a bit lost? here's a map

and a recap

Eloria

The

Silver Circle

Mirenvalle

Emberline

Dominara

Iron Tier

Sector Zero

The Vales

Verellen

Old

Concordia

Elunthar Forest

Eloen Reach

The Sunny Side

The

Barricade

Velanth

Bloodspire

Ashveil

Velmore

Ravelyn's

Woods

Velmore Alps

Ravelyn's Alley

Rift Zone

Elaris

Elaris is lush, misty, and very humid: rivers, groves, and rain-fed forests stitch cities together, with coastal fogs and ward-protected woods where magic saturates the air. Think temperate-to-warm zones that feel perpetually watered and alive.

Eloria (Capital)
A vast, tech-savvy capital where nature is braided into stone and glass—skybridges, pale towers veined with flowering plants, and soft ward-light that skins the city. Imagine “Kyoto’s garden discipline × Copenhagen’s clean lines,” scaled to a capital.
The Silver Circle (University-City)
Oldest university on the three continents; a knowledge mecca where libraries, workshops, and warded labs occupy cloisters and terraced quads. Feels like Oxford/Cambridge meets a high-fantasy observatory.
Verellen (Breadbasket Gate)
Mid-sized and practical, surrounded by wheat, vineyards, and orchards; culturally mixed (notably elf-human). Think “Provence market towns × Bavarian farm belts,” built in elven stonework.
Eloen Reach (Rivers & Sea)
River deltas and groves spilling into seaside promenades; a favored holiday departure point with ferries and salt air. Picture Lisbon waterfront × Amalfi calm, but greener.
Mirenvale (Healing & Preservation)
North of Eloria near the Silver Circle; renowned for healing, communication, and preservation tech—welcoming, with many elf-vampire settlers.
Emberline (Defense Corridor)
Closer to the human border; a defense-tech, manufacturing, and logistics hub with a long, competitive history against Mirenvale.
Elunthar Woods & Elunthar City (Gateway)
Elunthar City is the mandatory checkpoint and archive hub for all forest expeditions—permits, research, culling missions, and records flow through here. Inside the Woods lie distinct sub-regions (Rootlands, Whispergrove, Wildshade, etc.), each a self-contained biome under ancient wards. Vibe: a green UNESCO-park crossed with a permit-only research reserve.

Civic culture
Elaris prizes neutrality, scholarship, and environmental stewardship; ordinances around wards, spirits, and living corridors are taken seriously (permits, reporting, maintenance). Politics is “slow, careful, documented”—consensus over spectacle.
Ruling House (constitutional dynasty)
Elaris is led by lineage, but not as a single monarch: the High Seat is effectively a family council, with senior members stewarding key portfolios (foreign affairs, defense, healing/education, archives/arcana). Think “constitutional dynasty × civil-service cabinet,” where the surname anchors legitimacy and the work is distributed. The Fenroths are the current ruling house.
Elected bodies (local & continental)
City councils are elected to run municipal life—planning, research charters, ward maintenance, and services. Above them sits a People’s Council, elected at regular intervals, which can ratify or veto major decrees from the ruling house; together they form a two-chamber balance that favors debate over dominance.

Population Racial mix
Predominantly Elves, with significant mixed communities near borders and university hubs. Elves 55%, Elf-Human 25%, Humans 10%, Elf-Vampire 8%, Vampires 2%. These ranges track with known city profiles: Verellen (elf-human majority), Mirenvale (notably open to elf-vamp settlers), and Eloria’s cosmopolitan core.
Social notes
- Elven craft is a cultural shield— fine jewelry and smithing that can subtly enhance or suppress traits; patience and caution are public virtues.
- Elves × Vampires — friction by difference, not feud.
  
  They don’t “hate” each other; they move on different clocks and values. Elves are long-lived but mortal, so they plan for the long term, prefer consensus, and follow careful procedures. Vampires are effectively immortal, decide faster, and prioritize direct results with a higher tolerance for risk. That mismatch in pace, priorities, and everyday etiquette creates friction. It’s cultural and practical—not a rivalry.
- Old fame of the Elves (“ambushers”). Outsiders—especially vampires—joke that elves “win by waiting,” then strike from cover. The stereotype comes from warded terrain, meticulous permits, and battlefield layouts that favor traps, seals, and prepared ground over open charges; even palaces carry layered restraints and hidden devices.
Food culture
Markets are abundant (Verellen’s produce, light wines, orchard sweets), coastal dishes flourish in Eloen Reach (river fish, citrus-herb marinades), and forest towns champion preserves, teas, and foraged fungi. Fresh first, preserved second; ceremony optional, quality non-negotiable.
Architecture & urban feel
Nature-integrated design (living walls, skybridges, ward-lit facades) is standard; campuses and clinics prefer cloistered courtyards; industrial belts keep clean lines with strict noise/ward codes.

Elunthar Biomes & Sub-regions

Elunthar City is the mandatory checkpoint; all expeditions register here; reports to Aaron Fenroth.
Functions: beast-culling missions, mineral/plant extraction management, research permits; mild climate under wards; Great Archives store centuries of records.
The Rootlands (tropical swamp/jungle): heat, humidity, constant rain; giant fungi, carnivorous plants; massive amphibians, burrowing wurms, insect swarms; rare moss-crystals (humidity absorbers). Access: normal (with expertise).
Whispergrove (coastal mangrove + caves): warm/humid days, cooler nights; mangrove bridges, moon-bloom flowers; glowing deer, mimic parrots, cave predators; Sound Quartz (stores vibrations), salt crystals, underground pearls. Access: semi-open; storms/beasts; danger rises near Forbidden Zone.
Risha’s Path (hidden/sacred): stable twilight; silver-bloom flowers mark the route; spirit-like fauna; mining forbidden; not on maps.
The Wildshade (hostile forest): violent weather swings; thorned stone-bark trees, parasitic vines; horned bears, shadowcats, diving hawk-beasts; ironwood, obsidian shards. Access: very restricted (trained/military escort).
Glen of the Ancients (Forbidden Zone): ageless colossal trees, elemental guardians, no common wildlife; believed resting ground of the last Blessings; exploration banned; border guards posted. Access: forbidden.

Peace- and knowledge-oriented; famed smithing/jewelry that can enhance or block powers. Long-lived but mortal. Rare individuals carry a Blessing of Vision (glimpses of past/emotions/incipient intent). Cultural reputation: cautious/neutral—viewed by some (esp. vampires) as hesitators; shaped by centuries of abundance. Physically graceful; light hair/eyes; distance from vampires stems from worldview, not hate.

Reputation (“Old Fame”)
Caution as strategy. Known for neutrality, delay, careful wording when others demand decisive action.
Historical read
- To vampires/humans this appears as hesitation; to elves it is prudence across centuries-long horizons.
- Cultural Causes: Abundance. A continent long spared by famines/plagues/wars fostered values of peace, balance, knowledge over conquest.
Craft as shield. Excellence in smithing/jewelry; embedding magic to enhance/suppress traits became a cultural defense.
Blind Spots
- Naïveté risk. Limited collective trauma → occasional underestimation of cruelty elsewhere. Patience can read as betrayal when others bleed.
Physiology & Bearing
- Slender, graceful; light hair (blond/white/light brown/shades of blue); light eyes.
- Longevity. Centuries-long lives, not immortal.
Relations
- Humans: Generally amicable; little contempt for mixed lineages.
- Vampires: Distance is cultural, not hateful—opposing worldviews on action vs. restraint.
Rare Gift — Blessing of Vision.
Effect. Glimpses of past, hidden emotion, incipient intent via eye contact.
Government — Rule of the High Elves
- Shared monarchy.
- Power resides in the royal bloodline, which rules together by portfolio (diplomacy, law, culture, defense, etc.).
- Primary voice. One ruler is selected by an elected Council to act as the kingdom’s principal voice.
- Blend. Structure balances lineage with popular choice, tradition with accountability.

Umbra

Umbra runs cold most of the year. Coastal mist and alpine winds frame a continent where daylight is brief, nights are busy, and ward-laws shape how people move.

Bloodspire (Capital)
Imagine Berlin × New York, but engineered by vampires: neon veins, graffiti layers, stacked nightlife, and underground corridors—yet sidewalks are spotless, lines straight, signage precise. It’s weirdly clean for how lived-in it feels: military organization, relentless maintenance.
Velanth (Tech Port)
Labs over docks, cranes over warded warehouses; a research-driven harbor city where prototypes move as fast as cargo. Think “Hamburg harbor with an MIT attitude,” under tighter night codes.
Velmore (Low-life, high stakes)
Chaotic builds, rusted chapels bolted to street corners, alleyways you can’t tell are for cars or people. Dirty, crowded, and opportunistic—everything can happen here. Religion, scams, and quick fortunes sit side by side; apartments pile upward because there’s no space left. Most mercenary firms are based here. Almost no direct daylight.
Velmorne Alps (Warded alpine cities)
All towns are carved inside the mountains under a lattice of daylight-only movement protocols. Wealthy and educated, with precise etiquette and strict curfews; think alpine galleries, tunneled rail, and silent lifts—the opposite of Velmore.
Ashveil Region (Desert & Ruins)
A harsh interior of dunes, dead cities, and storm corridors. Travel follows warded roads and scheduled convoys; research camps are temporary.
Ravelyn’s Alley & Woods
Zero tech. Paths are ritual, lit by oil and ward-fire; bone-wards and spoken oaths matter more than machines. Vampires here sit close to dark magic and ancestral practice—closer to “before cities” than “after industry.”

Government & Politics:
Democracy via ministries; elections every 15 years. Only vampires with powerful blood can run; “blood” is felt by others; purity often inherited so lineages persist; blood lineage widely respected.
- Core principle — power you can feel.
  Umbra values felt strength over slogans or surnames: vampires can literally sense will and “blood power,” so legitimacy is tied to presence and capability more than to ideals. This is why outsiders’ “titles first” politics don’t travel well here.
- Structure — ministries + Council of Blood.
  Government runs through specialized ministries (security, trade, research, health, etc.) coordinated by the Council of Blood. Roughly every 15 years, a ritual, audited election—the Sanguine Vote—selects the highest governor among them. Eligibility is restricted to candidates whose blood is strong enough to be felt by others, which keeps certain lineages competitive but does not guarantee them victory.
- Names vs. power.
  Famous families help, but names don’t rule on their own. In practice, blood that commands respect usually comes from old houses, so the same clans appear repeatedly—yet a weaker heir can still lose to a rival whose presence and backing test stronger.

Vampires 70–85%; Half-vamp (incl. elf-vamp) 5–10%; Humans 3–7%; Elves 2–5%; Other/Transient 1–3%. Ports and universities skew more mixed.

How others see vampires vs. reality
Outside cultures (especially humans) often inherit stories that paint vampires as predatory or untrustworthy. In practice, Umbra is highly pragmatic and very open-minded: most people don’t care about sex, gender, religion, or even conventional “physics” norms. What matters is what they can feel/sense/smell—presence, honesty, competence, and how you handle responsibility. Prejudice against them is mostly a learned cultural script from elsewhere, not something Umbra reinforces.
Values & social norms
Status comes from felt strength (willpower, steadiness, skill) and verified results, not from ideology. Consent, clear rules, and follow-through are baseline etiquette; if you say you’ll do something, you do it, and people can usually tell if you’re bluffing.
Identity & belief
Umbra is hands-off about identity. Relationships can be fluid; faiths vary from none to old rites; science and ritual often sit side by side. As long as your practices are safe, consensual, and logged when required (e.g., wards, feeding), no one cares how you label yourself.
Senses as ethics
Because many vampires can literally read stress, lies, and intention through scent and aura, social trust is built on how you land in the room, not on family names or slogans. This makes communities tolerant of difference but impatient with posturing.
Why humans demonize them
Vampires do descend from demons—that’s canon—so fear has an easy origin point. Over centuries, human states also built identities around surpassing vampires: proving they were stronger, more “pure,” more deserving of power than an immortal minority. That competition hardened into resentment of longevity itself. (It’s ironic: humans don’t resent elves for long lives in the same way; the bias is specifically tied to vampires’ demonic origin and the visceral way their strength can be felt.)

Need vs. desire
Vampires biologically need blood once every 14 months (the Red Moon), but many desire it more often. That’s the honest reason blood banks and regulated programs exist: to channel desire into safe, traceable supply.
Red Moon (fact vs. myth)
It’s a 14-month astronomical cycle that triggers a biological resonance in vampires. Feeding that night is mandatory to sustain stability until the next cycle; skipping it leads to weakness and loss of control; even death. Outsider myth paints it as wild excess; Umbra treats it as regulated survival with stockpiles, schedules, and extra guards.
Feeding norms
Standard bites are brief and non-lethal (recovery like a donation). Many districts run preserved-blood programs, so Red Moon feeding can be staged safely without live biting. Consent and ward rules are enforced. Outside the official system, things get looser. Vampires are a less-restrained species than humans or elves; when desire spikes, some scenes push limits or skip paperwork. It’s culturally acknowledged, even glamorized in pockets, but still legally risky and policed when it spills into harm.
Blood-Mark (bond)
A deeper, ritual bite that leaves a distinct mark and forms a durable bond (shared strength, slowed aging for the marked, emotional tether). Culturally treated as a serious vow. The bitter can only feed from the bitten's blood until its death.
Chemistry of the bite (pain vs. match)
A bite always hurts like… a bite; what happens during depends on the chemical/aura match between biter and bitten. Some pairings align (endorphins, hormones, resonance) and feel warm/“right”; others clash and feel wrong or nauseating. Practically, it’s biology; culturally, many read a strong match as “fated,” and a bad one as a warning.
Blood Magic (what little is known)
An ancient discipline braided with Curses—“dark” not as evil, but as deeper, costed, and hard to grasp. Records are scarce; most knowledge is oral and guarded. In practice, it shows up as pacts, marks, bindings, and contractual seals (e.g., bite-marks, word-pacts, state contracts); it runs on will, consent, and price. Culturally, vampires treat it like a serious tool rather than a taboo—common in effect, rare in instruction—and outsiders often misread it.

Erratic, immortal in terms of ageing, mortal as they can die; wealthy/cunning; adept with dark magic and enhancing tattoos. Need blood only on the Red Moon every 14 months. Possess unique gifts (not always “magical”). Can suppress red eyes/fangs; suppression is taxing when emotions surge. Blood reading senses states/illness and reads death-imprints from old blood (by talent/training).

Feeding effects & marks
- Ordinary feeding: nonlethal; donor weak briefly; trace vampire blood grants weeks–months of sharper senses/healing/strength.
- Blood-Mark: deep bite into mana channels; unique sigil; permanent bond (shared enhancements, disease resistance, slowed aging, emotional/occasional mental tether). Severing is near-impossible; death of one devastates the other. Sacred to many; feared/banned elsewhere; multiple bonds destabilize.
  - Meaning & Culture from a vampire view. The ultimate oath of love/loyalty/possession; traditionally once-in-a-lifetime (multiple bonds destabilize the vampire).
  - Outsider view. Often seen as enslavement/corruption; banned in some regions.
Physical Traits
- Universal markers. Born with red eyes and pointed fangs.
- Concealment. Many can suppress eyes/fangs to pass among other races; this used to be common, but modern tolerance means many no longer bother.
- Usually red, black, and pink hair. Half-humans: silver. Half-elves: green.
Feeding & Blood Instinct
- Minimal requirement. One feeding every 14 months on the Red Moon sustains them to the next cycle.
- Chemical attraction. Some blood “profiles” are irresistibly attractive, making control harder.
- Instinct triggers. Control is weakest under heightened emotion—pain, jealousy, lust, rage, deep love.
Blood Reading
- Living blood. Scent/taste can reveal emotional state, illness, deception (range varies).
- Old blood. Carries a final-moment imprint perceptible to trained readers.
- Variability. Talent differs widely; training refines clarity and duration.
Instinct & Control
- Innate sense. All vampires have baseline blood-sense; aptitude varies like human intuition.
- Suppression cost. Constantly hiding traits/urges is mentally taxing—harder for the young; improves with age/discipline.
- Outliers. A rare few achieve near-total suppression, indistinguishable from mortals unless they choose otherwise.
Modern life
- Open living is increasingly accepted, though prejudice persists by region.
- Blood economy. Some communities store/trade blood before the Red Moon as ritual/civic practice
- Perception. Other races are fascinated and wary of blood-reading; caution is common.

Concordia

Concordia enjoys a generally mild, four-season climate (helped by old pacts), fewer monster incidents than other continents, and dense urban belts broken by fertile valleys and coasts.

Dominara (Capital)
Hyper-modern core city—think NYC × Tokyo—of glass towers, transit spines, and administrative blocks tied to national programs. Tech firms, defense contractors, and federal labs cluster here.
Old Concordia (Historic capital + University)
The older political heart with the largest university network and sites tied to 300-year-old pacts; urban but less “concrete jungle” than Dominara.
Sector Zero (Residential belt)
A vast human residential district between Dominara and Old Concordia—commuter lines, schools, logistics hubs; built for scale and stability.
Rift Zone (Mixed quarter)
High-risk, high-mix district where smugglers, low-tier tattoo parlors, and curse encounters show up next to cheap housing; opportunity and danger sit on the same block.
Iron Tier (Green, affluent ring)Leafy residential zones and corporate campuses—clean transit, parks, and higher incomes; where policy pilots and health programs often roll out first.
The Barricade (Desert military line)
Concordia’s fortified desert complex on the Umbra border (Ashveil side): proving grounds, depots, and forward command for cross-border operations.
The Sunny Side (Coastal leisure city)
Tourism, promenades, and ports; the public face of Concordia’s “good life” with strict city ordinances and waterfront development.
The Vales (Breadbasket)
Farms, forests, and river systems along the elven border that feed the continent; processing plants and rail lines tie fields to the cities

Population
Of the three continents, Concordia holds by far the largest population; Elaris follows—boosted by high human–elf mixing—while Umbra trails last, its largely vampire society being liberal but not especially family-tied or growth-oriented. Originally human; now broadly mixed, but almost no vampires. Higher hybrid presence in the Rift [poor area].
Social profile
Tech-forward; social inequality is visible (state aid prioritizes humans and mixed-humans, with others allowed to reside but not subsidized). Many choose Concordia for climate, tech, and distance from “monsters,” keeping the streets comparatively safer.
Culture & food
Street food and clinic-cafés near labs, coastal seafood on the Sunny Side, agrarian staples from the Vales; nightlife is concentrated in Dominara and the Rift. Everyday life blends e-gov portals, tattoos-as-fashion, and pragmatic attitudes toward minor Curses/tech as tools—less mysticism, more deliverables.
How others see Concordia
Efficient but hard-edged: a continent that trades liberty for safety when nervous, and funds “progress” through pacts and programs that not everyone trusts. In story investigations, the Department of Human Ascension becomes the emblem of that bargain.

Three centuries ago, a Concordian king struck a bargain with the Great Curse Alah, trading his life for a leap in weapons and machines—an exchange that jump-started Concordia’s technological edge and centralized state power. That legacy persisted in institutions and doctrine: pacts (or attempts at them) with lesser and medium Curses became a strategic tool in wartime, echoed today by rumors around the Barricade and human-enhancement programs. Evidence tied to the Department of Human Ascension (DHA) shows how those ideas hardened into policy and labs, shaping everything from defense to public health.

a bit lost? here's a map

and a recap

Elaris

Umbra

Concordia

Let me bother you only when there’s a new chapter. Deal?