Drachen

Since the Sundering, the realm that would become Drachen was marked by being almost entirely cut off from the collapsed Leylines, which severed the mortal realm from the forces of magic which had dominated the history of the old world. The arcane only survived in the internal sources that remained in Drachen - the Dragons themselves, who had largely gone into hibernation in the aftermath. Without magic, the old nations that had remained in Drachen were quickly dissolved, and Drachen plunged into its Age of Darkness. Drachen now, in comparison to the other two fragments of the Old World, is dominated by men and their advances in technology, not by clinging to the arcane.

Geography

Drachen itself is vast, with many of its furthest corners lost after the Sundering, and the corners that have since been rediscovered, such as The Frontier, have vastly changed since their recordings in the Old World - presumably brought on by the collapse of the high magic that once prevailed. Stories of exploration are well documented, but oft exaggerated by those who have explored the world and brought back tales of what they have seen.

Auldlund

Main Article: Auldlund
Auldlund, sometimes known as the Cradle of Empires, is the former location of the seat of the Eladrin Dominate before the Sundering, and has been the focal point of much of Drachen's history since. Auldlund is bordered by Landsmeet to the southeast, connecting it to The Silver Coast and Zahadria; The Great Wastes to the east, which eventually border onto Wuxia in the far east; and the Worldsea to the west, across which lies the Frontier.

The Silver Coast

Main Article: The Silver Coast
To the east of Landsmeet, the large peninsula that links the west, east and south, lies the Silver Coast, a name given to any land between Auldlund in the west, and Wuxia in the east, separated from the Great Wastes by the waters of the Oriental Sea. The Silver Coast has often been turbulent, with many nations rising and falling along the stretch of land, fuelled by lucrative trade routes between the east and west. The Silver Coast itself is bordered onto the Worldsea to the south.

Wuxia

Main Article: The East
The nation of Wuxia is large enough that it lends its name to the surrounding continent, one that is at the eastern edge of Drachen, and much of its landscape is expectedly dominated by Wuxia and its many protectorates. The Worldsea extends around much of Wuxia's southern and eastern edges; it links with Auldlund via The Great Wastes to its northwest; and borders directly onto The Silver Coast to the southwest, across the Loquing mountains. The xenophobic and isolationist island nation of Teikoku is off the southeastern coast of Wuxia, and remains the furthest eastern point known on Drachen.

Zahadria

Main Article: Zahadria
Sometimes also referred to by its old name of the Land of Sands, Zahadria was thought to be nothing more than an endless desert that expanded to the south, until explorers in the Age of Discovery were able to navigate its southern point. Beyond Zahadria's expansive desert north lies a land of tropical and almost otherworldly plants and animals. Zahadria has recently become of interest to the empires of Auldlund, as the giant trees of Zahadria's rainforests produce fine hardwood quite unlike those seen in Auldlund, but the forests themselves are chokingly humid and hostile.

The Frontier

Main Article: The Frontier
With no land connections to Auldlund, The Frontier has only been rediscovered in the past 200 years, and travel to and from the new continent have only become possible with the increasing number of advancements in shipbuilding and navigation. The Frontier itself is largely undiscovered, with many expeditions across its vast landmass failing to return. The Frontier is situated on the former base of power for the Seelie Court in the Old World, and much of the Frontier has close links with the Feywilds.

Fauna & Flora

Many of Drachen's beasts may seem fantastical, but due to the nature of the collapse of the Leylines, very few retain any sort of arcane prowess; those that do tend to be draconic in nature. Instead, those that survive are more physical beings, such as Griffins or Owlbears, which may trace their lineage back to the high magic of the Old World, but are entirely non-magical in capability. Creatures that had relied too heavily on magic were quickly made extinct after the Sundering, with any connection to the Leylines severed in the wake of that cataclysm.
The most powerful of these beasts are the Dragons, which lend Drachen its namesake. Dragons are most notable for their incredible arcane power, which they have retained even with the events of The Sundering; indeed, a Dragon seems to be a wellspring of its own arcane might, and the blood of Dragons, be it through familial ties or through the purposeful intake and careful control of, has formed the basis of what little magic remains in Drachen. Dragons themselves are rare and oft dormant, but the ire of a dragon has proven enough to decimate entire kingdoms in the past.

Natural Resources

Drachen shares similar resources with the Old World from which it was separated, with a wide variety of natural resources that vary considerably with the geography - from large iron deposits present across much of the north, hidden in the earth beneath the tundra, to the wide and expansive forests that dot much of the known world. Drachen's accessible natural resources have been essential to the growth of the myriad nations that inhabit it, and the recent industrialisation of many of these nations and empires has seen these resources produced and exploited on a scale previously unthinkable.
Drachen is perhaps most notable in that it is one of the only planes on which Viridian is found, a fact that many of its inhabitants are unaware of given the metal's seeming ubiquity. Viridian has shaped much of Drachen's history, and its sensitivity to the arcane, combined with the general fear of the arcane that has been bred in its absence, has allowed for institutions such as the Witchhunters to rise to prominence.

Alternative Name(s)

The Prime Plane, The Mundane Plane

Type

Planar Sphere/Grouping

Location under

The Multiverse

Included Locations

• The East