Kaios

• Kaxu's Quill: A quill made from the feather of a crow that can write down a target's active stream of consciousness, but only if they are within ten feet.

• The No Iso Globe: A glass orb that prevents any magic, from any source from being used within the perimeter of 15 feet from which it is broken. Lasts 2 minutes

• Zamak's Compass: An armillary sphere that can tell you if an Isoxu is within 100ft. Will emit a low glow and the rings will spin.

• Shot in the Dark: Consume. Grants +1.5x base speed, extra action in combat for five hours, +2 Dex mod, -4 Perception. -2 Con for five hours after first effects end. Single use.

• Grandpappy's Fence: a single plank of wood. Can be stuck in the ground as long as there is a circumference of 5ft of soil around the user. Stone planks spring from the ground and surround the user in the 5ft circumference. +4 AC against ranged spells. Target with CR rating of 2 or under must make WIS saving throw to enter the circle. If the wooden plank breaks it catches on fire and disintegrates. Plank has an AC of 12 and 15HP. User can not exit circumference or effect is disabled.

• Tseki's Bond: A glue that can bond two living things together. It does not matter if the glue is adhered over clothes or armor, once both beings have glue on them, connect them at the respective glue covered points. Even if the beings attempt to take off armor or clothes they will be unable to separate themselves as if a magnetic pull comes from within their bodies. The only exception is if the glue is attached to a body part separate from the torso, that body part may be removed. The bond will still hold the body part to the second party but the beings will be able to separate. The bond will hold for 24 hours unless Dispel Magic or similar is cast. Can be used 4 times.

• The Grand ol' Opry Glasses: +4 perception. If role for perception is less than 12 (including bonus) the user is subjected to hallucinations and the sound of Opera singers drowning out any other sounds for the user for 30 seconds.

• Eraser of Elli'las: A small wax tablet that when rubbed by the finger can "undo" the result of an action done by the user. Does not undo the action itself but can restore a target object to the qualities it possessed 6 seconds prior. If damage was inflicted upon the target, wounds will heal, but if the target was killed they will not be revived. Can be used 6 times.

• Sap of the Elder Tree: A small bottle filled with a syrupy liquid. Consume. For 24 hours you can cast a previously unknown spell of your choice that is in your class spell list and under 3rd level by using the appropriate spell slot. CON saving throw, on fail; become incapacitated for 2 minutes, take 5 Psionic Damage, on success; you gain an animal companion that only you can see and can speak with you in your language. You must speak out loud to the animal companion to communicate. One use.

Excerpt from "IV - Birth of the Candxu"

Kaxu was bored. He began to think of moving out from his parents and finding somewhere else to stay. He had grown tired of the ocean and envied the vastness of the sky but knew there was nowhere to roost. Then an idea, Kaxu found the great alligator Baazan and grabbed on to as many stones as he could from the beast's back. He pulled and pulled and finally freed the stones as the alligator snapped back at him. Kaxu flew once more into the sky attempting to throw the stones up, so they would stick like the sun and moon and stars, but of course they would not. The stones dropped back down, getting larger and larger as they went, finally hitting the water with a tremendous splash. But instead of sinking back down, they floated. This became the land of the world and a place that Kaxu could call his own. He called it Kaios.

I might as well start with the world map. Conceptually I think most of my ideas developed from having a single point of context to this bizarre, foreign world and waiting for the synapses to fire as I added in the details. How the place that we live so dramatically effects our outlook on life and how our ethics, religions, and culture largely stems from the way our civilization is born from the nature around us.

So about the world map. Pangea-esc continents tend to bore me. I'm an avid Civilization fan and the prospect of discovering new lands and cultures is so wonderfully evocative to me. I wanted the world to still be young, with plenty of mystery and exploration so the continents in the east are relatively uncharted for the most part with only a few trading ports here and there. I'll go into more depth on each region with a later post.

I think the most striking feature of this word is its central gulf between Aigreigos and Yeniphos, the Gulf of Kamard. Comparing to our world the gulf is kind of like if the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal were connected directly and if the Indian subcontinent never slammed into Asia. Or if the Gulf of Mexico spread out instead of pinching off in Yucatan and Florida. It also represents the current most vibrant region of cultures, as might happen with an area of easily accessible maritime trade.

I went through quite a few changes with the use of language and spelling throughout Kaios that drove the change for some of the names.

While I love hand drawn maps, working off of my original image in photoshop was a bit too time consuming since I was making edits and changes so often to the land and names. Inkarnate was not the perfect tool but it ultimately gave me what I was trying to accomplish after a bit of fudging. It also got me out of my least favorite map making activity, drawing trees. However I will likely make a hand drawn map eventually just to seize full artistic control like the egomaniac I am.

So there's the world map as it is now. Plenty of region maps and city maps to come. So much lore and history and story that's been slowly compiled over the years.