On the world of
Asyur lies several continents, and none so large and diverse as
Adlak. Home to many cultures and civilizations Adlak is primarely dominated by an alliance of humanoid empires, kingdoms, and city-states, or carefully maintained alliances of rural lands known as the Dales. Interspersed throughout these "Dalelands" are dwarven citadels, hidden wood-elf kingdoms, and gnomish enclaves, assimilated populations of bugbears, dwarves, halflings, and more exotic species.
A great deal of adventure is to be had in the Dales, for those willing to seek it out. The routes between city-states and nations often cross into the wilds or territories controlled by brigands or marauders. Every forest, every swamp, every mountain range, every beach has its own dangers, be they
Pirates waiting in ambush, bandits on a tollroad, savage marauders, or giants and dragons. Ruins dot the landscape of every continent and the caverns that wind beneath the surface accessed by caves. In these places, treasures of every race, living and dead, wait for intrepid and brave adventurers to claim them.
Asyur is filled with rich cultures with deep histories and wondrous tales of heroes and adventures with might and magic, but the lifeblood of most every civilization is agriculture and trade. Most rural folk depend on farming from the Dales of the
Lowlands like
Verbobonc and
Daggerford to eat, and citizens who live in cities work in trades or use their raw brawn to earn their daily keep. News and stories of neighboring lands are carried into towns and cities mostly by caravans and ships that bring trade and by traveling bards and minstrels who recount and tell not so true stories to inform and entertain people in inns, pub-houses, parks, keeps, and castles. Adventurers also spread news while traveling into town alongside or seperately than the previously mentioned institutions, while also creating it in their wake.
Most common folk of Asyur look at adventurers and traveling minstrels with a mix of admeration, wonderlust, envy, and most often mistrust. Most folk agree that anyone willing to risk their wellbeing for the common man and complete strangers should be reveared and rewarded. But, they also fear anyone who can amass such power and wealth so quickly as adventurers can. They worry about creating tyrants and evil dictators, and the general horrors an adventurer (let alone a full party) could unleash upon a population because they had to investigate an ancient ruin.
Most everyone living on the world of Asyur has little knowledge of the places beyond the world. The most educated among the world agree that Asyur is apart of a group of celestial bodies orbiting a central star, but for the majority of people who don't experience interstellar travel or intergalatic trade, Asyur is more than large enough of a concept to understand.
Except in the most remote and narrow-minded regions of the world, most Asyurians have grown accustomed to seeing strange and different cultures, races, and species. Only in the most multiracial and international civilizations does this casual acceptance extend to evil humanoid races and civilizatins - such as orcs and goblinoids,
dragonborn, shapeshifters, and gorgons.
Starting from the Sea of Fallen Stars and running west along the Sawtooth Ocean to the northern
Frigid Wastes and east to the
Forest of Cormanthyr is a large area dominated mostly by humanoid city-states and kingdoms that use the seas and rivers for trade. For those who care about such things, the area is defined by
Carcino to the very south, Daggerford at the forests edge to the east,
Tarrin at the far north, and Verbobonc on the western seaboard. But there are Dales further in all directions that are not apart of the continental Adlakian Dalelands.
More broadly, the South refers to all the territories on the sub-continent of Kulala, while the west refers to all the western territories beyond the Forest of Cormanthyr and the
Nyr-Dyv more commonly known as the
Plains of Ash.
The King's Council and Court
The King's Council and subsequently the King's Court is an alliance among the rulers of various humanoid settlements. Between these members an elected represenative leader is chosen and given the title of "
Daleking". The number of members on the King's Council, the group's governing body, shifts depending on the current status of alliance member cities and political tensions. Currently the King's Council counts these leaders as council members:
- Filip Thomson, Arch-druid of Five-Oaks
- [Redacted], the Ferrous (Iron) Lord
- [Redacted], the Harold of Hornwood
- [Redacted], Lord of Erythnul
- [Redacted] Blackfiar, Lord of Saddles
- Lauren II, Lord of Thyren and Second Heir to Caste Gottfried
- Giotto Vitelli Geoffry, Lord of Ulek and Third Heir to Castle Gottfried
- [Redacted], Marshal of Conor
- [Redacted] Lockswell, Marshal of Security
- [Redacted], the Mayor of Riverwood
- [Redacted], the Vapple King
- Elton Wilfrid, Viscount of Verbobonc and the Open Lord of Port Hulsor
The King's Council includes the strongest mercantile powers of the Dales, including every member of the
Council of Merchants based out of Carcino. In addition to providing and funding military support and a space for the peaceful discussions of differences, the King's Court has always acted under the principle that communities with common cause that engage in trade are far less likely to go to war with each-other. By maintaining strong trade deals within the Dales as outside of it, the Council and the Court help keep a sort of global peace never experienced during global conquest.
The Veluntian Dalelands
During the late medieval several merchants and powers within the Dalelands sent ships filled with colonists to new lands. Usually selling the land to them at a primium and buying the goods they made on the land at a massive discount. This resulted in several ships being sent to Veluntia. Many would crash, broken and beaten against the whirlpool coast, but those that did survive made it to the southern most point of the continent. Settling there towns and farms began to form, eventually turning into cities, walled castles, and needing a form of government to protect them. Recognizing these new lands, they where allowed to sign the Dalepact, and in doing so the southern region of the continent became known as the Velutnian Dalelands. These frontiers are harder than even the toughest day in the Plains of Ash, as the locals are set upon by not just swelerting heat, but rampant diseases both magical and natural. Along with these threats are the threats of the neighboring kindoms of ravenously hungry lizardfolk, the Drow slavers of the north, and the brutal and masochistic dragonkind that infest their homelands.
Thurdarth the City of Flame and the lost Dwarfholds
The various dwarven and even the deeper
duergar communities of Adlak are survivors and refugees from the great smith kingdoms and their lines of
dwarf forge-masters of long long ago. Despite constant war with the dragonborn, orcs and goblinoids, and gold-drawn monsters, the mountain dwarves have stood tall, determined to hold their ancestral halls against all threats - or die trying - and when necessary reclaim them.
Few holds have survived since the falling of the great dwarven empire, and even fewer deal with the outside world. There are many however that have been lost to the dwarves, like the Starmetal Halls within
Khundurkar now ruled by elves and wizards, or the fabled lost city of Mecuria with its lakes that turned anything that fell in to
silver.
The Elves of the First Forest
Primarily inhabiting the Forest of Cormanthyr are one of the oldest currently surviving civilizations on the continent of Adlak. Mostly wood-elves and high-elves with integrated communities of gnomes, halflings, half-elves, and enclaves of humans. The area is defined by the heavy and old trees of the first forest, and the deepest lake of the world, the Nyr-Dyv (common: Lake of Never Ending Depths). The empire of elves is ruled from the first elvish city of
Nila Edhil (common: The Hill of Waterfalls) north of the Nyr-Dyv and connected by a large river.
The Valley of the Mage and Khundurkar
At the eastern edge of the first forest sits the
Great Barrier Peaks, a large mountain range that stopped the primal forests encroachment any further in that direction. Hidden in the hills and mountains lies a valley, this valley was once ruled by a powerful elven wizard, granting the area its namesake. The valley was originally inhabited by orcs and goblinoids, and some to this day hold belief that the valley is sacred and their rightful homeland. These few are usually unaligned with the greater empire of Phisij; tribes of orcs who are normally friendly and are open to trade and protect their roads often send a champion to the sacred valley for pilgrimage before they can become chieftain. Since the elvish lords passing, the area has seen much strife and turmoil. During the
Green Scourge the area saw its leadership taken over by a powerful conclave of human wizards who shielded the elven-folk from the harm of orcs and goblinoids. But after the scourge, the power-hungry wizards remained in complete oppressive rule until a group of adventures came into the area at the turn of the renaissance. These heroes would cause quite the disturbance with their presence and shift the power back into the people and the elvish armies of Cormanthyr, although not completely removing the wizards and their input from the areas future development.
Before the valley lies a great lone mountain known as
Khundurkar in the
dwarvish tongue (common: The Stone Tooth Peak). This mountain was home to the legendary
clan Durgeddin, smiths of ancient fame and glory of previous ages, now lost to time. This great dwarvish forge and city has been rebuilt by the elves and humans of the valley, and acts as a trade city for the secluded and secretive valley-folk.
The Council
The hidden Valley of the Mage is ruled by a group of humanoids known as the Council. These wizards, generals, and city rulers all have different juristiction and only come together when absoluteltey needed. Most on the Council are rarely if ever seen, being extremely paranoid wizards who stick to the forests and mountains. The public face of the Council is the city leaders and often founders of communities who have juristiction over their little areas of the valley. The generals are tasked with maintaining a constant force around the entire valley's system of guard towers and spearheaded by the
First Protector - a title equally as powerful in the area as the positions
adamantine suit.
The Atletan Tribes and the Pirate Clans
Independent Kingdoms of Ash
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