Introduction

The world of Bicolline is often referred to as Mundus or Mondus, though I have not found an official reference with that name. The known world of Bicolline is what you can see on the map. Anything written on this resource can be considered information that is freely accessible to anyone.

While information about current events is easily accessible, the same cannot be said for the spiritual and physical properties of Mudus. Many claim to hold special knowledge, but in truth there are very few established facts about the origins and workings that are readily available to the common person. Even if Mundus is flat or spherical is under debate, though this may be answered in summer 1024 when we meet travellers from the rumoured undiscovered continent, the New World.

The common person will know supernatural forces exist because they can see the effects, but only select few will wield magic, speak directly to powerful forces or use legendary artefacts. Most will seek guidance from religious leaders or try to learn of the scientific truths second hand to understand the following observable phenomena:

• Portals to other planes
• Demons, elves, vampires, bluemen, dwarves, ratmen, fae, orcs, goblins and other fantasy creatures
• Different schools of magic and occult practices like alchemy
• Religious powers

Each religion and region will have different stories and explanations for how supernatural forces or fantasy species work. However, for the scholar who wishes to delve deeper, there are some records. Secondary sources are not hard to come by, simply ask an established scholar. But primary sources are rare. Documents like the Tablettes Savoir provide some clues.

History of Mundus

There are many factors that make writing a comprehensive history of Mundus difficult and explain why no one has attempted to write one before. First, few written records exist until around the 900s and those that do exist are often unverifiable. Second, most records come from political scribes and religious scholars and are full of bias and propaganda. And finally, some history has all but completely disappeared from official record and exists only in memory.

While deciding how to catolog my research, I decided the best way to tell the story of Mundus was by focusing on each nation’s history one at a time in order to keep things clear. However there are several world-wide events that have had such a significant effect on the shaping of modern Mundus and impacted so many different nations that I was able to find multiple sources and cross-reference facts in order to write a cohesive narrative. I have summarised these below.