A great change occurred in the world of Água roughly two hundred years ago with the sudden arrival of the demonic vampiric goddess Bonnie. Although only a minor deity with the portfolios of of music, guile and somewhat unity, Bonnie significantly changed things with the exposing of vampire society to the general public. The lords and ladies of the night had already been there for countless centuries, but always hiding in the shadows, talked about mostly in rumors, many denying their very existence. Bonnie brought or forced them from their hiding places through the cunning use of songs and shows in a way that avoided an outright total war.
Not all places peacefully accepted vampires, and several smaller wars and (un)holy crusades did broke out over the following decades, but they were contained and bit by bit most living societies in Água reached some kind of agreement with the vampires, being recognized by open law and receiving rights and duties. The exact rights and duties can vary wildly from nation to nation and even from city, but usually now vampires have an open voice in most governments of the land.
Another result from Bonnie’s action was the exposing of many infernals in hiding. However since those do not need to eat nor rest like vampires and mortals do, while most demons and devils and yugoloths are able to teleport and are older, they saw little reason to integrate in any bigger society the moment and most just most moved to more seccluded places to think things over. A couple centuries may be significant time for mortals and even vampires, but it is barely the blink of an eye for the immortal outsiders.
The Goddess herself lives on a large island that houses all sorts of devils and undead charmed by her arts while outside people have rumored it to be an hellish place she raised out of the ocean. Which is a lie, earth isn't within her power and even though the creatures there are just trying to enjoy their (un)lifes. Monsters can be people too.... But people can also be monsters. A significant number of mortals live there as a food for the vampire, mostly animal cattle, but also smuggled humanoid slaves as a “premium” blood source and even willing serfs, some ready to do anything to live right next to Bonnie, some prefering to be slowly bled by the undead than by their fellow living, and others for their own reasons.
Devils and vampires weren’t the only ones to come out however. To everybody’s surprise, even Bonnie’s, angels revealed themselves as having been living under the shadows of society as well. Those good celestials were those that had either lost their gods or rejected them for one reason or another, choosing to live on the material plane to help mortals in subtle ways while keeping their own nature concealed. With vampires and infernals exposed, those angels decided it was more than time they revealed themselves as well. Then there were the
Kasha, as vampires fed on mortals, the fiery catgirls fed on the (un)dead and came out to gorge themselves to their satisfaction in the initial times of turnoil after Bonnie’s arrival. Most societies gladly created open positions for the Kasha to keep them around as a counterweight against the vampires. During this time many Fey were lured out from their forests as well by Bonnie and her follower’s musical talents. Although only a few fairies did actually moved to the cities in a permanent fashion, commerce flourished between the wild and civilized realms, nowadays being common to see fey in places of trade and art.
Another significant change over the last couple centuries is that mundane technology has drastically advanced in many places. Scholars discuss whetever it was directly connected to Bonnie’s actions or if it was inevitable for it to happen on its own, but regardless it’s there. Now airships with mechanical engines cross paths with elemental magic airships in the skies, while several armies now deploy gunner formations along pikes and knights. Still the new technologies haven’t spread as much as vampiric rights and it’s more common to find places where soldiers don’t have anything more advanced than a crossbow than a place where vampires are shot on sight. Something that remains rare is direct integration between technology and magic. Too many spell fluctuations will ruin the careful calibrations needed for sophisticated technology to operate, while too much mechanisms in the same area have been shown to dampen any local magic, so all societies end up specializing in one or the other. Some magitech wonders and the genius able to produce them do exist, but only on a very limited scale, too few in number for most people to be able to rely on them.
There’s been relative peace in Água for the last decades, with nothing worst than some bandit attacks and minor border skirmishes. However a crisis is brewing as the kingdom of Jóia now faces a crisis as the local high priest suddenly seized power by making the heirless queen prisioner only for a group of young adventuring knights from Mexilhoeira to ride to her rescue and end up royally messing things up, their quest ending with both queen and priest dead and nobody in the kingdom willing nor able to take the now empty throne. The three neighbouring countries, the Democracy of Automática, the Sultanate of Areia and the Dragão Empire have noticed the vacuum of power and sent out armies to make sure the next ruler of the resource-rich Jóia is somebody that’ll be in good terms with them, preferably one of their own envoys. Other forces are keeping an eye on the situation and sent their own agents, incuding Bonnie herself.
The main symbol (and source) of power in the kingdom is an artifact crown of tremendous power. Whoever manages to don it-and master its powers shall become the new ruler of Jóia. For now it is zealously guarded by both the remaining queen loyalists and the knights that tried to save her life, unable to decide who shall be its new wearer. But time is running short as not only countless forces approach from all sides to claim the artifact crown for their own or somebody else but also the kingdom's people are already in trouble without somebody to properly organize and lead them.
Extra Notes:
Not all vampires like or even agree with Bonnie. Many long for the “good old nights” where they were mostly a secret, or hoped that in revealing themselves they would have rose to the top of the power chain, ruling over the puny mortals like the weak animals they’re supposed to be, either way they hate to follow any rules but their own. Several of the wars started after Bonnie’s arrival were directly caused by this vampire faction and they often fought against fellow vampires that favored Bonnie’s ideas. Eventually they were forced to comply to the new status or risk complete destruction, but they still bear old grudges and are always looking for a new chance to change the current status quo.
In society, vampires are still feared regardless of their faction, but people don't immediately try to stake them. Like they are semi common and people think of them as they shady dangerous people.
Vampires are pretty much working their own systems, though are few secretly in high places for both sinister and self safety issues. As they are still a "problem" there are vampire hunters that work that way professionally and normally don't do anything without reason. But of course there's overzealous hunters or governments that send them in for stupid shit.
For people being “converted” in new vampires, the overall thing is for people to discourage it as it threatens the perpetuation of humanoidkind, but if you are turned people won't absolutely hate you. Of course it also depends on the region as religious sects of a certain type will out right consider it a sin.
They can have children with mortals resulting in half-celestials but not with each other, so the number of “pure” angels has been slowly decreasing as they’re either destroyed by those with pure hatred on their hearts or sacrifice themselves for some greater cause.
Most people have a positive attitude towards angels and they’re respected, admired and liked almost everywhere they go, but they rarely take advantage of this, often politely refusing gifts and favors while offering their own help. Many among the rich and powerful will seek to “buy” an angel for their own, for even just having a celestial by your side in public is a sure way to greatly boost one’s popularity and reputation, but most angels refuse to play such games and will seek to spread their personal favor equally among all. Even in marriage, if an angel finds a partner that truly loves them and they love in return and they start a family, most celestials will still spend a significant amount of their time helping others.
Similar to angels, the exposed infernals hiding in society, demons and devils and yugoloths all had either lost or left their rulers. Unlike the angels, they mostly sought to spread mischief of all kinds for their own satisfaction. They seem unable to reproduce on their own, at best being able to sire half-infernals, but their exact numbers are hard to keep track of due to the fact they teleport all the time all over Água and any registration efforts were met with random writing from demons, faustian signatures from devils and demands of payment first from the Yugoloths.
The usual stance of society towards infernals nowadays is one of tolerance. The infernals that were truly destructive or murderous have been hunted down and dealt with by adventurers over the last couple centuries so that the ones still around stick to pranks and manipulation of mortals. Some scholars argue such actions may be even more dangerous in the long run, but for now plenty of people are more than willing to deal with them, and they can be easily found everywhere if one bothers to look a bit, even if actually catching them is harder said than done. Said ability to teleport alone makes them a popular if risky option for smugglers and thieves of all kinds, often joked whetever it’s more risky to trust a demon that may just run away with your expensive product, a devil that may end up charging you more than it’s worth or a yugoloth that may sell you out to a rival or the authorities.
There had long been an underground war between Kasha and vampires. Those who hunted for blood in the city night always kept an eye open for any seemingly normal cat in the streets that may mean the predator had become the prey. And as the vampires were forced into the open, so did the Kasha.
Most mortals love cats and fear vampires, so catgirls that could protect them from vampires were more than welcome. Most vampire Hunter organizations count with a Kasha or more on their ranks and many countries will offer any Kasha great salaries and privileges to join their armed forces. The only thing that society does not exactly approve from Kasha is their habit of treating funerals as buffets, still more than one country has come to accept it and changed their traditions so that the dead are laid to rest by being given to a Kasha, some having come to see it as an honor, at least as long as the Kasha does the eating somewhere private.
Yet over the last two centuries many Kasha have taken complete mundane professions as they realized one’s job doesn’t need to be directly tied to one’s food tastes. Merchants, scholars, sailors, maids, nurses, builders, crafters, farmers, they can be found basically everywhere in plain sight nowadays. Still as most mortals cower when a vampire crosses the street, so do most vampires also cower and try to change direction when they see somebody with cat ears and twin tails coming their way.
One of if not the most technologically advanced nation in Água, Automática’s cities are cold places of stone, metal and glass where magic has been reduced to little more than a fable from other lands. Industrial engines allow for the mass production of a variety of goods and most of the citizens live easy lifes of plenty, but there is a clear decadence in the air, with the majority of people seemingly content with just eating and sleeping and watching sport battles. They’ve also been exceptionally accepting of vampires and their population now counts one of the highest percentage of undead in Água. Their armed forces are predictability equipped with the most advanced guns and mechanical armors available in the planet.
The leader of Automática’s expedition to Jóia is Águia, a calm, charismatic and smart leader, the very son of Automática’s current president. He honestly hopes to “save” the neighbouring kingdom and also to revitalize his original nation with the strong magic of Jóia, However even if he’s always polite if not friendly, Águia has trouble truly trusting others and always thinks he knows what’s best for those around him better than anybody else. As of late those close to him report that Águia has become quite pale, with rumors that he may be suffering from some mysterious sickness or perhaps even became a vampire.
A large and mighty but somewhat isolationist nation with probably the longest history in Água, the Dragão Empire has a long and strong tradition of magic, specializing in illusions and object animation, in particular their massive dragon-shaped airships for both civilian and military use. Other animated objects are found all over the empire to perform a variety of tasks, although they’re devoid of any mind or intelligence, thus always needing people to coordinate their efforts. Besides assorted magic mindless constructs, the empire’s troops specialize in stealth and subterfuge as well. The empire itself is divided along numerous regional clans/tribes and almost just as many religions, the emperor doesn’t really care as long as they pay their taxes. A vast and extremely complex bureaucratic system supports the emperor in ruling the empire.
The leader of their expedition force to Jóia is imperial princess Iski, a young spoiled woman with great magical powers that makes little secret she wants to turn the kingdom into her personal playground. Still there’s some good in the heart of the princess, for she’s quite generous to all around her when in a good mood and gives more importance to other people’s deeds than any blood lineage or fancy titles, so she has a fair amount of loyal supporters. Then there’s also a group of anti-Bonnie vampires that hang around the imperial princess to seek her personal favor as a step towards gathering enough power for defeating the minor goddess. Although the conspiracy is pretty obvious to others around Iski, the imperial princess herself doesn’t seem to care and keeps the scheming vampires around for the amusement they provide her.
This tiny country is mostly desert wasteland that acts as a natural barrier, but its true power comes from tremendous local magic that allowed for several pacts between their royalty and powerful genies of wind and water that allow for marvels such as floating castles and islands that double as transports in time of need. The magic elite with genie pacts lives in luxury while most of the rest of the population lives either in servitude for the nobles in return for privileges or relative freedom in return for never being sure where their next meal will come from and making sure they don’t get in the way of the noble’s whims.
Areia’s expedition is led by not one but two princesses, Tatre and Tetre, each with a mighty noble djinn under their direct command. They make it pretty clear they seek to join Jóia’s lands to Areia and hope their experience with genie pacts will give them the edge in gaining control of the artifact crown and the kingdom’s monsters. Tatre and Tetre also have managed to spin a large web of infernal contacts since the wastelands of Areia have become a popular hanging spot for demons, devils and Yugoloths. Although not exactly reliable, the sultanate princesses truly have eyes and ears everywhere… As well as the potential of starting fires and plagues anywhere they wish.
Besides having an abundance of varied natural resources, the Kingdom of Jóia has a long proud tradition of summoning magic, and they actually rely on monsters called by spells for a lot of their activities, being used as guardians, transport, beasts of burden and other tasks. Actual summoners are actually pretty rare, and the kingdom’s people have become used to rely on an handful of magicians to manage such monsters. None more than the queen herself, who thanks to an artifact crown, the Jóia Tiara passed down through the generations has an exceptional ability to call, maintain and control all sort of exotic beings, with most of the kingdom’s monster force being under her direct supervision. Alas the Jóia Tiara is a fickle artifact, and will react to the slightest whims of their bearer. A single moment of anger from the Queen may make docile beasts all over the land suddenly attack whatever’s nearby. A glimpse of fear may make them drop whatever they were doing and trample away. Even a good laugh may make them shake violently, accidentally crushing anything too close. Not only that, once donned the artifact crown is bound to the wearer for life, with only in death said bond being broken, and then the soul of any bearer of the jóia Tiara can never return to this world. Thus the Queen of Jóia must be an exceptionally disciplined mind lest the monsters suddenly start to rampage around. The Jóia Tiara is truly an heavy burden, but it grants the kingdom’s people exceptional happiness and safety as the monsters protect them and do most of the heavy work… Or at least it did. With the Queen dead, most of the kingdom’s monsters have abandoned their docile servitude. At best they simply wandered off, at worst they started paths of destruction, but regardless the people of Jóia had come to depend too much in their work and now struggle to sustain themselves. Some semblance of order is maintained thanks to the work of the other summoners from Jóia managing to keep some monsters under control to serve the kingdom and their people, but they’re just too few to help everybody. A precious supply line has been maintained by the Einheim and Orubaj arcane trains even if the railways are unfinished and only cover a fraction of the kingdom, with the roaming monsters making it virtually impossible to bring in large amounts of vital goods by any other means. Somebody needs to don the Jóia Tiara, but nobody in the kingdom can decide who should shoulder the royal burden, with the artifact crown for now being kept in a heavily protected and warded dungeon lest it fall in the wrong hands.
In the meanwhile, an improvised government has been formed to make the decisions that cannot wait, headed up by the triumvarite of High Summoner Penhasco, First Sword Garrafa and Grand Smith Priscila.
A small coastal country that managed to maintain independence by becoming a mostly open trading port for both sea and airships of most nations. They also possess several Knightly orders specialized in fighting with a variety of elemental blade attacks that frequently go adventuring outside their borders for fame and fortune.
Three such knights from different orders ended up brought together by fate, becoming the best of friends. Lucy, Marina and Anne. As penance for their failed quest in Jóia, they have vowed to remain in the foreign kingdom until a new worthy person to bear the artifact crown can be found, helping however they can.
Lucy is a kasha that rides a giant half-dragon wolf. Somewhat short, she still stands out all the time with her fiery hotblooded personality. Whetever happy or sad she can be expected to pounce all over the place. In combat as well Lucy’s an aggressive warrior that favors balanced blades that allow her to keep constant pressure on her targets. Lucy belongs to the Order of Shidou that favors fire and lighting magic and taking challenges head on regardless of difficulty, which fits her nicely as Lucy often had to compete at home with her four older brothers.
Marina is an half-devil that rides a white dragon. At first glance an icy and arrogant personality, much like the sea Marina can swiftly shift from a cold calm to stormy anger when provoked. She has exceptional dexterity and favors slender elegant blades in combat, loving personal duels close and personal. Marina belongs to the Order of Ricaça, specializing in water and cold, preaching that one should live for their elders that nurtured one’s growth and development, thus Marina started adventuring to bring fame and fortune to her adoptive parents after her original ones abandoned her at birth.
Anne is an half-celestial that rides a giant four-winged bird. Although at first glance she may look the softest of the trio, in particular since she wears glasses and always acts extremely politely, Anne’s actually the one with greatest raw strength of their group, wielding two-handed swords almost as big as she is in combat with ease. She’s no clumsy oaf however, and is just as skilled with a bow and arrows. Anne belongs to the Order of Houra, specializing in wind and healing that preaches that to help others you must first help yourself, thus oneself should always come first, just don’t be too greedy and share your gifts with others after you had your fill. Thus Anne sarted adventuring to share her great talents granted by her celestial mother with those in need.
Those two rival companies are the only known places where one may be able to buy reliable magitech, and over the years they have developed into basically city-states on their own right as a variety of people moved in the surrounding areas to serve the genius working inside so they can fully concentrate in their business while many nations recognize their sovereignity in return for business contracts. Still they can’t even come close to keeping up with demand and the usual waiting time for a product to be delivered is measured in years if not decades.
Their main difference is that while Einheim can be said to build “true” magitech, Orujab instead “just” uses magic as an energy source for their machines, needing the presence of local leylines for most of their devices to work. However where such leylines do exist, Orujab’s items can do most jobs better for cheaper. Thus any potential clients often have to choose whetever they prefer Einheim’s ability to work anywhere or Orujab’s greater efficiency by sticking to certain areas. Both companies have a constant propaganda war over the fact, with each one seeking to make their own advantages and the rival’s limitations look more important.
Their biggest feat so far have been a pair of arcane train railways connecting several countries, allowing for the quick and safe transport of large amounts of people and goods to the places it passes through. Einheim and Orubaj compete fiercely for new contracts to extend their own railways, and in particular Jóia was in the middle of delicate negotiations with both, managing to get the two arcane train tracks to cover different areas of the kingdom before the queen died and so the two companies have heavy interest in that the new ruler will favor one over the other.