I've tried to intentionally keep TEP lowish on settled lore - after all, the random maps make it a bit of a sandbox setting by nature - but nonetheless, lore has happened, and I think what's there sort of helps to tie the setting together thematically, so I thought I should make some notes on it, firstly in case it interests people and secondly so I don't contradict myself.
The Houses
These are sort of a major organising principle of the game, though not every house appears in every game. I'm not even really sure what a house is, in this setting. They're not houses in the usual sense of being families or extended families, I think, though I'd imagine that some families tend to align to particular houses. Rather, I suppose the best way to think of them is as loose factions vying for power, with different interests, methods, and philosophies to apply to that power (with a further important caveat that in practice they often don't represent or live those philosophies: they're not ideologically selective or sorted.
I'm not going to focus too much on playstyles etc here, but rather any bits of background story info on each house.
House of Scholars (Playable)
The scholars were the first house, though are now one of the smaller ones. Their original leader is not named in the lands' chronicles, and is known as the Duke in Green. He was the only one of the fabled Four Mariners who landed in the exile lands, and was thus the first of the eponymous exiles there: The Duke to the land, Kyra to the deeps, Theyan to the sky, and the Navigator to the open sea.
House of Generals (Playable)
House of the Dragon (Playable)
House of the Phoenix (Playable)
Their legendary founder is called Phyche.
House of the Wolf (Not Yet Playable)
House of Princes (Not Yet Playable)
Faith and Saints
It's my intention that the game will eventually have some more faith identities outside the major faith. There are currently hints of this (lost altars etc) but it's not as explicit as it later will be.
The major faith of the Exile Lands is a monotheistic religion with a fairly un-varied in rank and type, mixed in gender, clergy. The clergy and faith tend to be somewhat associated with social conservatism, but not by any means universally so: in many areas there is no effective central church authority, though some are formed into more formal bishoprics, so different churches have their own lines of succession and often rather fierce theological debates.
The major saints are the Blessed Alche, the Unmarred Fynda, the Learned Woll, the Noble Thele, the Honoured Curalin, the Sacred Alazda, the Prophet Carc, the Saintly Oraphas, and the Risen Theyan.
Oraphas is probably the most fleshed-out saint so far: he is at least in standard re-tellings a wood sprite, and the subject of "Saint Oraphas was a Wood Sprite", a popular tavern song about how an angel taught him the holy word and he lived contemplatively in the woods until coming upon some demons and sending their king, Pentagathus, back to hell by singing the holy rites. Whilst he is a popular saint, some more conservative clergy dislike his worship both because it encourages people to have a better view of the fey, who they consider untrustworthy, and because it encourages hermits and other religious practices outside the church's control.
Theyan was one of the Four Mariners, and thus presumably the earliest chronologically of the saints.
Other Mythic Figures
Kyra was one of the Four Mariners, and became a spirit of the waters. She occasionally appears to do things like randomly provide items of dangerous weaponry to suitably fated individuals.
The Navigator does not yet appear, but is another of the Four Mariners.
Caradilis, the forest witch, is of unknown origin, and has an uncanny knack for appearing in the right place at the right time to push useful potions in front of heroic adventurers (for a fair price).
Ysengrin and Reynardine fulfil much the same function as in real-world myth. Ysengrin in some stories was at some point ruler of the Exile Lands, or possibly even the whole world, until tricked by Reynardine.
Constellations
Which I'm now needing to make notes on so some characters can go stargazing. Notable ones include The Cauldron, The Orchid, Coradas the Lyre-Maker, and The Three Spears.
