Hotton

Food & Drink

Hotto Bell

A sweet and juicy fruit that has a poisonous outside and antitoxin inside. The fruits stem produces an extremely deadly poison which can kill on contact. However, the bell of the fruit is soft, sweet, and juicy. The fruit has a yellowish tan color and smooth skin on the bell with ridged skin on the stem. Inside the bell is the seed that is harder than iron, but if carefully ground up produces an antitoxin for the stem’s poison.

They used this fruit in many types of food and drink processes. It’s cut up for pies, eaten freshly plucked from the stem, and even fermented into the famous sweet Hotto Bell wine. Of course, that is only if you can afford the wine.

The Hotto Bell is only found in the central region of Hotto because of the climate. Harvesting this fruit is a challenge, which is why it is an expensive fruit to purchase.

Geography

The Hotton culture comprises the Hotton Empire, in a centralized area between many other empires. While most of its borders are difficult to cross because of the mountain ranges, its most easily accessible neighbors are the Tsumeta and Umi Empires.

They split the Hotton Empire up into two distinct regions: the Lower Hotton Region and the Upper Hotton Region. The reason they divided Hotton is that of the massive floating cities in the Upper Hotton Region. You can find lush farmlands and magma forges in the Lower Hotton Region, while the Upper Hotton Region is where most Hottonians live.

Lower Hotton Region

To the north of Hotton is Keeper Mountain. A volcano that the Hotton smiths use in order to forge the world’s highest quality equipment. The magma of the Keeper volcano heats their forges.

Heading south from the Keeper Mountains, Hotton opens into vast and fertile plains. The fertile plains in the south are where Hottonians in the Upper Hotton Region grow all their crops, including the Hotton Bell. This is also the location where the Vu-Kovar tribes live.

The Hotton Emperor and the Khan of the Vu-Kovar tribes have worked out an arrangement in order to keep peace in their lands. For a small stipend of crops and other miscellaneous supplies, the Vu-Kovar patrol and protects the Lower Hotton Region for the Hotton Empire.

The more south you travel in Hotton, the colder and more frozen the land becomes. The southern lands have been uninhabited for centuries except for a few small harbors and fishing towns.

Royapo Rails

Royapo Rails was founded in Hotton to transport goods between the volcanic forges quickly and efficiently. The company quickly expanded out of a demand for reliable and fast land transportation. They became known for their incredibly accurate train schedule and shorter travel times. They offer bulk discount ticket purchasing through their Royapo Rail Pass.

Royapo Speed Trains

The Royapo Speed Trains are the first of their kind. Steam power is not used in Speed Trains, which rely on conductive tracks and crystal battery stations. Battery stations positioned along the track provide electricity to keep the train’s battery powered. The constant connection allows the trains to run without having to stop for refueling. The lack of extra machinery that steam engines require reduces the weight of the train, allowing it to travel faster.

Upper Hotton Region

The famous floating cities of Hotton are all in the Upper Hotton Region. There are eight floating cities. Three big cities (Shi’Ichi, Shi’Ni, Shi’San) and five small cities on the chains that hold the big cities down. Shi’Ichi being the largest, Shi’Ni the second, and Shi’San the third.

No one knows the origin of the floating cities that were discovered centuries ago. They had crashed into the land with no power or AGE crystals to keep them afloat. Through the power of steam technology and replacing the AGE crystals, the Empire of Hotton could bring the floating cities back to life. As the cities rose, the massive chains connecting them to Nisumari erupted from their buried states and lead all the way to the base of Keeper’s Pass. There are huge statues of a human and a dragon holding chains at the western entrance of Keeper's Pass. They named the statue The Dragon's Bond to symbolize the connection between humans and dragons, as well as chains and floating cities.

Inside the cities are massive monuments to the ancient and mysterious dragons of which the Hotton empire has preserved. The Hotton empire believes that the cities were originally built for the dragons, and the dragons were worshipped there. This theory had slowly turned into a belief and religion of the Hotton people.

The largest and most complex floating city, Shi’Ichi, has a massive stone statue that is extremely detailed carvings that makes it look as if it was once alive. It has been studied for centuries without ever knowing how the sculpture could make such detailed etchings into the stone. The truly marvelous yet also terrifying aspect of the statue is that not only does it look as if it is alive, it also never seems to deteriorate from the weather or time. The statue appears to be magically preserved, but scholars have not found evidence of any energetic infusion.

Along the chains are large moving platforms that work as lifts to carry people up to the cities. There are way stations throughout the distance of the chains that have turned into small towns. Originally, the way stations were used to rest as transportation via the lifts took days depending on which city you were traveling to. Way stations have travel necessities like stores, inns, shops, and entertainment.

The lifts are steam powered platforms that use clockwork devices attached to the chains in order to move up and down them. The lifts consist of huge gears, cogs, and pulleys that grasp the chain and move securely along its links. There are two types of lifts, one that runs on top of the chain and one that hangs down below. They used the lower lift for descending on the chain and the top lift is for ascending on the chain. While AGE Vessels are faster, the chain lifts are much more affordable for the common folk.

Religion

Hotton has two primary religions: Clotius the deity of the sky and clouds (Element) and Coris, the deity of technology and advancement (Transmutation). For the most part, the two gods are worshiped equally without conflict. People openly worship both gods as a polytheistic belief.

Clotius, Deity of the Sky & Clouds

The people of Hotton look towards the clouds for their worship. Most who are religious within the Hotton culture worship Clotius, the god of clouds and sky. They give thanks to him for allowing their floating cities to remain in his realm. The worshipers of Clotius use daily prayer to show their appreciation and thanks. Either at dawn or dusk, rain or shine, Clotius worshipers kneel in an open space where they can see the sky. As they kneel, they lift their faces to the clouds with their fingers interlaced on their chests. They remain that way for about an hour, letting the light of their god bathe them in his warmth as they give thanks for their existence.

The temples of Clotius exist mainly in the floating cities of Hotton, but they also occur on the peaks of mountains or other areas near the clouds. It is rare for a temple to be at sea level, but shrines are common.

Coris, Deity of Technology & Advancement

Those who have a strong focus on technology often worship Coris, the god of technology and advancement. The belief of Coris’s worshipers is that she has provided all the knowledge and resources for technology to be possible. Without her wisdom to advance civilization, they would still be primitive creatures struggling to survive.

The symbols proudly worn easily distinguished Coris followers. Coris’s symbol is that of a gear held on a pedestal with crossing wrenches laid over the pedestal. People commonly wear the symbol as a pendant or pin it to their chest, but they can also wear it in different ways, such as rings, bracelets, or earrings.

Temples of Coris are unique in that they do not appear to be traditional temples of worship, but more so science laboratories and workshops. If there is large amounts of technology being used in a city, there is a high probability that a Coris temple is close by.

Society

Squaling

One of the main industries of the floating cities is air whaling, which is hunting sky whales in the clouds. Squalers hunt for rare squales and gather other sky creatures to sell. The squales are mysterious creatures that have very massive square heads. Unlike most other sky creatures, the squale uses AGE (antigravity energy) crystals that are inside the large cavity on top of their skull. They are hunted to gather the massive AGE crystal, along with their extremely tough and strong skin and bones.

They are exotic materials and require energetics to forge with. However, they produce some of the strongest and highest quality equipment in the world. Getting the squale on the whaling ship and turning their skin and bones into desired products is harder than finding them. This is because the squale must remain alive until the crafting is complete, otherwise its skin and bones become brittle. They have a unique connection to their body parts even if cut apart. Once the main part of the squale dies, its other parts also die. The squale's energy can be contained within its pieces to make high-quality equipment. This whole procedure is extremely painful for the squale. Only the truly heartless and greedy hunt the squale for their skin and bones. True squalers hunt for their blubber, as they are extremely tasty when cooked. The squale would normally be put down through more humane ways and its skin and bones discarded as they become useless because of their brittle nature.