Locations

## Luenra

The fantastical realm of the unreal, Luenra is a reality separate from our own. It is a physical world just like Earth, but one in which all history and prehistory have been scrambled; every culture, continent, and time period has been has been shaped by human experience and imagination. Despite the close ties between them, Luenra and Earth are two separate realities, each totally unaware of the others existence.

### Pangaea

The prehistoric supercontinent on which the *Age of Fire* took place. Originally, "at the dawn of time", it was four separate landmasses- but a freak tectonic upheaval crashed them all together in less than a hundred years. It was a catastrophic event known to most as *The Great Conjoining* and was witnessed by every Race of that era. The Great Conjoining caused a sudden exchange of flora, fauna, and diseases, as well as many earthquakes and the formation of the infamous, unnamed Volcano that threatened to wipe out all life on the newly formed continent. The Great Conjoining is also blamed for that Ages many armed conflicts, as most of the Races involved were ignorant of one another and were not prepared to compete for their resources.
Unsurprisingly, the territories staked out by the four main players of the Age of Fire wars were mostly their former home continents.

#### North Pangaea (Kharnham)

A mostly barren land, rocky and unforgiving with sparse vegetation. The ancestral Makilek that lived there before the Great Conjoining were driven underground by a volcanic eruption that affected the entire landmass, though ironically it was not the volcano itself that turned their land into a wasteland, it was the rampant digging, cave-ins, and strip mining operations they did to avoid it. For many millions of years it was said to be dead, devoid of all life above ground and plagued by noxious vapors.
Now, as a part of Pangaea, the region is finally starting to recover. Warmer weather and pioneering seeds are slowly starting to rewild old Kharnham, though there is not yet enough plant life to support megafauna all year round. The Makilek were as surprised to see this change as they were the other Races, as previously they had amassed everything they'd needed and become self-sufficient underground. The only reason they came to the surface at all was because the Great Conjoining collapsed most of their old tunnels.

#### East Pangaea (Farull)

Of the four continents that now form Pangaea, Farull was originally the largest and closest to the equator. A land of steep cliffs, coastal plains, and dense inner forests, it supported a great variety of plant and animal life as well as multiple hominid species. According to the Ubaan there were at least three distinct Races sharing the continent at one time, the Uba, Kecil, and Ghaan.
The Great Conjoining was especially hard on Farull. It was forced northeastward by the coming of Ikthyss and Majomorszag, resulting in a rapid climate shift that nearly tripled the size of its plains, dried out its woodlands, and weakened the forest-dwelling Kecil. Hundreds of native species became scarce or migrated inland, making hunting and gathering difficult for the already ailing Uba, Ghaan, and especially ill-fated Kecil, who were violently wiped out by raiding parties of Dryll looking to colonize their woods.

#### South Pangaea (Ikthyss)

Formerly a polar land, Ikthyss traveled the farthest of all the continents forming Pangaea. Initially covered in deep snow and permafrost, the Rith say it was once ringed in fields of ice and looked very different before the Great Conjoining. It gradually thawed as it moved north towards the equator, shrinking slightly and dumping many rivers worth of of fresh water into the sea. By the time it joined Pangaea it was a land transformed, ugly and empty with naked peaks, massive lakes, and near-endless fields of mud. The Rith actually found this much more agreeable and began to colonize the land once the Conjoining was over, not realizing the Ubaan and Dryll had already begun settling parts of it themselves!

#### West Pangaea (Majomorszag)

Majomorszag is a blossoming eden ripe with resources. It took a steep southeast path in its migration, already fairly close to the equator even before it displaced Farull, and upon Conjoining began an era of unprecedented growth and prosperity. Warmer temperatures, increased humidity, and virgin lands on all three borders have allowed its jungles- and peoples- to expand in record time. The Dryll were the first to begin settling the new lands, and thus also the first to make enemies, becoming almost universally hated within just two generations. Their only ally became the Ghaan, who by that point were so few in numbers compared to the newly formed Ubaan that they could no longer hold their own as a major Pangaean power. Their numbers plummeted further after war broke out with their former tribemates and attempts to hybridize with the Dryll failed. A small number of their kind allegedly persisted in Majomorszag, but like their Uba cousins they are they widely believed to be extinct now.

### Avalon

In the *Age of Aether* timeline Pangaea becomes Avalon, a much calmer and more temperate land ruled by the descendants of the Ubaan. It has found something resembling equilibrium in the time between Ages, with the once barren Kharnham and Ikthyss lands becoming green and inhabitable and stable ecosystems establishing themselves all over the continent. The spread and advancement of humans has thinned the invasive Dryll jungles, re-converting most of the overtaken territories back into forests and farmlands. *Homo sapiens* become the uncontested rulers of the continent and spread in all directions, building increasingly complex and sophisticated settlements and renaming their empire multiple times. During their expansion they encounter the reclusive *Esuriit* Race, who after a violent first contact are able to make peace with Avalon's king and become allies. Bad blood from the initial clash and human prejudices against "beastfolk" lead the Avalonian royals to hide their alliance from the lower classes, working with the Esuriit in secret to mine metal ore and precious gems for several centuries. This hidden partnership fast-tracks the human stone age and gives rise to metal smithing, military might, and early advancements in art, science, architecture. By the time the Kingdom of Avalon is fully established and the Age of Aether officially begins all three of the other Races from the Age of Fire are long extinct.

#### Agartha

The underground country of the Esurites. This expansive network of chambers, tunnels and cities runs far deeper than any Makilek cave ever did and but was sealed away when The Great Conjoining destroyed its upper levels. The giant eusocial ants that gave way to the Esuriit Race avoided the Age of Fire and its conflicts and were thus able to develop in secrecy and peace. Their country would appear quite dark and plain to the eyes of a surface dweller, mostly being made up of hard-packed dirt, limestone, and rudimentary "cities" formed from regurgitated earth. The rich mineral resources of the region were largely ignored as the Esuriit saw no practical use for them and only occasionally collected them, mostly out of simple curiosity. The true lifeblood of Agartha, at least to them, is fungus. Hardy subterranean spores seeded the dens of their ancestors and over time became became actively cultivated and domesticated as crops, bedding material, and housing. More traditional plant and animal life is considerably harder to find in Agartha, especially in the lower levels, but it is said earthworms and enormous "beast sized" mites are kept as livestock. The giant spiders that briefly threatened the Makilek still persist in this region but avoid the Esuriit tunnels.
Ever since the Age of Aether began, however, Agartha has gone into steady decline. Increased mining activity, both by the Esuriit and their human allies, has greatly expanded the range of their tunnels, much to the detriment of their structural stability. Cave-ins, gas leaks, and contamination from heavy metals have had a tremendous negative impact and limited the amount of space available for mite ranches and fungus farms. Food traded from the surface allowed the Esuriit population to grow in spite of this, but after their abrupt split from Avalon they found themselves utterly unable to sustain themselves. Agartha is now a crumbling and decrepit old hollow, barely able to sustain anything larger than worms and bacteria.

#### Mu

A long, diamond-shaped peninsula connected to Avalon only by a thin land bridge to the southeast. It was a part of Dryll-occupied Ikthyss during the Age of Fire and has become increasingly tropical over time, warmed by close proximity to the equator and overgrown by plants from Majomorszag. The Dryll who first cultivated this land struggled immensely- the swampy soil underneath was not conducive to farming, nor to anchoring the roots of their giant home-trees. Forced to live on the ground, they came into direct competition with the flesh-eating forces of the Rith and Makilek and were slowly starved out. The war of attrition for what would eventually be Mu ended with a golden scaled subsect of Makilek in control.
In the eons since those Makileks evolved to fill the niche left over by the Dryll. A new breed of reptiloid called *Baarah-Panje* emerged and dominated the peninsula, officially naming it the Empire of Mu and barring all human entry, at least before the Age of Aether.

### Hyperborea

The Frozen North. Hyperborea was a sister continent to Ikthyss during the Age of Fire, similarly inhospitable and uninhabited but located at the opposite pole. The tectonic plate supporting it did not shift as radically as most during the Great Conjoining and so it avoided becoming a part of Pangaea. The landmass was largely ignored for millions of years but eventually became settled by a small population of seafaring, stone age humans. They were the sole inhabitants of Hyperborea for a long while, joined only by a handful of other human cultures who arrived sporadically throughout the next few hundred years.
Unbeknownst to them, remnants of the loosely organized Rith clans also had their sights on the continent and had been migrating north since the tail end of the Fire Age. It's uncertain which species actually arrived first, but because the northern mer were still restricted to living in water and were so few in numbers after their loss to the Ubaan they decided to stay in hiding throughout their development. It's said they branched out into multiple species, each resistant to salt water, but lost contact with one another after they expanded. The only form to remain became known as the *Tiguwok*, who would over time become known as a sort of mythical boogeyman to the northern human tribes. Prior to the Age of Aether their existence was considered dubious at best by the outside world.

### Lemuria

A large, subtropical continent northwest of Avalon. Though home to many unique species of flora and fauna it had no sapient Races for millions of years, only becoming inhabited a few decades prior to the Age of Fire when Majomorszag briefly connected to it on its path to Pangaea. The colonies of Dryll who ventured there quickly became separated and had to learn to fend for themselves under new conditions. They lived and died there for millennia, unaware and unaffected by the events transpiring between their long lost kin and the mainland. Those Dryll who survived the process split into two cultures, and then later two species, one of which eventually became the nocturnal, blood-sucking *Kivuli*.

## The Spirit World

An intermediary between Luenra and Earth, the Spirit World is a third reality which blurs the line between real and unreal. It is an ethereal dimension that is beyond current comprehension, simultaneously separated from and interwoven with both Luenra and Earth. It is the world of superstition, faith, and intuition. It has no mortal inhabitants and is instead occupied by immortal Gods and spirits of the deceased.