Moralinth: Anatomy of an Enclave

Following on from Tuesday's blog about North Ward, tonight's blog expands on that topic to take a closer look at what makes up an Enclave: the massive, walled-in communities that makes up the pockets of remaining civilisation in the world of Moralinth.

What exactly is an Enclave?

“Of all the accomplishments The Empire can claim with glass-filled boasts over the years - More than our advances in science, or medicine, or art, or unification – none can compare with the greatest architectural defensive counter-measure of our age: the vast Enclave Cities and unbreakable High Walls than encircle them. These bastions of civilisation are as shining beacons in a wilderness of horrors, our fine citizens kept safe from the monsters that prowl beyond the gates; gargantuan communities filled with thousands of souls loyal to Our Empress, to progress and to one other.”

– Aeron Carmichael IV, High Mason of the Eastern Wall, Elysium.

In a world where the vast majority of once-populated land is lost to primal anger and madness, The Enclaves – walled communities housing several cities – have become the last bastions of civilisation in the world of Moralinth. Ninety-nine percent of the Empire’s population live within these safe-zones, protected from the horrors of The Blight that runs rampant throughout the Wilderness. As much as is possible, life continues within The Enclaves as it did before the walls went up, but those same walls are ever-present on the horizon, reaching hundreds of feet into the air and a constant reminder of the dangers that lurk beyond them.

The Enclaves of the Estanian Empire

Enclaves represent a containment response to battle The Blight, keeping as many people as possible behind impenetrable walls guarded over by members of The Watch. This wall surrounds two or more cities (referred to in post-Enclave terminology as “Wards”) and all the rural area in-between. These Wards are fully-functioning cities who trade with one another and even other Enclaves, via use of the Estanian Rail Network. Enclaves are, by their very nature massive surface areas, much larger than any single city. To put things in context if one were to look at the United Kingdom on Earth, a typical Enclave might consist of the cities of London, Bath, Oxford and Cambridge being surrounded by one massive Enclave wall, with each of the aforementioned cities becoming Wards of that Enclave. That’s a lot of land-mass, and not all of it is covered with Wards (cities).

Within the Wards all the usual experiences one might expect to find in a city are present with an infrastructure that supports the social structures of the specific culture of that Enclave, while also maintaining a visible police and military presence in the form of The Watch. Acting as both infantry and peace-keepers, The Watch are a constant in every Enclave, along with the various layers of Imperial Government and representatives of The Church. As discussed previously, the Empire of Estania is in the process of an industrial revolution, with many people putting less importance on spiritual and religious matters and instead looking to science and industry as a way forward. The Church does not have the same unchallenged power it once had over the populace, but is still an exceptionally powerful force to be reckoned with and are fighting back to maintain their place in the world. As such, even with advances in science and technology, many people are still devout followers of the Multi-Faced Pantheon, striking up an interesting balance between the two paradigms. All of the eighteen nations have at least a single Enclave within their borders, with some having two or more. The Imperial Isle of Estana has a total of four Enclaves, including the most famous of them all – Elysium.

History of the Enclaves

Following the first recorded report of The Blight in 235 IR, scientists within the then Imperial Capital of Estana City began work on ways to eradicate the infectious plague/curse that was rolling across Ursur, while the masons and engineers of the city began to put a contingency plan into place should there be no way to stop The Blight. In 238 IR when it became apparent no modern scientific cure could be found, the Emperor decreed the masons and engineers get to work on their design: a massive wall that created a border around Estana City and its four closest neighbouring cities: Northolde, Haven City, Rysa and Greenwood. People were evacuated from the countryside and into cities as the walls went up, a wall which would rise several hundred feet high as well as hundreds and hundreds of feet long. The Emperor decreed that rather than five individual cities, they would be one single “Enclave” with him in charge. Naming this Enclave “Elysium”, the final brick in the wall went up in the spring of 245 IR. A year before that however, when it was clear that the new Enclaves design would work, aid was sent to Ursur to create their own Enclave, though by this time much of the nations’ populace was lost to The Blight. Nevertheless, work began on a single Enclave that would protect the remaining cities of Ursur, and in 246 IR the second Enclave – Verravanya – was completed.

The Emperor kept the leaders of the original cities of Elysium in place, naming them as a Regents who, along with himself, would rule the Enclave as a whole. Due to the fact the cities were no longer independent from one another and part of the larger community of Elysium, they were renamed as Wards to reflect their new purpose. Despite this, each of the Wards maintained their cultural identities and continued to observe their own customs and traditions. All laws however, were unified to match that of Estana City (now known as “Old Estana Ward”).

Following the success of Elysium and Verravanya, Enclaves began to be built all across the Empire, offering nations besieged by The Blight (and those yet to face its horrors) safe-havens against the infection. Not everyone could be saved in time of course, but those who were able to reach the relative safety of the cities assisted The Watch against The Blighted as best as they could while the Imperial Masons and Engineers erected the walls.

With the completion of the final enclave known as Sanctuary on Dalevya Isle in 366 IR, humanity has been more or less protected from The Blight for just over two-hundred years, though no cure has yet presented itself.

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Anatomy of an Enclave

All Enclaves of the Estanian Empire, regardless of the culture that houses them, are built around the same basic design: Each has an Enclave Wall that defines the outer edge of the Enclave itself, a number of Wards and the countryside between them.

“Countryside” is differentiated from “Wilderness” simply by whether it is inside and Enclave and free of The Blight, or outside the Enclave and plagued by The Blight. Both are the rural areas of the world, simply that inside Enclaves is considered countryside, and outside of the Enclaves is considered wilderness. Farms, small villages and similar features that make rural communities can be found inside of Enclaves, making up the space between the Wards.

Wards themselves are broken down into Districts: boroughs and large neighbourhoods from when the Wards were still cities.

WARDS: Wards are the new name for cities since no individual cities exist outside of the Enclaves any more. Those that still stand are empty husks and ruins, where no life can be found outside of The Blighted. Each Enclave is made up of a series of Wards, and each one of those Wards has its own cultural identities, traditions and ways of life that set them apart from their neighbours. Like all cities they may have their own unique architecture and layout, though they will share certain features across all Wards in the Enclave such as government, police-force and a religious presence. Each Ward is led by a Lord or Lady Regent, a leader who rules over their Ward and co-ordinates with the ruler of the Enclave, known as a High Regent (in some cases Enclaves have different names for these positions, such as Timicias who have Ushabti rather than Regents and a Praenomen rather than a High Regent, but they are identical in their office). Working for these Regents are a plethora of government agents, The Watch, and in many cases personalities of The Church who work in accordance with the Government. In many Enclaves the ITC (Imperial Technical College) are also a considerable presence, leading the Enclaves through the industrial revolution that Moralinth is currently experiencing. Enclaves are self-sufficient in that they have farms in the countryside that provide food, make use of wells to draw clean water from springs or from the sea, a chemically-treated sewer system and the ability to trade with other Enclaves for various resources.

DISTRICTS: Each Ward is broken down into three or more Districts, areas which would have been large boroughs about the same size as towns back when the Wards were still cities. From an administration viewpoint each is run by a council which reports to the Ward’s Regent; for example, Elysium’s Riverside District in Old Estana Ward is run by the Riverside District Council. Districts are usually quite unique from one another, not just culturally but also architecturally and also have a certain “feel” to them that makes them stand out from one another. Each District is directly connected to another, and the combination of Districts is technically what makes up a Ward.

COUNTRYSIDE: Not all of the area that makes up a Ward is filled with streets and buildings, in fact much of the area is rural countryside where forests, rolling hills, rivers and brooks, mountains, cliffs and all manner of geographical features can be found. Different from the Wilderness outside of the Enclave Walls, the countryside is free of The Blight and is frequently farmed or tended to. Though some areas of countryside within Enclaves hold little to no human life, others have small communities and hamlets, extended farmsteads and other resource-gathering outposts where people who chose a more rural life tend to live.

THE ENCLAVE WALLS: The Enclave Wall stretches right around the diameter of all the Wards, encircling them in a massive iron barricade often several hundred feet tall. Most Enclave Walls have areas of ingress which house Gate Houses: massively fortified gates that are both heavily armed and armoured, designed to hold against any attack The Blighted might be able to launch. Varying in height from a few hundred feet to almost a thousand feet, Enclave Walls are all at least twenty-five feet thick at the thinnest point and designed not to topple from attack or natural disasters such as earthquakes.

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Elysium, The Imperial Enclave

A rough map of Elysium Enclave

The original Enclave and by far the largest, the Imperial Enclave of Elysium can be found in the north-east of the Imperial Isle of Estana and is heralded as the birth-place of the entire Empire.

Residence to the Imperial Line, and the home of the current Empress High Sovereign Anu Jynrelle III, Elysium is comprised of five cities (or Wards) inter-connected via ERC rail networks and surrounded by a massive Enclave wall. As well as the Empress and her court, Elysium is also the headquarters of the Imperial Army – known as The Watch in times of peace – and has diplomatic connections to all other nations in the Empire.

Three heavily-fortified gates allow entrance to and exit from Elysium, with each allowing Extraclave rail access to the other three Enclaves on the island. The north-west wall holds the Hallow Gate that leads to the Enclave of Hallows is the north-west of the Island, where as the south-west Nevatus Gate and the south-eastern Tebinium Gate lead to the Enclaves of Nevatus and Tebinium, respectively.

Four rivers, five lakes, six forests and an entire mountain range can be found within the Enclave as well as many small villages, hamlets and farmsteads.

The River Estan is the largest in the region, snaking its way through the Old Estana Ward and connecting to the River Coil that leads into the North Ward, and also to Still River which reaches out to the north-west and eventually becomes Draken River that itself leads out to the sea. Draken lake can be found along the Draken River as well as the massive Blacklake which is overlooked by The Blackwood. Both the lake and the wood share the “black” title due to the dark soil that leaves a shadowy-black forest floor, and a lake which looks bottomless. Both are harmless natural effects but garner a lot of local superstition. West of Haven Ward is the oddly-shaped Giant’s Foot lake named for somewhat obvious reasons and to the south, between Old Estana Ward and The Dead Forest lies the tranquil Lake Elim. Further south still is the often-forgotten Lake Eos and in the far south Raven’s Lake borders Greenway Ward and rival’s Blacklake in sheer scale, surpassing it in its natural beauty. Everstill Woods can be found in the far north of the Enclave, growing along the back of Still River that gives it its name. North of Old Estana Ward and south of The River Estan lies Imperial Forest, a protected hunting ground for the Imperial bloodline and chosen guests, where poaching is a criminal offence. Separating Greenway Ward from the north of the Enclave and completely encircling the south-western Rysa Ward are the massive Godspine Mountains which stretch from the Broken Hills right up to The Blackwood.

Elysium is considered to be the place that most games of Moralinth are set, and it is suggested that most if not all characters are Elysium-natives. Books covering the other seventeen nations in more detail will be coming in the future.

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Breaking it down into its component parts, the Enclave of Elysium looks like this: ELYSIUM Old Estana Ward (Once Estana City)

Imperial District Ministry District Riverside District Soul District Commerce District Community District

North Ward (Once Northolde City)

The Crafts District The Art District The Delights District The Revel District The Dockside District

Haven Ward (Once Haven City) Holy Quarter District Pilgrim Quarter District Prophet Quarter District Martyr Quarter District

Rysa Ward (Once Rysa) Ruby District Amethyst District Sapphire District Amber District Jade District

Greenway (Once a collection of communities known as The Greenway) Raven's Wood District Walker's Rest District Emerald Fields District

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With that, we conclude tonight's blog. Hopefully this brief look into how an Enclave is organised takes for interesting reading and sparks the inspiration of both Narrators and Players! Until next week, Happy Gaming! - Adam