The World of Rodinia is a large place. Much of it is unexplored and unknown by the inhabitants of the globe. The extents of the Known World are about 3,500 miles across by about 1,800 miles from top to bottom. Scholars have determined that the Known World is probably actually located in the northern hemisphere of the planet as there are icy tundra in the north and dense, hot jungles in the south.

The Known World of Rodinia is split into three main continents: Khemit in the west, the Rodinian Continent in the centre and the Lucarcian Continent in the east. Rodinia is the largest and holds the most significant civilisation known on the planet, that of the Empire of Rodinia which ultimately gives the world its name.

As a place to explore, Rodinia is rich and varied with many different cultures to savour, myriad ruins to delve into and countless dangerous creatures to face and overcome.

Rodinia is a world dominated by humans with the majority of settled and civilised lands being controlled by humans. There are nations of other species, notably fey kingdoms hidden in the large forests that swath the landscape, and dwarven strongholds dug deep and secure underground, but the vast majority are human lands.

Outside the civilised lands, in the heights of the mountains or the depths of dark foreboding marshes lay the lairs of many a foul creature. Dragons roost in extinct volcanoes, orc chieftains control areas outside the patrols of kings and emperors, and undead lords claim dominion over lands no human would care to settle.

Magic, though rare, is a force to be reckoned with in Rodinia, with arcane sorcerers and holy priests wielding great power and being able to make the fantastical and unnatural happen at their whim. The common man fears and respects these great magic users and is all too aware that such people have control over things which are best not dwelt upon by mortals.

This gazetteer allows the interested visitor the chance to stroll easily along the busy streets of a hot, dusty Khemit bazaar, to drift through the lazy and peaceful countryside of Albion's feudal kingdom. The powerful and civilised Empire of Rodinia can be explored, following the legions across their conquered lands, or the exotic lands of Honshu can be seen through the eyes of a devoted samurai warrior.

The Void was a maelstrom of swirling and powerful energies. Fire, earth, air and water roiled in an endless dance. Never standing still; always in flux. Amid this turmoil of fundamental Elemental forces, two primordial energies battled endlessly. Darkness and Light were one another's nemeses, each an anathema to the other. They waged an unending war for supremacy in the Void. And all was in balance.

Then a rift formed in the edge of the Void and some elemental energies spilled out. They spun into the nothingness beyond and coalesced to form a huge lump of earth, fire and water, cocooned in a bubble of air. Thus was the planet now called Rodinia formed.

But the elements were not all that escaped that rift. Darkness poured forth into the space beyond the Void and filled it. Moments later followed the Light. It was but an instant later in the reckoning of time, but coming second to the space beyond the Void was hugely significant. Light was only able to find small spots in the space that Darkness had not already filled. Thus were the stars formed.

Yet Light was the first to find the planet. And it created a giant sun in the air above the planet and Light suffused the lands. Then Darkness arrived and the two began their eternal battle over the lands. The buffeting of these primordial forces caused the world to spin in place and so the Light's orb was visible to each place on the land for half the time. The rest of the time the land was thrown into darkness.

After a time the Light created life on the planet, as was its way. The fey were creatures of the Light and the element of air. They began to spread and thrive in the fields and valleys of the lands. They populated the sylvan woods and the deeper, airy forests. And they thrived. The Light worked with the element of earth and so moulded the first of the dwarfs. These creatures burrowed into the earth, which concerned the Light until it saw that they were a goodly and honourable species. They did not dig too deep and spent much of their time on the surface in the light.

The Darkness was not to be outdone and it too created life, though this life was foul and wicked. Darkness merged with the earth to make the species of orcs, goblins and giant-kind. It merged with fire to create the powerful and malign dragons. These creatures of Darkness moved into the deep dark places of the world. They tunnelled underground. They found caves and holes to live in. They made their lairs in the deepest, darkest forests and swamps.

The fey and the dwarfs did not get along, being from opposite elements, but their joint heritage of the Light stopped them from outright war most of the time. The orcs, goblins and giants warred constantly — with the fey and dwarves when they could find them; with each other when they could not.

Then a most unexpected and unlikely event occurred. Millennia ago, a union of fey and orc occurred. From this union a new species was sired. This species combined the benevolence of the Light and the destructive nature of Darkness. It combined the energies of the four elements. It was a species of Balance. Thus was humankind spawned.

Humans were voracious. Much shorter lived than their cousins, the fey and the dwarves, they lived life to the full, devouring all opportunities that presented themselves. This energetic and driven species explored; they questioned; they invented and they bred. And soon they took over. It wasn't long before the humans were so numerous that they forced the fey out of the lands that had been forever their own. The humans preferred to live in the flat and arable lands where the fey had lived for time immemorial. And the humans were warlike, so they forced their desires on the more peaceful fey.

The Darkness that made up half the human spirit drove them to take what they coveted. They would negotiate and compromise where possible, but if they came across an adversary who would not listen, they were merciless. Thus they drove the fey out of the fertile lands and into the forests. They pushed the dwarves deeper underground.

But the humans also hated the foul orcs and goblins. These creatures of Darkness would fight first and talk second. This was not the right way to deal with the proud and aggressive humans. As the orcs and goblins fought the newly arriving humans for access to the tillable lands, the humans, growing far superior in numbers, drove the orcs back into their dark holes and lairs.

Thus humanity grew to become the primary species on the surface of the World of Rodinia. Now, the humans are everywhere, and their mixed nature of shadow - merging the mercy of Light with the hostility of Darkness and the energies of the four elements - means that the land remains in balance.

For the most part.

The Void is a maelstrom of swirling and powerful energies. Fire, earth, air and water roil in an endless dance. Never standing still; always in flux. Amid this turmoil of fundamental Elemental forces, two primordial energies battle endlessly. Darkness and Light are one another's nemeses, each an anathema to the other. They wage an unending war for supremacy in the Void.

Occasionally tiny rifts into the Void from in the reality of the Cosmos. These rifts allow primal energy to leak into the Cosmos and have unusual results and effects. They are usually too small to be noted and are passed off as imaginations, deja vu and the like. But some people possess the ability to create and control these rifts at will.

Wielders of the arcane and divine powers are controllers and manipulators of rifts to the Void. Their incantations and spells are rituals which allow them power over the rifts — their creation, duration and access. These magi and priests are able to open portals into the Void and summon energies from that place, drawing them into the Cosmos. Regardless of if it is a Pyromancer in Lucarcia using a simple cantrip to light a small torch, or a Priest of the Sun in The Kingdom of Albion, endeavouring to return health and vitality to a half-dead companion, all mystical spellcasting is basically the same process. It is merely differentiated by the size of the rift, the control over it that is maintained, the type of energy that is summoned and the way that energy is channelled into the Cosmos that differs.

Religion in Rodinia is both simple and complex all at once. The simplest explanation is that all worship of divine powers boils down to veneration of either Light or Darkness, though occasionally the more primitive elements of earth, air, fire and water are also worshipped.

Though all worshippers of essentially 'good' gods venerate the power of Light, they may label it in different ways. The sun gods worshipped in Khemit and Albion are alike enough to easily see as the same god. But ultimately the dwarven goddess of the home and the Rodinian father-god are still simply facets of the same power: The Light. In Lucarcia the Light is called simply that. Equally, the Darkness is the power behind most 'evil' deities, whether they be gods of destruction, war, murder or disease.

To complicate matters slightly, there are the servants of Light and Darkness. Often known as angels and demons, these beings live in the Void and are directly tied to the primordial powers they serve. At times these quasi-deities are effectively worshipped as gods. The most obvious example being the Demon Prince, the most powerful and infamous of Darkness' servants of the last few millennia. The Demon Prince was significant enough to have spawned many cults in Rodinia and his followers worshipped him like a god. However if ever they prayed to him and called up 'his power' what they were actually doing was opening a rift into the Void and summoning forth the power of Darkness for their ends.

The Old Faith is about being attuned to the World of Rodinia itself, sometimes opening portals to the Void and drawing on the Light, Darkness or the elements, sometimes simply controlling the elements from which the world is formed.

679 years ago, the most significant milestone in recent history occurred. The founding of Rodin City marked the start of a new calendar in the Known World. All dates since then have been recorded as the year After-Rodin, or 'AR' and as such, all dates prior to that have been redefined as Before-Rodin, or 'BR'. Hence dates before the founding count backwards and since the founding count forwards.

The current year in the World of Rodinia is 679 AR.

The World of Rodinia has a simple calendar of thirteen equal months of four seven-day weeks. The days of the weeks are named, as are the months.

There are seven days in each week in the Rodinian Calendar, each named after uncommon animals found in the Rodinian Empire.

• Bear
• Elk
• Tiger
• Lion
• Elephant
• Rhino
• Buffalo

There are thirteen months in each year in the Rodinian Calendar, each named after common animals found in the Rodinian Empire.

• Crow — Winter
• Fox — Winter
• Crane — Spring
• Hare — Spring
• Rat — Spring
• Snake — Summer
• Lizard — Summer
• Cat — Summer
• Squirrel — Summer
• Mouse — Autumn
• Robin — Autumn
• Hound — Autumn
• Wolf — Winter