Dawn of Hope

This initial tome is aimed at those wishing to run games set in Dawn of Hope, those wishing to build characters for the setting, as well as those who simply want to know more. Most of the player-facing mechanical information is found in the other tomes (Lineages of Dawn of Hope and Player Options of Dawn of Hope).

Here you’ll find geographic, religious, and political information for the setting, focusing primarily on the region known as western Noefra in the year 260 AC, during the age known as the Time of Troubles.

The full setting wiki is at https://wiki.admiralbenbo.org.

The Universe of Dawn of Hope

The universe in which Dawn of Hope is set is a pocket-sized universe, with the main material plane (named the Mortal plane) roughly the size of the inner Solar System [≈ 2 AU, slightly larger than the orbit of Mars –AB]. Co-located with that Mortal Plane are two other major planes and two special planes that do not occupy the whole space. The primary setting of Dawn of Hope is one half of one continent on the fourth and outermost planet (Quartus), as well as the planar regions to which that corresponds.

Geography of Noefra

Noefra is the original home of both humanity and the orcs, as well as the site of many of the most world-shaking events. Two other continents, Soefra and Oelfra, were split off in displays of magical might in ages past. Split north to south by the Giant’s Spine Mountains and the barren, blasted Great Eastern Dustlands, the halves have developed nearly in isolation.

The East is dominated by the Dustlands, inhabited by wandering tribes of humans and orcs, and plagued by storms of acid and malevolent tornadoes. The southern side of the half-continent, including the great coastal Greensward and the barren Cerulean Desert (named for the blue tint to the sand) is home to dragons, some of whom rule over tribes of men and goblins, changed by draconic power into dragon-kin (the lesser of which are often called kobolds). On the eastern coast lies the expansive Golden Plain, home to the ancient Jinse culture, as well as the Shaanti forest, where most of the eastern ihmisi dwell.

To the north lies the overgrown, malevolent Hagfen and the Mother Tree, surrounded on two sides by forbidding mountains and bottled in by the necromantic energies of Ocieli on the south-west (where the Dustlands turns to fertile ground) and the isolationist elves of Nirda on the north east near the great bay. Further north lies the ever cold Frostkill.

On the Nery Forti islands east and north of Jinse are the pirate nations of Abantu, and far to the north east across the Northern Badlands lies the oldest city in the world, Tal Elamor, home to the Eternal Library, a city-sized building of its own said to have existed since the earliest days of creation and said to contain all the books that have ever been written. East of the Golden Plain lies Zhanryu Island, prison to titanic monsters since the days of the titans.

The West is more fragmented and divided into several regions. From the Westward Ocean working east, we find the Drowned, Lost, and Frozen Coasts (southernmost to northernmost), inhabited by peoples such as the mkhulu-enslaved militant tyranny of Tlalocana on the Drowned Coast, the literally-storybook Auringon to the north on the Lost Coast, and the violently xenophobic vulkite (aka lava dwarf) [the only way to get hot dwarves, I guess –IB] city-state of Khaimal at the northern edge.

East of there, north of the Gap-Tooth Bay, lies Byssia (home of druidic and elemental culture) and the Nocthian Caldera (an extinct mega-volcano caldera whose floor lies nearly 8000 ft above sea level with a diameter of 400 miles). North of the Caldera is the badlands left behind when a glacier receeded from the Caldera over the course of a summer [as glaciers go, it was a short-lived one. Magic. It does wonderful things. –IB]. South east of Byssia lies the goblin dominated Windwalk; south of that lies the largely unexplored forests of the Bloodthirst Wildlands, heavy with fey, goblins, and twisted creatures of all sorts. North of the goblins is the western plains, called Lupaus, home to the gwerin, human, and dwarven Crisial Kingdom and the dragonborn, goblin, and orc industrial powerhouse of Wyrmhold (the latter of which also contests the Caldera with Byssia). To the north of the plain is the Fiach Wood, home to most of the remaining uncivilized [although given a choice between them and the civilized merchants of Rauviz, I’d much rather take the orcs –IB] orcish tribes of the west.

Dominating the center of the western half of Noefra is Lake Coy’in, called Rabbit Lake due to its shape. This huge freshwater sea spans 400 miles north to south and about 300 east to west, somehow remaining fresh despite not having an outlet. Some claim there’s a portal to Ocean at the bottom. It’s said that this lake formed when the capital of Tibor Imperia was removed from existence at the start of the War of Souls about 900 years ago, and grew during the Cataclysm. Crisial City, shining hope of nations, lies in the plains of Southshore on its south bank while the ihmisi-dominated forests of Kotimaa grow to its north. Far to the north of Kotimaa lies the volcanic Isle of Fire, of which not much is known.

East of the lake is the Sea of Grass, hundreds of miles of rolling grasslands occupied by humans and halflings primarily. They are bounded to the north by the Dreamwall, low rolling mountains that keep the shallow Sea of Dreams (which swallowed the ancient Flower Kingdom) from cascading over the landscape. To the south is Mt. Refuge, beneath whose slopes the City of the Dragon, Kaelthia lies. Oldest human city in the central region, founded by refugees from the Cataclysm War 250 years ago. From here the survivors spread out, founding most of the other cities in the region. It has since become a theocratic, isolationist city-state. To the east lies the Outer Barrier Range and the western Giant’s Spine, both inhabited by clans of dwarves and jazuu (towering giant-kin often called goliaths).

South of Kaelthia lies the Jungle of Fangs, a jungle valley once dominated by a single religious empire and now split into two. At the very south of the Jungle lies one of two significant southern ports, the free (and piratical) Tarad’am. South of the Jungle, across the shallow, island-dotted Serpent Sea, is Sentinel Island, the northernmost outpost of the slaving Ship Folk who dominate the central Primal Sea, reaching from Soefra north.

To the east across the West Moon Sea, lies the black-glass-surfaced, arcane-magic wasteland known as Moon’s Vengeance. Once home to the aelven empire’s capital, it was the target of the first druids who convinced the third moon to fall on it. Now inhabited only by ghosts, arcane workings, and the underground-dwelling remnants of the goroesi (often called dark elves) who escaped Moon’s Fall by cutting themselves off from time and space for a time.

A Short History of Western Noefra

[Finally, we get to talk about me –IB] [Do we have to? –ed]

Prehistory: The Dawn War

It’s said that the Dreamer called the world into existence an uncountable time before time began. He created the Eight and One, the Primordial Princes to embody the principles of existence. The Eight were Light and Darkness, Life and Death, and the Four Elements. The One, called Nameless for many millenia, was Change (or Chaos). They in turn had servants; Light was granted the Lightborn, blazing sentinels and keepers of law; Darkness was granted Leviathan, a single eternal mind inhabiting the song that the denizens of the benthic abyss sing back and forth endlessly, keeper of memory. Life supervised the Titans, rune-wielding shapers and molders of matter. Death supervised Wyrm, ancestors of dragons, wielding the True Names of all matter to break down the unneeded or failed creations. The Elemental Primordials chose to be content with less willful creations, now known as the elementals. And the last, the Nameless, was given the Proteans, an endlessly mutable race well suited to mediate between the creations of the Primordials and adapt them to the needs of the universe.

And then Change rebelled and sought mastery over the others (or so the tale runs), splitting creation into camps that warred. The Eight fought against the One. At the end, something tore the Oblivion Gate open, and the Dreamer chose to enact the first and greatest sacrifice in its own being. It tore itself apart and with it the Names of its children the Primordials, creating the planes from their essence. Change, now stripped of his Name, was imprisoned in the Abyss. The lesser creations were scattered across the planes, with many of them becoming mortal, touched by the fires of the Dreamer’s essence. Mortality is not a curse, it is a gift. The blood and nerves of the Dreamer became the Great Mechanism, tasked with keeping all in order throughout the planes. Its skin became the Crystal Sphere that wards out the denizens of the Great Dark Beyond. This all happened about 25,000 years before the present day.

The First Age (ending ca 10k YBP)

The Mortal Plane, for the first fifteen thousand years, was dominated by the wars between the (now mortal) titans and Wyrm. Without their primordials, their natures (one to order and structure and the other to break down and destroy) clashed. The lesser races (at this point only some of the lightborn who chose to become mortal and the forcibly devolved proteans) hid in fear, served the tyrant races, or died.

These wars ended when the ruling council of the titans, in an act of overwhelming hubris, created the Orb of All Might, empowered by stripping the runic powers out of more than half their own kind (who then became the ancestors of the modern dwarves). They attempted to use it to strip the Wyrm of their power, but the orb shattered and with it both the True Sorcery of the Wyrm and the runic language (manipulating the written form of the True Words of Creation) both shattered. Titans were reduced to the jazuu; Wyrm became the true dragons of today. With the last bit of power, some of the survivors split the ancient mega-continent and moved half of it to the west, forming Oelfra, where dragons, giants, and dwarves still fight for control.

The Second Age (ending ca 4k YBP)

In the chaos that reigned, some of the mortal lightborn (now called aelves), made a gamble. They reached Tal Elamor and used the artifact at the heart of the Library there, called the Cosmic Forge, to enact the First Wish, blending the remnants of True Sorcery, written runes, and the elements of nature into power accessible to lesser mortals. Wizardry, they called it. This was the dawn of the arcane. And the aelves took that power and forged an empire across the entire continent that lasted for five thousand years. These aelves were long-lived, living for nearly a thousand years unless their squabbles or boredom or accident cut them short. They molded lesser races and beasts to serve them, treating any that lacked arcane power as subservient at best, play-things at worst.

This ended when a group of dissenters, shunned as “lesser” because they lacked the innate talent for wizardry, sought out the Cosmic Forge themselves and enacted the Second Wish, allowing mortals to talk to the spirits of all things. This access to primal power made them the first druids. Their people, later to be called the puun ihmisi (or just ihmisi, or wood elves), enacted a plan of revenge. Through sacrifice and persuasion, they talked the third moon (said to have been green crystal) into falling from orbit onto the capital of the aelvar empire. This was Moon’s Fall, and it shook the world. The scars of that collision still remain, forming the East and West Moon Seas and the Outer and Inner Barrier Ranges.

In the chaos, remnants of the aelvar seized the same artifacts used to split the continents at the end of the First Age and split off Soefra, trying to leave their traitorous primal bretheren behind and forge a new arcane empire.

The First Interregnum (ending 2504 BC)

The period after Moon’s Fall saw war between the primalist and arcane forces. The primalist ihmisi created orcs out of the proteans (now called goblins), mixing in animal elements via magic to stabilize them and make them suitable proxy warriors against the arcane-loving aelves (now called gwerin or high elves). In return, the gwerin created the first humans out of goblins by blending in some of their own elements (hence humans can interbreed with both elves and orcs, as they’re cousins of sorts). Both of these two races, much faster breeding than the long-lived aelves, decided not to fight as commanded. Instead, society fractured into tribes who warred among themselves.

This lasted until one orc, Gor’osh, whose tribe was enslaved and slaughtered and he himself was forced into being a host to a jotnar, rebelled against everyone. He and his shamanic sister gathered the dissident, outcast, and warlike groups of all races, but especially orcs and goblins, into a host that spread across central Noefra, enslaving or killing all in its path. The civilized folks, seeing themselves pressed hard, banded together to fight back. This was the War of Blood. In the final days, seeing the end of their people in sight, the First Heros (a mixed-race band of civilized folks) sought out the Cosmic Forge and enacted the Third Wish: “Through Faith, Power.” Some of them ascended to become the first gods; the remainder their first priests and clerics.

With this power, the remaining Heroes made their way through stealth into Gor’osh’s citadel to confront him. They only found his sister and the children of his immediate allies, whom they viciously and brutally slaughtered. When Gor’osh discovered this, he gave fully in to the demon, becoming the Demon Prince of Rage and Bloodshed and the first werewolf. Only one Hero survived his revenge strike, managing in the end to banish him to the Abyss. This ended the War of Blood, and Gor’osh’s legacy cursed the orcs for generations with an unmangeable bloodlust.

The Third Age (ending 600 BC)

The survivors of the War of Blood, mostly humans, with dwarves and elves (of both kinds) much reduced in power, took to the new divine magic with gusto. Much religious war followed. The so-called evil races (goblins and orcs) were hunted to the marginal places of the continent, including the great waste that once was the home of Gor’osh and his empire (now the Great Eastern Dustlands). Two great empires arose; Jinse in the east and Tibor Imperia in the west. Between them, they had peace (mostly) for close to 1500 years.

This ended (in the west) when mages, envious of the efforts of the Second Age, developed blood-magic-driven magical arts to embed fragments of stolen draconic souls into the unborn children of unwilling mothers in an effort to create (as you might have guessed), a viable soldier race. The result were the dragonborn. When they showed off this effort to the emperor and senate of Tibor Imperia, some of the imperial folks took exception to this evil. They sacrificed themselves in a ritual to erase the capital (including the senate and emperor) from the face of Quartus and from space and time itself. This touched off the War of Souls, a magical civil war that bent space and time and lasted for several hundred years (in fits and starts).

Out of this war arose the halfling race, goblins altered permanently by the magical energies. The dragonborn were granted space to dwell safely at the edge of the Nocthian Caldera, where they still dwell to this day.

The Second Interregnum and the Cataclysm (600 BC - 200 AC)

As the exhausted remnants picked back up civilization, they signed a binding treaty of peace. And peace did reign (other than the usual border squabbles, bandits, and other such low-level problems). 300 years later, the gwerin masters of the Fanged Kingdom (lords of the Jungle of Fangs) vanished abruptly from history, leaving behind the isolationist nation known as the Stone Throne.

And then, roughly 600 years after the end of the War of Souls, the hubris of a mage led to the release of the Nameless and his allies from the Abyss. Demons flooded Noefra and quickly enlisted (both by force and by seduction) the marginalized orcs and goblins. This Army of Chaos swept across the land, utterly destroying many of the nations. The forces of Order gathered for a final battle west of what is now Lake Coy’in, in the shade of a tree of primal power.

Despite the help of angels and devils both, the battle was going poorly until, far to the south in the center of the Bloodthirst Wildlands, a party of adventurers found an ancient artifact and tried to use it themselves. Their efforts failed, and destabilized the artifact. The resulting aetheric shock misaligned the elemental planes and drew out all the ambient aether across the world, causing all magic to cease for a time. The Great Mechanism was forced to absorb the power of all the gods to balance the universe again. And the remaining fragments of the Primordials saw their chance. They sacrificed what remained of themselves to end the exile imposed at the end of the Dawn War, returning the Name of Change to the Nameless and accepting it, now emblematic of Free Will, into the universe itself.

The consequences of this event (both the war and the aetheric shock) were enormous. Arcane and primal magic ceased to work properly for 50 years, with any form of magic requiring the death of the caster. The gods were dead, and thus not granting divine power. The land itself was broken, with new mountains forming and whole areas falling into the sea. Roughly 70% of the continent’s population and 50% of the world’s population perished either of the natural disasters or the ensuing chaos and famine. This event is marked in Noefra as the new start of their calendar epoch; dividing history into BC (Before the Cataclysm) and AC (After the Cataclysm).

Yours truly was there at the Cataclysm’s last battle, along with my lovely editor (who was transformed during that event as a gift of the old gods, like my immortality [agelessness! –ed] and a number of boon companions). We led the survivors south, to found Kaelthia.

For 200 years, the survivors of the various nations of Western Noefra, scattered across the landscape, huddled in their small areas and believed themselves to be the last survivors. At the end of this, the Nocthians (dwellers on the Caldera) retreated to the south and became the Byssians of today and the dragonborn were driven east by the forces of elemental ice, which invaded and locked the caldera under eternal winter for 90 years.

The Fourth Age

As the people recovered and multiplied, the Kaelthian survivors started expanding out of their mountain fortress, settling the Sea of Grass and the foothills of the Dreamwall. They still built walls around their settlements, becoming known as the Wall Builders. In 205 AC, a group of adventurers known as the Catalysts struck out into the wilds and discovered the other remaining nations (Byssia, Wyrmhold, and the Stone Throne). After facing many dangers, they brought the nations together and formed the Federated Nations Council, an international trade and discussion organization that kept the peace and enabled trade for 40 years. The armies of ice were driven back and their leader was eventually destroyed. The portal network, created by the aelvar of the Second Age, was re-opened, allowing fast travel between many points within the nations and even down to Soefra and eastern Noefra.

This peace was not to last, with the Kaelthian government falling into civil unrest and breaking up into smaller nations in 230 AC [which hurt –ed] [literally, since you were nearly assassinated as part of it –IB]. Open war was averted, however, and the successor states mostly muddled along for 24 more years. This era was a time of discovery, exploration, and adventurers.

253 AC saw the Red Plague, an engineered fungal weapon used by anti-civilization druids to try to wipe out the major cities and cause chaos, and in early 254 AC, the now theocratic dictatorship of Kaelthia was riven by the explosion of their High Temple, which sent massive quantities of faith-enhanced aether into the atmosphere and nearly tore the veil into Shadow. This dire fate was averted, but the weakness of the veil caused the new gods, called by the Great Mechanism to field the prayers of mortals, to withdraw from more direct, active involvement with mortals. Soon after, both the former God of Autumn (since deposed for too-aggressive meddling) and the Red Fang (he who was Gar’osh of the War of Blood) were both destroyed by the Oblivion Gate, which temporarily manifested in the heart of the Dustlands. The result of both of these was a warping of long-range magics and an increase in demonic activity. The portal network no longer functions; nations are reduced to regular overland travel and look at each other with suspicion. Monsters lurk in increased numbers, both the two-legged monsters of the spoken races and the more fantastical kinds.

The date is now 260 AC, and now is the Time of Troubles. Adventurers have never been more needed.

Planar Geography

Dawn of Hope has three primary planes and two secondary planes. The primary planes are the Mortal, the Astral, and the Elemental (subdivided into 12 regions, often called planes themselves). The main secondary plane is Shadow, the liminal transition between planes. The Abyss rounds out the tale of the planes; a pocket-plane prison and weeping abscess around a hole in reality, home of the demons.

Each of these planes other than the Abyss plays a key role in the universal energy economy. The Mortal, being as it is the home of mortal beings, is the source of all anima (also called aether), the stuff and energy out of which all existence is created. This is released upon death (as well as periodically by normal souls) and transitions through Shadow’s Mirrorhaven into the Astral, where the Great Mechanism, assisted by the gods, devils, and angels, distributes it to the other planes. One large part is sent back down in the form of luminous aether released by Eua, the sun, to give light and energy to the Mortal.

The rest, other than that which is consumed to keep the Astral going, is sent to the Elemental, where it gains elemental aspects, becoming air, water, heat, lava, and all other forms of matter, which the elemental forces in the Elemental Plane then transport back to the Mortal, closing the loop. This aether economy replaces the normal hydrologic, geologic, and atmospheric cycles. As a result, mines left abandoned for long enough are re-filled by busy earth elementals, ocean and air currents circulate. The seasons cycle as Quartus (the fourth planet) orbits through the fixed areas of influence of the various portions of the Elemental plane, with spring corresponding to the start of Earth’s influence, summer to that of Fire, autumn to that of Air, and winter to that of Water.

The Abyss is a festering wound, roughly the volume of Quartus itself. It orbits on a complex, non-elliptical orbit between the planes, and demons attempt to break out and infect the other planes, primarily the Mortal, via Shadow, as demons feed on mortal souls above all else. At the Abyss’s center is the Oblivion Gate, a possibly-sentient rupture in the fabric of reality itself, joining That Which Is (aka reality) to That Which Is Not. It manifests as a black hole that eagerly reaches out tendrils of annihilation to consume anything that approaches, as well as emitting fragments of itself called jotnar, spirits of pure entropy and destruction. It is these jotnar who, when they infest living beings or corpses, create demons and the undead.

Each plane was constructed in the time before history began out of the True Names (in essence the flesh and nature) of the Primordials, the Eight and One entities who embodied broad concepts and domains. The Eight were the Elemental Four (Fire, Earth, Air, and Water), holding dominion over energy, solid matter, gasses, and liquids respectively, Light, holding dominion over law and progress, Darkness, lord over memory and stability, Life, mother of Organization and Creation, and Death, warden of destruction and decay. The One, turned rebel and banished to the Abyss, was stripped of his Name. It embodied change and adaptation. Even now, the immortal residents of the planes are all empowered and shaped by their Names, which all derive from those of the Eight and One. A lucian [usually called angel or devil –ed] is defined by the particular fragment of Light that differentiates it from any other. This is both a blessing and a curse; blessing because the Named cannot truly die as long as their name is not consumed and assimilated by another of the Named. Curse because, bound by eternal truth, the Named struggle to change or grow. Mortals, on the other hand, are not Named. Animating them is a spark of the Dreamer, the one whose will brought forth the Primordials and whose fire still makes the universe work, despite his self-sacrifice to stabilize the universe.

The Mortal Plane

The Mortal Plane consists of a central star, Eua, and four planets. Eua is approximately the same size and effective brightness and color as Earth’s sun, although the fundamental principles by which it operates are different. The first planet, Primus, is considered uninhabitable, orbiting as it does at 0.25 AU. Its surface undergoes rapid seasonal changes, with each season lasting less than 12 Quartan days. Only elementals and other such resilient beings can tolerate the extremes of luminous energy here. The second two, Secundus and Tertius, are a dual planet, orbiting around their common center. Separated by only a few hundred miles, their atmospheres intermingle and some life migrates from one to the other. Their orbit is at 0.5 AU, leading to much more extreme seasons. Secundus is dominated by Earth and Air, leading to a planet with floating islands. Tertius is dominated by Water and Fire, leading to large oceans and masses of sentient plant life.

The fourth, Quartus, is the primary setting of Dawn of Hope. An Earth-like planet orbiting at slightly more than 1 AU, it boasts two moons (Quella and Teki) with periods of 32 and 8 days, respectively. It has a year of 384 days, usually divided into 12 equal months of 32 days (one orbital period of Quella), three for each season. Its orbit is circular within very tight tolerance, and its axial tilt is nearly 0 (seasons and weather being provided by elemental influence rather than axial tilt). Quartus has continents named Noefra, Soefra, Oelfra, Aenimos, and Perdatos. Noefra, and particularly the western half, are the subjects of most of this document. Only minimal information is provided about the other continents, as the Noefrans have only minimal contact with Soefra and none at all with the others.

One event of note (about which more can be found in the section on history) is the Cataclysm, when an artifact of the Dreamer strove to remake reality and instead nearly broke the world. This event, 260 years ago, marks the turning point of the calendar of Dawn of Hope, as well as a significant source of change in both land and people. The Elemental Plane, bearing the brunt of the aetheric discharge, fractured and had to be remade into its 12 separate segments. The old gods were almost all consumed, their power used to prevent total universal collapse. Nearly 70% of the world’s population died as a result of the natural disasters, famines, and loss of magic that resulted. In the truest sense, Dawn of Hope is a story about recovery. It is post-apocalyptic in a real sense.

The Mortal Plane is built out of the True Name of Primordial Life, blended with parts of Death as well as the elemental Names. Virtually absent are the names of Light and Dark. The reborn name of Change has also found strong roots here over the last 260 years since the Cataclysm, giving a renewed dynamism to those dwelling here. Despite its name, there are mortal beings on the other planes, especially the elemental planes. But the Mortal Plane is where the aether, stuff of existence, is generated in profusion.

The Astral Plane

The Astral Plane is the home of (most of) the gods and Ascendants, the home of the angelic legions and the fiendish Territories. It is also the home of the Great Mechanism. Equal in size to the Mortal plane, it sits metaphysically above that plane, separated from it by the Border Shadow. Composed of the Name of Primordial Light, all the native inhabitants (called Lucians) bear portions of that Name instead of mortal souls. Mortals here are visitors, brought by powerful magic.

The Astral is divided into five primary domains (landmasses floating in empty space otherwise containing only the great conduits of the Mechanism’s aether circulation system) as well as countless demi-planes. At the core, where Eua is in the Mortal, is the Celestial City (composed of four smaller sections). Arranged roughly evenly around the City at about 1 AU distance are the other domains, each shaped roughly like sections of a spherical shell. Above and below the Celestial city is the Central Vortex, which spirals down the core and funnels aether into the Mortal, acting as the core of Eua itself.

Shadow, Trifold Liminality

Called one plane, Shadow is really composed of three layers (and a blight that merges the layers). Created out of the True Name of Death, it serves as the final resting place for the souls of dead mortals (those that do not ascend or get eaten by demons) as well as a home to most of the fey. There are other creatures that call it home as well, all partaking of that dread Name. At the core is the Gate of Eternity in the Watcher’s Garden, where those souls who have laid down their concerns pass into the unknown. Most ancient of dragons, the Watcher oversees the cycle of death and burden-shedding with impartiality, aided by the Catocracy (a bureaucracy of cats assisting in guiding lost souls) and the orders of the Gleaners, mortals who partner with said cats to reap the stragglers, those who seek to cheat normal death too blatantly.

Border Shadow is the truly liminal plane, extending between the Mortal and all the other planes. All portals, teleportation, and planar travel pass through the Border and disturb it, weakening the boundaries. The souls of the dead flow up from the Mortal through the Border, herded by the cats that act as psychopomps, although only the lost souls remain here. The rest find a second, temporary life in one of the other layers. Here, land and gravity don’t exist, and movement is by the will of the traveler. Dreams peer through the veil here into the other layers.

The other layers act as a twisted reflection of the Mortal, and only really have substance around the surface of Quartus itself. Where Quartus may have a mountain, the shadow reflection might have an inverted peak. Or a regular mountain. Time and space flow oddly and unevenly here.

The bright mirror of the Mortal, Mirrorhaven is influenced by and partakes in the flow of energy from the Astral plane. Its nature is of bright colors, constant movement, and frenetic interplay of light and color. It is home to the Spring and Summer Court of the Fey. Do not be fooled by the names, however. Also associated with this layer is mania and illusion; nothing here is as it seems. Delusion is rampant; everything wears multiple faces. Decadence and lavish excess hide a hollow, insatiable hunger that cannot be filled; the shadow-stuff of which this is made is not stable or real enough to satisfy. The inhabitants continually search for greater and greater sensation to fill this numbness. The majority of the populace is the spirits of those departed mortal souls that were attuned toward the Astral, either as a life of devotion to the Gods or for personal reasons. Here they live a distorted reflection of their lives until either they lose track of who they are and their memories fade, until their memories are riven and consumed by one of the denizens, or until they press through to the Astral plane itself and carve out a residence there through transcendence. Many of the gods and ascendants maintain enclaves here.

The hub of Mirrorhaven is Centrum. This city once was the capital of Tibor Imperia of Noefra (known then as Imperial Center) until a tremendous magical explosion threw it into Shadow about 800 years ago. The inhabitants have become shadow-kin, beings made of shadow-stuff. All the decadence, excess, and mania of the layer are most concentrated here—the entire city is one continual, frantic, eternal festival. Souls drift in and are caught up in the celebration. The weak burn out quickly; the strong prey on the weak for survival.

Beastholm is the layer of Shadow closer to the elemental planes, called the Dreamlands by many. This is the home of many of the fey, but especially the Winter Court. If Mirrorhaven is manic, the Dreamlands is soporific. Daily routines blend together into a static sameness; even the wilderness lies quiet and invites slumber. If Mirrorhaven is deceptive, the Dreamlands is forthright in its madness. Here, the risk is depression and apathy. After a while, nothing seems to matter and the soul drifts into sleep. The spirits that find themselves here are those that were attuned to the primal, to the spirits of nature or to the elemental planes. They drift into slumber and shed their cares and memories before transiting the Gate. Those more energetic may force through to the Elemental and form bodies there, ascending as those born to their chosen element.

The hub here is the Dream Titan’s Throne. This enormous (and physically inconsistent) castle, seemingly made of wood, rock, and bone changes from day to day; its inhabitants (mostly the fey) migrate around from “room” to “room” lest they get swallowed up in the dream and never awaken.

The Waste is a cancer, a stain that propagates across Shadow, collapsing layers into each other and into a blasted waste where demons and devils fight endless battles and the spirits of those who died there, or chose to fight their struggle for survival. The Waste grows in the reflection of places where mortals summon demons, allow undead to continue to exist, or where great and blasphemous events occurred (such as the events of Moon’s Fall). Those that die in those areas are condemned to the waste unless they manage to escape. Many orders of druids and others exist to heal the Waste where possible.

The Elemental Plane

The Elemental Plane acts as the sink of aether and the source of Quartus’s seasons, as well as the maintenance agents. From here, elemental forces, led by the Elemental Lords, bring fresh water, air, heat, and replenish the minerals within the planet. While the plane is one contiguous sphere equal in size to the Mortal or Astral, most consider it to be partitioned into sections. Within approximately twice the radius of Eua, it is one unified thing. All that exists there is luminous aether and the strange elementals native to that state. No condensed matter can exist here naturally, as the tides of light tear it apart. Further out (to just past the orbit of Secundus and Tertius), the four-fold elements begin to make their disparate natures known, resulting in four Prime Elementals (Earth, Fire, Air, and Water). The boundaries between them are still quite energetic, making seasons on the inner planets extremely violent in their transitions. Before the Cataclysm, this same four-fold division held throughout, and mixtures between the planes were unusual and confined only to the borders. The Cataclysm and resulting planar realignment shifted matters.

At present, the elemental plane at the orbit of Quartus is usually divided into 12 segments: one for each prime and two for each boundary (one for each dominant prime). So, for instance, the plane of Earth becomes (starting at the Water boundary) the planes of Clay (earth dominant over water), Stone (prime earth), and Iron (earth dominant over fire). Each of these planes dominates for the month during which Quartus orbits through its direct influence, with Clay being the first month of the year and Mud (Clay’s water-dominant counterpart) the last. Each plane is commonly associated with two or three psychological states or emotions.

The Abyss

A festering, partially sealed but eternally weeping wound in the planes, centered around the Oblivion Gate. This Gate was long thought to be merely a hole in the universe into the Is Not, source of the jotnar, entropic spirits that consume all aether and souls in endless blind hunger. Recent events have made it clear that the Gate has a will of its own, as do the jotnar themselves. Summoned into reality during the tumult of the Dawn War when Change rebelled against the Dreamer and the other Primordials, the Abyss was formed from the essence of Primordial Darkness to become a prison for Change (stripped of his Name) and the more major forces that followed it during the War; the fractured Concepts and other primal demons. But not only a prison; the prisoners serve as eternal bait for the strongest jotnar, containing them in the Abyss and preventing all but the most minor jotnar from leaking out. But even those minor ones are enough to cause trouble.

Other mortals (and immortals) have tried to use the jotnar as tools, trapping them inside themselves and feeding them on the souls and aether of others, gaining immortality and immense power themselves as a result. These are the Infected, called demons by most folks. Any demon of sufficient power is rejected by the Mortal and thrust back into the abyss unless summoned by a mortal (usually involving blood magic).

The Abyss itself is approximately the size of Quartus, but devoid of natural solid matter. Everything that exists there was built by demons out of the souls and aether of those they absorbed elsewhere. While the inhabitants of the Abyss are a disorganized lot, each pursuing its own designs, they roughly fall into 5 camps, each headed by a Demon Prince, an extremely powerful entity who is powerful enough to carve out a stable domain.

Gods and Worship

The gods are, as mentioned in the section on history, latecomers to Quartus and Dawn of Hope. Before the beginning of the 3rd age (roughly 3500 years ago), there were Powers (fiends, angels, demons, and elemental lords), but worshiping them brought no power other than that of a warlock’s Pact. The relationship between mortals and Powers was entirely transactional, and these entities could not draw on the Great Mechanism and did not have Domains.

The Third Wish changed that. It allowed mortals to transcend death and, via the worship of others, ascend to immortality in the Astral by replacing their mortal soul (their spark) with a fragment of the True Name of that plane. But more than that, it allowed those mortals, now gods, to gain power from the Great Mechanism in proportion to their worship base and to claim dominion over various domains of mortal existence. These were the Old Gods. And this mechanism brought much violence. Worship brings power both to the worshipped and the worshiper, and network effects apply. An upstart could supplant the existing deities by subverting their worship and stealing their worshippers.

At the Cataclysm, this changed again. The Great Mechanism, seeing that it needed all of its resources to prevent the elemental planes from catastrophically destabilizing, took back the power it had granted the Old Gods. This killed the vast majority of them, with those that survived becoming depowered and being reduced to mere Ascendants, on par with a powerful devil. For 50 years, there were no gods. Prayers went unanswered, clerics had no power. Only one entity retained power, but it was absorbed (willingly) by the Mechanism, becoming an actual interface for that entity, the Voice of the Great Mechanism. This Voice, of course, still did not answer mortal prayers.

At the end of this period, the Great Mechanism through its Voice chose 16 new souls from fallen mortals and elemental lords to become the new Congregation of True Gods. Unlike the Old Gods, the new gods have restrictions on how they can interact with mortals. These restrictions focus on preserving free will. The gods can still have schemes and machinations, but they cannot directly intervene except through free-willed agents and only in response to faithful prayer. In return, they are no longer dependent on mortal worship for their existence. They draw directly on the Great Mechanism, but must respond to all faithful prayers regarding to their domains, not discriminating on mode of worship.

At the same time, the old methods of empowering Ascendants via worship still work, but the results are weaker. Many people disdain worshiping the Congregation, seeing them as disinterested and remote or simply not worth worshiping. Of these, many turn to worshiping more local deities. A few of the elemental lords are worshipped, but most Ascendants are former mortals. Most notable in Noefra are Nocthis of Byssia and the Queen Ascendant (who shed her mortal name), worshiped in the Jungle of Fangs. These Ascendants rely on their worship, but can only intervene using their own power and can only be in one place at a time. More crucially, they are shaped by their worship as well. A schism in an Ascendant’s church can, if it gains enough strength, alter the very nature of the being being worshipped against the Power’s own will. Additionally, if an Ascendant grants power, they cannot take it back (unlike the relationship between a cleric and their deity). This constrains their actions and makes them pay much more attention to their churches, resulting in regional appeal.

Most people who worship the gods focus on a smaller subset for most of their devotion, often changing throughout their lives. Others are worshipped or propitiated where appropriate for their domains. Some areas focus much more heavily on a subset (such as Auringon’s depiction of Aerielara and Roel Kor as wife and husband), but it’s rare for people to think monotheistically or for society to focus on a single god and neglect the others. By comparison, Ascendant worship is almost always at least henotheistic (focusing entirely on one Ascendant while accepting that other people can worship the other beings). True monotheism is almost unheard of, and most consider it heretical.

The Afterlife

Dawn of Hope does not have an eternal afterlife. For the vast majority of souls, there’s about 100 years of life after death before the soul departs for shores unknown. Nor are the gods directly involved in managing souls.

Living mortal creatures are triparte: an ineffable spark (or soul, said to be a fragment of the original Dreamer), an immaterial nimbus (or spirit) that mediates between the soul and the body or the ambient aether, and a physical body. Souls naturally emit aether, which forms into the nimbus. When a mortal (ensouled) being dies, the spark, wrapped in the nimbus, lingers near the body for about a minute, after which it begins to pass through the veil into Shadow. Souls that have too-strong ties to the mortal may linger for a bit longer, but it’s rare for them to get trapped. The cats who serve as psychopomps see to that, herding lost souls to their next phase of existence.

Once in Shadow, the soul quickly drifts to the layer that matches its affinity; primal-attuned souls and those seeking rest find themselves in Beastholme, while those with divine attunement or those with more manic tendencies find themselves in Mirrorhaven. Many, especially those who were diligent about worshiping a Power, find their way to a haven, an enclave maintained by that Power and its agents. Those who did not worship or who had mixed allegiance wander, often finding some way to settle down on their own. In Shadow, the soul and nimbus accrete a body of shadow aether, more responsive to the thoughts and wills of mortals but also more fragile than condensed matter.

The souls of lucky (or careful) ex-mortals live for about another hundred years, reliving their mortal life with more or less fidelity. Some get to experience the heights they did not have while living, while others seek quiet solitude. Some unfortunates wander into the realms of aether-hungry predators (whether the natives of the plane or other spirits) who shred their shadow bodies and rip the nimbus off of the soul, ending its second life. Or worse, others wander into the Waste and fall prey to demons who devour the entire being, shadow body, spirit, and soul alike. For those there is no return.

Those that survive the hazards eventually weary of their burdens, of their past and memories. Some have fulfilled all that they meant to do; others simply cannot bear it any longer. The spark sheds its shadow body and its nimbus and, like a star, arc towards the Garden of the Watcher and the Gate of Eternity that lies at its heart. Those whose nimbus was consumed, likewise, tread this path. Once there, they pass through the Gate and disappear. None have returned to tell what lies on the other side; some say that sparks are reborn, others say that they pass through to join the Dreamer’s eternal fire.

All of this also means that bodies, nimbuses, and souls can be transformed into magical fuel. Blood magic is exactly this [and is generally considered a bad idea –IB] a ritual to funnel the energy released when a soul separates into a spell. Willing sacrifice is even more potent, as more energy can be harnessed. And there are dark rumors of mechanisms used to convert the entire triparte soul into energy, with the soul left screaming and aware in some horrific sense.

The Congregation

The 16 True Gods, the only ones who can empower clerics, are called the Congregation. Congregation members are unkillable while enthroned, and have near-limitless power…as long as they obey the strictures. One of them, the former God of Harvest and Autumn, was dethroned for meddling too hard (and crashing the wrong mortal wedding) in 250 AC and, reduced to the stature of an Ascendant, ended up dying at mortal hands. Which served as a warning to the others not to get too involved in their schemes, resulting in the Congregation retreating from meddling in mortal affairs.

Aerielara, Jeweled Lady

• Domain: Arts, beauty, music, sensuality, hedonism. Trickery, Life
• Symbol: A stylized harp
• Most worshiped by: Gwerin, Auringon, artists, bards, prostitutes

Aerielara presents herself as a vain, extremely beautiful gwerin woman, dressed in veils. While she pretends to care little for schemes or divine politics, her influence is pervasive yet subtle. Her clergy are often young and beautiful (or extremely skilled artists) and bear protection against complications from their amorous exploits, which are legion.

Hollow King, the Executioner

• Domain: Untimely death, murder, order at any price. Death, Trickery
• Symbol: Crossed daggers, points down.
• Most worshiped by: Assassins, those seeking justice denied by the local law. Usually propitiated, not worshipped.

Dour and secretive, the Hollow King hides his face. His role is to do what the mortal law cannot. He abhors those that disrupt society, but also abhors those who take too much advantage of their social status and comit atrocities. Especially, he targets those who serve Lloitira.

Kela Loran, Lady Luck

• Domain: Commerce, wealth, gambling, luck. Knowledge, Trickery
• Symbol: A stack of coins.
• Most worshipped by: Merchants, gamblers, mercenaries. Popular in Rauviz and Asai’ka.

Presenting as a ruddy-cheeked halfling woman of indeterminate age, Kela Loran is unambiguously mercenary and fickle. Cheating at dice and cards is a form of worship she favors. Business ethics she considers to be a drag on productivity.

Korokonolkom (Koro), the King Below/Lord of Silent Mountains

• Domain: Earth, mountains, endurance. Patron of the dwarves. Knowledge, War
• Symbol: Three stylized mountains
• Most worshiped by: Uulani dwarves. Is also the Elemental Lord of Stone.

The Silent Lord is called that for a reason. He rarely answers prayers, which the dwarves who worship him find to be just perfect. They write their prayers on slate tablets which are dropped into blind holes into the mountains, never to be seen. But if you can rouse his anger, beware his implacable retribution. He is depicted as a male titan, naked (although sometimes covered by a loincloth), with skin covered in runic writing.

Lae Loara, The Huntress

• Domain: Wilderness, travelers, nature red in fang and claw, the hunt. Nature, Trickery
• Symbol: A stylized tree
• Most worshiped by: Kotimaan and Fiach orcs and ihmisi. Propitiated by hunters and travelers.

Lae Loara was raised by wild animals while a mortal, and she still doesn’t do well with “civilization.” Don’t mistake her for a tree-hugger, though. She understands the full cycle of eat or be eaten. She rarely answers prayers in any discernable fashion, but her favored find prey more easily and avoid traps.

Lon-Ka, the Hammerer

• Domain: The forge, technology, and experimentation. Patron of smiths, engineers, and researchers. Knowledge, Forge
• Symbol: A stylized hammer.
• Most worshiped by: Engineers, smiths, Shinevogari, the industrial parts of Wyrmhold.

Lon-ka, presenting as a traditional dwarf, is a direct, stubborn being who supports the spreading of knowledge. Discovery isn’t enough. Knowledge should be shared, even if that has consequences. Known for his lack of tact and social graces.

Melara, Lady of Mercy

• Domain: Timely death, endings, winter, memory, healing. Grave, Life
• Symbol: A snowflake
• Most worshiped by: very widespread. As one of the Seasonal Four, she is probably second only to her son-in-law Tor Elan for widespread worship.

Mother to Sakara, mother in law to Tor Elan, and wife to the not-missed Loran Hae, Melara is the grandmother figure of the gods. Quiet, reserved, and believing strongly in order and justice, she presents as a dark-haired human woman of late-middle age. She despises necromancy and the undead, and her clergy maintain militant orders that travel from grave to grave to ensure they do not rise. Her clergy are also healers, because unlike the Hollow King, she only accepts death that comes in its true season. She is a major figure in the shadow enclaves, welcoming nearly anyone who wishes to quietly shed the burdens gathered in life before passing through the Gate.

Peor Fala, Hearth-keeper

• Domain: Domesticity, the home, the hearth, motherhood. Life, Light
• Symbol: A stylized flame
• Most worshiped by: Mothers, peasants. Very commonly worshiped by halflings, but her worship is widespread among the lower classes.

Peor Fala is a peacemaker among the gods. She dislikes violence, but can be fiercely protective and is by reputation the most scary when pushed too far. Her clergy are almost always mothers to many children (birthed or adopted) and tend not to travel very far.

Pinwheel, the Fox.

• Domain: Deception, trickery, practical jokes, disruption of order. Trickery, War
• Symbol: A domino mask
• Most worshiped by: Carnival folks, jesters. No real organized worship in most places.

Counterpart to the Hollow King, Pinwheel dislikes stuffy, self-important people. He actively seeks to shove the unstable parts of society, puncturing over-inflated egos. If it collapses as a result, it wasn’t going to last anyway. This makes him somewhat unpopular in more tight-laced areas. He never appears the same way twice.

Roel Kor, the Red Knight

• Domain: Nobility, tyranny, control, power. War, Order
• Symbol: A red castle wall.
• Most worshiped by: Auringon, Wyrmhold, nobles and other important folks. Those that wish to become important.

Appearing as a gwerin male in full armor and carrying a greatsword, he belives that order must be maintained by careful hierarchy. The strong protect the weak, and the weak should obey the strong. Does not have a sense of humor and is a micromanager. Dislikes Pinwheel immensely. Pinwheel loves to torment him.

Sarapha, Festival Keeper/Brewmistress

• Domain: Harvest, agriculture, night, autumn. Life, Nature
• Symbol: sheafs of grain
• Most worshiped by: Sea of Grass and Southshore. One of the Seasonal Four, worshiped as such in many areas.

The newest of the Congregation, Sarapha replaced the former god of harvest and autumn, the unpleasant schemer Loran Hae, in 250 AC. Her personality is bubbly and generous. She especially prizes brewing and festivals. She presents as a well-endowed human woman, usually bearing large beer steins. If she has plots and schemes, she’s very quiet about them.

Tor Elan, Sun-lord

• Domain: The sun, summer, honorable warfare, rewards of dutiful work. Light, War
• Symbol: The sun on a shield.
• Most worshiped by: Young men everywhere, warriors, farmers. As one of the Seasonal Four, he’s probably the most widely worshiped.

Appearing as a middle-aged human male in full armor with a mace and shield, he is the husband to Sakara and son-in-law to Melara. He is widely regarded as being utterly incapable of understanding jokes. His clergy are almost always militant, usually engaging in teaching the common folk to defend themselves. A major religion devoted more henotheistically to him than usual is the Breath of the Sun, headquartered in Wyrmhold.

Sakara, Lady of the Dawn and Cute Things

• Domain: Growth, beginnings, spring, all things cute, romantic love, fertility. Life, Nature
• Symbol: A stylized flower or butterfly
• Most worshiped by: young women everywhere, halflings. As one of the Seasonal Four, she’s widely worshiped.

Sakara is Tor Elan’s wife, and very unlike him. She presents as a younger human woman, bubbly and not too bright. She loves bright colors, cute bunnies (or other things, including young beasts you shouldn’t cuddle). Her catch phrase might as well be “if not friend, then why friend shaped?” She doesn’t have enemies.

Selesurala, Mistress of Storms

• Domain: The pitiless ocean, storms, killing frosts, and natural disasters. Nature, Tempest
• Symbol: A lightning bolt
• Most worshiped by: Propitiated by sailors. Rarely worshiped; feared instead.

Once the Elemental Lord of water, Selesurala is a titanic wyrm who ascended to elemental status during the First Age (about when Koro did). She cares little for mortals. Only the strong survive. Her clergy (who are few and far between) act as heralds of oncoming disasters, warning people to prepare.

Yogg-Maggus, Lord of Magic

• Domain: Arcana, knowledge, magic, keeping secrets. Arcana, Knowledge
• Symbol: Two nested spirals
• Most worshiped by: Mages, researchers.

Yogg-Maggus was chosen to prevent future Cataclysms, and he takes that job seriously. He believes that power should be hidden from those that cannot use it properly. He was responsible for re-writing the laws of magic so that many of the extremes of the earlier ages could not be replicated in the post-Cataclysm era. He presents as a human with four long braids in his beard, usually hooded. In actuality, he was a mkhulu, a parasitically-twisted psychic humanoid before his ascension. He rarely calls clergy, but does make warlock pacts quite frequently.

Other Ascendants

There are many Ascendants worshiped across Noefra and Quartus at large. Two main ones worshiped in western Noefra are Nocthis and the Queen Ascendant.

Nocthis, Lady of Lunar Mystery

Nocthis has been the patron of the Byssian people since the 3rd age and is the one for whom the Nocthian Caldera was named. A mage of massive power, she gained divinity alongside her then husband and took on aspects of Night, Moon, and Mystery. She taught her people to live apart from others, traveling out to seek out magical artifacts and and power sources and sequestering them for safety. Her religion strongly valued women over men, relegating the latter to lower roles in society. This lasted until the Cataclysm. Seeing the war coming, she sought refuge in a ritual to become mortal temporarily. This succeeded partially, locking her out of her divine power but keeping her alive through the depowering of the rest of the Old Gods. After her re-ascension (this time merely as an Ascendant Power), she has mellowed on both the misandry and the isolationism.

Her religion, the Church of Night Reborn, still engages in keeping secrets, with an outer, public hierarchy and a real inner, secret, higher hierarchy. Only women can be priestesses of the inner circle, but men can participate in most other parts of life as equals. She does not restrict her church to the night’s children of Byssia, but does not encourage proselytes. As a result, she’s worshiped almost exclusively in Byssia and the Caldera.

The Queen Ascendant

When the gwerin masters of the Fanged Kingdom vanished about 500 years before the Cataclysm, they left behind an “eternal queen” on the throne of the Great Temple at Ar Salem Dolem. This gwerin woman, daughter of the high Fanged Lord, served as the focal point for the blood sacrifices of the bloodthirsty, demon-tainted religion they left behind. 700 years later, the Catalysts discovered that she was trapped in this role against her will, acting as a living conduit and filter for souls in a demonic bargain the old masters had made to ascend as gods (which ended up failing mostly, but that’s a different story). They broke the spells binding her and killed the old priests who were complicit in the bloodshed, freeing her.

Her soul nearly exhausted from the black magic, she harnessed the faith of her entire nation to ascend, giving up her mortal identity in the process. Now she is the Queen Ascendant, undisputed goddess-queen of the Jungle of Fangs. Her church, the Church of the Queen Ascendant, retains massive political and persuasive power across the Jungle. Highly bureaucratic with much infighting, it has agents everywhere and counterbalances the nobles, when it’s not colluding with them.

Demon Princes

These four beings are the undisputed rulers of the Abyss. Lesser demons often ally themselves with one of these, mostly on ideological grounds. There were five, but the Red Fang, patron of rage and bloodlust, was destroyed a few years ago and his domain remains contested. Each of the Princes has a special interest over which they consider themselves the patron. Cults worship demons in their names via blood magic, perversions, and arcane rituals. In return, they gain temporary power before their own souls are inevitably consumed by their patrons. Demon worship is forbidden and punishable by death without trial in virtually every society across Quartus.

Lloitira, Lady of Pain and Corruption

The progenitor from which all vampires descend, Lloitira is a beautiful aelven woman (in appearance) who delights in torture, pain, and perversion of all kinds. She especially loves the corruption and downfall of the self-righteous and the slow undermining of social order. Cults that serve her and her followers often use a barbed-wire ring or tattoo of a circle of thorns in their symbology. Despite her corruption and evil, she is sane enough to recognize and oppose the threats that would threaten the entire universe. She is the patron of vampires and those who gain power from pain.

The Twisted

The Twisted was the ur-kraken, one of the servants of Primordial Darkness, until it sided with the newly-opened Oblivion Gate out of a desire for power. Now the dark mirror to Leviathan, it considers itself the patron of all things abominable, of disease, mutation, and flesh-crafting. It considers itself to be an artist, with living flesh as its canvas. Its followers each seek “beauty” in things most consider horrific. Its cults (often cellular in structure) seek to corrupt the land and twist all life into new, so-called beautiful shapes. Among its major followers are many of the abantu mkhulu (called mind-flayers elsewhere) and other sea-dwellers, foes of Leviathan, but people of all lineages fall into the warped fellowship. Of all the demon princes, the Twisted and its forces are the least welcomed by the inhabitants of the rest of the planes. [Which is quite an accomplishment since no demon or demon worshipper is exactly welcomed anywhere sane. –IB]

The Black Lord, Orolaen

Orolaen is the ur-lich, an aelf who originally discovered the lich transformation ritual. It’s said that he then intentionally sabotaged the ritual, so all the versions now are inferior copies. Of all the Princes, he is unique in that he can be trusted to keep his end of any bargains without deceit. His bargains are always fair, but the penalty for non-performance or violation is extreme. He demands that all those who deal with him also keep their word. He’s been known to help adventurers against other threats, asking nothing but the continued existence of the planes as a reward. As the patron of all forbidden knowledge and necromancy, his mortal followers are often mages and necromancers and the sentient undead.

Seleleana, called Jester

The Jester is a wild card [like you! –ed] [That’s not fair –IB]. Not much is known about this insane entity, other than that it is ancient (possibly a shard of the Nameless left behind, too insane to rejoin creation) and utterly devoid of reason. It plots and schemes and acts out of incomprehensible motives. Many of its plots and those of its followers are mutually incompatible with themselves. It seems to enjoy that. Some suspect it of having deeper motives, because nothing can be truly that random. Its followers are generally lone actors, but many of them are powerful, including the entities known as rasksha, the cat demons.

Mapping lineages to D&D races

Dawn of Hope uses the word “lineage” instead of “race” (too archaic) or “species” (since the lineages can interbreed [something Bard found out the hard way a few times –ed] [it was quite enjoyable, really, other than the parental support –IB] [which you mostly ran away from! –ed]). They’re covered in detail in the rules documents; this is a cheat-sheet to map their Quartan names to more common names.

Nations of Western Noefra, ca 260 AC.

Auringon

This nation dates back to just after the Cataclysm, when a band of ihmisi were desperately looking for shelter from the chaos. They found a magical library containing a book of stories. This book promised them security, but only if they dedicated themselves to living out the stories. Later, human refugees were incorporated into the story. In 212 AC, this story was completed and the people freed from the endless repetition and enforced narrative roles. Since then, they’ve focused on finding their way.

To outsiders, Auringon looks like a stereotypical fantasy storybook kingdom. Everything is clean and neat and everyone knows their role in society. Reality is more messy, however. Internal divisions, threats from the expansionist tribes to the north and the brainwashed legions of Tlalocana to the south, and finding their way in a changed world after centuries of no change—these are the threats faced by Auringon and its citizens.

Politically, Auringon is a typical fantasy-feudal nation, with four Dukes and a King to whom they all pay homage. As of 260 AC, the beloved Aurel III has just died and the new king, his grandson Alan Aurelian is inexperience. Thankfully he is supported by his step grandmother, the beautiful but secretly extremely intelligent Dowager Princess Tatya, who is Alan’s age, despite having married his much older grandfather. [As I said, storybook. –IB]

Several major adventurers have settled in the south near the border, providing substantial security and leading a mage school and a druid grove, the Phoenix Grove. Auringon has good relationships with Byssia and very little contact with anyone else.

Byssia

One of the larger and more powerful nations, Byssia controls the southern flank of the Nocthian Caldera and the north end of Gap-Tooth Bay. Its people are a mix of highland ihmisi who venerate the spirits and elements, and the lowland Night’s Children humans, who almost uniformly worship the Ascendant known as Nocthis, Lady of Lunar Mystery. They are one of two strongly maritime cultures, primarily in the bay but also now extending around Cape Dread to the Jungle of Fangs.

Uniquely, Byssia is metal-poor, leading to extensive use of magically strengthened wood and stone. They also rarely worship the True Gods, considering them as powerful entities that are unworthy of actual worship. Byssia has some tensions with Wyrmhold (mainly over their very different approaches to industry), but the two share the Caldera quite peacefully as of 260 AC. They have good relations with Auringon.

Byssia is decentralized politically, with towns and villages holding most of the power. What central government exists is in the form of Judges, elected from each village, who try cases and decide disputes and who refer cross-town disputes to other, neutral judges. A police force of elemental-focused monks handles most internal disorder, while the Border Wardens under Yonas Akrotiz, a former adventurer, provides external security. In recent years, the external security forces have started increasing in numbers, preparing for the inevitable war with Tlalocana.

Crisial Kingdom

Crisial is the “shining light” nation (or so they like to portray themselves). Founded by the Catalysts (the otherworldly Vassarian, the calculating and political Paresten, the quiet anchor Kalesin, and the tree-friend Safrir) in the early 200s, it is currently ruled by the time-lost aelvar wizard Raanee, first of her name. It is the home to the majority of the gwerin of western Noefra, but also counts many humans, dwarves, halflings, and others. Magically powerful, it is also a dominant trading nation, occupying as it does the crossroads between the eastern nations and the western powerhouses. There are functioning independent courts, and rule of law is observed. Even the Queen does not have the independent power of high justice except in matters of emergency.

Governmentally, it is a classical feudal nation, although with strong traditions of yeomanry and independence. Each of the major cities and their surroundings is governed by a Duke, and the Queen and her court handles the capital and the surroundings and mediates between Dukes. She acts more like a head of state in a confederation than an autocrat. Other major political forces are the various temples (it is a devout but multi-creedal nation) and the High Houses of the gwerin, which have aristocratic status.

One key strength is the Four Towers, a pre-Cataclysm library and research facility located on an island about 10 miles north of Crisial City. This is the headquarters for the Sages Guild, the predominant academic research organization in western Noefra, although the Sages have outposts in most significant cities across the region. This makes Crisial a magical powerhouse and the home of many of the more powerful arcanists and divine workers. It has a druidic grove (the Ladysgrove) located outside the city, formerly headed by Safrir of the Catalysts until his death in 254 AC.

Serpent Dominion

Preeminent among the nations that formed from the breakup of the Stone Throne in the Jungle of Fangs is the Serpent Dominion. It occupied the southern third of the jungle until 258 AC, when King Azekiel Cai’valur led his armies in a (mostly) bloodless conquest of Asai’ka (the central nation of the jungle); the latter had fallen into chaos and anarchy as a result of the Red Plague in 253 AC. It is no secret that he intends to reunite the entire jungle under his control eventually.

Inhabited by fang-kin humans and half-elves as well as ophidians, with a few dwarven clans and others thrown in, the Serpent Dominion is one of the most prosperous nations of western Noefra. It escaped the Red Plague entirely unscathed (as the druid cult didn’t want to tangle with King Cai’valur), and it owns the only sea route connecting Byssia, the Jungle of Fangs, and even Soefra (via the Ship Folk).

The caste-based culture is in retreat, but still has fangs. Almost everyone here (other than the deep jungle tribes) worships the Queen Ascendant, and her priests hold massive cachet. Nobles in their blue garments (forbidden to non-nobles) own most of the land, and merchants and crafters form the Lai caste. Commoners are not serfs, but are mostly sharecroppers or hired laborers. Ophidians are considered lower-caste, although this attitude has mostly faded.

Sha’slar Autonomous Zone

The SAZ is the northern nation of the jungle, inhabiting the forests and deep jungle just south of Kaelthia. Considered rural bumpkins by the southern plains-dwellers, the inhabitants of the SAZ (mostly humans and half-elves) are an independent lot. Much of the steel-silk (an alchemically treated, plant-based fiber as tough as steel but as flexible as silk) is produced here on large plantations. Here the people worship the Queen Ascendant with fervor, but less orthodoxy than their southern brethren.

The SAZ is only lightly settled, with only two large settlements: Sha’slar itself and Sraasa Saat, home to the Greenscale Brewery, a kobold-run distillery of some of the finest spirits on the continent, patronized by an adult dragon who hoards alcohol. Its government is technically a military junta under three generals, but mostly the noble landowners run their fiefdoms with few disruptions.

Shinevog

Shinevog is the polar opposite of the Uulan Confederacy, despite both being dwarves. Settled on an abandoned clanhold along the main route from the Sea of Grass into the Giant’s Spine, it was founded as a creative, iconoclastic outlet for those dwarves and others who wished to be free of traditional restraints on research (especially arcane and technological). Ruled by Theobard III, it has become a small (occupying only one small valley) but powerful hub of technology and arcane science. Not as lawless as Zhapai Karmap, it still maintains codes of ethics and responsibility.

The primary religion here is that of Lon Ka, Hammer-lord, patron of technology and innovation. Yogg-Maggus, lord of arcane magic, is also heavily worshiped here.

Tlalocana

Located on the Drowned Coast and slowly growing to conquer the entire peninsula (and beyond, if they have any say), Tlalocana is a repressive, totalitarian nation ruled by a large caste of organized mkhulu. They employ advanced psionic devices to spy on and control the thoughts of those in the national boundaries, suppressing independent thought and dictating unthinking adherence to the law. Unique among nations, they use very little iron, preferring magically strengthened bronze. Their area of control grows 50 miles every 10 years, creating an expanding ring of fortified fortress-towns linked by psionic emitters. So far, no active hostilities have happened between them and their neighbors (Auringon and Byssia), but that is inevitable. Infiltrators (mkhulu or otherwise) have been found within the former Federated Nations members, fomenting disorder and searching for weaknesses.

Tuura Adam

Buried deep in the Giant’s Spine moutains is the Noefran jazuu homeland, the land of the Mountain People, the Tuura Adam. It is both the ethnic name and the national name. Home to the only known fully functional Titanwall (capable of transforming a jazuu into a true giant) on the continent, it is an orderly place. Other nations claim to work by law, but the Tuura Adam literally live by the Code, a multi-volume, constantly updated codex for the right way to do anything. From carpentry to music to combat, it’s all there. And the jazuu of the Tuura Adam treat it as law while constantly seeking improvement. Ruled by those who have successfully undergone the titanification ritual to become a true giant (and thus become neuter but very long lived, as well as the usual benefits of being a giant), they live orderly but competitive lives, making the most out of the limited resources of the high alpine valleys.

Their capital is Kozhuyn, built on the slopes of Skypiercer Peak, the highest peak in Noefra and the site of the ancient Titan citadel known now as Too Tekterin (High Rock), from which the Conclave shattered themselves and their draconic foes with the ill-fated Orb of All Might. Governmentally, they have a hierarchy of trades and professions, with a council of giants from each specialty at the head. The leader is the cloud giant Bulut Boron acting as High Regent.

Uulani Confederacy

Buried under the Outer Barrier Range east of Kaelthia is the dwarven-dominated collection of dwarven clanholds known as the Uulani Confederacy (named after one of the major clans, the Uulan). Centered at Fuar Uulan, only a small fraction of the nation extends outside the mountains. The clans here are traditionalist to the extreme. While they do not reject outsiders, they welcome few disruptions to their lifestyle. Change comes slowly here, and those who chafe at the conservative structure either go west to Crisial or north-east to Shinevog or Zhapai Karmap.

Clans mostly govern themselves; cross-clan affairs are handled by a council of clan elders, Paragons (dwarves chosen for their skill in particular areas), and the Listener (high priest of Korokonolkom, Lord of Mountains). While most dwarves are religious, venerating Koro as their chief patron and Lon Ka, Lord of the Forge, as second, their religiosity comes often with arguments and discussions. The gods are seen mostly as the ultimate examples, just as the Paragons (living and dead).

Dwarven clans are ideological, rather than strictly kin-based, and changing clans is normal as one reaches adulthood. The vast majority of adult Uulani are married; traditional dwarven culture treats marriage as an essential step into adulthood. Divorce, adultery, and abandonment are nearly unheard of and usually result in suicidal behavior from the abandoned dwarf.

Wyrmhold

Founded in the War of Souls to give a home for the newly created dragonborn race, this nation has become one of the most advanced and industrially powerful in the Fourth Age. It was driven out of the Caldera by the Hungering Frost, an army from the Plane of Ice, and spent 90 years in existential crisis, keeping the forces of the Frost from spilling down the only pass into the lowlands at extreme cost. The dragonborn were joined by local goblin and orc tribes, led by shamanic visions. This let them hold the line, developing advanced military industry and tactics to compensate for their few numbers. At the foundation of the Federated Nations in 205 AC, the dragonborn refugees from Kaelthia were reunited with their brethren and came to help, along with many heroes and other allied forces. This let Wyrmhold finish the Winter Wall at the head of the pass, preventing the Frost from accessing the softer areas. Five years later, heroes managed to strike at the heart of the ritual creating the eternal winter on the Caldera, allowing it to thaw and ending the war.

Now nearly 45 years later, Wyrmhold is finishing the transition from a 100% military-oriented society to a stable, industrial nation. This is not without pain, as the centrally controlled structure (via nominal clans) that served well in wartime doesn’t work well in a multipolar, mostly peaceful world. There is still a large military-industrial complex, and Wyrmhold has a standing army, which is rare among peer nations. But Wyrmhold lacks anywhere to expand without coming into conflict with major resistance. Many of the more rural orcs are questioning the initial deal that left the dragonborn clans in command and desire to break off and become independent or join the orcish nation of Mar’osh nearby, while the dragonborn clans themselves are trying to retain relevance and control. The goblins, actually, are the most settled, as any dissenters simply run away to join the tribes to the east.

Governmentally, Wyrmhold is a clan-oriented monarchy. Clans (and tribes) provide social structure, while the Queen is both the nominal High Priestess and the head of the military (although this role was somewhat ceremonial in times past). The current Queen, Elspeth ka’Shakti, is widely beloved by the common folk and is slowly reclaiming power from the clans as they flounder.

Minor Nations

Many minor nations, new and old, dot the landscape among the major players.

Axeholm

This small nation has only existed for a few years. Formed around the northern port of Axeholm and occupying portions of the western Dreamwall Mountains, it is a dynamic and multi-cultural nation, mixing dwarves, gnomes, orcs, and others. It is governed by a council, which most people mostly ignore except about foreign matters.

Bolor Hold

The Giant’s Spine was one of original homes of the dwarven peoples in Noefra. Most of them fled south-west during the upheavals of the Cataclysm, but some were abandoned, left behind by their fellows. Bolor Hold (also called Betrayal or Pain) descends from one such group. Their ancestors were betrayed by their quondam allies the Alkh (now one of the major clans of the Uulani) and left to die in the years leading up to the Cataclysm. The Bolor survived, however. And have been slow to forget that grudge, although non-hostile relations and trade were re-established in 212 AC.

Ruled by strongmen and gangs, with the strongest being the Boss, Bolor is notable for having debt slavery which can be worked off by fighting in an arena; a fraction of the betting goes to settle the debt. Healers are on standby to prevent actual death (except in rare circumstances), but requiring such healing eats into your profits. The Hold was under the influence of pain-addicted hags; since their unveiling and defeat, the sadism of the arena has decreased substantially.

Breeland

This is a uniquely halfling nation located in the central-northern Sea of Grass. Its capital of Bree is a trade stop on the route between the eastern nations and the western nations; the nation is also a major producer of honey (a classically halfling pursuit as many central Noefran humans are allergic to bee stings). One unique feature is Heroes Rest, a village/temple complex dedicated to Tsun Azur, a halfling adventurer. This is quite embarrasing to said adventurer, who still lives there with his son Tson and daughter-in-law Betsy and their large number of children. Betsy is the ruler of Breeland, officially titled Duke. But government here is mostly by common consensus. There are those who want Tsun to be king; he has so-far refused.

Dales, The

The Dales are a small, rural, recently formed collection of otherwise independent villages located in the Sundown Hills between Crisial and the Sea of Grass proper. They used to be part of Crisial as well as Kaelthia, but as those nations consolidated inward after the Red Plague, the Dales became independant peacefully. They are united only in not wanting outside interference in their business. The humans and halflings that occupy those villages are hardy and suspicious folk, especially suspicious of arcane magic. They are extremely religious, devoutly worshipping the Seasonal Four with token worship for the other True Gods.

Eastwalk

Located north of the Glasweil River, south of the Dreamwall and west of the Eastwalk river and extending to the foothills of the Giant’s Spine in the east, Eastwalk is the largest nation on the northern Sea of Grass. Its population is concentrated on the western edge; the remainder is populated by pastoral herders and various tribal groups. The southern side is dominated by halflings and the north by humans. They are among the most traditional of the Wall-Builder nations, keeping to the old ways of council and church, and disdaining modern inventions, magic, and cultural trends. Observers often remark that stepping across the border is stepping back 40 years into the past. Eastwalk, to butcher the quote, proudly stands athwart history, yelling stop.

Elfhame

Located at the border of the Kotimaa wood, Elfhame is a haven for the civilized ihmisi, half elves, and others who want to live alongside the civilized world but not entirely in it. Its only significant settlement is Rabbiton, northernmost port on Lake Coy’in, which has a reputation as a haven for smugglers, pirates, and other less reputable sorts of ships. Its ruler as of 260 AC is Kuni Kala Rabbit Lake (where Kuni means “King”, but in a gender-neutral sort of way). Despite only being in her early 30s, Kuni Kala is a hardened half-ihmisi ship captain known for being very feminine while still being able to out-swear, out-drink, and out-fight veteran sailors.

Freeglas

One of the small states formed by the breakup of Kaelthia’s dominant nation in 254 AC, Freeglass is a trade coalition state located on the River Road north of the Lowbridge Republic. Its only notable property is that it controls one of two ferries over the Kaela River to the central Sea of Grass.

Kaelthia

10 years ago, marking Kaelthia a minor nation would have been unthinkable. 50 years ago it was the center of the dominant nation in the region. But even the mighty fall. Kaelthia in 260 AC is an insular religious backwater, only relevant to anything because of its location at the intersection of a few major trade routes, routes that Kaelthia wishes went elsewhere, because they’re not so fond of outsiders.

In 260 AC, Kaelthia has mostly recovered from the explosion of the Grand Temple in 254 AC and the near-eruption of Mt. Refuge (the dormant volcano between whose flanks the city was built). The city still controls roughly a day’s journey (≈ 20 miles) around it. Kaelthian culture is conformist to a fault, with consensus as one of their highest values. They take “stay in your lane” to extremes. Politically, they’re a communalist state governed by interlocking councils of professions running from the local level (a neighborhood or small village) all the way up to the city scope.

Demographically, Kaelthia is mostly Wall-Builder human with one dwarven clan still part of them as well as one High House of the gwerin (and the resulting half-elves). Religiously, they worship the Seasonal Four very strongly and look down on and reject any worship of the spirits, ancestors, or other Ascendants.

Khaimal

Very little is known about this xenophobic city-state. Located at the north-west corner of the Frozen Coast on the north sea, it is inhabited by vulkate (lava-born) dwarves who violently refuse any contact with the outside world, including using long-range artillery against ships cresting the horizon.

Lowbridge Republic, The

The republic sits just north of Kaelthia, where the old Lowbridge Locks were (before the Winter War of 251 AC). The merchant town of Lowbridge has become a new trade hub connecting the dwarven and jazuu lands with the human lands of the west. It competes with the northern trade route through Merrydale; the route through Lowbridge is much more settled but longer and more heavily taxed, with explicit favoritism of Lowbridge-based caravan trading.

Mar’osh

A newcomer to the political stage, Mar’osh was founded in 247 AC by Maerik Mar’osh, an orcish warlord and survivor of an attack that destroyed most of the rest of his tribe. Located in the Fiach Wood a few days journey from the furthest area claimed by Wyrmhold, it is built on a resolute desire for security from the “civilized” folks and their struggles. Originally fairly decentralized, with the constituent tribes retaining significant authority, the last few years have seen significant consolidation under the young king. A young black dragon named Segi no Iusta (“Hero of Justice”) has taken up residence in the north parts of the kingdom with the king’s assent, lending his enthusiastic (if sometimes ham-fisted) aid to suppressing threats.

As a matter of policy, Mar’osh is strictly neutral, in a heavily armed way. They will not aggress against other groups, tribes, or nations, but any incursions against them or their allies will be met with extreme and unrelenting force.

Merrydale

One of the newer nations formed after the breakup of Kaelthian dominance over the Sea of Grass, Merrydale owns the new northern trade route crossing the Freeglas ferry and heading to Fuar Uulan. Merrydale is ruled by a former Kaelthian mage named Lady Protector Rebecca Fallowstone. Her administration emphasizes building trade and economic growth to funnel maximum power and wealth into the Lady Protector’s pockets. The people here are mostly human with some numbers of halflings. By 260 AC, Merrydale has expanded to fill the area between the Shield River to the south and the Glasweil to the north, with the eastern boundary running up against the Uulani border.

Nazorat

Another of the Abandoned, Nazorat lies north-west of Bolor Hold and near Zhapai Karmap. Once dominated by a group of mkhulu, the dwarves here have been altered by those beings to have grey skin, no head hair, and grey beards. Very insular, only dwarves are permitted permanent residence inside the city.

While Bolor works by strength of body and endurance, Nazorat, the City of Dominance, works by strength of mind. Torture is common. Blackmail is legal. They hire out small bands of spies and infiltrators, capable of invisibility and other “mental powers”.

Scalefoot

One of the nations formed from those left behind when the planar Hungering Frost retreated, Scalefoot is a mixed jazuu and goblin nation in the north-west Nocthian Caldera. A rough-and-ready, independent nation, it is ruled over (somewhat begrudgingly) by an ancient white dragon named Sargoranyx. It maintains trade relationships with both Byssia and Wyrmhold, and acts as a buffer for the Sigana; most trade with the latter occurs in Scalefoot territory.

Seraaja, Clans of the

The Seraaja were once the Horse Clans, before their false goddess was defeated and destroyed. Now the traditional, xenophobic core has migrated north on the Lupaus Plains, actively fighting any intruders into their horse-and-cattle-nomad lifestyle. They consider the arcane to be evil and civilization to be demonic.

Sigana

The north-west corner of the Nocthian Caldera’s encircling mountains and that corner of the Frozen Coast was home to the second-largest and most technologically-advanced civilizations of dwarves during the late Third age and Second Interegnum. It was also one of the hardest-hit areas by the demonic hordes that presaged the Cataclysm. The few survivors split in two directions, going underground. Some pledged themselves to lava, becoming the Vulkate dwarves of Khaimal. Others fled under the mountains, warring with the invading orcs until near extinction of both sides. The descendents of these latter dwarves and orcs became the Sigana. Driven to fear the outside by the Black Tree (an offshoot of the Mother Tree, mother of hags), they sealed their doors to the outside world for many generations, until the tree was destroyed in 251 AC.

Since then they’ve started to open up and interact (at arms length) with the outside world, mainly the Byssian area to the south. They and the Scalefoot have formed a rough alliance, insisting on independence from either of the major powers of the Caldera. Aesthetically, they’re steampunk. Clockwork and mechanical tech, tattoos and mohawks, full of bitter angst. They distrust all forms of magic, but grudgingly use an elemental-based fusion of arcane and primal power.

Tarad’am

Located at the southern tip of the Jungle of Fangs, Tarad’am wants to be called the free port. Or maybe the pirate port. Most people call it an unredeemable hive of scum and villainy. Here gold rules; he who has it can do what he wills as long as someone else doesn’t stop them. Not getting caught is the best criminal defense.

Given independence from both the Serpent Dominion and the Ship Folk fleet by treaty, Tarad’am lets anyone dock. Run by organized (and disorganized) crime as well as merchant fleets, it has actually cleaned up its act somewhat over the last 10 years, which has irritated a number of folks.

Xhort

The third of the Abandoned, Xhort is the city of hate. Once dominated in secret by a shapeshifting dragon who hated dwarves (along with many other peoples), the Xhori were conditioned to distrust and hate, well, everyone. Paranoia as a way of life. In the 50-ish years since he was revealed and driven off, the Xhori now make a living mining the deep veins of iron and other metals.

Culturally, the ones they most dislike and hate are other dwarves. Only the Xhori are worthy; non-dwarves are to be pitied and disdained, but not outright disrespected, but other dwarves (especially the soft lowlands dwarves) are khog khai (worthless trash).

Zhapai Karmap

Of the nations of the Giant’s Spine, ZK (as it’s usually called), the Wild Hold, is the newest. Founded by a group of adventurers (the Wild Cards) in 212 AC at the site of a mind-flayer-occupied dwarven hold, its promise is simple. The only law is to not make the rulers have to care. Are you outcast from elsewhere? Do you practice magics or perform experiments that others forbid (often because of the danger posed to those around them)? Are you a jerk that no one else will tolerate? Then ZK is your home. As long as you don’t aggravate the rulers and don’t fail to pay the (minimal) taxes, you can do whatever you want. There are no social services other than a promise to swiftly destroy anyone who can’t play even slightly nicely with others.

Not coincidentally, the only major international banking franchise, run by paranoid goblins with advanced magics, is headquartered here, and its founder is one of the ruling group.

Living Languages

Presented here is a short description of each of the languages adventurers in western Noefra are likely to encounter or be proficient in. There are many other smaller, regional languages and dialects not mentioned.

Common

Arising out of the common language of the great Third Age empire Tibor Imperia (now known as Old Imperial), Common is the primary trade tongue and common language throughout western Noefra. All adventurers are proficient in both spoken and written forms. Many folks outside the Sea of Grass/Southshore regions speak it as a second language.

There are several major dialects:

• Council Common is the received pronounciation of Common, the presumed default. It features crisp consonants and minimal clipping or blending of words. Outsiders say it has pronounced [pun intended –IB] Yonwach influence.
• Jungle Common is the main dialect of the Jungle of Fangs. It tends to slide around, stretching sibilants and taking on somewhat of a sing-song intonation. Classic tells are doubling of words for emphasis purposes (e.g. “that’s good-good” meaning “very good”) and inserting sibiliants where they don’t normally appear.
• Caldera Common is the main dialect in Wyrmhold and Byssia. To Council speakers, it feels choppy, rushed, and abrupt. Unnecessary subjects and even verbs are omitted and infered from context, and many endings are chopped or abbreviated and words pressed together, resulting in very long, drawn out “words” with drastically varying internal emphasis between syllables. Articles are omitted most of the time (“This–good wheel.” instead of “this is a good wheel”). Heavy ard-teang and goblin influence, especially in Wyrmhold.

Ard-Teang (Orcish)

Ard-teang is an old language, dating back to the First Interregnum, but has changed significantly since then. Of the major languages, it and Ngyon Toi are the most dialectic, with each tribe having its own argot and pronunciations.

It is spoken as a first language by the tribes in the Fiach Wood and Kotimaa and many Wyrmhold orcs (although Common is the official language of Wyrmhold). Many other Wyrmholders and residents of Elfhame speak it as a second language.

Metsae (Ihmisi/wood elven)

One of the first things the first ihmisi did was fork the ancient aelvar language in protest against the aelvar masters. Even so, first-language Metsae speakers can follow Yonwach (low mode) conversations if spoken slowly and without much slang. The reverse is not so; Metsae was designed to make that difficult.

Metsae is notoriously difficult to learn, from the extensive set of cases and case transitions to the writing system, which hijacks the aelvar characters but assembles them very differently, using secondary readings for most and dropping all vowels that aren’t absolutely necessary for disambiguation (and even some of those). This disambiguation can be hard because small differences in vowel length can make large differences in meaning. Metsae, some say, was designed to keep the ihmisi inward-looking and insular.

Ngyon Toi (Goblin)

Ngyon Toi is simultaneously the oldest currently-spoken language and one of the newest. Transmitted mostly by tribal shared memory, each tribe has their own variant with a shared kernel. And since so much of the context is transmitted over that shared memory band when members of the same tribe speak, the spoken portions are minimal. A few nouns, maybe a verb. Or maybe just an exclamation of surprise to draw attention. This means that when goblins are speaking to those not of that same tribe (or non-goblins), they have to engage in extensive circumlocutions and elaborate descriptions which makes them sound ignorant and stupid, which many of them are very much not.

Ngyon Toi has no native written form. Written Ngyon Toi is done in transliterated Reformed Imperial script, which tends to mangle phonemes badly. [Some have suggested using aelvar characters, but several of the gwerin involved on that committee nearly had heart attacks at the thought, so it was dropped –IB].

Too-til (Giantish)

Too-til comes in two primary forms: that spoken (and written) by the jazuu and that spoken (and mostly not written) by the various giant-kin (ogres, trolls, etc.) The first is extremely orderly, with sentence and word structures generally padded to multiples of 4 “units” by zero-content characters. To outsiders, it sounds extremely harsh with heavy gutterals and large consonant clusters. Every syllable is the same length, and stress is rigidly applied to the first syllable. Pure Too-til avoids loan words. The other form is much looser and full of words and phonemes from other languages. Still sounds harsh (made worse by the brutish nature of most of the speakers), but less rigid in structure, mostly by dropping complex words and reducing nested clauses to near-zero.

Speakers of pure Too-til can, with difficulty, read written Tumni, once the different phoneme assignments are accounted for. Both use the same runes, but generally palatalized pairs are flipped between languages. Much of the vocabulary is similar. Neither language has changed significantly in recorded history.

Tumni (Dwarven)

Tumni is closely related to Too-til. One big difference is that Tumni accepts loan words, mostly by transliteration, while Too-til does not (at least in its more formal form).

Culturally, most Uulani dwarves avoid writing things down in Tumni unless it is 100% verifiable fact. Writing a lie in Tumni is significantly taboo; other languages not so much. Similarly, destruction of written Tumni is taboo except under certain circumstances.

Yonwach (High Elven)

Yonwach has three main “modes”, and the language differs greatly depending on which mode you’re in. Common (or Street) Yonwach is every-day talk for most people. It’s significantly simplified compared to the other modes, with usually at most one sub-meaning per sentence. [It’s even possible to not be insulting! –IB] [Harsh but true –ed]. Street Yonwach is written linearly, top to bottom, left to right, and each symbol is (mostly) used for its syllabic sound value, not any intrinsic meaning.

High Yonwach is what is used in more formal meetings of the High House, as well as legal documents throughout Crisial Kingdom. It’s substantially more complex than Street Yonwach, and contains multiple layers of meanings, some of which are almost always insulting. Symbols are a mix of sound values and intrinsic meaning(s) and are written in structured vertical blocks, where layout provides an additional few bits of information. Poetry and other artistic works break this form and are written in geometrically complex two-dimensional shapes, where different paths give different meanings (sometimes even diametrically opposed).

Court or Arcane Yonwach is what is sometimes used in academic writing throughout Noefra and is the closest match for ancient aelvar. Oddly, it’s somewhat more structured than High Yonwach, but the complexities are multiplied. Symbols are fused to create new ones or split into parts that are distributed around. Some say it’s an attempt to recreate how True Words might be written. Court Yonwach hasn’t had a signficant grammar change since the Second Age. It’s changed so little that the goroesi, who have been isolated since then, can still be understood when speaking Court Yonwach, although some of their word choices may seem excessively ornate.

Dead and Exotic Languages

Some of these languages don’t have living (mortal) speakers. Others are planar in origin, others were used by now-extinct cultures or by cultures that only exist at the fringes of the main play area.

Abyssal

The language of demons. Written in the Lucian script but debased, it grates on the ear. Oddly, mortal speakers find it very easy to speak and learn. Almost too easy. Abyssal is a chaotic language, with dialects mutating and changing on a daily basis. It’s a great language to swear in, because almost everything can be a vulgarity without difficulty.

Celestial

The language of those who serve the Mechanism. Technically a dialect of Lucian, but when spoken by a divine messenger or member of the angelic host, it has an additional property. Words spoken with divine authority cannot be (unknowingly) misunderstood, and it is impossible to say something you don’t believe. When spoken by mortals, it’s merely a less-ambiguous Lucian with almost no slang and very rigid grammar.

Draconic

The remains of the True Language spoken by Wyrm in the First Age, draconic is a verbose, ponderous language with no native written form. Nouns are more like descriptions, and saying anything meaningful takes a long time. Non-dragon mortals (and dragons speaking to mortals) tend to abbreviate things. Much of the content of the language is in body posture; to true dragons, mortals speaking draconic are speaking the baby version and missing the whole point. [And most dragons refuse to talk in anything else just to lord it over those lesser mortals –IB] [That’s so not true…mostly…ok, you may have a point. Sigh –ed]. Transliterations are mostly in a mix of aelven and modern runic [which is exactly as messed up as it sounds –IB].

Iath Neidr

This is a nearly dead language, found now only in carvings on scattered ruins and spoken in a heavily modified form by deep-jungle Ophidian tribes. Written in a modified Aelven script, it resembles a cross between Metsae and High Yonwach.

Kamigami (Sylvan/Druidic)

This is a constructed language, created by the first druids and passed down, and then adopted (and modified) by most of the fey. It has no written form, but is usually transliterated into Metsae-form Aelven script.

Lucian (Infernal)

The primary language of the Astral plane, this is the language of the common lucian (devil, angel, or otherwise). It has a script that vaguely resembles Aelvar, and retains much of the complexity. It is often used for contracts between planes, as it is well suited for complex chicanery.

Primordial

The four dialects of Primordial are spoken throughout the Elemental Plane. They are (mostly) mutually intelligible. Primordial (in whatever dialect) is written in an archaic version of runic.

Sarthak

The so-called Ship Speech is used by the Ship Folk and the sailors on the Moon and Serpent Seas. Written in a heavily modified, much simplified Aelven script with all the meaning stripped and only the syllabic sound values left behind, it is a pragmatic, business-first language. [Although the language forms for status and hierarchy, as well as surrender, are extremely strongly developed –IB]

Tiborean (Old Imperial)

The ancestral language for Common, much like how real-world Latin is the precursor to the Romance languages. Used throughout the Third Age by the empire that dominated the west, Tibor Imperia, it is still a primary (if now dead) language of scholarship. Most records found throughout western Noefra are written in Tiborean, and the script it uses is only slightly modified to form the modern Reformed Imperial script.