LetsBuild5e:Geography and Cosmology

What's the world look like?

The as-yet-unnamed world of this setting is a two-sided disc - planet-sized and circular, with a distinct 'top' and 'bottom' side. The 'bottom' side presumably has normal gravity, but is known to be much harsher and more inhospitable than the 'top' side. (Decision: [1] ) The identity of the two sides switches over with a periodicity measured in at least centuries; this appears to be a natural phenomenon whose nature is not well-understood. The last flip was some 700-1000 years ago, so that the earliest histories, the newest legends, and the faded memories of the oldest elves touch on it. (Decisions: [2] [3]) There's at least one huge pit in the surface of the world which is reputed to be where the elders tried to dig right through it before the races were sundered. The edge of the world is virtually unvisited, but is believed to be an endless impassable waterfall, punctuated only by rare mountain islets thrust out into space, as treacherous as they are striking. (Decision: [4])

The starting region lies on the southern half of the disc, in a middle latitude. It has a warm summer continental climate (Köppen group Dsb). (Decision: [5]) There's a major mountain range nearby to the west, from which a warm, dry wind sometimes blows. (Decision: [6]) The starting nation itself is at a fairly high altitude; the ground slopes steadily down to the north, interrupted by ranges of hills cut by the gorges of plateau rivers which flow to a warm inland sea. To the south, the plateau reaches a high spot and then shelves away quite steeply to an expanse of broad, cold steppes, which are crossed by slow, lazy rivers flowing east to a distant ocean or south to meet proglacial lakes. (Decisions: [7] [8])

To the north of the starting nation, close but not adjacent to its borders, is a nation of elves and humans. They are skilful traders, and they export court scholars and diplomats to other nations. Their native language is a member of a wider group of Elvish tongues. To the south, beyond the settled nations, live clans of horse-riders, predominantly orcs, halflings, dark elves, and humans. They speak a language which derives from a human tongue spoken on the other side of the world before the last flip. Since then, it has grown to have some features in common with the speech of the mountain-orcs who have lived on this side since before the flip. Much of the territory hereabouts was once part of a large empire ruled by half-orcs who spoke the tongue of the horse-clans, although their orcish ancestors came from a mountain orc domain. (Decision: [9])

Demographics and Society
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