Welcome!

When I discovered the glorious game of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (AD&D) back in 1983 in high school, I knew right away that I wanted to run or Dungeon Master (DM) my own game. Not long thereafter, I realized that rather than use one of the commercially-produced worlds out there, I wanted to make a world of my own.

Thus sprouted the concept of the world of Irith, which I began creating by mapping continents on graph paper using colored pencils. It was my pride and joy and has grown into a solid world for AD&D players to game in and lately a rich envronment to provide a basis for my upcoming books and other stories. Nearly three decades later, I'm still going. I look foward to the next batch of true adventurers who can help me weave the next tapestry to add to Irith. Along the way, I hope that readers of my fantasy books will find value in this site.

Here, you can explore the maps and those areas I've fleshed out to get a richer vision of the canvas I'm trying to paint. You'll find information about the various kingdoms and their histories and much more. If you have any questions or concerns, let me know. I look forward to helping you enjoy Irith as much as I have had creating it.

A special thanks to Robb Hughes for taking my flat, weak maps and turning them into something that really catches the eye.


What is Irith?

Irith is a world with many spelndors to spark the imagination and dangers to destroy the body and corrupt the soul. Irith itself consists of five continents: Houress, Clorne, Drakiria, The Top of the World (Arctic North Pole) and Irith's Heel (Southern Arctic Pole).

Houress and Clorne are populated, largely civilized places. Next to nothing is known about the mysterious Drakiria, for no one has ever claimed to have been from there or if they have, they have never admitted it. No one who has sailed there has ever returned. The Top of the World and Irith's Heel are cold, desolate, inhospitable places. Only a few rare tribes of humans and other humanoids live there, and those from the "civilized" continents have little reason to travel to these two places of extreme.

This is a single grayish moon that hangs in the sky above Irith. It is called by many names: Night Sun, Lunaria, Ithil, Cluthaau, Kr'Thur, etc. Most commonly it is referred to simply as "the moon."


 

**Ages of Man**

 

 


 

First Age


In terms of today, the First Age of Man is undocumented and nothing survives from the era to give clues about the tragic time. There only exists rumor and speculation. This Age is referred to by scholars and historians simply as the “Cleansing of the Light.” It was a time of pestilence and famine when the population had nearly reached extinction from a blight that suddenly came upon the world. It was a harsh time for Irith, and for nearly two-and-a-half centuries, the survivors fought to survive and repopulate.

 

But survive they did and began to thrive.

 

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Second Age


Today, the Second Age is largely undocumented other than common references in bibles and other religious tomes that herald the return of the gods to the heavens to guide the lost sheep on the troubled world below. It is also said that during the next thousand years, the gods took the world of Irith and seeded magic so that it would grow and proliferate. This led to the rise of magical creatures and animals, as well as the different non-human races that began to grow and spread.


The religious texts talk of how the gods sought to cleanse the world of past teachings that served only to corrupt the people and eventually lead to their downfall.
 

The Second Age lasted nearly a half a millennium. It ended with the great War of the Word, where people loyal to the gods they worshipped pursued and conquered the last surviving generations from the First Age, effectively destroying the last vestiges of a time the gods would have the people of Irith forget about.

 

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Third Age


Today, the Third Age of Man is referred to as Age of Expansion, and there is only a bit more historical documentation on the events of this time. As the beliefs of the gods in the heavens took hold over the population on Irith, the people there began to grow and prosper. The gods were aggressive in asking their followers to spread their word across the lands, which were returning to the lush vitality it had before the Cleansing of the Light. Communities began to forge into countries and then kingdoms and empires. It was a slow process, for the repopulation of the world took many centuries. Growth was hard, though, as many of the humanoids that rose to power as a result of magic in the land sought to gain dominance. Wars raged constantly across the land. After nearly 800 years, humans established themselves firmly as the dominant race on Irith. At the end of the Third Age, a common calendar was developed with the agreed-upon year beginning at “1”.

 

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Fourth Age


The Fourth Age of man only lasted about 748 years. The last century-and-a-half of the Fourth Age is marked by the rise of the dark Queendom of Varanady. Varanady dominated Southern Houress both by arms and influence. The White Queen and her armies had most of the eastern half of Southern Houress firmly under control and her influence stretched far and wide, disrupting lands and people abroad. Her influence was so great that she herself declared that a new age had dawned and ordered her historians to document the event accordingly. But her empire was short lived after that, and she was brought down by an alliance of her own people and those of Regdon. Despite the fall of the queendom, the designation of the new age—to be called the “Fifth Age”--remained.

 

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Fifth Age


The fall of Varanady brought a desire upon the people to forget about the White Queen and the grief and suffering she had caused. Nations were forged from the shattered lands and allies retreated home to lick their wounds and rebuild their populations. A time of relative peace settled upon Houress, which is where we find ourselves today.

 

The Fifth Age of Man is also referred to now as the "Age of Rebirth."

 

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