Homelands

These are the homelands of people, their ethnicity, and bloodline is not a consideration for it. Someone growing up in one of the realms would be familiar with the mores, customs, and traditions of that region – but may not agree with all of them. However, it is what they know, and that will in turn affect their decisions and understanding of the world going forward.

These are the Realms from which one springs, coloring and influencing the way one sees the world thereafter.

Homeland is a regional structure – it applies to everything in a region and is not based in bloodline or profession. It applies to anyone within a region, be they a solitary wanderer, a village blacksmith, or a city nobleman. Homeland is an outlook, a viewpoint, a way of seeing oneself and one’s neighbors as all part of one common thing, and includes the language, quirks, the mores and norms, the customs and traditions. It is not something one recognizes overtly much of the time.

A farmer in Ajo does not see herself as a member of the Nation of Aztlan, she thinks of herself as a pioneer in the wilds, a woman against the Wylde, struggling to eke out a living and maybe one day have a seat on the Tribunal herself. That she speaks Aztic, that she has cultural ideas about the world formed by her growing up there is not something she thinks about – they are just the way the world is.

Each location has several elements that are ascribed to it in the pages. You don’t have to roleplay these factors, but they can at least give you an idea of how to play the character for more fun and enjoyment.

The most important aspect to much of this is a coherent story for your character – how they came to be where they are, what they are, who they are, and how they are. A good story helps you identify with your character, giving the DM ways to engage you further, and makes the adventures more interesting and varied.

The following contains information of value to a player in playing someone from that area. They present the most common ideas, viewpoints, and thinking, but are not hard and fast rules.

Just as there are rebels and eccentrics and subcultures in any culture, your character may combine or mix various parts of what is common with individual differences to arrive at a broader and more complex whole.

So, where you come from has as much impact as what you are here, in terms of role playing, backgrounds, and more. The campaign has pulled from other settings to increase the possible options for backgrounds, traits, ideals, trinkets, and the like. Those tables and options are presented here.

The following sections touch on key aspects of character development for each homeland.

When creating your character, you may want to say they come from a particular village or hamlet or maybe even a steading. Feel free to do so. Indeed, it is encouraged, and this is why there are only a few towns and the chief city mentioned; to give you the freedom to develop out that village or hamlet.

Divisions

The Realms are divided into differing groups, both by custom and the effective practicalities of politics.

The Empire itself is also called The Bright Lands, or the Bright Realms. It consists of the Seven Cities and the dependent territories of those cities.

It is also divided to a degree: Aztlan, Dorado, and Qivira, are considered to be on one side of this, being a bit more circumspect and distinct in their natures, while Sibola, Durango, Lyonese, and Akadia are all in a separate grouping that is more truly the heart of the Empire.

To the south lies the Sea Realms, Keris and Islandia, with Keris being below the waves and Islandia being above them. The Sea Realms are their own unique thing, and do not consider themselves nor are considered to be part of the Empire, though they have significant trade, especially with Dorado, Qivira, and Aztlan.

Kahokia and Hyboria are each stand alone realms of their own, and historically they have not gotten along well, with peace possible only so long as no one takes the territory of others. Neither are formally organized in the sense of the Empire, but no one wants to get in another war with them. The cost in lives still echoes through the Baronies from past attempts at pacification of the nomadic peoples.

Antilia, trading with the Sea Realms, Dorado, and Aztlan when possible, refuses to be part of the Empire and is defiant in its independence from such.

The Sea Realms, Kahokia, Hyboria, and Antilia are called the Shadow Realms – and often the Realm of the Road is included in this, as Exilian are given their own space, since even if one wanted to you couldn’t make them bend the knee before any ruler but their own.

Beyond those realms are the Dread Realms, the Dread Lands, and they are the Empire of Lemuria, Thule, Duat, and Bermuda, though Bermuda rarely has anything to do with he other three. Bermudans are known to trade with Kahokia and Hyboria and have sent emissaries to the Empire and the realms of it, but nothing has happened quite yet in terms of letting trade happen there.

Thule is a maritime threat of the highest order, with the single hulled, black sailed ships of Thule something that anyone who plies a trade on the Wates fears. Thulian warbands will make landfall and raid and pillage inland for weeks before leaving. Duatian ships are relatively rare, and far less predictable, but often become merely far more deadly as a result. This is especially true if they are in a playful mood, where playfulness is not quite the same for them as it is for us.

The greatest threat is always and above that of Lemuria, of which the massive and unmapped complexes of the Underdark called Agartha are a part and portion. By traveling along these secret ways, the forces of Lemuria can come up anywhere, and they are known for taking slaves and destroying towns and more – and the Goblin Wars did not happen merely because they were summoned to war. There is a constant fear within the Empire of raiding bands, and the ability to move unseen through the underdark is a terrifying thing to attempt to deal with. Caves, ruins, and more all become areas of risk, and the Rangers that patrol the spaces and places where Noble Lords’ forces cannot be are always at risk.

The Crusades seek to alleviate some of this, perhaps more than anything else, by occupying the Lemurians in a state of constant warfare along the one place where the two realms could possibly face each other directly – and have, before.

This also has an impact on trade. It is known that somewhere within the seven seas there are camps of Thyrs, and outposts of Duat, willing and able to raid the ships that ply the waters there. On the open oceans, they are even more present, and joined by the naval dangers of the Lemurian pirates.

On land, even with the mighty train, there is a good chance of having to fight off a band of raiding Goblins or the destructiveness of Imps, and the whole of it is something that makes trade – a lifeblood of the Empire – a dangerous and always risky experience.

The Realms, the homelands of the Seven Cities, follow.

Homelands table