The Unnamed Continent... (setting document, part 1)
This is the world; a vast continent, bordered to the East and West by vast, unexplored oceans.
The continent is mostly covered in dense jungle, fading into more temperate forests the further north you progress, until you eventually reach the Frozen Wastes. It is difficult to say what is beyond those, because explorers have only penetrated so far into the tundra before the cold becomes too much. Likewise, the southern extremes are bordered by the Great Desert, which is similarly difficult to traverse.
The jungles and forests that form the intervening land are barely habitable. Toxic plant spores poison much of the atmosphere, and the local wildlife is highly aggressive. Added to which there are very few maps of the area, and those which do exist are often wildly inaccurate, with fakes being commonplace. Only with the recent advent of anti-spore respirators and bio-domes has more than a superficial exploration been possible.
The population of Anticthon live almost entirely on the many floating islands that hover above the unnamed continent and the seas surrounding it. The climate on these islands is mostly temperate and hospitable, with the islands getting colder the further they float from the surface. The main form of transport is the great Air Ships; the dirigibles that traverse the sky between islands, and occasionally - very occasionally - venture down to the surface.
Weather patterns around the islands are... erratic. Lightning storms are common, but while they can get large enough to be dangerous, most of them are high enough and small enough to dissipate without causing much more than a mild hazard to shipping. More hazardous is a phenomenon colloquially known as The Haze. No-one is quite sure what it is, or what causes it, but it appears as a slightly purplish mist and a shimmer in the air. Ships that fly through it become harder to fly - sluggish and unresponsive - sometimes become lost in the purple fog-banks of a particularly large patch, or occasionally simply fall out of the sky for no reason. One particular area of sky - often made the centre point of maps of the known world - is known as the Null Point or Dead Zone. Ships that fly directly through the Dead Zone are never heard of again. Either instantly plummeting to be wrecked on the ground below, or becalmed forever in an empty sky without wind. No-one truly knows, but to attempt to fly through the Null Point is a death sentence.
The area the game takes place in comprises the territories of three main nations; Astreus, Massara and Radovich... More about those later...
The continent is mostly covered in dense jungle, fading into more temperate forests the further north you progress, until you eventually reach the Frozen Wastes. It is difficult to say what is beyond those, because explorers have only penetrated so far into the tundra before the cold becomes too much. Likewise, the southern extremes are bordered by the Great Desert, which is similarly difficult to traverse.
The jungles and forests that form the intervening land are barely habitable. Toxic plant spores poison much of the atmosphere, and the local wildlife is highly aggressive. Added to which there are very few maps of the area, and those which do exist are often wildly inaccurate, with fakes being commonplace. Only with the recent advent of anti-spore respirators and bio-domes has more than a superficial exploration been possible.
The population of Anticthon live almost entirely on the many floating islands that hover above the unnamed continent and the seas surrounding it. The climate on these islands is mostly temperate and hospitable, with the islands getting colder the further they float from the surface. The main form of transport is the great Air Ships; the dirigibles that traverse the sky between islands, and occasionally - very occasionally - venture down to the surface.
Weather patterns around the islands are... erratic. Lightning storms are common, but while they can get large enough to be dangerous, most of them are high enough and small enough to dissipate without causing much more than a mild hazard to shipping. More hazardous is a phenomenon colloquially known as The Haze. No-one is quite sure what it is, or what causes it, but it appears as a slightly purplish mist and a shimmer in the air. Ships that fly through it become harder to fly - sluggish and unresponsive - sometimes become lost in the purple fog-banks of a particularly large patch, or occasionally simply fall out of the sky for no reason. One particular area of sky - often made the centre point of maps of the known world - is known as the Null Point or Dead Zone. Ships that fly directly through the Dead Zone are never heard of again. Either instantly plummeting to be wrecked on the ground below, or becalmed forever in an empty sky without wind. No-one truly knows, but to attempt to fly through the Null Point is a death sentence.
The area the game takes place in comprises the territories of three main nations; Astreus, Massara and Radovich... More about those later...