Avorah

In the beginning, in the time before time there were two powers; there was substance and there was void. These two forces remained in constant struggle, as substance would create void would consume. This was the way of things until substance pulling itself from all corners of this place, calling on all the matter and power it could manage to one purpose: to create a prison -- a prison to lock away the heart of the void and in doing so halt its constant hunger.   The prison that was crafted became, in time, Avorah -- a world of life, of gods, and all manner of creature. At its center, the Void hungered, still corrupting all that was within, and for this the seven anchors were crafted and used to ensure that the Void would never escape. But, as with all things, they have been lost to time and their true purpose all but forgotten.   The names of these primordial forces, once worshiped as gods, have long since been replaced with the gods of man and mer and now those gods themselves wane in the shadow of the ever-progressive march of technology and the passing of the arts of magic.   Fewer and fewer are able to harness the powers of the divine and the arcane, relying instead on cold steel, alchemy, and most recently Ichor: a strange and powerful substance from within Avorah.   Ichor is unlike anything any alchemist or even wizards of old have seen. In its purest state, it is a thick black-blue liquid that almost draws light in, some would say. It has enabled vast and rapid advancements in technology and has started a revolution of creation and experimentation.   Ichor’s less refined state is that of a black chalky stone that stains all it touches, but even in this form it has a wide number of uses. Ichor is power; a rare and difficult power to obtain and its presence has not gone unnoticed by the grand kingdoms across the sea. For a while this power was beyond their reach, but a desire to have it and a fear of war over it is what crafted one of the grandest joint ventures in all of the known history of Avorah: the claiming of the West.   The savage West to some, home to many more; the West is a harsh land with its own complexity, filled with its own native people, and their own ways and wars.   It was these conflicts that the kingdoms of the East exploited, playing one side against the other and back again ‘til their numbers and resources were spent. This left the natives of the West to turn to their eastern allies only to have to trade lands for all manner of things essential to their survival.   With a firm foothold in the West, the kingdoms across the sea aimed to push farther and farther ‘til there is nothing left. To do this, they have set up a government of sorts, backed by the ruling bodies of the East. This government hasn't grasped all there is as of yet, but as things are now, it is only a matter of time ‘til the Frontier falls.