The Known World

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Major political units from which the Player Characters might come:

• Andaron. Player characters should be Andaroni or have some reason to be in Andaron at the start of the campaign.

• The Eastern Kingdoms of the Continent.

• Iverina. If you're an Iverinan, don't let the Andaroni know.

• Rodana. Rodanese would be a bold choice, depending why you've deserted the most civilized culture in the world to live among barbarians.

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Languages

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There is no Common tongue, though most merchant vessels have at least one crew member who can speak broken Rodanese. On Andaron almost everyone speaks Andaroni in addition to their racial or ethnic language. All PCs get their native language and Andaroni for free.

If you want to be a Face character, I strongly suggest investing in Linguistics and taking Iverinan and Rodanese. Especially Rodanese. These are the guys who enforce the Laws of War.

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Andaron

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Andaron is set of island kingdoms under a High Queen (or King), with a federal constitutional monarchy, to the northeast of the Continent. The culture is generally accepting of other nationalities and humanoid races. Dwarves, Elves, and Merfolk have their own kingdoms, with their own territories, subject to the High Queen. Halflings and gnomes tend to have villages scattered around the primarily human sections of the islands.

Corutha, first of her name, is the current High Queen. Her older brother and sister died in the Great War with Iverina. She is estranged from her younger brother, Vartan, whose whereabouts are currently unknown.

There are six major islands, and many small ones, the smallest sometimes owned by a rich family. The whole region has a temperate climate; only the high mountains in central Andar are high enough to get snow with any regularity.

• Andar, the largest island, with the capital, Queenston. It is subdivided into many petty kingdoms, the majority of which are human-dominated.

• Crendu, to the east of Central Andar, houses unique forests different from those on the rest of the island; although there are dryads and nymphs in other places, Crendu has a larger contingent than anywhere else. The secretive order of Druids is rumoured to have their main temple somewhere in the depths of the interior.

• Jadar is the second-largest island, about a fifth of the size of Andar, to the far southeast of the island group. It consists of a small kingdom on sea-level plains on the northwest; the rest is a half-mile-high plateau rising nearly straight up. Nobody goes there; it is rumoured to be infested with fierce gigantic beasts.

• Suturoth, far to the north off the coast of the great ice sheets, is geologically not part of the Andaroni island group, but its three petty kings swore alegiance to Andaron in return for protection from the Iverinans. They are nervous now that the Andaroni navy is too weak to oppose a force of any significance, but while the Iverinan navy remains equally weak, still count themselves as part of the island nation.

• Vern, home to the city of the same name, which is the navy's main base. The rest of the island is farms that used to support the demands of the navy; the forests are long gone aside from small preserves inhabited by a few fey and woodland creatures.

• Zidra, the largest of the Hebdiren chain along the west of Andar, distinguished by the presence of a small Rodanese enclave. Most of the Hebdirens are small, and claimed by various (mostly human) clans, each with their own petty king.

In addition, the relatively shallow waters between Andar and Crendu house extensive settlements of underwater races including Medra, a small city primarily of merfolk.

There are two major cities

• Kardanak, in the mountains of central Andar, is the main dwarven stronghold. It is officially a large city, but the extensive warren of tunnels underneath the mountain house many secretive underground races who interact with and trade with the dwarven "public" face of the mountain; some insist that Greater Kardanak, as the region is called, should count as the largest single metropolitan area in the world. There is a lot of bureaucracy in Kardanak; expect to need permits for almost anything.

• Queenston (sometimes Kingston) is the capital; it lies to the northeast on the main island, Andar, 30 miles inland from the ocean on the river Ost. It is currently the only (known) metropolis on the island. During the Great War it was attacked by an Iverinan armada; since then the lower river has been filled with hazards to navigation, and the formerly small town of Ostmouth has been redeveloped as the major port serving the whole northeast quadrant of the main island. Queenston changes name based on the gender of the current High Monarch. Occasionally various lobby groups try to get it renamed Crown City so they don't have to change their stationery every few decades.

In addition there are a few other smaller municipalities of significance:

• Darsha, a coastal town on Zidra, housing a walled enclave of Rodanese officially not part of Andaron and called Guancho by the Empire.

• Medra, an underwater city between Andar and Crendu populated by water-breathing races. The Overcity, administered as part of Medra, is an entirely urban island that floats just to the north; no one is sure why it floats, so no one builds under it. It serves as Medra's port for trade with surface nations, and is primarily populated by races that can't breathe underwater, although a few amphibious beings have homes there instead of in Medra.

• Vern, on the relatively small island of the same name at the far western edge of the archipelago is the base of most of what is left of the Andaroni navy. The crater of an extinct volcano that blew itself apart thousands of years ago serves as a natural harbour. The town is built in tiers up the cliff on the interior of the crater; it isn't a good place for people with mobility impairments. The harbour is ruled by the First Lord of the Admiralty, the town by the Lord Major (who resents not being styled King of Vern). The town has hit hard times with the near-destruction of the navy in the Great War, having shrunk from about 50,000 to about 9000. Consequently there are many abandoned buildings and entire abandoned districts, making it a haven for smugglers, privateers, and according to rumour, more than a few pirates.

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Rodana

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Rodana is the major empire of the Continent. Its emperor, known as the Heaven-Sent because of his celestial ancestry, is nominally an absolute ruler, but in reality whichever feudal lord currently dominates the others serves as viceroy. Some say the real power lies with the massive bureaucracy that manages the practical side of keeping the empire running.

Rodana encompases a huge territory, possibly half or two-thirds of the Continent; the uncertainty arises from the complete lack of documentation or even tales of what lies to the uttermost west beyond the Worlds End Mountains. If the player character comes from a race native to arctic, desert, or jungle territory, their ancestors likely came from some province of Rodana. This doesn't necessarily mean Rodanese is their native language, just that their territory has been part of the Empire for at least a millenium. Some provinces are happy about this; others less so.

Rodanese culture is insular and self-sufficient; no viceroy in a thousand years has sought to expand its territory. Nevertheless it sees itself as the guarantor of Order in the world, and imposes some of its rules on all the smaller lands -- primarily laws governing international trade and warfare. Nobody wants to antagonize Rodana, so most cultures follow their rules. The Laws of War, and Letters of Marque, are legal concepts enforced by the threat of punishment by the massive Rodanese military. As an island kingdom, some Andaroni feel relatively safe from Rodanese interference, but the occasional visit by a massive Rodanese theurgeme usually sets them straight. Iverinans, from a mainland country, never forget that several mountain passes expose them to the largest and best-trained army in the world.

Rodana is an “empire” in the sense of the ancient Middle Eastern empires, rather than the more familiar colonialist European empires. When ancient Rodana conquered its neighbours, it imposed a few universal laws, but as long as a former independent country paid its taxes and supplied some troops, its existing power structure could continue to operate as they pleased. There was little or no exploitation other than that; local producers got fair exchange for their labour and resources, for example. The “universal laws” did evolve over time and impose more constraints, but never became all-encompassing.

Like in the Roman Empire, it is a big deal to be a Rodanese CitizenIt players of characters from Rodana want them to be Citizesns they need to discuss it with me in their character creation thread; it would be rare.; they have some rights and privileges non-citizens don’t get. There is a bit of a racial superiority stain to the original Rodanese, but once someone becomes a Citizen, it is a social faux pas to treat them any differently from any other Citizen.

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Iverina

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Iverina is a major seafaring nation on the eastern edge of the Continent, southwest of Andaron. There are two smaller independent kingdoms, Farnasia and Neuvan, between it and the nearest part of the Continent to Andaron; both pay tribute to Iverina, and would like to stop doing so. Several other minor nations fill out the east coast of the Continent, separated from Rodana by the Mountains of Mercy.

Iverina is an absolute monarchy and thus its politics can vary tremendously depending on the personality, or whim, of the current King (it's always a King; eldest living son inherits). The previous king, Pharnin VI, was the first son of the third daughter of Andaroni King Tarn III, and thus considered that he had a claim (however weak) on the Andaroni throne. He initiated the Great War that nearly bankrupted both kingdoms. His son Iserin was financially unable to continue the war, so establishing a ceasefire was the first priority when he ascended to the throne. The two nations remain technically at war, but neither has a national navy strong enough to give the other much trouble.

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The Eastern Kingdoms

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The Mountains of Mercy, running roughly north-south, separate Rodana from the eastern coast of the Continent. Several small kingdoms (plus Iverina, the largest) occupy this zone. There are four known passes through the mountains, two to Iverina, one to Farnasia, and one to Zarnath (with a further pass from Zarnath to Jinsva).

From north to south:

• Farnasia (coastal, cool temperate) The coast curves northwest from its southernmost point. Pays tribute to Iverina.

• Neuvan (coastal, temperate) Pays tribute to Iverina. The tip of Cape Nensa, stretching east-northeast, is the closest point to Andaron.

• Iverina (coastal, warm temperate), described above.

• Tharan (coastal, subtropical). To its northwest is a plateau with steppe terrain, extending into Iverina, where Catfolk can be found.

• Zarnath (interior, arid) West of Tharan and Jinsva in a plateau nearly surrounded by the Mountains of Mercy. Home to several desert races.

• Jinsva (coastal, tropical). Original home of the Hadozee before they scattered around the civilized world.

• Karania, a tropical archipelago southeast of Tharan and Jinsva, original home of the Aventi and Darfellan. further nations to the south and west...

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Petty Kingdoms on Andar

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Here are a few of the petty kingdoms on the main island of Andar. Each has its own monarch, all of whom owe fealty to the High Queen.

• Arcolath is one of several primarily agricultural kingdoms in south-central and southeastern Andaron. Its soil is especially fertile.

• Narvan, to the northeast, contains both Ostmouth and Queenston, the latter being an independent city in the charge of a Lord or Lady Mayor.

• Penturien, to the south of the dwarven city/kingdom of Kardanak, is primarily elven. There is some tension between the two arising from disputes over dwarven chopping of trees near their official border.

• Suvan, south of Narvan, southeast of Wesvan, and northeast of Kardanak, consists of rolling wooded hills near the mountains and farmland nearer the sea.

• Varshad consists of most of the surface of the mountains of central Andar. It is subdivided into counties, with concentrations of different mountainous races in different counties.

• Wesvan, west of Narvan, contains the largest concentration of halflings on the island.

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The Unknown World

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If you sail far enough north or south, you hit ice packs backed by ice-covered mountains and glaciers. If you head far enough west, you hit the Worlds End Mountains, which merge at the north and south with the ice. At the edges are marginally habitable environments and creatures who live in them; nobody knows what lies further in because nobody returns who ventures too far.

If you sail far enough east, you keep finding more ocean, until you once again reach some point from which no one returns. Except...

Just after the Great War an Iverinan captain returned from the uttermost east, claiming to have been swept away by a magical 'river' in the ocean. She found islands with vast riches of many kinds (gold, spices, gems, unusual animals, strange magics), and the wrecks of other ships. The marooned survivors of these wrecks reported that they had found the same river but had been unable to find anything but ocean to the west no matter how far they sailed. She thought to sail south instead, where she found a second 'river', this one flowing west. Iverina now had a source of wealth from which it may soon begun to fund the construction of warships, once the king pays off the country's substantial debts.

Fortunately for Andaron, one of the Queen's spies returned home with partial information on where to find the 'rivers', and it became vital for Andaroni privateers to prevent Iverina from using them, to explore the new lands, and to raid for riches of their own.