The Era Victoria
The Unstable Peace
It is the Era Victoria. The Valta Empire reigns victorious in the ashes of the Great War. The crushed and scattered forces of the Fulgur Republic, the Blackshore League and the Haliskar Kingdoms have yielded all holdings and surrendered unconditionally. It is an era of unstable peace and reconstruction. For the Valta Empire, it is a time of unchecked prosperity, technological progress, and growth. But for many, it is also a time of oppression, scarcity, injustice, and rebellion. It is the Era Victoria, and it is a time of great scientific wonder and greater despair.
Quicksilver
A transcendent material distilled from a common red crystal ore. It is alchemically known as the "prima materia," and it embodies several alchemical dualities at once. But most importantly, quicksilver is the source of nearly limitless conversion of energies and has sparked an industrial revolution in every nation it was introduced. Possessing qualities of both Air, Water, Fire and Earth, it is also known as the quadratus. Under the right conditions, a tetratic chamber will harness these transitions from each element and can turn it into mechanical energy.
Airships
Before the Era Duellum, primitive airships were implemented, but it wasn’t until total war broke out, that airships were used as a staple of warfare and travel. Transcended quicksilver gives a powerful lift, one pound of liquid quicksilver is capable of lifting 20 times its weight as a gas. Altitude is controlled by reverting the Quicksilver to liquid form. However, imperfection in seals, loss of pressure, and repeated conversions all speed up the corrosion process, reverting quicksilver back to a solid and needing to either be refined again or having the entire tetratic chamber replaced, giving airships somewhat limited range depending on the flight time, weight and desired altitude of the airship. Additionally getting the chambers too hot, or cycling them too often, will soften and burst even the hardest seals. Air cooled engines and coolants are used to mitigate this, however, the technology is limited.
Trains
As capable as airship technology is, armored trains are almost exclusively used to transfer ore, freight, livestock, and large masses of people. A major civil project from the Era Duellum, many places have extremely intricate railway networks between outposts, towns, mines and other points of interest. Even to the point where certain train depots have hidden and forgotten railways. For all other land travel, horses and carriages are employed. Horseless carriages powered by quicksilver are novelties that remain impractical on any kind of rough terrain so they aren’t favored by much more than the wealthy classes. Trains are faster, can carry more and can be more heavily armed and armored than any airship. They are not as susceptible to weather conditions and require similar maintenance to upkeep once tracks are laid.
Gunpowder
Primitive guns have existed for hundreds of years, but guns in the Era Victoria are cartridge fed single action firearms, usually in the form of revolvers or lever action rifles. In many frontier or rural towns, carrying a firearm is considered a way of life to protect you from inherent dangers. Automatic guns do exist but they need to be water cooled and their weight is prohibitive to carry around as a personal weapon; so they are typically mounted. Artillery is available but is usually too heavy to support on airships at all and only the largest airships carry any kind of heavy guns.
Sorcery and Mysticism
The dangerous and ancient art of sorcery is as old as mankind’s history. Rare and unusual, it is often a power born only to the gifted; those with sorcerous blood. In polite society it is shunned or feared, with only Howler tribes embracing gifted sorcerers as leaders. In High society, a sorcerer can be respected enough to attain a place in any noble’s court, depending on how much they prefer to be feared by others. Overall, however, they are disrespected and untrusted, treated as dangerous demimondes. Elaborate yarns are spun about sorcerous devilry and how they infect the mind with lawlessness. Such power, however, is much more limited in reality. Even the most gifted sorcerers have only control over only a few domains, and only as long as they are concentrating. Their power is believed to come from the Prima-Mundi, a concept of a first, and original world that spawned all things. Sorcerers are considered to be connected to that world via bloodline in some way, though there are many theories as to how and why.
Faith in the Age of Quicksilver
Most God-fearing folk believe in the Seven Holies. Anywhere from a one-horse town with a single run down chapel to the grand cathedrals in each district of the Garden have some iconography to the Seven Holies. Not the oldest religion, it is still centuries old and it has the only official station within the Valta Empire. The High Sanctimonia is the right hand of the Empress Valta and is considered the highest counsel for all matters spiritual. The primary mythology is that a monotheistic God created everything and his seven messengers watch over all of his creation and defend it from terrible evils.