Aelsif is my resurrected D&D campaign setting, and I figured I'd run through the basics of the campaign setting's singular world.
Aelsif is a relatively earth-like planet in most ways. The gravity is slightly lower, the atmosphere is much more oxygen-rich and it has three moons (a single large one and two much smaller ones), but those are the main differences that affect daily life. Geographically, it bears no resemblance. It has four continents, one large one in the centre, another large one in the west, a small one to the northeast and an enormous one in the south surrounded by so much ice it is impossible to tell how large the actual continent is. These are best known as Marakiz, Boreas, Seiho and The White Unknown, respectively. The continents are separated by thousands of miles of ocean, but island chains connect them all to one another, which are known as the Chainlink Islands.
Marakiz:
Marakiz features a large desert in its northern reaches and dense jungle in its southern reaches, with plains and grasslands between them. It is the origin of humans and goblins, though both are common elsewhere in the world. The former dwell primarily along the eastern coast, the latter primarily along the western coast. Most of these groups' contact with one another is in warfare over the grasslands. Additionally, kobolds originate near the northern coast of Marakiz and now inhabit the coast and the islands between it and Boreas, and lizardfolk originate from the jungles in the south.
The grasslands are the homeland of the human races, but they abandoned it when it when volcanic activity rendered it inhospitable and the goblins settled there after the volcanoes died down. Both have an extremely solid claim to ownership of the grasslands, the humans are willing to kill the goblins to take their homeland back and the goblins are willing to kill to keep the lands they've held for centuries.
An additional human-goblin conflict comes from a 500 mile stretch of the northern coastline, both claiming the elves sold them the land for trade purposes. The truth is, the elves never owned the land in the first place. The land belongs to the kobold tribes that inhabit it. They both have an equally invalid claim to the land, because the elves ripped them both off. The elves are also now selling arms to both sides of the conflict, and don't care who wins as long as they have somebody on that land who makes a better trading partner than penniless primitives.
Boreas:
Boreas is a large continent divided by a large mountain range. The Boreal Mountains stretch across the north of the continent dividing the arctic coast from the southwestern coast, bending south as it goes east to also separate the west and east. The elves originate and still live in the temperate southwestern forests, orcs live in the east, gnomes live in the southeastern mountains, dwarves in the western and northern mountains.
The elves in the south run a mighty trade empire that has made them immensely wealthy. They own and operate the world's most powerful navy, and have a near-monopoly on intercontinental trade, travel and shipping. And while it's not a true monopoly, it's still a position they are constantly trying to strengthen and regularly commit atrocities to protect. In particular, they have slaughtered entire island tribes to establish trading ports on their land.
The dwarves and orcs run industrious nations and are the main source of competition for the elves. However, the elves have an advantage in position over the dwarves, technology over the orcs and naval power over both of them. As a result, the dwarves and orcs have to fight dirty. Dwarven privateers raid elven ships headed to Seiho while Orcish privateers do the same for elven ships headed to Marakiz. The dwarven and orcish navies attack elven island ports and destroy the natural resources of islands nearby to make them more expensive to operate. They arm the natives of the islands around elven ports and anywhere they think it likely the elves will try to set up shop next, promote slave rebellions and support separatist movements in elven colonies.
The gnomes are a strictly neutral party in the conflicts of their continent, and a wealthy trade nation in their own right as the source of advanced weapons and machinery. They run a very powerful and technologically advanced defensive military in a strong central position that is naturally protected and well fortified. They trade with the dwarves, orcs and elves, and even trade with humans and goblins from cliffside ports on their southwestern border. Their principle exports are motors and firearms, things that can be made elsewhere but are made best by gnomes. In particular, gnomes are the inventors and principle manufacturers of the gatling gun, the final nail in the coffin for the era of massed infantry. (Because eventually, people realised that when one guy turning a crank can fire 300 rounds per minute, grouping up and marching towards them is a pretty dumb idea.)
Sohei:
Sohei has not been very well fleshed out at this point, we never did a campaign in Sohei. I will add a post detailing it later, because I need to dig up old notes and do a lot of work adding details to a place we never got to actually see.
The Chainlink Islands:
The Chainlink Islands are the islands between the continents. These are the Central Chainlink Islands between Marakiz and Boreas (primarily inhabited by kobolds), the Eastern Chainlink Islands between Marakiz and Seiho (primarily inhabited by halflings), the Western Chainlink Islands between Boreas and Seiho (primarily inhabited by hobgoblins) and the Southern Chainlink Islands between Marakiz and The White Unknown (primarily inhabited by sahuagin).
The Chainlink Islands are primarily home to primitive tribals and port colonies from the trading empires. They are often of great strategic importance due to the services settlements there can provide trading ships and the resources sometimes found on them. The natives are sometimes friendly and sometimes hostile, but usually exploited and always looked down on by the colonists. Most slaves in Aelsif are Chainlink Islanders, and most genocides in Aelsif are committed against Chainlink Island tribes, but yet the most primitive societies on Aelsif are those on the Chainlink Islands, so they both stand the most to lose and the most to gain from interacting with the colonists.
As adventurers, expect to spend plenty of time interacting with Chainlink Islanders. And expect them to have an extreme reaction to your presence, whether it is positive or negative.
The White Unknown:
The White Unknown is a vast expanse of ice surrounding the continent on the southern pole of the planet. As its name suggests, there are no settlements of any of the civilized races and no records of what lies within. What can be found by expeditionary sailing south from Marakiz are the spears of sahuagin who attack any explorers who sail too far south with an uncharacteristic desperation decidedly unlike them.
While most write this off as just sahuagin savagery, sailors ordinary have few issues with the sahuagin in the north and scholars will note that they become markedly more hostile the further south you go. Sahuagin do not approach The White Unknown except to kill explorers and destroy their encampments. Survivors note that they work quickly and sloppily, killing everyone they find and departing as quickly as they can without taking anything. When defeated they refuse to flee and commit suicide to avoid capture, neither of which is normal sahuagin behaviour, and even if captured alive they will continue to attack their captors or attempt suicide whenever they have the opportunity. This is not normal sahuagin behaviour. Neither is sending more attackers over and over again with increasing numbers and ferocity until the explorers are wiped out or forced to leave. Even coming in from directions where there are few or no sahuagin settlements only delays this.
Whatever there is to find in The White Unknown, it seems pretty clear the sahuagin know what it is and don't want us to find it. It's also pretty clear they're terrified of it.
More information to follow.
Aelsif is a relatively earth-like planet in most ways. The gravity is slightly lower, the atmosphere is much more oxygen-rich and it has three moons (a single large one and two much smaller ones), but those are the main differences that affect daily life. Geographically, it bears no resemblance. It has four continents, one large one in the centre, another large one in the west, a small one to the northeast and an enormous one in the south surrounded by so much ice it is impossible to tell how large the actual continent is. These are best known as Marakiz, Boreas, Seiho and The White Unknown, respectively. The continents are separated by thousands of miles of ocean, but island chains connect them all to one another, which are known as the Chainlink Islands.
Marakiz:
Marakiz features a large desert in its northern reaches and dense jungle in its southern reaches, with plains and grasslands between them. It is the origin of humans and goblins, though both are common elsewhere in the world. The former dwell primarily along the eastern coast, the latter primarily along the western coast. Most of these groups' contact with one another is in warfare over the grasslands. Additionally, kobolds originate near the northern coast of Marakiz and now inhabit the coast and the islands between it and Boreas, and lizardfolk originate from the jungles in the south.
The grasslands are the homeland of the human races, but they abandoned it when it when volcanic activity rendered it inhospitable and the goblins settled there after the volcanoes died down. Both have an extremely solid claim to ownership of the grasslands, the humans are willing to kill the goblins to take their homeland back and the goblins are willing to kill to keep the lands they've held for centuries.
An additional human-goblin conflict comes from a 500 mile stretch of the northern coastline, both claiming the elves sold them the land for trade purposes. The truth is, the elves never owned the land in the first place. The land belongs to the kobold tribes that inhabit it. They both have an equally invalid claim to the land, because the elves ripped them both off. The elves are also now selling arms to both sides of the conflict, and don't care who wins as long as they have somebody on that land who makes a better trading partner than penniless primitives.
Boreas:
Boreas is a large continent divided by a large mountain range. The Boreal Mountains stretch across the north of the continent dividing the arctic coast from the southwestern coast, bending south as it goes east to also separate the west and east. The elves originate and still live in the temperate southwestern forests, orcs live in the east, gnomes live in the southeastern mountains, dwarves in the western and northern mountains.
The elves in the south run a mighty trade empire that has made them immensely wealthy. They own and operate the world's most powerful navy, and have a near-monopoly on intercontinental trade, travel and shipping. And while it's not a true monopoly, it's still a position they are constantly trying to strengthen and regularly commit atrocities to protect. In particular, they have slaughtered entire island tribes to establish trading ports on their land.
The dwarves and orcs run industrious nations and are the main source of competition for the elves. However, the elves have an advantage in position over the dwarves, technology over the orcs and naval power over both of them. As a result, the dwarves and orcs have to fight dirty. Dwarven privateers raid elven ships headed to Seiho while Orcish privateers do the same for elven ships headed to Marakiz. The dwarven and orcish navies attack elven island ports and destroy the natural resources of islands nearby to make them more expensive to operate. They arm the natives of the islands around elven ports and anywhere they think it likely the elves will try to set up shop next, promote slave rebellions and support separatist movements in elven colonies.
The gnomes are a strictly neutral party in the conflicts of their continent, and a wealthy trade nation in their own right as the source of advanced weapons and machinery. They run a very powerful and technologically advanced defensive military in a strong central position that is naturally protected and well fortified. They trade with the dwarves, orcs and elves, and even trade with humans and goblins from cliffside ports on their southwestern border. Their principle exports are motors and firearms, things that can be made elsewhere but are made best by gnomes. In particular, gnomes are the inventors and principle manufacturers of the gatling gun, the final nail in the coffin for the era of massed infantry. (Because eventually, people realised that when one guy turning a crank can fire 300 rounds per minute, grouping up and marching towards them is a pretty dumb idea.)
Sohei:
Sohei has not been very well fleshed out at this point, we never did a campaign in Sohei. I will add a post detailing it later, because I need to dig up old notes and do a lot of work adding details to a place we never got to actually see.
The Chainlink Islands:
The Chainlink Islands are the islands between the continents. These are the Central Chainlink Islands between Marakiz and Boreas (primarily inhabited by kobolds), the Eastern Chainlink Islands between Marakiz and Seiho (primarily inhabited by halflings), the Western Chainlink Islands between Boreas and Seiho (primarily inhabited by hobgoblins) and the Southern Chainlink Islands between Marakiz and The White Unknown (primarily inhabited by sahuagin).
The Chainlink Islands are primarily home to primitive tribals and port colonies from the trading empires. They are often of great strategic importance due to the services settlements there can provide trading ships and the resources sometimes found on them. The natives are sometimes friendly and sometimes hostile, but usually exploited and always looked down on by the colonists. Most slaves in Aelsif are Chainlink Islanders, and most genocides in Aelsif are committed against Chainlink Island tribes, but yet the most primitive societies on Aelsif are those on the Chainlink Islands, so they both stand the most to lose and the most to gain from interacting with the colonists.
As adventurers, expect to spend plenty of time interacting with Chainlink Islanders. And expect them to have an extreme reaction to your presence, whether it is positive or negative.
The White Unknown:
The White Unknown is a vast expanse of ice surrounding the continent on the southern pole of the planet. As its name suggests, there are no settlements of any of the civilized races and no records of what lies within. What can be found by expeditionary sailing south from Marakiz are the spears of sahuagin who attack any explorers who sail too far south with an uncharacteristic desperation decidedly unlike them.
While most write this off as just sahuagin savagery, sailors ordinary have few issues with the sahuagin in the north and scholars will note that they become markedly more hostile the further south you go. Sahuagin do not approach The White Unknown except to kill explorers and destroy their encampments. Survivors note that they work quickly and sloppily, killing everyone they find and departing as quickly as they can without taking anything. When defeated they refuse to flee and commit suicide to avoid capture, neither of which is normal sahuagin behaviour, and even if captured alive they will continue to attack their captors or attempt suicide whenever they have the opportunity. This is not normal sahuagin behaviour. Neither is sending more attackers over and over again with increasing numbers and ferocity until the explorers are wiped out or forced to leave. Even coming in from directions where there are few or no sahuagin settlements only delays this.
Whatever there is to find in The White Unknown, it seems pretty clear the sahuagin know what it is and don't want us to find it. It's also pretty clear they're terrified of it.
More information to follow.