Scarterra
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The Laws of Scarterra
Scarterra/Scaraqua is not a globe, it is a cylinder. If you go off the edge of the cylinder at the north or south pole, you will walk into a sub realm of ice and darkness and beyond this a realm of malevolent nothing called the Void. This is why the world gets colder to closer you get to the poles. The The Barrier keeps the Void from destroying the material plane outright but minor fluctuations in the strength of the Barrier end up creating the four seasons.
The core of world is The Elemental Plane. Not only does the core periodically belch new minerals, air, water, and heat into the world but it also saturates the world with the spiritual essence of the four classic elements of air, earth, fire, and water which alters the the evolution of most life forms and it enables arcane magic to exist by tapping into this energy.
The gods of the world, known as the the Nine live in the sky above, known as Aetherial Realm where they try to manage the world and make sure neither the Void nor the Elemental Plane accidentally overwhelms the mortal plane.
Cosmology
Most Scarterrans believe that Turoch created the world in order to raise and consume souls to eat like a rancher raising sheep or pigs for the slaughter until his most powerful servants, now known as the Nine rebelled against him and set themselves as the new gods and goddesses of the world. Turoch's corpse and everlasting hunger to consume everything became The Void.
The Nine have collectively tried to make a better world than Turoch's world and they arguably succeeded but the Nine squabble among themselves a lot and this squabbling has trickled down to the mortal plane causing mortals to squabble and make war on each other.
Most Scaraquans believe that the Sea, Sky, and Sea Floor are living primoridial forces though they are not sapient like people, but instinctual like simple animals.
The Sea, Sky, and Sea Floor had children, the nine gods. In the process of brithing five goddesses and four gods, the land was sort of a divine afterbirth or cosmic hairball.
One of the trickster goddesses tricked the sky gods into releasing their fire creating the sun and moon which allowed life to exist in the ocean and on the sea floor. Then another trickster goddess stole some rain from the ocean goddesses and sky gods to allow life to allow life to exist on land.
Both Scarterra and Scaraqua have nine gods each but neither side is fully aware that they have the same nine gods, just with different names and visages. A lot of them are gender swapped. Scarterra has five gods and four goddesses which is why their societies have a tendency to be patriarchal. Scaraqua has five goddesses and four gods which is why their societies have a tendency to be matriarchal.
Principal Geography & Features
Scarterra has four large contiental land masses and one mini-continent loosely grouped around a large central ocean. This is inspired by how Southern Africa, Western Asia, and Southern Europe ring around the Mediteranean Sea only much bigger.
Most Scarterrans live in the temperate and subtropical regions of the major land masses because this is the most fertle cropland. The colder areas are unsuitable for farming but are able to allow nomadic herders and hunters to subsist there.
Scaraqua makes up the Inner Ocean in between the major land masses and the Outer Ocean which flows around the major land masses.
Most Scaraquans live in the shallow equatorial waters where the tropical currents allow for fertile undersea agriculture and abundant fish to eat.
The deeper and colder waters don't allow for any real agriculture but they allow for nomadic swimmers to subsist there.
Initial Active Setting
Scarterra/Scaraqua has a surface area of 48,000 square miles, roughly the surface area of the planet Mars in the real solar system, but most of my RPG adventurers and planned novels take place in the center region of the continent of West Colassia. A land locked area of about 4000 square miles.
The central characters are either from or at least currently dwelling in the nation of Fumaya and the microstates known as the Border Baronies. Small scrappy nations surrounded by much larger stronger powers.