User:GoldenYak/Chronicle/Golggath


 * "World of vast, deep waters."

Golggath, also known as the Realm of Water.

Summary
A world of oceans, islands, and icebergs. Life is abundant both above the sea's surface, and below it.

Geography
The world of Golggath is a world of islands surrounded by great seas. The world's oceans are roughly divided into eight regions, regarded as the Eight Seas. Each of the Eight Seas have radically different climates, islands, ocean currents, and inhabitants.

Locations in Golggath

 * The Roaring Seas
 * Olyssius
 * The Serpent Seas
 * Manda-La
 * The Boiling Seas
 * Olasmur
 * The Hungry Seas
 * Chayth
 * The First Sea
 * Urcadia
 * The Shrouded Seas
 * Uhmber
 * The Jade Seas
 * Demari
 * The Sea of the Lost
 * Slayn

Elves
The elves of Golggath are divided into several racial groups. The first are the bel'dorei, the Sunborne or 'sun elves', who possess dark skin and hair and are of a smaller stature than most other elves. Second are the syn'dorei, the Bloodborne or 'blood elves', who have a distinct bright red skin tone and are slightly taller than the bel'dorei. The third group are the prima'dorei, the Firstborne, also referred to as 'blue elves' or 'sea elves', noted for being the tallest of the elven races and possessing blue skin tones that range from pale blue to indigo. Blue elves also possess natural body markings and mottling across their skin in distinctive patterns that mark them as part of a particular bloodline.

Sun elves are a cultured and peaceful people, dwelling openly across many islands and subsisting on the bounty of the sea through ocean farming and mass fishing. Arcane and holy magic is welcome and used openly in their society, with those of different magical affinities working together for the benefit of all. Sun elf magical academies are considered some of the finest places of learning in Golggath, and freely admit those of other races to attend. Sun elves use marble and alabaster as building material, creating gleaming white cities of great beauty that are maintained immaculately as a matter or cultural pride. Sun elf ships, often called 'sunchasers', are some of the fastest vessels that ply the waves. The sun elves are protected by a small but extremely formidable navy of highly skilled magical warriors, the Suntouched. The elite among the Suntouched, the Sungazers, are in fact blind warriors who sacrificed their ordinary sight for mystical perception that exceeds natural senses.

Blood elves are a feared race, whose military class is comprised of marauders and corsairs that prey upon the ships of other races, whom the blood elves scorn as inferior prey. Few in number, the blood elves dwell in remote and hostile regions where they conceal their raider fleets.

The blue elves maintain that the sun and blood elves originally derive from their people, but they turned their back on the ways of the prima'dorei and lived apart from them for so long that they changed. Blue elves typically shun modern ways and arcane magic, having a close affinity with natural elemental forces.

There is a fourth group of elves that are known to the other three, but their existence is a closely kept secret that is not shared with non-elves.

Kingdoms of Golggath
In ancient times, the lands of Golggath consisted of eight great island continents surrounded by bountiful seas. Some ancient catastrophe caused the old lands to split apart, with much of them sinking beneath the waves, leaving thousands of scattered islands surrounded by swelling oceans. The names of these lost lands are now used to denote eight regions of Gologgath, and loosely align the island nations within them.

Olyssius
Humans, elves, and dwarves have constructed grand and thriving kingdoms in the isles of Olyssius. Tensions have risen between the races over resources and treaties, with pirate crews secretly in service to the governments hired to prey upon rival trade lines. The islands of Olyssius represent some of the most bountiful land in all of Golggath, which has resulted in huge populations, making the region the most populous in the world.

Olasmur
Colossal beasts and monsters infest the seas of the islands of Olasmur, and the isles themselves are nearly as primal and ferocious. Primitive tribes ply the seas in crude vessels, slaying beasts for food and glory. The islands of the Olasmur region are rocky and mountainous, often wreathed in steam from geysers and volcanoes, or with deep canyons and chasms that stretch down into the earth, far below sea level. Orcs and ogres are some of the only races hardy enough to truly thrive in the hostile environment.

Demari
Heavily forests islands where the wilds dominate. Elves, orcs, and humans dwell here in primitive tribes, though the primal powers of nature that they command are not to be underestimated. Located in the northern hemisphere, many of Demari's islands far to the north are places of long, harsh winters. The lands furthest north are perpetually wreathed in ice, trapped in a frozen sea. Vrykul clans and orge tribes dwell upon these icy lands, while dwarves carve glacier hollows into mighty holds.

Uhmber
The rocky isles of Uhmber are rich in minerals and gems, and dwarven kingdoms thrive here, with fortress strongholds built into many mountainsides. The weapon-smiths of Uhmber are renowned as the most skilled in all of Golggath, and dwarven ironclad ships filled with instruments of war sail constantly between the other island realms, returning with trade goods. Pirates from across the eight seas covet the weapons in these ships, but few can muster the force needed to seize one. Nations of human, orc, and tauren war upon the rolling plains and frosty peaks. Vast quantities of black oil can be found in the lower regions and off the coast of many isles, a substance in great demand by more industrialized civilizations. The heavy mining and oil drilling taking place in Uhmber is beginning to have an impact on the environment of the surrounding seas, stirring up angry elementals and wrathful beasts of nature.

Urcadia
The realm of Urcadia is one of advanced civilization, with islands united in peaceful trade and mutual support. Great academies of learning and vast ports of trade and transport can be found on many islands. It is the most explored and settled region in the southern hemisphere.

Manda-La
The balmy isles of Manda-La may seem like paradise at first, the verdant jungles basking in the glorious warmth of the sun. But the jungles conceal a primordial ecosystem of megafauna, with huge dinosaurs infesting nearly every isle. The troll race inhabits many lands, constructing great temple-cities to primitive and bloodthirsty gods. Where the trolls do not rule, savage tribes of saurok and orcs have carved out territory. Human and dwarven settlers struggle to maintain their newly built cities against the savagery of the natives, seeking the great quantities of gold and other precious resources that the islands offer. Dwarves have faired better, digging deep tunnels and holds beneath the jungles, though they may soon discover that they have dug too deeply... Traversing the seas between the jungle isles is perilous in the extreme, for the oceans are infested with sea serpents, granting the region's waters their name. Hidden somewhere at the heart of Manda-La is said to be a great city made entirely of gold, hiding secret power and treasures from the very dawn of the world.

Chayth
The grim realm of Chayth lies in the Shrouded Seas, named for the great pall of eternal mist that encompasses the region. These murky seas are a dangerous realm favored by pirates and corsairs for the innumerable hidden coves and secret ports it offers. Bloodthirsty blood elf raiders and savage ogre reaver-clans make up hundreds of disparate pirate factions, warring with the somber, spiritually-inclined orcish tribes that dwell on the misty isles. The isles of Chayth once boasted a now forgotten civilization, their ancient cities and secrets lost beneath the waves and ever-sought by treasure-hungry pirate crews. Those who trespass in the deepest, most forbidden places run the risk of awakening dark and eldritch forces best left undisturbed.

Slayn
Lying in the foreboding Sea of the Lost, the realm of Slayn is avoided by all those who value their lives. It is a kingdom of the dead, ruled by piratical ghoul kingdoms and renegade sorcerers. Necro-pirate fleets reave out from the gloom-shrouded realms to plunder the living of both their treasure and their flesh, raising the corpses of their victims to serve as unliving slaves forever. Even beneath the seas death reigns supreme, the waters teeming with undead aquatic life, and the seabed far below teeming with the wandering, ever-growing ranks of the drowned dead.

The Sorrow of the Elves
No matter their differences, all the nations of the elves of Golggath know a common sorrow. Be they bel'dorei, syn'dorei, or prima'dorei, all elven people feel the sting of a particular loss that befalls a handful of luckless families every generation. The child seems normal at first, a blessing to their parents, a cause for joy. But in their early years, they show the signs. The parents are blind to them at first; perhaps the child is a little rougher at play than most, more spirited, more passionate. A youthful phase, the parents tell themselves, the child will grow out of it. Perhaps they show unusual enthusiasm for helping with the hunt, with the butchering of taken prey. They are gifted swimmers, spending hours in the water, swimming faster, deeper, holding their breath unnaturally long. They'll grow up to be a fine hunter themselves, the parents say. Their friends and neighbors are quicker to realize the truth. They exchange knowing glances when the parents are not looking, whisper to one another out of earshot. Words are spoken to community leaders, to priests and magisters. These representatives come to speak with the parents. There are angry denials, defiant shouting, wrathful oaths are sworn.

In the end, though, none can ever deny the truth. Not when the mists descend upon the isles, and the moons are full and shine their light upon the waters. Then the robed elves come, not in boats or atop beasts of the sea, but up from under the water. Shrouded in black cloth, moving with unnatural grace, they wind their ways through the elven settlement. Doors are shut tight. Words of prayer are spoken to the gods. Finally, the dreaded visitors stand before the home of the luckless parents. There are tears, and pleading, all while the elves in the black robes stand silently. But before the night has passed, the parents lead their child outside, bidding them tearful farewell, before retreating back into their dwelling to give themselves over to mourning. The child will rarely look back, heeding instead the growing call of something they have felt all their short lives, a call that could not be ignored even if one wanted to. The robed elves lead the child back to the water's edge, then beyond it, into open water and down, down into the sea. Their lungs fill with water, but they do not drown. Their blood grows cold, but they do not shiver. The child sinks into the depths, and as the light of the moon fades entirely the strange elves shed their black robes, and the last thing the child will see for a long, long time is the sight of coiling, serpentine bodies, spiny fins, and shimmering scaled limbs...

In the sunless depths the child will grow, and change. Slowly, the elven features of their birth will fade, until their prior heritage is forgotten, and they resemble their new family. And their former people will mourn them as dead, for that is easier to bear than the truth. All the elven nations know this sorrow. The curse that haunts them all in their deepest nightmares, that may pass over most of their children, but could take any one of them. The mark of the nul'dorei, the cold ones. The touch of the deepest, most abyssal darkness.

The curse of the naga.