Sorostrae

Do not misunderstand; Sorostrae is not a country of high magic. There are no magically propelled forms of public transport, no vast telecommunications system based on crystal balls. It is altogether something more sinister. The average Sorostraen peasant fears magic as much, if not more so, than his counterpart in Norandor - and with good reason. Wizards and sorcerers speculate that there is something very special about Sorostrae; a secret force of magic that warps and changes the land and the people. Magic users with delusions of power gravitate to Sorostrae with the intention of seizing this magical grail for themselves and becoming a pre-eminent force. They allow nothing to stand in the way, least of all other wizards, and vast magical battles are frighteningly common leaving bizarrely mutated creatures and areas of wild magic in their wake.

As a rule, Sorostrae is a land that most try to steer clear of. Sandwiched inbetween Junos and Eldagaire, Sorostrae should share the vast desert that covers much of those countries, but it does not. This very fact alone sets Sorostrae apart as a strange and unnatural place. It certainly has more than its fair share of magical beasts and impossible creatures. The fey, undead and dragons are said to be as common as bear and deer in Norandor, and they all have the taint of malevolence about them. Why this is the case is a matter of some speculation; perhaps a vast battle between the forces of good and evil were once fought in Sorostrae, and the land itself was a casualty. The suspicious see the country and all its inhabitants as inherently evil, and shun the land believing it to be a piece of the Great Dark that has fastened itself to Urova.

Not all are unenlightened. The Sorostraens aren’t evil, most are just very scared by the magical horrors that their country is home to. There is no over-arcing form of government as there is in Norandor, and as a result most peasants find themselves under the direct control of a lord, who is almost certainly a wizard, and pawns in a deadly game of supernatural politics. It is not to say that all such wizards have the blackest souls, but all are selfish and all put their personal power and comfort above that of the people under their care.

The established religions all have an interest in Sorostrae and churches for all the major faiths can be found far and wide. The Church of the Land is especially popular among the lower orders, as they have turned from much of their agrarian heritage into a group prepared to take the country back for Nature - by force if necessary. Some members of the Sylvani Church support their fellow worshippers of Terranor in this endeavour, but they have been greatly corrupted by the magic that has leaked into nature. Likewise, the druidic orders are not the force they should be, and so the Church of the Land finds itself very much alone.

The Arcanum Incognita is quite the reverse. Being the church of magic they are very strong in Sorostrae and almost act as brokers in the continual warrings of the wizards. The clerics are trying to understand what makes Sorostrae tick, in the hope that they can use that power against their enemies. There are those who say that the church has already worked it out (they are the church of secrets after all) and that the real role the church fulfils is keeping the source of magic in Sorostrae from everyone else. Only time will tell the truth of this theory.