Arcodd is the name of the Mother who bears all life. She is the seas and the land and the air. She slumbers in the long sleep after making all the world that is her gift to us. May she dream, and never wake!

Above the Mother spin the Night and the Day in their endless cycle, the sun called Grían or Solas fixed in the vault of heaven.

The stars watch over the dance of the world from their far perch in the night. Some say they are the souls of great heroes placed in the sky by the Gods to remind the peoples of their divine origins.  Others claim them to be fragments of the sun, left behind each day in his passage as the promise of another dawn.  Still others claim they are spirits or angels sewn into the dome of heaven to watch over the affairs of men for the busy gods.  There are other stories still, older and darker, that travel with the Strangers across Arcodd.

Moving across the folds of the world’s darkness are the Nightwings, the five moons circle the world, ever-full faces turned to Arcodd as they glow with the power of their own divinity.

It is said that once Night and Day were their own personages, joined in an endless dance. Perhaps they are like the Serpent and the Dragon of Mawr, locked in an invisible union.

Peoples

Humans share the Mother with other creatures of the land, the sea and the air.

These are the peoples of Mawr:

Conquered into slavery shortly after Invasion are the Suren, the lizard-folk. They differ in kind more greatly than humans.  Some stand taller than the tallest man, so strong they can rip trees from their roots.  Others are small and swift and more commensurate of strength with humans.

Also among men, though not subject to them, are the Flit.  They are small and squirrel-like  Their agrarian culture offered no resistance to human settlement and blended with it with remarkable ease.  The Flit are as a whole good-natured and excellent workers and astonishing craftsmen. They make fine allies, though they are not fools.

Not all peoples are amicable to humankind. To the west, beyond and within the forest of Teinwood and past the mountains of Cahál are the P’ntri.  They are a race of cats, feral and untrustworthy.  They are the enemies of the 5 Kingdoms and will never rest, it is said, until their black coats run red with the blood of the last human child.

In the plains to the south roam the Vulfen in their packs.  They are fierce warriors, but caught up in their own rituals and concerns, hardly bothering the world of man now that he has shown them he is their better, save for those taken as pups and raised among humans to whom they give their loyalty.

Sometimes on the rivers or the shores of the sea one can meet one of the Salkaí – the water people.  They trade with the Kingdoms and have never fought against it, nor has mankind molested them.  They are masters of the water and lords of the sea. They need not breathe the air and wield powers over water beyond human ken. It is said that their God lives on Arcodd among his kind, ruling from below the islands to the south.

Occasionally, high overhead one can see one of the Avaen, the Great Hawks, winging to some distant path. They have no dealings with the Five Kingdoms and make their eyries in the highest mountains.  They are an enigma and perhaps best left to themselves.

In the wider world, there are rumored to be many other Peoples as the union of Grían and Arcodd that produced them was potent indeed!

Lands

If you find yourself in Arcodd, you are likely beginning in Mawr. For details on this strange and savage island nation, click on through.

To the south are the Sunkissed Lands of Ararum where Grían is the highest god and it is said he has personally fathered many bright children.

To the West, in the Endless Ocean are the Fractured Kingdoms – small city states and strange Builder remnants that make passage more than passing dangerous.

North is the Serpent Sea where a few small kingdoms ply the waves, and further north the sea is a morass of unbreathable clouds and swirling whirlpools where even sorcery cannot protect the hapless traveler.

To the East, in the Tower Sea are massive Builder structures that seem to touch the sky. Far, far away, farther than the skiffs of even Ternyn can reach is said to be an endless land of monsters.