Overview of Iourn

At the centre of all there is lies the world of Iourn. A vast orb surrounded by rings of crimson and diamond that are forever in motion. It is said that doorways to other worlds and realities are opened when the rings touch, that beings malevolent and benign can spill through into the world. Once the rings were alone in illuminating the night sky, but not any longer. Two-hundred and four years ago the slave Uros climbed to the top of Mount Korvast and appealed to the heavens for the power to deliver his people from their oppressors. On that night six moons appeared in the sky. The physical embodiment of each of the six elements, the moons were worshipped as gods and the slaves rose up and drove off their Hadradan masters.

The Moon Faiths were established as the true religions of the new free land of Urova. And through the decades, through war and through pestilence the churches grew strong. The land of Urova fragmented and fragmented again as Men tried to carve out their own piece of the vast continent. Yet they do not understand. Iourn is older than they can fathom, and created for a purpose they cannot comprehend. It was the Ninefold Dragon, Io, that tamed the elements and created the world as a battleground for his children. It was the elves of Corellon Larethian who brokered a peace in that war and earned the eternal friendship of dragon kind. It was together they opened the door for all other thinking creatures to find a home on this world.... to Moradin who made all dwarves, to Azygous who made all men.

The Urovans do not know. There is no account that stretches back that far, no stories that remember those days. And just as history is lost to them, so too is geography. The world is larger than they think. If it were possible to look down on Iourn from the moons above one would see a world polarised between the northern and southern hemispheres. Separating the two is the remarkable Belsinor's Girdle - a thin continent that stretches around the globe. The south is a place synonymous with evil; its secrets are closed to any form of scrying and its peoples and places shrouded in mystery. Urova is to the north. A tremendous continent more than four thousand miles across and pulverised at some point in the past into numerous separate islands. Across the eastern sea is the land of the Hadradans - once the rulers of Urova, now their empire is but a shadow of its former glory.

The Urovans have forgotten their place in the world. They are dislocated from their history. Much of the what has happened in the past has been forgotten. Even the elves, who were once the allies of man, passed beyond the veil one thousand years ago and have not been seen since. To the people of Urova and all the Northern World the elves are nothing but a myth and all the tales handed down from those times little more than children's fables. But they are not fables, and although the truth exists for those who are prepared to search for it, few have done so. Darkness and an evil that should not be forgotten has been left to fester and grow strong.

Iourn is a world on the edge of destruction. Malevolence and malignities long thought buried are returning to the world. The great powers, forces for good and for ill, have their hands tied by politics and petty bickering. Nations look but they do not see as creatures of chaos overrun the underworld, as the dark lord himself tests the walls of his prison deep in the Dark. Without the truth, without unity, the mortal races have no defence against the onslaught that is to come.

But hope is not lost. There are a handful of individuals of all races, scattered across all lands who understand what is at stake, who realise the price that the world will pay if good men do nothing. Individuals who put personal gain and comfort to one side and stand against the rising tide. The more they learn the more they come to realise the depth of their plight. Success is far from certain, and courage may be their only weapon. For it is courage that will enable them to answer the question that will soon be put to each and every soul in the Northern World: when the battle lines are drawn, on what side will you stand?

See Also

• Adventuring on Iourn