Ilvaria
The one of the most prosperous of human nations, Ilvaria in ages past was the centre of the Elven Kingdom. Blessed with fertile lands, a strong connection to magical energies, few threats, and many treasures of the past as yet unrecovered, Ilvaria has vast potential that is coveted by many both within and without.
Ilvaria shares borders with the Divided Kindoms to the east, separated from the Wastelands to the west by deadly mountain ranges, touches the Viridian Eye to the north, and leads to the Sand Seas to the south.
The Library City
The Library City, also known as Libra Eterna Cita, is a large city that has been built, destroyed and rebuilt multiple times over Ilvaria’s history, from humans, to elves and older civilisations. The city is centred around the Eternal Library, a massive repository of knowledge maintained by ancient magic’s which both protect it and attend to it’s needs
Within it’s halls are contained scrolls, books and tomes from every part of the World. The interior of the library is actually far larger than is exterior, the result of special warping, and it is highly defensive against both ill intentioned intruders and those whom delve too deeply into the secrets it contains.
Thousands of powerful and talented wizards, sorcerers and scholars have gone missing within it’s halls over the millennia of it’s existence. Seekers of knowledge far and wide come to the Library, but many leave unfulfilled.
The Librarians
The Librarians of the Eternal Library are an order of keepers whom have been drawn into the Library’s allure. Brave, powerful and a little bit strange, these individuals serve the Library itself rather than seeking to plunder it’s secrets.
The Librarians are the safest method of acquiring knowledge from the Library, though they demand that all materials taken from the Library must be returned at an agreed point in time. Failing to do so often has dire consequences for the perpetrator, as the Librarians will go to great lengths to acquire the Library’s missing property.
Many of the Librarians are eccentric in some form, or mentally unbalanced, but one thing they do agree upon is that the Library ‘speaks’ to them. How and why they cannot or will not answer, but Librarians will often know things that they should by all rights not.
The Divided Kingdoms
Once a single kingdom united, the dense forests and swamplands of the east are a smattering of petty fiefdoms and declining nobility. The kingdom was broke into it’s current state after Dragons decimated the capital city, Kasagir Keep, out of retribution for the Beast Hunters brutal invasion of the Green Dragon’s nesting grounds. The Divided Kingdoms are filled with rich mines of iron, silver and gold, a fact that is tempered by the wild and powerful creatures that call the nation home.
Unicorn Knights
The Unicorn Knights are an order of mounted Battlemages whom serve throughout the Kingdoms.
The Unicorn Knights serve and contract exclusively with a specific family of Unicorns found within the Divided Kingdoms. When a person is judged worthy by them, the Unicorn may offer to contract as a Familiar with said worthy individual.
The Unicorn Knights familiar contract with their Unicorn is unique, as from the moment of the contract the Unicorn and it’s Knight will become bound to one-another, both in life and death. While it is not unheard of for such contracts to exist or deepen to such a level, it is extremely rare outside of the Unicorn Knights.
This deep contract affords the Knight not only increased longevity, but also a greater ease in the use of magic. Sharing such a connection with their Unicorn also allows them to telepathically communicate with one another, which is all the better in training up a prospective Knight, and for the Unicorn to understand it’s partner.
Sand Seas
The southern deserts are deep and held in the grasp of mystery. Few cities exist in the Sand Seas due to the ever shifting nature of the deserts and few if any oasis’s. It is home to a few, but powerful, magical creatures that are sought out by the foolish and the brave.
The cities and homesteads of the Sand Seas are marked by outposts with high walls that stand against the tides, and lead deep into the earth to form sprawling underground cities where Humans and dwarves live side by side. Once plunderers of ancient tombs and ill-fated mining ventures, they have made this land their own.
Collectively these nation-cities and homesteads are ruled over by the Emir, a title that will often see itself change hands as power rises and falls with that of the sandy tides. No true Sultan Of The Sand Seas has arisen for centuries. While conflict is rare, unity between cities and homes is even rarer.
Deathbreath Mountains
Ironically not named for the necromantic king whom has long tainted their peaks, they are instead named for the chilling moaning and whispers that haunt the passes, with the harsh winds producing an endless chorus through the many natural caves.
The Deathbreath Mountains lie far east of the Wastelands, and were once home to prosperous Dwarven clans and families before their destruction at the hands of the Necromancer King. It is hear the Shadow Forges and graveyards of his undead lie dormant.
The Wastelands
The Wastelands were once lush hills and farmlands settled peacefully by humans, orcs, and centaurs. Outposts and villages cohabitating with ever moving tribespeople. When the Necromancer King fell upon these lands, their people rose up in defiance.
Though ultimately they were unable to overcome the hordes of undead alone, Ilvaria’s own armies would soon clash with the undead upon the plains and hills, driving them back and finally ending the thread of the menace.
Though few crops can be grown on the Wasteland’s soil anymore, pure water is hard to find and the beasts and animals are scarce and with the lands were scarred black and poisoned, the people of the hills still yet remain, diminished in strength and number, but not in shear stubborn pride.
Dale’s-Guard
Dale’s-Guard is the first and only city in the Wastelands, resting at the eastern foot of the treacherous mountain pass that connects Ilvaria and the Wastelands. Dale’s-Guard began as a small outpost in centuries past constructed by Ilvaria colonists, but quickly grew into a fortress with the rise of the Necromancer King.
Acting as a buffer against the forces of the undead, the fortress would be named Dale’s-Guard after the valiant efforts of a simple sergeant who took command and led a joint alliance of centaur, plains-tribesmen, and Ilvarian soldiers to hold the Necromancer Kings forces at bay.
In the current era Dale’s-Guard has become a sprawling city fortress surrounded by carefully maintained farmlands and homesteads, protecting and nurturing the last liveable land in the wastelands. Though Dale’s-Guard owes allegeince to the kingdom of Ilvaria, it is functionally independent due to the treachery of the mountain passes separating them from the rest of the kingdom.
The Viridian Eye
To the north of Ilvaria lies the Viridian Eye, a large body of water leading out to the ocean.
From the sky’s point of view, the mountains bordering the Divided Lands and the mountains bordering Ilvaria from the Wastelands, stretch like jagged arms rising through the water before reaching to meet eachother. At the edge to touching one another a narrow opening leads to the Greater Ocean.
Between these arms of land and Ilvaria is the ocean of the Eye itself, and residing within the centre of the Eye lies the entrance to the Dwarven city of Aqua-Hearth.
The Viridian Eye hosts a vast ecosystem of corals, fish, and water-born spirits, undisturbed by the currents and flows of the Greater Ocean. Beneath it’s waves is a mystery known to few. Despite the tales the Viridian Eye hold few shipwrecks, with it calmer waters separated from the Greater Ocean dangers are few and far between, with only the threat of storms stirring the currents.
The Viridian Eye was once home to Blue Dragons, though have long since left. If one were to dive deep to the depths and reach the deepest of the ocean reefs they would find not corral, nor shipwrecks, but nests of ancient eggs long since hatched.
The Greater Ocean
The Greater Ocean is called such for both standing apart from smaller isolated oceans such as the Viridian Eye, and for it’s far more turbulent nature. The Greater Ocean borders the north of the World’s equatorial landmasses, separating the Gates Of The North from all other lands. Within it’s depths live creatures whom have not seen the light of day nor the touch of the air for hundreds of years, yet they inspire both fear and awe in all who have been unlucky enough to glimpse them either through vision or from tales passed down from ancestors whom saw them when these deep dwellers were disturbed and rose up.
The Gates Of The North
The Gates Of The North are a ring of mountains that rise from the ocean floor just as the ice begins to form on the hulls of ships and the snow begins to fall upon the heads of the people. This ring of mountains borders the White North, a hidden and mysterious place that many have tried to venture into and failed to return.
Upon the Gates lie villages and towns whom have formed to colonise the water’s edge. Travellers, wizards, researchers and more whom journeyed to the North, but lost their resolve or turned back from the North before disappearing made camp on the shores, hoping to regain their strength. In time they either left for home or marched forwards once more.
Those who chose to do neither and remained eventually grew into small communities, then towns, and finally into sprawling cities, which came to be known as the infamous Doors Of The North.
The Doors are perhaps the only cities in which one might find races and people whom have professed or been believed to have left the World. Nowhere else in the World will one find Elves, Dwarves, Humans, Centaurs, Orcs, and more, all living and working together, forgotten by the world at large except for myths and legends.
Travellers to the Gates Of The North are rare in the current age, but a few still make the journey, seeking out lost legends and mysteries like those before them.
The Dark Sea
The Dark Sea is the southern counterpart to the Greater Ocean of the North. Separating the equatorial landmasses from the Deep South, the Dark Sea is slightly smaller in pure width than it’s northern kin.
The Dark Sea is known as such for it’s dark and extremely deep depths, which absorbs the lights of the sun, moon and stars with unnatural hunger, leaving even it’s coasts that rest upon the Sand Seas chilled and cold.
Deep within is black depths creatures whom have never been touched by light thrive. Slumbering behemoths and minute monsters unknown to the surface world.
The Deep South
The Deep South is marked by frozen icelands, and is in truth a series of floating islands of ice and snow that the earth, dust and sand have settled upon over the ages.
Few people live upon these icy lands, and those that do live in small wandering communities.
Despite this, the lands are vibrant in magical energies, and elementals and spirits of frost, snow and wind are common occurrences within it’s confines. The lands might be harsh, but rewarding to those whom can tame them.