The Island of Fizsaire Setting Details

 Introduction: The largest island off the eastern coast of the First Empire is a tropical island with a long history of settlement, trade, and cultural exchange with the mainland. It is called the Island of Fizsaire. Currently, there are two nations on the island. These states have never warred with each other, although they have never been allies either. They are separated by the Curtaneous Mountains on the eastern side of the island, the main obstacle to greater contact between the two. The Kingdom of Estram occupies the larger, flatter area west of the Curtaneous Mountains, the Fizsairian Jungle, while the Angco Republic occupies the narrow Slithering Rainforest of the East coast. Both nations, however, exist in the shadow of the nearby First Empire, a fact that hangs over the heads of all who value the independence of the island.

Geographic History: Fizsaire, unlike most islands, has not always been an island. At times when more of Tero’s water was locked up in glaciers and ice caps, sea levels would be low enough to expose the land between the island and the mainland which is currently under an abnormally shallow stretch of ocean water. During these periods, plants and animals were able to migrate to Fizsaire without any obstacles, resulting in environments that are fairly similar to those on the mainland. That said, it has been several thousand years since the last ice age on Tero, so there has been some divergence from mainland species, just not much. The Fizsairian Jungle and Slithering Rainforest are both highly diverse areas home to thousands, if not millions, of species of plants and animals. The wetter rainforest is home to highly diverse populations of birds, snakes, amphibians, and insects, along with several larger species. The larger, drier jungles aren't quite as diverse, making up for this in the sheer numbers of things that are present. Many species are able to survive in both environments, but both also have species that live in one environment but not the other. Separating the two areas are the Curtaneous Mountains, the highest ranges of an otherwise underwater mountain range with many active volcanoes, some of which are on the island itself. These volcanoes provide plenty of nutrients to the environments on either side of them, contributing to the high diversity of the area. Not only that, but the tall mountain range forces warm, humid air from the East up into the atmosphere most days, cooling the air and producing near-constant rain for the Slither Rainforest. The western portion of the island, however, still receives plenty of rain, particularly in the northern parts, although the southernmost reaches devolve into meadows and scrublands at times.

In the face of such diversity and density of species, people on the Island of Fizsaire have developed a deep relationship with the life around them. It is said that for every ailment, there is a plant or animal in the Fizsairian forests which can be used to create a cure. Most of this knowledge has never left the island, however, so much of the world doesn’t benefit from these useful species. Some of the more common plants, cultivated on all parts of Fizsaire, include snakebark trees, vine apples, whiteleaf, and the ferroflower. There are of course many other plants that are well-known by Fizsairians, but these four provide much of the lumber, food, spices, and iron used on the island. As far as animals go, there is a long history of domesticated livestock on the island, as well as a large number of wild species that locals try to be aware of. The most feared of the wild beasts is the invisible tiger, a species of tiger with fur that renders the animal invisible, leaving only their eyes, noses, and open mouths visible to the naked eye. Invisible tigers use their invisibility to hunt nearly anything that moves, including people, however some animals, like the blind gazelles, have developed ways to detect the apex predators. Blind gazelles lack eyes, but this doesn't matter because their horns, shaped like concave dishes on spikes, are able to detect the quietest of sounds, allowing the gazelles to echolocate and detect creatures that are otherwise invisible. Tree armadillos are able to scurry out of reach of any ground-based predators at the first sign of danger, and if caught unawares, they are able to curl up into an armored ball. One creature that has been made the subject of many folk tales is the winged monkey that can be found on all parts of the island. These monkeys with bat-like wings are intelligent, mischievous, and able to get pretty much anywhere they want with ease. Many more flora and fauna can be found on the Island of Fizsaire, however the exact number has never been known, with some saying that there are more species than can be counted.

The Kingdom of Estram: Controlling everything west of the Curtaneous Mountains is the Kingdom of Estram. This kingdom of humans, currently ruled by King Edgard I, traces its history back to before the formation of the First Empire. Once but one small village among many in the jungle, the first king of Estram, King Ed the Ambitious, took inspiration from the newly-formed First Empire, earning his kingship through the conquest of surrounding villages. King Ed funneled the wealth of the villages to the then-village of Estram, allowing the tiny settlement to grow into the City of Estram that stands between the ocean and the jungle today. The kingdom has spent the last millennium in the precarious position of the First Empire’s closest ally, providing a stalwart trading and political partner despite the risk of becoming the next nation to join the larger, more powerful empire. In choosing to support the First Empire in all things, Estram precludes the need for invasion and annexation, allowing the Estramic monarchy to exercise absolute power on their island. Whatever the value the First Emperor actually sees in allowing the Kingdom of Estram to maintain independence, the fact remains that the First Emperor’s influence is strongly felt in Estramic culture and politics. Good relations with the Angco Republic to the east have always been forced by the Curtaneous Mountains between them and the difficulties posed by an amphibious invasion. The kings of Estram would conquer Angco in a heartbeat if they could figure out how to do it. The regular citizens of Estram are mostly supportive of some kind of absolute monarchy, although a sizable portion would rather it be the actual First Emperor and not one of his wannabes, and another sizable portion would rather be ruled by Rosaline, the ancient dragon who lives on Fizsaire. King Edgard expends considerable resources to prevent these cults from gaining too much power, although it is a constant battle.

The Angco Republic: Unbeknownst to all outsiders, especially the humans of Estram, the Angco Republic is populated solely by Snake People. To keep up appearances, it is actually a law that citizens of the republic must maintain a human form whenever they leave the territory of Angco as well as any time outsiders are allowed to come into their lands, although such directives are limited to the immediate areas the outsiders will be visiting. These laws are all proposed, debated, and either approved or disapproved by small councils of elected representatives, each town council acting as a miniature version of the Angco Council which governs the entire nation, each town sending a single councilor to represent their interests on a national level. The snake people of Angco have maintained this method of governance since their ancestors, refugees from the fall of an ancient snake person kingdom in the bog lands of Squee, came to Fizsaire almost 1,500 years ago. The refugees, seeing the errors made by their forebears who tried and failed many times to establish themselves as rulers. Snake people of Angco and the rest of the Island of Fizsaire are aware of the crimes of their ancestors and the ongoing distrust and hatred that is directed at their kind, so they are often more than willing to go to great lengths to preserve not only their secrets, but the peaceful way of life they have attained after many generations of failed conquest. To ensure this peace lasts as long as it can, the Angco Council has embedded many agents in the government of King Edgard, to ensure that they are prepared for any potential invasions and that the plans for such invasions meet difficulties at every turn. 

Rough Timeline

• 25,000 years ago- Rosaline the dragon establishes her lair in an active volcano (now dormant)

• 20,000 years ago- Taking advantage of the land connection that existed at the time, humans first settle the land that would become the Island of Fizsaire

• 1,500 years ago- Snake people first colonize the Slithering Rainforest, pushing out the sparsely-populated humans of the area by being better adapted for such a hot, humid environment

• 1,200 years ago- The village of Estram is founded by a man known as Founder Eulogene

• 1,000 years ago- The First Empire is formed by the First Emperor, inspiring Mayor Ed of Estram to conquer neighboring villages and name himself King Ed the Ambitious

• 500 years ago- The Kingdom of Estram establishes its current borders

• 200 years ago- A near-exposure event during an Estramite diplomatic visit prompts a wave of paranoia and the current state of Angco’s secrecy policies

• 199 years ago- The Angco Republic recalls all but its most senior diplomat and otherwise cuts off diplomatic ties with the Kingdom of Estram, maintaining the bare minimum of trade and polite communications to avoid angering their neighbors

• 50 years ago- Queen Edwina the Crone puts down an uprising of First Emperor cultists by agreeing to accept an unprecedented number of First Imperial diplomats and merchants into their territory, an attempt to bring Estramic culture even more in line with First Imperial norms and expectations

• 23 years ago- King Edgard’s father, King Edwar, enacts several policies meant to cut down on the worship of anyone except for the Estramic monarchs, empowering village mayors to investigate and expel other cults with little to no oversight

• 13 years ago- King Edgar takes the Estramic throne, although there is little difference between his rule and his father’s

• 1 year ago- The Angco Republic sends 5 more diplomats to work under and assist Timantha Smoothskin, previously the sole ambassador to the Kingdom of Estram, while at the same time reports of increased cult activity spread through Estram, leading to suspicions that the increased friendliness from Angco is related to the rise in cultish behavior

Major Factions

King Edgard's Government- King Edgar has been in power for 13 years and has proven himself to be a competent ruler, worthy of the worship he receives as a member of the Estramic monarchy. Edgard has surrounded himself with some of the most competent and accomplished advisors the Island of Fizsaire could provide, resulting in a stable, smoothly-run government. Edgar does his best to stay out of the way of his advisors, preferring to focus on his own area of expertise, propaganda and public relations. As the absolute ruler of his kingdom and the object of worship for his more religious subjects, Edgard spends most of his time planning public appearances, outfits, and speeches to maintain enough public adoration to keep his people united and complicit in Edgard’s dictatorship. The largest concerns of people in this government are Edgard’s propaganda campaigns, maintaining good relations with the First Empire, and eliminating the various cults and political dissident groups that operate in the background of Estramic society.

The Angco Council- The elected council which governs the Republic of Angco. Citizens of Angco are generally happy with the decisions their representatives make, and with elections happening every two years, unpopular representatives rarely stick around for long. With each councilor representing their home village, decisions of the Angco Council usually do a good job of representing the wills of their constituents. With the main goal of maintaining safety and prosperity for their people, the council has recently decided to pursue closer ties to the Kingdom of Estram, hoping to develop a friendship that will tamp down future plans of invasion from the West.

The Angco Diplomatic Team- Led by a snake woman named Timantha Smoothskin, this team of 6 is tasked with being the face of the Angco Republic in the government of King Edgard. Their orders are to maintain peaceful relations with Edgard at all costs. The members of this team double as spies for the Angco Council, using their natural shape-shifting abilities to gather information and prevent harm to Angco within the court of King Edgard.

The Fizsarian Naturalist’s Guild- An organization almost as old as the Kingdom of Estram, the Naturalist’s Guild is dedicated to documenting the extreme biodiversity of  Fizsaire. The guild maintains a library and museum in the City of Estram where they train up new members and organize regular expeditions to collect, monitor, and discover the living things of the island. The Fizsairian Naturalist’s Guild claims to have been founded by an enigmatic figure known as Z, the Immortal Naturalist, a being they claim still stops by every couple of centuries to see what new discoveries have been made and join a few expeditions. No one outside of the guild believes that Z exists, however members are known to be walking encyclopedias of useful information so most people are willing to put up with what they believe to be the fantasies of people who have spent too much time staring at tree bark. Members of the guild are some of the few outsiders who are regularly granted access to the Angco Republic (on the condition that they only every study the wildlife and plants, never the people), leading to some degree of distrust and investigation from King Edgard’s government, but members of the guild have never been found to be anything other than loyal citizens of Estram.

First Empire Merchants- The First Empire is the largest trading partner of the Kingdom of Estram, and that trade is facilitated by the many First Imperial merchants who seem to be a constant presence in the harbor of the City of Estram. Although they can drive a hard bargain, most residents of Fizsaire view their prices as fair, and even if they didn’t, the much lower numbers of traders from other places would make it difficult to get all of the imports that people have grown accustomed to. In exchange for the fruits of First Imperial factories and artisans, the people of Estram trade lumber, dried herbs and spices, and invisible tiger pelts to the visiting merchants.Although this relationship has always been fairly stable, some people in Estram have never been able to shake a sense of unease with the First Empire’s merchants.

First Empire Diplomatic Corps- So many ambassadors, diplomats, and staff members from the First Empire are present in the Kingdom of Estram that they needed to have a large embassy built in the City of Estram. The imposing building is meant to be a reminder of the strong bonds of friendship between the two nations, but those who are less inclined to trust the First Emperor tend to see it as a reminder of the influence the First Empire holds over them. The mission of the First Imperial diplomats in Estram is somewhat different than it is in less friendly locales. Rather than build up good will and connections to ease a future invasion, the First Emperor has ordered the Estram branch of the Diplomatic Corps to maintain friendly, supportive relations without taking any steps to soften the country to First Imperial invasion. It seems that being so supportive of the First Empire really has granted the Kingdom of Estram the privilege of being the last people to be conquered.

Estramic Monarchy Worshipers- King Ed the Ambitious’ inspiration from the First Empire didn’t end at conquering neighbors, he also made sure to establish a tradition of worship based on the veneration of him and his descendants. Today, this worship takes the form of paying taxes and following royal decrees and laws without question. Each village maintains a Royal Temple in the center of the settlement, staffed by 3-5 priests of the monarchy who also act as tax collectors and enforcers of royal policies under the leadership of their village’s mayor. King Edgard has been a good ruler for the most part so while religiosity may be on the decline, no one seems to have any serious issues with the priests of the monarchy that they are willing to air out in public.

Snake People of Estram- Unknown to most except perhaps the snake people of Angco, there are many snake people living among the humans of Estram without notice. While some maintain loyalties to the Angco Republic and act as spies on the council’s behalf, most of these snake people are descended from snake people who were living in the Fizsairian Jungle before the Kingdom of Estram expanded. Rather than leave, these snake people stayed and integrated themselves with the humans who moved in, taking human forms to avoid discrimination and maintaining their secrecy until such a time as the political landscape allows for it. Save for the spies, snake people in Estram are just normal people trying to get by, although they do tend to maintain certain snake person religious and cultural practices in secret.

Estramic Cult of the First Emperor- There is a small but influential subset of Estram citizens who recognize the worship of King Edgard and his ancestors as propaganda, but have come to the conclusion that the worship of the First Emperor in the First Empire is the true religion that they should be following. Following this logic, these worshipers believe that the best way for them to do the will of the First Emperor would be to join his empire and become subject to his laws and policies. Even with the continued persecution and efforts to disrupt meetings, the followers of the First Emperor have grown to sizable numbers that have even been able to threaten the Estramite rulers at times.

Cult of Rosaline- Most snake people on Fizsaire as well as a decent number of humans worship Rosaline the Dragon as their goddess, believing that while she may not provide much to her followers, anyone who is able to make an offering to Rosaline that she accepts into her hoard will be told the secret to spiritual enlightenment. The cult keeps secret, ad-hoc shrines, where followers can focus on the mystery of what Rosaline collects for her hoard. The dragon has never shared what she collects with a single mortal soul, and rarely leaves her lair, leading to much debate over what one might need to bring for her and how one might even find Rosaline’s lair in the first place. For her part, Rosaline is unaware that any of this is going on, and the only reason she won’t tell mortals what she collects is that she believes the additions to her collection are more valuable if they are given without knowing the meaning they hold for her. While popular with snake people all around Fizsaire, there is a growing population of human devotees to Rosaline as those who see the cracks in Estramic religion and First Imperial religion find comfort in the exploration of uncertainty and impossible tasks that worship of the ancient dragon invites.

Rosaline the Dragon- Rosaline is a 25,000 year old dragon with steel-gray scales. Rosaline doesn’t really care to be worshiped, however as a dragon who hoards titles and qualifications, Rosaline will always welcome whatever epithets and nicknames that come her way. Rosaline keeps a list of all of her titles and honors on the walls of her lair in an extinct volcano in the Curtaneous Mountains. Rosaline doesn’t understand that she is an object of worship by a cult, but she does appreciate some of the good titles and epithets that have been given to her over the years as a result. Unfortunately, no one except for Rosaline knows that each new title a worshiper gives her is an addition to her hoard. When she isn’t in her lair, reading through her list of titles over and over again, she is disguised as a mortal, taking classes and collecting qualifications at the universities and academies of the world.

Gnome Mafia- A small group of gnomes have set up residence in the City of Estram as members of the gnome mafia. Like in most places where the gnome mafia gets set up, the main trade of these gnomes is glitter, banned everywhere except for Gnome Country, and rabbits for illegal rabbit pageants. While they need to do a lot of work to stay under the radar of the authorities, the gnome mafia has managed to set up a lucrative business, even if it is limited to the City of Estram.

Mountain Mole Person Outposts- The Curtaneous Mountains are rugged and difficult to cross, let alone inhabit, from the surface. From underground, however, they pose little challenge if one is able to avoid the more active volcanic areas. The mole people, as masters of the subterranean environment, have had no issue establishing outposts within several of the largest mountains on the Island of Fizsaire. The purpose of these outposts is to act as observation posts where the mole people can observe the populations of surface dwellers on the island as their leaders plan their elaborate invasion of the surface. The mole people posted to the Fizsairian outposts have nothing to do with this planning and had no say in being assigned to what are technically alpine locations. Most of what the mole people do at these outposts is use powerful telescopes to observe whatever communities are closest to them. These are considered some of the most boring places to be deployed to by mole person society, but the lack of supervision has allowed that boredom to be put towards some truly bizarre projects. Each of the outposts has independently been running their own series of dangerous, unethical experiments in secret, something enabled by the more academic and espionage-focused personnel who are sent to the observation outposts.

Otherworldly Incursions- The Curtaneous Mountains are not only rugged and difficult to cross, but they are also host to a number of strange, otherworldly hazards. Most of these are known to the people of Fizsaire only through the incoherent tales of the few people who claim to have witnessed these things and survived. Each of these incursions seems to have a completely different effect and reason for being dangerous. Otherworldly creatures, fairy courts, and incomprehensible horrors have all been spoken of, but none of these stories have ever been verified by other people, so no one is ever really sure what to make of them. Most people write them off as the ramblings of people who ran out of supplies in the mountains and hallucinated whatever they rave about.

The Lonely Island: Setting Details

Introduction: The Lonely Island is a remote, poorly-known island far away from any other landmass on Tero. Due to its extreme isolation and large size, the diverse habitats of the Lonely Island have produced a number of highly unique ecosystems such as the Rusted Plains, the Bluesalt Marsh, and the Bronze Woods. Contributing to this high level of biological uniqueness is the lack of interference from the outside world that the island experiences. Ancient lizard folk settled on the island and persisted after their great catastrophe, but like there kin in other parts of the world, the ancient lizard folk were content to adapt to the resources at hand rather than import new plants and animals, so all they have left behind is buildings which today sit in ruin. This time without major disruption came to an end, however, with the arrival of the Arcane Order of the Walled Garden. At the time of their arrival, these mages were exiles from the recently-formed First Empire with the goal of developing magical weapons to use in some future attempt at revenge for their exile. The magical experiments of the Walled Garden irreversibly changed many aspects of the island, creating strange magical scars in the landscape that still cause harm hundreds of years on. Among the victims of these experiments were the lizard folk of the Lonely Island, wiped out by target practice and augmentation attempts. The Arcane Order of the Walled Garden would receive justice, however, in the form of their own creations.

        The elves were an attempt to create an army of naturally magical, immortal fighters to serve the Walled Garden and its goals. Luckily for the people of the world, the first elves recognized the darkness behind their creators’ eyes and revolted, killing all of the members of the order and leaving all of their facilities abandoned. The majority of the elves chose to stay on the island, fearing that the other people of the outside world were the same as their creators, and founded several towns to live in harmony with their environments and try to heal some of the damage done by the Walled Garden. While some elves chose to explore the world, the majority have chosen to stay in their homeland, the reason why elves remain such an obscure and mysterious species to this day. The elves and their history remain a secret even to the community of humans which have settled on the island due to their distrust of outsiders, particularly humans, so it is no wonder that most people in the world are unaware that the elves originated on the Lonely Island.

        Today, the people of Farport, the sole human settlement of the Lonely Island, continue to explore and try to understand the new home their ancestors chose 130 years ago. After more than a century of difficulties and famines, the farporters are considering acting on their decades of exploration and sending people to found new towns around the island. With this increased interest in the rest of the Lonely Island, the people of Farport are encountering the dangerous creatures, natural features, and magical leftovers of the island in larger numbers than ever before. Although most people would be discouraged by the tales of elf towns and gigantic creatures that return to Farport, the cultural value placed on collective struggles means that there is always an ample supply of people willing to do difficult things for the good of their community. Lacking any successful new settlements, the farporters have not started expanding yet, but when they inevitably do, it is likely that they will come into conflict with the elves, the creatures, and even the environments of the Lonely Island.

Geographic History: The Lonely Island has always been an island, never once in its history connecting to another landmass. The island of today straddles a rift between diverging tectonic plates which has not only produced a large number of earthquakes and hotsprings over the years, but the island itself. A few hundred million years ago, the Lonely Island first erupted above the waves as the slow process of volcanic buildup at the rift brought the highest sections of oceanic crust into the air. Over time, these mountains built up into the Crusty Mountains of today, splitting the Lonely Island into its rainier North side and drier South Side. To this day there are active volcanoes, earthquakes, and hotsprings caused by this rift and which residents must contend with. This volcanism actually means that the Lonely Island is slowly growing as its two halves move apart, although this growth is inhibited by the only slightly slower rate of erosion that the edges of the island experience because of the ocean. After its initial emergence, the long distance to the nearest land resulted in a long period of barrenness on the Lonely Island that was exacerbated by the high concentrations of metals in many of the rocks and soils of the island. The southern portion of the island is rich in iron while the northern and western regions are rich in copper and tin. These unique soils have not only produced an environment that is difficult for plants and animals to adapt to, but one which actively poisons those plants which cannot utilize or filter out the metals in the soil. Several unique ecosystems have developed around these different soils and levels of precipitation which include strange plants, animals, and even a few beasts which seem entirely unique to the island.

        One of the stranger and less well-understood environments of the Lonely Island is the Bronze Woods, a forest which covers all of the land north of the Crusty Mountains and which is primarily composed of bronzeleaf trees. These trees have leaves that are embedded with a network of bronze mesh, produced by extracting the necessary metals from the soil, which protects the photosynthetic portions of the leaves and makes them inedible to all but the one group of creatures which has gained the ability to digest them, the ballistic possums. These creatures are a diverse group of marsupials which have developed tube-like snouts made of thick bone and muscle which can not only crush and swallow the leaves of the bronzeleaf trees, but launch balls of bronze extracted from their food at lethal speeds. These creatures are the dominant group in the Bronze Woods, coming in many sizes from the tiny pistol possums to the massive ground-dwelling artillery possums. The bark of the bronzeleaf trees is, like the leaves, a mixture of bronze and plant material which renders the bark of the trees not only as strong as bronze but inedible to all but the most specialized of species. Bronze-billed woodpeckers, with their metal beaks, are able to penetrate this protective layer to eat the metallic sap of the trees, but little else is able to feed on the trees, save for whatever is able to access the deep roots of the tree, the only parts not embedded with bronze. Other, more conventional plants exist in the region as well, but all grow in the shade of the bronzeleaf trees, many of them even siphoning nutrients from the roots of the trees they grow under. The low number of conventional plants means that the herbivorous artillery possums and bronze-billed woodpeckers make up the base of the food web with several different predators and scavengers making up the rest of the large animal residents. Some of these predators are found on all parts of the island, such as the saber-toothed ferrets, while others are more particular to the area, like bronze-taloned hawks, which prey upon bronze-billed woodpeckers and smaller ballistic possums.

        On the southern side of the Crusty Mountains, contrary to the lush, metallic forests of the rainier north, are the reddish hues of the Rusted Plains. These plains are covered in a reddish sea of irongrass, a plant which grows crystals of iron oxide within its leaves to wear down the teeth of herbivores, as well as poison them if they cannot stomach the metal. The sea of red grass is punctuated by patches of more conventional grasses and bushes which provide valuable sources of food for the non-grazing herbivores of the region. The stilted rats, herbivorous rodents with long, spindly limbs to let them see above the grass, move from green patch to green patch, eating whatever they can as they stay on the lookout for packs of the massive saber-toothed ferrets. Of all of the species endemic to this region, the most impressive may be the metallic kangaroos. These animals form large herds which roam the Rusted Plains, grazing on the irongrass and incorporating much of the iron into their fur, which has a shiny, metallic quality that reflects heat and sunlight off of the animals on hot days while collecting and radiating body heat back onto the animals on colder days. The kangaroos are often too big for any but the largest groups of saber-toothed ferrets to attempt to take down, but plains chameleons, massive, solitary ambush predators, are able to use their color-changing scales and projectile tongues to get the drop on herds of kangaroos and pick one or two of them off.

        To the west of the Rusted Plains is the Bluesalt Marsh. Here, the waters of the Bluestream not only spill out to soak the entire region on a regular basis, but they deposit copper leached from the rocks and soils of the headwaters, which precipitates into a crust of blue salt that covers the more stagnant areas of the marsh. Here, very few plants are able to cope with the crust of blue salt, save for some hardy mosses and horsetails. These plants are soaked in copper and are poisonous to pretty much everything on the island, so the area is mostly home to birds which take advantage of the otherwise empty area to build their nests. A few creatures have moved in to take advantage of this, but little more than a species of saber-toothed ferret which lives a solitary life and raids bird nests for food. There are tales of a creature which roams the marsh and plucks whatever unlucky birds it can catch, however not everyone is sure that it exists.

        Dividing the island are the Crusty Mountains, a mountain range as old as the Lonely Island itself. Most of the hotsprings on the island are found among these volcanic peaks, but travelers must be wary because the frequent earthquakes of the Lonely Island also tend to cause frequent rockslides as well. Truly unlucky travelers may even be caught in a volcanic eruption, something that is rare on the timescale of a human life but which happens fairly regularly over the course of decades and centuries. Although these volcanic eruptions provide the density of nutrients which allow many plants to survive despite high amounts of soil metals, they have built up to a point in the mountains themselves that the soils are mostly free of the metals found in the more shallow soils of the rest of the island. Because of this, the Crusty Mountains are home to a rather conventional pine forest as well as smaller, mountain-adapted varieties of many of the animals from around the island. Mountain rats, shorter than the stilted rats of the plains, can be found here, browsing and avoiding saber-toothed ferrets much like their plain-dwelling kin. A few species of ballistic possum have also adapted to this environment, consuming pine needles and firing balls of hardened pine resin instead of bronze, but which are still deadly. The Crusty Mountains act as a meeting point for the ecosystems of the island, allowing for visitors to see parts of the entire locale while still experiencing a unique ecosystem unto itself. Of the inhabitants of the Lonely Island, those such as the lizard folk and the elves chose to live in harmony with the unique environments they found themselves in, the Arcane Order of the Walled Garden tried to master them and only ended up causing harm, and it still remains to be seen what impact the farporters will end up having.

Farporters: The farporters are a group of humans which arrived on the Lonely Island about 130 years ago as disillusioned dissidents of the First Empire, in many ways mirroring the Arcane Order of the Walled Garden from hundreds of years before. Luckily, the farporters are more interested in their own survival than developing magical weapons, so they have spent most of their time exploring, learning, and building up their city, Farport. Farport itself is on the banks of the Iron River near the point where it empties into Big Bay. This is not only the place that the initial group of farporters landed their boats, but it is also an excellent natural harbor that provides plenty of deep water for merchant ships to dock in. This is important as the farporters, despite developing a culture in which they help each other to overcome the challenges of their environment, are not able to produce everything they need to survive on their own. For example, while several local food crops are being cultivated for human consumption, no one has been able to tame metallic kangaroos, the only viable livestock that can eat the local irongrass. This means that the vast majority of the meat eaten by farporters takes the form of either imported, preserved meats or fish. The farporters’ cultural values of collectivism and loyalty are evident in many of the structures of their society, such as the Church of the Island, which is devoted to showing loyalty to their island home and the spirits that govern it through rituals and sacrifices at certain times of the year, as well as festivals that are celebrated by the entire city of Farport. In general, the farporters are kind people who are content to help each other to survive in their challenging environment, although there are always some who long for more and wish to go on adventures and find new places for people on the island to settle.

Elves: Elven existence is governed by a deep, pervasive sense of unease. Aside from the fact that they were created to be the magical army of power-hungry wizards, all information on how the elves were created and what their biology is intended to be like was lost in their uprising against the Arcane Order of the Walled Garden. As a result, no elf is aware of anything about their species save for whatever was passed on orally and whatever has been determined through observation and experimentation since the overthrow of their creators. The things elves know about themselves are that they were created through a terrible, evil breeding program run by the Walled Garden; each of them is born with pointed ears and random skin, hair, and eye colors that can each be any color one can imagine; every elf is born with a unique magical ability that they can use at will, as often as they like; elf women can only get pregnant on the solstices; elves cannot get sick or fall ill; it takes roughly 30 years for an elf to reach full maturity, at which point they cease to age and can only be killed through injuries and poisons. Other than these things, the elves are ignorant of themselves and must learn and define on their own. This unease and discomfort with the purpose behind their creation has resulted in a paradoxically good-natured, relaxed, and peaceful culture which cultivates compassion for others and the environment at all times. Lacking any kind of religious tradition due more to ignorance than anything else, the elves have come upon this lifestyle more out of opposition to their creators than anything else. Going with this philosophy, the elves have settled into four towns around the Lonely Island, one for each of the main ecosystems of the island, and built them into the landscape so that at a glance, each town seems to be formed from their surrounding environments, even being mistaken for natural formations by the particularly naive and whimsical. Some elves prefer to travel and see other parts of the world, but for many of them, they are quite happy to live in their towns and practice a harmonious existence with each other and the world around them.

Rough Timeline

• 4,000 years ago- The ancient lizard folk civilization collapses, a few groups persist on the Lonely Island
• 1,000 years ago- The Arcane Order of the Walled Garden, a group that had been the main challengers against the now-immortal First Emperor, are ousted from the newly formed First Empire and forced to find a new base of operations
• 964 years ago- The Arcane Order of the Walled Garden settles on the Lonely Island, then untouched by humans, with the initial plan of developing magical weapons to take revenge on the First Emperor
• 960 years ago- The last Lonely Island lizard folk are murdered in magical experiments after being captured by the Arcane Order of the Walled Garden
• 592 years ago- The first elf is born on the Lonely Island, marking the first success in one of the Walled Garden's many projects.
• 560 years ago- the first generation of elves reaches physical, mental, and magical maturity, allowing them to overthrow the Arcane Order of the Walled Garden, kill every single member, and abandon all of the organization's facilities to form their own small society
• 130 years ago- Dissidents from the First Empire arrive and found the colony of Farport, unaware of the island's history of habitation or the existence of the elves
• 126 years ago- The elf villages convene and agree to stay hidden from the Farporters until they have proven that they are no danger to the elves
• 125 years ago- The Church of the Island is founded, worshiping the island itself and the multiple unique beasts of the island as a chief god and its lieutenants, respectively 
• 50 years ago- the Terror of Farport eats all of the food in Farport, resulting in a massive famine which is commemorated by a statue of the beast
• 6 years ago- While exploring the island, a man named Frederico Buscando discovers an abandoned Arcane Order of the Walled Garden facility and the ancient magics inside, forming the Thieves in the Garden along with several of his close confidants on his return to Farport in order to organize more expeditions to go out and take Walled Garden artifacts

Major Factions
Farporters- The residents of Farport, descended mostly from the original First Empire dissidents that founded the city but bolstered by sporadic groups who are similarly trying to escape tyranny. The Farporters have developed a culture based on collective struggle and loyalty. Their only settlement is Farport, although there are regular Farporter expeditions into the Lonely Island's interior. Lately, the leaders of these expeditions have made claims that they are scouting locations for new settlements, although people aren't sure if enough people would be interested in moving to make such an endeavor worth it.

Elves- The elves are the result of the experiments of the Arcane Order of the Walled Garden and because many of them participated in the overthrow of their creators, they are generally cautious of outsiders, especially those with magical knowledge. The elves have 6 towns hidden around the Lonely Island, each of which is blended with the local landscape to show coexistence rather than mastery over the land. This is a direct reaction to the attitudes of the Walled Garden wizards. Shortly after the arrival of the Farporters, the elves decided to keep their existence hidden from them until the humans showed themselves to be trustworthy and safe. This was over 100 years ago and the majority of elves are still withholding judgment until more evidence can be collected.

The Thieves in the Garden- 6 years ago, Frederico Buscando discovered and survived the ruins of a Walled Garden facility. He went on to get whoever he could trust to join him in forming an organization that goes out and finds Walled Garden ruins to loot. Currently, the group is collecting resources and magical artifacts with the goal of revealing themselves and gaining power in some way once a certain threshold of wealth and magic has been reached.

The Behemoth's Children- A group of warriors who venerate the Armored Behemoth. They maintain a shrine and school of martial arts in Farport where they give offerings of diamonds and high-carbon steel to the Armored Behemoth in the hopes that it will grant them durability in battle like it has. The group is known for wearing heavy armor at all times, even while training, and using spiked clubs as weapons.

Gnome Merchants- The people of Farport, as First Empire deserters, have banned First Empire traders and merchants from doing business in the city, leaving room for a few enterprising gnomes to step in. While there are rumors that some of these merchants are tied to the Gnomish Mafia that is present in other places, none of these rumors have been found true yet.

Fleance the Dragon- Fleance is a massive purple dragon who has lived on the Lonely island for 10,000 years. He lives in a cave which can only be accessed from the highest peak of the island and remembers the rise and fall of the ancient lizard folk, among many other major events that have been forgotten by the historians of modern societies. Fleance is quite active and can frequently be seen flying over the island, although he mostly stays to the Rusted Plains, where he can hunt his preferred prey, metallic kangaroos. Inside his lair, Fleance has amassed the world's largest collection of medicinal plants. Over the course of the last 10,000 years, Fleance has had time to set up rooms to perfectly imitate all of the natural environments of Tero so that he can maintain a living collection that he can harvest from and preserve in various ways. While Fleance's personal collecting is limited to the Lonely Island, he will occasionally arrange to have plants from other areas brought to him, allowing him to have medicinal plants from all over the world. Fleance's collection includes many plants that are otherwise extinct, many of which also have strange, potent magical effects. Fleance is generally unwilling to share anything from his collection with anyone other than those he considers his equals, which is mostly other dragons.

The Church of the Island- Shortly after their arrival on the island, some of the more spiritual members of the original group of farporters started to receive visions of the locations of useful resources. These visions were attributed to a single spirit which looks and has power over the Lonely Island, and spirit known as the Island Lord. As people started to return from expeditions to remote parts of the island with reports of strange and unique creatures, these devotees took them to be lieutenants of the Island Lord who protect and maintain different parts of the island on behalf of their Lord. The Church of the Island venerates these beasts along with the Island Lord, seeing them as integral parts of the holy ecosystem they rely on as residents of the island. The farporter values of collectivism and loyalty show in church doctrine as a recognition of their place within the greater ecosystem of the Lonely Island and a sense of loyalty to the Island Lord for overseeing and managing this ecosystem.

The Sea of Dust: Setting Details

Introduction:
    The sea of dust is a massive desert which lies between the Tortoise Herd and Coda Mountains. This region is hilly and sits at a higher elevation than the surrounding areas, with no major rivers, or really any rivers at all, which go through it. Additionally, its location between two large mountain ranges on its east and west puts the Sea of Dust inside of both rain shadows, resulting in very little and very rare rainfall. When it does rain, it comes in massive thunderstorms from the north and south during the wet season, which can quickly overwhelm the capacity for the soil to absorb moisture, resulting in flash floods. Very few permanent settlements exist among the shifting sands and cactuses, but a single group of humans, the Dusterinos, have managed to build a thriving society of semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers who spend the hottest, driest parts of the year in settlements built around extremely rare oases and springs and the rest of the year wandering the sands and gathering food and water from the few wild sources they can find. There are, understandably, rather few Dusterinos considering the size of the territory they claim. No one else, however, wants to live where they do, so their way of life has been mostly undisturbed by outsiders for thousands of years.

Geographic History:
      The Sea of Dust has been a dry, hostile desert for millions of years, ever since the end of the last ice age. When Tero was much colder and had permanent ice caps, the Sea of Dust was quite green and pleasant. Since then, the area has become much hotter due to the now-warmer climate of Tero and annual rainfall has gone down as the Ashmount Range has slowly grown. These forces worked together to eventually bake the land into the massive expanse of scrub and dunes that people see today. The region contains a wealth of fossils from groups of animals that have since left to colonize more hospitable places. Today, the Sea of Dust represents a major boundary to the spread of plants and animals, an apparent reversal of its role in the deep past. What plants and animals that remain today are hardy and tough, being able to survive for years, in many cases, without any liquid water. The most notable of these are the cactuses of the region which have evolved to store vast amounts of water within their stems, along with single-humped camels which seem to be the descendents of llamas who adapted to the desert as it dried out rather than leave for the mountains. As one of the few animals able to eat cactuses, spines and all, camels are the most common herbivore in the Sea of Dust.
    A few species from the northern reaches of the Great Convergence have adapted to the desert and now live throughout it. These include raccoon-wolves, which tend to have a thinner coat with sandy colors to match the desert, and ducks, of all things. Exactly one group of ducks from the Great Convergence has moved to the desert, getting used to the lack of water, losing the webbing between their toes, and becoming what are now known as lost ducks. Tiny flocks of lost ducks roam the Sea of Dust looking for insects and edible plant matter to eat with their relatively sharp and narrow bills. Additionally, several species which are common in the Ashmount Range to the west have found that their adaptations for the dry, volcanic mountains also work quite well in the Sea of Dust. The most notable of these creatures is the burrowing bear. These creatures which originated in the loose, ashy soils of the Ashmount Range, have found their massive claws and thick skulls well-suited to the loose sands that cover most of the Sea of Dust. The end result of all this migration is that the desert is home to a surprisingly diverse array of animals on its margins, although diversity begins to drop off sharply the deeper one gets into the dunes. Dusterino myth states that the very center of the desert is so dry that even the hardiest of plants and animals will dry out within a matter of days, the thirsty air sucking the water right out of them.

The Dusterinos:
    Dusterino culture was originally born from a mix of Convergent Wanderers from the Great Convergence and Ashmount Herders from the Ashmount Range. Outcasts from the two groups were forced to survive on the edges of the Sea of Dust for hundreds of years without support, eventually learning the ways of desert survival and developing their own, unique set of beliefs and traditions. Today, the Dusterinos are semi-nomadic, spending the dry season in towns built around oases and springs. The rest of the year, the Dusterinos roam the Sea of Dust, foraging and hunting for their food in small family groups. Although there is rarely any kind of surface water in the desert, the relatively wet and cool season of wandering is when large cactuses can be tapped for water. This time of year is also when game species are most active in the area, allowing families to stock up on food for the dry season in the towns. Being in tune with the cycles of nature like this is very important to the Dusterinos. Dusterino culture values factual knowledge about the natural world, the application of logic to practical issues, and the ability to observe the world around oneself accurately. They believe that these qualities are imperative to surviving in the desert and that their god, the collective consciousness of all of the grains of sand in the Sea of Dust, rewards those who display such qualities with good health and bountiful harvests. Dusterinos do not have much interaction with the outside world, since merchants have very little that interests the Dusterinos and the Dusterinos do not seem to produce anything of interest to the merchants. The sea of dust is fairly easy for merchants to go around without going through the desert, so there aren’t very many opportunities for trade anyway. This seems to suit the Dusterinos just fine, however, and they seem to be happy with their way of life. They are generally distrustful of magic and technology, preferring to live life simply in the desert. All of this may be changing, however, as the merchants recently realized they can sell the water tapped from cactuses during the wet season to people back home as a health drink.

Rough Timeline

• 6,000 years ago- The Convergent Wanderers move into the Great Convergence to the south of the Sea of Dust and begin exiling outcasts and criminals to the vast desert
• 5,000 years ago- The goat and sheep herders of the Ashmount Range to the west of the Sea of Dust first arrive in their mountainous home and begin exiling outcasts and criminals to the vast desert
• 4,800 years ago- The first generation to call themselves Dusterinos is born, taking on the label as they recognize that they have developed a distinct culture and way of life from their two source groups
• 4,300 years ago- Clive the Great begins the first unifying war after generations of violent conflict between the various Dusterino towns and villages, which were permanently inhabited at the time
• 4,250 years ago- After Clive the Great dies with only a single oasis outside of his unified Dusterino Kingdom, his son, Giles the Finisher, takes command and captures the town, unifying all Dusterinos under the rulership of a single king
• 4,000 years ago- Dusterism, the belief in and worship of the collective consciousness of all of the grains of sand in the Sea of Dust, referred to as Ol’ Dusty, begins as the result of the efforts of a woman named Stella, who claims to be the first and only prophet of Ol’ Dusty
• 3,670 years ago- After centuries of persecution and hardship, the towns and villages which have adopted Dusterism are allowed to secede from the Dusterino Kingdom by King Billy the Tolerant
• 3,500 years ago- Dusterino settlements which have adopted Dusterism join together into the Dusterist Union
• 2,400 years ago- After nearly a millennium of decline, the Dusterino Kingdom fractures into many smaller kingdoms as Jesse the Protuberant dies without an heir and no one seems interested in taking over more than a small chunk of the desert for them and their extended family
• 2,000 years ago- A woman named Starla, claiming to be the reincarnation of Stella, the prophet of Ol’ Dusty, calls for the expansion of the Dusterist Union, beginning the second unifying war
• 1,900 years ago- All Dusterino settlements have been conquered or coerced into joining the Dusterist Union and all Dusterinos have been converted to Dusterism
• 1,430 years ago- A radical sect of Dusterinos who follow an anti-magic, anti-technology interpretation of the two prophets’ teachings starts to gain popularity all across the Sea of Dust, although they remain a minority in most communities
• 1,000 years ago- The radical sect of Dusterists has become the dominant form of Dusterism in half of Dusterino settlements, with a significant minority following them in other towns and villages, leading to a civil war over which sect should be dominant in the Dusterist Union government
• 980 years ago- The civil war ends with the radicals in control of the Sea of Dust and almost all Dusterinos start to follow their version of Dusterism
• 500 years ago- After centuries of decreasing reliance on magic and technology, as well as a general rise in nomadism among the general population, the Dusterist Union votes to dissolve itself, leaving behind no successor state, in favor of letting each family of Dusterinos fend for themselves as they believe Ol’ Dusty desires
• 330 years ago- Very few Dusterinos now live in the settlements year-round, most of them having taken up the practice of wandering the desert during the wet season as per the teachings of radical Dusterism, and those who stay behind are the very old and the very young
• 100 years ago- First Empire merchants start to visit Dusterino settlements during the dry season, accepting payments in cactus water, sold as a health drink in the First Empire, in exchange for exotic foods and supplies
• 30 years ago- Several Dusterino settlements ban all outsiders, believing that merchants and outsiders have brought a decadent lifestyle to the Sea of Dust which is making Dusterinos soft and unsuited to the desert
• 5 years ago- A woman named Serena, claiming to be the reincarnation of the prophets Stella and Starla, starts to gain a following by saying that Dusterinos ought to live a more settled, less restrictive life and that Ol’ Dusty has no issue with people taking advantage of the comforts of magic and technology

Major Factions
Dusterinos
    The Dusterinos are the largest group of people in the Sea of Dust, having lived there for thousands of years. While their way of life and culture has changed over time, the Dusterinos have always maintained small settlements around the few oases and natural springs and there has always been some portion of their population which prefer to live a nomadic lifestyle out in the desert. For the last 500 years, each Dusterino town has been self-governing, with small family groups dispersing during the wet season to wander the desert and handle their conflicts however they see fit. The result is a highly dispersed and decentralized society where only the very young and old stay in settlements year-round. Lately, a radical movement has gained popularity in a few small communities which preaches a sedentary, modern lifestyle as the logical way to live when groups like the First Empire Merchants are able to provide a consistent level of comfort for all.

The Prophet’s Followers
    Serena, a woman who claims to be the third reincarnation of the prophet of Ol’ Dusty, Stella, has gathered a small group of followers in some of the most remote towns and villages of the Sea of Dust who believe the annual wanderings of their people are unnecessary and that Ol’ Dusty wishes for his followers to take advantage of the comforts available to them. In particular, Serena’s followers are living in their settlements year-round and trading with the First Empire Merchants for useful technology and magic, both of which are considered taboo in contemporary Dusterism, which almost all other groups of Dusterinos follow. Those who follow Serena’s teachings are barely tolerated by other Dusterinos, but some have been disowned by their families and publicly mocked for their defiance of social norms. While this discrimination has not escalated to violence yet, there are many among Serena’s followers who believe it is only a matter of time until someone decides to change that.

Convergent Wanderer Exiles
    For thousands of years, the Convergent Wanderers have been exiling those whose behavior is so abhorrent that they have no idea how to punish them to the great desert to the north of their homeland. Through ancient custom, no Convergent Wanderer enters these lands unless exiled, although the existence of the Dusterino culture which their exiles helped create is well-known at this point. Knowing this, many of the Wanderers form small communities of other exiles in order to help each other assimilate into Dusterino culture and learn the ways of the desert. With the annual season of wandering, many of these exiles tend to feel right at home in their new communities.

Ashmount Herder Exiles
    For thousands of years, the Ashmount Herders have been exiling those convicted of treachery against their kin to the Sea of Dust. The herders are generally aware of the culture this practice has helped create in the desert, although they are generally dismissive of the culture made of exiles and criminals. Regardless, the exiles, the only Ashmount Herders allowed to enter even the fringes of the desert, frequently find themselves taken in by small groups of other exiles who teach them the ways of the Dusterinos and desert survival. Many of these exiles find difficulty adjusting to their new way of life, used to getting everything they need from livestock which are hard to come by in the desert.

First Empire Merchants
    While not official diplomats of the First Empire, it is common for the First Emperor to grant trade licenses with new frontiers well before sending the Diplomatic Corps. Given the decentralized nature of the Dusterinos, this has been the status quo for First Imperial relations with the area for almost a century. Merchants and explorers have been doing their best, in the meantime, to try to find some good or ware that they can trade for and extract from the region. For now, they have settled on going through the villages during the dry, settled season and buying up as much cactus water, a product harvested from any sufficiently large cactus in the desert, as they can to sell as a health drink back in the First Empire. This has been difficult due to the culture of asceticism which dominates the Dusterinos. Seeing an opportunity in Serena the prophet’s movement, the merchants have been supporting her with good deals on products in exchange for a year-round, steady supply of cactus water. Should it come to it, these merchants would most likely help fund or even manufacture a revolution in religious thought and even a third unifying war, something which would grab the First Emperor’s attention and maybe even result in the diplomats establishing an embassy.

The Great Convergence: Setting Details

Introduction:
    The Great Convergence is the largest region of Tero with an average elevation below sea level, making it the ultimate destination for several of the most important rivers in the southern half of the continent. This convergence of rivers allows traders and merchants to easily get to and from many of the wealthiest nations of Tero. With the addition of access to maritime trade routes through several natural ports, the people of the Great Convergence are some of the wealthiest in the world, with access to goods from almost anywhere on Tero.

Geographic History:
    The Great Convergence is but the lowest portion of a massive rift valley being slowly formed as the continent rips itself apart. Earthquakes are a common occurrence in the region, as are sinkholes and the formation of deep crevasses in the bedrock of the area. Being generally low in elevation, much of the water that falls on the southern half of the continent finds itself heading towards the Great Convergence. Because of this, many large rivers with high discharges flow to the region before meeting the ocean. Being generally flat and getting a lot of water flowing through the area means that the Great Convergence is highly prone to flooding. Almost every spring during the annual snowmelt, the banks of all of the rivers overflow at the same time and the entire region seems to become one massive river. Although it is very wet for part of the year and there is a fair amount of rainfall year-round, most of the Great Convergence is made up of scrublands and meadows. These plants are well-adapted to the thin soils and wild differences in water availability through the year, although the rivers of the region are surrounded by trees. Swamps and other wetlands are fairly common as well, particularly on the insides of bends in the rivers where water can pool up and stay after the annual floods. Native wildlife includes jousting crocodiles, armored water buffalo, and many subspecies of ducks. At the top of this food chain, however, is the apex predator, the pack hunting raccoon-wolves.

The Gnomes:
    The inhabitants of Gnome Country have inhabited their lands for thousands of years. While they were originally normal humans with a hedonistic and mischievous streak, the event known as the Shrinking of the Gnomes resulted in all the residents of Gnome Country at the time being shrunk down to half the size of normal humans. Since then they have embraced their smaller sizes and developed a culture which venerates the traits that gave the gnomes their small size. A large portion of the downstream and delta regions of the Great Convergence is considered part of Gnome Country, with several important ports being controlled by the gnomes. The gnomes have used this, as well as easy access to trade with the First Empire through the Tradestream river, to gain tremendous wealth, which mostly gets divvied up between the nobles in exchange for a stable government. Gnome culture values theft and non-violent crime as a source of chaos, so gnomish locks and protective magics are highly valued as being some of the hardest to get past in the world. Any property that someone wants to hold on to needs to be well-protected in Gnome Country. Recently, Gnome Country has become something of a tourist destination as people realize that many things which are illegal in the rest of the world, such as glitter and rabbit pageants, are legal in Gnome Country.

Convergent Wanderers:
    The humans who became the ancestors of the gnomes were themselves the descendants of a nomadic hunter-gatherer society which still exists in the Great Convergence. They call themselves the Convergent Wanderers. They get this name because they travel the landscapes of the Great Convergence in small tribes for most of the year, gathering wild fruits and vegetables and hunting armored water buffalo. The Wanderers call themselves convergent because once every year, on the Winter Solstice, all of the tribes meet for a massive festival at the southernmost point of the Great Convergence. Generally, the tribes follow a shamanistic religion, making sacrifices to the local spirits in every place they camp, hunt, or gather. The Convergent Wanderers do not usually interact with the more settled peoples of the Great Convergence, preferring to keep to themselves and only rarely coming into settlements to trade for metal tools and the few manufactured goods they tend to use. For the most part, the tribes live off of the land.

Independent City States of the Snallygaster Snake People:
    Hundreds of years ago, the snake people of the Snallygaster Culture came into the Great Convergence and set up several city states along the various rivers. Not wanting to start wars while in a vulnerable position, they kept their new settlements away from Gnome Country. Snallygaster Snake People live openly as snake people in these cities, a somewhat abnormal state of affairs made possible by the fact that the city states have majority snake person populations. Like all snake people, they have an innate ability to change their appearance to that of almost any other humanoid species, but the Snallygaster Culture tends to see this as a form of self-expression and artistic beauty. Public displays of imaginative and aesthetically pleasing transformations are seen as an important part of Snallygaster culture. Pageants are regularly held all over the cities to give individuals plenty of opportunities to show off their best disguises. The city states are not unified, each one being led by a different family. The leader of each city, usually the oldest living member of the leading family, is known as the archon of the city and has absolute rule of their domain. Each city state maintains its own trade relationships and produces different goods, making some wealthier than others. Snallygaster religion values free expression and artistry, with worship centered on the good god Snallygastrus. The church encourages its followers to be open and honest in all things, especially guests to the cities. Despite this religious mandate, some of the city state leaders seem to think they have enough power to conquer and unify the other city states, and maybe even some of the neighboring nations as well.

Rough Timeline

• 6,000 year ago- The Convergent Wanderers first enter the area
• 2,500 years ago- Gnome City is Founded
• 2,000 years ago- The Shrinking of the Gnomes happens
• 800 years ago- The Snallygaster Snake People enter the area and establish their city states
• 700 years ago- The First Empire establishes trade and diplomatic ties with the region
• 500 years ago- Feeling restricted by the settled folk and concepts of private land, the Convergent Wanderers begin to occasionally trade with settlements
• 20 years ago- The Convergent Wanderers are attacked during their winter solstice convergence by a group of gnome religious extremists, resulting in the deaths of hundreds

Major Factions
    There are several factions associated with each of the groups in the region, each with their own goals and needs. Most of them are somewhat limited in their geographic influence, but each of these major players in the area holds some influence that people may have to contend with at times. Most of these groups have something that they can offer to people for the right price, but dealing with them is not always a requirement for those willing to do things themselves.

Gnome Nobility
    The nobility of Gnome Country is heavily entrenched in the wealth of the country, maintaining collective ownership of almost all businesses and industries. The monarchs and other nobles are primarily interested in maintaining the status quo and continuing to make obscene amounts of money off the labor of the peasants. Shaken by an increase in the rate of peasant uprisings in the past decades, the nobles are even more focused on stability and power than ever before.

Reformed Church of Gnomishness
    The Reformed Church of Gnomishness is the newer, more progressive branch of the gnomish faith. They believe that the peasants of Gnome Country are oppressed by the nobility and do everything they can to bring about change short of open rebellion. The members of this church can frequently be found in conflict with devotees of the Orthodox Gnomish Temple, either verbal or physical. Often seen as the aggressors in these conflicts, the church can sometimes struggle to maintain a positive image with more stability-minded gnomes.

Orthodox Gnomish Temple
    The Orthodox Gnomish Temple is the original gnome religious organization. They believe that the monarchy and greater nobility are a natural consequence of a society which follows gnomish values. Despite the blatant support of the oppressive monarchy, much of the peasantry sees the charity work done by the Gnomish Temple as a show of good faith that they truly care for the poor as well. How much truth this view has is up for debate, but enough gnomes consider themselves Orthodox to result in great brawls in the streets of cities when members of the Reformed Church of Gnomishness refuse to take back something they’ve said which is heretical to the orthodox gnomes only. For the most part, however, followers of orthodoxy value stability and fear any change to the status quo in case it ends up being a change for the worse.

Gnome Mafia
    Gnomish culture values certain activities which would be considered crimes in other cultures. In general, gnomes only consider something to be a crime or morally wrong if it results in physical harm to someone else. Under this moral philosophy, theft, vandalism, and various other things are perfectly legal in gnome society. What sets the Gnome Mafia apart from the rest of gnome society is that they are perfectly happy to use physical violence to achieve their goals. While able to operate somewhat in the open in Gnome Country, their glitter factories and pageant rabbit farms being perfectly legal in their homeland, the assassination, intimidation, and blackmail side of the operation is still off the books. The mafia have gotten around this to some degree by earning enough money to pay off anyone who might be trouble, and so the Gnome Mafia has corrupted their home government just as much as it does in any place it sets up.

Gnome Peasantry
    Gnome peasants, lacking noble titles or noble relatives to support them, have no access to the vast sums of money their labor becomes. In the towns, this is usually acceptable because towns are supplied on a regular basis with everything they need. This is contingent on profitability, but that is not frequently an issue. In the cities, however, where trade is much more common and heavily taxed, gnomes do not have a town industry to fall back on and must do whatever they can to earn enough money to survive. While a meager middle class has formed under this system, most gnomes live in poverty. This has resulted in several uprisings over the centuries, but they rarely seem to end well for the peasants.

First Empire Diplomats
    The First Empire, which maintains an embassy in Gnome City and several of the Snallygaster City States. Generally, their orders from the First Emperor are to try to maintain stability in the region, since the gnomes and snake people are valuable trading partners for the empire and they control access to important shipping lanes and trade routes. As a secondary goal, the diplomatic corps is also expected to try to maintain a positive image of the First Empire in foreign lands to hopefully make conquest easier in the distant future. The second goal is a secret outside of the First Empire Diplomatic Corps, for obvious reasons.

First Empire Merchants
    Many traders have come down the Tradestream and through the maritime trade routes from the First Empire to buy, sell, and trade exotic goods. Offering all sorts of products from all over the empire, the merchants tend to buy up gnomish locks and snallygaster preserved meats to sell back home. These traders, unlike gnomes, are not taxed on nearly all their profits like the native gnomes, so they are able to make quite a bit of money with a few shrewd trades. It is also fairly common for these merchants to hire out crews and teams of gnomes to run their trade ships and caravans since a low wage for merchants is often better than any pay the gnomes could find at home without joining the clergy or mafia. The merchants are more than happy to take advantage of gnomish desperation since it helps them make obscene amounts of money.

Convergent Wanderers
    The Convergent Wanderers are generally just interested in minding their own business and continuing their way of life. These hunter-gatherers are masters of the swamps and scrubs of the Great Convergence, so they are generally able to achieve their goals without dealing with the settled folk. The snake people and gnomes have historically oppressed the wanderers and restricted their ability to travel, so Convergent Wanderers are rightfully wary of outsiders, especially on the rare occasions they enter settlements to trade for a few essentials. Today, there are a few wild places that have never interested the settled folk, and the Convergent Wanderers thrive in those places. Currently, the monarchy of Gnome Country grants the southern portion of the Wanderer’s Peninsula as a reserve for Convergent Wanderers to continue their way of life and allows free passage to the southernmost point for all Convergent Wanderers for their annual convergence on the winter solstice.

Snallygaster Snake People Archons and Upper Classes
    The leaders of the Snallygaster Snake People, their families, and their wealthy supporters rule their city states however they wish. Although their society values honesty and openness, there is an understanding among the rulers that some things must be kept from the public for the greater good. As such, there is often a drastic difference between the public personas that leaders and members of the upper classes display and how they are in private. Maintaining this facade is often a source of great stress and even intrigue in the courts of the archons as they try to publicly show the virtues and values of their culture while secretly preparing for the conquest of their neighboring cities and eventually the rest of the Great Convergence. All of the archons seem to think they will be successful if they attack, but no one seems to think they will be ready to make their move for some time.

Priests of Snallygastrus
    The priests of the god Snallygastrus see themselves as the keepers of snallygaster snake person culture and good morals. They maintain elegantly-carved stone temples in each of the city states as well as in the hinterlands where they perform rituals and preach the message of their god. They believe that honesty and openness are the root of all virtue and that those who are honest in all things will find that being kind, generous, and so on will naturally follow. Short sermons are held every day at sunset in their temples and followers are encouraged to come at least twice each week. The priesthood also performs large amounts of charity to support the poor and frequently find themselves imprisoned for being openly critical of the ruling class. Overall, the priests and their religion are fairly popular with the peasantry of the Snallygaster City States.

Snallygaster Snake People Peasantry
    The peasants of the Snallygaster Culture have a better life than their gnome counterparts in Gnome County, but they still experience a great deal of inequality with the rulers and upper classes of the city states. The archons do not generally tax trade as much as the gnome monarchs and they do not maintain state monopolies on farming and industry, so it is much easier for the average Snallygaster citizen to earn money and buy the things they need. An uprising has never occurred, although the peasantry generally wishes for more equity and equality in their societies.

Shiverstrewn Islander Merchants
    Merchants from the Shiverstrewn Islands, directly south of the Great Convergence, are a common sight in the coastal ports of the region. These brash, independent merchants are less interested in luxury goods and are more interested in buying the necessities they cannot always get on their relatively small islands. Despite an independent nature and goals of self-sufficiency, most of the islands are short on several important resources. In exchange for these necessary supplies, the merchants bring unique pieces of art, strange magical ingredients, and the odd enchanted item. These goods usually sell for a high price, allowing the merchants to get everything they need, but there are some concerns that if it ever comes to it, these merchants will become pirates and steal whatever supplies they can’t afford to buy. Given how common piracy is in the Shiverstrewn Islands, this may not be an unfounded fear.

Shiverstrewn Island Confederation Diplomats
    The Shiverstrewn Island Confederation, the somewhat unified government which represents all of the inhabited islands of the eponymous archipelago, maintains a single foreign embassy in Gnome City. The diplomats here are mostly tasked with trying to convince the monarchy to do something about the large amounts of pageant rabbits being shipped to the islands. Due to the geographic proximity of the two countries, many rabbits from Gnome Country make their way to the Shiverstrewn Islands for pageants, and many escape these pageants to then lay waste to the natural environments of the islands. Rabbits are not native to any of the Shiverstrewn Islands and most of them lack predators of any kind that will go after rabbits. Now, several islands are overrun with rabbits which are eating all of the vegetation in sight and outcompeting native birds and reptiles. These requests have mostly fallen on deaf ears.