The Last King of Salvar

This thread will contain random musings of lore and world-building elements for a potential quest line, I suppose. I promise I'll get to it within 20 years. For now, I'll just dump ideas here. Note that I am likely to retcon things as I please for this, usually for the sake of simplicity. I might integrate some of my notions with whatever is on the wiki later, but I'm giving myself liberties for now.

The potential end result of this plot line is to turn Salvar into a functional republic.

History Lore: (Categorized as Section A1: The Scarlet Null Stone)

After the Salvarian (Salvaran?) Civil War, all magic was banned. All of it. The people wanted no more of that nonsense, after Denebriel cast a spell that plunged the country into a years-long Long Winter that killed around 1/4 of the people, and all of her minions terrorized villages with demonic wizardry. Whatever was left of the mages went off to Raiaera to form Beinost, others who stayed were eventually hunted to extinction. I mean, not really. It was a very unenforceable law. Mages can hide in plain sight, after all.

However, in recent years, there was a discovery of a material, that when synthesized with other elements, formed something called a Scarlet Null Stone. This red-colored rock created a field around itself that nullified all magic. This wouldn't be that notable, except the the stone the size of a marble could nullify all magic within an entire kilometer. Alchemists around Salvar made larger and larger versions of this stone, until they had null stones the size of horses that could nullify magic within hundreds of miles.

People started burying these things in rival lands to reduce the power of their enemies, and after a couple years of everyone doing this, they suddenly all started resonating with each other, creating the largest field of nullified magic in history; A field that covered all of Salvar. Due to how numerous they were, and how well they were buried, it was essentially impossible to reverse this.

Interestingly, the absence of magic has caused a return to conventional armies. All of the lords of the land started recruiting and drilling, knowing that the spear, the arrow, and the horse were now essential tools of war again.

Geographic Lore: (Categorized as Section B1: The Government)

Due to the death of the king, and no suitable heirs, the monarchy was usurped by a relative of the Vogruk-Stokes Company. Maybe? Or a distant relative of the late king, who is part of the Vogruk-Stokes family. Either way, he's their puppet. Although, his actual power is pretty limited.

The wiki currently has 12 Boyars and 12 Ethereal Sway representatives as part of the Council, but I disagree with this notion. The Church lost a huge war, their Second Coming turned out to be a false god (their interpretation), why does their religion have the same relevance? To make things simple, here's the new Council:

10 Boyars. The church isn't involved in the government at all anymore. Each Boyar represents a Duke in the realm, which is the highest position outside of the King. Each Duke has their own demense and sends a Boyar to Knife's Edge. They can recall and replace the Boyar anytime they want.

Geographic Lore: (Categorized as Section B2: The Northlands)

The Northernmost Dukedom is simply called "The Northlands". They are the last bulwark against whatever horrors lurk in Berevar. The Dukes lives in a fortress carved directly into the mountainside (think Skellige). 50 kilometers north of it is The Northern Pass, a massive stone wall, beyond which is the harshest terrain in Salvar. 100 kilometers north of that is The Last Gate of Civilization, another huge stone wall, beyond which is a large wilderness that leads to a seemingly-endless mountain range that conceals Salvar from Berevar. However, there are a series of ancient caves through these mountains that allow denizens of Berevar to raid Salvar. They are generally deterred by The Last Gate.

Soldiers volunteer for the camp at the base of The Last Gate, an expedition that takes years and tests the mettle of men. Soldiers that survive this placement usually come back to high military honors and rank. Their job is to essentially patrol and maintain the wall. Sometimes they must defeat whatever monsters that attempt to scale or damage the wall. This is a small number, normally 100 of The Northlands' best.

Geographic Lore: (Categorized as Section B3: The Dukedom that has Tirel in it (to be renamed))

In this section, I detail a successful plot that allowed the Vogruk-Stokes Company to install a puppet Duke and rule both the Western and Eastern important centers of trade.