Overview
Enelis is a fantasy world that combines elements from many popular fantasy worlds with other unique elements to create a truly unique experience for adventure and storytelling.
Enelis is an expansive setting where the tone is largely determined by the story being told and where that story takes place. This campaign setting focuses mostly on the human-dominated eastern coasts of Ularin, a continent on the planet of Enelis. For most of Ularin, technology is in the high middle ages (~1200 AD). There are water-wheels and wind-mills for rudimentary power, high castle walls and advanced fortifications, complex bureaucratic systems and large feudal kingdoms that expand over vast regions. Some areas, however, are dominated by primitive societies of the neolithic and iron age. But it is fundamentally a medieval world.
Society. While some form of feudalism is quite common across Ularin, there are many variations in power structures and societies. However, the average person in this world is a farmer or laborer, nobody of any great importance, living in a small village and never stepping beyond the few miles to the nearest trade market. It is an insular world often dominated by superstition, hearsay, and fear. To the average person, the workings of the kingdom and larger world are of little importance beyond the happenings within their village life. They know little beyond the nearest terrain boundaries of hills, rivers, and forests. Their history is composed of myths and old stories of ancient days, of a great empire and society now lost to time. This is an important concept for storytelling within this world. Seeing heroes and magic are often a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence.
Magic. Enelis is a low-to-mid magic world. While magic is theoretically everywhere, it often goes unseen. Practiced magic-users are exceedingly rare and practically unheard of outside of tall-tales and myths. Anyone witnessing actual magic may be filled with excessive awe or fear, often considering the practitioner as a miracle-worker at best. But more often, practitioners of magic are considered dangerous demon-worshippers who have dark, ungodly powers. Magical heroes in Enelis are truly special and rare and know that the general populace would fear the powers they possess. While players aren’tnecessarily limited in their choices concerning magical characters, it is important to express upon them the rarity of their abilities and powers. Few with such powers would brazenly display them in public settings unless absolutely necessary.
Economy. Despite the fact that the average person never travels beyond a few miles from their home village, there is much travel and trade across Ularin. Large and small mercantile enterprises trade goods and services by land and sea throughout the regions. This trade is largely fueled by the desires of a growing population and middle-class, mostly crafters and merchants, in the many cities across the continent. With all this trade, there are travelers, and these travelers are often the only source of information in this medieval world.
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The World of Enelis
Enelis is a big place, and the multiverse is even bigger. However, most Enelis adventures will take place on the continent of Ularin and its eastern coasts. Below is a brief overview of the major known continents of the planet of Enelis.
Alarus
Across the impassable Erean Ocean lies the ravaged continent of Alarus. Millenia ago a great war was fought between two mighty societies: the Republic of Nomenia and the Dahkhanic Empire. Guided by the goodly dragons, the Republic of Nomenia was composed of the Nomenir, brilliant city builders and masters of arcane magic. They built vast cities and connected them with numerous roads. They unified a grand society that focused on cooperation, democracy, and social responsibility. The Dahkhanic Empire, driven by the evil dragons, had an opposing society: a tyranny where powerful overlords dominated over others, where might was right. They were a consuming society that ravaged their own lands on the Isle of Nastus and then sought the resources of their southern neighbors. This led to a prolonged and devasting war between the two societies, which eventually led to the ultimate destruction of the continent of Alarus. Some survivors of the Republic managed to cross the otherwise impassable Erean Ocean and seed their way of life to the continent of Ularin. Unfortunately, their enemies followed them centuries later. In the modern day, it is currently unknown what remains of Alarus or what the continent even looks like or whom might inhabit it. The ancient tales only speak of a ravaged land, composed of magic-scarred deserts devoid of vegetation and life. These stories, combined with the very real dangers of the Erean Ocean, compel few dwellers of Ularin to seek out this lost continent.
Ularin
Ularin is the focal point of story-telling in Enelis. It is a cosmopolitan collection of cultures and societies that have been evolving for millennia. It is a vast continent that stretches from the northern reaches of the seas of ice upon the Arcturus Ocean, down to the equatorial waters of the Selicean Sea and the Austrius Ocean farther south. To the east, the treacherous Erean Ocean stretches to the horizon, a sea of impenetrable blue that never seems to end. To the west, unknown and exotic lands extend beyond any travelers knowledge. A traveler of the eastern coasts heading west would have to cross the mighty eastern mountains, then the great Aegis Forest, a sea of trees stretching across most of the inner continent. The trees eventually give way to seemingly endless grassland known as the Freewind Savannah. In the distance, are the greatest mountains ever seen, the Skyreach Mountains, stretching into the clouds like wall upon the world. Beyond these mountains, the lands are unknown.
Ularin is dominated by the human cultures of the eastern and southern coasts that stretch to the east of the Kalavarian and Hullepsie Mountains. Dwarves, or the Khuzdi, inhabit the Kalavarian Mountains, while the elves dwell in the forests beyond to the west. Many other non-human societies are found on this continent: the northern orcs of Hashkan, the gnolls of Gogrin, the goblins of Dragmore, the lizardfolk of the jungles of Xelhasa, and the serpentfolk scattered on the islands of the Selicean Sea. It is a land ripe for adventure and exploration.
Polarus
Far to the north, beyond the Frost Lake and the stretching tundra beyond, lies the sea of frozen waters known as the Arcturus Ocean. If one can manage to navigate this frozen sea, a small continent is nestled on Enelis’ north pole called Polarus. Little is known of this distant land, but it is believed to be nothing but ice and snow that rises to a grand mountain peak in the center of the land. The giants, or Jotun, are said to have originated from this land. In their ancient mythology, this continent was once was warm and welcoming, covered by flowing waters and green vegetation, a Cyclopean paradise. However, when the titanic rulers of this land challenged the gods themselves, they were punished with an eternal winter, driving the Jotun to flee to Ularin. Millenia later, the Dwarves, or Khuzdi, are said to have emerged from deep beneath the earth onto the mountain of Polarus. Ancient Dwarven myths speak of a single, grand mountain that rose to the clouds. It was surrounded by a constant borealis, swirling colors and lights that bathed the night sky in mystery and magic. However, since they found the land uninhabitable, they headed south, beginning the Thrynmirland, the quest for the Land of the Stars, the Promised Land.
Terra Draconis
Far to the south, beyond the reaches of the Selicean Sea and the Austrius Ocean is believed to be another continent. Simply called Terra Draconis by scholars, it is a land where the dragons dwell. As the power and dominance of the dragons diminished in the ancient days, it is said that many of the dragons flew to far off lands to the south, to be away from the growing power and dangers of the humanoids that came to dominate Ularin and Alarus. Little is known about this land, or even if it truly exists. Tales warn travelers who would seek this hostile continent, for humanoids are said to be unwelcome by its draconic hosts.
The Deep Underground
Known as the Tag Mordtag to the Dwarves, the Deep Underground is the endless stretches of caverns and tunnels that exist deep under the earth. These lightless depths house numerous creatures and isolated tribes of societies that live without the light of the sun. It is an unknown world of dark energies and forgotten monsters, where the dark god Nembral’s tendrils seeped into Enelis at the dawn of the planet’s creation. The two best-known inhabitants of this umbral world are the Shadmar, or dark elves, and the Grimdzi, the dark Dwarves. The ancestors of both these societies were punished by their kin with ancient magic, banishing them to these dark caverns for eternity. There are also tribes of troglodytes and serpentfolk who dwell in this world of endless darkness. Tunnels range in size from endless stretches of tight, claustrophobic cracks to massive caverns with underground lakes and fortified cities of the Shadmar. It is a world entirely hostile to surface-dwellers.