Map by Zeta Kai of the GITP Forums. At this scale, the only visible bodies of water are the Meridian river and ocean. Please not that the map is meant to be a very abstract aid to know where the nations and islands lie – not an accurate travel map.
The geography of Adel will at first glance seem to not make a lot of sense. Despite its massive size, the planet seems to define its climate zones by the land rather than the entirety of the planet. One thing to be reminded of is that Eden’s cataclysms have long since changed whatever could be natural about it. Land has been pushed, warped, sank, twisted. Climates have changed extensively from what they once were. Eden is a puzzle with pieces from many different geologic eras fitting together at once.
Notable geographic features include the Hetuku mountain range to the North, running through the cold regions of Adel, down into Emdereur and slightly into Sargasso. The Noye mountains in the center form most of Noshiki. In Selvage, the great Fey Jungles cover most of the nation, while the Red Ash desert in Vedaria is dominating, except in areas where rivers cross through the nation, and the south, where instead of desert, the brown areas are actually mountainous. Minor rivers shoot out from the Meridian, most prominently and numerously through Sargasso and Selvage, but also quite a number through Periterim. Vedaria has relatively few rivers running through it, thus the dominance of the desert. There are no truly great lakes, but a number of small to mid-size ones in certain areas which are of great importance.
Abridged Eden Timeline:
1-250 A.C.: The Last Cataclysm occurs and the world goes through a healing process. In this period, history is completely unreliable and done mostly through hieroglyphs and ancient calligraphy that are poorly understood. What is known is that sometime during this period, spirits are born, the 9 Greater Spirit Powers establish themselves firmly and Eden stabilizes enough that nomadic lifestyles cease, and agriculture and community life can be established.
255 – 358 A.C.: Civilizations form with their own cultures, writing and lifestyles. The most successful of these is the northern Iomadi state of Tishik and two lower states, Kusant and Pierash. Kusant and Pierash are highly religious states, both of which rule by divine mandate. Tishik is ruled by a single warrior king.
364 – 456 A.C.: Tishik grows to threaten Kusant. Pierash and Kusant are engaged in bitter religious struggles over the fertile “paradise” that would in contemporary times become Selvage. Their efforts against Tishik are mostly cursory – they are prideful and underestimate the power of the secular nation against their divinely ordained might.
460 – 600 A.C.: Tishik conquers Kusant. Pierash is later subsumed by them in an alliance of sorts. Eventually, Tishik and Pierash form the Aptoas Empire, often referred to simply as the Iomadi Empire. Culture flourishes and lifestyles, artwork, writing and scholarship evolve further. The line of emperors is established, and a system of governance put it into place, with local men of influence in each area chosen to rule it for the Emperor.
610 – 780 A.C.: Period of unrest. Governing a large empire from their seat in Tishik in the north is not simple, and corruption, mistreatment and other things mar the good will of the Aptoas Empire. Many shake-ups occur among local lords, as the Emperor’s personal army is sent to force its own officials to uphold imperial laws. Unfortunately, it is too little too late. Despite the rather kindly ways of the Emperor, he did not foresee the corruption and power-mongering in his own ranks and finally, revolutionary movements grow and war breaks out.
790 – 900 A.C: The Intolerable War. Aptoas fights threats in each and every area, including its seat in Tishik. The massive war spurs the invention of many technologies, such as Alchemical Prisms and Spirit-Receptor runic arrays. The Emperor is overthrown in Tishik but the bureaucrats that take power decide they must see the war to a conclusion in order to protect at least the territories of Tishik in the north. The other territories are all quickly lost and split. Tishik survives, but with internal divisions. The dwarf nation of Noshiki is the first to form, on the 22nd of Greymoon, 882 A.C.
5th of Greenmoon, 901 A.C: The Emderuer Hegemony is established. Though a monarchy, it was for the most part really controlled by a bureaucracy, hence the naming. No major political changes occur – the peasantry is made to work, the scholars squabble, and the wealthy remain so.
902 A.C.: Further internal division within the new monarchy reaches its peak with the drafting of the “Eternal State of Man”, a set of documents on new governing policy that, after being rejected by the monarch, become the constitution for a pseudostate within Emderuer. War heroes from the Intolerable War inspire the armed forces to reach for a new era of prosperity and equality – they split from and defeat the opposing Emderuer army and take most of Tishik’s territory, before signing an agreement with the monarchy.
13th of Devilmoon, 903 A.C.: Formation of The Republic of Andaliel. It is named after Timaeus Andal, a great and charismatic war hero who resigned from the military and urged every soldier to do the same, upon the agreement with Tishik, as symbolism that weapons would not rule this new nation, but ordinary people would.
16th of Firemoon, 910 A.C.: The nation of Periterim stabilizes after the merchant leaders who ignited the rebellion there take control and earn the trust of the people. Later in the year, during the 14th of the Songmoon, the nation of Sargasso forms in much the same circumstances, except that a King is elevated – the first King, Aundarius Volg, who was reputed to have been saved from certain death in combat by the spirit Rashine, and thus destined to lead.
9th of Feymoon, 922 A.C.: The tribes in Selvage unify and create the Council of Brothers, marking the beginning of the pseudostate of Selvage. The tribes in the jungle, using the magic and support of nature spirits, their own cunning, and their knowledge of the treacherous fey wilderness that confused invaders, drove off foreigners from their territory.
6th of Spiritmoon, 934 A.C and on: The first Vizier rises to power in Vedaria. Ever since the end of the war, the desert nation overthrows all foreign influences, captures all foreign property within its state, unifies all the tribes, clans and disparate racial groups across its vast territory, and on the mentioned date, the Restoration Regime commences. Periterim supports the new nation, and Sargasso, pressed against Periterim and with only a neutral Noshiki and Emderuer, and Andaliel not breaking into the argument, recognizes the new state.
1175 AC: Today. Vedaria makes war on Selvage, claiming their land as held by illegitimate, uncivilized savages and asking Periterim for aid, promising to split the territory. Periterim secretly arms the Selvage against Vedaria while offering encouraging words to the rogue nation. Sargasso squabbles over river trade routes, while like a rock, Noshiki remains in the center, ever neutral and unyielding. Andaliel tries to keep the entire world in check, and Emderuer feebly tries to help in exchange for some of Andaliel’s riches and power. Spirits thrive, aberrations lurk, common people live and love, and adventures are waiting to be had.
