The Realms of Six

Hic ponitur orbis noster; hereunto is set the world entire.

These be the Realms of Six: lands fair and fell, wherein power lieth as ore in the earth and answereth to hand and sign. In elder days craft and scripture were yoked to order; then came debate, then pride, and at Rivergate the great working was broken. The bridge endured; much else did not. Since that sundown the realm liveth by Armistice, not by concord. Traders and pilgrims yet pass; Free Blades take hire where Houses dare not. Whoso ventureth, let him reckon his price, for in these lands power cometh at a cost.

Below follow brief remembrances of what thou shalt find within.

Sex Regna - The Realms of Six

De elementis et eorum via; of the elements and their way.

• Anima (Light) - Of growth and measure; it revealeth, ordereth, and blesseth the seed to rise. Its folk keep open fields and leveled roads, and hold the sun for a covenant.
• Materia (Dark) - Of rest and depth; it hideth, guardeth, and granteth cover to counsel. Its folk dwell in fir-belts and holloways, warm of hearth, close of word.
• Ignis (Fire) - Of change and temper; the hunger that forge-birth bringeth. Lava terraces feed the fields; iron singeth where vents breathe.
• Aer (Air) - Of reach and speech; the unseen path and the carried word. High monasteries keep the passes; wind-shrines ring upon the ridges.
• Terra (Earth) - Of frame and shelter; the weight that beareth and bindeth. Cities lie under vault and geode; oases stand upon cut stone.
• Aqua (Water) - Of flow and memory; the cold that keepeth tales. Ice-bays and blue hollows mirror the sky; the sea is a scripture none hath read entire.

Ordines - Organizations

Qui regunt manifesto et occulto; who rule in open and in secret.

• Liberi Gladii (The Free Blades) - No oath save the signed. They carry licensed scripture and honest steel where Houses will not tread: to open ways, to seal breaches, to fetch home what ought not lie in wild. Payment first; penance if need be.
• Ordo Elementorium (The Order of Elements) - A learned custody that once set the measures of craft. Outwardly dispersed, inwardly bound by circle and word. Their tomes be many; their houses, discreet.

Historia - History

Res gestae a Difficultate usque ad Pacem; deeds from Hardship unto Peace.

• The Age of Hardship - Aforetime the realm was ungentled; men kept to stockade and shrine, and wildness pressed hard upon the gate.
• The Rise of the Ordo Elementorium - Craft was harnessed to law; signs were weighed and circles writ true; plenty followed measure.
• The Age of Collaboration - Houses bargained, guilds thrived, and Rivergate waxed rich in open charter.
• The Decline - Pride crept in by fair names; doctrine grew sharp; measures were stretched past their worth.
• The War of Ideas - Quills became quarrels; wards became walls. Each side named Truth its banner.
• The Cataclysm of Rivergate (some style it the Twilight Sundering) - At sundown Light and Dark were given shape and brought to meeting; the first stroke was wind and hammer, the second the greater: bright within dusk, and night within the bright. Many were Stilled; the bridge endured.
• The Armistice - Not sworn by hand but counted in cold upon the Null Court at mid-span. So the peace standeth, yet trust cometh not.

Terrae Divisae - The Sundered Lands

De locis et viis; of places and the ways between.

• Geography Overview - From the Harvest Coast in the sunward south to Everpine Country in the winterward north, the land is manifold. Cinder Terraces farm the ash-black slopes; Skyhold Range carveth the winds; Frostshore keepeth mirrors of ice; Stonefold hideth halls below.
• Regions - Westmarch, Wickerwoods, and other marches where trade and peril meet; each linked to a Sacred Site or the lack thereof.
• Settlements - Steelport for first hire and iron; Rivergate for ledgers and law; many a stead besides where a traveler may warm his hands and lighten his purse.

Personae Notabiles - Personages of Note

Qui stant in capite; who stand at the head.

• Faction Leaders - High-Theurgist Kaelen and High-Artificer Lyra, whose words weigh armies and yet fall short of peace.
• Company Members - Captains, sign-wrights, ward-smiths; those who bear the Free Blade’s mark.
• Adversaries - Be they creed-bound or coin-driven, they come as much from the ledger as from the lair.

Codex Arcanum - The Archives

Quae scripta servantur; the things kept in writing.

• Bestiary - Of wrights and wraiths, of dusk-shades and engine-spawn; what cometh unbidden when Stray Charge is stirred.
• Artifacts - Seals, circles, reliquaries, and the cursedly clever; items that make easy work dear.
• Languages - Tongues high and low; hand-signs of the road; sigils whose grammar biteth the careless.

Reader, take heed: in these pages thou shalt find the world as it is told in public truth. What lieth deeper is given sparingly and with measure; for craft ill-kept becometh catastrophe, and rumor traveleth faster than any horse.