☾ Geography & Environment

Lurfane spans a crescent-shaped volcanic archipelago southwest of Emster and Varethuun, partially shielded from major storms by the Driftline’s southern tidebreaks. The isles range from black-sand shores and coral cliffs to dense stormwood jungles and geyser-warmed craters. Settlements are tide-adaptive — some float, some cling to basalt arches, some are half-submerged tideburrows. Lightning is common and sacred; many homes are lightning-chained to welcome storms safely.

☾ Culture & People

Government: No royalty — Lurfane is ruled by the Council of Tides, a rotating body of guild representatives, sailors, and elders from each major isle. Oaths are tracked publicly. Betraying your word bars you from entering the tide-cities until your name is re-inked.

Social Code: Honor through craftsmanship, wordkeeping, and community contribution. Every child is given a blank card and mask at 12 — they carve both over their life as a personal record.

Traditions: Major rites include the Oathchime Ceremony (acceptance into adult guilds), Stormwalks (coming-of-strength rituals during controlled lightning tempests), and Masklight Duels — nonlethal public showdowns of wit, breathform, and card play, often poetic.

☾ Magic & Combat

Focus: Mask and Card breathform integration. Lurfani specialize in modular breathform chaining, counter-deck defense, and flexible mid-combat adaptation. Breathform schools favor motion, weather-attuned magic, and grounded elemental rites.

Notable Orders: The Saltback Duelists (Mask-bound swordmages), Galeweavers (weather-channeling dancers), and Chained Tide (guild-affiliated countercasters).

Weaponry: Most Lurfani carry one mask, two cards, and a utility weapon — often hooked spear-staves or woven-hilt windblades.

☾ History & Alliances

Lurfane was never conquered. Once a scattering of sea clans and smuggler sanctuaries, it unified after the Ashwake War when surviving maskwrights from Kaedrith sought refuge here. Since then, Lurfane has become the single most respected neutral artisan state in Aethros. It trades with everyone, takes sides with no one, and crafts masks that even the Kaelvyrn court can’t replicate. Its guilds are often contacted by Driftline scholars, Kaedrith rebels, and Emserai elites alike — but no foreign power rules its ports.

☾ Current Status

Neutral Alignment: Lurfane avoids war but does not tolerate incursion. The Council of Tides votes quarterly on sea treaties, trade bans, and refugee status for exiled casters and displaced nobles.

Current Tensions:

• Three foreign agents were caught forging Lurfani masks — their ship burned in public ritual.
• The Western Spire’s rising Sliver signals have made several guilds nervous — stormwarders debate allowing Bone Choir agents access for negotiation.
• The Maskwright Guild has declared a Card Silence — a rare rite in which no new card patterns will be shared beyond the islands for a year.

☾ Threats & Oddities

• The Eye of Rekhala: A floating storm-cell that orbits the southern tip of Lurfane, rumored to contain a masked god or storm-born leviathan.
• Guildbreaker Fog: A sea mist that nullifies cards and renders masks unreadable — likely a failed Pact experiment.
• The Glass-Tongued: Rogue maskwrights whose creations copy the voices of the dead — outlawed but persistent.

☾ Connected Links

• 🌊 Emserai Racial Codex
• 🎭 Masks & Cards Codex
• ☠ Dorinda (Pirate Confederacy)
• ⚔ Combat Codex