setting/glossary

AUGUSTINIA

The nation in which North Station is located. It is not incredibly large, and it is considered a neutral nation, outside of alliances or conflicts. Historically, people settled there to mine resources, though the land was arable enough that people could survive there with no issue. The weather in Augustinia is regularly chilly, and often rainy. Sometimes it gets cold enough for that rain to become snow, but most likely, there's just a lot of rain and fog. Technologically speaking, the country is doing well; radios are common, as are telephones, and television also exists. Most of the advances have come about due to a need for communication and transportation, rather than as a result of war. Because using cars is very uncommon in the city, most people travel by train or by streetcar, when not walking.

MAGIC

In the nation of Augustinia, magic is outlawed, due to its inability to control uniformly and easily, as well as because of its harmful side effects to the user. Those that have been known to use magic are placed in a ranking system, meant to categorize magic users in two ways: by power and by area affected. Power is ranked on a scale of A to E, with A referring to magic that has damaging effects, but is not completely harmful, and with E referring to potentially devastating magic. The second part of a categorized magic user's designation refers to the area affected, on a scale of 1-5. Users with a 1 designation can only affect things within a 1 meter radius of themselves; 5th category users' magic can take effect on an area of at least 50 meters from the user. People who use magic cannot do so without it taking some kind of toll on their body; the effects will vary on how their magic manifests and how strong it is; a person who uses magic to create large-scale fires will suffer burns, someone who uses magic to influence others through speech will, at worse, lose their voice completely. This is known as magic blowback, or simply "blowback."

NORTH STATION

North Station is a large, sprawling city named for the train station that it formed around in the early 700s. Until that point, North Station was nothing but a transport hub for the rest of the nation of Augustinia. However, a town started growing around the station, and its growth soon outstripped that of the rest of the country. Before the turn of the millennium, North Station had become a city itself. Currently, North Station is home to millions of people. It seems to be ruled equally by its government (current mayor: Laura Wainwright) and the large Faye family, who have control over many of the large businesses (primarily transportation) throughout North Station, as a result of their monetary influence. Their illegal use of magic and sale of illegal weaponry (referring to items that, through use of magic, can be used as weapons) has earned them infamy as a criminal group. There are a number of similar, smaller groups in North Station, many of whom choose to either ally amongst themselves or work independently.