A D&D roleplay?

Yeah, sure. D&D. Why not? This is going to be your basic D&D game, but online. So, no map, no dice rolling, and no constantly checking your book to remember what powers you have. Just fill out your character sheet, read the opening location, maybe read the map description if your real keen, and lets have at it! Whoever DMs this can still play a character, and will as always narrate. They control all NPC’s, and are responsible for telling people when they level up.
Name: Personally I just throw letter together until its pronounceable, but you might be more imaginative.
Age: Try to make some older characters, just for the experience-over-talent angle
Gender: Look down. See anything? If no, your not a guy.
Race: Anything you want, really.
Size: Medium unless granted an exception. And your reason will need be pretty exceptional.
Hieght: Withn reason please. No 6’2” gnomes if at all avoidable.
Wieght: This does not include your armor, although if you’re here you should know that.
Alignment: This needs to be mixed up. A purely good or bad party is no fun.
Deity: No contemporary gods if you please.
Class: Anything you want, but again, a mix is absolutely necessary for this to be workable.
Abilites: By this I mean any special talents your person might have picked up. Please don’t put up an actual ability scores list.
Level: 1. Period. This is immutable. Maybe next adventure can start out paragon.
Bio: Most times this says to be brief, but this should be your longest single part. All the description you can think of that could possibly in any way become relevant, pop it in. Childhood trauma? We want to know. Lost love? Spout. Seeking revenge? Lets hear it Inigo Montoya.
Alright, heres your starting situation: You are all a part of a travelling merchant caravan, somehow. Maybe your passengers, your one of the merchants, you’re a hired guard, but somehow you are with this caravan when it is travelling through a gorge halfway through its journey. Here your adventure begins.
And heres the map I promised. Joural, you and everyone else who recognizes it can just shut the hell up, I am not spending another two hours making another whole continent.

Welcome to the continent of Runtangaerka, a place where the unexpected is the only constant.

The Fields of the Endless Sleep: a field many miles in diameter in any direction, with its westernmost edge located just a single league east of Tukmorr. In myth the field was the site of a massive battle between several powerful forces, but currently the whole area is covered in creeping red poppies, whose aphrodisiac and opiate-based properties have caused many to disappear forever beneath the tendrils of the plants while just looking for a quick rest. Or a quicky…….

Zhiug Mountains: a range leading across the northern quarter of the continent before sweeping south and becoming many leagues of rambling foothills. The mountains are extremely hazardous to pass through if you don’t take the pass of nolpeeer, as there are many shale faces which can give way at the slightest provocation to become an avalanche of razor-edged stone fragments. Inhabited only by creatures large enough and tough enough to survive the brutally cold winters, and lack of significant plant life.

Endless Sea of Shifting Mirrors: so named for the brilliance of the water when touched by the sun. No one known can watch this sea for extended periods without going blind, however if viewed peripherally it is quite beautiful. And those who have tried to sail it have never returned sane, if indeed they returned at all.

Pass of Nolpeeer: A twisting, hilly, rocky, and wholly inhospitable path through the Zhiug mountains. It doubles back for miles at times, there are no trees worth burning, and the places that are safe to camp are few and far between, however it remains the safest way to pass through the Zhiug mountains.

Gerelltnerka: a farming society with massive grain fields and orchards of many acres. Nearly self-sufficient, they are a snooty people, but as they are essential to the upkeep of many other communities, they come by it honestly. The city itself is build in a very hazardous manner, with buildings being stacked on top of one another quite randomly, everyone building wherever it suits their fancy, just as long as its not outside the 20meter high city walls. The city guard is nearly as unpredictable as the city construction, with career officers serving next to men just there for the money, don’t actually intend to guard anything. A difficult city to navigate, but well worth it, for the treasure of a thousand years is hidden there, if you know where to look for it.

Tukmorr: Directly adjacent to the spearhead Tukmorr is a place which subsist primarily on trading the corals and shells scavenged by the villagers to the travelling merchant trains. The people are friendly and welcoming, and living next to the Endless Sea of Shifting Mirrors has made it so that all those born there have the keenest sight on the continent, capable of seeing through the deepest of glares and in the deepest glooms provided there is some small amount of light. The city itself is built in a very loose, rambling manner, with the houses simply built wherever, provided the inhabitants remember to leave others room for their vegetable gardens and outhouses. The city has long since surpassed its original walls, and however how many times the citizens have tried, they cannot seem to keep the village in the 8 meter wooden walls that are at this point layering the city like a cake.

SpearHead: a curious formation of stone that juts out several leagues from the mainland into the Endless Sea of Shifting Mirrors, it has some native plants and birds that only roost on it, and it is a excellent challenge for those wishing to increase their strength and agility to attempt to clamber up and down its near-sheer sides, some of which are covered in a coat of very slippery algae.

Jhonjeaer flats: Salt flats formed by the annual melting and refreezing of the ice cape on the southernmost end of the continent. They are the main source of salt for the continent, and therefore very jealously guarded by the inhabitants of Yeklur.

Yeklur: A town that arose from opportunity in the form of the Jhonjeaer flats, this town is very long, as by necessity it stretches for miles in either direction of the ‘center’ of town, so as to better guard the best entrances to the Flats. The people are mostly soldiers and miners, some very suspicious and guarded, but most just tired in disposition. All the soldiers are very well trained, and the abundant salt makes the punishments for not staying vigilantly alert worth staying awake for. This is one town where the small government does not turn a blind eye on small crimes, and the disproportionate number of soldiers to civilians makes it very difficult to get away with anything anyway. The civilians who do live there have a unique method of sustenance, they carve the spare chunks of salt from the mining areas into quite beautiful forms, and sell it to the travelling merchant caravans.

Pillar of Xak-Yag-Akar: a pillar wider around than any 1000 oaks, over 2 leagues high, and every inch of it covered with detailed carvings only slightly faded with the impossible age of the artefact. No one knows how old it is, but it was there when the current inhabitants arrived, so at least 20 thousand years. It is not known what kind of stone it is made of. The Pillar resists all attempts to damage it, no matter what is used, and is made of a substance that seems to be a stone-metal hybrid, dusky-silver in general color. It rests in the exact center of the continent, surrounded by a forest of primarily deciduous trees that is utterly massive, days of travel across at its narrowest, and filled with strange creatures of hearsay.

Hriikfell: The forest surrounding the Pillar of Xak-Yag-Akar.

Lishpter: A volcano on the northwestern tip of the continent that has been called the Lynchpin of the Zhiug. It is huge almost beyond mortal comprehension, almost 20 miles from lowest to highest point, and is prone to unpredictable spats of lava and ash clouds that can ruin entire fields.

Ochkeria: The gold mines up in the north, farther than the Zhuig range, which supports the natives of that region, who reside near the mines in mostly small villages and one large city, called Vern-Goliar

Vern-Golair: The only large city in the far north, built with the defense first and foremost in mind. The city has enormous wealth in raw gold, and so their city is built from thick slabs of rock, everything from the houses to the city hall to the streets to the dungeons. Very few weapons will be of use in the tight-packed streets, and its hard enough getting into the city gates, built into the 10 meter high-12 foot thick walls, what with the completly paranoid but well-trained guards that are on patrol at any given hour.

Tears of the Fairest: this is the name that was given to the well-spring in the still-high foothills of the Zhuig mountains. It is the beginning of the Wrok river complex, and the water directly out of the ground is the purest in the whole of the land.

Wrok: this is the name that the massive river complex that covers much of the area on the eastern half of the continent. From above, it looks like nothing so much as a giant muscle, with one musculo-skeletal junction at the Tears of the Fairest, and the other where the many arms of the river converge to pour into the Ocean of Commerce over the Fall of Byyr.

Fall of Byyr: a waterfall several thousand feet high, and over a mile across. It has several caves behind its high-powered waters, extremely dangerous to get too, but thiefs and pirates and even adventurous children have found their way in there over the years, leaving treasures, trinkets, or even just a name in the rock face, but always something. A perfect place to hide, if your desperate enough. The falls were named after a powerful mage who, when he lost the love of his life, threw his essence into the falls, leaving his body dead on the shores but letting all that he was flow into the waters and rocks. This is the magic that has saved many people from plummeting to their deaths due to a simple misstep, and even turned back boats careless enough to get trapped in the deadly current. Don’t count on it though, Byyrs spirit, if indeed thats what it is, knows when its being tested..........

Ocean of Commerce: A massive ocean, longer than it is wide, known to many sailors as the Ocean of Rage, or even the Ocean of Wife, as the Ocean, whatever you call it, is given to periods of inexplicable storms and powerful riptides that take you wherever the hell they want to go, whether you want to be there or not. It also has several whirlpools that open with only the barest warning, capable of sucking a ship into the crushing depths of utter blackness, and leaving no traces behind but the broken shells of men.

The Ripple Plains: this is the name given to the areas of bare plains between the branches of the Wrok river complex. Many of the fields are well suited to rice-growing, and there are small villages in and about the rivers that do just that. However, some areas of the Plains have large areas of dangerously deep suck-mud that only looks like solid group until your hip-deep in it. And other areas have sinkholes, dry-sand pits with void collapses, and worst of all, the whole of the Ripple Plains are occasionally subjected to atmospheric microsystems that can flatten villages, shred the sturdiest canvases and lift whole caravans from the ground, as several of the travelling merchants have learned to their great chagrin.

Rock bottom: this area of the continent is located south of the Commerce Coast. It is exactly like its name would suggest; a black, dismal series of ever-deepening chasms and caverns. There is enough plant and animal life indigenous to the area to survive on, but no one in their right mind would choose to live the utterly miserable existence that Rock Bottom offers. Once you are in the System, as its called, it is almost impossible to get out, as every single rock face looks identical and they defy any attempts to mark them for identification. The actual rock is primarily obsidian, shale, slate and granite. Completly unremarkable, they are the last remnants of an ancient lava flow that began at Lishpter and ended in the Bay of Blackheart, on the farthest southeastern corner of the continent, on the way carving the beds for the Wrok and leaving ash to fertilize what would become the Hriikfell. Hundreds of the worst criminals on the continent have been, and are still being, sent there, and only three have ever stumbled out alive. The rest have either died, gone insane, or subsist in some obscure carvern alone. You really have hit rock bottom if you ever find yourself here. Dont.

Commerce Coast: exactly as its name would suggest, this is eastern side of the continent, located on the Ocean of Commerce, and it plays host to a great many villages and 4 large trading cities, where most of the merchant ships from the other continents on the planet come. The cities are called Qwao, Dhar, Pleektim, and Kweerka. Other notable places on the coast include the pirate port of Zin-Carla, the pleasure-pit of Thebes, and the place everyone generally avoids unless very brave, way-too-curious, or extremely foolish, described below.

Acheron: this village is the home of the Joserius family. For most people, that by itself is more than enough reason to avoid the place at all costs. The Joserius family is one of the oldest surviving families in Runtangaerka, and as such they are a massive and extended family. Almost the whole village is just their family, very few others are hardy enough or foolish enough to be bound to the family. The entire family, from the smallest toddler to the oldest Patria, as they call their heads of family, every single one of them is a powerful mage. When they are focused and they work together, they can easily split realities, level mountains and freeze oceans. This, however is so unlikely that no one worries about it. The Joserius family is a very argumentative family, quick to offense and with every single one determined to prove all the others wrong. The entire village is filled with examples of their attempts at mighty magic that have almost invariably gone awry due to poor planning, impatience, a mispronunciation or even sabotage in some cases. One noteworthy example would be the Bilf-Joserius branch of the family, who for 4 generations have been born completely normal, but slowly turn into living stone over the course of their lives. Or the Eiep-Joserius branch, who are all terrified of running water due to a unfortunate predisposition to want to drown themselves. Don’t get me wrong, a very welcoming, and accommodating family, very good hosts, but hard to stay around for extended periods without getting pulled into their family politics, at which point your pretty well stuck there permanently.

Qwao: The sister city to Kweerka, it is only 10 miles away and built nearly identically. The only difference of note is the predominantly female population in the streets and in the local government.

Dhar: an extremely organized city, Dhar is an epitome in sheer efficiency. The streets are arrow straight and set into a strict grid pattern, every street named and lit and patrolled, and building built of the same material. The guards run a clock-work patrol schedule, making them a tight and efficient unit, but easy to sneak past if you know the patrols. Most of the officials are wholly incorruptible, though they have a surprisingly loose customs system. Its easy to move illicit substances around, as long as your very discreet and look aboveboard. The cities main attractions are the small crystal ornaments made from the nearby mines, and the massive warehouses which hold annual sales. Huge amounts of valuble merchandise for dirt-cheap prices, the perfect place to spend big and feel like you got your monies worth.

Pleektim: This city is best known for its expansive guild system and equally expansive underground system. The cellars of almost every building connect, and the underground system has, over the centuries, grown to the point where it is almost another city beneath the city. The city and undercity both pride themselves on being clean, despite the number of bodies that tend to appear due to underground guild wars. This is a good place too avoid anything that even bears the slightest resemblance to politics, just to go in, get what your after (and you can find almost anything), and get back out again.

Kweerka: This is a classic coastal city, with many layers of defense both subtle and blatant to guard the wealth found in their markets. They have larger ports than their sister city, but are far more vigorous with customs, making it slightly less popular for those with less-savoury connections. Primarily males dominate their cities and government. The houses are mostly unit row housing, with slate roofs to protect against fire-bombing.

Zin-Carla: This is a city where there is a strict hierarchy, dominated by one of the two city mottoes: Might is Right. If you dominate someone else physically, in front of witnesses, you can ascend to their place. But the other city motto is just as important: Don’t get Caught. If you can kill those in your way without getting caught, you ascend that way too. The city is populated primarily by the bodily dead. By that it is meant that they, unlike the typical zombie or other living dead minion, they have their souls, but their bodies are very much dead and they do slowly decompose, unless they give in to the urges for living flesh and blood. It is said that all those who die at sea will eventually crawl out of the Well of Forgetfullness, as the centerpiece of the city is called. The cities ‘inhabitants’ all come from there, and any who might try to kill themselves by jumping in invariably crawl back out exactly three days later, completely devoid of emotion or feeling of any sort, and physically powerful beyond the ken of mortals. All attempts to plumb the depths of the Well have been given up as futile after a few miles of rope have been devoted to the task.

Thebes: As stated above, this place is the final say in pure hedonistic delight. Any form of self-abuse conceivable can be found here. The city itself rambles without rhyme nor reason, the building stacked without thought. But then, thinking is not what you go here to do. It is impossible to walk down the street without bumping into the shit-faced drunks, the bliss-leaf suckers, or the dragon-salt snorters, none of who are ever going to sober up and all of whom only exist to find the next stash of drugs. And don’t think the building offer any respute from the insanity. Any flat surface not being used for eating invariably has sex occurring on it, in forms and positions even the writers of the Kama Sutra never thought of. All the food is drugged, and the only reason to visit this place is for two reasons: 1, your tired of life and have decided to throw everything into one final orgy of undiluted pleasure, or 2) you just need to get away from it all for as long as it takes you to sober up.