PRIMER

The world is called "Geb". The area delineated in the interactive map, often referred to as "the known world" where the campaign takes place is in the planet's southern hemisphere with the Utter Ice approaching the south pole, and the equator somewhere north of Shield of Painted Earth and Sky.

Keltokel (lit. "City of Cities") is the region's largest, densest and most central city. This city rests on a nexus of power and has existed in some form since before written history. (Read: Keltokel)

The Jewel Cities comprise of a coalition coastal cities in the Sea of Riches: Amber, Pearl, Jade, Beryl, Moonstone, Topaz and Calcite. Each has its own distinct culture, architecture and racial makeup. (Read: The Jewel Cities)

The Suzerainty of Akhet comprises the entire jungle on the northern side of the Sea of Riches. It contains six large cities and many more smaller settlements and villages in its span. (Read: The Jungle Cities of Akhet)

The region to the south of the Sea of Riches was originally colonized by the iaret and now is composed of a number of independent nations. (See: On the Sorry State of Bracken and On the Honor of the Aligned Princes of Keizai)

The Free States of Balt is a large, industrialized federation in the south, composed of member states. After the Gate War, they seem poised to become the dominant power in the known world. (Read: On the Old Homes of Balt and On the New Territories of Balt)

The Assemblage of Khalq is a nation composed of warlike mobile cities in the western ash wastes. Their lands were devastated in the distant past by a magical firestorm known as the Great Khet. They suffered centuries of starvation and savagery before uniting under a new collectivist philosophy. A long-simmering rivalry with the Free States threatens to erupt into war.

Years on Geb are 365 days long and composed of 4 seasons, each containing 3 months of 30 days. The remaining 5 days comprise a New Year’s festival which celebrates the gods, and begs their blessing on the coming year. Days are composed of 24 hours.

Grota is winter in the south and a wet season in the north. Las is spring in the south and a wet season in the north. Dolina is summer in the south and a dry season in the north. Stok is autumn in the south and a dry season in the north. The months of each season are called Early, Mid, and Late.

Years are numbered from the date of the apkallu meeting the iaret. While iaret civilization (and history itself) predates the year 0, this marks the start of formally recorded history. (Read: World Timeline)

Serpentine iaret, fishlike apkallu, animalistic beastkin, hulking ozrut, feathered ptak, water-dwelling muruch and fractious humans are native to this region. Iaret, humans, beastkin, ptak and apkallu are the most numerous and widespread, capable of adapting to a wide range of conditions. Muruch travel the seas and are a common sight in coastal and lakeside areas. The ozrut's range is somewhat constricted to the Horned Lands in the jungle, the Serpent's Back mountain range, the Keizai mountain range and Ludzia in Balt.

The warlike soldati and mysterious tylwyth are non-native and originate from other dimensions. Soldati appeared in 6983 with the intent to colonize Geb, initiating the Gate War. Tylwyth arrived on Geb in 6985. The soldati's home dimension seems to obey a similar set of material principles to Geb, but the tylwyth's home dimension is a timeless, ever-fluctuating dream plane.

The first yanta were created by human artificers in 6983 to assist the Gate War. They are living, inorganic constructs housing a fabricated soul. They are most common throughout Balt and rare elsewhere.

Races are different species and cannot produce offspring, with the sole exception of human-muruch pairs. (Read: Notes on Crossbreeding)

Magic has two sources: arcane learning, and divine faith. Arcane learning involves the manipulation of reality via use of ontological language, sympathetic foci, and precise gestures. Divine faith relies on fervid belief to draw upon the natural wellsprings of power to perform miracles. The methods can appear similar but the sources are different.

Only a tiny percentage are skilled, learned, gifted, or faithful enough to accomplish more than cantrips outside of carefully controlled settings like laboratories or temples. However, a certain amount of magical learning is fairly widespread, leading to a pervasive supply of simple magical items such as scrolls and potions. Teams of magewrights working in concert can accomplish even more with dedicated magical equipment and infrastructure, such as the creation of yanta in anima foundries.

The present-day technological level of this region in the year 6998 is equivalent to real-world early industrial revolution, with the steam engine and printing press as recent developments.

While technological and magical advancements are mostly uniform across the known world, regions may be more or less advanced culturally. The Suzerainty is a stagnant, decadent imperial culture, while Enlightenment-era thinking suffuses the Jewel Cities. Nationalism has taken hold in the south. The Free States are enjoying a post-war Gilded Age, and the Assemblage seeks to export its radical economic beliefs by subterfuge or force.

Smoke powder has been invented and is the subject of alchemical experimentation. The Jewel Cities navy is known for their bombards, which use magically improved smoke powder to launch ensorcelled bombs long distances. The Free States, the Assemblage, and the Soldati all deployed land-based siege engines using various sorts of smoke-powder propellant during the Gate War and Spasm. Hurled hand-bombs have even seen some use. The high cost and artisanship required for manufacture when magical alternatives exist keep such items rare, but someday industry may shift the balance of this equation.

The inhabitants of Geb recognize seven Gods. These Gods are identifiable powers that actually exist, but their true nature is unknown. The Gods of Geb are somewhat removed from the world and rarely commune with mortals. (Read: Pantheon Digest)

Certain races may strongly identify with one particular God (e.g. Ranute for ptak, Apsu for muruch) and interpret the Gods and their domains differently, but all races acknowledge the existence of seven distinct powers. (Read: On Divers Expression of Faith)

The Gods usually bear some distinguishing characteristic (e.g. the Drowning Girl's long, tangled mass of black hair) but they can take on any number of appearances when appearing before mortals (e.g. the Drowning Girl can appear as a white ozrut, a human woman, a muruch child etc). (Read: On the Worship of Gods Benign and Munificent and On the Propitiation of Gods Obdurate and Baneful)

Dragons (and kobolds) live in this region but are a rare sight in present day. (Read: On the Nature of Dragons and On the Curious Nature of the Reclusive Kobold)

Intelligent creatures that are capable of speech and walk on two legs are referred to as "Gebbiform", not "humanoid" - humans are not the default metric by which things are measured on Geb.

Documents presented here should be considered in-setting and thus might be subject to the limited understanding or bias of the author.

The Keltokel site exists to host documents relating to the homebrew D&D 5E campaign Marchioness, Momento Mori. This campaign uses the mechanics and (adapted) bestiary of D&D 5E but its world, races and pantheon are homebrew content.