The world of CobraMode is a fantasy environment with magic and civilizations with various technologies at their disposal. Most of the world is inhabited by various intelligent species, while humans or similar creatures are very rare. Those few humans that can be found are usually deformed or partially transformed by magic.
So far the geography of the world has not been defined, but in general most of it lies on a continent similar to Pangaea. In the central southeast lies the Mikata Wetland, which borders the ocean. To the west of the Mikata lies the Qian Sheng Shan, the Thousand Sacred Mountains. North of the Qian Sheng Shan lies the Taforalt Desert. North of the Mikata lies the Kutugha Steppe. Between the Kutugha Steppe and the Taforalt Desert lies considerable forest, part of which is the Silvan Forest. However, the Dusk Forest is located southeast of the Mikata Wetland. There is also a large continent-island across the sea from the Mikata, called Boondaburra.
Magic and the Barrow Realm
Magic in this world is accessed through the use of the power of a dead god. When gods die, an alternate realm is created in the image of their mind. Mortals can access this realm to tap into the power of the god. The power of a living god is inaccessible to mortals, although gods can favor those who worship them and lend their strength or grant favors. There are many ways to access a Barrow Realm, most of which are kept secret by practitioners of magic. There are also countless Barrow Realms, and each grants access to different kinds of magic based on the god's previous powers.
There are Realm Hunters who seek unclaimed Barrow Realms to access; there are Gods Hunters who try to take power by force; others stumble upon a Barrow Realm by accident without knowing what they have found; and some have accidentally killed their living god by trying to use its power.
Barrow Realms can often be entered by visiting the location of a dead god's corpse, where the image of their mind is strongest. Although the Barrow Realm itself is not bound to a single location, the corpse of the god acts as a strong link to the mortal realm, allowing mortals to cross over and access the power contained within. Practitioners of magic often take a piece of the god or some other fetish or totem to bind the Barrow Realm to themselves if they have to leave the location of the god's corpse. Generally, the farther a practitioner is from the corpse, the weaker the power they are able to manifest, although this depends mainly on the strength of both the Barrow Realm and the practitioner of magic.
The Barrow Realm itself will conform to the mental image of the dead god to whom it belongs. Typically it will reflect the lifestyle and powers of the god, and thus be very similar to the physical place where he once lived, although changed from the god's perspective. Knowledge of Barrow Realms is specialized and uncommon, so most who stumble upon it will not recognize it and will attribute the strange phenomena experienced within it to superstitious origins.
Some theologians speculate that there may be hundreds or thousands of gods in the world. They come in a wide variety and vary significantly in power level. New gods arise wherever there is life, generated and nurtured by the life force of what is nearby. So the most common gods are of ancient growth forests, woodlands and bodies of water. Cities also generate unique gods, although they tend to be less powerful depending on the age and variation of life forms in the city. Young gods (less than 1,000 years old) tend to be weaker and less substantial than older gods, although exceptions are always possible.
The Jebel Irhoud Guild of Theologians is famous for its study of the world's gods, and their theologians can be found in every corner of the world, carefully cataloguing the existence of the gods and Barrow Realms. Their central library is heavily guarded, as the theologians abhor the destruction of the gods and refuse to provide information to anyone they suspect of seeking magical power.
...Soon online the second part...
