Kaf
Kaf is the world where the majority of events in the Arcane Realm series takes place.
Many of the regions of this world are heavily inspired by biogeographic realms and cultural spheres of the real world.
Geography
Kaf for the most part is an Earthlike planet with a variety of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and climates that can support life.
The natural environment in Kaf is much similar to the Earth's environment. Areas with a high density of trees make up forests, landscapes that receive very little precipitation create deserts, while loose broken-up particles of rock make large coastal beaches attracting people and fauna alike.
Man-made and natural occurrences form caves in the mountainsides that are able to be explored or passed through to get to other settlements. Many natural phenomena appear in the world of Kaf such as snowing ash that covers the area is caused by the nearby volcano that smokes and rains down on the area.
An interesting feature of Kaf is in its polar regions which has the presence of cryovolcanoes that erupt plumes of freezing water that quickly condense into more ice.
Kaf's Realms:
Cemanahauc
Dinillahi
Dunia
Hahnunah
Riuamaui
Whenua
Ecosystem
Kaf's landmass is divided into multiple biogeographic realms, each with a unique history of creatures adapting to their ecosystems. As such even realms which share climates and similar creatures can differ greatly in how they interact with each other and their environment.
Within each physical realm of Kaf lies various regions dominated typically by a certain climate or
Fauna & Flora
On Kaf some species that are extinct on modern Earth, such as some non-avian dinosaurs, Pleistocene megafauna like mammoths or saber tooth cats.
There are also lifeforms only exist as myth and legend, that are real here such as pegasi, griffons, drakes like wyverns and dragons, fey, and magical beasts. Even a divergent group of hominin species thrive on this world.
Spirits originate from a separate dimension but their entry point to ours is located on Kaf and generations of spirits have also been born on the world.
While megafauna are generally tolerant of settlements being constructed, most will often react with hostility to any attempts to truly cause harm to their natural environment. In return, animals are often seen providing several services that in the real world are performed by technology: Pegasi are often used to fly over vast distances, trained wyverns used as a source of heat for metallurgy, and so on.
Society
People and nature in the Kaf are linked to each other since most settlements are built around their natural environment as opposed to clearing them away. Bodhi Village, for example, is simply a collection of tree houses within a tropical jungle, while Thera is built in the crater of a hollowed, extinct volcano. An ecosystem is formed when all plants, animals, and sapient races of people in an area function together with all of the non-living physical factors of the environment. There are some settlements that consist largely of constructed structures like large buildings although most have been overhauled to use sustainable engineering techniques. Social scientists have split the people into general lifestyles, based mainly on how their way of life impacts themselves and others. The metropolitan lifestyle which focuses on a large scale society living in and maintaining large constructed permanent settlements for its people. There is also the rural lifestyle with smaller settlements in mostly undeveloped countryside, either in small sedentary settlements or traveling from place to place. Another is the naturalist lifestyle where people live completely within the natural environment by developing and honing a set of sustainable survivalist skills.Technology
The state of technology in the modern era can vary wildly due to region, lifestyle, body type, magic use and other other factors. While technology that resembles the modern real world such as electronics and synthetics, are mostly made and used in urban areas, they can also be found in the countryside. At the same time some cities have shortages of firearms so the populace relies mainly on melee weaponry and spell-casting for defense instead. Much of this is likely due to many designs being recovered or altered from a previous age of civilization. In addition to technology that runs on conventional types of energy, tools that can produce magical effects or run on magic power called artifices are prevalent as well. by bantersnaps
History
Kaf is a planet with a lot of history, like a lot. Of course when the major inhabitants average lifetimes that span centuries, that tends to happen. So as such the actual history of the people that have graced this rock number not in the thousands but more of the millions of years, what tends to approach geological ages. However the current inhabitants of Kaf have categorized the major shifts of their past in order to sort through all of these many years. And here I will present an even shorter version of that in the form of periods and eras.
Primeval Times
A mysterious time period older than even most legends and barely any recordings to speak of.
The Jinn trace their origins here though only existing as religious myths and legends. They mainly existed in the spiritual dimension anchored to the landscape while mainly simple plants and animals roamed the physical world.
Mythopoeia
If records are to be believed, supernatural entities from other realms of existence came across Kaf and brought their influence either through attempted conquest, trade, or missionary efforts. This includes other sapient beings from their own worlds populating the world with new types of creatures such as fay and other preternatural creatures. Kaf native civilizations other than the jinn begin to form as elves, dwarves, gnomes and humans each develop their own distinct and recognizable cultures and territories. Other sapient races form their own cultures within or around those areas.
These entities became deities and decided to set their homes around various areas of the world and their personal dimensions as well as develop their roles and responsibilities. The bounty that deities provide inspire worship of them and religious orders are based around them over natural aspects.
Teachings and the exploits of the gods are recorded by their most devout followers as sacred and religious texts.
Extraordinary men and women are given tasks or perform other dealings with the gods and supernatural forces, gave shape to the morals and nature of the world are told in oral stories or written down for their descendants as epics and myths, to understand themselves as people or nations. New forms of magic are created such as Ordered Spellcraft is developed from magical techniques mirroring the control that the gods have over natural forces. They trade/conquer territory among them, divinities are worshiped by them and spellcraft is invented, weaponry and magic used in military and mercenary efforts become staples for the archetype to classes, jinn try to slowly interact with the new races and use their craft to build a territory in the physical world.
Ghulat Warring Period
This is a major conflict that marks a dramatic shift in the nature of Kaf going forward. It is named after the Ghulat Wars, where a faction called the Shaytan who headed various form of demonic spirits and beasts. There forces were in opposition to the dominion of the gods and wanted to claim the lands for themselves. Thus a long campaign over millennia had these forces literally fighting over the world itself with divinities vs demons and mortals caught in the middle. The result of this was an accelerated advancement in various areas such as technology, magic manipulation, weaponry, transportation and energy production. Which sounds good expect that it involved a lot of resource depletion and environmental degradation. The demonic forces had their own plans which ravaged the world and ultimately it lead to assured mutual destruction of not only each other but also the natural environment leading to a bunch of natural disasters which essentially ended all civilization.
Wilderness Era
If this previous time was "the end of the world as we know it" then this is what happened after. This post apocalypses begins with a mass of natural disasters and geological changes that changed the landscape and burying the civilized world. Various cultures and species die out and remaining people struggling for survival. As millennia turn into millions of years, nature reclaims the remnants of great living spaces and even the very land itself shifts into new landmasses.
Cultural Revitalization
If the previous era was the wrath of the world in response to overrun civilization, this time is marked by notable recovery in nature and the descendants of those remaining peoples attempting to start over with culture and complex societies again. Very few of those of yesteryear are able to persist and instill the new breed of entities with their own values. A semblance of cultural fields of influence develop and thrive in this time.
Artifice Revolution
Not the fanciest named time period but the one we find ourselves in. Finding the lost technology of yesteryear has helped launched society though it has also ran the risk of setting society on a similar collapse if they can't work with the land they have now inherited.
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