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Dran is a roughly Earth-like world some eight thousand miles in diameter. Unlike the Earth, however, its land surface consists of a single huge continent some thirteen thousand miles from east to west and seven thousand miles north to south, with a number of archipelagos and larger islands dotted around its coasts. These spread another several thousand miles east, west and south. The north of the continent ends in the north polar ice cap.
Dran has two moons, identical in size, named Jadan and Janthys after brother and sister deities, the Moon-Twins. The moon Jadan is a pale grey. Janthys in similar, but with a blue tinge. They move across the sky and have phases, as well as moving relative to one another in the sky. Their orbits are very similar and every now and again one catches up with the other and they swap places, from inner to outer. These cross-overs are times of great mystical significance to moon-worshippers.
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 | : | Earthquake-Prone Region |  | : | Volcanic Region |
Within the cities of the Empire buildings are blocky and heavy-looking, built of stone ranging in colour from dark grey to black, with small windows so that they are always dark inside. Furniture is heavy and ornate. Walls are generally stone or panelled in dark wood. Some ancient places within the Empire are so old that their cellars and so on have stalactites and stalagmites growing in and on them.
There are many slums, rookeries and satanic mills. The streets are crowded with horse-drawn vehicles.
Villages, towns and cities are always walled, by long tradition, and are usually centred on huge and ancient citadels. Many cities have concentric walls, built as the city has grown. City districts are named as Wards; old ones are named, while new ones are simply numbered. Castles and citadels are often a mix of old stone and steampunk ironwork [not unlike Castle Dracula in the film 'Bram Stoker's Dracula'].
Rich areas and markets are lit by oil lamps at night. These are usually privately funded. Poor areas are as dark as the grave - often a literal description. In these areas most light comes from lanterns outside taverns.
Cities and States in the Empire are each ruled by a council formed similarly to the High Council of the Empire as a whole, but with only local power, and with an array of lesser councils below them. Large cities have their own council with another for the country in which it lies. Smaller cities (even capitals) are governed by the same council as the nation or state. The various regions of the Empire are known as Provinces.
Recently conquered nations are cut off from all outside contact and governed by a Viceroy, an entirely military figure, at the head of a military government. They are encouraged to entirely pacify the country, as brutally as possible in regards to the people, so that their spirits are smashed. Savage sackings of conquered cities in the event of a siege are normal policy. Then, when the place is suitably pacified a 'civilian' government is installed, which is far more 'reasonable' than the Viceroy's regime, and which opens the borders to outside contact. The civilian government is led by a Magister, a high-ranking official of the Church of Cthon, under the Pontifex.
Conquered nations are also divided up along lines of traditional rivalries, and propaganda used to justify this and keep conquered peoples at each others throats to distract them from fighting the Empire. Even so, there are resistance and terrorist groups, often organised upon religious lines, across the whole Empire.
There are conquest monuments in all of the major cities of the conquered nations that now form part of the Empire. These are black hexagonal obelisks, inscribed with the names of the important fallen of the Empire, along with scenes from the conquest.
Some places - those which were particularly strong former enemies - remain Viceroyalties for decades, and little of the original state ever remains after such treatment.
The lords and ladies of the countryside live in castles or manor houses away from the villages and towns they rule. These are generally known as 'Manors' regardless of what they actually are, and are usually large rambling structures, often built around ancient castles or fortresses, with decrepit or abandoned old sections and newer inhabited parts, the size of whose population effectively makes them villages or even towns in their own right. Most of them have at least parts, often the oldest parts, which are haunted to various degrees. They include all of the amenities their rulers require. Some of them have huge conservatories containing the owners' favourite plants. All have a chapel to Cthon, and a resident priest of Cthon. It is widely rumoured that these priests are also spies, who keep an eye on the nobles to ensure they are not plotting too much. Manors are guarded by a watch recruited locally, and who are, by law, prohibited from being as well armed or trained as the Black Fist.
Most Manors are also the local railway stations to which the locals (with permission) bring their produce for transport elsewhere. Because this is a matter of control the parts of Manors forming the railway station are usually quite heavily guarded and divided from the Manor proper, though this depends on the relationship of the ruler with their people. The vast majority of Manors are surrounded by gardens, usually walled for privacy and protection. Some Manors have land lighthouses to assist travellers in finding their way.
Countryside villages are usually small, with cramped single-storey houses with gardens and animal pens. They all have at least one Temple of Cthon, which also houses the civil administration of the place. There will also be a small (usually less than a dozen in a village) garrison of soldiers who act to maintain order.
The Undying Empire is ruled by the Undying Lord. Under him is the High Council, whose members oversee the running of different aspects of the Empire. The High Council is sub-divided into members from the Church of Cthon, and members from outside it. Under the High Council are the various arms of government and under them the people as a whole. Diagrammatically, this structure is shown below:
In the year 16896 the members of the High Council are as follows:
| The Warmaster | : | No other name |
| The Archon | : | Duke Graumir |
| The Master of Spies | : | Unknown |
| The Master of Assassins | : | Unknown The Master of Assassins is an unknown figure, who speaks in High Council meetings only through a magical orb of black crystal, carried by a slave. Their voice is utterly featureless. |
| The Theopath | : | Gyvar Auchresh |
| The Pontifex | : | Mydaen Vlesten |
| The Inquisitor General | : | Unknown |
| The Master of Industry | : | Duke Leotus Suvret The Empire has a stake in all major businesses through the Master of Industry. Cargo ships all come under the remit of the Master of Industry. Note that the position of Ship Master is a relatively recent one, since the rise of the Lunar Empire; it is thus looked down upon and resented by the other minions of the Master of Industry. |
| The Archmage | : | Duchess Aximia Merisand |
| The Master of the Keys | : | Duke Takach Winter The finance minister of the Undying Empire, he is in charge of the House of Substance, the treasury of the Undying Empire. |
The capital of the Undying Empire is the city of Umbra. A huge sprawling, polluted metropolis where the sunlight never falls, the city is centred on seven hills set on rolling moorland terrain fairly near the poles of Dran, where the River Deminorsk reaches the sea. In real world terms this has a very Scottish feel to it. Even in full daylight there is a pall over the city that makes the light pale and greyish - a sign of Cthon's victory over the Sun God, Skirion. Because of this the region in which Umbra is located is known as the Dusklands. Black rock cliffs drop sheer down to the River Deminorsk and the sea. There are a great many tunnels and catacombs under the city. The climate in Umbra is cold and windy, with lots of snow in winter. There are mountains inland.
The city of Umbra (and the other cities of the Undying Empire) has many different quarters and sections, some of which align with its Wards, and some of which do not. The rich and the poor obviously live in different areas of the city, but most trades, professions and so on also, in general, have their own quarters of the city.
There are many layers of walls in Umbra, all of which have dry moats running along outside them. The First Wall is oldest, and smallest, and is essentially the outer wall of the Palace of Shadows. It is as old as the Undying Lord himself. The Second, Third, and higher numbered walls lie outside of the First Wall, each one progressively newer. Regardless of their age all of the walls are maintained and patrolled. In the poorer areas of the city the moats outside the city walls are often filled with rubbish and used as open sewers.
All roads and railway lines do not pass directly through gates in the city walls, but are normally angled and arranged to avoid any attackers being able to charge straight through. In addition roads and railway lines outside the walls of Umbra are surrounded by low thorny barriers to stop people easily trespassing onto them.
Because Umbra mostly stands high over the river, water is channelled to it from the hills inland through miles of underground tunnels where it flows downhill under gravity rather than rather than being raised from the River Deminorsk. This also means it is far cleaner than it would be if taken from the river.
Given its population and climate Umbra is utterly dependant on food and other essentials imported from across Dran.
There are many interesting places in the Empire's capital city of Umbra, including the following:
The river around whose mouth the city of Umbra is built, the Deminorsk is a major trading artery of the Undying Empire.
The River Deminorsk is hugely polluted in Umbra, both from the waste of the city itself, and the waste of other cities upriver. In addition to mundane pollution, some of the Colleges of Magic, in particular the College of Alchemists, dump their wastes into the river. Some of these are magical in their own right, and mix with one another and the other pollution to produce what can be weird and dangerous effects in those who frequent the riverbanks.
Unless they are very lucky, or very tough, those who fall into the river do not usually survive. The pollution is to the point that the sea around Umbra - at the mouth of the Deminorsk - is dead for tens of miles in all directions and filth washes up on the shore for more than a hundred miles in both directions. The sea is stinking and discoloured for a similar distance out from the river mouth.
There are many bridges over the Deminorsk, some of them ancient stone and brick viaducts, others huge iron structures.
Mudlarks (those who made a living by picking up odds and ends in the mud of tidal rivers) and toshers (scavengers who concentrate on the sewers trying to find valuable objects lost there) risk their health and lives to scavenge on the river banks and in the sewers respectively. Some of them are slaves, while some are simply very poor or desperate.
The main residence of the Undying Lord in Umbra, from which he rules the Undying Empire.
The Palace is a huge complex of black stone on one of the seven hills of Umbra, located on a promontory over the River Deminorsk in the centre of the city. Originally an ancient temple/fortress, the palace has grown and grown down the centuries and millennia until it is now a small city in its own right. Huge and sprawling, it has many secret passages and rooms, as well as abandoned and dilapidated sections. Its oldest central parts date back to the founding of the Undying Empire itself.
The stone from which the Palace is built seems to suck in daylight. The place is dimly lit inside, by guttering torches, and has very few windows. Shadows, especially those of people, move in and around the Palace as they should not, flickering huge and disturbing over the walls, even in a steady light.
Close to its centre, on the hilltop, is the huge black stone pyramid which is the main temple of Cthon in the Undying Empire, surrounded by five lesser pyramids in a pentagonal arrangement. Under the main pyramid is a chamber with a cluster of ancient standing stones, surrounded by dark, dead, twisted overgrown plants and trees. This is where the Undying Lord sacrificed to Cthon millennia ago, a practise he continues to this day. This chamber is unknown to most, but heavily guarded. Around the pyramids is located the headquarters of the Church of Cthon.
There is a huge labyrinth under the Palace of Shadows, honeycombing the hill on which it stands. Parts of this are ancient and collapsed. There are many rumours about secret entrances to the Palace by way of the labyrinth, but also of the hideous creatures that live in it, and the deadly traps with which it is riddled.
If any maps of the Labyrinth exist then they are very much a state secret.
A vast and dusty collection of items won from the enemies of the Undying Lord down the years and which are considered too dangerous to leave unguarded. The Hall of Trophies is an underground chamber within the Palace of Shadows that the sun and moons never see.
This vast collection of structures, the home of the Black Fist, forms the military heart and headquarters of the Undying Empire. It is located across the River Deminorsk from the Palace of Shadows, and at a somewhat lower altitude. It is a labyrinth of barracks, stables, officers quarters, armouries, drill halls, drill fields, brothels, inns and the like, forming what is almost a city within a city.
Inside, it is sub-divided into separate areas for the various Orders and Legions. Each of these has their own barracks, meeting halls, messes and other facilities. These areas are each decorated with the battle honours and trophies of that particular section of the Black Fist. Ceilings in particular are often decorated with the hanging tattered battle banners of defeated enemies. These vary from fresh new banners recently captured to ones millennia old that are, by now, no more than tattered rags.
The place where most of Umbra's vampires meet and live. The House of Eternity is very old, a huge monolithic structure with thick walls of black stone, no windows and little ventilation. Each pair of its triple light-tight black iron doors opens onto a chamber large enough to hold a carriage and horses. No mirrors are to be found inside, and dim light from candles and oil lamps is the only source of illumination. Inside the House are all of the facilities needed for life (or un-life) in all the roles a vampire can pursue, as well as for their human slaves and servants.
On those occasions when vampires absolutely must travel in daylight, the House provides windowless iron carriages for them to travel in.
There are other, lesser, Houses of Eternity in many of the other cities of the Empire.
A huge overgrown park on top of one of the seven hills of Umbra, the Memorial is centred on a massive black marble statue of the Undying Lord crushing a faceless foe underfoot which tops the hill itself. It contains the finest statuary and durable art of the nations vanquished by the Undying Empire, brought here and left to be overgrown and destroyed by time under the pitiless gaze of the statue of the Undying Lord. The items closest to the statue are over ten thousand years old. The most recent are generally the furthest from it.
There are rumours that there are things in the grounds of the Memorial that wander there at night, particularly under moonlight.
A huge market area - shops, streets, marketplaces, warehouses and workshops - all jammed together over several square miles along both banks of the river Deminorsk in the centre of Umbra. Wharves and canals have been dug inland at several points to assist traffic and to provide more dock space, some of which is underground, extending into the river cliffs. Some of the Bazaar is covered against the weather.
The Bazaar varies from broad streets to highly convoluted labyrinths of passageways. Different sections of the Bazaar sell spices, cloth, clothing, livestock, slaves, animals, calligraphic supplies, magical equipment and raw materials, metalwork, jewellery, carpets, medicines, magical services and anything else anyone might need, assuming that they can pay for it. Those areas which are involved in the selling of living creatures, both slaves and animals, have pens for their stock.
Some areas of the Bazaar are open round the clock. Other parts of the Bazaar can be deadly after dark.
A large square plaza outside the Palace of Shadows, in the centre of which is a large black stone monolith. All distances in the Empire are measured from this monolith. It is some fifteen thousand miles as the crow flies from here to the furthest isles of the Lunar Empire.
The Plaza is also used for public religious ceremonies, public executions of those considered particularly worthy or dangerous, and as the starting point for triumphal processions of all kinds.
A very wide main street leading directly through the city to the Palace of Shadows via the Plaza at the Centre of the World, and along which triumphal marches and the like travel. It is the most prestigious area of the city in which to live, and so is lined with the walled mansions of the nobility. At its junctions with other streets there are statues and monuments to the many and various victories of the Empire down the millennia.
Often shortened to simply The Circle, this is the major entertainment arena in the city of Umbra. A huge circular structure built of dark red and black stone, it is situated in one of the lowest parts of the city so that it can be easily flooded for 'naval battles'. The Circle is lined with tiers of seats, graduated between those for the poor and those for the rich, with many entrances, also divided by social class, including a very grand one for the nobility. It has an Emperors Box for the use of the Undying Lord, though it has not been used for much longer than living memory. The main entrances to the Circle open onto the Plaza of Lamentation, a large space which, on popular nights, will be crowded with the carriages of the nobility. It costs one Chal to get into the cheapest seats.
The Circle of Delight was built long ago by a consortium of noble houses, who have run it since then. Each house has its own teams with which it competes in the arena; their success or otherwise can have a great deal of effect on the status of a house. It is not unknown for young nobles to compete in the arena, though this is frowned upon as below them.
When used at night, as it often is, the Circle is lit by a magical lantern mounted on a spire in the centre of the arena. This was created by the College of Artisans when the place was built, and casts a wan greyish shadow-less light into the arena. It is apparently powered by the emotions of the crowd and the lives of those who die there; it certainly flickers in time with deaths and crowd responses to events taking place in the arena.
A great variety of events are put on at the Circle, with horse races, exhibitions, and combat of every kind being the most common, but with events of all levels of violence and depravity taking place there from time to time. Sometimes the College of Flesh Shapers exhibits their creatures there. The arena floor of the Circle is one of the few places where armed slaves are allowed, though they are never allowed guns, and their weapons are always taken away before they leave the arena. To help with this most slaves are forced to fight naked.
There is great deal of gambling associated with events in the Circle, and elsewhere, between nobles and noble houses for huge stakes, or between the very poorest for pittances.
There are various other, lesser, arenas scattered about the city (and in other cities), but none as fine as the Circle.
A slum built on sandbars at the base of one the cliffs rising out of the River Deminorsk. It was originally entirely above water level, but a river level change flooded it. It can be a very dangerous place even for its inhabitants, partly because of the other inhabitants and party because of the various pollutants, both mundane and magical, in the river water.
The headquarters of the College of Inquisitors, the magical truth-gatherers of the Undying Empire, it forms part of the Palace of Shadows.
The secret Headquarters of the Order of the Eye, the spies of the Undying Empire. Its location is unknown to the general populace.
The secret Headquarters of the Order of Midnight, the assassins of the Undying Empire. As with the House of Vigilance its location is unknown to the general populace.
Part of the Palace of Shadows, from which the Master of the Keys (an ancient title) runs the financial affairs of the Empire. The House of Substance is the Empire's treasury, and its only bank. It also includes the Imperial Mint, responsible for production of the coinage of the Empire.
Outside of Umbra, the House of Substance is part of the local governmental structure, based in the headquarters of the local Magister, though places under the rule of a Viceroy do not have a House of Substance and instead depend on funding from the rest of the Empire. All servants of the Empire are paid from the House of Substance, and it is also where citizens of the larger cities go to pay their taxes. Outside of the major cities, envoys of the House travel the countryside paying servants of the Empire there - such as soldiers - and collecting taxes in local temples of Cthon. Taxes are used entirely as the Undying Lord sees fit.
The House is not particularly efficient - it has lots of work, and it is all done by hand by fallible clerks. Thus, mistakes are made. Also, the Inquisition monitors people through their transactions, and anything suspicious will eventually come to their attention. For both of these reasons, many people keep their money to themselves, hiding it 'under the mattress'.
In Umbra there is a small branch House of Substance inside the Iron House. This is used to pay the members of the Black Fist. In other cities troops either go to the local House (the preferred method) or representatives of the House go to the troops.
Part of the Palace of Shadows, the House of Memory forms the library of the bureaucracy of the Undying Empire. It falls under the authority of the Pontifex, the head of the bureaucratic part of the Church of Cthon. It is a vast accumulation of documents of all kinds, some of them dating back to the very founding of the Empire. Access to most of the House of Memory is highly restricted.
The Umbra zoo, quite close to the College of Flesh Shapers, where living things from all over Dran are displayed in cages. Some of the exhibits there are human.
The Garden also has a large section devoted to strange and freakish things created by members of the College of Flesh Shapers.
The Blinding Desert is the site of the last battle between Cthon and Skirion. Before the battle it was a fertile subtropical plain, home of the Kingdom of Thralat. Now it is not
The battle took place during a double eclipse of the sun, one where both moons obscured it, a time when Skirion was at his weakest. Upon Skirion's death a vast explosion of light and heat [not unlike a nuclear blast] seared the plain, as if the sun touched Dran there, blasting the land for hundreds of miles in all directions, leaving only a desert of glass and crystal behind, which since then has glittered blindingly in the sun.
The battle in which Skirion died was something of a Pyrrhic victory for the Undying Empire. Although Skirion and many of those who sided with him were dead, the Undying Empire had lost a large percentage of its military forces. This lead to uprisings and rebellions throughout the Empire as locals took advantage of the Empire's weakness to throw off its control. It took nearly five hundred years for the Empire to recover from its 'victory' and re-impose its control on its rebellious territories.
Occasionally there are reports of vast golden flames [like solar flares and prominences] rising into the sky from towards the centre of the Blinding Desert. These are visible from hundreds of miles away, and from out at sea off the Haunted Coast.
There is only one railway line through the Blinding Desert, which runs up the eastern side of it, along the coast from Karega Bay into Vartha. Although considerably faster than travel by sea, the train is a far less popular choice. The journey is long and uncomfortable, as all of the passenger cars have no windows, to protect the passengers from any of the deserts influences. In addition to this, the trains, and the line, have a reputation for being haunted, and the train crews one for strangeness and insanity, due to seeing too much in the deep desert. There are occasional refuelling and re-provisioning stops along the line, whose few inhabitants are even madder than the train drivers.
Gems and minerals not found anywhere else on Dran are sometimes found in the Blinding Desert. Also, very rarely, gems and minerals are found with fragments of Skirion's godly energy in them, which has all kinds of uses to a mage. Because of this a small number of prospectors go out into the desert from the stops along the railway line. Before long, if they survive at all, they are usually at least half mad and half blind from their time there.
The City of Lions lies at the head of Karega Bay, on the shore where savannah meets the sea. It is an ancient city, one of the very few surviving from the Kingdom of Thralat that used to stand where the Blinding Desert is now, though it is very much changed since that time.
It is so called because of the many lion statues and decorations in the old Thralat areas of the city.
The Delsen River region in the centre of Dran is still very wild, with the land only being cleared of forest for settlements around the navigable parts of the river. Even this has only been done since the discovery of rich seams of gold and other metals in the area, which can be panned from the river and dug from the hills. These mineral resources are the main reason the area has seen any heavy settlement at all.
The Dusklands and the Scythe in the west of Dran are very Scottish in feel, with rolling hills and mountains, a chilly climate and large areas of moorland. Their inhabitants are animal herders with scattered crofts and few towns, ruled by a few noble clans who before the time of the Empire warred constantly among themselves. There are still ancient vendettas and blood feuds there, which resurface in violence from time to time, but the people of these regions also form the core of some of the oldest and most loyal of the Legions of the Undying Empire.
The Dusklands, which are centred on the city of Umbra, are known as such because even in full daylight there is a pall over them that makes the light pale and greyish - a sign of Cthon's victory over the Sun God, Skirion.
The large forests - Forest Mirsen and Forest Allarian - in the centre of Dran are sparsely settled, with only a few railway lines running through them linking some of the small villages and cleared farming areas scattered through them with the outside world. The settlements on the railway lines are isolated; those off them are normally almost totally cut off from the outside world. Because of this the forests have a reputation as a haunt of outlaws and fugitives, as well as of monsters and hidden (sometimes ruined) cities. It is also rumoured that the College of Foresters has a major centre in the Forests.
The Ghost Mountains lie in the far north of Dran, against the polar ice cap. They are so called because they are usually shrouded in mist.
As isolated archipelago to the south of Inmyal and west of the Lunar Empire, the Glorite Isles were originally the isolated home of fishermen ruled by local lords often little more than pirates. In the last thousand years, however, the Glorite Isles have been taken over by the Undying Empire and used as a staging post in the war against the Lunar Empire. As such the local population is now outnumbered by immigrants, and the islands are home to a number of major naval bases.
The city-states of Harnas, on the east coast of Dran north of the Worldwall Mountains, originally grew up as sea-faring towns exploiting the rich fisheries and whale migration routes up that coast. They were the last independent nations on the continent of Dran to the conquered by the Undying Empire. Because they are the closest settlements to the Lunar Empire they grew rich on trade with it, especially once railways linked them to the rest of Dran.
With their conquest by the Undying Empire they have become even larger, as military cities, from which the build-up of forces against the Lunar Empire has been co-ordinated.
A rich and peaceful farmland in the centre of Dran, to the east of the Forests, Harrakash is the breadbasket of much of Dran. In particular it supplies significant quantities of food to Umbra and the cities of the Melkarene River. Because of this many railway lines run through Harrakash.
The Haunted Coast is where the sea meets the Blinding Desert. As such it is notorious for ghosts, mirages, and, sometimes, insanity...
The vast forests of Inmyal, which are farmed by the inhabitants over periods of decades and centuries, provide much of the timber for non-military ships that sail the seas to the south of Dran. Because of this the major cities of Inmyal are located at the mouths of the rivers by via timber is floated to the coast, and all of them have significant shipbuilding facilities. The College of Foresters has a major presence in Inmyal.
A deep, relatively narrow inlet of the ocean between Karthan and the Karaguan Peninsula, it is known for the occasional relics of the Kingdom of Thralat that are found on its floor, and the even rarer magical gems and crystals blasted into it from the Blinding Desert. The City of Lions lies at the northern end of the bay.
A peninsula to the south-east of the Blinding Desert, the Karaguan lands have little in the way of natural resources other than tropical timber, and so are little visited beyond the coast. As far as it is known they are a quiet, loyal region of the Undying Empire.
The seaward side of Karthan in the far south of Dran is a tropical rain forest, cut by small rivers which wind their way from inland. As one goes northward through the jungle, after a while it thins out into savannah, then into the Blinding Desert. The Empire has settlements along the Karthan coast and up the more navigable of the many rivers there. Tobacco and tropical hardwoods are exported from Karthan to the rest of Dran.
Krylar Bay, at the mouth of the Melkarene River, is the major shipyard of eastern Dran, and the biggest trading centre on Dran, as well as one of the largest cities in the world.
It is also one of the major staging areas for the war against the Lunar Empire.
A river in the west of central Dran which is known for its mineral riches. The islands off its mouth are highly volcanic, and as such house major holdings of the College of Earth Speakers.
The Islands of the Moon which form the Lunar Empire lie off the far south-eastern coast of Dran, isolated from the rest of the world by the Worldwall Mountains, Taklara Desert and Sattuel Reefs. They are essentially a tropical paradise - warm and mostly sunny, with the right amount of rain for lush, but not jungle, vegetation, and sunny most of the time. The only unfavourable features of the Empire are the frequent earthquakes from which it suffers.
The cities of the Lunar Empire are generally of white stucco-walled buildings with graceful buttressed white towers forming the homes of the nobility. These are a traditional form of building dating from times when vendettas between noble families were a common occurrence.
The people of the Lunar Empire claim that they were the last of the races of man to be landed by the gods, and in gratitude for their patience compared to the other races the gods gave them their ship as a gift, and taught them how to make their own. Thus the Lunar Empire has had ocean-going sailing ships from times dating back before the beginning of recorded history.
Originally a collection of independent island nations, over time conquest and political developments, many of them driven by the growing power of the Undying Empire, have caused the unification of the region into the single state that it now is.
As the Undying Empire expanded out across Dran the Lunar Empire has become the last refuge of those people who wish to escape it. But despites its isolation, skilled people and formidable natural defences, even the Lunar Empire cannot hope to stand forever against the massive brute strength of the Undying Empire.
The banner of the Lunar Empire is the symbol of the Moon-Twins, two overlapping circles representing the moons of Dran, one in silver-grey and one in silvery bluish-grey, representing Jadan and Janthys respectively, on a dark blue background representing both the sea and the sky.
A river in the west of Dran that flows into the Valdean Sea, it is the home of a number of major cities along its length, and is also the place where banking was invented thousands of years ago. Because of this the city-states of the Lysthea were once the financial powerhouses of the world, although since their takeover by the Undying Empire long ago this has shifted to the city of Umbra.
The Mallendran waste lies in the far north-west of Dran. It is tundra which changes to marsh then swamp around the river Malless and its delta. In the brief summer it is hot, humid and mosquito-ridden. In winter it is cold and frozen, but still damp. People there live in houses on stilts and travel by punt. They wear furs and are poor, ignorant and blighted.
The Melkarene River in the east of central Dran has been the seat of many civilisations up its huge navigable length. In the present day its navigable reaches are divided among a number of former city-states, all of which are now provinces of the Undying Empire. Because of the high level of population along its length, the Melkarene becomes progressively more polluted the closer it comes to the sea.
The steppes of Sylathis and Abrakari in the north of Dran are fed by melt water from the north polar ice cap. This forms many small rivers running south until they fade away in the vastness of the steppes.
The region from western Abrakari to the Ghost Mountains is very cold during the winter and very hot during the summer, due to its distance from the sea. Some of the people there are nomadic animal herders (or at least were before the coming of the Empire), and moved with the weather and the seasons. Others are farmers who live in (often fortified) underground houses, or ones with very thick walls, which blunt the extremes of summer and winter weather.
Some of the cities on the northern steppe are essentially vast tented encampments. Others are heavily fortified, with high, thick stone walls, and are usually square in plan. All of them are part of the Undying Empire, though the size of the region means that it only lightly controls most of the area.
After the death of the sun god Skirion in the year 10970 the rulers of Palnor took advantage of the weakness of the Undying Empire to create an empire of their own encompassing Inmyal, Krylar, Harrakash, Vartha and the Karaguan Peninsula. This Palnorian Empire was re-conquered by the Undying Empire around the year 13200, and the land was devastated that its population has never recovered. Now Palnor is a largely agricultural land between Harrakash and Skylar, which also serves as the main point from which the produce of Harrakash is sent by sea to the rest of Dran.
Long ago the Pirate Isles off the east coast of Dran were at the heart of an empire stretching up and down the eastern coast of the continent of Dran, and also encompassing a large area inland from there. Conflict with the Lunar Empire as both expanded out from their homelands led to war, and eventually shattered their empire, forcing them into piracy. It was then that the realm gained its current name. Long after this the Pirate Isles were taken over by the Undying Empire. Before this the people of the Pirate Isles worshiped Urshanis, and even now much Urshanis worship continues underground.
The Pirate Isles have a very wet climate, and are covered in temperate rain forest. The tallest trees on Dran grow there.
The Quallarian Sea off the southern coast of Dran is named after an island there which was sunk by Urshanis after its inhabitants annoyed her, for reasons which vary with different versions of the story.
A series of vicious and hard-to-navigate reefs to the east of the Quallarian Sea which cover a large area of the ocean to the west of the isles of the Lunar Empire, and which, like the Taklara Desert and the Worldwall Mountains have, down the millennia, helped to protect it from outside invasion.
The Skylakari Mountains in the north of central Dran are part of the Empire in name only, being divided into many small, isolated and xenophobic warring mountain kingdoms, often one to each valley. However, as long as they only war among themselves, the Empire leaves them alone. Some of the fiercer warriors in the Black Fist are émigré or exiled Skylakarians.
A dry semi-desert land on the shores of the Inner Sea to the north-west of Inmyal, Skylar is home to skilled sailors and merchants who trade around the Inner Sea and beyond.
The islands from Narresk down to Lastland via Kalgat are mostly covered by dense jungles, apart from the side of Narresk north of its mountain spine, which is much more veldt-like. They suffer from frequent earthquakes and volcanic activity.
The area is only nominally part of the Empire, which has a few outposts on the coast, but very little influence in the interior. The native tribes are primitive in technology, but powerful in magic similar to that used by the Foresters and Earth Speakers, and quite xenophobic.
Recently rumours of rich deposits of emeralds in the area have reached civilisation, and of ruined cities covered by jungle deep in the interior. A few explorers and prospectors have travelled to the Southern Islands and in particular to Kalgat to attempt to exploit these discoveries if they truly exist, but reaching them will be difficult
The mountains of the Spine, north and west of the city of Umbra, are rich in iron and coal, as well as other metals. As such they are quite densely populated, with a number of large mining towns, and much of the countryside is scarred by the side-effects of mining. Many railway lines link the mines and towns of the Spine with Umbra and the rest of Dran.
The Taklara desert in the far south-east of the continent of Dran is a vast and trackless waste, with shifting dunes and no oases. It, along with the Worldwall Mountains on its far south-eastern side, are what kept the Lunar Empire safe from the Undying Empire for so long, and also what forced the Undying Empire to develop a large and powerful navy in order to conquer it.
A series of vicious reefs to the south of Dran and west of Karthan, they make the coastline they abut un-navigable to shipping.
A huge archipelago continuing and greatly extending the line of the Spine, the Thousand Islands separate the Immenant and Engird Oceans. The actual number of islands is unknown, beyond it being known that there are a great many of them. Although there are some mines on the northernmost of the Thousand Islands, in general the islands are sparsely populated, dotted with villages of hostile, xenophobic and often inbred natives.
A region between the Forest Allarian to its north and the Blinding Desert to its south, Vartha was once prosperous, but is now a thinly populated semi-desert region.
The Worldwall mountains are the highest on Dran, un-eroded, steep and barren on the landward side, with, as far as anyone knows, no viable passes through, and no water. In addition to this, to reach their landward side one must cross the vast and trackless Taklara Desert.
On their seaward side the mountains generally drop straight into the ocean, and are lashed by the swell and the weather carried in from the south-east by the prevailing winds, making it very hard for a ship to land there. This side of the mountains gets a great deal of rain, driven in from the sea, but the mountains prevent this rain getting very far inland. There is some vegetation on the seaward side of the mountains, generally low and stunted by wind and weather, but because of the nature of the terrain it is almost inaccessible.
| Ardmen | Belat | Chrume | Dallarin | Dannik |
| Eraslon | Exemifuge | Fellwren | Garenath | Jerathnon |
| Jessan | Kalatabad | Kandath | Karleth | Kithrilindu |
| Lesus | Malkathan | Mirathrar | Palmadrik | Pamolo |
| Riestais | Rukarow | Sarishinlal | Shimorning | Talandas |
| Tarinalar | Temeriton | Timanlat | Timashkurbad | Vandis |
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Copyright © Tony Jones, 2007.
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