User:THAYET/Sandbox

Things Every Elanthian Should Know

The purpose of this page is to give new players a broad-strokes overview of DR's setting, i.e. "what would someone who was born and grew up in this setting be likely to know by default?" Note that this should be as neutrally-written as possible.

Physical facts

The setting takes place on a planet called Elanthia on a mountainous continent called Kermoria. The climate is roughly equivalent in most places to Britain -- hot, humid summers and cold, snowy winters. There are 400 days in a year (100 per season) and the orbit of Elanthia is perfectly circular. Major holidays mark the transitions between the seasons as well as the new year and there are a number of less-celebrated minor holidays. There are 12 other planets in the solar system as well, one for each god, with Elanthia being Truffenyi's domain.

Time in-game advances at quadruple speed, i.e. 4 in-game days per real life day. One real life day's worth of time is frequently called an andu (pl. anduen), one minute is called a roisan (pl. roisaen) and 30 minutes is called an anlas (pl. anlaen). Each anlas in the day has a name, and the numbering system for years in the game begins at 0, called the Victory of Lanival the Redeemer.

Two major rivers exist within Kermoria, the Segoltha and the Faldesu, and the livable landmass is flanked in the northwest by the Velaka Desert, an uninhabitable Waste to the northeast, and the demonic forest known as the Dark Hand to the south. South of the continent of Kermoria past the Dark Hand is the continent of Albaria. Another landmass exists to the distant west, but has no name. To the east is the Reshal Sea and the Qi Archipelago. The Waste, the bulk of the Dark Hand, Albaria, and the lands to the west are presently inaccessible in the game, and the rest of the planet remains unexplored.

The level of technology present in the game is fairly scattershot and extremely segregated by social class. The tech era cherrypicks from the 1500s to the late 1800s with an emphasis on Generic Medieval-ish Fantasy with magic supplanting many traditional advances of technology. Forfedhdar has electric lights illuminating the city for example, but no other application of electricity is seen in the game. Black powder exists but no firearms. There are steam engines powerful enough to control large mechanical vehicles and airships, but this technology is not seen anywhere else in the game outside of a handful of examples.

Society & Government

Five provinces and their methods of government, current rulers and prominent political figures, currencies used

There are five provinces in Kermoria. Four are on the mainland of the continent and one is an archipelago.

Society across Kermoria is universally structured in a way that is pseudo-feudalistic, with each province having its own distinct ruling and noble class, guilded class, adventurers, and underclass consisting of farmers, laborers, and other peasants. The precise structure of the ruling class varies from province to province. The lower classes by and large have access to fewer privileges and rights under the law; for example, favors and spellcasting is almost entirely the domain of the guilded adventurer class or higher, and it's not uncommon for common people to be the targets of violence or murder with no apparent legal recourse. The adventurer and guilded class seem to be more of a pseudo-renaissance or Enlightenment-era culturally, though the lower classes seem to have a distinctly more feudal bent.

Zoluren

The Principality of Zoluren rests in the center of Kermoria and its other provinces adjacent to the Reshal Sea. It is a male-preference cognative primogeniture, meaning males of the current ruling house are preferred over females but females may rule as well, and is presently ruled by Prince Belirendrick IV of the Sorvendig family. Zoluren's ruler is backed by a Council consisting of nobles from Zoluren's Great Houses.

The capital city is Rivercrossing aka The Crossing, which rests some distance inland on the Segoltha river. Other large settlements include Leth Deriel, Arthe Dale, and Tiger Clan, and there are a number of other smaller clans, villages, and hamlets as well. The majority of Zoluren's population is Human, with some Halflings and Elves and a few settlements of Gor'Togs and Dwarves.

Some racially-driven tension exists between the ancient cities of Leth Deriel and Ilaya Taipa and the rest of the province. These cities were historically Elven and the tension comes from being ostensibly ruled by Humans. Crossing itself is a melting pot with all "civilized" races being more or less represented, though Humans still remain the dominant race in numbers.

Zoluren is the only province that uses kronars as a currency.

Therengia

The Barony of Therengia rests to the north of Zoluren, south of the Velaka Desert and the Waste, and adjacent to the Reshal Sea. It is a male-preference agnatic primogeniture which forbids female inheritance of rule, meaning all rulers are selected from males of House Theren based on seniority or their eldest male issue, and is currently ruled by Baron Gyfford Theren. House Theren is backed by the Morzindaen, or Great Houses of Therengia.

The capital city is Therenborough, but the bulk of the province's trade goes through Riverhaven to the south which is situated on the Faldesu river. The majority of Therengia's population is Human with a small population of Halflings and a single major Rakash settlement called Siksraja.

Therengia uses lirums as a currency.

Ilithi

The Domain of Ilithi

Forfedhdar

The Collective of Forfedhdar

Qi'Reshalia

The Collective of Qi'Reshalia

Other Areas

The Velaka Desert contains a number of sovereign peoples, including the Kingdom of Muspar'i, the Sand Elves, Outcasts, various nomadic Humans, and the Dwarves of the Gemfire Mountains that surround the desert.

Folklore & History

Lanival, Dragon Priests, Empire of the Seven Pointed Star, why there are 5 provinces, the Great Migration, wars/skirmishes (Gorbesh, Sorrow, Outcast, Lyras, Elpalzi)

Races & Guilds

Basic one-sentence overview of each "major" race in Elanthia, not just PC races. What guilds are and what they represent.

Magic & The Supernatural

Basic essentials of attunement & magic and how it works, distinction from other supernatural abilities, how the two overlap, attitudes toward necromancy/sorcery, NMU views of magic users

Magic is the practice of manipulating streams of mana in the environment to create energy which accomplishes certain tasks. Magical ability is not an innate trait; attunement to mana is learned and the process is comparable to learning a new language, and almost anyone is physically capable of attunement provided they aren't mana blind. Attunement to more than one kind of mana is physiologically impossible. A spell is cast by creating a pattern with ambient mana through exertion made via the magician's nervous system. Spell patterns are highly structured and rote things not possible to simply improvise. (Confounds?) Both attunement and the methods of spellcasting are largely only performed or taught by guilds in the current era. Examples of both exist outside of these structures but are rare and almost always less powerful.

(Sorcery!) Necromancy, sorcery, and their detritus is a near-universally reviled art, regarded as dangerous and the domain of power-mad magicians.

Certain guilds teach their members to accomplish magical-seeming feats through other means, such as the Barbarian's Inner Fire; these things are not magic, but rather supernatural abilities that rely on other sources of power innate to the user. Non-magic users, in particular Barbarians, tend to view magic as a crutch and its users weak, undisciplined, or dangerous.

Death & Gods

Type of pantheon, methods of worship, general disposition toward Immortals, prominence of favors, death

For most people death is as singular and permanent as it is in the real world. For certain classes of individuals, however, divine pacts known as favors exist and are used to come back from the dead, either through a Cleric's ability to resurrect or through reincarnation at the nearest altar. Adventuring guildsmen without favors are also occasionally spared by the Immortals for mysterious reasons, seemingly singled out for some unfinished work.