Enthion

      Enthion is a non-standard world of high fantasy with some sci-fi elements and many anthropomorphic species in addition to some fantasy staples; the world has been designed for use in table-top role-playing games. It is presented here as system-neutral lore. Notably, however, if D&D 5e is utilized, the optional Custom Lineage rules from Tasha's Cauldron of Everything make it easy to play characters of any species without much fuss.

  Elves are a major player on Enthion's world stage as the “bru'eth.” That said, The Q'tari increasingly beg to be seen, and they change the world's flavor as much as the four primary elf species of Enthion. The q'tari are rodent people, and there are also four primary species of q'tari in the world. The world also features humans, who are allied with one of the elf species, and an interesting alliance of dwarves, gnomes, and dark elves, with particular emphasis on the alliance of dwarves and dark elves. Having fought off a mutual threat to their underworld homes together some centuries ago, dark elves and dwarves are very friendly and move freely between their darkened nations. (Those who like their elves to be cruel and ruthless might look instead to the swamp elves, a brutal people who bond with giant spiders.) Another major player up on the surface is the certilian species, a lizard species from the south with a religiously devout culture. The unbound, also called the valen, are a humanoid people said to be remnants of The Dreaming, a mythical, cosmogenic period when the physical parameters of the world were not set. Their looks vary widely, though most look human or elven with bright tints of color to their skin in many hues; some may also have horns and tails, but not all. There are also the cougari, a catfolk species, and the shamblers, a species reminiscent of nomadic wookies. Without counting any of the sub-species, that gives a minimum of nine primary species: elf, q'tari, human, dwarf, gnome, certilian, valen, cougari, and shambler. Sub-species, such as dark elf among the bru'eth, valkyries among the humans, or the griseri among the q'tari, expand the choices quite a bit further. Naga also play a notable role and could be used as a playable species. Species found in other lore and other systems are not present, however, unless a storyteller adds them. It is recommended that if this is to be done, that it is done with care, as politics and alliances play a major role in the complex societal web of Enthion.  

The world of Enthion is going through massive changes. The swamp elves, almost all of whom comprise the faction known as the Spider-kin of Dusken, have changed the power dynamic considerably. Alliances are in flux based on a desire to avoid being annexed to the swamp elf empire, a desire to join them, or in response to other recent changes, as with the arrival of a lavender-hued elf species less than two centuries prior--the crystal elves. Human influence is becoming more aggressive and widespread, particularly in the north, and certilians are showing up from the south in ever-increasing numbers. Skirmishes with certilians on southern borders bring new threats there, as well.  

The Mistlands consists of lands that span the northern continent of Nimua, or Maka-Tir-Zhon, depending which ancient language you favor. (Nimua is proto-q'tari and Maka-Tir-Zhon is proto-bru'eth.) Power is concentrated in the north and revolves around the Northern Kingdoms, a massive section of the continent that spans from temperate mountains and foothills in the northwest to vast, open plains in the southeast. In the far north, there are dozens of snowy islands. The three populations that dominate the region are the kingdoms of the elves, the certilians, and the humans, respectively, though the certilians are at the far southern edge of the continent and dominate the desert, largely considered to be part of the southern continent, though both are part of one large landmass.  

Elves (Bru'eth, the land's life) have three factions, each largely comprised of a separate elf species. They are the mountain elves of the Blue Lotus clan based in Taerythia, the swamp elves known as The Spider-Kin of Dusken, and the more recent arrivals, the crystal elves of Port Machina about whom little is known. Certilians, the reptile people sometimes called dragon-kin or, derogatorily, lizard-kin, control a large area of the southern Andular mountains and foothills in addition to parts of the Glasswood and the grasslands east of it, not to mention their many desert settlements further to the south. Unlike the elves, their kingdom is unbroken, but their caste system relegates them to various positions at birth based on lineage. Humans are vast and varied, though most can be found living in one of three ways -- among the scattered island kingdoms, as part of the more unified Peregrine Union on the largest northern island in and around the griffon-protected city of Iris, and as part of the Freeholds of Callum, including the influential librarians—mages and lore keepers—of Moonfield Hold. The Hold is a freehold, one of many in a collective kingdom that survives due to its diversity, though that also causes some conflict in the southeast. The freeholds face conflict from the blood orcs and occasionally from the insectoid scorpion people with humanoid torsos, the urzen, in the far south. In the southwest, the rodentian races, the q'tari, hold sway near the massive trees of Lumaka's Garden. Other races of note are the dwarves and the dark elves, old allies of the Temelo Tir Zhon, the underworld they have shared for centuries, dwarves at or close to the surface and the dark elves in the vast subterranean reaches below. Gnomes are also present, and although scattered, are a bit like dandelion seeds set to the wind, showing up in small numbers almost everywhere and generally happy in any climate, though they don't particularly like the jungle. The naga control mountains and wetlands in the southwest, and they boast both surface and sub-surface species.  

The world is ancient, and stories of the old world are fantastic and bizarre, even in a land of magic. Far to the west of Nimua lies Maro Bitu, the tortured continent, a remnant of the old world. It is believed to be the home of tribal creatures, unknown horrors, and the undead. To the east of Nimua, vast ocean. South, vast deserts and impenetrable jungles that are the home of the green death, a virulent plague the urzen are immune to.