Solaris

Solaris is a world on a different plane than the Material Plane that guildmembers sometimes travel to for missions. Interestingly, the world seems to have only been in existence for a few years, with its recorded history being less than 400 years old. The dominant power in the plane seems to be Vodka Krokoto, a powerful sorcerer, who watches over the plane and prevents outside invaders from causing chaos. Though Solaris has many similarities with the Material Plane, it is theorized that this it is actually a demiplane created by Vodka, as he frequently refers to it as "his domain." Solaris is also sometimes known as a "Domain of Delight" due to its proximity to the Feywild.

The main DM for this area is Monker.

Overall Geography
Solaris has a great biodiversity and changing fauna divided into three large territories. The central territory, also known as Vermilion, is a temperate, forested prairie that stretches for 96 miles in all directions. Vermilion is surrounded by a great sea that has not been explored. The sorthern Territory, also known as Snowfall, is a snowy area surrounded by sea and mountains. Due to the relatively high population of giants and half giants, the places have been altered and terraformed at the convenience of the inhabitants, expanding the rivers and occureneces of other bodies of water in the area.

The southern territory, known colloquially by the people from Vermilion as "Calavera", is a relatively unexplored area. It is known to be a vast desert filled with dangerous wildlife, little water, and climatic chaos. Apart from that, not much is known.

Notable Locations
Solaris is populated by a number of small city-states. Though mostly independent, they do maintain contact and form regular alliances to cope with the constant attacks of undead and elementals. Vermilion currently has four major cities, while Snowfall has only one. The settlement status of Calavera is unknown.

Vermilion City
Ruled by Duke Bruno and Merlina Llamazares, Vermilion City is made up mostly of bugbears, goblins, hobgoblins, kobolds, dragonborns, tieflings, and half-breeds. The city is considered Solaris's pinnacle in the construction of magical gadgets and the study of the arcane. Although the government is feudalistic, the city enjoys prosperity, equality and community.

Bacon
Also known as the Land of the Druids, Bacon is a city in Vermilion ruled by a circle of religious leaders, composed of the high priest Tristán Llamazares, the archdruid Lazam, and the archdruid Menelaus. The city is a communist theocracy where orcs, elves, fey, and humans worship the Goodberry Lady. Though Bacon uses a monetary system to trade with other towns, the city's economy is managed and controlled by the government, which provides food, water, clothing and medicine to its inhabitants equally.

Sulles
Ruled by Bertram, leader of the mercenary guild; Carmen, leader of the Hunters Guild; and Rico Quickfoot, leader of the Transporters Guild, Sulles is a fishing town in Vermilion which controls much of Vermilion's seas. The city's economy is capitalist, and its government has a poor but stable relationship with Bacon and Vermilion City. Its population consists of gnomes, half-orcs, haflings, humans, and some dwarves.

Little Rock
Little Rock is a subterranean city in Vermilion composed mostly of kobolds, dragonborns, and minotaurs. Little Rock is led by Karl, a bronze dragon; the kobolds pay homage to Karl for religious reasons, and his position is more religious than political. The city operates under a socialist system in which the concept of private property does not exist, with its people taking turns doing the city's jobs and living in communal buildings.

Little Rock maintains a very good relationship with Vermilion City due to one of Little Rock's shamans, Merlina, having married Vermilion City's Duke Bruno. Although Little Rock is legally considered part of Vermilion City, and there is in fact an underground passage between the two territories, their governments operate very differently.

Wintersword
Wintersword is a unique city located in Snowfall. Composed mostly of ice giants, orcs, half giants and fey. Wintersword is controlled by a group of leaders known as the "Jarls"—Zelos, Knud, Saga, Karavan, Alan and Aslog—all of whom were chosen for their strength, intelligence, wisdom or ability to build.

Wintersword is a quasi-feudalist society in which the land and property belong to the jarls, but citizens are allowed to live under the jarls, earn money, and enjoy the jarls' protection as long as they work and follow the jarls' rules.

Races
Solaris has a relatively high diversity of civilized races; very few act out of savagery and cruelty. As a result, Solaris is a cosmopolitan land with many people of mixed race. Solaris's inhabitatns classify the races into two categories, monstrous and non-monstrous, with many of the monstrous races seeming to be indigenous to Solaris.

Humans
Humans were once the most common race within Solaris, but over the years, constant war, conflicts, and racial mixing resulted in the pure human population being reduced to the point where many consider them near extinct. The remaining humans inhabit Vermilion and Snowfall and live for approximately 90 years.

Gnomes
For reasons that remain unclear, gnomes are the second least populous race in Solaris, but are its longest-lived civilized race, living up to 150 years. Most live in Sulles or Vermilion City, where they work on improving their magical arts and as craftsmen. Due to their small population, the gnomes have unfortunately forgotten their native language.

Vermilion's other races often consider the gnomes to be calm, jovial, but also somewhat deceitful.

Dwarves
The dwarves of Solaris are considered hard, stubborn, and to share a strong racial bond with each other. Although they coexist with the other creatures of the world, they prefer the company of their own and tend to speak Dwarvish most of the time. Unlike the dwarves of most other planes, dwarves born on Solaris live only 80 years, which is considered normal for them.

Elves
Mainly living in the city of Bacon, the elves of Solaris are regarded as free-spirited nature lovers. Due to their strong affinity with the region's fauna, the elves prefer to keep their distance from other creatures and cities that do not respect the natural world. Thanks to this shared philosophy, they are on good terms with Solaris's orcs.

Unlike elves on most other planes, Solaris elves cannot enter a trance to commune with their ancestors or past lives, though they can achieve a similar state. Moreover, their life expectancy is only barely 80 years.

Halflings
As the majority population of Sulles, halflings are regarded as loving the sea, music, and freedom. Most spend their time sailing or traveling Vermilion and its seas. Few of Solaris's halflings have the patience to be wizards, but many do become bards. Halflings on Solaris live for approximately 80 years.

Dragonborn
Solaris dragonborns are actually kobolds who died and were reincarnated by Karl, a copper dragon, through a secret spell capable of reincarnating them in a more powerful form. Kobolds have accepted this reality and sometimes even allow themselves to be sacrificed for the sole purpose of being reincarnated. Every dragonborn, at the moment of being reincarnated, obtains psionic abilities. The dragonborn status does not seem to be heritable, however; the offspring of any Solaris dragonborn are always kobolds.

Unlike kobolds, dragonborns tend to have more interest in exploring the world, so while they can be found in Little Rock, they can also be seen in Vermilion City or traveling elsewhere. Solaris dragonborns live for approximately 120 years.

Tieflings
Tieflings only relatively recently appeared in Solaris, first popping up during the Demon Wars. Though many of Solaris's inhabitants believe them to be humans corrupted by the abyss, they were actually artificially engineered by the demons who harnessed Solaris's supernatural power of imagination to create replaceable soldiers.

Due to all being copies of each other, all Solaris tieflings look identical: They have long claws, white eyes, and a relatively human but aberrant appearance, which is why they wear masks and robes or use illusionary magic to appear less frightening.

Tieflings mainly inhabit Vermilion City and Sulles, though they tend to be shunned for their involvement in demon warfare and their involvement with demons. Tieflings on Solaris live for 120 years and have a strong connection to arcane magic.

Mixed-Race
Mixed-race individuals probably compose the largest group within Solaris, having grown to its current size through the cosmopolitan nautre of Solaris societies, constant wars, and historical forced integrations. Though mixed-race people vary widely in terms of interests and abilities, it is rare to find a city without mixed-race individuals; in Snowfall, the most common mixed-race people are half-giants, while in Vermilion, they are half-elves and half-orcs. Mixed-race people rarely live past 70 years in Vermilion.

Orcs
Green-skinned and possessing a strong physical presence, Solaris orcs are considered to be very close with nature. As one of the world's indigenous races, they have a somewhat distant relationship with the non-monstrous races of Solaris and may be somewhat rough in their dealings with them.

In Vermilion, the largest orc population is found in Bacon and have completely forgotten their native language. By contrast, in Snowfall, they are found in Wintersword alongside half-giants and giants and still retain their language. Solaris orcs live for approximately 70 years.

Goblinoids
Goblins, hobgoblins, and bugbears fall into this category. Although they are three different races with different physiognomies, their interests and history in Solaris are the same. As one of world's indigenous races, this group of creatures mostly inhabits Vermilion City due to its duke being part bugbear.

Solaris goblinoids tend not to be as adept at arcane magic but do have a talent for crafts and primal magic; goblins and hobgoblins tend to engage more with craftsmanship and the bugbears, primal magic. They live for approximately 80 years.

Kobolds
Indigenous to the world, Solaris kobolds are regarded as distrustful and cautious. Kobolds live in caves and underground settlements and are skilled miners and natural arcane sorcerers. Every kobold is born knowing their purpose in the community and works to improve their nest. Few travel outside of their caves, and the largest concentration of kobolds is found in the Little Rock underground city in Vermilion. Solaris kobolds live for approximately 120 years.

Minotaurs
Solaris minotaurs live in Little Rock alongside its kobolds. Once bovine beasts, an unknown magical effect granted them intelligence. The reason for their transformation into minotaurs isn't entirely clear, but Sung-Sun, a Bright Dawn guildmember, is believed to have had something to do with it.

Though the minotaurs used to be engaged in a secret war with the kobolds, it ended with a ceasefire and they are now allies. Minotaurs on Solaris live for 50 years and are only found on Vermilion.

Cosmology and Religion
Interestingly, imagination, prayers, dreams, nightmares, myths, and faith in Solaris seem to have tangible power. The inhabitants of Solaris are capable of modifying reality as long as the collective imagination believes it possible. All three styles of magic—arcane, primal, and divine—share this origin, the power of imagination, though the inhabitant's belief that they are distinct has likewise caused them to be divided in this way.

Some theorize that Solaris's regional deities were also created by the collective imaginations of the world's inhabitants. The power is known to be able to create life, and it has been theorized that the world's demons, tieflings, dragons and undead were also born from its people's dreams and nightmares.

Solaris has two religious pantheons: the Inner and the Outer. The Outer Pantheon consists of deities that are worshipped within the world, but do not inhabit Solaris and therefore have very little influence over it. The gods of the Interior Pantheon, on the other hand, reside within Solaris, many of them in fact created within it by the inhabitants themselves.