On-Ramp

This page is a quick rundown of the key elements and conflicts of the Rideen setting, intended to give readers a good place to start learning about it instead of diving right into random pages.

Rideen at a Glance
Rideen is a tropical continent about the size of Australia, located on a (currently unnamed) planet about the size of Earth. Though other landmasses exist (such as Pritami, homeland of the humans who have colonized Rideen's eastern shores), Rideen is the primary focus of this wiki.

In addition to human colonists and immigrants, Rideen is inhabited by several non-human people, such as the hardy reptilian ikryn, the reclusive insectoid koromein, the hyperactive batlike lilithan, and the yewen: descendants of celestial beings called the Yew.

The technology and culture of Rideen is roughly analogous to that of the mid 1800. Railway lines sprawl across the irradiated desert wasteland of Grellain, while the lilithan homeland of Tikarra struggles with a massive societal shift due to increasing industrialization. However, the presence of magic combined with these developments have led to many sudden leaps in technology: in abandoned laboratories in Grellain, prototype artificial intelligence constructs slumber and powerful magical firearms lie unused. In Masia, arcanists develop primitive automatons powered by simple magical brains. Rideen is not a world in stasis, and its people must cope with an ever changing technological and magical landscape.

The Peoples of Rideen
In addition to humans, the Rideen setting has several non-human sapient species.

Ikryn
The ikryn are a species of reptilian people who live in eastern Rideen and who were created by Kesh, a god of stone and earth, as a complement to the destructive ambition of humanity. They are regarded by most to be relatively laid-back and peaceful people. The ruby ikryn are an ethnicity native to Grellain, who lost their homeland in the Winter Event. In the aftermath, they have become an underclass in ikryn and human society. Their struggle to regain their culture, identity, and homeland in the face of oppression and colonization is one of the primary conflicts of the Grellain setting.

Yewen
The yewen, or "starborn," are a species of human-like creatures with glowing fins and protrusions on their heads. The yewen are descended from a group of arcane beings who were cursed with mortality for attempting to conquer humankind. Most modern yewen are members of Farando's Circle, a religion which believes that they will be reincarnated until they prove that they have learned humility from living in mortal form, at which point they will be allowed to return to the arcane plane. The yewen tend to be gifted magic users, but their minds are not designed for mortal bodies, and they live short lives and are prone to mental disorders. They primarily live in the south-eastern parts of Rideen, building their cities in the Star Cradles: the craters left behind by their ancestors' "fall" from the arcane plane. Their culture places a strong emphasis on both adherence to the teaching of the Church of Farando, and to the preservation of different yewen "bloodlines." As a result, much of the Star Cradles are ruled by ethnofascist religious states.

Koromein
The koromein are a species of insectoid humanoids, similar to beetles or ants, who emerged from ancient tunnels in the Hana Barr mountains about 500 years ago with no knowledge of their origins. They have tough shells made of korocite, a material that destroys all magical energy on contact, making them incapable of using magic. Despite being a relatively peaceful and reserved society, the koromein are hated and distrusted due to their frightening appearance, cold demeanor, mysterious origins, and their lack of magical connection which has led some to speculate that they have no souls.

Lilithan
The lilithan are a species of humanoid mammals resembling bats or flying squirrels. They were created from a species of animals granted sapience by the nature goddess Karra, who died from the drain of the process. They primarily live in the canopy of the Tikarra jungle, as the jungle floor is a writhing mass of carnivorous vines that consumes any animals or people who fall from the canopy. Lilithan tend to be agile, but high-strung and hyperactive. Those who live among human and ikryn society have been known to clip the membranes between their limbs, allowing them to wear human clothing but removing their ability to fly. Many lilithan believe that one day the goddess Karra will awaken from her deathly slumber, though whether this will lead to a glorious reunion or an apocalypse differs depending on who you ask.

Magic
Nearly all beings in Rideen have a connection to the arcane plane, a world of thoughts and concepts where the laws of physics don't apply. Those who are sufficiently trained can use this connection to project their imagination onto the physical world, altering reality. If a person's connection to the arcane plane is severed, they die instantly.

The epcane plane is an "opposite" version of the arcane plane. Like positive and negative electric charges, arcane and epcane magic cancel each other out. Epcane magic is toxic to almost all life in Rideen and has been related to many disasters throughout history including the Winter Event, the Sundering, and the rule of the Greskel Family.

Planes of Existence
There are many different parallel realities in the Rideen setting. Rideen itself exists in what is called "the mundane plane." In addition to the arcane and epcane plane, there is also the vyrcane plane, an alternate world with deadly alien lifeforms. In certain places in Rideen, the walls between these planes are thinner than usual, and it's easy to cross from one into another - deliberately or otherwise. The Hana Barr mountains are one such "weak spot," and traversing them without a guide is to risk unwittingly stumbling into another world: perhaps even one with different physical laws that might not be favorable to organisms with nifty little things like "bones" and "nervous systems."

Beings without an arcane bridge
The koromein are the only sapient species with no connection to magic. This is because their bodies and exoskeletons contain korocite, a substance that destroys both arcane and epcane magic on contact. Korocite grows like the roots of an enormous tree in places where the walls between realities are weak, such as in the Hana Barr mountains, where the koromein reside.

There are also some animals with no arcane bridge. Most prominently among these are the vyrcane beasts, animals from the vyrcane plane who wield deadly epcane magic instead. The vyrcane beasts appeared when the two worlds crossed over during the Sundering.

Gods
When enough people hold an idea or concept in their minds with enough conviction, that idea takes shape in the arcane plane, becoming a living being with its own will and identity: a god. Gods wield great power but are reliant on the sustained belief of mortals in order to survive. To bolster their strength and forward their interests in the physical world, they will sometimes send demigods called Aspects to do their bidding.

The Fabric
The Fabric is a structure that pervades all reality and connects all objects together into the past, present, and future. Those with the ability to "see" the Fabric are capable of predicting the future. Extremely powerful magic users can even manipulate the Fabric, altering the past (King Akazar Greskel was known for using his control over the Fabric to erase political dissidents and rebel uprisings from existence, securing his reign over Grellain).

Hanash, Goddess of Prophecy and Fate, presides over the Fabric and works against the forces of chaos, entropy, and uncertainty.

Certain individuals are "Unbound," meaning they have no connection to the Fabric. While this makes them unable to use it to see the future, it also makes the future unable to see them; Unbound individuals are immune to prophecy and their actions cannot be predicted by oracles. From an out-of-fiction perspective, player characters in tabletop games set in Rideen are assumed to be Unbound.

The Sundering
The Sundering was an apocalyptic event in which Rideen was plagued by earthquakes and invaded by otherworldly creatures, nearly destroying civilization. The event was so significant that all calendars in Rideen are measured in years "Post Sundering Event." This wiki is written under the assumption that the current year is 837 PSE.

The Winter Event
The Winter Event was a magical explosion that covered the Grellain Badlands in a thick layer of toxic epcane radiation, making it uninhabitable for many years. The ruby ikryn native to Grellain were forced to abandon their home for over a century as the radiation dissipated. As of 837 PSE, the radiation is light enough to inhabit most of Grellain, given the proper protection. The cause of the Winter Event is still unknown, and the area directly surrounding the origin of the explosion is still too toxic to explore, even with the best magical protection.

The Greskel Dynasty
The Greskel Necrolords were a family of powerful sorcerer-kings who ruled over Grellain before the Winter Event. Led by King Akazar Greskel, their regime cracked down on magic usage, forcibly removed non-ikryn (and many non-ruby ikryn) from Grellain, and used powerful magic to spy on the population, crush opposition, control the minds of the public, and even alter time to erase political dissidents from existence. They were finally overthrown after a bloody revolution in which the entire family was hunted down and killed.

The Grellain Badlands
An irradiated desert formally home to the ruby ikryn. Since the radiation from the Winter Event faded enough to allow people to settle there, it has become the center of a massive land rush from all directions. The provisional New Grellain Republic is attempting to assert control over the country while its powerful neighbors eye it up for annexation. Meanwhile, the Department of Magical Containment struggles to track the countless powerful magical technologies left behind by the ruby ikryn and prevent them from falling into the wrong hands. Amidst all this, the ruby ikryn protest against the aggressive colonization of their homeland by the same civilizations that exploited their plight when they first fled the country in the aftermath of the Winter Event.

The Tikarra Jungle
A dense and hostile jungle east of the Hana Barr mountains, Tikarra is infamous for "The Churning Floor," a supercolony of carnivorous vines that cover the entire jungle floor and devour anyone and anything that leaves the canopy. The lilithan live in massive cities suspended from the treetops. Lilithan society is undergoing a difficult revolution as technology from the ikryn nations changes their delicate relationship with the jungle environment. Meanwhile, mysterious cults have begun to gain sway over the government, preaching of the apocalyptic return of the nature goddess Karra, who is said to lie in deathly slumber far below the churning mass of vines.

The Hana Barr Mountains
Splitting the continent evenly in half, the Hana Barr is no natural mountain range. Instead, it is a physical manifestation of a weakness in the wall between worlds. Here, naive travelers may find themselves stumbling into alternate realities or out of reality altogether. Alien animals prowl the mountains, lost and hungry. Magical rituals that would be impossible in other locations take place in secret here. The inscrutable and reclusive koromein live in small communes all across the mountains, alongside the amiable and diplomatic sapphire ikryn, who struggle to keep the peace between the koromein communes and the surrounding groups that hate and fear them. The koromein "Cult of the Naked" hide in the mountains, preying on both koromein and strangers alike, kidnapping them for fodder for dark and vile experiments. Far below the surface, an ever-shifting network of tunnels buries the secrets of the koromein people's origins.

The Masic Delta
On the north coast of Grellain is Masia, a prosperous and fertile land and the native homeland of the emerald ikryn. Masia exists in a tense truce with the human colonies of Triskel on the east coast as both empires compete for power in the newly habitable frontier of Grellain. Some fear that Masia and Triskel will soon go to war, catching their mutual neighbor of Grellain in the crossfire. In addition, Masia is facing growing unrest amongst its ruby ikryn population, who are often subjected to second-class citizenship or indentured servitude.

The Star Cradle
On the southern coast of Grellain is the Star Cradle, a savannah pockmarked with craters left behind by the yewen people's arrival on this plane of existence. Centuries later, the descendents of these original "star born" people make their homes around the crater lakes. Many of the societies of the Cradle are feudal states or ethnofascist regimes, vying for control of their ancestral birth spots and for "purity" of the various yewen bloodlines. The Cradle is a place of perpetual conflict, both amongst the yewen races and with their koromein neighbors, believed by many yewen to be a race of evil, soulless automatons.

Pritami
The largest continent of the world, Pritami is the native land of humans, far to the East of Rideen. It isn't the focus of this setting guide, but it does contain a few interesting places, such as the Sundered Sea, a ghostly tundra archipelago left behind after the land was torn apart by the Sundering.

Titanica
A frozen, wind-blasted expanse far to the north of Rideen, Titanica is lifeless, but not entirely uninhabited: prowling the frigid wastes are the crystalline Aspects of Kos, the god of entropy and winter. Even with the best of preparations, those brave or stupid enough to explore Titanica almost invariably do not return, killed by either the frigid cold or the unfeeling entities that are hostile to all organized life.