Part 1 Campaign Introduction & Overview
So this is an introduction of the Elfmaids & Octopi main setting, where most of my fantasy work is based. There are remnants of my 80s d&d and 90s RQ settings in here. Exile Island I started in 2012 as a simple campaign area. Still many places players never visited and avoided for 13 years of play, like Bloodsand Beach. The continent was untouched for years until I built up several areas with 3fold flyer dungeons for Patreon. Scarford Reef was in Tenkars Black Isles Book (a free pdf), also, so I recycled it. Angerslund was from a zine I did for a year. Chagrinspire was the most recent campaign to change the world with a 18km high gigadungeon. Id conside using Gods of the Forbidden North in my north east. Yoon Suin for southern mysterious west. The Warring East is sorta gunpowder europe. Waerland is a kind of UK land that has superior magic to the mainland or the warring east. There are various places inspired by history but I dont make it too much a feature.
My continent and the world need a name still.
The World
The further from Exile Island and the Continent you go the less information is reliable. Many scholars think they are nonsense. Mostly, people meet mercenaries from the civilised eat and drug and spice traders from the mysterious west. Few people of the continent ever leave unless driven out or a colony fleet. Piracy requires bribes and cooperation to survive.
Exile Island was the home of most of the early years on the blog. It's a former capital of a prehuman civilisation based on slavery that covered the world in unnatural darkness. Now pirates over a thousand years have grown from a base in alien ruins to the vast city of Shadelport. Much of the island is wild and non-human but has ruins for the first and second empires and thousands of tombs, disaster bunkers and dungeons all over the island. Every few generations the empire returns and try to settle more convicts.
Forbidden Island (or monster island) next to Exile Island is a volcanic island covered in ruins of the monster empire of darkness. Huge thunderlizards and cannibal tribes occupy the island but adventurers try. The volcano leads to hell and the throne of the dragon queen.
Exile Island is also connected by tunnels under the strait between the continant but they are risky. Anglerland in the start, is guarded by the great idiot fish goddess Lampgulp. Scarford reef has terrible weather and rocks, but there are some islands you can trade with. Other islands are full of cannibal cultists and strange plants. Under Scarford reef in great caverns are great citadels of the prehuman age of darknessd other remnants. The gods dropped mountains on this place, which are now islands. The islands' pirates are the greatest naval power in the world, and most of the third empire just paid pirates to be their navy.
The great continent is famously the home of the Empire in its last three versions. They invaded many other lands, spreading the common trade language. Currently, the continent is surrounded by kingdoms, former states of the Empire and the war with the mad emperor. The interior of the continent is inhabited by faerie, monsters and barbarians.
At the end of the first empire in the wilds between elfhaunted Auldwood and the barbarian wastes. Gnomes from the deep began construction underground of their great tower. By late the late second age the tower was visible from the second empire and a crusade was launched against the Chagrinspire. This vast gigacomplex had already been sending airships around the world to plunder colonies and had superior technology. In the war, the dying second-age humans copied much of the gnome magic and technology and became a real threat. The tower's purpose to unmake the universe was exposed and the world united and even heaven and hell came to the battlefield. By design, planar beings were killed and imprisoned by the gnomes and used to power their apocalypse engine. The war ended after millions dead and technolgy regresses. Since then, the battlefield is a wasteland but the tower at 18km high is visible from hundreds of miles away.
The third age finished with the mad emperor's death.
Kingdoms of the Continent
Mordnar - forested knightly kingdom, the northern Sour Hill region struggles to maintain civilisation
Lamnutainia - the former land of the Emperor now administered from Dormund the Holy Land. Its glory of 3000 years or rule is over and people are struggling to change
Dormund - the holy land mostly priestly orders of the gods of light and the heavens, now controls Lamnutainia to reform it into a viable kingdom free of corruption and cults
Kastria - a warm, sunny region where crusaders drove away barbarians and built castles everywhere. Ruled by knights and priestly orders who have developed local customs and styles
Aeostra - Kingdom who has reverted to the older gods related to nature and elements. Many local hidden and dangerous cults exist but the kingdom is more dtable than other lands would like. They have resisted their neighbours many times and now everyone prefers trade
Tulan - Harsh kingdom menaced by trolls and giants in the mountains. Noble families are famous for being cruel, vain and despotic.
Valadran - a failed country run by robber barons, slavers and bandit warlords. Ocasionaly a king holds the land together a few years
Zorda - a misty, forbidden land ruled by wizards and draconic templars. There is a famous dragon-spawning pit here where dragons meet. Younger ones are sent around the world to nest and spread dragon kind. Dragons here own lands like nobility with human vassals who they protect. The nastier dragon cults have to hide
To the north is a vast frozen waste with steppes to higher frozen wastes where the simple wild people live among great beasts, giants and dragons. There is a great ruin of the age of darkness on the coast, colonies of sea raiders and nomads from east and west.
The mysterious west connects to the north wastes by a great nomadic plain. There are feuding river kingdoms, many enthralled to the narcotics of the Secret Emperor from an underground city. These drugs have spread around the world and are used by sorcerers and wizards. Beyond a range of vast mountains, there are tropical rivers and jungles full of ancient, decadent cities.
The brazen south is a vast desert wasteland with coastal cities and islands as the main civilisation. Many ruined civilisations and river valley cities of the ancients still exist. Further south their are fiery aurouaras and humans die from the heat, and fiery salamanders roam. Some say an efreet city is in the far south.
The warring west has north coastline city colonies of the Second Age Empire, who now all fight constantly with new borders drawn yearly. The Waerlund Islands off the coast have people who fraternised with elves and regard wizardry as important as knights. They have a famous magic university.
The more southern jungles are crawling with thunderlizards and cannibalistic cults. There are great savage empires that resist traders and plunderers so far. Few who go there ever return. Past these jungle and mountain kingsoms the land joins the southern desert wastes.
Islanders spread over the great seas long before other peoples did. To the north, they wear more furs and hunt whales. Some are nomaid over several islands so the land can regenerate. There are many strange and weird islands so pirates and adventurers like to use Islander sailors who know the seas better than anyone. Some have catamaran ships, enormous canoes and carve huge stone statues and structures. As people of the continent come to enslave or trick them, many are hostile and expect bribes to consider talking. Great armies of these sea barbarians have surprised coastal kingdoms. They often have sea cults and undersea allies. There is an underwater faerieland that may aid islanders vs civilised alien people.
Ancient Times
Before the three versions of the empire, there was:
The Age of Exilon lasted several millennia and fell to an elemental heresy that triggered great floods and cataclysms.
The age of stone age sorcery, where humans recover from the destruction of civilisation and the various failed evil templars used dark magic of the prehumans. Barbarians destroyed multiple civilisations in fear they might become wizards. Dragon Templars withdrew rather than resisted and survived.
The 1st Elemental Unitarian Heracy (Elemental Templars unite the elements!). They highjacked ancient wizardry for power for a few centuries before the Horde crushed them.
Nectomancers ruled for centuries, humans who learned dark magic in the age of darkness. They lasted a millennium before barbarians (and everyone alive) destroyed them.
Barbarians ended the Elementalists and the Necromancers and swore to kill magicians and literacy. Barbarians and orcs revolted as slaves under the monster age of darkness.
The age of darkness where a false dark sun ruled the sky and seven monster kings ruled. They used many abhuman slaves and the final two species they made were humans and orcs who revolted. The old races returned and even beings of darkness turned on evils and the old gods returned.
Before was the mythic dawn age, where gods populated the world with life to populate creation.
And a vast timeless age before that, where elements of the universe formed, and hungry horrors of the void from past cosms gnawed on each other and themselves to exist.
Bonus Language Guide
s spoken w written
Common SW - language of trade used over the continent by late 2nd empire and through the 3rd empire with an alphabet. The continant has forgotten the middle era dialect of old common or Easter language when the world mobilised against Chagrinspire
Ancient SW - language of the 1st empire
Exilonian SW - script found in ruins of the age of Exilon with cuneiform
Elan SW - older ancient version of Exilonian used by priests granted by the gods
Eastern SW - preserves a middle period common of the second empire and has a Gothic version of the alphabet, some extra grammar and some different character sounds. Some call it old common
Western SW - loosely separated into a northern system with thousands of logograms with strokes and a southern script, and an ancient pictogram glyph version, the others came from
Northern SW - common speech of northern nomads, wolf raiders and wild folk. They write with runes and mostly inscriptions on stone, bone, wood or metal items, not for personal use
Southern SW - common speech of cities and nomads of the south. The modern version uses a script but the ancient version uses hieroglyphs and has many parallels to Exilonian more through thousands of years of shared ideas rather than direct copying
Islander SW - many islanders have their own island dialects but they can share enough to trade and learn each other's style quickly. The bigger islands have books of bark and own glyphs possibly related tothe western ancient glyphs. Many smaller islands dont write
Wildspeech S - used famously by the barbarians who live in the great wastes and their kin in the woodlands who shun literacy, gods and most magic. They tolerate druidry, tribal shamans and many non-humans who didn't side wth the age of darkness, necromancers or elementalism. The closest to writing is clan totems, tatoos counting wizards and monsters they kill.
Druidic SW - used by older nature religions, usually a series of nocked lines used for inscriptions or books of prayers rather than personal uses. Often found in woods and rural areas and has some words from faerie and elves, but made crude for loud-mouthed humans. The language of druidic magic often draws of faerie forces
Forbidden Tongue SW - used by the age of darkness and the monster king empires across the world. Still used by evil monster folk, evil priests and wizards. Many destroy any written signs they find. It has elements of demonic and diabolic language.
Dwarf SW all over mountains and underground use a more complex runic like northener
Elf SW all over woods and grasslands, many also speak faerie which is faster, high pitched and sing song with own alphabets for both
Gnome SW all over chagrinspire. the underland, the world tree and even sewers
Halfling SW tend to use the closest human writing system
Goblin SW - vary like humans from savage to civilised with many dialects. Has relations to elvish and faerie and some goblins still serve elves and speak those languages. Feral goblins may reject fey influence and loan words from chaotic speech or
Orcish SW - influenced by the forbidden tongue and evil-aligned languages and even corrupted elvish. High versions have increasingly shunned their influences and sound more like common. Often use the written form of other local languages but high orcs have own runes.
Draconic SW - used by dragons with claw mark strokes, some say related to arcane magic
Reptilian SW - used by various lizard, snake and dinosaur folk
Amphibian SW - glyphs used by the first land-dwelling civilisation
Icthyian SW - language of ancient fish folk related to cuneiform languages of Exilon
Undersea SW - used by underwater faerie folk and many marine species
Underland SW - trade language of underground peoples
Planar & Alignment Language
Mostly used by church and planar beings, not mortals
Dialects of humans may have loan words from their religion, thus suggesting alignment to some experts
Diabolic SW - LE language of hells who punish the wicked by mandate of heaven
Demonic SW - CE language of demons of the abyssal shell worlds who devour other worlds like locusts and sometimes are hired by devils to catch wayward sould or other duties outside their strict rules. They live in thousands of fragments left over from creation each ruled by a demon noble
Daemonic SW - NE or E language of daeomons who worship gods of the outer void or oprate prisons for monsters and godlike beings
Angelic SW - LG language of the heavenly host and the celestial citadel, where the good may get to work in the eternal kingdom forever. They tend to be a bit strict.
Arcadian SW - CG language of the myriad of beings living in the world tree and the eternal fields and forests around the celestial city. There are even ruins of the celestial walls from long ago abandoned to chaotic nature. Many faerie and magic animal hybrids speak this
Celestial SW- G or NG language of the heavens and star peoples
Archonic SW LN or L language of pure law is also good for maths and automatons, but a bit rigid and hard to be expressive
Chaotic SW - C or CN language of the primorials and seems like nonsense syllables and gibberish glyphs. Spoke by the frog daimons of limbo and beings of the outer void. People using it often make mistakes often as dialects vary so wildly. Spelling also varies greatly and reading can be slow to be sure
Astral SW - B or N language of spirits, daimon and other beings swarming through the astral world between planes. Rarely is a mortal is born who can remember time here between incarnations and some words
