Setting:Unified Setting/Everoc

Part of the Unified Setting for /tg/

Major areas of Everoc

A green and pleasant land, where peaceful and industrious members of all races work and live together in harmony and prosperity. Ruled by the composed and pragmatic dwarves, Everoc's fertile valleys, bustling ports and forested mountains offer work and a home unmarred by the strife and conflict that regularly tear other realms asunder.

Or so things appear on the surface. Those who dig too deep soon learn that this is a land of dark mysteries, terrifying dangers and lost secrets better left that way. Smart residents know not to ask too many questions, travel to places left abandoned by others or scoff at ancient traditions. Adventurers on the other hand will likely wind up learning far more about Everoc's secrets than man was meant to know. Fantasy adventure with a subtle Mythos-like flavor.

Geography

Everoc is a land of mountains, which surprises nobody. Newcomers are often shocked to learn that it is much more than that. While dominated by mountain ranges and volcanic peaks, the complex interplay of those mountains and the climate creates a dizzying number of biomes. In addition to mountains, Everoc sports forests, marshes, deserts, plains, swamp, shrubland and even a tropical forest at its southern tip. The differing climes between the mountains have made Everoc home to every race on the planet, though its undisputed masters are the native dwarves.

The continent is also occupied by the corgyn, goblins (both wild and civilized), humans and kobolds. Other races, particularly elves and drow, make their home in the bustling ports of Nodark.

So my guess is the name Everoc is a reference to the British Celtic name for York (Efrog, pronounced Evrog) because, well surely it's not just 40k that's singled out for all the Yorkshire jokes. Some Bloke.

Dwarven Lordships

Everoc is the homeland of the dwarves, a practical-minded race of gruff, obsessive workers who drink alcohol to excess. While normally level-headed and emotionally detached, the dwarves of Everoc are wound just a little bit tighter than others. They are prone to moodiness, withdrawal, suicide and outbursts of berserk frenzy. In any other race these would be signs of post-traumatic stress disorder. This is something dwarves prefer not to discuss.

Diadem Vosterus

The Hearthlands, heart of the Dwarf land. Diadem Vosterus is less a single coherent kingdom and more a collection of individual fortressholmes and their surrounding farmlands, each with its own lord. They rarely have any need to interact with one another except for trade.

Dwarves live underground in vast mining complexes called fortresses, usually with small farming plots outside. They care surprisingly little about the surface of their territory and allow other races to settle freely. These villages and farms are technically tenants living under the reign of the nearest lord. In practice they are ignored as long as they don't interfere in dwarven business and provide food for rent. Settlements without a nearby lord are free to live as they see fit, but often trade with nearby fortresses to obtain manufactured goods.

Not all races live in harmony with the dwarven lords. Wild goblins and human bandits are known to haunt the wilderness, raiding settlements and caravans for plunder. Despite the protestations of the Nodrak merchants the dwarves have done little to reign in such activity, only launching punitive raids when their own fortresses are threatened or disturbed.

Nodrak

The northeastern coast of Everoc is home to a number of bustling ports where ships from every nation of the world gather to trade their wares for the products of dwarven mining and industry. Trade and port management are considered unworthy pursuits by most dwarves as it involves the endless shuffling of paper with no tangible product at the end. The other races were more than eager to take over the task and four freeports were given charters to operate on dwarven soil.

The ports are busy, industrial settings, filled with an ever moving background of cargoes, languages and races from every corner of the earth. While each port is open to all races (including a growing number of dwarfs who find trade and logistics an interesting challenge) each port is dominated by the race that received the original charter from the Lordships. Each freeport's adherence to their loose charters is monitored by a dwarven portmaster appointed by the Lordships. They act less as administrators than as judges, handing down decrees when the locals can't get along and solve their own problems. Since their power extends up to revocation of the charter itself, a portmaster's decisions are almost never challenged or questioned. From west to east they are:

New Eibaumplatz

New Eibaumplatz was the first freeport, established after some forgotten border skirmish. It is run by the elves, and is built on the ashes of Old Eibaumplatz, which was an elvish outpost established back in the Age of the Three Empires. Sadly, it is now a bit of a backwater compared to other towns.

Orzfandrecht

The largest goblin city outside their home isles. It is a holdover from their earlier empire, and was declared a freeport only a few years after New Eibaumplatz. It is built much in the style of the cities in the Sundered Isles, but with non-goblin traders to fleece, it has established facilities second-to-none.

Langstrand

A freeport chartered by the Drow Republic, control is contested by scheming Houses. Langstrand has a reputation for unsavory ships and cargo. They say just about anything can be bought there, for the right price.

Engelhafen

Engelhafen is the newest freeport, chartered by human explorers and approaching its 150th anniversary.

Blodsvargen

Roughly translated as "the blood wolf" in dwarven, this area is more commonly referred to as the Iron Coast. This has nothing to do with the ores found in this rocky and mountainous region, though it is rich in iron deposits. Instead it refers to the strength of the coast when ships are hammered against it by the frequent storms found in this region.

Despite the southern latitude it is a dark and gloomy place. When the vast storms sweeping across Vilous meet the warm currents of the Ebentis Ocean they create torrential storms packing hurricane force winds sweeping across the land. When Vilousian storms are scarce, Lindwurm picks up the slack, making the barren rocky landscape miserable for eight months out of the year.

The land is sparsely settled, even by the dwarves who dwell underground and claim no interest in their surface environs. The few who do live here are said to be dour, grim and fatalistic, even by dwarven standards.

Corgyn'Bre

The highlands of Everoc are home to its tallest peaks, its oldest rocks and its strangest inhabitants. The corgyn are an enigmatic race of small, canid humanoids who call the area home, though records of their existence only go back a few thousand years. The corgyn religion contains no origin story and while genealogy is a cultural obsession all questions about where they came from go unanswered. The corgryn refuse to discuss the matter, saying it is bad luck. Though loyal and honorable, they are also highly superstitious with a bewildering number of customs and subjects that are bad luck to question or discuss.

Whatever their origins, the corgryn rarely interact with outsiders, living in isolated villages where they herd sheep and goats. Even their trade with the dwarves is limited as Corgyn'Bre sports few dwarven fortresses, many of which are abandoned. Dwarves refuse to discuss the reasons for this settlement pattern, or why the fortresses in the area sport such elaborate defenses when the only other inhabitants of note are the peaceful and amicable corgyn.

Adventure Seeds

• Dwarf Fortress: Lead a team of brave adventurers deep into the wilderness and carve out a new home. Watch out for carp.
• Dwarf Fortress, Outside Consultants: Sometimes dwarven colonists run into things they aren't prepared for. That's when they hire adventurers visiting Nodrak who are willing to tackle the problem for them.
• Dwarf Fortress, Repo Man: Sometimes a fortress fails. When it does the dwarves shrug their shoulders and move on. Adventurers on the other hand think those lost dwarves, or more precisely, their lost treasures, should be brought into the light of day. Remember though, that whatever took out the dwarves was probably pretty tough and likely to still be there when you go poking around.
• Port Wars: Four competing freeports, each ruled by a race hostile to all the others, forced to keep their rivalries quiet and clandestine lest the law come down on them. If you can't think of something for adventurers to do here you should hand in your GM card.
• Heading Home: A gravely wounded Corgyn refuses divine aid and requests help in returning home. Weirdness ensues. Make sure you make your 'Knowledge: Folklore' checks, and try not to laugh at the mental images of the funeral.
• Death Spiral: It seemed like a sweet deal at first. Deliver the goods to this unresponsive fort and get out. Then the gates slammed shut behind you. Now you're stuck with a bunch of insane dorfs, more of which are dying each day. And that's not all. Everyone keeps muttering about 'more iron', there's a bank of clouds that looks suspiciously like a Necrostorm on the horizon, the bundles you brought with you seem to be some kind of superweapon and the natives keep twitching, glancing at you, and fingering their knives. GTFO before things get REALLY bad.
• Foul Durance: You really should have listened to those cute little dog-things when they told you not to go out on moonless nights. Now the sky is a weird color, you keep getting attacked by weird shit, and some prancing pompous ass keeps popping up, insisting you call him 'Master', and giggling like a loon. Pray you get home again...

Related

• Secrets of Everoc