Primer

To Begin
Before anything else, I want you to keep something in mind. There are three continets within the world - you're going to only choose one. Which ever has the most interest is where the party will be starting from and what we will be conducting our session zero over. What is offered below is an overview of the overarching themes, places, and current events to help you decide; you will learn more pertinent information when a consensus is met.

At the very end there are some questions for you to answer regardless of where you choose.

Themes

 * Identity - who you are is defined by the swing of the bat, not the words you use.
 * Exploration - graves and holy places; untouched, private; unwelcoming -- there are no such things here; the world welcomes you. Take that which is willingly offered to you - learning and experience are a reward rather than taking and plundering; respect and care instead of violence and pride.
 * Exploration and Travel - Dungeon delving, eating new food, and meeting new people and learning about how they live.
 * History and legacy - how things get forgotten and misremembered.
 * Dreams and Reality: What changes can someone's dreams have on the world around them? What does it mean to exist within a dream, with the possibility of disappearing when someone else wakes up?
 * You can’t run from yourself.
 * How rumors affect reality. Personal responsibility for making the world what it is and what we want it to be, and the consequences of failing to take responsibility.
 * Environmentalism. What you do to your home matters; whatever it is - make it count.
 * Si vis pacem, para bellum. "If you want peace, [you should] prepare for war".

These are broad overarching themes - some may be more prevelant in one area of the world than another, but when thinking of who you are (character wise) it may be smart to keep these in mind. Make them yours, or disregard them as you please; differences are what make you you and the party unique.

The World as a Whole
“Explorers dig through the wreckage of dead cities, the only difference is that you are meant to be there. The people of the past knew the end was coming and that it was inevitable, so they chose to leave their homes for whoever was going to come next. They dedicated what time they had left preparing, chronicling, explaining themselves and their world to whoever that would come next... What could their stories have been, what could they have left behind?”

Setting

 * Setting Location - a highly homebrewed world (with help from 3rd party content), that centers around the players exploring and enjoying at their leisure. Do not take this as time being unimportant - things can and will change without you being somewhere to witness it, this is instead a welcome to explore what you'd like as you like; the world will always have problems, and sometimes it's okay to know you can't fix them all. (Nor should you try.)


 * Scope - Continent-spanning. This is mostly done through learning about the world itself -- the history that has been long left to sleep or is actively changing every day, and what specific goal or reason a PC may have to be interested in globe trotting.
 * As a soft-scope, you the PCs, will most likely be starting in the hub city of: this will be shared when the results are finalized

''Remember you can only choose one. There may be oppoortunities to visit the others in your game, but for the most part the scope is continent wide.''
 * Setting Events:
 * the great Dungeon has been found beneath the Beastlands; it's reach is far and unending, where once was a thriving port town has become a bay of sahuagin, a river changes course at the drop of a hat, a great fort has appeared in someone's basement. With no rhyme or reason the Dungeon appears and the Delvers are the celebrity of the era.
 * the land of Brinn is facing the instability of the veil between the planes; odd and mindboggling changes are appearing upon the world from the City of Brass making a home in the badlands, the Fey taking root wherever they please, and pockets of time out of place; but it is also true to say that new riches and resources are gaining a foothold; academic success? Monster ecology? A chef or crafter in search of new material -- the world is your oyster and there has never been a better time to be curious.
 * Samellęda is a land shrouded in mystery and adventure, where riches and dangers await heroes who explore the vast expanse of the continent. Deserts abound with forgotten tombs, swift sandships, capricious genies, and wild nature spirits; the tall grasses of the savannah hide lost cities and valiant warriors, and the dense jungles swarm with living vines that choke the life from careless visitors. Those who are brave enough to brave the burning sands, fierce jungles, wild coasts and ancient ruins may find riches beyond imagining but beware—for the foolish and the unlucky, only death awaits.
 * Danger - Moderately safe to high stakes danger; there is no real safety while out and about on the road, but people in general aren’t out to harm you without good reasons. Ruins and exploration zones will be a mixed bag; some areas are overcoming new wounds.
 * Goals: party-oriented goals (your stories, so to speak). Learning about history (and how, in some cases, everything you know is wrong) and the world left behind. Figuring out who you are or want to be.
 * Player input: What are your goals (or the goals of the party? A game you’d like to play?): Wealth? Doing good/helping others? Surviving? Accomplishing personal goals? Telling a heroic story? Getting revenge? Crafting? Categorizing? Fame?
 * Game style: role playing, exploration, archeology & ruin delving.
 * Levity: light-hearted to moderately serious as campaign deems necessary.

[Show/hide] The Beastlands
People in the Beastlands make their lives beautiful by loving and trusting one another. They live without self-consciousness, and love without shame. Even in a dangerous and sometimes grim world, that gives them power to prevail. Showing vulnerability and trusting someone else aren’t foolish or naive. Those things are what makes delvers strong.

With its own mythology, creation myths, and views someone from the Beastlands may have a bit of a unique view on things.

(Players please note: The beastlands is the only continent that has major race restrictions. Due to it's absolute veil The Beastlands are considered to be a "cross-world" continent and thus has it's own set of history and development set entirely at odds with the other choices.

Beast People
In the Beastlands creation myth, a deity changes her favorite animals into people. In the Beastlands, the walking animal-like people are called “beasts” and non-sentient animals are called “animals,” and sometimes “quiet-minded beasts.” They are considered wholly separate.

The History/Setting of the Beastlands
Before the Dungeon, monsters were a rarity. In the Beastlands, adventuring is a trade and its workers are called “delving crews.” Monsters and dungeons aren’t everywhere all the time, but there are thousands of delvers in the world. Delvers travel in wagons, and in caravans. Crews of around delvers travel in house wagons.

The Dungeon
“The Dungeon” is both an entity and a phenomenon. Spanning the entity of the Beastlands is The Dungeon reaching depths unknown, with few that have traversed past the first upper-crust layers. However, it also causes the mysterious phenomenon where mazes and ruins appear out of nowhere, all around the world. Monsters come from the Dungeon. They aren’t sapient. Delvers kill monsters, but this isn’t considered murder. Monsters can be intelligent, but they act on instinct and don’t change their worldview based on experience. These traits are defined as being a “willful creature”, and it’s also what separates two-legged “beasts” from four-legged “animals.”

Murder is uncommon. The average person isn’t desperately poor. Killing shopkeepers will get one quickly imprisoned or worse. There aren’t bandits cutting throats on the side of every road. Most people have what they need to get by.

Cosmology
The gods of the Beastland are few. Most people revere Pirhoua (good); beasts believe that Pirhoua gave them sapience. There are a few others: Dramphine (justice), The Seelie (dreams), Yttrus (knowledge), Varasta (chaos), Aubade (the sun), Veronette (evil). In addition, the people of the Beastlands don’t see gods as “people.” Deities are personifications of concepts, not people with free will. They can only act in accordance with their domain.

Homelands & Magic
There are five major “homelands.” They are Allemance, Vinyot, Arneria, Al’ar, and Oria.

Magic within the Beastlands is a commonality. People who grow up in cities will more than likely have meet a great magic user, or well-read wizard. Almost everyone knows someone who can cast a cantrip. Most people have used at least one common magic items. However, there are exceptions to this rule. Due to Delvers traveling through wagons -- and a times whole towns doing so -- teleportation, or rather anything that allows instant long-range travel, is a rarity. The undead within the Beastlands, are always considered evil as the people of the Beastlands see the power to create them as coming from Veronette, an evil deity. Fiends are from a place where nothing exists, and exist only to destroy creation. Regular folks will call for help if they see the use of almost any necromancy.

History
There are living beasts who remember the birth of this world centuries ago. On that first day, the Beast Mother Pirhoua chose a menagerie of her favorite animals. They stood up, and she showed them the horizon. In the centuries following, they built cities and societies spanning their world and beyond. They formed homelands, five broad cultural and geographical identities. Then, their young reality’s rulebook was rewritten. They repelled a human army’s invasion. Humans were curious creatures first encountered from a parallel land that they hadn’t known existed. The war surprised them, and a grueling conflict ensued. After three years of occupation, they pulled freedom from the precipice of defeat. The Invader War redefined their world, but change was just the beginning.

Victory solved the beasts’ plight, but defeat left humanity with theirs. Millions of desperate humans were still trapped in their Broken World. Fallow soil would starve most and thin air would suffocate the rest. The Beasts learned that their invasion was motivated by a catastrophe threatening their existence. Beasts learned that sometimes, forgiveness requires deliberate effort. Despite their crimes, Beasts looked to the future and prepared to accept humans into our world. No longer as invaders, but as brethren. Beasts declared forgiveness and pleaded with their goddess to help rescue their enemy. Pirhoua performed her second great miracle: the Pilgrimage of humans. In an instant, millions were swept from the final closing of death’s jaws. Humans were here to stay. The Pilgrimage redefined our world again, but more change came with it.

Invasion transformed the world. The Pilgrimage transformed it again. Now, the Dungeon is transforming it once more. Heroic beasts and brethren take up arms to chase it away wherever it may appear. More bold adventurers join the cause every day to win the unimaginable riches waiting in the Dungeon’s belly. The Delve has begun.

[Show/hide] Brinn
Brinn is a place of self-sufficieny. Neighbors, friends, and family strive for unity and trust even when the bridge seems well-past destroyed, because that is the only to survive the changing landscape and lifestyle challenges presented to them. They live with hope in their hearts, and appreciate seeing every new dawn. Even when things seem bleak and the world is no longer as they are used to, giving up has never been a concept Brinnians know. There is no winning if there is no one left to witness the way history is changing in real time; the spite to go on and the obstinance to innovate is what makes this new rocky era less daunting than it could have been.

Brinnian Tenacity
When the first plane-tear opened up on some poor Brinnian's farm, it was not their first instinct to hide and call for help. Instead, in Brinn, curiosity and all that is wrapped with it is often one's first realization. This curiosity has lead to quite a number of problems on the continent, but this very same curiosity is one of the reason's plane-hopping and inter-planar work-permits and careers exist.

The History/Setting of Brinn
Monsters and the occasional odd planar-disturbance are not an unknown to Brinn. It's only when the first planar-rift occured that "adventuring" broadend it's criteria to more than just someone out to caravan the wilds and stab things with. Most rifts are stationary allowing relatively stable travel between the planes and their neighbors, allowing a near-constant ability for "adventurers" (even if, in fact, they may instead be caravan crafters, chefs in search of the big New Thing, or someone who fancies themself a planar historain) to travel, explore, or study as whenever they fancy (and can be allowed through a rift.)

Planar Travel
Rifts are tears within the veil that allow travel through the material plane to the surrounding out planes. There are only a few stationary rifts, anchored by a magic as of yet still unknown and incapable of being replicated, but all over Brinn rifts have a chance of appearing -- often without certanty to which plane it allows access to, and even less known about what will come out of it. All new lifeforms and things come from these rifts, with some leaving catastrophic damage to surroudning enviornments in their wake. Some within Brinn believe this can be an opportunity to advance while other see this as a portent to greater problems to come.

Officially, all that is known is that there is no way to stop the rifts from opening, and even less on how to force them shut. Hecate, Ailuros, Anu-Akma, Bengta, and Charun

Cosmology
The gods of Brinn have shifted and changed over the years of the continents existence, and godhood has only grown more turbulent with the rifts. Overall, across the continent the following beings take presidence: Thymeia (The Maiden of Health), Lotar (Warbringer), Soliel (The Sun Prince), Hecate (Opener of Doors; Mother of Twilight), Ailuros (the wild and free goddess of moonlit nights and joyous hunting), Annui (Judge of the Dead and Guardian of Tombs), Bengta (Goddess of Dawn and Honey), and Charun (Patron of Sailors and Gravediggers), but there are a few other minor Masks that can be encoutered through the land.

Ruling powers & Magic
There are several rulling powers native to Brin. They consists of: the Isles of Manaki (noticeably closed off from most of the world), Vydínnja (Vee-DIN-ya),Tethe'alla, Tenebrae, & Meraja

Magic within Brinn is ever-studied subject. There are universities, societies, and guildes dedicated to understanding its uses, forms, and the root of its very source within the world. Magic itself perforates through the realm, though the practice and formal study of it is considered to be uncommon, with only those with recognition from a school or acknowledgement from someone in power (even if that power is a mayor of a hamlet) allowed to use it without resaon. Yes, many people know someone who can cast a cantrip, or owns a common magic item, but all of these people are registered within their region's Arcane Library. Very few form of magic are considered distastful, illegal, or otherwise, as magic is instead jugged on a case by case basis.

Of course, this doesn't mean that the new swell of magic from the rifts is always so well recieved. Scholars may appreciate the new cultures to study, the architecture to learn from, the ruins to explore, but hardly anyone at all enjoys a swirl of wild magic dropping a bear in their home, or a rift to the fire plane setting off an explosion in their flower garden.

History
There are few who remember the Age of God-Games, when the world was new and the land unknown. Gods of all sorts roamed free and capricious, playing favor with whatever being caught their eye for a time. This was the time of first civilizations and walking myth. In the centuries that followed culture flourished, but so too did greed and envy. For a new world, war was always a potential fallout.

Gods are fickle thing -- playful one moment and hateful in the next; their creations were merely pawns in a very long, very misunderstood game. The war brought about the Mana Wastes -- a realm of fickle magic and deadzones alike, but it was only the first change on a long list. After years of ill-started fighting, people rebelled against the divine and their tricks. The Age of God-Games redefinied their understanding of the powerful and their world, but this was just the first step of many.

Rebellion led to an end of the war, but it left a wreck of a home behind, and gods erased from the aether as their names were scracthed from walls and throats alike, lost to the sands of time and history, waiting to be replaced. Millions of displaced beings were still left trapped in a world they broke with their own hands. But while the first age of gods were left behind, their divine wells were not. Magic was a little understood phenomena, and even fewer were found to be able to withstand it's influence. This was the first spark of interest for the aether and all that it has to offer, with fallow soil being rejuvenated, water springing up clean and clear, and steady ground to rest upon.

The one gift the first gods left and the people's ingenuity led to the second gathering of communities. Lines were drawn in the sand, and some grudges were never let go, but no one wins if everyone dies, the people learned. Magic changed the world once more, but still there was more to come.

War transformed the world. Magic helped return it to a livable state. Now, the Rifts are transforming it and its values once more. Curious creatures and all-in-between have launched themselves head first through wherever they appear, eager to learn about their new neighbors (or riches, or homes, or resources). The world is set on a course for a new kind of change, but only time and the actions taken will tell what this change will bring.

[Show/hide] Samellęda
Through whipping winds, drought-heavy months, and the ever changing see of sand the people of Samellęda prevail. Quick-wit and of sturdy body, there is little that will break the spirit of those who live in the Sand Sea. They have lived through the longest of wars, and seen entire empires fall; the people of sand see change as inevitable; why fight when you can simply live?

Arcane Wasting
Unique to the Sea of Sand, the arcane wasting is a disease that ravages the mind until there is nothing left behind but a husk. Once thought to be contained to The High Jungles, cases of it have been on the rise in Per-Kush and surrounding cities. If it is not contained soon, there is very little that will stop its spread.

The History/Setting of the Samelleda
From the Wind Lords to the Godlings of Nuria Natal, and to the Skittering Ones within the Abandoned Lands, there is hardly a moment of true, unobstructed quiet within the land of sand. There is always something new to be discovered (or for people to be discovered by), and there are always those willing to tempt the fate of a divine spark.

Divine Sparks
Divine Sparks are the last surviving essences of the Titans that were worshiped near 5,000 years ago. They offer power that few understand, but just as easily offer curses upon those considered unworthy. Hidden in temples beneath the sand, or left in slumbering bodies of the Titans that yet remain, divine sparks are only one of the majesty's left behind to be discovered. In the Wastes is fickle and at times, chaotic, bouts of magic that transform those unlucky enough to be caught within its maelstrom. Webs of ley lines that allow travel between the realms and acess to tombs unseen. Monsters here exist in all forms both natural and chaos-born; and still, this is only a few of the oddities that make up the Sea of Sand.

Life here is different. Murder, theft, and trickery is not uncommon here, but nor can it be called a norm. Harming a shopkeeper or robbing a caravan is still a quick way to get imprisoned, or worse. But danger here is -- an expected consequence. There is nothing safe about the desert; it is best to realize this early.

Cosmology
There are a number of gods within Samellęda. Some are Major Masks, such as (but not limited to): Anu-Akma, Aten, Bastet, Horus, Ninkash, and Yamaja. While others are considered to be Minor Masks, or locale specific gods (such as Bes, Hune, and Khonsu.) The gods here are numerous and ever changing, save for the gods of Nuria-Natal, commonly known as the birth place of the pantheon that existed even before the titans.

The gods of the Samellęda understand and relish their role in the world, and they are not fearful of offending the worshipers of other gods and realms. They walk among their faithful, explore the physical world, and take some measure of delight in the mundane. Ancient, wise, and treacherous, they demand respect in concrete terms: sacrifices, temples, and proper behavior. Many Samellęda gods punish those who fail to propitiate them.

In addition, the gods and goddesses of Samellęda are not individuals; they are archetypes or incarnations of universal forces. They aren’t people in the same sense that individual mortals are. Though they all arise from the strength of their priests and the cosmos, the same god can look and act entirely differently from one region to another. The beliefs of the faithful similarly vary from place to place, even among those who purport to worship the same deity. Many gods of Samellęda go by multiple names and even switch gender and appearance when it suits them

Regions & Magic
There are nine major regions. They are Nuria Natal, The Lands of Wind and Sand, Dabu, The High Jungle, The Kingdoms of Salt and Steel, Corsair Coat, The Abandoned Lands, Hives of Tosculi, and The Southern Fringe.

Magic within Samellęda is not an unknown. Divine sparks exist here, myth and history is rife with magic untapped and unknown, but more specifically, for those in the know, travelling around the continet in a quicker fashion is not an impossibility. Transportation magic -- to those who can figure it out -- exists in the forms of Red Portals, Magical Monuments, or even the shadow roads.

Undead on the continent is a complex topic. There are always those who will see the undead as evil, but in other places such as Nuria-Natal, the undead are an almost expected group of individuals. Outside of this region, however, it is always best to be conservative with necromantic magic and practices lest you stumble into a... situation.

A (very brief) History
Over the millennia, empires and kingdoms have risen to unparalleled heights across the Samellęda, only to succumb to fire, war, and chaos. As each has fallen, new kingdoms have arisen, often making it hard to determine when one nation ended and another one began. As the kingdoms and empires of the Samellęda have risen and fallen, many have left behind a legacy of magical treasures and forgotten secrets. Not everything lost to the ravages of the past stays in the past—the god-kings of Nuria Natal are notorious for not staying in their tombs, and powerful magic items have a habit of resurfacing, unearthed from ruins by adventurers or claimed by dangerous villains. The loot of the Samellęda is more ancient, and often greater in power, than most plunder found elsewhere in Astierria, and its ancient origin means that much of the rediscovered magic is completely unfamiliar to living adventurers.

The Samellęda have been shaped by many ancient powers, but three great ones stand out. First, an empire of powerful, divine titans—Glorious Umbuso—once ruled most of the Samellęda. The titans’ rule has long since ended, leaving abandoned cities and secrets in their wake.

Second, a trio of mighty elementals known as the Wind Lords still hold dominion over the Stone Desert. The Wind Lords’ influence has awakened the spirits of wind, stone, fire, and water within their domain.

Finally, the living gods of Nuria Natal control the desert lands along the magical River Nuria. These gods meddle in the affairs of their mortal subjects and even walk among them as their whims dictate—the goddess Bastet, for instance, is not an uncommon sight in the city that takes her name

Question:
''Please keep in mind that these are continent-agnostic questions. You can be as vague or as detailed as you'd like to be - I simply want something from you to inrich the world in someway, or to muse about things for your potential character.''

In addition to the above, I ask that you keep any race and class combination at bay/to yourself until we have a joint group session 0 to discuss party comp, inter-player relations, and the world as a whole (your questions, your goals and wants, etc., etc.,) If you would, only share these answers with me after that session 0.


 * Tell me about a myth or history about where you're from, your family, or a place you've heard of.
 * Who is the most influential person in your life. Why?
 * What is your hobby and what brought you to it?
 * What is something you want to learn about in the world?
 * What is it you considered your greatest flaw? Your greatest strength?
 * Share a folktale with me.

Optional Content
Everything listed here is optional content - meaning you can ask about it and explore it as you wish. Some can be an interest/hobby if you'd like, while others are classes, mechanics; just options. These are vague for now, but if there is any interest they can be explained (and incorporated) further.
 * Alchemy, Crafting & Enchanting (as hobbies/career)
 * Tracking & Harvesting
 * Heliana's Tamer class (there will only be one of this class allowed if there's any interest.)