New World

In ancient times, on the continent where Coozledorf now sits (confusingly called the New World), kingdoms warred with each other. There were the soulmagic dwarves, the dragon kingdoms (e.g., Azmoraidorax and Esmera), hobgoblins, and various human kingdoms. Out of the north came a particularly brutal human warrior named Geldan. He warred upon the other nations and was almost always victorious. He never established his own kingdom but was content to just roam with his band, fighting and subjugating everyone he encountered.
Eventually, he discovered an ancient magic throne, left by the gods that would allow a mortal to achieve immortality and ascend to godhood without transcending to another plane. He sat upon this Immortal Throne and gained its power. In so doing, he realized that nothing was left on this continent for him to conquer and, with the new power, he found a new continent (now confusingly called the Old World). He went and conquered the races who lived there. Unable to defeat Geldan, the giants--the mightiest of the races who inhabited the continent--decided to sail away based on the divination of one of their shamans that the secret to Geldan's downfall lay in another continent. They eventually found the continent that Geldan had originally come from. This development caused Geldan to realize that if the giants or some other mortal being found his Immortal Throne, they would possibly be able to disrupt or usurp his power. As such, he cast a mighty spell that killed off the majority of creatures in his home continent and sealed it away via magic fog, making an approach to the continent unnavigable. While some beings were able to survive (including the giants, by sealing themselves away deep inside volcanic mountains), civilization there crumbled.
Emperor Geldan, with nothing further to fight or conquer, decided to establish an Empire named after himself. After thousands of years, the Empire eventually sprawled the entire continent from sea to sea and is where the characters in this Westmarches campaign originally set out from. In recent years, the Empire's absolute control weakened and the fog surrounding the other continent began to disappear. The Emperor has not been seen for many years and those at the highest levels of government and are privy to some inkling of what he truly is, know he sits alone in his chambers, eyes closed, not eating or drinking. They believe he has found a way to transcend the plane and no longer cares what happens here.
Then for one reason or another, Geldan's old home continent is discovered, though the journey is treacherous, with many ships still lost to the remnants of Geldan's old spell. The characters were among the first to cross the sea, hoping to make their name and fortune in this forgotten old realm.