Kiritsu

Kiritsu (officially the Dawn Kingdom of Kiritsu) is a floating continent in a pocket dimension. Although once part of the Earth, the existence of powerful magic and the rise of technology from other nations led to the Kingdom withdrawing from the world, existing in isolation on a floating continent.

Many of the names here have been translated into English from Kiritsi, the national language. The original Kiritsi names can be seen in brackets and italics next to the original word

Geography

Kiritsu is a floating continent about the size of the United States in a pocket dimension, floating around 20 miles above an endless ocean. The region consists of sweeping fields, mostly given over to farming and food production. Around 40% of the population live in small rural towns dotted around the continent, living off farming and delivering goods to the capital city, Kerro. Lakes of incorruptibly pure water are also dotted around the area, which is where most of the continent gets it water from.

Kerro

Over 60% of the population live in Kerro, the capital city. The city is a mix of rural Japanese architecture, with slanted tile roofs and arches, and the layout of old European cities like Paris, with many small alleys eventually leading to one or two main roads. This main roads are a mix of restaurants and shops, with occasional houses for wealthy merchants. The houses for most of the other inhabitants can be accessed through these backalleys. At the northernmost point of Kerro and Kiritsu itself is the Tower of Hope, and above it the artificial sun known as the Hawklight.

The Tower of Hope (Velna Nou Hira) is the tallest building in Kiritsu, visible from one end of Kerro to the other. Standing around 45 feet tall, it is where the monarchy and parliament reside (see government bellow). It is a pure white building, with a large red disk on the front of it around 30 feet up, with black protrusions raising up to the Hawklight.

The Hawklight (Hekneriah) is the greatest achievement of the mages of Kerro, being an artificial sun that bathes Kiritsu in light. Over time, the pure white flames freeze into dark blue crystal, leading to the creation of an artificial moon and heralding the night. Eventually, the crystals dissolve back into flames and the cycle begins anew. Day in Kiritsu is from 7am till 7pm, and the rest of the time Kiritsu is covered under the blanket of night. Due to an error in the magic used to create the Hawklight, while dusk does not exist, dawn is two hours long (from 7 till 9). The mages thought this error was actually pretty neat and it resulted in Kiritsu taking up the mantle of the Dawn Kingdom. Compasses also use the Hawklight as North as there is no North Pole in this pocket dimension. Standing under the Hawklight makes compasses act similarly to how they would when standing on the North Pole.

History

As Part of the Earth (1200s-1700s)

Originally, Kiritsu was one of many kingdoms in the eastern world, being one of the largest of the time period. The country was built after a rebellion in another country by a great warrior, Kedar Kerro, who led a band of fighters who claimed to be mages, wielding power akin to magic. Their exploits led to the toppling of the tyrannical Paraclesian Empire, currently the largest empire in the world at that time, in that region and the creation of the country of Kiritsu. Although it originally had to be a warlike nation to fend of constant attacks by it’s new enemies, the empire eventually settled in the 1300s and was accepted as its own state.

Kedar Kerro led a large number of the major exploits of Kiritsu when it was first made and was seen as a hero to many. The mages were also seen in the same way. However, in truth they were greedy and power hungry. Kedar establishes himself as the king of Kiritsu, and the mages formed the Soul of Kiritsu to train more in their ways, giving all of them complete control over the people of this new country. They continued their wars against other countries even when there was no reason to, using the fury the people of this new country possessed from being oppressed by the Paraclease for so long.

Kedar died before the 1300s came about. What he hadn’t anticipated when he came to the throne, however, was that his son would be nothing like him. Ascending when he was 27, Vandor Kerro was a down-to-Earth king, preferring peace talks over brute force, and was well liked by his people for most of his reign. He also coined the term “Words will beat any sword”, a phrase used by many successors and the Word of Kiritsu. However, he was also exceptionally naive, especially when it came to the massive political problems the constant wars of Kiritsu’s first age had caused. The Soul of Kiritsu disliked him for this reason, and intended to assassinate him by putting a mind control spell on his younger sister, Valena, and framing her for his death. Valena’s servants caught wind of this plan and informed her of the Soul’s intentions. This led to the wily Valena using herself as bait to catch the Soul in the act, willingly submitting to the mind control while her servants hid, watching the mage who was sent perform his work. The servants than restrained Valena before she could leave the room and informed the king.

What followed was the discovery of a series of scandals within the Soul of Kiritsu, who had been manipulating Kiritsu for years, controlling the government through mind control and bribes, and had been sowing public distrust in Vandor in order to take over Kiritsu for themselves and also for the country to invade Chun-Nan, which had barely been an independent nation for a year. Despite calls for them to be executed by the public and Valena herself, Vandor instead replaced the Soul’s leadership with mages who were loyal to him and started enrolling more mages from the public, with the old leadership exiled. Public opinion was split between whether it was good or bad that no blood had been spilled. To them, the answer soon became clear as Dark Gaia monsters summoned by the rogue mages launched attacks on Kiritsu, leading to a bloody battle that lasted days. Although Kiritsu won, Vandor was forced out of the monarchy and Valena took over as the first queen of Kiritsu.

Although Kiritsu went through other tumultuous times, none of these times were on the scale of Vandor’s reign, and opinion of his reign still splits historians and Kiritsi today. Kiritsu slowly started to expand and became a prominent power until the rise of technology began to take over the world.

Government and Organisation

Word of Kiritsu

Main article: Word of Kiritsu

Trivia

• Kiritsu takes influences from eastern feudral countries like Japan and Korea. It was also influenced by the country of Torna in Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Kerro especially is based on Auresco.
• The idea for Kiritsu came about when the creator of this article misread the “Word of Kiritsu” as “World of Kiritsu”, something the creator didn’t realise until after 30 minutes of worldbuilding.