Civilised World

The Civilised World refers to the known regions of human civilisation, notably the continent of Anásthiasplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigAnásthias

Anásthias [a-NAS-thee-ass / ænæsθiːæs], or [an-ass-THEE-as] is an equatorial island continent, heart of the Civilised World. The north straddles the equator and is hot and humid, while most of the equatorial centre is an upland plateau with fertile river valleys, and stretches of arid plains and desert in the shadow of the mountains. The south is temperate but more wild, separated from the civilisations of the north by the almost impassable Harthera, the Natorn Archipelago and surrounding islands.

All modern societies acknowledge the world as a sphere, spinning around the sun. Astronomers and philosophers have even calculated the size of the world to a relatively accurate degree.

According to contemporary thought the world has two hemispheres, called the “two circles of the world”, which are opposites to each other in nature. The Civilised World occupies one half of the world, with the continent of Anásthias at its centre, surrounded by a huge circular sea. The far hemisphere is believed to be almost completely dry land, with a salty, dead sea at its centre, the Sea of Tears. (This idea may be derived from Dromeism, in which the world is represented as a sphere, one half black with a circle at it's centre, one half white with a black spot at its centre.)

The Civilised World is dominated by humans and green life, surrounded by the four oceans, the Polassirn Ocean, the Redeeming Ocean, the Great Urash Ocean and the Vesmien Ocean. To the people of Ororr and the religion of Therism, the shrine at Foratuna is believed to be the centre of the world.

There has been no exploration of the far hemisphere, but it is believed to be almost completely dry land, choked with impenetrable virid jungle and terrifying beasts, entirely hostile to mankind, dotted with lakes and seas just as the Civilised World is dotted with islands.

In modern maps therefore, the Civilised World is depicted as a roughly circular sea, with Anásthias at its centre. Surrounding the sea are the Edge Lands, the distant, treacherous and utterly inhospitable places at the edge of the world. This depiction of the world's geography is crudely accurate, but there are in fact two as-yet undiscovered channels which allow passage to the farther regions of the world. Also, Anásthias is not as distant from the “Edge Lands” as currently believed.

There are few accounts of historic attempts to explore the Edge Lands, and most expeditions to their distant shores have resulted in disaster or been utterly lost.

In ancient times the Miyarrain are known to have travelled to and named Vulimé, the island continent to the far southeast of Anásthias, although their reasons for visiting are long lost. The mythic realm of Orodien, mentioned in the Tirennion, is believed to have been founded on a peninsula of Retzayk to the northeast of Anrelplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigAnrel Isles

Anrel [ANN-rel], or the Anrel Isles, is the most northerly island group in the Natorn Archipelago. It consists of three major islands and numerous smaller ones. The largest, colloquially if infrequently called Mainland, is divided between the kingdoms of Trésard and Narette. The island, at the boundary between ice and forest. The doom and downfall of Orodien has long served as a cautionary tale against any attempts to settle the Edge Lands.

The famed explorer Aego Gastrinimer claimed to have been the first navigator, certainly the first in modern times, to have circumnavigated the Civilised World (a distance of over 25,000 km) and mapped it. He also made claims to have visited the Edge Lands, including the Icehorns of the far south. Although modern historians discount this as highly unlikely, the outline used on modern maps is based on his design.

The most recent expedition was by Hartheranplugin-autotooltip__small plugin-autotooltip_bigHarthera

The Hartheran Union, commonly named Harthera, is an imperialist maritime nation state dominating the northeast of Anásthias. It is one of the two great powers of the modern epoch, arguably the most technologically and militarily powerful nation in the world, only matched by the vast size and wealth of its neighbour, viridOrorrMEOrorrOrorrOrorrOrorr mariners, attempting to explore eastward from the Eastern Isles. The expedition made a lucky landfall on a bleak desert area of Retzayk, where they were able to take on clean water, but finding no edible food or safe harbour, they were forced to retreat to the Eastern Isles, arriving back disheartened and starved.