of that clan. An example is the remote village of Gesper, which straddles the ancestral homelands of the jaguar and ram-clan peoples.

  To effectively govern such a vast territory, Vialina is ruled by a sophisticated system of nobles. Dukes, the highest rank noble, control major territories within Leoren, save the slums which are unprofitable to claim, along with large Dukedoms outside of the city. With the rise of sophisticated politics within the city of Leoren, each Duke appointed a Talbar to manage the Ducal lands beyond the city's borders. Talbars, in turn, appoint lower ranking nobles – Counts, Fenisans and Barons – to manage subsets of their lands.

  Lansens – the children of nobles not destined to inherit the title and, thus, cannot pass the family name to their own issue – are the core of the city's bureaucracy. Heads of government functions, the court and Guild leadership are overwhelmingly of the Lansen rank. Even though the Lansen cannot pass titles to their offspring or spouses, their lasting legacy and superiority can still be felt generations later. Major figures of commerce and scholarly pursuits can trace their heritage to a noble line, even though they are no longer permitted a family name.

  The nation's economy is described by scholars as Feudal-Capitalist. Each major industry within the nation are controlled by a Guild system. Each Guild is managed by a Ducal household and is regulated to ensure safe, profitable operations by their practitioners. The Guilds operate independently and some, such as the Alliance of Taverns and Pubs, are lax and allow open membership. Others, such as the Exterminator's Guild controlled by the Alfriss Duchy and the Miner's Guild controlled by the Boiland Duchy, operate as strict monopolies to protect national security of these vital functions.

  The only Guild not controlled by a Ducal House is The Mage's College. The College is under direct administration by the Crown due to the sensitive nature of its research wing. Its operations and membership requirements are stringent and operations within their ivy-covered halls are kept as a national secret.

  There are those who operate outside the Guild system, but they're seen as criminals and are harshly punished (The legal system of Vialina is beyond the scope of this article and will be discussed in a later academic journal).

  There are some who grumble about the economic system of the nation. They claim it is inefficient to control activity through narrow channels and hobbles both economic growth and magical advancement. Such voices, however, are wise to avoid making such claims. There is extensive academic consensus that our system devised by the wise Kings of Vialina are the best and should not be questioned. Such dissent against the accepted conventions agreed upon by the majority of academic experts will not be tolerated.

  This has been the primer on the History of Vialina. If you find yourself interested in a deep dive discussion, you can sign up for my class, Vialinan History 101, at the Leoren College of Civics. Tuition is 10 Gold Sovereigns and you must pass an entrance exam to enroll.

  Good luck and I hope to see you next semester.