Rea | Meridian Realms

Descripción general

Rea exists at the crossroad between the Elemental planes (fire, water, air, earth) and the Astral planes where mortals’ dream coalesce into living thoughts and where gods, angels and demons dwell. Through magic, the barriers between planes can be breached, creating planegates. The Continent, the main Rean landmass, stretches like a fractured hourglass from arctic tundra to tropical jungles, pinched at its center by the Great Desert where naga caravans thread between oasis settlements. Humans, elves, dwarves, orcs, kitsune, and naga share this land, their civilizations clustered in fortified city-states that cast flickering magical light across the wilderness between them. The Pact dominates the North with clockwork spires and temples dedicated to the Eternal Vigil, while the League's steam-powered foundries rise from southern jungles and plains. Both factions eye each other across the Great Line trade routes, their rivalry measured in technological competition, religious beliefs, spycraft, tariffs and border disputes rather than open war. Beyond the walls, demons seep through weakened planegates, undead shamble from mass graves, and things from the Astral planes wear the faces of dead loved ones. Reans worship many gods, astral entities, otherworldly beings and false idols. However none are above the Five Great Gods, universally revered by all in a way or another: - The Curator, god of knowledge, magic and wisdom. - The Harvester, god of life, death, agriculture and fertility. - The Harbinger, god of light, thunder, the skies and the sun. - The Hierarch, god of order and war. - The Colossus, god of the seas, the deep and the underground. The Five Great Gods watch from their celestial seats, their priesthoods offering the only proven protection against what hungers in the dark.

Sociedad

City-states govern their own territories but answer to faction councils where elected representatives from each member race argue over resource allocation, defensive obligations, and trade policy. The Pact's Convocation of Vigilance meets beneath the ever-burning temple in Frostholm, requiring unanimous consent for military action. The League's Assembly of Survival operates from Ironthwart, where majority vote decides policy but any three member states can veto declarations of war. Both systems create gridlock that smaller nations exploit for leverage. The naga's Renewal practices a form of council democracy where seasonal travellers participate in governance decisions during their stay.

Tecnología

Magically-infused engineering defines daily life across the Continent. Pact cities run on clockwork mechanisms powered by bound elemental spirits, their gear-driven elevators and automated irrigation systems maintained by artificer-priests who sing prayers into each mechanical joint. League foundries burn refined aether-coal to drive steam turbines, their pressure gauges calibrated by mage-engineers who treat magic as another form of fuel to be measured and controlled. Flying ships cross the Great Desert using a combination of elemental sails and steam thrusters, their hulls etched with protective runes that flicker when demons approach. Planegates allow instantaneous travel between major cities, but each use risks tearing the barrier between worlds. Both factions implant crystal circuits into soldiers and workers, enhancing strength and reflexes at the cost of periodic magical maintenance that keeps the enhancements from consuming their host's life force.