Welcome to Eryndor
Millennia ago, in the dusty meadows of Rhaedwyn, a group of men and dwarves gathered at a site that would later be known as the Shardspire. For a thousand days they chanted, and out of this stellar shard, they sang a God into the world: Mythrael, the first of the Gods. A being of pure light and dazzling magic, he taught the humans the ways of magic and how to access the Wellspring.
That day marked the first day of The Age of Magic. The continent of Rhaedwyn, led by the first Sorcerer-King Walkyrion, created a confederation of city-states that later came to be known as the Luminarchate. This confederation ruled Rhaedwyn for many centuries and aided the Crossing of the Gods, when the other deities entered the world.
But the Luminarchate was not meant to last, or so it seems to scholars of the modern era. For after 1250 years, the Sorcerer-King Virulan heard the whispers of the one who did not follow the Gods into the world: a being commonly called the Endless Night. It is speculated that it promised him many things, possibly tempting him with the power to surpass not just the High Luminarch or Mythrael, but to become a true God-King of Eryndor. Whatever it was truly spoken that day matters little, as in the end he accepted the deal, taking the Dark Oaths to serve the Endless Night.
Thus came the end of the Age of Magic, and the Age of Shadows dawned upon Eryndor. The Luminarchate fell into ruin; the twelve most powerful states broke away as its institutions decayed after the Shattering of the Shardspire. The Darksworn, those who took the Dark Oaths after Sorcerer-King Virulan, infiltrated the world, spreading the will of the Endless Night.
That was two thousand years ago. Today, in the Age of Cyrathis, named for the golden southern flower that blooms even during the short, dark days of winter, the world is starting to rise from two millennia of darkness, and the Darksworn have been beaten and their kings struck down. The various nations of Rhaedwyn now look beyond their native shores, to the vast unknown of Eryndor.
The “Need-to-Know” for Your Hero
Thirty-five years ago, the young King of Lauros of Tanir was desperate. With his realm crumbling, he dared to turn to the forgotten legends of The Age of Magic and sailed east, determined to find the gods’ lost isles.
Against all reason, his wild gamble paid off. His voyage led him to the Shattered Reach, a realm defined by broken divine constructions and impossible aurorae at night. This single discovery fundamentally reshaped the world, for it not only brought back concepts of High Sorcery lost since the dawn of the Age of Shadows, but it also revealed the local Hamura, a native population hitherto unknown living among the Isles.
The Shattered Reach
The archipelago called the Shattered Reach lies to the southeast of Rhaedwyn, deep within the Aetheric Ocean, past the Crosswaves and beyond the southern storms. It is a place of mist and fog, of rain and light, where the civilization of the Hamura has existed since the dawn of the Age of Magic. It contains an indeterminate number of islands; sailors from Tanir claim a dozen, while sailors from Sobsia claim over a hundred. However many islands truly make up the archipelago, what is known for sure are the four main islands where the Shattered Reach have thus far been encountered: Thalara, Elyatra, Naelithra, and Tayuna.
The Peoples of Eryndor
The world of Eryndor consists of many different races, spread throughout both Rhaedwyn and the other continents. For the game, the following will be playable, as these are the races most relevant to the exploration of the Shattered Reach and those affiliated with the Rhaedwen powers financing the long journey across the Aetheric Ocean.
Elves
The Elven people of Eryndor are a recent arrival from the Lands of Sharilar, a mythical other continent where they claim the elven Spirits of Creation forged their race. They prospered there until the Shadowfall, an event where the sun was extinguished. Their Spirit Guardians led one final rite to open a Gate to another land, so that their children might one day live. The entire worship and culture of the Elves revolves around building the resources and knowledge to one day return to Sharilar and their Spirits. In Eryndor, they are seen as cunning, opportunistic, and duplicitous, always seeking an advantage within systems and over people.
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Humans
The Humans are the primary population in Western and Central Rhaedwyn, forming the Kingdoms of Tanir, Sobsia, Waternaken and Sukret. They were the first to arrive on the continent of Rhaedwyn and build its first cities, alongside the Dwarves of Erzymar. They are generally steadfast, stubborn, and adaptable.
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Dhampir
The cursed folk, as they are commonly called, are the progeny of those upon whom the vampiric curse was bestowed during pregnancy. Thus, they were born half-cursed by the Curse of Wolker. Though their pure souls shrug off some of the worst aspects of the curse, they are often made servants of their vampire hosts. They can walk during the day but have a weakness to fire and silver, and are able to move faster and climb walls with greater ease.
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Dragonborn
The Kin of the Dragons, the Dragonborn, live high in the western reaches of Rhaedwyn, where the Taurus Mountains divide the Eastern Lands of the Ancient Luminarchate from the Great Western Steppe. They are the descendants of each of the Dragon Kings of the Taurus, created after the Orcish Invasion of Rhaedwyn. They are a coalition of five fortress-temples occupying the mountain passes, and each Dragonborn is created directly from a drop of blood from its Dragon-King in a ritual called the Ritual of Solelichesis. Their personalities vary wildly, being dependent on the Dragon from which they were created.
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Dwarves
The Children of the Swamp, and the oldest race of Rhaedwyn alongside the Humans, mostly inhabit the swamps and bogs of central Rhaedwyn in their villages, bordering the kingdom of Waternaken and the Aetheric Ocean. They are a stubborn folk, and during their coming of age ceremony, the Bakthruz at eighteen, they swear upon the Gods their goal, their one objective in life to accomplish, and make it the full focus of their lives. Some make the vow of family, to have a large and happy one; others of combat, to be the best warriors in the Dwarvenkeeps. But that vow, once made, can never be broken, can never be abandoned, or else they become wights: hollow souls wandering aimlessly in the swamps of their homeland, mourning their broken vow.
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Gnome
The smallfolk of the Gnomes are rare in the lands of Rhaedwyn, found mostly amidst the Steppe tribes of the Great Western Steppe. They are the witch-doctors and the sorcerers of the Kuhans of the West. Very highly sought after, these Gnomes usually command a high premium for their esoteric knowledge, which some even say might be connected to the Endless Night; others claim it is tied to the Sleepers of the Realms Below. Often mischievous, naturally reclusive, and private, they are seen with some suspicion amidst the more simple folk of Rhaedwyn.
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Goblin
The Goblinoid Kind, as their political organization is called, is a race of wandering tribes. They are hunter-gatherers by nature and often opportunistic trappers, poaching in the royal gardens of Rhaedwyn and the Lands of the Dragon-Kings. The Kind is their collective organization, led by the Kin-King—an elective position from amidst the six main tribes—and is used to represent them with the other powers of the continent. They are often playful, enjoy playing pranks and poking fun at others, and are usually very suspicious of centralized authority.
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Orc
The Orcish population is not native to Rhaedwyn, instead originating in the lands far beyond the Great Western Steppe. They were one of the main factions aligned with the Darksworn during the Age of Shadows, when their three main Kuhans, their rulers, took the Dark Oaths and invaded Rhaedwyn, breaking through and almost killing one of theDragon Kings of modern Rhaedwyn. They are, however, not as brutish as many would like to believe. Their recurve bows and their goldsmithing are secretly prized as some of the best on the continent, and their horses are considered the most agile. Orcish stablemasters are almost a guarantee in any rich noble’s house.
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Tabaxi
The fera, or Tabaxi, are a race from the mysterious Empire of Sagremar in the southwest of Rhaedwyn. What little is known about them dates back to the Age of Magic, when they were some of the most accomplished sorcerers of the continent and prized for their ingenuity, sagacity, megalomania, and eccentricity. They are, however, the rarest race in Rhaedwyn, as their August Personade of the Heavens, their Empress, built a great wall, cutting off their country from the rest of the continent when the Shardspire was destroyed. The wall is still manned to this day; few ever enter or leave the Great Walls of Sagremar.
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Tiefling
The Tieflings, or the children of the Sleepers, are a race born from the union of mortals (often humans, but also elves, dwarves, and other races) and one of the Sleepers of the Realms Below. This is a layer of the cosmos which is barely understood, but in the current cosmological model, it is situated below the Material Plane. The Sleepers are known to tempt mortals and torment the ones that manage to reach into that realm and contact one of them. The price is often the soul of their firstborn, which is forever marked by the Realms Below. But who the Sleepers truly are? No one truly knows, save that they are extremely powerful. Tieflings can take any number of temperaments and personalities, usually dependent on their parents, and are generally seen as suspicious but otherwise do not face discrimination.
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Yuan-ti
The Yuan-Ti, or the Followers of the Path of Grasses, are a serpentine race from the lands further north, in the jungles and rainforests that make up the Uninhabitable North. They are often wandering minstrels, bards, and travellers in search of what they call “The Dream of Grasses,” supposedly an ancient novel from before the Age of Magic, that once uncovered, will bring peace to the world. They are, by and large, utter pacifists, and will happily clothe, feed, and heal any they find on the road, without asking questions or asking for pay. Their faith, the Path of the Grasses, is a naturalistic faith, seeking to preserve and balance the world and the various spirits of the wilds and the land, bringing the world to unity and harmony.
Magic and High Sorcery
In the world of Eryndor, Magic was, until recently, an extremely rare thing to behold, and seen with wonder and a little suspicion. It works by accessing what is called the Wellspring, that is, an endless source of primordial energy from the creation of the world. It is more of a work of art than a science, as the practitioner must manipulate the Wellspring to form a spell, and sometimes dam the spring to accumulate the energy for a more powerful one, like a dam holding water before it breaks.
Spells usually require complex incantations and elaborate but fluid gestures for them to be cast, as the words and movements act as the conduit between the real, material world and the ethereal world of infinite potential that is the Wellspring.
With the rediscovery of the Shattered Reach and the reintroduction of many of the lost tomes of magic—which were destroyed in the Age of Shadows by the [Darksworn]—sorcery as a whole has become more common in the world of Eryndor, and especially Rhaedwyn. Schools of Magic are opening in the capitals and richer cities, as magic is no longer limited to the rare few born with the innate gift, or those who took the Dark Oaths or joined the priesthood.