Korovia - The Free License Fantasy World

The year is now 4167, ADW (After Demon War).

Timeline:

-0012: The start of the Last Demon War. Tanar’ri build an army in northern Korovia and begin marching on its cities. The gnomes flee underground. The old gods abandom their worshippers and religious anarchy reigns. New gods appear soon after. It is rumoured these new gods came from other planes of existence or that they are actually dragons who have ascended to godhood.

-0011: Oraknev falls with aid from Saraz (the god of war), the tanar’ri make Oraknev their new headquarters.

-0010: The Demon War spills over into Loqland and humans (Archaic Knights) from Loqland come to Korovia to help the elves. The elves are suspicious because there are humans (and elves) who are helping Saraz and the demons, but the union of the two races proves to be useful in fighting the demons. The humans from Loqland are known for their barbaric courage.

-0005: The Korovian Dragons swear a sacred oath to protect Korovia and begin killing off the followers of Saraz.

-0003: The Legion of Dragonriders is formed. Mortals and dragons join forces to stage several successful counter-assaults.

-0002: The death of Saraz. Korovia’s curse begins. Thousands of Korovian Knights and Blizzards are trapped inside magical blocks of para-elemental ice.

-0001: The battle turns in favour of the elves and humans. Dwarves from Stilornvia come to help in the fight.

0001: The end of the Last Demon War. Remnants of the demon armies are rounded up or banished.

0002: The Legion of Dragonriders is disbanded. Many of Korovia’s dragons find a nice place to sleep and rest.

0003: The elvish king of Korovia (King Baerngarden) rewards the humans and dwarves with land. Many of the humans from Loqland decide to stay in Korovia and build new cities and paladin groups. Korovia was previously an elf dominant kingdom, but now is split almost half-and-half humans and elves. Many of the humans settle in ruined elvish cities and begin to rebuild. Everyone ignores the gnomes who finally come up to see what happened.

0144: Humans and dwarves begin to build Rokbar, hoping to create a trade city between three kingdoms.

0381: King Baerngarden dies. His third son (the first two were killed in the demon war) takes the throne. The new King Wyndriver is half wild elf and half grey elf. He doesn’t trust the humans (it was humans who killed his older brothers).

0395: Laws are passed that make humans second class citizens, essentially a slave class that serves the elves.

0834: King Wyndriver is assassinated and so are his male heirs. There are several attempts to resurrect, but all fail. His brother Algomarius takes the throne as regent because Wyndriver’s oldest daughter is too young to take the throne. Humans believe that Wyndriver’s estranged brother did the killing. Many elves believe the humans are at fault. The assassin is never found.

0839: Princess Ramidelicia comes of age and there is attempted assassination on her by a group of human mercenaries. She takes the throne and the defunct regent-king Algomarius is later found stabbed to death. The new Queen is kind to humans and is rumoured to have a human lover.

0911: Queen Ramidelicia is poisoned during the night and her body is defiled by evil magic that prevents her from being resurrected. Civil war erupts with the news of her death. Elves killing elves and humans killing humans, the civil war is extremely chaotic with many split factions.

0915: The civil war ends. Four new kingdoms now exist and several city-states. Two elf kingdoms, one human and one comprised of dwarves. The gnomes claim several city-states as their own cities, but declare no king.

0948: A war between ogres and elves in Basikvia spills over into Korovia. Civil unrest in all of Korovia’s kingdoms causes several small wars. During the upheaval, halflings become squatters in southern Korovia and are determined to stay. Korovia is split into city-states.

1077: Several elvish city-states swear fealty together and create an elvish king. King Finaskaz is a drow elf and starts to fortify the elvish cities and dig tunnels beneath them so they will be less likely to be defeated and overthrown.

1103: The first sighting of the Northern Leviathan as she destroys several pirate ships.

1142: A massive disease that comes from the kingdom of Lavordia in the west sweeps through Korovia, killing over half the population. Mass cemeteries are built. Political unrest follows the disease and King Finaskaz and many of his drow flee underground and stay there. Finaskaz abdicates from the throne and the elves split into city-states once more. King Finaskaz retains his crown and stays the King of Sylvania.

1286: Humans and elves engage in a huge war that destroys several human and elf cities. History about the time is sketchy and the locations of some cities are forgotten as plants quickly grow over them. There are different theories about why the war began.

1288: The end of the war between elves and humans. The war is called the “Three-Year-Blood-Feud” and there are a variety of reasons why it happened, something scholars continue to argue about.

1293: A large tribe of wandering minotaurs decides to settle in the abandoned human city of Tuirn and rebuild it. While neighbouring towns and cities are skeptical at first, with time they find that the tribe is honourable and has a strong moral code.

1482: King Finaskaz of the drow dies. His son Alomusk does not take the crown, but decides to remain a prince. Thus the tradition of an elf prince ruling over a city-state is born. Prince Alomosk is revered as both a philosopher and as a great king, despite refusing the title.

1508: A Korovian dragon called “Burning Ice” awakes after sleeping for over 1500 years. He destroys several towns and one city. He then settles down with another dragon and has many children. The age of dragons begins. “Burning Ice” is not the only dragon who suddenly awakens. Several hundred awake during the next several centuries. The age of dragons is a period of 900 years in which dragons soared over Korovia and terrorized its towns and villages. It was a period of peace because no one dared risk war but instead fortified themselves against dragon attacks. Many of these dragons are killed by heroes, many later go back to sleep (and may still be alive) and many have children whose descendants both protect and terrorize Korovia until this day.

2412: The Northern Leviathan kills numerous Korovian dragons in several historic battles. Earthquakes and volcanoes ravaged Korovia for seven months before the battles finally ended.

2443: Due to reasons unknown many of Korovia’s dragons have quieted down once more. Some say the Northern Leviathan scared them off or that the dragons and Her made some kind of agreement. The most plausible guess is that the Northern Leviathan is somehow related to the oath that the dragons took to protect Korovia. If this was true, then she might have been punishing the dragons for not keeping their oath and she might also have been forcing some of the newer and younger dragons to swear a new oath. But if this were so, why did the dragons continue to terrorize Korovia for another 31 years before finally settling down?

2581: A horde of trolls from the north invades Korovia. The cities manage to fend off many of the trolls, and the Korovian dragons even help in the matter. Many of the smaller towns are destroyed however. The trolls settle in the mountains, turning the ruins of old cities into new fortresses. Famine follows and thousands of people starve to death in the winter.

2650: A meteor storm destroys a human city called Vichanta that was west of where Zerburg is now. There is nothing but a crater there now. The rocks in the crater are useful as spell components and the whole place radiates magic so powerfully that it is a wild magic zone. Monsters are more common in the woods surrounding the crater.

2793: The halflings of Shorin swear fealty to Prince Zaelean of Yek when he rescues them from an army of gnolls.

2794: King Zaelean of Yek unites the eastern half of Korovia into one kingdom under Elvish rule. The descendant of Prince Alomosk swears fealty to King Zaelean. It is King Zaelean who orders the city of Sylvania to have an enchantment placed on it that creates better weather and a lusher environment for growing plants. Sylvania becomes one of Korovia’s best produces of food.

2795: Oraknev starts building its outer city, with designs from an architect that King Zaelean provides.

2821: Stilornvia unites parts of western Korovia and southern Loqland into a greater dwarven kingdom.

2851: King Zaelean dies. His kingdom collapses as human and elvish lords squabble over land, but no war erupts. The kingdom splits into city-states.

2853: A band of humans, elves and dwarves begin to build the city of Kost on the ruins of an old town. The city is to be a place of peace where all three races can communicate peacefully. To increase this likelihood, all three races build temples representing all of the lawful good gods from each race. The start of polytheistic paladin-hood begins.

2854: The minotaurs of Tuirn respect the ethics of the paladins in Kost and help to build the city. The minotaurs form their own paladin-order: The Ironskins.

3522: A new cult of wolves appears, following a druid named Lazriak the Wicked.

3525: The cult’s army of wolves, dire wolves, worgs and winter wolves destroys several small towns.

3526: Lazriak the Wicked and his cult of druids destroy a human city northeast of Oraknev and leave the city in ruins. Membership in his cult is made illegal in many cities, but popularity grows anyway.

3529: Several Korovian dragons attack Lazriak the Wicked. He defeats them. His popularity spreads amongst evil rangers and druids, and there is numerous “wolf-attacks” across all of Korovia.

3531: Lazriak the Wicked becomes the God of Wolves. His followers become more secretive about their ways and spread their beliefs beyond Korovia to Basikvia and Loqland.

3588: The Northern Leviathan destroys a fleet of ships from the Azagolian Empire headed towards Sylvania. Wreckage from ships floats up on the eastern shores of Korovia for several months.

3589: Sylvania cuts off trade with the Azagolian Empire, begins to fortify the Sylvanian harbour.

3592: The Azagolian Empire attacks and captures the elvish city of Weyvin.

3593: The Azagolian Empire attacks and captures the human city of Koastmark.

3595: The Azagolian Empire attacks Sylvania, but is routed and forced to retreat.

3596: Humans from Oraknev and barbarians from northern Korovia ally with the elves of Sylvania and re-capture Weyvin from Azagolian forces. Weyvin becomes a joint human and elvish city, fostering trade between the two races.

3600: Weyvin begins to have a large number of half-elvish children. Some elves are offended by this and move south, abandoning Weyvin to become dominated by humans and half-elves. It is historically still considered to be an elvish city.

4033: A Loqland dragon known as Great Scorch flies over Korovia from Loqland, destroying several towns.

4034: Several Korovian dragons are killed by Great Scorch. He stops destroying towns, but maintains an ominous presence in the mountains near Tuirn.

4148: Derek the Deadly kills the lord of Oraknev and declares himself the new lord. He begins raising an army.

4149: Derek attacks Weyvin. The local lords flee. Derek sets up Marshal Kragen as the law in Weyvin, and has an “elected” council of people who will follow Derek’s orders. By using the face of democracy, Derek controlled Weyvin and was able to extort tax money from it.

4154 - Spring: A band of adventurers get into a fight with Marshal Kragen but manage to escape. Wanted posters go up for the adventurers. Derek makes a deal with Great Scorch and several tanar’ri balors.

4154 - Summer: Derek sends scouts into the troll lands to seek a possible treaty with the Troll-King. In a surprising move, the Troll-King sides himself with the paladins of Kost instead. He refuses to take part in Derek’s war. The Northern Leviathan destroys a number of pirate ships headed towards Weyvin. Demons attack the paladin city of Kost. Dame Korozo defeats the balor leading the attack. Great Scorch is killed by adventurers. Derek is permanently blinded and overthrown.

4154 - Autumn: Queen Kasiya takes power and unites Oraknev, Weyvin, Kost and Tuirn under her banner. A mercenary army led by vampires attacks the city of Bavik. The army is defeated by adventurers with a marilith under their control. Bavik and several other Korovian cities swear fealty to Queen Kasiya.

4155 - Winter: the Star Citadel is assaulted and thousands of Korovian Knights and Blizzards are finally freed from the ice. Korovia’s curse ends. Warmer weather embraces the kingdom and glaciers begin to melt.

4166 - Winter: Orcs are spotted in parts of western Korovia, some close to Tuirn. The minotaurs send several hundred Ironskins to help the dwarves of Roknar fight orcs, plus create patrols to find orcs that have somehow slipped into Korovia.

4166 - Summer: The present.

A short time ago (12 years actually), Korovia was a land covered with blizzards and glaciers. It was a cold windswept landscape of mountains, forests and rivers in what should have been a Sylvan paradise. Superstitious townsfolk surrounded themselves with walls of wood and stone to protect them from the winter wolves and trolls that roamed the countryside. Trappers and hunters had to be especially cautious while hunting for food and furs.

But even darker forces were at hand, within the towns and small cities, Korovia was a land diseased from within. Demons and vampires roamed the streets at night, thirsting for blood and wrecking havoc with Korovia's fragile population of city-states.

Friendship was valued above gold back then, for a friend could guard your back. Gold will only weigh you down when trouble is afoot. It is no surprise then that a sturdy group of adventurers and friends began what would become powerful changes in not only Korovia's hidden power struggles, but also its harsh weather.

This band of adventurers had help along the way, for Korovia had no shortage of people willing to fight for Korovia. The Wardens of the North, an independent fellowship of fighters, paladins, rangers and even a few monks and clerics is a stronghold of vigilantes seeking to protect Korovia from the hidden dangers. Numbering in the thousands, the Wardens wandered the land by themselves or with others, protecting innocent people and defending the land. The Wardens are a respected calling and many paladins and rangers are Wardens by choice. Wardens are always the adventuring types, although their courage may have limits. The Wardens swear upon their very souls to defend Korovia from all threats.

Being a Warden of the North is more like a profession, not a class. When taking up the Oath of the North, a Warden is given a suit of splintmail (a symbol amongst Wardens and commonfolk). Wardens stay in taverns and inns for free and are always served the best food. Their weapons and armour is always repaired for free, and they receive a +2 circumstance bonus to Diplomacy checks when dealing with townsfolk..

A Warden never overstays their welcome however and is expected to be nothing less than a grateful guest. A Warden never bothers with monetary wealth. If they do find gold, they typically give it to the church or donate it to charity as soon as possible.

Wardens often receive special training at special lodges dotted around Korovia (often built by paladins/rangers), which they can use to gain special feats not available to normal classes of people. The training they receive usually involves the use of a lasso or the use of their shield, or learning a specialized attack for fighting ogres/etc. See Chapter Five for Feats.

Wardens also usually start with these basic pieces of equipment: Backpack, 2 pouches, flint and steel, 50' of hemp rope, signal whistle, 1 lb of soap, 4 torches, whetstone, 2 waterskins, 2 winterblankets, splintmail, large steel shield and three weapons of choice not totaling more than 100 gp. Because of the starting package of 2000 gp mentioned in the House Rules section, it might be possible for the splintmail or shield to be magical. Ask the DM.

Queen Kasiya rules over Korovia with a gentle hand. Twelve years ago she and a band of adventurers overthrew the warlord Derek the Deadly from his throne in Oraknev, the ancient capitol of Korovia. Using her powerful Divination magic, and with the approval of the Korovian dragons who were present when Derek was overthrown, Queen Kasiya allied the lords of Korovia, banded together the different city-states, towns and races and found peace. Her divination magic was an useful tool for mediation and for finding out how peace could finally be reached.

Shortly after seizing power and after all the powerful lords of Korovia swore fealty to Kasiya, she led an exhibition to the Star Citadel. She freed thousands of Blizzard-mages and archaic Korovian Knights (See Chapter Four: Races & Classes) from the demon-controlled ice fortress which had been their magical prison for over 4000 years (since the last demon war). With Korovia's knighthood restored, the land quickly became more peaceful as the Korovian Knights and Blizzard-mages began to restore Korovia to its former might by removing tribes of ogres and trolls.

Many of the troll tribes were wiped out completely during this time, all except the largest belonging to the Troll-King Zyguinas, which actually grew bigger from troll refugees. The immortal troll-king's power rivals that of Queen Kasiya's and the mightiest wizards in the land. For awhile Korovian Knights led many exhibitions to defeat the troll-king, but the vast majority never returned from the troll-king's mountain fortress-city. A dubious cease-fire has since occurred, wherein only the most foolish, brave or stupid even attempts to approach the troll-king's mountain. Giants also live in the troll lands, but they are much fewer in number than the trolls. Giant Half-trolls also exist, a strange combination of giant and troll blood.

Koreenshan (sometimes called Stumpy for the fact that he had both fore-claws chopped off by Miles Dashing), the dragon-child of Ol' One-Eyed Toreen has gone into hiding for the past eleven years, prompting the belief that he is sleeping and attempting to regenerate his lost claws. There is rumours however more recently that he has been seen prowling the forests north of Oraknev (however these rumours say that he has stumps, while other rumours say he has his claws back). Korovian dragons are notorious for their revenge, so he might be biding his time as he waits for another chance to tangle with Miles Dashing.

With the Star Citadel gone, the curse that had held Korovia in a permanent winter for over 4000 years faded. With the help of a powerful bard carrying the Violin of Warmth and Springtime (see Chapter 9), Korovia has since entered a golden age of growth and prosperity. The largest city in Korovia is Oraknev, with an adult population of about 31,000 and is the fastest growing city. It has become a small metropolis. Korovia has been a poor country for a very long time due to its cursed cold, but is now becoming dramatically wealthier because of its relative safety in comparison to other kingdoms which are struggling with internal strife.

Militarily, Korovia has become quite strong. Oraknev alone now boasts a strong militia of 1500 plus many archaic Knights and Wardens of the North. Most of Korovia's small cities (population 5000+) now have militias of 300 or more. Also for the first time in centuries, Korovia finally has a proper army with 4 army camps spread across the New Kingdom’s NSEW cardinal points. The eastern army is currently building a proper Korovian Navy in an attempt to stem attacks by pirates, while the western army is helping the dwarves defend the Great Dwarven Wall from Loqland orcs.

But Queen Kasiya has done more than that. In cooperation with priests and wizard schools she has started building water oracles in major towns and cities that pour forth clean holy water. The pools of holy water can also be used like a crystal ball for scrying purposes. This improvement has made a remarkable advance in Korovian wizards to use their powers for people to send emergency messages from one part of the kingdom to another city (for a reasonable price).

Korovia is a Holy Land. Thanks to a wish spell twelve years earlier, all of Korovia is now sacred ground and undead cannot be made in Korovia. A vampire that bites someone in Korovia in an attempt to create more vampires will have the attempt fail. Walking on holy ground feels like a thorn in their side and has also caused many vampires to simply flee the kingdom. Demons, devils and evil creatures may be summoned unwillingly to Korovia, but they cannot enter or stay of their own free will and they cannot enter Korovia's borders. Thanks to this powerful enchantment, Korovia has almost no undead (ghosts and poltergeists are the most common form of undead) and sightings of demons or devils are extremely rare. Indeed, monsters of many kinds seem to be a dying breed in Korovia.

But all of that may soon change.

For hundreds of years Korovia has been safe from the orcish hordes of Loqland. Mostly thanks to the Great Dwarven Wall and dwarven fortresses in western Korovia near the dwarven fortress-city of Roknar. According to both dwarves, gnomes and even minotaurs, orcs have been spotted riding wyverns and Loqland dragons suggesting that the orcs may be attempting to circumvent the dwarven fortifications which have held them at bay for so long. Unknown numbers of orcs, ogres and even giants live beyond the Loqland/Korovian border. Loqland dragons and Korovian dragons are also known for their hatred of each other.

Only a couple miles across the border from Roknar is the orcish metropolis of Molloch, which has huge slave mines and many rumours are circulating about what the orcs are digging for. Some say they are digging a tunnel underneath of Roknar, but dwarven miners dismiss this as hogwash, saying it is too far to dig any meaningful sized tunnel.

The pirates of Koastmark have become bolder in their attempts of overthrowing Kasiya's control of the eastern cities. An unknown pirate commodore was at the center of a failed coup attempt in Koastmark, pitting pirates against the local militia and the army. The coup failed when Queen Kasiya foresaw the attack in a spell a week ahead of time. She sent as much of her fleet in Weyvin (which included a number of Ironskin Minotaurs) as she could spare to Koastmark and managed to destroy many of the pirate ships by attacking to the rear and forced the pirates to flee in retreat. The local militia had received heavy losses, but the pirates have been much quieter in the months that followed. A contingent of Korovian Knights and Ironskin Minotaurs has remained at Koastmark in order to maintain some semblance of order. The pirate commodore has not given up however, vowing to have magic on his side when he attacks again in an attempt to declare himself Admiral and King of Koastmark.

Queen Kasiya’s abilities to predict major events are limited. It is hit and miss. She may predict some things, but otherwise may miss other things that she simply did not ask about. She is nowhere near as powerful as the Minotaur Seer.

During the overthrow of Derek the Deadly, Derek's mercenary army was disbanded but not dispersed. A brief war happened twelve years ago in Bavik when a large number of the mercenary army acting under a (vampire) warlord attacked Bavik and attempted to take control of the then city-state. They were defeated by a "marilith in a bottle" that an adventurer unleashed upon the army. The lords of Bavik swore fealty to Kasiya after the battle was won.

Psionicists (sometimes called mutants) have started to become more popular in Korovia. It is unknown why this is happening, but those who are "mutating" and developing powers are being treated with fear. Right-wing private militia groups have started to spring up, calling themselves "Mutant Hunters".

There are many legends in Korovia. So many that most people don’t even know a third of them. Korovia’s history is long and filled with centuries of war and blood feuds between families and races. 4000 years of war, disease, corrupt rulers, horrid monsters and freezing cold have made Korovia a legend amongst other nations. For Korovia to finally find peace, a benevolent ruler, the destruction of many monsters and a lifting of the glacier curse that held Korovia in almost constant winter was a completely foreign thought 20 years earlier.

Or was it? There was a prophecy that these days would come. Queen Kasiya knew about this prophecy, the Minotaur Seer knew about it, and all the Korovian dragons knew about it. This almost forgotten prophecy, combined with a band of heroes that seemed to come out of no where, is what has made Korovia reborn into its new age.

But what other legends and prophecies are there that silently wait to come true?

There is a prophecy of a great snake woman who would destroy much of Sylvania. It sounds like the Northern Leviathan, a benevolent creature of the sea. But why would such a good creature attack an elvish city?

There is another legend that a Korovian dragon would one-day sacrifice its life to defend a small boy. Would a Korovian dragon really do that?

There are a ridiculous number of Korovian myths and legends and predictions dating back centuries. Maybe some of them have already come true and no one noticed. Regardless, there are many people in Korovia who have become very superstitious about such things. Knowledge of such prophecies has actually become very valuable.

Other Kingdoms:

Al-Kazar: Far to the south are the many desert cities of Al-Kazar. Each city is a city-state with a sultan or prince ruling over it. Some cities are human, some elves, some even are dwarves or minotaurs. Most people in Korovia only hear rumours about Al-Kazar. To them it is a mythical land of snakes and scorpions, where genies and desert nomads are in quiet abundance. Even further beyond Al-Kazar is the jungle-filled island of Quinias, where ancient temples stand in overgrown jungles and more dangers await.

The Azagolian Empire: The Azagolian Empire is actually three smaller human kingdoms, which have pledged fealty to a single emperor who rules over all three kingdoms. The empire is mostly human, with a strong belief in perfection. This perfection extends to martial arts and monks are very common in the Azagolian Empire. Unlike Korovia where elves and humans co-exist peacefully, the Azagolian humans have an ancient hatred of elves and have had many wars with both Zangolia and Basikvia over the centuries.

Basikvia: The ancient homeland of elves. It is regarded to be the birthplace of all elves. Elves dominate the landscape, but there are also many bastions of ogres throughout the land. Basikvia’s wilderness varies between tamed and untamed. The elves are suspicious of outsiders as possible ogre spies, but otherwise don’t turn into lynch mobs easily (although it has been known to happen).

Habbeland: South of Korovia is the homeland of the halflings and many fey creatures. The halflings live in a relatively quiet co-existence with their fey neighbours. When trouble stirs, it is usually because of trouble brewing amongst the fey. Pixies fighting evil pixies, and such nonsense. The halflings try to stay out of such conflict. When trouble from monsters occurs, the fey and halflings usually join forces to oust any problem.

Lavordia: To the far west of Korovia is a human kingdom called Lavordia. Magic and the quest for knowledge and power have twisted this kingdom into a land of chaos. The kingdom is regularly in a state of civil war, with wizard towers fighting against wizard towers and monsters frequently taking sides in these conflicts. Knowledge and power seems to be the ultimate ideal in Lavordian culture and almost everyone there is either a wizard or sorcerer or both. Thankfully the chaos of Lavordia is far removed from Korovia, but some of Lavordia’s wizards are known to hire out as mercenaries.

Loqland: North of Lavordia and to the east of Korovia is a harsh land where orcs and human barbarians rule. Many of the mountains in Loqland are volcanic and its wilderness is extremely harsh with no real roads. Mountain trails and hunting paths wind through its landscape. Tribes of orcs, humans, trolls, ogres and even giants roam the land in search of food and survival. There are six human cities which have fortified themselves against the dangers beyond, but also several orc cities as well. Most notable of the orc cities is Molloch, which is only a few miles across the Korovian border from Roknar. Molloch is a mountain metropolis built on top of slave mines. The orcs of Molloch are known to kidnap the children of giants and use them as slaves in their mines, and then kill the giants when they get too big to control. Loqland’s human barbarians are known for their battle prowess and fearlessness and for riding their war mammoths. Loqland’s dragons are notoriously vicious however, and eating a mammoth is considered to be a healthy appetite by a Loqland dragon’s standards. Loqland druids often have saber-tooth tigers guarding their backs.

Historically part of Loqland, part of western Korovia and all of Stilornvia was once a dwarven kingdom (briefly about 1300 years ago), but when an orc vs dwarf war broke out, with Loqland dragons helping the orcs, the dwarves retreated and had to abandon one of their cities. The dwarves split into two separate factions, one in the new dwarven kingdom of Stilornvia and the smaller one in Korovia and the orcs sacked the abandoned dwarf-city of Rokbar and renamed it “Molloch”. Molloch has ever since been a thorn in the side of both groups of dwarves.

Stilornvia: Hidden deep within the mountains west of Korovia and south of the orc city of Molloch is the dwarven kingdom of Stilornvia. It is a kingdom of stone, where almost everywhere a person walks (above ground and below ground) has been carved out of stone. They repel orc raiders from the north but otherwise keep to themselves. They care very little about what goes on in the outside world. Some Korovian dwarves travel to Stilornvia to study various crafts with the dwarven mastersmiths. The dwarves of Stilornvia have a deep hatred of all things magical (and therefore anyone from Lavordia) and Spellslayers are common in an effort to hunt down wizards and sorcerers who live amongst them. Dwarven sorcerers in Stilornvia usually flee the kingdom and come to Korovia, where magic is more welcomed.

The dwarves of Stilornvia have become exceptionally good at creating masterwork swords and armour. The Master Blacksmiths of Stilornvia have discovered secret methods of making the steel magical without using arcane magic. These methods are clan secrets and are highly valuable to outsiders.

The Wild Lands: North of the Leviathan Sea (to the northeast of Korovia) is a land of wilderness that is relatively uninhabited. Small numbers of barbarians live there, along with tribes of snow elves, giants and ice trolls. Very few that travel that far north ever return.

Zangolia: An elvish kingdom, Zangolia has dedicated itself to three things: Martial arts, making war against the Azagolian Empire, and making trade with Al-Kazar to the south. Elvish monks and clerics fight an eternal battle of superiority against their human foes to the north of them. Many elves not so keen to fight are also deep in the market trades with the rich bazaars of Al-Kazar. Zangolia is a wealthy and powerful kingdom with its share of magic and mayhem. The elvish noble houses sometimes fight amongst themselves, while the royalty maintains their war-like stance against the humans to the north. Zangolia was once part of the Azagolian Empire, but revolted centuries ago and instead formed a kingdom. Rather than rejoin Basikvia (which had signed a peace-treaty with the empire and ceded lands), Zangolia viciously maintains their independence from both Basikvia and the Empire.

Zipteklund: Far from being quiet, this land of gnomes is constantly under the barrage of new gnomish inventions (and explosions). While not at war, the gnomes do have their share of trolls and giants to defend themselves against. They do so quite successfully however, with burning machines and giant tripping machines. Gnomish juggernauts are the latest invention to walk (and clank) through Zipteklund’s wilderness. Korovian people rarely travel to Zipteklund unless they have a good reason to travel to cities where elevators and such items appeal to them for some reason. The gnomes can be quite tricky about selling such items however, as they don’t always work and the gnome who sold it mysteriously disappears.