Beyond the city of Threshold is a vast, uncharted world.

Most of the world is unmapped, unknown.

This section provides details on the habitations found beyond the gateways.

They are the lifeblood of Threshold.

The world of Iorium is a strange mixture of the barbarous and sophisticated. Wonders abound, as do terrors. Overhead, there is no moon, only the Ring – a glittering trail of debris visible both day and night. There are no gods. They were killed long ago. Most sages say the gods were slain by giants, others say humans, still others say it was a race long since vanished from this world. But most agree that mortals, hungry for power, murdered the very gods that created them.

On the bones of the dead gods, giants built a Jeweled Empire that stretched around the world. Its power and majesty have never been matched. In time, the Empire unraveled from within, brought low by a combination of rogue magic, boundless greed, and simple arrogance. Ages have passed. All that remains of the Empire are ruins, artifacts, and unexplained phenomena. Now, countless tribes and factions seek to gain advantage from ancient magics they do not comprehend and cannot control.

The moon was shattered. Debris rained down upon the earth. Darkness enveloped the globe. During that time, savage races overran the remains of the Empire, pulling down those few places that survived the Earthstrike. After a thousand years, the darkness lifted, the skies cleared, and many of the savage races retreated below the earth or the Collapse or deep into the wastelands. They were joined by those bestial elves, dwarves, and halflings that had succumbed to the darkness and embraced the savagery of the times—now drow, duergar, and creatures even more twisted.