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=Prelude= The Azure Line. The Riverland. The Verdant Band. There are many names for the narrow stretch of land in which grass grows, water flows and life may prosper. Dayward from the Line is a blistering desert of ash and clay, eternally cooked by the never-setting sun. Nightward is the realm of darkness and ice. As far as daring explorers could tell, both stretch on forever. For thousands of seasons, it has been so. <br> True, farmers plying their trade on the warmer side of the Line would occasionally extend their fields dayward, as the spring ebb would grant them more territory than they remembered having. And no one can remember a time when refugees did not flee from nightward in a steady trickle every autumn, as the creeping glaciers claimed dwelling after dwelling. The fortune of the farmers always interested everyone more than the loss of the worthless frozen lands nightward of the Line, and so most people would offer prayers of thanks to Holuby, the source of life, for its success in the endless struggle against Pepel, the Lady of Cinders. The refugees, of course, would curse them both, fleeing the slowly advancing armies of Mraz, the Black Marshal, against whom, it seemed, both of the other gods were in full retreat.<br> Those of an academic mind, however, had another hypothesis. For it was said that the in the grand Polar cities - the Floating Palace of upriver and the Gray Bastion of downriver - the gods were evenly matched, and the land there did not move. None, of course, could go past either of the cities, as the vile beastmen and demons who ruled the cities slaughtered even those who wandered near. Artificers built clever instruments of iron and spun glass, and those instruments spoke a great heresy to them - that the world was not a flat stripe, but a sphere, and that it was spinning. After many seasons, the artificers said, the world would turn about on its axis and what was now the domain of Mraz would be ruled entirely by Pepel. For a long time, the best they could hope for was a life sentence in the mines once one of the Patriarchs got their hands on them. That is, until the day of the discovery.<br> A group of foolhardy explorers, perhaps the first in a hundred seasons, set off dayward into the Ashlands. Not a month later, a farmer saw them galloping back, their mules pushed to exhaustion. They did not live long, for it seemed that in their haste they failed to take the precautions necessary to survive Pepel's heat, but they refused to die until they could tell their tale. They discovered a city, they said, standing ruined but proud amid the desert. There could be no doubt, were their dying words, that the heresy of the Great Sphere was confirmed, for in the city they saw statues depicting not monsters, but races of the Line. No sooner had their final breath left their lips that new expeditions were already being planned. That was four seasons ago. This is now. The first of these adventurers have already returned with unparalleled riches and unbelievable tales, and now even the most remote peasant has heard that among Pepel's scorching plateaus lies wealth worthy of empires. =The World of the Azure Line= The world of the Line is a planet that is almost tidally locked to its sun. Its rotation relative to its sun is painfully slow - in all of recorded history, it is only reaching its second "midnight". However, it does orbit diligently, and so there are seasons. Winter marks the furthest headway of the glaciers, and summer marks their furthest point of retreat. <br> Complicated clockwork devices have been built to track the passage of the months between these seasons. The concept of day is foreign to such a planet, but tradition splits each day into thirty hours - ten for sleep, five for tending to the household, ten for work and then another five for cultural and religious events or leisure. Most working families adjust their schedules so that their work and sleep times alternate, and share each other's company in the remaining 10 hours. ==Pepel== The dayward desert of Pepel is a blisteringly hot landscape of dry, cracked mud, coarse sand and grey ash. What life exists here does so underground, with creatures ranging from the tiniest insect to the greatest of sandworms taking refuge in the dirt below to escape the deadly heat. Water here does not normally stay liquid; rare shrubs and flame-retardant dragons suck water vapour from the air and clouds to survive, while their underground cousins fight over subterranean lakes and the blood of smaller creatures. ==Mraz== The ice-locked abyss of Mraz is perhaps even more barren and inhospitable than Pepel. Creatures here reside among the many peaks, where they can try and catch what little light the sun offers to the remote region. Many melt the ice with body heat for sustenance, and more than one species has adapted to scavenge for frozen bodies in the dark valleys below, where no light reaches. Mraz is the only place in the world where one can see the stars, said to be the glowing eyes of the Black Marshal's otherworldly army. ==The Line== The frozen and burnt regions fluctuate about fifty miles as the seasons progress. For another fifty miles, the regions are generally too hot or cold to grow crops in sufficient quantities for civilization to prosper. Between these regions, roughly 150 miles of fertile land resides, crisscrossed with rivers. The flow of water begins from the Chalice, a vast lake on the north pole, flows down the mighty river Azure and gradually breaks up into smaller rivers until reaching the south pole. Because of the small area in which to propagate, vegetation is incredibly dense in the most fertile regions, and life of all kinds is plentiful.<br> Because of the temperature gap between Pepel and Mraz, powerful winds tear through the skies of the Line in the nightward direction. Only a fool would dare fly too high lest he be swept away, but the wind is an easily accessible power source for all sorts of windmills, and its strength is more than enough to pull a sailboat upriver.<br> Though formally, the land is split between a number of Dukes, few can agree on how many there actually are, and what lands they control. Most of the real power resides in the hands of the noble trade families, capable of shipping large numbers of goods and troops along the rivers. ==The Gray Bastion== A massive citadel that marks the end of downriver, the Bastion is home to beastly races such as gnolls and were-men. Due to the relatively sparse water that trickles down to here, these Gray Men take what little of it they can seize through force of arms from nearby settlements, along with goods, livestock and metal. Their contact with the people of the Line outside of these raids might as well be nonexistent, for they do not even bother to send back the corpses of diplomats or those they catch trying to sneak past the Bastion into the unknown lands beyond. ==The Floating Palace== Upon the waters of the Chalice floats a magnificent structure constructed of nothing but, it seems, glass and music. Appearances can be deceiving, though, for this is the domain of the demons, the Blue Men. Unlike the raiding beastmen, they hold the population nearby in thrall, exchanging access to the waters of the Chalice and their marvellous magic for total servitude. Their subjects are happy enough, ensorcelled by their masters, and very often entire communities take off and march into the palace, never to emerge again. Powerful magic exists here that prevents any thought of trying to pass beyond the Chalice and into the unknown lands, and demons of the wind are constantly on watch for the few strong enough to pass through the spell. =The Gods= The pantheon of the Line has three gods, each believed to be equal in prominence to the other two. Though a particular priest may venerate Mraz most of all, he will still pray to Pepel over, for instance, the forging of a holy sword. ==Pepel, the Lady of Cinders== Depicted as a tanned girl-child with short-cropped ashen hair and cracked skin, Pepel is the one-eyed goddess of heat and light. Those who venerate her above the other gods extol the life-giving power of her light, her power to burn away sin and temper steel, and her sense of justice, for all are equal before her brilliant gaze. Her worshippers usually include judges, farmers and craftsmen. Short-lived races such as the orcs also tend to worship Pepel. Pepel is associated with metals, and the colour gray. The Gray Men are named after her colour, for they live in an arid land and are as relentless as Pepel herself. ==Mraz, the Black Marshal== Mraz presides over darkness and cold, and is shown as a wizened old man in a spiked suit of ebony armour. His depictions are always drawn with a shadow, which is dotted with a myriad of tiny yellow specks - the eyes of his endless army. Mraz is the patron of all who risk their lives, and is venerated specifically for his skill at deception, his cunning and his skill in battle. His worshippers include soldiers, adventurers and thieves, and longer-lived races such as elves also tend to worship him. Mraz is associated with gemstones, and the colour blue. The Blue Men are named after his colour, for they and their deep waters are as treacherous as Mraz himself. ==Holuby, the Source of Life== Holuby is never anthropomorphosized, and is depicted as a mass of swirling ribbons of many colours. Holuby stands for trees, animals, water, nature, humanity and life in general, and is venerated by just about everybody for these gifts, farmers above all. The philosophy attributed to Holuby is balance - tempering light with shadow, heat with cold and life with death. Holuby is associated with mud, and the colour green. Humans and half-human hybrids tend to worship Holuby more than other races.
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