Setting Overview Complete

Chapter One: Genesis

In the beginning were the two souls of Order and Chaos. These two massive forces battled for eons. Order would build stars and planets and systems, and Chaos would destroy and scatter all that Order created. After unknown eternities, the two souls grew tired of the endless struggle and fought each other directly. When the two great souls collided, something unexpected occurred. The two souls merged and shattered into untold trillions of pieces.

These soul pieces varied in strength and intelligence, but it was soon discovered that inhabiting physical objects amplified their abilities. Soon, squabbling and fighting broke out as souls competed for the best bodies, destroying many potential bodies in the process.

The largest and most powerful soul was the being we now know as the lady Karma. Seeing the conflict and the resulting destruction of available physical objects to inhabit, Karma intervened. She gathered the souls together in a realm of her own making, the Astral plane, also known as the Field of Souls. From her new realm, Karma controlled access to bodies in the material plane. Allowing souls to enter at a pace and order of her own design, Karma ended the constant fighting and ensured the continued existence of the material world.

The first bodies available to inhabit were inanimate objects such as planets, stars, mountains, oceans, and rivers. Mortals know these powerful souls as Titans. As life developed, lesser souls were sent to inhabit plants and animals. Sometimes powerful souls grew tired of waiting on an available body and slipped past Karma to take a lesser body against her will. These spirits are known as Kami and are the source of creatures like dryads and talking animals and are the progenitors of many fantastic races.

Whenever a body is destroyed, the soul enters the ether and travels down the path of the dead back to the Field of Souls. Here they await their turn for reincarnation. A disembodied soul quickly begins to lose the memory of its life, and unless quickly restored to a body, will lose all sense of self.

Between the material realm and the Field of Souls, lies the shadow plane. This dark and dangerous realm is filled with souls that have rejected Karma’s cycle for one reason or another. Some souls came to avoid Karma’s choice for reincarnation, others grew frustrated with the wait and came to attempt to construct their own bodies, some are the souls of the recently deceased lured there by the promise of retaining their identity, and then there are the poor mad souls who lost their way wandering the paths of the dead. Inhabitants of the shadow plane who retain at least part of their former personality are referred to as devils, while those mad beings who have lost all sense of former self are known as demons. Due to the ever-increasing danger of the shadow realm, guards and guides have to be assigned to the paths of the dead to ensure that the recently departed arrive safely at their destination.

Chapter Two: Gods and Magic

There are two kinds of magic in the world, arcane and soul (aka divine) magic.

Arcane magic is a natural energy field that permeates the planes. Arcane magic users learn how to manipulate this energy in a myriad of fantastic ways. Some people and creatures are born with an innate ability to sense and manipulate this energy, while others have to learn complex spells, rituals, and alchemy to achieve the same effect.

Soul magic is a totally different beast. All souls have trace amounts of the power once held by Order and Choas, however, the power is so small that most souls never learn how to use it. Soul Magic is guided by belief and willpower and can be accessed through several means.

The most direct way to access this power is frequently used by Kami and Titans, but seldom by mortals. This path is to recognize the power in your own soul and channel it outward. Only the most enlightened monks and martial artists have learned how to harness their inner power (often referred to as Ki) and manifest it into the world.

The second method is used by clerics, druids, paladins, and all others who cast divine spells. A sufficiently powerful being, usually a God or Titan, can channel some of their power into a mortal who can then shape and use the power. This process is not very energy efficient, particularly when dealing with novices, at channeling divine energy. Due to this, even powerful Gods have difficulty granting miracles without using an experienced and dedicated vessel.

The final use of soul energy remains only theoretical and is considered heresy by many religions. It has been suggested that gods gain their power through a subtle transfer of soul magic from millions of mortals. If correct, the act of believing a god is powerful and has dominion over some element actually transfers small amounts of soul energy from the mortal to the subject of belief, thereby creating the very thing they believe!

Speaking of gods, many of them promise an afterlife to their followers. The gods have learned how to make astral bodies for their followers outside of the material plane, keeping variable amounts of their personalities intact. These bodies are typically ageless and can only be destroyed through violence. To protect themselves and their followers from the threat of violence, most gods create a realm pleasing to their own unique tastes, accessible from either the astral or shadow plane. Karma usually lets this disruption to her cycle go one time, but if and when an astral body is destroyed, whether it belongs to angel, demon, or god, she makes sure she is not cheated a second time. The soul of a slain astral being is forcibly brought back to the field of souls and kept under guard until reincarnation.

Chapter Three: Pre-history of Terra

Terra is a planet like many others in the material realm. Its first inhabitants were Titans, but Kami and evolution brought other intelligent beings to the planet, including humans. In those days few true gods existed, with mortal worship being directed to Titans and local Kami. Approximately 16,000 years ago, the aboleths appeared. No one knows where they came from, not even the Titans. Within a few centuries the dark, alien, horrors had spread like a plague throughout the waters of the world and sought to bring the whole globe into their slimy tentacled grasp. The first to oppose them was Ketzal, Titan of the sun and protector god of humanity. The god took physical form on Terra and fought against the might of the aboleths. although he wrought great destruction on their forces, the combined might of their telepathy broke the god, and drove him mad. In the wake of the god’s defeat, the other titans and gods were reluctant to risk themselves in open combat. Instead, of giving up the planet, many of the great titans banded together and created the giants to fight off the encroaching invaders. The giants were successful in stemming the tide of aboleth advancement, but over several thousand years the two civilizations never had peace, and the giants slowly had to cede more and more territory. The giants claim that they had a grand strategy that would have eventually brought them victory, but the truth of this claim is impossible to verify.

Over 10,000 years ago, while the giants and aboleths clashed, a new power came blazing onto the scene. Born of magic and fire, a group of extremely powerful rouge Kami chose a surge of pure arcane magic for their bodies and the first dragons were born. The first dragons were immensely powerful, making even the greatest wyrm of today seem scrawny by comparison. These proud beings knew that the world rightfully belonged to them, and swept the empires of the aboleths and the giants from the map. This is not to say that their predecessors did not go down without a fight, but from the start, it was clear who would emerge victorious. The shattered remnants of the giants withdrew into the most remote parts of Terra or suffered the indignity of enslavement, while the aboleths were hunted to extinction (the total aboleth extinction is disputed by a few conspiracy theorists and the occasional mad wanderer).

Chapter Four: The Dragon Age

Once their dominion over Terra was secure, the dragons dived the world between themselves. This was not a peaceful arrangement as dragons are frequently proud, greedy, and covetous. Constant fighting, plotting and shifting alliances are central to understanding the Dragon Age. As for the other races of Terra, most were subjugated and taxed, enslaved, or hunted for sport depending on the individual preferences of the local dragon lord. Some dragons even encouraged their thralls to worship them as gods, granting the dragons even more power.

Many dragons experimented with the idea of engineering the perfect servants. The most widely popular of these engineered races were the dragonborn. Strong, loyal, and resistant to the elements, dragonborn were used as overseers, soldiers, and dragon cultists. the more well to do dragons often replaced their entire population of thralls with dragonborn farmers, herdsmen, craftsmen ect.

Under the harsh conditions and constant warfare of the dragon lords, many mortals began searching for divine salvation. This outpouring of spiritual longing coalesced primarily around two beings: Adthea, the Titan of the Moon who had already convinced many dragon lords to give their thralls a day of rest and healing once per month, and Grovsmed, a volcano titan who had once been worshiped as a god by the giants. With the extra faith from their new worshipers, the two titans each created a new race to answer their followers’ prayers for deliverance, thus the elves and the dwarves were born. Creating a new race was a clever move for the titans; by answering the prayers of their followers, the faith of the slaves increased, and by creating a new race, they also increased the number of beings who worshiped them. Soon the two titans enjoyed full godhood and sent forth their new champions to slay the dragons. Which of the two races was created first is a hotly debated topic. what is known is that almost 6,000 years ago, the two races were created secretly and independently of each other. Both races were designed to defeat the dragons and unify mortal kind under the benevolent rule.

The dragons were slow to respond to the threat, and were too entrenched in their petty rivalries to band together for any significant length of time. Dragon after dragon fell, and the freed serfs joined the armies of their liberators. Great heroes and legends were born, faith flourished and several new gods joined the pantheon. Within a millennuma, much of the continent of Airda had been liberated.

Chapter Five: Dawn of Empires

between 5,000 and 4,500 years ago, the expanding new dwarven and elvish territories bumped into each other. Both races had a bit of a superiority complex and had never before encountered another mortal culture that could and did resist annexation. Though not immediately hostile, the two races were distrustful of each other and xenophobia took root. The dwarven response to encountering a rival race was for their many jarls to unify themselves into the Kingdom of the Godforged (Nomrigoth). The elves, threatened by the unified dwarven menace, founded their own Eternal Empire. The two superpowers maintained an uneasy non-aggression pact for many centuries.

3,800 years ago, the Eternal Emperor Orgol was seduced by the disguised titan Lloth and made her his Empress. Lloth was at this time the wife of Pale, the god of death, but was actively plotting to have him killed and replaced by their son Dynam. Knowing that Pale was in turn protected by his divine parents Adthea and Dakoram, Lloth seduced her way into the heart of the elvish civilization and used that position to begin subverting their religion. Stoking fears of imminent dwarven invasion, Lloth worked to change the morals of the empire, and introduce the empire to the worship of the old Draconic god of pride and dominance, Ohzoz. The Emperor was like putty in her hands, even more so once she bore him a son and heir, Maeglin. To further distract the gods and push the elves further down into corruption, she convinced the Emperor to make a preemptive strike on the dwarves. The attacking elves were ruthless, and the dwarves responded in kind. These were the first days of a series of wars that would last for centuries known as the Wars of Terror.

Like an envious spider, Lloth spun the webs of her plots with stealth and precision. Within two and a half centuries of living among the mortals, Lloth was ready to strike. Weakened by their abandonment by most of their faithful, Adthea and the other elven gods could do little when Dynam slew his father Pale and took his place as the God of Death. Moments later, Emperor Orgol died from a poison that miraculously failed to take his wife who had drank from the same cup. Lloth tricked and bound the dragon god Ohzoz, let Dynam slay him, and had Maeglin drink his power. Maeglin ascended to the Eternal throne heralded as Ohzoz made flesh. Maeglin reigned as God-Emperor for 350 years, and those were among the darkest days the world has ever seen. The Wars of Terror raged, and with Dynam as the god of death, slaughter and violence reigned supreme. Lloth no longer hid her identity and attracted her own cult, slavery, necromancy, and blood-lust filled the Empire. Despite their most desperate attempts to fight back, the dwarves days seemed to be numbered. Even the dead had no rest, rather than returning the Field of Souls or being gently guided to their patron god’s afterlife, Dynam brought all the souls he could catch to his twisted domain where he made the dead fight each other and be repeatedly devoured by terrible beasts for his amusement.

Unbeknownst to Lloth and her allies, Pale had not been utterly destroyed when struck down by his son. With the last shred of his power, Pale had transported himself to Terra where he was tended to by an elvish healer named Airmed. For three hundred and fifty years she nursed the comatose god back to health, a feat which saw her posthumously elevated to goddess of healing and medicine. Meanwhile, the people of Terra were desperately praying for the return of the kindly release Death had once brought their ancestors.

When Pale awoke, the power of combined prayers of mortal kind invigorated him. Pale renewed his alliance with his divine parents and siblings and declared war on his former lover and their son. On the mortal plane, the gods chose as their champion Turcano, the grandson of the healer Airmed. While gods and angels battle across the astral and shadow planes, Turcano gathered the faithful elves under his banner and led a revolt against Maeglin. Without the direct support of his godly mother and half brother, Maeglin fought a losing war on two fronts against the dwarves and Turcano. Meanwhile the gods had broken Dynam's domain and driven him into hiding in the shadow plane while Lloth had fled back to Terra. Pale reclaimed his position as god of death, and on Terra, the tide began to rapidly turn against Maeglin and Lloth.

Facing defeat, Lloth convinced Maeglin to challenge Turcano to a single duel to determine the war. Maeglin took the field and unleashed the power he had accumulated as Ohzaz, the God of Pride and Domination made flesh. The show of force was devastating, but channeling the power of the entire elvish pantheon, Turcano stood against him and broke him. Casting off his broken mortal body, Maeglin fled to the shadow plane where he created an astral body for himself and took on the role of Ohzaz, the dragon emperor. The duel being lost, Lloth and her followers surrendered and appealed to her captor’s honor to honor the terms of the duel. Lloth and those who would not denounce her were exiled into the endless tunnels and caverns of the Underdark, the gods enforced this banishment by making the sunlight burn their eyes and cause them great pain. Lloth led her people defiantly into the dark, where over the years her power has changed the into the Drow, the dark elves who serve the spider queen.

Turcano was proclaimed emperor and sought to restore the Empire to it’s previous ideals. Unfortunately, he still had a war to manage. Emboldened by the elvish civil war, the dwarves advanced mercilessly. They quickly took back lands they had lost to the previous two emperors, and then pushed on to eliminate the elvish threat once and for all. Turcano also had to deal with slave rebellions, orcish raids, mobs seeking war reprisals against supporters of the previous regime, and a collapsing economy. It took a Herculean effort to hold the empire together, and the ethical sacrifices required to do so aged the noble emperor before his time. Heo led his armies to a few important victories against the dwarves and managed to negotiate an armistice with them after almost 250 years of fighting. The armistice was unpopular in many circles who believed that a fight to the death with the dwarves was inevitable. Just a few short years after signing the armistice, Emperor Turcano was assassinated by a radical group of Elven Nationalists.

Chapter Six: Prelude to Cataclysm

With the signing of the armistice 3,000 years ago, the Wars of Terror officially ended. Both nations suffered through political and social upheavals following the wars, but a fear that the other superpower would take advantage of internal divisions kept the two peoples relatively unified. The following 500 years included insults, spying, assassinations, economic sabotage, proxy wars, and the occasional standoff that left the continent holding its breath. Many people on both sides hoped that war would never come, but that did not stop them from preparing for the possibility.

Which spark set off the inferno is debated by modern historians, but what is agreed on is that political saber-rattling turned into an accidental skirmish, which turned into an accidental battle, which led to the greatest war the world has ever known. The war raged for a thousand years, sometimes simmering for years across a no mans land, followed by sudden explosions of violence on a scale that made the gods weep.

Finally, with the assistance of a cadre of gnomish inventors and scientists, the dwarves gained the upper hand in the war. Faced with the destruction of their civilization, the Empire’s wizards gathered at the capital for a last-ditch effort. Combining their power in a ritual that had been deemed too dangerous to attempt in less dire times, the wizards unleashed a mighty burst of destructive energy directly upon the dwarven homeland.

The epicenter of the explosion was the volcanic home of the god Grovsmed, and blasted a crater hundreds of miles wide into the center of the dwarven kingdom. The blast was so powerful it fractured the continent. The ocean raced in sinking the cities of elf and dwarf alike. Earthquakes shook the foundations of the earth, volcanoes erupted, and tsunamis ravaged the coasts. For 200 years the sunlight was diminished and glaciers crept down from the poles plunging the world into an ice age. Neither civilization survived the destruction.

When the sun returned and the ice receded, the world was unrecognizable. The continent of Airda was split in two, with a new sea cutting through the middle.

Chapter Seven: Post Cataclysm

The first few centuries after the Cataclism were dark times of political upheavals and struggles for survival.

The Northern continent of Airda Minor was almost entirely overrun with goblins, orcs, and frost giants.

In the Western Horn, the shattered remnants of the dwarves quickly fell to infighting and clan warfare. This collapse can be explained by the deprivation of their homeland combined with the diminished influence of their wounded god Grovsmed. Eventually, the dwarves imposed some measure of order on their society. They created a complex series of as regulating their internal warfare, including rules for why they can fight, how long they can fight, on what days they can fight, ect. They also agreed to put aside their feuds for the purpose of repelling foreign invaders. Those clans who signed these treaties are known as The Confederation of the Holy Mountains. In times of danger, the High Priestess of Kjarmor can call a ceasefire and declare the Battle Lord of Haader as the supreme commander of the Confederacy.

The Remnants of the Eternal Empire in Airda Major made a few attempts to unify themselves, but no great leader arose from the various regional delegates. Competition for limited resources following the Cataclysm and the ensuing ice age ended any chance for reunification.

With financial support from the free human Nasuta Kahnate, a slave general named El Cato led a revolt across the Western Horn. El Cato swept through Imperial lands killing any elves and swelling the ranks of his slave army.

After facing a defeat while trying to cross the Greenblood River, El Cato accepted peace terms with the remaining Elvish factions. The elves ceded the lands West of the Greenblood, and paid a massive tribute to El Cato. The conquerer was a brilliant general, but a terrible politician. Within two years the elves were able to bribe one of his disgruntled commanders to assassinate him. Without El Cato’s celebrity leadership, the freed slaves turned on each other.

The river deltas along the southern coast of the new Sea of Tears is home to the remaining factions of the Eternal Empire. Originally scores of independent city states, the region has settled into a handful of small nations and semi autonomic regions. The largest and most powerful of these nations sits straddles the banks and deltas of the Greenblood. They claim to be the Eternal Empire uninterrupted, but everyone else refers to them as the Greenblood Empire.

Chapter Eight: Airda Minor

After the Cataclysm, Airda Minor was cut off from the heavily populated lands of the South and was essentially forgotten by those with dreams of empire. Slave rebellions of humans and goblins led to the near extinction of Dwarves and elves on the northern continent.

A few exceptions existed. The dwarves of Kal’ Rhadav sealed themselves in their mountain halls for centuries, thus escaping destruction. The Elves at the mage college at Tel Vanni had protested the use of the doomsday ritual, and instead of participating, had stayed home and erected powerful wards around the city to protect it from ruin. The city now stands alone as an island in the Sea of Tears. Many elves fled the slave revolts into the frozen swamps north of the Sawtooth mountains. Most perished in the coming years, but some survived and their shy decedents still haunt the moors. Finally, one group of Human slaves from beyond the Ketzal Wastes partnered with the elves in their region to fight against an approaching Hobgoblin warlord. In a rare display of cosmopolitan unity, the two races openly and freely intermarried. To this day the region of Ilmycra is home to many dark-skinned half-elves.

Goblinoid Kingdoms and tribes spread across the continent, wiping out everything they encountered. Orcish hoards roamed the frozen wastes, making common excursions into goblin lands, murdering and plundering as the went. These raids gradually pushed further and further south throughout the ice age as the orcs were in turn driven out by Frost Giants and other fell creatures of the far North. Only in the far South-East of the continent did a few petty kingdoms of liberated human slaves manage to beat back the goblinoid advances. Today, these petty kingdoms (except for Ilmycra) are unified as the kingdom of Minrikea.

500 Years ago, the powers of Airda Major remembered that another continent existed to the North, and began establishing colonial outposts to exploit the region’s natural resources. The Elves establish several coastal trading posts. these posts traded with the goblins for furs, lumber, and metals. The elves would play the goblins against each other when they could, and, despite many treaties, took more and more land as the colonial population grew. Although several elvish nations founded colonies, a series of wars left all of them in the hands of the Greenblood Empire. The elves of Tel Vanni stole a coastal port city and the surrounding farmland from the humans of Minrikea. The Tel Vanni saw this colony as a solution to the overcrowding and food shortages that plagued their island. The Khan of the Nasuta humans also led a conquest of the orc held lands between Minrikea and the northern moors.

One region that avoided goblin and colonial notice is the coastal region to the far North-West known as Frostbite Bay. This Land of steep mountains and deep fjords was home to tribes of human runaways who had escaped the Empire before the Cataclysm. In later years, these fishermen would ally themselves with seafaring dwarven adventurers to form a society of fierce seaborne raiders.

The Frostbite Raiders were not the only plunderers on the high seas. Red sailed pirate vessels preyed on shipping across the Sea of Tears. These pirates built a city for themselves outside the reach of any Southern government, this city developed into modern day Redhaven. Several navies, particularly that of the Greenblood Empire tried to quash the pirates of Redhaven but were unsuccessful. The local goblin tribes were also increasingly hostile to the invaders. The Pirates responded by slaughtering the goblins and taking their lands, bit by bit as the pirate grew in numbers. The pirates began acting more as a nation than a fleet, and the rest of the world named their territory, Corsair Land, which over time has been shorted into Sairland. Soon the tales of lands to be won in Sairland led shiploads of eager immigrants to Redhaven from all over the world.

Chapter Nine: Sairland

During the early pirate days of Redhaven, the corsair captains would appoint a Pirate King to lead their fleets when navies began anti-piracy activities in the region. After beating back a full fledged invasion effort from the Greenblood Empire (about 300 years ago), with the help of hired Confederacy mercenaries, Sairland began to change from pirate city, to legitimate nation. Captains became noblemen, and the King became a permanent institution.

Hearkening back to their origins, the crown is not considered hereditary, but each monarch is elected by the Open Council, a voting body open to all Noblemen and representatives of chartered guilds. The King is also advised by a group of appointed officials known as the Closed Council. Appointments to the Closed Council must also be approved by a majority vote in the Open Council. While his power is vast, the king’s power is not absolute. The king must adhere to the laws of the Constitution and can be deposed by a vote of no confidence from both the Closed and Open Councils. Citizens are entitled to a trial in a court of law, religious freedom is enshrined in law, slavery is illegal, chartered merchant guilds support a growing middle class, and anyone willing to serve in the military or are born to a citizen parent, regardless of race or religion, are granted citizenship. These revolutionary freedoms and the open tracts of land seized from the goblins have led to a diverse immigrant population.

Sairland has clashed several times with the Greenblood Empire but has so far managed to keep its independence. the most recent conflict between the two nations was a border skirmish 120 years ago which ended in the status quo. Currently, trade relations are open, but military posturing continues. Sairlaid’s North-Western March is subject to frequent raids by bands of orcs, and the navy patrols the coast attempting to protect the region from Frostbite Raiders. Sairland maintains friendly relations with the hidden city of Kal' Rhadav. Sairland conquered and held Ilmycra for several decades until an independence movement backed by Minrikea and the Khanate 40 years ago earned Ilmycra the status of Sairlander Autonomous Region.

Chapter Ten: Redhaven

The bustling city of Redhaven is home to nearly half a million people and is one of the busiest ports in the world. The mouth of the mighty Naga River provides safe harbor from the severe thunderstorms that frequently lash the coast. Redhaven is the Capital city of Sairland, home of the Royal Palace, The Grand Hall of Assembly, the Royal Naval Yards, The High Court, and the Tower of Vigilance. The city is also home to many temples, inns, guildhalls, shops, noble mansions, and slums. The disorderly sprawl of streets teems with people of all races and cultures.

The realm is currently ruled by King Alfonso de Borgiac, a fifty-five-year-old scion of an old but weak human family. Nobody’s first pick for the throne, Alfonso came to power 12 years ago as a compromise candidate that all factions hoped to manipulate. Seen as weak-willed and indecisive, Alfonso’s rule has been marked by struggles between the real power brokers in the Closed Council. For the most part, Alfonso is content to let the Closed Council do most of the actual ruling, choosing to focus on the more ceremonial parts of the Monarchy. Alfonso particularly enjoys knighting heroes, hosting galas, and presiding over the yearly offerings to the gods. Occasionally a council member can convince him to personally make a ruling one way or another on an important matter. This is usually seen as a large victory for the persuader’s faction and starts furious new scheming and plotting from those not currently in favor.

Two large questions dominate the current political conversation. Firstly, should the government spend its resources improving conditions at home, or increasing the capacity of the military to ward off external threats? The second question is on the expansion or reduction of the merchant class at the expense of the traditional nobility. Idealists from all four parties bolster their numbers through bribery, blackmail, and tit for tat bargaining. Unofficial coalitions form as the factions work together on an issue, only to turn on each other the moment it proves advantageous. The current primary coalitions are the Populists and Bourgeoisie, led by Chief Justice Balor Hightower, while the Aristocracy and Foreign Policy Hawks are led by Grand Admiral Alexa Mountegue and High Inquisitor Bernard de Nicolai.

There are many other prominent figures in Redhaven. Kristoff Swift, the primary shareholder of Northern Shipping and Trade, and a chartered member of the Open Council. Kepeskselit, Dragonborn druid, and Court Stormsinger. Sir Arturios the Bold, Commander of the Knights of the Northern Star. Gertrude Holdsdottir, Keeper of the Treasury.