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Welcome to Kanturas, a medieval fantasy world of desert caravans, northern seafarers, ancient dragons and cities built above the remains of vanished civilisations. Here, a guarded manuscript can change the balance of power, a bargain with an ancestor can demand a treasured memory, and an animal with glowing amethyst eyes may be watching with a person's intelligence.
This wiki explores the peoples, places, histories and beliefs of Kanturas, with particular attention to Idhelin and the surrounding desert of Actaeum. Its stories follow rulers and refugees, guardians and smugglers, scholars and ordinary craftspeople whose lives intersect with powers far older than themselves.
A world of journeys
Kanturas stretches from the frozen lands of Nordmore to the dunes and oases of Actaeum. Across it lie the Etrurian Empire, the kingdoms of Reduran and Moharis, the island kingdom of Karkhedon and the untamed Drannor wildlands.
These distant powers reach the lives of Idhelin's inhabitants through merchants, ambassadors, travellers and rumours. A foreign seal on a letter or a disruption to a caravan route can make events beyond the horizon suddenly personal.
Within Actaeum, journeys cross the Sands of Eria and pass landmarks such as Tellervo, the lonely tree. Settlements including Ashaïr's Rest, Kalam Kar and Anumun Oasis connect the desert to wider networks of exchange. At Melath Gorthrim, Mandaru guardians watch over a city of the dead.
Idhelin: the city above and below
At the heart of these stories stands Idhelin, an immense oasis city whose surface buildings rise no higher than three storeys.
Its streets hold markets, workshops, courtyards and the residences of powerful families. Beneath them stretches an enormous undercity: inhabited galleries, salt mines, ancient sewers and caverns large enough to contain entire districts. Bioluminescent fungi illuminate passages and underground forests, while older roads lead beyond the limits of reliable maps.
The city is governed by a council of ninety barons under Viscount Iluzan, an ancient dragon living in human guise. His true nature is concealed from most of those he rules. The Greycloaks, an army of wyvern riders, police the city and defend its approaches, while the formidable Mandaru protect the Great Library and the knowledge entrusted to it.
Daily life depends upon water, food, salt, safe passage and the labour required to keep this vast settlement functioning. Every trade route and working tunnel connects people whose interests may be very different.
Medieval fantasy with a cyberpunk influence
Kanturas combines medieval fantasy with the social tensions and atmosphere associated with cyberpunk, most visibly in Idhelin.
Power is concentrated among elites who control wealth, institutions and access to knowledge. Crowded districts support informal economies, smugglers and competing loyalties. Military patrols enforce order, while official explanations can conceal events that directly threaten the people living beneath them.
This influence takes a distinctly medieval form. Barons govern districts; guarded archives restrict information; merchants compete over supplies; and the Office of Seals oversees dangerous magical practice. A forged document, a stolen manuscript or an unrecorded tunnel can offer an opportunity that lawful routes deny.
The city’s appearance supports the same atmosphere. Coloured fungal light illuminates crowded underground streets, immense caverns provide depth beneath a low skyline, and the shadow of a passing wyvern reminds a busy market of the authority overhead.
Skilled labour remains essential. Tailors, growers, miners, scribes and caravan workers sustain the world in which rare practitioners of magic operate.
Peoples and traditions
The peoples of Kanturas preserve distinct customs while meeting through migration, commerce, conquest and shared urban life.
Humans include six established clans: the travelling Zylvaran, forest-associated Faevaran, tattoo-bearing Sheorenth, disciplined Mandaru, independent Zansur and blue-skinned Mornori. Their traditions mark adulthood through journeys, service, visions and ceremonies.
The Tuarai carry a desert heritage into caravan camps and settled communities. Men's elaborate face coverings, women's covered hands and the four houses of the School for the Young remain important expressions of their culture.
The Norsidh originate in distant Nordmore. These werebear, werewolf and werecat people have a long history of seafaring and conquest. At fifteen, they choose the path of the warrior, sailor, bureaucrat or seer.
Beneath the familiar world dwell the Chityra, an arthropodal people united through a hive mind. Their existence is a suppressed truth in Idhelin, where most inhabitants know nothing of the conflict being fought below their homes.
Magic, dreams and personal cost
Magic is rare and influential. Its two principal mortal traditions are Pactwork and the Eightfold Art.
Pactwork
Pactwrights establish agreements with spirits, ancestors and other inhuman powers through precise rituals, runes and circles. Their workings can protect, heal, bind or destroy, but every working demands a painful personal price.
The rare crystal Oneirite allows a prepared working to be preserved for later activation. It forms on rare occasions when Arcadia Mycota, a common lucid-dreaming fungus, infects a suitable salt crystal. The fungus is traded across almost all nations of Kanturas; the crystal remains scarce.
The Eightfold Art
The Eightfold Art combines an inherited gift, the Kindling, with years of disciplined study. The phase of the moon at a gifted person's birth determines their Aspect. The eight traditions encompass stone, water, lightning, two forms of fire, animal transformation, ice and sand.
Practitioners learn through teachers, ancient tomes and repeated lucid practice within Xanadu, the dreamrealm. They bring mastered workings into waking life through physical Forms requiring precise movement, breath and concentration. Armour prevents the necessary movements, while exhaustion and dream bleed make overreach dangerous.
Druids, practitioners of the Full Moon tradition, begin with small wildshapes such as stag beetles and hornets before mastering larger animals. Whatever form they assume, their glowing amethyst eyes reveal their nature.
Xanadu also touches lives beyond magical study. Sheorenth tattooists and their clients enter shared dreams whose imagery becomes part of the bearer's lifelong artwork.
Ancestors, dragons and buried history
The greatest ancestor spirits are powerful enough to be regarded as gods. Elu, the creator, is depicted as a transparent, one-eyed dragon; his children include the healer Syndra, the warrior Vidros, the hunter Chiron, the fire-stealing Azanke and Fabin, spirit of the Sun and Moon.
Their stories shape prayer, ideas of honour, family observances and the risks of approaching supernatural powers. Ancient dragons preserve memories that can reach beyond surviving mortal records.
Below the surface lies the Rivengroth, the vast network of roads and cities built by the extinct Dwarves. Its craftsmanship endures even where knowledge of its builders has been erased.
In Idhelin, the Veiled Concordance protects dangerous secrets, while the War of the Lower Gates continues beyond public sight. Those who return from the deepest passages sometimes remember a sound that means comfort to the Chityra and terror to their enemies:
Once. Twice. Then many times together.
Explore Kanturas
- The world: Kanturas · Actaeum · Nordmore
- The city: Idhelin · Undercity of Idhelin · Great Library
- Its inhabitants: Peoples of Kanturas · Dragons · Ancestor Spirits
- Magic and dreams: Magic in Kanturas · Pactwork · Eightfold Art · Xanadu
- Power and duty: Council of Barons · Greycloaks · Great Covenant · Office of Seals
- The hidden depths: Rivengroth · Chityra · Veiled Concordance · War of the Lower Gates
