Every tunnel just lead to others. If there's an end to the world, I don't think we're going to find it any time soon.
Araea is a world of unknowns. For all the years that humanity has spent in the deeps, most of the world remain shrouded in darkness. Civilization is a small spot on a blank map, surrounded by scrawling of "here be dragons". From the blight-covered Surface to the alien depths of the Far Deep, there remains much for mankind to discover. Such expeditions are not without risk, and many explorers are devoured by the darkness they sought to conquer.
The Surface
Exploring the Surface has always been a difficult endevour, between the
Blight and the
violent beasts. It is an barren world, hostile to humans yet seem to breed monsters deep within the Blight-tainted lands. Expeditions to the surface must suffer through
Sun-Sickness and prepare well to avoid famine and thirst.. But it is not without its reward. There is no other place to find the rare
Starsteel from fallen meteorites and regions like the
Thanonorok Desert are rich with minerals.
Most of the Surface remain beyond the reach of humans, covered by the Shrouded Lands. The Blight in these lands are enough to kill quickly and even limited exposure can lead to debilitating Mutations.
Read more about the Shrouded Lands
Settlements on the Surface are rare but they do exist, often established as lodges for hunters, prospectors or explorers. Many think that to explore the Surface, one must be mad but there is enough wealth here to continue to draw adventurers.
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The Outer Shell
Just below the Surface and shielded from the worst of its ravages, the Outer Shell see less traffic than the caverns below. The tunnels and caves here are smaller and less likely to hold life, though regions like
the Sprawl prove this to not always be the case. It can be a difficult area to traverse and its proximity to the surface mean that some regions open up to the sunlight, and blight, above.
End of the World
The Far End is lie at the furthermost part of the Sprawl, far away from all else. Beyond it lie the unknown, parts of Araea that may never have seen another human. Prospectors and fortune-seekers flock to this rough and tumble town with the hopes that they, out of all the souls there, will be the ones to make it big.
Read more about the Far End
While some believe that the Outer Shell stretches across the world, others believe that there are parts of the caves disconnected from those currently inhabited. The recent discovery of the
Atharkam Region region give weight to this idea and
Kaia are eager to see what lies in those tunnels.
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The Inner Shell
The Inner Shell is where most of humanity lives and struggles. The caverns here are larger and more expansive than in the Outer Shell, though not as massive as in the Far Deep. They hold more life than the Outer Shell, and humanity share these tunnels with creatures like the
Suryō Spiders and the
Chiwara. Despite holding the greatest and oldest city-states in Araea, much of the Inner remain shrouded in mystery. Out of all the regions of the world, the Inner Shell sees a bulk of the explorers roam through its tunnels in search of discovery.
The Great City
Mharaji is the largest city in the known world, making its home in the lower reaches of the Inner Shell. Many Kaia make their homes here and it holds no lack of patrons who wish to find something or another out in the unknown dark. In this chaotic mess of a city, fortunes are made and lost.
Read more about Mharaji
This is in part due to the ever-growing demands of the city-states. New resources must be found to feed the hungry masses, fuel the cities industries and satisfy the greed of those who rule them. In times of war, new routes to the enemy must be found and in times of peace, new routes of trade to friends. Prospectors search for new veins of metal, gemstone or valuable stone, farmers and ranchers look for fungi-filled caverns to establish their business. Cities seek to establish new settlements and spread the light of civilization further into the dark.
The Kaia in the Inner Shell will not be without work for a very long time. The wild caves of the Inner Shell is a dangerous place and the wise tread them warily.
The Far Deep
Beyond the Inner Shell lies the Far Deep, an almost entirely unexplored land of vast and alien landscapes. The caves and tunnels are more expansive than anywhere else, filled with life that bloom in strange and terrible shapes. Regions like
Harorao fester with mushrooms as tall as a man and fungi thick enough to carpet the floor, while the
Dunes hold secrets deep within its quartz-dust deserts.
What Lies Beyond?
The Far Deep is the furthermost depths that humanity knows. Only a fragment has been explored, with countless caves waiting to be found and dangers braved. Ever since the Far Deep was first found, people have wondered what is at the bottom of even that?
Legends and myths attribute both heavens and hells to the depths beyond the Far Deep. The beyond features in many mythologies in one way or the other. Sometimes, it is a place where heroes go for either redemption or revenge, where the life was first spawned or where it will all end.
Read more about the Myths of Beyond the Deep
But like the Surface, there are a great many things in the Far Deep that can be found nowhere else. Great beasts with precious pelts, ivory or odder trophies yet, mushrooms and fungi with medical or poisonous components, metals and gem that have no equivalent in the shells above all serve to draw explorers and adventurers. Fortune and glory awaits those few who make it back.
I really like the idea of all of those unknowns regions. Anything could lie in wait there XD
Adventure awaits! All the unknown is a big part of the DNA of Araea :D
Creator of Araea, Megacorpolis, and many others.