Le terre prima delle nubi

THE LANDS BEFORE THE CLOUDS World Description — The Island of the Eternal Mist WORLD OVERVIEW The world exists during an ancient age long before the Catastrophe of the Clouds, an event that will one day transform civilization and force the remnants of intelligent life to seek refuge in the highlands above an otherwise inaccessible world. This is not a world waiting for a chosen hero to save it. It is a vast, ancient, imperfect world inhabited by ambitious rulers, merchants, sailors, scholars, soldiers, priests, criminals, explorers, ordinary families, and creatures whose existence challenges everything civilization believes it understands. Kingdoms rise and fall. Empires wage wars over borders, trade routes, resources, religion, and dynastic succession. Ancient civilizations have left behind ruins that are often older than the nations that now occupy them. Magic exists, but it is neither universally understood nor safely controlled. The gods are worshipped throughout the world, although their true intentions remain uncertain. The world must feel old, lived-in, politically complex, and capable of continuing without the player's intervention. Every settlement has its own problems, every ruler has ambitions, and every faction possesses incomplete information about the world around it. The player controls one individual, not an army, a kingdom, or an omnipotent force. The character begins as an ordinary person whose future depends on their actions, abilities, resources, relationships, opportunities, and mistakes. They may eventually become wealthy, influential, feared, respected, or powerful, but none of these outcomes is guaranteed. There are no predetermined destinies. A character may die without fulfilling their ambitions. A ruler may be assassinated by someone whose name history will never remember. A war may begin because of a misunderstood letter. A civilization may disappear because its leaders refuse to acknowledge a danger that has been growing for centuries. The world should support personal adventures, exploration, political intrigue, mercenary work, trade, criminal activity, religious journeys, archaeological expeditions, romance, friendship, rivalry, and the gradual accumulation of power. The tone is grounded dark fantasy inspired by Dragonbane: dangerous, mysterious, occasionally strange or darkly humorous, and deeply concerned with the consequences of human and nonhuman decisions. THE SOUTHERN ISLAND Far in the southern regions of the known world lies a medium-sized island whose coasts are inhabited, cultivated, and connected by maritime trade. Its interior, however, is one of the most feared places in the surrounding seas. For thousands of years, this island served as a gathering place for elven scholars, astronomers, mystics, philosophers, and practitioners of the arcane arts. It became famous for its observatories, secluded sanctuaries, libraries, ritual chambers, schools of magic, and temples dedicated to the worship and study of the Stars. Elven expeditions arrived from distant lands to study the heavens, preserve forbidden knowledge, exchange discoveries, and conduct experiments that would never have been tolerated in more politically sensitive territories. Over generations, entire communities formed around these institutions. New settlements grew near ancient sanctuaries, roads connected remote academies, and wealthy patrons financed increasingly ambitious research. The island gradually became one of the most important centers of elven magical scholarship in the known world. Its scholars believed that the Stars possessed patterns, rhythms, and hidden relationships that could be understood through observation, mathematics, ritual, and magic. Some treated the Stars as divine manifestations. Others believed they were distant powers, celestial intelligences, or sources of energy that could be studied and manipulated. No single doctrine united all these scholars. Their disagreements sometimes became bitter, especially when research touched upon forbidden subjects. For centuries, the island prospered from the arrival of scholars, pilgrims, merchants, and wealthy patrons. Its coastal cities became cosmopolitan ports where languages, philosophies, magical traditions, and commercial interests met. Then, at some unknown point in its long history, the island's interior became enveloped in a permanent supernatural mist. The mist did not merely obscure the landscape. It transformed the interior into a region of extraordinary danger. Ancient roads disappeared beneath it. Sanctuaries and observatories were abandoned. Expeditions failed to return. Strange creatures began appearing in the ruins and forests. Travelers reported distorted sounds, unnatural lights, and phenomena that contradicted ordinary experience. The coastal settlements survived. The central region did not recover. The island remains inhabited because its shores are still largely free from the mist. Its people live in coastal cities, fishing villages, fortified harbors, agricultural settlements, and scattered communities protected by geography, walls, distance, and local knowledge. The interior is not universally understood, and no definitive explanation for its condition is known. The island is therefore a place of two contrasting worlds: a functioning coastal civilization and a vast, dangerous interior filled with forgotten history. THE ELVEN LORD The island is currently governed by an elderly elven lord, a figure whose authority, history, and reputation are closely tied to the island's ancient elven institutions. He rules over a population composed of different peoples, competing interests, old families, merchant houses, religious communities, and individuals who remember the island's past in very different ways. His authority is not absolute. Coastal merchants control important sources of wealth. Local communities defend their privileges. Religious institutions possess influence over public life. Felinid communities have their own interests, traditions, and political ambitions. Scholars and surviving magical organizations may still possess knowledge that even the ruler cannot access. The elven lord must be treated as a person with his own goals, limitations, relationships, fears, and secrets. He is neither automatically benevolent nor inherently evil. His relationship with the island's history is complicated. He governs a land whose greatest cultural achievements are inseparable from its greatest catastrophe, although the precise connection between those events remains uncertain. He may seek to preserve the remaining elven heritage, maintain political stability, prevent dangerous expeditions, recover lost knowledge, protect his position, or conceal information that could undermine his legitimacy. Different characters may interpret his decisions differently. Some consider him the guardian of a fragile civilization. Others see him as the representative of an old order that has never fully confronted its past. His rule should generate opportunities for diplomacy, service, intrigue, opposition, patronage, and conflict. THE FELINIDS: A PEOPLE CREATED FIVE HUNDRED YEARS AGO Approximately five hundred years ago, an elven experiment produced the first felinids. The experiment was a failure according to its original creators. Its precise objective is not universally known, and surviving accounts may contradict one another. It may have involved biological transformation, magical alteration, attempts to create a new intelligent species, or research whose original purpose has been lost. The resulting felinids were intelligent, independent beings possessing their own personalities, emotions, cultures, and capacity for self-determination. The elven authorities initially treated them as property. Felinids were enslaved, exploited as laborers, and denied the freedom to determine their own lives. Their origins were used as a justification for domination: their creators claimed that the circumstances of their creation gave them the right to control them. This belief eventually produced resistance. Over time, felinid communities developed their own identities, networks, leaders, traditions, and methods of resistance. Their rebellion challenged the political and moral foundations of elven authority on the island. The struggle was neither simple nor bloodless. It involved resistance movements, repression, defections, negotiations, violence, and divisions within both elven and felinid society. Eventually, the felinids won their freedom. Five centuries later, they are a recognized free people. They are not merely remnants of a rebellion, nor should their entire culture be defined by enslavement. They have developed generations of independent families, customs, professions, artistic traditions, political opinions, and personal ambitions. Some felinids preserve the memory of their ancestors' suffering and demand accountability from the institutions responsible. Others prioritize economic advancement, social stability, or peaceful coexistence. Some seek reconciliation, while others distrust elven authority. Still others consider the ancient conflict irrelevant to their own lives. Felinids can be sailors, merchants, farmers, soldiers, scholars, artisans, nobles, criminals, priests, adventurers, and political leaders. Their individual personalities must never be reduced to a single collective attitude. The historical conflict nevertheless remains an important part of island politics. Old elven families may disagree about whether compensation or acknowledgment is necessary. Felinid leaders may compete over how their freedom should be defended. Wealthy merchants may exploit ethnic tensions for commercial advantage. Younger generations may question the stories told by their elders. Slavery is part of the island's historical background, not the default condition of the present. Any surviving form of coercion, illegal enslavement, or systematic discrimination should be treated as a source of conflict rather than an assumed social norm. The original experiment remains an important historical mystery. The world should not automatically assume that the felinids caused the mist or possess a supernatural connection to it. Any such relationship requires evidence and must be discovered rather than imposed. THE WORSHIP OF THE STARS The worship of the Stars is one of the oldest and most influential religious traditions associated with the island. For thousands of years, pilgrims, astronomers, priests, and scholars gathered at its sanctuaries to observe the heavens and interpret celestial phenomena. The Stars were understood in different ways by different communities. To some, they were divine lights watching over the world. To others, they represented the eyes of distant gods, the souls of ancient beings, or signs through which divine intentions might be interpreted. Certain philosophical traditions regarded the Stars as manifestations of an underlying cosmic order.