Sorcerous Arts:Setting

The College and its Environs

The game is set in the College of Sorcerous Arts, an elegant complex of white marble draped in ivy. Its outer defense is an immaculate stone wall, some ten feet in height; its mote, an elegantly kept and expansive botanical garden. Some six buildings compose the compound: the gatehouse (which lies above the wine cellar), the outhouse, the dormitories for the upper students, those for the more recent pupils, the greenhouse, and, of course, the main building of the college: three stories high, pentagonal, with towers of varying posture placed at each vertex. Here the refectory, lecture hall, classrooms, laboratories, and offices and apartments of the professors may be found. Within is a large courtyard. All elements are roofed in red tile, mostly clay, but a close observer would note the glint of polished copper and bronze here or there.

A craggy hill, almost a small mountain, supports the weight of the College, as well as the combined mass of too many grape vines. In nooks and crannies of similar hills lie the chateaus of White City's aristocracy. The metropolis itself lies a few miles to the west, its aspect growing progressively rougher as one travels away from the foothills and towards the docks. No fortification wall is present.

The Elector's Palace is situated in the Statue District, which is separated from the rest of the rabble by virtue of being on an island of the Raining River. The north bank is home to the sprawling Old District; if one searches the area with acuity and diligence, one may, after many hours of sifting through dilapidated tenements and vagabonds, come across the original walled town around which White City grew. On the south bank is Canal District, where the homes of artisans and traders and the offices of the merchant guilds may be found. The Port District is located where the Raining River meets the sea, and the less said of it, the better.

On a broader geographic scale, White City is the capital of the temperate and prosperous nation of Albion. Rolling hills, fertile fields, pleasant shorelines, gentle mountains, and bucolic towns describe the majority of Albion's features; stratified cities and a pompous aristocracy describe the rest.

Other Lands

To the south is the Middle Sea, and beyond that the Black Cities, which hoard gold and export opium. Adaam, the largest of the Black Cities, is home to The Conservatory of Conjury and Invocation -- an institute which may be considered a dark mirror to the College of Sorcerous Arts. The Monolith Road, which once connected the departments of the Dark Empire of Shuul, leads from the Black Cities to the depths of the Plain of Shells, a burning and barren desert that once lied at the bottom of the sea. Foul gods and magicians live there.

To the north are the warring kingdoms of Sanga, Sansri, and Sansalam, which spend all available energy thrusting their fists against each other's heads. Northward still are the Hundred Principalities of the Gellemite people. Little magic save alchemy and petty witchcraft may be found in these lands; they are not of interest to the College.

In the East lies the Stone Forest, a mountain range so vast and tall that none have ever traversed it by foot. Those few sorcerers who have ventured across by magic report of dense and untamed forests on the other side, thick jungles soaking up the rays of a constant sun, and a kingdom of dark-skinned warriors lead by necromancers of unparalleled power. The sorcerer-kings know nothing of alchemy and transmutation, and scorn Mother Moon. They are astrologers, and they would claim the sun to be the center of the universe.

In the west are many islands of diverse character, and the waters of The Green Ocean. Far, far beyond that is the Setting Sun Continent, from which silks and rich spices flow. Somewhere in this land is the Tetrahedral Fortress, the center of the Cult of Practical Gnosticism, the third great hub of arcane knowledge in the World.

Languages

Although the Common Tongue of the temperate lands is the most widely spoken language of the continent, it is by no means a universal speech. A list of languages (and language groups) and where they are spoken appears below.

• The Common Tongue: Spoken in Albion, Sanga, Sansri, and the southern territories of Sansalam.
• Omer: Spoken by the Gellemite people in many of the Hundred Principalities, as well as in Sansalam and northern Sansri.
• Sand Tongue: Spoken in most of the Black Cities and the towns along the Monolith Road, as well as some tribes who dwell in the Plain of Shells.
• Old Shaldi: Spoken by some Plain of Shells tribes, as well as the nobility of Adaam and some sorcerers in the region. This language is the ancestor of the Sand Tongue, and, in the heyday of the Dark Empire of Shuul, as the conquering nation's common speech. Its writing is hieroglyphic.
• Betu: This is purported to be the most common language spoken by the people who live east of the Stone Forest.
• Panthalassine Languages: Languages of this group are spoken among the islands of The Green Ocean. It has hundreds of dialects, most of which are mutually incomprehensible. The people of neighboring islands -- and often neighboring villages of the same island -- are most commonly unable to understand one another's speech.
• Qin, Nweño, Cyrric: Spoken on the Setting Sun Continent.

Celestial Spheres

Above are the sun, the stars, and Mother and Daughter Moon. Mother Moon is the center of the universe, and worshipped by many (including most in Albion and its northern neighbors). She is large and fat and golden. Daughter Moon, like the World, orbits around her; Daughter Moon is small and red. The stars are fewer than they used to be, for only twenty constellations remain. The sun is large and warm, but, like all other things, is a slave to the gravity of Mother Moon.