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The Known World
For the average inhabitant of Wessex, the 'known world' is a very large place. Most people will not travel further than their nearest major town during their lifetime although nobles may be summoned to Court, the educated classes may travel to study, or peasants may be taken to war. Cities also attract migrants from other large cities, or even from overseas in exceptional circumstances.
Countries recently at war with Wessex
King Edward of Wessex took a pro-active approach to foreign affairs, and conducted significant military campaigns against the following countries within the past twenty years.Cymru - A land of rain and mountains, occupying the West of Albion. Cymru is claimed by the Kingdom of Wessex but is functionally independent, being almost entirely locked in subsistence and in fulfilling the desires of two powerful beings referred to as the Red Dragon and White Dragon during their very occasional periods of wakefulness.
Calendonia - A barbarian land to the North of Albion, full of dangerous people, animals and landscape. Very briefly subjugated by King Edward in Year 7 of CUTT (1292/2009), it has since reverted to internal rule. The overall leader of the various tribes is picked by a Games between them, after the most recent Games the tribes resolved that settling the problem of the outcast Moray was a high priority for them.
Hibernia - A country over the sea to the West, being all that stands between Albion and a very large amount of further sea that possibly stretches to the edge of the world. Hibernia is ruled by the tyrannical Witch-Queen, a powerful mage said to be forever young, possibly through serial possession. The Witch-Queen forbids all worship of the gods, with the exception of Balance. Very little is usually heard from Hibernia, which has traditionally concentrated all effort inwards, but the new King Samuel of Wessex spearheaded an ambitious attack on it in Year 7 of CUTT (1292/2009).
Gaul - If you sail East from Wessex you will come to the lands collectively known as Gaul. King Edward conducted a long campaign in Gaul and some of it is currently claimed by Wessex. Humact may have derived from an honourable hero of Gaul.
Norsca - To the North-East of Wessex are the harsh, cold lands of Norsca. The Norscans are a civilised people who trade peacefully with their neighbouring lands, however in the land around Grantabrugge they are primarily known as raiders and oppressors following the brief Norscan incursion into Grantabrugge, as well as their persistant opportunistic raids down the Norvi coast. Norsca is a large, powerful nation and invading Norsca is not a practical way to try and expand Wessex, quite apart from the stories that it is full of ice-giants and huge snow-bears. It is thought that Morvana arose in Norsca.
Other countries
Andalucia - The sunny region of Andalucia is known for having a large population of pyrokin, being the area in which they settled after the Ritual of Elemental Soul. A noteable native animal is the Silkling, a large predator which spits paralysing webbing at prey - now establishing a minor breeding population near Grantabrugge following inadvisable imports for a menagerie.Teutonia - Teutonia is a large religious dictatorship occupying much of the land beyond Gaul, and forming a fairly effective barrier to casual mass travel from Wessex further across the continent. An extremely peaceful country, Teutonia is kept that way by the vast network of the Light which reaches into every home to protect the occupants from corruption and even stretches as far as the Temple of the Light in Grantabrugge.
However, at the end of Year 5 of CUTT (1290/2007), a huge magical explosion and volcano occurred in Southern Teutonia, causing destruction on an unprecedented scale across many hundreds of miles. A new mountain range formed where once there had been cities, there was magical fallout and red dust blocked the sun such that crops died in the fields. The infrastructure of the country failed to cope with the massive influx of refugees to the northern half and many left to find shelter further afield, with some even ending up in Albion. The shattered remmnants of the previous empire are currently reasserting themselves, but the bulk of the organised forces of the Light are fully occupied fighting against the undead which now plague the South - raised opportunistically by the ancestor-venerating tribespeople of the lands which used to lie beyond the Southern border using the many bodies found unattended in the aftermath of the disaster.
To the South-West of old Teutonia lies the traditional mountainous homeland of the Tomten, much of the rest of the land around is extremely heavily forested and full of beasts.
Wallachia - In Wallachia, Vivamort is the most important god and the worship of Humact and Azrael has been long supressed. Wallachia is ruled by Wampire Overlords and other, lesser, necromancers.
Roma - Roma is the homeland of the Dwarves, and possibly the only place to have a majority Dwarven population. The nation is largely composed of feuding city-states.
Aegyptus - Aegyptus is a very distant land, to the point where many Wessex folk would disbelieve tales of it. However, the Mirrorlink network briefly allowed travel to Aegyptus, where more necromancy was discovered, also sand, and all the gods had different names. It is thought that the cult of Bast originated in Aegyptus.
Atlantis - The Island of Atlantis is the original homeland of the elves, a name handed down in legend for over a thousand years since it sank following the Ritual of Elemental Soul. However, Atlantis returned in Year 1 of CUTT (1286/2003) during the events surrounding the Changing of the Races, and did not vanish afterwards. Initially it was thought that Atlantis was inaccessible, and it was immediately recolonised by dragons, for whom it was also an ancestral homeland. However subsequent ritual travel has been attempted and it has also been reached by sea. On making contact with the island, people were suprised to find that it was inhabited, and from the perspective of the inhabitants (the reptilian Vani) it had not sunk but instead a huge amount of time had passed. The Vani claim that the Dragonlords may be somehow bound into the island rather than having been physically destroyed, but the united voice of the elemental elves of the world precludes investigation.