The archipelago of Presh, known best for its marvelous printing machines and the wildly popular travel periodical Outre Realms, is responsible for nearly all of the world’s literature. The many publishing houses of Presh are fiercely competitive with one another, going to great lengths to protect their original intellectual properties and to secure the rights to certain stories before their rivals can do so. Utilizing vast networks of shadowy operatives (known as "reporters") to gather information, the publishing houses of Presh have eyes and ears everywhere.

Thypts are insects attracted to magical radiation.  They absorb these mystical energies and use them to spontaneously reproduce.  Wizards and their homes can become infested with Thypts, who will nest in clothing, hair, on magical items, etc.  Their bites are not painful, but are a constant nuisance, causing many a mage to lose their concentration while casting a spell.  Sometimes this results in a horrible miscasting.  Thypts are infamous in sorcerous circles and have found their way into wizardly "slang"; mages who are ironing out the kinks in their magical research are said to be "working out the bugs."

The village of Niktas sits high in the mountains to the west. Lord South, who lives in his castle far above the village is a Wampir, a powerful creature that lives by draining the lipids from living beings. The residents of Niktas willingly make the sacrifice in order to maintain their trim physique, though when the populace grows too lean, they hold a lottery of sorts -- the 'winner' must sacrifice their life to ensure that Lord South's thirst is sated.

Standing in the middle of Crescent Lake, which itself is situated in the center of the Kingdom of Rusan, is the Lathinotim, Floating City.  Reachable only by a single causeway from the mainland, this fabled landmark features dazzling architecture on a massive scale, its many-floored buildings seeming to touch the sky when viewed from the ground.  Its plazas, thoroughfares and avenues, however, are all silent, for Lathinotim is not meant for the living.  Here is where all the dead in Rusan, from the lowliest peasant to the mightiest noble, are taken for burial; they are given a room or building in which to rest, and are laid there in a casket with their worldly possessions.  There are no palaces or hovels here, for all are equal in the afterlife.  Some say you can see the spirits of the dead going about their lives in their new homes on certain days of the year.  Supernatural guards and powerful wards are employed to keep out grave robbers.

There is a nomadic tribe of warriors who dwell upon the Plains of Macnar who have been long feared for their ferocity and ruthlessness.  In recent years, however, a mandate has come from their shamans -- Darkmane of the Thousand Hooves, the god-spirit of the herd, has called for peace.  The Macnar Riders are to set sword and axe aside and seek tranquility and wisdom instead.  The tribe is splintering between those who take the mandate seriously and those who see it as a political power-play by the shamans tio weaken their own tribe against invaders.  Reaction from societies outside the Riders is mixed, but most people still fear the Riders and assume there's no Macnar who isn't a blood-thirsty, murderous raider.

Deep in the Narfund Wood is the Spiders' Graveyard, a web-shrouded glade where the giant spiders of the land go to die.  Their bodies yield powerful magic components, but only the brave and foolhardy will trek there to bring back the fangs and webs that wizards prize so highly.

The Dragon Who Holds The World Together is an ancient beast who sleeps seemingly forever, an opalescent behemoth who lairs deep in the Dreaming Mountains. He knows everything, seeing everything in his sleep.  If you can find him, he can tell you anything you want to know...but waking him up, some say, might cause the world to end, as the world only exists because he's dreaming it.

Membership in the Mystic Order of the Crimson Veil is hard to attain -- only those who've cheated death and beheld The Crimson Veil (the portal between this life and the next) without crossing it may join.  Those who do, however, can seek out Master Shograth the Thrice-Red, who has beheld the Veil three times, and join the Order.  The Order seeks ways to achieve Immortality.

Potatoes, scarce and potentially poisonous as they are, have a reputation amongst nobility as an exotic and dangerous food --like fugu in our world, ultimately bland but perilous if prepared incorrectly.

Astrologers of this world place 13 constellations as the most important, ascribing to them mystical importance.  They are:

• The Queen
• The Fire-Bull
• The Twins
• The King
• The Dog
• The Cyclops
• The Troll
• The Cat
• The Angry Crone
• The Broken Blade
• The Pikeman
• The Concubine
• The Goat

Interestingly, The Concubine has disappeared from the sky, and the astrologers are in a panic...

Three centuries ago, the wizardess Lyche returned - the only survivor - from an expedition to defeat the cloud-dwelling giants of Ursome.  She bore a single souvenir from that expedition: a heavy, basilisk leather-bound tome of arcane lore.  Retreating from civilization to study this book, Lyche constructed a vast subterranean fortress with the aid of minor demonic slaves summoned forth from the Abyss.  No one heard of her thereafter.  Some say she found the prison of Olis, the child of the Shunned God, and died either in combat or in his embrace.  (Eh, pretty standard, but a fantasy RPG world's gotta have a big dungeon somewhere.)

The eighteen tribes of the steppe-dwelling Nubili meet for a week once every year near the Lake of Voices, and their chieftans hold council on various matters.  All Nubili mark Imsi - the seventh and final day of the meeting -as their birthday.  It is customary for those who have come of age to each carve a statue from one of the stones dotting the landscape about the lake and place it near the lakeshore.  Every year thereafter, they return to their statue and on the eve of Imsi whisper to it all that has happened to them the past four seasons.  The statues thus hold the wisdom of all the Nubili and speak that wisdom through dreams to all who seek their counsel.

Maurice Zu, the famed travelling mage and sometimes adventurer, has retired to a small grass hut tucked away in the hidden Dale of Shadows. Here, in seclusion, Maurice studies all things arcane, honing his craft and drinking heavily as he plots his return to prominance.

Far to the North lies the Cavern of Gnashing Teeth, the supposed home of the Rongard -- heroes of old who long ago isolated themselves from the rest of the world to pursue the Old Ways in search of enligtenment. It came to pass that their passion became an obsession, and that this obsession turned into an incestual orgy of madness. Some whisper that the Rongard still dwell within the cavern today, occasionally wandering into the sunlght in order to slay the children of the New Ways (who they then consume for sustenance).

Once every five years, the red-sailed ships of Twul weigh anchor at Culhar and sell exotic goods to those in the city.  Only the mustachioed ship captains come ashore; none have seen their crews.  Rumors abound about the sailors of Twul.  Some say they are all women.  Others say that the ships themselves are alive, and have no need of people to unfurl sails or row.  Still others say that the captains sacrifice their crew when they come to port, and recruit new members with their strong spiced wine and promises of wealth and glory; this may explain the unusual disappearances among the youths of Culhar when the ships of Twul arrive.