Theah

Theah is the continent on which the majority of 7th Sea action takes place. It is, in fact, the only continent that Theans (the people who populate Theah) are aware of. The only exceptions to this are the islands of the Midnight Archipelago which are situated to the far west. She is the mythical and magical facsimile of a combined 17th century Europe and Asia and is made up various nations who have their own cousins in our reality.

Nations
The United Kingdom of Avalon,   is the British Isles of King Arthur and Queen Elizabeth I combined. Queen Elaine rules the Triple Kingdom, made up of Highland Marches (Scotland), Inismore (Ireland), and main Avalon (England). In the background, a powerful and ethereal force, are the Sidhe, cold and eternal, the source of Glamour sorcery. (PG 34-37)

Castille is an Inquisition terrorized Spain. The current headquarters of the Vaticine Church, religion is both its’ pride and its’ problem. The child-king Sandoval does what he can to protect the people, but often it falls to the Zoro-esque hero El Vago to help defend the populace from the fanatic rule of the Inquisition and the invasion of the Montaigne. (PG 37-39)

Eisen combines the political tension of loosely associated Germanic tribes with the war torn horror of post WWI Germany. The death of their king, called an Imperator, coincided with a religious war between the Vaticine and Objectionist faiths that reached every corner of the country. This has left the Eisenfursts, or Iron Princes, the highest authority in their domain and in charge of rebuilding and caring for their starving populace. Still, even in these hard times, there is pride in being Eisen. They have no cursed sorcery in their nobility. Instead, each noble possesses a piece of drachenisen, a metal that is stronger than steel and twice as light. (PG 39-40)

Montaigne is France at the height of noble opulence, complete with the stark contrast between the upper and lower classes. L'Empereur’s court, the center of art, architecture, and fashion, flaunts its portal sorcery, Porte, despite the religious abhorrence it inspires, so much that the entire country was excommunicated. This does not stop the peasants from turning to Theus and the Vaticine Church for help and comfort as they fight L’Empereur’s war in Castille and Ussura, fight starvation as they are taxed beyond their means. (PG 40-42)

Ussura is Russia, just as large and just as cold. The nation seems unrefined and unstructured to outsiders, without proper roads or money. But there is a force in Ussura, commonly called Grandmother Winter, that seems to care for her people. She grants the "nobles" there, the families that have her favor, the shapeshifting magic of Pyeryem. The Montaigne who are invading her borders are finding that Ussura the land is just as formidable as the rough and hardy Ussuran warriors they face. (PG 42-45)

The islands that make up Vendel or Vestenmannavnjar are inspired by the stark difference between the modern Swiss and Dutch and their Viking ancestry. The Vestenmannavnjar people, or Vesten, as it is commonly shortened, are deeply invested to their heritage and ancestry. Some say they draw from it the runic magic of Laerdom. But in the last couple generations, there have been some who have pushed for more practical, and lucrative, policies. The Vendel League have since taken over, established a near universal currency, the Guilder, and are now duking it out with the Vodacce merchant princes for trade rights for all of Theah. And the Vesten hate them for it. (PG 45-46)

Vodacce is much like Italy as the Borgias would have known it. The term Vodacce is less a nation, and more a culture and code that the individual kingdoms adhere to. They are each led by a Merchant Prince, who only seem to ally together against the Vendel League. The noble women of Vodacce are Fate Witches who use Sorte to twist the strands of fate. The men, who are unable to have this gift, and the Vaticine Church attempt to control them by refusing them education and literacy and threatening them with excommunication and insanity, inflicted by their fellow Fate Witches. The women celebrated in Vodacce are the Courtesans, peasants without magic who are trained to interest and flatter. And beneath all of this is Machiavellian politics that they have affectionately dubbed the Great Game. (PG 46-48)

The Empire of the Crescent Moon represents the Middle East. It is a collection of unique tribes united under a Sultan. The Second Prophet who originated amongst them brought them the lessons of the patika, but also the Crusades by the west in his name. These, followed by the trade restriction by the Vaticine Church, has made them very suspicious of westerners. (CE)

Cathay is the mysterious Asia, so far from Western Europe as to be almost myth. In 7th Sea, this isolation is assisted by the Firewall and Corridors of Flame. Beyond them are several distinct countries. (CJE)

Seas
The Trade Sea

The Frothing Sea

La Boca de Cielo

The Forbidden Sea

The Mirror

The Corridors of Flame

The 7th Sea

Religions
The Vaticine Church

The Objectionist Faith

The Ussuran Orthodox Church

Patika

Culture
Thean Calendar