The World & the Nine
A continent hidden for a thousand years, nine guardians who held it steady, and one wish that undid all of it.
For thousands of years the continent of Aethermoor sat outside the world's sight, hidden behind a veil held up by nine guardians. Each of them had once been mortal. Each had given that up to hold one of the elemental forces steady.
Then a boy from a fishing village called Marisglow lost his mother to that same bargain, wandered seven years with the loss, and found a well that grants exactly what you ask for. He asked for the death of all nine.
The veil tore. The elemental nexuses turned. The barriers that had kept the worst things in their dens came down, and the continent — now called Thyranya, after what the boy became — appeared on the maps of a world that had never known it.
Ships found it. Storms wrecked them. The survivors are still there. You are one of them.
Nine realms, nine ruined guardians
Every guardian's sanctuary became something worse. These are the places worth the danger, and the places that will kill you for underestimating them.
Drowned Palace
Nereia · WaterUndead things that used to be crews.
Tempest Tower
Zephyros · AirA hurricane that never stops turning.
Shattered Peaks
Terron · EarthQuake-prone ranges and earth demons.
Infernal Forge
Pyraxis · FireVolcanic waste, and imps that like it.
Frozen Lands
Glacius · IceA blizzard with things moving in it.
Defiled Cathedral
Lumina · LightHoly ground, and what fell in it.
Shadow Realm
Umbros · DarkDark that eats light and nerve alike.
Thunder Fields
Voltanis · LightningPermanent storm, electric beasts.
Crimson Marshes
Hematos · BloodRed swamp. Vampiric everything.
Four orders still working
The Remnant Circle
Scholars and mages reading the old prophecies for anything that still applies.
The Tidewalkers
Nereia's old followers, trying to purify water that has not been clean in years.
The Order of the Last Light
Paladins retaking the sacred sites one at a time, at considerable cost.
The Memory Keepers
Bards and historians holding on to what actually happened, before it is rewritten.