Calorum

Map of Calorum by Jon Pintar from A Crown of Candy

Map of Calorum by Jon Pintar from The Ravening War

A mini version of the map, featured in Episode 12: Rescue at Buzzybrook

The Ravening War

**Calorum** is the campaign setting for *Dimension 20's* fifth season, *A Crown of Candy* and the sixteenth season, *The Ravening War*. In relation to real world eras, Calorum is currently high medieval European and approaching the Renaissance.

## Description

Calorum is made up of six official nations and one hidden nation, all based on a different food group in the American food pyramid, both in their food "theme" and nation size. Ceresia, representing grains, is the largest, and Candia, representing candy/sugars, is the smallest.

* Candia - sugars
* Ceresia - grains
* The Dairy Islands - dairy
* Fructera - fruits
* The Meat Lands - proteins
* Vegetania - vegetables
* Saprophus - fungus and mold (revealed in *The Ravening War*)

## Government

Calorum, or Pax Calorum, as mandated by the Concord, is governed by a Concordant Emperor. They reside in the capital city of Comida, and are politically bound by the laws created by the Concord. Unlike most of the nations within Calorum, whose leaders are determined by family lines or conquered lands, the first Concordant Emperor was collectively selected to serve. Eligible successors include the leaders of the six nations, to be chosen by the current Emperor and named heir before their passing. This method of delegating leadership, combined with the fact that the treaty is a voluntary measure, is the cause of some uneasiness and conflict within the continent.

Despite what might be a logical assumption, there *is not* a class divide between anthropomorphic and food-shaped people in this world. How each character manifests as the food they represent has no bearing on their social status.

## History

Over the course of the empire's history, there have been many border conflicts and redrawings.

Around 20 years ago, the continent was rocked by the Ravening War, a huge war between all the nations that eventually settled into the Pax Calorum. This resulted in the Concord, a voluntary treaty between the nations. All six nations now agree to be ruled by a Concordant Emperor, who acts like an appointed representative from one of the six nations.

## Religion and Magic

### The Bulbian Church

The Bulbian Church is the dominant faith within Calorum, and takes a role similar to that of Catholicism in medieval Europe. It is a monotheistic religion that worships the sun, called the Bulb, and has a religious capital in Brightgarden, located in Vegetania.

This religion is also the basis for Calorum's unique calendar: years are referred to as "the Year of our Bulb" (Y.o.B.), and months have different names to our own, such as "Highbright". Days of the week also have different names, like "Fruitday" and "Bulbday", which is their Sabbath. The month of Highbright, which is when our story begins, is the middle month of summer, which implies that there may still be 12 months in a year. The twelve months are:

* Frostdawn
* Highfrost
* Frostdusk
* Bloomdawn
* Highbloom
* Bloomdusk
* Brightdawn
* Highbright
* Brightdusk
* Harvestdawn
* Highharvest
* Harvestdusk

### The Great Beasts

Largely untouched by the Bulbian faith, the Meat Lands have their own polytheistic religion worshiping the Great Beasts, from which Meatlanders believe they are descended.

### The Sweetening Path

Before the spreading influence of the Bulbian Church, the old ways of the Sweetening Path, a animistic religion, dominated the kingdom of Candia. The kingdom still remains tolerant of worshipers, but outside of its borders, its magic and the inherent arcane power Candians possess are akin to witchcraft.

### Arcane Magic

Just like in normal D&D, it takes specific training or divinatory magic to tell if magic is arcane or divine, or where its power source originates from. People's reactions to magic are largely based on uninformed prejudice, and aesthetic. This is how Chancellor Lapin Cadbury, a warlock under the Sugar-Plum Fairy, is mostly able to con people into thinking his magic is divine and not arcane. Obvious spellcasting would get casters in a lot of trouble, but Candian's magic items usually get a pass from commonfolk because it would be viewed as "alchemy," which isn't seen as heretical.

There is no *Revivify* within the world of Calorum.

## World/Biology Mechanics

### Food Classifications

The world of Calorum is based off of culinary, not biological or botanical delineations. All the food nations have "weird edge cases". For example, pie people are a combination of grain, butter and fruit, but are overwhelmingly Candian as a dessert. In Calorum, these edge cases would be much like they are in our world: the result of historical wars of conquest, marriages, alliances, etc.

### Reproduction

Calorans’ DNA are powerfully influenced by more than just their parents genetics, but also by the geographical location of their conception, their gestation, and even their childhood dwelling place up through puberty. For example, if a citizen were an apple pie as an infant, and grew up on the northern coast of Candia, they'd become apple pie a la mode as a teenager.

### Dragons

A couple centuries previously, in the real dark ages, there were more legends of giants, dragons of that nature. No one currently living had seen a dragon in Calorum prior to the hatching of Cinnamon.

## Trivia

* The name Calorum is play on the word "calorie."
* The capital of Comida an incredibly garbled version of the word "comida" which is Spanish for "food".
* Magical items within the world of Calorum are always unique, and always have both a title and a name. It's a common superstition that unless you are the one wielding it, it should only ever be referred to by its title, as speaking its name dooms you to be struck down by it.
	+ This happens once over the course of the campaign: Commander Constano Grissini calls Payment Day by its true name in Episode 3: *Keep Sharp*, and is later killed with it in Episode 17: *For Candia! (Part 2)*.

* When asked where mushroom people might live, Brennan stated that his heart tells him that they live in a fabled, subterranean, 7th Kingdom. However, he reserves the right to later decide that that's too crazy.
	+ For *The Ravening War*, Matthew Mercer made this canon in the hidden subterranean nation of Saprophus.
* If each of the cast could be a citizen of Calorum, they would be:
	+ Ally: a quesadilla
	+ Brennan: a bacon diplomat in Carn, or an almond ambassador in Fructera.
	+ Emily: a meat, a macaroni noodle, a tupperware of sauerkraut, or a root vegetable that looks like a person.
		- Final answer: a fennel bulb.
	+ Lou: a starchy root vegetable, like an onion, a sweet potato, or ube.
	+ Murph: a bottle of 95 Ritratti from Fructera.
	+ Siobhan: a hard cheese
	+ Zac: a turkey leg, or a spam musubi roll.

## References

1. ↑ Twitter, 26 June 2020: https://twitter.com/dimension20show/status/1276714738156818432
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Dropout Discord, 20 April 2020
3. ↑ Adventuring Party (Season 1), Episode 2: For the Corn Cuties!
4. ↑ Dropout Discord, 18 May 2020