Magical Realm Cyoa/Megalodonia

Build

Complications: [175]Nightmare!/Bound!/Benevolent!

Demiplane: [164]Area Increase 6(11)

Planar Features: [153]Insertion/Portals/Protection 2(11)

Population: [139]Population Increase 7(14)

Inhabitants: [125]Attitude Adjustment/Culture & Customs/Pretty/Demographics/Longevity/Metahuman(14)

Technology: [120]Technology Upgrade 5(5)

Magic: [110]Magical Upgrade 5(10)

Society: [084]Aesthetics/Public Education/University/Diplomatic/Wealthy/Industrial/Mystical/Technomagic/Infrastructure/Sanitation/Secure/Healthy(26)

Culture: [076]Intellectual/Sports/Warefare/Religious/Occult/Nature/Alcohol/Food(8)

Environment: [062]Landscape Adjustments/Fertile/Rich/Exceptional Materials/Fauna & Flora 3(14)

Adventure: [050]Dungeons 3/Spirits/Malice/Theme(12)

Capital: [045]Lifestyle Upgrade 1/Influence 1/Artifact(5)

Personal: [027]Immortality/Shape Shift 1/Tongues/Memory/Awareness/Inspiration/Peak Condition/Superhuman Body/Blessing(18)

Powers: [013]Alchemy/Healing/Enchanting/Conjuration/Elementalism 3/Nullification(14)

Companions: [010]Familiar(3)

Ascendance: [000]Guidance 2(10)

Brief History and General Overview

Futuristic Modern era civilization filled with magic and magitech. The people live in scattered city states on a great Pangaea. Early in this land's civilization about 2500 years ago, its people were brought to the brink of extinction and collapse, a cosmic horror from beyond space and time descended upon the world and corrupted the land and nature itself. The magical flora and fauna grew, mutated and evolved rapidly and became deadly and toxic to eat. Diseases and infertility plagues culled and sterilized two thirds of the population. But the people persevered, survivors and mountain hermits developed a way of life that incorporated fitness, health, mental discipline and fortitude as well as magic into a martial life philosophy known as The Path of the Enduring Mountain, or simply shortened to The Path, and developed methods to cleanse diseases, fight off the monsters, cancerous vegetation and horrible aberrations at their doorsteps, purify the water, flora and fauna of the cosmic horror's taint so it is made safe for consumption and even find way to partially remedy infertility. The first muscle wizard masters after centuries of struggle eventually subdued the cosmic horror and imprisoned it underneath an enormous mystical mountain; Mount Megalodon. Yet its madness continues seeps into the land and its wild and savage malice still threatens to consume civilization.

Megalodonia's distant past is mired in myth and fables, most modern Megalodonians understand their past through allegories of muscle magic philosophy, parables and epics that have been passed down in oral tradition, with each retelling adding on more and more cryptic layers of fiction and half-truths. Actual historical records that stretch to the days of the cosmic horror is fragmented and undecipherable, and most exist in barely recognizable ancient ruins littered around Mount Megalodon’s base. Many whisper more complete records and secrets of Megalodonia's past sit idly in the ever shifting and transforming labyrinths and catacombs nestled in the dark shadowy quarantined zones contaminated heavily with the cosmic horror's lingering malice, where living tendrils of pitch blackness, static gray nightmares and other horrendous evil spirits roam there confines. Few dare to venture into those dark depths and even lesser return alive or with their sanity unscathed.

Fast forward to the present day, over two millennia of forced natural selection, adaptation and immunization to the horrors of this deadly land, as well as staunch adherence to the guiding teachings of the Path, has made the people super-humanly strong and large of stature. The average female stands 7-9 feet tall, whilst the average males stand head and shoulders even above their fairer gender counterparts at around 9-12 feet tall. Unfortunately, the lingering effects of male infertility persist to this day and modern Megalodonian societies are cursed with highly skewed 90% female demographics. All adult males are accomplished muscle wizards that guide, teach and govern the people living in scattered city states too numerous to count, separated by vast death jungles and civilization devouring wilderness. Each city state has its own flare of customs and traditions, but overall universally themed around a meritocratic warrior-scholar culture and system of governance, adhering to the principles of muscle magic and the Path of the Enduring Mountain, where strength, skill and courage is acknowledged beyond all else, and chivalry and honor is upheld by every citizen, lest society breaks down and the ravenous and malicious nature reclaims back the land.

Daily life in Megalodonia is thrilling and work is abundant, there is much to do, from fighting back the violent nature that encroaches upon the cities, to ferrying and transporting enormous armored cargo and trade caravans through the horrendously dangerous badlands, to setting out on great expeditions to uncover the secrets of this wild land or to establish new city states. Many still spend their lifetimes honing the ancient martial spell casting art of muscle wizardry to the level of a grand master and beyond or becoming mountain guardians ensuring the cosmic horror never escapes its prison. Regardless of profession, social status or wealth, pulp fiction adventures and Jolly Corporation awaits for each Megalodonian.

Landscape and Biomes

Megalodonia is a Pangaea of epic proportions that stretches the width and breadth of a Jupiter sized planet surrounded on all sides by four vast oceans. It mirrors Earth in many ways, there is one sun, one moon called Lobos, four seasons and there is 24 hours in a day and 365 days in a year. A massive mountain range spans across the entire Pangaea like an arching spine, crowning the 50 km tall Mount Megalodon at its center. The gravity on Meglodonia is 2.5 times greater than that of Earth.

The northern fringe of the Pangaea is covered in mercilessly harsh tundra broken by vast liquid nitrogen lakes and snaking river veins, temperatures here can plummet close to -150 degrees Celsius. Many different species of eldritch liquid nitrogen life forms live in this biome able to flash freeze its victims in burning dry ice to desiccant brittle corpses instantly. Enormous cracks scar the tundra landscape leaking inky black morass fog. At the deepest point of these crevices it is said that temperatures drop to absolute zero, and at this depth terrible entropy eating shadow creatures roam; these are all but dark rumors. Historically, the lowest point reached by any Megalodonian had temperatures register at -250 degrees Celsius, the Muscle Wizard grand master and company who attempted this expedition dropped dead from severe frost bite and hypothermia at the doorstep of his home city just as he returned from his journey. He had tied his entire expedition team on tandem sleds and dragged their corpses through many kilometers of horrendous wilderness so his body and the bodies of his dear comrades can receive proper burials at the footsteps of Mount Megalodon. What little we know of the expedition was etched into the Muscle Wizard's own flesh.

Further south of the tundra, we begin to approach boreal forests teeming with carnivorous conifers and fresh water lakes connected by subterranean rivers. Woolly Shoggoths stalk these forests; their pseudopod appendages snatched and gobbled up morsel by bloody morsel in the thousand jawed branches and razor sharp pines of lumbering carnivorous trees in their mindless pursuit of smaller prey. Fresh water world gorging kraken reside in the lakes, their poisonously barbed tentacles stretch many miles through the networks of subterranean rivers, snatching any fish or beast that try to quench their thirst in one of their unsuspecting waterholes. Howling banshee wolves prowl these lands in large packs numbering in the hundreds, their collective power of their howls can level city blocks flat and violently reverberate any poor soul into flesh paste at point blank range. Swift Pyro Antler Caribou roam the boreal forests in protective herds always alert and on the move, aggressively ramming their thermite tipped antlers into anything they perceive to be threats, this allow a few of the adult, lame or old members of the herd to sacrifice their lives in a porphyric blaze of glory, allowing the rest of the herd to breakthrough encroachments made by carnivorous conifer trees seeking an easy meal, all-consuming woolly shoggoths or survive Howling banshee wolf ambushes.

As we approach south of the Boreal forest, we reach temperate coniferous forest, wild savannas and shrub land. These lands are the most peaceful and most inhabited by Megalodonians. A wide variety of smaller and tamer species of shoggoths roam these lands, many are domesticated as pets and livestock. Rodents thrive in great abundance, monomolecular razor teethed rabbits and beavers live in large warrens and in dammed river ways and prove to be extremely hazardous to major city infrastructure, gnawing through alchemically enchanted reinforced concrete and carbon nanotube meshed rebar in minutes, hive rats scour the sewers and dark places protecting their primal and savage psionic rat king hosts with their own bodies. The diamond barked oaks and strangling tangle cord willow trees, shrapnel wire shrubs, spine grain wheat fields and herds of rampaging tarrasques are all too common sights, as well as the parasitic crab grass and thorn thistles growing everywhere and on everything, sometimes on unsuspecting Megalodonians, their roots drilling so deeply into flesh they choke arteries and rupture organs. Many ruins and labyrinths of Megalodonia's forgotten past dot the temperate landscape as well as dark malicious hot zones; dangerous regions where the malicious influence of the cosmic horror taints deeper than all the rest, where living nightmares and horrors still lurk and tread in those shadowy confines.

As we venture even more south of the temperate biome, we arrive in the tropical phoenix forests and snaking napalm badlands that exist in scattered microcosms across all of Megalodonia. This is where biodiversity is the highest, explosive thermite flora and metastablized hydrogen metal coated prey and predators thrive in the greatest abundance, and every so often flash fires known as great bombardments scorch the entire biome as the thermite seeds of dynamite trees ignite, and the coats of the many beasts combust with great thunderous fury, signaling destruction and the beginning of new life. New dynamite saplings sprout from the ashes and charred remains of victims with no flame retardant protection or were too slow to escape or hide from the raging explosions. Fertile mothers shed and combust their hydrogen metal hides, furs and scales to signal the start of mating season and to burrow and bare many children. This is also the biome of disease, terrible insect carriers and plagues. The carriers and causers of the contagions mutate and evolve every couple of months to deadlier strains. Station posts of medical expedition detachments can be found nestled in the canopies, skilled doctors and their nurses and apprentices busy themselves analyzing and studying the myriad number of diseases that continue to kill Megalodonians in the most excruciating painful of ways elucidating cures and ailments whenever possible.

At the southernmost point of the Pangaea lies the endless alabaster desert, caked in white salt and burning limestone sands of azure flame from burning oil wells and seeping deposits of asphalt and natural gasses. Temperatures reach 100 degree Celsius on the surface, boiling away any moisture to vapor. What life that remains, reside here living deep underground in networks of convoluted subterranean tunnels carved out by the acid of massive bulimic sand wurms seeking the juicy meat of plasma bombardier beetles, bioluminescent cave shoggoths, plasma pot ants suckling on the oil wells, gasses and tar pits and also on phosphorous alkaloid tuber roots. Great glass and molten slag cathedral mounds of white phosphorous welder termites also dot the landscape, gathering the white salts and sands and melting them to slag to create their colonies. These termites collect the pollen and floating seeds of drifting methane gas palm trees, the webbed and methane filled ballooning leaves allow these trees to glide and float on the rising hot air and wind currents, their spindly porous trunks hungrily absorb the condensing water vapor and the dangling umbrella like root systems extends hundreds of feet down to the sand and salt anchored by termite cathedral mounds. The welder termites cultivate and grow methane palm saplings to feed their Brain infesting fungal groves to feed their colonies as well as to act as a defense mechanism against intruders. Vicious flesh eating and necrotic bacteria exist in these lands, decomposing dead sand wurms, insects, flora and shoggoths to oil, tar, and natural gasses as soon as they die; continuing the circle of life.

Finally, the coasts and shores of the Pangaea are covered in jagged rocks and steep spiraling cliffs, blistering brine and carbon filament coral. Many great flying horrors can be found along the shoreline. The dagger headed and blade winged sea striders and gaping maw dragons fly in large flocks, more teeth and maws then body or head, they swoop down skimming the waters and dark abyss with their maws wide open, pulling up to gorge on their catch. Inferno mantis shrimp and blade spine hydro ramjet nautili can be found lazily floating along the shallow ocean floor, when disturbed the inferno mantis spays its vicinity with a magnesium ink and instantaneously swing their claws with such force and acceleration, the waters ignite in fiery infernos of burning magnesium and cavitation that burn as hot as a star's core. The ramjet nautili ram themselves at their prey or would-be predators at excess of Mach 5 riding in supercavitating bubbles cutting their prey and predators sometimes in half on their carbon filament razor edged shells. Certain species of the ramjet nautili can take up sand and small stones in its hyponome ramjet organs and can expel streams of high pressure water that can cut through the strongest of steel and hardest of armor a kilometer away. Extremely monstrous creatures can be found in the deeper parts of the four oceans of Megalodonia, from the leviathan vacuum whales, massive kilometer sized beasts that sit at the lowest point of the ocean creating gigantic whirlpools and underwater vacuums trapping and devouring any creature caught in its rippling siphon to sate its insatiable hunger. To the seawater world gorging krakens that can grow many magnitudes larger than their fresh water cousins, not to mention the swarms of ravenous turbine sharks with mouths full of jagged dagger-like teeth that spin and grind like a underwater jet engine and seawater bone splitter piranhas that can chew and digest through any material, leaving a not trace of their victims.

Mount Megalodon

Mount Megalodon is a massive 50 km tall artificially created obsidian black mountain, it goes by many names throughout the eons; Crown of kings, Fang of Ouroboros, The Black summit, The Bleeding Edge, The Onyx Infinity etc. The mountain itself is surrounded by thousands of smaller mountain ranges and ridges that snake and stretch to every corner of Megalodonia. Three gigantic cloud halos each one larger than the last, ring around its immense peak in ascending order as it points upward to the celestial sky, while its base extends deep into the deepest abyss, imprisoning the Cosmic Horror in its non-Euclidean pocket dimension.

To serve its purpose as an Eldritch Prison, hundreds of thousands of ancient runes and scriptures are carved into the mountain’s base, by hand, fist and fingertip. Blood stains, cracked bones and viscera degraded and dissolved off long ago, coat these wards as dust and ashen residues, evoking desperation, cries for help and frantic prayers for salvation as the entire world sought to devour the ancient Megalodonian civilization and people whole.

Billions of hands etched away into the cruel rock and cliff face so hundreds of thousands more can be saved, surviving to build a brighter future. The magical aura and fields generated by these runes are incredibly powerful and their magical properties work reliably without fail, powered by the pure essence of hope itself and the blood of innocents dying to cruel tragic fates. Tainted water and poisoned food is purified as it touches its base, common magic and advance technology ceases to function as they come in contact with the mystical aura that enshrouds its imposing presence, only muscle magic can be channeled near the mountain’s proximity and only those noble and virtuous intent can tread its treacherous cliffs and craggy steps.

Passing Muscle Wizard disciples, patrolling mountain guardians and excavating archeologists alike swear they can hear feint murmurs of sobbing children and monotone prayers carried to their ears by winds brushing against the worn chiseled intricate grooves of these mystical symbols.

According to old Megalodonian lore, Megalodon is steeped with so much mystical energy, the peak acts as a conduit igniting the muscle magic spark in whoever is worthy of climbing to its highest reach. When the latent muscle magic potential is awakened in an aspiring muscle wizard, he or she gains true enlightenment from the sacred trinity of mind, body and spirit. For a brief moment, the disciple takes a glimpse into muscle nirvana; the liberation of worldly frailties and achieving clarity and understanding in all the virtues of the mountain as muscle magic is breathed in and weaved out of his or her body. When the disciple climbs down, he is wiser, nobler with a renewed sense of resolve for chivalry, righteousness, and honor bound purpose.

Since the days of triumph when the cosmic horror was finally subdued under the mountain, the greatest muscle wizard grand masters of every successor generation has been buried in the vast underground caverns of this great mountain, their muscle magic essence leaving behind their now dusting corpses, sieving upward to its peak through ore veins and grooved water channels, accumulating into a massive matrix reservoir of muscle magic.

Muscle Wizard disciples and civilians who received some training in the muscle magic art , generally have their cremated remains scattered around the mountain base or etched into runic symbols to further empower the wards, enchantments and auras that continue to keep the Cosmic Horror at bay.

Leyline Networks

Communication in Megalodonia is facilitated by systems of leylines, historically centered on Mount Megalodon, in more modern times the runic communication systems have been painstakingly relocated and refurbished, with new runes written to expand its reach, around the nearby crowning mountain ranges to prevent scrambling of signals between barrier and communication leylines. These leylines form an ethereal network consisting of relays of repeating identical runes connected together by magic facilitated quantum entanglement interactions. The quality of the signal sent and received depends on how accurate and precise the newly inscribed runes are to the ideal original characters that they were derived from, they cannot be mechanically printed, but physically inscribed by a hand channeling muscle magic with small room for tolerable error.

Regardless of spatial and temporal differences in the multiverse, signals transmitted from one end of the network will instantaneously be received on the other end, alchemic converters transmutate the runic signals to audio-visual displays and vice versa.

Barrier leylines derive their power from Mount Megalodon itself and thus the runes that fall under this system must be etched in the sacred mountain to retain their properties, these runes serve to reinforce the already formidable barrier around the sacred mountain by manipulating the folded space-time field to fill in holes, leaks and tying up loose knots found in the system. Due to the great urgency to keep the barrier strengthened at all costs, great care and months of tedious effort has been put into etching every rune that goes towards the barrier encryption, so each character is as close as possible to the resemblance to the original ideal.

The runes associated with this communication network are inscribed closest to mountain peaks, while the collective system of runes serving as the barrier of cosmic horror imprisonment are inscribed at the base of the sacred mountain, spiraling to the unseen bottomless abyss.

Realm Wizard and Familiar

Armstrong

The realm wizard of this plane, resides in a small manor somewhere hidden at the base of Mount Megalodon, he is an adventurer, jovial, gentle and restless in heart and spirit, never staying in one place for every long. He could be at Mount Megalodon welcoming and sending the first initiates off on the trial of the mountain; the first step to becoming full fledge muscle wizards. To teaching children, scholars, muscle wizards masters of every age and walk of life; whoever cares to listen to his philosophies and spell casting ways, drinking a few pints and telling his long winded thrill steeped stories in the many pubs that dot the land, or hunting and stalking the deadliest of creatures and nature bred killing machines. He is that cool and loud uncle invited on every family gathering and he is also that stern father figure that dispenses hard wisdom when nobody wants to hear but deserves to be heard. He is the eternal mountain and some even whisper in exaggerated legends, the founder of muscle wizardry who lifted the forgotten continent into the air and hurled it at the cosmic horror as it threatened to consume Megalodonia in madness and depravity, and laid down the leyline foundation for the powerful enchantments on the sacred mountain that stands atop its prison. And thus two continents became one.

He is simply known as Armstrong, a 12 foot tall giant of a man, rippling with muscle on every inch of his massive body, bald save for a lock of curly blonde hair and sporting a lavished and well groomed blonde mustache with intense piercing blue eyes. His previous life on earth was that of wanton misery and despair. He was born diseased ridden, suffering from severe muscular dystrophy and his mother died giving birth to him. All of young life he was wheel chair bound and knew nothing but being shuffled from hospital to hospital, the stench of sterility and rubbing alcohol filling his every waking moment. His father even resents him for precariously kill his beloved soul mate with his tragic birth.

When the god wizard presented the opportunity of great unfathomable power, he grasped at it with all his might, filling his heart with hope and his spirit held high with chivalry and honor. The realm he crafted is a reflection of his fragile psyche, the imprisoned cosmic horror is literally the manifestation of all his anxiety, despair, misery, mother and abandoned children syndrome issues rolled into one decrepit entity.

Armstrong loves adventure and making new friends where ever he roams in the multiverse, above all he loves to teach about his life philosophy of The Path of The Enduring Mountain to anyone who cares to listen and willing to learn over a few pints of beer and a hearty feast. In friendly realms that greet him with hospitality, he returns that generosity and kindness many times over, granting his hosts his greatest boon to the tallest mountain or highest peak equivalent in their realm, enchanted and inscribed with his runes and magical muscle essence, becoming forever tethered to the leyline network anchored to Mount Megalodon, the great mountain’s blessings and protection now theirs to freely use as they see fit. If no mountain exist, then Armstrong will shape and craft one himself.

Familiar

Armstrong has a familiar; in the exact likeness of the realm wizard but with a jet black lock of hair and mustache, he goes by the name of Strongarm, possessing all of his powers and strengths. Strongarm's calm, cold and collected introversion contrasts like a mirror to Armstrong’s enthusiastic joviality and rambunctious extroversion, the familiar spends most of his time in quiet study in his own dimensional pocket library, containing all the knowledge for godhood ascension. On the rare occasion he is not researching, Strongarm treads the world softly cloaked and unseen, leading the Mountain Guardians in their duties and developing new runes and wards.

In the darkest hour of overwhelming odds, Armstrong and Strongarm can merge together, two minds of one soul becomes whole again, reuniting Armstrong's experience and instinct from his countless adventures with Strongarm's collective knowledge and technical acumen, mastered in his eons of study and research. The complete being is in the splitting image of Armstrong but his facial features exhibiting the most awesome blond beard to ever grace a man’s face. With their powers combined, they are the epitome of muscle magic made flesh and bone.

Cities and Politics

Cities:

Megalodonian cities are clean, self-sufficient, safe and lightly populated close knit communities with amazing infrastructure, the largest of which have a population approaching a million people and can get as small as a few thousand souls. Cities tend to be very ruggedly and efficiently designed, with easily navigable geometrical hexagonal or concaving radial grid blocks centered on shopping and business districts with spaces for urban living, education, scientific and magic R&D and recreation circling around them. The outer fringe of city limits are reserved for industry and agriculture designed with cheap yet sturdy brutalism architecture, reinforced with fortifications, alchemic magic, runes and enchantments to prevent the encroachment of the wild, while the inner blocks are designed following the entire spectrum of modernist and post-modernist architectural principles. Regardless of architecture used, all Megalodonian cities have a hint of Victorian style and charm.

Cities are designed in such way that an average Megalodonian with their superhuman physique can sprint or walk to any location in the city's boundaries within seconds and minutes respectively and large modular blocks can quickly be prefabricated and erected in weeks for easy repair, maintenance, renovation and expansion.

City Politics:

Generally speaking, cities are led by muscle wizard grand masters, with governance and management of specific city functions and sectors handled by committees and administrations of muscle wizard masters. Lower government services such as mail delivery and garbage disposal are managed by muscle wizard apprentices down to the lower hierarchy of command to regular Megalodonian civilians with minimal muscle magic training. Each city state its own customs and traditions of how muscle wizard grand masters are elected, crowned, sworn in or voted into office and how muscle wizards are elected into specific administrative and managerial positions that are too numerous to mention. Overall, every custom and proceeding follows a very meritocratic approach with slight nepotistic undertones.

With all things considered, city state relationships are overall friendly to borderline neutral. Trade, competition for discovery and exploration of new resources and new prospects are greatly encouraged. City state and personal feuds and disputes are settled with great contests of strength or posing fought between the city's respective Wizard leaders to entire teams of muscle wizards and their apprentices in full out tug of war rope battles. The winners claim the spoils of the land in name only as ventures and expeditions into the savage wilderness are usually joint efforts of two or more city states working in jolly cooperation! With the winning city state's Muscle Wizard leader(s) having the great honor of leading the venture.

Global Politics:

Global political matters are handled by a muscle wizard summit meeting, occurring officially once every year or if circumstances calls for one. Representative grand masters of each city state gather at the base of Mount Megalodon to discuss and delegate on the problems at hand, they are scrutinized, various solutions are presented and a vote is caste to determine the best course of action.

If no agreement is reached then judgement and overruling falls to the eldest and most powerful muscle wizard grand master(Armstrong), then to his familiar or to the most senior member of the Mountain Guardians present if the realm wizard and his familiar are absent, for consultancy, to recast the votes or to veto the results altogether. Overall city state and worldly issues and governance are handled autonomously by the city leaders themselves and the muscle wizard summit respectively.

Health and Cultural/Social Structure

Health:

Megalodonian Doctors are highly respected, as they are the guardians and wardens of sperm vaults, literally safeguarding the seeds of future generations. Females are required to pass a test of fitness, health and strength to be eligible of becoming mothers and children are raised collectively by their respective communities in a very Spartan fashion, close relationships are still maintained by the birth mother and their offspring. Old male muscle wizards of the community or city are viewed and act as surrogate fathers, while younger male muscle wizard adepts are seen and act as big brothers. Due to the rapidly evolving wildlife and to prevent pandemics from devastating its people, Megalodonian citizens are vaccinated on an almost monthly basis. Many muscle wizard doctors and their musclegirl nurses and assistants have taken matters into their own capable hands and spearheaded expeditions, braving the unknown to acquire and study deadlier strains of super viruses, mutagenic bacteria, parasites and everything in between.

Muscle wizard doctors inject the deadly strains into their bodies and through weeks and months of meditation and manipulation of muscle magic, cure their bodies of the blight, developing vaccines and cures through their blood and precious bodily fluids, which their assistants and nurses extract from their bodies. Concentrating, purifying and then distributing the life saving medicine among the populace in public medical facilities and health centers. As a result, the average Megalodonian have incredibly robust immune systems against mundane or magical means and rarely fall ill.

Male births are celebrated joyous occasions, and are pampered and raised with the utmost of care. Male children are prioritized first for muscle wizardry training and their skills, magic and strength are honed beyond the scope of the general population. That being said, every Megalodonian has access to a very high standard of public education with emphasis on physical training and kinesiological understanding of their bodies. Knowledge and muscle magic philosophy and teachings are widely available through well-funded libraries to better develop and maintain well roundedness of body, mind and spirit among every citizenry. Higher forms of education exist in technical colleges, universities and apprenticeships to muscle wizard masters, the latter is reserved for those that show the highest caliber of skill and proficiency in the muscle magical arts.

Modern Megalodonian males can potentially live for 1000 years as most achieve grand master status, combined with full access to longevity extension therapies, involving the consumption of Tarrasque blood or exotic and very expensive alchemic concoctions, but sadly many die in the heat of battle or in the thrill of danger and few rarely live long enough to die naturally. Regular Females on the other hand live to about 250 years on average, but can live longer upward to 500 years if they attain grand master status or become successful enough to obtain longevity extension therapies. The people retain their muscular physique and physical peak and capability to the day they die. Males tend to live four to two times longer than their female counterparts as a necessity to compensate for the much lower male birth rates.

Males and Females:

Males hold a higher social standing, minor to major celebrity status and prestige over females due to their rarity and biology, however females hold demographic dominance, popular opinion and political momentum. The majority of jobs, professions and social roles are filled by females and female muscle wizards outnumber their male counterparts by pure numbers. And in many city states, the male muscle wizards serve as public figure heads and governor generals while real political power is held by councils, administrations and committees of female muscle wizards, who are better in tune with the general populace and well organized for governance and management.

Male political leaders are given more authority during times of crisis where their vast wisdom and experience is well suited to resolving issues quickly and efficiently through a chain of command than being mired in endless debate and rhetoric in layers of committee based and administrative bureaucracy.

That is not to say male muscle wizards do not have any power whatsoever, male muscle wizards are considerably more powerful than their female counterparts physically and magically, they are excellent diplomats and superior representatives to summit meetings, intercity state relationships and trading agreements, they serve as leaders or senior consultants and advisers on expeditions into uncharted Megalodonian territory and they usually command the military and volunteer defense forces of the cities they reside in or are captains of industry. Overall, both genders are more or less treated equally with Females holding collective influence while males have individual power, both keeping each other in check.

Funerals and Burial Rites:

Traditionally, Megalodonian dead are cremated and their remains are buried, etched into new runes and symbols or scattered across the base of Mount Megalodon or on the footsteps of one of the crowning mountains, whichever method and location holds the most significance and sentimental value to the deceased. The funeral service is performed by a trusted muscle wizard of the friends and family of the one that passed away or by the service of a mountain guardian, symbolizing the end of one's journey as the site of new beginnings.

Muscle wizards who died in the most valiant and worthy manner possible; in the heat of battle or in the thrill of insurmountable danger or more rarely for a life time of achievements, are entombed in larger than life hand carved statues made in their image. The statues are carried by mountain guardians to the deepest catacombs and halls of Mount Megalodon where each statue is positioned as pillars holding up the foundation of the mountain itself. Their names, full titles and greatest act of heroism etched as epitaphs on their statue pedestals.

Mountain Guardians:

The mountain guardians are an ancient order of muscle wizards that draw their lineage to the first mountain hermits that sheltered and guided the poor misbegotten survivors in the wake of the cosmic horror. They are a brother and sisterhood of monks that vow to never leave Mount Megalodon; to stand in eternal guard against any insurgence made by the Cosmic Horror to escape confinement. They specialize in creating magic nullification fields and barrier enchantments and have perfected the art of alchemy and rune crafting.

They ensure the cosmic horror never breaks the millennia old seals, system of leylines and wards that keeps the beast of insanity in check, making repairs and most often then not Jerry rigging their own runes and leyline patch fixes when the long lost ancient symbols and runes gradually fade into oblivion.

In more modern times, the mountain guardians have relaxed their vows of isolationism and have sent agents to the wider world and began covert expeditions into the darkest and most corrupted zones of Megalodonia filled with the highest concentrated cosmic horror malice; to study the taint and put entire zones under merciless quarantine.

Their most junior and fresh recruits serve as communication leyline technicians residing on the thousand smaller mountains that dot Megalodonia maintaining the ebb and flow of global and interdimensional communication.

When it is revealed that other realms exist, mountain guardians sometimes serve the realm wizard as escorts, as he ventures to earth and other magical realms assisting in the enchanting and granting of boons.

Food and Alcohol:

Megalodonian cuisine and brewing are steeped in ancient traditions and are incredibly sophisticated and refined in culinary technique, skill and methodology. Ever since the dark days of the cosmic horror, Megalodonians have elevated the ways of making the inedible into what is edible and distilling poisons and toxins into what is drinkable from a necessity to an art form, and many ancient pubs, bars, small grills and restaurants dot the land, offering every part of any flora and fauna as a delicious and hearty meal and tasty fermented concoction on their menus.

An old tradition held by every chef and brewer worth their salt in skill and brawn, is to cook any large quarry and sizable and incredibly deadly creature killed by any patron of their establishments as a full on the house banquet or buffet for everyone to enjoy. This tradition has been taken to competitive extremes, as city and muscle wizard rivalries blossom and many annual competitions are held to see which chef and their muscle wizard patron can kill and hunt the most deadly of prey and prepare and cook them at the highest level of culinary art. On the other side of things, Megalodonians love hearty and meaty food and their stout and strong alcohols and usually end every major joyous or tragically mournful occasion with a rambunctious banquet where both are plenty.

Sports and warfare:

Bodybuilding, weight training and mock sparring matches of every description and variety are greatly encouraged and enjoyed by every walk of life. Megalodonian people believe making contact through one’s fists and feet is the oldest and most universal method of communication, emotional and artistic expression. State of the art magitech arenas, gyms and muscle wizard dojos can be found even in the backwaters of the tiniest remote settlements.

Nature and Occult:

Although the coast and rough outline of Megalodonia have been mapped out geographically, much of the interior of this massive Pangaea is still uncharted; biologists, venture capitalists, environmentalists and explorers go to great lengths to map out every nook and cranny of this deadly land, and hundreds of new species are discovered on a daily basis from their expeditions into the unknown. Massive Conversation parks, terrariums, aquariums and green houses have been set up to study, cultivate and domesticate newly discovered fauna and flora. Elucidating their biological, supernatural and magical properties for Megalodonian industry and agriculture, for advancing scientific, occult and magical knowledge or for the simply love of wild life.

Religious Faith and Intellectualism:

Every Megalodonian citizen puts great faith and spirituality in the guiding principles of The Path. Excerpts of its scriptures, symbolic representations forged as art and sculptures are on open public displays across all cities big and small. The arenas, gyms and dojos are attended fervently by Megalodonians as they perceive these places to be sacred, where The Path manifests visibly through their efforts to sculpt their bodies towards physical perfection, sportsmanship, martial prowess and mastery of muscle magic.

Highly esteemed and accomplished muscle wizard grand masters spend much of their free time conversing how best to apply the four journeys of The Path to every facet and style of life, work and play in public street forums. Such friendly intellectual discussions promote greater introspective understanding and empathy between members of Megalodonian society as they advocate, argue and synthesize many thoughts and interpretations on The Path, facilitating intellectual, spiritual and philosophical growth in themselves and in others with their contributions.

Gaming:

Between a hard day’s work of fighting and adventuring and a hard night of drinking and feasting, Megalodonians enjoy a wide variety of miscellaneous gentlemanly and lady like hobbies from stamp collecting, gardening to video and tabletop gaming, directly available from the pubs, bars and local hobby and gaming stores. This is done to achieve well roundedness in their daily lifestyle as a reflection of well roundedness of their body, mind and spirit. It is only through contrast of hard and soft do one appreciate the finer qualities of both.

Science, Technology and Magitech

Science:

The rapidly growing and evolving magical wildlife and its careful meticulous study and analysis, ensures Megalodonia has a sophisticated understanding and development of biology, biochemistry, chemistry and related alchemic magic. While their muscle magic philosophy gives them great focus in the fields of kinesiology; anything and everything involving muscles.

Technology and Magitech:

All the technology of a futuristic modern era civilization exists in Megalodonia in addition to magitech, they are manufactured with very high stress and strain tolerances and with many protective safety measures in place so the devices and machines can operate in the harsh and often extreme conditions of the Megalodonian wilderness reliably, at the cost of increased weight and size to accommodate the large stature of its people. Added benefit of the sophisticated understanding of kinesiology ensures the devices and machines are very ergonomically well designed. Thus, user friendliness, functionality combined with extreme tolerances, durability, with very long endurance and lifespans are often trademarks of Megalodonian engineering at the cost of being large and ponderous.

Power Sources:

Megalodonian technology, science and magitech are powered by the natural resources of the land. The biological and magical properties of the flora and fauna are exploited and domesticated to power technology and magitech alike. The abdomens of the plasma bombardier beetles are harnessed, the poisonous thorn barbed lumber of the kilometer tall exploding dynamite trees are harvested for clean burning fuel and the metastablized hydrogen metal of Hell Razor Rhino hide and the shimmering fleece of Shrapnel Cotton Sheep are carefully studied and cultivated. Industrial, organic and by-product wastes are recycled efficiently through complicated food chains of predators preying on other predators, fungi and bacterial decomposition and recycling. Hydrogen fuel cells, fuel rods, nuclear fission and fusion, plasma generators are also commonly utilized with anti-matter technology currently in experimental development. Solar cells, muscle magic, cardiovascular bioelectrical and pure kinetic energy serve as common power sources for hand held devices and gadgets.

Land Crawlers:

Land crawlers, enormous tractor behemoths designed to carry a hundred thousand tonnes of goods and supplies across hundreds and thousands of kilometers of uncharted wilderness or to spearhead expeditions. These land ships are well armored and bristling with weapons, able to fight off the malicious nature, keeping its cargo bays and investments save. These machines can endure extremely hostile environments for many years at a time; they come equipped with self-sustaining oxygen, food and water supplies for its crew. They are powered by nuclear fission or fusion reactors coupled to plasma generators, allowing these machines to move at a maximum speed of 250 mph.

Mass Drivers:

On the fringe of the vast Megalodonian mountain ranges, are massive rotary battery systems of a dozen mass drivers each, their actual numbers remain unknown, hidden and their launcher barrels running the entire length of small mountains from peak to base, called Stonehenge artillery networks. These massive guns are designed to fire hardened probes and explorer drones into space at relativistic speeds, utilizing a hybrid system of electromagnetic rails with metallic hydrogen or plasma propellant. The probes are equipped with warheads containing genetically and alchemically engineered, relatively benign strains of various Megalodonian wildlife, purposely bred and cultivated to rapidly terraform barren planets to fertile ones with breathable atmospheres and self sustaining ecosystems, infusing lifeless planets with Megalodonia’s thematic feral essence. The probes are designed to crater targeted planets, release its living payload, set up surveillance and monitor the terraformation, updating its findings to mission command back home through the leyline network.

Once a planet is sufficiently terraformed, the probe will send the appropriate runic signal with its coordinates back to mission command; various observatory outposts situating on scattered mountain peaks. Muscle wizard porters and artificers will then triangulate and open portals to the probe’s location. Once the portals open and stabilize, colonization can commence. So far Megalodonia’s moon Lobos has been completely terraformed and several small but rapidly expending city states are prospering on its surface.

Numerous probes have been launched periodically over the decades, dictated by the decisions of the muscle wizard summit meetings. Currently several probes have made touchdown on Jupiter’s many moons and terraforming efforts continue on schedule.

Alchemic Engines:

The most common type of engine powering small personal locomotion, flying and sailing vehicles are alchemic engines, pieces of magitech with every few moving parts designed to convert muscle magic into every conceivable form of propulsion.

An general alchemic engine system consists of three parts, input, converter and output components. The input and converter components are carved with alchemic seals and circles of power with archaic symbols weaving like circuitry. All Megalodonian alchemic engines are powered directly by muscle magic or when that is lacking, pure kinetics and bio-electric pulses of the body and heart serving as auxiliary power.

The input component can be as simple as cycling pedals and handles, to target bags and control panels for punching and kicking to more elaborate exercise and weight lifting interfaces. The converter is alchemic couplings that convert raw muscle magic, kinetic or bio-electric energy through transmutation and deliver the new form of energy to the output, ensuring 100% conversation and efficiency. If the output engine is rudimentary enough, kinetic and bio-electric energy is directly passed on. Finally the output component is any form of conventional motor; from combustion, electric, to jet turbines.

Portal Gauntlets/Gloves:

Inter-realm transportation in Megalodonia is handled through temporary portals activated by gauntlets or gloves that channel raw muscle magic to literally tear a secure hole through space-time. The size and duration of the portals depending how much muscle magic is utilized, the shape of the portals and porting coordinates are adjustable. A muscle wizard welding the gauntlet can create portals by punching a point in empty space or on a hard clean surface, centering itself on the point of impact. Finger snaps create very small and short lived portals or are used to close portals prematurely. Squeezing the gauntlet or gloved hand or asserting continuous pressure to the surface of which the portal is on, will extend the duration of its opening.

The devices themselves are forged from obsidian shards extracted from Mount Megalodon's cliff face. An alchemic touch pad interface exist on the palm and backhand of the glove, or all around the bracer surface of the gauntlet, displaying interdimensional multiversal coordinates of the wearer relative to the position of Mount Megalodon as well as any and every relevant status data. If the wearer wishes, he and she can project a holographic interface in air or on a hard clean surface. These devices also double as smartphones, able to call other such devices anywhere in the multiverse and carrying every app imaginable.

These devices are expensive to fabricate and are in the sole possession and used by Muscle Wizard artificers, masters and grand masters on off-realm missions, tours and deployments, locking their function and activation to their unique muscle magic signatures. The only modifications made to these devices, is to introduce improvements and patch fixes in the alchemic magitech circuitry. On the other hand, the average Megalodonian utilize non-porting commercial versions of the gauntlets and gloves, crafted from more mundane materials. Their functions are inferior in every aspect to their obsidian counterparts.

When the muscle wizard dies, the signature locks, saved data and functions fade away as the life drains out from their previous owner, becoming lifeless mineral forged gauntlets and laced gloves once again. These heirlooms are held in temporary custody by Mountain Guardians or the deceased master's closest friends and family, until a new worthy master and owner is found and thus new bonds can be rekindled.

Clothing:

Megalodonian clothing and fashion come in a wide assortment of styles that closely mimic Earth’s trends, laying more emphasis on maintaining freedom of motion and flexibility, comfort and stretchiness. Megalodonian clothing is weaved with varying degrees of alchemic materials and often enchanted to suite a specific purpose.

No matter the degree of magic involved in the fabrication of the cloth; all of it is very subtle showing very little difference from more mundane people attire. Clothing accessories such as glasses and monocles can be enchanted with magnifying sight, thermal and night imaging, enchantment, magical aura, and spirit detection in addition to their normal properties of improving vision.

Normal everyday working clothes are alchemically weaved to be more durable, water/lava/corrosion/puncture/slash/etc. proof with various degrees of protection depending on the price,a magic or technology nullifying field can also be enchanted into the fabric at great expense.

Training outfits are weighted with alchemically induced personal gravity fields that can exert harmless light pressure to ludicrously heavy gravitational pull experienced only on the surface of a star. The burden is only felt on the wearer and not on surrounding environment and people, turning everyday activities into strenuous exercise regimens and allowing muscle wizards to maintain and improve their impressive physique without endangering everyone around them.