Tyren - Overview

The World Itself

Geology and Ecology
Tyren is a world physically separated into three individual continents: Tyren proper, The Blasted Lands, and a third continent named Amaren. The world was forged of five elements: fire, water, earth, air, and void, explained in depth here.

Tyren proper (the mainland) is varied in it's geographics, being comprised of a desert that occupies the bottom third of the continent, grasslands in the middle third, and the other third half rainforest, 1/4th mountains, and 1/4th grasslands. The animals here are mostly the same as what you'd find in our world, but there are a few exceptions.

Amaren is about 1/3rd of the size of Tyren proper, and is mostly grasslands, though there is an occasional plateau to break the monotony of it. Amaren wildlife is the same as in our grasslands, except that there are a few tribes of Centaurs as well as humans.

The Blasted Lands are just that: torn apart. This is a place where massive magical damage has been wrought, and the ecology is still struggling (and failing by all appearances) to recover. The geology here is as varied as anything you might see, and is very, very dangerous to a normal person. The same goes for the wildlife, what little of it there is. Any animal that can survive here is more than a match for individual adventurers.

People and Culture

The Mainland (Tyren proper) is a fairly civilized place, the people having grasped the concepts of sewers and basic sanitation. War is still in the stage of massive armies clashing in an open field, but Kren definitely spices things up when it's actually employed (in fact, war is just about the only time Kren is really used, due to its horrible expense).

Amaren is, in comparison, more primitive than the Mainland, but their nomadic lifestyle suits the location and climate perfectly.* It is a shamanistic culture, and here is one of the places where magic isn't in the format of Kren. In fact, the inhabitants have had no contact with Kren since the end of the Demon Wars.

There is no culture in the Blasted Lands.

Religion
This is a mono-theistic world, with 1 God and 1 "Evil" in a supernatural war with each other. There is Trigu, the creator of the world, there is L'ruhk, the Prince of Darkness, fallen from grace. Trigu is good, L'ruhk is evil. Each has his servants, Trigu with the Rhin, and L'ruhk with his demons (more on each later).

For the most part, Trigu is the accepted deity of the masses on the mainland, and his worship is a regular occurence in most villages. There are, however, a few dissenters who instead choose to worship L'ruhk, and it is they that comprise the "cultist" niche of the Mainland.

Amaren is shamanistic in style, but the nomads firmly believe in Trigu, whom they refer to as the Great Traveller. As such, they are extremely harsh (to the point of execution) on followers of L'ruhk, though only a small percent of them follow the Prince of Darkness.

History
Tyren is a world that has been torn apart by a supernatural war, though quite a few of those who live in current age do not believe "those old myths".** At best they are considered the result of actual happenings enhanced by primitives who didn't understand what was happening and thus said that the supernatural was warring with itself.

This is, of course, absolutely false. The war didn't just involve the supernatural, but relied heavily on those not so primitive mortals and their quite potent magics. However, those magics are now very tightly regulated by a monopolistic company known as The Supreme Order of Kren (known as The Order to the masses), which is for the most part all-pervasive, dabbling in the affairs of every country on the mainland continent.

Magic within Tyren comes from Dol, the source of energy created by Trigu to keep the world running smoothly. Avoiding details which are detailed here, Dol can be tapped by using special cards known as Kren. That said, Kren are very tightly regulated by those who control them, though anyone who knows the trick can use the cards.

At the first point in the world, the Great War is past, and L'ruhk has been "banished" from the world along with his foul armies; or so those who follow Trigu believe. In fact, they still reside within the world proper, and are subtly manipulating events to provoke another war, with the intent to control the world and oust its creator.

*To get a good mental picture, think of the nomadic tribes of Native American Indians. That is the approximate level of technology they have.

**Those who believe this are, for the most part, city dwellers. Farmers and those who live a more rural lifestyle are more religious, but there are always exceptions.