The World of Sordane

Area Map

Description

The planet of Sordane is massive. It has nine continents, each with its own unique environments, peoples, nations, and history. Even though its size is massive, and there are a large number of continents, getting around to where one needs to go is relatively easy, especially for a renowned adventurer. Soralite ships and shard blimps litter the skies. Adventurers will often seek passage on merchant or passenger ships as guards and escorts for a free ride and earning a bit of cash while they travel.

Sordane sits as a true oddity among the planes. It has no major connection to any of the other planes. There is no hellscape waiting to wage war on the world, no place beyond the shadows waiting to snatch helpless mortal souls in some great engine of evil, and no great evil working behind the scenes ready to make their centuries of plans come to fruition at just the right time. However, to say there is no evil, demons, or devils at all would be a false claim. For even in the greatest of barriers cracks form over time, the endless crash of waves from the vast sea of the void wears at it, and things leak. The sheer magical power of Sordane is a perpetual lure to the creatures of other planes that chance upon the knowledge of its existence.

Long ago Sordane was sealed away from the great maelstrom of the cosmos. For countless ages and millennia, it has stood alone in the void—a glimmering beacon of power and light that remains undiscovered by the other realms in existence. This shining gem in the blackness caught the eye of many beings over the ages. As the millennia passed and the ages grew long, that bubble grew brittle in places, and the shell started to split ever so slightly from within as the people of Sordane pushed against it, seeking power and knowledge. Across the world dark and twisted creatures began slipping through those cracks, clawing their way into the plane to impose their will upon Sordane. Shadows grew long over the world, and the minions of those that have coveted this gem began to gain footholds in the world. Their influence started to poison the kingdoms of the world; some were flushed out and healed but others have remained and festered and grown.

Although Sordane sits separated from the other planes of existence it is still connected to the realm known only as the void. The void is the gap that lies between all the planes of existence, it is a realm of darkness, almost entirely absent of light, and warmth. The nature of the void seems to endlessly hunger for the essence of magic, corrupting and absorbing it to grow stronger. On top of that, the very laws of physics and reality seem to be affected by the void, as gravity behaves seemingly randomly, and even distances between two locations can change from one moment to another. Almost as if the darkness itself were somehow alive. This place is home to many horrors commonly referred to as voidwalkers, each more terrifying than the last. Their origin is disputed, with some thinking that they are a product of the void, while others believe that these creatures are corrupted versions of life from all planes of existence that the void touches. Life in such an environment twists a creature, making it hunger for all that it is denied. This creates a deep rooted jealousy and hatred for anything that does not live in endless darkness, like it does. Needless to say, these creatures hate Sordane with the deepest of passions. A hatred that does not just drive them to conquer it, but to erase it from existence. So far the voidwalkers have proven unsuccessful in their collective but ununified mission, kept at bay by the protective barrier surrounding Sordane. Still, the void and its inhabitants do not relent, attacking the barrier constantly wave after wave, slowly eroding it to gain access to that which has eluded them for so long.

The people of Sordane are largely unaware of the threat that the void poses, as they are protected by the barrier. To them, the darkness beyond is no less strange than the night sky. Those who do know about the void and the dangers it poses are deeply concerned about it, and have formed organizations to research and battle the threat. Conversely, there are those looking to exploit the power of the void, regardless of the consequences it may hold. Be it good or bad, due to the void and the barrier, Sordane is locked away from the other planes of existence, unable to interact with them to exchange knowledge. Thus far the barrier has held; however, small cracks have formed, created by foolish wizards from within wanting to explore the unknown, unaware of the dangers that lie beyond. Due to their size, only the smallest voidwalkers have managed to enter these cracks, carrying the void’s essence, allowing it to fester in the lightless corners of Sordane. Their mere presence saps the surroundings of magic and corrupts nearby life, which means that even a smallest voidwalker can wreak unimaginable havoc on the world if left undetected; for this reason nations will patrol known cracks zealously. It is fortunate that most of these creatures are sensitive to light, and warmth, otherwise it could have proven impossible to defeat them.

Notable Places

Continents

There are nine continents on Sordane, some stranger places than others:

• 🗺️Bordair, the largest continent in the Eastern Hemisphere of Sordane.
  • Bordair is roughly analogous to mediaeval Europe.
• 🗺️Keshtine, neighbouring to the west of Bordair is the continent of Keshtine. Separated by the Sea of Clouds, the distance between Keshtine and Bordair is relatively small compared to most other continents, which makes for increased trade and emigration to one another’s shores. Keshtine is a warm desert continent, dominated by the Azbar people who are principled and educated but few in number.
  • Keshtine is roughly analogous to the middle-east.
• 🗺️Lozandar, on the other side of the world from Bordair, the largest continent of the Western Hemisphere, Lozandar is almost a sister continent to Bordair with very similar numbers of nations and political environments. They have had their own unique histories, but it acts as a similar trade hub to the western nations and continents as Bordair does in the east. Lozander is a rugged cold continent rich in natural resouces, dominated by the industrial nation of Zarensk.
  • Lozandar is roughly analogous to mediaeval Russia.
• 🗺️Issenzar, is the frozen continent covering the entire northern region of the world, and due to the nature of it one of the most dangerous continents in Sordane. This land is untamed, but teeming with life and unclaimed resources. Mining corporations and treasure hunters will often scour this land for the chance of finding a rich sordalite deposit or an ancient tomb.
  • Issenzar is roughly analogous to the North Pole.
• 🗺️Hexzedal, is the jungle continent in the South Western Hemisphere. Connected to Lozandar by Liladan’s Causeway, this relatively large land is vastly untamed. On coasts you will find moderately sized nations and cities, but the entire center of the continent is covered by one seemingly endless forest. Dominated by the city-states of the agrarian nation of Xilnahu (“sheel-nah-oo”). Legends say it was once the home of the Phaya-Naga snake people.
  • Hexzedal is roughly analogous to the kingdom of the Aztecs.
• 🗺️Sh’reet, is one of the smaller continents. It exists in the Western Hemisphere. This continent has not seen a war in the last thousand years since the Construct War; its nations all live in peace. It is located near the equator and so it has plenty of sun and good weather. It’s common for many Sordanians to move to Sh’reet when they want to do away with their old lives and settle down.
  • Sh’reet is roughly analogous to the kingdom of the Siam.
• 🗺️Hilfain, is near the South Western pole of the planet. It’s a frigid and cold place with massive amounts of volcanic activity. The giants hold sway here and rule over the nation that envelops most of the continent. Hilfain is the home to the great giant city of Koza, the largest city in all of Sordane.
  • Hilfain is roughly analogous to the ancient Norse.
• 🗺️Teyrote, is a continent half sunken by the sea and slowly sinking further. Located in the Eastern Hemisphere, it has been largely uninhabited by any organized nation for the better part of a thousand years. While no nations still exist here, there are many other things that live in the ruined lands.
  • Teyrote is roughly analogous to mediaeval Ireland.
• 🗺️Thassenzar, the tropical Western Hemisphere continent of Thassenzar lies to the east of Hexzedal. Its land mass is similar in size to Issenzar with a completely different social and environmental landscape. People used to mainly come to Thassenzar for its tropical climate, but it was recently discovered to have the largest sordalite deposits found in the last 2,000 years on the entire planet. It has sparked a “crystal rush” to its shores vastly increasing trade, population, and corruption on the continent.
  • Thassenzar is roughly analogous to South Americas / Amazon / Incas.

Notes

• The world of Sordane was created by 🙏Liladan, Elder Goddess of Creation and the Sky.
• Sordane has twin suns
  • ☀️ Helste (the larger)
  • ☀️ Klengst (the smaller)
• Sordane also has two moons
  • 🌕 Zieliah (the larger)
  • 🌕 Loria (the smaller)
  • The twin moons eclipse each other twice a year, with Loria (which has the innermost orbit) eclipsing Zieliah.
• The most important substance in Sordane is the naturally occurring crystal mineral 💎Soralite. This mineral is much lighter than air and provides a lifting capability. It also acts as a prodigious store of energy and is used as arcane batteries to fuel all manner of devices.
• An important event in the history of Sordane is the Convergence, in which sentient machine (shard-forged) beings called the Odari were created, a subsequent world war, the Construct War, was waged for their independence.

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