Cerberus

The people of Cerberus are expatriates from the Ark and their descendants. Fleeing the Partage, they carried original sorcery with them: red mana, a system developed largely by Archon, their sworn enemy.

This magic is the world's most powerful and abundant, but also chaotic and unstable. Low-level spells do not last because a young wizard cannot hold their effects. High-level spells are cast with such mastery that they endure, sometimes forever. Enchantments demand colossal sums of gold to stabilize red mana's violence.

Red mana heals poorly. Cerberus wizards never calmed it enough to produce true healing magic. They bypassed the problem through alchemy, carefully mixing human blood with specific ingredients to create potions. Cerberus perfected medicine there, not in spells.

Above the families sits the Cerberus council of mages, founded by Gérard Alois after Vlad Varanov's death. It directs research, approves what young mages receive, and includes the country's most powerful wizards. Daviau Morin, a level 22 wizard, sits on it; Marcin Sobiesansky is its alchemist.

Under Alois's agreement, limited numbers of dwarves may live in designated parts of Cerberus and trade without restriction. Askenon merchants now maintain enclaves in Vlad and Cerberus.

The country has vast inequalities of wealth and power. The council considers public safety an individual concern. The guard has better things to do than protect a bakery, so moneylenders, gangs, and great-house militias sell protection in the void. An honest family that refuses to pay quickly learns the value of its door.

Vlad, in the north, demonstrates this most clearly. Beneath its vampire castle, the city lives from its port, guilds, and the bargains between them. A dwarven guild keeps its accounts and link to Kaz'Nakaram there. A Barbarian leader sells protection to human merchants and develops naval ventures. Gangs hold the surrounding roads. In Vlad, knowing whom to pay matters more than the law.