The world described within the Boelver is one of divine creation. An unknowable and divine power, even to the gods themselves, created a god who knew nothing of the place they found themself in. To stave off the fear of being alone, the god created a home of endless hallways and creatures that would answer to them. Through experimentation, they created another god, one who brought light and life into the world. This new god created the world of Phora Surin which became a world where life would live on. When a new god brought about humanity, this new god and the god of light supported them to conquer the world and bestowed upon them magical powers. However, the gods were banished from Phora Surin after one tried to enforce their power over humanity and kill the other gods.
The world described within the Boelver is one of stagnation. The wildly diverse continent has largely been settled with three opposing factions occupying the vast majority of the land and people. These factions were built for war and remain endlessly pumping out more and more soldiers in a fight that has not progressed for centuries. The war itself has halted and with it, progress of any kind. Culture, research, ambition. What is left is the crumbling infrastructure from centuries past and the undying wills of those in power. These people in power are connected to the gods, deeply enough that despite the gods’ banishment, they are still able to communicate. However, these people in power are stuck in the cycle they created. Their goals will not be accomplished if all stays the same.
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The world described within the Boelver is also one of change. The Vessel, a unique being with no soul but living flesh, is able to change it all. Through their intervention, the scales can finally be tipped. What the Vessel chooses decides the world’s fate. Their journey will shape the world whether through their own decisions or through the manipulation of others.Â
Above Picture: The names of the three factions and their official symbols and colors
In the beginning, a higher being known as the Force created a lower being, a god, named Qualme. As a lower being, Qualme could not comprehend the plane the forces (other higher beings) existed in and was haunted by another force named Oosrae who manifested through fear. And so Qualme sheltered themself by generating the divine plane (Anthris) and creating an endless system of halls that blocked Oosrae’s influence. In these halls, Qualme was lonely, and they began experimenting with creating their own lower lifeforms: first souls, then beasts, and finally another god. This god was named Phora and could create light, something the divine plane did not have. Phora did not want to be stuck in the divine realm, however, and forced her way out, creating the mortal plane (Phora Surin) still under the protective shell of the divine plane.
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There she created life, using souls from the divine plane to animate her creations. For an uncountable amount of time, this is how things remained. That is, until the emergence of a new god, Larthe. Larthe mimicked Phora and created humans in order to grow his own power. Together, Larthe and Phora helped spread humanity across the continent and help them progress technologically. Larthe then secretly gifted some of his own power to a human named Zekroth,who would unify and conquer the world, spreading his gift to others. This in turn would grow Larthe's power. But when Larthe faced resistance from Zekroth, Larthe tried to take full control over Zekroth’s body, resulting in the sudden banishment of all gods from the mortal plane.
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After this, Zekroth would ban all religion in the unified kingdom he had established, causing two high ranking members of the military to plan a coup to return religious worship. When this coup was stopped, these two members were exiled and many citizens followed them, splintering the kingdom into three factions. These factions would engage in bloody wars spanning centuries where nothing really changed. These wars never officially ended, but all parties have since scaled back invasions leading to a period of stagnation. For now, life is manageable and for some, even pleasurable. However, the rising tensions are setting the stage for drastic changes if and when a galvanizing figure appears.Â
Left:Â Depiction of the planes which are nested realities. The game takes place in the mortal and divine planes.
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Below: Map of Phora Surin with the relative densities of military personnel for each faction. The darker the color, the more concentrated.
Map of Phora Surin with the biome features, paths of celestial bodies, and three capitols of the three factions.
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The black lines separate the biomes but are not physical borders.
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The blue and orange lines illustrate the paths of rivers or lavaflows respectively.
The world of Phora Surin is one created by a fledgling god. The continent was created through the experimentation of this god who decided the continent should be formed around one central pillar, the highest point in the entire world. This pillar stands within a mountain range which flips from cold and icy to hot and dry on either side of the pillar. A desert sits in the southeast while a burning wasteland and a volcano sits in the northwest. A fertile valley in the north sits right beside a cracked and impossible set of plateaus in the northeast. Sheer cliffs line northern border while beaches sit towards the south. The continent is diverse in its features. Steep mountains, rolling hills, treacherous dunes, impenetrable forest, a great tree, an active volcano, an impossible pillar.
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The weather makes these features possible. The north gets significantly more rain than the south. It is windy in most places. The sun very rarely casts shade on the desert. Heated and dusty air from the desert reaches cool air from the north and falls down as rain. The major rivers of the continent spring from the northern mountains. The valley was carved by this river, leaving much of the distant land dry and empty. The furthest point from the pillar in the desert is extremely hot and has sprung legends forbidding entry into it. The volcano has been consistently active leading to the expansion of the land around it. The weather is as deeply tied to the geography as the god who created it. Actual time has passed in the world and its land reflects that, even with its fantastical proportions.
From one unified kingdom came three opposing factions - Alarbot, Ovisheem, and Keetherifa - each with their own beliefs and strategies. These factions control the world and were once actively battling to gain power over one another.Â
Alarbot
The Alarbot faction resides in the northwest, in the volcanic region of Phora Surin. They are largely anarchistic, but most honor the requests of their leader Venail. They were originally only devoted to the blood god Tegri but have since started worshipping Larthe as well.Â
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Society is unorganized with scrapped-together houses forming slum-like communities that function remarkably peacefully. Many wander the wasteland that is their territory looking for any invaders, or work on farms and other businesses. Progress is nonexistent with very little being done to improve conditions or innovate with magic.
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Their end goal is to absorb the power of the Ovisheem faction and allow everyone to use magic. This goal was given to Venail by Larthe, whose true goal is to harvest humanity for power so he can kill and absorb Phora and Qualme.
Ovisheem
The Ovisheem faction resides in the center of the continent spanning from the north to the south. They were the original kingdom of Sheeurit which the other two factions spilt out of. They follow a very strict monarchy where the king, Zekroth holds all of the power. Religion is entirely banned within the territory after Zekroth learned of the secret intentions of Larthe.
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Society is organized with towns and cities being protected by the military, and higher value citizens being housed in the cities. Much of the population are farmers, with cities concentrating highly skilled workers into close proximity.
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Their end goal is to maintain the balance in the world, using the Vessel to revitalize Zekroth and continue the stagnation in the world indefinitely. Zekroth is the only person to know this, and he understands the devastation that would ensue should he fail.
Keetherifa
The Keetherifa faction resides in the large desert in the southeast. They are an oligarchy that has 6 leaders, one of which, Iloria, holds a little more power than the others. They worship only Phora, and worship of any other god is considered blasphemous. Â
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Society is highly organized, with the entire citizen population residing in the capital city of Shortsithe. The city provides a high standard of living with social services provided to everyone living within the walls. It survives off of the smuggling and plundering of resources in the Ovisheem territories, carried out by the extremely large military.
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Their end goal is to destroy the magic power bestowed upon Zekroth by using his body as a conduit to magnify Phora's power. In reality, this process will destroy Larthe and additionally cause the extinction of all of humanity, something Phora keeps intentionally hidden from her followers.
There are four religions practiced in Phora Surin. These religions are each centered on a specific god, and have had a great effect on the people and their customs across Phora Surin. The four religions are named Largra, Grafo, Angris, and Tegri.
Largra
Largra is a religion based on Larthe and his heavy association with darkness. It is the second least worshipped religion only being beaten by Angris, and its current followers reside in the Alarbot territories to the northwest.
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It has not shaped culture significantly other than the now vestigial structures of the worship chambers created in some buildings. This type of room is small and completely dark, with a symbol carved into one wall which was thought to bring a worshipper closer to Larthe.Â
Grafo
Grafo is a religion based on Phora and her connection to light and life. It has a very large number of worshippers, the vast majority of whom come from the Keetherifa territories to the southeast.
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Grafo has been a major religion for all of humanity's existence and has been responsible for many cultural changes. Architecture, beliefs, traditions. Grafo brought people together to help one another. It structured buildings around the sun. And it cemented 6 as a holy number, which inspired the base 6 counting system and hexadirectional compass.Â
Angris
Angris is less of a religion and more properly a tradition of duty. It is only worshipped by a group known as the Tuksiot who live deep in the cold mountains in the north.Â
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This religion is all about protecting a divine landmark that the god Qualme created and formally tasked them with protecting. They are highly secretive, going so far as setting traps all along the mountains and communicating only through sign language. The original purpose of Angris has long been lost, and the people roaming the mountains simply are following traditions that date back for generations.
Tegri
Tegri is a religion based on a blood god that does not actually exist. Its worshippers once were spread all across the continent but now are concentrated in the Alarbot territories in the northwest.Â
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Despite the god being nonexistent, this religion has been a significant source of cultural change, so much so that all societies follow some of the traditions originally created when humanity was still divided into small groups. Towers of silence, traditional knives, extensive transportation connections (roads, tunnels, etc.). Arguably, this religion is the most consequential of them all, stemming from the primal worship of blood.