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Serren's people, architecture, and all of their cultures are based on the medieval cultures from the lands that now make up the United Kingdom. There are foreigners from the east, which are based on a mix of asian cultures, and there natives of the desert, somewhat middle eastern. There are also some foreigners from across the sea who are based on Spaniards. There are savages out in the desert, and there are a different race of savages who frequent Northern Serren and the mountains beyond.

technology-wise, the people of Serren are well into the Iron Age, with anyone who can afford it arming themselves or their soldiers with steel, mail, and boiled leather. The Arts have been on a drastic rise over the past 100 years, especially over the reign of the last king. Most Castles, originally built of simple stone keeps, have been adorned with marble, gold, silver, stained glass, tapestries from the east, statues from the peoples across the sea, and the existing structures have been either torn down and rebuilt, or augmented with artistic stonecraft.


Contact was made with foreigners several hundred years ago, first the Easterners overland and then the others by Sea. Their influence is seen largely in the south, with architecture of major cities being changed slightly by foreign architects, new types of steelwork and other crafts were introduced, magic advancements flourished.

Magic: Magic is viewed as evil by some, but folk of Serren do not hate it outright. However, most of the people of Serren fear attempting to use it themselves, as the higher level rituals are dangerous, and have killed users, or driven them to madness. Some dabble in the art, but lack the patience required to summon any results for their efforts. Low level magic is as far as most mages ever get, which involves ritualistic setting of materials, such as burning leaves of a certain plant, within a circle or other shape. This can result in granting greater energy, strength, luck, intuition, or to scry into the past, present, and strong mages can see a cloudy glimpse of the future.
Medium level magic is generally alchemic in nature, which involves more difficult rituals and a stronger constitution of the mind and spirit than lower level magics. Incantations and specific gestures of hand and body can play a large role in these rituals, and a flub of the tongue or a slip of the wrist can prove disastrous for the user, or the spell itself could simply fail. This level of magic mostly creates potions, and strong mages can create explosives and enchant items, even wands and staffs which can cast balls of energy or fire (Though these items are incredibly rare, and extremely difficult, in ritual and material requirements, to create)
Easterners introduced another type of magic, one that required less or no materials, with the results being incredible to the people of Serren. The rituals involved drawing a circle upon a desired area of effect, such as other spells that Serren's people had seen before, but these circles often had very complicated shapes drawn throughout them, and often took much longer to draw than your average mystical circle. The rituals for these spells was practically nonexistent, one simply had to touch the circle, or an identical one, and concentrate. However, this method of magic is extremely mentally and physically draining. Only the strongest of mages can successfully cast spells using this method, with a failed spell often costing dearly.