Welcome to Dort

Magic abounds in Dort, it is part of the fabric of the universe, very powerful beings can use magic to bend reality to their will. The gods are active in the world and answer prayers, the more worshippers they have, the more power they gain. The magical effects native to Dort often exceed players' expectations. Know that all magic is within reach, you just have to look for it.

There is a story behind many things in Dort. There are things in the lore that can be story arcs in and of themselves. Things that are not explicitly in the history can be created on the fly with player input and become canon to the world.

Anything from an official DnD book can be used as is. If there is a non-standard race or class you would like to use, just ask. If it's not out of line with the other races or classes, there should be no problem. However, each race tends to have a home region. Non-standard races would come from the Second Lands, and that comes with its own complications.

Most kingdoms are united under one emperor who rules the continent. Kingdoms fight Cold Wars against each other. Empires are generally at peace, but conduct Cold War actions against each other. With the exception of the Oshala spike in Jazirah, who wage war against anyone they deem infidels, other lands engage in only minor skirmishes and covert actions.

Each land has its own Common. Irna Common is the business language of the world, like English. Shoing Common is the second most spoken language in the world. Funta, Jazirah, and Antaea Common are less widely spoken outside their lands. Creatures that have Common as a spoken language will speak the Common of the land in which they are encountered. Undercommon is broken down the same way as common, by land. The Ancient language itself is magical. It can only be understood by actually learning it (i.e. spells don't work on Ancient). Pronunciation of Ancient is very difficult and often fails.

Evil races, evil creatures, evil humanoids of all races exist and they're capable of being exceptionally and irredeemably evil. Demons and devils are of course included in this list, they're not misunderstood or in need of a hug, they're out to kill, maim and destroy anything they deem good, pleasant or beautiful. Orc, giant, goblin, goblinkin, and so on also fall into this category. It is an extremely rare exception to the rule that anyone turns out good, usually raised completely outside the influence of their tribe and trained to be something other than what they are.

The conflict between kingdoms and empires is obvious. The conflict between guilds and organizations is expected. The conflict between gods is obvious. There is also conflict between the original God, Ix, and the Ancients, between the Ancients and the new gods, between sects of the Ancients. There is always someone, somewhere looking for a third party to do their dirty work.

The first civilization was founded in Irna and established the rule of a kingdom. From there, adventurers went out into the uncivilized world to found new kingdoms in new lands. In truth, these other lands already had inhabitants, but they were still suffering under the pre-Echo rule, hadn't progressed much, and were easily subdued by the armies of Irna.

The center of political power in Irna is The Crown, a well-planned city. From there, the lords of Irna planned similar metropolises in each of the lands of Dort to link and spread their power and influence.

The races of Irna include the typical Central European cultures from the Ural Mountains to Fraulen Bay. The northeastern plains are tribal North American Indians. The central northern mountain peoples are modeled after the Russians, and the northwestern mountains are modeled after the American Eskimos. Each has a fair number of kingdoms, all of which pledge some degree of loyalty to the Emperor in The Crown. Most major cities have a resident noble. read more here.

The first travelers from Irna arrived in Shoing in 980ME. They found a land with strange fauna and a wide variety of creatures and humanoid races. Shoing, due to being far away from Irna, attracted the fringe elements of society. Those persecuted for their beliefs fled here. Those looking for less oversight for their magical experiments headed here. Shoing is the land where dragons where first created in the ancient times, there are more variety of dragons here than anywhere else. Hibernating dragon eggs are highly sought after treasures from Shoing.

Shoing's power is from its abundant number of people. Due to a lack of other predators or harsh conditions, Shoing was easily converted to an agricultural economy and grew tremendously fast. Gwajin is the central power city with over a million residence. Shoing likes to think of itself as the real power of the realms, saying Irna is just on top because of inertia, but soon Shoing will take its rightful place on top of the world.

The people groups on Shoing range from typical oriental cultures largely on the east half of the land. The northern parts have more Mongolian influence while the southern western parts have an India influence. Both the eastern and western lands are very fertile and have an abundance of peoples there. All the humanoid animal hybrids come from Shoing and have a large presence here.

Funta was "discovered" by travelers from Irna in 350ME, the first land outside of Irna to be discovered and colonized. Apart from the eastern seaboard and the oasis, the majority of Funta is harsh lands, deserts, arid lands. The lands were filled with powerful creatures that roamed at will. The original inhabitants, very well versed in battling these creatures were the most formidable forces for the armies of Irna to battle. Once the tribal peoples of Funta and the kings of Irna had lost enough people, a peace was settled upon. Fierce warriors and powerful mage-warriors come from Funta to this day. The all-woman Fire Swingers are so fierce their mere presence is enough to send armies into disarray.

Funta and Irna collaborated on creating a library of world renown and set it in the Oasis in the city of Lahale. Far from and easily accessible roads or paths, Lahale became the center of learning and scholars worldwide call Lahale home. Almost a separate city-state, Lahale is the crown jewel of Funta and is protected by a legion of fire swingers. It is one of the most peaceful cities in the world where conflict, violent crime or even petty crimes are few and far between.

The people groups on Funta are from Africa with the eastern seaboard having a north African/Mediterranean flair. Each tribe in Funta is proud of its heritage and history. Thousands of tribes exist in Funta. Characters from Funta can create their own tribe and history or pick one of the larger tribes to be a part of.

Jazirah was the second land travelers from Irna came to in 540ME. The travelers landed on the northern shores, where the land was bountiful in farmable land. As they settled and moved south, they came across a new race, the Sand Elves. To the shame of the world to this day, the settlers and the sand elves had a pleasant, even cordial relationship. Until one general from Inra's daughter was found to be consorting with a sand elf. The general, enraged, planned, and created a fight between the settlers and the sand elves where the settlers were all killed. Using this as an excuse, he went out to slaughter as many sand elves as he could. The first genocidal war. A remnant of sand elves hid for a few centuries and then came out of hiding and rebuilt their race.

The Sand Elves believe they're salvation was through Oshala as they worshipped him during their exile. The lore is Oshala wanted to purge their race of the weak and feeble. As the sand elves came out of hiding, they came with Oshala in full force, converting those in the land. For those who wouldn't, they learned from Irna's generals what to do with those who refuse to do as they're told. Eventually the faith was taken up by the descendants of the settlers.

The people groups of Jazirah are those from the middle east, Turkey to Egypt to all the -stan countries. Modern Jazirah is largely conquered by Oshala's followers. While, in Iskash, the capitol of Jazirah, the faith is very strictly followed, punishments are harsh, quick and without mercy; most of the cities have a large cultural following of Oshala and a smaller devote following. The leaders of Jazirah are building war fleets and training soldiers to carry Oshala to the other lands. Of course, they have a resistance within Jazirah that they're always trying to crush.

Of all the civilized lands, Antaea is the most disorganized land. The loyalty to the kingdoms over the leading kingdom is very high. Irna explorers didn't happen upon Antaea until 1244ME. The lands were overrun by various humanoid monster races. Small hardy settlements of good races existed, always ready for a fight. When the settlers from Irna showed up, these settlements were eager to open trade and negotiations. Each of these small settlements then grew to regional capitals until borders between the regions were setup. The armies from Irna came in and largely put down the evil humanoids. This was the first time the fire swingers from Funta were used in battle to devastating effect as mercenaries, establishing themselves as the premier mercenary forces in the world.

There is no central power on the continent of Antaea, however, the floating island, The Heavens, while "new" in all of history, has rapidly established itself as the power center, just off Antaea. Most of the kingdoms are satisfied with this arrangement as none of them are super interested in dealing with the nobility from Irna. The southern part of Antaea is almost a separate land and it inhabited by people’s hostile to most of Dort's peoples.
However, all the lands are known for their craftmanship in trades and creation of new and unique products.

The people groups of northern Antaea are from Central and South America. Southern Antaea is populated by giant races, lots of necromancers, Ice Elves, and the White Dwarves.

The first exploration group to The Second Lands left around 1350ME and were rumored to have found the lands, however, they were never heard from again. Much later in 1521ME when explorers came to The Second Lands, they found the remains of the first group's settlement. While ocean travelers knew a land existed South of Funta, few wanted to explore it as it just gave off an imposing aura and many avoided it entirely. Furthermore, pirates who carved out nooks in coves passed along fanciful stories of a land full of horrible creatures and cannibals.

Eventually several hardy explorers arrived on these lands and explored the lands to map out what was here. They encountered pretty much what the pirates had claimed about the island.
But their biggest discovery, which many scholars believe was the fate of the first explorer group, was the only known tarrasque lives on in these lands. That was all many of the other kings and emperors needed to hear to abandon trying to settle these lands.

There are no typical people groups in these lands. It is largely unsettled, with roving bands of monsters, humanoid evil races, portals to hell with demons and devils coming here regularly. Only two major fortified settlements exist as the spices and unique living things here are sought after by the rich and connected. People who wish to leave all civilization behind will come here, go out into the land, and are often never heard from again.

Each season has a primary month, the pre and post months are either allies or enemies. Primary months are 34 days long, allied months are 29 and enemy months are 28 days long. All allied months will be more like the primary month, in terms of weather conditions. The enemy months are less likely to be like the primary month, sometimes "allying" with the prior or post primary month depending on if the enemy month is before or after the primary month. As can be seen, both Summer and Winter are surrounded by allied months and will be strong weather months. Spring is particularly fickle and can easily be very short when both enemy months turn on the primary month. Fall is less unpredictable and will only extend what could already be a long summer.

For the current year's lunar cycle, check out the Lunar Calendar folder. Documented years include Lunar 5320 ME

The time in Dort is centered on Lahale. There are 24 hours in the day.

Antaea's weather ranges from the sub tropics to polar conditions. The weather's impact, of course, depends on where in Antaea you're normally at. For Antaea, it has four zones of weather, North, South, Upper and Lower Antaea.
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Funta's weather is split into three regions, the plains, the desert and the eastern range and ranges from a blistering hot desert to dry desolate plains and a lush mild area.

Irna's weather is most like Europe's weather. From the icy northern lands matching Scandinavia, the main body of Irna matching central Europe and then the southern lands next to the Mocan sea matching the Mediterranean sea.

Jazirah is broken down into three zones, marked by the mountain ranges, the Hejaz ranges on the southern region and the Al Hajar and Kaz Dagi ranges on the northwestern region.

Shoing, a large land, has several bands of weather from the fridgid north, to the tropical south.

Given that half of the land here is in line with Antaea's cold region, one would expect this land to be cold, instead, it isn't. Most of the land is solidly temperate and the scholars of the world have no idea why. Most attribute it to magic, the blood maelstrom in the Bay of Blood sea or some native deity providing an abnormal weather pattern. Given that the island is a mystery, no one truly knows the reason and getting consistent reading for the various weather here is difficult. It is the largest land mass in Dort. It has several distinct weather regions. The steppes in the northwest, the Gowehn rain forest, the Kennet forest, Foghorn marsh and the wet plains between the forests and the arid plains south of the Thuria Range.