Aelthara is an old continent with older grudges. At its heart lies Aurelia — a federation in name and a quarrel in practice — whose three rival jewels are bookish Angren, lyrical Helikos, and militant Rhomara. To the east the Crescent Dominion keeps its faith and its long memory. To the north the Dawn Kingdoms count their coin. South of the great rivers the Verdant Expanse is half-forest and half-rumour, and beyond the desert the Sunbound Lands worship a sun that has, lately, begun to answer back.
Beneath all of it run the tunnels of the Umbrith — patient, lightless, and increasingly less patient. And above all of it hangs the Equation: the half-remembered architecture by which the first builders of the world are said to have written the laws of resonance, of metal, of mind. Most temples teach that the Equation is a metaphor. A few quietly suspect it is not.
Every three years the three cities of Aurelia gather for the Aurelian Olympics — running, wrestling, recitation, and increasingly elaborate cheating — and pretend, for the duration, that they are one country. It is at the Olympics, in Book II, that the pretence finally fails.
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Map of Aelthara: A World of Wonders
