Arena of Storms
The World
The Arena
A large and variegated section of the world cordoned off by the Wall, a gigantic structure which was, according to some accounts, erected at the wishes of the God of Storms to prevent mortals from approaching Paradise. It is home to all races except the Reptiloids, who inhabit the Sands Vast and Burning between the Wall and Paradise. The gods view the affairs of the Arena as a kind of game which they join or leave with little thought to the long-lasting consequences of these actions. They often play favorites with one tribe or another, or will aid a tribe to interfere by proxy with another god's chosen people.
High above the earth of the Arena lies suspended the Sun-Dragon, who glows bright at day and dims at night - it is said the moon is a dragon egg. Legends differ on what will happen when the egg hatches, some tell of a wonderful paradise when the Arena is defended by twin dragons from outside intervention while others forebode of a nightmarish existence of eternal daylight called the Ever-Day - as such differing and conflicting cults have formed that commit rituals to encourage their end-goal sometimes involving sacrifice.
At the center of the Arena is Mount Beartooth, home of the God of Ice, which is located on the Frozen Sea, which borders on the Great Sea, which extends to the Wall and takes up one third of the Arena. The Great Sea contains the Ymargerrous Isles, home of the Cyclopes. The rest of the Arena is covered mostly by jungle and forest, with some plains and steppes.
The Corporeal Paradise
A pleasant, plentiful land of eternal springtime, free of natural hardships. The home of most of the gods when they desire to take corporeal forms. Some gods reside elsewhere most of the time because of their dislike or fear of the God of Storms, who is the de facto ruler of Paradise. Paradise is the location of the Sacred Orchards, wherein grow the Apples of Life that grant the gods their longevity and allow them to maintain their powers. Mortals and Demigods have attempted on several occasions to gain access to Paradise, but none have been successful.
The Underworld
A mysterious realm deep below the surface of the world. It is inhabited by the souls of the dead, the Goddess of the Underworld, and the Titans (the creators of the gods) and Demons (spiritual beings opposed to the gods' love of corporeal existence) who were defeated by the gods in ages past. The Volgyn live under the surface as well, not deep enough to be in the Underworld, but still deep enough for the Titans and Demons to communicate with them.
Gods
The High God also known as the God of Elements, the God of Storms and the God of Lightning
The God of Storms is indisputably the most powerful god. He is also the most ruthless and cruel of them all, and enjoys plaguing the Arena-dwellers with lightning, hail and the dreaded Thunderborn hordes. His cruelty causes the Arena-dwellers (except the Minotaurs) to refuse to give him worship, which angers him and causes him to punish them more, creating a vicious circle of punishment and defiance. It is widely believed that even if all the Arena were to worship him exclusively, the malice of the Storm God's heart would not be contained and he would continue his attacks anyway. His ceaseless cruelty has roused heroes and other gods against him numerous times, but these attempts to depose him have all been quashed under his mighty fist, though some were very nearly successful. The God of Storms ordered the construction of the Arena and the Sands Vast and Burning to prevent further attempts by the mortal races to interfere with his endless brutality.
According to one legend, the God of Storms' anger and hatred of mortals are the result of his loss of control of the element of fire. He used to be the God of Elements, but fire was stolen from him by a man and woman who ventured into Paradise.
The Goddess of Water
A consort of the God of Storms, mother to the God of Ice and Goddess of the Sea.
The Goddess of Air
The chief deity of the Birdmen and wife of the God of Storms. Her main concern is ensuring that mortals don't climb over the Wall, which the Birdmen have made one of the main focuses of their culture.
The Goddess of Fire
A goddess worshiped by the Reptiloids and one of the creators of the Sands Vast and Burning. She is mostly loyal to the God of Storms, and is allowed inside Paradise.
The God of Earth
The god most worshiped by the Reptiloids, who helped create the Sands and, in some accounts, the Wall itself. He is allowed to freely enter Paradise.
The Goddess of the Underworld
A goddess whose original station has long been forgotten, who once challenged the God of Storms and was killed as punishment. However, she was powerful enough even in death to assume control of hell, which is a physical place deep underground and now the home of the Demons and Titans.
The God of Creation
Creator of the sun and the world, which was corrupted by the other gods. Possibly the father of the God of Ice and/or the Goddess of the Sea.
The God of Rivers
The God of Rivers is lord of the River Yore which flows through the Wall and provides the Arena's inhabitants with most of their water. He is the foremost opponent of the God of Storms and because of this, he is one of the most widely worshiped gods. However, it is unclear whether his opposition stems from his sympathy with the mortals of the Arena or his jealousy of the Storm God's power. In any case, his defiance resulted in being very unpopular in Paradise, so he mostly lives near his river. He is entirely intolerant of those who would pollute or otherwise interfere with his river, and will punish them severely.
The Goddess of the Sea
An erstwhile wife of the God of Ice who left him when his Demigod son waged war on the God of Storms. She is the daughter of the Goddess of Water and either the God of Storms or the God of Creation, and therefore sister or half-sister of the God of Ice. She is hated by the God of Storms for having been married to the God of Ice, and now resides in the Great Sea, where she is the chief deity of the Cyclopes.
The God of Death
Father to the God of Sickness and, by some accounts, the Elves, who serve his son.
The Goddess of Life
Responsible for the Elves' inability to contact the gods (or, by some accounts, only the good gods) because she was offended by their lineage of Death and Sickness.
The Goddess of Woodlands
Mother to the Elves and possibly the Dryads, and master of the forest animals.
The God of Sickness
Master, and perhaps father, of the Elves. According to those who maintain that Elves are incapable of contact with any god, he has since lost contact with his servants and they have gone astray, spreading throughout the Arena's forests.
The God of Ice
The God of Ice resides atop Mount Beartooth and is worshiped by the Humans who live there. His mother was the Goddess of Water and his father was either the God of Storms or the God of Creation. He inadvertently angered the God of Storms by taking a human wife, and was punished by being banished from Paradise. His son by her, the first Demigod, raised an army against the God of Storms, but was narrowly defeated. According to some, this resulted in the God of Storms separating the mortals and the gods, though others maintain that the existence of the Wall predates the war.
Demons
Demons live in the Underworld, below the Arena. As an entity they are identical to Gods and Nature Spirits, separated by ideology rather than any composition of their being. The ideological differences that separate Demons from Gods is that Demons believe the world should exist in an incorporeal state, where individual thoughts are distinct but contact one another in a way that is difficult for a mortal to comprehend, while Gods prefer a world with the physical existence currently found. God and Demon fought in a war that the Gods prevailed in, casting the Demons to the Underworld. Due to their ideology when a Demon takes form in the mortal world they usually take it in the form of a disembodied sounds or sights. Demons may interfere in mortal affairs by gifting mortal who have bargained with them or whom they wish to benefit with magic, creating sorcerers. Such sorcerers are often shunned by most of society as Demons are viewed as worse than Gods due to clever manipulation from the Gods. This magic allows mortal to tap into their incorporeal nature, however this often strains that sanity of mortals not used to this exposure and drains their very life essence, as well as the life essence of beings around them making sorcerers the enemies of Elves and Dryads alike. The most powerful sorcerers end up becoming completely non-corporeal and exist much like spirits. The leader of the Demons during their war with the Gods was an entity called Thunder, who was trapped by the High God. Their current ruler is his wife, an entity called Banshee who exists in the Arean as a fatal scream that terrifies the mortal supported of the Gods.
Nature Spirits
The nature spirits are the same kind of beings as the gods and the demons. When the war between the gods and the demons started, the spirits chose neither side, as they did not prefer corporeality over incorporeality, or vice versa. When the gods won the war, they were angry at the spirits for not aiding the, and as punishment they forced them to create the material world by permanently taking corporeal forms such as the mountains, the earth etc. But due to their rejection of the gods' and demons' dogma, they were still able to manifest in incorporeal forms while retaining their corporeal forms.
Many Nature Spirits were obliterated after the God-Demon war for their neutrality, however most that do exist do so by signing contracts with certain Gods. River spirits pledged allegiance to the River God, lightning spirits to teh High God, etc. Nature Spirits allow Gods to have much dominion over their chosen element.
Titans
The Titans are ancient and powerful beings that once ruled the world before the coming of the Gods. They took little notice of humans before the Fall, and generally ignored them, as they were little more than animals at the time.
However, since their defeat and imprisonment deep beneath the earth, below even the Demon realms, they have become interested in the everyday lives of the human Tribes as they fight the Storm Gods bastard offspring and their environment. Some have even started to aid the tribes in what little ways they can from within their ancient cells.
The ideology of the Titans on the nature of existence was the eventual merging of all being into a perfect singularity. Demonkind and Gods rejected this as both value their individuality - Demons believe in an incorporeal existence with distinct individuals. As such both teamed to stop the Titans from achieving their goal, accusing the result to not be a perfect being but a being who's identity suppressed the non-Titans' identities. The Titans still argue that this existence will be a paradise.
Races
Birdmen
Birdmen are nearly as advanced as the Minotaurs. They live atop the Wall, and serve the Air God by preventing other races from climbing over the Wall and escaping the Arena. Their feathers contain a peculiar metallic substance which, when melted down, is forged into tools and weapons. Only down feathers, or the feathers of the dead, are used in this way. A Birdman colony contains at least one Insectoid hive, which are used as sources of slave labor and occasionally food.
Centaurs
Centaurs are savage steppe-dwelling archers who are a persistent bane to Human herdsmen.
Cyclopes
A race of one-eyed giants and the apparently the only race to use boats. According to legend, their native islands are home to great stone structures that surpass even those of the Minotaurs. They subsist mainly through piracy and raiding and often terrorize coast-dwelling Humans.
Cats
A race loyal to Humans, though only those they deem intelligent enough to be worthy of their aid. Cats are attuned to the spiritual world and thus have magical abilities, most notably shapeshifting, which they can bestow on Humans who deserve it. Cats often shape-shift into Human form (though they retain some cat-like features as they can't shift completely) to communicate more directly with the Human world. improve humanity by uplifting them and making them more intelligent and civilized, leading them to greater knowledge and the ability to outclass the Minotaurs. They especially hate Demonkind, as Demons abuse and attack cats for being a balanced split between the physical and spiritual creatures.
Demi-Gods
When a God mates with a mortal (willingly or unwillingly), the offspring is a Demigod. Demigods carry most of the racial traits of their mother. However, they are invariably much stronger, faster and more robust than the mortal race they were born from.
They also last much longer, demi-gods living up to 750-1250 years, depending on their mother's race. And they don't start even showing signs of aging until about 80% of their life is up. And even an aging demigod can easily trounce most humans. '
Demigods, however, often died from misadventure due to the meddling of the gods. Either their parent god disapproves of actions they took, or a rival god of their parent decides to strike against them.
The god with the most prolific amount of offspring is the High God - the God of Storms. He is not a subtle lover either, he will usually make one blunt offer and if it is not accepted immediately, resorts to force or trickery.
Upon their 24th Birthday, all offspring of the God of Storms are approached by one of his emissaries. They are forced into a choice - work under his instructions, or become his enemy and face a likely death.
Dogs
A race loyal to Humans. Dogs are acutely attuned to the physical world, and can grant boons of strength, speed and other physical skills to Humans they favor. Dogs are intelligent and many of the more powerful dogs are even sentient.
Dryads
An all-female race that hails from many of the forests and jungles of the Arena. They are said to be the chosen of the Goddess of Water and the Goddess of the Underworld, as they sprout from the ground like trees. Dryad tribes are usually based around their environment, such as a particular forest or grove. Their are often physical distinctions that mark what tribe the Dryad comes from. Dryads do not always remain in the forest they were born in, this can be for a number of reasons. Sometimes the princess of one forest will be married to the princess of another forest and there will be a royal procession. Sometimes dryads will look outside the forest for warriors to deal with plant-gobbling monsters. And often dryads are exiled for breaking some of the strange laws of their lands. Dryads have impregnation through pollination, Sometimes, however, a dryad will give birth by pollinating herself. Normally this is impossible, but it does happen. The children born this way are shunned by the society and usually exiled - dryad myth holds that the mother must have been raped by a God and the child is thus likely evil. Exiled Dryads are said to band together in their own tribes.
Elves
Elves are children of the God of Death and the Goddess Woodlands, and servants of the God of Sickness. They are putrid, hideous creatures who often mask themselves in more humanoid forms. They spread rot and sickness and pervert any area of woodland they stay in. However, their latent life energies cause the rot and sickness to be undone when they leave an area. They are unable to communicate with the good deities (the High Gods). Due to their nature and aims they are the mortal enemies of the Dryads. Elves can be smelled by dogs, stared down by cats through use of intellect and are afraid of fire. Elves also eat Humans, making them a common enemy of Dryads and Humans.
Insectoids
The Insectoids are a barely sentient race of winged bug-people who have long served the Birdmen as menial labourers. They speak their own language, as well as an Insectoid-Birdman pidgin. They are very simple creatures, unable to comprehend ideas not related to instinct or direct experience. As such, they do not attempt to flee the Wall to escape to Paradise, because they can't understand the possibility of it existing. They have no real desires or ambitions beyond serving the hive, resting, mating, and eating.
They are genetically related to the Devilflies in the Sands.
They are socially organized into hives, each of which is structured around a queen (the only member of the hive who can incubate fertilized eggs). Aside from a queen, there are two other sexes: "X", who supply the eggs and protect the hive (though hostility to their abusive Birdman overlords has been beaten out of their genes), and "Y", who fertilize the eggs and gather food. Shortly before dying, a queen generate a "princess"; a smaller, softer version of a queen who is, of course, tended to with the utmost care. The entrails of princesses are a delicacy among the Birdman elite. Hives are housed in enormous wasp-nest type structures that adhere to the Wall.
Humans
Humans are found in all places within the Arena, and are the dominant race on Mount Beartooth in its center. They have domesticated animals to use as warmounts, including mammoths, giant rabbits, dire bears and even tigers, in the case of the jungle-dwelling Xinorran tribes. Humans are used as the mortal parents of Demigods much more frequently than other races, even though they are most inclined to defy and make war on the gods. In general, males are warriors and hunters and females are gatherers, with the exception of the aforementioned Xinorrans, where the roles are reversed.
Minotaurs
Minotaurs are the most advanced race, having the capacity to build villages, towns and, in some cases, cities. Other races are permitted to live in their settlements, but they are taxed so heavily as to be practically slaves, their women may be raped without legal consequence,and the Minotaurs may consume the corpses of dead lower races. Minotaur society is divided into herds, which are led by a bull who has sired at least two adult calves. His cows, along with his unwed siblings, compose the upper class of the herd. Powerful herds usually have vassal herds.
Minotaur Namers are different from those in other races because their Names take the form of pictographic runes depicting the True Shape of things, which are stored in a Bag of Shapes and activated by a Runecaster. This means that a Runecaster's spell is guaranteed to have a predictable result, but he can't change the actual machinations of his spell like a Namer can. Once a rune has been used, it must "cool down" for a period proportional to the strength of the spell before it can be re-imbued with mystical energy and activated again. Particularly powerful runes shatter upon use.
Their open worship of the God of Storms often puts them at odds with other races.
Reptiloids
A lizard-like nomadic race who inhabit the Sands Vast and Burning, between Paradise and the Arena. They are the only race to live outside the Arena, and are almost completely isolated from the other races, except the occasional Birdman runaway, from whom they learned about the gods and law. Their numbers are quite small as a reptiloid female can't lay more than three eggs in her lifetime. Reptiloids are able warriors who practice a unique form of wrestling in which victory is attained by lifting one's opponent above one's head, then dropping them. They also are skilled in armed combat, particularly with their traditional weapon, the spear-mace (comprised of a bludgeoning end and a stabbing end). Combat festivals and tournaments are the main way in which Reptiloid clans petition the gods. Their chief deities are the Goddess of Fire and the God of Earth.
Snakemen
A traveling, merchant race, cunning at many crafts but often seen as untrustworthy. Snakemen can secrete powerful pheromones to deter aggressors; this trait has given rise to many superstitions in other races about Snakemen having hypnotic powers as a result of consorting with Demons or evil gods.
Thunderborn
When the Storm God's thunderbolts strike a stone, this creates a Thunderborn egg, which is hatched on contact with water into several Thunderborn, mindless and savage creatures of mud and earth who terrorize all the races. Even a ceasefire between the races isn't a guarantee of peace in the Arena, as the Storm God will take any opportunity to unleash a new horde of Thunderborn to scare them back into line. What is worse is that though they have no females, they can mate with nearly any other race - and those they mate with always give birth to three to eight Thunderborn eggs - meaning that a Thunderborn horde that sacks a few tribal villages could possible grow in great numbers. Each Thunderborn egg gives out 2-4 Thunderborn. They move from birth, nasty little goblinish creatures, who eat and eat until they grow to their full size. If you suspend a Thunderborn egg in water, it won't hatch. But it will able to hatch the moment it is removed from the water
Volgyn
Volgyn are the descendants of a band of Humans who tried to escape the Arena by digging under the Wall. They were forbidden by the Storm God to ever leave the bowels of the earth, but the Earth God pitied them and granted them the ability to survive in their new environment. They have since become a blind, mole-like race who have learned some use of magic from the Titans and Demons trapped underground.
Fauna
Most fauna is similar or identical to ice-age megafauna. The world is inhabited by woolly mammoths, dire bears, tigers (of both the sand sabre-tooth variety), giant sloths and giant rabbits. Most of these animals have been domesticated by Humans and other races. The Sands are also home to Devilflies, gigantic winged insects created by the Demons.