Your search for work has found you sitting in a small and crowded waiting room on the top floor of the Silver Spokes Trading Company, a small firm that is just one of dozens of shipping companies in this thriving city. An open window provides a meager breeze and from it you can hear the sounds of the city and see over the docks out to sea.
You are newly arrived in town, but this not unusual. "All roads lead to Hub" as the saying goes, and it's true no matter how you look at it. From the southwest to the northeast the four grand roads extend straight out for thousands of miles all the way to the Wheels. If you leave home then Hub is where you end up no matter how hard you try.
To the south and east is the ocean. You've been told that it's enclosed on all sides by land but find that hard to imagine. It appears to go forever. It takes months to cross. Perhaps you'll make the journey yourself some day.
Who you are and where you've come from are up to you. Here is a brief outline of the core races and where they fit in history and geography:
Corlace, known as Hub to most, is a city built by Humans. Its kingdom is mighty and has survived many dynasties - and it's about to enter a new one.
The King of Corlace is dead and his son Thay, a young man but already a wizard of note, has little interest in the throne. He seems to think that the task of running the kingdom should be handled by a council of people chosen by the general public. With such power up for grabs every group in society is tense, and gathering its strength.
Halflings have a homeland on a string of islands far across the ocean, but history has found them living alongside humans in shore communities everywhere.
Everyone knows that dwarves are from the Wheels but no one knows where their cities are, exactly. The dwarves have built (and successfully defended for millenia) a small fortress near the terminus of each of the four great roads. It is through these strongholds that they enter enter and exit general society.
Elves live beyond the Wheels, to the north, where another ocean lies. Not much is known about that land except that this other ocean is bitterly cold, and nothing but thick forest exists between the moutains and the shore.
Gnomes come from the lands to the east, beyond the Wheels which lie lower in that direction. The land beyond is dangerous, dry, and horrid. The gnomes are the last vestige of civilization.
Half-orcs make up a sizable portion of the population of Gurrem, a kingdom to the east of Corlace. Gurrem has long fought orc armies and all manner of invaders from the dusty lands beyond the Wheels. The Wheels, which are not mountains to the east but have been worn down by the winds into sharp cliffs, ravines and rolling rocky hills offer no natural protection to Gurrem from the outer lands.
Some half-orcs join the wilder armies. Some find their home among the steadfast and militant people of Gurrem. Gurrem resents Corlace for its safety and has sometimes attacked it in the past just to prove a point but distance (and the Great Walled Road of Prokeles) makes prolonged war unfeasible. There is no trade allowed between the two kingdoms.
Gurrem defends itself through discipline, and its people have been forged by their struggle and harsh environment. It is famed for its monasteries, dedicated to the god Aurex, high against the jagged cliffs where their royal guard and much of its army train to be monks.
No comments:
Post a Comment