Unique Elements of Gracetear

Long ago (almost 1600 years ago), a clash between gods ripped the planes asunder, shredding apart the uppermost plane of Aether and sending other effects rippling through the other six layers of the world. This event, known as the Cascade, echoed in the minds of the people of the Firmament, and in one specific region of the Mortal Plane, led to the development of a philosophy known as Cascadism. Cascadism teaches the power of community, of mortals working in concert with one another, and of the lack of need for any dependence on gods, quickly gaining hundreds of thousands of followers in the surrounding areas. As such, less than a millenium later - in the year 739 of the Modern Era - followers of Cascadism completed an ambitious ritual: the severing of the continents of Gracefall and Terra from the other planes entirely, and therefore their separation from the machinations of the gods. This created the plane known nowadays as Gracetear.

This separation brought the cultures of these otherwise isolated places into a plane of their own, but the sheer force of the event caused earthquakes, tidal waves, and other natural disasters that tore many of the continents' civilizations apart. It is now the year 827 CE (Cascadian Era), allowing these cultures time to regrow their cities and to develop community with others. Unfortunately for many, however, around 12 years ago (815 CE), the most powerful and widespread kingdom of the plane began a campaign of conquest, seizing their southwestern neighbors and beginning their attempt to take over the world. Spurred on by a philosophy of authoritarianism and racial supremacy, the Clawfang Empire, majority governed by lizardfolk, expanded outwards, targeting political leadership, population centers, and religious sites in an attempt to create a world order where its people - especially its nobles and emperor - reign supreme, fulfilling a so-called divine mandate.

Cascadism

Cascadism remains the dominant spiritual philosophy within Gracetear even centuries after the Separation, made stronger since traditional deific faiths have ceased to provide benefits to Clerics or Champions in the gods' absence. Cascadism, named for the disaster that inspired it, proclaims that the primary virtue of mortal life is community, and that the gods are secondary at best. Contrary to popular belief in some places, Cascadism is not an anti-theistic philosophy but rather fully compatible with the worship of gods; it simply does not prioritize worship or reverence of gods over community with other mortal beings, and is therefore fully compatible with many other traditions.

In effect, Cascadism is a religious tradition, though its followers - Cascadians - tendstend to prefer the term "philosophy". It includes a set of traditional rituals and festivals, held for the same purposes as those in other religious practices as well as for the purpose of building community. In the past, twice per year - at the start and end of summer - members of all cultures and kingdoms would make the journey to a nearby temple, engaging in a full week of sharing of culture, tradition, innovation, and sport, but the Summer's End Festival is almost never practiced in the modern day with the incursion of the Clawfang Empire, and the Sunraising Festival is generally now reduced to a single day of local celebration for safety reasons.

The Continents

The western continent is known as Gracefall, and the eastern continent is known as Terra. Both are similar in size and relatively near one another: a day's travel by ship at the shortest points. Chains of islands float in the sea in between, providing plenty of places to stop on voyages or even to call home should one find oneself needing somewhere separate to go.

The Clawfang Empire

The Clawfang Empire extends from the eastern coast of the continent of Terra almost all the way across the continent, and recent attempts at expanding into Gracefall as well have borne some fruit. Ruled by Empress Tassig, the Clawfang Empire claims that the survival and expansion of the reptilian races in the wake of the Separation proves that they have a divine mandate to lead the rest of the plane back into the gods' embrace. They, according to Clawfang declaration, are the chosen people of the god Zalak (they/them), a god who was revealed to the Clawfang royal family in the aftermath of the Separation. Tassig is the first Empress, but she succeeds her father, Sharshinam, a conniving politician who spent his entire life pushing for the establishment of the Empire and the appointment of an Emperor.

Technology within the Clawfang Empire is at near-industrial level, with smoke-belching factories, mass production of standard issue weapons and armor for their armies, and even reports of experimental ironclad skyships being sighted in the skies. Guns are uncommon, likely only existing as prototypes within imperial laboratories if at all. The Clawfang capital city of Sharshinam - named after the last patriarch of the Empress's family - is a sprawling metropolis with flat stone walls that divide it into distinct districts, and this practice of dividing cities into explicit districts based on social class continues throughout the Empire.

Within the Clawfang Empire, non-Lizardfolk are second class citizens at best, prisoner-slaves at worst (reserved for those who resist imperial rule). Lizardfolk can belong to the lower classes but are the only ancestry afforded substantial class mobility, with other ancestries forced to remain in the slums, often occupying housing designed to house far fewer than are forced to live there and work hard physical labor for minimal pay. The severity of punishment for a crime is based on the social class of the perpetrator and victim, with well-off criminals receiving little punishment while lower-class criminals receive excessive retribution. Still, the Empire keeps its people fed and housed, and that's enough to breed some amount of positive sentiment regardless of the reality of conditions.

Territories of the Clawfang Empire

In addition to traditional Lizardfolk territory, the Clawfang Empire has captured effectively all Strix territory, all traditional Vanara territory, all but one Nagaji temple on Terra, and almost all of the historical Ysoki kingdom. In addition, many smaller unaffiliated villages have come under Clawfang control, and the Empire has established a single foothold - a camp called Ezir - on the eastern shore of the continent of Gracefall.