Nations and Lands

Overview of the Game World

The game world that the characters of Legacies inhabit has almost as many names as cultures, though the most common is Terra, after a goddess who is believed to have died and formed the world with her body. Some parallels between Terra and the real world exist; certainly many of the cultures and lands within it were influenced by some real world counterpart, and for the sake of simplicity the calendar used to track dates and the names of the week have a striking similarity to the calendar and days used by players when not at game. However there are also a great deal of differences between Terra and the Earth players know. The most obvious are the presence of magic, a multitude of different sentient species, and a menagerie of dangerous denizens that the real world has not been confronted with. Less immediately apparent, Terra's distinct history and geography has given rise to circumstances very different than those found in the real world.

• Terra

Immediate Setting

The player characters of Legacies live in the frontier town of Fortnight, a rough and tumble settlement near the boarder of the Goblin Wastes. Adversity frequently flows south from the Wastes to challenge the town, with the town's residents standing steadfast against the threats. Fortnight is in the Barony of Drackenvelt, which is in turn in the Duchy of Warwick. Warwick is a fairly recently formed Duchy belonging to the Nation of Alba, though the land and its inhabitants have a long and storied history predating its formation..

• Town of Fortnight
• Barony of Drackenvelt
• Duchy of Warwick

Modern Nations and Lands

The land a character has grown up in has as much impact on the character's life as the race they belong to. Each land presents different cultural and geographic influences, and the character's experience growing up there will be heavily influenced by where they were in the social caste of the land, as well as how their particular race was commonly viewed and treated in that land.

Eurus

With climate running the full gamut of possibilities, this continent is dominated by the vast Goblin Wastes that occupy fully a third of the landmass in the north. That region of impenetrable chaos and twisted magic is people by an assortment of monstrous beings and unspeakable abominations, but also has a large population of what are dubbed the “Goblinoid” races; Ogre, Orc, and Goblin peoples living on the fringes. The rest of the continent (and nearby islands) is comprised of the nations of Abruzzo, Alba, Angkar, Doomstadt, Helvetia, Inishmora, Malay, Nippon, Nordehavn, Oguz, Sanfoch’i, Shalkara, Silla, Skollar, and Vedia. Bisected by a vast mountain range called the Dragonspine, Eurus is most readily split into two subsections. The western portions are very European in character, while the eastern portions are very Asian.

• Abruzzo is a collection of principalities along the southern coast of Eurus near its juncture with the continent of Coda. Temperate and prosperous, this aggregation of city-states is peopled predominantly by Humans and is one of the more racially exclusive regions in Eurus. The real world cultural influences at work in Abruzzo are predominantly the states that made up Renaissance Italy.

• Alba is the country that, as stated above, serves as home for the game setting of Legacies. It includes both the Island of Alba and a lard portion of land in the north of Eurus adjacent to the Goblin Wastes known as the Duchy of Warwick. The population is predominantly Human with a modest minority of Gael’braugh in the upper class. Demographics are steeply altered when including Warwick, however, as it is a wild frontier melting pot which, while still predominantly human, has a stout minority population of absolutely everything else under the sun. The isle of Alba itself and the history of the country have a lot drawn from the historical flavor of England. Warwick, culturally, is a chaotic blend of concepts that mingle the American Old West with colonialism and Poland.

• Doomstadt, located in the northwest of Eurus, is the homeland of the Endrani people. They represent the bulk of the upper class in the country but are a minority when compared to the formerly enslaved lower classes, a blend of human and other races who remain in sub-optimal societal conditions. Culturally, Doomstadt blends aspects of late Renaissance Italy and Prussia while leaning heavily on concepts associated with a Dungeons and Dragons race which the Endrani resemble.

• Helvetia is a mountainous kingdom located in the Dragonspine Mountains. It is peopled largely by Humans and Dverg, and is renowned for its strong defensive posture and disinclination to be involved in geopolitics. Culturally it is modeled on the history of Switzerland.

• Inishmora is the second large Island nation located in the Mari Magno or “great sea” around which the world of Terra is arrayed. It benefits from warm currents to have a greener and more forgiving climate than its neighbor Alba and is populated by mostly Human peoples with a decent minority of Gael’braugh nobility and some dwindling Barbarian peoples. Modeled largely on real-world Ireland, Inishmora also includes elements of Scottish culture and history.

• Malay is located on the southwest side of Eurus and has a generous and temperate climate. Its population is largely human with Gael’braugh scattered amongst the upper-classes, much like both Alba and Inishmora with whom it was formerly combined in the historical Empire of Imajicka. Based on real-world France, Malay naturally has a historical rivalry with Alba.

• Nordehavn is located in the extreme northwest of Eurus and spills over into the continent of Boreas as well. The land ranges from fjord to tundra and is generally unforgiving. It is not a single political entity but represents a swath of territory dominated by the mostly Barbarian Norsk people. Nordehavn draws culturally from the Viking period of Scandinavian history.

• Oguz is located in the southern reaches of the Dragonspine Mountains and is a mixture of arid and temperate highlands. It is peopled by a blend of Human and Ogre populations who coexist better there than elsewhere without turning into an apartheid state. Culturally the influences are varied and include nods to Kazakhstan and former Soviet republics in the same geographical area.

• Skollar is a small and beleaguered kingdom encircled by Nordehavn in the northwest of Eurus. It occupies a region called the Grey Coast up in the gulf of Nordehavn, and is all that remains of a much larger kingdom which was occupied and integrated into Nordehavn’s political norms in very recent years (circa 2010). Its population is mostly Human and Barbarian with small but meaningful minorities that include Paleteth, Half-Fae, and Canid. Skollar draws culturally from the Oldenburg Monarchy of early modern Denmark-Norway, but with strong fantastical underpinnings.

• Vedia is located at the southern end of the Dragonspine mountains, on the east side of the southern extent that borders Abruzzo to the west. It has a subtropical climate and occupies a profoundly advantageous location as a gateway to trade with the eastern half of the continent. The population is predominantly human with a strong minority of Canid, Felinae, and bestial Mongrel peoples who are more welcome there than anywhere else in the world. Vedia draws culturally on the pre-colonial history of the Indian subcontinent.

East Erus

• Angkar, located in the far southeast of the continent, is a mix of temperate and semi-tropical rainforest and mountain countries with a population that is mostly Human. It has a distinctly matriarchal class structure but draws cultural history otherwise from the traditions of southeast Asia and particularly the historical Khmer empire.

• Nippon, also known as the Empire of Nippon, is composed of a collection of islands of the southern coast of Eurus. Oceanic idiosyncrasies make for a varied, rather than consistently subtropical, climate and the island is peopled almost exclusively by Humans. The imperial family of Nippon is composed of Dragoons, however, and is claimed to have been so since the beginning of time. Nippon is based on historical Japan.

• Sanfochi is a large island chain located off the southeast coast of Eurus. Like several “countries” on this list, Sanfoch’i is not a single political unit but a region defined by cultural characteristics with many smaller nation-states within it. The population is a mixture of Human, Barbarian, and Trandafir peoples with an assortment of half-breed people from other races. Sanfoch’i combines the cultural character of Indonesia and Asian-pacific islands.

• The Empire of Shalkara, also called the Shalkaran Empire, is the largest single political unit on the face of Terra. It spans a huge portion of the landmass of Eurus and ranges from tropical forest to mountainous highland to arid steppes all within one governing body. The population is mostly human with assorted stand-out minorities that vary regionally. It draws culturally on real-world China.

• Silla occupies a peninsula off the southern side of Shalkara near Nippon. It’s population is predominantly Human with a substantial Dragoon minority, and it is based culturally on historical Korea.