ZahnDomhan

**Zahndomhan** is a world of high magic, political fluctuation and hopefully, Rewarding and fun adventure.

The world itself is made of two cogs, one horizontal and one vertical, connected by their teeth on the magnetic north west of the horizontal cog. The world has no sun, but five moons and an aether sphere that rotates for the twenty hour days. A year is four hundred days, ten months of forty days and a week is five days. the magic forces of the aether sphere give us four seasons. Broadly speaking, the climate of the lands and oceans atop the cog are warmer towards the middle and colder towards the teeth.

Zahndomhan has only five gods. While powerful forces such as demons, eldritch elder things and archfey exist and have their cults and worshippers, even those acknowledge that the five sister goddesses have the only complete divinity. They appear in different aspects and mean multitudes, but to simplify them:

**Sixir** – Goddess of magic and intelligence

**Kushinda** – Goddess of competition and war

**Takamul** – Goddess of the natural world and beasts

**Etolik** – goddess of death and the undead

**Leholimo** – goddess of society and order

Demographically every single official playable race in fifth edition dungeons and dragons is present across the cog, with one very notable exception. Elves, high elves, wood elves, moon elves, aquatic elves, drow and half elves have entirely died out, after being the most dominant force across the known cog. The reasons for this are shrouded in mystery. Because life was brought to the cog by the goddesses, the differences between Zahndomhan folk and the folk of other realms are only marginal. Three small examples of differences are that Gnomes are smaller than halflings, Orcs have more greenish skin and the warforged were not forged for war, simply called ‘automata’ here.

A high percentage of people across the cog have a cantrip or two, and having a first or second level spell is not unheard of for the educated.

In the last handful of centuries, what species of folk you are has become less and less important. Culture relies more on personal identity and what beliefs you hold dear. A citizen of the highest populated area **Maligon**, (the southern half of the Maligonmerec super continent of the north-west) cares much more for which of the thirty-three nations a person comes from or chooses to call home. While just purely statistically, nations will be made more of the race of their founders, it is not normally by any political choice. As such, in the modern age of the cog, many of the grudges and hatreds that echo in other realms simply don’t exist. A dwarf from Suntij is more likely to trust the word of a goblin from Suntij than a dwarf from Gadprig, for example. Minotaurs, gnolls, ogres and especially goblinoids are more welcomed as sentient citizens than in Faerun or greyhawk.

Obviously, this causes some new challenges to arise. Seventy five years ago, the continent was plunged into an enormous war that causes much of the landscape we see today. Another key element I would wish to impart on anyone wishing to make stories in Maligon, is that the tiny government structures are by no means monolithic. It is entirely possible for a group of adventurers with a plan and some good amount of luck to entirely change or destabilize a nation of Maligon, undeniably alter the course of its future at around level five.

**Gesurb**: To the north east of Maligon, a three hundred mile castle of dragons and mysterious human knights.

**The Merec Wilderness**: North of Maligon is a wild land which seems to actively resist civilisation

**Verennicicpt**: A cursed continent of macabre creatures caused by a mysterious disaster

**The spoke Archipelago**: a series of islands in the warmest waters of the cog with some isolated communites

**The teeth ice wastes**: in the most north-western area where both cogs meet, some harsh creatures make their home amongst the ice.

And some places even the most knowledgable inhabitant explorers have yet to discover.