A Brief Introduction to Irion

Irion is a world defined by its magic, an energy field that builds up over time to incredible heights before striking like lightning. These magical storms have entirely unpredictable effects - they can be as miraculous as spontaneously awakening a being into sapience, as apocalyptic as raising the dead to consume the living, or anywhere in between. Irion's four major regions are primarily defined by their approach to surviving the worst these storms have to offer.

Geographic Regions

Across the surface of the world can be found the Wildlands, where the magical storms rage unchecked. Most cultures living in these realms are nomadic, ready to flee any threat that arises they cannot face at a moments notice, though some have found other solutions: scattered bastions built from caves through millenia of carving and fortification, hidden towns that withdraw to other planes when threatened, and legends abound of a city that floats high above, drifting on the winds.
Deep below the surface lies another world, one that has never felt the sun's heat. Here, in the Depths, its peoples are spared the worst of the magical storms (for it is in air and fire that magic can be found, and down here there is mostly earth. To many a surface dweller, this fact alone would make these caverns seem a paradise, but there are still many dangers that stalk the tunnels, often hunting in ways those surface dwellers can barely conceive of, let alone survive.
To most surface dwellers, the open sea is among the most feared of all terrains, for the open waters can conceal all manner of dangers. But deep beneath the waves and sea beasts spawned by the magic storms lies the Mer: an undersea where magic itself is a rarity and magic storms a myth from far off lands. Here, there is no air or fire to carry magic, except for precious reservoirs brought down from above. The Mer is home to a wide variety of sea life, the most recognizable of which are the Sahuagin, whose raiding expeditions up into the shallows occasionally threaten coastal lands, and the Sea Elves, whose tight-lipped emissaries emerge every few years to trade with their surface-dwelling cousins.
The last, and newest of these lands, called the civilized world by its residents and the Sleeping Lands by everyone else, found a unique solution to magical storms: a magical device capable of absorbing magic and suppressing the magical storms that plague the Wildlands while still permitting smaller scale magical effects. The Sleeping Lands are made up of a dozen or so countries. Two of these, Kinilan and Chelestra, have recently ended their decades long war over the Iron Hills border region, much to the relief of most of their neighbours.

Aftermath of the Great War

It has been less than a year since the end of the Great War in the Iron Hills, and both Kinilan and Chelestra are struggling to recover after so many years of war.
In Kinilan, a relatively new republic, there are a number of factions vying for power, including military leaders who gained immense amounts of influence during the war, magi eager to set aside the weapons of war and develop Arcanomechanics from a handful of useful gadgets and toys into the foundation of an age of unprecedented industry, and nobles from before the revolution seeking to restore the old kingdom. There are also fears that agents from other countries might seek to take advantage of Kinilan's weakened state - some even fear an opportunistic invasion. Making matters worse, an early frost struck with grapes still on the vine in many of Kinilan's fine vineyards, which has led to a shortage of food imports. With a large refugee population yet to settle back into the Iron Hills and some refusing to honour rationing laws as the war has come to an end, food is now more expensive than it ever war during the war.
Chelestra, meanwhile, has its own issues to deal with. The unfavourable end of the war has angered many of the nobles and other major figures in the kingdom, and the treaty that ended the war has given Kinilan a grace period to recover from the war before they can reap any benefits from the war, and those benefits were far more limited than they had hoped for. As such, some of these nobles have plans to interfere with the recovery efforts in the Iron Hills. Some are even carefully discussing the possibility of assassinating the King and placing his son on the throne, reasoning that a regent selected from the nobility might be more willing to cater to noble interests.