Mora

= Mountainside City-State of Mora =

Mora is a City-State located in the northern tip of the Kunami River, in the valley between two mountains. To the East stands the Eagle's Nesting Ground, a vast mountain range that is shared with the dwarves of Hyljaheim and the vampires of Carpe Noctem, and to the West there sits the Twins, two giant mountainous peaks. This valley is named the Witche's Valley, and it is incredibly fertile, green and... somewhat peacefull.

The Dukedom
Mora is technically a dukedom and, as such, it is ruled by a duke, a duchess in this case. Nihilla Eleanora is the one in question, and she rules from top of her library tower of granite. She is in charge of the city-state's politics, economics and general well being, and famously built the city's famous aqueducts by herself. City planninng is, however, left to the citizens themselves to make, in a bid for the city to grow organically, as it should be.

Vicar Council
The City-State is also administered by Vicars, positions of powers given to citizens of renown or notorious knowhow by eleanora herself. Currenlty there are two official Vicars and one not appointed by the duchess: Goblin Knight (Vicar de Ordus) and Tiburon (Vicar de Rebis), the official ones, and Habbarsnatch the Lesser (Witchflame Vicar), the unofficial one.

The Twin Fortresses and Towers of Mora
Mora counts on two fortresses to protect its citizenship, assets and territories, alongside its twin watchtowers. These are: Worgtooth Castle, maintained and owned to Goblin Knight and his ogre cousin Gore the Butcher; the Smallfort, built by Starra and finished by Nihilla Eleanora; the Red Crested Watcher and the Traveller's Nest watchtowers, both built by Nihilla Eleanora.

Worgtooth castle has an extensive tunnel network built in the olden days and maintained by the tiny green hands of the goblin folk. The castle is used in cases of disaster by serving as a shelter for the Moran population, who are safely guarded in its tunnels, where there is literally just one way to enter. 'Tis said that the statue on the courtyard sometimes speaks to powerful warriors (more recently Goblin Knight), and is named "Big Gob". More recently the orcs of Polodomorg have started an expanssion outpost... settlement... fortress... thing... off of the main castle, striking a deal with the owners of the castle and sovereign of the valley.

The story of the Smallfort is much more humble and tragic in nature. Old friend of Nihilla, Starra, sought to build a grand manssion all to herself, and the duchess provided them with land to build on, near the river where nothing else was built. However... before finishing the manssion Starra died of death, leaving just a base for Nihilla to work with and no plans on what would be the manssion. Nihilla, mad with grief and worse, then used the base to build what is now known as the Smallfort. The stoneworks themselves are rather simple and petite, but the gunpowder warmachines that they protect are rather dangerous and effective, striking fear in would be river pirates and raiders.

The Great Red Wall
It is impossible to not notice the giant and menacing red wall to the city's north. That frightening landmark was built years ago by the vampires of Carpe Notcem, Marquis Sanguis to be exact, in a desperate bid to expell the people of Mora from their rightfully owned lands... Sadly, it worked.

Founding
Mora was founded by the people of Symistos, a tribe that built grand structures of stone, bastions against the darkness of the night. The fertile valley was selected as the building site of one such bastion, but the great red wall of Carpe Noctem was built before Symistos could react. As such the people fled in fear of Sanguis and his Capital of Evil, Sergorost. Only one person remained: the Witch of Stone, Nihilla Eleanora, a powerful kikimora that worships the stone and the ground and all things that are everlasting. Symistos is now long gone, to a faraway land of snow and permafrost.

And so Nihilla attempted to survive on her stone tower, alone, but she was assailed by Sanguis, who sought to drink her blood. The vampire was murdered on the spot, and his head displayed as a warning. It has been a long time since the skirmishes between Nihilla and Carpe Noctem, and Mora now has a truce with their evil neighbor.

Nihilla, however, was deeply unhappy living alone, with naught but her stones and witchcraft to keep her company, and the occasional rogue vampire attack, so she invited friends into her lands. The Archive, a strange being from Symistos, travelled back to aid her in construction. The River Reach Tivrdom, a neighboring nation-state which borders Mora to the south, fostered very friendly relations with the city-state, with one of their citizens, a toadman by the name of Nethy of Bogart, regularly aiding Nihilla in her construction of Mora.

Old Crest
The old crest of Mora was really the crest of its duchess Nihilla Eleanora, and it is sometimes still used, albeit very rarely. The two twin towers represent the bastions of Symistos. The skulls beneath the crest are those of the enemies of the kikimores, the central skull representing the slaying of vampires and devils, cockatrices and other beings of the night by the ancient tribes of kikimores. The eight pointed star represents the 8 directions upon which the race of the kikimores spread over Kylorne, and there are 7 of them, for 7 is the sacred number held by all witches of the woods.

New Flag
The new flag of mora was commissioned only recently, when it became an indempendent city-state. The red represents blood and granite, the green emeralds and the blue diamonds. The olive branches represent the friendship between Mora and its neighbors, and the saber represents the Gargoyle Army, militant arm of the church, as well as the slaying of Marquis Sanguis when it dared to prey on moran citizenship. The moon represents the worship of the stones, for the moon is known as the First Stone, mother of us all.

Warcrest of Mora
The Warcrest of Mora was drawn by the Duchess herself, with the help of her Vicar Council. It depicts the colours and elements of the flag, such as the moon and the saber, as well as the warrior animals that call the region home, such as the Dragon Snail and the Pard, one being a silent hunter and the other being an all surviving leviathan.

The twin flames, one green and one golden, depict the Witchflame and the Flame of Ambition, as well as the fire in the hearts of the warriors of Mora, who model themselves after the old Gargoyles of Symistos, as well as the hunter gatherer kikimores and blêmios who called the valley home.

Religion of Stones
Mora has an official state religion, but does not enforce it systematically. The religion in question is the Everlasting Church.

The Church
This religion is hundreds of years old, but for long has it been obscure, practiced by the few kikimores left in existence, but now, with the founding of Mora, it has gone public.

The Church preaches that something perfect would never wither, it would never be destroyed, only changed alongside the currents of causality, history, and space-time itself. Living beings can not hope to achive such perfection. Not even gods can, for they are so easily forgotten in time, mangled together and destroyed.

But stones... rocks, boulders, mountains, the very ground! Those things might be changed, yes, but never destroyed, not fully. The Church holds that things made from stone are sacred.

The Stone Themselves
The Church preaches that every soul was made equal at the beggining of time from primordial dust, the same stuff that makes up Kylorne, by the First Flame, nowdays known as The Sun. The bodies of the living were created from clay by the First Stone, also known as The Moon or Mother Stone, and she gave those bodies the souls made by her brother the Sun. The most sacred stone is the humble and rare emerald, and its shade of green is taken as a omen for good in all things.

The Gargoyles
The Gargoyle Army is the militant arm of the Church. They are called gargoyles for they carry the legacy of the gargoyle Legions of Symistos, an ancient force of true gargoyles that used to protect the many bastions of Symistos. Some true gargoyles still remain, and some say their stone limbs can be heard grinding against each other at night, but they never moved again after the collapse of the first empire. Now, the Gargoyle Army cover themselves with the sacred stones emerald and diamond, using stone tools and weaponry, to protect both the intrests of the Church and the City-State itself.

Anyone can be part of the Gargolye Army, and it accepts people from outside the church as well, since it serves more secular purposes of defense.

Ancient Stoneborne
The Gargoyles themselves were crafted beings made from a stone body and a gemheart. Said gem served as a cell that held a souls of one recently dead. The Gargoyle Legion of Symistos was made up of volumteer soldiers, but many gargoyles were made from those unwilling, sacrificed by witches and wizards to serve as their protectors.

The gemhearts of the gargoyles could be made from diamonds, quartz and emerald, with the former being the most effective in holding the soul for centuries at a time. In truth, there is no such thing as a perfect gemheart, and eventually the soul either escapes or goes insane.

The art of making gargoyles or Gargoyling, is all but lost, but many gemhearts are still in circulation and are used as hexes and totems that protect the wielder from the evil and acursed. It is said that the souls inside of the gemheart protect the wielder compulsivelly, having been brainwashed into doing so by the process of soul transferrence. The goblins of Vaechdar have created some sort of robot using the gemheart... which was previously thought to be impossible, but gobbos do have a habit of making the impossible possible.

Gargoyling has heavy connections to old kikimore magics, as well as modern day alchemy, and legends say that the first gargoyle was made in a bid to achieve immortality by creating the Lápis Philosopharum.

Witchflame
The Everlasting Church has a very positive relationship to the Witchflame, for the church itself is an agnostic religion and has no conflicts with the bizarre religion, not to mention the similarities of flame worshipp.

The First Flame
As mentioned before, the First Flame is seen as the sun, but it has other meanings as well. Also known as the Magnum Opus, the Elixir Vitae, the Lápis Philosophorum, and many other names, it is seen as a legendary item in the religion and abroad, and Nihilla Eleanora has taken up the responasbility of seeking this item.

"They who touch the Lápis shall in swift wings reach apotheosis and become Rebis, the perfect being. In sulphur, salt and quicksilver shall it be made, In 17 hard taken steps shall it take the form of... the stone."

Flame of Ambition
The Flame of Ambition, also known as the Soul of Greed or Ignis Avaritiae, brings forth the inherent greed in the hearts of all men who see it. The eyes of a witness to the Flame of Ambition are forever burned in a bright yellow, and it is very rare that a burned witness remains sane enough to function in society. In truth, the Flame of Ambition resides beneath the City of Mora, deep in the bowels of its sewers. It is rumoured that the Flame of Ambition is the same thing as the First Ember of the Witchflame religion.

The Valley of Witches
Mora is magically charged, the very ground beneath its foundations having latent, stone-borne magic flowing through it. As a result, many a strange creature find their homes in these valleys and forests.

Blêmios
The very original inhabitants of the Valley of the Witch, dating even before the tribes of kikimores, who gave the valley its name, miggrated to it. They are primitive humanoid creatures, albeit they are presumed to be as smart as humans.

They lived off the Kunami's extremelly bountyfull harvest of fish, squid and dolphin, and knew no aggriculture. They used stone tools, especially spears, and are known for their marksmenship with the humble, albeit deadly, javellin. They are almost extinct, but are considered a preserved species, and killing blêmios is seen as illegal in most places where they are found.

Dragon Snails
The Dragon Snails of Mora are exactly what their name suggests: gigantic, fire spittin' snails. They were famous for bamboozling knights into thinking they were going to fight actual dragons or wyverns, only to face a giant snail. They were, however, even more dangerous than dragons and their kinds, and regularly made a barbeccue of their knightly assailants.

Often grilled snail meat and snail shell shields are exported from Mora into the neighboring kingdoms.

Pards
The pard is a very strange feline tht is native to the Valley of the Witch and surrounding plains. 'tis the only known omnivore amongst the feline family, having specialized teeth just to chew on hard nuts and plants, and has been spotted grazing amongst cattle before. However, most of its protein intake ccomes from hunting rabbits and sheep.

The pard itself is only slighty larger than a common house cat. It red furred all over, even having a red maine, and is almost always "smiling", for its teeth are bigger than its mouth, which often remains slightly opened. This all contributes to the creature being regarded as rather cute, even if it is ferouciously territorial. They are known as an omen of good luck.