# Campaign Setting Notes ## Polities There are, broadly speaking, four major polities in Campaign Setting. There are other minor polities that exist, but smaller ones tend to either be isolationist and unknown, or clients of one of the major powers. Yes, I know all these names suck. I will Fantasy Noun the crap out of this later. ### The Three Monarchs Under The Mountains There are three monarchs, well, under the mountains. King Haldane, a dwarf, is the King of Stone. Queen Mehri, a kobold, is the Queen of Gems. King Gimble, a gnome, is the King of Iron. Every year, each appoints a sage, who will each draw from a sack containing a rock, a gemstone and an iron ingot. Each will then cast Augury to ask "Should we crown the king of X for the upcoming year?" based upon what they drew. The sages then report, and for the next year, the monarch chosen makes final decisions on matters before the Council Of Three. Of course, each monarch knows that next year another may be crowned, so in practice, all three monarchs wield considerable influence. Despite there being only three kings, several other races live Under The Mountain. Dragonborn, fire genasi and earth genasi are the most prominent. A few elves live Under The Mountain, but there are no elvish communities there. There are almost no humans here, for one simple reason: humans do not have darkvision. ### The Forest The elves are old, probably the first people in this land, and if you listen to them, they will probably be the last. Other races that have settled the forest -- firbolg, goblinoids, air genasi being the most common -- are treated kindly by the elves, in the estimation of the elves, but nobody who has challenged elvish rule over The Forest has managed to prevail. A little over two hundred years ago, the King of the Forest died, and had two children, twins by birth, who both viewed themselves fit to rule. In the feuding over succession, someone spirited away the true crown of the king, and it has been lost ever since. Prince Paelias was the first to produce his own crown; he made a crown out of deer antlers. Princess Caelynn made her crown second, a crown of mithril. Paelias reigns from a city built entirely in the tops of trees, Caelynn rules from a village set into the clifface on either side of a massive waterfall. For 140 or so years, there has been an uneasy peace between the two -- settlements in the forest pledge allegiance to one or the other, although in some villages, who they pledge allegiance to may depend on who's asking. And people pass freely between territory controlled by one, or the other. But both still continue to seek the true crown, so that they can cement their rule over the forest. ### The Ashlands The Ashlands are primarily in and around the mountain ranges of the north -- the same mountains the people Under The Mountains live under. Living here tend to be orcs, goblinoids, giants and shadar-kai. There is no dominant governing body here, people in the ashlands tend to band together into tribes -- tribes sometimes merge or split over time. (Merging of tribes means most tribes have mixtures of several races, rather than being dominated by a single race.) People in The Ashlands tend to subsist primarily on meat and milk from yaks, sheep, goats and game birds, along with foraged plants and grain which is typically acquired from either trade with or raids on farming communities. ### The Fallen Lands This used to be the great Empire that was the most powerful force in Campaign Setting. Originally a primarily human civilization, with significant pockets of halfling farmers, during the Golden Age of the Empire, people from the Ashlands, Under The Mountain and the Forest often would move here, drawn in by the Empire's heavy trade with the other three kingdoms. It was, and still is, the breadbasket and major trade center of Campaign Setting. There were three major cities of the Empire, but none so grand as the Capital. A shining jewel, people came from all over to learn at the universities, to trade, to shop at the Bazaar. Except one day, a woman came to the imperial court, and promised her services as a prophet to the Emperor. She proved her worth as a prophet with several prophecies, and was welcomed at court as a sage for many years. Until the day she prophesied something wicked, something awful. That the emperor would grow sick, and die, and his city would fall with him. And then she revealed that these were not prophesies, but things she had all made happen, for she was something terrible: an avatar of something nameless and powerful, older than the old gods. Everything she said came to pass -- the emperor grew sick, frail, bedridden. And as he did, the city was beset by strange monsters. The last elf king rallied an army to come to the aid of the empire, and it was in the capital that the last elf king died the same day as the emperor. And since then, the capitol has been empty, everyone who lived there either dead or fled. The Fallen Lands have recovered some from the awful effects of that day, but still tend to be fractured, feuding amongst each other, and living in the shadow of past glories. ## Religion There are three major faiths in Campaign Setting. Notably, these do not correspond in any meaningful way with the four polities above; people in all four polities will worship any of the three faiths. Followers of all three can manifest divine power as clerics. ### The New Church Going to outline the differences between this and standard D&D pantheons for now and flesh it out later: * There is one god, Hestus, who is the leader of the pantheon. Regarded as first among the pantheon, but with the other gods still revered. * Outside of large settlements and some monastic communities of purpose, you will not find a temple wholly devoted to a specific god. Priests living in smaller communities are expected to be able to pray to all of the gods for favor depending on the season and the matter at hand. Priests will tend to have a special relationship with a specific god of the pantheon, but nobody would describe themselves as a "cleric of X." * Depiction of the pantheon can vary depending on what polity you are in -- in The Forest, all of the gods are depicted as elven and have elven names (some of the other races in the forest use other names, but tend to keep these practices secret). Under The Mountain, all artwork, statues and other ornamentation of Hestus is changed depending on who that year's king is -- temples will have three statues of Hestus and put two of them in storage for the year every time a king is crowned. Despite this, followers of the New Church in any polity will recognize each other as equals, in the main, although there are some hardliners everywhere that insist their devotion to the gods is more pure. ### Church Of Hestus Originally a part of the New Church, this is regarded as a heretical sect by New Church followers, splitting off roughly 70 years ago. They believe that Hestus is the one true god, and the other gods of the pantheon are akin to angels or saints in Abrahamic faiths in the real world. The Church of Hestus is far less popular than the New Church, and congregants either tend to band together in small communities of like-minded believers or keep their beliefs secret. ### The Old Gods There are no churches to the Old Gods, although sometimes devotees of the Old Gods meet together. Typically worshipers of the Old Gods keep shrines in their homes, and tend to be isolated, living away from civilization. (Although you will find pockets of worshipers in any major settlement.) Nobody even agrees on how many Old Gods there are, and this tends to be a highly individualistic style of worship.