Astia¶
"Related to providing a transit from the Demonlands to a landing point on the continent of Astia." — from the Covenant of Daennelgin and Kosh'tuul (S339)
Astia is the mother continent of the known world and the continent that the Shattering broke. The scholars of the Age of Magic wrote of a "once-great continent" whose heart lay at the bottom of the sea and whose surviving pieces had become lands of their own; by the Fifth Age the word has narrowed again, and the great surviving mainland that this wiki calls Numenia is simply "Astia" to the people who live on it. This page covers the continent as a whole, the sea that divides its fragments, and a handful of places the sources name without placing.
The Shattering and the Shattered Sea¶
The Shattering, the destruction of the Worldstone from which the Age of Magic counts its years, fell hardest on Astia because the stone was here. The old overview of the gods remembers that the Shattering "destroyed the Anthu'Mithius (as well as most of the continent of Astia that it was on at the time)" (S429). The regional gazetteers of the same archive describe what was left: "The Shattering destroyed what was once central Astia, leaving most of it at the bottom of the sea. The vestigial fragments of the once-great continent subsequently became: South Astia, East Astia, The Shattered Isles, and Urastia" (S387).
Between the fragments lies the Shattered Sea, "which makes travel and trade between the sub-continents difficult and otherwise dangerous. Only a handful of trade routes exist, mostly from the Thyssal Empire to East Astia and the Shattered Isles" (S387). The sea is also the world's magical centre of gravity: the compendium notes that "in particularly low magic areas (opposite side of the globe to the shattered sea), summoning is easy and takes very little power, though the other forms of ethereal magic dont work well or at all" (S372).
Astia in the later Ages¶
The Fourth and Fifth Age sources use "Astia" for the mainland itself. The Proturan campaign fixes its setting after "most of the northern kingdoms were destroyed by the Araxians and Proturas is the last bastion of the Kalari races in the north-eastern part of Astia" (S077), and keeps a "Southwest Astia Regional Timeline" running from 0 to 834 AL of the Fifth Age (S107). In the dreams of the ascendant Inwe, the red dragons of Vixseranyol, rebuilt after the Dark Sun, "ultimately overran and conquered much of central Astia including what remained of the Free Cities" (S031). The Sancturi-era gazetteer speaks of Rovers "from Western Astia" scavenging in the Dragonruin and of Thrace "isolated from most of the rest of Astia" (S324), and the spider-wasp demon Pompili, an ascendant of Jorogu, is "active in the jungles of East Astia" (S021).
In the Fourth Age, the demon Daennelgin's covenant with Kosh'tuul promises "a transit from the Demonlands to a landing point on the continent of Astia", for Kosh'tuul "and his minions, up to 20 separate Demons, no more", and ends "13 days after Daennelgin and Kosh'tuul have landed on the continent" (S339). The Demonlands are thus a place one crosses to Astia from; what water or barrier the crossing spans, the covenant does not say.
Unplaced lands¶
Honuka and Khur¶
The Titans were made "as living chains for the Primordials", and they bind the elemental plane to the physical "even in death. Only the complete destruction of a Titan's corpse and subsequent release of all it's elemental and ethereal energies destroys the binding. This normally has severe regional implications on the material plane. The sunken lands of Honuka, and the dead wastes of Khur are just a few examples of known effects of destroyed Titans" (S448; the 2015 text, S543, reads the same).
Gap
Neither Titans article says where Honuka or Khur lie, on which fragment, or whether anyone lives near them. They sit on this page until a source places them.
Temple of the High Gods¶
The first of the twelve anchored portal destinations given to a Sancturi-era company in 704 SM of the Fifth Age was the Temple of the High Gods, "underwater: extreme darkness, drowns" (S192; S191 lists it eighth). Nothing else is recorded of it.
Gap
Which gods are the High Gods, and where the drowned temple stands, the session notes do not say.
Druid Hall¶
The last of the same twelve portals opened on the ruins of Druid Hall. The notes record "a giant tree, 50 yards away, 300 yards in diameter," with "purplish bleeding sores on the tree," bones with dried blood about it, and a demon "licking skulls": "8-legged spider, large mouth, lots of teeth, with 2 tongues" (S192). The Druids of the Earlier Ages governed the wild places from tree-fortresses, the Great Trees, most of which were lost in the Shattering (S367); whether Druid Hall was one of them is not stated.
Gap
No source places Druid Hall or names who built it.
Lands of Astia¶
| Land | Also called | What is known |
|---|---|---|
| Numenia | South Astia, Pevathor, Pevethor; "Astia" to its inhabitants | The surviving mainland, home to nearly every nation and war of the archive. |
| East Astia | Markhan | The eastern fragment: jungles, orcs, dinosaurs, the earth-heart crystal and the glacier Rok'Thorumal. |
| Shattered Isles | The island fragment on the Thyssal trade routes; the Isles of Sorrow are filed under it. | |
| Er'Astia | A fragment of ruins reached by portal in the Fifth Age: Hightown and the Well of Stars. | |
| Urastia | Named only in the lists of fragments (S387, S498, S372). |
Gap
Urastia appears in every list of Astia's fragments and nowhere else. The archive's folders file Er'Astia as a fragment that the lists do not name; whether the two are one land is not stated.