Lore

The Mists of Eltiel

The shrouded remains of the great nation of Eltiel, the Skyways — its fall unexplained.

The Mist of Elitiel is the shrouded remains of the great nation of Eltiel, the Skyways. While much of what happened to the land and its people remains unknown, there are survivors that carry the culture and lineage of Eltiel who have by one method or another outlasted their homeland.

The land is located in the high, cold peaks of the mountains near the center of the continent. A few poles and broken cables from the Skyways lay just outside the edges of the mist, marking the boundaries of the former nation.

Apart from these scattered survivors and paltry landmarks, all that remains of Aeledd’s impervious masters of Arcaneering are a few museum items and the awe-inspiring tales of their technological prowess.

Geography, History, and Climate

The mist of Eltiel clings to the land with a chilling permanence. At first glance, it seems benign—grey, unassuming, even serene in its stillness. Yet the fragmentary reports from the first few explorers speak of a stifling heaviness within, a presence that gnaws at both body and soul. Those who entered, whether bold scouts or foolhardy adventurers, did not return.

For all its ominous qualities, there has been no sign that the mist has corrupted the land it cloaks. From what can be seen outside the mist, the rivers that flow from Eltiel’s heartlands are clear and untainted. Shadows of crops and standing trees can be seen in certain places when the mist is thin, still tall and unbroken.

Historically, Eltiel the Skyways was the peerless pinnacle of Aeledd’s Arcaneering prowess. Its bastions stood as the envy of empires, its towers and skyways a marriage of artistry and technological genius. For centuries, the Eltiel defensive network—the Aegis Perpetual—kept the realm impervious to invasion. Their Arcaneering technology, drawn from the deepest mysteries of the elemental veins and arcane alignments, promised an age where even the whispers of calamity would be but shadows on an impenetrable wall.

The fall of Eltiel and the obliteration of the Aegis Perpetual has sent ripples of unease across Aeledd. Nations that once relied upon Eltiel ingenuity now scramble to reconfigure their own defenses, fearful that a similar fate might befall them. Trade routes have shifted, with merchants avoiding even the borders of the mist-shrouded land. With no concrete answers yet available, debates rage in taverns and offices alike over whether their destruction was divine retribution, arcane hubris, or something more ancient and unknowable.

Speculation about the origin of the lingering mist is likewise a popular topic in the absence of any facts. Some whisper of a failed experiment with aetheric resonance—an ambitious attempt to merge the Arcane, Shade, and Void gone catastrophically awry. Others suspect external tampering, a rival nation such as the Vargoth exploiting some fatal flaw in the Aegis Perpetual defense system. A darker theory posits that Eltiel’s own leaders, in their relentless pursuit of perfection, inadvertently unleashed a force they could neither contain nor comprehend.

Of the people of Eltiel and of their great cities, there is no sign. The mist allows no view beyond a mere ten or twenty feet most of the time, leaving all to imagine if the population perished in the initial calamity or lingers transformed within the grey, unforgiving shroud.

Politics, Government, and Economy

In its day, the government of Eltiel the Skyways was run by the military. The court of officers acted as the highest governing body in the country, being made up of the Six Majors in charge of transportation, supplies, defense, invention, commerce and foreign relations. This tradition began at the foundation of the mountain kingdom, when the Rappnos held a bloodline monarchy. Under their governance, the nation gained its foothold in Arcaneering and gained great prosperity. Eventually, the Rappnos bloodline was widespread among the people of the peaks, and the elite royal guard became an equally widespread military that watched over all of the citizens.

Though the monarchy seemed to run out its time peacefully, Eltiel had occasional trouble with a terrorist group known as the Revenants of Rappnos. They were one of a few threats that could impact a kingdom so well protected from the outside world.

The other well-known threat to Eltiel came from the mining tunnels bored into mountains. It was said that fierce, highly adaptive monsters occupied certain mines, and became increasingly harder to keep at bay. As with so many things in Eltiel, it is unknown if any part of them survived the fall.

In recent times, the Arcaneering of Eltiel was on a meteoric rise, spurred on by breakthroughs in refining Sky Metal into Cloud Gold. The properties of this material was believed to be the keystone that allowed some of their most incredible innovations to become reality.

Eltiel’s largest export was manufactured goods. Their wood, metals, and other raw materials were imported from other nations and transformed into useful goods via the application of their Arcaneering processes. These have now become artifacts, as most can not be replicated without the proprietary machines and manufacturing that Eltiel guarded closely.

Everyday Life

For survivors, a keen reminder of life as a citizen of Eltiel is their periapt, a trinket that contains some of their essence. Every citizen had one of these and they would keep it close to them. The periapt was created as part of coming of age or naturalization into the culture, and used an Arcaneering ritual to pull some part of a person’s essence from within. It is not clear if this essence is spirit, soul, Purpose, or something entirely different. The Eltiel called it Vulder, or the Unspoken Self.

Some citizens enshrined their periapt and rarely interacted with it, but it was far more common for the periapt to be a significant part of a person’s daily rituals. Some Eltiel used their periapt to meditate, others treated it as a conversational partner, and still others as luck charm or soul gem. Periapts can not be taken from the person whose essence they contain, but in some cases individuals may exchange periapts to show the strength of their relationship. It was also known that some historically significant figures, or those who had broken the trust of the nation would willingly give their periapt to the military.

Current Events

Among those who have attempted to aid in the aftermath of Eltiel’s fall, Merrigor agreed to send a small force of Revenants into the Mist to see if anything could be learned. As of the start of the year 125, those Revenants have not returned.

A Note from a Historian, published in a Mellurian newspaper in Winter of 124-

As I pen this account, I cannot help but feel that Eltiel’s story is not yet finished. The mist, though silent, speaks to a mystery that demands resolution. Whether the answer lies with the return of the Revenants, the ingenuity of those who dare to study the mist from afar, or the courage of a new generation of explorers, the truth must one day be uncovered.

For now, Eltiel is a scar upon the face of Aeledd—a stark reminder that even the greatest heights of civilization can crumble into shadow without warning. It is a chapter unfinished, a question unanswered, and a wound unhealed.

We must remember Eltiel not just for its fall, but for what it might teach us about the limits of ambition and the fragile line between brilliance and oblivion. Until the mists part—or until we dare to step into them once more—we can only wait, watch, and record the echoes of a vanished world.

Cultural Plot and Themes

Notes for Players

Eltiel as a nation does not exist anymore, and so players looking at this should be prepared to play a displaced culture. If your character escaped Eltiel around the time of its fall, they will not know anything of the Mist or what is within it. Please contact staff if you need help determining what happened during your experience, and how you escaped.

If you plan to play a character who spent a lot of time in Eltiel, your experience in that nation was one of invention and glowy pipe plot combined with a bit of military drama, mysticism, and some small-scale shenanigans. When it came time to combat the undead who inhabited the lower mines, it was more of a zombie shootout with ever-changing prototype technology.

Individual family lines and private organizations didn’t have much meaning in Eltiel, but service in the military or individual invention were meritorious.

Costume and RP Themes

Eltiel costume mixes steampunk with 1800s western military uniforms. Lots of brass, goggles, buttons, braids, festooned with medals and decorations. Uniforms of a specific company are often tied together by a military patch or insignia worn on the uniform jacket sleeve, often in the shape of a mechanical crafted version of an animal or other natural object.

Eltiel was known for finely manufactured textiles that could not be replicated by hand. No more of these are being manufactured, and those that still exist are being preserved for posterity, or are being worn and maintained with care by survivors.