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“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.

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