The Regions are the remnants of the World after the Seventh Starfall, also known as the War of the Divine Powers. Continental to planetary in scale, these masses of Land, Sea, and Sky are separated from one another by vast stretches of Riven Space. A full 80% of the World is thought lost to Riven Space, but even so, the total area of all remaining Regions equals approximately 150 Earths worth of territory.
A Region describes the total area of a major mass of Land, Sea, and Sky surrounded by Riven Space. The largest five are slightly larger than Earth's own surface area, the next seven largest are around half that size, while most of the other regions range in sizes between Australia to Asia. Smaller Regions are possible, but seem to only remain in existence due to special circumstances, with the theory that any Region that falls below a certain size threshold is not existentially strong enough to resist being eventually subsumed by Riven Space.
There are thus far 357 known Regions. Only half of the Regions are officially designated by the World Coalition, but there are numerous other unofficial designations for territories not yet fully charted. Many various Regions not part of the Coalition have their own maps and hold disputed claims on neighboring, underdeveloped Regions. Beyond this, there is plenty of untamed wilderness even in the Civilized Regions.
Most Regions are Earthlike, holding myriad recognizable Earthly biomes, but some hold distinctly alien ecologies, while a few have landscape features impossible by Earthly standards, and biospheres adapted to match.
BRIDGES
Most known Regions are still connected to one another by thin Bridges that link the Regions at various points in the Sea, Sky, or Land. These Bridges are several miles wide by dozens of miles long, tunnels of existence that cut through the Riven Space, and can be used to traverse from Region to Region. However, a full two-thirds of these tunnels are not ideally located, sometimes fully requiring air or underwater travel. Others may be Land based passages, but across dangerously unstable or hard to traverse territory, or require traversal through winding cavern systems. Some exist on the surface of the Sea, but the waters in that area may be notoriously choppy.
Any given Region is accessible to at least one, but usually two or three others, that it was originally physically adjacent to, creating a rough throughline from one end of the World to the other, which then loops back onto itself like the World originally did. If laid out end to end by their Bridge connections, the Regions would form something of a ringworld with interwoven branch-offs. Instead of an actual ring, however, the once-flat world is thought to be crumpled up into an extra-dimensional knot, twisting in and around itself, although the Regions themselves remain flat. This configuration is not readily apparent, however, as the Sky is still visible in every Region, relative to where that sector previously existed.
The Bridges are fully enclosed by sheaths of Riven Space, making submersible and flight methods more treacherous, with the added risk of drifting into the walls of the tunnel. Likewise, some Land Bridges have been known to have ravines or sink holes that open into Riven Space.
Even the most hospitable Bridges ultimately form inconvenient bottlenecks for mass transit, and over the centuries, these natural check points have been heavily controlled by local governments and corporations. As such, migration and trade have been heavily stymied until the last century or so. In modern times, most such Bridges are regulated by the Coalition to a common standard for ease of travel flow. Moreover, the invention of Dimtunnel Gates and Riven Piercer Ships have opened up more points of access that can be situated in safe areas.
Since the invention of Riven Piercer Ships almost fifty years ago, seventeen Regions have been discovered and added to the Known Regions count. These Regions are island continents completely cut off from the rest of the World by Riven Space. This confirmed the theory that more of the World still exists than previously thought, giving hope that even more Regions can be found. However, there is no way of even guessing how many undiscovered Regions may be out there.
THE WORLD COALITION
180 Civilized Regions form the World Coalition, a sort of Extra-Regional Federation akin to the United Nations. Most Regions who participate send representatives for every major country within their territory, but the largest Regions with dozens of countries of their own end up sending representatives of their own United Nations organizations, which can sometimes lead to exasperatingly layered representation policies.
The World Coalition's ultimate goal is to maintain Interregional peace, attempting to minimize and mitigate wars within their jurisdiction, as well as the regulation of trade, especially where resources from one Region might have deleterious effects on other Regions. Because of the vast scale of oversight, the World Coalition has little actual enforcement power at multi-Regional scale, as the sluggish inertia of bureaucracy and the impracticality of applying all-purpose solutions to thousands of countries and hundreds of different Peoples means there is simply no way to enforced policies at scale beyond the most broadly agreeable terms. Theoretically, the Coalition is empowered to utilize any resources needed to outright crush any force that threatens their territory. Realistically, it just isn't possible to mobilize that much power at once.
The World Coalition's power and influence is hence mostly concentrated in controlling the Bridges, which they are very effective at. Otherwise, the Coalition leaves most Regions to their own devices when it comes to governance, unless a conflict or disaster grows so large it requires Coalition oversight to settle. Even though it is known the Coalition is a slow and lumbering organization, being a member does afford a de facto protection against hostile non-Coalition Regions, as any member is within rights to call upon immediate allies to bolster their personal armies against invasion.
KNOWN REGIONS OF SIGNIFICANCE
SUNDOWN - The Region directly below the Sun, as determined by shadow measurement. The very center of Sundown is marked by a great pillar that casts no apparent shadow, as it is directly pointed at the center of the Sun, and hence all sides of the pillar are equally lit. This is confirmed to be the Center of the World.
Sundown is a largely desert Region half the size of Earth, roughly disc-shaped, and directly connected to two Earth-sized Regions and three smaller Regions by stable Land Bridges. It is nominally the seat of power for the Coalition, though the Coalition usually rotates or divides their meetings among the major cities of the connected Regions. Most civilization is concentrated around the Bridges, with a major city located near them. From there, settlements largely branch out around the outer ring of the Region, where more abundant water and plant-life can grow in tropical temperatures. The Great Ring Rail is a bullet train that connects the three major cities. It is possible to survive in the inner desert with proper resources, certainly, but most Peoples are not well adapted to it.
Sundown is the single greatest source of Phlogistonite, a crystal ore that can burn clean with extreme longevity, and can regenerate slowly over time when exposed to Starlight, particularly from the sun. Much of Sundown's industry comes from mining and harvesting the energy-rich ore. Essentially Phlogistonite is "solid fire", and the ore replaces coal and gasoline in much of the World as a primary fuel source.
ALLIED FREE STATES - The superhero-themed Region. One of the largest known Regions, and the largest connected to Sundown. This is among the most Earth-like of regions, with a vast ocean and large continents that make for a 60/40 split between Sea and Land. The Allied Free States resemble late 20th Century Earth, with many familiar replicas of Earth cities and cultures under different names. However, there are also advancements in robots that allow for Living Automaton to have been created in recent years.
MYTHRA - The fantasy world Region largely inhabited by Demihumans. One of the largest Regions, albeit slightly smaller than the AFS. Connected to Sundown to the opposite side of the AFS. Mythra is 20th Century Earth if most countries were still ruled by kings and queens, and if magic developed in place of technology, creating similar-but-distinct machines fueled by magical energies.
FELIHIEM - Small region ruthlessly controlled by a feline supremacist Kingdom. Mostly consisting of catfolk demihumans and a few talking cat species, only felinoid Peoples are allowed citizenship. Non-felinoids are prevented from entering, unless necessary to conduct business or deal with the Coalition, of which Felihiem refuses membership. However, any Person can appeal for citizenship if they have some connection to cat-related attributes, such as werecats of other Peoples or Cat Mages. Even then, qualifying for actual citizenship is difficult.
TALESOF - A fantasy themed Region, with a stronger connection to elemental forces.
AGAS - Another fantasy themed world, but with a slightly more alien landscape. Seems to have a stronger connection to the Astra, leading to Astrals visiting this Region more than most others.
WILLOWATT - A fantasy themed Region largely inhabited by Demihumans.
THRAE - A modern Earth like world, but riddled with strange supernatural occurrences.
SUNEV - A small fantasy world Region once ruled by a Celestial who magically enforced a 10:1 female to male birth ratio, and created the power of Harem Magic. The magic of the Celestial still holds true in her absence. Haremancers are males who are assigned to a unit of trained female warriors and mages, using a form of support magic to bolster their powers to make highly capable and specialized squads that serve a variety of purposes. Despite the gimmick, the male of the team is almost never the leader of the group, and is usually prevented from risking his life due to his primary function as an energy provider. They are nonetheless trained in combat in case he must fight for himself.
SHATTERSCAPE - A Region cut through by numerous branches of Riven Space, forming dozens to hundreds of town-to-neighborhood sized chunks of Land and Sea that are connected by slivers of Bridges to one another, forming a dangerously winding archipelago of territory. Normally, territory this small would collapse into Riven Space, but some unique property of this Region keeps the tiny chunks of World from being dissolved. In total, the Shatterscape covers a total area equivalent to Australia, but going by the tunnel distances, the actual amount of space covered is spread out to be equivalent to Asia. This dangerous cluster-world is almost entirely evacuated, save by especially isolationist societies that can still thrive despite limited resources.
THE HIVE LANDS - Three Regions controlled completely by the Hive, a super-species of giant bugs with numerous sub-species bred for specific functions. The Hive emerged from a single Region and over decades, relentlessly spread forth until they conquered the entire territory. Large, stable Bridges enabled them to subsume the two Regions immediately connected to them, but luck of circumstance halted their further advance; one Region only had the one Bridge connection, making it a dead-end, whilst the third Region's Bridge was fraught with hazards and heavily barricaded with a variety of lethal resources by the World Coalition. Occasional breaches are still possible, but the World Coalition Army continues to hold strong against Hive incursion. The Hivelands total about one and a half Earths in size, with the Hive's originating Region being one of the five Earth-sized Regions. Several Civilized Peoples were rendered extinct, and several more are still ranked as endangered, by the Hive's takeover.
BARSOONA - The Region controlled by the remnants of the Barsoon Empire. About one third the size of Earth, the Barsoon maintain absolute control of the entire Region, with no other Civilized People's allowed full citizenship, only temporary sponsorship as second class denizens at best. The Region is split between fifteen different royal houses who scheme against one another, but will readily unite against foreign threats. Barsoona is reluctantly a member of the World Coalition, only because every other Region surrounding it is as well.
IDOLAN - The Region controlled by the remnants of the Idola Empire. This Region is about the size of Asia, and has been severed nearly in half by a wide wedge of Riven Space, creating a roughly crescent-shaped Region. The Idola are concentrated in the main "center" of the crescent, with other Peoples allowed to live in the narrower branches.
TRI-REGION EMPIRE - This empire controls a trio of Bridge-connected Regions collectively twice as large as Earth, which is completely cut off from the rest of the World, to the point they have no idea the rest of the World still exists. Contact with this Tri-Regional power may result in inter-Regional conflicts if discovered. Contact might be achieved by way of side-dimensions, such as travel across a Starfracture, or even a passageway via the Astra.