Kingdom of Sun and Night

Overview
The Kingdoms of Sun and Night is a planet divided into two kingdoms with several large continents on one half of the planet and a several scattered island chains on the ocean side. The entire planet is ruled by two noble families who divide the planet not by lines on a map, but by time of day. Each court teleports thousands of miles, every day, to stay in locations where their magical powers were strongest, circling the globe every 24 hours between castles that look over the same lands.

Ancient History
Religious history and legend describe say that the planet was originally ruled by the Ancient Ones: cruel overlords with magical powers from another world. These Ancient Ones are usually depicted in art either as fair, thin beautiful people with pointed ears and tentacles peaking out of their orifices (to represent their evil natures) or as tentacled monsters holding up beautiful skins between themselves and onlookers.

Whatever their true nature, the Ancient Ones were driven out of the Kingdoms of Sun and Night through a divine miracle on behalf of the original King Sun and King Night and the gates sealed behind them.

Language
While local languages abound, the language spoken by all nobility, priests and scholars is a dialect of Fae. The natives of the planet simply call it the noble language or 'Noble', for short.

Magic
The Kingdoms of Sun and Night are both very much magocracies, with political power directly related to magical power. Magic is generally divided into three schools: Sun Magic, Night Magic and Lesser Magic and three areas of influence: Mind, Body and Spirit.

Sun Magic
Sun magic is strongest in body influence and weakest in spirit. Powerful Sun mages can teleport themselves and others thousands of miles per day, can reshape their bodies and the bodies of others, and can cast illusions to fool the senses of entire armies. However, all Sun spells can only be cast after sunrise and most fade at sunset.

Night Magic
Night magic is strongest in spirit influence and weakest in body. Powerful Night mages can move their spirit and the spirits of others out of their bodies and create new ones thousands of miles away, can reshape the personalities of others, and can cast mental illusions that bypass the senses and fool the mind directly. However, all Night spells can only be cast after sunset and most fade at sunrise.

Lesser Magic
Lesser magic is a lump category applied to a series of spells that are not influenced by the time of day. Unlike Sun and Night magic, lesser magic can be learned by anyone (however, training in lesser magic tends to be restricted to nobles and their households). Lesser magic includes effects not found in either Sun or Night magic, such as lighting fires and throwing balls of energy, but lesser magic tend to be horribly specific. A spellcaster who learned to create a visual illusion of a table would have to learn another spell to make a visual illusion of a coat rack. Likewise, a mind control spell would either require verbal instructions or have a single instruction built in, which could not be changed. Spells to travel to other worlds are forbidden and commoners caught researching such spells are executed.

Nobility
While, in theory, a commoner who displays the ability to cast Sun or Night magic is automatically elevated to the nobility, both Sun and Night magic require extensive training in addition to a magical predisposition.

Nobility in both the Sun and Night clans is divided into greater and lesser nobility with the dividing line being the ability to outrun the sun. Lesser nobles are often assigned stationary duties as senechals, military commanders and priests. Only a greater noble can be a member of the royal court, but others (such as hounds and personal bodyguards) may travel with the royal court if a greater noble sees to their transportation.

Both the Sun and Night clans publicly site long lists of minor and major atrocities against their minor nobility by nobles of the opposite clan. These atrocities generally pale beneath the Machiavellian politics practiced by greater nobles to other greater nobles in the same clan, but this is publicly ignored.

Recent History
Following the assassination of King Sun, the regent of the Sun kingdom requested that the Sun mages scour the planet to find a companion for the king's daughter, Princess Dawn Sun. This companion was required to have both magical potential and non-magical abilities that would work equally well during night and day. Despite the legality of such actions, some of those searching did not restrict themselves to the planet.

From ages 12 to 18, Joanne Hopewell (of Earth-1.00001) was Princess Dawn's closest companion and friend. Dawn aged much faster than Jo, but both blonde girls grew powerful. At age 16, Joanne was instrumental in the coup to take away the throne from Dawn's uncle, the regent. This changed at age 18 when Jo assisted King Night in a second coup, claiming that her close friend was a despot.

The second coup was successful. Queen Sun was fitted with a device that restricted her ability to teleport, was married to King Night and the Night clan promptly declared that the planet now had a unified government for the first time in human history. The Sun clan promptly disagreed, declared the marriage invalid despite the Queen's immediate pregnancy, and split into factions over whether to rescue Queen Sun or to appoint a new ruler.