“It is a bitter existence to live in this time of Czernograd to Karkand, and from troubles. In my father’s time there was Molkorvnya to Alqwari as though he were peace, and there was enough food for all. In only stepping through a door. his father’s time you could never want for company, so many people in the land were But, as my father was so likely to say to me there. In his father’s time the Tsars cared for as the thunderstorms swept over our little their people as though they were their own farm, “It always gets worse.”” – Tvyr children. In his father’s time the Dragons Federov, Historian lived in as much fear of man as we of them. And in his father’s time, before the Empire’s The lands of Veloska, and of Godori in corruption, a man could travel from particular, have seen better days. Once there were the gods, but they have left.
Then came the Fey, but they cared little there in their old age in order to die a for people. Finally came the Empire, and warrior’s death. one must only glance towards their crumbling ruins and deep dungeons to Go west and north, beyond the Cross know how well that worked out. Godori Sea and you will find the Elven Holds. is a land that was once a teeming land of There the more-than-mortal race lives plenty. But after wars, plague, famine within the shadow of the Winter Court, and climate shift, it is now a colder, and its mad Queen Mab. Harsh the land harsher place. is, but adventure is plentiful. Especially so if one were to venture into the nearby But the land is not without its wonders, Halls of the Dwarven Kings Under the nor its rewards. Truly the Gods are Mountain. While their continental kin gone, hidden behind their Interdiction, have yet to establish Kingships of their but so are the Fiends and Demons they own, these hallowed Monarchs have once defended mortals from. And one reigned since the Primordial Age. Go may still seek their blessings through deep enough and one may stumble into their mortal servants. True the Fey horrors only the Dwarves can stomach continue to rule in places, but they are to fight, and worse: Drow, the long- ancient beings content to plot against banished kin of the Elven princes. each other rather than seek dominion over the mortal races. And though the Veloska itself is a land of rivers and Empire may be gone, within its ruins lie woodlands squeezed between the not only beasts and monsters to haunt western ocean and the Dragon’s Maw, a the good people of the world, but also high plateau ringed in mountains the treasures of gold and magic they left teeming with Dragons of all types and behind! temperaments. The “cities” of Veloska are the bastions of urban civilization, if Not only this, but the peoples and the one can call it that. The largest city, land itself possesses wonders to behold! Czernograd, can boast a population of To the north and east the Golden Steppe 200,000 souls, but few others even come lies vast and untouched by the hand of close. Even Molkorvnya, the old capitol civilizations. Mighty Horselords still of the Tsars can only claim a little over ride under a cloudless sky and towards 100,000 persons living within its walls. a horizon untouched for days at a time These cities lie at the heart of by the specter of trees and mountains. civilization, but its pulse needs more Further east and north one may stumble time to recover its vigor. into the Realm of Evernight, and live as some of the shamans and mystics would Southward and westward again one say nature intended us to: Fighting may come to the lands of the Halflings endlessly against the monstrous races and the Gnomes, bountiful Caledor, the who dwell there in that frozen hellhole. Spring Court of the Fey. This Dwarves are sometimes said to travel mysterious, blessed isle, is ruled with a soft hand by the lovely Queen Titania,
yet her children are perhaps the most rambunctious of all peoples, with more and more each year traveling the world in search for adventure.
Southward more you may travel, and arrive shortly at a crest of mountains. Across these lie the Scaled Lands, a collection of kingdoms ruled by the tumultuous Dragonborn. These Dragon- Men live within their own elements, from Brassflame to Copperspire, and from Ice Harbor to Bronzegate. As bitterly divided as they (and as most peoples in this age) are, a unified Dragonborn Kingdom may be the most favorable outcome if they can put down their weapons long enough to notice their similarities instead of their differences.
To the south of these people lay the Shattered Isles, inhabited by a sailing race of Man. These men of dark skin and good mirth live by the code of the ocean: Freedom, Adventure, and Gold!
And lastly, along the decimated Lost Coast, if one finds oneself most unfortunate enough to visit this damned region, one may avoid the haunted ghosts of the Empire long enough to glimpse the Tiefling cities that still struggle to survive a thousand year siege against Death itself.
Wherever your feet take you in your adventures across Godori, always remember to live each day as if it were your last. For more than likely, it may be.
They’d all done worse. Only one, the Wood The Dawn Elf, Sven Iodinson, held any reservations. The old woman appeared alone on the snowy wooded trail. She wore a long green robe, “It’s just odd,” he whispered to the woman trimmed in Otterbear fur, and there was a in charge, a black Dragonborn named glint of second moonlight on something Ommia. “People usually don’t go out into within. A ring? An amulet? the woods at night, not alone. And the snow just came down, and-“ Easy pickin’s, either way. The four bandits who awaited her arrival weren’t too “You mew like a hatchling,” she sighed, concerned about stealing off an old woman. “She’s probably a foolish old woman,
nothing more. Simplest answer. And the water. And then they separated Light second moon is out, the Silver One,” she from Dark, Life from Death, Order from added while nodding up. Chaos, and continued until all things were one thing or another. “Thief’s Moon,” Sven said, “that’s what that’s called? When Thera eclipses Ra?” Then Gea advised her beloved to create Sven knew his inexperience was on display, the world. And so Ratha began his but something wasn’t right. “When Silver is labors again. He took his flesh and made risen, keep yourself hidden,” as his grandma the earth and the land. But the sea used to say. Some like Ommia thought that swallowed the land, and so Gea spoke was a warning that Thieves and Bandits to Ratha and advised him to use his were out and about. bones to hold up the earth. And so Ratha’s bones became the Pillars, and She was wrong. Sven stayed back when, a they held the Earth above the Sea, and moment later, Ommia and the others drew between them was the space that would steel and moved to stop the old woman in become the Underworlds. the green robe. He watched the robbery from behind a crooked birch tree, and he watched Gea and Ratha thought this was good, as the beast tore each of them apart before it lay back down and returned to the form of but they noticed that the world was an old woman. dark and they could not see, and nothing grew. Ratha plucked out his Sven saw what had glistened so invitingly eyes and set them in the sky, and these in her hand then. He saw the silver amulet, became the Moons Ra and Thera. Seeing the Bear’s Crown. He’d seen enough in the earth was covered in ice, Gea town to know what it meant. advised her beloved to warm the world, and so Ratha set his heart in the The nursery rhyme wasn’t a warning to heavens, and his love for her was such common folk about thieves. It was a warning that its heat began to burn the earth. that under Ratha’s Second Eye, monsters And so Ratha set the world to spin, so made the land their own. that it would become warm, but not burn. In the beginning, there was nothing but the Void, and a single Golden Egg. From But Ratha and Gea, though their love this egg hatched a bud. That bud was strong, were lonely and desired flowered, and within its petals lay the children. And so Ratha gave his loins to Great God Ratha. Ratha, now being the world, and filled it with life eternal. born from the Flower, looked upon the He swathed the world in life and cosmos and thought it good. watched as grass and trees, horses and fish and birds and all other things began Ratha began to work, first forming a to live. His lungs he gave to the world, mate for himself. He named her Gea, that his children might be cool in the and together they shaped the world. sunlight, and his great laughter became They first separated the sky from the the thunder and his tears the rain. He
gave all of himself to his work, until they grew and became whole they only his mind remained. His mind he began to look upon their Father’s work, gave up, that Thought and Will might and they began to lend their hand to enter the world, and he became a part of shaping it. every one of his creations. The Titans claimed aspects of their new Gea supported her love, and even now reality for themselves. They took she sits within the Sun, the physical portions of the universe and laid claim manifestation of her husband’s love for to its forces and natures and became the her and for the world, and she watches Rulers of these forces. There was Perun, her children with joy and gladness, ever the Lord of Storms, who claimed the protecting the world from utter Thunder and the Lightning for his own, destruction. and also Lordship of the Eagles. Svarog, Master of Fire and the Forge, who lived within the mountains and labored over his forge for days and nights, and was him who first forged Man. Zora, Goddess of Fertility, Belya and Tsernya, Goddesses of Valor and Despair respectively. And Volkos, Lord of Chaos and Destruction. And a thousand others.
The Titans claimed all aspects of the world, but bickered and fought as children might. Until Svarog presented his greatest creation: Proteus and Anatya, the Father and Mother of Man. It was their creation that sparked Volkos’s great jealousy. And it hurt his pride, for he could create nothing, only manipulate or destroy.
Volkos’s greed and vanity were too much for him, and he soon transformed into a mighty beast, the Behemoth. The Behemoth devour Four other Titans, The Primordial Age and soon grew a total of Five Heads on After a time, Life began to shape itself a serpent’s body. Behemoth rallied into many spirits. Among these were the many of the Titans to his side, and spirits man would one day call Gods. In together they waged a war to claim all their time, they were Titans. These the world for themselves. beings were of Thought and Will, and as
For a thousand, thousand years a War of And thus passed the age of the gods the Gods was waged. In this war are into legend. such tales as the Creation of Dragons by Belya and Tsernya and the deaths of scores of gods. But these are unimportant here. What is important is that Behemoth lost in the end. He was held down by Gothoric, God of Power, and though his Five heads bit Gothoric to death, the mighty god’s arms held Behemoth’s necks together, allowing Perun and Svarog to hew them apart from their body with a set of magical axes. The Five heads transformed into the Five First Archefiends and fled with their loyal hosts into the underworld, where they fortified themselves in one of the three chambers. They christened their home Hell, and its capitol was Pandaemonium. The Wylde Age The disloyal and Mad Gods who had But it was not yet the Ages of Man. For followed Volkos-Behemoth merged too as Man newly crafted and in sole much of their power with that of their command of the world, the world was beasts, monsters and other creations, terrifying. The wild magicks unleashed and they became Demons. These fled by the Gods’ War transformed the into the underworld and named the landscape almost daily, and new spirit chamber they hid within the Abyss. beings began to form from the raw powers left behind. The Fairy Courts The last chamber of the underworld was manifested amongst all this, and swiftly taken by Svarog’s daughter, Drazhia, took up mastery of the world. who held it in perpetuity for all those who fell without sin and without virtue, In the far north Queen Mab sat where all dead could sleep eternally. enthroned in a glacier alongside her Winter Court. When man came to her With the war’s end, the Supreme Lord isles, she blessed them with her graces, Perun took Behemoth’s corpse and causing them to change slowly into created with it the Interdiction, a mystic Elves (who lived atop the land), and ward that forbade any Divine Being Dwarves (who dwelt beneath). Any from entering the mortal world Elves who spurned her “love” were physically. Gods and Devils and cursed and thrown down beneath the Demons could only manifest through earth, becoming the terrible Drow. empowering their mortal followers. These creatures began to worship a
manifestation of darkness, Lilith, a into hideous beasts and monsters, Spider-Deity, newly formed and thus creating the first Orcs, and then did the not subject to the Interdiction. same to whatever Elves and Dwarves he found within his realm, leading to In the south and west, Queen Titania goblins and bugbers and a thousand settled amid the lakes, forests and other creatures to be created. mountains of Caledor, and welcomed many tribes of Men to rest there. These When his wrath subsided, Oberon men slowly grew to love the isle, with realized what he had done, but could some becoming Halflings over time in not undo it. Humans were now plagued order to know it better and care for it. with monsters all across the world, and Others transformed into Gnomes as Mab would not let him return any to they began to study the natural beauty their true form. He was able to gift Orcs around them and sought to understand with some manner of intelligence again, their Mother Titania’s power. and was glad that in time they grew close to Humans, and eventually Puck, the impish Lord of the Summer became nearly whole again as Half- Court, took up residence in the deep- Orcs. south, in the deserts beneath the Low Steppes. He noted with sadness that As the Age passed, the Courts became there were fewer and fewer Dragons left less and less active, preferring not to in the world, and so sought to preserve engender the wrath of the Gods nor the them. He took their essence and placed Infernals by toying with the mortal it within the hearts of Man, causing the races. While other spirits (including the race of Dragonborn to exist. He greatly Undead Deities from the War who enjoyed the sheer chaos that ensued, but became the Old Ones) appeared for a became bored when they broke up time they were never so strong again, along elemental lines and formed their and the balance of magic returned to own kingdoms. normal.
Mighty Oberon, Lord of Autumn and the Autumn Court, was both kind and cruel in his dealings with man. He loved man for his strength of character and for his sheer determination to survive at all costs. He blessed them in subtle, little understood ways. But when Mab began to court the Humans (as Oberon’s Children had become with his blessing), The First Age of Man he grew distant and jealous. When The first Age of Man was the first where many in the far north and east began to scholars began using positive numbers give votive offerings to Mab, Oberon’s for dating. In this age there was a fury cut loose. He transformed them thousand years of scattered and ill-
understood history. This was followed trade and magic between all the major by the rise of the Empire. races. But in time their arrogance began to erode the power of the Empire. The Empire grew up from a land that no longer exists, where now lays the As an age of strife enveloped the world, Middle Sea there was once a marvelous some say instigated by the Archfiends land. A land of eternal temperateness. who detested the Empire’s Peace, the Winters were warm and summers were Imperials took to harsher and harsher cool. This land was called Pashem. And measures to maintain their power. Their it was here that Oberon found a wife. magicks became crueler, and viler as they became desperate. When the last Oberon came to love the daughter of the Emperor, Neros IX, in a final act to mightiest clan of humans. She was preserve his domain contacted the strong, fearless, intelligent, and more Fiends and made a Blood Pact that beautiful than any in the world. And sacrificed one hundred-thousand lives, most important, she would not take any the Gods finally acted. husband who was not worthy of her. Mighty Oberon sought her out in many Through their agents, and through the guises. First he appeared as a mighty combined powers of the Fairy Courts, Mountain Man. But she would not have the Gods smote Pashem and threw it any strong man who was too stupid. He down into the sea, leaving only a small came to her as a learned scholar, yet she island-peninsula and a few shattered would not lie with a man who was a coasts in remembrance. Their wrath also coward. So he came to her as a hunter of extended to the Imperial Race itself, dragons, heaping many trophies of his transforming it to more resemble the kills and his triumphs at her feet. But monsters they had become. Few even again she said that slaying beasts was remember that the Tieflings were once no true test of bravery. the founders of the Empire.
When Oberon asked her what would But the calamities unleashed by the prove his bravery, she said, “Honesty. Empire and by the Gods could not be Only the bravest men are honest, stopped. Disease, famine and war Mighty Oberon”. Oberon came to her burned the lands, and left millions dead. without a disguise, in his true form, and she took him as her husband gladly. The Second Age
At first, the new age, declared by the Their children were blessed with great Hierophant of Czernograd, seemed to magical power, and in a few generations begin with the hope of new life. For the Oberon’s descendants united the many first two centuries, the lands of Veloska clans of Pashem, and soon formed the and the Greater and Lower Steppes Empire. The Empire spread its magic were united beneath the kind and wise and its power throughout the world, forming a mostly peaceful alliance of
Tsars, and all peoples seemed to sigh relief as trade and commerce resumed.
But soon cults dedicated to the Fallen Gods, those beings who fell in the Gods’ War but could not truly die, began to form all over the world. Many were lulled into their worship with the promise of power and an end to the endless destruction of lives during the Empire. These cults, and the dark Mad- Gods behind them, caused the weather to change, and slowly killed off more and more crops. Soon, their foul magic and foul worship began to infect the world, spreading diseases through the web of magic itself.
When the Tsar died without issue, the world descended into war. Holy Crusades were called to destroy the infidels, the heretics.
Four centuries later, now 600 S.A., no one knows whether they succeeded or not. The city-states still struggle against one another in contests of arms. The ancient relics of the Empire still lay in their crypts, inviting heroes and villains alike to seize their power for themselves. Dark powers still crawl in the heart of the world. Devils and Demons and Dead Gods seek new life and new triumphs over those still residing in the heavens, and the wilderness itself has become a greater opponent for the civilized races than any dragon.
It is the Spring of 601 SA. What shall happen next?
Perun and Svarog Man-Crafter took to their forge, and with the fire of a roaring volcano they worked upon it until it shone white as snow and just as brilliantly did it glow. “And so it came to pass that Elder Perun, Lord of Thunder, King of the Gods, hefted This new thing, wrought from the foulest of up the still and headless form of Behemoth desecrations, was set into the sky as a white Volkos Once-God, and he did smote the band in the evening sky. ‘The Interdiction,’ wretched corpse with his spear and Lord Perun spake, ‘It shall safeguard this lightning flowed from him. The remains realm from all incursion. Neither God, nor charred and burned and boiled ‘til not but a Devil, nor Daemon, nor Spirit shall pass choking black cloud remained. This cloud into the mortal realm, except in blessing
those who heap praise and prayers upon Many, many Druids throw in their lot them’. with the Courts, sometimes as many as who serve Nature alone. Clerics are So long as the Interdiction stands, Man common in Mab's and Oberon's courts. shall rule on earth, and the Gods in heaven.” Puck and Titania rarely stand on -The Book of Origin, Ecclessia, Chapter 3, formalities, and prefer the almost Verses 230-311 familial affections between deity and Warlock. Most, if not all Halflings and The Gods reside in the Heavens, and Gnomes worship the Court of Spring, work through their Clerics and Paladins with a minority worshiping the other to shape the world into a more three. The Lower and Great Steppes righteous, peaceful, and cooperative feature Fey worship as well. one. Most Gods are treated with reverence, even when worshiped Worship of the Fallen Gods is both alongside other powers such as ancestor illegal, madness-inducing, and generally or nature worship. The faith of the Gods speaking a much faster way to get a can be found in every single land, but Paladin Order up in your face than the river plains and forests of Veloska devouring orphans' hearts while are considered the Church's heartland, shouting "Archfiends are the best!" They while ancestor and Nature worship are are literally Undead Deities from the minorities, except in the more deserted end of the Gods' War. They desire regions of the Steppes nothing more than to destroy and consume all life, and then each other. Some in this world have chosen to give There is no data concerning how many their worship to the Archfiends or the worshipers exist. Demons of the Abyss (who are nameless and beyond counting). This is in no way In addition to Gods, Fiends, Fey and a good idea, but many are convinced of Old Ones, there are many spirits who the sheer Power the Fiends can bring inhabit the world but are none of these them. Clerics only exist for the things. These deities rarely have plans Archfiends and their Devil Legions, greater than "Attract worship, keep while Paladins and Warlocks exist for thralls, profit", and few could even either Pandaemonium or Abyss. comprehend trying to take on one of the Czernograd has a surprising number of higher gods. Fiend Worshipers, as do the scattered Tiefling settlments of the Lost Coast. Shamanism The worship of nature, the oldest form Many congregations have cast out or of worship. Whether one is praying to persecuted those who swear fealty to nature itself or a specific spirit, all such the Fey Courts. These congregations are forms of worship fall under the title of generally not around long afterward. Shamanism. Here you will find many The Fey are worshiped as Gods in their Druids, Rangers, and even an odd sort own right, as well as avatars of nature. of Warlock. This is often considered the
“Folk” religion, and lacks a formal venerate Ratha and Gea, the bulk of system of priesthood. Usually, a Druid their traditions focus on Perun, Svarog, will perform rites in an area, often for Zora, and Belya. The church is highly simple compensation, and pass along organized. At its base are the lay the “contract” with the land to an persons. Above them are the parish apprentice when the time comes. Most priests, called Patriarchs, who oversee Druids are informally taught, but the local affairs of the church. Above the maintain strong ties of brotherhood Patriarchs are the Ecclesiarchs, or with those of their Circles and Orders Princes of the Church. From among whom they meet. The symbol of their number are chosen a small number Shamanism is an interlocked Gold and of Hierophants, of which there are Silver Ring, representing the Gold and currently only four (based in Silver Moons. Molkorvnya, Czernograd, Caledor, and The Lost Coast). While the lower orders Rathism possess only spiritual influence, the Rathism may very well be the single Ecclesiarchs and Hierophants are oldest faith of all, if the stories are true. treated as equal to the Grand Dukes, It is said that Perun was the first Priest and with a corresponding amount of of Ratha, being his eldest child and the power. The military arm of the church, King of the Gods (though a Rathist the Sieraton, is exclusively female and would detest such a declaration). features its own hierarchy. This includes Rathists insist that the “Gods” do not Lay Sisters (basic infantry and support), deserve the devotion they seem to Shield Maidens (Warriors), and attract. In fact, it is Ratha and Gea alone Matriarchs (Officers). They are led who should be praised, for one gave of overall by the Mother Superior, who himself to create all things, and the rivals the Hierophant in power. other preserves the cosmos from destruction. Many Clerics who devote Fey Worship themselves to this path take on the title The Four Kingdoms, or the Courts of of Elder. A number of Tieflings are Season, or the Lords and Ladies, as they known to have joined this minority are called, are a powerful force within religion soon after the fall of the Empire, the world. While their presence is leading to its spread throughout their limited out of respect for the diaspora. Rathists share in Shamanism’s Interdiction, their power is beyond reverence towards nature, seeing it as question. It is said their meddling their God’s body. created the Elves, Dwarves, Halflings, Gnomes, Orcs, and Dragonborn from Apostism Old Humans. Even modern humans are The Apostic Church in the single largest said to have been modified by Mighty church in the world, with adherents in Oberon. The Courts are split up by every corner of the world. Apostics season, and each is ruled by their own believe in the traditional pantheon of Soverign. Queen Mab rules the Winter gods headed by Perun. While they Court of the Fey from the Isles of
Everwinter (a misleading name), Fallen Worship holding court itself on Vinterreich. Lord When the War of the Gods raged upon Puck, Jester-King of Summer, is said to the world’s face, there were casualties. inhabit a hidden isle near the Scaled Those Gods who fell in the carnage have Lands, and is known to create the since returned, in a fashion. They are tropical storms that play merry hell with Fallen Gods. Corpse Gods. They are the sailors’ schedules. Lady Titania rules ravenous, gibbering creatures who the Court of Spring from her home on Hunger for the souls of man. There is no Caledor, surrounded by her loyal reasoning with the Mad Gods, for they Halfling and Gnomish subjects. And are already dead. Their worshipers are Mighty Oberon rules the Autumn Court often written off as insane and killed from the forests past Odrenov’s Sea. Fey outright. Even the noblest of Paladin or worship is considered heretical by the Cleric will not hesitate to cut such cults Apostic Church, but most Folk religion out like a cancer. Negotiation has never accepts the Fey as another set of Spirits worked. The Fallen seek to devour all one may or may not pledge allegiance that exist, feasting on the souls of to. There are almost no Clerics who mortals, the souls of Gods and Fiends, worship the Fey, but many Warlocks and finally on the flesh of Ratha himself, and Druids, and some Paladins who do plunging the universe into eternal cold, so. and then glutting themselves on one another. And when only one is left, that Fiend Worship lone God shall howl at oblivion, and Fiend worship, on the other hand, is become one with it. illegal in most regions. Some Horselords on the Steppes seem to not care, but even they know better than to trust devil-magic. Some swear allegiance to such Fell Powers in order to become powerful themselves, and some do so to fulfill more noble goals. Most Patriarchs would state that the road to hell is paved with such noble intentions. Outright Daemon worship is far less common, but it does exist. Interestingly, as often as the Archfiends plot against one another, their Warlocks and other adherents are known to unite against Daemonic incursion, sometimes even calling truces with the Church in order to put down such cults. Fiendish cults tend to form a hierarchy similar to, and in fact in parody of, the Apostic Church.
Titans Name Alignment Domains Symbol Ratha, The Creator LN Light, Life A meditating man within a circle Gea, The Mother LN Light, Knowledge A woman standing in prayer within a sun Perun, Lord of Thunder LG Tempest, Knowledge An eagle clutching a thunderbolt Svarog, Master of the Forge NG War, Life A red hammer on a white anvil Zora, Three in One TN Life, Nature, Trickery A flowering tree Belya, The Warrior CG War A flaming helm and shield
Archfiends Name Alignment Domains Symbol Tsernya, Fiend of Wrath CE Death, War, Trickery a flaming sword and spear, crossed Lagneia Fiend of Lust CE Trickery, Nature a black rose Operadus Fiend of Pride LE Knowledge, Trickery a crowned skull Thonos the Envious NE Knowledge an open book with blank pages Appal, Desirous of All NE Life, Trickery a gold coin in a snake’s mouth Thes, the Despaired TN Death, War a noose
Archfey Name Alignment Domains Symbol Mab, Queen of the Winter CN Trickery, Tempest, Nature a white porcelain mask Court shedding a single red tear Titania, Lady of the Spring CN Trickery, Life, Nature a brown wood mask, Court laughing Puck, Lord of the Summer CN Trickery, Knowledge, Nature a grinning bronze mask Court King Oberon, Lord of the CN Trickery, War, Nature a brooding/scowling iron Autumn Court mask
The Fallen Gods Name Alignment Domains Symbol Gothoric, the Green Knight LN Death, War a green axe and helm Volkos, the Headless CE Death five skulls in a circle Oambr, the Wheel LE Death, Life a ring of fire with seven eyes along the edge Kathrak, the Herald CE War, Death, Knowledge a horn gripped by a skeletal hand Sithrak, the Leviathan CE Tempest, Death a coiled snake in a blue circle Pith, the Lord of Locusts LE Trickery, Death, War a wheat stalk and a skull
Greater Spirits Name Alignment Domains Symbol Lilith, Drow Goddess CE Trickery, Death a spider Magdar, Dwarf God LG War, Knowledge a Hammer and Tongs St Queen Alia of Pashem TN War, Light a sword piercing a heart
Ratha. Creator of the World. Ratha leave food for them while sailing away made all things from his body and from port. passed Sovereignty to his wife, Gea. Rathists believe he is sleeping, and will Belya. Goddess of War and Valor, as awaken at the end of all things. It is well as Piety and Mercy. She is the Twin customary to run dirt through one’s of Tsernya, and created the Metallic hands while praying to him. Dragons to combat the Chromatic Dragons created by her sister. Belya is Gea. Inheritor and Guardian of the the Patron Goddess of the Dragonborn, Cosmos. She guided her husband’s to the point where those Shamanistic work, and now watches over the world people are sometimes confused for from the Sun, once her beloved’s heart. monotheists by outsiders. Prayers to Gea are delivered only at the Sunrise and Sunset. Tsernya. The Fiend of Wrath, and the Goddess of Rape and Murder. She Perun. Traditionally the first God, and created the first Dragons as weapons of King of the Heavens. His domain is the war, and delights in the slaughter of sky and the weather. His symbols are battle. Her palace in Pandaemonium is a Eagles and Lightning. Only priests are steel fortress called Stalik. permitted to wear Eagle feathers by tradition, as they have the skills to Lagnaia. The Fiend of Lust, once the obtain them without harming the sacred Goddess of Beauty and Devotion. She birds. was the first devoured and corrupted by Volkos. Her palace in Pandaemonium is Svarog. The Lord of Forges and the the Lodge, a maze of broken mirrors. Master of Crafting. Svarog crafted the She is thought to hide behind hideous first mortal beings. Every shrine and masks at all times. temple to Svarog features either a forge, or a “Sacred Flame”, that is never Operadus. The Fiend of Pride, once the allowed to go out. The Alcove of the God of Music. He was the second god Smith in Czernograd’s Basilica is said to devoured by Volkos. His palace in contain an ember which has been Pandaemonium is the Silent Cathedral, burning for over a thousand years. a grand hall filled with eternal Pilgrims believe it grants healing cacophony. His servants can never learn powers to the faithful. to play a musical instrument.
Zora. Zora embodies Fate, Time, and Thonos. The Fiend of Envy, once the Magic. She is considered a Trinity unto God of Secrets and Knowledge. He was herself, in the form of a Maiden, a the third devoured and corrupted by Mother, and a Witch. She is sometimes Volkos. His palace in Pandaemonium is conflated with the Ocean. Sailors claim Pustoya, a Mausoleum fortress. He is that dolphins are her servants, and will the Patron God of Politicians.
Appal. Fiend of Greed, once the merriment are of paramount import. Goddess of Charity. She was the fourth During one hot, boring day, Puck was devoured and corrupted by Volkos. Her said to have made the Dragonborn from palace in Pandaemonium is a colossal men who had wandered into the deep bank, the Treasury. She is the Patron south and a few dragons he had “lying Goddess of Thieves. around”, though he seems to have moved on from that project long ago. Thes. Fiend of Destruction, once the Puck never puts on airs, and always God of Death. He was the last devoured seems to be trying to sell you and corrupted by Volkos. His does not something. have a palace in Pandaemonium, preferring to wander the blasted Oberon. The Mighty, the Fall Lord, the underworld. Thes is the one Fiend not Autumn King. Oberon reigns over the banned by the Church, due to his ability Autumn Court of the Fey like an to end the suffering of the old and the Emperor. It was his fury that cursed mortally injured. many men to become Orcs, and it was his regret that made them mighty Mab. The Pale Queen, Lady Winter. enough to survive the worst the Steppes Queen Mab rules over the Winter Court could throw at them. Oberon is a distant of the Fey. She changed the men who sovereign, who speaks in the Royal We crossed over to her islands into Elves and lays down oaths and decrees upon and Dwarves, and she believes them to all who anger him. all be her vassals, without question. Mab is usually calm and serene, but can Gothoric. The Green Knight. Once the swiftly shift to a cold, mad fury without God of Power and first son of Perun, provocation. Gothoric was slain in the final battle against Volkos. Returned from death as Titania. The Lady of Spring, Green a howling madgod, Gothoric appears as Maiden. Lady Titania is the ruler of the a giant humanoid covered in hideous Spring Court of the Fey. Those men who injuries that never heal, his skin a pale came to Caledor in the Wylde Age green pallor, and his eyes a bloody red. became Gnomes and Halflings under her gentle tutelage, and she considers Volkos. The Headless Demon. Once the them her children. Titania is a gentle God of Destruction, it was Volkos who monarch, but is also more personable devoured five other Gods and stole their than her siblings, preferring to mingle power. He led a legion of lesser deities with the commoners and partake in against Perun and his allies, and their daily lives. ultimately lost. He was beheaded, releasing his captives to become the Puck. The Jester King, Summer’s Friend. Archfiends, scouring his armies and Puck runs the Summer Court of the Fey allowing them to become the daemonic in a manner less like a monarch and hordes of Abyss, and slaying him in the more like a circus, where mirth and
process. He is sometimes described as a Swarms of Abyss. Svarog, who once bloody skull set aflame, ever-shrieking. loved her, was the God to slay her near the end of the war. Sithrak appears as a Oambr. The Wheel. Once the Demigod howling shadow that takes the shape of of Song and Poetry, patron of Travelers, a giant hound. Their form is fluid, like Oambr was the son of Operadus. blood, and sometimes appears to During the War, he challenged Kathrak contain many eyes and teeth more than to a duel to the death. He was betrayed possible. in the honor-duel by Pith, and had his eyes cut out before his throat was slit. Pith. Lord of Locusts. Once a shepherd He is described as an eyeless corpse in of the Forests, Pith used his mighty gilded finery, his claw-like hands animal and insect companions to battle holding fistfuls of other peoples’ eyes. the daemonic hordes of Sithrak during His moans always sound accusatory to the War. But as the War carried on, he those who have perceived him. feared the forests would be destroyed, and so in time he betrayed Oambr in his Kathrak. The Herald. Once the duel with Kathrak in exchange for his Messenger of the Gods, Kathrak was forests being spared. For this betrayal, seduced by Volkos-Behemoth and Zora and Belya torched his beloved became his Herald. He aided Volkos in home and hunted him down. When he devouring Operadus, leading to his duel begged Sithrak for aid, the Demonic with Oambr. He was eventually Swarm devoured his flesh and left his betrayed himself and abandoned by skeleton to rot. Pith is a cloaked, pock- Volkos during a losing battle. He was marked skeleton held together and a surrounded by twelve Gold Dragons part of the swarm of locusts that Sithrak and burned to death. He appears as a used to murder him. He is silent, but burning skeleton, whose flames form his obviously afraid of his locusts, who he flesh and his weapons. His mouth has remembers eating him. been nailed shut, to prevent his lies from poisoning anyone else, yet it is Lilith. One of the Lesser Deities that apparent he screams constantly through were not recognized by the Interdiction, his gritted teeth. Lilith the Spider resided in the warm, dark underdark for an age before she Sithrak. Leviathan. Once the Goddess of detected life other than herself. The Luck, this being cast aside her former banished House Drothic of the Elves name and erased it from memory, had been sent beneath the earth to rot in taking upon Itself the title Sithrak, The a place even the Dwarves would dare First Demon. Sithrak was the first not go. Lilith felt their terror and daemon, and they taught Tsernya the desperation, and she knew she could dark secrets of magic needed to craft the use that to her own twisted advantage. first Dragons. Sithrak slowly lost their She revealed herself as the Elves’ only intellect and personality, becoming a savior, and set herself up as the center of massive gestalt entity within the their religion.
Magdar. No one knows where Magdar came from or what he is. His power is obvious, as his Clerics’ magic certainly works. The Church does not recognize him as a spirit (although they have resigned to assuming his is a corrupted form of Svarog) and even the Dwarves seem to have little enough to go on. The most popular story is that Magdar was the first Dwarf to strike the earth with a pick, and his later accomplishments as a smith, a builder, a brewer, and a warrior led to his ascending into the Heavens to become a Demigod.
St Queen Alia. Alia was the human princess with whom Oberon fell in love, and whose descendants became the Empire, and later the Tieflings. She is invoked most often by politicians, generals, and Imperial apologists.
Deephall, and Winter Cavern) have While there are no mechanical stood strong for a millennia, ever since differences between these races and the Dwarves first crawled into the roots their Forgotten Realms counterparts, of the earth and began to dig. This stone there are some cultural differences sense has stuck with the Dwarves, even worth mentioning. Incomplete. after the Migration when many noble and common Dwarves left to make their Dwarves fortune on the surface in 300 SA.
Dwarves are best known as the Lords The great trouble facing the Dwarven Under the Mountain. The three great people is that no new kingdoms have kingdoms of the Dwarves (Stonethrone, been founded. By ancient law, a King
may only be crowned Under the High Elves are those elves who hail from Mountain, and for the last three their home islands, and still maintain a centuries the various Dwarven Princes strong cultural connection to their have failed to dislodge the monsters, homeland. High Elves are often more including Dragons, who live within and familiar with arcane magicks than their around the mountains of Godori. Many "gone native" cousins. High Elves are have begun to lose hope. also more likely to be based in a city proper. Hill Dwarves are now City Dwarves, and represent those Dwarves who have Those elves who acclimated, in fact settled in more civilized territory. They bought into the local culture of the often benefit from the better, agriculture continent, are often referred to as Wood based diet, and are often shrewd Elves for their predilection for living business folk. Mountain Dwarves are besides forests, rivers and lakes. Many likewise now called Steppe Dwarves, and have taken up the Druidic faith, and represent those who live in smaller most Half-Elves come from a Wood Elf communities outside the more settled and Human union. This is sometimes areas of the map, relying on their sheer frowned upon by the stuffiest of stuffy strength to overpower monsters, High Elves. bandits, and the elements. It is said that when Mab welcomed the Elves Elves and the Dwarves into her lands, House Drothic of the Elves mistrusted The Elves are the children of Mab. Their her intentions. In time, they would grace and ageless beauty are said to be a eventually lead a rebellion against the gift from their Fey overlords in the Fey, and nearly won with their iron Winter Court. And yet for all their weapons. Their defeat left them cursed pomp, the Elves are some of the most and cast into the Underdark, where a notorious raiders in the world. For spirit known only as Lilith taught them centuries they have gone "viking", as how to survive. Most Drow traveling the they call it, swooping down out of the world today are not typical of their north to fight and raid and loot kind. Some have been exiled, or rather whatever they could find. It is only in escaped a political killing. Some have the last few centuries that this has legitimately cast aside their worship of slowed down to a more reasonable Lilith. And some of them are just settling pace. Elves now migrate from looking around, waiting to report back Edor and Obdel to take up trade and to their people on the Surface's progress. settle in northern Godori.
Elves in this age are searching for lands Halflings to call their own, free from the stifling Halflings have lived in the south of influence of the Court. Godori, on the island of Caledor alongside their Gnomish brethren for an
age. They have long grown their farms Vadnyek and villages beside the sacred lakes and The Vadnyek are often referred to as the forests of the Spring Court of the Fey. Steppe People, and they comprise a But though the Halflings have always great portion of humanity. Riding is a enjoyed their lives of farming and way of life for these people, as is laughing and living, in every heart beats herding and hunting. What few cities a call to adventure. They are some of the they build are tent cities centered on an most traveled beings in the world these older ruin that has been converted into a days, marching from one end of the community center or palace. Vadnyek map to the other and back again all to are more bronzed by the sun than their say that they did so, and that they southerly neighbors, and often favor brought some exceptional tales back more in the way of facial hair, especially home. mustaches. Their names are very hard sounding, and rarely feature a surname. Lightfoot Halflings are the most likely among them to go on adventures, It has been centuries since a true Great though Stouts are no slouches either. Khan has risen up and united the tribes, though now something has changed. Of great concern to some Halflings is Serhis Kahn, a Tiefling Horselord, has the recent failed harvests. Inexplicable taken the two largest settlements of the crop failures have slowed the growth of Steppes and forced many smaller the first continental colonies, and have Hordes to bend knee to her throne. But placed Caledor’s food supply in her rule is contested on all sides and for jeopardy. a thousand different reasons, least of which is her gender. With enemies on all sides and within her own court, it Humans remains to be seen what shall happen to Humans are sometimes considered to be the Vadnyek Steppes. Civil War. Or The the true heirs of the original Men who Great Hunt. walked the earth with Proteus and Anatya. Spread out as they are across Veloskan the whole of the world, humans lack a The Veloska River gave the people of singular defining characteristic or the middle region its name, and its temperament. In some cases they have course sums up their temperament picked up bits and pieces from other nicely. Deep and slow, yet mighty, and races and incorporated their never united into a single purpose. The characteristics into the human Veloska are the most urbanized experience. And at other times it was Humans, and yet the majority of them the humans influencing the other still live on farms in the countryside. peoples. Even within their city-states there is
little political unity. Many Veloska seek Humans largely fall into three groups: adventure as a means of trying to
change something in a land where
change runs against the current. Veloska world. The trouble is, almost none have are usually brown-headed, somewhat returned. pale, and almost always pale-eyed. Their names are softer than Vadnyek, Dragonborn and more run-together. Long names, An often misunderstood race, the with many V’s and K’s are common. Dragonborn are typically set apart from
most other races because of their bizarre The Veloska cities are currently appearance. Dragonborn were first embroiled in a cold war. Molkorvnya created, it is said, by the hand of Puck, and Czernograd are the largest powers, Lord of the Summer Court of the Fey and politics between them is always on when he grew bored and combined Man a knife-edge, figuratively and literally. with Dragon. Some Dragonborn prefer Czernograd's aggressive seizure and the idea that they were a new race of occupation of a holy city like Tarkhova Dragons birthed into the world to is only the most recent crisis. compete with Man on his own terms.
Vaadun Chromatic and Metallic Dragonborn Nearest to the equator are the isles have largely separated into five distinct belonging to the Vaadun people. These nations following the death of their last humans, often labeled pirates by their Padishah: Brassflame, a land of Gold, northern kin, are more often seen as Copper and Red Dragonborn dedicated merchants of spice and other delights by to the smelting of metals. Copperspire, the Dragonborn, whose kingdoms whose Black and Copper Dragonborn neighbor the island-based Vaadun. invented the first paper in the world as Known for a more lax attitude towards well as now lost techniques for treating life and death, as well as an iron swords. Cold Harbor, a frozen adventuresome bravado, Vaadun can paradise in the desert, inhabited by come off as wild and eccentric. This is Silver and White Dragonborn. only half the picture, as they are also a Bronzegate, the holy city itself, and its deeply loyal people, willing to lay down Bronze and Blue guardians, who life and limb for a friend without together with Copperspire devised question. They are very dark skinned, many strange devices which ran off of with short kinky hair. Their names captured lightning. And finally, Venom, typically feature several vowels in a a hidden fortress from which the Green single sequence. Dragonborn send for the feared
Assassins to disrupt and destroy their Recently, tales of untapped wealth and foes. treasures beyond imagining have made their rounds throughout the Isles. These tales mention the Lost Coast and the Gnomes Realm of Evernight as locations of Gnomes are often mistaken for Halflings supposed buried treasure, leading in Godori, and that would be hundreds of men to the ends of the understandable. They are short, cute,
and they all have the same names and so they often choose to live in one language as Halflings. Add to the fact culture or the other, and often that they share a homeland, and there downplay their mixed heritage in favor could be a very good case for assuming of emphasizing their "Elfness" or the two are merely one race. But that "Humanity". However, in more mixed would be a mistake. or foreign regions, and often among adventurers, Half-Elves display both of Gnomes are the other race Titania their cultures proudly. Their Elven houses upon her isle. But whereas ancestry provides them with Fey Halflings sought to become closer to protection from enchantment, while Titania by becoming closer to the earth, their independence and quick skill the Gnomes sought out their mother- acquisition were inherited from their figure's knowledge. While Halflings Human parent. were adventuresome and nurturing, Gnomes were inquisitive and dedicated. The city of Bulyak, one of the Veloska cities, was historically founded by a Forest Gnomes Half-Elven adventurer. While his family Forest Gnomes represent the Orthodox is both numerous and very important Gnomes. These Gnomes are often deep within the city, they have long been out in research about the natural world, and of power. However, as recent anti-elven those who take up the Wizard’s Trade sentiment has risen in the city, radical tend to either remain on Caledor or take pro-Half-Elf groups have begun up residence in the wilds. clashing in the streets. It is unknown if the city will become the first bastion of Rock Gnomes Half-Elf culture, or the first Rock Gnomes are sometimes called battleground in a new war. Heretics by their Orthodox cousins. In many cases this is technically true. Rock Half-Orcs Gnomes have largely left behind the old Once cursed beings under a curse from ways and the worship of Titania mighty Oberon, Orcs were partially (though some continue the practice), restored to a thinking, sapient race by instead embracing the ideas of his later repentance and mercy. Very modernization and technology. These few full-blooded Orcs survive to the are often found in cities and more modern age, most having interbred with civilized lands. the Vadnyek, Steppe Humans. Half-
Orcs are very common in the north and Half-Elves east, where their tremendous strength Mostly found in Elven settlements and hardy nature make them nearest the river plains or in Human invaluable. Half-Orcs tend to get along cities, Half-Elves live within two well with horses, and so have long been worlds. There are not enough Half-Elves a staple of one of the Hordes of the to form their own societies as of yet, and Steppe. Due to their numbers, Half-Orcs
actually do have their own culture and manifestations of this curse, many traditions. Most Half-Orcs settlement Tieflings have none of these things. are young, however, and so any Half- Devilish eye colors, forked tongues, Orc wanting work will live in human shadows that move on their own, and cities, particularly Czernograd, which an aura of strong heat are other markers houses the largest such population of of a Tiefling's presence. Most Tieflings Half-Orcs. are nomadic, either taking up the adventurer's lifestyle, or traveling with Two competing forces among the Half- their family and clan in great wagon Orcs have sprung up in recent days. The trains across the world. Several major Sons of Oberon is a cult dedicated to cities feature Tiefling slums (sometimes venerating Oberon (and counts among referred to as Hellmouths) as well, its host a number of Warlocks), and has although some are nicer than others. been in conflict with the radical anti-fey Czernograd and Molkorvnya are Grozak's Fist, an order of Paladins and exceptions, either drawing heavily from Barbarians who seek to punish the Fey their Tiefling population for civil and Lord for his hubris and his curse upon magical service, or simply dissolving the them. slums entirely as a legal distinction, respectively. Only on the Lost Coast will Tieflings you find a Tiefling city, and these are often overrun with ghosts and monsters. Once, the Empire ruled over much of
Godori. And then, after an era of war, Tieflings have a reputation; that cannot plague, and decadence, the Empire was be denied. But many Tieflings seek to struck down by the Gods for forging a reverse their people's fortunes, often by pact with the Fiends that threatened the diving into lost ruins and stealing the Interdiction. magical devices of old from within.
Whether this is to reclaim and rebuild The result was the Tieflings. Once the empire, or to redeem it by keeping human, they were cursed by the Gods to its more destructive powers from take devil-like forms as punishment for wicked hands, is up to every individual their crimes. While horns, altered skin Tiefling who chooses to make this their color, and long tails are the most visible life.