Cellaphage

Long ago in a distant time this world worked much like many others in the vast multiverse. A dark and powerful god sought to rule all the cosmos and a group of adventurers stood in his way. Their efforts were valiant, and their sacrifices great, but in the end the forgotten god was cunning and ruthless. The only hope for reality to survive was to rip it asunder. Eons later in a world lacking in divinity and full of planar instability, nations rose and fell seeking domination over the land of Celaphage.   The Cosmos is vast. This world is many. The planes of Fire, Water, Earth, Sky, Life, and Death all border closely and overlap with that of the Material. Permanent portals lead lost explorers into elemental depths. Transient verges sweep the unsuspecting into strange and distant lands.   These planar forces are influenced by the Dragons in Cellaphage. Whether they keep the elemental energies in order, are the source of them, or churn them up in cataclysmic cascades that will eventually break Cellaphage is debated by scholars. Their presence is felt through their influence on mortal kingdoms and in their very blood, bones, and scales that deposit magical power in their wake.   Extradimensional Architecture expands sideways into vast complexes. Small little inns that hold thousands of rooms and archologies within fortified towers are but a few examples. Gilded carriages with houses on the inside are pulled by simple draft horses bags bigger on the inside are carried from town to town. Collapsed and condemned spaces full of ethereal spiderwebs populate the old abandoned quarters.   The current grand nations are at an uneasy peace. Twenty years after the Great War people are still trying to rebuild their lives, mourn their dead, and learn to move past old animosity. The Black Empire was victorious in this war; employing ruthless armies, authoritarian control, and demanding absolute loyalty. But its rival nation the Golden Kingdom was not virtuous in its tactics; employing armies of world ending monstrosities, unjust hierarchies of nobility, and the plundering of their citizens' wealth all under their despotic king. To the one side there was the Fey Realms, chaotic and terrible forces of story and folklore. The Tribes of Rhurshurq were barbarians of extreme strength, fortitude, and determination. To the other side was the Yormir Federation with their mountain strongholds and trade houses directed to the production of weapons of war. Across those mountains is the Shur-Hai desert: a land of ancient treasure and wonder buried under a sea of green sand. South of this is the Alabaster Union, one of the only nations to stay out of the war and considered a neutral land of free peoples.   And then there is you. An adventurer. One of the strange folk that found a life sitting at home or plying a trade to be too boring a fate. Or maybe someone thrust into a fate reluctantly. Perhaps a person possessed by a spirit of quest and story. Welcome to Cellaphage.