Prominence

Nestled at the center of the orbit of three moons, Prominence passes another year, 877 days around its main star, Idris, and its lesser star Idren. The planet provides a home to six landmasses, each with a variety of cultures, societies, political organizations, and trade networks.

Water divides all.

Prominence's expansive oceans present obstacles for information exchange and trade which have yet to be overcome by any except the most hardy of seafarers. Flash nutmeg, sweet cinnamon, long pepper, and dragonbark make their way along treacherous routes, and every port and raider takes their share. On the western continent of Canar, knowledge of remote, exotic lands sells a higher price than blood and peaceful folk would kill to obtain even a tattered scrap of parchment with secrets of navigating the open sea. Along the interior of the southern continent of Bheid, sea trade sustains a way of life for rough people accustomed to famine, disease, and harsh climes. And there are other far off lands besides continents, a thousand-thousand isolated islands and atolls, each at the mercy of the mighty sea.

In spite of this natural barrier, there are similarities that all cultures share here, and one sameness sleeps near all that inhabit Prominence: Giants. They slumber on every continent and according to recorded history, they've never awoken. Cultures call them the lost ones or worship them as gods. All choose to let sleeping giants lie.

A second sameness might be trod over by the hoof of a chestnut horse travelling to market, or set into the foundation of a townhall, perhaps even held by accident on a fateful night by a frightened stowaway: Bide stones. Within each stone, the power to shape Prominence awaits. They hold a dormant magic many yearn to exploit and as such a religious order,

The Abidement, regulates their use.

The final sameness is a long dead language, Vrolua, the tongue spoken by the first peoples to inhabit Prominence. They were the first to name the moons and chart the stars and sail the world's deadly seas. Some say they knew the names of the giants too or that they were giants. Their language birthed all other tongues. The Abidement's holy script exists in thousands of languages, but its first words were written in Vrolua.