Trieste
The daughter of Helion, last of The Old Ones, the people of Haran call her The White Lady, for so she is. When The Old Ones left Haran to the maw of Abaddon and his army, she stayed behind. Only through her guidance and teaching are the people of Haran able to survive now. She
sacrificed herself to seal shut The Black Door with her own blood. Some say she has appeared to them in dreams. The Incar say that she will return in an hour of great need and deliver them a final time.

The Saint of Blades
A god. The only god of Haran ever to manifest in physical form. It is said he was beyond the power of The Old Ones. He holds dominion over every sharpened edge of metal or stone in all creation. Each time a blade takes life, the soul of the deceased must plead his case before The Saint and be sent to a realm of bliss or oneof pain. In the last battle against Abaddon, Trieste left to seal the gate and all the other forces fled in her absence. Only The Saint of Blades and his followers, The White Blades remained. Abaddon struck him down, but could not kill him.
The Saint remains in a coma, plotting his revenge against
Haran and The Abyss alike in The Crevasse of Revenge.

The Augur
They are neither human nor Pitborn. If The Old Ones knew where they came from, they did not say. The Augur move Haranian and Pitborn alike through what they call The Shifting Place. Teleportation might be another word for what they do, though this is only the basest of their abilities. Neither Abaddon nor
The Old Ones could resist the law they set forth. Of their purpose, they will say only, “We are The Augur;
we see far; we serve the balance.”

Summoner

The sorcery of The Summoners is culled from the tradition of The Incar and of the older, darker magics of Bonereavers, beasts, Pitborn and demons of other realms. They have no allegiance to anyone but themselves. Even at that, there is no loyalty to each other. The Black Path is the road upon which all Summoners walk. They traffic with evil so that they may dominate it and bend it to their will. Only for their own benefit will they fight. Their powers are vast, but few attain the highest levels because of the demands put upon the soul of the practitioner. Unlike The Incar, Summoners do not separate bladecraft from magic. Proficient in dark magic and battle, they loathed and feared by man and Pitborn alike.

Hunter

Hunters, bowmasters, trackers whose skill cannot be matched by any man or beast. The way of The Segita is as old as that of The Azure, for their disciplines were the first to be discovered and honed by the peoples of Haran. The Segita worship nature in all its forms and whatever life they take for their sustenance, they give back in other ways. They fight for the good of Life – the essence of all living things in Haran – and it is from this that they draw what magic they have. Taciturn and lethal, The Segita give their allegiance only to Life and those who would preserve it. Abaddon and The Pitborn are the antithesis of everything The Segita hold dear and they will kill any Pitborn on sight.

Knight

Staunch allies of The Incar, The Azure Order have dedicated their lives to the pursuit of skill in physical combat. Theirs is a tradition that goes back thousands of years, before The Incar Order even existed. For theirs is the way of battle, of discipline, of sacrifice and abnegation. As they honed their skills throughout the ages, there were those of The Azure who were able to transcend mere bladecraft and tap into an internal source of power and unleash energies through the weapons they wield. It is this purity of intent and physical prowess that all Azure seek. They fight for The White Lady and the people of Haran and value fidelity above all else.

The Incar Order has pledged to uphold the way of The White Lady at any cost. Magicians by trade, The Incar are not a race like The Bagi or The Segnale, but  through meditation and diligence, they’ve learned to tap into the energies the Old Ones used before they left this world. The Incar have used their magical might to  control nearly every area of Haran that man inhabits. Fire, Ice, Lightning and vast energies are at their command and there are few who canstand against an Incar  Loremaster. The magic they use, however, can be used for good or evil. It is only the disposition of the user that determines whether the skills taught by  The White Lady are used for good or ill.

Segnale

Pitborn creatures who once held sway over much of The Abyss. Their skills as assassins and healers are sought after by the forces of light and dark alike. Millennia ago, Abaddon’s forces conquered the lands of The Segnale
and commanded them to subjugate themselves to his will. They fled to Haran, and though they did not pledge their
loyalty to Haran or The White Lady, their hatred for Abaddon burns deep. Their magic is vampiric in nature. “From blood we take, to blood we give,” they say. Some follow the path of the assassin, others the path of the healer. Whichever way they choose, they are some of the most deadly creatures in this world or any other.

Warrior

The Bagi are not of The Abyss, yet they are not completely of Haran either. Untold centuries ago, the warrior race known as The Bagi was not as they are now. Their battlecraft was as powerful and deadly as any found in Haran. What most would refer to as magic, The Bagi know as calling. From the core of their being, they call forth primal energies to crush their foes. The more skilled a warrior is, the more disciplined, the deeper and more destructive the force he can summon. Abaddon tried to destroy The Bagi with a disease conjured in the bowels of The Abyss. It was meant to corrupt The Bagi, to transform them into Pitborn. And if not for the will of the people, if not for their discipline, it would have succeeded. It was only the force of their will that allowed them to resist a complete corruption. Now, their bloodline is forever tainted, their bodies cursed to bear the marks of The Abyss. Half man, half Pitborn, brother to none, enemy to all, a Bagi Warrior bows to no one.

The Bagi say it was Barak, God of Battle who created the world so that he might populate it with creatures to war with one another and so honor him. The Incar say it was Karenas, The World-Bearer who thought Haran into being. This even though Trieste herself did not know how the world came to be. It did not matter, she said. What mattered was that there was Haran and there was The Abyss.  One was a world of light, and the other, a dimension of darkness.

Always it is this way. In all realities, in all universes, in all  beings there is that which devours and that which grows. When the world was young and unstable, wracked with earthquakes, pocked with volcanoes spewing ash and lava into the sky, drowned with constant floods, there was still life. There was no creature then to name them,
but those who came after called them dragons. They ruled the water, the land, the sky – no beast could stand against them. And it was this that proved to be their downfall. The dragons multiplied unimpeded for countless centuries, each breed at war with the others until the conflict built to a war that encompassed the globe. A hundred years passed that saw the face of Haran scorched, the soil befouled, the water tainted with the blood the countless dead until only a scarce few remained.

Helion, high voice of The Old Ones, was the first to sense it – a breach, a footstep of darkness on the soil of light. Those responsible for creating a door between Haran and The Abyss were already dead, consumed by the
power they sought to wield. The Old Ones sealed the gap between the two worlds, but the damage was done. Abaddon, Lord of The Abyss, had seen the world of light. Had seen it and hated it as his black heart
had hated no other thing in existence. All The Abyss was under his dominion, and now that he’d seen there was more – more beings to devour and dominate, more souls to corrupt – he would stop at nothing to have it. And so it began, what Trieste called The Unending War.

Pitborn, the denizens of The Abyss, came to Haran by way of dark magics. Such arts had been honed in The Abyss for countless unhallowed centuries and now that the creatures who wielded such power were aware
of fresh blood and tender flesh just beyond the veil of their world, they turned their sorcery to the task. The people of Haran were strong then, schooled by The Old Ones in the ways of magic and battle. Despite their knowledge and skill, the numbers of Pitborn soon grew beyond their capacity to cope with. Though they would teach, The Old Ones would not use their power to kill the creatures swarming over Haran. Only Trieste, daughter of Helion, protested The Old Ones’ indifference. But she was bound by the will of her people and there was naught she could do.

In Haihaff, there opened a gateway to The Abyss higher and wider than the walls of the ancient cities, and beyond there came an army twisted and dark, of forms vast and vile… and leading them, Abaddon, destroyer of worlds.  This would have been the end of Haran, but there are other forces in the universe besides light and darkness. As Abaddon stepped through the rift, a shimmer wall of energy appeared, stopping him and his army. It was then
that The Augur revealed themselves. They are the keepers of The Balance and have no allegiance to light or darkness, good or evil – their only duty is to maintain The Balance. So many portals between the two realms had been opened that the fabric of reality itself was in danger. And this new and largest tear in space was more than
The Augur could allow. They closed all gateways between the two worlds and sent Abaddon and his minions back to The Abyss.

To prevent such a thing from happening again, they decreed that only one gateway would be allowed between the two worlds, and many stayed behind to enforce their will. They remain, teleporting Pitborn and Haranian alike through what they call The Shifting Place. This one gateway, The Black Door, may hold one of three positions: closed, open to The Abyss, open to Haran. It permits a flow one way or the other, or not at all. Nevertheless, there was still some traffic between the worlds. The Summoners would not relinquish their dark arts, despite the pleading of The Incar. The Bagi were infected by an Abysmal virus that corrupted their bloodline for all time. The Segnale, Pitborn themselves, defected and were permitted passage en masse by The Augur.

The Haranians did not forget the indifference of The Old Ones in their hour of need. They turned their backs and hearts on The Old Ones. The only god to ever appear to those who worshipped him, challenged The Old Ones openly. His name was The Saint of Blades and he was a match for any of them. Only to the beauty
of Trieste did he acquiesce. Helion called a council of The Old Ones and they decided that this world had seen enough use of them; they would go elsewhere and aid some other fledgling civilization. The White Lady would not leave; Trieste would not abandon her people. She had seen a coming doom. The Black Door would swing wide and the armies of The Abyss would issue orth as though a river. The Old Ones left without farewell or fanfare. one day, they were simply gone.

For fifty years, the peoples of Haran prepared for war. The Azure Order honed their bladecraft; The Incar steeped themselves in the study and practice of magic; The Summoners delved ever more deep into their black arts; The Segita harnessed the power of Haran through the tips of their arrows; The Bagi called to the far recesses
of themselves for strength and pushed their twisted bodies to unknown limits; And The Segnale, the blood drinkers, assassins of The Abyss, even they gave the sternest blood of their Pitborn hearts to the ways of healing and murder.

All these long years, the most powerful of The Incar had focused the whole of their energies on holding. The Black Door shut. It was the treachery of the exiled king, Rictus, and his sorcerer, Baphomet, that undid the spells binding the door. It swung wide and the Pitborn poured through. Trieste and The Saint of Blades had developed a strategy with forces stationed throughout the land in an attempt to compensate for their inferior numbers. Though the peoples of Haran fought well and bravely, it was a futile effort and Trieste had always known that it would be. When all of the forces of each race were pushed to the frozen wastes for a final confrontation with Abaddon and his forces, Trieste disappeared. Seeing this, the others fled – all but The Saint of Blades and his followers, The White Blades. They fought to the last and The Saint of Blades, though he could not die, was beaten into a supernatural sleep by Abaddon himself.

Trieste had not fled in fear; she left in secret to seal shut the gate with an act of self-sacrifice that honored all who had died in battle. With her own heartsblood, she sealed shut the gate and the creatures of The Abyss were sent back to their foul realm. So has it been for centuries, Haran on one side of the door, The Abyss on the other. Trieste is gone, much of the old lore is lost, the peoples of Haran are scattered and few, and now, the door opens again….

Haihaff
The kingdom of Trieste, The White Lady. She chose this
frozen place to rule after The Old Ones abandoned
Haran. Parca Temple, her seat of power, rests in
northern Haihaff. Many battles were fought here, and the
enemies of Haran still prowl here in Trieste’s absence.

Darco
The great desert was not always such a desolate
waste. Before The Battle of A Thousand Magicians razed
all life in it to dust, it was a vast garden, the green jewel
of Haran. A few oases remain, shadows of what once was.In the southwest corner lies Python Castle, a haunted and forbidding prison.

Requies
Resting on the edge of the Pederan Ocean,
Requies was the ancestral home of a savage people that
were routed by The Segnale when they fled The Abyss.
Rumors abound that The Segnale have underground
tunnels throughout Requies, but no such thing has been
proven. A great and powerful evil is held here that none have ever seen and lived to tell of.

Avalon
The Isle of The Dead, Avalon houses the souls of all The White Blades who have died in battle. An ancient power holds sway in the center of the island. What it is, none can say, but not Trieste ventured there..

Crespo
The coldest place in Haran, and home to a rift between worlds that The Augur did not (or will not) close. Though the rift is dormant, monstrous Pitborn dwell here, trying always to call forth their brethren from The Abyss..
The Crevasse of Revenge
Here lives The Saint of Blades and what remains of his followers, The White Blades. It was in this place that he was abandoned by all the peoples of Haran in the final battle against Abaddon and his dread army. Called
simply Revenge by those who know this unforgiving place, a strange power fills the hearts of all who pass through with a thirst for vengeance.

Parca Temple
Trieste’s seat of power. Before she left this world, she
imprisoned some of the most powerful of Abaddon’s
servants here. It is a center for worship and healing,
but also a place of ancient knowledge.

Python Castle
Once the stronghold of Baphomet, The Black Mage, it is
now his prison. Dread creatures dwell here, devouring
all those who might attempt to free him. Only by
traversing The Draco can anyone come to this place, a
nd only the very powerful will be granted entrance.

Tomb of The Black Dragon
Little is known of this place. A path to it is rumored to exist inside Python Castle. If the rumor is true,
none live to confirm it.