[WRITER'S RESOURCE]

These resource pages are to be considered Work-in-Progress. Expect to see more detail added to them as I progress plots and add more details to the developing setting. If you want to add your own story options, please read through them all, especially the ones on Stats and what they do. If you just plan on reading, feel free to browse around if you’re curious about the setting or need a refresher on certain basics as the story grows. Feel free to suggest additions.

General Terms and Concepts

The World of Thenard setting is principally inspired by Norse mythology, Conan, the Dragon Age video games, and a little bit of the Dark Sun setting for Dungeons and Dragons. It is a world with many peoples, many of whom are not natural to the world, but were created by powerful and forbidden magic in times past. Most of the known world is formally divided amongst the kingdoms of the world, with three human nations spreading more than the races, but things are still very volatile and uncertain. The world is mysterious and old, even if it isn't very big by our understanding of the term.

The world of the Kingdoms of Ruhn is known as Thenard. Ruhn is the central and largest continent amongst the known regions of Thenard, which is populated by eight other relatively small continents.

Titles and Social Rank

Titles and social ranks have some variation within the world of Ruhn, but for the most part they follow the typical medieval/fantasy conceit. Slaves and serfs are common throughout the setting but not allowed everywhere--a few kingdoms forbid such practices. Those who stand above the rank and file of ordinary free commoners are as follows:

1. Merchants, squires, lesser mages, and clerics. Roughly 1-in-10 of the population. Typical Wealth: 2

2. Guild-masters, knights, fully vetted mages, and priests. Roughly 1-in-50 of the population. Typical Wealth: 4

3. Lords, High Mages, Arch-priests. These people tend to hold direct sway over people's lives, with lords holding sway over entire villages. Roughly 1-in-250 of the population. Typical Wealth: 10

4. Barons, Archmages, Priors. Barons will have lesser lords sworn to their service, and will hold sway over at least one good-sized town. Only the Primacy religion is big enough to have multiple Priors, other religions tend to have at most one Prior as they're more provincially focused. Roughly 1-in-2,500 of the population. Typical Wealth: 25

5. Counts, Avatars. Counts will hold sway over large swathes of a kingdom thanks to feudal connections, and will report directly to their kingdom's ruler(s). Some small kingdoms might not even have need of this high rank, as the Count is essentially the king of a small domain. Avatars are elusive masters of their magical arts, most of whom have mystically extended their lifespans and taken up reclusive and paranoid lifestyles. Roughly 1-in-50,000 of the population. Typical Wealth: 100

6. Dukes and Duchesses. Dukes will hold sway over large swathes of a kingdom thanks to feudal connections, and will report directly to their kingdom's ruler(s). Some small kingdoms might not even have need of this high rank, as the Duke is essentially the king of a small domain. Roughly 1-in-250,000 of the population. Typical Wealth: 250

7. Kings, Queens, Tetrarchs, Hegemons. These are the rulers of kingdoms. The only way to improve your rank at this level is to bump off your neighbors. Usually 1 or 2 per kingdom! Typical Wealth: 1,000

Common Customs

The concept of the profane races are a key concept in the world of Thenard. The gods created the original seven races: humans, elves, dwarves, fae, giants, arachnae, and orcs. They were divine manifestations of the creativity of Thenard, left over from the gods’ themselves, however flawed they are. The other races that great sorcerers made over the following ages, however, are the product of a profane blasphemy. Nevermind that many of those races were designed for foul appetites and purposes, the profane races are an expression of mortals trying to improve on the gods’ work. Accordingly, most Thenardians have at least some level of stigma towards the profane races, and many consider slavery of profane races to be less odious than enslaving divine races. The Erganian and Horth empires enslave most profane races, as well as the occasional orc prisoner. The Drow are known to enslave almost anyone and be enslaved in turn by most other kingdoms, though Drow **** practices very from privileged servant-spouse to tortured, slow ****-sentences. Orcs enslave anything they can subdue, be it other orcs or any other race.

Most of the Thenard cultures have somewhat typical medieval (sexist) views on men and women, what their strengths and weaknesses are, and their places in society. Not to the same extremes as history goes—no one is being called a witch for wearing pants or anything…in general. But men are mostly expected to do the fighting and aggressive behaviors, women take care of the home, etc. In certain other societies, though, things are quite different. In the republics, women have political power and investment on a level with men. Amazon and catfolk tribes typically outright enslave men. Giant culture seems to recognize little difference between their men and women, though women are a much smaller percentage of the population and protected out of the interests of survival. Arachnae women often kill their men when they’re no longer fit or needed for breeding, and drow culture is decidedly matriarchal, but a bit more egalitarian.

**** frowned up throughout most of Thenard. In the human realms, sex within a nuclear family is abjured universally, but cousins or widowed in-laws are not only fair game but encouraged when it facilitates political stability. **** is not even a concept in the depraved orc lands or the arachnae culture, nor in the giant lands where reproduction is slow and dangerous regardless. It’s usually only a token taboo amongst drow and even some high elves.

Magic

All the original races, being echoes of Fenard, have the potential for magic. But in the century of twilight just after Thenard was created, the mages of men quickly spread throughout the ley sites, quickly learning the secrets of the other races. Human mages became the most visible, notorious, and powerful of the first races. When Arrin saw this at the end of the first age he had Sirif bind the ley sites, locking them with magic so that they could only be used with great effort. Still, the mages of men had learned many of the secrets they yearned for.

These early mages performed many wonders, but few were so wonderful or so despicable as the act of necromancy. An act of creating something more--of corrupt mortals using magic to multiply their corruption--necromancy was odious to the Urlen and most mortals alike. The greatest necromancers managed to create genuine life--profane races that were half-breeds or shadows of the original seven races the Urlen had placed on Thenard. Most of the early necromancers set themselves as kings over ****-races they engineered, using their creations as pets and play-things. Many were overthrown by their own creations, and many more fell to petty warfare with others of their kind.

Today, magic is the tool of a few mysterious individuals. They are powerful, but few are so foolish as to be open or flippant with their arcane power, fearing the reactions of paranoid men more than vengeful gods. It is almost certain that there is one or more necromancers out there, but for now, they remain hidden.