Nualis

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Nualis is a world that is somewhat less advanced technologically than Alusia. The largest geo-political entity is the Holy Mother Church. Magic use is known and understood here, although not accepted unless
a) one is a member of the cloth who has taken a special vow
or
b) tough enough that the Church can't do much about it.

Although magic of the kind that Alusians practise (i.e. with its divisions into colleges and so on) is not known, magic that is reasonably instantaneous to cast without extensive use of materials and ritual is known. The Church is known to be involved in the development of the magically gifted. It is an open secret that some of the cloistered orders are, in fact, training camps for the development of fanatically devoted battle choirs.

If the laity practice magic in public then they will be "interviewed" by the Holy Office and consigned to the flames for the purification of their soul. Savage, fulminating power is an acceptable remedy in law against the inevitability of this process.

The previous pope, it has been revealed, is a skilled sorceror, and possibly the greatest arithmetician of the age. They say that he knows the secret of long division, and the viziers of the Orient are said to tremble at the mention of his name. It is whispered that His Holiness has performed the operation of division by zero on a recalcitrant and unrepentant heretic.

He is said to have been deeply affected when he performed the mass of the New Year on the eve of the Millenium, and a powerful manifestation of The Lord of Serpents appeared to the north of the city. No one else was aware of the immortal's sudden appearance, but His Holiness appeared visibly shocked during the officiation. He completed the mass stoically, but retired from public life and three months later, succumbed to a flux and never recovered.

There is speculation, arising from the details of Where Angels Fear to Tread that Medeanites may have replaced him with a double, clone or replica of some kind. Later, when the Pope had been removed to somewhere secure the replica was quietly poisoned. The speculation is based on indirect, circumstantial evidence, and lacks certain proof. Nevertheless, many Intriguers believe that this is within the ambit of Medeanite behaviour and power.

More information was revealed about the Pope as a result of the For I Have Immortal Longings in Me adventure.

The Comte de Versillac is an hideously powerful Gascon wizard and alchemist. Recently become undying, the Comte had remained alive for several centuries by means of the elixirs of youth that he prepares. He is not a priest. He maintains his continued liberty by slaying the crusades that come to take him. To the last man.

Amongst the magic which he regularly sustains about his person is a spell that detects and locates priests of the Holy Mother Church. This is not a targeting sense, although he can use it to follow someone until he can target them. He will do this, for he is filled with an endless hatred for the Church and would bring the institution down if he could.

The Church would dearly love to bring him to trial, where they could quickly find him guilty of almost anything they liked, so great is their reciprocal animosity. With some justification, however, for in a world where priests are rarely brought to physical harm, the Comte offers no quarter.

The Eye of Discord is an arms dealer, operating out of a variety of ports. Guild Security believe that, going on the resources the man has used, he is almost certainly a member of the Church. Their conjecture is that he is probably a bishop without see, since no other position would give him the mobility he needs to maintains his concerns.

Notably, there are two secret cults that pursue their own mysterious agenda. They are opposed to each other, and they are the Jasonites on the one hand, and the Medeanites on the other.

Either of these organisations, or both, have been responsible for the abduction of young village idiots in the past, to create something called 'the Whisperfall'. Wegin the Inscrutable opines that this 'Whisperfall' is a collection of idiot savants, connected together by relays of Mind Mages.

Wegin continued to talk at some length about 'parallel thinkifying' and 'quantum cogitatory excitement' until people wondered if he were being even more inscrutable than usual, or if it were a new form of the Mental Attack spell. It might have something to do with making predictions, but why they don't hire a good astrologer...

People of Note

Missions Involving Nualis

  1. For I Have Immortal Longings in Me
  2. Where Angels Fear to Tread
  3. Brief_Candles
  4. Brides_of_Blackrod
  5. The_Mikado_Affair
  6. This_Quintessence_of_Dust
  7. Fallen Ocelotepec - Win 817wk