Introduction to "New" Dafan

Dafan is an Earth-like world, on (and in) which live many interesting species. The most obvious novelties that an Earthling would notice, if one were to visit Dafan, are its orangish sun (a G9 star) , a dark blue daytime sky, a small secondary moon (besides it's main "normal-looking" moon), many more bright stars at night, and a far greater variety in humanoid species.

One Dafan year is about 341 Dafan days. In the "Northern" Hemisphere, the Sun and moons rise in the west and set in the east. Most species use a 27 to 28 day month based on the orbital period of the main moon, Selene; some use an 18 to 19 day month based on the period of the minor moon, Meinas. Eclipses by Selene of Helios, the sun, are rare but often last over an hour. Several planets are visible in the Dafan sky: the majestic and brilliant Zeus and Rhea; the beautiful morning and evening "stars", Phosphoros and Hesperos; fiery Enyalios, honoured especially by the Orcs; slow and faint Kronos; and Kirke, the speedy daughter and companion of Helios.

Climate on Dafan is fairly similar to that of Earth. However, habitable land is becoming more restricted towards the equator than on Earth, on account of great icefields which have been rapidly growing over the past 2-3 centuries. Most cultures record that before this, the ice was restricted just to the polar regions and high mountain valleys. Elven legends speak of a time many millennia ago when the ice covered much of the world; perhaps this will soon be the case again? Gnomish legends say that they are sleeping mountains of ice that used to walk at night but eventually got tired and lay down for a short nap: coincidentally, the spots that these mountains found most comfortable were the unnaturally flat croplands of the legendary superbeings that reputedly ruled the world, the Hobgoblins, resulting in that species being squashed out of existence. This, say the Gnomes, should be a warning to all farmers today to be nice to the ice, or else suffer the same fate.

A note concerning names: many species and races have different names for the world and the sun, the seas and mountains, and the moons and months. For convenience sake, only one set of names is generally used in this atlas, that of the Hestians which in turn come from the Pelasgians they have conquered. Why? Probably because of the anthropocentric view of the author, the love of Pelasgian philosophers to study the natural world (they probably have the most complete list of names for things, outside of the Elves), and the habit of the Hestians to adopt from the Pelasgians. Exceptions to this rule occur in cases when the Hestians do not have a common term or when they themselves use a non-Hestian name.