Guiding Light of Koria

Introduction to Koria

Welcome, weary traveller. You saw our menu and weren't sure what to get? Sure, come right in, sit at the bar and we direct you to one of our tables. You can keep your goods, but please refrain from drawing weapons or weapon-like objects of any kind.

— The Caretaker

Hu, what, where am I?

You are in Koria. The largest explored continent on this world and - at least to the beliefs of nearly every scholar - the only continent.

You came here at a very unpleasant time, friend. Well, at least for the inhabitants. Koria is still shaken from the Spiral incident around sixty years ago. Normality is slowly creeping into the lives of the people again. But things are not stable, things are not coming back to normality. Not really. People pay taxes to support the Electorial Congregation and the Black Fortress; they craft armour, weapon or just clothes to support it.

But the Spiral is not the only thing in this vast world. A lot to explore, a lot to see, to feel. To read. And this is what Koria is about: Stories. Small stories of love and kindness. Large stories of loss and war. And everything in between.

If you want to start somewhere you should explore the Caretaker's Inn first. I think the Caretaker will make an exception for you since his refuge is for gods and non-mortal beings only. Further on you might want to take a look at the Races throughout Koria.

But from here I should give you a hand. There are things you might want to see and you might not want to see, probably best avoid them, aye? This includes the stories written down on parchment. Those are the stories written in Koria, revolving around the Spiral incident and whatever is happening during, after and before it. Even hundreds of years ago. You might encounter things you enjoy and things you want to forget. To make your journey worth your while and ensure your safety, we have three tours pre-booked for you.

Read the description and pick your poison. A small notice right before it: whatever tour you take, you encounter everything else as the way it is intended, with all the information needed. Like the Caves of Joy. But if you take one of the tours you will get more details and a bit more insight. So fret not, there is nothing locked away behind a wall. Maybe only behind a thin veil. The tours will give you a deeper insight without locking away the more grounded articles and stories.

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Inquisitor

The Inquisitor is doing what an Inquisitor does best: knows everything and when he doesn't know it, it might not be worth knowing or he doesn't know it now, but will know it eventually. No secret too dirty, no affair too raunchy, no story too bloody for the Inquisitor. The Inquisitor knows everything.
Meaning: if you want to read everything in the articles and every story in the Tales of Koria, every detail, you take this tour.

Mortal God

The Mortal God is a rank dedicated to the individuals who are diving into the Spiral to slaughter demons, harvest information, loot whatever they can find, be it relics, knowledge or just clothes. A Mortal God is by nature a being with enormous power. Be it in magic or by the craft of the sword. They venture down the dwindling roads, leaving corpses and blood in their wake. Some of them are assigned to other tasks outside of the spiral, no less bloody than the adventures in the spiral.
Meaning: if you want to read about the more gory, bloody details in the articles or the stories in the Tales of Koria, you might want to take this tour.

Formulist

A Formulist is a special kind of being. A being who is assigned a task, fulfills it and will not talk about it. That can be a scribe to catalogue and document the doings of a dark sorcerer, a researcher, an archeologist or more... discreet affairs.
Meaning: if you want to read more about the raunchy details or to dive directly into the steaming pile of... well, then you might want to take this tour.

If you want to dig a bit deeper into the lore and the profession of the Mortal God, Formulist or Inquisitor - and their shenanigans - I got you covered below.

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Lets shed some light

Koria is not simple. There are a few things you need to know. The way of the different kinds of magic, their power sources, their ways of working. Or how the belief-system works, what is an Eternal, what is an Outer God or an Inner God.

Belief-System

The Belief-System in Koria has basically three layers: the Eternals, the Outer Gods and the Inner Gods. It trickles down from the Eternals to the Inner Gods. Now lets talk who is who and why they are the way they are.

Eternal

The Eternals (Link in the sidebar) are exactly that: Eternal. They embody the concept of Life and Death as a "person". They are the designers of the world, of Koria and nearly every species (except for the Dragonborn and the Underlings) living on this continent. They love each other dearly and are only remembered by the Elves, be it High-, Wood- or Silver Elves. And since they do not depend on whether or not the beings in Koria believe in them, they persists and are Eternal. From time to time they come down to Koria for giggles or to experience life down there from more mortal perspectives.

Outer God

An Outer God represents a more general, overarching concept. Best example for this is the Goddess of the Forge. She was believed into existence by a lot of people who dreamed about a god or goddess (it appeared to be a goddess for many) of smithing. You see, it is more about overarching concepts, encapsulating the Inner Gods.
The Goddess of the Forge is more often believed by the Dwarves, but hey, they are Dwarves; if they do not believe, who would? So every Outer God like a God of the Wind or Goddess of Sand are general concepts. They might have ethnicity-specific Inner Gods (think about it as a an Avatar of sorts), but are believed to be the embodiement of a general concept.

Inner God

An Inner God represents a concept which is believed by an ethnicity or group of people, for example the Goddess of Sleep Alicia or Luseus, the God of Healing in Hulwar. Those might have some influence in other realms the moment someone starts to believe in them in a different location, but mostly they are confined to a specific area. Like Greybeard, the main god of the Dwarves, who has many names, but is the same god in every clan.
For example Luseus is believed to be the god of restoration in Hulwar. This means he and his rival, the Bringer of Plagues, are confined to Hulwar and the outskirts of the land itself. If there is a worshipper of him who is going to the Elves or another part of a human nation, the influence and belief of Luseus is traveling with the worshipper and gives the god eyes and ears far away from his working area.

Inspiration to Koria

My meta is fresh and still steaming from the heat of the forge, so you can read more of the scope, my inspiration and other parts of my meta here if you follow this. There are also my inspirations, texts and music settled in.

Races

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Magic

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Eternals

Map of Koria

Koria

Open full size

Map of the megaproject Koria.

Tales of Koria

The Tales of Koria evolve around the Spiral, but are not confined by it. You can experience the Creation, the work of Roland, Outer Gods, Inner Gods, Dark Mages or just some maiden who might be an apprentice of some sort or the desperate attempt of surival in general.

For this part we have pre-booked the tours from before. Here you can pick your poison, but as stated, only a small fraction is behind the thin veil which is the tour you might want to take.

Tales of Koria: The Creation - Where to start

READ

But don't fret, at this place we will gather all the other novels which are about to come. The first one will be the "Black Rune" nove, evolving around a certain elf and their adventures in the University of Hulwar. Stay tuned.

For further readings