Feanav

Feanav is a plane that has largely been conquered by a human empire, which is now at its peak. With the empire's recent mastery of alchemy, it is now in the early stages of industrialization. Feanav is the setting of Feanav: The Apothecary's Progress.

Celestials
Preceding human history, Feanav was inhabited by a nation of beings known as celestials, who claimed direct contact with Feanav's creator. However, following the appearance of humanity, the celestials developed into three broad categories of beings: angels, fae, and demons. Each reside in subplanes coterminous to Feanav, but normally inaccessible to humans. This separation from the subplanes is commonly called the Veil; Lettie Wormwood uses this term more generally to refer to what separates a plane from the blind eternities.

Fae
Early in human history, a celestial named Wormwood, "a great star on high", observed human suffering, and pondered its nature and cause. Upon reaching an epiphany on the nature of evil, Wormwood was overcome by the knowledge, and fell from Heaven into the sea, where it became the first fae. This event is known as The Bitter Starfall, and marked the first divergence between celestials. Following Wormwood, many celestials became fae after a similar loss of innocence.

Fae are not inherently evil beings, but they are often spiteful and dangerous. Many resent humanity for their fate, and some feel jealousy or pity towards humans. Fae are not properly mortal, and feel the weight of many years and reincarnations. Some find company by communicating with plants and animals, and others find sick amusement in tormenting humans.

Imperial humans fear fae, and have maintained a variety of traditions meant to protect against them. One tale asserts that more fae are created from the transformation of stolen human children, who are replaced by younger fae known as changelings. Fae are known to be protective of their names, and humans often refer to them as fair folk. Similarly, humans do not have a proper name for the fae subplane, knowing it only as the Fae Realm.

Angels
Angels claim to be the original pure celestials, and maintain that they are servants of Feanav's creator. They reside in Heaven. Angels hold a rigid set of ideals, to which they demand conformity from humanity, such as hierarchy, social roles, and virtue. Since an angel that earnestly considers the state of the world is likely to become a fae, most angels maintain their innocence through willing ignorance of suffering, in particular their responsibility for it.

Angels present a united front known as the Concordance, and are allied with the most powerful human empire on Feanav. The imperial royal family maintains a pact with the Concordance, and angelic ideals are enforced institutionally throughout the empire. For these reasons, the royal family claims to rule by divine right, specifically commanded by the will of Feanav's creator.

Demons
Demons are residents of the Abyss who desire nothing less than the complete destruction of all creation. Where fae might be insufficiently innocent to be angels, demons are actively malicious and enjoy cruelty. New demons are capable of manifesting during events of profound destruction, including that which they cause. They are antithetical to angels, who justify their demands for humanity's conformity as necessary to defeat the Abyss. Fae similarly despise demons, but will not interfere with their attacks on humanity.

Merfolk
Merfolk appeared on Feanav following the celestials, but before humanity. Their historical record of the era before The Bitter Starfall is more detailed than humanity's, and they are natively capable of casting magic. They have social structures comparable to humans, but most mer societies are secretive, and seem to withdraw deeper underwater with every attempt at observation or at establishing relations, which is aided by their mastery of illusory magic. Some individual mer will use this illusory magic in order to take on more humanoid appearances in order to deceive humans or speak to them diplomatically, and others make a regular habit of robbing sea trade.

Spirits
Sometimes after death, a human spirit will linger on humanity's side of the Veil to haunt mortal affairs, aided by their newly obtained magic. The nature of spirits is sorely contested; some believe that they are fundamentally the same individuals as they were in life, but some act on motives so bizarre that others would argue that they are entirely new beings that only bear some resemblance to the mortals they once were.

Spirits often interfere in mortal lives. Examples include rearranging objects about a house, wordlessly guiding humans through the wilderness, or whispering secrets from beyond the veil to the particularly inspired. It is not truly known where spirits that do not linger reside, if they continue to exist anywhere at all.

Imperial Society
The majority of humans inhabiting Feanav live under the rule of an empire that has allied itself with the Concordance of angels. This conquest was facilitated through the industrialization of warfare through alchemy, backed by economic might founded on a recent agricultural revolution. Per its terms with the Concordance, the empire has sought to replace every conquered culture with its own.

Imperial society places significant emphasis on social roles and standing. Relationships across class boundaries are always considered inappropriate, and families attempting to climb "beyond their nature" are regarded with disdain. Wealthy families are tacitly expected to continue amassing wealth through business and marriage, and the myriad of laws concerning inheritance have prompted the formation of elaborate polite society, in which manners are complex enough to require education in both tutoring and manuals in order to master.

Scientific and philosophical development in the empire has been driven by a movement that strives to understand the fundamental nature of reality, and elevate humanity beyond its base nature through education. However, in recent years, a reaction has spread through the empire founded on romantic ideals that focus on the inherent power of nature, the supernatural, and place the greatest emphasis on the emotional convictions of artists and heroes; often those who happen to already be wealthy.

Sympathetic Magic
The most common form of magic available to humans requires material components, and is the form of magic that is part of the empire's cultural traditions. The outcome of a spell is influenced by both the process of casting and the "sympathetic" qualities of components. These qualities are defined by symbolic relevance, e.g. sulfur can be used to create spontaneous combustion, or rosemary can be used to banish demons. These qualities can also be used to animate objects such as scarecrows, or to prepare almost complete spells in various media such as potions.

Pact Magic
Humans can enter into pacts with supernatural beings in order to borrow power from them. These pacts typically require humans to act according to the wishes of their benefactor; the consequences of breaking a pact can range from illness to immediate consumption. In general:


 * Angelic pacts confer powers of healing, imprisonment, and growth.
 * Fae pacts allow travel through the Fae Realm, the ability to cheat material costs in sympathetic magic, and power over rot.
 * Demonic pacts grant destructive power and considerable strength.
 * Spirit pacts can temporarily suspend material bounds such as gravity or even time, and can also be used to induce enervation.
 * Mer pacts commonly grant power over storms and vast illusions.

Alchemy
During a surge of scientific progress, advances in chemistry allowed the incorporation of sympathetic magic in chemical reactions, allowing for highly efficient and complex processes. The destructive potential of alchemy alone was enough to bring about a new era of warfare which paved the way for imperial conquest. Most contemporary manufacturing within the empire incorporates alchemy, and alchemy is widely considered the current matter of greatest importance in scientific investigation.

True Forms
With the romantic movement came a new radical sort of spell. An individual can design a spell and consume their entire being as a casting component in order to summon a new body to which their consciousness is transferred. This being is commonly known as a True Form. The nature of a True Form is influenced by other casting forms, the casting ritual, and the symbolic significance of the caster's intentions and history. The casting ritual can also be aided by another magical practitioner or a supernatural being; some supernatural beings such as fae and merfolk have themselves practiced this form of magic.

True Forms are a largely unrefined art, being completely irreversible, often monstrous, and even in the best of cases resulting in some amount of memory loss due to the transfer. Only one recorded example of a perfectly achieved human True Form exists: Doctor Gareth Barton, whose success has challenged the assumptions core to social roles within the empire. As such, the empire would prefer that his example not be widely known.