This wiki article will be used primarily to define world-building elements relevant to the campaign, which will be expanded upon as the game goes on.
Karisfield
A mid sized town which has seen better days. The area around Karisfield had a very large Gnomish population only a few years ago, but then the War of Gnomish Extermination happened. This left many of Karisfield's industries with a significantly smaller local consumer base. Its dungeon is dangerous, and not very advanced, and thus doesn't stand much of a chance in exporting magi-tech. This has driven some of its population to move towards the big city. However, it is by no means a ghost town, and did manage to attract a tidy freshman class to its community college this year.
The Alliance of Caldisu
A fairly loose confederation of (mostly) republican states, including the Republic of Sysar, the Republic of Liftear, the Kingdom of Seatos, and the Democratic Republic of Celversa (where Karisfield is located.)
While each of the states have a fair bit of autonomy, outsiders generally refer to the entire alliance as a single whole, mostly because most of the big important events it the history of the alliance have involved multiple or all of the states.
War of Gnomish Extermination
A massacre of the Gnomish population of large sections of rural and semi-rural Celversa occurring between 220 and 222 YOT. Anti-Gnomish sentiment in Celversa often springs up on religious grounds, as gnomes are by far the most likely to openly worship one of the Old Gods, who are often seen as evil. It also comes from the fact that gnomes tend (or tended, a lot have been forced into the city) to live in rural regions, away from large numbers of people. The Celversan Government has never been very good on Gnomish rights, frequently framing Gnomes who simply partake in their ancient worship practices and traditional way of life as violent extremists, so when a Gnomish Leveler group started arranging protests on mass, the reaction was extraordinarily violent. The Government calls it the War of Gnomish Pacification. This is not appreciated by the Gnomes.
Races and Race Relations
Humans, Elves, and DwarvesThroughout the Alliance of Caldisu, Humans, Elves, and Dwarves (HEaD races) are by far the most common, and thus culturally dominant, species. While in the distant past there was significant animosity between the three groups, nowadays they are more often thought of as a singular group culturally and politically.
Halflings and Gnomes
There's some general solidarity between Halflings and Gnomes, as they tend to get forgotten about, existing in a socio-political position somewhat close to, but also separated from the HEaD races. They both generally keep to themselves, and try not to rock the boat, knowing that if they don't make a fuss, they'll be left alone for the most part. The times when this generality has been broken have been some of the bloodiest in recent history (see War of Gnomish Extermination.) Halfling culture has been largely subsumed into the mass cultural stream. The Gnomes however have as a whole fought a lot more to hold on to it. The name Forest Gnome is given to the group of Gnomes who have continued their worship of The Old Gods, usually they live in extremely rural forest regions, and are incredibly insular. Gnomes who choose to live closer to civilization are sometimes called Rock Gnomes, while they've kept many of their musical and food styles, as well as their old ritual celebrations, most of them are not active worshipers of The Old Gods. Gnomes who have largely assimilated into the general HEaD culture are often pejoratively called Concrete Gnomes.
The Fang
The primary cultural-political-racial group that stands in conflict with the HEaD races throughout the Alliance is the Fangs (primarily called that either by members of the group or pejoratively.) While everyone agrees that the main constituency of the Fang is orcs and goblinoids, other races are sometimes included, especially drow, and also fairly frequently Goliaths. While usually outsiders view only these groups as included, Fangs themselves generally view it as including anyone who grew up Fang as well.
Scales and Furries
Tieflings and Aasimar
Warforged
Twenty-five years after dungeons were first invented, some of them were so advanced that they generated a new form of sentient life. The first to come about from this process were the Warforged. Their name comes from the wars they had to fight immediately after gaining sentience to be recognized as intelligent life forms. Their autonomy was forged, in war. Human Finkelstein, one of the fiercest critics of the War of Gnomish Extermination is a Warforged (his frequent co-author, Gnome Chomsky is a Human).
Plasmoids
Thirty years after dungeons were first invented, the first slimes emerged. Unlike before, when dungeons had either generated new biological life that fit within previously established kinds or animated non-biological materials, slimes were both biological life and not derived from previously existent kingdoms. Plasmoids took only twenty more years to arise. They were recognized more quickly and with less blood(and slime)shed than when the Warforged came, but it was not easy.
Other
Religion and Dieties
TormWhile people throughout the Alliance venerate a number of Lawful Good aligned gods, the most stereotypical example is Torm. A mighty warrior god who is purported to be both a slayer of Evil and a protector of the Weak. His tenets mostly have to do with following the law and not disrupting Good society, his followers are called to be constantly vigilant to avoid falling into Evil, and thus many eschew intoxicants.
Qastrari
The most well known of the Lizardfolk gods. In Tormish theology often viewed as a giant Evil crocodile that Torm has to slay. The consensus among Qastrarian theologians is that this is factually incorrect and a story based in racism, and Torm does not show up in Qastrari's stories. Qastrarian theology, while it views Good and Evil as objective ideals, the criteria on which they are based is different from the mainstream view of Good and Evil. Notably, Qastrari rejects both the idea that actions can be Evil without causing harm to some specific person and that maintaining an ordered society is an acceptable excuse for allowing injustice.
Assembly of Hands
An ecumenical megachurch worshiping the pantheon of all gods whose symbol is a hand, fist or glove. The main deities are Azuth, LN god of Wizards (responsible); Helm, LN god of Protection (and thou shalt not pass), Bane LE god of war and Torm LG god of War (same as above). The basic tenets tend to be things like TOGETHER ALL KINDS OF PEOPLE COOPERATE and PAY YOUR TAXES AND BE A GOOD CITIZEN and THOU SHALT NOT GO THERE. The Assembly of Hands loves hand puns (many's the sermon that starts "on the one hand" and then 20 minutes later, "on the other hand." Youth Pastors--and young people who are a little too into their faith--are called Handmaidens and Handymen (Handsymen if you believe the rumors). As a faith that's focused on Balance and Neutrality, anyone who follows only one of the worshipped deities and isn't a Dedicated Cleric is called a One-Off and viewed with mild suspicion by about half the congregation (the equal and opposite slur is Third-Hander or Finger-Picker).
The Old Gods
Magi-Technology
ArquebusA name for the most primitive kind of magical gun, which uses a weaker version of the Catapult spell to launch a projectile, generally equivalent to a crossbow in power and loading time.
PHONE (Portable Homing Originally Numbered Element) Communicator
A handheld device which can send and receive short messages via the Sending spell. The device acts as the receiver for the spell, and stores so called "texts" until a user can receive them (usually via some kind of display, though there are audio versions). Because of the mechanics of the spell, a receiver can receive from anywhere on the same plane as the sender, and signal cannot be blocked except by certain abjuration spells. The Originally Numbered Element in the PHONE device is the PHONE number, a unique identifier which acts as the name of the destination for the sending spell.
Oracle
One of a number of dungeons which run large divination spells to make information easily available to people with proper receiving technology within a certain radius.
ONE-note
And ONE device designed for storing music, music can be written to the device and can be played back any number of times without degrading, but it cannot be overwritten. Playback needs a Speaker.