Erebus The World Erebus is a world wrapped in eternal darkness - not just twilight or starry night, but true absolute black. There is only one continent known, as navigation is extremely difficult. The landscape is mostly plains and rolling hills - only occaisionally breaking into mountains and steppes. The weather is generally kind. It is evenly warm almost all the time, heated largely from the ground. The winds are usually gentle, and rain is unknown, although occaisionally thick mists accompany brisk cold fronts from the waterways. The ground-level atmosphere is significantly denser than on Earth, making flight somewhat easier and sound stronger. Enormous trees dominate the surface of the world, to which redwoods are dwarfs in comparison. They reach up to average heights of 40 stories and more, with permanent oval leaves which will fall very rarely. The dense branches at the top of the trees cuts off what little light there is. The trees collect nutrients from deep roots into the earth, where chemosynthetic and geothermal bacteria grow in hollows and soft crevices beneath the earth. Searcing roots also weave through the surface soil, where a host of tiny creatures feed off the and in return fix nitrates from the air. The flora and fauna are rare and strange, to say the least. Fungus grow from the trunks and roots of the great trees, and rare lightless white plants push up flowers to the surface from their bodies in the odd ecosystems below. Roots and and their parasites form a loose web within the soil. Different strains of bats find their homes in progressive layers of the air, from the upper reaches where they feed on fruits and insects, to the more carnivorous varieties below. On the surface are gnawing and digging rodents, and the rare cats which prey on them. The People Mankind does not seem native to this world, but they have struggled to carve a place for themselves. They have domesticated some large bats (mobats) for communication and for pets, and felines as housecats and the great warbeasts, the Nightstalkers. For meat, there are rabbit-sized gnawing rodents called doles, large squirrels, and cold-blooded pig-like lizards called rucks. Some lizards are also used as guard dogs, but this is rare. The Erebian culture is a fairly unified one - they are in general hardworking and devoted to their crafts and industry, struggling for simple comforts and organization more than freedom and artistic excesses. There is a single race of people, with only two real provincial variations from the norm: the water-going Elysians to the East by the Great Lakes and the Tarters of the Southern subcontinent. The Elysians have always been set apart by their location: the lakes and streams provide fish and many other amenities unknown elsewhere, where fresh water is mainly underground. They are thought of as reckless, lazy, and impractical. Their artists and philosophers are well liked, but nevertheless distrusted. The Tarters are simply different, perhaps from isolation, perhaps for other reasons. They speak in a strange dialect, and live in inhospitable tropical regions overrun with strange trees and plants which thrive on the volcanic activity of the region. In general, the Erebians are quite conservative and cliquish. They are not so much provincial by territory as by class. Society is largely dominated by the professions and their guilds, which have strict hierarchies and rules. The nobility is officially appointed by the King, but has grown into hereditary lines as each appoints his son as his successor. There are also indentured servants, slaves for whom buying freedom is quite difficult. Still, there are strict laws concerning fair treatment of slaves which are enforced. The population is largely broken up into small towns, since food supplies are rarely large enough to support large centers. Food is an odd mixture: fungus and syrup are common, mixed with gathered roots and by-roots and occaisional scraps of meat. The trees are treated quite carefully, even reverently: with sap and wood collected only in moderation while leaving the tree time and nutrients to live and grow. Technology Their crafts are their pride and joy. Their technology is often similar to the 19th century on Earth, but the quality is far superior, aided by altered natural law. They have steam engines and gaslight, their building are built of mixed wood, stone, packed earth, and earthrock - a concretelike substance formed of treated lime and packed earth. They have finely developed glassware and lenses, advanced medicine of a more holistic nature than on Earth, and articulated machinery. Electricity works subtlely differently on this world than earth, and is inappropriate for much use, but the chemistry ('alchemy') allows for many wondrous materials impossible there. In particular, their metallurgy borders on the fantastic - they have the common Earthly metals, and many strains in addition: -Adamantium is an extremely hard metal, heavy as lead, but somwhat brittle under extreme stress. -Galvorn is a very hard, shiny black metal - perfect for armor when alloyed with the above. -Ithildin is a phosphorescent metal. Pure it is similar to pewter, but it is often alloyed for certain purposes. -Malach is a burgandy-colored metal, easily melted and marked - excellent for inlaying, even on wood. -Mithril is a very flexible silver-blue metal which does not tarnish, stronger than steel when forged well. -Tarrel is a flammable metal, like magnesium - diluted for flares, or packed with nitrates for bombs. Their alchemy has produced many other marvels as well, including a vast variety of drugs comparable to the mid-twentieth century. There is less interest and development in psychotropic drugs, but many other which have great medicinal use. Further, they have developed a wide variety of flammable substances. The wood of Erebian trees is not readily flammable, but there is a relatively simply treatment to make it so, and it burns slowly and evenly for much heat. More often, a rock kin to coal is used in furnaces designed to collect the soot and ash which could pollute the area. They also have vast stores of flammable gas, which runs in pipes to light their towns. Warfare Their warfare, in comparison, is not so highly developed. They use spears and halberds primarily, backed by advanced crossbows and incendiaries. In fact, Earthly explosives and powder do work here to some degree, roughly half to one-third their strength on Earth. However, this has not been exploited to a large degree. King Edward, in his long reign, improved considerably the state of incendiaries and even developed poisonous smoke clouds, which will kill almost as effectively as chlorine or mustard gas. However, he has not had much chance to use them, as warfare in Erebus is more often concerned with the problem of finding the enemy than fighting him. Strategy and organized movement of troops is a highly developed art on Erebus. Individual fighting skills and weaponry is not so advanced. Spearmen are trained in simple, but effective techniques for massed fighting. Crossbows are small but excellently built, with a break-open and reload mechanism possible only with advanced metals and much work. Incendiary grenades are lobbed by hand, or shells are lobbed by hydraulic cannons pumped by hand-turned cranks. Advanced students may be taught the martial art of sword-fighting, which uses long, heavy two-handed or bastard swords in sweeping strokes. An emphasis is put on control, balance, and teamwork. All fighting styles are trained first for fighting in the dark, and use of sight is secondary. Beliefs Historically, the Erebians trace them- selves back to several sets of earlier peoples, ending in the single mythical nation of Leviathan. Their origins are unknown and largely unquestioned. The Erebians have plenty of myth and superstition, but no strong centralized religion. Rather, their religious beliefs are similar to the early Romans or Chinese, with a variety of minor gods to appease, a certain amount of ancestor worship, and a complex belief in the balance of spiritual power which only a few care about enough to learn. At the start of his reign, there were only a handful of border communities which were not in Edward's power; once these were conquered he soon declared himself Witch-King of Erebus (that is, of the World). From his immortality and his wondrous creations, the people soon had little reason to doubt his absolute power, and with their down-to-earth attitudes soon came to accept his eternal reign as a simple fact of life.