It seems to me that every work of art is a fantasy, every book or play, painting or piece of music, everything that is made, by craft or talent, out of somebody's imagination. We have all dreamed, and recorded our dreams as best we could.
- Susan Cooper
Three thousand years ago the god Xeran orphaned us all. The long summer lay shattered and the great world-nation Akran rose to power. In the western wood it is held that the burning libraries could be seen for leagues around as the followers of the god of memory shattered the past and made us all lost to The God. Anarchy crumbled the old empires and the old ways tell into myth and legend. In despair, the pantheons of gods were formed to give hope in a time of horror. Wars rose among the faiths and the messiahs of the end times caused even more deaths as the remains of Akran crumbled into dust as surely as it had ruined the other empires of its day.
Now we stand on the ruins of the world and the goddess of fear has risen into power and the end draws near. The ages of heroes have come and gone and the nations of the world are walled cities cowering in fear against the coming nights. The cycle is ending. The world is groaning beneath us and the unnamed age forms around us in our ignorance. Those who came before, anneal us. Those who will come, forgive us. The prayers die on ruined lips.
- The only known words written by Ashu Darius, prophet of Molas, at the beginning of the age of Zeril.
Welcome to the world of Kevren, a world where powerful gods toy with the lives of mortals at will and people go about their daily lives desperately trying to forget that the cycle of ages has almost ended. A few dare to try and make the world become better when it cycles again and fewer still take up weapons and magics in their causes. Old legends and gods stir in forgotten cities and ruined temples as powers vie for control over a broken world and the future flickers like candlelight.
The world is not coming to an end, fools. Our world is. The world will cycle, and go on. We will not, but we are creating that world with everything we do, every deed or good or evil. Wake up, you idiots! How we die matters, and how we live much more. The world is being reborn and we are its parents. Be gentle, my children, for you hold a cycle in your hands.
- Elistel, elven bard speaking during the age of False Witness
Welcome to Kevren. Enjoy your stay, Since the world’s cycle is coming to an end, it might be shorter than planned. This is a third edition D&D campaign that’s going to be played Thursday nights at 11 pm est in #Game1 on dal.net.
Make yourself a normal third edition pc, using only the standard phb races. (Sub races can be allowed with DM approval). Level 3-5 pcs allowed. After the PC is done (don’t use the D&D character generator or an html sheet) send it to Alcar.
PCs should be level 6, using stats(5) with Sparkie to generate stats.
Adventuring in the world: As the final age approaches, adventurers are rare and becoming rarer. The tendency to run into combat and attack loud noises in the dark tends to ensure that there genes aren’t passed on so that anti-preservation instinct isn’t common. Most adventures are either running away from something or running to something.
Races: In the end of this cycle, the halflings and humans are the two dominant races on the continent of Kevren. At the other end of the racial spectrum, half breeds tend to be very rare.
Dwarves: Dwelling mainly in the Tsiri Mountains which long ago gave up their last easy to find ores, the dwarves tend to be sullen and spend much of their time trying to find those last scraps of metals the mountains might still hold. A surprising amount of them leave their homelands, quite possibly to get away from the depressing atmosphere. The Great Canal, which runs through the mountains, offers both a source of revenue and escape for them.
Elves: The longest-lived race in the world, elves cease ageing somewhere in old age (about 700 or so) and don’t die unless killed. The elves live in the western woods, said to be on of the only places in the world where the warrior-priests of Akran never fully conquered. While they did kill many elves since elven history is primarily oral they didn’t exterminate the entire race. While elven history doesn’t stretch that far into the past they do have some legends and stories from before the age of broken pasts.
Gnomes: Dwelling in the western wood with the elves, the gnomes tend to be care free and often solitary folk who prefer the company of their own people to outsiders. Gifted with natural magics than often lead to them being feared, few gnomes ever seek to leave the forests and explore the world, content to be at peace and await the final age with resignation.
Halflings: The other major race of Kevren, halflings have prospered both by following where humans led and by separating themselves from humans as followers of other paths. Alone of the races, halflings have no shame in being followers but are as aware tat they can choose to be leaders, or make their own paths for their people to follow. While some despise them as “cheap humans” their gift for spotting opportunities and taking them has worked out very well for this species.
Humans: The second most common race in the world, humans have spread to practically every corner of the world and have even explored the rest of the world to a certain extent. With the rise of Akran humans became very powerful in a world suddenly void of history. Bold new visions of futures were planned (and seldom executed). The world had changed and many humans secretly think it is for the better: the longer-lived races can no longer mock them for their frantic lives and hurry -- in many cases, it is all that saved some nations from chaos during the coming of Akran and Xeran’s rise to power. The fact that almost all the priests of Akran were human is generally politely ignored.
Half-breeds: Half breeds tend to be very rare on Kevren and perhaps 10 or 20 of them might be found in a city. Half orcs are generally only found near the coasts and often despised or hated as offspring of Orcish invaders.
Classes: The classes in the world are often viewed as one would expect. Given the power and nature of the gods to interfere, Clerics are often accorded a great deal of respect and awe by others. Bards, often the only people holding knowledge of the ancient past, are revered in many areas. Wizards and Sorcerers, using strange powers from strange sources that often they aren’t able to explain, tend to be feared by most.
Prestige Classes: Characters wishing to advance to a prestige class must be trained on the Isle of the Sky, where the city of Ambrin exists. An Ambri can teach a PC how to join and give them information about the class but a prestige class isn’t something you wake up and become, its something you learn to be.
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