Project Spellcheck: The Kingdom of Lancet

Lancet: A Brief History

The Kingdom of Lancet, sometimes called the Rising Kingdom, has existed for over half a millennium. Once a loose alliance of smaller nations and city-states, they banded together into one government to rally against dangerous neighbors under the banner of the legendary Lord-General Lancet. The conflict would later come to be known as the Aegis War, taking its name from the alliance of powers that would eventually shape the Kingdom.

Thanks to non-aggression pacts and monumental diplomatic efforts, Lancet has not suffered a single war against outside factions since the one that marked its founding, but to say Lancet has been free of conflict would be a naïve assumption. Disputes between provinces, territories, individual nobles, and other various groups, while growingly infrequent, have had significant consequences on Lancet’s political climate and policies.

Provinces

Lancet consists of several provinces, each with its own distinct landscapes and identity. The south consists of the temperate Pyre Province, as well as the densely-wooded and humid Dampton Province. The frigid Tsunder Province and its menagerie of mountains and tundra scenery dot much of Lancet’s east and north. To the west, the bountiful Vel-Lomund Province makes full use of its territory’s illustrious coastlines to host thriving, festival-fraught harbors and port towns. Binding all of Lancet’s provinces together, both literally and metaphorically, is the Castle Province, which serves as both the nation’s seat of power and economic hub.

Scattered between the more recognizable provinces are smaller commonwealth territories that handle their own jurisdiction on account of ancestral claims, self-sufficiency, or general insignificance. Other unincorporated territories, such as the Dryad Frontier, fall directly under the authority of Lancet’s high court.

Magic and Misgivings

It’s a well-known fact that the Kingdom of Lancet has had a tumultuous relationship with magicians and magic-wielders since its inception. The Majus Incursion that occurred during Lancet’s first century saw both the effective extinction of the titular group and the outlawing of both the practice and study of Black Magic. Only the White Magics, whose use is historically reserved by members of the Kingdom’s primary religious sects, have garnered any kind of consistent respect from the people, while Black Magic has remained a charlatan’s craft in the eyes of the Lanceti people.

Thanks to the efforts of a small group of magicians and open-minded scholars attempting to sway the hearts and minds of the people, the laws against Black Magic were overturned, triggering a brief golden age that would come to be known as the Magic Renaissance. While the Renaissance brought countless discoveries regarding the magics and more mystical aspects of Lancet’s history, geography, and ecology, its prompt conclusion involving an all-out war between magician factions that brought severe chaos to Lancet all but reaffirmed the notion that to practice magic is to court calamity.

Although magic would remain permissible for the thirty years that followed, said permissibility would be a frequent and heated topic of debate. As most magicians either retired or vanished from public records, the fate of the profession is now left in the hands of the scarce few that remain devoted to the craft, and those even scarcer few among newer generations who would dare to learn it.

More to Come…

Thanks for reading! This week, I wanted to revisit and lay the foundation for the setting of Project Spellcheck. As I’ve been on a stride with Project Wardens work, trying to work on a longer-form short story, and dealing with some sinus trouble that has quite literally been messing with my head as of late, however, I’ve been feeling stretched rather thin. Apologies if this blog comes off as such—this’ll be one of those where it’s success enough for me that I even got it posted.

As always, your feedback is greatly appreciated. Even if you ended up not liking a certain topic or something about my writing style, I always appreciate knowing for the sake of self-improvement. In the meantime, take good care, and I hope I’ll see you next week, too!