FEATURES OF XIMENES

FEATURES OF XIMENES

Detailing important features named on the World Map


THE NORTHERN CONTINENT


At the time of the Great Sundering, the Northern Continent was the most densely populated surviving region, and became the nexus for the resurgence of civilization on Ximenes.  Today, it still has the heaviest population.  Mostly human, though with a wide scattering of other races as the kingdoms there become more prosperous and open to trade.

The continent used to be dominated by the Darlani Empire, which formed after the racial wars and covered half the land mass.  Today, however, it has decayed radically in both size and influence and is now a mere shadow of what it once was.  It is still very strong militarily, but it is suffering economically due to endemic corruption and a highly decadent noble class.

The current economic powerhouse of the continent is Raelen, which has been actively pursuing expanding both its internal infrastructure and its trade abroad.  It has the second most powerful army after the Darlani Empire, and the strongest navy.

Firamos dominates trade along the entrance of the Sundering Sea and has become a center of many magical schools and guilds.

The Elven Enclaves are made up of hundreds of independent Elven houses, who maintain friendly but wary contact with its human neighbors.  Each House tends to specialize in a certain trade or type of magic, and the politics between them can be quite complex.

The Mad King's Road is a major ancient stone highway built by a Darlani Emperor who went mad obsessing about building it.  It comprises two parts: an east-west portion that stretches across Darlani, and a north-south arm that runs 3000 miles down into the Southern Continent.  It is a major overland trade artery.

THE SOUTHERN CONTINENT

The Southern Continent was sparsely settled at the time of the Great Sundering.  While there are regions with kingdoms that rival those in the North, such as along the Dreaming River and Atheris, its much more common to find independent city-states surrounded by vast tracts of sparsely-settled wilderness.  One of the most prominent of these is Linlea, a powerful but notoriously corrupt trading hub along the Mad King's Road just south of the Equator.

Centuries ago, many races fled the militant humans of the north, the most significant being the Dwarves which overran many weak human kingdoms then extant in the region.  Atheris is a prominent example, a mountainous country headed by a Dwarf aristocracy but populated almost half by humans.

Halflings, gnomes, centaurs, and other races are also found in larger abundance here than in the North.

THE SUNDERING SEA

A large pacific-sized ocean dotted with a great many thousands of minor islands and chains.  So many in fact that they form a stepping-stone network for sailing ships to easily resupply while travelling between continents.  This is why that while travel through the Sundering Sea to the Western Continent is almost 1000 miles longer, its is still a much preferred route than going through the Lonely Sea, which is almost entirely devoid of any islands.

The Sundering Sea was home to numerous small island colonies at the time of the Great Sundering.  These peoples have since expanded all over that ocean, some forming nations composed of dozens or hundreds of islands.  Communities of merfolk and other sea races are also plentiful here.

Many islands are thought to still remain undiscovered.  Some of these are rumored to be haunted by horrors that somehow survived the Great Sundering, and tales abound of lost ships and narrow escapes by monster-hounded sailors.

THE WESTERN CONTINENT

The continent is almost entirely jungle, desert, and wilderness slowly overruning the remnants of the ancient Ximenian civilization that met its doom there.  Ruins and devastated cities dot the continent.  Almost all of the interior is unmapped.

Some small nations of surviving natives can be found here and there, but are barely bronze-age level with very limited knowledge of magic.  They tend to be xenophobic; some mildly, some quite violently.

Numerous small colonies from modern kingdoms dot the eastern coast along the Sundering Sea.  Raelen has two, one in the north dedicated to trade while the southern one is dedicated almost exclusively to excavating ruins for ancient knowledge and magicks.

Various treaties have allowed kingdoms from other worlds to set up colonies on the Western Continent as well.  The colony of Far Warren is sponsored by a group of kingdoms from Animis.  Taoan interests maintain a small trading colony near the equator.

THE LONELY SEA

The Lonely Sea is almost entirely devoid of small islands, and is one vast tract of unending ocean.  Storms here can become particularly intense, and rumors abound of many dark, dangerous creatures rising up from the abyssal depths to prey upon surface ships.

THE GATES

Spread along the equator are four massive mirrored globes, a hundred feet across, their lower edges floating just a few feet above sea level.  These are the magical Gates that lead to other worlds.  The Guild of the Gates zealously guard their creations at each site, closely regulating anyone and anything who wants to travel between worlds.