Golgatha

Haze

PLANET SIZE: D (3900 miles)

PLANET TYPE: Spherical Earth Body

DAY LENGTH: 24 hours

YEAR LENGTH: 10 months (12 local months of 24 days each, 6 day week)

POPULATION ANALYSIS: 100,000?+ undead, 50,000 - 60,000 humans, 20,000+ invaders, 15,000+ su monsters, 8000+ gibberlings, 8000+ lizardmen, 6000+ gnomes, 4000+ lycanthropes, 4000+ mindflayers, plus small populations (1000 - 2000 each) of dwarves, drow, duagar, elves, grimlocks, minotaurs, orcs, syllix, tanar'ri, and yuan-ti.

Once upon a time, this world had another name. In fact, it has had several in the course of its long history. However, Golgotha (`place of bones') is the one that now fits this world best.

Geographically, Golgotha is a cold temperate world, with ice caps that reach to latitude 40 in most places. The feeble output of the Sun is in large part to blame for Golgotha's current state; even at high noon the sky is so deep a shade of blue it is almost violet. Only during the brief periods when the Sun regains its former luminosity does the sky turn the shade of blue found on other worlds.

Once, Golgotha had nine small continents and three major chains of islands set amidst its sea; but two of the continents were destroyed during the Final War, and three of the remainder are now partly or entirely swallowed by the ever advancing ice, which seems to creep down another mile or two with each passing year. Indeed, while Golgotha has a tropical zone, it is very narrow, and on other worlds would be considered only subtropical.

The remaining habitable landmasses are Fjoul, Bext, Illerine, and Ahkeer. The first three are linked together; Ahkeer stands apart on the opposite side of the world from them. Between them lies the remnants of the sunken continent of Ausheel, now a archepegalo of islands.

Golgotha was once home to hundreds of millions of sapients representing a score of different races, dwelling in hundreds of countries, fiefs, tribes, and city-states. All that ended with the Final War.

Many of the events leading to the Final War are murky, as is much of the War itself. It seems as though the Final War was not actually a single conflict, but rather a series of wars fought more or less at the same time.

Somehow the various motives and feuds of these nations and others combined in a way that led to greater and greater conflict. Alliances were made, then broken or ignored. Key decisions were made by shadowy figures working towards unknown goals, propelling previousely peacefull countries to ruin and war. Religious fanatics seized power in some places, cementing their rule with massacres. Battles were fought over land or wealth or religion, only to latter be denied. More and more effort went into intensive research on spells and devices of ultimate destruction.

The Final War killed almost everything and everybody on Golgotha. 99.999% of the populace perished in the sorcerous plagues, occult storms, and conjured monstrosities that ended the War; those that did survive did so because they were deep underground, protected by layer upon layer of wards, or because they were very, very lucky. Within the span of a few decades, Golgotha went from having a population of hundreds of millions to mere thousands. The ecosystem was devasted, with entire catagories of species becoming extinct or nearly so.

Living amidst all this death, combined with the dimming of the sun, has had its effect on the whats left of the populace of the planet. Many of Golgotha's inhabitants are fatalists, caring little what happens - "So I was robbed. What does it matter? Tomorrow the sun may die, and all of us with it. Sure I'd like to have my goods back. But why trouble myself with revenge when the death of all is nigh?" Others take an attitude of "Party today, for there may be no tomorrow." A few aspire to gain great wealth and personal power, caring little how they do so - "If I'm going to die, then I wish to die as a king, not as a pennyless peasant. And if I have to kill a few others to become a king, what of it? They just die a little before the rest of us, is all." Some are caught up in rituals of various sorts, passed down from days long gone: "It worked then, it works now, it will work tomorrow; nothing else is needed." Only a minority of the populace is has the goals and drives found in societies elsewhere.

Continents

• Fjoul
• Bext
• Illerine
• Windward Islands
• Akheer
• Ausheel