Ascension Isle
Jibril - The Shining Isle
On maps of Arth Jibril lies in the north east, with the arid continent of Mikaela to the south, and the choking jungles of Rafaela to the west. Jibril is a large continent traced with a wide fan of navigable rivers. It has a pleasant climate ranging from tropical in the south, to temperate in the north. It was here that the Chosen placed their Holy City of Exalticon. The people of Jibril have spent more than a millennia as the favoured of the Chosen, basking in an endless light of their patrons’ power that, five years ago, suddenly flared, flickered and then died.
History
The history of Jibril is laid out in the Empyrean Codex. Over a thousand years ago, when the world was ravaged by the Cataclysm, the Chosen heard the cries of the last faithful woman, Manaya adrift at sea in a wooden ark. To save her they raised up a continent from the deep where she and her children settle. In thanks, Manaya had her sons build a great city on the spot where the Ark had come ashore, and named it Exalticon, as a prayer of living stone to the glories of the Chosen. She then charged her youngest daughter to live within its holy temple and ensure that all men kept faith with the Chosen.
For over 800 years, Jibril continued as a collection of hundreds of small city states and princedoms, guided by the degrees of the Holy City, as carried by itinerant priests. Society remained agrarian, with the muzzle loading musket, steel plow, and water powered spinning loom as the height of technology. Less well known is the telescope created by the Astrologer Esther of Gerralt to map out the heavens themselves, as Esther - a priestess of the Church and considered the greatest mind of her age - met with extreme sanction at the hands of the Church for this affront to the privacy of the angels. This time is not well recorded, as writing was only used by the Empyrean Church, and the common people lacked even a unified calendar, using the year of the reign of their current ruler.
Then, 230 years ago, at the year end Ascension Day gathering at Exalticon, where the Chosen descended to offer words of wisdom to all, the Angel Ramiel declared that the time of penance was over. Henceforth the Chosen would raise up the righteous of Jibril until one day humans could stand beside the Chosen of God. The Chosen then set about enacting rapid changes. Cities and Princedoms were unified into a smaller number of larger nations, each presided over by a Chosen patron. A new royalty was created from the most worthy families, imbued with superhuman powers, and charged with the mandate of rule over these new nations. The Church was expanded, to watch over and guide these new nations. And under the watchful eye of the Empyrean Church, the Chosen then gave their disciples the first Thaumatic Technology.
Jibrilite society developed rapidly, and in two centuries the population had increased more than ten times. This came with severe social disruption, as people moved en masse into the new Thautech enhanced cities, learning new jobs and new roles. Education was run by the Church, but some people desired more knowledge than the Empyrean faith could provide, and heretical writings were smuggled in from the Occupation Zones, and even the distant Empire, leading to the rise of secret and subversive societies and movements. Although the church taught that the Chosen were benevolent overlords, as people gathered and the innovation of the printing press allowed writings to spread, stories began to circulate of Chosen excesses and injustices, while new philosophers suggested alternate paths, away from the teachings of the Codex. Chief among these were the Humanists who taught that the Chosen imposed an artificial inequality on the human race, and the Light Bringers who taught that the Chosen were flawed beings, and mankind would gain its rightful place in heaven only by taking their power. Although the Church and it’s new Inquisition could never fully stamp out these movements, the power of the Chosen prevented them ever flourishing into open rebellion.
By the midwinter of 235 After Enlightenment (1215 Post Cataclysm according to the Imperial Calendar), Jibril was a continent seething beneath the surface. Several Royals wanted the Chosen to give them a freer hand in purging the growing heresies, while others wanted accommodation. As the pilgrims gathered in their millions at Exalticon to hear the words of the Chosen, rather than the descent of holy messengers, they were treated to a dazzling display of lights and deafening thunder high in the sky. At first the people marvelled at the show, then they trembled as they imagined the displeasure of their Angels. And then as fire began to rain down from the skies, the true horror of what they were witnessing sank in. Heaven was at war.
The War in Heaven lasted less than a month. When it ended Jibril was outwardly left untouched. Although several of the Chosen’s floating islands had fallen to earth, none had struck the Jibril landmass, and only a few stray shots had fallen in and around the continent. Inwardly the nations were in chaos. Many of the most advanced Thautech devices no longer functioned, including the holographic clarions of the Church, and the most powerful beam weapons of the navy battleships. Powerful telescopes search the Heavens and found many of the Chosen’s islands had vanished, while others were smoking ruins. As it became increasingly clear that some great calamity had befallen the Chosen dissenters began to rail against them and their servants. And once the Chosen failed to step in and crush these heretics, dissent quickly became fully fledged uprisings which overthrew several nations.
Jibril is now divided between those who keep faith with the old ways, sure there is some explanation for this calamity - perhaps a great test that humanity must pass; those who believe that the yoke of Chosen oppression is now gone, freeing humanity to build a new world of equality and justice; and those who believe the fall of the Chosen is an opportunity to set themselves up as the new Gods. But even as the nations look inward to their own disputes, many have realized that the fall of the Chosen has left them the most powerful nations in a now leaderless world. Whether out of stubborn faith, altruistic hubris, or covetous desire, the nations of Jibril also turn outward and seek to master this new Arth.
Race
Jibril is an overwhelmingly human continent. The Chosen made no secret of their preference for “pure” humanity, and non-human races were second class citizens at best, or task created slaves at worst. This hierarchy is enshrined and justified in the Empyrean Codex, with humanity below the Chosen, non human races below humanity, and the Dero the lowest of them all. Although many people now disavow the codex, old habits die hard, and the Jibrilites remain a staggeringly discriminatory people. This is only partially moderated by the fact that most of them have only ever heard of “sub-humans” in tales and scripture. Even those who wish to better the lot of non-humans conceive of it in the most patronizing terms. A truly racially enlightened Jibrilite is a very rare beast indeed.
Politics
Jibril does not have a great depth of political thought. The Monarchical system of government was given wholesale by the Chosen, and is structured around a King or Queen imbued with transhuman powers, including long life (there are even a few rulers alive who were of the first generation of the Chosen Mandate), great strength and superior intellect. Within this framework individual Chosen created varying structures, such as a single autocratic ruler, or a Monarch and a parliament of nobles, but in each case the Church was a close advisor and supporter of the Monarchy.
Although some Chosen provided their Royal clients with very strict guidelines, even deep indoctrination, others took a more laissez-faire approach. More than a few Royals were left free to act as they saw fit with only minimal guidance. Some honestly sought to better the lives of those in their kingdoms, while others took the leeway as license to indulge themselves. The failure of the Chosen to intervene in the excesses of these last was a major cause of rising discontent.
Following the War in Heaven, the Royals of some countries have now been overthrown by popular uprisings or military tyrants. Many of these movements are strongly influenced by political thought brought back with mercenary armies from recent wars in the Occupation Zones, or smuggled in by dissidents. Others are motivated by nothing more than naked lust for power. Jibril does have one center of indigenous political learning, Plato’s Stair, a school where human thinkers have gathered and gone back to basics, seeking to create a new philosophy for a changed world.
Religion
For over a thousand years Jibril was dominated by the Empyrean Church. The Church rules from the huge city of Exalticon, which remains the largest and most advanced in the world, even if many of its most wondrous Thaumatic engines no longer function. Sitting on a peninsula in the Great River, Exalticon boasts impossible architecture of white spires rising a thousand feet or more into the air, and the massive glittering crystal pyramid of the Great Temple. Millions from across Jibril and the Zones journey to Exalticon each year in pilgrimage, and interfering with the passage of a pilgrim is a capital offense.
The highest ranks of the Church are dominated by women, and most priests are daughters of noble families, following Manaya’s original tradition. The exception is the newborn Inquisition, which was created during the Enlightenment, and is dominated by men. The Church teaches that men are intrinsically more sinful than women, since they pass on less of their sin to their children. Given what the Inquisition is often called to do, this is not seen as a detriment. Inquisitors are heavily indoctrinated with faith in the Chosen, and greatly enhanced with lethal Thautech cybernetics, which are passed down to new Inquisitors upon death.
The Empyrean Church draws its teachings from the Empyrean Codex, a highly prescriptive holy book given to Manaya by the Archangel Gabriel (this followed the resolution of the Izabellan schism where some priests claimed the Codex was instead written by Manaya with only divine inspiration from Gabriel). The Codex describes the fall of humanity due to pride and presumption. It lays out a hierarchical society of duty and obedience, as humans atone for the sins of their forebears that lead to the Cataclysm. It also focuses a great deal on various offenses and punishments, which can only be redeemed by confessions to the Church. Confessions are often followed by the offender being bound in service to the Church for a time. An entire lifetime, if the offense is grievous enough. Perhaps a life reborn in the Inquisition, if the offender is truly heinous.
Church doctrine teaches that when the faithful die they are taken to the appropriate level of heaven as befits their station in life and judged. If they lived a holy life, the burden of sin on their descendants is lessened, allowing them to raise their social status. Because the Chosen lead busy lives, these judgments are passed down by funerary invigilators, priests able to hear the words of the Chosen. The Chosen are presented as infallible, although they often test the faith of humans. Many supposed Chosen indiscretions are explained in truth to have been elaborate tests for the faithful.
For all this infallibility, the Codex has several obvious amendments, most added in during the Enlightenment. These are explained not as changes in the Chosen’s teaching, but rather in humanity’s understanding of it as they progress in redemption. Some secret societies whisper that even more than these amendments, the teachings of the Codex were substantially different in the distant past, and it once was a very different book. This so called Apocryphal Codex remains an elusive myth.
Magic
One of the crimes listed by the Empyrean Codex is the practice of magic. Magic, the Codex says, disrupts the natural order and imposes the will of the prideful Witch upon Gods’ creation. Magic also drains the soul, and leaves those who practice it devoid of true human qualities. The punishment for Witchcraft varies across Jibril, but is invariably fatal.
Despite this every few decades the Inquisition roots out another small circle of Witches. These sad creatures are usually the lowest of society, seeking to better their lot with forbidden charms. Weak in power, they pose little problem for the authorities. Of greater concern are rumours that some of the new nobility of Jibril have also dabbled in forbidden powers, up to and including hellish pacts with infernal spirits. The Inquisition takes such rumours very seriously, and - even now (perhaps especially) after the fall of the Chosen - were even a Monarch to be proven to have practiced witchcraft they might not be safe from the Inquisitors.
In 170 AE during the last major war in the Rafaelan Occupation Zone a large number of Jibrilite soldiers faced not the usual hedge wizards, but a cabal of powerful sorcerers and summoners (some suspicion fell on the Zenith Empire, but the Emperor was quick to deny any breach of the Sunset Treaties). Returning survivors noted that many of the feats used by these powerful Witches were disturbingly similar to observed Chosen uses of divine power. This heresy was quickly squashed by the Inquisition, and lead to a suspension of mercenary expeditions to Rafaela.
Thaumatic Technology
The leading cause of the dramatic changes to Jibrilite society after the Enlightenment was the introduction of Thaumatic Technology. Thautech works by taking spiritual power from the shadow realm of the Umbra, and imbuing it into physical materials and mechanical processes. This process is recognizable to any practitioner of magic as a particularly advanced form of alchemy, but the Chosen and their subjects never refer to Thautech as “technomagic,” a derogatory term used to refer to the engines of the Dero and their client states, which nevertheless run on similar principles.
Where two centuries ago Jibrilite cities were small rustic affairs and most tilled the land as farmers, now the cities of the Shining Isle are ever expanding industrial warrens, with crackling tesla-towers dotting the skylines, while millions pack into cramped supplicants lodgings and trudge to work long hours in vast Thautech lathes, servicing machines beyond their comprehension.
These devices included the massive Phaeton Gates, through which the Chosen allowed the Jibrilites instant transport to anywhere on their continent. Similarly, the Church had access to a worldwide holographic communication network linking the Temple in Exalticon to all major cathedrals. Neither of these wonders work since the War in Heaven, although enterprising priests have been able to retrofit the holograph network into a crude sparkflash telegraph system. Many other Thaumatic devices do work however, including nearly all the military ones, including the Jibrilite’s glorious white and gold battlefleets, their hovering zeppelin gunships, and their towering Guymelef mobile armour suits.
The Chosen provided the Jibrilites an endless cavalcade of new devices, but only very limited theoretical grounding in how these machines actually worked. Although the Church, the ultimate guardians of divine knowledge, is fully aware of how to build, maintain and repair most of these devices, they do not know how they actually work. They merely follow extensively trained procedures. There is a movement among many Jibrilite artisans to rectify this, but the Church opposes, and in any event the average Jibrilite citizen lacks even the first clue of where to start in understanding such complex creations.
In the meantime, most of the technology provided by the Chosen continues to function, while ever more new machines roll out from the great self repairing manufacturies. In future however this may not be the case. Thautech machines run primarily on a substance known as ether, a gas that forms in places of strong geomantic power, close to the energies of the Umbra. In the past the Chosen provided ample supplies of this vital resource, but now Jibril’s Etheric refineries cannot keep up with demand. However explorers tell of plentiful resources in the backwards Occupation Zones of Rafaela and Mikaela, and even the decadent Zenith Empire on Heylel - easily available if one were only to reach out and take them. . .