We’ll start by looking at the three kingdoms that have the most influence on the continent (whereas you’ll see a lot of unclaimed land in the northeast).  In the yellow, you have Karnath, ruled over by a man named Jaxom.  Interestingly, in the previous timeline, Jaxom had much more influence over the world, having essentially annexed parts of Saveon to serve his purposes.  He’s got no such luck here, unfortunately, as his primary goal is just stopping the infernal demons from spilling over into his kingdom.  Those demons are mostly coming from the kingdom represented in red, Eldea.  There are portals to another world there that have not been closed, no matter how hard Jaxom has tried, and no matter how many allies he’s called on or made throughout the years.  Unfortunately, it seems it is a battle of attrition that he cannot win, and he’s slowly preparing for the end.  Those in blue, however, the kingdom of Raskon, could care less about the demons—as long as Jaxom keeps up the fight.  They’d just as soon retreat to their mines, where a tremendous amount of valuable gemstones are found.  Of course, there are those who think that, if gems can still be found on the eastern side of the mountains, there must be many more worth risking on the western side.

Without those three kingdoms changing the color palette of the continent, this is how everything looks:

And then of course, we’re also going to show an ever so brief look at this part of the world if you were to pull the curtain back a bit.  We haven’t spent a considerable amount of time here yet, but we do know of Jaxom, and a few other hidden characters that we aren’t prepared to show off yet.  But, in addition, we know that one of our characters from Quantum Quest, Breggin Toll (not popular enough to make his way into the novelization though, I’m afraid) from Narwynne is part of the continent as well.  We show both of them on the “writer read” and “city” layers that you’ll see a quick look at below.

Tarson hasn’t seen much of a change to the map since I first completed it, but we do know that it is going to be a fairly considerable part of the series as we move forward.  It’s just a slow march before we figure that out a bit more.

Now that Tarson is done, we just have one more map for the year, which is coming up just at the end of December.  It’ll be here before you know it.

The post Cartography – Tarson, Inkarnate and World Anvil appeared first on Tellest.

From the Desk of Gaston Camlann

            ‘I’ve never looked down upon such beauty, as the day I stood upon the peak of Mount In’Adell.’
            Thundar Proudfist wrote that in his book, “The Mountains of Lustra”.  The writings were a memoir of a minotaur, who had been bred into a warlike society, who longed for a change to his scenery.  He traveled the whole of Lustra, before finally ascending the aforementioned mountain in the final passage of his book.
            Tellest is an aged world.  The trees and mountains are testament of that.  Wisdom abounds in the landscape surrounding us, and the wind carries the secrets of old.
            The gods created Tellest from a hunk of molten lava.  They breathed life onto its surface, cooling the fires wrought upon the plane.  They cried tears of joy, which created the grand oceans and lakes.  They cultivated Tellest’s solid form, and grew great fields and trees and mountains.  Through the gods, Tellest was born.
            Life on Tellest was born soon after.  The gods populated the planet with all manner of beast, from the lowly mouse, to the great dragon.  Multiple types of flowers and herbs sprang up from the dirt, helping to color the once dismal world.  But Tellest still lacked beings of greater knowledge.
            The gods decided upon three greater races that would live upon the surface of Tellest.  Each would live of their own free will, able to make their own mistakes or victories.  It was up to the three to decide how they would proceed through life.
            The elves were the first to walk this earthen plane.  They were the first mortal children of the gods.  They were jealous of their creators, though, and many had forsaken them.  The dwarves were created next.  Their loyalty to the gods has earned them great favor, and many had thrived with the blessings of Golernus.  Humans took presence afterwards, formed in the true image of the gods themselves.
            The three races vied for the love of their creators, warring and meddling with each other until the Elves banished humans to the depths of the deepest mountains, the dwarves also playing their part in the third race’s exile.
            But this greatly angered the gods.
            They had not created mankind to simply be wiped out, never to be seen again.  A cataclysm of rage and fury tore the world apart, ripping the world asunder and sinking parts of it to the ocean.  Volcanoes shot up from the depths of the seas, creating new, hostile lands.  Storms shattered the single land mass into a series of continents and smaller isles.
            Following the Sundering, the gods created  scores of other creatures, and other races.  The orcs, gnolls, kobolds, kaja, lagano, minotaur, and many others took face on the planet, each with their own unique views on life.  If the elves and dwarves thought the world was theirs alone, they were mistaken.
            Then, over nine hundred years ago, the first of us men began climbing from our earthen holes.  We escaped from our exile, appearing in every corner of the world, ready to live anew upon the surface.  We had forgiven the elves and dwarves, and found new allies waiting for us in the orcs, minotaur, kobolds and kaja.
            Together, this world is ours.
            Together, we will thrive.

The World

General

The world of Tellest is vast and varied.  Gaston Camlann, one of the leading historians of the human race, has said that there are infinite possibilities that abound throughout the lands, the deep oceans and the treacherous underworld.

While Tellest can be beautiful, it can also be cruel.  Scattered across the globe, the goodly races struggle to make the most of their lives while protecting their lives and livelihood against the darker races, like the gnolls, the lagano and the goblins.  The deep oceans are filled with even stranger evils, like murkgills and levians.

Yet, among all the frightening unknowns, the humans, the dwarves and even the elves have banded together to push forward.  Though cataclysmic events like the demon wars and the rise of the great dragon Batrura have shaped the world, the people who call Tellest home are not easily deterred.

Continents

Tellest is composed of several large land masses.

The major continents are Lustra, Ravane, Saveon, Astranus, Draconis, Mistfall, Lionel, Erenea, Algea and Tarson, in order of their size.  There are also two archipelago continents called Numasa and Brittanea.  In the deep south, a glacial continent called the Frozen Abyss also supports a small amount of life.

Each of these land masses supports a variety of life and has a rich history, whether it be the haunted isle of Japel Brae in Brittanea, the Forgotten Sands of Xumedar in Lustra, or the lands of Vissicus in Lionel, where demons from Evarice have peaceably settled.

Magic and the Strain

In Tellest, magic exists as a sort of radioactive tapestry.  It is part of the world the same way the weather is, and in that form is called the aether.  Various practitioners of the arcane arts tap into this world between worlds, and create magic with the powers it bestows.

Because of its presence, the aether can bestow its gifts on people even unbeknownst to them.  This is called the Strain, and it has blessed many people with uncanny powers.

The races all inherit their gifts differently.  Humans are the tried and true champions of Tellest, who toil with their identities and the harsh way they are treated.  Dwarves very rarely receive the Strain.  When they do, it’s a sign that they’ve become their own clan leader.  They are essentially thrown out of their original clan to start a new one.  Elves share the strain amongst themselves, but typically their powers are very limited.  As an example, the Whisperwind elves can teleport anywhere they’ve been before, but only twice a day.  Even the darker races experience the strain in some cases. Harpies, for instance, gain the title of Matron, and can take additional male consorts.

Technology

980 years after the return of man, technology has begun to rapidly change the face of the world.  The gnomes, especially, have begun taking spectacular risks, some of them quite inane, in the name of science.

Coupled with magic, nearly anything is possible.  In Raleigh, in the city of Atalatha, a tinkerer named Maximus Xanders has created a clockwork steed that he calls Equinicus.  In the seas south of Draconis, the various pirate lords have been working on a projectile artillery weapon with more accuracy than a catapult.  The gnomes of the Golden Council were supposedly even able to make fully functioning automatons – recreations of themselves to serve as a proxy in basic tasks.

The post Tellest appeared first on Tellest.

Entymology

Raleigh is named after a human leader, Quintus Raleigh.  Every one of Raleigh’s human leaders since then, except for one, has been of the Raleigh bloodline.

Geography and Environment

Raleigh is bordered by mountains on its north and west sides, the ocean on its south side, and a swamp on its southeast.  It also shares borders with Daltain on its southeast and both Cracius and Warus on its east.

Due to its geographical variety, Raleigh is exposed to most climate types.  The mountains at its north border, called the Great Boundary, often see their fair share of snow, while the same range has a volcano upon it called MountScourge.  A desert exists near its western border of mountains.  A large amount of rivers and forests also speckle the countryside.

The ecology is also very diverse.  Although not much of the animal or plant life found in Raleigh is unique, it is plentiful.

Races

Raleigh is home to several races.  Draconis in general is the habitat for nearly every humanoid race on Tellest, and Raleigh has the most diverse groups of people.

Raleigh’s most populated race is humans.  After the sundering, humans began emerging from the mountainous regions around Raleigh’s border.  As time moved on, and race relations extended to the dwarves, most humans moved away from the mountains, preferring to settle near the ocean, around rivers, or in the valleys of Raleigh.

Most human settlements remain solely for humans.  There is no integration, yet there is no segregation.  Occasionally, individuals or families of another race can be found among the bigger cities, but this is no different for human establishments as it is for the other races.

Dwarves and elves are equivalent to the next most populous race within Raleigh.  Dwarves are known to inhabit many of the mountainous areas, while Elves can be found in some of the heavily wooded regions.

Orcs, gnomes and minotaurs are also known to inhabit various places in Raleigh, but on a much lesser scale than the three prime races.  There are also small tribes of other races that can be found as well.

History

Early History

Raleigh is often considered the center of humanity.  After the sundering of Tellest, where great storms shattered land masses and drenched the planet in water, humans exited the mountains around the country.  These humans were known as the most hospitable, and quickly made friendly advances towards the neighboring races.

Draconis itself is a continent that is very populous with human kind, especially in the countries of Gandarst, Blacklehn, and Raleigh.  But while humans within Gandarst and Blacklehn originated with nomadic cultures, Raleigh quickly developed into a hub of consistent community, and was able to develop technologically, politically and agriculturally at a much quicker pace than the other two countries.

Much of Raleigh’s camaraderie can be attributed to the leadership of Quintus Raleigh, the human leader who originally banded the country together.  He ruled the country from a small city called Viscosa, which went on to grow and become Raleigh’s capitol.  He also was responsible for the commissioning of roads (however primitive they were at the time), and lines of communication between the far reaches of the distant cities.

Notable Successors

Nasir Raleigh, the eighth ruler of Raleigh, was the first of the human leaders of Raleigh to deal with a major war on the soil of his country.  Trollkind invaded Raleigh, with the intent on slaughtering all humans and taking their cities as their own.  Nasir managed to not only successfully defend many of his country’s establishments, but also pressed the majority of the trolls into the ocean along its south border, though some did escape into the swamp bordering the country’s southeast.

Ramelan Raleigh, the country’s eleventh ruler, was not attributed any grand changes for his nation, though while in service, the land was run with clever leadership, leaving most of the populous content.  Ramelan is most well remembered by his strange shift of personality towards the end of his years of service.  He began witnessing strange occurrences in dreams, and was not hesitant to speak of them.  Foremost, he predicted the appearance of the fallen angel, Semia’Laz, at that point still many years from manifestation.  His political support wavered, no one willing to believe the king, who was assumed to have gone mad.  With many of his people, council, and even close family no longer trusting in his opinions, he took a handful of believers, and disappeared one day, never to be seen again.

Laertes Raleigh, Ramelan’s direct descendant, and twelfth ruler of Raleigh, eventually had to deal with his father’s premonitions.  Sure enough, Semia’Laz appeared on Tellest during Laertes’ years of service.  Laertes led several terribly outmatched battles against the immortal fallen angel, and the demon armies Semia’Laz commanded.  Eventually, it was Laertes decision to abandon Raleigh, and he, together with the other races represented by the Golden Council (which included dwarves, elves, orcs, gnomes, kobolds and minotaurs), began an exodus to the mountains to flee underground.  After Semia’Laz was slain, Laertes brought his people out of hiding, and worked to rebuild Raleigh.

The fifteenth ruler of Raleigh was also the only ruler not of Raleigh’s bloodline.  Magnus Lorethal was the counselor of the fourteenth ruler, Bidouin Raleigh.  When Bidouin was murdered, he had no male heir.  The rest of the council thought that Magnus was as good a choice as any to lead the nation.

Zenda Raleigh was the sixteenth ruler of Raleigh, and was Bidouin’s daughter.  She suspected that Magnus had murdered her father, and, six years after her father’s death, proved that Magnus was responsible.  Her courage, determination and intelligence proved her worth to Raleigh’s council, and they appointed her the first female ruler of the country.

Samson Raleigh, the eighteenth ruler of Raleigh, was King during the Plague of Fire, when demons once again terrified the planet.  Supposedly, the demons believed that Samson had the gauntlets Azaros and Vialoth, and attacked Viscosa to acquire them.  He stayed within his city, defending it with his life, while he sent his wife, and his daughter, Carensa, his eventual successor, away from the ensuing battle.

The current ruler of Raleigh is Victor Raleigh, son of Gregory.  He has been in service to the nation for nineteen years, and political opinion of him is beginning to falter.

The post Raleigh appeared first on Tellest.