Gortana

5 Mandril 1325

A dark steampunk world, ruled by huge machines, magic and science, shattered by a long lasting war between mages. This massive and devastating war spread all over the world and caused immensely high death tolls, landmasses shattered and a dark black devastation spread. During this war, a group of mages got together and formed “The Conclave” to end reality once and for all. They wanted to create a new Existence where they would rule as gods. Only due to a brave but unknown group of adventurers the war and the final act to shatter reality was avoided. They vanished after the final battle and were never seen again. Because the devastation of the lands was already progressed to a point, where it couldn’t be undone, we have the island landscape that we see today. A few were lost in time and sunk to the ground of the oceans, others eroded and are too small to live on and a few are still corrupted by the dark magic conjured to end everything. Most of the world tough, slowly healed over time and is now again the green and fruitful land that it was before the war. To understand how this could even happen, you need to understand the nature of magic in this world. Magic in Gortana is the use of energy from a different plane of existence. During the war, only one method to conjure magic was known, the natural one. This method causes a slight tear in the fabric of reality connecting the two plains, enabling the mage to suck out the energy needed to use a spell. This ripping is very violent and those holes can never be closed completely. In itself that would not cause a problem, but as “The Conclave” wanted to raise themselves to gods, they infused very dark magic into these openings. This additional energy rippled through everything, tearing it apart. The true nature of the Ritual is still unknown, even with today's advancements in science. After the defeat of “The Conclave”, ingenious Glandos, with the help of some Dwarfs, constructed suits, machines and trinkets to enable a safe harness of magic energy. They open a portal, which, when closed, leaves no trace behind. The inhabitants of Gortana are still, even hundreds of years later, hateful against any true mages. Though there still exist a few, even Elves understand the importance of not using their natural ability. They use strange devices, gift’s from the dwarfs, to open portals and conjure their magic through that. Nowadays people live their lives peaceful and mostly in harmony, as the war thought them, only together there is a future in this world. Remnants of the bad times are still seen in The Syndicate dispersed over the islands dealing in activities from blackmail to murder. The farer away you get from population centers, the worse it gets. But not only bandits are a problem in this world, nature is very wild and full of animals and monsters who bleed through realities that you cannot fathom. There are three big and a few small kingdoms in this world. Some islands are even governed by city states or ruled by dictators but most of the world is unknown and people tend to not travel more than to the big cities. Due to this seclusion of certain populations, this also means that there are wide ranges of scientific and magical advancements that may be unknown in another part of the world.