Chronicles of An Age of Darkness - Setting - Geography

Geography

The novels take place across a number of continents, each with its own distinct history and ethnic groupings of humans.

• Argan. 4,000 years earlier, the Wizards formed an alliance with a race of warriors and set out to enslave a mysterious entity called The Skull of the Deep South, a being that served as the hive mind for an array of dangerous monsters known as the Swarms. However, this failed, and the Swarms proceeded in invade Argan. The Wizards defeated the Swarms and built a flame trench stretching across the narrowest point of the continent (Drangsturm) to keep them out. They then proceeded to form an oppressive Empire, which ruled Argan until they were overthrown and the Empire of Wizards reformed as the Confederation of Wizards (a commercial rather than political entity). Argan during this "Age of Darkness" consists of a patch-work of independent and competing kingdoms, with the trading language of Galish serving as the lingua franca. Argan can be seen as analogous to Western Europe in our world.

• Tameran. Lying north of Argan (separated by a channel), Tameran is largely united under the Collosnon Empire. Once ruled by a sophisticated civilisation called the Sharla, they were conquered by nomadic warriors called Yarglat. Tameran is somewhat similar to our own Central Asia.

• Yestron. Far to the east of Argan and Tameran, across the Great Ocean of Moana, the continent of Yestron is dominated by the Izdimir Empire. The heart of this empire is the land of Ang, a highly civilised culture that nevertheless practices slavery, human sacrifice, and tyrannical absolute rule. Ang itself appears to be modelled upon Japan, although the northern subservient kingdom of Wen Endex bears a strong similarity to Norse-era Scandinavia.

• Parengarenga. Lying midway between Argan and Yestron, Parengareanga is largely desert, vastly underpopulated and extremely poor. Of all the continents, it suffered most from the effects of war.