Helion
A Brief History of Helion:
Once upon a time, there were Dragons. Not the flightless, feral dragonettes that live in the wild places now, but the Old Dragons, vast creatures that ruled the world they called Coyne -- what you know as Helion, the World of Light. They created all the mortal races -- as servants, slaves, or companions? Well, the stories vary.
In any case, the Old Dragons eventually fell. Perhaps they destroyed themselves. Perhaps they were destroyed by outside forces. Theories range wildly. The mortalkind they sired, though, thrived.
There was a long period of Dark Ages, when the mortals thrashed about, finding their footing in a world free of god-like overlords. But when the dust settled, civilizations had arisen, and a world was waiting to be discovered: the world of Helion.
Geography:
Helion is divided into five primary zones: To the Outward is the Rim, a range of high, sharp-peaked mountains where physics seem to bend. The further Outward one goes, the higher and deeper into the Rim Mountains, the more gravity pulls and presses, until each step feels like the weight of all of Helion is upon one’s shoulders. Few venture to the Rim Mountains for that reason, but the effect doesn’t begin until well into the range. Upon its Inward side, the jungles are thick, filled with ancient ruins and strange folk, ripe with treasure and adventure.
Further inward are the Midlands -- temperate plains, forests, and older mountains where most of mortalkind tries to build a future for their races. This is where can be found Everian, encompassing the Zenith Plains, where the Anhk Riders war with the Horse Peoples, and where Cloudborne hovers high above the trees and grass, home to clerics, paladins, and angels.
For, as it turns out, the bones of the long-dead Old Dragons can still fly, or, rather, levitate. Bones mined from ancient mires on the border between the jungles and the Midlands are carved into citadels and cities, and used to lift ships high into the air.
Further Inward from the Midlands is the vast desert called Endless Time, studded with welcoming oases, and whose sands cover unfathomably old Old Dragon ruins.
Between the desert and the Boiling Sea coastland are the cold and rugged Highlands. Home to fierce tribes and races, the Highlands shape the strong into the fierce, and kill the weak. Beyond these is the Boiling Sea itself, so named not because of its heat, though it does steam, despite the chill, but rather because of its nature: always churning, always killing sailing ships, and providing nearly insurmountable obstacles of weather and logistics to even flying vessels.
But, it is said, beyond the Boiling Sea are the high, young peaks of the Ice Mountains, through which are few and dangerous passages.
Beyond those? Well, some speak of a place called the Hole in the World, where the Siblings, Solace and Shimmer, the two remaining Gods of the world, rest when they are not plying the skies in day or night, as might be their wont.
The Five Cities:
Civilization in Helion is encompassed in five cities (some say six, if you include the dwarvish enterprise of Delve): Parabalus, the Walking City; Vangelica Falls, City of a Thousand Deaths; Cloudborne, City of Mist and Storm and City of Angels; Kember, City of Wishes; and Harrow, City of the Dead, City of Graves, and City of the Fallen.
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