The Four Subcontinents
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[edit] Niflheim
Niflheim is an icebound, arctic wilderness, which is home to thriving populations of Ice Giants and Winter Dragons. Flesh-scouring blizzards whip across the mountain plateaus of the interior, where the whiteness is broken by ice-blue glaciers and mysterious lakes, whose waters resemble quicksilver.
Islands of life
The fjords and coves Niflheim's southern coast are inhabited by the Northmen, a hardy race of pale-skinned, black-haired humans. The northmen are a seafaring people, who trade, fish and stage the occasional raid on more fertile lands to the south. Their architecture resembles that of the Mahirim, but it is simpler and shorn of most decorative features. Typically, the houses of Northman villages are huddled close under the protection of solid landward walls. The Northmen rely almost exclusively on ocean travel, and few roads connect their settlements, which are like islands under siege by sea and ice.
The warlord
Six years ago, an Ice Demon called Illgarm arrived in Niflheim. He has spent the last couple of years gathering monsters under his rule, and he recently coerced the leaders of several Northman communities into joining his cause. As a result of his spurring, Northman raids have grown frequent, and some of them have been co-ordinated (or at least simultaneous) with land-raids by rampaging monsters. Northman ships have been transporting giants, ice dwarves and other monsters across the sound separating Niflheim from the Icegard, and many monster camps have sprung up on the mainland's frozen northern shore.
Illgarm is building an enormous castle, which is to serve as his foremost seat of power. Though few have seen it, the castle is reputed to be of truly gargantuan size. It is being constructed by Ice Dwarves and Ice Giants on a large, permanently frozen lake in the heart of Niflheim.
[edit] The Jungles of Yssam
Agon's northeastern continent is a place of stifling heat, lush vegetation and heavy rains. Here, the jungle slowly reclaims the cities of a fallen culture, whose destroyer now slumbers within the walls of an emerald-clad citadel. Mindless of this, some of Agon's most terrible monsters prowl the forest depths in search of prey.
The lost kingdom
Jungle-drowned ruins bear witness to a lost age, in which Yssam was inhabited by a race of elves called the Ithwen. Unlike their present-day relatives, the Mirdain and the Ciel Fey, the Ithwen built houses of stone, and had no special reverence for nature. The ruins they left behind bear witness to an advanced civilization.
Compared to the Chaldean ruins of Agon's mainland, Yssam's ruins are recent. All the Ithwen cities were abandoned at the same time, approximately eighty years ago, and they all bear the marks of monstrous rampage. Towers have been torn down, houses are fire-scorched, and the claw-marks of a giant reptile are omnipresent.
Overgrown and moss-covered, the bones of countless dead elves still lie where they fell many decades ago. Some fell in combat, inside cities or on now-overgrown fields, while others were struck down while fleeing desperately. Many of the partially shattered skeletons are blackened by long-extinguished fire.
The ravagers
The Ithwen civilization was destroyed by Far-Loradain, who is the only Celestial Dragon known to be residing on Agon today. He is incredibly old, and as powerful as a minor god. His motives for leaving dream-sleep and attacking the Ithwen are unknown.
Far-Loradain is served by a mysterious clan of powerful warriors and spellcasters. They dwell in a citadel at the heart of the continent, within which the entrance to Far-Loradain's lair is hidden.
In the northeastern corner of Yssam, in the shadow of a large volcano, stands the giant fortress of Iyrtan the Destroyer, an Erodach who presumably at the behest of Azhi Dahaka - has established himself as the king of a loosely organised Fire Giant realm.
[edit] Rubaiyat
For thousands of years the Angra flowed across Rubaiyat. She nourished life with water, she carried ships on her broad back, and she ground down mountains to make farm-soil for her people.
To the Sharjad people, the Angra river was eternal and unchanging. Her daily gifts were as certain as the rising of the sun, and her flood-cycles were as divinely fore-ordained as the coming of spring after winter. But one day the inconceivable, the cosmologically impossible happened: Almost overnight, the Angra simply stopped flowing, and the farms, river-barges and cities of the Sharjad lay stranded along the sad, dried-out husk of their provider.
Meanwhile, a red, rune-covered pyramid rose slowly from the pit which once housed the Angra's heart-spring. As the ancient structure rose, its architect bid his long-buried followers rise from out of the desert sands, to conquer Rubaiyat once again.
The Return of the Pharaoh
During the Usurper Wars, a powerful deity established himself as god-king of Rubaiyat, calling himself Ur-Khamset, or the Red Pharaoh. He slew or imprisoned the local deities of the desert continent, subjugated its people, and then began shaping his subjects into a powerful army with which to contest the rulership of Agon and force access to the Halls of the Goddess.
Ultimately, the Red Pharaoh was defeated by an alliance of rival gods. But as he expired, the Red Pharaoh cast one final, terrible spell which drained all his human subjects of life and liquid, leaving only skeletons to be buried by the desert. Thus Ur-Khamset took his people with him into apparent oblivion, leaving his conquerors with nothing but bone-strewn ruins to rule.
Unbeknownst to all, Ur-Khamset had foreseen his demise and prepared for it by constructing the Red Pyramid at the bottom of Lake Angra. He imbued the pyramid with spells that would summon and preserve his own-life force at the moment of death, and then resurrect him when the stars were right for his return.
As the Red Pyramid rose from the lakebed, a thousand bony hands clawed their way out from under the accumulated sands of millennia. Gathering in Rubaiyat's trackless deserts, the Red Pharaoh's hordes swept down upon the cities of the hapless Sharjad, conquering them with ease. Already, the Red Pharaoh's winged snake standard flies from the battlements of most cities on Rubaiyat's mainland.
While most of the Pharaoh's marauding, sand-tinted skeletons were once human, a few clearly belonged to the strange giants known as the Avaris, who still roam the deserts of Rubaiyat. Though some skeletons' clothing and equipment has decayed into nothingness, most still wear the exotic, ancient garb which they wore in life, and wield sensuously curved, outlandishly decorated bronze weapons.
Ur-Khamset himself still dwells within the Red Pyramid, commanding his armies using necklaces called Sun Ankhs which are worn by his most powerful generals. Though nobody has accomplished this potentially suicidal feat yet, it has been theorized that an adventurer wearing a Sun Ankh would be able to enter the Red Pyramid.
The River's Orphans
Brushed aside by the Red Pharaoh's onslaught, the surviving Sharjad retreated to the Leenshards, a chain of verdant islands which lie north of the Rubaiyat mainland - and outside the Ur-Khamset's reach, at least for now. Visitors to the lands of the Red Pharaoh use the cities of the Leenshards as staging posts, where supplies may be bought and loot sold.
Desperate for outside help, the Sharjad offer richly rewarded quests to groups and individuals who are brave enough to take up arms against the Red Pharaoh. The short-term goal of the Sharjad is survival through the decimation of the Pharaoh's troops. In a longer perspective, they seek both to destroy Ur-Khamset and to restore the flow of the Angra.
The Sharjad are a short-statured race, approximately the size of alfar, whose most striking feature is their azure blue skin. Tiny white tusks also protrude from the lower jaw of the sharjad, who tend to have brown or reddish hair, often kept long, and males favor immaculately groomed beards and moustaches. The Sharjad wear flowing white robes over an exceptionally light type of mithril scale mail (called sharjad mail) which offers protection both against damage and the heat.
Sand Giants
The avaris are nomadic giants who roam the desert in small family groups. They tend to be found in Rubaiyat's most remote and trackless regions, where they lead their camel herds from oasis to oasis, ekeing out a narrow living as herdsmen. The Avaris are utterly xenophobic, and tend to attack anyone who strays near their trails, camps and oases.
The avaris are basically giant elves. They stand around five meters tall and have the same elongated limbs and lean bodies as the mirdain. Their bronze-colored and smooth skin can barely be glimpsed through layers upon layer of flowing white robes. The avaris wear no shoes, and their large webbed feet are especially adapted to running through Rubaiyat's desert sands. The avaris fight using silvery, wavy-bladed swords called Qadas.
Area of interest: The Sea of Glass
An apocalyptic battle during the Usurper Wars took place in this region. As a consequence, the sand on a large section of it was melted into black, obsidian-like glass. In the middle of this flat expanse rises a twisted and jagged mountain spire which is home to a very powerful dragon, who attacks anything that trespasses on the plain below. At the base of the spire is an entrance into a dungeon system leading up to the dragon's lair which lies in the middle of the spire itself. The lair and cave system are protected by serpentines, a brutish but tame reptilian race who live only to serve their draconic masters.
Area of interest: City of Winds
Deep in the central Rubaiyat desert lies the city of the Djinnlord, a Deathless Mage who has ruled his independent city state for centuries. Thus far, the Djinnlord has been able to repulse the attacks of the Red Pharaoh, and the undead generals have decided to pass his town by for now. The Djinnlord's city is the only intact city in the interior, and one of few places where travellers may trade, train and rest.
The Djinnlord's town lies atop a low sandstone cliff which rises from the desert sands. It is surrounded by tall, solid walls, within which lies the entrance to one of the richest Neithal mines in all of Agon. The town is extremely wealthy and its squares and structures are beautifully decorated. The castle of the Djinnlord lies in the center of town, surrounded by a large park. There are many fountains and wells in town, and magical water issues from all of them.
In addition to Sharjad mercenaries clad in neithal-blue tunics adorned with wind-symbols, the Djinnlord is served by a large number of Air elementals, many of whom patrol the city and its environs. The djinnlord himself is a Sharjad mage of extraordinary power, who has found a way to extend his life indefinitely.
Area of interest: Halls of Ana-pur
This natural cave system, which lies in a rocky region of southern Rubaiyat, is considered the birthplace of the Sharjad goddess Ana-Pur. The cave system and its adjacent temple are now in the hands of the Avaris, and the Sharjad are desperate to retrieve certain artifacts which the giants found upon conquering the place. The caves are entered through a narrow crack beyond which it immediately opens up into large natural chambers connected by narrow, equally natural tunnels. A Sharjad temple lies directly in front of the entrance, and the entrance lies within its walls. The only way in is through the heavily Sand Giant-infested temple complex.
Area of interest: The Angra Delta
A muddy, oozing swamp now lies where the Angra once flowed into the Mirrorsea. Passage through this terrain would be near impossible if it wasn't for the waterlogged paths made by the avaris who have settled here. At the heart of the delta, the giants have flattened a sizable area in which they've built their main camp.
Two island fortresses protected the approach to the Angra. One of these is used as a lookout by the giants, the other is now the dwelling of a Deathless Mage who serves the pharaoh.
A large Sharjad city is perched on the edge of the now-dry riverbed, right at the spot where the Angra flowed into the Silk Coast sea. This heavily fortified town was one of the largest Sharjad settlements, and it was one of the last to fall to the Red Pharaoh's hordes. It is still impressive, though the Red Pharaoh's undead have torn down many buildings and sections of wall. The Pharaoh's troops are now thoroughly entrenched here.
This town was the launching point for all Sharjad river traffic up the Angra, and the place where riverborne goods were carried over into ships bound for the Leenshards and beyond. The ocean harbor lies in the northwestern part of town, along the Silk Coast, and it is relatively intact - but fiercely defended by the Pharaoh's undead troops.
[edit] Cairn
The southeastern continent of Cairn is dominated by arid, viciously sun-scorched plains which are strewn with shattered and twisted rock formations. The plains are tortured by winds that blast mercilessly across the flats, howling around the jagged stands of rock. Tornado's and dust devils spawn in the scrub-lands, and wild, rainless electrical storms dance across the blasted plains.
Land of minotaurs and giants
In ancient times, Cairn was home to the aernar, a peace-loving and deeply religious people, who lived in scattered adobe villages, eking out a living from the barren land. 290 years ago, however, minotaurs began arriving from Ochre on the mainland, and one after another the aernar villages fell to the fierce invaders.
The conquering minotaurs still inhabit the aernar settlements, but today unmaintained the villages are little more than inhabited ruins. The minotaurs focus their energies on waging war, upon each other and upon Cairn's other inhabitants, while staging regular raids on the mainland coast.
The minotaurs regularly crash with equally warlike Hill Giants, who roam Cairn's interior in small clans. Nomadic by nature, the hill giants build temporary camps and wind-shelters using whatever rocks and boulders that are available when a chieftain decides that a camp should be set up.
Far-fabled Kasdim
In the center of Cairn lies the dried-out basin of a large lake, and on its dry shores stands legendary Kasdim, a large and well-preserved Chaldean city. Though it appears tranquil from a distance, Kasdim is home to large populations of powerful monsters, who are engaged in a struggle for control of the city and its secrets.
When their empire fell, a handful of powerful Chaldeans managed to flee to Kasdim, which was then little more than a fortified trading station. There they remained, the last custodians of the Benevolent Empire's culture, until climate changes dried out the lake and rendered Kasdim uninhabitable. Before fading into oblivion, the last Chaldeans hid their books and artifacts in an exceptionally well-guarded dungeon, the entrance to which lies in the center of old Kasdim. This dungeon, and its treasure hoard, is the prize over which the monster factions fight.
