Farauei

Farauei, probably.

Farauei (named as such because it always seems *far away*, out of reach from the mundane world) was a parallel world connected to Earth, Toril, Golarion, Eberron and Aebrynis among other places. It was a realm of wonder and fantasy, where the forces of the supernatural permeated the land and could be felt by everyone and everything within.

As a crossroads dimension, many things from other worlds could be found within it.

## General Information

Farauei was created centuries in the past (roughly 500 CE) by a powerful and mysterious force that extracted some of the essence from the lands of other worlds, and then coalesced that essence into its own demiplane. In the process, it inherited many of its traits from the worlds it took from, as well as some of its inhabitants, from which the current Faraueians are descended from.

Passing in and out of Farauei was incredibly difficult without magic, due to the presence of a powerful multi-layered barrier that envelops the world.

Farauei was inhabited by races common to fantasy worlds, with a majority population of humans, and the presence of elves, halflings, dwarves and gnomes, among other creatures, and even stranger races usually exclusive to other realms. The Common trade language used between each of the races was derived from a mixture of Japanese, Kozakuran, Riedran, Minkan and various other tongues, although it most closely resembled Japanese and Kozakuran. The Faraueian dialects of the ethnic languages brought over by its inhabitants who were spirited away from their original worlds was drastically different but still mostly mutually intelligible with their homeworld counterparts.

### Geography & Demographics

Farauei, thought to be situated somewhere "within the north", was a cold and mountainous place. It was a landlocked territory about the size of Luxembourg. Major geographic features included the city of Akasen, situated at the peak of Mount Sorazu, where the royal family lived and exercised their rule. Within a fertile valley beneath Sorazu lied the sleepy town of Shor's Rest, the second largest human civilization. Scattered about the plains, tundras and mountains were smaller villages that were usually populated by humans and sometimes halflings, but they were generally accepting of other races. The other races tend to make their homes in their comfort zones: the elves dwelled in beautiful citadels within dense forests, favoring beautiful ones like those of cherry blossom trees, sometimes shared with gnomes who preferred complex burrows making extensive and creative use of the natural materials. The dwarves lived within fortresses of stone built within mountains or in caves.

In the southwest lied a barren wasteland known as the Impact Crater, where numerous meteorites hit the land, preventing any kind of plant growth. In the past, this region was feared for its powerful psionicists, as well as the city of Sollum, but since the Leviathan's impact, it is mostly feared for the radioactive Phazon.

Underneath the surface of Farauei lied a dense network of caverns and tunnels which collectively formed its Underdark, a feature it inherited from many of the worlds it drew features from. One of its most important landmarks was the new city of Sollum, who had carved out in stone their reputation of being feared psionicists who experimented with the materials from meteorites to create advanced and alien technology. The Underdark in general was feared by the surface races, however, for its harsh 'dog-eat-dog' living conditions, abundance of dangerous predators, and fiend-worshiping exiles warped by generations of living there, who readily practiced slavery and treachery with little morality to temper their ways of life.

Religion was an important facet for the inhabitants of Farauei. Being "atheist" (using this term to describe those who reject belief in any god, because it was sort of a known fact that gods, or divine miracles, existed) was something of an oddity in the land. The primary pantheon worshipped within the connected human settlements was dubbed the Faraueian Pantheon. It was mostly a collection of gods that had been brought over with the cultures that were spirited away to this dimension, their images warped over time compared to their depictions on their homeworlds. As well, people paid homage to lesser spirits known as *kami*. The surface elves rarely worshiped any gods, while the drow had fallen into the hands of Lolth yet again, and sometimes worshiped other fiends, evil gods or even gods of shadow magic. The dwarves had a cultural religion based primarily around veneration of ancestors, with the most powerful dwarvish deity being the forebearer of the entire race. Gnomes and halflings revered fey spirits or gods of the culture they had assimilated into, although neither races were known for religious zeal. Orcs worshiped their own deities, generally of flames and war, but those who lived in human societies may have turned their eyes towards the human pantheon. Dragons rarely worshiped deities, but if they did, it was generally a collection of gods that formed the so-called Draconic pantheon.

### Creatures & Races

All manners of supernatural and mundane creatures lived in this world. The ecology suggested Russia or northern Japan, with native creatures such as the Hokkaido wolf and crested ibis, among others. Magical beasts, abberations and other supernatural creatures roamed within the wilds, underneath the umbrella term of "youkai." This included goblinoids, dragons, lycanthropes and other creatures like kappa, tengu and zashiki-warashi. As well, awnsheghlien and ersheghlien were considered youkai, and elves, gnomes and halflings may have been considered youkai depending on who you asked. *Kami*, spirits that tapped into a force of divinity that flowed throughout the world and could be worshipped to grant divine powers, were numerous beings, but few were powerful enough to rival the deities of other polytheistic pantheons such as the Faerunian pantheon. They were not considered youkai, but a kind of divine spirit.

The humanoid races consisted of humans, quasi-humans and demihumans. Quasi-humans included human-born planetouched like aasimar, born from celestial spirits; tieflings, created of fiends like oni, demons and devils; genasi, born from spirits with a connection to the elements; and other, stranger humankind such as kalashtars, descended from those of Sarlona; elans, psionic lifeforms created under the instruction of a secret council; and illumians, transformed humans made of pure magic, which could be created through a ritual or arising spontaneously as a result of wild magic or sorcerous birthright. Half-elves and half-orcs were also quasi-humans. Demihumans were any race that were humanoid but not human-related, such as elves, orcs, halflings, goblins, gnomes and dwarves.

Humans and humankind were genetically composed of the ethnic groups of Hokkaido, and thus, most were Yamato or Ainu. The lack of an inflow of other populations hurt genetic diversity a lot, and the population was essentially homogenous in that regard, though some locales had a population with a concentration of a particular set of genetics. Those humans who had ventured underground greatly resembled their surface counterparts, although they had developed big eyes suited to seeing in the dark, as well as pale complexions. Humans had a versatility no other race had, but were also quite plain. Their cousins, the humankind races, lost this versatility in exchange for extra innate powers.

There were three known subspecies of elves. Both kinds of elves were distrustful of other races at best and hostile at worst, with the drow more commonly the latter than the former, and vice versa. The elves originated in Faerun, but they were not high elves and were rather obscure on their homeworld. Possibly some high elves were part of the initial extraction and transition to Farauei, but they have been bred out over time, their lineage collapsing into the remaining subraces. Surface elves came in two distinguished varieties: the snow elves of the far north, who possessed resistance to ice and aptitude for harsh climates, and the dusk elves of the south, who had an aptitude for the night and shadow magic. The drow possessed powers similar to their otherworldly counterparts; most could evoke *dancing lights* or *darkness*, and those with training or the innate gift could call upon *deeper darkness*, *feather fall* and a constant *detect magic*.

Dwarves had two subraces, and were spirited away from their homeworld of Golarion. They possessed traits similar to dwarves in other worlds, such as their love of the forge, hardworking personalities, tight familial and communal bonds, and prowess when dealing with stone, caverns and mountains. They employed a sort of friendly neutrality towards other races, and were willing to work with most others, particularly humans and halflings, whom they sometimes lived among. Their underground dwelling counterparts, the duergar, were naturally psionic and possessed a more drastic devotion to their craft, employing slavery and tireless labor to craft impenetrable fortresses of stone. Rumors suggested that they were aiming to protect the world from something that they had discovered long ago. They hated all outsiders, including the drow, but were willing to trade resources with others.

Halflings were brought from Aebrynis' Cerilia, but were in fact native to that world's Shadow World, which was once a realm of faerie. They were fey creatures similar to the elves. They were innately attuned to the realm of shadow, and could peer into it to sense the presence of shadow magic. They were a peaceful folk who liked to blend in with other races, particularly humans. They could be found almost anywhere, and adopt the customs of whatever culture they found themselves amongst.

Gnomes originated from Faerun, and possessed many of the same traits as their counterparts. They had an innate aptitude for fey or shadow magic. Much like the halflings, they lived among other races, but could also be seen within the forests that the elves called home, or within burrows underneath the soil. They were fond of jokes and pranks and most were quite jovial. A lot of them held family and tradition dearly to them. Their underground counterparts, the svirfneblin, were grim creatures that were always on the lookout. They worked to keep the evil creatures of the underworld trapped forever, and were revered by their surface counterparts for their determination.

Orcs had traits that could be ascribed to almost any world, with the exception of maybe Eberron. They were a belligerent people who were seemingly dead set on conquering the entire lands, and perhaps would've been able to some time in the past, but now, their physical strength is no match for the magical forces employed by the other races. Their bloodthirst lead to a high mortality rate within the race, due to infighting or serious overestimation of their own abilities, but their population remained high in numbers due to incredible fecundity that was one of the race's commonalities. In general, most orcs were ruthless and barbaric, arranged in tribes with customs most other civilizations would deem savage. However, not all orcs were this way, and some were able to get by within human settlements.

#### Awnsheghlien & Ersheghlien

These creatures, whose names meant "blood of darkness" and "blood of light" respectively in the elves' language, were a kind of monstrous or magical entity. They were blooded scions who were deeply connected to the source of their powers, and took on a physical transformation as a result. Sheghlien could be born from any manner of creature, including humans, elves, other youkai, and regular animals. They maintained a few of their original traits, but gained additional powers. The awnsheghlien were far more common, and were beings of evil, although you could rarely find a neutral or even good awnshegh that retained their original alignment and morality and did not succumb to their transformation entirely. Ersheghlien were far rarer, in part due to social stigma that came with such a transformation, and in part because the transformation to an ershegh was entirely willing on the part of the scion, as opposed to an awnshegh which was a sort of curse that the scion bore. The most powerful shegh could grant spells to those who worshiped it like a demigod, and indeed, some were just as powerful.

#### Dragons

Dragons followed much of the same physiologies as in other worlds, concerning their moralities and the colors of their scales and their biological powers. Both european and chinese dragons could be found, although they were considered to be a separate but related species. They had innate sorcerous powers like in other worlds. Metallic dragons were revered as wise sages and signs of fortune, while chromatic dragons were feared as terrible harbingers of destruction. Gem dragons were rare creatures that were a mixture of both feared and respected, seeing that they had flexible dispositions and could be a little unreliable, but could also be powerful allies or be safely ignored.