Aarn Timeline (Beginning with the Classical Era)

The Classical Era begins.

6200: The Ez spread north, Conquering Igakari and much of the Yesshan trade route. The Sphinxes come out of hiding, and begin secretly protecting human towns and settlements.

6250: The Anthromorph race of cursed humans becomes culturally accepted in Western Zenninfal and Yessha. In retaliation, Venrisha creates the theromorph race of cursed godtouched in Eastern Zenninfal.

6275: The channeler kings of Rensvaja resurface. Out of self-preservation and cultural honor, they limit themselves to 30 members in a soul link, and no more, and divide their ruling class into many, many separate sub-nations, each with its own link.

Year 6300: The nation of Igakari is founded when the enslaved Igan race of humans asserts its own legitimacy, rebelling against the Ez and breaking free of their control.

6400: Igakari begins dominating its region, conquering Kressia, The Southern Way, and much of Camaria. Rothysia is claimed, but in name only, as it could not be captured.

6500: The Ez experience an age of enlightenment. Their technological and magical discoveries are deemed too dangerous, and kept secret from the world.

6700: The Lenneshin in Khodosan enter a truce with the Yak farmers there. The Lenneshin handle magical needs, the Yak farmers physical. This relationship remains stable until the present day.

6600: The Ez and the Rensvaja kings go to war over the fertile lands south of the Yesshan desert, once claimed by the Valdrex. The Rensvaja kings win the conflict.

6800: The Camarian War of Independence succeeds, and Camaria becomes a sovereign nation, breaking off from Igakari. It experiences a series of ceaseless, bloody civil wars that last for three hundred years.

6900: The Ez civilization collapses from Naga invasion, and its knowledge of magic is lost with it.

7000: Habrukans invade and conquer the Hightrade rim and central Zenninfal, forming the short-lived Third Habrukan Empire.

7050: The Camarian Orthodox Church is formed as a method to control the masses. It works, and Camaria remains relatively stable for a thousand years, save repeated maritime conflicts with Igakari.

7100: The Valdrex awaken from their stasis and begin settling in northwestern Rensvan. After reclaiming their lands from the northern Rensvaja kings and southern Naga, they passively begin trading with the other races, and enslaving those who attempt to attack them. Modern Valdrex foreign policy is born.

7270: The Jerolans drive their Habrukan masters out of Western Zenninfal.

7300: The Jerolans conquer The Hightrade Rim, then proceed to conquer, over a period of 40 years, all of Western Zenninfal and Habruk. The Jerolans' easterly advance is only halted by the barbarians of Rothysia, who are deemed too costly to fight past.

7310: The official 'Year 0' Date of the Jerol Empire. All Jerol-speaking nations use this date to begin their calendars.

7390: A group of proud warriors from Treddis rebell against the Jerol Empire, freeing the island from Jerol control.

7400: The Jerol Empire seeds Treddis with creeper vine in retaliation for its rebellion.. The entire island is soon overrun with undead things. Nektos turns Treddis into his base of operations.

7500: The first Jerolan civil war occurs between two brothers, Cassis Helnin III and Farnorn Helnin for control of the Empire. The civil war continues for long after the two brothers are dead.

7600: The First Jerolan civil war is resolved by the last of the great Jerolan Emperors, Gaelnorn Weis, who ushers in Jerol's second Golden Age. Gealnorn Weis begins to conquer the Yesshan Trade Route, and the begins conquering what little remains of the Ez. The Jerolan Empire reaches its largest size.

7630: Gaelnorn Weis dies. His sons begin to mismanage and mangle the Empire.

7640: Magical Rebellion occurs in the province of Querris, near Lake Anessis. The Rebellion is put down, but not without high cost. Magic is deemed too important to the Jerolan Empire to be left up to chance, and the practice of wizardry is banned, except by Emperor's decree.

7700: The society of the Jerolan empire becomes bloated, hedonistic, shortsighted and incompetent. The empire nearly collapses on numerous occasions.

7790: The Great Igan Revolution occurs. Feudal peasants, lead by a charismatic Lightning Channeler, rebel against the channeling Aristocracy of Igakari. Most channelers are forced to flee the country. An anti-mage sentiment begins to brew in the nation, coupled with anti-intellectualism. Many great works and educational material are lost.

7800: Through a series of misadventures and implausible events, the exiled aristocracy of Igakari form “The Elementalist Guilds” in the Jerol Empire and begin helping Jerol even more strictly control the magic of its citizens.

7900: The Elementalist Golden Age. All children of channeling potential are drafted by the Elementalist Guilds. The guilds themselves assume political control over the entire Empire, and the Emperor becomes a figurehead. The culture and language of Igakari becomes seen as “noble” in the Jerol Empire because of the guilds.

7912: The Jerol Empire invades Igakari from Habruk, bypassing Rothysia altogether. The forces of armored knights lead by channelers conquer Kressia and begin marching on Igakari proper from the north.

7914: Northern Igakari is temporarily occupied by Jerol Empire forces. These forces are driven out by a combination of mundane guerilla fighters on the Igan side, and a temporary truce between the Igans and the Barbarians of Rothysia, who come to their aid.

7916: Igakari reclaims Kressia from the Jerolan Empire. Jerol barters a truce with Igakari before the Igan and Rothysian forces have a chance to begin liberating parts of Habruk.

7937: A nameless Igakari Biomancer develops the Hull Tree, a biomantic technology that allows farmers to literally grow the hulls of ships and boats. Many thought the influx of new ships would help Igakari's economy and navy grow to unprecedented levels. Instead, the new invention prompts an economic collapse as it is adopted too quickly, and thousands of shipwrights are put out of business.

7957: The continuing economic crisis forces Igakari to cut its budget. It frees the lands of Kressia and the Southern Way to become self-governing and autonomous. The Kressian populace returns to a city-state level of politics, which they continue to maintain until the present with varying levels of succeess. The Southern Way degrades into a lawless state of anarchy, barely more civilized than the Barbarians of Rothysia, with fewer morals. Trade with Yessha becomes impossible over land.

7963: The last Emperor of the Jerolan Empire, Claus Weis II, dies. The office of Emperor is retired, the Jerolan Empire's leadership finally replaced with an oligarchy of the Elementalist Guild leaders.

8000: Anthromorph people begin migrating to Zhanpai, where they are brutally discriminated against. The first “Campaign of Human Purity” begins in Shoyu. There are several more of these campaigns in Shoyu and Goxian over the next several hundred years.

8018: The Southern Way begins to tame itself. Those along the banks of the Lyban river begin to allow trade caravans to pass again, destroying the Empire's monopoly on the trade of Yesshan goods, further harming its superpower status. Igakari begins to recover from its economic crisis.

8069: The Jerolan empire begins to lose control of the borderlands. Uprisings begin to tear the northern empire apart, especially in Habruk, Tehgrahan and Aesinra. Pockets of rogue, bandit nations begin to form.

8085: Bandit raids on many of the Empire's key economic cities, lead especially by a bandit known only as “The White Wraith of the West,” help bankrupt the nation. The Elementalist guilds begin to fight with one another for power.

8093: The Empire loses control of Aesinra.

8116: The Empire loses control of the Hightrade Rim

8122: The Second Jerolan Civil War begins between the final surviving Elementalist guilds. The war lasts a full two generations.

8138: The Empire loses control of Habruk. The Surviving members of the Sky Tribe are exiled from Kuulainen.

8140: The Empire loses control of Tehgrahan.

8150: The Igakari nation recovers from its anti-intellectualism and anti-mage sentiment in the face of invasion from Habrukans, culturally angry that Igakari chose not to help liberate them from the Jerolan Empire a century and a half before. In order to drive back the inland raiders and their divine magic, Igakari begins to develop enhanced methods of enchantment and wizardry.

8167: Archibald Crossduke is born. Julius Cerenbaun is born.

8180: The Igakari Golden Age of Peace and Prosperity begins as the Habrukan raids stop.

8189: The Jerol Empire officially collapses as the Necromancers and Biomancers of the Elementalist guild fight to the death outside Kaola. The Five Years of Chaos begins as the remaining Empire falls and fractures.

8192: The nation of Jerohm stabilizes in northern Yessha, continuing the traditions of the Jerol Empire, and asserting authoritative control over the Yesshan trade route.

8194: The Five Years of Chaos end, when Julius Cerenbaun takes control of the city of Jerol and successfully defends it from recently liberated Habrukan barbarians. He quickly leads a campaign to reclaim Shanbar and Querris, and unites them with Denenga into the nation of Cerenbaun. Afterwards, the King continues to ride through Jerolan lands, attempting to reclaim them under his banner.

8195: Archibald Crossduke officially becomes the court wizard of Cerenbaun, a position he continues to hold today.

8197: A lich loyal to Nektos becomes queen of Treddis

8199: Igakari sends a delegation of wizards to Cerenban, including the Fuchsia Immortal, in order to convince the king to not attempt to rebuild the Jerolan empire. The Igan delegation is at first rebuked. The King vanishes that night, and remains missing for two and a half months. When he returns, he has mysteriously agreed to the Igans' terms, and liberates all provinces but Querris, Denenga and Shanbar from his control.

The Classical Era ends. The Age of Magic begins.

8200: Platemail becomes obsolete as the general populace begins to learn how to cast wizardry. The influence of channelers over political discourse in both Igakari and Cerenbaun reduces dramatically. Anthromorphs become culturally accepted in Khodosan.

8221: The Magitech Revolution begins when an animancer named Armond Danzer announces to the world that he has discovered how to weave multiple spell effects into the same enchantment. He is found dead under mysterious circumstances 3 days later.

8222: Wands are invented, as well as other magical devices that can be activated by conscious thought. Swordplay enters a fencing age.

8231: The principles behind the Aledoran Soul Core are rediscovered. For the first time in thousands of years, non-elemancers find themselves able to command elementals.

8248: The Wizard's Council is founded.

8272: Cerenbaun business interests muscle out Jehrom interests from the Yesshan trade route, and slowly begin taking authoritative control, beginning with Treddis and the islands that separate the Sea of Lost Souls from the Sunless Sea.

8276: Archibald Crossduke becomes the first modern cybermancer, shedding his mortal body, and having his soul leap between his golems. In the process, he invents the ability to activate spells with other spells and mechanical devices, rather than aural manipulation and command words. The knowledge of how to do this helps elevate Cerenbaun to superpower status.

8310: Igakari begins to enter a decline, as the nation refuses to expand its territory or ideas.

8325: Elemancers revolutionize their craft by inventing constructs. Biomancers and necromancers are unimpressed.

8341: The first proper airship is invented by Archibald Crossduke, using lighter-than-air gasses to supplement levitation and control spells.

8367: The Ardlin godtouched race is created.

8371: Igakari's decline arguably worsens as it adopts an “Open border” policy. Further, all barbarians from Rothysia are to be treated with the rights of full citizens.

8378: Marcello Jeobardi invents the Jeobardi flier. His pterodactyl design, requiring a soul core to operate properly, does not catch on outside of Animancer circles, though it would have otherwise revolutionized air travel.

8384: The first modular golemnoth is invented, and begins patrolling the streets of Jerol.

8390: (Spring) The Possessions RP begins.

8391: The One Mother's presence vanishes. Spirit Animal solidarity fractures. Many spirit animals begin revealing themselves to other races in both friendly and unfriendly ways.

8392: The number of followers of The One Mother drops off rapidly. The goddess Raphalla begins to be worshiped as the goddess of life and fertility. Nature cults begin to worship Venrisha in droves. Death cults begin to pray to Nektos.

8397: Igakari stabilizes as its ruling body of scholars is replaced in a bloodless coup by a council of representative magistrates of Igakari's cities. Despite keeping Igakari's open border policy, the Magistrate council begins to colonize the Eastern Islands as a source for wealth, compromising Igakari's peaceful ideals, but saving the nation. Hasperia is founded.

8428: The First Railgate Station links Gaerman in Cerenbaun with the port city of Aldzan in Jehrom. It's creator, Zel Manzeen, becomes instantly world famous. Several assassination attempts are made on his life, but he survives.

8434: The First Railgate Station Network is constructed in the cities of Jerol, Austor and Montall, linking Cerenbaun's three capitols together. Cerenbaun's economic and productive capacity almost doubles overnight.

8436: (Summer) The Three Months War takes place. Cerenbaun invades the border lands of Gaelda with 30 Golemnoths, ostensibly to destroy bandits that Gaelda authorities refused to prosecute. Igakari condemns the action. War between the two superpowers is narrowly averted.

8439: The One Mother's presence returns. Spirit Animals begin to become xenophobic and unfriendly. The Worshipers of the One Mother begin treating her as if she is the goddess of death, and not life and death.

8440: (Spring) The Aarn 2 RP begins.

8440: Cerenbaun and Igakari draw up a treaty to allow certain border cities of Cerenbaun to be Railgate-linked to border cities in Igakari, allowing the two superpowers to more easily trade with one another. The treaty is hailed as ushering in a new era of peace and prosperity for all of Zenninfal.

8440: (Fall) The Aarn Adventures RP begins

8441: The One Mother and Nektos have a much publicized battle near the southeastern shore of Lake Anessis. For the first time in recorded history, 349 divine casters combine their efforts to cast a single ritual spell through dancing and singing. The goddess Reksha seems to be summoned by the ritual, who then puts a stop to the battle between Nektos and the One Mother. There is a sudden surge in the popularity of Reksha's cults.

8443: The year that will be considered “The present” for when/if Aarn is ever published as a game setting.

Aarn Timeline (Beginning with the Era of Lies)

The "Demonic Era," also known as "The Era of Lies" begins.

1600: Demons begin settling in Aarn, building their own cities, especially in Yessha and Western Zenninfal. The Demons name their cities in what will become Shanbar after the countries of Europe.

1700: The Merfolk begin gathering up in the Great Barrier Sea, fleeing the highly volcanic waters of the Eastern Islands. They abandon wizardry and begin developing biotechnology, choosing to shun magic.

1850: A combination of Demons being corrupted by power and Humans learning of religious dogma cause the Humans to start to worship Demons as gods.

2000: Aledoran remnants interbreeding with Udhan give rise to what will become the Yesshan race.

2100: The Tehxiona of Kuulainen begin sending emissaries into the world, teaching the old ways, and revealing how the Demon information about the afterlife is a “lie.” Horrible religious wars break out, with demon technology making these wars brutal and devastating.

2531: The Fey put their foot down and exile the demons off of Aarn, forever. This leaves behind backwards, technologically incompetent civilizations of all races who allow their religious fervor to rule themselves.

The “Era of Lies” ends. “The Age of Legends” begins.

2600: The Tehxiona, the only godtouched race with surviving technological base, begin conquering the continent, subjugating the other godtouched races, like the Aledorans before them. The Udhan in Rensvaja enter a long period of extended barbarism.

2850: A pollitical upheaval in the Tehxiona leadership causes much of their technological security to be compromised. Tehxiona devices and education start to become controlled by other races.

2900: The area that will become the Chianmos Desert, the major linking hub between the Eastern and Western Tehxiona empire, and the source of much of its food, begins to drought. The Tehxiona to the east begin interbreeding with Aledoran remndants, giving rise to the Zhan race.

2940: The Valdrex awaken from their extended hibernation. They begin to quietly manipulate events in Yessha, wishing the world to think they are extinct.

3000: A centaur empire begins forming in the Eastern Islands. They exilie all Aledoran remnants to the mainland.

3100: The Yun empire, humans secretly controlled and manipulated by the Valdrex, overthrow their Tehxiona masters in Yessha.

3300: The Yun begin conquering Camaria, driving out or killing the non-Yesshan populace. The drought in what will become the Chianmos desert worsens. A pollitical schism occurs in the Tehxiona empire, where the eastern and western areas of the empire are to be controlled by separate pollitical factions.

3320: The Yun conquer what will become Igakari, effectively separating the Eastern and Western Tehxiona empires further. Attempts to invade Rothysia result in stalemate with the Ghrok living there.

3450: The Yun begin conquering the islands that will become the Yesshan trade route, an area effectively ignored by the Tehxiona empire.

3455: The Yun launch a surprise invasion of Western Zenninfal from Treddis. The Western Tehxiona Empire falls back to Habruk, suing for peace. The ancestors of the Rothysian barbarians are cut off from the rest of Tehxiona and begin to integrate with the Ghrok. The Yun liberate the Satyrs, who teach the Yun advanced methods of agriculture. The Yun and Centaur empire ally with one another.

3500: Interbreeding between the Yun and Tehxiona give rise to the ancestors of the Jerolan people. An Era of protracted cold war between the Yun and Eastern Tehxiona begins

3900: Valdrex Wizards rediscover how to create and manipulate channeler portals. A vast network of gates is set up between the important parts of the Yun Empire. Cultural backlash between rapidly homogenizing cultural areas almost tears the empire apart. Eastern Tehxiona loses its superpower status in an economic collapse.

4000: A Lenneshin uprising in Zhanpai drives the humans out of the eastern Eifalos mountains.

4100: The Yun civil war ends, and Yun enters its golden age. Constant border conflicts arise between the Yun and the Rothysian barbarians. The Barbarians are never conquered, but this war helps to energize the Yun economy. Desertification begins to take hold in the already arid and overfarmed central Yessha.

4300: A large group of Naga attack Yessha, discovering that the Valdrex are still alive and controlling the Yun. They ally themselves with the harpies in the north, and use the Yuns' own portal gates to organize simultaneous strikes halfway across the world.

4350: The Yesshan desert nears its current size. The Yun depend on magics to keep it fertile and producing food. Naga rebels destroy these magical devices and a worldwide famine begins.

4400: The Lenneshin spread east, into the Khodosan valley. The Great Lenneshin Revival takes place.

4500: The Yun empire fractures. Their homogenous culture begins to degrade as barbarian and naga invasion brings Western Zenninfal and Yessha into a dark ages. The Valdrex retreat south, and begin conquering Rensvan and the barbarian Uhdan.

4600: The Zhan Empire is founded in Zhanpai, and begins conquering the Eastern Islands. A long protracted war between the Centaurs and the mainlanders begins.

4650: Satyrs in Western Zenninfal attempt to preserve knowledge despite the current dark ages, with the secret aid of spirit animals. Vizdane orders the Spirit animals to reveal their secret knowledge to the world. They abandon him, murder the Satyrs and begin following Venrisha. They actively work against any new civilizations that try to form in Western Zenninfal.

4700: The Centaurs invade Zhanpai, and begin setting up mainland colonies. At the same time, the Zhan Empire presses west, driving the Lenneshin in Khodosan underground.

4800: The Spirit Animals manage to completely destroy what remains of civilized harpies. They become animalistic, preying on human males to propogate their species. The Spirit Animals consider this a great success, but are rebuked by Venrisha who prefers perversion rather than complete destruction. She abandons the Spirit animals, and they are adopted by the One Mother.

4900: Remnants of the Yun empire rename themselves the Kamar empire, and conquer all of Camaria, Igakari and much of the Eastern islands. The Centaur empire finally collapses, and Centaurs revert to barbarism.

5000: A series of brutal four-way wars over what will become Igakari take place between the Kamar, the Habrukans, Rothysian Ghrok and the Zhan. Kamar retains control of the land, but interbreeding between the three human groups has created the precursor for the Igan race.

5100: Venrisha creates the anthromorph race of cursed humans. They are hunted by civilized races out of superstition and fear.

5200: Nektos successfully creates sentient undead. He rapidly begins spreading the undeath virus all over Aarn. Kamar loses control over the Eastern Islands.

The Age of Legends ends. The Era of Death begins.

5300: The Kamar remnants in the Eastern Islands are duped into believing that all tall people are secretly vampires in disguise. The average height of humans in the Eastern Islands plummets.

5600: The Zhan empire attempts to fight back the undead plague by creating their own magical plague, engineered to destroy those infected with undeath. This plague backfires horribly, killing anyone who has ever come into physical contact with an undead specimen. The Ghrok and Centaurs are almost driven to extinction. World population plummets. Nektos isolates his favorite species of undead in order to preserve them and releace them again once the plague has run its course. The Valdrex, once again, put themselves into a stasis.

5650: With the disappearance of their masters, the Rensvaja people (formerly the Uhdon) begin discovering the secrets of wizardry. Out of desperation, they form massive soul links with one another to resist the undead hordes.

5690: The first Rensvaja soul-linked channeler king rises to power.

5700: The Zhan empire fractures into the separate civilizations of Khodosan, Goxian and Shaoyu. As the Plague was created by magic, the Zhan culture chooses to brand magic as sinful.

5800: The last remnants of the Kamar empire revert to tribalism in the face of extinction.

6000: The Ez civilization begins to rise in Yessha, insulated from the global plague by the great heat and arid conditions.

6090: The largest soul-link in history, of 561 individuals, all die at once, plunging Rensvan into a time of chaos and strife, despite surviving much of the plague and undead invasion.

6100: The Great Plague finally ends, with the numbers of surviving Undead and Godtouched races pulled down to pathetic population levels. Much technological and magical knowledge is lost.

The Era of Death ends. The Classical Era begins.

On defining characteristics

Once upon a time, Aarn was a fantasy setting that was largely defined by what it was not. It was not a setting where the gods had anything to do with the afterlife. It was not a setting where a wizard's magic was amorphous and poorly understood. It was not a setting that involved those silly alignments. It was not a setting where magic failed to influence industry. It was not a setting where magic was separate from nature, or where its connection to mortals was left unexplained.

This trend was largely because, as a fan of fantasy, I designed Aarn by examining my favorite sorts of fantasy stories, then taking out or subverting what I didn't like about them. Aarn quickly ballooned into the sort of setting that I, personally, would love. But over the year and a half I have spent working on it, it's been hard to sell to people.

When you define something negatively, it becomes difficult to summarize in an attractive way. What makes it special doesn't sound so special, because you're forced to reference other works. In short, despite the content I've created, Aarn had very few defining characteristics it could call its own, that I could use to get strangers excited about the setting.

On that note, I've decided that the setting as a whole is mature enough for me to start to take more risks in its design. Sure, Aarn's demons are non-magical, science-fiction enhanced weirdos dressed up like 1940s America, and Aarn's afterlife is like few others, but the setting as a whole needs more than that to carry it.

So one of my new design goals is to take Aarn's magic and Aarn's society, then think about what sorts of unique, eye-catching and interesting technologies and cultures might develop. In some respects, trying to push the envelope with what can be done with Aarn's technology is something I should have done from the beginning, but better late than never, right?

Some of the things I've come up with are as follows:

Livestock that have been biomantically engineered to be much bigger than their Earthly counterparts. Hogs the size of cows, Chickens the size of ostriches, etc.

Cows that have been biomantically bred to brew beer, ale, spirits and wine in their udders, completely self-contained.

Trees that have been biomantically engineered to grow into the hulls for boats, ships and airships, allowing large and flexible navies to be grown, instead of built.

Necromancers and Death Channelers make excellent cooks, food preparers, and nutritionists. As those who become experienced in death channeling magic begin to naturally mummify, there is a high turnover and high demand for this field of work.

Towers built to impossible heights by, every 30 stories, creating a portal on the top of each support column that leads to the ground, somewhere out in the woods, distributing the weight of the building.

Shipping large amounts of illicit cargo by smuggling it in the pocketspaces of crowds of people crammed onto boats and airships.

Large guilds and organizations run by channelers for various industries. For instance, Earth, Metal and Water channeler bricklayers, road pavers and miners, working very efficiently, and very quickly, compared to non-magical infrastructure.

Wizard sweatshops, where low level wizards are forced to enchant random brick-a-brac all day long.

Railgate Networks: Imagine a train station, only on either end of each track is a large magitech ring instead of more track. This ring can be attuned to various other rings on various other stations in various other cities, in order to form an instant portal network between these stations. These stations are used to transport cargo primarily, though people can pay a premium. Many cities do not want to make emigration into or out of the city so cheap or easy, so ticket prices are artificially inflated. Military-Industrial railgate stations can also connect mines and lumberyards with blacksmith shops and animancer workshops, and can be transported by a strike team deep within enemy territory, where large armies can be brought in overnight. The railgate networks as a whole are a new technology, which are threatening the economic stability of shipping trade, caravan trade and airship trade, introducing an era of corporate espionage.

Large cities with intra-city gate systems, similar to the railgate network, causing a huge, sprawling “small town” area to have the economy and education level of an legitimate city because of quick access to the important public buildings.

Huge golems that patrol the streets of large cities, with massive tanks of water on their backs. Using channeling abilities, the golems use tendrils made of the water to put out fires, clean streets, clean windows and building walls, and help with the construction and repair of buildings.. These golems also act as an impromptu police and military response units.

Hovering slabs of metal that float on top of city streets, and are propelled either by force spells or propellers. Or even by kicking. (Hover scooters anyone?)

An international banking network run by magic, where anyone with a bank stamp can access their account from any affiliate bank in any nation. It is perhaps the formation of this banking system soon after the fall of the Jerol Empire that kept the world from plunging into a dark ages.

Aarn's chief military powers are known to use the corpses of giant sea turtles as the basic frames for their oceangoing siege vessels.

There are wand turrets with giant roating frames filled with many wands, allowing the turret to sling more than one spell every 3-6 seconds. Some animancers are attempting to adopt this technology for hand-held wands.

Religious ideas that are wrong -despite- proof of souls, gods, and an afterlife. Education is poor in Aarn's rural areas, and religious, faithful people are distrustful of verificationism. That and the reality (an afterlife where no gods are involved, at all, and there are only hells and no heavens) is one many religious people would choose to refuse to face. This one is perhaps too realistic for fantasy, but I do enjoy that it's in the system.

Magical Pollution, akin to light pollution in large cities. Those who live in highly industrialized, magitech cities have noticed that using aura-detection gear causes mild headaches because everything magical is so bright and tightly clustered together. Further, inanimate things that normally shouldn't have magic defenses tend to develop them if left in a highly industrialized city for too long.