Fleaspark Union
| Fleaspark Union | |
|---|---|
| Capital | Boomcradle |
| Located in | Western Continent |
| Population | 1,200,000 |
| Landmarks | The Five Anchor-Cities of Fleaspark |
| Settlements | Emberbank; Glassgear; Sparkmire; Thunderhead Reach |
| Factions |
|
| Coordinates | |
| Campaigns | Stop The Boomwright! |
Fleaspark Union is “Rain, rum, and reckless brilliance stitched to a storm-green coast.” Sprawled across the northern shores of the Sea of Lir, the Union thrives where storm-swept steppes meet rocky uplands. To the south, Gravenreach’s lights shimmer across the water; to the southeast, roads run toward Lexharrow’s codices; to the west, spark caravans skirt the blighted frontier of Scorval Blight.
It is not a kingdom but a confederation of caravans, workshops, and guilds bound only by the relentless drive to invent first and regulate later. Explosions are as common as festivals. Prototypes travel by caravan across uplands: resonance kites, galvanic wheels, boom-powder engines. These are bartered for food, metal, or lawstone. Nothing here is stable; everything is brilliant.
The Union’s motto is clear: “If it doesn’t blow up, it isn’t progress.”
Geography
The Fleaspark Union spans the wind-lashed uplands north of the Sea of Lir. Its terrain mixes storm-beaten steppes, volatile wetlands, marsh forges, nitrate-laced foothills, and cliffside sky-docks. Caravans traverse spark-mines, upland forges, resonance fields, and humid steamworks that skirt the marshlands.
Storm cycles from Solivar and crosswinds from the Bangrave Sea feed frequent sparkstorms (electrical chain-reactions triggered when heat builds nitrate haze over the plains).
People & Culture
The Union is a culture of makers, duelists, smugglers, and wildly competitive inventors.
War-Skiffs - the “The Roaring Tincats”
Design - Narrow catamaran hulls of bone-resin and riveted tin; steam-turbine fans fold under retractable thunder-sails.
Roles- Raid-Runs up the Tarkhos coast for embersteel slag; Flashtrade dashes to Aurex, swapping crate-loads of flashpowder for precision logic gears; and Regatta Contracts, city-states wager patents on yearly skiff races around the peninsula.
Tactics – Skiffs launch torpedoes that release blinding aurora rather than shrapnel, ideal for hit-and-vanish sabotage.
Crew – 6–12 crew (usually goblins or halflings) plus a “Boomwright” responsible for the Kaboom Log (a journal of successful explosions; failures are crossed out with pride).
Other Culture
Goblin sparkwrights dominate the civic and political landscape, treating invention as both governance and ritual. Gnomes serve as precision engineers, often the only moderating force amid chaos. Ribbets crew hydraulic mills and barges, preventing the damp cityworks from drowning. Clanks maintain iteration law and archive invention metadata in the Logic Yards. Drakona exiles labor in forges and sabotage crews, wielding molten strength and outlaw ingenuity. Others: Dwarves, Humans, Simiah arrive as brokers and adventurers, but few stay long.
Every outsider must submit a new invention, however trivial, or risk being branded Rustless, forbidden from workshops, food stalls, and ferries.
Hazards
Fleaspark is a land where invention itself is hazardous.
- Patent Tollhouses – Visitors must present a demonstration invention or pay creativity tariffs.
- Boomwright Duels – Civic disputes escalate into fireworks battles judged for brilliance and volume.
- Sparkstorms – Heat-ignited nitrate haze detonates across uplands without warning.
- Guest Sparks – Hosts demand visitors share a failed idea; refusal marks you “Patentless.”
- Backflow Ghosts – Drowned inventors echo through hydro-labs in Sparkmire.
Landmarks and Key Locations
The Five Anchor-Cities
Boomcradle: The Founding Spark
Emberbank: The Forge-on-Sea
Glassgear: The Tinker’s Labyrinth
Sparkmire: The Wetworks
Thunderhead Reach: The Skyforge Citadel
Hospitality & Dangers to Outsiders
- Patent Tollhouses: Every caravan stop demands a demonstration invention.
- Smuggling as Civic Hobby: Customs accept new invention ideas instead of fines.
- Guest Sparks: Visitors must share a failed prototype or suffer social exile.
Hospitality is enthusiastic but perilous. Guests are often strapped to rockets, jet-sleds, or test rigs “for scientific purposes.”
Ancestries
Goblins (Predominant)
Civic inventors, duelists, reckless geniuses; dominate Patent Duels and spark-guilds.
Ribbets (Integrated Minority)
Hydraulic engineers and barge pilots; vital to Sparkmire’s survival.
Clanks (Specialist Guilds)
Law-archivists of invention; maintain Logic Yards.
Drakona (Exiled Oath-Breakers)
Essential forge-labor and volatile gang muscle.
Others (Transient)
Humans, Dwarves, Simiah drift through as patent-seekers or adventurers; few remain long-term.
| Population | |
|---|---|
| Brightcrawl | |
| Emberbank | |
| Fleaspark Union Minor Towns | |
| Fleaspark Union Rural | |
| Glassgear | |
| Sparkmire | |
| Thunderhead Reach |
