User Guide

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It is near the end of the second millennium. The
old continent has been ravaged by 600 years of
menace: a horrible fog, destroying the minds of
anyone who dares to enter it, is covering most of
what was once called Europe. The Fog has
claimed the lives of millions and pushed the
civilization to the southern lands of the
continent. The Holy Roman Republic, the only
surviving state in the southern part of the
continent, has been unable to fight the Fog,
although it has been practicing powerful and
useful liturgical magic for hundreds of years. In
the 13th century, the Church has been able to
eliminate the plague epidemic using its
then-powerful Link towers, a spell-casting
mechanism connecting all major European
cathedrals, but has been since able only to create a
volatile northern border, preventing the Fog to
spread to its southern lands.
Today the Holy Roman Republic is isolated :
to the north, the Fog prohibits all passage. Anyone
wandering into the Fog has never returned, their
minds destroyed by the Fog.
Towns that border the Fog are protected with
harmonic tolling, a magical spell cast using
magically crafted church bells. To the south and
east, warring nations of Northern Africa and
Middle East make trade and communication
extremely difficult.
To the west, the Fog has spread to the seas and
prevents sea travel. No ships that have sailed
through the Straits of Gibraltar to the west have
ever returned. The self-contained Holy Roman
Republic, ruled by the Church, enjoys relative
prosperity, although significantly underdeveloped
compared to the rest of the world. The state lives
in feudalism; the Church, using its armed forces
and the Inquisition, a special branch of sorcerer
monks, controls the lives of people. Simple folk
endure and assure each other that one day, The
Prophecy, foretold of old, shall come to pass and
the continent will be saved. Periodically,
peasant revolt to try and shake the iron
rule, but all are crushed.
THE WORLD OF MISTMARE
THE HOLY ROMAN REPUBLIC IN 1996 AD
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