World

Articles related to the **World**: Economy - Power - Creature - Spell - Evocation - Essence - Cultivation - Mage - Path - School - Mana - Magicite - Scroll - Ritual - Spirit spring - Throne

The world encompasses several distinct places:

## Gaia

The main world, of nature and deserts, plains and mountains. Also called Terra.

Gaia is home to the following races:

* **Humans**: Humans are the dominant race on Gaia, with settlements scattered wherever arable land can be found. They have erected cities of stone and laid roads connecting them, and turned much of the surface of Gaia into farmland. Most of humanity is partitioned into despotic empires under emperors, and feudalistic monarchic kingdoms under kings with a hierarchy of nobility beneath them. Humans rarely have mages on an individual basis, but also have the greatest path diversity among the races. They also have the greatest variety of factions and associated schools of magic.

* **Elves**: These are nature-loving humanoids who have a close kinship with plants and creatures of the wild. Few in number, they reside mostly in enclaves deep within their forests: treetop villages and a few towns made out of elven-song-grown hollowed trees. The elves were the first to discover magic and are the pre-eminent experts on it, but have since then given up much of the arcane and sorcerous in pursuit of druidic magic and being close with nature. Elves predominantly have nature magic and are led by a circle of druids, who are also the most capable in this magic.

* **Goblins, orcs, ogres**: These grotesque, stupid humanoids were once properly human, but were corrupted by a powerful malediction. They all belong to one of several hordes, each led by an ogre warlord, with ogre lieutenants and orc warriors beneath them, and finally the pathetic goblins serve the orcs. These nomadic hordes travel the world, seeking to destroy and plunder all in their path. They capture and forcibly impregnate human women, who then birth more goblins. Goblins who prove their valor may grow up to become orcs and then (rarely) eventually become ogres, but usually they are just eaten by the orcs and ogres.

* Various landbound species, such as critters, vermin, beasts of the forest, trees, and much more.

* Mythological creatures, such as trolls, cyclops, monstras, dragons, and more.

* Dryads: These are the spirits of the woods.

* Treants: Trees that can uproot themselves if awakened.

## Atlantis

The world beneath the waves.

Atlantis is home to the following races:

* **Merfolk**: These are water-breathing, water-bound humanoids with fish-like lower bodies. The males are called mermidons and the females are called mermaids. Mermaids have beautiful, enchanting singing voices and are also called sirens. They live in underground cities, some of which may have air bubble compartments for air-breather guests. Water magic is by far their most common magic path. Merfolk usually keep away from humans but sometimes can be spotted by humans traveling the seas.

* Various marine species, such as fish and sharks, octopi and squids, sea serpents, turtles, crustaceans, and more. The deep seas conceal some titanic creatures, such as krakens, and leviathans large enough to swallow ships whole.

* Undines: These are spirits of water. They are able to come on to land.

## Agartha

The world beneath the ground. The Underways - an extensive network of underground passages, caverns, tunnels and cisterns connects much of Agartha together.

Agartha is home to the following races:

* **Dwarves**: These are stout, short humanoids who dwell in underground halls. They reside close to the surface and are excellent miners and craftsmen. They frequently engage in relations and trade with the peoples on the surface, and so value gold and silver. They are not able to see in the dark and have to light their way (and their settlements) with magicite, which they have enchanted to glow in the dark. Since most of Agartha is hostile to the dwarves, they usually cluster in their mountain holds - Underhalls and Undercities - and the dwarven miners go on "delves" - convoy expeditions into the deeper Underways. Dwarves revere the Earth Mother, which is Agartha in its entirety, and primarily are masters of earth and craft magic.

* **Ratkin**: These small rodent-like creatures are the most numerous denizens of Agartha, usually residing in the middle layer beneath the Dwarves and the more dangerous creatures who reside in the depths. They can see perfectly well in the dark and never carry light sources, making them hard to spot. They are puny and easily scared into fleeing, and in the labyrinthine Underways, they can easily make their getaway. Every once in a while a Ratkin King emerges, uniting local swarms of ratkin, and driving them into invading the surface, where they will destroy livestock, steal food stores, and attack minor settlements until they are invariably crushed by the humans who dwell on the surface.

* **Abyssals**: Also called "darkspawn", abyssals are a variety of nightmarish creatures reside in the depths of Agartha. Born of the darkness at the creation of the world, they start off all trapped beneath solid stone. If they are released, through spell or through the work of over-eager dwarves in the process of mining, these abyssal creatures will attack and consume their victims, and they cannot be reasoned with. They are shrouded and protected by the darkness, and cannot be injured so long as they go unseen. They hate the sunlight, and never emerge upon the surface during daytime, but they may do so at night. The dwarves believe these are the Earth Mother's children.

* **Great Wurms**: These ancient, usually slumbering titanic-sized worms eat solid stone with their massive maws as they tunnel through Agartha. They are the cause of most of the Underways. The races of Agartha know to keep them very well alone, for when they move, the very ground shakes, stone falls from their ceilings and many are crushed. When incensed, they can burst out of the ground and lay waste to entire settlements on the surface, destroying stone walls and buildings with impunity. They are easily dozens of meters wide and hundreds of meters long, and covered in carapace over a meter thick, making them extremely hard to destroy.

## Caelum

The world in the sky. Aside from the ever-changing clouds, there are also a number of floating islands of varying sizes. These appear like up-side-down mountains levitating motionlessly high in the sky and may have greenery and bodies of water on their top surface.

Caelum is home to the following races:

* **Aeria**: These are feathery-winged, lightweight humanoids. They dwell upon the floating islands, therein they have built their cities. Aeria don't mine the floating islands out of fear of destroying their precious homes; instead they fight on behalf of those who summon them, in exchange for runes and magicite. Aeria mages almost exclusively have access to only a few paths of magic: wind, shock, and water/frost.

* Various other flying creatures, such as pegasi, gryphons, wyverns, and sphinxes.

* Sylphs: These are spirits of the wind that reside within the clouds.

## Hell / Inferno

The hellish world of demons, beyond the scope of reality. The entirety of Hell is contained within Tier 8 Hell Transcendent Ess. Inferno is full of over-active volcanoes constantly spewing ash, pyroclastic clouds, and sulfurous rain, and rivers and lakes of lava crisscross the plane. The sky is forever reddish-black with soot and ashes, and the entire world is extremely hot; there is no body of water to be found anywhere. This makes Inferno inhospitable to normal life.

Inferno is home to the following races:

* **Demons**: These come in a wide variety of forms and are arranged in a hierarchy. At the bottom are the imps - small, sneaky, teleporting, winged creatures. There are also the beautiful, charming succubi; lesser demons and fiends; and larger demons like maw fiends, brood mothers and fire-breathing winged balrogs. Lording over them are the dreadlords or "princes" of hell, who are stronger, bigger, tougher, and have more powerful magics. At the top are the four Prime Evils of Inferno: the Tier 7 Transcendent Essences War, Conquest, Famine, and Pestilence, each of whom are ethereal, immortal, and emanate powerful and devastating auras. Various spells can be used to summon the denizens of Inferno into the world of the living. However, the more powerful the demon, the less likely they are to follow orders, and instead they are hellbent on conquering the world and burning it into ashes.

## Void / Heaven

The infinite emptiness beyond the world of the living. It is usually seen as the pitch-black night sky. It is an endless expanse of nothingness, of no air and no ambient mana. It is completely inhospitable to life, except for the celestial spheres wherein the angels dwell.

The void is home to the following races:

* **Angels**: Glowing with inner light and with wings of gleaming energy, the angels are servants of Tier 8 Heaven's Will Ess, one who claims to be the One True God. The Church of Light worships Heaven's Will and exalts the angels. All angels have magic, usually one of holy/light, healing, or protection paths. Angels seek to further good in the world and are diametrically opposed to the demons of Hell, whom they see as spreading evil. If given free reign, Heaven's Will and its host of angels would seek to eliminate all free will from the world, to usher in an era of harmony under the god's theocratic rule. Some very few angels have turned against Heaven's Will, becoming fallen angels in the process. Heaven's Will is sealed within the moon, illuminating it with its silvery light.

* **Horrors**: Eldritch beings from the void. These can vary widely in form. Almost all of them share a few things in common: they hunger for the suffering and misery of sentient life and thirst for the mana and magical power of mages; they are immaterial and aren't really all there and are also resistant to most magic; they are freely floating and teleporting; their mere presence marks the living, and they can then find and pursue the horror marked to the ends of the earth. They also wield various kinds of magic. There are some unique horrors: 1) Doom horrors, which include the Tier 8 Transcendent Essences: Fate, Ruin, Affliction, and Death; and 2) Greater horrors, which include the Tier 7 Transcendent Essences: Fear, Apathy, Malice, Corruption, and Unreason.

* **Souls of the dead**: This is where the souls of the dead eventually reside - trapped in utter darkness, unable to interact with anything, unable to return to the world of the living, unable to go to Heaven, waiting to be fed upon by incomprehensible horrors from the void that are attracted to their suffering. Various necromantic spells can call souls back from the void, but only the Church of Light can restore them back to life.

* **Jinns**: These are ethereal creatures that are able to travel freely between the void and the world of the living, and have various magical powers. A spell can be used to bind jinns to serve the mage's bidding.