Let's build a setting, one post at a time.

[TwoSix]

Vaelos is the third-largest continent and a "twin" to Herzia. It is roughly the same size as Greenland. The coastline of Vaelos looks very similar to the coastline of Herzia it faces, leading scholars to believe the two continents were once one before something tore them apart.

On the southeast corner of Vaelos sits the iron city of Vae Kolos, the city of forges, 70 miles from the western coast of Herzia. It was here that were built the 9 dwarven dreadnoughts, the iron ships half a mile long that demonstrate the dwarves military and magical might.

On the northwest of Vaelos is a small, ancient nation of minotaurs and dwarves. While they refer to their culture as "Zanihir", they are commonly referred to as the "Labyrinth Builders." Their mystics, the "Zanesh", have innate magic to command stone and spirits of the earth.

 

[el-remmen]

All fiends are mortals who have sacrificed themselves willingly for power and losing their souls in the process. They do this by leaping into special sacrificial rune bordered “endless pits” found in hidden underground temples.

You can defeat a fiend if you know its mortal name but the oldest fiends’ true names are mostly lost to time.

This also means that the oldest and most powerful fiends were originally cloud giants and lizardfolk.

 

[Tonguez]

The Kepualan archipelago is a long chain of islands scattered between Ghace and Xandahaal. They are a mix of volcanic high islands and coral atolls with their waters teeming with aquatic life. The most notable being the Sahuagin and the Merrow who maintain an empire carved from to the living reef that surrounds the whole archipelago.

 

[npick03]

The Argent Spire, known as Sikhara Uolan in the lizardfolk tongue, is an ancient Sun Builder arcology-ship. A mile high tower of silver and crystal, it contains artificial ecosystems resembling distant worlds. It serves as the anchor of a space elevator that connects to the ruins of an orbital station. The Spire is holy ground for the lizardfolk, and it is protected by the Formless Eternals, a legion of minds and souls uploaded into the psi-crystal lattice of the Spire.

 

[TwoSix]

Halflings are a bucolic, peaceful people with little martial tradition or interest in warfare. The blessings of Uripan, though, mean that almost all halflings are accompanied by one or more animal companions, and many halflings are skilled enough in the druidic crafts to assume the form of powerful beasts.

 

[npick03]

The pastoral culture of the halflings is tied to the cycles of nature, and their major festivals mark the seasons. The greatest of these is Maidenfair, a week-long celebration of the first days of spring, and the start of the halfling new year. While Maidenfair traditions vary across the kinsmets, the highlights of the holiday are the Faunal Games, where the druid-priests of Uripan transform the celebrants into beasts, and they compete in all manner of races and contests alongside their animal companions.

The Faunal Games are taken especially seriously in Silverley, the capital of the Republic. There athletes train year round with their companions, eager to win the coveted Champion’s Wreath.

 

[Indagare Nogitsune]

The pastoral culture of the halflings is tied to the cycles of nature, and their major festivals mark the seasons. The greatest of these is Maidenfair, a week-long celebration of the first days of spring, and the start of the halfling new year. While Maidenfair traditions vary across the kinsmets, the highlights of the holiday are the Faunal Games, where the druid-priests of Uripan transform the celebrants into beasts, and they compete in all manner of races and contests alongside their animal companions.

The Faunal Games are taken especially seriously in Silverley, the capital of the Republic. There athletes train year round with their companions, eager to win the coveted Champion’s Wreath.

During the time of harvest, the moon Xalaphera undergoes a change in appearance. Colorful hues outline the various features of the skull (looking like calavera make up). These never seem to be exactly the same from year to year, and some believe they foretell about the year to come. This is also called taco season and they are made in great abundance along with beer and hard apple cider from the harvest.

The second-greatest of the halfling festivals is the week-long festival of Requiem during which halflings honoring their dead in various ceremonies, including inviting them back to eat and drink with them once more. The areas of celebration are magically warded from evil undead.

Queen's Torches (sometimes called "Shepard's Fires") are built to help guide lost souls so they can move on while Phoenix Fires are created to purify cemeteries, businesses, homes, and other areas.

 

[TwoSix]

The second-greatest of the halfling festivals is the week-long festival of Requiem during which halflings honoring their dead in various ceremonies, including inviting them back to eat and drink with them once more. The areas of celebration are magically warded from evil undead.

These wards are necessary, as undead plague the world whenever Xalaphera fully disappears from the sky (every 80 days).

These undead are not the rotting, shambling corpses raised by powerful illusionists (dead bodies granted the illusion of vitality); they are malignant poltergeists and specters that can drain the will of the living and then possess them.

 

[Indagare Nogitsune]

The third-greatest (but, arguably, most beloved) of the halfling festivals is the week-long Hagswatch which cumulates on Hagswatchnight. It is a time of exchanging gifts and gathering with friends and families. Father Winter, the servant of the Hag, is said to give gifts to those who have none or otherwise reward the just and good. For them he appears as a jolly old man of their species with a sack or backpack or similar item from which he gives a gift.

For those who have been wicked, however, Father Winter appears as a terrifying creature, and they end up inside his sack/backpack/etc. where they are confronted over their wicked ways. Most who experience this end up reforming, but there are legends that some simply refuse and are instead turned into Winter Trolls under the command of Father Winter.

The truth of this is unknown, but many have reported sightings of Father Winter or, at least, have found mysterious gifts on the morn of Hagswatchnight. Other people, well known for their cruelty, have suddenly turned a new leaf overnight. The Winter Trolls are the most unknown, though some have claimed to have found them at the poles. They are thought to be a counterpart to the fiends and are tasked with finding the true names of them, especially the eldest.

 

[TwoSix]

Warning: Math and Geography.

The planet (currently unnamed because I like the mystery so far) is about 180M sq.mi. in total surface area, slightly smaller than Earth, roughly comparable to Venus.

Herzia, the largest continent, sits between 20S and 45S latitude. It has an area of roughly 7.2M sq. mi., slightly larger than South America.

Just northwest of central Herzia, across the Straits of Vaeron, sits the large island of Vaelos. Vaelos is 900K sq.mi., slightly larger than Earth's largest island, Greenland. The shape of the coastline and the narrowness of the Straits suggest Vaelos was, at one time, part of Herzia.

Two great cities sit only 70 miles apart from each other on the Straits; the dwarven armada-forge of Vae Kolos, and Kakistocracy of Ghace, an unrepentant mercantile mecca of pirates and smugglers.

Stretching northwest from the Ghacian coast, 1500 miles of small atolls and narrow reefs define the archipelago of Kepuala. Relatively few surface dwellers, other than driftfoot halflings, inhabit these lands; the area (roughly 300K sq. mi. of islands) is controlled by the undersea empire of the sahaugins and merrow. Their shipping depredations make access to the Straits vital for both the Vaelosian dwarves and the Ghacian merchants, so as to access the rich lands of eastern Vaelos and northern Herzia.

The Kepualan islands terminate suddenly about 100 miles from the coastline of Xandahaal, an almost perfectly round equatorial continent of 2.7M sq. mi. (slightly larger than Australia.) Halflings, humans, and dwarves colonize the shores. The deeper jungles are inhabited by elves, lizardfolk, and tree-climbing dinosaurs known most broadly as "Yiqi".

Starting about 100 miles from the western shores of Xandahaal, the Equatorial Isles stretch the length of the globe and terminate at the northeastern coast of Herzia. Heavily populated by humans and halflings, this large area (3.1M sq. mi, or slightly more than 4 Indonesias) contains a diverse assortment of nations and cultures.

With the current math, the planet is about 8% land and 92% water. (Compared to 29% land 71% water on Earth.)

I do love the "polar ocean running through the planet core" idea; leaving most of the northern and southern latitudes (say above 45N and below 45S) as mostly landless emphasizes the alien ocean idea, I feel.