Abbatine's World is a very young world, barely two thousand cycles old. Its peoples and creatures are still new, and hew very close to Abbatine's original plan. Unlike Mardaka, however, Abbatine does not demand obedience from his creations. He is also uninterested in establishing an army of Maelstrom Walkers. Instead, he has established a veritable ban upon the use of Maelstrom and Spyral powers within his world, hoping to make it unattractive to unattached Maelstrom Walkers.
The Bridge through the Spike Gate that links Abbatine's World to Mardaka's World is quite recent, established by Harrado the Straight, a Maelstrom Walker and Spyral Disciple from Mardaka's World who hoped to use it as a beachhead for the Spyral's invasion of Abbatine's World. Unfortunately, though Abbatine valued having a Bridge to the center of Mardaka's World in his world, he did not have similar regard for Harrado or the Spyral. As Harrado completed the Spike Gate, Abbatine challenged and destroyed him.
While Abbatine is a much less jealous creature than Mardaka, there is one thing he is inflexible about: the higher powers. While Mardaka seeks to surround himself with legions of his Chosen, Abbatine is content with a small group of trusted servitors and little else. He has no desire or need for more Maelstrom Walkers and fears the corruption of his world by the Spyral, so he has taken steps to ensure that his opionions are respected. Any use of Maelstrom Sight, Spyral Touch, or any of their associated powers in Abbatine's World causes an immediate reaction from Abbatine. The user of the power must make an immediate Will roll in a contest against a Will of 20. Failure causes the offender to suffer 5d damage immediately. Armor does not protect against this damage.
One side effect of Abbatine's ban is the poor opinion the natives have of True Speech and those who practice it. While any city of moderate size in Mardaka's World will be expected to boast several True Speakers (especially among the priests of the Temple), most native settlements in Abbatine's World have no True Speakers at all. The few native True Speakers tend to be isolated hermits, living as far from their kinfolk as possible.
From the characters' point of view, this will make communicating with the locals relatively difficult. They will need to either find guides who can speak the local tongues, or learn them themselves.
Abbatine's World is divided into three Plateaus. All three are characterized by different races and societies. Only the First Plateau is regularly visited by creatures not native to Abbatine's World (though there are several Free Cities on the First Plateau). Few mortal creatures, even of Abbatine's Word, visit the Third Plateau. Most believe it to be a place of incredible magic and unlimited lethality to all save Abbatine's most perfect creations. Abbatine's Sacred Mountain is located on the Third Plateau, isolated from mortal eyes. Though a few exceptionally powerful and dedicated Communicants of Abbatine make pilgrimages to the Sacred Mountain, most mortals of Abbatine's World prefer to simply not think about it.
Two races share the First Plateau. They call themselves the adapoi and the deyrey, but most visitors to the world call them the Gardeners and the Diggers. Both races are ecologically bound to certain environments, and gain magical powers from them. The adapoi Gardeners live in thick, deep forests while the deyrey Diggers construct massive termite-like mound cities. Both races tolerate visitors and their works, though they have both been known to overwhelm outsider settlements that have become too acquisitive of territory or resources. Because their preferred environments are mututally exclusive, the adapoi and the deyrey have been engaged in an ecological war against each other since the creation of Abbatine's World. Normally this war is stalemated, but there have been several times in Abbatine's World's brief history when one side or the other has gained an overwhelming advantage and nearly exterminated their foes.
The adapoi are slightly reminiscent of eight-legged monkeys. Their fur is short and usually brown or dark green, and their eyes are solid black. Their front four limbs end in four-fingered hands, while their back limbs end in flexible feet. Standing as erect as possible, they are about 1.8 meters tall. They prefer to live in the trees proper, but are capable of moving without great difficulty upon the ground. They live in family groups of ten to fifty individuals, and are highly dependent upon the other members of the group. Adapoi separated from their clan generally become despondent. Those who have become acclimated to living alone are usually regarded (often correctly) as insane by their fellows.
Adapoi are excellent at using Plant magics, and consider themselves to be the guardians of the forest. This is not just an idealistic attitude, as adapoi are greatly weakened magically when they are not surrounded by plants. Most adapoi warfare involves seeding target areas then magically blooming them into new forests. Personal combat is typically done in guerrilla style; skilled adapoi warriors usually have high Stealth and often know the Forest Warning or Tangle Growth spells.
Typical adapoi do not carry much gear. Their weapons are spears and javelins, made from sharpened tree limbs. They sometimes carry slings. They do not know how to work metal or make bows. Their armor tends to be light animal hide at the best (PD 1, DR 2; torso 6£, arms 4£, legs 6£).
Adapoi characters get +1 DX (10 points), two extra arms (20 points), two extra legs (5 points), +1 Acute Hearing (2 points), +2 to learn any Plant college spell (12 points), the ability to treat any heavily-forested region as High mana (5 points), a reduced cost of 1 energy on all Plant spells in heavily-forested regions (5 points), Naturalist at IQ-2 (1 point), a Sense of Duty to their clan-mates (-10 points), and a fear of becoming isolated from their clan-mates (-10 points). It costs 40 points to be an adapoi. Note that while adapoi gain bonuses to learn Plant spells, they do not necessarily possess Magery. Unless an adapoi purchases the advantage separately, it may not learn spells with a Magery prerequisite, and will not be able to cast spells outside of a forest.
The deyrey look very much like squat, semi-humanoid lizards about 1.5 meters tall. They live in massive mount cities and have a highly communal society, based around immense queens. Most (90%) deyrey are neuter workers; another 9% are male drones, and the remaining 1% are the female queens. The queens are the leaders of deyrey society, and form a strict hierarchy within each hive city. They are also roughly ten times the size of their fellows. Drones and workers look very similar, but can be distinguished by their flesh tones: workers are usually tan or brown, while drones are greyish-white. Queens are usually colored like workers, but green-skinned queens are sometimes born. Such individuals are regarded as exceptionally blessed, and generally achieve great power in their home hives.
Like the adapoi, the deyrey also do not work metal. Their preferred weapons are clubs and maces. They also usually carry large shields of hide (PD 3, 12£, 5/35 hits), but usually do not wear armor. They are poor at using missile weapons. Their best ranged weapon is a spiked stone sphere called a tebbre (thrust+1 crushing; SS 13; ACC 0; .5D=1.5xSTR; MAX=2xSTR), used with Rock Throwing (P/E) skill. Because they can afford to lose large numbers of workers, the deyrey generally fight in large, undisciplined masses.
Deyrey workers have +1 ST (10 points), +4 hit points (12 points), +1 to learn all Earth and Light & Darkness spells (6 points), the ability to treat the interior of any hive city as High mana (5 points), a reduced cost of 1 energy on all Earth and Light & Darkness spells in hive cities regions (5 points), Short Lifespan (-25 points; mature at 13 cycles) and a Sense of Duty to deyrey queens (-10 points). It costs 3 points to be a deyrey worker.
Deyrey drones have +1 ST (10 points), +2 hit points (6 points), +1 to learn all Earth and Light & Darkness spells (6 points), the ability to treat the interior of any hive city as High mana (5 points), a reduced cost of 1 energy on all Earth and Light & Darkness spells in hive cities regions (5 points), Magery 1 and +1 Status. It costs 52 points to be a deyrey drone.
Paiden Free City is the closest sizable outsider settlement to the Mardaka Gate. The adapoi of the Yodai Forest usually try to push new arrivals into heading there. It was established eighty-three cycles ago by a group of youda and human slavers who brought a large contingent of captive lobrun through from Vaida Gate on the other side of the world.
Today, the Free City is still dominated by the original youda and human settlers. The city proper is walled and surprisingly small for its population of over 10,000. Its streets are narrow, surrounded by high stone buildings, and horribly filthy. The original slaver heritage of the city is preserved by the plantations outside the walls, owned by the Eight Families that control Paiden's politics and worked by teams of lobrun slaves.
The city is ruled by Patriarch Meed, an aging youda of the Faiai Family. He was voted into the position by a narrow majority of the Eight fifteen cycles ago, and has maintained his power through clever politicking. His kinsman Ango Faiai is the Guildmaster of the Translators, and controls trade in and through the city. The City Guard are commanded by General Harold Bosst, the human head of the Bosst Family. General Bosst has generally been loyal to Patriarch Meed, but has been known to have more independence than the Patriarch would like.
The Youda are an old race with many similarities to humans. They are tall, and appear wrinkled and shrunken. Their outlook upon life is best described as "grim". Youda have the same stats as humans, but have the No Sense of Humor disadvantage (-10 points) and the Rapid Healing advantage (10 points).
Unlike Mardaka, Abbatine does not mandate a huge, organized temple hierarchy dedicated to himself. However, he does provide benefits to those folk who revere him. Any intelligent creature can become a Communicant of Abbatine by eating from the bitter fruit of the Godsword bush. Abbatine will accept anyone, and does not require that his Communicants be native to his World.
A Communicant of Abbatine gains two major benefits. First, a +1 bonus to all rolls. Second, the Communicant can call upon the strength of Abbatine in times of need by making a Will roll. If the roll succeeds, the Communicant gains +5 hit points and High Pain Threshold for the next half hour. After receiving the strength of Abbatine, the Communicant must wait at least five days before requesting it again. In exchange for these powers, the Communicant acquires a Duty to Abbatine. Periodically, Abbatine makes requests of his Communicants. At times these requests are either dangerous or seemingly nonsensical, but Abbatine expects that they be carried out anyway. Abbatine deals with wayward Communicants in gruesome ways.
Most outsider settlements boast a group of Communicants. These folk often group together into their own community. The political leaders of outsider settlements are generally of two minds towards Communicants. One one side, they can accomplish remarkable things and are often a huge benefit. On the other, their primary loyalty is to Abbatine, not the city. If Abbatine were to order them to fall upon their erstwhile neighbors, most Communicants would do so without hesitation.
The Makers are a race native to the Second Plateau. They are grotesque creatures with remarkable knowledge. Among other things, they know how to make simple matchlock firearms and steam-driven railroad trains. Because they are able to tolerate pollutants that other races find unbearable, territory they occupy tends to rapidly become ruined. They were responsible for creating the Makers' Waste on the Second Plateau, and have established several small colonies on the First Plateau. Both the adapoi and the deyrey hate the Makers with a passion, and work to destroy them at any opportunity. Their successes have not been many, as their styles of warfare are not well suited to their enemy.