The Known World

The 'Known World' is the term used in the Centrelands to describe those parts of the world which posses a known culture and with which there is historical or contemporary record of contact. With much of the World still relatively unexplored by Centrelander nations, the Cartographers' Guild regularly sends out expeditions in the hopes of one day charting it in its entirety. Already in the Great Era, Pemblish scholars know more about far-off lands than had ever been dreamed of in all of history beforehand.

However due to the lack of what Earth people would call distinct 'continents', and by extension the lack of easily navigable, unobstructed oceans, travel is much more difficult over long distances even with the advent of modern technology. As a result, many parts of the the World remain inaccessible and mysterious even into the modern age.

## The Shape of the World

Current theories put forward by natural philosophers on nature of the world state that the World is a flat and effectively 'infinite' in expanse. This is in contrast to some earlier theories, which suggested that the World was a sphere or a finite flat disc.

The Known World was formed from the confluence of the many overlapping Divine Realms. The point at which all the realms converge in roughly equal amounts is where, according to modern scientific understanding, reality was stable enough to form the coherent world of understandable laws which we inhabit.

According to current calculations, the area which is consistently habitable to life is a circular area of roughly 30820 miles in diameter, beyond which cosmic irrationality is too great. Although this area is roughly circular, areas at the edges are in constant flux due to the law of Divine Convection, and so it is considered too dangerous to permanently settle there.

The principle of Divine Convection also means that the nature of the climate in a region is ultimately defined by the dominance of certain realms or combinations of realms within that vicinity. Such climates tend to be relatively stable from the level at which humanoid and dwarfish life tends to perceive it, but can change dramatically if instability is introduced through catalysts such as invocative prayer.

## Finite Views

For some time, philosophers pondered what was known as the Finite View Problem, or alternatively the 'Townsend's Hill' Problem after its inventor, the philosopher Peter Townsend. "If you were to find the tallest mountain around and climb to the top of it", he stated, "it should be possible to see for miles and miles" unobstructed, as far as the farthest reaches. However, being an enthusiastic cross-country hiker, Townsend had found that that was not the case, not even when looking out over the sea.

Yet with the advent of modern applied philosophy, a solution to the Problem was found. Dr Werner Schrütem of the University of Wasmeinau developed the principle Aetheric Accumulation based on a series of experiments he conducted in 49 BGE. Collecting several jars of air from remote, rural parts of the Tall Kingdom (selected on the basis that the air in Wasmeinau was quite clearly not pure enough for experimentation based on the stench alone) he subjected the contents to incrementally higher levels of atmospheric pressure.

Doctor Schrütem discovered that under such circumstances, the air obtained a milky, cloudy quality, regardless of its origin. He concluded that the air itself, under sufficient density, or sufficient thickness, becomes more opaque- thus explaining why an ostensibly flat world should have issues with visibility at a distance.

## Travelling in a Varied World

See first paragraph and the previous one directly above. No continuous oceans, seemingly random biome placement which does not obey the rules of pole-temperate-equator-temperate-pole. Talk about how even in the age of railways, travel is difficult through many places (difficult to build railways etc through these areas), but that airships may change this.

## The Distant Realms

Although the central Known World possesses consistent natural laws,

## The Farthest Reaches

Since the Known World exists within the 'eye of the divine storm'...

... habitable to life is a circular area roughly 30820 miles in diameter...

...expeditions to the farthest reaches reported strange hills just visible through a thick, coloured fog...

 ... however, the landscapes were unreachable, with the expedition finding that their ability for rational thought seemed to ebb as they entered the fog, and their insides seemed to burn as if on fire. When two remaining explorers from the expedition found their way out and back to the base camp, they were reportedly filled with rage and fear, and their skin was as smooth as candle wax, as if burned....

 The survivors recounted that as they had tried to reach the hills, they had fallen behind in the fog and had lost their compatriots. They had begun to...

 ...They claimed that they had seen strange cities whose tall spires defied all natural laws, whose lights glowed darkly, far across the gulf...

 ....The pair did not survive for long. Dying within hours of each other, a day after their mysterious return, they were subsequently autopsied by the *Equideus'* ship's surgeon, who found that their internal organs seemed to be significantly rearranged. It is thought that the realm beyond the World's frontier is so inhospitable because the natural order of things, as we know it, ceases to exist.....