Aebrynis

Aebrynis was a world ruled by the inheritors of divine bloodlines in constant struggle with each other and against powerful creatures tainted by evil.

Cosmography
"Hardly worth noting is Aebrynis..."

- Tarsheva Longreach, renowned planewalker

Portals connecting Aebrynis from other worlds were few and far between, so it was considered a backwater by planewalkers.

The world was known to Faerûnian scholars primarily in connection with Sera, its native goddess of commerce, who was working together with Waukeen and other like-minded deities to maintain the grand realm of the Marketplace Eternal in the Outlands.

Like Toril, Aebrynis had one sun and one moon.

Geography
"Cerilia is a troubled land. It is a chaotic patchwork of nations, cultures, religions, and traditions."

- Caliedhe Dosiere, forty-seventh Chamberlain of Anuire

The continent of Cerilia on the northern hemisphere was divided into five regions in accordance with their main human populations: War-torn Anuire in the southwest, the cold and rugged Rjurik Highlands in the northwest, Brechtür surrounding the great bay which divided the northern half of the continent, the frigid and desolate land of Vosgaard in the northeast and the hot and dry region of Khinasi in the southeast.

Of the other continents of Aebrynis, Aduria to the south of Cerilia, frozen Thaele to the north, and Djapar to the far southeast, very little was known.

Inhabitants
"Many different cultures live and thrive on the continent of Cerilia. Five human races and at least five nonhuman species maintain communities, laws, customs, and traditions."

- Oervel Osserlun, Introduction to The Font of Authority, the Fall of Empire

Humans, the most populous group inhabiting Cerilia, were divided into the distinct cultures of the feudalistic, heir-to-the-empire Anuireans, the pragmatic and mercantile Brechts, the honourable, magic-approving Khinasi, the hardy, close-to-nature Rjurik and the harsh and battle-tested Vos.

Dwarves, elves, halflings, giants, and a handful of dragons populated Cerilia, but had all characteristics and often an outlook quite distinct from their counterparts on Toril. Gnolls, trolls, ogres and the indigeneous race of orogs threated everyone without proper defense. Gnomes mostly kept to themselves, while goblins formed states to rival their human and demihuman neighbors.

Some families preserved a residue of divine power in the bloodlines, which granted some individual unusual powers and led them to become influential leaders and rulers with a special link to their lands. The taint of the dark deity Azrai was passed on in bloodlines as well. It mutated some of its bearers into powerful and monstrous creatures called awnsheghlien, Blood of Darkness. They often became rulers of their own dark domains and the bane of all around them.

Religion
"The champions, also closest to the gods in their ideals, were elevated to replace the vanished deities."

- Caliedhe Dosiere

The humans who ascended to godhood at a cataclysmic event at Mount Deismaar and their offspring formed the Cerilian pantheon of deities. Each culture took one or two of them as special patrons.

Sera, goddess of commerce, wealth and fortune and patroness of the Brecht people, worked together with the other single-sphere deities Waukeen, Shinare and Zilchus, to establish a grander presence on the Outer Planes.

Shar saw herself as an enemy of another Cerilian goddess: Nesirie, Lady of Mourning, worked to heal grief, which was anathema to Toril's Lady of Loss. Rumor had it that even some of Shar's proxies sought refuge in Nesirie's realm, the Waves of Grief, further antagonizing the Dark Lady.

Moradin was worshiped as the patron of the dwarves in Cerilia, just as of those in Faerûn. The great relic called Moradin's Anvil, linked to the dwarves of the Great Rift, has also resided in Cerilia at times in its history.

The abyssal lords Baphomet, Kostchtchie and Yeenoghu had followers in the spheres of both worlds.

The deity of the goblins of Cerilia, Kartathok, bore many similarities to Maglubiyet, so that it was unclear if they were different entities, or just two names used for the same one.

The elves of Cerilia worshiped no gods, and acutely felt their lack of priestly magic as a strategic disadvantage in war.

History
"He who ignores history is doomed to repeat it."

- Khinasi saying

The dwarves and elves built nations in Cerilia in constant opposition to the humanoids for years uncounted. The ancestors of four of the five modern tribes of humans originated on the southern continent of Aduria, but fled to Cerilia from the increasing oppression by followers of the dark god Azrai. Joined by another tribe from the east, they conquered much territory for themselves in bitter strive with the native elves and humanoids.

When the shadow of Azrai reached the northern continent, too, mortals and their deities themselves took a last stand against the dark god and its followers at the isthmus between Cerilia and Aduria, at the slopes of an elevation called Mount Deismaar. The deities of old sacrificed themselves to destroy their dark counterpart. The devastation shattered the landscape and showered surviving mortals in divine essence: Eight champions rose as new gods, while many others gained a divine spark they passed to their descendants ever since.

In the following centuries the Anuirean noble house of Roele formed their tribe into an empire, which dominated large parts of Cerilia. It ended when the last of the Roeles fell in a duel with the Gorgon, the most dreadful of awnsheghlien. The ruin of the empire led to the independence of occupied ethnicities and ongoing strive within Anuire for rulership.