Dytikos

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Esperines

Aletheia

• Damastor claims the Scroll, founds his kingdom, founds the Dikastes

Bay of Whispers

• The Torc plunges into the earth upon the death of the Dancer, creating the Bay of Whispers, becoming the White Tree
• first orisons of the White Tree
• early place of Strange cults and study

Aplos

• centaurs inhabit the plains
• Avigian Barrens form during/after First Titanomachia

Phidion Ori / Phidion Coast / Akti Phidion

• Pythian empire
• sister of stone
• creation of the Labyrinth during the First Titanomachia
• lamia cult
• fall of the pythian empire

Epolosia

• Epolosus founded
• Great Crypt of Taphos built within one of the three Stygian Wells

Kyterion Ori

• oreads arise (here? or in Synnephion Ori, or both?)

The Vale of Chemaros / ???eastern coast

• lush forestlands
• Pyrgos founded
• Aegis vs Soma leaves the region Strange corrupted, haunted woods
• Scorching Abandon takes over, creates the Golden Waste
• desert-folk arise, oases watered, neogi oases lurk in wait
• Chemaros the servitor claims the river
• Trident creates the spring of Pyrgos, River Dorolimni

Overview

Western Dytikos is consumed with war. The Helm's Thundering Horde conquers all in its path, ruling the central plains of the Aplos.

The remains of the Acrolonian Hegemony still holds the western heartland of Old Aletheia in its desperate and merciless grip, battling the Helm and the rebels to the south.

The New Aletheian nations along the southwestern coast struggle to survive against both Horde and Hegemony. The many isles of the Dytikan Archipelago, still in Hegemony hands, are simmering with revolution and piracy.

The Archon ruler of Katerga in the Aplos buys independence for his city with tribute to the Horde. The old caravan city rife with debauchery and intrigue, as spies and agents from all nearby powers come to deal with one another.

The aurora-crowned Avigian Barrens lie in the heart of the Aplos, a vaultland beneath the titanic gaze of broken stars. Cyclops tribes dwell among the ruins of Arcadian cities, hunted for sport by the Helm, and savage to would-be treasure-hunters. The northern Fidion Coast seems an idyllic land of prosperous city-states, following the hasty withdrawal of the Hegemony. But rogue pirate-lords from the Boreal Archipelago and Hegemony raiders alike pick at them, and behind the façade, the vampiric Lamia pull the strings.

In the towering peaks of the Fidion Ori, south of the coast, the ruins of the great Pythian Empire moulder. Vast mineral wealth awaits in the Labyrinth, the vault-caves beneath the mountains, where the Sisters of Stone and other forces of fury gather their power.

The old lands of Epolosia along the southeastern coast are gradually being overrun by the asphodel flowers unleashed by the Curse of the Oboloi. Where they spread, the blood-drinking shades of the dead are free to roam. The Great Crypt of Taphos lies at the heart of the infestation, the home of the now deceased Oboloi who released the Curse to halt the Acrolonian Invasion in her lands. The city of Epolosus, famed for its learning, home of the fallen Caduceus, lies wracked with disease, riddled with asphodel, and half-abandoned by its inhabitants.

In the heart of a great oasis in the Golden Waste, Pyrgos stands proud, home of Aegis and Owl. The city houses the famous Lyceum Stratigikis, the Owl's school of military art and science. They oppose the Helm and his Horde, but haven't mobilized against him yet, instead facing the immediate concern of asphodel encroachment to the south. Aberrations and fiery titan beasts roam the dunes.

Chemaros jealously guards his riverlands between the Aplos and desert. Since the end of the Invasion, the Archon has little patience for the imitheoi and their Theagonas. All who would cross must pay tribute, and only his naiad children may sail the river. He particularly loathes the Helm, who butchered many naiads, and the Trident, who seeks to control Port Limani, at the northern mountain-lined bay where his river mouth empties.

Regions

The Esperines

• The Isles of Evening, The Dytikan Archipelago

Overview

History

Inhabitants & Culture

Geography

Places

History

• first colonized by neriads from the Boreals and alseids from the mainland.
• by the time of the Godswar, had picked up a number of Nor as well
• when racial factions developed in Aletheia after the Godswar and fall of Arcadian civilization, this extended to the isles.
• Threefold Coven builds a seclusium on Kalama
• kampoi began raiding the isles in the Shattered Age, with some major tribes taking root.
• Damastor gradually brought the isles under Aletheian control

• After the Fall and Titanomachia, the dryad titancult the Trees of Woe retreated to the remote isles, dominating a patch of the Esperines until forced into hiding by the Acrolonian Invasion

• Court of Three returns to the Kalama seclusium, pacting with the locals and offering oracular insight in return for numeric offerings.
• Acrolonians begin raiding in the isles, creating outposts. Once they capture Aletheia, they solidify their hold on the isles, but its always hard to really hold close; kampoi, islanders, tritons, etc poking at weak spots. The demonblood Bloodlines create manors for themselves in the isles, places to relax or get away from the court in Lex, or plantations run by slaves.

• with the Dawn and reconquest, the isles are simmering with revolt against the Hegemony, who is trying to maintain its hold, but abandoning less valuable isles. local pirates raid them. Boreal pirates make local alliances, capture isles for themselves, or convince them to join the Trident's League. New Aletheians seek allies, as does the Viper. Smugglers move goods to and from the Esperines and the Bay of Whispers. All the suppressed groups crawl out of the woodwork (kampoi, etc).

goods

• fish, products of the sea

• demonologist tower?
• what temenoi? archons?

Culture

• rough and ready, fishermen and sailors, larger isles are somewhat cosmopolitan, smaller ones can be pretty obscure/rustic. isles tend to be independent politically, though they can fall into the orbit of the larger isles or other major powers

Geography

• 6 big isles, numerous smaller isles
• exposed to the open world-ocean, fury weather can be bad

Kalama ("reeds")

• rocky, grassy hills, marshy coast. the semi-decent bits of the isle are riven by salt-marshy channels that grow an shrink with the tide, splitting it into many sub-isles
• few people, dour, odd, possibly cursed or not-right; maybe titancultists
• regarded as remote, desolate, storm-hammered
• a byword for "far away" or "the middle of nowhere"
• a hag-oracle stands there, passage to the Court of Three, has made deals with the locals? there is a fathomless oceanic rift down into the Strange Sea alongside the isle, which attracted the hags long ago. vathys nibbling at the edges, clashing with hags
• wretched little hegemony garrison, mostly punishment duty and meager tax-collection; the garrison is getting more and more nervous, ignored by their higher ups. they hope the isle will be abandoned before the locals rise up and murder them all or sacrifice them to the hags. Looking for any way out/aid/etc (might cut a deal with the vathys?) A few Bloodline officers (down and out politically) keep them lashed in line, for now.

Oreinisi ("mountainous isle")

• mountainous, mines
• Elysians mined here, flying vessels meant ports and mines very high up, out of current reach, modest ruins nestled in high valleys
• hegemony penal colony of miners, has imported many species / cultures, enslaved dactyloi mining engineers?
• troublesome mountain clans in the interior, wild, willful, and rebellious, aggravating pirates in older days, lots of hidden coves and caves, wood is sparse, preventing them from becoming a major naval power, but they were rich in metal, quarried stone; built high cliff side fortresses, never taken until acrolon came (stood off the barigor back in the day, dawn of their warrior traditions)

Dasos ("forest")

• mountains and forest
• after the titanomachia, a cult of dryads fled here, conquered the locals, who came to bow to them in time. Ships of living wood. Were driven into hiding by acrolon, who slashed and burned, and timber logging, as necessary.
• Beginning to reemerge as the hegemony flails, take their revenge (horrible tree-crucifixions), tree ships sail once more. Some mortals may dream of throwing off the dryads as well, not just accepting an new/old master.
• active guerilla war between dryads and hegemony, the task has been placed in the hands of an ambitious bloodline lord who will gain the isle as his if he wins, backed by a notable demonologist

Sthalo

• forest and hills, some clear, fertile land
• north side is forested hills, less populated, a few towns engage in a lot of clandestine traffic and trade
• significant alethian influence, major hold of the hegemony
• forests provide timber for ships, major shipyards

Zevgari ("pair/couple")

• fertile lowlands divided by central mountain
• significant alethian influence, major hold of the hegemony
• the two sides were given to different bloodlines to keep balance/infighting, now getting really unstable

Prasinomeros / Prasinomeroi ("green place")

• small patch of fertile land (actually a handful of isles separated by narrow channels)
• major hold of the hegemony, under one bloodline; important supply point (food, etc) for the mainland hegemony, as the horde makes it harder to harvest on the eastern front
• was an outright part of Alethia, old summer palace for the Alethian court, isle was their resort, prosperous. now used by the bloodlines, shadow guild, demonologists
• large acrolonian population, locals really crushed down

Aletheia

- Selephontos / Aletheia - Hyzandes / Bay of Hyza

Overview

History

Inhabitants & Culture

Geography

Places

- the fertile woods, fields, and hills of western Dytikos. - majority alseid and grigora initially, with some dryad immigrants. neriads nearby in the esperines. - during the Empire of Acrolon, it became the largest inter-realm trade hub, gained a very large Nor and Grimm population (many becoming Pelithine for generations), sizeable minotaur pop, also often visited by the Aplos centaur tribes. - satyr reservations on the Aplos border wilds - with the Godswar, society broke down. Rift between fey and Nor, fey saying the Nor were traitors, followers of their gods. New factions/nations arose: liberated satyr, Nor/Grimm, fey - many satyr follow Gida, pursue revenge and plunder for their oppression.

- Damastor gains the Edicts, defeats Gida, securing his Pax Aletheia. Old trade capital renamed Lex, becomes his seat of power. Soon after, he accesses the High Temple of Mind and becomes Enthroned. He comes to be advised, his sternness softened by, one of the Six Radiants. - The fey nations continue to resist, but he eventually conquers them, or they fall into his orbit when the Pythians arise, some become Pythian satrapies instead. - psarikampoi raiders from the Esperines trouble the coasts - Damastor founds the Dikastes as his justice force. - Cold (and sometimes Hot) War with Pythian Empire. A Dikastes diplomat to Pythia brings down the Mask.

- The Fall rocks Aletheia, but it fairs well under Damastor's steady hand. He lends his full aid against the Titanomachia, and then uses the Edicts to witness the Summons of the Key. - The Pythian Empire self-destructs in the Blood Madness of the Helm, its suicidal legions smashing against Aletheia for years before collapsing internally. - most Aletheian fey either take the Elixir or suffer the Queensplague. Damastor sees Thalestris's wisdom in this (also cares less, being human and thus mortal), bars more hairbrained efforts (maenads, doomsday wreath). Aletheian Dro-on are rounded up, or flee into the now unoccupied Phidion Ori and below into the Labyrinth. - Juba Malleus obtains the Helm in the Pythian camp after the Pythian emperor and his followers finish butchering each other. - Cyriacos sets up Damastor, who is killed by him and Acrolonian assassins. - Juba and his Consort / right-hand captain, Tarkhundaro, capture an Aletheian city near the Aplos, try to found their own empire. Acrolon is rolling over them, Tark kills Juba and takes the Helm, leaving the city a graveyard full of Night-addled ghosts to mock the Acrolonians. Tark leaves for the Aplos. - Aletheia is fully subjugated by Acrolon, becomes the Western Hegemony. - Vedrix screws over his superior in a bit of court intrigue, gains the Viper, and starts fucking with the Hegemony from within.

- someone (Tark? Thrax?) is going to make a daring raid into the High Temple of Mind to become Enthroned. The Acrolonians, not fully understanding Enthronement, hadn't guarded it as much as it deserved. That is rectified. - lots of damage inflicted on Aletheia under demonic rulership, massive human suffering - After Pallas is killed, the captured Aegis is brought to the Hegemony and bound in a vault beneath the High Temple of Mind (occupied by the Manus Amantis and their demons)

- After the Dawn and death of Lascivia, Hegemony is pushed back, but continues to hold the bulk of Aletheia, including its main cities, fertile land, etc. Still ruled by the Bloodlines of the Dark Empire, the Shadowguild, Manus Amantis. - the proctors of Excrucius bug out, stealing many ships and sailing off to become the Corsairs of Nighthold. - Enemies assail the Hegemony: the Thundering Horde, the nations of New Aletheia around the Bay of Whispers, the Dikastes, the servants of Vedrix, internal rebellions, Boreal and Esperine pirates - Vedrix's agents continue to worm their way into the nation, plotting to bring him to power as emperor of Aletheia reborn.

- the best farmland of old aletheia is protected from the aplos and the horde by a stretch of steep, densely wooded hills. They can be circumvented to the north (nearing the Fidion Gap, Hegemony fortified turf) or south (running into mixed New Aletheian and Hegemony territory)

- the Hegemony also holds a chunk of the western archipelago

Nomos (old glossan name) / Lex (imperial acrolonian name under Damastor) - location of the High Temple of Mind, around which a city grew; inland (on the hills/peaks at the border with the Aplos?) - in the Arcadian Age, it was a great seat of government and diplomacy, site of the senate, libraries of law, the high courts, embassies of Acrolon, etc. Reaver: Devil's advocates, Judge: judges, Mask: ??? - strong artistic/cultural scene too, lots of monuments from Arcadian and Damastorian times - vast catacombs of the libraries; law, lore, sealed away Strange lore - the city has a strong architectural / cultural dichotomy between Morning and Evening, an aesthetic choice worked into it, exemplifying the themes of the Courts. - sanitarium for those with dream disruptions, ironically an early location for study of Strange - Damastor was Enthroned here, and made it his seat of ceremonial and ritual power, though temporal power more resided in the trade city. - currently a ruined city and citadel of the Manus Amantis, and the succubi, prior to their destruction - also abandoned: the Dikasterio, high court and ops center of the Dikastes, from Damastor's time

??? - grew into a huge sea and inter-realm port on the western coast of Aletheia - temporal capital of Damastor's Aletheia, and now the Hegemony.

??? - city wrested from post-Damastor Aletheia by Juba Malleus as the Hegemony first established itself, was to be the capital of his new empire. Once the eastern jewel of Aletheia, on the edge of the Aplos. Ruined in the wake of Tarkhundaro's departure, now an accursed, Night- and ghost-haunted ruin.

story - Hegemony clinging to power. Thundering Horde ravaging the land. Newborn nations trying to resist each. - Katerga playing Switzerland to all parties, a free city under its Archon, city of vices, growing rich on the plunder sold by mercenaries - scars of the demonic invasion

The Aplos

Overview

History

Inhabitants & Culture

Geography

Places

Katerga

- the great steppe of the Aplos runs from the western coast in a band across the continent, becoming desert in the east, before reaching the Thalassa Velos - Katerga is at the end of the long bay, a bit further up the river that empties into it after crossing the Aplos from the Vouna Fidion - In the middle of the Aplos is Avigia, one of the vaultlands, occupied by the cyclops - centaurs have long inhabited the Aplos, more here than anywhere else Helm's kingdom carved out of the acrolonian conquests, which were once the kingdom of the Edicts - the Helm's Thundering Horde roams the plains, conquering and pillaging as they will. All settlements pay them tribute. It makes war upon the Hegemony to the west, New Aletheia in the south, and the free peoples on the borders of the Lands of Asphodel. It has not tried pushing across the Chemaros to the east, but has raided the valley from time to time - cattle herding tribes of centaur, aletheiads, dwell on the plains - trade cities on the route between Chemaros, Pyrgos and Limani - whole area was conquered by the hegemony during the invasion, now being swept back; local rules caught between hegemony and horde - unbound demons roaming around from where demonologists have died - the horde demands obedience and tribute (sometimes levies for the Helm's army), but doesn't usually try to rule directly, preferring to move around.

- helm has a capitol, huge gladiatorial ring, calls warriors from around Pelithos to try themselves and win honor and wealth from the Helm, the helm prefers conquering, so he's left a regent to govern, a very powerful figure in his empire

- the cults of the vine and mask are busy in the helm's empire and on the other sides, smuggling, dealing with the corrupt, selling secrets and info

- centaurs given lands in the Gilded Age - creation of the grigora-centaur tribes after the Godswar - Avigia forms, gorukar driven from mountains settle here, become cyclops - Gida and his satyrs - Storm-runner trident grigora - natural gap between Pythia, Aletheia, and Epolosia, but often crossed - rise of the Thundering Horde, guerilla war against the Hegemony - Thundering Hordes triumphant, nyxian centaurs, darklings

The Avigian Barrens

Overview

History

Inhabitants & Culture

Geography

Places

Avigia / The Avigian Barrens - a barigor invasion era fortress was made here, a great armory, stocked with powerful weapons, intended to control the heart of the continent - in the midst of the Aplos is the Avgia. Stars cracked in the Time Storm gaze down, making it an eerie and misleading place. The Aplosian tribes begin to avoid it. - the gorukar driven out of the Phidion Ori gathered here, beset by the tribes of the Aplos, swearing themselves to the titans for protection and power. Over time, they mutate into the cyclops. Fiercely territorial, herding flocks and seeing weird signs in the sky. they have erected standing stones and circles as part of their veneration of the sky, raised barrows for their chieftains. they have harvested the charon of the land, forged items of power. There are also old tombs to the leaders of the gorukar, including treasure claimed and held from the Barigor Invasion. - during the Titanomachia, the stars' gaze grew stronger as they cracked further, and some fell there. the auroras blazed over it, filled with mind-warping light and darkness elementals. The land was warped subtly and the soil became less fertile, the "auroral barrens". Now the skies are always full of weird shimmering curtains of light and darkness, and sometimes they pool in hollows in the moorland, or stream up and down from the sky at standing stones and other geomantic features. - the Acrolonians didn't bother with Avigia much, just went around it, but some demonblood nobles hunted the Cyclops for sport. Now the Thundering Horde demands they bow to it and serve in the Helm's armies, or face more hunting. Some rebellious Aplos tribes may seek them as allies, hoping to hide in their lands. Both face serious, xenophobic resistance, possibly backed up by titans.

- a river flows through the barrens on the way to joining the Chemaros, carrying fury-weirdness downstream.

Bay of Whispers

Overview

History

Inhabitants & Culture

Geography

Places

Psithyros / Psithyria / Psithyrian Peninsula / Bay of Whispers / Kolpos Psithyros

- the Dancer died here, and the force of it split open the earth, creating the bay. His Torc pierced down into the Strange Sea, now it's welling up here. Has long drawn supplicants and other strange things to the area, caused the whispering - Dancer died early, and the gods had time to build him a tomb on an isle (or headland?) in the new bay, the Tomb of the Dancer. (did the gods do it, or did forces of the Strange? maybe the White Tree?) - tritons come here a lot. Dreamer's cult has long been associated with the area - known for its weird mists - Damastor kept it suppressed during his time. When he died, maybe the Maenads came here to work their magic?

- a prosperous city in this region sank into the sea when the bay split open, its Arcadian age treasures lost with it. now infested with Kampoi and Strange things (probably a lot of Strange dead from those who died in the sinking, and aberrations crawling up through the hole).

- the regions on either side of the long bay are sometimes known as New Aletheia, collection of kingdoms fighting the horde and the hegemony for freedom; the hills help protect them against the horde's mobility. The eastern side is threatened by the spreading Asphodel

a city on the side of the bay - grew up as a settlement of those interested in the Strange - mists covered the water at times, when the Strange waxed. it's near the isle of the Dancer's Tomb and the borehole created by the Torc, good for launching expeditions. - since the Fall, the mists have become much more extreme. Most of the city relocated to higher lands behind the old city, but the old city became a hub for suplicants and strange beings. vathys and hags lurk, making deals. it persisted, half empty during the Invasion, but is now independent, Strangest of the New Aletheian states?

Phidion Ori

Overview

History

Inhabitants & Culture

Geography

Places

pythian empire

Phidion or Pythian Ori Vouna Phidion ("Mountains of the Snake")

- original home of the oreads. They built a civilization in the peaks. Delved beneath to make great catacombs (artistic, dwellings, workplaces) and above, raising towers, bridges, cliff buildings, etc. A distributed web of significant sites, not a single great city. At the time, crossing the mountains (especially with the oread roads/bridges) wasn't that hard.

- The Labyrinth, gorgon cultists, charon, lost Elysian and Pythian ruins one of the roads to Erebus, lamia making use of ancient Pythian sites. When the Titanomachia came, the Labyrinths tunnels reached out like tentacles, undercutting the lands around. Some things were sucked down into the underworld. - tiny villages nestled high, some harbor titancultist, others struggle to hold on. mineral riches; mineral wealth tempts the Old Dragon, and may draw new dragons to it, monkey-wrenching old power struggles - spine of high mountains that runs along the northern coast of Dytikos - there are many fertile valleys nestled up in the peaks, and a strip of land along the coast, farmers and some ports, people visit but are a bit spooked about the whole place - ruled by the lamia, with aletheiad populace - they have annexed lowlands from the Aplos since the end of the war - the second major tributary of the Chemaros flows down from these peaks - as the land rises from the Aplos, it gets hilly and forested

- Vouna Fidi and the Fidi Coast have "serpent" in the name because that's where the Pythian Empire was in the Shattered Age. It's why the lamia are concentrated there. Ruins and treasures! Serpent monsters are the degenerate descendants of the Pythians in the area. - Lamias still count as pythian for purposes of controlling Pythian magic and slave beasts, gaining some access to these ruins. - Vouna Fidion is the more correct translation of "serpent mountains"

The Vouna Fidion were once much lower, in the Gilded Age, and were build up with Elysian cities and structures.  When the vaults began leaing, the Labyrinth within gradually built up the mountains into the imposing peaks of today.  Some Elysian ruins were raised to great heights, some were built around, becoming absorbed into the caverns of the Labyrinth.

The Pythians inhabited the mountains, coast, and nearby Aplos, founding Pythia (?), wielding both fury and authority.  Pythian titancultists in the Labyrinth were bred/mutated into gorgons (their snakiness explains the hair, tail, etc).  Pythian ruins also abound on and within the peaks.  As they grew ever higher, they became harder to dwell in.  This strained the empire, but it truly collapsed in the Titanomachia, split in its loyalties and ravaged by war.

Phidion Coast / Akti Phidion

• Evanto, Ourarabos
• Phidion Gap

Overview

History

Inhabitants & Culture

Geography

Places

Akti Phidion or Phidion Coast (Serpent Coast) - also called the Fertile Coast, the Coast of Plenty, and the Coast of Grapes - fertile, lush coastal plains along the northern coast of Dytikos, separated from the Aplos by the mountains of the Vouna Fidion. - bustling, industrious cities, shielded from the chaos in the Aplos. lush plantations. famous for its wine and fruit - most famous wines, the "Venom Vintages" or "Venom Wines", potent and spicy, grown by a small number of very famous and influential vineyard families, secret recipes. Said to use vines bred by the pythians for their royal wines. Very expensive and exclusive, desired far and wide. Said to make one who drinks it regularly resistant or immune to poisons, perhaps able to speak to snakes or other unusual abilities? - olive groves, vineyards, orange and lemon trees; herd sheep and goats, some cattle - old pythian ruins/civilization give this land its name - growing strife with the more piratical lords of the Trident's nation, now preying on traders to the coast - once the succubi vanished, the lamia could slip in and murder the hegemony bigwigs. they pulled out, unable to contest for the area between lamia assassins, Trident piracy, and the Thundering Horde hitting Old Aletheia. The coast underwent a remarkable, largely bloodless independence, which is why they have bounced back so quickly (plus Symmachian trade, and servicing the trident's navy) - the insidious grasp of the lamia has spread over the land, they secretly run things - the hegemony attacks coastal cities for plunder and to disrupt their ability to support the trident; trying to maintain a base in the Fidion Gap so they can flank the horde when it comes to attack around the northern end of the hills - Fidion Gap is thus a no man's land of horde, local warlords, unbound demons, and hegemony troops, plus monsters going unrestrained - clashes between the lamia and the sisters of stone under the mountains, and the Dro-on - Evanto: a bustling city on the coast

Epolosia

Overview

History

Inhabitants & Culture

Geography

Places

Epolosus Great Crypt of Taphos Asphodels

Epolosia - south of Pyrgos the desert gives way to highlands of Asphodel - Epolosia is a very old city, home to several generations of Caduceus, a peaceful and learned city - It was shielded from Acrolon's assault by the fields of Asphodel, a small region around the city, enough for farms and small towns, is free of the asphodel thanks to the caduceus's art, but the secret of his wards and their maintanence are breaking down and the flowers encroach - only a single road leads to or from Epolosia, running north to Pyrgos; it is warded against the dead by the power of Aegis, Oboloi, and Caduceus, but since disaster has come, the ward has weakened - since the Caduceus' fall, no new warding tokens are being made (given to travelers going there), and the existing tokens are getting harder to find - the only other way to approach Epolosia is through the kampoi-infested salt marshes on the coast, where the power of the Maelstrom kills the asphodel and erases the Oloboi's curse on the land - the kakanemoi came to Epolosia in secret, as a single man with an infected wound, and the city was overrun by plague before the Caduceus Arios could stop it. It was abetted by the Witch and Viper, to clear a place among the Enthroned; the imitheos died and with him much of the city. - Without his power to exclude it, the asphodel has crept through cracks and turned wards of the city into silent, outdoor tombs in which the hungry plague dead or fury-plagued living roam. Many have fled the city since the sun rose, some remain, clinging to their once glorious city; scholars linger in the echoing halls of the great university. - treasure hunters come, trying to reclaim the lost lore, wondrous creations, and wealth of Epolosia, but most are food for kampoi, ghosts, or lingering kakanemoi. - nearby lands fear the kakanemoi will run amok, spreading far and wide until a new Caduceus arises.

(The Fields of/Lands of) Asphodel - Epolosia, ancient (Elysian) city of learning, home of the former Caduceus, slowly being overrun by the asphodel, hard to reach. outer expanses of the city (which contracted during the invasion, as people and resources became scarce) are overtaken with asphodel and the dead (crib off Yoon-Suin's Yellow City outskirts?) - Taphos, the Great Crypt - towns and villages must make their peace with the dead, the vathys, and the horde (if they live closer to the edges) - achridanoi lurk in these lands, up to whatever - dead lords, strange dead? some dead just want to live on, others are bloodthirsty, or want to rule - vathys spread their obyrith cult among both humans and dead - the land rises from the Aplos, then gentle sinks back as you move towards the coast - hazy, surreal days as clouds of asphodel seeds/petals/pollen? drift on the breeze

- Southern Bay / Western Asphodel, farmland around the end - hills protect against the horde somewhat

- south central Dytikos, a region of ground rising from the Aplos into hills and light forests, with highlands above, leading to a rocky, cliff-lined southern coast (sort of californian) - Taphos, the Great Crypt, raised by the Oboloi Enthroned to house her mortal body, stands in the highlands - during the war, the Oboloi opened a pathway through Taphos (which has shafts that physically reach to the Underworld), to bring forth the power of Erebus in order to cut off the acrolonian advance from the west. Asphodel flowers began to grow, a plant that normally only grows in the underworld. The flowers from this region have strange power drawn from the waters of the seven rivers (five breeds of flowers? yellow, white, red, black, and ???). In the dark, their petals are faintly luminous. - They bloom all year round, and the seasons seem muted, it is never particularly hot or particularly cold, raining lightly or bathed in soft, sunlight under cloudy skies - where the flowers grow, before the sun, the dead can walk the surface, slaying the living, and drinking their blood and pneuma. Since the sun has risen again, the dead are confined to the shadows and the night. - while the old Oboloi Enthroned ruled, the dead obeyed her word and did not bother Pelithines, but when she was killed, the dead began to prey more and more on anyone that crossed their path. The asphodels began to spread, and where they took root, the dead followed. The power of the Aegis and Caduceus kept things in check, but as each of those imitheoi perished, the tide as accelerated. - In the heart of Asphodel, radiating out from Taphos, no mortals live. Farther out, there are still towns and villages. The people burn out the flowers, creating clear pockets within the land, and somtimes leave propitiary offerings of blood for the dead. Ghost-hunters and exorcists travel the region, trying to keep the dead at bay. The edge of the asphodel continues to spread, and the flowers come thicker and thicker (this area is a kind of greek ravenloft, with huddled towns and undead menace). Some towns have fallen under the sway of the dead, who farm them for pneuma or play at rulership - the seeds of the asphodel are downy and blow on the breeze, glimmering faintly. They can land far away and create isolated pockets - many necromancers and alchemists come to deal with the dead or hunt for the most potent flowers, others come to try to plunder Taphos and seldom return - the exception to the absence of mortals in the inner lands, are some maenads dwelling here. they brew a wine from the asphodel which makes them uninteresting to the dead, and they drift through life in a dreaming haze, die, and stand right back up again, so one is never sure if one has met a living maenad or a dead one; the old cult of the oboloi can also travel here in safety - the Varkares come and go here sometimes, and sometimes obyrith do as well, perhaps coming to meet with supplicants - Vathys come here, to the shores or in the lakes and streams of the region, they regard the people of the region as their playthings (ghosts too for that matter)

"deadlands" where the dead emerged, biggest passage to the underworld, great crypt of the Coins standing empty as a dungeon - chasm vaultland/deadlands in the mid continent, Great Crypt, Taphos

story - creeping flowery doom, the dead walk - entries to Taphos and road to Erebus, Achridani cult up to what? Vathys interference? - fallen Epolusia, Caduceus's bountiful city crumbling, closed in around by the dead - little shielded communities trying to cope with the dead.

there were 5 (6?) great republics in the shattered age - what is now Alati (waterworks area, once a breadbasket) - Epolosus (seat of learning, wards failing) - Taphos (fully fallen to the dead and the asphodel) - centaur- and grigora- influenced republic (Ahhumuin, Thyella) - ??? - Pyrgos was one of the republics (?)

port city south of Taphos on the coast, became the bulk of the republic in the shattered age

Alati, the City of Salt (fold Alati into Vraveio) - a city on the south coast of Epolosia in the Arcadian age (had a different name). a great waterworks was created, three huge pump pylons pulling (then fresh) water from the sea, sending it north over the dry but fertile land in a maze of aquaducts, reservoirs, waters towers, sub-pump-stations, etc. An agricultural powerhouse. Manors, plantations, etc spread out around the aquaducts, and towns were built right into them. The returning waters poured off the white limestone cliffs by the city in great waterfalls. - the system has been gradually breaking down. The Machinist made some repairs in the shattered age. - At the Fall, when the seas became salt, the system kept going, salting the earth and killing everything growing over its great expanse, turning it to barren, salty plains and bogs. The city was all but abandoned. - As the Asphodel spread, refugees fleeing their dead-infested lands came to the salt-land, where even Asphodel could not grow. They inhabited the ruin, a small population living in a hollow city, fishing and using magic to cultivate greenhouses, and trading for food when they could. They named the city Alati, and other

fallen city, overtaken by the asphodel and the dead - it trusted in wards as the asphodel spread, but they failed catastrophically one night and the dead overwhelmed them

The Vale of Chemaros

Overview

History

Inhabitants & Culture

Geography

Places

Port Limani, Limani Gap join with the Pyrgian River

The Chemaros - the great river ("the torrent") Port Limani - big port at the mouth, fought over by trident and chemaros - two big rivers feed together to become Chemaros (one from the spring atop Pyrgos, the other from the Vouna Fidi) - Chemaros helped oppose the acrolonians, although was overcome and driven into hiding; he was neutral on the matter of the Helm vs the Aegis and Owl, but after one huge slaughter that choked his waters with bodies and blood, he has now barred the Helm's passage. The helm hasn't contested him yet, focusing on the unconquered lands west of the Chemaros. Chemaros still insists on tithes from other imitheoi when they want to cross in force, but he's given the eastern lands a bit of a reprieve. - The god of the great river has a culture of river people who ride up and down on their boats, they are the only ones permitted to launch boats on the river. the only bridges, creations of the Owl in the shattered age were destroyed during the war, and the god resists their rebuilding (and people on the east side aren't keen to let the Helm and his horde cross easily. the river folk ferry people across for a price and for a tithe to the god (blood, wealth, produce burnt). There are farming communities along the banks in the river's flood plain (the extent of the god's topothesium) who pay him homage. the current trident and the river god don't get along, warring over the river's northernmost reach where it touches the sea; it's within the topothesium, but innundated by the sea, so the trident has power there. since the end of the war, the port city there has been a battleground between the two, and suffered for it. River God isn't very mortal these day. Has a collection of naiad (or neriad?) daughters and wives; the children of the river (his boat culture) have a lot of their blood in them

Limani Gap - dates, fruit trees, light woods, fertile and pleasant - mouth of the Chemaros

Limani Bay

The Golden Waste

Overview

History

Inhabitants & Culture

Geography

Places

• Originally an expanse of thick woodlands.
• Prior to the First Titanomachia, it was the site of an incursion by the obyrith maters Soma, the Hand Dripping Blood. She was banished in an epic battle with Pallas, the Aegis. The region was left corrupted by Strange, with a handful of neogi princes making lairs in the dark, dream-haunted woods.
• During the First Titanomachia, the cult of Scorching Abandon used the permeability between Oneiros and the material world to tap into fury-corrupted Sleep-Roads and draw their power into the world. They spread this corruption to local forgehearts, and the land was transformed into the Golden Wastes.

• To stem the spread, a powerful Life servitor claimed the great river Chemaros, taking its names his own ("I *am* Chemaros!")
  • Chemaros, green nile-like fertile river valley. The lord permits No permanent settlements, nomadic river-folk run barges up and down its length.
• The Trident battled deep into the desert and struck the top of a spire of stone, creating a miraculous spring, the Spring of Pyrgos, which created Lake Dorolimni and the oasis around it where the city of Pyrgos was founded.
  • The outflow from Dorolimni flows into Chemaros, creating a natural "road" to cross the western desert to Pyrgos in relative safety.
• The cities of Vraveio and Doschai on the coast maintain diligent defense of their forgehearts.
  • Vraveio would eventually fall (to desert? maelstrom?)

• Barrels of Pyrgos-water are shed in oases in the eastern desert, keeping their forgehearts stable and allowing stepping stone passage from Pyrgos to the coast.
  • The Strange-corruption of the region boiled away as the desert spread, but it has lingered and corrupted some of the oases, traps for unsuspecting travelers seeking shelter.
    • They are haunted by eldritch dream-madness and in some the Neogi princes dwell, enslaving those they catch.

• Pockets of Strange linger beneath the sands as well, in ancient sunken ruins, sealed away from the desert.

• In the Second Titanomachia, it spread to the lower slopes of the Kyterion Ori, where desert and volcano Vaultlands mingle.

• Adventurers seek the old ruins of the forest kingdoms from before the corruption of the old forests. Some are lost in the sands, others are now oases (with or without Strange-corruption. Other oasis-settlements were lost during the chaos of the Fall and the second titanomachia.

• the massive clash between the Aegis and the demonic push trying to reach Pyrgos.
  • acres of demon-stain, massives piles of bones from both sides. corrupt and evil; walking dead, malign influences, unbound demons. treasure to be picked from the bones, if you're crazy. fortifications or a town or city within the zone, along the banks of the Dorolimni river. The Aegis died in battle here against the Molydean.

• light asphodel in the southearn part of the desert
• the thundering horde stays west of Chemaros (for now)

• In the Kyterian hills, volcanic and desert vaultlands mingle, vents belch poison gas (Scorching Abandon's venom and Everburning Obsidian's smoke).
• Molten ejecta landed in the desert, creating craters, ruled by elemental powers. Some grew like seeds into fantastical basalt trees and forests.

- Do the neogi send slaves back out to lure more to them? - what caused Soma to come here initially? Is there a Strange cult to it?

- during the Titanomachia, Mount Kyterios errupted, and fissures split the land, belching poison gases.

- when the Kyterian vaultlands formed, their influence desiccated and scorched the Aplos to the south, turning it into the beautiful and deadly Golden Waste.

- Oread refugees fled the Kyterian range, and became hardy nomads, their stone skin resistant to the heat and sun, able to hibernate as stones in the burning noon and freezing night

- the stones and sands drink in the heat of Kyterios eagerly, such that when the sun sets, the land grows bitterly cold, the heat drunk away. Where plants cover the surface, the heat hunger is mitigated, and the environment is merely warm and cool. (plus, shade, water, etc).

- a powerful cult of The Wind Which Destroys (obyrith master of ominous weather, erasure, evanescence) left stretches of the land warped during the Shattered Age. weird storms brew up from them and carve sand and stone into malignant, alien forms that take life for a time, before crumbling to nothingness. Winds have carved winding tunnels and ephemeral palaces beneath the sand, filled with maddening architecture. Are they still around?

which obyrith did it? - soma, the hand dripping blood, kaiju giant crab monster, very violent, goddess of the neogi, mistress of chains, obsession w/ touch, want to enslave everything

- the Strange corruption has an eldritch bent (as opposed to arcadian, etc) - there are a few neogi lords claiming strange oases, enslaving those who stumble in, using them to lure more victims

the Golden Waste is hedged in by the rivers Chemaros and Dorolimni to the west and south, the sea in the east and southeast (some room for leakage, but the Maelstrom is there too), and the Kyterion Ori in the north.

Kyterion Ori

Overview

History

Inhabitants & Culture

Geography

Places

Kyterian Peaks - stark, dry, barren, volcanic and steam vents, geysers, sub-volcanos - Mount Kyterios, the Akropolis - dactyloi civilization, much of it on the rocky, steamy coastline - cracks going deep, down to Erebus, linking to the Labyrinth - Iribad (dactyloi city) - Kar (port city) - globs of magma spat out during the Titanomachia erruptions, rich with charon, metals, jewels, etc. Can be found and mined on the surface. attracts interlopers, sometimes hatch into magma elemental beings. The dactyloi call such things "illatu"

- during the Titanomachia, Mount Kyterios errupted, and fissures split the land, belching poison gases. These vents are more prevalent in the Kyterian hills, but some can be found in the desert too. Molten ejecta landed in the desert too, creating craters, ruled by elemental powers. Some grew like seeds into fantastical basalt trees and forests. There are still uncooling, lakes of magma up in the hills and peaks, and winds of choking ash

???eastern coast

Overview

History

Inhabitants & Culture

Geography

Places

Desert Coast - deserts and arid shores, but with oases, prosperous cities on the coast - were attacked by Acrolon once Pyrgos was bottled up, but never taken, thanks to aid from the Symmachia and the desert barrier - a few cities here might be in the symmachia, but others are not - weird things wander into the desert from Kytirios, up from the Maelstrom and salt flats, Asphodel encroaches from the south

maybe Doschae and Vraveio should be merged? - Old Vraveio is at the neck of the arrow sea, becomes uninhabitable as maelstrom and kampoi grow. maybe a lesser city, new vraveio is founded more toward Epolosus? could become one of the republics - people try settling north on the Arrow Coast, but the desert spreads. - why would you make a city on the desert coast when you could sail to Limani? no doubt there were lesser cities along the coast in the Arcadian Age. Could just be swallowed by desert?

Kyterian Wastes - dactyloi nation: take place among civilization or remain a bastion of the titancult? internal struggle - Elysian ruins - Does Pyrgos get drawn into the war against the Thundering Horde? - Kyterian Depths lead down to Erebus - Mount Kyterios: charon, elementals, titancults - encroachment of Kampoi, Asphodel - relations with Chemaros

- the Kyterian coast is eternally wreathed in steam clouds, ejected where sea water seeps into contact with hot rock of magma and sprays up in geysers (it gets stronger during high tides, less during low tides, as more or less water is available). Mostly the air is hot and humid, but not hazardously so. Heavy clouds of volcanic gases can mingle with the steam invisibly, and a fresh steam geyser can be scalding. The clouds also shroud the coast, masking the rocky coast and shoals. The Azer have special means for navigating in these clouds, using them defensively to hide in, and concealing the safe channels picked through the waters into their lava-tube cavern harbors (maybe they have magnetic beacons and use compasses to maneuver around them?) - mist clouds can roll out far to sea sometimes. They sometimes carry fury energy with them, spinning up into squalls, retaining their scalding heat, poison gases, ignitable incendiary clouds, etc.

Settlements

Katerga

(give this a centaur name instead? reuse Katerga name elsewhere?) - Chuluulag (rock), Chuluu (stone) - Tolgod (hill) - Uulzalt (conclave) - Khural (meeting/gathering/assembly)

- originally a meeting and ceremonial site for the centaur nomads of the Arcadian Age Aplos, monuments, burials, rituals, moots. Some dramatic rock outcroppings mark the spot, and there is a spring. - westernmost city of the caravan route across the Aplos and desert. Major trade hub - it contains a major temenos, and since the Fall, has been ruled by an Archon, a servitor of ??? (Mind?). - when the coastal city sank into the new Bay of Whispers, refugees from the region fled north, settling at Katerga. Some of these were grigora who joined with the centaur tribes

- a powerful Summer Archon survived the coming of the tanari, eventually dealing with Thyella the Storm-runner, who made her caerns across the Aplos as places he and his handful of servitors could hibernate, hidden (they were somehow dismantled and interred within the caerns?). (what kind of demon does he resemble? balor? marilith? nalfeshnee?) - as the Acrolonians were driven from the plains in the reconquest, he emerged and claimed Katerga. The Helm wasn't pleased, but the other centaur tribes accepted him as guardian and steward of the moot-place, and Tark acquiesced as long as he gives tribute and doesn't get too annoying - the Archon is Bacchus-like, hedonist and encourager of hedonism, very "eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die" feel. - city holds great coliseum, home to gladiatorial games, Helm's executions, etc. - Mastigos buys slaves taken by the Horde in a huge market place; other merchants come to buy up their other plunder - the Archon lets all factions (Dikastes, hegemony? new aletheia, viper, cult of the rose, etc) coexist and scheme (as long as they don't get too noisy). Switzerland of the Aplos

Pyrgos

- stands at the eastern edge of the coastal desert, in the middle of the continent - a huge granite outcropping rises from a lake in the the arid plains, carved into a tiered city, there are even farms and orchards on the tiers - impregnable fortifications, it has been built and built during the war, and was never taken - surrounded by a great oasis, growing into a sprawling trade extension to the city - Trident-blessed spring atop it, falls down the tiers to create the lake, Doro (the gift; also the name of the spring); ever pure, fresh spring water purifies food and drink, cleanses wounds; can hold its power for only a few days once removed - the oasis was devestated and the lake poisoned during the water, but it has mostly recovered, thanks to the efforts of the Cornucopia and Caduceus - the Owl's engineering uses a lot of the falling water's power to run loch elevators, canals, mills, and other things - breathtaking architecture, one of the wonders of Pelithos - a river flows out of the lake, joined by other tributaries, ultimately forming one of the two major heads of the Chemaros. The river god's topothesium reaches to the oasis, but not into the lake, it is sacred to the Cornucopia. - Pyrgos is home to the Owl's military academy and the annual victory games - paizon almost univerally played for fun and edification - the inhabitants are a mix of Aletheiad, Velosi, therianths, and centaurs - a major road, now largely abandoned, runs toward the ruins of Epolosia - somewhat near the Avgia, somewhat near the edges of the Kytirion Wastes, started as a fortress watching these places. - lake's name, Dorolimni (gift lake) - many oreads dwelt here, hibernated during the long night, protected in the caves of the rock. some kept waking to aid, shielded by the Aegis. But when she died, many of them turned moonstone, went off to be evil (join the helm, viper, etc).

Doschae (rename me)

- symmachian city on the desert coast, home of the Net, port for trade flowing across the Thalassa Velos in both directions, at the mouth of a river that crosses the desert, few other good routes with habitable coast, farming/orchards along the river

Vraveio

(Braveio? Vrabeio? Brabeio?) - city on the desert coast, south, near the asphodel and the salt marsh, has to weather the assault, fortified and vigilant, always room for new graduates of the Owl's Academy in the armies or caravan guards, deals in asphodel extracts and primal flotsom/products from the maelstrom vaultsea, mix of Velosi and Aletheiad (a lot of these are older refugees from the war or current mercenacy companies from the war who left when the Helm came through their old haunts - Old Vraveio is on the coast near the Maelstrom, once commanded the neck of the sea. Now abandoned and half sunk.

Places

Mount Kyterios and the Akropolis

The Kytirios (Mount Kytirios) - daktyloi capitol, has a huge port on the sea-side, giant colossus of rhodes - there are black chasms that drop all the way to the Underworld, creating lava lakes in Erebus and loosing primal beasts there; the daktyloi have used them to traffic with the dead - stands on the NE corner of the continent, where the Thalassa Velos and western Boreals meet - surrounded by a range of jagged peaks, with lots of other volcanic activity, open pools and rivers of lava, fumaroles, hot springs - web of cracked earth spreads around, huge chasms - leads out into a sprawling desert along the coast - there's another titan species here besides the dwarves? or are they dark dwarves who clash militarily and politically with the more civilized faction? or are they cyclops from Avgia? titan-tainted xodari? cult of fire-elementally infused people? - atop the peak, capping the mountain, is the Akropolis, built by the defeated daktyloi just after the Fall at the command of the imitheoi.