Corunda

The Old World developed over thousands of years as men, elves, halflings, and dwarves forged nations and waged wars. Empires rose and fell, and the races comingled to the point that individuals identified by their nation of origin moreso than their species. Around 1,500 years after a holy man named Ohn evaded execution by ascending to the Divine Realms, two nations dominated the economic, political, and arcane spheres of the continent of Revula: the Unified Kingdom of Estril, a recently-united conglomerate of several smaller nations, and the Republic of Astair, an ancient and extremely wealthy land built on an extensive and complicated system of slavery.   These two nations were the first to sail across the sea to the west and discover the continent of Corunda. Seeking an untapped wilderness full of resources to exploit, both nations raced to colonize this new land. To their shock, however, they discovered Corunda was populated by dozens of heretofore unknown races. Powerful hobgoblin city-states ruled over the vast plains at the continent's heart, while sinister serpentfolk ruled the barren deserts and the tunnels beneath them. Ogres roamed the land, ravaging and pillaging, while giants brutally punished any incursions on their sacred territories.   Not all of these new races proved hostile, however. Estrilian colonists first encountered the gnomes, cheerful forest-dwellers of immense curiosity. Astairians met the cat-like Ocelotl and goat-like Kawra, natives of Corunda's southern reaches. And both encountered the dragonfolk, a race of proud, reptillian humanoids descended from and tasked with guarding the True Dragons who, according to their legends, forged the entire world.   By 1578 AO, Estril had established six successful colonies in northern Corunda, while Astair had extensively colonized the islands off of Corunda's coast but managed only a single permanent settlement on the continent itself. And then, without any warning or prelude, the Old World vanished.   It is now 1585 AO. Researchers and explorers have spent the intervening years trying to reestablish contact with the Old World and to determine what happened to it. Arcane and divine practitioners call upon every resource and contact at their disposal, to no avail. The colonies are well and truly on their own, small outposts of vanished civilizations clinging to the edge of a vast and hostile new world.