The Genesis of the New World

Introduction.
In the beggining, God created the heavens and the earth. And God said: "let there be potatoes". And there were potatoes. God saw the potato was good. So he separated the potato from the earth. God made two great lights--the greater light to see the potato and the lesser light to see the potato slightly worse. He also made the stars in the image of the potato. On the first day god baked the potato, and named it jacket. He also deep fried it, and named it chip. And thus was born the first McDonald's'''™. '''Then God said, "Let the land produce cattle: juicy, succulent beef patties and pigs on the land that bear bacon with fatty streaks in it, according to their various kinds." And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and this seed was made into chip oil. And God saw that it was good. On the second day God said, "Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky." And thus the McFish™ and McChicken™ burgers were born. God blessed them and said, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the cities in the Americas, and let the birds increase in our unethical farms." Then God said, "Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may staff and serve our McDonals™." And as God had been gorging himself on McCheeseandbaconburgers™ for three days straight, man was born morbidly obese. And thus the McDonalds™ never went out of buisness.

Several millennia ago the world as we knew it came to an abrupt cataclysmic end. The world burned, consuming those whom couldn't find shelter and wiping them from the now ashen surface. Despite the horrific conditions, a handful of men and women, barely a percentage of the then current population, escaped underground, descending deeper and deeper to escape the havoc penetrating in from above.

Such stories are passed from elders to the young, a way of remembering the paths walked that lead to meta humanities current condition. The details behind the legend are long lost to dead and buried memory, but it's legacy lives on. The results however are no guessing game, the world built around the base of the for-runners is evidence of that enough.

A Description of the World in brief.
The world of Terranus is within the boundaries a single, gigantic, subterranean cavern complex. Estimates at distance proclaim the world fits into the magnitude of five hundred miles across, and three hundred miles wide. The sky sits a mere ten miles high from sea level, it is possible given the right conditions to reach that height, not that you would want to; for reasons discussed later. Access to water, air and shelter is much like it is now, the land hosts all variations of climates, though it is often thought that biomes of regions are considerably more compact than would have existed in the old world. Progressing East to West you ascend from places of warmth to regions of frost. At the eastern extreme lies the brink, a colossal body of magma that has claimed every vessel ever sailed over her. Although one can see beyond the boundary of safety, the trials of a dozen now lost vessels have forbode further exploration east. At the extreme West lies the peaks, a collection of mountains that stretch across the entire Western world border, though to contrast the Eastern world, they have a very demarcated end where the walls of the cavern begin. Topped with Snow, this region is not foreign to wintery blizzards or frozen rivers. Terranus also has the advantage of not being flat. As a rule of thumb for travellers if one wanted to know which direction one is going, if their journey is predominantly downhill they are heading East; uphill, West. The world lies on a slant, from this the scholars have thought pertains the cycle of seasons and differences in climate. The further West you proceed the lesser the heat from the volcanic conditions of the eastern brink, leading to a more temperate or cold air temperature.

Oddities of the New World
The new world is not quite dissimilar to the old, save for a couple of distinctive features. Foremost humanity is now meta-humanity. Orcs, Elves, Dwarves, Halflings and many more humanoid subraces have evolved out of the selective pressures of the milliennia past. Magic has also surfaced amongst men and monsters and many skilled magi exist in various forms around the common man. Where magic flows, creations follow; artificial constructs replicating life exist, as do items of untold magical ability that are coveted amongst the influential, wealthy and strong. Many years below the surface have made the creatures that inhabit the world twisted and alien, with many abominations roaming the dark corners of the earth. Yet the mundane animal kingdom also cohabitates the regions of meta-humanity, finding homes amongst the dense and varied landscapes.

Despite these differences, a few things that seem common to the worlds inhabitants are to us an alien concept.

The Sky and the Souls within.
When you look skywards in the World of Terranus, what you're seeing is not truly the sky and space beyond as we know it. Living underground would normally guarantee the logical conclusion that seeing heavenly bodies would be impossible, and, in a sense you're right. What you're seeing is not the true sky. In fact what you're seeing is the faintest memory of what the sky once looked like. It is beautifully coloured, with passing planets, jaw-dropping constellations, swooping belts akin to saturns rings, meteor showers and a warm and welcoming sun. The collective of the Souls that floated skywards for millennia have congregated to form a canvas on which their memories paint, keeping the vision alive.