Ground Fantasy

The world of Ground Fantasy is a high-magic convergence setting where the cosmologies, histories, peoples, and metaphysical laws of multiple fantasy worlds have merged into a single coherent super-world rather than existing as separate planes. Magic is commonplace across most cultures, with variations in how it is channelled, studied, regulated, and weaponised. Technology ranges from medieval to early gunpowder in some regions, with rare magitech constructs and enchanted devices appearing in wealthier or more arcane centres. The landmass is divided into major cultural regions, each carrying intact histories from their native worlds that now influence their neighbours. The Sword Coast region, where the Player begins, contains Baldur’s Gate, Waterdeep, Neverwinter, Candlekeep, and Luskan, forming a commercial and political axis connecting human merchant leagues, arcane guilds, and religious orders. Beyond it lie the Northern Kingdoms and Nilfgaardian Empire of the Witcher’s Continent, still shaped by war, sorcery prohibitions, and the influence of the Eternal Fire and other churches. Further west sits Westeros with its feudal Seven Kingdoms, torn between the Faith of the Seven, the followers of the Old Gods, the Red Priests of R’hllor, and various regional cults, all of which are aware of foreign nations for the first time in recorded memory. To the east are the provinces of Tamriel, each with its own pantheons, guilds, and political tensions, including the Thalmor enforcing their doctrine of elven supremacy, the Imperial Cult in Cyrodiil, and the Daedric faiths that quietly erode borders. South of Tamriel are the lands of Ishgar, including Fiore’s magic guild culture, the Magic Council, and the competing states that treat wizards as both elite labour and instruments of foreign policy. Across the sea sits the Jura Tempest Federation, the Dwarven Kingdom of Dwargon, and the Holy Empire Lubelius, where magicules and monster ecology form the basis of industry, diplomacy, and religion under demon lords treated as living deities. The New World of Overlord is stitched into the continent’s interior, bordered by the Re-Estize Kingdom, Baharuth Empire, and Slane Theocracy, with Nazarick operating as an arcane sovereign state whose unknown patron gods unsettle neighbouring kingdoms. Modern human nations displaced from Earth occupy a fractured coastal region where dungeon Gates and shadow monarch powers appear, bringing new materials, monsters, and guild systems that have been absorbed into the existing Adventurer’s Guild and Witcher schools. Religiously the world is pluralistic and unstable. The Faith of the Seven, Eternal Fire, Imperial Cult, Divines, Daedric cults, Valar traditions, Magic Council doctrines, Cult of the True Dragons, Demon Lord religions, Nazarick’s proto-theology, Celestial Spirit contracts, and Church orders from Earth all operate simultaneously, sometimes sharing worshippers without realising it. There are dozens of factions vying for influence, including merchant cartels from Waterdeep and Novigrad, knightly orders from Westeros and Nilfgaard, the Witcher schools, Adventurer’s Guild branches, Mages Guilds in Tamriel, Fairy Tail-style magic guilds, Nilfgaardian spy networks, the Thalmor diplomatic corps, Slane Theocracy’s Scriptures, Tempest’s foreign delegation, Nazarick’s agents, and modern Hunter Associations. These factions compete over worship, magical regulation, trade routes, monster-hunting rights, arcane research, and territorial sovereignty. The Player begins in Baldur’s Gate, a cosmopolitan port city where foreign sorcerers, kings, witchers, demon lords, and guild wizards can all be found in the same streets. Their starting point is a tavern owned by Old Greg, an ancient vampire lord who survived the Conjunction eras through cunning, political neutrality, and a strict code forbidding violence within his establishment. Baldur’s Gate is one of the very few cities where emissaries from demon lords, Thalmor diplomats, Nilfgaardian agents, Waterdhavian scholars, Witcher alchemists, and Tempest merchants can meet without sparking wars, making the tavern a quiet junction for quests, conspiracies, and power brokers within the Convergence Age.

The World Ground Fantasy of great landmasses and seas where every named region, city and power bloc sits on the same globe and looks outward rather than inward: on Abeir-Toril the main continents of Faerûn, Kara-Tur, Zakhara, Maztica, Osse, Anchorome and other distant lands exist, but Faerûn is the core, with the Sword Coast and Western Heartlands forming a busy western seaboard where Baldur’s Gate, Waterdeep, Neverwinter, Luskan, Candlekeep, Athkatla, Calimport, Iriaebor and Scornubel anchor routes to smaller ports like Daggerford, Nashkel, Beregost, Elturel, Greenest, Triboar, Longsaddle, Red Larch, Phandalin and Leilon; here the Flaming Fist, Harpers, Zhentarim, Lords’ Alliance, Cult of the Dragon, Red Wizards of Thay and thieves’ guilds compete for influence under the eyes of temples to Mystra, Tyr, Lathander, Bane, Cyric, Selûne, Talos and countless local cults. To the north and east, the North and Silver Marches with Silverymoon, Mithral Hall, Citadel Adbar, Citadel Felbarr, Sundabar, Mirabar, Ten-Towns and scattered holds of barbarian Uthgardt tribes and wizard enclaves sit between the Heartlands and Cormyr’s Suzail, Marsember, Arabel and Tilverton, with Sembia’s Selgaunt and Saerloon and the Dalelands of Shadowdale, Mistledale and Cormanthor forest as trade and faith corridors, while far eastern Thay with Eltabbar, Rashemen, Aglarond, Unther, Mulhorand and Thesk blends necromantic Red Wizard rule, old Untheric and Mulhorandi pantheons and standard Faerûnian gods; in the south Calimshan and Calimport, Tethyr, Amn, Halruaa, Chult with Port Nyanzaru and Lantan form an arc of jungle, desert and high magic, each with their own mercantile, arcane and religious factions. Across the sea on Nirn, Tamriel’s nine provinces dominate the continent: Skyrim’s holds of Whiterun, Solitude in Haafingar, Windhelm in Eastmarch, Markarth in the Reach, Riften in the Rift, Falkreath, Dawnstar in the Pale, Morthal in Hjaalmarch and Winterhold surround High Hrothgar, the Throat of the World, Labyrinthian, Blackreach and myriad Dwemer ruins like Mzulft, where Nords honour the Divines, Nordic gods and lingering Dragon cults while Companions, College of Winterhold, Stormcloaks, Imperial Legion and Thalmor vie for loyalty; southward Cyrodiil’s Imperial City sits amid the Colovian Highlands, Nibenay Basin, Gold Coast, Blackwood and Heartlands, with Chorrol, Bruma, Cheydinhal, Skingrad, Anvil, Kvatch, Bravil and Leyawiin forming the backbone of the Imperial Cult and the Mages, Fighters, Thieves Guilds, Dark Brotherhood and Blades remnants, while eastward Morrowind spans Vvardenfell and mainland Morrowind up to Red Mountain, through cities like Vivec or Blacklight, Balmora, Ald’ruhn, Sadrith Mora, Gnisis, Narsis and Mournhold, where Great Houses, Tribunal Temple, Morag Tong, Daedra cults and ancestral faiths manage a fractured politics. West and south, Hammerfell with Sentinel and Rihad, High Rock with Wayrest and Daggerfall, Summerset with Alinor, Valenwood with Elden Root, Elsweyr with Rimmen, Black Marsh with Gideon and Orsinium all hold Redguard gods, Breton syncretic pantheons, Aldmeri divinities, Green Pact, Khajiiti gods, Argonian Hist and Orcish Malacath together under Thalmor pressure, knightly orders and provincial guilds. On the Continent, the Northern Kingdoms form a cold war chessboard: Temeria’s Vizima and Maribor, Redania’s Tretogor, Oxenfurt and Novigrad, Kaedwen’s Ard Carraigh and Ban Ard, Aedirn’s Vengerberg and its Upper and Lower territories, Lyria and Rivia with their twin cities, the Skellige Isles with Kaer Trolde, Kaer Muire and hard-weather villages, and Cintra’s coastal capital and ports all cluster around the Nilfgaardian Empire to the south, whose capital Nilfgaard city rules provinces like Metinna, Vicovaro, Nazair, Maecht and Mag Turga; beyond lie Toussaint’s Beauclair in its wine duchy, Kovir and Poviss with Lan Exeter, and ruins like Loc Muinne where cults of Melitele, Kreve, the Eternal Fire, Lebioda, druidic groves, Witcher schools of the Wolf, Cat, Bear, Viper and others, Nilfgaardian legions, Redanian secret service, Scoia’tael, Lodge of Sorceresses, Skellige jarls and the Church of the Eternal Fire struggle to adapt to foreign gods and magic. Westeros stretches as a long island continent with the North’s Winterfell, White Harbor, Last Hearth, Karhold, Deepwood Motte and Barrowton under Old Gods and some Faith of the Seven, the Riverlands’ Riverrun, Harrenhal, Fairmarket and the Twins, the Vale’s Eyrie and Gulltown, the Westerlands’ Casterly Rock, Lannisport, Crakehall and Ashemark, the Reach’s Highgarden, Oldtown and Bitterbridge, the Stormlands’ Storm’s End, Dorne’s Sunspear, Sandstone and Planky Town, the Crownlands’ King’s Landing, Dragonstone, Rosby and Duskendale, and the Iron Islands’ Pyke, Great Wyk and Old Wyk under the Drowned God, all ruled by Great Houses, the Faith of the Seven, the Faith Militant, red priests of R’hllor, the Night’s Watch along the Wall, the Brotherhood Without Banners and foreign agents from Essos; across the Narrow Sea Essos hosts the Free Cities of Braavos, Pentos, Myr, Lys, Tyrosh, Norvos, Qohor, Volantis and Lorath, Slaver’s Bay or Bay of Dragons with Meereen, Yunkai and Astapor, the great trading city of Qarth, the Dothraki Sea with Vaes Dothrak, and southern lands like Mantarys, New Ghis and Elyria, while even more distant Sothoryos, Ulthos and the Summer Islands act as exotic ends of the map, all threaded by the Many-faced God in Braavos, R’hllor’s cult in Volantis and Asshai, merchant families, the Second Sons, Golden Company, Unsullied phalanxes, Dothraki khalasars and slave masters. Middle-earth occupies another ancient continent where Gondor’s Minas Tirith, Osgiliath, Dol Amroth and Pelargir guard the south, Rohan’s Edoras and Helm’s Deep secure the plains, Mordor’s Barad-dûr if rebuilt, Minas Morgul, Cirith Ungol, Gorgoroth and Mount Doom brood in the east, Arnor’s lost realms of Fornost and Annúminas leave ruins near Bree, the Shire’s Hobbiton, Bywater and Michel Delving lie in gentle hills, elven realms like Rivendell, Lothlórien, Grey Havens and the Mirkwood woodland realm sit in ancient forests, and dwarven strongholds Moria or Khazad-dûm, Erebor, the Iron Hills and Blue Mountains dot the mountains, with Fangorn Forest, Isengard and Orthanc, Dol Guldur and the Dead Marshes as haunted frontiers where Gondor, Rohan, elven courts, dwarf kings, scattered orc and goblin hosts and the quiet reverence of Eru and the Valar shape politics and pilgrimage toward the distant unseen shores of Valinor. On Ishgar the mage-saturated continent of the Fairy Tail world, Fiore with its capital Crocus, Magnolia Town as the home of Fairy Tail, Hargeon as a busy port, Era as Magic Council headquarters and the various towns housing guilds like Blue Pegasus, Sabertooth, Lamia Scale and Mermaid Heel stands among other nations such as Bosco, Seven, Minstrel, Bellum and Pergrande, while across the sea the Alvarez Empire with its capital Vistarion and many imperial cities supports the Spriggan 12 and imperial army, all in a culture where loosely organised spirit beliefs, dragon reverence, the Magic Council, legal guilds, dark guilds and Alvarez spies bleed into foreign ports like Baldur’s Gate and Waterdeep. Inland, the Jura Tempest block sits like a great forested basin, with the Jura Forest, goblin villages, lizardman marsh-lands, ogre and oni communities and the growing capital of Rimuru City forming the Jura Tempest Federation, ringed by the Kingdom of Falmuth or Farmus, Engrassia, the Holy Empire Lubelius, Ingracia, the mountain kingdom of Dwargon and smaller states; there, Western Holy Church branches and Lubelius’s zealots clash with emergent cults around Rimuru and powerful Demon Lords, while Tempest’s bureaucrats, demon lord envoys, merchant guilds and adventurers’ guilds try to model coexistence between monsters and humans. Between Tempest, Faerûn’s inland and the Continent, the New World plateau carries Re-Estize Kingdom with its capital Re-Estize and frontier city E-Rantel, the Baharuth Empire with its central imperial city and provinces, the theocratic domains of the Slane Theocracy and the Roble Holy Kingdom, all overshadowed by the Great Tomb of Nazarick, a colossal subterranean fortress either anchored beneath the land or able to shift, housing Ainz Ooal Gown and his Floor Guardians; local faiths blend the Six Gods and Eight Greed Kings with imported deities and new Ainz cults, while national armies, the Theocracy’s Scriptures and E-Rantel’s adventurer guild chapters try and fail to contain Nazarick’s quiet expansion. Acting as an eastern buffer between Tamriel’s coasts and the Tempest–Fiore belt, the Spirit Chronicles kingdoms of Beltram and Galwark with their capitals and noble territories stand alongside spirit folk villages and hidden realms tied to ancient contracts, and the Yagumo Region with its eastern-influenced towns and warrior orders; spirit worship, ancestor veneration and local gods are the primary religions, with factions built from royal houses, spirit cults, knightly orders and academies. Along one edge of the super-continent modern Earth has been grafted in, with cities like Seoul, Tokyo, Beijing, New York, London, Paris and Moscow surrounded by gate districts and dungeon zones, where the Hunter Association, guild towers and global hunter guilds respond to Gates that now appear not only on Earth but near Baldur’s Gate, Novigrad, Whiterun, King’s Landing and other foreign cities, bringing Monarchs, Rulers and their agents into contact with priests, mages and demon lords from older worlds and giving rise to new religious movements around Hunters and transcendent beings. Lastly, a cursed inland region bordering Nilfgaard and the Northern Kingdoms holds Wallachia and its neighbours, where church-centric towns and villages live in the shadow of Dracula’s Castle, a shifting fortress whose halls and towers slip between planes; here an analogue Church with holy orders, relics and inquisitions contends with the Belmont clan, Speakers, Church forces, vampire courts and demon hosts, linking all undead and vampiric phenomena in the world so that necromancers from Faerûn, liches from Nazarick, White Walkers, wights, draugr and other undead horrors are subtly influenced by the tides of power that flow through this land, while sea routes and portals tie everything back to Baldur’s Gate and the wider Sword Coast, making Old Greg’s ancient tavern one of the few places on the planet where emissaries from almost every region, religion and faction can sit within earshot of one another without immediately drawing steel.

Ground Fantasy is an ethnically and culturally dense world because every major civilisation from its component settings continues to exist rather than being absorbed or replaced. Races keep their native traits, histories, religions, languages and grievances, but proximity forces negotiation, trade, colonisation, religious competition and hybridisation. Below is a breakdown of all peoples by origin, their homelands, political blocs, religious alignments and factional behaviour, along with inter-racial attitudes that shape diplomacy and conflict. HUMAN PEOPLES Humans are the most geographically widespread and politically diverse species in Ground Fantasy. They occupy Faerûn, Kara-Tur, Zakhara and Maztica on Abeir-Toril; all of Tamriel in city-states and empires; the Northern Kingdoms, Nilfgaard and Skellige on the Continent; Westeros, Essos, Sothoryos and Summer Islands; Middle-earth’s Gondor, Rohan, Arnor ruins and Bree-lands; Ishgar’s Fiore and neighbouring mage-nations; Tempest’s human states such as Falmuth, Engrassia, Lubelius and Ingracia; New World kingdoms like Re-Estize and Baharuth; Spirit Chronicles’ Beltram, Galwark and Yagumo; modern Earth’s megacities; and the church-dominated lands of Wallachia. Religiously they range from polytheistic Faerûnian worship, Imperial Cult of the Divines, Eternal Fire cults, Old Gods and Faith of the Seven, Valar reverence, Magic Council regulation, Church crusader theology, and Tempest civil religion, to modern Earth religions and new cults around Hunters, Monarchs and Demon Lords. Human factions include merchant guilds, knightly orders, witch hunter corps, mage guilds, church militias, secret services, adventurer guild branches, noble houses, imperial bureaucracies, pirate fleets, mercenary companies and scholarly colleges. Humans compete among themselves more than with any external race, making them the geopolitical baseline of Ground Fantasy. ELF PEOPLES Three major elven lineages coexist without being the same species: the elven kindreds of Middle-earth (Noldor, Sindar, Silvan), the mer races of Tamriel (Altmer, Bosmer, Dunmer), and the high-fantasy elves of Faerûn and Ishgar (sun elves, moon elves, wood elves). All consider themselves ancient but disagree on who is truly firstborn. Middle-earth elves keep enclaves in Rivendell, Lothlórien and the Grey Havens, maintaining reverence for Eru and the Valar and avoiding overt politics. Tamriel’s Altmer in Summerset maintain the Thalmor’s supremacist agenda and worship their Aldmeri pantheon, aggressively exporting ideology to humans and rival mer. Bosmer of Valenwood hold to the Green Pact and avoid waste of living wood, making them uneasy with industrial regions. Dunmer of Morrowind follow fragmented Tribunal traditions, Daedric cults and ancestral worship, with Great Houses and Morag Tong shaping law and culture. Faerûnian elves dwell in forests like Cormanthor and Silverymoon, blending druidic circles, arcane colleges and Seldarine worship. Some have begun entering mage guilds in Fiore and Tamrielic arcane academies, while others serve as diplomats to human courts. Interracially, elves and humans trade knowledge but clash over faith, lifespan, resource claims and magical regulation. Scoia’tael from the Continent form militant elven paramilitary bands opposed to human dominion, drawing ideological support from Dunmer and some isolationist Altmer. DWARF AND ORC-ADJACENT PEOPLES Dwarves, orcs and related races form a metal-and-war cluster across Ground Fantasy. Middle-earth dwarves inhabit Erebor, Moria, the Iron Hills and Blue Mountains, honouring Durin’s line and valuing craft, stone and oath. Faerûnian dwarves of Mithral Hall, Citadel Adbar and Felbarr operate clanholds tied to Moradin and other forge gods through guilds, alliances and trade in enchanted weapons. Below them sit Tamriel’s Orsimer in Orsinium and strongholds across Wrothgar, who honour Malacath, practice strict codes of honour and warfare and function as a distinct culture from Tolkien dwarves despite similar metallurgy. Orcs of Middle-earth remain tribal, militaristic and often dominated by dark overlords or warlords, while Faerûn’s orcs occupy the Spine of the World and other frontier regions, oscillating between tribes, warbands and hybrid societies. On the Continent nonhuman dwarves and gnomes sit in Novigrad and Mahakam as master craftsmen and bankers, often oppressed by Eternal Fire zealotry and human prejudice. In Westeros, Essos and Fiore dwarves are rare but present as migrant guildsmiths drawn to new economies. Relations between dwarf-kind and orc-kind vary: Orsimer often negotiate trade, while Tolkien and Faerûnian dwarves hold ancestral grudges against many orc lineages. Tempest’s ogres and oni join this cluster as warrior-noble races aligned with Rimuru, reshaping racial politics through federated coexistence. BEASTKIN, DEMI-HUMANS AND MONSTER-ALIGNED RACES This category encompasses lizardmen, goblins, demi-humans, beastfolk, catfolk, foxfolk, lamia, minotaur, tengu, harpies and similar races sourced mainly from Tensura, Spirit Chronicles, Faerûn, Kara-Tur and Ishgar. Tempest hosts lizardmen marsh-kingdoms, goblin city-states and oni clans and is the political centrepiece for monster rights, diplomacy and coexistence. Spirit folk villages and Yagumo settlements house foxfolk and tengu with spirit-religion and ancestral cults and martial academies. On Faerûn catfolk, tabaxi, lizardfolk and kenku form market enclaves and mercenary companies. Ishgar’s guild cities host beastfolk mages, dragon slayers and magically mutated races that register legally under the Magic Council. These races often form mixed-species caravans, mercenary bands and adventurer parties. Religions vary widely: spirit worship, druidism, demon lord veneration, elemental patrons, beast totems, ancestral courts and Celestial contracts. Their presence has forced human and elven courts to define new laws classifying “monster sapients” versus “hostile monsters”, creating diplomatic conflicts especially with Nilfgaard, Stormcloak-aligned Skyrim and Eternal Fire-ruled Novigrad. DRAGON PEOPLES Dragon biology splinters into five major types: true dragons from Tensura’s lineage (Veldora and his kin), dovah from Tamriel, ancient solitary wyrms from Middle-earth, chromatic and metallic dragons from Faerûn, and Fairy Tail’s dragonkind that communicate with and empower dragon slayers. These do not share a unified empire but exist as apex polities with overlapping territories and divine-scale metaphysics. Religions tied to dragons include Tamrielic dragon cult remnants, draconic cults in Fiore, chromatic and metallic dragon gods in Faerûn, Tensura’s demon-lord aligned dragons, and cults in Essos that associate dragons with fire and royalty. Territorial claims often overlap around mountains, volcanoes, ley lines and planar rifts, producing three-way conflicts between dragons, dwarves and human city-states. Dragon respect hierarchies create complex diplomacy, and many courts now employ dragon slayers, Thu’um practitioners, mages or witches as deterrents. UNDEAD, VAMPIRES AND OTHER CURSED PEOPLES Undead in Ground Fantasy include liches, vampires, revenants, wights, draugr, ghosts, banshees and cursed spirits. Nazarick’s undead aristocracy forms a sovereign undead civilisation with its own laws, guilds and command structures. Castlevania’s Wallachian vampires and Dracula’s court rule territories through feudal vampiric overlordship and church-resistant nobility. The New World hosts undead knightly orders, while Faerûn’s necromancer enclaves and Thay’s Red Wizards employ undead as labour and military. Skyrim hosts draugr tombs tied to ancient dragon cults, while Westeros fields wights and Others beyond the Wall as an existential threat. Religions treat undead variously: Eternal Fire and the Faith of the Seven declare them abominations, the Church in Wallachia calls for purges, while Daedric cults, Thay, Nazarick and various demon lords regard undeath as a legitimate state of being. Vampires integrate into cities where legal frameworks allow it, such as Baldur’s Gate under Old Greg’s treaties. Cultural conflict arises over necromantic rights, corpse ownership, temple sanctity and battlefield reanimation laws. GIANTKIN, OGRES AND TITANIC RACES Giant races from D&D, Elder Scrolls ogres, Middle-earth trolls and tensura’s titan and ogre clans occupy mountains, forests and marches. These peoples form clanholds, warbands, mercenary companies or court servitors depending on their lineage. Religions include elemental giant pantheons, Malacath for ogres and demon lord cults. Territorial disputes with dwarves and dragons are common, while mercenary demand from human nations makes some giantkin wealthy auxiliary forces in wars. DEMONS, DAEDRA, DEVILS AND CELESTIAL RACES Infernal and divine entities coexist as nonhuman civilisations. Demon Lords from Tensura rule territories as sovereign powers, Nazarick fields infernal entities as officers, D&D demons and devils inhabit planar strongholds, Daedric Princes maintain cults and shrines, while celestials from Faerûn and Tamriel serve divine pantheons. These beings compete for worship, contracts, mortal souls, strategic resources and political leverage. Churches, the Vigilants of Stendarr, Slane Theocracy, Eternal Fire, Faith of the Seven, Nilfgaard’s imperial cult, the Imperial Cult of the Divines and various paladin orders define legal boundaries for summoning, contract magic and demonology. Mortal religions often classify these entities differently, causing theological disputes. SPIRITS, FEY, HIST-BORN AND CELESTIAL CONTRACT RACES Spirit folk from Spirit Chronicles, Hist-attuned Argonians, fey creatures from Faerûn and Summerset, Celestial Spirits from Fiore and nature spirits from Tempest form the metaphysical ecology of Ground Fantasy. They inhabit forests, rivers, ancient groves, spirit shrines and planar nodes, and interact with mortals through contracts, blessings, curses and guardianship. Religions tied to them include druidic circles, Green Pact, Celestial Spirit contracts, Yagumo ancestral cults and Hist reverence. These beings shape agriculture, magical herbalism, spirit-healing traditions and monster pacification efforts. RELATIONS, TERRITORY AND CONFLICT Ground Fantasy’s racial politics revolve around four tensions: territorial sovereignty between old racial homelands, religious competition between pantheons, economic regulation of magic and monster labour, and legal integration of nonhuman and undead citizens. Humans dominate diplomacy but cannot control global religious diversity, elves attempt cultural arbitration, dwarves police metallurgy and weapon trade, Tempest lobbies for monster rights, Nazarick pushes recognition of undead sovereignty, and the Faiths of the Seven, Eternal Fire, Slane Theocracy and Thalmor attempt doctrinal hegemony. Baldur’s Gate is one of the few cities where envoys of every race can sit at the same table without immediate warfare, which is why Old Greg’s tavern is now regarded as a neutral racial congress of Ground Fantasy.

Ground Fantasy is held together by a thin web of treaties, trade pacts, church truces and monster-rights agreements, none of which are universally respected. The world’s current age is defined by concurrent political, religious, economic and planar crises that overlap rather than remaining isolated, creating constant opportunities for adventurers, mercenaries, hunters, witchers, guild-mages and undead or monster envoys. Below is a comprehensive overview of the major tensions and catalysts across regions, religions and factions. THE CONVERGENCE DISPUTE The foundational crisis of Ground Fantasy is the Convergence itself: multiple worlds were compressed into one map, but no single empire, pantheon or cultural bloc possessed the legitimacy to dictate the post-convergence order. This left major power clusters defined not by geography alone but by metaphysics: Faerûnian pantheons, Divines and Daedric Princes, Eternal Fire, Faith of the Seven, Valar reverence, Church christendom, Tempest’s demon lord courts, Nazarick’s divine-undead theocracy, Celestial Spirit cosmologies, Ruler and Monarch hierarchies and modern Earth religions. Each group claims authority over souls, magic regulation, afterlife access and historical narrative. Political conflict arises as churches declare rival gods demonic, demon lords assert sovereign rulership, Nazarick demands recognition of undead personhood, and Tempest campaigns for monster civil rights. Adventurers are drawn into theological investigations, holy wars, diplomatic espionage and planar arbitration. THE NORTH AND THE DEAD FRONT A cold continental arc connects the far north of Westeros, Skyrim, the Continent’s winter regions and the New World frontier. Here undead factions, white walkers, draugr, frost elementals, necromancers and Monarch armies threaten the living. Wallachia funnels additional vampiric and demonic pressure southward. The Night’s Watch, Vigilants of Stendarr, Eternal Fire templars, Witcher schools, Stormcloak militias and adventurer guild companies defend choke points while churches from multiple faiths argue over jurisdiction. Artifacts from Dunmer tombs, Oblivion realms, Gondorian crypts and Faerûnian barrows feed the necromantic economy, drawing treasure hunters, liches and inquisitors into the same corridors of influence. THE FAITH WARS The arrival of competing religions created overlapping crusade theatres. The Slane Theocracy and Eternal Fire claim divine monopoly and seek to outlaw arcane sorcery, witchcraft and nonhuman worship. The Faith of the Seven looks to expand through diplomatic mission and marriage alliances. R’hllor’s priests fan embers in Essos and Westeros, performing miracles that unsettle both the Eternal Fire and Divines. The Thalmor attempt religious-cultural unification under Aldmeri supremacy. Nilfgaard employs religion as imperial legitimacy. The Imperial Cult promotes the Divines, clashing with Daedric cultists and Tribunal remnants. Nazarick cultivates proto-worship of Ainz among human populations in the New World. Demon Lords of Tempest and other courts emerge as living gods among monster races. Celestial Spirit cults in Fiore operate as contractual religion. Churches on modern Earth grapple with Hunters developing divine-class abilities. Crusades, inquisitions, holy courts, relic hunts and theological diplomacy generate constant conflict and adventurer contracts. THE TRADE WAR TRIANGLE The most profitable conflict is economic rather than religious. Three blocs compete to control magical commodity chains, teleportation networks, magical guild regulation, enchanted weapon markets, monster labour contracts and dungeon spoils. The Baldur’s Gate–Waterdeep–Novigrad axis represents merchant oligarchies and mage guilds. The King’s Landing–Braavos–Volantis–Qarth axis represents aristocracy, slave interests, banking and exotic arcana. The Tempest–Dwargon–Nazarick axis represents monster labour, undead labour, dungeon resource extraction and manufactured magical goods. Beneath these blocs stand secondary players such as Nilfgaard, the Northern Kingdoms, the Empire of Cyrodiil, Fiore’s Magic Council and the Baharuth Empire. Economic treaties collapse routinely, piracy thrives, guild assassinations and industrial sabotage flourish, and trade wars escalate into military conflicts over ports and ley line junctions. THE PLANAR CONTROL CRISIS Planar gates, Oblivion portals, dungeon gates, Celestial contracts, Daedric realms, demon lord citadels and shadow monarch incursions compete to define the metaphysical map. Faerûn’s mages want arcane regulation, Tamriel’s Mages Guild wants licensing, Nilfgaard wants weaponisation, Nazarick wants monopoly, Tempest wants open access and Fiore’s Magic Council wants guild arbitration. Daedric Princes meddle, Rulers and Monarchs intervene, Demon Lords expand and churches attempt to shut planar borders entirely. Adventurers make fortunes retrieving artifacts, closing rifts, escorting planar envoys, or sabotaging rival planes. THE EMPIRE AND FEDERATION QUESTION Several powers share an imperial inclination but cannot coexist peacefully. Nilfgaard wants continental unification through vassalage and civil law. Nazarick wants imperial dominion via undead sovereignty and divine recognition. The Empire of Cyrodiil wants restoration of ancient Imperial prestige. Westeros seeks continental stability under a viable throne. Tempest wants a federation where monsters and humans coexist. Alvarez wants mage empire hegemony. Baharuth and Re-Estize struggle to survive between larger blocs. These ambitions force diplomatic marriages, spy networks, political hostages, magical armament races, escalation pacts and secret alliances. THE MAGE REGULATION SCHISM Arcane power is distributed unevenly. Faerûnian and Tamrielic wizardry, Fiore guild magic, Nilfgaard sorcery, Eternal Fire arcane prohibition, Witcher mutations, Thu’um shouts, Daedric blessings, Nazarick tear-magic, Tempest magicules, Celestial Spirits, modern Hunter awakenings and dragon-slaying arts all operate on incompatible regulatory frameworks. States argue over licensing, education, spell weaponisation, magical taxation and forbidden arts. Mage kidnappings, research embargoes, spell smuggling, arcane espionage and court-mage defections are common adventure hooks. THE MONSTER RIGHTS AND MONSTER HUNTER CONFLICT Tempest advocates for sapient monsters, demon lords and nonhuman species to be recognised as citizens. Eternal Fire, Slane Theocracy and many Westerosi houses reject this. Witcher schools treat monsters as contracts, not citizens. Adventurer guilds classify monsters by threat tiers. Nilfgaard sees utility in monster legions, while Baldur’s Gate and Waterdeep debate integration. Nazarick supports undead rights as a parallel cause. This contest exposes adventurers to moral dilemmas: hunt or negotiate, purge or integrate, cure or coexist. LOCALIZED REGIONAL FLASHPOINTS Each major region suffers distinctive crises. On the Continent Nilfgaardian expansion threatens Northern Kingdom sovereignty and religious independence. In Westeros the Iron Throne lacks legitimacy and succession disputes invite foreign intervention. In Tamriel Thalmor cultural colonisation conflicts with Nord nationalism and Imperial centralism. In Middle-earth old dark strongholds become high-level dungeons contested by adventurers, orcs and dark remnants. In Ishgar guild rivalries become proxy wars for foreign intelligence services. In the New World Nazarick’s diplomacy oscillates between annihilation and protectorate building. In Wallachia the Church wages an anti-undead crusade, which spills into Faerûn and the Continent. On Earth Gates produce dungeon economies, spawning guild towers, awakened mercenaries, hunter aristocracy and Monarch insurgencies. OPPORTUNITIES FOR ADVENTURE Ground Fantasy provides constant openings for mercenary companies, adventurer parties, guild chapters and witcher bands: relic hunts, crusades, trade wars, monster ecology disputes, succession crises, planar negotiations, mage defection rescues, dungeon gate clearances, border skirmishes, inquisitorial investigations, diplomatic escort missions, regicide plots, artifact smuggling, hunter guild tournaments, undead manifestos, demon court diplomacy, dragon tribute expeditions and treaty enforcement. Old Greg’s tavern in Baldur’s Gate functions as a neutral recruitment hub because every faction requires deniable assets to fight in conflicts they cannot openly declare.

Magic and religion in Ground Fantasy are built on a single underlying truth: all power flows from the same world-soul, but every culture has learned to cut and shape it in different ways, then wrapped those methods in their own gods, laws, and factions. Scholars call the raw substance of power mana, magicka, Weave, ethernano, magicules, holy grace, divine light, shadow essence or dragon force, but it is the same current expressed through different traditions. Three things matter: where the power is drawn from (ambient energy in the world, the caster’s own soul and body, or a pact with something higher), what rules a region enforces on its use, and which deities or great beings claim to own it. Across Faerûn and the Baldur’s Gate sphere, magic is structured and named. The common theory of the Weave recognises eight main ways of shaping power: warding and banishing, calling and teleportation, revealing and foresight, charming and compulsion, pure destructive force, deception and shadow, life and death, and the reshaping of matter, motion and form. Learned casters study these as formal schools under city-sanctioned orders in Waterdeep, Neverwinter and Baldur’s Gate, or as more secretive traditions under the Zhentarim, Red Wizards and cult cabals. Divine casters draw from gods that personify aspects of fate, justice, light, death, storms, nature, craft, knowledge, order, war and trickery. Each temple teaches its own prayers and miracle-forms, but all agree their power is modulated through the Weave by Mystra. Pact-workers in Faerûn cut side deals with archfiends, archfey, ancient dragons, forbidden stars or forgotten spirits, trading service and offerings for specialised bindings that let them twist reality in ways learned circles consider unsafe. The Harpers, Lords’ Alliance, Flaming Fist, thieves’ guilds, adventurers’ guilds and merchant houses all hire mages and miracle-workers, and their internal rules about resurrection, necromancy, summoning and planar travel often matter more on the street than divine moral codes. Baldur’s Gate itself is a knot of overlapping faiths – shrines to Lathander, Tyr, Selûne, Bane, Cyric and many others – and arcane circles, all of whom have to tolerate Old Greg’s laws inside his tavern: no spells cast in anger and no summoning circles carved into his floors. On Tamriel, magic is divided more plainly into types of effect rather than moral alignment. Power is drawn from a reservoir of magicka in every living thing, replenished from Aetherius and shaped by will. The five great colleges of spellwork in the Empire and in Skyrim describe streams of practice that roughly match what other worlds call elemental destruction, bodily and spiritual restoration, alteration of the physical world, manipulation of fear, courage and perception, and the calling and binding of spirits and dead alike. In addition there is thaumaturgy that covers miracles and feats that slip between categories, time manipulation guarded jealously by an ancient order, and the Voice, a way of shaping the world by binding meaning, breath and power into spoken shouts. The Divines of the Imperial Cult grant blessings that amplify these workings and protect those who use them in their name, while Daedric Princes grant darker versions of the same arts through shrines and bargains, giving access to deeper soul binding, transformations and chaos at the cost of service or corruption. The Thalmor seek to monopolise and politically control high elven spellcraft, outlawing certain practices, while organisations like the Mages Guild, College of Winterhold and Psijic Order study cross-world theories and incorporate Faerûnian spell-taxonomy and even Nazarick tier-structures into their classification systems. The Vigilants of Stendarr, Imperial Cult, Daedric cults, Dunmer Temple remnants and countless local faiths argue constantly over whether necromancy, soul trapping, pocket realm travel and Daedric contracts are lawful, heretical or acceptable tools. On the Continent, magic is powerful but distrusted. Sorcerers and sorceresses in kingdoms such as Temeria and Redania use a flexible system that blends elemental shaping, weather control, illusion, mind-working, teleportation, curses and bodily alteration, but most of their workings require preparation, diagrams, rare components and concentration. The Eternal Fire, a militant faith rooted in Novigrad and spreading outward, condemns this entire tradition as blasphemous, tolerating only strictly regulated blessings and alchemical concoctions that fit its doctrine. Witchers, altered by brutal ritual and potion-borne mutation, wield a stripped-down set of battle signs that harness elemental and protective principles in fast, simple forms suitable for monster-hunting, alongside alchemy that pushes the edge of what the human body can endure. Blood mages twist life force directly, often drawing the attention of gods, demons or something worse. Druid circles in Skellige and the great forests follow older spirit and nature magics closer to the traditions of Spirit Chronicles and Valar reverence, and they find common ground with foreign druids and shamans from Faerûn and Tamriel. Political factions such as Nilfgaard’s court mages and secret police, Redania’s secret service, the Lodge of Sorceresses and the Church of the Eternal Fire all use magic as an arm of policy: nobles view spellcasters as weapons, scapegoats or tools. In Westeros and Essos, the world resisted magic for an age, then burst open under the strain of dragons, prophecy and foreign gods arriving from other lands. Fire priests of a red god work miracles of flame, sight, resurrection and shadow-binding when conditions are favourable, their power waxing near great fires, dragon presence or certain stars. Faceless assassins turn death into a sacrament and shadow, hiding their workings in anonymity, shape-shifting and the deliberate forgetting of true names. Skinchangers in the North and wildling lands merge consciousness with beasts, trees and even ancient stones, practicing a form of spirit and nature magic that is closer to Old Gods worship and druidic arts than court wizardry. Alchemists in King’s Landing refine wildfire and plant-based poisons that straddle the line between science and sorcery. Across the sea, slaver cities and free ports harbour blood sorcerers, cursed stoneworkers and glass candles that carry sight across the seas. The Faith of the Seven denies most of this as unnatural, but its own septons perform smaller blessings, protections and healings that closely resemble low-order divine magic known elsewhere, suggesting a quiet Weave or world-soul connection under their doctrine. With the Convergence, foreign witches, clerics and mages brought their own methods, and now braziers in R’hllor temples burn beside imported shrines to foreign gods, while Essos mercenaries hire Faerûnian wizards and Tamrielic battle-mages as siege specialists. Middle-earth’s magic remains the most conservative. Elves, Istari and ancient beings weave power into song, light, water and names. Rather than categorising spells, they embed meaning into crafted items, spoken poems and long preparations. Elven high magic can ward forests, conceal cities, preserve memory and resist corruption, while dwarven runes strengthen gates, blades and vaults. Necromancers tied to ancient shadow dominate lesser spirits and raise dead, but even their art feels more like authority and will than a list of incantations. The peoples of Middle-earth rarely invoke gods directly; instead they live under a quiet awareness of the Valar and a single high creator, and regard foreign clerics and their pantheons with wary curiosity. With the rise of Ground Fantasy’s broader world, elven and dwarven artisans have begun to translate their songs and runes into symbols that Faerûnian and Tamrielic enchanters can understand, resulting in hybrid items that carry both Weave-bound spells and older, deeper inscriptions. Many adventurers now travel to old keeps in Gondor, ruined towers in Arnor, fallen dwarf-halls and broken fortresses in Mordor, hunting for artifacts that predate any formal spell school. In Ishgar and Fiore, magic is seen as profession and identity. Every citizen has a potential reservoir of ethernano that can be trained into specialised forms. Elemental arts, body reinforcement, speed, healing, disassembly of matter, illusion, transformation, sound-shaping, rewriting of memories and the construction of barriers and territory fields are all recognised categories. Some mages have bloodlines or training that let them consume and wield the power of dragons, gods or demons, turning themselves into living weapons. Summoners form contracts with stellar and otherworldly spirits, trading keys, offerings and loyalty for the ability to call them down. There are forms of magic so rare or dangerous that they are labelled lost, such as rewriting reality, manipulating time or creating anything imagined. The Magic Council, guilds and Alvarez imperial authorities decide what sorts of magic may be practised publicly, what is banned, and what is reserved for state or military use. Their guild-licensing culture has begun to influence Faerûnian adventurers’ guilds, Baldur’s Gate and even some sections of the Hunter Association, introducing the idea of guild branding and legal spell categories into other lands. Tempest and the larger Tensura sphere treat magic and divine power as part of a spectrum that includes racial traits, monster biology and skills as concrete entities. Every sapient being has a network of skills, some basic, some rare and unusual, a precious few ultimate and near-divine. Magicules saturate the environment, and beings like demon lords, true dragons and certain champions reshape these particles into skills that can eat others, evolve or combine. In political and religious terms, demon lords and true dragons are functionally deities: they can bless, curse, reshape terrain, grant protection or destroy cities with high-level skills. Churches rooted in older human traditions clash with these realities, declaring monster skills demonic and heretical, while the Tempest Federation argues that skills are simply another form of magic and should be judged by usage, not origin. This framework has begun to interact with Nazarick’s tier magic and Faerûnian spellcasting, producing a combined theory where spells are considered structured skills and skills are considered highly personalised spells. Nazarick’s New World magic is one of the most rigidly stratified. Tier magic is divided into ascending circles of power, each associated with increasingly rare and dangerous effects. Beyond the highest tiers lie super-tier workings and composite rituals that can reshape landscapes or summon world-shaking phenomena. Alongside this stands wild magic, older and less structured, tied to ancient souls and dragonkind, and martial arts that allow warriors to force ki or aura into techniques that mimic or counter spells. Nazarick treats magic philosophically as code, written into reality by an unseen game-like framework. Its internal theology encourages the idea that Ainz and the Supreme Beings stand above gods and can rewrite rules directly. The Slane Theocracy, an aggressively theocratic power in the same region, has its own divine magic and ancient heritage that intersects with this, and their priests argue bitterly with Nazarick’s scholars over whose miracles are truly divine. Adventurers in the New World now regularly compare Faerûnian spell levels, Nazarick tier counts and Tempest skill ranks when measuring power. Spirit Chronicles’ lands emphasise magic as relationship rather than raw force. Spirits of elements, winds, rivers, mountains and abstract concepts exist as thinking beings that can consent to lend their power. Practitioners cultivate bonds with them via contracts, rituals, vows and offerings, and in doing so gain the ability to channel elemental streams, blessings, resistances and martial enhancements. Royal academies and warrior orders teach structured ways of calling on spirits in battle, in healing and in everyday tasks like weather control or farming. Ancestor veneration is woven into this: many households and clans honour the dead with shrines and believe that spirits carry messages and protection from earlier generations. Foreign divine casters recognise echoes of their own gods in these practices, and Faerûnian druids, Tamrielic Green Pact adherents, Valar-reverent elves and Old Gods worshippers find they can cooperate readily with spirit mages. On Earth and in the Gate-riddled districts influenced by Solo Leveling, magic appears through awakenings. Individuals exposed to gate mana or latent potential undergo transformations that unlock unique sets of active and passive abilities. These range from direct combat powers and healing to summoning, shadow commanding, control of elements, psychological manipulation and spatial distortion. A parallel hierarchy of near-divine beings, Rulers and Monarchs, stands above them, using gates and dungeons as tools in their cosmic war. Human religions from Earth struggle to integrate this reality, while new cults around Hunters, Monarchs and Rulers appear in cities like Seoul, London, New York and now in Baldur’s Gate and Novigrad as guild towers expand abroad. The Hunter Association and guilds regulate the practical side of this, assigning ranks, licensing dungeon raids and settling disputes between awakened individuals and local authorities. In Wallachia and Castlevania’s cursed lands, magic is rooted in the soul and in blood. Vampires reshape mortal vitae into unlife, gaining abilities linked to strength, speed, transformation, control of lesser creatures, manipulation of night and the forging of bonded weapons. Dark sorcerers and forge-masters craft cursed weapons, animated constructs and living armours by binding souls and infernal energy into matter. The Church struggles to contain this with exorcisms, relics, blessings and holy rites aimed at binding or banishing demonic forces. Believers in distant lands recognise parallels between Wallachian Church miracles, Eternal Fire rites, Faith of the Seven blessings and Imperial Cult rituals, but doctrinal jealousies prevent cooperation. Nonetheless, vampire courts, Belmont hunters and church exorcists all find themselves drawn to foreign undead threats arising from Nazarick, White Walkers, barrows in Faerûn and draugr crypts in Skyrim, turning the region into a training ground and proving ground for anti-undead strategies across the world. Threaded through all of this, Old Greg’s tavern in Baldur’s Gate stands as the one place where mages, priests, pact-binders, hunters, spirit shamans, demon lords’ emissaries, dragon-descended slayers, witchers, vampire nobles and guild wizards can sit at surrounding tables, sign contracts and exchange theories without immediately burning the building down. In Ground Fantasy, magic is not simply a tool; it is the shared language by which gods, nations and factions argue over what reality should be, and religion is the set of stories each of them tells to justify why their way of using it is the only way the world ought to work.

Planar interaction is one of the defining characteristics of Ground Fantasy. Before the Convergence, each constituent world had its own hierarchy of realms, afterlives, spirit domains, infernal courts, celestial heavens and extradimensional spaces. When the worlds fused, their planar cosmologies did not collapse into one another so much as nest, overlap and bleed. The result is a multilayered structure in which multiple afterlives, heavens, hells, spirit courts, daedric realms, demon lord citadels, shadow dimensions and ancestral lands coexist and influence the Material World directly. Different cultures interpret this through the lens of their religion; different factions see these domains either as threats, opportunities, laboratories or holy territories. THE MATERIAL WORLD AS COMMON GROUND Ground Fantasy’s central world (the Material) is a vast planet with merged continents from Faerûn, Tamriel, the Continent, Westeros, Ishgar, Tempest, the New World, Earth city-zones and regions like Wallachia. This Material plane acts as a battleground and marketplace where planar forces recruit worshippers, trade, negotiate treaties, conduct experiments, manifest avatars or wage proxy wars through mortals, churches and guilds. The Material is unusually porous. Gates, rifts, shrines, contract circles and divine invocations allow two-way traffic. Even areas once closed, such as Middle-earth’s Valinor or Tamriel’s Aetherius, now exert faint influences through emissaries or relic events. THE CELESTIAL STACK: HEAVENS, DIVINES AND UPLIFTED SOUL DOMAINS Above the Material lie realms associated with law, order, divinity or cosmic judgement. Faerûn’s celestial heavens and lawful good planes coexist alongside Ishgar’s Celestial Spirit World where summoned beings reside, Tamriel’s Aetherius and the realms of the Divines, Solo Leveling’s Ruler domains and niches in the world-soul where souls of certain heroic or sanctified beings go. Churches that teach salvation or righteous afterlife often assume their heaven is the only true one, but field reports from adventurers and spirit mages suggest multiple such heavens are real. Different factions court influence here. Paladin orders, Lathanderite clergy, Slane Theocracy celestials, Celestial Spirit summoners, Imperial Cult priests and certain monastic traditions work to align the Material with their heaven’s laws. Inter-faith conflict occurs when one faction claims exclusive access to ascension rites, resurrection pathways or saintly canonisation. Summoners in Fiore observe that Celestial Spirits behave very differently from Divines of Tamriel or Faerûnian gods; some scholars propose Spirits are localized manifestations of the same world-soul filtered through symbolic keys and constellations. THE INFERNAL AND DEMONIC REALMS Below the Material sit the many hells, demon realms and infernal courts. In Faerûnian cosmology, devils and demons maintain separate hierarchies and war for territory; in Tensura, Demon Lords govern massive militarised territories and treat infernal power as a civil right; Tamriel has Daedric Princes ruling Oblivion realms whose power exceeds that of mortal demon lords; Nazarick’s Floor Guardians maintain pocket-planes engineered for defense, torture or training; and Castlevania’s demons and vampire courts treat the infernal as both spiritual homeland and logistical pipeline for weapons, blood and souls. Religions respond differently. The Eternal Fire and Faith of the Seven declare these realms absolute evil. Slane Theocracy sees demon lords as divine rivals. Daedric cults, dark guilds, demonologist warlocks, vampire aristocracies and Tempest envoys treat these realms as normal political actors. Summoners sometimes bargain directly, while Witchers, paladins and holy knights hunt emissaries. Diplomatic missions between Tempest and Faustian demon cities coexist alongside inquisitions burning summoners in Novigrad and crusaders purging vampire courts in Wallachia. THE OUTER SHADOWS AND NECROSPHERES Several worlds contain death planes and shadow realms. Westeros has the cold beyond the Wall where Others command the dead. Elder Scrolls has the Soul Cairn and other necrospheres tied to soul binding. Faerûn has Hades-like planes where spirits linger before judgement. Nazarick wields necromantic sovereignty that blurs the line between true undeath and soul theft. Castlevania holds cursed citadels that bleed into the Material at night. Solo Leveling contains the Shadow Realm where Monarchs rule an army of the dead. These realms interact with the Material through resurrection rites, necromancy, shadow gates, blood oaths, lich ascensions and battlefield soul-harvesting. Churches dispute ownership of souls. Eternal Fire claims souls belong solely to its god. Faith of the Seven claims the Stranger receives the dead. R’hllor claims souls burn or revive under fire. Imperial Cult claims the Divines judge destiny. Nazarick claims undead sovereignty grants them legal possession. Tempest argues sapient undead count as citizens. These disputes lead to conflicts over necromancy licensing, funeral rites, soul contracts and afterlife rights. ELEMENTAL AND SPIRITUAL PLANES Spirit Chronicles, Fairy Tail, druidic orders, Khajiiti and Bosmeri traditions, Hist-tied Argonians, Old Gods worshippers and certain elven courts maintain connections to elemental and nature planes. These realms are embodiments of fire, water, wind, earth, metal, forest, storm or dream. They are not hells or heavens but ecosystems with their own populations. Tempest’s lizardmen and oni claim ancestral links to such realms. Bosmer Green Pact druids treat the Material’s forests as reflections of spirit forests. Celestial Spirit World is adjacent to this taxonomy but structured through keys and zodiac symbolism. Spirit priests, druids, dryad courts and summoners negotiate treaties with these realms regarding weather, growth, fertility, seasonal cycles, monster migrations and disaster mitigation. Some kingdoms pay spirit tithes rather than tribute to gods or demon lords. THE PLANAR TECHNOLOGY FRONTIER Certain factions do not worship planar realms; they exploit them economically, militarily or scientifically: Dwemer ruins contain pocket dimensions and tonal manipulation engines Wizard guilds rent teleportation circles as infrastructure Dungeon gates on Earth extract mana, monster parts and artifacts Nilfgaard researches spirit-forges for war machines Waterdeep experiments with planar shipping lanes Nazarick builds artificial pocket realms for training and storage Tempest evolves magicule reactors for industry Witcher schools harvest planar monsters for alchemy Braavosi bankers insure expeditions to non-material realms The planar frontier is profitable but contested. Nations and guilds fight over planar anchors, gate rights, portal taxation, soul tolls and extradimensional territories. PLANAR DIPLOMACY AND HOLY TREATIES The Convergence forced churches, demon lords, dragon courts, celestial spirits, and undead sovereigns to negotiate recognition. While no one universal treaty exists, several agreements shape current stability: The Baldur’s Gate Non-Aggression Compact forbids planar combat within city walls. The Fiore Summoning Accords regulate Celestial Spirit contracts across borders. Tempest’s Monster Rights Doctrine asserts demon and monster personhood. The Slane Manifesto denies monstrosity and undead citizenship and rejects demon sovereignty. The Wallachian Edict grants the Church authority to hunt infernal corruption in designated regions. The Imperial Concordat in Cyrodiil limits Daedric interference in mortal politics. The Free Ports Covenant in Novigrad and Qarth allows trade with planar creatures under mercantile law. Nazarick refuses all external regulation but respects diplomatic immunity for emissaries. WHICH FACTIONS BENEFIT FROM PLANES Beneficiaries include: Mages Guilds and Academies (knowledge and research) Merchant Cartels (trade goods and planar extraction) Hunter Associations (dungeon raids and gate clearances) Adventurer Guilds (contracts and dungeon spoils) Demon Lord Courts (recruitment and worship) Daedric Cults (power exchange) Churches (afterlife leverage and miracles) Vampire Courts (soul sourcing) Undead Sovereignties (reanimation rights) Dragon Courts (cosmic authority) Noble Houses (alliances and patronage) Banks and Moneylenders (insurance and trade financing) WHICH FACTIONS RESIST PLANES Resistors include: Eternal Fire (anti-sorcery purists) Faith of the Seven fundamentalists (fear of demons and resurrection) certain Nilfgaard factions (imperial centralisation) Witch-hunting orders (law and purity) some Stormcloak clans (cultural xenophobia) peasant coalitions (material concern over monster incursions) city councils fearing adventurer guild overreach

In Ground Fantasy the world did not begin with the Convergence. Each component setting carried its own deep timeline, mythic cycles and long-dead empires. When these histories merged, scholars rewrote history into shared eras so that humans, elves, dwarves, spirits, dragons, gods, demon lords and undead sovereignties could speak about the past using common chronological language. The result is a unified timeline with many overlapping ruins, lost cultures and ancient technologies scattered across the continents. THE PRIMORDIAL AGE The earliest period concerns creation and the ordering of the cosmos. Tamriel records the formation of Mundus and the sacrifice of Aedra. Middle-earth speaks of the Music of the Ainur and the shaping of Arda by the Valar. Faerûnian myth credits forgotten creator gods and elemental titans. Tensura teaches of ancient true dragons. Daedric texts describe realms existing before mortal time. Ruler-Monarch cosmology asserts cosmic war predating the Material. These mythic narratives contradict one another but artifacts belonging to each survive. Relics of true dragons, Valar-touched stones, Aedric shards and divine script are found in places where academies and churches assume no mortal civilization existed. No major religions agree on which cosmology is canonical. Theological conflict over this era underpins modern church rivalry. THE TITAN AND WARLORD AGE The second age saw colossal beings, proto-gods, titans, dragonkind, daemon princes and high spirits rule sections of the world. In Faerûn this is remembered through giant empires and creator races. Middle-earth preserves stories of dragons and balrogs. Tamriel tells of Ehlnofey, wandering spirits and the time before mortality. Tensura records ancient demon lords and dragon courts. Nazarick’s lore refers to wild magic sovereigns. Many ruins from this period lie buried under mountains, deserts and deep rifts. These ruins are not simple dungeons but planar anchor sites. Spirit mages and scholars warn that some remain active, linking to elemental realms or infernal citadels. Modern kingdoms mine such ruins for arcane metals, relic scripts and dragon graves. Dragon cults, demon worshipers and druidic orders fight to protect sites they consider sacred. THE FIRST MORTAL CIVILIZATION AGE The third age saw the rise of mortal empires as giants, dragons and high spirits retreated or declined. Middle-earth had Numenor, Arnor and Gondor’s early line. Tamriel had the Merethic Era of elves and the founding of Dwemer and Chimer civilizations. Faerûn had Netheril, Imaskar and other archwizard realms. The Continent produced pre-Conjunction cultures whose remnants are seen in monoliths and ancient runic stones. Pressure from these civilizations forged the first divine contracts. Gods took interest in mortals. Demon lords experimented with bargains. Daedric Princes offered power. Celestial Spirits formed covenants. Churches date their earliest scriptures to this era. Archaeological ruins from this age include flying cities, black stone sky-anchors, ancient soul forges, Dwemer tonal machines, gate-rings and proto-dungeons beneath the Material crust. Many factions attempt to reverse-engineer these devices. Tempest researchers, Waterdeep artificers, Nilfgaardian engineers and Dwargon smiths race to decode technologies that predate modern schools of magic. THE GREAT CONJUNCTIONS AGE The fourth age is marked by violent planar breaches, mass migrations, divine wars and cataclysms. The Continent identifies this as the Conjunction of the Spheres when monsters, humans and magic collided. Faerûn recalls the Time of Troubles when gods walked the world and the Weave was contested. Tamriel remembers the Oblivion Crisis. Middle-earth speaks of the wars against Sauron. Ishgar knows an age of dragon wars and Alvarez’s golden imperial era. Tensura notes demon lord ascensions. Solo Leveling notes the first dungeon gates and Monarch wars. At least five religions claim their gods won decisive victories during this age. Aftermath studies indicate simultaneous planar alignments caused multiple realms to bleed into one another long before the full Convergence. Ruins from this era include destroyed capitals, planar gates, divine battlefields turned into cursed zones and sealed vaults guarded by spirits or liches. Modern adventurers frequently enter such ruins for artifacts, leading to clashes between guilds, churches and national armies attempting to claim them. THE HEROIC INTERVENTION AGE The fifth age centers on legendary individuals whose actions reshaped continents. Examples include the defeat of Alduin, the rise and fall of Nilfgaardian campaigns, the War of the Ring, the Dragonborn’s restoration of Skyrim, the Witcher’s role in Northern wars, the defeat of Alvarez’s top powers, the rise of Tempest, the defense of Re-Estize against Nazarick, and the Shadow Monarch awakening. In most regions cultures record this age as the era of champions, saints, sorceresses, dragon slayers, witchers, demon lords, kings and hunters who changed the fate of nations. Ruins from this era exist not because the civilizations collapsed but because battlefields, towers, fortresses and lab complexes were abandoned after victory. Guilds hunt relics from these sites for prestige and research. Churches canonize some figures and declare others heretical. Nations claim lineage from heroes to justify succession and conquest. THE PRE-CONVERGENCE SHADOW AGE Before worlds fully merged, scholars, mages and priests recorded anomalies: dragons on foreign continents, strange monsters arriving in forests, mysterious ruins, unknown religions appearing in cities and prophecies that referred to places no one had mapped. Witchers saw monsters no bestiary recognized. Tamrielic scholars glimpsed planar gates not tied to Oblivion. Daedric cults claimed contact with foreign demon lords. Faerûnian adventurers fought undead that did not belong to their necromantic traditions. Essosi merchants heard rumors of Tempest to the far south. Modern historians believe slow planar bleed-through began decades before the final merge. Secret societies prepared for it. The Eternal Fire attempted purges against foreigners. Thalmor tried to suppress dimensional knowledge. Hunter Associations began cataloguing cross-world monster classes. THE CONVERGENCE AGE (CURRENT ERA) The present age begins when all worlds finally occupy the same Material. Geography fused, planar cosmologies stacked, religions collided, pantheons bled together, factions met face to face and no single metaphysical authority could impose order. Magic became global. Gates became common. Resurrection rites became politically contested. Undead sovereignty and monster rights emerged as legal questions. Demon lords began diplomatic relations. Hunter guilds opened branches abroad. Adventurer guilds unified classification standards. Churches issued contradictory doctrines. Empires began claiming foreign territories. Vampire courts negotiated with nation-states. Celestial Spirits demanded recognition as sovereign allies rather than tools. Dragon courts considered the world newly worthy of their attention. Old Greg’s tavern in Baldur’s Gate became the unofficial neutral congress of the Convergence Age. LEGACIES THAT REMAIN Several categories of ruins, technologies, scriptures and artifacts dominate the landscape: Ancient Cities and Empires Netheril sky cities, Dwemer cities, Numenorean ruins, Arnorian keeps, Old Valyria, Elven sanctuaries, Dragon ruins from Ishgar, Demon Lord citadels and forgotten kingdoms on the Continent. Divine and Planar Battlefields Sites where gods, daedra, demon lords, spirits or dragons fought. These zones warp magic, destroy equipment, corrupt souls or fuel new cults. Spell Engines and Tonal Machines Dwemer mechanisms, Faerûnian myth-engines, Nazarian ritual chambers, Tempest magicule reactors, Spirit resonance pylons and Ruler-Monarch gateways. Relic Vaults and Tombs Tombs of Istari, demon lord vaults, lich sanctuaries, hunter mausoleums, sorceress archives, Valar-touched burial grounds, Daedric shrines and sky temples. Scriptural Libraries and Forbidden Codices Candlekeep records Netheril spellwork, Nilfgaard hoards scrolls from mages, Waterdeep houses planar tomes, the College of Winterhold studies Oblivion gates, Vengerberg schools store sorcery treatises, Fiore guilds host catalogs of Lost Magic, Tempest archives record skill evolution, Nazarick keeps divine construction manuals and Wallachia houses vampire grimoires. AFTERMATH FOR RELIGION AND FACTIONS Religions claim lineage from certain ages. The Faith of the Seven claims a golden age of order. The Eternal Fire claims an age of purging heresy. The Imperial Cult claims an age of divinely guided empire. Demon Lords claim an age of sovereign rule before mortals interfered. Daedric Princes claim they predate all mortal ages. Valar reverence claims creation itself. Nazarick insists divine rule has returned through the Supreme Beings. Tempest teaches coexistence and evolution. Spirit temples teach cyclical ages. Hunter cults teach that power determines destiny. Each institution seeks to rewrite history to legitimize current policy. Nations and guilds meanwhile treat ruins as resources. Empires send armies to claim artifacts. Merchant guilds hire adventurers for salvage rights. Necromancers and liches resurrect old powers. Demon lords resurrect dead cities. Dragon courts guard ancient hoards. Vampire courts claim ancestral holdings. Witcher schools and Hunter guilds turn fallen empires into training grounds. Scholars map timelines to justify territorial claims.

Economy in Ground Fantasy operates on three overlapping layers: material trade of food, metal, goods and labour; magical trade of spells, monster parts, enchantments and soul-anchored items; and religious trade of blessings, relics, indulgences, funerary rights and afterlife insurance. Every region participates in all three to different degrees. After the Convergence, all currencies were unified under a single monetary standard called Crowns, but denominations, minting rights, metal content and exchange values differ by city, state, church and planar authority. To compensate, banking houses, guild merchants and mage colleges created a Crown Exchange Ledger that tracks value for accounting. This allowed Baldur’s Gate, Waterdeep, Novigrad, Braavos, Qarth, Cyrodiil, Nilfgaard and Tempest to trade without collapsing into barter. MONETARY AUTHORITY AND CURRENCY LAW The term Crowns refers to every minted or recorded unit of exchange. Each sovereign territory still mints its own Crown series with different purity and weight. Crowns minted in Waterdeep use gold-silver electrum alloy with stamped guild seals. Baldur’s Gate uses copper-bronze for small transactions and silver-gold for larger. Nilfgaard issues imperial Crowns with controlled purity and legal tender law. Novigrad, as a merchant republic, issues Crowns backed by commercial paper. Cyrodiil issues Crowns tied to taxation and grain tribute. Fiore backs Crowns with guild debt notes and arcane contracts. Tempest issues Crowns backed by monster labour output and magicule reserves. Nazarick refuses to mint in mortal metals and instead issues Crown-certificates backed by artifact stockpiles and magical labour, which hold high value in arcane markets. Slane Theocracy issues temple Crowns backed by relic vaults and tithes. Braavos operates a Crown bank system backed by deposit reserves. Hunters on Earth receive Crown credit linked to dungeon clearances. Castlevania’s vampiric aristocracy uses blood-tithe certificates as parallel instruments convertible into Crowns at predetermined rates. Conflicts arise when factions dispute whose Crown is strongest. Most cities adopt a floating exchange governed by banks and guilds. TRADE ROUTES ACROSS LAND Caravan routes bind the continents. From Baldur’s Gate, roads stretch north to Waterdeep, Neverwinter, Luskan and the Ten Towns through merchant houses and dwarven caravans. Eastbound roads lead into the Heartlands, Cormyr, Sembia, Dalelands and eventually reach the New World plateau where Re-Estize, Baharuth and Slane Theocracy maintain customs stations that tax caravans. Further east roads enter Beltram, Galwark and the Yagumo region where spirit temples levy tolls for safe passage through forests. Southbound roads carry caravans to Amn, Calimshan, Chult and eventually Ishgar, where guild cities and Magic Council ports facilitate arcane commodities. Rougher inland caravan routes run through Tempest and Dwargon where monster escorts guard caravans. Nilfgaard and Northern Kingdoms meet via the Great Northern Road which continues through Redania, Novigrad and into Skellige’s coastal docks by ship transfer. TRADE ROUTES ACROSS SEA Oceans form the largest economic arteries. From the Sword Coast ships sail to Skellige, Novigrad, King’s Landing, Braavos, Pentos and Qarth. From Nilfgaard and Volantis ships cross to Fiore’s capitals, the Alvarez Empire and onward to the Tempest Coast. Braavos runs banking ships that insure cargo. Qarth trades in exotic silks, slaves, alchemical reagents and soul-bottled goods. Skellige trades furs, fish, salt and monster trophies. Southern seas connect to Old Valyria ruins, Ishgar guild ports and Faerûn’s southern cities. Adventurers frequently accompany shipping convoys due to monster attacks, sea curses, dragon sightings and dimensional anomalies. MAGICAL TRADE AND ARCANIST MARKETS Magic is the most profitable sector. Cities like Waterdeep, Winterhold, Novigrad, Vizima, Crocus, Rimuru City, Nazarick’s capital wing, Imperial City and Wallachia maintain arcane exchanges where spells, scrolls, spellbooks, magical reagents, enchanted gear, dungeon cores, magicules, artifacts, relics, soul jars, spirit contracts and monster remains are bought with Crowns. Mage guilds regulate licensing. Certain churches oppose magical trade. Eternal Fire attempts to ban dangerous magic entirely. Faith of the Seven taxes resurrection services. Imperial Cult charges pilgrimage tariffs for relic use. Daedric cults trade contracts that allow access to Oblivion realms. Demon Lord courts exchange ultimate skill scrolls for political alliances. Celestial Spirit summoners sell long-term binding contracts to noble houses, effectively leasing planar beings as household assets. Hunter Associations auction dungeon loot and mana crystals harvested from Gates. ECONOMICS OF RELIGION AND SOUL MARKETS Churches function as economic powers. Eternal Fire controls purification services, funerary rites and legal courts in Novigrad. Faith of the Seven controls marriages, inheritance law and legitimisation. R’hllor temples sell prophecy, fire-miracles and resurrection as services. Imperial Cult offers blessings tied to military campaigns. Slane Theocracy controls relic hoards and sells miracle access to allied nobles. Orthodox Wallachian Church sells indulgences for protection against undead. Daedric cults exchange power for shrines, sacrifices and contracts. Nazarick and Tempest treat souls and skills as high-value assets. Some factions treat resurrection as taxable and restrict who can return from death. Disputes over afterlife ownership affect economics: necromancy becomes property theft under certain legal codes, and spirit-binding becomes contract law under spirit temples. MONSTER AND UNDEAD LABOR ECONOMIES Monsters, undead and spirits are now recognized labour categories in several nations. Tempest leads the monster labour economy: goblins, lizardmen, oni and hobgoblins work in construction, manufacturing, security and resource extraction. Nazarick uses undead for mining, agriculture and war logistics, making it economically self-sufficient. Dwargon sells dwarven-built machinery powered by magicule engines. Witcher schools and Hunter guilds provide monster parts for alchemy, potions, explosives and spell reagents. Vampire courts trade in night labour and blood tithe. Dragon courts demand tribute rather than pay wages. Guilds and churches argue over whether undead and monsters depress wages or violate the dignity of mortal labour. Tempest argues citizenship solves this. Eternal Fire argues it destroys society. Economist mages in Waterdeep argue it drives industrial growth. Merchant houses in Braavos remain neutral but insure monster labour operations for profit. SLAVE ECONOMIES AND ANTI-SLAVERY BLOC Some factions maintain slavery. Nilfgaard uses slaves for war logistics. Essos slave cities use them for agriculture and luxury production. Alvarez once used magical servitude. Demon lords sometimes bind mortals through pact chains rather than shackles. Vampire courts use blood tithe. The anti-slavery bloc includes Tempest, Fiore, Waterdeep, Baldur’s Gate merchant houses, certain humanist churches and hunter guilds. They enforce anti-slave laws on sea routes using privateers and mercenary companies. Braavos supports anti-slave efforts through banking leverage. This conflict produces naval battles, assassinations, smuggling and political coups. GUILDS AND THE GLOBAL ECONOMY Guilds are the backbone of the economy. Adventurer guilds handle dangerous contract work. Hunter Associations handle dungeon exploitation. Mage guilds regulate arcane education and spell trade. Alchemist guilds control potion markets. Spirit temples regulate elemental contracts. Artisan guilds control craft sectors. Church guilds control miracles, funerals and afterlife services. Demon Lord courts regulate monster citizenship and magicule extraction. All guilds use Crowns for wages and contracts. Some guilds mint their own Crown-backed credit certificates accepted internationally. BANKING, CREDIT AND INSURANCE Banking houses emerged to stabilise the Crown system. Braavos, Novigrad, Waterdeep and Cyrodiil host major banks. Nilfgaard hosts imperial banks. Tempest hosts monster banking networks backed by magicule reserves. Nazarick hosts artifact vaults with Crown-denominated credit. Banks issue letters of credit, insurance packages for caravans and resurrection insurance for adventurers. Households take loans for marriage, funerals and guild fees. Churches sell spiritual insurance. Hunter guilds sell life insurance for dangerous raids. Merchant league protection contracts insure caravans against pirates, undead, demons and dragons. TAXATION AND TITHES Nations tax land, trade, magic, resurrection, monster contracts and planar commerce. Churches collect tithes, indulgences and ritual fees. Guilds take commission cuts. Demon lords collect tribute. Dragon courts demand offerings. Hunter guilds tax dungeon take. Vampire courts collect blood tithe or Crown equivalent. Slane Theocracy taxes relic use. Braavos taxes banking transactions. Tempest taxes magicule industries. Waterdeep taxes spell licensing. King’s Landing taxes maritime commerce. Cyrodiil taxes grain and pilgrim flow. Nilfgaard taxes conquered territories. CONFLICT SOURCES Economic disputes lead to conflict in several arenas: who controls dungeon resources, who owns monster labour, which religion controls resurrection, which banks set Crown value, which ships carry slaves, who taxes arcane trade, who licenses summoners, who writes contracts for planar beings, which courts determine afterlife debt and inheritance, which nations mint the strongest Crown, and which guilds hold monopoly over magic.

Law in Ground Fantasy is not unified. Every region, church, guild and empire enforces its own understanding of crime, justice, authority, sovereignty and legitimacy. Because the Material world now hosts mortals, monsters, undead, spirits, planar envoys, divine champions and living deities, the law often has to decide who counts as a person, who may hold land, who may testify in court, who may be resurrected, and who may summon or command beings from other realms. Justice is therefore both legal and theological. Adventurers exist at the intersection of law, religion, commerce and warfare, and societies tolerate or despise them according to their economic value and political danger. SOVEREIGN CIVIL LAW Nation-states enforce civil codes for taxation, property, inheritance, execution and military conscription. Nilfgaard maintains rigid imperial law with magistrates and inquisitors who treat sorcery as administrative function and outlaw unlicensed planar pacts. Cyrodiil employs magistrates, legion tribunals, guild courts and the Imperial Cult for divine arbitration. Faerûn employs city charters and merchant law in Waterdeep, Baldur’s Gate and Amn, using nobles and magistrates to settle disputes and guilds to enforce contract law. Novigrad and Redania use a hybrid between Eternal Fire clerical courts and noble privilege, where sorceresses are regulated by witch-hunts rather than civil due process. Re-Estize, Baharuth and Slane Theocracy use kingdom law but bend it to theocratic doctrine, treating undead and demons as enemies of the state. Falmuth, Engrassia, Lubelius and Tempest use mixed legal codes, with Tempest experimenting with monster personhood, mixed citizenship and arbitration for interspecies crimes. Fiore and Ishgar use guild law for magical crimes and royal law for mundane crimes. Westeros and Essos rely on feudal justice, trial by ordeal, trial by combat, clerical testimony or royal decree. Middle-earth uses oath law, feudal law, dwarven contract law and elven covenant law. Earth megacities rely on Hunter Association law for dungeon incidents and modern courts for mundane disputes. CITY AND MERCHANT LAW Cities operate as semi-sovereign legal entities. Baldur’s Gate is famous for merchant law enforced by the Flaming Fist and guild consortium tribunals. Waterdeep enforces an entire code regulating adventurers, spellcasting, undead presence, magical duels, guild licenses, resurrection rights and foreign emissaries. Qarth enforces contract law via merchant priesthoods. Braavos enforces banking law and ship insurance. Novigrad enforces Eternal Fire doctrine on sorcery and undead. Cyrodiil enforces guild licensing for magic. King’s Landing enforces maritime tolls, noble privileges and Faith corruption courts. Fortified cities often treat planar incidents as commercial events, taxing summoners, charging adventurer guilds for dungeon clearances and leasing resurrection rights to temples. RELIGIOUS LAW AND ECCLESIASTICAL COURTS Religion is one of the strongest legal institutions. The Eternal Fire conducts witch-trials, heresy trials, execution by pyre, confiscation of magical goods and censorship of arcane texts. The Faith of the Seven conducts marriage, legitimacy, inheritance and confession courts; it also arbitrates disputes between noble houses. R’hllor’s temples conduct sacrificial courts for prophecy and resurrection disputes. The Imperial Cult adjudicates disputes between Daedric cults and legion magistrates. Daedric cults in Morrowind and Valenwood run temple law where gods serve as ultimate judges. Churches on Earth conduct exorcism courts for gate-related corruption. Slane Theocracy conducts relic courts that determine whether artifacts are holy or heretical. Wallachian Church conducts anti-undead crusade law, licensing vampire hunts. Fiore’s Magic Council uses ecclesiastical legal theory for Lost Magic, curses and reality-altering spells. Demon Lords operate divine courts for monster and demon disputes, with rulings enforced through demonic pact law. Nazarick does not submit to any mortal faith but enforces its own divine law internally for all who swear allegiance. GUILD AND CORPORATE LAW Guilds have immense legal power. Adventurers’ guilds classify monsters, issue licenses, handle bounties, collect taxes on loot, pay death benefits and settle contractual disputes. Hunter Associations run tribunals for awakened individuals, determine dungeon clearances, regulate artifact sales and negotiate with governments to avoid conscription of powerful hunters. Mage guilds regulate spell usage, spell research, magical accidents and inter-mage duels. Alchemist guilds regulate potions, poisons and transformation brews. Merchant league guilds regulate tariffs, shipping, caravans and mercantile courts. Dwarven craft and artisan guilds enforce strict apprenticeship contracts, forge secrets and artifact trade laws. Spirit temples and summoner guilds regulate planar contracts, spirit adoption, elemental holdings and breach compensation. Banks in Braavos, Waterdeep and Novigrad operate financial courts that override national law during insolvency or war. MONSTER AND UNDEAD LEGAL STATUS Monster and undead legal codes differ wildly by nation. Tempest recognises monsters, demons and certain undead as citizens with full rights. Waterdeep recognizes undead personhood for certain intelligent cases but bans mindless undead. Baldur’s Gate and Fiore grant conditional licenses for undead labour and monster labour. Eternal Fire bans all monster personhood and demands extermination. Slane Theocracy bans all monster rights and considers undead a theological enemy. Nilfgaard sees utility and uses them under military contract. Cyrodiil allows Daedric summons and bound spirits under guild supervision. Wallachia allows vampire nobility to rule under certain blood tithe conditions, but church courts contest their legitimacy. Dragon courts ignore mortal law entirely and operate on tribute, dominance and oaths. This fragmentation means a vampire noble may be a recognised citizen in Wallachia, a heretic in Novigrad, a monster ally in Tempest and contraband in Baldur’s Gate if unlicensed. PLANAR AND DIVINE LEGALITY Planar beings are treated as foreign nationals. Celestial Spirits operate under contract law in Ishgar and require summoner licenses. Daedric Princes are considered foreign sovereigns by the Imperial Cult but demonic invaders by the Eternal Fire. Demon lords hold embassy-like presence in Tempest but are banned outright in Slane Theocracy. Monarchs and Rulers from the Gate cosmology are considered sovereign cosmic entities and cannot be lawfully judged by mortal courts. Churches argue over treaty rights for souls, afterlife, resurrection, necromancy and funerary ritual. These disputes often spark wars between churches, guilds and demon lord courts. HOW SOCIETIES VIEW ADVENTURERS Adventurers occupy a legally ambiguous niche. On one hand they supply essential services: dungeon clearing, monster extermination, planar sealing, artifact retrieval, escorting caravans, hunting undead, negotiating with spirits and slaying dragons. On the other hand they bring instability: spell duels, tavern destruction, demon summonings, unpaid debts, political assassinations and unregulated magic. Regional attitudes vary: Faerûn treats adventurers as professionals. Licenses exist, guilds regulate them and nobles sponsor them. Waterdeep treats them much like mercenary contractors and enforces strict magical conduct laws. Baldur’s Gate views them as deniable military assets and contracts with them through merchant houses. Novigrad views them with suspicion if they work magic, and Eternal Fire trials are common. Skellige respects them as warriors. Redania uses them as informants. Nilfgaard employs them as imperial auxiliaries. Witcher schools are viewed as necessary but distrusted. Northern Kingdoms underpay them and Eternal Fire persecutes them. Fiore sees adventurers as guild mages and heroes. Guild fame acts as social currency. Tempest employs adventurers directly, combining them with monster militia. Nazarick studies them and recruits or annihilates them based on usefulness. Slane Theocracy hunts them if they oppose doctrine. Imperial Cyrodiil licenses adventurers and treats them as free mercenaries with legal rights. Westeros tolerates adventurers but treats them as sellswords unless tied to noble houses. Essos city-states employ them as elite shock troops. Middle-earth depends on them during crisis but prefers them integrated into king’s retinues. Wallachia hires them as vampire hunters under church oversight. Earth megacities treat adventurers as hunters with ranked licensing and insurance policies. RELATION BETWEEN ADVENTURERS AND RELIGION Churches see adventurers as tools, threats or tithing sources. Faith of the Seven sells blessings and legitimisation. Eternal Fire demands obedience or extermination. R’hllor offers power and resurrection for devotion. Divines treat adventurers as mortal instruments. Demon Lords recruit adventurers as champions. Daedric Princes tempt them with artifacts. Spirit temples send them on quest obligations. Vampire courts hire or turn them. Hunter Associations use them for expansion.

Monsters and villains in Ground Fantasy do not belong to a single category. Some are natural predators born from the Material world, others are planar invaders, others are divine or infernal sovereigns, others are the results of ancient civilizations tampering with the world-soul, and others are mortals who accumulated enough power to become geopolitical threats. Every region and religion interprets its own enemies differently, and factions often weaponise these interpretations to justify crusades, campaigns, experiments or recruitment. Below is a structured overview of the hostile forces that threaten the world on scales ranging from local to cosmic. NATURAL AND MATERIAL MONSTER SPECIES Ground Fantasy hosts entire taxonomic families of monsters that inhabit forests, mountains, swamps, oceans, deserts and ruins. These include griffons, wyverns, trolls, ogres, harpies, basilisks, wyverns, leviathans, chimeras, drakes, elementals, giant insects, giant arachnids, monstrous plants, ash beasts, altered wolves, cursed boars, undead remnants and magical fauna whose anatomy still confounds guild scholars. Witcher schools classify them by ecology and threat class. Hunter Associations classify them by dungeon rank and mana saturation. Adventurer guilds classify them by contract tier. Tempest classifies them by magicule density and sapience. Eternal Fire classifies them all as abominations. Some monster species can become sapient under skill evolution or spirit blessing, turning them into citizens in Tempest or allied races in Fiore. Religious responses differ. Druids view them as part of natural ecology. Churches see them as divine punishment or heresy. Empires see them as resources or weapons. CURSED AND UNDEAD ENTITIES Undeath manifests in multiple traditions. Faerûn has liches, death knights, vampires, zombies, wights, ghosts and phylactery-bound sovereigns. Tamriel has draugr, bonewalkers, revenants and soul-locked spirits. Westeros has Others and wights. Castlevania has vampire lords, forge-crafted undead, animated armours and grimoires bound to souls. Nazarick uses intelligent undead as officers. Shadow Monarchs in the Gate cosmology use shadow undead as armies. Religion is sharply divided here. Eternal Fire demands extermination. Faith of the Seven declares them unnatural but inconsistent in suppression. Imperial Cult accepts necromancy under guild regulation. Slane Theocracy treats undead as divine enemies. Wallachian Church wages specialized crusades against vampires and demons. Tempest recognises sapient undead as citizens. Nazarick declares undead sovereignty and demands diplomatic recognition. Middle-earth treats undead as cursed remnants of old oaths. Dwarves mistrust undead regardless of type. Adventurers profit from undead extermination contracts and tomb raids. PLANAR AND DEMONIC POWERS Infernal threats come from multiple cosmologies. Faerûn has the Blood War between devils and demons bleeding into the Material. Tamriel has Daedric Princes who desire worship, influence and mortal souls. Tensura has Demon Lords whose presence can rewrite ecosystems. Castlevania has infernal legions under vampire courts. Nazarick has demons bound to tiers of magic. Faceless cults in Essos occasionally invoke shadow entities. Some Daedric Princes feed on ambition, others on madness, others on knowledge, others on battle. Demon Lords seek territory and recognition as sovereigns. Devils seek contracts and souls. Churches vary in response. Eternal Fire declares all planar beings heretical. Faith of the Seven forbids worship outside the Seven. Imperial Cult forbids Daedra interference but negotiates quietly. R’hllor sees them as rivals. Spirit temples categorize them as high-tier spirits. Demon Lord courts see Daedra as hostile competitors. Adventurers either hunt them, bargain with them or join cults that form around them. DRAGONKIND Dragons occupy a unique threat tier. Middle-earth hosts ancient fire dragons and drakes who slumber upon hoards and emerge during ages of hunger. Tamriel hosts dov with their shouts tied to the world’s language. Faerûn hosts chromatic and metallic dragons with ancient enmities and kingdoms. Ishgar hosts dragon slayers, dragon gods and dragons who waged wars against humans. Tensura hosts true dragons, apex beings whose existence borders divine. Dragon cults form across continents. Some worship dragons as gods. Others hunt them for relics. Some cities pay tribute instead of fighting. Dragon courts rarely unite; their rivalries can shatter continents. Empires view dragons as strategic deterrents. Churches either sanctify or demonize them. Adventurers consider them ultimate contracts. Hunter guilds classify them as top-tier raids. Demon Lords consider them diplomatic equals or rivals. DIVINE AND THEOLOGICAL ADVERSARIES Religious conflicts generate villains. R’hllor has shadowbinders and resurrection zealots. Eternal Fire has inquisitors and witchhunters who burn sorceresses and spirit mages. Faith of the Seven has militant orders who purge heresy. Slane Theocracy has scriptures trained for extermination of nonhumans. Daedric cults produce corrupted warlocks. Demon Lord cults produce monster supremacists. Celestial Spirit cults produce summoners who enslave spirits. Undead cults in Nazarick proselytize that death is a liberation. Dragon cults seek to bring about world dominion of their patron. Each religion defines its enemies differently. Conflicts erupt between churches, demon courts, spirit temples, dragon cults, guild mages and adventurer leagues over heresy, resurrection rights, necromancy law, afterlife ownership and planar treaties. ARCANE AND EXPERIMENTAL THREATS Ancient civilizations left behind machines, spells and technologies that can still activate. Dwemer tonal engines can shift matter. Netherese myth-engines can collapse large regions. Numenorean artifacts carry curses. Wild magic storms from Netheril still destabilize ecosystems. Oblivion gates open unpredictably. Dragonblood experiments in Ishgar have created weaponized mages. Nilfgaard and the Lodge of Sorceresses experiment with portal technology and dimensional control. The Mages Guild attempts to tame planar mathematics. Hunter Associations experiment with gate cores. Tempest refines magicules into industry. Nazarick investigates artificial divine creation. These technologies can fail catastrophically. Guilds, empires and churches compete to secure research sites, often using adventurers as expendable retrieval teams. SLAVERY, CULT AND EMPIRE POWERS Villainy is not limited to monsters. Nilfgaard expands to conquer Northern Kingdoms. Essos slave cities perpetuate slave armies, flesh trade and magical servitude. Qarth manipulates markets and trade monopolies. Braavos manipulates debt and banking leverage. Westerosi houses wage succession wars. Northern Kingdoms conduct purges of nonhumans. Eternal Fire purges magic. Slane Theocracy purges monsters. Vampire courts practice predatory governance. Demon Lords wage conquest through monster armies. Dragon courts enforce tribute. Adventurers often work for these powers, willingly or not, creating moral ambiguity. COSMIC THREATS AND MYTHIC ADVERSARIES The uppermost threat tiers transcend politics. Monarchs and Rulers in Solo Leveling wage cosmic war. Daedric Princes plot reality edits. Demon Lords seek demon-federation dominance. True Dragons contemplate reshaping continents. Ancient Valar-level powers influence destiny. The Weave itself destabilizes during divine interference. Oblivion realms attempt incursions. Undead sovereigns attempt to freeze time in eternal dominion. Prophecies speak of Convergence not as end but precursor. Churches argue over eschatology. Guilds prepare crisis protocols. Nations stockpile artifacts. Tempest seeks coexistence with cosmic powers. Nazarick seeks sovereignty. Spirit temples seek balance. Dragon courts seek supremacy. Adventurers form legendary parties that travel beyond the Material to negotiate, fight or die in these higher conflicts. CULT PROLIFERATION AND SECRET SOCIETIES Where power concentrates, cults form. Daedric cults infiltrate cities. Dragon cults preach submission. Demon cults pursue ascension. Vampire cults pursue immortality. Eternal Fire sects purge dissent. R’hllor sects pursue prophecy. Celestial Spirit cults pursue union. Monarch cults pursue shadow power. Ancestor cults maintain spirit shrines. Slane cult cells infiltrate foreign courts. Spirit cults in Beltram and Galwark maintain old contracts. These cults recruit from adventurers, nobles, hunters, mages, mercenaries and the desperate. States alternately suppress or weaponise cults depending on political need. HOW FACTIONS RESPOND TO THREATS Different factions specialise in containment. Witchers handle monster ecology. Hunter guilds handle gate entities. Adventurer guilds handle dungeon incursions. Demon Lords handle monster diplomacy. Dragon courts handle cosmic predators. Spirit temples handle elemental imbalance. Churches handle demonology and afterlife law. Mages guilds handle planar arithmetic. Empires handle territorial conquest. Vampire courts handle the night. Nazarick handles undead sovereignty. Tempest handles monster rights. Not all of these responses align. Many escalate conflicts rather than resolve them.