## Avaris
*Character count: 3156*
Avaris is the continent that serves as the home of the campaign. It was fractured by a great war centuries ago, and though open warfare has ended, its civilizations never fully recovered their trust in one another. The peoples of Avaris are not actively at war, but most settlements have become politically distant, protective, and introverted.
This lingering fragmentation shapes the tone of the world. Communities are proud, self-contained, and wary of depending on outsiders. Trade still exists, alliances still matter, and travelers can still pass from region to region, but unity is rare. In many places, local identity matters more than continental solidarity. That weakness is part of what makes the broader threat so dangerous: when Avaris is attacked, its people do not naturally act as one.
World Map Orientation
- Wyverngard: southeast of the map
- Sumer: west of the map, between Wyverngard and Amicalola
- Tetzcoco: middle-south of the map, between Sumer and Piraeus
- Piraeus: southeast-most part of the map
- Eyrnhelm: east-most part of the map
- Amicalola: in the north, between Aitho, Eyrnhelm, and Mt. Hirota
- Mt. Hirota: northwest-most part of the map
- Mt. Aitho: northeast-most part of the map
- The Great Cataclysm: runs horizontally between the north and south halves of the continent
- The Serpent's Maw: the sea passage linking Piraeus in the south to Eyrnhelm in the north
Overarching Campaign Premise
The campaign begins when Cinis launches an attack on Wyverngard. His broader goal is to weaken the settlements of Avaris so he can advance a draconic rule movement and create a world where dragons dominate all. He does not reveal himself immediately. Instead, the players gradually uncover a pattern of destruction, manipulation, and fear spreading across the continent.
The first strike against Wyverngard is strategic, not random. Wyverngard houses the continent's only true aerial military force, and crippling it is the perfect first move in a larger campaign of destabilization. As the story unfolds, each major region should feel like a chapter in the slow revelation of Cinis' plan.
Avaris should feel old, wounded, mythic, and full of regional identity. Every area should be distinct in tone and culture, but all of them should feel like parts of the same scarred world.
The Great Cataclysm
The Great Cataclysm is a scar left across the world by ancient wars. A vast crevice split the land so deeply that it seems to descend toward the core of Avaris itself. In places, magma seeps through the stone floor, and the intense heat sends hot air roaring upward in violent currents. Because of this, no one can safely fly across the divide between the northern and southern halves of the continent. Air travel across the Cataclysm is effectively impossible.
This geographical wound forces sea travel to become the only viable path between regions separated by the divide. Adventurers traveling between south and north must rely on routes through Piraeus and Eyrnhelm rather than the sky. Rumors claim the chasm reaches all the way to the Nine Hells, and the sight of it should feel unnatural, immense, and terrifying.