Vysterion came into existence under the creation of two celestial beings called Phatos and Metrya, The Father and The Mother. Phatos and Mytrea gave birth to eight children, four male and four female, each to govern over a sphere of creation.
Vulkarth - God of fire, wrath, anger, hatred, war, destruction, and patron of blacksmiths and warriors.
Icess - Goddess of winter, death and rebirth, the night, and the moon.Solanus - God of the sun, the day, the sky, bravery, and justice.
Gaia - Goddess of the earth and seas, mother of flowers, spriggans and dryads. Patron diety of healers, herbalists, and doctors.
Bu'um - God of thunder and lightning, storms, rain.
Satira - Goddess of kindness, love, joy, mirth, whimsy, wine. Patron diety of bards, merrymen, banquets, feasts, marriage, etc.
Bain - God of madness, despair, depression, fear, misery, funerals, sadness, and hopelessness.
Clara - Goddess of wisdom, mysticism, knowledge, math, and science.
Collectively known as the Decatheon. The predominant religion on Vysterion is known as The Circle of Ten, which posits that the gods are the edge of an interconnected circle at the center of which is creation. The Circle is often depicted with the sigil of each god arranged in a circle, with lines connecting each of them to each other, ultimately looking like something of a dreamcatcher. Temples dedicated to one specific deity feature their sigil at the center of the circle.
Phatos and Metrya are depicted as and Anthropomorphic Lion and Doe respectively, holding hands with their free hands each grasping a long staff out to their side.
Vulkarth is depicted as a terrifying humanoid figure in black steel plate, hooded cloak, and a skirt robe or loin cloth weilding a massive warhammer. Smoke and fire billow from his helmet's eye slits and mouth grate like a furnace.
Icess is depicted as a humanoid woman in a long flowing dress made of snowflakes with long hair made of icicles.
Solanus is depicted as a golden Leonin man with a mane of fire, sat in a chariot and wielding a gavel.
Gaia is depicted as a humanoid woman with the head of a doe and antlers made of healthy leaf-bearing tree branches. Depictions of her often have her sat on a bench at the edge of a pond, tending to flowers.
Bu'um is depicted as a Goliath, standing in front of a gong and wielding a gong mallet, clad in steel plate with a cloak that looks as if it were made of thunder clouds.
Satira is depicted as a Halfling or Gnome bard lounging on a chaise lounge made of golden clouds, eating grapes with a pitcher on a side table in the center of a meadow/glade.
Bain is depicted as a Gith in dark mourners robes, face obscured by a hood and black tears streaming down his face. He's also often depicted wielding a walking stick with a lantern attached to the top.
Clara is depicted as an Aarakocra with distinctive owl-like traits, standing at a lectern upon which sits a massive open book.
Decatheon sigils:
- Phatos and Metrya 's symbol is a maned Leonin with deer antlers, and shaking hands beneath.
- Vulkarth's sigil is a large hammer, cracking the ground with fire erupting from the crack.
- Icess' sigil is an upside down crecent moon scythe with icicles dangling from it.
- Solanus' sigil is a leonin with a mane of sunfire and gavels crossed beneath it.
- Gaia's sigil is a stencil drawing of The Ancestor Tree in The Arbor Copse, with antler branches.
- Bu'um's sigil is a sword made of lightning cutting open a cloud with rain pouring out of the cut.
- Satira's sigil is a bowl of fruit with a lute leaning up against it.
- Bain's sigil is a skull crying black tears with skeletal arms interlocking brotherly beneath it.
- Clara's sigil is a sealed scroll with a magic eye looming over it.
Vysterion's history begins with its creation at the very beginning of the Primordial Age. The planet began as a cold, lifeless, barren rock, a blank canvas for the deities to create and shape a self-sufficient garden world. But throughout the age, tensions between the celestial-born siblings grew quickly.
When Gaia created a new ocean, Vulkarth would cause a flood. When she created a mountain, he made it into a volcano. This behavior proved to be true for him and all creations, much to his siblings' chagrin, though in reality he was only doing as he was made to do. Unfortunately, the others could not understand that, and they started to give him a very hard time.
Centuries passed and Vulkarth finally snapped from the constant bullying of his siblings, thus began the Divine Schism. Vulkarth lashed out in rage, destroying landmasses and boiling away oceans, before turning on his own brothers and sisters. For decades more the siblings clashed, irreversibly reshaping Vysterion as a world, polluting it with their magic, and irrevocably disappointing their parents.
In one final clash at Vysterion's north pole, Vulkarth made his last stand against his siblings in a long and heated battle. In one last move of spite he brought his hammer down so hard Vysterion nearly cracked in two, before Solanus knocked him down the fissure he'd created. Gaia repaired the fissure, and Icess froze the pole over to form Vysterion's only ice cap. They'd imprisoned Vulkarth at the heart of the very creation he'd so come to resent, his very presence there making the core molten and giving Vysterion plate-tectonics.
In the aftermath of the Schism, Phatos and Metrya divided Vulkarth's many destructive responsibilities amongst their remaining children, and the process of once again trying to grow a garden world began. Thus began the Twilight Age.
Working in unison, the siblings slowly but surely built a world on which life might flourish. They used a large crystal to absorb the magical residue left by their sibling squabble, before hiding it far and away, while still allowing it to be a conduit for magic to exist on Vysterion. This crystal was dubbed 'Sapphiros' for its deep, mystical blue color.
Each sibling contributed to the creation of creatures both sentient and sapient, some in their own image and some out of completely original thought. Satisfied, the Ten retreated back across the void to create a paradise for the souls of their creations when they passed on, leaving them to their own devices.
Blessed with free will, newly born to the world, the many races of Vysterion immediately began to enjoy the lives they were given, thus beginning the Age of Awakening. But, harmony soon turned to a sour note as they began to argue over land and resources. Inevitably, violence ensued, cutting the Age of Awakening cruelly short.
The Age of Conflict followed, the various races fighting each other for land, before sailing across the sees to colonize more. Some races were nearly driven to exinction, before making surprising comebacks throughout the centuries. Some were content to stay where they were with no desire for conquest, such as the mighty Leonin. The same was true for others, though in time they found conflict and cruelty coming to them.
Dismayed by the turn of events, the Ten found themselves needing to create seperate afterlives for the darkest and cruelest of souls as well. Eventually, a young Tortle druid by the name of Damu set out from his secluded homeland with wanderlust in his heart, only to find conflict. Using his youthful wisdom and powerful druid magics, he came between every warring race and faction he found, convincing them unity was preferable to driving each other to extinction.
The Age of Unity, the current age, started centuries ago with the founding of Damu's dream: the City of Setruna. Setruna became a splendrous bastion of culture diversity and beauty, built across a massive archapelago out in the middle of the ocean. A beautiful metropolis of polished white marble and stained glass with channels and fountains fed by a natural underground lake spring from the central island.
With the shakey peace Damu had managed to broker, much progress began to be made. For one, he was able to establish a Democratic Republic, at the heart of which was Setruna. Though many nations and kings were and still are reluctant to join this new unified government, either from too much bad blood or an intense desire to remain independent.
A magically-charged geode gem called Aurellium was discovered before being mined and used to power everything from street lamps to ships at sea. The properties of Aurellium even allowed for the rise of artificers and the engineering of airships. But, shortly after Damu's passing, tensions have begun to rise once more.
Freelance artificers have begun developing weapons and other implements of war, one such notable invention having just recently come about 15 years ago: the Harquebus. Analagous to early firearms on Earth, the Harquebus is a dangerous and effective weapon invented by artificers that combines magic and science. The weapon comes in a few flavors, such as rifle and pistol, as well as many different designs.
The type of Harquebus depends on the type of gemstone used in its creation. For example, a Geobus features a 'crown' of labradorite gemshards in the cylinder that rapidly spins as the trigger is pulled, coalescing elemental earth magic into a sharp, jagged rock shard that is then fired out the barrel like a bullet all within the span of mere seconds. A Pyrobus can fire a stream of flame, or individual fire bolts or even fireballs. An Aquabus is carried by firefighters and sprays water like a firehose.
5 years ago, artificers developed the first fully-functional Magi Sabre, a magical sword for mages where the blade is fueled and created by the spellcaster's raw magical power. The hilt is made from a magic-resistant alloy known as impotarium and the blade is colored and shaped based on the wielder's alignment, emotions, and personality. Both the Harquebus and the Magi Sabre are rare amongst the commonfolk given their rare material compositions and difficult construction processes.
Currency
Many nations and kingdoms on Vysterion still use their own currencies, but Damu instituted a more universal currency featuring copper, silver, and gold coins. The copper coins are called dusks, and are stamped with the sigil of Bu'um on the tails side, the face of Bu'um on the heads side.
The silver coins are known as lunars, they're stamped with Icess' sigil and face on the tails and heads sides respectively. Finally, the gold coins are known as solars, and are stamped with, you guess it, Solanus' sigil and likeness.
Ten dusks makes one lunar, and ten lunars makes one solar.
Vysterion's Yearly Calendar
Months and years on Vysterion are dependent on the seasons. Themed around death and rebirth, the Visterion calendar begins in spring and ends at the end of winter. There are twelve months, similar to the Gregorian calendar, except every month is an even 30 days. The months are as follows:
⦁ Rosebud
⦁ Rosebloom
⦁ Evergreen
⦁ Honeywind
⦁ Solarshine
⦁ Solarheight
⦁ Solarfury
⦁ Solarset
⦁ Transleaf
⦁ Colorbreeze
⦁ Wintercreep
⦁ Frostclutch
The days of the week are as follows:
⦁ Praefex (Sunday)
⦁ Mourntae (Monday)
⦁ Taeustae (Tuesday)
⦁ Pivotae (Wednesday)
⦁ Duartae (Thursday)
⦁ Raestae (Friday)
⦁ Entae (Saturday)
The campaign begins on the date: Duartae, 14th of Transleaf, 412 U(nity)A(ge)
Holidays include:
⦁ 1st of Rosebud - New Years Day, Day of Rebirth, Start of Spring. Recarnatia.
⦁ 15th of Evergreen - A celebration of nature's beauty, Gaiantae.
⦁ 23rd of Honeywind - Damu Day or Foundation Day, celebrating the life of Damu and the founding of Setruna. Most recognized in Setruna.
⦁ 8th of Solarheight - Laboriam. A day recognizing the laborers all throughout Vysterion, from blacksmiths to stablehands, adapted from Dwarven traditions.
⦁ 13th of Colorbreeze - The Witchmoon Festival. A tradition adapted from the Hynde, of dressing up as evil spirits to repel other ever spirits. Sweets are offered as tribute for trickster fey to appease them and keep them at bay.
⦁ 1st of Wintercreep - Harvestus. Feast of the bountiful harvest, celebration of a successful harvest season.
⦁ 20th-30th of Frostcluth - Satirania. A beacon of hope, love, and warmth during the coldest nights at the end of the year. Ten days of giving gifts, offerings of hot food and drinks, and a celebration of love and joy, life and liberty, hope and peace.
Factions
⦁ The Kaldyn: An order of mercenary warriors with a creed, exclusive to half-orcs. They each wear a uniform considing of full-body mythril plate armor with a helmet, and each carry enough weapons and gear to take on a military squad. Their creed denotes a few simple tenets: Always finish a contract, never strike down a fellow Kaldyn, never willfully dishonor yourself or the Kaldyn, always stay your weapons from the innocent.
⦁ The Circle of Ten: The dominant religion on all of Vysterion, even the smallest settlements with have a temple dedicated to one or all of the gods. Priests and priestesses have a lot of sway over the commonfolk and the nobility alike.
⦁ The Setrunan Council: The governing body of Setruna, the Council serves as a unified group of individuals of varying races and creeds that works together to make decisions for the benefit of all. They also serve as liaisons to their respective races and kingdoms, even if they don't recognize Setruna's governance.
⦁ The Inquisitorius: Derived from 'inquisitive,' the Inquisitorius is an official guild of lawful good paladins that operates within the law as detectives. Headquartered in Setruna, they have recently opened branches in several other kingdoms to aid in the solving of crimes from petty theft to murder.
⦁ The Cult of Vulkarth: A cult of religious extremist sympathizers with a deep reverence for Vulkarth, fire, and all his destructive tendencies. Seen as little more than power-hungry terrorists, being associated with the group can lead to imprisonment, and potentially death if proof of murder or attempted murder are discovered.
⦁ The Misers: Beneath Setruna's Council Chambers & Grand Temple lies The Necropolis. It is here the dead of Setruna are interred, and where Priest of Icess preserve the bodies of great peoples being protective crystal, including Damu. It also houses the secret entrance to the infamous guild of thieves, the Misers.
This secret guildhall is known to The Misers as Paradise, a secret and magically-infused grove city under a city where magical lights light up the darkness and waterfalls cascade down rocky walls. It also houses the Misers' great vault, where all their collective ill-gotten gains are stored.
Very few ever get to see this vault and most who do pay with their eyes. Anyone caught taking from it loses their hands, eyes, and tongue.
⦁ Wheel of Light: A faction of Setrunan guardsmen that broke off from the main force to hunt down The Misers and bring their members to justice, working outside the law. Though they are not officially sanctioned, they employ drastic measures to find and hunt down Miser thieves, including slow, methodical torture. Not having been sanctioned, they arein turn marked for arrest by their former peers.
⦁ The Conclave: A governing body of the criminal underworld, made up of the most respected and recognized pirate captains on Vysterion's oceans.
Map Legend/Locations & Lore
The Jagged Crown - The name for the icy northmost continent on Vysterion. When Vulkarth struck the ground with his mighty hammer, this giant ring of mountains around Vysterion's north pole was the result. Mountains sprang up even on the edges of the land, creating huge fjords.
Dengrevar - The capital city and homeland of the hearty Mountain Dwarves. Nestled deep in the impassable mountains of The Jagged Crown, Dengrevar has a sizable presence on the surface, but stretches beneath the mountains for miles upon miles, offering impressive underground vistas of lavafalls and lava lakes.
Karykahn - The capital of Goliath civilization. The Goliaths themselves are hearty mountain folk who tend to keep to themselves, but anyone fortunate enough to call one friend will find a loyal companion to buy them a round of ale, write them a war ballad, and ensure all their foes fall before them.
The Sea Scar - A phenomenon scientists have only recently been able to closely observe thanks to the invention of airships, the Sea Scar is what can only be described as a chasm in the waters of The Bitter Sea. Hypothesized to be a result of the gods' fighting ages ago, the sea parts itself and cascades down into itself as two immense waterfalls, churning boiling and flashing to steam as it violently reacts with exposed magma.
The Bitter Sea - Vysterion's northernmost sea is also its coldest. The only reason anyone has to cross it is business on The Jagged Crown, and that requires evading mammoth icebergs, ice serpents, wraiths, and possibly worse. Nevermind the fact that passage beyond a certain point is blocked by The Sea Scar without airship.
The Summer Sea - These warm and temperate waters are Vysterion's highway for ships and the shipping trade. The largest sea, it is also the busiest as travelers and merchants travel from The Fairlands to Setruna and/or Tarragon and vice versa.
The Glimmerwood - One of the most magical and enchanting places on Vysterion, The Glimmerwood is a forest that may look small, but is strangely much bigger than it seems. Lavender-colored grass bends to cool, gentle breezes. Blue ferns with glowing blue veins light up the night. Trees with blue-green bark that have trunks that twist and spiral up into the sky, leaves a clear prismatic crystal that twinkle when hit by the sun and shimmer a wide array of colors. The High Elves call this place home, along with the gnomes.
Glemundra - Beneath the Glimmerwood exists Glemundra, a large network of vast underground caves where the shimmering roots of the Prism Trees cast light in the darkness. The magic from above seeps down into Glemundra, causing phenomena like glowing mushrooms, as well as underground lakes of water that glows an ethereal blue.
The Arbor Copse - A small deciduous forest that is largely unremarkable, save for one thing; the first tree that Gaia ever created, The Ancestor Tree, from which all other trees are said to be born, grows here. The Woodland Hynde alone call The Arbor Copse home and fancy themselves the guardians of the Ancestor Tree.
Gaia's Spine - A range of naturally formed mountains, and the only such natural mountain range on Vysterion, these massive peaks form an impassable barrier between the desert of Tarragon and the rest of Vysterion's largest continent of Davuna. The Orc capital of Haggrishnahl is situated in the peaks, as is the Orcish city of Sjaznik-khal. The entrance to the Lupricine cave city of Mytrodehn also resides within these mountains.
The Fairfields - One of Vysterions largest regions and biomes, The Fairfields are a vast expanse of relatively flat idyllic meadows and fields of shortgrass and flowers. The largest amount of settlements in the world is here, from cities to farms, and much to the chagrin of the native Meadow Hynde is the most contested land that exists. Blood spilled over it only makes it more fertile.
Arkymedian - The wonderous kingdom of the Aarakocra, this large expanse of islands soars miles above the rest of Vysterion, situated above the Bay of Waterfalls. Non-Aarakocran visitors are rare and those who do visit often travel to Arkymedian by airship if not by spell.
Arkymedian is dominated by glistening towers of ivory and moonstone, rolling gardens filled with flowers of all colors, and large brooks and streams from overflowing ponds and lakes that spill off the edges of the islands down into the sea below.
The Jade Hills - A large expanse of rolling green hills, dotted with oak and maple trees, their orange and red coloration a stark contrast to the verdant green. The Hill Dwarves and Halflings hail from here, cultivating orchards of fruit trees from apples to plums and everything in between.
Elxabiki - An expansive tropical jungle. Spiders, biting/stinging insects, fungal infections, quicksand, tar, deadly pools of tree sap, and diseases caused by parasitic bacteria ensure very few outsiders enter. The Tabaxi and the Wood Elves are more than at home here though, as they both hail from this tropical rainforest.
The Black Bogs - A large region of blackwater swamps, plagued by many of the same things that keep outsiders from traveling into Elxabiki, save for the tar and tree sap. The gentle Tortles make their home on the border of the swamps and the Elxabiki jungle. The tribal and territorial Lizardfolk nestle themselves in a cozy little valley at the foot of the mountains in Gaia's Spine, and the Marsh Hynde dwell in the large stilt village of Marshperch at the southernmost tip of Davuna.
Setruna - The unified world capital founded by the beloved Tortle druid Damu. This immense city-state spans across an entire archipelago interconnected by vast bridges. Each island is roughly the size of Nebraska in terms of square miles, and thriving homes and businesses have sprung up across them all. On the centermost island of the archipelago is the Chamber of the High Council, the governmental seat of a council of leaders elected by the people.
Tarragon - A sprawling nation of scorching sands that the Dragonborn hail from, and that the vast majority of Tieflings have settled for its isolation away from their judgmental peers. The Dragonborn and Tieflings have both built testaments to their greatness amongst the dunes, but most will never see them for want of never setting foot in such an inhospitable expanse of badlands.
Oreskos - A moderate-sized volcanic island continent where the Leonin hail from. At its center is a huge stratovolcano known to the Leonin as Ancestors' Fury, that remains dormant for centuries at a time. Around the Fury are rich, dusty savannahs and amber waves of grain, broken up by the occasional river or lush idyllic grove at the Fury's base.
The various Leonin Prides occupy a portion of these savannahs, with the Ironmane controlling the largest. Their land accessed the richest deposits of iron, and being the best and most talented smiths as a result, the council of Pride alphas known as Kings appointed the King of the Ironmane to lead the council governing all the Leonin of Oreskos.
While in theory the Ironmane King held the most power on the Council of Kings in terms of territory and military strength, the needs of the Leonin people as a whole were catered to by each Pride and their entire economy was based entirely on trade goods, and thusly they remained balanced for centuries.
For example, the Goldenfield Pride controlled the richest farmland, and thus the food, but without the Ironmane smiths to forge them their tools, farms could not function.
Being creatures of the land, the Leonin made poor sailors whether on the sea or in the sky, and as a result became an introverted people of honor and tradition. They came to view gold as a worthless metal as it was far too soft to be used in weapons or tools. As a result, Oreskos has remained largely untouched by trade and travel, even the gods themselves rarely venture there, and thus the Leonin are beholden to no gods.
Leonin religion instead reveres their bravest and most honorable ancestors, the most influential and change-inducing of which came to be known as Paragons.
Vulkarth's Wrath - A volcanic no man's land of erupting volcanoes, boiling tar pits, obsidian crags, acid lakes, laval flows, and jagged peaks. Expeditions to charter it throughout the ages almost always resulted in casualties, though it was eventually chartered from the air after the invention of the airship.
The Rolling Tundra - While cold, The Rolling Tundra is still nowhere as frigid and inhospitable as The Jagged Crown. Many races enjoy the peace, isolation and beauty, from the mighty Loxodon to the Half-Orcs. Game is bountiful and thus so is food, and trees regrow well in the soil fertilized by the ash from Vulkarth's Wrath.
Celestine - The glamorous capital of the High Elves in The Glimmerwood.
Cuzh Ao Zmy Silv - Tiefling capital in the sands of Tarragon.
The Sea of Sorrows - A dangerous sea haunted by cursed sailors, frequented by pirates, dotted with jagged rocks and home to various sea beasts.
