Geography
The world is divided in two main continental masses connected by a northern circle of treacherous mountains, with several minor islands in between.
Toran is the continent where the Magedom lies, and also the biggest of the two, but on the other hand around a third of it is filled by the Wasteland, a massive desert at north-east, whitout much on the way of resources. To the south rivers provide for the fertile Erengrad coastal region that's rich in commerce. To the west-center the vast Solland plains ocasionally broken by hills. At their middle lay the Grey Mountains eternally covered in snow, and north-west from the deep Reikwald forests.
The other continent is Gaien, smaller, but the giant Gaien lake at its center has always provided a plentiful source of food This means it's much more densely populated. Tick forests are commonplace all over the continent, the largest ones being Lawrelom at north-west, the Forest of Shadows at north-east and the Great Forest at south. The Middle Mountains go from the eastern coast to the lake, and the rest of the continent is composed by a mixture of hills, valleys, marshes and small plains. The main continent cities of Tehah, Pharamond, Noslaw and Veile are focused on the central region of Bragal around the lake.
The northern mountainous range is simply known as the World's End, and is basically an hellish area of treacherous rocks filled by tempests all year long where barely anything grows. Few members of the civilized races dare to enter them, and even fewer return. Legend is that it's possible to cross between both continents trough the World's End, but really, you're better off taking the boat trip.
Magedom
The capital of the magedom is the Scarlet Moon Citadel, located just under the Wasteland and the Erengrad region. It's from where the Mage Lord rules supreme, and one of the prerequisites for the position that he/she must still be alive.
In the wasteland, lie numerous cities of undeads ruled by the mummies and dry liches of previous Mage Lords and other important Magedom individuals. Togheter with the skeleton armies of fallen Magedom soldiers, they form the tomb legion, the main military arm of the Magedom. As the legend goes the Wasteland was once a quite fertile area filled with life and numerous kingdoms, but after a tremendous war is was reduced to the desert it is now.High Elf Empress Sairah then rose as the first Mage Lord, with no one left to dare to oppose her.
In Erengrad lies most of the living population of the magedom, between scholars, farmers and merchants, scattered among several cities, the central of which is the port of Mislato. The population is mostly a combination of humans and elves of diferent kinds. Their griffon riders are their best known military force.
In the Solland plains various halfling/human villages make dinossaur creation and also develop magic, producing a great amount of contract-based arcanists like warlocks and binders.
The grey mountains have some mine settlements but just one significant population center, Grayridge. Besides a large amount of cold-based mages, the bravest/foolest of all seek to bond with White Dragons. Those that suceed provide yet another powerful force in service of the Magedom.
The Reikwald forest is actualy out of control of the Magedom, ruled by mysterious feys and wood elves that resist the advance of civilization. Most who enter those forests end up never being seen again or returning "different", rarely for better. The forest spirits however have been known to come out of nowhere and help the Magedom forces in time of need against other threats, specially heavily mechanized enemies or undeads.
The process of choosing a new ruler of the Magedom simply consists on the current Mage Lord picking a sucessor, promoting exceptional individuals that shine by themselves and manage to impress. To kill the current mage lord is however considered unadmissible, and any atempt to do so ended up with most of the magedom ganking on the murderer. In that case it's usually the one who kills the usurper that suceeds as new Mage Lord.
The current Mage Lord is high sorceror Yadima, a human of exceptional charisma with multiple consorts as his main ministers. His inspiring presence is legendary and it is said those that meet him directly cannot resist to follow every word and whim of Yadima as their main purpose in life.
United Cities of Bragal
Formed after a series of conflicts, the main cities of Gaien ended up deciding they had more to gain from an alliance than war, specially when surrounded by other dangers. It is ruled by a large council of members from the main five cities of Bragal and numerous other smaller towns from the continent that joined along the centuries.
Tehah lies in the north-east, a massive city specially renowed for its old libraries and universities. It provides most of the raw intellectual and arcane power of the UCB, altough it focuses mostly in transmutation magic. The artifact stolen by the Mage Dom was said to be here, and since then Tenah has invested great resources in trying to get it back. This ended up with them developing top infiltration agents that can go months or even years on enemy territorry stalking a target, backed up by both magic and powerful equipment.
Pharamond, lying in the south-west, a human city of cathedrals and temples provides worship to a multitude of gods and works as the spiritual center of the UCB. It used to claim itself the capital of the world as they represented the will of the gods, but when the other cities started building their own temples and cathedrals in protest to Pharamond's arrogance, the city ended up acepting the idea of the union in return for their religious authority remaining uncontested. Their divine magic is actualy a direct match to the Magedom's own agents of the gods.
Noslaw on the South-east lies just near the Middle Mountains and has strong relations with the dwarves inhabiting there. Its blacksmiths have thus acess to pretty much the best ores in the world, combined with rune priests to enchant them, and produces top quality weapons and armor for the union. Their elite knights fight on foot protected by indestructible armors and wielding weapons with multiple layers of destruction enchantments.
Veile on the north-west is a mostly gnomish city, infamous for its large amount of artificers and alchemists that work day and night on developing new substances, trinkets, constructs, machines. They're the ones having developed the mass-produceable warforged and all the related variants and upgrades. More than one battle has been turned by Veile's engineers unleashing some new revolutionary technology.
Order of truth
First originated in the the humble village of Cynas in Solland, the Order of Truth answers to the High Chancellor Valfred. No known means of sucession are known, as since the Order of Truth formed some decades ago, there's only been one high chancellor.
Untill now, the Order of Truth has managed to just spread trough the Solland region, but the converted villages have quickly expanded in powerful cities. Cynas itself is now a powerful citadel with a tower that rises to the skies and easily rivals with the Magedom and UCB own main cities, or so the word goes.
Overall the Order of Truth is expanding and growing so fast that little is actualy known about its current state.
World's End Mountains
A region of chaos filled with monsters and savage tribes. If there's any ruler in this region, is the lich Kristof the Blasphemous, altough it is never seen outside its frozen fortress. Giants and dragons are relatively common on this areas. In the past, periodically ravenous undead armies come down from this regions to assault either the Magedom or the UCB (or sometimes both)
The closest thing to civilization are some drow and duergar cities, protected by magic from the harsh condition and inhabitants. It is also said they "buy protection" from Kristof in the form of tributes of magic items and services. The duergars are exceptional artisans and know how to enslave the wildest beasts (at least for a time), while the drows know plenty of the arcane and divine arts, if you don't mind making some sacrifices.
Savage Barbarians
Orcs, kobolds and goblins can be found everywhere across the lands, hiding in the forests and underground and attacking whatever they can get away with, subsisting out of raiding and pillaging. They're however too disorganized to be considered more than a nuissance by the magedom, UCB or even the Order of Truth, but legend tells of a time powerful leaders had united the scattered bands of those tribes in mighty armies that ruled the lands. If anyone could unite them again, they could probably conquer the continents.
Traveling giants and wandering dragons are not too uncommon, and they can easily provide a blessing or a curse depending on their mood.
Ogres on the other hand seem to have adapted to a mercenary existence, when one of their chieftains realized they could kill and pillage and then get paid handsomely for it! Since then ogre warbands roam the lands offering their muscle to the highest bidder.
Merfolks are the main water race, and they seem to be as unstable as the changing tides, one time helping boats trough the right courses, others leading them to their dooms. Why they do that is unknown.
