Chapter 1 - This World We Find Ourselves in
The mystical realm of Fennas is surrounded on all sides by a dense and impassable fog. Nobody knows how the Mist arrived, where it came from, or how it works. It's magical, that much is certain. People of all shapes, sizes, breeds, and time periods come wandering from the Mist. The fog has a consistent effect on everyone: they lose their memory of where they came from and who they are. Only those of immense mental fortitude can manage to grasp the barest remnants of their memories. These people, the ones from the Mist, are known as Mist Walkers since they all walk into Fennas from the Mist. It is people such as these who are the ones left most at the mercy of the hands of Fate.
The Mist is dangerous. Walkers arrive at an immense rate, dozens by the minute of every day. Regrettably, many of these souls that might have found fortune will be struck down by the creatures and beasts that arrive just as they do; from the Mist. Screams of panic, terror, and death are a near-constant from the Mist as unlucky souls find themselves caught in the jaws of some unspeakable horror or hungry beast.
To compound the misfortune of these souls, trappers and slavers await them at the edge of the fog. The buying and selling of sentients is a common profession in the realm of Fennas. Escaping the Mist only to wind up in a slaver's net and auctioned to wealthy trainers or buyers for whatever heinous purposes they design seems to be too cruel a fate to many. Most of these slaves would prefer they had just been eaten.
To worsen the plight of these captive souls, the Mist has the odd effect of warping time. People seem to age tremendously slowly and the lands are much the same. Crops grow rapidly but clouds float slowly, oceans wave normally but the shores show no deterioration.
Of course, there are some rare occasions of saviors waiting for them at the fringe of the lands, hoping to shepard lost souls into a life of meaning and self-determination. These good people are often criminalized by corrupt officials and murdered by slavers. Nonetheless, they remain a dogged bastion against utter depravity of the realm.
Fennas itself is a large continent divided into eight distinct provinces. These eight provinces, Akaan, Kar'tayl, Hiertahl, Verun, Vaike, Sudei, the Namaen Sovereignty, and the Providence Territories create and hold tentative borders between one another and dictate life for each of their residents, often creating species-defined regions in this effort as peoples migrate to places that they are culturally or biologically inclined to.
Akaan and Kar'tayl are the fiercest of adversaries among the regions and share a border with a small circle of neutral territory at the center of this divide. The two nations used to belong to the same country, Anade, but after the capital city of Adasta was overwhelmed by Mist, the country divided by racial and political groups. Akaan is predominantly human in composition, any non-humans are treated as second-class citizens at best and slaves with absolutely zero rights or protections at worst. They are a warlike people with dark and depressive architecture, intended to be easily defended. Kar'tayl sits on the opposite end of the spectrum and is a rainbow of species. Everyone and everything is welcome in Kar'tayl which leads to a higher population and crime rate in its cities as policing the many people who enter freely is nigh impossible. Regardless, the individual will find more freedoms here than their neighbors to the West if they can find protection from unsavory characters.
These two provinces sit in the very center of the map, with the Misted and abandoned capital of "Old Adasta" right in the very heart of the world's map. Akaan and Kar'tayl are largely dominated by plains with a wide barren territory around the remains of Old Adasta and along their ever-contested border, the effects of warfare.
South of these two lies Vaike. A realm dominated by elves, Vaike is a region of magical experimentation and manipulation. Neon lights from magically-charged crystals light their cities and flying craft hover lazily in their vertical cities, reaching high into the skies. Ruled by ageless monarchs, power has stagnated in Vaike and complacency among the elite leads to extreme debauchery. If you're looking for the best time, you go to Neon City in East Vaike. Commonly considered the crossroads of the world, Neon City is only the second largest city in Vaike, second in size to the capital, but boasts the widest selection of brothels, slave pens, merchants, transporters and all manners more at the lowest costs. At some point or another, all roads lead to Neon City.
North of Kar'tayl and Akaan lies Verun. Verunite people are hardy and durable and must be to survive their predominantly mountainous territory. They do not possess a central government, as the other provinces do, but instead are a loose collection of strongholds and settlements that band together for their common defense and political negotiation when necessary. Typically, their international relations are managed by the Merchant's Guild who handle their primary export: Ore. Verun's vast ore fields supply much of the world's demand for metals and the majority of labor slaves will one day find their way to Verun to help feed the supply.
Sharing a border with Vaike, southwest of the forested Elven region, can be found the vast deserts of Sudei. Blisteringly hot and horribly unforgiving, Sudei is ruled by a sect of half snake people, the Lamia, and they have a stranglehold on the arrival of new Mist Walkers as theirs is one of the few major land-bound connections to the Mist. Vaike, for instance, is cut off from the Mist by an ocean to their south. The Lamia tribes collate under a single ruler whenever the current one dies and their politics can be quite rapidly shifting from one ruler's ideals to the next. One constant is their slave trade. Mist Walkers of good fortitude are sent to labor camps, those of good intellect find themselves as assistants or subjects for experiments, and those of beauty quickly find themselves bought and sold into brothels. The flow of slaves from Sudei has made the Lamia extremely wealthy.
East of Kar'tayl, Verun, and Vaike sits Hiertahl. Separated from the rest of the continent by tall, strong, and impassible mountains, Hiertahl maintains a fierce independence and guards the three mountain passes, one into each of their neighboring nations, with undying vigor. Ruled by a nomadic caste of centaurs, Hiertahl remains largely neutral in global conflicts. Their major exports are meat from grazing animals and mercenaries of all sizes. Aside from the sharp mountains that mark their western border, Hiertahl is a land of rolling plains and a lengthy coastline. Their east coast is renowned for it's beauty and elegance.
South east of Hiertahl, deep under the ocean, the Namaen Sovereignty can be found among the tranquil oceanscape. Ruled and inhabited strictly by merfolk, Namaen has only a handful of diplomatic port towns to liase with Hiertahl for trade and shipping. The ruling monarch of Namaen is often the one who exhibits the greatest feat of glory as they come of age, so rule remains in the family but the actual crown moves from head to head fairly often. About thirty years or so between rulers, a blink in the extended time scape of Fennas. Namaen does have to constantly defend their waters from the sea monsters that slither from the Mist. Vast serpents, enormous sharks, and swarms of carnivorous fish are common encounters in the murk of the oceans.
Lastly, and least, are the Providence Territories. Largely unsettled, these vast lands border Akaan to its west and are a mess of environments; rain forests, mountains, plains and more cover the map of Providence. The greatest difficulty of settling in Providence are the eternally hostile and aggressive creatures that call it home. Feral beasts that would sooner cleave heads from shoulders provide a decent reason to avoid the region altogether. Nonetheless, small settlements of religious zealots reside there, praising a sun god named "Providence" for whom they named the region. Missionaries of Providence are uncommon but not rare to be seen around the world and anyone who lives could tell others that to oppose one begets injury or death. They come from a death realm, they are prepared to defend themselves.
The people of Fennas are as diverse as the lands themselves. Commonly used are three terms to describe them. Purebred, half-kin, and beast-kin. A purebred will have intelligence and sentience, but no traits of other species. Humans are the dominant variety of purebred but it also applies to some feral creatures who can speak, but appear only as common animals. Half-kin are crosses between human and beast. Either by breeding or magical alteration, Half-kin have a nigh unlimited range of appearances. Beast-kin carry some purebred traits but specifically aren't human. Orcs, goblins, and bipedal wolves are common examples of this classification.
The continent of Fennas offers an uncertain fate for all who stumble upon her soils. Every so often, however, fate will be certain for some. Certain thanks only to their willpower and their determination to make it so. Such fate was found by one such man named Remnis.
