Shantania

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Shantania is the name of a continent where I plan to set a Fire Emblem-like game. A number of tales have taken place here, but the main tale is Lynia's Journey: to prevent her kingdom from waging war on another whose people have sworn off fighting altogether, Princess Lynia of Caynea runs away from her palace, hoping to distract her father from the war effort. She soon finds out that her "father" is actually two separate twin brothers, who each have their own agenda, and have been at each other's throats for most of their lives. In pursuit of the truth, Lynia assembles a token resistance, only to find that the "war effort" is the least of her worries.

The Planet

Map of Shantania

One main continent taking up most of the one remaining hemisphere (the other hemisphere is completely missing, after The Sundering). The continent extends all the way between both icecaps. The bodies of water on either side of Shantania sport a few small islands, only a few of which are settled, but are largely unimportant to mainlanders. The main continent has a few small lakes and rivers on the northern hemisphere, only a few oases on the southern half. The north and south halves are referred to as Upper and Lower Shantania (separated by the Shantanian Divide, their equivalent of the equator), with the outlying islands known as the Outer Lands.

The general theory concerning the creation of the Planet is merely that it just somehow appeared from nowhere, perhaps as the final experiment of a powerful celestial being of a distant world. No government-recognized religion exists that honors this creator, as most people aren't really sure who it is.

The Sundering

Unlike other planets, this planet is actually only half of a planet. Imagine a regular globe, sliced in half. Nobody has yet found where exactly the edge of the planet lies, because most expeditions to locate the edge of the planet are never heard from again. Scholars assume that they fell off the planet, while others speculate that they discovered an entirely different world on the reverse side of the planet.

The Sundering refers to the event in which the planet split in half. It is unclear why it happened, but some societies were forcefully relocated during the incident. Though most of the old societies have been forgotten by history, Lestalia may be the largest nation formed by refugees of the Sundering.

Time

Main Article: Shantanian Timeline

Lynia's Journey, the main focus of this article, takes place around the year S.R. 600, by Shantanian reckoning.

Shantanian Reckoning (S.R.) is the calendar by which the people determine important dates, events, seasons, harvests, even the end of the world. The Shantanian calendar accounts for 4 months (two seasons and two transitional months), with 45 days to the Season months and only 30 to the Transitional months. The Shantanian year lasts for only 150 days, but due to the planet's impeded orbit, each day lasts for roughly 52 hours. Years are noted as S.R. [year number], with year zero being (roughly) the point in which the Sundering occurred. Civilization is thought to have existed for some hundreds of years beforehand, but much of its history was lost to the Sundering, and society has accepted that they needed to start over.

Factions

The main continent, Shantania, consists of many major countries and several smaller city-states.

Nations

  • The Desert Kingdom of Caynea, situated in the south
  • The Grand March Lestalia, located in the frozen north
  • The Nomad Nation of Riga, spread across the plains near the equator
  • The Gozen Shogunate

Independent Zone

Organizations

Characters

Perhaps more important than Shantania itself is its steadily increasing population, which is already filled to the very brim with unique and interesting characters. Similar to the Fire Emblem series, most playable characters can gain Support ranks with each other, prompting short conversation scenes between battles to aid in character development.

See also:

Caynea

Royalty

  • Princess Lynia - Protagonist of the actual game, Lynia is the only daughter of King Bermand and wields the Caynean treasure, a quarterstaff named Cloudbreaker.
  • King Bermand - The name of both of Caynea's twin kings, only one is active at a given time, while the other is kept hidden by their mother, Jennet. Lynia refers to them as "War Bermand" and "Peace Bermand," indicating their attitude towards Caynea's impending war with Riga.
  • High Queen Jennet - Mother of the twin kings, husband of the late King Harvill.

Caynean Guard

  • General Sir Raylen - Head of the Caynean Royal Guard, and Bermand's chief war strategist. Trained Lynia in staff-fighting. Near the beginning of the story, Raylen is killed by War Bermand for attempting to obstruct the war with Riga.

Other Cayneans

  • Garth - A constantly upset mage-in-training, whose frequent misbehavior often sees him punished by way of library duty. As a result, he is unskilled in most practical magic, but has taught himself the ways of pyromancy.
  • Melly - Garth's counterpart, the very pinnacle of a model student. She has passed every class at the academy with flying colors, and has specialized in cryomancy.

Lynia's Servants

  • Domenic - A former street urchin from Lower Caynea that was discovered by Lynia during an unusual royal tour of the town.
  • Eillis - Hired straight from one of Caynea's many orphanages, Eillis helps Lynia with her more feminine tasks, as well as educating her about the culture of the city outside her palace gates.

The Wagontrain

At the very beginning of Lynia's travels beyond Caynea, she (quite literally) stumbles upon a wagon train, which plays host to a troupe of dancers and musicians, who take in Lynia as she escapes from King Bermand.

  • Brenick - The Wagontrain's charismatic leader, who has more secrets than most realize.
  • Jasmine - Ex-mercenary turned dancer, whose stage dances are primarily fancy fighting moves with her tulwar.
  • Helena - The wagon's singer, an acolyte of the Virtuous Saints on a pilgrimage.
  • Teah - A Rigan blacksmith who turned to the wagon train when she no longer had a village left to stay.
  • Fortune-Giver - A master of auguries, formerly of the Wisemen's Guild.
  • Nestor - Head of the Wagonsguard, a former Lestalian miner who is always seen wearing a blindfold.
  • Francis - Deputy Wagonsguard who was once a bodyguard for hire.

Riga

  • King Dmitrius - The current King of Riga, who gave the controversial order that Riga melt down all of their weapons, to repurpose the metal into farming equipment.
  • Bryce (bowgunner)
  • Samael (greatsword)
  • Ruby - Cameo appearance from Chatbox Shamus, appears in full armor and wields a long spear. Has a huge mastiff named Bastion.
  • Orfamay (accidental summoner)

Lestalia

  • Former Margrave Kaze Tirell (deceased)
  • Margrave Calayus Denivan (short combustion bow)
  • Marchioness Sylviss Denivan (fleuret)
  • Ravi Tirell, eccentric inventor (long combustion bow)
  • Tiva Tirell, Ravi's naive sister (bindle bombs and gliding harness)

Gozen

  • Holy Knight Sir Atma of the Ragged Cloth (odachi)
  • Yenta, Fourth Order Lieutenant
  • Chiyoko, disgraced daughter of a Shogun

Former Bandits

Not all of the bandits are out for blood. Some of them will realize the error of their ways if only Lynia can be gentle with them and only subdue them with her staff instead of killing them with other units.

The Finders

Unaffiliated

Stories

Game Mechanics

As a game, Shantania takes primarily after the likes of Fire Emblem and Shining Force, with some presentation elements borrowed from Crimson Shroud. Subsystems have their own pages.