Laptew

**Laptew** is a plane notable for being very friendly towards most planeswalkers, and having a network of planar portals constructed by the planeswalker and lithomancer Kovach Eltio. The plane is divided into seven countries, most of which keep to themselves causing a degree of technological difference from country to country. Prior to the Mending, Kovach treated Laptew much like a playground, constructing planar portals and creating strange geography wherever he saw fit. While ostensibly the king of only Recedor, rulers of other countries had little recourse against the oldwalker.

Laptew is the setting of Villains: The Musical and Commander: Legends of Laptew.

## Countries of Laptew

### Koras

Koras serves as the main setting of Villains: The Musical. Koras is a near anarchy state, with the limited amount of governance being provided by the Legends of Laptew. Despite the limited government, Koras is thriving economically, giving rise to the arts displayed in Villains to pull attention away from the areas where the country is failing.

A notable landmark of Koras is the Vault of Kovach, a vault constructed by the planeswalker in an area that was isolated as a holding area for dangerous items that either could not or should not be destroyed. After his death, people began to live around the area, and eventually found the vault. The Legends of Laptew would commandeer the vault and continue using it as Kovach did. It would be raided during Villains: The Musical, but due to Saia Evigal both running the heist and the Legends of Laptew at the time, it was believed that nothing had actually been taken.

Koras is home to the Novea and Ophorio planar portals, however, following the events of Shadows of Vaask, the Novea portal was broken by Arc Atencio. Following the events of Ophorio (set), the Ophorio portal is no longer operational.

### Akrume

Akrume is an old monarchy that was once a superpower on the plane, but has been on the decline ever since the rise and fall of the Urchin King and slipping to the wealth of Koras and Diasune.

Akrume is home to the Arqaan and Carullo planar portals.

### Diasune

In recent times, Diasune has established itself as a democracy and is one of the few countries actively focused on expanding. Originally it had targeted the largely uncivilized Scuripi continent across the sea, but after being counterattacked by the local squirrels armed with the Atlas of Worlds, Diasune pulled out of Scuripi. Instead its attention has turned towards neighboring Akrume and bringing prosperity to the border towns in an attempt to get them to defect.

Diasune is home to the Pguqium planar portal.

### Scuripi

Scuripi is one of the smallest of Laptew's countries and the home to the majority of its sapient squirrel population. The flora and fauna of Scuripi is significantly larger than that found anywhere else on the plane, making developing the land difficult. The squirrels live among the trees instead, largely keeping to themselves as long as everyone else keeps to themselves.

Scuripi is home to the Tirvana planar portal.

### Evigius

Evigius is the furthest northern country of Laptew. While settlements dot the tundra, they are largely self-contained and there is no encompassing government of the country. Evigius is the home of Saia Evigal, a planeswalker that has lived there so long no one is certain if she is named after the country, or the country is named after her.

Evigius is home to the Ainox and Usona planar portals.

### Caladon

Caladon is a fiercely isolationist nation. Little is known about the country, but the few natives who have left promise a great deal of technology unlike that seen elsewhere on the plane, some of which they have replicated and began a technological boom for the rest of the plane.

Caladon is home to the Skalor planar portal, though this is unknown to outsiders.

### Recedor

In ancient times, Recedor was a thriving country, home to the largest cities on Laptew, and ruled over by Kovach. Today, much of the country is desert and few people call the place a permanent home. Recedor is the subject of many rumors, that it collapsed after a massive phoenix incinerated an entire country, that small people live inside the mountain range that splits the country, that Kovach is still alive, buried in there with them... but of course, they are just rumors, with no evidence behind them at all.

Recedor is home to the Edarin and Xazerial planar portals, though the Xazerial portal was broken by Arc Atencio.

## A History of Villainy

In Villains: The Musical, the titular musical went over the history of five of the most notorious names in Laptew's history:

### Sartha, the Living Source

Sartha was a mage and child prodigy from Diasune. Where most Laptesian mages focused on a single school of magic and grew deeply divided over it, Sartha was able to learn a number of different types. Sartha believed that others could do the same as her if they tried, and that sharing magic this way would heal the animosity among the mage world. While she gained some support, the great majority of mages were against her, and her ability to use multiple types of magic was indeed a rarity.

Sartha devoted herself to learning how to change it, writing the Arcananomicon as she studied how magic worked, and how she could change it for everyone. While warned off this path by Saia, Sartha dove deeper and deeper into magic until the fateful day when she confronted Laptew's god of fire. Where Saia had warned her, the fire god attacked, but he was too late. Sartha and the Arcananomicon ripped the soul from the god, turning him into nothing more than a powerful spell in Sartha's arsenal, and a persistent anger within her mind. But she had achieved a part of her goal. No longer hoarded by the god of fire, pyromancy could now be learned by anyone... to sometimes disastrous results. But Sartha looked past it. Finally, her goal was in reach.

One by one, Sartha hunted down the gods. One by one, she turned them into nothing more than a spell. One by one, her mind frayed under the increasing pressure. With all the gods in her book, she declared herself the goddess of magic. With all the gods in her head, she finally snapped. Spells of all kinds flooded from her body, causing unpredictable damage to everything around her. By the time the spells had ceased, Sartha was gone, leaving behind only the Arcananomicon, the Tome of Loss. With the gods gone, magic became harder to learn for everyone. But with the gods gone, a person could learn whatever types of magic they put their effort into.

### Hitana, the Mad Doctor

Doctor Hitana was many things. A thief, a con artist, a graverobber, and most definitely not a doctor, but most of all, a fleshcrafter. Where some mages played with fire, Hitana twisted the flesh of anything he could get his hands on, with a particular interest in combining creatures to create something greater than the sum of their parts. Hitana's specialty was limbs, adding arms or legs or wings or tails or tentacles to things and seeing how they improved or faltered with the change. But other fleshcrafters had started thinking bigger, working on ways to meld not body parts, but brains. Not long after learning of the testing, Hitana would steal as much of the notes on the testing as he could and ran off to experiment on his own.

This was a far more dangerous practice than Hitana had ever attempted before. No one would miss a stray cat or a buried relative, but to create a great intelligence required good, living brains, that could easily become dead brains during the procedure. So Hitana did his best to find good-enough, living brains that would be missed only slightly more than a stray cat. After a number of failures and partial successes, Hitana would find the formula for increasing intelligence, but he needed more than just to make a slightly smarter merfolk. And so Hitana prepared for his greatest creation.

Body agile like an elf, but sturdy as an ox. Teeth like a shark, and of course the lungs of a merfolk so it could be amphibious. All tied together with the mind and spells of a wizard. Masoh, the monster was born. Before Hitana could celebrate, it broke the restraints and threw him aside. He tried to disassemble it, but the wizard-monster easily countered it and escaped. Hitana had succeeded too well, and now his greatest monstrosity was loose.

Stopping Masoh would prove difficult with its great physical strength combined with magical prowess. HItana knew the only way to stop it was the same way it had been created, but it needed to be done in a way the monster would not suspect. While the monster attacked poorly defended towns, Hitana went back to testing with brains. He did not need a grand spell, but a gentle one that would go unnoticed. Not a melding of brains, but a twitch to turn a suggestion into a demand. Soon, the spell was ready, and placed upon an amulet. Hitana confronted the monster, asking it to return to his lab for new improvements. For a moment, he feared it would not be strong enough and he would die there. But the amulet worked its magic. Masoh returned, and allowed itself to be dismantled. For all his efforts, Hitana was now imprisoned, and his amulet locked away in the Vault of Kovach.