Welcome one and all to the united fairy tale kingdoms. With a few exceptions, the collective myths from the history of the world's cultures exist together in a world wherein their stories are just a bit different from what we think we know them to be. And they are about to face a crisis that threatens to give all of them a very unhappy ending. This singular event will bring about an unprecedented level of interaction between these characters, their places of origin, and above all, the emergence of superhuman abilities that were just a tad too exciting for young children to cope with. These fairy tales aren't just for kids anymore. Like us, they've grown up.<br/><br/><br/>The world in which this game is set is divided up into four major continents: Northern, Eastern, Southern and Western. Each are separated from the rest by a strip of sea in an 'X' pattern that makes it impossible to simply walk or ride to the others, unless you have some means of flying your mount. The great calamity threatening the worlds emerges in the Eastern continent and makes its way West to conquer the rest. Those that were not wiped out or avoided coming under the thrall of the great evil fled to any of the other continents to seek refuge or allies to help them combat the oncoming darkness. Will their combined might be enough to win the day after all?<br/><br/>The Northern continent stands in for Scandinavia, Russia and most of the Northern places in our world that are very cold and mostly covered in ice. There are valleys where snowfall is rare, while the mountains surrounding them are covered in it. Myths from Norse culture, Russian folklore and the like are what reside here, and the forested areas are the home of trolls which are indigenous only to this continent. It is the smallest continent of the four.<br/><br/>The Eastern continent is divided into distinct regions. The Northern part is a meshing of China and other Asian countries and is the largest part. The Southeast region is like that of India and its folklore hail from here. The Southwest region is a desert and home to many of the Middle East cultural myths, including the infamous Djinni, of whom arch villain Rumplestiltskin is a former member until his freedom had been wished for by a hapless 'master' that simply wanted mercy after having two of his three wishes twisted by the sadistic imp. It is this continent that falls before Rumple's cruel ambition first, and his initial stronghold until (if) he succeeds in expanding his reach across the seas.<br/><br/>The Southern continent is largely a mirror of this world's Africa, with its largest region in the South being much the same as the jungle-covered tribal land from the movies. The smaller Northern region is divided up into a small desert region in the Northeast where a few remaining Middle Eastern myths might come from (Egypt, for instance) and the Northwest is more of a Mediterranean/Greek sort of landscape.<br/><br/>The Western continent is something of a pan-European place (minus the Scandinavian, Greek and Russian territories it shared or bordered) in the largest Eastern region, while the Western region of this continent is home of the North and South American native cultures' inspirations. It is here that our most familiar myths and fairy tales are from, and the one Rumple is most interested in conquering.<br/><br/>The waters of the world are teeming with life, most of it hostile and so it is necessary that at some point, each continent's leading ruling body made negotiations with the merfolk in exchange for protection and peaceful passage all over the world. The merpeople are ubiquitous, not a place in the whole wide ocean doesn't have a settlement of theirs somewhere in the depths, so their diversity will also be reflective of where they are located relative to each continent.<br/><br/>There is a hidden realm, the supposed source of all magic, though little is truly understood about it. Why some children are born with magic though their lineage may never have had anyone else with the gift, is a mystery, for instance. Generally those who possess the gifts are not feared for it, especially if they are royalty, but of the three ways one may come to possess magic - birth, having it bestowed as a gift (or curse) by another, or, rarest of all, learning it on one's own from arcane texts and rituals - the latter does inspire fear in the general populace, for why would a person spend so great a time and expend so much effort to learn these things if they did not intend to use them? Typically those that are nefarious in how they wield their gifts are dealt with swiftly by those who use their gifts justly, or remain hidden or isolated to avoid reprisals.<br/><br/>Magic comes in three traditional forms; transmogrification, enchantment, and summoning. Transmogrification involves any sort of magic that alters the physical form of the user or any other living or non-living matter. Enchantment causes living or non-living things to attain special properties that are either beyond normal physical laws or which are not part of their normal function. Summoning is the conjuration of anything, be it energy or substance, from seemingly nothing (this is the most closely related to the unseen world from which magic emerges). It is rare to see a wielder of the gift that encompasses more than one of the three types of magic simultaneously, and exceedingly so for one to wield all three. Rumplestiltskin is one of these exceeding rarities.<br/><br/>It is said that any beast of the wild that is considered an abomination, trolls and Djinni and the the like, are from the dark side of this unseen realm, and the more benevolent ones, merfolk and those with a sense of right and wrong, come from the light side. None have been known to travel there, or at least none have returned to tell the tale but it is said that the interior of a Djinn's lamp is a gateway through to there. And that travel through any enchanted mirror in the realm is actually using a doorway into the enchanted realm, but the time spent there is so fleeting, one wouldn't notice.<br/><br/>***<br/><br/>So, how does that sound? Questions? Compliments? Suggestions? I'm all ears. You may begin posting profiles here, one at a time, and edit them at your leisure.