Introduction to Yeia

Hi everyone and welcome to Yeia!!. This article is kind of a guide to my world in which i'll explain to you the basic meta of my world in order to help you understand Yeia a bit more. Many things are not still done yet, but i think i can give you a glimpse of the main features of my world.

The Setting:

Yeia is a world set in a mixture of the Ancient World and the Middle Ages. more specifically the era i choose for the Ancient world was the Hellenistic Age, that was my main source of inspiration. Technologically speaking you'll find pretty much the same as the civilizations of those days had, with magic also playing an special role, i'll explain that a bit late, and other tiny exceptions. Like some early stages of steam engines (yeah the ancient greeks had invented them and used it to make statues move, isn't that amazing?) or gunpowder. The present era of this world is the year 820 AP (after the Prophet), 300 years after the fall of the great Ikarian Empire. During this time nations have fought to became the next great power or to reclaim the legacy of the former empire.

The Geography:

I'm working on the map, and its almost done, and i'll upload it once finished. But i can give you the main idea. Its not all the world map, its only the known world according to the peoples that live there. There are two main continents, Teria and Karia. Teria being the continent to the west and Karia the continent to the East. Both are separated by a Middle sea but there points where the two continents are very close, for example the Suris Straight so, everyone can sail and cross from one continent to the other. The climate on the south and centre of these continents is warm (with some deserts further in land in some cases) like western europe or the mediterranean while the northern regions are similar to Scandinavia or Russia, they are cold, with a lot of snow and fiords.

The peoples:

The main races or species in Yeia are the Humans and the Elves. Both are should i say... subspecies and because of that they can have mixed offspring. Thats why we have the third most important specie, the half-elves. Elves believe they are the most beloved by the gods, because they are fair, humble and, aside from the dark elves, not evil. And thus they believe the gods granted them the power of magic, or at least, the use of the most powerfull forms of magic, capable of such things as transforming nature (make tress grow again after cutting them in order to preserve nature), casting the most powerfull spells, invoke powerfull mythical creatures, or in some cases, bring people back from the dead. There are many races of elves: High elves, green or forest elves, sun elves (than live in more arid and desertic places), dark elves, moon elves and Snow elves (that live in very cold places, like the mountain ranges that separated the Kallian Plains, to the rest of the territory of Teria.

In the case of the humans, they are more "simple" as not many of them can use magic, and so they rely on their intelligence and adaptability in order to survive. They are more materialistic and they don't respect nature as much as the elves, or so they believe. Humans are the most widely spread specie in Yeia populating big parts of both continents and have formed the most powerfull realms.

At last but not least, are the half elves. As i explained humans and elves can have offspring together. These half elves combined the best of the two worlds. The empathy of the humans, their adaptability, the magical capabilities of the elves, their intelligence and their understanding of how the world works. They are a rare thing specially in the northern regions of both continents, but, most of them had even formed kingdoms and are the majority of the populations on those kingdoms. Be careful, because its not very easy to fool a half elf, in case you want to try it!, and probably you would be the one that would be fooled at the end.

The countries (and the inspiration behind them):

There are many realms in Yeia, but these are certainly the most powerfull and important:

The Ikarian Empire: Long gone Empire, and one of Yeia's ancient superpowers. Which had its core in the eastern regions of Teria. Well, the inspiration behind it, its of course The Roman Empire with its legions, senate and impressing architecture and intrigues... . For a millenia the Ikarians were the absolute masters of Teria, no one dare to defy them, until the Empire show symtomps of decadence and corruption, and at the end, incompetent emperors and invasions from the north destroyed or better said fragmented the Empire into multiple petty kingdoms rule either by members of the imperial family or ancient ikarian military commanders.

The Blatian Empire: One of the main countries of Yeia, and successor of the Ikarian Empire. Think on the Blatians as kind of Byzantines and also the Romanized populations of Western Europe after the fall of the Western Roman Empire (gallo-romans, hispano-romans, italo-romans, african romans etc...). Its capital is the city of Blati, a mixture between Rome, Constantinople and hellenistic Alexandria. Its main goal, as the early byzantines was to restore the glory of the Empire and reconquering the lost territories. The Blatians, have retained much of the organization of the Ikarian Empire, like the Senate and the legions and the provincial governors (which suffered a reorganization) and the empire's culture and language, as Ikarian is still the official language but the common people speak Blatian, a language derived from Ikarian (like the Romance languages from Latin).

by Avant Choy

View of the city of Blati with the gigantic statues of the deified Emperors. art by Avant Choi.

The Seris Empire: The other great superpower of Yeia, older even than the Ikarian Empire. The Seris empire manage to survive and outlive the Ikarian Empire, even experiencing a second golden age. The Seris and their empire are a mixture of the Tocharian peoples (indoeuropeans who lived in the westernmost regions of modern China), Persia, Ancient China and Japan. Perhaps its a weird mixture but i really like it and hope you like it too!.

The Oronai: Well, the Oronai or Oronians had formed many kingdoms, so i'd only name them. The inspiration i took for creating the Oronai was Ancient Greece and most especifically the Macedonians. In this world this sort of greeks (althought they don't speak greek, i didn't want them to be just like transplanted greeks to another world) are closely related to the Ikarians and their Blatian successors. They began as a confederation of tribes who lived in hillforts in a mountanious region known as Oronia (the name Oronai could be translated as mountain people or highlanders).

Due to their contacts with the Ikarian Empire they transformed into a urban society, although agriculture still plays an important role in their economy. Then the Oronai expanded to the East and the South, once they became free of being a vassal of the Ikarian Empire, and created a large empire that in the end, fragmented into multiple kingdoms. For example the Kingdom of Oronia remained a separated kingdom (its inspiration is Antigonid Macedon), Then we have the kingdom of Sylvania (kind of Epirus or Pergamon), the Kingdom of Steplia ( inspired by the Seleucid Empire and Ptolemaic Egypt) and the Elvish-Oronai kingdoms of Brire and Stormitia. Yeah, you heard well, Elvish-Oronai so, we have greek half elves!!. These last two kingdoms are inspired by the Greco Bactrian Kingdom that once existed in todays Afganistan and Tajikistan and the Indo Greeks who ruled parts of Pakistan and India.

by Peter Connolly

The Oronai phalanx, one of the most fearsome units in Yeia, art by Peter Connolly

Kingdom of the Crorai: The Crorai had been the arch nemesis of the Ikarians and then the Blatians. There are barbarians, heretics and traitors at the eyes of the Blatians, because first they were friends of the Empire for many centuries but after the 4th century AP they decided to follow the cult of the Goddess of Destruction and Dark Magic, Galanda, and sided with the barbarians and the nomads to attack the now decaying Ikarian Empire , sacking their cities, killing and raping innocent people. For the civilized peoples across Teria the world Crorai is a synonim of pure evil, sons of the underworld, created not by the all loving father of the gods but by demons.

Kingdom of the Green Elves: Also known as Kingdom of Pentwom or Kingdom of The Five Tribes. By far the most powerful elven realm in Yeia. Once their kings were vassals of the Ikarian Empire who also conquered much of the coastline of the country. The realm of the Elves is very old, it existed with a different name and form long before the davidovian peoples (the ancestors of Ikarians, Oronai, Seris, Crorai, the now dissapeared Kallians) began their migration process. Free after the fall of the Ikarian Empire, the elven kings and their people had experience a long period of peace, trading with their neighbouring realms. But don't be fooled by their pacific nature, the elves are great warriors and will defend their realm to the death!.
Kingdom of the Dark Elves: What the Crorai are to the humans, the Dark elves are to the rest of the elves. They are the example of pure evil, of heresy in terms of magic, because they have used for evil purposes like attacking the Seris Empire and specially the Kingdom of the Sun Elves. Its wizards are able to invoke huge armies of the most despicable races like goblins, orchs and evil tieflings .They don't desire anything more that world domination and the destruction or corruption of the rest of their elven relatives, in order to them to recognize that dark magic is the true way of magic.

Other realms:

- The Nords: Basically, vikings who main source of revenue is raiding their neighbours.

- Wesdaland: Norman England or any western european country in the XI-XIII centuries.

- Farai Nomads: neighbourgs to the Seris Empire and one of their main source of problems if you like for most part of their history.

Magic in Yeia:

If i could define Yeia, i'd say that is a low fantasy world. Magic is not used a lot, although as i said the elves can use it without problem , but it is used more to healing people or fight monsters. It can also be used in war for example for invoking a magical creature like a Phoenix, a Chiimera, make trees come to live and fight alongside you in battle... or launching fire balls upon your enemies.

Many sects believe that magic should only be used for good, for healing wounded people or cure deseases instead of using it for war or other kind of evil purposes. Magic and magic texts can also be learn in magical academies through the world that have been built by sages that believe that magic and specially magic for good should be learn by everyone that have the will to make the world a better place.