The South

The cataclysm is fading into history as the southern kingdoms emerge from the age of the dragons. None of those alive today have seen a dragon in their life, but two centuries of legends and books (for those who can read) speak of mighty dragons protecting the south from the blight that has turned the northern islands into a wasteland.

On the two southern islands, mankind has prospered under the protective wings of the dragons. While some of the peasants complain about the laws being too harsh at times, the strict and benevolent hands of the nobles have secured this period of relative peace. The arts and trade prosper. It is a good place to live, though the culture is stiff and formal at times, and punishment swift. Society is in control in the south. Not much ever changes, bringing security to the people.

Any and all kinds of magic, including alchemy and prophecy, are outlawed throughout the south, on penalty of death. Enforcement is brutal. The various inquisitions, witch-hunters and templars do not hesitate and rarely wait for a judge. They are quite efficient, almost always wiping out young magicians before they can gain enough power and knowledge to defend themselves.

The North

Devastated by an evil lost to memory, the surviving humans of the north have devolved into primitive tribes. Their villages are small and simple, as are their needs. They manage to get by on the broken lands, hunting the garstly creatures that roam the lands, or hiding from them as the case may be. They are a proud and strong people, as only the strong survive in this environment.

Much has been lost in the north. What few metal weapons survive are treasured. Most advanced knowledge is near extinction. Only a few shamen and wise men know how to read, or do even simple math. Some tribes have even lost knowledge of agriculture. Practical wisdom is treasured, though, so many of the tribes are quite adapt at whatever they need to survive - hunting, fishing, or warfare if they survive by plundering their neighbours.

The wild people of the north are superstitious and open to magic. Many of their shamen and medicine men are charlatans, but not all. They respect magic the same way they respect everything else that can kill a man. They believe in omens, bad luck, curses, the whole nine yards.

The Colonies

When the south emerged from the age of dragons, it found the north devastated and the lands inbetween charred from what everyone believes must have been extended battles between the mighty dragons and whatever evil destroyed the north. But despite the damage, many smaller islands and other regions neither protected by the dragons nor blighted were only sparsely populated, if at all. With many good, peaceful years behind them, population in the southern kingdoms was dense. Many moved to these unclaimed lands. Thus the colonies were formed.

The Colonies are a conglomerate of several dozen small realms, some barely larger than a barony in the south. All of these are young and still have a frontier feeling. While the colonists bring with them the culture and knowledge of the south, they have left the strict rules behind, and the colonies are a land of opportunities. The colonists trade with both the south and the north and the various cultures emerging in the colonies are often a blend between the cultured south and the wild north.

Among the many rules bend in the colonies are the laws against magic. The colonists have taken up some of the superstitions of the northeners, but mostly they rationalize that against the unconquered nature, every help is welcome. Most of them have a distrust of magic brought with them from their southern homelands, but only rarely is a suspected magician executed in the colonies.