Editing Setting:Heavy mythril (section)

=The World=
==The Free Citystates==
The vast plains of Hartland, the Steel Gulf to the north, the snow-capped peaks of the Centris Mountains - formed when the Titan Centris himself died - and the vast Pancentric Coast are all claimed by the so-called Free Citystates - a collection of feudal states that are at least nominally controlled by elected officials, and have a consistent, universal non-aggression pact with each other. Of course, this does not mean that they are on friendly terms - in fact, the wording of the pact just means that wars between them cannot be fought with citizens of the Citystates. Foreign mercenaries are fair game. 

There are currently 108 Citystates, which will not be listed here for space reasons, and for the fact that half of them are tiny, podunk towns which youths spend their childhood dreaming of leaving in the dust. Wide spots on the Black Roads, nothing more. There are, of course, more than a few exceptions to this rule.

New Jack City, which some claim was the first settlement on the continent, is a city that should have died ages ago. Beneath the water level, protected by levees and by the Twin Ladies in the harbor - Liberty facing out towards newcomers, Justice standing at her back facing in - it is a miracle that no great storms have hit the city in centuries. NJC is a city whose soul is constantly in peril - there is a strong pro-Technocracy sentiment amidst the populace, particularly among the merchants, and it is one of the few cities where temples to the seducer daemons are constructed publicly.

And yet, for all the darkness, for all the soul-defiling blight that the city contains, The Song is strong there. On the great Broad Way, temples to the Song's might line every block, and in the neighborhood of the Green Witch (so named for a druid's cottage that has long since rotted away and been built over) those that embrace the Song's glory and spread it outnumber those that merely listen. 

The city strongest in The Song is actually a Technocracy by name - Detroit Rock City. Many great gods have sprung from the infertile, oil-soaked soil that surrounds the town on the Steel Gulf, from the Knights in the Song's Service to the strange cult of the Dark Carnival. While the Technocracy there is strong, it allows the souls of its inhabitants to breathe freely, and so the machinations created there, the great Thunder Chariots, are constructs that also bear a soul, not defiling creations of death and pain. Other great Citystates include the Air City of the south - little more than a massive hub for zeppelin transport, but also possessing the processing plant for the great speed potion Koce - the city of Lost Angels to the west, the dusty sprawl of Nash, and the tangle of one-way streets and cruel spires called Chi-Town.

==The City of Rain==
Separate from the Free Citystates stands the City of Rain. While the Free Citystates all control the land within 50 miles of the city walls, The City of Rain controls no land beyond its border, except the immediate area where its archers can target foes. Legally, anyway - no one really cares to try to claim the high, sharp spires about the city that surround the bay it sits on, the cold bay that remains chilled, still, and free of interference by means of the great mountainous peninsulas that seal it off from the rest of the sea, creating a pocket that traps vast amounts of clouds in - meaning that the City of Rain is indeed rainy for 300 days a year on average. It does not snow there, though it is often cold enough that the rain freezes, and rarely does the temperature reach above 50 degrees. In such a repressive environ, it is no wonder that the Munchkins who created the city are by and large so nihilistic and cynical.

The City of Rain does have one great boon working for it - beyond the patronage of the Fallen Lord of Paradise, anyway. The Magi-Net, the great network of crystal balls that allows information to flow across the world, is centered there; anyone attacking the city would have a horde of angry wizards at their throats in hours.

==The Mror Holds==
Across the Steel Gulf lies the homeland of the Iron Dwarves, the only access point to the Free Citystates being the Armistice Bridge in Detroit Rock City. A vast, rocky land of mountains, ice, and more mountains, the Mror Holds are largely fortresses carved into the rock faces, their supplies coming from underground farms and mines. There is no technocracy in the Holds, and the engineering and artifice so common in the Free Citystates is almost unheard of there. The Iron Dwarves greatly prefer magic that is "pure and untainted", to the machinations of the artificers. Even the Magi-Net does not reach every part of the Holds. 

The Mror Holds are governed by a council of kings - seven kings rule the Holds, each one taking his own kingdom, but no decisions are made without the consent of the other six. Because any decision that changes things too greatly is always shouted down by at least five of the kings, the Holds remain as they were, in perpetuity...

==Oir==
Set apart by a great channel that was sliced into the crust by powerful magics, Oir is as rocky as the Mror holds, but its hills are low and rolling, capped with green. The severe climate of the rocky mountains across the channel is blunted, cool and damp versus driving and icy, and rains tend towards soft mists versus pounding storms. Despite the placid, quieter weather, the sky is often patched with bursts of black smoke - for those rolling, soft hills are dome volcanoes, and most are still active. It is here that the Magma Dwarves have made their home, fiercely independent - and to Dragontown with anyone that would dare to invade! - but on good terms with anyone that isn't trying to tell them what to do and how to do it. Well, except for those gloomy bastards in the Mror Holds...

Oir literally means "Hearth" in the Auld Dwarven tongue, and it explains what Oir is to the Magma Dwarves - a place of family, of respite, of rejoicing. The fact that the whole nation could one day erupt, slaughtering them all, just never seems to occur to them - or perhaps it's because a combination of clever invention and potent warding spells have begun to harvest the magma, to use the heat in their civilization's industry. Indeed, most industrial labor is done with semi-intelligent magma golems, overseen by a crew of magewrights. The populace of Oir is 80% Magma Dwarf, 20% miscellaneous other, and is ruled by an elected Parliament.

==Lerenath==
The great land of Ice and Snow where Zepp himself is said to hail from, Lerenath is the home of the Winter Elves, the Ice-Men, and no small amount of Orcs and Hobs. Any laws in the vast icy plains are centered on the settlements a body is currently staying in, and while these rules are few, they are enforced harshly. One Ice-Man settlement decides all matters deemed dull by the local judge via darts - the two parties stand across from each other, shirtless, with targets painted on them, and throw darts at each other. The first to show any signs of pain loses the suit - or, if neither shows pain, the one with the highest score. Lerenath is a beautiful country; the crystalline ice flows hold vast deposits of cold iron and mythril, and the cold wilderness is overrun by owlbears and other such mystical beasts. It is a land where despite the constant threat of raiders and the cruelty of the people, life is generally peaceful and - for many - utopian. It is the land chosen by many Gods of Metal as their holy place.

Of course, that means that it has been set upon by demons as of late; beasts of fire and death seeking to melt the very foundations of the nation. They have been unsuccessful... for now...

==The kingdom of Steel==
Out of most kingdoms, the Men of War, or Steelites, are by far one of the most brutal, heaviest, military-nations of the world. Their kingdom spans through deserts, plains and forests and out to the farthest coasts of the northeast. They were led by one who had marched for revenge on the elders who had taken his land and fortune and was dragged into the underworld, calling himself the Dark Avenger, and formed the regiment known as the Brothers of Metal. They hailed and killed, spilling much blood for their many gods of war. Many years ago, the Dark Avenger had discovered the Gloves of Metal, and it corrupted him, and eventually, he died for the metal. Ever since the Brothers of Metal had rebuilt their ranks since that last, bloody battle. Their blood is of molten rock, and their skin is made of steel. Eventually, the Brothers of Metal had discovered new artifacts hidden within their kingdom's Blackwindfire mountain range, the crown of Uther and the ring of Shand'grula, ancient demons that had walked the earth long ago. With these, they had created a new kingdom, led by a new king, who would be the king of kings. For many, many years this new king ruled into a bright and new age, sending his men out when the call to war was heard... The one call he had heard from the Gods of War, the three mighty words beckoning the entire kingdom to war with the other peoples of the world...

Hail and kill.

==Cog and Crag==
Two island nations bridging the vast oceans between the Land of Oil and Spice and the other nations, Cog lies in the Pancentric Ocean, Crag in the Attilan. 

Cog is a great technocracy, where the very souls of the inhabitants are enslaved to the Technician-Overseers. Any land that existed in Cog was stripped away and molded, until nothing remained but a great machine, one that constantly draws magical energy from beneath the sea, pouring it out onto its peoples, enhancing their strength... their endurance... robbing them of the ability or will to sleep... making a perfect army of worker drones... but for what purpose, none can say. The people of Cog are rarely visited except in emergencies, as they have begun to withdraw from the world recently; as of last year, they have begun opening fire on random ships that come close to them. 

Crag has a similar temperament in its dealings with the outside world, for completely different reasons; Crag is a nation of orcs. They have captured a tiny island that was used as a supply stash by the Ossaran Navy centuries ago, and have converted it into a small nation of their own. Amazingly, by raiding and by using what little fertile ground there is to grow herbs that are considered contraband in most places, they have prospered. Those that enter Crag must surrender all weapons, pay a hefty fine, and be watched at all times; that said, a few still do every year to stock up on the best trollweed in known existence, or to purchase the services of orc mercenaries.

==Ossar==
The great island kingdom opposite Oir, Ossar is ruled mostly by men. A noble kingdom, Ossar is where the Four arose, as well as many other gods, such as the Madman. It is a spirited, proud nation, once a great superpower with holdings across the Lands of Oil and Spice, even extending to the Free Citystates. Now Ossar is just one great island, its holdings retracted, its gaze turned inward; its rulers have become a bit off in the head, attempting to "protect" its citizens through a more and more arcane series of laws that border on tyrannical, though so far it is still safe to live there... so far.

==The Lands of Oil and Spice==
The Lands of Reason, where mankind first came into existence, it is hard to generalize about the land that finishes the ring of the world. A dynamic, ever changing political clime means that the nations of the Land of Oil and Spice change every few years, mostly in bloodless coups. The people that live there experiment endlessly with new musics, new magics, new philosophies, and yet, they remember the past more keenly and fully than any other place on the crust. It is here that the Wudang Monastery lies, that the mountain that was the titan Gormhos stands - the only titan to remain upright after death, and the only one whose face is still visible in stone - that the great foundries of the ironclad yard produce the finest ships known to man, and that the Endless Library keeps record of all existence.

==Eastlands==
The Eastlands are the lands to the far, far east. It is a land of honor. They do not have gods, but mostly dress wildly. Most people have spiky hair, and follow the VisKai religion.

==See Also==

* [[Hail and Kill]]
[[Category:Metal]]