An Introduction to Epoch of Seeds and the World of Ort

I started Epoch of Seeds a few years ago as a thought experiment to explore how the early states of civilization would form in a fantasy setting. In a world of not just Humans, but Orcs, Dwarves, Elves, and Gnomes. How would the varying needs of different species of people affect the growth of cultures? Would there be more cooperation or more conflict? How do things like dietary needs and lifespan affect the traditions and cultures of a people? To explore these ideas the Epoch of Seeds is set 100 years after the beginnings of agriculture around a settlement called Maera's Rest. Here is a brief overview of what I have established so far.

Punched into the side of a massive mountain range by the force of the fall of an unknown god is a large crater roughly 120 miles across, known as God's Eye. The crater is old enough that the environment is lush and fertile. The streams that cascade down from the surrounding mountain range wind through craggy hills dotted with caves occupied by dwarven clans cold hammering their copper tools. Then down through alpine forests where occasionally the sounds of elven festivals can be heard. The streams flow across a large wetland to collect at the bottom of the impact basin, where they merge into a single massive lake with an ominous island in its center. A river flows outwards from the lake over a large flood plain and picks up speed to flow swiftly out towards the southern end of the crater and over its edge. At the southern side of the crater, cut in half by the mighty river, is a vast grassland populated by lumbering herd beasts and the Orc tribes that follow them.

On the northern bank of the lake, straddling the river at a natural ford, is a collection of buildings forming a small, permanent settlement populated by Humans and a handful of other peoples. The three largest buildings stand on legs of stone and are accompanied by a unorganized swarm of smaller, wooden dwelling on stilts. This is Maera's Rest, the first city on the world of Ort. Surrounding this settlement are the fertile flood plains that resourceful humans have started using for the beginnings of agriculture. During harvest season and for some time after this settlement becomes crowded by a large, ever shifting, tent city as traders from the outlying tribes travel inwards to trade.

On the northern side of the vast mountains, rain-starved in the shadow of their presence, is a massive wasteland of crags, ravines, and biting cold. From these wastes the first dwarven clans climbed the treacherous passes to become the first to settle in God's Eye. A short and robust people with the ability to eat certain kinds of minerals like clay and chalk for nutrients, they quickly settled in the caves along the northern rim of the basin. This area is rich in many resources including hot springs which became a vital ingredient in many dwarven brews and soups.

Further down the slopes of the basin's rim, in the shadows of the towering firs the elves live. Slight and standing in height between a dwarf and a human, these people are incredibly long-lived. Having migrated from the lush tropics along the coast far to the south west at the request of their goddess, Maera, they had the hardest time first adapting to their new environment. Being primarily vegetarians, they soon found many fruits, roots, and other plants to cultivate in small plots scattered around the dense forests.

The last peoples to arrive at God's Eye were the orcs and humans who traveled together from a vast savannah to the southwest. Having heard rumors of a lush land far away from some traveling gnomes, many orcs and humans set aside their rivalries and grouped together to travel to the basin. Combining the humans' knack for organization and the orcs' ability to herd and domesticate pack animals, they arrived and spread across the southern plains of the basin.

Orcs, much larger than humans and primarily carnivorous, have mostly kept to the southern plains where they tend to their herds with the help of their domesticated herding birds, the kekek. Their relatively short, often violent, lives also give them a deep appreciation of spontaneity. This sometimes puts them at odds with the more level headed humans or traditional dwarves.

Humans spread out much further and spent a lot more time interacting with the other peoples of God's Eye. Upon seeing the diversity of the riches and of needs many humans set out to create a large trade network across the basin with its eventual center at Maera's Rest. While not as short-lived as orcs, they are still considered fleeting by the other peoples. This has instilled in humans a need to record their history with the building of monuments.

It's difficult to say exactly when the gnomes settled in God's Eye because they don't really settle anywhere until the ends of their lives. Millennia ago the archipelago that the gnomes called home sank into the sea and they have been wandering ever since. Settling only towards the ends of their lives when the Fading takes hold. It was this insatiable wandering that brought the first gnomes to God's Eye and it became a place for those suffering from the Fading to live their last days. It was their knowledge of the basin that brought all of the other peoples, aside from the elves, to God's Eye.

So, that is a look at the world that I have been working on building for the better part of three years now. There is a whole lot more that I plan on writing about in subsequent posts. My end goal for this project is to fully develop a setting for a Pathfinder 2e supplement and for several video games that I have planned. Over the next few months, I will be releasing more detailed posts on each of the peoples of God's Eye and their cultures. After that I will focus on posts covering the magic system and various deities of Ort. This project has captured my mind for far longer than anything else I have ever worked on and I hope it as captivating to some of you as it is to me.