Terazan

"*Did you get her name?*"
"*...Her what?*"*This article needs some expanding as it is missing vital information.*

## Section Header

### Inhabitants

MenHínaDaetherkin (Dragonborn, Tieflings, etc.)DwarvesOrodkin (Orcs, Goblins, Ogres, Trolls, etc.)

**Terazan**, also known as **Coédór** in Hínas, is a planet that exists within the living plane. It sits between the planes of light and darkness, colloquially known as the “Aether” and the “Void” respectively by mankind.

It is composed of four regions: Erúnás, Iondór, Calíos, and Díras.

## History

Something here about the history of Terazan's creation and formation

### The Formation of the World

Something about Terazi creating it with the other gods

### Appearance of Life

Something about life appearing on the world.

### Solar System and Astrology

The planet Terazan has a singular moon named Ithillia and orbits a single star named Calidum.

## Continents and Holds

There have been speculations that at first Terazan had a united super-continent named **Erambar**, but split in to continents which drifted away from one another sometime after its creation.

Below are the locations of importance in Terazan:

### Erúnás

#### Azdaran

The forests of Azdaran are known for their magical and mythical properties, leading some to speculate that this is where magic was born and therefore attracts a lot of students of the Arcane Arts. So many, in fact, that the *College of Arcane Arts* was opened in order to teach wizards and witches about the different schools of magic. The College of Arcane Arts, known more commonly as **The College of Azdaran**, is located north of the forests, and is home to the Grand Mages Council. The council are the absolute go-to for any incidents involving magic and adhere strictly to the ***Mage's Code***, a set of rules created in order to study and practice the art of magic safely and responsibly.

Within the eastern forest of Azdaran lies the Wood Elf city **Mirkwood**. This city sits high up in the trees, connected by several bridges with homesteads buried in to thick tree trunks. Many Elves from this city live a proud life, and any that go against their strict set of laws are banished from the forest - with threats of death should they return.The main races found in Azdaran are Humans, Dragonborn, Tieflings, and Hína.

#### Badlands

The Badlands are named after their harsh terrain and deadly native species. Home to trolls, ogres, and giants - they are a very dangerous place to travel around. Not much is known about the Badlands other than there are three major cities. These cities, named after the noises that the creatures make when referring to them, are **Duh**, **Uug**, and **Bah**.

#### Heartlands

The Heartlands is the biggest hold and home to the human city **Edrasa** - the main capital of Terazan. The Heartlands are led by the High King, a monarch whose influence and laws spread across the entirety of Terazan, and any that oppose him are considered enemies of the crown. It is home of the ***King's Guard***, a sect of Knights and Paladins dedicated to defending the King and his people from either enemies of the crown and demonic entities.

Aside from humans, the Heartlands are populated by Elves and Half-Orcs.

#### Oro Duug

Oro Duug is a mineral-rich iron-clad hold, producing most of the valuable ores and ingots for the entirety of Terazan. Ruled somewhat by chieftains of the Orc stronghold - **Orzakan** - it is mostly populated by Orcish guards, who claim that most of the valuable minerals (such as the Gold, Mithril, and famously rare **Azurite**) are owned by them as is their birthright. Of course, trade is thriving between Oro Duug and the Heartlands due to an agreement between the High King and the Orc Chieftains.

It is also known that Oro Duug is home to the Dwarven city **Bhuul Ghnesh**, in which the Dwarves live in their underground fortress, safe from the prying eyes of the world.

The main races found in Oro Duug are Orcs and Dwarves.

#### The Keep

The Keep is the main line of defense between the realm of men and the darkness of the Void. At the western edges of this hold are two walls; one of which lines the border of the Unknown West, and one of which borders the Badlands. There are two main ranger citadels in The Keep.

**Voidwatch** is an ancient citadel almost as old as the race of men itself. It homes only the most lethal and experienced rangers, known as the **Voidwatch Rangers**, whose sole purpose is to defend the rest of Terazan from the creatures that are born in the dark shadows of the Unknown West. It is a dangerous perilous place which is always on high alert in the case of an invasion.

**Trollheim** is the second major citadel in The Keep and watches over the border of the Badlands. The rangers that are posted here, known as the **Greywatch**, specialise in protecting the realm of men against Ogres, Trolls, Giants, and other brutish creatures. Though not as dangerous as the Voidwatch, Trollheim experiences several attempted invasions a year from the inhabitants of the Badlands, making it a very tense and extreme location.

#### Toasdstool Reach

Toadstool Reach is a mystical hold which is home to many of the more aether-aligned magical creatures, which many believe is largely due to the influence of the Azdaran Forest seeping through from the North. There are two continents within the hold, **Aevan** in the West and **Tovan** in the East.

**Aevan** is a home continent of half-folk and hill dwarves. It is known for its beautiful summer valleys and peaceful atmosphere. The people of Aevan try to separate the problems of the world from their home, with most residents favouring a simple life rather than that of great importance. The cotinent's capital city is **Hollowhill**, a halfling settlement which has no monarch and functions solely on the citizens agreeing on changes and promising to commit to changing them. Though this form of government would at first appear to be easy to manipulate, the astounding simplicity in which the residents favour makes this an easy promise for them to keep.

**Tovan** in a home continent of the Gnomes, and Faykind. It is known for its mystical fauna that features toadstools, luminous vines, and magical creatures. The people of Tovan are not as passive as their Western relatives, and operate closely with the other holds of the world. The most notable place in Tovan is the Gnome capital **Quiro City**. The city is home to a **Bards College** which has produced many famous entertainers and writers. The continent is ruled by a monarch and a council of advisors who will make decisions based on what they feel is best for the continent. Though the two continents have different governments, it is generally accepted that the monarch of Tovan also has lawful jurisdiciton over Aevan.

#### The West

The West is an evil, corrupted place, which spreads like a disease throughout the Western regions of Terazan. Spawning some of the deadliest foes - including (but not limited to) Dryad, Flesh Golem, Hellhounds, Helmed Horrors, Hobgoblins, Invisible Stalkers, Lich, Lycanthropes, and Were-kind - it is truly a terrible place to step foot in. On charted maps, the north west of this hold is shadowed and undocumented, as nobody has managed to reach that far in to the West and lived to tell the tale.

Some theorise that if there were any dragons still alive, that the Unknown West is where they would be.

## Behind the Scenes

Creating the world of Terazan was no easy feat, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. As I recall, Terazan's creation was partly due to a want to roleplay in other mediums besides Habbo Retros and also as a way to continue writing my own worlds and NPCs in a more free setting. A lot of the elements on Terazan are borrowed from pop culture sources, such as Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones, but there are also elements that were created purely by mysel after thinking about how the world would interact with itself.

   I started by drawing a very crude map on paper, which can be seen at the side of this text, in sharpie marker and pencil and scanning that in to a computer. It was made using a YouTube tutorial that I have since lost the link to which talks about how to draw maps for Dungeons and Dragons. As you can see, it started off as a single continent that would be easily traversable in every direction; which is something that the party did in the first half of campaign 1 until later on.
It was semi-inspired by the map of Skyrim, with very similar icons showing the holds, caves, and citadels. As you can see, the log of Terazan was also developed by hand before I recreated it digitally on Photoshop, so quite a lot of it was done by hand without the help of a computer!

    From here I learned of the software Wonderdraft, something that allowed me to create a proper map of the world on a digital media, so I had to find a way to convery my predrawn one to digital file. It turns out Wonderdraft allows you to import templates, where it judges black areas a water and white areas as land in its auto-generation process. So from here, I had to open my scan on Photoshop and painstakingly remove all of the details, pixelation, and trace the shores with the magnetic lasso tool to make it perfectly binary black and white. The result of that, and the PNG used for the template import, can be found next to this block of text also.

From there is was pretty easy, although a long process, to design the map of Terazan. The party used the first itteration of the map for a while, until I decided that it would probably be boring to always be walking and never to sail between places. After that revelation I decided to split up the map in to continents, and redesign it as best I could.

The map of Terazan is a constant work in progress, as I am always refining areas and adding new places, so it is prone to changing regularly.