The Isles
Factions
Notable Landmarks
To the east of the Isles is a giant waterfall known as the Edge of the World.
The world tree Aslaug stands in Aldemere.
Overview
The Isles is the collective name for the five continents that make up the wider world beyond the Twin Crescents. While the gods sealed themselves inside the Crescents at the dawn of civilization, the Isles were left to develop on their own without divine intervention. What emerged over thousands of years was a collection of diverse, resilient human civilizations that built themselves from nothing.
In some respects, the Isles lag behind the Crescents. In others, they have surpassed them entirely. The Azure Empire's capital of Seian City is the most technologically advanced city on the surface of Ilisara. Arcadia's naval engineers rival the Vestian fleet's. Oros and Aldemere sit atop the world's oldest and most powerful natural magic fonts.
The Isles made contact with the Twin Crescents following Armageddon, when the divine barrier around the Crescents collapsed. That contact changed both worlds. The Vestian Empire and the Azure Empire quickly formed an alliance. Trade, diplomacy, and conflict followed. The Isles are no longer isolated, and the consequences of that are still unfolding.
The Continents
An'mani and Okuna: The Azure Empire
The Azure Empire is the dominant power in the Isles. It spans two territories: An'mani in the east, a dense and technologically advanced civilization built around rivers, cities, and scholarship; and Okuna in the west, a vast desert inhabited by tribal peoples whose mastery of soul magic is unmatched anywhere in the world.
The Azure Empire is led by the Azure Empress, an immortal ruler who founded the faith of Paolu centuries before the Crescents made contact. Electric lights, telegram systems, steam engines, and universities define An'mani's cities. Okuna's haunted desert, by contrast, is a place of undead spirits, ancient ruins, and shamans who shape the dead with clay and blood.
The Azure Empire recently formalized its alliance with the Vestian Empire through the marriage of Crown Princess Talani Haruna to Imperator Asgarion Dawnwalker.
Arcadia
Arcadia is a rugged, forested kingdom of industrious and fiercely independent people. Originally settled by migrants from Beruna, Arcadians developed their civilization in resistance: first to Mani colonization, then to Aldemere's expansion.
War drove them to innovate. Their military technology, naval engineering, and coal-powered industry are among the finest in the Isles. Arcadia's capital, Castalla, is an unsiegeable city built into a mountain valley. It has never fallen.
Oros (Strom) and Aldemere
Oros is the ancestral homeland of the Orosians; tall, broad-shouldered descendants of giants who prize self-reliance, craftsmanship, and community. It was once home to the orcish population that fled Isandor after Armageddon, but Oros' new King Vidar Stromvald drove them out. The land is now named Strom in his honor. Orosians and humans coexist in Strom, who felt little reprieve after the orcish threat was vanquished; now, tunnels in the Dark Below teeming with vampires and dark elves threaten the surface.
Aldemere is Strom's companion kingdom to the north — a wilder, more mountainous land of pine forests, highland settlements, and ancient druidic tradition. Its capital, Ardveld, is built at the roots of the world tree Aslaug, the most sacred site in the Weald faith.
Beneath both kingdoms lies the Steel Empire — a vast underground civilization of Steel Dwarves who have little interest in the surface world's wars.
Beruna
Beruna is a frigid northern realm of ice bridges, fjords, and tribal human settlements clinging to the base of cliffs. Its people are the ancestors of the Arcadians, and share their stubbornness and resilience.
Beruna's wilderness is home to frost giants, wargs, yetis, and Nordic spirits who predate recorded history. It is sparsely populated, largely ungoverned, and deeply traditional. The Berunic Pantheon — a collection of demigods and folk heroes — is worshipped here by those who believe mortals can ascend to greatness through heroic deeds.
Magic in the Isles
Magic in the Isles did not come from the gods. It seeped into the land over millennia from two sources: the residual divinity the gods left behind when they sealed themselves in the Crescents, and the latent energy of slain cosmic entities whose power became inseparable from the earth itself.
This magic manifests differently across the Isles.
In Oros and Aldemere, it runs through leylines deep in the earth. These leylines are the origin of the Weald, and the force that gave rise to Spectres: ancient animals that absorbed enough of this primordial energy to gain higher sentience and take humanoid form.
In Okuna, magic saturates the desert sands and fuels soul magic.
In An'mani, magic was harnessed through study and institution.
In Beruna, it exists in the spirits of the land, the storms, and the beasts.
Magic in the Isles is older, wilder, and less understood than the disciplined spellcraft of the Crescents.
Current State of Affairs
The Isles are in a period of dramatic change. A war between Arcadia and the Oros-Aldemere alliance destabilized the eastern continents and left both kingdoms weakened. In its aftermath, a king named Vidar Stromvald returned from a long journey abroad and reclaimed Oros, renaming it Strom in a declaration of new sovereignty. He arrived with ten thousand ancient warriors from the northern reaches of Anash'col at his back. The orcs who had settled in the kingdom were driven out. Strom now stands under his rule.
The Azure Empire navigates its new alliance with the Vestian Empire carefully, aware that the sun elves' expansionist ambitions may one day conflict with its own. Beruna remains isolated, watching.
Fragments of the Afterlife that collided with Ilisara during Armageddon have left pockets of the dead embedded in the Isles' landscape, particularly in Aldemere and Okuna. Tunnels in the Dark Below beneath Strom and Aldemere are teeming with vampires and dark elves, and the threat they pose to the surface grows. The consequences of Kerrigor's death are still being felt across the world.
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