Gondwana

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Overview

This continent is the place where the first gods originally created all of this plane. Primal magic flows through every being and avery stone on this continent, being forgotten for ages uncounted, it is has become uncontrolled and dangerous. Civilizations used to live here, all of them extinct now. Their only remnants being the ruins they left behind.

History

Creation

Magic is a force of nature, it has always existed and always will. If left alone for long enough, it will eventually pool into one place, coalesce and form a thinking mind. Thus the first gods were born.
They decided to create a world, but quickly grew bored with it. The place of this creation is the continent. The material and all other planes were created by the gods and eventually left to their own devices. Knowing that they could not be the only ones to awaken in such a manner, they decided to leave and search for the others. Leaving The Silence of Winter in their place as the stuart of their creation.

Early History

The Silence of Winter took good care of the world. Cultivating plant and animals. Eventually evolution took its course, enhanced by the ambient magic. Sapient creatures arose and formed societies, which rose and fell again for countles times. The Silence of Winter followed its orders and kept the balance, granting vast magic powers to mortals, raising them to the status of lesser deities, without questioning their motives. Gods began to ascend and descend just as quickly, compared to the time spans The Silence of Winter was used to.

The Darkness

After millenia of development, something unexpected happened. From a place unknown a creature appeared. Filled with Malice, a harbinger of death and destruction. The Darkness came into this universe, trying to devour all magic. It quickly learned, that this world was protected and would not be an easy meal. This was the first of many clashes between The Silence of Winter and the Darkness. Since raw power wouldn't help it decided to go with a much more subtle approach. It settled down and began subtly influencing the people. Manipulating them into war and destruction. Sowing discord and hate. Magic that is not bound in the bodies of people is much easier to consume anyway. Although, it was not as easy as that. Shortly before the end, the people realised what was happening and banded together, building their last strongholds in the deep south fighting back against everything the Darkness was throwing against them. A losing battle for sure, they were doomed from the beginning, but they managed to hold out long enough for one last act of resistance. Unknown to the Silence of Winter, the Darkness is its predecessor, a failed version of itself filled with the hatred and malice that is left when everything else is burned away.

The War and the Escape

The civilizations on the continent had reached heights modern scholars can only dream of. Such their ways of destruction were even greater, The Silence of Winter realized too late what was happening. It did its best to counteract and managed to send a small expedition force, with advanced ships and tools. The Darkness did not manage to stop the expedition but set a seed of destruction there as well. It only made it enough way to send a couple people to the mainland. The rest were destroyed, among them Adgella Blackwater & Old Deathsail. The remnants however, managed to build new towns and cities. Their old fleet eventually becoming what is now known as The Shifting Isles. During this time The Darkness & The Silence of Winter were locked into a battle of wits and strength, both falling into a long slumber afterwards.

Current Status

Life on the Continent

No sentient live remains. Only plants and animals, all of them having been changed by millenia of exposure to primal magic. Animals more intelligent, equipped with magic abilities and mutations making them so much more dangerous than anything the people on the mainland may know of.

The plants are growing taller and faster than everywhere else. Developing poisons and toxins as defense mechanics, some may even exhibit some animal-like sapience.
Remnants of old spells permeate the ruins, old guardians and summoned demons are still trying to fulfill their missions. Driven mad by the isolation, bargaining with them will be exceptionally hard.

Geography

An entire continent spans many different geografic and ecological areas. Tall mountain ranges turn into rolling hills which may give way to plains, cozy beaches line the coastline in one place and jagged cliffs in others. While the entire continent is on average warmer than the mainland, tundra and frozen over lands are not unseen. Gondwana sits further south than the mainland and only grows truly cold in the points furthest down on the map, reaching into arctic circles. Thus the entire continent can be divided into three very rough climate zones. As is often the case in nature, the zones slowly diffuse into each other without a clear border between them.

The Temperate Zone

In the North of Gondwana the temperate zone is situated. It is dominated by mixed forests whith tress that stand tall and close, vast grasslands and plains as well as a small mountain range The Last Stand cutting it in half, creating two very distinct eco systems.

Nature in the Temperate Zone

Vast herds of grazing animals like Aurochs roam the plain, trampling and eating everything that could become a forest, keeping the plains as plains on one side, the other side of the The Last Stand is dominated by much weirder creatures. Grazing yes, but not a herd. Single minds with many bodies populate these plains, roaming and stying out of each other's ways - if they didn't they might lose themselves in anothers mind and be swallowed by them. On one side the plains are stalked by howling direwolves, the other is completely silent, why would you need to communicate when all the members of the pack share a single mind? They might be physically weaker, but will attack you with deadly psionic force if you dare to provoke them.
In other places small and agile lizards jump from tree to tree, to track and hunt any large animal that accidentally comes to close to any given forest. Their loud trills barely audible to the untrained ear become a true cacophony to any keen eared explorers that come unprepared.

Ruins in the Temperate Zone

General Structure

The Ancients were smart enough to stay out of the forests and decided to build their dwellings and cities on the open plains, utilising their closeness to the forests without venturing into them too deep. Cities and larger gatherings of buildings are build in a mound style. Giant squares with rounded edges built with terraces, created by piling up soil. Dwellings can be constructed on and around them. Basements and cellars are dug into them. Remnants of pallisades and walls can be found.

Current Appearance

Cities with large amount of damage will be hard to find, as they are often mistaken for another hill in the plains. Not so heavily damaged cities often still show remnants of buildings and can be found much easier. Explorers are to be cautioned though, many structures have become unstable, the basements and cellars are giving way and tend to collapse quite easily.

Landmarks in the Temperate Zone

The Last Stand

Grasslands of Gondwana

Dead Culture of the Temperate Zone

The peoples of the temperate zone lived in relative unity. A cultural cohesiveness with shared traditions, variations within being a given, existed. Many larger cities formed and tended to control smaller cities in their reach, a generally fair approach. The larger ones providing protection, ressources and knowledge in exhcange for certain products or services only found there. Many guilds made the smaller cities their home and developed alongside them, turning them into the larger protectors in the everlasting flow of time. It was not uncommon to see a smaller city being traded off in some agreement, things mainly changed on paper, without much impact on the common folk.

The Tropical Zone

Situated in the middle, the generally warmest part is a giant jungle.

Shaped and formed by daily torrents of rain and heat. The trees grow unnaturally tall and predators stalk the foliage.

At the eastern coast a tall mountain range lifts itself up, the ocean's waves hitting the mountains directly, carving deep underwater caverns into them.

Nature in the Tropical Zone

The first thing you will notice is the rain. Like clockwork, every day all hell breaks loose at precisely the same time. Animals seek shelter everywhere except their burrows, plants close their vibrant flowers to not be destroyed by the torrents streaming down from above and a few specialised predators stalk around looking for careless prey. The rain feels hot to the touch and in extreme cases will burn those that are remaining for too long.
The local predators rely on stealth and deception. They may conjure up illusions to distract their prey, use evocation to make you think that they are approaching from a different direction, they will visually meld into the jungle making them exceptionally hard to spot. Hunting in packs as a strategy is only employed by a few small lizard like creatures equiped with deadly venom and an intelligence bordering on sentience.

Ruins in the Tropical Zone

General Structure

Large and meticously planned stepped pyramids dominate the cities. Social centers are placed in the middle, containing enough room for many merchants and visitors to barter and sell, arranged in a star formation around those are the specialised buildings formerly belonging to the different guilds. Around the large guild centers the personal dwellings are constructed, these take on a squarer shape with many buildings being layered on top of each other, wealthier buildings being closer to the general center of the cities.
All buildings contain large frescos, mosaics and wall carvings in bright colours, little of these have faded as of yet. They always depict scenes appropriate for the corresponding building, anvils and large production lines for the smiths, murals depicting crowds and games for the common social areas etc.

Current Appearance

Many walls have fallen down and the jungle has grown over many of the buildings, vines and moss cover large amounts of any given city. Uncovering them fully will be hard, navigating them even harder. Most of the buildings still stand, not having collapsed. Rarely can underground structures be found, if they are, they are built into pre-existing caves and often serve to access fresh water resources.
Remnants of fights long past still remain. Holes in walls and summoned creatures still roaming the ruins are the most common signs of this. Many of these creatures have been driven mad by millenia of isolation. Bargaining with them is possible but hard. Their motives may no longer make sense to any mortal and seem completely insane.

Dead Culture of the Tropical Zone

Militaristic city states formed, warring often for the limited amount of space that was able to be settled. This often produced strong warrior cultures focused on aggressive approaches, susceptible to infighting when different generals had varying opinions on how to procede and who to ally themselves with. While far from being ethno states, many cities tended to have their populace be a majority of one race and remaining races being present, but often suspected spies or revered experts, depending on who was currently in charge.

The Arctic Zone

Deep in the south where the winds grow cold and the days grow shorter there are the arctic circles. Vegetation does not grow as tall, but is sturdy and ready to brave all the things that may come. The ocean regularly floods the lower parts and covers all in icy salt water.

Nature in the Arctic Zone

Snow and Ice dominate these lowest parts of the continent. Forests are very rarely found, single trees are much more common, using giant networks of rootsto survive. It is not uncommon to see a tree uproot itself and migrating to another location to claim the resources there. The icy saltwater flooding these regions is the main source of nutrients, after a flooding large amounts of animals can be observed leaving their "burrows" to drink and feed. Spires of stacked stones, about waist high serve as a non floodable burrow for smaller vermin-like creatures. Their predators have developed long claws and tongues to root them out, when they are not sleeping on elevated stone slabs.
Grass and moss cover the ground, relying on regular saltwater floodings to survive. Few flowers grow and rarely display bright colours, prefering muted and hard to see buds.

Ruins in the Arctic Zone

General Structure

Few ruins exist in the arctic circle. Those that do are heavily damaged and often beyond repair. The ruins exhibit no signs of the artistic or architectural talents those in the other places utilize. They are built to serve a function and are completely utilitarian. Build from black obsidian like stone, they are carved with arcane runes supposed to provide protections against any that dare intrude without the proper clearance. Traps are most common here.. Glowing magic courses through the outside walls and lights them up in an icy blue colour, the only contrast against the dark walls. When entering them, they are built with straight lines and corners of always 90°. Large training facilities and barracks dominate the structure, nothing is outside the walls, no individual buildings are constructed.
Each fortress contains a war room with a large central table with a copy of the sorrounding area in a miniature version. Each sentient or magically affected being in the area is represented by a tiny piece of light.

Current Appearance

Many of the ruins are almost completely destroyed. This does not make them less dangerous, on the contrary. Ancient traps have been building up energy for many millenia and are ready to explode and kill anyone that comes close without the proper authorization. Many traps might just malfunction and not work at all, or work in completely unexpected ways. Tread carefully or end your life here.

Dead Cultures of the Arctic Zone

Few cities were ever built, the people content with their lifestyle as nomads. Following large herds of prey, they moved around and kept only few heavily fortified settlements for the oldest and the youngest. It was not uncommon to see that parents would leave a newborn with the elders in such a site, only meeting their child when they returned the next season. This was seen as an opportunity to learn and to pass on ancient tradtitions. This changed little with the advance of magical and technological discoveries. When the other races retreated into the south and finally agreed to band together for survival, it was these sparse settlements that got upgraded and fortified further, often changed beyond recognition under the onslaught of neccessary change.

Type

Continent

Contested By

• Council of The Open Sea
• Royal Court

Related Historical Events

• 25 BCE
  Discovery of The Continent

Ruins in the Tropic Zone

Ruins in the Temperate Zone

Ruins in the Arctic Zone