Corive

This article has been written from an out-of-world perspective; most other articles are written from an in-setting viewpoint. This out-of-world style provides some understanding of how the worldbuilder herself imagines the Corive as a planet and a setting base. Usually, the Out-Of-World perspective stuff where the worldbuilder speaks are in boxes like this, so this article is one of the few where there is no distinction.

Some things are WIP or in need of reformatting.

The World as a Setting

Corive is a world where there is a melding of magic and technology because magic has always been part of the world and has influenced technology. Empires rise, empires fall, and often the advancements decline as knowledge fall out of use or is passed on in incomplete manners. Corive, or more specifically the primary setting of Soplas, is currently at an equivalent period in time similar to the early Renaissance of the 1300s to the 1400s in Western Culture.

There are still wild places to be explored beyond Soplas; however, memories of ancient schemes may be better left remembered than forgotten, lying in wait for someone to act unknowingly. Not everything dead stays that way or was when no one was around to ensure the death.

Corive "Kor-ihv-eh" for y'all crazy English reading people
IPA - koɾ-ɪv-e
IPA distorted for Americans - koɹ-ɪv-e
It's fiiiiiine - most everyone says it wrong, even me.

— Lyraine

Click For Corive the Planet

Type

Planet

Included Locations

• Continent B
• Soplas
• Supercontinent A
• The Far North
• The Night Sky

Click For Further Reading

Lyraine on Marketing Corive

Soplas, the Former Name of Corive before Soplas Became a Landmass

Soplas is the primary setting region of Corive. It is akin to the Most Remembered Forgotten Realms of Faerun's Sword Coast in the idea of one part of a larger world being the "standard" setting. Soplas is also the original name for the world before further worldbuilding expanded the world from the setting region to the world itself.

Major Conflicts of the "Default" Corive Soplas, Region of Corive

Conflict is a major fact of life - person A wants something person B has, and the two find a way to get what they both want. But as a setting, Corive has several built-in conflicts that can serve as a backdrop or a foreground event for campaigns and stories set at the current "time." These conflicts are left vague and nebulous as to maintain their flexibility with campaign plans.

Species Based Conflicts

The Forged

The 'Forged were created to fight in the Great War. When they began to show signs of being alive, the war came to a standstill as the moral dilemma of forcing artificial beings who were essentially children to fight and die caused a rise of insubordinate behaviors within the ranks.

The accompanying articles are in need of a revamp.

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The Dragons

Dragons have been hunted to an apparent extinction as their former subjects overthrew the dragon-god ruling Adrakian Empire. Some have draconic bloodlines that become dominant, leading to various responses, but generally, those who are dragon-blooded find themselves fighting hard for a place in society.

The accompanying article is in need of a revamp.

International Conflicts

The Contested Lands

The Contested Lands are a prized region historically and the site of wars where borders of stronger political powers meet. The only thing unifying the Contested Lands people is their shared history as trophy lands held by others. Most recently, the Great War was the recent attempt by the surrounding powers to take the region.

The accompanying article is in need of a revamp.

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The Five Cities

In the Five Cities, the Warforged have kicked up a heated debate over the roles and needs of the City's employees in the face of the City's Head of Families.

The accompanying article is in need of a revamp.

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Goltheris

Goltheris is becoming like the decadent Adrakian Empire, as the fierce lust for wealth and power threatens to burn out the government and people.

The accompanying article is in need of a revamp.

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Theydim

The High King of Theydim has died, and the treaty unifying the region is nearing its final days as the six-year Civil War between the two main factions and two smaller factions carry on. If the end of the war goes by and no heir is crowned, then Theydim will dissolve into the independent Arlings.

The accompanying article is in need of a revamp.

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Tormyra

Tormyra has a semi-caste system of Mages, but as those few in power become set in their ways, new developments into magic threaten their grasp and deliver magic into the hands of the masses.

The accompanying article is in need of a revamp.

Supernatural and Large-Scale Conflicts

The Adrakian Empire

The Adrakian Empire's influence appears to be returning to the world.

The accompanying article is in need of a revamp.

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The Rifts and Ravines

The great Rifts carved into Soplas have been growing deeper, beyond the Dwarves' city depths. Should anyone be curious enough to look, they'd find the hollowed core looking smaller than they expected. Something almost magical seems to be fleeing the core while very little of the same material appears to be going back.

The accompanying articles are in need of a revamp.

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Deities

The deities are real - for the most part. In at least the history of Soplas, a trio of Dragons had been worshipped as deities while not being divine. There are conflicting creation mythologies, such as the origins of the world and where the peoples of Corive come from.

Mortals rarely become divine beings in most religions on Corive, and they are, they tend to rise to being akin to demi-gods. The exception on Soplas is the religion of the Orcs, where mortals have risen to the ranks of the gods and overthrew the less competent in favor of the current and more competent formerly mortal deities.

As a reader, I found that I disliked having to track six different names for the same deity (there is at least one official D&D setting where that's the case or days of the week, either way), so I went the other way.

— Lyraine Alei

Every culture has their own deities with their own names, and generally, the deities don't merge into a new god or a new interpretation. The stories and myths might, but not the deities themselves.

In places where the cultural borders are blended, the pantheons may mix, but the deities are still their own individuals. Nyche, the Blue Goddess from Tormyra, is not and has not been merged with the Negotiator of Theydim, despite both being strong female leaders of their pantheons who are more on the side of wisdom.

Pantheons Perceived to be Disbanned

Pantheons

The Afterlife

Different cultures have different views of the afterlife. Where one goes after death is determined by their culture and the individual's beliefs.

Soplas Afterlife Locations Here Eventually

Magic and Technology

Magic is a complex tool and one that has always been part of Corive. Magic and technology have advanced together; as memory passes and technology is lost, so does the memory of the magical advances from those ancients.

Corive is a reasonably high magical setting, meaning there are mundane everyday magics and flashy fantastical magics. Public perception of magic varies from region to region, culture to culture, but for the most part, the societies of Corive view magic as a tool and a weapon when turned against others.

The development of technology in Corive has been advanced and hindered when compared to modern-day Earth. 'Forged are a constructed intelligent species who are as capable of developing their own culture, debate and consider philosophy, making them a sophont species, but in general, look like someone took the styles of da Vici and applied them to the machines.

This melding of magic and technology is also adjusting the availability of flashier and more powerful magical abilities to everyday people.

The accompanying articles are in need of being expanded.

Dangers

Developed as a Dungeons and Dragons campaign setting initially, Corive is a world one could consider dangerous. However, Dungeons and Dragons seem to ignore in its base assumption, the dangers of the ordinary farmers in their daily lives.

Where there are people, the dangers are usually less or are more creative. Bandits may watch the roads the wolves avoid. But not every town is a bustling center of society, and towns struggling to maintain their industries die away as their children leave for work elsewhere or as those who live on the land are stranded by those who can relocate. Those towns tend to have more difficulties with maintaining a level of safety against the wilds.

However, the more heavily settled and active locations are not safe themselves - local politicians range from puppets to manipulators with their own goals, and people who hold on to power may not appreciate any rivals.

Adventuring is not an occupation of its own. Most adventurers are not referred to as adventurers and instead, mostly, as mercenaries. If they possess a title, adventurers are referred by their rank. There are local heroes, and there are people the townsfolk might consider as heroic when they were passing through the town.

I can go on in a rant, but it can be summarized as "A Player Character at level 1 is barely more than a commoner of the same background type, but a pack of wolves can kill a party of PCs. How in the world would an average herd owner deal with the same threat and turn out to be more successful often enough to maintain a living as a (basically Level 0) herder?"

You wouldn't hire a knight to go in and clear out a basement from a Giant Rat infestation. However, a knight could be talked into investigating some ruins where giant rats have suddenly started showing up.

— Lyraine Alei

Further Meta Reading

Placeholder names

I hate stressing over the specific names of places, things, and people, so I've started using placeholders that are usually descriptive more than an actual name. There are a few that I know have gained favor with some readers - EastLeader PersonBro for Siegmund Kerlbror as an example - and I've started incorporating the inevitability that I'll be stuck without a name for a noun, and I hope you enjoy my placeholders as much as I do.

To let y'all behind the scenes - most of the names I have for places are also placeholders, they're just second-level placeholders. Corive is a placeholder I've grown fond of - "COpyRIght Violations Everywhere" as a reference to how, at least at first, a lot of the things I had in my world were things from other settings I thought were cool and wanted to work on to make them my own. As far as I know, I've not violated actual copyrights, and the Corive name creation was a bit more tongue-in-cheek.

— Lyraine

WA Challenge Entries

Prompt Responses

WorldEmber 2018

WorldEmber 2019

WorldEmber 2020

WorldEmber 2021

WorldEmber 2022

SummerCamp 2019

SummerCamp 2020

SummerCamp 2021

SummerCamp 2022

The Planet Itself

The Name

"Corive" comes from the Adrakian word for "My treasure," and it is the world's name. The name used by the people of Soplas has carried over the Adrakian Empire's term though some people would prefer to forget its origins. Other parts of Corive have their own names for the planet and moons.
Lyraine's Translation

I don't want to conlang more than I have to, and I don't care for constantly swapping around names for the same thing, see the Deities Section of this article. I don't bother with renaming the days of the week or months for the same reason, and I will default to the Adrakian names for writing in multi-cultural contexts and use variables and the like for when I do have the "localizations". Once I name them.

Three Moons

The three orbiting moons over Corive have shifted the tides as moons tend to do, but have predictable patterns of rising and setting to the point where there is at least one calendar set to them.
As a result of the three moons, there are several types of tides - Triple High, Super High, High, "Balanced", Low, Super Low, Triple Low.

Type

Planet

Included Locations

Continent B
Soplas
Supercontinent A
The Far North
The Night Sky

Related Locations

Plane of Magic

The Plane of Dreams

A Hollow World

Corive, being a world larger than Earth, does not have a higher gravity despite the increased mass. Generally speaking, larger bodies in space also have stronger gravitational fields. Corive appears to contradict this understanding, confusing mathematicians and astronomers who have used shadows and the sun to estimate the size of the planet, and then compared to how the moons interact with Corive's tides.
Corive's Earth-like gravity results from a large proportion of the (roughly) 15945-kilometer radius (Earth's radius x2.5) is hollow space before reaching the core. This hollow space reduces the mass of the spherical space rock called Corive and reduces Corive's gravitational pull.

I'm not a physics person who wants to sit and do all that math to figure out exactly how much mass I need to pull out from the planet, but I promise it all makes sense. Ish.

— Lyraine Alei

The Planet Core

The core of the planet is the true Plane of Magic - the source of all souls and magic. The closer one gets to the center of the core, the more a person's soul is "wiped clean." The currents rise and fall, much like the molten metal cores of other planets, generating the heat from the energy of raw magic; routine Core-Flares provides the power perpetuating the continental drifts, their formation, and eventual sinking.

Sinking Continents

We have old continental plates and new ones pushing, drowning, and rising against each other on Earth. On Corive, this process also goes on, but there are subduction zones that act more like planetary sinkholes. A sufficiently large enough landmass may pass over such a zone and take time before it begins to sink or implode - usually resulting in a catastrophe, such as the Far North, where the North Pole is one of these "sinking zones" pulling the landmass into it. Most continental breaks are caused by these zones pulling the continental plates.
Neither pole of Corive has land - both are these sinking zones and appear as a whirlpool. However, the North Pole has been pulling in the Far North landmass after the land had finally succumbed to the vacuum's pull and began to collapse from a more central but fragile part of the continent as it was pulled over the pole.

Major Landmasses

Soplas is the primary setting subcontinent being worldbuilt.

Soplas Political Map

Open full size

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Continent A is the supercontinent landmass Soplas is currently attached to.

Someday, there will be a map here

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Small Continent B is somewhere, likely on the other side of Corive from A.

Someday, there will be a map here

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The Far North is a former landmass currently sinking and imploding into the NeedNameForThisWeirdWhirlpoolThing on the North Pole of Corive.

Someday, there will be a map here. Maybe. It is the Far North after all.

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Playable Sophonts

I personally summarize sophonce as species who have culture, intelligence, and the ability to communicate philosophical concepts. For an easier understanding of the term Sophont, I recommend reading the article to the right from Ethnis.

The article blocks below is the primary list of sophont species who are among the intended playable species in a TTRPG, though there are more sophonts who inhabit the world - Faerie folk, technically the undead come to mind though the latter are more an ethnicity and a condition combined than an actual species.

— Lyraine

From Ethnis, by Ademal and Barron

Further Reading

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The People and Places of Corive

Category Table of Contents

The Species of Corive

Category Table of Contents

Historical and Present Events

Category Table of Contents

Science, Magic, and Technology

Category Table of Contents