Oathbreaker: A Dark Fantasy Web Serial

Map of the Alderes #2

The Alderes

The Known World, Aeterel's Kiln, The Veiled Havens, Fendurin's Harbor. The world of Oathbreaker goes by many names, and much of it remains shrouded in ancient myth. A deeply supernatural place, phantasm and old wounds are as real in these mist-shrouded shores as the wind and mountains. The dead do not rest easy, and powerful immortals plot and wage strange wars behind a tapestry of mortal realms.

It is said the Elden Ones, known by many other names, dwelt first in these lands. Their lords and elders were hungering demigods, whose names and cults are still known to some. Mankind came later on silver ships, spreading across the world to build many fair realms, and they worshipped distant, cold gods from faraway shores who they called Onsolain. The meetings between Man and Fae, Kin and Kith, were not always bloodless, but over many ages an equilibrium was found.

That is, until an exiled goddess stepped foot upon the lands, and all was thrown into a gilt disorder.

The Alderes is divided into a number of regions, each of which contains its own history and powers.

Edea is the Great West, the Ancestral Land, and the Long Decay. A large continent spread across much of the known world, it is here that Aureia, God-Queen of the Onsolain, battled the aged Cambion for dominion over the world. After many years of battle, She would take those spirits loyal to Her, and the hosts of faithful kings, into the east to fashion a new bastion.

Urn is a subcontinent of Edaea, a sizable land in the east. Aureia brought Her followers here after Her war with the Cambion, and oversaw the forging of many new kingdoms. The godlings, dire elves, and mortals who dwelt here fought the Edaean exodus for many generations, but the Aureate onslaught could not be stopped, and much of Urn's history prior to the God-Queen's arrival is now lost.

The Fane Lands are a vast land to the southeast, covered in cold deserts and haunted wilds. Little is known about it, and it is said many spirits who would not bow before either the Cambion or the Heir of Onsolem migrated to this region. What mortals live here dwell in fear of hungering immortals.

Lost Hithlaean shall not be spoken of, for the Onsolain have forbidden it. Only know that it lies far in the north, beyond the Sea of Fangs.

Powers of Urn

These are the factions of note in the land of Urn, where the Heir of Heaven made Her home.

The Faithful Lords are a loose collection of kings, dukes, counts, earls, and other great nobles descended from the warriors who made exodus from the West. Though many centuries have passed, they still follow many old Edaean customs. A heavily feudal society, the Lords of Urn have often vied against one another, following edicts passed down from old which command them to always be prepared for war. Presently, these are united by the Ardent Accord, an agreement fashioned during the most recent great war which forbids its members from indulging in wars of aggression with one another, and subjects all to the arbitration of the recently revived position of the Urnic Emperor.

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The Aureate Church is a theocratic organization charged with maintaining and spreading the teachings of the God-Queen, Her Choir, and other spiritual customs brought over from the west. Originally formed from a collective of theologians and scholar-mages, the Church is as much an institution for higher learning as a vessel for proselytization, with its priesthood being trained to wield and understand arcane powers, collect histories, and act as scribes and teachers. While the original edict of the Castias, the orders from which the Church sprung, was to understand the cosmos and use that knowledge to empower mankind, the insular and often martial culture of Urn has led to the rise of more zealous, xenophobic elements such as the Priory of the Arda and the Inquisition.

The Church is made up of Preosters, who run churches and preach to the masses, or act as pilgrim healers, and Clericons, the scholar-scribes and doctrine writers for the religion. All answer to the Clericon College, a council of the highest ranking priests.

The priesthood is also responsible for selecting a great lord as Emperor, an office which is also ultimately subject to the theocracy.

The Recusants are traitorous elements, which include some great lords across the subcontinent, who have rejected the edicts of the Aureate Church. While there have always been ambitious nobles who have sought to expand their own personal power in the land, these hostile alliances began to properly form about a century ago, following a bloody period of dwindling faith and misery known as Lyda's Plague. A brutal inquisition and corruption in the Church caused many to lose faith in the theocracy, if not necessarily the divine powers from which it sprung, which included some members of the Church itself. Despite scattered wars across the decades, the Recusant factions have always been divided in their motives and purposes, with some simply seeking reform, and others having more selfish ambitions. It was only during the Fall of Seydis and the Great Urnic War that followed when the Recusant Lords became a properly united power.

The Briar are a collective of wicked elves and other dark beings. Once, these elements were scattered and cowed by the God-Queen, left to sullenly lurk in the shadow of Her golden realm. However, after forging an alliance with the renegade onsolain known as Nath, one of Aureia's own handmaidens, the Briar became a threat to all the land. Though elements of this dark realm are spread all across Urn, its power is concentrated in Briarland, once a mortal kingdom now fallen into bleak phantasm. The champions of this fell dominion are the Brothers of the Briar, many of whom are great champions of human kingdoms lost to madness. Most of the Brothers were slain during the Fall, though this seems to have had little bearing on Bloody Nath's tangled schemes.

The Crowfriars are an ancient order, long barred from Urn. They have recently been allowed back, largely due to the edicts of the new emperor, who was unaware how his edicts would effect supernatural laws. Each of the gray-robed monks are servants of Orkael, an extraplanar realm sometimes known as the Iron Hell, which is ruled by infernal spirits called the Zosite. Their motives and goals are mysterious, though they seem to be attempting to curry debt and favors in the land.

The Magi are a loose collective of powerful arcanists. Once, this order helped found the Urnic Church and were faithful servants to the God-Queen. However, over time the unity of the wizards has floundered, with many going their own paths, serving lords of their choosing or indulging in their own ambitions. The most infamous of them is Reynard, whose madness has wounded the very fabric of the world.

The Edaean Guilds are powerful factions from the continent, particularly from the country known as Bantes. While Urn has long shut out the west, human societies have continued to grow and evolve there. Without the benefit of Onsolain blessings, invention and alchemy have come to dominate in the eastern regions of Edaea. The Guilds have made their fortunes on new breeds of chimera, preternaturally potent metals, engines of war, medicines, and even long forbidden arts such as the creation of Marions.