Akadazia is the Common name of the demi-plane "inside" the body of the dead god. This is a budding Material Plane, where nature is natural. It is the only publicly accessible place nearby where people age naturally, heal, hunger, thirst, become pregnant, are born, etc. To the Skinsiders, they are "Ephemerals", people who live short insect-like lives, consumed in drudgery.
The Interior is generally a much more primitive place than Face. Most people (of whatever species) are nomadic herders or hunter-gatherers. Government is generally simple. Common law and chieftains. Generosity, honor, courage, and physical prowess are valued. Few have the resources to study wizardry. Adepts and druids are more common than clerics. There is little organized religion except the Temple of Pelor in Lakeland. Various cults may be found here and there, but most people have no more than a village temple-of-all-gods or a clan shaman.
Lakeland is the most civilized (i.e. agricultural, with many people living in towns or villages) region. It is Akadazia's breadbasket. Cattle and horses mostly come from the Storm Plains tribes. Most metal and stone products come from dwarven colonies in the western mountains. Wood products from the east, where there are small groups of sylvan folk and elves.
The Interior has been slowly growing ever since the body started to "decay". The body is by now much larger on the inside than the outside --- Akadazia is maybe 300 miles in diameter, with a silvery sky, a weak sun, stars, and three moons of varying intensities and phases. A couple of towns and a number of small villages. It is surrounded by a ring of jagged mountains, each direction bleeding from the elemental planes. Akadazia is full of "rotten" spots, with holes/portals to other planes.
Expansion: about 100' a year (local) in each direction, but not smoothly. Some interior stretching happens also.
Total population (humanoids): about 250,000.
Races:
In most of Akadazia, religion is not organized, but villages and tribes have a few clerics and/or druids about. People honor various gods at various times. They go to their village priest-of-all-gods for healing, for luck, for a blessing whenever they are to do something risky. The cleric teaches children about the world (both material and spiritual), and how to read. The cleric (or the druid) blesses marriages, the hunt, the fields, births, deaths. The cleric is in tune to the spirit world, and tells his/her people when the gods are angry, and what can be done to appease them. The cleric looks into the future, to provide guidance for his/her people.
In Lakeland, the Temple of Pelor (called the Radiant One or the Great Father) dominates the spiritual landscape, with a small number of dragon cultists scattered about.
Godsdoor is a village settled by newer immigrants from the Skin. It is built around the hole in the ground that leads to the exterior. They trade with Face as well as with Akadazians, and have a bunch of crafters and a garden/orchard of renown, blessed by a circle of druids. It is loosely ruled by a baron appointed by the Ancient.
Population: about 400
A small village a few miles south of Godsdoor. Supplies gladiators and fighting beasts for people Skinside. Blue's House of Delights is one of their main customers (and has a say in local affairs.)
Lakeland (mostly settled by halflings and humans, with some gnomes off in the hills to the west) is agricultural, with a number of small villages. It is said that they are allied with a dragon, and have a lot of half-dragons among them. Lakeland is slowly getting flooded. Will have to move out in about 50 years. Small shrines to various gods may be found in Lakeland.
They suffer periodic raids from barbarian tribes and savage humanoids to the north and west. There used to be a few more towns, but most got destroyed during the wars of succession a century ago. The Lakeland Wall (think Hadrian's Wall or the Great Wall of China, except shorter) forms the northern boundary of Lakeland. It was built early in the Lord Protector's reign (over two centuries ago.)
Population: 4500 (approximately 4/5 human, 1/5 halfling)
Goosetown is the oldest and largest settlement in Akadazia, and is now the capital of Lakeland. It is the seat of the High Lord and the site of the main temple of Pelor.
Lakeland itself is well-connected, with good roads. Maintained by taxes and merchants' guilds. (Part of what guild fees go for). Roads have inns (of varying degrees of sophistication) located along them every 16 miles (one wagon-day), usually. Within Lakeland, travel is not too hazardous.
There is also a road that runs along the river, then up to Godsdoor. That also has inns, but those are just big wooden one-room houses (with a partition inside so the animals sleep on one side, the people on the other, and a fireplace for heat and cooking, and a loft for the caretaker.) The caretaker charges 5 sp per person (includes a blanket, a bowl of soup, a chunk of bread, and a mug of ale.) Travellers are not common enough to support a full-time innkeeper. The caretaker usually also fishes, keeps a garden, sets a few snares, and maybe keeps a few chickens or a goat. (Varies.)
Other towns and villages: Little Saltrock, Cornhollow, Hook Run, Skaursport.
Copyright © December 2001, Celeste Chang --- Revised ---
July 29. 2004
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