Armchair Bugbear

A deity is any immortal being who possesses great power and disciples who honour them in exchange for favour. Some of those beings--saints, ancestors and 'gods' proper appear to be abstract, residing in some unseen spirital realm. Others, however, are very much present and physical. They can be located, seen and touched. Followers of those abstract religions decry the latter as 'cults'. The first deities were the trolls. Their power was control over stone - they could shape the earth like a potter shaping clay. The mortals who dwelt in the primordial grasslands worshipped them in exchange for remaining untrodden by their gargantuan feet. The trolls would erect stone pillars where offerings would be received and would aid their followers by gathering stone into great walls to protect them from threats, and to provide shelter from the unforgiving sun. Since the Sun came and turned the trolls to stone, worship of those ancient beings is very rare, except in places where mo...

When inhabitants of Rodinia look up at the night sky, they see not only stars and galaxies, but also cosmic beings that swim through the aether like fish through water. The stars are as plankton to them, and the galaxies as strands of kelp. Astronomers can track the migration of the great rays and the celestial squids. The ripples of the movement of their fins reach Rodinia and is harnessed by mages, granting them access to the arcane power that pulses through the very atmosphere. A long time ago, when mountains could walk, the trolls ruled the world, stomping over whatever sprung out of the ground and whatever was erected by the mortal beings. They knew no gods or authorities. One day, however, a cosmic catfish arrived to Rodinia to lay its eggs. That catfish, whose name is Sun, swims around the world, probing the ground with its tendrilous barbels which the inhabitants of the world see as rays of light. Its egg, the moon follows in its slipstream. It eventually cracks and the yolk fa...

Green Dragon The toxic gas-spewing dragons of the forests and jungles. They have the grinning, toothy mouth and piercing eyes of an eel and the body of a lumbering Komodo Dragon.  Red Dragon The fire-breathing dragons of crags and caves, they bear the unfathomable face of a tardigrade and the lumpy body of a gila monster. Black Dragon The acid-sprewing denizens of the marsh. They have the round, uncanny face of a leech or lamprey and the grey, mottled body of a marina iguana. They turn their face inside out when projecting their corrosive saliva. White Dragon The ice-spewing dragons of the mountains. They have the writhing, inscrutible face of a cuttlefish or squid and the papillose body of a gecko. Blue Dragon The lightning-summoning dragons of the great deserts. They have the twitching face of a crustacean, all spikes, mandibles and antennae, and the hard, spiked the body of a thorny devil. Sea Dragon The fearsome, venom-spitting dragons of the ocean. They have the fleshy, flabby...

 Giants and dragons are ancient enemies. Dragons are fundamentally chaotic beings. Their eggs seem to generaet sponteneously from volcanic pools and they have an insatiable appetite for destruction, seeking to disrupt both the order of nature and that of human society. They corrupt landscapes, destroy villages and steal gold. They horde treasure in order to deprive humans of resources, but they may be willing to release it in order to sow the seeds of disorder, such as giving it to a corrupt dictator or even an idealistic but naïve hero. Giants are beings of order. They seek to preserve the order of nature and the ecosystem. They are more than willing to destroy human settlements if they believe that they are over-exploiting the resources allocated to them, but they are also willing to grant aid to them if they see them being responsible. Cults devoted to giants exist everywhere and they are able to access a nature-based brand of magic.

In Rodinia, fairy tales start with the phrase 'when the mountains could walk'. It essentially means 'a long time ago'. In the past, the mountains were living creatures now known as trolls. Their size was immeasurable and they destroyed everything they stepped on, making life almost impossible. The sun arrived and its light turned them to stone. Many huddled together to shield the young troll-lings from the sun, forming great mountain ranges with troll-haunted tunnels within them as soon as dawn hit. Others walked into the sea to rest in the deep where the sun's rays don't reach, causing the sea level to rise and submerging countless hills and forests. Those troll still wander through the mountain tunnels tunnels and upon the seabed causing earthquakes, landslides and tsunamis. The high mountain peaks still bear the faces of the and some say that their hearts still beat and blood still flows deep within the stone.