HOME | DD

Description
The continent of Vesper is not alone in the world. Sailors from Arendelle and Corona have confirmed this by managing not to sail off the edge of the planet when they get too far away, instead finding a strange, almost empty place in its stead, which they called Widerhall–the Echo. And far to the south lies Kusini, all lush savanna and thick jungle. But it is in Vesper that so many stories are told, and it is Vesper that we tend to see.
It's an odd kind of world. On the surface? Relatively sturdy. Climate works roughly the same way, although it's a warmer world, so although most of the continent is temperate some of the islands to the south, like Tirapai and Omuru, have a definite tropical feel thanks to warm currents and gentle winds. The westernmost portion holds great broadleaf forests, drying out into scrubland and then desert as one travels south and east. The same applies to the east, although the forests here are temperate coniferous, blending in with the taiga and tundra that stretch across the north. The central lands are largely scrubland and prairie–good for farming if you can manage it. There's a fairly massive mountain range just on the border between Ingvarr and the Independent States of Vesper, but nothing that's too difficult to deal with.
But underneath, Vesper is very much alive, and very, very odd. There are dragons that migrate across the continent, burning many and gifting a chosen few with some of their powers. In the high mountains between Ingvarr and the Independent States there is the Spire, a repository and archive for all sorts of magical artifacts. In noisy laboratories and secret catacombs, alchemists use the line between magic and science as a skipping rope. There are some animals with more presence of mind than others, not quite familiars but not quite dumb beasts, who oft become companions to heroes and villains alike. There are references sprinkled across the world to Lord Demanitus, maker of mazes and master of the arcane, and the great battles he fought against his arch-nemesis, the warlock Zhan Tiri. There are monkeys that tell fortunes, werewolf curses that pass from anger to anger, and mummified soldiers that protect their masters' tombs. And even the common folk have heard tales of the ethereal powers held by the rulers of the world: of the golden hair of Princess Rapunzel of Corona, the mastery of winter by Queen Elsa of Arendelle, and the taming of terrible dragons and monkey-beasts by Shang Lan, Emperor by Right of World's End.
It is the 1,843rd year of the Era of Myonos, one thousand eight hundred and forty-three years since the founding of that island citadel whose dark-skinned sailors brought the world to its knees and then vanished as quickly as they came. It is fifteen hundred and eighteen years since the Hrosmenchen rode in from the central plains, bringing with them the Worship of the Heavens to displace the love of nature as practiced by the Myonotians and the Saporians. It is four hundred and six years since the birth of Gothel, the old Wise Woman common in tales across Vesper. And it is over three thousand years since the Sundrop and the Moonstone fell from the sky to opposite ends of the earth, and began to stretch towards each other.
Of the various alliances across the world the most powerful by far is that of the Seven Kingdoms, remnants of the old Myonotian Empire in varying degrees. They are: Corona, a maritime monarchy in the far west of the known world, with its capital Lys an island easily defended by the Wall of Oak; Pittsford-Weselton, an island nation famous for their terrifying mercenaries, sullen sheep, and capital clocks; Neserdnia, settled by a southern people after a terrible plague killed off most of the inhabitants, carrying a fascination with both alchemy and magic alike; Koto, surrounding an enchanted sea, with beautiful basalt coasts and magnificent statues carved into the cliffs to the south of the capital; Galcrest, home to a silent, secretive people (but very big on hot springs and geysers, they keep your house warm like nobody's business); Ingvarr, a nation of warrior-women that wrested back control from the Hrosmenschen and are famous for their cavalry archers on the dusty plains; and Bayangor, formal, ancient, rich in culture and cuisine. They are united by alliance in war, by trade in peace, by the Worship of the Heavens in life and death. Between them, the various monarchs hold the most powerful armies in the known world.
Other states of note: Arendelle, a kingdom recently colonized and specializing in the rare commodity of ice for sale to the nearer of the Seven Kingdoms; Equis, next-door neighbour to Corona and her long-time rival, built as a nearly-impenetrable cliff fortress*; Vardaros in the Independent States, a city built into a canyon around a mesa, creating the world's first twenty-storey residential buildings; Agrabah, a trade city in the southeast of the Untamed Regions rumoured to be protected by the Spirit of the Desert; World's End, also called the Nine States, ruled by god-emperors and philosopher-kings and almost a world of its own; and Nadir, also called the Dark Kingdom, where over the course of eight hundred and seventy-seven years the adamantine rocks born of the Moonstone have slowly turned the most powerful country in the north into a broken, dead wasteland.

* Unless, of course, your name is Flynn Rider. Never quite sure what happened to that guy, but he was a legend. (Key word, I'm afraid, being was.)

***

(So maybe I got through Tangled: The Series over the course of a few days. And maaaaaybe I was a bit disappointed by some of the sloppy world-building geographically when there is so much they actually managed right and wanted to help out a little, even if I ended up being a little sloppy in turn. Still–plenty of room to improve, eh? World map for Tangled made using Inkarnate™.)

Description
The continent of Vesper is not alone in the world. Sailors from Arendelle and Corona have confirmed this by managing not to sail off the edge of the planet when they get too far away, instead finding a strange, almost empty place in its stead, which they called Widerhall–the Echo. And far to the south lies Kusini, all lush savanna and thick jungle. But it is in Vesper that so many stories are told, and it is Vesper that we tend to see.
It's an odd kind of world. On the surface? Relatively sturdy. Climate works roughly the same way, although it's a warmer world, so although most of the continent is temperate some of the islands to the south, like Tirapai and Omuru, have a definite tropical feel thanks to warm currents and gentle winds. The westernmost portion holds great broadleaf forests, drying out into scrubland and then desert as one travels south and east. The same applies to the east, although the forests here are temperate coniferous, blending in with the taiga and tundra that stretch across the north. The central lands are largely scrubland and prairie–good for farming if you can manage it. There's a fairly massive mountain range just on the border between Ingvarr and the Independent States of Vesper, but nothing that's too difficult to deal with.
But underneath, Vesper is very much alive, and very, very odd. There are dragons that migrate across the continent, burning many and gifting a chosen few with some of their powers. In the high mountains between Ingvarr and the Independent States there is the Spire, a repository and archive for all sorts of magical artifacts. In noisy laboratories and secret catacombs, alchemists use the line between magic and science as a skipping rope. There are some animals with more presence of mind than others, not quite familiars but not quite dumb beasts, who oft become companions to heroes and villains alike. There are references sprinkled across the world to Lord Demanitus, maker of mazes and master of the arcane, and the great battles he fought against his arch-nemesis, the warlock Zhan Tiri. There are monkeys that tell fortunes, werewolf curses that pass from anger to anger, and mummified soldiers that protect their masters' tombs. And even the common folk have heard tales of the ethereal powers held by the rulers of the world: of the golden hair of Princess Rapunzel of Corona, the mastery of winter by Queen Elsa of Arendelle, and the taming of terrible dragons and monkey-beasts by Shang Lan, Emperor by Right of World's End.
It is the 1,843rd year of the Era of Myonos, one thousand eight hundred and forty-three years since the founding of that island citadel whose dark-skinned sailors brought the world to its knees and then vanished as quickly as they came. It is fifteen hundred and eighteen years since the Hrosmenchen rode in from the central plains, bringing with them the Worship of the Heavens to displace the love of nature as practiced by the Myonotians and the Saporians. It is four hundred and six years since the birth of Gothel, the old Wise Woman common in tales across Vesper. And it is over three thousand years since the Sundrop and the Moonstone fell from the sky to opposite ends of the earth, and began to stretch towards each other.
Of the various alliances across the world the most powerful by far is that of the Seven Kingdoms, remnants of the old Myonotian Empire in varying degrees. They are: Corona, a maritime monarchy in the far west of the known world, with its capital Lys an island easily defended by the Wall of Oak; Pittsford-Weselton, an island nation famous for their terrifying mercenaries, sullen sheep, and capital clocks; Neserdnia, settled by a southern people after a terrible plague killed off most of the inhabitants, carrying a fascination with both alchemy and magic alike; Koto, surrounding an enchanted sea, with beautiful basalt coasts and magnificent statues carved into the cliffs to the south of the capital; Galcrest, home to a silent, secretive people (but very big on hot springs and geysers, they keep your house warm like nobody's business); Ingvarr, a nation of warrior-women that wrested back control from the Hrosmenschen and are famous for their cavalry archers on the dusty plains; and Bayangor, formal, ancient, rich in culture and cuisine. They are united by alliance in war, by trade in peace, by the Worship of the Heavens in life and death. Between them, the various monarchs hold the most powerful armies in the known world.
Other states of note: Arendelle, a kingdom recently colonized and specializing in the rare commodity of ice for sale to the nearer of the Seven Kingdoms; Equis, next-door neighbour to Corona and her long-time rival, built as a nearly-impenetrable cliff fortress*; Vardaros in the Independent States, a city built into a canyon around a mesa, creating the world's first twenty-storey residential buildings; Agrabah, a trade city in the southeast of the Untamed Regions rumoured to be protected by the Spirit of the Desert; World's End, also called the Nine States, ruled by god-emperors and philosopher-kings and almost a world of its own; and Nadir, also called the Dark Kingdom, where over the course of eight hundred and seventy-seven years the adamantine rocks born of the Moonstone have slowly turned the most powerful country in the north into a broken, dead wasteland.

* Unless, of course, your name is Flynn Rider. Never quite sure what happened to that guy, but he was a legend. (Key word, I'm afraid, being was.)

***

(So maybe I got through Tangled: The Series over the course of a few days. And maaaaaybe I was a bit disappointed by some of the sloppy world-building geographically when there is so much they actually managed right and wanted to help out a little, even if I ended up being a little sloppy in turn. Still–plenty of room to improve, eh? World map for Tangled made using Inkarnate™.)