/FACTIONS — power divides the world

Capital: Sky-city of Lirae

Goals:
• Innovate for the public good
• Avoid war but prepare for it
• Protect Attuned rights without militarizing them
• Maintain intellectual autonomy against Vaelthorn expansion

Structure:
• Steam Council – Assembly of inventors, strategists, and scholars
• Professor Arleth Sarun – Key scientist who discovered blueprints for an ancient superweapon
• Balance Guard – Non-lethal police and defense force with automata
• Clouded League – Secret pro-war faction developing heavy armaments

Internal Tensions:
• Division between pacifists and militarists
• Citizens fear loss of ethical identity due to militarization


Symbol: A balanced scale with a wrench and a book on each side.

The Republic of Drasna lies just across Vaelthorn’s border. A democratic realm that champions technological progress through research and cooperation. Drasnans are known for their intellectual prowess and peaceful innovation, developing practical machines such as automated workers, steam-powered agriculture, and airships designed for exploration rather than war.

Tensions: Rising tensions with Vaelthorn have led Drasna’s leaders to consider deploying ancient machines for defense, causing divisions between pacifists and militarists.

Key Figure The republic’s brightest inventor, Professor Arleth Sarun, recently uncovered a lost archive containing plans for an ancient machine of immense destructive power, making her a target for both kingdoms.

Headquarters: Temple of Echoes (resonant cave with dormant Volundium cores)

Beliefs:
• Gods inside Volundium relics are alive
• Attunement is a divine gift
• The ancients fell by enslaving the divine

Ranks:
• Whispers — initiates who hear divine voices
• Singers — experienced Attuned, divine mediums
• Vessels — humans fused with divinity, powerful but unstable
• Iron Choir — fanatical warriors blessed for war
• The Chained One — supreme leader possessed by multiple gods

Symbol: A broken chain encircling a mechanical eye

The Circle of the Attuned is a decentralized spiritual cult centered at the Temple of Echoes, a resonant cave housing dormant Volundium cores. They believe that the gods trapped inside the Volundium relics are alive and that the mysterious "Attunement" afflicting some is a sacred divine gift rather than a curse.