Setting

Avaria is a world much like Earth, with a host of cultures and countries spanning a large globe. Many of the various kingdoms, republics, and empires of Avaria have rough analogues within Earth's own history, though none are an exact match. The continent of Idiri can be considered to correspond roughly to Africa, Ruvera to Europe, Near and Far Ruleska to the Middle East and northern Asia, and Riendu to southeastern Asia. The island of Jalanjhur, almost a continent in its own right, occupies something like the place of India and is a valued trading partner to some in Avaria and scarcely more than a rumor to others. More information can be found on each of these landmasses in the Geography section, along with descriptions of the diverse political entities that call these places home.

Between the extremes of gritty realism and high fantasy, Avaria falls close to the middle. Most people in the world remain only lightly touched by the fantastic in their ordinary lives, and most magic that people are familiar with in their day-to-day existence is not terribly flashy. Injuries can be genuinely crippling, fighting can have potentially serious consequences, and though people have been rumored to return from the dead, for the vast majority, PCs and NPCs alike, death is truly the end of their sojourn in the mortal realm. But this is only part of the story. The weird and the whimsical are also abroad in the world, and politics, faith, and the beginnings of science mix freely with the supernatural, the arcane, and the world beyond. Powerful and monstrous beings, non-human peoples, and even extremely potent magic are all real, and strange and fantastical things just might happen to anyone.