# WBJ 2024 P2E2 ## The Nobles of Génives The world of -zmer is home to the unique custom of the *Wheel of Migration*, where the three people groups of **Horizontia**, **Genives** and **Dunsun** take turns inhabiting different portions and settlements of the continent, rotating between them depending on the season and other environmental phenomena. No one actually *likes* this arrangement, which involves things like tidying up hamlets and villages and restocking medicine cellars so that they can be used by the next ethnic group in the rotation. The Genives, for example, would have to decidate a week of work *every odd year* to reset their lands to the benefit of the riparians such as Poliwhirl and Floatzel from the Horizontia. > *Those heathens.* But the alternative back then was a protracted war that had weakened the continent to invasion by the inhabitants of *Mother's Wounds* -- or, worse, the heretics from the *Tower of Hedra* -- so when an agreement was made to "share lands", everyone clapped and nodded begrudgingly. Well... Almost everyone. Atop the feudal-like organization of the people of the Genives, the **Noble castes** have seated themselves by way of shows of force, inheriting weapon stashes, developing elemental armouring magitek, and machinations various. The Nobles consist of humanoid and insectoid Pokémon such as Medicham, Scyther, Rabsca and Zoroark, as well as a few Steel-, Fighting- or Rock-types such as Lycanroc or Mawile. These "chosen few" consider themselves to be the driving force behind Genives society: food, arts, war, the Wheel -- it's all for them. Unfortunately, they *do* have the power and resources to back it up, so for more than a few decades they've held most of Genives under their grip. But there are still two things they share with the lower classes -- and with everyone else: First, *no one* likes the Nobles, not even each other. So, backstabbing and underhandedness are common. For example: Some twenty years ago, the forces of **Lady Etka** the Scyther Noble sabotaged the Migration of **Hada the 647th** the Rabsca Noble and her colony, wiping much of their reproductive ranks. Not letting the opportunity go to waste, **Nubelù** the independent Lycanroc Noble infiltrated Etka's Labyrinth and absconded with most of their Scizor-made armoury. The loot then was either sold on the black market, or traded over to allied forces like the metalforgers of **Prowa** the Aggron Noble's. > Out of 68 Nobles watching, 43 were impressed. Of course, none of the aforementioned Nobles are alive today. Eventually they were taken out, supplanted, replaced or outright went \"\"\"missing\"\"\", and over the years a new name or two took their places. > Out of 65 Nobles watching, 61 sighed hypocritically. Second: they also ***really*** don't like the Migration Wheel. So for decades they've attempted to sabotage *that*, too. If there is one thing that can get the Nobles to join in into a common effort for a few weeks every other year, it's the possibility of wrecking the day (and the season) of any of the other civilizations rotating in the continent. The Horizontias and the Dunsunan are privvy to these machinations, and each of them also sometimes gather their forces to counter the advances of the Genives courts. If you have been reading my works, you've already seen one of those efforts: for years the Dunsunan have been [intervening Fugue Mountain](https://www.pokecommunity.com/threads/swc-owed-return.500418/), creating a cordon of supplies for a potential siege of a Noble fortification if it comes to that. ---- > rev 1.0 (2024-06-16) Licensed [under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) International.