Northern Continent
Population Statistics:
Elven (35%)
(of that 35%, 16% are Drow)
Dwarven (26%)
(of that 26%, 13% are Duergar)
Human (15%)
Gnome (5%)
Other (8%)
Total Square Mileage: 16,780,900 (approx. 2x the size of Europe)
The Northern Continent is a remnant of ages past. They did not suffer nearly the same amount of ravages that the Western or Southern Continents did, and managed to rebuild most of their civilization as it was before the Collapse. As a result, it has grown decadant over the intervening years, knowing that the world had changed, and withdrawing from it in order to preserve their way of life. The "Other" races listed are generally of the "monster" variety, orcs, ogres, goblins, trolls, etc. 95% of the "Other" listed are slaves, battle arena stock, or used by mages in their Blood Magic. Drug use and all other forms of avarice are widespread. The church in the area is completely corrupt and used by the rulers and nobility as a mean to further their ends.
They are, as mentioned, an isolationist continent, and their territorial waters are fiercely protected from interlopers. Offlanders are not welcome, and are mainly put to death or sold as slaves. If one is caught in their waters, they will go to seemingly insane lengths to preserve their withdrawal from the world. This particular continent is not unified in much of anything, but in this, they all agree, Offlanders are problems and must be destroyed or taken before they can spread word of the Northern Continent's existance. Most Western and Southern maps to date have the northwestern portion of the oceans marked as "Here be dragons", and legends and speculations are rife, since no one returns from those waters.
Since they managed to preserve most of their culture, many of the magicks from ancient times have also been saved. However, it is unlikely anyone from any other continent will be able to make use of this knowledge.
Population Statistics:
Human 32%
Monster Races 29%
Elven 14%
(of that 14%, 3% are Drow)
Dwarven 13%
(of that 13%, 2% are Duergar)
Gnomish 6%
Other 6%
Total Square Mileage: 22,650,300 (approx. 1.5x the size of Asia)
The Western Continent is still struggling to rebuild from the Collapse. "Monster" races have seized control of the northern part of the continent, an area known as The Scarred Lands, or just The Scar. There they have divided up into mostly singular racial tribes vying for dominance. However, along the borders with the Held Lands, there the "monster" races have found a sort of unity and attempt to take more and more for themselves. The countries that border The Scar are mostly grimly determined warriors, their entire society dedicated to holding off the monsters from the rest of the continent. These borderland countries are generally referred to in a group as The Stormwall.
The rest of the continent is secure, nearly blithely confident in the strength of the Stormwall, and as such, tend to look on Stormwallers as uncivilized barbarians. Humankind were the first of the non-monster races to rise from the ashes of the Collapse and begin rebuilding, soon becoming the dominant force in the land. The majour religion is a monotheistic, somewhat unforgiving human religion, with human supremacy underlining most of its tenets. However, the racial classes are just beginning to diversify, after having had to unite for so long simply to survive. They now have the luxury of hate, something they did not have before.
They, too, have very little to do with the sea. Very few citizens of the Western Continent even know there are other continents out there. They have very underdeveloped naval capability for the open sea, but their shallow water aptitude is quite good, river and coastal trading being prevalent.
Views on magic vary greatly from country to country. Some consider any non-"god(s) granted" magic anathema, some embrace the use of magic in every aspect of their lives, and some treat it as a tool like any other (the Stormwallers mostly have this last mindset). Most of the ancient magicks have been lost, so there is no ban on blood or sex magicks, but necromantic magic is available, but very rarely encountered. So rarely, there is no existing ban on it, either.
If they found out that there were in fact majour civilizations on other worlds, several countries would stretch their resources thin attempting contact and establishing relations.
Population Statistics:
Dwarven: 36%
(of that 36%, 5% are Duergar)
Elven: 31%
(of that 31%, 4% are Drow)
Gnomish: 29%
Other: 4%
Total Square Mileage: 9,650,300 (Somewhat larger than Australia)
The Southern Continent, too, has spent its time rebuilding from the Collapse, however, humankind has been very slow in coming to the fore, the Ancient Races taking precedence. The Dwarves, having had extensive mountain and underground communities, suffered the least amount of damage, but they too have had to dig themselves out of the rubble. They are friendly and open, but very superior. The Elves, they call themselves The Pure Ones, or The True Ones, are even more insufferable than the dwarves, claiming to have kept their racial purity despite the Collapse. Half Elves of any sort are generally killed at birth. The murder of a Half Elf at any age is considered justifiable homicide, and the murderer is generally considered as having done a favour for the Elven Nation. The Gnomish, sharing some of the same underground network as the Dwarves, also suffered relatively minour damage, and are a strong faction on the Southern Continent. The dwarves look on the gnomes as a sort of poor family relation, to be helped, but only barely tolerated. The dwarves are great ones for charity, but are very keen to point out where that charity is coming from. The elves would rather die than accept dwarven help. The gnomes don't really care, so long as they get what they need to rebuild and work on their projects.
There are monster races on the island, but they are very scarce. After the collapse, the dwarves claimed it was the monster races and their evil ways that were the cause of it, and as a result, mounted a campaign of genocide. They did a very good job, but pockets of kobolds, ogres, orcs, and goblins still inhabit the continent. They are paranoid (justifiably) and are very prone to kill first, ask questions later of any humanoid race that happens to stumble upon them. However, they will go out of their way to help any perceived member of the monster race, up to and including suicide missions to extract a member from elven or dwarven clutches. The gnomes don't really care about the monster races.
Humans are an oddity, and treated with even less respect than the dwarves. Small clusters of human communities exist within the dwarven and gnomish territories, but the elves want nothing to do with them, and will drive off any humans that wander into their territory, although they will avoid killing them. Humans, to the elves, are to be pitied, but not helped in any way. If they're ignored, perhaps they'll go away.
Religion is pretty much cut an dried. The Elves, Dwarves, and Gnomes all worship their racial deities, and humans generally worship all of the ones the majour races worship, they don't want to be religiously persecuted on top of everything else. The monster races, however, have formed a number of death and vengeance cults dedicated to wiping out the "humanoid" races.
Despite the Elves paranoia, they are able seamen, and have actually seen the other two continents. They do in fact have a relatively strong naval force, but consider the Northern Elves too perverse and the Western Elves too sullied by their human contact. They do not share their information with the dwarves or the gnomes, and those two races are known for not enjoying the seafaring trade.
Magic is varied widely, mostly lumped into "racial magicks". The Elves use Elemental, the Dwarves use Rune, and the Gnomes Diablerie (wards, ritual, circle, etc.) They do retain the knowledge of the Dark Arts (blood, sex, and necromantical magicks), however all are expressly forbidden.