Above is a crude map of a large section of the known world.  To give a sense of scale the width of this map represents approximately 1,500 miles. The section highlighted in yellow represents the country of Durandor, which contains the town of Halen's Vale and is the initial setting for the campaign. Since I expect the characters will remain near Halen's Vale for some time details of the rest of the world are still very sketchy. I am open to ideas for nations, cultures, etc. and plan to update the website as I create new things. For now I'll give some broad information about the campaign world.

A Brief History
A long time ago, exactly how long no one really knows, in the third epoch there were great nations of humans, elves, dwarves, gnomes and halflings with magic and technology that surpassed any currently known. Unfortunately a war between the Gods destroyed these civilizations and sent the world into a dark age. (You can read about this war in the myths section.)

Now in the forth epoch of the universe the mortal world is re-awakening. Nations are rising again and the secrets of magic and technology are being rediscovered. Artifacts and relics from the ancient world are recovered by brave adventurers who explore danger filled ruins that have survived from the ancient past. Scattered through out the world are marvels of architecture, magic and engineering created with knowledge long forgotten. Some of these ancient structures and devices are merely wondrous to behold, others are sources of great power and some are so enigmatic that their purpose has yet to be ascertained.

This new epoch also saw the birth of many great mortal races beyond humans, elves, dwarves, gnomes and halflings. Some of these new races are prolific while others are not known in many parts of the world. A  busy metropolitan area is likely to have members of a dozen different races trading wares and going about life. While the five PHB races are the most common, this new world has a great diversity of races and cultures. (Except for goblinoids [goblins, hobgoblins and bugbears], most humanoid races have the potential to be PC races and to have their own unique cultures and civilizations. Talk to me if you are interested in playing a non-standard race.)

A Note on Souls and Monsters
According to this mythology there are three components to a soul: life, free will and the fire of power. Many creatures have some of these things but not others. A plant for example is thought only to possess life. It is thought that creatures lacking the divine fire of power are not judged by Maal when they die and do not truly control there destinies. These creatures are bound by their natures. A bird flies in the air and does all the things a bird does, not because it chooses to, but because that is its nature. The great races are considered great because they do possess all three components of a soul, most importantly a piece of the fire of power, a spark of the divine. Creatures with souls are special, they live on after their mortal death, and are not bound to one fate. They are special in the eyes of the Gods and the Gods compete for their faith. To kill a creature with a soul without good reason is considered an evil act.

Creatures without souls can not escape their true natures. Demons, for example are spawned from the pure force of chaos and evil in the universe [the Corpus Infernus], do not possess the fire of power and are therefore always Chaotic Evil. Many creatures on earth are considered the spawn of Kador [LE, God of Fire] and his concubine Lillith.  Since Kador no longer has the fire of power his spawn are soulless creatures that are always evil.  These creatures include goblinoids, giants, trolls, ogres and countless other abominations. Killing these creatures is not considered and evil act (and is in fact most often viewed as righteous).

Goblinoids in particular are common menaces.  They are soulless and birthed from mud, fully grown (ala Uruk Hai orcs in LotR). While intelligent these creatures are servants of evil and a scourge to civilization.

NPC's, Class Levels and Social Status
In this world NPCs are not mostly first level. Even people with normal lives face challenges throughout the year and slowly gain experience from overcoming these challenges. Characters who are first level are people who are barely adult or just starting in their profession. A fist level warrior is someone who has had some basic training, knows how to swing a weapon, but probably has not served in any army for long and probably has seen little to no actual combat. An apprentice weapon smith would probably be a first level expert while the master smith would probably be around fifth level or even higher depending on their renown.

In spite of this fact, the characters will still be considerably more powerful than most NPCs, even at the beginning of the campaign. This is because they will have much better attributes (most "typical" NPCs will be built using ~15 character points) and NPCs will generally use the inferior NPC classes presented in the DMG.  They will also not be considered "elite" characters, meaning they only get average hit points their fist level instead of maximum hit points like PCs get. You can get a feel for what typical NPCs will be like in Durandor by looking at some typical NPC stats that I posted here.

Although class level and social status and power are not necessarily synonymous, here are some guidelines for how character level relates to prestige and power in the game world.

I don't want to give the impression that every guild leader is going to be 11+ levels. This should simply give you a guideline as to what level of respect to expect from people at various stages in your adventuring career. At 3rd level getting an audience with a king will be extremely difficult; at 15th level you could expect to welcomed in their court. I should also note that in areas populated by longer lived races this chart will be shifted up somewhat (on average people will be higher level) but even there individuals over level 10 will be pretty rare.

A Note on Arcane Magic
The secrets of Arcane magic are very jealously guarded in this world. Many Mages guilds wield considerable power due to their monopoly over certain spells and items. While many mages are willing to cast spells for money, the selling of arcane knowledge is usually forbidden by the guilds to which they belong. Most guilds have a specific purpose (i.e. research new knowledge, make money for their members, support a specific government or nation, etc.)  and specialize in one or a few schools of magic. Arcane casters who are not members of a guild can have a very difficult time acquiring new spells.

In game terms this means that PC arcane casters will probably want to join a guild at some point in there careers or will need some other mechanism of acquiring spells. It also means that some spells are going to be rarer than others. The rarer spells are usually going to be "problem" spells and spells from sources other than the PHB.  By "problem" spells I do not necessarily mean powerful spells, but spells that could easily break the feel of the campaign if they were widely available, like fly, teleport and certain divinations. What spells are and are not known to a particular guild I'll work out as the campaign progresses.

Bards and sorcerers in this campaign are not considered natural casters with inborn ability. They are casters that learn magic in a practical sense rather than in a theoretical sense; they know how to cast spells but do not necessarily know why they work. They still need to learn how to cast spells and practice the intonations, movements, etc. involved in casting a specific spell. Because of this bards and sorcerers can also benefit from association with a guild. Some guilds accept all types of arcane casters for membership while others only accept certain types of casters.

Calendar and Cosmology
There is one sun and one moon in this world. The moon cycles every 28 days and the year is 336 days long. This leads most societies to base their calendar on the lunar cycle with 12 months in a year. In general the new moon is considered the first day in each month. Until I come up with something better the names of the months will be the same as their real world counterparts (i.e January, February, etc.). The current year is also something that I am sketchy on because I have not come up with enough history yet to determine when year one would have happened. The campaign will begin in the middle of the month of May.