Welcome to the Hidden Library of Vastinia
What started as the setting for a D&D campaign 2 years ago has evolved into a complex dark fantasy world full of political turmoil, mysterious places, and compelling characters. Like any fantasy realm, Vastinia has its myths, legends and histories, which deserve a proper telling.
The Hidden Library is our way of starting this epic tale. Browsing through the shelves of our library, you will find the stories of ordinary Vastinians. Through their eyes, we’ll reveal the beauty and complexity of this world - one page at a time.
Over time we’ll fill our Hidden Library with more than just short fiction. We hope to write a series of standalone novels following the lives of Vastinia’s heroes. These will form Vastinia’s main timeline.
We aim to write regularly, posting stories every week. As the project expands, we’d like to bring more people on board - writers, editors, and illustrators, who will help us bring Vastinia to life.
All about Vastinia
The timeline of the stories on this blog will be different. But most will lead up to the novels we are planning to write, these novels will form the timeline. Some of the short stories will be far in the past like “Of Two Minds” which is about Lucas Ironclaws’ early life learning about his unique circumstances or “The Dream” which is about how Khaled became the champion of a god. Still, most will follow the timeline of the novels. We will leave hints when the story is tied to events in the world as a whole. Please keep in mind, that Vastinia started and continues to be the basis for our dungeons and dragons campaign setting, which from time to time give some interesting view and some characters might seem a bit out of place.
Now, with that said, let us tell you about the wonderful world of Vastinia. Vastinia, as you can see on the map, is a large archipelago. We are not going to tell you everything, only about the main islands, the big factions and nations, and some of the big events that led us to today, high summer in year 566th of King Richard Rex 3rd reign or the year 72nd of the age of freedom or year 226th of the descent or year 3.558th of the founding, just to name a few. As you can see, the calendar differs a lot depending which faction and nation we are discussing. Let’s get into the details about the different nations.
The Nations
Before we dive into the short descriptions of the some of the most powerful nations of Vastinia. we want to give a overview of these nations.
The Order of the Merciful
The Merchants of Freedom
The Nebula Pirates
The Seekers of Knowledge
The Thousand Tribes
The Order of the Merciful
The Order of the Merciful formed after several High Priests and Paladins had visions of the land of the gods appearing in the mortal realm. They must go there to keep it safe from those who will harm and destroy it. they called on all the believers and they set sail to the north, letting faith and trust in the gods guide them to their new home. They arrive on an island the size of a small continent (think Australia), the island would later be named Clemenscasa. They built the home of the gods in the form of a massive city in white and gray marble, with temples for every god. The island itself is connected to the upper planes of the gods, Mount Celestia, Bytopia and Elysium. 226 years ago 10 Devas (celestial beings resembling angels) descent to the island when the Order of Merciful was founded and the capital city Citadel was finished. These guardians protect the island and its people.
The Merchants of Freedom
Once a part of the Noble Guild of Commerce of the once mighty kingdom of Helio Isles. Some of the commoners in the guild were not satisfied with the king’s taxes and how the nobles were treated differently than the commoners; getting better tax breaks and refunds for no good reason, other than them being noble.
A small group had had enough and started to plot, nothing wild at first but they found ways around the king’s tax and over a couple of decades, they had saved enough to buy a couple of ships and load them with merchandise. From there it snowballed, more merchants joined, even some nobles. Over the next century, these merchants built an economic empire, making deals with the Nebula pirates, the seekers and other minor nations.
This put them in a position of power against the kingdom of Helio Isles and king Richard Rex, exactly powerfully enough that they could stopped paying the king’s taxes and form their own nation and there was nothing the king could do about it. This happened 72 years ago, when the age of freedom started and commerce ran free.
The Nebula Pirates
This is the biggest organization of freedom-loving entrepreneurs that gather together and build something that resembles a structured government. A kingdom of sorts, they have a king, the pirate king and a ruling body, composed of the biggest leaders with the strongest fleets.
The Pirate king ruled over 10 small islands with their own governing body. Most of these islands are so filled with people, that the islands are just big cities built on wooden posts and structures. They even dug into the ground creating tunnels and caves to serve as homes for the growing populations. Each island is governed by a count of three, typically, by the strongest three single owned fleets in the area.
For example, on Pirate Port 5, Charlot, the Scarlet Siren, is one of the count of three, she and two others work as the governing body there. She is never there, as she is a pirate and loves the sea. But all of the counts of three answer to the Pirate King.
The Seekers of Knowledge
What started as a small mage’s guild turned into an ancient organization and a nation on its own. 3.558 years since its founding to be exact. Most mages either have grown up within the nation or seek it out simply because they have the largest amount of knowledge stored, the biggest libraries and everyone involved care little about ethics and morals.
The seekers of knowledge's only pursuit is to increase the knowable elementals of the cosmos and the magic within. An entire nation and faction is only beholden to knowledge and the pursuit of it. it does not matter one bit to them, how the magic comes about. A deal with a fiend or archfey, a gift from a god of any kind or nature, through study or inheritance, it does not matter. It will be catalogued and stored as information to help their future generations to understand and improve their magic.
To the far north on a rocky island, they made their home of knowledge, their sanctum. The island and the capital carry the same name as Sanctum.