The Setting In One Page
Aim: To summarise the entirety of the Alice Saga Setting as a “Landing” introductory document to the setting.
The One Above All
- The Overlord reigns unquestionably as the one true sovereign.
Ten Truths of the World
- The Nature of the world seeks to expunge humanity.
- The Ancient screams from within relics and myths.
- The Modern Kingdom is peacefully bitter with grudges.
- The War was snuffed by a supreme power with a draconian boot.
- The Void reveals a taboo reality.
- The Knightly Order is the new paradigm of a healthy realm.
- The Academy proliferates Magic into the air we breathe.
- The Unorthodoxy lurks in everything, everywhere, every time.
- The Orthodoxy scrambles to assert its legitimacy.
- The Dungeoneers are always found at the frontiers of history.
The Nature of the world is to serve the wilful wishes of Alice. For now, all things desires to make her whole again. Her shards raining, her essence spilling, Alice’s demise is the beginning of humanity’s uprising atop her holy corpse. Yet all that the world has to offer wishes to devour them. Her immune system — taking the form of monsters and magic — continues the endeavour for her return. Her shattering is unnatural, she must be whole; the reality of the fiction acknowledges this fact in every nook and cranny.
The Ancient is the home of relics and the reality of myths. The period is a time before history, the land is foreign and it’s residents unknown. A world disjointed by The Void, yet has decisive impact over the events that transpired over recorded history; the mark of this time are keenly reflected up to The Modern Kingdom. Those who know of its existence never ceases to be grossly fascinated like moths flocking to the feverous flames, where they flint on the faint hope to find it, finally falling into fanaticism in any uneventful fluke they felt.
The Modern Kingdom is the amalgamation of a number of realms which dotted the land. These dominions are overseen by feudal lords who answer to The Overlord. For the first time since The War, the strife between the lord’s attention relaxes to bring about a peaceful realm. Life goes on, but the surviving kingdoms’ legacy lingers like a lucid lie. For better or worse, most gather for survival, some for their own agendas under a false flag, and very few still chase the fleeting dream of through promises and esoteric traditions.
The War and the memories of it haunt the present like apparitions. Defeated kingdoms were wiped from the map. Surrendered kingdoms swallow gladder to become a subjected vassal in the Overlord’s grasp. However, a kingdom’s stern legacy always returns in its remnants. Someone somewhere is always plotting a revival, seeking vengeance, reigniting The War or undermining The Overlord’s current rule.
The Void is a gap in recorded history.
The Knightly Order is a romantic ideal born from despair and sung in hope. The ideas of knighthood took firm hold during The War and propagated like rabbits. Soon after it ended, a renaissance ensued. Loyalty is a hard find when entire kingdoms surrender the whole of their ancestor’s legacy at the beckoning call of supreme power. Therefore, unwavering subordinates are as valuable as gold. These orders can be found formed serving surviving royalties/nobilities, private companies, criminal families and most prominently: acting as private hit squads for The various (Orthodoxy) Church(es).
The Unorthodoxy, hidden and secluded, is a non-collective, decentralised group of people that can be found anywhere, each barely forming a nebulous organisation at best. Meticulously calculating and equally callous, the worms of the unorthodoxy are always buried under the dirt with their subtle riches. Never exposed and never whole, the immortal unorthodoxy progenerates indefinitely.
The (Orthodoxy) Church(es) of Idols must quickly assert their own legitimacy and be backed by The Overlord. The Overlord’s lightning reign requires fast justification and the peasants require order. The draconian Overlord must rightfully assert its rest on throne atop the apex of the world. Idolisation is a powerful tool of unity, and the Overlord will not tolerate this power in others’ hands. Therefore, a fanatic scramble for holy relics and symbols began. In return for surrendering their foundational authenticity to the Overlord, the church shall find themselves sanctioned1).
Dungeoneers are born from the known and are yet only made from the unknown. The discipline of Dungeoneering took root in a world that required scapegoats. Anyone is a dungeoneer if they forfeited their lives to seek curiosities from the unknown abyss. From the unknown, one might find opportunities their patrons at home are blind to, yet desires to lavish in their value:
- During The Ancient, innocent curiosity drove humanity out of The Wunderkammer.
- During The War, kingdoms scrambled every nook and cranny for any hope of an edge.
- During The Modern Kingdom, lords scrambled for a foothold in The Draconian Overlord’s favour.
- And who knows what transpired during The Void?
- In the future, maybe we'll return to the old frontiers of The Wunderkammer.
The Four Idols Must Perish
- If Alice perishes, the reality collapses into a box.
- If Maple perishes, the future is lost, and the world freezes.
- If Saint Marrowlyth perishes, the promised land cannot be reached.
- If The Church perishes… Not a thing changes.