Locations and NPCs

## **Heights of Enduring Song**

### Specialties and Trade

Minerals, Forged goods, Enchanted goods, Magical services, Art, Fish, Furs, Meats.

*Extremely tall mountains almost entirely covered in ice sheet dominate the north of the Heights. Closer to the coast the land is more liveable and many small communities of various northern, hardy people live here. Only supernaturally cold resistant and immune creatures live in the glacial mountains. Frostshield is carved into these mountains. The more temperate mountains have a small population of winged folk and air elemental bloodlines.*

## The Forest of Return

*The Forest of Return regenerated miraculously some time after it's destruction in the Great War, an event no one is really sure the nature of, many hold to the faith that the Horned Lord resurrected it. It spans a massive area containing a wide range of temperate zones and biomes. It is no hotter than temperate and has moderate to high rainfall. A great many ruins and artifacts are surely hidden in it’s tangled masses of plant life. Elven tribes engage in small scale territorial wars with each other, but nothing that would devastate entire communities, a certain code of honor and respect for elves collectively is honored.*

## The Blue Forest

### Cultures

Naiadins

*The Blue Forest is a low flat, heavily rivered forest, some of which can take on a blue hue, but is mostly a very lush wet green. It is populated by non-united tribes of interbred humans, elves, water folk, fey and water elementals. While lightly populated it is known for its Temple of the Life Stream, said to possess the most powerful healing magic in Convergence. People here have an unusual attunement to water and healing. Being descended from Nereids they are often considered to be some of the more charming and attractive people in the world.*

## **The Ashtray Coast**

*The Ashray Coast is populated by some of the best sea faiers and shipwrights in Arborea. They are known to depend heavily on fishing, though some tribes raid and pillage as well. The people have many ghost stories and are very careful to ward their ships and avoid angering a spirit dwelling in the depths. These grim tales seem to have made the culture more grim and brooding, though it could also be all the rain and clouds. All men are expected to train martially and women built for it are encouraged as well.*

## The Lawless Expanse

*The Lawless Expanse is a place of brutal, violent, desperate struggle. Yet many are able to forge a life for themselves in these lands free from overbearing governments, however only the strong and ruthless find an enjoyable life here, all others perish quickly or are enslaved. Survival is manageable on the edges of the Expanse where arid ecosystems can support some specialized communities, however in the deeper desert survival is a supernaturally heroic feat. The rewards for such folk are great as the epicenter of the Great War is in the deep desert and contains the most relics of power, and a strange substance called Phoenix that is highly valued by all rich folk the world over. Secretive gangs command these desolate fields and fight viciously between each other. Despite being barren, The Expanse is a place of dramatic diversity, great canyons, plateaus, strange hardy plant life, acid pools, active volcanoes, and bizarre mountain and rock formations seen nowhere else. “Humans” command The Expanse for the most part, though all are adapted or have extraplanar bloodlines adept at coping with the extreme heat and cold of this deadly land. It is said enclaves of dark mages practice the most evil of magics deep in the wastes, and ancient centers of power containing horrific secrets lay in shadowed canyons that even the most hardy waste folk refuse to go. People living here have developed a natural defense against the sorts of extraplanar monsters that would conceal their true form or ethereally hide.*

## The Bloodmen Marches

### Cultures

Bloodmen

*The Tribes inhabit a unique land of volcanic activity and fungal forests. There are grassfields, barren lava fields, active lava flows, thermally active grounds and coastal swamps. From the Ruby Range to the ocean coast the Tribes command this land. Strange, black ruins of wild, but solid construction sprawl over the terrain, some have been inhabited by people, the biggest of which, on the coast, was made into the The City of Valor. The majority of people live on the coast, taking advantage of it's bounty of sea life. While all cultures in Convergence take captives to some extent, the Tribes are the only culture to actively seek slaves for capture and sale. Societal rank is determined by martial and sometimes magical might, raw ability to force one’s will. Those without such power are servants or slaves, they see this as the natural and proper place for those too weak to fight. Respect and rank are earned in contest and deeds. War and violence are assumed as natural parts of life. Magical healing and advanced medical science are seen as sources of decay as it enables the weak to survive and pollute their bloodlines. Martial warriors are valued more than spell casters and many train specifically to assassinate magic users on the battlefield. The Tribes employs a very strict hierarchy and clear division of roles between the sexes. Free men are expected to be competent fighters and providers. Most women are restricted to domestic roles bound to service under a patriarch and expected to bare children needed to replenish soldiers lost in battle. Those women gifted supernaturally are allowed to serve under a patriarch. Cannibalism is practiced ritualistically, after defeating a strong foe warriors will consume portions of the slain. During times of famine all meat is put to use without shame.*

## The Lightchester Kingdom

### Ruler(s)

King Seldan Lightchester

*Ruled by King Seldan Lightchester often just called “The Kingdom”, it is a warmer, sunny land of grassfields and scattered forest. Some say is it the best, happiest, most prosperous nation in the world. Others see it’s people as servile and suffering under a strict law. Whatever the case it's military strength and fortified cities are of undeniable quality. Recent conquests and marriages to other kingdoms have greatly increased the size and power of the Lightchesters. A number of nobles have bent the knee or been given titles creating several smaller holdings within the Kingdom.*

## **Uncharted Waters**

*Some speak of a jungle to the southwest. Whispers of a dark land of eldritch knowledge and powers can be overheard between mages in the secret corners of taverns and reliquaries. It’s said to be to the southeast. The vast majority of the waters surrounding Convergence are uncharted, but humans in their madness daring to sail to their doom and torture report strange lands and stranger things under the dark waters.*

## Dungeons

“*You enter into the earth, into the ancient world of an alien people, so completely different from yourselves, their motivations, desires, and lives, completely foriegn to your warm hearths and humane communities. Power, eldritch knowledge, at all costs, without a single moment of heart or compassion, the will of these entities clings to the cold hard tunnels in this place. What of their sins and violations of nature still lurk in this deep darkness?”*