World of Adel

The World of Adel. Click for the full size. Only the basic geography is shown, so tributaries, lakes, canyons, swamps and such are unseen. Each hex may be expanded upon as a small region should you wish it.

Adel is a lone supercontinent surrounded by various smaller pieces of land. It is about 7 million square miles in size. The Endless Ocean stretches out from there, and none has charted its vastness in full. Beyond Adel is the Halo of Clouds, which composes the Sky. Below Adel is Septinum, known as the Hells Beneath All Creation, openings to which can be found in Abyss Isle and the wastes of Noshiki. Far beyond the reach of any Adelian is the Crawling Chaos of the Forlorn Void, most easily seen at night, an area of darkness within which shine tiny, jeweled stars, a pearl-like moon and a burning ruby sun. Adelians believe that the Crawling Chaos is endlessly rotating around the world like a bird of prey, and so there is day and night as the stars and sun are pushed around by its exertions. The Endless Ocean is home to societies of water spirits, as well as unknown terrors of the deep, and perhaps even lost civilizations, still living outside the notice of the Adelians.

History of Adel

1 A.C. (After-Cataclysm) – 700 A.C.: After the ravages of the last cataclysm, this period is known as the Time Before History. There are no real written records of this period, other than the Adelian’s creation mythology, and what they can discern from asking spirits old enough to know. The Adelian races originated in this period, and the last of the Lost World Humans became extinct in the new, strange world that surrounded.

750 A.C. – 1200 A.C.: This period is known as the “Tribal Period.” Adelians organized into disparate societies, the hallmarks of which can still be seen, in a more developed form, in the majority of rural villages. Many Adelians traditions and mythos were conceived during this period, as well as the advent of writing, and the beginnings of the New Adelian language. Near the end of the period, three distinct societies began to form: Kusant, Peirash and Aptoa.

1300 A.C. – 1700 A.C.: Known as the Aptoan Empire Age, the Aptoa people either conquered or subsumed most of Adel, including even the Vedarian deserts. Within this long age also occurred the Age of Discovery, where foundation for the future of Adel was laid down by the discovery of ancient ruins, the study of magic, the formation of the New Adelian standard, and increased physical and social contact with the Spirits, including having non-guardian Spirits frequenting cities and towns. From this period on, Adel looked much like it does now, and quite unlike the Tribal period.

1700 A.C. – 1800 A.C.: The Intolerable War. Over a hundred years, millions of people die as the entire world is thrown into the chaos of warfare. The various cultures, wishing to be free to do with their ancestral lands as they wish, to take advantage for themselves all the resources and learning that have been gained, rebel against the Aptoan masters. The Aptoan Empire crumbles, and is divided into five nations: Emderuer in one half of the ancestral lands of the Aptoa, Andaliel, in the other half, Sargasso in the lands of the Pierashi, Vedaria in the lands of the Kusanti and Periterim between the Kusanti and Aptoa lands.

1800 A.C. – 1900 A.C.: The Recovery Period. After the chaos and misery of a hundred years of war, the Adelians learn what peace means again. The national governments solidify themselves, the arts, academics and culture recover, and diplomatic ties are extended, both for convenience, and to avoid any further warfare. A “continental” economy of trading and sharing what one has in places where it does not commonly exist helps to create more cultural variety and unique cultural interactions.

2012 A.C.: Today. The Intolerable War is lingers, never forgotten, but people have tried to move on, and to keep the tragedies of the past from haunting and paralyzing them. It is an age of peace, prosperity. Adel is still mostly covered in rural farming and hunting villages, but small commercial towns have been popping up, and each nation has long since established a few of its own iconic, large, a-la-mode cities that are the pride, talk and dreams of every citizen. Dangers large and small still await the Adelians, and daily occurrences require the intervention of heroes, of governments, of spirits. There is a pervading peace, but points of darkness prick the great curtain of light in a many places.