Godslayer geography

The world of Calydorn is the stage upon which plays the epic drama of Godslayer; a bronze-age world of sword and sorcery; steeped in the ruins of ancient civilizations, where the borders of myth and reality blur. Classical empires clash, spear and shield, in contest for cultural dominance; brutal barbarians command the skies astride the backs of giant avians while slave-caravans wend their way across endless deserts with their cargoes of the conquered.

Ghorn

Click on a section of the map to explore in more detail.

Overview of Ghorn 

The central continent of Ghorn is the melting pot of the world of Calydorn, having been invaded my several massive empires. More recently it has been the birthplace of four major empires which have in turn carried new culture back out to the other continents.

Ghorn is composed of  5 sub-continents and a central sea:

  • The Northlands – Land of the Ice Witch and the Dwarven realm of Nordgaard
  • Annyrion – Home of the nature-worshiping Wyldfolk, the Fey – a land of wonders.
  • Tartovara – Nomadic plains, Troglodyte shadow empire and epic adventure.
  • Ar-Gorna Basin – The heart of Ghorn and centre of the expansionist Mortan Empire.
  • Pancephalos – Land of deserts, fallen empires and the Halodynes Homeland.
  • Transcephalos – Realm of the Elder Races and ancient mysteries.

 

The greater World of Calydorn

Beyond ghorn lie 13 other continent, each of which is utterly unique, making the world of Calydorn and exotic world of adventure.

  • Calydorn is a world of wonder, where cities of living stone are molded by the will of their denizens, and where sacred groves awaken with sentience.
  • Calydorn is a world of doom, where demons and wicked gods cavort amid the thunder of errant magic-storms
  • Calydorn is a world of towering tragedy and epic drama, unfolding across fifteen continents and across twenty millennia, yet defined by the momentous events of the here and now.

Calydorn is but one of nine worlds in the cosmos, and the only one with Mortals (Humans and their cousin race of Ogres).  The greatest sages believe the number of Mortals on Calydorn makes up probably 35% of the world’s population.  Elder Races number perhaps 15%, Aetherions around 20% and the Elemental Races around 30%), so Mortals are by no means dominant.

Calydorn Overview

Calydorn consists of 14 continents:

  • Ghorn – The central continent  and the forge that created some of the world’s most influential Mortal Empires . Ghorn is the melting-pot of races and cultures.
  • Volturna – Home of the olive-skinned Ithyan Mortals and the Nimburian Empire of the Aetherions.
  • Kassobar – a flat continent of steppe and savanah, dominated by Trolls and home of the Kassobari  – a mix or oriental and Ithyan peoples.
  • Xandria – Eastern continent of steppe and jungles. Home of the Mangon race of Mortals, but the continent is now  dominated by demon realms.
  • Darkfall – This legendary land at the end of the world is ruled by the new Stygian Races of Gorgons, Lamias and Nocturns.
  • Zephyr – West of Ghorn sits the western continent and home of the light-skinned Anthalon Mortals. A densely forested continent which many mountain ranges.
  • Dawnfire Lands – At the western edge of Calydorn, where the land curves away steeply toward the underside of the world, the shadow race of Troglodytes reigns.
  • Tonatopa – Rainforest smothers this dark continent, and of its interior little is known. Red-skinned Yamirans are the most common of Mortals on Tonatopa, dwelling in the coastal regions.
  • Notara – A continent of desert and savanah populated by the red-skinned Yamiran Mortals, and home of the Theocracy of the Sacred Flame.
  • Zholmin – The dark-skinned Mortals known as Sekuman somehow survive in the stifling and deadly jungles of Anzugua’s interior. The Sekuman’s Holy Realm of Umbagwe, was one of the 5 Blessed peoples of the Asrae gods.
  • Pharalan – Some of the coastal cities possess the most advanced technology on Calydorn; while the interrior is a savage realm of nomadic Mortal barbarians who ride flying marsupials.
  • Adrakaria – A southern realm unbearably hot and arid for Mortals, with deserts scarred by a vast network of chasms 50 miles deep which span the continent.
  • Zholmin – Rainforest covers the north of Zholmin; a region populated by Tigermen Beastspawn, descended from the mutated Kassobari.
  • Velyr – a continent of exotic Wonders. Along the jungle coast rise the Jade towers of the Omabamba city-states, dark swamps form the hinterlands, while the desert of the deep interior is dominated by hordes of Feral Trolls who crash upon the mortal cultures.
  • A nations of prideful, amoral and ruthless Aetherions. Malentis is the only empire that conquered the entire civilized world and then had the audacity to invade the world of the gods! Malentis is now a decadent kingdom of jaded hedonists plotting their renaissance.

Unique aspects of Calydorn

Skylands – these floating lands range in altitude from 50 metres to 10,000 metres, and from 500 metres to 100 kilometres in diameter. They are all fragments of the shattered world of Godangar, which once sat 150,000 miles above Calydorn.

Godlands – While the Skylands were halted in their flight, others landed or crashed into the surface of Calydorn

God-Forests – In some cases, the giant plants of the gods world survived their crash onto Calydorn and scattered seeds, creating immense forests of trees, and other plants like the giant Pumkin Forest or the fungus forest and Thistlewood.

Portal gates – No one is certain who created the portal gates, and most of them no longer function, but these doorways connect continent and even connect pats of Calydorn with others of the Nine Words of the Cosmos.

Fey-Lands – the catastrophe caused by the Wu-Wei Empire causes parts of the Material Plane to be exchanged with parts of the neighboring Realm of Aar.  The solidity of reality of lower in Aar, causing time, space and energy to function oddly. they have a dreamlike quality and are mostly inhabited by the Fey – the race of Aetherions who have linked their souls to the anima of nature.

Elemental Wonders – the primordial war between the elements and the Dawn gods gave rise to fractures in the Material Plane where pure elements can seep through and reality is altered. They are know as the 21 Wonders, but there are actually far more than 21. Example include the underground tornadoes creating great caverns or the flaming seas.

World Runes – In order to protect the Nine Worlds from the eventual cyclic influx of Chaos and the annihilation it produces, the the First generation Jotuns sculpted many mountain ranged into protective runes of immense power. Unfortunately many have since been disrupted…

Other Wonders – there are many more bizarre and exotic aspects to explore, like the gelagma cities built of living coral-like rock