Dia

• Dia
  • Crossroads of a Multi-Universe
  • Surf ‘n’ Turf
  • In The Beginning
  • Fresh meat
  • Strangers and Neighbours

Designations:
noun: Dia
adjective: Dian (?)
“of god” or “gods”, “great old one”, “the deep”, “death”, “burial ground”, “grave of gods”.

Radius: 1979 miles
Circum: 12,425 miles
Gravity: 10.82 m/s^2
Mass: 1.645×10^24 kg (?!)
Density: 12.155 g/cm^3¹

Crossroads of Many Kinds

Dia seems to exist in perfect serenity amid utter and absolute chaos. The gravity from our Moon and Sun alone are enough to unbalance and throw the binary system out of whack but somehow, even with the sheer amount of moons, rings, and celestial bodies that orbit us, we remain stable. Gravity, and indeed our entire understanding of the physical realm, seems to be only part of a whole multitude of forces existing on a much, much larger scale.

What our five senses would call the physical realm is what elfin scholars call Maetre, or the Material Plane. Reason being is that the elfs themselves are from an entire other plane, called Fae (see “Strangers and Neighbours” below). So it appears that we exist in a sort of multi-universal gimbalic system, where not only are there physical celestial bodies but also planar dimensions that “orbit” us in a way, shifted from our reality but existing alongside it.

At times the boundaries between these planes will become thin and a rift can form. Though much like how the destructive force of an earthquake can form a mountain ridge, these rifts are also created through massive gravitational and seismic manifestations. Both planes connect and swirl about a singularity, technically creating a passable portal between the two, however few have found the means to do so.

Surf ‘n’ Turf

The surface of Dia can be thought of as two parts; a single land mass that spans the entire outer hemisphere, and one large ocean on the inner hemisphere facing Dia’s partner, Kos. In the middle of this ocean is the Latis Isle that stands tall, defying the tides and weather created by the Duet’s orbit.

Dia’s main land mass can be broken into seven parts, or continents as we call them; Golding Peninsula, Laechland, Glintwood Mountains, The Badlands, The Wilds, Lands of the Rising Sun, and Country of Dragonkin. The main biomes found here on the surface are; Arctic, Coastal, Desert, Forest, Grassland, Mountain, Swamp, and Tundra.

A topographical theme persists throughout many of these landscapes. There are great towering cliffs and entire plateaus seemingly heaving out of the ground. Our oceans, lakes, and even some rivers seem to have no bottom, and sink deep into the planet. The crust of Dia is broken and splintered, like great ice floes cracking and digging into each other, but on a scale like no other.

In The Beginning

Although we haven’t yet fully understood the events that led to the creation of Dia, we have been able to trace most of Dia’s sapient humanoid species back to just three common ancestors. We now know these three ancestries as Troll, Woad, and Woolly. Regrettably, any further back in history is where much of our knowledge falls off.

What we do have about these three ancestries consistently depicts them as something akin to giants. This is one of the most widely accepted and yet unproven theories to date. Here, and in many other official publications, you will find the Troll, Woad, and Woolly all classified as “Giantkin”; however any correlation to true primeval giants is merely nominal and any speculation is ultimately unanswerable.

Cobbling together what written and oral records we can, it has become clear that the sapient humanoid subspecies of Ork, Half-ork, and Goblinoid descended from the trollkin; Dwarf (or duergar) and Gnome descended from the woadkin; Godling, Hobling, and Wildling descended from the woollykin; and humans are almost always from one or more Giantkin ancestors. Half-elfs are generally treated similarly to humans, however this is more due to the fact they strictly are not considered elfs by their Fae kin.

As you may already know, true giants are among the oldest creatures to walk the planet. They are a rare sight indeed; regarded as ill omens at times. Feared and spurned largely by the self-proclaimed civilized, they often cannot settle and so either lead dormant or nomadic lives. You could mistake one for a tree or a hill if you aren’t careful. Many have become tinkers and traders, travelling from hamlet to city-state to barony for odd jobs and selling wares where they can.

I have personally only ever met a few actual giants in my life. Enormous, slouching yet still majestic, walking pieces of land. Seems the more ancient you go, the bigger they get. This is generally true for most of Dia’s largest flora and fauna. For years we’ve been discovering ruins and remnants of historic life four to eight times the scale of humans.

Fresh meat

Within recent history there has been the conception and birth of three new subspecies: Layfolk, tyrn, and wildlings.

[^2] Layfolk mainly consist of the artificial species of forges and forms; originally built as slaves in The Badlands under order and patronage of the Oase Oligarchs. They are known to be created only in the jurisdiction of the Oase Gulches, and so aren’t often found elsewhere on the planet. Forgefolk are the original model, built like automatons with a sort of alchemic blood, where as formfolk are a full biological refinement and can be made to look however you want, species or race. Layfolk won their independence from the state a few years ago and are enjoying a sanctioned but tenuous “freedom”.

The tyrn, or tornfolk, manifested their presence on Dia about a dozen or so years ago. Stories from all over trickle in of pale wanderers, differing vastly in appearance and apparent species, but all sharing odd similarities; a shattered memory of Aether, little recollection of how they came to Dia, and the ability to learn extraordinary psychic abilities. I believe a Tyr has taken up residence at the Grand Library on the Latis Isle, as their scholars have been recently publishing reports on their plausible connection to the volcanic eruption in the north sea several years back. Why else do we keep hearing such intimate details about these tornfolk from the Latisaen scholars of late? Intriguing.

Wildings have been around longer than Layfolk or tyrn, having branched specifically from the Woolly lineage, so perhaps they’re more of an intentional evolution than a revolutionary invention. They would be best described as one of the links between beast and sapience. Not to be confused with lycanthropy, which has been falsely attributed as a Wildling curse. They originate from the southern wilds but have migrated as far and wide as woollykin, though they are not often seen among them.

Strangers and Neighbours

Aliens from other planes, realms, and realities are common amongst us here on Dia. Elfs take up the majority of these, having settled in the west at least three of their generations ago. They came from the Fae, a parallel plane to ours, although allegedly not originally. Currently the Fae as we understand it is under elfin court and rule, nonetheless.²

Elemental royalty have built embassies for the planes of air, fire, water, and earth all across Dia and potentially Kos. Grand cities and citadels have formed around these embassies, both for protection and trade. We don’t know the exact location of these cities as they tend to relocate often. Elementals often act as keepers of the fabric of reality, maintaining any disturbances or rifts between the planes, and protecting species of lesser planar awareness from suddenly being thrown into the abyss.

Dragons are from space. From the beginning of time they’ve fallen to the surface of Dia and Kos like living asteroids. Most absorb whatever and wherever they land, resulting in the wild and dangerous chromatic dragons dotted throughout the Duet. Metallic dragonkin and Dragonborn, on the other hand, have adapted to our humanoid ways and made their country across the sea to the north of the Latis Isle, where they now keep great banks for nobles all across Dia (but mainly for the trade and transactions on the Isle).

You occasionally might meet a gimbalien who is just passing through, but otherwise any other migrant species are generally in their first or second generation. They can be found mingling in both urban and rural communities across all of Dia. I would hesitate to classify Goliath or Drow as alien, as they’re actually from Kos, but I will most likely comment on them further when I get around to writing about Kos.

— Prof. R. Mistmore, Esqu. pp Scriv. Blot