Group hug. Katur kisses the top of Thomas' head. "Love you."

Awwwwww.

"The Vaesteri elders reacted badly, but my ancestors were pretty terrible to their ancestors, including forming harems which is the offending point of the situation."

"Their behavior wasn't excusable," Fernando says squeezing the hug.

"No... but I guess I can see where they're coming from. Still, they should ask."

"The most absurdly ironic thing about the situation is that their response to believing we have been manipulated into a relationship was trying to arrange marriages for us."

"...did you point the irony out to them?"

"We've already discussed the topic in depth."

"I mean, I did technically scream something to the effect that arranged marriage is like slavery."

"I expect they did not take that very well."

"Nope! But once you start throwing glasses at my boyfriend, I can only assume you aren't taking well at all."

"I maintain the opinion that was an accident."

"Okaaaay this sounds uncomfortable and unpleasant, how about we switch conversation topics?"

"Of course... better not talk about Elan then. Well, I could talk about Eidos and the memory crystals that I neglected the first time around."

"Why not Elan?"

"Because it would be hard to discuss Elan's history without going back to the topic of why the Vaesteri elders dislike my people so much?"

"It's not the racism and oppression I wanted to change subjects from, it's the Vaesteri elders being..." She pauses, groping for a word. "Well, abusive, frankly."

"Your honesty and ability to notice the glaringly terrible is appreciated. Anyway, Elan... it has eight continents, most countries are democracies or monarchies that are on their bloody way to becomig democracies. The situation with the augmented varies around the world, some places have been ruled by them but in others they are the slaves..."

And then they delve into the specifics. Most cultures have accepted Synth as a useful tool one way or another. Basically only the people in this isolated but thriving peninsula still have a civilization that shuns it. Some religions view it as a divine tool that can only used by the "holy", or having Synth makes you holy, royalty, or a combination of both.

But closer to heart there are the continents of Lor-ersi and Gi-ersi. Lor-ersi was mainly populated by the Govis people, divided between the non-augmented lower class Govite and the fully-augmented ruling class Govad. Partially augmented outcasts don't really belong to either group. But other groups called the continent home, including the Daliath nomads, who followed the Daliad faith and accepted partial-augments and other outcasts. Soon the faith became synonymous with partial-augments and persecuted by both Govis classes.

And that persecution was terrible, there was a point when Daliath's were seen as worth next to nothing, useful as heavy workers for the Govad and hated by the Govite. During the peak of the persecution the Daliath would either live away from civilization or be owned as slaves. History books would often say that during that time period the safest and most comfortable life a Daliath could hope for would be as part of a harem owned by a Govad noble. This is only a partially biased way to present the situation, mostly because the situation was really dire.

Then Elsewhere started to annex Elan, which caused people to become sorcerers all around the world, with partial-augments being better sorcerers than non-augments or full-augments.

(Fun fact: one way to get sorcery gifts is by putting your lifeforce under a lot of stress, such as various forms of torture and physical exhaustion. It's unreliable and unlikely but many Daliath got their gifts this way.)

A group of sorcerers found Elsewhere, then each other, and managed to uncover the secrets of ritual sorcery, finally managing to open a portal that landed near a Daliath settlement. Since some of the group were Daliath themselves they decided to help the local Daliath population, leading to a revolt and the destruction of the Govad's kingdoms. Lor-ersi not only never recovered, but finds itself too fragmented to recover its former glory, divided between Govad and Govite, who segregate themselves to the point that you can find neighboring towns that have population from one group but not the other. The remaining Daliath population was still hated by them, so most of them emigrated to the Gi-ersi continent, braving through the dangerous mountains and navigating the stormy ocean that they couldn't cross before having magic and pillaged resources.

While Gi-ersi was populated, the natives were so few and the Daliath bounty was so generous that they managed to pacifically co-exist [citation needed] and the Daliath built their own thriving cities, such as Milirevi, where the triplets' grandparents live, but that may stray too close to the forbidden topic.

"The only reason I don't want to talk about that is not to upset you four," she clarifies.

Fernando and Thomas shrug. Katur and Felix do a sort of uncomfortable shrug gesture.

"Milirevi is one of the most important cities in the world," Fernando continues like a sort of consensus was reached. "My family didn't found it, but have been their patrons since day one. Recently the Vaesteri have been dealing with politics indirectly, so they could be neutral enough to tug whoever is in power, which is more complicated than one might expect. It's the biggest connection to Lor-ersi and due to some complicated historical happenings, it houses a large group of Govis population and the politicians' decided to 'solve'-" Fernando makes air quotes then realizes Kaede wouldn't understand, "sorry, that gesture is meant to convey extreme sarcasm. So the politicians incredibly stupid solution to the ethnic-related attrition on Milirevi and nearby cities was a complicated system of segregated districts, the basic rule being that someone could only own property or sleep in their assigned district but had otherwise freedom of movement."

"There was a series of natural disasters, Milirevi needed to rebuild itself, the Govis needed a place to go because of the disasters and being kicked by other Govis during a invasion. Anyway, the policy wasn't completely abolished yet, Milirevi is mostly neutral areas but not completely and the segregation has shift from being ethnically based to more class based."

She nods.

"And that was part of the proud history of Elan. Fun isn't it?"

"It's... bad. I'm not sure it's significantly worse than my world's."