Geopolitical section

The world in general, the lay of the land, national tensions, etcetera.

As a general rule, the story takes place on ‘the Continent’, named such because it’s really the only substantial landmass that isn’t just a small island.

In the west is the roughly gear-shaped nation of Eskaria. Its borders are basically defined by the presence of miasma-affected ground, which has spread in a circle around Entropy’s castle, and rectangular areas around the evenly spaced border forts. Thus, roughly gear-shaped.

Around it are a number of smaller nations and their towns and villages, some formed of the races of mankind, others of groups of demons.

In the east is the other ‘major’ country, the Holy Astal Kingdom. It’s populated almost entirely by humans, and maybe a few members of the other races of mankind. The Kingdom is unique in that it gives a frankly ridiculous amount of power to its church, to the point where the king and the pope are roughly equal in standing. If the pope were to claim Luciel ordered the king off his throne, the king would soon find himself replaced, but if the king were to order the pope dead, the pope would soon be without a head.

Between these two nations is an area of varying climate, largely forest, with no real owner. Part of it—the Great Borm Forest—has been converted into Demonic Incorporated Territory.

To the north of Eskaria is the forest nation of Ethalia, inhabited almost solely by elves. It contains the World Tree, Yggdrasil, visible even from Entropy’s castle.

To the northwest of Eskaria lies the icy sea of Usha, which is home to many mermaids.

To the south of Eskaria lies an unnamed mountain range, which is mostly uninhabited and acts as a natural barrier from the sea. In other words, the only sea access the country has is in the west. Hidden inside the mountain range is the entrance to the dwarven kingdom of Losmor, which is largely underground.

On Eskaria, specifically

In the centre of the nation, on the summit of the world’s tallest mountain, stands Entropy’s castle.

To the west of this mountain lies the Royal Capital, Pandemonium, inhabited by a wide variety of demons. A few important facilities are the military academy and the Guard Factory—the location Living Armours are produced.

Eskaria is perhaps the only nation in the world capable of creating several things—

Black Silver, a magical metal used in the production of Eskarian arms, tools, armour and decorations.

Magic Crystals, agglomerations of mana used to artificially create Living Armours.

Artificial Living Armours, a type of undead normally caused by the grudges of the dead inhabiting a suit of armour. Because of the alternative production method, Eskarian Living Armours are in full possession of an ego.

Normally speaking, Black Silver can only be found in the deepest parts of silver mines, which makes it very rare. This, in addition to its sinister black colour, which persists even if you alloy it into something else, makes it a very unpopular choice for arms in most countries.

On the other hand, Eskaria has an abundance of silver mines, which makes silver very easy to come by. As silver is the core component of artificial Black Silver, this makes it easy to obtain.

Eskaria was only unified approximately five years ago. Before that, it was a wilderness, with several high-grade monsters running amok. These monsters are the reason no nation had taken any of the silver mines before Astaroth’s appearance—such a forward post would need to deal with constant monster attacks, in addition to being surrounded by miasma on all sides.

The five highest positions of power in the nation, other than its ruler, are the Demon Generals. They possess the positions of National Treasurer, Chief Magical Researcher, Head of the Special Forces, Marshal of Destruction and National Mascot.

As Astaroth is not technically a “demon king”, he has chosen not yet to call Eskaria a kingdom.

Demonic Incorporated Territory

A new sort of territory, this division was created when the Goblinoid Kingdom became part of Eskaria.

Currently, the Goblinoid Kingdom is the only Demonic Incorporated Territory.

The terms are—

- The Territory must follow all orders and decrees from Eskaria.

- If Eskaria ends up in a military conflict, the Territory is obligated to provide soldiers.

- The Territory must pay a monthly tithe, in any payment as preferred by the Territory.

- The Territory may not start military conflict on its own.

- If Eskaria decides such, an aggressive action from a foreign power on the Territory may be treated as the same action on Eskaria.

- The Territory’s laws and ruling system will be left intact, unless Eskaria decrees otherwise.

- At Eskaria’s command, the Territory must provide materials or labour for no compensation.

It’s hard to call these terms favourable, but they were produced after much military pressure, so that’s to be expected.

On creatures

A section detailing the creatures of the world. Amongst these, they can be roughly split into “monsters” and “non-monsters”. The six races recognised as “people”, and with access to Classes, are called the races of humanity or the races of mankind. Monsters with an equivalent level of intelligence are called “demons”.

Monsters are split into ten grades of varying power. The difference between two grades is massive. Although there is not technically a guarantee that two members of the same race will be the same grade, exceptions are so rare as to be practically non-existent.

First grade: Minor. Could easily be beaten by a child.

Second grade: Lesser. Given the right circumstances, could be beaten by a child.

Third grade: Normal. About on-par with an average civilian of mankind.

Fourth grade: Significant. About on-par with an average soldier of mankind.

Fifth grade: Greater. About on-par with a Hero.

Sixth grade: Grand. Could destroy a small city-state.

Seventh grade: High. Could raze a nation.

Eighth grade: Supreme. Could level several large nations.

Ninth grade: Divine. Given the right circumstances, could annihilate the entire continent.

Tenth grade: Almighty. A god.

Of course, this scaling takes into account not just a monster’s individual power, but also that of the subordinates their race is likely to have, the group they live in, and such.

The “adventurers’ guild”, a pre-Hero organisation dedicated to fighting dangerous monsters and protecting people, has no data on monsters higher than the seventh grade. Eight grade and above is the stuff of legends.

What follows are specific descriptions on certain races.

Humans

An extremely basic race. The most numerous of all of the races of mankind. On average, they possess stronger Classes. On the other hand, they do not have any special racial traits.

All Heroes are human. They are the equivalent of two grades more powerful than the average human, which makes them a formidable force.

The Holy Church teaches a human superiority doctrine, although there are no numbers on how many of its followers actually believe in this.

Beast-people

Humans, but with the ears, tails and occasionally horns of an animal. Although their jobs are often slightly weaker than those of humans, they have greater base physical abilities, and some races have better hearing, eyesight or smell.

Elves

A race created in the image of Sylph. As such, they are almost all androgynous and laid-back. They possess pointy ears, slender bodies and pretty faces.

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They are the only race which can see spirits. As such, they are the only race which can normally learn and use [Spirit Magic].

They possess an innate affinity for the wind attribute.

Dwarves

A race created in the image of Gnome. As such, they are almost all short and immature. They possess stout bodies and strong faces.

They possess an innate affinity for the earth attribute.

Drakonids

A race created in the image of Salamander. As such, they are almost all fierce and short-tempered. They possess claws for hands and feet, scaly wings on their back, horns, and a great lust for battle.

They look up to dragons, revering them almost as gods. In addition, they are generally a nomadic race, and there are no nations which consist chiefly of drakonids.

They possess an innate affinity for the fire attribute.

Mermaids

A race created in the image of Undine. As such, they are almost all mischievous and fun-loving. They possess the tail of a fish in place of their legs and webbed fingers, and live mostly underwater.

They possess an innate affinity for the water attribute.

Devils

Technically, not one race. It is an umbrella term for “monsters that live off of mana”. It possesses many humanoid races—Arch-Devils, Scissor Devils, Chain Devils, Claw Devils, Devil Shamans, Imps, etcetera—and many non-humanoid races, too.

Humanoid Devils usually possess a human skin colour. Certain Devils possess a particularly strong affinity towards one attribute, which will affect the colour of their skin.

Dragons

Dragons are a unique race, in that, although they rarely evolve, they will still grow in power enough to rise several grades. Different colours of dragons possess skills of different attributes, and often different physiques, as well. Green dragons, for example, are sleek and cut through the skies with little effort, while brown dragons cannot fly, but possess great strength.

Slimes

Slimes are often creatures of instinct. Even Grand Slimes teeter on the edge between demon and non-demon.

Slimes will eat anything they can get nutrients out of, and are thus true omnivores.

Slime colours do not appear to be related to any particular thing.

Witches

Witches are almost human-like monsters that possess great affinity with magic.

They generally live together in groups called “covens”, where they are both allies and rivals.

As they do not possess a class, and do possess a grade, there is no doubt they are monsters.

Compared to the other race of human-like sorcerer monsters, Magi, Witches focus more on magic variety than magic strength.

Vampires

Blood-drinking monsters that are normally weak to the sun.

Certain members of the race have managed to overcome this weakness.

Their sub-races are based on court ranks, and only blood descendants of the royal family can be of races like Vampire Princess or Vampire Prince.

Before Astaroth claimed Entropy’s castle as his own, it was in use by a group of Vampires lead by a certain terrifying little girl.

Magic

Magic is, to put it simply, the act of using mana, a magic circle and a chant to perform a specific spell.

The skills on one’s status will reflect the magic they are able to use properly. This includes knowledge of the spell, enough talent or training to activate it, and enough mana to use it properly.

That said, once one gains a magic skill, they’ll be able to use all spells within that skill’s domain, regardless of former knowledge.

Generally speaking, the mana used to perform a spell is the spell’s user’s mana, and the magic circle is formed from the user’s mana. There are a few exceptions who are able to use environmental mana—most notably, some users of [Spirit Magic] can do this—but it’s quite rare. As such, it’s quite important for mages to possess enough mana to perform the spells they want.

As a sidenote, if one runs their mana dry, they will faint.

Fundamentally, the effect of a spell will not change much regardless of who casts it, but there are exceptions. If a mage is truly skilled, they will be able to take the most basic of spells and raise its effect to the realm of the strongest spells.

Both Astaroth and Tempest are capable of this.

If a user is sufficiently skilled, they may be able to shorten spell chants and thus cast spells faster, but without a special skill, chanting cannot be eliminated entirely.

If a spell is known as a part of an [XXX-attribute magic] skill, when casting, the spell name will be prefixed by XXX-attribute magic. If the spell is known as part of a different skill, such as [Healing Magic], the spell’s name will be used as-is.

[No-Attribute Magic] is basically the fundament of spellcasting. It is possible to learn a different magic skill without learning [No-Attribute Magic] first, but by no means of the word is that efficient.

In addition to their basic ‘elemental’ effects, the attributes have various ‘specialisations’.

The light attribute, in addition to actual light and heat-based spells, is very effective against undead, possesses many healing and defense-based spells and can help discern the truth.

The fire attribute, in addition to actual fire and heat-based spells, is capable of curing many debuffs, burning away corruption of many sorts and increasing people’s strength.

The wind attribute, in addition to actual wind and air-based spells, can liberate even the heaviest of burdens and sharpen the greatest of swords.

The earth attribute, in addition to actual earth-based spells, possesses many defensive spells of all types and can reinforce the toughest of defenses.

The water attribute, in addition to actual water-based spells, can freeze away even the strongest flames, of actual fire and of people’s will alike, as well as containing many healing spells.

The darkness attribute, in addition to actual darkness-based spells, possesses many spells which affect the opponent’s mental state, causing them to fall into despair, or which eat away at their mind.

Incidentally, although there are cases of monsters which possess a magic skill from birth or gain such skills by evolving, magic skills can never be inborn skills.

On Magic Guard

Magic Guard spells are a series of spells which protect the user with a film of coloured light. There is one for each attribute, each with different effects. If the user uses a melee attack, the Magic Guard will be forcefully dispelled.

[Light-Attribute Magic: Golden Magic Guard]. Possesses great physical resistance and magical protection. But it is only truly powerful against darkness-attribute attacks. If the attack is elemented, but not with the darkness attribute, it is not hard to eliminate.

[Fire-Attribute Magic: Red Magic Guard]. Possesses average physical and magical resistance. Weak to water-attribute attacks. Strong against earth-attribute attacks. Will violently annihilate itself and the attack if struck by a wind-attribute attack.

[Wind-Attribute Magic: Green Magic Guard]. Possesses average physical and magical resistance. Weak to earth-attribute attacks. Strong against water-attribute attacks. Will violently annihilate itself and the attack if struck by a fire-attribute attack.

[Earth-Attribute Magic: Brown Magic Guard]. Possesses higher-than-average physical and magical resistance. Weak to fire-attribute attacks. Strong against wind-attribute attacks.

[Water-Attribute Magic: Blue Magic Guard]. Possesses lower-than-average physical and magical resistance. Weak to wind-attribute attacks. Strong against fire-attribute attacks.

[Darkness-Attribute Magic: Purple Magic Guard]. Possesses greater magical resistance than any other magic guard, but offers very little physical protection. Cannot be pierced by light-attribute attacks. Physical attacks that overcome its defense will not damage the magic guard, but pass through and strike the magic guard’s user.

Incidentally, there exist a series of improved spells which are only dispelled if the user uses an unarmed attack, rather than any melee attack, and which offer more protection. Their names are Diamond High Magic Guard, Ruby High Magic Guard, Emerald High Magic Guard, Jasper High Magic Guard, Sapphire High Magic Guard and Amethyst High Magic Guard.

Their elemental weaknesses and resistances are, of course, the same.