Scattered Lore

**Scattered Lore** are pieces of text scattered around Dungeons. each one providing a snippet of background lore about the world of Grim Quest. These can be encountered randomly when stepping on an unexplored tile, and each one grants 15 EXP when collected.

## The World: General

The world of Earwa consists of three large landmasses separated by oceans and seas. Ustrenia, or the Far North, as it is more commonly known to the rest of the world, is the northernmost of these, and reaches all the way to to the northern polar cap.

To the south, separated by the vast body of water that is the Northern Basin, lies the old Continent, followed by the tropical archipelago of Southern Isle.

To the east, beyond the Great Red Sea, there is the colonized land of Eterea, also known as the Young Nations.

Western reaches of the world still remain obscured behind the vast stretch of the Endless Ocean, impassable in its enormity.

## The World: The Old Continent

The Old Continent is one of the largest landmasses on Earwa, second only to the huge white expanse of the Far North. Unlike the latter, it is geographically very diverse, containing landscapes that range from cold tundra, to tropic jungle.

Once the center of the civilized world, the Old Continent was devastated by the Tearing, and is mostly avoided by the rest of the world nowadays. The only remaining place of some note here is the Free City of Ashborne - situated on the northern tip of the continent, it is a hub of sorts for all kinds of miscreants from world over - hardened mercenaries looking for coin, foolish adventurers seeking fame, zealous scholars digging through the remains of the Old Empire and lunatics trying to brave the Dark and uncover secrets of the Tear.

## The World: The Far North

The continent of Ustrenia, also known as the Far North, is the largest and oldest continent on Earwa. Despite the fact that the most of it is covered in ice and uninhabitable, for thousands of years it was home to nomadic tribes of men who roamed its cold open plains in search of food and shelter.

It is believed to be the birthplace of humanity - one they abandoned with the discovery of seafaring at the end of the Age of Ignorance, to settle in warmer parts of the world. Some humans remained, though, and later developed several small, but thriving kingdoms on the coast of the Northern Basin. Today, the people of the Far North mostly keep to themselves, isolated from the rest of the world, only occasionally dabbling in trade with other nations.

## The World: Southern Isles

The Archipelago of Southern Isles is a peculiar place made up of hundreds of islands of all shapes and sizes. Most of those islands are inhabited, and the larger among them are home to flourishing city states, led by merchant princes who thrive on overseas trade and commerce. Thanks to their unique tropical climate, the Isles are a source of rare commodities much sought after in the rest of the world - a fact that grants them autonomy and a fair amount of prestige with other nations.

Usually tolerant to outsiders and bowing only to coin, merchant princes of the Isles war only with the local Mua-Ta tribes who resort to piracy. Mua-Ta prisoners of war are then forced into labour in mines and on the plantations of the rich. And so, the wheel of commerce keeps spinning, fueled by blood and gold...

## The World: Young Nations

The continent of Eterea was discovered by the Old Empire sometime in the Age of Enlightenment. One of the imperial merchant ships looking for new trade opportunities in the Great Red Sea reported a lush green landmass, mostly uninhabited and rich in natural resources. Not long after, plans were made for settlement and expansion of the empires ever-growing population. For a long time Eterea thrived as an imperial colony, steadily increasing in population, but kept in check by the empire's strict policies.

After the Tearing and the collapse of the empire, what was left of its surviving inhabitants fled the old Continent to seek a new beginning in Eterea. Once there, various imperial factions soon split and diverged, no longer bound by the old laws, and the Young Nations came into existence.

## The World: The Endless Ocean

To the west of the old Continent stretches the huge watery expanse of the Endless Ocean. Vast and treacherous, it is the final frontier of Earwa that still remains a mystery. Through the course of history many explorers have set out from Ashborne and the Isles both, looking towards the western horizon, only to return empty handed, or not at all. Still, occasional expeditions are funded by curious patrons, and mariners set sail looking for adventure and riches. More superstitious folk, on the other hand, believe it leads to the end of the world, reaching all the way to the great void between the stars.

## The World: The Northern Basin

The Northern Basin is a cold body of water that connects the Old Continent with the Far North. Large portions of it are frozen throughout the year, making trade somewhat difficult, especially in the winter months. Even so, northern kingdoms maintain regular trade caravans with Ashborne, mainly because of interest in artifacts of the Old Empire and their possible application. In return, merchants from the north offer furs, rare minerals and masterwork northern steel- a commodity much sought after in Ashborne's mercenary circles.

## The World: The Great Red Sea

Magic-fueled aether ships of the Old Empire were the first to traverse dangerous waters of the Great Red Sea and reach the lush continent of Eterea that lies on its eastern shore. Thanks to their efforts several safe routes were charted, making travel possible even on mundane trade ships of modern day. Consequently, the red-hued sea remains one of the busiest trade hubs on Earwa, with thousands of merchant [sic] traveling its treacherous waters, connecting the east with the west in exchange of goods, commodities and people.

## The World: Ages

Orcs never adopted a written language with which to record history, but if their oral tradition is to be believed - orcs being the oldest of sentient races - Earwa is millions of years old. Their storytellers tell of an age when humans were little different from great apes that dwell in jungles of the Southern Isles.

In comparison, the written history of humans on Earwa reaches back merely thousands of years and is divided by historians into five ages: the Age of Ignorance, the Age of Strife, the Age of Enlightenment, the Age of Insanity and the Age of Darkness.

## Ashborne: Origin

The town of Ashborne was founded sometime during the Age of Strife, as a small port for one of the kingdoms on the northern tip of the Old Continent. When the said kingdom was absorbed into the expanding Old Empire, Ashborne remained a port and a trade hub of some importance, and soon grew into a city. Its unique position on the verging point of two major trade routes - the Northern Basin and the Great Red Sea - gave it advantage over other port cities in the empire and it was not long until it took the place of prominence and prestige as the empire's most important trade hub in the north.

## Ashborne: The Golden Age

The golden age of the Old Empire is an era roughly corresponding to the Age of Enlightenment (1500 BT - 1 BT). Having consolidated its hold on the entire continent, the empire turned its attention inwards - exorbitant funds were set apart for projects of magical and scientific nature, construction of the Sun Court being one of the most ambitious. Investment into knowledge and learning paid of many times over as miraculous discoveries started multiplying, making everyday life in the empire seem magical compared to the past. Peace and prosperity reigned for the most part, with occasional insurrection in the conquered provinces, but those were dealt with quickly and efficiently - as befits the most powerful military the world has ever known.

Ashborne thrived in this age, serving as the Empire's main port open to both Northern Basin and the Great Red Sea. The city flourished, its development fueled by magic and technology both domestic and brought from overseas on many trade ships.

## Ashborne: The Dark Age

When the first devastating ripples of the Dark washed the land in madness and chaos and the Old Empire toppled before a tidal wave of horrors, like a house of cards before a strong gust of wind, those that didn't succumb to its mind bending influence fled the interior of the continent and sought refuge as far away from the Tear as possible. One of such refuges was to be found beyond the Glacial Mountains, whose high, ice-encrusted peaks served as a natural barrier to everything and all but the most resilient and stubborn of refugees.

Ashborne was there to welcome most of those wary souls - the largest imperial city still left standing - and grant them refuge behind its impenetrable walls. Much of the old knowledge was siphoned this way, saved from oblivion and put to good use, making the city a forerunner in magic and science for years to come.

## Ashborne: City Quarters

Even from the outside, peering over the city walls, a curious onlooker could spot a clear distinction between the upper and lower parts of Ashborne. Situated on the top of the Martyr's Hill, overlooking the entire city, is the majestic Heart Keep - once a seat of noble lords and royal emissaries, now housing the City Council of Ashborne. Around it, like two courtiers trying to woo a single maiden, sprawl the Mercantile Quarter and the Scholastic Quarter, homes to Ashborne's most upstanding and elite citizens. The Inner Wall that circumnavigates the hill separates the city's rich and learned from the unwashed masses below; the Artisans Quarter, the Mercenary Court, and the Mire - slums that stretch in the shadow of the Emperor's Wall - house the majority of Ashborne's population, pumping the lifeblood of industry, trade and mercenary services into its corrupt heart.

## Ashborne: City Council

The City Council of Ashborne was formed at the very beginning of the Dark Ages that followed the Tearing, after the old imperial system of inherited governorship proved inefficient and incapable of dealing with the ever looming threat that was the Dark. A coup was carried out by the cabal of city's most influential and powerful citizens, after which the last imperial governor was declared a traitor, striped of all rank and possession, and hung from the highest tower of his former residence - the Heart Keep. The nameless cabal then made the keep their new base of operations and effectively took over the city, forming a council of eight and ushering the new era of prosperity and democratic government - or so the history records by the official scholars of the era claim.

Ashborne remains an oligarchy to this day, only maintaining the pretence of democracy with council members being elected for life from the stock of city's most powerful merchant families.

## Ashborne: The Emperor's Wall

Ashborne's outer wall - an ancient stone behemoth that puts even larger cities to shame - is the stuff of local legends. People say that it was commissioned by none other than the first emperor of the Old Empire: Galiash the Conqueror. Galiash - at that time still just a meddling prince of a rising northern kingdom – set his sights on a small coastal town on the shore of the Northern Basin, and set out to capture it in order to gain an important strategic position and a port. He did so with relative ease and minimal casualties - being one of the most skilled military commanders the world has ever known - and immediately fell in love with the charming little town of Ashborne and its hard working people. Before he set out south - to pillage, conquer, and build himself an empire in the process - Galiash ordered a giant stone wall to be built around the town - vastly out of proportion compared to the small settlement itself - so that no one would dare repeat his feat of taking his new favorite place for themselves.

The construction of the wall lasted nearly a hundred years, continuing long after the emperor who had commissioned it was dead and buried. Even though he never got to see his project completed, Galiash the Conqueror at least he got his wish fulfilled: in the long and bloody history of the Old Continent, rife with brutal conflict and desolation of whole nations, no army has ever breached the Emperor's Wall of Ashborne.

## Ashborne: Mercenary Tradition

Ashborne has a long history of relying on mercenary companies instead of army regulars for its defences. The reason for this lies in its unique circumstances as much as anything. After the initial shock and terror that followed the Tearing gradually subsided and people learned to cope, for the most part, with their new reality and dangers it entailed. In many adventurous souls, curiosity soon got better of fear and they wanted to know more about the strange and horrifying phenomenon that has struck the Continent, leaving the reality itself shuddering with its impact. First mercenary groups arrived from overseas, from lands that certainly felt, but didn't yet fully grasp the magnitude of what had happened.

Ever crafty and resourceful, Ashborne and its citizens welcomed those who sought to make the city their base from which to plan their lunatic exploits, providing them much needed supplies, reliable weapons and other services, in exchange for gold and protection. A bond of mutual benefit was formed, shaky and marked by caution and distrust, but nevertheless, one that endures to the present day and makes Ashborne famous world over.

## Ashborne: Population

Population [sic] of Ashborne has wavered over the long span of its existence, reaching the zenith of about 100,000 souls at the height of the imperial golden age, only to plummet to a mere few thousands during the dark ages that followed the Tearing. Nowadays, it has stabilized at around 14,000 people, not including the mercenary bands stationed in the city who add a good portion to that number, but usually come and go with the seasons.

The large majority of citizens make their living as craftsmen and merchants, providing goods and services for passing mercenaries and adventurers in need of supplies or of ways to cash in on their hard earned loot.

## Ashborne: Various Assortments

The unwavering ripples of the Tearing had presented Ashborne with a myriad of hurdles to surpass, the most apparent being that the number of goods and food in circulation were dwindling. The harbor that once brought them fresh crates of exotic overseas fruits and net after net of seafood delights was reduced to a sunken grotto, opened up to thieves, the dead, and the Dark. Those most comfortable with what they once had were the first to starve, and the situation was becoming dire. Even the armaments to brave sites for scavenging and foraging were becoming scarce- the city's best was being worn by men lining up to side with the Prince of Thieves.

The city council of Ashborne played no part in the founding of Various Assortments, all too busy trying to revitalize farming in times too turbulent. It was a small group of like-minded people, tired of their situation and willing to create their own solution. Mercenaries soon found that what they could scrape together while out fighting for the city commanded a lot more gold at Various Assortments than it would anywhere else, and through word-of-mouth between mercenaries, Various Assortments built up a healthy supply of goods and weaponry, the now-iconic scales on their counter used to ration out purchases. Their business model was so successful that the founders ironically sold the shop to the city council, Various Assortments transforming into Ashborne's trade hotspot with their backing.

## Ashborne: The Dancing Dragon

Every regular of the Dancing Dragon tavern knows the story of its origin. Sometime in the Age of Insanity, a bard set out with a company of mercenaries to fend off a dragon that made its lair in the Glacial Mountains. Drunk on promises of glory, a glint of gold, and no small amount of imperial brandy, the company rushed the creature's lair, only to get obliterated by a single fiery yawn from the mighty beast's maw.

Only the bard survived the initial onslaught, accidentally tripping over a large rock and ending up in a huge pile of coins. Safely cushioned in his golden bed, thinking his life is surely at its end, the bard grabbed his lute and proceeded to play his best tune. Imagine his surprise when the dragon, instead of devouring him and the lute both, started wiggling its tail, almost...as if dancing. After the song ended the beast gave one more trash of its mighty tail and promptly went to sleep, the bard completely forgotten.

Once he returned to Ashborne with a fat sack of gold strapped to his belt, the bard decided to start a tavern and named it the Dancing Dragon, in memory of the luckiest day of his life.

## Ashborne: The Boiling Cauldron

To cautious and complacent minds, alchemy would be considered a lost art in the city of Ashborne. Now relegated to hazy memories and fond musings of better times, Ashborne's glory days were nothing short of flush with luxuries for all, frivolities and sometimes necessities the city can no longer afford to provide, at least, not for everyone. One such luxury no household went without was a boiling cauldron. When the now-precious metals and rigorous enchantments they required were deemed expendable, not a single homestead felt whole without access to alchemy. But as time wore on, and scarcities arose post-Tearing, the council of Ashborne wrested the cauldrons from their citizens to be smelted down for their mercenaries' arms, and the people obliged, the craft of alchemy and all its bounty slowly fading from memory in favour of the ability to purchase the same goods at Various Assortments.

Those with a little curiosity and the willingness to poke their noses into the city's mustiest, dampest corners know all too well that alchemy is still alive, for behind an exquisite pair of doors, tucked neatly aside an alleyway rests one last boiling cauldron. A shared secret, the final bastion of what was common knowledge, surviving only through the sealed lips of the mercenaries who frequent it.

## Ashborne: The Blacksmith

Through Tearing and turmoil, droughts and devastation, the blacksmiths of Ashborne never stop to look up from their anvils, determined to believe that some faint good will come of their contributions to the city's economy and droves of eager mercenaries, even if the warriors whose arsenals they pour their days into never return. In Ashborne, smithing is a mentally and physically taxing profession, and seeing as a good chunk of their profits end up with the council, the work of a blacksmith in Ashborne became more of a voluntary public service with occasional smatterings of pay than a sustainable job, resulting in the array of smiths manning the forge being comprised of those who work to live and live to work, none having lives or aspirations outside of fulfilling their never-ending duties to smith and to serve.

## Ashborne: The Mystic Emporium

In the aftermath of the Tearing, with refugees flocking to Ashborne from all over the empire, seeking shelter behind the Glacial Mountains, the city became a repository of sorts - fragments of arcane magic that were lost to the rest of the world were preserved here, jealously guarded by the last surviving practitioners of the imperial schools. As time and necessity blunted the edges of pride and envy among the representatives of different schools, they gradually came together to form a society dedicated to teaching the arcane arts to those with aptitude to grasp them and gold enough to afford it. The Mystic Emporium was founded - the city's most illustrious school of magic - at the heart of what was to become the Scholastic Quarter. So grand and magnificent are the spells on Emporium's display that people almost forgive it the predatory prices it charged for relenting bits and pieces of its closely guarded knowledge.

## Ashborne: The Guild House

There isn't a mercenary this side of the Northern Basin that doesn't dream of earning a position among the Masters of the Guild House of Ashborne in his retirement days. Serving as a school of arts of war and a gathering place for Ashborne's many mercenaries in the Mercenary Court, the Guild is an establishment with a rich and proud history.

It was formed some three hundred years after the Tearing by the legendary Golden Eagles company, who reportedly held the entrance to the Glacial Pass against seven packs of rampaging mountain trolls. For their heroic feat, the company received a hefty sum and a full pension from the City Council, after which their leader decided to start a Guild with his new-found fortune. Ever since, it has offered its services to aspiring adventurers, bolstering the skill and renown of the Ashborne's mercenaries.

## Religion: General

The ancient records from the Sun Court suggest that old imperials worshiped a pantheon of gods, as many as there are stars in the sky - an exaggeration, most likely, but one that demonstrates a point nevertheless. After the Tearing, however, large majority of those gods were forgotten, if not outright abandoned by the people who witnessed firsthand silence and impotence of their chosen objects of worship in the face of the unprecedented calamity that was the Tear. Only a handful of old religions survived the Tearing, deeply rooted in secretive cults and smaller religious communities on the fringes of society. Most people of the continent, however, turned to themselves and their own devices, depending on their own ingenuity and perseverance instead of divine favor.

## Religion: The Imperial Pantheon

The Pantheon of the Old Empire consisted of major and minor deities. Minor gods were counted in hundreds and nearly every aspect of everyday life - no matter how menial - had a deity associated with it. There is no way to be certain, but it is speculated that those were no more than superstitious beliefs with little grounds in reality.

Major deities were another matter altogether, their presence very much felt and documented in the arcane texts from many temple ruins and the Sun Court itself. Most major gods were associated with primordial planes of existence; realms of abstraction which, through mutual interaction, give shape to the material world and are the primary source of magic.

## Religion: Hooga, the Great Mother

The Cult of the Great Mother, or the Hooga cult is one of the oldest and more peculiar organizations that stretches across all Earwa. The cult itself is ancient, its roots dating back to the Age of Ignorance when humans lived as nomads without a written language. This is one of the reasons its origin is shrouded in a veil of mystery, another being the total and utter unwillingness of its members to disclose any information on the cult and its inner workings.

What little is known about it revolves around the worship of the Great Mother, Hooga, a deity associated with health and fertility. Hooga cultists are generally considered a strange bunch, easily recognizable for their deep crimson robes and debauched rituals that often include consumption of various mind-altering substances.

## Religion: The All-Seeing

The Cult of the All-Seeing is one of the more nefarious organizations this side of the Northern Basin. Its existence was first documented in the old imperial era - during which their activity was banned and members prosecuted for their foul practices - but the cult is rumored to predate the empire itself. Whenever the Cult of the All-Seeing is mentioned there are whispers of gruesome rituals and blood sacrifices accompanying the talk of their shady activities, which seem to revolve around awakening the ancient deity - the All-Seeing - which was put to endless slumber when men lost their ancient ways.

The cult was not seen or heard from in centuries, leading many to believe it is only a myth, a high tale to frighten children before bedtime.

## Religion: Stone-Heart

The Temple of the Stone-Heart is one of the few imperial cults that survived into the present day. It is based on the worship of the primal deity, Stone-Heart, associated with the primordial plane of earth. Its worshipers are often seen gathering in open spaces, their silent prayers spooking ignorant passers-by almost as much as their ominous stone masks.

Like most deities from the old imperial era, Stone-Heart has been silent ever since the Tearing, leaving many to wonder if there is any purpose to the cult's existence in the present day at all.

## Religion: Ancestors Cult

The Cult of the Revered Ancestors - or the Ancestors Cult, for short - started sometime in the aftermath of the Tearing, after people of the Continent rejected the old gods who had abandoned them in the face of such a disastrous calamity. The cult was formed in the Old Empire itself, starting out as a small sect, but soon grew in numbers as the empire gradually began breaking down under the pressure of the advancing Dark and Orc Wars both.

The Ancestor Cult's tenets revolve around the worship of one's ancestors, their lives, and deeds which helped the family weather the harsh times and survive in a merciless world forgotten by the gods. Today, it is one of the most prevalent religions in Ashborne, providing succor and hope to the people struggling against their unforgiving surroundings.

## Religion: Dark Worship

Dark worship is a menace that has plagued the known world ever since the Tearing. It is most prevalent among weak-minded and power-hungry people who respond to the malignant call of the Dark, giving in to its mind-twisting influence. Such people are quickly reduced to crazed lunatics, resembling beasts more then men in their devious ways. Groups of dark worshipers can be seen cavorting across the whole continent, but they mostly tend to gravitate towards the Tear, unable to resist its pull into madness and ecstasy. Organized bands of dark worshipers pose a real threat to Ashborne and its surroundings, while the city's authorities have trouble hunting them down due to their ever-increasing numbers.

## Magic: Elemental Invocations

Perhaps the most straightforward of all magic disciplines, elemental magic is most often used for combat purposes - battlemages, spellswords, or even specialized elementalists who focus on a single element are a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield, capable of overturning the tide of combat almost single-handedly.

What it lacks in versatility, elemental magic more than makes up for in the sheer destructive power it can produce, if wielded with skill and precision. Wielding of elements, in their raw form, at least, predates the structured system of magic brought about in the old imperial era, and is closely tied with elemental planes of air, fire, earth and water - primordial realms surrounded by the Sea of Aether.

## Magic: Arcane Studies

Arcane magic was the staple discipline of the sages of the imperial Sun Court. Drawing magical essence from the primordial Sea of Aether, sages wove its threads into powerful and miraculous spells that were the envy of the world at the time. Arcane magic had a wide variety of purposes - from simplifying mundane daily chores to a myriad of devastating combat applications, it was one of the pillars that allowed the Old Empire to thrive and expand across the whole of the Continent almost undisputed.

The large majority of arcane spells were lost after the Tearing, forgotten with the empire that invented them, but fragments of the ancient knowledge still linger and are put to use by crafty mages and scholars of modern day.

## Magic: Occult Practices

Not all magic is looked upon with approval, even in the established scholastic circles dedicated to its promotion and research - some of it is too unpredictable, too unstable, or just outright wrong and morally dubious. Such spells are rarely used or even discussed publicly, and get categorized in a shady nook of the occult.

Even so, many mages resort to using occult magic, if for no other reason than its versatility and usefulness. Dire times call for dire means, as they say, and occultism has found a place to flourish in the Ashborne's underground circles, among self-taught conjurers, hedge wizards, witches and even specialized occultists who utilize its power to their own wicked ends.

## Magic: The Dark

It was some time after the Tearing and the advent of Orc Wars that some of the more curious and unorthodox magic practitioners realized that they can tap into the alien and malignant force leaking from its gaping maw and manipulate its mind bending power to fuel spells of their own. With this realization the dark magic was born - most [sic] nefarious and frowned upon magical discipline.

Today, such practices are banned in many parts of the world, and even punishable by death (in many kingdoms of the Far North dark magicians are executed on sight). In Ashborne, however, such things are often overlooked, and dark magic survives, and even thrives deep within the cracks of society.

## Magic: Shamanic Rituals

Long before there were any organized systems of magic in place there was shamanic magic. Practiced by shamans of nomadic tribes of men from times immemorial, this wild strain of spellcasting draws its power from the nature itself and its intricate laws. Scholars of the modern era have learned that this magic is closely related with the primordial plane of life that lies somewhere beyond the Aetherial Sea, but it was not always so. Its early practitioners relied mostly on instinct and their own connection with the natural world to explore and engage in wild spellcasting rituals.

## The Dark: Dark Spawn

Most creatures of the Dark are misshapen monstrosities, ugly and cancerous lumps of meat, sinew and bone, put and held together by alien forces from beyond the Tear. On rare occasions, though, they are known to take more sophisticated forms, mimicking either other lifeforms in their vicinity, fantastical creatures from folk tales, legends and nightmares, or even crude human-like shapes.

Their form seems to be related to their age somehow - they start at the most rudimentary level and develop into more complex shapes as they mature and gain experience. The reason for this is not known to scholars that dabble in this area of study, biology or pure magic [sic] that governs it completely alien to our own world or even reality.

## The Dark: Psyche Manifestations

One of the most baffling and upsetting facts about the Dark is its ability to detect and react to inner workings of the psyche. Mental states, emotions, conscious and unconscious thoughts all act as a catalyst for its alien magic, giving life to manifestations - phantasmal beings that inherit characteristics of the aspect of the psyche that spawned them. This effect only increases in magnitude and frequency with increasing proximity to the Tear.

It is speculated that manifestations are the earliest stage of dark spawn, not yet fully corporeal, but capable of causing physical and mental harm both, but no concrete evidence exists to support these claims.

## The Dark: Origin

It is a known fact that the Dark originates from the Tear, leaking through the torn fabric of reality that was wrought by the hubris of old imperial mages. Where certainty ends, however, is the question of its exact nature and the nature of whatever it is that lies beyond the Tear itself. Some scholars have speculate [sic] that it is another reality altogether, its laws utterly alien [sic] to that of our own that mere contact has a devastating effect on the world. Other, more religious minded people, believe it to be a punishment absent gods bestowed upon humanity on their departure from mortal's [sic] affairs and a fitting punishment for sins of pride and hubris our ancestors committed in their blind race for power and glory.

## Mua-Ta: General

Mua-Ta are the natives of the Old Continent. Their history is long and obscured in mystery, much thanks to their reclusive nature and outright hostility to everyone not of the "People", as they refer to themselves. They are somewhat similar to humans, but much shorter in frame, with small but nimble legs and strong arms. They conceal their faces behind large masks, usually made out of wood, but underneath it they very much resemble humans - a fact confirmed on many of their corpses, as they relinquish their masks only in death.

## Mua-Ta: Society

Mua-Ta live all across the Old Continent, gathering in tribes of various sizes and differing local customs. Their society is highly matriarchal, with females occupying leading roles in most important aspects of their tribal life – namely, decision making and religious practices. Each tribe is led by the Matriarch, who has a cadre of magic-wielding priestesses at her disposal. Males usually occupy supporting roles of food acquisition and warfare, and are subservient to females to the point of slavery.

## Mua-Ta: Tribal Hierarchy

Mua-Ta tribal hierarchy is a complex tapestry of rules, customs, obligations and privileges that make for a lifelong study for scholars interested in such things. At the head of each tribe is a female Matriarch, prime leader and almost absolute ruler of the tribe. The Matriarch usually has a cadre of priestesses at her disposal, tasked with religious and advising duties. They are chosen from females that show aptitude for magic, and undergo a rigorous training regime from the early age. As far as males go, they aspire to become warriors and hunters - both respectable professions - and contest with each other in brutal initiation rites. Those that fail are left with servant roles, and spend their lives in servitude to others.

## Mua-Ta: Northern Tribes

Northern Mua-Ta are loosely based around the area of Withering Woods, but they can be found all across the north, some even reaching as far as Ashborne and the depths of the Sunken Grotto. They are somewhat more primitive and devious in nature than their southern counterparts, mainly because of the close proximity to the Tear and its corrupting influence on their psyche.

Their masks are made out of wood and vary in shape and size to indicate their tribal status. When it comes to occupation, northern Mua-Ta are mostly hunters and fishermen, living in crude huts they fashion out of materials they can scavenge from their surroundings. When natural resources become too scarce for their wanton needs, they often resort to raids, targeting unarmed farmers and merchants that wander too deep into the woods.

## Mua-Ta: Southern Tribes

Southern Mua-Ta settle the coast of the Endless Ocean. They are maritime people and often resort to piracy, harassing rich trade routes around the Southern Isles with their small but agile ships. They are considered more advanced and cultured than their northern cousins, and are even known to engage in trade and diplomacy on rare occasion.

Their masks are usually oval in shape and painted with different color hues to represent their tribal status. What perplexes those that come in contact with southern tribes the most is their peculiar relationship with a sort of two legged raptors that dwell in the jungles on the southern tip of the Old Continent. The crafty Mua-Ta seem to have domesticated vicious beasts and resort to using them as pack mules, beasts of war, or even pets.

## Mua-Ta: Religion

Mua-Ta religious theory and practice is based mainly around their avatar myth. The Chosen avatar of the One God is a prophesied demigod, destined to unite the tribes and lead them to greatness and world dominance. Each Mua-Ta is tested for holy signs after a certain age - a ritual ceremony that takes place in one of the Great Temples, under strict supervision of the High Priestess. Strangely enough, the avatar role is not, like other things of privilege in the Mua-Ta society, limited to females, and males stand equal chance of ascension to the ultimate position of power and reverence.

## Undead: General

The undead are a menace and a mystery that has been plaguing the Old Continent ever since the Tearing. They come in all shapes and sizes - skeletons, zombies, ghouls, ghosts and other nameless horrors from beyond the grave - one thing they all have in common is their intrinsic hate for all things living, but what exactly drives that hate is another mystery. Until the undead menace is understood better, all that remains is to fight it with every weapon at one's disposal.

## Undead: Origin

As far as history books are concerned, the emergence of the undead is closely tied with the Dark. There are no records of undead in large groups before the Tearing, excluding occasional necromantic experiments. Scholars have often wondered why that is, and the current consensus seems to be the following: the fear of death is one of the oldest and most prevalent fears in the entirety of human history - given the nature of the Dark to manifest human fears and nightmares, it comes as a logical conclusion that the undead are a representation of that collective subconscious fear.

## Orcs: General

Orcs are an old and proud race, often misunderstood in their stubborn and radical ways. Once a dominant race on the Old Continent their gradual decline started with the arrival of first human settlers in the Age of Ignorance. The two races tended to avoid each other - the dislike born out of cultural differences - and coexisted in a grudging, but peaceful tolerance for a time. That changed when the population of humans expanded to a point where territorial expansion became a necessity - as is the usual nature of such things, with territorial expansion came border disputes, and with border disputes came war...

## Orcs: Orc Wars

Orc Wars [sic] were a long and bloody series of frontal skirmishes and full-blown military conflicts between the orc tribes and the remnants of the Old Empire that begun shortly after the Tearing. Orcs blamed humans for the apocalypse that had befallen the continent and sought to eradicate the last trace of the empire from the map. Humans, stubborn as they are, resisted, and came away on top in the chaos that ensued. Orcs were decimated and brought on the brink of extinction, exiled to the far reaches beyond the Glacial Mountains.

## Orcs: Culture

Orcs are nomadic people, their daily life and inevitable death bound to the Horde - a collective name for the ever shifting, ever migrating society of orcs on the Old Continent. They tend to avoid permanent settlement, and prefer to move from place to place, never staying in one area for too long. They spend their days in hunting and gathering, and use every ounce of free time practicing their combat skills and putting those skills to use competing with each other in mock battles for fun and prestige both.

## Orcs: Religion

Orcs of the Horde are generally a godless people - they rely on their own strength and perseverance to get them through life and treat most deities with disdain, if not outright disrespect. That is not to say that no religious practices exist in the horde - certain secret factions are known to partake in strange demonic rituals, worshiping and even making pacts with other-worldly powers. Such practices are frowned upon, however, and orcs that are found to be involved in such things are often ostracized from the Horde, banished never to return.

## Beastmen: General

Beastmen is a collective term for various creatures inhabiting the wide stretch of the Withering Woods. What sets them apart from regular animals is their origin - a crossing of human and animal stock, their physical characteristics are a blending of both lineages, horrifying almost all that come in contact with them. While capable of speech, they possess an intellect inferior to that of humans and have proven difficult to communicate with in a civilized manner. They are carnivorous, sadistic and violent, causing trouble for explorers all across the Withering Woods.

## Beastmen: Society

Beastmen are tribal by nature, their communities - or clans - comprising of hundreds of individuals, roughly grouped by dominant features of the animal species of their origin. The most numerous of clans are the Goat Clan, sporting prominent and deadly horns and hoofed feet, and the Wolf Clan, with their wolf-like snouts and sharp claws. The clans mostly keep to themselves and their part of the woods, but on rare occasions, they will unite and venture out in large raiding parties, wreaking havoc to the surrounding human settlements.

## Beastmen: Dragon Worship

Beastmen religion seems to be based around their primal animal instincts - like any pack animal, they bow to strength and dominance - their object of worship is usually the most powerful creature in their vicinity. For beastmen of the Withering Woods that is the Shadow Dragon, a powerful draconian that has made its lair in the area for centuries. Like with many other simple creatures, beastmen minds are tainted with the Dark, and so are their religious practices, consisting of gruesome and sadistic rituals whose details are best left undisclosed.

## Vodyanoi: General

Vodyanoi are a breed of humanoid fish-like creatures, most likely brought about by some vile mutation, triggered by the Dark's twisting influence on aquatic wildlife of the Withering Woods. Just like the ordinary breed of fish that most likely gave birth to these monstrosities, their body is covered in hard scales and their mouth filled with razor sharp teeth perfect for tearing flesh. They are bipedal and can move with speed and alacrity on both land and water, thanks to their webbed limbs and a pair of functional gills.

## Vodyanoi: Society

Possessing a very crude intelligence, not unlike other beasts of the Withering Woods, vodyanoi are simple, if brutal creatures. Cunning instincts and ability for cooperation sets them apart from mere beasts, though, and they usually form small communities that rarely count more than 15-25 adults and twice as many younglings. Most religious practices in the vodyanoi population seem to be based on a rudimentary form of Dark worship - that includes blood rituals, cannibalism, human sacrifice and ceremonial head-hunting rites.

## Vodyanoi: Head-Hunting

Head-hunting seems to be one of the few organized activities vodyanoi partake in. What sets it apart from mere hunting are certain ceremonial and even religious undertones. Much of their brutal social life, if it can be called such, is based around this gruesome hobby - the most successful head-hunters rise up to become alphas, while those that fail to complete a hunt by the time of their adulthood get banished or even killed for sport.

## Of Monsters and Men: Hedge Wizards

Slinking through the murk of the Sunken Grotto and beyond, the hedge wizards of Ashborne and its surrounding region were only known as entertainers, a coterie of street magicians, charlatans and producers of cheap parlor tricks that had only the loosest grasp on arcane arts. Laughed out of the doors of the Mystic Emporium and shunned and denounced as one-trick-ponies by those accustomed to the ways of well-versed scholars, the hedge wizards could not muster up the coin for even the most basic of luxuries, and the downtrodden band fled to the Sunken Grotto with the intent of digging through the rotten shipwrecks of days gone for whatever trinkets had gone unnoticed.

None of them expected to stir interest in the chambers of the Prince of Thieves, who had grown sympathetic towards the hedge wizards, and nursed them back from the brink of miserable, waterlogged deaths. Once sneered at by those with any appreciation for scholarly talent, the Prince and his men marvelled at what little magic they were shown, and offered to take the entire band under their wing, to teach them to live like royalty off the backs of those who shunned them, and to become the distinguished magical core of the so-called royal court of the Prince. Quick to pledge their lives to their saviour and eager to plunder the city that drove them away, the wizards began working under the Prince, some even willing to ascend to the Glacial Pass to glean what they could from the arcane aberrations nestled in the peaks looming over the grotto they now called home.

## Of Monsters and Men: Shadow Hounds

In the bygone days when trade to and from Ashborne was locked firmly in the empire's grasp, and piracy was more irksome than detrimental, cargo vessels often housed mutts. Whether for their companionship, or their vigilance, dogs were all too commonly brought aboard. However, they provided little for the men, as the assertions that they would alert the crews of pirates were almost entirely misplaced. The rations, and even the cargo itself were being consumed or contaminated by the dogs, and the men had to reluctantly throw their companions overboard, only for them to wash up in the Sunken Grotto in droves, drowned. When the Dark began to gradually seep into the Grotto, the hounds were reanimated, their fur now patchy cloaks of black fog, barely concealing their malformed skeletons and twisted, thumping organs of violent purple. With an unquenchable desire for vengeance upon those who drowned them, and therefore a lust to maul anything explicitly human, the Prince of Thieves and his men soon found failure in taming them, and they soon fell under the command of the Baron of Bones.

## Of Monsters and Men: The Prince of Thieves

Even when peering into the most pitiable circles, made up of those who leech from and live through the honest lives of others, one can still see hierarchy. The moniker of the Prince of Thieves has changed hands, and thus, notability as the ages march on. Such time-honored traditions among the brotherhood of bandits and brigands that swarm the Sunken Grotto have had their context eroded; they are followed out of habit and comfort, and the election of a Prince of Thieves is no different. A prince will rise via of a majority choice, quarrels and disagreement sometimes prolonging a successor for years at a time.

The current prince adorning Ashborne's colorful hit-list was the one to reorganize and regroup his brotherhood of lowlives, wresting them from a period where they slunk aimlessly through the grotto's waters, mortified of the dark machinations and Mua-Ta they lacked the dexterity to put down. A shaken and battered mercenary, growing wary of his dubious benefactors the further he waded towards the skeletal chambers beneath the Grotto, was the one to stumble upon the thieves and their ilk. Keeping his blade sheathed, he gradually became a link in their chain, willing to hear of and promise solutions for their woeful struggles. Unbeknownst to the council, he developed a knack for the very thievery that had dragged down his newfound friends, bringing them steel, mead and fine cuts from the city's best, another Prince of Thieves placed on the board of a generations-long game.

## Of Monsters and Men: Mountain Trolls

Curious, reclusive and their ways all too easily misconstrued by surrounding cultures, and even themselves as time wore on, trolls are stalwart and traditional, defined by their unwillingness to exploit or unsettle the environments that have housed them for generations. The founders of what little society exists among trolls were unconventionally intelligent, and though trolls lacked a common language, or in some cases, any at all, they were observant and patient beings, unfazed by nature's whims. Their flesh is brittle, blueish-gray, and takes on many of stone's properties, even weathering and developing a sheen of moss the older they grow. Trolls naturally reproduce asexually, females being indistinguishable from males. While the first trolls to settle into the Glacial Pass allowed this process to take its course, modern trolls will pick out fertile "broods", whose sole purpose is to bear children. In general, modern trolls are much less content with their situation, their overall lifespans shorter and their societies more rag-tag and disconnected than ever. The few trolls that stand by the old ideals their ancestors had set have turned their backs on the Glacial Pass entirely, dismissive of what they see as cultural rot.

## Of Monsters and Men: The Shadow Dragon

Subservience has a curiously common habit of gradually forming into a vice, regardless of what entices such behavior.

Although housing dragons would certainly be within character for the world of Earwa, the very concept has been firmly confined to legend. There may stand proud atop Earwan shelves a fine array of influential literature featuring airborne, fire-spewing lizards, but no such novel's words have been perceived as more than a wondrous slice of pure fiction. The logic of a Beastman is not quite so considerate of this possibility, however, and since the priorities of animals and humanity have become one, too, to those who denounced them for their beasthood, they have sought such fantastical power. "The Shadow Dragon" became Ashborne's nickname for their chosen idol- although initially mistaken for work of the Dark by the beastmen due to it's murky appearance speckled with pustules and deformities, the waves of their people it set aflame as they fought to earn it's trust told them that it was impure, and had once existed in a much fuller state. It was soon discerned by the sages orbiting it that the shadow this creature cast was of a true dragon, distinguished by its uncanny resemblance to the fantasy it had seemingly originated from. The artwork littering the further reaches of the Withering Woods are the beastmen's attempts to depict the dragon's splendour untouched by Dark, enthralled by their sages' promises that they will bear witness to it.

## Of Monsters and Men: The Baron of Bones

Comforting as it may be to believe that bequeathments and titles can ensure your name will be irrevocably etched into history, one's action and inaction in life can hold ruinous weight, even once the creeping deadline of death has been met.

Prosperous, vibrant and bustling with merchants and mariners would be a sweet and concise description of the Sunken Grotto during the hazy imperial age, but an insufficient one, for no sailor, slave, or salesman tread the great harbor of Ashborne without a permit signed and sealed by its eminent baron. Although his grip on nautical trade was impossible to ignore, how he attained his lofty lordship was of little concern- he was simply appointed by the empire, and complacency ensured that nobody would question why. The baron's most notorious exploits revolved around his role in sustaining the bloodstained cycle of Mua-Ta slavery his overseas equals treasured so. Recent revelations concerning the slaughtering of Mua-Ta mothers in defiance of their matriarchy, and the brutality that was inflicted upon their children have - funnily enough - been brought up by Ashborne's city council to bolster their mercenaries' bloodthirst - not that the baron has any to shed in his warped state, because in the end, he neither fled from nor acknowledged the rising tide engulfing his harbor, choosing to spend his precious final minutes locked inside his study in quiet contemplation.

Although a symbolic funeral was held for him, the baron's casket was closed, for there was nothing to show. His remains floated through the grotto alongside the swathes of victims that hadn't been subject to the same honors. Their moist flesh rotted and shed, their clothes tore and slipped into the debris, and their skeletons settled awash in the mouth of a dry tunnel- a vein of darkness that twisted and morphed them into an unrecognisable, mangled monstrosity, collectively controlled by what was left of the baron. Undeath had both reinstated his stature and roused the worst he had exhibited in life and an all-engulfing craving to enact suffering soon defined this "Baron of Bones".

## Of Monsters and Men: The Ancient Troll

When unrest and uncertainty begin to congeal within even loose clusters of society, people tend to look back fondly on previous generations. Cultists, households and nobles all across the Old Continent have bore admiration and even reverence for their elders, the most extreme being expressed by the trolls of the Glacial Mountains. Unaware and stubborn travelers often swing open the doors of the Dancing Dragon, battered with frost, quivering and muttering of screeching and chanting amongst the whistling gales - a howling, unintelligible set of songs devoted to the Elder Troll.

An ominous, craggy and nearly immobile being, with thick, curled horns and a visage locked in an unreadable expression, the Elder Troll once peacefully overlooked the glacial peaks, rooted into the mountainside itself with age. When a swathe of fledgling trolls swarmed the upper mountains, and expelled the nomads, the Elder Troll came to be an object of unrelenting worship, physically unable to refuse their new, deific position. Gruesome rites formed around their immobility, trolls siphoning their own blood and bathing their elder in it, hoping the restorative properties mankind so frequently exploited could grant their idol the words and movement to enlighten them. The objective of a troll's life - to blend into the world itself - came to be seen as an illness to cure, an ulcer to be treated, only reinforcing a troll's natural reputation as a gormless savage [sic]

## Of Monsters and Men: The Mua-Ta Chosen

Tribalism and savagery appear indiscernible through the lens of modernity, but are the two extremes of society so dissimilar?

The Mua-Ta flaunt the depths of their desire and withheld wants upon their faces- unbeknownst to slavers and seafarers, each carved wooden mask of every Mua-Ta is unique in design, and a loose representation of what the individual yearns for from their ultimate self. Bewilderingly enough, the sole aspiration of most Mua-Ta is to live up to their mask when only the 'Chosen' of each tribe can. The Chosen is selected based not on heritage, gender or even ferocity in the field of battle, because the tribal matriarch will favour whoever's mask most closely resembles her guardian deity [sic]

When a Mua-Ta is Chosen, the matriarch enacts a series of tests. First, the Chosen will be starved of all nourishment until they are gaunt and pallid. If able to survive, the Mua-Ta is deemed immortal, and next, their ability is brought into question. Chosen Mua-Ta are required to prove themselves malleable in every sense, stretching mind and muscle beyond their own boundaries until they are at least thrice as tall as the rest of their tribe. And finally, they must stand still with precise posture and their head level with that of their totem pole for half a year, with no chains to bind them but their own willpower and dedication. Gradually, the Chosen Mua-Ta's flesh will encompass their mask, but will not splinter, justifying their ascent and their traditions.

## Of Monsters and Men: Nomad Tribes

When the Old Continent proved it could thrive most wonderfully under the Empire, rural communities scrambled to keep their heads above waves of innovation, farmer after farmer giving up his land, turning in his tools and forgoing a hearty slice of his earnings to gleefully accept the irresistible offer of automated agriculture. Repulsed by these eager yeomen they once shared drink and conversation with, the meager few who hadn't been enchanted by the spoils of industry marched defiantly into the sunset, returning to nomadic ways of their forefathers from the Age of Ignorance.

Although hesitant to embrace much beyond the boundaries of tradition, nomads have since adopted a most peculiar mode of transport, all rattling along in a series of interlinked carriages, each housing the necessities of their fugitive lifestyle. As for matters of peacekeeping, those are simply resolved by brushing troublemakers aside. Darkness was particularly unkind to befall the nomads, however, those not roaming amidst the murk as merchants to provide for their people are holed up in the Glacial Mountains, the manifestations of their very thoughts eating away at their numbers alongside more unnatural horrors.

## Of Monsters and Men: The Orc Chieftain

One day's roaring clashes and cheery festivities are delicate moments, sounds and sights only pried from retellings in the next. However haphazardly history is captured, the certainty that it took place at all can be alluring when the future is so unknown.

When the ash and smoke of the Orc Wars had settled upon the flayed fallen and the Horde was ruthlessly exiled to the Glacial Mountains, humiliation nibbled away at the tatters of the downtrodden orcs above all. They could endure huddling around a flickering flame for warmth, picking specks of meat from bone and the waking, uneasy night hours, but their memories of struggle were as fresh and apparent in their minds as the biting wounds that lay open upon their skin. Apparitions depicting their own uneasiness haunted the orcs daily, rousing both the memories of the bare-fisted warrior who toppled their chieftain and calls for another to reorganize what was left of their horde.

Whilst trudging famished and frustrated through an unrelenting snowstorm, the quivering orcs began to finally unfurl. Near starvation and unrest had invited the finishing blow, but it was halted by a streak of fortune. Fellow nomads - a caravan of humans - caged them, expecting the unsightly orcs to be simple and seething, not to share their language, then their food, then to fill their lodgings. Although the atheist orcs were unsettled by the nomads' musings of an unknowable higher power, all but one gladly accepted their hospitality. He crept from his bed and slit their warriors' throats, waking the others to hand them their weapons and telling of how he prevented the nomads from doing the same to his fellows, a story they were quick to believe...

## Of Monsters and Men: A Dark Manifestation

Intrepid students and self-assured theorists have recklessly poked and prodded at the Dark for as long as Ashborne's mocking populace can recall. The most prevalent subject of intrigue amongst these green researchers was the nature of psyche manifestations, and what little legible observations exist ramble on for several smudged scrolls worth of writing, with the one salvaged reading of value being that manifestations exist as faint, fleeting flashes of raw emotion, sometimes drawing from a person's memories or dreams to give dim form to the most inexplicable feelings.

Unsatisfied with seeing his reflection in Dark's surface, an apprentice occultist once plunged headfirst into its chilling truths, gladly meeting his inner perils with open arms. Several weeks in touch with his unconscious fears whittled down their opacity, and he began to speak clearly, certainly and aloud of the shape his every limpid thought and feeling took, his confidence that he had mastered himself mounting to the point where he sought the furthest reaches of the Tear. Whether he was mauled during his travels or entranced by whatever he may have discovered lurking within, acting upon a surge of madness or knowing the unknowable, the people of Ashborne quickly concurred that he was nothing but a lunatic.