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Pharanos' Heir

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth.  And the Earth was formless and empty, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the spirit of God was hovering over the waters.  Then God said let there be light, and there was light.  And God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness.  God called the light day, and the darkness he called night.  And there was evening and there was morning one day."

-From the ancient tome of Beresith, holy scripture of the Melchizedekian priesthood.

According to the priests, millenia ago after God created the world and populated it with living things, angels saw women for the first time.  One third of the host of heaven fell and came down to Earth.  They took on human wives and ruled as gods.  Wars raged and they performed alchemical experiments on humans and animals.  This created other races such as elves, dwarves, gnomes, halflings, centaur, fairies, nymphs, dryads, satyrs, goblins, orcs, kobolds, hobgoblins, trolls, ogres, giants, and many more.  There were no seeming end to their experiments.  On animals they grafted body parts and spliced dna to create pegasi, hydras, griffins, medusas, harpies, gorgons, cockatrices, minotaurs, chimeras, dragons, and all kinds of monstrosities.  After several centuries of war and chaos God passed judgment on the fallen angels, and banished them to hell.  The remnants of their exploits were the legends of the gods, and the basis for many religions.


The world of Elunia was a vast peninsula that extended East from a larger continent.  'The Black Continent' as it was called by some, 'The Dark Continent' by others.  The black continent was infested with ferocious monsters, a desolate wasteland of swamps and ruins.  The war of the gods left the land infertile.  At the base of the peninsula the Elves had erected a fortress and walled off the continent to keep the monsters and other unspeakable horrors at bay.  No one was permitted to travel beyond the fortress, and it had been that way for nearly 200 years.

Elunia was divided into two large sections that joined at a narrow pass at their centers.  Western Elunia was populated mostly by elves, but also had sizable dwarf, gnome, and human populations.  Eastern Elunia was populated mostly by humans, but also with gnome, elf, halfling, and kobold cities.  Almost a century ago Eastern Elunia had been invaded by orcs from the northern realms of ice.  After decades of war the orcs had conquered most of the Northern half of Eastern Elunia, and they were working their way South.  Eastern Elunia was divided down the middle by a vast mountain range that branched into three arms across the South.  At first the elves were okay with ignoring the conflict.  They didn't see it as their problem, and they often didn't get along with humans.  However, once the orcs reached the center of the continent they began attacking elven settlements on the edge of their borders.  This provoked the elves to join forces with the humans and fight back the orc hordes.  The orc advance had only been momentarily delayed however, as both the elves and humans had underestimated the orcs commitment to the invasion.  Slowly the human and elf armies were defeated, and their remaining troops forced back in retreat.  Elders and world leaders slowly began realising this was an existential threat to the entire continent.

Meanwhile however, many kingdoms were busy in their own petty squabbles.  For them the orc invasion was still too far away to be of any real concern.  In the South a vast plain stretched from one mountain ridge to the other.  Two great kingdoms occupied the plain, Chatham in the North and Brisbane in the South.  The mountains surrounding the plain were infested with kobolds who's sprawling cities tunnelled for miles underground.  They were a constant plague on the humans in the plain below, and several considerable wars had been fought in centuries past.  Presently Chatham and Brisbane were at war with each other.  It was no secret the two nations despised each other.  Chatham followed the faith of the Melchizedekian priests and outlawed all forms of witchcraft.  Brisbane on the other hand openly practised Necromancy and followed the dark gods.  Even most kingdoms that openly practised magic and sorcery condemned necromancy.

As the orc invasion threatened to push South, the last kingdom between the orcs and Chatham was Lanstradia.  There was much talk of preparations for the coming battle, when the orc hordes would surely besiege the city of Lanstradia.  The elves were already committed to sending a sizable force to assist in defending the city, and most of the inhabitants of the region had already begun fleeing South.  A long road headed South around the mountains and into Brisbane.  It was the safer but much longer road.  Another road South East through the mountain pass lead much quicker to Chatham, but it was difficult terrain and infested with kobolds.  In addition to protecting travellers on the mountain pass, lords of Chatham were requested of for aid in defending against the orc invasion.  It surely concerned all of the lords of Chatham, but it was hard for them to spare troops from the war with Brisbane.  Even at this very moment raiding parties from Brisbane were harassing farms, villages, and travellers near the border.  It was a turbulent time for the region.

The Adventurer's Guild was a tavern and inn located in the center of down-town Chatham, the kingdom's capital and by far largest city.  Chatham was a walled fortress that stretched from East to West for nearly a mile.  It's Southern gate faced Brisbane as if staring intimidatingly at its adversary.  North of the castle was the city, a sprawling metropolis enshrined in a smaller wall decorated with archer towers.  Outside the city farms and cottages decorated the landscape of lightly forested plains and rolling hills.  Far off in the distance the tips of mountains walled off the horizon to the North, East, and West.  And to the South, beyond Brisbane, was the sea.  It was right in the heart of this bustling urban hive that the Adventurer's Guild was situated.  Many adventurers dropped by the old inn and tavern to look for work and meet new friends.  But it wasn't taken seriously by everyone.  Professional mercenaries and soldiers often scoffed at the foolish and childish idea of being an adventurer.  They saw it as unrealistic, and a bunch of amateurs playing at being soldiers.  But for many members of the Adventurer's Guild, it was much more than a hobby.  It was a community and a family.