The World of the Sapphire Verdict

Welcome back to another weekly blog post! We are firmly away from Tearna and her world, and that means that these blogs can return to a bit of normalcy from oh-so long ago! In this post, we will be exploring the world of the Sapphire Verdict a bit more in depth than we have in the past. We’ll cover the geographical layout, as well as the people that populate it, and save some of the other bits for future blog posts. After all, can’t burn through everything too quickly, can we?! Let’s go!

A World of Two Lands

In the Sapphire Verdict, Sapphiria’s homeworld is called Kryshendar, and is defined by two massive landmasses, Thericia and Falador. Spread across both of these massive continents are, of course, her people, the Krysheek, but life on these two continents is strikingly different for many reasons. To break this down in a digestible manner, let’s start with the more uniform continent, Falador.

Falador is what many refer to as the eastern continent. It is a very long and thin continent that stretches from the far north to the far south. While one can encounter plains and jungles here, the continent is primarily dominated by the inhospitable and unforgiving Faladorian Mountains! This mountain chain dominates nearly 80% of the continent, and is a very rugged wasteland. These mountains scrape the sky and are practically frozen year round, but the Krysheek people still manage to make a life for themselves! Within the mountains, one can find many isolated villages that make a living off mining the relatively unclaimed territory, and if one ventures into the heart of the mountains, they’ll find the most lush valley in the entire world!

Not all of the continent is covered in mountains, of course! The far north and south are dominated by wide open plains that are well-known for being quite windy. Additionally, the coasts are typically covered in jungle, and harbor a unique arrangement of wildlife, most of which can be discovered in Tearna’s Journal entries! Given the friendliness of these environments, it only makes sense that the two largest cities can be found here as well! To the far south and north lie the largest ports on the continent, both with incredible histories, but that’s better saved for another segment of this blog!

Across the vast ocean lies the other continent, and the largest one by quite a lot, Thericia! Thericia is an incredibly diverse land and is actually the main home continent of the Krysheek people. Their largest cities can be found dotting this vast landscape, and most of the terrain is dominated by a seemingly neverending jungle! However, there are many biomes scattered across the landscape to make it quite unique and varied!

To the far northeast, one can encounter a towering forest as well as a massive marsh. To the southeast lies a large peninsula leading to the beginning of the Southern Isles. In the southwest, a massive archipelago dominates the landscape alongside numerous lakes, and to the northwest lies a sweeping highland. The northern part of the continent are where things get interesting, however.

Bordering the lush jungle to the north is a massive desert called the Karasi. This desert is plagued by scorching heat and wicked sandstorms, but still supports numerous Krysheek villages. Despite the hostile conditions, the Karasi is more or less a barrier between the bulk of the Krysheek population and the most hostile area of the continent, the Volcanic Range. To the direct north of the desert lies a massive mountain chain that is composed of nothing but volcanoes! These mountains are constantly spewing lava and forming massive rivers of molten slag, and groundquakes are a common occurrence. As if that wasn’t enough, this molten hellscape also hosts the Raijin, behemoths with scales so strong they are practically immune to everything the Krysheek could think to throw at them. Traveling through this landscape is practically a suicide mission, but many still make the attempt purely because of how rich this terrain is in minerals!

If, however, one makes it through the volcanic mountains, they would find themselves in a curiously different area called the Frozen Scar. This frozen wasteland is most unexplored due to how impossibly hard it is to reach, and much of its terrain is still a mystery to the Krysheek people…

The Krysheek

Kryshendar is populated primarily by the Krysheek people, a bipedal species resembling a cross between foxes and wolves. Their long history is scarred by their struggle to survive. Thousands upon thousands of years are defined by their struggle to avoid death in the hostile and untamed wilderness, and many civilizations were devoured by the jungle. Eventually, one of the Krysheek finally discovered their hidden birthright that would come to be known as powers. Powers are a unique energy each Krysheek has the ability to wield and manifests in the form of elements such as fire or telekinesis. With these powers, they were able to tame the wilderness and finally begin building a society!

At one point, there were many cities and empires decorating the planet, but now only one remains. Positioned at the heart of Thericia lies the capital of the Krysheek people, Orden. Orden is a massive, towering city surrounded by imposing walls. At its heart lies the imperial palace where the Crimson Emperor rules their people and paves the way towards a better future for them all. Orden is easily the center of cultural and technological growth for the entirety of the Krysheek, but there are other cities on Thericia that are worth mentioning as well.

Mercanta is Orden’s smaller cousin in a weird way. Just to the south of the capital, Mercanta is a city known for its commerce. Numerous trade guilds are hosted within its golden walls, and the revenue it generates every day directly contributes to the growth of both it and Orden.

To the southeast, Nuvar stands as the largest port city on the continent. Nuvar is a tiered city with canals cutting through its streets to allow for ships to travel to the higher levels. Numerous docks stick out into its crescent bay, and it hosts quite a large garrison to ensure that access to the Southern Isles is never lost!

Thericia is easily the focal point of Krysheek civilization, but Falador has its own cities that are worth mentioning. Adecial stands as the northern port city, and is the largest city on the continent by far. It has a long shipbuilding history and is a central hub for trade between the continents. To the far south lies the city of Maldrezza, another port that largely hosts travelers seeking passage to thee volcanic island of Garodar. While these cities are critical for the functioning of the continent, the most important city is arguably Neravar.

Neravar is a city near the center of the continent and lies at the very base of one of the largest mountains. This large village is constantly buried under snow and often hosts traders from the mountain. It’s not a very advanced village, nor is it the wealthiest, but it does have one key thing that many others lack. It hosts an Archon.

The Archons

While the emperor stands as the leader of the Krysheek people, there are five Archons who ensure he is kept in check. The Archons are an ancient order that stretches back thousands of years, but they weren’t involved in daily life until the Clockwork Crisis forced them to action. One thousand years ago, the Clockwork Crisis unfolded when the Eclipse Empire attempted to dominate the world with a mechanical army. They wiped out every other empire on the map and nearly took the Crimson Empire down as well, but the Archons were able to turn the tide and foil their plans. Ever since, five of them have remained in power in order to keep peace and help guide their people to the future!

These five Archons are immensely powerful. By themselves alone, they have the power to flatten entire legions with hardly any effort, and they are positioned around the world to ensure their influence remains strong. The Archons can be found in the highlands of Thericia, the outskirts of Orden, the capital of the Southern Isles, the center of Garodar, and the village of Neruvar. Typically, Archons will remain in power their entire lives, but when the time comes for them to move on, they go through a selection process to take on an apprentice as a successor, something that will be quite critical in the Sapphire Verdict.

Automatons

Krysheek are not the only species occupying Kryshendar. Across the world exists a strange crystalline growth with unique properties. These crystals can manifest in different forms, but one of the most critical are the soul cores. These green crystals were at first believed to be completely inert, but, one day, someone plugged one into a machine and discovered these crystals to be alive!

Automatons are effectively crystals with a soul, but only come to life when connected to a machine. Like any living being, they have thoughts emotions, dreams, and desires, but they have a couple of unique quirks. First off, an automaton needs a reason to exist, a purpose. Without a purpose, they tend to become quite depressed, but are very happy to do any kind of job no matter how menial it is. Secondly, automatons have a strong loyalty towards whoever they see as their creator. And, lastly, they have a tendency to adopt unique quirks depending on what type of machine they inhabit, but that’s a story for another time!

Automatons are a small part of Krysheek life despite their unique nature. Due to the Crisis, the Krysheek are largely technophobic, but that doesn’t stop the automatons from finding a place for themselves. They can be found working in mines, farms, and other laborer positions, and rarely end up in other places like bookshops or workshops. Mostly, the automatons keep to themselves and rarely form friendship with the Krysheek since most Krysheek just see them as machines, but all automatons are just as happy to make friends as any other. For now, automatons are more or less just walking and talking machines to the Krysheek people, but there’s at least one engineer out there determined to change that!

Krysheek Culture

Given how Krysheek can live for well over 400 years, it’s no surprise that they have an incredibly rich history of traditions and culture. Given their unique powers, it’s obvious that a large chunk of their society revolves around their strength, but most Krysheek aren’t all that strong. Most have incredibly limited abilities, and those that are above average are nowhere close to the level that any sitting Archon is at.

In addition to their emphasis on powers, Krysheek culture is heavily based around their colors. Given how varied they are, they are quite proud of their colorful heritage and celebrate it in the clothing they were and the way they decorate. Typically, any krysheek will wear clothing that matches their own fur patterns, but there are some exceptions in certain areas, such as servants or legionnaires. Despite their acceptance of color, however, tradition is built firmly around the known colors, which is why it’s such a problem for Sapphiria.

For Sapphiria, her lack of powers and strange coloring is what makes her such a firm outcast. Even though her coloring fills in a gap in her people’s rainbow, they refuse to accept her because that’s simply not how tradition was written. After all, the first Archons wrote tradition firmly around the known colors. Surely there was a reason, right? On top of that, obviously her lack of power means that she stands no chance of being useful in any field, so who would even begin to make up the excuse to tolerate her?!

There is one last point of their culture and tradition to touch upon, and that centers around engineering. Because of the Crisis that was mentioned earlier, the Krysheek are massively technophobic, which also means that they are unaccepting of engineers and those that dabble in technology. Unlike the previous two foundations of tradition that were mentioned, however, this cold treatment of engineering is slowly beginning to thaw. Over the past few hundred years, the krysheek have slowly begun to dabble in technology once again, and it certainly helps that the emperor himself is keen on rediscovering much of what was lost. Of course, the iceberg is still in the process of thawing, so this does little to help Sapphiria’s position as an engineer, but it does provide an opening. Just what can an engineer do to potentially find a place for herself? Only time will tell!

Conclusion

I think that’s enough of a deep dive for one week! We’ve firmly established some of the basics behind the world building for the Sapphire Verdict and explained some of the motivations behind why the world is the way it is. I don’t want to say too much more that could spoil things, so I think we’ll leave the rest to be discovered with the Sapphire Verdict itself! Hopefully this breakdown and analysis was interesting to read!

Next week, we’ll most likely be doing a character dissection! I’m not going to spoil which character just yet, simply because there are a few that I could target that haven’t been covered, so stay tuned and see who gets featured! That’s all I have for now, so, until next week, CHEERS!

The Flying Fennec