Paracelsus

Paracelsus, a fantasy world of separate lands, never knowing of each other's existence. Each self sustaining in their own unique ways with revered tradition and history.   Until Fragmenterra at least.   An unknown force with the ability to shape a planet violently shifted the old world creating an ever scarred globe. The largest mountain range on the planet that separated all of the lands with impassable terrain shattered and sunk down into the depths. The surrounding ocean filled this crater over the following weeks. This exposed each land to the others which opened up a horrifying reality. No kingdom or nation was alone in this world. Newly separated now only by tenuous and uncertain borders, each land united its smaller communities and cities under one national banner making each land a united frontier to the others. Petty squabbles, fueds and differences were quickly dropped between communities who saw the portent of national threats on the horizon. Borders became vastly fewer in number and much larger in size as lands prepared to defend against any adversaries. As the bare couple of weeks of diplomacy began, it was when the nations realized that the world had not finished its assault that the lands banded together against an even larger threat for the survival of mortals on the planet.   The pouring forth of elemental hulks and wisps, erupting from caverns and coalescing from the air. Gnomus, undine, sylph, salament, necrine and tecton all warped and broke terrain in their assault. Every land's feeble political borders shattered as the new threat called for a cooperation not known to the young world. All of Paracelsus' expanse screamed forth elementals that mirrored the land's nature from which they arose. Frozen expanses birthed roaring hoarfrost beasts and mountainous peaks were assaulted by creations manifested from the clouds.   Fifty years of fierce wartime and the thinning of a world's populace by more than half have left it broken and bleeding. As almost all possibility for mortal life's future seemed lost, a new weapon came to the table. Through adaptation and learning, the fusing of cultures and the harnessing of the powers they fought against, those skilled and willing for transfiguration, became the front line, heroes to the disadvantaged. Mortal champions of the elements became able to use the strengths of an element against the weaknesses of others. Just short of becoming hybrids themselves, these champions began to pave the way for a more peaceful if not uncertain era. While few remain, those in service under this banner were known as 'Ironwrought', embracing elemental power and nature.   The greatest of these are known in legend as 'Paracelsus's Paragons', six in all. Each was a savior to the land they defended and called home, slaying that land's supreme elemental strategos. These Paragons were believed to be the full embodiment of the element they hunted and conquored, not fighting against an element weak to them but instead their own. Like a larger stone crushes a smaller, it was to be done not with exploiting weakness but with raw overpowering alone in proof that the world was entitled to mortal reign. Donning the bindings of their fallen quarry as trophies in mockery and taunt, these elite Ironwrought became a light of hope and the tide turner of the war. Forever altered by their assimilation and dedication to the ways of the elements, they walk the knife's edge of mortality and ascension. Now legends, they bow to no man. None have been seen since the war and speculation of their status is of popular discourse.    The world has now been at peace for twelve years and with each land unskilled in how to operate as a nation in a world with other nations, the the political slimate lays a precarious foundation for the future. Most people are satisfied with being in a time of peace, the majority of Paracelsus's inhabitants being born into the fray have known nothing bar slaughter and looming dread until these recent years. There are other groups however, that see this juvenile globe as nothing but a weak trove to conquer.   However, you are a free person in this world. You can choose the path you desire. You may help to boon a power of your choosing or find yourself aspiring to be a global power of your own. All possibilities exist, from reaping soil or reaping souls.   You are the master of your destiny in this place.