This is a living document that will be updated as we develop the launching point for the new campaign. Fair warning, while I value your input and will incorporate it into the final product, I reserve the right to alter, tweak, and twist.
For the first generation, with a working title of 'The Road to Peace', we're focusing on Othyr. The plot revolves around Izolda, Etheria, Norsland, and the Northlands.
Izolda
The wilderness of northeast Othyr, from the frozen reaches of the Vox to the edge of The Great River, and encompassing the entirety of the Dawnspear Mountains (save one peak), Izolda is a vast country possessed of staggering natural resources. Its population consists of monstrous citizens such as trolls, ogres, and werewolves, served by a class of poor, uneducated human serfs. These lording monsters are themselves cowed by an elite witch caste known as the striga. Of these witches, three reign supreme, splitting rule of their mother Iggwilv's homeland into the baronies of Arcouth, Tsojcanth, and Vox.
The Black Witch Drelzna Zarov controls the mountainous barony of Tsojcanth, above and below the Dawnspear Mountains. The Green Witch Litka Javine rules the Arcouth, comprised of the woods of the same name and the open country bordering Norsland and Clannash. The White Witch Imprela Carnast reigns in snowy Vox. The capital and surrounding coastline are technically the responsibility of Iggwilv herself, however she very rarely spends time in her own lands, preferring darker planes and fiendish rendezvous. A haughty collection of lesser daughters, bolstered by a considerable amount of tiefling grandsons and great-grandsons called boyars, maintain power through the authority of the Church of Hecate and several martial and magical orders, most notably The Hellfrost Club.
In a matter of twenty years, Izolda has reclaimed almost all of its former ancestral holdings and then some (conquering the goblins and adding Vox during the fallout of the Emperor's War). Iggwilv's return has ensured those lands have remained Zoldani. Though the expansionist period of the country is largely ended, its last point of contention remains Etheria. The Holy City stands an autonomous political power within the borders of Izolda that openly opposes the striga's practices and the cruelties suffered by the common Zoldani. Though the accusatory sermons from the mount once orated by High Priest Oranar and others have ceased in recent years, Etheria's very existence as a shining alternative to the doldrums of life as indentured servant stirs trouble within the peasantry.
Many on both sides have been driven to the brink of action over real and perceived offenses, though cooler heads have prevailed thus far and spared international incident. Drelzna, busied with work below the Dawnspears, would greatly prefer not to incite hostilities. Similarly, the vampiric kingdom of Saspien, possessing strong ties to Zoldani leadership and the wider continent, has no interest in potential conflict. Despite two decades, the rest of Othyr remains war-weary and hesitant to escalate. However, Izolda has reached the limits of her neighbors' patience. An act of hostility against Etheria now would likely force nations to take sides and start a new continental war.
Etheria
Increasing tensions between the Holy City and the witch-state of Izolda have seen the swift reduction in Etherian landholdings over the last two decades. The Zoldani have reclaimed their ancestral lands, settling and fortifying up to the base of the Holy Mountain itself. Fertile plateaus and the Rayan Falls enable Etheria to be self-sustaining even without the surrounding valleys, yet Saspish diplomacy and the High Priest Oranar's pacifist leadership are what really stave off any sort of military conflict. While many regard the high priest's pacifism as weakness, just as many recognize it as the only thing keeping peace.
All parties' leadership understands that any push up the Holy Mountain itself would result in international outrage and continental war. Izolda already walks a fine line under the guise of reclamation, straining its alliance with Saspien in order to maintain its recent territory. Thus an unusual stalemate has developed in the Dawnspears, an autonomous city-state stranded in the midst of a much larger, much more powerful nation.
Faith sustains Etheria. Faith in diplomacy, faith in their own discipline, and most of all faith in the gods and goddesses of light (Spirit of Harmony, Radiant Mother, Mysterious Traveler, and Dragon Prince). It's these gods Etherians owe the steady rise in population and expansion of mystic knowledge. Where any other city perched on the summit of the highest mountain in the world and surrounded by one of its most aggressive nations would wither and die in isolation, Etheria possesses the favor of several divinities. It stands a metropolitan temple-complex dedicated to peace, understanding, acceptance, and truth, one that grows yearly to accommodate the pilgrims and settlers from across the universe gathered by the divine servants of Eilessa and given home and protection by Kalia. Alongside their followers, numerous alien saints, demigods, and orphaned powers have come as well to join the goddess's allied sub-pantheon. A vibrant, varied blending of Othyrian traditions and some wondrous (sometimes strange) holy orders and mystery cults have enriched the Holy City and given it value more than it ever had previously; It is a true mecca.
The Northlands
The frozen lands north of the Black Forest have become a more desolate place in recent years. The conglomerate nation of Atha is no more, collapsed under one too many dragonfires, demon invasions, celestial shake-ups, and costly wars. And with the liberation of the empire's many duchies and the changing face of the south, the appeal to 'return home' was too great for most.
Not everyone left, however. Huddled around the icy Lakes Idloch and Welsord, several small villages have sprung around a modest fishing and trapping trade. Mostly first or second generation refugees of New Veluvia too stubborn or too fearful of leave, toss into the mix a few southern fugitives and exiles looking to keep low profiles, a smattering of disowned half-giant and half-orc rabble, and on very rare occasions one or two surviving feladrin.
The imperial roads which once carved through the wide Roam have been buried in the drifts and mostly abandoned. The snowy tundra is again the dominion of winter wolves, orc and goblin bands, giant raiders, and the great hordes of the Bastard Kings. Each claiming descent from the barbarian legend Matthias, the Bastard Kings gather to them great entourages of savage northmen which war with each other constantly. Petty children in the political arena of Othyr, at least one must be appeased for any substantial travel through the north, lest those 'children' scramble over one another to pick any caravan clean.
The Crown of Winter Mountains, spanning the perimeter of the north and extending to the feet of the great glaciers, are dark and deadly and now devoid of their oldest civilizations. The frost giants have abandoned the continent entirely, and the feladrin who refused to leave Ivristel were wiped out in a matter of months by the demonic developments in newly-dubbed Abystal.
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