Cinco! Setting Bible

From my personal play packet! Possibly the laziest setting ever, but it’s honest. All the gorgeous art shown here is by the delightful Norn Noszka!

World of Faia

Faia is the setting of my home campaign, a sort of cosmic crossroads between worlds. Portal-hopping dwarves meet star-sailing terrans on a planet otherwise populated by a species known as faians—some elves, others orcs. Though Faia is a usual fantasy world, it is written to explore realist themes about society and history.

Cathedral of Light

Elves are faians who were baptized under the Cathedral of Light, a religious institution established by the Snow-White Queen. The elves were initially unified by this swordseer to defend their continent against the dwarves of the Midgard Company. However, they eventually opted to split the Dark Lands of Faia between themselves and the Company. This coincided with the Crusade Against Darkness, a declaration of all uncivilized faians as demons (orcs) from myth-times. They worship Qesem, pure Being itself.

They say that the Snow-White Queen has slumbered for hundreds of years. Meanwhile, her seven gnome cardinals fulfill the Cathedral’s executive functions.

Green Caliphate

Orcs are definitionally faians who are not elves: unbaptized, uncivilized, and unworthy of Qesem’s grace. The Cathedral teaches that orcs’ bodies are inhabited by unjust souls who rebelled against Qesem’s daughter in the myth-times; their skin is said to be green as a symbol of the rot in their hearts. In reality, orcs are various peoples and cultures throughout the world, colonized by the Cathedral. The orc prophetess Kalifa declared the elvish Qesem to be false and the Cathedral an instrument of elf world domination. Kalifa perished in battle, and the Green Caliphate was founded in her name.

Midgard Company

The Midgard Company is one of many confederations of dwarven firm-clans who seek worlds to harvest their material wealth. This one in particular happened to land on Faia, waging war against the Cathedral before agreeing to colonize the Dark Lands instead. Dwarves themselves value individuality and tradition. Being unisex, they reproduce by forging new dwarves out of stone. Confederations like the Midgard Company are often composed of dwarves descending from one ultimate maker.

Gnomes are dwarves who left the Company and integrated into elven society, choosing to shave their faces and worship the eternal Qesem.

Terran Conquest

The planet Earth was lost many years ago, and its inhabitants took to the stars to find and conquer new homes for themselves. We know them all too well.

The Krib Sea

An archipelago whose control is contested by the dwarven Midgard Company and the elvish Cathedral of Light. Rather than put their own at risk, however, these two powers commission terran privateers to settle their territorial dispute—some of whom conspire to finally establish a terran homeland here on the alien world.

The orcish peoples have seen the worst casualties of all involved, declared demons by the Crusade Against Darkness, worthy only of conquest, subjugation, and enslavement. The Krib boils over with blood. Who shall prevail?

Major Islands

Kubao is the largest island in the Krib Sea, whose northernmost tip is just south of the Flo’Rida peninsula. It is claimed by the Cathedral of Light and, like most other islands, it is overrun with plantations worked by orc slaves. Its main export is tobacco besides the rum and sugar that all Krib islands produce.

Ayiti is the large island east of Kubao. Previously claimed by the Midgard Company, the western side has since been taken by terran privateers flying the Cathedral’s flag. An influx of orc slaves to produce rum, sugar, and coffee combined with the takeover has generated a volatile political situation. The spirits of ancestors demand retribution! The land is ripe for revolution!

Xamaka is the island south of Kubao and west of Ayiti. Claimed by the Cathedral, now the Company conspires to conquer it as revenge for their loss of Ayiti. Runaway slaves have mingled with what indigenous peoples remain deep in the mountains of Xamaka, establishing semi-isolated maroon communities. Plantations here produce cotton, plus the usual sugar and rum.

Bimani north of Kubao and Boriken east of Ayiti are strongholds of the Company and the Cathedral respectively, both being gateways to the Krib. They have their own minor planting industries, but are dedicated to being bases of operations for their possessors. Some say the ancient storm god Xuracan sleeps atop Boriken’s tallest mountain.

Pirate Republics

There are islands ruled by no power. These include Latoti (Turtle Island) north of Ayiti, Nassa (Sharktooth Island) northeast of Bimani, and Kaguaya (Crown Island) south of Xamaka—their new names christened by creative terran pirates. Privateers meet here with sneaky merchants to sell their burgled goods at heavily discounted prices, such as sugar, rum, coffee, cocoa, ginger, indigo, timber, and slaves. Though these operations are technically illegal, their perpetuation is essential to the mercantile economy which commands the Krib as well as the entire world.

The Wajud Sea

The myth-times buckle under the weight of generations since. Ancient faians believed even they were preceded by spring giants, who with weighty hands built strongholds of stone and bronze. Spring turned to summer, and summer to autumn. Forgotten empires ruled by nameless statues litter deserts and mountains on the Wajud Sea.

A claim to the Wajud’s history is a claim to the world’s future. Here the Green Caliphate, fueled by righteous vengeance, took the holy city Shalim from the Cathedral’s clutches. Kalifa said it was a sign, from Qesem itself, that theirs was the inheritance of the world. Such were her last words before she slipped into the Hereafter.

The Caliphate ascended into hegemony or—according to some—fell into complacency. Deprived of their gateway to the Eastlands, the Cathedral raced the Company to claim islands and establish plantation colonies in the Krib Sea. The Caliphate, drowning in its newfound decadence, saw for itself a lucrative opportunity to raid the Dark Lands and enslave others called “orcs”. It certainly found a place among the powers of the world, but at what cost? Is this the will of Qesem?

Major Cities

Shalim is the city atop Qesem’s holy mountain. As such, many historical faian empires have once laid claim to it to justify their divine right to rule. The Snow-White Queen was herself crowned here at the unification of the elves under the Cathedral before the city was taken by Kalifa’s armies a century later.

Byzos is one of the oldest cities on the planet, once a colony of a seafaring civilization whose wide-reaching trade networks spread phonetic script across the old faian world. The Cathedral occupies Byzos as a base of operations for the Crusade.

Zandria is a great port city recently conquered by a cardinal of the Snow-White Queen. Named after an infamous swordseeing conqueror, it once housed an incredible library whose contents were destroyed during battle by yet another conqueror centuries later. Some books have no extant copies except possibly in the cities of the dead.

Illusa is a citadel of the Caliphate on the front lines against the Cathedral. In addition to the living city on the surface, it is said to have eight or more layers of ancient ruins of forgotten settlements underneath. Its proud walls were said to be built by gods.

Necropoles

Many historical cultures of the Wajud buried their dead in vast subterranean chambers. In time, new cities were built on the ruins of old ones, and the latter were confused with the abodes of their own dead. More labyrinthine than ever before, the necropoles trust none with their secrets except for those courageous enough to brave the darkness and survive its horrors.

The Lightbearers

Gods. Angels. Demons. The lightbearers carried across the cosmos the conscious spark, endowing vacant-eyed creatures with the power to command the forces of nature and thereby determine their own destiny. Finding that they were alone in all of the universe, they seeded habitable worlds to find out why. They proved their worst-case hypothesis: consciousness tends towards its self-destruction.

The terrans escaped containment. They were headed down the path of self-destruction like countless seeds of consciousness before them. However, while being suffocated by Terra’s ruined atmosphere, a few took to the stars to guarantee their species’ survival. These were those who deemed themselves worthy over all other terrans and who would sacrifice countless worlds for their own indulgence.

Naturally, the lightbearers felt threatened by this development. Not only would terrans spread themselves (and their worst tendencies) throughout the cosmos, but they would interact with other seeds. Would they lead others to an undeserved destruction? Would they come upon their creators and smite them? The lightbearers from the shadows thus hunted their black sheep children. The terrans realized in turn that they were not alone, and that they were unwelcome in the void of space.

One terran colony reached Faia, where they became willing pawns of existing powers to integrate with the world and avoid detection from their predators. They knew little. Something beat them there. Someone was waiting for them.