Release That Witch World Guide: Map, Kingdoms, Factions, and Lore

• The main stage of the story is the Dawn Region, while the area of the Four Kingdoms occupies only the southeastern corner of that world map.
• Humanity is not the only major civilization in the setting. Witch organizations, the Church, demons, the Sky-Sea Realm, and long-dead civilizations all shape the current balance of power.
• Geography, mineral veins, anti-magic resources, and magical conditions all directly affect how war and politics unfold.
• Roland's rise looks like a throne story at first, but on a larger scale it is really about reorganizing the order of human civilization.

When explaining geography, one image is worth more than a long paragraph. This map was created by readers based on descriptions from the novel. It is not perfect in every detail, but it is still highly useful as a reference map for understanding where the major regions and powers are located.

Geographic Structure

• The Dawn Region is a full continent and the main stage for most major events.
• The Four Kingdoms region, originally the Barbarian Lands, lies in the southeastern corner of the Dawn Region.
• The Four Kingdoms are separated from the Fertile Plains by the natural barrier of the Impassable Mountain Range.
• Behind the human world lie the Fjords and the Whirlpool Sea, which is why maritime trade, exploration, and sea routes matter so much.
• The Blackstone Domain lies to the northeast of the Dawn Region and serves as the homeland of demons.
• The Bottomless Realm lies to the far north and represents another zone of danger and mystery.

The Best Way to Read the Map

This world is not evenly spread out. It is layered:

1. Humanity survives in a tight cluster in the southeast.
2. The Fertile Plains are lost central land that remains strategically important.
3. The Blackstone Domain and the northern regions represent external high-pressure threats.
4. The sea and island routes provide an alternative path for trade, movement, and contact with deeper world forces.

Graycastle

One of the Four Kingdoms, symbolized by the Tower and Spear. It has the largest territory of the four and is the most important human state in the story. Because of Church interference, it once fell into chaos through the struggle for the throne. Roland later unified the kingdom, defeated the Church, and built a common front for the Third Divine Will War. After the war, Graycastle's influence spread across the entire human world.

Kingdom of Dawn

One of the Four Kingdoms, symbolized by the Serpent Scepter. It enjoys a warm climate and an almost spring-like atmosphere year-round. Its old king was killed through the schemes of Church Pure Witches, leading the next king to become violently anti-witch. The throne later changed hands, and a noble more friendly to Graycastle took power. After the war, the Lord of Dawn abdicated and submitted to Graycastle.

Wolfheart Kingdom

One of the Four Kingdoms, symbolized by the Crossed Sword and Shield. It is a land of hills, hard fighters, and fierce customs. After Church invasion, the Wolf King allied with the Queen of Clearwater, but failed. The kingdom fell under Church control, and after the Church was defeated, local nobles resumed fighting each other for power. During the Third Divine Will War, Wolfheart was also invaded by demons.

Everwinter Kingdom

One of the Four Kingdoms, symbolized by the Ice Mountain and Rose. It is covered in snow for most of the year and has many Church believers. The Church invaded under the pretext that the Everwinter Queen was a witch. After the Church's collapse, noble factions fought for control, and later the kingdom also suffered demon invasion.

Fjords

Independent from the Four Kingdoms. Its people are known for adventure, exploration, invention, and trade, and it maintains long-term commerce with western Graycastle. Most importantly, a spatial passage connecting to the Sky-Sea Realm exists beneath the Shadow Islands, making this region important not only for trade, but also for deeper lore.

Extreme Southern Region

The homeland of the Mojin tribes. It is heavily desertified, and its clans struggle constantly over scarce resources. Witches here are called divine maidens and are respected rather than persecuted. The underground also contains rich oil deposits, and this region was later brought under Roland's control.

Witch Union

The witch organization of Neverwinter, originally Border Town, founded by Roland Wimbledon. It grew out of the Cooperation Association and later absorbed both newly awakened local witches and witches who traveled in from elsewhere. Its members contributed to nearly every part of Neverwinter's development.

Cooperation Association

The first witch group named in the novel. Its stated goal was to find the Sacred Mountain, a place of permanent peace for witches. Because of Hakkala's misguided leadership, the group was attacked by demons in the Impassable Mountains and nearly wiped out. Only seven survived from the original forty-two, and those survivors eventually sought refuge under Roland.

Sleeping Spell

The largest witch organization, founded by Tilly Wimbledon on Sleeping Island in the Fjords. It sheltered hundreds of witches and maintained a strong relationship with the Witch Union. After the Church was defeated, many of its members moved to Neverwinter.

Bloodfang Association

Founded by Heidi Morgan, daughter of a Wolfheart grand duke. Most of its members were combat witches, while non-combat witches who sought shelter there were secretly sold to nobles. After joining Sleeping Island and attempting a coup, the group was exposed; Heidi was executed, and the survivors were absorbed into the Witch Union and Sleeping Spell.

The Union

The most powerful witch organization four hundred years before the main story. It once ruled the entire Fertile Plains. After devastating losses in the Second Divine Will War, it retreated to the Barbarian Lands. Internal disagreement over how to resist the demons eventually caused civil war. One side moved to Hermes Plateau and became the origin of the Church. The other disappeared into the Impassable Mountains and waited in distorted forms for a chance to return.

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The Church's true origin lies in the branch of the ancient Union that split away four hundred years earlier. Over time, it transformed into the dominant religious force in the human world and spread the belief that witches were evil.

On the surface, it claimed to be defending order and purging corruption. In reality, one of its main reasons for hunting witches was to gather the blood needed to manufacture the God's Punishment Army. Its long-term goal was preparation for the Third Divine Will War.

Pure Witches

The witches who serve the Church directly. They are deeply shaped by Church doctrine and show extreme hatred toward so-called wild witches, or "fallen" witches, outside its system.

Judgement Army

The Church's main conventional military force. Its average combat ability exceeds that of ordinary knights in the Four Kingdoms. Because it uses equipment prepared from Divine Stones, it is especially effective against non-transcendent witches.

God's Punishment Army

The Church's trump card. These soldiers are created by injecting ordinary humans with a liquid made from witch blood and Divine Stone. They gain overwhelming speed, strength, and anti-magic field abilities, but lose reason, ignore pain and fear, and cannot operate independently without handlers.

Demons come from the Blackstone Domain. Individually, they are far stronger than humans, and they use different types of magic stones to cast magic in battle. They have no sex distinction, and in general, the more human-like a demon appears, the stronger it is.

Under normal conditions, demons must breathe a special red mist in order to survive. This is one of the main reasons they cannot always launch a full invasion. Only when the Red Moon appears can they erect giant obelisks on Divine Stone veins, create large fields of red mist, and open a stable path into the human world.

In the first and second Divine Will Wars, demons defeated humanity. Humans were pushed back from the Dawn Region to the Fertile Plains, and then from the Fertile Plains into the Barbarian Lands, where the Four Kingdoms would later emerge.

Demon Hierarchy

• Inferior Body: A non-magical demon with no path of advancement, comparable to a slave within demon society.
• Original Body: A low-level demon without embedded magic stones, low in intelligence, and commonly used as a regular soldier.
• Early Riser: A demon with one magic stone ability, including common variants such as Berserkers, Fear Demons, Eye Demons, and Hell Lords.
• Promoted One: A high-ranking demon with multiple magic stone abilities. Some also possess demon-slaying power and usually serve as battlefield commanders.
• Symbiotic Body: A magical construct developed after demons absorbed the underground civilization, such as spider demons.
• Great Lord: One of the highest ranks in the demon system, part of the decision-making class, able to connect to the consciousness world and even open domains.
• Mother of Souls: The maternal body that breeds different demon types, equal in status to the Great Lords.
• King: The Demon King, ruler of an independent consciousness-world domain known as the Throne of Dominion.

The Sky-Sea Realm is the strongest of the four main species involved in the Divine Will War. Its nest lies in the distant sky-sea, and all of its individuals possess highly similar magic under the unified control of the main nest.

On the opposite side of the continent, it fights a long war against the demons and ties down much of their military strength. In practical terms, the Sky-Sea Realm is one reason humanity was not crushed much earlier.

Its origin is not natural evolution. It was created by the gods as a comparison species within the selection system, designed both as a control group against naturally evolving life and as an additional source of external survival pressure.

Important Sky-Sea Units

• Evil Beasts: Animals infected by spores released from nest eyes. Some later evolve into hybrids and appear more often during the Months of Demons.
• Sea Ghosts: Sea-dwelling evil beasts that frequently attack ships.
• Blade Beasts: Servants of branch nest eyes, suited for combat and capable of invisibility.
• Foot Beasts: Servants of branch nest eyes, suited for transport through dragging power.
• Branch Nest Eyes: Also called nest eyes or nest mothers. These are the core distributed units of the Sky-Sea Realm and gather biological information to send back to the main nest.
• Mountain-Eaters: Evolved from nest mothers. They no longer create blade or foot beasts, but instead wear full armor and devour land itself.
• Main Nest Mother: The core of the Sky-Sea Realm, responsible for collecting, filtering, and analyzing all the information gathered by nest eyes and issuing new evolutionary instructions.

Underground Civilization

The underground civilization was eliminated even before the first Divine Will War of the current cycle because it lost its divine relics. Its civilization existed below the surface, and later explorers referred to its remains as the Labyrinth Ruins. These ruins contain remnants such as magic cores, original carriers, central carriers, and records of vanished civilization.

The Matchstick Race

A silicon-based lifeform that appeared in a much earlier cycle of the Divine Will War. Their bodies bore patterns and resembled tombstones. They were destroyed by the Radiation Race.

The Radiation Race

A species from another ancient cycle that worshiped and used radioactive materials. It defeated the Matchstick Race and won that particular Divine Will War, but its own civilization later went extinct as well.

Together, these failed civilizations show that the Divine Will War is not just a local conflict involving humans, witches, and demons. It is a repeated mechanism of civilizational selection operating on a far larger timescale.

Magic in the world is primarily controlled by witches, whose abilities vary widely and can evolve over time.

Magic stones, divine stones, and other artifacts also play key roles in shaping power balance.

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• Magic is used as a productive force, not just for combat
• Political systems evolve alongside technology
• Multiple factions create constant conflict
• The story blends fantasy with industrial development