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 Irith, which I began creating by mapping continents on graph
paper using colored pencils. My pride and joy, Irith has evolved into a
rich world upon which my games and fantasy fiction novels are based upon.
Over four
decades later, I'm still going and forward to the next batch of true
adventurers who can help me add to Irith's tapestry. Along
the way, I hope that readers of my fantasy books will find value in this
site.
I look forward to helping
you enjoy Irith as much as I've enjoyed creating it.
What is Irith?
Irith is a world with many
splendors 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 Drakiria, a mysterious land some have journeyed to but never
returned from. 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 little is known about them, for those from
the "civilized" continents choose to go there.
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."
Little,
if any, documentation exists regarding
the First Age of Man, and nothing nothing survives from the era to give
clues about the tragic period. This Age is commondly referred to by
scholars and historians 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.
The Second Age is
mostly undocumented other than common references
in bibles and other religious tomes that herald the return of the gods to
the heavens to guide the Irith's lost sheep. 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, as well as the different
non-human races that began to grow and spread.
Various religious texts talk of how the gods sought to cleanse the world of
past teachings that served only to corrupt the people and would eventually
do so again.
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 surviving
non-believers from the First Age, effectively destroying the last vestiges
of a time the gods would have the people of Irith forget about.
The
Third Age of Man is known as Age of Expansion, and only
a bit more historical documentation on the events of this time exist. As the
beliefs of the gods in the heavens took hold over the populations of Irith,
the people began to grow and prosper. The gods were aggressive in
asking their followers to spread their word across the lands, which were
fast lush and fertile again. Communities forged into countries and then kingdoms and empires.
It was a slow process, for the repopulation of the world took many
centuries. 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."
The
Fourth Age of man lasted about 748 years. The last century-and-a-half of
the Fourth Age is stained by the rise of the dark Queendom of
Varanady. Varanady dominated Southern Houress both by arms and influence.
At the height of her power, the White Queen possessed eastern half of Southern Houress, her influence stretching far and wide
to disrupt
lands and people abroad. She
declared that a new age had dawned and ordered her historians to document
the event accordingly. But her empire was short lived. Soon after that, a
determined alliance of her own people and outer kingdoms brought her down.
Despite the fall of the queendom, her designation of a new age—to be
called the “Fifth Age”--remained.
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."
Irith is a world with many
splendors 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). 
Little,
if any, documentation exists regarding
the First Age of Man, and nothing nothing survives from the era to give
clues about the tragic period. This Age is commondly referred to by
scholars and historians 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.
The Second Age is
mostly undocumented other than common references
in bibles and other religious tomes that herald the return of the gods to
the heavens to guide the Irith's lost sheep. 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, as well as the different
non-human races that began to grow and spread.
The
Third Age of Man is known as Age of Expansion, and only
a bit more historical documentation on the events of this time exist. As the
beliefs of the gods in the heavens took hold over the populations of Irith,
the people began to grow and prosper. The gods were aggressive in
asking their followers to spread their word across the lands, which were
fast lush and fertile again. Communities forged into countries and then kingdoms and empires.
It was a slow process, for the repopulation of the world took many
centuries. 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."
The
Fourth Age of man lasted about 748 years. The last century-and-a-half of
the Fourth Age is stained by the rise of the dark Queendom of
Varanady. Varanady dominated Southern Houress both by arms and influence.
At the height of her power, the White Queen possessed eastern half of Southern Houress, her influence stretching far and wide
to disrupt
lands and people abroad. She
declared that a new age had dawned and ordered her historians to document
the event accordingly. But her empire was short lived. Soon after that, a
determined alliance of her own people and outer kingdoms brought her down.
Despite the fall of the queendom, her designation of a new age—to be
called the “Fifth Age”--remained.
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.