What Characters Know

1. The Known World is a vast continent in the center of creation surrounded by the open sea. If you sail too far from land, you don't come back alive. According to chroniclers and sailors, "too far" is generally beyond 7-10 days straight sailing with a good wind towards a horizon. Going more than 1-2 days from land (10-20 miles) and being caught in the Open Sea is perilous.

2. Historians have divided the Known World into ten terrestrial regions surrounded by the open sea with the depths of the earth reach down deep below.

3. The ten regions are:
 * The Blasted Wasteland
 * The Coastal City States (the druid can't attune here; its spirits are not strong and ancient)
 * Frostheim
 * The Great Forests
 * The Riverlands
 * The Sapphire Islands
 * The Stinking Mire
 * The Towering Mountains
 * The Vast Desert
 * The Whispering Plains

3. There are four civilized races who share a written and spoken language called common. It is almost universally known with a few regional and racial dialects. Members of all four races can be found in all nine regions though the degree of "civilization" to the regional cultures can be drastically different. The most civilized race-region combinations are as follows.
 * The Great Forests- The Elves
 * The River Delta- The Halflings
 * The Coastal City States -The Humans
 * The Towering Mountains - The Dwarves

4. There are at least four savage races who are capable of speaking common. They don't play well with others. Goblins & Orcs can be found in all the regions of the Known World. The Sahuagin can be found anywhere there is coastline and in the Deeps of the Open Sea. Trolls are found where the Sahagin aren't.
 * The Goblins
 * The Orcs
 * The Trolls
 * The Sahuagin

5. The eight races can interbreed with one another. It mostly doesn't go well for either the mother or the child. The two most prevalent half-breed races are human/orc half-orcs and human/elf half-elves.

6.  There are gods. There is at least one god or goddess of:
 * Healing and Restoration (Good)
 * Bloody Conquest (Neutral)
 * Civilization (Lawful)
 * Knowledge and Hidden Things (Neutral)
 * The Downtrodden and Forgotten (Good)
 * What Lies Beneath (Chaotic)

7. Death is almost universally referred to as a "he". Nature is almost universally referred to as a "she". Death is sovereign over the Underworld. Nature is sovereign over the land and the sea. They lack alignment. Different races and cultures have their own folklore about the sun, the moon, the gods, demons, dragons and themselves.