index argot
Setting for Arc 1: The Many-Bodied Shadow of War
You live in the City State of Argot. It is a direct democracy, meaning that every citizen gets a vote in the Assembly and the legislative body is the size of everyone who can fit in the building for the vote. Officials are selected by lot (except for the Ten Generals, the treasurer, and the city accountant who are elected).
The city is very anti-magic and most people are superstitious of magic users. Those caught using magic are branded with symbols for the magic crime they committed.
You know, either personally or by rumor, of the Undercity, a network of caverns and tunnels opened up by quarries in the slums of Argot. Stranger creatures live there alongside magic users and other criminal elements. Many prominent members of the elite of Argot are also rumored to be magic users or interested in the occult.
Argot is on Argolos Island, which is the largest island of the Sickle Islands. Upon Argolos Island are other cities, not quite as prominent as Argot.
Aside from minor skirmishes with its neighbors, Argot is fairly uninvolved in geopolitical affairs. However, Argot is also flanked by two growing empires: The Dragonborn Republic of Werriad and the multinational Empire of Mineos.
The Werriadi have set up a colony on Argolos. Meanwhile the Empire of Mineos has spread across the lands to the east and has begun sending ambassadors ahead of its massive army.
The Empire of Mineos is ruled by the seemingly immortal emperor, known only as The Deathless One. The Deathless governs each of their provinces personally and is somehow able to be in all of them all at once.
Political opinion within Argot is split in different ways. Some people want to kneel to the Mineosi or to the Werriadi while others want to unite the Sickle Islands, the Cities of the Golden League, and other neighboring lands to join against the two powers.
Aside from these places, there are rumors of haunted places beyond the island. The Godsbody is of particular wonder: A calcified God who fell from the heavens and formed a mountain range to the north. Beneath the city there have been rumblings and rumors from the undersea folk of monstrosities driving them to the surface. Other strange tales exist of cults that worship Angels, animal-headed humanoids, and Devils. In the wilderness beyond the city, on the island of Argolos itself, there are also tales of fey folk causing mischief and stealing people away.
While Argot is a superstitious place, it cannot prevent the magic of the outside world from seeping in.
Setting for Arc 2: The 13 Islands of the Haunted Sea
I thought it was a legend. In days of old, Aurochs Island was not the only island in the southern sea, south of the Sickle Islands. Have you heard of The War of the Devils and the Dead? I know, it is an old story, some six hundred years past, but perhaps those stories came from somewhere. Some say the other 13 islands were destroyed, taken to the bottom of the sea. Others say that on misty days, unwary crews are sucked in through a whirlpool, taken down to the Haunted Seas, where the dead still live and devils torture them every day and night.
– Know-it-all Nausicaa, quartermaster of the P.S. Admirable Effort
You are now in The 13 Islands of the Haunted Sea, a demiplane apart from the Southern Sea, lost to time 600 years ago. You either wandered in here via a ship, transported here via a planar shift, or are a descendant of those who were trapped here 600 years ago.