In this section we'll cover both the geography and the history of the world in which the history of Severance took place.

The past

1,000 years ago the world was very different than nowadays. Nevertheless, most of the actual story is caused by the events that happened ten centuries ago. In that age, the first Sword War devastated the land, giving form to a few nations and establishing alliances between the different nations that have lasted up till now.

In that time, the evil influence of the Chaos Child spread all over the world in an openly way. His evil followers, supported by the dark god Angra Manyu, made war to all the benign creatures of the world. Armies of orcs, goblins and other malign creatures devastated cities, farms and woods, in a destruction effort inspired by the reincarnation of the Chaos Child, and which Angra Manyu exploited for his own goals in his neverending struggle for power.

The diverse nations of that age, the dwarves on their underground cities, the few human kingdoms, the north barbarians, and few others, aware of the overwhelming power of the horde, were forced to establish alliances to allow the civilized world survive. Other nations, like the elven folk, safe and powerful on their primal forests, didn't bother to do anything about the war, unmoved to the other races' destiny...

The dwarves, powerful warriors and expert builders and engineers, contributed to the war effort with small though powerful military units and building imposing strongholds (many of which still remain functional).

The human kingdoms, up till that moment weak and disunited, experienced a movement from the noble families of that age (who had many family ties between the different kingdoms) sponsoring the creation of a knightly order shared between all the kingdoms, as a common army which could protect all the human lands from that menace. That's how the Order of the Sword was born, a knightly order or highborn fighters of high ideals. Due to that cunning move of the nobility the central kingdoms managed to survive and one thousand years later still keep their independent status, though they're also still deeply interrelated. At the same time, that military power sponsored by powerful and wealthy noble families managed to get a wide base of politic and military power that seemed would last forever... though in the end, that initially honorable endeavor would become infected with the seed of corruption and abuse...

The barbarian tribes, in a somewhat chaotic way, supported the war effort as a hurricane of berserker fury assisting the forces of knights and dwarves wherever the wind carried the smell of battle...

Finally, inspired by the goddess Ianna, a party of heroes received the revelation of the true enemy's identity, and were led to the right way to defeat him. Eresh Kigal, a brave knight, was the hero gifted with the honor to wield Ianna's sword, and with his companions Sawan the Traveller, Nergal the Smith, Frair the dwarf, Gorlond the knight and Amlach the Sun Archer, looked for the incarnation of the Chaos Child in the primary plane and managed to defeat him... at a high price, though. But thanks to the achievement of the Sword heroes, the power that drove the dark horde vanished and after some time it could be defeated and dispersed.

During almost 1,000 years the world rested in a relative peace, with only a few skirmishes and battles with the evil creatures that were left behind, but with the Chaos Child's strength slowly growing back, peace started to be a fond memory till it fade out entirely with the beginning of the second Sword War, and with it the story of Severance, the edge of darkness...

The present

Just ten years after the last Sword War, the world is still being slowly rebuilt. Though evil was defeated again, and its malign servants ran away disbanded, the civilized nations endured serious blows before the final victory. What's worse, many of those evil creatures got left behind and became raiders and looters. Also banditry became a very common problem due to the general chaos during and after the war. And perhaps the worst problem were the monsters created or summoned by the Lord of Chaos, still hidden in the many smokeing ruins that dot the world... and the evil that never sleeps hasn't been defeated, Angra Manyu's followers are still trying to advance their master's agenda and have found chaos and confusion very useful... war may be over, but the world is not such a safe place, actually!

The Order of the Sword has been very weakened by internal corruption (they already got rid of it... at least that's what they think) and by the many hard battles with the enemies of the free lands. Now is barely able to fight the orc and goblin raiders. The roads are very dangerous in many places because they're swarmed by bandits... many cities now can barely be defended against large attacks, because of the few knights remaining in the Order and also for the destruction of most of their strongholds. Nevertheless, the knights have persevered and are working hard to reinforce their ranks. They're also trying to strengthen their alliances with the dwarven and elven people, to better fulfill their duties. They're trying to get the dwarves' help to rebuild their strongholds and the elves' to get better weapons with which face their numerous enemies in a fairer situation.

The dwarven clans are very concentrated in just rebuilding their few cities which were damaged during the war, and are offering some help to their human allies mainly to have a first line of defense against all the remaining enemies.

The northern barbarian clans didn't endure war as much as other nations. Nevertheless even them had enough casualities to make them worry more about the big problems of other nations. Also, the movements of orcs, goblins and bandits haven't get unnoticed to them, because in many times they cross their lands, and they're quite decided to do something about it...

The elves were barely affected by the war at all, and by the same reason they'll barely notice the postwar troubles...

The main nations in the world of Severance in this age are:

• The central kingdoms, human lands divided in small kingdoms who had a knightly order (the Order of the Sword) to keep peace and order. There are a few big cities and powerful strongholds of the order, though in this moment many are abandoned.

  Amongst those legendary strongholds we can find:

  1. Tell-Halaf: main stronghold of the order in the Armina region. Though it was seriously damaged and invaded by an orc horde, the knights managed to get it back when the war finished and its almost fully rebuilt.
  2. Krak of Tabriz: minor stronghold also lost during the war though it wasn't damaged. It is reused now by the order against the serious problem of banditry of the surrounding lands.
  3. Nemrut fortress: located in the lands of Sarikan, near the Nemrut mountain chain between the mountains of the Half Moon. It's also known as the Cloud Fortress.
  4. Shalatuwar fortress: powerful stronghold which protected long ago the mountainous land of Yerevan. It's now occupied by an orc clan so strong it hasn't been taken back yet.
  5. Karum isle: located in the small sea of Ubair, was abandoned many years ago by the order. It was the stronghold in the northern frontiers, and the order is very interested in getting it back, though there are many rumors of terrible creatures who have claimed it as their lairs.
  
  
  

• Kara Kum steppes, lands of the north called home by the barbarian clans. Though they're allies of the central kingdoms, they're quite independent and don't pay tribute to any other nation. There are few places of importance in the north, though a few places are famous enough:

  1. Kashgar: mythical lands of the barbarians, quite far from their actual lands. Unhabited long ago (it's a sacred place for the barbarians).
  2. Dasht-e Kavir: empty land of plains in the north, where nothing lives. It's a taboo place for the barbarian clans, possibly the home of powerful evil creatures.
  
  
  

• The dwarven cities, places where the dwarven clans live and work. Though they're located very often in the lands of other nations (nominally), mainly in the central kingdoms, those lands are considered as their property, as a privilege for those powerful allies and the valuable commerce they bring.

  Some dwarven cities are:

  • Kazel Zalam: ancient secret city, on the Lunn river's shore. Nowadays it's not secret anymore thanks to the war, as it was attacked and conquered by orcs. It was won back after the war in a huge battle by another dwarven clan who is still rebuilding the damage caused in the fight.
  • Mount Kelbegen mines: a surface dwarven city and also an ancient commercial settlement. Very damaged during the war, now it's recovering its old splendor and wealth.
  • Other dwarven cities: Wutum, Taler, Farbe.
  
  
  

• The elven folk lives in the most ancient and primal woods of the world. The other races don't know if they have important cities or not... it's very dangerous infiltrating their woods looking for that information...

• Orcs, goblins and other savage creatures live wherever they find a place in which to shelter, and if they're enough, the closest they can to civilized lands to raid and get riches, weapons and supplies ... By now they're not too numerous, so those attacks are only raids, not full war parties.

There are many other locations in the world of Severance, which will be detailed in the following updates, for now I'll show only a few of the better known ones.

Severance world map

The elves call the world Breel, but if this word has a meaning behind as a simple name no non-elf knows it. Dwarves are more pragmatic and call the world Act, which means literally "World". Finally, the barbarian tribes call the world Sud-is-to, which could be freely translated for "The realm between the heavenly vault and the underground land".

First territory world map

Close map of the Central Kingdoms

Let's talk now briefly about the peculiarities of a few of the regions shown in the map:

• Grand sand desert:: it's a large classic desert territory, literally a sea of sand without geographical references. The need of an expert in such terrain and/or knowledgeable of the old routes and location of the oases is terribly high, though sometimes not even that way you can avoid a burning death...
• Rubaljeb desert: inside the Grand sand desert there is an area of rocky canyons and high gorges, with not much more water than in the rest of the desert but at least many more shadowy shelters. There is quite a lot of shrubbery vegetation that is dry most time of the year. At least in this area, knowing a few key places navigating becomes a lot more easier.
• Kara Kum steppes: mostly plains filled with shrubbery and herbaceous vegetation, it also includes a few large mountain ranges which limit the advance of the Grand sand desert. It's inhabited mainly by the barbarian tribes, though it's also called home by many tribes of evil humanoides, and lately by bandits.
• Region of Yerevan this mountainous area is now under the control of a powerful orc clan which rules it from Shalatuwar, a former stronghold of the Order of the Sword.
• Ephyra's Necropolis : that huge funereal place is a true necropolis by right; it was built after the first Sword war. After those events, other powerful families and wealthy merchants installed there their places of eternal rest, but with the centuries the city fell into disuse and finally acquired a bad reputation as a haunted and nigromancy-aligned place (probably some of the magic liberated in the first sword war left a seed of dark power which could germinate in such a favorable place... or maybe a nigromancer established there his power base during long long years without nobody ever bothering him...). The territory up to a few miles around the city is a mere wasteland, nothing ever grows there, and lately there are recurrent rumours of lowly undead sightings wandering there, though without ever leaving the area.

A northern barbarian visiting a town in the central kingdoms

Finally, if you want to know more about the Sword War (in short, about the videogame), you can take a look at the following link which will lead you to an online guide of the game: http://www.geocities.com/phileosophos/bod/

I've tried not to explain the whole story to avoid spoiling the story to anyone who wants to play the game...