The World

[Ebiris]

Planet: Aldremir
Moons: Celestis and Firmenta
Continents: Athnas, Pranneria, Cimmeria (Abilestir), Hildspir

Athnas: Large Southeastern continent, connected to Pranneria. Dominated by the ancient Dragon Empire of Jovar which is bounded on its Southwestern extent by several smaller tribute states, and the island nation of Verra off its Eastern coast. Primarily arid climate, although far South has more tropical environment. North gives way to inhospitable tundra, while West leads to steppe plains followed by cold desert, finally reaching the Pinnacle Mountain range which marks the joining of Athnas with Pranneria.

Pranneria: Smaller continent joined to Athnas on its Northwest. Numerous small but vibrant kingdoms frequently engaged in trade and war with one another, and several colonial empires in the process of exploiting Cimmeria which was discovered a little under a century ago. Notable powers here are Anowia and Tonghm which are both the foremost maritime powers and most involved in colonising Cimmeria, and Tanagra, which is landlocked to the centre of the continent but holds a powerful role in monopolising the overland trade routes. Climate here is primarily temperate except to the far North and South where tundra and prairie begin to dominate.

Cimmeria: Isolated island continent roughly halfway between Athnas and Pranneria, only recently discovered by Prannerian explorers who named it as the birthright of their people. The natives insist on their own name of Abilestir, but the new name has stuck in most of the rest of the world. The theocracy of Kal-Krusad is the only real country here, dominating the Southwest reaches and as yet has had little firm contact with the colonists spreading out from the East coast. The rest of the land is filled mostly with nomadic tribes and isolated settlements under no consistent banner. Primarily jungle around the interior and swamp on the coasts, only the far north gives way to more temperate plains and forests.

Hildspir: Island continent far to the Southeast of Athnas. Once was dominated by the Hildian civilisation, who were strong even when ancient Jovar was being united from warring barbarian tribes, but the entire civilisation was wiped out in a tremendous cataclysm nearly one and a half thousand years ago. Since then the continent has become a blasted and inhospitable ruin, strange magical phenomenon and still extant wards and automated defenders placing it as a grave danger to exploration.

Player Races

Humans: Humans are common everywhere in civilised lands, and make up the bulk of population for Athnas and Pranneria, and are quite common on Cimmeria both as natives and colonists. Humans generally don't live past 80, but some individuals have reached a century.
Elves: Elves were unknown until Cimmeria was discovered, where they make up a significant majority of its population. Since being opened to the world they have started to appear on other continents, but remain a rarity. Elves are unlikely to live much past 200.
Dwarves: Once made up the majority of Hildspir's population, now only small minorities on Athnas and Pranneria, but somewhat common on Cimmeria. Dwarves tend to live to about a century.

[Ebiris]

While clerics and druids may freely call for miracles and divine blessings to lend weight to their creeds, to the common eye this does not seem dissimilar to the great works of wizards and sorcerers. Certainly no almighty deity has ever manifested itself, but this does nothing to dampen the desire to believe in something greater than one's self, and so many religions flourish on Aldremir, fuelled purely by faith. And has not stopped more than one powerful being from declaring themself as a God in order to bask in the worship that follows.

The Divine Emperor: The current Emperor of Jovar is considered a divine figure himself, just as his father and all of the other Emperors stretching back to the nation's founding were. The fact that the Emperors are manifestly mortal does nothing to quell the faith given to him as steward of their ancient civilisation, and indeed all of the deceased Emperors are considered much like patron saints, giving due deference to whomever currently holds the throne. Adherents believe that upon their deaths they shall serve the spirits of all the dead Emperors in the celestial empire, just as they served in the living.

Ancestor Worship: Not an organised religion so much as a system of belief in the spirits of one's ancestors looking after them, and requiring placation through offerings and supplication. It traces its roots to Jovar and is quite enmeshed there alongside the cult of the Divine Emperor, but many natives of Cimmeria hold similar beliefs of their ancestors becoming part of the natural world and requiring respect, and even in cosmopolitan Pranneria it is not uncommon for some particularly established families to hold devotions to their forebears. Some take this belief to its logical conclusion and have the spirits of their ancestors called back or animated through necromancy, but such is generally regarded with horror and revulsion by most civilised peoples.

Akallas: The deity of Kal-Krusad, who's worship is mandated strictly by the ruling priest caste. He is a noble protector of his chosen people, and his faithful can be assured a happy afterlife in his land of Kal, where all the pains and troubles of life are left behind for an eternity of blissful contentment in his presence. The unfaithful are damned tormented loneliness in the Pits of Kali. In order to display their piety before their jealous God, the priests frequently perform ritual sacrifice of young worshippers. These sacrificial victims are of course assured the happiest of happy places in Akallas' embrace.

Nature Worship: Takes many forms, and in some cases can be easily confused with Ancestor Worship which sometimes ascribes ancestors to places in natural settings. Followers of such traditions devote themselves to the world itself, seeing it as a living entity that must be protected and respected. Some followers of these ways invent particular Gods for certain concepts or natural phenomenon, further muddying the waters with Ancestor Worship's own tendancies. While most adherents to this system are of equal mind on showing reverence to the trees and land, some are strict vegetarians while others are bloody carnivores, adopting a 'nature is red in tooth and claw' philosophy.

The Olympians: A pantheon of deities primarily worshipped in Pranneria, they are numerous and each embody different concepts and aspects, from Aphrodite the Goddess of Love, to Hades the God of the Dead, and Poseidon the God of the Sea. Adherents will typically pray to whichever one is most appropriate for a given situation, and larger temples will have space for each member of the pantheon.

These are some of the larger and commonly known religions on Aldremir, but small cults spring up all the time around philosophies and beings of interest, and just as often vanish as quickly.

On the nature of Outsiders

Who has not been impressed by a summoner calling forth a demon of myth and binding it to her will? Who could doubt the word of a cleric of Hera that has his words backed up by a formidable erinyes sent from Olympus to punish the sinful? Such beings surely speak clearly on the presence of entire worlds beyond our own, the very halls of the Gods themselves where such glorious beings serve them, and such terrible monsters defy them.

At least that is a common view, one that summoners and priests are certainly in no hurry to disillusion their admirers on. But recent scholarly studies and interviews with such 'outsiders' has provoked a counterargument that is gaining some traction among the intelligesia. Such an argument states that the beings called forth by 'summoning' magic are less teleported from fantastic realms beyond the one we see with our eyes, but instead crafted wholesale by the desires of the summoner, and the subconscious effects of folklore and legend. Unsurprisingly, the creatures often take great exception to being called mindless stereotypical dolls of their summoners. Debate rages, and often has turned ugly as fiends and heralds of the Gods have been turned to violent retribution on their doubters after pointed questioning and argument.

As for the dead souls who are pulled back from the hereafter by the pleadings of powerful clerics, they sadly are not able to provide word on what they saw on the other side and silence this increasingly heated debate, for to a man they never remember so much as an instant after their heart stopped beating.

[Ebiris]

Aberrations
A few creatures classed as Aberrations are known to exist on Aldremir, typically of the less powerful and intelligent varieties, and usually attributed to magical mutations. None could reasonably be considered civilised, and they are usually solitary and rapacious creatures, exterminated with prejudice when found.

Animals
Animals are common the world over, in all variety of forms from placid livestock and playful housepets to wild predators and beasts bred for work or war.

Constructs
Favoured as guardians for highly controlled places such as vaults and prisons, their use in the open is an extreme liability due to their strict adherence to simple commands. Only the most intensely private of individuals would ever openly display a golem guard.

Dragons
Dragons are found across all inhabited continents, but their forms and natures differ considerably. Prannerian dragons are the most physically mighty, sometimes boasting elemental or poisonous breath weapons, but somewhat simple-minded and impulsive. Wild Prannerian dragons either live on preserves where ample feeding ensures they do not trouble the population and their eggs might be taken to raise more tame dragons, or in remote places far from cities and farms. The vast majority are integrated into the armies of the various nation states, doted on by their handlers and used to great effect in war.
The dragons of Athnas that give the empire of Jovar its title are considerably more intelligent than their Prannerian cousins, and those gifted with breath weapons often possess more esoteric abilities such as disintegrating rays or gases suffused with debilitating magic. They play a full and equal part in the life of the empire, and the majority migrate to the civil service - indeed, the companions of the Emperor are the wisest dragons on Aldremir, and no doubt have a large responsibility for the ancient empire's sustained success.
On Cimmeria, dragons in some ways act as legends tell of ancient ones on Pranneria, malevolent and covetous monsters, inclined to pillage entire towns to sate their greed and bloodlust. While not quite rivalling the dragons of Pranneria in physical stature, the vicious wyrms of Cimmeria possess incredible control over the elements, and many are worshipped as local deities.

Elementals
Physical manifestations of the four classical elements, along with occassional rare mixes, these beings only tend to exist in isolated places where their element is dominant, except when summoned. Their alien modes of thought make civilised contact difficult, as a fire elemental desires for all to burn and holds little understanding of the pain this brings to other beings, and the other elementals are little different, although less immediately threatening.

Fey
Fey are exceedingly common all over Aldremir, the vast majority living quite happily in remote places far from any contact even with others of their kind. In general they act as stewards of the land, and encourage nature worship in others. A rare and powerful few even take on the roles of local deities to serve as a font for such worship. While they generally disdain civilisation, they are nonetheless quite amiable in most cases except when threatened. The one exception to this is in the case of Outsiders, which fey possess an instinctive hatred for which is entirely reciprocated, and even the most sweet tempered nymph and patient angel can be roused to vicious conflict when presented to one another.

Giants
While extinct on Pranneria and Athnas for many thousands of years, giants remain present in scattered enclaves all across Cimmeria, where they range the gamut from industrious architects of sophisticated cities, to near feral savages little better than wild animals. In recent years, many have found their way across the ocean to Pranneria, where they earn tidy livings as labourers and mercenaries by virtue of their prodigal strength.

Humanoids
The main civilising force upon the surface of the world (although the dragons of Athnas might argue the point), humans, elves, and dwarves are responsible for all the great nations of Pranneria and Athnas, as well as the proud but isolated cities and tribes of Cimmeria. In addition, the continental shelves of Pranneria and Cimmeria are inhabited by merpeople and sea elves, respectively, who while less organised than their terrestrial neighbours nonetheless are happy to share in the fruits that civilisation brings.

Magical Beasts
An extremely diverse classification, it is most simply said that these fulfill many of the same niches as animals do, for the line is often a blurred one.

Monstrous Humanoids
Derogatorily referred to as Beastmen, and their condition ascribed to ancestral relations between humanoids and animals, these unfortunates have a hard lot. Rarely accepted in civilised society except in the lowest of jobs, many instead eke out savage lives on the frontiers of civilisation, little better than tribes of brigands. The exception to this are the Sahaugin who dwell upon the continental shelf of Athnas, and are peacable subjects of the Divine Emperor.

Ooze
Not so much a type of creature as a type of refuse, and best considered as such.

Outsiders
Outsiders do not ever naturally appear on Aldremir, the only ones here present by the will of a summoner. This limits the vast majority to very brief stays where they simply follow the agenda of someone else regardless of their own will. However, sometimes one will break free of its summoner before being banished, and be left to fend for itself. Their reactions to this generally vary, some trying to blend into society while otherwise carrying forward the cause or ethos that motivates them, while others attempt to foster cults, setting themselves up as divine figures in their own right. In either case, they will try and take opportunities to free other Outsiders of similar mindsets from the control of summoners, sometimes forming entire hierarchies as more are added to the organisation.

Plants
Animate plants are rare, and intelligent plants rarer still, but they do exist, most often in areas where Nature Worship is strong - whether this is cause or consequence is a subject of debate. Unintelligent ones are simple predators, most often acting in the ambush mode. The intelligent ones typically serve the interests of fey, but are more disdainful of civilisation.

Undead
Those that walk beyond death are a wretchedly common blight across the civilised world. Whether ghosts tormented by unfinished business, ghouls prowling the carrion fields of battle, vampires that seamlessly blend with society and leave trails of dead and deluded victims in their wake, or the myriad unpardonable forms a necromancer might sculpt the leavings of a crypt into, the undead can be found on every corner of the planet, and without exception are a deadly threat to life and civilisation everywhere.

Vermin
Much as animals but even less worthy of note. Rare specimens can grow to prodigious size, but such is exceptionally rare, and commonly considered more of myth and exaggeration than fact.

[Ebiris]

Draconic
Most civilised dragons speak the local humanoid tongue, leaving this language mostly the preserve of wild dragons and those who deal with them. It possesses enough commonalities that even geographically isolated populations of dragons share a mostly consistent language, and someone fluent in the tongue of a feral population of the Pinnacle Mountains could converse easily with a Cimmerian dragon. It is, however, difficult for humanoids to properly articulate many of the sounds due to the different throat structure. Furthermore, it incorporates sounds at pitches too low for elves to hear, too high for dwarves to hear, and both for humans.

Prannerian
The common tongue spoken on the Prannerian continent, while local slang and dialects can vary widely, an individual can generally make himself understood wherever he goes. It is a harsh language, employing many noises produced at the back of the throat and hard stops. Simple suffixes and prefixes are used to modify standard words to denote tense, gender, and provide adjectives.

Jovar
The standardised language of the Empire of Jovar, it is spoken all over the Empire and in its neighbouring states, and is entirely consistent throughout - local slang and divergent dialects are frowned upon as signs of barbarism. In speech it is almost musical, with rhythm and cadence an important aspect that is used to differentiate both tense and gender.

Hildian
No longer spoken at all except by historians, the language only remains through writings and relics occassionally liberated from the forbidden continent by brave or foolhardy explorers. Complex whistles and clicks make up a significant proportion of the language, making it exceptionally difficult to learn.

Elven
The trade tongue of Cimmeria is also the ancestral language of the elves. Most of the isolated cities and tribes maintain their own quite disparate languages, and so are bound by the language of the most long-lived inhabitants of the continent, which is generally learned as a second language everywhere to enable communication with outsiders, and in some places has become the default and only language. It is a rather unwieldy language, however, with extremely different words even for intimately related concepts and different tenses, and requires extraordinarily precise pronunciation due to many completely different words sounding all but the same.

Sylvan
The language of the fey is the same all over the world, despite the fact that as a rule fey do not travel much. It seems that they are born with an instinctive grasp of their ancestral tongue, and many are quite happy to teach it to nonfey to allow for more precise communication - a must in the sometimes prickly relationships between guardians of the wilderness and encroaching civilisation. Like Jovar speech it has musical connotations, albeit more into overall sentence structure and as a matter of cultured speech than for important grammatical functions.

Olympian
The language of the Gods is also spoken by their clerics in song and spellcraft, as well as by all Outsiders connected to that pantheon. In structure it is similar to Prannerian, and many linguists speculate that the languages of that continent all derive their root from the original language of Olympus, but has degenerated over time while the divine language has remained constant. It sees little day to day use in the secular world, although some scholars and authors employ it to protect their work from the language drift that has and continues to modify Prannerian over the decades.

Aquan
Not one language specifically, but due to the difficulties in translating sounds made through air to a water-based medium, most languages simply do not function under the waves. This poses a barrier to communication with Merfolk, Sea Elves, Sahaugin, and other intelligent aquatic beings. Aquatic variants of Prannerian, Jovar, and Elven all exist, spoken by the undersea populations of each respective continent. These are naturally as different as their root languages, but tend to adopt more complex soundforms and simplified written alphabets.

Many other languages exist, of course. From secretive dialects and codes used by guilds and cults, to the dizzying spectrum of languages spoken all over the widely disparate Cimmerian states, and degenerate tongues employed by isolated Beastman clades. The list above should by no means be taken as exhaustive, but represents the languages spoken over the widest geographical areas, and therefore of most interest to scholars and travellers.

[Ebiris]

While intelligent life has existed on Aldremir for tens of thousands of years, the civilising of that life is a far more recent development. There are many competing theories for the original spark, some giving credit to divine sources that in some cases are even alleged to have created life wholesale, to tuition from ageless and immortal fey (how they became civilised is a question proponents of said theory have been slow to answer), or a spark of instinctive magic awakening some primitive intellect to further discoveries... the question remains unanswered. Spells to speak with the dead do not work on fossils, and accounts from supposedly immortal sources such as divinations that purport to call upon the Gods have often given different accounts depending on who is answering and sometimes even who is asking!

However it occured, civilisation emerged on all four continents of the world, and has progressed to its current state over the millenia, advancing at different rates in different places.

The Hildian civilisation is accepted to have been the first - if any rose up before it, all evidence has been thoroughly removed from any chance of discovery. Due to both its age and the hostility of its location to current study, less is known than might be hoped. Most information is taken second hand from the meticulously preserved records of the Jovar Empire which developed at a time when the Hildians had long been extant.

By Jovar's calendar it was year 74 when emissaries were first received from the people of their neighbouring continent, who held the date as being 942 by their own system of timekeeping. Year zero for Jovar was the ascension of the first Emperor, while year zero for the Hildians was ascribed to a supposedly cataclysmic battle between the Hildians and some foreign enemy (who this enemy was is yet another matter for debate). From this we can readily conclude that the Hildians had been a civilised and most likely unified force for over a thousand years before Emperor Geraud first consolidated his neighbouring tribes and began the centuries long conquest of Athnas that would not be complete until the year 214 when the Empire reached its current extent.

It was 1336 in the Hildian calendar when their continent was wracked by some unknown disaster that wiped out all life. Historians can only lament the long held isolationist tendencies of the Jovar Empire who did not even have trade with their only civilised neighbours and remark on the disappearance only with the laconic observation that the yearly Hildian emissary did not arrive on schedule. It was not until five years later, (468 GA) that Princess Sunmei headed an expedition to discover why there had been no contact from Hildspir. The expedition was, of course, a disaster that resulted in the loss of four ships and the death of the Princess, the survivors returning with lurid tales of terrifying golems of unimaginable size and incredible destructive power - what we now know to be only the first layer of defence guarding Hildspir's secrets.

For whatever reason, the Dragon Empire showed no interest in discovering what had happened after that disaster, nor in exploring the seas further or exploring inland past the fruitful lands already claimed. It was not until 1284 GA when the Jovar again became reluctant hosts to a delegation from afar, when Prannerian explorers from Kemmeland made the perilous journey around Charybdos Cape to reach them.

As to Pranneria, no grand unifying empire has ever claimed dominion over that continent as occured on Hildspir and Athnas. However this has not stopped its peoples from attaining the benefits of civilisation, as clans grew into tribes, religions were shared, and both trade and war occured in equal measure. The first true nation emerged with the marriage of Chief Koryand of the Blue Spear tribe and the Queen of the Sky, a near mythical shaman who ruled over a widespread and aggressive group of raiders. In response to their combined strength new alliances were hastily formed and weaker rivals forcibly absorbed on all sides, causing a cascade of unification and conquest that over the next three hundred years brought Pranneria to the landscape it has today.

Out of deference to the Queen of the Sky's personal power, and a desire for a common calendar to ease trade and record-keeping, the newly emerging nations of Pranneria settled on a calendar of her devising. Unlike those of Hildspir and Athnas, this calendar actually started at the year 92, and the true meaning of it did not become clear until the year 100 when a celestial convergence of both moons and the Sun occured - a convergence that has occured regularly every one hundred years since then.

While it was 201 LC when the nations of Pranneria first made contact with the Dragon Empire, and thus began a mad scramble to send their own emissaries there and gain favoured trading agreements, this explosion in shipbuilding and exploration came to an aprupt end in 203 LC (1286 GA) when Emperor Khonsu passed his edict that foreign trade would only be permitted on the island of Curacau, where it is strictly monitored and limited. While many a Prannerian trading company has tried to get around this edict by one ruse or another over the years, the consequences for those discovered are financially ruinous, and personally catastrophic for any individuals caught in the act.

With this influx, however, the primitive peoples of Verra, long ignored and left to their own devices by Jovar, enthusiastically welcomed the opportunities for trade with Prannerian companies. While they cannot meet the unsatisfied demand for Jovar's own goods, this does not keep them from trying. The end result is that many Prannerians unkindly think of Verra as 'a pauper's Jovar', although with the dominating effect of expansive trading companies and colonists, much of Verra's character and culture has grown decidedly Prannerian over the years.

The last continent of our world, Cimmeria, still remains much of a mystery to the devoted historian, despite being discovered nearly a century ago in 792 LC. Its insular city-states and nomadic tribes often have little idea of what lies over the next hill, and tales of their own origins have the decided mystique of legend and myth without objective evidence from other sources. The Lunar Calendar of Pranneria has been adopted by many who have come into contact with explorers and impressed with tales of the regular celestial convergence, and others who have begrudgingly began to seek closer ties with their neighbours in response to aggressive colonisation efforts.

Of some note is the calendar of Kal-Krusad, which states that the current year is 9,997, with year zero being the year when Akallas walked the land and first taught men how to speak and write. There is no evidence that the civilisation of Kal-Krusad is nearly that old, however, but the fact that it lines up with the celestial convergence that marks the Prannerian calendar has sparked a good deal of scholarly debate. Many in Kal-Krusad also ascribe a certain apocalyptic fervour to the impending year ten thousand, but exactly what their God plans to do to mark the anniversary is unknown.

The current year in each widely accepted calendar:

1,980 GA - Geraud's Ascension, used in Jovar and much of Athnas.
2,853 HE - Hildian Era, defunct calendar of Hildspir.
897 LC - Lunar Calendar, used on Pranneria and parts of Cimmeria.
9,997 AR - Akallas Rising, used in Kal-Krusad and parts of Cimmeria.