As the Vinci began to prosper, they found themselves surrounded by enemies. Outsiders sought to claim these newfound riches for themselves and began to stake claims upon the Vinci and their Mindstones. When conflict broke out, the Vinci armies turned the tides and soon conquered their neighbours.

In order to defend themselves from future conflicts, the Vinci turned their cities into fortresses and expelled all foreign diplomats and scholars. The isolated Duchies became even more reliant on advanced technology to make up for their losses in trade. Now, Universities are the real power in Vinci, while Dukes have become mere figureheads. This led to them being highly insular and suspicious, with their universities waging secret wars of sabotage and espionage on each other. 

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History

Swamp Home

Before the rift was opened, the Vinci were just a collection of villages built on swampland. The swamps of Vinci used to be one of the poorest areas of Tyria, inhabited by destitute peasants and their impoverished nobles.

Miracle from the Rift

When the great rift opened, violent quakes shook the land, and glowing stones started emerging from the depths of the swamps. At first, these were simply used to create jewellery, but soon the stones started to affect people’s minds and made them smarter, leading to a new time of technological and cultural progress.

Mindstone

Mindstones are rounded crystals, usually the size of a fist. They are semi-transparent and cloudy on the inside, with a blue-ish glow. A finite amount of Mindstone emerged from the swamps, and it’s now very rare to find any in the wild. Mindstones slowly affect the mind over time when in their proximity, almost as if they were telepathically sending ideas to the mind. Their origin and how they work is not explained.

Vinci Renaissance

Influenced by the Mindstones, the Vinci started building machines to drain the swamps and reclaim the land. They started expanding their farmland, built great cities, and became very rich very quickly.

Automa Invented

The Vinci established universities that attracted the best minds in all the land, which led to the invention of robots known as Automa. These robots were then used to help out with farming, construction, and generally served to boost the advancement of the Vinci even more.

Jealous Neighbours

The people of the nearby lands wanted these newfound riches for themselves, and the Vinci were soon surrounded by enemies. A violent conflict ensued, with the Vinci unleashing all of their destructive force against them, stomping out all their neighbours.

Age of Seclusion

In order to defend themselves, the Vinci built high walls around their cities, killed all foreign diplomats and scholars, and banished outsiders from taking part in Vinci matters. During these times, the Vinci became even more reliant on advanced technology, increasing the universities’ influence, and making them the real power in Vinci, with the dukes only being rulers in name.

Secret Wars

With time, the Vinci became more and more insular and suspicious, to the point where even the universities wage secret wars and spy against each other.

Society

Thanks to the mind-enhancing properties of this magical mineral, the Duchies of Vinci are now a powerful and prosperous confederation of cities, home to renowned universities and fiercely defending their borders with state-of-the-art Automa technology. In addition to the envy of other factions, the Duchies have to contend with internal tensions as well, especially now that the supply of Mindstone is limited.

A Confederation of Duchies

The Vinci region is a mosaic of Duchies, usually centred around one major town that acts as the seat of power. Most of these Duchies were founded by a noble family that was able to secure enough Mindstone during the initial rush to stake their claim and protect it against other ambitious clans. In theory, the Ducal family has absolute power over its subjects and domains. In practice, this power is often shared with other influential figures, most notably the Universities without which Mindstone could not be used to its full potential. Duchies are  not equal in powers, and neither are Universities. The larger ones can lean on the smaller in order to push them to serve their interests. However, the Vinci elites backed each other against any external threat, knowing that division could spell the end of their monopoly over Mindstone technology.

Mindstone

Worn on one’s body, a fragment of Mindstone can clear the mind, enhance and speed up thought, and in general make one as sharp as one could possibly be. What makes it even more valuable is that Mindstone can be manipulated, engraved, and assembled into magical patterns, allowing it to store and enact complex instructions and produce energy. The people of Vinci, suddenly coming into possession of so much Mindstone, used it to create robotic beings called Automa that act as tireless servants and are able to execute complex tasks with a large degree of autonomy. With their brain power augmented by Mindstone, Vinci researchers are constantly improving upon this technology, while also coming up with new weapons, tools, industrial equipment and processes. Mindstone is the source of the newfound, overwhelming power of the Duchies of Vinci.

Universities

Mindstone enhances the intelligence of its wearer, transforming those fortunate enough to acquire it into scholars and inventors. Some began to incorporate the stone into their inventions and gained quite a lot of influence. Soon, the Duchies were granting them funds and recruiting apprentices to learn from them. As the Duchies consolidated, this practice led to the creation of Universities. Having a good university means a lot for a Duchy, so much so that the more ambitious of the Inventors were able to obtain significant political power. In many Duchies, the Dean of the University is second only to the Duke themselves, and there are even cases where the real power is held by the University, the Duke being a mere puppet. For Vinci citizens of common birth, the surest path to rise in society is to manage to become a student in a University.

Social Climbing

The supply of Mindstone is finite, and the discovery of a fresh vein has become a rare event. This has only made the mineral more precious, and pushed the Universities to strive for ways to use the stone with the greatest efficiency possible. Mindstone is jealously guarded; generations ago, many Vinci citizens carried around a ring or a brooch with a sliver of it, but now it’s a luxury mostly afforded to the highest ranks of Ducal families and University administration. Thanks to their technology, there is little poverty in the Duchies, but wealth is still concentrated on the highest echelons. The only true way to rise in rank for the low-born is to manage to enter a University, or to be lucky enough to find one of the rare bits of Mindstone still around, and clever enough to keep it.

Divisions

Competition is ferocious between the Duchies of Vinci. They are constantly spying on each other, stealing technological secrets and Mindstone reserves, intriguing to poach or eliminate high-ranking nobles and inventors. There have been many small scale conflicts, cloak-and-dagger affairs, even within families there are coups and other plots. Some grudges originate from the early days of the Mindstone rush, or even before, to land rivalries between desperate farmers. The Vinci people overall have a reputation for stubbornness and pride that is not unearned. Many outside factions, craving access to the powerful Mindstone, would love to exploit those divisions. But they have been unsuccessful so far. Behind their high walls, the Duchies remain impenetrable.

Isolationists

Shielded from intruders, the Duchies of Vinci have so far been content to make money through commerce of their many manufactured goods and hiring out companies of soldiers and Automa for war and civil works. This is already a pretty profitable position, but there are some who clamour for more: the Duchies, they say, should seize the lands of these unsophisticated barbarians. They say that Vinci could thrive where the Human Empire failed. Maybe due to their peasant roots, most Vinci citizens are still in favour of cautious isolationism. But as the years go by, proponents of expansionism become more vocal, more numerous and seem to gain the ear of some in the upper circles of their society.

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