Hieron

File:Hieron.jpeg

A partial map of Hieron by Janine Hawkins near the beginning of Autumn in Hieron, and adhering to the Dungeon World adage of "Draw maps, but leave blanks."

The continent of Hieron and its surroundings are the setting first created for Autumn in Hieron, Friends at the Table's first Dungeon World campaign, and revisited in Marielda and Winter in Hieron.

A great many years ago, it was struck by a cataclysm known as The Erasure.

The large island on Hieron's southern end was once connected to the continent before Samothes pulled the city of Marielda away from the mainland.

Cosmology

Creation

“

I know what you're thinking, Sige. If every god sprang from something else, where did I come from? Well, one day, nothing flinched, and there I was. And instantly, it regretted me, and so my good friend Tristero was born. Haven't seen him in a minute, though. Still, the point is, that, in moments like these, gods don't design what their offspring looks like.”

– Samol, "Four Conversations"

Hieron is seen as either being synonymous with the god Samol, or having been made by him. Prior to its existence, Samol claims to have been spontaneously born from Nothing, immediately followed by Tristero, the god of death, who ushers the souls of the departed back into the void.

The divine impulse of Samol's wanting to see the lonely world filled brought Severea into being, who created the living creatures that populate it. Seeing their lack of self-sufficiency, Samol's desire to see them shepherded and cared for gave birth to Samothes, who built homes, roads, and bridges.

In his most legendary act, Samothes entered a mountain of fire and metal and forged the Sun, filling the world with light and introducing Hieron to the notion of time through its rising and setting.

History

At least two other gods were created, the protector Samaantine and the teacher Samot. The gods used their divine authority to write and rewrite history, undoing past events that had caused things to occur in a way that they did not approve.

In time, however, Samol developed a sort of illness, inflicted perhaps by the looming Heat and Dark of the nothing which surrounded Hieron. Under these circumstances, the relationship between Samot and Samothes dissolved and the two gods eventually went to war over differing opinions regarding the Heat and the Dark. In a desperate act, Samothes' people retreated to the southern city from which they had first come and, from within his mountain of flame, he tore the city from the mainland to keep away Samot's forces. Though the Boy-King's armies eventually made it to the island, the ingenuity of Samothes repelled them.

Tristero, growing weary of presiding over dead souls' trips into the void, retired to the city of Nacre, partially giving up his godhood to preserve it amid the dark days ahead.

Shortly afterward, Samothes himself was killed by their son Maelgwyn, who killed him with the Blade in the Dark in a misguided plan to protect Hieron. At the moment of Samothes' death, his island city Marielda reconfigured itself to contain his tomb, a magic artifact which sapped away the gods' divine authority to rewrite history in order to protect the city, which, amid this chaos, was finally conquered by Samot, who renamed it the City of First Light.

At some point after this, Hieron went through an apocalyptic period of loosely related cataclysms known as the Erasure which decimated many civilizations and left others struggling to survive. During or after the Erasure, the northwestern island of Ordenna came into being.

Composition

Though the gods of Hieron once possessed the ability to rewrite history and undo events, these past versions of the world have not disappeared entirely but exist, in a certain sense, below the 'surface' level of the world, though they do not appear to be caves from the inside. 'Subterranean' dwellers refer to a system of "strata" (which are themselves subdivided into "laminae") to orient themselves within these different levels, with the surface being stratum zero and numbers increasing as one advances downward.

In addition to the sun, Hieron's sky was also populated at some point by the two moons, Del and Bri. Later on, possibly around the time of the Erasure, the night sky was also filled with stars, who may have been created by Samot as part of a plan to avert Hieron's destruction by the Heat and the Dark. Hieron likely does not exist as an oblate spheroid floating in 'space' in the same way as our world. It may or may not have a horizon.

Known locations

• Velas
• Ordenna
• Eventide Island
• Nacre
• Auniq
• The Mark of the Erasure
• Marielda
• The New Archives
• Rosemerrow
• Twinbrook
• Old Man's Chin
• The Lost University
• Velisina
• Kanton
• Wharfhurst
• Treeton
• Baron's Gate
• The Buoy