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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Emperor Valerian" data-source="post: 2428181" data-attributes="member: 15043">This is the location for the background world information, as well as character info, etc. for the Story Hour "High Seas Shenanigans."HIGH SEAS SHENANIGANS!Being a tale of Piracy, and Other Tales Yet UntoldFirst, the world the characters live in:In the six centuries since the Great Demon War, the Empire has changed immensely.  Gone are the myriad faiths and pantheons that dotted the religious landscape, all having been brought under the umbrella of the Great Church, as saintly manifestations of The One, an overdeity personified by the sun.Gone are the Emperors from Iskeldrun; long ago, they built a new capital, Caladronis, by the sea.  With that move came the final loss of political unity; the Empire is now a fractured state, all nobles paying lipservice to the Dragon Throne, but few actually obeying it.  The southern provinces have since broken away to form their own nations, as have the rich island provinces of Lees and Kandor off of the Erelion coast.  War has raged off and on between Lees, Kandor, and the Empire for the past century, most of the fighting being done by the immense navies each possess.Further out to sea, the Kingdom of Kubalia, long under Imperial orbit, has begun to move from its slumber, awakening its potential power and might.  While it still remains neutral, few believe it will stay such for long.To the north of Kubalia lies a long string of islands, long known to man but yet untouched by him.  The furthest west of these islands, Formorteria, is home to a unique race of beings, named for their home.  Few know if these humanoids who bear resemblance to animals are descended from wayward hengeyokai, shapeshifters, powerful elven magic gone wrong, or immigrants from another plane.  The Formorterans, for the most part, are content to stay to themselves, and not get involved in the great struggles amongst humans, elves, and orcs.To their east lies a short string of islands; the last remnants of the elven kingdoms that, millenia before, ruled the entire Old Continent, holding the nascent power of humanity underheel.  Ancient rage at humanity’s genocide of the elves still runs deep among these survivors.  Secure in their island fortresses, they raid the human coasts impotently in their fast ships, relying on their speed and the firepower their powerful mages grant them to evade the far more numerous and gun-heavy human fleets.  For all their cunning, they lack the power to push back the human tide, and for all their power and numbers, humans are far too busy mistrusting each other to crush the elves once and for all.Even further to the west lies a barren string of islands, lands home to animal herders and sometimes farmers; the orcs.  Their meager living barely suffices to survive, so since time immemorial, the orcs have set to sea in great longships to raid and pillage.  Now, with the human and elven ships far faster and more powerful, the orcs are becoming increasingly desperate, some even going as far as to integrate themselves into human society, as their mainland ancestors finally did long ago.Added to this witches brew is the discovery of a new continent, untouched by elf, man or orc, far to the south and west.  The New World, as it is called, is a land of sweltering jungles and arid deserts, temperate forests and soaring, icy peaks.  Home to spices, tobacco, and other raw materials not found in their homelands, humans have taken to colonizing this world with abandon.However, the New World is not vacant.  Lizardfolk and Troglodytes form the vast majority of the indigenous population; simple people living simple lives, content to hunt, raise small crops, and continue about their lives peacefully... until the humans with their great ships and armored warriors arrived.  Now, many of the natives find themselves forced into slavery, mining silver, gold, and gems out of the mountains to fill Imperial, Leesian, Kandorian, and Kubalian coffers back home.Only one native power so far has stood up against the humans, M’arderth Kavet, or the Hobgoblin Empire.  Saved from initial conquest by geographic position (on the far side of the continent from the direction the human explorers came from), the hobgoblins were given vital time to prepare themselves for the initial human expeditions.  Far more organized and vast than the individual lizardfolk tribes, the hobgoblins managed to repulse the initial small Imperial forays with enormous losses.  They seemed on the verge of collapse when war with Lees and Kandor diverted Imperial attention.The hobgoblins since have proven clever at playing the various human powers off of each other, gaining guns and cannon in return for pinning down opposing colonies.  They still lack the power to take on one of the human powers toe to toe, but their existence seems guaranteed, at least in the short term.</blockquote>

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