The Blessed Isle
The Blessed Isle is the seat of civilization and the beating heart in the dragon’s chest. The gigantic Omphalos, the Imperial Mountain, towers at its center, surrounded in all eight directions by plentiful and varied terrain: soaring mountains, limestone karsts, scorching deserts, verdant river valleys, and more. The Isle is supernaturally blessed; it was once home to the gods of Heaven before Heaven was, and has served as the heart of the world since time immemorial.
Geography
The Blessed Isle is surrounded on all eight sides by the sapphire Inland Sea, which makes it an isle proper, although it is an island hundreds of times larger than any other in Creation. The central feature of the Isle is the Imperial Mountain, which towers miles and miles into the sky, its long shadow covering country-sized swathes of land. The smaller mountains – many still taller than any others in Creation, although dwarfed by the Omphalos – surround the Imperial Mountain, then spread into the Imperial Range which makes the center of the Isle.
Beyond the Imperial Range, the Blessed Isle is much like Creation in miniature. To the east, the Isle is verdant and lush. Here, the land is full of staggering forests, green river valleys, jungles of towering fungi, and sprawling fields of blossoms. In the south, the Isle is hotter and drier, home to rolling plains and patches of desert. In the west, the Isle is wet, varying from tropical to jungle to long, tall river gorges. Lastly, on the northern shores, the Isle is fresh and sweet-smelling, mild summers giving way to chilly winters and stormy autumns.
Peoples
The Isle has been home to humans for as long as humans have existed; most modern scholars agree that humanity originated on the Isle. Although the Wàn are today the dominant ethnic group, the Isle is home to dozens of distinct ethnic groups. Scholars in the Realm have categorized roughly fifty-eight groups.
The people of the Isle are as diverse as its land, but they have been unified in the Realm for more than five centuries. Realm society permeates the whole Isle, and though many people still practice their native traditions, the large cities are all distinctly Realm, a blend of groups and histories striving together in harmonious accord under the wise leadership of the Dragon-Blooded.
That Which Came Before
The Blessed Isle is an ancient place, and has played home to many great and magical kingdoms. Before the mighty Realm there was the Shogunate; before that, the Realm Before, ruled by the gold and silver Anathema demon-kings; and before that, kingdoms of gods and inhuman things. All these civilizations have left relics. The Blessed Isle is dotted with remnants and strange things.
Nearly every major city is built around remnants, and even most small towns have some relic of note. Ancient palaces radiate health and fertility to nearby fields; a dome of crystal encloses a Wood demesne high in the mountains, frozen on the outside and tropical inside; a river flows through the pools and water wheels of an ancient gorge, powering some unknown thing inside the cliffs; towering remnants emerge from the Plains of Rusted Iron, which on full moons hum and ring with energy.
The Realm is an ancient place, suffused with power. It is good that the Dragons rule, for who else could handle such a burden?