Every portal pierces the veil between Earth and Middara, ripping open reality and letting humans surge through the breach. These openings remain eternally stationary, ensuring the domination of a single culture in the growing nation.

There is no natural evolution through time, with old ideas naturally giving way to the new as each generation passes. Immortality means that the strongest and most powerful members of each generation endure, their iron grip unbreakable. In short, it's the exact opposite of Earth, where the old is replaced by the onset of innovation.

At least those bemoaning the political failings on Earth can count on age to cull and make room for the new. On Middara, the old are those best able to survive, with lifetimes to gather resources and build connections.

This means that once a nation gets going, it tends to continue with a particular culture indefinitely. No next generation comes in a huge wave to outnumber the old. Recruiting through portals is slow and dangerous, ensuring that those humans who appear are always thoroughly outnumbered. During the long years it takes to teach a new immigrant able to survive in Middara, they’ll also have plenty of time to have the cultural consensus beaten into them, and any signs of rebellion strangled.

Some new arrivals are too stubborn to be forced, even if they may say all the correct things to avoid punishment. They keep their heads down, while quietly waiting for their chance to make a change. Some are bolder, daring to flee their nation of arrival to city states and ports on the border. Soon these places are filled with a diverse population, eager to take their future into their own hands. All they need is a spark to ignite the flames of change and come together into a new nation.

Elenia was the latest nation to successfully carve out a place for itself, at least in recent memory. As their founding population consisted largely of marginalized citizens of the Empire of Brahma, Elenia coalesced around many instances of intentional defiance of their ways. This continues to be a source of bitter friction along the border, with both nations viewing each other as backward, primitive, and dangerous. All stem from a central topic: faith.

The Empire of Brahma is a Faulkist nation, officially and legally. This hybrid of Christian faith and Buddhist wisdom dates back at least to the ancient Gnostics, and perhaps earlier. Its central tenants inform much of the moral and ethical framework of Brahma, for better and worse.

For example, Faulkism is a strongly conservative faith. Though this also causes difficulty (see below), it has meant a nation of stability across the centuries. Brahma survived without civil war and with a high level of social harmony. Faulkism gave everyone a place in society and encouraged willing support of those in need. The nation maintains an impressive network of hospitals and social support infrastructure in its temples and monasteries.

These benefits did not come without costs, costs those who went on to found Elenia would find unconscionable. As more recent waves of humans arrived from Earth, many of them brought new ideas about personal freedom and equality. Eventually this escalated to such "radical" demands as equality of the sexes, and later sexual liberation.

These ideas are antithetical to the established social order of Brahma. Harmony requires obedience to known roles—subservience to authority and family, and respecting tradition. Brahma argued that the benefits outweighed the costs. Elenians told them to take their social harmony straight to hell.

Brahma's stance on these topics may have softened in recent years—but this is only a reaction to the tide of people fleeing for their freedom into Elenia. Even today, Elenia is one of the few large nations that unabashedly grants these freedoms, without the punishing social stigma they might receive elsewhere.

Religion on Middara is more than deeply held beliefs informing moral structure. Once freed from the confinement of Earth's veil, humans inevitably discover that their worship has measurable, significant outcomes. The vastness of creation swells with beings eager for veneration. Many of these beings offer immediate, tangible rewards to their followers. Some of them even appear in the flesh.

Faulkist belief makes some exception for veneration of ancestors and saints but remains a monotheistic faith. There is one God, and all other powers are demons. No matter what they look like, no matter how they work or what they ask in payment, all beings of other realms exist only to ensnare the soul.

At various periods in Brahma's history, even admitting contact with these beings was asking for a grisly fate with the Grim Deacons. Material on them is frequently collected and burned, with long prison sentences for their worshipers. Those found to be practicing disciplines they taught, or summoning them directly face the gallows.

Though the majority of Elenians are Faulkist, a growing minority are atheists who see Espers and their greater cousins as nothing more than creatures of other species, to be summoned for their abilities when it is mutually beneficial. Others belong to cults that actively revere these beings, even those who openly accept the title of "Demon."

The greatest example of these are the worshipers of the Dark Mother Divine, who openly acknowledge their Patron is a Demon. The Dark Mother's Witches aren't just tolerated in Elenia—they're allowed to openly participate in public life. Witches host parties at festivals, open new buildings, and even officiate marriages. To the Brahamian, this is more than a disagreement over beliefs, it’s open rebellion against God.

Disciplines are key to human survival on Middara. Without them, few nations would be as powerful or enduring. Yet many Disciplines do not draw on their users' own abilities, but rely on outside intervention.

Assemblage is the obvious example: this practice revolves around calling allies from elsewhere, binding them by contract, and using them in battle. Some of these create permanent alterations in the caster, such as the infamous Soul Bond.

To the Empire, allowing this doctrine to be taught is an unspeakable evil. Every day that the Elenian Institute stays open, more souls are ripped away to servitude and damnation. For its part, Elenia doesn’t just deny the insinuation of evil intent, but even its rulers rely on powerful Soul Bonds. Many have heard of Kezia Jeong’s powerful allies, circling the dark waters around Arsen Castle. Few who have seen these beings have lived to speak of the experience.

Curor is regarded with equal horror in Brahma, though for different reasons. The Discipline is widely believed (even in Elenia) to have been taught to humans by powerful Espers, at least originally. The blood and self-sacrifice it requires suggest demonic beings benefit from it. Like Assemblage, many believe this practice leads to the destruction of the user's soul.

There is some truth to Brahamian fears. Assemblage really can cost the user's soul, as anyone who has encountered a Living Oblation can attest. There are many worlds beyond Middara, and some of them do hold demons seething with malevolence.

Likewise, Curor can easily kill its caster if used unwisely. Its more powerful manifestations can be turned to hideous purpose, warping and twisting flesh until nothing human remains. There is real danger in allowing public practice of these disciplines. Brahma does not have to spend resources putting down dangerous sorceress and banishing their otherworldly allies. In Elenia, no year will go by without another horrifying story making its way to the newspapers.

Elenia argues, however, that the costs are more than balanced by the rewards. Fire is dangerous, chemistry is dangerous, every weapon ever forged to keep a Middaran safe from the dangers of the wild can be lethal to humans too. Yet in the hands of the wise, they become tools to benefit civilization.

The Kingdom of Elenia is overflowing with examples of the positive manifestations of these disciplines. Bellicose Arenas allow for rapid, high-quality instruction of new arrivals. Safe, cooperative familiars assist many people with the affairs of everyday life. Conduit Summoning allows explorers to reach and help settle new parts of Elenia's brutal wilderness. Curor disciplines grant an edge to the city watch.

Elenia argues that Brahma's restrictions are ultimately hypocritical. Sanctus also draws its powers of healing and restoration from beyond the human who wields it. Faulkists claim these powers are the outpouring of divine help against the hostile world of Middara. But what proof do they have that God was the one to answer their prayers?

In some ways, the existence of Elenia has only strengthened Brahmian orthodoxy at home. Elenia's initial immigrants represented the strongest proponents of these fringe beliefs, and the masters of forbidden disciplines. With somewhere else to flee, this meant the number of heretics disrupting social orthodoxy plummeted.

In some ways this prompted a loosening of restrictions to stem the tide, such as allowing Women a more equal role in society. Yet in other ways, the existence of heretics was always a moderating force in the Empire. Even the strictest believers were hesitant to enact policies that were too strict, knowing their own families had members who would be caught in the crossfire.

These disbelievers forced a quiet whisper of dissent for centuries, rising secretly to positions of power and keeping Brahma from pushing too far in any direction. According to some accounts, even the current Emperor was sympathetic to their cause.

Now, though—with the exodus complete, these voices fall silent. Few remain behind to argue for moderation anymore. Instead, Elenia rises in power and population by the year, flaunting their beliefs and wielding profane powers with impunity. For many of the most conservative members of Bahamian society, Elenia presents an infuriating target.

For others, this anger has long since given way to fear. Elenia's openness continues to invite immigration from nations across Middara. A torrent of new arrivals from modern-day earth push their social boundaries ever-further from the Brahamian norm. Their use of forbidden disciplines grants measurable power, allowing them to do in decades what it took Brahma centuries to accomplish.

Elenia is a tiny power now, insignificant on the Middaran stage. But will that still be true in another few centuries? Worse, what if their abuse of dangerous magic invites some cataclysm?

Perhaps Brahma is right to fear.