Torches in the Dark

The world is unknown. Ohr and most of its lands are unexplored. Vast jungles, foreboding mountains, glaciers, dark forests, and horrific dangers deter all but the hardiest and most determined adventurers. Because of these reasons, the vast majority of the people of Ohr aren't aware of what is more than a few days travel from their homes. The lands hide too many secrets to count: Abandoned cities and ruins, strongholds of inhuman power, foul temples filled with cultists, degenerate and cannibalistic tribes, and hidden worlds ruled by alien monstrosities. Any of these dangers might be waiting for the unprepared and unsuspecting adventurer in just a few days travel. Most of these places are unique and unrecorded - cities belonging to peoples that no one else knows about, ruins whose builders are lost to history, terrors that exist nowhere else in the world. The only event that all the people's of Ohr have shared has been the Dread, when Aith'na disappeared, and darkness ruled for hundreds of years and unleashed eldritch terrors upon the world. Even then, most civilizations are totally unaware of the effects of this event on other cultures and their neighboring countries.   Lost to darkness. Humanity by all accounts is one of the youngest races to inherent Ohr and because of that civilization is not well established. Even some peoples of the Andminas Empire wandered their mountainous lands as nomadic tribesman as few as three thousand years ago. Many people still live in tribal societies or in small pockets of civilization outside the walls of the grand cities. The wilds are dangerous, but civilization is little better. The cities of Ohr are dens of greed, crime, and callousness. The peoples behind the city walls entertain themselves with bloody arena fights, and practices such as robbery, slavery, and assassinations. All of which are commonplace. Engineering, knowledge, and technology are likewise not very advanced. Firearms and black powder were in their infancy when those things still meant something. Writing is known only to sages, scribes, and those few people wealthy enough to afford an education. Arms and armor are usually made of copper or bronze, with iron being rare, and steel being all but unheard of except for in Andminas. This was all before the Dread, the great cities of Ohr systematically fell to chaos and ruin as the Elder Spawn breached their walls, slaying millions. Now the cities serve as a reminder to all who visit them - humanity's short-lived reign over Ohr is soon to end.