Introduction
Rasan is an old world littered with the ruins of bygone civilizations. Grave dangers lurk within. So do those strong enough to face them.
Thousands of years after an unknown disaster ended the empires of the ancients, folklore and fantasy mixes with advanced technology salvaged from the ruins. Thieves' guilds prowl nightclubs in well-lit entertainment districts. Air pirates rule the skies in flying ships. Wizards study the arcane in great mechanical libraries. Explorers on the edge of known civilization make do with the scraps they pull from the earth.
But even as Rasan boasts these feats of progress, magic finds a way: dragons older than language guard eerie swamps, faeries coax travelers into dark and endless forests, and a creeping otherworldly corruption poisons the land.
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Cosmology
Rasan has no pantheon of gods. Religion still exists on Rasan, but practices vary. Animism, ancestor worship, and dedicating oneself to an abstract ideal (such as peace or knowledge) are common. Additionally, some people may choose to follow a powerful being from another plane of existence, such as a fey or a celestial.
Rasan's cosmology has also been simplified for ease of understanding. Whereas canon Dungeons & Dragons lore features the Great Wheel's twenty-four planes, Rasan has only seven (plus one demiplane).
The Material Plane, also called the Elemental Plane: Long ago, before the existence of mortal life, the five elements (water, earth, fire, air, and aether) were in a state of chaos. These elements wove together to create stars, worlds, and moons. The Material Plane is the universe as we know it, including the solar system that Rasan calls home.
The Dreamscape: A place of both possibility and mystery, the Dreamscape is equal parts a transitive plane and an afterlife. Both mortal souls and magic are said to originate from the Dream, and the dead return to it to prepare for their next life. Some also believe they travel there in their sleep. The Dreamscape acts as a "veil" that shields Rasan from the other planes of existence.
Mortal folk beliefs appear to influence the Dreamscape, giving rise to a demiplane within it called Basm, the world of the faeries.
The Celestial Planes: As far as anyone can tell, the divine beings known as celestials have always existed, locked in eternal struggle with the fiends. The celestials have two planes, the City of One Thousand Thrones and the Everlasting Fields. More beast-like celestials, such as unicorns and pegasi, call the fields home, while the rest reside in the city.
The Fiendish Planes: Fiends have one purpose, which is to sow pain and destruction. In the bureaucratic Hells, devils achieve this end through games of strategy and manipulation. In the Abyss, demons abide by no law, only seeking to spread chaos, terror, and mayhem.
The Lightless Realms: This little-known plane seems to exist outside of known cosmology. Those who come in contact with entities from the realms describe them as difficult to perceive or understand. Some victims have even "contracted" some sort of corruption from prolonged exposure, identifiable by an uncanny and frightening change in appearance and behavior.
Rasan is an Earth-like world. It is a globe in space orbiting a star. The other planes exist outside of the known universe. Even if the people of Rasan had the technology for deep space travel, they still would not be able to leave the Material Plane and reach the other planes without magic.
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Important Locations
Rasan has three major continents — Jhon'Ha and Argenfaen in the northern hemisphere, and Virakell in the southern hemisphere. Please keep in mind this is not an exhaustive list of nations in Rasan, but rather the most significant thus far.
Virakell
Bellosca: Renowned for its food, art, music, and natural beauty, the kingdom of Bellosca is a major player on the world stage. Its capitol, the canal city Revessa, is one of Rasan's most important trade centers, while the ruins in the country's more rural southeast are rife with ancient dangers.
The Maelstrom: Legend says the islands of the Maelstrom region, in their strange whirlpool formation, were created when an elemental storm shredded the ground. Today the warm, diverse region is a center of airship trade, despite its many dragon clans and issues with piracy.
Glaedward: On the other side of the mountain range forming Bellosca's border, the mysterious land of Glaedward lies. Glaedward's monarchy and chivalric order are the stuff of fairy-tales, and the kingdom itself is built within a deadly enchanted forest older than known history.
Iranescu: Many, many thousands of years ago, in the age of the old empires, dark magic spilled through a rift between Basm and Rasan. This magic stained and corrupted the earth and all who lived there with the power of dark fey and undead monsters. Iranescu is the first and oldest of these "Worldscars," though more have appeared over time in other locations.
Jhon'Ha
The Four Kingdoms, consisting of Aloria, Rozontis, Saerus, and Zurid: Once upon a time, the Four Kingdoms region was eternally at war. Then, old grudges were set aside in favor of peace. In modern times, the Four Kingdoms is the most powerful alliance in Rasan, though they still pass down the wisdom of their combat arts and engage in annual tournaments.
Kel'toran: Though the deserts of Kel'toran are hot and dangerous, the territory's many peoples thrive and persevere. The region's origins stretch back to the beginning of recorded history, and thanks to a diaspora over a thousand years ago, Kel'toran culture and influence is widespread throughout Jhon'Ha.
The Shieldlands: Most Shieldlanders aren't born there; rather, they traveled to the region in search of a new start. A frontier to the north of the Four Kingdoms and to the east of a barren steppe, the Shieldlands are full of new farms and settlements with little in the way of centralized authority.
Dagrunn: The northernmost country in the world, Dagrunn is home to mythical geothermal springs that are said to cure any disease tended by a grove of peaceful stewards. In order to get there, however, one must brave the hostile steppes, a jagged and snow-capped mountain range, the Worldscar to the east of the mountain pass, and Dagrunn's active volcano.
Argenfaen
Gedat-Nur and Lithain: When the workers of the mining town Gedat-Nur unearthed a massive crystal large enough to hold an entire city, they anchored it to the earth and allowed it to float above. Now, Gedat-Nur expanded into the hole left behind, while the shining city of Lithain sits on the crystal overhead. Many arcanists call Lithain home and use the crystal's power to study magic.
The Orrery: Situated between Lithain to the south and Knightsgarden to the north, the Orrery is something between a town and a research institute. Many masters of the arcane arts gather in the Orrery to study their area of expertise and share knowledge in neutral territory far from the influence of any government.
Knightsgarden: Scholars, writers, artists, philosophers, and the like are drawn to Knightsgarden due to its strange and unusual namesake: the vast army of photorealistic stone statues surrounding the city center, which was built into a preexisting ruin. The sobering sight of thousands of unknown stone warriors — each with their own unique pose, appearance, and facial expressions — has drawn speculation since the region's discovery.
Underland
Underland's subterranean caverns have only been explored by surface-dwellers sometime over the past millennium. There are two levels to the vast cave system — one closer to the surface, where the Underlanders such as the deep elves and duergar live, and a deeper, more hostile region called the Deep Dark.
In this setting, Underlanders have no inherent morality attached to them. There may be some tensions between the surface-dwelling peoples and those who live underground, but no one from the Underland is evil by nature.
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