Iridos

Iridos, Spectrum City

Also called Spectrum City, the City of Rainbows. Built of materials colored in any hue that matches the faction of the district that they are built within – red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, or violet.

-- by Kakita Kojiro

Many young artists rejected the idea of colorless crystal and achromic speculums. They wanted some color! Mainstream artisans chided them for their foolish fads. They felt the amateur creations had gaudy hues and... opacity!

The avante-garde formed Spectrum City, a community of rejected artists who categorize everything by colors.

-- by shanoxilt

Spectrum City is not very old. Despite this, the older and/or more conservative citizens have begun to establish regulations and guidelines. Some Spectrum citizens are dismayed, and even enraged, by this hypocrisy. Spectrum City was founded on free-spirited ideals of creativity and non-conformity!

On each side of the city is a large, public area where all the colors freely mix. In these two places, one may find beautiful mosaics and murals. There are markets that sell dyes, make-up, paints, and stained glass. One may, also, spot people who have painted their bodies.

-- by shanoxilt

The people of Spectrum City have recently invented stained glass and shadow puppet theatres.

-- by shanoxilt

History

Diaphane usually attempts to claim credit for the achievements of Iridos. They assert that they split the light of inspiration to reveal a spectrum of creativity. In the past, Diaphane and Narcissus did experience a few periods of animosity and conflict. These conflicts were mercifully brief events.

-- by shanoxilt

The truth of the matter has been carefully purged from the histories of Diaphane. The founding of Iridos had its origin during the Second Shattering. In that time, new advances had been made in tinting glass with vivid hues. New buildings and wonders were made, all of stained and colored glass, and the City of Glass took on translucent hues.

This led to great debates in the Crystalline Agora, as citizens argued that the hues were a perversion of true Translucence. Eventually rabble-rousers whipped mobs of citizens into a frenzy, leading to the destruction of the colored glass in the Second Shattering. The surviving proponents accepted exile under the guise of founding the colony that became Iridos. The records, of course, were purged for the good of all.

The ruined Stained Quarter of Diaphane was never rebuilt. But it is still inhabited by squatters and the poor, since the broken shards there did not fracture the spirits of the Invisible World as they did in the other places of Shattering. No spirit-storms of invisible shards occur there to strip flesh from bone as they do at the other Shattered places. There are rumors, though, that the seed of the chromatic tree was first found in the Stained Quarter...

-- by Kakita Kojiro

Cityscape

Technically, Spectrum City is not so much a city as it is a suburban, gated community. There are seven streets. Each street is color coordinated to correspond to the seven colors of the rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet). Every house is some hue, tint, or shade of the appropriate color.

The citizens of Red Street, Yellow Street, and Blue Street have a sense of superiority because red, yellow, and blue are the primary colors. Every other street is merely a secondary color, so their neighbors are obviously second class citizens.

-- by shanoxilt

Geography

Iridos was founded on a large Island to the South of the Two Cities, in an area famous for its wild flowers and natural rainbows.

-- by stephen_dean

Culture

The city is governed democratically, with one faction elected every seven years that is then responsible for running the civic bureaucracy and arranging for civic works. Each faction has its militia, but they often become unruly mobs protesting when another faction is in power.

-- by Kakita Kojiro

In Iridos, there is a small collective of artists who use psychedelic drugs. They claim that they view images of kaleidoscopic wonder. Their paintings are certainly a testament to such visions. It is suspected that they have a terrarium full of colorful, hallucinogenic frogs.

-- by shanoxilt

The Festival of All Colors

This holiday was popular in the time up to the Second Shattering, but has fallen to the status of minor festival in Diaphane, while becoming the major annual celebration in Iridos. The Festival is celebrated as the means to enter communion with all the hues.

Food is the focus of the festival, but it is a specific, day-long meal. In each course of the meal, the foods served are always of one dominant color. In Iridos, there are seven full courses. The red course is bloody meats and pomegranite wine. The orange course is tomatos, gourds, orange fruits and their juices. The yellow course is grains and yellow wine. The green course is herbs and leafy vegetables, and bitter absinthe to drink. The blue course is pale seafood, and if poorly prepared is often poisonous (an ill omen, indeed). The indigo course is purple fruits and vegetables -- grapes, aubergines -- and purple wine. The violet course is edible flowers, violets and others with hues of deepest purple.

-- by Kakita Kojiro

Colony Cities

Ophalle, sapling colony city

The only colony city of Iridos was originally established to harvest nacre and pearls from ocean shells. The sea harvesting settlement became a full colony when deposits of opals were discovered in the surrounding Eastern Mountains. The fledgling colony was named Ophalle after the inrush of prospectors and miners to exploit this mineral find. The city is outgrowing its infrastructure faster than new building can be planned, and so instead of the clean division of color as seen in Iridos, in Ophalle there is haphazard juxtaposition of all colors and materials. Mother-of-pearl and opal inlay is obviously the most-favored for decoration, but anything goes – including recent imports of multicolored stained glass from Diaphane.

Ophalle has become a lawless boomtown, and with democratic Iridos unable even agree on imposing any control, the various collective associations of fishermen and miners have a free hand in the city. Although new opal discoveries have been less frequent, another inrush of disaffected or hopeful youth, philosophers, and cultists have begun arriving in the city. The multicolored streets are full of people haranguing or proselytizing in favor of polychromatism, opacity, translucency, or even the clarity of the Clear Prophet. Merchants are moving in to exploit these new arrivals, and both annoy the various collective associations.

Occupations: Diver, Fisherman, Miner, Sailor, Architect, Painter, Merchant Suggested Skills: Area Knowledge (Ophalle), Boating, Jeweler, Prospecting, Fishing, Swimming Social Background: Cultural Familiarity (1 pt., Iridos), Glossa (native language), Literacy Suggested Quirks: Dreamer, Imaginative, Responsive Sample Contact Groups: Fishing Collective, Mining Collective Suggested Spells: Change Color, Block Perception, See Clearly Rumor: “In the absence of control by Iridos, the navarch of Diaphane is determined annex Ophalle into the Diaphane hegemony. The formidable, crystal-prowed warships of Diaphane are a common sight in the Ophalle harbor, and under orders from the canny navarch, they have subtly blocked the worst excesses of the collectives. Many in Ophalle therefore look favorably on the crystal navy’s presence, and it is possible that Diaphane might be invited to intervene to prevent the infighting and exploitation in Ophalle – which is exactly as the navarch has planned.”

-- by Kakita Kojiro

Magic

Spectrum Magic will also reveal a person's aura. The aura reveals many things concerning a subject. It will reveal their personality, their state of mental health, their state of physical health, their soul's health, whether the subject is mundane or otherwise, and it suggests their thematic affiliation.

-- by shanoxilt

Chromatic Magic

The Spectrum youth follow a path that is perpendicular to the other three. Color, variety and creativity characterize their newly-develping magics. They can create false illusions, yes. But they also can perform transformations like mud into porcelin or caterpillar into butterfly.

The magic of the Spectrum youth is avant-garde and iconoclastic: diverse, flexible and middle-way in both power and strength compared to the Twin Cities/barbarian axis.

-- by Glyptodont

Color, variety and creativity characterize newly-develping Chromatic Magic. It can create false illusions, yes. But it also can perform transformations like mud into porcelin or caterpillar into butterfly. Spectrum Magic will also reveal a person's aura. The aura reveals many things concerning a subject. It will reveal their personality, their state of mental health, their state of physical health, their soul's health, whether the subject is mundane or otherwise, and it suggests their thematic affiliation.

-- by shanoxilt

mantra: “perception changes”

spirit-world: Yingarna

tools: prisms, kaleidescopes

talent: Chromatic Magic (10 pts/level)

spells: - identify exact color (IQ/Average) - change color (IQ/Average) - touch rainbow (IQ/Hard) - see otherworldly colors (IQ/Hard, req. Chromatic Magic 1+) - see auras (IQ/Hard, req. Chromatic Magic 1+) (note: allows diagnosis of physical, mental, spiritual, and magical health of a person) - see past visible spectrum (IQ/Very Hard, req. Chromatic Magic 2+, at least one other chromatic spell) - see many possible futures (IQ/Very Hard, req. Chromatic Magic 3+, at least three other chromatic spells) - refract magic into colors (IQ/Hard, req. Chromatic Magic 2+) (note: changes magical attacks into harmless rainbows) - cause natural metamorphosis (IQ/Very Hard, req. Chromatic Magic 4+, at least four other chromatic spells) (note: effects such as changing a caterpillar into a butterfly) - cause unnatural metamorphosis (IQ/Very Hard, req. Chromatic Magic 5+, cause natural metamorphosis, at least five other chromatic spells) (note: effects such as changing a human into a butterfly) - change color (IQ/Very Hard, req. Chromatic Magic 5+, cause unnatural metamorphosis) note: using chromatic magic to enter the spirit-world is generally fatal, as far as is known.

-- by Kakita Kojiro

Magicians of Iridos

Aura-Readers, Auramancers of Iridos Aura-readers, or “auramancers,” are skilled magicians who read the health of patients in Iridos by application of chromatic magic. When auramancers look at a person’s aura, they see the colors of his or her souls. The nuances in subtle shades of each of the seven souls reveals to the aura-reader their patient’s personality, physical health, mental health, magical health, and state of their other souls as well. With this information the aura-reader can holistically advise their patient what actions to take or to avoid so as to bring their souls’ colors back in balance. Auramancers are also capable of curing the effects of magic or spirits on their patients, although few citizens of Iridos are afflicted by such things. Because most inhabitants of Iridos are devotees of aura reading, they tend to be extremely healthy, although usually constrained by odd restrictions on their diet or behavior accordingly.

Advantages: Chromatic Magic 2 (20 pts) Backgrounds: Doctor (social status 1, 5 pts), Comfortable (wealth, 10 pts) Skills: Thaumatology (chromatic magic), Diagnosis, Esoteric Medicine, First Aid, Pharmacy Spells: Identify Exact Color, See Auras, Refract Magic Into Colors

Halo-Readers, Halomancers of Iridos Halo-readers, or “halomancers,” are magicians who read the weather in Iridos by the use of chromatic magic. They watch the upper skies for halos, nimbuses, glories, rainbows, icebows, sun dogs, sun pillars, coronas, green flashes, and other atmospheric phenomena. All of these are predictors of the weather, and by identifying them the halomancers are able to determine what the weather will be. Iridos ships always have halo-readers on board, which enables them to avoid storms that catch other ships unawares.

Advantages: Chromatic Magic 1 (10 pts) Backgrounds: Average (wealth, 0 pts) Skills: Thaumatology (chromatic magic), Meteorology, Observation, Weather Sense Spells: Identify Exact Color, See Otherworldly Colors

-- by Kakita Kojiro

Auras and the Colors of Souls

The philosophers of Iridos have proved that humans have seven souls, each of a different color. This is demonstrated each time a criminal is sentenced to death by prism, when his soul is refracted into seven colors, which are recovered for use. The seven souls are as follow (“lower souls” are toward the red end of the spectrum, “higher souls” toward the violet end):

red – soul that gives you desires

orange – soul that keeps you alive

yellow – soul that gives you a self (personality, ego)

green – soul that integrates your other souls

blue – soul that allows you to think (sentience, id)

indigo – soul that gives you a reflection and shadow

violet – soul that interacts with the spirit-world

When an adept of chromatic magic looks at a person’s aura, they see the colors of his or her souls. It is the nuances in subtle shades of these colors that allow a chromatic adept to learn about that person. The exact tincture of the orange soul reveals a person’s health. The exact tincture of the indigo soul reveals whether the person is under the effects of magic. The exact tincture of the violet soul reveals what type of magic, if any, the person practices. Undead seem to lose their higher and lower souls, as all merge into one soul of utter black.

Beings of Yingarna may not have all of these souls – or they may have other souls of colors that would be unnatural in humans. Infrared souls that may allow life to be created or restored. Ultraviolet souls that may allow interaction with higher planes of existence.

Chromatic adepts make use of specters that are solitary souls of one color, whether they originate as facets refracted off a human soul, or spirit entities captured in the wild.

-- by Kakita Kojiro