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arclundarchivist · 2 years

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Arclund Archvists Worlds: Part I

Trying something new

The beginning of an ongoing Worldbuilding project.

Maps are created using Inkarnate

Arclund: The Haven World

The World of Arclund began as a refuge, people emerging across its breadth after fleeing some calamity on their original home. Dragons, Jotuns, Elves, Edeni, Catfolk, and countless more. They forged new nations, new homes, and new cultures, but not all came peacefully. Many turned to War as it had been all they had ever known, while others thought they had the right to rule, backed by their Pantheons and their strength in the Arcane.

Then came the Cascade, the answer to centuries of Hubris.

Not long after the Gods were drawn into a War far away as Arcane Magic vanished from the world.

In the Darkness, the wonders they had drawn from their old worlds ceased to be, crumbling as the peoples of Arclund were forced to truly start anew.

The current year is 1418 AS (After Separation) almost a millennia and a half since the Gods returned bereft familiar faces just as their ranks were swelled with the unfamiliar. The Arcane has returned, but no longer can it reach the levels of Power prior to the Cascade.

But that has not stopped the attempts of heroes and fiends of all stripes.

Vrahal, is a land of grief and hope in equal measure. Freed from a decade of eternal winter the numerous city-states are endeavoring to find their way in the world once more. Dark Beasts still haunt the chilled swamps, and deep woods, even as a guild of adventurers rises in Vorhen to teach the next generation how to fight before the next world-shaking threat emerges. A new queen sits upon the throne of Korvasa-Leliana, challenged by the utter destruction of one of her dependee cities. Ornn's great forge burns against the chill artic air, even as the Shoanti Korras fight to shake off the horrors they faced as The Frosted Singer's vanguard during the Winter Decade. Finally, in the heart of the continent, the Wood Elves have found a path to their devastated homeland and the descendants of those that were left behind. Challenges await any brave Adventures who take to the Hinterlands.

Zentris, is a land of war. The War for Expansion exemplified by the Clockwork Empire of Svenik as it works to prevent the supposed end of the world through careful land acquisition. In Westcrown, the Fight for Freedom has found a home, a paradoxical free city, the beating heart of democracy who wishes to place a chosen king upon a prophesized throne. The Nomads of Dunretten and the Oddities of Surtova fight to keep their lands free of the Svens while to their South the Orc-folk of Olruun sit as a bastion of calm, refusing to aid any side but their own, even as the Crusaders of Denev seek to strike once more against the Demons now trapped on the Material. Soldiers of fortune have a seemingly endless amount of opportunities within the army or aiding those that are left bereft at home.

Connecting these two continents is the shattered straits of Caliendo, once the heartland of the most powerful nation to ever damn Arclund's surface, now a chaotic menagerie of free-floating islands that hold both untold treasures and unspeakable dangers, to say nothing of the mutant cannibals that call most of the islands home.

Across the sea beyond the never-ending immensity that is Terracuzan Hurricane and the islands it supposedly holds within its roiling form lie the lands of Umasi and N'jando.

Umasi is a Land of Legends. The Dragonborn Daari have ruled the central mass of Umasi for longer than most races have lived on Arclund. The seemingly immortal Naga battle the Rakshasa for superiority over Nalvatu, while in the islands of Genniaos mortals take a challenge that leaves the rare winners a newborn divinity while the greatest of all monsters slumbers beneath the peninsula of Ishtar. Along the eastern coasts, Fey rub shoulders with serious warriors who fight against a pollution of the soul that very few are aware of. Finally, in the far north, Dwarven Nomads clash with, Daari warriors, Fiendkin barbarians, and Ratfolk Caravaners in their eternal hunt for glory and this is but a few of the nations/peoples that call the vast continent home.

N'jando meanwhile is separated into three territories, the immense desert confederacy of Kelmerane, where Catfolk rule legions of Mummies, prospectors mine the bones of long-dead kaiju, and genies race through the dunes with careless abandon. Then there is Intliziyo Jungle, home to the oldest school of magic in the world, the last bastion of culture thought destroyed in the Cascade, and numerous tribes that fight for dominance against the increasingly cunning dinosaurs that have lived there longer than anyone. In the Aaraconda Uplands, a culture devoted to the sky above forgoes the concerns of the flesh as they seek to travel to the stars above.

The Southlands or Benekaj was the first home of the Dragons. Their marks have been left all across the desert surrounding the vast alps at the continent's heart. The people of the Port's Piecemeal are a mixed bunch, though all are friendly, ridding themselves of the biases or hatred that their people might have found elsewhere as they live in tune with the unique natural world around them. Races found nowhere else on Arclund, at least not in large numbers, wander the other coasts and the interior of the Southlands. The high-flying Eaglefolk, the wild-souled Shifters, the wise-minded Turtlefolk, the mismatched Llona, and the otherworldly Heyari, all call this land home. The latter are the only people known to inhabit the Nuoas Alps, as within their grasp sits a place that defies common convention known only as the Dreamlands.

So ends the known world, and the centerpiece of the Arclund Universe.

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