Corius

Corius.

The world that was once populated by humans only. Well... Not there is daemons in it too. Strangely enough, events in it occur only in one, mega-continent called Cord. While it is surrounded by vast oceans, and there could likely be more continents and land out there, nobody has ever been able to explore it, for a number of reasons, which are not disclosed by any faction who tried. People who went at it alone, never returned.

Cord, however, has a few "supplements" in the form of a large, horizontally elongated island, to the south of it, called Bered, as well as an archipelago to it's east, composed of many islands, named the Lone Isles. For some reason. In looking into Cord, we will need to have to take a spiral approach, unlike Dream World's circular approach.

The regions will be discussed below!

1. Cold.

Starting with the north, roughly one third of norther Cord, is a massive region of plains and mountains, covered in ice, and called, appropriately "the Cold". Very few things grow, and live here. There are two Cities, relatively close to the rest of the continent, and not too far north (more on Cities further down this list). Snow Imps who end up in Corius, as well as daemons generally related with cold, northern areas of Dream World, move here, generally.

2. The Pandorian Desert.

Moving down, on the western portion, there is a similar area to Dream World's Darklands. Unpopulated, dark, full of shady and unpleasant people. The ground there is poisoned too, they say. Now, on the western third of the world (below the Corian darklands, which are below the Cold, and to the west) is a massive desert. The Pandorian Desert, it is called.

Actually quite a few settlements lie in the edges of this desert, since the western and southern sides of it connect to the ocean. There is a total of two Cities in this desert. Many caravans cross it, and many daemons chose this specific location as their dwelling. White hair are a common feature of humans from this area. Used to be home to an ancient empire called Pandoria, hence it's name.

The desert eventually progressed into rocky terrain, and then into a massive mountain range. The Great Cordian Alps are truly deserving of their title, as they split Cord in two (although they do not go into the Cold). The western half which has the darklands and the Pandorian desert, and then the eastern part. The mountains are home to few cities and settlements, but just as the desert, countless daemons and daemon tribes/encampments.

3. Erilya.

A large forested region, full of thick, lush jungles, called Erilya, is directly to the east of these mountains. It covers, roughly, the middle third of Cord (bar the Cold, that is above it. Most of these descriptions involving thirds, do not mind the Cold.) and is full of activity. The jungle is vast though, terribly vast, in the sense that it even has layers.

At some point you might be thinking you are walking on solid ground, while in fact, it is a massive tree branch, 30 or 40 meters above ground. Sometimes, the jungle gets so thick and tall, and tangles, and the ground level goes so deep down, that the ACTUAL ground can't be found (easily at least). Two Cities lie here, situated atop hills, and built in layers, so that they are clearly visible. Many settlements, and many daemons.

Dream force here is also very spread, and one can see plants and normal Corian wildlife mutate into daemonic one.

4. Abora.

The lower portion of Erilya is called Abora and is a large swampland, with the occasional woods (nothing as messy as Erilya though). A massive, ancient complex lies here, composed of numerous towers, walls, and labyrinthine passages. Somewhat close to it, is a City, and a number of small settlements relying on this City for survival. Few daemons come here, actually.

5. Aldor.

The eastern end of Cord, is called Aldor. Aldor is a very fertile land, full of plains, fields, meadows, some hills and few mountains, with a total of two Cities build here. Humans are most spread here, with settlements and towns built, all over the place. Daemons rarely come here, due to the added H.A.T (more on them slightly further down) supervision.

Outside of Cord!

The Lone Isles bear no Cities, but only few settlements. Most of them is infertile either way, and ruins of a rather recent conflict, can be found there. It is a lonely, and forgotten place, mostly. Oh, and... Bered, for last! (But not least, duh!)

Bered is mostly a vacation area. There is a massive volcano at the center, surrounded by a pretty big and fertile jungle. The shores are akin to those of a tropical paradise, and two Cities are situated there. Lots of daemons, but only in the inner part of the island. Both Cities serve as ports.

Keep in mind that these aren't countries, they are regions. Geographical regions. There isn't a real "country" sort of deal with Cord, because the Nobles rule a number of connected city-states, which are in turn protected by a shared force, the H.A.T. But there are a few offshoot, independent places around here, to be discussed below!

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The Principality of Magna. A small region, close to the southern shores of Aldor. It is there that a number of independent cities, with their own military force have spread. They were originally just settlers, from the north, who came in and faced a harsh welcoming by the hordes of wild daemons in the area, but after clearing out, taming or even sealing almost all of them, they established a small civilization. A village at first, followed by a town, and at last, a number of cities, eight currently, forming the small Principality. They have enjoyed a good deal of peace and good relations with the H.A.T and Nobles, and have gifted them with the Spellcrafting techniques. In return, H.A.T had helped the region generously.

Magna is a peaceful and prosperous place. The most common dangers come from wild daemon, outside the borders, but these are easily handled. Travel is largely carried out by train, as Magna receives a good deal of H.A.T help. Some parts of it, especially the ones with considerable daemon activity, have walls around their borders to protect them and so do the inner areas of the kingdom. They have towns and villages too, but they are small and not too significant. Magna also has a few mines, and a good deal of agricultural production!

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Falconhold. Falconhold is a land in the east, around the Lone Isles. It was situated in a vast island, close to the central ones, where most of the business and transit was focused on, before the war. Then, H.A.T on their assault against the rebels, came upon the island of Falconhold, conquered it's outer territories, and then moved to the center, sieging the main fort city. The siege failed, in the end, but left the realm devastated.

The fortress city, even if large is all they have now. Most families or groups live in separate areas, or districts. Towers are distinctly found here. The major clans feuded for years, and everyone looked to their own profit, until a mighty tactician and general, native to Falconhold returned from faraway lands, and quelled the violence (through the use of even more violence, physical or not) and united the clans, trying to restore Falconhold to it's glory. It is the only proper settlement in the Isles, but it is quite shut off and isolated. It's people are, while generous and hospitable, also wary and grave. Some say they sleep with their guns.

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And now, for some hotspots found all over Corius!

1. The Gate.  A mysterious construct of unknown origin, or age, although scientists date it on the times of Gear, with some daring accounts placing it even FURTHER than just that. The Gate is strange because it exhibits no dream force, and allows no dream force to be exhibited through it. It is found far in the north, but never in the same place. People have reported noticing it within sight from one of the two northern Cities, but other accounts say it was found too far in the north to even be reached, and telescopic devices had to be used.

It is extremely mysterious, and made of unknown materials. Nobody has been able to study is closely.

2. The Fiendgate. Strangely enough, there is ANOTHER big ass Gate on Corius. Except this one is different, and is always in the same spot, somewhere around the border between Erilya and Abora, but favoring the former. It is usually surrounded by imps, building small tents and villages and living peacefully around it. The Fiendgate, unlike the Mysterious Gate entry above, is "only" about 15 meters in height and about 6 or 7 in width. There are six round "slots" in it too, and dream force can be inserted in them although it is promptly absorbed. The Fiendgate has, a known purpose too. It serves as a gateway to Dream World. Not just that but it can be safely crossed.

(A small note. A daemon that reaches into Corius is forever stranded there. At least all evidence points to that.  Whereas a daemon created on Corius CAN enter dream world, if they come back to Corius they may no longer go back to DW. So DW Corius,, is an one way trip in essence!)

3. Vhadris. A straightforward location, Vhadris is an underground locale, in the Pandorian Desert. It is located well at the center, and you may wonder just HOW does a place like that survive, cut off from most of the Cities, or resources? Well, travelers. Almost everyone makes a stop at Vhadris, since it eases the travel so much. It provides rest, drinks, food, and everything else you might be looking for. One can even exchange goods they have oversupplied on, with ones they need, for a small price. In the end, Vhadris is kept alive through a vast community effort.

 It is kind of nice, actually, since most of these people are probably rivals in their trade, yet all of them would rise up at once to defend this little subterranean oasis. There are very few natives of this bar-town all in all, and they are easy to tell apart by their last names!

4. The Ruins of Pandora. A desert region, filled with ruined buildings, and streets, and all sorts of leftovers, found in the southeastern portion of the desert, close to the Alps. How they were destroyed is unknown, but it is almost certain they belonged to the ancient civilization of Pandoria. A lot of archeological teams can be found digging here, at times. When the desert is not too harsh, that is.

5. Cerna. Rumored to be a city, somewhere in Erilya, in a place too deep to be seen, yet still shone by the sun? Apparently, a lot of it's population have blue dream force, and strange glowing eyes, of the same color. The people hailing from there refuse to share it's location as well, leading to quite a few theories on Cerna's actual nature. They say the Ancients are worshipped there or something.

6. Boghula. A small town, split in the middle by the river Boghin, flowing from the great Cordian Alps. Predictably, located in the west of the mountains, underneath their vast shade. Known for still possessing a great deal of freedom, and also serving as a rather large river port. Known too, for it's colorful festivities and preserving some of the original traditions of pre-H.A.T Corius.

7. The Giant. A massive, human-shaped stone giant, somewhere in the north, but not quite there. Located in the eastern shores of Cord. A small fishing town os built around this massive thing. It has no face either. It also looks to be gazing at the horizon and readying a punch. The purpose of this construct, as well as it's origin remain, to Cord at large, unknown.

And some other places. Ask if thou needeth more info.

Some small note on the HISTORY of Corius now...

In ancient times, there is said to have existed a civilization called Gear. Gear harvested the use of Dream force first, and for many years reigned as one of the main civilizations of the ancient world. Then they fucked up, messing with extra dimensional fuckbeasts or whatever and were destroyed completely, with only some srtifacts, and ruins remaining! Basically.

A lot of conflict ensues, as people struggle to keep themselves from dying under the following escalation of apocalyptic events, culminating in a massive sundering of the main continent, into a number of isles, that were eventually melded back together... With magic of course.

Two civilizations rise in this time, formed from two separate coalitions in the former islands, Aldor and Pandoria. They did NOT get along. They did survive for a good long jolly deal of time all considered tho. Up until some event caused THEM and a LOT of humans to bite it. This was 1500 years ago. Not too good news because...

1500 years ago, daemons rushed into Corius...

...but that turned out to be a big mistake. Gems became a thing, with whicht the humans pushed back this invasion and reclaimed their territories, and begun rebuilding. The ones behind the gems invention, happened to be of aristocratic origin and thus, claimed even more power and money, each ruling over different areas of Corius.

People didn't like them. In fact, they feared the secret knowledge of the Nobles, and a heavy persecution of them begun, forcing all of the Nobles, to flee to the Lone Isles, where the Malenid Empire accepted them... For a while. Unrest, stirred there as well though, and the Nobles faces a hard choice. Face execution, with the hope that few of their young would be allowed to go on, but lose their secrets... Or begin a tale of suffering and hardship, on exile, to preserve their legacy.

Fortunately, as they pondered, an organization contacted them at this time. It was an age where militias and groups of people who possesses rare Armaments, gems or were powerful dream force users, were very common, and had great influence. This organization, the Hegemony of Ancient Thaumaturgists. H.A.T. (Nobody knows what that name was supposed to mean really...) The Nobles allied H.A.T, and equipped them with the secrets they were persecuted for.

H.A.T became the Nobles military arm. They fucked up every realm, kingdom, independent city state, or militia/armed group that had exiled and opposed the Nobles' rule... And eventually brought them all under their own power. And then they attacked the Malenid Empire, dismantling it, in the first and since then only show of H.A.T's now tremendous power at some level close to it's full.

Nobles controlled everything, but they had become paranoid. Locked up in an invisible city, somewhere in Cord, they no longer show up, with the exception of two families (out of twelve). They built massive walled Cities, and houses their loyal in there, protected by H.A.T. These are the Cities with a capital C. The walled, shielded ones.

The rest were left out, in the world, but H.A.T still defended them, through one of it's branches. The Cities were spread out all over Corius (except one which was is a flying City, and literally moves everywhere). Out of twelve Noble clans still remaining, only two live in their respective Cities (each City is named after a Noble family). Cities also have a dream force shield, that doesn't let daemons enter it. Unfortunately it also stops most dream force based abilities and gem use too, INSIDE the city.

But H.A.T has been having problems. Rebel groups, have been on the rise. A recent example, cost them dearly, for one, but the records have been struck out snd talking about it is forbidden. And there are other organizations. The Daemon Slayers, the Seal Keepers, the Cult... And of course, the daemon tribes.

Other than this bit, there isn't much knowledge of ancient Corius that is readily available.

Religion in Corius is... Not too well spread. Apparently people used to worship these things called the Ancients. But now they don't, at least not anymore or everywhere. Those weird people from Cerna still worship them all considered. Some tribal people and even city dwellers, (not City, city) seem to have knowledge and worship the Ancients too.

Some small nomadic communities too, recognize these figures as spirits or the like. And perhaps worship them as well.