Mardaka's Word is a minuscule bubble of safety and security floating in the endless sea of the Maelstrom. It is not the only such world, but it is no less alone, linked only tenuously to its brethren by mysterious Bridges that promise a dubious safe link through the Maelstrom.
Mardaka's Word is an aged place, first realized from the Voice of the Creator Mardaka untold aeons ago. Manuscripts and histories from the Dawn suggest that the world may be almost 50,000 harvests old, an age that few other worlds have attained. Certainly the ruins of First Folk cities left behind in the realms of man appear unspeakably old. And with age, there comes fear. Unbroken faith in the Will of the Creator is no longer to be found among the people. Many signs of the Creator's failing Will are evident, and the ways of the world now are falling further and further from the ways it followed in past ages. Miracles of Mardaka no longer appear. The Pure Folk that remain are few in number, pushed to the very bounds of the world by the burgeoning floods of imperfect humans. Heretics and Iconophiles can be found in every realm of man, unpunished by Mardaka directly (though His priests desperately work to uphold the faith).
The greatest fear of the people is that the death of the world approaches. None know when this will happen, or what form it will take, but the signs are too many to believe that it is far away. Other worlds have died in recorded history. Some, like decadent Yierdo, vanished in a flash of Chaos. Others, like lifeless Benoth, continue to slowly crumble back into the Maelstrom from which they sprang.
This is the world into which the characters were born. For many in their generation, the world continues much like it has always continued. Every year, the Pure Folk become somewhat less common in the cities. Every year, the Breath-Eaters' jungles expand to cover a bit more human farmland. Occasionally one of the Chosen passes through a human land, spreading wonder and renewed religious fervor in its wake. And always, the priests make their vague prophecies and proclamations.
Will the characters save their world, or forsake it?
Mardaka's world is shaped very much like a flat plate 2000 km across. It rests under the protective Sky Dome, and is bordered on all sides by the Maelstrom. At the edge, the land seems to drop away into an endless cliff, its base obscured by a white fog. Likewise, nothing but white fog can be seen ahead, though some mystics (and some luckless travelers) have gazed into the fog long enough to spy a glimpse of the Maelstrom beyond. The mystics generally survive such visions. The travelers usually simply go mad, and often leap into Oblivion. Human settlements are not often built next to the Edge.
The weather and terrain of Mardaka's Word can be divided according to the Essences of Heat and Cold, Liquid and Dry. The four Citadels of the Edge are located in the centers of four quarters of the world, while the Citadel of the Voice stands in the center, protected from view by the Barrier Mountains and the Great Desolation.
The Citadels each correspond to the combination of two Essences. The Citadel of Astorok (at the top of the map) is the citadel of dry heat, and sits in the middle of Astorok's Wastes. The edges of the Wastes, near the human realms, are simply barren. The temperature rises as the Citadel becomes nearer. The core of the Wastes are true desert, inhabited only by a few hardy creatures and the Astorii (called Wastelings in the human realms), the Pure Folk of the Wastes.
Gebroth (on the right side of the map) is the Citadel corresponding to Dry Cold. It is located at the center of the mountainous Chal-Gebroth, a barren tundra. High in the mountains of the Doth, the Children of Gebroth make their cities. Even they scarcely ever travel down to the freezing plains, preferring to remain in the relative bounty of the heights and the Citadel. Humans venture into Chal-Gebroth even less often than they explore the Wastes.
The Sweet Sea (at the bottom of the map) holds Citadel Nos, corresponding to Wet Heat. Compared to the other pure realms, the Sweet Sea is almost paradisical. It is a large freshwater ocean with delightful climate, reaching from the Breath-Eaters' Jungle to the Edge of the World. Many human philosophers and priests have spent many years debating exactly how the waters are prevented from all falling back into the Maelstrom. Little agreement has been reached. It is inhabited by all sorts of wondrous creatures, many of which are edible to humans. Because of this, the Nostarii (the Pure Folk of the realm) have been nearly exterminated by the primitive breath-eaters and humans. Those that remain shelter around the Citadel, where Nos can protect them from others' depredations.
The final Citadel, that of Wet Cold, is the Citadel of Feldun, located beyond the Swamps of Feldun (on the left side of the map). The swamps are fed from the Sweet Sea, and grow progressively more dense and decayed closer to the Citadel. The terrifying Pure Folk of this place are called the Felchings, though most humans call them Terrors or Swamp Horrors. They have remained comparatively strong, as the swamp provides their needs well and protects them very effectively from human raids. However, their reach beyond the swamps has been very limited. The occasional human children produced by their degeneration are usually left near human villages on the borders of the swamp. Sadly, these children are often slain out of hand by fearful villagers.
The Human Realms are located in a ring around the world, bordered on the one side by the various Pure Realms and on the other by the Barrier Mountains and the Great Desolation. They are interrupted in one place by the Breath-Eaters' Jungle, and border upon the Edge in three places, between the Swamps of Feldun and Astorok, between Astorok and Chal-Gebroth, and between Chal-Gebroth and the Sweet Sea. Most of the human realms are temperate, with a relatively stable climate and comfortable terrain. In some places, mountains create barriers between sections of the human realms. This plus the barricade created by the Breath-Eaters' Jungle makes rapid communication from one end of the human realms to the other quite difficult. Some sections are quite isolated, and may not see messengers from the central regions more than once or twice in a Harvest.
The Breath-Eaters' Jungle is a mystery to most humans. Old tales claim that once, the jungle did not block the human realms off from each other, that once humans lived all through the area now covered by leafy trees and hanging creepers. The climate is much hotter and more humid than that enjoyed by the rest of the human realms, and the vegetation is quite different. A race called the Breath-Eaters live here, and generally deal quite harshly with trespassers in their domain. Some human tribes on the edges of the jungle do deal with the Breath-Eaters quite often, and have sometimes interbred with them (a practice condemned by most priests). A few savants of the University of Delbruk have written that the jungle is expanding, and predict that those human tribes that deal with the Breath-Eaters may soon find themselves turning into Breath-Eaters, much as the Pure Folk have been changing and giving birth to humans.
Tharry's culture is inextricably tied to the worship of Mardaka, a fact that is hardly unique in Mardaka's World. One of the most important things to recognize is the importance of Lineage. All civilized (and most barbaric) residents of Mardaka's World maintain careful track of which of the original Created they are descended from. Rules for determining Lineage are complicated, and there are several well-documented instances in Tharry history in which an error in Lineage, passed down for centuries, was finally discovered. Often, the discovery had great social implications.
Folk of the same Lineage are considered to have a kinship bond, and will often cooperate in all matters. Even when cooperation is not possible, hostility is usually subdued. Under Tharry law, a crime committed against one of the same Lineage bears a penalty five times greater than normal.
The priests of Mardaka maintain a complicated hierarchy of Lineages, from the noblest to the most base. At times, this hierarchy changes due to changes in the Court of the Voice. Most priests and nobles (though not all) possess Lineages at the top of the list, claiming descent from Created who have become influential Maelstrom Walkers. At the bottom of the list are the Dead Lineages, descended from Created who failed to become Maelstrom Walkers and ascend to take a place among the Chosen. It is considered quite shameful to be of a Dead Lineage. There are currently 738 Lineages known in Tharry, though there are some Lineages that are not found there. In particular, there are Lineages composed entirely of Breath-Eaters, and a few highly rarefied Lineages that have not fallen from among the Pure Folk.
The concept of heresy is an important one to the Temple of Mardaka. In general, Heretics are defined as those of the Breath of Mardaka who give spiritual allegiance to any other entity, while Iconophiles are those of the Breath of Mardaka who have forsaken the path of Transcendent Understanding in favor of hallucination-induced visions and Revelations. Note that any creature not of the Breath of Mardaka really can't be either a Heretic or Iconophile under these definitions, though they are certainly capable of spreading such ideas (and being persecuted for doing so by the priests of Mardaka).
Traditionally, Tharry priests of Mardaka have taken a fairly severe attitude towards heresy and iconophilia. The most lenient penalties for the guilty involved disfigurement and banishment (generally to Benoth, the dead world), while more serious offenders were generally tortured and executed. Often, executions were performed by casting the offender from the Edge of the world, back into the Void.
For the last twenty years, however, the situation has been different. While public heresy and iconophilia remains sternly punished, secret cults and societies have sprung up all across Tharry. The priests decline to take any action, and the heretics slowly grow bolder, sometimes speaking their ideas in public. The situation outside of Tharry is even more serious: Chal-Negoro, on the edge of the tundra, has embraced the worship of Gebroth, the ruler of the Citadel of Gebroth. Thus far, no disaster has smitten Chal-Negoro, though such things have happened in recorded history to other heretic nations.
Characters in the world of Mardaka's Word should be exceptional individuals, on the scale of 100-point characters in GURPS. Most choices appropriate to a normal fantasy world are also appropriate to Mardaka's Word, though some details should be observed. First, any member of a non-human race must be an immigrant from some other world (the Breath-Eaters are a notable exception). Second, playing one of the Pure Folk is probably not a good idea. Third, any non-Heretical magician should possess a skill in Singing or Speaking at a level commensurate with his magical prowess. In GURPS terms, a mage may not have any spell at a higher level than his Sing or Bard skill. Heretical magicians may use skills other than Sing or Bard, but will need to possess some kind of intellectual or artistic skill as a prerequisite to their magic. Fourth, one of the underlying themes of Mardakan societies is that of ritual. Tharry is no exception. The characters need not be particularly devoted to the rituals of society (even though it would be helpful), their position towards them should be clear. Finally, though characters need not come from Tharry, they should have a reasonable explanation for being in the capital city of Tharry Hold.