Imagine a land held in the cradling arms of a great [[Ardel/The Mountains|mountain range]]. Between the mountains lies a great plain, a [[The Plains|fertile basin]]. To the southeast there are uplands with a dense, [[Ardel/The Forest|dark wood]]. As the river wends out of the plain, it cuts through the mountains in a great gorge, and lets out into a wide [[Ardel/The Swamps|swampy delta]], before pouring into [[Ardel/The Isles|the sea]]. The land is home to many different peoples, with their own ways and their histories of contact and communion. The lands are overseen by [[The Five Dragons|five dragons]], eternal, as near omnipotent as never-mind. It is only the tensions between the five dragons and the games they play with each other—and the aeons-long pace of their interests and attention-spans—that allow the mortal kinds to flourish in their shadow. - [[The Mortal Kinds]] - The Cursed Kinds: - [[Vampires]] - [[Werewolves]] - [[Ghosts and spirits]] - [[Walking dead]] - [[What's about to happen]] - [[Cultures and languages]] - [[Religions]] - [[Powers and factions]] ## Fragmentary ideas - D&D species and classes have links (“druid” is an elf way of doing magic for instance) - Elves and dwarves are immune to the Wild Curse but not the Hungering Curse - The Black and Red dragons demand sacrifice when they awaken - The Red and Green dragons easily take many forms (Green loves to pretend to be a human sorcerer) - Dragons get called by sobriquets, their real names being hidden and rumoured to be powerfully magic simply to utter - Reread *Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft*.