World of Aediendi Overview-

WORLD OF AEDIENDI=-

Multiple lights shine down upon Aediendi from above, and indeed, lights in the great depths of the Black Ocean shine upwards to illuminate the cities of the Axen Coast. These lights are each in a different colour and hue, so that each appears as unique as they seem distant.

The brightest of Seen Lights is named Daygar, and shines with the light of a full gibbous moon at its nearest approach, but is wan in its heat provided. The next three, The Chained Sisters, encircle Aediendi at its equator, each equidistant and moving in step with Aediendi's rotation, although unlike earth's moon, each rotates at its own rate. It is believed that pirates in smoky, steam-spitting ships take harbour amongst The Three, while the women of Ilduria are well known for their willowy frames and inhuman beauty. Their offspring possess marvellous amethyst coloured eyes and hair that flows with a subtle breeze wherever they travel.

Blackheaven and Soot are dim, glowering orbs of red-radiant darkness out beyond the orbit of the Three Sisters. Soot is the dead sun's only stable satellite, and draws away the iron skin of its host in great clumps and perpetual showers of ferrous detritus. This Metal Rain is propelled outwards upon the weak and fluctuating magnetic fields and lines emanating from Blackheaven, and clouds the entire system of worlds and lights. The sight of near constant 'shooting stars' and 'thunder eggs' is as familiar and reassuring to Aediendians as dawn is to Earthers. With this constant enrichment of iron and molecular steel literally falling from the sky, Aediendi is well advanced in metallurgy.

But with all of the ferrous matter also comes disease and madness. Bodies too suffused with oxides begin to weep sticky plasma from open pustules and should the ailment not be drawn out of the victim, leads to insanity as the brain receives stronger and clearer sounds from Blackheaven. Sounds that form songs and words and generate an unquenchable hatred for all life. Armies of the Metal Mad seek each other like filings to magnets, and form War Bands that ravage the lands cursed by their presence. Even in Unlife, Iron Liches drive their emerging legions out of the Redsump Wilds towards the Human and Demi-Human fortresses of Genevian Hills, and only the bravery of naked warriors armed with weapons of bronze have staved off these feints.

Great Palekki (giant rust monsters) are used as beasts of burden and to process the superabundant iron, and their dung is the prime ingredient in Alchemist's Fire, making them both a beloved animal and a commodity. Raiders of the Suribahn Desert will routinely rustle herds if allowed to ford the crystal-pure Envol River, by which the green-blue Gassa flowers grow in unattended splendour. Overhead, dodging the igneous hail, are Ierun Flytes, great raptors the colour of burnished copper and bronze at sunset. With their metal-laced talons and beaks, Flytes are sought after as hunting animals and feared in the wild.

Humanity has not been without its changes since Blackheaven and Soot first appeared more than a millennium ago. Indeed, three distinct breeds of Humans have since emerged:

* ARMSMEN: +1 to Str, Dex, or Con; +1 HP per HD; -1 Cha -- Slightly greater frames with tougher skin tinged a faint terracotta red-orange regardless of ethnicity.

* ERIUDEN: +1 to Int or Wis; +1 Spell per Level and unlimited Cantrips or Orisons; -1 Str or Con -- Average framed with silver, grey, or white shocks in their hair.

* MALKIN: +1 Dex; +1 Level of Thief; -1 Wis -- Lighter framed with a propensity for possessing a second opposable thumb on each hand.