Aderon
Kingdom of the Divine
The kingdom of Aderon, literally meaning "of the Divine," was founded when an immortal race known as the Sages came to the mortal realm and began teaching magic to the humans living there. The natural borders of the ocean to the north and west and the World Spine, the southern mountains, has kept Aderon peaceful for much of its history. To the east, across the Bull's Run River, lay the Wildlands, inhabited by indigenous wild elves with whom Aderon has had a long-held pact of neutrality.
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The crest of Aderon represents the
Lion Sage, forefather of the royal
family, and the Dove, symbol of
Queen Caire, founder of the
Synod of Sages.
The Shurin
The Shurin are a tribe of human warriors who crossed over the World Spine long ago to join with the fledgling kingdom of Aderon. There is no magic in their veins, but their deep red eyes can see the flow of magic through all other living things, and they can cut off this flow with deadly accuracy should the need arise.
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For generations, the Shurin lived among Aderon, working as guards and soldiers, until tensions between them and the Synod grew to a head. When a group of Shurin warriors were captured in their assassination attempt on the high counselor of the Synod, the king of Aderon had the would-be murderers executed and banished the rest of the Shurin, exiling them to a stretch of cursed land in the northeast corner of the kingdom. The Shurin have been rarely heard from in the 60 years since them.
Kingdom Elves and Wild Elves
When the Spirits of Nature, creatures made by the Divine to preside over the laws of nature, first saw humanity, they were curious and made for themselves physical bodies with which to interact with them. They didn't get it quite right and instead created elves, half-spirit beings with long lives, odd skin and hair colors, and a backwards language. Elves still retain their connection to the Spirits of Nature, and through their prayers and chants, can bend natural elements to their will.
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Most elves live in tribal communities in the Wildlands, where they protect their sacred land and seek one day to return to Nature itself. Some, however, have chosen to forsake the wilds for the conveniences of human civilization and live in Aderon at the cost of limiting their powers. In Aderon, a kingdom elf might live to be twice the age of a human. In the wild, it's said that an elf may never die, instead becoming one with the elements and living on as their original form.
Sages
Most inhabitants of Aderon are mortals, born and raised to die on the mortal plane, but Sages are a different type of being entirely - or, at least, they were. They came to Aderon from the celestial plane, a place much nearer to the Divine than any human has ever seen. They were Spirits of Light, manifesting powers of the sun, moon, and stars, and immortals, living for thousands of years. They were also shapeshifters, each one having an animal which they could transform into, and messengers of the Divine, with a direct connection to Him and the task to above all else protect the Divine's creations from the Destroyer and his Infernum minions.
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Little is known about why the Sages disappeared from the mortal realm 200 years ago, but legends say that when they were last seen, one Sage known simply as the Raven defected to the side of the Destroyer and disappeared into the celestial plane with an army of Infernum at his side.
Humans and Mages
Humans are the primary inhabitants of Aderon. They worship a creation deity known as the Divine who sent his messengers, the Sages, into the mortal realm to aid human life. Most are magic-less, but there is a significant amount who are born with the gift. They are known as Mages, descendants of the coupling between a human and a Sage. With the disappearance of the Sages over two hundred years ago, human society now reveres their Mages most of all, and it is their magic that fuels innovation and knowledge.
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The royal family of Aderon presides over all matters of everyday life, while the Synod of Sages oversees the rules and education of magic and worship of the Divine. Both are housed in the capital city of Sagistow, "where the Sages touched down."