Kingdoms of Kalamar - Adventures across Tellene

Tellene is a planet similar to Earth, but it has a warmer climate. Depicted on the enclosed map is a continent on the northern hemisphere of Tellene. The bottom of the map is roughly 20º latitude, while the top is about 54º latitude. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west and the prevailing winds blow from west to east. Tellene is populated by many different races of beings. The original humans were simple nomadic hunting and gathering clans who lived on the Svimohzish Isle, also referred to as “The Cradle of Civilization.” They lived on Svimohzia happily until some strange maladies began decimating the grazing herds of wild animals they hunted and destroying the vegetation they normally gathered. Starving and desperate, many of the braver clans met together and decided to try to find a new place to live. They began a long journey northeast on a five mile wide flattish piece of land. The journey was very long and difficult due to their physical weakness and the lack of available food along the way. These simple people finally reached the wetlands of the Alubelok Swamp where, to their delight, they found great quantities of wild rice, honey and flocks of waterfowl which were easily captured. They decided they liked this new land of plenty and began to hunt and gather again in their nomadic fashion.   Humans share Tellene with elves, dwarves, gnomes, halflings and many types of monsters including a wide variety of humanoids. Hobgoblins are the most prominent humanoid race. This is not to say that hobgoblins are the only humanoids; as there are orcs, kobolds, goblins, giants and other humanoid races who also exist on Tellene in large numbers. But the hobgoblin race has become far more civilized (by human standards) than the other humanoids. They have established a foothold amongst the advanced human and demi-human races by establishing the kingdoms of Ul-Karg and Norga-Krangrel. A warm climate and a normally good proliferation of food has allowed the population of Tellene to soar to over 26 million human inhabitants. The warm climate also allows for an extended campaign season. Wars are fought almost year-round, especially in the southern regions. Only two or three months of winter go without combat, and some northern cultures merely change their tactics when set upon by the cold and snows of winter.   The majority of the people on Tellene are polytheistic; that is, they believe in more than one god. A person may or may not worship multiple deities, but she will most certainly acknowledge their existence. Tellene is home to magic, both divine and sorcerous, and a large pantheon of gods who are constantly involved in the affairs of Tellene. Most unusual and seemingly inexplicable events are accepted as magic or the work of one of the gods.