What You Know

[Eris]

A lot of the world/cosmology is going to look at lot like Earth. It's just easier that way, and I like easy. The days of the week are Sunday to Saturday, the months of the year are Jan to Dec, all so players (or GM) gets lost in time. Measurements are in inches, 12 to a foot, 3 feet to a yard, 5280 ft to a mile, 3 miles to a league and weights are in ounces and pounds, volumes are in pints, quarts and gallons, all for the same reason given above.

In Common, which every "civilized" people speak, the world is called Garth. It orbits the Sun and revolves in 24 hours...a bit more, but that gets adjusted by Kings and their Sages so none of you need worry about such adjustments.

Geography: There are two small continents and many large islands in Garth's Southern Hemisphere all grouped close together. That is where "Civilization" is located, that's where all of you come from. In Common this grouping is called The Homeland.

The Northern Hemisphere has one (that you know of) large continent almost directly north of the Homelands to the south. This continent is called Antioch in Common, which in an older language meant Cradle of the World. It is on Antioch where all humans, elves, dwarves and halflings originated.

Antioch, as far as you know, covers the whole Northern Hemisphere from about the 25th parallel all the way to the northern pole. [In fact, it doesn't, but even the great Sages don't know that. Suffice it to say, Antioch is very, very large. Think Eurasia plus North America long and 5,000 or 6,000 miles tall.]

History: An Age ago (how long, not sure, but certainly thousands of years) almost all of Civilization was located on the Northern Continent. There were great Empires with great cities. Roads and canals crisscrossed the lands linking cities to towns to villages. Rich farms, productive mines and thousands of craftsmen made this land a Paradise on Garth. Yes, there were occasional wars between the Kingdoms and Empires, but generally this was a wonderful place for humans, elves, dwarves and halflings to live.

Then the Dark Times came. First there were more and more wars, each more brutal than before. Then foul beings began to appear from the mountains of the north (in myth they are called Goblins, Orcs, Trolls, and worse) raiding and pillaging through out the lands. The Shining Armies held these creatures at bay for many years, then even worse beings came Demons and their spawn, and between the wars and the hordes of monsters the Armies began to fall.

The Fall was quick and millions of men, women and children were slaughtered as the Hordes spread south like an ink stain covering the land. Some thousands of the civilized, humans, elves, dwarves and halflings escaped on ships sailing for the southern lands, but what became of those left behind?

Myth says that all who remained perished and the whole of the Northern lands were occupied by monsters and unrelenting evil. Perhaps that is so, perhaps not. You really don't know.

What you do know is that about 200 years ago a ship, The Merry Mermaid, traveling from Sago to Maritinia was caught in a great storm and thrown for many, many, days. The ship eventually came out of the storm, but could not catch a breeze to take it south, so had to sail north in search of fresh water and food. It came to the shore of the dreaded Dead Land, and dared to land. The found fresh water, food, and a few creatures they knew from myth, but no Hordes and no Demon Lords. Eventually, The Merry Mermaid made it back to The Homelands and its crew told their tale.

Soon, the Kingdoms of The Homelands began to send expeditions north. It was a Crusade to liberate the ancient Antioch! Along a small portion of the southern coast these Crusaders carved out enclaves, then baronies...and then they stopped. It wasn't hordes of monsters or dark and evil demons that stopped them, it was success. Once the Crusaders occupied and cleared territories a few score of miles inland they found they had enough to make them rich, happy, and with little effort secure.

That's where things stand now.

You are adventurers, younger sons or daughters of southern houses, men and women with ambitions that won't be filled in The Homelands, so you have come north. You landed at a small city named Ribble, but soon discovered it was tame and as stratified as The Homelands. You needed to go still more north!

Ribble sits at the mouth of the Ribble River that runs north several hundred miles. On the Ribble, about 80 miles north is the town of Hurst, further north another 100 miles or so you have been told is the smaller town of Bodkinberg. Beyond that are unexplored and very dangerous lands.

There is trade by keepboat up and down the Ribble, but there are also raiders called Redhats that attack these keelboats. The further north you go the worse the raiding becomes. The keelboats often travel in conveys for protection and you all signed on as guards for one such convoy. The convoy made its way north to Hurst stopping at a few small villages along the way. There were no attacks, but several of the villages talked about past attacks as did older guards and some of the boatmen.

Now that you are in Hurst it is time to start looking around for employment, perhaps for some adventure. First though, you need to find a tavern for the rule of the convoy was no drink but water.

Thus, you will find yourselves walking into The Empty Flagon early one Spring evening.

OOC: First Game Thread will be coming up once we have some characters.