last week I suggested a world for Final Fantasy, or just about any fantasy story, this time I want to go into more depth on a part of that world I'll call Cyberia. Cyberia is a unique place, a small nation on a small continent mostly marked by iron rich mountains and a near constant thunderstorm, it is rather hostile toward life, forcing the population to live in coastal villages. The people live here because they need the ore to make cybernetics, a seemingly anachronistic technology in an otherwise medieval/renaissance sort of world. Cybernetics were a gift from Golem, the mechanical Thunder God, along with the power of electricity to power those cybernetics.
A cyborg is born like a normal human except that they are missing their left arm and instead have an electrogenic organ in its place. Cyberian culture is to raise their children to use their innate electric power and to craft cybernetics. Once a cyborg has stopped growing they are considered an adult, receive their cybernetic arm and take a test to determine which of three castes they will go in. Those who prove adept at handling complex electronics to make cybernetics join the highest caste of Engineers, handling the sacred duty of making cybernetics as well as leading the community and planning the architecture of the city. Those who are not as intellectually adept, but still skillful with manual labor and crafting join the caste of Smiths and make the basic parts of cybernetics as well as crafting swords and other tools and metal goods for domestic use and export. Those who do not present enough skill for either join the cast of Miners, named because the best job for such individuals is to mine raw metal ore, though many become merchants exporting metal goods in exchange for food and other goods that cannot be acquired domestically or else fishermen and rarely the desperate attempt to become farmers. Generally it is understood that all are necessary for life and higher castes try not to look down on lower castes knowing that they will have to do the work themselves if they don't respect those that supply their basic needs.
One great equalizer is fencing, the national sport of Cyberia. Caste does not matter in fencing, the tradition of fighting has nothing to do with the practical proficiency of the economy, and it is not uncommon for a miner to best an Engineer. The costs of the sport are balanced because as equipment are prizes, so if a poor person proves skillful against other amateurs, they get what they need to work their way up the ranks so in the highest match, skill alone trumps any other advantage one may have. Cyborgs are generally peaceful and only engage in swordsmanship in memory of the legendary swordsmanship of Golem himself.
One notable quality of cyborgs is their innate use of electricity both magically and non-magically. Normally they use it only for powering their cybernetics, but they have also refined the art of channeling their electricity into tools and weapons, making their favored class Spellsword, which is unique to Cyborgs as nobody else can use such abilities in their world. By the time a child has grown to use a cybernetic arm, they have already been able to use Enthunder, and can easily learn to use Enthundara without the need for a crystal. Using a thunder crystal shard, they can develop Enthundaga, and a fire crystal shard allows them to develop Enfire, Enfira, and Enfiraga, and using both with a blessing from Levithan unlocks Enflare. If they acquire a dark crystal shard they can use sword magic of the dark element as well as status effects, but such shards are hard to come by and even then, the cursed shards will invariably backfire on the cyborg.
The Thunder Crystal seemed to sustain the persistent thunder storm for the better part of the last thousand years, but twenty-two years ago when the crystal shattered, the thunderstorm stopped and the landscape of Cyberia has slowly changed, getting more verdant as vegetation starts to spread over the less hostile landscape. There is still a barren desert plateau where the crystal used to be.
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