General Information
Theme of Origin: Final Fantasy-1
Factional Alignment: Union
Dominant Species: Human
Population: 8,000-10,000
Government Type: Socialist
Average Lifespan: 70-75 Years
Technological Status: Locale is mostly magic-dominated, but steam-powered machines are not uncommon and small airships are common sights since they're the only way out of the valley.
Culture
Gaia is a magic-steeped city with no real official government to speak of. They behave more like a massive family than they behave like a well-regulated city, and their city is primarily socialist in it's leanings. Everyone contributes, and everybody gets what they need to survive and a little more than that besides. Provided, of course, that everything is going smoothly.
Magic is an integral part of every Gaian's life - every citizen of Gaia is brought up with the expectation that, sooner or later, they're going to learn how to use magic. As a matter of course, almost every Gaian is capable of using magic fairly adeptly from a young age - those who aren't are considered freaks of nature, and usually end up ostracized.
Educational standards are fairly high in Gaia, and school courses usually include every basic subject you would expect in a modern world, as well as standard education in the field of 'Gray Magic', which may be used by anyone with magical talent regardless of current or future specializations - simply put, it is 'utility' magic.
Traditionally, Black Mages become the city defenders and serve the community in a variety of ways depending on what skills they have in their repertoire. This can be as simple as potion-making or as complicated as making sure that the weather behaves in a certain way to make certain that the farmers' crops are prosperous.
White Mages are the city's doctors and frequently serve as city defenders alongside the Black Mages. Because of their lack of flat-out offensive magic, most White Mages who choose to be city defenders are well-trained in archery and the use of simple melee weapons, such as clubs and hammers.
Red Mages are the everyman of Gaia. They are respected for their variety, but sometimes looked down upon by particularly haughty or proud Black and White Mages for the Red Mage's simple inability to cast spells quite as well as they can. Half of the village population consists of Red Mages who perform various necessary tasks - usually, just whatever happens to be required of them on that particular day.
Most strangely, Gaians do not possess names at all: They believe that giving names risks granting power over themselves to others. Instead, they possess titles describing their job within Gaian society: The Crimson Smith would almost certainly be a Red Mage who happens to be a Blacksmith.
Those who are called simply by the widely-known title of their job are the most respected and often the most powerful members of the community. Being called "Black Mage", "White Mage", or "Red Mage" is a tremendous honor, and all such people are invariably quite famous. Only one person at a time can hold these titles, and in the current age the position of all three of these is held by three of the four Light Warriors.
There has only ever been one individual to be given the honor of such a title who did not come from Gaia to start with. He is the Light Warrior called "Fighter" - originally an alias given to him by Black Mage, it eventually came to be accepted - albeit a bit reluctantly - as his official Gaian Title.
Gaians do not have an established religion - they are aware of souls and so are still spiritual people, but most of them are agnostic because they have little conception of higher beings except for the powerful but still finite Primordial and Celestial powers of their world.
They dislike immortality and the idea of such, in part because they are curious of the end and in part because the current world is not an ideal world to them, and they believe something "better" is waiting after they move on from the mortal coil - they're not certain of the specifics of such, however.
Because they possess titles and not names, the language of the Gaians has a wide variety of generic ways to refer to 'that guy over there' - this is by far the most confusing part of their language, and has baffled linguists more than once. Although the rest of the language is easy enough to pick up on, the large number of ways in which you can indicate you're talking to someone else without using a name complicates things considerably.
Holidays
Unlike many cultures in the Multiverse, the Gaians do not celebrate what you could call 'Christmas' or 'New Years'. Most people who have visited during these times are aware of this, albeit it is usually rather surprising to them, but the Gaians make a point of doing something rather unusual at the end of the year.
First, they collectively mourn the dead from the 25th of December 'til the last day of the year - no true funerals are held by the Gaians until the end of the year, at which point a city-wide wake takes place, and the ashes of the deceased are scattered across the valley in which the city of Gaia is built.
On the day of the New Year, the mourning is over and celebration begins, lasting for a varying time period but almost always shorter than the mourning period - rather than celebrating, or for that matter recording the precise birthdays of everyone in Gaia, their great 'gift-giving' holiday is effectively an enormous birthday for the entire city. Gifts are exchanged, good food is shared, and fireworks light the night sky. Most commonly, these city-wide holidays are referred to as 'The Week of Ended Stories', and 'The Festival of New Tales'.
Magic Aptitude
Within their world, the Gaians are rivaled in the field of magic only by the magicians of Lufenia - and since the Lufenians speak a language that is dead outside of their little town, most people have no idea what they have to offer ANYWAY.
The average graduating Black Mage or White Mage possesses (in Final Fantasy terms) up to level 3 spells, and Red Mages usually know most level 1&2 spells, and very rarely one or two level 3 spells. They also possess a wide variety of generic 'gray magic' utility spells.
Noteworthy Citizens
Black Mage, Red Mage, and White Mage were all born in Gaia.
