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The Isolated Land and the Abyss
Our story plays out on a continent called the "Isolated Land" where cultures and species have clashed "since time immemorial" over power and resources. Throughout the Isolated Land's history, "Holes" have spontaneously and unpredictably appeared as gateways to an unknown realm called "the Abyss". The Holes have been known to produce powerful objects and obscure technology, but they have also occasionally swallowed up individuals and even entire regions.
Inhabitants of the Isolated Land: the Beastmen, Springans, and Dogmatika
Scattered across the Isolated Land are three beastmen tribes of Beast, Beast-Warrior, and Winged Beast species, locked in a long cycle of fighting with one another over territory. Having each been banished from their respective tribes, Shuraig, Rugal, and Ferrijit (along with her younger sister, Kitt) band together and create a group of wandering exiles, which subsequently grows in strength and numbers.
Traveling across the Great Golgonda Desert, the group happens upon the Land of Iron and Steel — a region controlled by the Argyro System, the artificial intelligence of a Therion spaceship. It is stated that upon its crash landing, the damaged ship siphoned power from nearby magma and developed a "fiery personality". Here the exiled beastmen befriend the Springans, a group of small soot sprites who inhabit brightly-colored humanoid machines and scour the desert for Holes in search of treasure. They are led by their captain, Sargas, who wears a peculiar necklace "to relieve shoulder tension" (per reference art).
Far away in the northern region of the continent, the Loading... is a deeply religious civilization that lives by the 666 Holy Verses.
The citizens follow their infallible leader, Maximus, who uses the Loading... to bestow a brand called the "Stigmata" upon his most trusted followers — the Dogmatika Saints. A total of 665 Saints have served Maximus, the most recent of whom are Fleurdelis and her disciple, Ecclesia. Outside groups are considered heretics and enemies of the Dogmatika, to be vanquished by Ashiyan's forces.
- Thou shalt not turn thy back on the holy teachings of Maximus, for his magnificence is the agent of God.
- Thou shalt not utter the holy name of Maximus, for his magnificence is the agent of God.
- Thou shalt not lay eyes on the holy visage of Maximus, for his magnificence is the agent of God.
- Thou shalt not touch the holy personage of Maximus, for his magnificence is the agent of God.
- Thou shalt not refuse a blessing by Maximus, for his magnificence is the agent of God.
- Thou shalt not walk ahead of Maximus, for his magnificence is the agent of God.
- Thou shalt not point at Maximus, for his magnificence is the agent of God.
- Thou shalt have no mercy on the sinful heretics.
- Thou shalt have no fear in the face of the sinful heretics.
- Thou shalt lend no ear to the words of the sinful heretics.
- When the Day of Gospel arrives, thy holy Stigmata shall illuminate, bringing all lost lambs back to Heaven, as children of God once more.