Locations

Not to be confused with Astenvale Monastery, which lies some distance away from the town and shares the same name. Nestled in the forests of the Vayden Wilds, the township of Astenvale is one of the last resting points before entering the deadlogged woods surrounding the Vayd Tree. The people of Astenvale are a resilient and hardy sort. They are not pledged to any lord, and are used to taking care of their own. The oldest families residing in Astenvale are primarily human, as they were the first to settle the area in recent history. Many denizens are relocated from Altalusia - rogues and eccentrics who did not like living under the thumb of a Lord and wished for wilder lands. Orkin, elves, and dwarves are not an uncommon sight...

In the shadow of the great Vayd Tree - though still quite a distance away, as the Vayd Tree has a very long shadow indeed - lies the Astenvale Monastery. When the factions of man grew greedy and waged their war against the spirits of the forest, one order refused to fight, urging for peace - the Knights of Anathaeum. Their stronghold was Astenvale, and while they could not stop the clearing of the forest or the culling of the magical creatures within, they kept this place and its heart. Now, as it was then, the knights maintain their vigil over the Vayden. Theirs is an order that both protects the Vayd Tree's last secrets from destructive hands, and defends the surrounding mortal settlements from the dark, twisted creatures that now...

ASTERSAAR ARCHIPELAGO A set of isles and skerries off the North Ilican Coast, towards Edjer Highlands, named after the abundance of aster flowers on their shores. In hues of blue, pale violet and even rarely white, they bloom betwixt the rocks and any which skerry, even where naught else grows. GEOGRAPHY & NATURE The archipelago is composed of four habited isles, the largest, Astersaar, being the hub for it’s social events, trade and other traffic. The three smaller isles, Kalkrona, Lasaretinkari and Alderholma, arch off from it in an eastward circle, a mile or two apart. The area of open water in their midst, Asterfjärd, is shortened to merely Fjärd by the islanders. It is on all of them spoken of as its own entity separate from...

There is a place in the Kaikias Desert where sands turn to choking dust, rivers run as poison, and not even the green of scrub brush drinks the rains. It is a place where the Shroud has thinned so much, that natural life cannot sustain itself. And at the heart of this dying land, lies the knife which bled it dry: Cindersend, the impossible city. An oasis in the desert, home to every comfort and vice, if one can afford to pay the price. The founders of Cindersend were elves exiled from the temperate forests of Seldaesa - rebel generals, runaway criminals, and deserters of the endless Summer Wars. Those Scorned Houses, the First of Many, sought a land free of the rigid constraints of their society. Governance & the Houses Like their...

Overview A city of golden gears and sparkling steam, nestled high amidst the safety of the Mhearan mountains. Cloud’s Keep is made up of four boroughs, each a walled county in its own right. The Four Boroughs are connected via the Spider’s Way, a vast network of cable lines that span the peaks and valleys that make up the Dove’s Range of the Mheara, and act as vital infrastructure to Cloud’s Keep proper. The hum and whir of shroud engines is never too far from the sounds of everyday life across the Keep. Be it the crank and turn of crawler trolly’s mechanical legs, knitting across a span wire, or the zip of a sky-skiff’s wings buzzing in the distance, Cloud’s Keep is alive with the sounds of Magitech. Governance Beholden to the crown...

“Better a fool than a coward” -The Eighth, First Among Equals Mocked for its delusional defiance during the Unification Wars, Crorefell has since cast off the chains of the Empire and become a thriving mercenary-state among the Free Cities. Crorefell is home to a swath of sellswords, spellhands, and soldiers-for-hire. Most of whom have banded into larger companies more commonly known as Cadres. The largest and most storied of these groups represent the city’s true powers. Many a ruler and aspirant have come to Crorefell seeking the finest fighters that money can buy. Government The Steel Rabble A representative parliament that is composed of various Cadres and other assorted groups within the city. To have at least one voice within...

In North Ilica, in a deep and dark patch of woodland one may happen upon the morbid and magical phenomenon of "The Forest of Hands" or "Hauul ek Velthrem" in the Elf tongue. This foreboding sight is as ominous as it is mysterious taking the form of a patch of woodland populated by a number of floating severed hands that all hover in the air freely. These hands are described as being in various states of decay and many report that they will grab whatever you place in them and pull them up into the dark canopy, never to be seen again. There are even tales of entire people being dragged upwards screaming in terror only to be suddenly silenced when they go out of sight. Others speak of hearing voices coming from the trees telling them to...

The Free State of Vresia rests on the northwestern border of the Arshakan Empire, along the ever-contested Frontier. It is an unappealing place to invade. Rolling swaths of wetlands slow supply carts to a crawl, and freezing nights sap soldiers of their strength. And all the while, shadows circle high above, waiting to pick off any stragglers. These are the dark wingbeats of the Vresian's pride and joy: monstrous birds called strix which the locals have tamed and turned to battle mounts. Bad Blood Before there was the City State of Vresia, there were the Buzzards of Vresia: a bandit clan of strix riders. The Buzzards fought under the banner of another Free Lord during the Unification War. For their service, the chief of the Buzzards...

a land arranged to perfection Silmorael is the Mother of Elven Magic, and wife to the First High King. It was she who laid down the rules and prescriptions of magic that all Elves follow, to preserve the forests and fields that their kind claimed as their own. And it was she, who first turned the Elves towards the perfection not only of themselves, but also of the land that they conquered. What was once wild forest and overgrown fields, has in many places been tamed into gentle and orderly gardens and plains, a perfect blend of order and chaos. And thus the Great Gardens of Silmorael were born. Of course, different High Houses have different notions of perfection. Some prefer to keep their territories more natural, preferring to blend...