landens

[thestewards]

“

While the Blood may have come from the landens, they are no longer the same peoples. The difference between Blood and landen is as vast as the difference between a man and his dog, and like a dog, the landen should know his place. He is a small creature, powerless and impotent and desperate to crawl above his station. To that end, he will crush the throats of any man between him and his power. He is otherwise worthless except for menial labor. Tilling the fields and weaving clothes to gown his betters is all that he is good for and all that he can manage. A landen cannot wear the Jewels and thus cannot be a part of society in any meaningful way.

—Grejor Shamael

INVENTORS OF THE FUTURE
The landens are the people of the world who cannot wear the Jewels and have no Craft. Vastly outnumbering the Blood, they are the majority. They are the many. And they have been ignored by Blood society. In whatever events led up to the Cataclysm, the landens believe they suffered the most. The Blood forced them to tend lands that yielded less and less, and they received little for their troubles. In fact, the Blood consistently demanded more and more from them until there was nearly nothing left.

When the Cataclysm came, the landens seized the opportunity presented to them. In many Territories, they overthrew the power structure of the Blood and, unfortunately, destroyed the land even more in doing so. Between war and the deaths of innumerable Queens, the landens took much from the Blood—and the Realms.

So the landens turned to technology and created their Guilds. While the Blood would never admit it, the landens and their Guilds are now completely indispensable to everyone's continued survival. The landen Guilds guard the secrets of their trades fiercely. In the recent past, some of the lighter Jeweled Blood took to kidnapping landens guildsmen and tortured them for their secrets. This didn't go well. The landens would find ways to kill themselves rather than give the Blood any knowledge, which in turn set off more uprisings. The Blood may have Craft, but the landens have always had numbers and ingenuity.

In modern Terreille, most landens belong to one of the Guilds. The Guilds train young men and women in trades, and trade secrets are viewed with an almost holy reverence.

EDUCATION AND THE LANDEN GUILDS
Industrialization is a new thing to Terreille. No more than two thousand years ago, most landens were farmers and lower class. The advent of the landen middle class only came about with the founding of the Guilds, and with it a revolution of education. Before, only the most aristo of the Blood could afford tutors for all subjects. With the Guilds, an emphasis was placed on learning more than just a single trade. The Guilds provided a broad base of education to landen children through the winter and summer months, breaking for the harvest and planting seasons in fall and spring.

Landen children attend school from the time they are eight until their 20th birthday. At 15, seven years into their schooling, a landen child can declare a Guild. While there is still room for movement from one Guild to another after this, it's generally frowned upon. From 15 to 18, a landen teenager is an apprentice in their chosen Guild. From 18 to 20, the landen is a journeyman and allowed to do Guild work with their professors. At 20, a landen graduates from their Guild and officially becomes an adult (a notion borrowed from Blood society).

Should a landen decide to pursue further schooling to become a master, he or she stays with their Guild for at least 4 more years to attain the title of Master.

THE CRAFTER GUILD

Crafters named themselves to mock the Blood and their Craft. They are the oldest of the Guilds, formed shortly after the Cataclysm as the landens attempted to protect themselves from the Blood. Proud and vicious, the Crafter Guild is populated by two types of landens: the kind who want to get revenge on the Blood, and the kind who see the Craft as a puzzle and a challenge to overcome. While the Tinkers build technological marvels, the Crafters are responsible for the devices that identify Jewels and caste, and that nullify Craft; the weapons that pierce Craft shields; and the criers that function as an alarm system for the use of Craft.

The Crafter Guild is run by Master Crafter Kasik.

THE ELEKTRILINE GUILD

The Elektriline Guild is the youngest of the Guilds, formed only fifty years ago when a Tinker accidentally discovered elektric currents and lit an entire Guild Hall on fire. Elektrics are widely regarded as the craziest of the Guilds. The strangest. The quirkiest. They are beloved of the Blood, especially those who wear lighter Jewels and can't afford to use their power casually for light, heating and cooling. The Elektriline Guild literally keeps the lights on: they wire buildings and provide the power for light, cold boxes, and e-line heaters and coolers.

The Elektriline Guild is run by Master Elektric Doriah.

THE HUNTER GUILD

Though not the oldest of the Guilds, the Hunter Guild is the most powerful, the most feared, and the most effective. Unlike the Crafter Guild, which is equally split between those who want to defeat the Blood and those who find their Craft a fascinating puzzle, the Hunter Guild is full of landens who despise the Blood. The Hunters are devoted to protecting landens from the Blood (who they call Bleeders derisively). These men and women are competent fighters, ingenious thinkers, and the moving force of the anti-Blood movement among the landen population. They are highly skilled assassins who will take contracts against Blood sympathizers as well.

The Hunter Guild is run by Master Hunter Raya.

THE MEDIC GUILD

Those of the Medic Guild are pioneers in the field of medicine. They study human biology, offering non-Craft solutions to everything from the common cold to surgery. Medicos are very proud of their work and are some of the most respected landens in their communities. A well-trained Medico may not be able to wipe a wound away like a Healer, but they save a sick or injured landen a trip to someone who might not be so sympathetic. Of all the guilds, the Medic Guild gets along best with the Blood, especially Healers and Black Widows.

The Medic Guild is run by Master Medico Lam.

THE TINKER GUILD

The Tinkers, the thinkers, the strange machine makers. Just as eccentric as the Elekrics (though perhaps not quite as crazy, since they don't play with live currents for fun), the Tinkers make what they make with little thought to the ramifications of it. Working with the Elektrics, the Tinkers pioneered the creation of the e-line technology that makes Blood and landen lives easier. Currently, the Tinkers are wiring Draega for their far-talkers, a technology that allows people to communicate across great distances even if they aren't Blood.

The Tinker Guild is run by Master Tinker Mari.

THE TRANSPORT GUILD

Quiet, reliable, and steady, the Transport Guild keeps its head down and its people out of trouble. Their interest is in finding alternatives to Craft transportation, and they're the ones who created and now maintain the rail-carriages and railways. While the Tinkers may build the engines that power the railcars, the Transporters are the only ones who know how to install those engines and drive the the railcars. Rumor has it the Transporters are working on small, personal trains called autocars.

The Transport Guild is run by Master Transporter Sorrel.

TECHNOLOGY IN TERREILLE
Landens are at a constant disadvantage against the Blood. The Blood are living, breathing weapons, and the landens are essentially unarmed sheep next to them. To combat this wild imbalance of power, the landens employ a variety of technological tools to even the odds.

RAIL-CARRIAGE Also called a railcar. Railcars allow anyone to travel quickly from one city to another without relying on the Blood. They are maintained by the Tinker Guild and the Transport Guild.

SEEKERS Small rings set with a clear crystal, typically worn on the right hand. The crystal fills with a smoke that matches the color of a Jewel when in the presence of the Blood (e.g. a Green Jewel will turn the crystal green). The crystal pulses with light to indicate caste: once for a Healer or a Warlord, twice for a Priestess or a Prince, three times for a Black Widow or a Warlord Prince, and four times for a Queen. A Seeker will detect someone who is sight shielded, regardless of the Jewel shielding them.

CRIERS Criers are installed around the perimeter of landen communities and important buildings (like Guild Halls) inside of communities. They are alarm systems that detect the Blood and warn Guild leaders and local militia of the approaching threat. They are rarely installed inside homes as they're too expensive and everyone has a Seeker.

MUTERS Small devices installed in most landen homes. They can be turned on or off but are often left on. They strip away the Blood's power, rendering their Craft (and Jewels) useless. A landen will turn a Muter off as a show of good faith, and one of the Blood may carry a Muter when meeting with landens.

AUTOCAR The rumored pet project of Draega's Tinker and Transport Guilds.

BREAKER Shield-breakers, commonly called Breakers, are muskets that fire bullets capable of penetrating Craft shields. They are cheap enough that most people can afford them.

GUARDIAN A flat metal ring worn on the same finger as the Seeker, a guardian will reflect the attacks of most lighter Jewels. It can hold out against a White Jewel for hours though efficacy diminishes as the Jewel darkens. It fails at the level of the Green, able to deflect one blast of power from a Green Jewel and then no more. It cannot defend against Sapphire or any Jewel darker than Sapphire.

FAR-CASTER Far-casters are the landen equivalent of the modern cellphone. Because the Blood can communicate psychically, it became obvious to the Tinker Guild early on that landens needed a way to communicate across vast distances as well. Far-casters can send text messages as well as handle voice-only or full image communication between individuals. Far-casters can be used like radios as well, and even the Blood use Far-casters to listen to news reports as well as daytime programs. Ranging in size from large and bulky to small and hand-held, Far-casters can be found as speakers playing music in restaurants and homes, delivering the news in shops, or used to facilitate private, personal correspondence. The Far-casters are capable of sending messages that anyone can access, or they can be filtered to specific individuals or groups. For example, the Ebon Council maintains its 'group chat' that only they can access.

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