Clarus

The following is a draft of the chapter on Clarus taken from the Travelers' World Guide, Pocket Edition. The Guide is published in Olympia, and is intended for elves and gods. It is one of many books that Olympian Law prohibits anyone from removing from Olympia. This draft was smuggled to Clarus by a sapien visitor, and is one of hundreds that have likewise been smuggled to Clarus.

Contents

The Planet

Clarus is a magical planet with a single moon orbiting around a yellow sun. It is also one of fifteen known fossil planet, which harbored life in pre-history, before the arrival of the Gods or the Celesti.

Dates in Clarus chronology are expressed in Clarus years before the founding of Endromis (BE) or after the founding of Endromis (AE). If neither BE nor AE is specified after a date, it may be assumed to be after the founding of Endromis.

Maps

Colonization

In 395 BE, the goddess Athena found a conjunction in one of the southern continents of Olympia. At that time, the gods knew of only five other conjunctions, all of them on Olympia. Athena rode through without dismounting, and was first to set foot upon the world we now know as Clarus. She faced the setting sun. Silent, orderly forests stretched to the shores of a blue sea. Behind her, glowing in the last light of day, were majestic snow-capped mountains. She stayed the night, and in the morning explored the foothills. She could not wander far from the conjunction because she did not know when it would close. She had to ride back and check upon it frequently.

The forests were lush and healthy, but the trees were of no species Athena had seen before, and there was no sound other than the rustling of their alien leaves. There were no birds, no squirrels, no insects. She saw no animals at all. She dug a hole in the ground, but could not even find a worm or a grub. She was to find later, however, that Terran plants grew quickly in the soil, and that once the plants were there, Terran animals could prosper.

The land upon which Athena stood was Eldrich, an island west of Idonius. The Athena Conjunction, as it was named, appeared for five Clarus days out of every hundred with unfailing regularity until 1405 AE. In that year it failed to appear, and has not done so since, but in the twenty-fifth century, Olympia knows of twenty-five other conjunctions between the two worlds. Most travel between Eldrich and Olympia now occurs through a synchronized pair of conjunctions joining Olympia to Clarus via a third planet, Tanilus, which appears within a few kilometers of the original Athena conjunction.

In 306 BE, one thousand elves went through the Athena Conjunction to Eldrich, almost half the entire elf population of the sector. They were ordered to spread Terran life across the planet as quickly as possible.

A century later, the farms on the west coast of Eldrich were producing a surplus, and the gods sent a thousand dwarves to Eldrich to mine the central mountains for copper and tin, which they traded with the elves for food. After two centuries, trees of sufficient size and hardness had grown to allow the elves to build ships. They sailed east to Idonius. To the north were Endromis and many other islands. Ultimately, elf sailors circled the world. They found two other large continents, which they explored, planted, and colonized.

By the time the first sapien colonists arrived in 10 BE, three centuries after the elves arrived, the forests of Eldrich were mature and full of deer. Sapiens were forbiddento settle upon Eldrich. The elves sailed them to Idonius, Leaena, Oriens, and Oceana. Ten thousand colonists from the Roman Empire of Terra settled on Endromis, founded the city of Prolixus, and declared the first year of their calendar.

Seventy thousand Terran sapiens settled in Clarus. Clarus received almost a third of all the immigrants from Terra. Clarus is only one among a hundred hospitable worlds in the sector, but at that time, because of the work of the elves of Eldrich, Clarus held two thirds of the sector'inhabitable land.

The gods chose the name Clarus, meaning distinct in Latin, because they intended to nurture distinct sapien cultures there. Until 1700, the gods forbade the import of all goods to Clarus. Clarus is one of the Free Worlds. According to the Free World Declaration, the gods themselves can visit Clarus, but they have to arrive naked, and they have to stay within thirty meters a temple point. There is one temple point in each 100 km square temple plot. The god must own the temple plot if he or she is to appear at its temple point. All of the god's comings and goings are to and from Clarus are part of the Olympian Public Record. For more details of the laws governing the gods on Clarus, see The Celesti Sector, sections on Free Worlds, Open Worlds, and Clarus.

Settlement

In the first five centuries AE, the sapien population of Clarus multiplied tenfold. Nevertheless, much of Idonius was still covered by its original quiet forests. By making personal appearances before their worshippers, and through the efforts of their priests, the gods of Olympia controlled most of the sapiens in Clarus. The colonists had brought with them their native Terran customs and technology. In most cases, the gods merely reshaped and added to these beginnings, but sometimes they stripped worshippers of all traditions and forced them into a new way of life.

By the year 500 AE, the international economy of Clarus was dominated by sapien goods and trade. It became clear to the dwarves that they could get more food for their metal trading with sapiens rather than elves. As sapiens spread across the continent, dwarves set out from Eldrich in small exploratory parties of between ten and one hundred members, looking for mineral-rich mountains near fertile sapien-farmed land. Some such parties met their deaths of depravation. Some were killed by the very sapiens with which they wished to trade. But most found what they sought. By the year 500 AE, there were only a few hundred dwarves left on Eldrich, and ten thousand on Idonius.

For their first few centuries on Clarus, elves sailed freely across the oceans. They took sapiens from primitive cultures of Terra to the remote continents of the planet. Some elves even lived on these continents, although their lives there were lonely.

The gods decided that once the sapiens of Idonius had developed ocean-faring ships, they would sail to the neighboring continents and invade them, destroying the primitive culters that the gods so enjoyed supporting. To prevent such an invasion, the gods intended to make the oceans impassable, even to the elves.

In 350 AE the gods warned the elves that in the year 400 AE a species of huge, immortal, androgynous sea-monster called the kraken would be introduced by the gods into the oceans of Clarus. The elves were furious. Most of them withdrew to Eldrich, but some refused to leave the far continents. In 400 AE the kraken were introduced. They were effective.

The largest kraken are a hundred meters long. They hunt in water over one thousand meters deep, allowing ships to navigate safely in shallow waters. They eat whales, but they always mistake boats for whales.

The gods introduced killer whales in the second century before Endromis, along with many other Terran species, setting up a pelagic ecosystem similar to that of Terra itself, apparently little affected by the kraken. In particular, they introduced seals and walruses to provide food for Eskimos.

For centuries the Eldar (the elves of Eldrich) tried to get rid of the monsters. Kraken do not age. When they are full-grown they are nearly invulnerable in battle. But they are by design vulnerable to certain bacilli. In the seventh century the Eldar killed most of the kraken around Idonius when they spread such a bacilli through the kraken population. They did so by infecting whales, which the kraken ate. The elves sailed freely for many years, despite a vengful plague sent upon them by the gods. Eventually, however, the gods replaced the kraken, and kept the secret to their destruction more carefully hidden than before.

After the pestilence in Eldrich, most of the Eldar slowly forgot about their days as masters of the waves. But some set about finding ways to get to distant continents by shallow stretches of ocean unfrequented by the kraken. In this endeavor they were successful. Today, the services of an Eldar pilot, who consults the ancient Eldar charts by space bridge from his cabin, is considered essential for any oceanic voyage. Nevertheless, the circuitous routes that must be taken to avoid the kraken, and the risks that must inevitably be taken in shallow water close to shore, make such voyages unattractive to all but the most determined adventurers.

In the seventeenth century, with the kraken over a thousand years old, some degradation of their health had occurred. The gods designed and bread populations of mermaids and mermen, which they brought to equatorial waters near Idonius. Mermaids look after kraken, cleaning their bodies, tending their wounds, and administering drugs to help them recover from diseases. Kraken are not intelligent, but they allow themselves to be manipulated by mermaids. At first the gods paid the mermaids in gold for these services, and the mermaids bought metals and other goods from humans using this gold, but now the mermaids obtain their wealth from ships wrecked by the kraken.

The nation of Eksos, in mid-western Idonius, was settled by one thousand Terran Greeks. Its climate is warm in summer and cool in winter. The terrain includes hills, plains, and marshes. Most Ekso were farmers. Settlers tried to establish a city state. But without established, efficient agriculture, there was not enough surplus food to support a city. By the second century, the culture brought by the settlers had all but died out. Eksos broke down into farms and villages. These began to prosper in the fifth century, during which the population of the region quadrupled.

In 0 AE, the island nation of Eldrich, off the west coast of Idonius, was home to two thousand elves and a thousand dwarves. Of the elves, 1000 were original settlers from Ur, 500 were immigrants from Olympia, and 500 were native born. Sapiens were forbidden to live on the island. Western climate hot and dry in summer, cool in winter. Eastern climate warm in summer, chilly in winter. Terrain includes high mountains, densely forested hills, and deserted moors. Most Eldar grew their own vegetables, gathered their own fruit, and hunted their own game. Government by democratically elected parliament. Elves older than one century allowed to vote. Eldrich profited from trade in coastal seas until third century. Phoenicians undercut them after that. Trade around the cape of Siam remained in Eldar control.

The island nation of Endromis, off the west coast of Idonius, was home to 10,000 sapiens from Terran Rome in 0 AE. Its population grew to 300,000 by 500 AE. The island's climate is hot and dry in summer, cool in winter. Terrain includes low volcanic mountains, low sandstone and limestone hills, fertile plains. Most Endans were farmers. Government by patriarchal republic, fashioned after that of Terran Rome in the second century BC. Capital city, Prolixus, filled with magnificent stone buildings and monuments. Paved roads spread out in straight lines across the nation. Endans mined ore that abounded in their hills. In 400 AE, Endan standing army contained ten thousand infantry and a thousand cavalry. In forth and fifth centuries, they fought naval battles with the Phoenicians, but lost them all.

The nation of Equina, on the west coast of Idonius, was settled by 2,000 sapiens from the Terran Baltic. Its population was 50,000 in 500 AE. Climate warm in summer, cool in winter. Terrain mostly rolling, windswept hills. Almost all Equinas were farmers. Government by tribal chiefs. Chiefs elected by the free men of the tribe. Bonded men (those not free) either slaves or debtors. Tribes loosely coordinated by druids. Druids directed clearing of virgin forest, and its replacement with grass, and deciduous trees. Grass did well in Equina, and there was plenty of space. Many Equinas bread horses. Their gods encouraged them to do so. The gods needed horses.

The region known as Gaela, north of the Whispering Sea in western Idonius, was a collection of tribes formed by 1,000 settlers from Terran Britain, Gaul, and Germany. By the year 500 AE, its population was 10,000. Climate cold in winter, warm in summer. Terrain mostly forested hills. Government by tribal chiefs. Chiefs elected by the men of the tribe (no slaves or bonded men). Tribes loosely coordinated by druids trained in Equina. Druids directed clearing of virgin forest, and its replacement with deciduous trees. Original settlers were warlike and egalitarian. Land so abundant that their descendants had no need to fight. Gaels of fifth century were peaceful. Their gods encouraged them to be otherwise.

The collection of city states known as Isikoss, on the eastern coast of Idonius, was settled by 5,000 Terran Greeks. Its population was 50,000 in 500 AE. By 500 AE the country was home to 500 dwarves as well. Climate hot and dry in summer, mild in winter. Terrain includes mountainous, fertile valleys, rolling hills, and rocky islands. The Gods of Isikoss (a pantheon) purchased all but two of the temple plots for Isikoss (remaining two still owned by the Princes of Hell), and vowed to let the people do as they pleased for six centuries. In the fifth century, Isikoss was divided into eleven city sates, most of which were democratic, and all of which promoted science and philosophy. Dwarves settled in the southern mountains.

The Kubla Steppes in North-Eastern Idonius were settled by 1,000 sapiens from the Terran Eurasian steppe. They population was 50,000 in 500 AE. Climate cold in winter, mild in summer. Terrain almost all rolling grassland. All Kubla were nomadic tribesman. Competition for best grazing grounds led to inter-tribal conflicts at the end of the fifth century.

Mareo was a nation in central Idonius settled by 3,000 sapiens from Terran Iberia, Greece, and Gaul. Its population was 20,000 sapiens by 500 AE, as well as 500 dwarves in the mountains to the west, 2,000 hobbits, and 500 elves. Climate hot in summer, cool in winter. Terrain includes hills, plains, and marshes. Most Mareo were farmers, but one in five lived in the nation's three cities. Government was by random selection of citizens for office. The gods made no attempt to preserve a Terran culture in Mareo. Instead, Terran settlers were mixed with elves, dwarves, and hobbits. The mixture produced a society in which there was tolerance and affection between the races. The society combined elven horticulture with dwarven tool-making and sapien strength. They cleared the virgin forests and established farms in less than a century. In the third and forth centuries, they produced twice as much food as they consumed, and restricted their population growth. Their gods became wealthy. By the fifth century, most of the dwarves had moved to the mountains east and north of the country. The elves, sapiens, and hobbits lived in separate villages for the most part, but mixed freely in the cities. All races shared in the government of the nation, which was of a curious design: the selection of its leaders was by lottery.

Detail: It is Mareo's random system of government that conjures romantic notions in the minds of modern thinkers when they contemplate the history of Mareo. Briefly, the government was constructed as follows, at the time when Mareo's population had grown to one million. From each town of one thousand peole, where town is taken to indicate a district defined to enclose roughly nine hundred people, nine adults sixteen years or older were selected at random by lottery, each serving a three-year term in the town council when selected, and these terms staggered in such a way that there would always be people who had served for two years to assist those joining the council. The council would elect its secretary, chairman, treasurer, and so on, to manage the affairs of the town, these being the maintenance of roads, sewers, water supplies, hostels, police, and later in the country's history: the town schools. At the end of each year, the twenty-seven outgoing councilmen from nine towns would come together, and from these three would be selected at random to replace three members of the city council, where city is taken to indicate a district of nine towns. The terms of the city councilmen would be three years also, and staggered in the same way as the town council. The outgoing city councilmen would then undergo selection for the state council, where a state was a district of nine cities. The outgoing state councilmen would undergo selection after three years for the national council, which represented the entire nation of nine states. This national coucil elected a president to act as chair and to be the arbitor in certain emergencies. In the passing of laws, a majority of six out of nine was always required. To reject a law passed by a higher council, a majority of six out of nine was sufficient. To veto a law passed by a lower council, a majority of five out of nine was required. To repeal a law by the same council, a majority of six out of nine was sufficient. If a state council passed a law, for example, to ban the sale of liquor, the nine city councils below it could reject this law if six out of the nine voted to do so with a majority of six out of nine or more each. The national council, on the other hand, could veto the law if five of its members voted against it. Although selection of councilmen was by lottery, disqualification of serving councilmen was by law and regulation. Any wrong-doing on the part of a councilman could be grounds for disqualification from government. Corruption in any form, drunkeness while serving, criminal activity, and even violent behavior during council debates, could lead to disqualification. Incompetence, however, was not grounds for disqualification. The admiring historians of Mareo argue that incompetence lead eventually to corruption, so that by this means incompetence was identified and rejected. In any case, this system of government operated to the satisfaction of its people for four centuries until the occupation of Mareo by Weiland.

The rocky North-Western coast of Idonius was called Midgard. It was settled by 2,000 sapiens from Terran Scandinavia. In 500 AE its population was 10,000. Climate very cold in winter, mild in summer. Terrain almost all alluvial valleys and rocky coast. Half the Midgards were farmers, the other half were fishermen. Government by tribal chiefs. Tribes have distinct religions and politics.

The nation of Phoenicia occupied a narrow strip of land between the mountains and the sea on the West coast of Idonius. It was settled by 2,000 sapiens from the Terran Mediterranean. By 500 AE, its population was 10,000. Northern climate hot in summer, cool in winter. Southern climate hot and wet in summer, warm in winter. Government by monarchy. First in a strong line of kings took the throne in the third century. The Phoenician navy soon controlled the seas all up the west coast of Idonius. The country grew rich from the maritime trade. They transported grain, wine, and olives from Mareos, herring and salt cod from Midgard, wool from Equina, iron and tools from Endromis, exotic fabrics from Eldrich, silk from Siam, cotton and sugar from the Cipriate Islands, spices, cotton, and stones from Ursia. In the fourth and fifth centuries, defended its naval supremacy against the Endans. In fourth century, colonized the tropical Cipriate Archipelago. The ferocity of the weather on the Cape of Siam, and Kraken within a few kilometers of the coast, prevented them from sailing to eastern Idonius.

Sikkim is the mountainous southern tip of Idonius. It was settled by 1,000 sapiens from Terran Nepal, and its population had grown to 5,000 by 500 AE. Dwarf and Elf population negligible. Climate cold in winter, mild in summer. Terrain is almost all mountainous, with one central plateau one hundred kilometers in diameter. Some Sikkimese were farmers, others were hunters, and others were herders. Government by tribal chiefs for first four centuries, then by monarch. The Sikkimese nearly died out in the first century. In the fifth century, there were enough people to support a monarchy and begin the construction of lofty stone temples.

Sax, also known as Thebes, was made up of the fertile land on either side of the River Thebes that flows into the Satian Sea in central Idonius. It was settled by 10,000 sapiens from Terran Egypt. By 500 AE its population was 100,000. Climate very hot and dry in winter, hot and dry in summer. Terrain almost all desert with a river running through the middle, just like the Nile in Terran Egypt. Most Thebians were farmers. Government in 500 AE by monarchy. Once the virgin trees had been cleared, the settlers were able to go about life almost exactly as they had done in Terra. By the end of the second century, all the temple plots of Sax had been purchased by the Satian Pantheon. The pantheon established a line of Pharos, and directed the building pyramids to rival those of ancient Egypt.

The desert in mid-western Idonius was called Ursia. It was settled by 3,000 sapiens from the Terran Arabian desert. By 500 AE, its population was 10,000, with 500 dwarves lived in the mountains to the south of the desert, near Ursia's largest city, Susa, and another 1000 dwarves in the mountains to the west, bordering on Phoenicia. Central climate very hot and dry in summer, hot and dry in winter. South-eastern and coastal climate hot and dry in summer, warm in winter. Terrain mostly sandy desert (Ursian Desert), with fertile land in the south-east (around Susa, the capital). Most Ursians were farmers, but many were nomads. Government by monarchy. In the fifth century, exploratory caravans crossed the Tamarind desert from Susa, the Ursian capital, to Sax and Isikoss. Life was hard in the Tamarind desert, where the gods had intended them to live. Most Ursians moved south-east to the mouth of the Tameez River. They grew crops. Susa was built upon the banks of the Tameez, one hundred kilometers from the coast.

The wide, fertile land between the moutains and the sea on the East coast of Idonius was called Weiland. It was settle by 2,000 sapiens from a variety of Terran nations. Its population was 40,000 in 500 AE, and by that time its various races and cultures were beginning to blend. Elf population 200. Dwarf population negligible. Climate cold and wet in winter, warm and wet in summer. Terrain includes high mountains, and fertile plains. Government by tribal chiefs. When the settlers arrived, elves had already begun the destruction of virgin forests and their replacement by deciduous Terran forests. The elves remain in the region. The sapiens developed a megalithic culture. They farmed on the plains, mined copper in the mountains, and fished in the seas. They build heavy, crude structures out of large stone slabs.

Conquest

By 500 AE most sapien populations were prosperous enough to be worth invading, and the conquest of one nation by another became common. Sapiens armed with dwarf weapons dominated the field of battle.

The Equina population swelled so rapidly that by the seventh century, war began to break out between tribes over the allocation of grazing lands for their horses. In battle, the Equinas would paint themselves blue from head to foot, and shave off all their hair. They fought in chariots at first, but in the eighth century they took to riding horses themselves, charging their enemies with lances, and standing in stirrups.

At the beginning of the sixth century, the Gaelic gods conspired to let loose a dozen demons in Gaela. They instructed the demons to massacre the people. The gods hoped that this assault would restore the heroic Gaelic character. One of the Gaelic tribes did indeed rise to the occasion: the Ubii. They armed themselves with bronze weapons and slew five of the demons. The remaining demons fled north into the hills. Encouraged by their gods, the Ubii enslaved the remainder of the Gaelic people. The subjugated people rebelled within a century, and there were some heroic battles, but once the fighting was over, the tribes went home to their own lands, and lived peacefully again. The gods conlcluded that only the pressure of population could make the Gaelic enduringly warlike, so they encouraged the Gaelic to have children.

The sapien population of Mareo swelled to 100,000 by the year 1000 AE. The elf, hobbit, and dwarf populations doubled. Their language and cultured flowered and matured. Under threat from the north and west, they built an army and defended themselves effectively. Free-thinking philosophers and artists from all over the known world came to live there. The people were prosperous and thoughtful.

Empire

By the year 1000 AE, dwarves were mining the Kratanak mountains on the East coast of Idonius. It was there that they built their first useful steam engines. These engines labored beneath the Kratanak Mountains, making arms for Weiland. On the other side of the continent, in Endromis, sapien smiths labored with their bare hands. The Weiland armies marched north, south, and west across the continent. The Endan armies invaded the west coast. In the fifteenth century, the Weilandic empire engulfed the Whispering Sea, and so took control of trade with the dwarves in the Star Mountains. In 1446, Mareo, now a nation of one million, fell to the Weilanders. The Endans withdrew from the continent. In the sixteenth century, Weiland repeatedly invaded Endromis and beseiged Prolixus. If it had not been for the arrival of Gelden and his orcs, Prolixus must eventually have fallen. As it was, the Weilandic Empire was attacked at its heart by new and terrible enemies.

Mareo held off the might of the Weilandic Empire for two centuries before it finally fell in 1446 AE to the armies of Queen Greta, ordered by her husband, General Arnold. Some historians believe that it was only the slow stagnation of the Mareo government and culture that made Weilandic victory possible. Others say that it was the greatness of the Weilandic general, and the maturity and brilliance of the Weilandic military technology. Either way, it was the end of Mareo and its polyculture and government by lottery. The elves moved into Calissa, where they defended themselves within their circle of mountains. The hobbits lived in the outer foothills of these mountains, ostensibly under Weilandic rule, but left mostly to themselves. The Dwarves withdrew to the the Star Mountains in the north, and the Iron Mountains in the East, but were forced to pay heavy tribute for the right to import food. There were many unsuccessful sapien rebellions, often assisted by the dwarves, but never by the elves.

Dark Ages

In 1487, orcs and other warlike humanoids from Hell, a world owned by the Princes of Hell, who are known also as The Devils, were brought to Idonius by a black-orc sorcerer called Gelden. This man, who lived from 1395-1705 and whose name is legend, was able to make molecular space bridges through which he could transport armies and supplies. Orcs invaded a mountainous country we now know as Gelden, driving out or enslaving its sapien inhabitants. There they waited. Gelden knew hellspawn to be carriers of smallpox, measles, and plague, and wanted to save these weapons for the proper hour. Queen Anne of the Weilandic Empire knew this too, because a force she sent to dislodge the orcs returned inflicted by deadly sickness. These diseases were unknown on Clarus thanks to rigorous selection of the original colonists, and subsequent efforts by the gods to keep such afflictions out. Queen Anne ordered a wall built around the mountainous place where the orcs lived. But in the years after her death, the wall fell into disrepair, and people began to doubt the ferocity of the orcs, who never ventured out of their nation encircled by mountains.

After a century, the orc population in Gelden had swelled to the point where Gelden, still their leader, deemed his army ready to go to war. In 1593, the orcs marched out of Gelden and swept across the world. With a few notable exceptions, his armies won every battle. In 1647, Gelden himself sat upon the throne of the Weilandic Empire in Chichester on the east coast of Idonius. His armies went north to the arctic and south into the jungles and mountains. But they did not cross the seas, not eaven to Endromis off the west coast of Idonius.

In the four centuries between 1600 and 2000, orcs killed most of the sapien population of Idonius, first with disease, then with arms. They enslaved the survivors. The Weilandic Empire collapsed and its people were enslaved. The cities of the dwarves were invaded. The dwarves fled to the cold mountains in the north-west, or back across the sea to Eldrich and Prolixus, or to the Iron Mountains. In the Iron Mountains they made arms and armor for the only sapien population on Idonius to resist Gelden's army. Between the swamps of the Fen river on the north-west, the Iron Mountains to the east, and the hills and desert to the south, the last free citizens of Mareo, and what was left of the Weilandic army in the West, defended themselves against Gelden for four hundred years. They called their new nation Varay. Their language was a mixture of Weilandic and Mareo. In those four hundred years, Varay was an island of free sapiens in a sea of hellspawn. Most military scholars agree that Gelden could have occupied Varay, had he devoted himself and his forces to the task. But he chose not to. In his memoirs, Gelden says he came to respect the sapiens of Varay, and had no desire to end their existence. He credited himself with creating a higher form of mankind through the hardships he had imposed upon them. By the end of the Dark Ages, Varay and the orcs were trading goods across their borders. But when the armies of Endromis returned to Idonius to sweep the orcs before them, the Varayan armies came out to fight.

Endromis was the base from which the liberation of Idonius from the domination of the orcs was launched. The Endroman armies, supplied with arms by exiled dwarves, supplied with food by summoning from Olympia, and swelled by refugees from the continent, landed on the west coast in the nineteenth century. A long and arduous conflict began, continuing for a century. By the end of the twentieth century, the orcs were penned in, but not beaten. The Reconciliation Treaty was made Olympian law in of 2000 AE. It assigned land in central Idonius to the defeated hellspawn. This land is not a continuous, connected, nation, but exists in separate regions, referred to as the outlands. Surrounding the outlands are borderlands twenty or more kilometers wide, and beyond the borderlands are the homelands, which are assigned to humans (sapiens, elves, and dwarves). The homelands take up the greater part of Idonius and its peripheral islands.

The time of war between hellspawn and humanity are called the Dark Age of Idonius, during which entire nations of sapiens were destroyed. The most devastating assault brought to bear upon human populations was disease. Smallpox and measles spread through human populations so quickly that the gods had no time to control them. Within a century, the sapien population of Clarus was reduced by three quarters.

The disorientation and despair caused by the epidemics led to the collapse of most human nations upon Idonius, including the dwarven cities, before the assault of the orc armies. By the time the epidemics reached islands such as Endromis, the gods had established means by which the ravages of disease could be checked. Thus Endromis, one of the most formidable sapien nations, was spared from destruction.

Over the centuries that followed, humanity recovered and drove the orcs back into the interior of the Idonius. Sapiens invented wizardry, psionic humans appeared, and the gods advanced their understanding of human medicine.

The gods were greatly concerned for the human population of Idonius during the Dark Ages. They changed the laws governing their interactions with Clarus in order to lend assistance to mankind. In 1700, the import of goods to Clarus from Olympia was permitted, provided those goods resided continuously upon Olympia for at least one hundredth their natural life-span before importation (the "One Percent of Lifetime Summoning Rule"). This led to the appearance of pantheons and clerics, whose function originally was to stop plagues and supply armies. In modern times, clerics deliver healing and peddle influence in human society so as to generate wealth that is exported to Olympia.

Modern Era

The Treaty of Reconcilliation in 2000 AE established borders between orcs and sapiens and marked the dawn of the modern era on Clarus. By the twentieth century AE, the surviving hellspawn were penned into the areas of Idonius that were to become the Outlands, as defined by the Treaty of Reconcilliation. Most of the Outlands are either mountains, swamp, or jungle. But the bulk of the ancient nation of Mareo now forms the Western Outlands, where a third of the planet's hellspawn live.

The population of Clarus in the twenty-fifth century is roughly one hundred million, which is the limit laid down for Claus in the Free World Declaration. This population can move around on the planet, but it cannot be exceeded or else the Gods whose temple plots are over-populated will pay heavy fines.

Here are the populations of various nations, as marked on the Globe Map and the Mid-Western Map.

We combine all the nations around the Trukulent Mountains into one row, as we do for the Varmillian and Roden Mountains, and the region around Anplery, which includes Beanon and other small nations like Luxoden.

Additions

Skara Is a large island between the Tellic and Misty Seas, populated by piratical Nordic people called Vikings, which is their word for killing people and taking their stuff. Pacified for now, so far as piracy on the west coast of Idonius is concerned, they are determined and expert raiders. In summer, they have been known to sail through the Arctic Ocean to raid Areko and Neon, and even Chiin, returning the next summer. They frequently raid Midgard and Rusk. The do not raid Taranil, the land of the elves. Long ago, the elf sorcerers, according to legend, beset Skara with mist for an entire year. Crops failed. The population starved. Relations between Taranil and Skara are respectful, with trade.

Rusk In the extreme north is a cold place. The locals trade furs and whale blubber. The Rusk Sea is popular with whales.

Glaciem: A nation of giants, with one city dug into a glacier, and towns made of ice.