Modern Life across Eredain

Until the discovery of dragonstone, magical and scientific progress came at a flailsnail’s pace. It took the Nine Kingdoms centuries to go from leather armor to chain mail. But with the magical and technological revolution that resulted from the refinement and use of dragonstone, a modern way of life has developed.

Spells of levels 0 to 4 are widely available. Every child’s education provides the knowledge of at least two cantrips learned by rote, and a handful of spells that can be worked as rituals. Almost all doors in developed countries are secured by an Arcane Lock and medical services are efficient due to the use of Lesser Restoration. Higher level spells are less widely used, though still employed. The weather in most developed countries, for example, is magically controlled and therefore perfectly predictable.

The use of elemental binding in vehicle construction has revolutionized transportation. Starting with the lightning railway, modern society has developed lightning cars, lightning bikes, elemental earth transports and water elemental ships. Most amazing of all are the skyships, held aloft by bound fire elementals.

The thinning of the veil between realities and the harnessing of the fundamental elements of the world has allowed the construction of factories directly linked to the Elemental Plane of Fire. Creating zones with a tie to the Elemental Plane of Air has allowed architects to build skyscrapers of concrete, steel and glass, hundreds of feet high.

Nations are large and complex, states are politically powerful and have the monopoly on violence. Yet multinational Guilds are starting to accumulate more and more power, as gold becomes the resource most in demand. After all, he who controls the dragonstone supply controls the world, and the Guilds control the dragonstone. As a reaction to all this progress and change, people who are not that into magical industry cling to the past, holding on to religious dogma and traditions of ancestry.

Eredain, the world of dragonstone, is a world of skyscrapers and sorcery. Large masses of humanoids have climbed out of poverty and modern arcane appliances give comforts and economic welfare. It is a place much like Earth, but travelling a different path – a mystic path of sorcery and wonder.