Ivarind

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Ivarind
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Type: Temperate
Affiliation: Divided (Kingdom of Zaeren, dragon broods, small tribes)
Planetary Information
Population: 420 million
Day Length: 19 hours
Year Length: 420 days
Surface Temp: 11° C
Gravity: Standard
Atmosphere: Nitrogen, Oxygen
Societal Information
Races: Human, Van, Goliath, Dragon

Ivarind is a freshly contacted world in the Terminus Sector. Dominated politically by humans, it's also heavily influenced by the local dragons. Although the ancient dragon broods still hold the original Titan facilities on Ivarind and use them to control many aspects of life on the planet, politically it's become completely dominated by humans and a dragon-blooded human variant.

Culture[edit | edit source]

In the few short years since its exposure to the galactic society, Ivarind became known for its backwardness. For eight thousand years, there has been little technological or magical development and the society stagnated despite (or perhaps because of) the tumultuous political landscape. Only males are seen as fit to rule and work in most jobs, with women being allowed to inherit only in the most dire circumstances. "Sodomy" (an umbrella term for all kinds of sexual "deviancy") is punishable by death. Some humans are seen as innately better because they're nobility. Only one religion, the Saints of Lausain, is tolerated with others being often shut off to closed sections of towns and frequently slaughtered without repercussion. There is no police force, with the town guard merely taking care to protect their lord's interests. Magic is poorly understood, with the most powerful magic users being persecuted witches or low-level state-sanctioned wizards. In addition to all that, health and medicine are really poorly understood, and the world is quickly gaining reputation for quacks who put frogs on sick people to treat their bad humors, and appalling hygiene standards, known for rivers of refuse flowing openly down city streets. And no one is doing anything about it.

Although the dragon broods of Ivarind claim to oversee it and maintain the well-being of Ivarind's inhabitants, they seem to be doing either an extremely poor job at it, or are merely using those claims for their own abuse of the population. Green and red dragons, guardians of nature and change respectively, are often openly hostile to humanoids of Ivarind, settling for nothing but total obedience. Silver dragons claim to distance themselves from "mortal" conflicts, but in effect meddled in history and by proxy had a hand in centuries of abuse. Golden dragons, allegedly guardians of justice, raise their hands too rarely and when they do, they often cause more harm than help, case in point being the Golden Rebellion they called. Violet dragons actively hamper the humanoids' advancement, hoarding any knowledge they would find useful. Only the black dragons, whose domain of earth gives them no responsibility for the world, seem to be trying to alleviate the poor conditions and helping alien charity workers, but are often poorly understood by locals and thus feared and avoided.

Ivarind's opening to the Galaxy resulted in thousands fleeing the world and seeking employment in more advanced worlds, taking jobs most in the Galaxy would fear, such as settling on the worlds of crime lords such as Verroak Krasha. A few charity organizations from the Gnadra Confederacy attempted to establish some help centers to elevate Ivarind to higher standards but local lords either refused due to irrational fears of aliens conquering their world from the inside, or subverted the charity funds for their own gain. Currently, no one has realistic plans to "fix" Ivarind and bring it to higher standards of living, though the ongoing civil war and rapid emigration may soon leave it a hollow shell of a world.

History[edit | edit source]

Over 80,000 years ago, the Titans visited Ivarind and placed a small number of facilities on its surface. The draconic lifeforms flourished near most of those facilities and some Titans gladly experimented with them. As dragons are naturally creatures on the threshold of sentience, Titanic guidance improved their development. Still during the Titan Era, the dragon broods established cultures and hierarchies influenced by some elements of Titan culture they saw, filtered through environmental scientists who communed with them. When the Titan Apocalypse came, dragons briefly fought on the Titans' side, but had little influence on the fight. After all the Titans and Elder Things on Ivarind were gone, the brood queens took over remnants of the Titanic facilities and appointed themselves guardians of various aspects of society on Ivarind.

About 8,000 years ago, humans, descendants of the most populous Titan constructs on Ivarind, expanded across the planet and came in contact with the stagnant, but powerful dragon broods. In time, a large number of human kingdoms spawned, some revering and some fearing the dragons. A small number of kingdoms attempted to slay or tame the dragons, with little success. For the following thousands of years, civilization on Ivarind did not advance technologically or magically, knowing only very rudimentary magic and Middle Ages-level of technology. In that regard, Ivarind became stagnant, but politically it was tumultous, with kingdoms and dynasties constantly changing.

Over 2,000 years ago, a number of silver dragons took interest in humans from the Silver Peaks region. After cross-breeding with the humans in a human-like form, a race called vans was born. Resembling beautiful, silver-haired humans with innate magical ability, vans of Silver Peaks quickly expanded their empire across southern Zaeren and Acatok. For over 700 years, the Silver Empire was the most powerful state on Ivarind, until a magical cataclysm destroyed the Silver Peaks and shattered them into the Smoking Islands that now join the two continents. The cataclysm's source is often speculated to be misuse of a Titan superweapon in a fashion similar to the fall of Atlantis on Earth.

The now dispossessed vans spread across the world and began using their power to manipulate the fate of kingdoms. Some chose to be bandits or wizards who influenced history only by proxy, while some became warlords whose tenuous and fragile states shook up the landscape. Finally, 315 years ago, a van warlord named Raknost the Conqueror allied himself with actual silver dragons and using their magical power, conquered large swathes of land in Zaeren, creating the modern Kingdom of Zaeren. He abolished all the minor crowns under him, and divided the land into a limited selection of viceroys, who had under them a number of dukes descended from former kings and princes, establishing a feudal system.

Not long afterwards, 286 years ago, a celestial event further shattered the previous balance of Ivarind. A meteor materialized from nowhere above Ivarind and just before hitting the ground, it exploded in the air, flattening a mostly unpopulated forest in north-eastern Zaeren. The place of the impact event, now called the Fallen Star, became populated with creatures that emerged from the meteor, namely various aberrations led by a group of Aethersages. Although most of the locals attempted to slay these creatures, some of them had their minds warped and began worshiping the Elder Things, calling them 'Star Gods'. The cults persist to this day and occasionally cause trouble for various lords who lack the power to eliminate the cult, or the creatures behind it, entirely.

Thirty two years ago, a group of aperusa emerged from a portal near the southern borders of the Kingdom of Zaeren and nonchalantly strolled into the kingdom. The local lords proved hostile to the new arrivals and attempted to fight the aliens or coerce them to stay out of their domains. A bigger problem was caused by a number of evil spirits who followed the aperusa through and soon caused a backlash of hostility against the aperusa for bringing "demons" to Ivarind. However, a group of violet dragons led by Boliviadori banished the evil spirits and protected the land from further incursions, forcing the lords and aperusa to a truce. Since then, aperusa slowly spread across Zaeren and shared with the violet dragons their knowledge of the Galaxy, opening the world to outer space, although due to its low-magic nature, no aether-sailing vessels have yet been produced.

Earlier this year, the ruling king of Zaeren, Reman III the Mad, brutally executed a bishop by personally chopping him into pieces, despite earlier warnings by golden dragons to cease his tyranny. With golden dragon brood's help, a rebel faction arose to oppose King Reman in an attempt to install a new, non-van king. The rebellion, now called the Golden Rebellion, is still underway, with mixed results.

Geography[edit | edit source]

Ivarind is much like Earth mostly covered in large oceans, with a few continents, one large and three smaller ones.

Zaeren[edit | edit source]

Zaeren is the largest continent on Ivarind, being twice as large as the second, Magog, and more than four times the size of others. Over half of Zaeren's area is occupied by Kingdom of Zaeren. On any other world, the kingdom would be a superpower but on Ivarind the feudal division makes the central power of kings highly threatened.

The northernmost tip of Zaeren reaches the North Pole and is covered by a glacier. Not much further south, nomadic tribes of goliaths known as gymnars live in fear of the never-ending winter in this far north. The traditional gymnar lands are divided by a wall kings of Zaeren built to keep the barbarians out, which it frequently fails to do. South of that wall ruled a gymnar viceroy who swore fealty to the king (until the recent rebellion), ruling a sedentary gymnar branch. South of the gymnar lands begins the main continuity of Zaeren's human/van kingdom, with mostly temperate climate. The kingdom's southern border lies on the edges of dry, subtropical climate beyond which few men from Zaeren ventured.

Southern Zaeren is politically divided. A few select human nations hold on to a tenuous peace with nomadic dragonid desert clans. Even further south, Zaeren ends in tropical jungles largely infested by the Overgrowth which somehow managed to make its way to this otherwise isolated world, on the other end of the Galaxy from its homeworld. Even the dragonids of Near South do not go into the jungles, although they are slowly encroaching on their deserts. Some foolishly believe the flourishing of life is a blessing, without realizing what forces soon follow the blooming life.

Acatok[edit | edit source]

Acatok is a small, mostly barren continent connected to southern Zaeren by a small chain of islands which used to be a land bridge known as the Silver Peaks, destroyed in a magical cataclysm. The tough, dark-skinned human tribes of Acatok are disorganized and even more primitive than the rest of Ivarind, spending all their effort on surviving in the inhospitable climate and presence of the dangerous red dragons. Strangely, it seems the Overgrowth has not attempted to invade Acatok for reasons yet to be revealed.

Magog[edit | edit source]

Magog is distant, isolated continent to the west of Zaeren which remained unpopulated until approximately 3,000 years ago when groups of humans and gymnar made their way to the continent. Most of the population lives as nomads on the open plains of Magog, with few groups founding small settlements that usually do not last long. 150 years ago, local gymnars forced their way into a Titan ruin on the continent and released a group of troglodytes which managed to somehow survive underground since the Titan Era. Although they are not very populous, they remain highly hostile to all other races.

Izot[edit | edit source]

Izot is the most isolated continent of Ivarind, talked about only in myth and legend. It's located on the equator and is dominated by the Overgrowth and its thick jungles. The only threat to the Overgrowth there are the savage green dragons. Izot is also famous in tales for a species of highly intelligent, human-sized lemur which may be a sentient race, although it needs further study.