The World Beyond Bridgeport#

Bridgeport sits at the mouth of the Godsfall River on the western coast of Algar, one nation among many on the continent of Elderland. It is a busy, prosperous city — and it is also a very small part of a very large world.

The Continent of Elderland#

Elderland is the known world for most of its inhabitants. It is vast enough that few people ever see more than a fraction of it in a lifetime, and large enough that its eastern reaches are more legend than geography to those living on the western coast.

Algar occupies a significant portion of Elderland’s western reaches. It is a parliamentary monarchy, governed by a Crown whose authority extends across hereditary Duchies and Baronies — except in places like Bridgeport, whose Freehold status grants it unusual autonomy. The capital is Knightsbridge, far to the south.

Beyond Algar lie other nations, other peoples, and other histories. The continent has been shaped by centuries of conflict, migration, and the rise and fall of civilizations whose names survive only in the oldest archives.

Beyond Elderland#

The world does not end at Elderland’s shores. Other continents lie across the seas, each with its own character:

Issitania — Scorched and sun-bound. A land of heat, endurance, and ancient power baked into the stone.

Lakh-Ur — Ancient and unyielding. Whatever shaped Lakh-Ur shaped it a very long time ago, and it has not forgotten.

Saturna — Distant and half-mythical. Few who speak of Saturna have been there. Whether the stories are accurate is difficult to verify.

Ships leave Bridgeport’s harbor for distant ports. Some of those voyages eventually reach these shores. Most sailors have opinions about what they find there.

The Mirror Planes#

Beyond the material world lie two mirror realms — dimensions that reflect and refract Orb in different ways:

The Umbral — A realm of shadow, memory, and endings. The Umbral exists alongside the material world as its darker reflection, a place where boundaries blur and old truths linger. It is presided over by Noctis. Those who venture there find that the Umbral remembers things the material world has forgotten.

Haelo — A realm of growth, excess, and untamed possibility. Haelo is the fey mirror — wilder, stranger, and less bound by the rules that govern mortal existence. The goblins of the Gutterdeep Warrens are said to have slipped into the world through a fey crossing at Silmar, driven out of Haelo by forces they refuse to name clearly.

The boundaries between Orb and these mirror planes are not always stable. Thin places exist where the walls grow weak — and what lies on the other side does not always wait to be invited through.

A Note on Scale#

Most of this is background knowledge — the kind of thing a well-traveled merchant or a well-read scholar might know. The party’s story begins in Bridgeport. The wider world exists, it presses in at the edges, and it will make itself felt in time.

For now, the Godsfall River is running, the harbor is busy, and there is work to be done.