The World History

'''The World '''

Casus is a shattered world scattered with small landmasses that rise high out of the oceans below. Each continent is ruled by a high king, a long lineage that dates back into before recorded time. The high kings are in a constant power struggle, always vying for power, and control of the wealthiest kingdom, the Kingdom of Regis. The Kingdom of Regis is in an uncomfortable peace with the Kingdom of Kift after a long war, simply known as “The Great War” that ended in an uneasy truce. There are three floating cities in the Regis kingdom that dominate the air, that were supposedly attached to whatever lies below, by massive iron chains. These cities are Erris, the city composed of multiple floating rocks, Redan the shattered city where two great rocks were tightly chained together, and Osken the capitol, where the reigning king, Regis the Fourth sits on the throne. Osken also contains the Santaphrax citadel, a massive fortress containing a substance known as Stormphrax. Humans are the dominant race in the Regis kingdom, but many other races have joined into the civilized community. Small spots of civilization are popping up all over the world below, around the mountain city of Ketis and in the Fertile Plains, but each community faces its own struggles and problems just to survive the harsh terrains.

The world below the floating cities, known as the Infraterra is very hostile and usually filled with horrifying creatures that are rarely seen or studied. The horrors of the Infraterra have lessened as civilizations have begun to expand and flourish in the lands below, but the sheer vastness of the land still contains many undiscovered mysteries to be found. The raised landmasses range from vast forests to sprawling deserts to gigantic mountain ranges, interspersed with the small signs of the surviving civilization below. The only large city on the Infraterra is the city of Ketis, a large mountain city that divides the Edgelands and Deep Woods from the more tranquil openness of the Fertile Plains. Extensively carved out of the mountains, Ketis is home to many races but was originally constructed by Aters, a long extinct race of four armed humanoids said to resemble large upright ants, capable of moving great amount of stone. Ketis is the only place on the Infraterra capable of mooring large cargo sky ships for trade with the floating cities, making it a bustling metropolis. At some point in its flow all water eventually falls off the Infraterra and is lost, making water a very important resource.

The long extinct Aters created a race of automatons known as Forgelings, and interacted with them in a language called Trinary. This language is mostly indecipherable now, but Forgelings have used their sentience to grasp civilized languages as they continue to interact with society. Fewer and fewer of these functioning automatons remain as repair parts for them are hard to obtain, and individuals capable of repairing them even harder to find. Forgelings run off energy trapped in items called Stormstones, sharp pieces of rock that are formed when the lightning bolts of a massive storm, known as the Mother Storm, strike solid ground. There are various ruins of the Ater civilization scattered about on the landmass, which usually contain Forgeling scraps, but are guarded by powerful automaton sentries who are not sentient like their more refined counterparts.

Navigation is only possible over Regis through air ships controlled by a complex system of balances and weights, and the presence of a rare mineral called a “Ballast Rock”. Ships are built around these rocks, which are the same rocks that lay far inside the cores of the floating cities. When heated to extreme temperatures these rocks begin to float, and proved to be an ideal way to cross the vast and harsh landscape of the kingdom. Soon after the discovery of Ballast rocks people began encasing them in steel cages and building ships around them, effectively creating a sky ship. These ships continued to rise though, and simply drifted away into the high skies and disappeared. All attempts to cool the rocks down once they had been useless as the rocks were superheated. Eventually it was discovered that sprinkling a substance known as “Stormphrax” on the rocks cooled them down and allowed ships to maintain altitudes. Stormphrax can only be obtained via a complex and dangerous set of steps, creating the need for individuals known as “Stormchasers”. Stormchasers fly through massive storms and wait for lightning strikes to hit lightning rods on their ships, channeling the energy into the ship and shattering solidified chunks of the rare to find Stormstones into a usable dust. The citadel for storing Stormphrax is in Osken                    and called the Sanctaphrax citadel.

Ballast rocks themselves are found all over the world, in seemingly random locations. They are sometimes found in large groups called Stone Gardens, where the stones grow in stacks, rising out of the ground and forcing the ones above them up. Previously there was a bountiful garden in the Mire, but the Rocks that grow there are diseased and crumble when touched, making them useless. This place is now called The Dead Stacks. An increasingly high number of sky-ship captures has increased the demand for Ballast rock for commercial use. A Ballast Rock is almost impossible to recover from a crashed sky ship because when the hull breaks the rock escapes and floats off.

The need for the creation of Stormphrax has made storms a big part of the culture for anyone living on Casus. The rain also provides necessary water to rejuvenate the landscape, as storms are a very rare occurrence. The strange swirling fog that lies below the sharp edges of the landmasses, known as the Tenebris Mists, is also a large part of lands culture. An ever-growing fear of the mists is present in the everyday lives of the citizens of Casus. Those who live closest to the edge risk inhaling the mists and suffering its painful and hallucinogenic side effects. Scholars on the Boars Tusk have made it their goal to study the mists, but can only speculate what lies below the mists, as those who have ventured too close to the fog have suffered from hallucinations and even death. 

<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family: "TimesNewRoman","serif"">River Rise, a small pool of water that rises far above the clouds of the Infraterra, is said to be the source of all life on Casus, and the flow of water from it is slowly diminishing, worrying all who believe the legends of it being the beginning of life. '''<span style="font-size:18.0pt;line-height: 115%;font-family:"TimesNewRoman","serif""> '''

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Backgrounds and Quirks
<h2 class="MsoNormal">Combat and Damage

<h2 class="MsoNormal">Items and Gear

Magic Stones
<h2 class="MsoNormal">Beastiary

<h2 class="MsoNormal">Blank Character Sheet

<h2 class="MsoNormal">Example Character Sheet