Lore
Geography: A world nearly completely covered in water, with a seemingly endless number of tiny, and mostly unexplored, islands. The ecology and cultures of these island often end up being wildly different from even their close neighbors due to the isolation caused by the seas dangers and the effect of magic upon the land.
The Empty Seas: Low magic areas of The world, lacking in leylines and consequentially naturally magical creatures or innate mages. Their ecology and weather resembles that of earths, with the rare magical beast often dominating and terrorizing the islands where they dwell. Some quite skilled adventurers trace their origins back to these pockets of normality.
The Braids: The colloquial term for the seas and island chains through which greater Leylines, known as Braids, run. Due to the high levels of ambient magic, these portions of the world are native to powerful magical beasts, extreme and almost unnatural weather, and innate mages. The difficulty of traversing the oceans in these areas causes the need for specialized equipment and reinforced ships to deal with the rough currents and attacks from ocean dwelling beasts.
The Deep: The deep ocean and sea floor, easily as populated as the islands above the waves. Underwater kingdoms are quite prevalent, as are great and dangerous beasts ruling over their own little portions of the seas away from the laws of the mortal kingdoms.
Kingdoms: The major kingdoms of the ocean. While many minor demesnes exist as powerful men and beasts decide themself above the law, nearly all known islands are at least nominally members of one of the major three kingdoms.
The Matamata: A magocratic empire ruled by a circle of Archmagi. The are best known for their domination of the great Zaratans, colossal and neigh immortal oceanic beasts that feed on magic, upon which the greater cities of the empire float through the sea. They are perhaps the oldest kingdom in the known world, being able to trace their history back thousands of years, through countless schisms and reformations.
The races of the Matamata tend towards the more humanoid air breathing races of the world, with elves, humans, and dwarves making up the vast majority. Though other races are still not uncommon due to the sheer age and size of the Empire.
They recently brokered a peace with the Aegir, after centuries of war.
The Aegir: The dominant undersea kingdom, ruled over by the eponymous Aegir, aquatic dwarves descended from the great storm giants of old. Though the Aegir are the ruling class, most other aquatic races have some presence in the Empire.
One of the most feared traits of the command of the beast that live beneath the waves. Everything from great sharks to the rumors of massive kraken and leviathans. Their mastery of that which lives beneath the sea extends to every facet of their lives, with their great living cities being a thing of, sometimes grotesque, beauty.
They've recently coronated a new king, who put an end to the great war between his people and the Matamata.
The Northern Alliance: The youngest of the major kingdoms, only having been founded in the last 50 years after a huge swath of previously independent minor kingdoms chose to ally together and almost overnight became one of the major players of the world. Though the most well known races of the Alliance are the Minotaur and Gnomes, who form a strong and visible backbone for the Alliance with their military might and great minds backed by the Gnomes scientific advancements, many non aquatic demihuman races have a presence. No small number of these demihuman races having seceded from the Matamata or Aegir for a group where they are closer to equals then second class citizens.
They somehow have vastly superior technology and engineering then the other kingdoms, and have proven a fairly major threat to the other kingdoms. Enough so to be suspected as the driving forces to the recent peace between the Matamata and Aegir.
Magic: The force of creation, which is utilized passively and actively to allow impossible feats or great acts. It is present in some form or another across the entire world and in most every living thing, but truly magical creatures and beings only appear in areas with a particularly high concentration.
Leylines: The veins of the world, through which magic flows. They are normally invisible and intangible, seen only though use of magic or by their effects on the world. "Pure" Leylines are increasingly rare, and instead most of them are colored by some type or school of magic. The type of magic can heavily influence the world around them, Air magic causing floating islands, storm magic leading to great storms, fire magic to deserts, etc.
Various types or groupings of leylines have specific terms, the most well known being Braids which are multiple leylines running together along a path, Beads or Nodes which are points of high magic generally located at the centers of islands in the Braids, and Knots which are crossings of Leylines that often act similar to Beads.
Mages: Magic users of the world come in two major flavors, Innate and learned.
Innate mages, such as Sorcerers, have magic as a natural and everpresent part of their life often discovering their abilities through accidentally use. They are most easily identified due to haveing as a rule some form of synesthesia related to the source of their spells, usually influencing how their spells "feel" to cast.
Learned mages, such as Wizards, studied hard to learn how to manipulate magic and bend the world to their will. While they may sometimes develop synesthesia as their magic becomes more of a part of their being, they rarely have it naturally.
