The World of Cartyrion - old

The geography of Cartyrion is, as one would expect of any world, quite varied. The Creator of Worlds clearly appreciated variety in his work, and what he did not supply, the powerful among the Astralar did. The Creator provided a palette of land and sea. The land features mighty mountain ranges and vast inland seas - some freshwater, and some as salty as the oceans. The extreme polar regions are lands of ice and snow, while the lands in between were perfectly suited for the lush, verdant plant life that Berdea would provide.

The land of Cartyrion forms one continuous continent that appears to corkscrew its way around the globe from the north pole to the south; it is possible to travel on foot from one pole to the other, though attempting to do so would not be wise. The land features six great mountain ranges, called various things by various

When the Creator of Worlds was finished with his work, the geological structures of the World were in place. The lands and seas were in their places, with their calm beaches and crashing rocky coasts defined. Towering mountains soared toward the heavens. Rivers flowed. But there was no life. It was not until the arrival of the first Astralar - Berdea of the Alevar - that the World came to life. Berdea's first act was to bring forth the forests and grasses, the trees and flowers, and the simple, common creatures that dwelled on the land and in the seas.

Before The First Awakenings

When Berdea finished this work, the World was a green place. While he decided to leave the majesty of the mountains alone except perhaps for a light covering of grasses, mosses, and a few trees, he covered much of the plains and valleys with vast forests. The two great deserts which the Creator had left were also only gently touched by Berdea. In these he brought forth a few sparse plants designed to thrive in the arid climate, and then he created the lizards, insects, and birds that lived in and off of those plants.

The Awakenings of the Fey and the Elves did little to change the face of Cartyrion. Berdea and Atezana instilled in their children a sense of wonder and respect for the earlier creations of their father. These beings made their lives within Nature - using only what they needed, and carefully ensuring that whatever they harvested was replenished.

The Awakenings

With the Awakening of the Orcs, however, the World began to experience change. The Orcs, and later the Goblins were Awakened primarily in the forests, and from the beginning they used the bounty of the forest without much concern for their replenishment. They felled great trees to build their shelters and cook their meat.

But the natural environments of Cartyrion experienced their greatest changes after the Awakenings of Humans and Halflings. These beings not only hunted for their sustenance, they developed agriculture. And to do so, they began to clear vast tracts of land, stripping away the grasses and trees, to make room for their tilled fields. Their grazing herds also made their marks upon the plants of the plains.

And so, as all these beings multiplied and spread across the world, the natural gardens of Cartyrion were overtaken. But even thousands of years of this were nothing compared to the devastation that was to come in the Great Strife .

The Great Strife

The Great Strife brought conflict and devastation to Cartyrion on a scale never before seen. As the Astralar warred among themselves, so too did their followers in the World. And wherever the great battles were fought, desolation and death were all that remained.

The fields and grazing lands in the great kingdoms of men were left as burnt-out scars on the land - some even poisoned to prevent reclamation for a long time. The great Elven Forests also suffered. The Feywood, which had been second only to the Elvenhome, was reduced to less than half its original size. Many of the smaller forests were either destroyed by fire or harvested to the last tree in order to build weapons of war.

The populations of all beings suffered greatly as well. The eastern expanses of the First Kingdom were all but wiped out - much of the great city of Endmere was reduced to rubble. Smaller towns and villages in many regions were wiped out completely. The beings of the forest - on both sides of the strife - also suffered great losses. And while the Dwarven Delves were for the most part spared, the losses of great Dwarven Armies meant that even the Delves felt the sting of war.

The World Today

In the immediate aftermath of the Great Strife, the Fey and Elves sought to heal the world, and strove hard to restore the World to a state more reminiscent of the time before the Awakenings. But, of course, the civilizations of Humans also immediately began to rebuild. As a result, over the 2200 years or so since the Strife, only some regions of the world have shown any notable differences. One of these is the region called by all but the Elves "the Frontier Lands". (The Elves still refer to this region as the Feywood - and in fact the current - and still considerable - remnants of that forest still dominate the region.