The Court of Diamonds, also known as Crusithea, is located in the northwest of the world. While throughout the world divine magics can be easy to access, the level of finesse the country has gained with godly power is unmatched. The capital city, Cardielle, has attuned themselves extremely closely with the deep veins of godly blood that run throughout the world. Various other church cities reside in Crusithea as well, all of which serve under the rule of the capital. However, even if these cities pale in comparison to their central ruler they still all possess their own powerful forms of divine magic.
The city devoted to the gods of Life and Death, and the capital of Crusithea. Cardielle is the world’s most dominating force, rising above the power of even Angelica. They weave their faith with their technology to create unrivaled feats of genius. In Cardielle, the veil between man and machine lies extremely thin. Cardielle’s language and population is comparable to that of real world Russia.
Cardielle rests on the Serelium mountain, its vertical city reaching towards its summit. One of the ways Cardielle is able to perform its extremely advanced achievements of divination is because Mt. Serelium is said to boast one of the largest Arteries in all of Luxia Atrum. This means Cardielle has a rich supply of divinity right below their very city. Because of this, Cardielle is extremely protective over its territory, as well as extremely entitled to the land around it. Cardielle is known for its vicious lust for conquest and its habits of colonizing any territory that develops around it. St. Medica is one of the most notable examples of Cardielle’s colonization, while Ephella maintains a level of respect and slight independence compared to its less fortunate neighbor. One of Cardielle’s immediate notable features is that, being built on a mountain, the entire city is built extremely vertically.
Being arguably the most devout theocracy in the world, Cardielle does not shy away from depicting their faith through architecture. Being a city that worships the visage of the Ika and Iva, Cardielle is a city that is swathed in white and ivory. An abundance of pale, oppressive stone and marble lines all of Cardielle’s buildings and streetways. However, despite this Cardielle is not a city without it’s art, and its architecture is no exception. Large white spires and cathedrals line the city, adorned with brilliant jeweled embellishments and gold accenting. Yes, even with Cardielle’s uniformity the city maintains an air of beauty and wealth and holy perfection. At the very apex of Cardielle is the main cathedral, Sanctuarium Arteriae. This Cathedral is enough to house a small village in itself, and is home to the Wedding Band of the Opal Mother.
Cardielle exudes an air of wealth, and living in the city is a mark of status in and of itself. Being a theocracy similar to a Catholic empire, Cardielle’s citizens make feigned attempts at appearing humble. But there is no way to tempt them from the sin of indulgence when the city itself revolves on indulging its nobles and ushering them into a life of leisure and worship. This is in part thanks to Cardielle’s extremely high android population.
Though in terms of feeling and intelligence androids are nearly indistinguishable from mortals, in Cardielle they lack the same rights as their flesh and blood counterparts. Most androids in Cardielle are forced to take service roles within the city. Jobs that are considered below nobles, but still considered essential to their enjoyment of day to day life, are typically carried out by androids. Waiters, servants, street cleaners, what have you. It is rare to see a living mortal carry out these jobs.
In turn Cardielle’s noble population usually consists of priests, politicians, and doctors. And these lines of profession often blur. Doctors and scientists legally must be ordained by the church, and religion is inseparably interwoven into Cardielle’s politics. While being a scientist or a politician may gain you instant wealth and luxury, not every single priest or church has the same luck. The closer you get to Cardielle’s walls, the more you begin to see some of Caridelle’s less fortunate houses of worship. These places are often a quiet warzone of churches trying to gain enough notoriety to be noticed enough by the upper echelons. Churches secretly sabotaging one another is not unheard of, and abusing Cardielle’s android population is common for this practice so priests can keep their hands clean. This has had an unfortunate side effect of furthering prejudice against Cardielle’s androids.
In terms of technology, Cardielle matches Angelica in its prowess. Not only does Cardielle produce a large number of the world’s sentient androids, they are also home to some of the most advanced medical technology seen by man. On top of this their military utilizes divine resources and technology in rather… Unique ways. Cardielle is known to be the only city that has major nuclear weapons and utilizes divine chemical warfare.
Cardielle’s affinity for divine healing and technology has also made a dark secret fester within the heart of the city: Cardielle’s lust for human experimentation and mortal hubris. Truly, nowhere in the world is free from the hunt for Sanguia, and no man can resist the allure of becoming a God. Deep in the catacombs of Sanctuarium Arteriae lies countless research facilities. These facilities are run by the holiest of scientists and doctors, performing live human experimentation in order to refine the process of divine ascension.
Being a theocracy, Cardielle is ruled by a council of select holymen. This council is referred to as the Wedding Band of the Opal Mother, however if you’re short on time you can refer to it as the Ring. The ring consists of three wings: The Left Hand, which is lead by a holy seer who guides the city through receiving visions. The Left Hand is responsible for choosing the next Holy Cardinal Groom. The Right Hand, which is the hand responsible for managing Cardielle’s military and sciences. Lastly, that leaves the Holy Cardinal Groom, the god chosen leader of Cardielle. The Holy Cardinal Groom has general jurisdiction over Cardielle, and has power over every branch of its government. The only way the Holy Cardinal Groom can be vetoed is if the Left Hand receives a contradictory vision from God.
Each wing of Cardielle’s government is assisted by a council of high priests, referred to as fingers. Each wing gets 5 fingers, and each finger gets an unset amount of assistants.
While on the outside Cardielle exudes complete and utter prosperity, its a cheap facade made to hide its population of immense poverty. The Stomach of the City, also known as the Cardielle Slums, is the underground levels of Cardielle that house their population of miners and the unfortunate souls who are too poor to make it into a life of nobility. Being underground, the Stomach does not get access to the sky or sun, and Stomach citizens are forbidden from lingering inside the walls of the city proper. This also means the Stomach is a breeding ground for disease to overwhelm its immunocompromised citizens.
Mining Sanguia in Cardielle is seen as vital for the city to stay powerful, however it is also seen as a job too filthy and dangerous for its nobles to partake in. Not to mention the extraction of Urielite, the mineral and liquid forms of the blood taken from the main artery Cardielle rests on, has its own destructive effects to those who come into contact with it. Overexposure to Urielite can lead to an illness known as Urielite poisoning, and if exposure continues effects that can only be described as divine irradiation can occur. Those who manage to survive prolonged exposure to Urielite without dying of illness usually become grotesque, godly monsters that lose almost all semblance of their former selves, much like a milder version of Wildblight.
To keep the general public unaware of the horrors of the stomach, Cardielle’s nobles will half heartedly label their miners as “martyrs” who are sacrificing their life and health for the greater good of the city. However, these miners are anything but. Most miners have a passionate hatred for the city that extorts them. So much so that many Cardielle miners have started using many of the abandoned and less frequented mining tunnels as hot beds for crime. Miners will usually smuggle things in and out of Cardielle to other cities, namely St. Medica. If you’re knowledgeable enough on how to properly handle the mineral, you can even make enough of a fortune selling raw Urielite to get yourself a one way ticket out of the Stomach.
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Cardielle’s closest neighboring city. It was formerly a humble city dedicated to the God of War, Miriam. However, after it was brutally colonized by Cardielle, it’s entire culture and manner of worship was completely uprooted. Now the central church, referred to as the Beast Church, is an exceptionally brutal force. Many St. Medica citizens are pressured into joining and becoming a part of St. Medica’s army of lycanthropes and blood hunters.
Outside of the Beast Church, crime runs rampant. Street surgeons dictate most of the economy outside of the church, organ repossessors are collecting surgery debts, and the beast blood drug trade runs rampant. St.Medica’s patron God is Miriam, who is currently in the vessel of Lamb. (Aesthetic influences: Victorian Era England, think 1870s-1900s)
Another powerful city located in Crusithea, Ephella is a city dedicated to the gods of Order and Chaos. They base their worship in balance, and acknowledging that darkness can’t exist without light. The city is extremely devoted to these gods and almost all of its citizens dedicate their day to day life to keeping the balance of chaos and order. Sins in this city are seen as actions of chaos, but sinful actions aren’t completely frowned upon. In fact, according to most followers it is recommended you keep your sin levels equal to your order levels to maintain perfect balance. In short, you can sin as long as you don’t go over quota.
Being wholly dedicated to these gods, the entire city of Ephella is built in black and white. To further the imagery, most attire you’ll see here is also completely black and white. Every building, every home, every outfit that you wear has a stress on balancing the black and white well so you don’t bring bad luck to yourself or your home. Most architecture in Ephella is very intricate, consisting of jutting black and white spires and cathedrals. A lot of the stone work is extremely ornate, and despite the very uniform color scheme of the city it has a lot of hauntingly beautiful art and buildings. The visual culture of Ephella is comparable to 1800s France, with some influence from Victorian era England.
The personal culture of Ephella is very solemn and quiet, and could even be called very subdued and calm. Between other citizens and followers, most people hold a lot of respect for others. Though, there is an underlying nastiness to the community and like-minded devotion of Ephella. First, there’s a horrible problem with believing in the whims of fate. If something terrible happens to you, it’s your fault because you disrupted the balance of your life. If you fall into poverty, you have to work yourself to regain balance. Those who stay at the bottom of the ladder too long are shunned from society for not trying hard enough. Ephella also has a bit of a xenophobia problem, seeing people outside of the city (with the exception of those from Cardielle) as impure and lunatics for living such disorderly lives.
Ephella, being a church city, has a government system very specific to their worship. The city is run by the central church, and it has many designations within. The top designations are in a group referred to as “Sanctus Oculus”. Sanctus Oculus consists of 3 head figures: The Vessel of Chaos, The Vessel of Order, and Sancta Meteor. The Vessels of Order and Chaos are raised from birth and undergo many different religious rites to connect themselves as much as possible with the gods the city worships. In a sense, these vessels are homegrown angels. On the other hand, Sancta Meteor is an interpreter of the vessels’ messages, and also serves as a mediator for the two. Sancta Meteor is seen as the official head of state. There is also a ring below Sancta Meteor of high ranking priests referred to as Cardinals. They assist Sancta Meteor in their church and government duties.
Indigineous people of Crusithea. Getting fucked over real bad by cardielle. Star worship and a focus on agriculture. I'm so tired I'll write this later.
