The World of Anthros - Introduction

[Trailfoot]

GEOGRAPHY

The planet Anthros has four continents, one located in the northern hemisphere; the other three in the southern. The northern continent is unnamed, but is divided into four main regions - the Core, the Fringe, the Swampland, and the North.

The largest of the southern continents is referred to as the Fallen Star, and the entire landmass is taken up by a single nation, the Empire of the Fallen Star. The Empire is a feudal monarchy, with a government system I'll discuss in a later post.

The second largest of the southern continents is called Ulen, though some in Celeis refer to it as The Land Where No One Goes. While fertile and beautiful, this landmass is inhabited by powerful monsters, including the legendary and indestructable Tarrasque. Thus, it is completely devoid of humanoid settlement, and even powerful adventurers tend to avoid it.

The fourth continent is also uninhabited, but that is because it is a barren wasteland. There is some plant and animal life there, and it is known that there is at least one illithid colony on this landmass, but humanoids find it nearly impossible to survive on.

[Trailfoot]

THE NORTHERN CONTINENT

The largest continent on Anthros is the one in the north, which is divided into four main regions - the Core in the west, the Fringe in the east, the Swampland in the interior, and the North in the northern reaches.

The Fringe is composed of varied geography, from the high mountains of Ymardos to the fertile plains of Zalten to the sweeping desert of Slen. Within this region are various nation-states, each independant of the others. The primary powers of the Fringe are the Kingdom of Teras, a theocratic monarchy ruled by king-priests of the line of the Immortal Patron of Suffering, and the Kingdom of the Lesser Moon, an Elvish nation which retains its power due to both control over most of the major trade routes across the Fringe and the eliteness of their border and road patrols. Elves, being immortal, have a long time to learn their trades.

The Swampland of Xan lies between the Fringe and the Core, and is considered by most to be the most unpleasant region on all of Anthros. Hot, humid, with constant rain, the Swampland is a realm tainted by the deaths of the Dragon-Gods. Dark Storms rise in the Swampland during the summer months, storms with winds that often exceed a hundred miles an hour. The goblinoid tribes who inhabit the Swampland keep their settlements mobile to avoid these storms, and traders who go between the Core and the Fringe use ships and sail well off the coast during the summer. In the center of the Swampland is the Mount of Creation, a monolithic mountain also referred to as Kronin's Volcano. Within a cave near the peak of this enormous mountain rests Kronin, Eldest of the Red, the most powerful and oldest of Anthros's dragons. A direct creation of Tiamat, Kronin is nearly six thousand years old. Within his treasure hoard rests the legendary Orb of Anthros, the focus of the Spell of Ascension, the relic used by the Potter to craft the lands and seas.

[Trailfoot]

THE CORE AND THE NORTH

Moving west from the Swampland you reach the Core. Once, this region was composed of nation-states much as was the Fringe, but that was before the Ascension of Celeis, the Sorceress, First of the Immortals, Patron of Magic. Celeis united the once-warring states of the Core into a single Empire. Wielding her incredible divine power, she then granted each inhabitant of the Empire the knowledge of a new language. This language was Old Celeisian. Today, the Empire of Celeis is a nearly-homogenous culture. Once considered to be composed of nearly a hundred different ethnicities, now the people of the Empire are referred to simply as Celeisians.

The North was also united by an Immortal, though the nature of this Immortal was quite different. Pandora, Mistress of the Night, granted her immortality by the Dark Force Proteus rather than through the Spell of Ascension, led the Shadow-Lords to conquor the barren lands of the North. The taint of the Empire of Blin is a constant threat to those south of it, for Pandora still lives on Anthros. In the Citadel of Shadows, the youngest of the Immortals plans the defeat of any who oppose the Transcendant Deity of Destruction.

[Trailfoot]

THE FALLEN STAR

The last of the great Empires of Anthros which must be discussed is the Fallen Star. This Empire exists on the largest of the continents in the southern hemisphere, and holds a very different culture from those of the northern continent. The feudal monarchy of the Fallen Star is led by an Emperor, who is advised by the Council of the Seven Clans - the surly Crab, the honorable Crane, the ancient Dragon, the proud Lion, the mystic Phoenix, the swift Unicorn, and the crafty Scoripion. Each of these clans controls a large region of the Empire, yet the capital, Sirius the City on the Mountains, is ruled only by the Emperor.

Each of the Great Clans has a Sacred Road which leads to the capital, and a High City from which their leaders rule their provinces. For another clan to cut off this road, or to attack this city, without the express permission of the Emperor and a majority vote in the Council, amounts to treason by the attacking clan's daimyos, who are subject to death by decapitation and replacement by any citizen of that clan chosen by the Emperor. This ensures that the leaders of each clan will always have access to the Imperial City. Robbery or murder along the Sacred Roads is also a high crime, and the penalty for it for a commoner is death by crucifixion. For a nobleman who engages in or supports such crime, the penalty is eternal torture through soul-imprisonment.

Such crimes are not committed often.

The seat of the Emperor is hereditary, passed down along the male line from times unremembered. However, there are laws about which clan the Emperor is a member of. Rather than delude themselves into believing that the Emperor could ever be of no clan, the founders of the Empire of the Fallen Star instead enacted a set rotation. Each Emperor must take a wife from the clan next in the rotation, and the Imperial Heir will be raised according to the traditions of the wife's clan, rather than the previous Emperor's. This ensures that the imperial line holds blood from all the Great Clans.