The Wilds of Radavan

The Continent of Radavan is a newer territory settled in the past few centuries by all three heritages. It is also the ancestral homeland of the Dragonborn and Tiefling races - ancient enemies who managed to unite to fight against "the masters" who had invaded from the void and left their seeds of corruption and evil throughout the continent.

In the past century, a great war was fought against a warlord of "the masters" who was never truly dead named Corvax. The result of this conflict was a continent-wide pandemic that continues to make travel between points of civilization problematic.

Radavan is roughly the size of the continental United States in our world, so as a shorthand there is often a real-world American city analogue to the city-states of this continent. For example, the southwestern port city of Blackangel is analogous to the weather and geography of the Los Angeles area.

Here is a list of important places on the continent of Radavan in no particular order.

• Blackangel is a busy port located on the Southwest coast. It is the gateway to the Plaguelands, a desert filled with terrible packs of undead led by tyrannical necromantic warlords.
• The city-state of Sanguine in Northeast Radavan is an ancient hold of the Tieflings. Before the time of the masters, these people once ruled over a half of the continent by calling on the power of the Dead Gods. Since then, the city has changed hands many times and is now a shadow of its former glory.
• Highport is a scenic former pirate shelter along the cliffs of the Serene Expanse Ocean. It has grown to one of the largest and prosperous ports on the continent of Radavan. Its navy is one of the mightiest, perhaps even rivaling that of the Elven Empire.
• Reumix was built in the shadow left by the Verdant Empire at the confluence of the Silt and Bitter rivers. While it started as a humble outpost in the middle of the desert it has grown in importance as vaults full of ancient artifacts are located in the nearby wastes and plundered for wealth and power.
• The city-state of Vice, located on the edge of the Plaguelands in southwest Radavan is founded on a series of oasis in the middle of the desert as a stopover of trade, and has grown to be a hub of gambling, excess, intoxicants, and poor judgement which begat its name.
• The keep at Bizancio started as a cross-heritage bandit settlement and has become one of the most important ports of trade on the continent of Radavan.
• The cliffs of Mistburg are important because of the valuable minerals pulled from the continent there by a combination of dwarven guild technologies and human interests. It is a place said to be perpetually haunted by the vast number of convict workers who are regularly lost in the mines and mills. It is also the home of the Black Hand Followship.
• Thumlin is another guild-based city on the rocky Northern coasts of Radavan.
• The village of Sallegrange is somewhat remote, perched in the eastern foothills of the Stony Mountains of Radavan. It is located along the North Road two days from Restwell Keep.

• Hesparta is the ancient home of the Two-Headed Kingdom. It is located in the southwest portion of the continent.
• Aithin is the ancient city of the Tieflings of Radavan. It is located in the northwest portion of the continent.
• The city of Juntandria once housed the mighty cavalries of the Human Separatists who moved to Radavan to escape the rule of those who would control them. However, since the curse of the Vex of Ruin this great city has lost over half of its population and is gradually falling into ruin. It is located at the entrance to the inner sea of Radavan.
• New Citadel is built in the footprint of the remains of an undermountain dwarven vault lost three centuries ago when Automatons rebelled against their masters. It is located on the northeast corner of the inner sea of Radavan.
• Greater Eastcaster is a newer human city built to help bring resources out of the interior of the continent of Radavan.
• The libraries of the elegant forest city of Arwel represent a new age in the history of the elven heritage that accepts all elves as equals and rejects the ancient caste system. It is famed for its majestic waterfalls and free-thinking society.
• The frozen fortress of Galemir is a crumbling holdover of the Elven Empire's former might. It is located on a separate island northwest of the continent.
• The Aerie is a small kingdom of halflings ruled by an aristocracy of Aarakocra who have carved out a space for themselves safe from the Vex of Ruin.

Known as the “New World” in the far west, Radavan has only been discovered and settled by the three heritages in more recent ages.

The times before the three heritages arrived on Radavan

• In the before times, there were two groups of The Ancients on Radavan who struggled against one another. One revered learning and civilization while the other revered war and struggle (Athens / Sparta)
• The Tieflings call themselves The Assembly, and historically ruled democratically with a council elected every four years.
• The Dragonborn call themselves The Two-Headed Kingdom, and historically were ruled by two kings of equal power who ruled until they retired, died, or were forced out of office through trial by combat. Only soldiers were considered full citizens.
• Both ancient heritages spread across Radavan, founding cities such as Sanguine and ancient Reumix.
• The two groups almost destroy much of their heritages, fighting with magic crossing Radavan. Whole cities are ruined and deserted for fear of the arcane waste and monsters left over.
• The Masters arrive and begin to take their toll on all the Ancients.
• There are small communities of these two groups left throughout Radavan when the three heritages arrive.

Explorers from the three heritages discover the forgotten continent of Radavan.

• Human explorers discover Radavan while seeking out a new island base for their military operations
• The Elves arrived later bringing the lower class Orcs as indentured servants, working to pay off their debts to The Conclave.
• The Dwarves arrive at Radavan last, but do so secretly using undersea mole-machine vessels

Treasure Hunters seeking fortune, start to delve into the ruins and tombs of the ancients.

• Explorers from all three heritages are sent out into the interior of Radavan only to be turned back by Barbarians, Abeloth, Undead,and Hags.
• A human hunter named Marquessa discovers the tomb of Corvax. Corvax rises from the tomb and threatens Marquessa. Corvax sees the evil inside Marquessa, and begins to control her psychically as his agent in mortal society. Once freed from Corvax, Marquessa creates clones of herself by brainwashes others, cosmetically altering them to look like Marquess herself. She works as an agent of Corvax, eventually becoming the leader of a spy network within the human realm.
• The Tieflings and Dragonborn warn the humans and elves about Corvax, but their warnings are not heeded.
• Disturbed by plunderers, the Porphyrous Tunnelers awaken from beneath the crust of the earth
• They destroy the Dwarven Citadel freeing the golem race created by the Tinkerer's guild known as Automatons.

A time in which civilization falls and war brings about upheaval and change

• The ruling council of dwarves flee in emergency mole-machine submarines from The Citadel to other outposts leaving The Citadel as a haunted ruin.
• The dwarven Explorer’s Guild, maps known trade routes across the continent following ancient ley lines created by the ancients.
• Banditry becomes rampant
• Mercenary houses are created to keep these routes safe
• City states aligned with the Elven Conclave and elements of mercenary Human Separatists have a war, but it ends in a stalemate with the Elves getting the best deal in the peace settlement afterwards.

Corvax emerges from hiding bringing his forces to bear against these new heritages on the continent of Radavan

• Corvax comes back and begins to plot his revenge against the mortal world, and Radavan in particular.
• Corvax emerges as a savior figure, reborn as a dragonborn king. He wants to return the Two-Headed Kingdom to glory.
• Corvax engineers wars between the heritages using his command of the fooled Dragonborn who have given control of the Two-Headed Kingdom to the disguised Corvax.
• Armies of the dead emerge, commanded by Abeloths and Hags further complicating things.
• Warden Theobard the Greater, a famed general of the human Separatists, enlists the help of several Guilds of the
• Corvax is revealed to be an imposter
• All the races unite against this fight
• Corvax is banished/trapped in a sarcophagi with what is left of him.
• A faction of dragonborn stay true, and go into exile with Corvax looking for his return.
• There was a massive culling of populations. Vast cities are left ruined and unpopulated.
• Elven woods architecture left empty
• Human Loyalist cities all blasted and ruined - overgrown
• Nature itself is taking over the world
• Battlefields strewn with dangerous magic artifacts.
• A curse is leveled against the cities as a final spoiler known as the Vex of Ruin

This shorter period following the fall of Corvax where Radavan normalizes the curse.

• The city of New Citadel is built in the footprint of the previous one on the shores of the inland sea. During its construction, some of the old city was excavated freeing some of the automatons left over from a previous age.
• No new Automatons have been mass-produced since the Time of Troubles.
• The discovery of the ritual known as “The Binding” first performed by the Elven Wizard Induinyel in the city of Arwel allows civilizations to resist the Vex.

This period represents the present day within the campaign world of Kyor.

• The continent of Radavan, with all three heritages united with the races of the ancients join to populate “points of light” but find that civilization is precariously balanced between salvation and disaster.
• Civilized folk live in small, isolated “points of light” scattered across the big, dark, dangerous continent that is Radavan. Most of the continent is monster-haunted wilderness. The centers of civilization are few and far between, and the continent is carved up between nation-states that jealously enforce their borders. City-states are the norm, walled fortresses with only about a day’s walk zone of control.