Lore

Being completely engulfed by the eternal storm of clouds above, Icaion is an extremely cold and dark planet.

Sunlight is one of the most scarce resources and this forced civilizations to develop only on the rare places where the sun reaches the land, allowing them to cultivate lands obtaining steady food supplies impossible to have anywhere else. These spots are so scarce and so far away from one another, that these civilizations never met.

The lands not touched by light are barren and dangerous places, twisted by the devastating cataclysm which happened millennia ago. The effects of the crystal can vary wildly from one region to another, causing some places to have perennial snowstorms, others are submerged in mist, others are places with eternal rain and so on, with frightening weather phenomena going on in different regions. Those unstable regions offer different types of Qoam crystals. It isn’t known if the instability depends on these crystals or it is the instability itself that altered Qoam to these variations.

In these unforgiving lands other forms of life developed, creating the most unimaginable and dangerous creatures. For all these reasons the barren lands are highly inhospitable and not inhabited by any civilized species. These grim places are extremely rich in treasures, Qoam and rare artifacts, making exploration always worthwhile, even if risky.

The City

Directly below the regions of Mysthea is present one of the biggest cities of Icaion, built around the enormous crystal that comes out of the land. The crystal emanates such powerful energies that the clouds above are constantly moved by it and the City lies inside the eye of a permanent cyclone.

The movement of the clouds created a permanent circle, a ring of sunlight between the crystal and clouds, where society developed over the years. The absence of winds and storms with the constant sunny daylight allows this ring of arable land excellent for cultivation.

Since cultivable land is a finite and extremely rare asset, the City developed around it in every spot that wouldn’t waste precious land. This means that structures and buildings are mostly vertical and people living in there are as crammed as possible.

The city is divided into two circles, the first one, closer to the crystal, is where the sunlight is present. This circle is considered the core of the whole society, where the most powerful and influential individuals reside. Outside there is the "region of eternal dusk", a dark outer circle where the rest of society lives crammed as tightly as possible.

All of this is surrounded by a huge wall that encloses the whole city from the dangers present outside. The walls are a mix of natural boundaries which were thrust up by earthquakes when the crystal arose millennia ago, and artificial ones made to fill the gaps.

Society

The inhabitants of the City have extremely limited to almost no manipulation abilities with Qoam, but they are able to use it as a fuel to power machines in what is essentially a pre-industrial society. The Qoam is extracted from the crystal itself, from mines that go for miles below the surface, and other new varieties are brought from the outside by Seekers themselves.

Since the sun only reaches a small circle of land around the crystal, this zone of the city is the only place where cultivation of land is possible. This made land owners in this region the most powerful and wealthy individuals of the society. Farming is considered an activity reserved exclusively for the elite, the few people that can live their life in constant sunlight while eating genuine produce from the earth and not just the processed by-products.

The rest of society lives in a state of wild and ruthless capitalism instead, with everyone crossing each other trying to find some ways to earn a better life. Citizens of the City are divided into a strict class system, where their place in society and privileges are strictly tied to the occupation an individual can do. Occupations are generally inherited and it is very difficult for somebody who was born into a certain class to change occupation by rising to another one.

Inside each class, individuals often form organizations to work on what is their class expertise and knowledge. Most of these organizations are centered and managed by a single family and employ only people from that lineage to manage their process. Some organizations are of course richer and more powerful than others.

Classes

Farmers are the wealthiest and most powerful individuals, referred to as those "blessed with the gift of light". They own all of the lands where cultivation is undertaken, their organizations only employ people directly related to them or make good use of heavy machines and other automated equipment to work the land, since the Workers are not deemed worthy of working under the sun. The Farmer class lives an enviable life, as being able to live their whole lives bathed in sunlight and working with something so rare and precious as plants is considered the most luxurious thing a human could dream of. They spend their days in orchards and gardens cultivating rare and precious species, while the mostly automated mass cultivation of their other lands makes them rich.

Extractors are the people that own and operate the Qoam mines on the Henakor. Their organizations always have a booming business and they employ all kind of machinery and people to extract the precious crystal from the ground and from the Henakor itself.

The Industrialists hold the well guarded knowledge, technology and resources to build Qoam powered tools. Their organizations are driving forward society and are in high competition between each other.

The Seekers are elite soldiers that go outside the city walls to explore these lands trying to extract resources and find treasures. Due to the fact that the temperatures are cold and the constant darkness has strange effects on the mind, only few people have what it takes to take this path. Considering that dangerous monsters are sometimes spotted in the dark around the city, every journey outside could be the last. Almost anyone could become a Seeker, and joining the Organization is often seen as the only way for common folks to become more respected members of society. Seekers are the only citizens that live outside the walls, in the Organization Headquarters.

Workers are the backbone of society, these people are employed in the most various activities around the city and are in a constant struggle to sustain themselves and their family. They usually do manual labor and menial tasks for the organizations of the elites, that usually consider them as replaceable and dispensable. Some of them show more initiative and manage small activities in the region of eternal dusk to service other workers, such as shops and taverns.

The Organization

On the outer rim of the city perched just outside the city walls there are the headquarters, living chambers and hangars of the Organization. This rich and powerful organization manages expeditions to explore, excavate and scavenge in the harsh and dangerous environment outside the wall. The Organization has 5 divisions specialized in different kinds of expeditions. It employs skilled Seekers, heavy vehicles and machinery useful to harvest Qoam and other resources, as well as to help them to explore more deeply into the Regions. Most of the Seekers live outside the walls to prepare for the expeditions by adapting to the harsh conditions.

Seekers venture regularly outside of the city in small teams and convoys, to gather precious resources, hunt for treasures, scavenge ancient relics and to ensure that no monster would threaten nearby.

Recently, their work has become even harder. They discovered that a huge Colossus roaming the most remote regions is connected with Qoam. The being doesn’t seem directly aggressive but its presence seems to twist the planet since it seems to spread an illness everywhere it crosses.