Welcome to Exalos! Please accept our gratitude on behalf of His Majesty and the nation of Ethalia. Your courage, cunning, and adventurous spirits make this expedition possible, and with your help, this outpost will flourish as the bridge between the crown and this far flung land. May the gods smile upon your efforts until the day we can reestablish passage.
As a settlement, your primary objective is, of course, to settle. With your resources, time, and collective expertise, you are tasked with the founding of a home and a base of operations for research and expansion in the Everglade. Your secondary objective is to explore. Discover the secrets that lie beyond the outpost, seek knowledge, and broaden the understanding of our scholars. In this effort, recall that in this land there may be artifacts to claim. These priceless objects are of utmost import to the crown.
For humanoids, Exalos is an extension of the young Ethalian empire that rules your homeland. Depending on where you lived before volunteering or "volunteering" to cross through the Gateway, you may have mixed opinions on the situation. For fey, you may not have heard much besides that there was a similar incursion in recent years, but you know to be cautious when approaching or interacting with this group of strange, un-magical creatures. Whether you came to Exalos seeking glory, wealth, or some other purpose, may you find your fortune here and be remembered as a servant of progress in the ledgers of time.
With the outer provinces firmly welcomed into its arms, the empire turned its attention to its newest discovery: the Ministry of Arcana's pet theorem. Another realm was just barely within reach. The Gate could only be opened every once in a while, and briefly, but the greatest minds of our age were already making good use of these opportunities. A new avenue of exploration unfolded before us, and with it, the chance to continue seeking the greatest treasures of all: artifacts. One had already been retrieved, and the Ministry assured the crown that there were more to be found. How could Ethalia, founded by our forebears to strive for enlightenment, resist?
Modern day Berla is a region flanked by two enormous mountain ranges, a northern glacial field and a humid fertile coast to the southeast. An extensive plateau riddled with canyons from glacial runoff descends into rolling plains, forested lowlands, and a broad river delta that meets the sea. Dangerous monsters and storms batter all sides of the region, but within the cradle life is relatively stable. Though the eldest of all its city-builders were the engineer-artisan dwarves, who appear to have come through the mountains themselves, the earliest sedentary cultures in the area were likely the orcs and goblins, who made their homes in the cold northwest, coexisting out of common ground and necessity for much of their records. Elves came later from the sea and made their homes on rivercraft for centuries before settling down, building their villages amphibiously and arboreally as they moved inland. Lastly, humans appeared with little known history today to trace their origins, and made swift friends and enemies wherever they traveled.
Relevant myths and rare written accounts indicate that the beginnings of Ethalia lie in the first early interactions with humans, with a magical malady that spread to the other denizens of the land. As fate would have it, a partnership of elves and humans was the first to cure the sickness, and once an oath of friendship was sworn they took advantage of nearby weakened factions to claim a significant portion of elf settlements under the banner of the dual star. This momentum carried them forward for centuries through cycles of warfare, expansion, and fortification, and the acquisition of all human and elf settlements did not slake the budding empire's thirst. Dwarven citadels were sieged next to gain access to their hoard of artifact treasures, and from there, the conquest moved slowly and steadily north, until at last in the present, the furthest, loneliest hold offered up its prized artifact to the hero king Aeschere in surrender.
The Everglade, or Vesperian to its inhabitants, is elsewhere. Little is known about its location in relation to Berla; in fact, very little about it is known at all. From the brief glimpse court mages have been able to gain, it appears to be a vast, shifting sea of forest, inhabited by secluded intelligent peoples and absolutely drowning in magic. Thanks to the greatest minds in arcane studies, the passage to the new world has been stabilized enough for brief, intermittent periods of two way travel, and an advance party has been sent to scout the area for settlement.
From the fey perspective, however, Vesperian is home. All things in this place come into existence full of magic. The Vespic word "fey" can be used to refer to any sentient creature, as the distinction is blurry in Vesperian. Fey who build communities are collectively called the Fair Folk- or simply the Folk- and the uncommonly powerful among these are the Gentry. The constant, elegant chaos of their world is just another fact of life. Villages and cities must be magically lashed together to prevent them drifting apart, and roads and maps are useless in the restless ocean of woodland outside those bonds. To survive and thrive, a balance of caution and cooperation must be struck between members of a community and the others they may meet. Navigation between these places takes significant attunement to the land, and is an ability very rarely found outside of the Gentry. Power- social, intellectual, physical, or magical- comes with a cultural responsibility to use it, an idea tied with the belief that especially potent gifts are signs of an Archfey's favor.
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