Theme:FFAC-1 Shiva

SHIVA, THE UNFORGIVING GLACIER

OVERVIEW

The land of Shiva is covered in untameable magical ice. However, its native people, the Shivans, were a hardy bunch, and were adapted well to the cold, being children of the First Frost. They lived off the meager land, hunting and raiding each other fiercely, with a rich connection to the ice they lived upon. With the building of the Great Span, however, and in the interest of attracting more settlers, some Shivans instead built upwards; now, Shiva is split as a nation and a continent, with great, sweeping cities covered in sealed domes to protect the weaker civilians from the cold dividing the land. Those Shivans who prefer the modern ways of life have joined their less-hardy cousins inside the domes; those who prefer the old ways occasionally outright attack the domes, their fierce pride and way of life threatened by rampant modernization. Shivans are a physically hardy bunch, if not necessarily physically strong; they are exceptionally aware of chills and low temperatures.

CLIMATE

Shiva is, as its name claims, a brutal and unforgiving place. Though the sunlight is strong upon the continent, pouring down from Phoenix on high, the power of the First Frost is far too pervasive to allow it to warm the land. Ice and snow punches through the entirety of the plate, all the way down to the spar that connects it to the core. It is wracked by constant, chilling snowstorms that rove the continent without mercy, adding layers upon layers to the already-extant snowdrifts.

That is not to say that it lacks variety. Life dwells in Shiva, though it is strange life by the metrics of Earth. Primarily furry creatures, with numerous means of keeping themselves warm, hunt and prey on each other for sustenance and heat alike. Bizarre plants reach their roots up towards the sun rather than down into the snow, and draw mineral sustenance from the animals that wander too close, or form strange symbiotic relationships with these beasts.

The bizarre creatures known as Moombas dwell upon Shiva, as well. Long known to be friends to Humes, Moombas attach themselves to individuals much the same way dogs do, and follow them around until the Moomba’s life ends, loyal and affectionate. They are helpful, friendly beasts that, like parrots, are capable of mimicking simple speech.

Shiva’s greatest hazard, however, is undoubtedly its people.

PEOPLE

Shivans are a diverse group of people. “Traditional” Shivans run the gamut from the hulking berserkers of old, proudly hunting and making war on everything and anything that moves, to the slim and slender hunters of the modern era, clad in furs and gripping rifles tight in hand. The idea of tradition is firm in the Shivan mind, and many Ramuha and Ifriti joke that the Shivans are frozen in the days of old.

This isn’t so. The reason Shivans are slow to adopt new ways is not because they are a stubborn people, but because they live in an unforgiving, brutal place where only the strongest survive. Unlike the Odynari, who have the luxury of unity, the Shivans are a fractured people, spread among many dozens of tribes across the continent. They rely on proven methods of survival because they are proven; experimental methods risk not only the self, but the tribe. The Shivans also lack the sheer desperation of the Odynari that forces the Steel Children to innovate and improve; Shiva is brutal, but not as unfairly domineering as Odin.

It is understood, therefore, that many Shivans long for a more peaceful life. They find it inside the Ramuhan domes. These “modernized” Shiva are much the same as their cousins, but they’ve exchanged furs and brutal weaponry for business suits and brutal efficiency. Even so, it holds true that the world is a place where only the strongest survive, and the “modern” Shivans certainly cling fast to that archetype.

Because of this brutality, the Shivans are frequently at odds with each other. Of all the continents, Shiva is the only continent that still has frequent wars, petty kingdoms, regime changes, Jarls, and all the other nonsense that comes from warfare. Small empires rise and fall in Shiva regularly around the domes as warlords rise and are brought down in the cycle of polish that Shivans hold so close to their hearts.

Shivans are thus a deeply divided race. There are the early adopters, who gamble on finding an edge in the constant conflict that is survival, who grab onto new technologies and ideas and cling to them like liferafts. There are the traditionalists, who stubbornly stick to what worked for their fathers, and their fathers, and their fathers before them. There are those in between, who reach for new ideas as they become tested by the bold and proven by the bolder.

Shivan appearance is as broad and bizarre as Shivan ideals. There are hulking, muscular Shivans full of tattoos, with great beards of dark hair. There are skinny, slender Shivans with dextrous fingers and lean bodies who blend into the environment, pale of skin and pale of hair. Shivan eyes tend towards greys and blues, and Shivan hair almost always is either extremely dark or extremely pale - either a stand-out color that repulses the constant snowstorms, or a bright color that blends in with the surroundings to hunt better.