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Message: <blockquote data-quote="havenstone" data-source="post: 4323461" data-attributes="member: 61094">The initial backgroundThe people of the Dominion of Senallin call their world Aerdrim — a name shared by the Senallines' neighbors in the other civilized realms of Aradur, Kedris, Velnar, and Caragon. The realms also share a name for the deity of their world: Ain, the One, the Holy and Compassionate. The barbarian and semi-barbarian peoples who dwell further from the calm waters of the Enladrin Sea have different names for their world and its god, but few Senallines speak enough to the barbarians to learn these names. Travel is difficult outside the civilized domains. The nine moons of Aerdrim pull the open oceans into wild and unpredictable tides; massive waves batter the major coastlines into ragged cliffs. Sea travel is an art which while once reasonably widespread is now preserved only by a handful of peoples. By land, no one in living memory has traveled far into the vast, arid grasslands of Arawai and Chraman; the people and the terrain are equally unfriendly to northern intruders. <img src="http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll67/xaimani/knownworld.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> (Forgive the seam down the middle of the two conjoined maps; my original map of the Senallines’ known world was drawn on a university blackboard and didn’t last long). The only non-human species around capable of having a conversation with your average Senalline are the dwarrow, who get along reasonably well with most humans. Individual dwarrow live only twenty-two human years on average, but their shortened lifespans are balanced by slowed experience of time, heightened senses, and profound appreciation for beauty. The dwarrow are known for their good cheer, extraordinary craftsmanship, and their love of stone -- especially in the vast underground network of caves, built over countless dwarrow generations, which most of them call home. For Senallines, mages and sorcerers are figures of myth; the only supernatural powers in the civilized realms are those of the priests of Ain. Most priests who live consistently with the rules of their Orders can call on the One God and receive priestly powers of one variety or another. Though all of the dozens of Orders would describe themselves as Good, they vary tremendously in the details of their ethics and theologies. For example, the Lunarists explain human behavior as determined by the movements of the nine moons, while the Torezzan Order insists that humans are essentially anarchic unless sternly controlled by rightly-guided human laws. Where all of this puts Ain on the traditional D&D alignment scale is anyone’s guess. On the practical evidence, Ain is apparently willing to tolerate a great deal of non-good behavior before withdrawing His blessing from any individual priest. Some Orders explicitly seek to emulate this divine toleration. Many others are convinced that Ain blesses the truly holy more than the corrupt or heretical; these Orders condemn their rivals while striving for purity. The most extreme are the priests of the Sistechern Order, whose battle against heresy and quest for truth at all costs has led to them becoming the most talented inquisitors on Aerdrim--and the Order which stretches the limits of “good” the furthest. While many of the civilized realms are monarchies, the Dominion of Senallin is an aristocracy, ruled by the Patriarchs of the Five Families from the ancient castle of Lynar. Throughout Senalline history, the Five Families have alternated between periods of peaceful coexistence and periods of all-out civil war, usually only interrupted when the land-hungry nobility of Aradur or Velnar began taking bites of Senallin.  Our story begins at a time when the ambitious, divided lords of Senallin are once again on the verge of civil strife. All of the Families, as well as Senallin’s neighbors in the other civilized realms, are known to be mustering grand armies, and it seems only a matter of time before this leads to war.</blockquote>

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