Monster Slaying

With the rise of the Great Powers and the advent of the mercantile Guilds, monster slaying became a profession governed by laws and regulations. The local monster slayer Guilds oversaw these matters, and it was an arduous process just to be granted the privilege of monster slaying. The process of apprenticeship, the long years to journeyman, and finally an examination of the governing body within the Guild was expensive and legally arcane. Therefore, the profession was most likely passed down to family members, and it could be almost impossible for outsiders to join without powerful political connections.

The legal penalties for illegal monster slaying or "poaching" were serious. They ranged from hefty fines, to execution by hanging, depending on the slain monster. Few people could pay the fines and could therefore expect a lengthy visit to debtors' gaol.

Throndheim

Throndheim was a small provincial community within the Westmarch, a region far from the machinations of great empires and kingdoms. The local lord was vassal to this or that crown, which did not much concern the region's inhabitants, except when he mustered his men-at-arms and summoned the levies. But that did not occur as much these days, for war seemed something that happened far off and to other people. More likely to happen were the local orc warbands raiding the villages or wandering monsters causing trouble on the Road, until the lord's soldiers intervened or the local monster slayer Guild set a commission.

The township itself was a centre for trade within the region, which granted it a sort of autonomy from the landed aristocracy. In effect, the Guilds governed Throndheim, even if they owed fealty to the local lord for military protection.

Cosmology

Midgorod

The world of Midgorod, or the Middle-realm, was, as its name suggested, at the epicenter of several planar intrusions, providing several remarkable effects. The land was forever warped by the influence of these otherworldly powers, changing the geography, the ecology, and its natural physical laws.

This realm was where mortals lived, though it was said to have been divided at first, one each for the giants, men, and dwarves. The giantish realm connected to men among the clouds, while the dwarven realm did so through subterranean paths. Thus it was so ere the mortal realms were united.

Faerie

Faerie was a land connected magically to Midgorod at various places. Both goblins and elves once called Faerie home, and both tribes were ancient, immortal, remaining unwearied with age, and perilous in their own ways. In addition to their immortality, fairies recovered from wounds which would normally kill mortals. However, they could be slain or die of grief and weariness.

The Peoples of the Middle-realm

Mortals bore the gift of death, mortality. Other beings, like elves and goblins, were immortal, in the sense that they did not perceivably age, and even if their bodies were slain, their spirits remained bound to the Circle of the World. When mortals died, they were released from Midgorod and its bounds and departed to a world unknown even to the gods.

Men

Men were widespread across the Circle of the World, could be found in most regions and, in general, were fierce and separated into many diverse tribes and peoples, with a wide variety of beliefs, attitudes, and lifestyles between them. Their society was in a state of constant flux, as empires fragmented and new kingdoms subsumed the old. In general, Men are known for their flexibility, ingenuity, and ambition.

Giants

The giants were a race of massive creatures, around nine feet tall standing, but their proportions were much broader and more heavily muscled than a typical man. The life of a giant revolved around ritual and ceremony. Giant culture was highly individualistic with a focus on personal success and glory—particularly when gained from the hunt or in a battle. The giants did not fear death as they believed the bold and strong could achieve immortality, but they feared they would be weak and end up forgotten.

Giants were not particularly numerous, their power concentrated in strongholds and halls Above the Clouds. However, many of the more common stock lived below the clouds as farmsteaders, fishers, or other more simple occupations. Sometimes, a small band of giants would go a-viking into the lands of Men, where they were feared as monsters and natural disasters. Most knowledge of giants were from myth or from these raiders and bandits.

Dwarves

The dwarves were a cautious and secretive race, whose customs were mostly unknown to outsiders. They were redoubtable warriors, hard to break or corrupt, but often at odds with the other peoples of Midgorod over old quarrels or new slights. They were short and stocky, with robust limbs and heads crowned with long hair and longer beards that gave them their typically elderly appearance. The dwarves delighted in smithcraft, stoneworking, and other clever crafts, mining and working metals throughout the mountains of Midgorod.

Though they traveled above the ground when it suited their interests, they delved deep below the ground and felt most comfortable in their subterranean realms and kingdoms. Viewed as greedy and vain, the truth was more complicated, for they appreciated fine workmanship in a way that few others comprehended. They kept themselves apart from the other races; their tongue was a closely guarded secret, and they told their true names to none save their own kind.

Hobbits

Hobbits, called hole-dwellers, or more commonly halflings, were a nimble people with child-like features, quick-witted and fleet of foot. They lived in holes tunnelled under earthen mounds or hills, called smials. Their most distinguishing feature was their diminutive stature; even the tallest hobbits rarely exceeded two feet in height, with the tallest of their kind sometimes reaching even three feet, up to the height of a Man’s waist.

Elves

The elves, otherwise known as light fairies, were tall, close to men in height, but more slender and beautiful. Their skin was pale, while their hair was commonly black, blue, or silvery white, although copper, golden blond, and red were heard of as well, though very rare and more known among their Daylit kindred. Their eyes were very commonly green, although some were blue as well. All exhibited a characteristic best described as golden flecks speckled through the iris.

The elves were actually only from a single region in Faerie, known as the Twilight kingdoms. The goblins came from the uttermost dark of Faerie, known as the Night kingdoms. Their kin in the Daylit kingdoms never ventured into the Middle-realm. As all those who belonged to Faerie, they were not subject to illness or old age, and thus could dwell within the circles of the world until they chose to leave it, or were slain.

Goblins

The goblins, otherwise known as dark fairies, were enemies with the elves and following their arrival to Midgorod resided deep within the subterranean depths of the chthonian circle. Unlike their Twilight kindred, they had a highly formalized and regimented caste system, as well as a host of eusocial subspecies that fulfilled different niches in their society. They were once lords of the Night kingdoms of Faerie, but that time has long since passed, and they now sit on their dark thrones, plotting revenge on their fairy kin.

Goblins possessed a perilous beauty equal to their elvish cousins, though with fanged mouths, dark eyes and hair, and grey skin being the norm. However, legends of their kind, shrouded by time, often described them as foul and twisted monstrosities.

Orcs

The origins of orcs were a mystery, for like the elves and goblins, they came from a different world and migrated into Midgorod, but they were mortal like Men, dwarves, and giants. They towered over Men and possessed burly hulking physiques with white, blue, or black skin marbled with red. Called “trolls” or “ogres” by the native peoples of the Middle-realm, they were often depicted as savage brutes and ravaging barbarians, though orcs were in fact an incredibly diverse and deeply spiritual people, motivated by strong passions and deeply held convictions and beliefs.

They had no written language, and in conversation they often seemed terse and cryptic. While it was true that some orcs were uncivilised and wild, this stereotype did not reflect the very complex traditions and advanced craftsmanship that they possessed. Though they never organized beyond their immediate family groups, some of which could be very large, they shared a unified common culture. And though the mechanism was unknown, some primeval call, unseen and unheard, could cause the orcs to assemble and muster into a vast Horde.

Dragons

The dragons were a mysterious race of fire-breathing, serpentine creatures that featured prominently in the lore of almost every culture and tribe of Midgorod. Most of what was known of them was obscured by myth and legend.

On the Subject of Hybrids…

There was a Great Tale long ago of a mortal man falling in love with an elvish princess. From this union and a bit of divine intervention, children born from elf and Man were given the opportunity to choose to share the fate of either parent. Thereafter, the fates of their children were bound by their choice.

Children born from orc and Man were subsumed by their orc parentage. For all intents and purposes, they were orcs, though these children also took on the strengths of Men that orcs, in general, lacked.

History

The Old Empire

The Old Empire was once the cradle of mannish civilisation and said to be the mightiest nation in all history, its power and influence reaching much of the known world, its seat of power at the Centre of the World. However, it had long since fallen into decay many ages ago, their works and deeds no more than a distant memory for learned scholars or the very Wise.

The Great Tales

The Great Tales of the Elder Days were an oral tradition of the elves, songs of melancholy and regret they sang to themselves as they remembered ages long since past of a time when the world was young, and they were not yet diminished in glory and power.

The Great Powers

With the fall of the Old Empire came the fracturing of power. Never again had a kingdom of Men arisen to fill its lofty place, and though many had tried to forge a long-lived dynasty, all failed within one or two generations. Indeed, many pretenders sought to take up the mantle of Old Imperial ways, but lacked the institutions, the power, or even the wisdom to become its peer, let alone surpass it.

Instead, the Great Powers, the most powerful kingdoms of Men, bickered and fought amongst themselves, jockeying for influence among their lesser neighbors.

Geography

The Circle of the World was arranged in such a way that the land resembled a circle, with the three major continents at one of the cardinal points, north, east, and south, and an archipelago of islands at the west. At the center was another great archipelago surrounded by the Circle Sea. Within the central archipelago was the Centre of the World, where lay the Eternal City.

The Hallian continent, or Hallia, lay east of the Centre of the World, separated from the archipelago by the Circle Sea. The Prassian continent, or Prassia, lay to the south.

The North

The North was the smallest of the three continents. It was separated from the Hallian continent to the east by the sea, and from the Centre to the south by the Circle Sea. It contained the remnants of fantastical ancient cities, many of which were scavenged and occupied by the giants.

The Elvenking’s Realm

The Elvenking had ruled over his subjects since before he had crossed the threshold of Faerie and into the Middle-realm. For centuries, the Elvenking's court was an underground fastness in the northernmost region of an ancient wood, a bastion protected by fairy magic and held in arms against the Enemy. Deep within the Elvenking's citadel was a hallowed place, where an ancient grove of trees was planted next to a bubbling spring within a crystalline cave.

Numer

The mysterious and enigmatic Wallmaker clan rarely ventured above the ground, calling their subterranean realm Numer. Still, their handiwork, great citadels and fortifications carved into the faces of mountains, were evidenced all across the face of Midgorod. Theirs was said to be the oldest dwarven civilisation and credited with the invention of numbers, writing, and the study of the stars.

The Free Lands

While boastful of having no king at all, hobbits did not even have a very extensive government. Families for the most part managed their own affairs. Regionally, they were organised primarily around their familial folklands, which bore the names of the old leading families, with each region having their own offices and customs for governing themselves.

The national government, if it could be called that, had more in common with a league or confederation of allied regions than a truly strong central government. The only forms of centralised control were the Free-moot, a council and meeting place for the family representatives appointed by the old families; and the itinerant Judges, traveling clerics who would mete out justice by ancient custom.

The Kingdom of the Deeps Below

Long ago, the goblins followed the elves by crossing the threshold of Faerie and into the terrestrial circle. What followed was a long war between the kindreds until they were finally locked away in massive vaults deep within the chthonian circle. The seals on these prisons have cracked and faded, and the goblins have returned, their malice ever greater after their long slumber.

The Kingdom Above the Clouds

Far in the North lay the kingdom Above the Clouds, where a line of Giants ruled wisely and justly, and they were feared by Men. However, not even they could control their more unruly brethren Below the Clouds.

Land of the Arkenkings

Far to the East, the Arkenkings ruled with their mighty dragonflights. These enigmatic folk kept themselves isolated from the rest of the world, and some even thought they were only the product of imagination and myth.

Religion

The Elder Gods

The elder gods were worshipped primarily by Men, especially those of the Old Empire. In the elder days, a number of elder gods allied with one another to form different pantheons. They were the oergir, those who create; the vanyir, those who preserve; and the melkir, those who destroy.

After a godswar between the three factions, the oergir and the vanyir allied with each other and threw the melkir into the bowels of the great chasm deep within the chthonian circle, where they now lurk and plot to this day. The oergir and the vanyir then retired to the Uttermost West, where they oversaw all of Creation.

The elves respected the vanyir, though did not worship them, while the goblins struck a compact and alliance with the melkir.

• The dawnking, the elderking, was the golden chieftain of the oergir, youngest and mightiest of his siblings.
• The lady of winter, queen of the vanyir, was wedded to the dawnking in accordance with treaty at the conclusion of the godswar. She wept in grief and sorrow for her fallen brethren.
• The stormbringer, also called the mother of monsters, was the queen of the melkir and rival to the dawnking for rulership over the heavens. As queen of the ocean, she raged and sent her stormspawned children to plague coastal cities.

Many temples to the elder gods were wood or stone structures erected to house idol statues standing at the heart, crafted by skilled hands into the shape of the venerated god. However, worship could also take place at simple stone altars in the wilderness, even mounds of stones, believed to be sacred to one particular god or another.

The elder gods include not just those gods of the three pantheons, but also those who were unaligned from that great conflict, including household gods, little spiritlings who would provide aid and warmth to a family; divinities unique to various locales, including rivers, mountains, or other landmarks; even mortals could ascend and gain divine honors and be worshiped as gods.

Magic

High sorcery

High sorcery was the art of touching other circles and pulling their energy into the Middle-realm, tempered by knowledge. It was used primarily by the Order of the Magi, one of their most jealously guarded secrets.

Fairy magic

Fairy magic was the native art and craft of the elves and the goblins, which was divided into two different, yet related, branches. One was the art of making something seem like something else. The other was to change the inherent nature of a thing into something else entirely. They could take the natures of things and people and concepts and apply them to others as they willed it.

For example, the elves might weave a cloak from the shadow of a man, while goblins frequently stole the wit of intelligent Men to sharpen their blades.

Technology

The planar intrusions allowed for the land to develop unique resources and otherworldly magical properties. From the groves of ironwood trees to the floating isles of Syr Armoth, these were highly coveted by the peoples of Midgorod and often the source for conflict.