Aetheres

Aetheres is known as the Ruptured World. Five landmasses, each divided among the powerful, the wealthy, the political and the charismatic. Five kingdoms founded upon different aspects and ways of life from war, to trade, to piracy. Peace was not perfect, but it was there. Vassal wars and attempts to claim wild spreads of land occurred, but in the end it all came to a stop.   The central continent, Colias, exploded. The seat of their nobles and royals, The White Tower, was the epicentre of an immense magical catastrophe which swept outwards, destroying the inner half of the lands and horribly mutating the remainder, driving animals and populations insane as flesh, blood and bone came to life against its owners.   The other continents - Aesmaril, Bukhisal, Kerusilan and Merilun - were almost destroyed. They were ripped from the seabed, their landmass twisted by the shockwave that spun out. Coastlines were reshaped, mountains collapsing and rising as the skin of the world rippled. Rivers and lakes dried up or exploded in size, cities cast down into ruins by earthquakes.   Centuries have passed, and the remaining lands have organised into ramshackle survival. Many cities are sparse reminders of their old glory, barely more inhabited than the towns and villages elsewhere. While the kingdoms have collapsed and fallen into fiefdoms, isolated settlements and loose collections of towns for vital supplies.   In the wake of the event, magical studies have become rare. Less than a dozen organisations now exist, where once dozens existed within one kingdom alone. Religion has become the new power, a fanatic force that seized the ears of the surviving lords and common folk and has never released since.