Verit

On the world of Verit, The Code is no mere god. The Code is truth and law, within and beneath everything and everyone. It is believed in no more than the earth or the sky are believed in – it is simply the undying, unbending is. The Code is what dictates a being's vitality, what gives a blade its edge, what brings the night and the day, and keeps the world running in order.

In ancient times, The Code was regarded as an allfather, a god above all. Modern research though has upturned no evidence that The Code has any kind of personality or motive aspect. It grants power to worshippers like a god, but has no doctrine. Forward-thinking individuals now think of The Code only as a force that maintains and defines the basic rules of the world. It is because of The Code that a person's distance from death, the damage a weapon can cause, a person's ability at a task, and myriad other things can be empirically measured. While The Code is now understood in this manner, it is not known the full extent of what The Code defines and dictates, but it is assumed by most Code-Readers that it accounts for every natural process and the essential properties of all things.

Perhaps the most notable of The Code's properties, to an outside observer, would be Levels. On another world, though it is self-evident that more practised and learned individuals surpass the less experienced, there is room for ambiguity. On Verit, gaining experience causes a person to advance through distinct Levels of prowess and power. An increase in Level is accompanied by a brilliant display of light surrounding the person in question, and groups working in concert have been known to experience the phenomenon simultaneously. While it is not impossible for a lower-levelled person to best a higher-levelled person, it is fact that people of higher level are simply more skilled in general.

Verit names both the continent on which the people of the world live, and the plane in which it and the sea surrounding it rests in. Extensive charting has revealed that, aside from largely unpopulated islands near to the coast of the continent, there are no other lands right up to the edge of the sea. The continent itself is shaped like a cross, each limb at right angles from the two at either side, and thickest at the centre. At the extremes of these limbs, past the edge of the sea, they taper and narrow to only fifty feet across, and end in the Gates – doorways to the Aligned Realms.

The Realms, clockwise, are Abnegation, Liberty, Ambition, and Heirarchy. Abnegation is a lush and fertile land home primarily to the native Abnegates. They live by a philosophy of self-sacrifice, and the majority of them work as farmers and healers, and give the fruits of their labour freely to those in need. By extension, they themselves live humble, quiet lives. Liberty, home of the Liberates, is a region full of mountains, deserts, wasteland, scrubland, and savannah. Its rock formations are said to change as to be unrecognisable from week to week, making mapping the Realm futile. Its native Liberates follow a philosophy of extreme individualism – to be ruled is to die, to a true Liberate. As such, they pursue only what they decide to, and generally form only small, often temporary symbiotic groups to ease living. Creating a larger, more lasting society in Liberty is made more unlikely by the fact Liberates are just as likely to form bands of raiders as they are to form peaceful tribes. Ambition, the home of Ambits, is largely covered in dense forest and swampland, but is dotted with villages and manors of varying size. Ambition philosophy is slightly more nuanced and varied that that of the other Realms, but it can generally be said that an Ambit respects individual strength, be it physical or mental, and believes that a strong person flourishing over the weak is only right. To act in one's self interest is natural, and serves the greater good if it makes you the strongest person you can be. This is not to say they are heartless and selfish to the point of denying others – they can form bonds of friendship and respect like any other people. Hierarchy is composed largely of developed lands – mines, farms, and cities hewn from marble. The native Hierarchs are driven by a desire for efficiency, quality, and consistency in all they do. As such they have a predisposition to seek their own place in a larger society, so they might be in a position to do the most good they can. As the name suggests, Hierarchy's society is structured in ranks and sectors. It is overseen by a thinking caste, protected by a military caste, and provided for by a working caste. These castes are not hereditary, but determined instead by each individual's particular abilities and merit.

Naturally, the Realms and their natives that oppose each other both geographically and philosophically hold one another in bitter enmity. Abnegates see Ambition as selfish, avaricious, and brutal, while Ambits see Abnegation as misguided and dull, and resent their hypocrisy, pointing out that they must see their own way of life as superior to that of those they help, and that if all people were selfless there would be nobody to give to. Hierarchs see Liberty as untamed chaos in which nothing of worth can thrive and last, and rightly point out that unhampered freedom is the freedom to do evil as much as it is the freedom to do good, while Liberates see Hierarchy as a stagnant, oppressive tyranny in which the individuals toils for the sake of a whole, which is itself nothing more than the individuals in it.

In the centre of Verit, and by extension the central point between the Gates to the Realms, is the city of Crossing. The largest, most diverse, populous, and profitable city on Verit prospers largely by being useful to everyone and opposing no-one. It acts as neutral ground not only for the peoples of Verit, but for the Aligned Realms. People of all races and creeds are welcome within its walls, and are treated equally to a fault. As the literal crossroads of the continent, all major business passes through it. Testament to Crossing's neutrality are the maps produced there. Most maps of Verit are oriented such that the Gate to the cartographer's preferred Realm is at the top. By city statue, maps of Verit are to be circular, with all text oriented radially such that it faces Crossing in the centre.