Ormais, the Long Meander

A seemingly ordinary planet orbiting a star, the world that has come to be known as Ormais is fundamentally like many others within the cosmos which, by dint of an accidental combination of geophysical events, have managed to support complex organic life. But in addition to the laws of physics, the fate of this world has also been shaped by an innate presence of magic.   Like drifting mist, the enigmatic raw magic ventures across the planet's surface, changing what it encounters. Its influence has drastically affected history, creating peoples, creatures, and locations which are not of nature, yet strangely familiar. Their struggles and differences have manifested an intricate and evocative world where any way of life can find its place.   But time has not been easy on anyone. Great conflicts and cataclysms have shaken the world, and even long years of relative peace have not healed the cracks, especially as forces are always seeking to reignite the perils of the past.  

Origins: For the Player

For the sake of posterity, let it be known that this text was constructed according to a handful of specific purposes. Understanding these may help the reader to match the author's mindset, as well as to effectively divulge from that mindset if they so choose. The world described below is intended to serve the following principles:
· Return to the Origins of the Material: There is a staggering amount of fantasy in the world today, and it is as diverse as anyone could imagine, but there is a tendency to follow leads established by certain very popular prior works. In particular, the likes of The Lord of the Rings and Dungeons and Dragons have made marks that almost any fantastical work will at least marginally touch. For the sake of originality, as well as to justify what finds its way to the page with reason rather than a bare homage, I have attempted to ignore the last century or so of literature, and return to the mythological origins from which these concepts stem, seeking to understand the purpose they serve in a story and provide a meaningful way to convey that purpose. The results are, in many respects, almost the same, but there are variations which will hopefully pique the curiosity of the reader.
· Internal Consistency and Logic: The details presented herein are not random, nor are they solely included to satisfy the particular desires of players (although this is a consideration they are integrated within the common narrative of the setting itself, and have been developed in tandem with each other, the better to make an immersive and relatable world.
· Diversity of Possibilities: To increase the ability of a given player to find a place and a character type that satisfies them, these factors have been diversified as much as possible. Thus, each lineage has at least two and as many as six subtypes, and is associated with multiple cultures and places. On the downside, this makes the resultant world as a whole so complex that it may be daunting to first-time players. Thus, the text is geared to present pieces of the whole one at a time.
· Nicknames: Each race, place name, etc has a secondary descriptive name in English to help the reader remember them. These names apply in-universe, but their purpose is to ensure that, if a player forgets what seems to be an arbitrary collection of syllables, they will still remember the meaning attached to those sounds and be able to reference the correct people and places without difficulty.  

Origins: For the Setting

The following are rules of thumb which determine the nature of the world itself, and its emergent history. Knowing these will help understanding the cohesion of the setting and to avoid breaking it without intent.
· Scientific Creation: Although this world is fantastic in nature, its physicality is the same as ours: it was created by stellar and geological processes, and its life arose through biological evolution. Though some of its inhabitants may claim its development was overseen by gods, there is no way to be sure of this. The people who live here also depend on biological processes, though these are enhanced by magical abilities.
· The Influence of Raw Magic: Where this world diverges from ours is in the presence of Raw Magic. This energy, like a drifting fog, meanders throughout the world, causing magical mutations in the life it encounters. Animals are sometimes greatly changed, but seldom pass on their altered traits, so evolution in the grand scale is little affected. However, those beings who are self-aware are able to draw greater amounts of Raw Magic for their own ends; in so doing, they cause even greater changes in themselves, and thus their progeny. As a result of this, the diverse and Lineages now fill the world, all of them enhanced at least a little bit with magical traits.
· Religious Ambiguity: For the sake of storytelling diversity, there are numerous religious belief systems present on this world. Many of them are mutually exclusive, for instance making opposing claims about the ultimate origin of intelligent life. From a worldwide perspective, it is impossible to empirically verify that any of these claims are true. Even those who gain great magical power by their membership within a religious system cannot prove that their power comes from an external divine source, and not their own faith, shaped by a shared concept of divinity. Likewise, no religious belief can either be entirely dismissed.